Pants Donkey posted:

It is probably not coincidence the year I started HRT is the year I began editing that behemoth for 2018 and asked, “what am I doing with my life?”

Cat Mattress posted:

A "Good Brexit", in British opinion, would have been that they'd keep all the perks of being members in the EU but with none of the drawbacks; eating their cake and having it too. Get access to the free market without having to respect EU norms for the products they put on that market. Get EU funding for British projects without having to contribute to the EU budget. And so on.

But surprisingly, the EU didn't agree with any of this. This befuddled the average Briton, fortunately an explanation has been found: the EU is trying to make Britain pay for daring to recover freedom, it's trying to make an example out of it to deter others from also defecting, so it's really just a form of unfair persecution. Which is why a no-deal Brexit is preferable to Theresa May's deal. Rule Britannia!

Zemyla posted:

You started HRT last year? gently caress, so did my girlfriend and I. 20gayteen was a good year to be gay, even if you weren't a teen. Hopefully 20biteen is even better.

Congratulations!

Katt posted:

Her doing a DNA test to somehow appease the right is like if AOC was to accept that challenge to debate Ben Shapiro. Met him at a debate, won the debate and then expected Conservatives to concede the point. There was no winning by dancing to their tune.

Cat Mattress posted:

A "Good Brexit", in British opinion, would have been that they'd keep all the perks of being members in the EU but with none of the drawbacks; eating their cake and having it too. Get access to the free market without having to respect EU norms for the products they put on that market. Get EU funding for British projects without having to contribute to the EU budget. And so on.

But surprisingly, the EU didn't agree with any of this. This befuddled the average Briton, fortunately an explanation has been found: the EU is trying to make Britain pay for daring to recover freedom, it's trying to make an example out of it to deter others from also defecting, so it's really just a form of unfair persecution. Which is why a no-deal Brexit is preferable to Theresa May's deal. Rule Britannia!

Katt posted:

Purposely sabotaging his chances of helping the country just so he can stand in the ashes and go "told you so" doesn't help anyone either.

The fact is that enough voters still want a good Brexit that you can't run a platform of no-Brexit (a whole bunch of unsafe Labour seats are also located in areas that voted leave). And you can't tell the people that a good Brexit isn't possible because both sides spent the last 2 years telling the people how they were going to do a good Brexit.

If Corbyn comes out now and says a good Brexit isn't possible then that means he was lying the whole time.

And a second referendum would probably end up with both parties promising that they could do a good Brexit yet again. Combined with the staggering amount of animosity generated against the EU through this whole Brexit disaster, the average Brit probably has a lower opinion of EU now than they did at the first referendum.

The truth is probably that the British people will have to first eat the worst that Brexit has to offer. Live with it for a few years and then Labour can campaign on rebuilding afterwards. I don't know if rejoining the EU is even remotely plausible in the next 20 years. British pride would probably prevent any party from running on that platform but maybe Labour can manually negotiate all the trade deals one at a time to restore the country to some semblance of what it was before.

You can't argue the British people into accepting that they voted wrong. Especially not before they got a chance to feel the result They have to watch their whole lives collapse around them as a result and then be given a chance to vote right. Even then you probably have to frame it in a way so they can get out of it with all their dignity. Like we're not reversing Brexit. Just improving on it slightly. Continuing Brexit on its natural course for a better society through improved foreign relations (wink loving wink)

Space Cadet Omoly posted:

Ah, so "Good Brexit" is completely unfeasible and fake, but just enough of the population is arrogant/stupid enough to believe it's possible anyway that politicians will continue to pander to that demographic and enable these delusions out of cowardice/lust for power even though doing so is going to damage the country as a whole and all of it's people for decades to come.

It's basically the same set up that caused Trump to get elected in America.

Jurgan posted:

I’m still not sure what the big deal is. Mostly people just say it was bad politics, but the people who will attack her for it would have attacked her anyway. I don’t see anything wrong with doing the DNA test to find out the truth about her heritage, since she never claimed to be a Native American herself. Some Cherokee officials complained I think because they were worried it would give the impression that Cherokee citizenship is about DNA, but she never said that, so...

I didn’t watch the video, though; maybe it was presented badly.

Taerkar posted:

The demand for a "Good Brexit" reflects the belief of not only would Britain be better off outside of the EU but that the EU also depends upon the UK so much that they'll want to make things as easy for the UK as possible. Reality of course has the EU's approach being pretty close to 'kick to the curb'.

Mikl posted:

2018 HRT buddies. (How many trans people are there in this thread anyway? Or on SA in general? We seem to be a significant percentage of these dead gay forums.)

Space Cadet Omoly posted:

Isn't the UK in danger of breaking up now too? Last I heard Ireland wants to stay in the EU.

Mikl posted:

I think it was in a politoon thread that someone posted this analogy:

Britain loving up their economy by leaving the EU is as much "the EU making an example out of them" as jumping out of a plane with no parachute is "gravity making an example of you."

ungulateman posted:

it's more like the pilot of the plane literally making an example of you by pointing at your hurtling body and telling the rest of the passengers "please don't jump out of the plane we do not have parachutes"

Sandpuppy posted:

4

Electric Phantasm posted:

Who is the person on the left supposed to be? It better not be border security.

Sandpuppy posted:

Katt posted:

Her doing a DNA test to somehow appease the right is like if AOC was to accept that challenge to debate Ben Shapiro. Met him at a debate, won the debate and then expected Conservatives to concede the point. There was no winning by dancing to their tune.

there wolf posted:

Because Native Americans really, really hate how white people try and cash in on some cultural cachet through fractional NA heritage when actual Native peoples were brutalized for trying to hold onto their heritage and tribal identities. The whole thing is just a poison well at this point that's best avoided all together.

Taerkar posted:

Reality of course has the EU's approach being pretty close to 'kick to the curb'.

Lightning Knight posted:

Those of you who really hate Ted Rall, instead of complaining about him being employed by a Russian outlet - which is unlikely to be a compelling argument to someone who agrees with a Ted Rall take - just post this comic and lol at how loving terrible of a person he is.

Ague Proof posted:

The one where he said Lincoln was a warmonger was pretty good, too.

Lightning Knight posted:

Aw poo poo I remember this but I don't remember exactly what he said, please post this if you can find it lol.

Lightning Knight posted:

Aw poo poo I remember this but I don't remember exactly what he said, please post this if you can find it lol.

quote:

Even on the Left, some Americans point to Lincoln as a pillar of moral rectitude. But Honest Abe suspended the ancient writ of habeas corpus; in 2006, a militaristic rear end in a top hat named George W. Bush relied on Lincoln’s 1863 precedent to abolish it altogether.

Since nothing in the Constitution bans secession, Southern states enjoyed the legal right to leave the Union. Defying the Constitution, Lincoln went to war — illegally — to bring them back. Not only was the Civil War a bloodbath, it left us with a nation that remains politically and culturally fractured to this day. Blacks were 13% of the population of the Confederacy. Had Lincoln chosen peace, a slave uprising might have brought down the Old South — and killed a lot of racists.

Lincoln cheated in the 1864 election by playing both sides of the secession. To justify the war, he claimed the breakaway states were still part of the Union, yet didn’t count Southern electoral votes because they would have cost him reelection.

Jurgan posted:

But, see, that's my point. You can argue that it was bad politics, but a lot of people talk as though it were offensive or immoral or racist to even talk about it, and I'm not sure why.


Which would be an issue if she'd done that. As far as I can tell, she's never said "I'd be a better president because I'm part Cherokee," and the claims that she got to Harvard on affirmative action are completely false.

Ague Proof posted:

http://rall.com/2018/01/15/all-presidents-are-assholes-trump-shithole-countries

there wolf posted:

It was offensive because it's using gene testing to make a claim about ethnicity, something that isn't specifically rooted in genetics, and it's doing so for a group whose identity has been routinely redefined to suit the desires and needs of white folks above the people who actually hold that identity. It's just ugly at this point, and Warren should have had the sensitivity to not engage in it even when Trump baited her. There are worse things and worse people, but that doesn't mean Warren did nothing wrong and doesn't deserve some push back for it.

Fulchrum posted:

Hell, all it will take is for Britain to lose, badly, in the world cup yet again for the entire island to want to vote against rejoining the EU out of pure spite. And good effing luck fielding a halfway decent team without access to EU players, so look forward to celebrations that they managed to come in 26th this year, breaking their losing streak.

Taerkar posted:

The demand for a "Good Brexit" reflects the belief of not only would Britain be better off outside of the EU but that the EU also depends upon the UK so much that they'll want to make things as easy for the UK as possible. Reality of course has the EU's approach being pretty close to 'kick to the curb'.

Jedit posted:

You appear to have the European Union confused with FIFA. Easily done, what with one being one of the largest trading monoliths in the world and the other organising international soccer competitions.

Also Great Britain doesn't enter the World Cup, the four constituent nations do. (Although only England have qualified in a long time.)

Pants Donkey posted:

I started HRT in 2017. I was working on the OP for 2018.

Besesoth posted:

I'm hoping to start HRT this year

there wolf posted:

It was offensive because it's using gene testing to make a claim about ethnicity, something that isn't specifically rooted in genetics, and it's doing so for a group whose identity has been routinely redefined to suit the desires and needs of white folks above the people who actually hold that identity. It's just ugly at this point, and Warren should have had the sensitivity to not engage in it even when Trump baited her. There are worse things and worse people, but that doesn't mean Warren did nothing wrong and doesn't deserve some push back for it.

Chip Bok posted:

Electronic Frontiers Foundation took a look back at 2018 data privacy scandals.

The Marriott hack that stole data from up to 500 million visitors made the cut. But the report says the really bad actors “were the tech companies themselves, harvesting of mountains of users’ data and employing flawed systems to use and share it.”

Chip Bok posted:

Trump says $5.6 billion isn’t much for border security.

Pelosi says, “We are giving the Republicans the opportunity to take yes for an answer,” “Senate Republicans have already supported this legislation, and if they reject it now, they will be fully complicit in chaos and destruction of the President’s third shutdown of his term.”

But no money for a wall.

They’re meeting this afternoon in the situation room.

Angepain posted:

Ah yes the classic transition story of starting a forums thread about political cartoons

Apple Pie Hubbub posted:

3

Jurgan posted:

"Happy Hop?"