BS: Apologies to my British friends

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: Greg F.
Date: 08 Jun 17 - 05:22 PM

Apparently, judging from his twatstorm of bullshit today, Don Jr,. is at least as big an asshole as his old man.

Genetics will out.

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 09 Jun 17 - 06:04 AM

One bit of good news US friends. We seem to have started to reverse the trend at least here in the UK. The swing to the left and to Corbyn's open and honest style of politics yesterday was magnificent. Not long to go and you can go for a Saunders equivalent :-)

As long as Twitler does not blow the world up first :-(

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 09 Jun 17 - 07:07 AM

does anyone know why Trump keeps twittering - or whatever it is. it seems very undignified for the President of the USA to be buggering about with social media - like some twit on the Jeremy Kyle Show.

does anyone else think that, or is it me who's old fashioned and gone old and daft?

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: Stu
Date: 09 Jun 17 - 07:11 AM

"We seem to have started to reverse the trend at least here in the UK."

But wait... what's that on the horizon? It's the DUP!

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 09 Jun 17 - 07:30 AM

Good point, Stu, but here's a thought. The Tories and their media mouthpieces (or is it the other way round?) have spent weeks smearing Corbyn as a terrorist sympathiser and they now want to get into bed with the DUP. What's the betting that if JC starts negotiating to bring Sinn Fein into the fold he will berated by the same people.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: Stu
Date: 09 Jun 17 - 07:43 AM

Sinn Fein are right out of the picture and would never attend Westminster so they're not part of the equation. Also, it would be electoral suicide for the Labour party to involve them and they would never let that happen, and I doubt Corbyn et al would be interested anyway. There's nothing to indicate they would.

The DUP are truly the far right lunatic fringe, horrible people. They are bigots, climate change deniers, creationists, homophobes and gawd only knows what else. They aren't fit to be in government but if May's standards are so low as to go into coalition with them, then that's that. It'll still be a rough ride, but with the backing of the DUP then she might make a go of it.

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: Greg F.
Date: 09 Jun 17 - 09:20 AM

does anyone know why Trump keeps twittering<.I>

Easy peasy. Because he's a narcissistic, self-obsessed asshole with the mental age of a five-year-old.

Next question.

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: olddude
Date: 10 Jun 17 - 12:18 AM

Greg nailed it for sure

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 10 Jun 17 - 02:42 AM

"Sinn Fein are right out of the picture and would never attend Westminster"
A moot point in the circumstances.
Sinn Fein has climbed the ladder of respectability in Ireland and is now the third most powerful party, way above Labour after the number of own-goals they have scored and are still scoring (the Labour leader, Joan Burton is now heavily involved in trying to put water protesters behind bars)
People seem to be coming to terms with the fact that 'The Troubles' was a dirty war from which no sides emerged with clean hands.
Corbyn was doing or saying nothing that was not being said and done behind closed doors in Westminster and Whitehall - these things tend to generate severe bouts of selective memory.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Jun 17 - 10:54 AM

Does one of you want to take a little time and offer up an explanation of the DUP? The UK does seem to have some particularly toxic small political groups. So far (via the old mudcat troll and his trick of taking on hot-button personae to torment the membership) we've been exposed to the BNP, the EDL, and UKIP. Not identical to each other, apparently, but all pretty nasty as far as I can tell. Tell us how DUP fits into all of this unpleasantness?

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: akenaton
Date: 10 Jun 17 - 11:41 AM

President Donal John apparently uses twitter, to ensure that his views are not filtered by the fake news organisations (CNN et al)

DUP are a conservative Party who do not support Homosexual "marriage" or "Abortion on demand" In Northern Ireland, homosexual marriage is still illegal.   I suppose you would say they were toxic, but not quite as toxic as the DPC...eh?

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 10 Jun 17 - 11:46 AM

D.U.P
Wiki's summation has it about right (in every sense!)
"The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a right-wing unionist political party and the largest party in Northern Ireland. It was founded by the Protestant fundamentalist leader Ian Paisley in 1971, at the height of the Troubles......
The DUP is socially conservative: it is anti-abortion, opposes same-sex marriage, and formerly campaigned against the legalisation of homosexual acts in Northern Ireland. Some party members have been noted as climate change deniers and creationists. The party sees itself as defending Britishness and Ulster Protestant culture against Irish nationalism.
It is also Eurosceptic and backs the UK's withdrawal from the European Union. The party has been delineated as populist. It has been described by The Independent as "a party backed by terrorists" and by The New York Times as "a hard-line reactionary party." Irish Central has described the DUP as "extremist.".....
The DUP evolved from the Protestant Unionist Party and has historically strong links to the Protestant Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, the church Paisley founded. For most of its history, the DUP was the smaller of the two large unionist parties, the larger being the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). The DUP has also traditionally been seen as the more hardline or loyalist of the two. During the Troubles, the DUP opposed attempts to resolve the conflict that would involve sharing power with Irish nationalists/republicans, and rejected attempts to involve the Republic of Ireland in Northern Ireland affairs. It campaigned against the Sunningdale Agreement of 1974, the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985, and the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. In the 1980s, the party was involved in attempts to create a paramilitary movement, which culminated in Ulster Resistance....
As the largest party in Northern Ireland, the DUP holds ten seats at Westminster and 28 seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly"
Not so strange bedfellows for the British Government
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: akenaton
Date: 10 Jun 17 - 11:56 AM

""a party backed by terrorists" ...could you explain that remark please, I always thought the DUP were opposed to all terrorism, not just Irish National terrorism?

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: akenaton
Date: 10 Jun 17 - 11:58 AM

and before you start bleating, if Scottish Nats started slaughtering innocent people in England, would you describe them as freedom fighters?

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 10 Jun 17 - 12:19 PM

"could you explain that remark please,"
It's all in the definition Ake - I have nothing to explain
" if Scottish Nats started slaughtering innocent people in England, would you describe them as freedom fighters?"
No more than I would describe Isis as such - but until they do your question is meaningless nonsense.
The extreme Protestant right have been persecuting their Catholic opponents since the border was imposed in 1922 - that persecution, backed by British and establishment collusion culminated in 'The Troubles
The Unionists introduced the gun into 20th century Irish politics prior to the War of independence a and were first to begin the bombing campaign in the late 1960s, making 'The Troubles' an act of self-defence
It's all in some book or other
"The Tories are forming a coalition with a party backed by terrorists"
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/dup-conservatives-northern-ireland-coalition-ulster-defence-association-paramilitaries-peace-process-a7782631.html
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: akenaton
Date: 10 Jun 17 - 12:27 PM

The Unionists instigated the bombing campaign in the sixties?

I remember nothing of that, would you care to elucidate as I can make no sense of your last post.

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Jun 17 - 12:34 PM

Comparing Trump to a toxic group, even using that cloying nickname you've crafted just for the liar - how appropriate. No idea what the DPC is.

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: Greg F.
Date: 10 Jun 17 - 12:36 PM

an explanation of the DUP

Google "Ian Paisley". That's all you need top know about these right-wing assholes.

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: DMcG
Date: 10 Jun 17 - 01:28 PM

Actually there is at least one more thing of great importance. The violence of decades (or more depending where you measure from) was brought to a near cessation through the Good Friday Agreement that led to power sharing through the Stormont government. That has the various parties working together and in opposition, and it is largely the DUP and Sinn Fein..

At the moment it is suspended because of one of the occasional disputes and the U.K. Government has the job of settling the dispute so everyone agrees the thing can resume.

So the government, propped up by the DUP, is supposed to settle a dispute between the DUP and Sinn Fein.

Anyone with the slightest knowledge of history can begin to understand how complex, subtle and fragile the relations are. You venture to intervene politically only with the greatest care.

Unless you wade in with no pause for thought after an election and only thinking of your own interests.

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 10 Jun 17 - 01:45 PM

"The Unionists instigated the bombing campaign in the sixties?"
Yes
The first bombing in that period was carried out by the U.V.F. led by Gusty Spence at McGurk's pub on May 16 1966
The 'Troubles' where kicked off proper three years later in 1969 when the police directed peaceful Civil rights protesters through mobs of stone throwing Loyalists
Thought everybody knew that.
Perhaps if you cared to read these things up for yourself you wouldn't find what I write "unintelligible"
God knows, there are enough sources
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 10 Jun 17 - 01:54 PM

To save time, earlier in the century the first arms to be introduced into Ireland were smuggled into Howth in July 1914 by Loyalists (nearly three years before Easter week)
Shortly afterwards the Bachelor's Walk Massacre took place in Dublin when British troops fired into a crowd and bayoneted protesters, four died and thirty eight were injured.
Easter Week was a latecomer
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: Pete from seven stars link
Date: 10 Jun 17 - 05:47 PM

I was not a fan of ian Paisley when he was shooting his mouth off. But I do remember seeing an interview with him, and finding that the fiery public figure was not all there was to him, and that he had catholic friends . And then there was that alliance , and he was serving alongside a former opponent very happily it seems

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: Greg F.
Date: 10 Jun 17 - 06:08 PM

That's all nice & touchy-feely, pete, but Paisley was a fanatical bigotted "Christian"[sic] arsehole who created misery for untold thousands, as do his successors in the DUP who carry on in the same tradition.

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: akenaton
Date: 11 Jun 17 - 03:56 AM

Jim, I thought we were discussing the DUP, not a bunch of paramilitary thugs......You cannot just associate "Unionists" with terror in that way. The UVF were criminals who indulged in terror, as were the Nationalist groups who used the slaughter of innocent people as a weapon.

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: akenaton
Date: 11 Jun 17 - 04:02 AM

As I have said on another thread, political change will come only through unity.
Paisley and McGuiness proved that, class war is an anachronism.

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: Stu
Date: 11 Jun 17 - 04:26 AM

"As I have said on another thread, political change will come only through unity."

And balance. Paisley/McGuiness world as they reached a kind of equilibrium and this proved good for the north (and all of us). The DUP/Tory axis of evil is distinctly unbalanced.

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 11 Jun 17 - 08:55 AM

well, i think the DUP and the tory party sounds like a match made in heaven. two lots of nasty buggers find each other.

this could be the start of something big.....

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 11 Jun 17 - 09:21 AM

Ake, the DUP are not the UUP. The DUP grew out of the Protestant Unionist Party, which in turn grew out of Ulster Protestant Action. And they were violent thugs. As Paisley and McGuinness morphed into men of peace, the brought along DUP and Sinn Fein with them, and both are now political parties operating through the ballot box. The UUP always was a political party, as was SDLP, sadly nether today have many MPs, if any.

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 11 Jun 17 - 09:36 AM

"As I have said on another thread, political change will come only through unity."
And as I said on another thread - thay unity will never become possible while the gap between rich and poor continues to tear Britain into fragments
"Jim, I thought we were discussing the DUP, not a bunch of paramilitary thugs"
The DUP was swet up by an extreme bigot and has the support of paramiltary thugs
You have aleardy been given a link to the connection beween the Party and the paramilitaries
Yr's another
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/who-are-the-dup-10589910

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 11 Jun 17 - 11:00 AM

In response to Joe's query, yes Trump has his fans in the UK, but he is also widely loathed and even more widely ridiculed. A petition to withdraw the state-visit invite that his hand-holding pal Theresa extended to him, attracted 1,800,000 signatures.

The UK Government ignored that, but it seems that Trump himself has finally got the message and indications today are that the visit is off. This comes just a few days after he was threatening a flying visit to London on or around Election Day (just what UK's stretched security services would have needed) and only a day or so after provoking outrage with his brainless abuse of the mayor, Sadiq Khan.

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Jun 17 - 11:32 AM

It sounds like Trump is backing out, not happy that there would be protests while he is there.

And on a related note: Some opera (you'll understand even if you don't speak Italian).

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: gillymor
Date: 11 Jun 17 - 12:27 PM

Bravo, bravissimo!

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: Stu
Date: 12 Jun 17 - 04:15 AM

That's the power of protest. Briliant.

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: Mr Red
Date: 12 Jun 17 - 05:22 AM

Is the Twitler cancelled visit anything to do with the likelihood of the emergence of King Boris?

He is on record of saying Twitler is not welcome in London.

London mayors and Twitler have a theme running through them..........

Subject: RE: BS: Apologies to my British friends
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 12 Jun 17 - 05:28 AM

The funny thing is, Theresa May appears to still think the state visit is on. But then again, she thinks a few things which utterly defy reason.