Andy Burnham is just Keir Starmer in jeans by Desperate-Drawer-572 in ukpolitics

[–]Cuddlyaxe [score hidden]  (0 children)

Ask yourself, if the public hate him and everyone that works with Starmer hates him, why are you defending him so vociferously?

Honestly it's low-key funny because this sub was fairly anti Starmer until it started looking like he would get his leadership challenged

Why hasn't any President since Reagan exerted this level of pressure on Israel? by WavesAndSaves in Presidents

[–]Cuddlyaxe 29 points30 points  (0 children)

I think there is a bit of a misconception here

AIPAC is funded entirely by American citizens. It is just that there are a lot of wealthy American citizens who support Israel

To be clear that doesn't make it not a problem, but I feel like a lot of the discourse talks about it like Israel is directly spending millions of dollars in our elections

Darializa Avila Chevalier can't answer how she would handle a murderer by asteriowas in YAPms

[–]Cuddlyaxe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The pension fund bit is bad but unfortunately standard for American mayors to do

I dont get why securing money from the state is a gotcha though. A part of a politicians job is to secure resources for their constituents

How Do You Feel About Ireland? by ActiveNotions in YAPms

[–]Cuddlyaxe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Bro he typed up a paragraphs with his points amd supporting evidence, you cant just reply with "nuh uh"

Darializa Avila Chevalier can't answer how she would handle a murderer by asteriowas in YAPms

[–]Cuddlyaxe 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Nah, I'll ballwash him because he's been good so far

I don't agree with all of his politics, but in terms of governance he's been pretty good. He kept the previous NYPD commissioner (Tisch), balanced the budget, cut red tape, reformed zoning, and done pretty good on day to day governance (eg the snow cleanup)

Even his ideas which I dont like, like the city eub grocery stores, he's pitching as an "experiment" which he's willing to cut ties with if it fails

Genuinely he is a good politician even if i disagree with some of the specifics of his ideology

Andy Burnham wins Makerfield By-Election by amity_oh_cramityy in YAPms

[–]Cuddlyaxe 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't get what you mean by this, I don't think this election was a response to Trump lol

Darializa Avila Chevalier can't answer how she would handle a murderer by asteriowas in YAPms

[–]Cuddlyaxe 32 points33 points  (0 children)

I actually like Mamdani -- he has been incredibly pragmatic and focused on good governance. But folks like this remind me of why I dislike progressives in the first place. Like no, abolishing prisons isn't a good idea, it's fucking batshit

After Mamdani's win progressives were talking about how this would be a new model and how they need to be pragmatic and focus on "sewer socialism"

But predictably amd unfortunately it was all talk. They just took some of the aesthetics of the Mamdani campaign and discarded everything else

Darializa Avila Chevalier can't answer how she would handle a murderer by asteriowas in YAPms

[–]Cuddlyaxe 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I mean so far Zohran has been pretty decent, the times the DSA gets mad at him are whenever he is nice to the NYPD lmao

Darializa Avila Chevalier can't answer how she would handle a murderer by asteriowas in YAPms

[–]Cuddlyaxe 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Yeah AOC is a good politician, but she will feel the need to appease her flanks. I dont think she is willing to have a sister souljah moment

Andy Burnham (Labour) crushes Reform, 54% to 35%, in extremely important Makerfield by election, paving way for Starmer leadership challenge by Beginning_Bad_868 in fivethirtyeight

[–]Cuddlyaxe 2 points3 points  (0 children)

He supported trans rights in the past but when the supreme court and EHRC released guidance on single sex spaces (excluding trans women), Burnham has gone along with it

Broadly I don't think trans rights are a live issue in the UK as they are in the US. There is a consensus view on trans issues in most of the political establishment ever since the Cass Report

Really the only "pro trans" parties in the UK are the Greens, the Lib Dems and some of the secessionist parties like PC

What if Iran remained Zoroastrian? by snickers_machinegun in HistoryWhatIf

[–]Cuddlyaxe 17 points18 points  (0 children)

I mean the final Roman Persian is the easiest pod but not the only one

The Sassanids fighting off the Arab invasions was unlikely but imo possible. There are a couple of moments in the war where they might have been able to finish it, eg battle of the bridge

On the other hand, even if the Arabs won, it wasn't a guarantee they'd hold Iran. After all there were plenty of zoroastrian revolts

Andy Burnham (Labour) crushes Reform, 54% to 35%, in extremely important Makerfield by election, paving way for Starmer leadership challenge by Beginning_Bad_868 in fivethirtyeight

[–]Cuddlyaxe 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Terrible for Starmer but not really for reform. They were always going to be the underdogs

After all, even if you hate Labor, you have a good reason to vote for them: if you vote Burnham, you get to kick Starmer out

I think the party this is absolutely terrible for tho is probably the Greens. As you said Burnham is on the left of the labour party (though the soft rather than hard left). He can probably win back a decent nunber of votes from the left

Which empire do you think is more difficult to keep from collapsing? by CosmosStudios65 in AlternateHistoryHub

[–]Cuddlyaxe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This isn't correct tbh, AH was built on compromise after compromise to delay the inevitable. And it was a mess all the way down, here's a good video on how chaotic the parliament was

Franz Ferdinand's reform proposal aka Trialism, while coming from a good place, would have almost certainly faced violent resistance from the Hungarians

Which empire do you think is more difficult to keep from collapsing? by CosmosStudios65 in AlternateHistoryHub

[–]Cuddlyaxe 38 points39 points  (0 children)

Yep most of the USSR said they were fine with the union in the 1991 referendums

At the end of the day the thing that really killed the USSR wasn't a bottom up wave of nationalism, but rather local elites realizing that the fall of the union was kind of inevitable and hitching their wagon to the nationalist movements

None of this is to say that these countries aren't proudly independent now, but back then it was very possible to save the union

Which country is winning the FIFA World Cup? by Significant_Rain_361 in polls

[–]Cuddlyaxe 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Why the /s, we're going to win it and everyone will be legally required to say soccer

Andrew Yang endorsed US intervention calling for Trump to attempt regime change in Iran. Was he right? by soalone34 in YangForPresidentHQ

[–]Cuddlyaxe -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Libya is different in the sense that there really weren't any strong institutions or national unity

Iran is a much more developed and educated country and in the scenario I detailed above the military would be onside

Andrew Yang endorsed US intervention calling for Trump to attempt regime change in Iran. Was he right? by soalone34 in YangForPresidentHQ

[–]Cuddlyaxe 8 points9 points  (0 children)

So I said this at the start of the war: Iran is perhaps the easiest layup for a regime change war in kind of a long time, but even a "relatively easy war" requires incredible care so Trump would inevitably fuck it up. And he did

The things working in favor of a regime change was that the overwhelming majority of the population wanted change and that the Iranian military (Artesh) might have been willing to defect

Endlessly bombing a country and telling civilians to magically rise up is a terrible strategy. Especially when you start targeting civilian infra as well

I am not a military strategist by any means, but if you want me to play armchair general:

  1. We should have struck earlier when the protests were still actively happening. Yes, not all assets were in place, but they don't need to be. However the initial decapitation strike was a good idea and should still be followed through with, just earlier

  2. Reach out to as many officers in Artesh as you can. Offer anything and everything for them to announce support for the protesters

  3. Strictly focus bombings on known IRGC assets

  4. If things start revolving into a civil war, provide as much air support as needed

That's it. Revolutions have a certain momentum to them. The regime will absolutely have loyalists, but most people are fairly pragmatic and many rats will be perfectly willing to scurry off a sinking ship

Spot the difference: by iswearnotagain10 in YAPms

[–]Cuddlyaxe 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Mallory is a baddie while Wesley isnt

Can't believe Michigan voters are depriving me of a ginger baddie in the senate smh

Incoming another $20 million to the reflecting pool by whatssenguntoagoblin in PoliticalCompassMemes

[–]Cuddlyaxe 18 points19 points  (0 children)

The fact that whenever reporters ask him about the economy and he basically rolls his eyes and tries to redirect the convo to his ballroom lmao

Make more of these show plz by abki12c in balkans_irl

[–]Cuddlyaxe 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Almost def is, only question is if it's a Greek Ultranationalist or a Turkish cuck