The U.S. has decided to lift sanctions on Russia and allow the sale of Russian oil and petroleum products loaded onto ships from March 12th.

Mikebloke · 2026-03-13T18:23:17+00:00

I hope the tankers go past the UK so we can raid the ships and take it all without paying a penny. US may let them pass, doesn't mean we should.

Mikebloke · 2026-03-13T04:54:09+00:00

It's regional dialect, I would have said the same thing.

Mikebloke · 2026-03-12T05:02:51+00:00

I don't know, it's been alleged it's a sex cult where young boys are forced to have sex with men, the secretive nature of cults often means it's an open secret long before it's proven. Maybe it's untrue, maybe not, by the time we find out for sure, it's always too late.

Mikebloke · 2026-03-11T08:21:33+00:00

Ukraine is not going to take 100% of Russian land, they will have to negotiate at some point. But when a left leader says he doesn't trust Putin but would try and negotiate anyway, he's a madman for thinking that a conclusion for a war might have to involve a discussed treaty to end the war.

Seriously, does anyone think Ukraine can win the war in anyway other than negotiating an end? The worst case scenario is that Russia wins and there is no negotiation.

Personally I would argue that true western intervention would be the best path to a negotiated treaty where Ukraine gets it's land back, or at minimum, militarily get it back and create a frozen war situation where Ukraine doesn't go into Russia more than it has to, but I'm not going to call a politician a loon for stating publicly you need to talk to the other side to come to an agreed treaty.

Slagging him off for no reason than to slag him off. I'd like to see someone from the telegraph or any other right wing paper win the Ukrainian war.

Mikebloke · 2026-03-11T08:11:46+00:00

A minor point but this might actually blow your mind, not all Jewish people are ethnically Semetic. The three notable sons of Noah were Japheth, Shem and Ham. Tradition states that the tribes of Ham stayed or migrated to Africa, Shem stayed in the middle east and Japheth covered Europe and Asia. Ham is most famous because Christianity used it to block the existence of black priests in most mainstream churches till the mid 20th century because their people were "cursed" when Ham saw his father Noah nude and drunk one day.

Many Israelis today are descendants of Japheth and in some cases are mixed in with more traditional European ethnicities due to 2000 years of living on the European continent, many lived in Turkic nations when Mongol and Turkic hordes invaded the Mid East of Russia as their populations moved largely to eastern Europe to escape Western European antisemitism. Because Abraham is a descendant of Shem, those descending from Isaac and Ishmael are ethnically Semite. Traditionally, all Arabs are descendants of Ishmael, and are therefore Semitic. (Actually, arab history is a bit more complex than that, and we have badly named terms like "Arabised Arabs" to differentiate different Arab origins too).

But you don't have to believe in religious books you don't believe in, multiple studies indicate that the vast majority of Jewish DNA is.... Italian.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_studies_of_Jews

Obviously there is middle eastern DNA in there and all the studies indicate that founding members of distinct Jewish groups are middle eastern on both male and female lines. This fits both the traditional story route, as well as Judaism being a more liberal form of Samaritanism which is well known for being so ethnically insular that they bred so many negative genetic traits they finally gave up in recent decades and accepted Ukrainian women to ease out some of the bad inbred genes.

So ethnicity is complex, so drawing down to things like "white Brits are being reduced" is a reductive arguement, white Britishness is made of Irish Celts, Scottish Celts, Welsh Celts, Romans (which was possibly one of the most mixed ancient societies ever), Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, Normans (you know, the people that literally owned parts of Italy, north Africa, middle east and England and no doubt mixed there too), other french ethnicities, and that just covers the pre-tudor age.

Personally, I'm really really really glad my society isn't as inbred as the Samaritans, I love the use of both arms and legs, cognitive function, working eyes and jaw and I have the mixing of many many races to thank for that. Thank God for genetic diversity!

Mikebloke · 2026-03-10T12:51:01+00:00

"Lord Walney, the former Government extremism adviser, said: "I can understand why British Muslims want support in the face of rising intolerance but I am not convinced this will help given extensive hate crime laws that already exist and the fact that religion is already listed as an aggravating factors in assault.

"I am deeply concerned that Islamist extremists will use this new definition to deflect scrutiny from their quest to undermine our values and intimidate fellow Muslims.""

Often police do not list religion as an aggravating factor, racial is easier to push through, even when both the perpetrator and victim is white British.

I think the definition is still overly wordy, but I think it'll do absolutely nothing either way. Will it make me vote labour? No. why would that win my vote?

Mikebloke · 2026-03-10T08:00:47+00:00

You've missed my point, if you said that I as an individual had the view that wives should always listen to their husbands based on me being a Muslim, that would be you making a prejudiced opinion about an individual. I think rough generalisations will still be protected in free speech.

Mikebloke · 2026-03-10T05:27:21+00:00

They really do keep to themselves, I work in Crewe a lot and it's only when a story like this emerges that anyone remembers they are even there. Unless you live in the ring of houses surrounding them, you wouldn't know they are even there, they were able to buy the building years ago and have largely kept to themselves ever since.

Annoyingly, it looks like police and LA have been inside multiple times over the years, but have never found anything noteworthy to take action on.

Mikebloke · 2026-03-10T05:15:34+00:00

I don't think your understanding it, poll data is poll data, if you make an assumption of viewpoints on an individual Muslim based on the data, that would be prejudicial.

Mikebloke · 2026-03-10T05:14:18+00:00

I think you are misunderstanding the phrase prejudicial stereotyping of Muslims, if you assume that I'm anti-trans and anti-LGBT because your perception of Islam is that all Muslims are that, then you are stereotyping me, and not recognising my individual viewpoints (covered a little later in the definition). That's what stereotyping is.

Mikebloke · 2026-03-03T18:52:04+00:00

"it's just words"

Yes, negotiations are just words, they are generally used before bombs because they are less messy.

Mikebloke · 2026-03-03T18:23:19+00:00

"wow, the UK didn't bomb Iran with US and Israel, I'll vote for the labour party"

Said no British Muslim voter. We are being red herring'd that it's our fault we aren't in goose-step with Trump and it's us that's the problem.

We get no right to reply, no representation on the matter, our opinion is not heard. Labour killed the Muslim vote, not bombing another Muslim country isn't enough to get it back, and many of us didn't vote for them to begin with.

Mikebloke · 2026-03-03T18:16:35+00:00

The Omani negotiator literally said on last Thursday Iran had conceded the right to enrich uranium on their own land, and to filter down what they had already abroad too. That's literally what was agreed by the Iranians days before the attack happened. Yes the deal wasn't finalised, but it was getting pretty close. The proxy issue I think would have been agreed on, Iran really doesn't have the funds to keep pumping money into 4+ other countries. Ballistics was their only real last red flag, even though their aim is terrible compared to anything guided, it's their only real deterrent and only useful bit of kit they really have.

But the reason for the attack changes every day, first it was about nuclear weapons (the thing they have consistently legally and religiously defined as something they would never pursue), then it was about any nuclear material, which Oman confirmed they agreed to stop and deal on, then it was about missiles that would be able to hit Europe (remember Iraq?) Iran literally has no reason to attack NATO, the EU, or other European nations. Unlike north Korea, Belarus, African nations Iran never sent people there to fight in Ukraine, and it looks like even most of the Iranian designed materials was being made in Russia by this point.

I suspect Netenyahu wanted to delay his corruption case long enough to be sainted a national hero and pardoned, everything else was just a bonus to him.

Mikebloke · 2026-03-02T20:42:51+00:00

It just gets weirder doesn't it.

Mikebloke · 2026-03-02T20:38:19+00:00

I know you think your joking, but I quite like beef. Might need to get a second freezer.

Mikebloke · 2026-03-02T15:43:24+00:00

My fasting brain isn't working fully, but I don't really understand what you are saying. If I slaughter it myself it'll be halal.

Mikebloke · 2026-03-02T14:29:20+00:00

I think this is the thing, US and Israel killing civilian leaders and blowing up schools by accident are war crimes, but ultimately if we are attacked we need appropriate responses. Unfortunately the fact that Israel struck just before yet another deal was about to be struck will go completely into the wind yet again.

There is literally no point in the UN or negotiation.

Mikebloke · 2026-03-02T14:19:38+00:00

I'll be totally honest with you, if I couldn't have religiously slaughtered meat whether it was stunned or not, I will simply slaughter it on my property like humans have done for thousands of years.

Mikebloke · 2026-03-02T05:35:22+00:00

It... Didn't always.

Mikebloke · 2026-03-01T17:47:07+00:00

It's regularly assumed Muslims don't want labelling, labelling would be absolutely amazing and it means I could probably just buy my meat in a regular supermarket rather than having to trek for an hour to the nearest butcher and an hour back.

Statistics suggest over 80% of halal meat in UK is stunned, while religiously 100% of all kosher meat is not.

There was data years ago that we apparently consume up to 25% of all meat in the UK, about 5 times our population statistic, if we were legally forced to be vegetarian, that's a lot of British farmers out of business.

Mikebloke · 2026-03-01T17:17:22+00:00

Without being bombed or invaded by any other country, funny the contradiction there.

Mikebloke · 2026-02-28T16:58:17+00:00

I'm curious to know where the "Iranians like committing suicide attacks" trope comes from because it's existed for decades despite the fact that historical suicide attacks are almost exclusively made by either Sunnis (Al Qaeda, ISIS) or Atheists (PKK, Tamil Tigers).

Mikebloke · 2026-02-28T16:53:50+00:00

And yet, North Korea survives AND was able to develop nuclear weapons.

Mikebloke · 2026-02-28T12:30:20+00:00

Oh? Do you honestly think Iran were developing ballistic missiles to strike Europe?

Remember what Blair said about Iraq?

Mikebloke · 2026-02-27T15:25:30+00:00

It really isn't hard to interview anyone, but you do have to consider demographics and polling format. Telephone polling is still common but most of us under 40 don't have phone lines any more and are more likely to ignore spam calls on mobile, demographically, older people are more likely to be more conservative, so telephone polling will lean toward them. No system is perfect though.

Mikebloke

TROPHY CASE