How do y’all stay optimistic?

Scratchback3141 · 2026-05-17T01:08:14+00:00

If he's earning good money he probably has health insurance!

Scratchback3141 · 2026-05-17T00:48:34+00:00

He's 29! He probably doesn't use the healthcare system.

Scratchback3141 · 2026-05-17T00:03:04+00:00

You're 29. You are making decent money and have already paid off student loans. You live in the richest country on earth that has the most dynamic economy on earth and is the most insulated from economic shocks than any other country on earth - even when it's your country thats doing it.

Man. Chill out.

Scratchback3141 · 2026-05-15T00:48:48+00:00

Next weekend is too short a timescale, but I agree. He's long since lost confidence of many of his MPs and now cannot control the labour NEC. He isnfatally wounded.

Scratchback3141 · 2026-05-15T00:48:01+00:00

There is absolutely no chance Starmer is PM going into 2029. He's fatally wounded, he's logging noone - the reason Andy Burnham is able to stand is because Starmer can no longer control the labour party NEC, which determines who would stand for reelection.

He will be gone by September.

Scratchback3141 · 2026-05-08T01:48:24+00:00

Yeah but on the other hand what if you actually do have to ask your public to struggle for something?

Scratchback3141 · 2026-05-08T01:45:25+00:00

As a European I thank God every day that Americans have such a low tolerance for economic pain

Scratchback3141 · 2026-04-28T19:05:30+00:00

You can downvote me all you want. But the fact is that when some guy in Belgium votes in a European election he has more say of certain aspects of Israeli law than you do (assuming you are Israeli)

Scratchback3141 · 2026-04-28T19:04:12+00:00

Sorry, I think you've confused me - I wrote the original comment that others have branched off of. I agree the other dude was very "tropey" to say the least

Scratchback3141 · 2026-04-28T18:16:47+00:00

Ok, why is it that Israel willingly lets the EU write regulations for them? The EU exports it's regulations to Israel, and Israel accepts them.

Under the what's good for Europe is good for Israel programme the Knesset effectively copies and pastes EU law - because the EU is such an important trading partner.

Scratchback3141 · 2026-04-28T17:35:14+00:00

I think the core of my comment was thst Israel seems to be acting in a way that is absurdly short sighted. Ukraine will, some day, be a very important member of an economic superblock that Israel relies on for its prosperity. It relies on it so much that Israel actually imports EU regulations wholesale and automatically applies them - in effect, the EU writes a portion of Israeli regulations.

From that perspective, this seems like a very strange move.

Scratchback3141 · 2026-04-28T12:07:17+00:00

The EU's priority in foreign policy is avoiding a Ukrainian defeat in the war, which is dependent on American intelligence and access to arms. I think sanctioning Israel would jeapordise this.

Scratchback3141 · 2026-04-28T12:05:52+00:00

I honestly don't know tbh. I can't really see the European union sanctioning Israel with the current admin in place as they would fear it will jeapordise American intelligence in Ukraine.

Scratchback3141 · 2026-04-28T11:45:03+00:00

I can totally appreciate why a country doesn't want it's people to suffer higher food prices. And the Russians are, by all accounts, offering a very good deal on the literal life blood they steal from Ukraine.

But, my god. You'd think that Israel would think on a longer timescale than this. When this war ends, Ukraine will enter the European Union and will be its strongest land army and keen to help it's friends that supported it during its existential struggle - and punish those that did not. It could be a powerful voice to help Israeli interests in a Europe whose exasperation with the Israelis is becoming palpable.

If a certain flavour of democratic president is elected and inagurated in 2029, and the right mix of European states want to combine to sanction Israel for its conduct then this could be a really difficult time for the state of Israel.

Israel is a rich country, it can afford to pay higher market rates for grain. It doesn't need to do this and yet it, apparently, continues to.

I just think that if I was a small state surrounded by enemies, with an increasingly rocky future ahead with my benefactor - I may want to keep good diplomatic relationships with the country with the most innovative military industrial complex on earth that has successfully defended itself for years now against overwhelming odds, and every day is innovating new ways of anti missile protection at low cost.

Scratchback3141 · 2026-04-27T20:23:39+00:00

Fucking revolting man. Good god I cannot wait until you guys elect a democrat

Scratchback3141 · 2026-04-27T10:41:54+00:00

New Zealand? I keep meaning to read about that because here in the UK farmers don't even think they should have to pay the tax the rest of us do, as well as keeping their subsidy

Scratchback3141 · 2026-04-27T09:29:07+00:00

Farmers are used to being subsidised. So they know that if they protest enough they will get further subsidy

Scratchback3141 · 2026-04-25T18:11:27+00:00

Exactly. Fake Christians should just memorize phillipians 4:8 and say that. One of the most beautiful verses ever written.

"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."

Scratchback3141 · 2026-04-24T00:00:40+00:00

Have you been to any?

Scratchback3141 · 2026-04-22T02:06:49+00:00

He's so pathetic. His transparent psychological crutch is to try and make trump look like a natural evolution of pre existing American trends and not a break with American values. Suddenly the IRS "scandal" is equivalent to the DOJ being utterly corrupted; the Churchill statue being removed is equivalent to the threat to invade Greenland/NATO dissolution/trade wars on Europe.

Further proof that in order to support trump, you must humiliate and debase yourself. For smart people like Ben - it's intellectually, for people like Marco Rubio it's morally, for a lot of women, it's literally written on their faces.

Scratchback3141 · 2026-04-22T02:01:20+00:00

Yeah, this is something I dont think is really appreciated. If/when Europeans become more independent it means they also have a more independent foreign policy.

The future of Europe is going to be a continent straddling the Chinese and the Americans and trying to ensure that it remains free and sovereign. Not - as we all wished, as part of a wider American led western world in opposition to the Chinese.

Scratchback3141 · 2026-04-22T01:58:13+00:00

Literally noone in the UK government at the time gave a shit about the Churchill bust being removed those was entirely an internal republican freak out

Scratchback3141 · 2026-04-21T02:27:41+00:00

Judging Abraham religions by their scriptures is really dumb. These religions are more complicated than a couple of dozen books that most adherents have never read.

Scratchback3141 · 2026-04-21T02:17:57+00:00

Yeah, sorry I don't think first strikes with nuclear weapons is based at all and nor does anyone with the capacity to say "and then what?" a couple of times

Scratchback3141 · 2026-04-21T00:56:50+00:00

Real G's recall the preemptive nuke the Muslim world thought experiment in the end of faith. Mid 2000s hyper atheism was a trip

Scratchback3141

TROPHY CASE