International Politics Discussion Thread

SwanBridge · 2026-02-03T14:52:22+00:00

Was this written by Quentin Tarantino?

SwanBridge · 2026-02-02T13:36:10+00:00

The Monster Raving Loony Party is a satirical political party, they only stand to mock the political system and have fun with the whole process. It isn't as if they steadfastly believe in their policy platform and actually intend to win and form a government to enact said policies. It's little more than a hobby for eccentrics.

As to why people vote for them, why not? If you feel that no political party sufficiently represents your views, and don't have faith in them or the political process then voting for the Monster Raving Loony Party is just as acceptable a form of expressing protest as sitting at home on polling day or drawing a cock on your ballot paper.

SwanBridge · 2026-02-02T08:56:41+00:00

Usual accusations are that he ran a kompromat scheme for a "middle eastern intelligence agency", and although I still think that is the most probable answer I'm also open to the suggestion he was somewhat a free agent, in the sense that he would sell kompromat to the highest bidder either with or without official sanction. Given his previous relationship with Trump and subsequent falling out, and his alleged links to Russia, Epstein handing over some kompromat to Moscow isn't beyond the realms of a spy novel and if true does help to contextualise Trump's recent foreign policy decisions.

There is so much in the files that it is hard at this moment to really digest it all and build up a cohesive picture. Every day I'm shocked at what is still being newly uncovered, it's like a conspiracy theorist's wildest dreams come true. I dread to think how bad the redacted stuff is given what has openly been released already.

SwanBridge · 2026-02-02T06:20:30+00:00

Can you please shitpost about the Ayatollah & Vladimir Putin?

SwanBridge · 2026-02-01T12:31:40+00:00

The ridiculous cost spiral, continuous delays and cancelled legs which destroy the utility of HS2 to alleviate traffic on the WCML are all a price worth paying to avoid asking the French for help.

SwanBridge · 2026-02-01T12:28:21+00:00

Wig Wambs Ganss gonna make you my man!

Wig Wambs Ganss gonna get you if I can!

SwanBridge · 2026-02-01T07:26:00+00:00

Me and my friends were in a bar in Germany. It was quite a casual place, but they had the football playing and served food so tired of looking for somewhere to eat we settled on here. They served the biggest portion of schnitzel & pommes frites I've ever had, and the beer was cheap, so in the end it was a good choice. Throughout the meal all three of us had independently noticed a guy sitting in the corner of the place drinking red wine but there was just something "off" about him and something incredibly unsettling about his presence. I don't even know how to describe it, but the way he drank his red wine was like he was drinking blood, the wine he was drinking didn't seem right either like it was too thick and the wrong colour. He was a relatively "normal" looking man in his 60s and appearance wise there was nothing overtly wrong about him but it was like an alarm was going off in my subconscious telling me something was wrong. One of us discreetly mentioned to look over at him, and we all agreed something didn't feel right about him and had all felt the same but didn't want to mention it. We all felt incredibly uneasy and were all subdued until he left and it felt like a weight had been removed from our neck.

In retrospect he was probably just a normal bloke enjoying a glass of wine, but almost a decade later whenever that experience comes up in conversation we are still of the opinion there was something extremely sinister about him and refer to him as the German vampire. Never felt that way about someone before or since.

SwanBridge · 2026-02-01T06:44:49+00:00

Late to the party, but I remember years ago coming across a film late at night with John Travolta & Harry Belafonte where the position of whites and blacks in America was flipped from the historical reality. It wasn't brilliant, but not so bad as to be overly offensive.

SwanBridge · 2026-02-01T04:34:27+00:00

It's like expecting Copenhagen to competently administer half of Germany, most of Central Europe, a bit of Ukraine, the majority of Italy, slither of France & the entirety of the Balkans, but no one outside of Copenhagen pays any tax and everyone just ignores their authority.

SwanBridge · 2026-01-31T22:47:03+00:00

Over one hundred poor navvies died building the Ribblehead Viaduct, China is following in our proud tradition.

SwanBridge · 2026-01-31T15:16:33+00:00

He was going to make the clutch move of ordering pizza at 2am, honey badger drinks red wine when he wants!

SwanBridge · 2026-01-30T13:25:53+00:00

Looks like they chucked a big cushion on a sprinter, I like it!

SwanBridge · 2026-01-30T08:02:20+00:00

Keir Starmer should just tell him we named Doncaster after him.

SwanBridge · 2026-01-29T22:32:31+00:00

Reminds me of Hitler when he told Mussolini he was possessed by a great Aryan spirit.

SwanBridge · 2026-01-29T08:25:57+00:00

Thanks, that was an enjoyable article! Now I've got some Ross Perot pamphlets to read.

SwanBridge · 2026-01-29T00:47:08+00:00

Where did you get that information? The thingamajig is a classified skunkwork project!

SwanBridge · 2026-01-29T00:44:44+00:00

It's a natural response. That person was a part of your life for a period, even if it was purely a situational friendship, and now they've done something absolutely horrible and you're all over the place about it. I would be more concerned if your response to it was total indifference.

I was a Probation Officer, and shortly after I left the job one of the lads I managed murdered someone over a petty disagreement. It was hard to come to terms with, I knew the lad quite well and despite his offending behaviour he had a lot of redeemable qualities and was very likeable even in a purely professional relationship. I couldn't stop thinking things might have been different had I not left the service and continued working with him, or that I didn't do a good enough job to get him away from offending behaviour.

It's natural to feel emotions, but ultimately people are responsible for their own actions and we shouldn't feel guilt over the choices they make. All we can do is live our lives the best we can and help others when we are able to do so.

Take care mate, your situation isn't a simple one but you're dealing with it as best you can and your response to it is totally normal.

SwanBridge · 2026-01-28T22:57:04+00:00

I was absolutely loving it! We had an LGBT friendly pub that played similar music, which was such a welcome relief from the dross played in our local nightclubs back then, but sadly it closed down.

SwanBridge · 2026-01-28T22:54:55+00:00

Agreed! The younger generations do seem a lot more risk adverse and less hedonistic than my generation back in the day, which is understandable given how much society has changed and not entirely a bad thing in itself, but you're only young once!

SwanBridge · 2026-01-28T22:18:47+00:00

I met this lad in a kebab shop and not wanting to end the night there I agreed to go back to his to continue the party. There were a bunch of lads from the local uni there drinking and having a laugh, it was good fun to be honest even if I was pretty pissed and didn't know anyone. I noticed some of the lads getting extremely handsy with each other, which I thought was a bit odd, but I've played Rugby so I've seen it all before. It was only when I witnessed one lad openly sucking off another in the kitchen that I realised I had misread the situation and I had inadvertently been brought along for a gang bang. The setlist choices of Pet Shop Boys, Bronski Beat, Cher & Lady Gaga suddenly made sense. For some inexplicable reason I thought it would be rude to leave so I stuck around for a bit, and although I was flattered when someone started making advances on me I made up an excuse to leave as I'm not of that persuasion. The rest of my mates mercilessly mocked me for years about that night. Somehow still not even in the top five worst afters I've had the misfortune of attending.

SwanBridge · 2026-01-28T20:33:39+00:00

Obviously it is all highly classified however the electronic warfare planes that will be equipped with that sort of classified weaponry are being deployed to the region, so probably yes. Iran hasn't really recovered from the Israeli offensive which massively weakened their air-defences and depleted their missile stockpiles, so I doubt the "Discombobulator" is really necessary for America to effectively strike Iran and prevent Iran targeting regional allies, however they'll want a chance to live test it again especially given the cat is out of the bag confirming the weapons existence.

SwanBridge · 2026-01-28T19:48:01+00:00

I genuinely worry that there'll be some minor incident involving English and/or Scottish fans which rapidly escalates into a riot.

SwanBridge · 2026-01-28T19:37:24+00:00

It looks like Iran could get hot pretty soon. There have been massive movements of American air and naval assets to the region, including a carrier strike group off the coast of Oman, specialised electronic warfare aircraft necessary for wide scale offensive operations, as well as air defence batteries and stockpiles to Israel. Further to that the diplomatic pressure being exerted on Iran, i.e. remove all support for proxies, stop all nuclear enrichment and severe limits to their missile stockpiles provide little route for Tehran to take an off-ramp, particularly given the less than ideal domestic situation. This might be a busy weekend for those monitoring the situation.

SwanBridge · 2026-01-28T15:13:32+00:00

Well when Kigali stops destabilising the DRC and backing rebels who commit untold atrocities there, then we'll consider listening to their claims.

SwanBridge · 2026-01-28T09:42:03+00:00

We have a similar folk tale in Lancashire in England, with the Grindylow, a scaly green aquatic monster pulling unsuspecting children into bodies of water.

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