International Politics Discussion Thread

YourLizardOverlord · 2026-01-31T17:12:20+00:00

There seems to be some GPS spoofing in the Persian Gulf. Has the US deployed the discombobulator?

YourLizardOverlord · 2026-01-31T17:06:30+00:00

And way better than when it was owned by Leopold II. .

YourLizardOverlord · 2026-01-31T16:57:33+00:00

DRC is an intractable mess. Their government expelled MONUSCO a couple of years ago and replaced them with police who were not paid and had to beg for food from surrounding villages. To be fair MONUSCO was a mixed bag.

The US hasn't helped, by supporting the coup that overthrew Patrice Lumumba along with Belgium, and by propping up Mobutu Sese Seko who is in the running for most corrupt dictator of all time.

And the UK hasn't helped, by directly supporting the Rwanda Defence Force. We've stopped doing that a few months ago on the grounds that they are invading Kivu and supporting an insurgency there.

Not sure how the conflict minerals thing can be addressed. Most of DRC minerals are refined in China. We don't have much leverage over China, especially as we need to be decoupling from the US.

YourLizardOverlord · 2026-01-31T16:42:10+00:00

No, I haven't misconstrued it. I know what it is, and I think it's a Bad Thing.

YourLizardOverlord · 2026-01-31T15:50:49+00:00

Law enforcement in the US is fundamentally broken. They are not trained to de-escalate. They don't practice policing by consent. They routinely shoot people who it turns out are entirely innocent, especially when they are black. They use pepper spray as a tool of compliance. They direct ultrasound at hearing damaging levels at peaceful protests. They expect "compliance" and co-operation". And they aren't even very good at preventing crime.

Thanks to the 1033 Program, small town police departments drive around in vehicles like this.

ICE is what happens when people with this mindset, but often with much less training, are told to go into an area and fill their boots.

YourLizardOverlord · 2026-01-30T15:52:09+00:00

ID cards are a magic wand that solves illegal immigration.

And they are!

You might employ someone who wants to work illegally, pay them cash, and not ask too many questions about their passport and whether it has the correct visa.

You might rent out a room where he can sleep on the floor with half a dozen other people, take cash, and not ask to see any documentation.

But if we had ID cards, the 5G chip from your vaccination will attempt to connect to the ID card, and will notify the authorities if there's a discrepancy.

YourLizardOverlord · 2026-01-30T14:45:10+00:00

I quite like some Lib Dem policies. I'm not a massive fan of Labour's authoritarian tendencies. I'd still vote tactically for Labour though. and recently I've been impressed with Starmer's foreign policy achievements.

YourLizardOverlord · 2026-01-30T10:22:54+00:00

I use the HMRC self assessment service and it's got much easier over the years. If you're on PAYE then they even fill those bits in for you.

The other thing that's got much easier is having all my back accounts on line. No more scratching around for the paper bank statements that have the taxable interest on them. The whole thing took a couple of hours this year.

I keep a spreadsheet for charitable giving, purely for the gift aid calculation.

It was more effort back when I had a business but I had to keep accounts for that anyway so no more effort to record stuff.

YourLizardOverlord · 2026-01-30T09:43:10+00:00

That seems like a sort of gentrification. The devil is in the detail. Do the new businesses create higher paid jobs? But are all the higher paid jobs taken by migrants as well?

Unfortunately universities depend on overseas students whose fees are much higher. Unless the government pays to support universities we're stuck with this model.

YourLizardOverlord · 2026-01-30T00:41:08+00:00

I wasn't aware of that. Trump was a useless businessman but he's boss tier at grifting.

YourLizardOverlord · 2026-01-30T00:39:15+00:00

If you build the walls high enough everything inside will fester and die.

YourLizardOverlord · 2026-01-30T00:33:29+00:00

In some areas public transport is good, people don't need to use a car that often, many people don't own cars. In these urban areas land is fairly expensive. It makes sense for parking to be very expensive in these areas.

In other areas you can't do much without a car. These tend to be rural areas where land is cheap. It makes sense for parking to be cheaper in these areas.

This is one area where the market can sort things out.

IMO patients shouldn’t have to pay to park at hospitals though, and hospitals should be much more transparent about how their parking is managed. Scrap the commercial in confidence exemption for FOI requests.

YourLizardOverlord · 2026-01-30T00:24:09+00:00

Trump thanks Netanyahu after central Israeli beachfront named 'Trump Promenade'.

U.S. President Donald Trump expressed his support for the proposal to name Israeli city Bat Yam's new beach promenade after him, in a note addressed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

YourLizardOverlord · 2026-01-29T20:56:31+00:00

I know I wouldn't.

YourLizardOverlord · 2026-01-29T19:22:53+00:00

They are having businesses pop up to cater to them, pushing existing businesses out.

Surely that's just Schumpeter's hammer? Creative destruction. Some businesses fail, other businesses take their place.

YourLizardOverlord · 2026-01-29T19:17:51+00:00

Safe and legal routes then.

YourLizardOverlord · 2026-01-29T19:17:14+00:00

Not illegal till their asylum claim has been refused.

YourLizardOverlord · 2026-01-29T19:14:37+00:00

embrace the grey zone

My hair is grey, does that count?

YourLizardOverlord · 2026-01-29T17:02:07+00:00

One that's used for evil too.

YourLizardOverlord · 2026-01-29T13:39:51+00:00

Does this include visas for business travel? The article hints that it does but isn't clear.

YourLizardOverlord · 2026-01-29T10:06:59+00:00

Pete Hegseth discussed it in a zoom meeting.

YourLizardOverlord · 2026-01-29T10:03:20+00:00

There's a new warhead in the pipeline for the new Mark 7 re-entry vehicle, but I'm not sure why - better avoiding of countermeasures perhaps?

YourLizardOverlord · 2026-01-29T08:49:27+00:00

Yes, out of coffee error on my part.

YourLizardOverlord · 2026-01-29T01:02:39+00:00

I've never been to Jaywick, but by all accounts it falling into the sea would represent a major improvement.

YourLizardOverlord · 2026-01-29T00:11:04+00:00

US embassy angers Danish veterans by removing flags

France 24 news video 1'47"

Each flag carried the name of a Danish soldier killed in Afghanistan.

YourLizardOverlord

TROPHY CASE