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#1
Off the Record / Re: Iran War
Last post by Baron von Schtinkenbutt - Today at 08:04:05 AMQuote from: Tamas on Today at 07:16:56 AMYeah lots of flailing-about energy. Terror bombing ain't far away now
Something, something, Iran did it first.
#2
Off the Record / Re: Iran War
Last post by Tamas - Today at 07:16:56 AMQuote from: Zanza on Today at 02:39:41 AMSo Trump is now boasting about destroying civilian infrastructure, e.g. the largest bridge in Iran. Not even pretending this to be about military targets anymore.
Yeah lots of flailing-about energy. Terror bombing ain't far away now
#3
Off the Record / Re: Iran War
Last post by Zanza - Today at 02:39:41 AMSo Trump is now boasting about destroying civilian infrastructure, e.g. the largest bridge in Iran. Not even pretending this to be about military targets anymore.
#4
Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...
Last post by HVC - April 02, 2026, 10:41:19 PMQuote from: HisMajestyBOB on April 02, 2026, 08:25:21 PMReplacing experienced military leaders with political lackeys during a war always goes well, right?
One step closer to using nukes.
#5
Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...
Last post by Syt - April 02, 2026, 10:40:13 PMQuote from: Tonitrus on April 02, 2026, 05:29:28 PMOr the Army Chief of Staff...
https://apnews.com/article/pentagon-hegseth-army-chief-iran-war-c6707d1d3a95ea5f679e0f9a5c5012e7
Indications are he is being succeeded by a Trump sycophant.
QuoteGreen had been the Army's chief of chaplains. Hegseth announced two major reforms to the military's chaplain corps a little over a week ago.
In a video message last week, Hegseth said he wanted chaplains to focus more on God and less on therapeutic "self-help and self-care." In recent years, the military has become increasingly dependent on chaplains to help address the growing numbers of troops in mental health distress. Hegseth also said chaplains would no longer wear their rank on their uniform but instead would be identified by religious insignia.
I guess if you have PTSD you're not MAN enough to be WARFIGHTER.
#6
Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...
Last post by HisMajestyBOB - April 02, 2026, 08:25:21 PMReplacing experienced military leaders with political lackeys during a war always goes well, right?
#7
Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...
Last post by The Minsky Moment - April 02, 2026, 07:00:22 PMProfessional military is being replaced by MAGA praetorians
This will end well
This will end well
#8
Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...
Last post by Sheilbh - April 02, 2026, 06:41:30 PMIncidentally slightly nasty story coming out of Labour at the minute.
Long story short is that the Labour MP for Hull, Karl Tuner, is a long-standing and vocal Starmer critic (more from the Labour right). However he has been a fairly loyal backbencher until the proposal to abolish most jury trials. There was a Tory motion to oppose the government plans on jury trials a few months ago and after a huge whipping effort, most Labour MPs voted it down. Karl Tuner rebelled (this was unnecessary and there were many abstentions).
Labour have now withdrawn the whip from him, which he discovered when it was reported by journalists. So far, so standard for Starmer's approach to party management - see withdrawing the whip for Labour rebels who tried to get rid of the two children benefit cap followed by, within twelve months, the government getting rid of the benefit cap and Starmer calling it his proudest moment in office.
Where it takes a rather nastier turn is that Tuner has been seeking mental health support from the House of Commons authorities. People in Number 10 were briefing to journalists and other MPs that Tuner was "mad" and "nuts" and according to one political editor told him that Tuner was "on suicide watch". Tuner apparently explicitly raised it with Starmer in a private meeting and asked him to tell his team to stop these briefings but they continued. (Slightly reminds me of Gordon Brown, another PM who made a lot of not doing dirty tricks or spin, whose chief spin doctor had to resign after it emerged he was briefing journalists that George Osborne's wife was "mentally unstable".)
It might just be politics but can't help but be struck at the extent to which Starmer has become everything he said he hates about it. Smear campaigns against backbench MPs (and cabinet ministers), regularly chucking underlings with no right of reply under the bus for his mistakes, doing the really annoying thing of just ignoring questions at PMQ and attacking the opposition. Not great when his deputy before the election was describing him as "Mr Propriety".
Long story short is that the Labour MP for Hull, Karl Tuner, is a long-standing and vocal Starmer critic (more from the Labour right). However he has been a fairly loyal backbencher until the proposal to abolish most jury trials. There was a Tory motion to oppose the government plans on jury trials a few months ago and after a huge whipping effort, most Labour MPs voted it down. Karl Tuner rebelled (this was unnecessary and there were many abstentions).
Labour have now withdrawn the whip from him, which he discovered when it was reported by journalists. So far, so standard for Starmer's approach to party management - see withdrawing the whip for Labour rebels who tried to get rid of the two children benefit cap followed by, within twelve months, the government getting rid of the benefit cap and Starmer calling it his proudest moment in office.
Where it takes a rather nastier turn is that Tuner has been seeking mental health support from the House of Commons authorities. People in Number 10 were briefing to journalists and other MPs that Tuner was "mad" and "nuts" and according to one political editor told him that Tuner was "on suicide watch". Tuner apparently explicitly raised it with Starmer in a private meeting and asked him to tell his team to stop these briefings but they continued. (Slightly reminds me of Gordon Brown, another PM who made a lot of not doing dirty tricks or spin, whose chief spin doctor had to resign after it emerged he was briefing journalists that George Osborne's wife was "mentally unstable".)
It might just be politics but can't help but be struck at the extent to which Starmer has become everything he said he hates about it. Smear campaigns against backbench MPs (and cabinet ministers), regularly chucking underlings with no right of reply under the bus for his mistakes, doing the really annoying thing of just ignoring questions at PMQ and attacking the opposition. Not great when his deputy before the election was describing him as "Mr Propriety".
#9
Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic
Last post by Sheilbh - April 02, 2026, 06:06:19 PMVia Matt Sitman, fantastic W.H. Auden commonplace on Good Friday:
(I really struggle with Auden - and Isherwood actually - never really get on with them when I read them but some fantastic passages and individual poems. Always slightly feel they're less than the sum of their parts.)
QuoteJust as we are all, potentially, in Adam when he fell, so we were all, potentially, in Jerusalem on that first Good Friday before there was an Easter, a Pentecost, a Christian, or a Church. It seems to me worthwhile asking ourselves who we should have been and what we should have been doing. None of us, I'm certain, will imagine himself as one of the Disciples, cowering in agony of spiritual despair and physical terror. Very few of us are big wheels enough to see ourselves as Pilate, or good churchmen enough to see ourselves as a member of the Sanhedrin. In my most optimistic mood I see myself as a Hellenized Jew from Alexandria visiting an intellectual friend. We are walking along, engaged in philosophical argument. Our path takes us past the base of Golgotha. Looking up, we see an all too familiar sight — three crosses surrounded by a jeering crowd. Frowning with prim distaste, I say, 'It's disgusting the way the mob enjoy such things. Why can't the authorities execute people humanely and in private by giving them hemlock to drink, as they did with Socrates?' Then, averting my eyes from the disagreeable spectacle, I resume our fascinating discussion about the True, the Good and the Beautiful.
(I really struggle with Auden - and Isherwood actually - never really get on with them when I read them but some fantastic passages and individual poems. Always slightly feel they're less than the sum of their parts.)
#10
Gaming HQ / Re: The Miscellaneous PC & vid...
Last post by Valmy - April 02, 2026, 06:03:38 PMAll the beauty of my homeland 