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Donald Trump, the road that might not lead to the White House!

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Anyway, I reckon the breakup of America will preserve a continuing outward facade of national unity, while behind that facade there is nothing but increasing unravelling.
 
was reading that war nerd (whoever he really is) advocating in semi-jest that all confedrate officers above the rank of captain should have been hanged after the north won. Which seems a little extreme.
 
was reading that war nerd (whoever he really is) advocating in semi-jest that all confedrate officers above the rank of captain should have been hanged after the north won. Which seems a little extreme.
He's really John Dolan. I don't think he was jesting at all about that one. But then his analysis is filtered through his own personal issues.
 
It will be the will of the people and never again will Americans be called "stupid" or "thickos".

I'm sure there will still be plenty here who are quite happy to continue simply dimissing those who they disagree with as "stupid", "thickos", "racists", "bigots", "little englanders" etc, without any attempt at understanding why they might disagree other than because they're stupid thickos, and then whining about bullying etc when anyone else criticises them for doing so...
 
I'm sure there will still be plenty here who are quite happy to continue simply dimissing those who they disagree with as "stupid", "thickos", "racists", "bigots", "little englanders" etc, without any attempt at understanding why they might disagree other than because they're stupid thickos, and then whining about bullying etc when anyone else criticises them for doing so...

Indeed. I think that point has been made to me, an openly thick individual, oooh, a dozen or more times at this stage.

I've learnt my lesson. And should the leader of the free world turn out to be Trump tomorrow; I shall applaud the will of the people.
 
Pity about the millions (literally) who died as a result of shock "therapy", mind.

I don't know anyone out of my friends from Poland, Latvia, Czech Republic etc who laments the break up of the USSR. Oh, there was one - from Slovakia - but her father was pretty high up in the party & the family enjoyed all the perks that went with it...
 
I don't know anyone out of my friends from Poland, Latvia, Czech Republic etc who laments the break up of the USSR. Oh, there was one - from Slovakia - but her father was pretty high up in the party & the family enjoyed all the perks that went with it...
I know people from Central Asia who regard the later Soviet era as a golden era. This included one guy who adamantly maintained to me that in Soviet times in his former 'stan, they had more freedom of speech than under the new oligarchy.
 
It went pretty well for millions of people who got their independence back.
It is at best a mixed bag. Belarus is a vile dictatorship. Ukraine is a mess. In Chechnya, hundreds of thousands have been killed. Baltic states have joined the EU - not much fun for the large Russian minorities there, mind. Then there's the 'stans'...

Across the board, a savage introduction of 'free markets' has impoverished millions.
 
Well, I guess if you're one of those people who don't want any Polish around their manor, maybe not.
Oh FFS, krtek.

There were loads of Polish guest workers in the west even before 1989 (one of my colleagues is the daughter of a Polish woman who got out the day before martial law was declared in 1981).
 
I don't know anyone out of my friends from Poland, Latvia, Czech Republic etc who laments the break up of the USSR. Oh, there was one - from Slovakia - but her father was pretty high up in the party & the family enjoyed all the perks that went with it...
For one thing, none of those 'friends' are from the former USSR. Oh, except the Latvian.
 
It is at best a mixed bag. Belarus is a vile dictatorship. Ukraine is a mess. In Chechnya, hundreds of thousands have been killed. Baltic states have joined the EU - not much fun for the large Russian minorities there, mind. Then there's the 'stans'...

Across the board, a savage introduction of 'free markets' has impoverished millions.
That's leaving aside the leaking of nuclear weapons technology (which is yet to be played out somewhere in the world), the spread of the most sophisticated global organised crime yet known, and the rise of a new type of authoritarian politics which may yet provide a model for the rest of us (perhaps in diluted form) if it isn't already.
 
It is at best a mixed bag. Belarus is a vile dictatorship. Ukraine is a mess. In Chechnya, hundreds of thousands have been killed. Baltic states have joined the EU - not much fun for the large Russian minorities there, mind. Then there's the 'stans'...

Across the board, a savage introduction of 'free markets' has impoverished millions.

Of course; I apologise if I sound flippant. Such an upheaval will cause immense problems and grief.
 
Well, I guess if you're one of those people who don't want any Polish around their manor, maybe not.
What's all this bollocks.. My dad grew up in communist czechoslovakia (came here in 68 when the Russians rolled in) . He took me to see his hometown a couple of years ago, crappy little place near to Bratislava. Got to meet some old schoolmates of his - who all said that some things are better for sure, but the stunning inequality that has happened was blindingly obvious, not everyone will feel the same way about the before and after, obviously, depends on whether they can afford a flat etc.
 
Alright, the Soviet block, then. "Jurrihahay".
You mean the Warsaw Pact countries, I think.

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the overturning of dictatorships across eastern Europe were great things to have happened. Doesn't mean we also have to be rejoicing over what has come since, which has been far worse than probably most people at the time imagined it would be, particularly in the former Soviet Union itself.
 
You mean the Warsaw Pact countries, I think.

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the overturning of dictatorships across eastern Europe were great things to have happened. Doesn't mean we also have to be rejoicing over what has come since, which has been far worse than probably most people at the time imagined it would be, particularly in the former Soviet Union itself.

Thank you, yes, the Warsaw Pact countries.
 
Alright, the Soviet block, then. "Jurrihahay".
Which wasn't the USSR, and broke up while the USSR was still in existence-and not necessarily destined to break up also.

I do have to smile (in a studiedly cynical way, like the anti-hero in a low-budget film) when people on the internet always have 'friends' to illustrate their point. But don't worry, most people seem to have 'friends' these days.

But what did you do to accrue friends from such a wide array of former eastern block states? Put a sign outside your house saying 'Former oppressed of the Communist empire, do pop in for a cuppa'?
 
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You mean the Warsaw Pact countries, I think.

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the overturning of dictatorships across eastern Europe were great things to have happened. Doesn't mean we also have to be rejoicing over what has come since, which has been far worse than probably most people at the time imagined it would be, particularly in the former Soviet Union itself.
It was always obvious what the outcome was going to be.
 
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