Non-tennis forum

A page on which to interact with and get to know fellow “Grandstand” users.

27 Comments on Non-tennis forum

    • Yes, it is another crime on Putin’s head. He was a brave man and loved his country. He could have moved away. He was asked why he didn’t leave. That is what Navalny said: because I love Russia.

      I love many things Russian – it’s where my grandfather on my dad’s side was from, and Ukraine is where my dear grandmother was from.

      • I didn’t realise you had this heritage Elizabeth.
        Margot I don’t think you can really compare Bernie and Corbyn although they are both on the left. Bernie is seriously impressive and I know many people here who don’t like Corbyn who admire Bernie. Bernie is a great orator and doesn’t have Corbyn ‘s toxic baggage ie appointing Putin excusing Milne and a straight up Stalinist Murray as his advisors. Plus his love of Hamas and so on.
        Even Conservatives admire Bernie. Rory Stewart met him and said he was impressed by his passion and deep moral seriousness.

          • Oh I agree! What I am arguing is Bernie could have been elected here. Don’t think it’s true this country won’t vote someone on the left.
            Dunno about America. It’s loony tunes about the left but Bernie had good polls against Trump in 2016. He won the primaries in the crucial states Clinton lost which was a warning as to what would happen. The point is that Biden is now so dead in the polls that Bernie would probably do better!

  1. Not to worry, CIA and MI6 have another Navalny in the pipeline.

    Don’t forget, Lenin was sent with 30 revolutionaries (by Germany) in the sealed train from Zurich to Russian Empire to destroy it, which he promptly did with his non Russian comrades who were in charge of Russian communist party.

  2. Amy, the last left wing government was after the 2nd WW when Nye Bevan, a hero of mine, created the NHS. Wilson gov did lots of good reforming stuff and even Blair did good things, eg Sure Start, but since Nye nothing that looks remotely “left” to me. I feel the UK is profoundly conservative, with a small “c.” And, unless we have a revolution, that’s unlikely to change.

    • I would love to see a really transformational government Margot. Using the language of the New Deal in the US maybe so as to avoid words like socialism. Socialist policies are very popular! Large majorities want re- nationalisation of public services..If the Cons did this many would be thrilled.
      Is the UK really that conservative? We have a divided opposition between Labour, Libs and Greens which is electorally rigged towards the Cons.
      Point about Bernie is he has the passion and ability to stand up and ask for real change and win people over. Starker is just an empty suit who couldn’t convince people of anything.
      The old man I was talking to the other day was very well off but absolutely heartbroken about climate change and nothing g real being done and then this stupid credit card nonsense Starker and Reeves come up with. Has no one heard of Maynard Keynes?

  3. FDR was precisely what the country needed when we were in the Great Depression. He taxed the rich and made social reforms that many Republicans and mainstream.
    Dems never wanted to see again! That’s why the likes of Nancy Pelosi feared Bernie, and in all due respect to the great John Lewis civil rights activist (RIP), these folks made sure that Bernie Sanders would not be the Dem’s Presidential nominee. They had been corrupted by money and their ties to big money. Trumpism is worse, but both parties have sucked for a long time; I was going to say since G.W. Bush Jr., but then really, what was Granpa
    Bush Senior doing with his mini-war on Iraq? Reganomics, ha! What a tragic thing for a new RN (me) and hundreds of thousands like me. Reagan killed our ability to offer the financially strapped patients proper healthcare. And Unions couldn’t help us. There was no Union to join. Our hours and benefits were cut.

    I have been out peacefully protesting since 1987. And getting people in Portland registered to vote in the predominantly black, at the time, NE Portland. All these people needed affordable healthcare.

    Amy, now I am ready to talk about the Trumpster “unreachables,” but I have to go. But, I have to mention, it’s again much to with Religion – evangelicals that don’t care because they see Trump as FOX News paints him: sent from God, Trump is, and Jesus is coming soon, so what does it matter? There is no talking to them. They believe Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity and refuse to listen to any other news. Israel and Palestine? Don’t worry about it; there is supposed to be a Great War there, the Holy War. The Bible says so in the last book of the New Testament. Never mind what the Jews say, they will come around in time. And this is the stuff they believe and are hoping for. They don’t care what Putin does to Ukraine or Europe. They are generations removed from that, and wasn’t that FDR the socialist or communist who thought up NATO.

    Oh my. Time is up, Amy. But this has been coming at me from my relations in Spokane since I can remember. It is a thing in the US. Maybe less so in NYC.

    There’s more, more on anti-immigration – something mighty appealing to Trumpers who are anti-immigration.

    I’ve lost my compass living here for over a decade. But I don’t forget who I love across the pond, as you folks say. My mother’s side of the family going way back are French, then British, then East Coast American. That is where I get my little bit of native American. And I hate what European Americans did to the Indians and people of color.

    • A week later, I changed my mind about Bernie’s good for the country in 2024. I still love him, but he isn’t the voice we need now.

      What is happening in Gaza is genocide. Say it, Bernie! We are complicit! Netanyahu is on the same level as Putin. Israelis and Americans have enabled Bibi to become the Criminal he is.

      The one person that would make America even worse than it is is Trump!
      He will help Putin and Bibi and keep the planet in perpetual war, hooked on fossil fuels, and also support giving defense contractors vast sums of money to create weapons of more extensive, better, beautiful mass destruction. Does anyone remember how creepy and excited Trump was? It was his first year of presidency, giving the green light for bombing Afghanistan.

      “The MOAB struck the epicenter of ISIS operations. The GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb, in an undated photo. There are few places where the GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast, as the bomb is officially known, can be used because of the breadth of its impact and the danger it poses to civilians.”

      The New Yorker, April 14th 2017

      In a Trump World, there are no regulations on fossil fuels or the methods of obtaining them; however, the fragile regions and habitats of the planet are impacted. Any regulation made as a safeguard will be deregulated for immediate
      availability and profit. Genocide and atrocities are expected and accepted worldwide.

      For four years, it was one nightmare after another; each day, he was in power.

      For those who got the tax cuts, Trump deserved another term, or maybe Trump should keep the job until he dies and pass the crown to Barron Trump.

      • Completely agree Elizabeth. Would say more but have root canal pain. Seeing dentist tomorrow.
        What is going on in Gaza is absolutely morally abhorrent completely shredding the findings of the ICJ and making a farce of international law. The West cm never recover from this. It’s not just Netanyahu. Israeli society is complicit in the most despicable war crimes. Not one penny more should be given to this country which is imploding morally into the abyss.
        The fact that UNWRA has been defunded leaving Gaza to starve on the basis of some IDF/ Israeli clap trap with no evidence to back it up beggars belief. All because of Biden’s hysterical psychotic relationship with Israel so that the West has gone along with collective punishment of innocent people. Only Ireland, Spain, Norway and Portugal he e stood up to them and carried on funding UNWRA.
        I have also never known such chilling McCarthyism in my lifer and a complete gap between a craven immoral establishment and ordinary people who are furious and in disbelief.
        Time for a revolution. We can’t go on like this anymore.

        • I was wondering yesterday what Biden/ Kirby/ Blinken and Sullivan will say when the mass deaths begin and they push the Palestinian people into Egypt.
          Guessing it’ll still be the Israel has a right to defend itself garbage. Israel isn’t defending itself and it isn’t a war with Hamas. It is collective punishment of a population where 50% are children. Israeli leaders should be in the Hague but so should America.
          This is a gift to Putin and all the despots who are watching Biden destroy the international order and running their hands with glee.

        • amy, I know about root canal pain. Ouch!

          And I should be doing many things to be ready when Wendy arrives on Friday. But I was waiting to see if Rublev would win and if you or Margot had things to say about my thinking and writing.

          There is never enough time! I like to read what that Greek bald guy, Varufakis, says. Not until this morning had I heard why he stepped down from his job in Greece. Finally, I was curious enough to look him up. All I knew was he disappeared. He has been writing books! It’s a fascinating story of why he had to step down as Minister of Finance in 2015. Then I read him describe the effect that the massacre on Oct. 7 had on him. It hit me hard, too. I have not been able to put anything into words. First, I was angry that Ukraine would not ever receive what it needed from America to win its war. And everything is complicated by a more substantial feeling that Trump will win again.

          It starts with a messy revolution.

          • I know quite a bit about Varoufakis. He is very clever and charismatic but on certain subjects he talks crap. His parties in the EU group wouldn’t straightforwardly condemn Putin after the invasion and the East European left parties split from them and had many choice words. Varoufakis talked incredible rubbish just after the invasion saying the EU and NATO should both be dissolved. These are the key organisations Putin wants gone! Varoufakis has huge resentment with the EU for good reason but it’s a bulwark against Putin. If there were no NATO Putin would take over the Baltic s and East Europe.
            That’s the thing about Varoufakis. He is decadent. The East European left dislike him for good reason.
            He is right about techno-feudalism though.

          • Poof! There goes another would-be hero. That’s why I needed to hear from you or Margot. And his story of why he had to step down is what I wanted to believe about him.

            Should I read his book on techno-feudalism? Or is the term
            itself enough? It feels like what’s happening.

            Elon Musk comes to mind🤢
            It’s disgusting to think Muck and his lot are the ones I serve: stupid people – way too many stupid people in high places.

            It’s enough to imagine a revolution!

          • Yes read him on techno feudalism! He is great on that! But don’t take what he says on trust.
            Musk, Thiel and co are revolting.
            I am not one for revolutionary rhetoric but it feels like we are at some kind of crisis point and the people have to stand up and demand their rights and that the system be changed. It only serves money and power and the psychopaths rise to the
            top.

          • I have observed a protest getting violent; Seattle 2003 was the biggest, and I felt angry enough to drive from Portland to join—the vote to go to war on a country that had no weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein was a bad guy, sure enough, but I felt that war was a colossal mistake. It was enough for me to keep looking for OBL. It was a reaction to 9/11, okay. The G-Dub war in Iraq was purely Criminal. George Bush and his daddy, both wars in Iraq, were War Crimes started by hubris and greed. I never was so ashamed to be from the USA. I will not sing an anthem or raise the flag. No country is safe with the leaders we have. What can be done now but Civil War? Many of us felt it would be Civil War on January 6, 2021. Trump will be happy to make it happen.
            It’s no wonder most of the world hates us. Change has to come. King Trump cannot happen! Such a good fit DJT is for Putin, Bibi, North Korea… too many fascists, to name.
            I have to let it go to get ready to move to Oregon. Now, I am under the gun for wasting energy on this topic!

            Ciao, tennis,

          • We can’t go on like this Elizabeth! I know Trump would be death to the planet and democracy but how are the Dems going to run under genocide supporting Biden? Much of the Dem base is rightly furious. They are saying in Michigan that the state is gone. That Arab Americans won’t vote for them. Similar story coming out of Georgia where the pastors say their congregation see this as apartheid which is a reminder of Jim Crow. Israel isn’t really a democracy!
            Who can replace Biden and actually stand for moral values? The De m establishment is corrupt and out of touch.

  4. Amy, I’ve just been reading in the Guardian about a woman who runs a food bank from an ice cream van, and crying. What dreadful times we live in.
    And now Anderson spews racism and his words are gobbled up by racist Tory voters.
    And Sunak goes, “Diddums” it’s not racist. Of course they are spreading division and hatred prior to the election. Where Trump leads..

    • It’s only Labour who get investigated for racism Margot! Although it should be remembered 30p Lee was formerly Labour. The bullies appear in local politics everywhere. Out systems are rigged to protect money and power and are inherently anti -democratic. I don’t see that we have any choice but to overthrow them. Wasn’t it your hero Nye Bevan who said that wealth and privilege will always attempt to overthrow democracy?Feels like we are in the end game with the planet on fire.

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