That is unfortunate, many such places. I did think alot of places I saw were extra dumpy, maybe more so from a North American lens, economic problems & old buildings. Dumpy places that are very close to nice places seems common. I'd like to visit rural Scotland more, that area is some of the best pristine land that only few want to go live in, too cold and windy and rainy my Ulster experience, now I'm accustomed to wind-free mildness and sunshine

Prime spot for anyone to visit though. Don't go to one of these tourist traps and instead experience real UK

This post was edited by El1te on Oct 3 2024 11:03am

De-industrialised northern regions after Thatcher crushed the trade unions for coal mining, railways and shipyards.

British people can easily get visas for Australia, NZ, Canada or South Africa. Many young people get a good education here and emigrate for 5-10 years.

It's interesting how things can change so fast. Thatcher treated the coal miners very horribly, crushed their protests and ruined their industry. Now it's the left who are anti-coal while the right wants to, in general, return to domestic coal & energy production.

When Putin threatens nuclear attacks, is he threatening the area in which there is ongoing war, or is he threatening an attack on US soil?

Russian nuclear doctrine was updated few weeks ago to include: 1) attacks against Belarus equal attacks against Russia and 2) a clarification that existentially threatening attacks by non nuclear nations, supported by nuclear nations are now viewed as a pretext to retaliate against both the attacker and their supporters with nuclear weapons (eg proxy supported by benefactors are viewed together as attackers).

This means that conventional war with a non-nuclear nation eg Ukraine will not provoke nukes, however an existential threat from e.g. an army of 5m Ukrainians marching on Moscow riding Abrams tanks and shooting ATACMS towards Russian nuclear infrastructure can be used to nuke centers of command beyond Ukraine.

This has already happened and Russia did not retaliate: https://responsiblestatecraft.org/ukraine-russia-nuclear-radars/

PS: I'm assuming Belarus section might hint that Russians are preparing to absorb Belarus when Lukashenko dies. No other allied nation gets such nuclear guarantees from Russia.

This post was edited by Malopox on Oct 3 2024 12:41pm

I can't imagine that nuking the US would be in Putin's interest. That is assured self destruction is it not?

I think the media paints Putin as a wildcard but I think he is far too rational to actually start a nuclear war.

Nuking United States for now will lead to Mutually Assured Destruction and everyone everywhere dies. Either right away or during the nuclear winter that will follow as particular matter from cities burning from nuclear fires will cover the sky for several years. Both US and Russia have enough nukes to kill everything on our planet many times over.

If we see energy shields / laser anti air systems or some other bizarre scifi technology emerging in 21st century that is able to intercept MIRVs launched from mobile ICBMs / submarines, people might try their chances at nuking each other.

Watch Threads (1984), great UK movie about a possibility of such an event.


This post was edited by Malopox on Oct 3 2024 01:24pm

Thatcher wasn't against coal, she was anti-union.

But truth be told, a lot of the industries which were dealt a lethal blow by the Iron Lady were already struggling and on the verge of going out of business to begin with. Chances are that even without Thatcher, most jobs in British coal and shipbuilding would have been lost.

She was against domestic coal acquisition and subsidies, and pro importing coal from overseas (globalism), where the unions were standing in her way

Which is the more ruthless pure capitalist position, which is now degraded and viewed correctly as a bad thing by the new right

This perspective now puts her very sharply at odds with the new conservative movement

They were struggling because of globalism, because it was cheaper to exploit some foreigners instead, while conveniently ignoring the long-term perils and f*ck the wellbeing of your people. UK I suppose did not have much of a choice because they were at the mercy of US policy with respect to globalization, which in hindsight was a colossal failure that is now an existential threat to our nations, peoples, & way of life

This post was edited by El1te on Oct 3 2024 03:19pm

Yesterday was the anniversary of Elon Musk’s tweet suggesting a resolution of the Ukranian crisis. 3 out of 4 proposals of Elon are now de facto completed.

Ukranian neutrality will probably be achieved once Ukranians will realize NATO is not coming as the likes of our resident couch NAFO warmongers are afraid to die defending Ukraine from the evil Russkies on the battlefields in Ugledar.

Was a million dead Russians and Ukranians worth it?