Very good news IMO

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I really like Donald Tusk. He did his best for the UK in very difficult circumstancesā€¦

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I watched this at the time and he was excellent. I donā€™t know if itā€™s floating around the Web somewhere still.

He was a great President of the European Council. I was sorry when his term came to an end.

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Possible future hope for Poland? And would any subsequent Tusk success isolate OrbĆ”n in Hungary? Certainly, Central Europe is currently in a delicate balanceā€¦

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Even better news :slightly_smiling_face:

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Just what the UK needs, a purge of the dross in power. Sadly Starmer is no Tusk.

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Bringing Poland back into the European fold.
Hungary please follow this example.

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Indeed, but not just yet. They are the only ones in the EU calling out (for all the wrong reasons) Zelenskyyā€™s jingoistic disillusion. Crimea is gone and a large part of Donbas is gone, and when itā€™s gone itā€™s gone. So stop wasting lives on trying to get it back.

To quote some Republican politician (Heaven help me) what is another $64B going to achieve that the first $100B didnā€™t? Putin, like Stalin before him, will throw as many Russians into the meat grinder as it takes. A year ago (if not before) Mr. ā€œstrutting the World stageā€ Zelenskyy should have twigged (as Bojo would say) that, and sued for a peace based on the remaining part of Ukraine joining NATO. Now, as the much vaunted offensive fails against well entrenched Russian forces and the World focus has shifted Zelenskyy is goosed IMHO. If Trump gets in heā€™s super goosed.

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If Trump gets in weā€™re all ā€‰super goosed.

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The US certainly, but Europe Iā€™m not so sure. I think Biden has been a disaster too, a greater disaster than Trump in his first term. So now I think a Trump or Biden second term will be bad, just in different, impossible to predict ways. There is currently no good option for POTUS :frowning:

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Now you are just going too far :face_with_peeking_eye:

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Well maybe my old memory is fading, but I canā€™t remember any international disasters when Trump was in the White house. Since then weā€™ve had Afghanistan, Ukraine and Gaza, all three totally mismanaged IMHO. Trump is a horrible human being, and Biden a decent one, and I wouldnā€™t expect Trump to have done any better, but Iā€™m not sure he would have done any worse. Maybe having an unpredictable nut job in the Whitehouse had some deterrent value.

Anyway, if he does get in heā€™ll initially be very busy purging, getting revenge and making America ghastly again.

They are both American, when you have Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq on your recent rƩsumƩ what do you expect.

To be fair, that was setup by Trump leaving Biden with little choice.

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One wonders how much that is true of Ukraine as well.

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Thatā€™s true. But the retreat was a shambles and the impact on women unconscionable :frowning: Iā€™m not the POTUS so I donā€™t know what could or should have been done, but I do know something should have been. Some form of quid pro quo with the Taliban to protect the right to work and an education :frowning:

Meanwhile, as US weapons slaughter the innocent, US ambassadors celebrate the ā€œfestiveā€ season. May they choke on their mulled wine.

Varadkar says TDs must ā€˜make up own mindsā€™ on attending US ambassadorā€™s event

People Before Profit calls for boycott of ambassadorā€™s reception over US refusal to back Gaza ceasefire

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A man and a boy push a wheelchair carrying sacks of flour that their family received from a warehouse of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said he will not be attending a Christmas event at the US ambassadorā€™s residence in the Phoenix Park on Tuesday night due to a ā€œlong-standing and prior commitmentā€.

Mr Varadkar was responding to calls from People Before Profit (PBP) for all TDs to boycott the event, which they have described as ā€œsick and disgusting against the background of what is happening in Gazaā€.

Speaking in the DĆ”il this afternoon, PBP TD Richard Boyd Barrett said the US had taken the ā€œutterly shameful, inhumane decisionā€ to veto a resolution by the UN Security Council to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Mr Boyd Barrett said recent reports have also indicated that US president Joe Biden has asked Congress to support the sale of 45,000 new tank shells to Israel ā€œfor use in their Merkava tanks for use in Gaza, to blow to bits more children, more women, more men, more schools, more hospitals, more water infrastructureā€.

The DĆŗn Laoghaire TD said while Christian leaders in Bethlehem had cancelled Christmas, it was a ā€œdifferent attitudeā€ to the US ambassador in Ireland, who had invited TDs to attend tonight to celebrate ā€œthe joys of the seasonā€.

ā€œI mean, what joy is it they intend to celebrate?ā€ he said. ā€œReally, I cannot understand - is it how effective their shells are in killing people, in blowing up schools and hospitals?ā€

Mr Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach if he believed it was appropriate for any member of the DƔil to attend and appealed to him to boycott the event.

In response, Mr Varadkar said TDs and senators were free to ā€œmake up their own mindsā€ on such matters.

ā€œI wonā€™t be attending myself. I have a long standing and prior commitment to attend the Christmas carol service in the seminary in Maynooth this evening,ā€ he said.

ā€œThatā€™s the event that I will be attending but obviously itā€™s up to other people to decide what they want to do this evening.ā€

The Taoiseach said the current crisis in Gaza was ā€œunbearableā€ and it was difficult to know ā€œwhen we last saw military suffering on this scaleā€.

ā€œPerhaps it was the Iraq war, perhaps it was the war in Syria,ā€ he said. ā€œSome people suggest not since the Vietnam war have we seen such violence being inflicted on a civilian population.ā€

Mr Varadkar said Ireland ā€œdeeply regretsā€ the failure of the UN Security Council to agree a resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the protection of civilians and compliance with international law, the immediate and unconditional release of hostages and urgent humanitarian access.

He said Ireland was among a group of European countries calling for a ceasefire and would make that case in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.

ā€œWe support further sanctions on Hamas, but also the imposition of sanctions on violent settlers in the West Bank,ā€ he said.

ā€œWe have called for a review of the EU Israel Association agreement, taking into account the human rights clause and weā€™re also providing additional funding for an International Criminal Court, which is the body that could issue arrest warrants, but they must be allowed to carry out their investigation without political interference

Trump was/is almost certainly in Putinā€™s pocket, he bragged there would have been no war in Ukraine under his watch but most observers believe that would be because he would simply have thrown Zelensky under a bus.

Would you really want an emboldened Putin marching through Ukraine to Polandā€™s border?

Trump has also made it very clear what he will try to do (and with Republican backing probably succeed in doing) - almost certainly pardon himself, lock up key opponents, close the Mexican border, increase oil production, pull out of NATO, deport Muslims, increase tariffs, removing transgender rights amongst other measures.

Trump is venal and holds grudges - it will be like Johnson on steroids (actually Trump47 will be like Trump45 on steroids).