Political Discussion

I don't really have a reason to mourn, but it does feel strange. Long as she's been around, it's just felt like a constant that always has been and always would be. Interested to see what this means for the future of the royal family and the UK.

This. Crazy when you start listing people she met in her life, from Marilyn Monroe to Winston Churchill, Frank Sinatra to John F Kennedy, Charlie Chaplin, etc... Only Keith Richard will survive her.
 
Do any of the Aussies or Canadians out there think that Charlie boy on the thrown now makes a republican referendum in your countries much more likely to pass. You’d have to imagine so.
Just found this on the guardian site:
The Queen’s death is a precarious moment for some of Britain’s wider Commonwealth realm, 14 countries of which recognise the monarch as their head of state. In many cases their constitutions state that the Queen, specifically, is the head of state. In these countries, constitutions will need to be amended to refer to her successor. In countries such as Jamaica, where there is a strong independence movement, and Belize, these constitutional changes will also require a referendum, according to Commonwealth experts. This is expected to bring about a moment of political peril for the new monarch, who, after Barbados became independent in 2021, could face the loss of another prominent part of the Caribbean Commonwealth.
Questions are also likely to arise in countries such as Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines over whether the new monarch could lawfully appoint a governor general, if the relevant country’s constitution has not been changed to refer to the King, and continues to refer to the Queen as head of state.

The Queen’s name is also stitched into myriad other laws that will require redrafting, neither an easy nor a cheap process, especially for smaller countries that do not employ their own legislative drafters.

Among the constitutional monarchies, Australia, Canada and New Zealand have measures in place so the new monarch automatically becomes head of state.

Cash, stamps and flags: how royal symbols will now change
 
Do any of the Aussies or Canadians out there think that Charlie boy on the thrown now makes a republican referendum in your countries much more likely to pass. You’d have to imagine so.
I wish, but I don't think enough people care about it one way or the other here for anything of the sort to even come up in national conversation, to be honest.
 
Do any of the Aussies or Canadians out there think that Charlie boy on the thrown now makes a republican referendum in your countries much more likely to pass. You’d have to imagine so.
Probably, especially now we’ve got a new PM in who’s campaigned for a republic before. I think it might happen during my lifetime here.
 
Probably, especially now we’ve got a new PM in who’s campaigned for a republic before. I think it might happen during my lifetime here.

Makes sense, a big part of me is really surprised that it hasn’t already happened in Australia and Canada to be honest.
 
Makes sense, a big part of me is really surprised that it hasn’t already happened in Australia and Canada to be honest.
Government over here for the last 10 years has been right wing, so there is no way it would have been suggested. The Labor government is more likely to push it, but possibly at the end of their 3 year term.
 
Primaries were on September 6 in MA. I thought the political ads would cool down for a couple weeks. Nope. They are already going strong for November's general election.

Watching the Today Show this morning for coverage on the Queen's life, and the commercial breaks are nothing but political ads.

From one candidate saying elect him to do what needs to be done, "fire Pelosi". To calling the democrat candidate a "Chinese Communist Sympathizer".
 
Just saw an ad asking you to tell your senator to vote no on SB 2992.


The ad made the following claims about this bill:
  • It will cost Americans more
  • It will eliminate Amazon's Prime 2 Day shipping guarantee
  • Allow malware to take over our phones
  • Further erode our right to privacy
The ad ended with tell your senatore enough is enough. Americans are already hurting enough.


When it comes to the first 2 bullets, I'm not sure how true they are. But if the 2 day shipping guarantee incentivizes first party purchases over third party purchases on Amazon it could be true.


Being in the tech industry, I know the last two bullets are highly controversial. There is a lot of truth to them. The debate isn't over if those would be the side effects of the bill, but rather over personal responsibility and the need to eliminate "gatekeepers".

By personal responsibility they mean you should know what you are installing on your phone. Don't just go installing everything willy nilly and be responsible and you will be safe. But the issue is, the majority of people don't know what they are doing and will fall for installing malware. When it comes to privacy, these people basically say if you don't want your data tracked and sold, don't install Facebook on your phone. Like that's the obvious answer.

By eliminating gatekeepers, many companies stand to make record profits at the expense of our privacy. This is good for capitalism, which is all about exploiting for profit. But bad for individuals like us. The bill would prevent an Apple from setting and enforcing a privacy standard on their platform, and instead allow companies to manage their own privacy. Laws haven't caught up, so there is nothing to place any checks and balances on these companies. It's scary when you really get a chance to think about it and knowing everything about your life is their product.
 
Yeah... My dad was forced into retirement during the pandemic and at his age he doesn't see starting over again at another company and a lot of places aren't hiring 60+ year old web designers.

And on the other side of that, I've been looking for a therapist and can't find one. All the good ones are not taking new clients and all the ones left have narrow focus on the traumas and issues they address, or are religious in nature. It's a rough landscape for the mentally taxed.

Also, even if you have insurance, you may not have coverage for therapy or an outrageous co-pay or "coinsurance".

For example, with my insurance I can't afford the coinsurance, where I'm responsible for 60% for an in-network therapist and 80% for an out-of-network

.
This is late, but I go to a Catholic counseling center, but it isn't religious therapy. I wouldn't be afraid to check on sliding scale non-profit therapy centers. Some might be abominable "Christian counseling" but they're often secular counseling offered as as a religious calling
Yeah, I imagine many folks in Ireland, Scotland, Canada, etc have some words, and they'd be pretty valid. She was an interesting, complex, and larger than life figure at the very least.

My theory is that interest in the royal family will decline with a deeply uncharismatic figure at its head.
Or maybe folks across the African continent. I always have empathy for immediate families, but I'm much more sympathetic towards the families impacted by the oppression, racism, and genocide she presided over
 
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