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Don't insult my intelligence. I've got two degrees myself, one in History and Politics and an M.A. in History. I don't throw my education around, it's not necessary to do so. I'm perfectly aware of Godwin's Law and assumed that would be the thing to pick up on. I do not expect American democracy to crumble overnight, but if you think everything is tickety-boo with US institutions at this moment in time, then I would suggest you look a bit closer. Public trust in their institutions is at an all-time low, misinformation is rampant. The divide between left and right has been larger before but the animosity and distrust that both sides feel towards each other is worse than it's been in years - remember in other significant crises like Watergate, even the majority of Republicans believed Nixon was guilty. The partisanship that emerged in the 90s with Clinton and Gingrich has been ramped up by perceived, or real, injustices, particularly since the 2008 financial crash. In 2008, Obama was elected and Palin was unleashed onto the national stage. In 2010, the Tea Party became a political force. By 2012, Birtherism was a thing, despite Obama releasing his entire birth certificate. In 2016, Trump won the Republican nomination and then the presidency. In 2020, Trump supporters refuse to accept the result of the election and storm the Capitol Building. Trump isn't disappearing any time soon. Is that not a pattern? He'll have plenty to say post-presidency, whether that's with his TV Network or wherever. His supporters won't disappear, because this isn't just about Trump. It's about QAnon, it's about anti-vaxxers and coronavirus. It's about all these myriad of reasons why people feel violated or disenfranchised. You're right, the United States will most likely survive. It is a 'very resilient country with a strong democracy and strong institutions'. But it still had to fight a Civil War 150 years ago (the flag of the secessionists made it into the Capitol Building for the first time in history today). It also survived the 1960s, but not without the death of a President, a frontrunning candidate and 2 iconic civil rights leaders. I wouldn't consider that a particularly stable democracy. I sincerely hope that this is the watershed. The dying of the light. The point where those who have been ambivalent about Trump and his antics draw the line and say 'no more'. But the fact it got to this point is itself damning. I wish I could just laugh it off and dismiss it as you do. But haven't we laughed off enough in the past decade plus and ended up at this point?

Agree with a lot of what you say on here but I do wonder just how much longer people need to calm down and there's nothing to see here. The President of the United States has instigated a riot that has resulted in the occupation of the Legislature of the United States and the death of a woman. Biden may well be inaugurated as expected but these people and their anger doesn't just disappear overnight, particularly when the exiting President is still encouraging them and feeding their paranoia.In October, the FBI arrested men plotting to kidnap the Governor of Michigan and put her on trial for treason. Today, armed gangs have been seen outside the count in Georgia for the two Senate Special Elections, causing state election officials to evacuate. This is not normal and it shouldn't be dismissed. The Munich Beer Hall Putsch was similarly ridiculous and unsuccessful, but the long term consequences were dire.

I wondered the same thing, so I emailed The Pew Research Center asking about it and they have in fact just replied. "We are an American institution (that's why we can't spell center) and Donald Trump just bought Greenland (technically, the transaction is still in process), therefore its current status as an independent state is irrelevant going forward. Also, the blue felt-tip ran out".

Gerald Ford. (Succeeded both Spiro Agnew as vice president and Richard Nixon as president when they respectively resigned).

They are clearly no more than some random twats. The problem is there could be millions of random twats in the US and one of them is even president, so thath starts to be dangerous.

And there was a great wailing and gnashing of teeth - how many others (cos I'm outing myself here) have a DDP joker riding on this pick?

He has announced his latest MMI scan shows a significant reduction in the tumour.

A son's grief! When he says "last night" obvs means January 6. And it wouldn't be time travel, it would be a "happening," baby!

I go looking for vaguely thematic movies with sufficiently famous cast to be certain to obit, with the probability of dying being more or less a tertiary consideration. Which definitely shouldn't be a winning strategy, nor have done as well as it did in the first round.

Is he Jewish?

Trumps Twitter account locked for 12 hours. The Twitter account of a President. Locked. TWITTER. ACCOUNT. PRESIDENT. LOCKED. Not a 12 year boy. Not a homophobic middle aged fat basement dweller. No. DONALD. THE FUCKING PRESIDENT. TRUMP. Thank you Twitter. But keep it locked forever, please? Source:

Not a name I suggested but it seems that a certain illness has put an end to her acting career: https://www.abendblatt.de/kultur-live/article230484722/Filmfest-Hamburg-Rainer-Werner-Fassbinder-Kino-Film-Margit-Carstensen.html

Why is it "no-data"-ing Greenland? It's a devolved constitutional monarchy.

Peter Rowe, a former member of Cornish singing group Fisherman's Friends (wiki), died Tuesday 5th aged 88. Judging by a quick Google they have quite a following. As for me, never bloody heard of them.

Aye, so...no pressure but is there owt out there in English, only asking because it makes a difference: 9 - An "obit" in the context of the Deathrace is any news report in English from a reliable source. Such sources include - but are not limited to - UK national press, UK national broadcast organisations, foreign press and broadcast organisations with an English language thread to their communication, trade press in English, local news organisations reporting in English and coverage in specialist online sites, such as those monitoring the well-being of super-centenarians. Where dispute arises over the qualifying nature of a news source for obit purposes MPFC's decision is final. But he wants fast and furious competition and is generally very amenable to low hanging dead pool fruit of all varieties. On second thoughts, scrub that - this cnuts been dead for weeks!! https://www.time24.news/2020/12/genival-lacerda-died-this-morning-victim-of-covid-19-boato.html Carlo Tognoli now in play for Banana

There may have been a murrder ! Taggart actor Brian Cowan has been found dead at 58 https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/tributes-paid-former-river-city-23274928 PS he wasn't murdered.I just said that because it used to be Taggarts catch phrase...

Idiots just broke into a federal building with a lot of police presence. As far as I am aware they were in the same room as Mike Pence. Even yesterday you would of said thats never going to happen. Getting near a heavily guarded human is possible for an intellegent person (OK that rules out 95% of Trump supporters)

What a piece of work...! Trying to setup a coup of the greatest country & in the process destroying the credibility and causing chaos & violence... he has always admired autocrats & wants so badly to be one because he is a very shallow hedonistic petty narcissist. This man is really a joke. Wish he’d just “go home” and stay there!

Hardy Krüger (1928) & Arik Brauer (1929) ought to be on next year's list.

I hereby award Corporal Spiny the DL Old Crem Commemorative Medal for Gallantry for his brave yet suicidally foolhardy mission of starting this thread.

Albert Roux gets me to 15.

He's not saved anyone. The money he raised went to NHS Charities Together, not directly to the NHS. A very worthy cause, and at least it's a legitimate charity, the money may go towards making waiting areas nicer and that sort of thing, but it's not going to pay for a MRI scanner or extra ICU nurses.

This year's DDP has 514 teams in it (all now entered into database so text pad can go away for another year :-)) Still 643 unrecognised celebs in the entries since Christmas to wade through and other bits and bobs. For those of you that have picked slightly iffy notability picks msc and reptile are wading through these this week but this exercise won't be complete until the weekend at the earliest I would imagine so you may still be advised that some of your picks have not been accepted and that your subs are in play. Thanks for your patience everybody whilst we complete this process. Cheers, GUN