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Here's an interesting perspective on the current unrest in Los Angeles that doesn't suit Trump's MAGA agenda given the inconvenient fact that Los Angeles was once part of Mexico. I was there as protesters flooded the streets of downtown Los Angeles, their chants rising over sirens and the buzz of low-flying helicopters. The air was thick with smoke, and the sharp, acrid sting of chemicals burned the throat and made eyes water. Loud bangs echoed off concrete buildings, followed by the thud of rubber bullets hitting pavement and bodies. A wall of L.A. police officers stood unmoving at the edge of the crowd. And above it all, in the chaos and confrontation, was a sea of raised fists and Mexican flags. Not tucked in a pocket or painted on a cheek, but unfurled and waving high, as if daring the city, the country, to see them. We know what came next. The outrage. The backlash. Not discomfort, but anger. Real, visceral anger. For many, seeing the Mexican flag waved during a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement doesn’t just raise eyebrows; it feels like an affront. They ask: If you’re demanding rights in this country, why wave the flag of another? But that flag, at that moment, is not about rejecting the United States. It’s about refusing to be erased. It’s layered with history, memory and defiance. It calls into question who we are as a country and, more important, who we’re willing to include. It forces a reckoning with a national identity far more complicated than many are ready to admit. At a time when immigration is no longer merely debated but wielded as a tool to stoke fear, consolidate power and dehumanize an essential part of our society, and when the political cost of empathy has grown prohibitively high, moments like this don’t just spark controversy; they become crucibles. They force us to confront questions without easy answers: Who truly belongs in this country? And at what cost? Can American identity contain this kind of complexity, or is belonging still tethered to silence, assimilation and the quiet erasure of everything that doesn’t conform? Los Angeles is the perfect place to ask these questions because Mexican identity isn’t foreign there. It’s foundational. This was Mexico once and remains part of the memory, culture, street names, food and families who never crossed a border because the border crossed them. In that context, the Mexican flag isn’t necessarily a symbol of separation or rejection. Sometimes, it’s a claim: We are both. We are Mexican and American, not divided but layered. This is what our identity looks like. But American pluralism has never been as open-armed as we pretend. It often tolerates presence but punishes visibility. Mexican Americans are deemed essential when the country needs labor — in the fields, in hospitals during the covid pandemic, in our homes, in our schools and in the armed forces — but suspicious when they demand dignity, political voice or the freedom to show pride in where they come from. The message has always been: Contribute, but don’t complicate.

Try living in the US and see if you still think it’s so bad over here. You could start with the criminal in the White House and his corrupt Justice Department.

The illegals are harmless, needed to support the economy, and should be granted citizenship and the only law and order that has to be restored is the chaos that Trump is responsible for.

Yes, it's pretty ugly.

America First! Trump will probably claim it was his idea to start with and that he talked his mate, Scotty, into going along with it to stop that French guy, Macron from getting all that money we were giving away.

Newsome has just called Trump a `stone cold liar' and said `you can't work with him, you can only work for him'. He's warned other States that what's happening in California will happen to them too.

Frederick Forsyth died 9 June 2025 aged 86. As well as being an author and journalist, he flew Vampires in the RAF.

But isn't that why the Americans want bases here?

Who watches all those dash cam videos? If you happen to capture that meteorite or UFO or bank robbery in progress then great, but otherwise what’s the point? I don’t really get it.

I totally agree. They are like third rate child actors in a soap opera that has real world consequences unfortunately. Before Trump, it would have been inconceivable that the US President would publicly get involved in personal verbal spats with the world watching on in real time. It just shows how much damage Trump has done to the generally respected Office of the Presidency itself. He has brought it down to the level of a reality TV show.

Looks like the Musk / Trump bromance is on its last legs.

Trump and Musk will be happy to see 8,000 newly unemployed on the streets. Now, if only those two could be replaced by AI, we'd have some real progress.

Deleted as not very relevant.

Despite less than regular maintenance my Vienta went for 450,000km before it finally had to go. The 2008 Aurion looks like it will still go a long time too. Currently up to 220,000km.

Just to show again what a disgusting POS Trump is: Donald Trump shared a conspiracy theory about Joe Biden on Saturday(AFP) President Donald Trump shared a post on Truth Social late Saturday night claiming his predecessor, Joe Biden, was ‘executed’ in 2020 and replaced by a clone. The 78-year-old posted a link on his page without any explanation. The original post, shared by a Trump follower, read: “There is no #JoeBiden - executed in 2020. #Biden clones doubles & robotic engineered soulless mindless entities are what you see. Democrats don't know the difference.” Trump's post comes a day after he said people should not ‘feel bad’ about Joe Biden, further adding that the Democrat is a ‘somewhat vicious person’. “If you feel sorry for him, don’t feel sorry for him, because he’s vicious.” Biden was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. Speaking at an Oval Office press conference on Friday, Trump said ‘what [Biden] did with his political opponent and all of the people that he hurt’ while arguing that his predessesor had ‘hurt a lot of people’. “[Biden’s] been a sort of moderate person over his lifetime. Not a smart person, but a somewhat vicious person, I will say. If you feel sorry for him, don't feel so sorry, because he's vicious. What he did with his political opponent and all of the people that he hurt—he hurt a lot of people, Biden, so I really don't feel sorry for him.”

I read that they want the memo to avoid any liability that they might incur if they had offered it to the US. If the US asked them for it, which no doubt Trump did either directly or indirectly, the US would own the risk.

Thanks! You’ve reached my level!

Thanks for the explanation but I still feel I’m barely hanging onto my overturned rubber raft as it’s left spinning in the wake of your IT speedboat as you disappear into the distance.

I think it shows his inability to comprehend that while he believes he’s the envy of all and the smartest person in the room, the reality is most the rest of the world sees how weak he is. The narcissist can’t see how he can be wrong about anything, which makes him easy to manipulate. Putin and Zelensky and many other world leaders have worked him out long ago but unfortunately he likes Putin and doesn’t like Zelensky.

Sounds good provided it works as advertised and we keep ownership rather than letting the Americans sell it back to us one day. Maybe we won't need those expensive second hand US subs after all.

He was talking to the press at the weekend saying he is very annoyed with Putin for continuing to bomb Ukraine. He apparently can't understand what's got into Putin. He was a good friend of his but now he can't understand why Putin won't stop fighting. What a complete moron.

I’m pretty confident I got 9/10. Don’t know anything about Beyonce unfortunately. The rest were easy.

America is the epitome of the Land of Inequality.

The German population didn’t stand up to Hitler and the Brownshirts and the non-MAGA US population is no better organised unfortunately. The country’s best hope is Trump’s stupidity and incompetence.

Only if the slow moving insulation hasn't suddenly sped off in the meantime.