Monitoring Biden and other Contemporary Events

You need a refresher course on what Freedom means.

I can't resist writing a little more than 'freedom 101' here.



In the Middle Ages, 'freedom' - usually in the plural - was understood in the Roman legal tradition (= Europe) as the absence of constraints.
In this view, freedoms belonged to the individual or group by right and could be inherited, conferred, acquired, usurped and possessed.
Customary law protected, among other things, freedoms that had arisen as a result of forgotten constraints and duties.

In late medieval terminology, 'freedom' was usually equated with privileges (libertates), conferred rights or the exemption from duties.
The variety of meanings of the term was correspondingly high.


"Große Freiheit" (Great freedom) and "Kleine Freiheit" (little freedom) are wellknown streets in the redlight and amusement district of Hamburg (St. Pauli).
At the beginning of the 17th century, the Mennonites from the Netherlands - who were persecuted in their homeland as an Anabaptist movement by the Spanish Inquisition - were granted privileges in (then) Altona by the counts of Schauenburg and later the Danish kings for freedom of trade and freedom to practise their religion.
The area in which they were allowed to settle was called "Freiheit", which has been preserved in the street names "Große Freiheit" and "Kleine Freiheit".

"Freiheit" is a Westphalian form of a minor town, whose rights came very close to those of a city/town with 'town laws'. (The German town law - based on the Magdeburg rights as of 1261 - was used in the founding of many German cities, towns, and villages beginning in the 13th century.)


Disclaimer:
Before the criticism comes: I am of course aware that I have only focused on the term "freedom" as a word of German origin and its use here.
And I have done so imperfectly.

Writing in The Telegraph, Mr Farage said: “I am not and never have been an apologist or supporter of Putin. His invasion of Ukraine was immoral, outrageous and indefensible.

"As a champion of national sovereignty, I believe that Putin was entirely wrong to invade the sovereign nation of Ukraine.

“But that doesn’t change the fact that I saw it coming a decade ago, warned that it was coming and am one of the few political figures who has been consistently right and honest about Russia’s Ukraine war.”

Speaking in a Panorama interview on Friday evening, Mr Farage said: "I stood up in the European Parliament in 2014 and I said, and I quote, ‘there will be a war in Ukraine.’

"Why did I say that? It was obvious to me that the ever-eastward expansion of NATO and the European Union was giving this man a reason to his Russian people to say, ‘They’re coming for us again,’ and to go to war."

Mr Farage, who previously come under fire for saying he admired Vladimir Putin, later said that "of course" the Russian president is at fault for his country's war with Kyiv.

But the Reform UK leader maintained that the "ever-eastward expansion" of NATO and the European Union had given the Kremlin "an excuse" to move troops across the border.

Mr Farage's comments put him at odds with the leaders of other major parties, including the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.

He told LBC: "I would say the comments from Farage are disgraceful and I think everybody who stands for office in our parliament ought to be clear that we stand with Ukraine, that Russia is the aggressor and Putin bears the responsibility for Russian aggression and will be held to account for it.

"We see this on the battlefield, we see it online and we have to be resolute in defending ourselves against Russian aggression and that means standing with Ukraine, defending Ukraine, supporting Ukraine but also supporting our own freedom and democracy and that's why I've aways said we have got an unshakeable commitment to Nato, an unshakeable commitment to freedom and democracy which was won - hard won - by those who came before us."

Earlier this morning, Rishi Sunak said this morning that the comments were "completely wrong" and "play into Putin's hands".

The Prime Minister told reporters: "What he said was completely wrong and only plays into (Vladimir) Putin's hands. "This is a man who deployed nerve agents on the streets of Britain, who's doing deals with countries like North Korea.

"And this kind of appeasement is dangerous for Britain's security, the security of our allies that rely on us and only emboldens Putin further."

'He's bending over in front of him and kissing his boots.'

Labour's Steve Reed says he's 'shocked' by Nigel Farage's Russia remarks and thinks his 'failure to stand up to' Vladimir Putin makes the 'brutal dictator more likely to invade again'. pic.twitter.com/AxXhN3TsCT
— LBC (@LBC) June 22, 2024

Earlier this morning, Labour's Steve Reed told LBC that Mr Farage is "bending over" for Putin.

He told Matthew Wright: "I was absolutely shocked to hear Nigel Farage say what he said. We all saw what Putin did, a brutal, illegal, unprovoked invasion of a sovereign country.

"And instead of standing firm with Western allies, and telling Vladimir Putin no more, there we see Farage kowtowing to the man, bending over in front of him and kissing his boots.

"If you do that to a brutal dictator they will invade again. It's so important we stand up to this kind of behaviour if we want to protect the freedom we enjoy across the Western world."

On Friday, the Home Secretary, James Cleverly, accused Mr Farage of "echoing Putin", while Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary, today said the Reform UK leader was a "pub bore" over the comments.

Speaking in a Panorama interview on Friday evening, Mr Farage said: "I stood up in the European Parliament in 2014 and I said, and I quote, ‘there will be a war in Ukraine.’

"Why did I say that? It was obvious to me that the ever-eastward expansion of NATO and the European Union was giving this man a reason to his Russian people to say, ‘They’re coming for us again,’ and to go to war."

Speaking today, Sunak also responded to Mr Farage's claims that he "does not understand our culture".

The Reform UK leader made the suggestion after the Prime Minister left the D-Day 80th anniversary commemorations in Normandy before the main international event.

Speaking to broadcasters during an campaign visit in London, Mr Sunak said: "I love this country deeply for what it has done for my family.

"My grandparents emigrated here with very little and two generations later I have the enormous privilege of being our Prime Minister.

"And that's why I will work my hardest to repay this country for everything that it has done for my family."

Mr Farage added: "We provoked this war. It’s – you know, of course it’s [Putin's] fault, he’s used what we’ve done as an excuse."

Pushed on comments he made in 2014, when he said that Putin was the leader he admired most, Mr Farage said: "I said I disliked him as a person, but admired him as a political operator because he's managed to take control of running Russia".

Putin has served continuously as either Russian president or prime minister since 1999. Western observers do not consider elections in Russia to be fair.

Mr Farage also faced questions about his party's plans to scrap the net-zero programme.

He said: "Ever since the late 1980s perhaps there's been a bit of hype around this and I think that perhaps is wrong. No wonder we've got people spraying Stonehenge with orange powder, because all we ever talk about is fear rather than solutions."

Asked about comments he made in 2021, when he called then-Prince Charles an "eco-loony", Mr Farage said: "The King, he wasn't the King then, and I can't speak ill of the monarch obviously. But he did used to say ... He did used to say that carbon dioxide was a pollutant, which I thought was a very stupid comment."

The Reform UK leader added: "Right, listen, we've deindustrialised. Our steelworks close, where do they go? India.The same steel gets produced in India under lower environmental standards and then shipped back to us.

"Globally, by closing those steel plants, the amount of CO2 put into the air has gone up. All we've done is to export the emissions.

"Similarly with coal, there's an anthracite mine up in Cumbria that could be opened. We're not going to open it. We are overtaxing the North Sea. The Tories have done this, not Labour."

Mr Farage came out of retirement to stand for Parliament in this election, and Reform has soared in popularity during the campaign, if the polls are to be believed.

Some polls even have Reform ahead of the Conservatives, including one released on Friday, although others are less favourable.

Mr Farage, who has run unsuccessfully for a seat in the Commons seven times, has still set his sights high, telling voters earlier this week that he wants to be Prime Minister by 2029.

Launching the party's manifesto, he said: "Our plan - and this is our first big election as a party - our plan is to establish that bridgehead in parliament and to use that voice to build a big national campaigning movement around the country over the course of the next five years for genuine change."

You've done a great job, Walter, and put a lot more thought and work into it than most here would be willing to do.

It's weird, it was incredibly highbrow at the turn of the century all the way up to the 20s.

It is also incredibly religious, one of the few parts of England where there is a religious right.

This is typical of the populace.

Re: Frank Apisa (Post 7369365)
Quote:

Quote:

You've done a great job, Walter, and put a lot more thought and work into it than most here would be willing to do.

He's the best!

I have wounds all over my body. If I took this shirt off, you would see a beautiful beautiful person. But you would see wounds all over. I’ve taken a lot of wounds I can tell you. More than I suspect any president ever.