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Post by fumobici on Nov 11, 2016 4:25:23 GMT
Disagree in places, but this Englishman's rant mostly nails it.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2016 11:54:01 GMT
I was reading in today's paper all of the things that President Trump has in store for his people and the world.
1. Climate change is a Chinese fraud to take jobs away from Americans. The Paris Agreement will be cancelled. (Slight problem: it cannot be cancelled for 3 years and only after giving a one-year notice.) The Clean Power Plan will be thrown out and the Keystone XL pipeline will be built. Fossil fuels are back in favour -- coal, gas, oil, and schist and let's get those offshore rigs drilling again. Credit for renewal energies will be cancelled.
2. He is going to spend a trillion dollars on commuter rail projects, highways and airports. Since he is lowering taxes, it will be fine to increase the national debt, which now only stands at 19.6 trillion dollars. The 0.1% richest Americans will receive an average tax cut of a million dollars each, which is about 19%. The rest of the country will be happy to receive a tax cut of 7%. Social services will be cut to save money, though. He still needs to get some cash, though, so treasury bonds will be issued, which the Chinese will buy.
3. America First. Everybody will buy American and that foreign stuff won't be needed anymore, particularly from the biggest trading partners -- China, Canada, Mexico, Japan and Germany. Unfortunately, most American products are full of imported components and Big Business will not want its supplies cut off.
4. Obamacare will be cancelled immediately. The Affordable Care Act has only been going for 2 years, so it will be easy to get rid of. It was a Communist plot to oblige Americans to get health insurance and to keep fees moderate. So what if 22 million Americans lose their health coverage? Even with Obamacare, 8.6% of the population still had no health coverage.
5. Build the Mexican-paid wall along the southern border. It already exists along 1000 kilometres so there are only 2000 more kilometres left to build. Of course, it was only built in the easy places so far, so it will be a lot of fun to build in canyons and over cliffs, not to mention very scenic. And the time has come to send the 11 million illegal immigrants home. Let's not even talk about Muslims trying to visit the country.
6. NATO countries will have to pay their own way, especially "the little ones that nobody has ever heard of." Russia is Trump's friend, so there is no danger anyway. If Russia decided to take back Latvia or Estonia, nobody will even notice. In the meantime, Trump is going to "bomb the shit out of ISIS" possbily within 30 days. He is going to confiscate both their money and their oil. I kind of thought the oil belonged to somebody else, but maybe I'm wrong.
7. Women who abort must be punished. The programme of the Republican Party states very clearly that human life is sacred from the moment of conception and that there should not be any abortions for any reason. The new Supreme Court should be able to overturn Roe vs. Wade very easily and send the country back to 1973. One of the possible court nominees is Bill Pryor, who said that the decision in 1973 was "the worst abomination in the history of law." In any case, 17 states increased restrictions on abortions in 2016, so Trump is just riding the wave of public opinion.
That's all that I have been able to study for the moment, but I'm sure that President Trump will come up with more ideas.
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Post by lagatta on Nov 11, 2016 14:35:48 GMT
But there are also the social effects, whether or not they manage to pass all their reactionary legislation: Racist incidents reported in wake of Trump victory www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/us-election/attacks-on-us-minorities-reported-in-wake-of-trump-victory/article32803369/fumobici, I don't disagree with the gist of that rant, but a) the mainstream Democratic Party is by no means on the left, and I find Hillary considerably more rightwing than Obama. Of course Teresa May - or Stephen Harper, would NEVER DARE to speak of abolishing the National Health for example. Sure, they hollow it out, but so do Blairites. I also do think that Ms Rodham-Clinton, little as I like her or her corporate Newspeak, was subjected to greater scrutiny as a woman, just as Obama was subjected to that as a person of African descent. But the Clintonites attacked Sanders supporters as "Bernie bros", though there was little evidence that more young men than young women were among his partisans, or that they launched misogynist attacks on Rodham Clinton.
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Post by chexbres on Nov 11, 2016 17:09:07 GMT
Trump's latest:
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realdonaldtrump Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair! 3:19 AM - 11 Nov 2016 59,743 59,743 Retweets 184,252 184,252 likes
Then somebody apparently slapped him silly - but it took about 7 hours: Donald J. Trump ✔ @realdonaldtrump Love the fact that the small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country. We will all come together and be proud! 12:14 PM - 11 Nov 2016 34,004 34,004 Retweets 116,248 116,248 likes
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Post by lagatta on Nov 11, 2016 21:17:00 GMT
I guess his minder finally woke up after the post-victory party.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2016 21:42:04 GMT
On all of the news reports since his election, he looks a bit shell shocked and does not smile at all anymore. Maybe he's not so stupid after all.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 11, 2016 21:56:25 GMT
Or maybe that's the regular expression on the face of a person planning gulags and purges.
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Post by mich64 on Nov 12, 2016 1:39:42 GMT
I read today that the Trump University lawsuit is to go ahead as scheduled beginning on November 28th. From what I understood, Mr. Trump's representatives appeared in Court to motion Judge Curiel to not allow any statements made about Mr. Trump during the Presidential campaign from being mentioned in the fraud trial. Judge Curiel declined and also said the trial will begin as scheduled and advised (as most Judges do) both sides to come to terms of a settlement before it begins.
One reporter indicated that Mr. Trump wanted to have this lawsuit heard after his Inauguration and suggested that he then could pardon himself if found guilty of fraud. I can not imagine him not settling and risking being found guilty of fraud but I also read that there are 75 other lawsuits (that number includes ones he initiated as well) pending and if he settles this one, he will be pressured to settle others even if he could win them.
When I read this report today I wondered, if there are actual audits being done on his personal income taxes, what if fraud charges result from those audits? Will he be able to pardon himself if that happens as well? I do not understand how he can pardon himself, is this accurate?
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Post by chexbres on Nov 12, 2016 9:27:18 GMT
I don't think self-pardon is an option to anyone besides a Russian dictator or a king. Just shows how little information this pretender to the throne has access to.
Trump claims that he cannot release his tax information because it is under audit, but there is absolutely no law prohibiting him to keep this information private. One of his sons let it slip that he is protecting his children's financial interests by keeping his taxes a secret.
I'm really glad - and hopeful - that Trump will be found guilty of the many instances of fraud he has practiced during his lifetime.
Trump stated in an interview that his favorite film of all time is "Citizen Kane". And though he wasn't sure what the significance of "Rosebud" meant, he kind of liked the way it sounded.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2016 11:39:14 GMT
After the initial shock, a lot of the press in other countries seems to be finding that what happened is a valuable lesson to the rest of us who have elections coming up with populism on the rise. "Don't become complacent, there is still time to fight this, watch out for sneaky tactics and never forget how easily desperate people will believe lies and hollow promises!"
My paper has also been saying that this is not the end of the world, that the United States is a democratic country, that there are checks and balances, and that most blowhard politicians rarely carry out everything that they said they would do.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 14, 2016 15:15:59 GMT
"rarely" carry out everything -- but they sometimes do, as 20th century history alone tells us. Sure, he probably cannot (or never intended to) carry out everything, but the mere fact of his election is damage enough.
The admittedly pompous and often clueless NYTimes is glumly speculating that LePen now has more of a chance of being elected. I can't help but think that has more than a little sullen air of "See -- Europe is no better than we are".
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Post by fumobici on Nov 14, 2016 18:52:48 GMT
The NY Times and the consolidated American press almost to a one were probably the main reason there will be a President Trump. After being played like fiddles in the early primary campaign, giving Trump the all the free press he desired, they later in the primary campaign then panicked, abandoned their role as objective journalists, and became shameless Hillary Clinton cheerleaders, putting their thumbs on the scale of the primary process and helping the weaker candidate secure the nomination and setting the table for a Trump victory in November. Trump needed Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic nominee to win, and the press were only too happy to oblige.
I have almost nothing remaining but contempt for the mainstream American press. They are not only completely non-objective and partial, always skewing their message to support the status quo of the handful of billionaires who own them all, but also demonstrably clueless and misinformed, apparently being stupid enough to believe their own bullshit they are paid to spread. American political journalism is today 90% propaganda and deliberate misinformation.
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Post by chexbres on Nov 15, 2016 21:53:49 GMT
I'll agree to this to some extent, but would put much more of the blame on the "freedom of the internet" which accounts for the astonishing amount of rampant fake news. Apparently, nobody bothers to check to see if there really is a "Denver Guardian" newspaper (there isn't), before repeating some outrageous story - which then goes viral. Then, if this is repeated 250,000 times or more, the outrageous story becomes "fact".
Facebook and Zuckerberg don't believe this is a problem, and don't believe in censorship.
Google is identifying the fake news providers and removing their ads (and ad revenue) to put a stop to this.
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Post by lagatta on Nov 16, 2016 11:12:38 GMT
It's a huge problem. Blocking fake and often slanderous news isn't censorship.
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Post by onlyMark on Nov 16, 2016 16:39:46 GMT
"The tragic truth is that America’s millennials are a bunch of phone-addicted, selfie-obsessed, hashtagging, snapchatting, kale-munching, twerking, lazy, whining, ill-informed, politically correct, cossetted narcissists who find absolutely everything mortally offensive and believe there are 165 ways to sexually identify.
So suck it up you squealing softies, get back to work or college, and if you want to win next time, get a candidate who’s a winner not a loser."
Piers Morgan.
Accurate?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 16, 2016 18:25:26 GMT
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Nov 16, 2016 19:55:04 GMT
I am not in a position to criticise after BREXIT..Brex-Mageddon....Brexodus...but I do worry that we are well on the way to the decline and fall of the west. It wouldn't seem quite so odd if Mr Trump had held political office somewhere...has he? I know nothing. Our media is notoriously biased and manipulative so I tend not to trust our newspapers and tv news (even 'Auntie BBC'). Good Luck United States.
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Post by mossie on Nov 16, 2016 20:28:29 GMT
Quite right Cheery, and Mark has got it right as well, but what he puts could equally well be applied to this country. We have no discipline or backbone so the lunatics are taking over the asylum big time.
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Post by fumobici on Nov 16, 2016 23:07:32 GMT
"The tragic truth is that America’s millennials are a bunch of phone-addicted, selfie-obsessed, hashtagging, snapchatting, kale-munching, twerking, lazy, whining, ill-informed, politically correct, cossetted narcissists who find absolutely everything mortally offensive and believe there are 165 ways to sexually identify. So suck it up you squealing softies, get back to work or college, and if you want to win next time, get a candidate who’s a winner not a loser." Piers Morgan. Accurate? I'd call it a big load of bollocks personally, but I could say the same about almost anything Piers Morgan said. The young people I know are none of those things and are definitely less lazy and better informed than most people my age are and the people my age and older mostly sit in chairs in offices all day playing work politics, doing meetings, giving orders, and shuffling useless papers about while the younger people do all the actual work. We're pretty pathetic if you look at it objectively, we were the ones who voted Trump in. The millenials went overwhelmingly for Sanders. The US would be in far better political shape if people over forty such as myself weren't allowed to vote at all.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 16, 2016 23:39:35 GMT
The US would be in far better political shape if people over forty such as myself weren't allowed to vote at all. I would really like to believe that, but do you really think that the younger generation can understand the concerns and needs of old people?
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Post by rikita on Nov 16, 2016 23:45:02 GMT
well, i suppose it has always been like that, that (some) older people think younger people are silly, just because they don't understand some of the things they do ... and that some people think they can ascribe the same characteristics to a whole generation (or a whole gender or race)
and anyway, i don't see anything bad with eating kale or being politically correct or identifying as what you feel you are, rather than just trying to fit into one of two pre-defined boxes or being a softie ...
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Post by onlyMark on Nov 17, 2016 6:40:41 GMT
There are a lot of good things about the 'youth of today', however, their attitude of being mortally offended by proxy, their obsession with celebrity culture, their 'safe spaces' but worst of all their sense of entitlement of feeling they deserve by right a lot more than they are willing to work for, that's what gets my goat. The world would have to change dramatically for the old not to complain about the young. Ever since the Neanderthal called "Uugh" told his wife that their son "Eag" is a no-hoper, the older generation have done so. However now I am the older generation I see their point.
And that has what has happened with Brexit and with Trump - thousands, if not hundreds and hundreds of thousands, of the young, the Millennials, felt it was their right to get the result that they want without putting the work in to get it - the work simply enough being to go and vote, nothing more. Yet they couldn't even be bothered to do that because the relationship between effort and result means little to them. They feel they should always get the results, the job, the money, the girl, the boy, the benefits, the rights, the promotion, the respect and do bugger all to earn it. Many of the older folk didn't vote either and should also be ashamed of themselves.
Now they are bleating, crying 'foul', trying to overturn results, unable to believe it went against them as their sense of entitlement cannot process they didn't get what they want even though in their minds they deserved it, even though they did sod all to get it. Whether I agree or disagree with either result is of no matter, but the rebellious poke a stick in the face of authority part of me enjoys what has happened. I'd like to think 'lessons have be learned' as they say. I'd like to think 'once bitten, twice shy' will influence the complainers next time, but the cynical realist part of me is pessimistic. A pessimist is after all nothing more than a realistic optimist. Many have had a proverbial slap round the head to wake up. But I bet the only result is not that they will change their entitled ways, more that they will bleat on that they have been offended, their human rights have been infringed, they have no safe space to go to, they are being got at, it's not fair, someone should do something about it, it's someone else's fault and then go off and suck their thumb. But first, they'll have to check what really important people like Kim Kardashian, Beyonce, Ryan Reynolds et el are saying and then follow them.
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Post by bjd on Nov 17, 2016 7:12:59 GMT
Whether or not American voters got what they deserved by not turning out to vote is one thing.
My problem with a USA headed by Trump is that the States is a hugely influential country and stupid decisions taken there can have so many international implications.
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Post by rikita on Nov 17, 2016 8:31:58 GMT
i don't know what you mean by offended by proxy and safe spaces, but most young people i know don't care much about celebrities and see it as normal to do various internships for free or very little money, during which they work as hard as anyone being paid
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Post by onlyMark on Nov 17, 2016 16:15:42 GMT
Many do good rikita, for sure, but why are celebrities always now in the news? They are famous for being famous, that is all and it isn't the middle aged and older people who have made that culture like it is, is it?
Being offended by proxy is where person A says something about person B. Person B may or may not find it offensive, but that doesn't seem to matter anymore because person C, who has nothing to do with it at all, will say it is offensive and will be offended on behalf of person B even though it was not aimed at them nor is anything about them. It may sound a good thing and protective, but as with this and political correctness, it has diversified into the realms of ridiculousness.
Imagine person A saying something about person B. Person B doesn't find this offensive, but person C thinks it is and will protest/prosecute about it. This appears to happen all too often and nobody seems to ask person B if they were bothered. The steamroller starts solely because person C, who is not connected nor has anything to do with it, says in their opinion it is offensive. There are too many person C's throwing their weight about.
Safe spaces - initially a good idea until it became ridiculous. A safe space is - "A place where anyone can relax and be fully self-expressed, without fear of being made to feel uncomfortable, unwelcome or challenged on account of biological sex, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, cultural background, age, or physical or mental ability; a place where the rules guard each person's self-respect, dignity and feelings and strongly encourage everyone to respect others."
Seems ok until, for example, at Brown University a female speaker was to appear and talk but some of her views were controversial so the University set up a 'safe space' - "The room was equipped with cookies, coloring books, bubbles, Play-Doh, calming music, pillows, blankets and a video of frolicking puppies, as well as students and staff members trained to deal with trauma."
Further as a result of Trump winning - "The University of Michigan Law School announced a ”post-election self-care” event with “food" and "play,” including “coloring sheets, play dough (sic), positive card-making, Legos and bubbles with your fellow law students.”
Yale University had a 'group scream'.
"At Tufts, the university offered arts and crafts, while the University of Kansas reminded students that there were plenty of “therapy dogs” available. At other schools, exams were canceled and professors expressed their sympathy to traumatized students."
There are also people saying Trump's win was on a par with 9/11. They do not have their feet on the ground is for me a polite way to put it. The win rubbed up a lot of people the wrong way, but likening it to a terrorist attack in New York where 3000 people died and twice that number were injured is utter fantasy. And......... don't start me on what are now being called "Trigger warnings". FFS.
Rikita, you are a sensible person, also your nationality promotes sensibility (generally), although there may be some overlap, I think your culture is often far different to that of those in the USA. I have lived in both countries and experienced it. One indicator is the attitude to feminism in your country as opposed to the USA (and I have mentioned this before). If you were a doctor and your car parking space outside your surgery said "Ärztin" would you be bothered that it identified you as female? Maybe, maybe not, but try that in the USA and I bet people would be out on the streets protesting (and most would be offended by proxy).
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LouisXIV
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L'estat c'est moi.
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Post by LouisXIV on Nov 17, 2016 16:26:07 GMT
This was a difficult election for me. I had my absentee ballot in my home for almost two months before I voted the last moment. I had a really hard time with Trump and some of his comments over the past year or so. And Hillary is just the typical politician we have had for the last fifty or sixty years, nothing new, promise you everything they think you want and then deliver nothing. I know many who were going to vote for a third party person, but I figured that would just make it easier for one of the top two candidates to win. I voted for Trump and to tell the truth surprised on election night that he won. He seemed to get his support from the people who really have to work hard to put food on the table, factory workers, small business people, rural American and farmers. They were fed up with decades of government interference in their life. Here is a list of 97 taxes that some people in this country have to pay. Our government has taken control of almost every aspect of our life and the cost of this control is over the roof. theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/a-list-of-97-taxes-americans-pay-every-yearWe have to much government and it is become really expensive and really complicates life. Trump will find it difficult to dump Obama Care, it is is another bureaucracy that eats a lot of cash for breakfast, lunch and dinner and now has some people dependent on it. Those that are paying are finding out how much it is going to cost them when the government tries to make it better. I will say I do like what I am seeing of Trump in the last week after the election, he has toned down the verbal attracts and just maybe he can deliver the changes this country needs. For one thing, term limits in congress and the Senate. And maybe some way to limit the influence of lobbyists. Time will tell.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 17, 2016 16:49:19 GMT
My problem with a USA headed by Trump is that the States is a hugely influential country and stupid decisions taken there can have so many international implications. EXACTLY, Bjd -- cut away all the verbiage, hand-wringing,and analyses and what you say is the huge, terrifying problem in a nutshell.
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Post by chexbres on Nov 17, 2016 19:20:45 GMT
Trump will find out, once he actually takes office, that his proposals will be blocked from many angles - and not just from people who disagree with him. He will find out that he does not have the immense power to make changes (as he did in private business) as he thought he would. The world as a whole is against Trump's vision, and with the exception of a few crackpot despots, they will block him every chance they get. Trump's victory will be very hollow, indeed.
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Post by onlyMark on Nov 17, 2016 19:20:53 GMT
Trump is a minor problem. It's not as if he's the President or something.
Errrrr....hang on a minute.........
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Post by Deleted on Nov 17, 2016 21:19:26 GMT
I have lived through awful, evil presidents -- Sarkozy for example. We survived and we got rid of him at the next election. When you live in a democracy, it means that the majority can make a huge mistake from time to time. And the majority rules.
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