Jerry_Atrick Posted January 21, 2021 Posted January 21, 2021 The whole US penal system is steeped in 19th and early 20th scentury thinking - there are no votes in the USA for reforming and progressing the system.. which is why I always have a laugh to myslef when the republicans accuse the democrats of being left wing socialists - they are moderate right wingers.. Hopefully, the senate finds Trump guilty, but to be honest, I am not confident in it. Regardless of who he tries to become a Phoenix that arises form the ashes, at least he won't be in the seat again. Of course, he can try to instill a puppet... but I get the feeling if he isn't in the limelight, he isn't interested.Of course, getting his kids in the limelight may counter that.
kgwilson Posted January 22, 2021 Posted January 22, 2021 Trump Inc is now toxic. 3 US banks & Deutsche Bank won't go near him & he owes the Germans $420 million & with others 554.8 million. His property business lost 150 million last year, all the golf courses have lost money except Mar a Lago & that only made 2.6 million last year. New York has terminated its contracts and the law firm that represented him on tax issues has pulled the plug as well as 2 other major law firms. The PGA have disowned him and won't hold any tournaments at any of his courses. There are plenty more but the funniest one is that his District Hotel in DC is in a federally owned building so that now makes Joe Biden his Landlord. 3 1
kgwilson Posted January 22, 2021 Posted January 22, 2021 The final tally is in. Trumps lies right up till his final speech which included 20 or so is 30,573 an average of 21 a day though they accelerated during the election campaign and post election. 3 1
Marty_d Posted January 26, 2021 Posted January 26, 2021 I know this is a bit late, but I only just got it. And I think it's brilliant! 1
Jerry_Atrick Posted January 27, 2021 Posted January 27, 2021 Looks like all those late night show hosts are going to have to work a bit harder for their "gags" now... 1
willedoo Posted January 27, 2021 Posted January 27, 2021 19 minutes ago, Jerry_Atrick said: Looks like all those late night show hosts are going to have to work a bit harder for their "gags" now... If nothing else, Trump was easy to poke fun at. He supplied all the material. 2
Marty_d Posted January 27, 2021 Posted January 27, 2021 1 hour ago, Jerry_Atrick said: Looks like all those late night show hosts are going to have to work a bit harder for their "gags" now... I think the relief of giving the arse to the arse makes up for not having the arse to laugh at. 1 1
willedoo Posted January 29, 2021 Posted January 29, 2021 On Planet America tonight, they were crunching numbers and said that Trump authorised more federal executions in the last six months than all the combined Presidents for the last 67 years.
willedoo Posted January 29, 2021 Posted January 29, 2021 Obama's score was zero. When Trump restarted them, it was the first in 17 years for a Federal execution. 1
Jerry_Atrick Posted January 29, 2021 Posted January 29, 2021 (edited) 10 hours ago, willedoo said: On Planet America tonight, they were crunching numbers and said that Trump authorised more federal executions in the last six months than all the combined Presidents for the last 67 years. Ohhhh... thank gaawwd for that! Planet America being back, I mean... [Edit] Darn it.. I subscribed to them through yootube - Nothing new there.. Went to ABC iPlayer and am now catching up.... Edited January 29, 2021 by Jerry_Atrick 1
willedoo Posted January 30, 2021 Posted January 30, 2021 As far as the thread title goes - the Trump Presidency - an analysis. I'm sure a lot more will be talked about and written about in times to come. At the moment, most focus is on his negative side which admittedly makes up a big percentage of Trump. One thing that can't be denied is that he wasn't a very war like President. In my opinion he blotted his copy book by launching Tomahawk missiles on Syria with no proven evidence to justify an act of war. It's not good to bomb countries over rumours and social media posts. At least one of the missiles was reported as falling short, killing civilians including women and children. Even though the number of civilians killed under Trump is minuscule compared with Bush and Obomber, there's still no excuse for it. But overall, he kept his nose out of things to a certain degree. He also seemed to adhere to the Minsk Agreement on Ukraine. Even though the U.S. continued to arm and train Ukraine, he didn't push them into restarting the civil war in the Donbass. That saved a lot of lives; 10,000 dead was enough. Trump also went fairly light on the U.S.'s major hobby, ie: regime change with it's resultant loss of civilian life and regional de-stabilization. Biden has re-employed all the usual suspects in that field, so watch that space and expect a lot more trouble in the Middle East and other areas. I hope I'm wrong and war is not back in business, but most of the previous movers and shakers in that area are back. Maybe a leopard can change it's spots. Lets hope so. A related plus is that he wasn't stupid enough to commit to war on Iran. That would possibly have been as devastating for the region as the Iraq war. I think one of the reasons he didn't do it is that it's not easily do-able like Iraq. There's a lot of unfriendly terrain and geography in Iran and a mass of air defences. Not to mention enough torpedo boats to carry out an unbeatable swarm attack in the Gulf. On the political side of foreign policy he wasn't overly flash, but on the war front he mostly kept the safety catch on. In that regard, a much better record than the previous two warring Presidents. 2
Old Koreelah Posted January 30, 2021 Posted January 30, 2021 38 minutes ago, willedoo said: ...On the political side of foreign policy he wasn't overly flash, but on the war front he mostly kept the safety catch on. In that regard, a much better record than the previous two warring Presidents. Willie I hope you prove to be right, but what impact will his shakeup of alliances and breaking of treaties have in the long term? Like the little old lady who never had a road accident (but caused heaps)... just because his orangeness hasn’t started any wars doesn’t mean he hasn’t laid the groundwork for future conflicts. 2
Yenn Posted January 30, 2021 Posted January 30, 2021 Forget the wars, he has devastated the USA. They are supposedly a first world country, but have had the greatest negative effect of any country with the Covid virus. All due to his posturing and saying he had it all under control. I cannot work out who is madder, Trump for being mad or his followers for believing him. Now the latest seems to be that republicans are expected to vote him not guilty in the impeachment trial. If the evidence produced points to him being guilty and the republicans still can't accept it, then we can draw our own conclusions about American democracy. We need to consider what is happening, because if it happens in USA it can happen here. The difference between Trump and Morrison is not great. 2
willedoo Posted January 30, 2021 Posted January 30, 2021 2 hours ago, Old Koreelah said: Willie I hope you prove to be right, but what impact will his shakeup of alliances and breaking of treaties have in the long term? That's the not overly flash part. I think under Biden, the EU, European NATO countries and the U.S. will kiss and make up. It's been a good lesson for the Europeans learning how a nut in the White House can shake their foundations. They will most likely become a degree more independent in regard to having a Plan 'B' in case it ever happens again. Germany for instance, has become a bit bolder when it comes to asserting their sovereignty to the Americans, re Nord Stream 2. Trump's pull out from the Iran nuclear deal is salvageable to a degree. He always claimed it was a bad deal; I'm more inclined to think he was against it because it was an Obama deal. Only problem now is that the Iranian's hold most of the cards, thanks to Trump. They've adhered to the original agreement and survived Trump's sanctions so they now have a non negotiable position of a U.S. return to the original agreement or they pull out and start enriching. The clown's pull out of the mid range nuclear treaty has made Europe much less safe. Biden has a lot of work to repair that one. If that's not reinstated in some form, the only result is an arms race with Europe stuck in the middle. Thankfully Trump got the boot just before he was likely to pull out of the Obama/Medvedev New Start nuclear deal. Pulling out of that would have been damaging for the U.S. and Joe has dodged a bullet there. In other foreign policy failures, Trump continued Obama's flawed policies that have resulted in America's worst nightmare, a close alliance between Russia and China. When you have two weaker enemies, why would you drive them together to create one bigger enemy? But they did, and I'm tipping Biden will sing the same song as Obama and Trump. If the U.S. doesn't get some intelligent thinking in the State Department, they'll continue to end each administration period with an ever stronger enemy. So to sum up Trump's foreign policy record, on the plus side no new wars and steady as she goes with the existing wars. That saved a lot of lives. On the negative side is almost everything else. 2
onetrack Posted January 30, 2021 Posted January 30, 2021 America cannot afford to start another war, she is still financially crippled, paying for the last half-dozen "regime change" excursions. The vaults in Fort Knox must be nearly empty, the U.S. budget deficit is eye-watering, and the only way they could pay for another war, is to print money without any form of backing - and we all know how that ends. Oh wait! They've already done it! They just renamed it with that cute name, "quantitative easing"! Funny how the banks were the only beneficiaries of QE - and it's funny how no-one in the economics and financial world currently knows what the long-term results of printing money with no physical backing will be. I'm sure plenty of long-dead economists, long-dead emperors, and long-dead leaders of various countries, would be able to tell them. 1 1
Marty_d Posted January 30, 2021 Posted January 30, 2021 Money hasn't been actually backed by gold reserves for a very long time. 1 1
Old Koreelah Posted January 30, 2021 Posted January 30, 2021 42 minutes ago, Marty_d said: Money hasn't been actually backed by gold reserves for a very long time. Not officially. The global financial system is overdue for a reset, like Bretten Woods in 1944. When nations gather to design the new regime, those with the Gold will be at the table. The Howard government sold most of Australia’s gold reserves for peanuts; despite being a major producer, we have miniscule reserves and are unlikely to have much say in the coming World Order. https://howmuch.net/articles/gold-reserves-around-the-world 1
Yenn Posted January 31, 2021 Posted January 31, 2021 I don't think the USA can afford a war on a global scale and I don't think China wants one. Not so sure about Russia, but they are not as intelligent as the Chinese. China will win without a war, whereas they may still win if there was a war, but the price would be too high. China holds the Ace card as the rest of us are just trying to catch up. They can withold supply of all those things we have come to rely on, or they can just stop buying from us until we drop the price. Compared to China we are in the sort of situation our farmers are in with the supermarkets. 2 2
spacesailor Posted January 31, 2021 Posted January 31, 2021 What China produces! . It,s mostly Second rate junk, & do we really need, All that consumer products, that they spend $ billions on making us THINK we need that latest gadget. Since forever, most truckies have used Rope !, to tie things down, now we have to have the latest "ratchet strap " thingy, when rope is Better. spacesailor 1
facthunter Posted January 31, 2021 Posted January 31, 2021 (edited) China might be getting a warm and fuzzy feeling at getting back on those that humiliated it in the past but people will nevertheless be quite wary of it as a result. Making people love you by thumping them if they don't, doesn't work and is totally counter Intuative in the long run. Do they care?? I doubt it.. Can you rule over a billion people by FORCE? What sort of a society do you have in the meantime? Something rather Orwellian I think. Relying on a virtual fence around it to keep the lucky people IN.. To my mind when you won't let your people LEAVE, you have lost your case. Life in Taiwan is infinitely better than Mainland China , their products are much better quality and I am lead to believe it was a separate place about 400 years ago. Nev Edited January 31, 2021 by facthunter clarity 1 1 1
onetrack Posted January 31, 2021 Posted January 31, 2021 The gold figures are interesting - but they only tell half the story. The figures are for "official" gold reserves - i.e., those held by Govts and banks. These figures fail to take into account the amount of gold held by individuals - and even poor people hold some gold in many 3rd world countries. In both China and India, distrust of Govt-backed currency is high, and what we would regard as poor people there, all hold some gold as a family fall-back reserve. There's a reason why the gold price is at a record high. It's because it's a simple follow-on from major financial and economic insecurity from the last few years, that many people feel today. A lot of people still haven't recovered fully from the GFC in 2008. The long-term effects of the GFC, and the near-collapse of the worlds financial system, are still yet to fully play out. So many countries are running deficits of unbelievable size - 100% of GDP and more. Japan is actually the worst off in this regard - but America is not far behind. The COVID-19 pandemic will be making the figures below, blow out in an even larger manner - leading to more financial distress. https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/government-debt-to-gdp China has a huge hidden monetary problem with its opaque banking system, which is still quite corrupt and backward in many regions. Many Chinese regions still operate on a community co-operative banking basis, and these local banking co-operatives hide a lot of financial and investment fiascos, that are yet to be addressed. Just seeing the news that the Chinese executed one of their top asset-management bankers, is just the tip of the Chinese financial-problems iceberg. The execution is meant to send a message to all the scumbags in the financial system below him. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/05/china-sentences-top-banker-to-death-for-corruption-and-bigamy 1
Old Koreelah Posted January 31, 2021 Posted January 31, 2021 1 hour ago, onetrack said: The gold figures are interesting - but they only tell half the story. The figures are for "official" gold reserves - i.e., those held by Govts and banks... The article I quoted is way out of date; since then, China, Russia, Turkey and others have massively increased their gold reserves, mostly under the radar. What happens next? America has over-used its dollar power to manipulate trade and sanction any country which displeases it. Caught in the crossfire are ordinary people in friendly countries whose only crime was to trade with a country which stood up to America. Lots of countries would like to get out of the US dollar payment system; Russia and China are reported to be developing a crypto backed by gold. 1
Yenn Posted February 2, 2021 Posted February 2, 2021 China may produce junk, but in Australia where can you find quality. Bunnings had has a dramatic effect on hardware, it is hard to find tools that are of good quality and even things like cement are poorly packed so that they deteriorate rapidly in humid weather. I don't know if Bunnings cement is from China but I do know it does not come from the local cement works, which is about 10km from Bunnings store. We are getting rubbish pushed at us because the retailers can make a bigger margin. 2 1
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