Don't get me wrong here, But I LIKE Donald Trump.

[Marty_d]

46 minutes ago, red750 said:

The other day he was caught on video talking about something happeening in Thigh-land.

Is that the place he paid  $130k to visit? 

[old man emu]

 

From the Chicago Tribune,  15th June 2016

 

It is the most famous ducktail in America today, the hairdo of wayward youth of a bygone era, and it's astonishing to imagine it under the spotlight in Cleveland, being cheered by Republican dignitaries. The class hood, the bully and braggart, the guy revving his pink Chevy to make the pipes rumble, presiding over the student council. This is the C-minus guy who sat behind you in history and poked you with his pencil and smirked when you asked him to stop. That smirk is now on every front page in America. It is not what anybody — left, right or center — looks for in a president. There's no philosophy here, just an attitude.

 

He is a little old for a ducktail. By the age of 70, most ducks have moved on, but not Donald Trump. He is apparently still fond of the sidewalls and the duck's ass in back and he is proud as can be of his great feat, the first punk candidate to get this close to the White House. He says the country is run by a bunch of clowns and that he is going to make things great again and beat up on the outsiders who are coming into our neighborhood. His followers don't necessarily believe that — what they love about him is what kids loved about Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious, the fact that he horrifies the powers that be and when you are pro-duck you are giving the finger to Congress, the press, clergy, lawyers, teachers, cake-eaters, big muckety-mucks, VIPs, all those people who think they're better than you — you have the power to scare the pants off them, and that's what this candidate does better than anybody else.

 

[willedoo]

I'm not defending Trump in any way, but I do understand his disdain of the press. A lot of the press has an agenda to demonize him in the same manner that the Murdoch press has an agenda to demonize Labor and laud the conservatives here in Australia.

 

A common tactic with Trump coverage is to run a misleading headline but print a reasonably accurate accompanying article. Most of the dumber readers will only remember the headline.

 

Here's today's latest from the White House media briefing. Apparently a professor wrote an article suggesting Kamala Harris is ineligible to run for VP, and Trump was asked about it.  The headline:

 

'Donald Trump suggests Kamala Harris, a US citizen, is ineligible to be Vice President.'

 

and what Trump actually said:

 

During today’s White House media briefing, Mr Trump was asked about Prof Eastman’s article.

“I just heard that. I heard it today, that she doesn’t meet the requirements,” Mr Trump said.

“And by the way, the lawyer that wrote that piece a very highly qualified, very talented lawyer.

“I have no idea if that’s right. I would have assumed the Democrats would have checked that out before she gets chosen to run for vice president.

“But that’s a very serious – you’re saying that, they’re saying that she doesn’t qualify because she wasn’t born in this country?”

“No, she was born in this country, but her parents did not – the claims say that her parents did not receive their permanent residence at that time,” the questioner told him.

“Yeah, I don’t know about it, I just heard about it. I’ll take a look,” said the President.

 

What a crock of shite. He quite plainly says "I have no idea if that’s right." and “Yeah, I don’t know about it, I just heard about it. I’ll take a look.”

 

 

Edited August 14, 2020 by willedoo

[Old Koreelah]

If the press sometimes misleading us about the Child, the scheming and skulduggery of he and his supporters go off the scale.

 

He has stacked the Supreme Court, appointed destroyers to major departments and is now blatantly trying to sabotage mail in voting, which historically tends to favour the Democrats.

 

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/trump-says-hes-blocking-postal-funding-because-democrats-want-to-expand-mail-in-voting-20200814-p55lm4.html

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Agree, OK, but two wrongs don't make a right...

BBC also in on the act: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53774289

[willedoo]

You're correct, Jerry. The man is sadly lacking a moral compass, but that doesn't excuse blatant press dishonesty.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Actually, although I have never complaiend to the press about anything, I may well complain to the Beeb on this.. after it it does play into Trumps hands.. Now he can say, "Look at the MSM... I said it was the first I hear of it and I will look into it, and they plabel me as stoking the issue..."

 

[willedoo]

These days it's easy for the press to exert influence while technically not doing anything illegal. They do it by purposeful omission or lack of context in their reporting and then sit back and watch the rabid social media run with the ball from there. A pox on them all, I say.

[Old Koreelah]

Meanwhile, it's clear that many American institutions will be privatised and turned into profit-makers for the rich elite if this moral bankrupt child and his yes men win/steal the election. 

 

Just one of them:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/aug/14/trump-administration-steps-up-efforts-to-turn-broadcasters-into-propaganda-outlets

[onetrack]

Trump is the most vengeful President America has ever had. If you don't support him 100%, he will go out of his way to destroy you, your livelihood, and your good name. He is an absolute ar*ehole.

[Marty_d]

6 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

Agree, OK, but two wrongs don't make a right...

BBC also in on the act: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53774289

 

5 hours ago, willedoo said:

You're correct, Jerry. The man is sadly lacking a moral compass, but that doesn't excuse blatant press dishonesty.

 

Yeah but guys, one wrong is a piece of gutter slime who holds 1/3 of the government power in the USA, while doing his best to dismantle every positive policy in the USA, not to mention erase every bit of US credibility around the world.  His stupidity and hubris has directly led to 160,000+ deaths in what is supposed to be the richest and most technologically advanced country in the world during this pandemic.  He respects only dictators, criminals and white supremacists.  He has lied multiple thousands of times while in office, cheated, colluded and swindled, is as erratic as a strung out junkie and has his finger on the big red button.  And is now blatantly trying to stop a fair election which will hopefully see his lying arse out on the street.

The other is a slightly misleading headline.  Not even that misleading, given that Trump saying that the lawyer who said that rubbish is "very highly qualified, very talented" is his way of endorsing what the idiot said.  Just like he did with that nutjob doctor who said she'd cured Covid using hydroxychloroquine (and who also said that some medical conditions are caused by people having sex with demons, and that alien DNA was being used in medical treatments).  

 

Not really in the same league as far as wrongs go.

[nomadpete]

Please, don't hold back, mate. Tell us how you really feel.

🙂

[Old Koreelah]

What really upsets me the most is his welded-on supporters seem to be immune to the overwhelming evidence that Trump, his family and his wealthy cronies are lining their own pockets while stripping Ameica's public institutions.

Millions of little people still claim he's there to look after their interests.

Perhaps they'll get the government they deserve.

[Yenn]

Don't the American voters have a chance to make their own decisions about their President. Do they have to believe every word he says.

There must be some who can come to their own decisions and spread the word, either for or against Trump. Do the yanks not have the same information that we have, I doubt it. If they make their bed surely they should be allowed to sleep in it and we can form our own opinions. But we cannot form theirs. We can consider them idiots, but they will still go their way.

[kgwilson]

Less that 40% of those eligible actually vote. Part of the problem is registering to vote as you have to have resided at the same address for a year to be able to even register. And then there is the process of the Electoral College so you don't even actually vote for a president. The rest of the problem is, well, just being American. They seem to be brought up on a diet of racist patriotism, guns and their unique view of freedom and many have a very jaded view of any form of social justice. Their education system is actually not one but more than 50 systems so to degree where you live determines how ignorant of the world you are. Americans who travel are far more informed than the many I met in the mid west who had no idea where Australia was.. You just have to look at a few Youtube clips to get an idea. On one 70% could not name 3 countries in Europe and many could not name states in the US when pointed to on a map, some getting them wildly wrong.

Edited August 15, 2020 by kgwilson

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, Yenn said:

Don't the American voters have a chance to make their own decisions about their President.

Not really. If you look at the way Presidential elections are conducted, each citizen only votes for a person who is nominated as an Elector for the person's State. The nominees are put forward by the parties, so that if a person is chosen by the citizens to be an Elector, then that person is bound to vote for the candidate of the Party that gave the person the nomination. That is why you hear of States being either Republican or Democratic. It refers to the Party whose nominees are selected be the citizens. Nearly all States have a "winner take all" system where the Party with the most nominees chosen by the people gets to fill all that State's places in the Electoral College. For example, if there were ten "electoral votes" for a State and the Republican nominees got enough votes for four electors, and the Democrats got the other six through, then the Democrats would send ten electors to the College. The voice of the Republican supporters would not be heard, and the State would be called a Democrat State.

 

So, American voters do make their own choices about who the President should be but very indirectly. Their State could back the Presidential nominee from the Party the voter supported, but other Presidential nominees could bring more electors to the Electoral College.

[kgwilson]

And that is one of the reasons why the USA is considered a "Flawed Democracy" and is ranked 25th in the world. The first 22 are considered full democracies. Norway is at No 1, NZ No 4 and Australia No 9.

[onetrack]

The U.S. is a flawed Democracy because the super-rich robber barons of the 1800's got exactly what they wanted - a system that continually rewards the extremely wealthy, no matter what.

They never paid any tax at all until the principle of income tax was introduced around the start of WW1 in Europe. Even then, they manipulated law-making and law-makers and laws, to ensure their wealth continued to grow faster than any other group.

Today, the super rich merely employ lawyers and accountants to avoid taxes by devious means, the use of tax-free havens, and by convoluted business structures. They get tax breaks that are not available to the working classes.

 

The income tax system of the U.S is permanently skewed against the working and middle classes, and every tax system "adjustment", rewards the rich with generally lower taxes - because of the BS idea, continually promoted by the wealthy, that they are the only ones capable of creating jobs and wealth for the poorer classes.

 

No-one has the cojones to address the problem of the super-rich continually gaining a larger slice of the wealth pie, and essentially controlling the country - because they wouldn't last 5 mins. The wealthy would crush them, or ensure they were sidelined.

 

Jeff Bezos is now worth around US$188B, around 50% more than Bill Gates. Bezos came from a working class family, but Gates came from a family of extremely wealthy bankers, and was already worth many tens of millions when he was younger.

How one man can go from a working class family to US$188B in assets in around 40 years is indicative of how low the taxes are on the rich in America.

 

And this bloke is known as the meanest and most abusive employer, ensuring his employees live in fear of him, and making sure they work their guts out for Amazon, for an average of $9 hr.

25% of Americans have total assets of less than $10,000, and 1% of Americans control 40% of the nations wealth, and this outlines the lie of the "American Dream", for all but a select tiny few, who can pick winners. 

Edited August 15, 2020 by onetrack

[Jerry_Atrick]

On 14/08/2020 at 2:15 PM, Marty_d said:

 

 

Yeah but guys, one wrong is a piece of gutter slime who holds 1/3 of the government power in the USA, while doing his best to dismantle every positive policy in the USA, not to mention erase every bit of US credibility around the world.  His stupidity and hubris has directly led to 160,000+ deaths in what is supposed to be the richest and most technologically advanced country in the world during this pandemic.  He respects only dictators, criminals and white supremacists.  He has lied multiple thousands of times while in office, cheated, colluded and swindled, is as erratic as a strung out junkie and has his finger on the big red button.  And is now blatantly trying to stop a fair election which will hopefully see his lying arse out on the street.

The other is a slightly misleading headline.  Not even that misleading, given that Trump saying that the lawyer who said that rubbish is "very highly qualified, very talented" is his way of endorsing what the idiot said.  Just like he did with that nutjob doctor who said she'd cured Covid using hydroxychloroquine (and who also said that some medical conditions are caused by people having sex with demons, and that alien DNA was being used in medical treatments).  

 

Not really in the same league as far as wrongs go.

Marty - you're absolutely right and it is the same position I have.. But my point is that the press should be better for two reasons.. One is, that it should not rely on headlines to further ill-inform the already ill-informed. The other reason is that it will play into DT's hands.. There may be many of his supporters who are on the fence (not as many as we had hoped) and he will taketo his soap box, which is currently the largest soap box anyone has to use it tio further his point about how the press are out to get him and are using any means they can to fabricate the truth - that he is really the good guy and that the press should not be beleived - and all the stuff they report abouyt him is fabricated as is the stats, etc... they are all out to get him, so if you don't want the demiocrats to steal your guns and put you into abject povery (rather than the poverty you are in) and you don't want all the stuff Obama did which was BAD for you - like low cost health cover, etc... then you better vote for me, DT, and with your andate, I will clean this poop up...

 

And, they will believe him.... because everyone wants a scape goat for their predicament. And the press will unwittingly hand him an election victory...

 

Yes, they commit a small misdemeanour, but the punishment will be that of a major felony.

[Jerry_Atrick]

OT, you are spot on with the US electoral system.. only "democracy" that allows unlimited spending on campaigns so that only the rich have a snwoflake's chance in hell of having a go.. But, even so, democracies that put limits on spending etc (e.g. UK) are still beholden with back room deals and of course, not forgetting that MPs are largely drawn from legal, financial and accounting ranks, the status quo is preserved (otherwise our tax loaws wqould be incredibly simple - but they need to feed the professions).

 

But I will take slight umbrage with pointing out Jeff Bezos. Virtually all main founders of such large organisations are as you describe. Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Larry Ellison., and even Bill Gates had not always been a model manager. SAlso, the original founder/CEO of Uber was a piece of sh!t. Part is because, in order to succeed the way they do, they are driven and expect their immediate team to be driven. Part is because, welll, they aren't nice people. However, I have worked for two US companies, both listed on NASDAQ, and at the smaller one, I knew and regularly met the CEO/founder. He was also driven and a major PITA to work directly for, but both companies looked after their employees very well. When reading the induction manuals, about how one is now part of the family, blah blah blah, I just thought to myself, "typical US BS"... but at least these two companies lived up to their induction manual. Normally a contractor, I found with one of them, I had found my permanent job for life. Unfortuately, they were subject to a "merger" which went horrible in their UK office... All the ex pat US people promptly returned to the US, and the rest of us left pretty quickly. The UK office was run by the other company in the merger - a UK company... And it was sh!te.

 

Don't get me wrong - they wanted their pound of flesh - like all companies expect from their professional employees regardless of who owns them.. But I know one middle manager and one junior exec (global head of a function of one of their divisions) and both are very happy at Amazon. I also know that Amazon, like Uber and many others - US, Australian and other countries' companies, treat the semi and unskilled workforce rather poorly. Dominos Pizza, Amazon warehouse operatives, Uber drivers (who are not employees in Aus, the US and Britain but were found to be in Europe).. The Master chef bloke... Although I worked for Coles Myer for some time, and they did treat their floor staff very well in comparison.

 

I don't know to omuch about Bezos, but here is an article I found: https://www.techinasia.com/jeff-bezos-manager. It portrays a bit of an enigma in my mind.. but he doesn't sound as bad as others...

 

I am distantly related to an Aussie family that sometimes feature in the BRW to 200 (unf, that gene didn't head our way)... The patriarch was as ruthless as anything at his business (I am told - I was too young to know).. But you wouldn't meet a nicer bloke outside of work.

 

Anyway, back to DT... Not too much to like... Though he did me well as I made a decent return on the last election - 20:1 with a £50 bet.. I haven't laid anything on this one, but at this point in time, I am not taking The Economist's numbers with anything more than a grain of salt (and a small one at that)... I am not sure their population identification would be representative of the majority - a bit like their World's Most Liveable City award... survey rich expat execs... the masses usually are not consulted... BTW - not saying Melbourne isn't one of the world's best cities... But saying I am still thinking of laying a bet on if I can get decent odds.. Seems that DT is the punters probable winner at the moment...

 

 

[Yenn]

It seems that very few people like Donald Trump, but what will happen if Joe Biden wins the election and Trump walks away gracefully. Now there is a picture to imagine, gracefully!

What will happen with Biden? Will everything in the garden be rosy? Will he run full term or will he be found deficient and have to hand over to his running mate and if so what will she do? Will it be better for Australia, or would it be better to let trump demonstrate to all that he is incompetent and maybe our pollies will ignore him.

But then our pollies are incompetent and have to go to Washington to be told what to do, even if they have to self isolate on their return.

[old man emu]

I think our best approach is to sit back and watch the USA implode, just as so many empires have done since Adam was a boy.

 

We might have to suffer a short Dark Ages, but at least the Empire of the USA is not the sole custodian of knowledge. 

[onetrack]

Trump is currently at his very best, in his manipulative and destructive behaviour. He's awarded the position of Postmaster General of the U.S. Postal Service to a multi-millionaire supporter of the Republican Party.

Loius DeJoy is not only a supporter of the RP, with a personal $3M contribution to the RP's coffers - he's also been a major fundraiser for the RP.

 

But now he's been appointed head of the USPS, he's set about deconstructing it - under the guise of "streamlining" the USPS. He's cut overtime, pulled out thousands and thousands of post boxes - and he's been identified as a shareholder in rival businesses to the USPS, such as UPS.

 

He has put both USPS users and employees offside, with USPS cuts left, right, and centre causing major mail delays. Of course, there will be many ballots for the U.S. Presidential election mailed in shortly, and guess what will likely happen then?

Of course, we can't point the finger at Trump for meddling with the movement of mailed in ballot papers, that appear to "get lost in the mail", and which could have a major effect on election results, could we?

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-16/donald-trump-louis-dejoy-us-postal-service-postal-voting/12563232?section=world

[Old Koreelah]

More from the death throes of The Great Democracy:

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/16/us/politics/coronavirus-postal-service-stimulus-bill.html

[Marty_d]

16 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

BTW - not saying Melbourne isn't one of the world's best cities... 

 

 

Not at the moment it's not!!

 

Still, not a bad idea to put money on the clown winning the next election.  If he loses, you're so bloody happy anyway that the loss of $100 won't hurt so bad.  If he wins, you have some money to console you.