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

[Jerry_Atrick]

I think it is a little simpler than that. We are lucky in that we have time to contemplate things, but the vast majority of the population have significant life pressures that comes with keeping up with the Jones' in a society where the virtual sole measure of success is material wealth. So, a lot of people are in debt and are wage slaves (btw, our education system does not help in this regard). And they are subject to the vagaries of economic cycles. And the system is set up to keep them (us) that way.

 

So, all these peoples struggling under the weight of the pressures of modern life and having problems keeping up with each other see themselves somehow disadvantaged because Jone's next door has a beemer and the kids wear Nike Airs. No one wants to miss out or be seen as a loser,.. pressures mount up, and then the risk of loss starts triggering the same part of the brain that feels pain, and voilla, they are really feeling stress. Flaw number one in dog's design of us. The second flaw, which is highjly correlated the first is that we don't want to take the blame for something which we can sort of control, but have been conditioned not to, so we need to blame someone else.

 

Those that sit above this have the resources to pay Murdoch and Co signficant sums to perpetuate the myth this is the best way to do things (or, in a communist country, they own the media anyway).. and the viscious circle continues. These people know the people will get restless unless there is a releif valve, so they invent the blame game to defl;ect the blame from themselves and the real problem - our system of living. This allows those uinder pressures of life and no time to really sit back and contemplate what they are being fed and critically analyse it. In othe words, they hear something that alleviates the pain in their brain - that it's not them, but some hapless refugee, or some ATSI representative group, or whatever. And, they perptuate the myth, or lies, because they know it will be what the masses want toi hear to help them feel better about themselves. And those with self-interest or ideological grounds shout the loudest lies and double down. The masses like it, it soothes their pain, and they start following it. And the vicious circle continies, culminating in what we are seeing in the world today - richer than any other time, yet more polarised than in my living memory at least, and people drinking the kool-aid to jusitfy their position.

 

Don't think it can happen in Aus.. It already has. Howard, Abboitt, and SFM... Not as spectacularly as the US and UK, but we are smaller. The Voice? The No campaign admitted in a speech that they got on the front foot of the communications, were loud, proud and econonomical with the truth. Look up Swollen Pickles on YT; he did a video on it using fottage from the No campaign. Those with the altrusitic agenda are more guarded because they want the truth to come out and not be seen as taking sides (as those with vested/ideological know how to expose them for the most minutaie transgressions and have the popular press on their side).

 

The reality is politics have failed the marginalised and working classes. Someone comes along, no matter how nefariuous and promises them to drai the swamp and make <indert your country or community> great again - it gives everyone somethign to blame for their plight, relieves the stress (if not the actual issues), and they are so busy with trying to survive, they don't give it a second thought.

 

Think about this. Wages are one's revenue; living costs are their costs, and what is left over is profit. The ratio of profit to wages is therefore our margin. Why is it that in the cost of living crisis, it is OK our margins are hit, while big corporations margins are at least preserved or increased? Yet, we are conditioned this is a necessary part of our society and accept it rather than demand in a cost of living crisis, they rein in their margins as well.

[red750]

Read this post - it could just as easily have been posted here.

[red750]

Biden uses Trumps own  phrase to burn him, one of Trumps biggest donors last time turns him down.

 

Watch this video.

[red750]

MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan said Donald Trump has again borrowed language from Nazi leader Adolf Hitler when he vowed over the weekend to eliminate left-wing “vermin” from America if elected president next year.

 

“That’s not a word we often hear used in everyday conversation,” Hasan said. “It was a word frequently used by Nazis to dehumanize Jewish people during the Holocaust.”

 

Trump, he noted, said recently that undocumented immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country,” which is similar to language found in Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.”

 

“So there you have it: An ex-president and current frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination not once but twice in just the last few weeks taking a page right out of Hitler’s Nazi propaganda playbook,” Hasan said.

 

Read more here.

 

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Yes.. very sad... We always knew Trump was a bit of a nutter.. but, unless you were a debtor, we was largely like any other coporate reaider. But his rhetoric, and those of his followers, including Rosanne Bar, are off the scale. And the willingness of an armed and stupid population willing to follow him to the point they will give up their freedon (and I would guess lives), is a recipe for disaster.

Edited November 13, 2023 by Jerry_Atrick

[facthunter]

Putler and Trumpler are very like Hitler. Trump is declining by the hour in his mental capacity let alone his crazy self interest values and REVENGE threats.. He has the ability to easily destroy America in the eyes of everybody IF He's successful in again becoming POTUS.  Nev

[willedoo]

Here's some if his plans for a second term. I agree with Nev about his declining mental state, so I doubt he's got the brains to come up with all this stuff. For sure he'd have some other loony backers putting ideas forward.

 

https://www.9news.com.au/world/donald-trump-plan-for-next-usa-presidency-if-elected-in-2024/bcac69a8-6289-4b9e-bf56-235624bc85dd

[facthunter]

They are pre-occupied with defence and military power but a moron takes it over from within??  An INSIDE Job. DICK Taters Rejoice. Putin can't believe his luck. Flatter the clown and He'll follow you anywhere. The military are "Suckers & Losers" and HE often says so yet the "retired" ones worship him.   Nev

[rgmwa]

Trump is bad enough but it's racists like this guy and others who are underpinning his push to take over.  Miller is a nasty piece of work. 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/24/stephen-miller-white-nationalist-trump-immigration-guru

[red750]

Not only have the GOP outlawed abortion, they now want to make contraception illegal. They must be running out of targets.

[red750]

[Marty_d]

Well 2 of them make sense.  The guy in the middle is a bit confused.

[old man emu]

Things seem to have gone quiet on the Trump front of late. Maybe it's a Thanksgiving.

[facthunter]

He's still just as outrageous as ever and maybe more so.   nev

[rgmwa]

Outrageous, ignorant, corrupt and dangerous. Unlike other dictators like Hitler and Mussolini his aim is not world domination, but just to look in the mirror and see the most powerful person in the world. He has no guiding philosophy other than devotion to himself. A hollow and fundamentally weak character but with an army of sycophant enablers behind him. Hopefully American Democracy, flawed as it is, will see him in jail and not in the White House. 

Edited November 26, 2023 by rgmwa

[Jerry_Atrick]

6 hours ago, facthunter said:

He's still just as outrageous as ever and maybe more so.   nev

Not maybe, but absolutely 

[onetrack]

Trump will only get re-elected if the Democrats fail to get their act together and provide a suitable Presidential candidate that isn't Joe Biden.

 

At this point, it's going to be a toss-up as to who provides the highest level of sad political entertainment as two basically geriatric candidates try to outdo each other in displays of severe aging in the forms of forgetfulness and confusion.

 

One small factor in the Democrats favour is that Trump has effectively split the Republican vote into Trumpers and Anti-Trumpers, thus taking votes away from himself.

But then, with the warped American voting system, that probably won't have any effect, as the Anti-Trumpers votes end up supporting Trump anyway.

[facthunter]

Trump threatens anyone who speaks up against him and calls them Vermin. Hitler would be pleased. His plan was basically following Ku Klux Klan dogma. So round and round it goes.  Nev

[old man emu]

The "most powerful country in the world" cannot be lead by men/women of advanced age. I agree that years create wisdom by experience, but the years also condemn. Both Biden and Trump are past the age that the rest of the population, and the rest of the Western World, consider to be that when one hands the reins of State to the next generation. The leader of a country should be a person who has seen the gains/losses of their elders and has the time to use that knowledge. Of the US Presidents only 5 have been in their 40s when elected ( Ulysses Grant 46, Teddy Roosevelt 43, JFK 43, Clinton 46 and Obama 47). These "young men" oversaw some pretty important changes in US life. And consider, Volodymyr Zelenskyy who has been leading the Ukraine since he was 42.

 

It is pretty clear that there is no Independent nor third party candidate who would stand a chance against the Big Two. So the only real hope for the USA is for the Big Two to present a forty-odd year-old to the electorate. 

[spenaroo]

54 minutes ago, old man emu said:

The "most powerful country in the world" cannot be lead by men/women of advanced age. I agree that years create wisdom by experience, but the years also condemn. Both Biden and Trump are past the age that the rest of the population, and the rest of the Western World, consider to be that when one hands the reins of State to the next generation. The leader of a country should be a person who has seen the gains/losses of their elders and has the time to use that knowledge. Of the US Presidents only 5 have been in their 40s when elected ( Ulysses Grant 46, Teddy Roosevelt 43, JFK 43, Clinton 46 and Obama 47). These "young men" oversaw some pretty important changes in US life. And consider, Volodymyr Zelenskyy who has been leading the Ukraine since he was 42.

 

It is pretty clear that there is no Independent nor third party candidate who would stand a chance against the Big Two. So the only real hope for the USA is for the Big Two to present a forty-odd year-old to the electorate. 

Problem is the same one we have here,
its a lifetime political game where seniority is often by time not merit.
the end result is an Gerontocracy instead of a Meritocracy.

the only reason we haven't had the same fate is because we turn over leaders as soon as they fall out of favor.
If the USA was like us, Biden would have been ousted 12 months ago by his own party.

[facthunter]

They still have to be regularly re elected  by the People in a democracy You don't have to be a young athlete to be WISE. The Japanese have tended to go for older leaders as they respect AGE. 40 is not old enough to gain the required experience to be the C in  C of the US armed forces. Khruschev had more wisdom than the Young PT boat captain, JFK who was more interested in getting his "Rocks  off " than more important things a President should engage in for the sake of the Country.  Nev

[spenaroo]

Military is another example of age and seniority being a reflection of the time served.
there is only a fixed number of generals. so they literally are waiting for one to retire or die before a promotion.
this takes time so they all end up being old men.

I agree age brings wisdom - but there is also some incredibly competent younger men.
the average age of a CEO is 45-55

[spacesailor]

JUST IMAGINE. 

A ' ceo ' serving 60 plus years on 'One ' board of One company ! .

Sounds unbelievable. 

spacesailor

 

[spenaroo]

no just that, But all of the executives being in the same position.
and the expectation that its the normal course of action from the entry level positions without questioning it.

I think we have all read "Fate is the hunter" by Earnest K Gann.

and his message - "Damn the numbers"

Edited November 27, 2023 by spenaroo

[facthunter]

The likelihood of a CEO spending 60 years in that position is slim though Rupert Murdoch may have approximated that, He's become $#!tt!er  and more greedy as he aged.  Nev