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

[Marty_d]

America needs an intervention.  The countries of the world need to gently sit them down in Switzerland's living room, give them a cup of tea, and have a serious conversation about health care, gun control, religion, and the level of sanity required in it's CinC.

[facthunter]

Have you ever been to Switzerland?. There's no rubbish around but it' er Not that  exciting. Zurich has gnomes and there's 3  Race's there  French, Italian and German. 

[red750]

[Jerry_Atrick]

George Carlin put it nicely. It went something like if the average person doesn't understand what is going on and at least 50% of the population is less than average.... well, you get the rest. It was a general reference to democracy but equally to Trump. 

 

Trump is no idiot. He knows how to tap into the psyche of the great masses. He is in no way honest though - completely misrepresents himself at so many levels. For the people? Definitely not.. Religious? Just ask him to name his favourite quote of the bible. Smart business man? Nope, but he can (or could) con banks into giving him money. Honest man? Hardly... Toiler and hard working? Hardly. If anything he is the most dishonest of the lot. 

 

But, he knows how to get the masses - and let's be honest - not the smarter part of the masses - on his side. They are usually those that feel left out, downtrodden, etc. He will blame their problems on things like aliens, "woke" and of course, the opposition. He will set up conspiracy theories for desperate people looking desperately for something or someone to blame. He has managed to con the worlds most communist fearing population into supporting a communist regime in Putin. 

 

The press is more or less divided in the US - right wing or left wing.. When he makes his outlandish claims, no one asks him to verify it because he only allows right wing press to attend the Q&A, or he simply ignores anyone willing to raise anything but dorothy dixers to him. He is a bully and I am sure he has photos of some of his ex political opponents within the republican party that now have their tongues so far up his posterior, they're tickling his tonsils. How would one explain the U turn of Lindsay Graham or Ted Cruz? Of course, it may be bullying and threats of loss of endorsement, but others don't play to Trumps fiddle as both of these men who have previously despised the man and seem him as a threat to the Republican party. 

 

Then you have enough people who will vote for the Republicans come what may... A friend of mine based in Portland, Oregon and whom I see about once every three months openly states we will vote for Trump. Back in 2016, as an ex serviceman, he couldn't vote for Clinton as apparently she said that if servicemen were stuck in theatre and it was too dangerous to rescue them, then she would not authorise the rescue. His issue was they lay their life on the line on the expectation that should the proverbial hit the fan, there would be someone coming in to get them. When I remind him of what trump thinks of the military and that he certainly can't be trusted to do the same, he overlooks it, because he thinks the policies of Trump are better in general. When I reminded him in his last visit here that their order book is flowing and the economy is motoring, he will seek anything to discredit it. He is a genuinely nice bloke that would give the shirt off his back to anyone needing help.. but he is a Republican through and through. 

 

Just like people still vote for ScoMo despite his corrupt and terrible record, because he in in the Liberal party...

[facthunter]

Have you read MaryTrumps book?. SHE is his Neice and a qualified Psychologist.  Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

Maybe you could distil the key points she makes?

 

I was referring to the popular support he commands... as well as the fact he is far from honest... And the fact he is not an idiot as many claim because he seems to be very successful at exploitation. 

[facthunter]

It's an easy read. You'd most likely get one cheap enough. I  leant mine to a lot of people.. He's NOT bright. He's just a conman who can't ever be WRONG. IF HE doesn't WIN. he can't take it. It HAS to be the system OR some one who he can put  the Blame on. Pence as an example. He says he will GET those who let him down. He s VAIN. He loves praise. Doesn't like to be challenged  unless HE holds all the cars... HE's a wimp and a coward actually. Others go into the Physical stuff. He says out of hams way..   Nev 

[willedoo]

2 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

He has managed to con the worlds most communist fearing population into supporting a communist regime in Putin.

Jerry, I'm just curious as to the context you meant there in regards to putin's regime being communist. Russia officially abandoned communism more than thirty years ago, as we all know. It's often described these days as a kleptocracy which is probably fairly accurate. The only things about the Russian Federation where I can see some hangover from the communist days are the authoritarian control of the population and the high percentage of state ownership in various enterprises.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Yes.. technically the state doesn't own the allocation of resources - but technically neither does China to the extend of , but to assert China is not a communist country would be folly. Putin has been exerting state control over major enterprises.. doesn't like what someone does or how they do it, they fall out of a window and the state either takes control or he installs his puppets...

 

If it looks like communism, and it smells like communism, it probably is communism.

 

 

[willedoo]

I still say it's kleptocracy combined with authoritarianism. The state taking over private enterprises for the select few in government and their cronies doesn't have much to do with communism. For sure, under communism government officials did alright for themselves compared to the peasants, but it's a totally different type of theft for the elite these days. The people hardly get a razoo from it. A small pension when they are 65 if they are lucky.

 

It's surprising how many Americans still think it's the Soviet Union. Mind you, Americans are not the most well informed people when it comes to anything outside their own country.

[kgwilson]

Trump may not be a complete idiot but he sure acts like one. He has a very poor vocabulary, extremely poor general knowledge, doesn't read books, eats mainly junk food and tramples on anyone to get his way. He is a bully a consummate liar (over 33,000 when in office) and a 100% Con Man.

 

He preys on the fundamentalist christians who have been so indoctrinated by their religious masters almost from birth they are incapable of forming their own views and the rest of the below 50% intelligence level of the population who he has convinced will do things for them if elected.

 

America and wealth distribution is a major problem when 4 people have more wealth than the bottom 40% of the population and 1% of the population own 33% of the entire wealth of the country. The gap between haves and have nots has been widening for years and Trumps original baseless claim of draining the Washington swamp of the Wealthy elite when he was the worst of them is totally laughable but all his adoring morons still believe him.

 

The only hope is that enough of the smarter percentage of the population vote and he loses again. If this happens he will scream rigged even louder and as has already stated there could (he said will be) be a bloodbath.

[Marty_d]

The sad part is that anecdotally, there are also "normally" reasonable people who will vote for him.  See @Jerry_Atrick's post about his Oregon friend a few posts back.

It's like the otherwise reasonable people who can look at a school shooting like Sandy Hook, be outraged and saddened that the tragedy happened, yet steadfastly say that any checks on the ability of individuals to buy semiautomatic rifles is a step too far.

 

I think the US has some deep-seated problems and Trump is just the symptom - the turd that has floated to the top, so to speak.

[old man emu]

If you stand back and look at the history of the society of the USA, you will soon come to the conclusion that slavery has never been eliminated there. It has modified its name a little to "wage slavery", but a carrion flower by any other name would smell as sour.

 

 

In 1763, the French journalist Simon Linguet published an influential description of wage slavery:

It is the impossibility of living by any other means that compels our farm labourers to till the soil whose fruits they will not eat and our masons to construct buildings in which they will not live ...

It is want that compels them to go down on their knees to the rich man in order to get from him permission to enrich him ...

 

What effective gain [has] the suppression of slavery brought [him ?]

He is free, you say.

Ah! That is his misfortune ... These men ... [have] the most terrible, the most imperious of masters, that is, Need. ... They must therefore find someone to hire them, or die of hunger.

Is that to be free?

 

Certainly doesn't describe the mythical "Land of the Free".

[red750]

For information about the Ukraine-Russia conflict, Republicans put their trust of Donald Trump higher than the U.S. military/Pentagon, among other sources and media.

 

[facthunter]

Republicans "think" Trump ='s GOD.. Thats deplorable.   Nev

[kgwilson]

Well just as well God doesn't exist then.

[facthunter]

For Trump, you mean? Nev

[old man emu]

It may be a long shot, but the hush money trial might not happen simply because it looks like it is hard to get a jury of people who are not biased one way or the other. That the people called up for jury duty could come to the courtroom carrying a bias is not an unreasonable idea given the noise surrounding Trump. That's not meant to condemn the poor buggers who have had to front up for jury duty. You only have to look at the way we here think of the Orange One. 

 

Even with my experience in law enforcement and what it has taught me to ignore the person and only concentrate on the facts, I would find it hard to tell a judge that I was without bias against the Defendant in this case.

[Jerry_Atrick]

I like to think despite my bias, I can be convinced otherwise by fact.

 

In NSW, a trial can conducted by judge alone where adverse media attention would compromise the judgement of the jury - the defendant can request it and the judge has to agree. In most jurisdictions other than the US, it is hard to refuse a juror based on bias (well, I think they get something like 3 goes to refuse a juror without reason and after that, there bloody well be a good reason). However, I read that they administer a 42 page questionaire to the prospective jurors and at time of the journo penning the article, not one was accepted.

[old man emu]

3 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

I read that they administer a 42 page questionaire to the prospective jurors

Be interesting to see what is in that questionnaire to get an idea of what the Law in the USA considers the roles and responsibilities of a juror are.

[red750]

Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen this week said it was “comical” the former president is whining about his hush money trial potentially preventing him from attending the high school graduation ceremony of his teenage son, Barron Trump.

 

Trump has disingenously spun Judge Juan Merchan’s comment — about seeing how the trial goes before deciding on whether court can be postponed on May 17 for the educational event — into the lie that he’s likely been banned from going, sparking outrage among conservatives.

 

Cohen, though, highlighted that he “wasn’t aware” that Trump had attended the graduations of his other children Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump and Tiffany Trump.

 

“I find it not just comical, right, but I find it insulting that that’s the big issue,” Cohen, who spent years as Trump’s fixer, said on the Medias Touch Network’s “Political Beatdown” podcast.

 

“I missed my 25th anniversary and my wife’s 50th birthday because I was in Otisville, in part because of things that I had done at the direction and for the benefit of Donald Trump,” he recalled.

 

“So, before I start shedding a tear for him, for Barron, and, I’m sure Melania is extremely excited he’s not going to be there,” Cohen added. “Rest assured I’m not losing any sleep nor I’m going to shed a tear that Trump can’t go to Barron’s graduation.”

[willedoo]

I can't figure out the new hairstyle Trump has been sporting lately. The top of it is flat like he's been standing underneath too many helicopters. His clown comb-over is a complicated array of angles and directions at the best of times, but I think this one takes the cake.

 

[facthunter]

Don't think he has much to play with. Nev

[old man emu]

Looks like he want to bring back the flat-top.

[facthunter]

I hope he as many BAD HAIR days.  Nev