Trump

[yellowrider120 917]

I caught coverage of most of Trump's appearance at the VE commemoration event at the National Memorial in Washington yesterday. Even the most ardent critic would have to acknowledge that (for once) he did the office of President and the occasion itself a great credit. Smartly dressed he and his wife stood to attention twice and saluted with a seriousness that was at odds with his much publicised almost disregard for America's military history. That was not what made me sit up and take notice though. He walked slowly down a line of veterans (and, again, for once) respected the convention of 'social distancing' and engaged in conversation with each and every one of the veterans. There were smiles, jokes mixed in with serious acknowledgement and gratitude. Each conversation ended with a wave / thumbs up. At times he would come back to the previous guy he had just spoken to as if to tie some events together that the veterans had mentioned. He seemed to really enjoy talking to them (which he damn well should of course).    

At a time when the World desperately needs a political leader of substance, seriousness yet with that human touch to relate to 'the common man', it was tempting to imagine whether Trump could be that person. He can't, of course, due to his many misdemeanors and outright stupidity on occasions. Has he been a 'misogynist' - Yes, almost certainly, has he lied and bullied - without doubt, has he acquitted himself well these last two or three months v COVID 19 - hardly! His handling of that crisis has been nothing short of abysmal and embarrassing. 

Yet YR will always give 'credit where credit is due' and for a few brief minutes yesterday, Trump showed that he CAN be a serious statesman. I fully expect 'normal service' to be resumed shortly (unfortunately) but I think everyone should 'cut him some slack' for his contribution yesterday in Washington.     

[Van wink 2,994]

"Yet YR will always give 'credit where credit is due' and for a few brief minutes yesterday, Trump showed that he CAN be a serious statesman. I fully expect 'normal service' to be resumed shortly (unfortunately) but I think everyone should 'cut him some slack' for his contribution yesterday in Washington."

Is this the positive Trump thread....will be a lot shorter than the other one.

Edited May 9, 2020 by Van wink

[TIL 1010 5,246]

Remember it is election year David and that it will go down well with the US voters.

[Branston Pickle 4,150]

If Trump knows one thing it is how to play the ‘patriot/military’ thing. The man is otherwise a complete and utter idiot, with endless evidence to back that statement up.

Edited May 9, 2020 by Branston Pickle

[Surfer 1,547]

Yes credit where it is due. I did comment that there were no VE Day celebrations in the US, but apparently I was wrong - this event proves that. 
 

Just one small detail puzzles me. Given that in the previous 24 hours the President’s valet, and VIce President’s press secretary, married to one of the President’s key policy and speech writers, were both diagnosed with CoronaVirus: why was no one wearing a mask? 

[First Wazzock 1,014]

22 minutes ago, Surfer said:

 

Just one small detail puzzles me. Given that in the previous 24 hours the President’s valet, and VIce President’s press secretary, married to one of the President’s key policy and speech writers, were both diagnosed with CoronaVirus: why was no one wearing a mask? 

Because it's a hoax by the Democrats

[Herman 11,136]

21 minutes ago, First Wazzock said:

Because it's a hoax by the Democrats

[Cliff the Canary 63]

Trump policy is to use propaganda to unite his ignorant supporters and whip them up into a furore where they follow every racist, misogynistic, bigoted and every other disingenuous and immoral words that comes out of his mouth!

This is why he holds so many rallies and wants the lockdown relaxed so he can continue these rallies as the next election looms.

There was another Austrian Political leader who used similar propaganda techniques in the 1930’s!

He’s handle the covid crisis terribly and made some ‘foot in mouth’ gaffs Prince Phillip would be proud off! I haven’t seen the parade mentioned in the OP but can only assume it’s all been orchestrated such to make him look good again!

Yes very cynical and obviously I’m no fan of Trump!

[Cliff the Canary 63]

 

[Cliff the Canary 63]

 

Edited May 9, 2020 by Cliff the Canary

[lake district canary 4,831]

Trump has proved time and time again he  is not fit to be in charge of anything, yet somehow people are taken in by him.......much the way people were taken in by Boris at the last election.  It is unbelievable that so many people are taken in by these politicians......it is almost as if they are desperate to see good them even if all the evidence suggests they are not up to the job in terms of their leadership qualities or ethics. 

I quite like Boris, but not as a prime minister.  I don't get Trump at all though and if so many people in the US do see something in him, then it really colours what people in the rest of the world perceive of Americans.  It looks like the US is so insular right now, not an outlooking world power, but an inward looking one with an "us against the rest of the world" stance......which frankly is bad for world politics and world peace.

The US deserves something better (as does the UK with the conservatives or labour in charge) but while the people fall for the lies and misinformation of their leading politicians, things won't change in a hurry.  There are alternatives out there...there are ethical politicians and political movements that have better outlook on how things should be done, but at the moment the UK and the US are stuck in the same kind of loop of politics and media - huge power bases each feeding off each other, with little time or room for ethics and all the time trying to bolster their position at all costs, rather than actually do a good job. 

That's what you get when you have populism politics - all style and no substance. 

 

[Monty13 2,736]

2 hours ago, Surfer said:

Yes credit where it is due. I did comment that there were no VE Day celebrations in the US, but apparently I was wrong - this event proves that. 
 

Just one small detail puzzles me. Given that in the previous 24 hours the President’s valet, and VIce President’s press secretary, married to one of the President’s key policy and speech writers, were both diagnosed with CoronaVirus: why was no one wearing a mask? 

The evidence on masks is very mixed to say the least. The WHO doesn’t recommend everyone wear them.

We have to wear them at our work and it’s totally pointless as most people can’t stop touching them accidentally, especially if you have to talk a decent amount making them more of a potential exposure issue than a protection.

Clearly professionals dealing with Covid patients and potential Covid exposure need to wear good PPE, but for the rest of us I’m  unconvinced.

[Bill 1,788]

I'm surprised he didn't wear his Vietnam service medals

[PurpleCanary 6,387]

This is not so much about Trump but it occurred to me today on my daily walk that it is still said in the US that anyone can go from a log cabin to the White House.

Of course now that would be from a blog cabin, or even a vlog cabin, to the White House, although in The Netherlands it would still be from a clog cabin, and in the case of a sado-masochist would-be politician from a flog cabin...

[paddycanary 580]

or a heavy drinker from a grog cabin

a canine from a dog cabin

someone with the scuts from a bog cabin

Porky Pig from a hog cabin

French kissers from a snog cabin

can't think of any more

[Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man 4,626]

1 minute ago, paddycanary said:

or a heavy drinker from a grog cabin

a canine from a dog cabin

someone with the scuts from a bog cabin

Porky Pig from a hog cabin

French kissers from a snog cabin

can't think of any more

A mechanical engineer from a cog cabin

A runner in a jog cabin

Kermit in a Frog cabin

Someone with a thick duvet in a tog cabin

Someone who collects small discs in a pog cabin

Someone who can't see very far in front of his face in a fog cabin

Didier in a Drog cabin

[Block Y Seat 176 80]

5 hours ago, lake district canary said:

Trump has proved time and time again he  is not fit to be in charge of anything, yet somehow people are taken in by him.......much the way people were taken in by Boris at the last election.  It is unbelievable that so many people are taken in by these politicians......it is almost as if they are desperate to see good them even if all the evidence suggests they are not up to the job in terms of their leadership qualities or ethics. 

I quite like Boris, but not as a prime minister.  I don't get Trump at all though and if so many people in the US do see something in him, then it really colours what people in the rest of the world perceive of Americans.  It looks like the US is so insular right now, not an outlooking world power, but an inward looking one with an "us against the rest of the world" stance......which frankly is bad for world politics and world peace.

The US deserves something better (as does the UK with the conservatives or labour in charge) but while the people fall for the lies and misinformation of their leading politicians, things won't change in a hurry.  There are alternatives out there...there are ethical politicians and political movements that have better outlook on how things should be done, but at the moment the UK and the US are stuck in the same kind of loop of politics and media - huge power bases each feeding off each other, with little time or room for ethics and all the time trying to bolster their position at all costs, rather than actually do a good job. 

That's what you get when you have populism politics - all style and no substance. 

 

Voters across the political spectrum voted for the single most important thing that needed resolving at the last election. Brexit.  The message was clear from Boris  and he has honoured that pledge following a landslide result. I don't think anyone was taken in by him. The same goes for Trump, if he has promised jobs and increased prosperity to his supporters of middle America and delivered, then he will be re elected, despite all the negativity around his manner and style.

[Surfer 1,547]

Well, he hasn’t done either of those things. So there is that. But if you believe that was the key reason he was elected .... ah bless as they say. 

[Bill 1,788]

1 hour ago, Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man said:

A mechanical engineer from a cog cabin

A runner in a jog cabin

Kermit in a Frog cabin

Someone with a thick duvet in a tog cabin

Someone who collects small discs in a pog cabin

Someone who can't see very far in front of his face in a fog cabin

Didier in a Drog cabin

a dyslectic from a glo plugin

[Bill 1,788]

1 hour ago, Block Y Seat 176 said:

Voters across the political spectrum voted for the single most important thing that needed resolving at the last election. Brexit.  The message was clear from Boris  and he has honoured that pledge following a landslide result. I don't think anyone was taken in by him. The same goes for Trump, if he has promised jobs and increased prosperity to his supporters of middle America and delivered, then he will be re elected, despite all the negativity around his manner and style.

err, actually neither have

unless you consider,  the EU now will be controlling a border INSIDE the UK

the UK paying the £39bn it once said could go whistle fot

still members of the Single Market and the Customs Union - only with now with no say in their running

and still under the jurisdiction of the ECJ,  has honoured some pledge

or maybe they were lies and yet more failures as with the Garden Bridge the buses that had to be changed to deliver, the cable car, the water cannon - or the other loss making helter skelter, the Olympic village sold off to some dodgy arabs (half price0, West Ham getting the stadium for a song, the never built rejuvenated Crystal Palace, Boris Island (airport

all in all projects that have cost around £940m excluding ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, the Olympic sites

let's hope he does not make any more pledges - the country cannot afford them 😥

 

 

[PurpleCanary 6,387]

12 hours ago, PurpleCanary said:

This is not so much about Trump but it occurred to me today on my daily walk that it is still said in the US that anyone can go from a log cabin to the White House.

Of course now that would be from a blog cabin, or even a vlog cabin, to the White House, although in The Netherlands it would still be from a clog cabin, and in the case of a sado-masochist would-be politician from a flog cabin...

I seem to have started something...🤩

[lake district canary 4,831]

12 hours ago, Block Y Seat 176 said:

Voters across the political spectrum voted for the single most important thing that needed resolving at the last election. Brexit.  The message was clear from Boris  and he has honoured that pledge following a landslide result. I don't think anyone was taken in by him.

People were sucked in to the brexit thing - which lets not forget started out as a party political thing - Cameron promising a referendum to bolster his party's vote over Ukip. So started out as party political.....Cameron didn't get the result he wanted people so we had the next big hope - Theresa May who almost managed to f*** it up, but still won, then Boris, who surprise surprise gets a landslide and the tories march on. 

It is only the ineptitude of the opposition that allowed this to happen......but then if you look even deeper, you will see that labour lost so much in Scotland when - yes you guessed it - the tories - who devolved power to Scotland and bolstered their position still more in the long run, lessening labour's chance of ever getting back in power. 

So we have Boris who got us over a line in the sand over brexit, but it is still up in the air what will happen over the details - nothing has really been sorted.....the same Boris who blows with the wind saying whatever he thinks people want  to hear.  The people have been taken in all down the line, ever since the referendum was a twinkle in Cameron and Osborne's eye.  

Its been the same year after year - tory tory tory......and labour voters did the unimaginable.....voted for them in droves.....and for what?  Do they really think the tories will improve their attitude to traditional labour voters?  Really?  Lip service they will get, but not much more.  Even before the coronavirus crisis, the finances in this country were dire...yet the tories announced an even bigger spending plan than labour had........"yes, we'll deliver brexit and we'll pour money in to the poorer areas and invest everywhere".....well he got us over the line with brexit - but nothing has been decided as to the detail of that. It is still as much in the air as it was before we got over that line - and the economy is going to take a good while before Boris can spend any of the non existent money he made out that he had.

The US and the UK are stymied by their political systems - systems which are geared up to one of two options when in reality the options are much wider. You might say that a two party system is better than a one party system like in many countries around the world, but really, the answer long term is coalition politics - or consensus politics or whatever you want to call it.......people working together for the common good, not purely for the elites and not purely for the less well of.  Left/Right, democrat/republic, tory/labour.  Germany has shown the way - coalitions with all parties represented fairly and often seen as a success story to look up to.   And we in the English speaking world get Trump and Boris. 

[Rock The Boat 1,332]

16 minutes ago, lake district canary said:

People were sucked in to the brexit thing - which lets not forget started out as a party political thing - Cameron promising a referendum to bolster his party's vote over Ukip. So started out as party political.....Cameron didn't get the result he wanted people so we had the next big hope - Theresa May who almost managed to f*** it up, but still won, then Boris, who surprise surprise gets a landslide and the tories march on. 

It is only the ineptitude of the opposition that allowed this to happen......but then if you look even deeper, you will see that labour lost so much in Scotland when - yes you guessed it - the tories - who devolved power to Scotland and bolstered their position still more in the long run, lessening labour's chance of ever getting back in power. 

So we have Boris who got us over a line in the sand over brexit, but it is still up in the air what will happen over the details - nothing has really been sorted.....the same Boris who blows with the wind saying whatever he thinks people want  to hear.  The people have been taken in all down the line, ever since the referendum was a twinkle in Cameron and Osborne's eye.  

Its been the same year after year - tory tory tory......and labour voters did the unimaginable.....voted for them in droves.....and for what?  Do they really think the tories will improve their attitude to traditional labour voters?  Really?  Lip service they will get, but not much more.  Even before the coronavirus crisis, the finances in this country were dire...yet the tories announced an even bigger spending plan than labour had........"yes, we'll deliver brexit and we'll pour money in to the poorer areas and invest everywhere".....well he got us over the line with brexit - but nothing has been decided as to the detail of that. It is still as much in the air as it was before we got over that line - and the economy is going to take a good while before Boris can spend any of the non existent money he made out that he had.

The US and the UK are stymied by their political systems - systems which are geared up to one of two options when in reality the options are much wider. You might say that a two party system is better than a one party system like in many countries around the world, but really, the answer long term is coalition politics - or consensus politics or whatever you want to call it.......people working together for the common good, not purely for the elites and not purely for the less well of.  Left/Right, democrat/republic, tory/labour.  Germany has shown the way - coalitions with all parties represented fairly and often seen as a success story to look up to.   And we in the English speaking world get Trump and Boris. 

Your tone is actually quite an ugly patronising one. You seem to be critical of the way people voted. We have a system that allows people a free vote made from their own free will which makes it the best system of all. 

[Block Y Seat 176 80]

17 minutes ago, Rock The Boat said:

Your tone is actually quite an ugly patronising one. You seem to be critical of the way people voted. We have a system that allows people a free vote made from their own free will which makes it the best system of all. 

The electorate were  placed in an impossible position during the last election.

"Between a rock and a hard place", an adage used to refer to a dilemma, a situation offering at least two possibilities, neither of which is acceptable.

I voted Lib Dem for the last few election. Mr Lambs decision  not to stand left me in  that dilemma.

It is not the electorates fault that Labour had a poor campaign and emerged as unelectable when it came to putting your X on the ballot paper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[First Wazzock 1,014]

31 minutes ago, Rock The Boat said:

 We have a system that allows people a free vote made from their own free will which makes it the best system of all. 

But having watched the Jordan Klepper Vs. Trump supporters clip above, it does make you wonder if there should be some sort of IQ test you have to take before you can cast a vote.

[lake district canary 4,831]

Democracy may or may not be the best form of government, but there are ways to make it more democratic and negate some of the impact of the two party system that prevails still. For labour voters to vote tory - even if it was on a once only ticket - was utterly shameful. Ok, I understand - don't vote labour - they don't deserve it......but why go for tories?   Will people never learn what the tory party is all about?   "Duuuurrrr, we want brexit" was what came out of the last election. 

What were people afraid of?  That voting liberals would let the tories in? Errr......That voting Green would let the tories in?.......Err............oh I know lets just vote the tories in and have done with it.......the "duuurrr, we want brexit" syndrome.

Well once they got in, what did the tories do - and what they will carry on doing?   Yep - carry on promising the earth and they will keep doing that - the kind of mantra that Trump uses - we are great, we will do this, we will do that, blame everyone else for anything that is wrong............why do they get away with it?  Because a good proportion of voters are either incapable of seeing the truth or are just like sheep. 

So you wanted your brexit......you got it, but then again you don't have it......very little has been decided about what happens out of the EU and to be honest, in the present situation, it might have been more sensible to put a stop to it until the world settles down again, if it ever does.  Brexit is a result of the Tory party afraid of losing power, that is all, from Cameron promising a referendum and then stupid enough to action it, right through to the present day.

Baa!

 

[Surfer 1,547]

1 hour ago, Rock The Boat said:

We have a system that allows people a free vote made from their own free will which makes it the best system of all. 

That's a good start, but it can be improved. For as Stalin is reputed to have said, "those who vote decide nothing, those that count decide everything" Just focusing on freedom to vote misses a broader point. 

The fact is democratic countries have developed systems that can produce wildly unrepresentative outcomes, UK "first past the post" and US "electoral college"  being two of them. Better than other many other solutions to be sure, but still badly screwed up. 

 

Edited May 10, 2020 by Surfer

[paddycanary 580]

On 09/05/2020 at 22:32, Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man said:

A mechanical engineer from a cog cabin

A runner in a jog cabin

Kermit in a Frog cabin

Someone with a thick duvet in a tog cabin

Someone who collects small discs in a pog cabin

Someone who can't see very far in front of his face in a fog cabin

Didier in a Drog cabin

utterly amazed from agog cabin

Jewish worship synagogue cabin

Pink Floyd from a prog cabin

quite recently deemed acceptable racism golliwog cabin

Onel's Argos catalogue cabin

direct speech in a dialogue cabin

i'll stop now

 

(p.s. Didier in a Drog = clear winner)