With no sense of irony, a “liberal” media which rightly excoriates the President of Gambia for failing to accept an election result, continues to do precisely the same thing in the case of Donald Trump. No invective is too strong to be cast against a man whose election the “liberal” media did everything possible to prevent.
With the happy resignation of Stephen Daisley, a strong contender for worst journalist in the World is now Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian. He takes the irony to an entirely new level. He claims that Trump will destroy the legacy by which smaller nations “long looked to the US to maintain something close to a rules-based international system.” He completely ignores the fact that the greatest single hammer blow against the rules based international system was delivered by Freedland’s idol Tony Blair, when he supported the invasion of Iraq without a Security Council Resolution and in the specific knowledge that, if the matter of force were properly put to the Security Council, it would not merely meet three vetoes but lose a majority vote.
The UN, and the rule of international law, have never recovered from that hammer blow, which Freedland enthusiastically cheered on. Nor has Freedland apparently noticed that the smaller nations rather detest than worship the USA. It has invaded and bombed them, interfered in their elections, supported right wing coups and armies, run destabilising CIA drug rings in them, and armed and even sometimes led dictatorial death squads. Look at all those US Security Council vetoes and the resolutions that never got to a vote because of threatened US vetoes. Look at all those General Assembly votes that were everyone against the USA, Israel and the poor occupied Marshall Islands. Freedland’s hymn to the Pax Americana is a sick joke. For much of the world, a period of American isolationism would be extremely welcome.
I am thankfully too clear-headed to like Trump because of the extraordinary campaign of vilification to which he has been subjected. Freedland has no shame about repeating the lie that Trump kept Hitler’s speeches by his bedside. I was in a position to know for sure that the “Russian hacking” elements of the extraordinary “Manchurian candidate” rubbish which the entire establishment threw at Trump was definitively untrue. I had the background and training to see that the Christopher Steele dossier was not only nonsense, but a fake, not in fact produced seriatim on the dates claimed. The involvement of the US security services in spreading lies as intelligence to undermine an incoming President will go down as a crucial moment in US history. We have not yet seen the denouement of that story.
But none of that makes Trump a good person. He could be an appalling monster and still be subjected to dirty tricks by other very bad people. There is much about Trump to dislike. His sensible desire for better relations with Russia is matched by a stupid drive to goad China.
Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric did tap in to the populist racism which is unfortunately sweeping developed countries at the moment. The very wealthy have succeeded in diverting justified anger at the results of globalisation on to immigrant populations, who are themselves victims of globalisation. By shamelessly tapping in to the deep wells of popular atavism, the elite have managed the extraordinary trick of escaping the wrath their appalling profiteering and extreme levels of wealth should bring. His words on race in his inauguration address were good, but does he really mean them? His anti-Muslim rhetoric remains deeply troubling. His ludicrous boast yesterday that he would end radical Islamic terrorism is precisely indicative of the counter-productive stupidity that feeds it.
I am a free trader and dislike the march of protectionism. But on the other hand, international trade agreements have become routinely not about tariffs but much more about the allocation of resources within the states concerned, mandating a neo-liberal model and giving extraordinary legal status to multinational companies. The collapse of the current model of international trade agreement, if that is what Trump really heralds, has both its positive and negative aspects.
It is of course a major question whether the establishment and his own Republican party allow him to do anything too radical at all. My own suspicion is that after all the huffing and puffing, nothing much is going to change. The key intra-party battle will probably be over the only policy he affirmed in any detail yesterday, the return of New Deal type state infrastructure spending. The idea of a massive state funded programme of national infrastructure, particularly in transport, to get heavy industry back on its feet, is the very antithesis of neo-liberalism. I think yesterday cleared up the question of whether Trump really meant it – he does. Will he be allowed to do it by a party committed to small state and balanced budgets, is a huge question. As Trump is also committed to tax cuts, it implies a massive budget deficit – with which Trump might well be comfortable. If Trump does succeed, it could fundamentally shift the way western governments look at economics, turning back the clock to the happier days before the advent of monetarism.
So that is Trump. Much that is bad but some fascinating things to watch. I suppose the reason I can’t join in the “it’s a disaster” screams, is that I thought it was already a disaster. The neo-liberal, warmongering orthodoxies did not have my support, despite Obama’s suave veneer. The pandering to racist populism of Trump is bad, and we must keep a watch on it. He may turn out not really to be different at all. Like all politicians, personal enrichment will doubtless be high on his agenda. But I do not start from the presumption the world is now a worse place than it was last week. I shall wait and see.
Obama’s liberal/left rhetoric, his skillful use of progressive labels and signs, his emphatic embrace of Hollywood and the music industry, always hid his underlying politics beneath a shiny gloss, like a bauble hanging on a Christmas tree, and those politics were mainstream Republican in character. The allowed him, for eight years, to pretend, to promise a lot, but deliver very, very, little indeed. What was remarkable about Obama was how little he used the huge ‘revolutionary’ mandate the electorate gave him, how unwilling he was to stomp on the Republicans when they were down and create a progressive coalition that might have held power for decades. Instead, he reached down to the Republicans and held out his hand in bi-partisan friendship, lifting a broken and defeated party up from its knees.
The biggest success of the Obama years was saving Wall Street from collapse by channeling trillions of dollars from the state into the pockets of the super-rich. Yet, this was ‘welfare reform’, yes, this was ‘socialism in action.’ Yes, this showed Oabama really was a Marxist. That was easily his greatest achievement. Only their was no bail-out for mainstreet. No trillions for ordinary Americans or a massive job-creation programme, which showed how deeply conservative Obama really was. And all this, set the scene for the rise of Trump. The voters tried a revolutionary from the left; that didn’t work, so now they chose one from the right. Wonder how that’ll pan out and what happens next time, in 2024?
My opinion of Obomber is pretty low, as is my opinion of Trump and both Clinton’s. However, hope actually resided in the shape of Bernie Sanders who at least offered a return to FDR-type politics and economics, that the New Democrat’s perverted his elevation, whilst assisting in the elevation of Trump is unforgivable!
Yes the Guardian has a long list of objectionable writers pandering to neo-con wars and displays an insane level of hypocrisy concerning the human rights of Assange. But have you read below the line much? It’s now swamped by Tories and UKIP supporters. Doesn’t constantly berating and deserting outlets like the Guardian in blanket terms as the ‘liberal media’ leave them with an increasingly right-wing readership that in turn feeds into their editorial and marketing policies?
Aurora,
As a once loyal Guardian reader the change you allude too became oh so apparent the moment Tony Blair stepped down as Prime Minster, it was a period when CIF actually was ‘Free’ and most BTL comments were from left-of-centre types, with the odd Tory thrown into the mix, the fact was the Commentators originally matched the then Paper’s readership in their political persuasions, this began to change dramatically circa 2009/10 when we became aware of a deluge of Daily Hate and Daily Torygraph types entering the fray – before long it was ‘open warfare’. By the time Rushbriger decided to change the status of the Scott Trust and then re-orientate the paper to both the USA and Australia, the damage had been done – I now utilise alt-Left websites and Blogs critical of the system we find ourselves in, but to say the majority of posters BTL on The Guardian website are a rightwing lot would be an understatement – just a shame only a few engage on Off-Guardian.
Yes, that seems accurate. But there are some good writers still working for the paper. There was a brief revival in leftwing comments with Corbyn’s election but that seems to have ebbed away. At the same time the moderators are notorious for removing non-mainstream comments trying to make alternative connections to events, implicating Saudia Arabia, Murdoch etc. But my worry is the bubble effect. I’d rather the Guardian with all its contradictions than social media bubbles (including my own) where the same ideas circulate.
Trump Will Fail
– “Trump will fail. Trump believes in the second form of government – dictatorship. (Versus the first – open society democracy). But the institutions of the US are strong enough to see him off. Trump will fail.” – paraphrased.
– George Soros in Davos @ 8.50, 19th January 2017 – video at Bloomberg –
– https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2017-01-19/in-conversation-with-george-soros-at-davos-2017
Didn’t listen to Trump’s inauguration speech. Not healthy! Because I’d read the following – “Having made the psychologically damaging error of listening to Trump’s Inauguration speech,” ; )
It’s the 2003 Bush / Cheney Know-Nothings again –
‘Trump is Bringing the War Back Home’, by Peter Arnott, 21st January 2017 – BellaCaledonia –
– http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2017/01/21/trump-is-bringing-the-war-back-home/
If true, GOOD.
They deserve it. All of it. All those USan ‘Good Germans’ who averted their eyes from murder, from torture-to-death, from 27,000 missing ‘disappeared’ muslims, all arabs – “Are they alive or is Obama inheriting mass graves, in which case there will be a lot apologising to do.” – Robert Fisk 2008. After which silence. So mass graves then -, from illegal war, genocide and the supreme war crime, from which all others flow, Aggression. All those USans who have not yet publicly said “Why did I avert my eyes from Murder, from Torture, from Illegal War, Why did I not say “Not in my name” “.
To hell with all of them. And their UK catamite partners.
27,000 Disappeared Muslims
– See ‘27,000 Disappeared Muslims’ a comment to “Iraq War Logs: Secret Files Show How US Ignored Torture”, by Nick Davies, Jonathan Steele and David Leigh, October 22, 2010 – ICH –
– http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26671.htm
More – See comments to Trump Inauguration address – ICH –
– http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46273.htm
Lighter Side of Life:
https://img.ifcdn.com/images/cafbf12fa735ac3ad60e7fd795efee901b5711ec8a2f83ffc157d0c6d91a7de4_1.jpg
Thousands of women, all over the world, get it
‘Thousands of women march against Trump around the UK and the world
21st January 2017
Thousands of women are marching in protest against Donald Trump’s presidency in cities across the UK, and around the world.
The London march began at the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square, taking in Park Lane, Piccadilly and Pall Mall, ahead of a rally in its final destination – Trafalgar Square.
Slogans on placards included “dump Trump”, “reject hate, reclaim politics” and “no to racism, no to Trump”.
Organisers say it is “part of an international day of action in solidarity” on President Trump’s first full day in office.
One protester, 32-year-old Kim McInally, held a sign saying: “My p**** is not up for grabs.”
“Yesterday was seen as the official start of fascism coming back,” she said.
“Human rights and human equality is getting pushed further and further down the list.”
Other British cities hosting protests include Manchester, Edinburgh, Belfast, Liverpool and Cardiff.
Just 72 hours after an event was organised in Bristol, more than 1,000 people marched from Queen Square to College Green.
One of the signs there read: “We Reject The Comb-Over Con”.’
to be continued….
http://news.sky.com/story/thousands-of-women-march-against-trump-around-the-uk-and-the-world-10736875
Ms McInally is wrong. Fascism is already here.
” Fascism is already here. ”
In YOUR Mind, so sorry to hear that!
Ms McNally is no Virgin Mary, just another prude.
In reality if you look around but you have to take your blinkers off first.
Read on about human rights and human equality.
Thanks but those are very enticing ideologies Mary.
Everything begins from the spark inside.
We are not born equal, never were, never will be. Even physically, one is born short, the other tall; one is ugly, the other is beautiful; one has a Gambian passport, the other Swiss; one is entitled to the clean air of New Zealand, the other is condemned to the pollution of ‘New’ Delhi; one has endless drinking water, the other drinks from puddles on a dirty path: one eats very well, the other goes hungry at night.
Never mind blinkers try flipping the switch in your ‘own’ brain sometime. Sorry, it is you that is the escape artist: repeat, repeat, repeat endlessly. And that is your secure little world from which you copy-paste-spout all that you bring. You are cosy and comfy in it, bigly and verily. You have never thought one single thing out for yourself on this board. Try it sometime, it’s never too late, until it is.
What do you make of Trump?
I am obviously not allowed to reply to yet another ad hominem. The poster concerned knows nothing about my life and is therefore unable to make these offensive remarks.
I think the lurch to the political right by many on the affluent liberal/left, leaving the poor behind, leaving old-fashioned ‘class warfare’ politics behind, has been a disaster and not just for the poor, but ultimately for the liberal/left as well, and I see this symbolized by the Guardian. I think they’ll all fade away, like the Labour Party, because the didn’t evolve quickly enough when the economy, society and politcs changed.
So the same MSM media that pound Russia for “propaganda” have no problem apparently to spread propaganda against Trump (or against Russia for that matter!) 24/7.
The liberal MSM and its supporter is in my view the biggest threat to this world, never before have I watched such hate and complete disgregard for objectivity.
As for Trump, I hope it goes well and prove all the scaremongers in the MSM away. Either case, this man is far better than Hillary Clinton, at the same time, one shouldnt be overoptimistic, Trump has enemies everywhere.
Aso – Tariffs mean more money for the people according to Trump and his supporters, not for big companies (i.e Wall Street the founder(?) of Hillary Clinton’s livelihood).
“Like all politicians, personal enrichment will doubtless be high on his agenda.”
That’s not necessarily true – despite all the stories about various businesses making losses, he’s clearly figured out how to support an extravagant lifestyle, so he won’t need to be like the evil Blairs and Clintons whose only purpose in life seems to be making money out of their offices.
If he imposes price controls on pharmaceuticals that would be something. Otherwise his polices (such as suppose them to be) appear to be those espoused by the Koch brothers and their fellow billionaires with some added popular measures and realingment of international focus. I was surprised by how enthusiastically many gushed about Blair when he was elected, ditto Obama. Now the more cynical among us have fallen for a trick. You have to think about the dog whistles. Trump says America First, but some of his supporters hear something else.
People like Freedland have done interminable damage in the cause of driving a wedge through the voting populace. He sees himself, together with his pro-establishment colleagues, as some kind of exorcist of the evil Trump, to preserve the status quo from which he and others have done so well. He writes:
“. . . The work of opposition starts now – and here’s how it might work.
At the front of the queue, as it were, are the press. There’s no doubt Trump sees it that way. With Clinton out of the way, the media has become his enemy of choice. The media’s very existence seems to infuriate him. Perhaps because it’s now the only centre of power he doesn’t control. With the White House and Congress in Republican hands, and the casting vote on the supreme court an appointment that’s his to make, it’s no wonder the fourth estate rankles: he already controls the other three.
That puts a great burden of responsibility on the press. . .”
Many non-partisan observers may conclude that Trump has been so vilified by mainstream press sources that they made him their enemy, not the way Freedland presents it. Quite clearly the Guardian is going to continue this until it realises it has made a big mistake. I used to buy The Guardian, a former regional paper which had broken the mould, right up to the eighties but later switched to The Independent.
I recall in those days how supportive The Guardian was of women’s rights, the anti-war movement (Greenham Common and CND), care for environmental issues (Greenpeace) and how opposed it was to infanrt racist movements like the National Front. It gave a voice to the left of the Labour Party and won the hearts of many. Its readership just like the innumerable members who would remain in the Labour Party despite Tony Blair and his warmongering policies, stayed loyal. They clearly did not notice the change that had taken place.
A friend, who was active at Greenham Common and in other peace movements, has bought the Guardian nonsense wholesale, and has protested the Trump inauguration. Many on the left still have the same problem. They believe what Freedland says and play right into the hands of George Soros and the big boys gunning for another coup, to retain power, wealth and influence they might otherwise be in danger of losing. They cannot see their beloved Guardian has become something much the opposite of what it used to be.
The appeal for funds to read this shit is ludicrous. Unfortunately we all have to pay our BBC licence fees.
The CIA is a more dangerous enemy of Trump than the media. The CIA kills presidents. The media merely help in the cover-up.
Good point because the CIA is under, if not threat, at least the threat of modernisation.
The plumber in charge has moved into the centre of the swamp, but does he has his draining equipment?
Trump, when asked whether he will carry on tweeting said ‘off course’. here he has a community that will lap up his missives, a Government by twatter.
That this will lead to many headlines, discussions on the day and debates around his 140 character messages will fuel the fake news agenda of the MSM.
well said, thanks
As for the future under Trump, please consider the view of David Stockman who worked for Reagan economic team. He describes Reagan’s failure to accomplish what he set out to do:
quote:
In fact, the $930 billion of public debt Ronald Reagan inherited had erupted to $2.7 trillion by the time he left office. Stated differently, the $1.8 trillion Reagan added to the debt was nearly double that incurred by all of his 39 predecessors during the first 190 years of the Republic.
Republican cheerleaders have pronounced the 1980s to have been a supply side miracle of growth and resurgent capitalist vigor. But it was actually nothing remarkable except for a three-year boom of 4-6% real GDP growth in the mid-1980s fueled by the greatest Keynesian deficit stimulus ever imagined before that time. At the peak, red ink exceeded 6% of GDP compared, for instance, to LBJ’s infamous “guns and butter” deficits which barely amounted to 2% of GDP.
endquote
And then he describes how much worse the situation is today:
quote:
The implications for the Great Disruptor taking the oath today could not be any clearer. His predecessors have entirely used up the nation’s public balance sheet. Whereas the Gipper inherited a debt equal to just 30% of GDP and had wide-open fiscal spaces to stumble into the political accident of the giant Reagan deficits, Donald Trump has no running room at all with a public debt at 106% of GDP.
Donald Trump has no running room at all with a public debt at 106% of GDP.
Moreover, unlike the Gipper, Donald Trump self-evidently has an affinity for debt and lots of it, and a program that by design is in many way more fiscally irresponsible than Reagan’s was, at least on paper.
On top of that, Trump is fixing to unleash political forces from the Imperial City’s vasty deep that will strangle and paralyze the process of governance within six months.
We refer here to “repeal and replace” on Obamacare, restoring America’s military strength, the corporate tax cut and reform, the infrastructure program, the turn toward protectionism and his nativist promises to close off the borders and expel millions of illegals.
The truth is, our splinted and checks-and-balances ridden Madison system of government serves the nation well most of the time because it quells the natural impulses of elected politicians to intervene, meddle and spend.
But when you are sitting on a ticking time bomb of entitlements and public debt and possessed with a program to make it worse, you are asking for a legislative train wreck.
In the days ahead we could be seeing the Great Conflagration — which is likely to be Trump’s legacy.
Trump will likely lose control of the fiscal equitation nearly from Day One — and most especially after the debt ceiling holiday expires on March 15 and the countdown to a thundering debt ceiling crisis begins.
. . .
The chances that anything other than a fiscal bloodbath results from this posse of amateurs and irreconcilables is somewhere between slim and none.
endquote
cheers
The US financial position is perilous and it may not be capable of remedy. Any plan to fix the situation is of necessity high risk. Trump has such a plan.
Fortune 500 Companies are, in aggregate, holding $2.4 trillion offshore and Trump wants this brought back to the US. To get companies to comply with his desires he will likely need to offer tax incentives.
He intends taking an ax to certain spending programs. When you strip out all of the politics and emotion from immigration then you are left with the fact that mass (and often illegal) immigration costs the US a lot of money. Trump is on this case.
If he can return high paid jobs to the US and grow GDP at 4%pa theb this will soon eat into the debt burden.
To get more cash he intends shaking down certain allies and partners – particularly Germany. There is no doubt that the Germans will pay -so that is as good as cash in the bank.
Maybe he will not be successful or maybe he will but will generate inflation – inflation which thanks to historic Fed policy cannot be controlled.
“He intends taking an ax to certain spending programs. When you strip out all of the politics and emotion from immigration then you are left with the fact that mass (and often illegal) immigration costs the US a lot of money.”
often said, never proven
in fact illegal immigrants are a huge $ benefit to usa economy
please reconsider your view, do some homework
OK I have reconsidered my view and note that there are 97 million Americans not in the labor force and that labor force participation rates are now back at 1978 levels – so whatever the benefits of illegal immigration they are not connected to work.
Importing excess workers drives down wages so no $ benefit there (huge or otherwise)
George Soros (not a man to be trusted) suggests that the net cost to Europe is $35 billion per 500,000 immigrants. This aligns with estimates from German dentists who believe that recent migrants require $ billions in expenditure on dental treatment. Maybe illegal immigrants to the US are pre-vetted for tooth decay.
A lot of the illegals in the US are of Mexican origin and it is known that a lot of them send money back to their families in Mexico. Quite how exporting wealth out of the US is beneficial to the US escapes me. Conversely Carlos Slim (one of the 8 richest men in the world) is more than happy with the situation as he just keeps getting richer.
Obvious when you think about. The US has to provide a whole range of public services most of which are free to use by anyone inside the US(think sewers, roads, public lighting, etc etc). By definition Mexico does not have to provide any of these things for people not resident in Mexico – and yet it (or more often Carlos Slim)n still collects the revenue as though these people were resident.
Please do let me know what I’ve missed here. It must be something massive if after all those negatives illegal immigrants are a huge $ benefit.
If Trump is going to create jobs in the US and grow GDP at 4% pa then he has no choice but to confront China. His avowed policy toward China is only “stupid” if the intention is to preside over continued economic decline and the ongoing offshoring of jobs.
Trump does not seem to care about the media and is openly contemptuous of them – contrast this with the historic fawning of UK politicians at the alter of Murdoch.
I don’t see why his claim (or boast if you prefer) that he would destroy Islamic terrorism is ludicrous. Surely no one wants terrorists – Islamic or otherwise. It is no secret where these people come from. They are radicalized mostly via Saudi Arabian money and there are parallels with the radicalization of Chechens. The Russians effectively destroyed Chechen Wahabbism – and so there is a precedent. It can be done.
I note that the Germans have finally woken up, but have moved from dreamworld to some form of hallucinatory state. The head of Handelsblatt opined on Trump by observing “that was no presidential speech that was a veritable declaration of war.” You have to feel sorry for Germans. The war was last week. Germany lost and Trump made a victory speech.
Well Jeremy Corbyn has eventually declared his support for Brexit, (as if we didn’t already know) , by saying Scotland and the UK as a whole could benefit from it.
Corbyn is expected to form a three line whip, and order his MP’s to support Article 50. Corbyn was in Glasgow using Brexit, as a opportunity to try and win back voters and to highlight that like the SNP, independence is bad, bad bad.
Of course Corbyn wasn’t bothered by details such as massive job losses, lower wage packets and decreasing workers and human rights, when we are dragged out of the Single Market.
Indeed I wonder if Corbyn realised, after saying that Scotland and Sturgeon shouldn’t have a special EU deal, that his branch manager in Scotland Kezia Dugdale, actually wants a special EU deal for Scotland. Then again Dugdale is notorious for changing her mind, she’s the queen of flip flopping.
@Republicofscotland,
One was under the impression that the UK had elected to leave the EU and that this can only occur if the UK initiates A50 instructing the EU of its intent to leave the Institution. The Referendum that was called to decide this issue was called by a Conservative Government, not by the Labour – which funnily enough should have had a Referendum about the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, but somehow managed not to offer one, perhaps the GFC got in the way. Again, you then treat us to propaganda taken from a Guardian headline yesterday, implying a three man whip, despite Corbyn having only stated he’ll recommend Labour to vote for A50. You then bring Dugdale into the equation, who’s no fan of Corbyn and a most unreliable person at the best of times to garner some enmity between Scottish Labour and Corbyn’s Labour.
Now, as you and Mr Murray seem quite keen in supporting a nakedly neoliberal entity as the EU, particularly given neoliberalism is etched in ink across much of the Lisbon Treaty, then mention workers rights, rights won by the workers themselves on most occasions, and rights not worth a pigs arse when you are unemployed, as many are across Europe as a result of a failed monetary policy experiment, I find it hard to accept your missive, or lack of a missive when all facts are actually presented. Corbyn from day one of the Referendum process stated he’d support the outcome of the vote, which he is doing. He is not however supporting the UK removing itself from the European Economic Area, alas, he’s not the PM and until we actually trigger A50 their can be no dialogue with our EU peers. Alas, perhaps you can comment on the fact that Corbyn is actually meeting with the leaders of Leftwing political parties across the EU shortly to try and salvage something.
PS
Like many of my countrymen I vote Leave, I did so for both political and economic reasons, none of which concerned themselves with immigration.
“Now, as you and Mr Murray seem quite keen in supporting a nakedly neoliberal entity as the EU”
_______
As opposed to the naked neoliberal Tory government, oh please give me a break.
Thatcher, Cameron and now May were are intent on eroding our human and working rights, rights our forefathers bled for, the ECHR helps bolster these rights.
Scotland voted overwhelmingly to stay in the EU, indeed the vote to remain in the UK in 2014 was predicated on it. Now we’re being dragged out against our wishes.
http://www.thenational.scot/news/15038724.Jeremy_Corbyn_tries__to_sell_Brexit_to_Scots_as__more_devolution_/
RoS,
A few bones of contention, first the ECHR is not a part of the EU ,second, Scotland voted in a UK Referendum and the vote went to the ‘Out’ side, third, given Corbyn is hamstrung by his own malcontents within the PLP he’s got it tough whatever he does, however, within the Left of the Party a consensus is apparent that a Norway model should be adopted. On any and all other issues, again, Corbyn is not the PM, Corbyn would be best advised to support a UK Federation – McDonnell is already discussing this – Corbyn does not stand in the way of democracy, so if the Scots have another Referendum and Vote to leave the UK he’ll accept it with grace. I can go on, but be advised I too supported Scottish Independence, although find it difficult to understand why the hell the Scots want to be part of another neoliberal construct, one with form when it comes to destroying whole economies on the altar of a failed monetary experiment that has done more to damage European than ever the UK could do.
“As opposed to the naked neoliberal Tory government, oh please give me a break.”
That’s not the only alternative, is it? (and you know that). We in the UK can change our government from being a naked neoliberal Tory” one to something more socialist. We can do nothing about the neoliberal tendencies of the EU.
Trump has hardly been in the door of the White House for five minutes and already the liberal left are condemning him before any executive order has been actioned. I sincerely believe the protesters are mentally ill having been brain-washed for many years by lying acquisitive politicians and the cynical manipulative media in their pockets. A similar experience with those in the UK who cannot get their head around Brexit. This has got to stop. Lots of things have to stop and I believe DJT when he says he will sort it. Maybe the task is impossible to achieve, we shall see, but you can’t criticise him today for his possible failings of tomorrow. At least give the guy a chance. He may be a man of his word which usually the professional liars (politicians) are not.
Parky
Very similar to my views, hey demonstrators the election is over! Trump won, accept and move on with your life! – should the message be.
But as you say MSM keep fueling the hate causing these violent people to go out in the streets. Its a disgrace and I suspect MSM will try to ruin Trump’s presidency every day now for atleast some months ahead of us, these people are nuts.
Keep up!! He has already signed an executive order which leads to the dismantling of Obamacare, as ridiculous as any changes to the US health system are when it is compared to the achievements of OUR NHS over the last 70 years.
Donald Trump begins repeal of Obamacare in golden Oval Office
The President signs his first executive order, which is designed to stop Barack Obama’s healthcare policy in its tracks.
http://news.sky.com/story/donald-trump-reveals-plan-for-missile-defence-system-10736231
That report is date stamped 10.14 this morning. 🙂
Mary do you realise that not everyone is an unpaid professional Keeper-Upper, Race-Runner constantly sucking the teats of the Media, lthis time Murdoch’s Sky, like you?
We still don’t know what your views of Trump are for example, please share.
Also what do you make of Fox News? I think Murdoch/Fox have been great in handling the elections coverage and great for Julian Assange.
They’re probably funded by Soros.
Habby’s back from Washington, he knows how to stop it for you, just like Jim fixed it for you in the past Parky, he can do that for you.
I’m quiet fine thank you, just finished laying my floor, so tell us who has succumbed to madness, which, btw., is a slur not a mental illness?
Europe failed from day one because the elites could play it like they wanted, and some empirically challenged dreamers did not want to play at all, they sat on the fence moaning. Not a single party in the EU Parliament, bar the Greens ever wanted to reform the central shimmying. But sweat not most here never heard of anything the EU did at all, bar the bent bananas and slow introduction of a metric system, gosh how that excited everyone…
Non elected Commissioners, unaudited books, a CAP fraud department, just a few issues that never changed. No treaties backed up by voters, so
WHY HAS NOBODY EVER MADE A FUSS? Could it be that they earned a pretty penny from being in a single market? that they did not give a flying fcuk about us the EU citizens.
And the citizens said very little at all here, they are led by a gbnetic disposition to a winner takes all medieval cleptocracy,
Trump, imho, rather than uniting America, will create a situation close to civil war, all those who will loose Obama care could very likely swell the welfare system some more. Up to now he has only cut kobs, but I’m willing to watch for a year and see what he will do got the rust belt and the southern states, how he will persuade people to get into trade talks, when he can’t stop polluting. Who would let his companies get away with being dependent on coal? that is and will be the past.
‘He may be a man of his word’, well with that you are right, he may be, but this unread man is going about it the wrong way,imho.
And how was it for you, Habby? not much of an inauguration, wasn’t it, a bit of a damp (it was raining) squid, wasn’t it?
Excellent piece, Craig. I couldn’t agree more.
Another delightful aspect of Trump’s rise to power – as well as the Guardian’s fake liberals choking on their cornflakes – will be to watch it slowly dawn on the Telegraph’s pathetic Brexit crew that Trump isn’t on their side at all.
Staying on Labour for a moment, Lord McConnell of Glencorrodale, is bemoaning that it’s hard to get rid of job-for-life culture surrounding MP’s.
This coming from a unelected Labour lord who sits in the House of Lords, his gluteus maximus polishing the red benches, whilst he receives £300 a day for showing up, as they eat lavishly from a £1.3 million subsidised canteen at the taxpayers expense.
McConnell does have one point that I agree with, and that’s how so many comprehensively rejected MSP’s such as Anas Sarwar, and Kezia Dugdale can weasel their way back into parliament via the list system. The voters don’t want the lees, the dross the unwanted detritus showing up due to loopholes in the system.
McConnell was probably the worst FM Scotland has seen so far, indeed the last time the Labour branch office held government in Scotland, they built a whopping six houses, is it any wonder that Labour’s branch office in Scotland is looking at a thrashing during the council elections this year.
Of course just as Corbyn is intent on backing the Tory Brexit, Labour north of the border will team up with the Tories to try and win council seats.
Or Stewart Maxwell who lost his seat to the Conservatives in Eastwood last year, collected his £61,000 resettlement money off the tax payer before being given a high paid tax payer funded job as special advisor by the SNP government.
Like the lobster who barely noticed that its bathwater was warming quickly, we are sometimes unconscious of the speed with which society is changing. But the underlying reality of society in the United States is that the “middle class”, the ‘settlers’ working class, is collapsing quickly.
This ‘middle class’ is what modern America has been in the eyes of the world and of itself, affluent, upwardly mobile, thanks to unprecedented educational opportunities and rapid economic growth, which meant that there was an insatiable appetite for skilled and semi-skilled labour, and superficially ‘democratic’ which is to say that money, rather than caste markings such as accent and style, was the passport which broke down all barriers.
This of course is white America: there was no room in it for black people, the indigenous or Asians except as exotics, outliers.
Although its roots are very old this Middle Class America is really the fruit of the New Deal, whose main beneficiaries were the poor white people, for the most part rural and living, not uncomfortably, in economies which were not far from subsistence- such was the natural bounty of America that hunting and gathering, a small holding and seasonal wage labour could maintain an acceptable standard of living and even, given the educational system from free primary to the State University, throw up lawyers, doctors, writers and robber barons.
Those days are past now. The USA is settling back into two nations: Rich and Poor. And the poor are divided by all the markers cultivated by Identity politics. Which was another, less palatable, fruit of the New Deal-Mrs Roosevelt’s legacy as opposed to FDR’s. Not even in the depths of the Gilded Age was inequality, of wealth and income, as dramatic as it is now.
The Trump phenomenon has arisen out of the breakdown of a political system which is so corrupted that it no longer functions as a safety valve in times of crisis. It no longer allows the cries of the poor and the despair of the masses to be heard. Never before has Congress been so much under the control of the ruling class, never before has the media been so narrow in its focus, so deaf to outrage, so blind to the realities of a society in which unemployment is at unprecedented levels. That this is so is dramatically demonstrated by the “official” statistics which show that, while Labour Force participation rates are lower than they have ever been, ‘unemployment’ is around 5%! Which suggests a society in which early retirement is the general rule as people become so affluent that they find that spending their wealth is a full time occupation.
Trump is there, firstly because he was the only person who had the requisite name recognition, sources of finance and basic political ‘smarts’ to break the monopoly of the professional political machines- in itself an impressive achievement and something that hasn’t been done at the Presidential level successfully since 1828, (though it was almost done in 1896)-; and, secondly, because the United States was about to explode into mass uprisings. That this was so was clearly signaled in the incohate but widespread “Occupy” movements, which were so poorly reported and so trivialised that it is still not understood how quickly they spread across North America, and how many millions of young people were involved.
The real significance of Trump is that his election marks the end of a very long era in which the ruling ideology, fed through the media, ruled without challenge. The spectacle of the BBC, Washington Post, Guardian and New York Times inventing the nonsense that Trump won-and they lost- because Wikileaks and RT combined to promote him is the most dramatic indication of the collapse, which is bound to continue, of the self confidence of the media and its associated ideologists.
As to what Trump will do, apart from changing nothing essentially, he has very few options, and almost all of them are superior to the current course that the US is on.
As to his challenge to ‘minorities’ as he said himself during the election, it would be hard for them to be worse treated. The mass incarceration, the torn social safety net, even the erosion of voting rights in the Republican dominated states were all either brought about by Clinton and Obama or tolerated by them. The same is true of police militarisation and the complete inactivity of the Department of Justice in the face of the daily killing of young men. In fact the worst Police Department in the country is in Obama’s Chicago ruled by his first Chief of Staff and crony in chief Rahm Emanuel.
And so far as the working class is concerned-what did the Democrats ever do to repeal Taft Hartley which disarmed the Trade Union movement and drove it into irrelevance, racketeering and the promotion of suicidal policies (breaking foreign unions, lowering wages in potential competitor states) ? Hillary Clinton served for years on the board of Walmart, specialising in its anti-union strategies; the fact that Union Bosses backed her against Sanders tells us nothing about her but all we need to know about them.
As to wars Hillary takes or shares in the creation of chaos in at least thirty countries. As well as forging string links with some of the worst aggressors on the planet.
Here again, Trump can do no worse.
This article from the Trotskyist WSWS is worth reading in full. It highlights the role of the ‘next 9%’ the political class which Hillary et al represent par excellence:
” … The bottom 50 percent’s pre-tax share of national income has fallen from 20 percent in 1980 to 12 percent in 2014, while the income share of the top 1 percent has almost doubled to 20 percent. The wealthiest 1 percent now owns over 37 percent of household wealth, while the bottom 50 percent—roughly 160 million people—owns almost nothing, a mere 0.1 percent….the underlying data sheds light on another phenomenon that is essential to understanding American society: the role of the 9 percent of the population that falls below the 1 percent (the “next 9 percent”). This layer consists, broadly speaking, of more affluent sections of the middle class.
“The next 9 percent is comprised of privileged individuals who possess net wealth of between $1 million and $8 million and whose household incomes are between $155,000 and $430,000. They are business executives, academics, successful attorneys, professionals, trade union executives and trust fund beneficiaries. Their social grievances are the product of their privileged position. In every index of quality of life—access to health care, life expectancy, water and air quality, housing and home location, college degrees, vacation time, etc.—they live a different existence from the bottom 90 percent… The next 9 percent’s share of national income increased from 23.1 percent in 1970 to 27.6 percent in 2014. Over the same period, the national income of the bottom 90 percent decreased from 65.9 percent to 52.8 percent. The share of national income of the bottom 50 percent was cut in half over this period, from 19 percent to 10.3 percent. …”
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/01/18/pers-j18.html
I would like to know the nationalities of the servants who run round The Donald, Lady Melania and the countless other members of the Trump tribe, attending to their every need.
Why?
“..the Trump tribe,,”
____________________
If I were to use that word about the large families of certain Muslim African Presidents I would no doubt be called a racist.
Is this blog the right place for streams of Trotskyite propaganda?
If I tried something similar, the Mods would cut the entire screed and just leave the link.
Hab, if you’re intention is to demonstrate your ignorance to the average reader your doing spot on.
Proverbs 17:28
Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.
The link supplied by “Bevin” is to a Trotskyite website, is it not?
From which large parts of his post have been lifted, as evidenced by quotation marks.
Get well soon.
What a terrible liar you are. And when you aren’t lying you do what Blake said was worse, tell truths with bad intent.
I prefaced the final couple of paragraphs, which were clearly in quotation marks, with this:
“This article from the Trotskyist WSWS is worth reading in full. ”
So your revelation that it was Trostkyist was not a revelation at all. As to the notion that anything published by Trotskyists should be banned, where would you draw the line? And will you agree to cease posting fascist propaganda-most notably Likudnik fascist propaganda- if I stop referring to the, often useful, WSWS?
Bevin,
I think we can apply much of what you have just detailed to the UK, and personally speaking, much of the EU states as well – I think its something to do with globalisation and neoliberal economic prescriptions that ensure massive levels of inequality, combine these sad truths with a neoconservative overseas foreign policy and we have a really toxic/corrosive situation, one which may detonate at any moment. Trump is not the answer, but his arrival heralds I trust the end of this god awful system that has ruined countless number of lives. And for what, so eight men can have more wealth between them than 50% of the world’s population – how crass is that?
It is interesting to learn that in the US there is “no room in it for black people, the indigenous or Asians except as exotics, outliers”
No doubt this is all true, so no doubt you will be able to readily explain why in the US the median household income for white people is $59,698 pa whereas the median household income for Asian people is $77,368 pa.
How can this be?
the way i heard it that was a frog, not a lobster
in any case, i believe the myth is not true
give it a try, and let us know what actually happens
And the frog was being boiled, not bathed. But Bevin’s point is made, never mind the accuracy of the metaphor.
Ah, fiction based metaphors. That frogs remain in slowly heated water is indeed not true*. As is the idea that the Reichstag fire was a false flag.
*19th century scientist Friedrich Goltz did show that frogs with their brains removed would in fact remain in heating water until death. Whereas frogs without their brains removed jump out at around 25°, even when blindfolded. I’m feel there’s potential for a richer metaphor in there somwhere.
“19th century scientist Friedrich Goltz did show that frogs with their brains removed would in fact remain in heating water until death”
A frog can remain alive without a brain? I’m sure there’s potential for a metaphor in that too, along with the story about the sea squirt, which, of course, may not be true either.
I don’t think a metaphor has to be true to be useful. Everyone knows what you mean if you say “Reichstag fire”. That’s all that’s needed, isn’t it. I expect a whole host of metaphors are “fiction based” if you look into them. Dare I say “greenhouse effect”?
“But none of that makes Trump a good person”.
For someone with all the experience and worldly wisdom that Craig keeps reminding us that he has, he sometimes appears quite extraordinarily naive.
I challenge him (or anyone) to name any “good person” who has been US President (or even a serious candidate for that post) since… well, certainly Calvin Coolidge who, by dint of doing as little as possible, is a front-runner for the best President ever.
For detailed substantiation of this claim, I recommend Rebecca Gordon’s excellent book “American Nuremberg: The U.S. Officials Who Should Stand Trial for Post-9/11 War Crimes”. It can be comvincingly argued that every single President since FDR was clearly guilty of war crimes by the standard set out at Nuermberg; and, if judged by the same standard, would have been hanged. The same goes for dozens, if not hundreds of their advisers.
Of course this whol line of thought is pure fantasy, because what happened at Nuremberg (and to the Japanese leaders who were executed) was not justice but victor’s “justice”. As the Romans used to say, “Vae victis!” (“Woe to the vanquished”).
I think we can take your line of reasoning all the way back to the Seven Year’s War as far as America is concerned, with particular emphasis being paid to the Penn clan!
Jimmy Carter and I claim my £5.
I’d question whether setting up and encouraging death squads in El Salvador and so on are the actions of a “good man”, which freely occurred under the Carter administration.
Carter praised the “progressive administration” and the “move towards democracy” under the Shah of Iran, just after his US-trained troops had murdered thousands of protesters in the street, and took away countless more for torture and execution. Carter was full of praise for this monster.
US aid to mass murderers was considerable during the Carter years, training for example the Guatemalan military torture methods and encouraging death squads in the “School of the Americas” –
There are many, many more examples.
*
OK, you can argue that these things are impossible to turn around in a single administration, and they simply are following the way things have been done by America for over 100 years. But if you do so, Obama must surely be given some allowance for his drones policy on the same basis.
Your claim for a fiver would be contested by, amongst others, Noam Chomsky (source):
Habbabkuk,
Are you stating that the Friends of Israel Brigade have now also taken over this Blog. Further, where do you stand on Trump’s intent to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem, which really will put the shit among the chickens as far as the Middle East is concerned.
I am very much in favour of moving the US embassies – and indeed other embassies – to Jerusalem.
There is little point in maintaining the pissy little fiction that Tel Aviv is the capital of the State of Israel.
It’s all just hot air from Trump, appeasing the ADL/AIPAC and all the pro-Israeli factions hiding in the woodwork of Washington.
Trump isn’t the first POTUS to promise to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem, nor is he the fist to say that Israels real capital should be Jerusalem.
Unsurprisingly the UN see any such move, from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as illegal under international law.
Well, RoS, as you yourself said so brilliantly earlier today, “we cannot say for sure what Trump will do”.
But I guess Trump’s a fairly pragmatic character who might well recognise the absurdity of having the diplomatic corps in a city which is not the seat of government. Al that traveling from one to the other, don’t you know, it’s almost as absurd as the Europeans Parliament’s Brussels-Strasbourg perambulations.
On the contrary Trump, was just appeasing those in the US who mistakenly see Jerusalem as the rightful capital of Israel.
It’s a right of passage for a POTUS, akin to kissing the Western wall.
“Al that traveling from one to the other, don’t you know, it’s almost as absurd as the Europeans Parliament’s Brussels-Strasbourg perambulations.”
It is 30 miles from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, about the distance from the Chilterns to central London. Half an hour on the motorway? Not having the congestion London has, it’s probably quicker than most ambassadors in London take to get to the FCO in Westminster.
Yes, lets cause more moral outrage in the Middle East, Israeli apologists and Israeli propagandists are never more happier then when the ME is ablaze, just look at Syria – obviously nothing to do with the desire for a Greater Israel, one no doubt that will encompass all of the Middle East and North Africa.
But there is a point, which is to sustain the conception of Jerusalem as a holy placenot just for Judaism, but for Islam and Christianity
as well*. From that point of view, it’s inconceivable that it should be a political centre for any one of those.
*and the Baha’is, incidentally.
Despite the fact that I disagree with most (but not all) of Craig Murray’s political views..He is being quoted all over the world – as a man of the utmost Integrity…
Typical comments I read from obscure places on the World wide web – are
eg.
Who would you trust to tell the Truth???
US Intelligence Agencies or ex British Ambassador Craig Murray??
I thought he might make a difference when I bought his book “Murder in Samarkand”.
I just wasn’t expecting it to be on a World Wide scale
Has the new President of the USA invited Craig Murray to lunch yet??
He probably will.
Tony
“There is much about Trump to dislike. His sensible desire for better relations with Russia is matched by a stupid drive to goad China”.
Trump’s expressed views on China do indeed seem ridiculous, in the same way as many of his other expressed views. I think the common factor will be seen to be his need to believe – or at least seem to believe – that the USA can be “made great again”. Of course it can’t, because its brief period of optimism was based on the rapid consumption of vast amounts of irreplaceable resources. The resources are gone, and cannot be brought back. The USA is left with vast tracts of sprawling cityscape and suburbia, highways and parking lots, which will become utterly useless (and worse than useless) as soon as the oil runs out. Which will be sooner than most people think.
Most of Trump’s obviously foolish statements are driven by his need to suggest that the USA’s downfall was due to the machinations of evil foreigners. But it wasn’t: it was caused mainly by its own rich and powerful elites. They, not the Chinese or the Mexicans, are the ones who stole the birthrights and expectations of the middle class and working class. And it was they, as represented by their chosen instruments the neocons, who deliberately stirred up and infuriated most of the Muslim world.
This essay should prove interesting and insightful to those whose minds are open.
https://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/the-hate-that-dare-not-speak-its-name.html
The Archdruids article is but one of a slew that have appeared in a similar vein over the past several months, most in US-based blogs, several have appeared in CounterPunch, but the Druid has done a reasonable job in exhibiting his angst at the faux progressives – no doubt Habbabkuk will take offence, particularly given no anti-semitism is apparent in it, tree huggers being well known for their anti-semitism so I’m led to believe – or that’s what the Israeli trees inform me!!!!
If Trump is to return jobs to America then he has no choice other than to confront China. If the situation remains as it is then over time substantially every job in the world will migrate to China.
Sure the US has over consumed irreplaceable resources – so have lots of countries – China for example. Consider that in the period 2011-2013 China consumed more cement than the US consumed in the whole of the 20th century.
Loony,
Its regrettable but most manufacturing jobs in the West, if lost to the Far East, are unlikely to ever return, particularly given the entire manufacturing chain as moved completely – hard disc drives being a classic example of this, and these are not Chinese assembled, that are mostly assembled in Thailand. The fact remains 10% of the global population can now manufacture and produce all goods and services for the remaining 90%, and this includes agricultural production – hence, the focus should be on reducing working hours, increasing pay levels to those on low pay and introducing a national minimum income, without such moves capitalism will implode, particularly given so much debt now exists that its ludicrous to ever believe all but a small faction will ever be paid off – infrastructure is still a good place to increase employment, but not by the financing methods Trump is actually discussing.
Habbabkuk,
You really are one hell of a wind up merchant, here we are discussing The Guardian and Trump, but, in order to disrupt dialogue you now draw attention to Israel, alleged anti-semitism and anti-Israeli sentiment, as if Israel is somehow continually a victim, when almost on all occasions it’s the perpetrator. You are not known as a shill and troll for nothing are you old bean?
PS
I believe CM has covered in detail recent goings on by the Israeli Brigade, alas you now deem it necessary to raise such issues in this particular thread. Perhaps you are trying to defend Freedland, who like Cohen, is a nasty piece of work.
Nice riposte, Loony.
I wrote my posts because I notice that Republicofscotland had seen fit to mention Is@@@l in one of his screeds denouncing President Trump (at 11h13, I believe)
Delete the first three words.
Staying on the meme of this post, it looks like The Independent is trying to Out Guardian The Guardian with tripe about The Donald, although Freedland does take a lot of beating on this occasion, so can’t wait to see the bile Cohen brings up in The Observer, or what little remains of what was The Observer.
Not sure I share your optimism, Craig, nor can I agree that the “liberal” media has given him a rough ride.
Trump was given the equivalent of $Billions in free advertising by the MSM generally, and wall-to-wall campaigning by the “Radio Rwanda” of television, Fox News. Every time he wanted to get onto a TV chat show, he only needed to turn up, or telephone in, for uncritical coverage and soft-ball questions.
Clinton was held to the standard of defending a doctoral thesis in hard science, while Trump was declared OK if he passed the political equivalent of a GCSE in woodwork. Clinton was slated for being “over-prepared” after the first debate, for instance – has there ever been a more ludicrous charge? Trump, meanwhile, had zero clue about the workings of government.
There was endless talk about emails, emails, emails and the supposed criminality of Clinton, yet not one charge has ever stuck (despite desperate efforts of Republicans for going on 30 years).
Don’t forget that the FBI put its considerable thumb on the scales in Trump’s favour just before the election (while withholding the alleged golden-shower tape information they were investigating concerning Trump).
Trump has staffed his cabinet with cynics, cronies, family members and billionaires. Not one appointee on the basis of merit. Many, such as the man charged with looking after the environment (the EPA) actively sought to destroy it, besides being a climate change denier. Just as one for instance.
Does anyone imagine Bill Clinton would have got away with talking about “grabbing women by the pussy”? All the same, Hillary was basically put on trial during the campaign for the supposed crimes of her husband.
Clinton made a few slip ups which were given endless coverage. She did not brag about being sexist and racist, threaten members of the press and encourage party members to beat them up. Trump did – and promised to pay the legal fees of anyone who did so. (Although he would not have done. The man is a congenital liar.)
The first thing Trump is doing is to deprive 20 million Americans of healthcare. For them, this is an absolute disaster already. It will get much worse.
Your comment just proves what Craig said about liberal media (and you, as the apparent reader).
The fact that you use the words racism, sexism and all the other epithet for Trump shows the power of the liberal propaganda.
Deprive of healthcare? Sigh, is that what the lousy media tells you now? He is not going to deprive anything he made promise to made it better! This lie is a typical fake-news meme by the MSM you follow and Craig so rightly condemn.
Also it wasnt FBI that made that phony sex-dossier on Trump so that didnt withhold anything. But apparently “facts” is not something that is important for the liberal msm today.
Your comment shows that instead of facts, you’d rather have your own distortion and declare it reality to people stupid enough to believe it.
Every word I stated about Trump is fully documented fact. Deny it all you want, because that’s what you people do.
glenn
Lol why would I care what kind of lies that spin inside your head? I just called your lies out here, Trump won and guys like you will hate, life moves on.
Wrong. You didn’t call any lies out, you merely declared my statements as such. When will you people become honest enough to see the difference? Never is my guess.
If anything I said was factually incorrect, highlight it – and if you’re really brave, put in a correction.
I very much doubt that you have the courage, less still the ability, to actually address a single point I raised.
Glenn,
Sorry to rain on your parade, but the New Democrats did all in their power to ensure Trump won the Republican nomination, so regardless of free MSM coverage, the fact remains the Clinton Democrats conspired to ensure Trump’s nomination, whilst ensuring Bernie Sanders was vilified and given zero MSM oxygen, and then when that was not enough, as in the New York Primary, ensuring 1000s of registered Democrat voters vanished off the Electoral Roll – so, Clinton lost fair and square and only Clinton and the New Dems are responsible for this fact.
Chris – I know Sanders was nobbled by the DNC. That is without question. However, Trump got the Republican nomination all by himself – mainly by having either detestable, horribly corrupt, or weak opponents.
Clinton didn’t lose, actually – unless you call getting over 3,000,000 votes more that the “winner” losing. And those were the voters that the Repugs hadn’t managed to knock off the voter rolls, or deny their vote in 1000 different ways. Preventing people voting (particularly the wrong sort of voter) is a major component of Repug’s election strategy. Gerrymandering is another.
However, I agree that many Dems did rather support this ludicrous, bullying sexist caricature called Trump because they thought he would lose rather badly. Again, they underestimated the stupidity and racism of the American public.
Glenn,
It’s not worth me getting into semantics and full on comparative analysis, I’ve done it extensively on other Blogs, regardless of the fact that Clinton indeed garnered more votes, the votes she garnered were meaningless because of the Electoral College, she and the New Dems played by the rules of the Electoral College and she lost badly, however, on closer inspecting and comparing with the previous three Presidential elections, the fact remains Dems just did not turn out to vote, and if they did vote, many actually declined to put an ‘X’ in Clinton’s box, whilst voting on all other issues – their Elections being so complicated that you require a PhD to complete some of the ballots. The fact remains the US Electoral system threw up the two worst possible candidates to contest the Whitehouse and the New Dems lost decisively, not only at the Presidential level, but down ticket, and these losses too were attributable to the Clinton DNC and Clinton’s hogging of Party funds. On a positive note, those reading US Politics at University in the UK come September 2017 will have some pretty good books and analysis dealing with this election, analysis I hope they can learn from.
Chris, I don’t see where we are disagreeing here. By the rules as set out – particularly the ludicrous system of caucuses for selection of candidates – the wrong candidates were chosen. Many people were disinclined to bother showing up to vote on the Dem side, while the fascists, clan members, general racists and teabaggers positively ran to the voting station on the Repug side.
Nevertheless, losing the popular vote by a considerable margin and being the least popular President upon taking office is a good indication that Trump is probably the worst nominee ever to win that office – despite very stiff competition.
The Wikileaks revelations show that the Democrats supporting Hillary prevailed on their media contacts to push Trump’s candidacy for the Republican nomination. WikiLeaks Reveals DNC Elevated Trump to Help Clinton.
Facts are not your strong point are they Glenn.
The US is a Republic not a democracy. In the Republic that is the US there is no concept of the “popular vote.” The only vote that counts is the vote to elect a total of 538 electors to the electoral college.
Delegates to the electoral college are supposed to vote in line with the mandate provided by voters at the state level. However there is the concept of the “faithless elector” You may recall there was intense pressure to generate sufficient faithless electors to deny Trump the Presidency.
There were a number of faithless electors – mainly electors who were mandated to vote for Clinton but rather preferred to vote for people that were not candidates for the Presidency.
Show me a “fact” that I stated which was incorrect, and I will be happy to admit it and correct it.
“Clinton didn’t lose, actually – unless you call getting over 3,000,000 votes more that the “winner” losing.”
In USA we play baseball, and the season ends with the World Series. Let us suppose that the NY Yankees score 21 runs in the series and the Boston Red Sox score only 4, does that mean the Yankees win and the Sox lose? Maybe, maybe not. If the Sox win 4 games by a score of 1-0, and lose 3 games by a score of 7-0, then the Sox win the series. There are rules in baseball, and the team that wins 4 games wins the world series. There are laws (including the Constitution) in elections, and the candidate that gets a majority of the electoral college votes wins the election.
So Trump WON, and Hillary LOST. Get it yet?
False premise – I fully understand that Trump won under the undemocratic system the US runs.
Your straw man aside, spare us these tiresome baseball analogies – they work well with your mouth-breathing associates, I daresay. They land like a lead balloon in more civilised parts of the world.
pardon, should have said Yankees and LA Dodgers
Yanks and Red Sox are both in the same league,
never play in world series
Yankees and Red Sox do, however, sometimes oppose each other in the American League playoffs for the league pennant.
The Yankees and the Dodgers were perennial rivals while the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn. But the Dodgers did not beat the Yankees in a World Series until 1956, when the Dodgers finally won, shortly before they moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.
The new book How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution , by Joel Pollak and Larry Schweikart, reveals how Trump and his people spent a lot of time campaigning in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin (as well as in other supposedly blue states like New Hampshire and Minnesota that they ended up barely losing) in the last couple of weeks of the campaign, when Hillary and her people barely campaigned there at all, because they thought they had those states wrapped up.
Trump ended up winning, because his polling was more accurate, and because he correctly strategized, campaigning in states that he had a good chance off winning.
‘New York Yankees’ Isn’t that the team that is owned by the new ambassador to the UK? 🙂
No. It was the New York Jets. The owner and the new UK ambassador is Robert ‘Woody’ Johnson, the heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune. His current wealth is £5.1 billion. He uses tax havens to avoid tax. ( D. Mail. 20.1.17)
Under #ACA, Medical Bankruptcy Continues
JANUARY 12, 2016
As recently as 1981, only 8 percent of families filing for bankruptcy cited medical reasons. By 2010, when the Affordable Care Act was passed, medical bankruptcy was all-to-common. A 2009 study by Himmelstein et al, published in The American Journal of Medicine, revealed that 62.1% of all bankruptcies had a medical cause.
/..
http://amjmed.org/under-aca-medical-bankruptcy-continues/
From the American Journal of Medicine.
#ACA = Affordable Care Act
A situation that will only worsen with Trump’s plans.
Sharp Ears
“A situation that will only worsen with Trump’s plans.”
____________________
Since neither you or anyone else on this blog knows exactly what President Trumps’ plans re replacing Obamacare are, I find your comment a little difficult to understand. Would you care to enlighten us?
Force drug prices down (presumably to to affordable levels) is what he has suggested. Who compensates the shareholders but its an interesting idea?
Folk-medikament ?
H: “Since neither you or anyone else on this blog knows exactly what President Trumps’ plans re replacing Obamacare are […]”
Isn’t that exactly the point? There isn’t a replacement plan. Just a “get rid of Obamacare” plan. That’s the problem.
“There was endless talk about emails, emails, emails”
No there wasn’t, there was endless talk about the content of those emails. There was endless talk about what Clinton had said and done as revealed by those emails, and what she had tried to hide by suppressing them. The “emails emails emails” meme is just another attempt to distract people from the content, just like the “don’t worry what was in the emails, concentrate on the fact they were hacked by the Russians” meme.
OK, you must have got something _really_ good. What was on the emails that was so incriminating? I can hardly wait for your answer, because nobody has come up with anything of significance to date.
With regard to ‘Obamacare’, I quote:
“Just days before the next open enrollment period was to begin under the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, Americans received some sobering news about how much more they’ll pay yet again for health insurance, an annual cost that’s already straining many household budgets.
People seeking midlevel plans through the public HealthCare.gov exchange will see premiums jump 25 percent on average in 2017, the Department of Health and Human Services said on Monday. The 154 million Americans who receive their coverage through their employers won’t be hit as hard, but they, too, can expect an average premium increase of 4 percent to 5 percent, while handing over about 9 percent more in deductibles, according to a Commonwealth Fund report released on Wednesday.”
http://www.salon.com/2016/10/28/making-a-killing-under-obamacare-the-aca-gets-the-blame-for-rising-premiums-while-insurance-companies-are-reaping-massive-profits/
(the report goes on to explain the obscene amounts of money the health insurance companies are making out of it)
The Wikileaks releases of the Podesta e-mails point towards the fact that Obamacare was a complete scam from start to finish…
http://uk.businessinsider.com/wikileaks-email-shows-clinton-discussing-unraveling-of-the-aca-2016-10
About 44 million Americans have no health insurance, and another 38 million have inadequate health insurance…
http://www.pbs.org/healthcarecrisis/uninsured.html
It’s estimated that anything up to 40,000 Americans die each year because they can’t get treatment due to lack of health insurance; but I won’t give a link to this because it’s such a political football.
I suppose it’s a measure of just how propagandised the citizens of the richest nation on Earth are, when most of them think that universal healthcare is a bad thing.
To quote Rosa Luxemburg yet again: “there’s either socialism or barbarism”.
Quoting Rosa Luksemburg is always the sign of a weak, even non-existent, argument.
I take it Rosa’s another person who gets your skin crawling – I think she’s a good role model for females the World over personally. Alas, I am a bit of a left-winger, so maybe biased in my opinion.
Really? That’s interesting. Could you explain why you think that Rosa Luksemburg is a “good role model for females the World over”?
“Luksemburg “???
Why is this? Have you read Rosa Luxemburg?
Do you know anything about her life, except that people like you marked the beginning of European fascism by killing her?
She was a wonderful woman in many ways and a political intelligence of the first order. A marvellous orator and a fine and subtle teacher.
But then I’m not a barbarian so perhaps I’m prejudiced too.
That’s a transliteration of Rosa’s name in Russian: Луксембург. I wonder why the odious snitch would use the Russian form of the name.
See immediately below.
In Polish, Luxemburg’s first name was not Rosa, but Róża. So, “Rosa Luksemburg” is a strange combination of forms.
But in English she is known by the familiar German form of the name, “Rosa Luxemburg”. One asks oneself why anyone writing English would choose a different spelling. French, Italian, and Dutch, among many languages, all use the German form.
After all, it was in Germany, of which she became a citizen, that she rose to prominence as a thinker and writer. In fact, she wrote her doctoral dissertation for the University of Zurich before she moved to Germany, where she spent the last 22 years of her short life.
“One asks oneself why anyone writing English would choose a different spelling”
Showing off, I’d imagine.
A kind of pained strained showing off.
Thereby making an idiot of herself.
As per habby usual.
Bevs
“Luksemburg” because she was a Polish Jew and the letter “x” is not used for names (and for very little besides) in Polish orthography.
To be even more precise, I should have said “for Polish names”.
“Luxemburg was born to a Jewish family in Zamość on 5 March 1871, in Russian-controlled Congress Poland. She was the fifth and youngest child of timber trader Eliasz Luxemburg and Line Löwenstein. …. The family spoke German and Polish, and Luxemburg also learned Russian.[4] The family moved to Warsaw in 1873.[5].”
“Róża Luksemburg, właśc. Rozalia Luxenburg (ur. 5 marca 1871 w Zamościu, zm. 15 stycznia 1919 w Berlinie) – działaczka i ideolog polskiego i niemieckiego ruchu robotniczego.”
“Luksemburg” because she was a Polish Jew and the letter “x” is not used for names (and for very little besides) in Polish orthography.”
But we speak English on this blog, do we not?
The cost of American healthcare is many, many times more than in other western nations…
http://www.vox.com/a/health-prices
Why..? because Americans live in a constant barrage of propaganda, and thus are easily ripped-off left, right and centre by totally out of control corporations, who have most of the politicians in their pockets.
By the way, you guys have done a good job at co-opting/conning left leaning females to take to the streets today, all egged-on by a massive propaganda campaign from the presstitutes.
I suppose the total low-lifes at GCHQ get health insurance as part of their ‘job’ package?
You might need it sometime soon…
“I suppose the total low-lifes at GCHQ get health insurance as part of their ‘job’ package?
You might need it sometime soon…”
_________________
A puzzling last sentence – could you flesh out your thought a little?
Civilian employees of NSA get Federal Employees Health Benefits, which are much less costly and much more expansive than most private health insurance in the U.S.
Military members of the military units that work for NSA get military health benefits, which I can testify from personal experience as a former enlisted man and officer and now as a retired officer is as close to socialized medicine as exists in the U.S.
Habbakuk
“Quoting Rosa Luksemburg is always the sign of a weak, even non-existent, argument.”
Is Habbakuk quoting or just agreeing with comrade Lenin?
I should very much hope to avoid both, Phil.
Put simply the American and western elites had become too imperial and cosmopolitan, forming a supra-national class that looked down its nose at the indigenous plebs and now there is a nativist revolt to take back control. People aren’t against wealth, they want some too, but want a government for the many not the few.
Dave
I got to love a fella who knows what “the people” want.
Maybe you could warn them that, money buying influence, government for the few is possibly, probably, no go on, inevitably a consequence of the wealth they apparently aren’t against.
I don’t think the peoples wants I referred to, wealth and democracy, are contentious.
Obama doing what he does best as he sanctioned the bombing of Libya this week, the out going POTUS gave the bombing order that killed at least 80 people, without congressional approval.
The bombing was to aid the Libyan puppet government backed by the Great Satan.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/on-his-way-out-the-door-obama-bombs-libya-one-last-time/5569900
And 100 were killed in Syria in a US airstrike west of Aleppo on Thursday evening.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/20/world/middleeast/us-airstrike-al-qaeda-syria.html?
They all identified themselves as members of Al Qaeda of course before they were shredded and burned. Obomber can rest easy on his holiday (what another one?) in Palm Springs.
Thank you Sharp Ears for the info, and to think Obama was the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace prize.
In the world of favours Trump is in debt to Wikileaks and Julian Assange. This year could be the year that debt is paid. Despite what some thought it’s not going to be a free transfer of Julian Assange to the US for Chelsea Manning’s release from prison.
“As I predicted when the story broke, Manning’s eventual freedom (May of this year) will begin a negotiating process between Julian Assange’s lawyers at President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice, who will hopefully be more sympathetic to Assange than Obama’s people who more or less wanted Assange dead one way or another.”
http://theduran.com/julian-assange-clarifies-remarks-going-us-manning-freed/
From the article in the egregious The Duran (which curiously has no homepage – winder why that is…):
” Julian Assange could legally travel to one of the many countries that would almost certainly welcome him, most likely Ecuador but Venezuela or Russia are also realistic possibilities”
Would I be forgiven if I cast some doubt on whether Mr Assange would like to settle in any of the three countries mentioned? Realistically like, of course.
Well, I’ll forgive you, in the spirit of the New Year that is, but after Burns’ Night I might be more circumspect. 🙂
Re CM Comment – “I am a free trader and dislike the march of protectionism”.
I too am a free trader at heart, but unfortunately by their incredibly abusive attacks on any opposition, the establishment and their MSM stifled debate and have thrown out the baby with the bathwater. They left no room for moderation in this debate.
Neo-conservatism and also Globalization, at least as the establishment defined it, have failed and are as dead as a dodo. Hopefully they will be replaced by a more open world order that will better respect the concepts of rule of law and of equality before the law. Would it be too much to also hope for a free press?