Trump

[Mikey Brown]

There was an interview on the Beeb recently with one of the senior engineers from either the one or one of the Trump Towers projects and they were saying they had a great time on the job and really enjoyed working with Trump and his group. However one could also infer, and I don't think one could reasonably not infer, the view from the engineer that Trump might be really engaged turning up at a meeting one day but could then get bored of having to stay focused and just miss (for example) the next three meetings. So the engineer was explicit in saying they enjoyed working for Trump, but did allow one to form the impression they didn't think Trump was what you'd be looking for as a President.

We shall see.

I still find it absolutely insane that high level politicians use Twitter at all.

[Which Tyler]

I still find it absolutely insane that people use Twitter at all.

FTFY

[Mikey Brown]

...I don't know what that means.

[Mikey Brown]

Ah, you changed it. For a moment I couldn't even remember that that wasn't what I said. I thought I was being dissed with hip, young internet jargon. God I feel old.

[morepork]

Ah, you changed it. For a moment I couldn't even remember that that wasn't what I said. I thought I was being dissed with hip, young internet jargon. God I feel stupid.

FTFYYFCY

[kk67]

You utter bell peice

Half cut mid-week posting. How's yer arse,,?.

[kk67]

Anyone see Hypernormalisation?

One of the main themes in this was the idea that the banks were now running the show and that politics no longer mattered. It seems they may have won the day in this election in that the "common man" seems to have rejected a career politician in favour of a businessman. Seems the banks not only have managed to ensure the market runs the world, but also managed to convince the people it is anyone but them that is the problem.

No doubt the financial districts run the show. The HK/China story just makes it painfully obvious.

[rowan]

An Arab perspective here. Makes some excellent points:

There’s a bit of fatality involved here, to be sure, and a deep level of cynicism. Many of us feel that if America could not choose the best option, then it deserved the worst. Also, there’s a harsh desire for rough truth, rather than hypocritical garnish. In a sense, many Americans are Trump, but most of them like to think of themselves as closer in character to who Clinton (falsely) claims to be; liberal, democratic, leftist, humane, charitable, kind. There are some who faced the facts honestly, and admitted that, for all intents and purposes, Clinton was a criminal and a manipulator who plays ball with the worst human rights offenders on the planet (Saudi Arabia and Israel, for example) and relies on their financial and political support. They understood that when promising to continue Obama’s legacy, Clinton is in fact promising to kill another 4,000 innocent Pakistanis by drone strikes in an illegal attempt to murder untried ‘terrorists’. They understand that this is a woman for whom Madeline Albright is a role model, and Kissinger is an icon, a woman who started out Republican before swapping sides and acting as though she were a Democrat, most likely because she realized that, as a woman, she could go farther as a Democrat. This is a liar who claims to have been dodging sniper fire in a foreign land when she was being greeted with flowers
.
Throughout the campaign, Clinton supporters have turned a blind eye to her failings. Somehow they were more horrified by what Trump may do than what Clinton already has done.

So yeah, we weren’t very excited about a Clinton victory. Nothing would change. America would continue to think itself a progressive democracy that voted in first a black man, and then a woman. The demon would continue to wear a passable face, remain…presentable.

We do not think Trump is any better, but we think a Trump victory would force the USA to admit to what it has become, and would allow other countries around the world to react appropriately now that the cover has been blown.

More here:

[WaspInWales]

I'll be watching this space awaiting for the awakening that America will be forced to undergo

[Len]

You utter bell peice

Half cut mid-week posting. How's yer arse,,?.

Arse is good. Ran into the semi fit nurse that inspected it at the gym, she asked me how it was. I wanted to fall off the planet.

I commend you on your optimism in terms of Trump when you're pissed and hope you are right for everybodys sake. Too bad reality TV is scripted though. My money is on him being impeached within the year.

[Lizard]

You utter bell peice

Half cut mid-week posting. How's yer arse,,?.

Arse is good. Ran into the semi fit nurse that inspected it at the gym, she asked me how it was. I wanted to fall off the planet.

I commend you on your optimism in terms of Trump when you're pissed and hope you are right for everybodys sake. Too bad reality TV is scripted though. My money is on him being impeached within the year.

Why is a nurse inspecting your arse at the gym?

Should be t'other way round, surely?

[zer0]

An interesting perspective on how Trump won.

[rowan]

More fascinating insights from Galloway - who actually picked Trump to win

A quick look at the polling figures is very revealing. According to the New York Times exit poll, Trump’s vote only increased 1% among white voters compared to Romney. Among black voters, Trump increased his share 7% on Romney (more than doubling it), 8% among Hispanics, and 11% among Asians. Clinton was only able to increase 1% amongst women compared with Barack Obama, while she went down 5% with men. She increased 9% on Obama’s share in the top income bracket, but he increased 16% on Romney in the lowest income bracket.

http://georgegalloway.com/v2/?page_id=70

[Digby]

There was a rare and terrific comment earlier on Any Answers, where one individual noted they'd bagged up some old lego bricks and were sending them to the Whitehouse to help Trump build his wall. I know I've got a few boxes of the stuff in the roof so I'll be sending some along to help the Donald's dream, what with him being the new titian of American politics it seems only fair.

The caller also noted he was also sending a hammer to the Mexicans so they could knock the wall down. But the postage on a hammer might be money better spent on beer.

[Coco]

An interesting perspective on how Trump won.

Interesting

[rowan]

The mainstream media seems reluctant to report on what promises to be a very positive step toward ending warfare and terrorism in the region:

President-elect Donald Trump has confirmed that he will most likely abandon the Obama administration policy on Syria to seek a possible rapprochement with Russia on the issue of Assad.

“I’ve had an opposite view of many people regarding Syria,” the 70-year-old Republican told the Wall Street Journal in his first interview since the election.

From the start of the Syrian war, Barack Obama’s foreign policy has been focused on the support and training of the so-called “moderate” rebel groups who were supposed to defeat Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists, and survive to eventually overthrow Assad. That approach became deadlocked this year when Washington failed to honor its obligations under an agreement with Moscow to separate their moderate rebel forces from internationally-recognized terrorists.

Trump, on the other hand, said on Friday that the US should be focused on fighting Islamic State, instead of pursuing regime change in Syria.

“My attitude was you’re fighting Syria, Syria is fighting ISIS, and you have to get rid of ISIS. Russia is now totally aligned with Syria, and now you have Iran, which is becoming powerful, because of us, is aligned with Syria... Now we’re backing rebels against Syria, and we have no idea who these people are.”

It has been widely documented and reported that American weapons supplied to the moderate rebels are often obtained by extremists in Syria. Those weapons, in turn, are being used by the jihadists to strike civilian positions and deploy them against Syrian forces.

The president-elect warned that if the US attacks Assad, “we end up fighting Russia, fighting Syria.”

The US coalition bombing of Syrian Army positions near the city of Deir el-Zour on September 17 led to the collapse of the US-Russian peace initiative.


https://www.rt.com/news/366647-trump-sy ... M.facebook

[Sandydragon]

Oh yes, the US is apparently going to help a brutal minoritygovernment commit war crimes against its own people. Strangely, you don't see the parallels between the actions of the Syrian government and those of Saudi Arabia, despite the Syrian example being on a much larger scale.

Trump thinks that Putin is good for international politics. Trump is an idiot.

[Digby]

Oh yes, the US is apparently going to help a brutal minority government commit war crimes against its own people.

It might still be the best plan absent of a viable alternative. It's sure as hell not good news though

[rowan]

We'll have to wait & see if Trump follows through with this, of course, but working with Russia against ISIS is the only chance for peace in Syria and saving it from becoming the next arena for eternal war (if not WWIII), following on from Afghanistan (15 years & counting), Iraq (13 years & counting) & Libya (5 years & counting).

The war in Syria was instigated entirely by the US and its allies - notably the UK, France, Turkey, Saudi and Israel - who trained and funded rebels to destabilize the country. These were mostly a combination of Sunni Muslims disenfranchised by the Iraq War and Saudi-backed Jihadists from around the region. Not surprisingly they soon turned to acts of terrorism. But the Russians stepped in to help the government of the country, & now the rebels/terrorists are holed up like cowards in residential areas using civilians for cover.

The only comparison between this and the situation in Yemen is in fact that of the US-backed Saudi army and the rebels/terrorists NATO, Saudi and Israel have been backing in Syria, because the Saudis, too, are armed by the Americans, British and French.

Unlike Clinton, who had pledged to pursue the same warmonger policies as Obomber and attempt to overthrow yet another regime and destroy yet another nation not currently under US control, Trump actually looks like he wants the carnage to end and give peace a chance to break out. This has undoubtedly upset Wall Street, the military industrial complex and the corporate media, who profit so handsomely from eternal war and the ongoing massacres of children, women and men in their multitudes, but for anybody with even a modicum of humanity this will be embraced as positive news.

[morepork]

If the Trumpet can locate Syria on a map without help, I'll give him a chocolate fish.

[Digby]

working with Russia against ISIS is the only chance for peace in Syria

The only chance for peace would be getting an acceptable government in place and a populace ready to support it without resorting to violence. Allowing a murdering despot to remain is no model for peace, but we don't appear to have the power to do better.

[Sandydragon]

We'll have to wait & see if Trump follows through with this, of course, but working with Russia against ISIS is the only chance for peace in Syria and saving it from becoming the next arena for eternal war (if not WWIII), following on from Afghanistan (15 years & counting), Iraq (13 years & counting) & Libya (5 years & counting).

The war in Syria was instigated entirely by the US and its allies - notably the UK, France, Turkey, Saudi and Israel - who trained and funded rebels to destabilize the country. These were mostly a combination of Sunni Muslims disenfranchised by the Iraq War and Saudi-backed Jihadists from around the region. Not surprisingly they soon turned to acts of terrorism. But the Russians stepped in to help the government of the country, & now the rebels/terrorists are holed up like cowards in residential areas using civilians for cover.

The only comparison between this and the situation in Yemen is in fact that of the US-backed Saudi army and the rebels/terrorists NATO, Saudi and Israel have been backing in Syria, because the Saudis, too, are armed by the Americans, British and French.

Unlike Clinton, who had pledged to pursue the same warmonger policies as Obomber and attempt to overthrow yet another regime and destroy yet another nation not currently under US control, Trump actually looks like he wants the carnage to end and give peace a chance to break out. This has undoubtedly upset Wall Street, the military industrial complex and the corporate media, who profit so handsomely from eternal war and the ongoing massacres of children, women and men in their multitudes, but for anybody with even a modicum of humanity this will be embraced as positive news.

The only chance to save the Assad regime and guarantee another violent uprising in about 10 years time

[rowan]

Just like the heroic West saved Afghanistan from the Taliban, Iraq from Saddam, & Libya from Gaddafi - even though it took the deaths of eight million civilians, the destruction of three entire nations, the creation of countless terrorists and a refugee tidal wave toward Europe in order to achieve it. I'm sure the shellshocked and traumatized survivors feel indebted to the noble and virtuous West

Interestingly, Saddam and Gaddafi were once allies of the West's, as was Assad, but for some bizarre reason they all woke up one day and decided to start exterminating their own population, forcing the heroic West to intervene. Nothing to do with oil or pipeline proects, nothing to do with the arms trade and industrial military complex.

& let's forget that there are other dictatorships and monocracies in the region which are even more barbaric and oppressive than any of the above-mentioned. But we don't bomb them. We arm them so they can fund terrorism and bomb their impoverished neighbours. Ditto the Apartheid state of Israel as it colonizes Palestine and exterminates the native population.

But, in reality, the United States is a rampaging imperial monster which has destroyed much of the Middle East during the past couple of decades, just as it destroyed much of Central America before that, and South East Asia before that. & saving the world from Moscow has always been its smoke-screen, so Westerners were brainwashed to hate a people who have done them no harm at all; and never actually intended to.

Trump has seen through all this, and intends to apply the brakes to the rampaging imperial machine, while actually befriending Russia - much to the outrage and horror of those who would've been quite content to see things continue as they are (but only on their TV screens, naturally)

[Digby]

It's a fair point some of those now in conflict with some of the west were once on much friendlier terms, and it's a fair point that oil motivates much of the thinking (of all parties). That doesn't mean the despots typically discussed aren't murdering scum. One could perhaps also cite that in Libya and Iraq that a lid was kept on the fundamentalist religious groups, but at some point those powder kegs were going to go up, and there isn't an obvious solution when you've got groups wanting sole application of some very (different) doctrinal regimes and then others wanting a secular approach, allied to their various certainty that all most convert to their view.

The only seeming solution would be to level the place, and that's not actually a solution, that's madness on a scale even Stalin and Hitler never got near too.

[rowan]

It's no accident that American wars don't end. The countries they are invading on whatever pretext are effectively being colonized. The big winnners are the arms dealers and military industrial complex. That is there and plain to see. American president after president has continued this, regardless of campaign pledges, because foreign policy is being dictated by Wall Street. Clinton, in fact, didn't even deny her intentions to continue it and her plans for Syria were both arrogant and dangerous. It was always going to require a radical outsider to come along and buck the trend. & this is the reason I prefer Trump over Clinton. I don't care what he does to America. They deserve whatever they get. But I do care about what America does to the Middle East and the rest of the world.