Is fascism coming to America? You be the judge

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Santorum’s book doesn’t deal with foreign policy but does set out his approach to domestic policy: an active use of federal power and of the tax code to promote traditional behaviors and to preserve man-woman marriages.

Unlike Tea Party activists, Santorum doesn’t shrink away from the federal government; he wants to use it to nudge people toward more virtuous behavior, which he thinks will be best taught in traditional heterosexual families.

He says, “Liberals believe that the traditional family is neither natural nor vital, that it’s an antiquated social convention which has not only outlived its usefulness, but is now inherently discriminatory and repressive toward legitimate alternative ‘families.’”

Gee, thanks, Mr. Santorum. And while you seem to be in control of my thoughts, how about marching my body into the kitchen and making myself a sandwich? I'm getting kind of hungry. Unless, of course, you would like to relinquish control of my mind.

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I am SICK TO DEATH of these hacks. Can't the GOP offer up a single candidate that isn't out to impose their brand of "it's for the best" fascism onto the rest of America?

When Trump is on the TV there always seems to be a nasty smell about him, some times the faces he pulls makes you think he can smell it too.
I don't thing he is Presidential material and won't make a good President, so won't win.
We have competition here in England called Gurning contest, it is pulling faces, Trumps is always pulling faces. He would have a good chance off winning a gurning competition though.
Hillary Clinton looks the best of a bad bunch of candidates, her only draw back is that she is married to a liar. He is the bloke that told a blatant lie on TV when he said, I never had relations with that women.
Still, who becomes the next President in not my problem, we have enough problems with who will be the next Prime Minister of England. I am a Labour voter that his not happy about about our present Labour Party leader. I think Jeramy Corbyn is as big a idiot has Donald Trump and is unelectable for the job of Prime Minister.

jackthelad. Good to see you here again.  

Donald Trump is certainly scary, but the fact that he isn’t what we’d call “presidential material” is no guarantee that he won’t win. Reagan wasn’t the brightest star in the sky, and ‘Dubya’ Bush was even more challenged in the brain cell department. I remember a presidential debate when Bush was clearly wired up with someone telling him what to say, and when at one point he said “let me finish” when nobody present was interrupting him!

The fact that a politician – in this case Hillary Clinton – is married to a liar is hardly unusual and doesn’t detract from her suitability to be the next POTUS. Some of us might prefer the agenda of Bernie Sanders, but Hillary is probably best placed to beat Trump, or if he slips up, Ted Cruz.

If I was American, Hilary Clinton would be my choice, despite of being married to Bill. Seeing that I am not, I will leave that to the Americans, knowing that they will be sensible and not elect a loonie for President. Let's face it, Donald Trump is an 18 carat loon.
I am more concerned with the Labour Parties present leader, a man that can't be true to himself. He has always opposed the Common Market, later becoming the European Union. He voted in the first referendum not to join, and all his political life as argued against it.
Now that he is leader of a party that is for the Union he has switched sides. Not all Labour voters are members of the party and didn't vote in the leadership contest. There are millions of voters for Labour that will be voting out this time, had enough of the Union and Brussels interfering in affairs that only concern the British. I personally don't know anyone who wants to stay in, and want proper controll of our borders once again.

Preferring Cruz to Trump is akin to choosing poison over a bullet in the head.

It begins to seem more and more possible that the president of the US will be a bigot or a war monger - I'm getting worried

Donald Trump, the Republican party’s nominee, has claimed that the US national debt, standing at more than $19 trillion (£13 trillion), does not need to be repaid.

“This is the United States government, you never have to default, because you print the money,” he declared live on air.

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/news/donald-trumps-wild-idea-about-dealing-with-debt-may-be-here-sooner-than-youd-think/ar-BBtAUMG?li=BBoPMmp

Ain't it de troof? How do you think LBJ and successors paid for the Vietnam War?

How is today's British government staving off a repeat of 2008? Private borrowing on mortgages and credit cards is rapidly regaining the level which it was at eight years ago.

Circuses without the bread

Donald Trump's supporters are not really listening to anything he says.

Nor listening to anyone else; a world-wide phenomenon it seems. Brexit has shown that we are living in an era of post-facts politics. The US comedian Stephen Colbert once joked that "reality has a well-known liberal bias".

Never mind, at least Melania Trump has shown at the Republican Convention that she has a sense of humour.....  


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I almost miss the old rascal who used to claim on the now-defunct MSN social media that he could tell how people would vote by the smell of their house. His favourite expression was, "You couldn't make it up".

It accurately describes the rise and rise of Trumpery in the USA.

I suppose most, if not all, of us would like to take back some of the things we've said in the past.....  


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Donald Trump is a unique threat to American democracy

Extracts from an editorial:-

Donald J. Trump, until now a Republican problem, this week became a challenge the nation must confront and overcome. The real estate tycoon is uniquely unqualified to serve as president, in experience and temperament. He is mounting a campaign of snarl and sneer, not substance. To the extent he has views, they are wrong in their diagnosis of America’s problems and dangerous in their proposed solutions.

There is nothing on Trump’s résumé to suggest he could function successfully in Washington. He was staked in the family business by a well-to-do father and has pursued a career marked by some real estate successes, some failures and repeated episodes of saving his own hide while harming people who trusted him. Given his continuing refusal to release his tax returns, it is only reasonable to assume there are aspects of his record even more discreditable than what we know.

Trump has threatened that those who criticise him will suffer when he is president. He has vowed to torture suspected terrorists and bomb their innocent relatives, no matter the illegality of either act. He has vowed to constrict the independent press. He went after a judge whose rulings angered him, exacerbating his contempt for the independence of the judiciary by insisting that the judge should be disqualified because of his Mexican heritage. He has encouraged and celebrated violence at his rallies. He campaigns by insult and denigration, insinuation and wild accusation. The Republican Party has moved the lunatic fringe onto centre stage.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/donald-trump-is-a-unique-threat-to-american-democracy/2016/07/22/a6d823cc-4f4f-11e6-aa14-e0c1087f7583_story.html

"We see Americans hating each other; fighting each other; killing each other at home.
And as we see and hear these things, millions of Americans cry out in anguish.
Did we come all this way for this?"

Richard Nixon
in his 1968 acceptance speech

The apparent oxymoron describes the activities of an enterprise such as Uber (challenging Taxis) or AirBnB  (replacing hotel reservations with private letting) or the way people now watch TV or take photos using their telephone.

I think Donald Trump may be using this tendency in order to provide an alternative to the political system.  He appeals directly to the disaffected over the heads of government, and promises change in general terms to be agreed on an ad hoc basis. As and when he thinks of it.  No need for Laws - just go head-to-head with world leaders, ignoring intermediaries.

We may soon enough find out whether it works.

https://www.quora.com/What-is-creative-destruction

I hear you - in Social Work we used to have a group that espoused a somewhat similar philosophy - 'radical non-intervention' - doing nothing at all about people's problems so that they may either
1) resolve themselves or
2) get so bad the sufferer will resort to violent means or
3) get so bad the sufferer will undertake radical life change in order to escape the problem

Once we all qualified, no-one was quite so keen to try out the tactics, in the interest of retaining employment. There is an intrinsic risk in radical measures that only the very wealthy or the very stupid are willing to take on - and Trump, I believe, is both.

Two quotes from ‘The International New York Times’ of 22.09.16:-

“If Trump were able to cut immigration to zero, the USA would not just have a smaller population in the future but also an older one. The work force, which powers economic growth, would be smaller. Each worker would have to maintain more retirees.”
(Eduardo Porter)

“The cynical Putin admires Trump because he knows a mess-maker when he sees one, and the thought of America being led by a man who would be wildly unpopular simultaneously in Europe, Beijing, Mexico, South America and the Muslim world is for Putin a dream come true. The old KGB could never make that happen. So, young people, listen up. Hillary doesn’t light your fire? Okay, I agree, she is a flawed candidate. But she can responsibly manage the affairs of state. Trump is beyond repair and won’t just light your fire – he’ll burn the house down.”
(Thomas L. Friedman)


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I'm just watching the debate and the entire concept of a Trump victory terrifies me. I hope the US makes the right decision.

I'm not sure there is a right decision - both candidates seriously flawed in my view

We're not entitled to criticise, our Nation just voted to leave the EU. If Trump is elected President he's likely to separate from the rest of the World.

true - do you think we could crowdfund his very own interstellar spaceship?

When the French elect a president, there are always two rounds of voting – the first where there are any number of candidates, the second (two weeks later) for just the top two in the first ballot. In other words, you can vote with your heart in the first round and your head in the second. The system usually works well, but in 2002 the top two in the first ballot were the incumbent right-winger Jacques Chirac and the far right Jean-Marie Le Pen, the latter just scraping into second place over the socialist Lionel Jospin. Had I been a French voter, I’d have stayed at home for the second round, just as I would if Britain elected its head of state (if only) and the choice was between our two most popular politicians, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage. (What does that say about the UK?)

I can therefore understand if someone thinks both candidates in the current US presidential election are “seriously flawed”. However, although Bernie Sanders would have come closer to representing my views, I would certainly vote if I’d been born an American. I recorded the first presidential debate and I’ve now watched it, and Hillary Clinton certainly talked the talk and had some progressive ideas. Donald Trump was awful, even boasting that he was “smart” for not paying any federal taxes. I believe that if we’re fortunate enough to live in a democracy, however imperfect it can sometimes seem, we should usually vote, even if that sometimes means choosing the least worst option. If Britain had such a system, and the choice was between Liz Kendall and Boris Johnson, I wouldn’t hesitate to vote for Liz, even though I disagree with her on a number of issues. I just hope that enough Americans recognise that, for all her shortcomings, Hillary Clinton is a safer pair of hands than Donald Trump, not just for the USA but for the entire world.

Good point, Ivan - at least Hillary isn't stupid

Humping Trump Denies the Allegations...

(MSN)
" I 'm not the sort of guy who believes in sex on the first date, Miss - so let's book a few sessions for tomorrow..."

Beaten only by the traditional British, "Cacks off and cop this!"

Justice Must be Done...

(MSN)
" I'm goin' to put you in jail, Hillary - but before I do, how about a bit of fun in the parking lot...?"

Happy Halloween.....  


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The magazine which always succeeds in hitting the nail firmly on the head...

( Rowntree)

Was Hillary the girl in the 1952 ad, pleading: " Don't forget the fruit gums, Mum..." ?

Possibly not, if she understood how an essential ingredient of fruit gums - gelatin - is obtained.

David Schneider posted this on Twitter.....


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Ivan wrote:David Schneider posted this on Twitter.....

(see the above)

Pundits in the USA and across the world have been saying that each and all of the above should have sunk a Trump candidacy without trace.
But he is still in the running, and apparently ready to challenge any result which does not call him the winner.

If you have ever wished you could have been alive when History was being made, stick around - it's probably being made right now.

America and the Abyss

Extracts from an article by Andrew Sullivan:-

"The most frustrating aspect of the last 12 months has been the notion that we have been in a normal, if truly ugly, election cycle, with one extremely colorful and unpredictable figure leading the Republican Party in an otherwise conventional political struggle over policy. A far more accurate account of the past year is that an openly proto-fascist cult leader has emerged to forge a popular movement that has taken over one of the major political parties, eroded central norms of democratic life and undermined American democratic institutions.

Trump is the first candidate for president who seems to have little understanding of or reverence for constitutional democracy and presents himself as a future strongman. This begins with his character — if that word could possibly be ascribed to his disturbed, unstable, and uncontrollable psyche. He has revealed himself incapable of treating other people as anything but instruments to his will. From his feckless business deals and billion-dollar debts to his indifference to the damage he has done to those institutions unfortunate enough to engage him, Trump has shown no concern for the interests of other human beings. Just ask the countless people he has casually fired.

Trump sees the judicial system as entirely subordinate to his political and personal interests, and impugned a federal judge for his ethnicity. He has celebrated police powers that openly deploy racial profiling. He hasn't rejected any of his most odious promises during the primary — from torturing prisoners to murdering the innocent family members of terror suspects. We are told we cannot use the term fascist to describe this. I’m at a loss to find a more accurate alternative."

For the whole article:-
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/11/andrew-sullivan-trump-america-and-the-abyss.html

Historical footnote


George Lincoln Rockwell (March 9, 1918 – August 25, 1967) was an American neo-Nazi and founder of the American Nazi Party. He was a major figure in the neo-Nazi movement in the United States, and his beliefs and writings have continued to be influential among white nationalists and neo-Nazis.

On August 25, 1967, Rockwell was murdered by a former member of his own group while leaving a laundromat in Arlington, Virginia

Well, here we are - 1933 again, and so much for the NRA defending Liberty with their bang-bangs!

The pundits on the TV panels all shocked and saying 'none of us saw this coming'. That's because they all live in a bubble and have no comprehension of what life is like for the majority of people. Notice how trendy east coast New York and the west coast voted Clinton, but virtually everywhere in between voted for Trump.

This has been obvious for weeks. All you had to do was ignore the out of touch, and prejudicial, media and pundits, read between the lines, and recognise Trump had this in the bag.

All the celebs backing Clinton, all the staged propaganda against Trump........people are sick of the bullshit, see through it, and recognise the system is fixed against them - and always will be unless the status quo is changed. Unfortunately it is Trump who has offered that opportunity for something different and the 'nothing to lose' masses have took their chance.

Brexit! Trump! Idiocracy rools; but what do you expect when neo-liberal governments have ignored the great majority of people for decades, and only catered to the affluent and the go getters whilst consistently penalising and reducing living standards for large sections of the electorate.

Why do you think the media were 'deliberately' giving us the impression Trump stood no chance? Why did the establishment turn on him - even establishment Republicans?

Why do you think the media are 'deliberately' giving us the impression Corbyn stands no chance? Why have the establishment turned on him - even establishment Labourites? Different politics but like Trump he isn't 'one of them'.

The liberal, educated middle classes and intelligentsia are now outnumbered by the politically illiterate, dumbed down, fearful, somewhat racist, and poor classes......who have become increasingly frustrated, and desperate for a ray of hope. They were never going to believe an establishment crony like Clinton; and Trump was the anti-establishment underdog - and the people love an underdog.

The problem we have in Britain, and America, is this 'working class' rebellion against the establishment has been fuelled by some regressive scary right wing, quasi racist, and bigoted ideas. Is this because they never really get offered a progressive left wing option. I'm sure the establishment themselves prefer nasty right wingers to a lefty who might embark on a program of wealth redistribution, and reducing inequality.

It will all end badly and unpleasantly.

Does this mean Scotland will be turned into a golf course?