Trump

TT, I own an English conversation school (Eikaiwa) and a translating business. Mostly translating business and legal contracts into English and vice versa, but we've done everything from menus to tv subtitles.

Rivetting stuff:)

Will he overturn Roe vs Wade as he said he would? That'd be a devestating blow to American women, and it'd also show how short-sighted he is. He's promoting himself as a 'Laura Norder' guy, yet an unintended effect of Roe vs Wade was a marked drop in urban crime.

Ironically it was Bill Clinton who took the credit for the drop in crime till a few forensic economists traced things back to '73.

So not only would Trump reverse generational change in women's rights he'd set the alarm clock for another increase in urban crime down the track.

Considering the Brexit result and the Trump result I reckon the World has dodged a bullet. Or to use another phrase, the herd has turned back from the precipice.

But heres hoping they both manage to be enacted. Stay tuned.

Yes this is a good discussion. The big one of the 90's was the removal of Glass-Steagal, the removal of the deposit/investment division of banking. It led to some spectacular implosions. Behaviour went far beyond this and ended up with MF Global's demise... Edit: and before that, TARP (look it up). I've seen one comment describe this election as the '3rd vote on TARP' - the anger of the people after it was jammed through. TARP and QE, 'mark to unicorn' accounting... we're still in it... sigh

& yes Stu I remember that economist who linked crime rates over time with Roe vs Wade and the criminals who were "never born"

Of course, all of the previous comments about Trump are predicated on the fact that I don't live in America. I'd be farking worried if I did. That twitter feed you posted was scary, Benski. On the other hand, it's probably like that every day in America.

Lots of lovely people there, but that place is going to hell in a handbasket.

Re that forensic economist that linked Roe versus Wade to a drop in crime rates down the track, wasn't that from the Freakonomics guys? I'm sure I read that in the book. It's a really interesting and plausible theory.

But as it happens, some other scientist came up with a much better explanation. The drop in crime rates coincided (with an 18 year lag) to the decision to remove lead from petrol. As lead had been shown in labs to cause various test animals to become highly aggressive, it was a much better explanation for the drop in crime.

Imagine where America would be if they still had leaded petrol?

Yes, the Glass-friggin'-Steagall repeal! Add it to Bill's shit-list. The man from Hope-less.

There is something weird about people protesting on the streets about Trumps victory.

These people sure like to exercise their right to free speech, but they don't want to live in a democracy???

Saw this on Twitter earlier...looks like everyone wants to be able to protest but no one wants the other side to actually do it

Seems like men ganging up on women is ok if you are a Clinton supporter......

Sheepdog: "But Trump has also decimated the right... He's forever changed the republicans, "

Doggy, I've mostly agreed with you but this is poppycock. Trump just delivered the senate, the house and the Presidency to the Rebublicans.

Repealing any kind of healthcare system, massive tax cuts for the wealthy, building a wall, stacking the supreme court with ultra-conservative judges, massive military build up, trade war with China, increase in privatised prisons and aggressive policing (i am the law and order candidate), support of Israel and rejection of the 2 state solution, decrease in access to abortion, massive increase in military spending, encouraging spread of nuclear weapons, weakening international institutions like NATO, rejection of Paris Treaty on climate change, religious vice-pres who rejects evolution, promise to "bomb the shitt" out of ISIS, strengthening libel laws to criminalise journalists, repeal of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street consumer protection reforms, repeal or renege on the nuclear deal with Iran etc etc etc......

He just fcuking delivered signed, sealed and gift-wrapped every rabid right wing republicans most fervent fantasy wish list and the political power to achieve it. Every republican who wasn't stupid enough to stick his neck out and oppose Trump is laughing all the way to the bank. Those stupid enough to oppose him, like Paul Ryan, will find their careers cut suddenly short. Trump is a great grudge holder and very, very skilled at getting even with those on his shitlist.

Big winners: military industrial complex, private companies dealing in prisons/security, arms and gun manufacturers, big pharma/insurance companies, the wealthy and wall street corporations, big banks.

Trump's cabinet is going to have Sarah Palin, Chris Christy, Rudy Guliani and Newt Gingrich.

Bend over America: you're about to get the real, hard-core red in tooth and nail capitalism you always dreamed of.

Fr you write "Doggy, I've mostly agreed with you but this is poppycock. "

Geez that's a bit rough....... lol

Mate, he has turned them on their heads.... GW Bush publicly refused to vote for him..Ryan aint going nowhere.... The cornerstone right wing ideal of free markets and free trade is under seige with Trumps plans for tarifs...... Just as the right here is splintering in Australia before our very eyes, it will continue to happen there, too..... Tarifs and trade protection is of the left.... So any party that practices those beliefs can call themselves "right wing", but they aren't.

The private civil war within the party will continue...... Trump will morph into the elite, what he has always aspired to be.... The old money folk have never accepted him..... They will pull out their cheque books and say "how much?".... Trump being a money man will name his price, as every man has a price.... By year 2, maybe 3, as he continues to renege on his bold promises, the working class man and woman will be seething.... You aint seen anger yet.....
He has already reneged on mass deportations..... He has reneged on pulling out of South Korea.... And he's not even president yet. Plus with the modern internet, which has been touched on somewhere here, Trump is not going to have a similar ride to Reagan....
It's gonna be veeeeery interesting...

ive learned from the 20 something generation that they are ok with the new way of promising everything prior to the election and then breaking it all. and further that they are ok with trump changing his tune every 5 seconds and then providing little coherent policy.

wtf. guess im just getting old. i thought elections were supposed to be about our future, not an exercise in popularism and entertainment.

Trump has always been a man who has said whatever is expedient at the time to gain power or advantage.

Yes, it was a hostile takoever and a broom through the republican party but now he has delivered everything every right-winger could have possibly dreamed of. Especially socially. Paul Ryan will be quietly disappeared, Bush will go underground.....this is Trumps party/plaything now, to do with as he wants.

He'll do whatever he damm well wants with the economy now: the increase in military spending will put poor white people in military jobs.....same as it ever was.
Trade War? There'll probably be some puff and bluster but nothing that puts real money at risk.
News yesterday was there'll probably be lots of suits from corporations bought into the fold: Goldman Sachs bankers, oil company executives etc etc.

That kind of economic program: massive military and infrastructure spending by the state to put people in a stagnant economy back to work and a "Fortress" foreign policy is not new, it's been tried before. It's called National Socialism.

Trump will blend this national socialism with the most virulent guns/we are the masters of the earth christians capitalism the world has ever seen.

It's going to be quite a ride.

Hopefully now, at the least, we can look at the US, as Paul Keating did and say: we have a better society than the US.
That might stop or slow some of the slavish devotion seen in a lot of australian society to emulating the USA.
We need to distance ourselves from these crazy cnuts, not copy them.

ps, the Neoliberalism, free trade project is not a right wing ideal. It's been enthusiastically embraced by both sides of politics.

@freeride, I agree with you on what Trump will do with the economy, but the question needs to be asked with all that spending where will the money come from given he has also promised massive tax cuts? Reagan and the Bush presidents all cut taxes and increased spending and the economy ended up a basket case each time. The economy is still flat so he hasn't got any wriggle room until he starts running up a massive deficit. Now Trump is well experienced in bankruptcy, is that where America is heading? A bankrupt America in recession or possibly depression isn't going to be good for the rust belt but the wealthy will be fine.

Following on from what Sheepdog was saying I think Trump's election does show the gapping holes in the political ideology of the right. Is Trump the best they have got? Really? and are his stated social and economic policies what the right really aspires to? If is is all true I'm thinking that as a political movement its nearing its end because the natural consequences of it enacting its policies will deem it unelectable. Ordinary people will ultimately really suffer and they will revolt hopefully only at the ballot box.

The recurring question I have about the right is how far will they push their discredited trickle down economic theory into to policy before even they (along with the rest of the world) see its flaws? They need not look any further than economic power houses of the world to see how and where corporate and personal tax rates should be. Taxes in America (and here) should be increasing not falling.

So agree with what Paul Keating is saying right now but then again I wanted AU to distance itself from Uncle Sam for a long time

Australian politics and economy, all things middle east terrorism, ISIS, all things global, climate change, Ingenious Australians, border control/refugees, climate change, China etc.

And now experts on American politics and economy and what the future will bring...Okay.

I have no idea, but my bets are like most politicians he wont do what he says or be able to do what he says, so basically the future is unknown.

Yep Indo, very much unknown. many of the points you mentioned above are not directly connected but indirectly connected. We will get more information once we know his cabinet. But the scenario is he has both houses and a presence of actually achieving something.
Let stop this 'whingerama' and see what happens. For us, it would seem Turnbull is of the Obama mould and will go. Interesting times, gents.

FR writes "ps, the Neoliberalism, free trade project is not a right wing ideal.

Sorry bud..... You are absolutely wrong.... Google right wing ideology, reaganomics, thatcherism... Just because the "left" has lurched to the right doesn't make free market economics "not" right wing

If Blind boy makes another comment in this thread, it's an admission by him that he's a douche (bahahahahahahaha).

Hey there poofters.

What Stu the media got it wrong on Trump? NO they didn't. The media have got it wrong everyday of the week of every month for years now. Left wing pretenders don't count for shit in the real world. No credibility the media have, and when Trump sets up Trump TV, the influence of the tards will be close to zero. Journalists? They cant even spell the word.

Unintended consequences Stu? what bollocks! Lets reverse that. So Clinton and Obama have intentionally fcked up the west. what utter mindless illogical claptrap you spruik.

Free, you better go back to rehab to gain some coherence.

Revenge of the deplorables

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-11-11/revenge-of-the-deplor...

“Our allies in the region were our largest problem in Syria. The Turks were great friends... [and] the Saudis, the Emirates, etcetera. What were they doing?.... They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad — except that the people who were being supplied, [they] were al-Nusra, and al-Qaeda, and the extremist elements of jihadis who were coming from other parts of the world.”

Huffington post

how saudi wahhabism is the fountainhead of islamist terrorism

can't post link...the conspiracy runs deep... humour I hope...because this website currently runs like a dog

Now we are getting somewhere... but geez talk about having to hold a gun to someone's head just to make them lsten

"For too many in the poor neighbourhoods of the west, middle-class liberals have become like their bosses at work. They tell you what you can and can’t think. They warn that you must accept their superiority and you will be in no end of trouble if you do not."

I don't think you need to be poor to feel like this

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/12/world-in-crisis-ba...

Is there an Aussie that could do a do a Donald Trump?

An anti type politician, dont think a super rich business man in Australia would cut it though, we would be after someone that is known but likeable and tells it how it is, down to earth and well spoken, a bit intelligent, probably need to be from a background of either an actor, TV presenter, or musician.

Take the best of the left and right and sit just a little to the right with a nationalistic take on things.

Paul Hogan would have been perfect but getting a bit old plus i think lives in USA and had that tax problem a few years back.

Aside from the super rich bit you just described Malcolm Turnbull.

And fact is, any political outsider would have to be independently wealthy to make headway in a world where they'd be getting absolutely no favours.

Dick smith

He just don't have that charisma trump has

He also seems to be losing the battle with age

For starters we don't have a president here in Australia. The closest position to the US' president is our Governor General and mostly the people to hold that position have been exceptional Australians who have upheld very high standards while in that office.

If we did have a presidential style of government here (and thank god we don't as the Westminster system, while imperfect seems more bullet proof to US type highs/lows) someone like Twiggy Forrest might fit your bill @Indo, a mixed bag but his heart seems to be in the right place when it comes to Aboriginal welfare and he does speak clearly and not in pollie speak.

I wonder if people's unrest with Australian politics at the moment would be solved if all sides of politics stopped preselecting these people that are groomed from a very early age into the "profession". Ben Chifley left school at 15 to work in the railways and he ended up the Prime Minister. Paul Keating was also an early school leaver who worked in the real world before entering politics.

Spot on Floyd

And twiggy would be way better than my suggestion

I'd almost be comfortable with twiggy as 'our trump', though he's a little low on that mysterious trait charisma, that may be ideal, as pointed out above, Australians wouldn't accept a wanker like trump

Hmmm Malcolm Turnbull to me and i think most Aussies is just another politician.

Yeah sure Dick Smith, i think he ticks most of the boxes.

Yeah i know we don't have a president, but i still think a huge majority of Australians vote based on emotion and if they like the leader of the political party or not.

Is there an Aussie who could do a Donald Trump?

We already have Pauline Hanson , and one nation , which are gaining more and more support everyday in Australia.

If elections were held again now , O N , would probably pick up another 4 seats , but in the oncoming election in Queensland it looks like One Nation would control the State as the Labor Party the LNP are about even and O N will have balance of power .

so Australia has a version of Trump , not as intelligent as him when you put here fish and chip shops against his towers , but maybe Aussies are just dumber than seppo's?

Clive Palmer had a crack at getting there............that worked well for him and the country.........

Yeah, Fitz, Clive had a go...... But something we have that's a national pastime here, that the USA doesn't have ( well not to our extent)?
Tall poppy syndrome.... That's why the only real Trump equivalent we have is happy sitting on the sidelines throwing barbs..... Who is that you may ask........ Well.... Think of all the similarities between Trump and this person......... He's rich..... He's outrageous.... He has said some shocking things..... He has displayed misogyny, and openly attacked PM's..... Has a massive media show and his ratings are huge.... He was succesful in his own right beofre his media days.... Is of the conservative flavour..... Is a master at public speaking.......
If you can't guess who I'm talking about, you should die of shame.

And Brutus said tall poppy syndrome was bad

Good and bad in all...

Guy Sebastian?

australian's criticise and ridicule american politics (and our own) because unlike americans we spot bullshit from a mile off.

No, Zen.... Not Guy Sebastian..... bahahahahahahahahaha

Pauline Hanson is mostly about FNQ. Different universe up there, like the deep south in the US. Sure she has some traction elsewhere but her base is and always will be the good ole boys from FNQ.

sheepdog, im guessing "died of shame" is the clue.

Happyass, I couldn't help myself......... "Ditch the witch" and "Ju-liar" couldn't be formed into a workable clue lol

Anyhooooooo, if these dipshits protesting in the USA could all go home, and allow the mainstream media to not have a 24/7 leading story, that'd be great..... They'd have to fill the news cycle with something else - like Trump reneging on Obama care, or Trump reneging on pulling tropps out of South Korea, or Trump now saying chasing Hilary is not a priority, or Trump putting leading members of the swamp in his team, or Trump putting 3 of his children and a son in law in his team ( who needs the Bush or Clinton family right?), or Trump reneging on a wall (might be a fence now), or Trump backtracking on expelling 11 million people......
Gonna be some REALLY angry Trump supporters within 6 months......

Twiggy likes paying tax about as much as Trump.

Mining tax , Twiggy ?

This was sent to me. I have no idea who this bloke is and there's no denying that it's totally scripted but it doesn't mean he's wrong.

Twiggy Forrest? Yeah...nah.

The little woman - now that we live in a post-insult world I can say that - worked with him for a while and nah, definetely nah.

Could say much, much more...

Yeah Zen I saw that yesterday ....all so true.

...and Zen, seen that vid once before and got dizzy then too; arms wavin', camera zoomin', the host bug eyed and freakin' out.

It's a plausible argument, has some merit, but no way does it tell all the story. For one, he says the left should open dialogue with the 'deplorables', but whereabouts are these groups of people meeting? What common media do they use? And remember, the largest media outlets are politically on the right. For other views, the world is fragmenting and cohorts are breaking off into their own isolation chambers getting their news and views from publications that echo their own thoughts - except for Swellnet, of course, broad church that we have here. Trump is as much a symptom of media fragmentation as anything else.

Also, small bone to pick. One part of his argument seems to be that the left use names to stereotype or demean, yet I've read the term 'urban elites' eleventy-hundred times this week. What about 'champagne socialist'? Or just left wing wanker? All of them seem like people of different worldviews hurling a few insults. And why, when the Western world has been inexorably moving to the right for forty years, does the left have to concede this fault? The right is winning, remember? Has done since Reagan/Thatcher. Trump is more about chickens voting for KFC than the left not using nice words.

Anyway, reckon much of this argument should be put on ice for a year or two and we'll see just how happy those 'chickens' are with Trump then.

Stu, they all have a skeleton or two in the closet. Except, er, John Howard.
Sheepdog, until you got to the last few clues it could have been any of the shock jocks.