More than just a chess player

Great Q&A. What we vaguely sense about Trump's success he articulates with clarity, and he does so multiple times.

Maybe perceptive on some fronts but less so on others.

Yes, Putin may be an authoritarian thug who is happy to murder whistle blowers.
Yes, Russia may be looking to manipulate foreign elections.
And Trump and his stooges are almost certainly incompetent jokes.

But the irony in complaining about Russia's meddling in foreign elections is massive.
And the claim that the BBC doesn't push propaganda (and his implied statement that they are left-leaning) as well as his broader statements of a "free [Western] press" defies logic.

Kasparov says that "Americans have taken their democracy and their affluence for granted for so long that they were vulnerable to someone like Trump” - well it's clear that America's "honour system" democracy, as he puts it, has been compromised for decades.

To say that Trump is the beginning of this attack on American "values" is a nonsense - he's clearly a continuation but on a tangent.

ditto

Yeah, don't really agree Andy. The honour system, as I read it, is the unwritten code that defines how one should speak and act in public office. Trump has transgressed that innumerable times by openly criticising past presidents, nepotism, hiring unqualified staff, not showing tax returns, not deposing himself from conflicting businesses, and accusing people of misdemanours without proof. Trump hasn't honoured those conventions and the result is a significant reduction in standing of the POTUS. And it's not just the man on the street who laughs but the people who lead the institutions that keep their democracy in order.

I guess your trouble with the statement is how America has acted in the past - unjust wars and  invasions, headstrong military etc etc - but I'd suggest Kasparov isn't talking about such shadowy events, which, in any case, would be argued as advancing America's interests, but Trump's undermining of that space where the public interacts with politics.

Nor do I agree with your interpretation of "left" media. I can apreciate why you'd think that way: corprate sponsors paying for ad space etc etc...but all I really care about is a publications distilled stance. Not any individual column, and not where they get their money from. If that stance is "for the people", as many publications still are, then it is left leaning.

"Trump has transgressed that innumerable times by openly criticising past presidents, nepotism, hiring unqualified staff, not showing tax returns, not deposing himself from conflicting businesses, and accusing people of misdemanours without proof. Trump hasn't honoured those conventions and the result is a significant reduction in standing of the POTUS."

Agree 100%. These things are inexcusable from a leader of a country like the USA. Nepotism should not ever be accepted in a democracy it makes a mockery of its very foundations.

Now that he's won the election and taught the American press & political deadwood an important lesson it's time for him to be impeached. The integrity of the whole system is now at stake. What kind of system is this where its not alright to bang the intern but anything else goes?

http://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/world-economy/what-really-happene...