Trump

[zip accident]

Keeping things with Russia frosty to reverse military spending cuts

The way things are going, I fear mr Putin may have some investments in the arms industry. I'm sure the USA's presidential candidates do too.

[TFO]

The way things are going, I fear mr Putin may have some investments in the arms industry.

Or at least his cellist might...

[funkstar]

ehh? what world are you posting from?

Yeeeeeeaaah. So, I was commenting on Trump's speech, its inconsistencies, basic cluelessness about how international relations work, and all-round idiocy. As in, what the actual text of my post, and the embedded links, described. There's more to reading than just passing your eyes over the words, you know.

On the other hand, you seem to be on about something else entirely, although it isn't really clear what. Try structuring your sentences, next time. With practice, you might even begin to appear coherent (although making actual sense might be a long ways off).

[pogo]

Trump has written a Rap song. OK, so it’s really The Daily Show who have taken his words and put them to music. But his misogynistic, racist, boastful words fit in very well.

[funkstar]

The problem is this was supposed to be his big foreign policy speech. Not only that but he used teleprompters; he could not blame errors in remembering it or off the cuff remarks (not that those are good excuses anyway).

What is also remarkable is that everybody saw it coming, too: by now, everybody knows that Trump doesn't have a reality-based policy on anything. He's complete surface, and relies almost* solely on projecting an image of "telling it like it is." The irony is that he actually does so far less frequently than any other candidate - he'll blatantly lie, he'll equivocate when he doesn't know what he's being asked (which is shockingly often), he'll insult (with the wit of a 5-year old) rather than answer a hostile question, etc. ad nauseam. How anybody thinks he has the mental capacity for anything let alone the highest public office in the U.S. is beyond me, it really is.

Here's another good link from Politico, analysing his twitter posts.

*"Almost", because he also taps into classic conservative vices such as racism, misogyny, xenophobia, anti-establimentarianism etc. Because, come on, that's such low-hanging fruit that he just has to.

[PumaG]

ehh? what world are you posting from?

Yeeeeeeaaah. So, I was commenting on Trump's speech, its inconsistencies, basic cluelessness about how international relations work, and all-round idiocy. As in, what the actual text of my post, and the embedded links, described. There's more to reading than just passing your eyes over the words, you know.

On the other hand, you seem to be on about something else entirely, although it isn't really clear what. Try structuring your sentences, next time. With practice, you might even begin to appear coherent (although making actual sense might be a long ways off).

Fucksake, what an old, tiring and very sad attempt at put down.

Nice of you to come out of the woodwork anyway.

What exactly was you expecting from a self-funded non-politician? a speech based on policies like the others, that was written by their backers and lobbying? He doesn't' have them you know

You claimed it was scary. When it isn't. at all.

Gravy knows full well what I'm on about, so you didn't need to petulantly address that post to him anyway.

[PumaG]

How anybody thinks he has the mental capacity for anything let alone the highest public office in the U.S. is beyond me, it really is.

Now who's lying. It isn't beyond you at all.

[pogo]

No, funkstar has it spot on. Trump superficially appears talented but dig a bit deeper into what he is saying and it is basically incoherent. It really makes no sense, from sentence to sentence or as a whole. It portrays a fundamental misunderstanding of even basic issues, whether immigration, trade, the Middle East, diplomacy in general.

You can see the same behaviour in his business dealings. Listen to him and you would think he is a great success but he has had a succession of failures and bankruptcies which have ruined many other people. Even with those, where he is has escaped largely intact, he has done poorly. He did not make any money himself, only lost it. He would have been better off taking his father’s wealth and investing it in the stock market.

If it weren’t for his billion dollar inheritance he would just be another huckster on the streets of New York, selling watches or used cars. He would be good at it – he is a persuasive and talented speaker. But he is no good at anything else, at least judging by his business record and his political speeches.

Of course there’s also the fact he is a misogynist and racist. This is not new, not some result of the pressure he is under as candidate. It goes back years. With more than half the electorate women and a growing minority non-white this probably makes him unelectable on his own.

One striking statistic is that the Republicans have only one a majority of votes once, since 1988. George W Bush won a majority in 2004, after 9/11 and on the back of the Iraq War. Every other election (1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012) the Democrats got more votes. The Republican strategy of relying on white male voters is failing, has been for decades. Unfortunately for them Trump looks likely to continue this trend.

[PumaG]

No, funkstar has it spot on. Trump superficially appears talented but dig a bit deeper into what he is saying and it is basically incoherent. It really makes no sense, from sentence to sentence or as a whole. It portrays a fundamental misunderstanding of even basic issues, whether immigration, trade, the Middle East, diplomacy in general.

You can see the same behaviour in his business dealings. Listen to him and you would think he is a great success but he has had a succession of failures and bankruptcies which have ruined many other people. Even with those, where he is has escaped largely intact, he has done poorly. He did not make any money himself, only lost it. He would have been better off taking his father’s wealth and investing it in the stock market.

If it weren’t for his billion dollar inheritance he would just be another huckster on the streets of New York, selling watches or used cars. He would be good at it – he is a persuasive and talented speaker. But he is no good at anything else, at least judging by his business record and his political speeches.

Of course there’s also the fact he is a misogynist and racist. This is not new, not some result of the pressure he is under as candidate. It goes back years. With more than half the electorate women and a growing minority non-white this probably makes him unelectable on his own.

One striking statistic is that the Republicans have only one a majority of votes once, since 1988. George W Bush won a majority in 2004, after 9/11 and on the back of the Iraq War. Every other election (1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012) the Democrats got more votes. The Republican strategy of relying on white male voters is failing, has been for decades. Unfortunately for them Trump looks likely to continue this trend.

You've never appeared to me as being 'scared' by Trump though. He would certainly upset the applecart, which I think scares the banksters, war criminals etc more than any calm person.
American foreign policy needs one of the Teletubbies let lose on it. There is no world peace until then.

[PumaG]

Read either of the linked articles. Trumps speech was full of inconsistencies and easily checked errors. His actual policies were incoherent and lacking any sense or overall theme.

The problem is this was supposed to be his big foreign policy speech. Not only that but he used teleprompters; he could not blame errors in remembering it or off the cuff remarks (not that those are good excuses anyway).

I did and they too claim it is "scary" . Never mind Trump, let a 2 year old crayon all over America's foreign policy

[KlaxonCow]

Never mind Trump, let a 2 year old crayon all over America's foreign policy

Well, no. That would be perfectly harmless. As they'd just draw squiggles.

[gumboot]

Never mind Trump, let a 2 year old crayon all over America's foreign policy

Well, no. That would be perfectly harmless. As they'd just draw squiggles.

If people can take Trump seriously then I expect they're in a mindset where those squiggles are merely an opportunity to try to "interpret" them to mean whatever they want them to mean. Like a witch doctor reading tea leaves or bird guts or whatever.

[KlaxonCow]

If people can take Trump seriously then I expect they're in a mindset where those squiggles are merely an opportunity to try to "interpret" them to mean whatever they want them to mean.

Also known as "religion".

[pogo]

You've never appeared to me as being 'scared' by Trump though. He would certainly upset the applecart, which I think scares the banksters, war criminals etc more than any calm person.
American foreign policy needs one of the Teletubbies let lose on it. There is no world peace until then.

I still can’t see him winning, but if he did it is pretty much impossible to say what his presidency would be like. Much of his platform makes no sense, so he would find it hard to impossible to carry out. He might be stopped by the the law, in particular the Constitution which in the hands of the Supreme Court can be used to strike down presidential actions. The House and Senate might block his policies, both Democrats for obvious reasons and Republicans scared he will tarnish their brand. And many of his policies are simply unworkable. Rounding up and deporting 11 million illegal immigrants would be massively expensive and probably lead to mass civil disobedience hiding and supporting immigrants. It could clog up the justice system for years without coming close to deporting 11m.

In addition he is unpredictable in other ways. He is not as solidly conservative as most Republicans, and has in the past supported Democrats. In particular on social issues he either seems uninterested or quite liberal. And he seems to be making up some of these policies as he goes along.

In theory he could be a very good president, willing to change his mind when his policies don’t work. But it seems as likely he would end up like George W Bush, another intellectual lightweight, swayed by strong willed conservative special interests.

[gumboot]

If people can take Trump seriously then I expect they're in a mindset where those squiggles are merely an opportunity to try to "interpret" them to mean whatever they want them to mean.

Also known as "religion".

If everywhere you look you see religion, perhaps you'll eventually have to accept that religion-like behaviours are innate rather than cultural.