Trump’s First Day!
Ok, I’m going to try and be fair and remember that not all Trump supporters are bad. It’s just the ninety percent who give the rest a bad name.
Trump promised so much on his first day that there was a lot of breathless speculation about what he’d actually do.
Apparently, he went to a prayer service, followed by a visit to the CIA to tell them that he really, really respected them and that when he made nasty comments about how they got the WMD thing so badly wrong, well, he didn’t really mean to mock them and those reports of an “Operation Oswald” that wasn’t what his advisers thought it was, was it? Anyway, boys, no hard feelings, carry on making America great again!
I presumed he’d be heading straight back to New York to tell someone to get rid of what somebody had written on the Statue of Liberty. Apparently there’s this poem which includes the lines:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
How inappropriate! I mean that could give Mexicans the wrong idea. Who on earth would put something so inappropriate on the Colossus to America’s greatness?
There was a little video doing the rounds on social media which pointed out that Trump had quoted Bane from “The Dark Night Rises” in his speech. I guess after the furore when Melania used large chunks of one of Michelle Obama’s speeches, he wanted to make sure that he wasn’t quoting Barack.
People may also remember this attempt to emulate Leni Riefenstahl.
I was wondering why he didn’t get them to appear at his inaugaration, but someone told me that they were suing him because of a failure to pay travel expenses like he promised. Surely such a thing can’t be true. Trump misleading someone!
Meanwhile, back here in Australia, I’ve heard rumours that Turnbull is quite enthusiatic about Trump’s election because he thinks that now an alleged billionaire is in the White House, people won’t think of him as out-of-touch because he’s merely a multi-millionaire who was brought up in the slums of Vaucluse. He’s also quite excited about the idea that when Trump starts actually doing things, his own strategy of sitting on his hands and stealing slogans from Tony Abbott will look good by comparison.
Sorry, Malcolm. You’re on a slippery slide. You’re not liked, you’re not trusted, you’re considered out of touch and arrogant and nobody expects you to follow through on anything. And that’s just by the Coalition MPs.
Interesting times ahead!
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Return to home pageHow to make America Great Again – rip off little girls
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/07/politics/usa-freedom-kids-lawsuit-trump/
Mals true calling was to be a used car salesman.
Especially of old beatup utes Jack Straw.
Growth is the guaranteed mechanism for political, economic and environmental failure for all governments that pursue it. Trump and Turnbull will fail.
“What’s ute?”, I asked as a newcomer to Oz.
“It’s a car that’s half sedan, half truck”, explained my Dutch mother-in-law. Maybe that’s how it was explained to her…
I have no use for utes, but if so, I would not buy one from Mal.
“Growth is the guaranteed mechanism for political, economic and environmental failure”- Disruption is just around the corner.
It’s undeniable that the wrong people go into politics. Delusions of grandeur make bad men.
Our growth should be based on our sustainability.
The tune the little girls are singing is “Over There”. A WW1 inspirational song written by George M Cohan!
The words talk of going over there to fight?
A curious choice! But I guess like the Westboro Baptists easy to re-word?
Interesting NYTimes article on how the media misrepresented the turnout to Trump’s inauguration?
After a nasty retort to accusations that the bust of Martin Luther King had been removed from the oval office (yes this is the country with the world’s biggest nuclear arsenal) to claims that
“this was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration period” !
Silly me? I thought they would use the weather to blame the poor turnout! They just lied!
This is the media management that will be the norm for Trumpageddon!
Watch the video which culminates in the press aide refusing to take questions and storming off after delivering his “you naughty boys and girls speech” mmmm remind you of anyone?
The wrong people go into PARTY politics, where to be successful you have to be a manipulative, false, backstabbing, liar, in order to be pre-selected. This “training” thus predestines the candidates to be awful politicians when they make it to the swamp.
Steve, in the case of America you have to add ‘rich’.
helvityni
My reference to an old ute was in relation to Turnbull, Rudd and Utegate.
That incident of the L-NP attempting to bring down Rudd shows the crass double standards they engage in when you look at the sheer scale of blatant rorting the L-NP predominantly now engage in across the whole gamut of government spending. Rorting that makes Utegate look like a gram of salt compared to a gram of saffron.
And didn’t that work out well for Malcolm! Lost his job shortly afterwards.
How long before the next ute drives up?
Here’s another NYTimes article that some might find interesting. I am curious to know how many millionaires our parliament holds.
“An analysis of disclosure filings by the Center for Responsive Politics reveals that while lawmakers like to talk about the plight of poor and middle-class Americans, few of them can relate financially.”
Michael re article Malcolm has gone too farr. Could you shut down people comments who are very hackneyed and boring. Someone comes to mind “””
Jack, if that was the case then most of my comments would be deleted too. ?
Trump has signed an Executive Order now on its way to the Congress ” to seek the prompt repeal” of the Affordable Care Act.
Of the replacement legislation, yet to see the light of day Trump has said :
“It’s gonna be great, lower premiums, better coverage, its gonna be great, lower deductibles, it is gonna be great ”
Watch carefully because you cannot dismantle Obamacare without either leaving millions of Americans with no healthcare coverage or with substantially higher premiums.
wow a hint that ‘a fair go’ is still alive, John.
The heading gives the impression trunbull, the rabbott et al are feared of debt? The pricks. lead by the fear mongering rabbott. and the media made the electorate frightened of gillard’s debt or labor’s debt but accepting of liberal debt.
It seems ridiculous to me that aussies are protesting against a legitimately and democratically elected septic tank when the tudge-trunbull debt algorithm sent over 200000 Australians a debt letter with an error rate up to 20%(40000 people). Worse is tudge finds the error level acceptable. But even worse is the unemployed or newly employed have burden of proof from 2011 thrust on them. If there is an error the ‘fixers’ are computer robots overseeing the system. Poor Bill any protest and he supports dole bludgers so is wedged again. Of course it can only get worse as consultants’ imagination runs riot with ideas to steal entitlement from welfare till ‘the american way’ is reached.
The cashless card, the basic card both sound good to those who are far from the bush. Sadly we will not see an evaluation process before these pricks introduce the Australian version of the food stamp system. Poor bill wedged again.
ps Terry2 it could be that the republican thinking is like here where the unemployed are labor so the 20m vote democrat. This is not correct but who cares as it is ‘reasonable’ assumption?
Terry2:
Premiums were already going up at exorbitant rates, thanks to the Democrats’ abandonment of the public option. Only the federal subsidies were keeping people insured (often insured with large excesses) so even when insured, many of those (or a family member) who fell ill or were injured and required hospitalisation were still left with large debts and faced bankruptcy.
The main purpose of the act- and the real nub with its repeal, is that the ACA was designed to ensure that providers, climics and hospitals were paid some amount- enough to keep them afloat. We can see the extent of that problem in states in the US South that refused to implement key portions of the act. Hospitals and clinics were limiting their services or shutting down entirely.
While it’s comparatively easy for people in cruel societies like the US and Australia to look the other way or kick the disadvantaged to the curb, it starts to hit home when their own lives are inconvenienced or endangered by the lack of healthcare facilities in and around their communities.
The people respond:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/live/2017/jan/21/womens-march-on-washington-and-other-anti-trump-protests-around-the-world-live-coverage
I wonder how Trump voters are enjoying their first whiffs of the foetid stink of their fresh change.
Hillary’s starting to look pretty good… except for those who still deny climate change. Nothing will shift those blinkers.
Very interesting Deanna
“Among the men at the #WomensMarch: Joshua Kushner, brother of White House senior adviser Jared. ”
https://twitter.com/brfreed/status/822924611914448897/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
“My reference to an old ute was in relation to Turnbull, Rudd and Utegate”
Möbius Ecko, I know what you were referring to, but took the opportunity say that I would not buy anything from our PM.
Sorry for taking liberties and being a bit frivolous.
Ask Michael to delete it if it upsets you, people seem a bit edgy today, methinks.
“Trump promised so much on his first day that there was a lot of breathless speculation about what he’d actually do.”
And so it begins again!!
Way back when, I was an avid Obama supporter and looked forward to his first day in Office
‘Yes we can” but he didn’t, and his “Hope and Change” left little hope and barely any change other than an America divided more now than at any time in its modern history.
Just how much responsibility do Obama and the Democrats take for Trumpmania?
About 3 million marched to show their displeasure at Trump but the sad fact is they roll up their placards head back to their jobs, families and lives and prepare for the Trump onslaught for the next 4 or 8 years
Obama actually achieved a surprising amount despite being constantly blocked by the Republicans (the Democrats will probably repay the favor during Trump’s term). It’s just the right-wing mainstream media don’t talk about his successes. Here is a quick list I read recently:
– When Obama passed the Recovery Act, a bigger stimulus than the New Deal, the infrastructure spending, the investments in clean energy manufacturing, and the Making Work Pay tax cuts were for working people.
– When we passed the ACA, that was aimed straight at working people—white working people, black working people, Hispanic, Asian, and tribal—and Republicans are now finally having to face up to that fact. Not just the 20+ million who got coverage, but the ~150 million with preexisting conditions and the vast majority of Americans who get their coverage through work who were always at risk of getting screwed by some insurance company loophole. It was for people like my parents who are self-employed and could never afford real insurance for our family while I was growing up.
– When we passed the CFPB, that was for working people who were getting screwed every which way by predatory financial industries.
– When Obama executed the auto bailout, despite shudder-inducing unpopularity at the time, a million working people kept their livelihoods.
– When Obama ended the Bush tax cuts for millionaires, even as he extended working class tax cuts like the Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Tax Credit, and the new American Opportunity Tax Credit, that was for working people.
– When we repealed DADT [Don’t Ask Don’t Tell – miriam – I hate acronyms], and helped make marriage equality a reality, that was for working people who wanted to live free of discrimination in a loving relationship or serving their country.
– When we implemented DACA, that was for working people who just wanted to come out of the shadows and contribute to this country in the light of day.
– When Obama signed the law to reduce crack/cocaine sentencing discrepancies, and pushed the sentencing commission for reform, and made a cause out of his presidential commutation power, and pushed to “ban the box” on employment forms, that was for working people who wanted to make a living for themselves and their families, and not have their lives destroyed by some drug offense for which a wealthy kid might have gotten a slap on the wrist.
– When the president brought more than 90 percent of our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan, stayed out of a full-blown ground war quagmire in Syria despite constant criticism, and used diplomacy to block Iran’s nuclear program and avoid another war, that was for the working people who make up America’s military—white working people, black working people, Hispanic, Asian, and tribal—who want to serve their country and get an education they might not otherwise be able to afford, and who are treated like cannon fodder by Washington’s war “hawks.”
– When Obama took on toxic pollution on things like mercury and countless other rules, that was for working people, who are the ones who bear the brunt of that toxicity, saving tens of thousands from sickness and death.
– Setting aside the fact that climate change will destroy the planet that working people work on, he has also pushed against widespread skepticism, constant political criticism, and even mockery, to make clean energy a source of manufacturing jobs for working people for decades ahead, and there is now widespread agreement that the clean energy revolution has begun—and can’t be reversed.
– When Obama took major executive actions and pushed to make fair pay and paid leave central to the political debate, to recognize them as economic issues and not solely gender equality issues, that was, obviously, about working people.
– Executive actions on overtime pay, payday lenders, crooked retirement brokers: working people.
– And when Obama pushed for the American Jobs Act, for immigration reform, for universal background checks, for universal pre-K and free community college and for minimum wage increases, and was blocked by Republicans, that was all for working people.
I think 90% of the blame for our current position around the world is on the mainstream media. They are so badly rotten they, like abscessed teeth, require removal for the survival of the patient — which is, in this case, society.
They enabled Tony Abbott, they push the agenda of the IPA, they enable Pauline Hanson, they actively promote climate change denial, they are the only reason Trump was elected, they fan the flames of racism and misogyny and nationalism, they brought about the conditions for what Australian politicians are doing to refugees. And there is much, much more. It is all on the mainstream media.
Yes there is a small part of the blame that falls on ignorant people in the population, but as I’ve said before, those people are mostly too busy to spend time researching things. They look to trusted information sources to get their opinions. Unfortunately those sources are untrustworthy. Outsourcing such research should be an efficient way to run a society. We don’t grind our own lenses for spectacles, build our own computers (well, I do), weave our own fabrics, make our own rubber tyres. A society is supposed to be able to function as an interconnected whole. This isn’t true of the mainstream media — they have defaulted on their part of the social contract. They’ve gone rogue.
Trump three neurons short of a jellyfish.
Truffles a poor copy.
Abbott jelly having lost its fish.
Miriam, unfortunately it wont allow me to post numerous links
Promise Broken rulings on The Obameter
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/rulings/promise-broken/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/rulings/promise-broken/?page=2
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/rulings/promise-broken/?page=3
continued Promise Broken rulings on The Obameter
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/rulings/promise-broken/?page=4
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/rulings/promise-broken/?page=5
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/rulings/promise-broken/?page=6
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/rulings/promise-broken/?page=7
Promise Broken rulings on The Obameter
And I for one was sad as I believed the following link
and just exactly how did anyone imagine Obama would be helped to do all the things he promised, when the Republicans in the Congress and the Senate vowed to BLOCK everything he tried to do. Not just speak against, or try to change – BLOCK.
That he managed to achieve anything is nothing short of a miracle.
Thanks Miriam for putting out the stuff he did get done.
Exactly the same has happened here – Julia Gillard managed to enact 400 pieces of legislation in her term – and yet the LNP and the MSM told us every day what a useless mob they were. And Turnbulll ? What have they managed ? Next to nothing – and the one thing that even TA promised – fixing the rorts in their own house – they didn’t have time for.
Thise who voted for them, those who voted for Trump, and those who are thinking of voting for PH – you have been warned. Be careful what you wish for.
Good on ya two, Miriam and Keitha.
helvityni sorry, I wasn’t being edgy or disparaging of you. If you took it that way then my bad.
That is a very impressive list Miriam.
I had to look up st’s reference to jellyfish to grasp his full meaning. I found ”Jellyfish are not actually fish, and are scientifically known as Cnidarians. What is truly remarkable about these animals is that they are have no structured organ systems, heart, brain, or breathing apparatus”. They sound like a high percentage of our federal parliamentarians, and I think his comment is unkind to jellyfish.
Just one question regarding the trumpet and our current shadow puppet. If donald wipes his arse with and then flushes the TPP down the loo where it belongs, is talcum going to sign it before it gets flushed or after?
It’s just that if talcum does sign it, either way is going to leave Australia in a really shitty position. Maybe they should drag andrew robber back from his aged care facility in the sun to go over the details first, just to make sure they f*ck it up properly.
Ms Gillard did achieve a lot when she was pm. Personally, the rules/laws should be changed so that prime ministers who are removed from office mid term should have to resign from politics completely at the next election. That way they can’t do a mad monk or krudd and f*ck things up for the new dealer. It is for Australia that they are in politics anyway, isn’t it?
Meanwhile back in the real world, lets not get caught up on the trumpet while letting things that matter here slip through the ever widening chasms. There is too much at stake, and the current government are getting worse and worse.
With Trump’s victory I’ve come to a rather terrifying realisation. Many would say that there are people behind the throne, and while I always thought this was the case with George Bush Jr and Reagan and with Tony Abbott and that halfwit Howard, I’m now re-evaluating. All the people who you’d think might be the ones behind the throne hate Trump — he is thoroughly unpredictable and uncontrollable. Suddenly I realise there’s nobody in control. Maybe there never was. Maybe it was all a paranoid illusion. We do love our paranoia.
Perhaps it’s like the way people hate the wealthy because they don’t care about those further down the ladder. It sounds reasonable until you realise that everybody in Australia is part of the 1% most wealthy people in the world. What do we do for the poor? Sweet F.A. Some very few give piddling amounts to charities. Our horrid government has cut foreign aid. Yet we have the gall to complain bitterly about a conspiracy of those further up the ladder. Well, guess what. I’ve known some of those very wealthy people back when I was better off. They are exactly like the rest of us. They don’t think they’re wealthy. They think they’re struggling to pay the bills and keep their heads above water. They point to the ones who are more wealthy than them as the true villains. But it’s an illusion. We are all the problem — even the poor people who won’t help each other.
This just turned up on my Facebook page: WASHINGTON—Admonishing those responsible for failing to uphold their moral duties, Vice President Mike Pence expressed disappointment Saturday in the 200,000 husbands and fathers who had allowed the women and girls in their charge to attend the Women’s March on Washington. “I can’t tell you how let down I feel by the heads of these households who did not simply give their wives and daughters a firm, decisive ‘no’ when they asked to participate in today’s demonstration,” said Pence, noting with frustration that many of the protesters had been granted permission to travel across the country alone and stay for several days in a faraway city with no male chaperone whatsoever to guide and look after them. “There are a few men marching as well, so they must be the ones supervising this whole thing, and thank God for that. But I can’t help but feel that these ladies’ custodians—the ones who were supposed to be providing a masculine voice of reason on these sorts of matters—have really come up short today.” Pence stressed that he, for example, had told his 23-year-old eldest daughter that it was simply out of the question when she mentioned she was thinking of attending the march. http://www.theonion.com/article/mike-pence-disappointed-200000-husbands-and-father-55116
kate, no need to worry about that one. ‘The Onion’ is a satire site.
Thanks Michael. Boy am I glad about that! I was a tiny bit worried.
Michael Taylor write: ” ‘The Onion’ is a satire site.”
Sometimes satire mirrors reality and in so doing, predicts upcoming events:
NEWS
January 17, 2001
“WASHINGTON, DC–Mere days from assuming the presidency and closing the door on eight years of Bill Clinton, president-elect George W. Bush assured the nation in a televised address Tuesday that “our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over.
“…During the 40-minute speech, Bush also promised to bring an end to the severe war drought that plagued the nation under Clinton, assuring citizens that the U.S. will engage in at least one Gulf War-level armed conflict in the next four years.
“You better believe we’re going to mix it up with somebody at some point during my administration,” said Bush, who plans a 250 percent boost in military spending. “Unlike my predecessor, I am fully committed to putting soldiers in battle situations. Otherwise, what is the point of even having a military?”
http://www.theonion.com/article/bush-our-long-national-nightmare-of-peace-and-pros-464
Still can’t believe I fell for that ‘onion’ stuff – just goes to show that when you live in satirical times, it’s pretty easy to believe anything. I made the big Whoopsa of sharing the post on fb, and it now seems that others have fallen for it, too.
Kate: you can do worse than ‘fall for’ onion stuff.
That’s a very great comfort to me, Jexpat. Still squirming, though, as you do.
Why is it that when I hear, read and/ or/ either/ think ‘onion’ I think of Tony Abbott….he bit into an onion.. ?skin and all… 😯 .. now that’s satire on steroids….much like theonion.com Kate.
Thanks for the comfort, LOVO. Who’d’a thunk it?
I fell for it once, too. They write the sort of articles that could be true.
So now this is a whole great big new THING that i need to think about – satire that is so close to the truth that you can’t tell the difference. I surely do appreciate the excuses. I think I’m past my bedtime.
Three weeks ago, Jennifer Wilson left us to ponder her thoughts on On politicians and the age of cruelty alongside Seneca’s Letter XC.
It was a fine read- all through the comments, and spurred me to read and review more and have some discussions with my own peoples.
With regard to satire of the sort we’re looking at here: its also age old, and there’s good stuff in that genre too -and it still resonates today:
“They shed their sense of responsibility
Long ago, when they lost their votes, and the bribes; the mob
That used to grant power, high office, the legions, everything,
Curtails its desires, and reveals its anxiety for two things only,
Bread and circuses.”
Juvenal: Satire X – The Vanity of Human Wishes
Well, this is more than a little worrying. Buried inside Trump’s speech when he was talking about Iraq:
Yeah, he’s going to be a real gem of a president, a real peacemaker. He thinks USA should have stolen another Iraq’s oil, not merely wreck the country and force the oil onto the market where it could be bought cheaply by USA countries. He thinks USA should have outright stolen it… and that they might have another shot at doing so. Yeah, this is gonna end well.
One would think, or like to think, that one of the key prerequisites for satire to work would be the common sense, and the healthy dose of awareness and nuance in its reader.
Clearly that’s not always the case.
No real surprises there.
https://newrepublic.com/article/118013/satire-news-websites-are-cashing-gullible-outraged-readers
Miriam, the simple fact that he spoke the words ‘radical Islamic terrorism’, words unable to leave the mouth of Obama or Clinton, I found quite refreshing. Not that he’ll do much about it, especially with his ‘America first’ dictum.
But failing to honour promises won’t necessarily harm him. Just look at Obama.
Ending well? Who can really tell, the tens of millions of Americans still sulking over their loss, the tens of millions of Americans thrilled at the result, or the collateral bystanders like us who are more content to toss spitballs from the bleachers?
To anyone interested in such things.
Highly recommended reading.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2017/01/16/how_trump_won_the_south_132796.html
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2017/01/17/how_trump_won_the_west_132803.html
cont.
cont.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2017/01/18/how_trump_won_the_northeast_132827.html
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2017/01/19/how_trump_won_the_midwest_132834.html
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2017/01/20/how_trump_won_–_conclusions_132846.html