A new addition to my American bookshelf arrived this morning.
This type of betrayal usually only happens when the top guy’s power is on the wane.
There probably isn’t any requirement for me here to outline the headlines of the Trump presidency.
Over the last few days, thanks to RTE Player, I’ve been revisiting the beauty of the West Wing.
Of course, it all starts with the writing, and Aaron Sorkin knocked it out of the park.
That said, Martin Sheen was in the form of his life as the fictional occupant of the Oval Office.
Josiah Edward “Jed” Bartlet was an erudite economist who frequently consulted his moral compass.
During the Bush 2 presidency, the West Wing allowed the other America to take a mental holiday once a week during the Bush 2 president from the Neo-Con craziness that would lead to the carnage in Iraq.
A decade after the last episode was screened in 2006 reality was about to trump (sorry) anything that Aaron Sorkin could have created.
I doubt that even the most skilled screenwriter could have imagined the grotesque vista of the Mango Mussolini in the Oval Office.
Dear reader, that’s the problem with writing fiction-it has to make sense.
Consequently, events dear boy tends to make a nonsense of what is conjured up in the writer’s head.
For full disclosure, I did not think that Trump would get the GOP nomination first time around.
After the Access Hollywood tape scandal, I thought he was finished in the race to the White House and that Hilary Clinton would build an unassailable lead.
Wrong again.
Throughout this bizarre odyssey, the Big Fella has called it dead on.
He has been recently reassuring me that Joe Biden is smashing it in the polls.
His one word of caution is that if there is …ahem… skulduggery in the vote-counting process, then the election could be very very tight.
In that scenario, Trump on the stump would sell a Dolchstoßlegende narrative to his deranged well-armed base.
When you read this about what passes for police training in Kentucky, then you fear for the future.
Using quotes from Mein Kampf to morally ground law enforcement officers is a vignette that shines a light on what is currently happening inside the USA.
A hat tip to the Louisville high school newspaper for breaking the story.
Michael Cohen’s book will be in good company in the USA corner of my study.
Perhaps the only thing standing between the world and post-election chaos in the most powerful nation on the planet is a document written in the 18th century.
However, Trump has already behaved in a way that demonstrated that the Founding Fathers never thought possible.
For example, they didn’t think to write in a prohibition against a sitting president using his office to enrich himself and his family.
If the Constitution withstands what could unfold in the coming weeks, then Donald J Trump will prove that America really is great.
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USA election in full swing. No surprise to see the Rangers results for the last financial year pop up tomorrow as Trump and Biden hog the front pages.
I read the book last week , very enlightening to say the least but just remember cohen is a smuck as they say in NYC
No matter the results tomorrow night, a restless nation may see much unrest in the coming days
Sorry Phil, Trump will win. I’ve been sadly right about him since 2014 and I don’t see me being wrong here. He’s behind in the pills bit will win. Polls look at voters. That’s not how US presidents are chosen.
I think the whole world is rooting for Biden. As it is, I too have taken to watching the first season of West Wing over the last week or so just to remind myself that there is a decent idea of what an American president can be.
Really I think you should do some research the whole world is not rooting for sleepy joe.
Yes they are.
When It comes to trashing The US Constitution, Trump is an amateur when compared to the murderer Obama, who personally ordered the execution by drone of two US citizens in the Yemen. “I’m good at killing people” was a direct quote according to one of his aides. He also increased the number of US illegal wars from two to seven. He. who was a constitutional lawyer, saw to it that the ‘executive’ was put above the legislature , suspended Habeus Corpus, presided of the ‘rendition’ aka kidnapping, ‘enhanced interrogation ‘ techniques, aka torture, and kept hundreds of innocent men imprisoned in Guantanamo.. He presided over mass evictions of `US citizens from their homes, and in his ‘pivot to Asia’ undertook belligerent, and dangerous, actions against China, claiming, for fuck’s sake, that the South China Sea was important re US national security interests. Imagine the outcry if China made a similar claim re the Gulf of Mexico?
He has rightly been described as ‘the worst president in US history’ and if Biden prevails in the coming election it will be Obama 0.2. Obama now lives in a thirty-odd acre estate in Martha’s Vineyard. Given the extent of the Biden family’s corrupt dealings in the Ukraine and China, they could very well end up as neighbours.
“The Obama administration has taken the extraordinary step of authorizing the targeted killing of an American citizen, the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to have shifted from encouraging attacks on the United States to directly participating in them,
Seems to me Obama was right .
Here is a quote from one of those US citizens you accuse Obama of murdering; Al-Awlaki said that he taught and trained Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian-born “underwear bomber, who was going to bomb Northwest Airlines Flight #523 on Dec. 25, 2009. But he said that he did not order the attack. Some say he is a US citizen, and some say he is an Al Queda terrorist bomber. The thing about Trump supporters is they melt in the light of a decent fact check..
And his American born 16 year old some killed 2 weeks later was obviously a clear and present danger to the United States, right?
The airstrikes late Friday in the southeastern province of Shabwa points to Washington’s growing use of drones to target al-Qaeda militants in Yemen. The missile attacks appear to be part of a determined effort to stamp out the threat from the group, known as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which US officials have said is the terror network’s most active and most dangerous branch.
This strike against al-qaeda was targetting terrorist bombers and their handlers, it is quite a coincidence that Al-Alwaki’s son just happened to be there amongst them.How many innocent kids have been captured, raped murdered or blown up by those who were stopped in their tracks by that drone?
So his kid was an accident? Riiight.
Al Qaeda is so dangerous apart from when the Americans are funding Al Qaeda because their interests align, right? The US has been funding AQ for decades and hasn’t stopped yet.
The use of Sig Int for strikes is nothing short of state terrorism. Using hypothetical scenarios based on zero intel to justify indiscriminate mass murder is not going to sway many rational people.
The “Mango Mussolini” is a wonderful description for the current incumbent of the oval office and regardless of who wins tomorrow the song will remain the same. As in the UK our politics is a sham , 2 cheeks of the same arse will inevitably deliver another puppet to front the show for the real powers who hide behind the curtain .
The US constitution states that “no state…shall make any thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” It took only 13 months after the death of the last truly great American President to remove all silver from their coinage and another 6 years before Nixon temporarily suspended the US from the gold exchange standard in order to stabilise the economy . That temporary suspension is still with us almost 50 years later . The founding fathers knew that without gold and silver to restrict the creation of currency that man’s greed would run a mock within the printing press. In 2008 we were as Alistair Darling said ” 2 hours from total global financial collapse” due to overwhelming debt. The solution to too much debt is never to create more debt but that is exactly what they did .
Quantitative Easing is just fancy talk for firing up the printing press, it didn’t work so they tried QE2 then QE3 and QE4 . In order to afford the debt repayments we cut rates to 0.1% and we are now considering negative rates (that’s where the banks charge you when you lend them your money) There are consequences to too much debt , failure to pay leads to face painters going hungry and local newsagents having to sack their paperboys . The USA isn’t great , the USA is a modern day Britannia that profits from it’s great war machine pillaging the assets of other nations . It’s day has come and it’s destruction is due to the same mistakes made by all the other Empires . It has stretched its resources too far from its shores and debased its currency to near worthlessness. The lunatic really did take over the asylum and it hasn’t ended well.
Neoliberal Economics is built on a Foundation of Private Debt and as such a seriously flawed concept.
This is why it will periodically end in recession.
The EU is a shrine built to it and is heading for trouble.
Just a matter of when not if.
Tim Tim! Gonnae extend that and write a book pal. Put me down for half a dozen copies. Brightened and clarified my day it did.
Hi Phil, I have recently finished reading Hitchens book on Thomas Jefferson, ( Author of America ) . I read it alongside his book on Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man. If you haven’t read the latter it’s well worth a read.
“Neo-Con craziness”
Are you sure that the gang’s not getting ready to get back together again?
Remember, though, that Michael Cohen is a convicted liar.
And the Giant Peach is an accomplished liar, who, along with his family members, is being investigated by the AG of New York for fraud.
Good to speak with you again Tom:-)
I’m not a supporter of “the least bad candidate” method of selection. If they’re both crooks, never mind both being incompetent, we should say so.
I have yet to read a post from you that criticises Trump, just constant criticism of Obama and Biden. Criricism that does not stand up to scrutiny like the rest of the Trump apologists on here.
Tom, that’s just not true. Don’t you remember that I largely agreed with your description of Trump? My point is that that doesn’t automatically make Biden a good candidate.
‘It’s not the people who vote that count…it’s the people who count the votes’
Attributed to Joseph Stalin.
I think if Trump loses he will defect to Russia to avoid criminal prosecution
Hi Phil
I have sent emails to my MP and MSP (both SNP) on the subject of a Level Playing Field.
‘I hope you will be pressing the First Minister to apply the same 2 game postponement on Rangers FC for their players breach of Covid 19 protocols for Premiership clubs as the Scottish Government quite rightly did when Aberdeen and Celtic players broke the protocols (ie the FM’s yellow card). Any lack of parity is likely to have a negative effect on compliance in Scotland so I would hope you would express an opinion.
I await your response with interest.’
I imagine you may write an article on this subject and might suggest others contact at least their MSP to press the Scottish Government to be consistent (the 2 game postponments did not come from the football authorities but from the Scottish Government).
My apologise to all those offended by my use of Rangers FC when I am actually referred to Sevco but I know there is more chance of receiving a positive response if I sit in the back of the bus on this occasion.