Off Topic 2016 US Presidential Election

What happened to Mr Farage's complaint about foreign leaders attempting to influence UK sovereignty?

Back to 'Mutti' fantasies for me!

 

..but I do like the reply from No.10 on Trump's ambassadorial suggestion, "There is no vacancy. We already have an excellent ambassador to the US."

 

The Donald needs to realise that politics does not work like nepotistic business dealings. You cannot just suggest to foreign countries that they give your buddies jobs, especially when your buddy is hardly a friend of the government that you want to give him office.

I wonder why The Donald declined the invite to the NFL game at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City on Monday night...

 

surely Simpsons has taken over the white house with orange mans ascendancy

 

Then where is Lisa? All I see is stupid people.

 

Apologies, this doesn't work, think this is a subscription thing with certain newspapers.......................

 

Jings; thought we were starting on 2020!

 

Did anyone see the pictures of The Donald with Kanye West?! Kanye looked sedated to the eyeballs! There's an amusing article on the BBC website that says the inauguration team are having problems finding any A-List musicians willing to play at the ceremony: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38298215

The Cabinet is taking shape and of the 15 positions 11 have been filled. The demographics are not encouraging:

8 white men (73%) - average age 65.75 (youngest 53, oldest 79)
1 black man - age 65
2 women (one white, one of Chinese descent) - ages 63 and 58.

The four positions left to fill are Interior, Agriculture, Energy and Veteran's Affairs.

 

Barack Obama was the first black US President, elected on a message of hope; although arguably he did little to improve the lot of the average black American.

So now the allegedly most powerful nation on the planet will be run from a Twitter account by the pantomime villain, whose only British friends seem to be Nigel Farage and Piers Morgan.

They say in America, “it’s the economy, stupid”. Okay, from what I have been reading, here is the beginners’ guide to Trumpflation.

The current level of US debt is reckoned to be about $20 trillion. Potentially, the policies avowed by The Donald to get elected will add about five per cent to that – another trillion dollars of debt. Just to be standing still, Trump will have to create that much growth by his economic plan. That is why they voted for a business tycoon not a politician, right?

The abridged version of Trumpflation is that he wants big infrastructure spending (almost on the scale of Roosevelt in the 1930s), increased defence spending, no cuts to the limited welfare/benefits system and big tax cuts both in income taxes and corporation taxes. Cutting taxes is generally a regressive measure that only favours the rich; and you would think a six-time bankrupt would know that.

The unspoken truth here is that when a similar policy, Reaganomics, came along in the 1980s, the US debt ratio was 35 per cent whereas it is now above 100 per cent and could only go higher. The strength of the dollar is already bad news for emerging market economies, most with debts denominated in dollars. In anticipation of Trumpflation, foreign investors are dropping US government instruments as rising interest rates could cause the US economy to stall with imported deflation. Trump will turn to protectionism to bring manufacturing jobs home, although those in the ‘rust belt’ who voted for him may find he comes up short.

Whether Trump gets to do things the way he reckoned may be hindered by the US debt ceiling rules, up for review by Congress in March, and the likelihood that Republican-controlled Congress will want to see tax cuts neutralised by tax revenue increases elsewhere. What Federal spending can he find to cut to offset less money coming in to pay for it? The Wall is no problem because the Mexicans are going to pay for that...

So Trumpflation is quite probably not going to go to plan, there is too much debt and with the Federal Reserve bereft of tools to control inflation or deflation, it is quite possible that the USA is heading towards recession. The Donald may actually turn out to be good news for the dollar/sterling exchange rate as his bungling could weaken the Greenback, something that he may actually want if he seriously thinks he can take on the Chinese. A fall in the dollar would help US corporate earnings, most of which are derived in foreign currencies, at a time when US equities are overvalued.

The good news about Trump might, ironically, be his foreign policy. He seems to be keen to be friendly towards Russia. This might be the way out of the intractable problem of the Middle East. The West (mostly the US and the UK) have been trying to foist democracy on a part of the world where it clearly is not going to work. Although it may be inconceivable to us, allowing Russia, Iran and their satellites to dominate could actually be the only way to defeat ISIS and stop the mass migration from the region to Europe. That just leaves the problem of Israel. Fortunately Blair is no longer UN Middle East peace envoy.

Can we cut a United States free trade deal with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (CEO of ExxonMobil, owner of $151m of their shares; friend of Putin), without exposing ourselves to the American corporations that TTIP was designed to favour? The EU has failed to come up with a US trade deal in more than 50 years but maybe we can do better.

In four years time, will the Democrats put up Kim Kardashian as their candidate or will John Kerry give the top job another go? That is assuming The Donald last four years...

 

Will try again, didn't work too well!

 

Trump at 16s is a bad bet.

 

Try again!

..........................

"I'll be tremendous!"



Oh, nearly forgot, don't forget to set your clocks back 228, no what the heck, 300-years tonight.....

 

The picture links to this article on their website: The 45th President.

Swanny, it would not be the first time that The Economist was proven right: American Carnage.

If the Republicans in Congress cannot rein their man in, his isolationist and protectionist policy agenda could be a disaster for the rest of the world economy. A world crippled by debt actually needs a little inflation to reduce the burden in a time of slow growth, not the prospect of potential deflation.

His inauguration address really did illustrate how toxic he is in America as he thanked the minority that voted him into the job and told them he was going to put “America first” (which American President has not?) and make America Great again. He made no attempt to reach out to the majority that did not vote for him and tell them that he is there to govern for everyone. The rich liberal elite will be quite happy with his tax cutting plans whether they voted for him or not. The people at the bottom may not like the Establishment but it is still there and they need a President that can get it working for them.

I have no idea why tens of thousands of women are protesting about him being a bigoted misogynist President in countries around the world. He probably has no idea where half those countries are and I doubt whether the US Ambassador will be calling The White House from London’s Grosvenor Square to tell him and he won’t be watching on CNN.

 

From George F. Will:

"A most dreadful inaugural address"

Twenty minutes into his presidency, Donald Trump, who is always claiming to have made, or to be about to make, astonishing history, had done so. Living down to expectations, he had delivered the most dreadful inaugural address in history.

Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s White House counselor, had promised that the speech would be "elegant." This is not the adjective that came to mind as he described "American carnage." That was a phrase the likes of which has never hitherto been spoken at an inauguration.

Oblivious to the moment and the setting, the always remarkable Trump proved that something dystopian can be strangely exhilarating: In what should have been a civic liturgy serving national unity and confidence, he vindicated his severest critics by serving up reheated campaign rhetoric about "rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape" and an education system producing students "deprived of all knowledge." Yes, all.

But cheer up, because the carnage will vanish if we "follow two simple rules: Buy American and hire American." "Simple" is the right word.

Because in 1981 the inauguration ceremony for a cheerful man from the American West was moved from the Capitol’s East Portico to its West Front, Trump stood facing west, down the Mall with its stately monuments celebrating some of those who made America great — Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln. Looking out toward where the fields of the republic roll on, Trump, a Gatsby-for-our-time, said: "What truly matters is not which party controls our government but whether our government is controlled by the people." Well.

"A dependence on the people," James Madison wrote "is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions." He meant the checks and balances of our constitutional architecture. They are necessary because, as Madison anticipated and as the nation was reminded on Friday, "Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm."

(George F. Will writes a twice-weekly column on politics and domestic and foreign affairs. He began his column with The Washington Post in 1974, and he received the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1977).

 

Awful speech from an appalling man. He dares to criticise the US education system when his own soirée into that area with Trump University resulted in him having to payout $25 million to make the court case go away . A long 4 years ahead.

 

The Donald was always going to have a big problem with the Inauguration Address – it was more than 140 characters long and he had to read it out not Tweet it at 4am.

 

Is it any wonder that Trump wants to 'cancel' the SNL show?