US Election & Presidency

I like the belief that news media can call him a liar, but he can't call them liars in return

lancealot790 Wrote:I strongly suspect that nothing trump achieves will ever be good enough for some people, even if he brought about world peace and ended global poverty people would still bring up "pussygate".

True, but it was a wrong thing. Like Hillary not divorcing a sex maniac but claiming to be a feminist

SecretAgent Wrote:I suppose reportedly paying a porn star $130,000 to keep quiet (he’s been remarkably quiet about that) is a mark of how upstanding and fine a man he is

Well, if it's only "reportedly" Maybe he reportedly helps old ladies across roads and rescues kittens from trees too.
Either he did it and it's wrong, or he didn't.

(24-01-2018 22:52 )southsidestu Wrote:  What i think they could do differently is scrap winner takes all and assign college votes based on the proportion of the popular vote that way peoples votes actually matter. I wouldn't necessarily say it gives power to people like Perot because Presidential election is for the executive branch only, the electoral vote does not apply to congress and how you govern. There is no power share, no coalition in the executive branch it's a race if you come in first you win the gold medal you don't share it with second because they were just behind you. They got a straight A beat B result but B is the President

Nope, it's their system and if the Dems didn't like it (because of the 2000 result, for instance), they had 8 years to change it under Obama and they didn't.

Quote:Yes the term fake news was about before Trump but that is weak sauce, there is no doubt that Trump as perpetuated it to a new level, that is why it was the Collins dictionary word/phrase of the year for 2017 and not 2016,15,14 etc

I wouldn't trust "word of the year" lists after post-truth won in 2016 and Brexit didn't.

Quote:The Kentucky shooting probably didn't make the news much because it happens so much in The US that we are becoming desensitized to these kinds of events, as for the shooters motives nothing has been revealed so I am not going to comment on it

Apparently it was the 11th school shooting in 2018, according to CNN. Were they all Trump-related? Maybe the gun lobby is a bigger problem there.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/us/ke...oting.html

It is their system yes but that does not mean that the American people are happy with it, in fact the 2016 election saw a voter turnout of about 56% which for the self appointed greatest democracy on earth is an embarrassing turnout. If you look at the two most populous states in the Union California a die hard blue state and Texas a die hard red, the number of voters on the other side of the aisle is larger than some states. In 2016 over 4m people voted Republican, if Californian Republican voters formed their own state they would be the 27th most populous, of the 22 states that Clinton won 20 of them have a smaller population than this theoretical state in fact the total number of Democratic voters in the ten least populous of those 22 states combined comes to less than the number of Republican voters in California yet no electoral votes went to the Republicans in 2016

It is also not a simple thing to change, to do so would require a constitutional amendment, which would be nearly impossible to pass, most amendments have taken years to ratify and congress changes every two years. Several US legal experts have put forward the idea that like with Florida in 2000 the states Attorney Generals could sue over it's constitutionality however that would be a long and divisive process that could differ from state to state based on the partisan nature of the US Supreme Court. So whilst the public appetite is strong the political will is not

No where did I even try to say that Trump was responsible for all of Americas gun problems, nor is he solely responsible for the actions of the individual I mentioned but when that individual's raison d'etre quotes Trump verbatim I think it is something that needs to be scrutinised and yes the gun problem is the massive over arching issue with gun violence but it is not the motive. Show me the last time a US mass shooters modus operandi was "I had a gun so I might as well use it" and I will recant that statement

Post Truth was the 2016 word of the year for Oxford Dictionary and Youthquake for 2017, Fake News was the 2017 word of the year for Collins Dictionary. Their word of the year for 2016? Brexit. BOOOOYAH !!!

(25-01-2018 12:10 )southsidestu Wrote:  It is their system yes but that does not mean that the American people are happy with it, in fact the 2016 election saw a voter turnout of about 56% which for the self appointed greatest democracy on earth is an embarrassing turnout.

Given the knife-edge result, that is a shockingly low number, more associated with foregone-conclusion results (cf UK in 2001). Maybe numbers were down because they didn't like EITHER main candidate?

Quote:It is also not a simple thing to change, to do so would require a constitutional amendment, which would be nearly impossible to pass, most amendments have taken years to ratify and congress changes every two years.

I was expecting you to say that the Democrats might want change but the Republicans be running Senate/Congress/whatever

Quote:No where did I even try to say that Trump was responsible for all of Americas gun problems, nor is he solely responsible for the actions of the individual I mentioned but when that individual's raison d'etre quotes Trump verbatim I think it is something that needs to be scrutinised and yes the gun problem is the massive over arching issue with gun violence but it is not the motive. Show me the last time a US mass shooters modus operandi was "I had a gun so I might as well use it" and I will recant that statement

You linked the caller to Trump through the latter's rhetoric. I merely brought up the instances of actual shootings (assuming your caller was in fact all talk and no action, what with being a presumed Trump supporter n that).

Quote:Post Truth was the 2016 word of the year for Oxford Dictionary and Youthquake for 2017, Fake News was the 2017 word of the year for Collins Dictionary. Their word of the year for 2016? Brexit. BOOOOYAH !!!

I'm glad you maintain decorum in victory

Turnout was actually up from the last election and hasn't been as high as 60% since 1968

Decorum what's that?

(25-01-2018 21:12 )southsidestu Wrote:  Turnout was actually up from the last election and hasn't been as high as 60% since 1968

Well then maybe the people don't like the system.
But it's not just about Trump!

Anyway, he's likely to chat to Mueller when he gets back from poncing about in Davos, so get your popcorn ready for that one

It’s being reported that in the interview Trump has given to Piers Morgan (to be broadcast this weekend) he apologises for retweeting the anti Muslim hate videos. I’d call that progress as it’s hard for me to recall him ever apologising for mistakes he’s made.

(26-01-2018 07:54 )SecretAgent Wrote:  It’s being reported that in the interview Trump has given to Piers Morgan (to be broadcast this weekend) he apologises for retweeting the anti Muslim hate videos. I’d call that progress as it’s hard for me to recall him ever apologising for mistakes he’s made.

On the clip that I saw this morning when questioned about an apology he says something along the lines of 'if you want me to do that then I will' - but the word 'sorry' never actually passes his lips...

Yes, the quote I read was - "If you are telling me they're horrible people, horrible, racist people, I would certainly apologise if you'd like me to do that,"

I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for the actual apology.

Yeah, it does read as though he was just bandying words with Morgan, rather than facing a hard-hitting interview.

Though anyone who has watched Piers Morgan's Life Stories (and I doubt Trump has) will know what to expect from Morgan as an interviewer.

His response of "well, it wasn't an issue back home" is more indicative of his position.

(26-01-2018 13:36 )Doddle Wrote:  Though anyone who has watched Piers Morgan's Life Stories (and I doubt Trump has) will know what to expect from Morgan as an interviewer.

And don't forget, Morgan's a bit of a Trump fanboy anyway.
Probably why he got the interview in the first place.

Trump does seem to be trying to rehabilitate himself in UK eyes, now they're making definite plans for the visit this year. I wonder how long he'll be able to keep it up.