US General Election 2016

{{Would love to know from our US residents how this is going down over there? Cause its going down as a total sell out to Russia here, utter unbelievable capitulation to Putin and acceptance of his word over his own countries, even by Trump standards he seems to have shocked people. }}

Well at least now we know why the MAGA caps are red.

{{Ah, going down just as well across the Pond I see!!   }}}

{{So to sum up-

Trump went to NATO- insulted all its members and demanded more money out of them. He publicly rebuked Germany and called  a country, which used to be half under Soviet rule (and whose leader lived and suffered in the Soviet half) in the pocket of Russia, utterly insulting them and then left lying about what had been achieved, prompting the other NATO members to refer reporters to the actual communique of what had been agreed to glean the truth.

He came to Britain, where he promptly undermined the sitting Prime Minister who had invited him, ripped up her just published Brexit Plan, disregarded and disrespected nearly all the Royal protocol, including walking in front of the Queen during the guard inspection. Backed the PM's main rival. Gave a ridiculous news conference in which he called the interview which had been released as audio interviews- fake news and rambled about having the recordings, only for the journalist present at the news conference who did the interview to point out they had published all of it.
And before leaving he called the EU the foes of America.

In Russia he capitulated utterly to Putin, offered no criticisms of Russian actions and seemed to favour Putins explanation of 'it wasn't me guv' over all the evidence amassed by his own intelligence agencies led by the 'best people ever' that he appointed. He had nothing on Syria, nothing on Ukraine, nothing on Crimea, nothing for the NATO members bordering Russia. But he had everything Putin could have wanted. And he gave embarrassing rambling answers about beating Hilary Clinton, the electoral college numbers (which he got wrong) and Clinton's server when no one asked about those and they had no bearing to what was being asked, called the Russian investigation a witch hunt a few times and that was about it. Gobsmackingly incoherent mess.

So I'll give this to Trump he will go down in history like he wants, because that was the worst overseas trip by any President, ever, anywhere in the history of the world. }}

I thought Trump was an extremely stable genius? Almost seems like he was lying

He was sent to Washington to blow things up. I can respect the people who admit that's why they did it and that's all he's good for, but I'm mystified by those (several of my friends among them) who feel he's someone to admire in something other than a "he sure can make a mess" type of way.

{{{ Did they want him to blow up all Americas International relationships too and cozy up to dictators and favour their opinion over Americas? }}}

It's a blunt tool. There will be collateral damage.

Insightful interview with a Russian journalist.

https://www.vox.com/conversations/2017/2/22/14697718/trump-putin-helsinki-meeting-hillary-clinton

{{ Sadly that seems pretty damn accurate to me. America what you done?

I just watched about ten vids in a row from the news all incredibly critical, and often incredulous, as what Trump has said. Interesting thing is that every one of them was from Fox News.

Not sure Trump is going to so easily bluff his way through this one- we will see how his supporters  hold up this time and will they still blindly follow this clown after this? }}

So I went to a public meeting with the candidates for our State legislature this evening. There were 4 candidates scheduled for the Q&A, 2 democrats and 2 republicans. But after waiting 15 minutes the republicans still hadn't shown, so the event went on without them.
The funny thing was that both had recently confirmed they'd be coming and neither had called to cancel. That's just not good politicking.

If I had to guess, I'd suspect they might have been watching the fallout from Helsinki on the news today and just couldn't bring themselves to face an audience full of questions tonight.

It's a blunt tool. There will be collateral damage. - Halfy




Dave- thats pretty shitty- assuming it didn't help their case much at the meeting conceding the entire floor to their opponents! }}

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Dave- thats pretty shitty- assuming it didn't help their case much at the meeting conceding the entire floor to their opponents! }}

It was really awkward. These events aren't so much a debate as a town hall meeting where the candidates answer questions from the moderators and audience, and the needs of the community and possible solutions are discussed. We're not looking for any particular political idea so much as for an effective spokesman. Except at the very beginning, nobody on the stage or in the audience even mentioned the absences, and at the end the host tried to make a polite excuse about "other commitments", but it was clear he was really disturbed.

I guess what really shocked me was that the level of extreme partisanship we're seeing nationally could corrupt even our local meetings. We're just not like that here!

{{Trumps, not even sure what to call it, walk-back, excuse? whatever you want to call his claim about a slip of the tongue its ridiculous- we all saw the press conference, what he said was entirely in context with the surrounds- an as one reporter brilliantly and accurately described it, giving his 'excuse' Trump looked like he was in a hostage tape! And even then, giving his excuse he had to go screw that up to by adding 'could be other people' when blaming Russia- he just cant condemn Russia and Putin without a caveat!
I cant think anyone is going to buy this 'excuse'

seems the BBC aint buying it going n their editorial-

'That is going to be hard for many of the president's critics to swallow, however. Even if he did mean to say, "I don't see a reason why it wouldn't be Russia", it is a pretty weak way to confront the head of a nation accused of targeting the heart of American democracy.
What's more, the context of the president's comments make a simple slip of the tongue seem less likely.
At the very least, the president gave his supporters some material to rally around.
The damage, however, has been done. Mr Trump can give as many White House statements as he likes, but on the biggest stage - standing beside the Russian president - he fumbled. All the explanations can't change that.'

Hard to tell from here how its going down in the US as your news is so bipartisan its almost impossible I find outside of watching Cspan on a Sunday (its on live here on BBC Parliament on a Sunday) to get a reasonable or balanced view of it }}}}}

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/donald-trump-queen-elizabeth-guard-of-honour-inspection-false-claim-a8452041.html

http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/397540-queen-elizabeth-wore-brooch-from-obamas-on-the-day-trump

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