President Trump

[Greta]

If there must be a Republican in office, I'd rather it be Trump than some of the wild-eyed evangelicals in the party. GWB's administration was the worst I've seen in a western nation since Slobodan Milosovich overstepped. I'm optimistic that Trump will be far less problematic.

However, inertia on climate change will cost the US (and Australia) a fortune when they are forced to pay top dollars from other countries for sustainable technologies that could have been refined at home. Due to the dominance of existential considerations, not many commentators seem to count the potential economic costs of climate inaction.

I hope you are right, Greta. I just don't think you are. I did not vote for George Bush and I thought he ran the country very foolishly. However, I do not think he was a mean person ...plotting on how to take advantage of his position.

I do not think that of trump...I think he is a very mean person who is only interested in taking care of himself and his family. I think he wouldn't think twice about selling the USA to Russia. He is seriously disturbed and I think he takes delight in people'say suffering...esp. at his hands.

I may be wrong....but I don't think I am. Time will tell...I was right about Bush....you could see the financial collapse coming... I am surprised people were shocked when it happened. It's just about paying attention to details and thinking a few moves in advance.

I'm thinking that sometimes theistic irrationality can be more dangerous than self interested manipulation. Whatever GWB's intentions, the result was him turning a surplus into the biggest debt in world history, severely damaging international relations, killing thousands of his servicemen and women, along with hundreds of thousands of middle eastern locals. The wars resulted in enormous infrastructure and environmental damage, millions of tonnes of waste, thousands of emotionally scarred soldiers (and their families), plus a rapid increase in the wealth gap.

The bar has been set so low that it would take someone like Robert Mugabe to surpass GWB's record. Trump's a boofhead with weak ethical standards but he can do plenty better than that IMO.

[Lacewing]

I would like to wax philosophical about tangential issues for a while that I think are important in putting recent events into perspective. Please feel free to ignore as usual )

Nice post, Greta.

So religions will logically fall as humanity somewhat disentangles itself from ancient myths. Religion will be replaced by love and appreciation of nature and reality per se, and nature's/humanity's/technology's complex , fascinating workings and webs of relationships, being less inclined to take it all for granted.

I hope I live long enough to see such transitioning become commonplace -- as it seems to offer so much more clarity and love and potential, than religion's many convoluted and archaic imaginings, that stunt and persecute ourselves based on ancient fears and controls and egos.

It makes no sense that we need anything outside of ourselves to access that which we are already a part of. The less we pile on top of our inborn/natural capability, the more we can HEAR and EVOLVE it. It's not that such capability doesn't already exist in us -- it's that we (and others) bury it with noise and foolish notions! It has been a terrible ignorance of mankind to tell each other what they "must do" to be saved from SEPARATION. There is NO separation! Separation makes no sense, and is surely the biggest lie there is.

[vegetariantaxidermy]

I did not vote for George Bush and I thought he ran the country very foolishly. However, I do n9t think he was a mean person ...

Not mean at all. Just a psychopathic mass murderer.

[artisticsolution]

I did not vote for George Bush and I thought he ran the country very foolishly. However, I do n9t think he was a mean person ...

Not mean at all. Just a psychopathic mass murderer.

I think the point here is intent. Meaning...if you thought George Bush was bad...just wait til you see trump in action. I think Trump gets a hard on being cruel.

[Greta]

Not mean at all. Just a psychopathic mass murderer.

I think the point here is intent. Meaning...if you thought George Bush was bad...just wait til you see trump in action. I think Trump gets a hard on being cruel.

I think it more likely that Trump will be cruel in ways that benefit him, such as getting the tax office to chase his business rivals and enemies so he can claim to be "dealing with the big end of town". I think him much less likely to lead the US into another insane war. He seems more keen on scaling back their "world cop" role, which is probably appropriate at this time because Bush had them behaving like a crooked "cop", intoxicated with his power.

Hoping I am right lol

[Greta]

So religions will logically fall as humanity somewhat disentangles itself from ancient myths. Religion will be replaced by love and appreciation of nature and reality per se, and nature's/humanity's/technology's complex , fascinating workings and webs of relationships, being less inclined to take it all for granted.

I hope I live long enough to see such transitioning become commonplace -- as it seems to offer so much more clarity and love and potential, than religion's many convoluted and archaic imaginings, that stunt and persecute ourselves based on ancient fears and controls and egos.

I'd like to too, but it's a long way off. The ancient Greek thinkers of thousands of years ago were far more sophisticated in their ideas and conceptions than billions of people today. Clearly growth in this area is slow and uneven. It will probably take centuries, at least, for religions to become "extinct" on Earth.

[artisticsolution]

Not mean at all. Just a psychopathic mass murderer.

I think the point here is intent. Meaning...if you thought George Bush was bad...just wait til you see trump in action. I think Trump gets a hard on being cruel.

I think it more likely that Trump will be cruel in ways that benefit him, such as getting the tax office to chase his business rivals and enemies so he can claim to be "dealing with the big end of town". I think him much less likely to lead the US into another insane war. He seems more keen on scaling back their "world cop" role, which is probably appropriate at this time because Bush had them behaving like a crooked "cop", intoxicated with his power.

Hoping I am right lol

Trump won't waste his time on a 'little' war...the likes of George Bush. Trump will go big...he will use the biggest guns at his disposal, I fear. I think he would not think twice about using nukes...

[vegetariantaxidermy]

Trump won't waste his time on a 'little' war...the likes of George Bush. Trump will go big...he will use the biggest guns at his disposal, I fear. I think he would not think twice about using nukes...

Hillary could have done the same thing. And she's a known warmonger.

[artisticsolution]

Trump won't waste his time on a 'little' war...the likes of George Bush. Trump will go big...he will use the biggest guns at his disposal, I fear. I think he would not think twice about using nukes...

Hillary could have done the same thing. And she's a known warmonger.

Hillary does not have the same temperament as trump. She might get even...but she'd never get ahead if it meant the end of the world. Trump would do anything to win. No matter how insane or unreasonable. He can not lose...he would rather the world cease to exist.

[vegetariantaxidermy]

Trump won't waste his time on a 'little' war...the likes of George Bush. Trump will go big...he will use the biggest guns at his disposal, I fear. I think he would not think twice about using nukes...

Hillary could have done the same thing. And she's a known warmonger.

Hillary does not have the same temperament as trump. She might get even...but she'd never get ahead if it meant the end of the world. Trump would do anything to win. No matter how insane or unreasonable. He can not lose...he would rather the world cease to exist.

They're all loose cannons. Obama got the peace prize ffs and he turned out to be just as much of a warmonger as any of them. The US isn't happy unless it's meddling and murdering.

[Greta]

The US isn't happy unless it's meddling and murdering.

As with Britain, the US Empire is going to have to release a lot of assets abroad. It's hard for reigning world powers to step back after a long period on top. The US will have to adjust.

Trump talks about isolationism but, if he wants to embark on a trillion dollar series of infrastructure projects, the money has to come from somewhere outside the US. The nation will become ever more beholden to China. If Trump and co are too bellicose and threatening, then they might not get any loans. I think the below quote is pertinent:

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

[Walker]

Here’s the current presidential president.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ1YNW8MRLw

There was another president after Bush, for 8 years.
The one without fault.
Clinton was part of that administration.
But, they say Clinton didn’t lose because of Clinton, or because of Obama.
They say she lost because of the press, and the FBI director, and her aides.

So much for “full responsibility.”
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/h ... ame-231215

Somehow, Global Warming and Bush may also be likely culprits for the shocking loss that has inspired George Soros to fund tantrum protests around the country, the loss that caused at least one college professor to suspend testing for sensitive clients, and that caused government-employees to empty schools of innocent little children to protest something they surely don’t fully understand in the course of their indoctrination.

Or, is the big bugaboo these days called Global Cooling?

[Dubious]

Trump talks about isolationism but, if he wants to embark on a trillion dollar series of infrastructure projects, the money has to come from somewhere outside the US. The nation will become ever more beholden to China. If Trump and co are too bellicose and threatening, then they might not get any loans.

I don't believe Trump expects to receive loans from China whom he's already targeted as currency manipulators...among other things. It's more likely more helicopter money be made available to fund his projects which means more monetary inflation with the side-effect of making U.S. goods cheaper for export due to a devalued U.S. $$$.

But with Trump, who knows! In spite of everything he said during the campaign, the future remains a black box. He will never justify his decisions to anyone regardless of their consequences. The White House will, in effect, become hermetically sealed as a source of real information or, as in Russia or China, be simply camouflaged by propaganda. Trump's disgust of the Media - which actually is disgusting - I think will ensure the retrenchment of any openness the public has been offered so far.

[Walker]

Some say that's deserved, because many died to free the slaves, and amend the principle of goverance.

Some say he was a criminal because of those deaths.

Many died for the USA to gain independence, as well. Many people died to stop Hitler and so on.

I am beginning to think you are being unreasonable on purpose.

I think Walker was pointing out the plurality of opinion and how something as obvious as the immoral and ultimately self-defeating nature of slavery was not understood at all by many people at the time.

Wait just a minute.

Are you trying to suggest that there was more to consider than Lincoln’s ignorant, warmongering, murdering ways?

Huh. How about that.

What exempts Bush from that rationale. Unreasonableness?

[vegetariantaxidermy]

Trump talks about isolationism but, if he wants to embark on a trillion dollar series of infrastructure projects, the money has to come from somewhere outside the US. The nation will become ever more beholden to China. If Trump and co are too bellicose and threatening, then they might not get any loans.

I don't believe Trump expects to receive loans from China whom he's already targeted as currency manipulators...among other things. It's more likely more helicopter money be made available to fund his projects which means more monetary inflation with the side-effect of making U.S. goods cheaper for export due to a devalued U.S. $$$.

But with Trump, who knows! In spite of everything he said during the campaign, the future remains a black box. He will never justify his decisions to anyone regardless of their consequences. The White House will, in effect, become hermetically sealed as a source of real information or, as in Russia or China, be simply camouflaged by propaganda. Trump's disgust of the Media - which actually is disgusting - I think will ensure the retrenchment of any openness the public has been offered so far.

He's a bit out of his depth and shell-shocked at the moment. I wonder what will happen when he gets his confidence and all that power goes to his head.