POLITICS CORNER

[Tizer]

He certainly acts and looks more like an evangelist preacher than a US president. Apparently he said in his speech last night that Sweden had just suffered a terrorist attack. The Swedes are looking puzzled and wondering where it's supposed to have taken place. Their prime minister tweeted: `Sweden? Terrorist attack? What's he been smoking?' Alternative facts again...

[Tripps]

"Apparently he said in his speech last night that Sweden had just suffered a terrorist attack "

Far be it for me to defend this man however - I don't think that was was he actually said -

From The Washington Post

"Although Trump did not explicitly say it, his remarks were widely perceived as suggesting that an attack occurred Friday night in Sweden. “Sweden? Terror attack? What has he been smoking? Questions abound,” former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt wrote on Twitter."


PS The Spectator blog goes into much more detail of what is happening in Sweden Sweden

[Stanley]

If I had to pick a look-alike I'd go for Mussolini, like Trump he was a natural egomaniac and a self starter. Hitler was a warped psychotic who had to learn his stage persona. Kim Jong-un is an automaton imitating his dad and there is no Western comparison. He appears alien to me.....
Trump's success is down to the fact he was completely shameless in going for the LCD and employed lies to get them on side. He is doing the same thing now in that he has started the 2020 campaign early. I see little evidence that he is cooperating in any way with the actual government. This is his egomania and supreme arrogance dictating his course. The Hill is stronger than him but moves slowly and what he is doing must be doing more to promote cooperation across party lines between Liberals on both sides than anything that has happened since FDR. There is an outside chance that this might have a beneficial effect on the actual governance of the US. Optimistic I know but I don't see how they can let him get away with this. Be sure that there are a lot of meetings in back rooms.....
Meanwhile, in our corner of the woods the Tories are belatedly trying to fix some of the problems they have created by playing the good guy in matters like housing, abuse and the prisons but it won't work because they have got into a position where they can't finance real change and anyway, you can't repair years of neglect in one parliament. The official opposition at the moment is the unions.......

[Tizer]

Tripps, you're right of course. As more detailed reports appeared we got the full story. He's quoted as saying:
"You look at what's happening in Germany, you look at what's happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this? Sweden. They took in large numbers. They're having problems like they never thought possible. You look at what's happening in Brussels, you look at what's happening all over the world. Take a look at Nice, take a look at Paris."

It's the `look at what's happening last night in Sweden' that started it all off. Now it seems Trump's `last night' didn't refer to `what happened in Sweden' but to last night on Fox News. That's his favourite TV channel and they'd done a story the previous night about immigrants in Sweden. (Fox News is said to be biased and to support the Republican Party. It can probably influence the US President's decisions and behaviour by its choice of material that they know he will watch. Scary, eh!)

A BBC article has now looked at comparisons between trump and some other leaders...
`'Enemies of the people': Trump remark echoes history's worst tyrants' LINK

[plaques]

(Fox News is said to be biased and to support the Republican Party.

I think this says it all. Rupert Murdoch has his sticky fingers everywhere. I doubt if you can believe anything it says. The trouble is our own newspapers are following the same 'fake news' sensationalism. Trending is the new word.

Fox News Channel is an American basic cable and satellite news television channel that is owned by the Fox Entertainment Group subsidiary of 21st Century Fox. Wikipedia
CEO: Rupert Murdoch (21 Jul 2016–)
Headquarters: New York City, New York, United States
Motto: Fair & Balanced
Founded: 7 October 1996, United States of America
Parent organization: Fox Entertainment Group
Founders: Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes

[Tripps]

"`last night' didn't refer to `what happened in Sweden' but to last night on Fox News"

I must admit I hadn't spotted that explanation, and from what I've heard and read in the last 24 hours, neither has the 'main stream media'. It makes perfect sense.

The old adage "Don't believe anything you read and only half of what you see" predates the internet, but is essential advice now. Keep looking though - the truth is out there. You may have to hold your nose from time to time though, while you're searching.

[Tizer]

Very true, Tripps. Perhaps we should invent a `false facts detector' and sell it worldwide to make millions of dollars!

Plaques, google to find out the links between Trump's family and Murdoch's. It's more than just business.

[Stanley]

This is why Private Eye now outsells The New Statesman! Trouble is the truth is so bloody depressing!

[Tizer]

Some time ago I related on here the enormous costs and great difficulties for the US security services having to protect Trump when he's at Trump Towers. Now the same has to be said about Mar-a-Lago, his Florida retreat where he entertains visiting dignitaries and spends his weekends. He calls it the `Winter White House'. The trouble is that, like Trump Towers, it's residential with apartments (126 rooms) and a club house. Every time Trump visits the police authority has to provide guards, dog patrols, visitor searches, electronic sweeps, coastguard patrols, air and sea movement restrictions etc. Stuff like scanning equipment has to be trucked in and out every time. It's costing $3 million for each visit. Even just for the weekend trips that adds up to over $150 million a year and you can double that figure by including the costs for Trump Towers security. The airspace restrictions cover a 30 mile radius and keep shutting down the local airport which is causing big losses for local businesses. All this because he said he `wouldn't stay more than 30 minutes at Camp David' and he won't use any other military base. This is the man who claimed that the government spent too much money and he'd put a stop to it!

[PanBiker]

What's wrong with Camp David? It's not on any maps is it? Every President since FDR has used it, I would have thought that the Naval security that staff the establishment would have it running like a well oiled machine, or should I say shipshape, after all they have had 80 years to perfect the routine. Ah well, Trumps own establishments are easily found so much better targets I would assume.

[Tizer]

I've noticed another example of how the selfish people have become more active since the EU referendum and Trump's ascendancy. On Paul Lewis's `Money Box' radio programme he warns of new scams and some people are willing to admit they've been scammed and explain what happened to them. But now he's starting to get some listeners contacting him and saying `Why should the banks have to do anything if these old folk don't be more careful when someone tells them they've won money or been awarded compensation?'. A recent example was an elderly couple who were told they were due for compensation for the PPI problem but had to pay some tax in advance. The scammers had them taking out large sums of money from their bank repeatedly but the bank never queried it. Most people used to be sympathetic but now a different, harder, more selfish side is appearing.

[plaques]

Most people used to be sympathetic but now a different, harder, more selfish side is appearing.

I'm even more sympathetic since my friend was scammed of £4000. Although in his 80's and considered himself tech savvy he now concedes that since his mild stroke he's not up to it any more. I wonder if we will see a less caring attitude towards the city bankers now that their jobs are under threat. Link Its easy to take the view 'banking has nothing to to with me why should I care. Its about time they got their comeuppance.' But it is someone's job and livelihood and its not those at the bottom that deserve the punishment. Lets keep what we can in the UK but make sure its working for the country and not for the very few at the top.

[Stanley]

Sorry P but dream on! Tiz is correct I fear, the climate is changing for the worse. The banks have been given the nod that happy times are here again and not just in the UK but in the US as well where Trump has signalled he will repeal the act that replaced Glass-Seagall. Add the May threat to the EU that as a final option UK will become the biggest off-shore bank in the world and I think the bankers are getting the picture, business as usual. Iceland had the right idea, they went after the bankers that caused their melt-down and slapped the cuffs on them. Here, benefit fraudsters and small tax cheats are prosecuted relentlessly but the big boys are let off with a slap on the wrist.... Consider the Rolls Royce bribery allegations, let off with a token fine so the next deal could go forwards, this is the tip of the iceberg. Read PE about the scandal of the 'revolving door' culture in Parliament. I can so no ray of light in the gloom.

[plaques]

Read PE about the scandal of the 'revolving door' culture in Parliament.

Does that mean the UK has already moved towards a fascist state. The old argument goes that as people expect and demand more equality then the super bourgeoisie capitalist will try to defend and consolidate their position the result being we will move towards fascism. An analogy is a rabbit warren run by stoats. The general feeling is that individuals can't do anything about it. The rightwing press constantly 'stirring up apathy' by their negative alternative facts and people like Trump trying to stop scientific progress just because for the moment he is at the top of the heap and would prefer to keep it that way. "There's nothing wrong with a system that puts me at the top!"

[Tizer]

Britain had a taste of Fascism from Moseley but spat it out. Perhaps a new, sweeter-coated version is now on offer. Clothed in Armani suits instead of brown uniform and jackboots.

The banks are about to revert to the full-blown interest-free mortgage game again. Santander has started and others are predicted to follow soon. Big worries going on behind the scenes because we already have rapidly accelerating debt levels and we're reaching the time when the first wave of interest-free folk are due to pay off the mortgages but many don't have any funds to do so. At least now people are beginning to realise that the financial world isn't necessarily the only game in town for Britain and they're looking for opportunities in robotics, artificial intelligence and the like.

[plaques]

The current big story is the Conservative gain at Whitehaven. The party of the people is now glowing, nuclear or otherwise, principally because over the past years Whitehaven has becoming a derelict town. Believe it or not they blame Corbyn for the decline. Like a drowning man they are lashing about blaming anything but the obvious. In one last dying hope they have voted themselves into middle class status even though their income is now below bottom working class. Who says the class system is dead? Mrs May can now continue with another four years of austerity knowing that the lower orders have nothing between their ears.

[Stanley]

First P, I love the stoats and rabbits analogy! As for the defeat in Cumbria. You are dead right. The anti Corbyn tendency pile in and blame him when in truth what is putting the Labour voters off is the turmoil in the party and guess who is fomenting that! Corbyn has his faults I know but he is still a decent man trying to get the party behind its core voters. I said a long time ago that this internal strife is solely a product of certain MPs trying to gain control of the Labour Party and fighting against the members having power. They are the wreckers, not Corbyn. The legacy of New Labour lives on.
Meanwhile May crows about the victory but she should be careful. This is not the new dawn of Conservatism but a product of the fact that the opposition is so dire.
As for Fascism, it has always been with us and the general swing to the right we see globally is a sign that it is alive and well. The bottom line is that none of our politicians is fit to run a booze up in a brewery. All they have in their sights is massaging the capital holders and their personal advancement.

[Tizer]

Believe it or not they blame Corbyn for the decline.

That's not the impression I got. Perhaps the news media are blaming Corbyn but the local folk of Whitehaven are blaming their councillors for the terrible state of their town. Two-thirds of Copeland councillors are Labour. Along come the reporters and they start asking them about Corbyn and it shifts the discussion away from the true concerns.

In national politics we need Labour to get it over with and split into two parties, then each side can give full support to the ones they prefer. At present, Labour supporters are snookered. If they were to vote for Labour they are voting for the ones they don't want as well as the ones they do. Better to get the two sides apart. We might then get a new powerful opposition.

This analysis of the US election is worth reading. It raises important concerns about the way names are presented on ballot papers.
`Did Trump win because his name came first in key states?' LINK
"One of the world's leading political scientists believes Donald Trump won the US presidential election for a very simple reason....his name came first on the ballot in some critical swing states. Jon Krosnick has spent 30 years studying how voters choose one candidate rather than another, and says that "at least two" US presidents won their elections because their names were listed first on the ballot, in states where the margin of victory was narrow."

[plaques]

That's not the impression I got.

Virtually every report you get in the newspapers tends to weave different views into a single statement making any continuity of the argument impossible to follow. The one thing that you can always rely on is that they will knock Corbyn at every opportunity. How many Labour MP's are reported saying "He has to do better" conveniently forgetting that there is a collective responsibility to to better.

we need Labour to get it over with and split into two parties

This has already been tried when Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams split off to form the SDP. SDP. The move subsequently failed with the residue amalgamating with the Liberals becoming ultimately today's Liberal Democrats. Today's 'Pink' Labour Mp's realize that to split from Keir Hardie's Labour Party would be the road to oblivion. Unfortunately they will hang on as long as possible splitting the party and making it look totally incompetent and consequently unelectable. Corbyn should adopt Oliver Cromwell's stance, quote " You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing lately…. Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God,—go!"

[Stanley]

Good posts.... I think Tiz is right, particularly in by-elections, all politics is 'local'. There are no national matters to distract no matter what the campaigners say. Remember the doctor who had a landslide victory because he opposed the closure of the local hospital?
P also hits the nail on the head. The anti Corbyn faction know that as soon as they divorce themselves from traditional Labour they are doomed and if there is one thing that attracts their attention it is keeping their sinecures. I said right at the start that where Corbyn went wrong was trying to be 'Mr Nice Guy' when he was first elected as Leader. What he should have done was cull the opposition from the Shadow Cabinet, a 'Night of the long knives' but he tried to be inclusive hoping that party unity would prevail. He read the opposition wrong, all they were interested in was fighting the power of the membership to control them, they are far to important for that to happen!
Tiz is also correct when he says that the old Labour supporters are snookered. They know instinctively that the Corbyn way of listening to the members and concentrating on the core principles of the party is correct but are frustrated by the selfish MPs who oppose him because they want control of the party for their own ends. They are the wreckers!
As for the Tories seeing this as some sort of new dawn for Conservatism..... forget it. They are profiting from a peculiar set of circumstances generated by the biggest mistaker in modern politics, Cameron's Catastrophe. In their hearts they know this. This is why there is no way they are going to go for a snap election to 'prove' their ascendancy, they know it is a chimera.
Bloody depressing isn't it!

[Tizer]

It may be a peculiar set of circumstances and it may not last but the danger is that it provides an opportunity for the Tories to become even more right-wing while claiming to be the party of the people. You and I don't think they are the party of the people but a lot of other folk will quite happily accept them as that if they say the right words...just look at America. Matthew Parris in The Times is warning of a Tory faction taking over the UKIP mantle too, but within the Tory party. If Labour don't sort themselves out now it's going to get much harder, but they give the impression they don't care about us, only about their internal politicking.

Meanwhile in the US Big Donald is making America great again by fighting all that fake news put out by the press. And guess what, he manages to do it by creating fake news! What a clever man. In reality he's going to ruin America and be a danger to the rest of the world too. It's time for other world leaders to start making their views clear instead of trying to be diplomatic about him.

[PanBiker]

He's censoring the press now by excluding the BBC and CNN reporters from his official pronouncements. He is also refusing to attend the correspondents dinner which is traditional event to introduce the new President to the various news agency members.

Smacks of Joseph Goebbels, "Minister of Information" in Germany who tried to rewrite history to further the aims of the Reich, it all ended in tears, but a lot of people got hurt on the way.

[Tizer]

He's going to get a dressing down at the Oscar Awards but that'll just confirm what his supporters think about the media luvvies! We need a concerted effort to flood America with accurate, reliable, independent information and with demands that he and his advisers provide evidence for all their claims. He gets away with a lot because of the big smile and confident attitude but we've got to show people that `the emperor has no clothes'.

[plaques]

but the danger is that it provides an opportunity for the Tories to become even more right-wing while claiming to be the party of the people.

. I'm find it quite difficult to put a label on Mrs May. The glib answer would be " Right of Mrs Thatcher but left of Genghis Khan" Like Genghis Khan Mrs May is gathering up the various tribes before she makes her assault on the British people. Her past history of staying in the same job for six years plus the cockups she made during her tenure of Home Secretary makes it pretty clear that she is not a academic in the political sense. The mantra of " The Party of the people" makes it sound as though she could have consensus leanings but her move to embrace the Rightwing Brexit faction while appearing to ignore everything else makes this doubtful. Her general attitude of zero detail and minimal policy doesn't point to any particular conviction. But her moves in trying to do a 'solo' on Brexit by ignoring Parliament could put her in the Fascist camp. Of course at the moment she doesn't have to do anything the rightwing press along with the rightwing Parliamentary Labour Party are doing it all for her. So where does she stand I would say..Right of Mrs Thatcher but left of Genghis Khan.

[Stanley]

More good posts..... If you think back I always said that May was more rabid a Tory than she cared to appear. P is right, the clues are in some of her decisions at the Home Office. Cameron laid the foundations for the leadership election when he was PM and announced that he wouldn't fight another election. Due to a combination of poor candidates and circumstances she got the post and had to make her mark. Remember also that she was the one who coined the phrase 'Nasty Party', she obviously was aware of the way many of us regard Tories. Hence the immediate promise on the steps of Number 10 that she would fight for the lower echelons. However, take note.... she has never talked about helping 'the poor' it has always been the people struggling on low wages. I can't remember her ever saying she would champion those in the worst circumstances.
Forget the aspirations and vague promises, examine what she is doing. She is an old-fashioned 19th century Tory who is prepared to sacrifice everything to hold power, massage the big financial groups and maintain our position as a small power 'punching above our weight' on the global scene. This is why she needs Trump, Trident and a good result in terms of the economy in the Brexit process. Note that I don't say 'negotiations', there aren't going to be any. We are going to be held to the letter of the EU law by 27 countries who hold all the cards. The costs of leaving in economic terms are going to be enormous without the more fundamental results of losing cooperation and mutual beneficial laws.
At the moment it looks as though the strategy is going to be walk away from the EU and descend to being an even bigger money launderer and tax haven than we are now. I forecast at least 15 more years of austerity (actually I think that's open ended, I can't see any respite in sight for the poor)
If she has a fear (and she will have) it's the political revolution she sees sweeping the world where strange results stem from frightened and ignorant electorates. Strange things happen when people are insecure, frightened and confused..... See inter war Germany.....