Donald Trump

[JR8]

I expect they feel their egos demeaned by the prospect that a rank outsider, who hasn't spent a lifetime climbing the career-pol greasy pole, could possibly take their gilded throne. Trump 'the great equaliser'? He lessens them all equally hehe...

Anything that moves away from an assumption that power is somehow rightfully heritable is no bad thing IMO. [What is it with the US and it's fondness for political dynasties?]

[sundaymorningstaple]

[What is it with the US and it's fondness for political dynasties?]

We talking about US or Singapore?

[JR8]

Well yes, exactly
But it seems rather odd. The supposed beacon of true democracy, where meritocracy is so cherished. The one place that holds the belief that every new-born, who ever he/she is, could one day be president.
And yet despite all of that, given a free vote the citizens seem to favour voting in the spouses and siblings of earlier incumbents. And the fury and indignation from above that an outsider could possibly get the presidency

To an outsider it seems to be a contradiction Ah well, it's a young country, maybe it hasn't politically matured yet, safer to keep the rudder and sails in the hands of the gilded dynasty eh?

[and, yes ]

[BBCWatcher]

President John Quincy Adams, in office from 1825 to 1829, was the son of President John Adams. I'm pretty sure the United States survived that early bout of primogeniture.

[JR8]

President John Quincy Adams, in office from 1825 to 1829, was the son of President John Adams. I'm pretty sure the United States survived that early bout of primogeniture.

Hmmm - So father fought to disinherit the Crown, whilst he and then his son inherited the throne themselves.

[Cue: gnashing of teeth from State-side ]

[nakatago]

[What is it with the US and it's fondness for political dynasties?]

We talking about US or Singapore?

Ooooooh, snap!

[x9200]

From The Economist:

[JR8]

If that's real it's like how, contrary to popular opinion, The Economist is very anti-BREXIT, and have always been very pro-EU.

In both cases, EU and US, it's entirely self-interested, they are seeking to protect their markets and profits. I'm disappointed a journal of some apparent repute feels at liberty to hoist domestic political billboards in a foreign country.

p.s. Maybe this is why, the 'Top 0.01%' are running scared... http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-2 ... ent-panics

[earthfriendly]

I don't know how to link to this guy's FB public post individually. So end up linking his entire page, lol!

Enough is enough. Enough of the insider, back-scratching politicians. We need fresh blood. Somebody outside that circle. For me, it is a healthy movement!

https://www.facebook.com/mark.a.rivera.73

The Rebellion

Trump’s rise suggests a rebellion, and one that, if it were not happening, would signal an even darker and more deeply hidden danger. To me, the Trump phenomenon is a positive sign.

Middle America, who have known for decades that the country has been co-opted, has finally found a way to pit itself against Washington insiders, corporate executives, bankers, and media moguls.

There is no political right or left or middle ground here. I see a non-military rebellion, a healthy suspicion of all establishments, and people taking back their power. Albeit,not perfect by a long shot (and most know that), but it is an opportunity for them and they are taking it!

[JR8]

Yep, I agree with much of that sentiment. Re: BREXIT the scare-mongering started out pretty low-key. But now 'Project Fear' is going into overdrive. The Brits have been warned it might trigger wars. Obama has waded in and told us we'd be 'At the back of the [trade] queue'. Nice ah?
This morning G7 no less said it would harm the global economy:
"Acting as a backdrop, following their meeting at Ise-Shima, in central Japan, G7 leaders warned of the damage that Brexit might inflict.
“A UK exit from the EU would reverse the trend towards greater global trade and investment, and the jobs they create, and is a further serious risk to growth,” they said in an official statement."
The earlier/fuller version of the report I read was specific it would damage the world/global economy. But you get the point from the above I expect.

Funny... the EU started out [supposedly] as a mutually beneficial trade block, and that was it. Now one member leaving would damage the entire world they say. And they demand we vote to embed this apparently extrememly dangerous arrangement even deeper by voting BREXIN...

So you similar re: Trump. The comfy DC-machine pulling out all the stops to kill-off what would be a reforming outsider. It's no wonder he's proving popular, democracy still has some way of expressing it in the US, that has been long lost in the EU.

[PNGMK]

SO he has the requisite number of delegates helped by some ass licking unbound delegates to be over the line now.... these people will all be labelled as collaborators come the liberation!

[JR8]

Absolutely. Any politician or commentator who is pro-BREXIT is painted as a 'swivel-eyed loony' by the establishment. Any EU member which tries to renegotiate any terms of membership gets fobbed off. Any member that floats a suggestion they might entertain thoughts of - 'heavens forbid' - having a vote on remaining in the EU, gets crushed into surrender. It's simple to see how some people see parallels with living under a Nazi-like regime. Democracy has all but withered, this is direct rule from abroad by unelected bureaucrats.

You see parallels in how Trump is painted a dangerous non-team-player loony. Which is ironic as judging by his life and own personal success he is probably the most able and proven of all the establishment politicians.
[This doesn't mean I'm pro-Trump, but the spectacle of the cosy and incestuous machine vs one of the few that's actually set out on his own and made it only be painted a dangerous fool, is quite something to behold IMO. It reveals far more about DC etc, than it does about Trump].

[sundaymorningstaple]

[This doesn't mean I'm pro-Trump, but the spectacle of the cosy and incestuous machine vs one of the few that's actually set out on his own and made it only be painted a dangerous fool, is quite something to behold IMO. It reveals far more about DC etc, than it does about Trump].

Too True!

[PNGMK]

SO he has the requisite number of delegates helped by some ass licking unbound delegates to be over the line now.... these people will all be labelled as collaborators come the liberation!

[JR8]

And here is another example of The Machine vs an 'dangerous outsider'...

'EU Referendum: Boris Johnson's views on Europe 'not in line with reality,' says Jean-Claude Juncker
Mr Johnson, who is backing the Brexit campaign, earlier this month compared the EU's efforts to unify Europe with earlier attempts by Napoleon and Hitler. ...
In an interview, he told the Telegraph earlier this month: "The history of the last couple of thousand years has been broadly repeated attempts by various people or institutions ... to rediscover the lost childhood of Europe, this golden age of peace and prosperity under the Romans, by trying to unify it. Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically. The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05 ... e-with-re/
-----
So that's effectively the head of the EU vs a high profile plain old MP, who is also the ex Mayor of London.
Funny how it's still complete taboo to mention Hitler in any normal conversation in Europe, in case it offends a German. It strikes me that they're still in part in the 'denial stage' of their social recovery.

And now that 'BJ' as he's fondly known is back to being a simple MP, there are rumours and stirrings that he might run for head of the Conservative Party, and potentially for PM. But BJ is outside the machine (per his comments above, and many more). So this is how the machine attacks...

'Boris Johnson as PM is 'horror scenario', says Juncker EU aide'
Boris Johnson has faced an extraordinary string of attacks from some of the most senior figures in the EU, one of whom described the prospect of him becoming prime minister as a “horror scenario”.
Martin Selmayr, who is chief of staff to the European commission president, Jean Claude Juncker, lumped Johnson in with France’s Marine Le Pen and the US presidential candidate Donald Trump in a provocative tweet.
The message, in which Selmayr says “it is worth fighting populism”, has already triggered a backlash among out campaigners in Britain.
The Vote Leave media spokesman Robert Oxley said of the intervention: “Unelected bureaucrat working for unelected bureaucrat speaks.” There was speculation that Selmayr’s action might have been coordinated as it landed immediately after criticism from Juncker.
The commission president accused Johnson of painting an unreal picture of the EU for the British public and said he should return to Brussels, where he previously worked as a journalist, to see whether his claims chimed with “reality”. ...
Johnson hit back with claims that Germany was the “paymaster” of an EU project designed to create a United States of Europe. [And who can deny that this is a fact? That is the primary founding goal itself of the EU]... “The whole exercise in Europe is now aimed at propping up the euro. That is the entire mission of the European union. They will try to create a fiscal union, a political union.” He said it all tended towards a mission for a “United States of Europe, into which Britain will be sucked”.
Johnson added: “I’m afraid we have not been able to get out from under the obligation for paying for this whole enterprise.” [continues...]
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... eu-juncker

BJ worked in Brussels at the Telegraph's 'EU Correspondent' - he knows only too well how the EU actually works.