Open mind is all good, until Joe Arpaio is one of the options for Homeland Security Secretary.

freitasm:

 

Open mind is all good, until Joe Arpaio is one of the options for Homeland Security Secretary.

 

David Clarke is an obvious choice but is also doing a pretty fine job where he is serving his community.

If someone had told me two years ago that Trump would be the next prez, I would have phoned the men in the white coats to lock them up.

Hopefully for the sake of our world he won't be as bad as many (including myself) have thought. Whatever happens, it will be an interesting four years ahead...

MikeB4: This result heralds a new Era, that does not necessarily mean a violent Era. Things will different but the World in general is not the same place it was in the 30's

Agreed - but there are a lot of really bad things different here too.

Fascism and Govt control is on the ris.e Political Correctness is the very thing that Geroge Orwell called New Speak. The hiding and down play of realities using speech. kidnapping nad torture becomes rendition, secret police nad non-judicial incarceration becomes homeland Security / Guantanamo and policing of the populance isn't just the TSA taking finger prints / eyeball shots of those transiting a country but even in NZ things like having to produce photo Id to deposit cash into your bank account has become standard practice? Why? Because the Govt either thinks we are all criminals and is treating us as guilty until proven innocent or wants to know and control to a finer level of detail in our private lives.

We now tolerate higher levels of Govt interference than a person in the 30s, 40s or 50s would ever stand. in those days that type of action was called creeping communism or fascism. Now its just business as usual.

also sine the 30 and 40s the ability to commit your populace to war has got progressively easie.r USA has entered (illegally) armed forces into Panama, Columbia, Cuba, Afghanistahn, iraq, Pahkistahn - to name a few. Their war tempo is increasing - possibly for the same reason emperors used to u pthe number of Christians thrown to the lions nad bread thrown to the masses - to take their mind off the issues at home and focus it on a common enemy.

The US Govt under George W Bush threatened to take action ( armed) against the UN if they looked at prosecuting or pushing issues of war crimes in the USA. The USa sided against the democratically elected Govt of Syria  - because tey didn't like their version of democracy. Ditto Chile when it went commuinst and various other S. American countries.

since 1945 we have seen them go to war in:

Korea,  Cuba, Vietnam, Dominican Republic ( to stop it going communist), Lebanon, Grenada (to over throw socialist Govt), Panama, Gulf (V 1.0) Gulf (v 2.0) Afghanistahn, Ethiopia (Black Hawk down), Panama, Haiti, and back to Afghanistahn again ( yes they were involved in the Af back in the 70's and 80's, training Bin Laden along the way).

they also toppled iran and installed a new regime, installed Saddam Hussein, etc etc.

Their tempo is increasing - they are threatening iran (again) but now they have torture, rendition, secret police ( under homeland security act /), non -judicial imprisonment, and a huge groundswell of support to free the world - bless our boys in blue,/ green and khaki.

In the 30's Trump would never have been tolerated. his lack of morality alone would have seen him bumped and his unpatriotic flaunting of tax etc would have had him reviled.

it's not the 30's but the 30's had a solid moral backing, historical social structures and an ideal that the war to end all wars means we wouldn't go there again - but were forced to. Now its sport, played out on TV from drone strike cameras and in missle video feed.

MikeB4:

Fred99:

 

It'd be a very strange turn of events if a powerful megalomaniac leader, who on many occasions has incited hatred to gain popular support during his rise, is going to go around the world spreading love and peace.

 

 

 

He's pro-torture and said he'd deliberately "target and kill the families and children" of enemies. 

 

 

 

 

 

The President does not rule alone, the President is not a Dictator.

He is however the Commander In Chief - and can make decisions for the armed forces without needing complete overe sight.

One thing I found amusing last night was Duncan Garner who appeared to be eating sour grapes judging by his facial expressions.

nunz: but even in NZ things like having to produce photo Id to deposit cash into your bank account has become standard practice?

Wait, what? Is this really a thing?

Edit: Just looked it up. It's for cash deposits of $10000 or more.

Behodar:

 

nunz: but even in NZ things like having to produce photo Id to deposit cash into your bank account has become standard practice?

 

Wait, what? Is this really a thing?

 

Not for me with ANZ it's not; maybe large sums but I did a 4.5K drop a few months back after selling my partners car and I just needed my eftpos card.

frankv:

 

nunz:

 

Russia won the cold war - USA lost it. That's why so many other wars being fought all the time. gotta distract the plebs.

 

 

Nope. Russia didn't even exist when the Cold War was on. Given that the USSR and Warsaw Pact were dismembered, it would be difficult to claim that they were the winner.

 

Wars are more about gaining (or at least not losing) access to resources. USA has an inexhaustible appetite... that is why wars are being fought. There's plenty of circuses to distract the plebs.

 

 

 

Russia still owns a lot of the USSR and has a lot of influence in the warsaw pact countries.

Russia is really really really crazy oil rich among other things.

Russia still has a space program

Russia still has a massive active army

Russia doesn't have a gazllion dollars debt.

Russia has gone ahead since the wall came down - USA has gone backwards.

Benoire:

 

Behodar:

 

nunz: but even in NZ things like having to produce photo Id to deposit cash into your bank account has become standard practice?

 

Wait, what? Is this really a thing?

 

 

Not for me with ANZ it's not; maybe large sums but I did a 4.5K drop a few months back after selling my partners car and I just needed my eftpos card.

 

I believe that the trigger is $10k.

That's either quite a lot of money, or not very much, depending who you are in NZ

cynnicallemon:

 

nunz:

 

There are a few inescapable things that we know today:

 

 

Wow, that's quite some piece there.

 

So what do you say about one of Hillary's main sponsors George Soros?

 

I mean, why did she except money from a person who sent his fellow Jews to the gas chambers?

 

I suspect we are about to find out just how holy and just Hillary, Bill and their foundation are. Assange has a wiki xmas day present for her so I hear.

 

I dont think she is totally moral either - politics is dirty. Someone once told me politics is like a septic tank - the biggest lumps float to the top.

However i don't think she ever thought about boinking DT's daughter, hasn't ripped off billions of dollars, failed to pay her taxes etc. The BEST dirt DT could say about her is she used a private, non-govt email server to send emails on. The rest he had to do by getting at her via Bills peccadilloes.

No comparison.

Behodar:

 

nunz: but even in NZ things like having to produce photo Id to deposit cash into your bank account has become standard practice?

 

Wait, what? Is this really a thing?

 

Edit: Just looked it up. It's for cash deposits of $10000 or more.

 

Nope - $500 will get you there.

Also try cashing a cash, negotiable, not crossed, or bearer cheque for even $100 and watch what happens.

Anyways I think this thread has run it's course, at least for me, I pretty much expect the conversation from this point to head the same way all 20+ page political discussions do and end the same way.

nunz:

 

 

 

Russia still owns a lot of the USSR and has a lot of influence in the warsaw pact countries.

 

Russia is really really really crazy oil rich among other things.

 

Russia still has a space program

 

Russia still has a massive active army

 

Russia doesn't have a gazllion dollars debt.

 

Russia has gone ahead since the wall came down - USA has gone backwards.

 

 

 

Russia GDP per capita is below the world average, similar to Mexico.

35% of the wealth of Russia (140 million pop.) is owned by just over 100 people!

Russia ranks very highly for corruption - 28th out of 28 in Transparency Int'l reports.

Life expectancy at birth in Russia is more than 10 years less than in the USA

Murder rate in Russia is more than double the rate in the US, about ten times higher than NZ.

nunz:

 

 

 

I dont think she is totally moral either - politics is dirty. Someone once told me politics is like a septic tank - the biggest lumps float to the top.

 

However i don't think she ever thought about boinking DT's daughter, hasn't ripped off billions of dollars, failed to pay her taxes etc. The BEST dirt DT could say about her is she used a private, non-govt email server to send emails on. The rest he had to do by getting at her via Bills peccadilloes.

 

No comparison.

 

DT was quite relaxed about what he said about her during the debates. As they say, give em enough rope...

She has apparently been associated with devil worship and while that is not specifically a crime, it does not sit well with American voters. 

Hillary had hundreds of income sources and I bet you very few were taxed, this will all come out in due course.

The main difference in their wealth is that DT actually earned most of his wealth as opposed to having it donated to a fund.

When you look at Chelsea Clinton who gets paid $900,000 from the Clinton Foundation for a part-time job, you can see why they were so out of touch with their voters.