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CHAPEL END CHARLIE

By CHAPEL END CHARLIE,
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norwaysaint

norwaysaint

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Anyone know much about Bloomberg? Enormously wealthy, well respected politician, has historically had a foot in both Republican and Democrat camps. Independents usually get nowhere, but he may be a compromise for Republicans who can't stomach Trump/Cruz and Democrats who won't vote for Clinton or Sanders.There are going to be a lot of voters unhappy with their party's candidate, whatever happens.

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LVSaint

LVSaint

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Anyone know much about Bloomberg? Enormously wealthy, well respected politician, has historically had a foot in both Republican and Democrat camps. Independents usually get nowhere, but he may be a compromise for Republicans who can't stomach Trump/Cruz and Democrats who won't vote for Clinton or Sanders.There are going to be a lot of voters unhappy with their party's candidate, whatever happens.

 

Oh great, Ralph Nader again. If he runs as an independent, he'll steal more Democrat votes than Republican ones = President Trump.

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buctootim

buctootim

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Posted (edited)
Anyone know much about Bloomberg? Enormously wealthy, well respected politician, has historically had a foot in both Republican and Democrat camps. Independents usually get nowhere, but he may be a compromise for Republicans who can't stomach Trump/Cruz and Democrats who won't vote for Clinton or Sanders.There are going to be a lot of voters unhappy with their party's candidate, whatever happens.

 

He funds the charity I work for and also helped the previous one with infrastructure support. My boss in the US has been telling him he should run but he doesn't seem to have much of an ego and enjoys his role as a philanthropist. Interested in oceans, climate change, women, democracy, public health. Used to be a Republican, but you'd never know it to talk to him. A rich guy interested in the world and helping people. If he entered the race I think he could win it - he could appeal to both parties middle ground, especially if the options were Trump and Sanders . As you say, tough as an independent though - and how much could he achieve without Congress behind him? That could put him off imo, from what little I know of him he seems to like a very lean decision making process - not the kind of endless persuasion being President would entail. He's friendly with the Clintons so maybe hes waiting to see how things unfold there first.

Edited by buctootim
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norwaysaint

norwaysaint

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Feel a bit bad that when I read that Scalia had died at the weekend, my first though was about the political reaction.

 

It'll be interesting to see whether Obama will be able to get a liberal choice in before the end of his term or whether the senate can block him long enough in the hope of getting their own choice in next year. Does anyone know whether there's a time limit for the choice.

 

I'd consider the Supreme Court arguably the single most important part of government as they can easily block the other two and their decision is so final. In many ways, this vote is as big as the presidential race, as it will give one side a majority. It's not quite so glamourous though.

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buctootim

buctootim

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I'd consider the Supreme Court arguably the single most important part of government as they can easily block the other two and their decision is so final. In many ways, this vote is as big as the presidential race, as it will give one side a majority. It's not quite so glamourous though.

 

Sad but true. I still find it incredible the highest court in the land can be so openly politically partisan. My American boss thinks Im incredibly naive to believe our Supreme court is politically unbiased.

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Sheaf Saint

Sheaf Saint

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I can't find a link but the other day I saw a news report from one of his rallies, where he openly encouraged his supporters in the audience to 'beat the hell out of' some protesters, with the promise that he would pay the legal fees.

 

It scares the bejeezuz out of me to think there are millions of American voters who think he would be a good head of state and commander in chief.

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LVSaint

LVSaint

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I can't find a link but the other day I saw a news report from one of his rallies, where he openly encouraged his supporters in the audience to 'beat the hell out of' some protesters, with the promise that he would pay the legal fees.

 

Maybe it was this.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/22/politics/donald-trump-black-lives-matter-protester-confrontation/

 

A campaign spokesperson immediately condoned the violent actions. Trump a day later says it was fine. LOL. He doesn't care.

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CHAPEL END CHARLIE

CHAPEL END CHARLIE

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And how on earth can anyone think this guy is presidential when he tweets stuff like this:

 

I wonder if President Obama would have attended the funeral of Justice Scalia if it were held in a Mosque? Very sad that he did not go!

 

 

The guy is a blustering buffoon frankly. Not only is his style clearly not in the least statesmanlike or ''presidential'', he doesn't even seem to be able to behave himself in a manner that would be deemed acceptable in your average sixth form debating society. The fact that he may well actually succeed in winning the Republican nomination - and therefore come within spitting distance of the White House itself - is a damning indictment on the judgement (if not the intelligence) of those US citizens who have opted to vote for him.

 

The dread prospect of a President Trump - God help us - one day getting his hands on the US ''nuclear button'' terrifies this observer of the international scene sufficiently that he would seriously have to consider resigning from the Human Race in protest should that happen!

Edited by CHAPEL END CHARLIE
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norwaysaint

norwaysaint

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This is interesting to do. I used it with my students, but first asked them who they all thought the worst and best candidates were. Pretty much everybody said Trump worst, but they all had candidates below him in the end and nearly all had Cruz and Carson as the lowest. It was good to show them that you can't judge the policies just by the public image. Trump is not the worst candidate by most people's values it seems and it might not be a good thing to hope that Cruz can beat him. Haven't had a single Republican yet, but I suppose Norway is pretty liberal.

 

http://www.isidewith.com/

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Ludwig

Ludwig

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This is interesting to do. I used it with my students, but first asked them who they all thought the worst and best candidates were. Pretty much everybody said Trump worst, but they all had candidates below him in the end and nearly all had Cruz and Carson as the lowest. It was good to show them that you can't judge the policies just by the public image. Trump is not the worst candidate by most people's values it seems and it might not be a good thing to hope that Cruz can beat him. Haven't had a single Republican yet, but I suppose Norway is pretty liberal.

 

http://www.isidewith.com/

 

That is very interesting, "norwaysaint". Can you provide a similar simple test for me so I can decide what to do in the Euro referendum? Thanks

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buctootim

buctootim

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Answer Yes / No to the following Questions

 

1. Do you feel happy when there is fog in the Channel?

2. Are you able to hold your opinion despite unhelpful facts?

3. Do foreigners smell of garlic?

4. Do you like lots of frozen lamb?

5. Can you recite Rule Brittania backwards?

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Shroppie

Shroppie

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Answer Yes / No to the following Questions

 

1. Do you feel happy when there is fog in the Channel?

2. Are you able to hold your opinion despite unhelpful facts?

3. Do foreigners smell of garlic?

4. Do you like lots of frozen lamb?

5. Can you recite Rule Brittania backwards?

6. Can you spell Britannia?

 

Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk

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JackanorySFC

JackanorySFC

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This is interesting to do. I used it with my students, but first asked them who they all thought the worst and best candidates were. Pretty much everybody said Trump worst, but they all had candidates below him in the end and nearly all had Cruz and Carson as the lowest. It was good to show them that you can't judge the policies just by the public image. Trump is not the worst candidate by most people's values it seems and it might not be a good thing to hope that Cruz can beat him. Haven't had a single Republican yet, but I suppose Norway is pretty liberal.

 

http://www.isidewith.com/

 

95% Bernie Sanders. I consider myself a floating voter over here, have views left of centre on some subjects (healthcare, education, liberty) and right of centre on others (defence, immigration, welfare). The right is very right over there!

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ashnats

ashnats

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This is interesting to do. I used it with my students, but first asked them who they all thought the worst and best candidates were. Pretty much everybody said Trump worst, but they all had candidates below him in the end and nearly all had Cruz and Carson as the lowest. It was good to show them that you can't judge the policies just by the public image. Trump is not the worst candidate by most people's values it seems and it might not be a good thing to hope that Cruz can beat him. Haven't had a single Republican yet, but I suppose Norway is pretty liberal.

 

http://www.isidewith.com/

 

interesting. I got 86% hilary, 82% sanders, but I did still get two candidates (Gary Johnson (41%) and Ben Carson(41%)) below Trump at 46%.

 

i'm reassured that Trump scored low...

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norwaysaint

norwaysaint

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95% Bernie Sanders. I consider myself a floating voter over here, have views left of centre on some subjects (healthcare, education, liberty) and right of centre on others (defence, immigration, welfare). The right is very right over there!

 

Similar attitude to me politically and similar result.

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Shroppie

Shroppie

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95% Bernie Sanders. I consider myself a floating voter over here, have views left of centre on some subjects (healthcare, education, liberty) and right of centre on others (defence, immigration, welfare). The right is very right over there!

94% equal for Sanders and Clinton

 

Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk

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Pamplemousse

Pamplemousse

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This is interesting to do. I used it with my students, but first asked them who they all thought the worst and best candidates were. Pretty much everybody said Trump worst, but they all had candidates below him in the end and nearly all had Cruz and Carson as the lowest. It was good to show them that you can't judge the policies just by the public image. Trump is not the worst candidate by most people's values it seems and it might not be a good thing to hope that Cruz can beat him. Haven't had a single Republican yet, but I suppose Norway is pretty liberal.

 

http://www.isidewith.com/

 

Clinton and then Sanders for me.

 

With the UK test I got Conservatives and would consider myself a centrist, some issues I am more liberal, other issues not so much.

 

The right is soooo to the right over there, and the problem is Christian extremism. I have an American friend who blames the religious nutjobs that we kicked out back in the 1600s and were sent packing to America.

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LVSaint

LVSaint

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FYI, if anyone is looking at the delegate count so far for the Dems, it reads 502 Clinton, 70 Sanders. However, it's very much a dead heat at 50 'real' delegates or so each. The huge number for Clinton is down to superdelegate* votes which at the moment align to Clinton, but if Sanders was seen as winning more of the popular vote, those superdelegates would switch to him.

 

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdelegate

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norwaysaint

norwaysaint

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I'm a big fan of the BBC, but I'm starting to get really tired of all of their anti-Trump comments and articles. I don't really think it's right that they should be singling out one political candidate and attacking them. I know Trump's a ****, but as most of us who took the survey above discovered, most of the alternatives are actually even more unpleasant, despite their more diplomatic public image.

 

In the last few days we have why his win in Nevada isn't that impressive

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-35651682

 

How Trump can be stopped:

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-35649252

 

Why Republicans hate Trump:

http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-35607206

 

Plus loads of other articles with a clear anti-Trump agenda. I don't like the bloke, but Cruz, Rubio and Carson are horrible people too, why pick on Trump and not them?

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hypochondriac

hypochondriac

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I'm a big fan of the BBC, but I'm starting to get really tired of all of their anti-Trump comments and articles. I don't really think it's right that they should be singling out one political candidate and attacking them. I know Trump's a ****, but as most of us who took the survey above discovered, most of the alternatives are actually even more unpleasant, despite their more diplomatic public image.

 

In the last few days we have why his win in Nevada isn't that impressive

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-35651682

 

How Trump can be stopped:

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-35649252

 

Why Republicans hate Trump:

http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-35607206

 

Plus loads of other articles with a clear anti-Trump agenda. I don't like the bloke, but Cruz, Rubio and Carson are horrible people too, why pick on Trump and not them?

 

Why is it not right? I would suggest it's because Trump is currently box office and of interest to the readership. They have also had other articles about what the other candidates stand for. It's not an election in this country so I think it's OK.

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TwoPints

TwoPints

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This is interesting to do. I used it with my students, but first asked them who they all thought the worst and best candidates were. Pretty much everybody said Trump worst, but they all had candidates below him in the end and nearly all had Cruz and Carson as the lowest. It was good to show them that you can't judge the policies just by the public image. Trump is not the worst candidate by most people's values it seems and it might not be a good thing to hope that Cruz can beat him. Haven't had a single Republican yet, but I suppose Norway is pretty liberal.

 

http://www.isidewith.com/

I got 90% Sanders and Clinton.

24% Trump

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CHAPEL END CHARLIE

CHAPEL END CHARLIE

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Very different personalties, very different political parties, even nations famously separated by a single language of course. Nevertheless, I starting to suspect that we can draw a rough analogy between Trump's success in dominating the Republican Party nomination process in the USA (so far at least) and Jeremy Corbyn becoming the leader of the Labour Party over here. Both men were once seen as ''rank outsiders'' in their respective parties and were initially given very little - if any - chance in their respective leadership campaigns. The Republican race has yet to run it course, but who today would dare predict anymore that Trump will not match Corbyn and win the majority support of his Party too? You might also say that Bernie Sanders and Boris Johnson also fit into this ''outsiders'' pattern to some extent.

 

It seems that large sections of the electorate on both sides of the Atlantic have become deeply disenchanted and disillusioned with what might be termed careerist ''professional politicians'' and are looking instead for leaders they see as more genuine or principled in some sense - politicians with a record of not being much troubled by all that ''grown up'' politics stuff and the need to seek consensus and compromise in what is a increasingly complicated world.

 

Neither man has yet to be elected into real power of course. However, the apparent unsuitability of Trump and Corbyn to hold high office just doesn't seem to matter to significant sections of the electorate who seem to rate being different and resolutely ''off message'' as more attractive qualities than being qualified to lead great nations at a time of heighten international turmoil. Popularity is of course always key to electoral success in any democratic process, but can it be that our culture has somehow reached a stage where the people don't want to be led by real statesmen anymore because the only way to become popular is to remind us of ourselves?

 

If so then the old adage about being ''careful what you wish for'' does comes to mind.

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norwaysaint

norwaysaint

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As said before, Trump may be loud and obnoxious when he speaks, but most people taking the test above have found his policies to be far more acceptable than the likes of Cruz or Carson. Trump has based his entire campaign on being as undiplomatic as possible. The mainstream and social media have led us to believe he is the most awful choice and that somehow we need one of the other candidates to step up and beat him. I'm not convinced this is true. I think a Cruz win would be the worst option, with Rubio not far behind. Trump is actually one of the more liberal options remaining for the Republicans, on everything except immigration.

 

The problem for the Democrats is that they lack any truly charismatic candidate.Most people taking the quiz found that they were close to 90% agreement with Sanders or Clinton, but not many people actually "like" those candidates, nobody "loves" Hilary Clinton, which shows their public images are going very wrong somewhere, because those who agree with Trump's policies seem to adore him.

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revolution saint

revolution saint

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As said before, Trump may be loud and obnoxious when he speaks, but most people taking the test above have found his policies to be far more acceptable than the likes of Cruz or Carson. Trump has based his entire campaign on being as undiplomatic as possible. The mainstream and social media have led us to believe he is the most awful choice and that somehow we need one of the other candidates to step up and beat him. I'm not convinced this is true. I think a Cruz win would be the worst option, with Rubio not far behind. Trump is actually one of the more liberal options remaining for the Republicans, on everything except immigration.

 

The problem for the Democrats is that they lack any truly charismatic candidate.Most people taking the quiz found that they were close to 90% agreement with Sanders or Clinton, but not many people actually "like" those candidates, nobody "loves" Hilary Clinton, which shows their public images are going very wrong somewhere, because those who agree with Trump's policies seem to adore him.

 

Think you're putting too much store in that quiz - does Trump actually have any policies besides building a big f**k off wall and getting Mexico to pay for it? Sorry, forgot - he wants to ban Muslims and keep Gitmo open for business. Besides that it's all slogans. Not surprising then that he doesn't poll right at the bottom of the list for most people as first he needs to have policies to disagree with.

 

As for why he gets so much publicity? That's obvious - he's good for the media. You'd struggle to much click bait about any of the other politicians because they're all fairly dull but with Trump he'll virtually write the article for you. He was a celebrity anyway and now he's front-runner so hardly surprising he's going to get more coverage. Once you add in the fact that he's totally barking mad then it's no wonder this has become the Trump show.

 

You're obviously right that not many people 'love' the other candidates but why should they? Clinton is offering a pragmatic and (for the US) left-of-centre manifesto - it's hard to get worked up over those kind of 'more of the same' policies although hopefully she'll get in. They're sensible but dull - precisely what the US needs (IMO). Course it doesn't play well against a background of angry chants of "this country needs fixing' but personally I don't think anyone should even be competing on that level. The rest of the candidates are also struggling for the same reasons but even JFK would. Although to be fair if he was resurrected then that would be a hell of a publicity stunt so maybe not.......

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sotonist

sotonist

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The guy is a blustering buffoon frankly. Not only is his style clearly not in the least statesmanlike or ''presidential'', he doesn't even seem to be able to behave himself in a manner that would be deemed acceptable in your average sixth form debating society. The fact that he may well actually succeed in winning the Republican nomination - and therefore come within spitting distance of the White House itself - is a damning indictment on the judgement (if not the intelligence) of those US citizens who have opted to vote for him.

 

The dread prospect of a President Trump - God help us - one day getting his hands on the US ''nuclear button'' terrifies this observer of the international scene sufficiently that he would seriously have to consider resigning from the Human Race in protest should that happen!

don't hold americans to your debating standards

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJvBwJ_h-UE

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