The Good that Men do - Donald Trump?

CNN today reported that in the last few days (and since the riots) the Trump administration has opted, as part of its final act, to hand Biden a whole new set of international diplomatic dilemmas; they have just:
Named Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism;
Designate Yemen's Houthi rebels as a foreign terrorist organisation;
Upended decades of US-China diplomacy by lifting restrictions on contacts between American officials and representatives from the self-governing island of Taiwan.
Trump just being Trump. No surprise there. What a bitter man.

And I am sure his final flourish will be to pardon himself, his family and supporters. plus some really nasty people from their crimes, should they be convicted after they have left office.

I think the main reason Trump's vote rose was because many more republicans came out to vote Republican, which is not the same as backing Trump. They did this because they could see that the Democrats were really getting their vote up, running registration rallies and pushing the postal vote for those who couldn't physically vote and that there was a good chance they would get more votes than the republicans in the election, so the silent republican party got up and voted.

You must remember that the US is a two party state the way Britian was in 40s,50s, and 60s, when party lines were rigid and the average voter would vote for a donkey, and frequently did, providing the ribbon round its neck was the right colour. This is what they did in this election, Vote republican and have a republican President, no matter what kind. This is not republicans voting for Trump.

Unfortunately FPTP does tend to lead to a confrontational two party system which is profoundly undemocratic.

Whitewavemark2

It seems that Trump wants a big send off party.

I suppose he’ll hold it on the 20th.

A question of mine’s bigger than yours

Sad little man.

Timothy Leary had a good send off. I’d quite like to see Trump have a similar one.

Hi everyone - back from my walk, phoned a friend & back on here!

Well my musings when out & about didn’t amount to anything about Trump. I suppose if I could be bothered I could search the internet, but then again, we could all do that anyway and make these discussions redundant.

Your post Jane43 was poignant. Yes, I finally have to admit defeat over Trump. I did support him I admit so. I truly thought he was giving the disenfranchised hope but I can see he turned rogue.

So - No more cheers from the sidelines from me for this man. I cannot in all conscience defend the indefensible. That’s not who I am as a person.

I suppose in all honesty I feel sad that he failed his supporters and so abjectly.

I hope Biden & Harris do a good job. The good people of America deserve it don’t they?

I'm glad to hear you admitting you were wrong to allow yourself to be misled by the Trump propogandists UG

I wonder how long it will be before you can admit you were wrong to be conned by the brexit propagandists?

This has been a bit like saying that at least Mussolini got the trains to run on time (though in fact he didn’t).

I thought it was Hitler that got the trains to run on time. Is that just an urban myth?

Urmstongran, I know we sometimes agree, despite being on what could be easily dismissed as opposite ends of the political spectrum. Your post at 17.25 gives me hope that many Americans will share your disappointment in Trump. He behaved as a bullying cheat in business. One of few promises he kept was to act as President as he had in business.
I hope the Republicans will find a moral compass. Trump isn’t really a republican, he’s a despot.

What we need more than anything is for 17 Republican Senators to find their conscience and have the courage to find Trump guilty at the trial of impeachment.

Yes varian and it’s sobering to think that may not be achieved

We got so near to salvation last year when virtually all of the principled Tory MPs made a stand, but then the leaders of all the opposition parties made the serious mistake of voting for a GE which the well funded Tories could win with a minority of votes.

I hope there are more principled Republican Senators who will stand up and be counted, although they all know that it will put their ;lives and the lives of their families at risk.

I wish some of the American grans would post more. I haven’t seen anything from rosecarmel for ages. Her posts were always so thought provoking and I learnt a lot. I do so hope she isn’t sick. She was a kindly soul who I think had not had an easy time in her life.

I watched a programme about the riot in the Capitol last night. Some of the Trump supporters spoke in it about why they believed it was necessary. It seemed evident thatt they had great distrust for established politicians, that they viewed the US as a country controlled by an elite and that Trump could give them it back. It was especially worrying when one man spoke about, the Rockefellers and Rothschilds who run things and the influence of Israel. It was quite amusing when they called Joe Biden "a communist".
Even Trumps accord with N Korea seems to be running out.

To the American right the terms "liberal", "socialist" and "communist" all mean the same thing.

The typical Trump cult supporter has a low level of education, does not possess a passport and has little knowledge of the world beyond the USA or beyond the world as depicted by the right wing tv and radio channels and conspiracy websites.

These people are dangerous because they are ignorant, prejudiced and armed with deadly weapons.

According to an FBI agent, the right wing media, owners like Murdoch are absolutely culpable in influencing dissent.

Rupert Murdoch, an Australian, changed the history of the UK and the USA in 2016 by using the malignant power of his media empire by helping to persuade the impressionable to vote for brexit and Trump.

An example of what the FBI agent was talking about.

Hear the sanity and the sadness of the accounts of DC police

edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2021/01/15/dc-police-officers-capitol-riot-prokupecz-newday-vpx.cnn

There have been comments that the demise of local news and news reporters has led to the distrust in the media. That this has in turn led to a reliance on social media and internet sites for the news. These have proliferated conspiracy theories and emnabled extremists to have close contact.

EllanVannin

I wonder if " the wall " will come down ?

Think this sums that up

I'd be really interested to know what an 'indigenous Briton' is?

And, I suspect that all those MAGA white supremacists are conveniently forgetting that their land was stolen from the indigenous peoples of the Americas...

Well, the first 'indigenous' people were those using the land bridge to travel to the unpopulated land that is now Britian after the last ice age.

These disappeared with the arrival of the Neolithic people. At first this was assumed to be a cultural replacement, but evidence now shows they were a new wave of people, then there was the Beaker culture, also now known to be new arrivals not just culture. Following on we have people moving quite freely between Britain and Europe, even after the land bridge was destroyed by rising sea level rising and a tsunami. After that there were 'Roman' soldiers from all over the known world (then) who came and settled, then Germanic invaders, ditto Scandinavians, and since then a smattering of Normans, Hugeonots, Irish and Scots etc etc etc

Exactly who are the 'indigenous' Brits?

Exactly who are the 'indigenous' Brits?

The Welsh, of course!