Donald Trump, the road that might not lead to the White House!

[cantsin]

Trump claiming he's boycotting the Fox debate tmmrw, calling out Roger Ailes personally...big move on his part...suspect there's frantic negotiations going in the background, and we'll end up with Trump at the debate, Megyn Kelly- not so much...

 

[8den]

Exactly why it would be interesting. I think against Trump Bernie would actually stand a chance... All this I Could Shoot Someone bravado from Trump may hold to him winning the nomination but it won't in a general election. You would hope

Trump V Bernie would genuinely be the most interesting election of our lifetime (so far).

 

[8den]

Trump claiming he's boycotting the Fox debate tmmrw, calling out Roger Ailes personally...big move on his part...suspect there's frantic negotiations going in the background, and we'll end up with Trump at the debate, Megyn Kelly- not so much...

Cruz is making Hay of this and well he should. How pathetically thin skinned is this bully that he wont go to a debate with somebody who spells Megan with a "y". Vlad, Merkel et all would eat this fucker alive in genuine negotiations.

 

[cantsin]

Trump V Bernie would genuinely be the most interesting election of our lifetime (so far).

it has been so far already . But agreed, it wld be ...interesting, to say the least

 

[elbows]

.suspect there's frantic negotiations going in the background, and we'll end up with Trump at the debate, Megyn Kelly- not so much...

I don't think Fox can do that, they've made it an issue of journalism and bullying and to back down would undermine their previous stance and, I would suspect, piss off their staff.

 

[weltweit]

I don't think Fox can do that, they've made it an issue of journalism and bullying and to back down would undermine their previous stance and, I would suspect, piss off their staff.

I agree, Fox can't back down now, but either way Trump looks like a petulant child.

 

[belboid]

Trump V Bernie would genuinely be the most interesting election of our lifetime (so far).

v Bloomberg (or some other 'big' Independent) as well, if it is those two.

 

[cantsin]

I don't think Fox can do that, they've made it an issue of journalism and bullying and to back down would undermine their previous stance and, I would suspect, piss off their staff.

but not sure Kelly was set to moderate this one anyway, so not necessary to look like they're "backing down " ?

We'd have to assume it wld be a big non event ( comparitively speaking) w/o Trump now, + the ratings would reflect that

 

[ska invita]

Trump V Bernie would genuinely be the most interesting election of our lifetime (so far).

The fact this is even a possibility is a bit of a bellweather of the growing breakdown of centrist politics...rebirth of history...growing inequality and growing 'extremism', dont you reckon. I think that trend will only continue over the next decade or two

 

[isvicthere?]

Aha - ta. Home Programme was the bastion of British Broadcasting in my youth, Tony Hancock, Goons, etc. Now Radio 4.

The Home Service, surely?

Not to be confused with the Light Programme.

Radios 4 and 2 respectively since 1967.

 

[elbows]

but not sure Kelly was set to moderate this one anyway, so not necessary to look like they're "backing down " ?

She is one of three moderators for this debate.

“Megyn Kelly is an excellent journalist, and the entire network stands behind her,” Ailes said. “She will absolutely be on the debate stage on Thursday night.”

Trump says he won’t participate in GOP debate on Fox News

Fox certainly decided to take the piss out of him with one of their statements:

Fox’s statement said that network officials “had learned from a secret back channel that the Ayatollah and Putin both intend to treat Donald Trump unfairly when they meet with him if he becomes president.”

The statement added that Trump “has his own secret plan to replace the Cabinet with his Twitter followers to see if he should even go to those meetings.”

 

[Nylock]

That idiot who proclaimed 'the end of history' has a lot to answer for....

 

[ska invita]

That idiot who proclaimed 'the end of history' has a lot to answer for....

it was a handy phrase for summarising the growing political consensus though...'different cunts on the same bus' failed to make it into academic-speak

 

[belboid]

it was a handy phrase for summarising the growing political consensus though...'different cunts on the same bus' failed to make it into academic-speak

that wasn't quite what he meant tho - he thought it would be 'the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government' - which has clearly proven nonsense

 

[cantsin]

She is one of three moderators for this debate.



Trump says he won’t participate in GOP debate on Fox News

Fox certainly decided to take the piss out of him with one of their statements:

blimey, so that's that then...what a hoo ha

 

[cantsin]

it was a handy phrase for summarising the growing political consensus though...'different cunts on the same bus' failed to make it into academic-speak

F Fukuyama ?

And tbf, there's nothing much really dividing any of the GOP candidates in terms of politics + policy ( as Chomsky sagely pointed out) it's only the noise around the Trump farce/spectacle that's creating that impression

)

 

[8den]

but not sure Kelly was set to moderate this one anyway, so not necessary to look like they're "backing down " ?

We'd have to assume it wld be a big non event ( comparitively speaking) w/o Trump now, + the ratings would reflect that

She was going to be one of the team of moderators. No love for Megan Kelly, but there's been a couple of great moments when she's bitch slapped really horrendous fox news contributors.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

A narcissistic psychopath as Rapist in Chief. Wouldn't be the first I guess.

Wouldn't even be the first this century if reports about W are to be believed.

 

[cantsin]

She was going to be one of the team of moderators. No love for Megan Kelly, but there's been a couple of great moments when she's bitch slapped really horrendous fox news contributors.

yep, within Fox News batshit parameters, Kelly does have a fairly convincing veneer of reasonableness about her - as opposed to Ann Coulter last night on the docu, who just seems like a complete twerp.

 

[ska invita]

And tbf, there's nothing much really dividing any of the GOP candidates in terms of politics + policy ( as Chomsky sagely pointed out) it's only the noise around the Trump farce/spectacle that's creating that impression

Well yes, and the same could be said about Syriza, but I think theres more to it than that... on a variety of issues public opinion is drifting away from the center/old consensus, but political parties once in power still find themselves having to/wanting to work within relatively narrow confines...theres definitely something going on now thats different to twenty years ago

 

[8den]

yep, within Fox News batshit parameters, Kelly does have a fairly convincing veneer of reasonableness about her - as opposed to Ann Coulter last night on the docu, who just seems like a complete twerp.

Oh Ann Coulter is just a troll at this point she's Hopkins on Steroids.

Kelly is fucking batshit though



More here, but you may need a US VPN

Jon Stewart smacks down Megyn Kelly for hypocrisy over GOP corruption

 

[cantsin]

Well yes, and the same could be said about Syriza, but I think theres more to it than that... on a variety of issues public opinion is drifting away from the center/old consensus, but political parties once in power still find themselves having to/wanting to work within relatively narrow confines...theres definitely something going on now thats different to twenty years ago

agree with that, definitely, and the 'end of history' post modernist / post fordist stuff was proven nonsense .

 

[cantsin]

Oh Ann Coulter is just a troll at this point she's Hopkins on Steroids.

Kelly is fucking batshit though



More here, but you may need a US VPN

Jon Stewart smacks down Megyn Kelly for hypocrisy over GOP corruption

great clip.... + gawd he was good....

 

[8den]

great clip.... + gawd he was good....

Yeah you really do miss him (I know he's not dead but still)

 

[bluescreen]

To the seemingly rhetorical question: “When does a delicious frisson of dystopian fear become a blast of blood-freezing terror?” the literal answer may be: “On 31 January 2016, mate.”

It drips with sarcasm and condescension but there is shrewdness at the heart of Matthew Norman's analysis of Trump's appeal and the danger in his ability after nomination to 'backtrack from the doolally and soften his tone to target disaffected independents and Democrats.'
We thought Trump was the comic relief. Who’s laughing now?

 

[J Ed]

Chomsky shares Robert Reich's opinion that a Cruz Presidency would be worse than Trump

On the other side, it is probably going to be either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz. In my opinion, Cruz is scarier than Trump. Trump is a kind of wildcard, but Cruz is really dangerous, if he means anything he’s saying.

 

[DotCommunist]

Chomsky shares Robert Reich's opinion that a Cruz Presidency would be worse than Trump

this made me thing of corbyn parralels:

Sanders calls himself a Socialist, but I think what that means is New Deal Democrat basically. A New Deal Democrat in today’s political spectrum is way off to the left. President Eisenhower, who said that anyone who doesn’t accept New Deal measures is out of the political system, would be regarded as a dangerous leftist today. Everything has moved so far to the right.

 

[J Ed]

The economic losers are in revolt against the elites - FT.com - Trump does genuinely have at least some elements of the ruling class worried.

 

[Nylock]

Paywalled

 

[J Ed]

Paywalled

Soft paywall for me, i'll copy and paste

Losers have votes, too. That is what democracy means — and rightly so. If they feel sufficiently cheated and humiliated, they will vote for Donald Trump, a candidate for the Republican party’s presidential nomination in the US, Marine Le Pen of the National Front in France or Nigel Farage of the UK Independence party. There are those, particularly the native working class, who are seduced by the siren song of politicians who combine the nativism of the hard right, the statism of the hard left and the authoritarianism of both

Above all, they reject the elites that dominate the economic and cultural lives of their countries: those assembled last week in Davos for the World Economic Forum. The potential consequences are frightening. Elites need to work out intelligent responses. It might already be too late to do so.

The projects of the rightwing elite have long been low marginal tax rates, liberal immigration, globalisation, curbs on costly “entitlement programmes”, deregulated labour markets and maximisation of shareholder value. The projects of the leftwing elite have been liberal immigration (again), multiculturalism, secularism, diversity, choice on abortion, and racial and gender equality. Libertarians embrace the causes of the elites of both sides; that is why they are a tiny minority.

In the process, elites have become detached from domestic loyalties and concerns, forming instead a global super-elite. It is not hard to see why ordinary people, notably native-born men, are alienated. They are losers, at least relatively; they do not share equally in the gains. They feel used and abused. After the financial crisis and slow recovery in standards of living, they see elites as incompetent and predatory. The surprise is not that many are angry but that so many are not.

Branko Milanovic, formerly of the World Bank, has shown that only two parts of the global income distribution enjoyed virtually no gains in real incomes between 1988 and 2008: the poorest five percentiles and those between the 75th and the 90th percentile. The latter includes the bulk of the population of high-income countries.
Similarly, a study by the Economic Policy Institute in Washington shows that the compensation of ordinary workers has lagged significantly behind the rise in productivity since the mid-1970s. The explanations are a complex mixture of technological innovation, liberal trade, changes in corporate governance and financial liberalisation. But the fact is unquestionable. In the US — but also, to a smaller extent, in other high-income countries — the fruits of growth are concentrated at the top.

Finally, the share of immigrants in populations has jumped sharply. It is hard to argue that this has brought large economic, social and cultural benefits to the mass of the population. But it has unquestionably benefited those at the top, including business.

Despite offering its support for welfare benefits one might think very valuable to the native working classes, the respectable left has increasingly lost their support. This seems to be particularly true in the US, where racial and cultural factors have been particularly important.

The “southern strategy” of Richard Nixon, a former Republican US president, aimed at attracting the support of southern whites, has generated political results. But the core strategy of his party’s elite — exploiting middle-class (especially male) rage over racial, gender and cultural change — is bearing bitter fruit. The focus on tax cuts and deregulation offers little comfort to the great majority of the party’s base.

Mr Trump, Republican ideologues complain, is not a true conservative. That is indeed the point. He is a populist. Like the other leading candidates, he proposes unaffordable tax cuts. Indeed, the notion that Republicans object to fiscal deficits looks absurd. But, crucially, Mr Trump is protectionist on trade and hostile on immigration. These positions appeal to his supporters because they understand they have one valuable asset: their citizenship. They do not want to share this with countless outsiders. The same is true for supporters of Ms le Pen or Mr Farage.

Yet, even if such an outcome is avoided this year, elites have been warned. Those of the right take big risks in cultivating popular rage as a way to secure lower taxes, increased immigration and weaker regulation. Elites of the left are also taking risks if they are seen to sacrifice the interests and values of a struggling mass of citizens to cultural relativism and lax control of borders.
Western countries are democracies. These states still provide the legal and institutional underpinnings of the global economic order. If western elites despise the concerns of the many, the latter will withdraw their consent for the elite’s projects. In the US, elites of the right, having sown the wind, are reaping the whirlwind. But this has happened only because elites of the left have lost the allegiance of swaths of the native middle classes.
Not least, democracy means government by all citizens. If rights of abode, still more of citizenship, are not protected, this dangerous resentment will grow. Indeed, it already has in too many places.