Earl Hood

Gee we all like having a go at Donald, including me but did anyone see Miranda Devine's defence of tobacco and cigarette smoking on Channel 9's Today programme with Karl Stephanovic on the weekend and again this morning? Apparently smoking is good because it takes out people earlier than normal through cancer or respitory failure or organ failure or lung disease and horrendous pain before death and that apparently frees up resources for other health outcomes. So it is a win, win in economics terms but let's not look at human costs. Talk about big picture "Technocrats out of control", even though Miranda isn't one of course. She is just a second rate hack journo working for News Corp. but willing to sacrifice lives on the alter of free choice to smoke your self to death. And I should add Miranda works for El Diablo, Beelzebub the Devil in carnate but I wouldn't want to denigrate her more than she deserves.

Biff do you have any real data on your accusation? Or are you playing the Trump card? I will state now it is fake news. You are telling me rapes have happened in Sweden over and above the norm due to refugees but there is a left wing cover up that nothing is happening. I think not. It seems to me most people in Sweden are asking WTF is he talking about but you know more, even though you are currently up river in Indochina chasing Colonel Kurtz!

DC don't mention the climate. It always starts off a shyte-storm around here!

Well yes the world is a lot less safe but this is mainly due to George W blundering into Iraq and destabilised the whole region in the service of the Sunni Saudi Royal Family in their battle for supremacy in the Middle East against Shiite revolutionary Iran. This political vacuum created by US intervention has created the environment where violent lunatics like IS have flourished.

Anyhoo back to President Gump the storm clouds are gathering over this Russian stuff. He has obviously got the intelligence agencies off side big time because there are leaks coming from multiple agencies and there are multiple investigations underway examining Trump's campaign people and who they were communicating with. Why were they talking to Russian Intelligence agents? Who knows. And of course Flynn has fallen on his sword but the big question is what did Donald know and when? Why would Flynn make a deal with the Ruskies without some agreement with the Donald? All we can take from this mess is that the FBI and the CIA have been infiltrated by lunatic left wing Marxists!

"You rabid climate alarmists, border- free, safe-space, high taxing, lazy socialists can keep whining for the next 8 years" Wrecker there is nothing thoughtful about the diatribe above! Obviously Prodee can be quite calm and measured when talking football but when it comes to anybody challenging his conservative view of how the world should be, he goes into a tail spin.

Choke I don't think there is much evidence that U.S. electoral college has prevented the wealthy from running roughshod over anybody they choose to in the US.!

No climate change down here!

Hey Red you have reminded me, I first saw the Professor when I was a kid in Carry on Regardless. Sid James was running a business of handy men and women and this odd person would show up regularly speaking gobbledegook. Turns out he was the landlord telling them they were to be evicted. I remember the whole family being in stitches with this bloke who sounded so familiar but made no sense.

Re the farcical Dyson Heydon Royal commission. How many millions were wasted on that one, Wrecker, just to get Bill Shorten in the box. Have there been any prosecutions coming out the $50 million investigation? I don't believe they laid a glove on Julia as Imremember it. Plenty of accusations of course and the head prosecutor saying she suspiciously had an answer for everything, she just knew too much but no invoices for work done 20 years ago! Very suspicious and of course we would all fail the same invoice test. And as for the Global Partnership, I don't know much about it but if you are going to line up Julia can you also line up the conga line of former energy ministers of both parties who work for the mining industry and numerous other former ministers who have taken top jobs in the respective industry they once regulated.

Head in sand then. No data no problem. Why don't you try that with ISIS then?

So let me get this straight, the Marxists are responsible for all the economic problems in America that Trump has identified as a problem. That is globalisation, the trend that sends jobs off shore to Mexico or China that leaves mid America destitute. Nothing to do with capitalists there of course? He is going to stop that! He is going to end global free trade agreements and look at bi-lateral trade agreements between individual countries that advantage the US. That will work because there are plenty of client states like Australia and sycophantic leaders like John Howard who will gladly sign up to any US free trade agreement (2007) only to be taken to the cleaners. The Marxists have been big players in agreements like the TPP then? So the Donald is going to drain from the swamp in Washington! As I have asked before how does he do it? So it is Public servants who just follow orders, elected senators, congressmen, the rent seeking industry lobbyists, who infest the place? Who is going to be drained, is it the Democrats you deem to be anti-capitalists? If so you are advocating a dictatorship then? Can we start dealing in some facts rather than Trumpisms!

Not a lot, did you see BBO when you were in the Sin Bin?

Biff interesting comment you make. How exactly do you drain or cleanse the swamp? Trump talks about it a lot but what does he mean? Is he removing senators, congressmen, lobbyists from industry, protesters or the public servants who just follow the orders of their political masters? Who exactly is going to be drained? And I fear Steve Bannon is as deluded as George Dubblya's Neocon's with their flawed vision of implanting a democratic haven state in Iraq, to be a model for the rest of the Middle East. Steve has his sights on Iran as a state that needs to be dealt with. Why exactly does he want to side with Saudi Arabia's Royal Family versus Iran in their battle over the smoking ruins of the Middle East?

Hi Biff how did we bring Lebanon into this? I am talking West Bank and the Gaza Strip and the people on the receiving end of Isreali settlements and the restriction of power and water for those same people trapped in Palestine. Reduce their living conditions toward abject poverty and filth and then deride them as less than human. Have we seen this before in Europe? Can we forget Muslims and get back to the thread's theme, President Gump! Let's concentrate on him or Steve Bannon if you like.

Ditto!

Grape I respect your views. However this is my personal view I see little difference between the German ghettos of the 1930's and modern day Palestine, as created by the modern day State of Isreal. The world pays lip service to a two state solution while Isreal builds new settlements on Palestinian territory, as well as building walls, controlling access to power and clean water and numerous other goods. When you commandeer another people's land for your own people it usually means genocide, a la our actions with our indigenous Australians in the past two hundred years as the Brittish Empire commanderred Terra Nullius. And of course the Isrealites have the Old Testament to back their case for ownership going back a 2000 years. Those Palestinian interlopers who took over in 66 AD have no rights. Johnny come lately's!

Biff give me a break The Donald's private businesses have filed for bankruptcy six times but yeah he knows how to run an economy, the biggest on earth! i don't think. You can't bribe government officials, lobby officials, pay kickbacks to the mob or sue everyone to make out you are running a successful national economy. The national balance sheet has to add up, at least in the way he has promised. You can't litigate your way out of an economic crisis when you are the President. I wish the Gump good luck on running the economy. I think he will fail. That is my take!

Which part of the swamp is being drained Wrecker? The members of congress, the senate, the myriad of lobbyists, the multitude of public servants who are there merely to follow orders? The Gump talks about draining the swamp but what does that mean, who are his targets? All we know is that he has added quite a few apex predators to the swamp.

Biff I am not arguing that the Gump got voted in, although it was by 3 million less votes than his rival. We agree he is the main man, the big Kauhuna, the big cheese. But we don't have to agree that he has any competence for the job!

Macca I hope he fails but if he doesn't we are in trouble because I believe he is pushing the boundaries of his power with every edict he makes. A federal judge has today called a halt to his edict on Muslim entries to the US. What happens next will be a guide to our future. If the Judge's ruling is overturned by the power of the president with no new evidence, we have commenced a new era of conflct

In what way Ethan?

I think I am a realist DC and things look decidedly gumpish!

The Donald has been active for only 2 weeks but gee what theatre! I wake up every morning eager to tune in to the latest episode of the president and he never disappoints. It is all action. Bans on Muslims from every country that hasn't attacked the US on their soil, that makes sense. But open borders to our Saudi friends who manned the 9/11 jets. Giving our PM Mr Trumball a right old rollicking, leaking it to the US media, then bragging about how tough he has had to be but then denying it all happened in the space of 48 hours! That is our Donald! The world of politics as we know it has gone mad. The man is unhinged and I will state here and now within the next 2 years, he or his chief advisor, Steve Bannon will declare war on someone. My guess is Iran, it's the only country left that hasnt been trashed by the US or has been caused by them, in the Middle East. There is Israel of course but if The Donald is going to move the US embassy to Jerusalem then the Palestinians have no choice but to rebel for their survival. It is called genocide anywhere else. So expect more unnecessary carnage that will impact on people in Isreal and the Middle East. Welcome to the future.

Biff, have you found Colonel Kurtz yet?