"American Idiot" song on chart for Trump's visit

[MrBarnett]

Just love those posters carried by the marchers - Tangerine WankMaggot- I nearly fell out of my high-chair when I saw that.

Re: scones. Ages ago I was in a caff somewhere in Cornwall, and a tweedy old boy nearby ordered a cream tea. He picked up one of the scones and pressed it. Stale, obviously. So he called the waitress over and said in a plummy voice, "Is this the Scone of Stone?" No, she didn't get it. But he got the pronunciation of 'scone' correct. 'Scon' an dweadful middle-clarse affectation.

Graham

A 'tweedy' old boy, who was cognisant of the stone of scone? Sounds like a real class warrior.

If he had a mate called John he wound no doubt have pronounced his name 'Joan'.

[caz]

Sorry Caz,

From here Seaton is the nearest Devonian town beginning with an 'S'.

No need to apologise, Gary! And welcome to the West Country. You won't regret it.

Love,

Caz
X

[rjpalmer]

If, as seems increasingly likely, Putin is controlling Trump, are we actually looking at the early stages of a coup detat?

To me, the most worrying moment in Helsinki was when the reporter asked Putin if he had dirt on Donald and Putin chuckled. He chuckled. Putin then made some vague deflection, that was no real answer, but in his Mona Lisa smirk you could read his mind: "I'm former K.G.B. and Trump is Trump. The hotels in Russia are bugged. Of course I have dirt on him."

An amazing moment in history.

[Sam Flynn]

The patter-song that just keeps giving:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-LTRwZb35A

[barnflatwyngarde]

The orange bawbag has just said that he meant to say yesterday that he saw no reason why Russia "wouldn't" be involved in attempts to influence the US election.

How much more crap will the American people have to endure?

[DirectorDave]

How much more crap will the American people have to endure?

6 Years.

[Svensson]

5 or 6 months I guess. He'll be in shackles by Christmas.

[Svensson]

Russia meanwhile are excited about the new military agreement regarding Syria. whatever that is. So it seems that agreements were made during the 2 hour face-to-ace meeting, just that no one knows what they are are and Trump does not want anyone to know what they are. Makes me wonder how much of those two hours he spent Putin America first...

[caz]

The patter-song that just keeps giving:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-LTRwZb35A

Now that was genius! Thank you for sharing, Gareth.

Love,

Caz
X

[Graham]

Absolutely fantastic! Who sez the Yanks have no real sense of humour? Even WSG himself would be grinning, I think. One of the best G&S parodies I've encountered, and I've encountered a few.

Graham

[Herlock Sholmes]

Hi all,

I thought that I’d post this. It’s an email that I received last night from an American friend. It’s her opinion of Trump and his administration. She lives in Ohio, is middle-aged, she’s university educated and she’s neither well-off or living on the breadline. I’m unaware if she’s a lifelong Republican voter but she certainly voted for Trump. I’ve always found her opinions well thought out, calm and reasoned.


On behalf of the United States of America, let me just apologize to the Mother Country for our current leadership.* We've had great Presidents, we've had above-average ones . .we've had adequate ones and a few sub-par ones--but Mr. Trump stands alone as the singularly most ignorant, unqualified narcissistic buffoon to ever hold public office.*

I voted for him.* At the time he was deemed by those of us who despise Hillary Clinton as the lesser of two evils. We really were in an untenable position.* We hoped that he would rise to the challenge of his office, once he was securely in office, and learn how to take advice from people who know what they are talking about.* Candidate Trump had not revealed the bottomless depths of his ignorance then, and it says something for the sorry state of our political landscape that at the time that *no one* out of a massive field of Republican candidates could beat his guy.* He would flunk a 3rd grade history test.* He grew up wealthy, with a rich father who could afford to buy his kid's way into the best schools, and bribe anybody he needed to pass Little Donald to graduation.* It appears that in addition to Narcissistic Personality Disorder--a sure marker for sociopathy--the Donald may also have more garden-variety learning difficulties as well.* And Tourette's Syndrome, quite possibly.* He is a shame to the office and is a living embodiment of the failure of our two-party system.*

I actually support the Electoral College, which in more normal circumstances works just fine.* The College was devised by our founders to ostensibly ensure that citizens in the sparsely populated rural areas of this vast country got a proportionally equal say in their elected government and the entire country did not end up being dictated to by elitist rule from the residents of the biggest cities, then New York and Philadelphia.* Rural economies and concerns are different than those in the metropolitan areas.* The results of the popular vote and the Electoral College coincide the majority of the time, but when they do not, as in 2000 and again in 2016 and a few other times in our history, there is a cry by the losing side (generally Democrats) to throw out the EC.* On the face of it it *seems* like straight numbers are more democratic because 'majority rules', right?** But raw numbers alone do not necessarily reflect the will of the people.* Ohio is the 6th most populous state at 11.66 million people, but if you add* New York City, Chicago and L.A*together, those three cities still top it.* So those three cities are more populous than 44 U.S. states.* That's what the numbers say.*If we went by the raw numbers, then the residents of New York City, Chicago and Hollywood would dictate the outcome of every single Presidential election, going way back, because those areas have always been the most heavily populated.* People who gravitate to these big cities tend to share the same values and politics--but they do not reflect how the rest of the country is thinking.* When the constitution was devised, Chicago and L.A. hadn't even been reached for settlement yet, but the founding fathers were far-thinking and could envision that coming to pass.

Usually it works out much better than this.* The Donald is an anomaly in every conceivable way, kind of like an horrific meteorological event that occurs once in 150 years and causes devastation in its wake.** The founding fathers had not counted upon there being such a breakdown in the fabric of society that a certifiably insane man would be elected to the highest office in the land.* After DT's travesty of a performance with Putin and in the UK, even the members of the GOP who were still supporting him are disavowing him.* We may be headed for an impeachment.* Trump has taken a bigger dump all over the office of the Presidency than even Richard Nixon did with Watergate.* Ai yi yi . . it's embarrassing to be American right now.

[barnflatwyngarde]

The patter-song that just keeps giving:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-LTRwZb35A

Hey Sam,
I have just got round to watching this.

It's brilliant, thnks for making my day.

[barnflatwyngarde]

Hi all,

I thought that I’d post this. It’s an email that I received last night from an American friend. It’s her opinion of Trump and his administration. She lives in Ohio, is middle-aged, she’s university educated and she’s neither well-off or living on the breadline. I’m unaware if she’s a lifelong Republican voter but she certainly voted for Trump. I’ve always found her opinions well thought out, calm and reasoned.


On behalf of the United States of America, let me just apologize to the Mother Country for our current leadership.* We've had great Presidents, we've had above-average ones . .we've had adequate ones and a few sub-par ones--but Mr. Trump stands alone as the singularly most ignorant, unqualified narcissistic buffoon to ever hold public office.*

I voted for him.* At the time he was deemed by those of us who despise Hillary Clinton as the lesser of two evils. We really were in an untenable position.* We hoped that he would rise to the challenge of his office, once he was securely in office, and learn how to take advice from people who know what they are talking about.* Candidate Trump had not revealed the bottomless depths of his ignorance then, and it says something for the sorry state of our political landscape that at the time that *no one* out of a massive field of Republican candidates could beat his guy.* He would flunk a 3rd grade history test.* He grew up wealthy, with a rich father who could afford to buy his kid's way into the best schools, and bribe anybody he needed to pass Little Donald to graduation.* It appears that in addition to Narcissistic Personality Disorder--a sure marker for sociopathy--the Donald may also have more garden-variety learning difficulties as well.* And Tourette's Syndrome, quite possibly.* He is a shame to the office and is a living embodiment of the failure of our two-party system.*

I actually support the Electoral College, which in more normal circumstances works just fine.* The College was devised by our founders to ostensibly ensure that citizens in the sparsely populated rural areas of this vast country got a proportionally equal say in their elected government and the entire country did not end up being dictated to by elitist rule from the residents of the biggest cities, then New York and Philadelphia.* Rural economies and concerns are different than those in the metropolitan areas.* The results of the popular vote and the Electoral College coincide the majority of the time, but when they do not, as in 2000 and again in 2016 and a few other times in our history, there is a cry by the losing side (generally Democrats) to throw out the EC.* On the face of it it *seems* like straight numbers are more democratic because 'majority rules', right?** But raw numbers alone do not necessarily reflect the will of the people.* Ohio is the 6th most populous state at 11.66 million people, but if you add* New York City, Chicago and L.A*together, those three cities still top it.* So those three cities are more populous than 44 U.S. states.* That's what the numbers say.*If we went by the raw numbers, then the residents of New York City, Chicago and Hollywood would dictate the outcome of every single Presidential election, going way back, because those areas have always been the most heavily populated.* People who gravitate to these big cities tend to share the same values and politics--but they do not reflect how the rest of the country is thinking.* When the constitution was devised, Chicago and L.A. hadn't even been reached for settlement yet, but the founding fathers were far-thinking and could envision that coming to pass.

Usually it works out much better than this.* The Donald is an anomaly in every conceivable way, kind of like an horrific meteorological event that occurs once in 150 years and causes devastation in its wake.** The founding fathers had not counted upon there being such a breakdown in the fabric of society that a certifiably insane man would be elected to the highest office in the land.* After DT's travesty of a performance with Putin and in the UK, even the members of the GOP who were still supporting him are disavowing him.* We may be headed for an impeachment.* Trump has taken a bigger dump all over the office of the Presidency than even Richard Nixon did with Watergate.* Ai yi yi . . it's embarrassing to be American right now.

I think what she is saying Herlock is that democracy is a clumsy thing.

It's the best thing we have, but it's still clumsy.

People sometimes get it wrong (Britain voted Thatcher in for 3 terms).

It's ironic that any Democrat candidate apart from Hillary would have defeated Trump, and Hillary would probably have defeated any other candidate but Trump.

[Svensson]

So why not just let anybody stand? I mean why does there have to be just ONE candidate per party. They way I see it, the real elections are the primaries and once they are decided, the actual election takes place in just a handful of swing states. Sounds like a system that has not withstood the test of time to me...

[rjpalmer]

The College was devised by our founders to ostensibly ensure that citizens in the sparsely populated rural areas of this vast country got a proportionally equal say in their elected government and the entire country did not end up being dictated to by elitist rule from the residents of the biggest cities, then New York and Philadelphia

Hi Herlock. Uh, not really. That is indeed what they taught us in civics class in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s (without the catch phrase 'elitist') but a more accurate way of stating it is that the electoral college was devised to protect the interests of the South. Even in the 1780s the founders were wrestling with the idea of slavery, and the South knew that if the national elections were based on a popular vote, the northern candidates would always win. The college was thus devised to appease the worries of the South, who obviously wanted to retain a President friendly to slavery. It 'worked' for approximately 80 years but eventually ended in the bloodiest war in U.S. history. Source: Harvard University elitists.