I know the Trump haters have their knives out, and I will admit he is not the most likeable character but I find someone who says what he thinks rather than following party lines a bit unusual in politics. At least you have an idea of what you are going to get when voting. His attitude is a turn off, but there is, IMO an element of truth in what he says on most occasions, of course there are those that take everything he says as gospel but how many times have our politicians been tripped up by what they said at one point and changing their minds a while later. He's a straight talker, and not diplomatic, his criticism of Europe and the UK was called a RANT? on TV last night, basically it seemed a very balanced view of how he feels about us over here, ignore that at your peril, I would say That Lammy bloke comes to mind, all the things he said about Trump before they won the last election, and he had to row back on once he got a proper job,(god help us). Somehow we seem to think the US owe us something, I just dont understand that attitude. Imagine if we were propping up the security of a continent thousands of miles away, I just wonder what the tax payer would say. So although I find him an abrasive character I do think he has some good points if you look further and take the blinkers off.
One thing I hated about visiting Florida was the queue at the airport to get through immigration. Just imagine it if they bring in a social media examination? This forum is my only foray into social media, but I understand lots of people post in multiple sites. I suppose all the people who got laid off by Doge (all the weather forecasters that the USA are now desperately trying to replace, for instance) will be able to get one of the thousands and thousands of new jobs reading people’s posts! Might learn a bit about gardening while they are at it!
I assume it would be to get the visa?? Not expected to come up with the info in the immigration queue. One of the biggest moans about Brexit was people saying they now had to join a long queue of people, non EU, trying to get into European countries.
I don't want to go anywhere that means flying, mostly for ecological reasons, and I have a horror of being trapped on a cruise ship with people I cannot escape so that means car or train for me. I did visit the US in 1988 starting with Austin, cos OH was on a project there, then a couple of weeks visiting the Big Bend, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas (for OH) and San Francisco. I found the white Americans very strange, starting with real live JR types strutting around Dallas airport, and what had happened to tribes like the Apache very disturbing. San Francisco was beautiful and had great food - I was gasping for vegetables by then. No desire to return and see other sites of natural or historical interest. There are plenty more elsewhere with easier access and better food. @pete Trump says whatever comes into his head and is only interested in how much money he can make. During his campains he said what people with limited education, information and critical faculties wanted to hear but I suggest you ask those farmers and low paid workers how happy they are now that their livelihoods are being ripped away and their food stamps too. His yoyo tarriffing is wrecking industries at home and trust abroad and his behavious towards Ukraine is just despicable and dishonest. I do agree tho that Europeans need to wake up and fund their own military, social and economic protection. Canada, whose new PM is proving to be very astute is quietly moving into political, economic and military vaccums left by trump's tantrums. Good.
UK, with its population of roughly 70 million, is the world’s third largest foreign aid donor. I wonder where we would rank if population size governed donor amount? We still hark back to our patriarchal days of Empire. No money for our own defence but plenty to smear on the palms of foreign officials.
Tony Blair comes to mind. If I went to China I'm sure I'd find the Chinese people strange and the food pretty awful. Best to stay where you are.
@Ergates , re your earlier post concerning hospices, by coincidence I received some correspondence from a local one today. They are trying to fundraise by running a raffle, and included an article written by a man whose wife was diagnosed with Parkinson's several years ago. I was interested to read that they helped him with counselling as he was really struggling to cope with caring for her as her condition worsened, even though she wasn't terminally ill at that time and was being cared for by him at home. Even though I have donated to them for many years I confess I wasn't aware that they did that sort of thing. Obviously I was aware that they care for those who are dying, and also support their loved ones, but I didn't know that they also offered support to people whose loved ones aren't directly cared for by the hospice.
@pete I don't think Tony Blair's avarice can be compared with outright greed and corruption and dishonesty displayed by Trump but yes, it is distasteful. The current mayor of London may be unappetising but Trump's reason for not liking him is pure racism. He doesn't like Muslims.
The one I remembered, it was a drinkable potion. Drink a bit of it at a time until you've had it all, then slowly you lose consciousness, no pain. These people were terminally ill.
I agree that Trump has identified plenty of things that need sorting out, and stated his ambitions to do good. If I was being kind, I’d say that maybe it’s just his methods of delivery that could be improved. Make America healthy again - a really good initiative. Who could argue with that? I’m not sure that putting that in the care of an ex heroin addict who confessed that his brain had turned to mush, sacking thousands of health, food safety and medical research workers, and removing subsidies that allow millions of Americans to access the health care we take for granted, constitute sensible things to do. Stopping wars is an excellent ambition. Renaming the department of defence as the department of war doesn’t perhaps hit quite the right note? Maybe it sounded catchier to the chat show host ( and ex alcoholic) now in charge? Threatening to invade Greenland, take over the Panama Canal, cause Canada to no longer exist, and now all but declaring war on Venezuela, makes me think he isn’t all that serious about earning a Nobel Peace Prize. Condoning Putin’s war crimes, and the unacceptable invasion of another sovereign country, make me wonder whether he got ‘War and Peace’ back to front. I’d better stop there, otherwise I could be up all night working my way through the list.
