God save America
 

What an embarrassing inauguration speech.

Re: God save America
 

You expected some humility?

Just watching it all now and you can sense the loathing that Michelle Obama has for Donald Trump.

Re: God save America
 

I didn't know what to expect, but I didn't think it would be a hyped up campaign stump speech. It doesn't sound promising for the US or world harmony.

Re: God save America
 

since there is no proof 'God' exisits it really doesn't matter. The only thing that matters to Americans is 'America' & the rest can screw off

Now, 'if at all possible without the Canadian dependancy on America', lets see if Trudeau can save Canada & keep 'it' great

Of course we all know Trump will pull as many American interests from anywhere that he can back to the United States, and so he should, since "America comes first"

My prediction is that the Canadian economy is in for a rough ride & that the Canadian dollar could drop below $0.60 within the next 12 months

Re: God save America
 

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth”

Apparently not...

Re: God save America
 

Although, curiously, they don't know it...they were the ones to vote him in. Hope they get to keep their Obamacare.

Re: God save America
 

That's entirely true. The meek will inherit the Earth, while the rest of us move elsewhere.

Re: God save America
 

If Trump actually does most of the things he's talked about, Trudeau and the other Huggy-Fluffy Western 'leaders' are toast. We'll need adult leaders to survive in a world where America isn't propping up everyone else.

Pushing a 'carbon tax' that trashes Canadian industry at the same time America is pulling back will probably go down in history as about as smart a move as the Romans sending half their legions into Germany and losing them.

Re: God save America
 

in the last line of the American national anthem -'O'er the land of the free & the home of the brave'. Isn't that what Trump was saying in his speech?

So, 'it's America first', then the rest can screw off, and BTW, lets pull as many American interest & foreign funding back to America.

In the meanwhile, Canada sits waiting to find out what America takes away from us.

Re: God save America
 

With the US & UK unemployment rate each below 5%, there is Canada with just on 7% unemployment rate.

Then there is the national debt of all countries, yet just maybe America can rise above it all.... who knows;)

Do folks really think there is any hope left for Canadian economy?

In the forseeable future, Canada is not a place folks should be emigrating to :eek:

Re: God save America
 

How did he manage to convince the people that he was one of them?

Re: God save America
 

Automotive workers might want to reconsider.

Re: God save America
 

Well what are the options available to the voters, who else is there? So why not let us make a change for now, then swing it back the other way next time round. Canada being one example.

How does any politician or other world leader 'buffalo' the electorate to vote for them when 'almost everyone' knows politicians are only ever self serving?

Re: God save America
 

By not being a career politician. Unfortunately, people took him at face value, not realising that he has no clue about the real world. All he knows how to do is build hideous towers and screw his business partners; for some, that's the mark of leadership.

Re: God save America
 

Pulling the automotive industry back to the US would be a good start, then all the unemployment it would create in the spin-off jobs.

Can't remember the ratio of when for every 100 people made redundant that it starves off another 3x or 5x other jobs :ohmy: Imagine the loss of 100,000 jobs pulled from Canada back to the US, makes a rough time for all :eek:

Re: God save America
 

And politics/international agreements differ from that how, exactly?

Re: God save America
 

wait on a minute, the US national debt doubled in Obam's 8 year term from $10 trillion to edging $20 trillion. Not a good record for a career politician or its foreign then secretary Clinton

So is it likely that every career politican knows better, that they can run the country better than a reality star or a past president that was a [bozo] movie actor?

Charity begins at home :nod:

Re: God save America
 

Human welfare perhaps? Geo-political stability? The real world is not a zero sum game; Trump's world is. Hence, the bankruptcies, and sleazy media career.

Re: God save America
 

Do you recall a wee financial crisis round about 8 years ago? Finishing up of a Republican led war (not to be repeated in Syria). Might have something to do with it.

Re: God save America
 

Hum humming.... lets not forget the squeaky clean 'Dwight Eisenhower, JFK, Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ford, Bill Clinton, the Bush boys, all the lies, war & debt. Of course without a mention of Blair & Brown

Before crucify the new US President, lets wait & see in his new role if he & all his handlers can do something to 'make America great again', after all it can't get any worse than what it is now, can it?

People can only wish & hope things in America will be better, 'a better America' makes the rest of the world a better place ;)

Re: God save America
 

Yeah my hope is for Elon Musk to give us that SpaceX asap.

Re: God save America
 

of course, as do I remember the Vietnam war that ran with four or was that five US president term of office & all the debt that it created

Re: God save America
 

Cinnamon and Baked beans with that piece of pork fat in the tin please.

Re: God save America
 

As I recall, Trump's party controlled Congress - which controls the purse strings - for 6 of those 8 years.

Realistically, because of the way its system can lead to gridlock, and different people with very different aims occupying (1) the spending part (2) the revenue part and (3) the block-any-change-of-either part of government, you can't assign budgetary blame the way you can in a Parliamentary system. In Canada, Britain, Germany, a party/coalition sets the budget, the spending, the taxes, etc, and they might aim for a surplus, or a deficit, or a deficit to grow the economy for a surplus in the future, or austerity to cut the debt to give more money to spend in the future, or whatever - but they have a coherent set of controls. If you don't like the economic results of May, or Trudeau, or Merkel, you can point at someone and know it was them. For the US, that was only even possibly the case for Obama for 2 years (and even then, he didn't have the control a PM does), and for Trump now (likewise).

Ironic, considering a primary idea behind Presidential systems is the ability to assign personal praise and blame for results :rofl:

Re: God save America
 

I had to laugh at this

Re: God save America
 

He just convinced the rust belt he could bring back jobs to the region. He didn't have to convince a majority of voters and he didn't convince the majority, but he convinced enough in the correct mix of states and that is all he needed.

The majority of voters as a nation voted for someone else.

If we didn't have the silly electoral college system in place, he never would have won.

Re: God save America
 

From the Guardian on that very point:

Michael Paarlberg:

Most of the world’s great strongmen give great speeches – should we be disappointed that ours does not? Trump’s inaugural address veered from religious pieties to dystopian hellscapes – “American carnage,” in his words – yet by the end, raising a clenched fist in defiance of the hated Washington elites he now commands, there could be little doubt of his authoritarian credentials. There was something reassuringly familiar in his decree that “the people will become the rulers of this nation again,” and his promise of a government “controlled by the people”.

Every day, the people will rule more,” promised Hugo Chavez in 2011. “The people will be the ones who decide,” said Nicolás Maduro last year. Erdogan: “There is no power higher than the power of the people.” Generally, the greater the invocation of the people, the greater the president’s cronies will be fleecing the country. These are definitely not the people

This American carnage stops right here and stops right now,” he promised, as if had just inherited the problems of Venezuela.

Re: God save America
 

Hopefully Fireball as well

Re: God save America
 

Had to look that up. Sounds awful.

Re: God save America
 

It's a great way to elect a new leader, until your team loses then it sucks :ohmy:

Re: God save America
 

Not unexpected, first executive order to start the process of doing away with the ACA in its current form.

Trump signs 1st executive order targeting Obamacare regulations - World - CBC News


If the US did pull out of NAFTA, how badly would that hurt Canada?

Re: God save America
 

Well he still has the problem of reverting back to the FTA between Canada and the USA which is separate from NAFTA. Both countries will be hurt if he becomes too protectionist. Over 2.5 billion a day in trade crosses the US/Canada border daily. There are 35 states who rely a lot on the Canadian trade and have jobs related to it. How many Mericans work in Canada and vice versa Canadians in the USA.

NAFTA is over 20 years old and a lot has changed. Sure certain things can be tweaked, renegotiated etc but actually ripping it up I highly doubt it.

Its all what if what if and nothing has happened yet. Admittedly canada probably needs the US more than the US needs Canada but ask those 35 states Governors if they think canada is important and if they want NAFTA ripped up.

Re: God save America
 

Canada's financial relationship with the US will never be one of equality.
It's a bit like a small boy tied to an elephant. Every now and gain he's going to get s**t on and has to clean it up. Somehow he never seems to move fast enough or get up high enough to return the complement.
The obvious answer is to stop following, but that bit of string.. well it's too bloody strong for a small boy... but perhaps when he grows up, who knows.

Re: God save America
 

In the interest of being optimistic (in a DaVinci Code kind of way) ...

Trump has mostly pointed his trade rhetoric at China and Mexico, two nations whom his supporters believe are responsible for the loss of large numbers of blue-collar jobs in the United States. That trade rhetoric, coupled with foreign policy positions for each country (Mexican immigration, One China policy) is likely to lead anywhere from trade disruptions to full out trade war. While it's been said that, in a trade war, neither country really wins, if you're in trade wars with your #1 and #3 trading partner (based on 2016 numbers), that axiom won't apply. If you add in trade issues with your #2 trade partner (Canada), none of Trump's tweeting rhetoric will be able to hide the fact that the US is losing, and badly.


If you're a conspiracy theorist - with an increasing number of 'nationalist' type movements in countries around the world, the globalist elite will be looking to find a way to put a cork in those movements. With the election of Trump, who is far from an overwhelmingly popular candidate, they may have found their cork. By taking coordinated actions against the United States to reduce the US' prominence in the world, and/or diminish the United States, they may be able to gain the leverage to extinguish similar movements in other countries, because they can illustrate the impact that one election result for a nationalist can have on the prosperity and well-being of any country. It further helps that Trump has mused about some actions that would, in actuality, reduce the US' prominence in the world (leaving the WTO, leaving the UN etc), so the rest of the world isn't necessarily wresting the influence from the US, it's simply picking it up off the ground where the US left it.

Some of those actions could include preferentially increasing trade and investment in Canada over the US (since Canada currently has a globalist government)

Re: God save America
 

Probably not going to be the last lawsuit filed.

Ex-White House lawyers to sue Donald Trump over foreign payments to businesses - National | Globalnews.ca

Re: God save America
 

Like this?

Soon to be member of The Monkees, Micky Dolenz in his early role as Corky, Circus Boy.

http://nostalgiacentral.com/wp-conte...ircusboy10.jpg

Re: God save America
 

Not quite.. elephant too small and boy too smart.

Re: God save America
 

The Obamas were a class act - intelligent, articulate, decent people.Trump is a loudmouthed,arrogant, vulgar bully. He is also stupid if he thinks that he can shut the media up or make them say only what he wants. This nonsense about calling blatant lies "alternative facts" has made him a laughing stock. He is already acting like a dictator and thinks he can simply trample on anyone who gets in his way or disagrees with him. Just hope that somebody can stand up and fight for Canada when Trump starts to rewrite NAFTA and gut Canada in the process. Trudeau is a weakling. I hope the female cabinet minister in charge of this portfolio will have a lot more backbone.

Re: God save America
 

Just have to hope that in 1,380 days the voters will say your fired to Trump.

and in 652 days democrats can take control over the House of Representatives and senate.

Re: God save America
 

You would be surprised how many people in rural Alberta sympathise with Trump and support his "back to basics" blue collar rhetoric, as deeply flawed as it may be. I had a fairly frosty encounter with half the population of one of the FB local chat groups lol. They seem to admire his "tough-guy" talk. I refuse to believe all of those people re stupid. But on the other hand, i cannot fathom their faith that this guy is "one of them" when for decades he has publically enjoyed demonstrating his elitist tendencies, for example gold seat belts on his 757. If there was any doubt, the fact he just appointed most of Goldman Sachs to his cabinet, most of whom are either multi-millionaires or billionaires, should have confirmed it. Yet all he has to do is appear in public and mouth some working class crap and people seem to buy it.

In some ways you could say it was a perfect example of democracy in action (forgetting the whole electoral college thing), but the people that voted for him have voted in a bunch of folks hell-bent on dismantling any kind of public sector social support...ironically they are the people likely to be needing it most.