I'm no mathematician but I think it sound to suppose that in amongst the torrent of words that issue forth from President Trump's pouty, little mouth, or from his itchy fingers on a keyboard, there will be some truths. For example, in his depiction of various, but un-named, countries as "shit-holes" he was spot on! As a rough generalisation I would suggest that the entirety of Africa from north to south and from east to west, is one gigantic "shit-hole" even if some nations might smell a little sweeter than others. Much the same could be said of most of South America which appear to be a giant conglomeration of 'gangsta' regimes run entirely for the benefit of the interchangeable thugs who "strut their hour upon the stage". No-one who could not afford their own private army would dream of moving to either place.
Even so, it must be asked whether it is the job of a President, particularly the President of the greatest power in the world, to go around telling the 'truth' in 140 characters? 'Truth' is a mightily complicated and nuanced entity which is why attempts to define it in any particular context usually result in 'yuuuuuuuge' books, so heavy and so complex that hardly anyone reads them. So my advice, Mr. President, is that you should stop attempting to tell the truth, after all, it is the business of politicians to lie and it is what we, 'The Peeps', expect, not least because the truth almost always hurts and it is not something up with which us 'Peeps' can cope! Of course, like everyone else, er, outside of Africa and South America, you are free to express your opinion but, you see, that is the difference between being a President and just being an ordinary 'Peep'! You have the power - in your case enormous, even 'yuuuuuuge', power - to follow up your opinions with actions and that makes the rest of us somewhat nervous.
You must try relaxing with some golf, Mr. President, I have it on good authority that there are some excellent courses in bonny Scotland but, whatever else you do, don't try telling the Jocks any home truths, they can be a tad sensitive!
Telling the truth is why most of us hired Trump! We didn't hire him to like him or even listen to him all the time. If he called certain countries SHs...it is because they are. Some of the countries mentioned in the news I have been to and not for vacation. Trust me, they were and are SHs. That is why people are pouring out of them. Why can't America use a merit system for immigrants like other developed western nations. We have enough of the world's garbage and the public knows it. Just because the "protected class" wants to replace the native citizenry with third world cast offs doesn't mean we will tolerate it anymore.
Truth telling by the Donald has got nearly all Western "leaders" scared to death. That's a good thing.
Posted by: Whitewall | Saturday, 13 January 2018 at 12:08
Well, Whiters, "Western "leaders"" can look after themselves but it's also me that's "scared to death"!
Posted by: David Duff | Saturday, 13 January 2018 at 12:20
David, David! Scared does not become you!
Posted by: Whitewall | Saturday, 13 January 2018 at 12:27
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/07/can-obama-weather-geopolitical-storm-ukraine-gaza-iraq/
The headline says it all - except that, that "shitshow" descriptor was used by Trump's predecessor in reference to Libya. Mother Jones stole it!
Posted by: JK | Saturday, 13 January 2018 at 12:50
Er, make that "shitstorm"!
Shitshows are for US states governors' use - by statute I think.
Posted by: JK | Saturday, 13 January 2018 at 12:54
JK, either way, a shovel is needed.
Posted by: Whitewall | Saturday, 13 January 2018 at 13:00
David, one thing to remember in this brouhaha is that the original report was in the WaPo and was based on a report from a source who wasn't in the meeting but knows a bloke who knows a bloke who might have been there.
Secondly, Donald denies saying shithole though he does confess to being a bit rough on the countries concerned.
Thirdly, the meeting was closed so it's not like he tweeted the description to the world.
And lastly, the dems were over a barrel with this DACA business, knowing that a large part of their base supports the stronger controls on immigration that Trump was demanding and thus this shitstorm will stir up the troops against Trump and let them off the hook for a while.
Posted by: Kevin B | Saturday, 13 January 2018 at 13:31
"Some African countries are shitholes" is one of those "Water is wet" kind of statements that no sane person could argue with. having said that, it isn't the kind of thing that one expect any POTUS to come out with. Diplomacy isn't Trumps long suit, and that's for sure. However, the fact that he's prepared to call a spade a f***ing spade is precisely why he is likely to win a second term in office!!
Posted by: Richard | Saturday, 13 January 2018 at 14:17
Meh. This scandal is already stale. Today's was broken by the absolutely not liberal, Rupert Murdoch owned, Wall St. Journal:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-lawyer-arranged-130-000-payment-for-adult-film-stars-silence-1515787678
Other sources have reported there are more, similar stories yet to drop.
Posted by: Bob | Saturday, 13 January 2018 at 16:43
Bob,
"This scandal is already stale."
Reckon so for the most part, at least Act 1 - the Ladyfriend was trolling around on her social media whatever and came upon an item apparently aimed at the LGBTQEIEIOs.
It would appear that, in some quarters (I was tempted to type hindquarters) the word "shithole" it turns out, is a term of endearment.
Posted by: JK | Saturday, 13 January 2018 at 17:43
JK,
Sounds like it'd be popular with colon cowboys.
Posted by: Bob | Saturday, 13 January 2018 at 18:19
Yeah Bob, the item looked to me similar to Russia's "Active Measures" to inciter that group's ire over Trump's "Cultural Appropriation."
And as we've seen (apparently, maybe) smallish sums of money invested in advertising on social media pays dividends beyond imagining. Witness Russia's purported ad-buys targeted toward Ferguson and Baltimore hence: Team Meuller.
"Colon cowboys"? Nah I'd put it Bang for the buck!
***
Posted by: JK | Saturday, 13 January 2018 at 20:42
I wonder if the porn star story will go the same way as the peepeegate one. Doesn't really pass the smell test, what with Trump being a germophobe and all.
Posted by: Timbo | Saturday, 13 January 2018 at 22:03
The US was founded on a bunch of peeps who departed the shitholes of their time.
Places might be shitholes in any epoch, but that doesn't mean the people departing them are.
It's the ones who want to stay and continue doing what makes their place a shithole you DON'T want. The ones who want to leave have already passed the green card test. By her feet they should pass. Nature's Liberty filter works in our favour and against the shitholes and tyrants.
Those who have a love of shitholes for whatever reasons, Cuba, the Caliphate, etc., should be free to go. We might even cough up the EasyJet fare and save a fortune in homeland security services.
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 09:55
The shithole escapee's song ...
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
SoD's Sunday morning lie-in lip-wobbler. Had to pretend to Fluffbun there was something in my eye.
Merkel was right, "We can manage".
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 10:06
Get up, you lazy sod, and get out and do some gardening!
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 10:09
Bollocks to that, have you seen it out there? Is there any colour other than grey?
Might try my chances on a Sunday morning livener with Fluffbun ...
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 10:17
Ok, back again, no luck there then. She's reading a book.
Books have got a lot to answer for, haven't they? Just added another to the list.
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 10:19
A shrewd woman with impeccable taste, that 'Fluffbun'!
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 10:22
Well SoD she was right and she wasn't.
Victoria Nuland: “F--- the E.U.,” Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs (2014)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-purported-recording-of-us-diplomat-blunt-talk-on-ukraine/2014/02/06/518240a4-8f4b-11e3-84e1-27626c5ef5fb_story.html
Interestingly - that timeframe and exact same people and places involved another of those "coincidence thingies":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Manafort#Lobbying_for_Viktor_Yanukovych_and_involvements_in_Ukraine
***
2014 seems to've been a particularly difficult year for diplomatic probity:
"One of the things that makes Netanyahu "a chickenshit," according to the senior American official, is that "he's scared to launch wars."
https://www.vox.com/2014/10/29/7089853/obama-netanyahu-chickenshit-us-israel
Now Whitewall - I know you'll not be clicking that just above link simply because its Vox - why I chose the damn thing, "Chickenshit" is right on it.
Ol' JK will allus be exerting hisself to spare his friends' dispositions.
Posted by: JK | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 10:26
JK, you are gracious to a fault! I remember the subject of the Vox piece. To accuse BB of "Gallus Gallus Domesticus Excrementum" took nerve! Almost like somebody didn't know his bio?
Posted by: Whitewall | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 14:06
Now here's a thing you don't hear much about in the discussion on immigration: "The average cost of raising a child in the UK is £230k" ...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11360819/Average-cost-of-raising-a-child-in-UK-230000.html
So we've got 3 million EU immigrants in the UK, none of whom the UK had to pay a penny for to raise from nappies to 8 pints of beer on a Saturday night age.
They just turned up, washed up on the beach at Dover, cost us not a penny, complete "human capital units" paid for by someone else. Equivalent cost of home grown production: £230k each.
So, the total balance sheet value of these "human capital units"?
3,000,000 x £230,000 = £690,000,000,000
A colossal £690 billion added to Blighty's asset register - and they cost us zilch.
An effing cow at Fluffbun's work complained to her that foreigners had arrived here not having contributed to the state social system so they shouldn't be entitled to services.
I suggested that Fluffbun tell the effing cow that she (the effing cow) was £230k in debt to the country when she left school and got her first job, and that she (Fluffbun) has never been in debt to Blighty, including £0 debt when she arrived here, and has worked solidly for 20 years paying tax and NI.
She did (tell the effing cow).
Guess what?
The effing cow (ex-BNP, now Ukip voter) STFU.
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 15:04
Oi! SoD! I want my £230k quid back!
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 15:21
SoD,
"A colossal £690 billion added to Blighty's asset register - and they cost us zilch." If people are only units or assets on a nation's general ledger, the other side of a ledger contains the servicing and maintenance costs of said assets. Assets can be pledged as collateral against one liability, but the same assets can't be co-pledged against another liability without some "bent book keeping". Enter stage left some "bent" pols.
Posted by: Whitewall | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 15:23
Also, SoD, it is a naïve error to judge these matters on mere book-keeping economics. "As any fule do no", economics and book-keeping can be manipulated in any preferred direction. There are equally important factors, societal, political, religious, historical, etc, which are also exceedingly open to a fix in one direction or another.
I was taken with a recent report from South Korea, a country with a low birth rate, which is reckoned to be the strictest opponent of immigration in any form and which is now suffering with a dearth of young people to make up a work force. Equally, there is a shortage of younger people to support an aging population.
On the other hand, there are increasing examples in our cities of Muslim areas that are approaching 'no go' status for non-Muslims. Also, of Muslim schools which are bending the rules to impose only Muslim education.
The whole subject of immigration is fraught with difficulties. We coped with the post-war mass immigration of West Indians fairly well because they shared many of our basic convictions, especially religion. We do not enjoy that advantage with Muslims and dealing with the results will be exceedingly tricky.
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 15:43
Wow David!
Er, this is the same David Duff who, recalling, has taken issue with Malcolm's typing, nearly identically, the content of those last two paragraphs?
Posted by: JK | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 15:53
Now look here, JK, you are supposed to be the Chief Archivist round here so you must jolly well provide links to prove your disgraceful slurs on the razor-sharp thinking provided on this blog!
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 16:23
WW,
The lifetime cost of ownership of an asset is both its depreciation from the initial cost and the service and maintenance.
Everyone talks about the service and maintenance cost, but conveniently forgets the asset depreciation cost when talking about immigrants.
At aged 18, say, a home grown "human capital unit" has £230k to be depreciated over its lifetime if it's to be compared properly with an immigrant, who doesn't have that cost.
Say life expenteancy is 80.
So that's £230,000 / (80 - 18) = £3709 per annum extra cost in depreciating the home grown "human capital asset" every year over its useful life, compared to zero in this regard for the immigrant import who arrives aged 18 and ready to go.
This is of course the great advantage that civilizations arriving on an uninhabited land have over established civilizations. The entire first generation has zero cost of getting to 18.
There are other advantages to immigrants too, like the cultural attitude and mentality of the empty land colonizers being Libertarian, go getting, wanting a better life, not afraid of hard work, etc.
And these advantages, like the nothing to depreciate advantage, wear off after the first generation. I mean, Oz was the dumping ground for Blighty's crims, but that didn't seem to pass on to future generations. And these days the US is host to inordinate quantities of bossy boots, barely fettered by the constitution of the founding fathers.
It's as though nature says, "If you get in a boat and go forth to multiply, I'll give you a one generation leg-up to get you going. After that, it's back to square one."
Shame there's nowhere left to go on the planet now. And a rather long wait before the Starship Enterprise sets sail and gives us some interplanetary options.
So now is the time for all the Libertarian ideas and lessons from the "one generation" start-ups to coalesce into action, and push back on authoritarianism in established lands.
Else, "If you want a vision for the future, imagine a boot stamping on the face of humanity - forever".
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 17:01
http://duffandnonsense.typepad.com/duff_nonsense/2017/06/dont-panic-capt-mainwaring.html
There's more examples of course - I'd check but I think I may've been exposed to the dreaded man-flu. And as of 0530 (1130 GMT) there's come snow.
Posted by: JK | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 17:27
SoD,
From a Libertarian outlook I see your point. What exactly are all these Libertarians trying to build, under what uniting principles and how many generations of new arrivals from distant lands can be accomodated before the inevitable course of human nature rears its ugly head?
This Libertarian demand for less costly people will eventually eliminate the need for native populations to bother reproducing. This may already be the root problem for much of the West.
If governments, like ours Finally, reduce taxation on the hiring sector then capital flows to where it is treated best and labor will soon follow. Libertarians will have their dream come true under this structure it seems.
Posted by: Whitewall | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 17:44
JK, please keep that stuff out there!
Posted by: Whitewall | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 17:50
Thanks for the link, JK, but I would hardly describe my response to Malcolm as 'taking issue', I merely pushed for greater detail and clarity.
As to your Man Flu, I suggest you try rubbing some of Barney Magroo's product on to your chest - nah! - on second thoughts just drink it, you'll feel much better! And whatever else you do, do NOT venture into the snow - bloody global warming!
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 17:52
http://malcolmpollack.com/2015/01/12/what-will-we-do/#comment-651361
Longish thread of course, sorry - and I'd been up all night o'er at Barney's the evening previous so, just focus on your'n an' Malcolm's repartee.
Posted by: JK | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 18:08
"Longish thread", JK, is the understatement of the year! I couldn't plough through all of it despite my infinite wisdom! Anyway, Malcolm and I remain good e-pals.
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 18:31
Yup that y'all are.
Posted by: JK | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 18:40
President Trump is not a PC man and I would put that down to his mother. The Scottish people have almost succumbed to PC but not all of us. The tongue of a Scottish woman could cut through steel at one time but people because of the liberal left elites are now shouted down by the mob. Farage was proof of this when he happily had to seek refuge in an Edinburgh pub from the mob.
It is clear that Trump has become a pain in the arse for the Yank elites. So do carry on Mr President doing your job.
Posted by: jimmy glesga | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 19:13
"The tongue of a Scottish woman could cut through steel at one time"
It still does, Jimmy, when it emanates from your glorious leader, Mrs. McWhinge!
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 21:28
David, the wee gobshite has to make regular proclamations to keep the English hating faithfull onboard however since the Scottish referendum and Brexit they are still not making an impact in the polls. I spoke to two remainers last night and they now support Brexit and only because they are fed up with the claims that we are stupid to have voted for Brexit. Those two who are retired soldiers respect the democratic vote.
Posted by: jimmy glesga | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 22:07
David, The Great McWhinge said on the BBC Andrew Marr show today that she has seen nothing good from Brexit and she gets away with that comment unchallenged. We will Brexit the EU 2019 and the negotiations have just started. We will not know our position until then. The Scottish Nazi Party want the negotiations to fail as it is their only hope to call a further referendum.
Posted by: jimmy glesga | Sunday, 14 January 2018 at 22:43
I have to confess that I've never been able to get my head round the idea, so widely abroad in the land these days, that immigrants are just interchangeable, indistinguishable markers, and that a nation is just a patch of geography with an economy (and for some now-obsolete reason, a "border"). Sometimes I do wonder what must be the matter with me.
Aye, Jimmy: my mother was a Scottish lass, and hers certainly could. She'd have given Wee Jock Elliot something to think about.
Indeed we do!
Posted by: Malcolm Pollack | Monday, 15 January 2018 at 05:26