I love you! I love you too!
How touching!!
We know those 2, Trump and Netanyahu, but who’s the other guy, in the other photo?
Him?
Why, he’s the matchmaker!
He’s the most powerful man in America!
Remember the Abba song, “Money, money, money..it’s a rich man’s world!.”
So he’s a millionaire?
Please!!!
He’s a billionaire, a multi-billionaire. That’s Sheldon Adelson, the multi-billionaire Las Vegas Sands Casino magnate.
OK, he’s very wealthy, so what. Donald Trump is the most powerful man in America. Everyone knows that.
What does Trump want, more than anything else, especially now with an election coming up?
He wants to be reelected. He’s convinced he CAN be reelected IF he has enough money, huge amounts of money, to run a winning campaign and sweep to success.
And here is where Sheldon Adelson comes in. Adelson is a mega donor to the Republican Party and to Likud. He is expected to donate..oh, guesses are beween $100 -$200 million dollars on Trump’s campaign.
Guardian Feb 10, 2020 “One source predicted that Adelson, who in tandem with his Israeli-born wife, Miriam, donated more than $100m to Super Pacs and dark money groups in each of the last two presidential cycles, could wind up contributing close to $200m in 2020 “
Why does he do this? What’s in it for him?
Sheldon Adelson, an ardent Zionist, expects and gets, a lot for his money. He could be seen as the ‘éminence grise’ behind several of the hardline pro-Israeli regime stands take by Trump, including recognising Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, relocating the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and ditching the Iran nuclear deal signed by the Obama administration.
The Adelsons had front row seats at the at the White House for the unveiling of Trump’s so-called ‘Deal of the Century’.
The Intercept reports that the event…
“was staged as a celebration, and acted as a dual campaign rally, with the American president and the Israeli prime minister boasting of all they had achieved for Israel to a room filled with far-right supporters of the Jewish state, including business magnate Sheldon Adelson, the Republican and Likud megadonor who spent millions of dollars to elect both leaders.“
The wealthy have always been powerful in the US. Under the present administration there has been a massive transfer of wealth to the ultra wealthy.
The US is a plutocracy. The billionaires are very powerful. With enough money one can buy newspapers, influence at universitites, politicians ..and even the US foreign policy.
These are dark times.
Lois Griffiths is a human rights activist.
I don’t think Trump ever expected to be elected . And since it happened it must have been an exhausting frustrating and humiliating 3 years.
He isn’t going to quit, but I strongly suspect that loosing would be a huge relief. I doubt that he has greatly enjoyed his presidency.
One of his first comments was that the presidency was not what he expected . I think that meant he found immediately that he did not have the autonomy he had imagined . I don’t think he liked that he is’nt really a team player and all the team was on the other side anyway.
How people imagine being president and quite separately being Trump might be a long way from reality.
D J S
David Stone: “I don’t think Trump ever expected to be elected . And since it happened it must have been an exhausting frustrating and humiliating 3 years.”
That’s certainly how it looked at the time. And the Trump team won because it paid attention to which states it needed to win, rather than just assuming that they were in the bag, as the Clinton team did. And Hillary wouldn’t accept any help from that old goat of a husband, despite the fact that for all his many faults, he’s a master of the political process. Whereas she most certainly isn’t; fortunately for the rest of the world.
I agree with the rest of your comment, too.
It puzzles me that both bloggers and commenters here apparently care so much about Trump, and write about him, as if he were our president. He isn’t: we cannot vote for or against him. It’s only US foreign policy which affects us.
Anyone would think that he’s uniquely awful among US presidents. He isn’t: they’ve all been variably awful in my longish lifetime, from his immediate predecessor going right back to Eisenhower. With the possible exception of Jack Kennedy, and he was assassinated too soon for anybody to be sure what he’d accomplish, if anything. Probably the very worst was Lyndon Johnson, but hey! the bar is pretty low.
The other thing that I’d assumed is that leftwing commenters here understand the role of the msm, especially in US politics. The media, being liberal, in general hates Republicans and gives them a very rough ride. On the other hand, they love Democrats, and cut them endless amounts of slack (as we saw with that egregious little rat, Obama). This despite the fact that they’re all variably awful (as I said above): there’s nothing to choose between Democrats and Republicans. This is what I’ve observed throughout my life.
“…he found immediately that he did not have the autonomy he had imagined.”
Yeah, as a businessman, Trump was used to giving orders and having them obeyed. It must have come as a considerable shock to discover that the Establishment was working against him. A household member remarked that in that regard, he’s not unlike Eisenhower, who, coming from the military high command, was accustomed to giving orders and having them obeyed without question. He, too, struggled with the lack of autonomy.
Trust Lois Griffiths to take the most important element out of the equation…the American voters who put Trump in power. America’s a democracy, Lois. The same backlash happened in Britain, where you had coal miners voting Conservative, because the alternative was repugnant. The silent majority are sick and tired of the Looney Left with their conspiracy theories, violence, irrationality, illiberalism, attacks on Western culture and woke/PC nonsense. Trump will romp back in, with or without money.
America is a rigged democracy, if they had our MMP system Trump would not be president. Be that as it is you have to act by the rules in place & Trump was successful at that.
Level 4 is over so you need to get out of your bubble & look at what is happening now in the US before making rash claims about their election result.
Bonnie: “America is a rigged democracy….”
I don’t know what you mean by that. It seems very likely that the influence of the ultra-rich affects the range of candidates put up for election. Perhaps this is what you have in mind.
“….if they had our MMP system Trump would not be president.”
Ha! I wouldn’t be too sure about that, if I were you.
gaby, you are quite the special lunatic aren’t you?
America’s not a democracy, you devious little logical fallacy spouter.
Until the U$A adopts mandatory voting only those deeply dysfunctional and psychiatricly unwell will vote for narcissistic sociopaths like trump. Only money fetishists would go anywhere near a sick moron like that. He paints himself orange for fucks sake.
I’ll say one thing for trump, however… He’s shown us how to make a small fortune.
You start with a large fortune.
Country boy: “gaby, you are quite the special lunatic aren’t you?”
It isn’t clear to me how insulting another commenter serves to advance in any way, whatever argument it is that you’re hoping to make.
“America’s not a democracy…”
Yes. It is. It may not be the sort of democracy you’d wish it to be, but a democracy nonetheless.
“Until the U$A adopts mandatory voting…”
We here in NZ don’t have mandatory voting, either. Does that fact mean that this isn’t a democracy, either? The only polity that I can think of offhand which does have mandatory voting is that drought-ridden wasteland, Australia. I’m not sure that Oz could be considered a shining light of democracy.
“Only money fetishists would go anywhere near a sick moron like that. He paints himself orange for fucks sake.”
I don’t understand why you’ve invested so much emotionally in the leader of another polity, in which you won’t have voting rights unless you’re a US citizen. It’s a great puzzle….
Gaby: “…the American voters who put Trump in power.”
Yes indeed, a fact that commenters here tend to ignore.
During the Republican primaries, Trump’s vote consistently outdid that of other candidates. The party hierarchy did its best not to select him, but the voters had other ideas. And the party grandees knew that any attempt to select somebody else – as the DNC had done with Bernie Sanders – would have caused a possibly irreparable party split.
“The silent majority are sick and tired of the Looney Left with their conspiracy theories, violence, irrationality, illiberalism, attacks on Western culture and woke/PC nonsense.”
Understandable. I’m an old lefty: I’ve had a gutsful of the PC woke leftery which infests our polity nowadays.
People who think that all violence in the US is right-wing, have either been propagandised by the msm, or don’t know their history. For instance, see this:
https://www.google.co.nz/amp/s/status451.com/2017/01/20/days-of-rage/amp/
BLM ( Black Lives Matter ) is far more popular than that ” inject bleach” idiot Trump ,,,
Trumps last rally was a embarrassing flop ,,, and even the republicans are turning on him ,,, loser and coward seems to be two themes his own party is tarring him with .
Treason Trump ….https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w7kwtLJtVc
Coward Trump https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJTNs2dMisk
100,000 dead Americans. One wrong president. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKYc8VSKA4c
Given the backwards, retarded, dogs breakfast of a Job Trump has done with covid 19 ,,, the number of dead Americans will be closer to 200,000 come election time.,,, and trump will likely lose to a man with dementia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEzfHfLaLG4
DAMNING Anti-Trump Ads Go VIRAL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_OVlS-LksE
And never mind the Bolton ,,,, “Trump administration sues to block book” , Trump failed ,,,, yet again. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/17/john-bolton-book-trump-china-dictators-saudi-arabia
Reagan proved a usa president could be brain damaged ,,, and even a demented retard is better than Trump ,,,,,,that’s what makes America great ,,, 😉
You’re sort of right – a few ultra rich people in the US do control the media, however all the mainstream media outlets in the US are owned by Democrats (except Fox)
The majority of the big mainstream media is owned by large corporations with their own agenda. Billionaires feature predominately in the influence behind management.
The big money controls the politicians and the public are controlled by MSM.
Its the same crowd that own the banks, run the wars and create havoc world wide with illegal sanctions, organised installation of puppet govts and theft of resources.
Dems and GOP are just a way of dividing the people as the wars and theft carries on no matter which party is in.
Andrew: “…a few ultra rich people in the US do control the media, however all the mainstream media outlets in the US are owned by Democrats (except Fox)”
Yup. That’s a fact seemingly ignored by left-wingers here in NZ.
It’s also true that which candidates are put up for election is heavily-influenced by said ultra-rich. And it’s in their financial interest to maintain the economic and political status quo. Thus presidential candidates in particular are so similar, that one couldn’t get a credit card between them.
If – god forbid – the electoral system should throw up a wild card, as was the case to some extent with Trump, the ultra-rich can depend upon the Washington Establishment to rein him in. Which is what we’ve seen with Trump.
adelson looks like an old plucked Muppet. If that’s what $billions does for you, right? An old, plucked Fozzie Bear.
Imagine a greasy and I bet boring old freak show like him controlling the world? Imagine that?
Oh wait…?
That’s why poverty, disease, over consumption, rapidly diminishing Class at the expense of the proliferation of Crass.
Cleary gaby above is correct. The billionaire lefties did it. They did that. Just ask anyone? Them lot with their fairness and empathy. They did it.
Not a vulgar old man plugged into a vulgar old woman. A recipe for beige plastic house siding and astro turf.
No wonder the world’s in such great health. Best health ever. Best. Great. Healthiest it’s ever been. Just ask around. Everyone will tell you, world’s in the best shape ever. Better than it’s ever been.
“By the way… If anyone asks…The Chinese did it… ( They didn’t but you know they did if you get my drift.) ”
I think it’s time we thought about making sure everyone’s engaged in managing and supporting our biosphere as we hurtle through a very large, in fact quite big vacuum.
trump and netinyahoo and that other old reptile, adelson, would have us burn our only planet to a cinder so long as they could drool over their financials while fawning imbeciles like gaby make lame attempts at justifying their insane and dangerous greed.
Excellent work @ Lois Griffiths.
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