Hello Ward,

 KvE>>> Ofcourse declaring everything one does not like "Fake New", meets
 KvE>>> your standard of respect.

 BF>> There's so many things that surprise me about how this fool could be
 BF>> elected to the highest office in USA. Most of all that they obviously
 BF>> don't have a test even remotely like the test to become a US citizen.

 WD> I've spent a fair portion of my life in the US and I do understand how he
 WD> got elected.

Special rules for special folks.

Found this post by a blogger on a site devoted to politics
that sheds a bit of light on the subject. Especially given your
own experience with the same kind of social media -

                        -=begin=-

In some ways Trump is right, they are not adding flags to anybody
elses posts that they may not be factually correct. But this shouldn't
be the case anyways, the only reason they need to do this is because
they give Trump and other politicians a different set of rules than
everyone else that allows them to attack people without suspension or
removal of their account.

This isn't a free speech issue, this is a Twitter "terms of service"
issue where they are letting Trump be crazier and crazier without
retribution. The answer isn't to flag Trumps posts, but to remove him
and suspend him like they would for attacking people and inciting
violence against people, like they do with other users.

                         -=end=-

Would government regulation of social media solve this problem?
Should government regulate what companies such as Twitter, Facebook,
and others can and cannot do?

Politicians never lie. They are just more expedient with the truth.
And then there are those who are not politicians, who cannot tell the
difference as to what is true and what is not. See there? Two kinds
of people (just like news) in this world. Only two. Now. Am I real?
Are you real? Is anybody real? Could be everything is fake ...

 WD> Everybody in Europe figured Hillary would have an easy victory but in 2016
I
 WD> was in the US first week of June through somewhere in September. Upon my
 WD> arrival home I said it was not a run race and Trump stood a fair chance. I
 WD> may have mentioned it in Fidonet as well.

Clinton ran a poor campaign. Especially the last two weeks. But as
someone from Europe rather than the US, one who has spent time in this
country, your take on things is a unique perspective.

 WD> The reason is simple ... people were looking for something else than
 WD> traditional politics ... Hillary was the symbol of that. The alternative
 WD> was Trump.

Clinton represented a liberal (globalist) worldview, while Trump
represented an illiberal (isolationist) worldview. Trump's worldview
was on the rise (both in the US and outside) and Clinton's worldview
was in decline.

 WD> GOP-voters are pretty stable, they'll vote Republican anyway.

What we have today is Trumpism, which has in effect replaced
the Republican Party. That is why so many Republican US Senators
(such as Susan Collins of Maine) are so far behind in their bid
for re-election.

 WD> The difference was made by Democrats, probably Bernie Sanders people, who
 WD> figured they'd vote against Hillary but didn't realize there was only one
 WD> other option.

Bernie's people were mostly young, many of whom were not even
registered voters. After their candidate failed to win the nomination
most of them simply stayed at home, rather than vote at all. To his
credit, Sanders did endorse Clinton, and actively campaigned for her.
But the bottom line is Clinton had to sell herself, as nobody else
could do it for her.

 WD> Voting away from traditinal politics happened in other places too ...
 WD> Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, the Netherlands barely kept its traditional
 WD> majority.

Look at what is happening in Central Europe today. Democratic countries
such as Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary have become more and
more autocratic, as their rulers claim almost dictatorial powers. This
may be in response to an increasingly aggressive Russia, but there are
other factors.

 WD> What amazes me with the US that they come up with weird candidates ...

Both Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter claimed to have seen UFOs.
That is weird enough. But neither of them was as weird as Richard
Nixon, who invited Elvis Presley inside the White House and made
him a secret secret service agent. The best Donald Trump could do
was to sit down with Kanye West for a chat inside the White House.

 WD> Trump against Hillary,

The Deplorable against Nasty Woman.

 WD> Trump against Biden ...

Bad Man against Good Man ...

 WD> there must be better people hiding somewhere.

Jimmy Carter is still in Plains, awaiting his call to duty.

 WD> In the past Romney,

More people voted for Obama than Romney.

 WD> GWB,

More people voted for Gore than GWB.

 WD> Goldwater,

More people voted for LBJ than Goldwater.

 WD> McCain,

More people voted for Obama than McCain.

 WD> ... OK, GWB made it

More people also voted for Clinton than Trump.

 WD> but how can you vote for such people?

Usually by using one's finger.

 WD> From a European perspective Trump has already made himself un-electable,
but
 WD> come November the GOP will unite, the military is strongly GOP, the mormon
 WD> church is GOP and there are enough braindead farts to pull it off again
 WD> anyway.

Aside from "there are enough braindead farts to pull it off
again" you are wrong on all counts. The GOP is no more, having
been replaced by Trumpism. The military continues to distance
itself from the GOP (which is no more). The state of Utah (and
the entire Mormon community) uses vote by mail (which Trump is
trying to ban). And Mitt Romney still has not changed his vote
to remove Donald Trump from office.

 WD> Also, do not forget, the November elections are about more than the
 WD> presidency.

The vice presidency is also at stake.

 WD> It's also part of the Senate, the House, Governors, more local people.

The US does not have national elections.

 WD> If the Dems win the Senate too but Trump gets elected anyway, which is not
 WD> all that unlikely, then his 2nd term will become dead meat.

It is becoming more and more likely for the Democrats to win control
of the Senate, although the outcome could result in a tie. In which
case the vice president would be able to cast a vote as President of
the Senate if there is a tie in any given vote.

The most likely scenario is for Trump to lose in a landslide, getting
no more than 35% of the popular vote. But in theory, he could win with
just 20% of the popular vote, given the electoral college.

 WD> Question is: where lies the power?

In Trump's mind, it is all about him. And only him.
He is the fixer. The one who gets things done. Nobody
else can do it but him.

 WD> And where do people think the power lies?

Somewhere else.

 WD> Governors have a bigger say than we think here and even GOP-governors
don't
 WD> eat out of Trump's hand.

Federalism. A word that is not in Trump's vocabulary.
I have never heard him speak a single word that has more
than one or two syllables. Not even when he reads from
a prepared text.

 WD> Just to say ... interesting times lie ahead.

Confucius say he had Chinese virus.
But now recovered.
That why Confucius statue not wear mask.

--Lee

-- 
The more you play with it the harder it gets

--- MesNews/1.08.05.00-gb