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MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
tris
apologies for lanquage but worth it
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/lostinshowbiz/2017/jun/22/rupert-murdoch-jerry-hall–cinema-night-hackney-east-end-welcome
In fact – and I don’t want to go out on a limb here – the indications are that the News Corp boss wouldn’t be accepted with open arms should he even try. According to a local Hackney news site, Murdoch was spotted as the lights came up after the movie by “a young Corbynista” in the audience, who took the opportunity to shout at him: “We are the majority now, you cunt!”
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Such language! I am shocked, I say, shocked! It must have been absolutely ghastly, dahlings, for that poor little old meeja magnate!
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I think, if I were Jerry, I’d have stuck with Mick. He may have a face like a relief map of the Himalayas, but it’s gotta be better to look at than Old Rupe, don’t you think?
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What first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?
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LOL, there is that, but it’s not like Mick’s on social security!
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LOL… Only in the Guardian, Niko!
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Can I stop pretending now?
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Yep, you were utterly unconvincing!
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what happened to the unemployed in the good ole US of A
And they then and went to vote for Trump who will in the end
crucify them
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/local/2017/03/30/disabled-or-just-desperate/?utm_term=.5a61916bce00
Between 1996 and 2015, the number of working-age adults receiving disability climbed from 7.7 million to 13 million. The federal government this year will spend an estimated $192 billion on disability payments, more than the combined total for food stamps, welfare, housing subsidies and unemployment assistance.
The rise in disability has emerged as yet another indicator of a widening political, cultural and economic chasm between urban and rural America
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So, it’s not just the UK then.
Some really interesting stats there.
I seriously don’t think that Trump bringing back jobs from China, or Mexico is going to make life better for them. On the contrary, the price increases that that will involve will make life worse.
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Of course, he never had any intention of doing any such thing anyway. Just today I learned that Ivanka has decided she’s not going to have her range of shoes made in China any more, she’s moving production to… which state in the Union, I hear you enquire? – yes, that’s right, Ethiopia, where wages are only about a fifth of the Chinese level.
I believe the Donald still has his ties made there – China, I mean.
A right bunch of charmers, the whole lot of them.
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The trouble with Donald and his family, is that for so long they have been able to live in a little bubble of their wealth in Trump Industries, doing what they wanted, with their word as law.
I’m sure he saw the presidency as a small step up from Trump Inc.
No one dare scrutinise…
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Ahem. On a more serious note… I was struck by the bit in that clip about student indebtedness after their studies, with “England” way in the lead, and everyone else except the US having little or none. Knowing the Continental systems as I do, I was pretty sure that “England” was the odd one out in Europe; it’s good to have it confirmed, I suppose – but I wonder just how many of the “English” realize it? The use of the education system as a tool for fostering and perpetuating inequality seems to be a peculiarly English thing, really. I’m glad that the fragrant Ms. May has been thwarted in her nasty little plan to reintroduce grammar schools down there, paid for in part by no longer providing kiddies in primary school with proper food, if I understood the situation correctly.
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I think May’s intention was for the stronger children to eat the weaker ones, though the human acolytes probably watered that down a bit.
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Where on earth did they find humans in Downing Street?
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When I said human, I meant “Tory”, not quite the same thing.
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Quite!
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Yea, I found this map of European fees.
https://qph.ec.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-98ccd5a9b8d042fc25382c445fa36cc4
Yes, her clutter what’s it of an election at least brought the poor long suffering English some respite from some of her nastier policies.
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If you want a few laughs about what’s going on in America at the moment, can I recommend:
Seth Meyers (for example) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G01nkoEZ8UM
Stephen Colbert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8UZQkN52o4
John Oliver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xecEV4dSAXE
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Tris…..Very interesting video! Sort of reminds me in a way of fun travel videos that compare Europe and the USA. Basically in Europe as I understand it from the videos, the prices are out of sight, the hotel rooms in Paris are postage stamp size, the service people in Europe are not friendly or helpful (waiters don’t get tips,) everyone smokes (but often outside,) the Germans are loud and pushy and addicted to beer, the French are rude and snooty and addicted to wine, and wherever you are in the European capitals, you must keep your money in a money belt. Because if you put your hand in your pocket, you will meet another hand not your own. Pickpockets freak out Americans, but Europeans consider them part of their culture.
The usual advice is that Americans might try travel to Britain before they go to the continent, since the Brits are more like Americans than the Europeans are, and the culture shock will be less.
I enjoyed the comedy videos. Trump is a never ending source of comedy material for the late night talk show comedians. I love the letter from Abraham Lincoln about his personal line of stove pipe hats. It never seemed to bother the Donald that his lines of clothing were all made in foreign countries, even as he proclaimed his policy of “made in America.” Hypocrisy is truly the mother’s milk of politics.
The Washington Post story is excellent. Trump is a classic Republican demagogue who targets the relatively uneducated rural poor. They are easy marks for Trump and the Republicans who are so skillful at fighting the culture wars by invoking the “old time religion.” Trump tells the unemployed rural poor that the jobs are coming back just as soon as he “makes America great again.” The enemy is the national media and the cultural elites on the east and west coasts.
The issue of jobs in America has been taken care of by Republicans for more than 35 years in the form of Ronald Reagan’s trickle down economics. You just give bigger and bigger tax breaks to the millionaires and billionaires, and they will have the incentive to form businesses that provide new jobs. (At least that’s the theory.)
The modern form of trickle down is embodied in the repeal of the Obama health care program. The super secret Senate plan that was written behind closed doors was divulged today and may be rammed through the Senate before Congress’ Fourth of July recess. It mostly amounts to cuts of $800 billion over ten years in the Medicaid program that provides health care for the poorest Americans, and transfers the savings to tax cuts for people making over $200,000 per year. Trump and his billionaire friends get most of the money of course.
Republicans are TRULY evil people. There is simply no other explanation for it.
There was a mention in the video of Thomas Jefferson and the Fourth of July. As American Independence Day nears, it may be time for me once again (after a hiatus of several years) to publish the John Adams/Thomas Jefferson Fourth of July story. 😉
About the new health bill:
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I thought you’d like the video, Danny.
Wherever I go in Europe, I stay in cheap hotels (well comparatively) so I don;t know about the size of rooms is good hotels. I noticed that usually in America rooms have two double sized beds. I’ve certainly never seen that in Europe. Maybe I’m just too mean to spend money on hotels that have that kind of thing. (I always reckon I’m in Paris or Luxembourg or wherever to see the place, not the hotel room.)
I dunno about pickpockets. I’ve never been targeted…although that could be that people look at me and think… he’ll not have anything worth pinching. LOL.
In my experience in Southern Europe you rarely see anyone drunk in the streets. (They tend to drink at home if they are going to do serious drinking.) In Northern Europe that’s not the case. Certainly in Scotland on a Friday night!
Our houses are certainly the smallest in Europe. The new ones being built now (and costing fantastic amounts) are so tiny that I’m not sure that they are supposed to actually have any furniture in them. And yet, when you look at furniture
in shops, it is all massive. The result is rather inelegant rooms with only room for a settee and a tv.
Thanks for the information on the alternative to Obamacare.
I feel really sorry for the working classes who really thought Trump gave a damn. As if he ever would.
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Seth was up to scratch there.
Excellent. What a travesty. Honestly, that man makes May look …well…
No, I can’t really say good, but y’know, not QUITE so bad as she actually is.
I wonder what Americans would do if Trump was stupid enough to call an election now.
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…..and interesting about even the new construction in the UK being small. Maybe dictated by sky high building costs. While houses (and building costs probably) are relatively less expensive in the Midwest, the housing in places like Boston, New York, Washington, and Los Angeles are more in the range of what I’ve heard about the London area and southern England. Absolutely out of sight!!!
As for what an election might look like now if Trump could (or would) call one……
It would certainly be a lot closer, as indicated by five closely watched special elections that have occurred to fill seats left open by Congressmen who resigned to join the Trump Administration.
The districts went from traditionally twenty plus point Republican wins in the past, to single digits in the recent special elections. BUT…..in every case, the Republicans still won each one pretty handily.
This has been very disappointing to the Democrats who wanted to believe that Trump had caused Republican support to utterly collapse. It clearly hasn’t as far as the hard core right wing Trump supporters are concerned. And it raises questions about whether the Democrats can make enough gains to take back the House or Senate in the 2018 midterms.
So stay tuned……..
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Absolutely amazing that people are still voting Republican.
No accounting for people, is there?
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Danny
Republicans are TRULY evil people ….Spot on
Translation to Americanese 100% true
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@ Niko……Yep, that works for me.
I often think of the American Republican party as more or less equivalent to the British Tories. But that may be a gross oversimplification, and maybe even a disservice to the Tories. After all, you also have the nationalist xenophobic UKIP to serve FAR right wing political interests.
American far right racist nationalist populism (once called the “Tea Party” Republicans……now morphed into mindless Trumpism) sort of got grafted onto the Republican Party of post-Civil-War Wall Street/Country Club fat cat billionaire industrialists.
The current Republican party would not even be recognized by the anti-slavery party of Abraham Lincoln, or for that matter by the Progressive Republicans of the Teddy Roosevelt era.
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With ukip sinking like a stone, Danny, I suspect that their supporters will transfer their loyalty to the Tories.
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Tris….I do enjoy videos that contrast America and Europe in some way….or America and “England” (as Americans always call the UK.) Americans are horrified about reports of public conveniences in some parts of Eastern Europe where there are no “sit-down toilets”….just holes in the floor more or less. There is a series of YouTube videos that describe life in the UK, which it points out is not simply America with an upper crust (or Cockney) accent. It describes houses and rooms (and kitchen appliances) in the UK often being small. Refrigerators seem small, whereas American refrigerator/freezers often seem more nearly the size of commercial units. In a video, I saw a teeny tiny washer/dryer…….amazingly a SINGLE appliance that does both operations…….and yet it fits UNDER a kitchen counter like a dishwasher. Modern American washers and driers (TWO units side by side) are usually in a separate “utility room” (or in a basement), and are almost be the giant size of a mid-sized commercial units.
Those tiny Parisian hotel rooms are a big deal in the travel videos. Most Americans have never seen a hotel room….even in a budget motor hotel (“motel”) in the hinterlands of the Midwest or Mountain West (east of California)……..with a single bed UNLESS it’s a “King Sized” bed……..which is effectively two standard beds wide. Otherwise it will be two “Queen Sized” beds (about one and a half standard “Double” beds wide.) There might be some flop houses with “Single” rooms, but I’ve never seen one.
And then there is the now famous issue of the water faucets in the UK that are NOT mixer taps, but instead have a single hot side and a single cold side. This seems to make it impossible to wash your hands in other than freezing water or scalding hot water……or by rapidly moving back and forth between the two. But anyway, the hot water is not drinkable in pre-WWII plumbing systems, in areas which have not updated their plumbing codes since Edwardian (or Victorian) times…..or so the superior American view goes.
Most of these things probably no longer apply to modern construction, and if America is more up to date on average, that’s because we tear everything down and rebuild it every 100 years or so…..LOL. And then there IS the fact that you (and Europe) have a passenger rail network that works, whereas the American railroads are falling apart and passenger trains are very rare (except in the Boston-New York-Philadelphia-Washington corridor.) California has some light rail in the sprawling Los Angeles area too I think. But LA to San Francisco is so far that it’s primarily served by an airline shuttle.
Anyway…..very interesting video!
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And for some reason, my last two comments got inserted in reverse order. The second one should be read first. 🙂
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too late LOL
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Actually, Danny, tell them not to worry about the “hole in the floor” toilets. When I was a small kid I once saw that kind of toilet in Bulgaria. That wasn’t last year or the year before.
In the UK and Europe, there are very few public toilets these days. Most of them are relatively OK.
I guess lots of things are smaller here than in the USA. But there’s no point in having a massive freezer if it’s too big to fit in your tiny kitchen!
Modern (or modernish) construction here is pretty ghastly. New apartment buildings are not well sound proofed and as we saw, are the smallest in Europe.
Munguin Towers is over a hundred years cold and far better constructed. I’d seriously not like to live in one of these modern places where you can spit peas through the walls.
And clearly I’d not like to live in a tower block, although it seems that no tower in Scotland has used the flammable materials for cladding that have been used in some places in England.
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Very interesting Tris!
BTW, I frequently wish I could do a “Like” for a comment that I want to indicate I’ve read and appreciated, but otherwise have no additional comment on. As we’ve discussed before, I’m immediately told that it doesn’t recognize my Email ID that it accepts just fine for the purpose of posting messages. And it invites me to establish a WordPress account.
Occasionally when I have some time, I become determined to figure out how to actually do that. So I get on the WordPress website and start to try to figure it all out with renewed zeal and determination. After an hour or so I always give up. WordPress is the most god*****d impenetrable user-unfriendly website I’ve ever seen. I can’t even find out how to find a list of blogs that are on WordPress, or so much as a simple “Settings” button.
So I’ll apparently never be able to “Like” anything, but I do appreciate the fact that by some miracle of nature I can post messages here; and am reminded of the skill that was required for you to migrate Munguin’s Republic from Blogspot to WordPress…..LOL.
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It’s OK… don;t worry. The fact you keep coming back, Danny, indicates that you like plenty of the stuff.
It is a nightmare. I truly dislike it.
I’ve not got my head around it. I need a computer expert, and unfortunately Munguin is too mean to get one. He just tells me to read the manuals … in my own time.
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