Well, here’s one prediction I wish I had got wrong. President Donald J. Trump. Seriously, the United States of America, what the fuck? Of course, it could have been all so different if the Democratic Party had not succumbed to the ambition and hubris of the Clinton dynasty. President Joe Biden, anyone? The similarities between the US and the United Kingdom in recent times are pretty startling, two nations now leaning heavily to the populist and nationalist right (though in the case of “Greater England“, was it not always thus?). The result in both cases has been the politics of “the spectacular” – to borrow a phrase from elsewhere. Neither are likely to prove good for Ireland, whether it is the rolling back of the “soft reunification” witnessed over the last two decades through the re-imposition of a “Brexit border” around the north-east of the island, or the loss of a sympathetic ear in the White House and State Department. Irish-America remains too wedded to the Democratic Party to find many likely allies in a Trump administration.
So where next? Your guess is as good as mine. The institutional conservatism and inertia of American government might well hold a Trump presidency in check. But then again, we thought the same of George W. Bush, yet he and his hawkish cronies took the United States to war in Iraq for reasons that are as opaque as ever. The majority of the 9/11 terrorists came from Saudi Arabia and were backed by prominent Saudi figures inside and outside of the ruling regime – so the US and its coalition attacked Baghdad! With the Republican Party controlling the White House, both houses of Congress and probably the Supreme Court in years to come, the future is looking fairly bleak. Indeed, it’s looking positively dictatorial. Whatever else one might say about Éamon de Valera, he gave us Bunreacht na hÉireann and a revision of the parliamentary democracy and proportional system of voting born in the revolutionary period of 1916-21, and for that we should be eternally grateful.
Meantime, three hours sleep and I’m off to work for twelve. Damn you, Kaiser Drumpf!
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
As a friend of mine said: “Make America British again”
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🙂
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The way they revere the queen, I don’t think they can get more British if they tried. ; )
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President Trumpkoph!
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Left wing parties have allowed small vocal minorities of offended nutjobs to hijack their platform. And most people are sick and tired of their shit. That’s why Trump won today. So yeah, drop all the feminist, trans, white guilt, safe space “offended” sjw censorship nonsense, pandering to radical Islam & other regressive left wing shit or you’ll see Trump win in 2020 too.
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You hit the nail. At some point the left went insane. People are sick of being told what words they can use. Sick of being threatened online over a halloween costume. Tired of being told what to think. This is a defeat against political correctness. Stuff their safe spaces.
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Unfortunately, you are very right. In California they are now offering counseling to students at colleges and high schools, who have difficulty coping with the election results. Certainly not the Americans (both LIberals and Conservatives) they were 30 years ago. Somewhere in there, they turned into a bunch of delicate pansies.
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“It’s the economy stupid!” – “I actually have a valid option this time, so who’re you calling stupid, with your fucking smarmy grin and your weasel words and now you’re wheeling in your sourfaced old wife so she can get on the train, no matter how shit she was at everything she ever did before this.” “But it was her turn and she likes black people and she has money.” Go on, sling your hook.
They could’ve put a plague rat on the platform and it’d do better than her. No-one liked her, everyone knew this and yet and yet they put the deadeyed old cow up as a fait accomplit with the same nothing cant as they always have, whichever rotten party they come from. Trump actively alienated a significant racial minority. He actively alienated core Republicans. He actively alienated women. And still that septic creature and the sludge she trailed after her repelled anyone with sense. Go on Democratic Party, suck that bitter lemon.
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Actually he didn’t. Trump got more of the female,hispanic and black vote than the idiot pollsters expected.
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Hillary Clinton was one of George W. Bush’s hawkish cronies and promised even more war and “regime change” than Obama’s expansion of Bush’s wars. And she is a good friend of Saudi Arabia, even though she knows they are the primary supporters of ISIL and other such groups. Nobody knows what Trump will leave us, but it can not be worse than what Cliinton would have.
By the way, Joe Biden would have lost even more badly.
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Yeah, she should have stepped down and allowed Bernie to run. But she was too arrogant and thought only about herself and not the country and here we are now.
But oh well, I hope that 4 years of Trump will make lefties to wake the fuck up.
Also a good lesson for Europe – we have to sort out this rapefugee crisis before we have people like Le Pen & co elected too.
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With all due respect….that’s what people say about ‘ Lits and Lats’ as some un PC types call them!
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Maybe, but Biden would have appealed to blue collar and lower middle class Democrats and Independent who were “shy” Trump voters. He would have got out many of the disenfranchised Sanders’ vote. He would have done far better than Clinton with African-Americans, Latino-Americans, etc. Up against Trump? He would have hammered the populist braggart.
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Biden has run for President twice before and failed badly. He is completely a Clintonian neolib/neocon, and the “regular guy” shtick would have been again exposed as a long-practiced – and tired – hypocrisy.
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I have heard that the Democrats won the popular vote.
If so, it is just one more reason to be incandescently angry about the Electoral College. Its whole purpose was to rein in democracy in the first place and tip the scales for the rich and powerful, so this is nothing new.
European countries, including those that are monarchies, are way more democratic than the nation of pathetic losers in which I had the misfortune to be born. Norway: most democratic country in the world.
By the way, is Inishturk still on offer?
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The purpose of the Electoral College is to prevent bigger states dominating over smaller ones. And we have something similar here in the EU too. Small countries like Latvia and Ireland get more MEPs per capita than large ones like Germany.
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It is a great day for America and the world! The peace candidate beat the war candidate. The Islamophile Clinton who surrounded herself with the likes of Kaiser Khan and Huma Abedin and took Saudi bribes was beat by Trump who sees the true violent fascist nature of islam. Trump who supports sensible immigration beat Hillary who wanted a no borders free for all of millions of illegals and refugees who would never be deported. Hillary was the most corrupt unqualified person ever to run for president. She deserves to crawl into obscurity or better yet to a prison cell.
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@the Phoenix
I hope you’re happy. Now we have a president-elect who had the backing of David Duke, head of the KKK, which is allied with organizations like the Orange Order who specialize in the murder of Irish people.
I worry greatly about the future of undocumented Irish immigrants in this country. People say because they are European they have nothing to fear, but Trump is a xenophobe full stop.
You guys have to stop his wall in Doonbeg now. Don’t let it go through. Please, Ireland, give him that gigantic middle finger he so richly deserves. I will fully support you if you choose to impose sanctions on us as well.
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Trump is connected to the Orange Order!? Why because he is orange? Don’t judge by colour. I have been saying all along Trump is not racist. The scum media fed you that. If Trump is racist why did he get more of the black and hispanic vote than Romney or McCain?
As for undocumenteds either get documented or go. No country is obligated to hold onto foreign citizens.
Recently a Brazilian man brutally raped and nearly murdered a woman in Dublin. He was told after his short sentence was served he would have to stay out of Ireland for only 10 years. Why not keep him out for life? Looks like Ireland could use some Trump common sense.
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What keeps those Irish migrants from becoming documented? Illegal immigrants should be kicked out, because they discriminate against legal ones. Why should I go through all that trouble to get a visa and all the other paperwork if someone else can just scale a wall?
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I cannot believe I am trying to convince two people in Europe that Trump is evil. This should be the other way round.
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LOL! 😉
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@the Phoenix
The British and Anglo-Americans have been saying the same thing about Irish people since time immemorial. Are you really going to fall for that claptrap?
Ireland is a small country with lots of issues of its own regarding British colonialism and the state of Irish-speakers. Believe me, I know. You guys might not be in a position to take lots of immigrants or refugees. America, though? We’re a yooooge country. I don’t know if we’ve even got half of how many people we could take in. It is two different situations.
Most people who oppose immigration in America do so because they are racists. That includes the anti-Irish Know-Nothings, who sought to bar the doors during the Great Hunger.
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Who is anti immigrant? Trump is pro legal immigration. His mother was a LEGAL Scottish immigrant. America takes in millions of legal immigrants which Trump supports. Trump is against illegals who commit crimes and drive down wages.
There is a reason Trump got a larger share of black and hispanic votes than previous gop candidates. Black and hispanic communities are hit hardest by illegal immigration. Illegal immigration has almost single handedly destroyed the black American working class. And Trump is the only one to speak up about it.
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Trump is proposing the biggest limits on legal immigration in almost a century. Under his plan, ~30 million legal immigrants would be turned away.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/trumps-proposal-for-legal-immigration/499061/
By the way, he has also said that French and Germans should be subjected to “extreme vetting.” So it is NOT just an issue of skin pigmentation. Europeans are going to face hell from him, too.
You take a remarkably callous attitude towards your fellow countrymen who have come to the U.S. seeking a living. Do you care at all for your fellow Irish people?
Also, the supposedly inextricable linkage between immigrants and crime is a load of bullshit.
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America will still take in many immigrants. Trump sensibly doesn’t believe in any nation being obligated to take in immigrants for the sake of it.
If Europeans are subject to extreme vetting it is the fault of leaders like the lunatic Angela Merkel who took in millions of military aged muslim males in with no vetting whatsoever. Even allowing criminals,jihadists and those with no id to stay. Sweden is laughably trying to retrain returning jihadists with taxpayer funds. You reap what you sow. Europe should do away with their useless corrupt globalist leaders and elect more people along the likes of Trump. Germany has had many attacks by refugees and even the Paris attacks last year were carried out by jihadists claiming to be refugees. Europe needs to sort its own mess out.
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Would not be surprised if Marine Le Pen is elected next year. Mass media will again tell us that she has no chance (Just like they told us that Trump has less that 30% chance), but the people will vote otherwise. And yet another muslim terrorist act can speed things up a bit.
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Agreed. I accidentally gave you a thumbs down. For what it’s worth I have yet to meet a Trump fan in real life.
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Apparently the Irish police don’t like it if you ask the following “Who murdered Eddie Fullerton?”
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Unfortunately, there is some truth to that.
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It is about a 200 Euro fine if you do ask.
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This doesn’t necessarily mean much of a shift in US politics. Many Republican officials refused to endorse Trump when he was running. Congress, even if its is controlled by republicans, is not going to be crazy about working with him because he’s not going to be crazy about working with them. I don’t see much getting through either house in the next four years.
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Exactly!
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I tend to agree with that interpretation. Your recent posts on his election have it about right. Trump is more Silvio Berlusconi than Benito Mussolini. I’m expecting four years of incompetence and mayhem in terms of legislation and executive orders. He’s gonna make a mess of foreign policy, damage the economy, do nothing for those who voted for him – except the billionaire class – and erode much of the good work passed in the US over the last two or three decades. Yep, he will probably be somewhat authoritarian, or at least Chris Christie, Rudy Giuliani, etc. will be, his immediate family will take plutocratic kleptomania to the next level, but the system will rein in his worse instincts or excesses. So a future Nixon in terms of the historical overview of his presidency but not a Putin.
Hopefully!
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Your assessment is likely correct. The key reason that he may make a mess of things is that he’s not used to working with others to get things done, at least not as occurs in politics. He’ll probably portray himself as an obstructionist, but end up doing whatever he’s advised to do.
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Hmmm. I see that he has added Breitbart’s bigot-in-chief to his advisory team in the White House. Not good. For Reince Priebus either. He has an immediate rival for the president’s ear.
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Yes, not exactly a resounding success with that choice, I would agree. I suppose he’s got people he has to pay back, and this is evidence of that.
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Irish immigration centers over here are battening down the hatches for what will probably be at least four years of hell for the children of Ireland in America.
It’s not just Hispanics and Muslims who are in danger. Trump is going to be an enemy of the Irish – quite frankly, much like the Republican Party has historically been. And yet so many people – people who oppose Trump and are pro-immigration – are blinkered about this! My own dad, whose raw concentration of Irish ancestry is even higher than mine,
said yesterday that undocumented Irish immigrants have nothing to fear. He is right a lot of the time, but on this he is so, so wrong.
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/community/anxiety-rises-for-undocumented-irish-in-us
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Lol. Get in yer safe space ye. Lol. Christ get with ye. Jesus leftists used to battle with Che, used to fight for Joe. Now you couldnae battle beyond a tweet. It is pathetic. Grow up
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I am just amazed at all the fear mongering and conjecture, like so many did when Obama was first elected – not typical for this site. It’s almost like a little bit of mass-hysteria. The U.S. President is simply not that powerful, far from being elected dictator, that is for sure, let’s be realistic here. If you know just a little bit about how it works, the “checks-and-balances” of the American system work quite well. Almost too well, as stuff rarely gets done. I really think things are not going to change all that much. At minimum half of the country is against Trump, along with it most of the elected politicians, hardly an overwhelming majority. His platform is by far more isolationist than imperialist as well, in case you are worried about war (also, until recently, he was a life-long Democrat as well). He will have to do a lot of politicking to keep his job for the second four years, and anything he starts in his first four that finds no favour, he will not be able to pass, as he simply will not get enough support from the elected representatives. He will also not be able to change immigration laws within four years significantly enough to impact the “Overstayers” (although the Obama administration has done a lot of work on making it harder for this group), who are mostly represented by Europeans and Asians that arrived with visitor visas. Nor is there money for any stupid “wall.” I don’t think the sky is falling anytime soon folks.
Having emigrated to America myself, I can tell you there are many ways with which you can shore up your visitor visa quite effectively and remain legal even after the expiration of the original visa. It would behoove those who are concerned to see a qualified attorney in such matters, and get the real story and not the bulls..t that is being slung to raise unjustified (additional) fears – there is enough worry in immigration purgatory, regardless of who is president. Another good thing about America is that if you are in a state that moved to the right and now impacts you as an immigrant, you can head out to, let’s say, California, where the pro-immigrant status-quo will most likely largely survive Trumps tenure, even if it is 8 years long (God forbid). Furthermore, Trump has no idea how any of this crap works, and will have to spend at least two years figuring it out, similar to Obama. By then, just like Obama, he may loose the majority of his party’s representation, which may reduce him, similar to Obama, to a hog-tied president. In my opinion, it was a shame, as Obama had some great ideas, such as the affordable health care plan and they wound up in messes due to the horse trades necessary to get at least some of the benefits to the people. The original, unaltered health plan was actually not bad (yes, Clinton had her name on it, but that was about it for her involvement). Completely neutrally evaluated, this was also in part due to his lack of perseverance and failure to make timely decisions – or lack of making real decisions in the first place (although I think in the last eight months or so he finally became a president, the one I had hoped for so much the first and the second time – wish we could keep him now – still don’t agree with Patriot Act, Drones, War etc…).
Bernie had the best grasp on this stuff, but the Democratic Party, as many others commented, just force-fed Clinton to its constituency (and I want to be convinced that Bernie would have gotten the nomination had they not screwed him over). To sum it up, don’t be thrown into a panic by the media frenzy. They are just taking advantage of you. Time to buckle down for four years and hope that the next contenders for the job exceed the choice between Devil and Beelzebub (nothing wrong with getting involved in the democratic process in America for those of you who are there and are staying there). Then, perhaps, they can pull out of the flaming fiasco they have become and possibly escape their already half-realised and seemingly inevitable descent into a “has-been” world power like England, France, et al. I hope to have retired before the moron’s tenure is up, and settled completely in my little cottage by the sea in my native Co. Clare. I may come back from time to time on holiday, if it suits me.
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I added couple of paragraphs to make that easier to read. Hope that ok? I tend to see Trump as more a Silvio Berlusconi than a Benito Mussolini, though I wouldn’t discount his capacity to cause mayhem. It will certainly be an interesting four years.
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Thanks ASF. I really think he cannot even reach Berlusconi if he tried. Berlusconi earned all of his money himself and spent decades in politics including 9 years as prime minister of Italy. Chances that Trump is still there after four, provided he doesn’t get impeached before then, are unlikely for the reasons you and others posted here. Unless he suddenly emerges as a debonair and charismatic leader from his toad-shell and somehow manages to improve overall life significantly, he will be voted out at the end of his term. Of course, if the Democrats come up with another “septic creature and the sludge she trails” (thanks bradhar – great description), then he’ll have his eight. Bush was a bigger idiot with straight-up malicious, evil folks in his administration, and caused real mayhem. But he had people backing him and his administration. I just do not see anyone really going for the extreme for Trump. Most are just going to let the time pass and wait for him to go away.
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I see that his spokespeople are now pushing back against the public street protests, using the press to scold the demonstrators. Not a good sign.
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Why don’t you add a few paragraphs about how Martin McGuinness is a republican and Irish hero,Seamy?
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I wouldn’t call him a hero but he did more than most. Not my style of republican in some ways but his latter career and the way he has tried to maintain some semblance of peace is somewhat heroic. I still think he signed up to a deal with the GFA that was poorer than could have been achieved. And I would argue that SF is performing fairly poorly in the Stormont gov.
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Head and shoulders above most of the lobby fodder. No , SFs performance in Stormont is not stellar but its a pretty unique place. And it’s about to get very messy. Martin is a far abler politician than most in Washington or London for my money.
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Nice post ar an sliabh. Balm to the soul. One of my sons is studying in Vegas , where Trump is omnipresent but not especially popular. So that was quite reassuring. Maith agat!
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