The America you thought you knew stops 100 to 500 miles from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. In large parts of inland America Ignorance is seen as a virtue. Homer Simon is seen as a role model. And Education is viewed with suspicion. I recall a Senator being criticized for being able to speak more than one language. It was dam near a scandal.

Tears of excitement and mirth. This should be a good show! There is nothing I can do about it, so no point in stressing. Better the grab my popcorn and watch Rome burn (metaphorical historical reference). And from Canada I have a front row seat.

...Most Republicans don't know where Canada is, so I should be safe.

Not so fun for anyone living in the US though.

It was funny yesterday, watching the reports on the Canadian news about protest in the US, and then 3 hours later a reporter from CNN is sent to Trump Tower to do an onsite report and low and behold there is a protest going on that CNN apparently does not know anything about. It got more hilarious when they continue to try to do their scripted interview with the reporter about what Trump likely did that day, the whole time with the on site reporter struggling not to be distracted by all the Protesters yelling all around him.

CNN did start covering the protests an hour later, but it was funny how hard they worked to stick to the script.


I don't think the US news is controlled by the Government, but the people responsible for it care more about creating an entertainment show than covering news.

Another example is on Election night, CNN never covered the guy shooting people at a poling station in California. Now, me, I would think that voters standing in line getting shot at would be election news, but it was not part of their script so CNN did not cover it.

When I lived in the US in the late 90's I felt like I had to watch a foreign station to get any actual news. American news is mostly just opinion and commentary with only the occasional fact thrown in.

I just feel like many people over estimate the actual power a president has.

Maybe...although letting an egomaniac narcissist with no ability to admit flaws in his own judgement, abilites and decisions - and with the impulse control of a golden retriever puppy, I might add - have access to the nuclear launch codes...seems like a less than ideal situation.

I'll tell you what, Trump is Berlusconi. Berlusconi 2.0 actually and there's a very important upgrade.

Hairs.

Well, i find far more relevant the fact that trump got elected when all americans know about his attitude, while berlusconi was destroyed by bunga-bunga. These elections were like the last elections in italy, clinton was like PD, they could only lose due to their own mistakes and so it happened.

Well, i find far more relevant the fact that trump got elected when all americans know about his attitude, while berlusconi was destroyed by bunga-bunga. These elections were like the last elections in italy, clinton was like PD, they could only lose due to their own mistakes and so it happened.

Well, yes. Not that I liked Berlusconi's policies that much, but at least he tried to "hide" his nature. And I do agree on PD, even tho from my perspective it's a bit more complicated.

*The following is about italian politics: you might very well be totally uninterested, but I'll still type in english because...you never know perhaps tomorrow someone will suddenly be interested*

I've already said elsewhere I'm pretty much a right-winger. Hold on, I know what you're thinking and no. Salvini and Meloni are a shame to me.

From my perspective people like me don't really know who should they vote because no one share their own opinions in our politics right now. Our right wing now is just a mess of anti-eu populistic M5S fac-simile with little to no insight on pretty much anything. All they do is blaming the immigrants (and actually forgetting our very recent past and even pretending not to see all the trains and airplanes and even buses that transports load of italians all over Europe, especially Germany and UK) and the current goverment and the Euro and European Union. Isn't it that it's simply their own fault? Our own fault.
20 years of Berlusconi made the huge public debt we have now and 40 years of corruption made us slide from 3rd to 6th-7th in terms of GDP. The world financial crisis gave the last hit and now we're ready to blame anything, but "ourselves".

Now, would I really vote for any of them? Of course not. So let's see, I could vote for M5S! That huge mass of tinfoil hattery/conspiracy theorist that believes that the solution to all the problems is just printing more money! Little did they know that printing more money to pay national debt has been proven disastrous each time a country did such an careless monetary policy. Just to name one of their absurd policies.

Then, PD. It would be perfect, but... they really don't want me to vote for them. I believe they are actually doing everything it takes to lose. And by the way this would always be the very last resort to a right-wing man like me.

So, while I might not vote at all for the next elections (for the first time), other "moderates" might join the xenofobes or the tinfoil hattery. And of course, a conspiracy theorist is "a bit" more attractive than a xenofobe.

Quest'ultima parte te la scrivo in italiano

Mi attirer+¦ le ire (anche se effettivamente +¿ difficile che passi chiunque da questo forum) dei berlusconiani e della nuova destra, ma l'unico modo per convincermi ad andare a votare di nuovo o addirittura di votare dall'estero nel caso dovessi gi+á essere in Germania quando eventualmente si voter+á, sarebbe di vedere il nome di Fini in lista senza nessunissima alleanza con la destra di oggi, poich+¿ in quel caso non voterei nemmeno lui. Vedere Salvini e Meloni che inneggiano a Trump e a Putin significa veramente, per me, toccare il fondo. Fortunatamente, diventer+¦ un immigrato, cosa che tanto odiano imiei "amici" di destra. Credo che, in fondo, pur di non iniziare ad odiare ci+¦ che amo, son disposto ad andarmene.

purtroppo son pienamente d'accordo con te e dico purtroppo perch+¿ non ne vedo un'uscita e sto comunque sperando che renzi smetta di legare le sue sorti al referendum, perch+¿ cosi spiana la strada a chi vuol votare" no" solo per mandarlo a casa non capendo che ora come ora +¿ il male minore, salvini onestamente non puo rappresentare un paese, tante idee condivisibili ma modi e toni sbagliati, 5 stelle hai gia detto tu...

Eh, ma per quanto riguarda i 5 stelle, possiamo parlarne quanto ne vogliamo di quanto siano assurde le proposte, il fatto +¿ che andranno al governo nel caso si dovesse votare. Ed +¿ un fatto, godono di un consenso immenso. Consenso che non capisco e non capir+¦ mai. Pensa te che sono riuscito a capire perch+¿ Mussolini ebbe un consenso pressocch+¿ plebiscitario ma ancora non riesco a capire perch+¿ i movimenti populisti, nel 2016, quando si suppone che la gente sia mediamente pi+¦ acculturata e si informi meglio, quando si suppone che non siamo pi+¦ ai livelli socio/economici degli anni '20 del secolo scorso e nonostante questo facciamo ancora gli stessi identici errori del medioevo, oltre mille anni fa.

"La chiesa +¿ brutta e cattiva perch+¿ ha fatto l'inquisizione, perch+¿ la guerra santa, perch+¿ le crociate, perch+¿ la caccia alle streghe, perch+¿ Gerusalemme". Verissimo, erano bugie, falsit+á montate in modo da aizzare la gente in cambio della "assoluzione" dai pecati. Ma, aspetta.

C'+¿ giusto "qualcuno" tra i partiti politici che d+á ancora la caccia alle streghe. Solo, cambiano le streghe e gli inquisitori, ma la storia +¿ la stessa.

Per salvini +¿ colpa degli immigrati e della UE, per la UE +¿ colpa degli stati mediterranei e del loro rapporto debito/pil enorme, per la Grecia +¿ colpa dell'Euro, per i cinque stelle sono i "poteri forti" (esilarante ogni volta che ne sento parlare, tra l'altro), per Trump i messicani e il messico, per i brexiters erano gli europei, gli europei dell'est o i polacchi, per i polacchi +¿ colpa degli immigrati che, tra l'altro, non hanno sul loro territorio.

Quanto invece sarebbe pi+¦ semplice dire la verit+á?

La crisi dei rifugiati? Grazie America, Grazie Russia! Solo questo.

La crisi del debito europea? Grazie Grecia! Grazie Italia e Grazie Portogallo! che con la "carta di credito" della Germania hanno chiesto prestiti che non potevano permettersi di ripagare. Austerity spiegata semplice: se non mi dai delle garanzie, io col c**zo che ti presto pi+¦ soldi **.

Credo che si debba smettere di confondere gli effetti con le cause. O i sintomi con le malattie, difatti, non si cura un tumore con gli antidolorifici.

** motivo per il quale qualcuno crede che si debba tornare alla moneta nazionale. Stampiamo denaro a iosa, per qualsiasi cosa! Magari un giorno riusciremo a vedere anche noi la fatidica banconota da mille trilioni di lire, trasformando l'Italia, patrimonio mondiale di cultura, storia e arte, letteralmente i "nonni" di tutta la civilt+á occidentale, in un mercato delle pulci dove tutto costa niente. Chiss+á, se emigro potr+¦ permettermi di comprare la cappella sistina tra non molto. yay!

I feel you man. Lost a little faith in the system that day.

The America you thought you knew stops 100 to 500 miles from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. In large parts of inland America Ignorance is seen as a virtue. Homer Simon is seen as a role model. And Education is viewed with suspicion. I recall a Senator being criticized for being able to speak more than one language. It was dam near a scandal.

Both the RNC and the DNC need to get their **** together.

Better yet, the American Public needs to realize that other options exist.

Third parties need a chance to attend the Presidential Debates, and people as a whole need to dispel the entire "My vote is wasted if I go third party"

The vote is only wasted because everyone freaking thinks that way. Even then, I'd argue that a vote that matters to you isn't a wasted vote at all. To be honest, your vote really doesn't matter at all if you think about it, you're one vote in over 135 million.

So vote for what you believe in. To hell with anyone who says otherwise. I didn't vote for Trump or Hillary. I've gotten flak over it for saying that I helped Trump win by doing so. My vote matters and doesn't matter at the same time. I became Schrodingers vote this election year, its freaking crazy.