America's leading Hitler impersonator Donald Trump reckons that Scotland should stop criticising him for Islamophobia, and should instead get on with being grateful to him for all he's done for us. And, you know, he's got a point. Here are the top ten ways in which he improved our country...
1. "Stabilised the doons." (Translation : Destroyed one of Scotland's last great wildernesses - the most extensive and scientifically important area of shifting sands in the UK.)
2. Made the destruction worthwhile by delivering only a tiny fraction of the 6000 jobs he promised.
3. Made the destruction even more worthwhile by delivering, as promised, the "greatest golf course in the world". (Actually, the most authoritative list rates it as only the 65th best golf course in the world, but what's 64 places between friends?)
4. Entertained the nation with repeated spectacular failures to prevent an offshore wind farm "spoiling the view" from the 65th greatest golf course in the world.
5. Gave us such an easy answer whenever anyone says that SNP supporters are just automatons who mindlessly agree with everything the leadership does. "Well, we didn't agree with them letting Trump stabilise the doons."
6. Helped Martin Ford see the light about the Liberal Democrats.
7. Allowed us to spend so much quality time with the delightful George Sorial, and thereby made us realise that Alastair Campbell is not (quite) the most odious spin doctor of all-time.
8. Changed the name of Turnberry golf course, which has hosted four Open championships since 1977, to "Trump Turnberry". Perhaps people will start taking it seriously now.
9. Gave us a timely reminder of our recent political history, ie. that Jack McConnell was First Minister for five-and-a-half years. (How did we forget that?)
10. Transformed Katie Hopkins overnight into a respected columnist.
Ok James besides the Dunes what other issues has any SNP supporter diisagreed with Jim Jung Eck on (publicly). Try mentioning taxing the rich and unfreezing the council tax.
ReplyDeleteDid you actually listen to the Trump speel about muslims entering the USA?
"Ok James besides the Dunes what other issues has any SNP supporter diisagreed with Jim Jung Eck on (publicly)."
DeleteI also disagree with him about the monarchy and NATO, and have said so on this blog about a thousand times.
Unlike you James, I take Alex Salmonds public views on the Monarchy and NATO with a pinch of salt.It certainly would take a better man than me to decide what he actually does mean.
ReplyDeleteHe may have changed his position on NATO, but I'm not sure how much clearer or consistent you want him to be on the monarchy.
DeleteJames, no country has been forced into NATO unlike the defunct Warsaw Pact.
DeleteAnd your point is...?
DeleteJust pointing out that NATO is popular. Surprised you are against.
DeleteIn what way are you surprised? No-one could accuse you of not spending enough time on this blog.
DeleteThought NATO did a good job for democracy! Ending the genocide in the Balkans (Which Salmond opposed). Finishing off the Warsaw Pact. ( who Jim Yung Eck probably idolised). Berlin wall downed.
DeleteThought that would be a + for your NATO support. If you get a chance to visit Berlin-Hohenshonhausen Memorial do so.
What the hell has NATO got to do with "democracy"? I can think of more accountable organisations (including the European Union).
DeleteAbove all else, NATO is a nuclear weapons alliance. If you get a chance to visit the Hiroshima Peace Park, please do so. Think it'll be a - for your NATO support.
You have this Blog James, I doubt the KGB or STASI would have allowed the internet to exist.
DeleteNATO arrived four years after the Hiroshima bombing which was a US decision.
It's really hard to argue with the kind of stupidity that suggests the only alternative to NATO is the Stasi.
DeleteThe Stasi are gone James thanks to NATO and Germans.The alternative is not an issue.
DeleteAnd anyhow what have you got against old Queenie she has been around a while! Wee Nicola grovelled tae her. They almost had matching frumpy dresses. Forgot which one wis the Queen.
No, GWC, the Stasi are gone because of Gorbachev and the East German people.
DeleteIs that because Gorbie knew his dictatorship was not going to defeat NATO and Russia (Soviets) were bankrupt. The western economies just played them for time.
DeleteNo. And let's not forget NATO spent the entire Cold War pointing nuclear weapons at the civilian population of East Germany.
DeleteAlcohol pricing.
ReplyDeleteWithout a doubt, his greatest achievement is the elevation of Katie Hopkins from extreme right wing harridan hack to "respected journalist"...
ReplyDeleteHow did Trump elevate her? She has been around for dunkies winding people up.
DeleteA bit like yourself
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Deletehttps://youtu.be/jjAnmlEN8rI
ReplyDeleteScoobie Doobie Doo
Not voting for him then, James?
ReplyDeleteI thought about doing it for a laugh, but then I realised he might literally destroy the world. I'm a Bernie Sanders man. I'll probably have to vote for a fringe leftie in November, because Hillary Clinton is horrendously pro-death penalty.
DeleteA vote for Trump is what the various left will revel in. Out of power no responsibility and shouting from the pavements. They do this so well it is their destiny.
DeleteSorry. How horrendously pro death penalty? She supports it in only rare cases and fought for and won the first case preventing its use on mentally challenged people in a very conservative state. Her position is to the left of probably 80% of the people. Her husband was the governor charged with carrying out the law. I like Bernie too, but this whole Hillary inspecting had gotten ridiculous. Can you vote in the u.s.? I thought you were in Scotland? November is the final...voting for the fringe lefty gave us bush 2.and the Iraq war. NO Thanks!
DeleteThe death penalty is by far the most important issue for me, and in general I will never vote for a presidential candidate who supports it. The only exception I've ever made was that I voted for Obama in the 2008 primary, but I felt that was justified because the anti-death penalty candidates were effectively only paper candidates (they had already withdrawn).
DeleteI have absolutely no sympathy for the argument that I should be held hostage by a God-awful electoral system and be forced to vote 'tactically' against all my principle. If Clinton is the Democratic candidate, I'll be voting against her.
sorry, comment above about the popularity of NATO - maybe among political elites seeking military protection for their own class, but there has never been a popular movement to entering NATO
ReplyDeleteHow many people have been killed by Muslim terrorists in the USA compared to the annual massacre that takes place in the land of free access to guns.
ReplyDeleteHis view,along with all the rest of the right wing nutters is that if everyone is armed to the teeth then that will act as a deterrent.
Every American child should be born with an rifle in it's mouth and told how to use it as soon as possible in order to defend itself from.......
This attitude combined with Christian fundamentalism in the USA makes him and his supporters no less extreme than the people they claim to be completely against.
Whatever next?
Will Turnberry golf club be putting up signs:
No Dogs
No Women
No Muslims
No ..........
Probably golfer's welcome and spend money.
DeleteId hope Trumps minion's have a better gra'sp of the proper u'se of apostrophe's than unioni'st troll's.
Deleteborn with an rifle in it's mouth
DeleteIndeed, James.
Oi, oi, who's the anonymous apologist for GWC posting at 8.30 on a Sunday morning?
Delete"the land of free access to guns."
DeleteSwitzerland?
And, for the record, swimming pools kill more people in the USA than guns do (never mind cars), and the parts of the USA with easiest access to *legal* guns have the lowest murder rates (I'll happily admit that the causation could be either way there though).
America is only doing *half* the trick with the "arm everyone" strategy. The other half is disbanding the standing army, because you already have a defensive guerrilla force armed and in place to defend your land.
That also means that your politicians don't have a lot of soldiers standing around who they feel the need to find something for them to do.
I never realised that cars and swimming pools were intentionally designed and built for the purposes of killing people.
DeleteAgreed on Scotland not needing the huge standing army it has to pay for as part of the UK. You are right there; when you have a force far in excess of what is needed for 'defence', governments do tend to get trigger happy and find overseas 'interventions' for it to be used in. Becomes an 'offensive' force rather than a defensive one.
DeleteJames, University edjikashun ye cannae beat it. Whit wid we Junior Secondary mince eater boys day dae withoot grammur correcters.
DeleteDepends where you are and what you're doing if guns are "intentionally designed and built for the purposes of killing people"
DeleteFor instance, Svarlbard mandates that everyone outside the town carries a gun for self defence, against the polar bears.
Whether you care about that or not probably depends on what your goals are.
If your goal is "reduce the murder rate" then I'm going to point you at Switzerland, or Kennesaw, Georgia, USA, and point out that high private gun ownership does not correlate with high murder rates (I can provide examples of the other direction as well: low legal private gun ownership and high crime rates)
If your goal is to reduce early deaths in general, then I will point out that swimming pools and cars kill more people per year than privately owned guns, and in the USA, armed police kill more people per gun than private gun owners do.
I'm also going to point out that I was raised *Quaker*. I don't like the conclusions I've been forced to draw from the data, but I'm not going to stick my head in the sand and ignore them when they're there.
Am I right in thinking guns have killed more Americans in the past 50 years than every US war ever?
Deletehttp://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2015/12/3/9842346/guns-kill-more-than-war
If Americans want to have guns, that's up to them. I just try to keep my visits (with business) to a minimum.
As for the swimming pool thing. Why don't people just learn to swim? If you live on a planet where the bulk of the surface is covered in water, it kinda makes sense, even just as a precaution.
Illy, your examples are absolutely hopeless. I'm struggling to find more than a couple of countries in western Europe with a higher gun death rate than Switzerland - and one of them is Finland, which (extraordinary coincidence!) also has a very high rate of legal gun ownership.
DeleteIt's intuitively obvious that having large numbers of deadly weapons sloshing around will lead to a greater number of deaths. And guess what? The statistics largely back up the intuition.
"Am I right in thinking guns have killed more Americans in the past 50 years than every US war ever?"
DeleteProbably only if you include deaths from guns used in the wars (I'm willing to be wrong on that). And I maintain that swimming pools are more deadly from the stats. Gun deaths are just not that common in comparison to other causes of death, media hype about sprees blow them out of proportion.
"Gun death rate" is the wrong stat. Hoped for better from you on that one James. It's a mix of murder and accidental death statistics, and is generally useless if you want to cut the murder or crime rates.
"Murder rate" is a better stat (though has cross-national issues because of differences in reporting standards). We're a creative species when it comes to killing each other, and we often go for the most lethal thing *to hand* when we want to kill someone. Having something slightly less lethal doesn't reduce the murder rate, just changes the means. Kitchen knives will kill you just as dead as guns.
"Hoped for better from you on that one James."
DeleteWhenever anyone trots out that old chestnut, it's a sure-fire sign they've already lost the argument. It's not a great deal of comfort to someone whether they've been killed by a gun intentionally or by accident. The salient point is that they would probably still be alive if the gun hadn't been there.
"We're a creative species when it comes to killing each other, and we often go for the most lethal thing *to hand* when we want to kill someone."
Oh, sure. But what you're going to have to face up to - and I haven't seen you even vaguely acknowledge this yet - is that the less lethal the weapon to hand is, the less likely you are to succeed in killing someone. Your assertion about knives is ridiculous - of course you're less likely to succeed in killing someone with a knife, because defensive action is easier.
And I maintain that swimming pools are more deadly from the stats.
DeleteHence why the Romans built so many baths, allowing them to build an Empire that conquered Europe.
If the Kevin Baker Fan Club were here, they'd probably insist they need guns to defend themselves against swimming pools.
DeleteOdd that people are getting excited about that UK Comres subsample which shows the Tories ahead of Labour. Averages of subsamples have shown this for months; since just after the GE in fact. Of course it isn't the case at all in full, properly weighted, Scottish polls. I guessed it was something to do with the adjustments to try and correct UK polls after the GE problem. Anyway, shows the danger of reading too much into Scottish subsamples, particularly given the divergence of Scottish and rUK politics.
ReplyDeleteJust taken all of the 1.34 that was available on Betfair for Labour most seats without SNP. Looks like free money.
DeleteThat same thought occurred to me a while back, but a few months seemed too long to have the money tied up. I agree, though - I think it is free money. This is where Neil "Alligators" Lovatt's belief in the predictive power of the betting markets looks incredibly silly, because a minority of punters have obviously been led astray by excitable right-wing journalists talking up the possibility of the Tories finishing second.
DeleteTo keep to the point of the article and focus, Trump is a dangerous megalomaniac. The US has lost the plot, and not just because their politics, if we can call it that, appears to bare no relation to reality. What is Trumps political background? What skills does he possess for any job in politics. What I have seen so far, is a crazed lunatic, not someone with leadership skills, or aomeone you would trust your house keys with, nevermind your country, quite the opposite.
ReplyDeleteWho knows what will happen in the next year, but one thing we need is for the SNP to stay committed to ensuring that westmonster do not asset strip Scotland even more, which I am sure they will. The SNP are working agianst huge odds, ie ukok, to keep Scotland afloat. It is going to get tough and the unionists will be desperate to scupper the chances of Indy ref2 so will do anything. Anyone remember the lights going out in the highlands, a few months before the last Indy ref? I think it happened twice.
Independence is unstoppable given events past couple of weeks and people are realising just exactly what a no vote meant for jobs and our environment, utterly disastrous. Onward and upward as they say. Aye.
Hetty, I thought it was the Nats that wanted to asset strip Scotland, eg: Faslane, Shipyards, defense establishments etc, thousands of lost jobs. The multi nationals own most of our whisky industry and banks. We could not even supply Scottish steel for the new Forty Crossing due to the Nats. So who are the asset strippers!
DeleteYour Tory masters.
DeleteBig donator to the Nat sis, runs buses and so on. Was he an asset stripper.
DeleteYour Tory overlord is not happy with the job you did on his boots last time.
DeleteHetty, The man could be the next president. And what was Salmond and Sturgeon doing hanging around with a megalomaniac! Maybe the pair of them rubbed aff oan Trump
ReplyDeleteSubsequently.
DeleteInformative to remember that The Trump was appointed a GlobalScot business ambassador by Scottish First Minister Jack McConnell in April 2006, under the Lab/Lib Scottish Administration.
ReplyDeleteHe was NOT appointed by the SNP.
They only kicked him out.
It took them a while. Wee Jack is long gone and the Nat sis kept him on. Nae excuses Monsieur Francis. The Nats kept him on longer than the other lot. And if the Tonald makes president they will crawl up his chorus.
DeleteAye, that really hurt the nats in the UK General Election back in May! No wait, it hurt Labour. And badly!
DeleteHe was their Trunp card.
DeleteSubsequently.
DeletePersonally, I would not blamethat American clown - not as long as Cameron and Blair can still get it.
ReplyDeleteAfter all, Trump is only TALKING about doing dumb,self-defeating, bad things - whereas the other two have taken us to War.
Should have read "Banned" not "Blamed".
ReplyDeleteEdit facility would be handy!
David, while you sleep safely in yer kipp no doubt inebriated it is others doing the fighting.
ReplyDeleteBlair and Cameron were are looking after our interests. Unless you prefer others looking after our interests.
Eh, yeah - I want the Scottish Parliament and Scottish FM looking after Scotland's interests.
ReplyDeleteI think you may have picked the wrong two examples, in respect of Scottish Interests, pal.
Two bigger Self-Interested numpties would be hard to find.
Of course you support them.
David, Scotland is part of the UK, Cameron and Blair are perfect examples of looking after UK interests.
ReplyDeleteLOL!
ReplyDeleteIf you think those two are, in any way,"perfect" - it really says it all about you.
Yesterday's Troll, pal.
I did say examples.
ReplyDeleteHow touching. Someone still loves the war criminal and his tribute act.
DeleteNeither have been convicted in court for doing anything illegal.
ReplyDeleteScotland should be grateful to Trump - for helping break down barriers of political correctness and offering strong and decisive leadership for America, our number 1 ally. It remains to be seen whether the Americans take him up on it. One thing is for sure - the more that left wing Europeans get their knickers in a twist over him, the more popular he will become in the United States itself.
ReplyDeleteI see above the resident Yoon trots out the old line that NATO saved the residents of the former Yougoslavia from ethnic cleansing by bombing them. Oh and that Alex Salmond was wrong to criticise the bombing before it began.
ReplyDeleteThe truth is clear from the historical record. Bombing Serbia was an act of folly, that incresed ethnic cleansing and was simply NATO aka America wishing to act tough against a former Soviet regime. The bombing as ever increased the body count of the innocent. Read up on Pol Pot, Syria is a perfect example.