The 2024 Summer Olympics
The venue for the 2024 Summer Olympics, will be decided on the 13th of September this year.
The candidate cities are Budapest, Los Angeles and Paris.
Could President Trump be the man who actually decides, which city gets the Games?
His Welcome to America policies could be all Los Angeles needs to have a failed bid. Would any Muslim country vote for Los Angeles.
I have worries too about the Budapest bid, as the current Government there isn’t that popular in parts of the EU.
So does that mean Paris is a shoe-in? But what would be Marine Le Pen’s view?
I suppose Riyadh could make a last-minute bid!
The Globalisation Of Health Care
This article on the BBC is entitled World’s smallest MRI helps tiny babies.
It shows how healthcare is becoming an increasingly global collaboration.
The idea for the machine was developed in the University of Sheffield and the machine was built by the American company; GE Healthcare.
Medical research is like this, with often more than two companies and countries playing their parts in producing a successful breakthrough, often many years after the original idea.
I just wonder how Trump’s America First and tax policies will affect developments like this.
Will his new tax rules, mean that if an American company is involved in a development like this, that the device will have to be manufactured in the United States, when perhaps to manufacture it in the country, that owns the IPR might be better?
I can see researchers not wanting to get involved with American companies, when other countries can offer deals with no nasty strings attached.
There’s only going to be two winners with some of Trumps tax ideas; lawyers and accountants.
The PM Can Make Trump Begin To Face Reality
This is the title of a comment in The Times by Justin Webb.
It is a good comment and if you get a chance read it.
But it made me think!
Trump is a difficult person to read, as in several times in the last few months, he’s changed his mind. So will Theresa be able to make him change his mind again?
I don’t know!
But I just wonder, if Trump has ever been in negotiation with a determined, intelligent woman!
This will be one meeting, where the flies will learn a lot.
Gas-Lighting
This article on CNN is called Donald Trump is ‘gaslighting’ all of us.
It introduced me to term gas-lighting, which all goes back to a 1940 British film and an earlier play.
This is said about the term in the Wikipedia entry for the film.
The psychological term gaslighting, which describes a form of psychological abuse in which the victim is gradually manipulated into doubting his or her own reality, originated from the play and its two film adaptations.[7] Gaslighting, today, mostly refers to one of the methods of abuse used by a narcissist to emotionally control a victim, through which the narcissist gains pleasure.
Now CNN is accusing Trump of doing this to us all.
This is an extract.
After mimicking a disabled reporter and seeing the video used as evidence against him, he repeatedly denied it, claiming his opponents should be embarrassed to say he did. “I would NEVER mock disabled. Shame!” The denials continued after Meryl Streep brought up the subject this week at the Golden Globes. With the video easily available, Trump’s argument boiled down to “Who do you trust, me or your lying eyes?”
Here’s the video.
Trmp is going to gove the World’s comedians more material, than any other politician in history.
Trump Recruits A Mad Dog
The title of this article on the BBC is Trump names Gen James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis as defence secretary.
It needs no comment!
Lord Sugar’s Tweet On Andy Murray’s Win
You’re Knighted
Come on your majesty @andy_murray for a knighthood. World number one.
I can’t imagine someone else connected with the US version of the show, tweeting that!
How Do You Get Round This One, Donald?
This article from Global Rail News is entitled Request for California high-speed train parts to be exempt from domestic content rules.
This is said.
The California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) has requested several key components of its trains be exempt from the USA’s strict local content requirements because there is nowhere in the country that can currently manufacture them.
So what parts are involved?
It appears to be body shells, braking systems and bogies.
Aren’t they fairly crucial?
It’s Time To Look On The Bright Side Of Trump
This was the title of a comment by Matt Ridley in The Times yesterday.
He may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I have read a couple of his books; Genome and Nature via Nurture and found they added to my knowledge.
This is a precis of his comment.
He starts like this.
So here, after a few days of talking to people in America’s two biggest economies, California and Texas, are ten reasons why I think a Trump residency may not be as awful as many think, even if, like me, you heard of the news of his victory with a sinking feeling.
The article has ten main sections.
- Just as after Brexit, the markets went up, not down. Despite the predictions of analysts.
- He is already watering down his more outlandish threats.
- The Presidency is nothing like as powerful a job as it seems.
- The Democratic Party will soon be back and hounding Mr. Trump, if only in the Courts.
- Mr. Trump is already surrounding himself with reasonably sensible people.
- Some of his policies are not so bad.
- His adviser on climate and energy, Myron Ebell, is right that climate change policy has become a gravy train for the rich that hurts the poor.
- The promised “swamp draining” – in the unlikely event Mr. Trump pulls it off – will be cathartic.
- His reprehensible attitude to women, minorities and the disabled, though setting a terrible example, is fortunately unlikely to result in actual persecution by the government.
- The idea that this is the end of democracy or the start of fascism, as some hyperventilating luvvies are saying, is nonsense.
Ridley finishes with.
If he really does kill the North American Free Trade Agreement, as well as the transpacific and transatlantic trade treaties, he will assuredly cause a recession that hurts blue-collar workers in the rust belt more than free trade ever did. And he might craqsh the world economy.
I can see few silver linings there.
Here are some quotes from the article I can agree with.
- Mr. Pence is a creationist and religious conservative, which is not my cup of tea.
- The House Speaker, Paul Ryan, is a formidable figure who will effectively decide how much of Trump’s programme will happen.
- Steven Mnuchin, the likely Treasury Secretary, is from Goldman Sachs, for goodness sake.
- If Mr. Trump unleashes more gas production, that will cut emissions and drive out coal faster than renewable energy ever could.
- Compared with many Republicans, Mr. Trump is positively liberal on matters such as abortion and religion.
- If Mr. Trump makes a mess of things, he will be gone in four years – or sooner.
If you get a chance to read the whole article, you should.
Where Will Madame Tussards Put Their Donald Trump?
The BBC in London are reporting, that Madame Tussards are creating a new waxwork of Donald Trump.
I was wondering, where they would put it!
Vote Early! Vote Often!
What Would Happen If Trump Made It To The White House?
The Times yesterday tried to answer this question in an analysis.
Introduction
- Donald Trump has changed parties five times.
- He would be the first commander-in-chief with no experience in office or at the top of the military.
- He says he’s his own best adviser on foreign policy.
- He as campaigned as the ultimate political outsider.
Day 1
- He has vowed to erase the Obama presidency.
- He would withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.
- He would suspend a scheme that brings Syrian refugees to the US.
- He could task officials with drafting trade cases against China.
- He would go to a terrific inauguration ball.
The First 100 Days
- He would drain the Washington sump.
- He could restrict White House officials becoming corporate lobbyists after leaving.
- He could introduce term limits for members of Congress.
- He could cancel all payments to the UN climate change programme.
- He would begin interviewing candidates for the upreme Court, a decision, that could shape issues like abortion and gun control for thirty years.
- He has said he would give top jobs to generals.
- He will face resistance in Congress.
- The wall with Mexico will be designed.
- An immigration ban on some countries would be in place.
- Plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act would be in place.
More
A lot more is said on the wall, taxes, Syria, NATO, trade, Obamacare and immigration.
Read the article!
Conclusion
I doubt, I’ll ever go anywhere near the United States again.
The Anonymous Widower 