United States Election

[Stuart T]

To clarify - I should have said "it became" rather than "it has become" a school playground name (along with using "Forrest Gump" when that was popular).

I've not been in a school playground for many years and my children have grown up past the point of childish name - calling.

Since the demise of South Park, I doubt it is used much today.

No "unfair" smearing intended.

What did you intend the name to convey about madmart?

[villain]

Correction: you say "South Park", I refer to "The Simpsons" character.

As a sometimes-Simpsons viewer, I see Cletus (the Simpsons character) as a white, male hillbilly, holding in-grained nonsensical misogynistic, xenophobic and generally (what I see as) backward values. It struck me as someone who is most likely to have supported Trump. What does "sunshine!!" mean?

Yet another straight answer from me. When do I get answers to my questions?

[Stuart T]

I was even more wrong than I thought!

Simpsons - not South Park

From the BBC:

Episode called the Singing Simpsons: Willow's lament that her test scores make her "Cletus, the Slack-Jawed Yokel" refers to a simpleton character in 'The Simpsons', who first appeared in the 1994 episode "Bart Gets an Elephant".

....and of course I fully accept your assurance that the Cletus caricature is all that was meant when referring to madmart

i.e. married to his sister with 28 children - or maybe he has a "smellhound" called "Geech".
 

[villain]

OK, I admit to not having watched all of The Simpsons episodes. Cletus's familial status was often different. His views were (as I remember) generally the same though,

I myself have just acquired a smelly hound. I'm not sure what that adds to anyone's argument, however.

[Stuart T]

Back to the election result, then.....

despite the "#not my President" rallying call of those a little more on the left, it is what it is. Done deal.

Barring anything unforeseen (or perhaps foreseen in the case of assassination) President Trump will take office in January next year.

The sky will still be there and the world's finances will still be moving.

Let's see what Trump makes of it from our point of view. His domestic policies and actions will be viewed with interest but I'm very keen to see what relationships he can forge between the US and UK trading organisations. More, I am sure, than we have seen in recent years and more than Hillary Clinton would have made.

I'm hopeful. More than I would have been had HC got in. She may have been better for the American people (I don't know) but worse, far worse, for US/UK relations.

[villain]

The sky will still be there and the world's finances will still be moving.

Goodbye, Earth:

https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/265895292191248385?lang=en-gb

Please read:

http://www.vox.com/2016/11/9/13571318/donald-trump-disaster-climate

[Colwyn]

I was rather enjoying this thread for the first few pages. Pity about where it has gone.

[Colwyn]

I do seem to remember when Ronald Reagan was voted in there was much huffing and puffing from the 'liberal elite'. He is now regarded in the US generally as one of the great presidents.

I am not saying that Trump fits into that category

I'd like to highlight that thought since I hear the Trump-Reagan link being mentioned by quite a few people. Reagan served as a trade union leader having spent 18 years on the Board of the Screen Actors Guild with 12 of those as President of SAG. He also held the Governorship of California for 8 years. All this was before he started the first of his three bids to be Republican candidate for the Presidency. I think it reasonable to say Reagan had great experience and skill in politics and an extensive political network before he became President.

Trump has none of these things.

[Stopfordian]

I was rather enjoying this thread for the first few pages. Pity about where it has gone.

 Yeah, it's a shame, but to use the phrase that b*lls it up ' look on the bright side '.
 It could have happened in a bar in Calis 

[kevin3]

  The Establishments laughed at Farage.      The Establishments laughed at Trump.

  The Establishments have now stopped laughing. Farage and Trump have not.!!

  They understood the public, and the public mood far better than ANY self serving

  and smug Establishment figure. The public have used these guys to send a message.

  They have done that, and I think they will eventually be discarded, having served their

  purpose.