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Donald Trump is a coarse, brash, chauvinist who likes to talk ‘dirty’ when he’s in the company of other men.

Is this really any great surprise? Didn’t we all know it already? He’s hardly the type of individual one expects as a prospective White House tenant, but then Richard Nixon wasn’t too far removed.

Trump’s hardly made a secret of his male chauvinism. The very fact he’s been heavily involved in so many beauty pageants gives a hint, even if his own vociferousness on the campaign trail hadn’t made it obvious.

It’s schoolboyish, immature, and smacks of lacking intellect, but sadly it’s what many men do when they’re together and free from female company. To suggest otherwise is ludicrous, but it’s exactly what male politicians worldwide are now rushing to deny. So far, there’s only been one who’s admitted to the truth, and that’s Nigel Farage, the reinstated leader of UKIP, who called it for what it was – “alpha male boasting”.

At the moment, there’s no evidence to suggest it was any more than that. Immature men frequently lie to other males about their sexual prowess. It’s all part of the male hierarchy process. If, as was the case with DJ Jimmy Savile and others in Britain, evidence should emerge that Trump has been engaged in physical sexual assaults against women, that would be cause for further investigation and possible criminal charges. At this time such is not the case.

Perhaps it’s more important to highlight the political hypocrisy of the other male U.S. politicians, who in their droves are removing their support for Trump following disclosure of this tape. This writer doubts there’s one of them who, at some time in their past, hasn’t indulged in a similar all-male conversation, or had sexual imaginings that were not wholly respectful of the fairer sex. To publicly parade such pretended disgust at Trump is pure hypocrisy.

An even more important issue is how this tape surfaced just a few days before the crucial second nominee debate. Coincidence, or a political ploy by the Democratic Party machine?

All the evidence points to the latter.

It’s not known how the Washington Post got the story, but it was almost certainly an NBC employee who gave it to them. It all centred around an NBC progamme , ‘Access Hollywood’. Apparently, Trump has given interviews to this programme on numerous occasions. Back in 2005, he was on a bus with six other men waiting for an interview to begin when he made the comments, not realizing they were being taped. That tape ended up in the programme’s archives where it’s resided ever since.

Apparently, the host of the show, Billy Bush, to whom most of Trump’s unsavoury remarks were addressed, didn’t realise the tape was running either.

NBC “Today” show host Billy Bush is apologizing for comments he made in a video that surfaced on Friday showing him and Donald Trump speaking about women in vulgar terms.
“Obviously I’m embarrassed and ashamed. It’s no excuse, but this happened eleven years ago — I was younger, less mature, and acted foolishly in playing along. I’m very sorry,” Bush said in a statement.
Trump makes most of the coarse remarks in the video, from 2005 when Bush was host of “Access Hollywood.” But Bush eggs on Trump and at one point says that an actress approaching them is “hot as shit, in the purple.” ^[1]

‘Access Hollywood’ ‘just happened to discover’ the tape while searching their archives. They intended to expose it on their next programme, but someone beat them to it and sold it to the Post.

‘Access Hollywood’ is part of the NBC network. NBC is owned by Comcast. The Chief Executive of Comcast is Brian L Roberts (annual salary $24,000,000). It’s no secret that Comcast virtually owns the Democratic Party. MSNBC is the Party’s mouthpiece thanks to the tireless efforts of Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, etc..

Brian Roberts plays golf with President Obama, donated a ton of cash to his presidential campaign, and has personally been involved in large-scale fund-raising for the Clinton campaign. (No references needed, this is common knowledge).

A Trump presidency could make life very difficult for the super-corporations. There can be little doubt that NBC and its associates would be told to ‘find dirt’ on Trump in order to discredit him. Why else would NBC employees be pouring through the archives of ‘Access Hollywood’ at this time?

Donald Trump’s election as President of the United States would be a disaster for America and the world. Nothing written here can alter that fact. It’s also a fact that the same will be true if Clinton is elected president. Both are liars, deceivers, and the lowest America has ever come in its choices for president.

Hillary Clinton is the champion of the corporations; Donald Trump is the champion of no-one but himself. Whichever way the vote goes on November 8th, we’ll all likely live to regret it.

^{[1] “Billy Bush apologizes for comments in Donald Trump video” Politico October 10th 2016}

The U.K. Tories annual conference this week heard Theresa May emphasise her government’s determination to ‘bring Britain together’, and be a government that recognises the problems of its people and works towards solving them.

Just one day following the conclusion of the Tory conference there’s an announcement from the government she heads stating fracking has been approved in the U.K., in particular a part of Lancashire where the local authority and the residents have already thrown out an application by the company involved:

Environmentalists and local campaign groups reacted angrily, saying it was a denial of local democracy.
It means, for the first time, UK shale rock will be fracked horizontally, which is expected to yield more gas.
A second site, Roseacre Wood, has not yet been given the green light amid concerns over the impact on the area.
Lancashire County Council (LCC) refused permission to extract shale gas at both sites last year on the grounds of noise and traffic impact, but Cuadrilla appealed.
In response to the decision, LCC has called on the government to do more to address people’s concerns about fracking.
“It is clear the government supports the development of a shale gas industry, but I would ask them to do more to address the concerns of local communities and the councillors who represent them by supporting the best environmental controls,” it said.
Responding to the ruling Councillor Judith Blake, from the Local Government Association, said: “It should be up to local communities to decide, through their locally democratic planning systems, whether or not to host fracking operations in their areas.”
She said residents’ safety concerns should be “adequately addressed”.
“People living near fracking sites – who are most affected by them – have a right to be heard,” said Councillor Blake.^[1]

Cuadrilla, the company concerned, is a subsidiary of L1 Energy. Its Executive Chairman is Edmund John Philip Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley. Okay, it’s a mouthful and you’ve probably never heard of him, but he was Group Chief Executive of BP from 1995 to 2007, and, according to investigative journalist, Tom Bower:

[Browne] was responsible for a “ruthless” programme of cost-cutting at BP that compromised safety, and thus the man most responsible for a string of major accidents including the Texas City Refinery explosion (2005) and the Deepwater Horizon explosion (2010). Bower also accuses Browne of tolerating only “sycophants” in his “corporate court”, said to include Tony Hayward who succeeded him as BP Chief Executive…^[2]

All of which leaves one feeling concerned for the welfare of the good people of Lancashire.

It’s always worth seeking a government link to companies, or their executives, when such approvals are forthcoming, and sure enough:

Lord Browne was the UK Government Lead Non-Executive Director until January 2015. His remit was to work with Secretaries of State to appoint non-executives to the board of each government department…^[2]

Did wads of money change hands, or was it just a cosy chat over brandies with some government minister who, perhaps, owed Browne a favour? We’ll probably never know for sure.

So much for Theresa May’s caring about people’s problems. It’s obviously ‘government as usual’ under her leadership.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) is displaying its true colours in Brussels, where a fight broke out between UKIP Members of the European Parliament (MEP) that put their would-be new leader in hospital with a suspected fractured skull:

UKIP leadership hopeful Steven Woolfe says he is recovering in hospital after a reported fight at a meeting of the party’s MEPs.
The party released a statement from Mr Woolfe from his Strasbourg hospital bed saying he was sitting up having undergone a precautionary brain scan.
UKIP sources said “punches were exchanged” during the row at a party meeting and Mr Woolfe banged his head.
He was taken to hospital two hours later after collapsing, sources said.
UKIP sources said “a rumbustious argument” had taken place at the MEPs’ meeting at the European Parliament over whether Mr Woolfe had been talking to the Conservative Party.
Even the possibility of him talking to the Conservatives had been seen by some as a betrayal and some MEPs were very angry, the sources said.
The BBC was told Mr Woolfe went outside with another MEP where “punches were exchanged” and it is believed that Mr Woolfe banged his head against a window or a wall but then got up.^[3]

To add insult to injury, Diane James the new leader of UKIP resigned after only three weeks on the job, citing a lack of colleague support:

Ms James took over UKIP at a time when it was beset by rifts and infighting.
There were different factions within the party that were struggling to come together and agree on its future direction…She wanted to make some changes about the way the party was governed, how its ruling body, the national executive committee, ran things.
Reading between the lines of her statement, it seems she does not feel she can continue do that…She was the clear frontrunner and yet has decided she cannot continue so this now will throw UKIP back into a state of turmoil and division.^[4]

Turmoil and division within UKIP! Fist-fighting in the Brussels Parliament building!

^{Won by a knock-out! Woolfe on the floor of the E.U. Parliament building.}

One can only wonder how they’d behave if they’d lost the E.U. referendum.

There were many who prophesied turmoil and division within the country following such a close decision. It seems they were right. Theresa May announced her intention to bring Britain together. As 90% of the country is totally opposed to fracking, bowing the knee to the fossil-fuel industry doesn’t indicate she’s off to a very good start.

It would seem U.K. politics is following the lead of its American counterparts and descending into chaos.

^{[1] “Fracking in Lancashire given go-ahead by government” BBC, October 6th 2016}

^{[2] “John Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley” Wikipedia}

^{[3] “UKIP’s Steven Woolfe says he’s ‘fine’ after altercation” BBC, October 6th 2016}

^{[4] “UKIP turmoil returns after Diane James resignation” BBC, October 5th 2016}

There are at least three people in the news this week we shouldn’t waste too much sympathy on. The first of them is Kim Kardashian. The robbers, who forced their way into the $16,000 a night Paris apartment she was occupying, are reported to have made off with $10 million in jewels, including a diamond ring worth $4 million.^[1]

Frankly, it’s almost an obscenity to own that much in jewelry. To spend $4 million on one diamond ring is disgraceful, as is the $53 million she apparently ‘acquired’ (to suggest ‘earned’ seems inappropriate) last year as the highest paid “celebrity” reality television “personality”.

Is it not time to realise that reality TV was invented as a way of producing cheap programming: more profit for the media companies and inferior entertainment for the masses? It was never intended to pay contestants huge sums. But then, no-one really expected such low-end television would be so popular. The obsession with so-called ‘celebrities’ is a strange quirk of the human race.

No doubt the jewels were well insured.

Wells Fargo Chief Executive, John Stumpf, was obviously stumpfified this week as he now has to relinquish $41 million in bonuses after his bank defrauded customers by opening two million non-existent accounts in their names and charging them for it. That’s such a shame for Mister Stumpf as his salary is a mere $19.3 million. How will he survive?

According to California’s treasurer John Chiang:

“Wells Fargo’s fleecing of its customers by opening fraudulent accounts for the purpose of extracting millions in illegal fees demonstrates, at best, a reckless lack of institutional control and, at worst, a culture which actively promotes wanton greed.”^[2]

Wrong, Mister Chiang, at best it’s a whole cartload of criminal offences for which Mister Stumpf, and others associated with the racket, should go to jail for a very long time. But, of course, they won’t because the very rich only do jail time if they rob other very rich people – as per Bernie Madoff. Robbing the less-well-off is only deserving of a slap on the wrist for getting caught.

We should definitely not feel sorry for Mister John Stumpf.

Finally, let’s purge any positive feelings we may hold for the latest reincarnation of Margaret Thatcher (or, could it be Mother Theresa?) British Prime Minister, Theresa May, who this week struggles to persuade the British people that all will be well now that she’s named the date of the divorce from Europe. Sadly, that statement’s caused the pound to sink to its lowest for thirty years, though not everyone’s complaining:

Big companies like BP, GSK, Rio Tinto et al make most of their money in dollars but report their profits in pounds. As the pound falls to its lowest level against the dollar for 31 years, those dollar profits are worth more in pound terms. A goldilocks scenario for big multinationals headquartered and listed in the UK…”^[3]

Yet again the corporates make it big. We can, however, feel much sympathy for the millions of U.K. pensioners living abroad whose fixed income pensions have been shrinking drastically following the Brexit result, and the consequent actions of the British government.

It’s just one more case of the rich getting richer and….well, you know the rest.

Theresa May was supposedly a supporter of the U.K. remaining in the E.U., but recent revelations show that was not necessarily the case:

Former PM David Cameron felt “badly let down” by Theresa May during the EU referendum campaign, his former director of communications has said…in a book – ‘Unleashing Demons: The Inside Story Of Brexit’.

Sir Craig Oliver said the then home secretary failed to back the Remain campaign 13 times and was regarded by some as “an enemy agent”…

Sir Craig says Mrs May only came “off the fence” in favour of Remain after Mr Cameron became “visibly wound up” and gave her a dressing down over the telephone.

“Amid the murder and betrayal of the campaign, one figure stayed very still at the centre of it all – Theresa May. Now she is the last one standing,” wrote Sir Craig, who was Mr Cameron’s director of communications for five years.

Sir Craig’s book suggests Mr Cameron was left uncertain over whether Mrs May favoured staying in the European Union. He said Mrs May was referred to dismissively by aides as “submarine May” during the campaign.^[4]

It turns out that ‘submarine May’ misled the British people into believing she was part of the ‘Remain’ group, when in truth she was in favour of Brexit. It explains why those Brexit politicians hopeful of grabbing the top job were so happy to step aside and let May walk into number ten Downing Street unopposed. And, why her cabinet is now almost totally composed of ‘Brexiteers’.

We should not waste sympathy on deceitful Theresa May, or John Stumpf, or Kim Kardashian. Each has gained wealth and power at the expense of ordinary folk. They don’t need our sympathy and neither would they bother to ask it from those they consider of a much lower order than themselves.

Perhaps she should instead consider why we, as human beings, have a need to raise such individuals to a status they don’t deserve; why we allow their domination of news headlines and media attention. It might just teach us something about ourselves.

^{[1] “Kim Kardashian West robbed of millions by Paris gunmen” BBC, October 3rd 2016}

^{[2] “Wells Fargo chief forfeits $41m amid corruption probe” BBC, September 28th 2016}

^{[3] “Why rising shares aren’t a sign of joy” BBC, October 4th 2016}

^{[4] “David Cameron ‘let down’ by Theresa May, says former PM aide” BBC, September 25th 2016}