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Donald Trump’s not the first lewd, brash, chauvinist with a foul mouth, slavering after the top job in the White House.

As Michael Shelden recounts in his review of Robert Caro’s, “The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume III”, there was at least one other before him:

Near the beginning of this 1,100-page biographical tome – which covers the 12 years that Lyndon Johnson spent in the US Senate (1949-61) – the reader is offered an unforgettable image of the big Texan giving dictation to a nervous female secretary while he urinates in a corner washbasin. Apparently, such moments at his Capitol Hill office were not uncommon and were observed by several people. The scene “was startling to those who witnessed it”, his earnest biographer blandly notes. Away from the spotlight, LBJ had the manners of a barnyard dog and enjoyed shocking his subordinates, whom he bullied mercilessly. Like most bullies, he was a coward at heart who used flattery and evasion to dominate more powerful foes, reserving his insults and tantrums for lesser folk. If one of his underlings did not jump fast enough or high enough, he shouted obscenities and threw things. He demanded absolute devotion, declaring, “I want someone who will kiss my ass in Macy’s window and stand up and say, ‘Boy, wasn’t that sweet!’ ”
Women were for sex and servitude. His shy, unglamorous wife, Lady Bird, was more of a maid than a mate, serving him breakfast in bed every morning and entertaining his cronies with huge meals prepared at short notice. At dinner parties he would say, “Bird, get me another piece of pie!”, and if she hesitated more than a few seconds, he would repeat his demand in a deafening roar.
At his Senate office, his female workers were fondled, ogled and overworked. Though his own figure was flabby, he was quick to berate any of his “girls” who put on weight. He wanted to make sure the view was good when they walked away from his desk. “I don’t want to look at an Aunt Minnie. I want to look at a good, trim back end.”
He boasted of his sexual prowess and had long affairs with at least two women, as well as casual flings with members of his staff. Robert Caro, who is a dogged researcher, has uncovered the story of LBJ’s previously secret relationship with Helen Gahagan Douglas, one of the few congresswomen in Washington during the 1940s. A former actress, she was an attractive blonde whose political career came to an abrupt halt after she failed to join her lover as a member of the Senate. In a dirty campaign for an open seat in California, she was defeated by a Republican newcomer who spread rumours that she was a Communist sympathiser. His name was Richard Nixon…
…he [LBJ] once informed a trembling subordinate, “You couldn’t pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were printed on the heel.”

Trump never could, even if he gains his ambition, be the president that Johnson was. For all his faults, and they were legion, Johnson got things done. He got the Civil Rights Bill passed, something even Kennedy couldn’t manage, and both as Leader of the House and later as President was able to work Congress in a way that no president has managed since.

Of course, there weren’t so many microphones around then.

^{“A lewd, crude Master” The Telegraph, August 10th 2002}

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}