As you say David, nobody gives a rats what you think about trump or for that matter most other things! You simplistic views would likely see us join banana republics like the Philippines, if they ever gained favor?

You strike me as opinionated to the point where other folks opinions count for very little, but particularly the contrarian ones, or are met with a level of calloused indifference!?

For the Philippines end result and social justice embodies everything you personally stand for? Relatively easy gun laws, little if any social welfare and dog eat dog capitalism! And everywhere, with the conservative progressives nowhere in sight!

And if grinding poverty forces folk not covered by a non existent safety net, into a life of crime as petty thieves or drug dealers? Well a .22 bullet is the cheapest option!

And God help those who get sick, as nothing is free! With the cost of medicine ranking up there with the US. And our future if your diabolically dumb ultra simplistic economic views curry favor among the ruling elite?

Trump looks just as hard and sociopathic as the fribbling sycophant currently running the Philippines as its "philothanic" president? Birds of a extreme capitalist feather, and as history and the record shows, scrupulously honest Men, with a proud history as true good samaritan Christians embodying the Christian golden word in every deed or action! LOL!

It's said, around 30% of the electorate understand economics? With another 30% understanding politics? With the remaining 40% understanding neither who are the dumbed down folk you need to hold your seat!

As for Mr Trump? Well truly you can obviously fool some of the people some of the time, some folks all the time and all the people some of the time!

As you said in your own words, you don't give a rats, what other folks think. Quote unquote. At the end of the day results speak far louder than a patent conman's promises!
Alan B.

When Australia was one of the richest countries in the world (sigh), there were none of these fancy trade deals stitched up by politicians, bureaucrats and other corrupt figures. Foreign countries bought our wool, primary products and minerals; we brought their (properly) manufactured goods, and the West generally prospered. Now, climate hysterics have cruelled the mineral trade – particularly coal; we actually import fresh fruit and vegetables, and we buy absolute rubbish from China in the way of manufactured goods. We are now in the 'service' industry without enough people to service.

And what do we do – or at least what do irrelevant people like Senator Leyonhjelm do? We waffle on about what a 'big, bad' foreign president is doing to little old us, poor babies that we are – even after admitting that Trump can't hear us a probably cares less.

The only thing about Donald Trump that any Australian politician should be concerning himself with is that Trump is a warning to them (Australian politicians), that people, very much like Australians, are fed up with slacking, born-to-rule politician and their methods. Brexit is another warning that has them standing about with their gobs hanging open, frozen stiff, with no ability to act.

What effect Trump will have on the U.S and the world remains to be seen. But what this useless senator and other traditional politcians need to learn is that thinking voters will try anyone but them at the moment. Unless the voters live in Western Australia, of course, where the fools gave Labor a huge majority instead of making whoever formed government really work for their keep.

//The truth is, nobody gives a rats about what I think of Trump...//

Or anything else.

"it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish his genuine missteps from their manufactured outrage. "

And that in my view is the heart of the issue.

There are real risks with Trump but there has been so much exaggerated and or one sided commentary around Trump that real issues will probably be lost in the background noise.

R0bert

David Leyonhjelm writes an article complaining about people he doesn't like complaining about Donald Trump who he confesses to not liking.

One has to wonder why he bothered.

"That said, I respect the fact that he was democratically elected"

Only in the same sense that you were democratically elected. By a quirk of the electoral system. The difference between Donald Trump and David Leyonhjelm is of course that Donald Trump is in a position to influence what happens in the US and the World, whereas Leyonhjelm is largely an irrelevance.

what amuses me about the Trump haters is that they hate him when he gets it wrong and even more when he gets it right. Kind of like when Abbott stopped the boat. The sarcasm and mockery from the likes of Marr and other abc luvvies almost imploded while displaying such hatred. Fortunatley at this stage he has got most things right especially in exposing the failures of his predecessor and his campaign opponent. What a breath of fresh air! Thankfully he has called out the gw alarmist conspiracy which also attracts a lot of hatred from the high priests.

The Trump dissent is relevant because of our close ties with the USA. The relevance is not for Trump, it's for 'Kill, kill, kill' Turnbull. Who can forget the Iraq 2 debacle? Billions of dollars down the toilet, the world a far more dangerous place, and defeat snatched from the jaws of victory in Afghanistan. The more dissent against Trump is more dissent against any war he might try to involve us in.

Anti-Colonial. From what I can see of it the most prolific of the anti-Trump rhetoric is from people who in one way or another supported Clinton for the presidency.

Clinton who according to John Pilger was supported by 9 out of the worlds top 10 arms manufacturers. Clinton who appeared to be talking up an air war with Russia over Syria and who the US greens candidate was giving 6 months to start a nuclear war. Clinton who was instrumental in the overthrow of Gaddafi in Libya (https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/23898) and the corresponding enormous mess that left.

I'm not generally a fan of Pilger, far to left leaning for me but that also gives him a degree of credibility when he is calling out the record of "left leaning" politicians. http://johnpilger.com/articles/silencing-america-as-it-prepares-for-war

It is hard to tell which way Trump will go in regards to new or extended wars or getting out of the ones they are in now but a significant proportion of his support is the so called alt-right and one of the common factors for much of that broad grouping is a desire to see an end to unnecessary wars.

No guarantees that Trump will stick with that but I was much more concerned about the US establishments taste for foreign intervention and regime change than I am by Trump.

Jill Stein's comments as a Greens candidate and normally somewhat aligned with the US Democrats are worth a read "I sure won't sleep well at night if Donald Trump is elected, but I sure won't sleep well at night if Hillary Clinton elected." http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/10/12/jill_stein_hillary_clintons_declared_syria_policy_could_start_a_nuclear_war.html (I think that's a transcript of this https://youtu.be/x6M1v_pqSvE)

R0bert

R0bert

'No guarantees that Trump will stick with that but I was much more concerned about the US establishments taste for foreign intervention and regime change than I am by Trump.'

Me too. And also, the non-mainstream Left have adopted much the same attitude to Trump as the alt-Right. Both alt-Right and alt-Left are in a de facto alignment on his anti-globalisation stance as well. They look to Trump as someone who might, just might, go some way towards overturning almost 40 years of destructive foreign and domestic neo-liberal policies. Like him or loathe him, Trump is much more in tune with the winds of change than Clinton, who was totally clueless.

As a Leftie, I'm much more concerned about his intention to cut taxes for the rich and to ramp up the privatisation of government services than I am about Mexican walls, curbing Muslim immigration and grabbing pussies. I'm also nervous about the team he has appointed, who seem to be a rogue's gallery of neo-cons. I'm also very disappointed that he accepted Michael Flynn's resignation - the only decent guy among them - when it really wasn't all that necessary.

I'd much rather be living in a world with Bernie Sanders as POTUS, but spilt milk and all that.

Killarney, nothing neat in any of it. As someone with largely right leaning views I think I'd have preferred Sanders as well.

R0bert

R0bert

Clinton is not the president. If you want to discuss the history of recent US foreign policy feel free to start another discussion.

Any president that ups defence spending by 9% and slashes foreign aid at the same time concerns me. As the last thing that such actions suggest is that the president is a statesman. Add to that we have Turnbull sounding as gung-ho as Abbott. I'm sure you agree that the last thing we want is Trump and Turnbull leading us into another catastrophe as we had with Bush and Howard.

Ttbn says the fools gave WA a huge majority. I presume the fools are the voters.. Is it stupid to ask which side of the fence that being is on.