Time for this author to leave University behind and grow up and allow some maturity and realism into his life!

I don't know where the Eastern International College is; but this person should stay there and keep his piffle to himself.

Great stuff!
Yes Trump is very much indisputable evidence of the disintegration of whatever (limited) virtue that once informed US culture.

Many years the distinguished Catholic moral philosopher wrote a book titled After Virtue in which he pointed out that BARBARIANS now inhabit and control the levers of power within the citadel.
He also lamented the fact that much/most/all of political language was not in any sense based on well reasoned propositions but, instead, based on completely irrational appeals to essentially primitive emotions.

Donald Trump is of course in your face evidence of such.

It is an indisputable fact that Trump who is sometimes referred to as Orange Jesus is a religiously and culturally illiterate nihilistic barbarian who appeals to and thus empowers the very primitive emotions of the followers of his Make America Grotesque Again cult.

Why is it that so many even apparent intelligent people make this about two people seeking the position of POTUS ? It is not ! It's about Democrats or Republicans getting to head the administration of the USA.
The Democrats have shown their inability to govern with reliable consistency & the Republicans govern with just a smidgeon more overall sense . Just like Labor & LNP here. America suffers from the exact same dilemma as Australia where the bureaucracy doesn't improve/change one iota no matter who is in charge. Trump's 'clearing the swamp' did target this mess but the huge numbers of non-performers on good money fought tooth & nail to maintain status quo, just like here ! Leaders can not do their job with the whole of the Public Service not interested in the health of the Nation only in the health of their Superannuation !
Trump would be the more sensible choice but will the ill-will of his opponents allow good-will ?
I don't think so !

WOKE.

http://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-558e9b6ac48ff02b641acc4f6ada8408-lq

http://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-4e5ee9b359c6032f886c4fe27de070b1-lq

Just for a bit of balance:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump

Trump has been ranked as one of the worst presidents in
American history.

The link is worth a read. It's a reminder what a second
Trump term would look like.

No wonder the author is concerned.

We all should be.

Indyvidual

It could be that the people you are referring to are not intelligent. They are just the same chatterati that make up the idiotocracy.

Indyvidual,

Read this link - and then tell me that you can still
support such a man as US President and have as an ally on
whose support our defence so greatly depends:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump

If you can still support him then you're not the person
I assumed you to be.

Talking about idiotocracy?

That's not a handicap on OLO.
(online opinion).

As for what Wikipedia thinks of Trump, Wikipedia is run by a very few, extreme Left wingers, who block, or change, any contributions they don't like.

Donald Trump was President for 4 years, and none of the dreadful things he is now accused of happened. The blacks and the Hispanics loved him. They didn't know he was a "racist" it seems.

Donald Trump cares as much about what mutton-head commos think of him, as Netanyahu thinks of them - nothing.

Incidentally, it's good to see Dutton is in Isreael: something Comrade Albanese couldn't bring himself to do.

The Albanese government is so appalling that, despite the similarities between Liberal and Labor, and the desire to see small conservative parties prosper, I'm considering putting the only other party that can form a government on top, with whatever else is available next, and Labor and the Greens last.

Foxy,
I have more faith in ttbn's post than in the Wikipedia article. I don't really care about Trump the man but I sure care about the Govt he will lead. You have clearly always had better than you deserve otherwise you wouldn't make the statements you do !
Running a Nation is about economics, employment & above all its people not just the hordes of useless Academics who produce nothing & do nothing but steal oxygen !

Indyvidual,

A couple of things.

There are heaps of sources on the web that can be read - all
repeating the same thing that the link I cited gave. These
things are on record about Donald Trump and whether
you like them or not - they'll go down in history.

I am merely sharing knowledge and trying to dodge the spit-balls.

You can access Britannica, AFR, The Australian, and much more
if Wikipedia is too "Left-wing" for you.
Most rational people don't separate people into "Left-wing"
Or "Right-wing." As Billy Graham once said -most people
prefer the entire bird. And people's views do change depending
on context and circumstances.

As for what I do or don't "deserve" I've lived my life not by what
I "deserve," but by what I have earned. And I've worked hard for everything
I have. And those are the facts.

I prefer facts to fiction. And the sharing of knowledge. I realize
that being informed isn't everybody's cup of tea. Some have
become comfortable in their ideologies. Especially on issues that
may harm their political interests. Politics is a blood-sport.

Anyway people like Greg Sheridan, Malcolm Turnbull and many
others have written about what a 2nd Trump presidency might
bring to the world. In any case - it wouldn't hurt you to get
some facts about the man - as his re-election if successful,
will affect us all in this country.

Perhaps we should be more concerned about the character (psychological profile) and the "religious" affiliations of the character that the Orange Monstrosity has chosen as his potential VP who will automatically become President it the Orange one goes belly up.
This reference provides a very interesting profile: Its subtitle is A Senator From the Unconscious
http://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-45/politics/j-d-vance-changes-the-subject-2

I don't know what this blokes been smoking.
He claims truth, but I can't see it anywhere.

Number 1. Shut the hell up about democracy.
I don't want to hear that word from Americans anymore.
Right now you've started a coloured revolution in Venezuela, because you couldn't unseat Maduro, with your US National Endowment for Democracy paid shill Maria Machado.

http://apnews.com/article/venezuela-presidential-election-maduro-opposition-corina-machado-14158c34f9709f9b73b31a07383e0e51

http://www.ned.org/events/the-2024-ned-democracy-awards/

You overthrow the democratically elected government of Ukraine, gotten half a million killed so far and another million so badly injured they'll have problems for life.

What about Georgia, you're trying the exact same thing there.
You'd gladly kill half a million of them too, to open a second front against Russia.

Your foreign policy's suicide.
Not just for you but for your vassal states too.
Note the 'Free Russia' advocacy.
Russia has a nuclear doctrine, your policy is an existential threat that will see the world incinerated.

You get around the planet with your carrot and stick diplomacy.
Your stick is the sanctions to inflict collective punishment on entire nations that resist you.
And your carrot is your fifth column scumbags like Maria Machado telling the whole nation how crap the leadership is when the country is under attack by you.

You do this the whole entire world over.
You've never brought peace anywhere only war and death.

As for democracy itself, that means the people decide.
Democracy isn't under attack if Trump wins you moron.
That's an expression of the people deciding what they want.

"If this country disowns truth, goodness and beauty by reinstalling Trump into the executive office, it will have disowned the very things that give life its universal meaning and significance."

Your country is stuffed either way in my opinion.
So you should really ease up on the Trump Derangement.
That's a symptom of your countries decline too btw.
- Only thing you were actually right about.

You're a disgusting warmongering cancer of a nation, supports and facilitates genocide and terror all across the world.
Can you maybe just disappear quietly without dragging everyone down with you?

$35tln in debt. Bye bye.

oh, and btw - Biden didn't step aside because it was the honourable statesmen-like thing to do, he was pushed.
He was given an ultimatum:
Step aside or face the 25th Amendment.

We don't have states-men in the west, we have yes-men.
Next time you want to talk about truth, maybe you should go and find it first before you reach to others.

We don't have Statesmen in the West. We only have Yes-men?

Really?

I don't think the following could be described as Yes-men Either
in the West or elsewhere:

Abraham Lincoln
Mahatma Gandi
Nelson Mandela
Winston Churchill
Teddy Roosevelt
Margaret Thatcher
Thomas Jefferson
Barack Obama
JFK
Ronald Reagan
Yasser Arafat
Shimon Peres
Eisenhower
Mikhail Gorbachev
Bonaparte
Nelson
Bismarck

To list just a few.

History books are full of worthy Statesmen. Who've made real
changes for their people and country's good. This occurred
because of the individual choices made by these
influential people. People
like Mikhail Gorbachev who wanted to reform the Soviet System
not destroy it like "Vlad the Impaler Putin."
Or Bibi Netanyahu or old Joe Stalin, or Herr Hitler or Mao,
or the aging showman - Donald Trump.

But each to their own.

Gorbachev thought that once the cold war was over they would be accepted. Not so.
The West proclaimed victory and wanted to rule over them.
Which brings us to today.
Putin even wanted to join NATO at one point.

Many of the others on the list are Yes-men too.
Have you heard of the Council on Foreign Relations by chance?

Armchair Critic,

Putin wanted to join NATO?

What with Russian military and political structures being
dominated by anti-Western thinking - just like yours?

And you believe that they were really ready to be a member
of the alliance back in the 1990s?

Russia would have needed to reform and re-structure its
military and political aspects.

Putin wants to revive Russian power. He needs an enemy to
rally national pride against and the US and NATO fill that
need.

I can see from your posts that it is time:
for me to be more selective with whom
I have conversations on this forum.

Cheers.

"What with Russian military and political structures being
dominated by anti-Western thinking - just like yours?"
- At that time after the end of the Cold War Russia just wanted to become a normal country like western countries, but the US wouldn't have it, they wanted to rule over and exploit.

"And you believe that they were really ready to be a member
of the alliance back in the 1990s?"
- Putin himself would probably say that he was too trusting and naive of the wests intentions at the time.

"Putin wants to revive Russian power. He needs an enemy to
rally national pride against and the US and NATO fill that
need."
- You have things back to front. Putin just wants security.
But Russia no longer cares about what the West says and does.

The West's sanctions and war have made Russia more prosperous.
http://www.worldbank.org/en/about/leadership/directors/eds23/brief/russia-was-classified-as-high-income-country

"In 2023, Russia’s Gross National Income per capita reached 14250 USD, and, consequently, Russia was classified as a high-income country for the first time since 2015. Real GDP per capita growth accounted for 3.6, while GNI per capita grew by 11.2% in 2023, clearly demonstrating successful macroeconomic policy conducted despite external pressure. Among key factors that contributed to economic growth in 2023 are trade (+6.8%), the financial sector (+8.7%), and construction (+6.6%). The most recent release of data from the International Comparison Program indicates that Russia became the 4th largest economy (GDP PPP) globally in 2021."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia-NATO_relations

In 2000 Putin told George Robertson, the Secretary General of NATO at that time, that he wanted Russia to join NATO but would not like to go through the usual application process.[47]

In 2001, following the September 11 attacks against the United States, Russian President Vladimir Putin reached out to President George W. Bush, the President of the United States at the time. This was the height of U.S.-Russian relations since the end of the Cold War. Russia even shared intelligence that they had with the United States, which proved vital to the U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Image: Russian President Vladimir Putin, NATO Secretary-General George Robertson and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at the Russia-NATO Summit at Pratica di Mare Air Base in Italy on 28 May 2002
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia-NATO_relations#/media/File:Vladimir_Putin_28_May_2002-17.jpg

Venezuelan opposition leader thanks U.S. for recognizing him as presidential election's winner
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/us-recognizes-opposition-candidate-gonzalez-winner-venezuela-election-rcna164802

Haven't we heard this story before?
It's Juan Guaido all over again.
[Rolls eyes]

When will people understand that 'democracy' has become a tool of war to subvert the will of the people, to put puppet rulers in place to they can rob a nations wealth for the benefit of US companies and use deficit spending on useless US weapons, and force the countries into IMF debt and complete servitude with the debt placed upon the nations kids, and all the money flowing back to US bankers.

America just wants the oil.
It doesn't care about the people.

'Fight to the last Ukrainian'
- That's not what a friend does.

The good news is that everything America does these days seems to blow up in their faces.
And they're being destroyed by their own surrogate Israel.
I'm not sure America will allow Netanyahu to drag them into open conflict with Iran and Russia, who will likely assist in their defense if necessary.
All Americas talk of defending rules based order, human rights etc.
They've shown the world their hypocrisy in Gaza and the world is moving away from them because they went too far trying to steal Russias Central Bank funds and seizing the assets of individuals.
No countries are going to build factories in America, and they are also losing their chip-war.

America is on a road to total insignificance.

America can't even tell the truth about the Olympic medal tally.
What an arrogant egotistical miserable pathetic nation they are.