17 December 2017
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David
/ December 17, 2017Great news from the US, Trumps approval rating has risen to 41% according Gallup and the lovely Melania is at 54%.
If this trend continues Trump could well end up the most popular leader in the G7. May Merkel and Macron can only look on with envy, even our own awesome Ardern is struggling at 38% preferred PM.
Pete George
/ December 17, 2017Both the RCP average (37.1%) and Fivethirtyeight (36.4%) average has Trump’s popularity tanking with approval ratings of both sliding, with the net now more than -20%.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_trump_job_approval-6179.html
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/
David
/ December 17, 2017And Gallup have him up at 41% on Friday, still beats most other western leaders
Pete George
/ December 17, 2017The lowest by a significant margin of any modern US president at this stage of their first four years.
High Flying Duck
/ December 17, 2017He’s taken his time, but reasserting the US world dominance may start paying dividends…
US President Donald Trump’s “hard-line” stance on North Korea will force the dictatorship to make compromises next year, a South Korean think tank has predicted.
Because Trump has reacted with such fury to the Stalinist state’s missile and nuclear tests, North Korea may have to concede ground over fears the US will “execute a military strike”.
Anxieties about US power could combine with a crippled economy and the loss of China and Russia as allies to force the belligerent autocracy to cool down its nuclear programme, reports Daily Mail.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11961337
lurcher1948
/ December 17, 2017The USA have never won a war they started and China said they will back NK if the USA attacks and i think Russia with a border with NK will support them(NK) as the USA has been spitting in Russia’s face for years and humiliating them, and looking at the odds i would say the USA might have its butt kicked. FAT predicable and drug ravished the USA are fading away… just saying
Kitty Catkin
/ December 17, 2017Drug ravaged ?
I hope that old Velvet-ears Red is standing up to the heat all right. Did you look up the book about Red, the Lurcher ? You could have bought him a copy for Christmas.
lurcher1948
/ December 17, 2017REDs hanging out at the beach
Kitty Catkin
/ December 17, 2017Lucky dog.
DID YOU LOOK UP THE BOOK ???
High Flying Duck
/ December 17, 2017Meanwhile, texts that look incriminating regarding the Clinton investigation by the FBI are perfectly innocuous and we should all move on because they just show “human foibles”.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/99929168/fbi-officials-text-messages-about-hillary-clinton-a-cover-story-for-romantic-affair
The Trump ‘evidence’ though, however circumstantial and nebulous is basically a smoking gun – without the gun.
High Flying Duck
/ December 17, 2017Should have posted in World Watch sorry – was mislead by the posts above…
robertguyton
/ December 17, 2017My “Mrs Grundy” comment disappeared, Pete. Your latest venture into TS territory produced this curiously insightful comment from SPC (in case you missed it):
“SPC …
17 December 2017 at 4:12 pm
Not an idiot.
Just a centrist with little relevance to those on the right or left and their debates/issues. Like all centrists, not just above the fray but a little self-righteous as a neutral commentator about the left and right.
It is not so much that he cannot be reasoned with, but that he is not someone who is going to be swayed to a leftist or rightist point of view, his pride is in being independent of both.”
Pete George
/ December 17, 2017It should have shown as deleted, it wasn’t appropriate in general chat. It’s fine here.
Some interesting reactions on that thread. A number of people seem blind to the fact that they are proving a point.
Here’s the thread: https://thestandard.org.nz/tory-translation-service/#comment-1427198
SPC is sort of right, but I don’t see myself as a ‘centrist’. I’m not aligned to any specific part of the political spectrum. I agree with and disagree with policies and actions across the spectrum.
It’s more a type of pragmatic politics as opposed to aligned politics. It’s not knew, it is largely what the Lange Government was, reacting to a dire emergency, over reacting a bit.
And it’s largely what we have seen with the Clark and Key/English governments, with signs that Ardern will continue along similar lines (very blurred lines).
robertguyton
/ December 17, 2017As a matter of interest (genuine) Pete, can you see why people get irritated by your comments? I, for balance, know just why my various comments here annoy?
Pete George
/ December 17, 2017Sometimes yes – people don’t like being proven wrong or having their ‘my shit doesn’t stink’ syndrome pointed out.
But that’s usually only a small number of people. And a few regulars aren’t irritated, they try and irritate and inflame whenever I comment there to try and shut down discussion or different opinions. You seem to support dirty blogging – you even join in the pile ons some times.
I’d perhaps be irritated if I was the Labour party or the green party and saw supporters carrying on with that sort of nonsense. It reflects poorly on the parties.
Robert Guyton
/ December 17, 2017Ha! So that’s a “no” then 🙂
Gezza
/ December 17, 2017Pete’s audience includes a select few who aren’t ferociously tribal & loyal to a fault to the foibles of their own left or right Parties or viewpoints. Such people in my experience are usually painful in the extreme to chat to in social situations & are best avoided like the plague unless they have the sort of sense of humour where they can have a laff at themselves.
Seems to me you only come here to stir, Robert. And when you feel you have to even stir up political mud in a Social Chat page, you make that obvious. I think you’re one of those people best not invited to social gatherings unless it’s a knees up where they’re all Greenies & can all moan & take potshots at their agreed “enemies of the people” in unison.
I’m open to persuasion otherwise though?
Pete George
/ December 18, 2017It wasn’t a no Robert. But it’s complex. For example you’re one of those who join in pile ons at The Standard, but it doesn’t seem to be because of irritation, you seem to be playing a game of deliberate disruption with people whose opinions you want to shut down and discredit. It’s a shutdown tactic. So a form of dirty politics, like others at TS.
robertguyton
/ December 18, 2017Gezza – “includes a select few” – might be fair comment: how “few” do you count? 2? Yes, using the “social chat” page was a mistake; I’ll take more care from now on. I’m attracted to bland statements that are harmful when swallowed. I like to try to tease them out, expose the pale fibres and reweave a decent cord. Likely as not, my time is wasted, but it’s generally an enjoyable pursuit. Pete, like Keeping Stock, before him, styles himself as reasonable but can’t, in my view, see the wood for his trees. I expect I’m the same in some ways – we all try to help each other see the world more clearly. At social events, I’m good company, I’m told.
Robert Guyton
/ December 18, 2017“Dirty politics” pffffffffffftttt!
Dirty politics is what Key, English, Joyce, Eagleson, Slater, Farrar et al. did/do, Pete.
Get real.
robertguyton
/ December 18, 2017““National’s central role in orchestrating DP from the ninth floor in the Beehive”
Now you’re expecting commenters at TS to provide you with evidence, Pete?
Pffffffffffffft!
Are you for real?
Jason Ede’s a great bloke? Nothing to see here? Key never dunit?
Pete!
Pete George
/ December 18, 2017You’re misrepresenting what I said Robert. Actually, you’re lying. Ede has been disgraced. I didn’t say anything like ‘nothing to see here’, I asked for more facts and more exposure, the opposite.
Are you just stirring again, or do you believe your own misconstrued claims?
Yes, I do prefer to base what I say on evidence. I think there is a lack of evidence on levels of complicity in DP by the PM’s office, and it is important to know to what extent isn’t it? Unless you’re a lazy partisan.
I think that it’s certain that the PM’s office was not involved in all of WO’s agendas, some of which have been dirty against the PM and National MPs.
Blazer
/ December 18, 2017I agree. ..not all. .
robertguyton
/ December 18, 2017The investigative work of Pete George, or that of Nicky Hager? George or Hager? Hager or George? What a way to start the day!
Blazer
/ December 18, 2017What are these ‘levels ‘…of complicity?
robertguyton
/ December 18, 2017Now now, Pete, accusing a commenter of lying; please be clear; what was my lie? A direct quote would seal it, thanks.
Pete George
/ December 18, 2017You said:
That clearly implies it is what I said. It is a blatant misrepresentation of what I said. Was that deliberate? If so that would be lying. Or did you make wild assumptions without reading properly?
robertguyton
/ December 18, 2017Pffffft. Come on Pete, convention has it, and I follow convention when I write, that when quoting someone, quotation marks must be used. For someone who says he’s posted under pseudonyms on more than one blog, has been banned for purposefully inflaming other commenters, has received numerous calls to leave a thread only yesterday, you sure are keen to make accusations here in your home paddock!
Pete George
/ December 18, 2017Come on Robert, you’re intentionally implying things that are false representations, it’s lame to effectively deny it by claiming quotation marks matter.
And you have misrepresented me again with “For someone who says he’s posted under pseudonyms on more than one blog”nand “has been banned for purposefully inflaming other commenters”.
I don’t purposefully try to inflame others. Some act like they have been , but that’s usually disingenuous and making excuses for their own flaming.
In fact it’s because I don’t inflame or burst into flames that seems to annoy some people, because that’s what they try to manufacture. Including you.
Can you please quote in context what I actually said, rather than weasel your way out with saying it wasn’t a quote.
robertguyton
/ December 18, 2017“For fun” then, same as I do 🙂
Pete George
/ December 18, 2017No, you’re making things up about me again. What’s up with your misrepresentations Robert?
Gezza
/ December 18, 2017🤔 Hmm. Might be an element of truth in that. PG does seem to like poking a stick at the hornets nest over at TS on the odd occasion.
robertguyton
/ December 18, 2017Pete George said:
“I’ve openly identified myself in commenting under my own name for quite a few years now. Apart from a couple of little bits of fun using a pseudonym a long time ago (one here, one on Redbaiter’s blog) I have only posted or commented under my name.”:
robertguyton
/ December 18, 2017OAB said, of Pete just now…
“So you don’t understand what the post is about. Or you’re being deliberately dishonest. I think it’s the latter.”
Slow down a little, Pete, breathe with your abdomen.