For those of us that enjoy the American spectacle every leap year and the fulfilment and joy that comes with it. Who's in, who's out? Who'll win and who'll claim it's all rigged? Who'll have the best party and who the longest hangover?

Who will win, Germany or France?

Not too much different from the lousy American elections. A contest between the worst ones.

Does Portugal even do elections anymore?

Well, now the games begin in earnest.

Nah. I have no interest in affecting Portugal's government. In fact, the governance of the U.S. is my sole political concern...

Well, your favourite, Cruz, lost his shot at the presidency.

They got what they deserved. I think it's safe to say that the era of double terms is over.

Ah, wait, but we still have to see if Trump accepts the election result

Well, your favourite, Cruz, lost his shot at the presidency.

This election... In 2020, things may be different. (He's a young man, still.) And four years of a Trump presidency might make people think twice...

I think it's safe to say that the era of double terms is over.

That depends upon Trump being another Carter or Johnson -- doesn't it?
Yes, I expect him to be...

Trump is more likely to become the death of the Republican party than of the country, but he may grievously wound both. 

Like I said before, the US system was designed to stop people like Trump, but it has never truly been tested before. I think the system will win, but I am not yet sure.

@rjhowie, @Belfrager, @krake may snap at the country, but it is from the safety of knowing it's there. Though if we had to, we'd probably survive the Post-American era.

I don't care that much about France, it's France after all,  but Le Pen is unlikely to win. Not in a Trump "better not" sense, but in a purely probabilistic sense, she really doesn't have the numbers. But even with a different one we can already say that a year from now the US and France both will have a dimwit for president.

Putin is past his "best before" date, as is Iznogood Erdoğan. Modi and Xi will probably both eventually end up in the "deplorable" basket, their authoritanism can lead to some intermediate good.

A little diversion from the election aftermath. The pundits got it wrong; now they're telling us why they got it wrong. There should be an open hunting season on pundits.

Which brings me to this:

Much appreciated, Jaybro! (The term is "comic relief," isn't it?)
I still have to deal with young children... That the internet allows me to teach them via the gentle and genuine humor of The Great Dane is a marvelous boon.
That so many others remember him helps me accept the possibility that we'll survive, and maybe even get along!

Long List of Top Democrats Have 2020, and Money, on Their Minds

In interviews, more than three dozen leading Democratic donors, fund-raisers and operatives agreed that it was the earliest start they had ever seen to the jockeying that typically precedes the official kickoff to the campaign for the party's presidential nomination. It is a reflection of the deep antipathy toward President Trump among Democrats, and the widespread belief that the right candidate could defeat him, but also of the likelihood that the contest for the nomination could be the longest, most crowded and most expensive in history.

"They used to start coming to talk to you two years before the election. Now, it's six months after the last presidential election," said the Wall Street billionaire Marc Lasry, a major political donor who has met recently with several Democrats mentioned as prospective presidential candidates.

We haven't recovered from the last election

Ah, Mr T, what a very appropriate distraction!

It's only 967 days left until election day, so

Trump to "keep America great" in 2020

Trump has showed strong interest in his next presidential term, announcing his bid by naming his former campaign advisor Brad Parscale as his new campaign manager in late February, earlier than any former president.

The previous record was held by Barack Obama, who made his second campaign announcement 582 days before the general election date. Trump broke the news 980 days before election day, U.S. media reported.

Trump is reportedly in good standing financially for his campaign, compared with his would-be competitors.

Doesn't matter who is in the White House the massive poverty numbers in the country the jail records regular school massacres, violent police and the world corporate imperialism will continue. Wish our television news dealt much less with the nutjob corner. Might as well put another damn star on their flag!

What's the other star for?

There is a thing jax about this thread I overlooked and forgot to mention and tht is it's title.

Yanks are forever using the word "awesome" to describe even ordinary things and it is influencing elsewhere and even a couple of tv adverts here in GB.  Even in my hobby of railway simulator building we get a regular thing where a routine route built is  awesome an makes me groan.

We can rest assured you would never overlook something of such an importance.

My bag was full of that "awesome" rubbishing word.

My point is that it is now becoming a silly direction. It is basically another example of American stuff being brained into people. We also get expressions here like 'law enforcement' then that bright spark Tony Blair copied the US by dispensing with the Lords court thing and we got a 'Supreme Court.' Using 'awesome as a standard expression is simple, and over does even minor things which get the label so you are as guilty as other people who have their grey ells interfered with.  Smal  wonder the ex-colonies have a mass grey cells  problem. 

There's a special category for language peeving here: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?cat=62

Nah. To me it shows how easy it is for nutjobland to influence outside of politics and world military controls.

What "politics" and what "world military controls" would you be referring to, RJ? --That's one of the problems with not speaking English on this forum: It's quite difficult to get your point across...

Imagine a Yank thinking their corner is good at English!

In this thread there is not a reasonable electoral system and in hard terms only two parties get anywhere and both linked to corporates and full of the jingostic stuff that they want to control the world in militarism and corporate controls. Internally tens of millions who suffer and the place is a nationalist crazy land. Don't have a problem with taking a national flag into a respect status but the damn thing is everywhere over there except the toilet. Over the top stuff as usual. Nice to see you have woken up Oaky! 

Incoherency is not really an excuse, RJ. But since it's the only one you have -- stick with it!

Unable to answer charges and fall back on slagging. Insulting your own brain but fair enough seems easy.......