[QUOTE=kladner;445744]Please note that one does not have to be totally enamored of Sec Clinton to despise Trump. :yucky:[/QUOTE]

I have to admit that I been following this US of A election more closely than even that of my home country of Canada's election last year, or Britain's Brexit referendum this year.

Why? Because this is becoming dangerous. Refusing to say the players won't accept defeat if they lose. Saying the "Second Amendment people" might take matters into their own (well armed) hands in the case of a loss.

How did someone as [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/26/us/politics/donald-trump-interviews.html"]unstable and self-centred[/URL] as DJT become the nominee for the "Grand Old Party" (GOP) AKA The Republican Party?

I am truly fearful of civil unrest during the election process, and after November 8th, within the US of A.

There is little upside for anyone with this kind of "scorched earth" methodology. Markets need stability.

Further to this, I think the people, and the parties, of the "Home of the Brave" need to meditate deeply about where they have been, where they are now, and where they want to go.

For what that is worth. I'm simply an outside (worried) observer.

[QUOTE=kladner;445744]Please note that one does not have to be totally enamored of Sec Clinton to despise Trump. :yucky:[/QUOTE]A common view on this side of the pond appears to be "A plague a' both your houses!"

[QUOTE=only_human;445397]
Apropos of nothing I am bemused by the French pronunciation of an elephant's trunk resembling Trump, the frontpiece of this election's Republican mascot so I am including a French children's video on elephants: Un éléphant, ça trompe énormément
[/QUOTE]
Add in that " trompe"can be translated as " to mislead."

[QUOTE=firejuggler;445763]Add in that " trompe"can be translated as " to mislead."[/QUOTE]
Good catch - as in trompe l'oeil.

Regarding word fun, a Twitter post pointed out that [I]nasty women[/I] is an anagram for [I]amnesty now[/I].

[QUOTE=firejuggler;445763]Add in that " trompe"can be translated as " to mislead."[/QUOTE]

and Drumpf the surname Trump comes from can ( depending on how many times you click it it seems) mean dull. it can also be said to mean trump card which is semi opposing the other meaning in google translate.

[QUOTE=xilman;445754]A common view on this side of the pond appears to be "A plague a' both your houses!"[/QUOTE]

I'm about to get into a bathing suit, and swim in our pool.

I might pee in the pool.

On the ridiculous Trump hand thing that never seems to end, I stumbled onto more quite accidentally while searching for "Trump l'oeil"

[URL="http://hyperallergic.com/284186/trump-loeil-a-conversation-with-the-donalds-portrait-painter/"]Trump l’oeil: A Conversation with the Donald’s Portrait Painter[/URL]

It turns out that Trump bought a stylistic oil sketch portrait painting of himself with a sketched-but-unpainted hand whereupon he nagged the artist for fifteen years to have the hand painted too.

Looking at the two images in the article, the before state is vastly superior with hand details and textured appearance of the adjacent pant leg. The before hand reminds me of the famous work of Manet's Olympia which also has a striking effect in contrast to the rest of the work in that case giving the hand such attention to detail that it almost seems to lift off the surface much as Escher's portrayal of hands drawing themselves also seem to do.

But none of that matters because Trump didn't like it and eventually paid three or four thousand dollars (accounts vary) for the hand to be painted.

More details in this other article tell us that Trump tried to get a free painting of his wife from the same artist:
[URL="http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/confidential/trump-legendary-artist-portrait-article-1.2553580"]Trump makes legendary artist do portrait his way[/URL]
[QUOTE]Cowan also nearly did a portrait of Melania Trump, but that plan never came together.

"(Trump) was going to make it a surprise and then he started dealing and not wanting to pay for it," said Cowan. "After he had that show ("The Apprentice"), he started thinking everybody should give things to him."

Cowan, who's also painted portraits all of Trump's children and both of his ex-wives, still hasn't painted Melania.

"That never happened," he said. "I don't give gifts as a painter and I'm not going to start at 85."[/QUOTE]
Some of the ridiculous hand talk from this campaign has been dialing into a strange fixation coming from Trump himself: [URL="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3289263/How-Donald-Trump-repeatedly-tried-convince-editor-Vanity-Fair-Graydon-Carter-not-short-fingered-vulgarian-sending-pictures-hands.html"]REVEALED: How Donald Trump has repeatedly tried to prove to Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter that he does not have 'abnormally stubby' fingers by sending him PICTURES of his hands[/URL]
[QUOTE]'Just to drive him a little bit crazy, I took to referring to him as a “short-fingered vulgarian” in the pages of Spy magazine. That was more than a quarter of a century ago.

'To this day, I receive the occasional envelope from Trump. There is always a photo of him - generally a tear sheet from a magazine. On all of them he has circled his hand in gold Sharpie in a valiant effort to highlight the length of his fingers.[/QUOTE]

I just hope whoever gets elected isn't a fan of the atomic chess where any time your king isn't isolated it can be blown up. edit: I think the current analogy for trumps stance is that the US is playing antichess ( a variant where you try to give away all your pieces or reach a stalemate while being forced to capture if you can).

Really, [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/37777652/donald-trumps-hollywood-walk-of-fame-star-smashed-up"]some people are so childish[/URL].

[url]http://phys.org/news/2016-10-evidence-politics-economics-inequality.html[/url]

I still think a lot of liberals come across as crazy, but it's not their economic policies that I have a problem with.

Also, mental walls go up when I have to think about extremely powerful women. It's not normal sexism, I had a very bad experience while psychotic and developed a bit of paranoia around the idea of women controlling my behavior. I will say that an American president has an indirect sort of authority when it comes to things like passing laws, called the veto ability, so that's a bit consoling.

[Retracted]