Society Only in the USA - things that baffle non-Americans

[Coriolan]

Countries that love and hate the United States:

That was in 2013 during the Obama years. When people are asked about their opinion of a country it reflects more their attitude to the current political administration and the current foreign policy than how they feel about the ordinary people and the culture. Just look how public opinion towards the"US" plummeted under the Trump administration.

 

[Jovialis]

That was in 2013 during the Obama years. When people are asked about their opinion of a country it reflects more their attitude to the current political administration and the current foreign policy than how they feel about the ordinary people and the culture. Just look how public opinion towards the"US" plummeted under the Trump administration.

View attachment 12540

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]I noticed a trend, they seem to dislike the USA more when a Republican is the President. Could it be that foreigners dislike it when the USA puts it's own interests first? Bush was not a populist, but did assert U.S. global dominance, with the War on Terror. Many people supported Bush, in the USA at the beginning of the 9/11 era. He had a very high approval rating. But eventually the media destroyed him, and made him look like a fool.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]I didn't think there could be a more hated person by the Left, the media, and foreigners, than W. Bush. But then Trump came along. I guess that is what happens when many of the billionaires of the world make a concerted effort to destroy someone.[/FONT]

 

[Jovialis]

^^Opensecrets.org has information on political fund raising and campaign contributions, which is made public by law. This is a good site for seeing the big money forces at play in our government:

https://www.opensecrets.org/2020-presidential-race

 

[Jovialis]

https://www.opensecrets.org/2020-presidential-race/michael-bloomberg/candidate?id=N00029349

The former mayor of NYC spent over a billion dollars of his own money, and he lost the primary.
[TABLE="width: 653"]
[TR]
[TD="class: category -color1"]Candidate self-financing[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]$1,089,225,532[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]99.35%[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

That is about as much as Biden spend, with donor money. Trump spent about a quarter less than Biden.

 

[Jovialis]

https://www.opensecrets.org/2020-presidential-race/michael-bloomberg/candidate?id=N00029349

The former mayor of NYC spent over a billion dollars of his own money, and he lost the primary.
[TABLE="width: 653"]
[TR]
[TD="class: category -color1"]Candidate self-financing[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]$1,089,225,532[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]99.35%[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

That is about as much as Biden spend, with donor money. Trump spent about a quarter less than Biden.

Down the line, Bloomberg donated almost 100 million to help Biden:

[TABLE="class: DataTable dataTable no-footer, width: 688"]
[TR]
[TH="class: sorting, colspan: 1, align: left"]Contributor[/TH]
[TH="class: number sorting_desc, colspan: 1, align: right"]Total[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="class: odd"]
[TD]Bloomberg LP[/TD]
[TD="class: number sorting_1, align: right"]$94,600,482[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


https://www.opensecrets.org/2020-presidential-race/joe-biden/contributors?id=N00001669

 

[Jovialis]

Trump's biggest single contributor was Sheldon Adelson, owner of the Las Vegas Sands casino. Adelson has recently died from cancer. His passing has a big implications for the GOP:

[TABLE="class: DataTable dataTable no-footer, width: 688"]
[TR]
[TH="class: sorting, colspan: 1, align: left"]Contributor[/TH]
[TH="class: number sorting_desc, colspan: 1, align: right"]Total[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="class: odd"]
[TD]Las Vegas Sands[/TD]
[TD="class: number sorting_1, align: right"]$45,010,352[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: even"]
[TD]Adelson Clinic for Drug Abuse Treatment & Research[/TD]
[TD="class: number sorting_1, align: right"]$45,005,600[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

 

[Coriolan]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]I noticed a trend, they seem to dislike the USA more when a Republican is the President. Could it be that foreigners dislike it when the USA puts it's own interests first? Bush was not a populist, but did assert U.S. global dominance, with the War on Terror. Many people supported Bush, in the USA at the beginning of the 9/11 era. He had a very high approval rating. But eventually the media destroyed him, and made him look like a fool.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]I didn't think there could be a more hated person by the Left, the media, and foreigners, than W. Bush. But then Trump came along. I guess that is what happens when many of the billionaires of the world make a concerted effort to destroy someone.[/FONT]

Don't tell me that you believed Trump's rhetoric of "making America great again". The man did more damage to his country than any previous presidents in the last 100 years, Republican or Democrat.

Need to me just the occurrence that public opinion of America abroad nosedived under the last two Republican presidents. Europeans didn't seem to mind too much either Reagan or Bush Sr. The unpopularity of Bush Jr and Trump was close by very different things. Most of the world objected to Bush Jr and and his acolytes declaring war on Iraq under false pretences of weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist, then making hundreds of millions by taking the country's oil and securing reconstruction contracts for Halliburton.

Trump was disliked almost universally in any country, except by some Republicans in the US.

 

[Jovialis]

Expenditures Breakdown, Joe Biden, 2020 cycle


[TABLE="width: 653"]
[TR]
[TD="class: category -color1"]Media[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]$837,484,599[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]79.93%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: category -color2"]Salaries[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]$55,799,502[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]5.33%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: category -color3"]All Other[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]$44,860,267[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]4.28%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: category -color4"]Administrative[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]$42,045,347[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]4.01%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: category -color5"]Unclassifiable[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]$35,255,966[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]3.36%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: category -color6"]Fundraising[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]$32,326,443[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]3.08%[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


Expenditures Breakdown, Donald Trump, 2020 cycle


[TABLE="width: 653"]
[TR]
[TD="class: category -color1"]Media[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]$532,835,865[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]68.94%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: category -color2"]All Other[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]$68,531,437[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]8.86%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: category -color3"]Administrative[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]$65,199,362[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]8.43%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: category -color4"]Unclassifiable[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]$40,716,129[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]5.27%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: category -color5"]Fundraising[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]$37,746,424[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]4.88%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: category -color6"]Campaign Expenses[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]$27,859,864[/TD]
[TD="class: number, align: right"]3.60%[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

 

[Jovialis]

Don't tell me that you believed Trump's rhetoric of "making America great again". The man did more damage to his country than any previous presidents in the last 100 years, Republican or Democrat.

Need to me just the occurrence that public opinion of America abroad nosedived under the last two Republican presidents. Europeans didn't seem to mind too much either Reagan or Bush Sr. The unpopularity of Bush Jr and Trump was close by very different things. Most of the world objected to Bush Jr and and his acolytes declaring war on Iraq under false pretences of weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist, then making hundreds of millions by taking the country's oil and securing reconstruction contracts for Halliburton.

Trump was disliked almost universally in any country, except by some Republicans in the US.

How did you feel about Obama, and Clinton waging war, and destabilizing Libya? Clinton, voted to give Bush the authority to wage war in Iraq. If you are actually this upset by warmongering, you are not going to like the people that Biden is putting into his administration, who are war-hawks from the CSIS.

FYI, Biden voted for the war in Iraq as well:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/17/joe-biden-role-iraq-war

 

[Jovialis]

How did you feel about Obama, and Clinton waging war, and destabilizing Libya? Clinton, voted to give Bush the authority to wage war in Iraq. If you are actually this upset by warmongering, you are not going to like the people that Biden is putting into his administration, who are war-hawks from the CSIS.

FYI, Biden voted for the war in Iraq as well:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/17/joe-biden-role-iraq-war

That being said, I hope Biden does a good job, and rules fairly and pragmatically. Who knows, maybe he will even move to the center more, and perhaps he can even purge his party of extremism. They won the election, so maybe they are done with the useful idiots for another 4 years.

 

[Angela]

Don't tell me that you believed Trump's rhetoric of "making America great again". The man did more damage to his country than any previous presidents in the last 100 years, Republican or Democrat.

Need to me just the occurrence that public opinion of America abroad nosedived under the last two Republican presidents. Europeans didn't seem to mind too much either Reagan or Bush Sr. The unpopularity of Bush Jr and Trump was close by very different things. Most of the world objected to Bush Jr and and his acolytes declaring war on Iraq under false pretences of weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist, then making hundreds of millions by taking the country's oil and securing reconstruction contracts for Halliburton.

Trump was dislike almost universally in any country, except by some Republicans in the US.

75 million Americans, almost half the country, and a good percentage of Hispanics among them, voted for Trump. Whether Europeans or American Democrats like it or not, those are the facts. If he hadn't made such a mess of the Covid situation he would easily have been re-elected.

Personally, since the election I think he's had a sort of breakdown.

I was not, btw, one of the Americans who voted for him, but neither could I vote for that corrupt, lying, crook Hillary, and the as corrupt but far more stupid and senile Biden and the far left WOKE people who supported him.

As for the opinion of other countries I don't give a rat's you know what other countries think of him or America, and neither do most Americans, even among those who voted for Biden. There are no "friends" among nations, and it's naive to think there are. There are only interests, and from my experience "straddling the pond" my opinion is that Europeans are, in particular, an ungrateful bunch of jealous useful idiots for any leftist propaganda which comes along, and any spirit of independence, self-reliance, or ingenuity has been sucked out of them by living in nanny states all their lives. It seems to never occur to them that you should never trust concentrated power, whether it's in the public center or the private center, and that includes your own government. Most of Europe meekly bowed its head to one totalitarian government or another; problem today is that they don't know or care that their governments control every aspect of their live.

If I have any over-riding principal politically as an American it's isolationism.