Sunday, May 29, 2016

Trump turns the clock back to the bad old 1960s

Much as I hate to bring up the subject of Donald Trump yet again, the guy is a veritable news factory.
As the reality sinks in that this guy could in fact become President and single-handedly and single-mindedly demolish decades of American diplomacy, high-mindedness and statecraft, protests are springing up and clashes are occurring between pro-Trump and anti-Trump factions, and those clashes are becoming increasingly violent. The man has managed to turn America back 50 years to the good old bad old days of McCarthyism, race hate and sectarianism of the 1960s. And he's not even President yet!
The latest such clash occurred earlier today in sunny San Diego, California, close to the putative location of Trump's beloved Mexican wall. There was jeering and heckling on both sides, and soon stones and water-bottles were being thrown, and arrests were being made. This follows violent protests in Albuquerque, New Mexico, earlier this week, and more violence in Orange County, California, just a few weeks ago. California, of course, has a large percentage of Latinos, most of whom are vehemently opposed to Trump and his policies (and not just "the wall").
It is clear that Trump is by far the most divisive personality in America since the 1960s. One can only imagine what will happen once the election battle proper commences.
Even Canada is not immune from the repercussions of Trump's campaign. It seems that the current owners of the 65-storey Trump International Hotel & Tower in downtown Toronto, the real estate conglomerate Talon International Development Inc., are now looking to offload it. The tower block, which has Trump's name prominently emblazoned at the top, has failed to attract enough rich, Trump-loving tenants. It is likely that whoever buys the building will also want to sever (at almost any cost) the marketing, reservation and housekeeping contract with Trump Toronto Hotel Management Corp. The Trump name is no longer a commercial advantage, at least here in Canada (although why it would ever have been associated in people's minds with good business practices remains a mystery to me).

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