General Chat

First item of news was about the USA Election - fine - but did we need nearly 16 minutes of it all told? How many reporters are there out there covering it?

Also on elections I received my postal vote but until I opened it I had no idea of who is standing. I have always strongly believed in the vote but have to admit this time I do wonder.

It's first item on our news too, Chris. I'll be glad when it's all over. I'm at the stage where I don't care who wins the election. I'm also fed up of the various 'celebrities' who join in the campaigning and are constantly seen on the stage with their chosen candidate.

For the life of me I cannot understand the mass hysteria they appear to undergo around their election time - beats me. Thought ours was bad enough.s

dare I say - I find the US election exciting!! I hope Obama wins

I liked the celebs showing their support.
Bruce Springsteen's tribute was ace... Born In The USA.

My OH has planned to stay up all night and watch the coverage.
He has fallen asleep already.!!

GoBama

USA cousin definitely wishes Obama to win but has been worrying for a few weeks now - feeling that a racist vote is possible and that viewpoint was in an article in past couple of days.

EVERY programme on radio here seems to have been concerned with the US election!

It's boring ................ but the results might well be exciting, as there are so many possible variations in what will happen.

I too am hoping that Obama wins again



Apparently 85% of people who live outside the US want Obama to win :-D



Chris .........

................. there has been a racist backlash against Obama since he won 4 years ago.

There will be again


Why do you think so many Republicans .......... including Donald Trump less than 6 months ago .................. made accusations about his birth in Hawaii being "wrong", and insisting that they be allowed to see the long form certificate.


Hawaii just doesn't issue a long form certificate ................ but they had to do it for Obama in the end. PLUS getting the doctor who delivered him, a couple of nurses, searches of the newspaper archives etc.

Racism is also the reason why several Republican governed states produced new rules for people to be allowed to vote ..................... photo ID. That affects mainly black and poor white voters.


my blood boils!!



sylvia

That is disgusting Sylvia but then I found it abhorrent that they had segregation for black people but were quite happy to send them off to war to fight for the USA.

I do recall the hoo-haa about Obama's birth cert.

I recall the Hoo Ha too,.
I remember the clip from the 2011 White House Correpondents Dinner, when Pres Obama released his birth video.
It was excellent!

when I was a child during the war I lived in a little cottage on a mountainside above Cardiff - American soldiers were living in tents along the road guarding ammunition dumps - all these Americans were black without exception - seems white soldiers were too good to live under canvas

Also these men were very generous to our family as they had food supplies which contained things we could only dream of - my Mum was in her early twenties but had no problems - they were very respectful

I wonder if American TV has the same coverage when it is the UK General Election?

I couldn't believe the amount the candidates are reported to have spent on trying to get elected : over one billion dollars each !

Only one word for it - obscene.

Many US citizens live in GB,they can have a birdsview of whats happening in their country,,,,,,,same as us if we were living at the time in US.

We'd all like to know what faces us on our return.... :-D

The trouble is that if you were in America when anything important happened in UK you would hardly know about it. UK news rarely gets reported there. Or it didn't up to about 6 years ago, the last time we were there. Maybe they have changed?

Would have thought the following would have been more important - Liz


Britain's top policeman tonight paid tribute to one of his officers who collapsed and died while chasing two phone thieves.

Detective Constable Adele Cashman ran after the suspects who had snatched a 59-year-old woman's smartphone in London.

To answer Paula's question .........................


you most certainly would not see anything like the coverage of a British election if you lived in the US


They don't even see anywhere near the same coverage of Canadian elections, and we are not only their closest neighbours, but also supposed to be one of their best trading partners!


Americans really are pretty insular, when it comes down to basic facts ................. some of them don't even know where Canada is, not to mention the UK.



I lived and worked in the US for a year ............

.............. and well remember being asked if we were going to be living in an igloo and driving a dog sled when people heard we were moving to Canada


During that year, admittedly well before the internet, we got our news about areas of the world other than the US by subscribing to a British Sunday newspaper, which was sent airmail to New York, then ordinary post down to where we were living.

It would arrive on Thursday.


We would later see "foreign" news that we had read about in that paper about 1 week later ................... in the university's journalism school's student-published newspaper, but not in the local paper, or even what passes for a national paper.


I really was convinced at one point that WW3 could have broken out in Europe, and we would not hear about it for at least 10 days. :-|



sylvia

Well the news of WW2 took a long time to reach them and then, according to them, they won it. ;-)

lol @ Chris :-D :-D

We went to a wedding in Chicago 20 plus years ago and someone actually asked me if I knew the Queen Mother............. and she was not joking.

Chris ....................... :-D :-D :-D

Paula+ I would have told them you did know the Queen Mother (not lying, after all).

That she had planned to come to wedding with you, but the international airport in Thurso had been closed that morning by high winds.

Not sure I know where USA is. I know Alaska is in Russia and north of Canada, so is USA next to Russia? We are very insular in Wales and have only just got a grip on where England is. As to the old colonies, they are a long way from our cultural epicentre but no idea in which direction. ;-)