when you talk of disaffected people in big gaps in the US and...

when you talk of disaffected people in big gaps in the US and also extreme poverty in Germany ----------

these conditions create what we seem to think are a revolt

but, I suspect we should think of them more so as a reaction - like when the pendulum gets to the extreme on one side - it reacts to gravity and it begins it's decent and gathers so much force that it rockets past the middle and goes to the extreme on the other side

so - rather than a revolution - it's a reaction - and in reaction - humans seem to be at their most powerful.

I have 2 friends who had a discussion the other day - and I thought it was interesting. (my role was to sit, look gorgeous, sip wine and listen)

Both are good observers and both are bright.

One has been involved in 10 Olympic games - TV production covering the games.
Out of the 10 - they said that by far the most spectacular of all the games was Barcelona - it was stunning and left all the others in the shade.

The other friend said that the games had transformed Barcelona - and that they had it really driven home when years later she and a disabled friend who is in a wheelchair went on holiday to Barcelona - she'd spent many times with this particular friend - and Barcelona was a city that was totally different to others - because the wheelchair friend had total access anywhere in the city - they said it was chalk and cheese to anywhere else.

Now - what's this got to do with politics?????????? everything. Friend 2 (the non TV person) said ------- their opinion

How so --------- because Barcelona had come out of dictatorship - years of it

and it had formed a new democracy - and it was going to show off this new democracy and it went way way way out of it's way to show that - this is the new us - we have left the past behind - it's gone, we are doing everything we can to be a new developed democracy

and that meant ----------- inclusion. To go out of their way to include all - and that means wheelchair access etc -

the common thread to what we see now ------- is that they had to forcefully swung their pendulum

and boy, did they give it a shove.

Now - Trump has correctly identified a huge societal gap chock full of disaffected people, left behind in almost everything - poor, uneducated, they used to have lowly manufacturing jobs - gone. Gone to China. Much work in country - gone to automation

they are ready - absolutely ripe for a swing to ---------- better.

And the problem is - they will believe someone who says --------- I'm gonna make America Great again -

it's a relief, they are for this and it sounds great

they aren't smart enough to listen to what is said and if they do - they can't put it together and say 'hang on a minnie' - that won't work

nope - they just want that pendulum to swing back the other way so badly - hard and fast

the question for America is ------ and for Australia and for the UK and for many European nations as well

how do you REALLY get that pendulum to swing - like make it real and actual?

because it just won't cut the mustard to go with popularist ideas -

it has to be changes at foundational level ------- levels that require a lot of money and a lot of time and a lot of patience

and for that ---------- people don't want to listen. They want quick, they want understandable to them (which means loud and simple) and they want someone else to pay

is it possible? --------------- no

If people want REAL change - then they have to do what Barcelona did -

they ripped up bits of footpath, they ripped out doors, they build all kinds of stuff - the sucked up the cost, they did the hard hard hard labour, they spent a LOT of time, they were patient, they were persistent -

AND, they built things that will probably last decades to centuries

no populist moves can cut mustard like that - it's just not possible