Thank you, Caring, for making us think (some find it more painful than others, but overall, it's working :o)

Despite Killary getting over 2 million more in the popular vote, Trump won due to the electoral system in America, which was essentially designed to make sure that no-one can put Mickey Mouse in the 'big chair'. This is laughingly called 'democracy'.

Trump has already gone back on many of his election promises and he's not even in office yet. So what? Obama promised to reduce the national debt, yet went on to increase it by around 9 trillion dollars - more than 43 previous presidents had done collectively.

So does this mean it's 'business as usual' for the Divided States of America?

'China is not a democracy!' said an ex-colleague of mine, who has since left this country. 'So what?' was my reply. 'You mean Chinese people don't get the chance to elect their 'dictator' like they do in the West?'

'Oh, but there's no freedom-of-speech in China, there's no freedom-of-the-press.'

'Really?......I mean REALLY?....When was the last time YOU dared to publicly voice your own personal opinions without fear of dealing with the wrath of the PC brigade? When was the last time YOU saw a believable news story in the newspaper or on TV ?'

It's laughable.

China may be OFFICIALLY a communist country, but it sure feels a lot more 'free' than any 'democratic' country that I have ever lived in, or been to.

Who voted for Teresa May? She's the British PM due to what? The resignation of the previous 'dictator' so she becomes PM by default. This is 'democracy'?

When I lived in my school, (which is situated on what we might describe as being a 'laneway'), I often had to walk home late at night along dimly lit streets - sometimes as late as 3am. There's no police presence, no street lighting, no people,.....nothing!

Had that been in the UK or Australia, my 'backside' would have been pulsating with fear.

So, as I walk these dark and dreary streets, I see no hooligans; no graffiti; no-one stalking me; nothing I can possibly perceive as being a potential threat; and.......no police!

How many of us living in Britain, America, UK, Canada, Australia, etc, feel safe walking along dimly-lit streets in areas of our downtown city centre at 3am?

When was the last time you had cause to visit a police station during a national holiday, only to find it CLOSED because all the coppers were where they should be - at home with their families?

Travel on any bus in this town and be prepared to suffer a ten-minute video (in Chinese) waffling-on how wonderful life in China really is. (bullshit, bullshit, bollox, bollox) These videos are aimed at Chinese citizens and are obviously full of propaganda. Yet this propaganda seems to do no harm at all. It's essentially brainwashing Chinese people into trying to be 'nice' - so what?

Heretosays wrote:-
'A pity that self importance doesn't always involve living a life of learning and curiosity, and a deep desire to free one's self from the apathetic thinking of the collective. However, that said, even the simplest of souls on this planet can intuit the rightness or wrongness of something, and can do so without having a book, or a newspaper or a talking head spewing the party line tell them what they should be thinking and believing and how they should behave in order to be an acceptable cog in a nearly broken down social mechanism that allows for the mistreatment of innocents.'

Sure, if you want to witness, first-hand, a race of people doing a wonderful impression of 'herd mentality', then China is certainly the place - but at what cost?

America has been ruled for decades by essentially the same people, it's just the face that changes. Britain, Australia etc, are the same. Yet we foolishly believe that we 'choose' our 'leaders' in a democratic way, and even more foolishly, adopt the belief that they can, or will, actually fulfill the promises they made to the public, prior to being elected.

Trump was elected, not because of who he is, but because of who the American public perceived him not to be. Trump's election was the result of a 'cry-for-help' from a huge proportion of the American people, all of whom are sick and tired of the likes of Bush, Clinton, Obama, etc.

Yet with a population of 330 million people, are we expected to believe that Trump and Clinton are the BEST choices they can offer the American people? Give me a break!

Now that Trump has won, the poor hard-done-by Clinton supporters appear to be ready to start another civil war. Had Clinton won, these same pathetic 'libtards' (or should I say fascists?), would be praising the 'power of democracy' and sitting nice and quiet whilst celebrating 'their' victory. Because Trump won, these people are essentially attacking the exact same system they purport to embrace. Go figure!

Britain has left the EU, Italy is likely to follow, and who knows who will be next? People are showing that they are sick and tired of being pushed around; told what they can and can't say, (in the name of political correctness); having their own freedom of speech and freedom of thought eroded, and for what?

The West is controlled by a handful of people who inflict their own opinions and ideas onto the masses. If we have different opinions to them then we are labelled as 'racist' or 'xenophobic', etc. This applies in exactly the same way no matter WHO is in the 'big seat'.

Meanwhile, the Divided States of America is still inflicting its will, by military force, on those who seek to oppose the worldview of its few, and then they go on to blame Russia for just about everything.

Cut yourself shaving this morning? Oh, that's the fault of the Russians. Having a 'bad-hair-day'? Burnt the toast? - Blame Russia!

Now what????? Trump just appointed his Head-of-State, who is none other than Putin's 'bum-boy'....FFS !

Just as an example, who was it that tried to convince the world Iraq had WMD? I'll tell you, it was EXACTLY the SAME people who told us the 'truth' about 9/11. The EXACT same people who, 12 months earlier, told America that: 'We need a catastrophe comparable to the attack on Pearl Harbour', before they felt that Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, etc, could be attacked with 'plausible reason'. Then 9/11 comes along. Oh, surprise, f*ckin' surprise..........

Democracy, right? Is this a 'conspiracy theory'? Yeah, must be....! Pig's Arse!

Isn't it also strange that the DSA refused to PROVE to the world that they had caught (and slain) Osama Bin Laden? We had to take their word for it - no-one was allowed to see it for themselves.

Is there any connection between Donald Rumsfeld publicly stating that 2.4 TRILLION DOLLARS had gone 'missing' from the balance sheet (and thus couldn't be accounted for), less than 24 hours before the twin towers were destroyed on 9/11? That certainly helped to divert the attention of the American public and therefore avoid a few potentially embarrassing questions - or am I being paranoid?

To put it in perspective, 2.4 trillion dollars is the equivalent of $1, per MINUTE, for 4.752 MILLION YEARS ! Some pocket-change, huh?

What does all this mean? It means that we have been ruled for decades by a bunch of liars who can NEVER be trusted.

We essentially TRUST these idiots NOT to 'push that button' and destroy humanity. Yet THEY are the ones in control, not us. If they decide that things have gone 'too far' and that Russia, China, or somewhere else needs to be 'taught a lesson', what can WE (the people) do about it?
We are not living in fear of an 'enemy', we are living in fear of the same people we have elected to govern us! It's nothing short of madness!
Is China any different in that regard?

On the surface, China seems to have very few 'social issues' when compared to the West. By that, I mean you don't see graffiti; no hooligans pissing up the side of cars at closing time; no-one throwing rocks through plate-glass windows just because they are drunk and think it's a good idea; few people get attacked because of their race, colour or creed; and there is no cancerous PC.

Like the West, a relatively small number of government people tell a population, of just short of 1.4 BILLION, what they can and can't do. Yet here, people essentially live in peace and harmony with each other, albeit with a bit of Internet censorship, without the need to 'police' each other, and guess what.....? People don't appear to be as sick-and-tired of their government to the extent that Westerners are sick-and-tired of theirs.

There's a REASON why there will never be peace in the Middle-East; there's a REASON why people in Africa are starving, (when the Chinese population throws away enough food in a single day to keep them fed for a decade), it's all about 'control'.

When we take into account the fact that the world is certainly over-populated, and the fact that hundreds of millions of people exist on less that $1 per day, who are the ones likely to 'go' first?

After all, what use to the economy are people who live on $1 a day? Let's forget the fact that we are ALL human beings for a moment and that the poorest person has as much right to live as do people like Trump and Branson, who have more money than they could spend in 100 lifetimes.....These people are a waste of time, they have no bank accounts, no mortgage, no money to spend on pharmaceuticals, they are 'oxygen-thieves' and therefore should be eradicated. Their only 'crime' is that they are poor.

The rich become richer while the poor become poorer....How much money does one NEED, for heaven's sake?

The photo is of a Chinese government official who was arrested a couple of years ago. He was accused of bribery and corruption, and, according to many Chinese people, should have been executed. However, he is languishing in prison where he is likely to remain for a long, long time.

The list of his 'assets' is in Chinese, but for those of you who can't read it, he owned 326 houses and had more money, in CASH, than he would need to buy a small country.

If anything, perhaps the biggest problem for those of us in China is what most of us consider to be a 'rude' and 'inconsiderate' attitude by many of the Chinese people. However, this was explained away recently (although I don't necessarily subscribe to it, but it does hold certain merits), insofar as China, whilst currently experiencing the longest period of prosperity in its 5000-year history, still holds the deeply inherent attitude of 'survival' that is still prevalent in its people, especially those over the age of 40.

In the last 50 years or so, China has experienced unprecedented growth. More people have been elevated out of poverty than ever before.

'Mrs Wong' may have clocked up a total of 50km since buying her new Mercedes sports car 2 years ago because she only uses it to drive to the local supermarket once a week - but who cares?

Mrs Wong is showing her family, friends and neighbours that she is no longer living a poverty-stricken life. People respect that, preferring NOT to walk along the side of her car with a key and put a deep scratch in the paintwork because they feel envious.

For me, the craziest thing of all is the perception that the West is some kind of 'Utopia'.

'Oh, the West is so Free!' ............Haha, bullshit!

Society in the West is totally out-of-control when compared to society in China.

Herd mentality may be prevalent here, but it's a completely different kind of herd mentality to that seen in the so-called 'free' West.

As for Trump, he's not stupid. He KNOWS that the world is avidly watching his every move, and this will be even more so as soon as he takes his seat in the 'big chair', so let's give the guy a chance to show the world what the American governmental system will allow him to do.

The fascist, libtard, Clinton supporters can complain all they like. Like it or not, it is THEIR 'democracy' too!

Westerners often bemoan the fact that 'China is not like the West', and to those people, I say this : 'Well noticed, Sherlock, and God help the people of China if this country ever DOES become like the West, despite the corruption that the current government tells us it's working hard to eradicate.'
At least it appears to be TRYING......which is more than can be said for Trump when he suddenly back-peddled on his promise to indict Clinton for her years of corruption.

As my colleague often says, 'The human race doesn't DESERVE to continue in its current form......' Can anyone blame him?