Do The Eyes Have It - Politically Perhaps?

[PeterRS]

One of Britain's fallouts from the Epstein scandal has been the sacking of a man who has been almost at the centre of much of British and European politics for almost 30 years, the British Ambassador to Washington Lord Peter Mandelson. There is now an enquiry as to whether he might have given away state secrets to Epstein. 

My own politics aside, I have always found Mandelson a somewhat creepy individual. It has nothing to do with his being gay. It is on the political influence he has exerted when he seemed to have little importance other than having been a key PR figure responsible for the election of Tony Blair to the PM's job in 1997. I found him creepy because I rarely believed what he said. To me, looking closely at his eyes gave his game away. When someone is trying to convince you of something and he knows that he has an ulterior motive, that person frequently cannot stare you straight in the eye. I found that with much of what Mandelson uttered over the years.

I started looking more carefully at eye movements when a youngster and Harold Wilson was the Labour government's Prime Minister. Unless reading from a teleprompter, he could never keep his eyes straight ahead, always looking to the side momentarily, so much so that even I as a political neophyte then could tell he was lying. Once when the subject of a 'live' interview on the weekly news Panorama programme about the Vietnam War with the BBC's brilliant, knowledgable - and subsequently reveald as gay - reporter James Mossman, his words twisted and turned and his eyes darted about. Apart from his obvious discomfort, you could tell just from his eyes that he was lying.

Spinning the truth - or outright lying - is now part and parcel of political life. Some like Trump have been lying for so many decades it has become second nature and his eyes give little away. But for lesser experienced public figures, even today I find their eyes often show it! 

[jimmie50]

1 hour ago, PeterRS said:

Some like Trump have been lying for so many decades it has become second nature

I honestly believe that trump has lied so much for such a long time that he actually believes his lies.  They are his own reality.  Weird.  

[floridarob]

1 hour ago, jimmie50 said:

 They are his own reality.

Oh, he knows.....

[vinapu]

9 hours ago, jimmie50 said:

I honestly believe that trump has lied so much for such a long time that he actually believes his lies.  They are his own reality.  Weird.  

only 2 more years , if that much

[Suckrates]

22 minutes ago, vinapu said:

only 2 more years , if that much

[Keithambrose]

1 hour ago, vinapu said:

only 2 more years , if that much

Nearly 3!

[vinapu]

1 hour ago, Keithambrose said:

Nearly 3!

hopes are , he may be tempered after midterms

[floridarob]

1 minute ago, vinapu said:

hopes are , he may be tempered after midterms

most likely votes/voters will be tempered at midterms if they get their way...

[unicorn]

9 hours ago, vinapu said:

hopes are , he may be tempered after midterms

He's working hard trying to rig the elections. He thinks he can. I'm not sure he can do as much as he thinks he can. He's mostly acted like he's above the law (because he essentially is), but at least there are some brakes being applied by the Judicial branch.

[vinapu]

10 minutes ago, unicorn said:

He's working hard trying to rig the elections. He thinks he can. I'm not sure he can do as much as he thinks he can. He's mostly acted like he's above the law (because he essentially is), but at least there are some brakes being applied by the Judicial branch.

And we are talking about USA, not Cambodia , Benin or Suriname

[jimmie50]

9 hours ago, floridarob said:

most likely votes/voters will be tempered at midterms if they get their way...

Yes, it would seem from recent news reports his advisers are encouraging him to declare a national emergency in order to take control of the midterm elections.  To be honest, I never knew such a law existed that would allow a president to declare such an emergency, but has already been stated here, he doesn't think the laws apply to him anyway.  He just makes things up as he goes along and nobody seems to be willing to stand up to him and stop him.  As much as I hope the midterm elections will produce a change in at least one house of congress, I am beginning to have my doubts it will become a reality given the current political climate.  

I was just reading a report this morning that said this was the first time since the Great Depression that the US has experienced a net loss in population due to citizens immigrating to other countries.  Something like 150,000 leaving the country permanently.  People are giving up hope.  

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/more-george-clooney-moving-france-080000139.html

[PeterRS]

WIth the US Supreme Court stacked with Trump supporters (including two sex offenders and one supreme liar) long after he is six feet underground, I can see even a Democratic Congress majority getting beaten down continuously. Were I half my age and living in the USA, I would already have started emigration procedures. At least there are jobs in my line of work in other countries and I'd make sure I had enough cash to see out any interregnum fallow period.

[Keithambrose]

7 hours ago, vinapu said:

And we are talking about USA, not Cambodia , Benin or Suriname

Or Hungary.