Just a few days ago my friend and creative collaborator, Welsh punk folkie Nigel Phillip Davies, uploaded a reworked version of the early Bob Dylan classic, Mr Tambourine Man, to YouTube. Rechristened Mr Tangerine Man with lyrics reworked by yours truly, it’s a fairly pointed satire directed at a certain florid, male contender for President of the United States.

We’ve scored more than 3,000 hits on YT, a combined 200-plus likes on YT and Facebook, 133 shares and 160 comments. Not exactly viral, but enough to bring home to this non-US resident a sense of what certain sections of that country’s electorate are thinking.

By certain sections I mean, of course, Donald Trump supporters.

Making America great again  Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

“Get your head out of your ass,” said Marie Upthegrove (sic) from Florida, one of the first to comment on the Universal Stranger FB page.

“Now give me a MISOGYNIST any day, I will love him, respect him and cook for him, but don’t give me a woman who is KILLING my little sisters and brothers, the children of my innocent country,” said Federico, apparently a former head of the mathematics department at a rather posh private school in Blackheath, London (the rest of what he wrote is unprintable).

“This is just ridiculous…out of hand completely. You people who believe in evolution are nuts,” said Betty Christen who, judging by the beautiful landscape and equestrian shots on her FB page, lives on a ranch somewhere in the Mid West. (Evolution? Where did that come from? There’s nothing in Mr Tangerine Man about evolution!)

“Better this guy than a lying crooked c***t with the blood of the Benghazi dead on her hands…here’s yer (sic) sign, you moron!” (picture, possibly manipulated, of Donald Trump flippin-the-bird). Thank you, Rebel Dawson.

And so on.

Nothing surprising here, perhaps—especially for the Clinton supporters who characterise their opposite numbers as “deplorables”, or poorly educated white trash who are barely capable of seeing the bigger picture, let alone articulating it.

But I found it interesting that, while the number of Likes on the FB page exceeded Dislikes by several mutliples, the comments were overwhelmingly from Trump supporters (and therefore overwhelmingly negative and violently anti-Clinton).

For the record, my own view of US politics right now is that Clinton is the rotting corpse of the post-war liberal consensus and Trump is the vulture feeding off it.

As a marketing consultant might put it, the positive responses were nearly all quantitative while the negative ones were qualitative.

What does this mean, if anything? Perhaps comfortingly for the Clinton camp, it suggests that the numbers are with the liberally-minded. And perhaps the fewer but more vocal responses from Trump supporters simply reflect the pent-up rage and frustration that America’s white working- and lower-middle classes have felt for so long toward a political system that no longer works for them.

Or does it signal more than that? Could it, perhaps, imply something about potential voter turnout? Does the numerically superior but otherwise largely mute response from the liberal constituency hint at a certain complacency? After all, it’s quicker and easier to click Like and move on to the next FB post than comment about the political issues raised by the one you’ve just read.

Anti-Trumpers like myself, though undoubtedly on the right side of the truth, may yet end up on the wrong side of history.

And does that translate to an assumption that Trump is so obviously unsuited to be President that the election result is already a done deal? Does it suggest a lack of any sense of urgency about the importance of voting on November 8?

By the same token, does it imply that Trump supporters are so impassioned that their turnout will be higher on the day and might just swing the election Trump’s way? Especially in those open-carry states where, rumour has it, Trump supporters will be turning up at election booths on the day, while exercising their right to open carry, to ensure that no “irregularities” occur?

Too many questions; too much hypothesis and speculation.

For the record, my own view of US politics right now is that Clinton is the rotting corpse of the post-war liberal consensus and Trump is the vulture feeding off it. Rather than Clinton win, I would prefer the Republicans to disendorse Trump and field a credible candidate so that at least the electoral process can be salvaged (it may be too late to save the country).

Meanwhile, while I can’t draw any hard and fast conclusions from the FB responses to Mr Tangerine Man, I can’t shake the nagging feeling that anti-Trumpers like myself, though undoubtedly on the right side of the truth, may yet end up on the wrong side of history.

It wasn’t that long ago that I reviewed Nigel Philip Davies’ album Songs from a River and here we are, writing about him again already. The reason: his new video release, “Mr Tangerine Man”, which lampoons the aspirations of one clearly unsuitable candidate for the most powerful political position in the world.

It’s not the only such parody on YouTube – we’ve found two others – but it’s the hardest-hitting, in our view, although we might be a bit biased: the lyrics for this version were written (or, more accurately, re-crafted) by our very own songwriter-in-residence, Rody.

At least it supports my thesis, elaborated at some length in the album review, that there’s an “Old Wave” of 60-something singer-songwriters out there who are drawing on the influences of their youth to create songs that pack a punch and reflect the reality of these times, as seen through the lens of age and experience.

Judge for yourself.

OK, the headline is click bait, but I reckon it’s justified because, if I’m right, this could well be one of the most important stories you will read all year.

Last night Elizabeth (one of Australia’s best financial journalists) and I were having a drink at the Kittyhawk in Sydney, when it suddenly dawned on us: the REAL reason that Donald Trump is running for US President.

He’s long the Mexican peso!

True, this is no more than a theory, but it seems to be the only logical explanation as to why he’s running for President while at the same time apparently doing everything he can, through his behaviour and utterances, to lose the election.

Because if (when) he loses, he’s going to make one big stinking pile of money.

One big stinking pile

It’s also true that, for this theory to stack up, you have to make some pretty big assumptions – for example, that Trump is not the douche bag he appears to be, and that he’s running for sound (if opportunistic) business and financial reasons and not (or not just) because he’s a narcissistic, power-hungry, attention-seeking sociopath.

The theory is based on the fact that, as a number of financial commentators are pointing out, Trump’s standing in the US opinion polls is inversely correlated to the peso’s value against the US dollar. In other words, every time Trump seems to be gaining in the polls, the peso weakens relative to the dollar and vice-versa, as this chart shows:

Mexican Peso Capital Economics graphic

(My source: http://www.valuewalk.com/2016/09/mexican-peso-trump/)

There are two reasons for this, one general, the other specific: the general reason is that Trump, if elected, would be (based on his policy rhetoric to date) a much more protectionist President than his recent predecessors. This will be a negative for the US’s trading partners, especially vulnerable ones like Mexico.

The specific reason is that Trump has threatened to build a wall between the US and its southern neighbour – and that, if it were ever to become a reality, would be a BIG negative for Mexico. Of course, the threat is probably no more than preposterous blather, designed purely to drum up populist support. But preposterous blather or not, it adds to the downward pressure on the peso every time Trump gets a good run in the polls.

So let’s assume that Trump has structured his whole tilt at the White House as a USD/MXN play (stay with me here) and is using the peso’s current weakness to line his pockets with the currency. All he needs is a couple more lame-brain debates with Hillary and a few more snipes at Alicia Machado for his polling to tank and the peso to rise and, hey presto, he’s in the money.

Depending on how big his position is, his payoff when he finally (we hope) loses on November 8 could be in the tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars. The Art of the Deal, all right. Thank you and good night, America.

Of course, this is all pure speculation, but it should be enough to motivate some US investigative journalists (if there are any left) to take a look (please?). At the very least, sensible US voters should be demanding that Trump publish not only his tax returns, but his foreign currency holdings, too.

Hey Mr Tangerine Man, light a bong for me,
You’re so creepy, I gotta get stoned just to look at you;
Hey Mr Tangerine Man, stay away from me.
There ain’t no empty vessel that’s more hollow than you.

We know your evil empire was only built on sand,
A con man’s sleight of hand
Meant to blind us all but, hey man, we’re not sleeping;
Your sleaziness amazes us, you’re a liar and a cheat,
Not fit to kiss our feet
The garbage in the street don’t smell as bad as you;

Hey Mr Tangerine Man, you’re rotten to the core,
Or you would be if you had a core inside of you;
Hey Mr Tangerine Man, you jumped-up painted whore,
One day your loud mouth’s gonna end up swallowing you.

Do you think we’ll let you take us on your massive ego trip?
Come on, man, get a grip:
Our assets will be stripped
And to Russia they’ll be shipped
To pay your vampire boyfriend what you’re owing him;
You’re ready to go nuclear but you’re not brave you’re just afraid,
You’re gonna build a big stockade
To make sure those huddled masses don’t come near you;

Hey Mr Tangerine Man, is there someone else
Apart from your own mirror who is close to you?
Hey Mr Tangerine Man, you’re not a man you’re something less:
Any leper that you touch would catch a dose from you.

Though you might hear some cheer madly for your moment in the sun
Their minds have been undone
By all they’ve lost and never won
They prefer your lies to the harsh truth they are facing:
That Washington’s forgotten them, politicians just don’t care
It’s more than they can bear
Blank faces of despair
Broke beyond repair
Their thoughts as dark as your own shadow that you’re chasing;

Hey Mr Tangerine Man, Pied Piper to the lost
Or so you cast your spell on those who follow you;
Hey Mr Tangerine Man, you know they’ll pay the cost
When your Emperor’s new clothes expose they’re nothing to you.

I’d like to make you vanish through the smoke rings of my mind
To another place and time
Where you’ll take your filth and grime
The choking smell and slime
Of all your sins and crimes
That hang like a poison cloud on our tomorrow;
But as long as you’re still standing here
I’m gonna stand here too
Toe to toe with you
Cause I know one thing is true
What makes this country great
Is not money, power or hate
Or its leaders, but the people in the side show…

Hey Mr Tangerine Man, are you still hangin’ round?
Why don’t you find a rock and crawl back under it?
Hey Mr Tangerine Man, one day beneath the ground
You’ll be lying in your grave and we will dance on it.