Donald Trump - Opinions?

[Federberg]

^Lol! I'm no Obama fan, but that deficit is not his doing. Economics 101, if you're coming out of a depression, conventional economic management will result in debt levels rising. This is even more inevitable after a recession induced by a financial crisis. Bush is responsible for the higher debt levels not Obama. But the genesis of the crisis I would actually land at Clinton's door. Eliminating the Glass-Steagall act which separate investment and retail banking led to the explosion of shadow banking, and that happened during President Clinton's watch. I suppose you could argue that Bush could have undone that mistake, but the banking lobby is incredibly powerful. In any case this type of economic mis-management is an inevitable consequence of neo-Keynsian thinking and goes back all the way to FDR's solution to the Depression. If people had listened to Von Mises maybe things would be different now, but the Great Depression would have been a whole magnitude worse at least in the short term. Personally, I'm glad FDR did what he did, because the US would have been in no shape to intervene in the 2nd World War otherwise and we might all be speaking Deutsche now

 

[Moxie]

We already have one. The egotistical, self-involved megalomaniac whose ego seems more important than anyone else's needs, is building a 1 billion dollar library dedicated to himself once he leaves office.

Amazing how differently we can perceive people. But on the libraries, beyond the cost - which is obscene, I agree even including the endowment - building a library when he leaves office would be exactly how different or more egotistical than every other president since FDR?

 

[EdbergsGhost]

Amazing how differently we can perceive people. But on the libraries, beyond the cost - which is obscene, I agree even including the endowment - building a library when he leaves office would be exactly how different or more egotistical than every other president since FDR?

Half a billion more than Dubya's library egotistical!

 

[Moxie]

Half a billion more than Dubya's library egotistical!

If that's the only reason you find Obama egotistical, then maybe. Otherwise, I don't get it. He's worked hard to compromise with the Republicans, and they have shut him down to the point of obvious obstruction. They're committed to blocking his Supreme Court nominee, even though he has a Constitutional mandate to propose one. And they came up with that one when Scalia's body was barely cold. I don't see how you get megalomaniac when he's been faced with a Republican controlled Congress committed to obstructing him. He's basically one who tries to reach across. Now, in his last year, yes, he's giving the big , but why not? They've been giving it to him for years. Power of the lame duck.

 

[EdbergsGhost]

If that's the only reason you find Obama egotistical, then maybe. Otherwise, I don't get it. He's worked hard to compromise with the Republicans, and they have shut him down to the point of obvious obstruction. They're committed to blocking his Supreme Court nominee, even though he has a Constitutional mandate to propose one. And they came up with that one when Scalia's body was barely cold. I don't see how you get megalomaniac when he's been faced with a Republican controlled Congress committed to obstructing him. He's basically one who tries to reach across.

The precedent for blocking nominees in an election year goes back to Senator Biden and the Democrats - not Republicans after Scalia died. "Seeking compromise" for President Obama, means telling them what he wants and then vetoing anything short of it. When he has a majority, forcing things through without any debate. Or when he can't get his way, he writes it into law via executive order. Now that is something "W" went crazy with during his tenure, but as with the deficit and presidential library, "O" took that to another level too.

 

[Moxie]

I don't think you're right about that and not sure what you're citing...Bork? They confirmed Kennedy. And they never refused to even hold confirmation hearings. You're stretching a point to say the Democrats hold precedent on this.

 

[EdbergsGhost]

I don't think you're right about that and not sure what you're citing...Bork? They confirmed Kennedy. And they never refused to even hold confirmation hearings. You're stretching a point to say the Democrats hold precedent on this.

Doesn't matter what you think, if the facts are to the contrary.

You can read it in the NYTimes:
As a senator more than two decades ago, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. argued that President George Bush should delay filling a Supreme Court vacancy, should one arise, until the presidential election was over, and that it was “essential” that the Senate refuse to confirm a nominee to the court until then.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/23/u...elaying-supreme-court-picks-in-1992.html?_r=0

 

[Federberg]

^ here's an article that goes over this issue...
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...rt-nominations-election-year-scalia.html?_r=0

 

[EdbergsGhost]

^ here's an article that goes of this issue...
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...rt-nominations-election-year-scalia.html?_r=0

Stepping into a discussion and missing the point again. Fact remains Biden (Democrat) set the precedent for delaying.

 

[Federberg]

Stepping into a discussion and missing the point again. Fact remains Biden (Democrat) set the precedent for delaying.

Did I say anything? I merely supplied an article which provides colour. I took no sides mate. Calm yourself

 

[Moxie]

Doesn't matter what you think, if the facts are to the contrary.

You can read it in the NYTimes:
As a senator more than two decades ago, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. argued that President George Bush should delay filling a Supreme Court vacancy, should one arise, until the presidential election was over, and that it was “essential” that the Senate refuse to confirm a nominee to the court until then.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/23/u...elaying-supreme-court-picks-in-1992.html?_r=0

I didn't realize he'd said it, so I stand corrected. It's just that it never happened. I think he's wrong, in any case. The President still has to do his job. There are consequences to a 8-justice court.

 

[Billie]

We already have one. The egotistical, self-involved megalomaniac whose ego seems more important than anyone else's needs, is building a 1 billion dollar library dedicated to himself once he leaves office.

OMG, what did he do to deserve that and whose money is it? How many libraries in poor parts of various American cities could have been built for kids that need them. I would understand such extravaganza if all the Americans were living comfortably but clearly that is not the case.

I think that Trump's popularity among lower classes is a proof that people are sick of these polished and smooth talking politicians, who don't care about ordinary people at all. As long as military budget is out of this world. Let's just see how many of them are ready to rebel against the long time politicians.

 

[Moxie]

OMG, what did he do to deserve that and whose money is it? How many libraries in poor parts of various American cities could have been built for kids that need them. I would understand such extravaganza if all the Americans were living comfortably but clearly that is not the case.

I think that Trump's popularity among lower classes is a proof that people are sick of these polished and smooth talking politicians, who don't care about ordinary people at all. As long as military budget is out of this world. Let's just see how many of them are ready to rebel against the long time politicians.

It's private money. You can chill on that. But I am totally against it. Who even goes to these presidential libraries? It think EG put up a link but anyway, I go with the idea of making the library "virtual" now. And put up an endowment, sure. That would be the 21st C. answer.

 

[calitennis127]

We already have a President who puts America first. We don't need an egotistical, self-involved megalomaniac whose ego seems more important than anyone else's needs. Nor do we need a businessman who has declared bankruptcy 4 times, and who has screwed over more people than can easily be counted. Or one who pretends to run as a Republican, when he barely can be counted as one of their own. By many accounts, Donald Trump didn't even want to be President, he just wanted to increase his brand. He has no ambition to solve problems for this country. He only wants to prove he can win this contest. He's a reality TV star, not a viable political player. Don't be fooled by the bluster. He's an emperor with no clothes.

Trump may have 4 bankruptcies to his name but he also has a plethora of business successes to it. The man is not a pure fraud or pure failure. He has failed at times, but so has everyone.

On the other hand, Obama got elected as an unaccomplished nothing. Like George W. Bush, he is living proof that standards of education and oratory have fallen so low in America that literally any turd of a human being can make it to the top in our "democracy." Obama cannot speak off the cuff; he is a chronic stutterer with a 4th grade knowledge of history. As such, he represents our sad woefully ignorant country. America is a nation of overschooled, undereducated, culturally illiterate buffoons who have been brainwashed through the Democratic Party madrassa system otherwise known as "public education." Everything that you, Moxie, believe about significant historical events is a lie. You do not know one-fiftieth of what you think you know.

President Obama does not put America first in the sense of America as an historic nation rooted in the language, religion, education, cultural norms, legal system, and political consensus that made America one of the greatest countries in the world. He actually detests the ancestors of the Americans who made America prosperous and successful. For Obama, America is a leftist ideological project akin to the Soviet Union, except that America's ideals are "global democracy" and "equality" instead of the nationalization of the means of production and a classless economic order. Obama maliciously dislikes the mass of people in America who come from white Christian background and are members of the middle class. He directly flouts their values, which shape a culture, I should say, that helped make America far more successful than societies such as Indonesia and Kenya.

Obama is a dolt, worshiped by mediocrities and cultural illiterates high on ego and low on knowledge.

 

[calitennis127]

OMG, what did he do to deserve that and whose money is it? How many libraries in poor parts of various American cities could have been built for kids that need them. I would understand such extravaganza if all the Americans were living comfortably but clearly that is not the case.

I think that Trump's popularity among lower classes is a proof that people are sick of these polished and smooth talking politicians, who don't care about ordinary people at all. As long as military budget is out of this world. Let's just see how many of them are ready to rebel against the long time politicians.

There is absolutely nothing polished or smooth talking about American politicians. Don't give them that credit. Standards of oratory have fallen so drastically in the last 90 years that some morons even call Obama "brilliant" and "articulate." This steep fall in American standards is a reality which makes one of my favorite all-time books Alfred Jay Nock's "Theory of Education in the United States." Obama, for one, cannot speak off the cuff and does the best job he can at balancing his bland hip hop style with the minimal literacy he acquired in college. Intellectually and rhetorically, he is an absolute nothing. What he amounts to is pure superficiality, and as such, he is exactly what the stupid American electorate deserves.

 

[calitennis127]

Bush didn't need a war in Iraq. Obama's still paying for Bush's wars.

And Obama royally screwed up Libya and Syria, made a stupid deal with the Iranians, has been completely ineffectual in preventing terrorist attacks (Boston, Fort Hood, San Bernardino), and has encouraged the self-destruction of Europe with the pro-migrant rhetoric.

Bush's war was a leftist ideological war. It was not a conservative war in any sense. The fact that both of Obama's Secretaries of State (Hillary and John Kerry) voted for the Iraq war should give you some clarity on that question.

 

[calitennis127]

That debt came from George W. Bush and his neo-con cronies, and not a lot of "kicking the can down the road." We had a surplus before Bush. Some might think "politician" is a dirty word, but it's actually a job. And Bernie is one, and has been for many years. I wouldn't want a basketball player to do my surgery, and I wouldn't want my doctor to play point guard for my favorite team. Trump isn't even that good at being a businessman. He's declared bankruptcy 4 times, and he doesn't honor his debts or promises. His my-way-or-the-highway approach isn't going to work when more diplomacy is needed.

Moxie,

1. Stop talking about basketball. You don't know anything about it.

2. Being a politician is not a job. Being a statesman is closer to being a job, but it is more of a leadership role than anything else. The word "politician" has always had slimy connotations to anyone who is familiar with political discourse.

3. You do not know anything about Trump's business career, but are just taking one line you have heard from numerous people about his bankruptcies. Would you like it if I defined Nadal's career solely by the times that he got straight-setted on hardcourt (a number much, much higher than 4)? Your bias against Trump is mind-numbing and childish.

4. Trump is good at working with people. To make it in business you have to possess a diplomatic quality. Whatever Trump's shortcomings (which are nowhere near as great as Obama's), his ability to be diplomatic is not one. Diplomacy is actually one of Trump's strengths, whereas Obama has no strengths. He is arguably the most useless individual to have ever become president.

 

[Moxie]

Moxie,

1. Stop talking about basketball. You don't know anything about it.

2. Being a politician is not a job. Being a statesman is closer to being a job, but it is more of a leadership role than anything else. The word "politician" has always had slimy connotations to anyone who is familiar with political discourse.

3. You do not know anything about Trump's business career, but are just taking one line you have heard from numerous people about his bankruptcies. Would you like it if I defined Nadal's career solely by the times that he got straight-setted on hardcourt (a number much, much higher than 4)? Your bias against Trump is mind-numbing and childish.

4. Trump is good at working with people. To make it in business you have to possess a diplomatic quality. Whatever Trump's shortcomings (which are nowhere near as great as Obama's), his ability to be diplomatic is not one. Diplomacy is actually one of Trump's strengths, whereas Obama has no strengths. He is arguably the most useless individual to have ever become president.

1. I wasn't talking about basketball. It was a metaphor, lightbulb.

2. Politics IS a job. Statesmanship is a calling, and leadership is more of a rarity. But the appelation "politician" need not have a negative connotation. In any case, I don't think Trump qualifies for any of those on the world stage.

3. It is impossible to read the paper and not know a lot about Trump's business career, in the last 9 months. There is much in there that doesn't recommend him, either as a businessman, a dealmaker or a person of any integrity.

4. I would cite Trump's "diplomatic" rhetoric with regards to women, immigrants, Muslims, Jewish people. etc. He prides himself on not being "politically correct." And he certainly isn't. You can't have it both ways. A lot of his supporters keep saying "he doesn't really mean that," or, "he won't really do that," or, "he'll change his position on that come the general election." I don't think people should be voting for the man to change his stripes. Diplomatic he is not.

 

[Federberg]

I find it extraordinary that anyone would impugn Obama's oratory. Amazing!

 

[britbox]

According to Vanity Fair, the one issue that will come back to bite Hillary Clinton isn't the email scandal but her approach to immigration.

The One Issue That Could Destroy Hillary Clinton



Story:

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016...0&spJobID=921800210&spReportId=OTIxODAwMjEwS0