HuskerShark

So drug cartels building tunnels is the new line to try to discredit the Mexico wall huh? Or maybe it's just Guy C.

You do realize that a wall like the one that is being proposed would have cement foundations that are 10+ ft deep, right?

I have a great friend who is in the national guard, and he'd much rather be sent to the middle East than the border because it's so unsafe there. Drugs are only one of the many problems that an unsecured border causes.

 

 

Except it's not just casinos. He's had condo resorts go bust screwing over investors who are basically average americans buying a spot. He's also lent his name only to projects that go bust, and lent his name only on most of "his" buildings. Trump University... need I say more? Trump Vodka, Trump magazine, Trump airlines, Trump travel, Trump steaks, Trump Mortgage... all bust.

There's no problem with investing, giving your name, or taking a risk. But you gotta be smart about it, which he doesn't seem to be.

 

From an average person's standpoint, I can see how you think that. Have you ever watched Shark Tank? The Sharks invest in hundreds of companies on there, and not all of them become successful. The Sharks lose all or most of their money on a lot of their deals, but it's a law of averages. One investment that turns out great can make them millions and offset the ones that failed. That's how successful people work. They make quick, educated decisions and exhibit massive action. I will NOT critique Trump for several failed businesses, because that's a poor man's mindset.

 

As far as the bankruptcies, of the 4 bankruptcies that he's filed for, 3 of them were on casinos.

I think I see the problem.

 

You're getting your financial perspective from"Shark Tank" and "The Apprentice."

 

It's a tad more complicated than that, my friend.

Speaking of people who are uninformed...

 

 

Militarily, he's all over the place. I listened to his first scripted foreign policy address, and came away perplexed. The overriding narrative he was trying to push was "America first", but he contradicted himself nonstop. He talked about not getting into reckless interventions, but in the next sentence talked about the need for America to "be strong and go hard after it's enemies". He discussed wanting to wipe ISIS off the face of the earth "so fast you wouldn't believe it" and lambasted Obama's handling of the situation, but seemed reluctant to commit to any kind of actual strategy.

Committing to a specific strategy (especially without first consulting the generals and people in the know of the situation) would be flat out idiotic, and there is absolutely no reason to expect to know what the exact strategy would be - not to mention he'd be broadcasting that strategy to the enemy as well.

I do expect him to be very conservative with our military because he values the people and the economic resources that it takes to have boots on the ground.

When there are evil threats in the world (such as ISIS), that is when he would encourage strength and effectiveness with the military.

 

Economically, Trump loves to bash free trade deals (as does Sanders), but economists across the board believe that free trade is a net positive with targeted negatives in particular sectors such as manufacturing. We'd been hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs since the late 90's, and the underlying reason is up for debate. Lots of people love to blame NAFTA and other free trade agreements. I personally think automation has hurt the industry greatly as well. I'm not sure what the root cause(s) are specifically, but I find simply blaming free trade agreements to be too simplistic. Remember, they do help hold down costs on goods for everyone. If we slash and burn our free trade agreements and return to isolationist economic practices, we'd correspondingly see a bump in jobs because we'd have to manufacture many more goods ourselves, but it would be offset because the prices of goods would skyrocket across the board.

I do think there's moves that we could make to improve some of our trade deficits, but I'm not one of these anti-free trade advocates.

He's not anti-free trade either, but the reason these companies are leaving and establishing their plants in Mexico is because their cost of labor and production goes way down if they put their plant there, and currently there's no penalty because they can bring their goods back into the US and sell them without taxation. There's no need to make it more complicated than that.

Yes, automation has a part in reduction in manufacturing jobs in the US, but that's a step in the right direction, while companies leaving the country is not.

 

Furthermore, his economic policies are ridiculous. Slapping 35-45% tariffs on China is a good way to ensure a trade war. Keeping billions in remittances back to Mexico to pay for his wall would destroy our relationship with them. And of course, we're going to get our of debt by defaulting and paying back less than we owe. Here's an article on that.His answer to everything is "I'll make a deal" or "I'll negotiate", which depends upon the farce that he's some great negotiator.

So Japan and China can be tough with us on trade, and we're expected to bend over backward to appease them because we're afraid of conflict? That is the exact weak mindset that has been driving our trade deals for decades, and that's why America has $20+ Trillion in debt.

And yes, Trump knows how to negotiate.

I have been reading about Trump's comments regarding lessening America's role in global affairs. I wondered what everyone's thoughts are about this plan, particularly as it pertains to US economy and security.

 

Right now, I doubt the effectiveness of the plan. If we remove our influence in the Middle East like Trump has said, then we leave a vacuum that, like what happened in Afganastan in the 90's, could allow for powers that pose risks to US security to gain influence in the region.

 

Also, if we lessen our economy ties in Asia, like Trump wants to with Japan and Korea, that would allow China to grow its economic control of this region and damage our potential trade with those countries.

 

I don't see how his plans are effective to support the US.

Personally, I think we're still observing Trump collect all the information and put the pieces together as to what specifically he would do. The thing that Trump has a firm grasp on that he is 100% correct about is that we have the leverage in situations such as Saudi Arabia where we are protecting them with our military and getting nothing in return. Trump preaches all the time that he would be fine with having military influence in these places, but we can't keep getting nothing.

You seem very open-minded and undecided, so I'd recommend that you go watch some of the speeches from his rallies when he visits states. I just watched the one from Fresno the other day, and I think you'd get a lot of the blanks filled in if you gather the information from his speeches.

Since that's no longer happening, I'd be happy to volunteer to partner with Sanders for an hour-long bash-Hillary special for charity.

I think for this election cycle, voters should be required to blow at least a .25 on the breathilyzer before being permitted access to the voting booth and that mail in ballots should be disallowed. This would serve 2 purposes; 1) Provide us citizens with the required amount of numbing for what we are about to do 2) it would give us an excuse for the rest of world that we were drunk and not merely stupid and inept.

 

Who's with me?

I also think illegal immigrants and dead peoples' votes shouldn't count either, but I guess that's the political norm as well...

Why do people say Trump says what's on his mind? He can say one thing Wednesday and something the opposite on Thursday. This has happened over and over. So can he not make up his mind, or is he a liar? Why is saying what's on your mind considered a good quality when it changes every day?

I find his supporters to be batsh#t crazy. At least I admit that I don't like the person I'm going to vote for. People who genuinely like Trump are mind boggling.

And I (along with most logical thinkers, or anyone with a calculator) think the same thing about the person you supported, so.....

So... Do people have a problem with it just because it's Trump?

That's sickening...

So the state department confirms that Hillary was not authorized to use her email like she claims, she continues to try to lie her way out of it, and there are still people willing to vote for her....

As several others have said - what a time to be alive...

 

 

The entertaining part of the general election will be watching two pathetic people take well deserved blow after blow from the other pathetic person.

 

Bad thing....one will end up president.

There needs to be a constitutional mechanism whereby the public can vote for "none of the above" on every election, and if that gets the most votes, we have to start the process over.

 

Combine that with shortening the campaign season to no more than two months and we should have a better political process.

A bit tangential, but folks I've talked to lately have advocated doing away with the First Past the Post system as a way of helping third party candidates become viable alternatives to a two party duopoly.

 

The current timeframe of the election system is stupid. I'd do all the primary voting on one day just like the general election. I think they stretch it all out for the fanfare and pageantry of it all at this point.

 

I absolutely agree with this. Set a deadline for when they have to declare, then let them campaign and debate for a couple months, then vote on one day. That would take much of the politics out of the situation as well.

 

 

He has over-dramatized everything because they're real issues that need to be addressed that no one wants to talk about since they're politicians.

 

Are there examples of the "real issues" that Trump is talking about, that no one else wants to talk about? I'm trying to think of what these issues are and I can't come up with a single one, much less one that needs over-dramatization just to be heard.

 

I believe I've spelled out an entire list earlier in this thread somewhere, or over in the Republican thread, so I'll save my time by re-posting it. You're a smart guy, so I think you can figure it out.

Here's just one example, but this is a very well written, unbiased article to answer your question:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kironskinner/2016/05/24/the-beginnings-of-a-trump-doctrine/#54a2211a2fc6

 

 

 

I thought Obama's pitch 8 years ago was phenomenal as well, because he's a great speaker. The problem is, most of the executive orders he has put through in office have been a disaster.

 

 

 

Interesting...I missed this comment the first time I read your post.

 

 

 

Soooo.....you are admitting that you fell for a candidate last time because of how the talked.

 

Buuut....now you are falling for another candidate because of how he talks.

 

Yes, I bought Obama's pitch 8 years ago. Then after his first term, it was obvious that he shouldn't have been re-elected, so I voted against him in '12.

My view is that Trump is the only candidate pitching big changes, and he deserves a chance to show if he can do it or not. If he gets elected and his first term is less than desirable, I'll have no problem voting against him.

But yes, to answer your question, I'm absolutely buying what he's selling. And he tells it how it is, which I love. You don't have to like that, but I do.

 

 

 

 

 

I can't help but get confused when a person says they have no problem voting for Hillary but absolutely won't vote for Trump because he's crooked. That's fine with me if you want to vote for $hillary, but she's got many, many skeletons in her closet too.

 

Trump's crookedness is only one of many reasons I'm not going to vote for him. Hillary is crooked but at least I'm not too worried about her calling a foreign head of state a childish insult, threatening Russia with a nuclear war, or defaulting on the US's debt.

 

 

Give me a break. All those things are extremely over-dramatized fear-mongering statements put out by anti-Trump propagandists. Educate yourself.

 

If Hillary gets elected, she will try to repeal the 2nd amendment and continue the trend of our country getting trampled in foreign relations, trade, etc.

 

Those two sentences in the same post is comical.

 

 

Please explain...

 

If you haven't figured it out by now, your first statement claims Trumps opposition is "over-dramatized fear-mongering".

 

Claiming Hillary will try to repeal the second amendment is "over-dramatized fear-mongering".

 

Trump has basically lived off of over-dramatized fear-mongering this entire election and you have gobbled it up and licked the plate clean.

 

He has over-dramatized everything because they're real issues that need to be addressed that no one wants to talk about since they're politicians. He's a terrific sales-person, and as long as you aren't concerned with the confrontational style he has, his pitch is phenomenal.

I thought Obama's pitch 8 years ago was phenomenal as well, because he's a great speaker. The problem is, most of the executive orders he has put through in office have been a disaster.

Trump's got a great track record of being one of the best negotiators in the world. Everything with foreign relations, trade, war, national debt, etc. are negotiations that have to be done by a competent president, and we haven't had that in a long time.

The only thing accomplished by repealing the 2nd amendment would be taking guns out of the hands of the people who use them legally and responsibly. It would have no effect, or potentially even an inverse effect when it comes to the people that use guns for bad things.

Our founding fathers were brilliant, and they warned us never to let the government take our guns. I'll listen to them WAY before the Hillary Clintons of the world.

 

 

 

 

 

I can't help but get confused when a person says they have no problem voting for Hillary but absolutely won't vote for Trump because he's crooked. That's fine with me if you want to vote for $hillary, but she's got many, many skeletons in her closet too.

Trump's crookedness is only one of many reasons I'm not going to vote for him. Hillary is crooked but at least I'm not too worried about her calling a foreign head of state a childish insult, threatening Russia with a nuclear war, or defaulting on the US's debt.

Give me a break. All those things are extremely over-dramatized fear-mongering statements put out by anti-Trump propagandists. Educate yourself.

 

If Hillary gets elected, she will try to repeal the 2nd amendment and continue the trend of our country getting trampled in foreign relations, trade, etc.

Those two sentences in the same post is comical.

Please explain...

It's even funnier that you act like I have to explain.

 

Saying Hillary would try to take away our 2nd amendment isn't fear-mongering. It's the 100% truth. That's why the NRA just endorsed Trump.

 

 

 

I can't help but get confused when a person says they have no problem voting for Hillary but absolutely won't vote for Trump because he's crooked. That's fine with me if you want to vote for $hillary, but she's got many, many skeletons in her closet too.

 

Trump's crookedness is only one of many reasons I'm not going to vote for him. Hillary is crooked but at least I'm not too worried about her calling a foreign head of state a childish insult, threatening Russia with a nuclear war, or defaulting on the US's debt.

 

 

Give me a break. All those things are extremely over-dramatized fear-mongering statements put out by anti-Trump propagandists. Educate yourself.

 

If Hillary gets elected, she will try to repeal the 2nd amendment and continue the trend of our country getting trampled in foreign relations, trade, etc.

 

Those two sentences in the same post is comical.

 

Please explain...

Which one would you rather sit down and have a drink with? Seems like even that would be a touch choice. They both seem horrible and unlikable.

I actually just entered a drawing to attend a fundraising dinner with Trump. I'd love to sit with him and pick his brain for as long as I could.

 

I can't help but get confused when a person says they have no problem voting for Hillary but absolutely won't vote for Trump because he's crooked. That's fine with me if you want to vote for $hillary, but she's got many, many skeletons in her closet too.

 

Trump's crookedness is only one of many reasons I'm not going to vote for him. Hillary is crooked but at least I'm not too worried about her calling a foreign head of state a childish insult, threatening Russia with a nuclear war, or defaulting on the US's debt.

 

Give me a break. All those things are extremely over-dramatized fear-mongering statements put out by anti-Trump propagandists. Educate yourself.

If Hillary gets elected, she will try to repeal the 2nd amendment and continue the trend of our country getting trampled in foreign relations, trade, etc.

 

Oh, and just to add insult to injury, these rules make it that much harder for low cost of living areas, such as rural, small population states and inner city, depressed communities, to compete.

 

One size fits all "solutions" for a country of 300 million are just silly.

This is exactly the problem with these types of regulations. Now....every employee/employer relationship is supposed to fit into this nice little box. Life just doesn't work that way.

 

Absolutely 100% agree. IMO, minimum wage should go away completely and restore the balance of economics a little.

Employees receive exactly the compensation that they agree to work for from the company.

Companies want good employees? Pay more.

People don't want to work hard to move up the ladder or open a business or advance themselves? They'll be paid very little.

That's how capitalism is supposed to work.

 

It's my opinion that Trump has spent his entire life focused on advancing his own wealth and power. I'm not saying the Clintons haven't done some of the same, but I at least have tangible evidence that they've tried to help other people too.

 

I'm sure Trump loves America, but to me, his candidacy just represents the next step in his lifelong stroking of his own ego.

So creating thousands of jobs is less admirable than collecting hundreds of millions through a "non-profit" foundation, much of which came from the Middle East? I can't even fathom how you've spun this in your head.

And why in America today do people criticize those who care to obtain wealth? There is nothing wrong with that whatsoever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The debates will be where things change...he will make her look like a criminal and get her off her "notes"...that can be a disaster for some people. With that said I still think she wins wth ease...when I say she I am referring to Clinton. Even though we still have no proof if she is a women and no proof if trump is a man .

The people who want to believe Hillary committed a crime already do, I'm guessing Trump's attempts at painting her as a criminal only serve to hurt him.

I don't, not even a little bit. Doubt is powerful. I also think that 3 terms with the same party is very tough historically speaking.

The weird thing with trump is that things that should hurt him, don't. I have never seen anything like it. I think that you are correct in what you said but the guy just seems to get stronger when he attacks people.

I don't think we've ever had (certainly in my lifetime) had a non-politician celebrity run for President. Ross Perot war political, but he wasn't a celebrity either,

A lot of Trump's support is a cult of personality combined with a distaste for current politicians. It's sad, but a lot of people think of him as the super rich, super successful businessman from Celebrity Apprentice. I think that's all the more they care to think it through,

I'm confident eventually the majority of people will realize he's a crooked. clueless a-hole we don't want representing our country.

What would you consider "a quality person to represent our country"?

I've got no qualms about supporting Clinton this go around. Bernie was interesting, but lacking in a few key departments that couldn't check the boxes for me.

 

She's not anyone's ideal candidate, but I feel very confident she can at the very least run the country without screwing anything major up. Trump already embarrasses me as an American with how he represents our country on the world stage.

A Clinton presidency - aside from a Sanders presidency - would be one of the most disastrous things we could ever imagine.

Why would anyone ever be in favor of our government continuing to increase their power? We need less government, not more.

 

 

 

 

 

The debates will be where things change...he will make her look like a criminal and get her off her "notes"...that can be a disaster for some people. With that said I still think she wins wth ease...when I say she I am referring to Clinton. Even though we still have no proof if she is a women and no proof if trump is a man .

 

The people who want to believe Hillary committed a crime already do, I'm guessing Trump's attempts at painting her as a criminal only serve to hurt him.

I don't, not even a little bit. Doubt is powerful. I also think that 3 terms with the same party is very tough historically speaking.

The weird thing with trump is that things that should hurt him, don't. I have never seen anything like it. I think that you are correct in what you said but the guy just seems to get stronger when he attacks people.

I don't think we've ever had (certainly in my lifetime) had a non-politician celebrity run for President. Ross Perot war political, but he wasn't a celebrity either,

A lot of Trump's support is a cult of personality combined with a distaste for current politicians. It's sad, but a lot of people think of him as the super rich, super successful businessman from Celebrity Apprentice. I think that's all the more they care to think it through,

I'm confident eventually the majority of people will realize he's a crooked. clueless a-hole we don't want representing our country.

What would you consider "a quality person to represent our country"?

Someone who isn't an embarrassing jack ass.

Soooo... Like a person who preaches about the 1% making too much money but drives a sports car paid for by donors?

Or maybe someone who preaches about women not making enough in comparison to men doing the same job, but personally pays women on staff around 30% less than men?

Sorry, I have no problem with Trump saying what he wants to say. At least he is authentic, and most of the time he ends up being right.

 

 

 

The debates will be where things change...he will make her look like a criminal and get her off her "notes"...that can be a disaster for some people. With that said I still think she wins wth ease...when I say she I am referring to Clinton. Even though we still have no proof if she is a women and no proof if trump is a man .

The people who want to believe Hillary committed a crime already do, I'm guessing Trump's attempts at painting her as a criminal only serve to hurt him.

I don't, not even a little bit. Doubt is powerful. I also think that 3 terms with the same party is very tough historically speaking.

The weird thing with trump is that things that should hurt him, don't. I have never seen anything like it. I think that you are correct in what you said but the guy just seems to get stronger when he attacks people.

I don't think we've ever had (certainly in my lifetime) had a non-politician celebrity run for President. Ross Perot war political, but he wasn't a celebrity either,

A lot of Trump's support is a cult of personality combined with a distaste for current politicians. It's sad, but a lot of people think of him as the super rich, super successful businessman from Celebrity Apprentice. I think that's all the more they care to think it through,

I'm confident eventually the majority of people will realize he's a crooked. clueless a-hole we don't want representing our country.

What would you consider "a quality person to represent our country"?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Relax man the error originated by the Post as you said, so don't call people like me propaganda readers because we read Post originated errors and don't read their corrections. 271k search hits for 147 agents and 166k hits for the corrections. Seems after all this looong time there are still lots of uncorrected pages. I probably won't be the last person to hear about it.

The point is, it's the propaganda machines that keep promoting that false information and people just keep soaking it up.

 

Look, I was once someone who soaked up every tidbit of evil information I could find on those evil Democrats. I was one hell of an angry man thinking that these scum were tearing apart our country and it's just hanging by a thread staying together because of these evil people.

 

Then.....I stopped. I stepped back and looked at the process. I realized that there are people who get paid one hell of a lot of money to keep me angry and hating the other side. It didn't matter if what they were telling me painted an accurate picture of the other side or not. As long as I was angry, they accomplished their job and they made more money and the "right" people gained more power.

 

Once you step back and realize this.....the entire world view changes. I'm still rather conservative fiscally and more middle of the road socially just like I was before. But, I instead of being angry at those evil people on the other side, I am now way more angry at the people who believe it's their job to keep me angry at that other side.

If you don't mind me saying this, and I honestly mean no offense, but I think you haven't stepped back as much as you say. Your feelings on Donald Trump aren't a secret, and that's cool with me, but where do you get your information on him? Perhaps the people that are paid a lot of money to help shape the negative views on him?

I got my views of him when I tried listening to him at the beginning of the campaign and through the debates. Listening to him alone tells me he is full of BS and has absolutely no clue what he is doing (as far as governing. He's very good at filling us with BS). He panders to whatever crowd is in front of him or who is interviewing him. He changes what he says about a subject constantly and then turns around and tries to blame the media for painting his original quotes wrong. BS....all you have to do is listen to the original quote and you learn he's a jack ass.

 

Just because I try to make every effort to filter out political biases in the information media puts out, doesn't mean I can't have very strong opinions on someone who deserves those strong opinions.

I honestly believe he is kind of shaping his views of policy based on the information that he is provided on a daily basis which is why it seems to you like he flip flops. I guess I just don't view it that way. I'd rather have someone who is flexible and is able to change their View based on new information provided rather than have someone who has a firm policy on day one and refuses to change their mind.

For example, I totally ignored that he has completely reversed his stance on guns, abortions, and other policies in his lifetime but I don't think it's because of who he is talking to. I think it's because he literally is changing his mind about those things and that's okay. I would hope that someone would be open-minded enough to change their mind over the course of a 20 or 30 year period.

 

 

 

 

I would agree with you that the Dems will unify behind Hillary more than the Repubs behind Trump.

The problem for the Democrats is that many of them will end up voting for Trump. Many Republicans who don't want to vote for Trump will probably go 3rd party with their votes.

What basis do you have for making this statement?

Not going to look it up right now, but there was a poll of Bernie supporters and 30+% said they'd vote for Trump in the general election.

 

You may be right but it's still way too early to know. I'd group a lot of that 30% with all the #nevertrump people. Come November and their choice is the opposite party it's going to be a fairly easy decision.

 

I think the results in the Democratic primaries are pretty telling. Hillary is obviously going to win, it's out of reach for Sanders, and he keeps winning states. He's won 3 of the last 4, in fact, and the 1 he didn't win, he lost by like .5%. That tells me that a lot of people are (rightfully) unwilling to vote for Hillary.

People keep saying that Trump "has no chance" against Hillary. While I have a fair amount of bias, I can honestly say I see Trump winning, and I don't think it will be particularly close. So much of our country is just sick and tired of the same old political garbage in the White House, and this is the movement that's going to change that. And plus, I just honestly don't understand what type of stance it would take to support Hillary Clinton...

 

 

 

 

I would agree with you that the Dems will unify behind Hillary more than the Repubs behind Trump.

The problem for the Democrats is that many of them will end up voting for Trump. Many Republicans who don't want to vote for Trump will probably go 3rd party with their votes.

What basis do you have for making this statement?

Not going to look it up right now, but there was a poll of Bernie supporters and 30+% said they'd vote for Trump in the general election.