Donald Trump

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Here's some more to keep it lively (from Breitbart):

Donald Trump Wins Legal Battle in University Case

 

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

And here's a meme to help.

Not a great meme, but it's got some zing.

 

Michael

[Peter]

I just caught the end of the Newt Gingrich interview on Hannity tonight and I was talking to someone as Newt spoke so forgive my imprecision, but he seemed to be saying that Trump would be creating the American Republican Party which is a part of the GOP but also a bigger, more inclusive party. Instead of some folks starting a losing anti-Trump third party, Trump is already making a better Republican Party which makes the naysayer’s even sillier. Trumped by Trump.

Peter

[Peter]

This “Trump” site seems to have gone to sleep. Have we finally gotten fed up with Trump, or just fed up with talking about Trump? Oh, the drama.

I tried to get the Hannity interview on Fox’s website but it would only show other interviews. Newt is one of the world’s greatest spin masters. From memory once more . . .  I could not tell if Newt was spinning or serious but . . . Trump is creating a third party unofficially called The American Republican Party (TARP) that includes the Republicans, blue dog - crossover Democrats, The Tea Party and other patriotic groups, the America first patriots, military personnel, libertarians, etc. Though technically the name is still The Republican Party or the Grand Old Party, it is different in several key ways.

Unfortunately, I cannot remember if that is my spin on it or not. But it is a good idea for Trump to put an end to any and all Third Party idiocy. Kasich said it would be silly to run. Republicans should never let a Progressive candidate select several Supreme Court justices to adversely affect America for generations to come. Rebranding the Repubs in my fashioned Gingrich fashion, is brilliant, whether he explicitly said that or not. I might join The American Republican Party. It's cheaper than starting one from scratch. There was also something about a "ten point agreement" between the Republican platform and Trump's run for the Prez.    

Peter

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

6 hours ago, Peter said:

This “Trump” site seems to have gone to sleep. Have we finally gotten fed up with Trump, or just fed up with talking about Trump? Oh, the drama.

Peter,

It's just a lull.

I've been really busy with a project and the nay people are still in shock about Trump's success.

 

I'm going to post some of Trump's heroic and rational Randian characteristics here soon just to stir up some shit. That ought to get the thread cooking again.

 

Let me give you a hint on one thing I found. In the story, "The Simplest Thing in the World," (at the end of the Romantic Manifesto), Henry Dorn (the author protagonist) goes through a few try-fail sequences to write a commercial story not connected to his values because he needs money. He tries to be stupid, but ends up taking the new story idea in heroic directions each time.

Guess who is in one of Dorn's sequences at the heroic outcome? You guessed it. Trump. You don't need much to see it, either.

And, of all things, Biddibob is in another--almost to a tee. It's like he based his whole fiction career on this one sequence. 

I promise, I'll get more stuff coming. Let me just come up for air.

Michael

[Brant Gaede]

I think I have Rand on NBI vinyl reading this short story.

You on Trump is like Greg on morality and Baal on math and science.

--Brant

stay the course!--don't go to pieces!

 

[9thdoctor]

59 minutes ago, Brant Gaede said:

I think I have Rand on NBI vinyl reading this short story.

 

No need to go excavating your old record collection. 

 

[Brant Gaede]

I got a kick when I accidentally got both sides going at once and Rand was speaking over herself.

This is one of the many vinyl records I sent to Nathaniel in 2008 and it was put on a DVR along with many other NBI records by both him and Ayn plus all his Seminar records. I own them all and have the DVD. The Seminar records are now available for sale through some guy in Texas who's doing a lot of archival work on old Objectivist stuff. Googling Nathaniel Branden Seminars brings it up and they are being provided by the Culture of Reason Center at ten bucks a whack or $240 for all four years (five bucks a whack). I'm the reason these old recordings are now available. Nathaniel had given all his away. Laurie said that when she unpacked the records he found it hard to believe there were so many of them (about 55). I had double packed them into two shipping boxes so to make it all but impossible to damage them in shipping. I didn't get them back for 4 1/2 years, which was okay. It gave me an excuse to go see Nathaniel and Laurie in late September 2012. They had an expensive and large high rise apartment in LA with relatively little furniture. The reason is they moved from a  previous residence that was large into a smaller one Nathaniel didn't like but they had gotten rid of their excess furniture so when they moved again back into a large, they didn't have the goods they had gotten rid of.

I asked Laurie how they had met which I related several years ago here (in a bookstore while she was perusing his books and had no idea the man behind her asking her why she was so enthusiastic about that author and she told him The Psychology of Self Esteem was great and he ought to read it and she was looking for more books by him--that that was Nathaniel Branden).

Nathaniel was attended by a caregiver and considering his condition the next two years must have been especially difficult for Laurie. I only stayed an hour for when he got stressed out I took my leave, but, unexpectedly, as I was at the door, Nathaniel got to his feet and came to the door and gave me a hearty "Hasta Luego!"

I heard intimations of his Parkinson's in 2008 when I talked to him on the phone on successive days. The first day he sounded somewhat subdued and weak. The next day his old strong and assertive normal self.

The listener should understand that when he started these Seminars in 1969 he was just seven or eight months out of Rand land. (They were sold through Academic Associates, run by Barbara Branden.) I think they should be listened to from the get go and maybe no more than twice a month keeping in context his then present context. One needs to really listen. If one is doing more than four a month one isn't. You see, listening is more than listening, listening is digesting. At a minimal, before any of this, read The Passion of Ayn Rand. I'm relating all this to those who didn't live through this era as I did. I saw all these actors in action pre and post 1968. I went to Boston for at least six, maybe seven (eight?), consecutive years to hear and see Ayn at the Ford Hall Forum starting in 1968. The feel I had for all this can't be the same for any who weren't similarly exposed. I'm first hand and I expect to live another good 20 years maybe a few more then I'm gone. Get this, come the "break of 68" I took Ayn's side. It took four years before I switched after reading Nathaniel's first--there were two--Reason magazine interview. A lot of that had to do with natural maturation. It's all a part--a significant part--of my life's journey. I read AS in 1963 but I still went to Vietnam. I was a killer combat medic. It's been a wrenching journey from arch Barry Goldwater conservative to Randian but intellectual focus to Objectivism leavened by libertarianism, kicking and screaming all the way. It wasn't all "intellectual." After it was obvious Bush was going to invade Iraq it was also obvious to me how so much of what was going on man to state and state to man was a complete crock of shit. I knew that not just by thinking about it but because I had been to war--the Vietnam War, unlike our Christian nutzo President who courageously flew around Texas in his National Guard jet he eschewed as soon as possible for it was a deadly one-holer.

Except when I was in Special Forces the largest life I've led is in my head. Now at 72 it's time to get out of my head that way again, while I can. My genes are backing me up. My ancestors tend to live into their nineties. But there are no guarantees. The bullets still whistle and crack. People next to me are still being whacked.

--Brant

[Backlighting]

Very interesting Brant...thanks for sharing.--Joe

[Brant Gaede]

Yer welcome. Weren't you a paratrooper too? I remember flying into Ft Benning in the winter of 1965 looking down at the ground wondering how in the hell I could ever jump out of an airplane? Then I failed to pass the 34 ft tower the first week which I had to repeat. The others who failed quit. Not me. I marched about 20 of them to the quitters' station. The only time I ever marched anyone in the army. When we got there they told me to go out back. There I was surrounded by children's playground equipment. But there were no children. There could be no children. Not there. It was just there for me. Below I could see planes taxiing on the associated Air Force base. They--whoever they were--had made that place for me and all the others who hadn't quit and I knew that and I cried. I have never felt so loved.

But I quit the Vietnam War. One year and I was gone. I knew too much and I had seen too much and I had done too much and I knew it was qua war crap. If you go to war you fight to win, not to sustain or prevent. And you fight for freedom but not for the freedom of people to vote themselves into slavery. But freedom to vote yourself into slavery is freedom, is it not? That means I shouldn't have been there, period.

Knowing now what I really was then and the man I became, I would have stayed in the army if I could have (I couldn't)--not as an officer but as an enlisted man--to protect and nurture my men. Non-commissioned officers are like mothers and officers like fathers. Fathers send their sons to death, mothers strive to protect their health. The officers are fighters too and get killed too. That's the army and that's the Marines. Less so the navy for on a ship you get better integration. Everybody is locked into the same function. Much less so the air force. In an airplane it's mostly officers. The ground crews don't die. They count the bombers coming back hoping their bomber and crew have made it home. My uncle Dave was in the sky and almost died. 1943. He still had Japanese 20mm shrapnel in his body when we buried him at Arlington two years ago.

--Brant

[turkeyfoot]

1 hour ago, Brant Gaede said:

I'm the reason these old recordings are now available. Nathaniel had given all his away.

A treasure trove, an inside story and an unpaid debt. Thx

[Backlighting]

1 hour ago, Brant Gaede said:

Yer welcome. Weren't you a paratrooper too?--Brant

Me paratrooper? No. Drafted the end of '67 and after basic at Ft. Jackson trained at Ft. Belvoir as an offset press operator. Spent all of '68 & most of '69 working in the Army's Printing & Publication Center in Kawasaki and living in Yokohama. I was one of the few who lucked out... didn't have to go to that god forsaken place, Vietnam. --Joe

[Brant Gaede]

I left Vietnam in September of 1967 knowing it was a bad war (compared to any proper war you can think of). After Tet and the President trowing in the towel it became really bad for the soldiers were asked to place hold while they talked in Paris.

If I had to do it again I would not have "fought for my country." I would have exploited my military service to my own maximum personal benefit which would not have included being shot at. While all in all I got a lot out of being in the army, I could have gotten that elsewhere in military service. I enlisted for photography school and when I took my physical the recruiter tried to get me into NSA at the price of four years instead of three.

What I'm most proud of, however, is becoming a paratrooper. 13 jumps, the last out of a helicopter. When you do a static line jump from an airplane you are practically propelled out into a slipstream of well over 100 mph and your chute is jerked open. From a helicopter you just fall. My stomach went up into my throat and I desperately wondered when in the hell that damn chute would open! I might as well have jumped off the top of the Empire State building.

Like most who enlisted I was effectively sluiced into the military by the draft. One the one hand it was smarter to get drafted. Two years instead of three or four. On the other you risked being assigned to a combat outfit. This wasn't WWII and the Japs had just attacked Pearl Harbor and men were running down to get enlisted and fight. The only intimation of what we went through that young men get today is they still have to register. Weak. When we did that they also fingerprinted us like we were criminals. I don't think they do that today. I hope not; it's morally degrading.

--Brant

[Peter]

Thanks Michael. I also wondered if a new Trump thread had started and I had missed the ribbon cutting.

 

Backlighting wrote: Drafted the end of '67 and after basic at Ft. Jackson trained at Ft. Belvoir as an offset press operator. end quote

 

I was a radio operator and then a radio teletype operator, and as a civilian I worked in printing. After the Twin Towers came down there were some vets still in the reserves who had critical jobs (MOS’s?) and were briefly worried about being pulled back into the service. I remember Dennis May who had been in the Airforce talking about it, but I don’t remember if a significant number of people were re-activated. If America is attacked in a major way again, with an A-bomb, a dirty bomb, or a biological weapon it will be interesting to see if we will respond in a similar fashion. As always, if it is a terrorist attack and not a country attacking, where do we drop the bomb? Would Trump or Clinton be more likely to respond in kind?

Peter

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Trump just released his picks for Supreme Court Justice. (FB post here.)

Quote

DONALD J. TRUMP RELEASES LIST OF POTENTIAL UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT JUSTICES

(New York, NY) May 18, 2016 - Today Donald J. Trump released the much-anticipated list of people he would consider as potential replacements for Justice Scalia at the United States Supreme Court. This list was compiled, first and foremost, based on constitutional principles, with input from highly respected conservatives and Republican Party leadership.

Mr. Trump stated, “Justice Scalia was a remarkable person and a brilliant Supreme Court Justice. His career was defined by his reverence for the Constitution and his legacy of protecting Americans’ most cherished freedoms. He was a Justice who did not believe in legislating from the bench and he is a person whom I held in the highest regard and will always greatly respect his intelligence and conviction to uphold the Constitution of our country. The following list of potential Supreme Court justices is representative of the kind of constitutional principles I value and, as President, I plan to use this list as a guide to nominate our next United States Supreme Court Justices.”

Steven Colloton

Steven Colloton of Iowa is a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, a position he has held since President George W. Bush appointed him in 2003. Judge Colloton has a résumé that also includes distinguished service as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa, a Special Assistant to the Attorney General in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, and a lecturer of law at the University of Iowa. He received his law degree from Yale, and he clerked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Judge Colloton is an Iowa native.

Allison Eid

Allison Eid of Colorado is an associate justice of the Colorado Supreme Court. Colorado Governor Bill Owens appointed her to the seat in 2006; she was later retained for a full term by the voters (with 75% of voters favoring retention). Prior to her judicial service, Justice Eid served as Colorado’s solicitor general and as a law professor at the University of Colorado. Justice Eid attended the University of Chicago Law School, and she clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas.

Raymond Gruender

Raymond Gruender of Missouri has been a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit since his 2004 appointment by President George W. Bush. Judge Gruender, who sits in St. Louis, Missouri, has extensive prosecutorial experience, culminating with his time as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri. Judge Gruender received a law degree and an M.B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis.

Thomas Hardiman

Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania has been a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit since 2007. Prior to serving as a circuit judge, he served as a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania since 2003. Before his judicial service, Judge Hardiman worked in private practice in Washington, D.C. and Pittsburgh. Judge Hardiman was the first in his family to attend college, graduating from Notre Dame.

Raymond Kethledge

Raymond Kethledge of Michigan has been a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit since 2008. Before his judicial service, Judge Kethledge served as judiciary counsel to Michigan Senator Spencer Abraham, worked as a partner in two law firms, and worked as an in-house counsel for the Ford Motor Company. Judge Kethledge obtained his law degree from the University of Michigan and clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Joan Larsen

Joan Larsen of Michigan is an Associate Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. Justice Larsen was a professor at the University of Michigan School of Law from 1998 until her appointment to the bench. In 2002, she temporarily left academia to work as an Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. Justice Larsen received her law degree from Northwestern and clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia.

Thomas Lee

Thomas Lee of Utah has been an Associate Justice of the Utah Supreme Court since 2010. Beginning in 1997, he served on the faculty of Brigham Young University Law School, where he still teaches in an adjunct capacity. Justice Lee was Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department’s Civil Division from 2004 to 2005. Justice Lee attended the University of Chicago Law School, and he clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas. Justice Lee is also the son of former U.S. Solicitor General Rex Lee and the brother of current U.S. Senator Mike Lee.

William Pryor

William H. Pryor, Jr. of Alabama is a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He has served on the court since 2004. Judge Pryor became the Alabama Attorney General in 1997 upon Jeff Sessions’s election to the U.S. Senate. Judge Pryor was then elected in his own right in 1998 and reelected in 2002. In 2013, Judge Pryor was confirmed to a term on the United States Sentencing Commission. Judge Pryor received his law degree from Tulane, and he clerked for Judge John Minor Wisdom of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

David Stras

David Stras of Minnesota has been an Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court since 2010. After his initial appointment, he was elected to a six-year term in 2012. Prior to his judicial service, Judge Stras worked as a legal academic at the University of Minnesota Law School. In his time there, he wrote extensively about the function and structure of the judiciary. Justice Stras received his law degree and an M.B.A. from the University of Kansas. He clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas.

Diane Sykes

Diane Sykes of Wisconsin has served as a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit since 2004. Prior to her federal appointment, Judge Sykes had been a Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court since 1999 and a Wisconsin trial court judge of both civil and criminal matters before that. Judge Sykes received her law degree from Marquette.

Don Willett

Don Willett of Texas has been a Justice of the Texas Supreme Court since 2005. He was initially appointed by Governor Rick Perry and has been reelected by the voters twice. Prior to his judicial service, Judge Willett worked as a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, as an advisor in George W. Bush’s gubernatorial and presidential administrations, as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy, and as a Deputy Attorney General under then-Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. Justice Willett received his law degree and a master’s degree from Duke.

Let the pundits begin.

 

Michael

[Mikee]

Breaking Drudge:  Trump turns up the heat on the Clintons tonight when he raises the specter of 'RAPE' when describing Bill Clinton's past history with women. The bombshell is dropped on FOXNEWS 'HANNITY' during an hour-long interview, set to air at 10 PM ET... MORE...

Meanwhile Sanders drops an "R" word of his own:  http://www.politicususa.com/2016/01/17/sanders-drops-r-word-clinton-accusing-sounding-republican.html

[Jon Letendre]

Hillary will come undone soon.

She is hobbled by having to run as Obama 3.0 - he sends her to prison if she deviates, or criticizes his legacy.

If she craters rapidly, as it looks to me is happening now, (and as is sort of necessary, when you run as Obama 3.0) then Obama will see her off in order to try with someone else. It will be nice seeing her admitting guilt and begging for her freedom.

[Peter]

Jon wrote: Hillary will come undone soon . . . . It will be nice seeing her admitting guilt and begging for her freedom. end quote

I don’t see her pleading for mercy though she could “plead the fifth.” What is her personae?  She appears to have a sense of entitlement, a criminal personality, she is a  gambler, revenge seeker, and she has no morals or philosophy other than IR-rational self interest. I expect OL to expunge all references to Old Hickory Clinton, if she should win the Presidency, because she will task her flunkies to hound her critics.

I don’t see that happening with Trump but he could also overstep his Constitutional powers and never say a good word about his critics  . . . . until they beg his holiness’s forgiveness, and speak well of Caesar – he is more of a benignly neglectful character after a short scoff. Pfft! Idiots. Eff 'em. 

Peter  

[Mikee]

Contrast what you can dig up about Trump's past:  http://m.hannity.com/articles/hanpr-election-493995/200-stranded-marines-needed-a-plane-14727522/

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Here is Megyn Kelly's May 17, 2016 interview with Donald Trump in her new show. This link will probably go bad after a while. If I see it does, I will try to find a replacement.

The most telling moment for me was when she asked him what his favorite book was, barring the Bible and The Art of the Deal.

Almost like an afterthought, he said, All Quiet on the Western Front. (It's by  Erich Remarque, although Trump did not mention the author.)

Dayaamm!

I actually read that thing when I was younger. I bet not that many pundits have read it. I certainly did not expect Trump to say that.

If anyone thinks Trump is a warmonger, let them put that in their pipe and smoke it.

And, yes, I actually think he read it back when he still had time to read books. If I did, he certainly could have. There was a lot of interest in this book at the close of the Vietnam War.

For those who haven't read it, it's a story about German soldiers during WWI. The enemy is war itself and the theme (as I remember it) is the dehumanizing evil war inflicts on men (especially the soldiers), not just on one side or the other.

Michael

[Peter]

You can go back in time and claim certain grievances are causing current actions but as far as the war against radical Muslims goes, the lack of morality lies with them. It is time we grind them into the dust.  

Trump said ISIS will laugh if Hillary is elected. But what will he do? He uses words in the following cuts like, “But I’ll go after ISIS big-league . . . .” Does his strategy include ground troops? Nuclear weapons? And what about the nations sponsoring terrorism like Iran and Saudi Arabia? Should we first demand accountability with Iran and if they don’t comply then SHOULD WE level their infrastructure?

Peter

From Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough: Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Friday he would leave Syrian President Bashar Assad alone and focus military action on the Islamic State group, also known as either ISIL or ISIS, in the event he wins the White House.

“Right,” Trump agreed. “But I’ll go after ISIS big-league,” he added.

Scarborough then remarked: “So what you’re saying is, Assad can stay in power. That’s not your interest.”

Trump replied that the U.S. has “bigger problems than Assad” and that he would tell the military to “knock the hell out of ISIS, which we could have done originally.

“Look, we shouldn’t have been in Iraq. Bad decision. Then the way Obama got us out was a horrible decision,” Trump said. “The way we came out. And by the way, ISIS was created because of that, because they wouldn’t take them in. Because we had the wrong leadership. We put the wrong leadership in Iraq.”

[Peter]

In my mailbox.

Ed Rollins, National Co-Chair, Great America PAC. If you were looking for the place to support Donald J. Trump's quest to make America great again -- or you had any hesitation to contribute because you just weren't sure -- take the Wall Street Journal's word: Great America PAC is the place. Donald Trump wants to make America great again -- and if we want him to succeed, we must help him win a decisive victory of historic proportions over despicable Democrat Hillary Clinton. end quote

Giggle. Snort. He called her despicable, Beevis.

I know Butthead. It's like she's some sort of cartoon or sumthin. Should we contribute?

Sure Beevis. As soon as we get our allowances.  

[Roger Bissell]

I keep sayin' :

http://www.aol.com/article/2016/05/21/another-political-model-predicts-clinton-will-beat-trump/21381245/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D-194448326_htmlws-main-bb

http://videos.vidible.tv/prod/2016-05/19/573e445ae4b0af043d9fadb2_853x480_v1.mp4?MJw-P531d9Noyusm1Yh_6MjjlQSaqOPiew0P4HMTuGodrRddS88i4V7qP7lY4n9K

 

[Brant Gaede]

32 minutes ago, Roger Bissell said:

I keep sayin' :

http://www.aol.com/article/2016/05/21/another-political-model-predicts-clinton-will-beat-trump/21381245/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D-194448326_htmlws-main-bb

http://videos.vidible.tv/prod/2016-05/19/573e445ae4b0af043d9fadb2_853x480_v1.mp4?MJw-P531d9Noyusm1Yh_6MjjlQSaqOPiew0P4HMTuGodrRddS88i4V7qP7lY4n9K

 

Maybe she will. Maybe she won't. It's all new stuff coming up.

--Brant

[Jon Letendre]

All that follows is from this Fox News opinion piece:

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/05/20/why-hillary-clinton-is-sinking-faster-than-titanic.html

"Then, there’s the FBI. They are closing in. No matter how many times Hillary or her delusional aides claim the investigation is only a “security inquiry” it doesn't change reality.

FBI Director Comey recently set them straight. Turns out the FBI doesn’t do “security inquiries.” Hillary is the subject of a “criminal investigation.”

Then there’s that millstone hanging around Hillary’s neck -- Bill Clinton. Can you become president when your husband’s past behavior with women raises more questions every day? We’re about to find out. [...] 

Bill took 26 flights on a sex offender’s plane, an aircraft actually called “The Lolita Express.” It flew nonstop to “Orgy Island” where old men cavorted with young (13 to 15-year old) girls. Bill flew five times on this aircraft without his Secret Service detail. This isn’t a scandal, it’s a disaster for Hillary.  [...]

Have you heard that Russia claims to have 10,000 of Hillary's hacked emails? They say they will release them. If this is the case, Hillary better stop worrying about the White House and start worrying about the Big House.

Would President Obama allow the Justice Department to indict his former secretary of state? I used to think “no.” But I now believe the answer to that question depends on only one factor -- is Hillary beating Trump?  [...]

At this point, I would guess the president gives Hillary a choice that is no choice at all. Be indicted, lose the presidential race, and risk a long jail term, or announce to the world that your cough has become a real medical issue and you will have to decline the nomination, then receive a presidential pardon."