Donald Trump

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Peter,

I wonder what Obama's people are going to do when they wake up in a few months and discover just how irrelevant he has become.

Think Carter during the Reagan years. How relevant was he back then?

On reading about those times, it seems to me like he fell off the face of the earth for quite a while.

Michael

[turkeyfoot]

1 hour ago, Peter said:

They have reached a new low at NBC. I have never used this word before, but they are a *disgrace.* They are indescribably vicious.  Dump them. Do not listen to them.

Peter

You're funny Peter. It has literally been years since Ive watched the main network channels for news. In light of that I say.

"Step away from the tv." There's a certain amount of paralysis we invite into our lives when we piss it away in front of a screen, he said, describing his chosen lot in life. There's a curative power to be found in transitioning out of unremitting routines such as watching the boob tube, as we used to call it. There IS an off button. My belated New Years resolution is to use it.

Ive got a good idea of what the players, prospects and possibilities will be for the next 4 yrs. Its time I give the ole heave ho to idle banter and check out as ROI has been average for the course and investment has had diminishing returns. Who knows, maybe the real investments Ive made over the last 40 years will begin to pay off. It IS Trump time. Reagan time was measured by how money multiplied during those 8 yrs. 

Me? I will find a primary source and tune in to The First 100 Days. Other than it, all the rest I call mine, My time.   

[anthony]

11 hours ago, Peter said:

Turkeyfoot  wrote: To be fair about actions and its consequences it’d be prudent to wait and see exactly what has been accomplished in a couple of years. Given the glacial movement of leviathan bureaucracy. end quote

And Michael wrote: So instead of being prepared for a year and a half of crap, now I am prepared for eight years of crap. end quote

Or . . . the shit mouths will become more irrelevant as time marches on. You may find yourself using words like “dipshit, asshole, and who gives a crap.”

From NBC News: “Anonymous to Trump. You will regret the next four years.”

Have you ever heard anything so revoltingly, awful? They have reached a new low at NBC. I have never used this word before, but they are a *disgrace.* They are indescribably vicious.  Dump them. Do not listen to them.

Peter

Peter,

No NBC here, but the people on CNN - 'professional journalists'! - and social media are enough for me. It's revealing, since there has to be something huger than one thinks that's been snatched back from the Lib-Progs to create this abnormal amount of vituperation, bias and deceit. From all that, one can come to sniff their shady moral premises which lie under the normal power-politics. Eliot: "... absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves" (and at any price, mostly of cost to somebody else). If Trump should shine, naturally I share your hope he does, the fragile edifice of moral self-righteousness they've carefully established will collapse and it's clear they feel it already happening.

The same has been apparent this side of the Channel for many months, as a "talking point". More like yelling and screaming, ha. To let you know you aren't alone, the noisy venom is international - and philosophically based. ;)

A businessman becomes President... Can it start a trend?

[Peter]

Good grief Tony. You get the lame stream media over there too? Can you get Fox News or Rush Limbaugh? Rush is saying on the radio that on the Wolf Blitzer show on CNN last night there was a story that said if Trump were assassinated it could keep Obama in power. The State run media is nurturing a climate of hatred and violence. So, you know what the entire American left and Democrat party is hoping will occur. And then CNN asked, what if an incoming President and his immediate successors were assassinated what would occur? Rush is saying the left cannot accept reality.

I am glad the U.S. has a policy of a designated survivor just in case of a calamity. Here it is. You must be over 35 and a naturally born citizen of America. Vice President Pence. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. President Pro tempore of the Senate. Secretary of State. Secretaries Treasury, Defense, Attorney General, Secretary of the Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Health, Housing and urban development, Transportation, Energy, Education, Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security. And there can also be other designated survivors.

Peter  

From Wikipedia: The practice of naming a designated survivor originated during the Cold War with its risk of nuclear attack. Only Cabinet members who are eligible to succeed to the presidency (i.e., natural-born citizens over the age of 35, who have resided in the United States for at least 14 years) are chosen as designated survivors. For example, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was not a natural-born citizen (having emigrated to the United States from Czechoslovakia) and was thus not in the line of presidential succession. The designated survivor is provided presidential-level security and transport for the duration of the event. An aide carries a nuclear football with them. However, they are not given a briefing on what to do in the event that the other successors to the presidency are killed.^[2]

Since 2005, members of Congress have also served as designated survivors. In addition to serving as a rump legislature in the event that all of their colleagues were killed, a surviving Representative and Senator could ascend to the offices of Speaker of the House and President Pro Tempore of the Senate, offices that immediately follow the Vice President in the line of succession. If such a legislative survivor were the sitting Speaker or President Pro Tempore – as for the 2005, 2006, and 2007 State of the Union addresses, in which President Pro Tempore Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) or Sen. Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia) was also a designated survivor – he or she would become the acting president rather than the surviving Cabinet member. However, it is unclear whether another legislator could do so without first being elected to that leadership position by a quorum of their respective house.

[Peter]

Anthony wrote, “A businessman becomes President... Can it start a trend?”

That would be nice as long as it isn’t a yellow lefty, who has made his bundle and now wants to rule along with the other “elites.”

Bill Gates? Zuckerberg? I don’t think they have the personal, or on camera personality, or other attributes to win an election.

What were the left loonies saying during our primaries? The right will have Nazi brown shirts fighting for Trump. What BS. The majority of haters are NOT on the right. They are on the left.

Remember the violence of the left during the Vietnam War? There were so many violent, terrorist organizations trying to overthrow our Constitution. Returning veterans were spat upon and called baby killers. Will America be returning to that era? Probably not, because the violence was fueled by the left, the draft, the war, and as we found out later, by the Soviet Union. I hope President Trump can purge the universities of the continuing presence and influence of the violent left . . . . not through violence or coercion but through reason, sound policy, and the federal purse strings.

Obama just pardoned some freaking Puerto Rican nationalist who murdered people with bombs. That guy is a terrorist. Local talk radio was discussing who President Trump should pardon his first weeks in office. There was a Navy enlisted man, now in prison, who used a phone to snap a picture of a console on a ship to show to his family. Dumb but not worth years of his life. There were several vets in Afghanistan and in Iraq who were in prison for being too tough on the Taliban and other terrorists. Pardon them President Trump.

Peter   

[BaalChatzaf]

8 hours ago, Peter said:

Anthony wrote, “A businessman becomes President... Can it start a trend?”

That would be nice as long as it isn’t a yellow lefty, who has made his bundle and now wants to rule along with the other “elites.”

Bill Gates? Zuckerberg? I don’t think they have the personal, or on camera personality, or other attributes to win an election.

What were the left loonies saying during our primaries? The right will have Nazi brown shirts fighting for Trump. What BS. The majority of haters are NOT on the right. They are on the left.

Remember the violence of the left during the Vietnam War? There were so many violent, terrorist organizations trying to overthrow our Constitution. Returning veterans were spat upon and called baby killers. Will America be returning to that era? Probably not, because the violence was fueled by the left, the draft, the war, and as we found out later, by the Soviet Union. I hope President Trump can purge the universities of the continuing presence and influence of the violent left . . . . not through violence or coercion but through reason, sound policy, and the federal purse strings.

Obama just pardoned some freaking Puerto Rican nationalist who murdered people with bombs. That guy is a terrorist. Local talk radio was discussing who President Trump should pardon his first weeks in office. There was a Navy enlisted man, now in prison, who used a phone to snap a picture of a console on a ship to show to his family. Dumb but not worth years of his life. There were several vets in Afghanistan and in Iraq who were in prison for being too tough on the Taliban and other terrorists. Pardon them President Trump.

Peter   

That last big time business man  who became President, was Andrew Jackson.  He was a millionaire cotton grower, back in the days when gold  sold for $20 a Troy ounce. Jackson was no banker or financier, he manage a cotton production enterprise  and lived or died by the market price for cotton.  Too bad he did not pay his farm hands for their labor.  His farm hands were African slaves.  In any case Jackson was no effete eastern sipper of Port wine.  He drank his whiskey straight.  He also did not read books  too much.  Jackson would have been totally out of place in the soirees on the East Coast in New York, or Boston or Philadelphia. 

[merjet]

2 hours ago, BaalChatzaf said:

That last big time business man  who became President, was Andrew Jackson. 

Herbert Hoover wasn't one?

[anthony]

11 hours ago, Peter said:

Anthony wrote, “A businessman becomes President... Can it start a trend?”

That would be nice as long as it isn’t a yellow lefty, who has made his bundle and now wants to rule along with the other “elites.”

Bill Gates? Zuckerberg? I don’t think they have the personal, or on camera personality, or other attributes to win an election.

 

 

Peter   

It's a world wide trend I'm (doubtfully) hoping for, as opposed to the career politicians. There is one such capitalist businessman- turned-politician in South Africa, Herman Mashaba, who is admirably his own man, too. A black man, he began his cosmetic business alone in the hard apartheid days, selling from the back of a pickup truck and built it to a mega-million enterprise. He is a complete libertarian, for free-market and anti-govt, wrote a book about it, so made himself very unpopular with the Socialist, nepotistic and crony powers that be. He's just broken into politics standing for the opposition party and recently we elected him Mayor of Johannesburg. One day - he'd make an outstanding President of the RSA.

I agree with your "yellow lefty" businessman. It is saddening to see ingratiating and apologetic zillionaires seeking public redemption by "giving back".

[Peter]

Prehistory.

Imagine an hour glass with the sand running out of it. At 12 noon the glass is turned over and history begins to flow in the right direction.

At 12 noon the debt clock begins to drop, a few clicks a minute but then it lowers by millions of dollars for every second that passes.

The tide has been receding but at 12 noon the water begins to reenter the harbor. No scratch that. At 12 noon the tide returns in a large wave with a man surfing the top of the wave.

As the Supreme Court Justices file into the Capital, several of them breathe a sigh of relief. Now I can retire in 3 years. Two, like Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan were appointed by Barack Obama. How long can Ginsberg stay on they wonder? In our lifetimes, will we ever be in the majority again? Ginsberg wonders, is my kitty Ok.? I sure miss that romantic Italian guy on the court. What was his name? 

A 12 noon today a thousand small businesses spring into existence and a million or more small businesses begin hiring and expanding. A dozen large corporations begin moving their assets back onto American soil. The tax code miraculously shrinks.   

History restarts. “Happy days are here again.”

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

It is done.

In gratitude,

Michael

[Brant Gaede]

3 hours ago, merjet said:

Herbert Hoover wasn't one?

Not quite. Close but not quite. A total disaster as President regardless.

--Brant

[Backlighting]

"The road is cleared," said Galt. "We are going back to the world." He raised his hand and over the desolate earth he traced in space the sign of the dollar? ---Atlas Shrugged

 

[Brant Gaede]

What has Objectivism come to?

--Brant

straw clutching?

[Brant Gaede]

Michelle Obama isn't having a good time.

--Brant

[Brant Gaede]

Hillary is getting out of the rain before her makeup washes off.

--Brant

and her smile

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Now, our First Lady is an immigrant.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Listening to President Trump's first speech as president.

A picture speaks a thousand words.

Michael

[BaalChatzaf]

4 hours ago, merjet said:

Herbert Hoover wasn't one?

Big time.  Actually there were 10 multi-millionaires  from Jackson to Trump.  JFK  was rich. Both Roosevelts were rich.  So I was mistaken in what I said.  Trump is the first  Populist Rich Guy since Jackson.  Trump is a true  Outsider who never held political office before. Nor did he work for the government as civil service or as a consultant. 

Please see  http://blogs.voanews.com/all-about-america/2016/04/06/heres-a-list-of-americas-richest-poorest-presidents/

and 

http://myfirstclasslife.com/10-richest-u-s-presidents-in-history/?singlepage=1

[william.scherk]

Science and the Trump Presidency: What to expect for climate change, health care, technology and more https://t.co/wm9jonNpDw #Inauguration pic.twitter.com/WYzdSddVQc

— Scientific American (@sciam) January 20, 2017

[william.scherk]

For the record, the speech that sets the goals:

 

"Chief Justice Roberts, President Carter, President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, fellow Americans and people of the world, thank you.

We, the citizens of America, are now joined in a great national effort to rebuild our country and restore its promise for all of our people.

Together, we will determine the course of America and the world for many, many years to come. We will face challenges. We will confront hardships. But we will get the job done.

Every four years we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power.

And we are grateful to President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama for their gracious aid throughout this transition.

They have been magnificent.

Thank you.

Today's ceremony, however, has a very special meaning because today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the people.

For too long, a small group in our nation's capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have bore the cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered but the jobs left and the factories closed.

The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs. And while they celebrated in our nation's capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.

That all changes starting right here and right now, because this moment is your moment.

It belongs to you.

It belongs to everyone gathered here today and everyone watching all across America.

This is your day.

This is your celebration.

And this, the United States of America, is your country.

What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people.

January 20th, 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again.

The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer. Everyone is listening to you now. You came by the tens of millions to become part of a historic movement, the likes of which the world has never seen before.

At the center of this movement is a crucial conviction that a nation exists to serve its citizens. Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families and good jobs for themselves.

These are just and reasonable demands of righteous people and a righteous public.

But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists.

Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation.

An education system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge.

And the crime and the gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential. This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.

We are one nation, and their pain is our pain.

Their dreams are our dreams, and their success will be our success. We share one heart, one home and one glorious destiny.

The oath of office I take today is an oath of allegiance to all Americans.

For many decades we've enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry, subsidized the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military.

We've defended other nations' borders while refusing to defend our own. And we've spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas while America's infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay.

We've made other countries rich while the wealth, strength and confidence of our country has dissipated over the horizon.

One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores with not even a thought about the millions and millions of American workers that were left behind.

The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed all across the world. But that is the past, and now we are looking only to the future.

***********************

We assembled here today are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital and in every hall of power. From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land.

From this day forward, it's going to be only America first, America first. Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs will be made to benefit American workers and American families. We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our product, stealing our companies and destroying our jobs.

Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength. I will fight for you with every breath in my body, and I will never ever let you down.

America will start winning again, winning like never before.

We will bring back our jobs.

We will bring back our borders.

We will bring back our wealth, and we will bring back our dreams.

We will build new roads and highways and bridges and airports and tunnels and railways all across our wonderful nation.

We will get our people off of welfare and back to work, rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor.

We will follow two simple rules: Buy American and hire American.

We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world, but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first.

We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example.

We will shine for everyone to follow.

We will re-enforce old alliances and form new ones and unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the earth.

At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America, and through our loyalty to our country we will rediscover our loyalty to each other.

When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice.

The Bible tells us how good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity. We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements honestly, but always pursue solidarity. When America is united, America is totally unstoppable. There should be no fear. We are protected and we will always be protected. We will be protected by the great men and women of our military and law enforcement. And most importantly, we will be protected by God.

Finally, we must think big and dream even bigger. In America, we understand that a nation is only living as long as it is striving. We will no longer accept politicians who are all talk and no action, constantly complaining but never doing anything about it.

The time for empty talk is over. Now arrives the hour of action.

Do not allow anyone to tell you that it cannot be done. No challenge can match the heart and fight and spirit of America. We will not fail. Our country will thrive and prosper again.

We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free the earth from the miseries of disease, and to harness the energies, industries and technologies of tomorrow.

A new national pride will stir ourselves, lift our sights and heal our divisions. It's time to remember that old wisdom our soldiers will never forget, that whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots.

We all enjoy the same glorious freedoms and we all salute the same great American flag.

And whether a child is born in the urban sprawl of Detroit or the windswept plains of Nebraska, they look up at the same night sky, they fill their heart with the same dreams and they are infused with the breath of life by the same almighty creator.

So to all Americans in every city near and far, small and large, from mountain to mountain, from ocean to ocean, hear these words: You will never be ignored again. Your voice, your hopes and your dreams will define our American destiny. And your courage and goodness and love will forever guide us along the way.

Together we will make America strong again, we will make America wealthy again, we will make America proud again, we will make America safe again.

And, yes, together we will make America great again.

Thank you.

God bless you.

And God bless America."

[Peter]

Brant wrote: What has Objectivism come to? - straw clutching? Michelle Obama isn't having a good time. Hillary is getting out of the rain before her makeup washes off. and her smile end quote

I saw one shot of Bill Clinton’s face that was priceless. I thought he was going to yell in anger, or throw up. Anemic protests are starting in DC.

Krauthammer said Trump’s speech was not conservative. It was populist. . . but his cabinet picks are classically conservative. 

[william.scherk]

Meanwhile, in Tehran, a non-Trump tower ...

 

Tehran's iconic 15-story building, Pelasco, collapses live on TV after firepic.twitter.com/oqeC9ugkW7

— Sobhan Hassanvand (@Hassanvand) January 19, 2017

 

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

2 hours ago, william.scherk said:

Meanwhile, in Tehran, a non-Trump tower ...

William,

I'm glad you see the irony and we banter about this.

The scene saddened me, though. What a bummer.

I never like to see things like that unless it is controlled demolition in a construction project or a movie.

Michael

[BaalChatzaf]

I read the text to his inaugural speech.  I thought it was rather good.

This line stood out:   The oath of office I take today is an oath of allegiance to all Americans.

Let it be so.  Let it be so.  

This is the first time I felt good vibes about Trump. I hope I will not be disappointed. 

[Brant Gaede]

7 hours ago, BaalChatzaf said:

Big time.  Actually there were 10 multi-millionaires  from Jackson to Trump.  JFK  was rich. Both Roosevelts were rich.  So I was mistaken in what I said.  Trump is the first  Populist Rich Guy since Jackson.  Trump is a true  Outsider who never held political office before. Nor did he work for the government as civil service or as a consultant. 

Please see  http://blogs.voanews.com/all-about-america/2016/04/06/heres-a-list-of-americas-richest-poorest-presidents/

and 

http://myfirstclasslife.com/10-richest-u-s-presidents-in-history/?singlepage=1

The question wasn't whether HH was rich.

--Brant

thx for the link though--although it's full of errors