The Next American President Thread (2016)

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  • Posts: 1,631
    I know that to some people saying i'm not a racist automatically makes me a racist, but i'm not a racist, and I voted to leave the Europrison Union. If a second referendum is held, I would do so again. For the record, I am not part of the BNP or Stormfornt or any of those groups. So no, not all of the people who voted to leave (and by extension, voted for Farage) are racists. Some might be, but you would have to confront them.

    As for Trump, I don't think he is going to do half of the things he says he will. I think it's all a lot of hot air and nothing else.

    Agreed. The problem with him, though, is his simply making the statements and "promises" that he's made makes him unfit to hold the office.

    The GOP voters missed out on a couple of candidates who could have gone toe-to-toe with Clinton and perhaps beaten her, and possibly even gone on to be excellent presidents. Instead, we're stuck with this fool that very well could end up bringing down the entire party.
  • MajorDSmytheMajorDSmythe "I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it."Moderator
    Posts: 13,978
    You'd think that trying not to go bankrupt for the umpteenth time, that he wouldn't have the time to enter politics, let alone run to be the President of the US. He should take up a hobby, watercolour painting looks relaxing, he should try that instead.
  • Posts: 11,119
    dalton wrote: »
    I know that to some people saying i'm not a racist automatically makes me a racist, but i'm not a racist, and I voted to leave the Europrison Union. If a second referendum is held, I would do so again. For the record, I am not part of the BNP or Stormfornt or any of those groups. So no, not all of the people who voted to leave (and by extension, voted for Farage) are racists. Some might be, but you would have to confront them.

    As for Trump, I don't think he is going to do half of the things he says he will. I think it's all a lot of hot air and nothing else.

    Agreed. The problem with him, though, is his simply making the statements and "promises" that he's made makes him unfit to hold the office.

    The GOP voters missed out on a couple of candidates who could have gone toe-to-toe with Clinton and perhaps beaten her, and possibly even gone on to be excellent presidents. Instead, we're stuck with this fool that very well could end up bringing down the entire party.

    No, that's not what scares me about Trump. Trump's focus is only: Winning. So what is he doing now? flipflopping 180 degrees on his previous remarks about immigration. Last week he sounded almost like a Democrat......albeit one that still generalizes all black and hispanic people for having lousy and poor lifes.

    That flipflop........is what scares me. He only does it to win. But if Trump is capable of such anti-ideological flipflops, then what happens if he pulls the strings in the White House? That's what frightens me. Trump is completely erratic. There's no harm in changing your views over the course of decades of political experience. Tim Kaine did it, when after 2006 he started to support gay marriage.

    But what Trump is doing is really off the scale. He's completely erratic. And with it he is destroying every bit of cohesion and unity in the American society. And he's indeed destroying the Republicans.
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    edited August 2016 Posts: 40,976
    Not sure if this was posted:

  • Posts: 315
    The curious case of Robert Mercer. He's the head of a very secretive hedge fund= Renaissance Technologies and a very, very rich man. And he loves conservative politics. He is the single largest donor to Breibart.com and is close to Steve Bannon. Mercer financed a superpac for Ted Cruz, which was managed by Kellyanne Conway. When Cruz bailed, Kellyanne switched her allegiance to Trump. Now all four of them are in bed with each other-Mercer, Conway, Bannon and Trump. Heaven help us.

    Robert Mercer is also the money man behind Sen. John McCain's Republican opponent in the Arizona primary. McCain has publicly raised concerns about Mercer and his hedge fund and Mercer hates McCain. With McCain way ahead in the primary polls, you have to ask whether Mercer will back the Democratic challenger. McCain's age(80) is a rising subject of many ads and interviews. The general could get real messy.
  • Posts: 15,125
    dalton wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Oh yes, Nigel Farage endorsing Trump. That is plain embarrassing. Seriously, that's the best the GOP could come up with?

    The GOP had better options, the voters just didn't go with them. The GOP voters were angry (some for legitimate reasons, some based on unjust or "misguided" reasons) and went with the guy who was speaking that anger towards the "establishment", which just happened to be 14 of the other 16 who were running against him.

    Really, if any of the 14 politicians running for the GOP had gotten the nod, we'd have been better off. None of them were perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but they wouldn't have been out there doing the kind of damage that Trump is doing on a near daily basis. And, honestly, Kasich should have taken one for the team when he was offered control of both foreign and domestic policy by Trump. It would have been Trump getting the credit, but Kasich actually pulling the strings, which would have been much better for the country and possibly avoided what we all fear might be the worst case scenario under a Trump presidency.

    I think Kasich did the honourable thing. And he's preparing himself for 2020.
  • edited August 2016 Posts: 2,341
    Here is a deep dark secret:
    Many [white] working class Americans harbor a deep seated admiration for Nazi Germany especially how things were in the 1930's before the war turned sour. I had an old friend a WW2 vet and he told of how many of his fellow soldiers saw the big difference in Germany and France...Germany despite the Allied bombings was more "modern" than what they had seen in France.
    George Lincoln Rockwell, the head of the American Nazi Party in the 1960's had served in the Navy and fought and had a hand in sinking many U boats during the war, later stated he had a regret for killing "Nazis" in the North Atlantic.
    Think on that...

    Trump talking about putting an end to illegal immigration (recall the scene in Children of Men when all those "illegals" were in those cages at the train station waiting for deportation...a harbinger? ) is this where we are headed?

    America is already an Obligarchy (see how Trump was not thrown in jail for those comments calling for the assassination of Clinton) and a Police State.

    Mass deportations, more Gitmos but this time on US soil is not too much of a stretch.
    People wake up and don't get complacent...

    This is how it all ends, not with a violent overthrow but with thunderous applause.
  • Posts: 1,631
    Ludovico wrote: »
    dalton wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Oh yes, Nigel Farage endorsing Trump. That is plain embarrassing. Seriously, that's the best the GOP could come up with?

    The GOP had better options, the voters just didn't go with them. The GOP voters were angry (some for legitimate reasons, some based on unjust or "misguided" reasons) and went with the guy who was speaking that anger towards the "establishment", which just happened to be 14 of the other 16 who were running against him.

    Really, if any of the 14 politicians running for the GOP had gotten the nod, we'd have been better off. None of them were perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but they wouldn't have been out there doing the kind of damage that Trump is doing on a near daily basis. And, honestly, Kasich should have taken one for the team when he was offered control of both foreign and domestic policy by Trump. It would have been Trump getting the credit, but Kasich actually pulling the strings, which would have been much better for the country and possibly avoided what we all fear might be the worst case scenario under a Trump presidency.

    I think Kasich did the honourable thing. And he's preparing himself for 2020.

    In a general sense, I'm inclined to agree, but I also think that if he had played his cards right, he could have possibly become the first person to essentially hold the office of president for four terms since FDR. He would have basically been the POTUS in a Trump administration and, had that gone well, could have propelled him into two terms of his own. I think it could have also been considered honorable to put country first and act as a buffer between Trump and the rest of the world by essentially being a check on anything outrageous that Trump might try in office, all while getting to set the course of the nation's policy both at home and abroad. I don't begrudge him his decision and will still support him in a heartbeat if/when he runs again, though.

    The only real problem with Kasich's decision, in my view, is that nothing is really guaranteed for 2020. The political landscape can change drastically before we get to 2020. After 2012, everyone in the GOP was talking about reaching out to minority groups and trying to be more inclusive as a party, and then Trump tears through all of that and sets the effort to modernize the Republican party back by, potentially, decades.

  • Posts: 11,119
    You know, I'm watching "Skyfall". And I got this eerie feeling, these goosebumps. And suddenly I got it:

    Julian Assange's hate of Hillary Clinton totally corresponds with Raoul Silva's hate of 'M', or his derailed mummy complex :-O:
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3760002/WikiLeaks-founder-says-problem-leaking-material-Trump-compare-comes-Donald-Trump-s-mouth.html

    What's even scarier is that more and more Bond-esque plots seem to become reality.
  • Posts: 11,119
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    Not sure if this was posted:


    Yes, I posted it already a few pages back ;-). It's hilarious no ;-)? And at the same time you wonder..........it's quite fucked up too.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    You know, I'm watching "Skyfall". And I got this eerie feeling, these goosebumps. And suddenly I got it:

    Julian Assange's hate of Hillary Clinton totally corresponds with Raoul Silva's hate of 'M', or his derailed mummy complex :-O:
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3760002/WikiLeaks-founder-says-problem-leaking-material-Trump-compare-comes-Donald-Trump-s-mouth.html

    What's even scarier is that more and more Bond-esque plots seem to become reality.

    Or...he just likes transparency.
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    edited August 2016 Posts: 12,480
    Trump is genuinely a narcissist. He likes attention and controversy. He thrives on all of that. So a part of him is absolutely loving this year, even as he implodes and goes far far off the rails. It is a mental sickness, but a part of him; he cannot help himself.
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,480
  • Posts: 15,125
    dalton wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    dalton wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Oh yes, Nigel Farage endorsing Trump. That is plain embarrassing. Seriously, that's the best the GOP could come up with?

    The GOP had better options, the voters just didn't go with them. The GOP voters were angry (some for legitimate reasons, some based on unjust or "misguided" reasons) and went with the guy who was speaking that anger towards the "establishment", which just happened to be 14 of the other 16 who were running against him.

    Really, if any of the 14 politicians running for the GOP had gotten the nod, we'd have been better off. None of them were perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but they wouldn't have been out there doing the kind of damage that Trump is doing on a near daily basis. And, honestly, Kasich should have taken one for the team when he was offered control of both foreign and domestic policy by Trump. It would have been Trump getting the credit, but Kasich actually pulling the strings, which would have been much better for the country and possibly avoided what we all fear might be the worst case scenario under a Trump presidency.

    I think Kasich did the honourable thing. And he's preparing himself for 2020.

    In a general sense, I'm inclined to agree, but I also think that if he had played his cards right, he could have possibly become the first person to essentially hold the office of president for four terms since FDR. He would have basically been the POTUS in a Trump administration and, had that gone well, could have propelled him into two terms of his own. I think it could have also been considered honorable to put country first and act as a buffer between Trump and the rest of the world by essentially being a check on anything outrageous that Trump might try in office, all while getting to set the course of the nation's policy both at home and abroad. I don't begrudge him his decision and will still support him in a heartbeat if/when he runs again, though.

    The only real problem with Kasich's decision, in my view, is that nothing is really guaranteed for 2020. The political landscape can change drastically before we get to 2020. After 2012, everyone in the GOP was talking about reaching out to minority groups and trying to be more inclusive as a party, and then Trump tears through all of that and sets the effort to modernize the Republican party back by, potentially, decades.

    I don't think Kasich could have been the power behind the throne for a simple reason: Donald Trump may be manipulated, but he is too reckless to be controlled and prone to listen to sycophants. This is assuming he has what it takes to become president: so far he has been losing the election. But even if he does, I don't think many sane republicans wants to associate themselves with a potential Trump presidency... Putting his country first, in this situation, is IMO to refuse what would be a deal with the Devil. I agree that in 2020 nothing will be certain and that Trump may have by then hurt the GOP to a point when a victory even then would be at best hypothetical.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    If Trump's mental health is in tip-top shape, then the lot of us must be the sanest, most stable folks around.

    Yay, us! <:-P
  • edited August 2016 Posts: 1,631
    Ludovico wrote: »
    dalton wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    dalton wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Oh yes, Nigel Farage endorsing Trump. That is plain embarrassing. Seriously, that's the best the GOP could come up with?

    The GOP had better options, the voters just didn't go with them. The GOP voters were angry (some for legitimate reasons, some based on unjust or "misguided" reasons) and went with the guy who was speaking that anger towards the "establishment", which just happened to be 14 of the other 16 who were running against him.

    Really, if any of the 14 politicians running for the GOP had gotten the nod, we'd have been better off. None of them were perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but they wouldn't have been out there doing the kind of damage that Trump is doing on a near daily basis. And, honestly, Kasich should have taken one for the team when he was offered control of both foreign and domestic policy by Trump. It would have been Trump getting the credit, but Kasich actually pulling the strings, which would have been much better for the country and possibly avoided what we all fear might be the worst case scenario under a Trump presidency.

    I think Kasich did the honourable thing. And he's preparing himself for 2020.

    In a general sense, I'm inclined to agree, but I also think that if he had played his cards right, he could have possibly become the first person to essentially hold the office of president for four terms since FDR. He would have basically been the POTUS in a Trump administration and, had that gone well, could have propelled him into two terms of his own. I think it could have also been considered honorable to put country first and act as a buffer between Trump and the rest of the world by essentially being a check on anything outrageous that Trump might try in office, all while getting to set the course of the nation's policy both at home and abroad. I don't begrudge him his decision and will still support him in a heartbeat if/when he runs again, though.

    The only real problem with Kasich's decision, in my view, is that nothing is really guaranteed for 2020. The political landscape can change drastically before we get to 2020. After 2012, everyone in the GOP was talking about reaching out to minority groups and trying to be more inclusive as a party, and then Trump tears through all of that and sets the effort to modernize the Republican party back by, potentially, decades.

    I don't think Kasich could have been the power behind the throne for a simple reason: Donald Trump may be manipulated, but he is too reckless to be controlled and prone to listen to sycophants. This is assuming he has what it takes to become president: so far he has been losing the election. But even if he does, I don't think many sane republicans wants to associate themselves with a potential Trump presidency... Putting his country first, in this situation, is IMO to refuse what would be a deal with the Devil. I agree that in 2020 nothing will be certain and that Trump may have by then hurt the GOP to a point when a victory even then would be at best hypothetical.

    I'm just basing the thought off of what Kasich said, that he was offered control of both domestic and foreign policy (which essentially would have made him the defacto president) in a Trump administration. I've always gotten the feeling that Trump really doesn't have any interest in actually governing, and is only doing it at this stage for the prestige of holding the office and because he's in too deep to pull out now anyway.

    Of course, it's entirely possible that Trump wouldn't have honored that agreement and hung Kasich out to dry at some point. I think the thought process that Kasich would have had to weigh is whether or not to jump on board and try to steer a Trump administration in the right direction or potentially be left trying to pick up the pieces of a party left in complete shambles.

    The one good thing about all of this, though, is that Kasich's act of being the grownup in the room might play in the Republican primary the next time around. We've tried the immature buffoon, so the next time it might be time to sober up and go with someone who actually stands a chance at being a good, productive president. He and Cruz could potentially go into 2020 against a field of people who endorsed Trump, which will give them a leg up when they're vying to be the one to face the President Clinton in the 2020 election.
  • Posts: 11,119
    Let's...change this topic a bit and dig into the history of past American presidents :-). I just saw this wonderful documentary about a president that has been forgotten a bit, underestimated mostly: Jimmy Carter. Like me, a farmboy in heart:

  • dalton wrote: »
    He and Cruz could potentially go into 2020 against a field of people who endorsed Trump, which will give them a leg up when they're vying to be the one to face the President Clinton in the 2020 election.

    It's interesting to me that so many people are already treating this election as over. The Republican Party is talking about ways to stymie a Hillary presidency (because that strategy worked soooooooooo well for them when it came to making Obama a one-term President) and here we are talking about the race for the Republican candidacy in 2020. That said: I think the one thing the Republican Party has probably learned is that they're not going to allow a field of 14 in 2020. Kasich is well positioned and Cruz may think he's well positioned (I don't agree but I guess we'll see) but my money's on a David Duke or someone like him making a play for the alt-right crowd and shaking up that particular race. But hey, let's finish 2016 before we even start thinking about 2018...
  • ...and no, I don't mean a Presidential race in 2018, I mean the off-year Congressional election. Sheesh! 8-}
  • Posts: 11,119
    Guys. I JUST posted a nice documentary.
  • Posts: 1,631
    I think that, even if the unthinkable happens and Trump wins the presidency, he will face a competitive challenger in the Republican primary in 2020. There is enough animosity on the right for Trump that someone will oppose him for the GOP nomination. It could be Kasich, although he might have to tailor his nice guy image into something a bit more pointed in order to run as the opposition candidate. Cruz would be a possibility, as he'd relish the ability to run against Trump again.

    I can't see David Duke being competitive in a GOP primary. Yes, Trump has exposed a great deal of racism within the far right, but supporting a guy like Trump, as bad as he may be, is still a far cry from throwing one's support behind the former Grand Wizard of the KKK. While, of course, there will be some who have no concern wearing their racism on their sleeve and backing Duke, the vast majority of the GOP, even a comfortable majority of the racists that take refuge in the far right I would think, wouldn't fathom getting behind him.
  • Posts: 11,119
    *sigh* :-)
  • Posts: 572
    *sigh* :-)
    No one cares...sorry.

  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,480
    Not that no one cares, GG. Some of us will make time to see it later. Your contributions are fine here.
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    edited August 2016 Posts: 12,480
    Trump's doctor (apparently his personal doctor for 35 years) may be in violation of law:


    Wash. Post on how the Republicans cannot claim in the future that they did not know what fueled the Trump campaign
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,480
  • edited August 2016 Posts: 15,125

    Trump's doctor (apparently his personal doctor for 35 years) may be in violation of law:


    Wash. Post on how the Republicans cannot claim in the future that they did not know what fueled the Trump campaign

    Windows XP? No wonder Donald Trump fell for that anti vaccine BS. His doctor's computer is vulnerable to any kinds of attacks and viruses.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,281
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Trump's doctor (apparently his personal doctor for 35 years) may be in violation of law:


    Wash. Post on how the Republicans cannot claim in the future that they did not know what fueled the Trump campaign

    Windows XP? No wonder Donald Trump fell for that anti vaccine BS. His doctor's computer is vulnerable to any kinds of attacks and viruses.

    Perhaps Trump caught his insanity from a virus on his doctor's computer? You heard it here first, folks!

  • Perhaps the fact that Trump's an anti-vaxer should have alerted a few more Republican voters early on in the vetting process. But he does love them low-information voters so I suppose this is too much to ask for...
  • edited August 2016 Posts: 4,622
    dalton wrote: »
    I think that, even if the unthinkable happens and Trump wins the presidency, he will face a competitive challenger in the Republican primary in 2020. There is enough animosity on the right for Trump that someone will oppose him for the GOP nomination. It could be Kasich, although he might have to tailor his nice guy image into something a bit more pointed in order to run as the opposition candidate. Cruz would be a possibility, as he'd relish the ability to run against Trump again.

    I can't see David Duke being competitive in a GOP primary. Yes, Trump has exposed a great deal of racism within the far right, but supporting a guy like Trump, as bad as he may be, is still a far cry from throwing one's support behind the former Grand Wizard of the KKK. While, of course, there will be some who have no concern wearing their racism on their sleeve and backing Duke, the vast majority of the GOP, even a comfortable majority of the racists that take refuge in the far right I would think, wouldn't fathom getting behind him.

    Dalton you do realize there are plenty of racists on the activist leftist side of the policital spectrum, in fact lots, especially when it comes to hostility towads blacks. Racism is not a fuction of conservative versus liberal politics.
    conservatives champion limited government, individual freedoms. Liberals are more inclined towards activist government, collectivist approaches.
    If David Duke ran for the Democrats he'd attract all the closet racist sentiment over there too, assuming hatred of other races, would be a determing factor towards casting one's vote in a democracy, and that's a huge if ie I think even racists might be inclined to vote for their vision of govenment. They could wallow in their racism without having one of their own in government
    Duke would get little support anywhere. Not even from friends family descendants of the many proud southern Democrats that have populated the KKK ranks over the decades.
    As for Trump and the GOP. Yes the beltway GOP establishment would love to see him gone. Trump's candidacy has managed to flush out the outlines of what I think is a very obvious uniparty-set in DC, a group most interested in protecting its own cushy interests.
    Both the Bush and Clinton dynasties are champion torchbearers of this entitled crowd.
    The GOP "braintrust" - establishment, whatever, that are still gunning for Trump are
    the DC insiders, lobbyists, consultants, think tankers, pollsters….Their girl is Hillary.
    She and her ilk are champions of the club.
    The biggest joke of a presidential campaign was in 92. Bush vs Clinton.Why bother voting.

    “Trump has flushed out all the cheap labor fanatics, all the defenders of the globalists, the ones who are in it for their own salaries and not for the country,” she said. “As I say in my book, their slogan is, ‘I only regret that I have but one country to give for my TV gig.’ That's Ann Coulter whose small "c" democratic intellectual conservative credentials are impeccable. She's no dullard GOP or prissy Democrat party establishment type.
    Yes,Coulter loves indulging hyperbole, bombast, biting humour, as many of us on this board often try to do when attempting to spotlight our pro Dalts Craig ravings etc
    Her style though is lost on the pc crowd, but smarter democrats will concede her points, not so much philosophically ie If you are inclined towards activist government, even the cogent rambling of William F Buckley, Coulter etc aren't going to sway, but you can at least allow that rampant illegal immigration is not a good thing, get beyond all the racist bs, and get down to butting heads over how to deal with it.

    One good thing about this election is no matter who wins, Canada's XL Energy pipeline from Alberta to the USA is back on.
    Both Hillary and the Donald are good to go on moving things forward. That oil needs flowing. The Obama stonewalling and posturing has been damaging the Alberta economy not to mention US interests and job prosperity.
    The intermimable Obama interlude is mercifully coming to an end.

    Democrats can take a common-sense approach to energy and broader economic policy.
    Raymond Eugene "Gene" Green is the U.S. Representative for Texas's 29th congressional district, serving since 1993. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
    "While there are rumors that the president may postpone his decision into 2012, I am hopeful that he will not because I believe that the Keystone XL Pipeline is a project of national interest and benefit, and I am not alone. Just last month, 21 other Democratic members of Congress and I sent a letter to the president requesting that he do what's right for our nation and grant the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline. The extension of the existing pipeline will create domestic jobs, raise local revenue, ensure a more consistent energy supply and improve America's energy independence from hostile nations.
    The Keystone XL Pipeline project is estimated to bring in $20 billion of private sector investment into the American economy, create 20,000 direct jobs, spur the creation of 118,000 spin-off jobs and pay out $5 billion in taxes to local counties over the project's lifetime."
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