Jump to content
The Education Forum

Trump?


Robert Prudhomme

Recommended Posts

3 hours ago, Douglas Caddy said:

 

The Way to Stop Trump

 By David Corn

The New York Review of Books

 

From the article: There is no way to guarantee that Trump will not try to implement at least some of his campaign promises. He has already vowed to deport two to three million people, and to repeal and replace major parts of Obamacare. The time to stop him in his tracks was at the voting booth, and we failed to do that. But as the fate of the Bush administration’s counter-terror measures illustrates, even when the executive seems most invincible, he can be checked. Doing so will take an engaged citizenry, a persistent civil society, a vigilant media, brave insiders, and judges and other government officials who take seriously their responsibility to uphold the Constitution. (I look forward to taking part in this effort myself, as I become the National Legal Director of the ACLU in January, a few days before Trump takes office.)

We live in a constitutional democracy, one that is expressly designed to check the impulses of dangerous men. It will do so if and only if we insist on it. 

                                                   

http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/11/14/way-to-stop-trump-lessons-of-war-on-terror/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NYR Brain schools Trump&utm_content=NYR Brain schools Trump+CID_5a9edb3a4e7bd8d2015c58b250d54c5b&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_term=The Way to Stop Trump

 

 

Trump supporters are going to have to get over it -- he is not the President of half the country.

This was not a legitimate election.

In 1994 the Republicans declared a non-violent civil war on the Democratic Party.

It's time for us to wake up to this perfidy and fight them back non-violently.

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 529
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

1 hour ago, Cliff Varnell said:

Don't bet your money on it, John.

That's not the Donald Trump I know.

The Donald Trump I know is a super hawk who can't wait to go to war.

His infrastructure project won't get past the House but his tax cuts and military build-up will.

The people who voted for him will not be too pleased if that is the case. I would have thought recent events in Iraq and Syria would have meant that the US would have returned to the foreign policy of the 1930s. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

John, I'm not an economist but from what I gather Trump wants to increase both defense spending and proposes a one trillion dollar infrastructure bill over 10 years.. All the while, he wants to cut taxes on the wealthy and he says the middle class across the board. He wishfully hopes his capital friendly policies and huge deficits can unleash growth in the 5-6% range (Make America Great Again!) and hopes that the high tide lifts all boats, which is reminiscent of the trickle down theories of the Reagan era.

His counterpart Paul Ryan is a deficit hawk who believes in preemptively "Cutting Social Security to save it." He is in sync with Trumps strong defense proposals.  Whether political reality forces that back there is no doubt there will be a step up in defense spending. Ryan  has largely opposed Obama's and the Democratic party's infrastructure proposals over the last 8 years. But it now appears that logjam is over. It might turn out to be a half trillion infrastructure bill and Wall Street is now licking their chops for increased stimulus. Trumps proposed appointments to critical cabinet posts indicate that those forgotten disenfranchised white voters have been snookered again. Trade wars could have disastrous effects but will modification of existing treaties really produce that many more jobs and wouldn't the market for those jobs be only among the workers who previously lost those jobs? Is the trade treaty issue  really the issue at all, but just a convenient scapegoat, or is it really the displacement of jobs brought on by technology?

In any rate, I don't see this populous wave receding and the peak election will be in 2020. Then the Republicans will have no excuse for their poor performance. The deficits will skyrocket but Trump has used debt skillfully throughout his business career, and could easily be the first to use the "D" word. A mitigating force toward negotiation might be that all the major world economies are taking on much higher rates of debt  loads to GDP.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They are also planning, in the first 100 days to repeal Medicare and replace it with a voucher program that will increase cost to seniors of up to $12K. This is for even those now on Medicare. Don't believe it? Look it up yourself. Social Security will be in a few months. This will cause civil unrest and millions of seniors in the streets and a tsunami for Democrats in 2018 and 2020.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Tom Wilson said:

They are also planning, in the first 100 days to repeal Medicare and replace it with a voucher program that will increase cost to seniors of up to $12K. This is for even those now on Medicare. Don't believe it? Look it up yourself. Social Security will be in a few months. This will cause civil unrest and millions of seniors in the streets and a tsunami for Democrats in 2018 and 2020.

That and Trump is stocking his cabinet with full-on unapologetic racists.

They're already calling protests "economic terrorism."

...But Hillary had e-mails, so it's all okay...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, Cliff Varnell said:

That and Trump is stocking his cabinet with full-on unapologetic racists.

They're already calling protests "economic terrorism."

...But Hillary had e-mails, so it's all okay...

 

Tweet from Trump's National Security Adviser:

Fear of Muslims is RATIONAL: please forward this to others: the truth fears no questions... http://youtu.be/tJnW8HRHLLw 

 

Note that he doesn't call them "radical Muslims." Just Muslims.

The video goes through a list of atrocities carried out by Muslim terrorists. And concludes that it is rational to fear all Muslims.

Weren't the Nazis largely Christian? Should all the Christians of the time been feared?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Sandy Larsen said:

 

Tweet from Trump's National Security Adviser:

Fear of Muslims is RATIONAL: please forward this to others: the truth fears no questions... http://youtu.be/tJnW8HRHLLw 

 

Note that he doesn't call them "radical Muslims." Just Muslims.

The video goes through a list of atrocities carried out by Muslim terrorists. And concludes that it is rational to fear all Muslims.

Weren't the Nazis largely Christian? Should all the Christians of the time been feared?

Mike Flynn, Jeff Sessions, Mike Pompeo, Steve Bannon.

Right wing scum of the earth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 18/11/2016 at 6:27 AM, Kirk Gallaway said:

John, I'm not an economist but from what I gather Trump wants to increase both defense spending and proposes a one trillion dollar infrastructure bill over 10 years.. All the while, he wants to cut taxes on the wealthy and he says the middle class across the board. He wishfully hopes his capital friendly policies and huge deficits can unleash growth in the 5-6% range (Make America Great Again!) and hopes that the high tide lifts all boats, which is reminiscent of the trickle down theories of the Reagan era.

The UK and the US have a similar problem as since the early 1980s they have followed a Neo-Liberal economic policy (unlike Germany who has continued with the policies advocated by John Maynard Keynes). This Neo-Liberal policies resulted in a dramatic increase in economic inequality.

 

See some stats here:

 

http://spartacus-educational.com/spartacus-blogURL87.htm

 

It has been claimed that Trump’s promises to invest in America’s infra-structure is reminiscent to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal program. However, Roosevelt raised much of the money from his Wealth Tax, therefore, following the theories of Keynes. However, Trump advocates reducing the taxes of the rich.

 

It is highly unlikely that Trump, following the policies he has been arguing for, will improve the economic situation of the vast majority of people of people who voted for him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

David Talbott wrote on Facebook today:

The banality of meatballs...I'm focusing on the resistance war against Trump, and I don't want to spend much more time arguing Campaign 2016. But some of that internal wrestling is necessary for us to rebuild the Democratic Party and the progressive movement. So let's briefly touch on Tim Kaine before he disappears into the mists of political trivia games. As Hillary's running mate, he was a complete zero, someone who barely was able to deliver his own state. When she chose h...im for the ticket, it was just one more in a list of grave campaign errors. If Hillary had mustered the courage to defy her corporate backers and put Bernie or Warren on the ticket, it would've fired up the working-class base that defected to Trump. Safe, centrist, corporate politicking proved to be a disastrous strategy for the Dems this year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, John Simkin said:

It has been claimed that Trump’s promises to invest in America’s infra-structure is reminiscent to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal program. However, Roosevelt raised much of the money from his Wealth Tax, therefore, following the theories of Keynes. However, Trump advocates reducing the taxes of the rich.

And increasing taxes on the working poor! Not by a lot (up from 10% to 12% marginal tax rate), but it shows us how little Trumps understands or cares about the poor.

I live in Utah, which of course is a red state. It's amazing how the blue collar workers here vote against their own interests. Only in red states like Utah do the poor have to pay a substantial state income tax.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

57 minutes ago, Douglas Caddy said:

David Talbott wrote on Facebook today:

The banality of meatballs...I'm focusing on the resistance war against Trump, and I don't want to spend much more time arguing Campaign 2016. But some of that internal wrestling is necessary for us to rebuild the Democratic Party and the progressive movement. So let's briefly touch on Tim Kaine before he disappears into the mists of political trivia games. As Hillary's running mate, he was a complete zero, someone who barely was able to deliver his own state. When she chose h...im for the ticket, it was just one more in a list of grave campaign errors. If Hillary had mustered the courage to defy her corporate backers and put Bernie or Warren on the ticket, it would've fired up the working-class base that defected to Trump. Safe, centrist, corporate politicking proved to be a disastrous strategy for the Dems this year.

While I agree with Talbot that "Safe, centrist, corporate politicking proved to be a disastrous strategy for the Dems this year," I'm not so sure that it resulted in Hillary losing some in her base to Trump, as he said. She did, after all, win the popular vote by a wide margin. Instead I think that anti-establishment folks were highly motivated to vote this election.

BTW, I'd like to point out that Talbot agrees with what I've said, that the Clintons are centrists, and not Republican leaning. (Though it may be possible that the Democratic base is just now moving further to the left. That I don't know.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Douglas Caddy said:

David Talbott wrote on Facebook today:

The banality of meatballs...I'm focusing on the resistance war against Trump, and I don't want to spend much more time arguing Campaign 2016. But some of that internal wrestling is necessary for us to rebuild the Democratic Party and the progressive movement. So let's briefly touch on Tim Kaine before he disappears into the mists of political trivia games. As Hillary's running mate, he was a complete zero, someone who barely was able to deliver his own state. When she chose h...im for the ticket, it was just one more in a list of grave campaign errors. If Hillary had mustered the courage to defy her corporate backers and put Bernie or Warren on the ticket, it would've fired up the working-class base that defected to Trump. Safe, centrist, corporate politicking proved to be a disastrous strategy for the Dems this year.

The selection of Kaine was a savage disappointment.

He gave one good speech -- his first one upon the announcement.

Warren would have been the smart choice.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now

×
×
  • Create New...