The Next American President Thread (2016)

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  • Posts: 1,631
    Agreed. The wall is a dumb idea, but then again, pretty much all of Trump's ideas are bad and/or dangerous.

    It doesn't really matter, though. The wall isn't going to get built anyway, regardless of what Trump says.
  • What matters is: why can he say obviously stupid things and have a large number of people agree with him? Are that many people really that stupid?
  • BondJasonBond006BondJasonBond006 on fb and ajb
    Posts: 9,020
    What matters is: why can he say obviously stupid things and have a large number of people agree with him? Are that many people really that stupid?

    Yes, it's that simple
  • CommanderRossCommanderRoss The bottom of a pitch lake in Eastern Trinidad, place called La Brea
    Posts: 7,973
    What matters is: why can he say obviously stupid things and have a large number of people agree with him? Are that many people really that stupid?

    Yes, it's that simple

    In that case Obama better allocate a lot of funds towards education. I know it's late but perhaps it'll do the trick.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Choosing the lesser of two evils, is still choosing evil (Cthulhu)
  • Posts: 338
    dalton wrote: »
    The wall wouldn't be built at airports. Trump is talking about building a wall that stretches across most of the US/Mexico border.

    Yes, I get the notion that the wall wouldn't be at the airport...

    So what is currently on the border? Is it completely open? If so, I was wondering why they are so strict at the airport, and in demanding so much personal information on flight passengers.

  • Posts: 1,631
    Troy wrote: »
    dalton wrote: »
    The wall wouldn't be built at airports. Trump is talking about building a wall that stretches across most of the US/Mexico border.

    Yes, I get the notion that the wall wouldn't be at the airport...

    So what is currently on the border? Is it completely open? If so, I was wondering why they are so strict at the airport, and in demanding so much personal information on flight passengers.

    My mistake. I misunderstood what you were saying.

    From what I've been able to gather (never been to the border) there's a lot of open terrain. There is also some fencing, which the government began to put up during George W. Bush's administration, but the project was abandoned due to high cost. According to Wikipedia, that project provided 640 miles of new fencing and/or barriers to the border. There might be other barriers on the border (there are what they refer to as "natural" barriers where Trump wouldn't be building his wall, for example), but even still that would leave open a good chunk of the 1,933 miles that make up the border.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    edited March 2016 Posts: 17,691
    It's just hundreds and hundreds of miles of worthless desert land which just so happens to be owned by....
    *THWAP!*
    ...uh, Lex Luthor Incorporated.
  • Actually, except for that reference to our once-and-future President of the USA (look it up folks: for awhile in the first decade of this century, Lex Luthor was the President in Superman comics!) @chrisisall is correct. Hundreds of miles worth of border is nothing but empty desert land that would take an exceptionally hardy pedestrian several days to cross. People do it but it's not easy.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    If he closes the Mexican border, will all the criminals flee to Canada in the future?
  • BondJasonBond006BondJasonBond006 on fb and ajb
    Posts: 9,020
    If he closes the Mexican border, will all the criminals flee to Canada in the future?

    Trump will invade Canada.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,691
    Canadian Bacon, yum!
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    chrisisall wrote: »
    Canadian Bacon, yum!
    If you prefer bacon to taco, vote Trump.
  • Posts: 1,631
    More frightening developments out of the Trump campaign:

    Trump cracks down on protesters, asks for loyalty oath

  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,330
    A true modern Facist.
  • Posts: 1,631
    Murdock wrote: »
    A true modern Facist.

    Yes, he is.

    At times I wonder if he's in fact a sleeper agent planted by the Tea Party to make Ted Cruz look electable.
  • MyNameIsMyBondRnMyNameIsMyBondRn WhereYouLeastExpectMeToBe
    Posts: 221
    In 2015 Mr Bloombergs wealth rose with the same as Mr Trumps entire wealth according to FORBES; and it is not because of money, but because of the political RISKTAKING in arriving as a third party candidate that Mr Bloomberg Will not take the Risk being in the center of the crossfire.Mr Trump suing Mr Bloomberg, and Mr Trump will be a lot poorer afterwards...!-rudeness is not the same as political sawwyness-it would be like a mouse-Trump-against a RattleSnake-Bloomberg;I hope Mr Trump hears the warning here!
    I like that mr Bloomberg responded as he did, as he is in the middle of it, he might even be right in his assumption. After all, I can only regret that he lost some of his fortune to come to that conclusion..!
    As for 'Burn Notice' we WILL all see how this ends...(!)
  • BondJasonBond006BondJasonBond006 on fb and ajb
    Posts: 9,020
    dalton wrote: »
    More frightening developments out of the Trump campaign:

    Trump cracks down on protesters, asks for loyalty oath


    He is a Republican what do you expect? They behave that way.
  • BondJasonBond006BondJasonBond006 on fb and ajb
    Posts: 9,020
    Trump 384 delegates
    Cruz 300
    Now some American tell me Cruz will not get the nomination, I'm getting sleepless nights.

    Cruz/Clinton would be a nightmare and I'm not so sure Cruz wouldn't win.
  • edited March 2016 Posts: 1,631
    dalton wrote: »
    More frightening developments out of the Trump campaign:

    Trump cracks down on protesters, asks for loyalty oath


    He is a Republican what do you expect? They behave that way.

    It's not even remotely fair to say that this is something to be expected out of Republicans. We (Republicans) are consistently voting against Trump, but he's managed to win due to a large field of candidates. 60+% of the the electorate is voting against Donald Trump, and Trump's poll numbers are starting to fall now that he's delving more and more into the fascist rhetoric.

    And Trump isn't just drawing from a Republican base. He's bringing people in from the independent and Democratic electorate to vote for him as well. The wide majority of us Republicans have rejected his hateful rhetoric as antithetical to what the party does and should stand for.

    Trump isn't even a Republican, anyway. He's a Democrat, the evidence of which lies in his donation history, his stances on all of the major issues dividing the two parties before his sudden "evolution" to conveniently bring him in line with the Republicans. The only reason he's running as a Republican is that he knows that's his easiest path to the White House. He wouldn't get within 100 miles of the White House if he ran against Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination.
  • Posts: 6,601
    Its just a sad, sad situation. SAD! There is really not more to say.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    I think that sums it up nicely. It's a sad and worrying time.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,691
    Still, the American people voted Obama in twice, have faith that they will not vote in a Trump or Cruz this time... *crosses fingers*
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    Trump must be seen as a bit too far out there, for any voter.
  • Mendes4LyfeMendes4Lyfe The long road ahead
    Posts: 8,087
    But Cruz is further out there. To call Cruz the "sane" alternative to Trump is madness. He is worst than Trump.

    "You squeezed them, you hammered them to the point of desperation. And in their desperation they turned to a man they didn't fully understand."
  • TripAcesTripAces Universal Exports
    edited March 2016 Posts: 4,554
    Germanlady wrote: »
    Its just a sad, sad situation. SAD! There is really not more to say.

    This is how we got here...

    1. The bogus theory of "supply side" economics became the rule. By the end of the Reagan era, the culture had been changed: the wealthy now firmly believed that they ran the country. Any kind of "tax increase"was considered stealing. Proof of this could be seen in the whining that occurred when Obama wanted to let the Bush tax cuts "expire." Now, remember, the tax cuts were "temporary," and not permanent. But the cons spun it their way: letting those temporary cuts expire was considered a "tax increase."

    2. Union busting also began with Reagan--who, ironically enough, had once been the head of a union! Twenty years later, union membership dropped significantly. Workers' rights were being gutted. Wages have been stagnant ever since. The combination of supply-side and union busting has led to the enormous gap we now have between rich and poor.

    3. In the 80s, Conservatives removed the "fairness doctrine." This was legislation that limited ownership of telecommunications, particularly radio and TV stations. The purpose of that legislation was to make sure information didn't find itself in the hands of the few. Couple this with #1 and you would start to see more cash freed up to buy the airwaves.

    4. By the 90s, more public TV stations were becoming owned by conglomerates with conservative agendas who would sometimes interrupt regular prime-time TV for anti-liberal infomercials. In other words, the public started getting fed propaganda. This is where Fox News comes into the picture.

    5. Education funding keeps getting cut. American kids keep falling behind, and one state (Texas) wants to remove "critical thinking" from its curriculum.

    6. But the cons still weren't winning enough elections. So what do they do? Start changing the rules. They eliminate parts of the Voting Rights Act. Some states eliminate "early voting" which had become a primary way for African-Americans to vote. Redistricting has put more power in the hands of cons, and along with that they have tried to change "electoral college" votes to be split up based on districts...meaning popular vote within a state won't equal winning all or even most of the electoral college votes. In short: rig the elections and the election processes.

    7. The final nail: Citizens United. This SCOTUS ruling allowed for unlimited cash rolling in to political campaigns. The effect is that billionaires in one state start to affect local elections in other states. Hence, a senator in Ohio might be bought and paid for by a billionaire in Kansas. The uber-wealthy can have an enormous effect on races that 90% or more of the public have no say in. This is how we get stuck with McConnell and Boehner. Neither man was ever put in place by a large number of people.

    So...voila! You have all the power and money in the hands of the few, while the masses are kept poor and stupid. This is why you have so many Americans continually voting against their own best interests.
  • Posts: 6,601
    It doesn't really matter, WHO will be the Republican candidat. As long as NONE of them wins.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,691
    TripAces wrote: »
    Germanlady wrote: »
    Its just a sad, sad situation. SAD! There is really not more to say.

    This is how we got here...

    1. The bogus theory of "supply side" economics became the rule. By the end of the Reagan era, the culture had been changed: the wealthy now firmly believed that they ran the country. Any kind of "tax increase"was considered stealing. Proof of this could be seen in the whining that occurred when Obama wanted to let the Bush tax cuts "expire." Now, remember, the tax cuts were "temporary," and not permanent. But the cons spun it their way: letting those temporary cuts expire was considered a "tax increase."

    2. Union busting also began with Reagan--who, ironically enough, had once been the head of a union! Twenty years later, union membership dropped significantly. Workers' rights were being gutted. Wages have been stagnant ever since. The combination of supply-side and union busting has led to the enormous gap we now have between rich and poor.

    3. In the 80s, Conservatives removed the "fairness doctrine." This was legislation that limited ownership of telecommunications, particularly radio and TV stations. The purpose of that legislation was to make sure information didn't find itself in the hands of the few. Couple this with #1 and you would start to see more cash freed up to buy the airwaves.

    4. By the 90s, more public TV stations were becoming owned by conglomerates with conservative agendas who would sometimes interrupt regular prime-time TV for anti-liberal infomercials. In other words, the public started getting fed propaganda. This is where Fox News comes into the picture.

    5. Education funding keeps getting cut. American kids keep falling behind, and one state (Texas) wants to remove "critical thinking" from its curriculum.

    6. The final nail: Citizens United. This SCOTUS ruling allowed for unlimited cash rolling in to political campaigns. The effect is that billionaires in one state start to affect local elections in other states. Hence, a senator in Ohio might be bought and paid for by a billionaire in Kansas. The uber-wealthy can have an enormous effect on races that 90% or more of the public have no say in. This is how we get stuck with McConnell and Boehner. Neither man was ever put in place by a large number of people.

    So...voila! You have all the power and money in the hands of the few, while the masses are kept poor and stupid. This is why you have so many Americans continually voting against their own best interests.
    Wow, you nailed it all in a few paragraphs!
    =D>
  • Posts: 1,631
    TripAces wrote: »
    Germanlady wrote: »
    Its just a sad, sad situation. SAD! There is really not more to say.

    This is how we got here...

    1. The bogus theory of "supply side" economics became the rule. By the end of the Reagan era, the culture had been changed: the wealthy now firmly believed that they ran the country. Any kind of "tax increase"was considered stealing. Proof of this could be seen in the whining that occurred when Obama wanted to let the Bush tax cuts "expire." Now, remember, the tax cuts were "temporary," and not permanent. But the cons spun it their way: letting those temporary cuts expire was considered a "tax increase."

    2. Union busting also began with Reagan--who, ironically enough, had once been the head of a union! Twenty years later, union membership dropped significantly. Workers' rights were being gutted. Wages have been stagnant ever since. The combination of supply-side and union busting has led to the enormous gap we now have between rich and poor.

    3. In the 80s, Conservatives removed the "fairness doctrine." This was legislation that limited ownership of telecommunications, particularly radio and TV stations. The purpose of that legislation was to make sure information didn't find itself in the hands of the few. Couple this with #1 and you would start to see more cash freed up to buy the airwaves.

    4. By the 90s, more public TV stations were becoming owned by conglomerates with conservative agendas who would sometimes interrupt regular prime-time TV for anti-liberal infomercials. In other words, the public started getting fed propaganda. This is where Fox News comes into the picture.

    5. Education funding keeps getting cut. American kids keep falling behind, and one state (Texas) wants to remove "critical thinking" from its curriculum.

    6. But the cons still weren't winning enough elections. So what do they do? Start changing the rules. They eliminate parts of the Voting Rights Act. Some states eliminate "early voting" which had become a primary way for African-Americans to vote. Redistricting has put more power in the hands of cons, and along with that they have tried to change "electoral college" votes to be split up based on districts...meaning popular vote within a state won't equal winning all or even most of the electoral college votes. In short: rig the elections and the election processes.

    7. The final nail: Citizens United. This SCOTUS ruling allowed for unlimited cash rolling in to political campaigns. The effect is that billionaires in one state start to affect local elections in other states. Hence, a senator in Ohio might be bought and paid for by a billionaire in Kansas. The uber-wealthy can have an enormous effect on races that 90% or more of the public have no say in. This is how we get stuck with McConnell and Boehner. Neither man was ever put in place by a large number of people.

    So...voila! You have all the power and money in the hands of the few, while the masses are kept poor and stupid. This is why you have so many Americans continually voting against their own best interests.

    I don't quite agree with all of this, but a lot of it is correct. I would disagree on education. The conservative plan to get rid of, or severely cut, the Department of Education and return those responsibilities to the state and local level is a sound one and an idea the Democrats should stop trying to block.

    The intentions of the federal government are good when it comes to education, but they continually, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, try to force a one-size-fits-all solution to the education problem down everyone's throats, which just doesn't work. They should be involved in, at the very most, setting the absolutely bare minimum baseline which must be met, but allow state and local officials to figure out how to get their students to reach those baselines, only stepping in if there is evidence of gross incompetence at the state and local level.

    The federal government makes it impossible for educators to do their job because they are constantly having to teach to a particular set of tests rather than teaching a curriculum. Allowing the power to teach go back to the state and local level would help to free up some money in terms of paying down the deficit as well as allow the quality of education to, in theory, go up because teachers would be allowed to utilize their expertise in their chosen field of study rather than having to teach to a test that is often devised by a private company purely for profit and may not reflect the true knowledge of the individual student.

    As for the idea posed above that none of the Republican candidates are suitable for the office of the POTUS, I'd suggest another look at John Kasich. He's starting to gain some momentum in Michigan and should be able to win Ohio now that Trump's numbers are starting to go down. He's been the "adult in the room" for the duration of this primary process, has done very well by most accounts as the governor of Ohio, and was one of the chief parties involved in the last balanced budget the federal government produced. Given that he's not likely to be indicted by the federal government during the campaign, I'd say he's the most qualified of the six candidates currently remaining in the race, on either side of the aisle. And the idea that he could come out on top in an open convention, where a deal could be struck for him to assume the nomination with perhaps Ted Cruz assuming the VP slot, is becoming a more likely, if still far off, possibility.

  • TripAcesTripAces Universal Exports
    edited March 2016 Posts: 4,554
    dalton wrote: »
    TripAces wrote: »
    Germanlady wrote: »
    Its just a sad, sad situation. SAD! There is really not more to say.

    This is how we got here...

    1. The bogus theory of "supply side" economics became the rule. By the end of the Reagan era, the culture had been changed: the wealthy now firmly believed that they ran the country. Any kind of "tax increase"was considered stealing. Proof of this could be seen in the whining that occurred when Obama wanted to let the Bush tax cuts "expire." Now, remember, the tax cuts were "temporary," and not permanent. But the cons spun it their way: letting those temporary cuts expire was considered a "tax increase."

    2. Union busting also began with Reagan--who, ironically enough, had once been the head of a union! Twenty years later, union membership dropped significantly. Workers' rights were being gutted. Wages have been stagnant ever since. The combination of supply-side and union busting has led to the enormous gap we now have between rich and poor.

    3. In the 80s, Conservatives removed the "fairness doctrine." This was legislation that limited ownership of telecommunications, particularly radio and TV stations. The purpose of that legislation was to make sure information didn't find itself in the hands of the few. Couple this with #1 and you would start to see more cash freed up to buy the airwaves.

    4. By the 90s, more public TV stations were becoming owned by conglomerates with conservative agendas who would sometimes interrupt regular prime-time TV for anti-liberal infomercials. In other words, the public started getting fed propaganda. This is where Fox News comes into the picture.

    5. Education funding keeps getting cut. American kids keep falling behind, and one state (Texas) wants to remove "critical thinking" from its curriculum.

    6. But the cons still weren't winning enough elections. So what do they do? Start changing the rules. They eliminate parts of the Voting Rights Act. Some states eliminate "early voting" which had become a primary way for African-Americans to vote. Redistricting has put more power in the hands of cons, and along with that they have tried to change "electoral college" votes to be split up based on districts...meaning popular vote within a state won't equal winning all or even most of the electoral college votes. In short: rig the elections and the election processes.

    7. The final nail: Citizens United. This SCOTUS ruling allowed for unlimited cash rolling in to political campaigns. The effect is that billionaires in one state start to affect local elections in other states. Hence, a senator in Ohio might be bought and paid for by a billionaire in Kansas. The uber-wealthy can have an enormous effect on races that 90% or more of the public have no say in. This is how we get stuck with McConnell and Boehner. Neither man was ever put in place by a large number of people.

    So...voila! You have all the power and money in the hands of the few, while the masses are kept poor and stupid. This is why you have so many Americans continually voting against their own best interests.

    I don't quite agree with all of this, but a lot of it is correct. I would disagree on education. The conservative plan to get rid of, or severely cut, the Department of Education and return those responsibilities to the state and local level is a sound one and an idea the Democrats should stop trying to block.

    The intentions of the federal government are good when it comes to education, but they continually, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, try to force a one-size-fits-all solution to the education problem down everyone's throats, which just doesn't work. They should be involved in, at the very most, setting the absolutely bare minimum baseline which must be met, but allow state and local officials to figure out how to get their students to reach those baselines, only stepping in if there is evidence of gross incompetence at the state and local level.

    The federal government makes it impossible for educators to do their job because they are constantly having to teach to a particular set of tests rather than teaching a curriculum. Allowing the power to teach go back to the state and local level would help to free up some money in terms of paying down the deficit as well as allow the quality of education to, in theory, go up because teachers would be allowed to utilize their expertise in their chosen field of study rather than having to teach to a test that is often devised by a private company purely for profit and may not reflect the true knowledge of the individual student.

    As for the idea posed above that none of the Republican candidates are suitable for the office of the POTUS, I'd suggest another look at John Kasich. He's starting to gain some momentum in Michigan and should be able to win Ohio now that Trump's numbers are starting to go down. He's been the "adult in the room" for the duration of this primary process, has done very well by most accounts as the governor of Ohio, and was one of the chief parties involved in the last balanced budget the federal government produced. Given that he's not likely to be indicted by the federal government during the campaign, I'd say he's the most qualified of the six candidates currently remaining in the race, on either side of the aisle. And the idea that he could come out on top in an open convention, where a deal could be struck for him to assume the nomination with perhaps Ted Cruz assuming the VP slot, is becoming a more likely, if still far off, possibility.

    This isn't true. Each state sets the curriculum; and within the state, the curriculum is further determined by district. This is the reason the U.S. is a mess, in terms of education. It is the only industrialized nation on earth that doesn't have a unified philosophy about how to get kids from point A to point B. Regardless, at the state level (see Kansas, for example) education budgets are slashed. What Republicans want to do is starve the public education system into extinction. Then, they'll replace it with for-profit charters. As the Republicans see it, there is money to be made in the business of education, so let's take advantage of it. Problem is, the charter and private models of education are even worse, as corporations, donors, and investors start to determine curriculum and pedagogy.

    So I don't know where you get your info, but control over public education is still residing with the states and districts, as it always has.
This discussion has been closed.