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Another look at what President Trump would likely do

Link here. The author tries to thoughtfully predict what Trump will do should he win the Presidency, based on his record. This quote at the article’s beginning however describes Trump quite accurately:

My biases are clear up front: I don’t trust Trump. I don’t trust his promises, because he has shown no willingness to hold to them. I don’t trust his ideology, because he proclaims that his guiding star is his own self-assurance. I trust Trump to be Trump: a man of convenience, a thinker of no great depth, a reactionary with no constitutional understanding and a willingness to maximize executive power.

The analysis is fair, however, and notes some smart things Trump might do, based on his past record, as well as the dumb things we can expect from him.

I post this not to suggest I prefer Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. I do not. Clinton is a corrupt, power-hungry leftwing ideologue who will magnify all the bad things Barack Obama has done, supported by a corrupt, power-hungry leftwing Democratic Party that likes everything Barack Obama has done. We need to do everything we can to prevent her election.

At the same time, we mustn’t blind ourselves to the problems we will face should Trump win. This article is a warning. Prepare yourself, because things are not going to be much better under a Trump presidency, and the best option for minimizing that damage is to make sure Congress is as conservative as possible.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
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"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

29 comments

  • geoffc

    Two things to consider with Trump.

    1) Only thing that will unite Dems and Repubs is Trump, and against Trump.
    a) This means he will have everyone voting against his ideas.
    b) Do not underestimate his ability to sell ice to eskimos, and sell his ideas direct to the American people and having them pressure Congress into passing stuff he really wants.

    2) Under Obama, we saw the true racism in America that remains, the fear of disagreeing with the policies of a black president. (After all remember Dr Kings words, judge by the colour of skin, not content of character). Clinton would play the gender card for more of the same. Trump if (when?) he tries the same crap will be shut down fast by all of Congress. In this way, Trump will do more to heal the rift in the separation of powers than anything else. Should Clinton win, 12-16 years of executive overreach would be next to impossible to roll back.

    Trump may not be the best choice, but he is the best of the worst, and the system is in place to keep him in check once you take American racism out of the picture.

    There were many better choices, but Trump is what is chosen, so look at the options and decide for yourself.

  • Cotour

    Trust none of them, let vigilance be our mantra.

    Real change comes with real risk from real leaders becoming empowered, faux “change” comes with electing the every day participants who do what it is that they do because that’s what they do.

    After Mark Levin and other Conservative / Republican leaders get comfortable with the risk and the newness of a wild card and give their permission to look favorably upon a Trump administration that is the moment that the election becomes just a technicality (assuming that its Hillary that will be the Democrat candidate, I am not totally convinced that it will be seeing how things are laying out for her in the media. IMO they are beginning to transmit their displeasure with her candidacy, and the FBI report has not even been reveal yet)

    What has to be put firmly in place is a direct feed back system that goes directly to the White House that has our country’s sovereignty and the concepts of our Constitution as thee primary guiding principles in this new administration should they need the guidance.

    That being said we can all agree to one prime and universal directive: Hillary Clinton must not be rewarded with the presidency of the Untied States.

  • LocalFluff

    I think that Trump’s thinking is very coherent. Everything from the wall to the get outto te trade and him as a master builder it all points in the same direction, kind of. It is dynamically adapted to current opportunities, but he would’ve walked in circles if he didn’t take advantage of everything in a systematic direction. Indeed he will do what he wants, and noone knows what that is, but maybe that is the best option available now? He’s 69 with great kids and he forces himself to spend instead of earning money now. I think he is a true nationalist, it is the simplest explanations. Great communicators make it as easy as possible for themselves by telling the truth as far as possible. It makes the rhetorics so much easier. He wants to go to history as the greatest president ever, and maybe install his kids as a dynasty. He’s uncontrollable, that’s why I would gamble to trust him if I had a vote.

    He is not a warmongering demagoge. I think he genuinly hates war, because they are too expensive (unless one could easily take the oil from ISIS…) His dictator counterparts share that sentiment and could come to an agreement with him, which they never could with the irrational hypocryte Bush/Obama random policies

  • Wayne

    geoffc opined in part:
    [“Do not underestimate his ability to sell ice to eskimos.”]
    —The phrase is more correctly, “Sell refrigerators to Eskimos.” And refrigerators are actually needed by these mythical Eskimos, for the reason— refrigerators don’t freeze the food, they keep it below 40 degrees.
    [“….he is the best of the worst…”]
    —-Personally, I’m sick of supporting the “best of the worst.” Did that the past 3 election-cycles and am not doing it again.

    LocalFluzz opined in part:
    [“I think that Trump’s thinking is very coherent.”]
    –You of course, are entitled to that opinion. I would proffer however his extemporaneous remarks are highly incoherent, repetitive, & in some cases completely contradictory. On the other hand— his teleprompter aided speeches’ appear contrived & I doubt he actually reads them before he delivers them.

    [“Indeed he will do what he wants, and noone knows what that is,….]
    –Indeed, he will attempt to do what he wants & no one knows what that is. >Exactly.

    [“he forces himself to spend instead of earning money now…”]
    –For all his talk of “self-funding” his campaign, what he is doing is loaning himself his own money. The RNC & matching Federal election money (that would be our tax-money) will be used to pay Trump back, with interest. If for some reason he doesn’t pay himself back, it’s a bad-loan, the loss of which he can use to reduce his other tax liabilities. It’s a no-brainer for Trump; he sucks in the fools who think he is betting his own money, when in fact he has little if any skin in his own game.

    [“I think he is a true Nationalist.”]
    –What is this sudden love of “nationalism?” Don’t confuse “nationalism” with Patriotism or Americanism. Entirely different “isms.”

    Cotour opined in part:
    [“Trust none of them, let vigilance be our mantra.”]
    –Your vigilance on Trump, is lacking. But then again you’ve been on the Trump train since it left the station last year.
    [“What has to be put firmly in place is a direct feed back system that goes directly to the White House…”]
    —Of what exactly, does that consist? Trump has a long history of funding Democrats and Rino’s. How much of his own money is he willing to give to Ted Cruz to get re-elected to the Senate, or a Kelli Ward to defeat McCain? He could care less if Republican’s maintain control of the House/Senate, and his treatment of Cruz tells me he cares even less if Conservatives populate the Republican Party.
    [“After Mark Levin and other Conservative / Republican leaders get comfortable with the risk and the newness of a wild card and give their permission to look favorably upon a Trump administration….”]
    —I love Mark Levin myself. He’s not a “leader” of anything, he’s a talk-show host who also has a Legal Foundation. But if he tells me to vote Trump —not going to do it.

    As I’ve stated before, don’t hate Trump but am not supporting him. Personally, I’m concentrating on the down-ballot.

  • LocalFluff

    Wayne,
    Builder, trade dealer, nationalist social care, big military abroad at traditional Pax Romana payment rate. And who has paid too much for the ISS and now requires a retroactive reimbursment? Each and everyone of his bilaterally targeted counterparts will lose big time against the Donald. Lose. Big. Big loss. He knows how to comb back the zero loss game.

    I trust him personally more than I trust any political machinery. Even though the Donald is against me because I am not an American, I fully understand and accept that. Ask Donald anything, and he will answer it truthfully, because it doesn’t matter anymore. He IS the naked emperor, and he confesses it. Hillary, aber, tries to hide herself. Gahh, it is so baaad for her. Why does she even try? It can only serve to make the Donald ever greater.

  • Cotour

    Local correctly perceives so much from so far away.

    The down ticket is also very important, we will all do what we can where and when we can and some how move positively into the future. It will not be perfect, but it will be.

  • Wayne

    LocalFluff:
    Interesting take. I’m just not on board with Trump.
    (what Country are you in?—I have no clue.)

    Just as an aside– it’s difficult to compare Politics in the United States vs. anywhere else. [fully granted “politics” has universal attributes across Time & Location.] We were designed as a Representative Republic, with a limited Federal Government, created by & accountable to, the individual & sovereign separate States, which form the United States of America.
    This Country was formed by people who fled Europe & everywhere else. We don’t like Kings & we don’t like Dictators. Marxism, Fascism, Communism, Progressivism—all ideologies that were invented elsewhere, not here.
    In the current time however, this Country has morphed into a post-Constitutional era, and given the current tentative Presidential candidates, I just can not acquiesce & will work on the down-ballot, Local, State, and Federal Senate elections.
    (Cruz was my Guy. Could have supported multiple others. Just can not get on the Trump bandwagon.)

  • Wayne

    Cotour–
    Don’t hate Trump & not going to actively work against him, just can not support him.
    –More concerned now with keeping the Conservatives we have (at all levels) and electing more of them.

  • Laurie

    I’ll leave my response to the experts (excerpt):

    (I’d like to picture the originals in this exchange)

    ————-

    Oscar: Bad news, Felix, someone defaced your lobby cutout.

    Felix: They drew a graffito on my face. That is the singular for graffiti.

    Oscar: And that’s why I did it.

    Felix: Oscar!

    Oscar: Felix, why are you campaigning? You’re running unopposed.

    Felix: Because I need the unwavering support of the entire building if I’m going to enact my plans.

    Dani: Oh, Felix, tell him about your idea for the laundry room.

    Felix: Oh, yes. I would like to designate separate machines for whites and colors. Now, Dani tells me that I need to present this idea carefully.

    Dani: I think what I said was, “What the hell is wrong with you?!”

    Felix: I also want to start a weekly coffee social so that we can build up a stronger sense of community.

    Oscar: I don’t know anyone in the building, but I know they would hate that.

    Felix: Right now, the only contact I have with some people in the building is smelling their cigarette smoke on the balcony. A disgusting habit. Which will be the first thing I outlaw.

    Oscar: Wait. I smoke my cigars on the balcony.

    Felix: That’s right. I couldn’t get you to stop as roommate, but as president, I’ll have the power.

    Oscar: Felix, people don’t want to hear from the board. They just want to be left alone. That’s what I would do if I were president.

  • Cotour

    I hear you Wayne, if the down ticket is your preference I welcome that, it is reasonable enough for me.

    Felix, a gust on a TV show: Felix looks into the camera: “Murry! Use your coaster!”

    Murry watching Felix at Felix’s apartment immediately puts his drink on a coaster when he hears Felix’s command.

    Murry: “Hey wait a minute, he cant see me”

    Murry defiantly removes the drink from the coaster, and then puts it back just as fast.

    The force is strong.

  • Edward

    Cotour,
    You wrote: “we will all do what we can where and when we can and some how move positively into the future. It will not be perfect, but it will be.”

    You foist Trump on us over the better choices, and now you admit to us that he is a bad choice. All I can say is (and with all due sarcasm): Thanks a lot.

    Heck. At least with Hillary, we have a chance that the Republican majority in Congress will oppose her all the way, keeping her in check. With Trump, how can they long oppose the head of their own party? He will not be kept in check, and he will likely — and easily — get the tyranny you don’t want to admit he represents.

    I am not going to vote for the best of the worst, I am going to search for and vote for the best of the best. Too bad you go for worst instead of best.

  • Cotour

    I foist nothing on anyone.

    Reality stares you in the face, recognize the victor, whether you like it or not.

    I work with what tools I have at hand, to wait for what you will not have is to do nothing. And admittedly, nothing is something. Somehow it will work itself out.

    Like I said before, your chess game was over long ago. Now a new game begins.

    Know the game, play the game, win the game.

  • wayne

    Edward: Well said.

  • Laurie

    Edward, you’ve no reason to lash out, and I would ask you to reconsider what you’ve stated here.

    > Heck. At least with Hillary, we have a chance that the Republican majority in Congress will oppose her all the way, keeping her in check. With Trump, how can they long oppose the head of their own party?

    I’ve actually said something similar, that is about having a balance of power – but given #NeverTrump, etc., this statement contradicts what we’ve all witnessed the last many months. Even now, much of the republican establishment is still working to seat Mrs Clinton in the oval office.

    I wonder how much of your position is sour grapes – Cruz was appealing in some ways, but his inner circle and campaign advisers ruined it for me. Anyone who embraces such – yes depravity – and then attaches themselves to the cross is high on my list of people to avoid – and I say this as a believer aware of my own faults.

    To be clear, this is not to defend Trump in any way.

    In light of this, I would ask how well the republican congress and senate has kept Obama in check? I don’t know how Trump will work out, but a Clinton administration would of a certainty be devastating – particularly when so many establishment republicans are of the same mind, it seems. Witness the many articles linked on this website about how the republicans have (supposedly) caved time and again.

    If we are to hope for the best we must do our best – what we do falls short of our ideals and what we get falls short of our hopes; we must continue working to be informed, to share what we uncover, and do everything with the right motives.

  • BSJ

    I think a better article on the dangers of a President Trump, was linked in the above article.

    http://www.nationalreview.com/article/435296/donald-trump-constitution-end-separation-powers?target=topic&tid=

  • Wayne

    BSJ:
    excellent link.

  • Wayne

    Edward:
    Standing right with you.

  • Excellent article. The sad part about this is that, as bad as Trump might be, Hillary Clinton will be worse. I am not arguing that we need to vote for the lesser of two evils. I am pointing out how serious the threat is to our constitutional freedoms.

    Dwell on that thought for awhile.

  • Cotour

    Related:

    Hillary Clinton has become the icon, the poster woman for everything that the people of America have come to despise in their politicians.

    This is the basic reason that she should never and hopefully will never become president.

    https://theintercept.com/2016/05/27/hillary-clinton-wont-say-how-much-goldman-sachs-ceo-invested-with-her-son-in-law/

    “The decision for Blankfein to invest in Hillary Clinton’s son-in-law’s company is just one of many ways Goldman Sachs has used its wealth to forge a tight bond with the Clinton family. The company paid Hillary Clinton $675,000 in personal speaking fees, paid Bill Clinton $1,550,000 in personal speaking fees, and donated between $250,000 and $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation. At a time when Goldman Sachs directly lobbied Hillary Clinton’s State Department, the company routinely partnered with the Clinton Foundation for events, even convening a donor meeting for the foundation at the Goldman Sachs headquarters in Manhattan.”

  • Edward

    Cotour,
    You wrote: “I foist nothing on anyone.”

    You are the one who voted for Trump and now wants us to follow your bad example.

    You wrote: “Reality stares you in the face, recognize the victor, whether you like it or not.”

    I have acknowledged that the worst is the victor. I point out that he is the worst and is you choice.

    You wrote: “I work with what tools I have at hand”

    And yet you voted for the worst when better “tools” were at hand.

    You wrote: “Like I said before, your chess game was over long ago. Now a new game begins.”

    Once again, you are short sighted. This is the same game, just a new move. The way you play the game, you lose every time, and you want to take the rest of us down with you.

    Laurie,
    This is a continuation of a couple of previous threads. Cotour has asked that we support his guy, no matter how tyrannical he says he will be in office. As for the liberty that we have lost and will lose under Trump, Cotour has told us to get over it and move on. He gloats that his guy has won and claims that the game is over, but his game has two phases, and I will not resign before the general election.

    My game, on the other hand, is the century-long game that the Fabians have been playing. They recently outmaneuvered the Republicans because the membership took too long to realize that the leadership are loyal liberal Democrats.

    You seem to have confused me for a NeverTrumpist. I am a NeverTyrannyist. They may look the same from afar, but NeverTrumpists could be willing to vote for Clinton or Sanders, as they are not Trump. I hope this clarifies that this is not sour grapes but a reaffirmation of my values. I do not give them up because I do not like advisers to a candidate. I will not vote for an authoritarian candidate, and I ask that no one else does, either.

    This comes from having already dwelt on the thought of the seriousness of the threat of the Trump/Clinton/Sanders trifecta. It is the attitude that the game has been lost that ensures that one of these will be our next dictator.

    Since I do not concede the game, I seek an alternate and conservative person to vote for in the general election. Cruz is still on my ballot for the upcoming primary, and I will still vote for him as the best candidate. I refuse to give support to any tyrannical candidate for any reason.

    It is by compromising values and ideals that the Republican Party and America has fallen this far into tyranny. (What other tyranny in all of history has had the audacity to determine how its populace was to spend their own money? This is not a rhetorical question; I honestly want to know.)

    If “so many establishment republicans are of the same mind” then we cannot expect them to keep the liberal Democrat Trump in check, either, and we should be looking for the best-of-the-best candidate for the general election, not looking for the best of the worst. Trump’s values do not stray far from Clinton’s or Sanders’. They just have different means of achieving their shared progressive goal.

  • Cotour

    “Trump’s values do not stray far from Clinton’s or Sanders’. They just have different means of achieving their shared progressive goal.”

    Trump has stated: Repeal and replace Obamacare, protect the second amendment, kill the Iran “deal”, stop illegal immigration. Just based on these statements, anyone of which would be alone worth voting for him, and on the flip side Sanders and Clinton would certainly continue them on steroids without doubt.

    So, IMO your logic is faulty and Laurie is correct, you seem to immerse yourself in it. Step back, have that glass of wine :)

    A great man one said: ” The sad part about this is that, as bad as Trump might be, Hillary Clinton will be worse. I am not arguing that we need to vote for the lesser of two evils. I am pointing out how serious the threat is to our constitutional freedoms. Dwell on that thought for awhile.”

    Somehow we will get through this.

  • Wayne

    Edward:
    Right there with you!

  • Cotour

    Wayne, I just realized something, Trump, Captain Kirk, they are one!

    Blow hard, risk taker, romancer, egomaniac, narcissist, leader, winner :)

    Trump is Kirk!

  • Edward

    Cotour,
    All three want to replace Obamacare with “single payer” government run healthcare.

    the Iran “deal” cannot be killed, the money is already there, the rest of the world has eliminated their trade embargoes, and no one can re-impose the anti-nuke sanctions because the worldwide political will is gone.

    Trump does not say “stop illegal immigration,” he just wavers on whether to build a wall. Indeed, he once had three opposing views on illegal immigration over the course of three hours.

    His resolve on any one of his talking points is so weak that you cannot use them to definitively say what he will do. What you can do is judge his overall statements, his very recent liberal ideology (which magically “disappeared” the moment he decided to run for president, but rears its ugly head every time he is presented with a new issue — it takes him multiple guesses to figure out which position makes conservatives agree with him), and his actions.

    Once again, I am correct: you are telling me to surrender to Trump’s tyranny, step back and give up, and drown my loss (loss of my liberty) in alcohol.

    As for dwelling on that thought for a while, you may want to read my comment, as I explained I have already dwelt on it.

    You keep gloating on your win, but please let me remind you that tyrannies are nasty things. They get right in your face about how to live your life, right down to Trump’s proposed tax increases, but now we are stuck with potty law — which your tyrant will not oppose but accepts as a state-level issue. Where is Robin Hood or Zorro when we need them? Not in the form of Cotour, that’s for sure.

    We already haven’t gotten through this. Our lives are already worse off, and Trump has no intention of improving them.

  • Edward

    Actually, Cotour, you just described Obama, not Kirk.

    Trump is Obama!

  • Wayne

    Cotour:
    Yarrr… would have to ponder that further! But, my first inclination would be to say “not so much.” (but will think on it!)
    -The Character has morphed dramatically between the original-series & the first movie reincarnations, followed by the reboot movies which are playing havoc with the “original timeline.”
    (the whole socio-political-economic vision of the original series, as well, morphed dramatically to the hard left throughout the various iterations.)
    –Apparently Shatner himself was not well-loved amongst the original-series cohort, for precisely the traits you mentioned. The phrase, “Does not play well with others,” comes to mind.

  • Wayne

    Edward–
    Excellent stuff, once again!

    I’m thinking the Trouble with the Tribbles episode, where the Klingons in the space-station bar insult Kirk by referring to him as (something like) “a tin horned dictator with delusions of god-hood.”
    That’s Obama!

  • Edward

    Wayne,
    Fortunately, my status as major deity is not delusional — by decree!

    Hey, maybe this Obama guy and his potty law dictate aren’t so bad after all.

  • Cotour

    Obama dreams of being Kirk like.

    Alas, he knows this is something that never will be, can never be.

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