Trump’s Not-So-Crazed Speech in Ohio
I took the time to read the transcript of Trump’s speech, the entire transcript. It has three parts to it. First he talks about what he’s going to do in very general terms (ra ra, we can fix America); then he takes a victory lap and exorciates the press, and then he talks more about what he’s going to do.
According to this:
- Cut taxes so that companies stay in the US.
- Reduce regulations so corporations can produce in the US.
- Renegotiate or leave NAFTA.
- Consider leaving other trade deals seems implicit.
- Repeal Obamacare.
- Do something so people have healthcare
- Stop immigration from certain (aka. Muslim countries) and stop taking refugees.
- Massive infrastructure projects, including in the inner cities and rural America.
- For that infrastructure program, buy American and hire American.
- Specifically bring back manufacturing the rust belt.
- He’s hired some billionaires, etc… that’s because he wants nasty winners on his team
- Executive branch employees can’t lobby for 5 years after working, can never lobby for foreign governments.
- Child support affordable for all.
- Increased pay and opportunities for women.
- Partner with any nation to kill ISIS.
- But other than that, no more wars.
- More money for cops.
- Great Wall
- Work with other nations for win-win deals.
- Repeal environmental restrictions on petroleum industries.
This is populist, little America-ism. Isolationism, bilateral trade deals, mind-our-own-business, combined with standard Republican tax cut and regulation policy.
Let me be clear, I think parts of this program are idiocy: American companies often pay no tax already, and tax’s aren’t the primary issue in production. That doesn’t mean companies don’t use tricks to avoid paying American taxes, but there are ways to make them pay them. While there are certainly regulations which can be done away with, in general regulations aren’t the issue either.
Climate change is real, so gutting enviro protections is insane, and coal jobs aren’t coming back no matter what. Immigrants aren’t a significant problem, etc… Crime isn’t up, it’s down.
(He also inflated the trade deficit by about 300 billion, but it’s still too large.)
That said, this ain’t crazy stuff overall. What it is is a change from the current consensus on some important issues: especially American foreign and trade policy. The tax cuts are just more of the same.
I have doubts that Trump will be able to deliver on all of this, and he’s going to need to find some big pots of money to even try, especially given his tax cuts. His cabinet, while made up of rich people, does not engender confidence that he means what he says about corruption.
All that said, it’s NOT a crazy speech.
Now, if you read it below, you’ll also notice a very long and extended attack on the Press. It’s quite clear that Trump, personally, despises the press. But that doesn’t mean this isn’t also good strategy, much of the press, while they’ll cover him to inches, is going to work to de-legitimize him, so he needs to de-legitimize them.
I’m also tired of cherry picking. Trump wants to do some things that I truly despise. But, for example, killing the TPP was a really good thing. If he actually does follow thru on his foreign policy promise of not attacking any more countries, that’d be a really good thing. Not everything Trump wants to do is bad, just as not everything he wants to do is good.
It should also be noted that Trump goes out of his way in this speech, as he does in many, to declare his love for African-Americans and Hispanics and to say he intends to help them. Will he? Well, not with police violence, but otherwise we’ll see.
Trump, very clearly, wants to be loved and adulated. That is his primary goal here. Trump would love nothing more than in 7 years to be able to go to a rally with primarily Blacks or Hispanics and be cheered. So, while I don’t think he’ll deliver for them, I do think he wants to.
I’ve put the transcript below. I’ve taken out most of the (Applause) and (Booing) lines. Original transcript is from c-span.
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Transcript
For too long, Washington has tried to put us in boxes. They separate us by race, by age, by income, by geography, by place of birth. We spend too much time focusing on what divides us. Now is the time to embrace the one thing that truly unites us. You know what that is? America, America. It’s America.
You hear a lot of talk about how we’re becoming a globalized world, but the relationships people value in this country are local — family, city, state,…
There is no global anthem, no global currency, no certificate of global citizenship. We pledge allegiance to one flag, and that flag is the American…
From now on, it’s going to be America first, OK? America first.
We’re gonna put ourselves first. We seek peace and harmony with the nations of the world, but that means recognizing the right of every country including our own to look after its citizens. We would put other countries first. We had people running our country that truly didn’t know what the hell they we’re doing. OK?
We’re going to defend the American worker. Look what’s happened right here. They forgot about the American worker. They forgot that it was the American worker who truly built our country. We are not going to forget, believe me.
One of the reasons we’re so divided today is because our government has failed to protect the interests of the American workers and their families, making it too easy for us to see ourselves as distinct groups and not unified as a whole. We’re not unified, we’re going to be.
Washington’s politicians has spent so long appealing to competing interest, they forgot how to appeal to the national interest, combining the skills and talents of our people in a common cause. And we have unbelievable talent, but that is all about to change.
Our goal is to strengthen the bonds of trust between citizens to restore our sense of membership in a shared national community. Global is wonderful, but right now, we want to focus on our national community.
We’re going to seek a truly inclusive society where we support each other, love each other and look out for each other. And that means that people coming into our country have to be people that have the potential to love us, not to hate us.
We condemn bigotry and prejudice in all of its forms. We denounce all of the hatred and we forcefully reject the language of exclusion and separation. We’re gonna come together. We have no choice, we have to — and it’s better — it’s better.
We seek a future where every American child is fully included in the American dream. We’re gonna have our own American dream…
… and we’re gonna bring back the American dream.
The problems that plague our inner cities or that afflict poor rural communities — we do have those rural communities. Some of them are poor. We’re gonna help those people, we’re gonna rebuild those communities.
They’re not permanent features of American life. They can be fixed. And together, we’re gonna fix them. We are going to fix them.
We’ve spent — as of this week, according to the latest count, we’ve spent $6 trillion in the Middle East and the Middle East today is far worse than it’s ever been.
You will see changes very quickly.
A shrinking — you will see it. A shrinking workforce and flat wages are not the new normal. And we’re not even talking about flat, we’re talking about wages, where some of you in this audience, hard- working, incredible Americans were making more money 20 years ago than you’re making today. And today, you’re older and you’re working harder. And in many cases, you have two jobs. Some of that is because of Obamacare. And, by the way, we are repealing and replacing Obamacare.
We can reverse the stagnation and usher in a period of true opportunity and growth. Endless gridlock is not a way of life any longer. We don’t have to accept that. Government can be responsive, and we can become proud again of how Washington works.
And I have spoken to Democrats, and I said to them, look, we can’t go on with this gridlock. It’s gone on for so many years. It’s gone on for so many years. They can’t get together. We’re gonna get together, and I believe they want to get together. You know why, because it’s time and the people are angry — they’re angry. And they’re going to get together.
We’re going to make joint decisions, we are. And the nice part, our victory was so great, we have the House, we have the Senate, and we have the presidency.
But we want to get them on board also.
People are constantly telling me and telling you to reduce our expectations. Those people are fools. They’re fools. But this campaign proved that the old rules no longer apply, that anything we want for our country is now possible. Anything, right?
Now is not the time to downsize our dreams, but to set our sights higher than ever before for our country.
Now is the time to push for real profound change that restores the full promise of America for all of its people, and those people are great people. I got to know them, believe me, over the last 18 months. And what we’ve created is a movement, and it’s a beautiful thing.
You take a look here, the roads are all gridlocked, all gridlocked, all locked down, all secured up and people pour in. It’s an amazing thing.
Now is the time to unlock the potential of millions of Americans left on the sidelines — their talents unused, their dreams unrealized, and their aspirations totally forgotten. And these are people of great talent.
This is the moment. This is our chance. This is our window for action. This is the hour when the great deeds can be done and our highest hopes can come true. We’re gonna do it, folks. We’re gonna do it.
We’re gonna do it.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you. I love you, too.
Guy — some guy, look at this guy. And I do love him. He is a rough-looking cookie though, I’ll tell you. We — we love, we have a lot of love, believe me, gonna be a lot of love in our country.
Driven by these goals, I’m working to assemble a detailed action plan for America. My plan begins with a bold structural reform to create millions of new jobs and rapidly expand our economic growth. And you see what’s happening with taxes. You see what’s happening with regulations, which are totally out of control.
Right now we punish companies for doing business in America. They’re actually punished, that’s why they’re leaving. And, by the way, I have to say this, we are going to reduce taxes to appoint that (inaudible) for the middle class, in particular…
… but for our companies. And we’re gonna reduce the regulations.
But if a company wants to still leave the state of Ohio or Pennsylvania, or how about North Carolina? How well did we do in North Carolina?
Remember when they said, he cannot win North Carolina, so we had just won Ohio, Iowa, and we had just won Florida. Breaking news, Donald Trump has won Florida. They say, whoa.
And we won it big. But then the people back there, the extremely dishonest press said…
(BOOING) Right?
Very dishonest people. How about — how about — I mean, how dishonest. How about when a major anchor who hosted a debate started crying when she realized that we won?
How about it? Tears. Oh, tell me, this isn’t true. And you know what she doesn’t understand? Things are going to be much better now.
She doesn’t understand.
I mean, think of it, we won in a landslide. That was a landslide, and we didn’t have the press. The press was brutal. You know what?
Hey, in the great state of Ohio, we didn’t have the upper echelon of politicians either, did we?
But I will say this — I will say this, and it was very nice. Your Governor John Kasich called me after the election…
… and was very nice. He said, congratulations, that was amazing. He couldn’t believe how much we won Ohio by — or the election by.
Remember, you cannot get to 270, the dishonest press.
There is no road.
Folks, how many times did we hear this? There is no path to 270.
There is no path.
There is no path for Donald Trump.
Texas is in play. You remember that one?
Now as a Republican, I’m supposed to win Texas. As a Republican, I’m supposed to win Georgia. As a Republican, I’m supposed to win the great state of Utah — I love Utah. I love those states.
Remember when they said Donald Trump is going to lose to some guy I never even heard of? Who is that guy?
He is going to lose to this guy, but the people of Utah were amazing, and we trounced them.
We trounced them.
And, by the way, Hillary came in second, and that guy came in third. I was still trying to figure out — I’m still trying to figure out what was he gonna prove. Did he wanna — I wondered about what the hell was he trying to prove. I guess, he wanted us to lose the Supreme Court. That’s about the only thing he was gonna get.
But think of it, they said, I’ll tell you what — just two — three weeks before the election — and my friends are telling me just the opposite. They live in Texas and Georgia. They said, Georgia is in play. Texas is in play. That means like we’re even. And then we won in a landslide most states, I said, what happened?
Right?
They go for weeks, Texas is in play. Then you turn on the television like two minutes later — Donald Trump has won Texas, you know.
These are very, very dishonest people. OK.
I love this stuff. Should I go on with this just a little bit longer?
I love it. How about — it’s like 12 o’clock in the evening and Pennsylvania — I’m — I’m leading by a lot, and we couldn’t get off 98 percent. They didn’t want to call it. We’re leading by so much that it’s impossible — if lost every other vote, and they refuse to call. Then at 3 o’clock — I’ll never forget it. I watched that particular person, and we won Wisconsin, and we won Michigan… (APPLAUSE)
… and we won Pennsylvania, right? And that person is doing the map, and that person was saying for months that there’s no way that Donald Trump can…
We didn’t break it, we shattered that sucker.
We shattered it — we shattered it.
That poor wall is busted up. So, I’ll never forget it though because it felt so good.
You know, more so because they kept saying there’s no path and all this nonsense. So — and I go out and see the people like this, and I’d say, how are we going to lose? I mean, how are we going to lose?
But what happened? So, they’ll say, we win Wisconsin. Donald Trump, 38 years or so, Donald Trump has won Michigan. And then they’re looking at the map, they’re saying, oh, wow, there’s no way for Hillary Clinton to become president. Donald Trump is president…
… of the United States, oh, amazing.
It’s amazing — really amazing.
And one of the announcers — one of the announcers, I have to tell you from ESPN, now they cover football, and boxing and everything, right? And he went out, he said, I got to tell you, that event last night — meaning the election results — was better than any fight, any baseball game, any football game.
He said, that was the most exciting event I have ever seen, and it was politics.
And then you look at the NFL. Well, now they should start recovering, but their ratings were so far down, and you know what that reason was? This — because this business is tougher than the NFL. It’s crazy. The people liked it. Their ratings were down 20 or 21 percent, and it was because of us. So, we had a lot of fun. The bottom line is we won — we won. (APPLAUSE)
We won big.
Whether it’s producing steel, building cars or curing disease, we want the next generation of innovation and production to happen right here in America and right here in Ohio, right?
First on taxes. We’re going to massively lower taxes and make America the best place in the world to hire, to invest, to grow, to create and to expand. We’ll do that.
On regulation, we’re going to eliminate every single wasteful regulation that undermines the ability of our workers and our companies to compete with companies from foreign lands. We’re going to do it.
We have the greatest competitors on Earth. And, by the way, I put on some of the greatest business people in the world. One of the networks said, why he put on a billionaire at Commerce? Well, that’s because this guy knows how to make money, folks.
He knows how to make money. I’d like to put on a guy that failed all his life, but we don’t want that, do we? No, he’s a (inaudible) on a killer, and I — I have been honest. I said, I am going to be putting on the greatest killers you’ve ever seen. We need that. It’s time, it’s time — it’s time.
We have a great, great cabinet. I’ll tell you what’s coming, and waiting until you see what we have next week. Are we doing a good job with our cabinet and our people?
And I don’t want to tell you — I don’t want to tell you this because I want to save the suspense for next week, so I will not tell you. I refuse to tell — and don’t let it outside of this room. Do you promise? Raise your hand, promise.
So, I will not tell you that one of our great, great generals — don’t let it outside, right? And, of course, the press is very honest, so I’ll never let this go. Even though it’s all live, they got about seven stations live. We are going to appoint Mad Dog Mattis…
(APPLAUSE) … as our Secretary of Defense.
But we’re not announcing until Monday, so don’t tell anybody. Mad Dog. He is great, he is great.
I asked one of the generals — I love the generals — and I won’t use his name, but he probably would come forward. But I said to him, you’re a good general, aren’t you? Yes, sir, I am. I said, so how do you compare to General Mattis? How do you compare to Mad Dog? Sir, he is better than I am.
I loved it. I said, I love you to say that. They love him. So, we’re going to be announcing him on Monday of next week. Keep it inside the room, but that’s what we have, and he’s our best. They say he is the closest thing to General George Patton that we have and it’s about time, it’s about time.
OK. So I gave — I gave up a little secret. My people over there are probably saying, you weren’t supposed to do that, Mr. Trump.
On energy, we will pursue energy independence and cancel the job- killing restrictions on the production of shale energy, oil, natural gas and clean coal, and we’re going to put the miners of Ohio back to work.
On infrastructure, we will build new roads, tunnels, bridges, railways, airports, schools and hospitals, including major projects in the inner cities. There’s such potential in the inner cities.
We’re not using our potential. Remember when I would make the speeches, I’d say, what the hell do you have to lose?
The African-American community was so great to me in this election. They were so great to me.
Amazing.
The Hispanic community, I did great with the Hispanic community, higher than people that were supposed to have done well. I felt it.
And is this really a big surprise? We did great with women. Can you believe it?
Great with women.
A couple of polls came in…
A couple of polls came in in the early states, and they said, we don’t believe it. He’s doing well with women. But every time I went out, I saw those beautiful pink signs, right? Women for Trump, and I knew we were gonna do well. So, we did great with women, we did great with everybody.
We will deepen our harbors and new lanes of commerce across the nation. We have harbors that ships can even go into.
We will have two simple rules when it comes…
They don’t know that Hillary lost a couple of weeks ago. They forgot.
Where do these people come from? Oh, well. They’re taking her back home to mom. No, it’s true, it’s true. They don’t realize. They don’t know it.
You know, a lot of the people that protested we said, did you vote? No, I didn’t vote. They don’t vote. They never vote.
Do you agree with my stance that if people burn the American flag…
… there should be consequences, right? I think so. I think so.
We will have two simple rules when it comes to this massive rebuilding effort, buy American and hire American. We’re gonna do it ourselves — we’re gonna do it ourselves.
And that will be our new mantra.
On trade, the history of nations teaches us that the strength of a country and its trade, and manufacturing sector is vital to both its economic prosperity and national security because we don’t do that. Our borders are weak. Our trade is terrible. You’re going to see it turn that is so big, and it’s gonna happen so fast, and we started today in Indiana. Believe me, that’s just the beginning. That’s just the beginning.
Our trade deficit now is nearly $800 billion a year. It’s a chronic drag on growth and a destroyer. It destroys the wealth of our country and jobs — and jobs.
Ohio has lost one-third of its manufacturing jobs since NAFTA. And you know the nice part? Now, I don’t have to say, signed by Bill Clinton and approved by Hillary. Who cares? All I can tell you is that NAFTA is a disaster. What difference does it make? We will fix NAFTA or we’ll terminate it and start all over again.
America has lost 70,000 factories — hard to believe. I always say that’s a typo. 70,000 factories since China joined the World Trade Organization. Think of it.
In the year 2000, America had nearly 20 million manufacturing jobs in the Rust Belt, OK? Today, we have only 12.3 million manufacturing jobs left in the Rust Belt. We’re gonna bring them back — we’re gonna bring them back.
We’re gonna bring them back. The Rust Belt has been hammered — and one of the reasons I won. It’s one of the reasons I won. Ohio, as an example, is down from 1.2 million manufacturing jobs in the year 2000 to only 690,000 jobs today. Not gonna happen anymore, folks.
Or take Michigan, they’re down from 900,000 manufacturing jobs in the year 2000 to only 600,000 manufacturing jobs today. I see these numbers and it’s sad. But what isn’t sad, because this is all about hope, but it’s real hope because we’re going to turn that around so fast.
And we don’t want Ford leaving and going to Mexico to build its small cars. We don’t want it. We’re gonna turn it all around.
We’re living through the greatest jobs theft in the history of the world. I’ve been saying it for months. It used to be the cars were made in Flint, right, and you couldn’t drink the water in Mexico. Today, the cars are made in Mexico and you can’t drink the water in Flint, Michigan. You know that, right? What a difference, but we’re turning that around. What a terrible thing that was, too. Gross incompetence on so many levels.
The era of economic surrender is over. We’re going to fight for every last American job. It’s time to remove the rust from the Rust Belt and usher in a new industrial revolution. We’re gonna do it.
On health care reform, we will repeal and replace Obamacare. We have no choice — we have no choice.
And we will finally fix health care for America’s incredible veterans — veterans. We love our veterans.
Where are the veterans? Raise your hand. Who’s a veteran?
We got a lot of veterans. Our veterans have not been treated properly. And I want to thank our veterans, and I want to thank the military, and I want to thank our police forces because the number of votes I got was staggering, staggering.
For whatever reason, people in uniforms like Trump. I don’t know. I have to figure that out. These are great people. We’re gonna take care of our veterans, and we’re working right now on somebody to run the Veterans Administration who will be terrific, believe me, terrific. And I’ll be watching, too. I’ll be watching.
On childcare, I’m asking Congress to pass legislation to support the American family and make safe and affordable childcare accessible to all. It’s so important.
Our agenda will fight to increase pay and opportunities for women in the workforce. Support women entrepreneurs.
Who is a woman entrepreneur here? Who are the women? A lot of them.
I hate to tell you men, generally speaking, they’re better than you are.
Now, if I said it the other way around, I’d be in big trouble, don’t you? And we’re going to make sure that no one is penalized for the decision to have a family. Right now, they are penalized.
On crime, the murder rate has experienced its largest increase in 45 years in our country. Think of that. We’re going to support the incredible men and women of law enforcement. They are incredible people.
My administration will marshal federal resources to bring this crime wave to an end, most in 45 years. We believe all Americans have the right to live in safety and peace, and we will never back down in fighting to deliver that security to every community in our land and to our inner cities that have been forsaken.
We’ll take care of our inner cities and the people in our inner cities.
On defense, we will begin a major national effort to rebuild our badly depleted military.
We have no choice. We have no choice. If you look at this world, it’s a tinderbox. We have no choice. And we want a strong military, and we don’t want to have to use it. Ideally, we don’t have to use it, although we will destroy ISIS.
At the same time, we will pursue a new foreign policy that finally learns from the mistakes of the past. We will stop looking to topple regimes and overthrow governments, folks. Remember, $6 trillion — $6 trillion in the Middle East. $6 trillion.
Our goal is stability, not chaos, because we want to rebuild our country, it’s time — it’s time.
We will partner with any nation that is willing to join us in the effort to defeat ISIS and radical Islamic terrorism.
OK. We have to say the term. We have to say the term.
In our dealings with other countries, we will seek shared interests wherever possible and pursue a new era of peace, understanding and goodwill.
On immigration, we will restore the sovereignty of the United States. We will restore the sovereignty.
We will finally end illegal immigration, have to.
We will construct a great wall at the border…
… dismantle the criminal cartel and liberate our communities from the epidemic of gang violence and drugs pouring into our nation.
(APPLAUSE) We will ask Congress to reform our visa and immigration programs to protect jobs and wages for American workers. I love American workers. I love these people.
Do you know what I call the American workers? The forgotten men and women of our nation, and those men and women came out to vote. Nobody ever thought that was going to happen.
They came out by the millions. These are great, great people.
To keep our nation secure from terrorism and extremism, we will suspend immigration from regions where it cannot be safely processed. We have regions of the world. people are pouring in. I don’t have to say who’s letting them anymore. I just have to say they’re pouring into our country.
We don’t need San Bernardino. We don’t need another Orlando. We don’t need another World Trade Center. We don’t need Paris. You look at Paris. You look at Nice. You look all over the world. Look what’s happening to Germany. We don’t need that, folks. We have enough problems, believe me.
Your state has just experienced a violent atrocity at the great Ohio State University. And that is a great place. That further demonstrates the security threats they created, and these are just threats that are stupidly created by our very, very stupid politicians’ refugee programs.
We offer our thoughts, prayers and deepest sympathies to the victims. And our hearts go out to the entire community of Ohio State. What a great place.
Great place. We’re with you, and we will stand with you every single step of the way.
We will do everything in our power to keep the scourge of terrorism out of our country. We’re going to keep it out of our country.
Just so you understand, people are pouring in from regions of the Middle East. We have no idea who they are, where they come from, what they are thinking, and we’re going to stop that dead cold flack (ph).
Can you just take a look at what just happened in your state? Just take a good look and really think about it.
Ethics reform will be a crucial part of our 100-day plan as well. We’re going to drain the swamp of corruption in Washington.
Drain the swamp.
(Audience) Drain the swamp! Drain the swamp! Drain the swamp!
Thank you.
I will impose a five-year ban on executive branch officials becoming lobbyists and a lifetime ban on officials becoming lobbyists for foreign government.
Change is not going to be easy. I am going to need you unified as hard for these proposals as you fought for this great campaign of ours. We are going to need our government and this movement to be more engaged and more vigilant than ever before to help us accomplish the reforms and overcome decades of stalemate and gridlock. We’re gonna get it done, folks.
Now that you put me in this position, even if you don’t help me one bit, I’m going to get it done, believe me. Don’t worry about that.
It’d be easier if you help, but that’s all right. Don’t worry, I’ll get it done.
Importantly, we are all going to have open arms and we’re going to invite everyone from all political persuasions to join our movement to help us achieve our goals for this country — great schools, safe neighborhoods, a thriving economy and a government that answers only to the people — our people.
We are going to have to dig deep. And I know you, and I and all of the people working with us are up to the test. There are a lot of people working with us.
Every single day, you will be the agents of change, change for our country, but good change, great change. Americans must ignore the pessimists and embrace the optimism that has always been the central ingredient of the American character.
We are the nation that won two world wars, that dug out the Panama Canal, that put a man on the moon and satellites all over space…
(APPLAUSE) … but somewhere along the way we started thinking small. I am asking you to dream big again, and bold and daring things for your country will happen once again. I am asking you to join me in this next chapter of this unbelievable and unprecedented movement as we work toward prosperity at home, peace abroad, and new frontiers in science, technology and space.
I am asking you — is that right? Yeah. I am asking — I am — at this — I love this guy. He is a believer.
You are a believer, right?
He’s a believer. I am asking you to believe in America once again. We have many challenges, but this is truly an exciting time to be alive. There’s been no time like it. The script is not yet written. We do not know what the next page will read. But I’ll tell you it’s going to be a great page. But for the first time, in a long time, what we do know is that the pages will be authored by each one of you.
Each one of you.
Americans will be the captains of their own destiny once again. You know, I talk about our great movement, and you are the movement. I’m the messenger. I’m just really the messenger, although I’ve been a very good messenger. Let’s face it, right? I’ve been a pretty good messenger.
So, once again, I want to thank Ohio. I want to thank the great people of Ohio. It’s an incredible place, an incredible state. There’s been nothing like it.
And remember this, it was when they called the landslide that we had in Ohio that these extremely dishonest people started saying, something is happening very big tonight. Something is happening very big.
And I have been saying it to you for many months, but I’ll say it one last time tonight. We are going to come together and make America great again.
Thank you very much. Thank you, Ohio. Thank you.
There be monsters about; one leaving in little over a month; one defeated; and another elected, after a fashion.
Searching for positives in speeches seems a bit desperate; if we’ve learned anything in the last 16 years; it should be the obvious facts; politicians lie, lie some more, and lie yet again.
Nothing is any longer done for the greater good; but rather the privileged few.
If we are to be known by the fruits of our labors; then it should be obvious Trump is a pathological liar.
I’ll not be suckered again; I trust no words, only my lying eyes.
As the Buddhist monk said; we’ll see…
Oh, he may well be lying about most of it.
The point I wanted to make is that what he’s selling isn’t obviously crazed BS, the way so many present it as.
He will be lying in money does for the rich.
He will be lying in what he does for the poor.
He will be mostly line in one he tells supporters.
You will notice there is one working class white male in the cabinet, other than SecDef.
Good speech, he knew what his supporters wanted to hear in a victory speech and gave it to them. Interesting how he did a mix of his stump speech and policy statements.
@Ian: “The point I wanted to make is that what he’s selling isn’t obviously crazed BS, the way so many present it as.”
I suspect you’re wasting your time way too many people have way too much invested in believing or pretending to believe that he’s either stupid or crazed or both. What would be a good neologism for “stupid or crazed or both”? How does “crupid” grab you?
The first blog I wrote at was called “Tilting at Windmills”. But yeah, though, I do think I’ll write the Genghis Khan post, just for kicks.
@ Ianghis Khan – I like it.
There’s no way to understand Trump and his success without understanding that he is running a con. Con artists generally aren’t stupid or crazy. They’re just particularly skilled sociopaths.
It’s not so much that he lies — he even tells his marks not to believe him, yet they do anyway. Still his defenders point to what he says as if it were meaningful — he said something in a speech, and gee, it isn’t crazy! See!
So?
It’s not meaningful, nor is it meant to be believed. It’s part of the con. Show business, if you will. He even tells them not to believe what he says. But they do anyway.
Con artists don’t need a defense in this situation. Trump doesn’t need a defense beyond that provided by his bodyguards and flacks.
His victims do. His victims include those he has scapegoated to distract attention from the con he’s running. They are the ones at primary and immediate risk of harm. Hundreds have already been assaulted or otherwise harmed, and there is no sign of that risk abating any time soon. If he’s allowed to proceed, those at risk of direct harm — whether scapegoats or not — will include most Americans and many around the world.
This is a man who praises Philippine death squads, after all. Why not? Duerte is wildly popular. And if love and admiration is Trump’s goal, what’s to prevent him from emulating the Philippine president? We already have uniformed killers roaming the country and killing at random. There’s little or nothing to prevent organizing and systematizing what already exists into fully functional death squads — and so long as their targets are (mostly) among the scapegoated, who will complain?
His victims also include his marks, those he has conned and who he is now in the process of betraying. Hour by hour, day by day his betrayals mount, and as they mount, the situation becomes more and more unstable and chaotic. He sowed the wind, but he’s not the only one reaping the whirlwind. Eventually, it sweeps us all in.
Nihilists cheer.
So at least there’s that.
Ché Pasa
December 4, 2016
Che’, could you edit and repost your comment? Maybe it’s me; but hard to follow
and tie together your intent.
Cheers
Two points:
1) Ian I wish to send a big attaboy for your observation that Trump wants to be loved and adulated. The man is an open book to those who can read other people. Sadly most cannot. He has other less savory motives but this one is big. Yuge you might say.
2) Wouldn’t it be nice if he combined a vast simplification of the corporate tax code with muscular enforcement of the anti-trust apparatus? Now THAT would be something that could start bringing new competition to these bloated, parasitic multinationals. Probably never happen but a populist can dream.
Will
@Che Pasa,
Really? The only assaults victims I’ve seen are Trump supporters. Can you produce a single piece of hard evidence? I’ve seen dozens of hoaxes, though: it seems that the demand for “hate crimes” outstrips the supply.
Ever ask yourself why? I have a friend from Central America whose grandfather is nostalgic for the fascist governments of the 30s and 40s. They would release criminals and then shoot them in the back. When your country is run by outlaws and you run the risk of being murdered every day, right-wing death squads would be an improvement.
@mfi wrote: I suspect you’re wasting your time, way too many people have way too much invested in believing or pretending to believe that he’s either stupid or crazed or both. What would be a good neologism for “stupid or crazed or both”? How does “crupid” grab you?
How about “scared”? As in too scared to think or believe that anything positive will come out of this, except what might be salvaged after the wrecking ball is finished, smashing a once great edifice totally to smithereens. And that’s after Trump’s billionaire cronies get finished hauling the best of it away.
Ian’s writing gives me a little hope, but that’s about all. I am working overtime to get out of the USA.
@Che Passa:
Got any reliable evidence in support of this allegation? And by “reliable” I mean including some indication of the scale rather than a vague and unquantified “hundreds” more than 200 less than 200,000? What are the reporting agencies for these assaults? Federal LE? Local LE? State IB? NGO?
If he’s allowed to proceed at what? Are you trying to claim that he intends setting up punishment squads to physically chastise or kill most Americans? Or that he intends setting up death squads to physically chastise and or kill his political opponents and critics?
If those are the allegations you’re making please provide some evidence for them and no hyperbolic hysteria on your part does not constitute evidence.
Is there any evidence for this claim other than inference based upon what Duterte is reported to have said?
Please provide actionable evidence for these assertions and no, hyperbolic hysteria on your part does not constitute evidence.
Have a biscuit, a glass of water, a teddy bear, and some extra valium you’re plainly in need of all of them. Alternatively have you considered growing the fuck up?
@ V. Arnold
I’m sure there’s more than one brain fart in that early morning screed. The thing is that Trump is at root a con man. He tells anyone who will listen that they shouldn’t believe what he says. Yet his defenders insist on cherry picking his statements and assert they’re meaningful somehow — while ignoring everything else he says.
That’s how a con works on the vulnerable marks. Somewhere in there is something they want to hear. But it’s meaningless. And when the marks find out they’ve been scammed, at first they deny that it’s happened, almost universally. They can’t accept that they fell for a con. But they did. And when they can’t deny it anymore, they want to find someone to blame. For the Trump team, the objective is to keep the blame away from the center; thus the increasing danger to scapegoats, the scapegoats that Trump has designated: immigrants, brown people in general, Mexicans, Muslims,
“thugs” — you get the picture. That’s why I brought in Duerte’s death squads. That’s what happens when scapegoats are targeted to distract from a con. We can find a lot of other similar examples throughout history. That is a clear and present danger.
What I didn’t say is that some of Trump’s loyalists and defenders are in on the con and expect to profit from it.
Ultimately, this is a chaotic and unsustainable political situation, and it is dangerous for a whole lot of reasons, some obvious and some not. I don’t know how it will shake out.
@alyosha December 4, 2016
And the basis for you being so “scared” that you’re considering becoming a refugee is???? I’ve spent my entire adult life in the company of refugees. Every single one of them had a damned good reason to flee their homes. Deciding to flee your home is not a decision taken lightly it is ALWAYS a decision taken in extremis .
PS: It occurs to me that perhaps you’re bidding for a position as the site hysteric alas that post is currently fully occupied by the antipodean contingent who show no sign of relinquishing it.
PPS: Where the fuck were you when I and people like me were begging and pleading for political support from you and people like you in our attempts to derail the bilateral extradition treaties the US negotiated under the Obama presidency? It now has extradition treaties with …. well pretty much anywhere you’d consider fleeing to in the hope of having a halfway decent life. So unless you’re so wealthy that you can insulate yourself from the consequences of having to flee to some lawless tropical hell hole you’re SOL.
@ mfi
I’ve got plenty of evidence. But you’re an aware adult. I’ll let you find it on your own. Just because you don’t accept the evidence doesn’t invalidate it, strange as it seems.
As for the intrinsic danger to scapegoats, the Irish should know better than almost anyone how that works. I cannot imagine you don’t. But I can imagine you’re happy enough to have scapegoats targeted — as long as they don’t include you.
My Irish Catholic ancestors were driven out of Ohio, one was killed by an anti-Irish, anti-Catholic Know Nothing mob, and I don’t have any interest in your doubts that anything like it could happen again. I won’t argue the point with you. History is proof enough.
Police killings in the US are documented fairly extensively. You can find out about it easily enough. Read up a bit. Inform yourself. And ask some questions about the death-dealing of US police. Transforming what is now essentially random police killing into an organized and systematized death squad operation wouldn’t be difficult at all. Again, you’re Irish aren’t you? You should know very well how this works. It was practiced by the British and Ulster allies in Ireland, and it was responded to in kind by Irish patriots for generations.
That isn’t something I want to see happen in this country, though I have no reason at the moment to believe it can be or will be prevented.
@Ché Pasa December 4, 2016
In other words you either don’t have any evidence or you evidence is so weak that even you are ashamed to present it.
Spare me the hypocritical shite about my country from the time I was eight I’ve have had more than enough direct personal experience of being subjected to political violence and of working with people to end it to take a very dim view of the ravings of a cowardly poltroon such as you.
Grow a pair.
As to your comments about death squads – If you’d bothered your worthless cowardly hysterical arse to do even miniscule research on them and that particularly includes the ones sponsored by your country you’d know that they prey on those who either will not or cannot defend themselves. Those who refuse to present an easy target as a pretty much invariable rule don’t get targetted.
Grow a pair or alternatively don’t grow a pair but either way spare us your cowardly and overwrought raving.
If he really did put a stop the warring and if he gave us a single payer healthcare system – to include expanding our schools so anyone qualified to be trained as a doctor or nurse could be educated in those fields – it would be worth it to me.
@just_kate.
At this point I’d settle for just stopping the warring – but you’re right if he calls a halt to all the wars of choice America is currently either engaging in or preparing for you could easily afford the schooling. From your lips to God’s ears to coin a phrase …
One other indication of sanity: He doesn’t ask God to bless America, or the crowd, or his agenda, or anything else.
@mfi
We apparently will not agree on the fundamentals here.
You’ve made clear enough that you’re not interested in “evidence” (‘Google is your friend,’ my friend) you’re interested in power and domination.
Fine.
I have a different view which I think I’ve been clear about. I think you’ve been clear about your views too.
We’ll see, won’t we.
Ché Pasa December 4, 2016
Yes we’ll not once in all the time you’ve been here attitudinising have you ever bothered to support your statements either with reasoned argument or with evidence other than your unsupported word. Never. Not even once.
You’re clever enough in slithery sort of way to be able to be able to argue logically but you’re so brimming over with the arrogance and contempt towards your fellow humans that you substitute bombast for dialogue and faked outrage for evidence. No wonder every election goes against you, no wonder you lose every single one of your political struggles, you don’t do persuasion (or even propaganda!)
That tells me and everyone who reads here all they need to know about you. You don’t have any beliefs or principles, none. Just attitudes and histrionics.
Has it ever occurred to you that in what was it you said you were? 59? Approaching 60 anyway. Has it ever occurred to you that nearly sixty years of being on the losing side again and again and again is something of a hint. Your entire political life has been one entirely preventable failure after entirely preventable failure followed in dreary and depressing sequence by yet further entirely preventable failures you know to everyone except the utterly self-absorbed and self-indulgent that would be fairly strong that you’re either doing something wrong or that you’re wrong or both.
Both.
EOD
@Adam Eran
It could be evidence that he’s of the opinion that he is God! He’s a politician after all. However this could be a good thing because if he effs up too badly you can easily effect a change of government, just ask his bodyguards to turn their backs and then ask him to do the walking on water thing…
He doesn’t just want to cut taxes on corporations who, as you note, already dodge and underpay their taxes but on the rich as well. However, by and large, the rich and corporations won’t use this money to make productive concrete investments but will gamble with it in financial markets. And even if they did use it for productive investments, this approach would increase rather than decrease wealth inequality.
“Reduce regulations” has been code for decades for allowing corporations to pollute more, produce more dangerous and shoddy products, and screw over workers. And again there is no indication that reducing regulations will even keep companies in the US.
Renegotiating NAFTA is all fine and good, but what does this have to do with China, the 800 pound gorilla in the room?
Repealing Obamacare and moving to private savings accounts for healthcare simply replaces one con with another.
I agree with reducing and mostly eliminating immigration because it does depress US wages but more importantly as one part of a plan to address overpopulation in the US.
Trump’s infrastructure plans are a bunch of public-private partnership scams. And he can only go “buy American” if he exits the WTO and all existing free trade agreements which I do not think he can do without Congressional consent and legislation.
Again as you note, his government of billionaires is a recipe and license for corruption. They are not nasty winners. They are nasty crooks.
There are already lots of ways to get around lobbying restrictions. People can become “consultants”. They can join think tanks. They can still go through the revolving door and go to work directly for a corporation or sit on its board.
Affordable child care paid for by whom and how?
Increased pay for women? How about equal pay and opportunities for women? How many decades have politicians been promising this? It’s a nice throwaway line but glaring pay inequality and lack of opportunities still remain.
Fighting ISIS or whatever the next iteration of the war on terror gets cast as is a gateway for maintaining current and starting lots of future wars.
But other than that no more wars? See above. Also while Trump slams NATO, he is as goofy pro-Israel as Clinton was. This is very much not mind our own business.
More money for cops? Again where is this money coming from? And how does funding an expanding, militarized, shoot first and dodge responsibility later police force make any of us, but especially minorities, safer?
The Great Wall was always a con. If you want to stop illegal immigration, you levy punitive fines and jail time for those who employ them. It is, of course, both ironic and hypocritic that Trump was heavily involved in construction, hotels and restaurants, three industries filled with illegals.
Win-win deals and also ponies. There should always be ponies.
And finally repealing regs on hydrocarbons because global warming is a hoax. I see this as mostly indicative. If Trump can be so reality challenged on this, the sky is the limit on what else he can get expensively and catastrophically wrong.
@ mfi
You’ve shown your cards. Your fury. When you calm down, you might have something to offer, but for now… no.
At least there is some cheer in the air over the denial of the Dakota Access Pipeline easement.
Yes, we’ll see.
mfi: ” Those who refuse to present an easy target as a pretty much invariable rule don’t get targeted. ”
Consult any random African American about that.
Bozo.
>One other indication of sanity: He doesn’t ask God to bless America, or the crowd, or his agenda, or anything else.
He is God. Or he think he is.
To those going after Mark;
You sound like a bunch of prim & proper upper class grade school girls.
Hey, he says dumb stuff, he gets called on it. Especially when he delivers it in a manner that suggests he knows what he’s talking about. As Confucius might say, online savant equal breadline stumblebum.
You know; it’s all rather moot at this point. You (I didn’t vote) elected one of the two leading monsters into the office of president.
The best you can hope for is a benevolent monster; Hillary most assuredly, is not, a benevolent monster.
It would seem the U.S. is on a set course; not dependent on who holds office. If that is in fact the fact; you’re fucked either way.
You created it; you fucking live with it…or, do something genuinely radical!
I didn’t think so…
What both Donald Trump and Nigel Farage discovered is that if you want to engage with angry non-intellectual people you have to be outrageous. If doesn’t follow that they do not understand that finding effective solutions requires a lot of creative, technical and intellectual effort.
The source of the crisis across the developed Western world is globalisation and free trade – not the banking crisis. The banking crisis was a consequence of these things, not it’s cause. If trade gets out of balance then free trade just causes a transfer of wealth rather than the creation of new wealth. Of course it’s wonderful that we can now forecast the end of global food poverty by 2030, and that this is the result of globalisation and free trade. But let us not kid ourselves that this is not at the expense of western working classes.
In the UK to fix this we need balanced trade and balanced migration. These policies are only available through Brexit. Without them we will see a massive increase in unemployment as quantitative easing ceases to be effective. Brexit is like El Alamein, of which Churchill famously said “This is not the end of the war. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it may just be the end of the beginning.” It provides the opportunity not the solution. In other words balancing trade and migration will take many years of hard graft. The sooner we start the better.
In the US I think Trump has an instinctive understanding of this, but has not grasped how long it will take. If he rushes it in order to be popular he will fail.
In today’s episode of “Draining The Swamp”, it’s official that crazy Ben Carson is nominated for HUD Secretary. Meanwhile, Trump spent the weekend creating diplomatic incidents with China and whinging about his portrayal on “Saturday Night Live”. Oh btw, I think we now know why Ivanka was in that meeting with the Japanese PM. Her clothing company is, and has been, working on a licensing agreement with Sanei International, whose largest shareholder is wholly owned by the Japanese government. Funny that.
But hey, Trump’s victory rally speech was “not-so-crazed” so carry on with your musings….
@ V. Arnold
The Water Protectors are becoming (in my mind, they have become) the models of radical resistance at least for now, for this country. Their eyes are open. They are not fooled. Their focus is sharp. They gained allies and support around the world and throughout the country for a very simple goal. Protect the water, protect the earth, protect the future.
Their model is not the only way forward, but it is a way, and at least for now, it’s worked.
More like this, please.
It’s very easy to loose one’s cool when arguing with people who repeatedly and steadfastly refuse to back their assertions up with evidence. I’ve had to restrain the impulse to bash in the computer screen once or twice responding to comments here…
Mark, don’t let them get to you. They’re not worth getting angry at. Contempt will more than suffice.
Over the weekend we also had some nut job who decided to pick up his trusty rifle, drive from North Carolina to DC and investigate a particularly strange fake news aka (propaganda) story. It’s called “Pizzagate” and imagines that Podesta, Clinton, etc are involved in a child abuse/sex ring operating out of a restaurant (pizza shop) in DC. Yes, you read that right.
Of course since he was white despite entering the restaurant, menacing the staff with his weapon and firing his weapon, he was taken in without a scratch and only charged with assault with a dangerous weapon. I dunno maybe he was confused and was actually looking for evidence for the assertions (lies) made about those millions of illegal votes that the Trumpsters were going on about all weekend.
No, it’s Trump taking lessons from Obama—Say what they want to hear while campaigning, get elected, then do whatever you want.
But maybe this has been going on for a while now?
When I know that Killery can’t slither into the presidency somehow, I’ll start more heavily on “Drumpf”.
I’d hate to actually have to go there, but I will. I won’t be needing any veterans but they would be welcome.
I suddenly notice that not a single, courageous veteran going to North Dakota ever said their reason for going was because the U.S. prior, and current, wars are bullshit. That the wars they served in were BULLSHIT.
They said nice things but they never said that. We’ll see, I guess.
I guess we’ll also see about Trump’s conflicts of interest, since he’s apparently invested in DAPL and seems to speak well of it.
We’ll see.
“Trump, very clearly, wants to be loved and adulated. That is his primary goal here”
I would say it is more his primary motivation for everything he does. And that is what will be his failure as a President. But as a strong man despot it works to his advantage
Larry Beck, y’all aren’t listening. Plus, do you have a medical degree that enables you to diagnose someone’s motivation?
Or do you just believe whatever propaganda that comes your way?
(My Trump hatred is semi-on-hold right now, as stated above.)
Reading all this tooing and frowing has been interesting, to say the least.
Let’s go back to something I said here ages ago, when Trump was heading for a win in the GOP candidate procedure: “the problem with Trump is that he hasn’t got the organisation and people to make meaningful change even if he got into power, unlike Sanders”.
He was rejected by the GOP ‘establishment’ and drew mostly from the religious right and the nutjobs (sometimes called the ‘alt right’). With him in power that is the group he has largely filled his major positions with. These are the people that count that make all the many day to day decisions that actually make things happen.
So pretty speeches aside, and history is replete with leaders who made pretty speeches and did the exact opposite, what will his Govt actually do? Note that there is little ‘balance’ in his senior team, that is (what many smart leaders do) have people with opposing positions and outlooks.
Mike Pence, VP. Religious Right, virulently anti-LGBTI (you can add misogynist, anti contraception and abortion as all the Religious Right are).
Jeff Sessions, Attorney General, Cabinet. Religious Right, virulently anti-LGBTI. “Here is a man who scored a string of zeroes on the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional Scorecard. “
Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education, Cabinet. Religious Right, virulently anti-LGBTI. “DeVos has donated millions to Focus on the Family, which calls antibullying programs some kind of gay propaganda meant to promote homosexuality. Focus on the Family is famous for its conversion therapy programs.”. ” Her plan, she said, is to use power to “advance God’s kingdom.””
Tom Price, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Cabinet. Religious Right, virulently anti-LGBTI. Wants to privitise Medicare.
James “Mad Dog” Mattis, Secretary of Defense, Cabinet. Virulently anti-LGBTI.
Elaine Chao, Transportation Secretary, Cabinet. Virulently anti-LGBTI. Married to also virulently anti-LGBTI Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky
Wilbur Ross, Commerce Secretary, Cabinet. Virulently anti-LGBTI. Billionaire financial predator.
Steven Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary, Goldman Sachs (the ‘vampire squid’) and a Soros man. “He said cutting corporation tax to 15pc, from 30pc was a major goal for the Trump administration, as he called for the tax system to be simplified.”
Reince Priebus, Chief of Staff, Religious Right, virulently anti-LGBTI.
“.. head of the Republican Party can wield influence over the drafting of its platform. And this year’s Republican platform is “most anti-LGBT … in the Party’s 162-year history,” according to the Log Cabin Republicans.”
Mike Pompeo, CIA Director, Religious Right, virulently anti-LGBTI.
Michael Flynn, National Security Adviser, Probable ‘Alt-Right’. Probably anti-LGBTI.
Nikki Haley, U.N. Ambassador, unknown and irrelevant.
Steve Bannon…public head of the ‘Alt Right’, well what needs to be said about him, virulently anti-LGBTI, racist, misogynist…..
What a crowd …and what is the common theme here? Most, such as Pence, are racist and misogynist through and through, though often a bit more circumspect about that than their LGBTI hatred.
But we now see the Faustian bargain the GOP made with the ‘religious right’, starting with Nixon no less followed by Reagan, coming to its full ugly fruition. In many ways this is a ‘Ted Cruz’ President… An FDR Govt this is not.
It is going to be horrible for women and LGBTI people.
So the US is going to get a ‘christian’; theocracy jammed down it throat, and any improvements will be accidental (and note Religious Right people are all neo-liberal economically, neo-conservative on foreign affairs and totally pro Israel).
War with Iran soon? Or maybe China?
Too long, couldn’t read. Lisa, you should probably sit down and shut up. The fuck are are talking about?
That’s just my humble opinion.
There’s a reason for the term ‘hysterical female’. I can only assume that the name Lisa is real. Maybe not though.
What? Like I’m supposed to believe everything I see on the internet? I think everyone knows that’s not the case.
Who am I? Where am I?
tsisageya: “Too long, couldn’t read.”
Then don’t comment on it.
In case you are unfamiliar with the news, these are the confirmed senior positions announced to date by the Trump administration. Many ‘religious right*’, almost all anti-LGBTI.
*Religious right are: misogynist, often racist, all anti-LGBTI, anti-science, anti other religions (especially Muslims), very pro Israel (who has cultivated them for decades now), neo-liberal economically (the rich are blessed and the poor are sinners), neo-conservative in foreign affairs (especially over the Middle East). Their ideology is to create a ‘christian’ theocracy in the US.
P.S. Cory Morningstar is full of shit. Just look, see.
Thanks, Lisa. But I will comment on what I want, when I want, and you’ll LIKE it and say THANK YOU. May I have another?
Have you got anything else?
Re Trump’s appointments, they all need to be confirmed. That means Senate hearings. It also means that, unless McConnell goes nuclear, the filibuster rule applies, which means cloture votes requiring a minimum 60 votes to proceed to a final confirmation vote are needed. So both Democrats, and certainly Democrats along with various anti-Trump Republican factions, can stop the crazier of Trump’s nominees, and do so fairly easily –if they wanted to. Big “if” there.
Thank you Hugh. Blah, blah, blah. But why are you giving credence to something that is bullshit?
I’m having trouble with this.
Trumps appointments. Yes. We know.
So it appears that Ian is following in the footsteps of his idol Bannon and setting his OWN alt-right blog!
Now it all makes sense!!!
I thought Ian’s site had just jumped the shark but instead he’s just following his destiny!!
How fun!!!
Does this entitle avid posters for a degree from Trump U?
Embarrassing.
No, but seriously, for shear Trump-humping fun this blog is as embarrassing/shameful as Breitbart.
Bye, sharky!!!
Ron, apparently you’re the one who has jumped the shark.
Embarrassing.
The mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Ron, are you a killery lover in disguise? Or do you just hate Trump? What’s happening here?
I’m curious.
Ian, as long as this barking asshole tsisageya is allowed to post, you can color me gone.
He’s obviously psychotic.
Hugh that’s not true. The only nominees that can be filibustered are SCOTUS nominees. Executive appointments are a simple majority per the rules changes instituted by Harry Reid.
Mallam, I know Reid exempted federal judgeships from the filibuster. I do not know if he applied that to all federal appointees. I would be interested in a citation to that effect.
Also no Senate is bound by the rules or decisions of any previous Senate. They start fresh with each session. So Reid’s decision would not last beyond the session in which he made his decision unless it was continued by McConnell when he became majority leader.
source
Of course McConnell could change the rules in January. Why would he reduce his own power?
Nah, he’s just an unshaven and toothless old drunken bum pounding away after a liquid lunch. Once the library closes, he’ll be gone.
To Lisa, Ron, Tom W Harris, and Che Pasa:
You lot seem sensible enough.
If you hope to enlighten the denizens here who are objectively pro-Pumpkinhead, I expect you will fail.
Why give yourselves headaches, beating your heads against brick walls?
Why not shake the dust of this blog out of your sandals, as a witness against it, and find other places to comment?
Oops. Barking asshole, V Arnold? Okay. I’ll stop. No worries at all. Feel free to spout away.
But, before I leave, regarding Harry Reid, isn’t he the one who we made fun of as Lucy, the one who pulled the football from Charlie Brown at the last second? Are you still talking about him as someone to talk about? Limp noodle Reid? This may not be a place for me after all. No problem.
@IBW
Bless your heart.
I can’t speak for anybody else, but I don’t doubt we all have other outlets for our sparkling wit and deep insights. This is one of several.
There’s a long history between MFI, Ian, several of the other posters and commenters here, and me. Some of it goes back to Jane’s Place. Hugh and I go back to the Dean campaign in California, when we and others would sit around strategizing how to get a Rockefeller Republican (as I saw him) elected Democratic president. After his defeat in the primaries and Kerry’s unsurprising loss to Baby Bush (“we told you so!”) I worked on getting Dean elected DNC chair (we won that one) and then I withdrew from Dem Party politics and became quite a vocal if somewhat of a gadfly critic of the Party, for good reason. They have betrayed their constituents as fully and frequently as any political party in this country ever has. They do it openly and proudly. It’s infuriating and disgusting.
Ian has some sharp insights, and I disagree with him about Trump. I disagree with a lot of people on the internet about Trump. He is not worthy of the kinds of defense he’s been receiving. He shouldn’t be anywhere near the White House. He is a catastrophe. I felt the same way about Bush, Jr. and I was right. I would say much the same about Mrs. Clinton were she on her way back to the White House. But she’s not, so I don’t care about the disaster she would have been in office because she’s not going to be in office. Trump and his cronies will be, and I really care about that and I care about those who will be harmed because of it. Just as I cared about those who were harmed by Bush Jr and his cronies and by Obama and his gang of imperialist warmongers.
The airy dismissal of the suffering of others — “Oh it won’t be so bad! Sure some will suffer, but realistically they would suffer anyway. You’ll see! He’s got some good ideas! And he won’t start WWIII like Hillary would!” — truly sicken me. I’m old and infirm and can’t physically do what I once could in opposition to this madness, but I still have a voice, and I will continue to use it until I can’t anymore.
@ Che’ Pasa
Well said. Since the barking asshole tsisageya voluntarily left; I’ll post again.
IBW is a troll (obviously), who has posted here under innumerable nom de plumes over the years. But then, apparently, you know this already.
You gave him far more than I ever would.
As to Trump; the very first post on this thread is mine and firmly states my position.
However; we’ve got him for better or worse; so, it all falls from there and is our current reality.
Today, Trump sold all his holdings in DAPL; I find that interesting.
I think we’re in for a wild ride of unpredictability; something Usian’s are very uncomfortable with; I’m not. I’ve chosen to live outside the U.S. in very unfamiliar surroundings (as you well know) and things have a way of working out; not always for the best.
We’ve had a string of monsters, parading as statesmen, for as long as I can remember; now, we’ve got a monster not pretending anything presidential; I find that also interesting.
As the Buddhist monk said; we’ll see, no?
@ V. Arnold
Agreed.
We do what we can. Not all of us can be on the front lines, and not all of us are going to agree about this or that course of action, or even if any action is necessary.
I have deep admiration for the Water Protectors in North Dakota because they were successful in bringing the Juggernaut to a standstill. While it is paused, the activists are facing dissension and efforts are under way to shatter their solidarity.
Not surprisingly, that effort is being led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault, who was the voice of calm, determination and reason throughout the struggle. His leadership, while not the only factor, was essential in the temporary success the Water Protectors have achieved. And now he tells everyone to go home for their own “safety” and that nothing will happen with the pipeline for months. If they’re needed in the future, he’ll call the Water Protectors back, but for now there’s no need for them to be there. “Go home.” Of course he was speaking in the midst of a white out blizzard. Nobody is going home under those conditions.
Resistance in the camp is strong. He’s losing authority by the minute. But it has split the camp, too. In my view that’s intentional. A success of this kind cannot be allowed to solidify and persist. It is against every principle of neo-libcon governance.
One step forward, two steps back?
We’ll see….
Ché Pasa
December 6, 2016
I agree, I do not trust Chairman Dave Archambault. Not even a little.
The link below is very telling and supports you feelings on this, as well as mine.
Please follow this link and scroll down to the very last article entry;
https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2016/12/debt-rattle-december-5-2016/#post-31593
Cheers
@IBW
Don’t you dare to lead these snowflakes, closet Clintonites and doom preachers away from here. They may be annoying and dreadful but they are the best indicator of how the Clintonite cult is continuing to disintegrate and is stuck in a lost reality. These magpies, along with many others, are making the possibility of a 50 year conservative rule a reality.
Obama displayed what liberalism truly is when he was confronted about the Carrier workers and responded that he couldn’t do anything and said they should look forward. In other words he didn’t care and is looking forward to his prosperous future.
Trump didn’t depend on focus groups or quislings to guide him to a safe path he used his power as the representative of the people to make a deal, not a perfect deal, that means that 1000 families in Indianapolis will have a Merry Christmas. This could have easily backfired on Trump but he didn’t flinch from his duty to do something that has never even been tried before, confront powerful corporations directly about what they are doing to the country.
Peter,
Nonsense, HST and the steel companies, JFK also jawboning the same. LBJ used the old jawbone as well. That’s what Democrats used to do on behalf of workers. They actually did some good. Trump is just pretending but he has picked up on the effectiveness of appearing to jawbone.
He is clever in presenting himself as a fighter for the public good. Air Force One is another example of his cleverness in this regard.
But don’t count on anything meaningful.
@ Lisa
“Religious right are: misogynist, often racist, all anti-LGBTI, anti-science, anti other religions (especially Muslims), very pro Israel . . .”
Apparently, you forgot that Israel’s enemies who have vowed to destroy it are also “virulently anti-LGBTQ.”
Pretzel logic, Lisa?
You know what’s “in common” in all of your comments, Lisa?
It’s endlessly amusing to see how relentlessly the various tails here insist on believing they are actually the dog.
It seems to me that the ACTUAL dog got tired of being shaken by these tails, and that is the main reason why we will now have a President Trump.
Ever hear the old joke about the flea fucking the elephant? (The punch line is when the flea tells the elephant, who is bellowing at a mouse in her path, “Suffer, bitch.”)
Time for introspection, all you tails. Your overplayed tactics got you here.
@HVD
I doubt the 1000 families in Indiana would agree with your definition of meaningful whatever that may be. The fact that you only see Trump’s actions as clever shows why he won this election and he will use the fact that he is underestimated by the ‘smart people’ to move forward with his agendas.
The so called left and unions have been whining and handwringing about the TPP for five years with no effect on its progress, led by Obama, yet when Trump was elected but not yet in office it dropped dead at the ruling classes’ feet. Does this bit of international magic qualify as meaningful?
Trump’s saving those jobs in Indiana may seem a small thing to some people but it is a sign of what is possible if someone with power actually wants jobs to stay here where they’re needed. Wall Street is driving this offshoring demanding larger profits and that is where the larger battle will be fought after Trump becomes president.
I’m not counting on anything Trump does but he has already made a significant impact before taking the oath of office. If he brings the republicans in congress to heel and quickly gets his infrastructure plans enacted along with the deportation of a couple of million criminals there will be millions of new job openings available, some of them very high paying positions.
The TPP was mostly dead before Trump came along precisely because of lots of grassroots opposition to it. That is what made it a “populist” cause for Trump to take up. I should note that the TPP is still mostly dead. But like so many zombies, even now it is unclear if Trump will try to repackage it as a smaller series of bilateral deals.
As for Carrier, they got a tax break and are still outsourcing 1300 jobs.
I wanted to thank Mallam for the info on Reid’s changes to the filibuster. I would note, however, that when Loretta Lynch was confirmed for the position of Attorney General on April 23, 2015. There was a cloture vote (66-34) leading to, and opening the way for, the final vote (56-43).
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/vote_menu_114_1.htm
votes 163 and 164. And yes, McConnell was Majority Leader at the time.
The last bunch of people to use that turn of phrase turned the Middle East into a charnel house…I suppose the training camps for the Trump death squads can be found somewhere north, south, east, and west of NYC?
There’s no way to stretch “within days of getting rammed through the U.S. Congress and Japanese Diet”* into “mostly dead”.
That’s pure baloney and the unsubtle implication that pointing that out somehow disrespects the efforts of the grassroots up to that point is fatuous emotional blackmail. Of course their efforts delayed it long enough for his election to get it spiked at the 11th hour but stop it he did. There’s simply no way around it.
*(making its enactment all but certain)
I see Tweedledee and Tweedledum are back and chirping their usual cheerleading for Trump. The pr about the Carrier deal has already fallen apart except for the diehards. It remains as I said the other day – a typical Trump bad deal using other peoples money for mostly pr optics. The final numbers are 1300 jobs moving to Mexico, 730 staying here and a $7 million tax break for the company. The great deal maker managed to lose 1300 out of 2000 jobs and had to pay $7 million to keep the other 730 jobs here temporarily but, what does he care, it’s not his money. The Indiana taxpayers will foot the bill.
The CEO was on CNBC yesterday and explained the even the jobs left are going the way of the dodo bird due to automation but they will still get to keep those tax breaks. Suckers! I’m sure nobody wants to talk about the Boeing nonsense today as that idiocy should speak for itself.
Also, it looks like the Killary Clintonite Cult will probably surpass Obama’s vote total in 2012 (65 million plus). It appears that the majority of voters in this election are part of an extraordinarily large cult.
XFR, it is the old “If you can get to the front of a parade, you can claim to lead it.” But if it is sunny tomorrow, no doubt you will ascribe that to Trump’s intercession as well.
@Hugh,
You now how it goes here now. Chomsky (in 2014!), Warren, Sanders, Reich, et al. get minimal credit for leading the charge but Trump gets full credit for jumping on the bandwagon.
Hugh
”The TPP was mostly dead before Trump came along precisely because of lots of grassroots opposition to it.”
Yep, the so called non-existent left in many countries fought the fight over that, borrowed some tactics from LGBTI lobbies too, bit by bit they got others on-side and it was dead in the water in the US and many other places. Anyone noticed all the huge demonstrations against it all over the place during the last few years?
realitychecker :”Apparently, you forgot that Israel’s enemies who have vowed to destroy it are also “virulently anti-LGBTQ.” “
Irrelevant, might as well argue “Hitler killed hundred of thousands of gay men in the concentration camps, we don’t do that we just lock them up so we are better”.
We western states are supposed to be secular states (as stated in the US and other countries constitutions) and pro the civil rights of all people (after a lot of fights though).
Now you might be happy that some people want to make the US (etc) the same as Saudi Arabia, dominated by a single religion based on middle eastern, bronze age, tribal social laws and a belief in a ‘sky god’ (to quote Gore Vidal).
Note that Israel has its own issues with its religious extremists trying to turn it into another Saudi Arabia based on middle eastern, bronze age, tribal social laws and a belief in a ‘sky god’….
I have noticed this line of argument before, ‘they are terrible over there’ , then support (or at least tolerate) those in our own countries that want to make things the same here.
Interesting fact, according to the Pews surveys white evangelical ‘religious right’ people in the US are more anti-LGBTI than US Muslims…. Interesting eh?
Note also all the (mostly US) ‘christian’ organisations working hard in Africa (and spending lots of money) to bring out anti-LGBTI laws (including the death penalty).
I take the logical point of view that your immediate enemies are the most important ones to fight first. And the western LGBTI community does support our Muslim and other LGBTI cousins in our and other countries ..a lot.
Note that all of those religious extremists are also are virulently anti-women as well.
Note that the US (and elsewhere) ‘religious right’ are extremely right wing economically as well. They have long been supported in many countries by all sorts of shadowy organisations (CIA for one) as a front against communism, trade unions and all the rest.
I was doing some research on an infamous (and ‘christian’ of course) anti-LGBTI person here in Australia and found he was right up to his neck in the 80s and 90s working with all sorts of right wing ‘christian’ groups overseas in places like the Philippines and helping the oppression (heck extermination) of left wing groups, trade unions, teachers and all the rest.
To expect these people will support anything ‘left wing’ economically is political naivety of the first order, just check the voting records of the religious right politicians to see that.
Why do you thing the Republicans courted these people? Because they could be counted on to support right wing economic issues, provided they were thrown the odd bone against women and LGBTI people.
@Hugh
Show a little Christmas spirit and appreciation for the people who won’t lose their jobs this Christmas the season when big business seems to enjoy doing their layoffs. Trump isn’t president or dictator yet so he had to deal with these Scrooges and deals are not perfect. These big businessmen have big egos and may not want to appear weak after this deal. My brother-in-law was CEO of Carrier so I have some idea how they think.
The TPP was within days of being passed with bipartisan support so Clinton wouldn’t have to flip-flop on that issue after she won, but she didn’t and the republican leadership, who supported its passage, had to flip-flop because they are the subjects of a hostile takeover. Individual trade deals with these countries are not the TPP which was not really a trade agreement but a corporate/investor protection scheme. Any delays in this secretly negotiated agreement were due to resistance from the subject countries to having its provisions crammed down their throats. Those people in the US who opposed what they saw from the leaks had no power to delay or stop anything and Obama was ready to send it to congress for passage until the day the world stood still.
Donald Trump has added rabid so called ‘christian’ (Seventh-day Adventist) another anti-LGBTI, anti-women nutcase member to his cabinet….bit of a pattern here..and a ‘flat tax believer’ to boot.
“Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, has been picked to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development.”
“For the past two years, Carson has used a strong anti-LGBTI rhetoric, comparing same-sex marriage to bestiality and said LGBTI people are ‘abnormal’.
He doesn’t believe marriage equality is a civil right, that it is inconsistent with his religious beliefs and said judges who ruled in favor should be fired.
The former surgeon also believes homosexuality is a choice and, in 2015, claimed prisons make people gay.”
Cutting through the bs and getting to the essence, what is abundantly clear is that all those who did not get their way in this election are now dedicated to approaching every situation with the explicit and exclusive mindset of “What can I criticize?”
I expect a mixed bag of results, and am quite certain that that is what we will get.
Frankly, we don’t deserve any better than that after allowing ourselves to drift so far into the realm of partisan, self-centric delusion for so long.
Che pasa has just made an implicit prediction. When he mocks the view that “at least Trump won’t start WWIII the way Clinton would have” . . . he default-predicts that yes-Trump-will start WWIII the way the Clintosceptics predict Clinton would have.
Some Clintosceptics, such as myself, have phrased our prediction more narrowly. I predicted that Trump won’t start World War Clinton with Russia specifically the way Clinton very well may have. He “may” start WWIII with somebody else. I hope not. WWIII with anybody would be bad. But WW Clinton with Russia would be worst of all because we and Russia have enough nukes to exterminate all innocent bystander life on earth, as well as eachother. If we get to the end of Trump without having a thermonuclear exchange with Russia, then I will have been proved right in that particular prediction.
I have one other prediction I can make with confidence. Trump will stand by and allow the R + 6 to track and find and exterminate every single jihadi rebel in Syria. Every. Single. One. And that is a good thing. And that is another reason I voted for Trump. To exterminate the Jihad in Syria and to weaken the Wahhabi Jihadi filth who rule Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
About prediction three . . . no more Free Trade Treason agreements, I don’t think Trump is smart enough to understand the problem. He thinks it is about “good deals”. Sessions understands that it is about Free Trade Traitors against America. But I don’t know if Sessions will have any influence on Trump from his perch at Justice. Probably Trump will end up giving us Trade Treason Lite, because he will think “the deal” is all that matters, and he will think he got us a “good deal”. Oh well. So I will be disappointed in not getting my Big Reason Three for voting for Trump: No more Free Trade Treason Agreements.
@RC
It looks like Obama may be feeling butt-hurt also now and doing something petty about it because Trump has made him look the fool twice already. There was supposed to be a decision from the White House to finish the Dakota pipeline but we get the Corps of Engineers delaying the decision, probably with some input from the WH and kicking the can down the road right into Trump’s path.
This looks like a chickenshit political ploy to give Trump a black eye when he has to finish the job that Obama started and ran from in the end.
@ Peter
Yes, you’ve probably got that right, but at least Trump ran on freeing up energy, while Obama and Clinton acted the same but pretended the opposite. Energy will probably be the area where I most dislike what Trump will do.
But honestly, I don’t intend to spend any more energy arguing with idiots who only want to criticize and obstruct a Prez who has not even been sworn in yet.
Folks like that should just eat shit and die. Same as I said about the Republicans when Obama got elected.
Losers are losers. And when I see them act this way, I realize they deserve their suffering.
realitychecker : As the religious right theocracy nonsense comes out many will shout from the rooftops “We Told You So”.
Trump saw this, in his usual short term thinking way, as a ‘clever move’…and has been roundly manipulated by them (and it nearly cost him the election).
On a positive note, in the longer term this will finish them politically for ages as what they will do and will be so horrible and odious to everyone that the GOP will have to (finally) dump them or be unelectable. However the damage they will do will be horrible.
We LGBTI people watch and study them very carefully, so we know what they plan …and it isn’t just about LGBTI people though we are on the front line. It will be everyone hit, education, health, taxes, spending, women especially. On every front they are extreme right wingers.
As for foreign affairs well who was the last most religious right influenced president? Bush…. Afghanistan and Iraq anyone (etc).
The religious right, being so Israeli right wing influenced, has Iran in the target sights. Basically the US will do what Israel wants, even more so than it has done already (and that is an amazing thought).
I have to admit it was a work of political genius for Israel to get the RR onside, the influence on US policy has paid massive dividends. Who would have thought you could have got a bunch of anti-semitics onside like that. But they are now the most loyal defenders and supporters.
One of the best things to watch for is the religious right all starting to fight amongst each other, a little secret, they all hate one another. In opposition they have had a united front over LGBTI people, contraception and abortion , but that will disappear real soon. As it has done in the past.
In my researches finding a Protestant RR Australian person (part of a major US sponsored ‘evangelical’ organisation) , dobbing in so called ‘communist’ Catholics in the Philippines was almost hysterically funny to read, there is no loyalty amongst extreme religious people.
Each different part of the RR hates the other parts. Doing some research on Ben Carson, a 7th Day Adventist, I found all these other extreme ‘christians’ attacking him….
Bit like the biggest victims and targets of the wahabbi IS (etc) has been other Sunnis for not being extreme enough.
Oh the joys of a US ‘christian’ theocracy, it is going to be a wild ride.
As I was saying about fatuous emotional blackmail…
Yes, they managed to kick the can forward as far as this November. Had they not done so, it would most certainly have been enacted by now. Had Trump not won the election, it would also most certainly have passed in the lame-duck Congress. The pro-TPP forces in the Diet were loudly crowing about how they were going to steamroller over the opposition, so the TPP would have been a lock at that point.
“Trump stopped the TPP” is not logically equivalent to “Activists didn’t stop the TPP”. Stop insulting the readership’s intelligence by pretending that it is.
The Adminsitration were very blatantly whipping the Democrats into supporting the TPP, going so far as to call it critical to national security in the face of the terrifying China menace (note just how fast that party line flipped to “Trump is being mean to China!”…heh) so they clearly didn’t intend to take no for an answer. The Trump election put a stop to that nonsense.
@XFR
The Clintonite wankers Chomsky, Warren and Sanders were leading the poor rubes down to the veal pens while supposedly leading the fight against the TPP. None of them have any real power in government but they do serve the status quo as the heralds of the opposition without threatening anything. They fell in line dropping all their progressive posturing to support the Queen who called the TPP the Gold Standard and Chomsky is so senile now he can’t stop grumbling about the mistake made by the unwashed masses.
If the TPP was about to be rammed through Congress, that means that the Republicans want it. Guess what. They’re still in charge. Obama would not have vetoed it, Trump as President would. One hopes that he would veto any of the so-called free trade agreements, if Congress passed any. They are really surrenders of sovereignty to multi-national corporations, as now Senator Sessions knows.
The Democratic platform is anti-TPP, and Hillary dropped her support to it. If she had been elected, would the Republicans have rammed the TPP through in the lame duck session? My guess is that there was a good chance, to avoid a Hillary veto.
@Bill
The DNC platform committee rejected any language condemning the TPP which means they supported it as good corporate parasites would. Your speculation about an altered reality is based on two false narratives, one that Clinton wasn’t a liar and wouldn’t flip-flop on the Gold Standard TPP and that the republicans wouldn’t have had overwhelming support from the democrats to push this trash through.
It’s almost too funny for words that some of the alt-left folks here who’ve been hyper critical, parsing words and reading tea leaves and otherwise incoherently blathering for years upon years are all of a sudden signing “Hey, let’s give him a chance. Why can’t we all get along? Don’t obstruct. Give Peace a chance” songs. Very interesting…
I mean sure, the GOP leaders actually met and planned to obstruct Obama before he became POTUS and their mob, as purely as an expression of their economic anxiety, has been screaming Kenyan! Secret Muslim! at him and calling his wife a monkey for eight years but the real left should just roll over and play dead for Trump. Um…okay…sure.
@ks
You poor little snowflake, you should follow the sage advice given by your Kenyan Usurper to ‘look forward not back’ even if he used that advice as cover for not prosecuting war criminals and torturers.
It’s probably asking too much to expect you to understand the difference between the political kabuki and the actual sausage making in DC. While the theatre of the absurd raged Obama and the republicans worked together to bail out the Banksters, make the Bush tax cuts for the rich permanent, expand the surveillance state and make war, all hand in hand like moon-eyed lovers. All the rest was just chaff to keep the rubes distracted and it apparently worked very well on you.
The Clintonoids aren’t very good at this game and their pathetic Putin is Coming ploy along with the Soros/Stein recount just shows how inept, desperate and pathetic they are.
In today’s edition of “Drain The Swamp”, EPA “critic” Scott Pruitt, climate change denier and friend of Big Oil and Coal has been named to head that agency.
Meanwhile, the alt-left continues to be rationalize away and conjure up their usual Soros (unlike Putin he’s everywhere!) bogeymen and tired old talking points. Ah well, it’s some comfort that they will continue to be useless as they have always been and the Trump cheerleading has finally exposed them for the shallow hypocrites they are.
ks: “Hey, let’s give him a chance….”
But you know the real reason for that, because deep in their hearts they love the idea of all the ‘uppity wimmin especially those hairy lesbian feminists, niggahs, spicks, pooftahs and trannies’ being put in their place…
McConnell who is no friend of Trump or Clinton but who, as Senate Majority Leader, controls what comes up for consideration in the Senate had already said that the TPP would not be brought up in the lame duck session. He was responding to both corporate and popular opposition to it. Truth is many conservatives didn’t like it that much either because of the loss of sovereignty issues.
@Hugh
I didn’t take you for a rube who would believe what these parasites say before they actually vote on something. We heard a lot of the same rhetoric about fast-track but it sailed through paving the way for the TPP.
Many of the republicans and democrats were facing election and they had to react to the discontent at home over the TPP but only until the election was over when they could return to flip-flopping for another two to four years. This is where some people mistakenly believe that their activism actually produces results when they usually get lied to and then ignored when their representative shows who they actually represent. In this case that would be the Business Roundtable.
Mark: “Got any reliable evidence in support of this allegation?”
Where’s your evidence? That’s right, Mark, you have none.
The U.S. police have been killing blacks, mentally ill people, etc., by the hundreds without justification for years and years and years. Videos of such cold-blooded murder are not difficult to find on the internet to anyone who wishes to discover the truth. One website alone, Rawstory (www.rawstory.com), has dozens and dozens of articles about this and the chilling videos that prove it. Thousands of innocent people (generally, members of minority groups) are accused and locked up for crimes that they never commit. An example: About 50% of the inmates on death row in my state turned out to be innocent, after DNA tests were conducted. Our criminal system, like our system of government, is a mess. Under Trump, it will definitely get worse.
@ Lisa:
You are increasingly deranged.