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Politics & The CIC/Prez


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I have sometimes describe myself as an Eisenhower Republican - tax the rich, distrust the military-industrial complex, recognize that the dollars spent on the military mean that more people remain hungry or sick, let unions flourish, and put someone like Earl Warren on the Supreme Court.

Others might describe me in different terms. But it's just a label.

In any event, I am not a Hillary fan - people who take $675,000 to speak to Goldman Sachs are going to have to work to convince me that they are serious about addressing the growing disparity in wealth. And Hillary has too much history - Iraq, DOMA, NAFTA, Glass-Steagall - to make me trust her.

It's hard to imagine nominating someone with as high disapproval ratings as she has - but that seems to be where things are headed. I only hope the Republicans do the same and nominate Trump. Trump could spend $675,000 on a present for Melania just to let people know that Hillary should have held out for more.

The candidate that scares me most is Cruz.

I am glad Bernie ran and will vote for him when the time cones regardless of his chances. But I wish Warren had done so.

When it comes down to the general election, I live in a state where I do not have to worry about voting pragmatically - although that does not mean that Andrew Basiago will be my candidate.

With the Supreme Court on the line, I suppose I would hold my nose if I had to vote for Hilllary.

So maybe I am an FDR Democrat - the kind of politician that could tell opponents that he welcomed their opposition and urge his supporters to organize to make him do the right thing. I told my daughter that it's been a long time since a true Drmocrat ran. I suspect it won't happen this year after the primaries are over.
 
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If you are an Eisenhower Republican, the closest matches are Obama and Clinton. Despite all the claims of how left-wing they are, when you look at their stances on issues compared to Eisenhower, you'll be surprised. They are probably to the right of Eisenhower on some matters. That's how crazy our political world is these days.
 
Gene Steinberg said:
If you are an Eisenhower Republican, the closest matches are Obama and Clinton. Despite all the claims of how left-wing they are, when you look at their stances on issues compared to Eisenhower, you'll be surprised. They are probably to the right of Eisenhower on some matters. That's how crazy our political world is these days.
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There are no close matches - other than Bernie. Obama and Clinton have not taxed the rich to even begin to approach what we had under Ike. They both have not hesitated to spend money on the military. And the wealth disparity continues to grow - which is not good for democracy (especially under Citizens United), the middle class, or the long term viability of this country.

But yes, they are not only to the right of Ike on many issues, but Nixon (who supported single payer health care). People who describe either Obama or the Clintons as "left" or "socialist" make me think the educational system has failed. Which gives rise to Trump as a corporate populist.
 
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Obama actually succeeded in ending the Bush tax cut on those with incomes of $400K or more. Not enough, but that all started in the Reagan administration, where the greatest wealth transfer — from poor and middle class to rich — began.
 
Gene Steinberg said:
Obama actually succeeded in ending the Bush tax cut on those with incomes of $400K or more. Not enough, but that all started in the Reagan administration, where the greatest wealth transfer — from poor and middle class to rich — began.
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I agree. Particularly about how Reganomics transformed this country into a debtor nation and began the war on the middle class. But the reason I go back to Ike (other than to note how far the debate has shifted) is that he approved a 91% marginal tax rate on the rich. It averaged above 70% until Reagan slashed it to 28%. Perhaps the only time I agreed with the elder Bush was when he described it as "voodoo economics."

It's more complicated than that of course. But it's a starting point.
 
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It's about people falling for a scam that made them poorer. They still imagine that people who don't give a whit about them are the best to vote for.
 
Once the right wing was able to buy up and micro-manage mainstream media, especially AM radio, the lantern and pitchfork bacchanalia was on.
 
I don't know folks, the more the establishment class (both democrats and republicans) dislike Trump and desperately want to kill his campaign, the more respect I have for the guy. He may not be a very likable person and can be brash at times but I think that he connects with a lot of people who are sick and tired of the liars in Washington. I've listened to him talk on several occasions and I really agree with a lot of points he was making. Maybe he's doing something right if he was able to piss so many people off. Maybe we need a bit of a shakeup in Washington... I mean, look at where they've gotten us over the past 16 years.
 
As Sue mentoned in her recent appearance It's isn't really about Trump though is it ? It's about what he brings out in a segment of our population. you know what i mean the almost fanatical and in some cases rabid followers. He's a populist, that's all. He's every bit as polarizing as Hillary Clinton is even within his own party (whatever that one is) If his Party is trying to get him kicked out , to me that doesn't bode well for any deal making he proclaims to be a master at. He's is a master at getting his name in the headlines.

I wonder at times how many of these people who appear at his appearences really are put upon or just feel it because someone told them so. It may not be a fair question or even quantifiable (spl?) but speaking for myself , i live paycheck to paycheck, can't afford to take any meaningful vacation, live in a city chock full of illegal immigrants and you would have to pour acid in my eyes to get me to vote for Donald, and there are some people out there who think i've got it realatively easy and i probably do to some, the point is if things stay the way the are come the second tuesday in november i'll be casting my vote for an independant, green or libertarian...i'm a registered libertarian...than i would for Clinton or Trump. I don't tend to vote along party lines as any political affliation involves a little give and take and like most anybody else even though it would be nice to have a candidate who is lock step with me in everything i believe in, in the end i just want someone who has proven to be a respected manager, not an agitator/divider. In order to vote you have to give yourself a label and libertarian seemed to be the closest that i could identify myself with but I will vote Libertarian only when neither of the "mainstream canidates" are acceptable to me. Right now the only person in the headlines i can see myself voting for is Kasich.

Here's a lovely little story that sort of illustrates my concerns about Trumpophiles©™®

High School Basketball Fans Chant 'Trump' to Heckle Opponents - Breitbart
 
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Although i have always been a grounded and psychologically healthy person i went through a very bad period a couple of weeks ago and i think it affected my sleep and i was insomniactic (?) for the past couple of weeks.

Looking back i'm quite certain any anxiety/stress i was feeling was mostly based on the Trump/Clinton headlines and i made the mistake of watching the academy awards for the first time in at least 20 years because i wanted to see how Chris Rock handled the #oscarssowhite hoohah and there was several things about watching that that bothered me way more than it should and i think i was already primed to go off the tracks a bit because of Hillary and the Donald.
 
truthseeker said:
I don't know folks, the more the establishment class (both democrats and republicans) dislike Trump and desperately want to kill his campaign, the more respect I have for the guy. He may not be a very likable person and can be brash at times but I think that he connects with a lot of people who are sick and tired of the liars in Washington. I've listened to him talk on several occasions and I really agree with a lot of points he was making. Maybe he's doing something right if he was able to piss so many people off. Maybe we need a bit of a shakeup in Washington... I mean, look at where they've gotten us over the past 16 years.
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This guy didn't get to be who he is by laying his cards out on the table and playing by straightforward rules. He is not outside of the establishment. He is the establishment.
 
boomerang said:
This guy didn't get to be who he is by laying his cards out on the table and playing by straightforward rules. He is not outside of the establishment. He is the establishment.
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He's a very shrewd businessman... yes, but how is he part of the political establishment? At what point did he actually hold a political office?
 
i don't know if he's part of any establishment anymore than anybody else is. if so then nearly everybody is part of the establishment. I agree he is a shrewd businessman but i don't necessarily agree with the thought now that businessmen would make good political leaders, at least not all of them.

I do think that the business world needs the attributes that people like Donald (and Larry Ellison of whom i am reminded off) these attributes which can be a positive in the businessworld can be a negative in other ways.

Mind you i'm not a sociologist or psychologists but money aside ( a powerful attraction indeed) these type of people due to their drive and ego get things done but run roughshod all over personal relationships and it takes a pretty compliant person to form a bond with these guys, and lets face it part of the political process is not just being an obnoxious bastard but by forming a personal bond. Donald keeps talking about making a deal but what real deals has he made of late other than getting his name up everywhere. his development deals as far as building things have dissappeared. Many buildings that have his name on them were after the fact, that is he didn't build them but he's shrewd enought to know and to point out to developers his name is gold.
 
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Gene Steinberg said:
He was part of the system of businesspeople giving huge sums of money to politicians for favors.
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Like to Hillary Clinton?
Unfortunately giving money to politicians is part of doing business, especially in NY. I think everybody understands that the system is corrupt and you gotta grease the politicians if you want to get things done, especially when you run billion dollar operations like Trump. I don't hold it against him if that's something he had to do. If you think this is bad in US, try doing business in some of the European countries.
 
Anybody else see that old fart redneck Trump supporter sucker punch that black Trump protester and then the police jumped on the Black guy who got assaulted while leaving?

For 2016 I guess we can expect security guards at all the polling places just don't let on you didn't vote for Trump if you value your health.
 
Trump, that is to say his sycophantic followers, are pretty much handing the keys to the white house to Hillary. Not too surprising given that Trump was(is?) a Clinton supporter.
 
I can't understand why the emails are a non issue. .if there was nothing to it why is she being investigated by the FBI? A clinton aide was given immunity. .the storage of classified data on an unsecured server is a FELONY

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