Trump is starting to deliver

[Crazy Eddie]

It would be easier on your part (and more honest) if you just said "Hillary Clinton."

Clinton isn't the only one in the establishment elite. There are a hell of a lot of Senators, Representatives, and government officials in department level posts who became wealthy through influence provided by their positions. Its called crony capitalism - providing government favoritism for self enrichment.

... meanwhile, our president elect just invited foreign tycoons over to his palace to negotiate opening new hotels in their countries.

You can't make this shit up. He's like a fucking batman villain come to life.

 

[Deepak]

... meanwhile, our president elect just invited foreign tycoons over to his palace to negotiate opening new hotels in their countries.

You can't make this shit up. He's like a fucking batman villain come to life.

Nah, DC villains are known for their cunning and machinations.

He's more of a President Bob Booth.

 

[funinspace]

OTOH, most of those people from congress and other parts of the government including the fed are part of the elite establishment. Many of them do have extreme wealth as well, but that is not what places them in that group. It's their willingness to sell out the country that places them in the group. The key to knowing this is people who had nothing before a life of government, now have extreme wealth, yet had no other means of getting extreme wealth except from the government position that they held. Voters were smart enough to figure some of this out during the last election.

What a crack up, these 'smart enough' voters put back US 97% of their representatives and 90% of their US Senators.
See: https://www.opensecrets.org/overview/reelect.php

The Repugs will not pass a large infrastructure bill paid for by Federal spending. They might work some deal with private investment deals. If you think this will work and actually help cities/states, I've got some beech front property for you in Arizona at a great price and will only increase in value... But the Repugs will probably work to strip out union rules that are usually required for big projects. That should help.....someone.

Stripping down regulation on coal will not help the coal industry as long as natural gas prices are cheap.

We will see how starting trade wars will turn out...if he actually tries to tear up existing deals.

Spending more money on the military-complex primarily benefits those elite establishment types; and is about the worst form of a jobs program after digging and filling holes.

An aggressive anti-Hispanic policy will probably raise food prices, as Americans generally don't want to pick fruit and vegies, even when wages are raised quite a bit.

I'm an American as well, and my family will probably do quite fine under trump, as we do feed into that trickle stream. Good luck believing in salvation from a billionaire huckster who abused the H-2 visa system to hire servers, housekeepers, and cooks at his hyper expensive resorts.

 

[Speakpigeon]

I... I can't tell if it's satire.

Everything that was said in the OP is true. Why would you have cause to think it was satire?

Whether you like it or not 50% of the voters wanted Trump, including many women and non whites. They wanted him for the economy and I think they were right.

Less than fifty percent.

Let's never forget it was less that fifty percent.

It's also dubious that those who voted Trump thought the economy would get better. Rather, they hoped they would have preferential treatment whatever the state of the economy under Trump and without consideration for the long-term prospects, both in terms of the economy and in geopolitical terms.

And indeed in many ways we seem to be going back to the fifties, possibly even before that.

Let's prey.
EB

 

[Underseer]

Trump has no effect on Ford's decision. Please try to be less gullible.

 

[Elixir]

And indeed in many ways we seem to be going back to the fifties,

Yeah - 1550s. America will be little more than a bleak provincial Russian outpost by the time Trumples gets done with it.

 

[Speakpigeon]

And indeed in many ways we seem to be going back to the fifties,

Yeah - 1550s. America will be little more than a bleak provincial Russian outpost by the time Trumples gets done with it.

Let's not overstate the case. The president has limited powers in the U.S., at least over the long term. What he might do against the will of Congress would probably be undone by the next president. Starting a futile war is also a possibility but I think there are limits to what the Establishment and people in the security service would be prepared to contend with. I think trump is not mad or idiotic. I think he has very serious personality problems and I pity those who will have to restrain him somehow but I'm not worried to the point of changing planet. He is probably going to do some damage but that won't be a first for a U.S. president. Possibly it will also show to the American people that it's becoming rather urgent to solve at least some of what is seriously wrong in the country. Hitler came to power for a reason beside the fact that he had particular "habilities". So did Trump. I wouldn't know how to solve the problem but it better be solved or things are likely to get worse, possibly far worse, before they could get better. Trump is more of a symptom than the fundamental problem.
EB

 

[RavenSky]

Yeah - 1550s. America will be little more than a bleak provincial Russian outpost by the time Trumples gets done with it.

Let's not overstate the case. The president has limited powers in the U.S., at least over the long term. What he might do against the will of Congress would probably be undone by the next president.

He has a congressional majority who will be behind the worst of his decisions

Starting a futile war is also a possibility but I think there are limits to what the Establishment and people in the security service would be prepared to contend with.

Bush/Cheney

I think trump is not mad or idiotic. I think he has very serious personality problems and I pity those who will have to restrain him somehow but I'm not worried to the point of changing planet.

He is a climate change denier appointing climate change deniers and backed by climate change deniers. He, more than any previous president, is in a position to change (harm) the planet

He is probably going to do some damage but that won't be a first for a U.S. president. Possibly it will also show to the American people that it's becoming rather urgent to solve at least some of what is seriously wrong in the country. Hitler came to power for a reason beside the fact that he had particular "habilities". So did Trump. I wouldn't know how to solve the problem but it better be solved or things are likely to get worse, possibly far worse, before they could get better. Trump is more of a symptom than the fundamental problem.
EB

I think Trump is the "far worse". I just hope we can recover.

 

[Speakpigeon]

Let's not overstate the case. The president has limited powers in the U.S., at least over the long term. What he might do against the will of Congress would probably be undone by the next president.

He has a congressional majority who will be behind the worst of his decisions

No and that's my point. The republican majority in Congress will be behind some, possibly many, of the very bad things he seems to want but not behind anything that he is going to ask for. They may not be Ok for the worst.

Starting a futile war is also a possibility but I think there are limits to what the Establishment and people in the security service would be prepared to contend with.

Bush/Cheney

Again, no. The war in Iraq came because Cheney thought it was a good thing and prevailed over Bush. I doubt very much Bush couldn't have made that decision on his own (and don't forget Tony Blair who push for it too). The situation seems very different today. I accept that Trump may be easily pushed beyond his own imagination and will in some cases but I don't think he could be pushed to start a war that he is not somehow personally convinced should be started.

I think trump is not mad or idiotic. I think he has very serious personality problems and I pity those who will have to restrain him somehow but I'm not worried to the point of changing planet.

He is a climate change denier appointing climate change deniers and backed by climate change deniers. He, more than any previous president, is in a position to change (harm) the planet

You are giving too much credentials to what he said during the campaign. The guy is a pathological liar!

He is probably going to do some damage but that won't be a first for a U.S. president. Possibly it will also show to the American people that it's becoming rather urgent to solve at least some of what is seriously wrong in the country. Hitler came to power for a reason beside the fact that he had particular "habilities". So did Trump. I wouldn't know how to solve the problem but it better be solved or things are likely to get worse, possibly far worse, before they could get better. Trump is more of a symptom than the fundamental problem.
EB

I think Trump is the "far worse". I just hope we can recover.

Trump is just one more problem in a long list of them. He is going to make things worse but I hope Democrats are not going to make up a story that things were just going so nicely before Trump came in and smashed everything.

That being said, he is so erratic and untrustworthy that nobody can predict what he's really going to do. Probably not even him.

One maybe good outcome might be that the rest of the world may become a little less accepting of U.S. foreign policies. Europe certainly has its work cut out for the next four years at least.

A very negative outcome is the damage already done to the attractivity democracy might have had on leaders and ordinary people around the world. There's what looks like a mad man in Washington and he has been "properly" elected, somehow.

Another problem is that the whole world is now his playground. There are so many things he is likely to try to change that it could make the whole world dangerously unstable.
EB

 

[RavenSky]

He has a congressional majority who will be behind the worst of his decisions

No and that's my point. The republican majority in Congress will be behind some, possibly many, of the very bad things he seems to want but not behind anything that he is going to ask for. They may not be Ok for the worst.

"Worst" in a very subjective term. I don't see anything he claims to want that a Republican-controlled congress won't pass.

reduce/eliminate reproductive rights for women - check
reduce/eliminate financial controls on Wall Street - check
reduce/eliminate the Affordable Care Act - check
reduce/eliminate environmental protections - check
reduce/eliminate research and development of alternative energy sources - check
privatize education - check
privatize Medicare/Medicaid - check

I'm sure others can come up with even more examples, but I think the point is clear - whatever Trump's motivations, most of what he wants to do as emperor is supported by his congress

 

[RavenSky]

Starting a futile war is also a possibility but I think there are limits to what the Establishment and people in the security service would be prepared to contend with.

Bush/Cheney

Again, no. The war in Iraq came because Cheney thought it was a good thing and prevailed over Bush. I doubt very much Bush couldn't have made that decision on his own (and don't forget Tony Blair who push for it too). The situation seems very different today. I accept that Trump may be easily pushed beyond his own imagination and will in some cases but I don't think he could be pushed to start a war that he is not somehow personally convinced should be started.

Have you been watching the same Trump I have? For starters, he is about the most easily manipulative man I've ever seen. All anyone needs to do is play of his vanity and/or his greed. Want him to start a war? Tell him there is money in it for him or that the country's president made a mean joke at his expense.

You are giving too much credentials to what he said during the campaign. The guy is a pathological liar!

You are counting on a pathological liar to NOT be destructive for this country?

Regardless, you have missed the most critical part of his mental illness. He is a narcissist. His lies are in service to his narcissism, and his history shows that he is also a misogynistic, racist bully. Every item I noted above is part of his narcissism, misogyny, racism, and/or bullying. He wasn't lying about those, and he has a congress able to back him for their own reasons (usually religious fundamentalism)

 

[BH]

I'd watch real closely who trump appoints to be heads of his intelligence agencies like the FBI and so forth. I am afraid he is going to use the government to collect dirt on his business enemies and use the information for leverage during and after he leaves office. He'll get more deals and concessions since most of them would not want a bad spotlight put on them. I am sure there are plenty of private investigators that would be willing to claim they found out stuff on their own he in fact had forwarded to them.

I'm sure it has and does happen already. I just think he'll shamelessly do it.

You know, I read a book years ago that had a thesis it was J. Edgar Hoover who actually held the country together during the depresssion and even through the fifties and sixties. There were all kinds of people who had different desires for this country that would have torn it apart but he kept in them check by blackmailing them and forcing them to somewhat work for the common good. Hoover was what you could call an evil good guy. The author went on to say the reason everything went to shit the last thirty years is because when he died the wrong people got his files and used it for their own evil purposes. I don't know if I buy it but thought I'd throw it out there if anyone wanted to comment.

 

[BH]

Regardless, you have missed the most critical part of his mental illness. He is a narcissist. His lies are in service to his narcissism, and his history shows that he is also a misogynistic, racist bully. Every item I noted above is part of his narcissism, misogyny, racism, and/or bullying. He wasn't lying about those, and he has a congress able to back him for their own reasons (usually religious fundamentalism)

I worked for someone like this for a couple of years. She would lie about stuff she did not need to lie about and telling the truth would have been better. She would say the company is holding a contest and whoever sell so much of "x" would get so many dollars in gift cards as a reward. The when you do it the gift card was only half what she said. She was also an alley cat sexually speaking and only allowed people corrupt with pasts to be her immediate assistants as managers. She and her husband were both sued for fraud by her husband's former employer and he was convicted. The lawyer I talked to about her said they (husband's employer) went after her too but I can't remember if she was convicted or not. Lawyer told me lots of other things about her. The sad thing is that people like her are so morally stunted if you were to threaten to hurt one of her kids if it were able to be done in a legal way she would rather see harm come to her kids than she back down and do what was right. Its like she feels a reversed moral sense it is a duty to do what other people think is wrong.

I had known who Donald Trump was for thirty years but never really listend to him or followed what he was up to. I did start watching him when he was running in the primary races and knew we were in deep shit because of how gullible our public is. I also knew that Clinton was going to have big problems contrary to what most other people were thinking. He literally can lie without shame. The first thing that came to mind was that he was the male version of the woman I worked for and had no concience whatsoever. He can make up any lie to fit the moment and by the time you can prove it's true he's lying it does no good.

 

[Trausti]

Narcissist or not, when's the last time an American president actually stood up for the American worker? Certainly not the current one.

 

[laughing dog]

Narcissist or not, when's the last time an American president actually stood up for the American worker? Certainly not the current one.

If you are referring to deeds, not words, then neither has Mr. Trump.

 

[Horatio Parker]

Narcissist or not, when's the last time an American president actually stood up for the American worker? Certainly not the current one.

1k jobs is chump change. Obama saved a million jobs with the auto bailout. I bet Trump won't get anywhere near that.

In fact, if he privatizes and deregulates as much as is being indicated, not only will there not be jobs, but everyone's costs will rise.

 

[Ford]

Narcissist or not, when's the last time an American president actually stood up for the American worker? Certainly not the current one.

And if you believe that Trump actually cares about the American worker, I've got some Trump Steaks I'd like to sell you.

 

[RavenSky]

Narcissist or not, when's the last time an American president actually stood up for the American worker?

certainly not Trump

 

[Will Wiley]

I'd watch real closely who trump appoints to be heads of his intelligence agencies like the FBI and so forth.

One worry is that Obama has a assassination list. He decides who get;s killed by drone. Hardly anyone complained about "goofy" Obama having this power. After all Obama is such a good guy.

Now Trump will have that power

 

[funinspace]

I'd watch real closely who trump appoints to be heads of his intelligence agencies like the FBI and so forth.

One worry is that Obama has a assassination list. He decides who get;s killed by drone. Hardly anyone complained about "goofy" Obama having this power. After all Obama is such a good guy.

Now Trump will have that power

If one could search in the archives, one would find the below train of thought many times, as I have called Pres. Obama the Drone Warrior in Chief often. From May 2014:

We now have had two terms of a president reviewing presidential kill lists, and our drones flying with impunity over multiple government-less or cooperative nations that we have gotten into bed with. Now we have had administrations from both parties supporting the much increased internal spying upon our people. And the spy apparatus is better funded than during the cold war. I can't wait for when they feel they need to justify keeping their tens of billions of funded rice bowls from shrinking. The CIA has been the shipping company and purchasing agent for Syrian terrorists, funded by a murky mix of ME nations (the list of nations probably includes Saudi Arabia and Qatar at least). Reminds me a lot of the whole Iran-Contra affair, but for the Congressional law outlawing aiding the Contras. And who knows if the CIA was keeping various Congressional committees informed this time or not. Maybe we’ll get a better understanding of just how dirty US hands were regarding Syria, in 10-20 years…

I absolutely don't like the fact that now we have Trump as soon to be president, with both parties having presidents that have set this ugly precedent for him to play with. What could possibly go wrong...

I'm sure NSA appointee, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, of "This is Islamism, it is a vicious cancer inside the body of 1.7 billion people on this planet and it has to be excised." fame, will provide a well balanced approach to the presidential kill list.