Is it so clear that having at least one female president wouldn’t be a positive thing given that it might make it more normal for us to see women in positions of power and it might be encouraging for many women? It certainly seems plausible to me. If true, it might provide some reason, however weak, to vote for Clinton she has a vag.
Overseeing travelers from foreign countries is different from controlling immigration by race or religion. The former is done in China because of its political system. The latter is not done in the US because of its concept of equality under the law. If Trump proposes to treat people differently according to their race or religion, you can say that he is a proponent of a policy based on racism.
I certainly think Trump’s stance on Russia is preferable to Clinton’s. He also has received at this point much less campaign funding than Clinton (opensecrets.org is your friend). However, these are to my knowledge his only strengths. To me, the clinching factor, other than the fact that Trump is a buffoon, is Trump’s stance on climate change. He says it is a Chinese conspiracy cooked up to destroy American manufacturing. In 2016, this is a dangerous and stupid belief, and especially so when it is held by the president of the USA.
How is it any different? Does your country provide the same visa waivers and tourist eligibility to a modern advanced European nation as it does to an impoverished nation? Probably not. The harsh truth is there is no “equality under the law” when it comes to immigration. Any advanced nation that truly instituted an “equality under the law” immigration policy to every global citizen would quickly find itself swamped and overwhelmed by economic refugees. Immigration has excluded people and set quotas from the beginning of time.
Donald Trump never mentioned race as a factor when it comes to immigration: And no, Mexican isn’t a race. There are thousands of immigrants of all mosaics who come here legally and become citizens everyday, including Mexican. I think the overwhelming majority of Americans celebrate that. And yes, there is a virulent brand of religion being practiced by a small group of people in Muslim countries that advocates for the killing of innocent civilians and the overthrow of western societies. We have to be vigilant in ensuring that any immigrant coming from that portion of that world doesn’t subscribe to any of those beliefs. America opens its arms to everyone of different faiths and beliefs, but the adherence to the ideology of jihad and the subjugation of women and gays isn’t a belief that is welcome here. The wife of the man that recently shot up San Bernandino slipped through immigration screening, so we have to temporarily suspend immigration from that portion of the world to beef up the procedures, especially since ISIS is bragging on their websites how successful they are in infiltrating the refugee programs. Seeing what is going on in Europe now, I don’t think that is an idle threat. America has enough of its own gun nuts and home grown crazies. We don’t need to import more problems.
The left plays identity politics way more than is warranted these days. That’s the same reason Hillary brands herself as an outsider because she is a woman, despite the fact that she lived in the White House for 8 years.
I think Trump is incredibly uncaring about the choice of words he uses to describe people,he likes to be controversial for publicity reasons. I don’t believe he is necessarily a racist though.
Illegal immigrants did break the law and laws should be enforced, but depicting them as dangerous and instilling fear in the public where there really should not be is being a demagogue.
If they think a wall is really worth the spending… well, there’s still the immigrants who overstay their VISA and there’s ways of getting over and around a wall.
Trump’s populist message allying himself with the workers who have been disadvantaged by NAFTA has made him an unlikely candidate for the Republicans, but I think it has made him effective. Many former Bernie supporters & independents who want protectionism and would favor less outsourcing of labor back him because of this. Hillary Clinton has left out this demographic as many people know she has supported the TPP in the past, and her husband’s administration ratified NAFTA.
I find myself capable of being talked out of voting for Hillary, and I’d vote for a Gary Johnson (whom I rather like), but voting for Trump is hard for me. If he wins it will be because of Hillary’s many flaws.
Trump on Russia and Ukraine
Excerpt from speech by Donald Trump at CPAC, March 6, 2014.
“I was in Moscow a couple of ago, own the Miss Universe Pageant and they treated me so great. Putin even sent me a beautiful present with a beautiful note. I spoke to all of his people. You look at what he’s doing with President Obama, he’s like toying with him.
So he has the Olympics, the day after the Olympics, he starts with Ukraine. The day after. How smart? You know, he didn’t want to do it during the Olympics. Boom. The day after. So our athletes leave, we all leave, and the day after. And you know, when he goes in and takes Crimea, he’s taking the heart and soul because that’s where all the money is. I was surprised. I heard that the other day. They were saying, most of the wealth comes right from that area.
That’s the area with the wealth, so that means the rest of Ukraine will fall and it’s predicted to fall fairly quickly… When you see what they are doing in Ukraine, it’s just a question of time.”
Trump is unfit to be president. Hillary is just dishonest, constantly playing identity politics (like the glass ceiling line when women leaders throughout the world are fairly common…Korea, UK, Germany, Scotland, at least 3 provinces in Canada and I don’t know where else), and lots more wrong with her. But she speaks calmly and makes sense. She can work with others.
But Trump is worse, worse because he is clueless,completely amoral, unpredictable, unable to control himself, vindictive, hyper sensitive to criticism, completely disrespectful of others, dishonest, (at least as dishonest as Hillary), a real estate speculator and promoter who survived because of lenient US bankruptcy laws. He is not mellowing or changing. What you see and hear is what you will get. Now he claims the election will be rigged just because he thinks he will lose. Much in life is unfair, but it doesn’t mean it is rigged. The system that enabled him to become so rich is also unfair, unfair to his suppliers and creditors who got genuinely ripped off when he walked away with millions. But that is the system and those are the rules.
He would not be able to build a wall. He will not be in a position to impose “we win you lose” trade terms on US trading partners “all of whom are ripping the US off” according to him. In fact the US does quite well at defending the interests of its various industrial lobby groups, as I have experienced in the lumber spats between the US and Canada, where the US lumber producers and forest owners outspent the US home builders and distributors and successfully lobbied to put an export tax/quota on Canadian lumber. The bloodiest terrorist attacks in Europe have been committed by European citizens, not recent refugees, although some of the latter have also been involved. Gaining the support and cooperation of Muslims, Mexico and other foreign governments, and a variety of stake holders and politicians in the US, (yes including the “elite” as if Trump represent " the common people") is going to bring more results than his bullying grandstanding.
But then I don’t vote down there.
We had a republican debate a few months ago in which trump was particularly frightening with his rhetoric. The number one google search in the country directly after the debate finished was “how to immigrate to canada from the u.s.”
Putin and Trump have similar personalities and would seem to get along pretty well. Putin and Obama openly detest each other and it shows. If Hillary gets in, relations will become even worse as Hillary is hell bent on thinking Putin leaked her emails and is trying to bring her down. Hillary speaks calmly and makes sense, but if you look at her comments after the downing of Malaysia Airlines, her rhetoric towards Russia is very provocative and would escalate tensions. And for what? Would hot war skirmishes in the US and Russia, especially in the Middle East, be good for global stability. I’d rather focus on those foreign governments who support and cooperate with us to our face and stab us in the back by funding 9/11 attacks.
I’m going to vote for myself this fall. Wish me luck.
I’ll write you in.
After leaving college in 1979, bin Laden went to Pakistan, joined Abdullah Azzam and used money and machinery from his own construction company to help the mujahideen resistance in the Soviet war in Afghanistan. He later told a journalist: "I felt outraged that an injustice had been committed against the people of Afghanistan." Under CIA's Operation Cyclone from 1979 to 1989, the United States and Saudi Arabia provided $40 billion worth of financial aid and weapons to almost 100,000 mujahideen and "Afghan Arabs" from forty Muslim countries through Pakistan's ISI. Bin Laden met and built relations with Hamid Gul, who was a three-star general in the Pakistani army and head of the ISI agency. Although the United States provided the money and weapons, the training of militant groups was entirely done by the Pakistani Armed Forces and the ISI.
Just in case you didn’t know, the person who plotted the 9/11 attacks was supported by the US in the Soviet–Afghan War. (The above excerpt is from Wikipedia.)
You wrote, “Putin and Trump have similar personalities and would seem to get along pretty well.” I think that you are not only opportunistic but also too optimistic.
Putin was a KGB foreign intelligence officer for 16 years, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before retiring in 1991 to enter politics in his native Saint Petersburg. He moved to Moscow in 1996 and joined President Boris Yeltsin's administration, rising quickly through the ranks and becoming Acting President on 31 December 1999, when Yeltsin resigned.(Wikipedia)
A vote for Trump is a vote for oligarchy. If you want us to be more like Russia, then Trump is definitely your man.
@Steve
“…But then I don’t vote down there…”
Pity, you could do a write in and vote for…Noam Chomsky?
You are correct. The Afghan militants who were armed by the America neo-conservatives in the Cold War against the Soviet Union turned around and attacked us. Hillary, now being advised by the same neo-conservatives, wants to turn around and escalate the new Cold War by arming the Syrian militants. Sounds like history repeating itself. Why in god’s name are we arming Syrian ISIS militants? Trump is right. We don’t even know who we are giving money and weapons to. I am tired of fighting stupid proxy wars with Russia that destabilize the Middle East and lead to lots of suffering around the world. There seem to be a lot of career generals and foreign policy establishment types in both Moscow and Washington that don’t want to lose influence and want to keep this demented game continuing.
In my post above, I was really referring to one of our so-called Muslim “allies” Saudi Arabia, which was recently exposed as having directly funded the 9/11attacks.
You bring up Boris Yeltsin, but I don’t see what you are getting at. Boris Yeltsin was drunk half the time and instituted very many “shock therapies” that were a disaster and led to a lot of suffering for the Russian people. Putin is no doubt no saint, but much better than a weak Boris Yeltsin.
Cool. I’ll make you VP.