As Ronaldus Maximus said, "The most terrifying words in the English language are 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
Well, perhaps you know more about Trump than I do. You state that he's a "proven liar." What kinds of things has he been caught lying about? Low character...well, he has said some things I kinda wish he hadn't when he wasn't President, such as grabbing women by the...so, if that's what you meant I would agree with that. I personally wish he'd kinda ease up on the whole Twitter thing. Like I said, I know he's no perfect "messiah," but he's been trying to do some things I'm ok with...banning people coming from countries known for terrorism, at least until ways can be devised to make sure they are innocent folks and don't have ties to terrorism, trying to reduce illegal immigration, though I'm not certain the "wall" will be 100% effective for various reasons, making NATO members pay more of the cost of our military alliance instead of making us pay the bulk of it, trying to figure out ways to help create jobs, though I know some factors are controlled by private enterprise and we can't expect government to come up with all the solutions for job growth, put more conservative judges on the Supreme Court so that we don't have a system of judges trying to legislate from the bench instead of judges ruling by the Constitution, he's trying to undo the whole Obamacare nightmare. I mean, I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Trump may not be perfect as a human being, but he's trying to take this country in a whole hell of a better direction than the "progressive left" would love to take this country. I say, "Go Trump!"
I know as much as I can about a candidate before I even consider voting for him. Shouldn't everybody? What kinds of things has he been caught lying about? Too many for me to even care about going into here when it's all out there for you to see for yourself. Google is your friend bro. Start with the libel suit that he brought against the biographer that wrote Trump Nation. Under oath Trump admitted to at least 30 lies about a various range of things. As a candidate he was notorious for giving as many as three different answers in a single say about specific issues. And on and on. I'll touch on some other points you brought up: Twitter: I've got no problem with his Twitter use. He can get his message directly to his millions of followers. Some of his Tweets are...a bit out there, but still, it's proven to be an effective tool and will change politics forever I think. Travel restrictions and Immigration: I agree with what he's trying to do there. Completely. The wall: It should have been built when the law was passed to build it back when Bush Jr was president. It's long past due and all ( repubs and dems) who cry about it and are trying to block it now have obviously put corporate interests ahead of their duties. Judges on the Supreme Court : Agreed. But it's not just the S.C. He'll be nominating a ton of judges to the lower courts as well and he'll be nominating judges that base their rulings on Constitution instead of legislating from the bench. I don't want conservative, liberal etc judges. I want judges that do what they're supposed to do and have as little political bias as possible. Obamacare: It's a total mess and needs fixing. Do I trust the republicans we have in office right now to fix it the right way? Nope. Not a bit because they aren't doing it for the right reasons - the people. But I hope they surprise me. Trump has supposedly already told them that he'll only sign the bill if it actually helps the American people and fixes things and I hope he sticks to it. Just to put it out there, I wanted Mike Huckabee as president. After it came down to either Hillary or Trump for me it really was a case of my voting against her instead of voting for him...and I still felt a bit slimy after I voted.
I had heard some negative things about Trump while he was campaigning, but, honestly, sometimes you hear rumors, he-said she-said scenarios, half-truths, outright lies, etc. So, sometimes it's hard to know what's true about somebody in a negative manner and what isn't. That said, if complete honesty in their entire life is required to vote for somebody, then nobody should be voted for. Including Huckabee. We ALL have lied or been dishonest about things in our lives and if you dug hard enough you'd eventually find dirt on EVERYBODY. I absolutely could not stand another progressive in office, so Hillary was INSTANTLY a no for me. I wish somebody who hasn't had as much controversy as Trump has had would have been elected, but here we are. Overall, I'm fairly satisfied with the things Trump is trying to accomplish.
There's a big difference in making a mistake or falling into sin and messing up with a lie and being habitual. Just saying. "but here we are." Yep. He is our duly elected president and I pray for a good outcome and for him and his administration. And in the end, and most importantly, I put my full trust and hope in God and not politics and whoever is our president. Truth is, America could totally fall apart and I could be forced to move to ...I don't know...Canada? Norway? Sweden? Scotland? England? ...Somewhere else and I'd still be just fine. I love my country but it doesn't define me or make me who I am. God does.
I hear you. But I also love my country and I really don't want to see it go to hell in a hand basket. I really wouldn't want to have to live anywhere else. I hope Trump is able to at least kick the progressive agenda in the gonads REALLY hard and slow it down greatly if not outright kill it in it's tracks. I guess time will tell.
But it's not just the "progressive agenda" that's been our problem as far as government goes. It's the establishment itself that includes dems, repubs and independents. I think it's great that Trump is canceling a ton of the exucutive orders that president Obama signed - that most definitely are part of the progressive agenda you mentioned- but the republican party needs a whole, whole lot of fixing too. Washington is broken in many ways bro and Trump's promises to fix it and make it work for the people again along with jobs, jobs, jobs,is what - many agree- got him elected. That's why dems and republicans are doing everything they can to stop him from being effective - It's not working by the way. He's accomplished some good things that media, even Fox News, barely even mention. But as I mentioned earlier he called them to war and now he has to fight the battles. Trade, taxes and healthcare - which is a huge part of our economy- will be a big part in the war. I hope that in the end we, the American people, win. So I hope and I pray.
Hey Brian! Good to have you! We tend to police ourselves around here pretty well, and we have managed to discuss many, many things freely and openly, without breaking virtual fellowship. It's been quite nice to be able to bounce off ideas and express thoughts freely without getting thumped over the head or served a beverage that I personally prefer iced and sweetened on my back porch, rather than in forced isolation until I can feel very sorry and agree to join the herd again after I say whatever the powers-that-be want to hear (usually some form of "you're right, I'm wrong"). They still let me hang out even tough I'm a bit of a heretic. I appreciate that.
As someone who served probably hundreds of gallons of that stuff in a virtual way and even banned quite a few people over the years I get the point. I'm not going to make any excuses for it or apologize for who I am and for what I've done because I believed I was in the right then and still believe it. And I'm really glad to be here. Thanks for the welcome.
I served a fair amount of coffee myself. I believe the vast majority of it was deserved although there were a few situations where I wasn't entirely happy with it. I have to say I did see an alarming amount of what was little more than browbeating of people whose only crime was to disagree with the powers that be (indeed one specific instance was a key catalyst in me leaving the team over there). But that aside, it's good to have you here
My concern is when tweets go out that look like they weren't particularly thought out it can diminish credibility. But on the other hand I'll wager that if Hillary had won and had a penchant for Twitter the same people fussing over Donald's tweets would be hailing Hillary's remarks. As a (legal) immigrant myself I really don't understand why some are so opposed to cracking down on illegal immigration. Yes, we can all come up with all sorts of reasons why poor Carlos can make more money picking cotton in Colorado than in Cancun but that's not the point. If we're going to justify breaking the law for personal benefit why stop at immigration? Why not justify gun runners and drug dealers because the poor dears are only trying to build a better life for themselves. And the folks who construct wildly complicated foreign blind trusts to avoid taxes, or simply work for cash in hand and - ahem - forget to mention it on their tax return? Who are we to tell them they can't have a better life? But I'll bet the people who want to protect Carlos the illegal immigrant from ICE would be the first to turn in a suspected tax evader. To me the wall seems like a colossal waste of money that will achieve little. It might stop the casual unlawful immigrants from crossing the river and disappearing into the southwestern states but those guys aren't really a problem. If they really want to live under the table, constantly looking over their shoulder and hoping nobody notices they are here illegally and deports them, we've got bigger fish to fry than spending untold billions in the hope they stop coming. The bigger problem is the Mr Bigs of the crime world who aren't likely to bother with things like swimming across rivers and walking for miles through the desert - they are the guys who will just load their $50m worth of cocaine into a private plane and fly over the wall, or buy up enough land and pay an army of lackeys to tunnel under the wall. I agree with this 100%. If it's acceptable for a government I like to put "friendly" judges in place it's equally acceptable for a government I don't like to put "friendly" judges in place. There's not much point having a constitution at all if it plays second fiddle to an endless stream of alternating judges who interpret the law according to their political leanings rather than what the constitution has to say. There's no situation so bad that government involvement can't make it worse It seems to me that Obamacare took a product people bought voluntarily, legislated it into a shape that nobody would ever buy voluntarily, then enacted further legislation to force people to buy it which (among other things) sent the price stratospheric, then fiddled with taxes-that-weren't-taxes to hand out public money to bring the price back down again. It's curious to look at marginal tax rates - it seems to me that at the lower end of the income scale anyone trying to set up in business for themselves faces a marginal tax rate in the region of 30% or more, based on 10% basic tax rate, plus 15% self-employment tax, plus the gradual reduction in premium tax credits for health insurance. I suppose only a government official could look to take $1 out of every $3 a small business owner made and then be truly surprised that some under-declared their income.
People along the border have been terrorized, kidnapped, raped and killed. Reports from Arizona have been especially bad. Is it just people trying to cross or drug gangs doing it? Doesn't matter. The fact that it happens is what matters. If American cannot protect it's own people and borders then why have them? I don't think anyone that has studied and looked into the situation believes that a wall alone will solve every problem there and completely stop illegal immigration. It won't and it can't but it will make a pretty big difference. Obamacare is imploding. The new bill being worked up, from what I've seen of it, is a joke. The reason why is that we've allowed health care to not be health care in America. We've allowed it to become a huge profitable business controlled by insurance companies. We need to look to Canada, Sweden, France and many other places that have actual heath care that's affordable and benefits people. I'm all about the free market in most cases but it's insurance companies and the way they've driven costs through the roof in a multitude of ways that's killing it. It's like a snake that's trying to eat itself. We need to just cut the head off and look for real solutions not bandaids.
I voluntarily left the team myself for reasons I'll never go into here or anywhere else except to say that burnout played a huge part in it --but believe me I do understand what you're saying. I still love BF though and I still love and respect the people I was on the team with and it's members. I'm sorry if my saying that might ruffle some feathers here but like Popeye I yam what I yam.
That is, of course, only part of the sentence. The rest is "myself to all of your worldly belongings." of course this last part is rarely stated out loud.
Ummmm...not sure Canada, England, Sweden, etc. are good models for healthcare in America. From what I understand, lots of people get turned down for things they really need, like surgeries, or they have to wait ridiculous amounts of time to be seen for things, including routine things that we get seen for rather quickly here.
I'm not saying adopt their exact plans I'm saying we need to see what's actually working for them - look at the best parts- and try and get some better ideas about how to do things here. You've got to admit what we've got isn't working and it sure seems like the plan they're working on now won't be any better because because they aren't look at the core problem. It's like continually treating symptoms of a disease and pretending that curing it just isn't an option.
Better, but good? There are significant problems with the 'free' healthcare like the kind you have in mind.