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Author Topic: Trump II  (Read 918120 times)

Schewe

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Re: Trump II
« Reply #140 on: February 08, 2017, 12:04:53 am »

You can gripe all you want but he won the election.

Yep...but that doesn't mean I have to like it and roll over and play dead for 4 years...

That's why I'm taking an active and aggressive approach to work to resist the changes Trump is trying to make. I'm going to take a proactive approach to help bring about an Alt-Majority grassroots level change for the midterm elections. While taking over the House is unlikely, regaining control of the Senate is doable if we can get people off their asses and vote.

If you are a US citizen of voting age, check out this url to see what you can do to work towards regaining control of Congress.

INDIVISIBLE
A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR RESISTING THE TRUMP AGENDA
Former congressional staffers reveal best practices for making Congress listen.

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All the attacks are pretty meaningless and are just sour grapes.

Hum, so is it an attack to simply tell the truth?

Point out any falsehoods I have stated and I will appolgize and correct it (something that I might point out Trump never does–oh wait, was that another attack? Sorry :~)
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Trump II
« Reply #141 on: February 08, 2017, 12:16:13 am »

... Point out any falsehoods I have stated and I will appolgize and correct it...

It is not about falsehoods, in the sense of false facts. It is about your interpretation of those facts that constitutes your opinions. And while I might accept your facts, I disagree with almost every interpretation you made.

Schewe

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Re: Trump II
« Reply #142 on: February 08, 2017, 12:59:44 am »

And while I might accept your facts, I disagree with almost every interpretation you made.

So, while you accept that Trump lies on average a tiny bit over 2/3 of the times he opens his mouth, you disagree with my interpretation that is bad...

So, while you accept that Trump has pissed off our friends and enemies with the curious exception of Russia/Putan you disagree with my interpretation that is bad...

So, while you accept that Trump is suffering from a debilitating mental condition called Narcissistic Personality Disorder, you disagree with my interpretation that is bad...

So, while you accept that Trump is putting an EPA hater in charge of the EPA, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker/movie financier/billionaire in charge of Treasury, somebody who wants to kill Medicare/Medicaid in charge of HHS, you disagree with my interpretation that is bad...

So, you accept that Steve Bannon Is the Most Dangerous Political Operative in America you disagree with my interpretation that putting him on the National Security Council is bad...REALLY BAD!

Do I have all of the above correct? So, you are happy and proud to call Trump president?
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Farmer

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Re: Trump II
« Reply #143 on: February 08, 2017, 01:56:39 am »

It's interesting that people who are say Trump is unhinged for calling a US Federal judge a "so-called judge" have no problem when they insult him as President of the US.  Where's your respect for the Office of the Presidency?  But his supporters understand what's going on in trying to delegitimize him.  Instead of name calling, why don't you figure out how you're going to reverse who's in charge in the White House in four years.  Calling him names didn't work in the last one.

No one called Trump "So-called-President" until AFTER he launched his unwarranted and unprecedented attack on that judge (a GOP appointed judge, by the way).  There's respect for the office, there's no respect for the incumbent who shows no respect to anyone else.

Also, it isn't a 4-year wait - it's a 2-year wait.  Assuming Trump is still there, if he faces a hostile house I fear his head will literally explode.
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Phil Brown

Farmer

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Re: Trump II
« Reply #144 on: February 08, 2017, 02:34:21 am »

If I understand correctly, your 6 states have equal representation in the upper house regardless of population.   I guess my question is how would the US have set up a Parliamentary system while still giving less populated states more representation than the larger states?

Phil:  This is a part I don't understand.  Can you explain how your leader becomes the Prime Minister

Your smaller states don't have more representation than the larger states in your senate - they only have a disproportionately large representation in the EC compared to larger states because of the minimum allotment.  That could still be done, but just make the EC votes proportional and not winner-takes-all.

The Prime Minister is not the head of state - that's the Governor-General.  The Prime Minister is the leader of the party that has control of the lower house, either with an outright majority or in a minority with support for supply and confidence votes from independent or minor parties.  The Prime Minister can be replaced by a change of the leader of that party (and this does happen from time to time, particularly if the electorate is expressing disapproval with the government or the Prime Minister).
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Phil Brown

Otto Phocus

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Re: Trump II
« Reply #145 on: February 08, 2017, 06:34:25 am »

As many have said in the past, in the USA anyone can grow up to be president... that is just one of the risks we have to accept.  ;)
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Robert Roaldi

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Re: Trump II
« Reply #146 on: February 08, 2017, 07:23:42 am »

There was an hilarious bit on the local news (Ottawa, Canada)) last night about how Canada’s trade surplus with the USA was positive for the 2nd quarter in 20 years (or something, I don't have the details correct about the timing), and Trump was quoted as saying that he wasn’t happy with that because it made the USA look weak.

That’s not even remotely coherent.

I wondered something about the so-called Muslim travel ban. Shouldn't he have banned travel from Saudi Arabia, since that's where the 9/11 terrorists were from? Instead, he seems to want to pick a fight with Iran, who is Saudi's enemy. Needed a new enemy? Oceania not good enough anymore?

From what I've read, the USA has over 700 military bases around the world in over 120 countries. Lots of american citizens are armed, and yet to listen to the rhetoric, here and elsewhere, I get the impression of a country in constant debilitating fear of something or other? I don't get it, what are you so afraid of? And what makes you think that a real estate salesman can protect you?

The one thing that I would be the most concerned with if I was a US resident, is his reluctance to put his businesses into a blind trust or to reveal his taxes. Be interesting when the first welder in Wisconsin loses his job to some company overseas because of some back-handed sweetheart deal that enriches one of Trump's subsidiaries or buddies. There is a good reason why transparency in their financial affairs is required of politicians. The opposite of that is a banana republic. I understand that people pick sides in a tribal war, but isn't this going a little far?
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BernardLanguillier

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Re: Trump II
« Reply #147 on: February 08, 2017, 07:44:55 am »

You can gripe all you want but he won the election.  All the attacks are pretty meaningless and are just sour grapes.  If he doesn't perform, he'll be voted out of office in 2020.  If he performs, he'll be voted in until 2024.  So you got him for 4 or 8 more years.

I believe that there is serious hope out there that he won't stay in office 4 years.

Cheers,
Bernard

HSakols

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Re: Trump II
« Reply #148 on: February 08, 2017, 09:10:46 am »

Yes Alan, I'm a member of the CTA Union.  I don't agree with everything about unions, but in my case, if it weren't for the union I would not be able to teach.  Instead, they would only hire inexpereinced teachers for one or two years.  Yes, public education needs an overhaul, but not at the expense of many of the equity issues I work with everyday. I am one of the lucky ones in that I only have 16 students.  But still, I have kids that I'm worried will slip through the cracks - it is exhausting trying to motivate these students.  As a teacher, my dad still buys my camera gear - he's no longer alive. Alan, you can't be too bad of a guy, if your wife is still married to you - bless her! :-*
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Alan Goldhammer

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Re: Trump II
« Reply #149 on: February 08, 2017, 10:11:33 am »

Leave it to a Canadian paper to keep track of Trump's lies  :(

The complete list of all 42 false things Donald Trump has said as president (so far)

The Toronto Star’s running tally of the bald-faced lies, exaggerations and deceptions the president of the United States of America has said, so far. (Last updated: Feb. 6, 2017)

Trump would probably call this Fake News!
I call it disgusting.
The absolute best source for anti-Trump material is Jennifer Rubin's "Right Turn" blog at the Washington Post.  Ms. Rubin was very anti-Obama during his Presidency and was a strong supporter of Marco Rubio during the Republican Primaries.  She believes that Trump is slowly destroying the Republican Party and is dangerous for America.  Today piece is on Trump's Lies.

She usually blogs 3-4 times a day and they are all worth reading!
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Alan Goldhammer

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Re: Trump II
« Reply #150 on: February 08, 2017, 10:15:51 am »

You can gripe all you want but he won the election.  All the attacks are pretty meaningless and are just sour grapes.  If he doesn't perform, he'll be voted out of office in 2020.  If he performs, he'll be voted in until 2024.  So you got him for 4 or 8 more years.
That's not at issue. What is at issue is that he has members of Congress scared of him, worried that if they cross him he will find someone to run against them in the 2018 primaries.  We will not get any of the Congressional oversight that is needed.  It was announced today that the Dept of Defense is going to rent office space in Trump Tower.  Well this is in direct violation of the emollients clause in the Constitution.  His sons receive government funded security on business trips and so on.  Will we see Congressman Chafetz, head of the government oversight committee in the House do anything?  I doubt it as he is still going after Hilary Clinton (talk about not recognizing who won the election)>
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Alan Klein

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Re: Trump II
« Reply #151 on: February 08, 2017, 10:18:43 am »

Yes Alan, I'm a member of the CTA Union.  I don't agree with everything about unions, but in my case, if it weren't for the union I would not be able to teach.  Instead, they would only hire inexpereinced teachers for one or two years.  Yes, public education needs an overhaul, but not at the expense of many of the equity issues I work with everyday. I am one of the lucky ones in that I only have 16 students.  But still, I have kids that I'm worried will slip through the cracks - it is exhausting trying to motivate these students.  As a teacher, my dad still buys my camera gear - he's no longer alive. Alan, you can't be too bad of a guy, if your wife is still married to you - bless her! :-*

I'm sure you're a great teacher as was my wife.  She did Special Ed language and speech in classes from one to four children who had psych problems as well.  Tough environment.  The problem is that the public school system and the unions work in ways that increase learning failure.  Some teachers should be fired but can't due to unions.  And the system protects kids against teachers because the politicians who want votes in the election backup the parents in situations where the kids should be disciplined and aren't.  So the teachers hands are tied.  Discipline breaks down and the good kids who want to learn fall behind as well.  That doesn't happen in charter schools  because the parents are on the teacher's side.  They want their kids taught right and won't put up with any BS from their own kids like when we were kids.  If my teacher told my parents I was acting up (can you believe that?), it was my parents that slapped me on the side of the head.  Today, the parents complain to the school officials that the teacher is giving their kid a hard time and the kids act out worse.  It's nuts!  Good minority parents are desperate to get their kids in good learning environments - hence their support for charters that Devos supports.  It's the unions that are opposed to her. 

If the Feds provide money to the state, some of it should be for public and some for charters and some for vouchers to allow competition to improve schools overall.  Teaching requirements though should not be mandated from Washington as I believe each local community knows best how they should teach their kids.    For example, because of federal funding requirements, my wife wasted about ten minutes of every period filling out federal forms on her class teaching procedures.  That was ten minutes every period that should have been spent with her kids.  It's these wasteful requirements from Washington that just don't help at all.

Alan Klein

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Re: Trump II
« Reply #152 on: February 08, 2017, 10:32:35 am »

Your smaller states don't have more representation than the larger states in your senate - they only have a disproportionately large representation in the EC compared to larger states because of the minimum allotment.  That could still be done, but just make the EC votes proportional and not winner-takes-all.

The Prime Minister is not the head of state - that's the Governor-General.  The Prime Minister is the leader of the party that has control of the lower house, either with an outright majority or in a minority with support for supply and confidence votes from independent or minor parties.  The Prime Minister can be replaced by a change of the leader of that party (and this does happen from time to time, particularly if the electorate is expressing disapproval with the government or the Prime Minister).

  My question is can  you set up a parliamentary system in a Federal system like the US if you have a weighted electoral system where smaller states have more electoral votes?  Second question, how can you have a multiparty system in an electorally weighted system like the US? The 51% requirement to become President forces a two party arrangement.  How would you get around that with a Parliamentary system? 

Alan Klein

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Re: Trump II
« Reply #153 on: February 08, 2017, 10:44:10 am »

The absolute best source for anti-Trump material is Jennifer Rubin's "Right Turn" blog at the Washington Post.  Ms. Rubin was very anti-Obama during his Presidency and was a strong supporter of Marco Rubio during the Republican Primaries.  She believes that Trump is slowly destroying the Republican Party and is dangerous for America.  Today piece is on Trump's Lies.

She usually blogs 3-4 times a day and they are all worth reading!

So the liberal Washington Post finds an anti-Trump Rubio conservative to blog bad things about Trump.  Preaching to the choir.   I'm impressed. 

Alan Klein

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Re: Trump II
« Reply #154 on: February 08, 2017, 10:51:46 am »

That's not at issue. What is at issue is that he has members of Congress scared of him, worried that if they cross him he will find someone to run against them in the 2018 primaries.  We will not get any of the Congressional oversight that is needed.  It was announced today that the Dept of Defense is going to rent office space in Trump Tower.  Well this is in direct violation of the emollients clause in the Constitution.  His sons receive government funded security on business trips and so on.  Will we see Congressman Chafetz, head of the government oversight committee in the House do anything?  I doubt it as he is still going after Hilary Clinton (talk about not recognizing who won the election)>

 I happen to agree with you here.  I'm a proponent of the guy who said, "The best government is the government that governs the least."  When you have both the President and the Congress from the same party, bad laws get passed and too frequently.  Obamacare is an example.  Good laws that are fleshed out and will last happen when both sides have to get together and compromise.   The split in parties between the branches slows down stupid laws that are enacted too frequently. 

Regarding your point about members being scare, well that's the way it worked when Obama and other presidents were in charge.  The President is leader of his party and rules the roost.  That's life.  That's why you want a split in parties between the two branches.

Alan Goldhammer

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Re: Trump II
« Reply #155 on: February 08, 2017, 10:57:20 am »

Also, throw in there common core and all of the other requirements coming down from Washington.  The amount of time lost to testing is absurd.  Not to mention you are always told not to teach to the test, but then told if your students do poorly you could be out of a job or have funding decreased.  So really, the only option is to teach to the test. 
Teaching to the test is poor teaching at best.  Our public school system does not use that approach and students do very well.  However, the common core was designed so that students had a standard for which to learn.  This is the crucial fact in light of the disappointing performance of American students versus their foreign peers.  If you don't like the common core, what type of standards do you propose? 

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And insofar as even local and state broads deciding on what to teach, that can be a disaster as well.  I use to teach high school math in NY state and we were the only state to have a Math A and Math B course, which integrated all of the fields of mathematics (you would teach in high school) into one.  This does not make sense since geometric proofs have nothing to do with algebra and so on, they are all separate fields of study that build upon each other.  It is much better to teach one field consistently over a long period of time so the students can build upon there knowledge instead of jumping back and forth. 
Absolutely.  My wife is a professor of education at a local university and is constantly frustrated at the poor direction teachers are given.

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Now this is not to say most school districts are in shambles; they are not.  However, the inner city schools are and they need a change.  You can argue that all we need is more money, but when has that argument ever not been used by government cronies when talking about a failing government system?  Plus, we have for years been giving more money all for not.  Time for a something else. 
The record of charter schools in the District of Columbia which has had them for a number of years now is quite spotty.  There are a small number of good ones but most are no better than the public schools.  The poor ones siphon money away from the public schools so everything ends up being a race to the bottom rather than the top.

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Am I happy with the choice?  No.  I really would prefer someone with teaching experience, but I cant support someone who is against charter schools at this moment in time.
The bigger issue with DeVos is her support for vouchers and that they might be used to send kids to religious schools.  Of course this likely would be struck down as unconstitutional.  Also Obama's Education Secretary was not opposed to charter schools.  Our school district doesn't have them because the public schools are so good that there is no outcry for them.  It depends on where one lives.  also in rural areas where the student populations are already low, charter schools are likely not to get any support.
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Alan Klein

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Re: Trump II
« Reply #156 on: February 08, 2017, 11:39:06 am »

I don't see money returned to taxpayers as unconstitutional if their kids are not educated in a public school but rather in a private or religious school .   That's basically what a voucher does.   Basically the government is just giving a tax deduction for your kid that is not public school educated.  It similar to when you take a dependent deduction on your 1040 return for each child you have.  The government doesn't tell you where to spend the deduction money.  You can spend it for your dependent kids to learn something or drink it away in a bar.   How you spend the voucher or education credits to educate your kid is your business as long as the school meets education standards of the State in which you live.  The government is not imposing any religious test or requirement on you so there's no constitutional implication.  You decide what you want to do with the money in how to educate your kids.  Why should others tell you what to do?  It's none of their business. 

As an aside, voucher or tax credits are usually less than what it costs to educate the student in a public school.  So the public school system saves additional dollars that can be used for the kids that remain. 

scyth

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Re: Trump II
« Reply #157 on: February 08, 2017, 12:00:41 pm »

So the public school system saves additional dollars that can be used for the kids that remain.

public school system will gain more if it will never be mandated for a teacher to be a union member & pay dues...
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Raul_82

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Re: Trump II
« Reply #158 on: February 08, 2017, 12:18:43 pm »

Here's another broken promise of Mr. T: "Obamacare. We're going to repeal it, we're going to replace it, get something great" (It's always something great isn't it)

Well the deadline that the GOP set was January 27th and that is now gone, with no replacement in sight, not even a hint. All of the sudden some Reps Senators are talking about "fixing" Obamacare, rather than repealing it, go figure.

FWIW I though that a replacement to Obamacare was about the only good thing ever to come out of this guy. 
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Alan Goldhammer

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Re: Trump II
« Reply #159 on: February 08, 2017, 02:09:00 pm »

On the first point, I absolutely agree.  However, not teaching to the test is often not the case, especially when money and school reputations are on the line.  No matter what teachers are told to do, they are always held to the results of the state and federal test scores of their students.  This creates the situation where teachers start teaching to test, even if inadvertently, and it gets much worse in a subject with lots of material that need to be taught in a time frame not really long enough, like mathematics.
I was in K-12 a lot of years ago but can remember taking standardized achievement tests in certain grades.  IIRC they were used to judge proficiency.  This was in California and I don't know how many other states employed the.  New York has the Regents exams for graduating senors. 

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I use to be so jealous of history teachers; if they took a day off, they could just have the students watch a movie and catch up when they got back.  The math curriculum was so jammed packed that taking one day off could really screw you up, especially with subs, most of whom had little to no skills in math, and could not control a class room. 
Absolutely!!!  I remember when my girls were in school, they had to be prodded to keep up with the math homework everyday.
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Unfortunately in the current environment, students are tested on a national and state level, so twice.  This just waste too much time and puts too much stress on the teachers making sure they cover everything.  I do agree we need standards, however I would prefer to see them at the state level.  Leave it the case that suits can be brought against the state by citizens within federal court if they feel certain requirements are unconstitutional, but leave it at that. 
  I don't know whether there duplication of testing.  I would rather see standards set at the national level as it provides for more uniformity across the states. 

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Now, insofar as disappointing scores, I feel this is quite misleading.  Many countries separate their students in high school in different curriculums, such as college bound or trade bound, but only really test the college bound students and publish those scores.  We though are trying to teach all students to the same level (accept for special education and developmentally challenged.) 
At the high school level, you are correct for some countries.  However testing is done at two earlier levels before any separation into trade and academic is made.  US is well behind in the earlier grades as well.

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I guess I could also add a third here too.  I thoroughly believe the biggest problem with out school system is the decrease in family values when it comes to education.  Students who are smart tend to have parents who really push them and keep up on their education.  Every smart student I taught had parents who came to every parent teacher conference.  The bad students, I never heard from or meet their parents no matter what (until maybe the last week of school asking what was wrong with my class since their child was failing.)  I'm not sure how you fix this.
Absolutely and this is a point that the late Senator Moynihan was writing about in the late 1960s!!!  My wife has some former students who teach in inner city schools and this is the big problem that they face.
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