“The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer,” Mr. Trump told supporters around 3 a.m. at a rally in New York City, just after Mrs. Clinton called to concede.
Mr. Trump’s strong showing brightened Republican hopes of retaining control of the Senate. Only one Republican-controlled seat, in Illinois, fell to Democrats early in the evening. And Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, a Republican, easily won re-election in a race that had been among the country’s most competitive. A handful of other Republican incumbents facing difficult races were running better than expected.
Mr. Trump’s win — stretching across the battleground states of Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania — seemed likely to set off financial jitters and immediate unease among international allies, many of which were startled when Mr. Trump in his campaign cast doubt on the necessity of America’s military commitments abroad and its allegiance to international economic partnerships.
From the moment he entered the campaign, with a shocking set of claims that Mexican immigrants were rapists and criminals, Mr. Trump was widely underestimated as a candidate, first by his opponents for the Republican nomination and later by Mrs. Clinton, his Democratic rival. His rise was largely missed by polling organizations and data analysts. And an air of improbability trailed his campaign, to the detriment of those who dismissed his angry message, his improvisational style and his appeal to disillusioned voters.
He suggested remedies that raised questions of constitutionality, like a ban on Muslims entering the United States.
He threatened opponents, promising lawsuits against news organizations that covered him critically and women who accused him of sexual assault. At times, he simply lied.
But Mr. Trump’s unfiltered rallies and unshakable self-regard attracted a zealous following, fusing unsubtle identity politics with an economic populism that often defied party doctrine.
His rallies — furious, entertaining, heavy on name-calling and nationalist overtones — became the nexus of a political movement, with daily promises of sweeping victory, in the election and otherwise, and an insistence that the country’s political machinery was “rigged” against Mr. Trump and those who admired him.
He seemed to embody the success and grandeur that so many of his followers felt was missing from their own lives — and from the country itself. And he scoffed at the poll-driven word-parsing ways of modern politics, calling them a waste of time and money. Instead, he relied on his gut.
At his victory party at the New York Hilton Midtown, where a raucous crowd indulged in a cash bar and wore hats bearing his ubiquitous campaign slogan “Make America Great Again,” voters expressed gratification that their voices had, at last, been heard.
“He was talking to people who weren’t being spoken to,” said Joseph Gravagna, 37, a marketing company owner from Rockland County, N.Y. “That’s how I knew he was going to win.”
For Mrs. Clinton, the defeat signaled an astonishing end to a political dynasty that has colored Democratic politics for a generation. Eight years after losing to President Obama in the Democratic primary — and 16 years after leaving the White House for the United States Senate, as President Bill Clinton exited office — she had seemed positioned to carry on two legacies: her husband’s and the president’s.
Her shocking loss was a devastating turn for the sprawling world of Clinton aides and strategists who believed they had built an electoral machine that would swamp Mr. Trump’s ragtag band of loyal operatives and family members, many of whom had no experience running a national campaign.
On Tuesday night, stricken Clinton aides who believed that Mr. Trump had no mathematical path to victory, anxiously paced the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center as states in which they were confident of victory, like Florida and North Carolina, either fell to Mr. Trump or seemed in danger of tipping his way.
Mrs. Clinton watched the grim results roll in from a suite at the nearby Peninsula Hotel, surrounded by her family, friends and advisers who had the day before celebrated her candidacy with a champagne toast on her campaign plane.
But over and over, Mrs. Clinton’s weaknesses as a candidate were exposed. She failed to excite voters hungry for change. She struggled to build trust with Americans who were baffled by her decision to use a private email server as secretary of state. And she strained to make a persuasive case for herself as a champion of the economically downtrodden after delivering perfunctory paid speeches that earned her millions of dollars.
The returns Tuesday also amounted to a historic rebuke of the Democratic Party from the white blue-collar voters who had formed the party base from the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt to Mr. Clinton’s. Yet Mrs. Clinton and her advisers had taken for granted that states like Michigan and Wisconsin would stick with a Democratic nominee, and that she could repeat Mr. Obama’s strategy of mobilizing the party’s ascendant liberal coalition rather than pursuing a more moderate course like her husband did 24 years ago.
But not until these voters were offered a Republican who ran as an unapologetic populist, railing against foreign trade deals and illegal immigration, did they move so drastically away from their ancestral political home.
To the surprise of many on the left, white voters who had helped elect the nation’s first black president, appeared more reluctant to line up behind a white woman.
From Pennsylvania to Wisconsin, industrial towns once full of union voters who for decades offered their votes to Democratic presidential candidates, even in the party’s lean years, shifted to Mr. Trump’s Republican Party. One county in the Mahoning Valley of Ohio, Trumbull, went to Mr. Trump by a six-point margin. Four years ago, Mr. Obama won there by 22 points.
Mrs. Clinton’s loss was especially crushing to millions who had cheered her march toward history as, they hoped, the nation’s first female president. For supporters, the election often felt like a referendum on gender progress: an opportunity to elevate a woman to the nation’s top job and to repudiate a man whose remarkably boorish behavior toward women had assumed center stage during much of the campaign.
Mr. Trump boasted, in a 2005 video released last month, about using his public profile to commit sexual assault. He suggested that female political rivals lacked a presidential “look.” He ranked women on a scale of one to 10, even holding forth on the desirability of his own daughter — the kind of throwback male behavior that many in the country assumed would disqualify a candidate for high office.
On Tuesday, the public’s verdict was rendered.
Uncertainty abounds as Mr. Trump prepares to take office. His campaign featured a shape-shifting list of policy proposals, often seeming to change hour to hour. His staff was in constant turmoil, with Mr. Trump’s children serving critical campaign roles and a rotating cast of advisers alternately seeking access to Mr. Trump’s ear, losing it and, often, regaining it, depending on the day.
Even Mr. Trump’s full embrace of the Republican Party came exceedingly late in life, leaving members of both parties unsure about what he truly believes. He has donated heavily to both parties and has long described his politics as the transactional reality of a businessman.
Mr. Trump’s dozens of business entanglements — many of them in foreign countries — will follow him into the Oval Office, raising questions about potential conflicts of interest. His refusal to release his tax returns, and his acknowledgment that he did not pay federal income taxes for years, has left the American people with considerable gaps in their understanding of the financial dealings.
But this they do know: Mr. Trump will thoroughly reimagine the tone, standards and expectations of the presidency, molding it in his own self-aggrandizing image.
He is set to take the oath of office on Jan. 20.
NYTimes
Lucifer on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 2:51 am
Well. well. well. Who thought that would happen.
makati1 on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 3:07 am
Prez Trump is the American most see in themselves. They voted for someone they could relate to. They saw that he might just do some of the things he promised and at least try to make America great again. Killary would not.
Trump is not the stupid puppet persons that America has tolerated for the last 16 years as Prez. He is smart enough to make billions and to keep them. His mouth said just what he wanted to say. And, it worked.
I hope he does pull back from all of the Empires wars and threats and bring more isolation to America. The rest of the world would sigh in relief, I think. Even Europe would get over the shock rather fast and mend fences with its northern bear. And the S.E. Asian countries would realize that the Dragon wants trade, not plunder.
The world may have just stepped back from nuclear annihilation and gained some breathing room to cope with all of the other problems besetting humanity. We shall see.
Shortend on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 3:44 am
Trump…soon to be the worlds first and only ZILLIONAIRE….I did it MY WAY…with a little help from Anthony Weiner…LOL
james-boags on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 3:54 am
hey makster now its really time to crack a beer and bring out the popcorn things are goimg to get real interesting
Sissyfuss on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 4:16 am
To quote Mencken, “Politics is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.” And now Hillary can clean up after the elephant.
Hubbert on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 5:13 am
Time to build a The Great Wall of USA.
Cloggie on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 5:59 am
Congratulations Europeans world-wide!
makati1 on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 6:20 am
You said it, James. I can hardly wait.
MSN Fanboy on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 6:40 am
Amazing, Years of muh… diversity indoctrination across the west….. failed.
After all of the (((education))) and (((cultural norms))) shoved down the white man’s throat of (((progress))) and (((guilt))) just hit the WALL.
It turns out Apneman is correct, we revert to identity politics under pressure.
Trump is an fool; but at least he is our fool. What he represents however is startling.
Expect to see more nationalistic sentiment globally, as our economies unwind combined with our energy issues (read Hill group) and the pressure mounts groups will revert to the norm: tribal imperative.
As long as we believe in our current economic model as ‘right’ there is no way to stop the above paragraph. Fighting over the pie is our future.
And I didn’t even mention global warming 😀
But seriously, prepare for the future: Limits to growth will be proven true.
Congratulations Trump
Dredd on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 6:44 am
Abrupt. Political Climate. Change (Abrupt Political Climate Change).
Cloud9 on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 7:30 am
Time for some people to go to jail. The rest of us need to get back to work. The fraud is already unwinding. The scales are coming off of people’s eyes. The Ponzi collapses the moment it is recognized by the patsies. Collapse is inevitable. It is not the end of the country. It is not the end of the world but it is the end of this cycle of fraud. Get ready for some hard times.
Mark Ziegler on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 7:34 am
One thing the analysts did not mention. Sexual discrimination is alive and strong in America. America is not ready for a woman president.
pinkdotR on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 7:44 am
We in Poland already know what is the result of electing populists, Brits know that too. Time for you Americans. Enjoy the ride!
And coming back to the subject of oil. What results for the U.S and the World do you expect? We expect to be paying Russians much more for fuels very soon.
Simon on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 7:47 am
Question is
will protectionist trump favour protectionist UK, and if so why ?
if not the UK is now on their own, alienated most of the BRICS and the USA is going protectionist. Interesting times
Sissyfuss on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 8:00 am
Come back, Cloggie. This miasma is right up your alley. We need your Euro perspective.
Davy on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 8:03 am
Makati, you are not here and have little clue of what is going on except with your alternative anti-American news and exceptional emotional American hatred. You make me sick daily but these days I mostly ignore you.
Many Americans including myself voted for a movement not a candidate. The movement was anti-corruption, anti-war, and anti-globalism. Many people can’t relate to Trump. A hard core minority of uneducated white men can of course. A defining minority was people like myself that voted against Hillary and the corrupt hypocritical establishment not for the candidate Trump. He was the least bad choice. I would have loved to vote for someone else but at this time in history it had to be an outsider everyone in the establishment hated including his own party.
Trump is not going to make America great again because that is not possible. He hopefully will damage globalism and I hope make a détente with Russia. He may tell all the US allies to buck up for their own security and in the process sink the pig trough NATO. He may tell the MIC we can’t afford your blank checks anymore. He will tell the Sunni Arabs and ISIS to take a flying F**K. He will tell the Chinese and other export driven economies you can’t have your cake and eat it. The unlimited immigration when we can’t take care of what we have must stop.
Trump is likely going to get an education on climate change and the realities of global trade. He will preside over the biggest global economic crisis since 08 likely coming but without a solution. He will preside over a changed world but not the kind of change he is preaching. The main theme I hope is we may get along better with Russia and not be adversaries. He might get little done other than preside over a collapsing world but being poor is better than being fried by NUK war.
Ghung on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 8:10 am
My doom-o-meter is pegging. Enough said.
Davy on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 8:13 am
“Putin Congratulates Trump, Says Russia Is Ready To Restore Relations With The US”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-09/putin-congratulates-trump-says-russia-ready-restore-relations-us
“Perhaps the most beneficial outcome resulting from last night’s loss of the Clinton Clan, whose “charitable” donations from generous donors such as Saudi Arabia to the Clinton Foundation just ended, is that with Hillary not in charge, the probability of World War III has been taken off the table. This was confirmed early this morning, When Russian President Vladimir Putin – whose relations with the US and Barack Obama have deteriorated to Cold War levels – congratulated Donald Trump for his election victory on Wednesday, and said he expected relations between the Kremlin and Washington to improve. The Kremlin announced that Putin had sent a telegram to Trump on Wednesday morning expressing “his hope they can work together toward the end of the crisis in Russian-American relations, as well address the pressing issues of the international agenda and the search for effective responses to global security challenges.”
Cloud9 on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 8:25 am
Mark I suspect a bit of projection here. It appears that all you can see is a vagina. In truth I am rather fond of them myself but thank God I am now old enough that hormones no longer dictate my every thought. The fact that you are blinded to Hillary’s criminal acts by the simple fact that she happens to be female is truly sad. Did you read any of the wiki leaks? Are you aware of the civil war going on within the deep state? Have you looked at what is happening in the FBI? Have you paid any attention at all to the shenanigans surrounding the Clinton Foundation? Did you ever wonder how the penniless Clintons became multi-millionaires?
Do I think Trump is the pick of the litter? I do not. My vote for Trump was a vote against the syndicate.
shortonoil on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 8:27 am
We have retreated 3 steps from the edge of the abyss. The Western world must now begin the thousands of steps away from oil!
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-09/putin-congratulates-trump-says-russia-ready-restore-relations-us
Cloggie on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 9:16 am
What a night, went to bed at 6:00 am, after a well-spent night, including a couch, a bottle of Spanish wine and four screens, consisting of CNN and Dutch and German television, twitter and numerous deplorable websites.
First of all: thank you, Donald Trump & Middle America! The service you did to European civilization world-wide is immense! This is a victory against the globalists and their media. The outcome will be an enormous boost for us in Europe, kiss Merkel & co goodbye:
https://twitter.com/wmiddelkoop/status/796203597914574849
Fortress Europe and Fortress America are next.
Yesterday-night in a cafe in Moscow:
http://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/78/590x/painting-730314.jpg
Nice symbol of what is to come, of what should come. Now we need to find a suitable German added to the mix, just to “make Germany great again”. OK, that was a joke. Positive detail: Trump has a wife from Eastern Europe, very important.
The contours of the future of Amerika (not to be confused with America) can already be seen in the map of electoral outcome:
http://edition.cnn.com/election/results/president
More or less the Mississippi basin:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_River#/media/File:Mississippiriver-new-01.png
Trump isn’t going to “make America great again”, whatever that may mean. What he can do is drawing a line in the sand, creating a bulwark against the further demise of European America by building the American version of the Chinese Great Wall and throw out all illegals and thus create a temporarily relief against further demographic demise. Political correctness has been evaporated, from now on “identity politics” will be the name of the game. The myth of “diversity is our strength” is gone forever. The question now is: who gets what.
Make now mistake, only a battle has been won, not the war against the globalists and their media. The internet is a great help though to combat the MSM; Infowars for instance had tens of millions of hits over the last 24h, DrudgeReport 100 m.
The “tolerance crowd” here in action in Oregon, protesting against the outcome of a legitimate democratic process:
http://www.geenstijl.nl/mt/archieven/2016/11/rellon.html#comments
But the East and West coast’s snowflakes are useless. We need certified deplorables from the middle.
Let’s assume that Trump will be able to stay in the saddle for four years (he hinted in his victory speech even at eight years). Europe must use the opportunity increase defense spending and set up an army of its own, which is already EU-intention, post-Brexit. After Merkel, Hollande and the rest of the traitors will be gone, we will have a military backup, just in case things turn ugly in North-America and the Washington.
P.S.: my heartfelt condolences for my globalist friends ghung, boat and Friday. Shit happens, tough luck. Mind the step on your way out. Bye, bye, auf niemals wiedersehen.
[snicker]
Go Speed Racer on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 9:17 am
LOL the wheel came off the ice cream truck.
Mark Ziegler wrote, ‘America not ready for a woman president’. False. Just that Hillary is not a woman.
She is a mean selfish old money bag that wants
to import more moozslims so hat you will be kept
up all night by a megaphone blaring ‘call to mecca’.
If the Democrats had run Taylor Swift, we would have
been celebrating victory for first female US President.
Now Hillary goin to jail. Trump said she not pretty enough to be on the street.
Can’t wait for the swimsuit beauty contests on the White House lawn.
And we can start mining coal again. Just in time,
Union Pacific is rebuilding the 4-8-8-4 Big Boy
steam locomotive.
An Trump will gut the House of Representatives,
replace it with a Casino.
Bruce Springsteen wanted Hillary to win.
Ted Nugent wants Trump. Burn all your
Springsteen records, buy Ted Nugent records.
Comeback of the century. Trump was accused
of sexual harassment by a woman, and
Trump responded, ‘no she not pretty enough’.
Simon on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 9:40 am
Boost to us in Europe
Why Cloggie, his slogan is ‘America 1st’
he will not offer any deals or help to us or the English, unless the USA is making out better than us.
From a foreign point of view, I fail to see how he would be better (excluding the whole Armageddon thing)
Revi on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 9:58 am
Great… He’s going to bring on the collapse. I guess it won’t be boring.
Outcast_Searcher on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 10:01 am
First, why should we really be that surprised, aside from polls being less competent than the left wing thought?
It’s not like objectively, HRC was anything good. She was, at best, more of the same.
And it’s not like Trump can just do whatever he wants for the most part. If he tries to do things that are too outrageous, the rest of Capitol Hill will stop him.
To me the one scary thing is how much the president can do short term via a “military action”, which doesn’t require approval from congress until “war” is formally declared, or 60 or so days (I forget the exact number). By the time we’re a couple/few months into something, that could be an intractible mess.
OTOH, he may have a Ronald Reagan effect. Our military adversaries may decide just to calm down and sit this one out and wait for the next passive president. Kind of like the Iranians returned the hostages right away when Reagan took office.
And don’t get me wrong. I voted for Johnson as a protest vote. I hoped the one good thing from a HRC election would be a left leaning SCOTUS, to balance some things like abortion rights and climate change for awhile.
OTOH, the liberals in Washington rejected the carbon tax last night, supposedly because it didn’t let them tax and spend more. So much for the purity of the liberals on doing the right thing for the climate.
Cloggie on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 10:18 am
“America First” is precisely what we Europeans need, because it means an America minding its own business and not using Europe as a springboard for wars against Russia, like the Soros crowd plans.
he will not offer any deals or help to us or the English
Since when do we Europeans need help from anybody? We created this f* modern world in the first place, for better and for worse.
No, the real upshot of the election outcome is that these people, the “globalists”, the “NWO crowd”, have been (temporarily) beaten, as they themselves admit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88UV4yJ-AdI
Boohoo, poor Rachel.
Donald Trump and his supporters have bought us some time. Now it is up to us Europeans to seize the opportunity and escape from the US globalist empire, the 2nd and last attempt towards “One World Communism”, in both cases designed by Soros & co.
Although the two characters couldn’t be more different, Trump could be America’s Gorbatchev. In 1985, the latter announced that the old Soviet ways could no longer be continued. Four years later the Eastern Europeans escaped from the Soviet empire… into the arms of Western Europe.
2016 could be for America and Europe what 1985 was for the USSR and Eastern Europe: the beginning of the imperial end. Trump has indicated he is not interested in the US empire, he wants to withdraw and concentrate on major repairs at home.
Identitarian multi-polar world is next:
http://www.directupload.net/file/d/4486/8rrlwfhb_jpg
(sorry for the pop-ups)
Merkel and co are now political orphans, no longer backed by the US deep state and will be overthrown, sooner or later. Perhaps Merkel won’t even bother to participate in next year’s German election.
The military endgame of the 20th century…
https://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Century-Yuri-Slezkine/dp/0691127603/ref=sr_1_1
…will be fought on North-American soil, like in 1776.
Donald Trump accomplished a very important step in that direction, whether he realizes it or not.
Rachel Maddow realizes it very well what’s happening:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoEjnpXXW28
[8:18]
We have max. 7 years of Putin and max 8 years of Trump left. It needs to happen in the next few years.
Boat on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 10:27 am
You can now kiss the climate good by. Solar expansion in the US will grind to a halt. Same with wind. Buy stock in nat gas. The electric car in the US will die.
China and Mexico will be on the front burner for different reasons
Boat on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 10:41 am
Trump joins a list of leaders like Duterte that are lippey and thin skinned. Now is the time of dilima. Does one dump your stocks or wait and see.
Simon on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 10:45 am
Hi Cloggie
Got it. Yes I think this will be the stimulus we need to sort our lives out.
I guess my point was more trade related esp. at the English, they are assuming that Trump (being an isolationist) will be their ally. Now I am no expert but there is no room in business for emotion and isolationism is just that, not America first, except for the UK. I suspect the English are in for a bit of a shock, that scene from deliverance comes to mind.
Simon
Davy on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 11:10 am
Boat, I doubt we will see much change on energy policy. Coal is uneconomic for more reasons than policy. Alternatives are a good investment and business is interested in them. We are screwed on climate anyway quit fooling yourself. Trump is going to be up to his armpits with alligators so don’t expect him to take on a war against the green world.
Apneaman on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 11:17 am
Old dutch, what happened? Tinfoil hat falloff in your exuberance over Trump’s victory? His victory suddenly put a halt on the evil forces that were preventing your internet access? All you conspiracy fucks are just so full of self flattery. Yeah the NSA teamed up with peakoil.com to shut you down, lest you thwart their plans by providing all those links to retard youtube videos (conspiracy tards don’t like all that tiresome reading N stuff).
The trick I want to see is Trump turn physics on it’s head and stop, then reverse the Arctic meltdown. See, unless that is done (can’t be done) then nothing matters but for a minute – all victories from here on out are pyrrhic. Less so for an old fuck like you with no kids who will bear most of the suffering. In the meantime, record breaking AGW jacked weather events will continue to grow in frequency and severity. You can hold me to that prediction – I been saying it here for nearly 3 years and have been spot on. In spite of the bemoaning liberals, Trump will have little to no effect on AGW as it’s already too far gone.
Here is the kind of bullshit liberals have been putting out for about 6 months and I expected a bunch of these this morning.
There’s no way around it: Donald Trump is going to be a disaster for the planet
http://www.vox.com/2016/11/9/13571318/donald-trump-disaster-climate?
Of all the people on this site, Planty actually nailed it yesterday when she said conservatives pretend climate change is not real and liberals pretend to care.
Nailed it!
Have a happy graph.
http://bit.ly/2eUnumB
Apneaman on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 11:37 am
Boat, again you fell for bullshit propaganda. Green propaganda this time. You are not alone. On the left they claim coal is dying because of alt, but that is only a small factor. On the right it’s the big bad war on coal which is 100% bullshit. Like Davy said it’s economics. Natgas is what it is.
Shale gas, not EPA rules, has pushed decline in coal-generated electricity, study confirms
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161007105548.htm
One fossil fuel kills another. Never hear much about it because you can’t put a tribal spin on that one.
Cloud9 on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 11:38 am
Clinton influence peddling is now dead in the water. Some really dark dudes spent some serious money on buying influence. That investment went up in smoke last night. I would not be surprised if some of these entities don’t begin efforts to claw back some of what they have invested. If they cannot get it back in cash they may try to take back in blood. I would not want to be on Hillary or Bill’s secret service detail right now.
Charlie Bucket on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 11:46 am
Trump will mind his manners and do nothing when the CIA takes him aside and shows him the Zapruder Film and what really happened to Kennedy, and what will happen to him if he tries to do anything rash and against the status quo. Promises always get made and then broken in politics, ever wonder why?
Cloud9 on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 11:49 am
Gog you are right. Rachel gets it, at least part of it. The left has been playing identity politics for decades. The gays, the blacks, we Hispanics, the left has made every effort to lump us into hypersensitive groups that can be easily agitated and then mobilized so we can be played for their political agenda. It was only a matter of time before somebody used the same tactic to mobilize whites. Either we reassert states’ rights enabling people to vote with their feet to join populations of like minds or we fracture and what’s left of the country will balkanize with green zones separating populations.
Shortend on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 11:54 am
Anthony Weiner is loading up the nail gun while working out with the gym weights.
Unfortunately, that is a recipe for an “accident” to happen. Looking for the tweet on that one from the waist up!
LOL
Trump should send him some grabbing pus*y as a last meal.
One couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried.
Cloggie on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 12:18 pm
Greg Hunter with his post-election epilogue:
http://usawatchdog.com/trump-wins-2016-presidential-election-saves-america/
With Trump we escaped the tyranny, we won’t escape the economic melt-down.
penury on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 12:25 pm
All the people kvetching at the results and the people celebrating the triumph of good over evil need to remember “the permanent government, which is run by the beaurocrats and other civil service positions remain firmly in place. Beurocracys are like glaciers
they are hard to move and impossible to ignore. The President can suggest, the president can do signing statements, but in the end it is still a government of three branches. (five if you count the FED and the MIC) and that will control and dictate what any President can accomplish. Live in hope, but many will die in despair.
Alice Friedemann on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 12:34 pm
Trump is less likely to start a nuclear war??? Huh? How about a little fact checking. But oh, as I can see from Republican websites, why do that — apparently they think that all of the fact-checking organizations and newspapers are owned and run by the Democratic National commitee. Even though I know it’s impossible to convince Republicans of anything, because their brains are wired to deny science and reality (see http://energyskeptic.com/2016/republicans-wired-to-deny-science-and-reality ) there’s plenty of evidence that Trump is the warmonger.
http://www.ontheissues.org/2016/Donald_Trump_War_+_Peace.htm
This is more like a coup. VP Mike Pence will be in charge. He is a Koch Brothers creature, their 3rd choice for President in 2012. The Koch brothers are rich thanks to their Dad who helped both Hitler and Stalin rise to power by helping them start oil production facilities. I bet he didn’t talk much about his role of enabling Russia to rise at his John Birch society meetings… I’m sure there’s more money to be made with a war than peace, and what matters besides money? Their goal is no taxes, no regulations, and government’s role only a security guard of their private property and businesses.
Donald Trump on War & Peace
2016 Republican nominee for President; 2000 Reform Primary Challenger for President
2011: Knock out Ghadafi; 2016: Libya war was a mistake
CLINTON: With respect to Libya, there’s no difference between my opponent and myself. He’s on record extensively supporting intervention in Libya, when Gadhafi was threatening to massacre his population. I put together a coalition that included NATO, included the Arab League, and we were able to save lives.
TRUMP: She made a terrible mistake on Libya. And not only did she make the mistake, but then they complicated the mistake by having no management once they bombed the you-know-what out of Gadhafi.
USA TODAY Fact-Check: This isn’t the first time Trump has ignored his past support for the U.S. intervention in Libya. During the 10th GOP debate, Trump said he had “never discussed that subject” when Sen. Ted Cruz called him out on supporting U.S. action in the country. But Trump said in a February 2011 YouTube video that the U.S. should go into Libya “on a humanitarian basis” and “knock [Gadhafi] out very quickly, very surgically, very effectively and save the lives.”
Source: USA Today Fact-check on 2016 NBC Commander-in-Chief forum , Sep 7, 2016
I would be slower to go to war than Hillary
I would be very, very cautious. I think I’d be a lot slower. She has a happy trigger. You look, she votes for the wars, she goes in Libya. I think it’s a tremendous burden. I think there is no greater burden that anybody could have.
I am totally prepared. But remember this. I found this subject and these subjects of interest all of my life. This hasn’t been over the last 14 months. I’ve found these substantiates of tremendous interest. That’s why they were asking me about Iraq 14 years ago. They were asking me these questions. They don’t ask businesspeople those questions.
Right here is a list that was just printed today of 88 admirals and generals that I meet with and I talk to. I’m doing a lot of different things. I am studying. You see General Flynn and you see some of the folks that we have, and they’re scattered throughout the audience. So we have admirals, we have generals, we have colonels. We have a lot of people that I respect.
Source: 2016 NBC Commander-in-Chief forum with Matt Lauer , Sep 7, 2016
We would be better off if Gadhafi were in charge right now
Sen. Ted CRUZ: Both Donald and Senator Rubio have agreed with both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama: in Libya, they agreed with the Obama/Clinton policy of toppling the government in Libya. That was a disaster.
TRUMP: I was in favor of Libya? I never discussed that subject. We would be so much better off if Gadhafi were in charge right now. If these politicians went to the beach and didn’t do a thing, and we had Saddam Hussein and if we had Gadhafi in charge, instead of having terrorism all over the place, at least they killed terrorists, all right? And I’m not saying they were good–because they were bad, they were really bad–but we don’t know what we’re getting. You look at Libya right now, ISIS, as we speak, is taking over their oil. As we speak, it’s a total mess. We would have been better off if the politicians took a day off instead of going into war.
Source: 2016 CNN-Telemundo Republican debate on eve of Texas primary , Feb 25, 2016
Blunder to announce withdrawal timetable from Afghanistan
Unfortunately, it may require boots on the ground to fight the Islamic State. I don’t think it’s necessary to broadcast our strategy. (In fact, one of the most ridiculous policy blunders President Obama has committed was to announce our timetable for withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan.) If military advisers recommend it, we should commit a limited–but sufficient–number of troops to fight on the ground.
Source: Crippled America, by Donald Trump, p. 37 , Nov 3, 2015
Afghanistan war made a mess, but troops need to stay
Trump said the US was right to invade Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks–a reversal of his position earlier this month when he called the war a “mistake.”
“We made a mistake going into Iraq. I’ve never said we made a mistake going into Afghanistan,” Trump told CNN. Trump said on October 6 that he believed entering Afghanistan was a mistake and worried about U.S. forces getting stuck there.
“At some point, are they going to be there for the next 200 years? It’s going to be a long time,” Trump said, when asked about Afghanistan. “We made a terrible mistake getting involved there in the first place. We had real brilliant thinkers that didn’t know what the hell they were doing. And it’s a mess. And at this point, you probably have to stay because that thing will collapse about two seconds after they leave.”
Trump first signaled his backtrack when he said Afghanistan is “where we should have gone,” meaning the US should have focused its attention on Afghanistan over Iraq.
Source: Tom LoBianco on CNN, “Afghanistan war not a mistake” , Oct 20, 2015
Strengthen military, but act defensively
Q: You say, in personal relations, you’re a counterpuncher. You don’t hit until you are hit. Is that a good way to think about the way you would use military force as a president?
TRUMP: I’m the most militaristic person on your show. I want to have a much stronger military. I want it to be so strong that nobody is going to mess with us. I want to take care of our vets, who are treated terribly, like third-class citizens.
Q: Well, let’s take an example of some case where you may or may not use military force. It turns out Assad apparently used chemical weapons on his own people.
TRUMP: Well, you know, the time to have done it would have been when he drew the line in the sand.
Q: So, you would have done it in that case?
TRUMP: I might have gone in. Now it’s such a mess over there, with everybody involved, and the airspace is very limited. It’s not that big of an area. The airspace is very limited. So are we going to start World War III over Syria?
Source: CBS Face the Nation 2015 interview by Bob Schieffer , Oct 11, 2015
Radical violent Islam that must be feared, not Islam itself
I feel strongly that Muslims are excellent. I know so many Muslims that are such fabulous people. But there is a problem. I mean, there’s no question about it. And, you know, we can be politically correct, and we can say there is no problem whatsoever. But the fact is, there is a problem with some. And it’s a very severe problem. And it’s a problem that’s taking place all over the world. But I have such great respect and love for so many of the people. I mean, they are great people.
Source: Meet the Press 2015 interviews of 2016 presidential hopefuls , Sep 20, 2015
John McCain’s actions in Vietnam were not “heroic”
In a televised interview, Donald Trump–in his assessment of the candidates–wondered aloud about McCain’s war record. Reading the McCain story, Trump opined, one might hesitate to call McCain’s experience “heroic.” Of course, McCain never pointed to his own experience as heroic–quite the contrary. “Incidents of surpassing courage and defiance were commonplace.and they made my own attempts at rebellion seem minor in comparison.” Throughout Faith of My Fathers, McCain referred to the heroism of his comrades, whose actions and bravery, McCain suggests, far exceeded his. He was fortunate to serve in the company of heroes, who lifted up and improved McCain, and the others, by their selfless example.
Source: John McCain: An Essay, by John Karaagac, p.117-118 , Sep 20, 2000
Use force to stop North Korean nuke development
[In a Trump presidency], North Korea would suddenly discover that its worthless promises of civilized behavior would cut no ice. I would let Pyongyang know in no uncertain terms that it can either get out of the nuclear arms race or expect a rebuke similar to the one Ronald Reagan delivered to Ghadhafi in 1986. I don’t think anybody is going to accuse me of tiptoeing through the issues or tap-dancing around them either. Who else in public life has called for a pre-emptive strike on North Korea?
Source: The America We Deserve, by Donald Trump, p.274 , Jul 2, 2000
No humanitarian intervention; only to direct threats
My rules of engagement are pretty simple. If we are going to intervene in a conflict it had better pose a direct threat to our interest- one definition of “direct” being a threat so obvious that most Americans will know where the hot spot is on the globe and will quickly understand why we are getting involved. The threat should be so direct that our leaders, including our president, should be able to make the case clearly and concisely, which has certainly not been the case regarding the terrible events in Yugoslavia.
At the same time, we must not get involved in a long-festering conflict for humanitarian reasons. If that’s our standard, we should have troops stationed all over Africa, and much of Asia as well.
Source: The America We Deserve, by Donald Trump, p.141-42 , Jul 2, 2000
Donald Trump on Middle East
FactCheck: Would shoot Iranian warships too near US warships
Hillary asserted, “The other day, I saw Donald saying that there were some Iranian sailors on a ship in the waters off of Iran, and they were taunting American sailors who were on a nearby ship. He said, ‘you know, if they taunted our sailors, I’d blow them out of the water and start another war.’ That’s not good judgment.” Trump replied, “That would not start a war. No, they were taunting us.” Is it true that he said it as Hillary asserted?
Trump indeed recently said, “With Iran, when they circle our beautiful destroyers with their little boats, and they make gestures at our people that they shouldn’t be allowed to make, they will be shot out of the water.” Wonkette.com reports that on Sept. 4, seven Iranian Revolutionary Guard patrol boats approached the USS Firebolt in the Persian Gulf; one Iranian boat came within 100 yards of the USS Firebolt. Wonkette.com concludes that Trump’s tough talk was cheered by the crowd at the Values Voter Summit, which chanted “USA! USA!” and “Shoot them!”
Source: OnTheIssues FactCheck on First 2016 Presidential Debate , Sep 28, 2016
I have a plan to defeat ISIS, but I won’t broadcast it
Q: Yesterday, you said, “We’re going to convene my top generals and they will have 30 days to submit a plan for soundly and quickly defeating ISIS.” Is the plan you’ve been hiding?
TRUMP: No. But when I do come up with a plan, I may love what the generals come back with.
Q: Do you have a secret plan to defeat ISIS?
TRUMP: I have a plan. But, look, if I win, I don’t want to broadcast to the enemy exactly what my plan is. If I like, maybe, a combination of my plan and the generals’ plan, I’m not going to call you up and say, “We have a great plan.” This is what Obama does: “We’re going to leave Iraq on a certain day.”
CLINTON: We have to defeat ISIS. And we’ve got to do it with air power. We’ve got to do it with much more support for the Arabs and the Kurds who will fight on the ground. We’re going to work to make sure that they have support–surveillance, intelligence, reconnaissance help. They are not going to get ground troops. We are not putting ground troops into Iraq ever again.
Source: NBC News 2016 Commander-in-Chief forum , Sep 7, 2016
I opposed Iraq War in 2004; it destabilized entire Mideast
CLINTON: My opponent was for the war in Iraq. He says he wasn’t. You can go back and look at the record. He supported it. He told Howard Stern he supported it. So he supported it before it happened, and he is on record as supporting it after it happened.
TRUMP: I was totally against the war in Iraq. You can look at Esquire magazine from ’04. You can look at before that. I was against the war in Iraq because I said it’s going to totally destabilize the Middle East, which it has.
USA TODAY Fact-Check: Trump expressed mild support for invading Iraq when asked about it on the Howard Stern radio show on Sept. 11, 2002–about six months before the war started. Stern asked Trump if he supported a war with Iraq, and Trump responded, “Yeah, I guess so.” Trump cited an Esquire article that appeared in August 2004 to show his opposition to the war. But that article appeared 17 months after the war started. The facts don’t support either candidate’s strong assertions.
Source: USA Today Fact-check on 2016 NBC Commander-in-Chief forum , Sep 7, 2016
When we defeated Iraq, we didn’t know what to do after that
I was totally against the war in Iraq. I was against the war in Iraq because I said it’s going to totally destabilize the Middle East, which it has. It has absolutely been a disastrous war.
Part of the problem that we’ve had is we go in, we defeat somebody, and then we don’t know what we’re doing after that. We lose it, like as an example, you look at Iraq, what happened, how badly that was handled. When President Obama took over, it was a disaster. He took everybody out and ISIS was formed. If you look at the aftermath of Iraq, Iran is going to be taking over Iraq.
If we would have taken the oil, you wouldn’t have ISIS, because ISIS formed with the power and wealth of that oil. They have among the largest oil reserves in the world. We go in, we spend $3 trillion, we lose thousands and thousands of lives, and then, we get nothing. It used to be to the victor belong the spoils. I always said: Take the oil.
Source: 2016 NBC Commander-in-Chief forum with Matt Lauer , Sep 7, 2016
Current leadership hurts military; need change to beat ISIS
Under Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the generals have been reduced to rubble. They have been reduced to a point where it’s embarrassing for our country. You have a force of 30,000 or so people. I can see General George Patton spinning in his grave with ISIS we can’t beat. I have great faith in the military. I have great faith in certain of the commanders. But I have no faith in Hillary Clinton. When she starts saying, “Oh, I would have done this,” she’s been there for 30 years.
We have had the worst and you could even say the dumbest foreign policy. Our results are so bad. We would have been better off had we never, ever spent $2 in that part of the world.
I have great respect for the [military leadership] that gave us the [national security] briefings. They were experts on Iraq and Iran and Russia. There was one thing that shocked me. What I did learn is that our leadership, Barack Obama, did not follow what our experts said to do.
Source: 2016 NBC Commander-in-Chief forum with Matt Lauer , Sep 7, 2016
Cease-fire in Syria only if all parties involved
Q: Do you support the ceasefire in Syria?
CRUZ: We’re hopeful that the violence will cease, but there’s reason to be highly skeptical. Russia has enhanced its position because of Obama’s weakness in the Middle East, weakness in Syria.
TRUMP: I don’t because it not working and the countries aren’t agreeing to it and the rebels aren’t agreeing and Syria is not agreeing. It’s a meaningless ceasefire. I would love it, but all parties have to be part of it.
Source: 2016 CNN-Telemundo Republican debate on eve of Texas primary , Feb 25, 2016
FactCheck: Supported Iraq invasion in 2002; opposed in 2003
Trump has claimed that he opposed the Iraq War before the invasion began–as an example of his great judgment. But in a 2002 interview with Howard Stern, Donald Trump said he supported an Iraq invasion. In an interview on Sept. 11, 2002, Stern asked Trump directly if he was for invading Iraq. “Yeah I guess so,” Trump responded. “I wish the first time it was done correctly.”
Trump has repeatedly claimed that he was against the Iraq War before it began, despite no evidence of him publicly stating this position. Trump’s comments on Stern’s show are more in line with what he wrote in his 2000 book, The America We Deserve, where he advocated for a “principled and tough” policy toward “outlaw” states like Iraq.
Asked at the CNN town hall about the Stern interview, Trump said, “I could have said that. I wasn’t a politician. It was probably the first time anyone has asked me that question. By the time the war started, I was against it, and shortly thereafter, I was really against.”
Source: Buzzfeed FactCheck on 2016 CNN GOP Town Hall , Feb 19, 2016
We’ve spent $5T in the Mideast and gotten nothing
Gov. Jeb BUSH: Donald Trump wants to accommodate Russia. Russia is not taking out ISIS. They’re attacking our team, the team that we’ve been training and the team that we’ve been supporting. It is absolutely ludicrous to suggest that Russia could be a positive partner in this. I would restore the military; the sequester needs to be reversed.
Q [to Trump]: You said that you could get along very well with Vladimir Putin. You did say let Russia take care of ISIS.
TRUMP: Jeb is so wrong. You fight ISIS first. You have to knock ’em out. You decide what to do after, you can’t fight two wars at one time. If you listen to him, that’s why we’ve been in the Middle East for 15 years, and we haven’t won anything. We’ve spent $5 trillion dollars in the Middle East with thinking like that. We’ve spent $5 trillion dollars; we have to rebuild our country. We have to rebuild our infrastructure. you listen to that you’re going to be there for another 15 years. You’ll end up with world war three.
Source: 2016 CBS Republican primary debate in South Carolina , Feb 13, 2016
Get rid of ISIS, quickly: dry up their oil & their money
Q: You’ve said, “we’ve got to get rid of ISIS, quickly, quickly.” How?
TRUMP: Well, four years ago, I said, bomb the oil and take the oil. And if we did that, they wouldn’t have the wealth they have right now. Now, we’re doing little pinpricks. If somebody’s driving a truck, they give notice to the person driving the truck, “we’re going to bomb.” If they don’t get out of the truck, the truck sails away with the oil. We don’t want to bomb the oil, because we don’t want to pollute the atmosphere. Can you imagine General Douglas MacArthur or General Patton saying we can’t bomb because we’re gonna hurt the atmosphere? You have to knock the hell out of the oil. And you have also back channels of banking. You have people that you think are our great allies in the Middle East, that are paying tremendous amounts of money to ISIS. So we have to stop those circuits. So between the oil and the banking, you will dry them up. But it should have been done four years ago, not now.
Source: 2016 ABC Republican debate on eve of N.H. primary , Feb 6, 2016
Assad is a bad guy, but his replacement could be worse
Gov. Jeb BUSH: We should have a no fly zone in Syria.
TRUMP: Assad is a bad guy, but we have no idea who the so-called rebels–nobody even knows who they are.
Carly FIORINA: Governor Bush is correct. We must have a no fly zone in Syria.
TRUMP: So, I don’t like Assad. Who’s going to like Assad? But, we have no idea who these people, and what they’re going to be, and what they’re going to represent. They may be far worse than Assad. Look at Libya. Look at Iraq. Look at the mess we have after spending $2 trillion dollars, thousands of lives, wounded warriors all over the place–we have nothing. And, I said, keep the oil. And we should have kept the oil, believe me. We should have kept the oil. And, you know what? We should have given big chunks of the oil to the people that lost their arms, their legs, and their families, and their sons, and daughters, because right now, you know who has a lot of that oil? Iran, and ISIS.
Source: Fox Business/WSJ First Tier debate , Nov 10, 2015
Let Russia make moves in Syria; it’s a quagmire
Q: Let’s turn to ISIS and what should the United States do about it?
TRUMP: But we’re going to have to do something very strong over there. We’re going to have to take away the energy, the fuel, the money from ISIS, because, in the case of ISIS– I’ve been saying this for years. We have to stop the source of money. And the source of money is oil.
Q: So you’d step up the campaign against ISIS even though you believe that Vladimir Putin is getting stuck in a quagmire by going in?
TRUMP: Well, I’m not looking to quagmire, I’m looking to take the oil. The Middle East is one big, fat quagmire. If you look at the Soviet Union, it used to be the Soviet Union. They essentially went bust and it became Russia, a much smaller version, because of Afghanistan. They spent all their money. Now they’re going into Syria. I’m all for Russia going in and knocking and dropping bombs on ISIS. As far as I’m concerned, we don’t have to have exclusivity on that.
Source: ABC This Week 2015 interview by Martha Raddatz , Nov 8, 2015
We should have demanded a deal with Kuwait to liberate them
When Kuwait was attacked by Saddam Hussein, all the wealthy Kuwaitis ran to Paris. They didn’t just rent suites–they took up whole buildings, entire hotels. They lived like kings while their country was occupied.
Who did they turn to for help? Who else? Uncle Sucker. That’s us. We spent billions of dollars sending our army to win back Kuwait. Our people were killed and wounded, but the Iraqis went back to their country.
About two months after the war, several Kuwaitis came up to my office. They told me, “We want to invest outside the United States.” We had just handed them back their country! They were watching TV in the best hotel rooms in Paris while our kids were fighting for them. And they didn’t want to invest in this country?
How stupid are we? Why didn’t the United States make a deal with them that outlined that how they would pay for us to get their country back for them? They would have paid anything if just asked.
Source: Crippled America, by Donald Trump, p. 34-5 , Nov 3, 2015
Good that Russia has entered Syrian conflict
Q: We’ve seen Russia go heavily into Syria this week. Yesterday, Hillary Clinton; today, John Kasich; both say we should establish a no-fly zone in Syria. Would you do that?
TRUMP: I don’t think so. I think what I want to do is I want to sit back and I want to see what happens. You know, Russia got bogged down, when it was the Soviet Union, in Afghanistan. They thought that would be quick and easy and they’ll go in and they’ll clean it up…
Q: You think Putin’s falling into a trap?
TRUMP: I think it’s not going to be great for them, there are so many traps. There are so many problems. When I heard they were going in to fight ISIS, I said, “Great.”
Q: But they’re not bombing ISIS.
TRUMP: Well, not yet. But they don’t want ISIS going into Russia, either. So they’re not bombing them yet.
Source: ABC This Week 2015 interview by Martha Raddatz , Oct 4, 2015
I’m pro-military but I opposed invading Iraq in 2003
TRUMP: I am the only person on this dais that fought very, very hard against us going into Iraq, because I said going into Iraq–that was in 2003, you can check it out–I’ll give you 25 different stories. In fact, a delegation was sent to my office to see me because I was so vocal about it. I’m a very militaristic person, but you have to know when to use the military. I’m the only person up here that fought against going into Iraq.
Sen. Rand PAUL: I’ve made my career as being an opponent of the Iraq War. We have to learn sometimes the interventions backfire. The Iraq War backfired and did not help us. We’re still paying the repercussions of a bad decision.
Dr. Ben CARSON: When the issue occurred in 2003, I suggested to President Bush that he not go to war. So I just want that on the record.
Source: 2015 Republican two-tiered primary debate on CNN , Sep 16, 2015
If Obama had attacked Syria, we wouldn’t have refugees now
Somehow, [President Obama] just doesn’t have courage. There is something missing from our president. Had he crossed the line and really gone in with force, done something to Assad–if he had gone in with tremendous force, you wouldn’t have millions of people displaced all over the world.
Source: 2015 Republican two-tiered primary debate on CNN , Sep 16, 2015
Opposed Iraq war in 2004 & predicted Mideast destabilization
In July of 2004, I came out strongly against the war with Iraq, because it was going to destabilize the Middle East. And I’m the only one on this stage that knew that and had the vision to say it. And that’s exactly what happened. And the Middle East became totally destabilized.
Source: Fox News/Facebook Top Ten First Tier debate transcript , Aug 6, 2015
Disgraceful deal gives Iran a lot & gets nothing for us
Q: On Obama’s Iranian nuclear deal?
TRUMP: I would be so different from what you have right now. Like, the polar opposite. We have a president who doesn’t have a clue. I would say he’s incompetent, but I don’t want to do that because that’s not nice. But if you look at the deals we make, whether it’s the nuclear deal with 24 hour periods–and by the way, before you get to the 24 hours, you have to go through a system. You look at Sgt. Bergdahl, we get Bergdahl, a traitor, and they get 5 of the big, great killer leaders that they want. We have people in Washington that don’t know what they’re doing. Now, with Iran, we’re making a deal, you would say, we want out our prisoners. We want all these things, and we don’t get anything. We’re giving them $150 billion dollars plus. I’ll tell you what, if Iran was a stock, you folks should go out and buy it right now because you’ll quadruple–this, what’s happening in Iran, is a disgrace, and it’s going to lead to destruction in large portions of the world
Source: Fox News/Facebook Top Ten First Tier debate transcript , Aug 6, 2015
Bomb the oil fields in Iraq to take on ISIS
Q: You said you want to bomb the oil fields in Iraq to take on ISIS?
A: The only way you’re going to beat them is that. You know why they’re rich? Because they have the oil.
Q: But I don’t think the government of Iraq would want us to bomb their oil fields.
A: There is no government in Iraq. The so-called government in Iraq went to Iran to meet with Iran. Iran is going to take over Iraq. That’s as simple as that. I don’t care about the government of Iraq. They’re totally corrupt. Who cares?
Source: CNN SOTU 2015 interview series: 2016 presidential hopefuls , Jun 28, 2015
Boots on the ground to fight ISIS
What does Donald Trump believe? Islamic State and Iraq: Send a limited number of combat troops on the ground.
In early 2015, Trump told CPAC that he felt the U.S. may need “boots on the ground” to fight the Islamic State. Soon after, he clarified to Fox News that he would send limited numbers of troops if all of his military advisers recommended it.
Source: PBS News Hour “2016 Candidate Stands” series , Jun 16, 2015
I said “don’t hit Iraq,” because it destabilized Middle East
I said it very strongly, years ago, I love the military, and I want to have the strongest military that we’ve ever had, and we need it more now than ever. But I said, “Don’t hit Iraq,” because you’re going to totally destabilize the Middle East. Iran is going to take over the Middle East, Iran and somebody else will get the oil, and it turned out that Iran is now taking over Iraq. Think of it. Iran is taking over Iraq, and they’re taking it over big league.
We spent $2 trillion in Iraq, $2 trillion. We lost thousands of lives, thousands in Iraq. We have wounded soldiers all over the place, thousands and thousands of wounded soldiers. And we have nothing. We can’t even go there. We have nothing. And every time we give Iraq equipment, the first time a bullet goes off in the air, they leave it.
Last week, I read 2,300 Humvees–these are big vehicles–were left behind for the enemy. 2,300 sophisticated vehicles, they ran, and the enemy took them.
Source: 2015 announcement speeches of 2016 presidential hopefuls , Jun 16, 2015
Hit ISIS hard and fast
From the dispute over funding the Department of Homeland Security (“the answer is ‘we’re going to fund, we’re going to keep doing it”), to repealing ObamaCare (“which is a total lie”), Trump just wants to see a more aggressive approach.
When asked about ISIS, Trump said he “would hit them so hard and so fast that they wouldn’t know what happened.” He later claimed his approach would be one that historical military figures General Douglas McArthur and General George Patton would approve of.
Source: CBS News on 2015 Conservative Political Action Conf. , Feb 27, 2015
Take $1.5T in oil from Iraq to pay for US victims
Mr. Trump said that the United States should “take” $1.5 trillion worth of oil from Iraq to pay for the cost of the war and give $1 million to each of the families that lost someone in the effort– sparking applause from the thousands gathered for the American Conservative Union’s 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
Source: 2013 Conservative Political Action Conf. in Washington Times , Mar 15, 2013
Iraq should pick up the tab for their own liberation
When you do someone a favor, they say thank you. When you give someone a loan, they pay you back. And when a nation like the US sacrifices thousands of lives of its own young servicemen and women and more than a trillion dollars to bring freedom to the people of Iraq, the least the Iraqis should do is pick up the tab for their own liberation.
How much is it worth to them to be rid of the bloodthirsty dictatorship of Saddam Hussein and to have gained a democracy? In reality, that’s a priceless gift. When I say they should pay us back, I’m not even talking about cash out of their pockets. All I’m asking is that they give us, temporarily, a few flows of oil–enough to help pay us back and help take care of the tens of thousands of families and children whose brave loved ones died or were injured while securing Iraqi freedom.
But does Iraq do that? No. In fact, they’ve made it clear they have no intention of ever doing so. Ever. The ingratitude of Iraq’s leadership is breathtaking.
Source: Time to Get Tough, by Donald Trump, p. 9-10 , Dec 5, 2011
Stop Iran’s nuclear programs by any & all means necessary
America’s primary goal with Iran must be to destroy its nuclear ambitions. Let me put them as plainly as I know how: Iran’s nuclear program must be stopped–by any and all means necessary. Period. We cannot allow this radical regime to acquire a nuclear weapon that they will either use or hand off to terrorists. Better now than later!
Pres. Bush authorized a covert program to “undermine the electrical and computer systems” at Natanz, Iran’s uranium enrichment facility. What came out of that initiative was the Stuxnet cyber worm. It was unleashed against Iran’s nuclear centrifuges and made them spin so fast they destroyed themselves. The operation was very successful and destroyed roughly 1/5 of Iran’s centrifuges. No one knows for sure how many months or years we put back on Iran’s nuclear clock. Some analysts say 6 months, others 1 or 2 years, But that’s the point: the clock is still ticking.
Source: Time to Get Tough, by Donald Trump, p. 98 , Dec 5, 2011
Support Israel, our unsinkable Mideast aircraft carrier
The U.S. must continue to nurture and safeguard our special relationship with the state of Israel. This relationship must remain the cornerstone of our policy tactics through the entire Middle-East region, as it has been for administrations of both parties for more than half a century.
Why do we have this special relationship? It is not out of charity, guilt, or what some call “ethnic lobbies.” We have been there for Israel because Israel is there for us. Israel is a stable democracy in a region filled with dictatorship.
As Israel has matured, our close ties also bring America a fair trading partner and a fellow pioneer on the high-tech frontier of medicine and communications that will enrich Americans’ lives in the coming century. Our two countries must continue to stand strong together as pillars of freedom and progress.
Source: The America We Deserve, by Donald Trump, p.132-33 , Jul 2, 2000
Cloggie on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 12:36 pm
“the permanent government, which is run by the beaurocrats and other civil service positions remain firmly in place
The Putin example showed that it is very well possible to sabotage a power structure.
Trump will replace the old guard with people of his own.
But the best way to “drain the swamp” is to open a real 9/11-investigation and frontally attack the neocons who organized that event.
Alice Friedemann on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 12:39 pm
And Hillary was the most evil? Huh? As late-night TV host Seth Meyers said:
“Do you pick someone who’s under federal investigation for using a private email server?
Or do you pick someone who called Mexicans rapists, claimed the president was born in Kenya, proposed banning an entire religion from entering the US, mocked a disabled reporter, said John McCain wasn’t a war hero because he was captured, attacked the parents of a fallen soldier, bragged about committing sexual assault, was accused by 12 women of committing sexual assault, said some of those women weren’t attractive for him to sexually assault, said more countries should get nukes, said that he would force the military to commit war crimes, said a judge was biased because his parents were Mexicans, said women should be punished for having abortions, incited violence at his rallies, called global warming a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese, called for his opponent to be jailed, declared bankruptcy six times, bragged about not paying income taxes, stiffed his contractors and employees, lost a billion dollars in one year, scammed customers at his fake university, bought a six-foot-tall painting of himself with money from his fake foundation, has a trial for fraud coming up in November, insulted an opponent’s looks, insulted an opponent’s wife’s looks, and bragged about grabbing women by the pussy? How do you choose?”
And Seth Meyers left out a few things out: breaking casino rules, antitrust violations, bilking condo buyers, suing journalists to intimidate them, hiring undocumented Polish workers and then stiffing them out of the below minimum wages he’d promised, hiring undocumented models, hanging out with gangsters and mafias (casino owners can’t do that) and so on.
This should have been a moment of clarity as when Joseph Welch told McCarthy, live on ABC television in 1954, “Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” and suddenly people woke up to the evils of right-wing McCarthyism and made it go away.
Roy Cohn was the main architect of McCarthyism and responsible for the most ruined lives and blacklisting. Roy Cohn was also one of Trumps best friends and lawyers.
Cloggie on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 12:40 pm
Alice Friedmann says: there’s plenty of evidence that Trump is the warmonger.
But not against Russia and that’s what counts most for the survival of the planet.
Cloggie on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 12:42 pm
And Hillary was the most evil? Huh?
Top 100 most damaging wikileaks revelations concerning Klinton:
http://www.mostdamagingwikileaks.com/
Plantagenet on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 12:57 pm
President obama got it right—he just said, “We’re all on the same team.”
Cheers!
Davy on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 1:08 pm
Pen good caution but I feel it is different this time at least to a degree. This was a popular mandate granted with less than 50% of the popular vote. His support base clearly routed the libitards and hypocritical snowflakes. The hijacking of the nation by all those pillars of society you mentioned is likely on hold or diminished. This is the swamp his supporters want drained. It is my thought that many within these pillars want a change too. I imagine new blood wanting a chance at a new agenda. Who knows but that is usually the case in such upsets. Heads will roll behind the scenes you can be sure. Trump is smart enough to know his swamp cleaning campaign is limited but this is a process and more than one man. The process looks to be a shift or a turning.
The other issue is the crisis that was coming with Trump or with Hillary. The 5 pillars you mentioned are not going to stand up to this greater than human existential crisis building globally. Add in a force like Trump and you get maybe a knockout punch. In the past when these pillars were in a growth phase I could see their power undiminished and Trumps days numbered but not today. These pillars have failed miserably and they deserve to fall on their sword. They will clearly be a target now and be reduced because of policy and economics.
The big unknown is what kind of relationship will shake out from a Putin and Trump “meeting of minds”? Imagine the savings this world would realize if we partially demilitarized the US, Russia and NATO as a peace dividend! This is true of China also if the US backs away or reduces its Pacific pivot. It is my feeling everything is different now and not because of Trump and the “conservatard win” but because the establishment has been dealt a blow at the very time in history we are entering. We are in a collapse process economically that is for sure. If someone doesn’t believe that then they are blind. Combine a collapsing economy with a routed establishment and we may see true change.
Let’s thank our lucky stars that Hillary and her war pigs were no let loose in the ME with a fight to pick with Russia. Can you just imagine today the planning the new Hillary admin would be contemplating in revenge for their imagined Russian meddling in their campaign! That bitch was going to get us all killed. We missed that possible end by the narrowest of circumstances. I personally was imagining mushroom clouds going off all around me in the last several months. I live away from any targets but the targets are all around me. It is that kind of scenario which I hope and feel is off the table. If nothing else this Trump peace dividend is a worthy outcome of this entire election. MAD may be off the table. That said let’s see what happens that is just my hopium today.
Sissyfuss on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 1:30 pm
Clogs, what’s your take on the Eurozones’ move to the right and then their attempt to send back the invaders from MENA. Is that feasible or just something from the wish list? Inquiring minds want to know.
marmico on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 1:31 pm
Alice, the trucks are still running. You are full of crap.
Maybe you can join up with Davy Greenacres and take a decade to dig a fence post hole with a teaspoon.
Apneaman on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 1:40 pm
marmi, I hear many of those trucks are sitting idle. No demand.
Trucking Companies Pare Down Their Fleets Amid Tepid Shipping Demand
http://www.wsj.com/articles/trucking-companies-pare-down-their-fleets-amid-tepid-shipping-demand-1477738805
Anonymous on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 1:58 pm
What ‘team’ is that you are all supposed to be on, plantard? Oh, I get it Team AMERIKA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyrNktD_PwA
You had ‘fun’ blaming something called the ‘obama administration, or alternately just ‘obama’ for everything from halitosis, to sunspots, nonstop for years. Like a broken fkn record.
Now, you figure you’re on ‘the same team’. The only ‘team’ down there is Team 1%, and you’re not on it Plantafknmoron.
Rob on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 2:17 pm
I voted 3rd party. In Wisconsin. Couldn’t vote for either. Probably leaned a little Trump…can’t stand Hillary. Looks like my state didn’t show up to vote…numbers were down from 2012 up here… oh well. Now lets see what happens.