Donald Trump for President?

you're right, it wouldn't go away. but it would help unite the divide - to see our new President using his platform to bring support to the people being targeted, and not standing with the people inciting violence.

in all truth, i want things to go well for our country under Trump, just like i would with any president of my country. i don't think the apocalypse is here but i'm not going to pretend i'm not worried - i wouldn't be able to if i tried, anyway, my nerves won't allow it right now.

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letterboxd

Almost no President is as extreme as their opponents fear they are or their supporters wish they were.

When did he stand with people inciting violence?

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Letterboxd

i'm saying that would be the case if he were to continue to ignore it.

I suppose. There seems to be a double standard on this front but I digress.

It's a very noble way of looking at things, and I admire that. I saw someone posted on facebook how there were no riots during Obama's wins, with the clear insinuation that those on the Right are more mature, etc., but there weren't riots when Bush won either. Trump is different. No U.S. president that I know ever ran their campaign the way Trump did--in a way that has all the stylings of an intended autocrat.* Plenty of countries have been taken by surprise by such leaders because they didn't want to believe it could happen. Now, the U.S. has plenty of checks in place to keep it from happening, and it certainly won't, but that doesn't mean he can't push the limits, in just the ways and maybe worse, than what Nixon did, for example. We need to be extra vigilant with this guy. Already he's doing things that could be a sign of things to come, such as shutting out the press during his meeting with Obama. It may mean nothing, but it shouldn't be ignored either and just accepted. I, for one, am not going to give him the benefit of the doubt. He hasn't earned it. And after the thrashing Obama has taken for eight years, I'm in no mood to take the high road with a candidate like him. But I promise not to go off the deep end and make more of something than it is. But I have a feeling there will be plenty of legitimate controversies in the next four years we won't need to make up any fantasy ones.

*I'm sure you're thinking I'm just being a doomsayer, but he really did run his campaign in the exact way all dictators do in their ascent to power, even if you and I think he simply used the method to get elected and nothing more.

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I may go back to hating you. It was more fun.

I don't think your outlook is unfair. I am particularly worried about how he will handle things with Iran and the ISIS situation. Things here is where I think the rhetoric gets silly. I am not saying he hasn't said racist things, he has, but that doesn't make him a full blown racist. All the rhetoric on that has been concerning people who are here illegally or trying to come to our country. I disagree with him about immigration, however right now we are fighting the fear mongering straw man. Not only is a mass deportation like the one he talked about logistically impossible but there seems to be this weird fear coming from all minorities that he will just ship them out of the country. He hasn't said anything remotely in that ballpark.

At the start of voting last Tuesday when Hillary was in the lead, I fully expected:

1) Trump to lose by a narrow margin.

2) For Trump to repeat his charges that America had a rigged election (which is a VERY serious charge for any country to be accused of.)

3) For Trump supporters to take to the streets in protest.


Kap, you're a man who understands history, I like that. Too bad so many people don't see the signs of a self styled autocrat in Trump.

I'm not so sure that those checks and balances that are forefathers built into our constitutional government would always prevent a rise of a self styled autocrat. Both Hitler and Mussolini were elected by a democratic vote, but with collusion and quick movement they caught the populace and government off guard and were able to skirt the democratic process. Most people's reaction to a bully is to either to recoil for them thus giving them the time to do what the want...or others levitate to a bully as he seems like a strong, take charge type leader. I am NOT saying Trump is another Hitler or Mussolini but there are troubling similarities in how self centered and autocratically his actions are.

Our government has so much red tape, so many different departments with so many people that Trump could step over the boundaries by claiming executive privilege as past Presidents have done and so get away with much more than he should. Consider that Trump already is on record of wanting more 'gag power' over media, which flies in the face of the 1st Amendment. That is serious stuff folks.

Okay, let's play "prove I'm not in a cult of personality" by laying down some policy markers:



Which of these things (or other things on this list, like bringing back manufacturing jobs) that Trump has promised to do will you criticize him for if/when he doesn't do them?

ohh my god

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Trump Confirms That He Just Googled Obamacare

lol is this like an Onion-styled parody?

Yeah, Andy Borowitz is a satirist.

That had me going for a minute haha

This made me laugh too

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I think the first two are pretty important in regards to why some people voted for him. I think he's going to at least try to follow through.

The third, yea, as happens under any administration.

The fourth, I don't even think he meant it when he said it, and I'd be surprised if people thought he meant it.

The last one, I don't think he'd do something like that, but he could try if there were a wave of serious attacks.

This is not a good start.

Trump faces backlash over appointing Bannon as a top aide, a choice critics say will empower white nationalists

President-elect Donald Trump faces a growing backlash against his decision to name campaign chairman and former head of Breitbart News Stephen K. Bannon as chief strategist at the White House, a choice critics believe will empower white nationalists.
A chorus of advocacy groups, commentators and congressional Democrats denounced Bannon as a proponent of racist, anti-Semitic and misogynistic views as Trump began his first full week as president-elect. Trump named Bannon his chief strategist and senior counselor on Sunday while also appointing Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus to be his chief of staff.

“President-elect Trump’s choice of Steve Bannon as his top aide signals that white supremacists will be represented at the highest levels in Trump’s White House,” said Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), in a statement Sunday night.

“It is easy to see why the KKK views Trump as their champion when Trump appoints one of the foremost peddlers of White Supremacist themes and rhetoric as his top aide. Bannon was ‘the main driver behind Breitbart becoming a white ethno-nationalist propaganda mill,’ according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.”

The statement echoed sentiments from leaders of the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, other Capitol Hill Democrats and some Republican Trump critics such as Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, who tweeted: “Is there precedent for such a disreputable & unstable extremist in [White House] senior ranks before Bannon?”

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politi...cQv?li=BBnb7Kz

This is by far the best email joke fwd: I've received on the topic...

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"I may be rancid butter, but I'm on your side of the bread."
E. K. Hornbeck

It starts:

"THE METAPHOR JUST GOT TEN FEET HIGHER!"

This is so awesome . If Trump got up and said "sorry, guys that was just a metaphor i wasn't actually going to build a wall" he'd gain 50 awesome points from me.

That deserves it's own special "LOL" post.