JimofPennsylvan
Platinum Member
- Jun 6, 2007
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Peggy Noonan one of the nation's best editorial writers yesterday wrote an editorial on the Trump phenomenon focusing on what is new in President Donald Trump's second term in some analysis she was spot on and in others she missed the mark but I think it is worthwhile to consider the article because President Trump is having a profound effect on America and the world that in some way will be permanent! First she said in an accurate metaphor that Trump 2 is a combination of all three Corleone brothers in the Godfather movies the hothead Sonny, Trump using prosecution by the Department of Justice as a punitive tool against his enemies, the ruthless and outstandingly sharp war leader Michael, Trump corralling the Big Beautiful Bill into law that is an abomination with its many tax loopholes and that will throw millions of needy Americans off the Food Stamp rolls and dangerously squeeze the nations hospitals vis-a-vis Medicaid payments, and out-in-left-field Fredo what's with this borderline obsession of Trump with the Nobel Peace prize he is the leader of the greatest country in the world and that history has known America's Presidents conduct foreign policy based on principle pursuit of a medal or prize it is so undignified it is rather unbelievable!
The "Second difference: In his first term Mr. Trump tested boundaries; ---- Now he operates as if he sees no boundaries. In the first term there was a sense he didn't quite know what was constitutional and needed to be told. Now there is a sense he doesn't really care,". This pursuit of Greenland by Trump is a perfect example, Greenland is part of the sovereign territory of Denmark it is a clear violation of international law to take Greenland by force there is no gray area here. Trump says America needs Greenland for national security, Greenland and Denmark will let Trump build any base or locate any national security resource he wants on Greenland; everybody by now has got Trump's number he said Venezuela was all about stopping drugs and guns being trafficked into America and after he took out its leader Maduro we learned it was primarily about Venezuelan oil and Greenland is the same deal in truth it is all about Greenland's natural resources which America will be able to exploit if it owns Greenland! Let's everybody be honest here Donald J. Trump has crossed the Rubicon he has become an Authoritarian Leader he does not consider himself continually restrained by the rule-of-law and a Constitutional framework as a President should! It is clearly evident whether it is his bombing of Iran and future plans of bombing Iran without Congressional approval, extrajudicial killing of Venezuelan drug smugglers, his efforts to send National Guard units into American cities to fight crime against the wishes of the respective communities, putting his name on a Presidential memorial the American people hold very dear, etc..
I think Ms. Noonan has it wrong when she says that many Americans who are opponents of Trump are embittered at those Americans that voted for Trump that stuck
America with this amoral egomaniac in the White House and hold a palpable dislike and ill will toward these Americans! I am a politically center right American that voted against Trump all three times he ran I always saw him as unfit to do the job the first time he ran for office every couple weeks he would say something really outrageous proving he wasn't up to the job and he was always permitted to walk it back sorry not in my book campaigns are a process where you show you will do a good job it doesn't entail getting endless mulligans; Trump would say things like I will be withdrawing from NATO or on the nation's debt just give the bondholders a big haircut and many other things showing he didn't have the judgment for the job. For the last election I thought many of Trump's new policy issues were just blatant pandering for votes in favor of good public policy; no taxes on tips why should tip workers get a pass on paying taxes many non-tip workers work just as hard, no taxes on Social Security income some seniors are very wealthy why should these Americans get a pass when many middle income seniors are paying taxes on their pension income from private companies and why all of a sudden do cryptocurrency assets now hold no drawbacks and danger - these damn things are so volatile there should be a ban on issuances of new ones and Congress should pass a law that when existing ones drop so low for a specific length of time the Treasury should buy the outstanding float and retire these ticking time bomb assets. I hold no ill will toward voters that voted for Trump our current political system is dysfunctional, example, the current globalization economic model is evil a nation's government's duty is to create good paying jobs for its people and many domestic manufacturing industries provided such jobs and these industries should be protected at least to the sixty percent level from foreign coopetition our current government fails on this duty. In the last election the Biden administration was a disaster on the inflation and affordability front so I cannot fault anyone for voting for Trump especially because I believe most of these voters were voting to elect Trump One who no longer exists! Secondly, Ms. Noonan alleges essentially that many of Trump supporters resent the haves because they are have-nots and that is a common American trait, this type of resentment. Overall, I don't think the American people are a resentful people I don't think they resent those that have experienced success in America for that is one of the reasons these and all Americans are proud of their country it offers upward mobility to anyone and I think the vast majority of Americans feel blessed to live and be citizens in this country and they make the best of their situation in life like one would expect people of good character to do!
What to do about this current President who is an authoritarian and who is often acting extremely out of control to the effect of causing great and long lasting harm? I think our fate as a nation rests with the political class of America meaning not only the politicians that hold elected office but the staff that works in government and the analysts and experts that influence Americans through media appearances and people that work in political parties and all the money people that work in politics (those involved in raising, giving and spending the enormous amount of money that moves throughout the political system). America need to see at least a handful of Republican Senators send a letter to President Trump it would be really great if Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune signed on telling President Trump we have had it with your authoritarianism and your ignoring of America's laws and virtuous norms we are not confirming any more of your extremists candidate no more unqualified candidates no more Pete Hegseths no more Robert Kennedy; and the candidate that you send up to the Hill to be confirmed as the next Fed Chair better not say he thinks like you he better say he believes and will carry out the Federal Reserve Board's dual mandate based on the state of the economy giving careful consideration to the economic metrics regularly reported on the economy and doesn't and won't give a rats butt about what the President of the United States thinks or wants done related to these matters. The nation also needs the nation's Secretaries to act like good Secretaries the Attorney General needs to tell the President you aren't the Chief Law Enforcement officer in the nation I am and you are not to be involved in the Department's investigations and whether it files suits and how it handles those suits, the Secretary of Homeland Security needs to issue and implement policies where the Department is going to stop terrorizing communities in enforcing the nation's immigration laws no going to Churches or schools or community social events seeking to arrest illegal immigrants no policy of pursuing targets of opportunities asking for identification from occupants of motor vehicles and people on the street in a community. By all means implement warrants against people named in the warrants by all means do employment enforcement and other long standing widely accepted immigration practices. The Secretary of the Interior needs to green light all wind power farms that had received significant permits up to the time President Trump was sworn in as President last year basic fairness calls for it and the nation needs this power generation and desperately so! Government Boards in the Federal Government need to stand up and do the right thing, the President's will be damned! President Trump has said at some point he is going to have to get involved in the sale of Warner Brothers Discovery the studio, programming and cable channel corporation where Netflix and Paramount are in a battle to buy it like King Solomon Trump is going to resolve the matter for America, he needs to stay the hell out of it he is not versed enough in the law to make regulatory rulings in this area and the Federal Trade Commission needs to say to the public what the President says on this matter has no bearing on the Commission's decisions here. There is no issue here to deliberate on America has six major TV News outlets, that is entities with the resources to readily and really cover news stories especially ones that politically affect the nation and that is: ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MS NOW and FOX news. Paramount currently owns CBS and Warner Brothers Discovery currently own CNN the Federal Trade Commission cannot let Paramount also take ownership of CNN which would happen if they are permitted to buy Warner Bros. Discovery because it would be a consolidation amongst TV news media outlets that would undermine freedom of the Press in the nation, a precious asset of America, especially since CBS has recently taken a sharp turn towards pro-establishment, pro-powers-to-be with the recent appointment of Bari Weiss as the leader of CBS news!
The "Second difference: In his first term Mr. Trump tested boundaries; ---- Now he operates as if he sees no boundaries. In the first term there was a sense he didn't quite know what was constitutional and needed to be told. Now there is a sense he doesn't really care,". This pursuit of Greenland by Trump is a perfect example, Greenland is part of the sovereign territory of Denmark it is a clear violation of international law to take Greenland by force there is no gray area here. Trump says America needs Greenland for national security, Greenland and Denmark will let Trump build any base or locate any national security resource he wants on Greenland; everybody by now has got Trump's number he said Venezuela was all about stopping drugs and guns being trafficked into America and after he took out its leader Maduro we learned it was primarily about Venezuelan oil and Greenland is the same deal in truth it is all about Greenland's natural resources which America will be able to exploit if it owns Greenland! Let's everybody be honest here Donald J. Trump has crossed the Rubicon he has become an Authoritarian Leader he does not consider himself continually restrained by the rule-of-law and a Constitutional framework as a President should! It is clearly evident whether it is his bombing of Iran and future plans of bombing Iran without Congressional approval, extrajudicial killing of Venezuelan drug smugglers, his efforts to send National Guard units into American cities to fight crime against the wishes of the respective communities, putting his name on a Presidential memorial the American people hold very dear, etc..
I think Ms. Noonan has it wrong when she says that many Americans who are opponents of Trump are embittered at those Americans that voted for Trump that stuck
America with this amoral egomaniac in the White House and hold a palpable dislike and ill will toward these Americans! I am a politically center right American that voted against Trump all three times he ran I always saw him as unfit to do the job the first time he ran for office every couple weeks he would say something really outrageous proving he wasn't up to the job and he was always permitted to walk it back sorry not in my book campaigns are a process where you show you will do a good job it doesn't entail getting endless mulligans; Trump would say things like I will be withdrawing from NATO or on the nation's debt just give the bondholders a big haircut and many other things showing he didn't have the judgment for the job. For the last election I thought many of Trump's new policy issues were just blatant pandering for votes in favor of good public policy; no taxes on tips why should tip workers get a pass on paying taxes many non-tip workers work just as hard, no taxes on Social Security income some seniors are very wealthy why should these Americans get a pass when many middle income seniors are paying taxes on their pension income from private companies and why all of a sudden do cryptocurrency assets now hold no drawbacks and danger - these damn things are so volatile there should be a ban on issuances of new ones and Congress should pass a law that when existing ones drop so low for a specific length of time the Treasury should buy the outstanding float and retire these ticking time bomb assets. I hold no ill will toward voters that voted for Trump our current political system is dysfunctional, example, the current globalization economic model is evil a nation's government's duty is to create good paying jobs for its people and many domestic manufacturing industries provided such jobs and these industries should be protected at least to the sixty percent level from foreign coopetition our current government fails on this duty. In the last election the Biden administration was a disaster on the inflation and affordability front so I cannot fault anyone for voting for Trump especially because I believe most of these voters were voting to elect Trump One who no longer exists! Secondly, Ms. Noonan alleges essentially that many of Trump supporters resent the haves because they are have-nots and that is a common American trait, this type of resentment. Overall, I don't think the American people are a resentful people I don't think they resent those that have experienced success in America for that is one of the reasons these and all Americans are proud of their country it offers upward mobility to anyone and I think the vast majority of Americans feel blessed to live and be citizens in this country and they make the best of their situation in life like one would expect people of good character to do!
What to do about this current President who is an authoritarian and who is often acting extremely out of control to the effect of causing great and long lasting harm? I think our fate as a nation rests with the political class of America meaning not only the politicians that hold elected office but the staff that works in government and the analysts and experts that influence Americans through media appearances and people that work in political parties and all the money people that work in politics (those involved in raising, giving and spending the enormous amount of money that moves throughout the political system). America need to see at least a handful of Republican Senators send a letter to President Trump it would be really great if Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune signed on telling President Trump we have had it with your authoritarianism and your ignoring of America's laws and virtuous norms we are not confirming any more of your extremists candidate no more unqualified candidates no more Pete Hegseths no more Robert Kennedy; and the candidate that you send up to the Hill to be confirmed as the next Fed Chair better not say he thinks like you he better say he believes and will carry out the Federal Reserve Board's dual mandate based on the state of the economy giving careful consideration to the economic metrics regularly reported on the economy and doesn't and won't give a rats butt about what the President of the United States thinks or wants done related to these matters. The nation also needs the nation's Secretaries to act like good Secretaries the Attorney General needs to tell the President you aren't the Chief Law Enforcement officer in the nation I am and you are not to be involved in the Department's investigations and whether it files suits and how it handles those suits, the Secretary of Homeland Security needs to issue and implement policies where the Department is going to stop terrorizing communities in enforcing the nation's immigration laws no going to Churches or schools or community social events seeking to arrest illegal immigrants no policy of pursuing targets of opportunities asking for identification from occupants of motor vehicles and people on the street in a community. By all means implement warrants against people named in the warrants by all means do employment enforcement and other long standing widely accepted immigration practices. The Secretary of the Interior needs to green light all wind power farms that had received significant permits up to the time President Trump was sworn in as President last year basic fairness calls for it and the nation needs this power generation and desperately so! Government Boards in the Federal Government need to stand up and do the right thing, the President's will be damned! President Trump has said at some point he is going to have to get involved in the sale of Warner Brothers Discovery the studio, programming and cable channel corporation where Netflix and Paramount are in a battle to buy it like King Solomon Trump is going to resolve the matter for America, he needs to stay the hell out of it he is not versed enough in the law to make regulatory rulings in this area and the Federal Trade Commission needs to say to the public what the President says on this matter has no bearing on the Commission's decisions here. There is no issue here to deliberate on America has six major TV News outlets, that is entities with the resources to readily and really cover news stories especially ones that politically affect the nation and that is: ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MS NOW and FOX news. Paramount currently owns CBS and Warner Brothers Discovery currently own CNN the Federal Trade Commission cannot let Paramount also take ownership of CNN which would happen if they are permitted to buy Warner Bros. Discovery because it would be a consolidation amongst TV news media outlets that would undermine freedom of the Press in the nation, a precious asset of America, especially since CBS has recently taken a sharp turn towards pro-establishment, pro-powers-to-be with the recent appointment of Bari Weiss as the leader of CBS news!