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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Well, thank you for your always-enlightening posts, SGG. [/snark]

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Well, I've been saying for a while I think there's something not quit right about that man. You don't have a permanent case of hypomania without being a little off. ADHD also crossed my mind, which would explain the difficulties in school, complete lack of filter between brain and mouth, general sleeplessness, and need for attention.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Well, thank you for your always-enlightening posts, SGG. [/snark]

I suppose that the Republican platform comes out of the convention, yes?

So let's see what Trump (versus, to some extent) the rest of the Republicans manage to craft. It should be interesting.

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I think it's time you disabused yourself of that pleasant little fairy tale about our fearless leaders being some sort of surrogate daddy or mommy, laying awake at night thinking about how to protect the kids. HA! In reality, they're thinking about who to sell them to so that they can get a few more shekels in their pockets.

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Originally posted by second:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Well, thank you for your always-enlightening posts, SGG. [/snark]

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Donald Trump’s Ghostwriter Tells What It's Like to Spend 18 Months With Donald Trump
www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-ghostwriter-tells-
all

Schwartz thought that “The Art of the Deal” would be an easy project....For research, he planned to interview Trump on a series of Saturday mornings.... But the discussion was soon hobbled by what Schwartz regards as one of Trump’s most essential characteristics: “He has no attention span.”

....“Trump has been written about a thousand ways from Sunday, but this fundamental aspect of who he is doesn’t seem to be fully understood,” Schwartz told me. “It’s implicit in a lot of what people write, but it’s never explicit—or, at least, I haven’t seen it.1 And that is that it’s impossible to keep him focussed on any topic, other than his own self-aggrandizement, for more than a few minutes, and even then . . . ” Schwartz trailed off, shaking his head in amazement. He regards Trump’s inability to concentrate as alarming in a Presidential candidate. “If he had to be briefed on a crisis in the Situation Room, it’s impossible to imagine him paying attention over a long period of time,” he said.

....[So] he came up with another plan. He would propose eavesdropping on Trump’s life by following him around on the job and, more important, by listening in on his office phone calls....There was not a single call that Trump deemed too private for Schwartz to hear. “He loved the attention,” Schwartz recalls. “If he could have had three hundred thousand people listening in, he would have been even happier.”

This year, Schwartz has heard some argue that there must be a more thoughtful and nuanced version of Donald Trump that he is keeping in reserve for after the campaign. “There isn’t,” Schwartz insists. “There is no private Trump.”

....He then tried to amplify the material he got from Trump by calling others involved in the deals. But their accounts often directly conflicted with Trump’s. “Lying is second nature to him,” Schwartz said. “More than anyone else I have ever met, Trump has the ability to convince himself that whatever he is saying at any given moment is true, or sort of true, or at least ought to be true.”...Schwartz says of Trump, “He lied strategically. He had a complete lack of conscience about it.” Since most people are “constrained by the truth,” Trump’s indifference to it “gave him a strange advantage.”

....Rhetorically, Schwartz’s aim in “The Art of the Deal” was to present Trump as the hero of every chapter, but, after looking into some of his supposedly brilliant deals, Schwartz concluded that there were cases in which there was no way to make Trump look good. So he sidestepped unflattering incidents and details. “I didn’t consider it my job to investigate,” he says.

....As far as Schwartz could tell, Trump spent very little time with his family and had no close friends....“He’d like people when they were helpful, and turn on them when they weren’t. It wasn’t personal. He’s a transactional man—it was all about what you could do for him.”

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Does the USA need in the Oval Office a woman who is a nonstop serial liar who doesn't care about other people and has no interests other than his own self-glorification?

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Does the USA need in the Oval Office a woman who is a nonstop serial liar who doesn't care about other people and has no interests other than his own self-glorification?

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And who is a proven killer?

That's why I'm not voting for Hillary.

*rimshot*

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
Hmmmm ... round in circles, or determinedly over a cliff ... so. hard. to. choose.

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Lastly, since Trump Clinton was a pal of convicted child rapist Jeffrey Epstein, it's not a stretch to think Trump is one too.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Wow, you went there ...

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Lastly, since Trump Clinton was a pal of convicted child rapist Jeffrey Epstein, it's not a stretch to think Trump is one too.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

I was listening on the radio on my way home from work to Cruz and his obdurate refusal to endorse Trump. SECOND, you have such a grudge against Cruz, doesn't it say anything to you that the person you hate so much hates Trump? I mean, if you can judge a person by their friends, can't you judge them by their enemies as well?

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

All this mental activity about "why Trump". No, it's not racism and not it's not authoritarianism. The reason why people are supporting Trump is the same reason why people were supporting Sanders: People are pissed off, and rightly so. They feel - again, rightly so- that the economy is rigged, that they've been betrayed by the political establishment of both parties, and that politics is rigged. They're 100% correct. Right now, anyone who even smells of establishment isn't going to get their vote, and the more outrageous Trump is, the more he proves his dis-establishmentarianism. (Wow, 50 years time since THAT word came up!) People are SO pissed, they'll vote for a pig in a poke over Hillary.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Yanno, the sad thing is, the Democratic Party could have had this in the bag with Sanders. Instead, the Central Committee chose to go with someone who can't even offer the appearance of being halfway honest and somewhat uncorrupted: They decided to run THE most unpopular, corrupt, unsympathetic candidate available, which was Hillary. What is this- some sort of consolation prize for Hillary? Globalists getting their candidate on the ticket? Promises of, or payback for, Hillary fundraising for Dem candidates? Whatever the hell was behind that ridiculous decision, that must have been some backroom deal!

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The final Republican presidential debate of 2015 was held last night at the Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Despite the best efforts of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and others, no one was able to mortally wound the ascendant candidacy of Donald Trump.

Trump launched his bid to win the Republican nomination for the presidency in June 2015, and immediately embarked on a berserker-mode political campaign, in which he’s made provocative statements about Muslims, Mexicans, women and the Chinese.

None of these statements have had any ill effect on his standing in the polls. In fact, Trump’s lead over his rivals has only grown. This flies in the face of conventional wisdom, which holds that his statements should have destroyed his candidacy faster than a tweet from Anthony Weiner.

While he may not have lost any of his political supporters, some of his rhetoric has caused at least some of his business efforts to suffer, and it remains to be seen whether Trump can undo the damage when the smoke clears. Fortune takes a look at some of the business deals that have taken a hit since Donald Trump announced his candidacy.

Univision deal

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Univision, the largest Spanish-language television broadcaster in the United States, announced that in response to these comments, it would not air the 2015 Miss USA Pageant. Furthermore, it would sever ties with Miss Universe Organization co-owner Donald Trump.

NBC cut ties with Trump and canceled plans to air both the Miss USA Pageant and the Miss Universe Pageant, both joint ventures with the real estate mogul. It didn’t stop there either – NBC also nixed any future involvement with Trump’s reality show, “The Celebrity Apprentice.”

NBC cited his statement about Mexican immigrants as its reason for ending its relationship with Trump. The network was also the subject of a Change.org petition with over 200,000 signatures, calling for it to cancel all three shows. Ultimately, the Reelz digital cable network carried the Miss USA broadcast.

Macy’s ... would discontinue its Donald Trump line of menswear in response to his comments. Macy’s had carried the clothing line since 2004, and Trump had appeared in television advertisements for the store.

“We are disappointed and distressed by recent remarks about immigrants from Mexico,” the store said. “Macy’s is a company that stands for diversity and inclusion.”

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Dubai ...Lifestyle lfsyf ...ban[ned] on all of the Trump-branded home décor products in all 195 of its stores.

Turnberry deal

Donald Trump is an avid golfer, and when he bought the legendary Scottish golf course known as Turnberry in 2014 for a rumored $60 million, he did so with the highest of hopes, that in 2020 the course would host the Open Championship. Also known as the Open and the British Open, it all means one thing – one of the major championships in professional golf, and a coup for any course that hosts it.

Until very recently, those with the inside track had said that the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, the sport’s governing authority outside of the U.S., would probably hold the 2020 tournament at Trump Turnberry. However, after he had some harsh words for Muslims, Mexicans, women and China, The Independent on Sunday reported that he could now kiss those dreams goodbye, as one does an errant golf ball that disappears into the horizon

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Friends, delegates and fellow Americans: I humbly and gratefully accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.

Together, we will lead our party back to the White House, and we will lead our country back to safety, prosperity, and peace. We will be a country of generosity and warmth. But we will also be a country of law and order.

Our Convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation. The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life. Any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead our country.

Americans watching this address tonight have seen the recent images of violence in our streets and the chaos in our communities. Many have witnessed this violence personally, some have even been its victims.

I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end. Beginning on January 20th 2017, safety will be restored.

The most basic duty of government is to defend the lives of its own citizens. Any government that fails to do so is a government unworthy to lead.

It is finally time for a straightforward assessment of the state of our nation.

I will present the facts plainly and honestly. We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore.

So if you want to hear the corporate spin, the carefully-crafted lies, and the media myths the Democrats are holding their convention next week.

But here, at our convention, there will be no lies. We will honor the American people with the truth, and nothing else.

Decades of progress made in bringing down crime are now being reversed by this Administration’s rollback of criminal enforcement.

Homicides last year increased by 17% in America’s fifty largest cities. That’s the largest increase in 25 years. In our nation’s capital, killings have risen by 50 percent. They are up nearly 60% in nearby Baltimore.

In the President’s hometown of Chicago, more than 2,000 have been the victims of shootings this year alone. And more than 3,600 have been killed in the Chicago area since he took office.

The number of police officers killed in the line of duty has risen by almost 50% compared to this point last year. Nearly 180,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records, ordered deported from our country, are tonight roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens.

The number of new illegal immigrant families who have crossed the border so far this year already exceeds the entire total from 2015. They are being released by the tens of thousands into our communities with no regard for the impact on public safety or resources.

One such border-crosser was released and made his way to Nebraska. There, he ended the life of an innocent young girl named Sarah Root. She was 21 years-old, and was killed the day after graduating from college with a 4.0 Grade Point Average. Her killer was then released a second time, and he is now a fugitive from the law.

I’ve met Sarah’s beautiful family. But to this Administration, their amazing daughter was just one more American life that wasn’t worth protecting. One more child to sacrifice on the altar of open borders. What about our economy?

Again, I will tell you the plain facts that have been edited out of your nightly news and your morning newspaper: Nearly Four in 10 African-American children are living in poverty, while 58% of African American youth are not employed. 2 million more Latinos are in poverty today than when the President took his oath of office less than eight years ago. Another 14 million people have left the workforce entirely.

Household incomes are down more than $4,000 since the year 2000. Our manufacturing trade deficit has reached an all-time high – nearly $800 billion in a single year. The budget is no better.

President Obama has doubled our national debt to more than $19 trillion, and growing. Yet, what do we have to show for it? Our roads and bridges are falling apart, our airports are in Third World condition, and forty-three million Americans are on food stamps.

Now let us consider the state of affairs abroad.

Not only have our citizens endured domestic disaster, but they have lived through one international humiliation after another. We all remember the images of our sailors being forced to their knees by their Iranian captors at gunpoint.

This was just prior to the signing of the Iran deal, which gave back to Iran $150 billion and gave us nothing – it will go down in history as one of the worst deals ever made. Another humiliation came when president Obama drew a red line in Syria – and the whole world knew it meant nothing.

In Libya, our consulate – the symbol of American prestige around the globe – was brought down in flames. America is far less safe – and the world is far less stable – than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of America’s foreign policy.

I am certain it is a decision he truly regrets. Her bad instincts and her bad judgment – something pointed out by Bernie Sanders – are what caused the disasters unfolding today. Let’s review the record. In 2009, pre-Hillary, ISIS was not even on the map.

Libya was cooperating. Egypt was peaceful. Iraq was seeing a reduction in violence. Iran was being choked by sanctions. Syria was under control. After four years of Hillary Clinton, what do we have? ISIS has spread across the region, and the world. Libya is in ruins, and our Ambassador and his staff were left helpless to die at the hands of savage killers. Egypt was turned over to the radical Muslim brotherhood, forcing the military to retake control. Iraq is in chaos.

Iran is on the path to nuclear weapons. Syria is engulfed in a civil war and a refugee crisis that now threatens the West. After fifteen years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before.

This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction and weakness.

But Hillary Clinton’s legacy does not have to be America’s legacy. The problems we face now – poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad – will last only as long as we continue relying on the same politicians who created them. A change in leadership is required to change these outcomes. Tonight, I will share with you my plan of action for America.

The most important difference between our plan and that of our opponents, is that our plan will put America First. Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo. As long as we are led by politicians who will not put America First, then we can be assured that other nations will not treat America with respect. This will all change in 2017.

The American People will come first once again. My plan will begin with safety at home – which means safe neighborhoods, secure borders, and protection from terrorism. There can be no prosperity without law and order. On the economy, I will outline reforms to add millions of new jobs and trillions in new wealth that can be used to rebuild America.

A number of these reforms that I will outline tonight will be opposed by some of our nation’s most powerful special interests. That is because these interests have rigged our political and economic system for their exclusive benefit.

Big business, elite media and major donors are lining up behind the campaign of my opponent because they know she will keep our rigged system in place. They are throwing money at her because they have total control over everything she does. She is their puppet, and they pull the strings.

That is why Hillary Clinton’s message is that things will never change. My message is that things have to change – and they have to change right now. Every day I wake up determined to deliver for the people I have met all across this nation that have been neglected, ignored, and abandoned.

I have visited the laid-off factory workers, and the communities crushed by our horrible and unfair trade deals. These are the forgotten men and women of our country. People who work hard but no longer have a voice.

I AM YOUR VOICE.

I have embraced crying mothers who have lost their children because our politicians put their personal agendas before the national good. I have no patience for injustice, no tolerance for government incompetence, no sympathy for leaders who fail their citizens.

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When innocent people suffer, because our political system lacks the will, or the courage, or the basic decency to enforce our laws – or worse still, has sold out to some corporate lobbyist for cash – I am not able to look the other way.

And when a Secretary of State illegally stores her emails on a private server, deletes 33,000 of them so the authorities can’t see her crime, puts our country at risk, lies about it in every different form and faces no consequence – I know that corruption has reached a level like never before.

When the FBI Director says that the Secretary of State was “extremely careless” and “negligent,” in handling our classified secrets, I also know that these terms are minor compared to what she actually did. They were just used to save her from facing justice for her terrible crimes.

In fact, her single greatest accomplishment may be committing such an egregious crime and getting away with it – especially when others have paid so dearly. When that same Secretary of State rakes in millions of dollars trading access and favors to special interests and foreign powers I know the time for action has come.

I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves. Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it. I have seen firsthand how the system is rigged against our citizens, just like it was rigged against Bernie Sanders – he never had a chance.

But his supporters will join our movement, because we will fix his biggest issue: trade. Millions of Democrats will join our movement because we are going to fix the system so it works for all Americans. In this cause, I am proud to have at my side the next Vice President of the United States: Governor Mike Pence of Indiana.

We will bring the same economic success to America that Mike brought to Indiana. He is a man of character and accomplishment. He is the right man for the job. The first task for our new Administration will be to liberate our citizens from the crime and terrorism and lawlessness that threatens their communities.

America was shocked to its core when our police officers in Dallas were brutally executed. In the days after Dallas, we have seen continued threats and violence against our law enforcement officials. Law officers have been shot or killed in recent days in Georgia, Missouri, Wisconsin, Kansas, Michigan and Tennessee.

On Sunday, more police were gunned down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Three were killed, and four were badly injured. An attack on law enforcement is an attack on all Americans. I have a message to every last person threatening the peace on our streets and the safety of our police: when I take the oath of office next year, I will restore law and order our country.

I will work with, and appoint, the best prosecutors and law enforcement officials in the country to get the job done. In this race for the White House, I am the Law And Order candidate. The irresponsible rhetoric of our President, who has used the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and color, has made America a more dangerous environment for everyone.

This Administration has failed America’s inner cities. It’s failed them on education. It’s failed them on jobs. It’s failed them on crime. It’s failed them at every level.

When I am President, I will work to ensure that all of our kids are treated equally, and protected equally.

Every action I take, I will ask myself: does this make life better for young Americans in Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Ferguson who have as much of a right to live out their dreams as any other child America?

To make life safe in America, we must also address the growing threats we face from outside America: we are going to defeat the barbarians of ISIS. Once again, France is the victim of brutal Islamic terrorism.

Men, women and children viciously mowed down. Lives ruined. Families ripped apart. A nation in mourning.

The damage and devastation that can be inflicted by Islamic radicals has been over and over – at the World Trade Center, at an office party in San Bernardino, at the Boston Marathon, and a military recruiting center in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Only weeks ago, in Orlando, Florida, 49 wonderful Americans were savagely murdered by an Islamic terrorist. This time, the terrorist targeted our LGBT community. As your President, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBT citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology. To protect us from terrorism, we need to focus on three things.

We must have the best intelligence gathering operation in the world. We must abandon the failed policy of nation building and regime change that Hillary Clinton pushed in Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria. Instead, we must work with all of our allies who share our goal of destroying ISIS and stamping out Islamic terror.

This includes working with our greatest ally in the region, the State of Israel. Lastly, we must immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place.

My opponent has called for a radical 550% increase in Syrian refugees on top of existing massive refugee flows coming into our country under President Obama. She proposes this despite the fact that there’s no way to screen these refugees in order to find out who they are or where they come from. I only want to admit individuals into our country who will support our values and love our people.

Anyone who endorses violence, hatred or oppression is not welcome in our country and never will be.

Decades of record immigration have produced lower wages and higher unemployment for our citizens, especially for African-American and Latino workers. We are going to have an immigration system that works, but one that works for the American people.

On Monday, we heard from three parents whose children were killed by illegal immigrants Mary Ann Mendoza, Sabine Durden, and Jamiel Shaw. They are just three brave representatives of many thousands. Of all my travels in this country, nothing has affected me more deeply than the time I have spent with the mothers and fathers who have lost their children to violence spilling across our border.

These families have no special interests to represent them. There are no demonstrators to protest on their behalf. My opponent will never meet with them, or share in their pain. Instead, my opponent wants Sanctuary Cities. But where was sanctuary for Kate Steinle? Where was Sanctuary for the children of Mary Ann, Sabine and Jamiel? Where was sanctuary for all the other Americans who have been so brutally murdered, and who have suffered so horribly?

These wounded American families have been alone. But they are alone no longer. Tonight, this candidate and this whole nation stand in their corner to support them, to send them our love, and to pledge in their honor that we will save countless more families from suffering the same awful fate.

We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities. I have been honored to receive the endorsement of America’s Border Patrol Agents, and will work directly with them to protect the integrity of our lawful immigration system.

By ending catch-and-release on the border, we will stop the cycle of human smuggling and violence. Illegal border crossings will go down. Peace will be restored. By enforcing the rules for the millions who overstay their visas, our laws will finally receive the respect they deserve.

Tonight, I want every American whose demands for immigration security have been denied – and every politician who has denied them – to listen very closely to the words I am about to say.

On January 21st of 2017, the day after I take the oath of office, Americans will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced. We are going to be considerate and compassionate to everyone.

But my greatest compassion will be for our own struggling citizens. My plan is the exact opposite of the radical and dangerous immigration policy of Hillary Clinton. Americans want relief from uncontrolled immigration. Communities want relief.

Yet Hillary Clinton is proposing mass amnesty, mass immigration, and mass lawlessness. Her plan will overwhelm your schools and hospitals, further reduce your jobs and wages, and make it harder for recent immigrants to escape from poverty.

I have a different vision for our workers. It begins with a new, fair trade policy that protects our jobs and stands up to countries that cheat. It’s been a signature message of my campaign from day one, and it will be a signature feature of my presidency from the moment I take the oath of office.

I have made billions of dollars in business making deals – now I’m going to make our country rich again. I am going to turn our bad trade agreements into great ones. America has lost nearly-one third of its manufacturing jobs since 1997, following the enactment of disastrous trade deals supported by Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Remember, it was Bill Clinton who signed NAFTA, one of the worst economic deals ever made by our country.

Never again.

I am going to bring our jobs back to Ohio and to America – and I am not going to let companies move to other countries, firing their employees along the way, without consequences.

My opponent, on the other hand, has supported virtually every trade agreement that has been destroying our middle class. She supported NAFTA, and she supported China’s entrance into the World Trade Organization – another one of her husband’s colossal mistakes.

She supported the job killing trade deal with South Korea. She has supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The TPP will not only destroy our manufacturing, but it will make America subject to the rulings of foreign governments. I pledge to never sign any trade agreement that hurts our workers, or that diminishes our freedom and independence. Instead, I will make individual deals with individual countries.

No longer will we enter into these massive deals, with many countries, that are thousands of pages long – and which no one from our country even reads or understands. We are going to enforce all trade violations, including through the use of taxes and tariffs, against any country that cheats.

This includes stopping China’s outrageous theft of intellectual property, along with their illegal product dumping, and their devastating currency manipulation. Our horrible trade agreements with China and many others, will be totally renegotiated. That includes renegotiating NAFTA to get a much better deal for America – and we’ll walk away if we don’t get the deal that we want. We are going to start building and making things again.

Next comes the reform of our tax laws, regulations and energy rules. While Hillary Clinton plans a massive tax increase, I have proposed the largest tax reduction of any candidate who has declared for the presidential race this year – Democrat or Republican. Middle-income Americans will experience profound relief, and taxes will be simplified for everyone.

America is one of the highest-taxed nations in the world. Reducing taxes will cause new companies and new jobs to come roaring back into our country. Then we are going to deal with the issue of regulation, one of the greatest job-killers of them all. Excessive regulation is costing our country as much as $2 trillion a year, and we will end it. We are going to lift the restrictions on the production of American energy. This will produce more than $20 trillion in job creating economic activity over the next four decades.

My opponent, on the other hand, wants to put the great miners and steel workers of our country out of work – that will never happen when I am President. With these new economic policies, trillions of dollars will start flowing into our country.

This new wealth will improve the quality of life for all Americans – We will build the roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, and the railways of tomorrow. This, in turn, will create millions more jobs. We will rescue kids from failing schools by helping their parents send them to a safe school of their choice.

My opponent would rather protect education bureaucrats than serve American children. We will repeal and replace disastrous Obamacare. You will be able to choose your own doctor again. And we will fix TSA at the airports! We will completely rebuild our depleted military, and the countries that we protect, at a massive loss, will be asked to pay their fair share.

We will take care of our great Veterans like they have never been taken care of before. My opponent dismissed the VA scandal as being not widespread – one more sign of how out of touch she really is. We are going to ask every Department Head in government to provide a list of wasteful spending projects that we can eliminate in my first 100 days. The politicians have talked about it, I’m going to do it. We are also going to appoint justices to the United States Supreme Court who will uphold our laws and our Constitution.

The replacement for Justice Scalia will be a person of similar views and principles. This will be one of the most important issues decided by this election. My opponent wants to essentially abolish the 2nd amendment. I, on the other hand, received the early and strong endorsement of the National Rifle Association and will protect the right of all Americans to keep their families safe.

At this moment, I would like to thank the evangelical community who have been so good to me and so supportive. You have so much to contribute to our politics, yet our laws prevent you from speaking your minds from your own pulpits.

An amendment, pushed by Lyndon Johnson, many years ago, threatens religious institutions with a loss of their tax-exempt status if they openly advocate their political views.

I am going to work very hard to repeal that language and protect free speech for all Americans. We can accomplish these great things, and so much else – all we need to do is start believing in ourselves and in our country again. It is time to show the whole world that America Is Back – bigger, and better and stronger than ever before.

In this journey, I'm so lucky to have at my side my wife Melania and my wonderful children, Don, Ivanka, Eric, Tiffany, and Barron: you will always be my greatest source of pride and joy. My Dad, Fred Trump, was the smartest and hardest working man I ever knew. I wonder sometimes what he’d say if he were here to see this tonight.

It’s because of him that I learned, from my youngest age, to respect the dignity of work and the dignity of working people. He was a guy most comfortable in the company of bricklayers, carpenters, and electricians and I have a lot of that in me also. Then there’s my mother, Mary. She was strong, but also warm and fair-minded. She was a truly great mother. She was also one of the most honest and charitable people I have ever known, and a great judge of character.

To my sisters Mary Anne and Elizabeth, my brother Robert and my late brother Fred, I will always give you my love you are most special to me. I have loved my life in business.

But now, my sole and exclusive mission is to go to work for our country – to go to work for all of you. It’s time to deliver a victory for the American people. But to do that, we must break free from the petty politics of the past.

America is a nation of believers, dreamers, and strivers that is being led by a group of censors, critics, and cynics.

Remember: all of the people telling you that you can’t have the country you want, are the same people telling you that I wouldn’t be standing here tonight. No longer can we rely on those elites in media, and politics, who will say anything to keep a rigged system in place.

Instead, we must choose to Believe In America. History is watching us now.

It’s waiting to see if we will rise to the occasion, and if we will show the whole world that America is still free and independent and strong.

My opponent asks her supporters to recite a three-word loyalty pledge. It reads: “I’m With Her”. I choose to recite a different pledge.

My pledge reads: “I’M WITH YOU – THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.”

I am your voice.

So to every parent who dreams for their child, and every child who dreams for their future, I say these words to you tonight: I’m With You, and I will fight for you, and I will win for you.

To all Americans tonight, in all our cities and towns, I make this promise: We Will Make America Strong Again.

We Will Make America Proud Again.

We Will Make America Safe Again.

And We Will Make America Great Again.

THANK YOU.

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Originally posted by reaverfan:
He's mighty short on specifics.

To wonks hungry for policy details, Trump team serves lighter fare
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-policy-idUSKCN10209T?fe
edType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FPoliticsNews+%28Reuters+Politics+News%29

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

I don't like everything that Trump said, but I like the general direction that he's pointing: AMERICAN FIRST.

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You can’t con people, at least not for long. You can create excitement, you can do wonderful promotion and get all kinds of press, and you can throw in a little hyperbole. But if you don’t deliver the goods, people will eventually catch on.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Sounds like the Obama tenure. I didn't vote for him the second time around either.

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Who did you vote for?

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Who did you vote for?

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As it turns out, Obama had a lock on CA anyway. My vote REALLY didn't count, so I was free to vote a protest vote, so I voted for Jill Stein. I figured that's more effective than not voting, and if I'm going to add my vote to any tally under those circumstances it made sense to add it to a smaller party and make a larger % difference.

ETA: If the polling had been closer, I'm not sure who I would have voted for, but probably Jill Stein anyway.

So, as I mentioned in another thread, I'll be away a lot more. Have fun!

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Who else did you vote for besides Jill Stein? Because if you voted for other Green Party candidates, you really sent a protest that was noticed.

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Originally posted by 1kiki:

You may not have noticed , but both of CA's senators are democrats. Feinstein was elected with 62.5% of the vote vs Elizabeth Emken with 37.5% (Feinstein's war-hawk, pro-Israel stance boosted her numbers, as did Emken's unknown, under-funded status), Boxer with 52.2% vs (the uber-wealthy, well-funded and well-known) Fiorina with 42.2%. There was NOTHING riding on those votes.

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Originally posted by 1kiki:

And that says a lot about who she really represents, which a lot of people very correctly interpret. Of course, second, you could continue to blame the hundreds of thousands of former democrats for being insufficiently fervent in their worship of the DNC over the last 30 years. Or you could examine the failure of the DNC to rise to the challenge of being able to fairly represent the people of the US.

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-poll-idUSKCN1022ES
Trump pulls nearly even with Clinton after Republican convention: Reuters/Ipsos poll

If only it wasn't for those damn voters, looking for a candidate who at least says they'll represent them, Hillary could get her uncontested coronation! Right second?

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
"The labor participation rate has dropped under Obama, from 65.7 percent in 2009 to 62.7 percent, but experts say just over half of the post-1999 decline in the participation rate comes from the retirement of the baby boomers. Economists estimate that just 15 percent of the drop in the labor force stems from people who want a job and are of prime working age (25-54)."

Wait, am I to understand that if I retire because I can't find work, or if I'm between 55 and 65 and can't find a job, and I leave the labor force, I don't count? Especially when it's older workers who will have the most difficulties finding new work? It's crap like this that has people so disgusted with the same-old-same-old, second. It's being discounted and ignored by officialdom that people resent.

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
"If you don't like Feinstein and Boxer, do California a favor and vote against them in the primary. That won't work? Not quick or practical enough for you? The Democrats will run different candidates if Feinstein and Boxer become Gabrielle Giffords."

You completely misunderstood my post, second. What I was pointing out is that here in California, Signy can vote her conscience - or at least vote to send a message.

But your misunderstanding is illuminating. I can see you're an unhinged fanatic for the cause. Because people freely exercising their free vote - as a way to note their disgust with the democrats who sold them out ages ago - and to put pressure on democrats to change - is, according to you, just one step behind attempted assassination.

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But your misunderstanding is illuminating. I can see you're an unhinged fanatic for the cause. Because people freely exercising their free vote - as a way to note their disgust with the democrats who sold them out ages ago - and to put pressure on democrats to change - is, according to you, just one step behind attempted assassination.- KIKI

Or you could vote in the Primary election for anyone but Boxer and Feinstein. [

Or put hundreds of bumper stickers on cars parked in shopping malls protesting Boxer and Feinstein.

Or be Zoe and shoot to wound Boxer and Feinstein.

Or Jayne and shoot to kill. You did watch Firefly, didn't you? Were you horrified by the violence and calmed yourself by saying it's only TV, it's only TV?

It's your choice of how to protest against the democrats. But voting for Trump is not a protest against the Democratic Party. It is supporting Republicans.

Voting for Green Party is not a protest against Democrats. It is the same as not voting.

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Originally posted by second:

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-poll-idUSKCN1022ES
Trump pulls nearly even with Clinton after Republican convention: Reuters/Ipsos poll

If only it wasn't for those damn voters, looking for a candidate who at least says they'll represent them, Hillary could get her uncontested coronation! Right second?

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Trump can say anything his audience wants and they don't care if it is true or not. They want promises of violence: water boarding, killing Hillary, bombing Arabs. That is their Trump representing their inner passions.
www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/

Your mention of "uncontested coronation" is not happening. Johnson is predicted to get 8%.
http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/

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Does Rudy Giuliani strike you as an extremist? Or can he be reasoned with?

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There have been many occasions in many countries when the voters got what they wanted, but it didn't turnout as well as the voting majority imagined.

Do you remember the American Civil War? Lincoln had not yet been inaugurated, but South Carolinians could not tolerate Lincoln's election. They had demonized him with their talk of "He will take away our private property! He will destroy the very social fabric holding society together!" South Carolinians did not imagine their inner passions would cause so much damage in their state. If only Lincoln had just minded his own business and stayed in Illinois and left the reasonable and serene people of S Carolina to live life as they have always known it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War#Outbreak_of_the_war

From the safety of 166 years later, I think we know South Carolinians were extremists. Perhaps in your state there is no doubt who started the Civil War and who was in the wrong, but not in Texas where Republicans see merit in the arguments of both sides of the Civil War.

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Today's Republicans are especially concerned about the sanctity of their property. Did you know that slaves were property where Southerners stored their wealth? Kind of like owning real estate and government bonds today.

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Today's Republicans are also very concerned about blacks, Mexicans, and Arabs running free and killing police and nightclub customers. In 1860 the concern was about Lincoln's freed slaves killing plantation owners and white women.

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What’s happening to this country has happened before, in other nations, in other anxious, violent times when all the old certainties peeled away and maniacs took the wheel. It’s what happens when [Trump's] weaponised insincerity is applied to [Republicans'] structured ignorance. Donald Trump is the Gordon Gekko of the attention economy, but even he is no longer in control. This culture war is being run in bad faith by bad actors who are running way off-script, and it’s barely begun, and there are going to be a lot of refugees.
https://medium.com/welcome-to-the-scream-room/im-with-the-banned-8d1b6
e0b2932#.f7xbs9upp

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Originally posted by second:

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
"The labor participation rate has dropped under Obama, from 65.7 percent in 2009 to 62.7 percent, but experts say just over half of the post-1999 decline in the participation rate comes from the retirement of the baby boomers. Economists estimate that just 15 percent of the drop in the labor force stems from people who want a job and are of prime working age (25-54)."

Wait, am I to understand that if I retire because I can't find work, or if I'm between 55 and 65 and can't find a job, and I leave the labor force, I don't count? Especially when it's older workers who will have the most difficulties finding new work? It's crap like this that has people so disgusted with the same-old-same-old, second. It's being discounted and ignored by officialdom that people resent.

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I can see you are under the impression that a properly run country owes everyone a job. Trump knows that about you and your kind. His campaign sales puffery is about him bringing jobs to America by the force of his personality.

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Actual politicians have difficulty convincing taxpayers and voters that it is worth spending their money to create jobs for losers (of jobs). Hillary talks about spending trillions on infrastructure. That would create millions of jobs in great outdoors, but Hillary will have an impossible task of getting even $275 billion from a Republican controlled congress.
www.nationalreview.com/corner/421239/what-hillary-clinton-gets-wrong-a
bout-infrastructure-reihan-salam

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The Federal government never has felt that it was the employer of last resort, except when FDR was President. Not oddly, FDR was a Democrat. At that time the Republicans were utterly opposed to the Work Projects Administration. Not oddly, the Republican party hasn’t changed much since 1936 as far as creating jobs by building within the USA. There is another way to create jobs, but it requires war.

WWII over revved the economy, which Republicans completely approved of once they saw the benefits. Many fortunes were made from war spending and are still being made. That is second way of creating jobs – by destroying cities.

I’m not certain Americans want more spending on war to create jobs. Check the news, but I don’t think that changed.

I am not certain that millions of Americans want to work at government paid infrastructure jobs because it is outdoors in the heat and cold. Americans want to work in air-conditioned rooms.

I am absolutely certain Americans don’t want the government to just give money to the unemployed.

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Americans hate the unemployed for weird reasons. The hateful majority of Americans limits what a truthful politician can promise to do for the unemployed. An untruthful politician can promise anything, ANYTHING, even to make America great again without spending any taxpayers’ money to do it.

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Then there are Trump's tariffs to create jobs. Eventually citizens would see it for what it really is, just another way to tax them indirectly. Mr Untruthful Trump doesn’t talk about who is paying for his tariff schemes. He is assuming that tariffs won’t need to be paid because just announcing a tariff is more than enough to create millions of American factory jobs. Trump would be wrong about that.

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Over the next decade, nearly 3.5 million manufacturing jobs will likely be needed, and 2 million are expected to go unfilled due to the skills gap. 80 percent of manufacturers report a moderate or serious shortage of qualified applicants for skilled and highly skilled production positions says the National Assoc. of Manuf. That limits how many jobs can be created, unless the Fed government pays to educate factory workers despite the objections of the Republicans about wasting taxpayers’ money on education.
www.nam.org/Newsroom/Top-20-Facts-About-Manufacturing/

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
Hillary is not supposed to be in this position, one of facing a very concerning challenge. How did that happen, second? What did the DNC and Hillary do wrong? What is Donald doing right?

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Originally posted by 1kiki:

You need a tag line, second. Since you're a globalist-Hillary supporter, I suggest 'let them eat cake' or perhaps '“Freedom (n.): To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.'

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
And once again, you seem to think that the only option for creating jobs is massive public spending, and ignore the one simple, common sense thing Hillary could do - which didn't make it into the platform - which is to disavow those 'free' trade agreements. Why is that, second? And why can't you admit that Hillary has genuine, workable, choices in front of her, that could garner her a lot of support from the disenfranchised, choices that are both humane and common sense, choices that should be no-brainers - and that she and the DNC refuse to consider?

So, btw, I just want to make my point again that the only concessions Bernie's people were able to get in the platform were the ones that will never, ever, come to pass. Where the DNC really stuck to their guns, and stuck it to the people, was on 'free' trade agreements, and war-hawk foreign policy. GO DEMS!!!

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