jcsmith

3 hours ago, Wilsonandson said:

The next general election will be held in early 2018 after reforms have been completed by the present government.

It just keeps getting moved back further. In 2028 they may be saying the same thing.

If anyone believes that he didn't even read the surnames...

4 minutes ago, GinBoy2 said:

Unfortunately as a nation we have always been bedeviled by the contradictions of the Constitution. A beautiful document, professing the fact that 'All Men are created equal' yet written by a man that unabashedly owned 200 human beings as slaves.

 

We have never really addressed this fundamental issue. The absolutists like to tout the constitution as inviolable, yet at it's core it validated slavery, a fact that has forever tainted race relations in our country

 

Different time. Slavery is also spoken of in the bible. Doesn't mean anyone wants to return to it in this day and age. When I was a kid we were taught that we were a nation built by immigrants, where people from all over the world could come for the chance of a better life, and to become citizens with equal opportunities to everyone else... this was the American Dream. 

I think the voter demographics say a lot. Older voters, who grew up in a segregated America leaned towards Trump, where younger voters, who grew up in an era of acceptance choose Hillary. I felt like we'd moved on and progressed quite a bit from Nazi Germany, segregated schools, and open bigotry. Trump's platform and the alt-right put that into question.

This type of a platform is going to bring hatred from both sides. The racist side is going to use this as validation and get braver, and on the opposite side you will see retaliatory incidents, from people who in their mind associate anyone who supported Trump with bigotry. It's a bad situation all around.

26 minutes ago, chainarong said:

I am certainly not a supporter of former PM Yingluck, however how this type of harassment and blatant victimization is going to improve a divided nation one can only think the junta has lost the plot.................................................

I don't think he cares. He is just trying to destroy the opposition.

Racism is racism. There's nothing patriotic about it. The U.S. was a nation built on immigration and freedom of religion. To suggest otherwise, or move away from those ideals is not an act of patriotism. It's an act of bigotry. Period.

If they ban homelessness where do they expect people to go? It's not like people WANT to be homeless.

I'd guess its going to become a lot more difficult to get a visa in the future, similar to how it was immediately following the World Trade Center attacks. 

Aside from the thin skin they are pretty different people. 

Prayuth seized power unlawfully, and has used Article 44 to suppress the voice of the people. He's not dangerous to the world though, merely unfair to Thais. While Prayut may do what he can to suppress the voice of the people and press, he rarely makes extremely offensive statements publicly.

Love him or hate him, Trump was lawfully elected. Some of his policies are way out there and could result in danger to the world at large if he goes forward with them. He has made a habit of picking fights and attacking people on social media, in a very unprofessional manner.

3 hours ago, dbrenn said:

All this climate change twaddle is a phoney science, invented to justify an army of lefty holier than though types who try to tell the rest of us what to do . 

If only this were true. 97% of scientists now agree that the earth is warming, 84% believe that humans are contributing to it and 74% believe this is substantiated by scientific evidence. It's tough to deny at this point.

That doesn't mean that misinformed citizens, companies who are looking to keep their profit margin high or to stay afloat, or politicians who are want the support of those companies to deny its existance. But riddle me this, what would be the point of all this money and research being spent on this threat if they didn't believe it were true? It requires serious changes on our part and that will be expensive. 

Global warming is happening. While some could argue that we are in between an ice age and it would happen with or without human industrialization), even if that were the case... it is still a serious issue that we can take steps to improve upon and which will affect the human species moving forward. If we don't many coastline areas are headed for disaster that will cost far more money than the preventative measures we are taking now. Beyond that life on earth will also be seriously affected, species will go extinct. This is a serious issue. It needs to be addressed.

Trump is also well aware of the risk here, though he will deny it publicly. He himself has applied for a permit to build a sea wall himself to combat the effects of global warming and rising sea levels. It's a serious issue. 

So why would a guy like Trump deny climate change is occurring when it's clear as day to most scientists? Why would he not support moves into cleaner forms of energy? Well that's simple. Money. There are companies who will spend a ton of money to lobbying to prevent these measures from taking place. Nobody wants to see coal miners out of work for example, but there is a lot more at stake here than their jobs long term. Their grandchildren won't be able to vote for Trump as he'll be long gone.  

On 11/12/2016 at 3:53 PM, JDGRUEN said:

Donald Trump -- not one single sign that he was a racist in all of his 69 years until he challenged a leftist Democrat in the Presidential election.. How about being fearful of LIES?  

Donald Trump has a long history of questionable things in that regard, and that was known long before he ran for president. It obviously gets a lot more attention when you run for president. I went over his election build up racism in an earlier post, and it's hard to deny the mexican or islamic things he said during the election and there are other questionable things like his many retweets from white supremecists. But prior to that he had several notable incidents such as the government going after him twice for not renting to people of color, and his father having a similar track record in that regard. The central park five incident, reports that they used to order the black dealers off the casino floor when Trump arrived, the reports of him not liking having a black accountant, etc. 

On 11/10/2016 at 0:55 PM, CharlieK said:

Trump can't be any worse than Reagan, Bush junior, Obama were.

Oh, he can be much worse than any of them. Hopefully he isn't. 

1 hour ago, ClutchClark said:

Can you please support this claim of yours because it is a false narrative.

 

Trump did not say that. 

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Trump has proposed:

- A ban on muslims from entering the country. His own vice-president has said this would be unconstitutional but when given a chance to quell fear he in the debates he did not do so (choosing to ignore the question and just talk in rhetoric).

- Has plans to deport illegal or undocumented immigrants.

- Would like to amend the 14th amendment which grants citizenship to anyone born in the U.S.

- Feels that racial profiling is okay.

- Has proposed that muslims should carry around a special identification.

- Has called Mexican immigrants rapists and murderers. 

- His surrogates routinely spoke about the "muslim problem".

This obviously affects a lot of people. Unless you are a native american, Americans are all immigrants, and one of the most important liberties in the American Constitution is Freedom of Religion. If your a Muslim-American, a Mexican-American, or if you just don't like seeing your fellow citizen's rights being trampled upon, then you have every right to go out and protest. Rioting is a different story. But people trying to compare this to previous elections are way off base. No modern American president has ever proposed such radical hate, it's going to receive a response.

8 hours ago, Usernames said:

Just like Reagan did with Gorbachev. The Clintons wanted war with Russia. Trump wants to work WITH the Russians.  The Neocons would have destroyed the world.

This is wrong on so many levels. First off, the Clintons didn't want war with Russia. Second Putin and Gorbachev couldn't have less in common. Gorbachev made it a goal of his to end the cold war and bring change to Russia. Putin is a throwback who rules by force and intimidation. 

2 hours ago, churtz said:

Reason why polls had it all wrong: majority of Americans are really bigots, racists and sexists, but unlike Trump they do not want to show it.

Actually the majority of Americans voted for Hillary. Trump won the election though fair and square. The end numbers were 48.7% to 48.5% I believe for Clinton, but a big win for trump on electoral votes. It shows that there are a lot more closet bigots out there than most would have thought. But it's not the majority of Americans, even if you assume anyone who voted for Trump falls into that category, which I do not. I think it likely applies to about half of them, and then there's a big group of bible thumpers who will deal with him because of his other policies. Then a larger portion of Americans who think he will be a disaster (myself included).

3 hours ago, OMGImInPattaya said:

Hillary Clinton has voted for war as as a senator, and supported lots of  them as Secretary of State , while Trump has not..it's very clear who's the warmongering candidate.

Trump has not because he's never held political office. He certainly has supported the war efforts in the media, it's on tape no matter how much he tries to deny it.

I am one of those 50%. Been taking a wait and see approach but I'm losing confidence that the military is going to ever truly give up power and how can anyone be happy with their kids growing up in an environment where if they speak their mind they could be arrested? Assuming Trump does not win the election, I'm strongly considering moving back to America.

There's nothing wrong with loving Russia. It may be hard to defend some of their government's actions, but I think the same can be said of other governments. The government's actions are not always a reflection of the people. 

3 hours ago, bark said:

Obama, the worst President ever. I heard he will become a golfer on PGA. After playing 600 rounds of golf.

What a joke he is as a President.

Seriously? On the heels of G.W. Bush you are going to try to make that claim? He inherited a bad situation and stabilized it with the housing and unemployment crisis. Perhaps back up that claim with the reasons why you would feel that way?

I guess she could start by throwing Donald in jail? He's one of the biggest cyber bullies out there. 

20 hours ago, window said:

The Muppet should stay in Britian and keep his nose out of other countries business.

An attitude like that is why human rights violations exist in the first place. Don't pay attention to things that do not immediately affect you and it's like they never really happened... except they do happen. And unless people stand up with conviction it is never going to change. I do see the irony though in you crawling out from under your rock and just to tell someone else to crawl back under theirs.

25 minutes ago, elgordo38 said:

Point me in the direction of a true democracy. My decades on this planet have convinced me there is none zilch nada.

Not to interrupt your conspiracy theory , but you don't see a difference between people having rights and freedoms which include free speech and the ability to vote, and between one where those rights are taken away? Yeah, there's no such thing in the world as a true democracy where everyone has a say in every single small decision made. But there is certainly a big difference between the democracies of the world and the junta rule we have now.

23 hours ago, jaidam said:

Er.. are you confused? There have been a few desperate women trying to grab their 5 minutes of fame, but nothing proven and certainly nothing illegal. Now where on earth you get the idea that DT has been sexually abusing children? An unproven and slanderous nonsense. Emotions are running high for the HRC fans, after being on the "cusp of victory" and what-not, but lets try to keep this debate based on reality.

I love how you mention nothing has been proven... yet are quick to jump on the email cases where nothing criminal has been proven, or on old Bill Clinton cases where he again nothing criminal was ever proven. 

The reality though is that Trump does have a disturbing history there that maybe you are not aware of. So let's make sure that everyone is aware of it so they can not plead ignorance here.

He has had an ongoing case that was around well before the his Access Hollywood leak that involved a then 13 year old child which also involved Jeff Epstein (of Sex Slave Island fame which did include underage girls). It was not the first such allegation against Trump he's had a few. He has never been convicted and should be considered innocent until proven guilty. However, you don't find it a wee bit hypocritical that he makes these criminality claims against others, and his supporters jump on them all the while ignoring the 15 or so ongoing sex related cases against him, including the one with a minor.

Other concerning things include that Epstein had 14 contact numbers for Trump in his little black book. When Epstein was asked in court if Trump had engaged in sexual relations with underage woman Epstein plead the fifth and would not answer the question. At least one of the underage girls working for Epstein came from Trump's Mar-a-Lago casino. Trump was also subpoenaed for Epstein's criminal case, although like many other things he denies this ever happened. Others have corroborated Trump's parties involving what appeared to be underage girls. 

Now it's possible Trump never engaged with underaged girls but his history and his own comments raise questions. He has admitted on the Howard Stern show and accused of harassment by participants that he would take advantage of his role in the Miss Teen USA contest to make it back to the dressing rooms with the young naked woman, who would have all been between the age of 14-19. And there is also CBS footage of Donald Trump making inappropriate remarks about a TEN YEAR OLD GIRL. "I'm going to be dating her in ten years! Can you believe it?", he said. It's pretty hard to defend that.

9 hours ago, dcutman said:

Just as there was a significant case gross and willful negligence and obstruction of justice in the prior investigation, this current investigation will confirm and compound the criminal activities of HRC and her staff.

I believe Comey's conscience got the better of him by bending to the corrupt will of the attorney general and the White House.

 

And you know that how? Channeling your inner Nostradamus? Or are you trying to like use the force?

7 hours ago, Ulysses G. said:

The FBI agents that reviewed this material must know what is on it and think it is significant. Hopefully the smoking gun that convicts Hillary will be discovered when the rest of the material is reviewed.

That doesn't seem to be the case. In fact he seems to have been warned not to release the information by the Department of Justice which was ignored. There is no evidence at this point to suggest it is anything more the same things they have already seen. But there is new evidence which will need to be looked at.