Trump Declares Victory and Promises a "Golden Age" for America

[WDSmart]

2 minutes ago, Hawaiian said:

Many colleges teach and practice DEI and other woke BS.  They are full of liberal professors peddling their personal beliefs.  I did not graduate with a degree, but had enough credits, but not the liberal credits required.  In other words, I only took courses that interested and benefited me; mostly real estate, finance, business and foreign languages. 

Glad you feel better about yourself.

 

Yes, I agree with you that many (most?) colleges teach and practice DEI and other "woke BS." Why do you think they do that? It's because they believe those ideas and practices are best for society. From your list of courses, it looks like you were mostly interested in making money. My interest has always been in social issues, not those of the economy. I guess that's why I am a far-left liberal, a socialist, actually, and you're probably a right-wing conservative, a capitalist. Those, IMO, are the major issues in our country (USA). 

[harryviking]

LOL! Yeah....sure....with rising inflation and trade wars coming! They will become so poor!! 🤣🤣

[Hawaiian]

26 minutes ago, WDSmart said:

Yes, I agree with you that many (most?) colleges teach and practice DEI and other "woke BS." Why do you think they do that? It's because they believe those ideas and practices are best for society. From your list of courses, it looks like you were mostly interested in making money. My interest has always been in social issues, not those of the economy. I guess that's why I am a far-left liberal, a socialist, actually, and you're probably a right-wing conservative, a capitalist. Those, IMO, are the major issues in our country (USA). 

Where do you think the funding comes from for social programs.  Many NGO's could not survive without government grants.  A bad economy means less money for social programs. That's reality.

I consider myself a right-leaning moderate.  I agree we need to reign in some of the extreme practices of capitalism.

I retired 14 years ago at age 70.  Being self employed I funded my own retirement.  Like my parents, I did not want to rely on the government in my old age.

And no, I do not consider myself "special."

Edited 5 hours ago by Hawaiian

[LosLobo]

2 hours ago, BigStar said:

 

This time, Trump's popularity overcame all the Dem rigging and cheating and illegals voting. Plus, he'd motivated a lot of tightening of procedures. The latter will continue under his tenure, now that he was burned in 2020.

 

Now that Trump's won the popular vote, will Dems call for abolishing it, too, as they have the Electoral College every since Hillary lost? And then what, an Obama dynasty?

 

Please correct me if I’m wrong:
 

The 2020 election was stolen?

Didn’t Rupert Murdoch aka the Goebbels like head of the MAGA propaganda wing—actually admit in court that Fox’s claim about the “stolen” election was in fact a lie?

And didn’t Fox pay nearly a billion dollars to Dominion to avoid more revelations about their role in spreading Trump's “Big Lie”?

[AndreasHG]

1 hour ago, WDSmart said:

right-wing conservative

 

There is a lot of confusion. Being right-wing is not the same as being conservative. Being capitalist doesn't automatically means being right-wing or conservative (see Bill Gates).

 

Being conservative does not mean ignoring social issues. Actually, real conservatives care a lot about social issues and are at the forefront in the quest on how best they might be addressed.

 

On the other end, sociopaths, displaying anti-social behaviors, selfishness and uncontrolled greed abound on both sides of the political spectrum.

 

Keys are honesty, empathy and listening. Without intellectual honesty, empathy and listening, any political initiative is ineffective at best, or bound for disaster at worst.

 

Edited 4 hours ago by AndreasHG

[riclag]

2 hours ago, Cryingdick said:

Harris is nothing more than a footnote in history. That is the difference.

To be fair,Hillary was more popular than Harris. Harris is just another San

Francisco Social Justice Activist!

 

[riclag]

15 hours ago, BangkokReady said:

 

The limits of DEI in action.  People will only swallow so much bullsh*t before they start to feel sick.

 

There's been a push back against woke garbage in many areas, and this is just another.

 

It's another step in a really positive direction.

Thanks for your support on that DEI !

Its truly radical and racist! Imop

Merit based achievement also won

with Trumps Election!

[Bday Prang]

4 hours ago, LosLobo said:

By promising a “golden age,” Trump is undoubtedly leaning on his signature gold-plated, made-in-China merchandise. These items serve as both luxurious memorabilia and support for a grifter needing funds to cover mounting legal bills:

• Gold Watches: Flashy timepieces branded with Trump’s name.
• Gold-Plated Coins: Collectibles often bearing his image or key events.
• Gold Sneakers: Luxury footwear for fans of his persona.
• Gold Cufflinks: Presidential-style accessories.
• Gold Bars (Replica): Symbolic golden “souvenirs.”
• Gold-Plated Trading Cards: Limited-edition cards featuring Trump.

Future bling will reportedly include signature golden shower accessories.
 

These items are a testament to his consistent marketing strategy, which blends patriotism with the allure of luxury, mainly targeted to the poor elderly — just in time before he cuts their healthcare and pensions.

He won't need any of that now will he?   He's the President of the United States after all

[Bday Prang]

50 minutes ago, AndreasHG said:

 

There is a lot of confusion. Being right-wing is not the same as being conservative. Being capitalist doesn't automatically means being right-wing or conservative (see Bill Gates).

 

Being conservative does not mean ignoring social issues. Actually, real conservatives care a lot about social issues and are at the forefront in the quest on how best they might be addressed.

 

On the other end, sociopaths, displaying anti-social behaviors, selfishness and uncontrolled greed abound on both sides of the political spectrum.

 

Keys are honesty, empathy and listening. Without intellectual honesty, empathy and listening, any political initiative is ineffective at best, or bound for disaster at worst.

 

How much "empathy" do you think is present in the Singapore government for example?  They seem to have avoided any recent disasters

[AndreasHG]

17 minutes ago, Bday Prang said:

How much "empathy" do you think is present in the Singapore government for example?  They seem to have avoided any recent disasters

An example:

'Singapore has universal healthcare, which means that all residents have access to quality medical care. The government is responsible for the health system and uses a combination of methods to ensure affordability and quality.

Singapore's healthcare system is considered one of the most successful in the world. The country has a low infant mortality rate and a high life expectancy.'

Compare S'pore to the failed public health-care systems in Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea or the fully privatized health-care system in the People's Republic of Xi Jinping, and you should have no issue in understanding who is more emphatic among the five governments.

 

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

3 hours ago, mikeymike100 said:

Wrong, he doesn't hate Muslims and he didn't ban Muslim travelers!!

 

Oh?

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/17/trump-muslim-ban-gaza-refugees

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

3 hours ago, Thingamabob said:

Trump did indeed refer to dogs and cats which are, sadly, eaten in Haiti, and in several other countries around the world.

 

Can you provide a link to a credible source that states that Haitians typically eat dogs and cats in Haiti?

[WDSmart]

2 hours ago, Hawaiian said:

Where do you think the funding comes from for social programs.  Many NGO's could not survive without government grants.  A bad economy means less money for social programs. That's reality.

I consider myself a right-leaning moderate.  I agree we need to reign in some of the extreme practices of capitalism.

I retired 14 years ago at age 70.  Being self employed I funded my own retirement.  Like my parents, I did not want to rely on the government in my old age.

And no, I do not consider myself "special."

The funding for all social programs comes from the government. And yes, NGOs do depend on government grants. These are examples of socialism. A bad economy does mean less money for social programs. I didn't say I wanted to see a bad economy. I only said economics was not my main interest. Social programs are.

I retired 24 years ago at the age of 64. I'm now 78 and soon will be 79. You must be 84. For about half of my life, I was employed, but for the last half, I was self-employed. I also funded my own retirement and also rely on my monthly Social Security benefits, which, of course, I funded while working. 

[JonnyF]

1 hour ago, riclag said:

To be fair,Hillary was more popular than Harris. Harris is just another San

Francisco Social Justice Activist!

 

 

Indeed. Harris was awful the whole campaign. She was bound to lose.

 

With Trump leading the last 2 remaining states the margin of victory is going to be huge. In fact, I haven't seen a man beat a woman so bad since the Olympics. 

[WDSmart]

1 hour ago, AndreasHG said:

 

There is a lot of confusion. Being right-wing is not the same as being conservative. Being capitalist doesn't automatically means being right-wing or conservative (see Bill Gates).

 

Being conservative does not mean ignoring social issues. Actually, real conservatives care a lot about social issues and are at the forefront in the quest on how best they might be addressed.

 

On the other end, sociopaths, displaying anti-social behaviors, selfishness and uncontrolled greed abound on both sides of the political spectrum.

 

Keys are honesty, empathy and listening. Without intellectual honesty, empathy and listening, any political initiative is ineffective at best, or bound for disaster at worst.

 

I like your comments, but I disagree with the general premise, or at least use the terms differently than you do.

"Right-wing" and "conservative" mean the same to me. Just as "left-wing" and "liberal" mean the same. 

Capitalism is an economic system preferred by conservatives. Socialism is an economic system preferred by liberals. 

Republicans tend to be conservative, and Democrats tend to be liberals. I often say the difference between the two is the first letter of a two-letter word. Conservatives concentrate on "me," while liberals concentrate on "we."

Sure, there are sociopaths on both sides, but selfishness and uncontrolled greed are signs of conservatives. 

I like the keys you listed and agree with them. And I think now, with a sociopath soon to be our president, we are bound for disaster. 
 

[James105]

29 minutes ago, WDSmart said:

I like your comments, but I disagree with the general premise, or at least use the terms differently than you do.

"Right-wing" and "conservative" mean the same to me. Just as "left-wing" and "liberal" mean the same. 

Capitalism is an economic system preferred by conservatives. Socialism is an economic system preferred by liberals. 

Republicans tend to be conservative, and Democrats tend to be liberals. I often say the difference between the two is the first letter of a two-letter word. Conservatives concentrate on "me," while liberals concentrate on "we."

Sure, there are sociopaths on both sides, but selfishness and uncontrolled greed are signs of conservatives. 

I like the keys you listed and agree with them. And I think now, with a sociopath soon to be our president, we are bound for disaster. 
 

 

Perhaps the reason that most people reject socialism is that it hasn't worked anywhere it has been tried and leads to poverty, death, inequality and corruption.    How people still clamour for this failure of a system has always been a mystery to me.   Let me guess, it is because no-one has done it properly yet?    And no Sweden, Norway et all are not socialist systems, they are capitalist.  

[AndreasHG]

41 minutes ago, WDSmart said:

Capitalism is an economic system preferred by conservatives. Socialism is an economic system preferred by liberals. 

 

Capitalism is the economic system; Socialism has been, everywhere it has been implemented, an economic disaster. 

Hitler and Mussolini, Franco and Pinochet, were all 'right-wing' but they weren't conservative at all.

 

I like to think of progressive as those whose emphasis is on how the wealth pie shall be distributed. Of conservatives as those who emphasize wealth growth.

Socialist policies, with their emphasis on redistribution, when strictly implemented, always end up redistributing misery. Conservative policies pushed to the extreme have caused societies to collapse and fall into anarchy.

 

The truth is that a functional and healthy society needs a balance of both. Sound policies aimed at generating wealth, and far-sighted policies aimed at redistributing the wealth equitably, so that everyone has the opportunity to succeed, or recover if disaster strikes.

 

Sometimes the balance is achieved by gently swinging between the two. A few years of emphasis on growth, followed by a few years with emphasis on distribution, and then back again in a cycle.

But if the pendulum is pushed too hard in one direction, expect it to swing back just as hard. 

Edited 2 hours ago by AndreasHG

[nauseus]

5 hours ago, James105 said:

Bush 2000: 50 million votes

Bush 2004: 62 million votes

Obama 2008: 69 million votes.

Obama 2012.  65 million votes

Clinton 2016. 65 million votes (Trump 62 million)

Biden 2020.  81 million votes (Trump 74 million).

Harris 2024.  67 million votes (Trump 72 million).

 

2020 seems like quite the outlier here compared to previous elections and this election.   Where did the extra 15 or so million votes go?   Seems Biden is the most popular president (in terms of vote count) in US history.    

 

By your total votes, then there were 16 million more of them in 2020 than 2024! Amazing considering that this one was widely claimed to be the most important election in history! But you're right, 2020 is indeed the outlier. Maybe Joe should have run again after all, eh?

[John Drake]

6 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Perhaps the same reports I read, but a super majority is a specified number of seats in both senate and congress for specific legislative acts that cannot be passed with a simple majority.

The Republicans have a simple majority which will effectively give Trump unchecked legislative freedom over everything except those acts requiring a super majority.

 

 

 

The senate is part of congress. There is no supermajority in the senate or house. There is a veto proof majority, however.

[James105]

2 minutes ago, nauseus said:

 

By your total votes, then there were 16 million more of them in 2020 than 2024! Amazing considering that this one was widely claimed to be the most important election in history! But you're right, 2020 is indeed the outlier. Maybe Joe should have run again after all, eh?

 

I've seen leftists posting on Twitter this election was fixed as the republicans made those extra 15 million votes Biden got in 2020 disappear which made me chuckle due to the irony of it, but I presume there are still millions of votes left to be counted in this one which will get the total closer.  

[Nick Carter icp]

1 minute ago, James105 said:

 

I've seen leftists posting on Twitter this election was fixed as the republicans made those extra 15 million votes Biden got in 2020 disappear which made me chuckle due to the irony of it, but I presume there are still millions of votes left to be counted in this one which will get the total closer.  

 

   Nah, all those dead people who voted in 2020 had completely died by 2024

[WDSmart]

15 minutes ago, James105 said:

 

Perhaps the reason that most people reject socialism is that it hasn't worked anywhere it has been tried and leads to poverty, death, inequality and corruption.    How people still clamour for this failure of a system has always been a mystery to me.   Let me guess, it is because no-one has done it properly yet?    And no Sweden, Norway et all are not socialist systems, they are capitalist.  

There have been successful socialist societies. American Indian tribes are one example. 

The reason socialism tends to fail is people tend to be selfish. Capitalism encourages this trait. Most economic systems today, including the USA, are what could be called "Keynesian economies," which are a mix of capitalism and socialism. Most everything in the USA labeled "public," like public libraries, public streets, public parks, etc., are examples of socialism. Things labeled "private" are capitalistic features, like private hospitals, private golf clubs, etc. The economic discussions are not either/or, but what percentage of each the economy will have. Sweden's and Norway's economies have more socialist features than the USA. 

[WDSmart]

19 minutes ago, AndreasHG said:

 

Capitalism is the economic system; Socialism has been, everywhere it has been implemented, an economic disaster. 

Hitler and Mussolini, Franco and Pinochet, were all 'right-wing' but they weren't conservative at all.

 

I like to think of progressive as those whose emphasis is on how the wealth pie shall be distributed. Of conservatives as those who emphasize wealth growth.

Socialist policies, with their emphasis on redistribution, when strictly implemented, always end up redistributing misery. Conservative policies pushed to the extreme have caused societies to collapse and fall into anarchy.

 

The truth is that a functional and healthy society needs a balance of both. Sound policies aimed at generating wealth, and far-sighted policies aimed at redistributing the wealth equitably, so that everyone has the opportunity to succeed, or recover if disaster strikes.

 

Sometimes the balance is achieved by gently swinging between the two. A few years of emphasis on growth, followed by a few years with emphasis on distribution, and then back again in a cycle.

But if the pendulum is pushed too hard in one direction, expect it to swing back just as hard. 

I disagree with the first part of your comment. The disasters of the governments run by Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, and Pinochet were a form of government, an autocracy. That's what brought down their countries's economies, not the fault of the economy itself.

I think of a progressive as someone who is transitioning from conservatism to liberalism. A capitalist is someone who emphasizes how wealth is obtained and distributed (or used). A socialist is someone who emphasizes how the country's wealth (not the individual's wealth) is distributed. 

I agree that most countries have a mix of capitalism and socialism. That's called Keynesian economics. And I agree the disagreements are usually not either/or, but on what percentage of each one a particular country has. 

My preference would be a democracy or democratic republic with a socialist economy. 

[Chomper Higgot]

1 hour ago, JonnyF said:

 

Indeed. Harris was awful the whole campaign. She was bound to lose.

 

With Trump leading the last 2 remaining states the margin of victory is going to be huge. In fact, I haven't seen a man beat a woman so bad since the Olympics. 

Awful was clearly not one of the issues motivating  voters. 
 

But then again……

[roo860]

https://x.com/ReturnofColin2/status/1854281492656173247?t=ejwNfsf4RZtXKz3Q2Rzw0Q&s=09

[nauseus]

36 minutes ago, James105 said:

 

I've seen leftists posting on Twitter this election was fixed as the republicans made those extra 15 million votes Biden got in 2020 disappear which made me chuckle due to the irony of it, but I presume there are still millions of votes left to be counted in this one which will get the total closer.  

 

Yes, funny. And, yes, a few million more to count.

[illisdean]

1 hour ago, WDSmart said:

sociopath soon to be our president,

Actually she (the feckless flawed imbecilic "sociopath") lost and got humiliated in the process. 

 

Here is  music video of your beloved sore losers crying, welcome to joint the list. Great tune....Enjoy!

 

 

[WDSmart]

This is an article from the Atlantic. The URL is Trump Won. Now What? - The Atlantic, but you can't view it unless you subscribe to the magazine. I've copied it below:
 

TRUMP WON. NOW WHAT

The United States is about to become a different kind of country.

By David Frum

Donald Trump has won, and will become president for the second time. Those who voted for him will now celebrate their victory. The rest of us need to prepare to live in a different America: a country where millions of our fellow citizens voted for a president who knowingly promotes hatred and division; who lies—blatantly, shamelessly—every time he appears in public; who plotted to overturn an election in 2020 and, had he not won, was planning to try again in 2024.

Above all, we must learn to live in an America where an overwhelming number of our fellow citizens have chosen a president who holds the most fundamental values and traditions of our democracy, our Constitution, even our military in contempt. Over the past decade, opinion polls have showed Americans’ faith in their institutions waning. But no opinion poll could make this shift in values any clearer than this vote. As a result of this election, the United States will become a different kind of country.

When he was last in the White House, the president-elect ignored ethics and security guidelines, fired inspectors general and other watchdogs, leaked classified information, and used the Department of Homeland Security in the summer of 2020 as if it were the interior ministry of an authoritarian state, deploying U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Coast Guard “troops” in American cities. Trump actively encouraged the January 6, 2021, insurrection at our Capitol. When he left the White House, he stole classified documents and hid them from the FBI.

Because a critical mass of Americans aren’t bothered by that list of transgressions, any one of which would have tanked the career of another politician, Trump and his vice president–elect, J. D. Vance, will now try to transform the federal government into a loyalty machine that serves the interests of himself and his cronies. This was the essence of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, and its architects, all Trump fans, will now endeavor to make it become reality. Trump will surely try again to dismantle America’s civil service, replacing qualified scientists and regulators with partisan operatives. His allies will help him build a Department of Justice that does not serve the Constitution, but instead focuses on harassing and punishing Trump’s enemies. Trump has spoken, in the past, of using the Federal Communications Commission and the Internal Revenue Service to punish media organizations and anyone else who crosses him, and now he will have the chance to try again.

Perhaps the greater and more insidious danger is not political repression or harassment, but corruption. Autocratic populists around the world—in Hungary, Turkey, Venezuela—have assaulted institutions designed to provide accountability and transparency in order to shift money and influence to their friends and families, and this may happen in America too. This is not just a theoretical threat. As loyalists take over regulatory agencies, filling not only political but also former civil-service jobs, American skies will become more polluted, American food more dangerous. As a result of this massive shift in the country’s bureaucratic culture, Trump-connected companies will prosper, even as America becomes less safe for consumers, for workers, for children, for all of us.

American foreign policy will also reflect this shift toward kleptocracy. In his first term, Trump abused the powers of his office, corrupting American foreign policy for his personal gain. He pressured the Ukrainian president to launch a fake investigation of his political opponent; altered policy toward Turkey, Qatar, and other nations in ways that suited his business interests; even used the Secret Service to funnel government money to his private properties. In a second term, he and the people around him will have every incentive to go much further. Expect them to use American foreign policy and military power to advance their personal and political goals.

There are many things a reelected President Trump cannot do. But there are some things he can do. One is to cut off aid to Ukraine. The Biden administration has three months to drop all half measures and rush supplies to Ukraine before Trump forces a Ukrainian surrender to Russia. If there’s anything in the American arsenal that Ukraine might successfully use—other than nuclear weapons—send it now, before it’s too late.

Another thing Trump can do is to impose further tariffs—and intensify a global trade war not only against China but also against former friends, partners, and allies. America First will be America Alone, no longer Ronald Reagan’s “city on a hill,” but now just another great power animated by predatory nationalism.

Around the world, illiberal politicians who seek to subvert their own democracies will follow America’s lead. With no fear of American criticism or reaction, expect harassment of press and political opponents in countries such as Mexico and Turkey to grow. Expect the Russian-backed electoral cheating recently on display in Georgia and Moldova to spread. Expect violent rhetoric in every democracy: If the American president can get away with it, others will conclude that they can too. The autocratic world, meanwhile, will celebrate the victory of someone whose disdain for the rule of law echoes and matches their own. They can assume that Trump and Vance will not promote human rights, will not care about international law, and will not reinforce our democratic alliances in Europe and Asia.

But the most difficult, most agonizing changes are the ones that will now take place deep inside our society. Radicalization of a part of the anti-Trump camp is inevitable, as people begin to understand that existential issues, such as climate change and gun violence, will not be tackled. A parallel process will take place on the other side of the political spectrum, as right-wing militias, white supremacists, and QAnon cultists are reenergized by the election of the man whose behavior they have, over eight years, learned to imitate. The deep gaps within America will grow deeper. Politics will become even angrier. Trump won by creating division and hatred, and he will continue to do so throughout what is sure to be a stormy second term.

My generation was raised on the belief that America could always be counted upon to do the right thing, even if belatedly: reject the isolationism of America First and join the fight against Nazism; fund the Marshall Plan to stop communism; extend the promise of democracy to all people, without regard to race or sex. But maybe that belief was true only for a specific period, a unique moment. There were many chapters of history in which America did the wrong thing for years or decades. Maybe we are living through such a period now.

Or maybe the truth is that democracy is always a close-run thing, always in contention. If so, then we too must—as people in other failing democracies have learned to do—find new ways to champion wobbling institutions and threatened ideas. For supporters of the American experiment in liberal democracy, our only hope is education, organization, and the creation of a coalition of people dedicated to defending the spirit of the Constitution, the ideals of the Founders, the dream of freedom. More concretely: public civic-education campaigns to replace the lessons no longer taught in schools; teams of lawyers who can fight for the rule of law in courts; grassroots organizing, especially in rural and small-town America; citizens and journalists working to expose and fight the enormous wave of kleptocracy and corruption that will now engulf our political system.

Many of those shattered by this result will be tempted to withdraw into passivity—or recoil into performative radicalism. Reject both. We should focus, instead, on how to win back to the cause of liberal democracy a sufficient number of those Americans who voted for a candidate who denigrated this nation’s institutions and ideals

[WDSmart]

6 minutes ago, illisdean said:

Actually she (the feckless flawed imbecilic "sociopath") lost and got humiliated in the process. 

 

Here is  music video of your beloved sore losers crying, welcome to joint the list. Great tune....Enjoy!

 

 

I won't watch this because it is on X. I don't use it.