Trump

Nikki Haley is very accomplished and I like that he has put a woman as accomplished as her in that role. I think it is going to be interesting to see what he does about education. We are worried about funding for special needs. DS is autistic and the help he is getting is life changing for him and us as a family. It is extremely expensive to do it properly. His school place is costing upwards of $50k a year. Very few people can afford that.

Want2bSupermum I can have a mission / vision statement that I want everyone to live on the moon, it doesn't mean its likely to happen.

Mind you, with what Trump is planning for NASA ...

Roman Call them missions if you want but it is what Trump wants to do. I agree that a lot of them do not make any sense when you join the dots. This is what the media completely failed to communicate in clear terms to the public.

Thanks squishy. I didn't like HC as a candidate but Trump horrified me. However, I do wish the media could accept the results and just stop with the bashing. It is only giving oxygen to these lunatics.

Let Trump dig his own hole. I will say Trump has surprised me in a couple of ways. His acceptance speech was good. Also, he quickly got rid of Chris Christie from his transition team. CC (here in NJ we call him Crispy Cream) managed to get away with closing down the traffic around the GWB. He let his employees take the fall, one of which was a single mother of 4 children and the other a father to two children (I think). This apparently outraged Trump and he thought CC should have been a leader and protected them.

Well, even a brief skim of Trump's energy policies, sorry "vision", on his website shows what a nonsense they are. Scale up coal mining and fracking, burn fossil fuels, allow exploitation of federal lands, repeal EPA legislation to minimise CO2 emissions, but maintain clean air and clean water and conserve habitats?

Well, I guess it can make sense if you don't believe in climate change.

What's on his website aren't policies - it's a mission / vision statement.

Want2bsupermum: Personally I have taken this result as a wake up call. I am involved in the local school district and I have told DH that it is time, as business owners, to start getting involved as leaders in our community....
This sounds really positive, I have a lot of respect for people people like you and your post was very interesting.
I hope you are right about the damage he can do being limited, and agree it is important to look forwards now. However, I don't want scrutiny of Trump to stop and do think it is important to hold him to account for the things he has said and done in the past.

Trumps policies are all on his site and have been on there for months. If you read them a lot on the surface make a whole lot of sense. They sound great until you connect the dots and ask 'Who is going to pay for all of this?'

Also, I think the vote for Trump was an uprising against globalization. Time to face the reality that globalization isn't working out for the majority of people in the Western world. It creates a two tier society which we know leads to revolutions. I have been to China and seen the pollution first hand. All the Western countries have done is export their manufacturing to give bigger gains to the business owners. This has resulted in pollution also being exported. If anyone thinks China cares about the environment they are wrong. If anyone thinks China will follow any pollution mandates they are deluded. In the meantime, in the Western world, we are beating ourselves up over our carbon footprint from manufacturing and agriculture.

But slug, that's from the mainstream media so it won't count....

Lweji: Yeah I spat my tea out! when I read that.

Funny how the Republicans don't try to prosecute George W Bush for his private email server and missing 22 million emails.

Is is only criminal if a woman does it?

Just lurking occasionally, to avoid the urge to slit my wrists, but:
Well yes, as a whole the anti-Trump mob come across as dangerously irrational and deeply prejudiced.

you're funny.

I live here and the MSM did an awful job during the election. If they had not tried to influence people people might have a little bit more respect for them. Truth be told so many households are turning off cable. I listen to PBS and NPR for my current events. Both are funding with public money and donations. The only reason I have not had my way with the cable is because DH wants to watch football.

Trump was vilified in the press and the reporting was so biased it was beyond a joke. Even now they are harping on about conflicts of interest and calling for him to liquidate his business. Quite frankly HC was SoS and accepting donations from foreign governments with horrible human rights records and it was only during the debate that it came out. None of the MSM ran with that as headline news. Instead MSM ran with a story about Trump talking about grabbing pussy for 10 days.

I have no problem with Trump as President and his children running the family business. Truth be told, if we can keep him busy running his business the damage to the US will be limited.

What I do have a problem with is all the MSM continuing to dissect the results. The people of the US have voted and this is what we ended up with. Lets look forward and not back. Lets look to make a difference and not dwell on what we have as our President elect. Personally I have taken this result as a wake up call. I am involved in the local school district and I have told DH that it is time, as business owners, to start getting involved as leaders in our community.

We are building a second facility in Ohio and paying people proper wages AND benefits (medical, dental, vision, pension and vacation with unlimited sick). We are looking at how we can work with the local town to provide jobs, hope and a future. The heroin problem in the rust belt is just horrific. I have employees who have lost parents, siblings, spouses and their child(ren) to this awful epidemic. It reminds me a lot of the AIDS epidemic. No one wanted to talk about it until young men were dropping dead in their thousands.

We are looking at starting an outreach program for the kids who have aged out of high school in the past three years who didn't graduate. If they can go back and graduate they get a job with us. We will pay for them to go back. It isn't much but it is a start. We are also looking at helping the school with funding for work programs so these children in high school can be trained up in vocations.

Totally agree, informal and glass. Of course, if his policies are too vague to criticise effectively, and we're not allowed to comment on what he has actually said, because that's "idle speculation", and nothing he has done in his life up until now counts against him because he hasn't been in office yet, then there isn't much to say is there? So "Trump and what it all means" just becomes a load of repetitive posts about the deceitful main stream media.
Cunning.

I think a large part of the problem re criticising Trump's policies is that he has, presumably deliberately, been very hard to pin down on it. Most of his campaign was focused on what was wrong with the current situation with no considered detail in practical, legal terms on what he was going to do about any of it. Bluster, contradiction, threats and hyperbole all add up to a massive smokescreen.

Hard to comment on Trump's actual policies - he says one thing one day and something different the next, depending on what suits his purposes at any one time.

"From his appointments and the kind of people he is meeting, I think he deserves a chance."

Often in American politics they look at the number 2 in each department. The actual top appointments are often merely political spinners for the President's policies. The number 2 on the other hand tends to get their hands dirty with the details.

That's not to say that the appointments themselves are not important, they are often used to send a message as to the direction of policy. For instance appointing someone who has a legalistic approach if the desired outcome is merely upholding the existing laws. Someone who has been a vocal critic if the intention is to reform etc. The actual direction of criticism isn't necessarily important, merely that they can stand up on TV and say that they've been consistent and that they support the reforms.

"Thank you for your informed and well reasoned arguments then"
I just agreed with you?

It is important to criticise people for what they actually do, yes. But what they say is always worth examining. Words are never just words, especially when they come from very influential, powerful people.
What does "giving him a chance mean"? refraining from criticism? Because that doesn't sound like my idea of democracy.
"his appointments and the kind of people he is meeting" give me great cause for concern. But then I suppose I'm just being a "hater"

Thank sorry...

"All those policys [sic] you listed are awful."

That you for your informed and well reasoned arguments then.

I am a proud member of the anti-Trump mob. I try to look past my own biases and get my information from as wide a range of sources as possible. I don't think I'm irrational, but then I suppose I would think that, wouldn't I?

OK, so about Trump. He is not a fine tuned, pre-seasoned veteran at the game of politics. He is a rough, brash businessman who looked at what most of the country wanted and fine tuned his narrative to that. While the other camp was pandering to the liberal elite, he said and did things which appeased the normal public. He won.

Now, campaigning and running the nation are two different things. From his appointments and the kind of people he is meeting, I think he deserves a chance. I am all for criticizing him and what he actually does. Not on idle speculation by MSM and the liberal spin to his statements.

""Haters"? Really?"

Well yes, as a whole the anti-Trump mob come across as dangerously irrational and deeply prejudiced.

Spin, I thought you wanted to see "criticism of Trump's policies on these threads that didn't amount to stomping of feet, wails of angst and name calling"
I didn't know you wanted to talk about Hilary.