Donald Trump

The thing about coal is that it doesn't expire. As long as it sits in the ground, it's a potential resource. Coal will return as the need for gas rises. It can be converted into synthetic gas using steam. It's sort of like the strategic oil reserves the US loves to tout. All across Texas, Oklahoma and parts of Louisiana are fields of oil wells that are capped. Much of the strategic reserve is actually unrefined crude that has not yet been harvested.

I realize folks dislike fracking, but it has been around for a very long time. In the old days (2003) they used high explosives to fracture the rock surrounding the well head to release the gas. Then somebody got a clue and realized rock can also be fractured with hydraulic fluid. The claims that it "causes earthquakes" are a bit extreme. The plates are huge compared to the fault zones. Drilling a gas well is a pin prick compared to natural geological forces. If we actually could cause earthquakes in this manner, I would have expected it to be weaponized long ago.

 

I don't support coal mining either, we need to move forward with cleaner alternatives.

The problem with Hillary supporting "safe" fracking, the general consensus among scientists from everything I've read is there is no safe fracking.

 

I'm in the process of reading this:

For the first time, new USGS maps identify potential ground-shaking hazards from both human-induced and natural earthquakes. In the past, USGS maps only identified natural earthquake hazards.

Induced earthquakes are triggered by human activities, with wastewater disposal being the primary cause for recent events in many areas of the CEUS. Wastewater from oil and gas production operations can be disposed of by injecting it into deep underground wells, below aquifers that provide drinking water.​​

https://www2.usgs.gov/blogs/features/usgs_top_story/induced-earthquakes-raise-chances-of-damaging-shaking-in-2016/

I believe human-induced earthquakes refers to fracking . . .

 

You're absolutely right, Meliai. I'm so glad you are awake. It's like a curtain is dropping in front of people's eyes and they are going into a slumber, accepting things that should never be.

Wake up, please! There are important issues being missed because people are being lulled by something I don't understand.

 

It really makes me want to bang my head against a wall. America is marching towards war, where are the Democrats who vehemently opposed war under a Republican president? I hear crickets

 

You know? The whole system is rigged against Donald Trump!

First of all, the media allows us to hear and see the things he does.

Then there is all those damn women. They should have stopped him when he tried to grope their pussies. ...well maybe they did----but still they shouldn't have dressed the way they did first of all. Then there is that Hispanic woman that won the beauty pageant----its not Donald's fault that she was Hispanic. And she shouldn't have eaten after winning-----food makes you fat. What was wrong with her?!

...Oh, and don't get me started about the fact checkers. Why do they have to check facts? What's with that, right? Did Abe Lincoln have people looking up everything he said on the internet to see if he is truthful? I bet not!

And why do all Mexican immigrants have to rape, murder, and sell drugs?

-------It is all just so rigged against him!!!!

 

You serious about me not talking to you about coal mining? Because it's seriously tempting me to go on a long diatribe about coal mining.

Fracking sucks because it kills the fucking Earth and your girl Hillary is all for it.

We won't be able to survive on this planet if we continue in this direction. Am I supposed to deal with that too?

 

Hillary clinton is more worthless then the dog shit on the bottom of my shoe

 

Then why didn't those women press charges 20+ years ago? Guys as rich as the Donald are prime targets of lawsuits. If he was guilty of doing that, those women would've been made rich a lot sooner. Why wait so long to cash in on a legal case?

Oh yeah, that pure innocent sweetheart.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwVxJFF6afA

 

I was disappointed that Trump didn't answer the entitlement question in tonight's debate, other that he would 'cut taxes and create jobs.' That is a lame answer. Instead he deflected and talked about repealing Obamacare. That should have been an entirely different question.

 

This is an important discussion and it certainly applies to Trump.

The R word is getting a lot of play because it is a big issue today, and if you can’t see that then you are part of the problem. You should note that the only ones who are saying that race is not a problem are the white folk----who enjoy white privilege, and are completely oblivious to the problem.

A big problem today is that racism is not as open as it once was. In the 1960’s and 70’s we learned as a nation that racism was bad and so we followed that ego-ideal---we repressed it into that subconscious shadow, and collectively we repressed it into the collective shadow. Consciously, as per our ego, we deny that we are racist, and are therefore completely oblivious to the racist things we do as a nation. I am not saying that you, individually, are racist, but if the idea of someone thinking that you are racist makes you very defensive and angry, then most likely you are dealing with your own shadow.

Now, I say that it is not as repressed as it once was, but Trump has done a good job of bringing that back into the open. If you can’t see that, then you are a.) allowing your political ideology or possibly a ‘hero worship’ to cloud your judgment of what is happening around him, and/or b.) you are in ego-denial of your own shadow, and/or c.) you may just be ignorant of what is happening at his rallies and the overall social backlash it has created.

If there was no racism, there wouldn’t be a reason for Black Lives Matter. And by the way, the BLM movement is not saying, ‘our lives matter more than yours,’ or, ‘our lives matter and yours don’t.’ They are simply saying, ‘our lives matter too----just as much as yours.’

I did not realize how big the problem of racism was until I got involved in the Native American community. But then as a Nation, such events as Ferguson, should have opened our eyes. (Yes, the victim was not as innocent as initially thought----but it was the fuse to a powder keg over a community that was increasingly fed up. Investigation by the Federal government turned up damning evidence of systemic racism within the police department.)

My son is half Caucasian and half Filipino (from my wife). The Filipino side is a mixture of Filipino, Chinese, and Spanish. Like many half-white half-Filipino individuals, it is hard to figure out what he is. People have guessed anything from Mexican to ½ Chinese. Growing up in Colorado, a state which generally tends to be pretty tolerant of race, he did not experience much racism. There were 1 or 2 cases where he thought there might be discrimination, but I disagreed at the time, allowing for an element of doubt. But over the past year there has been a definite change. A few weeks ago, working for a company that replaces auto windows, he actually showed up at a house in a rural town in Northern Colorado, (with Trump-Pence signs in the front yard). When he went up to the door, the man at the door said, “I didn’t know they’d send your kind.” That is the second time over the last 12 months or so, and the second time in his life that he has been referred to as ‘that kind.’ The first time was after he had just installed a window for a lady sometime over the past 12 months or so, and asked if he could use her bathroom. She responded that she doesn’t let his kind use her bathroom. (I suggested that maybe she meant laborers, but he wasn’t convinced). My stepkids are Filipino, and they too have experienced more discrimination recently. Two of my stepdaughters married African-American guys, and then there are my grandkids----I could tell a few stories.

Yes there are good things about American altruism. But there is quite a bit of this altruism that is attached to non-altruistic costs and conditions. Traveling and living around the world, I have seen this firsthand. If it was up to me, for example, I would make it illegal for missionaries to ever enter an indigenous village, the only exception being to provide unconditional aid during a calamity. When I was an analyst in Japan in the 80’s, there was an awful lot of American altruism offered with the goal of defeating Japan in the trade wars. (It took American companies a good 10 years to realize that their real problem in Japan was a.) shoddy products (the Japanese actually had shops set up right at the port to repair, sew, and fix American products that came in), and b.) that Americans did not fit their products to the Japanese market and consumer. I was a member of the American Chamber of Commerce Japan, and we were very active at trying to remedy this situation with American companies. The companies that did resolve this made a lot of money in Japan.) I could go on, but I won’t. America does a lot of good things around the world too.

But racism is not a nebulous concept, unless you are oblivious to your white privilege. I also do not see it as a catch-all for society’s ills. In fact I am working on a series of books about just that subject (society’s ills), and I write very little about it, and treat it as one of the ills, not a cause. It is easy to treat racism as nebulous and a catch-all excuse when you have never been discriminated against, or haven’t seen it firsthand.

Now the problem is, if we as a nation and as individuals have determined that racism is bad, and that rather than dealing with the issue of racism within ourselves, (and generally as we project it on others), and that we have repressed it into our subconscious in such a manner that our ego is adamantly denying that we are racist then how do we determine who is a genuine racist? This is the problem today.

White liberals pride themselves in not being racist, but often times act out racism in a subtle way, often times even as they are defending an ethnic group from racism, or demonstrating that they are not racist. This is just as bad as conservatives that state flat out, ‘there is no more racism in America,’ and then commit acts that are often more obvious. Consider the offensive things that Trump says, as he tries to pander to black voters. Or, consider the issue with Native Americans----on the one hand there is the racial stereotype of the drunk Indian. But a lot of people don’t realize that the seemingly complimentary stereotype of the Noble Savage is also racist. The problem boils down to the fact that white people, black people, Native people, or whatever---are all the same----people. They should be respected as just that----people

It is not easy to keep from being offensive----and the reason why is because racism is a thing. Consider the innocent remark of a small child who still has no idea how to dislike another person, but just realized that some people look different from others. This child’s remark is not racist. But an adult could specify a racial difference or stereotype that is far less offensive, and it could be deemed racist. And yet it too may have been done out of innocence. But the problem is, until we actually deal directly with the problems and inequities that racism creates, such things will be considered racist.

There are things I can joke about with my Native friends and we all have a good laugh, and they don’t consider it racist. I know because we have talked quite a bit about such things. But if someone else said the same things---they would most likely take it as racist. And yet some of them can be racist against white people in general. And by the way, there are some Lakota who are racist against Crow, and some Crow Indians are likewise racist against the Lakota.

This is probably the most difficult time in a struggle to keep racism at bay----because it is repressed----it plays out often in insidious ways, and most people do not even realize they are racist. In most cases, facing one’s shadow is one of the most difficult things we can do. I think if we were to address it as a nation we could get it tamed, but…

I will admit that at least we aren’t like those stinky, greedy, Canadians that are stealing all our industry and jobs, and getting all the ‘good’ immigrants! They talk funny and they smell, we should not allow them to cross our borders!!! (I’M JOKING!!!!!!)

Mexico has not called us racist, let alone nasty, evil, and racist. They have pointed out the racism in Trump’s speech, and have demonstrated that they will not pay for his wall. In fact, I don’t recall African or Asian Nations complaining of US racism either, and I have lived and travelled all over Asia. Africa is the one part of the world I have not actually travelled to, but it seems like they have plenty of their own prejudices to deal with before they accuse us of racism. Imperialism----yes, and often with good reason. Asians complain about American arrogance and ignorance---with good reason. A good part of Asia has elements that complain about American imperialism too---again with good reason in many cases.

But I know exactly how you feel. It makes me so mad that our Federal Government sends so much money to Red States for Federal Programs and Federal Aid in time of crisis and so forth---when all they do is complain about the government, while their senators and representatives try to shut it down when things don’t go their way. Why would they take money from a government they don’t like or agree with???? (…ok, it really doesn’t bother me that they get Federal government money, but do you see the point?)

Anyway, we hear what you are saying----you don’t want those brown, yellow, and black people to get money from us when they also disagree with who or what we are.

And yet the statistics of the CDC show that if you are born Native American in this country, you are the most likely to be shot and killed by a cop. If you are born black, you are the second most likely to be shot and killed by a cop. White people are the least likely. When New York started a stop and frisk policy, it was discovered that Blacks and Hispanics were almost always targeted, and whites very rarely. It was stopped not only because it was determined to be unconstitutional but also racially biased in its execution (and yet Trump wants to do this nationwide----because of the problem of crime in the ‘black neighborhoods’). It has been statistically proven that black people go to jail and prison for crimes that white people get off with a fine and/or probation. I could go on and on----but I think I made my point.

 

I laughed pretty hard in the debate when he followed this: "No one respects women more than me."


With this:

"What a nasty evil woman." (or however he said it.)

 

Uh-oh. Statistics.

 

Yeah, I know----women are so weird about that. Why don't they want to come forward right away about how they were molested? Same with the Cosby girls and others who have been molested by high profile figures. What's wrong with them? And then we can all look at their pictures spread across all those tabloids, magazines, newspapers, and on TV. We can look at their bodies to see how worth it they were. We could imagine what he did... And besides, how else are they going to know if they were the only one such a person ever molested or not if they don't come forward out of the blue. What is wrong with these women waiting so long...?

 

I didnt watch the whole debate, but in the 30 minutes I did watch he deflected every single question.

What are you going to do for the economy, donald?
PUTIN! CHINA!

Why did you grab those women by the pussy, Donald?
EMAILS!!!

He is so irritating.

 

Hillary isn't?

I can't even look at that woman's face, she looks, talks and acts like a fake bitch.

But whatevs, you guys are screwed either way.
But not my circus, not my monkeys (literally and figuratively).

 

I agree, I too often doubt her sincerity. I try not to come from a biased perspective but then it is still the case. All in all (and not just because of her face), she seems awfully fake and insincere. Especially when she is trying to act lighthearted. With Trump it doesn't even matter because if he would be sincere he would really be an idiot.

I experience this as pure bliss

 

It is possible to dislike both of them, contrary to popular belief.
But this is the Donald thread, and also he irritated me more than Hillary last night. His eyes are so squinty.

 

oH, and Donald's comment on free trade? "We're gonna have free trade, more than we've ever had before"

In reference to his presidency by the way, not Hillary's.

What a spectacle

 

I don't get the contrary to popular belief part. Isn't this actually the case for a lot of people (across the whole world even, not just in America), and so common knowledge. But it counts for a lot of americans too. When I take notice of americans I often hear they really dislike both main 2 options.