[zk]

[quote=The Atlantic]
The breadth of Trump’s controversies is truly yuge, ranging from allegations of mafia ties to unscrupulous business dealings, and from racial discrimination to alleged marital rape. They stretch over more than four decades, from the mid-1970s to the present day. To catalogue the full sweep of allegations would require thousands of words and lump together the trivial with the truly scandalous. Including business deals that have simply failed, without any hint of impropriety, would require thousands more. This is a snapshot of some of the most interesting and largest of those scandals.
[/quote]

The italics are mine. Even The Atlantic doesn’t have room to list all the “Reasons I cannot vote for Trump.”

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/10/donald-trump-scandals/474726/

The guy is a liar and a cheat. This is extremely well documented by many respected journalists. And judges. He’s also a buffoon, a narcissist (not using the colloquial definition, but rather the medical one), thin-skinned, vengeful, and a bully. Also all well documented.

You hear people who want to vote for him say, “He’s a businessman. That’s what we need.” But he’s a terrible business man. He has to cheat people to only lose 916 million dollars. He’s filed bankruptcy 4 times and had many other businesses completely fail. Maybe we need a business man, maybe we don’t. But we certainly don’t need a lying, cheating, failing business man.

You hear who want to vote for him say, “He’s not a politician. Politicians get nothing done.” Actually, politicians get a lot done. We live in an extremely prosperous and strong nation. A large nation with a lot of moving parts. And politicians are political for a reason. Diplomacy is required when people interact with each other. Trump is not a politician. That might not be a bad thing all by itself. Trump has zero diplomatic skills. That is a very bad thing all by itself.

You hear people say, “He tells it like it is.” WTF? He doesn’t tell it like it is. He lies freely. And hugely. And when there’s clear evidence that he’s lying. If you know he lies frequently (and if you don’t, check yourself into a hospital before you hurt yourself), then how can you say he tells it like it is? Just because he’s not afraid to say controversial things doesn’t mean he tells it like it is. There’s a huge difference between the two, and if you think he tells it like it is, I believe you’ve conflated the two.

You hear people say, “Hillary is worse.” The only possible way any reasonable person can believe that Hillary is worse is if they’ve believe what they hear on fox news and breitbart and their ilk. If they believe that the mainstream media is extremely biased. And if they believe everything they hear on fox and breitbart, they also probably believe that the msm is extremely biased.

A guy I work with is a right-winger. Voting for Trump. Says he’ll be great. I asked him what news he listened to. He said he listened to all of it, even though the msm was biases. I asked him why he thought the msm was biased. He said, “well, you sure get a different story when you listen to them (as opposed to fox, etc.)”

Well, of course you do. As I’ve said several times before on this forum, this belief that the msm is hugely biased towards liberals is the greatest master stroke in the history of American politics. Now fox controls the narrative for the gullible among us who want to believe that everything right wing is good and everything left wing is bad. And, now that the right-wing noise machine is so loud, powerful, and pervasive, its views are moving toward the mainstream. Many politically centrist people think Hillary is dishonest in a way, and to a degree, that there is no evidence for. And even many on the left are less enthusiastic about her than they might be without the 25+ years of attacks on her by the noise machine.

Donald Trump is aware of many Americans’ willingness to accept whatever is on fox news and disregard anything in the New York Times, and is taking full advantage of it. he knows fox will spin things his way, and that it won’t matter if he lies. It won’t matter if he doesn’t release his tax returns. It won’t matter that he’s a liar, a cheat, a bully, a misogynist, a racist, and a narcissist. None of this matters, because people will believe the fox news spin, and disregard the reporting of the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Trump voters seem to want to give the nuclear codes to a man who responds to every insult with an attack. Wake up and take a look at reality. As good as it might feel to be on the side of someone you see as strong, and who you feel will make this country strong, consider this:

Trump is not strong, he’s weak. As are all true narcissists, he’s extremely insecure. He’s unable to accept any hint that there’s anything wrong with him. That’s a very serious weakness and one that – all by itself, forget about all the other massive flaws that he has – is big enough to cause his presidency to be disastrous. Not just for you and me, but for our children. Not just for America, but for the world.

[zk]

[quote=flu]The thing that really disappoints me isn’t the old farts that are voting for Trump. I sort of see that perhaps they way they grew up, and seeing their golden years fade, why they would be all bitter and upset. And to some extent, I do have some sympathy for them, that it’s not easy when the world has changed and moved so fast and left them behind.

[/quote]

Then perhaps you should show bg more compassion.

[quote=flu]

What really disappoints me is seeing some of the young Trump supporters exhibit the same hate and frustration against anyone of color. I find that inexcusable. These young ones pissed away their own opportunities, and now it’s somehow someone else’s fault? Really?[/quote]

Concur.

[zk]

[quote=flu]I can’t believe I’m turning into a democrat…..

What the hell is the world coming too?

Ok, in the bare minimum I’ll keep my RINO status.

I do like Assembly Member Brian Maienschein in my district.[/quote]

You’re not turning into a democrat, flu. If you’re turning into anything, it’s a reasonable person who takes each issue/candidate on its own merits and votes accordingly. But I think that’s already who you were. If you feel it’s less necessary to relate to one party than you did before, I think that’s a good thing.

Too many people cling to their party and everything their party says. That is, by definition, not thinking for yourself. So few people seem to be able to say, for instance, “I’m for spending more to help the mentally ill, but I’m against affirmative action.”

This is a problem we’re having with Trump. Sure, you have the occasional lunatic who comes from a democratic background and wants to vote for Trump. But so many Trump voters are just republicans who have swallowed right-wing bullshit for so many years that they think Hillary is the devil, and all “liberal” ideas are terrible, and Trump would be a good president.

I would suggest that they think for themselves but, like I said, it seems to be a rare person who has that capability.

[zk]

This is one of the smaller of the numerous massive reasons why Trump would be a bad president:

He seems to believe that he can make something “true” just by repeating it. One frequent charge against Trump is that his temperament is not suited for the office. His response? “I…have a much better temperament than she has.”

I love that the audience laughed at him. He’s so used to syncophantic audiences, I think that took him by surprise. But he still probably believes that if he repeats it enough, it will become “true.”

[zk]

[quote=flu-redux]

I find the irony between those that support Trump and those claiming to be Christian.[/quote]

The christian right has always been very unchristian. Trump takes it to a whole other level.

[zk]

[quote=FlyerInHi]When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 19:34[/quote]

Hilarious, Brian. As if religious people are going to look at a sacred text and suddenly agree with something they’d previously disagreed with. As if they actually follow the word of their god without twisting it around to meet their own desires. Please.

[zk]

[quote=SK in CV][quote=cvmom]Unfortunately, I think this is wishful thinking. I took an Uber ride yesterday with a Muslim immigrant driver (naturalized US citizen) from Iraq. I was so sure he would be voting Hillary…but no. He didn’t like either major party option, so is planning not to vote at all. If even a Muslim immigrant is planning to stay home on election day, it seems to me that there is a real chance of a President Trump.[/quote]

Fortunately, we have better tools at our disposal than your one person survey. National and state by state surveys confirm that Clinton is comfortably in the lead.[/quote]

She’s leading right now. Let’s hope it stays that way. I understand cvmom’s concern. I know several otherwise-semi-reasonable (or so I thought) people, none of whom fit the typical Trump demographic (uneducated, working-class white), who are very much in favor of Trump. If cvmom’s uber driver isn’t voting, and these upper-middle to lower-upper class people are voting for Trump, then there is, in my opinion, a chance that Trump could come from behind (again) and win.

My retirement, which is next year, comes a bit late. If I could, I’d be in North Carolina or Florida or Pennsylvania right now going door-to-door. Nothing less than the future of our country is at stake. Now is not the time to be complacent.

[zk]

[quote=bearishgurl]

zk, I did watch Cooper’s interview again where he fed her those two insults and asked her if DJT called her that. After a long pause, she said, “yes he did, all the time,”[/quote]

Obviously you’re aware that there’s a time lag between when we hear Cooper and when Machado does. It happens any time there’s an interview via satellite. That’s why those interviews frequently involve people talking over each other. She didn’t pause at all, let alone for a long time.

In any case, she did not deflect the question, as you falsely claimed.

[zk]

[quote=bearishgurl] Last night I watched 2 videos (one lengthy) where Anderson Cooper of CNN asked her point blank if Trump had called her “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping.” She deflected the question

…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2i63x6Ga2w

[/quote]

What?

Watch it again, starting at 4:06.

Cooper: “The Trump campaign is denying that he called you ‘Miss Piggy’ or ‘Miss Housekeeping.’ You’re saying, point blank, he said that to your face?”

Machado: “Yes, all the time.”

She answered it immediately and directly. Emphatically, even. That’s about as far from deflecting the question as you can get.

[zk]

[quote=bearishgurl][quote=SK in CV]…What crimes? I don’t know anything about any crimes….[/quote]SK, it has become quite clear that you haven’t get viewed the Cooper interview with Machado. Get busy![/quote]

Said the woman who obviously hasn’t watched it either (or who… big surprise… lied about what was in it).

[zk]

[quote=CA renter]
We need to stay the hell out of other people’s countries
[/quote]

[quote=CA renter]
We owe these refugees safe zones in their own countries, and we have the obligation to pay whatever it takes to have a sufficient enough military presence to protect them within these zones. [/quote]

How do you reconcile these two ideas?

[zk]

It’s unfortunate that, on the internet, everything ends with a Hitler mention because, when there’s an actual reason to bring him up, it might not be taken seriously.

But look at this summary of this book on Hitler:

The parallels are… well, they’re hardly even parallels. Almost every word of the description of Hitler applies to Trump. Trump is the American, 21st century version of Hitler.

It shouldn’t be surprising that Trump is getting as much support as he is. Did we really think that human beings in 21st century U.S.A. were any different from human beings in 1930s Germany? Any less susceptible to fear mongering, emotional manipulation, false promises, and lies?

[zk]

[quote=harvey]Call 911 and there’s a good possibility that you’ll be cleaning blood off your kitchen floor, your kid will be attending a classmate’s funeral, and a cop or two will get some extra paid vacation.

I teach my kids to never call 911 un less it’s a matter of life and death.[/quote]

That kind of paranoia is similar to (and as dangerous as) the paranoia on the right about ebola, sharia law, mexican rapists, etc.

[zk]

[quote=spdrun]Smart watch = more more thing to keep charged. My wind-up watch, on the other hand, can be charged with my other hand. No socket required.[/quote]

Watch winding. That could be a job for the slower-witted voles who couldn’t hack the topiary maze work.

[zk]

[quote=flu]God I hate samsung Android phones. Boatload of connectivity issues on Bluetooth BLE and WIFI. The bane of my existence, and they are not simply just issues with Android O/S. It’s issues on top of the already existing issues on Android O/S, that are specific to Samsung.

Then again, since not many people know how to deal with it, it keeps me employed and in demand. Lol.[/quote]

I haven’t had any connectivity problems with my samsungs yet.

That said, I’m open to suggestions. I’ve heard transitioning to apple from droid can be kind of a pain. But I’m not ruling it out. I like a big screen, like the Note 4 I had and the Note 7 I have. I’ve never used the stylus feature, so I don’t care about that.

[Author]

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