Sunday, September 11, 2016

What Would a Clinton or Trump Presidency Look Like?

With Clinton that’s easy to answer — it will very likely look a lot like the last Clinton presidency. Hillary was certainly an important advisor to Bill, and now Bill is for Hillary. Both are left of center Democrats with a love of policy detail and proven adherence to incremental progress.

While a few of Clinton’s 1990s policies had negative long term consequences, for the most part the presidency went very well. We balanced the budget, the economy did very well, there was a little progress on gay rights, and we won the only war we fought at the time, the Balkans, while suffering zero combat fatalities. Today, the Balkans are more-or-less democratic, more-or-less peaceful and are integrating into Europe, thank you very much.

Interestingly, the Clinton presidential years are the only time of my entire life when we weren’t at war. Before Clinton was the Cold War and less than a year after he left office we got Bush’s disastrous War on Terror — which might be expected from trying to go to war with a noun. It might have been better to declare war on al Qaeda.

A Trump presidency is harder to predict. Actually, impossible to predict. Figuring out what his policies really are is a little like trying to nail jello to the wall. Nothing stays put. Also, since he constantly changes his mind who knows what his policies will be come next January.

The worst case would be if he does what he usually says he’ll do: deport 11 million people, build an enormous wall thousands of miles long, buy a lot of military hardware of dubious utility fighting Daesh (the proper name for ISIS), and give enormous tax breaks to himself and his rich buddies (and smaller ones for the rest of us). This will, of course, send the deficit, which we’ve been bringing down for many years, through the roof. It will probably bankrupt us and Daesh will win.

There is one certainty: Trump is the perfect president from the Daesh perspective. The Daesh strategic goal is to ignite a war between the West and Islam. Trump’s endless anti-Muslim bombast is perfect recruitment material, driving Muslims into Daesh’s waiting arms. This will drive up US war fighting costs and contribute to what may be the last, and by far the biggest, Trump bankruptcy.

Saturday, July 16, 2016

Why I think Hillary Clinton will likely make a very good President

She is wicked smart.

She works her a** off.

She knows her s*** backwards, forwards, upside down and inside out.

She is far more honest and truthful than Donal Trump (an admittedly low bar to jump over).

Her political views are very close to mine. We are both left of center liberal pragmatists.

This country, and much of the world, did very well in the 90s when she had the President's ear.

Why I think Hillary Clinton will likely make a very good President

She is wicked smart.

She works her a** off.

She knows her s*** backwards, forwards, upside down and inside out.

She is far more honest and truthful than Donal Trump (an admittedly low bar to jump over).

Her political views are very close to mine. We are both left of center liberal pragmatists.

This country, and much of the world, did very well in the 90s when she had the President's ear.

So speak out and VOTE!

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Trump as a Bullshit Artist

I have watched the Donald on TV quite a bit, and the breadth and depth of his bullshit is truly astonishing. I would like to share three of my favorite Donald bullshitisms with you right now.

1. When Trump was the top dog Obama birther he said he sent investigators to Hawaii to look into Obama's birth place and they found "amazing things," truly amazing. Needless to say we never heard of this again because the Donald had nothing, and knew it. He just wanted to create the impression in your mind that Obama was not born in the U.S., and succeeded with a substantial fraction of the far right.

2. My second fav was the absolute and complete ban on Muslims entering the country. The Donald knows perfectly well that U.S. military on deployment would come home regardless of religion. He knows that Muslim U.S. citizens will come home when they please. He knows that he can't keep diplomats from North Africa, the Middle East, central Asia and other Muslim countries from coming to embassies and consulates all over the country. The Donald knows perfectly well that real terrorists trying to enter the country aren't going to advertise their religion, i.e., the whole concept is totally bullshit, but you have to admire the chutzpa.

3. I'll save my favorite for last: his secret plan to defeat ISIS. Just like Nixon's secret plan to win the Vietnam war there is no there there. Just to be clear, we lost the Vietnam war. The Donald, even though he says he gets his military expertise from watching TV shows, knows perfectly well that although the U.S. military could conquer the territory currently held by ISIS fairly easily, the real fight would start after the occupation and, as we found in Iraq and Afghanistan, it's not conquering but the aftermath that goes badly. Still, Trump got to stand in front of big crowds, thump his chest, and emit vast quantities of bullshit. How fun!

So there's a few of my favorites. Feel free to share them with your friends and add your own, I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding them. Just watch your TV.