Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Da Geezer]

Dow is over 19,000.

As has been said, Trump posted a YouTube video of what he plans to do first-off. What should be of note is that like FDR and Reagan before him, he is skipping over the controlled media and addressing the citizenry directly. That is a very big deal.

[hack]

Have at it. That's friggin nuts.

[entropy]

I always thought Reagan's approach was effective... Why not tell the people what you believe? It's not like it's difficult to do today...

I have no problem with it. Now twitting a thin skin reaction about how your VP was treated at a show... well, that's different.

[Whitley]

Hack regarding Froot's assertion that Detroit will be better in 20 years:

I agree with froot on this. As he points out, Detroit has had reasonably good municipal government after being forced to by Lansing and by the Bankruptcy Courts. Michigan has become a good-government state (like Ohio) , and right-to-work state (which helps everyone). As long as Detroit stays away from the Democratic machine politics that put them into the mess they were in, I think they could resemble Cleveland in 20 years.

Well as long as you don't drink the water in Flint.

Right to work? Well in Michigan now a company can fire you for any reason under the sun before your 90 days is up and there is no recourse. That sure works out well for the businesses there.

Good government? Maybe if you are the DeVos family and can basically buy legislation to be written the way you want it written.

Good Government? Like the EM law that was defeated at the ballot box. Only to have a cowardly lame duck legislators only put minor changes in the law that was defeated. Then put money to fund said law that made immune to for the citizens to put a repeal of the law on the ballot.

Is it good government to make transparency harder? To have more dark money flow through the political system? Is it good government that in the DPS system that the legislature made it so teachers teaching the kids do not have to be certified?

The Michigan legislature is engaged on a race to the bottom. This is what term limits brings. A bunch of self serving only looking out for themselves politicos that are hyper partisan and willing to do whatever their masters bidding is.

[Jeff Buchanan]

So Jeff, If Trump's plan is to use the Office of the Presidency to personally enrich himself and pressure foreign governments into giving his family's real estate projects tax breaks and sweetheart deals...you don't think anyone should be bothered by that?

Depends. There's no hard evidence that either DJT, Trump's family members involved in his companies or anyone of his business associates has done any of this.

There's a lot of speculation about conflicts of interests because the President is exempt from laws that pertain to other government officials in this regard. Right now speculation is kind of useless, IMO, for the reason that I stated in my post: there's a shit-ton of more important questions to be asking DJT.

Instead of asking those kinds of questions, you have what appears to be a hostile press trying to define him in a certain way and shape the public's view of him. I rather like that he's saying fuck you to them.

Having said that, I'm a firm believer in the value of a free press. However, my view of the press that serves the broadcast media in particular and perhaps to a lesser extent the print media for the last 3 decades is not particularly favorable. If anything the mission of informing the public has succumbed to increasing or maintaining viewership for the sole purpose of making money. I could go on, but won't. I think I've made my point.

[AlabamAlum]

When Thomas Jefferson was in office, the only wine he allowed served at the White House was his own - a nice red from his Monticello Vineyards. He sold it -at three times the price- through a shell company out of the Caymans called 'Hemings Vino'. He later started a secret security company of Hessian soldiers and approved the no-bid contracts for them to work the dust-up with Tripoli.

Thomas Jefferson
Tomasld Jeffermp
Domasld Jefermp
Donald J Treump
Donald J. Trump

[Da Geezer]

Have at it. That's friggin nuts.

you talking to me?

[froot loops]

Well as long as you don't drink the water in Flint.

Right to work? Well in Michigan now a company can fire you for any reason under the sun before your 90 days is up and there is no recourse. That sure works out well for the businesses there.

Good government? Maybe if you are the DeVos family and can basically buy legislation to be written the way you want it written.

Good Government? Like the EM law that was defeated at the ballot box. Only to have a cowardly lame duck legislators only put minor changes in the law that was defeated. Then put money to fund said law that made immune to for the citizens to put a repeal of the law on the ballot.

Is it good government to make transparency harder? To have more dark money flow through the political system? Is it good government that in the DPS system that the legislature made it so teachers teaching the kids do not have to be certified?

The Michigan legislature is engaged on a race to the bottom. This is what term limits brings. A bunch of self serving only looking out for themselves politicos that are hyper partisan and willing to do whatever their masters bidding is.

I'm sure Da Geezer is bigly into the Devo$ family.

[Da Geezer]

Well as long as you don't drink the water in Flint.

As I said during the primaries, the Democrats wanted the issue, not the solution. AG Schutte is in the process of prosecuting those responsible. I'd now like to see a solution proposed by Trump.

As far as RTW goes, the fact is that RTW states have a higher growth rate than union required states. You have every right to join a union, Whitey. Just don't expect the union to be able to protect the deadbeats from getting fired (eventually).

What is EM? Emergency Manager? As far as that goes, I'm talking about Michigan, not Detroit. You seem to be focused on Detroit. If you have been reading, I hold the AFT responsible for the deplorable state of the DPS. And, I have actually put my personal time and personal money into trying to fix that system.

[Da Geezer]

I'm sure Da Geezer is bigly into the Devo$ family.

Yup, I've known Rich most of my life, and the late Jay VanAndel too. Proud to know both families. Look up Amway on Wikipedia. 20,000 direct employees, but hundreds of thousands as distributors and in offshoot businesses.

[Da Geezer]

I basically agree with Jeff on the matter of Trump and conflict of interest. But, I can not think of any way he will be able to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. He has business interests everywhere, and divesting himself of the Trump businesses (500 of them) would be idiotic since it is the NAME that matters in most.

He has spent 50 years building his brand. If he actually trades influence and is found out, his brand will suffer mightily. If he plays it square, his brand will be enhanced. IMO, nothing he could do would make him more money than being diligent and aware of conflicts and addressing them head-on (like through social media). That still doesn't fix the problem of him sitting down with his family for Thanksgiving next year and saying, "So, Eric, how is that business in Scotland doing?" That's probably illegal.

[AlabamAlum]

Trump will play hard and fast with rules and will push the envelop, imo, Geezer. His ego will not let him assume he will take any real heat for borderline improprieties. It never has, from shady land deals, Trump U, charitable fund misuse, and other things.

[Wild Hoss]

All hail the President of the U$A.

Hell...its the last step in a long path. Why keep pretending at this point.

[Da Geezer]

To AA:

Agreed.

My point is that there is a financial incentive for hm to stay as clean as possible. But, I agree, he has shown no indication that he can control his ego.

I'd never heard that story about Jefferson. But I have heard that the election between Jefferson and Adams (1800, I think without looking it up) was the dirtiest in American history. I believe it was a pro-Adams newspaper that printed an edition with the news that Jefferson had died. Talk about suppressing the vote for an opponent....

[AlabamAlum]

As a segue to my Thom Jefferson factoid, most people don't know that FDR, after the war, marketed his own brand of wheelchair. The Presidential EZ-FDRoller Chair was made from irradiated wood harvested by the WPA from the Nevada nuclear test sites. FDR made millions.

The more you know...