America Divided.... Half of the country hates Trump because he wants to "fix a rotten system"...

[AAAintheBeltway]

How long have you posted on ET? I will be sure to do some research to find your true opinion of the wars launched by W. I have serious doubts that you opposed them at the time. Of course that puts you in the same camp as Trump who supported them before he opposed them. The Iraq War was stupid but the war in Afghanistan was required. With that said, its been time to leave that shithole.

Secondly, why are you bringing up Cruz or Bush in the first place?

I mentioned Cruz' support for Bush because you objected to Trump making some token donations to Hillary when she was involved in a primary battle against Obama. Surely you would have preferred Hillary to Obama?

As for the wars, I can save you the trouble of looking it up. I was skeptical of the Iraq war, and there were many well-reasoned arguments back and forth here on the subject. Back then, there were more posters and many of them were well-informed and articulate. I won't say I flat out opposed the Iraq war, because at some point you feel like you have to trust that the people running your government know more than you do. As it turned out, that was a huge mistake too. After Saddam was toppled, I became a severe critic of the way the aftermath was being handled.

On Afghanistan, my problem there was that we overthrew the Taliban thugs in a few weeks, largely using special ops troops embedded with local militias. We should have declared mission accomplished and left it to them to sort out, but oh no, we couldn't do that. We had to get involved in an idiotic and hopeless nation-building project that is still underway. That is one of the main reasons I have such disdain for Gen. Petraeus, since he was the genius running it.

 

[ETcallhome]

I mentioned Cruz' support for Bush because you objected to Trump making some token donations to Hillary when she was involved in a primary battle against Obama. Surely you would have preferred Hillary to Obama?

As for the wars, I can save you the trouble of looking it up. I was skeptical of the Iraq war, and there were many well-reasoned arguments back and forth here on the subject. Back then, there were more posters and many of them were well-informed and articulate. I won't say I flat out opposed the Iraq war, because at some point you feel like you have to trust that the people running your government know more than you do. As it turned out, that was a huge mistake too. After Saddam was toppled, I became a severe critic of the way the aftermath was being handled.

On Afghanistan, my problem there was that we overthrew the Taliban thugs in a few weeks, largely using special ops troops embedded with local militias. We should have declared mission accomplished and left it to them to sort out, but oh no, we couldn't do that. We had to get involved in an idiotic and hopeless nation-building project that is still underway. That is one of the main reasons I have such disdain for Gen. Petraeus, since he was the genius running it.

The only Taliban thugs that got killed were the ones the Taliban thugs wanted us to kill.

 

[wildchild]

I mentioned Cruz' support for Bush because you objected to Trump making some token donations to Hillary when she was involved in a primary battle against Obama. Surely you would have preferred Hillary to Obama?

As for the wars, I can save you the trouble of looking it up. I was skeptical of the Iraq war, and there were many well-reasoned arguments back and forth here on the subject. Back then, there were more posters and many of them were well-informed and articulate. I won't say I flat out opposed the Iraq war, because at some point you feel like you have to trust that the people running your government know more than you do. As it turned out, that was a huge mistake too. After Saddam was toppled, I became a severe critic of the way the aftermath was being handled.

On Afghanistan, my problem there was that we overthrew the Taliban thugs in a few weeks, largely using special ops troops embedded with local militias. We should have declared mission accomplished and left it to them to sort out, but oh no, we couldn't do that. We had to get involved in an idiotic and hopeless nation-building project that is still underway. That is one of the main reasons I have such disdain for Gen. Petraeus, since he was the genius running it.

I would prefer a candidate who did not suppoort either Obama or Hillary. Of all 16 or 17 republicans when the process first started off, Trump is the only one that I know of that was Hillary supporter. That doesn't fly in my book.

The problem with Iraq wasn't the aftermath, it was the overthrow in the first place. As we have seen of the last few years, the only thing the animals who live in the Middle East respond to is brutal oppression. Saddam was a tyrant because he needed to be tyrant otherwise he would have been overthrown. The best solution at this point would be to get the most brutal son of bitch, arm him up, and tell him he can do whatever he wants in Iraq, but if he starts acting against us, we will take him out. The same should be done in Syria. I have no idea why the US is undermining Assad. These idiots you see on TV every day who are saying the thing Iraq and Syria need is a political solution are total idiots. Biden said Iraq needed to be broken into three countries, and it might have been the only smart thing he ever said.

With Afghanistan I totally agree. After 9/11, the mission in Afghanistan should have been strictly punitive in nature. We should have been out to make the people who allowed Al Queda to train in Afghanistan to pay and then leave. The place was a shithole before we got there, after 100s of billions and perhaps trillions of dollars the place is still a shithole, and regardless how much you spend, 50 years from now the place will be a shithole. Why spend good money chasing bad money? Lets face it, a country like Afghanistan will never be as enlightened as our country and allow men to dress up like women and use the women's bathroom.

 

[ETcallhome]

I would prefer a candidate who did not suppoort either Obama or Hillary. Of all 16 or 17 republicans when the process first started off, Trump is the only one that I know of that was Hillary supporter. That doesn't fly in my book.

The problem with Iraq wasn't the aftermath, it was the overthrow in the first place. As we have seen of the last few years, the only thing the animals who live in the Middle East respond to is brutal oppression. Saddam was a tyrant because he needed to be tyrant otherwise he would have been overthrown. The best solution at this point would be to get the most brutal son of bitch, arm him up, and tell him he can do whatever he wants in Iraq, but if he starts acting against us, we will take him out. The same should be done in Syria. I have no idea why the US is undermining Assad. These idiots you see on TV every day who are saying the thing Iraq and Syria need is a political solution are total idiots. Biden said Iraq needed to be broken into three countries, and it might have been the only smart thing he ever said.

With Afghanistan I totally agree. After 9/11, the mission in Afghanistan should have been strictly punitive in nature. We should have been out to make the people who allowed Al Queda to train in Afghanistan to pay and then leave. The place was a shithole before we got there, after 100s of billions and perhaps trillions of dollars the place is still a shithole, and regardless how much you spend, 50 years from now the place will be a shithole. Why spend good money chasing bad money? Lets face it, a country like Afghanistan will never be as enlightened as our country and allow men to dress up like women and use the women's bathroom.

Trump didn't support Hillary or the democrats, he just bribed them because they were in power or the most corrupt.

 

[AAAintheBeltway]

I would prefer a candidate who did not suppoort either Obama or Hillary. Of all 16 or 17 republicans when the process first started off, Trump is the only one that I know of that was Hillary supporter. That doesn't fly in my book.

The problem with Iraq wasn't the aftermath, it was the overthrow in the first place. As we have seen of the last few years, the only thing the animals who live in the Middle East respond to is brutal oppression. Saddam was a tyrant because he needed to be tyrant otherwise he would have been overthrown. The best solution at this point would be to get the most brutal son of bitch, arm him up, and tell him he can do whatever he wants in Iraq, but if he starts acting against us, we will take him out. The same should be done in Syria. I have no idea why the US is undermining Assad. These idiots you see on TV every day who are saying the thing Iraq and Syria need is a political solution are total idiots. Biden said Iraq needed to be broken into three countries, and it might have been the only smart thing he ever said.

With Afghanistan I totally agree. After 9/11, the mission in Afghanistan should have been strictly punitive in nature. We should have been out to make the people who allowed Al Queda to train in Afghanistan to pay and then leave. The place was a shithole before we got there, after 100s of billions and perhaps trillions of dollars the place is still a shithole, and regardless how much you spend, 50 years from now the place will be a shithole. Why spend good money chasing bad money? Lets face it, a country like Afghanistan will never be as enlightened as our country and allow men to dress up like women and use the women's bathroom.

I pretty much agree. I will say I think it is a little unfair to say Trump was a Hillary supporter. He gave her money. He gave a lot of people money. It's what a high profile real estate developer does.

Our problems with Saddam Hussein went back to the Bush 41 administration when our (female) ambassador to Iraq somehow gave Saddam the impression that we were ok with him invading Kuwait. At the time I didn't understand why it was our responsibility to bail out the Emir of Kuwait and the crooks around him, but the Bushes were heavily involved with the middle east oil crowd and they all saw it as a mortal threat to their pocketbooks. Of course, our presence leading the liberation of Kuwait was the main motivation for osama bin ladin to attack us on 9/11.

 

[Anubis]

Sorry, I will never vote for a guy who supported Hillary Clinton, believes in big government, and wants to raise taxes. Maybe he can put out some faux outrage and tell the world how big of a victim he is.

Hello wildchild,

So who would you vote for that is better than Donald Trump ? And why.

 

[Anubis]

He might be financing it, but his donors will probably end up paying for it. He's the hypocrite, implying he's spending his own money, when it's more likely that he's just loaning it until guys like you pay him back.

Hello Frederick Foresight,

Your criticism is tilting at windmills. Trump says he is financing his campaign and doesn't need donations. And yes he accepts individual donations. But he does not accept donations from corporations. He has said that him self and so I don't see how that is hypocritical. If he was accepting donations from corporations then that would be hypocritical. But he does not accept donations from corporations. Sick Hillary for that kind of hypocrisy.

As far as his loan goes, if his individual donations don't cover 100% of the cost of his campaign who is he going to sue for the difference ? Maybe Obama will make an executive order to bail Trump out. Obviously he will just make up the difference. What ever money his campaign gets from what ever sources will be certainly be a lot less than the total amount Trump ends up spending on his presidential campaign. He is in this race to win 100% and will give it his all.

What are the chances that the individual donations from ordinary people will cover the total cost of Donald Trump's campaign ? Answer zero. Is Trump financing his campaign ? Answer yes. Is he doing it 100% ? Answer no. Why, because he accepts individual donations. Maybe Trump will only pay for 98% of the cost of his campaign. I guess that would still make him a hypocrite to you. Accept the fact that some things in life are not binary.

Trump doesn't need or want corporations or special interests to donate money, and has said as much. You should be praising him for that and not pretending a loan paid back in part by individual donations can some how be a crime. There are a lot more important issues in this campaign than some thing as petty as that. There are a lot of people contributing there own time and money to help Trump out and are happy to do it. Same goes for the other candidates. It's the American way. So should Trump give back every cent given to him by individual donors since he can finance his presidential campaign all by him self ? Is that your big issue. Who cares.

Try defending his opponents. Hillary a serial liar and traitor, an Obama with a skirt. Or how about Bernie, a closet commie. How are either of those people a better choice than Donald Trump ?

Btw the euphemism “democratic socialism” is an oxymoron since socialism by its nature is anti-democratic.

If you don't believe me see

Democratic Socialists of America
http://www.dsausa.org/constitution
"We are socialists because we reject an economic order based on private profit..."

And right out of Karl Marx's mouth himself.
Manifesto of the Communist Party
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/
"In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property."
….............................

Translation no “private profit” means the "Abolition of private property".

The state owns every thing - corporations, businesses, all production of goods and services, you name it. The state is all. Cue "The Internationale" song track.

I hope this helps.

Anubis

 

[fhl]

Yes, the system needs fixing...



"“The way things are supposed to work is that we’re supposed to know virtually everything about what [government officials] do: that’s why they’re called public servants. They’re supposed to know virtually nothing about what we do: that’s why we’re called private individuals. This dynamic – the hallmark of a healthy and free society – has been radically reversed. Now, they know everything about what we do, and are constantly building systems to know more. Meanwhile, we know less and less about what they do, as they build walls of secrecy behind which they function."

 

[Scataphagos]

That's Leftism for you.

(Leftism = Liberalism, Socialism, Progressivism, Communism, Marxism, Nazism. Seems we're always moving further down that scale. )

 

[Frederick Foresight]

I hope this helps.

Sorry to disappoint.