Ray,
You're trying to pull me into a specific debate with you and I'm not doing that. If you don't know what DJT stands for by now your mind has been made up. If not try
www.donaldjtrump.com. My wife is from Wales and she and her parents came to America in the 80's and did it the RIGHT way. This is huge for me and the main reason I support him. immigration reform.
As for the ransom, how about not pay it? We have the upper hand with bargaining power and we can't seem to get it right.
Hillary supporters will try to argue all day long about how Trump can't and won't (lie) do what he says. The whole time HRC can't do anything but lie and accept big money donations from the middle east for the Clinton Foundation. Pay for Play, can't use emails correctly and dishonest, just to name a very few things. And how about her health?
Brian-
Fair enough; let us not debate or discuss specifics, it is the internet afterall. That said I would note the concepts on immigration are just as likely to do harm to the economy as they are to accomplish whatever else people view them as being oriented against. That's actually the major thread that I find fault with Trump's positions; his view on the economy is compelling but non-substantive. I.e. it panders to folks that want to believe that the great 1950's middle class explosion to manufacturing jobs can be re-ignited if we'd just stop getting screwed by trade imbalance and the like.
Except that really isn't the main reason those jobs are obsolete; technology changing (and us not keeping up) has just as much bearing on it.
Ironic that we champion making American Great, again by espousing protectionist trade policies that are directly counter to that free market capitalism that we say is a core facet of the US.
Nevermind that the tax policies he's proposing, or the reduction in free trade, the implementation in tariffs, etc-all of that economically doesn't actually promote growth when you look at the data.
Beyond that there is a tremendous amount of platitudes and promises that will go nowhere, like replacing bureaucrats with experts-who are these experts (and what have they been doing to make them experts, and why-if they are experts-would they come to the Fed Gov't to work instead of working in the open market where their expertise will make them money?
All of it comes back to being sold a bullshit narrative....
...just like HRC is doing.
Exactly like HRC is doing. There is no substantive difference there, only different bias depending on what tugs at the heart strings.
So we can try to make American Great, again-except there is no evidence America is not great right now and plenty of evidence that it is quite great at this moment of history.
As far as paying the money goes; to tie it back to the law and order candidate Trump, if we didn't give the money that was theirs back we fly in the face of norms that we would be apoplectic about were the situation reversed. Put another way if we want to act like a hegemon and an empire to ensure that more and mroe nations actively find ways to counter us that is a great way to do it. On the other hand using it as leverage to get back AMCITs was pragmatic, particularly when we didn't really have this theoretic bargaining power that people keep talking about. I guess we could return Iranian relations back to what they were pre nuclear deal, i.e. status quo since 1979, and eventually that would accomplish....
...well nothing, as it didn't do a damn thing for the last 40 years substantively but perhaps if we just tried a little harder and meant it more looking ahead it would.
We could talk about Donald's $$$, except we can't b/c he won't release his taxes.
We could also talk about the oldest potential president's health but we can't do that either.
They are of exactly the same ilk. To think otherwise is to embrace delusion.
