The Candidates' Tech Agenda

Hillary Clinton laid out her tech agenda yesterday. You can see it here. I like much of it, particularly the emphasis on getting our kids the skills they need to be competitive in the 21st century. I am so with her on that.

I googled Donald Trump tech agenda and found nothing substantive. I would encourage the Trump campaign to do something similar so the tech sector can see what these two candidates think the nation’s tech agenda should be for the next eight years.

We have so many important issues that are centered in technology that face our country:

  • cybersecurity
  • privacy
  • STEM education
  • broadband policy
  • wireless broadband policy
  • open internet
  • data rights
  • patent policy
  • copyright policy
  • immigration policy

Those are just some of the big ones in my view.

Hillary told us where she stands on most of them yesterday.

I would like to know where Trump stands on them too.

#policy#Politics

Comments (Archived):

  1. awaldstein

    You are implying that Trump has a platform on something? Anything?Anyone who uses divisiveness and ethnic/racial/sexist/gender biased profiling as a communications technique is beyond the real of policy and in the realm of just palaver.Sorry for stylizing the thread this morning this way but to me, once you cross the line of hate as a technique, the only goal is to insure that that candidate doesn’t win.

    1. fredwilson

      i think we have to assume he has a real chance of becoming President so i think it would be useful to know what he would do if that happens

      1. awaldstein

        Of course and I agree.Not belittling the intent of your thinking at all but I simply don’t believe anything he says.Truly frightening individual because he is not accountable to anything including a core set of beliefs.Try to not be led by emotions but this guy is to me truly frightening.

        1. Guy Lepage

          +1

        2. DJL

          Wow, I feel the same way about Hillary. And she has also broken the law numerous times without penalty. If you look up “not accountable” in the dictionary you see Bill and Hillary. So what is worse, someone you don’t believe to be accountable, or someone who has proven they are not accountable? Hillary is a known quantity. I am ready for “Hope and Change.” Again, I agree with many of the Trump criticisms, but Hillary truly scares many people as well..

        3. sigmaalgebra

          > Not belittling the intent of your thinking at all but I simply don’t believe anything he says.How to judge such a thing? Not so easy.> You are implying that Trump has a platform on something? Anything?Well, right along he is coming out with more details on his positions. His Web site athttps://www.donaldjtrump.com/is awash in positions and statements on issues. E.g., there are some positions athttps://www.donaldjtrump.co…and statements on some issues athttps://www.donaldjtrump.co…But from politicians we don’t get signed contracts with easy recourse. So, to me, in the end, we have to judge character, sincerity, etc. On these, to me, Trump looks good for being POTUS.On why some people, e.g., so many at AVC, seem to hate Trump, I don’t know but am eager to learn.But, sure, we can wait for the Democrats to nominate Batman, Superman, Captain America, John Wayne, or some such. In the meanwhile, and so far, it looks like the alternative is Hillary.My first post here today outlines, especially for Fred’s list of issues, my comparison of those two.

      2. Alex Murphy

        True on so many fronts

    2. pointsnfigures

      He does. It’s populism. I disagree that he has used hate-but I don’t agree with his idea of free trade.

      1. awaldstein

        Fine to disagree my friend.If the majority of the population of the country adopted any of his hateful trends that he uses as a communications strategy that would become him.Hitler was a monster who at his core was brilliant and strategic.To me Trump is potentially more dangerous as his only bias is being popular and will become whatever he has to be.No less a potential monster imo.

        1. pointsnfigures

          Trump is no where near like Hitler. Not even close. He is incredibly persuasive though. I might not like the way he says it, but I do believe we need secure borders. I do believe we need to be wary of terrorists entering the country. Yet, I am a huge fan of re-doing immigration (Gary Becker has the best way). If Trump is elected, there will be no Kristallnacht against Muslim owned businesses, or anything like that.I know people in blue collar jobs like construction that can’t get them-immigrants work for half the price. When I drive around the hinterlands, and I do it a fair amount, I see the devastation and lack of access to capital people have. At the same time, they are getting eaten up by technology.Tough problem the Democrats have no real answers to. Trump’s answer isn’t the right one either, but he has identified the issue.

          1. awaldstein

            Much truth in what you say.I simply disagree completely.I’ll still go share a bottle of wine or discuss the business models of IoT as long as we don’t touch on this one.

          2. pointsnfigures

            My gut says, we disagree on the process to get to the same goal.

          3. awaldstein

            I believe that understanding without emotion is essential of course.But that has little to do with how people vote or react or believe. Or how we all communicate if we do it effectivelyI can’t separate the two pieces, you seem to be able to.And there are life experiences that we learn to use logically but don’t ever escape. If you play with these hates, you cross the line and i just don’t give a shit about the rest.

          4. kenberger

            “As an online discussion continues, the probability of a reference or comparison to Hitler or Nazis approaches 1.”And here’s the author of that quote, explaining specifically as it applies to Trump. Great stuff:https://www.washingtonpost….

          5. Anne Libby

            Driving around, I also see the crappy roads and other infrastructure we have under-invested in maintaining — which would equal some of those jobs…While I hope you’re right, pretty sure that “all good people” in Europe convinced themselves about things that wouldn’t happen…when I see you next week I’ll tell you a story about a hideously quotidien interaction that happened in a Chicagoland business that I think only could have happened post-Trump.https://youtu.be/5eNh8ldETEQAnd I don’t see this problem as a Dem vs. GOP problem to solve, if we look to the so-called parties to solve this, it can’t end well…

          6. pointsnfigures

            We spent trillions on infrastructure over the last 8 years. That’s what the failed stimulus package was supposed to take care of. In my home of Chicago, all of the money taxed goes straight to government worker pensions. The state, and city are fundamentally broke. In Illinois, it’s not a Republican problem. It has more to do with big government solutions to all problems. Doesn’t work. Democrats trust government more than big mongo corporates. At least with big mongo corporates, I can generally choose not to purchase from them. I can’t ignore the government.

          7. Rob Underwood

            Anytime Yes, the heroes of 70s prog rock, make an appearance on AVC it’s a great day.I am returning the favor with Phish doing Fluffhead, the word that comes to mind when I think of Donald Trump… “Fluffhead.”Have fun counting AVC members in the audience! https://www.youtube.com/wat

          8. JLM

            .It is not the parties, it is the party members who assume positions of responsibility.There is no mistake why the ten worst cities in the US are all run by Democrats. They all run old school patronage corrupt models.It is time to be critical based on RESULTS not on elections.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

          9. Tom Labus

            He is delusional re economics and finance. I don’t think Americans will go for 5K iPhones and 2k running shoes. We do need some fiscal policy help big time.

          10. Jess Bachman

            Trump is the billionaire capitalist us blue collar folks need! ಠ_ಠ

          11. LE

            Great comment. I think anyone who has gone through a painful period in their life (as you have detailed yourself) can understand how difficult it must be for that construction guy or other blue collar person, hell for a white collar person laid off (especially at a later age), to land on their feet. My brother in law’s business just closed. It had been in the family since 1932. When my sister married him they were a high class family whom my Dad admired. There is no doubt that the downfall of this family business was caused by the Internet. I really feel bad for him. I setup an interview for him with someone I didn’t even know (just cold emailed them on his behalf). Wrote to them and said “here is his resume I think he would be of value to your business”. He went up to NYC yesterday and it went pretty well I hear.

          12. Stephen Palmer

            In areas like Texas, there is a shortage of construction workers, even with immigration. Have them move there for work.

        2. JLM

          .Hitler killed 6,000,000 Jews and countless others. He plunged the world in to a world war. He wrecked Europe and destroyed Germany.All Donald Trump wants to do is to build a freakin’ wall on the Mexican border.When one resorts to such extreme and unfounded hyperbolic exaggeration, it is difficult to take that person seriously in any other utterance.Delete your post, Arnold. You’re ruining your brand. You sound like an idiot.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

          1. LE

            Seriously look at how upset people are with the rhetoric! I mean actually saying someone is “potentially more dangerous…no less a monster” (than Hitler) is unbelievably extreme in every way. It shows they have lost the ability to think and analyze the situation and are operating on emotion only.

          2. Kirsten Lambertsen

            Unless they’re Donald Trump, apparently. Then extreme rhetoric is just ‘calling it like it is’ or whatever excuse is being made for him at the moment.

          3. Lawrence Brass

            What you sow is what you reap.No kind words for Humpty Dumpty.

          4. sigmaalgebra

            > It shows they have lost the ability to think and analyze the situation and are operating on emotion only.It also shows that some people have been just terrific at getting the media, etc. to repeat such things until a major fraction of US voters believe them.IMHO much of what makes that prairie fire spread is the pile on technique: So, many media outlets just casually repeat the absurd accusations that a lot of readers just start to accept the accusations, all without actual good data or evidence. And the media? They lots of continuing, seemingly credible stories easy to write that keep up anxiety levels and get eyeballs, clicks, and ad revenue.Again, it’s the deliberately deceptive, disgusting, dirty, lying media.Trump was smart to see this about the media, and political correctness, and early on preemptively attack both. Else months ago the media would have used Trump as a spectacle of a public skinning alive, dismembering, evisceration, and mincing for dog food, all the while claiming “good journalism”, and had him out of the race by now.Hillary? The media just wants to go along with Hillary’s current statement on Benghazi — “It’s time to move on”. Gee, how does she get away with that?

          5. Jess Bachman

            To be fair, Trump hasn’t been in office yet to do all these things. Give him some time. It’s best to compare pre-power Trump to pre-power Hitler.And such hyperbole is only an extension of the terrible nature of the acts themselves. In an attempt to prevent such things happening again, we must be vigilant in calling attention to anything that even remotely echos that past.I am sure there were people in some German pub a hundred years ago saying “This Hitler guy reminds of me Envar Pasha” and some other German would respond “Yeah right, Pasha killed 2.5 million people. Don’t be ridiculous. This Hitler guy just wants to expel the Jews and make Germany great again.”

          6. JLM

            .OMG, Jess, really?Go read two books — Mein Kampf and The Art of the Deal.See if you can spot any differences.”Expel the Jews” was not really the program of Hitler from the very beginning. The Jews were, of course, legally Germans. No?Hitler was a known quantity well BEFORE he ever was elected Chancellor. The Germans like to pretend Hitler was a case of spontaneous combustion but the truth is he was elected by them.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

          7. Kirsten Lambertsen

            Thank you. I would have thought this was obvious.

          8. sigmaalgebra

            I have it on good authority that Hitler ate food, breathed air, and talked and that Trump also does all these things.Both ran for office, wanted to help the economy, and got support from a lot of working class people. No doubt so have many politicians, in the US and around the world.But, from just those correspondences, why do you believe that once elected Trump will do ugly things like Hitler did?E.g., Hitler had Operation Barbarossa which was to invade to the east, basically to the area enclosed from a line from Berlin, to Danzig, Poland, the Baltic states, Leningrad, Moscow, Stalingrad, much of the Baku oil, and back to Berlin via the Balkans. Also include iron ore from Norway. Apparently HItler also wanted the Arabian and Persian oil.In this Operation, Hitler wanted to take all the land for Germany and German farming estates. The locals were to be killed outright or enslaved and worked and starved to death. The result was to be Lebensraum, room for living, for farm land, and for expanding the German population.So, in that Operation Hitler wanted to kill all Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, no doubt Persians, Arabians, etc.Hitler had a lot of excuses: In the Treaty of Versailles Germany lost some of the land they had acquired in WWI. Hitler was convinced by WWI and the Treaty of Versailles that other countries, e.g., France and Russia, were his enemies and out to destroy Germany ASAP. Hitler believed that Germany needed more farm land to better feed its population. In part maybe an excuse was the long European history of bloody wars and fluid borders. Hitler bought into the then popular ideas that what applied to breeding dogs, cattle, pigs, etc. also applied to humans and that, in particular, Germans were superior. Likely mostly, though, Hitler was psych-o, sick-o, wack-o, paranoid, hysterical, obsessive, psycho-pathic, wildly bitter and angry about WWI, etc. plus just plain nuts.There are a lot of nuts out there, but they don’t all get into power. So, how did Hitler get into power, i.e., become dictator of Germany?Reasons: The German economy was a wreck because of WWI and because of the reparations of the Treaty of Versailles, the Weimar Republic and its deliberate, massive inflation of the German Mark, and the Great Depression had spread from the US and because the humiliation of Germany from WWI and the Treaty of Versailles left a lot of the German population angry. Maybe also there were contributions from some of the grim history of wars fought on German lands before German unification.For more: Some Communists were a threat in Germany; a lot of people wanted to push back against the Communists. There were a lot of former WWI German soldiers out of work, on the streets, and ready to join protest movements. The German Army had some funds for political activities and used some of those funds to finance some of Hitler’s early efforts. So, he had some funding. And there were a lot of rich, powerful people in Germany eager to have a leader they could fund and control to get what they wanted — weak trade unions, docile workers, military rearmament.Also, Hindenburg was old and weak. So, after an election, no doubt not fully honest, Hindenburg asked Hitler to form a government. IIRC, soon Hitler called for new elections and there put a lot of his buddies in power. Then he got from the parliament, Reichstag, some special laws for four years that got him closer to being a dictator. Then he changed the German economy to a command economy and, supposedly, actually did get the German economy going again, years before the US economy pulled out of the Great Depression. Would be good to know just how he did that. But at the end of that four year plan, with the successes, the German public went along with another four year plan, and then Hitler started going to war seriously. Likely his main goal was essentially Operation Barbarossa.Hitler reached too far. He was so nasty, he pissed off nearly everyone. Stalin was no angel, but people were willing to help Stalin defeat Hitler. He signed up with Japan. Then when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Germany was essentially obligated to declare war on the US.WC got the US to make a big effort to defeat Hitler by dropping bombs on Germany from air fields in England. Now Hitler was in a two front war. He lost. Maybe WWII killed 75 million people give or take.I typed the above quickly from my understand that I got years ago trying to ask if the US could have another Hitler. My conclusion: The US can’t have another Hitler.In particular, Trump will not be another Hitler, not even within light years. To suspect that Hitler and Trump have anything serious and bad in common is to deeply misunderstand both.

          9. Jess Bachman

            The US could not have another Hitler, there is only one Hitler. The US could have a Trump though. He maybe not Hitler, but he certainly will be Trump.

          10. ShanaC

            Some of his language choices actually do remind me of hilter-esque speeches. Sort of sad, really. His son-in-law’s grandparents (were) survivors.

        3. Kirsten Lambertsen

          I’m with you 1000%. But using Hitler does, in and of itself, seem to derail conversations (even though, *truly*, I agree with you). Maybe Joe McCarthy is a more viable comp here? What if that guy had become president?

        4. SubstrateUndertow

          “Hitler”unforced error – thread has gone on too long 🙂

    3. Jess Bachman

      Trump doesn’t have a platform, he IS the platform. Trump is a decentralized, peer-to-peer, crypto-candidate. Y’all techies should be behind that. Blame the people for bad actions while using Trump-coin.

      1. JLM

        .Trump is driven by the blockchain?JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

    4. JLM

      .I recognize you have gone over the deep end and I will forestall my natural inclination to inject anything remotely resembling the truth. Before I give up, I will share one specific instance of a clearly articulated and cogent policy.Trump recently gave a teleprompter speech about trade and jobs. It was well done. He is no Barack Obama when it comes to the artistry of speaking but the content was excellent.If you can read this speech and suggest that Trump does not have a “platform on something” then it is your integrity which suffers.http://www.politico.com/sto…JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

      1. LE

        “Upstanding” citizens, liberals, intelligentsia, simply can’t understand why anyone could possibly support or believe in any of the things that Trump says and in fact they can’t even see it in context by listening to the nuance that accompanies it. (I need more time to have that make sense..) They also will read in negatives where there aren’t any for things that he says that are compliments. (Trump comment on jews and negotiation as an example).Trump likes things of beauty and especially women. What a fucking surprise that is. So does Bill Clinton.

      2. Lawrence Brass

        I watched the speech, obviously not his pen. Scotland golf course speech absolutely him, save for the calmed voice. His bs is a lot more convincing if he doesn’t shout.I wonder if all those plans can be effectively applied, as if the incumbents will stay still without fighting back. The surface of attack is broad. Mermaid songs about bringing back manufacturing jobs, I don’t know, at what wages?Sounds good but do you think all that is really possible?

        1. JLM

          .Brassy, are you under the impression that Presidents and other politicians actually write their own speeches?They have speechwriters, no?The Easter Bunny? He’s not real.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

          1. Lawrence Brass

            Winston Churchill wrote his own speeches. I think great people can write their speeches, which is obviously not the case. Nothing wrong with paying someone else to write ‘words’ for him, he can spend his money as he wish.But that is not my question. My question is: Do you think he can and will be able to execute his plan if he gets elected?

          2. JLM

            .Sir Winston, of whom I am the largest fan in captivity, was a writer, Larry. He is also a relic of our past.I will give you half credit on that answer.He did win a Nobel in Literature. Of him, John Kennedy said, “…he mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.”Hitler is said to have called off the invasion of England based on the ferocity of his speeches.Here is a good passage from WC:”You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: victory. Victory at all costs. Victory in spite of all terror. Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival.”That would work today, no?JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

          3. Lawrence Brass

            Must disclose that I am aware of your fandom of him. Didn’t mean to cheat using that on you. Just facts.I wonder how much of our written history is idealised, fixed, written to please the victors. So much left to fantasy and imagination.BTW, if you look closely, he (Trump) read his speech standing in front of a pile of garbage. It may be premonitorious. 😉

          4. JLM

            .The first draft of history used to be the newspapers. Now, the MSM is so damn biased, history is being bastardized. Victors finish all the rewrites.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

          5. sigmaalgebra

            > in front of a pile of garbageHe was speaking at an aluminum company. I guessed that the background was bails of scrap aluminum. At ballpark $0.73 a pound, and each bail maybe some thousands of pounds, and so many bails, the backdrop was expensive!

          6. Lawrence Brass

            You are right, those are crushed aluminium cans.

          7. sigmaalgebra

            > Hitler is said to have called off the invasion of England based on the ferocity of his speeches.It also helped that his bombers barely had range enough even to get to London, his fighters barely had range enough to dogfight with the RAF over southern England, and too soon the Luftwaffe had just lost too many pilots and planes.Also there’s the guess that all Hitler really wanted from Britain was a “free hand” in Europe. And, after Hitler lost “The Battle of Britain”, that is, the air war, Hitler guessed that Britain would not do much to slow Hitler in his other goals, e.g., from Berlin to Leningrad, to Moscow, to Stalingrad, to the Baku, etc. oil and North Africa to the Mideast oil.Hitler had yet to think of twice daily 1000 bomber attacks on major German cities from Berlin to Stuttgart to Munich. Hitler had yet to notice what a few thousand B-17s in England could do to Germany, and Goering was not big on four engine bombers.Maybe the places where WC was crucial were after the Battle of Britain:(1) Continuing to attack Hitler, ASAP, even after Hitler gave up on The Battle of Britain.(2) Talking the US into doing as much as it did in England, which was a lot, likely much more than Britain did, to fight Hitler.(3) Talking the US into fighting Germany in the Atlantic Ocean so that the US could get supplies to England.(4) Being determined actually to defeat Hitler and not just cut a deal just for Britain.E.g., as soon as Hitler took half of Poland, WC went ahead right away as promised and declared war on Germany and was fighting, e.g., had the British army and UAF in France until Dunkirk.There was a lot of reason for a lot of people to really hate Hitler, but WC was near the top of that list of Hitler haters.Yup, without WC, when Hitler charged to the east, he would have had only a single front war, gotten what he planned, signed a treaty, and gotten away with a lot of what he wanted, that is, until he wanted some more.

          8. JLM

            .At Dunkirk, the Krauts stripped the English clean of all serious weaponry. The army that arrived in England would have had to sharpen their messkit knives to throw up a defense.Operation Sea Lion, the German invasion of England, was based on the Germans controlling the skies and the English Channel.Those pre-conceived conditions were difficult to obtain. Had the Germans bulled forward, they would have likely attained a secure toehold and been able to overrun many of the bases from which the RAF was operating.The use of paratroopers could have obtained a lodgement which would have allowed reinforcements to be flown in rather than brought in across the Channel.Hitler chickened out. One has to remember he had no idea he would be as successful as he already was. I think he lost his balls and was scared shitless by Churchill. I hope so.The Krauts had a 90 day window in time from Dunkirk until the end of that summer when they had the English army stripped naked and their army triumphant. The Germans were not that big an army at that time.They failed to exploit the advantage and I, for one, am glad.I saw this wargamed by US and British gen’l officers at the War College in the mid-1970s and the Krauts won a few times. More than a few times.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

          9. sigmaalgebra

            WOW!Gads, it was close, too close. If Hitler had taken England, it would have been much harder to stop him.Hmm …, attack him from the south, that is, through Sicily, Italy, and the Balkens with supplies via the Suez canal?

          10. ShanaC

            Whats the easter bunny?(I mean it, what is the deal with easter and bunny rabbits, beyond that bunnies are cute)

        2. sigmaalgebra

          > Mermaid songs about bringing back manufacturing jobs, I don’t know, at what wages?One place, at least early in the campaign, Trump risked disappointing much of his target audience was his remark that wages couldn’t be too high or the resulting products wouldn’t be competitive or some such.What finally dawned on me was, say, sneakers, shirts, sweaters, blue jeans, common toys, steak knives, etc.: Can produce good running shoes in China and put them on a boat for the US for, what, $3 a pair? Sell them in the US for $40 a pair for the mid range and $100+ a pair for the Nike or some such?Okay, suppose Trump puts a 100% tariff on sneakers. So now they enter the US at $6 a pair instead of $3 plus, say, 10 cents shipping, right, still to sell for $40 and much more. Gee, for responding to the extra $3 with just pass through they will sell for $43.00 a pair.Secret sauce: Compared with the direct manufacturing costs, the total cost in the US from marketing, advertising, distribution, retailing, etc. is HUGE, and importing can’t address that in any very direct way. E.g., the clerk at the sporting goods shop is making $10 an hour or some such and sells, what, three pair an hour for $3.33 per pair clerk cost, more than the manufacturing cost in China?E.g., a loaf of bread costs maybe $2 retail and has, from the farmer, maybe 2 cents worth of wheat in it? If the farmer got $0, the bread would go for, what, $1.98?Point: In the US, marketing, distribution, retailing, etc. can be darned high compared with raw materials or the cost at the plant from the actual manufacturing. So, we can put a tariff on the product as it leaves a manufacturing plant in China for not much increase in the final price in the US, that is, not much US inflation.Small potatoes? At $800 billion a year US foreign trade deficit, a 50% tariff would mean $400 billion a year in new tax revenue, not small potatoes.Also we’re one heck of an aid to US manufacturing.And how about risk premium for the entrepreneur and their commercial banker who re-starts some US manufacturing? That is, they want to be sure that China, etc. don’t attack back with nearly free goods until the new US company is out of business (classic predatory marketing practice) and then raise their prices, thus, wiping out the entrepreneur and hurting their commercial banker.Sooooo, can slap on even some 100% tariffs with only a few percent increase in final US retail prices.Then, can we make sneakers in the US for $6? Maybe: We do have a lot of infrastructure advantages, automation, faster turnaround for new products, shorter supply chains, etc. Indeed, maybe some of the crucial materials for the sneakers actually come from the US.Does this simplistic scenario convince me? Nope, not much at all. Instead, I’d like to see some details of our present trade agreements, where they are bad, what good trade agreements would look like, what US manufactured products would cost instead of imported ones, etc. And I’d like more than just some examples but also what the total would look like for all the US economy. And how long will it take for US companies to get back into the sneaker, etc. businesses? And how many jobs at what pay are we looking at?But, I’m not going to get those. So I will have to settle for less. I can notice:(1) We used to manufacture sneakers, etc. So, broadly it would appear that we still could.(2) If Trump’s ideas work for trucks but not for sneakers, then, everyone including a Trump Administration, will notice, and it will have to be US truck manufacturing but not US sneaker manufacturing.(3) Protectionism is common around the world. Maybe it should be also in the US.(4) I have to believe that US manufacturing has more fighting it than just low manufacturing costs from cheap labor. Instead, I have to guess that international business is awash in classic techniques long illegal in the US due to anti-trust laws. So, US manufacturing has been losing not just due to costs but due to unfair play. Get back to fair play, and then can worry about manufacturing costs.Net, I have to believe that what Trump wants to do in trade negotiations could turn the lights back on for a significant number of US factories. At least he seems to want to try.

      3. Salt Shaker

        I think he bought that speech on the Internet. No way he wrote it or likely participating in the crafting of it. He doesn’t read particularly well, either. Can’t wait for the debates. With 17 candidates the time limits were parsed among a wide set of individuals. Trump could hide behind his endless quips and criticism of others. One on one, with a seasoned public speaker and debater like Hillary, he’ll be toast. Her ability to clearly and succinctly articulate policy, compared to his repetitive rambles will be a contrast in both style and substance. He’ll loose on both fronts. Worse than Kennedy/Nixon. Nixon looked pale, Trump will look pale in thought.

        1. sigmaalgebra

          Hillary is bright but only in some quite limited ways. She’s good at sounding like the two Amherst coeds challenging Newt Gingrich as athttps://www.youtube.com/wat…But Hillary’s debating style is essentially just superficial emotional appeals, e.g., still much like those Amherst coeds. Think for just two seconds and can realize that Hillary hasn’t actually said anything that could mean anything in reality.In such debates, Trump will grab Hillary by the ankles and use her like a mop to wipe the floor with her skimpy hair and based on three things:(1) As in the Republican debates, not just against 16 others but against just Cruz and Rubio, in the opinions of a wide range of voters, he won. He has also been good against quite hostile newsies. One advantage of Trump is that he can be so darned emphatic. Or, put another way, Trump can be one heck of a salesman — he’s practiced that in front of various audiences on a wide range of topics for decades and is good at it.(2) As athttps://assets.donaldjtrump…Trump has good enough details on 50 places where Hillary messed up big time. In nearly any debate issue, Trump can just use a few of those 50 to make Hillary look just hopeless.(3) Trump has several dozen positions on current issues where he has, in rallies, etc. for over a year now, in front of hundreds of thousands of people, practiced and refined the thinking, detailed wording, and delivery. Those positions are now well proven to work well enough with enough people, from the center and well into both the right and left, to have the post-debate polls conclude that Trump won.One more point: The US is supposed to be a democracy. So, there are citizens, and each citizen gets exactly one vote. Well, Trump has found a lot of such voting citizens and some issues, positions, wording, delivery, and presentations that win over those citizen voters. That’s a lot of votes, that is, points on the scoreboard, revenue to the top line, big numbers in the Electoral College, however want to put it. That’s part of winning, and definitely Trump intends to win in November.Hillary? She’s in this for some of her personal psych-o, sick-o, wack-o obsessions to get some kind of coveted validation on some personal issues, e.g., be the man she believed her father wanted by beating the men in getting money and power. That is, Hillary is not really focused enough on actually winning. Instead, Hillary is so distracted by her obsessions that she is so superficial, cynical, transparently manipulative, and contemptuous that she believes that she can get all the way to the White House just by being a liar who puts on a feminist sincerity act.Sixteen opponents in the primaries, nearly every top newsie in the media, nearly every pundit, etc. for over a year now have tried to cut down Trump, and in the view of a wide consensus of voters they all have failed. Net, Hillary doesn’t have a chance.

          1. Salt Shaker

            The primaries were infotainment, stoked by the media as much as Trump. Too many enamored and startled by Trump’s “fresh and different” approach to politics and the status quo. Will that likely continue with the impending debates? Of course it will, as that’s Trump’s M.O. Attack is his middle name. It will be like a rabid pit bull squaring off against a well manicured, intellectually superior poodle. The question is will the gen public tire of the shit show? Hillary is far, far from perfect. Mistakes and flaws, no doubt. It’s easy for Trump to cast aspersions against one’s track record when he has none of legit relevancy of his own; and even his one claim of being a “successful biz person” is full of holes.Read the WSJ transcript of Trump’s chat with the paper’s Editorial Board. No mud slinging or editorial bias there, just Trump in his own words, and tell me if you find him Presidential? It’s an embarrassment. Communication is as impt a skill as any in becoming President, yet Trump is richly lacking here. He’s full of rambling, stream of conscious non-sequiturs. People say he’s bright and strategic. I frankly don’t see it. He no doubt has tapped into something big but as recent polls among the gen voting public suggest (not the GOP), the emperor has no clothes, or in his case they’re threadbare.

          2. sigmaalgebra

            > The primaries were infotainment, stoked by the media as much as Trump.To big media the primaries were at least a lot of eyeballs, clicks, and ad revenue.But there were also millions of voters quite involved — usually quite concerned, especially about the economy, and not at the rallies just for the party aspect.> Too many enamored and startled by Trump’s “fresh and different” approach to politics and the status quo.Yes, maybe at first, but now Trump can still, on nearly any day in nearly any city with a big enough room, get 20,000+ to show up at a rally.His target audience is quite broad from the center and from both the left and right, and his issues, positions, wording, presentation, etc. continue — now in the general contest and not just in the Republican primaries — to please that target audience, a more broad audience now than in the primaries.To nearly all of that target audience, Trump is very real and darned serious and nothing like just infotainment.> It will be like a rabid pit bull squaring off against a well manicured, intellectually superior poodle.Hillary is sick-o, psycho-o, wack-o and more like a rabid dog and nothing like “a well manicured … poodle”. Hillary is bright in some ways but nothing like “intellectually superior”. In particular, Hillary is not smart enough to avoid doing some really stupid things, for decades. Few irresponsible teenagers are that reckless.At his rallies Trump rambles? Has syntax that came off a chopping block? At his rallies he uses essentially just fourth grade vocabulary? Yup. That shows that he’s intellectually inferior to Hillary? Nope, not at all.Want to evaluate Trump’s intellect? Okay, the measure is delegates to the Republican convention. As athttp://www.realclearpolitic…the score isTrump 1542Cruz 559Rubio 165Kasich 161Fair conclusion: Trump’s intellect was by far the best of the whole 17 candidates.For more, early in the contest, it was standard for essentially all the political pundits to laugh at Trump’s chances. Fair conclusion: Trump’s intellect was better than that of all the pundits.Yup, Trump looks different. But, have to notice, he is by a wide margin ahead of all the other Republican candidates and the predictions of all the pundits. That is, he’s not like the losers. So, he’s different. And from that we want to conclude that his intellect is not so good? I don’t think so! I mean, he would look smarter if he looked more like the losers?BELIEVE ME, Jeb!, Cruz, Rubio, etc. would have done just what Trump did if they had thought of it and saw just how to do it!> The question is will the gen public tire of the shit show?Answer: The “gen public” is darned concerned about the economy, illegal immigration, Supreme Court appointments, other judicial appointments, national security, foreign policy, health care and its costs, social security, Medicare, the national debt, K-12 education and more, and they will remain so concerned for years. To know what so many people — likely by November enough to win the election — are concerned about, just look at what Trump is talking about. That is, Trump is talking about what his target audience is concerned about.> Hillary is far, far from perfect. Mistakes and flaws, no doubt.In addition, she’s been selling out the USA for speaking fees for Bill and contributions to their foundation. And with her DIY e-mail server with highly classified materials she has likely seriously compromised US national security and also left herself open to blackmail from US adversaries.For details on 50 ways Hillary has messed up, seehttps://assets.donaldjtrump…For how Hillary intends to mess up big time, look at her stated intentions on immigration and TPP.For where Hillary will really mess up, think about the economy where she doesn’t have a clue and her globalism nonsense which will seriously further weaken us.E.g., our trade situation leaves us wide open to more destruction of our economy from classic predatory marketing practices from other countries. All China, etc. have to do is chip in a few hundred million dollars to Hillary and Bill and then have a free hand for $500+ billion a year trade surplus with the US. For our selling to China? China will use techniques to throttle, nearly stop, our sales, and Hillary won’t do anything about it.Hillary’s related conflict of interest in foreign trade is staggering. I don’t know the details of the legal situation, but it looks like treason to me. But, for legal problems, her e-mail situation is likely worse.> It’s easy for Trump to cast aspersions against one’s track record when he has none of legit relevancy of his own;Many millions of US citizen voters just made very clear that they regard Trump’s background for politics as not so bad compared with those of several Senators and Governors that were among the 16 Trump opponents in the Republican primaries.Hillary’s qualifications for political office? Experience? Yes. Record of success? Awful. For Hillary, her record in politics is a strong disqualification for a position in politics.> even his one claim of being a “successful biz person” is full of holes.I don’t see anything serious about holes. Trump claims to have borrowed $1 million from his father and used that to build a net worth of $10+ billion along with paying back the $1 million. He’s filed his financial statement with the FEC twice now; if he is not really successful in business, that should be clear by now.”Holes”? Is that like occasionally Steph Curry misses a shot? Like the Cavs don’t win 100% of their games?> Read the WSJ transcript of Trump’s chat with the paper’s Editorial Board.My hierarchical file system directory on Trump has 230 files. That WSJ one I missed, and you didn’t give a URL for it.> He’s full of rambling, stream of conscious non-sequiturs.I can believe that. That’s part of what he does sometimes, that is, in some circumstances. Just why he does that is an interesting question. But from all the evidence about Trump, that style of conversational speaking is not a sign his intellect is low. I can see some ways he gets some significant advantages from that style. But he also has prepared speeches and written position papers, and there he does well. I have to believe that in business he had a lot of darned well written contracts.> People say he’s bright and strategic. I frankly don’t see it. He no doubt has tapped into something big …You ended with a good answer to your own question.> as recent polls among the gen voting public suggest, (not the GOP), the emperor has no clothes.The election is in November!Can I place a bet and get some good odds?What is it you really don’t like about Trump? Maybe:(1) He’s different. So, we are not sure how different he will be. Maybe in some ways he will be too different for some people.(2) We are tempted to go with the devil we know well instead of something different, even something different that promises to be better.(3) For people well off in the current economy, maybe they would sleep better with just the devil they know. E.g., for them, the economy is not so bad. For ISIS, if they explode some car bombs in the US, then we will go ahead and level their areas in the Mideast. In the meanwhile, for ISIS exploding a nuke in NYC, be like Scarlett and “think about that tomorrow”.(4) Trump doesn’t owe anything to Soros, Goldman Sachs, the Koch Brothers, the GOP or its funding sources, big bucks in Hollywood or Silicon Valley, allies in the media, etc. So, Trump looks like something of a loose cannon.(5) Trump gets a lot of his power from the blue collar voters. So, this can be close to McCain’s contemptuous remark that Trump fires “up the crazies”. McCain doesn’t have to think of himself as one of those people because he married a beer fortune and is above all that!(6) By being a populist, Trump torques off the elites.(7) Trump can look highly capable, opinionated, and determined and, with so many voters behind him, powerful. That combination can scare some people.(8) Trump is dealing with big, scary things, e.g., ISIS with a nuke in NYC, serious problems for the US economy, trouble with the national debt, Social Security, and Medicare, and a lot of people would prefer just not to think of such big, scary things.

        2. JLM

          .Trump bested a guy, Teddie Cruz, who was a world class debating champion with a Harvard Law degree who Prof Dershowitz said was the best student he ever taught at Harvard.I find Hillary to be slightly north of fingernails on the chalkboard. There is no doubt she is a public speaker of some experience but I cannot find anything to suggest she is a “good” public speaker.There is no evidence she was able to generate the same excitement as Bernie Sanders. So, what is the evidence on her being a good speaker?Hillary will find herself defending herself on massive allegations of corruption and on that score DJT is probably the best in the country to bring that game.It will be interesting.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

          1. Salt Shaker

            Come on JLM, Trump never debated Cruz one on one. The GOP primary debates were just one big cluster fuck. Style won out over substance. It was far more Bravo than CNN.

          2. JLM

            .Fight fair, Salty.When it was Trump, Cruz, Kasich — they had a good go of it. And, the world was exposed to the brilliance of the pedantic and warm Teddie Cruz.The GOP debates were what was necessary to whittle it down from 17 to The One. Trump had no control over the format or the methodology.The Republicans get high marks for the number of candidates, the number and frequency of the debates. I do think that Trump should have gone three three minutes rounds with a grizzly bear as part of the process. OK, maybe a biggish black bear.Take that beef to your liberal brethren at the sponsor shops.Trump — “He’ll never win the nomination.”Yeah, that was right, no?JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

          3. LE

            The nerdy student really can’t fight the bully though. Hard to use words to counter things when the other person is acting retarded or lowers the bar. Look how ridiculous Elizabeth Warren looks now trying to do it. With Hillary saying “I just love the way she gets under his skin!”. Like Trump has dealt with mafia bosses and unions in NYC as well as the scum of the earth, world leaders and billionaires and world class lawyers and some Harvard professor is going to get under his skin.

          4. JLM

            .To each his own, I thought Lizzie Warren scalped him.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

        3. LE

          Nixon won on the radio, Kennedy won on TV. Nixon sounded better. Kennedy looked better. Trump does sound and look better than Hillary as long as he isn’t acting like a clown which in all fairness he does sometimes.I don’t think it’s a shoe in for Hillary debate wise by any means. For one thing she is a woman with a woman’s voice and mannerisms and the fact is people do find more authority in a man’s voice and look.Don’t believe me?Ask any female doctor how they are treated by patients vs. a male doctor. And I don’t mean an Indian male doctor or Doogie Howser. I mean a tall white doctor with a commanding voice and gray hair (I am serious about this btw). Ok so Trump has no gray hair. But my point stands Hillary is lacking good cadence and tone (and much more) in her voice (and Warren has it even less ntim). Don’t underestimate the value of being a “man” with a man’s voice in terms of people putting extra value on your words.

          1. ShanaC

            And that is why my oncological surgeon^1 is a woman scientist. Sharp as nails, fun to talk to, and won’t try intimidating me into potentially bad medicine while also telling me to read pubmed (which i do anyway..) Despite being brilliant, she also has slightly too much of a valley accent to really intimidate unless it is really serious. I’m extraordinarily lucky to have her as my doctor.I’m over authority and commanding when my life is on the line, in both medicine and politics. Many people are in terms of politics, and want more of a character who listens and thinks and tells you to go further^I don’t have cancer – I’m just in a high risk group, hence the doctor. She also specializes in high risk women. As I said, pretty awesome doctor

      4. SubstrateUndertow

        When ever I watch a Trump speech it reminds me of the old chèche :”out of clear thinking come clear speaking”

  2. Lawrence Brass

    Sink Apple, a giant fireWALL for the US internet, xenophobic AI… or anything he can improvise if you ask him.

  3. Christopher

    Much as I like tech, there are some other, significantly more important policy areas that require substantive commentary by Trump! But you, like us in the UK, appear to be living in a “post factual” age where the bulk of the electorate don’t really care about policy. Gah.

    1. pointsnfigures

      Read the Rotten Heart of Europe (published in 1995), then recalibrate your thoughts on the EU

  4. Tom Labus

    Trump said something about steak knives and how they’re cutting edge

  5. todd

    You heard him. Talk to people like Bill Gates about “shutting down the internet” which really meant shutting down terrorist’s ability to communicate. Didn’t you see that speech? He also likes to fire people; like creative technology people who think carefully before acting rashly.

  6. Adam Pray

    All of your bullet points are policy and politics. I’m much more interested to know how eithe candidate plans to get behind technological advancement with real government support. I would like to see a non – militarized form of DARPA that is equally well funded which can prop up big tech for social good that doesn’t necessarily have a quick and easy future in capitalism.Don’t get me wrong, I’m very interested in their policy positions as well but I hope they are interested in actually doing big things instead of just talking about how to make the status Quo function in our new era.

    1. Alex Murphy

      DARPA exists as a ‘part’ of the DOD. It is there to drive innovation for the armed services.The non militarized form of DARPA is the NSF. They drive innovation in all areas of science.The investment in innovation through SIBRs and STTRs is one place where the government is set up pretty well. In part because they invest in the r&d and in the entrepreneurs, and not in doing the build themselves.

  7. pointsnfigures

    Won’t change your vote though : )

  8. rimalovski

    As the Man in Black said, “Get used to disappointment.”

    1. kenberger

      I thought that was The Princess Bride?

  9. pointsnfigures

    But it will be virtual. Hillary will make sure all the money she spends goes into her friend’s pockets, then hers, then overseas friends who will donate it back to the Clinton Foundation. I think we have two really horrible choices for the future of America

  10. jason wright

    yeah, but digital is chipping away at the ideology of the sovereign nation state model (as has global capital hitherto). i don’t see how ‘country’ survives in the long run.

    1. pointsnfigures

      I do. I don’t think city-states can survive and thrive.

      1. jason wright

        i think the nation state reached its high water mark a while ago. look at the UK where the Mayor of London is calling for greater autonomy for his city. Capital cities do tend to impose their will on people beyond their boundaries without consent. nation states are completely artificial arrangements. so many tensions and contradictions are bound up in them. digital is definitely taking us in a different direction.

        1. pointsnfigures

          city states are unsustainable

  11. pointsnfigures

    One thing Trump is right about is the disenfranchisement of the upper to lower classes in the US. No one in either party really listens to them-and creates policy where they can thrive. Look at how the government is going against independent farmers. Look how they are stopping Uber, AirBnb and other innovations to defend existing companies. The fifth estate in the US is ungoverned, and out of control. The fourth estate ignores it.

  12. William Mougayar

    Impressive how detailed Hillary’s tech plan is, but have you seen this part?What I don’t like about it is -1/ it mixes SME’s with startups together, but they aren’t the same thing. 2/ it calls for top down government programs to invest artificially where they think it’s needed, and we know how innefective such programs are (just look to Canada for plenty of wasted government money examples).”…venture capital funding is highly clustered—with 70% of all VC funding going to three states, 40% going to one region[10], 7% going to firms with women founders, and a mere 1% directed to African-American women founders.[11] The result is that too few Americans are benefiting from the opportunity to access capital and put their job-creating ideas to the test. Hillary will support entrepreneurship ecosystems in all parts of the country, with the federal government playing its part to increase access to capital for SMEs and start-ups, especially for minority, women and young entrepreneurs. Hillary will:Build Local Tech-Driven Economies by Investing in Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses: Hillary wants to see innovation clusters and entrepreneurship hubs, like Silicon Valley, emerge and thrive across the country. She is committed to supporting incubators, accelerators, mentoring and training for 50,000 entrepreneurs in underserved areas.”

    1. sigmaalgebra

      Raise taxes. Buy votes with money that will be thrown away and wasted. Leave our country poorer. Typical Hillary. Here it is good that she is a compulsive liar! Besides, Congress would have to vote the money, and no way would a Republican Congress do that.

  13. Lawrence Brass

    Can’t find any reference to the TPP in Clinton’s tech plan, however fixing the patent system is addressed.Trump wants to ditch the TPP, or so he told recently, which really means nothing. But anyway.

    1. sigmaalgebra

      IIRC Hillary now says that she is against the TPP in its present form or some such.Trump recently said that he is against the TPP but at the same time said that it has not been ratified yet.

  14. Jens Achilles

    To me Trump himself looks like the Brexiteers in London. They fight hard to win a campaign, but once they won they have no clue what to do next.Does Trump have a tech agenda, a foreign policy agenda, any agenda at all? At least not very visible. But apparently he does have a lot of people around him who might have a very clear view of what they want and how to accomplish that within a Trump administration. Peter Thiel for example. So, probably you have to look at these people to get an idea of “Trump´s agenda”.

  15. pointsnfigures

    Hillary is nuts on student loan forgiveness. No bad economic incentives in place if that happens-and which bureaucrat gets to decide who gets forgiveness and who doesn’t.

    1. Tom Labus

      There are times frames after starting a company. Look at it like start up capital

    2. Jess Bachman

      Why should the colleges and loan providers get to have all the bad economic incentives? Save some for the rest of us please.

    3. Richard

      Student loans are the new mortgage, interest should be tax deductible and most should be forgiven. There is more disclosure on the window sticker of a used car than there is for a student loan.

  16. Tom Evslin

    Hilary is not very good when you get to energy technology. The fracking ban she is supporting (to court Bernie voters) is terrible economic and foreign policy. It means we go back to getting our oil from people who hate us, raise the price our enemies get for oil, increase the cost of energy for our allies and make them more dependent on the ME and Russia, and kill the driver of what economic recovery we’ve had – cheap and plentiful energy.BTW some people don’t realize that almost all new domestic oil as well as natural gas is from fracked wells. You hear more about fracked gas because, IMHO, cheap gas is a greater competitor to nuclear, coal, wind, and solar than oil.Not that I’m recommending a vote for Trump – that’s this year’s dilemma.Full disclosure: my business trucks natural gas. we’re helped by low gas prices and hurt by low oil prices. so fracking cuts both ways for us.

    1. Tom Labus

      We knew the deal after the first oil embargo in the 70’s. We should be energy independent now and have moved from the Middle East a long time ago. But………..

    2. JLM

      .Not good? My freakin’ Shih Tzu (dead now) was “not good” at calculus. He was, however, much better than Hillary on energy.Hillary is a disaster for energy.We have been fighting oil wars in the Middle East for fifty years. We have buried countless Americans for the price of a barrel of foreign oil while ignoring almost every opportunity to replace it with domestic energy (a larger subject than just oil) which carries no blood on its pricetag.Her opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline is a death sentence. Bear in mind, the pipeline was a substitute for train cars and would have added 1mm barrels a day to our quest for energy independence.Our country was first gob smacked by energy prices and the human cost of energy in the early 1970s. Here we sit, almost a half century later and still sucking off the foreign energy teet.Between Mexico, Canada, domestic production, nuclear — we should make the Straits of Hormuz a trivia game answer.Yeah, Hillary is “not good” on energy.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

      1. sigmaalgebra

        But, but, but, but, I have learned for years from the highly self-esteemed NYT that fossil fuels are sinful, against the earth god, evil, are only from human greed, are transgressions against the great natural order, increase the evil carbon footprint, release polluting CO2 which is already raising ocean levels to flood Manhattan and that we need pure, clean, safe, 100% all-natural, endless, free, environmentally friendly, honorable, renewable energy.And with that anxiety seed thus planted, the NYT proceeded to water it for decades with maybe 10,000 more such 100% total, suicidal BS stories, and Manhattan really loved it.

  17. BillMcNeely

    Instead of presidential debates loved to see potential cabinet level nominees speak on large issues within those departments

  18. andyswan

    Don’t we already know where Hillary stands on cyber security?

    1. SubstrateUndertow

      She is ahead of her time. In the future we will all have our own private plug-servers !

  19. Andrew Mulvenna

    Any angle re Health? Perhaps this is only a serious consideration in the UK, where NHS stifles innovation by only contracting to major players who lock down data.

  20. jaypinho

    My question is this: if Trump were to propose the single most thoughtful, nuanced, and innovative tech agenda ever profferred by a presidential candidate, would that change anything at all? Because it really shouldn’t.

  21. Dave W Baldwin

    Being an Independent, I’m worried about the election due to the choices. Being fair to Trump, we know his strategy in negotiation is to establish the best point to negotiate from. Fine and good. Problem is the fact he keeps running his mouth without doing homework and prep. Question is, did he start to learn anything over the past month.This link is to the transcript of his speech in Pennsylvania- http://www.politico.com/sto…yes, it is a populist speech, but it has some strategy built in.On the tech side, yes, you can make promises out the ying yang… but remember, Hillary is the ‘tech’ candidate who seems to not know the difference between servers. Oh well, just a security issue.

  22. Amar

    This party will get going once @JLM:disqus jumps in 🙂 Flying back to Texas from CA right now. First thing I do once I get on my inflight wifi is check out avc.com 🙂 Thanks for everything @fredwilson:disqus

  23. JLM

    .To the extent this election wanders past the direct comparison of a congenital liar v a world class bullshitter, it will be decided by the electorate’s view of:1. The economy (jobs, healthcare costs),2. Immigration (securing borders, monitoring refugees entering the country, building a wall with Mexico),3. Foreign policy (ISIS, the Middle East),4. Global terrorism and its impact from within (San Bernandino, Orlando, Ft Hood), and5. The dissatisfaction and disenfranchisement of the middle class (disappointment in the elites).These issues are markers, some of which impacted the 2014 mid-terms and will continue to have that same impact.It will be undertaken with a fragrance of integrity, trust, and corruption flavoring the debate.Tech will be the “toe fungus” of the election and lucky to be elevated to that level. The “first woman president” meme will dwarf anything even remotely related to tech.America will not likely be swayed by the third-party-authored tech wisdom of a woman who cannot operate a fax machine or master the intricacies of email.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

    1. William Mougayar

      I agree with you more than you agree with yourself. You are sounding more and more like a centrist / independent.

      1. JLM

        .I have always been slightly right of center.I agree completely with Bernie Sanders on the wisdom and attractiveness of a free education — state colleges.Just promise — no more poets. We need training and education for jobs which exist, pay well, and are held by taxpayers.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

        1. William Mougayar

          It’s too bad there isn’t anyone who has each of the qualities of these contenders without their faults. That would be an idealist situation.

          1. JLM

            .That is not who America wants right now. Plus Jesus was busy.We are desperately calling out for:1. someone who is not confused as to what bathroom is theirs,2. someone who can lean forward in America’s saddle,3. someone who is not spending all their time weaponizing the gov’t for their own purposes,4. someone who is not stealing from the public till, and 5. someone who cares, even a whit, about the middle class.We will forgive anything if we can get someone like that now. We will use them and then discard them just like Britain did to Winston Churchill.We are that desperate having endured the Worst. Presidency. Ever.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

    2. Lawrence Brass

      I believe that women and the voting youth will decide this election, if they go to vote that is.

      1. JLM

        .They will certainly be important factions but the electorate is too complex to focus on single slices of that big pizza.Remember we have the Electoral College which tells us that Florida (29), Georgia (16), North Carolina (15), Virginia (13), Ohio (18), Pennsylvania (20), New Hampshire (4) will be the swing states this time around.Trump will resonate with Coal Country (VA, NC, Ohio, Pennsylvania) in a way like never before. Not because of his stands but because of the disastrous utterances by HRC and the Obama record.The gray hairs will decide Florida, as they always have.NY and NJ could get into play — not that Trump will win but that HRC will have to invest substantial time and money to defend home turf that usually came for a handshake.In addition, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada and Oregon are going to be in play.There is a clear path to victory.Here is a link to one of my favorite Battleground Maps.http://www.270towin.com/map…JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

    3. LE

      America will not likely be swayed by the third-party-authored tech wisdom of a woman who cannot operate a fax machine or master the intricacies of email.She will get the best and the brightest from tech to help out, just like Obama did. They have these tech 1 or 2 year stints where you go help Washington with important issues and then go back to your old job. Sort of like the Peace Corp.https://www.usds.gov/

      1. JLM

        .’Would that be like the geniuses who stood up http://www.healthcare.gov?There is ample evidence this woman does not have the skill or savvy to even understand who to hire. She had the chance to set up a world class email operation, if I recall correctly.She ended up with an unsecured server in her basement.No, this woman doesn’t even understand how to make a reset button work.Treasury raids Goldman but there is no evidence to support that the injection of tech wisdom has accomplished anything. This is a pipe dream.Remember this — politically, tech is nothing. Tech donors? Yeah, well, that’s something. But as to voting — nothing.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

        1. LE

          Big thinkers like to bring in what they think are smart people who have achieved something in another area imagining that they have the pixie dust to make anything work. Same thinking regular little people have when they think that what Bill Gates says is 1,000,000 times more important and significant than what someone else thinks on a particular subject that he knows nothing about (or Bono or any celebrity).She ended up with an unsecured server in her basement.What’s interesting is that Hillary clearly thought that physical security of the server “surrounded by secret service” is all that mattered in terms of computer security.

  24. Avner Ronen

    I think these type of questions are relevant in most election cycles, but in this case it helps legitimize Trump as a candidate.It really does not matter what he thinks about tech policy (he clearly does not have one. like he does not have any other policy ideas).. like it didn’t matter what Hitler’s tax policy was.

  25. William Mougayar

    And this about the blockchain is pretty good from that document:”We must position American innovators to lead the world in the next generation of technology revolutions –from autonomous vehicles to machine learning to public service blockchain applications –and we must defend universal access to the global, digital marketplace of ideas.”This certainly trumps Rand Paul accepting bitcoin for donations 🙂

  26. JLM

    .As to tech and Trump, there is a bit of information which is useful to ponder.He is a builder of 100-story buildings. The tallest building I ever built is 50 stories, but it gives me a slightly informed opinion to discuss the subject.His buildings are renowned for being on the cutting edge of construction management technology and building technology.This shows up in the design of HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) systems, vertical transportation (elevators), energy (windows particularly), information technology (fiber optic cable service) and security.I’ve toured a few of his buildings and seen the provisions for these advanced building tech features in the all together.This debate strikes me as much about Trump v Clinton — one of them has done things and one of them has talked about stuff (interesting stuff) but hasn’t actually done anything.This is another example. In all fairness, one of them is Hell on wheels on “reset” buttons and it is not Donnie.I am put off a bit that anyone would take seriously a woman who, by her own admission, cannot operate either a fax machine, drive a car, or wrestle email into submission. So, there is that, also.So, color me skeptical but it could just be the sniper fire. Who really knows?JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

    1. LE

      I am put off a bit that anyone would take seriously a woman who, by her own admission, cannot operate either a fax machine, drive a car, or wrestle email into submission. So, there is that, also.In that way for sure she is really out of touch with what it’s like to be an everyday person. Same as certain people living in NYC that will attend her fundraiser (at 2k per seat min) to see Hamilton.As far as understanding the working man, Trump understands them and has worked with them.Hillary would claim to “feel their pain” [1] but the fact is she is really really good particularly at grinfucking them but the act is particularly phony as it always appears from a professional politician or attorney. You never get real language or emotion from them.What’s interesting is how many of the takedowns on Trump, even many of the negative comments about him here on this blog, fail to understand the issues that are important to people that don’t read the NYT (and they make the same mistake) and how to sell to those people. You don’t do it by using words that your painter wouldn’t understand or talk about issues and concepts that he doesn’t care about (and I’ve had to look some of those words and concepts up and hey I’ve went to one of those good schools).Trump is for sure the big gamble and a big risk. But then again ironically so is startup investing. I guess the difference is in investing you get a great deal of do-overs if you make the wrong choice.[1] Famous Bill Clinton quote

      1. JLM

        .This blog is a fabulous cross section of wisdom as it relates to tech, VC, startups. Best. Ever.It doesn’t rise to the intellectual level of navel gazing as it relates to other issues, politics, in particular.It couldn’t drown the bottom half of a thimble with its actual knowledge of politics. [BTW, this is an insult which smashes through a “micro” aggression and comes to rest squarely in the “macro” column for which I apologize profusely. Get to y’all’s safe places.]I love you. Because I, like Loretta Lynch, have weaponized love.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

    2. Tom Labus

      Trump does not own any of the 9 NYC Trump Buildings (branding deals) so did he actually do the development work?

      1. JLM

        .I don’t know the answer to that. He built Trump Tower and did a lot of the rehabs with his name on it — both hotels and office buildings.I used to spend a lot of time in Tampa and there was a downtown condo project that sat there for years. He put his name on it and the thing sold out in six months.Other than that, I’m sure he’s a fraud, no?JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

        1. Tom Labus

          That’s 40 Wall. It’s home base for boiler rooms and scams. Half the building over indictment

          1. JLM

            .The one I used to see on my daily walks was a residential condo unit. I could be wrong.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  27. kevando

    Trump is a bishop placed by the DNC. His agenda will be worded to further polarize voters, as with everything else he does and says.

  28. iggyfanlo

    Fred. Your last line sums it… I would like to know where Trump stands on them too….. Unfortunately he does literally stand ON them

  29. sigmaalgebra

    Important IssuesForo cybersecuritythat’s almost entirely a problem in basic computer security in computer science and also in applied math to be handled by the computer industry.E.g., this month I spent several days doing virus scans of my development computer. My computer should be able to start to run any software at all, including deliberately malicious software, fully safely, and getting there is the responsibility of the computer industry and not the POTUS.Foro STEM education the US is just awash in STEM education from on-line resources to community colleges, four year colleges, universities, and some of the world’s best research universities including Cornell, Harvard, MIT, Brown, Princeton, NYU, Johns Hopkins, Georgia Tech, CMU, University of Illinois, University of Washington, Berkeley, Stanford, Cal Tech, and more.Hillary’s positionsFirst, Hillary has been selling out the US for speaking fees for Bill and donations to their foundation with supposedly very loose accounting. Likely she intends to continue doing that as POTUS.Second, Hillary’s immigration policy is essentially open borders, that is, just refuse to enforce our immigration laws and let everyone in. In particular, Hillary wants an increase in immigration from the Syrian area of 550% over Obama’s thousands.We can’t vet these people. So, Hillary wants to let in Ali Abdul Jihad Akbar Al Fatwah bin IED Boom Boom, a.k.a. Abu Car Bomb, that is, radical Islamic terrorism, likely from ISIS. In this, Hillary will be violating the POTUS oath of officeI do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. and will be giving “aid and comfort” to enemies of the US and delibertely refusing to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, …” thus, committing treason as in the US Constitution:Section. 3.Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court….he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, … The goals of the Hillary immigration policy seem to be (A) create a new case of slavery in the US, (B) dilute the voting power of current US citizens, and (C) get payoffs to Bill and their foundation from companies that profit from the new slave labor.IMHO, otherwise, Hillary’s positions don’t count. Here are five reasons why:(1) Due to Hillary’s legal problems from her mishandling of highly classified information via e-mail and her Blackberry, she may be in jail or otherwise not able to run.(2) IMHO, Hillary doesn’t know anything at all about technology. Why? Consider her misuse of a Blackberry and especially her apparently insecure and hacked home-brew, DIY e-mail server with sloppy password handling. Moreover, considering the long record of Hillary’s interests, tough to believe she cares even a laugh about technology.(3) IMHO, Hillary is not at all interested in anything that is good for the US and, instead, is 100% focused on making money by selling out the US or whatever else is driving her, maybe trying to be the man she thought her father wanted instead of a girl.(4) Hillary is really poor at getting good things done, from her marriage to Whitewater, HillaryCare, to Libya. E.g., for a list with details of 50 times Hillary messed up, seehttps://assets.donaldjtrump…(5) Hillary is nearly totally nasty, disingenuous, insincere, manipulative, and self-centered and is a habitual, shameless, guiltless liar. So, what she says about anything is close to irrelevant.Trump’s positionso Immigration Reform Immigration Reform That Will Make America Great AgainThe three core principles of Donald J. Trump’s immigration planhttps://www.donaldjtrump.co…Apparently Trump wants our immigration system to return to what it was a few decades ago, that is, legal immigration of highly qualified people through a careful process.So, the next Einstein is very welcome, but Ali Abdul Jihad Akbar Al Fatwah bin IED Boom Boom, a.k.a. Abu Car Bomb, is not.o Education I will end common core. It’s a disaster.Education has to be at a local level. … We’re going to have education an absolute priority.https://www.donaldjtrump.co…So, maybe, if a K-12 school wants to have education in technology, they will be fully free to do so, e.g., like AFSE in NYC. That is, the US Department of Education (DoE), No Child Left Behind, Common Core, etc. won’t get in the way. Of course, apparently already the DoE didn’t get in the way of AFSE.Vocational education has long been emphasized in the US, and there is no reason there can’t be more, in K-12, community colleges, four year colleges, universities.For more in computer science, there is MIT, CMU, Stanford, Cal Tech, etc.Also relevant is Trump’s”Donald Trump Economy Foreign Policy Speech Monessen PA. 6/28/16″athttps://www.youtube.com/wat…The transcript of the prepared speech is athttp://www.politico.com/sto…There he listed seven points on which he will help the US economy. Technology was central there.E.g., on theft of US trade secrets there is,Seven: If China does not stop its illegal activities, including its theft of American trade secrets, I will use every lawful presidential power to remedy trade disputes, including the application of tariffs consistent with Section 201 and 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 and Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.That should also be relevant too patent policyo copyright policy On other countries attacking US businesses, including technology, there is, in the very next paragraph,President Reagan deployed similar trade measures when motorcycle and semiconductor imports threatened U.S. industry. His tariff on Japanese motorcycles was 45% and his tariff to shield America’s semiconductor industry was 100%.SummaryIMHO, Hillary is one of the worst people ever to run for office in the US and by a wide margin from third place the second worst ever to run for POTUS.IMHO, Trump is, especially in the current USA situation, the most promising candidate for POTUS since Hoover, and I don’t know US history well enough to go back farther.Considering the current state of the US and world, Trump in well in line to be one of the top Presidents in the history of the US.To hell with Hillary.

    1. JLM

      .I saw a report on the Internet — which means it has to be true, right? — that the Devil is voting for Trump and has refused to place Hillary. Said, “That lady is not coming to my place under any circumstances.”Could be wrong.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  30. Guy Lepage

    I’d like to encourage the community to check out Brad Feld’s thoughts on the topic as well. http://www.feld.com/archive

  31. Guy Lepage

    Donald Trump does not support net neutrality. And thinks it will lead to the censorship of conservative media.http://gizmodo.com/the-2016

    1. DJL

      Nor do I (or millions of other Americans) support “net neutrality”. (That has been hashed over many times here at AVC.) The truth is that many Democrats and other loud liberal voices have tried to silence the conservative opposition for years. (Just ask Rush). Why would they do this? Because Liberalism does not stand up to rational argument. Once a Liberal is losing an argument, they default into name-calling, attacking and demonizing the opposition. Is that the country we want to live in? All opposing voices are squashed.

      1. LE

        Once a Liberal is losing an argument, they default into name-calling, attacking and demonizing the opposition. Is that the country we want to live in? All opposing voices are squashed.And the best tool they have in the box is the politically correct speech “bowel movement”. Nothing can be said or discussed, it’s already been decided as a settled and not even worthy of being addressed further.

        1. sigmaalgebra

          Yup, like Hillary said in the last few days about Benghazi, “It’s time to move on”.Well, I can see why she could think that.But why she believes that anyone else would be dumb enough to accept that is beyond me. But, she says, things, just things, just says them, lies or not, just says them, confident that there will be little or no push back.Sorry, Hillary, might have gotten away with that back in AK or in NYC with the NYT, but with the Internet can’t do that anymore.

          1. Alex Murphy

            AK? Perhaps you meant AR?The reason she is saying its time to move on is because its the 8th investigation essentially coming up with the same conclusion: “People died, that is awful and some people all the way up the chain of command made grave mistakesAll 8 say essentially the same thing.No conspiracyNo corruptionNo criminal activityWhat would you say about the Iraq war and WMD? Were there any mistakes there? Of course there were.I don’t think anyone should be put on a stake in either case.Whatever happened to politics end at the border?Lets come back to the issue at hand.DT doesn’t just say crazy things, he says flat out racist things. He is a Xenophobe. He is an absolute sexist. If he were to win the oval office, our country will be set back decades.Like our UK friends are learning, votes have consequences. The UK is going straight into a recession and will lose their position in the world as one of the top financial backbones of the world. In one vote, they have gone from leader to middle of the pack.And the US is staring the same reality in the face. DT has no policies. He trades on fear and anger. Over what? – The loss of manufacturing jobs? Ironically, manufacturing jobs have actually grown over the last 5 years, albeit at much lower rates than 20 years ago. – Fear … about service workers that are willing to cut your lawn for $12 an hour … well above our min wage? But yet at a lower rate than their American counter parts are. – Religious hatred? The guy in Orlando that killed 50 people was Muslim, but he was born here in the US … what will stopping Muslims from coming to the US do?The list goes on and on. DT is a first class hypocrite. He is not fit for the office. He is a Bully. He is not inspirational, he is entertaining, much like a trainwreck. I just hope our country isn’t in the middle of this accident in the making!

          2. sigmaalgebra

            > AK? Perhaps you meant AR?Likely! Thanks.Time to move on? Naw: The latest report contained some new stuff. But the main report did not want to draw conclusions.Moreover, serious suspicions remain and are reinforced: What suspicions? I don’t want to interrupt my startup and will let others fight that grim battle.> DT doesn’t just say crazy things, he says flat out racist things. He is a Xenophobe. He is an absolute sexist.Lots of liberal pundits and Trump opponents push those accusations, but, like you, they don’t give good evidence, say, primary sources with solid references. I’ve studied Trump fairly hard, and I can’t find any significant evidence of any of those; indeed, the evidence in each case is the opposite.Forget all pundits and newsies and check the data for yourself, from the primary sources, say, actual Trump speeches and Web site statements.Note: Enforcing our immigration laws is not racist or xenophobic. Instead, it is just enforcing our immigration laws.Recently the NYT ran a centered, above the fold story attacking Trump for his treatment of women. The NYT soiled their clothes all the way down to their socks and out onto the floor, slipped on the floor, and fell face down in their own stuff — too many of the women came forward and debunked the story.I have a long list of YouTube URLs, of Trump rallies and interviews — I will post them for you if you wish. Then watch some simple random sample and find the evidence for the accusations. I couldn’t.

  32. DJL

    Unfortunately (as the comments in this blog support), whatever Trump does say will not be fairly represented in the Media or by the “Tech Elite” at large. It is no secret that powerful big tech (Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) are essentially run by liberal Democrats. The scary and sad part of this is that these technology companies also curate the news that many young people see. They create the news and also filter the news to suit their political agenda. (Yes, I said it.) I am not a huge Trump fan. But I want him to get a fair shake.So while I agree with Fred that Trump should provide a similar outline (I hope he does). Do not kid yourself that it will be taken seriously. It will be derided as stupid and uninformed. (please read said AVC blog comments.) All Hillary has to do is open her mouth, and the media will scramble to turn her gibberish into genius. It is painful to watch.There is only one agenda needed for Tech: Make the government smaller and create more jobs for people. That can also be America’s agenda. The rest flows from there. But you cannot legislate these issues. The free market always has better solution.

    1. Rob Underwood

      To be taken seriously, be serious.To be respected, respect. To be loved, love.

      1. DJL

        That is very nice. Words to live by. Was Trump or someone not serious or unloving?

        1. Rob Underwood

          I’ll take the bait. To my eyes and ears Mr. Trump shows a profound lack of seriousness about holding the most powerful job in the world. And that perhaps is why if he presented a tech platform, even if had the level of detail and specificity that Sec. Clinton provided today, it might not be “taken seriously”.

          1. pwrserge

            You mean a position like “put classified materials on a private server to avoid FOIA orders and then lie about it”? Yeah…

          2. DJL

            Fair enough. I can see where you would have that opinion. But if we write him off immediately as (not serious, disrespectful, etc.) , then even when he does have something substantial to say, we will ignore it. Some of that is already happening. There are many things about Trump I do not like. But I am trying to separate the message from the delivery.

          3. Rob Underwood

            As I have written in other comments on AVC, I absolutely think Trump could win, and I think folks who live in places like NYC, San Francisco, LA, etc. and/or work in some combination of tech, finance and media (and that’s many of the folks who read this blog and comment here) may not fully appreciate, unless they have friends or family outside “the bubble” how hopeless many people at in this country. This is one reason there is such an epidemic of opiate addition is this country — hopelessness from under- and unemployment.I take it very seriously that he could be president. I would read what he proposed for tech and tech edu in particular seriously. But I would still be very doubtful that he’d be serious in his commitment to doing what he says he’d do. Of course, that could be said about any politician — a group notorious for making big promises they never intend to fulfill. But Mr. Trump seems to have taken that to a whole new level, especially coupled with the frequency that he contradicts himself.

          4. DJL

            That is the billion dollar question with Trump (and any politician, as you noted.) To me, why not give him the same chance we gave Obama? He came with virtually no track record of legislation or experience. For many people (outside the “bubble”) the fact that Trump has actually completed real-world projects is something positive. He has pledged to run without taking big Republican donor money and has done so. So for many people he has a track record of keeping commitments and getting things done that is far greater than any current member of Congress.To me this is simple: Several Trump policies have a good chance of creating jobs and helping pull the middle class away from the poverty line. As you pointed out, that is perhaps the most important issue facing us. Hillary has pledged to continue to grow the government, shrink the private sector, and grow the debt. In my opinion, that is the path of destruction we are on.It’s going to be interesting for sure.

          5. Rob Underwood

            Again, it’s seriousness, especially about foreign policy. He wrote on his web site “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” Was he serious about that? There are either two choices really — either he wasn’t serious OR he actually was putting that forward as a policy proposal in which he case he’s not serious about a whole set of other issues and policies implicated that policy.Same thing with the wall that Mexico is going to pay for. Or the mass deportations (on the heels of a President Obama’s already record level of deportations). His policies are akin what I’d expect of the JV team at Model United Nations, not a serious candidate for the presidency. And, to your original post, I find it difficult to take anything he puts forward very seriously.

          6. sigmaalgebra

            For the Muslim quote, you omitted the qualification “until we can understand what is going on” or some such.Well, apparently recently he made some progress on that understanding — restrict from countries with a lot of radical Islamic terrorism. Soon Newt Gingrich came along with, blocking people who believe in Sharia law and one or two more such criteria. Sounds like prudence and progress to me.> Same thing with the wall that Mexico is going to pay for.On Mexico paying for the wall, from my notes of Sunday, August 16th, 2015, athttps://www.donaldjtrump.co…is in part,Mexico must pay for the wall and, until they do, the United States will, among other things: impound all remittance payments derived from illegal wages; increase fees on all temporary visas issued to Mexican CEOs and diplomats (and if necessary cancel them); increase fees on all border crossing cards – of which we issue about 1 million to Mexican nationals each year (a major source of visa overstays); increase fees on all NAFTA worker visas from Mexico (another major source of overstays); and increase fees at ports of entry to the United States from Mexico [Tariffs and foreign aid cuts are also options]. We will not be taken advantage of anymore. > Or the mass deportationsCan do a lot with just one word, eVerify.Yes, it is not right to have armed Nazi Storm Trooper SWAT teams with jack boots and German Shepard dogs breaking down front doors in the middle of the night, shooting all the house pets, arresting all the occupants, loading them into cattle cars, transporting to northern Mexico, and throwing them out. IIRC with some of what Governor Kasich said during the Republican primaries. But I’m sure neither has Trump proposed any such thing.Ike deported a lot of people here illegally.We have immigration laws. Trump is proposing to enforce them.Amazing that proposing just to enforce some laws long on the books could create such arguments.Gee, now with a computer, the Internet, Google, and a good text editor, can be much better informed as a voting citizen!

          7. sigmaalgebra

            Could you let me know about the 1-3 most serious contradictions you have found from Trump?

  33. Joe

    Do you really think Trump cares to have a tech agenda, or would tell the truth about any such agenda?

  34. Kirsten Lambertsen

    I feel like these political posts should come with a trigger warning 😉 I have to stop reading the comments now. I’m seeing spots from my blood pressure going up. Certain commenters here are *masters* of passive-aggression. (And yes, that’s probably a passive aggressive comment, itself.)

  35. John McGrath

    He’s going to build a wall around the Internet, and make us pay for it.

    1. Rob Underwood

      Should sound like a familiar strategy to Silcon Valley!

  36. panterosa,

    Fred, are you referencing STEM education, and not STEAM, because you believe we need STEM, or because STEM is the best we have right now?

  37. Pete Griffiths

    I hate to disagree but at this point I don’t give a damn what Trump thinks about tech policy. He’s a dangerous narcissistic blowhard and if you want to see the damage incompetent politicians can wreak look no further than Brexit.

    1. pwrserge

      You mean a return of British sovereignty… Right… How “disastrous”… Fun fact, the market fluctuations from Brexit are smaller than what we have already seen this year.

  38. Donna Brewington White

    Will a tech agenda win the election?Most of us here care about this. But does the American public?

    1. creative group

      Donna Brewington White:All the agenda’s are talking points and no real substance. All the promises are just promises until a candidate can be elected and in office. Something you already are aware. This was a hot topic and might be one of Fred’s top ten. Amazing how contributors attempt to defend that which can’t be defended. Racism, xenophobia, sexism, are currently the order of the day and will be extinguished in due time. Crushed. Can’t wait for the conspiracy theories to flow after the election.

  39. creative group

    Fred:Kudos on this Hot Topic.No concrete policies were offered to your policy request from the Trump camp or supporters and there most likely won’t. Only talk radio and Fox commentary talking points.We are committed Independents and realize both parties actual hurt the American people interests. But there is no doubt if a person is educated, can see the lunacy in what is being offered. We realize some who claim to be conservatives have no other option but to double down and defend no matter how opposed to logic this reality show that caters to racism, isolationism and xenophobia. By any means necessary is their view because the traditional platform has not won the oval office and they realize it will not.

  40. Ronnie Rendel

    I’m waiting for social networks to replace the concept of Westphalian sovereignty and the need for politicians to dictate policy.

  41. creative group

    The actual Republican House report on Benghazi and not the continued birther and conspiracy slants. Read for yourself. Make up your own mind. Don’t allow those with talking points from MSNBC or Fox News commentators to brainwash you. Those few of us here not motivated by party lines.https://benghazi.house.gov/…#independentvoter #Independentthinker

  42. Ana Milicevic

    I think it’s dangerous to assume/expect that the Trump camp has any type of policy for the country.

  43. Lawrence Brass

    You have a future in politics Charlie.

  44. Anne Libby

    And, “My hands are beautiful.”

  45. fredwilson

    Amazing

  46. jason wright

    so you’re his speech writer? now everything makes perfect sense to me. he’s your glove puppet. what a relief.

  47. mikenolan99

    Those are lots of words… the best words.

  48. kenberger

    you mean, “It’s going to be YOOOOGE!”

  49. Girish Mehta

    “Well, that’s the news from Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.”

  50. William Mougayar

    Priceless.

  51. Matt Zagaja

    I didn’t know it was possible to win at AVC comments until this one.

  52. Rob Underwood

    There should be an AVC comment of the year award. There would need be no nominations as this comment by @ccrystle:disqus has already won the award. It is simply all and everything an AVC comment could ever aspire to be.

  53. Jess Bachman

    “We are going to build the biggest firewall ever. And the chinese will pay for it. They are good at that sort of thing.”

  54. JLM

    .Pretty damn ………………………………………… funny!Some stuff is just funny and you, my friend, hit a square blow here.Well played, you Communist.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  55. JaredMermey

    Setting the over/under on the number of upvotes this comment gets by end of day at 55.5.

  56. Pranay Srinivasan

    Hahaha this really did WIN THE DISQUS.

  57. lisa hickey

    Let’s not lose sight of the fact that the reason this comment is so funny is that if Trump DID have a policy about technology, and if that is how he described it—no one would find that surprising. Actually they might find it surprising that he knew enough about bitcoin to make it work. I would encourage anyone who hasn’t to read the full transcript of the interview Trump did with the Editorial Board at the Washington Post. His inability to give a clear answer to any question of “How would you do this” was stunning. With Clinton’s policy, we can get into the details of what we think works and what doesn’t. And there is a reasonable assumption that if there were parts of the policy that didn’t work, she would re-visit that policy to try to make it stronger. But with Trump….I don’t see that. Read what he says about how he would change the libel laws so media can’t say bad things about him. Read about how he argues that he doesn’t condone violence even though he admits he would use force against someone with a loud voice who was behaving badly. Read about how he was “forced” to talk about his hands and other body parts. Then tell me you think he could come up with a cohesive technology agenda. https://www.washingtonpost….

  58. JamesHRH

    Now we know why we never see you and The Donald at the same time…..

  59. Salt Shaker

    Trump has a stuttering problem. No, not in the classical or clinical sense where he gets stuck on a vowel or consonant, but in his train of thought. He repeats the same thoughts over and over again, often in the same or consecutive sentence, and always accompanied by an adjective or two. Thankfully it’s a short-term curable problem, though. By the second Tuesday in November, end of day, he’ll be cured.

  60. DJL

    “And I, Hillary Clinton, champion of women’s rights – am going to return all the tens of millions of dollars that Bill and I took in donation from Muslim countries that forbid women from having any rights. I also want to make sure any ANY women is entitled to terminate her pregnancy up to the point of birth. What could be more compassionate?I, champion of gay rights, will also return the millions we tool from these same countries who believe being gay is a disease and should be outlawed. Where people can be killed just for being gay.And I, champion of the ‘little people’ I will also return the hundreds of thousands of dollars that Bill and I received for speaking to big US banks. Because they are evil, as Bernie and I have told you many times. Would I not be a hypocrite to take this money?”Hmm. No wait, i think we want to keep it. After all, Bill and I were flat broke when we left the white house under sniper fire. You remember. (But we did take some nice furniture) If you don’t believe me, its all there in my emails! (Oh wait…)

  61. William Mougayar

    I think he showed this slide during that speech

  62. creative group

    Charlie Crystle:That post was comedic genius. Based upon that it is certified platinum. To the chagrin of the apologist and talking points of the enquirer reading, conspiracy theorist.

  63. Donna Brewington White

    Oh, Charlie. Your artistry is showing.

  64. ShanaC

    oy. Hats off to mentioning bagels though

  65. BillMcNeely

    Big words

  66. Tom Evslin

    the rural towns on the PA side of the border look a lot better than their counterparts in frack-free NY. Roads better. buildings in better repair. Cars better. not a boom any more because of the low cost of gas but looks better than the alternative,

  67. LE

    I was actually dissapointed in his comment. Charlie usually has something good to say, and in this case he decides to simply do a low hanging fruit slightly humorous ad hominem and set the tone for going the route of early onset Godwin’s law (thanks Arnold). [1][1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wi

  68. LE

    Using humor is often a good way to sell. It distracts people from thinking about the real issues kind of in the same way a magician uses misdirection. In this case though it wouldn’t change the mind of a single voter who is in favor of trump, just cozy ny liberals who had no interest in him in the first place.

  69. JLM

    .Ahh, come on, it was funny. Charlie is like that. Don’t get all serious. Just clean fun. Like calling Hillary, Crooked Hillary. Just fun, right?Calling her Crooked Hillary doesn’t mean one is focusing on Whitewater, statistically impossible cattle futures, stolen White House furniture, speeches to Goldman, selling dispensations through Foggy Bottom, mistaking little girls with flower arrangements for sniper fire, sucking up contributions to the Clinton RICO Fund through Canadian charities which do not have to report contributors — just good clean fun.Charlie is a good clean fun kind of guy. Hell, I think he’ll probably vote for Trump, no?JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  70. LE

    Well I will give him credit for the effort that he made in making it a long comment. Instead of a one liner which is a more typical early comment that gets a ton of upvotes.Charlie, like anyone, would vote for Trump if Trump came to his town and told him something that would be good for his town (meaning people that he cares about). I am pretty sure of that. He’d then throw out everything he thought might suck for the rest of the world and the country for that one thing.Remember the topic today is “what will Trump do for tech”. (Nobody would be asking “what would Hitler do for tech”. ) So people are really looking for reasons to like him because they are so wary of Hillary and her newfound goofball nerd friend Elizabeth Warren. Who actually has done less than Hillary has. Even Rendell thinks she is a joke and not prime time in any way.

  71. JLM

    .Fifteen yards for piling on.Read Trump’s speech on trade and jobs. It is a clear, cogent expression of his views. I do not, necessarily, advocate for his positions. He can do that.To suggest that he does not have clear policies on many things is to reduce one’s view to that of a cheerleader screaming, “Your cheerleaders are ugly and your coach is no good.”http://www.politico.com/sto…On the other hand, the Clinton track record on the Middle East rises from the ash heap of policy to a full blown disaster. Coupled with her unimaginable inability to tell the truth about … anything, it makes me long for a bit of policy confusion.Tech will not amount to a soap bubble in a hurricane. Foreign policy? It will be at the center of the storm. Integrity? I will leave that to you to ponder.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  72. JLM

    .The combination of two such congenital liars is a remarkable happenstance.Hillary was likely under sniper fire from Indians just like Lizzie Warren.What a delicious prospect — two liars on the ticket.Makes a bullshitter seem attractive, no?JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  73. LE

    What’s the betting line on Warren as VP? I say no way … Jose.

  74. JLM

    .No question she is getting a test ride.Massachusetts has a Republican Governor, so the idea of his appointing someone to replace her is a problem.JLMwww.musingsofthebigredcar.com

  75. sigmaalgebra

    > Read Trump’s speech on trade and jobs.The video is athttps://www.youtube.com/wat…and the transcript of the prepared speech is athttp://www.politico.com/sto…At the end of that speech, I was in tears of joy that finally we can have a POTUS ready, willing, able, and eager to do desperately needed good things for the US and concluded that, by responding to our current desperate needs, he is in line to be seen by history as one of the greatest Presidents in the history of the US.

  76. SubstrateUndertow

    Clinton may have indeed made some errors along the way in her Middle East policies but given the reality over there that is/was inevitable for any American political player.Oh! Except for the GOP players who so far have managed to avoid any unforced Middle East policy errors 🙂

  77. lisa hickey

    Apologies if I went against commenting protocol by piling on. It did spark a good discussion though, and I like it when people show me things I cannot see. If Trump had a clear agenda on technology, I would happily talk about the specific points of his agenda that I agree with, disagree with or do or do not think are feasible. But this post is about the fact that he doesn’t have that, and the comment by Charlie was a look at how one might extrapolate what Trump’s agenda might be if you looked at how he talks about other issues. I understand your points about foreign policy being more immediately critical than tech, and on that point we agree.

  78. cavepainting

    Trump is the master of manipulating emotions. And many people want and wish for simple answers to problems that in reality are complex, multi-faceted, and filled with nuances. It is like how children are drawn to stories that are colorful and have great endings.It is who I want in an entertainer-in-chief, but for a president ?

  79. Dan Moore

    Thanks for pointing out that speech. Was very informative.For better or worse, I think the time of the open worldwide trade, protected by American military force, as outlined in the introduction of The Accidental Superpower, seems to be drawing to a close. At least, there seems to be less and less appetite for it.Perhaps that’s because the costs are focused (jobs, especially manufacturing jobs) and the benefits are widespread (cheaper goods).Anyway thanks for the link.

  80. DJL

    How does blaming the GOP for their mistakes exempt Hillary? I found that no matter how big of lie a Democrat tells – the response is “well, all politicians lie”. Let’s judge Hillary by her record and character.

  81. JLM

    .You fall into the easy trap — both the Bush administrations and the Obama/Clinton administrations have made a complete cockup of the Middle East.The scorecard on the wars is pretty damn clear. They were all failures — Iraq, A’stan, terror (now ISIS in the early innings).The policies and the actual execution of the Obama/Clinton team is a total disaster.1. Destroyed Libya as a sovereign power.2. Installed the Muslim Brotherhood (supplied two divisions to Hitler in WWII should have been a hint) in Egypt, a country which had been stable since the 1973 Yom Kippur War and was a big trading partner with Israel.3. Redlined Syria into the arms of the Russians thereby nullifying the gains made by Kissinger in 1973.4. Allowed Iraq to drift back into civil war after being unwilling to obtain a SOFA.5. Are allowing A’stan to be delivered into the hands of the Taliban after announcing the “sell by date” on our involvement whereafter the Taliban spent the winter on the French Riviera.6. Funded the largest international funder of terrorism while giving them a clear path to a nuclear weapon. They also fully fund (with Turkey, a NATO ally?) Hamas and Hezbollah. Do not give money to people who fund terror?7. Alienated Israel and Saudi Arabia — a truly remarkable development.8. Entered into an indecipherable policy against ISIS which has embroiled Russia, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Turkey. It is hard to imagine this ecosystem being any more screwed up.9. Rekindled the Cold War with the Russians while allowing them to consume the Crimea and salt/pepper Ukraine for their next meal. Nice bit of RESET theater?10. Threw Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania onto the bleeding edge of NATO v Russia resurgent. We are really going to go to war over a country which has a 4,000 man army?11. Took every single tank out of Europe while telling NATO and Russia we were “in the game.” We have a pre-WWII Army and Navy with an ancient air fleet.12. Allowed China to get a toehold on the most important shipping routes in Asia by building island firebases which can touch every shipping lane in that part of the world.So, yeah, the foreign policy coming out of the WH and Foggy Bottom has been a freakin’ disaster.I have a yardman who could have done a better job. In all fairness, he has a lot of experience with tailoring territory to his wishes.Worst. President/Sec State. Ever.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  82. Kirsten Lambertsen

    It’s called priming.

  83. JLM

    .I love a bit of piling on and I believe I might have, personally, piled on once or twice.Life is a contact sport and when ideas are turned loose to wrestle what comes back from the ring is better ideas.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  84. John McGrath

    Yeah, but it’s funny. Loosen up.

  85. Alex Murphy

    and … its humor to deal with a terrible reality … that DT is actually going to be the nominee. What a horrible choice to have to consider. Give Fred credit for putting out there the idea of the Donald actually crafting a policy statement … something that is not possible because it is more than 140 characters and it is something that requires a vision beyond hate.The point of being in elected office is to serve the country, to be a Statesman.Donald has succeeded in Business because it has served him. He has a gold penthouse in NYC because it serves him. He names everything Trump because it serves him. He put his name on a water bottle to serve him. Get it yet? Its all about him! Is that what you really want?The cold hard truth is that none of this is funny. He is a fascist. He is narcissistic. It is sick. It is gross. It is disgusting. It is repulsive. It is awful. And yet, it is real. How terrible is that!?!

  86. JLM

    .Low hurdles today?No character. No record.Case dismissed. Next?JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  87. SubstrateUndertow

    Wrong !I’m not a Democrat I’m a Canadian !I’m not blaming either side for their Middle East policy errors.That situation is very intractable, errors will be made, but is is epistemologically frustrating for us on the outside looking in at the American political landscape to watch this endless poison the well, over the top, vilanizing attack dog nonsense that continues to undermine America’s political functionality in what can only be described as very critically challenging times for the whole world, all while sober/co-operative American leadership appears to be missing in action.I think most foreigners like myself are rooting for America to pull up out of the its current slug-fest partisan political nonsense and return to a more civilly constructive political engagement :-)As for liesAs an outsider I’m not picking side but it does seem to me that the GOP/Trump are at the very least holding their own in the partisan political lying contest.

  88. JLM

    .Come on, Charlie, it’s OK. It’s just JLM here.I know you voted for him in the Penn Rep Primary. I know.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  89. LE

    Sure. And I say the same thing with respect to cheating on my wife “I would never do that no matter what…”. I’ve also said that I don’t own a gun and have no plans to buy one. (And haven’t).That said while it is possible you would resist the temptation to vote for Trump given what I have said there is no doubt that if we took a pool of “100 Charlie Crystle’s” at least 85 of them would vote for Trump given perceived benefit.

  90. JLM

    .OK, I reluctantly card you as a solid “maybe.”JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  91. Salt Shaker

    That’s too intellectual a diagnosis for Mr. Trump. I think “pimping” fits a lot better.

  92. LE

    Here is what some other people from Lancaster did when confronted with money problems and doing things in their own self interest:According to the criminal complaint, the Stoltzfus couple gave their daughter to Kaplan in 2012 as payment for “helping his family out of financial ruin.” In March of 2013 she gave birth to a daughter. She conceived another child in December, three months before her 18th birthday. It’s not clear if they were born at the house or in a hospital.http://www.thedailybeast.co

  93. LE

    You meant to say “I think it’s funny”.

  94. JLM

    .To be very technical (since you self-identify as a Canadian and therefore speak Canadian) this is a contest between a congenital liar and a bullshitter.A liar says things like, “I was under sniper fire” when, in fact, they were being handed flower arrangements by pretty little girls.They might say, “The attack on Benghazi was promulgated by an offensive video” to the public and the family members of our slain heroes while telling her own family, “Hell, it’s Al Qaeda.”A bullshitter might say, “Hispanics love me. I employ a lot of Hispanics. I love them and they love me.”Or, a bullshitter might say, “I’m going to build a freakin’ wall and make the Mexicans pay for it.”There is a slight difference.Hope that linguistic lesson helps. Back to speaking Canadian?JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  95. sigmaalgebra

    The US media drank gallons of politically correct Kool-Aid and then insisted it was time for the US to get redemption by having its first affirmative action POTUS and, in particular, refused objectively either to vet his background or to cover his work. The media didn’t get what they wanted, but no way will they admit that.Now the media from such PC Kool-Aid wants the first woman POTUS, no matter how bad she is.IMHO Trump saw this situation early on and, as a result, immediately, continually, strongly preemptively attacked both the media and political correctness. Smart cookie. IMHO otherwise the media would have successfully skinned him alive, and he would have lost and dropped out long ago. Did I mention, smart cookie?And why would the media jump, pile on, to skin Trump alive? Because they could use him as bait for headlines and clicks and get ad revenue.Why does the media like PC? PC is a norm that no one should suffer or even be offended. Why? Because of several other norms, e.g., “There but for the grace of God go it.” Or, the guess that the only way I won’t suffer is to join a group that ensures that no one will suffer.That is, PC is a manipulated response to basic human anxieties.And the media likes this? Sure: The main life blood of the media is to use anything they can to stimulate anxiety and then get eyeballs, clicks, and ad revenue. So, whenever possible, the media screams about something that will increase anxiety. PC and all its associated norms are in the center of the news desks to be exploited.

  96. SubstrateUndertow

    You have completely rewritten my perception of the American political landscape with that linguistic fine tuning 🙂

  97. sigmaalgebra

    Except in this case I suspect that he will build a wall and will use tariffs, taxes, fees, etc. to get Mexico to pay for it.

  98. JLM

    .Yes, somehow I doubt that. But it is nice of you to say, eh?JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  99. JLM

    .Of course, because every Cart Boy builds 100-story buildings, no?He comes across as a man, confident as to which bathroom he is supposed to use, shorn of the pretense of the talkers and comfortable with the company of doers.He will be fine.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  100. sigmaalgebra

    In his rallies he uses short phrases and fourth grade vocabulary. This is because he is dumb or because he is smart? Hint: He has 1500+ delegates for the Republican convention.

  101. JLM

    .Why the Hell would anyone care whether he knows the capital of Nebraska? I certainly don’t. Does that bit of knowledge qualify one to deal with Putin?Why don’t they ask him, “How fast are the elevators in Trump Tower? Are they directed by programmable controllers or actual computers? How much head must a concrete pump overcome when pumping to the 98th story of one of your buildings?”Don’t get the Scotland comment. Enlighten me, please.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  102. sigmaalgebra

    > Scotland voted IN.Well, WOULD have vote IN if they had voted as a unit which they most certainly did not since they were voting just as British and not at all as Scottish. Of course, for drama, the newsies wanted to claim that Scotland and Ireland voted Remain which it a deliberate, disgusting distortion.

  103. JLM

    .I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.I heard he was forbidden to wear a kilt. They were afraid his balls might show.[Please accept my apology for that crudity. I haven’t had lunch and I was out planting this morning.]JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  104. JLM

    .That explains why I never saw him in a kilt.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  105. Tom Evslin

    please specify.Obviously pipe laid, roads and pads built. construction sites. some people don’t like solar arrays and wind turbines, either.Methane can’t percolate up from 10,000 feet (where the fracking is done) to the aquifer with a max depth of 600 feet. if the rock above it weren’t impermeable, the gas would’ve left long ago. So the point of vulnerability is the top 600 feet of the shaft. But new casements are, as they should be, required to be much stronger and are inspected. Moreover, fracking’s companion technology horizontal drilling means maybe 10% the number of shafts can handle the same size reservoir. Less shafts, less risk.Evidence of methane contamination from new (fracked wells) in the aquifer – none. old wells with bad casings have leaked methane. there are lots of water wells with natural methane – it’s not called “natural” gas for nothing.Then there’s disposal of frack water. Has been done badly. can’t go through municipal water treatment because they can’t deal with the heavy metals that come out of wells. Now required in most places to be cleaned and reused.Meanwhile only the US has met its Kyoto treaty obligations (not that we signed the treaty) for CO2 reduction – all because of cheap natural gas replacing coal. In Germany they’re building new coal plants – really – because they’re too green for nukes.Fracking is not without risk or costs. Can always be improved. But I think the environmental, geopolitical, and economic benefits far outweigh the costs.

  106. Dennis Mykytyn

    You do realize this was not a vote on whether Scotland would remain in the EU? The vote was whether the UK should Remain or Leave. The UK voted to Leave. Trump was in the UK (Scotland still is, at least for now), and his comments were correct.If he had said it in London, the media response would have been the same (“London voted to Remain!”). Nevertheless, London is still part of the UK, which voted to Leave.

  107. JLM

    .Please, do not confuse us with facts. We prefer our own little bubbles of reality.Run along. Sorry.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  108. sigmaalgebra

    Good. Thanks. Here the media stuck it to me, suggested that Scotland and Ireland voted on Brexit separately. Deliberately deceptive, disgusting media.

  109. Dennis Mykytyn

    I think I had a relative in the Knights of Columbus does that count?Scotland is a nice place, love the golf there, though I do hate the food. “Hate” might be an understatement, at least for haggis for breakfast, actually.With a population smaller than NYC, they are totally irrelevant to the world, however, and whether they remain in the UK or not is pretty much irrelevant to everyone except a few Scots.Trump was clearly speaking about the overall UK vote, while he WAS IN THE UK. What part of that is hard to follow?

  110. ShanaC

    guys @dennismykytyn:disqus Behave!!! You are adults.

  111. JLM

    .You have a choice between an unaccomplished, congenital liar and grifter from the oldest of Old Schools or a bullshitter (who has actually done a few things in his, otherwise, miserable life) who, you say, appeals to your emotions.You say it as if appealing to our emotions is wrong. I don’t get that. I think, he arouses our emotions but that’s me and being me is the existence of a simpleton.That is our choice.Wars are won based on emotion. Men give their lives for their country based on emotion. Great undertakings are driven by emotion. It is simplistic to suggest that emotion has no place in politics.In the end, the decision is binary. Make a decision. Know why you made it. Be at peace with your decision.In the binary world in which we live, I will be voting for Donald Trump, a bullshitter par excellence but a guy who is infinitely better than the alternative and someone who I think can get the job done.Miss Congeniality? No, I don’t think so.Just a guy who has demonstrated a lifetime of getting stuff done. Like this:http://themusingsofthebigre…This is real. Many people do not want “real.” I like real.Good luck with your decision.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  112. sigmaalgebra

    Even if a problem has 100 crucial variables and is nonlinear, unstable, and needs, deep, highly detailed, brilliant solutions, typically at the POTUS level any solution fits on the back of an envelope.

  113. cavepainting

    Not sure I agree with the points, but I like your spirited defense and the “bullshitter par excellence who is real” characterization. As you say, we all have to make peace with our decisions.You know, I would even consider voting for him if there is any evidence that he has empathy for the poor and the neglected, and that he can look beyond his own bubble and bullshit. I am still looking but have only found evidence to the contrary.

  114. sigmaalgebra

    Supposedly Trump’s car broke down, some people stopped to help him, and he paid off their mortgage. Supposedly there are lots more cases where he just used his money, connections, whatever to help people one on one.More generally, in this election, the core of his target audience are a lot of people who have been stabbed in the back and deserve a lot of sympathy, and I believe that Trump will be very proud to have helped them.I haven’t collected details on Trump’s one on one, empathetic philanthropy, but some Google searches may uncover some.

  115. JLM

    .I can think of several anecdotal bits of evidence. One is not well known but I don’t want to clog the airways.You mistake my sentiment. I do not rise to his defense. I believe he is the only port in a storm.It is difficult to believe how uncouth and coarse he can be but then he did defeat 16 others with hundreds of years of political experience — governors, senators, congressman, doctors, businesswoman, indian chiefs.Having said that, Hillary Clinton is the biggest grifter, liar, and political failure I can imagine. I could never vote for her.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  116. sigmaalgebra

    Wow. Nice list. I knew it was bad but not that bad. Some would guess, to be that bad, have to work at it.

  117. ShanaC

    The instability of Egypt has essentially been ongoing since the Yom Kippur war, made worse by changing demographics and climate change. Without the US support on both sides, there would be no trading partners between Egypt and Israel.The last time it was really safe to go from Eilat into the Sinai was exactly 10 years ago, a week before Succot (the year before disengagement). The only reason I remember that was I turned down camping in the Sinai during Succot that year, in seminary (because I was a wuss who didn’t know anything about camping). When my friends were about to leave, there was a serious bombing in the Sinai (which canceled the trip) Haven’t really heard rumblings about anyone going that way since then.

  118. sigmaalgebra

    And, that reminds me, how often have you seen Hillary in a kilt? How often? Huh? Huh?Haven’t you nearly always seen her in pants? Baggy pants? Or long, loose skirts? And on no occasion a kilt?Naw. She doesn’t have two. No way. Not even one.It’s just she wishes she had two!

  119. JLM

    .I didn’t mention the deficit, punishing success, immigration, refugee flight, N Korea, or Cuba.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  120. JLM

    .My theory — free trade is going to morph into fair trade which will benefit the US immensely.Why?Because we are going to be able to cut individual deals with individual countries thereby harnessing the power of competition.The TPP — which is currently unratified and which was negotiated in secret by the geniuses who dealt with Iran — provides as much trade leverage for the other side as us.The US is the most valuable market. We can pit other countries against each other and extract concessions which will benefit our manufacturers and consumers.The US market is still the plum and we control it.Most of what we consider to be “trade” focuses on US manufacturers and companies being allowed to make goods overseas (the exporting of jobs spoken of) and then to sell them in the US with no barriers (tariffs) to entry.We are effectively letting US companies outsource their labor while retaining the benefit of access to US markets.The foreign labor is competing unfairly — prison labor, child labor, labor abuses, environmental abuses.Fair trade. Free trade.The US will do fine. We are the plum.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  121. ShanaC

    sounds like the early days of the world wars. Oy

  122. JLM

    .That anecdote attributed to Mickey Mantle had him going around for 18 at Preston Trails in Dallas in his jock. He was clothed after a fashion.Preston Trails was a testosterone fueled country club with a good track and only 250 male members. I used to play there with a real estate pal who was a member and a banker.They had some legendary high stakes poker games whereat the Chief of Police sat in along with the Mayor.I played golf there a few times and Mickey Mantle was playing cards in the clubhouse.Where I am typing this, I have two Mickey Mantle autographed baseballs within arm’s length. Different type of balls.My daughter was big pals with his granddaughter with whom she shared a cabin for several years at the famous Camp Longhorn.His wife came to my house to pick her up several times and we made small talk. The granddaughter was a peach.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  123. JLM

    .We forgive the first 1200 mistakes here, no?I am running a little short on supply myself.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  124. sigmaalgebra

    You are losing me. Apparently you wrote way up thread somewhere> He is not an idiot I can buy that, BUT he comes across as dumb. Simple. Cart.Boy. Dumb.Here by “dumb” you meant as in “deaf and dumb”, that is, can’t speak? Seems to me that Trump is fully able to speak. So by “dumb” you meant, as is common, stupid?So assuming you meant stupid I responded with> This is because he is dumb or because he is smart? Hint: He has 1500+ delegates for the Republican convention.using “dumb” to mean stupid.

  125. Alex Murphy

    No, it is funny … John pretty much nailed it!

  126. Donna Brewington White

    I think it’s funny. Very funny.And yet I’m not so sure that Donald Trump won’t have the last laugh.

  127. sigmaalgebra

    > Trump can not speak well.It looks like someone is about to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge, too.Sure, you are 100% correct: According to a long list of criteria, at his rallies and sometimes elsewhere, Trump speaks with, say, syntax like it lost out badly on a chopping block.So, he might start a sentence, mention something, think of something connected and go off into a five minute parenthetic statement, and never finish the original sentence.Commonly when the last few words of a sentence are obvious, he just omits them.In a larger sense, he doesn’t try to do what Ted Kennedy did in his “and the dream will never die” convention speech.There’re a lot that a lot of famous, perhaps good to excellent, public speakers do a lot that Trump doesn’t do. And a lot that Trump does do would get a grade of F in a high school class in public speaking.Right.The place where I cringe is where he says phenomena whether he means that or phenomenon.Now that we have all that 100% total BS out of the way, we can get on to what the heck Trump is really doing!!!!I already said what he’s really doing — in one word, winning. In a few more words, at rallies of 10,000 to 30,000+, all across the country, he’s rounding up votes from voting citizens.For a little more, he is connecting with his audience. That’s as in emotional, good ol’ boy, one of us, down on the farm, in the grain elevator, at the John Deere dealer, where the rebar is being installed, where the concrete pumper is about to start pumping, with the guy determined to get his corn crop in before the rain starts but has 60 acres to go and his tractor just quit. He’s trying to establish a connection of trust as someone maybe not just like them but someone who definitely understands them. Or, in part he is borrowing from the old, “We don’t care how much you know until we know how much you care.”. Well, the coal miners in West Virginia know very well how much Hillary cares, and like a lot more how much Trump cares. In WV Trump has connected so well he could shoot chickens, turkeys, deer, bears, racoons, and people in the main street of Morgentown, and still West Virginia would vote for him.In a sense, Trump wants to speak like the people in his audience might speak, something like they do speak in the locations I mentioned. If Trump’s syntax is chopped up a little more than is usual for his audience, then so much the better because no way does Trump want to come across as better than his audience, as some cynical, contemptuous, exploitive Ivy League billionaire down to take advantage of the uneducated, poorly spoken, rhetorically challenged, unwashed, inferior, yahoo hicks.They are not inferior because they are very much superior because they have what Trump needs, enough to fly his 757 in there, drinking jet fuel $1000 of his money at a gulp, and doesn’t yet have — their, three guesses, the first two don’t count, VOTES.And what Trump says, the actual message, about immigration, ISIS, local control of education, jobs, etc. still comes across loud and clear — the audience totally gets it. The chopped cabbage syntax bothers them not at all.But, but, but you say, that it is just luck of the Scots that Trump is able to get away, even get an advantage from, his horrible speaking abilities?Nope! Not a chance. Not even close. I 100% assure you, like Heifetz playing Turkey in the Straw, assuming he ever did, and I would expect so, doesn’t mean that he didn’t also give iconic world performances of the Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Sibelius (beyond belief) concertos, the Bach Chaconne, the Kreutzer sonata, and dozens more, and that Trump gave his rallies in the vernacular in no way means that he can’t do just fine, thank you, with a prepared speech. There he can have modulation, nuance, controlled drama, beginning, middle, and end, well formed sentences and paragraphs, perfect syntax, a climax, etc. He can achieve “communication, interpretation of human experience, emotion”, with identification and connection with his audience and with sympathy, empathy, compassion, passion, pathos, poignancy, reassuring leadership, inspiring call to action, etc. How? Just write a speech that way, practice it, and then deliver it. At one of his rallies? Heck no! He’s a smart cookie, and only a dummy would deliver such a speech to most of the Trump rally audiences.I’ll put it to you this way: As at say a family dinner talking about an important topic, at his rallies Trump has Perot’s “fingertip feel” each 0.1 seconds of the reaction of his audience and then, corrective feedback. In important ways, that’s actually more effective than a prepared speech.And for the broken syntax? If talking about the end of the world or some such, then maybe somewhere in the 45 minutes or so want some diversions. So, break up the flow so that it won’t be too intense to listen to. And, to get the listener to get the ideas in their own mind, give some hints, also maybe with broken syntax, and let the listener fill in the rest, make the connections — that’s a relatively easy way past some of the standard mental barriers to entry. So, maybe Trump just talks along and, when he senses the intensity level getting too high, breaks the syntax, goes off on tangents, etc.It is clear that he very much watches the state of his audience. Since he’s done that now at several rallies a week for over a year, he’s good at it and has a good sense of what works when connecting with his audience. Actually he started good at it and got better.It’s not easy: E.g., notice that Melania and Ivanka are much better with a microphone than Jr. or Eric! Heck, maybe in another 40 years, Jr. and Eric will be fine! But Jr. and Eric are solid proof that not everything from the Trump campaign is practiced and scripted!Here I am just touching on just a little of the more obvious techniques Trump has been using. You get the idea: Watch and see a LOT more to what he is doing.As JLM would say to his BRC, “bottom line it”: Trump has 1500+ delegates!And maybe Trump will not get all the high school speech class teacher votes!By the way, pass on that Brooklyn Bridge offer, too!One thing to remember about Trump — he’s a smart cookie, smarter than the average cookie, smarter than anything from Nabisco so far! So, before accepting what some pundit says about Trump having a weakness or making a mistake, definitely, first cut, guess that the pundit is the one that is wrong. In particular, Trump is smart about PEOPLE, in particular the hundreds of thousands at his rallies and the millions that have voted for him.

  128. creative group

    DJL:Fact check!H. Bush was employed (not just paid for speaking) by the Saudi family. The following is the factual information verses talking points. Both parties have been bought and paid for by corporations and governments.(Facts intertwined with conspiracy theories, what is the norm but that shouldn’t take away from the factual ties)http://www.hermes-press.com…

  129. ShanaC

    i’m more concerned about the big bank pseudo-fraud that Trump did in Atlantic City, and is now trying to pull in DC while also running. It may be legal to promise one thing to regulators and get very different loan promissory notes, but it isn’t cool, nor right, especially when in the process you SHUT DOWN AND BANKRUPT local small businesses who are servicing your construction behomth.

  130. creative group

    DJL:good effort but the followup act is usually not provided equal credit as the original act (poster). It actually just isn’t as good. Try being the headliner in the future.When a Richard Pryor, George Carlin or Eddie Murphy starts there is no way to follow-up with Pee Wee Herman. Just doesn’t work. Maybe next time you think of it first.

  131. JLM

    .The test of a speech is not its style — it’s whether the audience is touched and moved. Whether the speaker connects with the audience.President Obama is a great speech giver (well, the teleprompter gets its fair share of the credit) but he has lost connection with the audience. Part of that is his soaring rhetoric is just no longer believable but that is beside the point.Using that audience connection yardstick, Trump is doing fine. Remember, most of his audience is poorly educated, ill-informed, sinners, and other pejoratives. Still, they get Trump and he gets them.The Gettysburg Address was thought to be a bad speech by the newspapers of its time but it connected with America with the passage of time.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  132. sigmaalgebra

    > I think everyone knows he should deliver a little more qualityHis rallies are not his only speeches or content. See also his prepared speeches and the statements issues at his Web site.

  133. DJL

    That might be true. But how does that make what Hillary does okay? I was trying to point out (using the same method as the original post) what a hypocrite she is. Anyone (in either party) who rails in public against an “evil” and then takes money on the side from that same “evil” is – well, you know.Let’s be honest (and factual). There has never been anything in the history of government that rivals what Bill and Hillary did under the “Foundation”. Taking in tens of millions of dollars from corrupt foreign governments while an active head of a Federal agency responsible for security. And then commingling the communication with your personal email server? Run that through the “fact check” and see what comes up. There is really no defense for this behavior in my book.

  134. ShanaC

    we have another 6 months to go

  135. ShanaC

    And I wouldn’t be shocked if Trump took saudi money as investment capital through shell companies, and then lost the money when the mortgage market when sour.At least Hillary recognizes she is a political animal, and also recognizes both the good and bad that come from it. Suffice it to say, I am willing to bring back pork(among other political animal methods) to make sure things get done in washington. I’m not a big believer in neutering just for the sake of neutering, and at this point, all are calls for washington honesty, outsiderness, ect, basically has thrown the baby with the bathwater

  136. creative group

    DJL:When time permits read our posts. We have always been registered Independents and not a Republican shamed by W Bush’s administration to change over as many.We provide equal platform to highlight the ills of both the Democratic and Republican. The two party system weakens the power of the voters options.The post was in response to the Republicans who push the talking points from talk radio and Fox commentators. MSNBC and Fox News are the worst channels disguised as news channels.When the conspiracy theories are dispelled the Republicans (not fringe anymore) move to another unbelievable talking point. From birther idiots, to Benghazi. Two Congressional committes in the House and Senate which were Republican investigations outlined HRC was no more responsible for the deaths in Benghazi than W Bush was for 9/11, H Bush for Marine Barracks in Lebanon, etc.This cookoo for Coco nuts thinking is overruling intelligence. Buffoonery is celebrated and intelligence is discounted.#independentvoter #Independentthinker #RegisteredIndependantday1

  137. LE

    You are offended that I posted a story about people from Lancaster?

  138. DJL

    The only reason I even waste my time is to attempt to show the absurdity of the “best post ever.” It is difficult to sit back a watch a bunch of Liberals bash the heck out of Trump while the whole time claiming to be “loving and respectful and inclusive”. I have no fantasies about changing someone’s mind! It’s a fun game.

  139. DJL

    Let me take a wild guess – you are a Democrat and going to vote for Hillary no matter whats she does or says?

  140. DJL

    Hmm. What I have found is that most Liberals self-classify as “in the middle”. The entire media complex (CNN, CBS, NBC, NY times) is in the tank for Democrats. (There is no real way to argue against this if you look at the evidence). And then they take the only opposition (Fox News and talk radio) and label them as “cooks”. That is Liberal playbook 101. Any opposition to your points of view is conspiracy or hate speech. This is essentially what you are saying.Here’s my take: Hillary did not kill those soldiers. But she lied to the American public and the families of the slain soldiers to save Obama’s reelection. (It is all in her email.) Can you imagine looking in the eyes of the Mother and Father of her dead son and purposefully lying to her?But somehow you are coming to her defense. I am sure you are sincere, but you seem to line up pretty strong with views and tactics of the Liberal left.

  141. ShanaC

    I’m registered Democrat after the Republican party in my county growing up (nassau county) was named the longest standing party machine in the US by my political science textbook (100+ years and counting…) – which was the same year there was a viable election against a Democrat, because the Republican Party was about the bankrupt the county through having the bond rating go to junk bond status.I don’t love Hillary – but I do give her credit for what she has done for the state, especially given the political power her Sr. Senator has in Congress. She came in at a disadvantage, and yet made herself very available to the state to get things quietly done in the state. I’ve also lived in Israel, and have friends who are professional Middle East analylysts, so I don’t think what happened in Benhazi is a big deal. It would have happened to anyone in her position. As for her emails – to be frank, I don’t necessarily think most Federal communication is more secure (if anything, based on other sorts of policy+hacker types I know, I’d hedge that federal email servers are less secure.) Her sending mixed public/rpivate emails bothers me less than the fact that it is probably easier for someone to hack her State Department emails making her private system probably a safer way to handle national secrets. I’m just a NYer, who sees D. Trump for what he is, because he’s been around the block here multiple times. he has an active lawsuit just filed against him for being a child rapist, which isn’t surprising because of the life he led here, and the people he hung out with on a regular basis. Now if it were Ivanka running by herself, that story would be very different – by all accounts, she’s an upstanding individual (and I have the luxury of hearing about that through people who know the rabbi who sat on her beit din for her conversion – and having multiple friends go through orthodox conversions + one who also has converted people, so I know what that signaling actually means.) NY State stupidly requires a party affiliation if you want to vote in a primary. If I could elect anyone, it would be Tom Suozzi, but he hasn’t made the national stage yet. (I really love Tom Suozzi, and I wish more politicians were like him, he’s a serious mensch and an honest dude.) Next choice would be Gary Johnson – but I think voting for the libertarian party right now is a “throw the vote away” vote. Pity – he also has a history of being a great political administrator, even if he often runs around high as a kite.

  142. ShanaC

    don’t apologize to me, apologize to him

  143. creative group

    DJL:We are adults and what you considered insults of referring to genuine Independent’s as liberal will be embraced as a compliment from a supporter of conspiracy theories, xenophobia, racist and fascist groups. (See how childish labeling works) Doesn’t accomplish anything. Similar to seven years of no legislation, stonewalling and obstruction with justification by a party you support.We would not for one New York second desire the company of any of the frauds that bash and frequent the so called New York liberal blog which they readily visit and contribute daily. You can be assured any blog created by the supporters of Trump will not be visited or supported. The ten followers you have will stay at ten. Your audience is small. Go to the Fox News blog. Your conspiracy theory brethren await.The Liberal sector of the blog are much too blue blood, sophisticated, cultured and we’ll mannered to engage in the mud. We relish in it. We don’t mind highlighting the mentally challenged and unprincipled.The principaled Republicans who are true stand on Republican shoulders of Reagan, Kemp, etc. The Cookoo for Coco nuts Tea Party conspiracy theory birther nuts will flame out with the Third Reich. Reality denied verses name calling. November we will see the hole that many run away from and to.

  144. LE

    Well let me clarify my thought process and why I did that. It goes like this:a) You had said that no matter what Trump did for your town (my parent comment) that you would never vote for him. That makes sense.b) I pointed out someone from Lancaster that did something because of money problems (that was much worse than voting for Trump) because it was in their best interest to do that. In other words people do strange things when confronted with certain benefits or avoiding certain problems.So in order to make my point I used recent news which happened to be about Lancaster. Because that is where you are.If a person had sold their company to Sun and/or operated a bread company I could have said “well here is what another bread company owner did when confronted with money problems” to make a similar point. That wouldn’t have been a diss against that group at least the way I see it.Quite obviously I know that the people in Lancaster aren’t represented by that Amish couple (who were thrown out of the Church apparently).Hopefully this explains why I made the comment that I did although in retrospect most people reading might not have seen the connection.

  145. creative group

    DJL:The more serious question would be why even be on this blog with that mindset? You definitely will not move any meters with the majority of astute, worldly, blue blood and strong minded contributors who know Trump.True conservatives don’t donate to Democrats. I know before it comes. Yeah, But! No other option of hope to capture the White House.