Call this my first blog subject. I hesitated to write this as my first one. I know that some readers will disagree strongly with my position. I am a strong believer in liberal democracy (a democratic system that increases human liberty). I have consistently voted for Democrats, primarily because I see no other choice. (One day I hope to do a blog about the difficulty of creating a multiparty system in the United States and the fact that we as a country still have a long way to go to be a liberating democratic country.) The writing here also does not meet my personal standards. I admit that I ramble here, but I suppose it fits with the tenor of this campaign. The content, however, is what is important.
As the title suggests, Donald Trump is not worthy of the office of President of the United States. He has made an art of lying to further only his financial betterment and his ego. While I do not provide sources for every factual assertion here, all of these claims are relatively easy to find on the Internet just by entering key words in a Google search. All of the information I provide here I have seen or read in multiple sources in magazines, in on-line publications, or on television.
LYING
Trump accuses Clinton of being a serial liar, when, in fact, Trump lies so frequently that he does them at a rate faster than a machine gun fires bullets. If you want to read a good list of his lies, the on line magazine Slate has an article on October 17, 2016 that provides many of his lies—and other vile statements.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/07/donald_trump_is_unfit_to_be_president_here_are_141_reasons_why.html
I will give you a few examples of the ones I have seen/read directly. He claimed to be against the Iraq War even before it started. In a recording on a Howard Stern program in 2002, Trump said, when asked about attacking Iraq, “yeah I guess so” and that the government should have done it correctly the first time. The earliest statement of him being against the war did not happen until well into 2004, over a year after the war began. After Hillary Clinton publicly took him to task for saying that Japan and South Korea should develop their own nuclear weapons, he claimed she was lying. I saw Chris Matthews interview Trump on this issue. Matthews specifically asked Trump if he favored Japan and South Korea having nuclear arms. He clearly stated that he wanted them to do that. Trump criticized Clinton for the invasion of Libya and claimed that he was against it from the beginning. Wrong! He not only made statements favoring the attack but also said that they should kill Gaddafi. Trump claims that he has given a lot of money to charities, but just recently, the Washington Post has found no evidence to support the claims as to the alleged amounts he has given. If anything, he has used money from his charitable foundation, money mostly from other donors, to pay for personal matters including a life-size portrait of himself and, worse, paying off law suit debts with his foundation’s money. Trump has disparaged all Muslims but he also is very willing to do business with them. A CNN article from December 2015 provides a list of some of his multi-million dollar deals in the Arab world:
http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/08/news/donald-trump-muslim-countries-business/
Trump has substantial dealings with the Saudis, even though he criticized the Clintons for accepting gifts to their foundation from Saudi Arabia.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/exclusive-donald-trump-made-millions-saudi-government-article-1.2777211
Trump has talked glibly about the evil of China getting a lot of American manufacturing. Yet, much of the merchandise (like clothing) that he has marketed with his name on it was made in China. There’s a very telling exchange between him and David Letterman on that very matter.
CHEATING
Whether it is Trump’s personal life or his business dealings, Trump’s primary mode of operation is cheating. Take the time to read about the number of contractors he “stiffed” when it came to for them to be paid after completing work on his construction sites. Or, read about how he “earned” that $950,000,000.00 tax deduction for a business loss. The evidence strongly suggests that this deduction was directly related to the bankruptcy of his casinos in Atlantic City, the only time he created a publicly held corporation (meaning he made the venture available to numerous investors). He managed to dump all his problems (i.e. his debt) in the public corporations. He declared bankruptcy and many small investors lost all of their money. Meantime, it appears that the “honorable Donald” took this big tax deduction that he used for years to avoid paying federal taxes. So, we the taxpayer paid him for his losses while he “stiffed” these investors.
Trump’s book the “Art of the Deal” essentially sums up his business view. To “close a deal”, he states that he would give his potential buyer a “fantasy” to encourage the buyer to go along. Folks, fantasy is being used as a euphemism for a lie. When he was failing to pay his bills during the period that he was in bankruptcy, he hid various assets, like the helicopters that he owned, from the banks so that they would not repossess them. It has recently been reported that he has yet to pay the company he has doing polling for his campaign. He stiffs those people doing business with him. What will he do to the American people if elected?
UNFIT
Trump disparages democracy. He praises people like Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Saddam Hussein because “they did things”. Yes, these dictators pretty much do what they want (and Putin is not only a dictator but has his opponents assassinated or jailed). Trump wants to be like them. I have heard supporters claim that they like him because he allegedly “speaks his mind”. Speaking his mind is how he hides the real truth. When he talks about “building walls” or “running all the Moslems out of the country”, he offers no details how he will do these things. He repeats himself and thus avoids giving any details how he would accomplish these goals. He makes the statements only to rile the electorate and he has no plan to accomplish his alleged goals. He talks like a dictator that “I’ will do this or that. It is not the talk of a President of a republic who must answer to other elected officials and the electorate. His tough talk, “saber rattling”, violates a moral principle enunciated by the last great Republican President, Teddy Roosevelt—“Talk softly but carry a big stick”. He sounds more like Mussolini than a President, and he is exactly that, a Mussolini wannabe. He would be willing to use democracy, by getting elected, to throw it in the trash. He talks about limiting freedom of speech and press. Contrary to his claims that he is going to undo the control of Wall Street, what he really wants is to be “King” of Wall Street. (Bruce Springsteen said it well in his song “Promised Land”—“Poor man wants to be rich, rich man wants to be king, and a king ain’t satisfied until he rules everything.”) He has an inferiority complex because he is not as rich as Warren Buffet, Bill Gates or Michael Bloomberg. Trump is not an outsider. He is a low rent “schmoozer” who loves to talk about all the famous and powerful people who were at his parties.
On the matter of being opaque, Trump has not provided any information about his actual business deals or his tax reports. Why do his supporters not demand that he provide such information? I think it is very important to know with whom he has done business. I have read stories that he did business frequently with drug dealers and mobsters. At his parties, the cocaine was freely available. What is Trump’s connection to Russia and Putin? He claims he has no investment in Russia, but he has made numerous trips there. His son, Donald Jr, admitted in 2008 that they were “heavily invested” in Russia. In 2013, just after the Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow, Trump talked about the wonderful post-pageant party and said that “all of the Russian oligarchs” were there. When will he allow the public to follow his money? How can anyone supporting Trump be upset over the Clintons when it is Trump who hides everything from the public?
Trump is also unfit because he is mentally unstable. It seems obvious that he has extreme narcissism. I have read several articles about this matter concerning Trump. It is a complex issue, but the Slate article below provides a lot of information about the syndrome and makes a very damning statement about a society that would allow a person like Trump to get to this level of power. Furthermore, in 2008 and 2012, when I supported Obama over McCain and Romney, I certainly did not think either of them were mentally unbalanced. I would apply the same to Dick Cheney, whom I consider one of the most insidious politicians in my lifetime. He was cold, calculating and did everything he could to enhance Halliburton, but he was not mentally unstable.
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2016/10/we_ve_misdiagnosed_donald_trump.html
UNREDEEMING
These are my “spiritual” reasons to be against Trump. Therefore, it is directed to people who connect to religion or spiritual matters. It troubles me that many people who call themselves Christian, particularly evangelical fundamentalists (like Jerry Falwell Jr, Pat Robertson and Franklin Graham) support him. I see nothing in Trump that is “redeeming” (one could say worthy of redemption as described in the Bible). When I read the Book of Matthew, chapters 6 and 7 or Matthew, Chapter 25: 31-45, I see no connection between Trump and Jesus.
Trump’s own words reflect he is a sexual predator and had no problem cheating on his two previous wives. Not only do we have his claims about how he “grabs” women, Howard Stern has also provided us with interesting statements about various women. He once told Stern that he could have “nailed” Lady Di. Apparently at that time, he was trying to woo her by sending flowers continuously to her, something that made her comment that she felt “stalked” by Trump. We do not know if any allegations of sexual aggression against Donald Trump are true, but his own words indicate a man who had no problem of touching women in places without any discussion of consent. On another Howard Stern program in 2006,, with daughter Ivanka and son Donald Jr present, he was called a sexual predator (after he admitted to having sexual relations with scores of women). He twice responded, “That’s true.” Real family values, isn’t it?
http://nypost.com/2016/10/13/heres-donald-trumps-response-to-being-called-a-sexual-predator/
(Just to compare allegations between Bill Clinton and Trump, about 12 women claim Trump committed a variety of sexual violations, from unwanted contacts by touching body parts to the rape of an underage woman. According to reports I have seen, three women claim that Bill Clinton engaged in unwanted sexual conduct with them and one woman who alleged having an affair with Clinton claims she was threatened by someone if she made the affair public. This does not include the women who alleged having or did have consensual affairs with Clinton. Trump has no place calling out the sexual misconduct of any other person.)
He claims to love his family and, yes, his children seem loyal to him. (I wonder how much of that loyalty to him relates to wanting to be included on the inheritance or the fear of being disinherited.) Gaddafi had loyal children as did Saddam Hussein. By all accounts, Bin Laden’s family was very loyal to him. Family loyalty has nothing to do with having a moral center. As noted earlier in this writing, Trump’s business activities also reveal a man who will do anything to protect his financial status, particularly with regard to failing to pay contractors for a variety of jobs that involved his buildings. In Trump, I see no “spiritual values”. It makes me think that fundamentalist Christians would vote for the Devil if the Devil says he is not a Democrat.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
For me the vote is clear. As much as I would like this country to have a multi-party system, current laws and the Constitution make minor parties mostly useless and sometimes result in electing someone whom third party voters last wanted in office. (I am speaking specifically of the 2000 election.) Hillary Clinton has some faults, but she understands the need to cooperate and to compromise, something that has existed since the beginning of this country. The Constitutional Convention was full of compromises. The creation of the Congress, led by Benjamin Franklin, was called the Great Compromise. After ratification, Jefferson and Madison paired off against Hamilton and Adams, with Washington somewhat in the middle. Thus, were the beginnings of the two-party system. Clinton represents someone who works to keep our States “United”, as Washington fervently argued in his farewell address, and hopefully will advance liberal democracy. Trump will move us toward a Russian-like oligarchy, or worse, an autocratic (think feudal) form of government.
My vote is not just a vote for the “lesser of two evils”. Clinton’s record on a variety of issues, such as health care and children’s issues, have been very consistent. Furthermore, I have seen no credible evidence that the Clinton Foundation is primarily a money gathering scheme for the Clintons personally. Instead, reports I have read about the pursuits of the Clinton Foundation show that the money going into the foundation has largely gone out (in the range of close to 90%) to other charities or directly to charitable purposes. In addition, the Clintons apparently have given a good portion of their “infamous” speech income to the Foundation. What has happened with Trump’s foundation? Remember what I said a few paragraphs back? When Trump loses a law suit filed by a contractor he had stiffed, he uses his foundation’s money to pay those bills and most of the foundation’s money did not come from him personally but from other donors.
The claims of conspiracy theorists, such as Alex Jones who has learned how to make millions from his irrational rants, lack substantial proof. I see these claims regularly and have yet to see anyone with good evidence. I keep hearing claims about the “mainstream media” being in cahoots with certain dark powers. I wonder how it is possible for so many people to be able to keep their alleged evil plots under wraps. How can one believe that a group of over 100,000 people are able not only to agree on a conspiracy but also to keep silent. i do not doubt that a number of well-heeled people try to control and influence power around the world, but to conclude that they can work together in unity is absurd.
Yes, money is a problem in American politics. The Clintons have been part of that problem, but the Republican party has been up to its neck in money-grubbing. Money has been an American problem since the beginning of the country. In a speech given at the end of the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin warned that money would be a corrupting influence on our politics. Donald Trump is no different, despite his claims to be independent of other money. That simply is another of his fantasies (I mean lies), because the man truly is not the super-wealthy person he claims to be. We know a lot more about the Clinton Foundation than we do about Trump’s nefarious financial activities. What we can see, despite his opaqueness, is very unsavory. I cannot understand Trump supporters who scream and yell about the Clintons and their money and fail to recognize the crime-laden nature of Trump’s business activities. Think about the fact that Trump may soon be facing trial for racketeering in regard to his so-called Trump University (another fantasy scheme).
Trump is not trying to upset the apple cart in Washington. He wants to destroy it and throw away all the apples. Voting for him is an end to what democracy we have left. Trump is trying to close a deal with his supporters and he is giving them a whopper of a fantasy.
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