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Okay --- so WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS?

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posted on Dec, 31 2016 @ 11:00 PM
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a reply to: spiritualzombie

Nah, staying sober this year... silly doctor's got me taking a blood thinner that reacts with alcohol.

Those poor PBRs in the fridge are getting so lonely... have yourself a Happy New Year and drink a beer for me.

TheRedneck



posted on Dec, 31 2016 @ 11:12 PM
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a reply to: TheRedneck

Sure, will do. Have a Happy New Year!




posted on Jan, 1 2017 @ 11:36 AM
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a reply to: BuzzyWigs

Yay! 2017! Lots of NEXT STEPS.... kind of like America needs to learn to function in a healthy way again



Good, uplifting info, Buzzy! Thanks


I am convinced that if anything good comes of this year, it will be the renewed interest it has prompted in the nuts and bolts of democracy and the things we do to preserve it. One of those is the free flow of information. Good information. News that informs, not just titillates.


RE more journalist efforts....Tony Schwartz (who wrote Trump's Art of The Deal) recommended this link ("I have known Peter Lance for 3 decades. Fierce reporter. InvestigatingTrump.com will be great antidote to Breitbart/Drudge/Fox.")

investigatingtrump.com



posted on Jan, 1 2017 @ 12:18 PM
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a reply to: BuzzyWigs



He got a "D" in a class called "MEATS."


lol It's sad when Bobby Hill can get a higher grade in "MEATS".

Here's the thing, Perry was put in there to help get rid of it. Since he got his new glasses, all he has to do is follow the instructions they give him to read. The instruction manual has been sittin' in a Koch Bros file draw for just this moment.

Same with Puzder for Labor Secretary. Pudzer will be like the alien in the old Twilight Zone episode with the book, To Serve Man. You see, Puzder is not going to help labor but to serve it up to the corporations exactly how they want it, rare with no regulations. That's another book out of the Koch Files.

The Koch "Americans for Prosperity" already asked Congress a few years ago to sign a pledge which ends up weakening govt in their favor.... imagine, a pledge to a billionaire rather tan a pledge to voters....


Charles and David Koch, the billionaire brothers who own the oil and chemicals conglomerate Koch Industries, may have failed to get a Republican into the White House in 2012, but they're succeeding in a broad national push for deregulation. A quarter of senators and more than one-third of representatives have signed a little-known pledge — backed by the Kochs — not to spend any money to fight climate change without an equivalent amount of tax cuts.


And that poor Japanese man who has wanted too bring jobs to America but Trump claimed those jobs as his efforts. Well, Mr. Son might just let it ride to save face.... and also save future plans to again try a merger in a Trump administration. Trump will let the merger go through in the spirit of helping businesses.... making businesses grow by no regulations on mergers! Let's play monopoly again!

Well, lots to look forward to this coming year. But here's some good Trump advice.... "You want something to really go without detection, write it out and have it sent by courier.” Quick, go buy retirement stock in paper!! ....."write it out"... an idiot for our time....it may portend how he wants to lead the country backward, to the time of our Founding Fathers when political parties and govt communicated by paper and post/courier. Hey, it worked then, why not now??



posted on Jan, 1 2017 @ 12:38 PM
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I think immediately banning a party affiliated political system is mandatory. People should only be shown stats on previous votes and issue related correspondences.

The tax dollars wasted on affiliations is beyond overwhelming, and look... it all falls into the voids of you all thinking a party is going to change things. Time to wake up people... a foundation is needed before we build a roof.



posted on Jan, 1 2017 @ 01:28 PM
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a reply to: desert


Here's the thing, Perry was put in there to help get rid of it.

Pretty much.

The idea of the EPA is a good one. No one supports pollution... those who seem to just support being able to ignore the issue for profit. The EPA was designed to prevent exactly that and when it concentrates on actual pollution (sulfur compounds, excessive nitrates and nitrites, particulates) it works well. But the EPA has been compromised by political and financial interests. They are now concentrating efforts on a non-pollutant, carbon dioxide. They have taken the idea of conservation and perverted it into a way to remove property rights from farmers (there have been cases where farmers have dug ponds for irrigation, then because they dug the pond the EPA has tried to designate their farms as wetlands and put them out of business, at the cost of several thousand dollars in lawyers fees). They have placed speed regulations on trucks in mountainous areas that actually prevent efficient operation and create more pollution, in order to get penalty revenue from drivers trying to conserve fuel.

The EPA is out of control and needs to either be reined in substantially or scrapped. I would prefer reining it in, but something has to happen.


Same with Puzder for Labor Secretary.

There's a thread specifically on Puzder, and I have posted my specific views in it. Puzder may well turn out to be a good thing for labor in general.

I am seeing some pretty bad examples of prejudiced thinking, not only in this thread, not only on ATS, but across the entire Internet and society as well. No person living today can stand up to scrutiny such as has been applied to Trump and his choices. No one. All people are human and will make remarks occasionally that, when taken out of context, can be seen as evil, intolerant, insensitive, etc. All people have done things that, when viewed through a different lense than they viewed it through at the time, could seem quite different.

Perhaps this is some sort of reaction to the criminal charges against Clinton... if so, they are a childish revenge attempt unworthy of adult conversation. The title of this thread is "what are the next steps?" So I ask everyone in this thread (not picking on you, desert), what are your next steps? The choice is simple: accept what has happened and work to maintain your principles under the new dynamic, or 'double-down' on the very reason the election happened the way it did and try to gain support through childish character assassinations and fits of rage?

It's 2017. 2016 is now nothing more than a chapter in history. History cannot be changed; the future has not happened yet. Only the present can be changed, by our individual actions and attitudes. Will we move forward together, or backward at each other's throats?

The choice belongs to everyone reading this. Step carefully. Please?

TheRedneck



posted on Jan, 1 2017 @ 03:48 PM
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No more existence tax. "I live, therefore I must pay" needs to be gone


Then you'll have to get rid of a lot more than Obamacare. Our entire society is an existence tax. You can't even live in a Western country without paying tens of thousands of dollars a year. Food, water, sewage, transportation, medical care- everything is expensive and has to be paid for every month that you exist.



posted on Jan, 1 2017 @ 07:42 PM
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a reply to: CB328

Food: can be grown without being taxed.

Water: rainwater can be collected... no tax on rain.

Transportation: no tax on walking.

Medical care: not necessary unless one becomes ill, and still optional when one does.

There's a big difference between taxing desirable items (purchased food, purchased water, vehicles, medical care) and taxing existence.

TheRedneck



posted on Jan, 1 2017 @ 08:03 PM
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a reply to: TheRedneck

To the good gentleman from Alabama



No person living today can stand up to scrutiny such as has been applied to Trump and his choices. No one. All people are human and will make remarks occasionally that, when taken out of context, can be seen as evil, intolerant, insensitive, etc. All people have done things that, when viewed through a different lense than they viewed it through at the time, could seem quite different.


I have observed and studied politics for four decades. Politics is a dirty game. We do not need to have anyone hack the RNC and release emails. John McCain knows full well the dirty tricks his own party plays. Karl Rove is no choir boy. This past election was every bit about the GOP as it was about Clinton. The GOP lost control of their own party years ago and paid a price by having the Koch Bros hi-jack Trump in their name. In order to remain "the party" in power, they have decided they can live with Trump, as Trump is playing to the Koch Bros tune. No more, no less.

The Democratic Party made the decision in the 1980s to shift their emphasis to the professional class and downplay the working class. When Obama was elected the first time, even though he compared himself to Ronald Reagan, he was seen by many as the savior not only for the working class but for the nation in general, the new FDR who would lead the country out of The Great Recession. With no help from the opposition party (in the de facto parliament govt we now have), he worked to get us past the previous administrations errors in war and finance. And he introduced the idea that health care was a right, not merely a commodity, although he kept health care in the private sector as a commodity. A good, decent intellectual, but he was no black radical or FDR. The nation years ago lost its sense of noblesse oblige.

While the GOP showed off their stable of candidates for 2016, Donald Trump ended up their choice and ultimate winner of the election. Personally, I have no animosity towards the man. He is what he is, and my point is showing what we have to work with. If I offer to take you for a successful fishing trip but have no idea where to fish for the big ones, then I have been remiss. If I play as if everything is fine, or business as usual, then I am remiss when we see that it isn't and wonder how we got here.

Do not mistake the opposition that must happen as a backlash or revenge. It is merely how government must now be played out. There is an extremist power now in charge of all three branches, the fringe of what was once a great political party and loyal opposition. There is no more loyal opposition.



Perhaps this is some sort of reaction to the criminal charges against Clinton


Clinton is out of the picture. Clinton is in the past. The reality is that this is not a childish fight to gain back control of power in Washington but the last stand against an extremist fringe ideology hell bent on its final drive to remake America in its image of the oligarchy. No more, no less. Trump promised much to the working man during the campaign. He will be asked to now keep those promises or explain why he cannot.

If Trump and his choices cannot "stand up to scrutiny", then that is their problem. Politicians nowadays are expected to stand up to a level of scrutiny never seen in the past. That is the world in which we now live. No, I take that back a bit. Politicians nowadays are expected to stand up to at least the same scrutiny as in the past (tax forms, for ex, and ethics and laws). Any extra scrutiny is the new normal.



posted on Jan, 1 2017 @ 09:30 PM
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a reply to: TheRedneck

I think what I wanted to say with my prior post was, bottom line, I see Trump supporters making the same mistake that many Obama voters made, seeing something in a candidate that is just not there. Obama did do many good things, but he could not change the structural problems with the economy. He was no black radical or FDR. As much as I had wanted to see what others saw in Obama, I could not. I had hoped, for ex, that single payer would finally become a reality, but I was not surprised at the final outcome. Movements outside of politics forced his hand on social issues; America has depended on outside movements to change.

Putin could not do anything to us that we had not done to ourselves already. We lost our way, we are responsible for the oligarchy that encroached into our govt. We have had the best govt that money could buy for quite awhile now, and the billionaires now own us. The funny thing is, the Koch Bros are worth $100 billion, and I wonder if it has dawned or will dawn on Trump that he is not even in their league.



posted on Jan, 1 2017 @ 09:59 PM
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a reply to: desert

And to the nice lady from California,


I have observed and studied politics for four decades. Politics is a dirty game. We do not need to have anyone hack the RNC and release emails.

Actually, I would consider that no different from the release of DNC emails. Both parties exercise extreme power, and should be held accountable for crimes committed.

The DNC email hack, IMO, was triggered by the appearance of impropriety on Clinton's part when it was revealed she was jeopardizing national security by using a personal server for official business. That could be overlooked if she were operating in a private capacity like most people are, but she was Secretary of State. She operated directly under the Commander in Chief and her correspondence by definition included classified material. Her emails were evidence of a crime, and yet she ordered thousands of them deleted. That is the very definition of criminal activity. In response, hackers targeted her and by extension, targeted the DNC.

If there were evidence that Trump committed national security breaches and destroyed evidence, I would call for his head as well. This is not a partisan issue for me; it is a question of whether the law applies to everyone or not and thus goes to the heart of who and what we are as a country.


Do not mistake the opposition that must happen as a backlash or revenge. It is merely how government must now be played out. There is an extremist power now in charge of all three branches, the fringe of what was once a great political party and loyal opposition. There is no more loyal opposition.

That sentiment exists on both sides of the aisle. Many saw the same thing in Obama and the 2008 Democratic Party. I also believe you overstate the restrictions placed on Obama by the political makeup of Congress during his terms... else how could he have managed to get such a controversial and sweeping piece of legislation as Obamacare passed?

Backlash is to be expected, but the sheer amount of animosity is beyond the pale of what I have experienced in my lifetime. And it's not coming just from politicians and party loyalists, but from average people. I've seen families ripped apart, businesses committing financial suicide, and violent protests against free elections. There are things I would expect to see in third-world countries, not the great USA. We have prided ourselves in expanding democracy around the globe, but now we show the globe that it was just show... that partisanship rules and common sense is an unachievable ideal.


Clinton is out of the picture. Clinton is in the past. The reality is that this is not a childish fight to gain back control of power in Washington but the last stand against an extremist fringe ideology hell bent on its final drive to remake America in its image of the oligarchy.

I know you believe that, but I am still waiting to see some action before I climb aboard that boat. I need to see actions taken, not accusations. Accusations in the past have proved to be false assumptions.

If I see actions that conflict with what I expect of Trump, then I will join the fight against him, just as I originally supported Bush 43 and then turned against him after his actions alerted me to his true agenda.


If Trump and his choices cannot "stand up to scrutiny", then that is their problem. Politicians nowadays are expected to stand up to a level of scrutiny never seen in the past. That is the world in which we now live. No, I take that back a bit. Politicians nowadays are expected to stand up to at least the same scrutiny as in the past (tax forms, for ex, and ethics and laws). Any extra scrutiny is the new normal.

Then you condemn the US to a future of disruptive and violent conflict.

Scrutiny serves a purpose: to verify that a person is not unsuitable for a role. It was never intended to be a measure of perfection, because perfection does not exist in the human species. Scrutiny should reveal a lack of ability, criminal activity, even excessive dishonesty, all of which are indications the person under scrutiny cannot fulfill their duties in their new role. So far I have seen nothing of those types of behaviors or tendencies, only allegations of political disagreement. Political disagreement is to be expected from the losing side in the election; it is not an indication of unsuitability.

TheRedneck



posted on Jan, 2 2017 @ 08:09 AM
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a reply to: TheRedneck



I also believe you overstate the restrictions placed on Obama by the political makeup of Congress during his terms... else how could he have managed to get such a controversial and sweeping piece of legislation as Obamacare passed?


Because both houses of Congress are required for legislation to become law, the only time that Democrats could take advantage of that for major legislation under Obama was September 24, 2009 until February 4, 2010. The entire story involves illnesses and eventual death, also a small moderate bipartisan act.


Did President Obama have "total control" of Congress? Yes, for 4 entire months. And it was during that very small time window that Obamacare was passed in the Senate with 60 all-Democratic votes.

source-- good source for explaining numbers
source-- good source for narrative

Obama came into office expecting compromise in Congress (as had been done even under GW), but Mitch McConnell (etal Republican leaders sharing the same opinion) had other ideas. As long as the Senate refused to go along with the House, major legislation could be blocked. Small items could be passed, but nothing beyond status quo. The Tea Party came along early on to make compromise action more impossible.



posted on Jan, 2 2017 @ 08:36 AM
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a reply to: TheRedneck



If I see actions that conflict with what I expect of Trump, then I will join the fight against him,


And fighting together on items important to both of us we must. Trump is responsible for cabinet selection and executive actions, but it is in Congress, under total control of Republicans for at least two years 115th Congress) where the ideological battle will also be waged. Personally, I don't see Trump willing to go against Ryan and McConnell.

I have a feeling that things will get done so quickly that you and I will be left in the dust. People who wanted to literally take up arms in a "revolution" the last eight years will not be doing so now. So, how will the people "protest" this time? What is there to stop Congress from changing Social Security and Medicare? What is there to stop regulations from being thrown out? What is there to stop their goal of "making govt small enough to drown in a bath tub"? Democrats have no power, other than voicing opposition loudly. Who and how will people be able to stop what they don't want happening?

I'm not saying it's hopeless, just asking what means should be used to "fight"? Movements take time, years, to change thinking. We may have to live for years with what is about to happen.



posted on Jan, 2 2017 @ 08:43 AM
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a reply to: BuzzyWigs


Thing I see in OP is Tom Brokaw speaking like some authority ect. Like if Trump had that in mind he may look like he was taking Toms lead. At least more news sh*t head trying to keep or regain coveted status. As if they are authority at large, father time figures or some crap elected to nothing.



posted on Jan, 2 2017 @ 10:36 AM
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a reply to: desert


Personally, I don't see Trump willing to go against Ryan and McConnell.

He already has, Ryan at least.

After Trump won the nomination, Ryan was asked if he would endorse Trump. His reply was "I'm not there yet." A week later, when Trump seemed to not care, he begrudgingly gave his endorsement.

A few weeks later, when Ryan needed Trump's endorsement, Trump announced "I'm not there yet." A week later, he endorsed Ryan, who, unlike Trump, was feeling pressure from the lack of endorsement.

That message was clear as a bell: you will play ball with me or I will leave you to the buzzards.

One of the biggest reasons I got behind Trump was that he scared and angered both the Democrats (expected) and the Republicans (unheard of). I don't trust either party, and if Trump has both of them steppin' and fetchin', he's doing something right. His cabinet will not call the shots in his administration; Trump has never in his life delegated final authority. In every endeavor he has ever entered into, he remains in charge, period. His way or the highway. That is the source of his arrogance, and it has always been successful for him.

TheRedneck



posted on Jan, 2 2017 @ 07:32 PM
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The Power Of Vulnerability



Also: Asperger's Are Us

edit on 1/2/2017 by BuzzyWigs because: (no reason given)



posted on Jan, 3 2017 @ 10:07 AM
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a reply to: BuzzyWigs

I would have picked Ivanka too, as a potential ringmaster at least. I have a feeling she's been managing her daddy's moods for a while now. But, I'm afraid we're looking at a case of Stockholm syndrome there :-)

He is her father after all - and she's married to one of his new BFF...

Whatever influence she might have had on her father during the campaign is over. Foreign influences and his nearest and dearest aides and cabinet picks are running the country now

It's good she has her little Save Planet Earth project to keep her busy. As long as she doesn't read any actual news stories for the next few years she can keep on pretending everything is going to be just fine

So, about avoiding despair :-)

I was just about to post you a Star Trek video - but I'll spare you. When I start speaking in Star Trek metaphors you know I don't have much to offer



posted on Jan, 4 2017 @ 09:00 AM
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originally posted by: Spiramirabilis
So, about avoiding despair :-)


I think that the people's reaction to the Republican House secret attempt to avoid public ethics scandals proves that people are alert and ready to act. It was public reaction and not Trump (who only tweeted what he did to save Ryan--- who IMO told him what to tweet) that got the GOP to back down. No despair! Never, never, never give up! Yay!

So, that was a great first step. One of many in the political journey to unfold.



posted on Jan, 4 2017 @ 09:20 AM
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a reply to: desert

Desert! Yes! Yes, yes - and yes - just posted in another thread :-)

Freaking whiny needy baby rides in to say what's what - after he can full well see how what's what is breaking

But what about our press? How was this not the lead story yesterday, instead of our dear leaders tweets?

Well better late than never

No despair here. So over it :-)

Loins girded, banners unfurled - bring it baby!

But, in the spirit of this thread I gotta add - everything is up for discussion. A war of words and reason



posted on Jan, 4 2017 @ 11:52 AM
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Ha! HA HA YAY!! And huzzah.

Megyn Kelly - she has jumped ship and is going to NBC. I am so delighted about this!
She had gained my respect over the last year, and she alone (of ALL THE SMARMY FoxNews hosts - and yes, I've watched them, just so I can know what I'm talking about)....

MEGYN IS changing horses. I applaud her. Her guts, her grace, her courage....she has grown a lot over the last 5 years. Not going to become some lamo shrieker on AM radio talking to old kooks all morning long --
no - moving up to REAL news.

Good for her.
So, that's the best "next step" I've heard in awhile.

Megyn Kelly Leaving Fox News for NBC News

Whew. Awesome news. Go Megyn!! Hurry! It reminds me of that old game Red Rover.....

I will also applaud Trump for dumping the Koch machine. And maybe Tillerson, if he stands up honorably and forces Trump to be a decent human being. The Grand Old Poopypants party aren't Trump's favorites either. But he's still an oligarch, and probably a broke one, and definitely a mentally unstable one.

Oh well.




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