Donald Trump’s Contract with the American Voter [pdf] • Hacker News Board

Re: Donald Trump’s Contract with the American Voter [pdf]

#411

Post by Retra » Thu, Nov 10, 2016, 12:04 AM UTC

exclusiv wrote: post #361

elevenfist wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get real, this is an amazing boon for lobbyists. Members of congress would not be able to gain experience at crafting legislation and dealing with the entire shitshow process at the federal level. Lobbyists can still be lobbyists for life. On top of that, this significantly weakens congress's position when raising funds for elections. They've got to dance to the right tune quickly, they can't slowly ramp up a career…

The longer they are there, the more sold out they become. Career politicians are the worst. Completely disconnected from the people because the only thing they know is how to get elected and work the system for personal enrichment and job security. They help pass laws which affect people and the economy they've never participated in. The bad ones are hard to get rid of. Kind of like tenured professors. So you might l…

You can still be a career politician without being elected. Most business owners, lobbyists, CEOs, and board members are just that. They just don't have to take any oaths.

Re: Donald Trump’s Contract with the American Voter [pdf]

#412

Post by gnaritas » Thu, Nov 10, 2016, 12:04 AM UTC

nightski wrote: post #364

yolesaber wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>High brow smack (condescension) like that and "basket of deplorables" are what America revolted against. Actually, the majority of Americans agreed with Hillary Clinton. She won the popular vote by over a million votes. We just use an outdated system built to appease slaveholders that does not necessarily represent the bulk will of the people. Trump won on a technicality of our (antiquated and frankly awful) system,…

Every source I can find has her winning by around 200k. When you are talking about 120M votes that is rather insignificant.

When it's the difference in winning the majority and still losing the election, it is significant.

Re: Donald Trump’s Contract with the American Voter [pdf]

#413

Post by Retra » Thu, Nov 10, 2016, 12:05 AM UTC

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #156

dugmartin wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt it would make much of a difference - money is like water in politics, it will find its way in. Instead of the money coming in as donations for future elections it will be about promises of huge salary for the job after you hit your term limit, unless of course you only want those who don't need to work hold our elective offices.

Ah, but the fourth item on his list is to forbid outgoing Congresscritters from those jobs for half a decade. At the least, he (or someone working for him) seems to have considered that.

How do you enforce that?

Re: Donald Trump’s Contract with the American Voter [pdf]

#414

Post by ocschwar » Thu, Nov 10, 2016, 12:06 AM UTC

owyn wrote: post #241

skywhopper wrote: post #172

"THIRD, cancel all federal funding to sanctuary cities." Is this explained anywhere?

A sanctuary city is one that obstructs (directly or indirectly) the enforcement of federal immigration laws. http://www.apsanlaw.com/law-246.List-of-Sanctuary-cities.htm... Since this list is most of your bigger more liberal cities (LA, SF, NYC), I do wonder what it means to cut off all federal funding to those cities.

I live by one of those cities, and there are indeed a lot of visa overstayers living there.

The prospect of those people being too scared to call 911 if they witness a crime is something I am decidedly NOT looking forward to.

Re: Donald Trump’s Contract with the American Voter [pdf]

#415

Post by gumby » Thu, Nov 10, 2016, 12:07 AM UTC

danblick wrote: post #218

jdc0589 wrote: post #122

> FIFTH, I will lift the restrictions on the production of $50 trillion dollars’ worth of job-producing American energy reserves, including shale, oil, natural gas and clean coal This is what I have the biggest problem with. The ONLY WAY we are going to continue making progress towards widespread clean renewable energy is if it is financially beneficial for corporations to continue investing in R&D. Sure, there are s…

America has enough shale oil to be a net energy exporter, which means no more dealing with Venezuela or need for huge defense spending to protect strategic resources across the world. So I dunno, I can see why developing those resources might be in our interest.

Since oil is a fungible commodity, instabilities in oil prices outside the US will cause instabilities and price rises in the US (since a price rise outside the US is simply an incentive to export). Thus the US military patrols the Persian gulf in order that domestic oil makes it to the refinery.

Re: Donald Trump’s Contract with the American Voter [pdf]

#416

Post by tanderson92 » Thu, Nov 10, 2016, 12:08 AM UTC

pmarreck wrote: post #195

ainot wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which low-ability individuals suffer from illusory superiority High brow smack (condescension) like that and "basket of deplorables" are what America revolted against. If the liberal left was truly smart, why did they allow the president to run up more national debt than all presidents prior...combined?

Has it become that radical to suggest that smart, well-educated people may in fact see further into the consequences of things (particularly in their areas of expertise, but probably also peripherally), see more cognitive bias, have better critical-thinking skills, remember more mistakes from history, and all around make better long-term decisions? Why is that even offensive to anyone? Just because of someone's perso…

You should read Emmett Rensin's brilliant writing on this subject: http://www.vox.com/2016/4/21/11451378/smug-american-liberali...

He expounds on and develops this idea much more.

Re: Donald Trump’s Contract with the American Voter [pdf]

#417

Post by analog31 » Thu, Nov 10, 2016, 12:08 AM UTC

knowaveragejoe wrote: post #43

Some of this sounds great - term limits on congress, a measure to reduce the revolving door effect of government officials going into lobbying. Some of it sounds ridiculous - for every new federal regulation, 2 existing regulations must be eliminated. How is that considered feasible by any rational person? It might sound great if you don't think too hard about it. The scariest things for me are the backing out of cli…

In my view, term limits will have no practical effect on the influence of money on politics, so long as the parties can preserve their control of congressional seats through gerrymandering. Money will always find a way to speak louder than voters, so long as voters are suppressed.

I love my party, but in my district, my party's primary is the only election with a meaningful impact on anything. And my party has this district, in order to keep us from ever gaining a majority of our state's legislative caucus.

To drain the swamp, restore democracy. Any effort to decrease voter participation is inherently corrupting. Make it easier to vote. Make sure everybody's vote is counted equally. Of course, "counted equally" should be a matter of debate. Get rid of gerrymandering. Get rid of the electoral college.

Re: Donald Trump’s Contract with the American Voter [pdf]

#418

Post by thomyorkie » Thu, Nov 10, 2016, 12:09 AM UTC

yolesaber wrote: post #209

ainot wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which low-ability individuals suffer from illusory superiority High brow smack (condescension) like that and "basket of deplorables" are what America revolted against. If the liberal left was truly smart, why did they allow the president to run up more national debt than all presidents prior...combined?

>High brow smack (condescension) like that and "basket of deplorables" are what America revolted against. Actually, the majority of Americans agreed with Hillary Clinton. She won the popular vote by over a million votes. We just use an outdated system built to appease slaveholders that does not necessarily represent the bulk will of the people. Trump won on a technicality of our (antiquated and frankly awful) system,…

> Actually, the majority of Americans agreed with Hillary Clinton. She won the popular vote by over a million votes. We just use an outdated system built to appease slaveholders that does not necessarily represent the bulk will of the people. Trump won on a technicality of our (antiquated and frankly awful) system, not on a mandate.

While I agree that the electoral college is not the best system, we can't really know what the results would have been if the popular vote determined the presidency. Campaigns are optimized based on the electoral college and each would have been run differently on a different system. Also, voter turnout may have been different because you no longer have partisan strongholds which may discourage voting.

Re: Donald Trump’s Contract with the American Voter [pdf]

#419

Post by FreedomToCreate » Thu, Nov 10, 2016, 12:09 AM UTC

rahilsondhi wrote: post #379

Are any TN visa holders worried about Trump wanting to withdraw from NAFTA?

Its not a clean cut procedure that Trump could execute and bang, all TN visas holders are out. There is a significant work force on TN visas working at stat ups and major Fortune 500 companies, holding positions that are critical to those organizations. To have these people leave would not be cheap for these organizations and Trump will have to consider this.

Re: Donald Trump’s Contract with the American Voter [pdf]

#420

Post by mabbo » Thu, Nov 10, 2016, 12:10 AM UTC

mywittyname wrote: post #327

ben174 wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can find more detail on how he plans to make Mexico pay for the wall here: https://assets.donaldjtrump.com/Pay_for_the_Wall.pdf Specifically, he will threaten to disallow wire transfer of money from US to Mexico by non-citizens. Since that is a revenue source they greatly depend on, he suggests they'd rather fund the building of the wall. If they agree to fund the wall, then the ban on transfers will go away.

So Mexicans start using bitcoin, amazon gift cards, or something like that. Or we end up with "underground banks" that can effectively transfer money across the border without actually doing so, i.e., you buy a digital good at a physical location in the US, transfer it to a relative in Mexico, who then sells it back to the company at a slight discount for cash (which, as a side-effect, would be a great way to launder…

My thoughts exactly. I'm going to go launch a Spanish bitcoin buy/sell website.