Live data from Hacker News

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

assets.donaldjtrump.com

431–440 of 1001 posts

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

#431
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.

The wall is ridiculous in itself though. I'm looking forward to see what Donald Trump's wall does when they encounter Santa Elena Canyon. ( https://www.nps.gov/bibe/planyourvisit/secyn.htm )

Looks like the canyon would be a natural barrier. But if you have a small gap it seems like you could just build some guard posts at that gap.

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

#432
post #360

Fully-funds the construction of a wall on our southern border with the full understanding that the country of Mexico will be reimbursing the United States for the full cost of such wall; establishes a two-year mandatory minimum federal prison sentence for illegally re-entering the U.S. after a previous deportation, and a five-year mandatory minimum federal prison sentence for illegally re-entering for those with felo…

Seriously, prison sentences for illegally entering the country is grade-A nuts. There's other stuff on there that at least sounds good, but this sounds like "we'll solve a $$ problem with $$$".

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

#433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get the appeal of term limits on Congress. Why would you vote for an amateur politician instead of a professional career politician? Aren't career politicians better than amateur politicians? If a politician is doing a good job, why would you artificially limit their term? The branch of government with the highest approval rate is the Judicial branch, where Supreme Court Justices are appointed for life.

The Supreme Court has a really straightforward framework for their job though. They are judges not politicians.

In a perfect society, yes. But we are not a perfect society and the judges on the court have quite clear biases in many cases.

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

#434
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm totally not being a Trump supporter how does this empower China exactly? Russia's economy is the size of NYC so that is even stranger point especially given Trumps position on " 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"

The TPP (and other trade agreements) is largely about establishing key US companies into foreign markets. The US can, unsurprisingly, command the upper-hand in most negotiations due to our massive economic influence. These laws include protections for IP rights, financial regulation, and food/drug safety standards that allow US companies to operate and establish dominance in foreign markets. If the US refuses to buil…

Here in Germany many people don't want the TPP, so that is at least one reason for us to be happy about Trumps election.

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

#435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It doesn't make sense to demand that Mexico pay for it. It's like building a wall on your property and demanding your neighbors pay for it. When buying a house, wouldnt you try to negotiate for seller concessions like paying for repairs? Trumps wall comments were always in conjunction with discussing the massive trade deficit with Mexico. If we are in a stronger position to negotiate with Mexico, why wouldnt we neg…

> If you really think about it. We only need this wall because of Mexico, so why should we pay if we dont have to? People flee Mexico because it's an extremely poor country with a horrible government and is controlled by drug cartels. Screwing the country over further economically sounds like the worst way to solve this problem. In fact, it seems like a very good way to exacerbate the problem. Perhaps that's why priv…

> Screwing the country over further economically sounds like the worst way to solve this problem.

First, I am just a random uneducated and ignorant American, so take my two cents for what it is...only two cents.

From my vantage point, cutting off the drug cartels access to the US market could potentially do wonders to shifting the balance of power and helping Mexico in the long run.

Also, as unpopular as it is, the US governments first mandate is to protect it's citizens. Sometimes that means making tough choices that doesn't help everybody, but responsibility takes maturity and a willingness to consider unpopular options.

>His actions are clearly going to increase the flow of illegal immigrants into the US, and now that these people can be tossed into federal prison...

I think missed the key word in his contract "CRIMINAL". He is not talking about people who broke the law by illegally imigrating. He is talking about FELONS who ALSO came here illegally. They certainly don't belong roaming our streets unchecked.

Contributing illegal immigrants is a different discussion, but convicted felons, rapists, murderers, etc... who come here illegally belong in Mexican prisons and should be mexico's problem...if they can't do it, than yes, well put them in prison...to KEEP YOUR AND YOUR FAMILY SAFE.

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

#436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It doesn't make sense to demand that Mexico pay for it. It's like building a wall on your property and demanding your neighbors pay for it. When buying a house, wouldnt you try to negotiate for seller concessions like paying for repairs? Trumps wall comments were always in conjunction with discussing the massive trade deficit with Mexico. If we are in a stronger position to negotiate with Mexico, why wouldnt we neg…

>If you really think about it. We only need this wall because of Mexico, so why should we pay if we dont have to? If you really think about it, we don't need the wall at all because people will just dig holes underneath it, like they have with all the other walls and fencing we have built. 1,954 miles is a long way to go - https://theintercept.com/2016/10/18/best-of-luck-with-the-wa...

The problem with your argument is that it presumes that a border can't be protected. As far as I could discover in my brief searches for information during the election, the border is fairly secure.

So, really the wall is more of a symbol than actual border security. Sadly, it's a symbol that resonates with a disturbingly large percent of the population.

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

#437
post #228
post #163

For corporations, there's an odd mix of sticks and carrots. For example these two promises: "... trillions of dollars of American corporate money overseas can now be brought back at a 10% rate." "Establishes tariffs to discourage companies from laying off their workers ..." So a company can more easily bring back offshore billions to the US, but at the same time, new tariffs are put in place that make it harder to la…

> It's odd that Trump is a businessman, yet his list of solutions includes all kinds of tariffs and trade restrictions to rein in business. There's a reason Western countries don't use tariffs much anymore: they're counterproductive if you want to stimulate growth. But I guess that old economics lesson is about to be put to another test. It's pretty clear he was never a good businessman. He was good at finding loopho…

> "It's pretty clear he was never a good businessman."

Don't you find it silly to call a person with a net worth of $4 billion "not a good businessman" keeping in mind that he made this money doing business

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

#439
post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This shouldn't be downvoted. This is a critical question for a candidate who's pledged to expand religious discrimination and torture.

could you elaborate on the 'more torture' promise?

http://www.weeklystandard.com/trump-torture-works-ok-folks/a...

A typical quote, and hardly the most disturbing thing he's said on the campaign trail:

""Torture works. OK, folks? You know, I have these guys -- "Torture doesn't work!" -- believe me, it works. And waterboarding is your minor form. Some people say it's not actually torture. Let's assume it is. But they asked me the question, What do you think of waterboarding? Absolutely fine. But we should go much stronger than waterboarding. That's the way I feel. They're chopping off heads. Believe me, we should go much stronger, because our country's in trouble. We're in danger. We have people that want to do really bad things! Remeber the power of weaponry. This isn't 100 years ago where we fight hand to hand combat. This is weapons that are so destructive -- so destructive -- that the world could end. We have to be very strong, we have to be very vigilant, we have to be very tough. Waterboarding is fine, but it's not nearly tough enough, OK?"

From http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/06/politics/donald-trump-torture/:

"...we are playing by rules, but they have no rules. It's very hard to win when that's the case," Trump said, adding that the United States' ban on waterboarding is a sign of weakness. "I think we've become very weak and ineffective. I think that's why we're not beating ISIS. It's that mentality," Trump said, adding that ISIS "must think we are a little bit on the weak side."

He has backpedaled on the issue since then, but the fact that he said this stuff in the first place is disturbing enough.

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

#440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It doesn't make sense to demand that Mexico pay for it. It's like building a wall on your property and demanding your neighbors pay for it. When buying a house, wouldnt you try to negotiate for seller concessions like paying for repairs? Trumps wall comments were always in conjunction with discussing the massive trade deficit with Mexico. If we are in a stronger position to negotiate with Mexico, why wouldnt we neg…

> When buying a house, wouldnt you try to negotiate for seller concessions like paying for repairs? Yes; but you typically do that before you buy the property, we've had texas for a while now. All the talk about trade deficit with Mexico makes it sound like people think we just cut Mexico a check every year. As a nation, we receive goods and services for that deficit. It isn't money on the table.

I'm not going to pretend to understand the nuances of these issues, but it seems to me that governments are artificially creating these trade deficits with tax and import/export tariff schemes. I don't understand them, but I don't see how it's a bad idea to at least explore how Chinas currency manipulation and various trade deficits/ tariffs can better reflect the true market and not be artificially manipulated by various governments.

If the trade deficit with Mexico has to do with import/export inbalances to favor that deficit, I see no reason not to try to renegotiate it.

Again, I have no real working knowledge of these issues, just a cursory and uninformed opinion.

Post reply on HN