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

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

#531

Post by blintz »

Shivetya wrote: post #393
noobermin wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of room to wonder about his trustworthiness given his record as a businessman, but even in this document, he doesn't address campaign finance reform. Congressional term-limits just consolidate power in the moneyed elites--the problems is not just the politicians, it's who corrupted them. If anything, this is a document to passify those moneyed interests who, unlike say Sheldon Adelson, worry about a Tru…

Well let us be honest here. Electing politicians hasn't exactly been doing us that much good. If anything we have learned we cannot accept their word at all. I am of the opinion that politicians corrupted themselves by selling their ability to shape the laws that govern the country and decide who is punished and who is rewarded.

So then what's your alternative? Would you prefer a system without politicians? What kind of system is that?

We must elect trustworthy politicians, we must make it harder for big money to interfere, and we must have faith in our government. It's hard for me to say right now, given our current president-elect, but it's true. There truly is no good alternative to democracy.

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

#532

Post by asdfasdfa11112 »

derekdahmer wrote: post #501
toomuchtodo wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Put out of work coal miners on social security early at their full benefit and fund it with a carbon tax. This doesn't even need to be a carbon tax; simply a transfer from the general fund. The average coal miner salary is ~$22/hr, or ~$42k/year. 174,000 coal workers in the US @ $31,668k/year (the max SS benefit permitted) = $5.5 billion/year. This is not expensive, nor in perpetuity, only the years from now until th…

This attitude is why democrats have so much trouble understanding why republicans have so much support from working class voters. People don't want to go on welfare, they want a job. It's about identity. Free money can keep you fed but it can't give you a sense of pride and self worth.

This creates an intractable problem when their job is deemed too dangerous for a civilization to allow to continue.

If someone's job is their identity, and their job harms others, what are some other possible solutions? (Retraining runs into similar issues as you mentioned -- coal miners don't want to become keyboard jockeys, they want their sense of pride and self worth for doing the profession they trained for.)

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

#534

Post by TYPE_FASTER »

manicdee wrote: post #369
arcticfox wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's a little harsh. There's no first principle that the average citizen should know that says "clean coal" isn't possible. In fact, in 5-10 minutes of specifically looking at the topic I still don't see why you're mocking the concept.

Simple thermodynamics. We get energy from coal by burning it then extracting some of the heat. The waste products are basically carbon dioxide and heat. Clean coal is about capturing that carbon dioxide, which means spending energy to separate the CO2 from other gasses, then liquefy it. This sequestration process costs about 30% of the energy originally extracted from the coal. I fully support clean coal since it inc…

It doesn't have to.

http://www.iea-coal.org.uk/site/2010/blog-section/blog-posts...?

My issue with the coal industry is they pushed back on any sort of regulation for 30yrs instead of innovating.

Imagine what they could have done if they had invested in clean coal technology in the mining areas of the US.

Instead, they are now complaining because they got lazy and solar and wind capitalized on their inability to get the job done.

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

#535

Post by linkregister »

tanderson92 wrote: post #416
pmarreck wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Thanks for posting this great read. I think it belongs on the front page of HN, having witnessed HN's hyperbolic reaction to the election this morning.

It does an excellent job of diagnosing the American Left's political and social ills. It left out the most important part: a solution. It never actually validated either ideology nor proposed a solution beyond "make sure to respect and empathize with the other side."

I feel you never actually addressed the veracity of the parent poster's statement, just the tone. It is a valid criticism, to be sure, but I would like more.

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

#536

Post by btym »

passive wrote: post #432
finid wrote: 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 $$ problem with $$$".

Yeah, this is just confusing. The supposed economic impact of having illegal immigrants work for less than minimum wage is not going to be worse than the impact of housing, clothing, and feeding them for 2-5 years.

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

#537

Post by mrep »

pavlov wrote: post #35
mlmartin wrote: post #18

"All vetting of people coming into our country will be considered “extreme vetting.” " I visit the US every year to see friends. Some of whom are Arab-American. I'm seriously worried that I'm going to find myself on the receiving end of 'extreme vetting'.

Also, if your country happens to be one of those that refuse to accept one-sided deportations from USA, you won't get a visa anymore: "... Cancel visas to foreign countries that won’t take them back."

Excuse my ignorance, but why is that a bad thing? From what I remember, visa holders staying longer than they are allotted is the number 1 source of illegal immigration.

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

#538

Post by melling »

acqq wrote: post #405
melling wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's good to hear. I've spent a lot of time explaining to people that global warming is real. I even created a wordpress site so I can point people to a "faq" https://2cco2.wordpress.com Just read the comments of any Wall Street Journal article on solar, coal, or even Elon Musk. People don't want electric car rebates or carbon credits.

You should then remove the entries in your blog that just contain the text of deniers like https://2cco2.wordpress.com/2015/08/04/eric-copt-global-warm... I don't understand that you even made such entries.

It's only there because Eric Copt kept copying and pasting that in articles to prove his "point". I realize that it's meaningless garbage.

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

#539

Post by jaza »

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…

Agreed - this will probably be the Trump administration action that has the worst long-term impact of all. The US might as well not bother turning up to the next global climate change summit (not that Trump will anyway). Unfortunately, though, the whole world will pay the price of increased US environmental contamination during this era.

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

#540

Post by gozur88 »

blintz wrote: post #522
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…

Term limits won't do a damn thing to curtail lobbying. Lobbyists love having lots of fresh blood just looking to make a quick buck flooding the legislature. The limits create a constantly revolving legislature that is easier to manipulate and will in general do a poorer job. If he really cared, we'd see something on campaign finance reform; but alas, he doesn't actually want to get money out of politics.

On the other hand, people who can't run for reelection have no reason to spend all their time raising money.
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