yes. Trump has no morals and republicans don't care about anyone or anything further than their own short term bottom line. When republicans talk about morals, I just shake my head. It's like when republicans talk about fiscal responsibility. You have NO credibility on the subject of morals or fiscal responsibility. ZERO. So, while PEOPLE on both sides are flawed, very flawed in many cases, the hypocrisy of those on the right is absolutely stunning.

You sound like the news media now. The economy is humming with positive vibes. Yet it is doing this only because of Obama.

For the record, since I was an engineer, I keep good records. I am retired so I only invest in approximately 50% stocks. My 401k went up 7% in 2013 with it increased 9.4% last year.

Remember elections are won based on the economy, not sympathy for illegal aliens.

That's not at all what people are saying. They're showing consistent economic growth over a period of 9 years to illustrate that the current economy didn't begin it's upswing on January 20th 2017.

The argument isn't that Trump desrerves no credit for the economy, but rather that your previous statement where you said you would have voted for anybody but Obama rings completely hollow now that you're insisting that "elections are won on the economy."

That also doesn't seem consistent with your earlier explanation that you made the shift from Democrat to Republican because of "morals." Your support for Trump seems driven by a single issue. Your opposition to Obama seems driven by several, different issues. Some of which (namely "morals") you're willing to overlook for Trump. Am I reading that wrong?

If you believe that the POTUS has a direct correlation on the economy, here's some interesting information. The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) determines that a recession is caused by "a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than two quarters (six months), normally measureable in GDP."

Thus, this is factual, not selective. Recessions are a point of fact, the economy regresses. Since World War II, here are the recessions in the United States:
--11/48 through 10/49 (11 months of Truman admin)
--7/53 through 5/54 (10 months of Eisenhower admin)
--9/57 through 4/58 (8 months of Eisenhower admin)
--4/60 through 2/61 (9 months of Eisenhower admin, 1 month of Kennedy admin)
--12/69 through 11/70 (11 months of Nixon admin)
--11/73 through 3/75 (10 months of Nixon admin, 6 months of Ford admin)
--1/80 through 7/80 (6 months of Carter admin)
--7/81 through 11/82 (16 months of Reagan admin)
--7/90 through 3/91 (8 months of Bush Sr admin)
--3/01 through 11/01 (8 months of Bush Jr admin)
--12/07 through 6/09 (13 months of Bush Jr admin, 5 months of Obama admin)

So, here's a breakdown of Presidents since WW II and the months there was a recession during their presidency and the number of months of their total presidency:

--Truman: Recession for 11 of 93 months (11.8%)
--Eisenhower: 27 of 96 months (28.1%)
--Kennedy: 1 of 34 months (2.9%)
--Johnson: 0 of 62 months (0.0%)
--Nixon: 21 of 67 months (31.3%)
--Ford: 6 of 29 months (20.7%)
--Carter: 6 of 48 months (12.5%)
--Reagan: 16 of 96 months (16.7%)
--Bush Sr: 8 of 48 months (16.7%)
--Clinton: 0 of 96 months (0.0%)
--Bush Jr: 21 of 96 months (21.9%)
--Obama: 5 of 96 months (5.2%)
--Trump: 0 of 12 months (0.0%)

Thus, since WW II, there have been 428 months with a Democrat in the White House, 23 months of which been during a US recession. That equates to 5.4% of the time a Democratic POTUS has presided over a recession.

In the same time frame, there has been a Republican POTUS for 444 months. In that time, there have been 99 months of recession in the US, or 22.3% of the time.

This is a pretty good sample size. If you believe that the POTUS has a direct impact in the economy, this is pretty telling.

You keep saying about how he is leading like a Republican, yet my dad, who has been a Republican his entire life, is absolutely incensed by the party right now for its embrace of Donald Trump, a man who has absolutely no morals. My dad also runs his own business, btw. Trump is a man who has thrown his support behind several candidates who have come out and proven that they are racist in their speech and actions.

Let's talk about the word, "lead," while we are at it. At what point does a leader constantly publicly berate his own staff when he doesn't get his way? At what point does a leader constantly shout at the opposition instead of finding ways to work with them? At what point does a leader point fingers when a plan falls through, especially after they didn't seem to be working at it to begin with but getting ready to go on a vacation for the second weekend in a row? At what point does a leader constantly talk about demanding loyalty? I'm an Eagle Scout. At no point during my time in the Boy Scouts did I ever learn that those were the qualities of a leader, but instead the complete opposite. You should also look at how other countries are responding to us, by going to other countries such as Russia and China for help. Wow, just world class leadership. If you think Trump is leading, then you clearly never held any position of real power If you did, then I guarantee that you probably had everyone making jokes behind your back.

You keep talking about your 401k. Most people in my home area will laugh at you if you talk about 401k's, because most will never see one, the same goes with stock. The stock market, btw, was already climbing before Trump was even elected, yet it's all beause of him apparently. He's having the same exact numbers of job creation as Obama, yet Obama was the failure in job creation. Trump has now exceded the number of golf trips in one year that Obama took his entire presidency, yet it's Obama that's the vacationer in chief. Trump is all for law enforcement, unless it's investigating him, then apparently it's a coup. I could keep going on about the hypocrisy.

Btw, as for the "illegal alien" comment, you don't want to be called racist yet you keep using words that dehumanize human beings that were brought here as children through no fault of their own.

I am done here. cc-cat asked a reasonable question and I thought I would answer him. I hope you enjoy talking to yourselves. You certainly have your minds made up.

Sorry, but this needs to be said:

How in God's name is it that multiple posters were so offended by BillytheCat referring to Robert as Bobby that they had to chime in about how classless and insulting it was, yet nobody--not a single person--said a word when a Robert Fox defended Roy Moore's actions EVEN IF EVERY ACCUSATION WERE TRUE. He did that several pages ago. I even asked him to clarify. He did so, by debating what a pedophile is.

Is our perception of classless so warped that a 32 year-old sexually assaulting a 14 year-old's just "oddball behavior" but playfully calling out a message board poster with a diminutive form of his first name is somehow "classless" and "incredibly offensive?"

Can somebody rational explain this to me? Am I the only person who finds that insane? I guess we finally figured out what would have to happen for conservatives not to support Roy Moore. He just has to refer to a Robert as Bobby sometime.

+1

What? On the last page you said you enjoyed a good discussion and invited people to respond. Do you not actually want to discuss the points you brought up? I'm confused honestly.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/95938942480619...

"The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans - something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File are great people!"

In case you're keeping score at home, all of the leadership and investigators at the FBI referred to here are Republicans, and all of the leadership at the Justice Department were appointed by Trump.

So the argument here is that Republicans are against Republicans in favor of Democrats.

If it wasn't so sad, it'd be hilarious how little Republicans think of their supporters.

People on the right were upset when it turned not President Clinton didn't fire her spiritual advisor who'd been accused of sexual harassment. I assume they're just as angry now that it turns out the Trump administration knew about Rob Porter's history of physically abusing women AND tried to cover it up?

Or is the lack of anger just due to the fact that Fox News decided not to cover the story?

I would say that neither is a party of fiscal conservatism. I'd really wonder what the parties themselves truly stand for now rather than just say that they're for.

REPUBLICAN:

--Strong borders/anti-immigration
--Heavy military spending
--Low taxes
--Deregulation
--More of a corporate state
--Privatize, privatize, privatize
--Political incorrectness, to a fault
--State oversight on security

DEMOCRATS:

--Civil rights
--Government supporting the individual (healthcare, education, social security)
--Improving infrastructure
--Less reliant on a military state
--Individual rights
--Government regulation (increased minimum wage, safety regulations, etc.)
--Progressive tax structure
--Political correctness, to a fault


These are sort of the hallmarks that I see from each side. I don't believe that the budget is really anything more than a dog whistle at this point, used to stake flags in the sand on what one side wants over another.

My only issue with it is the political correctness bit. Both parties are politically correct to a fault. It just takes much different forms.

On the left, the clear example is college campuses where language can sometimes be over-policed.

On the right, political correctness has run amok in the "culture wars." Colin Kaepernick's a perfect example. His only crime is that he made the UN-PC decision to protest during the National Anthem. The President's Diaper has been full for two years as a result.

I mean hell, folks on the Right demanded a refund from Direct TV because of NFL players kneeling in protest. If that's not political correctness running amok, I don't know what it is.

And that's just one of a hundred examples. I could type breibart.com or dailycaller.com into my browser and easily find an example of the Right policing speech. Last week people called for Jimmy Kimmel to be fired because he joked about Conservatives being stupid. This week, they're going after Sarah Silverman for an off-color joke about abortion.

It's the same shit, different teams. Neither party has a foot left to stand on regarding political correctness. It's one of the more unfortunate symptoms of the current political climate.