The Virtual Philosophy Club: Incredible, Resourceful, Affluent President-Elect Donald Trump

Are you as unhappy with the results of yesterday's Presidential election as I am? Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have favorability ratings below 50%, so, no matter who won, most Americans would have been unhappy. I opposed Trump in the Republican primaries and did not support either candidate in the general election.

Thank goodness this awful election is finally over and the result is decisive in the Electoral College. I find it gratifying that, starting today in the wee hours of the day after the election, both sides have been saying cordial things to each other, in our tradition of peaceful transition of power. I remained awake till 1 AM, when it appeared all but certain Trump would prevail (but not by how much), then awoke at 3 AM in time to watch the victory speeches of VP-elect Mike Pence and Trump.

I was relieved to hear Trump thank Clinton for her gracious phone call conceding the election, and for the fact his victory celebration was definitely in the no-gloat zone. Prior to noon, Democrat VP-candidate Tim Kaine and Clinton addressed their followers in emotionally heartfelt, yet positive, speeches. President Obama followed a bit after noon, with cordial congratulations and an invitation for Trump to visit the White House the following day, which he has accepted.

SO, WHO TO BLAME ?

Though protests were to be expected, I was sorry to see this evening's street demonstrations against the election results in several cities. On the positive side, the marchers have not been excessively violent, at least so far. Let us hope reason continues to prevail.

Political partisans on both sides will soon begin the blame game. Why did Clinton lose and who is the designated bogeyman?

1. Blame FBI Director James Comey? Was he wrong to put his fat FBI thumb on the scales during the early voting period less than two weeks before election day? Well, due to an unrelated FBI investigation, he was informed that hundreds of thousands of emails, some related to Clinton's stint as Secretary of State, had been found. Soon after he informed Congressional leaders of the find, a flood of leaks revealed the emails were on a computer shared by top Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her now-estranged husband Anthony Wiener (what an appropriate name :^). IMHO, had Comey not provided official notice to Congress when he did, others at the FBI would have leaked the information, having at least as much negative effect on Clinton's campaign.

2. Blame Huma Abedin? As a State Department employee, Abedin had a legal duty to turn over all computers and phones with work-related data on them. She failed to turn in the computer shared with Wiener. Had she done so in a timely manner, the FBI would have included those emails in their initial analysis completed in July. The FBI would have found (as they did shortly before election day) that these emails did not change Comey's July recommendation that Clinton and her staff had been "extremely careless" in their handling of information that was classified at the time, but that their actions did not rise to a criminal level. IMHO, had Abedin turned that computer over earlier in the year, it would not have come up so close to the election, and Clinton might have won.

3. Blame Anthony Wiener? Had Wiener not repeatedly posted sexually-loaded photos of himself on social media, culminating in a lewd message to a teenager, the FBI would not have been investigating him, and his shared computer would never have come to light. IMHO, has Wiener kept his sexual absurdities in his pants, Clinton might have won.

4. Blame Bill Clinton and Attorney-General Loretta Lynch? Normally, prosecutors in the Justice Department would have decided whether or not the data from the FBI investigation of Clinton's email server justified criminal charges. However, shortly before that decision was to be made, former-President Bill Clinton had what was apparently supposed to be a secret meeting with the Attorney-General on the Phoenix airport tarmac. When an enterprising reporter revealed that Bill had spoken to the head of the Justice Department, who had the final authority to charge his wife Hillary with a crime, they claimed all they talked about was their grandchildren, golf, and travel. Of course, no one believed that, so Lynch was forced to turn the final decision over to Comey, and he was required to announce it to the public and testify to Congress. IMHO, had Bill Clinton not met with Lynch, Comey's role would have been behind the scenes and Lynch would have made the decision not to prosecute, and Clinton might have won.

5. Blame Hillary Clinton? Of course not! It would be blatantly sexist to blame the first woman who had a chance to be elected President of the US. She admits it was a mistake to use a private email server for State Department business, why not leave it at that? [Sarcasm off] IMHO, Clinton endangered National Security by using a system that the FBI concluded was "less secure than Gmail" to transmit and receive over 100 emails with information that was classified at the time, some at the highest Top Secret level. It would have been better for Lynch to have a US Attorney convene a Grand Jury instead of short-circuiting the process and having Comey make the decision himself.

BLAME DONALD TRUMP

Yes, of course! He is an "evil genius" who has played the American public and the mostly leftist media by pretending to be an uncouth, lewd, bumbling, blowhard, political novice, while taking over the Republican Party apparatus and getting elected to the most powerful office on Earth. He also fooled me.

Here are some of the bad things I've written about him on this Blog:

from http://tvpclub.blogspot.com/2016/10/why-i-can-no-longer-mark-my-ballot-for.html

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[Compared to Hillary Clinton] less is known about Donald's views prior to becoming a politician, it appears he has been far more centrist on social policy and less hawkish than the Tea Party, Religious Right, and Conservative Establishment far-right wings of the Republican Party. He registered for the Reform Party from 1999-2001, Democrat from 2001-2009, and Independent from 2011-2012. (He registered as a Republican from 1987-1999, 2009-2011, and 2012-present.) Last year I wrote the following, quoting from my Blog (2015/04/10):

Donald Trump, [is] a Crony Capitalist Democrat pretending to be a Republican. As recently as 2004, he told CNN's Wolf Blitizer "In many cases, I probably identify more as Democrat" and in 2007, also with Blitzer, he praised Hillary Clinton's ability to negotiate with Iran. Trump gave more to Democrats than Republicans between 1989 and 2009 according to NPR. ... Until recently, his views on military action in the mid-east, abortion, drug legalization, and health care have been more in line with leftist Democrats than with independents and Republicans.

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Donald has said some stupid things that got him into unnecessary battles. He refused to back off, which only increased the damage to his campaign

Early in his Presidential Primary campaign, Donald said that Senator John McCain is "not a war hero. He's a war hero because he was captured." That dumb remark did not hurt McCain, because everyone knows he was a hero the moment he put on a US Naval Aviator uniform and flew dangerous missions over enemy territory. The fact he was shot down and served honorably as a POW is only icing on the cake of his heroic status.

Trump also went way overboard criticizing undocumented Mexican immigrants. He even questioned the fairness of a judge of Mexican ancestry who was born in the US.

Donald made an idiotic pledge to ban all Muslim immigration. Then he criticized Muslim Gold Star parents, a lawyer and his wife, who appeared at the Democratic convention to point out that a flat religious ban would be unconstitutional. Trump suggested the wife remained silent because Muslims do not value women.

Trump, not a professional politician, has been making extreme, sexist, and otherwise intolerable "politically incorrect" comments all his life. Instead of admitting that fact, he continues to fight decades-old battles, such as the one about a Miss Universe who gained some weight after she won the competition.

The most recent Access Hollywood video and tape is a particularly lewd example of Donald's taste for beautiful women. His comments are absolutely unforgivable.

Summary: Donald Trump is an amazingly athletic speaker. He can verbally kick himself in the head and step on his own dong without missing a beat.

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[On October 12, 2016 I wrote] Up till about 24 hours ago, I thought I would "hold my nose" and vote against Hillary Clinton by darkening the oval next to Donald Trump's name.

What changed my intention?

Well, it was Trump's appearance on the O'Reilly Factor,on October 11th. I record and watch Bill O'Reilly almost every evening. Trump trashed Senator John McCain and House Majority Leader Paul Ryan and said he would go it alone! That was what put me over the top!

I've seen both McCain and Ryan in person when they came to The Villages (in Central Florida) for their 2008 and 2012 campaigns. In 2008, I stood for almost an hour, twenty feet from McCain as he (and Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman) spoke and answered questions. In 2012 I watched Ryan's VP campaign appearance at an outdoor rally, where he introduced his mother, who happened to be a Florida resident. They are politicians, but also honorable men (as is Mitt Romney, whose hand I shook when he came here during the Republican primary).

So, for the first time in my life, in 2016 at the age of 77, I will not vote for the Republican nominee for President of the US. Of course, I will vote for down-ballot Republicans and hope we can retain control of the Congress. Perhaps I will write-in the name of Paul Ryan or some other Republican I admire. It is a long-shot, but, perhaps Donald Trump will withdraw his name and allow the Republican National Committee to substitute someone else, Who knows?

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from http://tvpclub.blogspot.com/2015/10/do-republicans-hate-immigrants-women.html

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In case you are wondering who I am and where I'm coming from:

I'm an old Goldwater Republican and a techie engineer. In 1964 when my wife and I were married, there was a sign with the chemical formula for "Gold Water" (AuH₂O) in the rear window of my car! Despite political differences, I'm still married to my super-smart and highly accomplished first wife. We have three highly-intelligent daughters (also still married to their very smart first husbands) and five wonderful grandchildren. We were both born in Brooklyn, lived most our working lives in Tioga County in upstate New York, and now reside in The Villages, FL, "America's Happiest and Healthiest Home Town".

I earned a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering, and a Masters and PhD in System Science and am proud of my long, successful career as a System Engineer at IBM and Lockheed-Martin, with my name on five US Patents. As an adjunct professor, I taught undergrad and graduate courses in System Engineering at Binghamton University and the University of Maryland University College.

As a Guest Contributor to the world's most popular Climate website, my postings on the reality of the "Atmospheric Greenhouse Effect" and how human activities that have boosted CO2 levels and reduced the Earth's albedo are therefore responsible for some fraction of recent warming, have attracted hundreds of thousands of page views and thousands of comments. Although I favor moderate worldwide action to save energy, encourage alternatives to the unprecedented burning of fossil-fuels (including a flat carbon-tax -- but not cap and trade), I am convinced that politically-motivated hysteria over possible human-caused catastrophic climate change is overblown. My wife and I have tried to do our part by recycling, super-insulating our house, and, for the past 11 years, we have shared an energy-efficient Prius hybrid.

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