Thursday, February 11, 2016

I AM A “TRUMP-ETER”



I AM A “TRUMP-ETER”
            I like Trump, and I make no bones about it.  The things he says are things that I can agree with, regardless of how that might rub the politically-correct the wrong way.
Frankly, as has been said many times before, political correctness has run amok and should be severely curtailed…but I digress.
            Being for Trump doesn’t automatically mean that I agree with EVERYTHING.  His refusal to attend the GOP debate here recently was a bad move in my not-so-humble opinion.   Oh sure, you can have a feud with someone, but if it’s doing to do some serious damage to you personally, your business or, in this case, your political aspirations, you keep it quiet and try to settle it outside the public’s view.  By the way, I like Megyn Kelly because she is a straight shooter, but now and then she lets personal opinions cloud her objectiveness…and that’s bad journalism in my estimation.
            Let’s take a quick look at Donald J. Trump(and yes, that’s his real name and his real hair) and how he got to be where he is.  He was born in 1946, and while growing up he worked for his father in the real estate business.   His children freely admit that, even with all the wealth, the growing-up process was no cakewalk.  They had to work, and work hard, and there were no special privileges shown.  The Donald, as his former wife Ivana, called him, has never shied away from taking chances, changing wives or making it known that he likes being wealthy.
            His recent statement about refusing Muslims admittance to the United States drew a firestorm of protest…mostly from people who don’t, or won’t, understand the illegal immigration problem that the current administration has created.  Yes, people have been sneaking into the country over the Southern border for years, but the current administration is actually importing people from all over the world, by the hundreds of thousands…and no one truly knows much, if anything, about them.   The strategy behind this movement is simple…people that get a free ride in this country will remember who made it possible and when they get the vote(and they will eventually), they will vote Democrat.
            Trump is called a populist and I’m not really sure what that means, but he pushes my buttons when he talks.   He has a platform that appeals to the concerns of working-class voters who feel displaced by job losses and changes to America's ethnic and religious demographics.  Strengthen the military, improve the conditions for veterans, not just defining our borders but building a wall that will deter illegals from entering the US, not just balancing the budget but reducing the overwhelming deficit, have a moratorium on Muslims coming to this country, finding and deporting Muslims(and others) who have overstayed their visas…those are just a few things in which he’s shown an interest. 
            Trump is not exactly a stranger to politics either.  He had previously considered running for president. In 2000, he ran an exploratory campaign and won two Reform Party primaries but didn’t carry it forward.   He’s of German extraction and attended New York Military Academy, During his senior year, Trump participated in marching drills and wore a uniform, attaining the rank of "cadet captain".    In 2015, he told a biographer that NYMA gave him "more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military".   Trump was eligible for the draft during the Vietnam War. In a 2011 interview on WNYW, he stated, "I actually got lucky because I had a very high draft number."   Trump was deemed fit for service after a military medical examination in 1966 and was briefly classified as 1-A by a local draft board shortly before his 1968 medical disqualification.   Trump attributed his medical deferment to "heel spurs" in both feet, according to a 2015 biographer,  but told an Iowa campaign audience he suffered from a spur in one foot, although he could not remember which one.
            He began his career at his father's real estate company, Elizabeth Trump and Son, which focused on middle-class rental housing in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island.   In 1972, the Trump Organization sold Swifton Village for $6.75 million, which the Trumps had bought for 5.7 million in Cincinnati in 1962.  In 1971, Trump moved to Manhattan, becoming involved in larger building projects, and used attractive architectural design to win public recognition.   Trump made plans to acquire and develop the old Penn Central for $60 million with no money down.   Later, with the help of a 40-year tax abatement from the New York City government, he turned the bankrupt Commodore Hotel into the Grand Hyatt and created The Trump Organization.
            Brashness is a quality that Trump exhibits and it seems to be good for him and not quite as good for his opponents.  Maybe he won’t be the Republican nominee, but I’ll always think that he should have been.
  Larry Usoff, US Navy Retired   amafrog@att.net   http://larryusoffusn.blogspot.com/

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