HumblePi

Much has been said about Donald Trump's lack of focus, no attention span, limited reading capability. I would like to be a fly on the wall and as President, he receives his daily briefs.

Fifth Avenue is a major tourist attraction and big moneymaker for the big stores like Saks Fifth Ave, Tiffany, and Van Cleef and Arpel. The Saks Fifth Avenue holiday light show draws thousands of people from all over the world. It faces the entrance leading to Rockefeller Center. There's just no way to re-route buses or filter foot traffic in another direction. Most people walk up to Central Park which is only a block or so before Trump Tower. One long block between the avenues equals three short blocks, but the distance varies, with some avenues as far apart as 920 feet. That's a long walk already but to expect tourists, many of which are older and can't walk that distance, it will be unrealistic to do. I've put two photos, one of the front of Saks during their light show, and the other the crowd facing Saks. The decorated mall leading to the skating rink and center of Rockefeller Center is to their back. I'm just trying to give some perspective as to what the NYPD and traffic is dealing with now that the President will be there a lot of the time.

I'm resigned to having a fatalistic view in that events are going to happen and we're pretty powerless to do anything about them. So, 'que sera sera', what will be will be. I'm also committed to doggedly pursing anything connected to policy proposals or changes that will be detrimental to the greater population. I'll be the first to raise my voice and shout when he does something that is biased against any race or religion. I know that there's at least 62 million of us besides myself, and the number is still growing, that are going to stay resolute that this man will not take down this democracy without a hard fought battle. These 62 million plus will be as critical, judgmental, and vocal as Trump and his campaign was against Hillary Clinton. On the other hand, he might just do something great for the American people, something that all people will accept with open arms. We have to approach Jan. 20th with hope that we'll emerge better as a country in 4 years.

Donald Trump and Megyn Kelly Let me say that I'm not a fan of Megyn Kelly but she appeared on CNN last night with Anderson Cooper. She's out and about publicizing her book that was just released. Everyone is aware of the exchange between she and Donald during the Republican debates. She claims that following that ugly business with his subsequent statement about 'blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of.....wherever", she claims there was a vindictive campaign against her on the part of the Trump team. She was fearful enough of her life being in danger that she hired private security. Two threats she mentioned was one by one of Trump's mouthpieces, Michael Cohen, Trump’s top lawyer, he retweeted a Twitter user’s message, “Let’s gut her,” in reference to Kelly. Then there's Corey Lewandowski “In a call on Saturday with a Fox News executive, [Corey Lewandowski] stated that Megyn had a ‘rough couple of days after that last debate’ and he ‘would hate to have her go through that again,’ ” the Fox News statement said. I don't doubt Megyn Kelly, I believe it all happened. But I believe that she's using it, not only to promote her book, but to make it more dramatic in order to sell her book. I also know that Megyn Kelly was one of the only ones, if not THE only one on Fox that was critical of Donald Trump, which didn't make her popular among Fox viewers. I believe that Megyn Kelly appeared at CNN to soften us viewers up in preparation for her to be given a job at CNN. Oh, I forgot to add the link. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/megyn-kelly-trump-threats-cnn_us_582d245de4b058ce7aa93e7f

Since we seem to have Barron (von) Trump discussed this morning, I thought I'd add a few things I read about Barron besides him having his own entire floor in the Tower. There have been quite a few articles questioning whether he has Asperger's Syndrome or not, most conclude that he does not. But most will concur that more than the other sons, Barron is shaping up to be most like his father. (Geezus, another Trump on the horizon for future generations to deal with). Barron likes to play alone for hours. He has a lot of play dates with other kids, but enjoys playing solo with Magna Tiles and Legos. He’s detailed in his artwork and likes to build tall structures. Barron doesn’t like sweatpants, but loves to wear suits, Melania told ABC News. He likes to put on a suit, but not everyday. He enjoys putting on a tie “sometimes like daddy.” Of all the Trump kids, Barron might be the most like his father. According to Donald’s longtime butler, Anthony Senecal, he believes young Barron is more like Donald than any of his grown children. Inside Edition reports that Senecal recalled a time he was serving the tot his breakfast. “When Barron was two-and-a-half years old I took his breakfast into him,” Senecal said. “He was sitting in his highchair and he looks at me and he said: ‘Tony! Sit down! We need to talk!’ “ Barron isn’t raised by nannies. In a People magazine interview in October, 2015, Donald said he doesn’t rely on outside help to raise his child as other wealthy families lean towards doing. “We keep it down to a minimum,” Donald said. “If you have too much help, you don’t get to know your children.” Melania echoes the sentiment. She puts her focus on their son while dad is away on the campaign trail. “I like to be hands-on. I think it’s very important,” Melania said of being a mother to her 9-year-old son. Barron loves math and science. Melania shared that she helps her son with his homework — with his favorite topics being math and science. In addition to that, he’s bilingual. Barron speaks his mother’s native language, Slovenian, and English. Barron enjoys having one-on-one dinners with his father and playing golf when they have a chance to spend quality time together. Donald calls his youngest boy “a natural athlete.” Barron also plays after-school sports, such as baseball. He also takes golf and tennis lessons. According to his mother, Barron Trump is “strong-minded,” “independent,” “opinionated,” and knows “what he wants.” Thus, Melania calls her treasured son “Little Donald. A new fact about Barron Trump is that he’ll be first son the White House has had since 1963 John F. Kennedy, Jr. resided there during JFK’s presidency.

Malia and Sasha attend the private Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., the same school that Chelsea Clinton, Tricia Nixon Cox, and Archibald Roosevelt attended and that the grandchildren of Vice President Joe Biden attend. The Obama girls began classes there on January 5, 2009. Sidwell Friends School is a highly selective Quaker school located in Bethesda, Maryland and Washington, D.C. Described as "the Harvard of Washington's private schools", the school has educated children of notable politicians, including those of several presidents. Both of United States President Barack Obama's daughters, Sasha and Malia, and Vice President Joe Biden's grandchildren attend the school. President Theodore Roosevelt's son Archibald, Richard Nixon's daughter Tricia, Bill Clinton's daughter Chelsea Clinton, and Vice President Al Gore's son, Albert Gore III, graduated from Sidwell Friends. If Barron Trump is sent to this school, he will be with peers. I had mentioned in a previous thread that Barron appears to be withdrawn and almost appears to have some sort of social dysfunction and maybe even something in the autism spectrum. But, he's 10 years old and in that awkward stage. He's a tall boy for his age so it appears that he's going to tower over his father in a few years.

I just have no other way to describe the differences yet similarities between the two. The Stephen Bannon/Brietbart type of racism is something far different than Donald Trump's. I've seen Trump supporters that may harbor resentment towards someone of color or ethnicity for a specific reason but they don't want to kill them. But there's people that not only harbor resentment and want to do them harm for no real reason other than they're different than themselves. Their hate was bred into them through generations and they merely carried that hatred forward. Those are the dangerous people. They are illogical and unbending. Those are the alt-right, the KKK, the ones that want ethnic cleansing. But you're absolutely right, it doesn't matter for your son if he's stopped and frisked. But it does matter if he happens to be stopped where the KKK dwell or a radical that hates so deeply that they seek to absolutely destroy and obliterate any race, color or creed that is not their own. For this small group it's not enough to deny blacks, Hispanics and Muslims of a job, or to live next door to them, or the right to work. They want them dead, period. There's nothing else that will satisfy the alt-right white supremacists other than either chasing Mexicans and Muslims out of the country, or simply have a total ethnic cleansing. That's their goal, that's the new world order for them. Short of comparing Steve Bannon and the Brietbart ideology to Hitler as it has been done many times, I know no other way to illustrate the vast differences.

Fifth Avenue is a mecca for tourism but what a nightmare and expense for the NYPD having to be a heavy presence there 24/7. If he was smart, which he's not, and if he was considerate of the businesses and people that work on Fifth Avenue, which he isn't, he'd find some kind of hideaway mansion in Westchester County and maybe be a neighbor to Hillary's. Or he could always take his $45 million dollar estate in Greenwich, Ct off the market and move into that for a while. It would certainly take the pressure off the secret service and give New York's Fifth Avenue back to them. The Greenwich mansion has enough private property for a helipad which it might already have which would make scooting back and forth to the other white mansion in D.C. very easy.

Today the tenants of these three apartment buildings in the NY West Side said "yer outta heyah" I'm editing because I saw something on the news while the 'TRUMP name in gold letters and all traces of them were being removed from these apartments. A reporter was standing across the street with one of the tenants of the building. The workers had already remove the letters and they were in the process of power washing all the dark shadows left behind on the concrete facade leaving not a spec to give any hint that Trump's name had ever been there. The tenant, a woman, watched as they were power spraying commented, "this makes me think of the song 'I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair". If anyone still believes that Trump is well liked in NYC, think again.

It's very heartening to see Americans step up to the plate when needed. Planned Parenthood will need all the help they can get. But looking ahead, there appears to be a gloomy future for Planned Parenthood. There will be many bills forthcoming that are pro-life and anti-abortion bills. There have been many in recent history that have been rejected by the House and Senate, then the Supreme court. But it will be a whole different thing now that Republicans control all 3 houses and Rove v Wade is in real jeopardy of being overturned and if that happens then Planned Parenthood will be underfunded and need all the support they can get for breast cancer screening, free HIV testing and education.

I see his rejecting any official offers for a cabinet post as a sign that he was never offered one and ordered to go. The core of the Trump administration doesn't wish to include anyone 'of color' and Ben Carson was being used during the campaign as a token. He fell for it. Now that he's no longer needed, they shooed him away. Ben Carson was far too 'kissy assing' during the campaign to be credible. He did it hoping for an appointment in the administration. Ben Carson was fact checked extensively during the debate process and has been proven to be one of the biggest liars of all the candidates.

It's a shame Ben Carson got pushed out of the white-boys club but if were a part of the White House in-crowd I think they'd come up with something like 'Mandingo' for him.

Thank you both @callmebetty and @potatoradio. I can tell that your heads are just about where mine is at this point. I'm so over name calling and nit-picking. The disparaging remarks and jabs do serve a good purpose and that's to let people vent, blow off steam, release some of the anger. But it's not really constructive or provide insight in any way. Yes your "rambling" makes perfect sense. Honestly, Donald Trump did nothing more than to give haters a free pass to openly hate. No, I don't believe they're all racists or bigots at all. They're pissed off people for who- knows what reason. Maybe they lost their job 3 years ago and struggling and they want a change of government. Maybe they had their car vandalized and blame the guy down the street that's black or Mexican for doing it whether he did or not. Maybe they work with someone they just don't get along with. Whatever the reason, they have made the choice to label all people of ethnicity and lump them into the same category because of that particular incident. But reasons or motivations such as those aren't being racist and I truly believe that a prejudiced person can change his opinions. And that racial prejudice works both ways, there's plenty of black people who feel the same and for all the same reasons plus some. To your point @callmebetty, I always believed the pen is mightier than the sword in the long haul. A protest or demonstration lasts hours, days or weeks. But the written word can last generations if it's the right words. So I'd say that considering how easily accessable and functionable the internet and social media is, that's exactly the place to begin. Well gee, we began to vocalize already, we're here, right? There's a multitude of organizations that can be supported. Here's a short list; http://www.startguide.org/orgs/orgs05.html I prefer something more on a personal level, one that I can gain insight from and offer some of my own such as the creation of a Facebook account dedicated to the advocacy of minorities, such as all those groups of people that don't have access to social media. Immigrants, minorities, women, Muslims, there's so many without the resources to have their voices heard. "who will speak for me?" is all I can think of. I'd like to participate to be one of those voices.

I applaud your sentiments because they're honest and rational. I think the majority of us have grown up truly believing that anyone choosing to lead this country politically was doing it for the country. It really wasn't until this election that we got a splash of ice cold water in our faces and realized that there are people in possession of the highest powers who are motivated and driven to destroying our democracy as it is today. The goal is to transform a democracy into what they feel it should be. I also believe that there is no way that this country is going to be united again, the damage and pain has gone too deep. We've been insulted morally. If nothing else, this election has forced people to pay attention, to get involved and to try to make their voices heard even if ultimately it's not going to matter, and that's the honest truth, it's just not going to matter. Unless something really drastic happens, Trump will be leading our country as of January 20th and it will be next to impossible to naively hope for any softening or reversals of his campaign promises. I think it's important to differentiate between racism, racial bias, racist and bigotry. Racism is a belief or political system that considers different races to be ranked as inherently superior or inferior to each other, based on presumed shared inheritable traits, abilities, or qualities. It holds that members of different races should be treated differently. Prejudice is when someone has a preconceived notion about someone due to any characteristic they find to be undesirable based on someone’s race, gender, nationality, social status, sexual orientation or religious affiliation. 'Racist', the term has been bantered around every few minutes in this campaign. "Trump is a racist, the Republicans are racist, his supporters are racist." In fact most aren't truly racists, even Trump himself is not a true racist but he definitely is deeply prejudiced. We tend to use a broad brush painting all Trump supporters racists, and they're not. When we throw this word around all the time, we begin to dismiss the actual racists, so the word doesn't really mean anything anymore. Stephen Bannon, Andrew Breitbart, Joel Pollak, Alex Marlow --- these are the real racists. These are people, of which their numbers are actually comparatively few, that have a European pro-Russian nationalism ideology that they have perpetrated through Breitbart News. These are the real bad guys. These are the alternative right, a news term that nobody ever heard of before Donald Trump ran for president. It's a Neo-Nazi organization, a loosely organized group of mostly young men who believe in white supremacy; oppose immigration, feminism and multiculturalism; and delight in harassing Jews, Muslims and other vulnerable groups by spewing shocking insults on social media. It's an extremely toxic ideology not to mention extremely dangerous. They're a terrifying group but particularly terrifying knowing they're going to be in control of our government. So what's their plan? How do they plan to execute their takeover and make this a white supremacist country? They've already put those wheels in motion long ago. They've pinned citizen against citizen. They want the riots, they want the race war, they want the killing of the 'enemies' of the white supremacy plan. It's really hard to believe what a mere handful of what represents the population of the US can do. Bottom line is that they want to push blacks down as much as they can, they want Hispanics out, they want Jews out of power and replaced with others that share their ideology. I'm going to post a photo of President Obama as he appeared at a rally for Hillary Clinton. I watched and heard the desperation in his voice and more than that, I saw the utter fear in his eyes. The fear of the Democrats currently in Washington is clearly evident because those are the people that have the inside story about Trump.

okay, that explains it. I'm way too old to know what it is, but Fox is enough anyway so I don't need to. He thinks we're all idiots.

what is 4chan? I know that I don't go to Fox network even to snoop. I know they're gloating and not a peep of anything negative about the back stabbing going on behind the scenes at Trump Tower.

Are powerful men who fight and claw at each other for a cabinet post under a Trump presidency really thinking of doing good things for America? Are the millionaires that represent the top 10% of all the wealth in the world really worried if the minimum wage goes to $12 or $15 an hour for the 'little guy' so he can pay for his overpriced healthcare and medication co-pays? Are they so altruistic that they are burning with the desire to be a public servant for the good of the majority of the American people? Short answer, is 'no'. So the next question is 'why'?

Donald Trump and possibly his children will now have access to high security intelligence briefs that prove without any doubt that the Russians were behind the hacking of Hillary Clinton's emails. Maybe Donald didn't know, although that's highly doubtful, Nevertheless, he will see with his own eyes that the President knew exactly where those leaks came from and Donald will also understand that a lot of people knew with certainty that it was Russia with cooperation by the Trump campaign either directly or indirectly.

But, he IS hiring the best people, they just aren't the best people for what he said he was going to do. A few of them are ex-CEO's of the major banks that destroyed our economy back when G.W. Bush was still in office. Goldman Sachs was one of the largest global financial institutions deeply in debt that got bailed out while Lehman Brothers lost everything and disappeared. Lehman Bros. had the enemies and Goldman Sachs were the insiders. Hank Paulson is on Trump's short list of possible cabinet members and it was Hank Paulson that was working at Goldman Sachs as CEO but left his job there to become Secretary of the Treasury under the George Bush Presidency. (convenient eh?)

That's awesome, I'm glad they did it. I had heard they were going to try. I passed by that apartment building so many times and every time I did I thought 'oh that's obnoxious'. The guy is twisted up beyond comprehension. So, some thoughts occurred to me. Days ago, I saw a list of 'possibles' for his appointments for his cabinet. Here's the short list. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/politics/donald-trump-administration.html?_r=0 I did some research on a few of these guys and the more I read, the more afraid I got. So here's my thoughts about this whole thing. First of all these men, for the most part, are multimillionaires and business owners. They certainly don't need the salaries of the job. What's their motive for wanting it so very badly that they'll fight each other tooth and nail maneuvering to the most powerful position under a President? Is it merely that they want more money or fame or that they're blindly ambitious. They already have everything any ambitious man could want, except absolute power. My thoughts are that all this racism stuff, Mexican border bullshit with the wall, and the Islamophobia are too obvious and are only covering up something more sinister and more evil than we know. I think it's all a very cleverly constructed distraction for something even more sinister. And, I also believe Mike Pence has been in with this from the very start. The only one oblivious to all of it is Donald Trump, he's just about the only man narcissistic and egocentric enough that would fall for it. I think Donald Trump was an easy target for certain Republicans in high power to use as a pawn for something else. They're smart guys, smart enough to know that sooner or later, he would shoot himself in the foot and get impeached. Whether it was because of the children and the obvious nepotism or conflict of interest with their businesses, doesn't matter, they know that he's going to fuck up big time eventually and be impeached. That leaves Mike Pence left to take his place. And this is what they wanted all along, for Mike Pence with his stringent anti-gay, anti-abortion platform as a front while they do their dirty businesses all over the world while we focus on demonstrating, protesting and fighting Mike Pence's platform. I believe that Mike Pence has the same attitude about gays with HIV that Ronald Reagan had. 'They're expendable because they're an abomination and deserve to die for sinning.' If a scenario like this ever really happened, it would cement in place an actual 'new world order', the emergence of a totalitarian world government, and those few men whose ruthless ambition will stop at nothing will actually control the entire world, not only this country. Anyway, that's my thoughts for today and I'm sticking with it, at least until tomorrow when my mind thinks up a new conspiracy theory.

Just when I thought this couldn't get deeper or more sinister, it does. 'Rudy Giuliani he's not just that guy with bad teeth' Rudy Giuliani was an especially rabid critic of Hillary Clinton. He beat the 'pay for play' and 'Clinton Foundation fraud' drum so many times and so passionately that I couldn't help but wonder why was his vindictiveness so volatile and intense for the Clinton's? Here's some background on Rudy Giuliani uncovered by the CNN investigative correspondent Drew Griffin. We can draw our own conclusions. And I have mine which I'll add on at another time, it's too depressing right now to talk about. Giuliani was U.S. Attorney until January 1989, resigning as the Reagan Administration ended. He garnered criticism until he left office for his handling of cases, and was accused of prosecuting cases to further his political ambitions. Giuliani of course was Mayor of New York from 1994 to 2001. Once out of the mayors office, Rudy Giuliani became very rich giving speeches worldwide, setting up a law practice and consulting firm and doing business around the globe, some of that business involved questionable actors in foreign countries that could now come back to haunt him if he's chosen as the nominee for Secretary of State. The list of contracts tied to Giuliani are extensive. One matter that already haunted him back in 2007 when he ran for President, what his critics call a link between the state run Venezuelan oil company and Giuliani's law firm. That client was Citgo Oil in Texas, it's a subsidiary of the oil company owned by Venezuela. It has come up before and it will come up again. He'll also likely be criticized because of his work for the government of Qatar which hired Giuliani's company to help with intelligence security. His law firm also had offices in United Arab Emarites. They worked on financial deals for nations such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Oman. Giuliani's law firms were massive, employing hundreds of attorneys employed across the U.S. and the world. Among the contracts they had, he was hired to combat crime in Mexico City, El Salvador, Colombia, Chile. He signed on to help political campaign candidates in the Ukraine and Dominican Republic. It adds up to a lot of relationships, some countries who aren't always on the best terms with the United States. It also added up to tens of millions of dollars in fees for Rudy Giuliani. The question is, can someone come into office as Secretary of State with all those former business deals around the world?

Professor Allan Lichtman, distinguished professor of history at American University has correctly predicted the presidential outcomes for the past 30 years, and he predicted Donald Trump would win this one despite all the polls indicating a Clinton win. He has made another prediction, that Donald Trump will be impeached and Mike Pence will step in as President. I believe Mike Pence accepted this job having a pretty good idea that this would happen. The article is interesting and gives us some hope that we won't have to put up with the shenanigans of the Trump Empire for four years. http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/305606-historian-who-predicted-trumps-win-says-hell-be-impeached

Oh but he WILL bring his throne! It's already crated up ready to ship.

I read all about Steve Bannon when he was made campaign manager for Donald Trump after he fired Paul Manafort. I was deathly afraid of Manafort until I read about Steve Bannon. Instantly, Paul Manafort didn't seem so scary anymore because 'ta-daa' here comes Steve! But moving forward with the fears of Steve Bannon having an office right next to Donald's Oval Office, I learned to fear something even worse than Bannon, the 'kids'. I know it doesn't seem to be so awful on the surface but knowing that Ivanka, Donald, Jr. and Erik Trump along with Jared Kushner, who is Ivanka's husband and will also be given a position within the administration, will ALL be running this country as a unit. But are Ivanka and her husband Jared actually building a 'house of cards' in this administration? For 16 months, while her withdrawn stepmother mostly steeled herself away in Little Versailles and her knuckleheaded brothers struggled to keep their feet out of their mouths, Ivanka hopscotched across the country, well into her third pregnancy, to stump for her father. wielded his quiet influence behind the scenes—brokering relationships with the Republican establishment, retooling key speeches and staff shake-ups within the campaign. When the Trumps visited the White House last Thursday, Jared was spotted touring the grounds with President Obama’s chief of staff, Denis McDonough, stoking rumors that he would receive a plum job within the Trump Administration. This is definitely an unusual degree of power for any presidential offspring or in-laws to hold. Could you imagine if Hillary Clinton had won this election and announced that she was going to appoint Chelsea for a cabinet post or to request a high security clearance for her? There would be a savage uproar by the Republicans. None of Trump’s children have held any public office or have any government experience, but could act as unpaid security advisers to receive top secret security clearance. The thought of that actually makes me want to throw up. It scares the shit out of me. Just consider what that really means to our national security. And on CNN, Jeffrey Lord made light of any attacks on blacks or Trump detractors as petty and trivial. Well there's more to come. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/11/15/video-anti-trump-protester-shoved-down-stairs-during-rally-on-ohio-state-campus/