Reasons To Vote For Clinton

[jeremyh...@gmail.com]

I have now given the Clinton campaign a total of: $61.
(One dollar for each year of my life so far :) )

Clinton has vowed to try to overturn "Citizen's United",
helping keep big money out of politics and leveling
the playing field for everyone. (Trump would only
create many more conditions favoring the rich.)

Clinton will push to raise the national minimum wage,
as many state and local govts have done already.
This is in line with what I see as a general need to
"raise the floor" for the disadvantaged in our society.
She will also champion better education and child care.

Clinton will protect Roe vs Wade, keeping the
government out of women's childbirth decisions.
(Trump has flip-flopped on this in his life,
now claiming to be pro-life.)

Clinton takes reasonable positions on gun control,
without threatening one's right to bear arms.

***

Trump tells lie after lie almost every time he speaks.
A few examples from the 3rd debate:

He kept saying Clinton wants "open borders" and "amnesty".
No. That isn't her policy at all, which is quite reasonable.
https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/immigration-reform/

Trump also claimed "ICE endorsed me". That's misleading.
A union of immigration and customs officials called
ICE endorsed him, but this is not the federal Immigration
and Customs Enforcement Bureau (ICE). Even the private unions
that endorsed Trump do NOT agree with or support his plan
to build an impenetrable wall between us and Mexico.
Trump said: "they all want the wall". No, they don't.
(On large areas of the border it isn't feasible.)

There are places where a more secure wall makes sense.
Clinton has even supported such measures in the past.
She has long supported bipartisan immigration reform
(as did Bush and Reagan).

The Pew Research Center reports more Mexicans LEFT
the U.S. than entered between 2009 and 2014. :)

And Mexican manufacturing now works together with
American business to create billions in U.S. products.
It's not a bad thing for the most part...
http://tinyurl.com/zl5ecgl

Actually, the Obama administration has done a decent job
on illegal immigration, and Clinton plans to largely
continue his policies, with some improvements. Deportation
*increased* during Obama’s first four years in office
(over what it had been under Bush), peaking in 2012
at nearly 410,000.

Since 2014, the Obama administration has focused on
deporting recent arrivals and criminals, with fewer
deportations of longtime residents whose only crime
was crossing the border. In all, about 2.8 million
people were deported under Obama.

Trump acts like Obama was soft on illegal immigration.
But getting tough on immigrants who have committed
crimes has been Obama administration policy.

Trump makes wild claims about it, like:
“Day one, my first hour in office, those people are gone.
And you can call it deported if you want. … They're gone.”

That's a totally empty promise. He wouldn't be able
to begin to back it up since there are many places
where current laws prohibit just "rounding people up" -
such as schools, hospitals, and churches. US laws would
have to be changed to permit any blanket "rounding up"
of all illegals. What could they do? Go house to house
like the Gestapo or something? Not possible on day one,
and probably not possible at all...

Trump is a hypocrite on illegal immigrants anyway.
In 1980, a contractor working for Trump hired Polish
workers in the country illegally to clear the site
on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan where Trump Tower would
later be built. The contractor was later fined $570,000
by federal regulators. Some published reports suggested
Trump not only knew about the workers’ status but
instigated their hiring. There were also reports that
he threatened to turn the workers in to immigration
authorities after some complained about work conditions.

Maybe the reason Trump is so weird about immigration
is that he has long been and still IS a racist.

In 1973, Trump Management, the real estate company run
by the Trump family, was sued by the Justice Department
for discriminating against African-Americans at its
apartments in Queens. A bitter, lengthy legal fight
ensued and ended with the Trumps signing a consent decree
agreeing not to discriminate. Trump, who was president
of the company at the time, maintains he actually won
the suit because he did not admit guilt.

***

In the 3rd debate, Trump mentioned: "Trump Foundation,
small foundation, people contribute I contribute
the money goes one hundred percent one hundred percent
goes to different charities...I don't get anything..."

In particular, he said: "I contribute".

In fact, it's been 8 years since Trump contributed
anything to his own foundation. Since 2008, ALL
contributions have been from others, not Trump.
And as the Washington Post documented, Trump used
his foundation on multiple occasions to pay legal bills
incurred by Trump’s corporate properties.
http://tinyurl.com/htbkooe

The dude took a quarter of a mill in charitable
donations and used them for his own legal expenses!

By comparison, last year Warren Buffett made
contributions of "$2,858,057,970, of which more
than $2.85 billion were not taken as deductions".

Upon the recent release of his return, Buffett also noted:
"I have paid federal income tax every year since 1944...
Finally, I have been audited by the IRS multiple times
and am currently being audited. I have no problem in
releasing my tax information while under audit. Neither
would Mr. Trump – at least he would have no legal problem."

It's crystal clear that the Trump campaign has decided
it would be disastrous for Trump to release his taxes...
All an intelligent person need ask is... WHY? :)

You know the truth has to be *ugly* indeed
or they would have been released by now...

***

Trump keeps yammering on and on about how bad NAFTA
supposedly was. But NAFTA was signed by George H.W. Bush,
and then ratified by both houses of Congress.
Bill Clinton merely didn't veto it after it passed.
And analysis shows it did not have bad effects anyway.

Most studies show NAFTA had a relatively small impact
on the economy. According to the nonpartisan Congressional
Research Service: "NAFTA did not cause the huge job losses
feared by the critics or the large economic gains
predicted by supporters. The net overall effect of
NAFTA on the U.S. economy appears to have been relatively
modest”.

But do most American people realize that Trump is
merely full of hot air on his talk about "trade deals"?
Of course not. Most don't know shit about trade deals. :)
So they listen to the blowhard lie and lie and think
"oh yeah, Trump stands up for Amuricans!" It's all
empty rhetoric.

As Clinton has correctly noted, China has been
selling steel in the U.S. at less than its free
market value. And Trump had been buying it...

An investigation by Newsweek found that in at least
two of the last three Trump construction projects,
the Trump organization opted to purchase steel and
aluminum from Chinese manufacturers. One of them
was the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas,
which was built in 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/hpwlsam

***

Trump's big claim to fame is in business.
But investors in his first public company,
Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts, lost a lot of money,
even as Trump himself was handsomely rewarded.

The public company lost money every year Trump ran it,
loaded up his Atlantic City casinos with costly debt,
and ultimately filed for bankruptcy. Trump has blamed
the downfall on broader forces affecting Atlantic City.
But he also drained cash out of the business to pay
personal debts and support his lavish lifestyle.
Contractors, including small businesses, lost money
along with Trump’s investors.

Trump has been sued by the New York attorney general
for allegedly defrauding students at Trump University,
by investors who bought into failed condominium
projects bearing the Trump name, and contractors who
say he refused to pay them. Trump boasts that he never
settles lawsuits, but in fact he has settled at least
100 lawsuits, as USA Today reports.
http://tinyurl.com/jxl9mtv

Get that. Dude BRAGGED he never settles lawsuits.
But he's settled over 100. I guess that doesn't
seem like many when he's been involved in... thousands.

***

After first praising Putin's "strength" as a leader,
and making a big deal out of his contacts with him...
Trump now just keeps saying "I don't know Putin."
But it's a matter of public record that 4 times
in the last 3 years Trump spoke of having a
relationship with Putin.

Thomas Roberts of MSNBC asked Trump, "Do you have a
relationship with Vladimir Putin? A conversational
relationship or anything that you feel you have sway
or influence over his government?" Trump responded,
"I do have a relationship, and I can tell you that
he's very interested in what we're doing here today."
-- November, 2013

"You know, I was in Moscow a couple of months ago.
I own the Miss Universe Pageant and they treated me
so great. Putin even sent me a present, a beautiful
present." -- address at CPAC conference, March 2014

"I was in Russia, I was in Moscow recently and I spoke,
indirectly and directly, with President Putin, who could
not have been nicer, and we had a tremendous success.
-- address at the National Press Club, May 2014

"As far as the Ukraine is concerned … if Putin wants to
go in -- and I got to know him very well because we were
both on 60 Minutes. We were stablemates, and we did very
well that night." -- portion of an answer at the Fox
Business News debate, Nov. 2015. (The notion that the
two men appeared together on 60 Minutes was debunked.
As Time magazine put it succinctly, "In fact, they
weren’t even on the same continent."

So in that last one, Trump lied when saying he
DID KNOW Putin in a particular context. :)
In other contexts, he seems to have lied about
NOT knowing him. He lies both ways, as it suits him.

Trump also once claimed Putin "said I'm a genius".
But what Putin actually said was that Trump was...
"flamboyant". :)

Trump continually distorts pretty much everything.

***

Another example...
Trump keeps implying we are getting "ripped off"
by allies for whom we provide military services.
Of course, he claims he'd get us "a better deal".

But the truth is more like the following, for example:

About 28,000 U.S. troops are based in South Korea
and an additional 49,000 in Japan. Japan pays about
$2 billion a year in maintenance and utilities for
American bases. Foreign policy observers argue it’s
cheaper to base American troops in Japan and South
Korea and have them pay the bill than to base them
back home. South Korea paid about $866.6 million in
2014 for the U.S. military presence there, which is
about 40 percent of the cost.

It often just makes good strategic sense for us to
do things as we do, and most of our "deals" aren't bad.

***

Trump's biggest claim is that he'd benefit our economy.
But his published tax plan to cut income tax rates, reduce
the business tax rate, and eliminate estate taxes would
primarily benefit the very wealthy.

It's an even worse version of the trickle down bs
that started with Reagan and failed again miserably at
the end of Dubya's 8 years. That shit just doesn't work.

Obama inherited a rising unemployment rate from Dubya
that began at 7.6 percent and in his 1st year rose to
*10 percent*. It's now 5 percent, half what it was.

For comparison: Jobs per year was strongest under
Bill Clinton (2.8 million), followed by Jimmy Carter
(2.6 million), Ronald Reagan (2 million), President Obama
(1.4 million as of September), George H.W. Bush (659,000),
and George W. Bush (160,000).

It would be a *terrible* mistake to go back to more
trickle down, deregulation, and spending austerity.
That's what caused many of our worst problems,
and that's just what Trump says he would do.

***

Trump lies again regularly when he claims that Obama
and Clinton gave rise to ISIS.

Fact:
The U.S. completed withdrawing troops from Iraq in 2011
under a deal signed by George W. Bush, and at the
insistence of the Iraqis. Obama honored that deal.

Obama has actually done a pretty good job at fighting
ISIS without getting the U.S. mired in the area again.

***

Trump impresses some people when he talks about
how US GDP has been growing at a "slow rate",
and how China and India are growing much faster.

That's just another very misleading argument. There's
tons of room for growth in the Chinese and Indian
economies because they're still immature "emerging"
economies. Those countries also have well over 3 times
our population. The U.S. economy is a mature one that
couldn't ever again grow at such great speeds.

But if you look at GDP PER CAPITA and compare the U.S.,
India, and China, you'll see that we dwarf them.
http://tinyurl.com/azpdjd5

GDP PER CAPITA

U.S.: $51,486
China: $6,416
India: $1,806

Of COURSE the Chinese and Indian economies are growing
at faster rates than ours. There's a great deal more
room for them to modernize and grow. Trump implies he'd
grow our economy that fast, but economists that analyzed
his plans say it's more likely he'd tank our economy.
And there's no way he could grow the U.S. economy
at the speed of an "emerging economy". It's a lie.

***

At the 3rd debate, Trump said:

"she's taking in tens of thousands of Syrian refugees
who probably in many cases -- not probably who are
definitely in many cases ISIS aligned...Lots of luck
Hillary, thanks a lot for doing a great job."

First, Clinton hasn't been Secretary of State since 2013.
Second, the U.S. took in 12,500 Syrian refugees last
year and far fewer in the previous 4 years of the war,
even as millions fled Syria. Third, the refugees who
come to the U.S. go through a lengthy vetting process,
including security and health checks. They aren't
"ISIS aligned". That's bs.

Counts of Syrian refugees taken in by other countries:

Jordan: 620,000 +
Lebanon: over a million (half of them children)
Iraq: 245,000 +
Turkey: over 2.5 million
Germany: 250,000 +
Egypt: 120,000 +
Greece: 50,000 +
Kuwait: 100,000 +
Sweden: 35,000 +

(many other EU countries are taking in 5000 +.
Even Russia took 5000 +.)

Venezuela committed to taking 20,000 refugees.
The tiny country of Austria has accepted 18,000.
Even France committed to accepting 30,000 refugees,
right after they were seriously attacked.

But Trump's going to turn them away. Right...

Worst of all, Trump would be a climate change
and pollution disaster. He has threatened to
roll back all sorts of environmental regulations,
has voiced great support for oil, gas, and coal,
and denies human-caused global warming, in spite
of massive scientific evidence to the contrary.

Clinton otoh has excellent policies on energy
and on climate change.
https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/climate/

Basically, that mofo Trump would destroy not only
the economy, he would burn this whole goddamn planet
to the ground, even if he didn't start some huge war
(which he very likely would do too given his volatility).

Trump has regularly encouraged violence even at his
own rallies. He encouraged violence against his
political opponent Clinton and threatened to have
her jailed (after she was acquitted by the Justice Dept.
and the FBI) as if he thinks he'd be some kind of a
"king" or something.

Trump is a serial liar. In this post, I gave only a
few examples. Dozens more could easily be provided.
He cannot *ever* be relied upon to tell the truth.

Trump is a rampant xenophobe who has said all manner
of ugly things about Latinos, including accusing the
Mexican government of *intentionally* sending criminals
to the U.S.

13 examples of Trump being racist:
http://tinyurl.com/goer44k

18 examples of Trump being misogynist:
http://tinyurl.com/joh7re9

And Trump held onto that "birther" bs like... forever:
http://tinyurl.com/jyn5num

All this is just the tip of an evil, ugly iceberg.

Anyone who votes for Donald Trump is an utter moron
who is incapable of thinking rationally on the matter
of who is fit to lead our great nation.