Reflections on Donald J. Trump

Because of my revelation of Deep State matters, revelations I hope are going to be verified and carried further by legitimate federal authorities someday soon, there are those asking me what my attitude is towards President Donald J. Trump. I have publicly revealed that I did not vote for him. However, my attitude towards him and how it plays into recent actions I took are fair and legitimate questions. I will give the Bottom Line Up Front of my analysis:

BLUF: Nowhere does my copy of the Constitution say, “…unless Trump.” There are a lot of people these days whose copies of the Constitution apparently do say, “… unless Trump.” But mine does not. I promise, I checked. I went all through it and did not find the phrase “… unless Trump” anywhere in it. That’s my full and thorough analysis of the moment. That is why I came forward.

While that is my analysis, there is still a legitimate question of what my attitude is towards Donald Trump. The main thing to know about my attitude towards President Trump is that it precisely 0 to do with my actions in recent months. That said, it is indeed a fair question, and one to which I will respond.

Before the 2016 election, when I was asked about Donald Trump, my general response began this way: Because I intended to say some critical things, I will start by saying two nice things. I would like to start the same way now, saying two nice things, before I go further.

1) In 1985 my father left GEICO for a new job, one that would keep him in New York. About 10 days after he did so, I was diagnosed with advanced cancer (I had presented when my organs began shutting down), and would go on to spend 22 of the following 30 months in-patient in hospitals. To be near my parents we chose for primary treatment a wonderful hospital in Manhattan that saved my life: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. My parents moved around among corporate apartments in New York those several years, so that I would be near my primary care-giver (my Mom). For ≈ 5 of those months (perhaps December 1986 – Spring 1986?), they stayed in a two-bedroom corporate apartment in Trump Tower, which had opened only a couple of years previously. When for a few days or a week I was furloughed from the hospital, I would stay with them in Trump Tower, going in and out of the residence entrance in a wheelchair, sometimes just being wheeled out a few yards to get a breath of fresh air.

During those days from time to time I became vaguely aware of a lad whom I saw coming in and out through the same entrance, backpack over one shoulder. My mother whispered to me was Donald Trump’s son. I remember him as being ≈ 10-14 years younger than I was. The doormen were two large Black gentlemen in heavy overcoats. I observed that the lad was always exceedingly polite and well-mannered, not only to whomever was in the lobby (including myself), but especially, to the two gentlemen at the door. He always greeted them by name, “Mr. _____” and “Mr. ______”. They asked him about school, he asked them about sports and their families and such. He seemed to have a sincere and deferential attitude towards them, and they, a genuinely avuncular attitude towards him. He had none of the brattiness or “to-the-manor-born” attitude that one might have expected in the child of a man who was on the cover of magazines and whose skyscraper bore his name.

One time, after the lad had passed through the lobby and gone up the elevator, the doormen and I caught eyes. I raised an eyebrow with respect. One of them nodded and quietly said to my mother and me, “Oh yes, he’s a fine young man.” I remember thinking that it said that there might be more to the lad’s father than I was gathering from the tabloids, because raising a child properly in that milieu is not so easy, I think (in any case, rarely do the children turn out like that).  My mom and I spoke of this several times over the years. Since Trump’s political ascendancy I have deliberately avoided googling his family and figuring out which of his children it was.

2) In 2005 I began to understand how the oligarchy was looting the savings of America via the settlement system. I tried to expose it, and discovered that the institutions that should have been interested were either disinterested or adversarial. Exploring that subject gave birth to Deep Capture. Readers of this website will remember the stories from back then, how yellow was the journalism, how “NPC” was the babble through which I had to cut, so it does not bear repeating. There were but two exceptions.

One exception came from Bloomberg News. In 2006-2007, a producer there named “Gary Matsumoto” developed a half-hour documentary about me and my claims, called “Phantom Shares”. For months after its completion its airing faced opposition from within the Bloomberg News hierarchy. A few months into their stalling, I bumped into Mayor Bloomberg in a Washington, DC cocktail reception, and brought the subject up. To his great credit Mayor Bloomberg whipped out from his breast pocket a pen and note-card, and took some notes on what I told him. Weeks later Phantom Shares ran on Bloomberg. It was nominated for (but did not win) an Emmy. Gary told me once that his great regret was that he had complied with a request to cut the opening seconds, a clip of the Space Shuttle Challenger blowing up to narration that pointed out that the failure of the large system had been brought about by the failure of one innocuous component in it (its O-ring), and that a man in Utah (me) was claiming that the same thing was going to happen in the US financial system due to the arcane process of “settlement” (just as Dr. Greenspan confirm had happened in 2008).

The other exception was Trump Magazine, which ran a story at roughly the same time (I think it was in those doldrums of several months between Matsumoto finishing “Phantom Shares” and Bloomberg News running it). Trump Magazine’s story about my claims regarding Wall Street was fair. It was not “favorable,” it did not say, “Byrne is right,” but it reported my claims in an accurate and straightforward way. That is to say, Trump Magazine practiced what used to be known as, “journalism.” And it did so while the entirety of the mainstream financial press corps was spewing NPC nonsense and remained doing so up until the summer of 2008, when all the yuck-yucks went silent and the vindication stories began appearing. I have no idea whatsoever whether Donald Trump played any hand in the publication of that story.  But I know he has never been close to Wall Street, nor a fan of it. Now that I have come to see more of him, it strikes me as plausible, however, that he did have a role. Yet I wish to emphasize, I really have no evidence of it beyond what I just shared.

I always wondered about the coincidence. The two earliest honest publications of my claims (without Chewbacca Defense) was accomplished by two press outlets controlled by wealthy, powerful men beyond the pressures that could be brought on normal publications and reporters: Bloomberg News and Trump Magazine. Does that tell us anything?

In the months leading up to the 2016 election, when I asked my thoughts about Donald J. trump, I never failed to begin by saying those two positive things before moving on to critiquing him. I am not sure they ever appeared, but I know they are there, somewhere in the footages.

Now I shall move to a more critical appraisal.

Trump’s psychology – Trump is the son of a dominant alpha male. There is a way to understand much of Trump’s quirkiness when he speaks. His is the voice of a beleaguered 7 year old speaking to his father: “Dad, my buildings are the classiest, my glitz is the glitziest, my hands are the biggest, my marble is the most-iest…..”  I wish someone who knows him would give him a hug and say, “It’s OK, it’s OK. You are beyond having to do that now.”

 Aesthetics – Superficial though it be, I must mention that I don’t share Mr. Trump’s taste. A few years after my recovery, I went back to Trump Tower to show it to an Oxford friend, wanting to see his reaction. When we entered the public side he burst out in peals of laughter, exclaiming, “This is a noveau riche nightmare!” In his posh English accent he continued in imitation, “I know, let’s throw some pink marble over there, and some chrome here, and splash some more pink marble around the walls!” He found it gaudy, and made all the more so by Mr. Trump’s public insistence on how “classy” it was. One might fairly interpret Donald Trump’s singular taste as an expression of my previous point about his psychology: it is imperative to him that it be the glitziest, the busiest, the most outrageous, as an expression of his need to impress. That said, there is something mildly charming about it, too, something quintessentially American of Mr. Trump not to know any better. I have not been in the place for decades now, and do not know if it has changed.

More recently, however, I have been in the Trump Hotel in DC for meals (there is a superb sushi restaurant there: Sushi Nakazawa). Whether Trump’s sensibilities have matured, or he has better décor advisers now, his hotel in DC expresses a far more tasteful aesthetic. His instincts have been classicized. It is still Trump-classical, it is still busier and glitzier than I would choose, but the classical shows through.

 I am acquainted with a couple people in Trump’s circle, and with one I drew attention to Trump’s aesthetic sense. Interestingly, he responded that Trump’s taste is the taste of how a poor person thinks the taste of rich person should be. I asked whether Trump did that on purpose, self-consciously, as a way of connecting to poor people. His response: “No, that really is just Trump. He really does think think that glitziness is classy.”

Trump’s Business Practices – There was a point (after Trump’s Atlantic City dealings) in which businessmen in the US avoided doing business with him, and he turned to other sources of capital.

When I first occasionally started mentioning Organized Crime in America I had to get used to people rolling their eyes and acting like they thought I had watched too many movies. When that happens, it always tells me that I am dealing with a novice. Newsflash: every person who has ever developed real estate in Manhattan, or for that matter, run a restaurant there, has done business with the Mob. In addition, the real estate industry has lobbied Congress and gotten itself special protection from money-laundering laws: foreigners can show up with cash and buy property, hold it a length of time, sell it, and thereby clean their money. The real estate lobby has paid off Congress to get itself all kinds of special treatment like that: look into the tax advantages of getting oneself certified as an official real estate professional, which enables one to deduct pretty much anything one wishes. For that reason it would not surprise me at all if the stories of Russians buying condos in Trump Tower and flipping them a year and a day later are true, and Trump Tower was a laundering machine for Russian money. Yet after all the investigations that have been done into Trump, and the betrayals by his own people (such as Cohen), I think if there was anything directly linking him to it, it would have turned up by now.

That said, America elected a New York real estate developer. They knew what they were getting. If you don’t think that is how the laws governing real estate should work, talk to Congress. Until something emerges linking Trump to involvement in such crimes, all I see is a New York real estate developer doing what New York real estate developers do.

My deeper objection to Trump’s business practice is that by all accounts he shafted contractors regularly. There is being a sharp operator, and there is doing what Trump did as a real estate developer to his electricians, plumbers, and carpenters, and other tradesmen. Sometimes people get stuck in business, but one should not build it into one’s operating model.

Trump shifted his business model to simple monetization of his name. The properties around the world that bear his name pay him a royalty to do so, creating the impression of a vast real estate empire without requiring the capital or headaches involved in actually owning a vast real estate empire. He also had a wildly successful TV show (I may be the only person in America who never saw it). These two business fed and supported each other. Those are good business instincts.

 Candidacy – When Donald J. Trump came down that escalator in Trump Tower and said, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best….They’re rapists“, then followed it up shortly thereafter with diminution of John McCain’s war record on the grounds that he had been shot down and was thus not a hero, I took everything named “Trump” off the Overstock website. There were only a dozen or so products, but I had them removed.

I did so, I wish to note, even though I sympathize with his concerns about illegal immigration. An friend of mine lives in San Diego in a “Weeds”-type suburbia, and over two decades I have seen her neighborhood turn from a typical American suburbia into one where one has to be cognizant of the true local power structure rather than such abstractions as, “the law”. As we strolled through it a few years ago she pointed out a couple homes that belong to people who are “connected” to the cartels and to whom neighbors pay deference in as simple a matter as where they park their cars, just as one has to do in Third World neighborhoods lacking in rule-of-law.

Liberalism is about “consent of the governed,” and the last I checked in the USA, “the governed” had not consented to abandoning-without-evidence the Westphalian nation-state system which has served the world well for a few centuries. I am from New Hampshire, and as a poet there once said, “Good fences make good neighbors.”

In addition, I share Trump’s dislike of John McCain. Senator McCain and I once met and had an interesting conversation, but I was never a supporter. For one thing, McCain was the lone Republican among the “Keating Five”. Charles Keating ran and looted an S&L in Arizona, and whenever he needed to keep federal regulators at bay there were five US Senators he could call upon to run interference because he greased their palms with political donations: four of those Senators were Democrats, but the fifth was Republican John McCain. In addition, Senator McCain sponsored McCain-Feingold, a change in campaign financing laws that permitted unions to make unlimited political donations. Someone close to McCain told me that he did this by way of apology to the Left in the hope of keeping alive his vaunted aspiration to run for president, and that he never expected it to be upheld by the Supreme Court. Their decision to do so not only surprised him, it locked them into the Citizens United decision later so as to avoid a perverse outcome which said that unions could move unlimited cash into politics but corporations were prevented from doing so. For these two reasons I think McCain career as a Senator had a pernicious impact on the United States.

So if I share Mr. Trump’s concerns about controlling our own border and his attitude towards Senator McCain, why would I take anything named “Trump” off the Overstock website in the first few weeks of his campaign for president? The answer seems obvious, but in today’s age one should not take anything principled as “obvious”. The reasons are: one should not disparage the military service of a man for having been “shot down” and then spent six years as a POW (especially when one took deferments to avoid military service). And one should bend over backwards to avoid tickling latent racist sentiments while discussing policy, even over matters of legitimate concern such as our southern border. I am just old enough to remember the fight for civil rights of the 1960’s, and the consensus that was reached by 1970 was that politicians should never, ever seek votes by tickling racial sentiments, even slightly. There are legitimate ways to raise one’s concern over illegal immigration without speaking like that.

There is one last point I will make about the 2016 election. Historically I have made it a habit to be publicly charitable towards both parties’ candidates during presidential elections. For example, here is a clip of me on Fox’s Greta van Susteren show a few weeks before the election of 2012: when she asked me whether I supported Obama or Romney, I surprised her by being even-handed about both, but saying I would write in Ron Paul. I had two reasons for doing that: one is I am a small “l” libertarian and a small “r” republican, and Ron Paul understands and embodies the principles of our Constitution better than either candidate. But I confess at last, part of my public persona as a libertarian has been to avoid publicly taking sides with either major party’s presidential candidate, because on rare occasion it has been my honor to have been asked to provide some tiny modicum of help in some federal matter (as I have recently disclosed), and I have felt that I should follow the same rules that govern a military officer, who would never come out with public support for one major party candidate or the other.

I tried to do that in 2016, but failed. That is because I knew some things that I could not stomach, and when I blurted out on national TV something along the lines of, “Hillary Clinton belongs in an orange jumpsuit,” I was not just being colorful. I could not have lived with myself if I had given her any sort of mild endorsement, as I gave both Obama and Romney in 2012. And having done so with Hillary, I felt obliged to trash Candidate Trump and his business history a bit more harshly than I would have otherwise done.

Trump as President –The mainstream press forgets that it created President Trump. They wanted to set up a straw man whom Hillary could destroy on her path to the presidency, which they considered so right, natural, and just that it may as well have been a coronation. In the year leading up to the nomination they gave Donald Trump, the candidate they thought most beatable by Hillary, several billion dollars in free publicity. In the process they created a movement that got away from them (of this no one is more guilty than CNN). The embarrassing degree to which the mainstream press and the DNC were absolutely in the bag for Hillary Clinton against Bernie Saunders, and then the press was in the bag for Hillary against Donald Trump, is a series of events that remains barely discussed since the Trump election. It has been flushed down the Orwellian memory hole that the press created the movement that rolled over them.

In answer to criticisms such I have made above, Trump has pointed out such things as the fact that 1/3 of the women in migrant caravans to our southern border get raped (United Nations University puts its estimate at 60% – 80%). To some degree that makes me rethink the statement he made while announcing his candidacy for President: he had a point, but he made it offensively (and it was the deliberateness of the offense that makes one suspect he is tickling sentiments he should not tickle). Senator McCain’s involvement in the piss-dossier revealed him to be precisely the unprincipled political actor at whom Trump was scoffing (albeit in his typical blustery way). Most of all, Trump could answer many allegations of racism by pointing out that 36% of Black America now support him, and how good he has been for them economically, and because the Black community is starting to wake up to ways in which the Democratic Party has failed them all the way back to the days of slavery, and perhaps have grown weary of the Left’s tired narrative (“The world is comprised of fools and knaves, and our job is to protect the fools from the knaves,” as Dr. Sowell summarized the Democratic Party’s mentality).

Since he became President, Donald Trump has grown in several ways. The executive in me responds well to things like his State of the Union addresses. Every previous State of the Union address of my adult lifetime has been filled with such banalities as, “I call on Congress to pass a law that doubles exports in five years! I call on Congress to pass a law that makes our children the best educated children in the world!” Aspirations (not plans) expressed to the accompaniment of House members of the same party jumping up and applauding with silly fervor. Instead, President Trump has delivered three excellent, business-like State of the Union addresses that reflect his background as a CEO.

I still have reservations about aspects of Trump’s management and decision-making. His current job is one that requires a temperament unlike what he displayed before becoming President. But he seems like a more sober and thoughtful man than he was when he started.

I think that Trump is set up to be the Herbert Hoover of the 21st century. Let me say now that when the systemic failure comes, it is not going to be Trump’s fault. Nor is it going to have been Obama’s fault. Nor Bush’s nor Bill Clinton’s. It will be the result of the fact that in the 20th century until about 1980 we discovered various political methods to loot each other’s pockets, but eventually found ways to block each other from continuing to do so. We got through the impasse when we found a group whose pockets could be looted and who could not object: the group of future humans. Alas, the future eventually has a way of showing up, and it has done so. We have put off the reckoning via the magic of a debt-based, fractionally-reserved, Keynesian-multiplied magic money tree financial system, and it will die the ignominious and deserving death of all magic-based systems. I think it will happen on Trump’s watch.

There is hope in that regard, incidentally. The US tax avoidance rate is 16%. We may be able to avoid a collapse by switching to blockchain-based Central Bank -issued digital currencies, which would make tax compliance largely perfect. As a classical liberal I am not crazy about providing government a way to collect more tax: on the other hand, I am a rule-of-law kind of fellow, and what’s good for illegal immigration should also apply to tax collection. If the laws say that the government should be collecting $X in taxes but it is only collecting 84% of $X in practice, a blockchain-based monetary system could fix that, and provide the revenue our government needs to get through without a collapse.

Otherwise, I hope Trump has people in the Treasury researching dual-sovereign-currency alternatives. We will need it when the deal goes down.

Some component of my improved appraisal of Trump comes from seeing what he has done with, by, and to the press. When I look back at what I and a band of fellow-travelling pajamahadeen went through in 2005-2008, one thing I of which I was always confident was that we would never see anything again like that in my lifetime. I was frequently told there would never be anyone who would subject himself to it. But I confess what Trump has gone through from the press has exceeded anything I saw in our mitzvah against Wall Street. I can only stand back in admiration for a 72 year old man who has stood up to the distortion and vilification which I have seen thrown at President Trump in the last three years.

Racism – Perhaps my deepest reservations about Donald J. Trump concern matters of race. This is central, in my view, to evaluating any politian, for I believe we live in an age that is racist (or “racialist”, to borrow an AliG-ism) and growing increasingly so. To explore this topic I will distinguish among “Klan-racism,” “Archie-Bunker-racism,” and “Lefty-racism”.

When I consider all the times in my lifetime I have heard in private a White say something, “Klan-racist,” I think I can count them on one hand. A guy at a pool in Ocean City, Maryland in 1981. Another man in a bike shop trueing the wheels on my Cannondale as I bicycled through Indiana in 1990 who turned out to have a copy of “American Eagle” (the Klan’s magazine) on his workbench. About five years ago, in a reception I was attending in Indiana, an affluent White woman saying crumby things about Hispanics, Catholics, and gays. In sum, Klan-racism has not happened much in my experience. I grew up in New England, but I have lived all over the country, including the South. I understand that behind closed doors in the South such sentiments are expressed, but I am a Yankee, and perhaps when I am in the South people keep it in check around me. I am not sure , but apparently my lifetime experience is skewed, because others report it as pervasive. Yet whatever the reason, encountering Klan-racism has been as rare as a comet in my experience. When I have, it has also been interesting has been to learn (on the two occasions I had opportunity to explore it with its holder), is that the hatred was tied up with much more complicated feelings about the object of the hatred.

What about “Archie-Bunker-racism”? Sadly, that is not so rare. There are people who trade in stereotypes, who pre-judge others based on their ethnicity or background, and such prejudice expresses itself in their thought and speech. I am thinking of a man I once knew who spent his life’s savings over two years’ of preparation for a criminal trial, but when he arrived in court the case was thrown out in an hour: he told me later, “I should have just gotten me one of them New York Jew lawyers from the beginning.” It was unseemly, and based on that and another similar remark about Blacks I broke off all contact with him, and have not communicated for 30 years. But I am not sure that qualifies as hatred: if anything, it seemed to express a vague admiration (as Archie Bunker often did in those old shows, while still displaying his predilection for viewing the world through stereotypes). In any case, it seems categorically different to me than Klan-racism, in that it is more ignorant than hateful. And as I say, I do think there is a lot of such prejudice floating around. While that is sad, sadder yet is how selective is the outrage in public discourse about it.

The third kind of racism (“Lefty-racism”) is not only prevalent in our culture, it passes without comment. I remember watching a Hollywood Lethal Weapon movies with a Black friend, and an hour into it he jumped up and pulled me out of the theater, pointing out that while the Mel Gibson character had all kinds of depth, development, and history, the Danny Glover character had been running around the whole movie shouting, “Riggs! Riggs! You crazy bastard, Riggs!”  About a decade ago I stopped watching Saturday Night Live, wondering, “Does anyone else notice that there is never a Black character who is just, ‘a character’? There is the Black transvestite spaceman, there is the outrageous Black TV host, there is the Black crackhead discussing politics…. But why is there never just a normal Black person, even in skits with roles for people who are simply normal? What does this say about how New Yorkers see Black people?”

Lefty-racism goes hand-in-hand with what I see as the most common, toxic, and pernicious form of racism today in our society, that named in an insightful phrase uttered by George W. Bush (and which would be better remembered had it been uttered by anyone else): “the soft bigotry of low expectations”. I have sat in academic environments and heard things said that shocked me to my core, uttered by well-intentioned but bigoted Lefties, unaware of and uncritical towards the background assumptions which must be held to make sense of the sentiments they express.

Unfortunately, a proper understanding of racism is gummed up in a discourse that holds without argument such canards as, “Only White people can be racist because racism = prejudice + power.” A moment’s reflection will show that discrimination = prejudice + power, and that racism and prejudice are largely synonymous. Thus, discrimination = racism + power. Therefore, whether or not they have power, of course it is possible for non-White people to be racist. Such elemental truths are lost on youth who have enjoyed years of indoctrination in our universities. Thus, to me the current discourse on race seems generally thoughtless, more indoctrination than analysis.

Given my view of racism…. what about Trump?

Clearly he is not Lefty-racist.

Is he Klan-racist? Some allege this, and find proof in such events as Klan-racists showing up at his inauguration weekend. But the last I checked, a president cannot decide who rents hotel ballrooms in Washington, DC. In any case, I recall reading that the 150 or so Klan-types who showed up were outnumbered by the members of the press who wanted to cover and amplify it.

There were Mr. Trump’s left-footed comments on the Charlottesville incident: no, there were not good people on both sides. There were people who want to bring down hateful symbols of treasonous slave-promoting thugs but who do not understand (due to a weak education in the first principles of liberalism provided by our government school system) that the answer to hateful speech is more and better speech. On the other side, there were people who wanted to protect and safeguard symbols of homage to treasonous defenders of slavery, symbols erected not at the conclusion of the Civil War, but erected at height of the Progressive Movement when Klan-resurgence reached its apogee under the nation’s racist-in-chief Woodrow Wilson (the patron saint of Progressivism). Too few of our government-school-indoctrinated youth understand that the Democratic Party was the party of slavery and Jim Crow (and the party of Indian-killing), and that the Klan was the militant wing of the Democratic Party. Therefore these protests against Southern statues amount to Democrats wanting to rip down statues of Democrats: that is a fight in which I, for one, do not have a dog. Still, I winced when I heard Trump’s statement about there being good people on both sides of that debate, and wondered if it was a dog-whistle, as some claim, or another moment of react-speak-think.

I am aware of claims that this is was a distortion of what President Trump said, but I lack the bandwidth (both energetic and literal) to research it properly at this moment. Since I published a draft of this essay, I have been flooded with requests that I study this transcript, or see various videos on the subject. If I do so, they claim, I will see that Mr. Trump was actually trying to be generous and peace-making. I will do so when I do not have to walk 20 minutes to a dusty village to reach a 1998-style Internet hookup, will find the original video clip, and give my thoughts. However, these objections prove my point: politicians should avoid making statements that require defenses relying on fogging of petties.

Is our president Archie-Bunker-racist? If I am not mistaken, they are both from Queens. Perhaps they do share a certain cultural indifference towards appearing racist which may be a function of growing up in Queens in that time and place.  One wonders if that indifference is a calculated signal, and if so, to whom the signal is intended.

Maybe it is intended as a signal to closet racists everywhere. Maybe.

Or maybe it is a signal to people who are not racist, but who feel that the “racist” charge now gets thrown around like a Frisbee by those whose arguments do not otherwise hold water, and in doing so are turning a serious charge into just another technique of control-freaks. Is PC truly about etiquette, as its practitioners claim, or about control? If Trump is sending a signal that he will not be cowed by PC nonsense…. then I understand why there are many Americans, tired of PC bullying, who welcome it. Our discourse should display proper etiquette and respect to all, and in insisting upon that the PC-instinct has merit, but I believe that when taken to today’s absurd extents (see today’s BBC example) it is no longer about respect, it is about control and virtue-signalling, and it is dumbing down rational discourse where we need it most. Trump is breaking with that, and people who are tired of the control game welcome it.

In conclusion on this point, I think President Trump should be quite a bit more careful about his speech whenever it touches on matters of racial sensitivity. One does not have to kowtow to the control-freaks of political correctness to understand that by showing care one displays a sensitivity to our nation’s checkered history on these matters, and a concern for those who are not White, and this does not make one weak.

In fact, if there is one thing I could ask of Donald Trump, it would be to prepare a serious talk on racism and racial disparities in American history, and the respective roles that have been played in our history by the Republican and Democratic parties, and delivering it in front of a sympathetic Black audience who is already beyond the tired orthodoxy that has kept Black people down. Who knows, it may give Trump an opportunity to provide the leadership on that score that has been missing for decades.

Conclusion – I have laid out all my thoughts about Trump’s psychology, his style, his business history, his candidacy, his presidency, and his racial attitudes. I again emphasize that it all has precisely 0 to do with my coming forward as I did to the authorities and on national television. I came forward because I (practically alone among Americans) knew the abject falseness of the entire Russian Collusion narrative, and beyond that, the degree to which (as I said on television in August) our national security apparatus has been hijacked to deliver political ends.

I wish the fellow did not have such an infinitely high appraisal of himself as to foreclose deliberation over this, or such a tin ear when it came to discussing that… But what has been going on for three years has been wildly anti-Constitutional, so I came forward. It’s that simple. I would have done it for President Barack Obama if I had seen happening to him what happened to Trump, and the truth is, I would likely have done it more quickly. I bent over backwards so as to avoid any accusation of partisanship, and the rest of my life I will wonder if I bent over too far, and delayed too long in coming forward, and cost our nation months or years of unnecessary anguish. I do hope I did not wait too long, or else I am going to be backpacking around Asia for a long time.

But I somehow think we are going to see our way through this. I think the Department of Justice is going to save the republic just as our War Department did in the 1940’s. As Bismarck said, “God has a special Providence for fools, drunkards, and the United States of America.” That may even extend to the presidency of Donald J. Trump.

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  1. My favorite line and a testament to your EQ and compassion:

    His is the voice of a beleaguered 7 year old speaking to his father: “Dad, my buildings are the classiest, my glitz is the glitziest, my hands are the biggest, my marble is the most-iest…..” I wish someone who knows him would give him a hug and say, “It’s OK, it’s OK. You are beyond having to do that anymore.”

    1. Maybe, but more likely due to the Trump family pastor being Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, author of the global bestseller, “The Power of Positive Thinking.” He grew up hearing this every Sunday. Trump is our cheerleader, telling us anything is possible. Even today, quantum physics teaches thought is creative.

    2. Patrick, I think has quite the IQ and the EQ, a rare compliment. His assessment of the Donald is quite accurate: delinquent ont on the charm and grace, but befitting of some of the results. Did not not personally vote for DJT in last election, and not really sure I will in the the next… but I also cannot completely disregard some of the gains he has made.. especially in regards to to mainstream media.

    3. Hello, I admit I just discovered your writings. I agree with some, not with others! The racist ones are the rich, white liberals, who by their actions want us to “do as they say”, but not as they do. Their policies destroy the middle class, black and white.

  2. Your Charlottesville perception may change quite a bit after watching this. https://youtu.be/NM6k8uNAQBA You know how the press reports everything right, right? This from a CNN guy of all people, and you are damn right in pointing out something very few people understand that they created him. Another great read. Thanks!

    1. Thanks, I was about to post this myself!

      Amazing how LONG it takes to undo the disinformation. This was deliberate and probably helped by (intelligence) experts at the time.

      The one thing I didn’t like about it was that he claims the police and local officials were unprepared – that only ever happened in Democrat controlled areas and you see the same thing in Berkeley, Portland, etc. The purposeful standing-down of police was to allow violence to start and then stand by and do nothing so they could create a show of how Trump supporters are violent.

      Antifa – if you watch the protests – are always the first ones to make a move, attacking, poking, slapping, hitting, grabbing hats and flags, and then it’s on the Trump supporters to stand by and be sprayed or hit or attacked and do nothing in response. Joey Gibson did and incredible job of that, and once the Mayor of Berkeley finally relented and – as the potential lawsuits began to pile up – he allowed the police to arrest people, they immediately took down several Antifa who were opnely attacking Joey while he just walked calmly, and that put an end to Berkeley protest violence instantly.

  3. This just in, millionaire white man living in Utah thinks racism “doesn’t happen much.” At least you acknowledge you have a skewed life experience but holy shit.

    1. Wow,
      Sloppy reasoning. I am white, yes. I I am from New England and have lived all over the country. The belief that behind closed doors white people say Klan -racist things or even Archie Bunker-racist things is, in my experience, false. Still, there is plenty of racism in our country: just listen to the lefties and The academics express their “soft bigotry of low expectations“. Or watch Saturday night live. Or pay attention to Hollywood. Or just the left in general: that is where racism thrives. It has even become fashionable at the New York Times.

      1. Oh sorry, being from New England definitely gives you the perspective you desperately need. You cannot be naive enough to think that your life experience can be extrapolated to the general public. That’s great that you don’t experience racism; that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. I doubt you will ever understand that though.

      2. Patrick,

        I know your dad was in the Air Force so I feel compelled to defend you.

        Military brats are the least prejudiced people because they have lived in many places. My dad was in the Air Force and many of his buddies had met their wives while stationed overseas. I remember a black guy with his German wife and a neighbor with his Korean wife. These women celebrated their first Thanksgiving at the Mess Hall (a big treat for us). Intermarriage wasn’t widely accepted in most places not too long ago but it was no big deal in the military.

        1. Pam – I am not saying that Patrick is racist. I do not think he is. I do think it is laughable that he thinks that because he doesn’t directly experience racism that it doesn’t really exist.

          1. Oh Brave Anonymous “Wow”:

            What I think is “laughable” is how classically SJW your comment is.

            The elements of SJW-argumentation is as follows:

            1) React emotionally;
            2) Make the “Privilege!” accusation;
            3) Skip the intellectual burden of a close reading of what you critique and instead create a straw man for your opponent to defend.

            How did you do?

            1) “React emotionally;” YOUR NAME IS “WOW”: CHECK
            2) “Make the ‘Privilege!’ accusation;” YOU SAY “MILLIONAIRE WHITE MAN”: CHECK
            3) “Skip the intellectual burden of a close reading of what you critique and instead create a straw man for your opponent to defend.” I WROTE, “WE LIVE IN AN AGE THAT IS RACIST… AND GROWING INCREASINGLY SO” AND DESCRIBED ONE FORM OF RACISM AS BEING “NOT ONLY PREVALENT IN OUR CULTURE, IT PASSES WITHOUT COMMENT.” YOU SAY THAT I SAY THAT RACISM “DOESN’T HAPPEN MUCH”. CHECK.

            What do you know? You are three for three.

            SJW-education is an apprenticeship in sloppy reasoning and shoddy argumentation. I wonder why anyone goes so deeply into debt for it, because the three steps can be taught in three minutes. Too bad SJWs get into the real world and learn they cannot hold a job because their “education” does not work in helping one understand reality (which is essential to bring value to an employer), and that it was just for scoring points in student coffeehouses. I hope you didn’t have to pay too much for it.

      3. Racism, like most of the other isms that are used to beat normal instincts out of people, are Leninist in origin. You are half commie when you give into that kind of thinking.
        The scientific racism of the ninetheenth century variety was pernicious for sure, especially when combined with political power….but there are few people who actually subscribe to it today.
        Today, what people call racism is really some kind of prejudgement, or discrimination, or generalization, all of which are essential to being human.
        You discriminate when you pick a spouse or a friend.
        You prejudge, because it saves time.
        If I deal with 20 Turks and they are all good with money and arguing the law, I will look for a Turkish lawyer or CPA to help me…rather than say a Scandinavian. Nothing wrong with that and a society which shuns me for saying so is a society that isn’t worth my time.

      1. You’re better off commissioning a smart developer to build a board troll response bot than deal with this junk. Keep your energy for the important stuff.

          1. Yep. Though Patrick’s clear, didactic response will help me recognize the SJW attack pattern more quickly from now on. Before reading it, I was about to comment simply that Wow-anonymous must have failed Reading Comprehension 101.

            I worry about how we will have any chance to defend our shrunken 1st amendment, when it seems so often that the only rhetorical skills being practiced these days are labeling and appeals to emotion. Listening to another, ability to understand a slightly complex argument, a grounding in facts or even history, building a cogent, rational argument, exercising empathy and the imagination that requires, these all seem to be vanishing from the public arena.

  4. When I first heard Trump’s statement about “very fine people” it was common sense to know what he was saying. You had 4 groups. 1 – leave the statues and park name alone; 2 – remove the statues and rename the park; 3 – White supremacist; 4 – Antifa, BLM, and such groups. Groups 3 and 4 are radical and promote violence. There’s tons of vid on the net to show this. Group 4 includes those that come directly from the Nazi equation (go see John Podesta’s emails, recall history of brown shirts and learn Antifa is a continuance of such). If the press needs someone to get a whiteboard and draw them a picture to understand what Trump was saying it’s because the press is either ignorant or deliberately trying to distort everything that comes out of Trumps mouth. I’d say both in my opinion. Here’s a transcript of the presser after all the hullabaloo. https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2019/apr/26/context-trumps-very-fine-people-both-sides-remarks/

  5. It’s extremely telling that this article leads off with an anecdote assuming Trump is a great man and father because his doorman said his 10 year son was a nice kid. Your criticism of him starts off with how his interior decorating is tacky (odd criticism from a man with an opium bed in his house). Only someone who has been stupidly wealthy their whole life would think to lead off with these points.

    Also you’re not having your tweets hidden – there’s a button that says show latest or show top. I guarantee you and everyone else is looking at the “show top” screen instead of looking at them in chronological order. Of course it’s easier for you to assume there is a grand media conspiracy holding you back instead of user error.

    1. Patrick’s family didn’t come into money until he was a teenager. They always bought used cars until his father figured out a way to save GEICO from bankruptcy.. You can watch an interview he gave a few years back at some Libertarian event (can’t remember the name) where he discussed his family.

      Patrick can be forgiven for being a Luddite when it comes to Twitter. He could always hire someone to send tweets on his behalf. Most of the members tend to be bots and shills for the Loony Left anyway. Conservatives are routinely banned.

      1. No, he can’t be forgiven for being a Luddite. He ran a large tech company for decades. Now he is posting stupid conspiracy theory level thoughts because he can’t be bothered to learn how to use a platform before tweeting nonsense to thousands of people.

          1. How about you use Twitter your way, and I do mine? Seems to be working. And I like engaging with people there and asking advice: it lets me separate the will-intentioned from the haters.

      1. Patrick – I think you had some great vision and I think you treated your employees well at Overstock. There’s my two nice things.

        Here’s the argument: there are very serious issues going on with president Trump and his corruption and dealing with foreign countries. I find it silly that the first thing you must mention is his taste in decor.

  6. I sincerely hope everyone reads the entire transcript from Mutts above from Politico. The press distorts everything Trump and most people are just too lazy to read what was actually said.

  7. Fair and balanced, interesting piece. I think you and Trump would be good friends and you would be a good advisor. I do agree with the above concerning the Charlottesville thing though – if you actually watch the whole presser he gave, how ludicrous the media narrative on it is.

    As for McCain – I think Trump knows about a lot more keating-5esque stories about him, and simply can not hide his absolute disdain for the man. He can’t even bring himself to say his name, if anyone has noticed

  8. What a great disappointment you have become, Patrick! Not because you do not remain a genius in so many ways, and not because some your analysis including your uncanny ability to peer into the soul of the man you are analyzing might not be true, but because I now realize that your ego and ability to succumb to narcissism is on a scale not dissimilar to this President, even while you attempt to conceal it with your superior writings skills as well as intelligence. At the same time, your Hooverville predictions are peppered with “hedges” into the conclusion–Block Chain the Central Bank this, DOJ Savior that–but shouldn’t you be conferring with your “Rabbi” about claims like these rather than rubbing it in your previous shareholders’ noses by talking about the great “tan” you will be keeping while the U.S. Financial System Collapses after you already ran off with your company’s bounty at prices that remain ridiculously low because of the destruction in equity you reigned over for two decades? This may still be the case, but so may still be the case that you die of cancer before anything like it ever plays out since to NO MAN is TOMORROW GUARANTEED. It is for this hubris you express in your writings with the underlying message of how mighty and smart you are, that you have become such a great disappointment in this reader’s mind. Notwithstanding I wish you no harm nor ill will accept to remind you that, no man is an island and each man’s final destiny remains an enigma with no guarantees each day that passes. Yes, Patrick, I still remain your “Patsy.” Thanks for a job poorly done.

    1. Tough to argue with logic like that. 🤣
      As far as, “running off“ goes… Talk to the board. They represent the shareholders. The shareholders, through their agent, The Board of Directors, wanted me gone. They were sure the stock would pop to $50. Talk to them.

      1. We never would have argued although you did not receive kindly my criticism that Rocker/Cohodes got off easy–Goldman too, of course–in monetary damages as part of settlement . We are kindred spirit friends, you a giant compared to me in size, intelligence, assets and more, but I digress. We see the world similarly. We respect and admire the same types of characters including your “Rabbi.” So smart, so wise, so forward thinking, so globally humane but understanding that capitalism is the best route for guiding the human journey compared to all others.

        Indeed, “there go I but by the grace of God!”

        I swear to you that that “COHODES” is a POS! I smelled his filthy caucus from the beginning including that “long” charade he put on leading into the “hoodwink” by the short cabal emboldened with SEC stopping the “digital dividend” being issued by Dinosaur “exclusively.” I think Saum at tZero remains part of that betrayal so one wonders if he is being “careful of what he wished for.” I suppose not, however. It didn’t prevent me/us from getting snookered, though. My bad!

        If only I could have convinced The Oracle to dip his toes into your pond…..while all these criminal activities continue unabated. You did the right thing “protecting your personal interests” as every CAPITALIST must.

        Best regards, Patrick Byrne, may God protect you and keep you strong. You are the most patriotic American I have ever encountered in our Modern Era.

        Carl

  9. I’ve read through part of it and wanted to mention that when Trump did the comment about McCain, “I like people who don’t get caught,” we laughed so hard, it was hilarious! Couldn’t believe it. It was amazing to us that he had the gall to say that, such a severe trolling, and it is a great example of what makes Trump, Trump, and part of why many people voted for him.

    He loves the military, the police, those who serve, and he’s all about creating a feeling of honor and country, patriotism, but remember that this comes from a man who has spend decades building towers in some of the most corrupt cities in the world (NYC!) — he knows about corruption, through and through. The man does not even drink alcohol. This is part of why they couldn’t stop him from being elected, despite their best efforts, and why he is still President today. In fact, he was one of the few who quickly saw through Ali G (Sasha Cohen) when he tried to troll Trump.

    He even survived the Access Hollywood tape, and I expect the Dems thought they were home free to win the election at that point. But as some of Trump’s supporters say, ‘We elected a President, not a Pastor’. Most don’t care for the fake “dignity” front for war crimes and financial scams anymore – it’s just not worth it.

    Yes, years ago I would never have imagined supporting Trump or voting for him. But the world has changed a lot since then – 9/11 (with a fake ‘investigation’), fake WMDs, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, the bank bailout, on and on. Many Americans are done with the wide open scams by politicians for personal profit. Nancy Pelosi saw the torture tapes and bailed out Wall St., and now is trying to remove the one person capable and willing to stop the scams. Dianne Feinstein’s husband profited directly off the Iraq war and I was one of those who locked down outside her office JUST to get some coverage of her constituents objections, the 10’s of thousands of people who hand signed petitions saying No . . . all useless.

    Incredible how blind and infected with TDS so many Dems are, but of course, they have the largest spy state and media propaganda machine, sitting on their chest, in the history of the world.

    Thanks for all you are doing.

    1. Oh yeah, brace for impact (on your essay). Don’t bend for the attackers, that only makes them come at your harder.

      But you already know that . . .

      People who support you are just glad to know you are safe and continuing to do the important things that you do.

    2. He loves the military and police so much he’s renting our troops out to the country behind 9/11. What a guy.

          1. If be happy to address your point, though I’m not Pam. Trump is protecting everyone’s interests in energy market stability, and Saudi Arabia is paying for it. Or, would you rather there’s another unprecedented attack on oil infrastructure and the price per barrel heads towards $100 causing pain and chaos? Think about it.

            Oh and go look at the oil futures chart. Trump did that. All on his own. Making the price go from a high of 63 to low of 51 in 14 days. Raw Power and Control.

          2. The page won’t let me reply to the Anonymous comment from October 14th so I’ll put it here. It seems this person is totally fine with renting our military out to the country behind 9/11 as long as they can fill their car with gas inexpensively. This shows an absolute disgust for our military.

          3. Wrong, it’s not about filling our cars with inexpensive gas – it’s about the whole world and avoiding escalating tensions and conflicts. How can you not see that, when Iran just shot cruise missiles at SA?

            Check yourself into the mental ward, the TDS is in full control

      1. I don’t like it either, and right on the heels of saying he’s pulling troops out. I mean, don’t the Saudis have their own military? They’ve spent insane amounts of money on weapons from us, what are they using them for? So yes, WTH.

        But my wider view is this – not only is there a civil war going on in the US, but the globalists (for lack of the better term) are at war with Trump and will do anything to create chaos or bring him down – just look at Kerry, etc. going to Iran in violation of the Logan Act: it is that important apparently, for them to intervene, and who knows what the plan is there? Already the story on what is happening in Syria has morphed every day since it began (of course it depends on what you allow yourself to read) and we may never know what the real purpose of Trump’s actions are/were.

        SA wasn’t the only country involved in 9/11 – if you spend 30 seconds looking at what actually happened that day, you can see that, at the most simplistic level, US insiders stood down the military response, and AA77 was allowed to hit the Pentagon to jumpstart the war (the building has defenses that were not utilized). It was planned, it was carried out, and the SAs were tools to accomplish the job. Pakistan was also involved.

        But if you fell for the official story, or it all happened before your time, I suggest you start with the unanswered questions of the 9/11 Family Steering Committee. The 9/11 families were not “tin-foil-hat conspiracy theorists” – they worked night and day to research everything that happened and to try to get an independent commission to answer their questions, and have never had most of them answered. (https://911independentcommission.org/questions.html).

        A better SA example to use is the Yemen situation. Has Trump made a calculated decision about the benefits and risks? I assume so. I think it is wrong, given the terrible loss of lives, but I don’t have the whole picture, and probably there are few people who actually do. US veterans are also committing suicide at record levels, still, and PTSD never goes away. We don’t need any more of it, but in general, Trump is often underestimated. I hope that is the case here.

    3. It was not trolling. It was disrespectful to a veteran for things that happened during his service. Forgetting everything else about McCain (and I make clear above, I was not an admirer of SENATOR McCain), it is not something I would do.

  10. Patrick,

    I’m so happy you have been Red Pilled. A wonderful marriage of common sense and book smarts. You do realize, of course, that the few friends you had when you quit Overstock will most likely desert you now as will many readers of this site. Being abandoned by friends and family did not stop me voting for Trump after doing my own research. I had never felt so patriotic before, being a Democrat. Now I’ve joined the hundreds of thousands of #WalkAway Dems. Free at last!

    By the way, that was probably Don Jr. in the elevator, who will be President someday. He has that JFK charisma if you’ve ever seen him speak.

    Since you read the Constitution, you might have seen the part where a President and Vice President are allowed to run businesses while they serve. That was why the emoluments lawsuits were all tossed out by judges. Can’t imagine why the presstitutes never mentioned that.

    What will you do when you find out Obama was complicit in this coup attempt? Clapper has implicated him using the Nazi excuse, “We were only following orders.” Will the other members of the administration flip on him? Surely fear of being called a racist won’t override their fear of the gallows. I read that Gitmo was recently expanded and a geriatric unit installed.

    1. I am not going to “find out” who is implicated in this coup attempt. I already know (and filmed it and put it all on memory sticks held under different dead-man switches). The people who are going to find out are you.

      1. Patrick,

        I’ve followed the Spygate story since it first broke years ago thanks to John Solomon and Sara A Carter, both of whom deserve Pulitzers. This is why Deplorables are impatient for arrests. I wasn’t implying you were uninformed, just that you might be disappointed to find out Obama was a corrupt fraud.

        I’ve also been watching the 30 short videos compiled by George Webb on his channel over the past few years in his Butina playlist. That chick was no idealistic grad student. Worked many places including Tenex, the export arm of Teneo, a Clinton company. Uranium, covert weapons, money laundering, Russian banks were just a few of her specialties. Webb’s seen documents with her signature. No wonder she was interested in you, the bitcoin expert. Yet ‘they’ call you a crazy conspiracy nut. You’ll have the last laugh.

        1. I’ll bet you think Ford, Carter, Reagan, Both Bushes, the Clintons, Obama and Trump are corrupt. I would bet that you could point to specific detailed information on why you think this about all these Presidents. And I would agree with you.

      2. What’s the point in waiting to release more evidence if you have video? I’m guessing Barr is probably pretty busy at the moment with the whole impeachment thing. This story is also no longer in the news so the public doesn’t care.

    2. I’m glad to see you’ve reflected on the similarities between your own predicament and that of our 45th President, Patrick. You’re both dealing with “captured” institutions…I reread it, and I can confirm, nowhere in our Constitution does it say, “unless Trump”

  11. who gives a flying shit,, Blackstone is investing in Citadel CROOKS who are the kings of naked short selling

    investors you have to be brain dead to INVEST in the US equity markets. The looters have more money

    Good luck with all this nonsense I will continue to expose naked shorts in my own retarded way with No Money and No help from anyone.

    so my advice is to SHORT and DISTORT and profit Cancer companies go down the fastest just say the FDA has negative comments or CEO is a fraud and you get a new car. Right Patrick

  12. I’m really not interested in what anyone thinks about Donald Trump at all.
    To anyone either supporting Trump or bashing Trump – I don’t care what your personal view of the man is. Your personal politics or views are irrelevant to our future.
    What IS important is what Patrick has to say.

    I want the details about the “deep state” corruption to be made public, to learn the true story surrounding M. Butina, and to see the OSTKO dividend kick the living sht out of the illegal short sellers still active in the market today. If Cohodes was behind the board ousting Patrick then F him too.
    In my opinion, the DOJ is never going to act on what Patrick has obviously presented to them. Leadership *NOT RANK AND FILE are captured along with the rest of the institutions we have currently. That includes Bill Barr. Putting faith in him is a mistake.

    Patrick, it’s time to act. You’ve taken steps to protect yourself and the company/stakeholders there. Well done. Now get at it. Every day you delay just makes the miscreants more powerful.

    1. I respectfully disagree.

      People wanted to know my thoughts on him so they could judge where I was coming from. So I gave them.

      Also, I have to give the DOJ time to act. If it turns out to be corrupted, I will just go straight to the American people, as Buffett has pushed me. But I feel obliged to give General Barr his chance.

  13. What intrigues me is when Trump asked the Ukraine and China to look into certain individuals, those individuals became very defensive. Like they did in fact do something questionable and didn’t want the public to know.
    What are they afraid of? The truth?

    1. If defensiveness is a good signal that someone is hiding someone you need look no further than president WITCH HUNT who spends all day tweeting how he is being treated unfairly and refuses to release documents or allow people in his administration to cooperate with investigations. If he’s innocent maybe he should prove it.

  14. So disappointed Mr. Byrne. Never have I witnessed a more evil man than Donald Trump who has single-handedly taken corruption to a whole new level not to mention the current decision to abandon the Kurd’s (I’m certain you are well versed with the Kurdish peoples’ tragic history) while taking obnoxious personal credit for eliminating the threat of ISIS. Having personally experienced the damage done by people of his ilk it has allowed me some insight into what makes a person like him tick and unfortunately your personal written attempt to humanize him is sadly unsettling. I suggest you revisit former personal attorney to Trump, Michael Cohen’s congressional testimony (from a man who very publicly bared his soul for all to see) the evilness that is Donald J. Trump.

    1. The Loony Left rails against Trump’s supposed corruption so have investigation after investigation, spending millions of our dollars, only to reveal their OWN corruption. If they had been gracious losers and kept their mouths shut after the election, none of their criminal activity would have been uncovered. Karma’s a bitch, huh?

  15. Patrick,

    Please have your IT guy change the Comments section so no one can post using the name “Anonymous.” Too confusing to follow if there are half a dozen different people all using the same name. Let people make up their own usernames.

    Thanks for your consideration. And be sure to wear SPF30 sunscreen for your pale Irish skin.

  16. “I understand that behind closed doors in the South it is done, but I am a Yankee, and perhaps when I am in the South people keep it in check around me. Whatever the reason, encountering Klan-racism has been as rare as a comet in my life’s experience.”

    Sorry but as a born and bred Southerner I could not let this pass. There are two things I would like to state up front before I comment on the differences on racism between us and you Yankees:

    1. I see the absurdness of two white men discussing racism as if we really have any answers.
    2. I utterly and completely believe that diversity in all aspects of society is the best practice. The numbers don’t lie, companies and governments perform better with diversity from the board to the hourly worker. Every person should be judged on their personal attributes, good or bad. Everyone in this country, no matter skin color, gender, race, religion or ethnic background should have the same opportunities as all others as provided and regulated by a transparent and open government.

    The reason you have not encountered racism that much is because most of the people you interact with are college educated. Most but not all racism is usually counteracted by education. Back in the 90’s I was on Marta in Atlanta coming back from the airport with a female friend. Both of us were in our early 20’s with her having grown up in north Atlanta and I have moved there about 4 years earlier. I was busy looking at something from our trip when she bumps me with her elbow, “hey, hey, we are the only white people on this train”. I looked up, looked around and said your right and then went back to what I was doing. I have been to most of the big cities in the US and Atlanta and San Fran are the most accepting and least racially judgmental of all of them IMHO and she is a product of that environment. In all the years I had known my friend I have never hear a racial word out of her mouth. She has introduced me to many African American friends of hers and I don’t believe she is a racist, even a liberal-racist. But this was a situation that is completely foreign to most white people. I have been the only white guy on the bus or train or the bar or even at the party. I have had my food served cold or been left waiting because I was the wrong color. I have had to sit there while people make ignorant comments about me and keep my mouth shut because I was out numbered. But I never stayed bitter for long because I understood that this was nothing compared to what other experience every day. It helped me understand some and want to understand more.

    And one thing I have come to understand is in the south we have racism. It is not in your face but those who believe that shit don’t try hard to hide it. But “Whites and Blacks” have lived and worked together for over 400 years. Even the rich Southerns had Africans Americans handling their food, cleaning the house and razing their children. Say what you think you might know about southern racism but down here we have interacted with each other in almost every aspect of life for centuries. You are wrong that racism is behind closed doors in the South. Yes we have racist, and most of them are not ashamed of their beliefs. But they are a decreasing minority.

    Now lets talk about you Yanks. Of the 524 cities in NY only 98 have more then a 10% African American population. Connecticut is only 14 cities out of 221. Massachusetts it is 16 Cities out of 428. New York is 110 cities out of 1346. We could go on but this show that the northern states are very segregated. In Georgia 364 cities our 544 have an African American population over 10%. Alabama, 301 out of 514. North Carolina 374 out of 678. Florida 167 out of 444.

    The North is much more segregated then the South. I have African American friends who have moved down from the North. Most of them speak fondly of home but all of them say the racism is different up there. Just for fun, get a couple of African American friends or colleges and have them drive a car around Clark NJ from dusk till about 10 pm. I will bet 10k RVN that they get stopped by the police. Then have them try and buy a house in that city, see how far they get.

    Now a little history as to how we got to where we are. As it is with most things that play out over a long time period,, economics is the main driving force. It was the mosquito and the “seasoning” that it brought that caused the racial divide between the north and the south. Codependents of white Europeans both north and south did not prefer the company of African American during the time of enslavement. And for the most part there were enough poor white Europeans will to go into indentured servitude to fill the labor shortage. Above roughly the Mason Dixon Line this worked out pretty well and when too many enslaved African American came north they found ways to put a stop to it.

    Now below the Mason Dixon Line was the range of the parasite carting mosquito. For every 10 Europeans that land owners played the passage for 6 of them would die during seasoning. But only 4 out of 10 West African’s would die. Seems, the people from West Africa had more bullets in their DNA immunity gun. In supply chain management 60% usable product as opposed to 40% product is huge as I have no need to tell you.

    So some of us down here in the south take a bit of offence when we hear a Yank talking about Southern racism. We know about our history and we own it. And many of us don’t get quiet and look away when some one makes a racial comment; we call them out on it.

  17. Hi Patrick, I’d like to respond to your comment but there are only so many replies that can fit in a thread.

    Oh Brave Anonymous “Wow”:

    – Off to a good and fair start here, oh brave Patrick

    What I think is “laughable” is how classically SJW your comment is.

    – Going straight to the “social justice warrior” trope, this will be great…

    The elements of SJW-argumentation is as follows:

    1) React emotionally;
    2) Make the “Privilege!” accusation;
    3) Skip the intellectual burden of a close reading of what you critique and instead create a straw man for your opponent to defend.

    How did you do?

    1) “React emotionally;” YOUR NAME IS “WOW”: CHECK
    – I choose not to use my real name on this board for a variety of reasons. If you want people to use their real names set the site up to do so, there are many ways to do that. My random choice of name does not have any impact on anything I say.
    2) “Make the ‘Privilege!’ accusation;” YOU SAY “MILLIONAIRE WHITE MAN”: CHECK

    – Patrick, I am sure you can admit that you have a very different upbringing and life than that of, for example, a young black man growing up in a poor neighborhood in Chicago. Is this a fair assumption? I wonder why you choose to take anything I say and repeat it in ALL CAPS SO IT SOUNDS LIKE IM SHOUTING.

    3) “Skip the intellectual burden of a close reading of what you critique and instead create a straw man for your opponent to defend.” I WROTE, “WE LIVE IN AN AGE THAT IS RACIST… AND GROWING INCREASINGLY SO” AND DESCRIBED ONE FORM OF RACISM AS BEING “NOT ONLY PREVALENT IN OUR CULTURE, IT PASSES WITHOUT COMMENT.” YOU SAY THAT I SAY THAT RACISM “DOESN’T HAPPEN MUCH”. CHECK.

    – Yes, but you also literally wrote, “In sum, Klan-racism just does not happen much in my experience.” I am quoting you, not putting words in your mouth.

    What do you know? You are three for three.

    SJW-education is an apprenticeship in sloppy reasoning and shoddy argumentation. I wonder why anyone goes so deeply into debt for it, because the three steps can be taught in three minutes. Too bad SJWs get into the real world and learn they cannot hold a job because their “education” does not work in helping one understand reality (which is essential to bring value to an employer), and that it was just for scoring points in student coffeehouses. I hope you didn’t have to pay too much for it.

    – I am truly disappointed to learn how much disdain you appear to have for people younger than you. It is apparent here (you making fun of people with student debt, comments you made about the author of the piece in the Washington Post). The vast majority of your employees were these people, and many looked up to you. Unfortunately many who are reading this and learning more about you now that you’re gone are realizing that was a mistake. I also truly cannot understand criticizing people’s education choices when you have a degree in chinese studies and philosophy. If only everyone was as lucky as you to be able to get a job for Warren Buffet through family connections.

    1. Again, just more straw men to send my way.

      I am USING CAPS as a way for us to have a conversation (of sorts).

      – Going straight to the “social justice warrior” trope, this will be great…
      IT IS NOT LIKE I MADE IT UP. LISTEN TO HOW OFTEN IT IS USED BY THE LEFT. WHEN I WAS AROUND UNIVERSITY LIFE, I WAS SURPRISED TO SEE HOW OFTEN PEOPLE JUST SAID SOME FORM OF, “BECAUSE SOCIAL JUSTICE” AND IT ENDED AN ARGUMENT. SIMILARLY WITH “POLTIICALLY CORRECT”. THOUGH NOW USED AS A PEJORATIVE, IT WAS A TERM FROM STALIN’S TIME, THEN MAO’S (“DURING THE TIME OF THE GREAT CULTURAL REVOLUTION, I WAS RUSTICATED TO A FARM IN SICHUAN TO WEED PEES FOR 6 YEARS SO I WOULD BE POLITICALLY CORRECTED”). THE LEFT CONSCIOUSLY ADOPTED IT IN THE 1980’S, JUST AS THEY MADE “SOCIAL JUSTICE” THEIR SLOGAN. IF THEY ARE GOING TO USE IT ABOUT THEMSELVES, THEN I CAN USE IT ABOUT THEM TOO.

      1) “React emotionally;” YOUR NAME IS “WOW”: CHECK
      – I choose not to use my real name on this board for a variety of reasons. If you want people to use their real names set the site up to do so, there are many ways to do that. My random choice of name does not have any impact on anything I say. YOU ARE JUST NOT READING ME CLOSELY. MY OBJECTION IS NOT TO THE FACT THAT YOU USE A NAME THAT IS NOT YOUR OWN, IT IS THAT BY USING “WOW” YOU ARE REACTING EMOTIONALLY. FOLLOW?

      2) “Make the ‘Privilege!’ accusation;” YOU SAY “MILLIONAIRE WHITE MAN”: CHECK

      – Patrick, I am sure you can admit that you have a very different upbringing and life than that of, for example, a young black man growing up in a poor neighborhood in Chicago. Is this a fair assumption? I wonder why you choose to take anything I say and repeat it in ALL CAPS SO IT SOUNDS LIKE IM SHOUTING.
      I will switch to lower-case then, to distinguish my text from yours. Of course it is a fair assumption. It is also argument ad hominem. In what used to be a normal liberal education, the first thing one learned in one’s first class on logic is that when someone brings another’s race into things, they do so because they have lost the argument and can be subsequently ignored because they clearly ahd nothing substantive to say. Literally, Fall 1981, first class in college, Logic 101, that was what was taught. It was considered one of the basic rules for engaging in the discourse. Today, people leave college actually being encouraged to do so, and under some false belief that it is acceptable: “Aha! I have unmasked your real intentions!” It makes sense if one does not have anything substantive to say. That is what I mean when I say they leave college without having the basics of what used to be considered a proper basic education.

      3) “Skip the intellectual burden of a close reading of what you critique and instead create a straw man for your opponent to defend.” I WROTE, “WE LIVE IN AN AGE THAT IS RACIST… AND GROWING INCREASINGLY SO” AND DESCRIBED ONE FORM OF RACISM AS BEING “NOT ONLY PREVALENT IN OUR CULTURE, IT PASSES WITHOUT COMMENT.” YOU SAY THAT I SAY THAT RACISM “DOESN’T HAPPEN MUCH”. CHECK.

      – Yes, but you also literally wrote, “In sum, Klan-racism just does not happen much in my experience.” I am quoting you, not putting words in your mouth.
      I SAY THAT “KLAN RACISM DOES NOT HAPPEN MUCH IN MY EXPERIENCE.” THAT IS AN EMPIRICAL CLAIM ABOUT MY EXPERIENCE. YOU REDUCE THAT TO A CLAIM THAT “RACISM DOES NOT HAPPEN MUCH”, WHICH CLEARLY NOT ONLY NOT IS NOT WHAT I SAID, IT CONTRADICTS WHAT I CLEARLY SAY IN SEVERAL PLACES ELSEWHERE. THAT IS CALLED A “STRAW MAN ARGUMENT”.

      – I am truly disappointed to learn how much disdain you appear to have for people younger than you. AGAIN, MORE STRAW MAN. AM I SHOWING DISDAIN FOR “PEOPLE YOUNGER THAN I AM” OR DISDAIN FOR AN IDEOLOGY INTO WHICH SOME PEOPLE ARE INDOCTRINATED IN LIEU OF GETTING A REAL EDUCATION? AM I SHOWING DISDAIN FOR PEOPLE WHO GET DEGREES IN STEM WHOA RE YOUNGER THAN I AM? OR FOR PEOPLE WHO GOT DEGREES IN HISTORY, OR PHILOSOPHY, OR ANYTHING RIGOROUS? NO. ONCE AGAIN, YOU ARE MAKING UP A POSITION FOR ME. THAT IS CALLED “STRAW MAN ARGUMENTATION” AND IT IS THE HALLMARK OF THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN INDOCTRINATED. THEY CANNOT ANSWER THEIR OPPONENTS’ ACTUAL WORDS, THEY CAN ONLY REGURGITATE WHATEVER CATECHISM INTO WHICH THEY WERE INDOCTRINATED. THAT IS WHY WHAT THEY ARGUE AGAINST IS RARELY WHAT THEIR OPPONENT ACTUALLY SAYS. AND YES, I WOULD BE DOING THE WORLD A FAVOR IF I COULD CONVINCE PEOPLE TO STAY AWAY FROM ANY BOOK, PROFESSOR, OR FIELD WHICH EMPLOYS THE VAGUE AND FLABBY PHRASE, “SOCIAL JUSTICE”. IT IS GREAT TO WANT TO MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE, AND IF YOU WANT TO, STUDY ECONOMICS, HEALTH, SCIENCE, AND MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE WITH IT, THAT IS A GREAT THING TO DO WITH YOUR LIFE. BUT “SOCIAL JUSTICE” IS A MEANINGLESS PHRASE, AND WHEN I HEAR IT USED, I THINK OF THE MORAL MAJORITY TYPES OF THE 1980’S WHO FOUND EUPHEMISMS TO JUSTIFY IMPOSING THEIR PRIVATE MORAL BELIEFS ON GREATER SOCIETY.

      Sorry if it a surprise to anyone, this disdain for the ideology of “social justice”. People may have heard me mention “Austrian economics”. 100 years ago Mises was writing against this pernicious doctrine:
      https://mises.org/library/injustice-social-justice
      https://mises.org/library/libertarianisms-versus-postmodernism-and-social-justice-ideology

      Note that being against the ideology of ‘social justice” does not mean one is against making people better off. One can dedicate one’s life to trying to make others better off, one can look for each and every opportunity to make the lives of the less fortunate better off, to raise them all great and small, without buying into the ideology of social justice. In fact, one can believe (as I do) that those who make a big show about pursuing “social justice” have generally harmed the world more than they helped it, and generally do not care, because what it is really all about to them is virtue-signalling rather than actually doing anything productive for other people. That has been my (limited) experience, anyway. They prance around talking about how much they care about “social justice” while advocating policies that demonstrably ruin the lives of the less fortunate (e.g., rent control). And they eschew things that work (e.g., markets, capitalism, school choice) because it does not give them an opportunity to prance around and congratulate themselves about how much they care about other people. I have seen it all my life.

      It has been heartening to see that even guys like Bono waking up to this. A few years ago he said words to the effect, “Capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than foreign aid.” Showing that there is hope for even the most virtue-signalling among us.

      So in sum, your latest retort demonstrates precisely the same ad hominem and straw man argumentation as your other comments (and adds in the “espouse this if you want to be cool” peer pressure argument: call that Social Justice argument #4). Whoever you are, you never picked up the habits of what a generation ago was considered the basics of a liberal education, including how to make a logical argument. From that, I surmise (correctly, it appears) that you have gotten a faux “social justice” education.

      Now if your reply is more of what I have seen so far, “I am shocked (emotion), and you are White (ad hominem), and you want to murder puppies (straw man), and virtue signal back or I will think you are uncool (peer pressure),” don’t bother. If you wish to object and make an actual argument, I would be delighted to respond, but will not waste my time on any more of what I have seen so far.

      1. I’ll bet you think Ford, Carter, Reagan, Both Bushes, the Clintons, Obama and Trump are corrupt. I would bet that you could point to specific detailed information on why you think this about all these Presidents. And I would agree with you.

      2. Word of advice. Read comments but rarely comment back. It is a waste of time and emotional energy and does not get you anywhere. That includes my posts. Answer a few questions or make some short comments to keep us bated but responses like this, even if I agree, waste too much time and don’t accomplish anything.

        BWTFDIK

      3. Patrick, a message board is clearly not a great method of communication as we seem to be misunderstanding each other and misconstruing a variety of things such as the use of capital letters or the randomly chosen user name I picked. That is unfortunate.

        You are using social justice warrior as an ad hominem attack towards me, you admit it is a pejorative. I do not consider myself a SJW in any way. I have also never heard someone describe themselves as that, it seems that may be a term that is no longer in use except as a pejorative. No one ever mentioned that during my education, I have never read it in a book. I have only seen it in the comments on news articles or from pundits who are trying to disparage democrats. It’s generally accompanied by words like “libtard” and “obummer.”

        I clearly focused too much on your quote about your experience of racism. When you talk about your personal experience your race and background is absolutely relevant, so I do not agree with you that mentioning it makes it fine to ignore the rest of what I have written. For example, if I say, “in my experience, police never treat me differently because of my race [I am white]” that can both be completely true and totally irrelevant to the bigger picture.

        I do think you argument about the three types of racism is interesting. However, all three are not equal. The soft racism and Archie Bunker racism that absolutely exists in the world is not the same as the Klan-style racism that leads people to murder people praying in a mosque or synagogue or to drive across a state to shoot Hispanic people.

        I believe Trump’s rhetoric (and past actions, for example his housing discrimination and call for death penalty over the wrongly convicted central park five) enables this type of racism, which is extremely dangerous. We all saw it very clearly in the Charlottesville aftermath (I see a lot of people defending this because there were violent protesters on both sides. I cannot for the life of me understand why someone wants to defend white supremacists who walked through the streets shouting Nazi slogan just because there were other people there who were also acting like jerks).

        My original post focused too much on your one statement about the racism you have experienced. Is it possibly your reply focuses too much on me being a “SJW.?” By the way, I really like your closing paragraph, “In fact, if there is one thing I could ask of Donald Trump, it would be to prepare a serious talk on racism and racial disparities in American history, and the respective roles that have been played in our history by the Republican and Democratic parties, and delivering it in front of a sympathetic Black audience who is already beyond the tired orthodoxy that has kept Black people down.”

        Unfortunately, there is an absolute 0% chance that will ever happen. Donald Trump is a man who understands nuance as well as a dog understands nuclear physics. He has been making racially disparaging comments from the campaign trail to his endless string of rallies with no sign of learning anything.

        1. Wow (aka Anonymous aka Thanks – pick ONE and stick to it, please)

          Rush Limbaugh was talking today about how young people are educated but also misinformed (lied to). Maybe start listening to Rush, who is a student of history and knows politicians better than they know themselves.

          Watch The Candace Owens Show on youtube. Dems fear her and smear her as a white supremacist – pretty funny considering she is black, grew up poor and just married a young, white British conservative. A good intro is a compilation of her appearances, “Best Candace Owens Mic Drops” She is fearless, even testifying before Congress. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL-vuY27grY

          If Trump has always been a racist, then explain this video, “Donald Trump on Low Income Development – introduction by Jesse Jackson (1999)” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9-uiP2-3Fc&list=LL_uI171lzae387yXFfoTqfw&index=60&t=89s

          Or this one, “Donald Trump with Jesse Jackson on New York Development (1998)”
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdmgQPOVp8g

          There is another one I couldn’t find where he was feted at a dinner in NYC for his outreach to minorities. Al Sharpton was there, singing his praises.

          I am a #WalkAway Democrat, now independent. What is that, you ask?
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51UGcghHZsk&list=LL_uI171lzae387yXFfoTqfw&index=164&t=22s

          And watch the link I posted earlier from Bill Maher’s show. It applies to you.

          You’re welcome!

        2. Sigh…..

          “I cannot for the life of me understand why someone wants to defend white supremacists who walked through the streets shouting Nazi slogan just because there were other people there who were also acting like jerks).”

          The same people that get paid to defend your first amendment rights. Your words are nice, but stupid. And I mean stupid. You may not have the intellectual capacity or honesty to see how un-American your worldview is.

          The facts are that the police are being to told to stand down city by city where these demonstrations have arisen.

          No theories here. You and many other are totally against American first principles.

          People like you do not believe in our representative form of government, or the freedoms guaranteed in American first principals.

          I am saying this about you personally. Feel free to take it that way. My comment has nothing to do with Byrne or Trump.

  18. All political parties are easily co-opted & corrupted.Things won’t change much until citizens unite behind truth/freedom/goodwill/integrity.Most politicians who claim to serve the public are really self servants/crony servants.Therefore,We the People must unite to make change,Social media/networking make this possible.

    Whether there are 2,3 or 4 major political parties,there will always be the temptations and pitfalls of bribery,intimidation and corruption.

    The corrupt politicians(actors) of both parties support our ridiculous tax code.You will often hear politicians claim to be for “the working families” but they are simply full of baloney.Many will pander to the working poor and middle class but once they are elected will do absolutely nothing to make a simple,fair tax code.I believe the majority of USA citizens would support replacing the income tax with the Fair Tax or national sales tax but the current cast of characters in Congress won’t.

    When you hear a politician claim to advocate ‘rich people paying their fair share”,don’t believe them because their actions speak louder than their words.Once elected,they will do nothing to eliminate the ridiculous amounts of tax loopholes and will do nothing to provide a simple, fair tax code.

    Any politician can get votes by running on the platform that says,”vote for me and I’ll raise taxes on other people and give you more free stuff”, but eventually they will run out of other people’s money and they don’t tell you that people and corporations will always have ways to avoid taxes.It seems that Congress and our Presidents,both former and current,refuse to cut spending as our national debt soars higher.They act as if the national debt does not matter,no matter how high.If the debt does not matter(I think it does),then why do we even have to pay an income tax?

    The corrupted politicians (actors) of both parties claim we need troops in foreign lands to “protect us from the terrorists”,yet they refuse to secure our own borders.Does this make any sense to you?How can you protect your country from attack when you won’t even secure your own borders(land/air/sea)?

    It should not be the responsibility of U.S. troops to police and nation build other sovereign nations.How about bringing our troops home and securing our own borders?I believe we can have both legal immigration AND secure borders.

    Imagine if liberty lovers worldwide had an online home base to clearly communicate with each other with strategies on how to take their countries back,one country at a time.

    Both Democrats and Republicans refuse to end the phony “war on drugs”,which causes more crime,death,gang violence,murder,incarcerations and enrichment of criminals while millions of people continue to use illegal drugs anyway.The current U.S. policy does not work and never will (if you believe its purpose is to actually prevent drug use).

    The solution would be to legalize the SALE of drugs and leave it to the people,states & businesses to decide whether to ban the USE of drugs and test people for drug use on a monthly basis or not to test them at all.If you agree with our current policy,let me explain why it does not work.If you really wanted to prevent people from doing drugs,YOU WOULD HAVE TO TEST EVERYONE FOR DRUGS.DO NOT BE DISTRACTED FROM THIS FACT.This means all employers would have to test employees for drugs.All states would have to test people on welfare and unemployment.

    Look at sports for an example.Does having a rule banning steroids prevent athletes from using them?NO.They have to be tested.Of course,it should not be legal to become impaired and drive a motor vehicle.I think most of us agree on that.By legalizing the SALE of drugs you render the current criminals that sell them powerless.Then you let the states/employers deal with the USE of drugs and we debate the civil liberties issue of whether to test everyone for drugs or let people put whatever substance they want into their body as long as they don’t hurt someone else.Those are your choices if you really want to solve this problem.

    Unfortunately,I don’t believe the politicians(actors) of either party have any interest in solving this problem.If only the voters would stop voting for them or demand they solve this problem(very unlikely).Keep in mind that although alcohol is legal,its sale(no sales to minors) and use(DUI laws) is regulated and businesses are allowed to discriminate against alcohol users(for example firing employees who drink on the job or arrive to work drunk).

    Why not just treat drugs the same way we treat alcohol?I say let the states and the people decide,just like the Constitution says.

    Some of those same politicians (actors) also claim “climate change” due to man-made pollution is threatening the very existence of life on earth.Regarding pollution,we can all help by voluntarily consuming less resources and driving less.I am certainly NOT a supporter of a “carbon tax” as I think it would just be a way for the powers that be to scam more money out of the average person.If the Presidents and members of congress (past and present) really believed that man-made pollution was threatening the very existence of life on earth,then why do they not plead with the public to voluntarily consume less resources and drive less?This would not require passing a law but would only require some basic speaking & writing skills.It seems politicians are only interested in doing things that involve taking money from others.Why?

    I believe the answer is because almost all politicians,whether Democrat or Republican,are just actors who are in politics to benefit themselves and their cronies,not to represent the best interests of the average person.I and many others want a person with a real motive and chance to win the Presidency who supports simple values like truth,liberty,integrity and peace and can resist the temptations of corruption.

    In the last election,I voted for the Constitution Party candidate for President.I did not feel this was a “wasted vote” because I do not wish to support the foreign policy and drug policy of the Democrats and Republicans that cause the deaths of many people.However,I will certainly admit that I prefer Trump over Hillary.

    I hope that one day we as people can have a civil discussion and unite behind basic shared principles such as the Golden Rule/Non-Aggression Principle/Liberty/ Truth/Voluntarily helping others,rather than political parties and demand our elected “representatives” do the same.

    I believe this will only happen if those who share these principles focus on winning hearts and minds,and only then will that translate into winning elections.When enough people who love truth,freedom,integrity and goodwill unite behind principles rather than easily co-opted and corrupted political parties and become an economic force,it may become the most powerful force the world has ever seen.With a united effort and clearly defined principles,with the right message and clear communication,with sincerity,integrity and goodwill,it can be done.

  19. “They’re keeping the rates down so that everything else doesn’t go down. We have a very false economy. At some point the rates are going to have to change. The only thing that is strong is the artificial stock market. The U.S. economy is in a big, fat, ugly bubble. I will get rid of the nation’s more than $19 trillion national debt over a period of eight years. I’m renegotiating all of our deals, the big trade deals that we’re doing so badly on.” – Donald Trump, September 2016.

  20. “The U.S. economy would grow more quickly if monetary policy were eased. If we had a Fed that would lower interest rates, we would be like a rocket ship. We don’t have a Fed that knows what they’re doing. Our most difficult problem is not our competitors, it is the Federal Reserve. The Fed raised rates too soon, too often, and doesn’t have a clue!” – Donald Trump, July 2019

  21. I also have a philosophy PhD and am now in the second year of a second PhD in marketing. And, I also have Aspbergers. I appreciate your insights. I have a wild speculation: you are the unnamed whistleblower (?)

    Also, check out my wife’s company. She is being stonewalled by the powers that be for trying to hold the big tech firms to market accountability. Any advice or help would be appreciated. She is also a Philosopher. So interesting too how the great business innovations come from those educated outside businesses schools.

  22. Patrick,

    I like this latest draft of your fair and balanced article, plus your overall writing style. Please set up a meeting with Trump (and Mnuchin? Ross?) during his second term to talk about your financial concerns and ideas. Seriously!

    Some comments about the article:

    Trump’s DC hotel — Ivanka was the project manager. It’s her taste, she finished under budget and ahead of schedule, according to her proud Papa. She’s not just a pretty face!

    Unlike you, Patrick, I don’t have a photographic memory so am not sure where I read this regarding the pink marble: Trump asked low level employees which color marble they preferred (he liked the sandstone color). They all liked pink, so he chose that. So, yes, the décor reflects the taste of poor people. That’s one reason Las Vegas looks the way it does — it brings in the punters. This contradicts the false narrative of Trump as Dictator.

    There have been rumors for years that Trump was an FBI informant, helping them nail members of The Mob in NYC and Atlantic City. I wonder if that is when his friendship with Giuliani started.

    Shafting contractors – Trump said he despised contractors who gave him a bid and then tried to weasel more money out of him or who did shoddy work. He is very loyal and many contractors worked for him for decades if they did a good job.

    Racism – youtube has videos from the 1990s of Jackson and Sharpton praising Trump for his minority outreach. When Jackson ran for president the Dems laughed at him, but Trump endorsed him. Now they slander him. “No good deed goes unpunished.”

    Trump doesn’t need to give a speech on race. Actions speak louder than words. Candace Owens, creator of Blexit, has been educating blacks on that score and is a Trump supporter..

    Ignore the last remnants of your Catholic guilt regarding not being a whistle blower during the 2016 campaign. Remember when those huge thousand-piece all white puzzles were popular? You are just one piece in a puzzle. One piece doesn’t show the Big Picture. Barr is meticulously putting that puzzle together, gathering pieces scattered across the globe. It takes time, so please be patient and Trust the Plan.

    1. “Shafting contractors – Trump said he despised contractors who gave him a bid and then tried to weasel more money out of him or who did shoddy work. He is very loyal and many contractors worked for him for decades if they did a good job.”

      Really starting to question your grasp on reality.

      https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trumps-business-plan-left-a-trail-of-unpaid-bills-1465504454

      https://www.redstate.com/streiff/2016/06/10/donald-trump-really-perennial-deadbeat-bully/

      https://fortune.com/2016/10/08/donald-trump-taxes-contractors/

      https://time.com/5039109/donald-trump-undocumented-polish-trump-tower-bonwit-teller/

      https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-05/trump-s-dc-hotel-tagged-with-5-million-in-unpaid-worker-liens

      https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/06/trump-didnt-pay-his-bills-for-decades.html

      https://fox2now.com/2016/06/10/reports-donald-trump-stiffs-contractors/

      https://fortune.com/2016/09/30/donald-trump-stiff-contractors/

      https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5616654/true-to-form-trump-stiffs-contractors-again

      https://www.alternet.org/2016/06/trumps-wealth-built-stiffing-scores-contractors-businesses-and-

      https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/282933-report-trump-has-refused-to-pay-hundreds-of-workersemployees-years-report/

      https://www.npr.org/2017/01/11/509168365/trump-d-c-hotel-contractors-say-theyre-owed-millions

      https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/06/donald-trump-lawsuit-contractors

      https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/meet-the-many-small-business-owners-stiffed-by-donald-trump.html

    2. Patrick,

      I like this latest draft of your fair and balanced article, plus your overall writing style. Please set up a meeting with Trump (and Mnuchin? Ross?) during his second term to talk about your financial concerns and ideas. Seriously! OK, WELL, I’LL JUST DROP BY AND LOOK FOR THE DOORBELL ON THE TREASURY. OR THE WHITEHOUSE.

      rump’s DC hotel — Ivanka was the project manager. It’s her taste, she finished under budget and ahead of schedule, according to her proud Papa. She’s not just a pretty face! I KNOW THAT ABOUT HER.

      Unlike you, Patrick, I don’t have a photographic memory so am not sure where I read this regarding the pink marble: Trump asked low level employees which color marble they preferred (he liked the sandstone color). They all liked pink, so he chose that. So, yes, the décor reflects the taste of poor people. That’s one reason Las Vegas looks the way it does — it brings in the punters. This contradicts the false narrative of Trump as Dictator. THANKS. MORE OF AN IVANA TASTE, I THINK.

      There have been rumors for years that Trump was an FBI informant, helping them nail members of The Mob in NYC and Atlantic City. I wonder if that is when his friendship with Giuliani started. WOULD MAKE SENSE.

      Shafting contractors – Trump said he despised contractors who gave him a bid and then tried to weasel more money out of him or who did shoddy work. He is very loyal and many contractors worked for him for decades if they did a good job. ONLY ONE OF YOUR POINTS OF WHICH I AM NOT CONFIDENT. I AHVE HEARD SO MANY STORIES TO THE CONTRARY…

      Racism – youtube has videos from the 1990s of Jackson and Sharpton praising Trump for his minority outreach. When Jackson ran for president the Dems laughed at him, but Trump endorsed him. Now they slander him. “No good deed goes unpunished.”

      Racism – youtube has videos from the 1990s of Jackson and Sharpton praising Trump for his minority outreach. When Jackson ran for president the Dems laughed at him, but Trump endorsed him. Now they slander him. “No good deed goes unpunished.” A PHRASE WITH WHICH I AM SOMEWHAT FAMILIAR FROM MY OWN LIFE.

      Trump doesn’t need to give a speech on race. Actions speak louder than words. Candace Owens, creator of Blexit, has been educating blacks on that score and is a Trump supporter.. I LOVES ME SOME CANDACE!

      Ignore the last remnants of your Catholic guilt regarding not being a whistle blower during the 2016 campaign. Remember when those huge thousand-piece all white puzzles were popular? You are just one piece in a puzzle. One piece doesn’t show the Big Picture. Barr is meticulously putting that puzzle together, gathering pieces scattered across the globe. It takes time, so please be patient and Trust the Plan. OK. I HEAR YOU. OK.

    3. I have read your article on Obama. You pointed out positive things Obama did. When in reality Obama was one of the worst Presidents. Obama one claim of fame is he has divided out Country. Obama gave of Antifa, ISIS, Black lives matter “which is a deep state cabal ”
      You never mentioned all the Great things Trump has done for our Country. Instead most of this article was breaking down racism. Its obvious where you stand. You are part of the problem with your fake news. This is why people are standing up. President Trump woke America up. Trump was and is for the American people. Not sending millions of Tax payers money to other countries. You may have not liked his tweets. But then again he is not a career politician. And Thank God for that.

  23. I like to read as much as the next guy but I get bored easily when someone goes out of his way to use as many words as humanly possible before arriving at his point. It’s irritating. Also, his first criticism is about Donald Trump is his decorative shortcomings. That is trivial, to say the least. If your biggest problem with someone is his decor choices, I’m sorry you lost me. Those of you who claim to hate Donald Trump and site misrepresented lies as evidence makes me sick. All that shows me is how gullible people are eating everything CNN and alike feed their audiences 24/7/365. Mostly twisted biased news that even the National Inquirer wouldn’t print. The main-stream media bias is obvious and anyone with a shred of intellectual honesty can see it yet there are millions of people out there who don’t. This is the power of a corrupt media and our country, the world will continue to suffer until something is done to stop the mass manipulation of minds by them. They are in bed with the politicians and there is nothing more detrimental to a free society. Does Provda ring a bell? People have become lazy. Instead of digging for the truth, they leave it in the hands of others who have no regard for it, only their agenda.

  24. I avoid all ‘racism’ news (and unfortunately now most ‘comedy’) for exactly the same reason as you defined leftie racism. That said, you spent WAY too much time on the racist topic. It is the same lefties that are wasting their life (and mine) on a worthless topic. When ONE (several times a yr-to save the SJWs from attacking that point-surely wont work) black man gets killed, abused… they run months worth of stories on how racism is still alive and well… But one COUNTER-argument that is not allowed to be brought up to tell people to stfu and move on, is that twice, by a large majority, we the people, voted a (man who identifies as a) black man into office. Because i respect your thoughts, i read your piece on it… i do not look forward to your response after watching the video… please keep it a single topic write up so i don’t have to waste more of my time. Keep up the good work.

  25. Patrick I love reading your post and I too am a libertarian. I think if there was more open dialogues I think people would realize most Americans aren’t as divided as they make it out to be. I was curious your views on what’s going on with they overnight lending issues with the banks and what is causing it. I feel like people are missing something. Why is this happening now and where is all the money at these banks are reporting huge earnings. Thanks for you time and coming forward. I am not the biggest trump fan (some of his tweets make my stomach turn) but I think at this time he is the right man for the job. Washington and career politicians seem beyond corrupt to me on both sides. It’s mind boggling how Congress can insider trade and still get the best health inssurance for life.

  26. Nowhere does my copy of the Constitution say, “…unless Trump.”…
    enough said, and weeks after all this conversation going on, is he going home (where he may never would’ve left) or what?

  27. Our daughter is dating a young man ‘Joe’ who works summers at an exclusive luxury getaway, the kind of place people of my class (upper middle-class) typically don’t even know exists. Joe is the grandson of a famous man (whose name Patrick would know, but most here wouldn’t, because he wasn’t that kind of famous, he was a businessman). Joe is genuinely nice. When daughter first showed me a photo, I could only say “My God honey, that boy is divine”. He’s got that coffee brown, thick Irish hair. Anyway, sorry if any of that is extraneous.

    Joe has advanced expertise in a skilled, outdoor activity. He grew up with this sport and he’s among the best at it. He can talk to anybody, knows how to teach this ‘outdoor activity’. He’s the kind of person, in every way, such resorts probably like to have around.

    About a year, 18 mos. ago, he worked with Ivanka (Trump) and her husband Jared, and met the kiddos. He told our daughter that the children were the sweetest, nicest, best-behaved kids he got to see all season. Not an iota of brattiness to them. He said Ivanka and Jared were lovely to him, very kind, the opposite of entitled. He said they were probably the nicest guests they had all season.

    I was pretty vague because Joe wasn’t even supposed to be talking to his girlfriend (our daughter) about all that. But he did and she told us. He also told her (and she related) about the worst characters (names all of you would know and I don’t think you’d be surprised, either) and how God-awful they were to him, to all the staff.

    ANYWAY, Trump raises good kids. In turn, it looks like his kids are raising good kiddos, too.

  28. Oh, well, now that we know that the only thing Trump does wrong as a businessman is repeatedly cheat people, I guess it’s all good. Now that we’ve heard that your idol Buffett is a predatory landlord screwing mobile home owners with abusive mortgages, it all starts to make sense. I mean, I’m sure you did the same at Overstock – regularly screwing customers and suppliers. It’s just the American way, right? Business as usual.

    What’s that? You’re an honest businessman, oxymoronic as that may sound? You don’t cheat people whenever you can get away with it?

    Then for God’s sake, expect the same of Trump, or recognize him as the piece of trash he is..

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