2016 Oct 24^th

Donald Trump gave a speech in Gettysburg in which he said some things that need to be examined; immediately on taking office he will cancel all of the unconstitutional Obama executive orders.

If the executive orders that remain (some were found unconstitutional) were unconstitutional you can be sure they would already have been challenged by Republicans and if the challenges had been successful the orders would have been overturned. So good luck with that effort.

He will amend the constitution to impose term limits on congress. This require two thirds of the state to agree to call a constitutional convention and then three quarters of the states must agree to any amendment for it to be ratified. What do you think the senators and congressional representatives will be doing if you try to pass an amendment restricting how long they can keep their jobs, particularly when many of these politicians hate the guy who is proposing the change.

Then he wants a five-year ban on lobbying. This proposal is simply naïve.  Who is a lobbyist? There have been several attempts to define lobbying and none of them has been successful. Newt Gingrich, one of the richest influence peddlers in Washington manages to skirt the definition of “lobbyist” just enough so that he doesn’t even have to register. You can be president of an “interest group” and go around to see your old congressional buddies to let them know your views on upcoming legislation…and by the way, you tell them, “My organization will be making a generous contribution to your election campaign."

 No lobbying going on here.

He is now delivering some of his opinions to the usual adoring crowd at a Florida rally. We are smashing ISIS caliphate by attacking Mosul, their capital. The fact that ISIS is gradually being destroyed doesn’t make Trump happy because it doesn’t fit with his rant about our incompetent leadership. He tells us that cleaning out Mosul is more difficult because we advertised that the attack was coming. He believes that we should have surprised them. Look at the terrain; how could you bring an army of a hundred thousand to bear on Mosul in a surprise attack?

Trump’s most recent performance makes clear that he is really getting the excuses ready for his now near certain loss. He claims that the press is rigged against him (he’s no longer even happy with Fox.); the polls are rigged against him (but they were great back when he was winning the primaries.); and the election is rigged against him. His son says that he will accept the election results if they are fair.