Report Card for Donald Trump

[SomeGuy]

Quote:This is a thoughtful post and I'll try to reply to it thoughtfully.

Thanks, I appreciate that.  It's nice to get beyond political caricatures occasionally.

Quote:What do you think about Trump's pick for ambassador of Israel?  I am Jewish and strongly support the right of Israel to exist (side-by-side with a Palestinian state); I say this because David Friedman's stance on Israel frightens me to death

Didn't you rule out ever making aliyah (not sure I got the helping verb right, let's just say ascending)?  My honest opinion: I really don't care.  I am neither Jewish, nor Christian, nor Arab, nor any combination of the 3.  I simply don't find it to be relevant to me as an American, and to be quite frank deeply resent the extent to which *some* Jewish organizations and public figures, and their evangelical counterparts, have embedded a knee-jerk support for Israel into our foreign policy.  I even have a fairly low opinion of the practice of American citizens going and serving their time in the IDF and then coming back and getting involved in public life as a journalist or what have you.  Especially when they then make an opposition to nationalism elsewhere a centerpiece of their public platform.

However, given that all of these things are, you know, things, the fact of the matter is that the US simply doesn't have that much influence over Israel's internal politics, and that Israel's politics are so right-wing because that's who the Israelis have been voting for.  The Israeli Labor Party's star has long been in eclipse, secular (Non-Russian) Ashkenazim are a waning segment of the population, and nothing has emerged to the left of center to counterbalance Likud and the various parties to its right (Israel Beiteinu, Shas, the Haredi parties).  Given the tumult in the Middle East right now, and the shifting balance of power within and among Western countries, all of the trends are going in what I'm sure you view as the wrong direction.  Sorry.

Quote:I hope you are correct.  What I've read indicates that it is nothing more than a bunch of tax incentives for corporations to build toll roads.  However, I hope you are correct.  Regardless of who we voted for, I think we all agree that we need to do a massive infrastructure push.

I've seen nothing but trial balloons and gossip to date.  So, in the absence of real data, all we can do is hope.  My only words of encouragement here are that Donald Trump is 70 years old, and is not likely to change significantly as a person.  He's built his life on borrowing money to have things built and slapping his name on them, and sleeping with a steady succession of pretty bimbos.  So, running up the deficit to build infrastructure, inflation be damned, seems like it would be right up his alley.  If the net result of his presidency is a construction boom, burgeoning inflation (with a corresponding national debt), and the news that he's been sleeping with, say, Hope Hicks or Kellyanne Conway or <insert woman here>... *shrugs* I would be content. 

Thank you for your time, and you're right; He's the president(elect) now, and all we can do right now is wait and see.  Any comments on the other items for the road?