I put the TEXT of the Speech some where just south of "Nothing to Fear, but Fear Itself". It's not the poetry that was the Gettysburg Address... but then what in the last 200 Years has been?

Just off the text (because again, I'm sure Trump fumbled the delivery... and I like Trump, dude just isn't very good at delivery. He makes up for that however by being full of passion when he speaks), this is the greatest Speech I've read that was produced in my lifetime.

Reagan... but a memory from my Childhood. I recall his speech being amazing, but I was a wide eyed child then and can't recite a single word of it to you now.

Obama had a killer speech his 1st time through... I think this one tops it (though I suspect Obama delivered his better). And for the record, I supported Obama in a large part of what his Platform was ran on, and a large part of what his Speeches were about. He failed to deliver on those parts, and somehow managed to ram through the things I disagreed on.

I support Trump in large part of his message of Unity and giving the People their Voice again. Now it remains to be seen if he can follow through, or fail where so many others have as well.

We need Statesman again, not Politicians. Statesman, had real Jobs to do... and Government was naught but a Civic Duty that they participated in. This creation of 'Career Politician' is an ugly bastardization of the Statesman that should be done away with.

Along with the ugliness that is Lobbyists. That parcel the People into such divided and contested groups, and trade us on the Exchange of Politics... we are nothing more than commodities now. It's no wonder Politicians don't treat us like we're actual People, we're nothing more than a Tradable Good to them at this point. Because of the Lobbyist.

I'm sick of the Black Vote, the Female Vote, the White Male over 35 Vote... if you solve Hunger for ALL Americans, you just solved Hunger for Young Black Americans. If you solve Wage Inequality for ALL Americans, you just solved Wage Inequality for Females.

Solve AMERICAN PROBLEMS... and you'll find the by-product is that each of these Special Interest Problems is thusly solved.

I want a President that wants the AMERICAN VOTE... not a parcel of this vote and a parcel of that vote. For me, Trump was the first Candidate to do that. He wanted the AMERICAN Vote... and at the end of the day he got that. It was the exact Minorities that the Democrats have lied to for decades that put Trump in Office. He didn't play the Demographic Game, and treating those Demographics as Equals paid off.

"Oh, you can't say that about Hispanics!" Why not? If they are Hispanic-American, then why can't I speak to and about them the exact same way I would any other American? "You can't say that to her, she's a female!" Why not? IF that's how I'd speak to a Male, and a Female wants to be treated equal... then that's EXACTLY what I should say to her.

Trump treated people as equals, though few want to admit that. What many saw as divisiveness was Trump allow others to be treated equally. He went after the women in the Debate the same as he did the men... that's EQUALITY. He went after Kelly the same way he went after Male Moderators. That's EQUALITY.

The problem is, we don't want Equality. We want 'Equality, Plus'. And we want our nice little demographic to benefit from the Plus.

People don't like being smacked with ACTUAL Equality, because without the Plus attached to it now it is something more bitter than they are accustomed to.

As a Note, I don't mind those that WANT more... as long as they LEAD with that. What I absolutely despise is those that come saying that all they desire is Equality, when their actual Agenda is More.

Let's have Equality. And equal OPPORTUNITY for all, and those with the greatest Merit will rise. I'm all for that. Let's get EVERY American Educated, a real and proper Education. Let's create Jobs so that no American has to live beneath the Poverty line. And let's become so Successful as a Nation that no American has to pay for another American (outside of Disability) because there will be a Job for that American to work, a job that pays more than Unemployment. (I say this because after my time in the Army I was on Unemployment while I looked for a job, and I found out why people stay on it. I took a Pay Cut to become Employed, literally.)

Fix these broken systems, and stop the corruption.

Any President that can do that will be a Great American to be certain. Regardless of what their Name may be.

This right here is the most crucial part.

No Leader is great on their own. The KEY Attribute is the ability to put the right people in the right places.

If you look around the room and you're the smartest guy there, you've already failed. No one can master ALL the issues. You need a general understanding of each, but you need to surround yourself with Experts. You need enough Intelligence to know when some one truly understands what they talk about, and to be able to follow a complex conversation. Beyond that, you need WISDOM. To take the information provided by all the Experts and decide what course of action to take.

In a way I think Obama wasn't screwed by the House or the Senate. He was screwed because he was the smartest guy in the room (literally, not the figurative statement which is a negative). He didn't surround himself with the best people, so the people he DID surround himself with didn't get the job done. Which is, at the end of the day, a Failure of Leadership.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gneBUA39mnI/ What was REALLY said at Donald Trump's Inauguration speech " target="_blank"> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gneBUA39mnI/ What was REALLY said at Donald Trump's Inauguration speech

Capitalism in itself is destructive to mankind. We are one race of people (the human race, the color of your skin doesn't change this) with one planet to share, there's only so much to go around. Capitalism rewards those who exploit and take advantage of others. This thought process begins to permeate peoples thinking, then society becomes "you versus me" and we slowly begin eroding the world and each other. No species can sustain itself on self destruction. This effect is further amplified by the disparity between the upper class and lower class. The differences in opportunity between the two classes are incomparable. Anyone who believes differently either "got lucky" or never lived truly poor in the current system. The divide has only increased and the opportunities to escape poverty have diminished. Thirty years ago and more, education and entry-level jobs were MUCH more accessible for lower class citizens, but as entry level jobs decrease and education becomes unaffordable the divide has reached extreme levels. For the lower class, living in a blatantly unfair and corrupt society takes it's toll on you mentally in the form of status anxiety.

For those unaware, status anxiety is the effect of living in a systematically unfair society on those that are less fortunate. When you can turn on the TV, or walk down the street and see your "peers" living better than you without working any harder, it takes a toll on you. Even if all your basic needs are met, and you live an overall decent life, just having that reminder of inequality is enough to weigh on you mentally. This is one of the main contributing factors to drug use in modern society. Whether that be legal or illegal drugs, people are medicating to feel normal because life in our current society hurts. Anti-depressant and narcotic use has exploded in the past decade and a half.

Now, sure... you may say "Well, I'M not the one doing any of this, and I deserve what I have". Well, that's the trick we play on ourselves to feel better about our self. We always feel as though we "earned" what we have. Everyone thinks this. Donald Trump thinks this. He was "handed" millions of dollars right out of college and proceeded to squander most of it away in bankruptcies. In a study done last year, it was found that if Trump had just invested his $200 million in a mutual fund in 1982 he would be worth almost three times what he is today. This doesn't reflect the "talented businessman" we were sold in the election. Five bankruptcies further weakens that argument. He's a swindler who exploits other peoples fears and sentiments.

Now all this brings me to the commonly used statement "How can you take something from one group and give it to another. This isn't fair or right. Socialism doesn't work." The world has a finite amount of resources and space. How is it fair that one person can claim those resources and land their own? First come, first serve? He put a flag in the dirt.... so it's his. I never agreed to allow oil companies to destroy my planet so they can get richer. They are taking from me and giving to their shareholders. This is my planet and my future they are endangering with their fracking and oil spills. But in a capitalist society none of this matters. All you have to ask is "Who has the money?". That's who makes the decisions. Greed is a powerful thing. Capitalist societies are ruled by greed. You take from one person to line your own pockets. Without proper regulation this greed goes unchecked and leads to vast inequality. This is the America you see today. Politicians are bought and paid for by the richest corporations and work wholly for those interests well above our own. They've been working for decades to create the disparity we currently live in.... or as Trump himself puts it... this AMERICAN CARNAGE!

In light of this it would only seem logical that in order to fix this inequality there MUST be some form of wealth redistribution. The system is set up to allow those with money/power to perpetually maintain it. Just to advance economically you have to go through those wealthy enterprises, which in turn only serves to further enrich those enterprises. That's why small businesses are dwindling and conglomerates are feasting. You need money to make money.... and those with money will only let you in if they get a "kick back". So under this system wealth will predominantly travel one way... UP. All this can be seen in American today. People blame immigration and regulation for problems that are innate to capitalism itself. As long as they can deflect the blame, the upper class will continue to reap from the masses while they point the blame at the less fortunate than themselves. How can our problems be attributed to the poor when they have the least amount of power and representation? It's the people with money and power that are shaping our economy, not the poor working class people who work multiple jobs and still can't afford basic comforts. I think systems like welfare and medicare are essential if we want what's best for our country. If we don't force the rich to give some money to the poor, they typically won't. They'll just use it to gain more money and the cycle goes on and on until the poor can't survive and eventually die or rebel. So by forcing some income down the ladder, instead of allowing the "invisible hand" of capitalism to pickpocket the poor for the rich, we as a nation, can once again resemble a place with some semblance of decency and equality.

tl:dr- If you have a problem with your taxes, don't blame the least powerful people in the country, they have little to no influence in policy, blame the most influential... the rich. You've been duped by the elite to point the blame below you, when it's really them that have been stealing from you all along.

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"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. ****, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." -Lyndon B. Johnson

Very good read Nicko, I wish I had the patience to write stuff down like this.

Watching what's happening in the US and it appears that the electorate is starting to wake up to what exactly Trump is going to offer.
I'mean 50 and can't remember a more hated president, I only hope he's gone before he does more damage to your great country

I completely disagree with these remarks against Capitalism.

Supply and Demand. Value. Production. These are real things. Competition breeds Improvement. Capitalism is based of a Reward System. Those who produce, get paid. Those who don't, will fail. You make a crappy product, your business fails. You produce lousy work, you eventually get fired.

What we've seen in so many other systems is when things are tried to be divided equally, two major things happen. The first is... corruption remains anyways. So it doesn't get divided equally anyways. The second is, both Quality AND Productivity drop. So you get shoddy goods, and less of them.

It isn't Capitalism that is the problem. And we can't really blame the 'invisible hand', because even America... considered one of the MOST Free Markets in the world... isn't a TRUE Free Market. We're mired with Regulations and Red Tape that essential restrain the market. That's not the Market's fault... that's the Government messing with the market.

As a 100% red blooded American redneck, I thank God every day for Donald Trump. He loves America, unlike that big eared communist who just got shown the back door.
And while I try to steer clear of political disagreements...I get really pissed off when I see keyboard cowboys sit their fat asses at their computers and throw rocks at my country, or worse, give their insignificant and useless opinions about it. Worry about that shithole you live in cowboy.. we got this.

I agree that capitalism is the most productive economic system humanity has found so far. In theory cooperation should work better than competition, but in practice it can be more difficult to manage. As opposed to a competition-based system where "losers" are an accepted commodity, "those who don't, will fail", in a cooperation-based system having "losers" is a symptom of failure. One system's main goal is production, the other is equality. They can't be measured on the same scale because they are treating different problems.

A completely unregulated free market can be just as dangerous as a completely regulated planned economy. Neither is optimal. We can't trust any institution to have complete control, and we can't expect all citizens to understand the repercussions of pursuing their own economic "successes". Either extreme seems doomed to fail to me. Unregulated capitalism is a short road to rampant greed, just look back at the history of America and you'll see countless examples of greed ruining lives. Our nation was forced to add some regulation to our economy after the great depression, otherwise we might of never rebounded. If you're advocating going back to those days, we'll be seeing bread lines soon enough, as the rich exploit the poor for more and more personal gain. Capitalism has no moral compass. In fact it rewards many of the qualities we agree make a crappy person (greed, selfishness, mercilessness, dishonesty).

Perhaps I should emphasize that I love America and I don't see us moving very far away from our capitalistic roots. I don't want us to become a communist nation nor do I see this as a possibility. American values seem almost intertwined with capitalistic ones.

Choosing to blame our current state on regulation is a "talking point" more than an actual point. Without regulation companies are free to destroy our world. Much of the damage chemicals can cause can go unseen for years and be close to irreversible. Why should we reward companies for destroying our one and only planet. "Well it saved that company "x" amount of dollars, so it's ok that lake barely has fish anymore."
"Well, our corporation will make millions of dollars if we find oil.... so let's pump the ground full of toxic chemicals and then blow it up! Who cares if the people of the area won't have clean drinking water."

The counter-argument to this is; "In a real free market, people will let their money speak for them and not purchase goods from companies that pollute the environment." Well, no society has ever existed (and may ever exist) that has the transparency to follow this type of thinking.
As I stated earlier, many times the repercussions of some major decisions can be invisible till years later. Many times we have no idea of the danger that companies are posing to us until after the effects have been well documented. Expecting companies to all of a sudden develop a moral compass that contradicts their bottom line is delusional. Regulation is a must if we have any hope of a future. I live near the Great Lakes and for years you couldn't fish or swim in many places due to the terrible state of the water. In recent years the lakes have been doing much better, but there is still a lot of fear for the safety of our lake and drinking water.

Technology is replacing jobs. Every year there are less jobs than the prior. Every year there are more people than the prior. So think about that a second.... more people, but less jobs. How would an unregulated free market protect Americans when there isn't ample opportunity out there? We need social programs to protect our worst off citizens, otherwise crime and poverty will slowly rip our state apart. If you can't find work, most people would be willing to do anything for food and money. If you want a nation full of desperate people, than sure we can give the keys to the country to whoever has the most capital. Just don't expect them to look out for anyone but themselves.