Donald Trump is the CEO of America.
You think he's the President. That's not the way to look at it. I'm not saying Trump being CEO of America is good, I'm not saying that it's bad. (Not yet.) I'm saying that's what it is.
The reason I bring the topic up today is because I was reading an article in the Daily Mail about Apprentice alumni Omarosa and she was warning America about the dangers of...Vice President Mike Pence. This is why Omarosa is spot on in her evaluation.
All the people on the left screaming to impeach Donald Trump still don't get it. Let's say Trump really mucks things up TODAY, and that's possible, and he's impeached. Hillary Clinton does not become President. I'm not sure that everyone in America understands that fact. If Trump is impeached, here is the order of succession:
1 Vice President Mike Pence (R)
2 Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan (R)
3 President Pro Tempore of the Senate Orrin Hatch (R)
4 Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (R)
5 Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin (R)
6 Secretary of Defense James Mattis (I)
7 Attorney General Jeff Sessions (R)
8 Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke (R)
9 Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue (R)
10 Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross (R)
11 Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta (R)
12 Secretary of Health and Human Services Eric Hargan (R) (acting)
13 Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson (R)
-Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao (R)
14 Secretary of Energy Rick Perry (R)
15 Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos (R)
16 Secretary of Veterans AffairsDavid Shulkin (I)
17 Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen (I)
Now I'm not a History Major, but in the past 200 years or so, I don't believe the order of succession has ever passed option 2. Former Texas Governor Rick Perry is closer to becoming the President than Hillary Clinton. So we're stuck with Trump for the next 3 years.
With that out of the way. Let's take a topic and explain why it's important to delineate Trump's way of thinking. Immigration. Trump is not a principled conservative, he is using immigration to "fire" unproductive people, the US of A is his corporation. Now you can argue with me about the "Dreamers," and I'm not arguing that you're wrong, but Trump paints with a broad brush, just like a lot of Big Picture guys. You know Big Picture guys, thin on the details, big on delegating things. So when it comes to immigration, Trump isn't being racist, he sees a group whose net drain on the country is higher than its net contribution. Trump also knows you can't deport citizens, so the deportation of illegals is the easiest way to "fire" people. One thing he knows all too well from his experience on reality television.
You may scream at me that if immigrants were whites, Trump wouldn't deport them. Eh, I'm not so sure about that. A few weeks back, Eric Trump said "my Dad only sees green." Let's take Eric Trump at his word, and I believe him. You could argue that people of color are more often poor than whites in America, I'll listen to that argument, but be aware that it is now you painting with a broad brush.
Editor's Note: The Percentage of Poor Blacks in America is Higher. The Number of Poor Whites in America is Higher. - Census.gov
Let's be clear, seeing only green is not good for America either, for the United States is a Constitutional Federal Republic. Money is not supposed to be the basis of rule in America. We are not a Wealth Driven-Oligarchy.
But now, maybe we are. By electing a CEO, you may have cemented that way of thinking.....
I operate this website called Beacon of Speech. My Speech is protected by First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Most days I piss away my freedoms talking about music or local sports, topics that matter not one iota in the greater scheme of things. At its core, though, Beacon of Speech is a free speech site. When no one reads my posts, does my site suck? (It probably does.) Or does B.O.S. suffer because I don't put enough money into it? I could advertise. I could hire a company to move Beacon of Speech up in the Google search results. I could buy fake followers on social media. All of those options cost money, but does buying exposure make B.O.S. any better or worse when it comes to actual content? Does Beacon of Speech have less rights than a media giant, say CNN?
Two quotes are the guideposts as to the way we frame our arguments here:
"Corporations are not people and money does not equal freedom of speech." - Al Gore - Now Al Gore made this statement right before he sold his television network to Qatari Princes for piles and piles of cash, so don't kill the message when you shoot the messenger.
"Corporations are people and money equals freedom of speech." - Rush Limbaugh - Using classical logic equations, if M is money and S is free speech. By definition, the more of M you have, the more of S you get. Do you see the problem if you're running your country as a corporation? Who in your "corporation" is going to get more rights?
Now 1 is the way the country should be run, (and remember, Gore said this before he sold out) and 2 is the way the country is run today. You could say that Trump is doing the best job in American History, the stock market is the highest that it has ever been. if money is your only barometer. I can't deny the historically high numbers of the stock market. For some people, they're doing just great. But if the stockholders of America are happy, that doesn't necessarily mean that America as a whole is happy. What percentage of Americans actually own stock?
Editor's Note: The top 20 percent of Americans owned 92 percent of the Stock. - NPR
And with that being said, could it be worse? Oh, lots worse. No one is coming to shut down Beacon of Speech. The government is not killing immigrants instead of returning them to their own nations. Right now, all I'm saying is that money rules the day. Which brings us back to Omarosa. Omarosa knows the business world and just thinks of Trump as a businessman. She knows the score and sees a businessman in charge as a positive. I worked in a corporate structure for 30 years, and see this businessman specifically as a negative. But this is where Omarosa and I agree, if Trump was gone and Pence was the new President, I think you would see a real erosion of liberties in the United States. As people whack away at their effigies of President Trump, I believe that a President Pence would actually be a worse option than the President that currently resides in the White House. If Trump was gone, according to the Constitution, there is no where else to go but to Pence. The levers in our democracy now dictate only 2 options for 2018. Pence or Trump.
Even if you impeached the both of 'em, I'm not sure Ryan would take the job. 40+ years in the Senate Orrin Hatch? Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Now some people are screaming at their computer, their faces beet red "if Hillary Clinton..."
For the last goddamn time, Hillary Clinton cannot be the President until 2020 (technically 2021) according to the mechanisms of our Constitution. (Through the election process.)
The last non-third party candidate I voted for in the Presidential Elections was Bob Dole in 1996.
In my adult life, the only Presidential Candidate that I voted for that actually won was H.W. Bush in 1988. (No, I didn't vote for Perot, he was a loon.) I am so sick and tired of the losing party acting like the apocalypse is upon us because their candidate is not in office.
My candidate never wins.
...and so you get jaded, unread columns.