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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPeter Daou: Stunning Alexander Hamilton quote. If you haven't seen it, you won't believe it
Link to tweet
by the New York Times as one of the most prominent political bloggers in the nation. Wikipedia
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)spanone
(135,900 posts)lunatica
(53,410 posts)The very meaning of karma.
I think this should be the last sentence.
Thats an incredibly prescient quote.
SergeStorms
(19,204 posts)Trump's only "talent" is lying. If it weren't for his daddy leaving him a considerable inheritance (over $200 million it's said) Trump would probably be living on welfare. He's a horrible businessman, having bankrupted himself six times, and is the only human being to ever lose money in the casino business.
He has no idea how world trade works, as is evidenced by his economy killing tariff wars with the entire world. But he says "trade wars are good, and easy to win". Apparently his degree from the Wharton School was obtained in some manner other than scholarly pursuits. None of his classmates (Class of 1968) ever remember him attending a class, and with a name like 'Trump' that would be almost impossible to do.
Yes, Trump's only "considerable talent" is lying. It's the only reason he is where he is today.
malaise
(269,219 posts)But he does succeed in whipping up his fellow deplorables - at least up to now.
csziggy
(34,139 posts)He got an undergraduate degree, a bachelor of economic science, not the master's level that most people who brag about Wharton get. He also was not one of the two in his class that graduated "summa cum laude," the sixteen that graduated " cum laude," or the five that graduated "magna cum laude" - as proven by a copy of the graduation program in the article below.
Updated Feb 19, 2017; Posted Feb 19, 2017
University of Pennsylvania records and documents uncovered by the school's student newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, show it's President Trump's academic record that is now in question.
For decades, the national media has reported that Trump graduated "first in his class" at Wharton, often confusing his undergraduate degree with the Ivy League university's top-ranked MBA program.
<SNIP>
In Gwenda Blair's 2001 book, "The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders and a President," she said Trump transferred into Wharton from Fordham University with help from family connections. The president's older brother, Freddy Trump, knew an admissions counselor at Wharton, she said.
That book and some reports in the 1980s claimed Trump didn't graduate first in his class and didn't graduate with honors.
A 1968 commencement program shared Friday by the Daily Pennsylvanian backs that up. It shows that Trump graduated from the undergraduate school of finance and commerce, but he did not graduate at the top of his class or with honors.
More: https://www.pennlive.com/news/2017/02/what_is_trumps_real_record_at.html
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)uponit7771
(90,367 posts)Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)in discussing how to exploit the weaknesses of voters.
The Federalist Papers were a propagandized version of his own unpalatable ideas meant to persuade the people to agree to give up at least some of the power they'd fought for to elite ruling classes.
Among other things Hamilton really wanted to establish a nonblooded ruling aristocracy, represented by senators elected for life, and wanted the presidency to be for life with near dictatorial powers. Very fortunately for us, the men who went off to fight believed the Declaration of Independence nonsense that they were establishing a nation on the principle that all men were created equal.
By 1792, Hamilton and the rest of his ilk, if no longer shocked by it, were being continually offended by common people being elected to state legislatures and congress.
Pluvious
(4,327 posts)We dodged a bullet then, let's hope we can again.
Caliman73
(11,752 posts)Hamilton and his supporters were definitely on extreme. On the other side you had Andrew Jackson, the Trump of his day, who courted the rowdy mobs and coarsened the political discourse.
I am not sure what the solution is, but I do not want "rule by elites" nor do I want "rule by the uneducated mobs".
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)creating "too-republican" (i.e., power in the people) governments, which were wildly erratic and incompetent and incapable of providing the stability society has to have to prosper. Our founding fathers lived the dilemmas in your last sentence.
I don't remember details, but on the states' side, an entire legislature might be elected for only one year; and since royal governors had been oppressors under royal rule, some states had no executive at all, or a very unempowered one. The federal congress was supposed to perform all executive, legislative and judicial functions, so had enormous duty to meet the desperate needs of our new nation but no control over the states' activities or ability to tax.
It is wonderful that, with no real examples to follow -- other than the many disasters currently playing out -- our founders did such a fantastic job. But we did have some very good, thoughtful and informed minds. We still do, I'm sure; they're just maligned and mischaracterized by a deliberate clamor created to hide their abilities.
UTUSN
(70,762 posts)Leaving out the phrase about being "talented".
Martin Eden
(12,880 posts)Hamilton was prescient.