NNS are you aware all views are valid? do you in telling me how to help make a better world think I am not doing so
My everyday see,s me trying to help, even if it is just saying g'day to a socially isolated person
Those of us who believe we see in Trump true danger, a truly dangerous fool, do so because we think we know the man is unfit to be in the white house to clean its floors

Dear NNS,

Not only do I not hate Trump, but a feeling of benevolence comes over me toward you and all the other interacting participants on this thread. We are as the denizens of two ant hills struggling for dominance.

A quote comes to mind:

“Brevity is the soul of wit.” - Shakespeare

Dear Belly,

I agree with your view of Trump. I think he is bad for the United States and the world. However, there has been an unfortunate tendency in this discussion to believe that virtue resides with one political position or another; that the side a person favors is more likely to tell the truth than the side the person opposes. Hillary Clinton called those who were for Trump deplorables. You were doing the same thing when you expressed the view that those who supported Trump were blind to his true nature. I think those who supported are just as intelligent as those who opposed Trump. They may be less well educated and blinded by religious prejudice. Different areas of the United States have different levels of education and different religious attitudes. Trump targeted the less educated and the fundies in his campaign by appealing to their prejudices so it is no accident that he had their vote. He even bragged about it. He also bragged about the support of the rich.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/watch-trump-brag-about-uneducated-voters-the-hispanics-126481/

Donald Trump clinched his third straight victory in the Nevada caucuses Tuesday, winning 46 percent of the vote. He celebrated with a rousing victory speech in which he boasted of his greed and his popularity with uneducated voters.

“It’s hard for me to turn down money because that’s what I’ve done in my whole life; I grab and grab and grab. You know I get greedy. I want money, money,” Trump said, explaining how difficult it is for him to reject campaign donations from his wealthy friends. “Now we’re going to get greedy for the United States — we’re going to grab and grab and grab.”

He thanked the coalition that carried him to victory: the young, the old, casino moguls, televangelists, highly educated and poorly educated voters. “I love the poorly educated!” Trump enthused.

Trump is a scoundrel exploiting the ignorant.

david how do I start? see I see no knight in shining armor in the Democrats right now
For sure I would be a democrat if I was an American
I saw nothing in Hillary, except she was not Trump
Yes! this forum is more about defending your opinion, than just having an opinion
Not for all of us
Australia has no knight in shining armor, no not even my party's leader
He once was the brilliant man I saw as the once in a century leader all parties need
Not now, maybe when/if he wins he will again become that man, but this world needs not just good leaders
Most importantly it needs informed, educated, caring, voters
Ones who demand nothing but the best from those who lead us
Trump, has, in my view, helped the Democrats return from the near death it had post Obama

" repeatedly attempting to ease sanctions against Russia "

Well, you see, that's simply untrue. Just another thing that you fabricate to try to keep your "Putin puppet" fantasy alive. The two articles you posted earlier were about Congress passing laws to stop easing of sanctions. But neither were in response to attempts by Trump to ease sanctions. They were if you like,preemptive strikes.

Trump has said that he wants to keep the option of easing sanctions open to use a bargaining chip in negotiations over nuclear arms reductions, but has not offered to reduce the sanctions unilaterally.

In fact there are more sanctions in place now than when Trump was elected. Something else for you to ignore?

As to oil, its clear that your lack of numeracy as shown in the hiatus debate extends to economics.

I'll try to help you understand. Back in 2013/14 oil prices were high and the Russian economy was looking good, since oil is Russia's major export. Then the Saudis and Russia decided to ramp up production to lower the price of oil (let me know if you want me to explain supply and demand theory) to kill of the growing but still small US fracking industry. They thought it would be a temporary campaign, the frackers would go broke or drop out and then they could increase prices again. But they didn't understand the resilience of those frackers who, instead, survived and simply became more efficient so that they could be profitable at lower prices.

/cont

/continued

Unfortunately for Russia, once they gave up trying to knock the US out of the oil export business, the frackers were a major force.
Now they find that they can't get prices back up to where they want them to be.

Since 2014, per capita GDP has fallen by 30%. Household disposable income has fallen every year. Russia is hurting to the extent that Putin is forced to increase suppression of dissent.

Even while Obama was putting obstacles in its way, the US frackers were succeeding. Now that Trump has removed those obstacles, the US is becoming the major fossil fuel exporter. And, it seems, any thoughts of getting oil back up to $100 is forlorn and therefore hopes of Russian economic recovery is likewise.

Now the single best thing that could happen to Russia is that oil suddenly jumped to $100 for the long term. But that could only happen if the US stopped exporting and started importing oil again.

Sooooo, and I hope I haven't lost you here with too much logic, if Trump truly was Putin's puppet, his priority would have been, at the very least, to maintain Obama's brakes on the industry. Yet he did the opposite.

Why? Well I'll leave you to ponder that one.