I don't believe President Trump cares what the Democrats do. He doesn't need Democrats to work with him. He is going to renegotiate the trade agreements. He'll succeed and become a working class hero. Democrats can either be part of the solution or become irrelevant.

As long as Trump is behaving like a Democrat, then other Democrats should get behind him and support him. Of course, as soon as he starts behaving like a Republican again, then Democrats should abandon him like a stinky sock. That is, after all, the American way.

Donald Trump has NPD !!!

Many psychology experts use the criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published by the American Psychiatric Association, to diagnose mental conditions. DSM-5 criteria for NPD includes these features:

• Having an exaggerated sense of self-importance.
• Expecting to be recognized as superior.
• Exaggerating your achievements and talents.
• Being preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty or the perfect mate.
• Believing that you are superior and can only be understood by or associate with equally special people.
• Requiring constant admiration.
• Having a sense of entitlement.
• Expecting special favors and unquestioning compliance with your expectations.
• Taking advantage of others to get what you want.
• Having an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs and feelings of others.
• Being envious of others and believing others envy you.
• Behaving in an arrogant or haughty manner.

Narcissistic personality disorder crosses the border of healthy confidence into thinking so highly of yourself that you put yourself on a pedestal and value yourself more than you value others. Does this sound like Mr. Trump? You bet it does!

It's the corporate oligarchy that has pushed through job-killing trade deals and they have had the unconditional support of Republican and Democratic administrations alike. Democrats don't have a leg to stand on here. Hillary was pro-TPP big time until she found out she could not win the nomination from Bernie Sanders if she was openly for it, so, at least as far as her "public position" went (as opposed to her self-described "private position") she reversed herself.

Let's not forget that we really were voting for the lesser of two evils this last election and that our evil was not very much less evil and did not smell very much less foul than the evil that won. The corporate oligarchy would have been happy in either case---that's how much real-world difference there was.

To my mind, this question falls under the "even a broken clock is right twice a day" banner. When it's accurate, don't second-guess it -- but that doesn't mean you have to give up on fixing it.

Getting us out of the TPP is huge and, as we know, losing more jobs was only a secondary issue; the BFD was losing what's left of our sovereignty to corporate kangaroo courts. I'm glad -- nay, ecstatic -- to thank ANYBODY for saving us from that.

I'm damn near as glad he's resisting the neocons' Putin tantrums -- but the fun ends there, I'm purple with fury about his stinking cabinet picks and his moves so far against healthcare and for pipelines.

Right on!

@ Uncle Ralph # 7:

You're right, of course, that Democratic Administrations -- Clinton and Obama (and I think even Carter to a certain extent) helped Republicans push through corporate, oligarchical, job-killing trade deals, and that "Democrats don't have a leg to stand on here."

I would only add that the majority of Democrats in Congress, at least, notwithstanding the corp dems, did not support the various anti-labor trade pacts. Neither did the majority of street-level, rank-and-file Democrats, especially workers belonging to unions (once upon a time, a large base of the party), as well as most other workers -- of all political stripes -- who work hard at hard jobs, as opposed to sitting on their asses somewhere in the top floors of anti-labor corporate glass towers.

It is definitely the leadership, however, who repeatedly double-crossed their own constituents. Although they did try to do a lot of good things throughout the decades, this was a huge, huge failure of representative government. It should never be forgotten, never glossed over, never swept under the carpet, lest they continue their traitorous behavior against working people.

What the hell was Obama thinking pushing the TPP right up to the election?! That was just plain dumb coming from such an intelligent person! Clinton and her advisors were equally tone deaf and didn't come around until Bernie convinced her. By then, unfortunately, Trump occupied the high ground -- in the grossly conditioned electorate's minds anyway.

It was also a complete failure of the First Amendment and the press, our so-called fourth pillar of accountable democracy, when the MSM didn't grant Bernie three billion dollars worth of free exposure, like they did the lying pervert who stole the issue from him.

I've always cringed when you and hair-on-fire liberals dissed the TPP. It was one of President Barack Obama's signature foreign policy/trade agreements which went WAY farther than ever before in righting the wrongs of NAFTA. People want to blame the TPP and Obama for the globalisation that has occurred naturally as the world becomes a smaller and smaller place, due to technology. TPP was a response and a hedge to that.

Anyone who thinks blue-collar factory jobs are coming back to the U.S. is fooling themselves. Most factory jobs that are created here will involve technology and robots. A high school education will no longer be enough to compete for those types of jobs.

What Donald Trump did, with his promises and bluster, is hoodwink the people who are most vulnerable into thinking he would do something for them. In fact, he (in one fell swoop), is dismantling one of the most progressive trade agreements in history.

Sad!

@ Ou812 # 12:

Heehaw! Brilliant counterattack!

Well, I am a horse, so that's not exactly correct. Anyway, I happen to be wired straight but do respect and appreciate anyone wired differently. More power to them!

Your avatar, on the other hand, should come out of the closet and quit hating his/herself. You might be much happier.

:--))

@ Ou812 # 18:

Haha ... good one! Okay, okay; I'll concede!

We probably shouldn't escalate this particular one-upmanship of avatars. It's kinda fun trading jibes with you these many past weeks (months?), but we had better call a truce on the double entendre stuff before our comments get "flagged as offensive."

My bad; I started it. Sorry 'bout that.

As far as the other contentious exchanges on this forum are concerned, however, you are my favorite "rightie" troll with whom to do battle. Although, you probably don't consider that a compliment.

:--))

The Dems should work with Trump if he proposes a good plan. However, the devil is in the details and his plan could actually be worse.

Initially, I had the impression the TPP was supposed to level the playing field economically, so more people and countries could participate in, contribute to, and (hopefully) benefit from the global economy ... this would be an effort to balance the coin, internationally, so a broad range of nations could participate as independent equals rather than slaves to insurmountable debt to the world bank and domination by western powers ... ((at least, that's how I heard it.))

Now, who would stand to lose, or gain from such an arrangement?

I would say, all told, too many people in too many places to count.

... or control ...

So, what kind of dragon-slaying solutions come to mind?

That sovereignty question started out as a provision to enable First Nations groups to negotiate their rights with a stubbornly obstructive government ((back when it was called a "... Treaty" - and that would give precedence to sovereign rights - which is why congress changed the name to "... Agreement". Ha-ha!!))

Apparently, nothing was final, and it was supposed to have something in it for everyone, though, clearly, not everyone would accept it as written, so it would wind up in court, for years ... short story, job security for the legal profession ...?

It looks like "the people" want simpler solutions.

Right this minute, I'm concerned about life-water protectors at Standing Rock, and other locations that have been named, but not mentioned ... often ... enough ...

the law is rewritten as we speak.

... who will guard the lives
of those who dare to stand,
willing to die for this cause?

... who is the hero ...
who will serve truth
and honor sacred laws ...?

Do these folks have to die to prove the obvious?

The left, and even more so leftie/socialists, are going to be facing conflicts and confusion with this non Republican in the oval office.

Todays conundrum will be President Trumps support for the Keystone pipeline BUT, it will be constructed with all American steel. Now there is a real panty twister.

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The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement would have promoted the interests of giant, multinational corporations over the interests of labor, environmental, consumer, human rights, or other stakeholders in democracy, AND FURTHER CONCENTRATE OWNERSHIP OF THE NON-HUMAN PRODUCTIVE CAPITAL MEANS OF PRODUCTION!

The REAL STORY is a story about the collusion among a globally wealthy ownership class to further concentrate private sector ownership in ALL FUTURE wealth-creating, income-generating productive capital asset creation on a global scale. A sorta FREE TRADE ON STEROIDS!

With or without such trade agreements, the wealthy ownership class has institutionalized greed (creating concentrated capital ownership, monopolies, and special privileges). “Hoggish,” the term I have given this practice, is about the ability of greedy rich people to manipulate the lives of people who struggle with declining labor worker earnings and job opportunities, and then accumulate the bulk of the wealth through monopolized productive capital ownership. Our scientists, engineers, and executive managers who are not owners themselves, except for those in the highest employed positions, are encouraged to work to destroy employment by making the capital “worker” owner more productive. How much employment can be destroyed by substituting machines for people is a measure of their success – always focused on producing at the lowest cost. Only the people who already own productive capital are the beneficiaries of their work, as they systematically concentrate more and more capital ownership in their stationary 1 percent ranks. Yet the 1 percent are not the people who do the overwhelming consuming. The result is the consumer populous is not able to earn the money to buy the products and services produced as a result of substituting machines for people. And yet you can’t have mass production without mass human consumption made possible by “customers with money.” It is the exponential disassociation of production and consumption that is the problem in the United States economy, and the reason that ordinary citizens must gain access to productive capital ownership to improve their economic well-being.

There is another alternative, a balanced JUST Third Way, based on an understanding of binary economics, by which over time the economy's productive capital assets will become almost entirely individually owned by 100 percent of the citizens, as individuals. Such an economy would produce efficiencies of production fully using ever-advancing technologies of production that will fuel a greater growth of the world economies by eliminating the problematic condition of the exponential disassociation of production and consumption through ordinary citizens gaining access to FUTURE productive capital ownership to improve their economic well-being, without taking anything away from those who already own.

It is critical that private property ownership in productive capital be extended to ALL people because of the increasing power of productive capital to produce more and more of the wealth or products and services needed and wanted by society. Because productive capital – the non-human factor of production – is an independent productive power separate from human labor power, and represents an increasing role in creating wealth, the question to be addressed is: Who has the right to acquire ownership of productive capital?

While people have private property rights in their own labor, due to tectonic shifts in the technologies of production it is not enough for individual survival if people cannot get jobs, or if jobs, in reality are no longer doing a substantial part of the wealth creation. As exponential technology shifts destroy jobs and devalue the worth of labor, people need not only private property rights in their own labor, but also private property rights in the productive capital assets that are doing ever more of the work.

We as a nation, and other nations, can no longer limit people to personal rights while restricting ownership acquisition rights in wealth-creating, income-producing productive capital assets to those already well-capitalized. To be a just society, all individuals MUST have effective property rights not only in their labor and personal use possessions but also in FUTURE productive capital asset creation. Because of this imbalance, the result has been that the consumer populous is not able to get the money to buy the products and services produced increasingly by the non-human factor – physical productive capital – as a result of substituting machines for people. And yet you can’t have mass production without mass human consumption.

Broadened, private sector individual ownership of FUTURE productive capital assets as a societal objective is the ONLY individual private property-rights approach that will provide solutions to income inequality, unemployment, underemployment and anemic GDP growth – all of which is rooted in the tectonic shift in the technologies of production and its concentrated ownership. This reality, as a practical matter, is destroying jobs and devaluing the worth of labor, widening the income gap between the rich and poor and struggling (each resentful and suspicious of the other), and resulting in our inability to achieve double-digit GDP growth in the United States and other countries.

To solve this challenge, several policies must be implemented in the United States:

1. Tax reform is needed to incentivize broadened individual ownership of corporations by their employees. As an incentive, provide a tax deduction to corporations for dividend payouts, which would tighten-up the right of each owner to his or her full share of profits, a basic and historic right of private property. It would eliminate double and triple taxes on corporate profits, shifting the burden of taxation to personal incomes after exempting initial incomes that would allow low and middle class citizens not to pay taxes on incomes needed to cover basic living expenses. It will also encourage corporations to finance their growth through the issuance of new full voting, full dividend payout shares for financing their productive capital growth needs through Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) and Capital Homestead Accounts (CHAs). Politically we need to insist that politicians lift barriers to the democratization of future ownership opportunity based on sound principle, rather than redistributive taxation.

2. As increasingly more workers acquire ownership stakes in FUTURE corporate productive capital assets using ESOP financing mechanisms, workers will build second incomes to support their living expenses, which in turn means they will be better "customers with money" to support demand for the products and services that the economy is capable of producing. By reason of the higher marginal spending rate on the part of workers second incomes, more of the additional income earned by the new capitalists (who have many unsatisfied consumer needs and wants) will be spent on consumption than if the income had been earned by those capitalists who now have concentrated the ownership of productive capital exclusively, and who have few, if any, consumer needs and wants. Such broadened incremental consumption will fuel a demand for more consumer products and services, which in turn will provide incentive for greater productive capital investment.

3. For all Americans, the Federal Reverse needs to create an asset-backed currency that can enable every man, woman and child to establish a Capital Homestead Account or "CHA" (a super-IRA or asset tax-shelter for citizens) at their local bank to acquire a growing dividend-bearing stock portfolio to supplement their incomes from work and all other sources of income. The CHA would process an equal allocation of productive credit to every citizen exclusively for purchasing full-dividend payout shares in companies needing funds for growing the economy and private sector jobs for local, national and global markets. The shares would be purchased using essentially interest-free credit wholly backed by projected "future savings" in the form of new productive capital assets as well as the future marketable products and services produced by the newly added technology, renewable energy systems, plant, rentable space and infrastructure added to the economy. Risk of default on each stock acquisition loan would be covered by private sector capital credit risk insurance and, if necessary, government reinsurance, but would not require citizens to reduce their funds for consumption to purchase shares.

4. Reform the tax code such that the tax rate would be a single rate for all incomes from all sources above an established personal exemption level (for example, an exemption of $100,000 for a family of four to meet their ordinary living needs) so that the budget could be balanced automatically and even allow the government to pay off the growing unsustainable long-term debt. The poor would pay the first dollar over their exemption levels as would the stock fund operator and others now earning billions of dollars from capital gains, dividends, rents and other property incomes.

5. As a substitute for inheritance and gift taxes, a transfer tax should be imposed on the recipients whose holdings exceeded $1 million, thus encouraging the super-rich to spread out their monopoly-sized estates to all members of their family, friends, servants and workers who helped create their fortunes, teachers, health workers, police, other public servants, military veterans, artists, the poor and the disabled.

6. Eliminate all tax loopholes and subsidies.

These polices would result in rapid and substantial economic growth with the GDP rate in double digits. As a result of the stimulus effect, more REAL, decent paying job opportunities and further technological advancement would be created while simultaneously broadening private, individual ownership of FUTURE wealth-creating, income-generating productive capital assets, which would support second and primary incomes for ALL Americans.

In this new FUTURE economy, a citizen would start to benefit financially at birth and continue as he or she enters the economic world as a labor worker, to become increasingly a capital owner, whose productive capital assets contribute as a non-human worker earning a second income, and at some point to retire as a labor worker and continue to participate in production and to earn income as a capital owner until the day you die.

As we ALL contribute to the building of a FUTURE economy that can support general affluence for EVERY man, woman and child, at some point as the technologies of production further advance there will be far less need for human workers and productive capital asset ownership will become the primary income source for most people. As general affluence becomes more widespread people will be free and economically secure to pursue their creative desires and pleasures, further contributing to the cultural and societal development of the country.

Support the Agenda of The Just Third Way Movement at http://foreconomicjustice.org/?p=5797, http://www.cesj.org/resources/articles-index/the-just-third-way-basic-principles-of-economic-and-social-justice-by-norman-g-kurland/, http://www.cesj.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/jtw-graphicoverview-2013.pdf and http://www.cesj.org/resources/articles-index/the-just-third-way-a-new-vision-for-providing-hope-justice-and-economic-empowerment/.

Support Monetary Justice at http://capitalhomestead.org/page/monetary-justice

Support the Capital Homestead Act at http://www.cesj.org/homestead/index.htm and http://www.cesj.org/homestead/summary-cha.htm. See the full Act at http://cesj.org/homestead/strategies/national/cha-full.pdf

See "Financing Economic Growth With 'FUTURE SAVINGS': Solutions To Protect America From Economic Decline" at http://www.foreconomicjustice.org/9206/financing-future…economic-decline and "The Income Solution To Slow Private Sector Job Growth" at http://www.foreconomicjustice.org/9872/the-income-solut…ector-job-growth.

Trump says that they are going to use American made pipe for the pipelines. But the foreign made pipe is all ready there. So are they going to leave the foreign made pipe sitting in piles and use USA pipe to finish it? Or is this just a decoy statement? Any pipeline built in the USA should be USA pipe. Do not forget that Trumps hotels are made from foreign steel.

Trump is not the 45Th.

Instead of the "45th" president, we should refer to him as the "45th*" president.

Donald Trump's position against the TPP and NAFTA was one of the few positions that he could support with HONEST arguments. So Democrats should support him on this issue.

President Obam's confident boast that he would pass the TPP during last year's "lame duck" session of Congress was probably "the straw that broke the back" of Hillary Clinton's bid for President (she failed to take a stand AGAINST Obama's publicised lame-duck session TPP plan).