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Donald Trump's Massachusetts failures

The Dig alerts us to one of the bloated blowhard's lesser known failures: The Trump Network, a Rowley-based multi-level-marketing company that focused on vitamins and the urine samples customers were supposed to send in, at least until the Donster grew embarrassed by all the publicit and he severed his ties in 2012.

But let's not forget the better known Trump Shuttle, which Hair Man picked up from a failing Eastern Airlines in 1988 and promptly upgraded with "chrome seat-belt latches and gold-colored bathroom fixtures." Alas, the improvements failed to help the new airline take off with consumers and Trump defaulted on its loans a few years later and now the whole thing is what Time Magazine calls one of the Top 10 Donald Trump Failures.


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in the form of campaign contributions. Mostly Tsei, 7x as much as Baker got.

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The Donald will not be on the ballot and neither will Hillary. Don't get so agitated squid.

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Bloated blowhard? Hairman? When the tolerant "progressives" resort to name calling based on physical appearance, it's evident that there's nothing else to grasp. Nor is there any shame left. While discussing "failures" lest we forget:

*Lost his job
*Defeated in race for State Legislature
*Failed in business
*Suffered a nervous breakdown
*Defeated in race for Congress
*Defeated in race for IL House Speaker
*Defeated twice for US Senate
*Defeated for Vice President of the United States.

Maybe you're right, Trump is a failure. Oh never mind, that was another great Republican, Abraham Lincoln. Perhaps we should take him off the $5 and the penny.

PS - Thanks for two good laughs. (1) An article about failure written by Time Magazine, now on life support itself. Pot? Kettle? (2) Time Magazine mocking Trump for questioning Obama's place of birth while failing to mention that for years, Obama's own promoters boasted that he was born in Kenya, raised in Indonesia. Even his Godmother during his recent trip "home" told the foreign media that Barack was born "right there" pointing to a patch of grass.

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Adam was reaching for a way to connect Trump to Massachusetts in order to post about him here and garner lots of anti-trump comments. Of the hundreds of business ventures Trump has invested in, Dig found a MLM vitamin business when it seems like Utah is built on them. Sadly, I never flew Trump Air, only the People's Express, Pan Am, Eastern, US Air, and Delta Shuttles.

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I'm standing outside 176 Federal Street talking with someone I know. All of a sudden a mass of what look like 8 secret service guys walk towards me looking confused. Then a raccoon head attached to a human form speaks from the middle; "Where is One Financial Center?" I point to the architectural wonder of idiocy across the street and the raccoon / man and his rugby scrum move on after muttering something near thank you.

8 guys and a raccoon / man did not know how to get to a big building because they did not do any of the work beforehand and only walked around with bluster expecting someone else to solve the problem. This is not leadership, this is half assed stupidity a/k/a the platform of the National Republican Party.

The same people who are supporting Trump have Ollie North For President shirts in their attic and are planning to laminate yesterday's Herald cover with the announcement of Rowdy Roddy Piper's Death for future nighttime cries / special me times. Their Scott Brown bumper stickers (He's For Us! or NH or something like that) are faded and their computers have the Wikipedia page on The Fountainhead bookmarked for heavy reading.

Have fun supporting the guy who was assured the Yankees were going to win Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS. Have fun supporting the guy who ruined the USFL, which kept the NFL's monopoly in place, which means we have other raccoon / man forms keeping our quarterback off of the field. Have fun supporting a guy who has gotten more relief from banks and governments for his mistakes than Greece and Portugal. Have fun supporting a guy who my sophomore year roommate really admired; He flunked out.

I'm more than happy to watch this idiot make sentient mint julep (Thanks Gawker) Lindsey Graham and sentient human knish Mike Huckabee look sane.

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Mr. Costello, why so much hatred? When you're not attacking others on this forum, you're bashing the good people of Duxbury, architects, the Secret Service, the Catholic clergy, Donald Trump and even our wonderful Boston EMS for the audacity of inviting a bagpiper to their annual memorial Mass. Yet you question the sanity of others? Wow. Just wow.

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In case you couldn't figure it out, Raccoon / Man was The Donald himself. Your response seems that you couldn't figure the obvious and proves my point further.

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No John, I didn't realize your "Raccoon Man" was Donald Trump, and I only have the Master's Degree. Perhaps I should pursue the Ph.D. to better interpret your "wit." More juvenile name-calling I guess. As the saying goes, if you have to explain the joke, there's no joke at all. If this is what Boston Latin is producing from an "exam school" then the BPS is in even worse shape than previously believed.

That said, it's funny that you chose today to scoff at people asking for directions. I react differently. While carrying the badge, I thoroughly enjoyed helping people of all races, political parties (who would know their party?), colors and creeds. So it was quite a coincidence today to read your angry post, then be approached by one of our own, a scruffy Irish tourist with a thick brogue, on a rental bicycle, looking for a certain establishment. I was on-guard at first, not sure of his designs, but after giving him the directions and a brief history on the second cousins he had flown to meet, we parted with a big handshake. Too bad you didn't try that with Donald Trump when he asked for your help. You might have joined the tens of thousands in his employ, and made it to Duxbury after all.

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You were a cop, you know public servant and all. Thanks for stepping out from behind the badge and, you know serving the public. You know, that thing we paid you to do? Good job man. Right On! I just noticed you helped all people, perhaps even the Blacks and those other foreign races a well. Excellent.

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John, the Boston EMS that you ridiculed earlier this year is now part of a new nationwide TV show. On the first episode, it was great to see a young female Boston EMT and her EMT partner jump out of the ambulance and help physically push a disabled car, containing an elderly couple, from a bad spot. They weren't sent there, not on a call, just decided to do the right thing, which most public safety professionals do regardless of pay, active or retired. On the same program, the female EMT wove two new shoes out of linen for a homeless man in bare feet. Seeing their human touch, I have no doubt they also give directions when asked. It's a shame you couldn't show Mr. Trump the same courtesy almost two decades ago, before he entered politics.

Your clairvoyance is duly noted though. A Trump asking you for directions in 2002 would become the despicable Trump seeking to enforce immigration law in 2015. Perhaps the Boston Public Market has a vacancy in the fortune-teller booth. Duxbury awaits!

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Maybe you should work on your delivery then, John. Or not post short story long comments that make no sense.

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You're better than that, John Costello!

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As much as I am at the thought of a President Cruz or a President That Neurosurgeon Guy. It's not happening.

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Hillary is unbeatable. Just like Martha Coakley.

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And the Coakley analogy might be a good one. However, short of her pulling off her face mask to show she's really the leader of the invasion fleet from Planet Reptar, she is not losing to Trump or Cruz.

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You're correct because Bernie Sanders is going to win the primary.

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Ah yes, as soon as he bows down and makes white people apologize for slavery than forgives all the college students student loans and sues all the banks for not giving people with terrible credit and thousands in credit card debt loans (because that's just racism!) and all the other pipedream promises that the 2008 Ron Paul cultists loved, You Sandroids are pathetic.

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I don't... think you get contemporary politics. It's OK. No one's making you pay attention, or dragging you to the polls. But you may want to avoid making declarative statements in political discussions, because some of us are feeling whatever the multi-syllabic German word for "embarrassment on behalf of someone else" here.

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I'm only embarrassed by what Sanders and his cult says

http://thefederalist.com/2015/07/15/bernie-sanders-army-of-trolls-are-wi...

They are so idealized by their messiah that they are incredibly insular and any criticism is met with contempt. They do not understand economics and only care about their hatred of the wealthy while looking for handouts.

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You are either a moron spouting stupidity or an exceptionally good satire of one. I can't tell the difference. Congratulations.

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Trump never seriously scared me until I heard him comment on how he would handle the Middle East. I am surprised those comments and his ridiculous solutions aren't more public.

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Senator Ted Cruz comes close, as a first term US Senator and Harvard Law graduate. Even far-left Professor Alan Dershowitz said, "He had brilliant insights and he was clearly among the top students.” Unfortunately, Cruz has no experience as a Chicago community organizer. "That Neurosurgeon" Dr. Ben Carson, the first surgeon to successfully separate conjoined twins joined at the head, although a Yale graduate, also lacks the community organizer background. Even as the best healthcare system in the world is being destroyed before us, we wouldn't want an M.D. in there, unless of course, they could provide the "less crunchy" abortions. Plus, being a black Republican makes him an automatic target of ridicule, aka Uncle Tom.

We should all root for Hillary, shamelessly "grieving" at the return of caskets from Benghazi while knowingly lying to the families that the deaths were caused by a video that nobody had seen. Maybe the emails will clear that up, if they can ever be recovered. Par for the Democrat course.

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You might cut yourself on all that edge.

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youre delusional enough to think Sanders has a chance.

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Considering our options.. Hillary.. Trump.. Walker.. Bush.. Santorum.. Perry... and whoever else seems to come out of the woodwork for this stuff... Sanders looks like winner by comparison. And it shows, he keeps gaining momentum.

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bizarre to say the least. A guy who started off his campaign talking about capitalism and the availability of antiperspirant probably isn't going to be elected.

Not to mention the vast historical evidence that a socialistic economy is unhealthy for prosperity.

But America was the birthplace of the free world and had set standards for the developing world, but let's regress into the early 1800s. That should fix everything.

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What's your problem with Sanders?

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He can't get on the ballot in NH.

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TIME:

Realistically, it’s unlikely that Sanders will be seriously challenged for his place on the New Hampshire Democratic primary ballot in February. Competing campaigns have little to gain if they’re seen challenging his right to be a Democratic candidate. Even by New Hampshire state law, it’s unclear his candidacy is in jeopardy. It would be unprecedented for a popular candidate to be excluded from a key primary contest on what appears to be a technicality.

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You're absolutely right. Hair and physical appearance is literally all we have to criticize Trump on; otherwise we are quaking in our very boots that this brilliant, accomplished genius might rightfully ascend the GOP primary throne and coast to an inevitable 538-EV sweep next November.

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Abe Lincoln was the heart and soul of the Republican Party 155 years ago.

Donald Trump exemplifies Republicanism today.

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another great Republican, Abraham Lincoln.

Who cares what party endorsed Lincoln? Or Trump, or Bush, or Carter, for that matter.

The only reason anyone would care whether Lincoln was a Republican, Democrat, Whig, or Bull Moose, would be if one had some sort of tribal allegiance to a party, and wanted to boost that party's reputation by citing past examples of highly regarded members.

I prefer the position of another great American president, George Washington, who warned us not to let political parties get a foothold.

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... was it part of a grassy knoll?

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Good job proving he lack's the Midas touch. Not everything Trump touches turns to gold. Well done.

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The Dig is hoping they can get Trump to drive some free publicity to their failing alt-weekly. Won't work, it's destined for the same ash heap of history as the Phoenix.

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So of course he gets hated on here.

  • He goes on the offense, never allowing himself the womanly comfort of the defensive crouch.
  • He never apologizes. Especially not when his accusers are such gratuitous phonies.
  • He is socially savvy, and knows how to speak to the common man.
  • His upgraded third wife is a hottie. And not just “for her age”.
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the Vladimir Putin fan club once in a while.

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Who never apologized.

Well done sirs! Mission accomplished.

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What does he have more of: failed marriages or bankruptcies?

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I thought we were supposed to honour and worship those who have declared bankruptcy. Those evil capitali$t 1%ers forced them because their gender studies degrees couldn't land them jobs their colleges promised them!

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The fan base doesn't seem to get that he is one of 16 jugheads in the GOP clamoring for a chance. So his range of 20%- ish is getting inflated to a victory.

It's August 2015. Election Day is more than a year off and conventions are probably a year away.

In terms of dominating the news cycle, his main present feat, that seems to be fading as he goes from being a daily story to a less frequent one.

Here's a few Trump dumps from Huffington. The first is from a Republican who considers him to be a feckless impostor with no standing in the GOP

I know: national polls are set to determine who gets to the stage in Ohio. "It's objective," some assert.

Rubbish. Early numbers are volatile, and spread so thin that many register below the polls' own sampling error. Despite Trump's dramatic headline advantage, 80% or so of us Republican primary voters prefer any number of other candidates drawn from the most diverse and obscure slate in memory. And with methodological problems with recent polls rampant, few recognize that among more active Republican voters, he's well behind Walker and Rubio, and that nearly one in three party regulars wouldn't vote for him under any circumstances.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-funke/trump-no-standing-to-deba_b...

This one cites an interesting documentary that sent Trumpy into full attack mode.

Perhaps most interesting from a political point of view, the filmmakers revealed Trump to be the opposite of a small-government conservative. He got his start with his father's money and political connections, and he made money the same way his father did: on the backs of taxpayers.

But most upsetting to Trump was the film's revelation that he hadn't made as much money as he said he had. The producers were among the first to show that his financial empire was built on braggadocio... as recent reports show it to be to this day.

The revelations about Donald never seemed to end. There was so much for the filmmakers to learn about Trump --- his exaggerations, distortions, near-criminal behavior and, most of all, his deepening financial disaster --- that the documentary was three years in the making.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jesse-kornbluth/theres-a-movie-donald-tru_...

Here's said movie.

http://trumpthemovie.com/

I remain convinced that Trumps chances of making it to the White House are probably equivalent to a revival of the Boston 2024 bid and he has a long way to go with little more than the wind of low information boob tube voters pushing the breeze bucket along.

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takes Trump seriously shows that Gruber was right. Some Americans are stupid.

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There is not yet a single person announced for either side who I could vote for. Everyone on the Republican side is defined by what they are against, not making arguments for what they would actually do and what results those actions would have. On the Democrat side there is no one who is actually Electable--Hillary is not able to be trusted and Bernie would destroy the economy (have you seen what happened to the company in Seattle that paid everyone the same salary a few months ago?).

Trump is not a legitimate candidate. He's not even a Republican (although Sanders is not actually a Democrat either). Seems the race for President is more about celebrity and fundraising than having a coherent philosophy and ideas that would achieve a definable result. I hate personality politics. We seem to choose our Presidents more on who we would rather see on TV for the next 4-8 years than who we think would best move our country to a better place. American Idol of politics.

Just sad.

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Bernie would destroy the economy

Last elected executive job was as mayor of Burlington, VT. Is there any evidence he damaged the economy there? My sense is that the business community ended up thinking he was OK.

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How much credit can you give to any Mayor for the economy? Safety and soundness, of course. Building permitting and planning, yes. Fixing potholes. Building codes. Cheerleading the city.

The economy itself, no. That's ridiculous. He could hurt development, drive jobs into neighboring communities or affect the bond rating but that is about all.

No, it is his ideas of centrally planning the economy from Washington that would ruin the economy. A country as large an diverse as this cannot have a command and control government fisc. A planned economy of our size is doomed to fail. All planning would go to the benefit of those in power. Why do you think they are the ones who pay for elections anyway?

Look at the Obama stimulus plan. Look who benefited from that. Even he basically mocked it when he said there just aren't enough shovel ready projects.

Washington cannot make the best decisions on where to invest capital. They have nothing at risk. It kind of sucks, but when it comes down to it the best people to make decisions on where to invest capital for the best return vs. risk are those who would lose their own money. And if they don't invest we cannot grow the economy more than 2% per year. And if we don't, we are all in big trouble.

Bernie talks about the little guy, the middle class, but they would end up just like the Kulaks.

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How much credit can you give to any Mayor for the economy?

I dunno, Bernie Sanders is running for an executive job, and Mayor of Burlington is the only it's the only example we have as to how he handles an executive job, eh?

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What data? Show me a law or local ordinance he passed and show me an assessment from a legitimate economist to tell me how it changed things for the better if you want data. If what you are saying is actually how things work, the President is only the sum of all the Mayors in the country for his economic performance any any given time.

No, the executive experience is indicative of how he manages a bureaucracy (small as it is in Burlington VT in the 1980's (with a total population under 40,000). He may keep his staff in line and direct them towards his goals. It is his goals that would "ruin the economy" in my mind (to quote myself now).

Stalin kept his people in line. Bernie sees himself more like Lenin. Not that that is good, but it is always going to be a Stalin that follows a Lenin. Lenin was deemed weak in Stalin's times. He just wouldn't do what needed to be done. A man of steel was needed to murder the tens of millions he did to make the changes he deemed necessary. And, yes, they were a democracy. Only, the opposition was sent to the gulag. Even the "soft" part of his own side.

To repeat. I'm not saying Bernie is Stalin. Just that Stalin will follow. Bernie is Lenin, and that is bad enough.

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.

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Does Godwins Law apply to Stalin too or is it exclusive to that other despot?

https://youtu.be/ewoqPHaEo6I

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While I am an ardent Bernie supporter for a lot of reasons, I do have to admit that one of the absolute gems of his candidacy so far has been watching various factions of the right wing summarize wealth redistribution as it has been implemented in the last hundred years. If you ever want proof that Fox News can beat high school history class out of its viewers' heads, mention the word "socialism" and then set your stopwatch to see how long it takes for someone to start blathering about Mao or Lenin.

Hint 1: communism ≠ socialism
Hint 2: Scandinavia seems to be doing pretty well for itself

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Is not a country. It is a region. Sweeden, Denmark and Norway. In total about 20 million people. GDP of less than $1.5 Trillion. The US is over $16 trillion with 320 million people. The population in Sweeden, Denmark and Norway are ethnically similar. There is no relationship to the modern US.

I never used the terms communist or communism and I don't watch Fox News. But I don't watch MSNBC either.

I mainly was showing an example of the "revolutionary" intellectual that the Russian public entrusted with unproven ideas when throwing off the reigns of the capitalists. Bernie needs to be able to use private capital to fund public interests. There is no way to do that peacefully, unless it is extremely slowly.

My point is that we are heading there anyway. Bernie just wants it to happen in the few years he has left to spin around this celestial ball. He has no care for what follows. His only child he had rarely if ever publicly acknowledged. He has no concern about gambling on the future.

If he were to gain power, he would destroy the economy (original point). Private capital would quickly flow offshore. He would deem it un-American and there would be major trouble. Those who hold capital can get it out. So, he will have to turn to the middle class who have assets that are not so liquid. And they would suffer the fate of the Kulaks. He would steal their assets to redistribute, since those of the wealthy would be long gone. And with a work where harder worn than the next guy would not provide a better paycheck (just a weary body), the productivity of the working population would plummet. And any economist would admit that productivity is the most important factor to the standard of living in any society.

Or I could be wrong and we would all live in a worker's paradise. Yeah, what a romantic thought.

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thriving middle class. A shame the opportunities we had for modest upward mobility have been so dramatically crimped for our children and grandchildren so billionaires can be a tiny bit richer. Poor and middle-class supporters of the GOP are the sorriest patsies of our age.

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Can you? Look at the beginning of the thread. I specifically said I couldn't support any of the Republicans. Nice diatribe thought. A solid grade B (with grade inflation of course). If I may reiterate, is your argument "I'm angry, give me some!".

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finds comedy in your darkly paranoid theories about how President Bernie Sanders would bring down capitalism with the deadly evils of socialism, like first one could actually happen and then the other.

Me, I've already lived the American Dream. I'm from one of those multi-generational families that benefited from a government that cultivated a healthy middle class: good public schools, the GI Bill, good manufacturing jobs, college assistance, a business climate that valued workers as much as the executive class, tax breaks like the mortgage interest deduction. That helped my family rise from immigrant, working-poor roots to relative middle-class prosperity in just a few generations. But I see the generations succeeding us as having steadily dwindling prospects for similar upward mobility.

So, to help you out here, while you're reminding us of the fate of the Kulaks, my point is not "Give me some." Rather, it's: "Goddamn those people who have profited richly from our system, and from their positions of wealth and power are now saying, 'I've got mine -- up yours.'"

My ancillary point is, "If you're a citizen of modest means who thinks defending the right of plutocrats to further hollow out the middle class for their own profit is a good idea just in case you happen to get rich someday, you're a capital-C Chump."

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n/t

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"Three months before the announcement, the firm had been adding 200 clients a month. In June, 350 signed up."

Time will tell what the results are; I think it's too early to tell, since those new customers will take a while to become profitable. Right now, the company's main issue is the lawsuit from his estranged brother (shades of Market Basket).

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Typical liberals of Massachusetts.... You got someone who means really well for the country, and people dig up this shit about him. Liberals of Massachusetts get the government they deserve. Can't wait to move out of this pathetically run state when I retire. Good riddance!

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Trumpsylvania?

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are having population surges? It's not loberal states.

http://news.investors.com/blogs-capital-hill/020515-738018-gallup-poll-s...

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Who else would think California doesn't count?

And Florida? Florida as a whole may not be loberal (let alone liberal), but, you know, change a few chads there in 2000 and W. wouldn't have made it to Washington - it's not 100% good-ol-boy territory.

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Look how badly our liberal government has screwed up this state.

Low unemployment. Low rate of teen pregnancy. Low rate of out-of-wedlock birth. Low rate of obesity. High levels of academic achievement, including test scores, % of residents completing high school, % of residents with college degrees. Middle-of-the-road tax burden.

Yep. Screwed it up to a fare-thee-well.

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How much of Massachusetts success has to do with the local universities versus the local government? If Harvard and MIT weren't here what would the state look like?

Do you really think all the finance, R&D, and bio-medical companies would be here thanks to our wonderful elected officials good governance if it weren't for Harvard and MIT? Puh-leez

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Will, I guess your history is a bit rusty. Do you not realize that Harvard is the direct result of our progressive/"liberal" traditions? We created the first public highschool in the country (BLS), which lead to Harvard's founding asa place for those graduates to further their education. The reason we have academic institutions like Harvard is because of this progressive forward thinking city in hill mentality that had existed since Boston was founded.

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The BLS angle is fun, but it's kind of a joke, no?

In any case, Harvard was originally part of the Puritan theocracy - it was founded to provide more ministers for the theocratic colony that Massachusetts was at the time (there was also a side mission to educate native Americans - but that was pretty quickly abandoned).

So yay for the first public school and college in the colonies - as long as you keep in mind it was part of a society that, at best, exiled those of different faiths, at worst hanged them on the Common.

Still, Massachusetts's success does have a lot to do with Harvard, MIT and all the other colleges and research facilities, so good for them. It also has a lot to do with a culture of reinvention that has served us quite well. The soil sucked and all the farmers moved to Ohio? Hello, industrial revolution (Lowell, Lawrence and Waltham). The Erie Canal sucked the air out of the port of Boston? We built clipper ships and thousands of miles of railroad tracks. The mills move to the South? Welcome to financial services and high tech (and granted, this involved a gap of several decades in which Boston slowly declined). California high tech did to us what our high tech did to IBM and Honeywell? Let's hear it for biotech (and certain types of software).

Other states and cities were not so lucky (Detroit). Whether this had anything to do with government policies at the time, I don't know enough to say, but our governments obviously didn't stop the transformations, either - which they could easily have done. And all this while maintaining a political culture that, however imperfectly, continues to include looking out for the less fortunate.

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and this is why I have said all along that AnnaLee Saxenian's book was not and is not as well founded as people think (or that the demise of Boston and Route 128 has been greatly exaggerated).

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Makes us Hub-of-the-Universers look like the most cosmpolitan people ever, and their hubris will eventually lead to a rather big fail for them and their libertarian let's-build-a-techno-island masters of the universe thinking in which they're basically saying screw everybody who isn't us, because we BUILD THE FUTURE and never mind that they are, in fact, building on things that other people and even that damned government created first (where would Silicon Valley be without the Internet, the Internet that was originally a government-funded research network?)

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but truthfully, I think that unless they start going all Israeli and building desalination plants really fast (good luck without turning the whole permitting process in CA on its head), or it starts raining and snowing again really soon, I think that the lack of water is going to get them first. Seriously, how much more growth can there be if there is no water?

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Liberia (recently led by a Plymouth County Jail escapee) has a marginally better economy than the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I'm not sure anyone is celebrating, nor should we. Unemployment rates are a joke, as those who have given up are quickly omitted from the count. Obesity? Where are they weighing the residents? Please.

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is merely a canny self-promoter, not the stuff of which great statesmen are made. He's certainly got a long way to go on the policy front before he can be considered a serious potential Leader of the Free World. He's good at bluster and insult, not so much on specifics of what he'd actually do.

Obamacare? "Repeal and replace with something terrific." Gee, that's a little thin. Not that I think any Republican is going to come up with a credible plan there. They've had years to come up with something, anything, and have failed, utterly. Can Trump improve on that? Pretty low bar.

Iran nuclear deal? "We have the wrong group of negotiators who have led us to being totally out-negotiated." Umm, and what you would do different? War? Okay, if that's your plan: good to know. If not that, what, exactly?

Immigration? "I would get people out and I would have an expedited way of getting them back into the country so that they can be legal." This sounds childishly dumb. Find them all somehow, shove them out (somewhere TBD), and then let them back in?

He's also talked about reviving the painted corpse of Sarah Palin to fill a high-level government post. If you think that's a good idea, I can only question your grip on reality.

Just because he's a gigantic asshole doesn't mean he couldn't be a good President. But he's going to have to do more than say, "Everyone else running is a non-classy jerk, and I would be fantastic", and start filling in the tabula rasa that is his current set of policy positions.

I think there are enough congenital-idiot American voters that he could garner maybe 20% in the general just based on his anti-government, bigoted sloganeering, should he somehow survive the tsunami of right-wing SuperPAC money that will try to kill his chances to win the GOP nomination. (His running as an independent is the GOP's worst nightmare; I wonder what their plan is to co-opt him out of that. He clearly wouldn't settle for a veep bid.) But the rest of the electorate won't take him seriously without him doing more than his usual red-faced huffing-and-puffing act. He's got to prove he has actual, pragmatic ideas about how to fix the things he rails against as broken. Can't wait to hear him out on this.

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Can't wait to move out of this pathetically run state when I retire.

If Massachusetts is such a hellhole, why are you still here at all? Don't let the Sacred Cod hit you in the ass on the way out.

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is it, possibly, because you have a nice defined benefit state pension, courtesy of the Commonwealth and its taxpayers (because if you are old enough to retire soon, you contributed very little) coming your way? Otherwise, why wait if you hate it here so much - surely you can live free or die tryin' with a new job tomorrow, you up by the bootstraps scrapper, you!

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Is it that the mighty Job Creators out in Galt Gulch ain't hiring at the moment?

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Then I won't have to tell you what line comes next.

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What's stopping you from leaving now?

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Everything that means well for liberal Massachusetts is a failure, yet with liberal leadership for as long as I can remember, is it any better today? In fact, it's gotten a lot worse.

The state today has high taxes thanks to big government. It's flooded with illegals who use up all our resources that are being fully funded by the tax payers. The state is loaded with gangs and high crimes. Millions are abusing the entitlement system, especially the ones on drugs. Disability claims are thru the roof. Even a terrorist attack occurred here. And our state today is billions of dollars in the hole, yet Donald Trump is considered a failure.

Liberals of this pathetically run state of Massachusetts get the government they deserve!

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Because last I looked, MA taxes aren't as high as the myth would have you believe (31st out of 50 states), and crime is trending steadily downward. The state is doing much better than the rest of the country on a host of other measures, as others have noted here.

Yes, we had a terrorist attack here, and our response was exemplary and greatly minimized the potential damage and loss of life, because we correctly focused on investing in disaster recovery and response: it's too easy for rogue actors like the Tsarnaevs to elude the NSA and the FBI, even with their extraordinary resources and surveillance powers.

I agree that there are people abusing the entitlement system, though that pales compared to the abuses of corporate welfare, but that's not something the President, even a President Trump, is likely to fix. Maybe our Republican governor can do something about reforming state-level entitlement abuse.

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DonnieBoston:

[Massachusetts] is flooded with illegals who use up all our resources

Yeah I heard, Mexico sends us their rapists.

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He's in it for selfish reasons, of course.

But, to the parties, he's a very useful decoy for making the parties' picks look good by comparison.

And the more time news spends on what an pathetically amusing pile of crap Trump is, the less time will be spent tearing apart the actual picks.

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The show only lasted a year.

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but at least he's consistent with his views and not pandering to voters based off hot topics.

http://fusion.net/story/174515/donald-trump-president-oprah-interview/

Hillary on the other hand.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6I1-r1YgK9I

Honesty is a rare trait in politics and Hillary is by far the most dishonest candidate running.

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Could you refresh my memory on how Trump's stance on health care has not changed over the years? Or how this Republican never gave donations to either Hillary Clinton or the Democratic party?

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and if that weren't a big problem this surely is...

or this...

or this...

which may be what inspired Jon Stewart to say this...

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He started with a fat pile of his daddy's money and then went bankrupt at least three times.

He went to a military academy for rich brats, then begged off on Vietnam with multiple deferments while many of our non rich kid uncles and fathers, unable to afford college or to bribe doctors, were drafted.

Really the kind of person we want running an economy or commanding the armed forces, right?

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While it might be understandable that in the post-WWII era that "Chet Curtis" "Natalie Jacobsen" and "Harvey Leonard" would use fake names, is there any excuse for "Jon Stewart" in 2015? We all know why Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg "dropped the latter during her embarrassing US Senate run, but Jon Stewart Leibowitz?

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After club MCs kept mangling his given name. Also, he's mentioned in interviews that the fact that he was estranged from his father at the time had somewhat to do with the decision as well.

While it's less common to see Jewish performers do it today, adopting a more 'mainstream' stage name is hardly unusual - especially among the older generations. Some quick examples:

Robert Allen Zimmerman (Bob Dylan)
Melvin Kaminsky (Mel Brooks)
Issur Danielovitch Demsky (Kirk Douglas)
Allan Stewart Konigsberg (Woody Allen)
Leonard Alfred Schneider (Lenny Bruce)

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There you are deep in the weeds squeezing with all your might. Here, take a break with some nice music from this culture.

Amalia was born as Mazeltov Matsa to a family of Romaniote Jews in Janina, Turkey. She migrated to the US in 1912 and was a beloved singer for the Greek and Turkish emigre communities. She became Amalia Bakas.

https://youtu.be/2J7etHgM2ww

David Tarras was originally Dovid Tarraschuk and he came to NYC from Russia. He may be the greatest Klezmer clarinetist ever.

https://youtu.be/wrFVVUM4cPA

Pawel Humeniuk didn't change his name, but was a popular fiddler and bandleader in the Lower East Side and made a record that included simulation of a Badhkin's jokes at an old school Jewish wedding.

https://youtu.be/c_ZVIzUAiEw

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Note to self: stop assuming that FISH has any lower bound to his shitbaggery. Casual racism: of course. Open advocacy for police brutality: why not? Calling for violence against people who disagree with him: just another day at the office. Antisemitism: what an unexpected delight!

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What does the name John Stewart chose to front with have to do with Trump's multiple bankruptcies and draft dodging making him unfit to run an economy or a military?

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nobody does a better job of skewering Trump's racism, financial flim-flammery, and general crass buffoonery (like the classic "Trump eats a NY pizza slice like a dainty lady from the provinces" bit.) Also, how Trump is essentially the unvarnished id of the GOP, laying bare all the ugly racism, sexism and disdain for non-richies that they have desperately been trying to hide after getting thumped by Obama twice.

So much for the repositioning of the Republican Party. Trump doesn't have the filter not to blurt out what they're really thinking, and that's lethal to their prospects of regaining the White House.

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He kept it in business long enough for an established airline to pick it up. I'm not sure I'd count that as a "failure". Periodic bankruptcies seem to be just part of doing business as an airline in this country.

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Or of doing business as a Trump. Which is fine, when you just want to leave your investors and employees in the lurch when you take the money and run. It is less great when you try to generalize that skill into executive governance. Mr. Trump may find it slightly more difficult to have a sovereign nation declare bankruptcy when he inevitably runs it into the ground.

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A successful person doesn't win every time but keeps on trying!

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