- Only in the United States is climate change a controversial and politicized issue. Evangelicals in 129 countries support their government’s efforts to face this challenge.
- Evangelicals in other countries do not consider a national healthcare system as a controversial issue and, in fact, see it as highly desirable.
- One of the highest priorities for a majority of evangelicals around the world is for their governments to combat poverty and hunger, improve public education and provide clean water for ALL citizens, even if this means paying more taxes.
- Evangelicals from other countries want to see their government buy fewer weapons and invest in economic development and peace initiatives.
- Globally, evangelicals disapprove of torture being used by their governments in any form.
- A majority of evangelicals around the world view capital punishment as barbaric.
.. Our evangelical brothers and sisters around the world cannot understand how or why the majority of American evangelicals support Donald Trump. They have coined a new word, American ideo-evangelicals, to describe those in the U.S. who are voting more for their political ideology than for their faith values.
.. Evangelicals from all regions, but particularly in Africa, consider Hillary Clinton a “sister in Christ” and someone who lives out the Golden Rule in all the good she has done for women and children. Many affectionately call her “Sister Hillary.”
Trump Has to Choose: Lose Like Dukakis, or Like Goldwater
If the Republican nominee is defeated in a landslide, the party may be powerless to influence Clinton’s agenda and administration.
Trump is approaching his last chance to turn a catastrophic campaign into an ordinarily unsuccessful campaign: to rise from Goldwater debacle to respectable Dukakis defeat.
.. The difference between a Goldwater and Dukakis outcome is the difference between holding a Republican majority in at least one chamber of Congress and a down-ballot deluge that would open the way to a new bout of Democratic legislative activism.
For conservatives,
- it is the difference between mitigating the excesses of the Affordable Care Act and driving onward to government-run health insurance;
- between another burst of tax increases and the opportunity to bargain for tax cuts; between influence over Supreme Court appointments and being powerless as the justices are replaced;
- between outright amnesty for immigrants who are in the country illegally and stopping people from coming over U.S. borders.
.. The most powerful advertising dollar is the first, the dollar that turns “no advertising” into “some advertising.”
.. It really is possible to show respect for the achievements and contributions of America’s legal immigrants––past, present, and future––while also addressing American concerns about immigration. During her previous presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton opposed drivers’ licenses for people who are in the country illegally. Her position has evolved now to opposing virtually all and any enforcement action against illegal immigrants, unless they have committed some major non-immigration-related crime.
Introducing the Trump News Channel—Coming in 2017?
If Trump loses, his consolation prize may be a whole new right wing media juggernaut.
.. There is so much about the Trump campaign that doesn’t make sense so long as one assumes that its purpose is to propel the candidate to victory at the ballot box. But what if those involved now perceive a more attractive––or at least plausible–– endgame?
.. Trump and associates will be proved failures at electoral politics. But even if that proves so, I wouldn’t bet against a right-wing media behemoth that brought together Trump, Roger Ailes, Stephen Bannon, Ann Coulter, Matt Drudge, and Sarah Palin, especially if they had some help:
.. Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Greta Van Susteren all might exit the network if parent company 21st Century Fox gets rid of Ailes in the wake of a sexual harassment lawsuit
.. Trump’s rationale, according to this person, is that, “win or lose, we are onto something here. We’ve triggered a base of the population that hasn’t had a voice in a long time.”
.. For that reason, GOP officials and movement conservatives ought to be preparing for worst case scenarios. And a Donald Trump Network is perhaps the worst case possible.
.. A Trump campaign expecting to lose and then launch an effort of that sort would have every incentive to hoard campaign donations to pay back debt incurred by Trump himself; to be maximally inflammatory, polarizing the electorate while further cultivating a core of true believers; to aggressively blame Fox News, National Review, Glenn Beck, and all other potential competitors in order to alienate them from their audiences; even to sabotage the GOP down ballot, depending on just how cynical the folks running things are. After all, what could be better for business, if you’re a new media conglomerate to the right of Fox News, than a Hillary Clinton presidency supercharged by a Democratic House and Senate?
.. Since the Bush Administration, I’ve been warning the right that its media demagogues were doing great harm to the conservative movement, the Republican Party, and the country. A Trump News Network, while a ludicrous and absurd satirist’s gold mine, would do even greater harm
In Maze of Trump’s Empire, Unknown Ties and $650 Million in Debt
For example, an office building on Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan, of which Mr. Trump is part owner, carries a $950 million loan. Among the lenders: the Bank of China, one of the largest banks in a country that Mr. Trump has railed against as an economic foe of the United States, and Goldman Sachs, a financial institution he has said controls Hillary Clinton
.. Mr. Trump submitted a 104-page federal financial disclosure form. It said his businesses owed at least $315 million to a relatively small group of lenders and listed ties to more than 500 limited liability companies. Though he answered the questions, the form appears to have been designed for candidates with simpler finances than his, and did not require disclosure of portions of his business activities.
.. Beyond finding that companies owned by Mr. Trump had debts of at least $650 million, The Times discovered that a substantial portion of his wealth is tied up in three passive partnerships that owe an additional $2 billion to a string of lenders
.. The form, released by the Federal Election Commission, asks that candidates list assets and debts not in precise numbers, but in ranges that top out at $50 million — appropriate for most candidates, but not for Mr. Trump.
.. In 2015, Mr. Trump borrowed $160 million from Ladder Capital, a small New York firm, using that long-term lease as collateral. On his financial disclosure form that debt is listed as valued at more than $50 million.
.. because federal law requires that presidential candidates disclose personal liabilities, not corporate debt. Mr. Trump, he said, has no personal debt.
.. At 40 Wall Street, Mr. Trump does not own even a sliver of the actual land; his long-term ground lease gives him the right to improve and manage the building. The land is owned by two limited liability companies
.. Mr. Trump’s status in these situations is indicated by the word tenant,
.. “The success of his empire depends on an ability to get credit, to get loans extended to his business entities,” he said. “And we simply don’t know a lot about his financial dealings, here or around the world.”