LOL, you just revealed your "secret hope"!

No sign this can happen

At vote 2016, there was nobody worth voting for. The Force continues. I don't view Trump as at all likely to ease the tyranny. Seems that nobody can or will.

Thank you very much. Yes, eliminating that alone would be huge. And I agree on the voice thing :) If you are interested, I wrote several articles about the election on my blog at http://americanideals.info. And Michael Hurd who I mentioned is at http://drhurd.com. Cheers.

Great point CBJ. In order to do anything, you first have to win and that was a key part of the strategy.

Thank you for your well expressed thoughts. The list of "blank outs" is impressive. I am going to follow your links for further reading. I've been working as a software engineer in medical records for the past 20+ years; as such, I have worked closely with doctors from sundry locales and specialties. If the only success over the next 4-8 years is to eliminate PPACA and replace it with more of a fee-for-service approach, that would be enough for me. Call it superficial, but I would also have a better frame of mind in hearing Trump's voice as president over the next several years as compared to those of HRC. Cheers.

Even Trump's allegedly bad policies have a silver lining. Without his opposition to government-sponsored multinational trade alliances, he would have lost the support of many rust-belt Democrats and Hillary would be our next President. Trump favors one-on-one, bilateral trade negotiations. I'll reserve judgment on his trade policies until I see what concrete proposals are contained in these negotiated agreements.

I agree with you Herb. Specious is exactly right and cooling it is good advice. I don't understand this Trump bashing by some Objectivist intellectuals. I think they are missing the big picture and it's also strategically foolish as I try to point out in my long rant at the bottom of this thread.

Re: “He advocates policies that violate individual rights. That’s what it means to be a leftist.” Maybe where the author lives, but it’s not a helpful definition for most of us involved in day-to-day political discussions with friends and neighbors. The terms “right-wing” and “rightists” originally referred to French monarchists (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-w... ) and in modern America “right-wingers” include social and “traditionalist” conservatives who are willing to violate individual rights for the sake of upholding religious precepts and so-called traditional values. All leftists advocate policies that violate individual rights, but not all people that advocate such policies are leftists.

No, Robert's a good solid guy - at least he was when I knew him. His first publication was joint with a cousin of mine.

Not trying to stir things up - and whatever you answer I'll let it be - but are you calling out Tracinski one of the "mystics".
That was the distinction I was trying to make - between he and they.

I have been a subscriber of his since TIA days. and I've always been very satisfied with his positions.
But, like I said, I'll let it lie - just curious.

Donald Trump is a distinction without a difference. Why give him six months to find out what he is like. He has lived his life as a socialist, promoted the socialists when it promised to benefit him (Bill & Hillary) and ran for president with such promises as "I will repeal Obamacare completely . . . . . and replace it!" Which means we will have the same thing or worse. Now that he has been elected he didn't wait a week to start back pedaling on his promises. 'Repeal Obamacare? Well there are some parts that we will keep! Prosecute Hillary? Well there are more pressing issues such as stealing money for infrastructure and raising the minimum wage! Build a wall and make the borders secure? Might be a fence where it is appropriate, might not get Mexico to help pay for it.' Careful Mr. Trump, back pedaling that quickly can get you hurt. The voters chose what they thought was the lesser of two evils and will find out it is still evil pretending to be nice.

Yes in that case; Kelley (founder) differed from Rand on some technical points in morality. He could not retain his relationship with Rand and her associates, but to a great degree, he remained an Objectivist.

But here we are simply distinguishing between Obj.ists and mystics.

Trump is not a racist. Not sure exactly what we will get, but with Hillary it was all bad. Those who yell about supporters being racist should thumb through any issue of the high end Architectural Digest, where the multi million collar homes of rap artists, actors nd sports figures are like plalaces, above what most of us will ever have. White people got them there by supporting their work. The same is true of LGBT homeowners, who are equally well off. If we wre racists and bigot we would not have bought their products. None of taat wil change under Trump. What might change is a chance at better jobs and schools (if htat is even possible) for theregular black community.

Your second sentence answers my question.
I'm good.

But there is a clear distinction.
The Atlas Society exists for a reason and I'm not prepared to say they are not OBJ's .

I'm not trying to dig into an open wound in our body - just trying to settle on a polite way to make mention of the difference among friends.

The best way to deal with gotcha media is to ignore them, the stories, and the alleged sources.

Evidence like the media provided during the campaign? Don't bother.

No public figure of any stripe has any control over people that endorse them.

Especially when the media changes a statement like "I like Trump" in a random discussion into "KKK leader strongly endorses trump"

Tell me what credible sources exist for any of this crap?

No, just seeing if it's worth the effort to provide evidence.

Is it? Would you change your mind on the man if it was true?

Just asking.

If we can eliminate divisive, concretizing terms such as left, right, and look at Trump for what he is, we might get a clearer view of his intent. Trump is a successful businessman in primarily the real estate business. As such he has employed thousand, built large projects and while he's lost a few most of his history is on the winning side.
Setting aside the near miracle of his election we can look at him as being neither left nor right but doing what he thinks will win. It is true he has stated some goals to make an Objectivist shudder. He has also set up some goals to make an Objectivist cheer. To call him an out-and- out Leftist is just in order to use an eye catching headline is merely a specious argument.. Let's cool it for a while and see what a business guy can do. And, not an ordinary business guy at that, but a super successful billionaire. All I can say is: "GO for it DJT!"

No, just Objectivist.

Going to ask me if I have stopped beating my wife next?

TD, thanks for calling me on the "orthodox" part. I never know what to call it.
How do you differentiate between Independent Objectivists and ...? Is there a standard accepted term?

Would it make a difference to you if it wasn't?