Answering Trump's Facebook Questions

In an attempt to be a publicly aware citizen, I have been following the news surrounding the upcoming presidential election very closely. Although I am backing a specific candidate, I respect everyone who vote, regardless of who they vote for. Well, unless they vote for Donald Trump. 

                                                  See the entire article from Politifact here
Although Trump loves to make assertions without any evidence, he does tend to ask the occasional question. Regardless of the fact that most of the questions are rhetorical, I am going to answer them anyway. Any information is good information for Trump at this point. 
All of the questions I am answering today can be found on Donald Trump's Facebook profile. 
     Let's begin. 

In regards to article entitled “Two-Month Border Surge Brings Nearly 11,000 New Illegal Alien Minors to U.S.,” (Read it here) Trump asks on December 13th "Will our government finally acknowledge that we need a WALL? We can’t solve our country’s problems by being politically correct!"

Well, Mr. Trump, "the massive surge of children fleeing their Central American homes and mostly crossing the Mexican border into Texas" can be attributed to extreme violence in countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. While unfortunate that these children are entering the country illegally, the fact is that crossing the border and starting a life in a foreign nation with no family or resources is safer than staying home. And, frankly, I'm not sure what political correctness has to do with the matter. 

While referencing his growing support on December 10th, Trump posts "For the past 5 months - media poll experts & establishment politicians have predicted that my campaign will fail. As the polls indicate - we are growing, and will continue to do so - thanks to your support! What else do you think they are capable of under estimating? Terrorism? Threats of cyber-attacks? I DO NOT WANT TO FIND OUT! When I am elected #‎POTUS - I will see to it that we DO NOT find out!"

Apparently media poll experts and establishment politicians are capable of underestimating the general stupidity of a large portion of the voting population. How's that for not coating our problems in political correctness, Mr. Trump? 

Again, on December 10th, in reference to his lead in the polls, Trump posts "Thank you for all of your support. I am running for POTUS because I love this country - and I do not like the direction in which it is going. We need to secure America now! What are we waiting for? Time to #MakeAmericaGreatAgain!"

Personally, I'm waiting for a better presidential candidate to start leading in the polls. Also, personally, I think America is still great. 

Mr. Trump, notice how I started the previous sentences with "personally," signifying that what I wrote was my opinion, and not necessarily fact. You should try that. 

In a gesture-filled video on December 1st, captioned "What is Obama thinking?" Trump states "While the world is in turmoil and falling apart in so many different ways especially with ISIS, our president is worried abut global warming. What a ridiculous situation!”

I am going to guess that President Obama is thinking that if the world becomes uninhabitable, we will all die anyway. In the face of Mother Nature, terrorists and non-terrorists fall to the same fate. 

In yet another angry video posted on November 17th, Trump asks "Refugees are pouring into our great nation from Syria. We don’t even know who they are. They could be ISIS, they could be anybody. What’s our president doing? Is he insane?"

Our president is facing a global political issue and trying to help the greatest amount of people in the best way he knows. As Obama said himself "American leadership is us caring about people who have been forgotten or who have been discriminated against or who've been tortured or who've been subject to unspeakable violence or who've been separated from families at very young ages. That's when we're the shining light on the hill." I don't believe that upholding the ideas that this great nation was founded on makes our president insane. Personally. 
Read more about how the president is dealing with the crisis here.

30 Day Challenge Fail

I had some momentum going as far as my writing goes, but it fell and crashed as soon as I got back to school. I would write more and just backdate the posts, but finals are coming up and I figure I should probably focus my attention on studying. 

Moment of truth: I broke my writing streak because I went to my first college football game. I don't understand the sport at all, but I made it onto the largest video scoreboard in college history! 

In case I, or anyone else, would like to complete the challenge, here are the rest of the prompts from Thought Catalog: 

9. Give 14 pieces of advice to a teen who is graduating high school.

10. Write the autobiography of the life you weren’t brave enough to lead.

11. Write a love story from end to beginning.

12. Pick a person you can’t stand and write a letter describing every wonderful thing about them.

13. Write a love scene from the point of view of your character’s hands.

14. Turn the thing that makes you the angriest into a poem.

15. Write about the way things should have been.

16. Write your own obituary honestly.

17. The person you loved who didn’t love you back.

18. A coffee date with the person you were a year ago.

19. The horrible secret the grocery clerk was hiding.

20. Write a love story starring your algebra teacher.

21. Write a letter to your future self.

22. Write about writing.

23. You approach a stranger on the street and ask them to tell you one thing they have never told anybody. What do they tell you?

24. You only have room for 5 things on your bucket list – what are they?

25. Describe the exact day you just had, but from the point of view of a psychopath.

26. Personify regret.

27. Write the back cover of the fiction novel that is based on your life in high school.

28. Detail the adventures of a day where you say “Yes” to everything.

29. How do you feel about love these days?
30. Write ten facebook status updates written by yourself in 2025.

Describe heartbreak.

When in doubt, Google it out.

For the pragmatist:

For the romantic:

I think that about covers it.

Write a compelling argument pushing the worst advice you’ve ever been given.

“Just stick your gum under your desk. It beats carrying it around in a wad of paper.” Because I agree with the words of a middle school friend and believe that no social stigma should be placed around the disposal of chewing gum, I must affirm the advice that used chewing gum ought to be stuck under a desk.

Before moving on, I must define the key terms in the resolution:

           Chewing gum, commonly referred to as “gum” is a sweetened and flavored insoluble plastic material used for chewing. Ought is a term used to express duty or moral obligation. Stick means to fix something on. A desk is a piece of furniture with a flat or sloped surface and typically with drawers, at which one can read, write, or do other work.

            Based on the values and ideas found within the advice, morality emerges as a value premise because based on our definition of “ought,” we are trying to uphold a moral standard.  The appropriate value criterion for the round is the preservation of individual comfort because an individual can only be required to further his or her own well-being.

            My first contention states that holding gum wrapped in “a wad of paper” diminishes the comfort of the individual. Firmly grasping an object for extended periods of time can result in moderate to severe cramps of the forearm and hand. Given that the vast majority of the population unconsciously caries objects in their dominant hand, cramps can be debilitating to a student. Because we are morally obligated to further education, which, in turn, furthers the life-long comfort of the individual student, we can not require students to go to any lengths to dispose of chewed gum.

My second contention states that no significant harm can come from dried gum. According to Reddit user wikipedialinks, who has some credible education background, when asked if any health risks can be associated with dried gum, he states, “Assuming [the gum] came from a healthy person, once it was dry it wouldn't pose substantially more risk than the table.” Rather than concern ourselves about the harmless activity of sticking gum under a desk, we should ask ourselves about the environment we send our children into to learn. Rather than worry about dried gum, we should worry about the unhealthy students and possibly unsafe desks surrounding our students.

My third contention states that chewed gum should be easily available in times of emergency. As seen in many cartoons, in our short lives, we will probably be faced with a situation in which a dam is punctured and it is up to us to save the world from flooding. In this situation, an obvious and readily available tool would be chewed gum. When moistened, gum creates the perfect, flexible solution to plugging dams. The availability of chewed gum is a moral choice between life and death. We must fulfill our obligations to preserving individual comfort by stopping any harm from coming to us, as individuals.

In closing, by examining that holding onto gum creates unnecessary discomfort for the individual, no harm can come from dried gum, and gum can help in times of emergency, we see that preserving individual comfort surfaces as the main way to uphold the value premise of morality. Therefore, I must affirm the advice that used chewing gum ought to be stuck under a desk. I now stand ready for cross-examination.

You wake up with a key gripped tightly in your hand. How did you get this key? What do you do with this it?

I wake with a start in the middle of the night, covered in sweat. Something about my new apartment just doesn’t feel right. I don’t want to blame it all on Big Brother, but I swear something has been watching me.

Feeling my forearm cramp, I mentally pry my fingers out of a fist. In my right hand is a key about the size of my palm with a triangular eye. I have seen this triangle before. Strangely enough, a friend joked during my housewarming party that the apartment must have been an Illuminati gathering place. “Who else would be this obsessed with triangles?” he laughed.

I take a deep breath and close my eyes. Maybe this is all in my head. Maybe I need to have my apartment checked for carbon monoxide, or mold, or something. Suddenly, a vision rushes back to me. It was a dream. The same dream I had had every night since I moved into the new apartment.

______________

Aaaaand, that's all, folks. I'll have to revisit this piece when inspiration strikes. I tried. I really did.

Pick ten sayings for a fortune cookie that you would never want to see come true.

1. Your life will be full of constant changes.
2. Enjoy what you have today. It will probably be gone tomorrow. 
3. Your friends will leave you with the bill.
4. A college diploma only exists in your dreams.
5. When two roads diverge in a wood -- you will take the wrong path, and that will make all the difference.  
6. I hope you saved that paper you've been working on.
7. Your pets are plotting your demise.
8. Your education will be pointless in your career. 
9. You will become allergic to sugar.
10. When the sky falls, it will be up to you to tell the world. 

Write about leaving home.

Honestly, I am not sure if I have yet to leave home. I live in an apartment near my university, about a two hours drive away from my parents, brothers, and pets. Half of my belongings stay in my apartment, while the other half stay with my family. I never know which place to call home. In one domain, I cook and clean for myself, but in the other are the people I love most in the world.

The first time I drove away from my family home, I was overwhelmed by a feeling of excitement and nostalgia. I did not have any sentimental attachment to the house we had recently moved into, but memories of my home town rushed through my mind as quickly as I drove through it. There was the Publix where I begged my mom to buy me “gross cookies,” the Sonic that my friends and I walked to from my childhood home for milkshakes, and the dojo where I grew mentally and physically through karate. The road, itself, carried more memories than I could ever describe.

The further I got from home, the more I thought about my final destination—college. My lifetime of education had more than adequately prepared me for college, but I had no idea what to expect. For the first time in my life, no one was going to make sure that I made it out of the house in time for class, and I would be living with people I had never met.

More than anything, I felt fiercely independent. My life was officially my own. I could receive full credit for my accomplishments and only had myself to blame for my faults. From a developmental perspective, moving away from home and having almost complete independence was the best method possible for me to develop into a mature adult. Granted, I am not sure that I am actually mature OR an adult.

Despite the distance, I leave one home to visit the other very often. As much as I love seeing my family and animals, I find it difficult to leave my independence behind at college. Living in two completely different realms is difficult, especially when you can go out to buy pizza at 2AM in one, but have a curfew in the other. Just like everything in life, leaving home required learning balance, and coming home even more so.

Provide your stream of consciousness during the the worst nightmare you’ve ever had.

I can’t believe it’s another Monday. We really should start school on Tuesday, but, then again, that would make Tuesday the new Monday. Gross. Why does this school feel so much like a dungeon? I wonder if IB will give me my soul back when I graduate. Finally, the top of the stairs. Huh, where is everyone? I’m not that early. Let me call someone.

“Hello? Uhh, where are you guys? What? No, I just started my extended essay last week. It’s not due for another six months. Oh. No.”

OH MY GOD. My extended essay was due TODAY. I’m not going to have my paper turned in on time, so I’m not going to get my diploma. If I don’t get my diploma, I won’t get a scholarship, so I won’t be able to afford school. I’ll have to marry rich and start popping out kids. I’ll be such an uneducated parent that I’ll forget that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and my kid will drive off the road into a gas tanker on his way to school. The impact will make a giant explosion, causing the United States to believe we are under attack and launch missiles at Russia. Russia will retaliate, and through mutually assured destruction, life as we know it will come to an end. All that will be left are cockroaches, which will mutate into giants and conquer—

Beep beep beep beep...

...And I wake up in my apartment after having graduated high school years ago.