It is both heartening and frightening that the two frontrunners for the Republican nomination are a hyper-religious creationist neurosurgeon and a loose-mouthed entrepreneur who has no real vision for the U.S. except self-promotion. It’s heartening because no matter how crazy this country is, I can’t imagine either Ben Carson or Donald Trump getting a majority of the vote. Still, it’s frightening to think that a lot of Americans think that either of these people would be a decent president.
I’ve written a lot already about Carson’s wacko creationism, but today let’s consider Trump and his barely veiled sexism. These two tw**ts are bad enough on top of his vile comments about Fox news anchor Megyn Kelly, but PuffHo gives more in “18 real things Donald Trump has actually said about women.” I can’t imagine why any woman would vote for him.
Here’s one clueless tw**t:
He deleted the comment below, but the damage was done, as it always is when you post inanities on the Internet. And it shows what Trump really thinks; it was deleted not because he thought better of what he said, but because he thought it politically damaging:
Seriously???
Trump is America’s Berlusconi. Careful, Italy managed to elect Berlusconi.
Repeatedly.At least America has some sort of restraint on repeated presidency. Though the prospect of the Bushes becoming hereditary presidents remains a looming possibility.Not that I’m trying to get Americans – or the rest of the world – worried.
Agree completely, of course, but the existence and popularity of all the blowhards on talk radio should not be forgotten. And then ,a href=http://articles.latimes.com/2007/nov/03/opinion/oe-daum3>there’s this “Blowhard Nation”, that I recalled as not that long ago but to some distress find was from going on 10yrs ago.
Dammit, HTML fingers failed in haste. http://articles.latimes.com/2007/nov/03/opinion/oe-daum3
That last tw**t really makes it hard not to conclude that Trump is just doing this as part of a large, you might say “yuuuge”, troll.
And some people think the ancient Greeks were misogynistic.
Is he suggesting America wants an orgasm from Hillary Clinton? Is Trumps mouth even connected to his brain?
Yes. But you have to follow the tract all the way to the butthole to get there.
That would be the new-to-anatomists Recurrent Trumpet Nerve? Which can be short-circuited by inserting the pedal phalanges into the buccal orifice.
Vote for Trump, Chump!
Count me among those who find this heartening. At first I was only hoping that Trump would hang in there a while, and get his Trumpiness all over the other candidates as they tried to compete. But now it seems possible (not probable, IMO) that he could actually win the nomination. Luckily, we can heed Napoleon’s advice here (never interrupt your enemy while he’s making a mistake) by loudly ignoring it. The more liberals denounce Trump, the better Trump’s poll numbers get.
When I saw the first tweet I thought it must a be a parody, but that’s seriously his twitter account!?
My thoughts exactly. Can this be a hacker or a fake? Not even Trump could be this over the top?
It’s real. A blue tick next to a person’s name on Twitter means that the account has been verified. So, unlike the Kim Davis account above, this really is the stuff Trump tweeted.
“A blue tick next to a person’s name on Twitter means that the account has been verified.”
I learn so many helpful things here!
It appears a kind of ‘cute & smart’ comment, until one looks at what it says, what it actually means (that’s why it was taken down, of course). Smart Alec, you call that in the USA, if I’m not mistaken?
Look, it is far from me to defend `The Hairpiece’, but I can understand he couldn’t resist this. Maybe ‘entrepreneurs’ are too keen on ‘easy deals’? Didn’t he read the, well not so small, letters?
Hat off tho those who had to think less than 30 seconds (about the time it took me).
I wish the Republican candidate would be somebody who could be trusted to be a good steward of the nation’s interests while in office, even if I myself would advocate for different policy positions, myself.
That way, we’d at least have a not-clown in the White House, and it would provide a powerful incentive for a challenger to be even better.
Only losers ever win a race to the bottom.
b&
“If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband, what makes her think she can satisfy America?”
In the vein of “many truths are said in jest”, it wouldn’t surprise me if a large number of people think that Bill’s infidelity was caused by Hillary’s failure as a woman. An instance of the just-world hypothesis.
I think Hillary just said, “Bill, I’m busy with more important stuff . . . get your rocks off elsewhere.”
I thought that it was pretty well established that Bill Clinton has always been one to put his “cigar” anywhere warm and moist that comes to hand, regardless of what Hilary was doing. Some men are like that. “Spread the seed widely” is a perfectly valid reproductive strategy.
I was heartened when Trump climbed to the top of the Republican race because I thought he could be easier to defeat for any democrat. But now it’s frightening to see this poll by http://www.surveyusa.com/ where any hopeful democrat trails Trump on national head-to-head matchups.
WTF?!!!!
(Why are Americans so … well, you know)
I’d be interested to know the margin of error of that survey. From what I can see it’s not that scientific – 10% of respondents weren’t even registered to vote. I hope it’s not a reliable one!
In the latest Quinnipiac survey, Democrats lead in every direct match up. They used Clinton, Sanders, Biden and Trump, Bush, Rubio.
It is scary how Trump’s popularity is increasing though, and he’s increasingly seen as a viable candidate by many.
However, even if he got the nomination, I just can’t see a majority of USians being stupid enough to vote for him for President.
The election is more than a year away. No poll done today has any bearing on how the voting will go then.
Donald Trump will never be president of my country — one of us will have to go, first. If the American polity says The Donald stays, looks like I’ll be joining the WEIT commenters north of the border (and this time — unlike with Reagan & Dubya — I really, really mean it).
I took a look at that poll by “SurveyUSA” which, although it’s trademarked as “America’s Pollster,” I’ve never heard of before. The link doesn’t provide enough info to judge the reliability of its techniques. But it appears to be one of those “advocacy” polling outfits, and the “news” outlets it cites as carrying articles about its polls all seem to trend Right.
Anyway, polls taken this far in advance of any voter anywhere casting an actual vote on anything don’t mean shit (as mecwordpress more politely suggests above). It’s the same reason why none but a fool wagers real money until much closer to an election day.
DON’T SAY things like that. Oh, too late.
Trumpet can start to measure up to see which doorways in the White House will need widening to let his ego pass through. Sideways.
A survey site i go to asked how many people watched the debate the one in Sep.Well 18% said they did,67% said they didn’t and the rest said what debate.With Trump i wish i were part of the what debate.Maybe they were kidding,maybe they had no idea those lucky folks.
Meant the one in August Trump really messes me up.
But it was still the most watched debate in history. That figure is actually quite high, especially this early in the process.
I just hope the extra scrutiny is making people take a good hard look at how ridiculous the whole thing is.
Until something comes along to mow this idea down, I’m going to stick with the theory that the end of our current system of government is coming to an end. It held together for over 200 years but that is much longer than many of our founders thought the document would last.
We urgently need a new Constitution but it is very unlikely to happen. Article V may have seemed like a good idea at the time but it overlooked the fact that once the Federal Congress had wasted away, the body required to start this process was gone.
Many today think that this Trump and Carson business is just the implosion of the republican party but really folks, I think the whole think is lost. A single president, even if it’s a democrat does not make any difference. We will soon have had 16 of the last 24 years with a democrat and look where we are?
I tend to agree, but at the same time, I wouldn’t consider Clinton or Obama democrats. On social issues they are democrats, but when it comes to the economy, the environment and foreign policy, they are centrist republicans.
I had hope that Obama would be like an FDR, but that hope has long been dashed. Dare I hope that a President Sanders could make the dire changes America so desperately needs? Chances are he won’t make the ticket.
Look at Obama’s policy record, without listening to his speeches, and it’s clear that, in reality, he’s the most conservative president in all of American history.
Even Obamacare was the too-conservative-to-even-consider not-really-a-proposal from the Heritage Foundation as an effort to move the Overton Window away from Medicare expansion.
b&
We could call them whatever you want, it does not make the slightest crack in the theory. If Sanders somehow made it, what could he actually do because the congress would reject all of it. We need a brand new system and one that removed all money, thereby allowing some real people to run for office. Ones that do believe some of the things that Sanders is saying.
It’s a Catch-22. To get rid of the effect of money, you need even more money than those using all their money to make money even more influential. And, even if you did succeed in getting that much money…well, now you’ve just become one of Them™ with an even more vested interest in preserving the power of money.
b&
Empires have a limited shelf life, and there’re lots of good reasons to suspect ours is at its “best by” date.
…but, the thing is…when empires go, things get really nasty. Not something you want to have anything to do with any more intimately than through a dusty book on the shelf.
b&
Things always have to get bad or even ugly before real change happens but I would say you are looking at a kind of train wreck at the present time. If smart people don’t even recognize we need a new system and now, where do you suppose the average bloke stands. He is looking at Trump and thinking boy, that guy has money.
So, which empire is rising to replace the collapsing American one?
China?
India?
Russia?
Europe (redux)?
The penguins?
Penguins get my vote.
On empathy, I agree. I doubt they’ll beat the Chinese though. All it would take would be one good penguin-based recipe …
Mono-sodium penguinate?
Damned hard to tell. Sometimes there’s no replacement, not for centuries. And, often, the old empire lingers on, just in a lessened capacity, such as with the Brits.
But, when the levels of corruption and cynicism go through the roof, especially when coupled with an even heavier-than-normal domestic “policing” hand…well, that seems to be a pretty good sign that the end is nigh. And if the empire has just failed to conquer Afghanistan, it’s pretty much a given.
b&
Well, it was the thick end of a century between the British debacle in Afghanistan (16,000 started the retreat ; 1 got out) and the independence of India, so that’s not terrible evidence for the imminent collapse of the American empire. 70-odd years if you look at the Second Anglo-Afghan war.
“It held together for over 200 years but that is much longer than many of our founders thought the document would last.”
I’d be interested in hearing where you got this from (this is not a bait, I am genuinely interested) is as much as the document didn’t even last three years. It has been changed 27 times since first ratified and was last changed about 23 years ago.
Is there some writings by the founders that you could point me to that suggest they did not think the Constitution, in whatever form, wouldn’t last this long? Again I am NOT baiting you, I do not doubt that many founders had serious concerns about it. It would not have been so contentious at the time if they didn’t.
I am not in the business of providing history lessons but your comments/questions do indicate some need. The 27 changes you refer to are amendments – not exactly rewrites or overhaul that is being suggested. Besides, the first 10 of those 27 were the Bill of Rights that were done from promises made during ratification. That leaves you with 17 pretty minor changes such as one to prohibit drinking and another one to reverse that amendment. Changing when the pres. took office or voting for Senators. There were a couple of important ones, such as the right to vote for Black men and freeing the slaves, right for women to vote. You know, things that were suppose to lead us toward a partial democracy at some point.
The founders back at Constitution time did not even know if the thing would be ratified. Many had doubts that it would last long before a redo was in order but you can look that up if you really need it. Ben Franklin’s comment to a lady right after the convention who ask what they had created and he said — A Republic, if you can keep it…
If you look at Article V it provides for Amendment/changes and one of those is to have another convention and write a brand new one if you want. No one has yet even mentioned it far as I know and it has not been tried.
Thanks for the history lesson.
One comment; “That leaves you with 17 pretty minor changes such as one to prohibit drinking and another one to reverse that amendment.”
The 14th amendment is, in my opinion anyway, hardly minor.
Yes, the 14th was substantial but it was one of the three that came about because of the Civil War. To assist in making human being out of millions of slaves overnight. If you look at the Jim Crow south for about 100 years after the war, most black folks would ask, what the hell did the 14th amendment do for me. Your opinion is just fine but read the history and don’t necessarily believe anything someone tells you.
It does if he or she appoints Supreme Court justices. Five of the current justices were appointed by Republicans.
It could have some effect but nothing that would be near the change this place needs. If democratic presidents have been in charge during 16 of the last 24 years and yet look what we have in the court? Should tell us something eh. Besides, maybe the changes really needed in the supreme court are term limits, age limits and other things. In other words…overhaul.
Well, this sub-thread sure turned into a font of revisionist thinking — not to mention of doom-and-gloom.
I agree that the nation is riddled with some of the problems you identified. But I reject that the end is nigh. The Constitution ain’t goin’ nowhere (to quote an old Dylanism). As you’ve noted no one has yet even proposed a convention to write a new one from scratch (and I shudder to think what might replace it, if it did happen).
Constitution to Schenk & Goren (to quote an old Deadism): “I will survive.”
Trump’s popularity with women is much lower than with men, especially since the Megyn Kelly saga. His main popularity is with, you guessed it, older white males.
I’ve never understood the appeal of Trump. I’ve always considered him a revolting blowhard, and I just don’t get the popularity. It’s like watching a train wreck to see him perform.
Over and over again he’s said things in this campaign that would have destroyed a normal politician, but he has a core fan (in the true sense of the word) base for whom he can do no wrong.
That’s what’s got the “normal” GOP politicians hamstrung in this campaign – their policy statements are bound by reality. The more reasonable the politician, the less popular at the moment. Whatever comes out of Trump’s mouth, there’s a core that goes into paroxysms of joy. It’s like a cult blindly following the leader.
The Trump Cult! That’s perfect!
“Over and over again he’s said things in this campaign that would have destroyed a normal politician…”
That’s the reason right there. People are sick and tired of politicians not saying what they think. Trump is quite happy to say what he thinks, and he doesn’t care what the pundits say about it.
People don’t care that much what he says, because politicians say all sorts of things and most of it never amounts to anything anyway. He is riding a wave of “speak from the gut,” and some people are loving it.
Popcorn, anyone?
He doesn’t actually say anything though. It’s almost impossible to pin him down on anything, and on the rare occasion he does come out with a policy, it’s completely unrealistic and unworkable.
Romney said the undocumented immigrants all had to self-deport and was (rightly) vilified. Trump says he’s going to deport them all, including their children born here, and gets cheered. It’s physically impossible anyway, which several have proven.
And he’s found something to praise the Chinese for – their Great Wall is the basis for his vision for the Mexican border. FFS!
What do you say the U.S. should do about immigration?
I’ve been thinking about that a lot over the last few months, and I haven’t come up with any good answers yet, except it has to be a multi-pronged approach. It has to include helping improve conditions in the countries people are coming from – the market for illegal drugs in the US is a big reason Central America is a place people don’t want to live. A proper guest worker programme has to be developed. The package would need a lot more than just those two,
Regarding immigration procedures established by any country (of course including qualifying for humanitarian and political asylum), do you consider it right that any immigrant should consider himself to be more entitled than any other immigrant to skirt those procedures?
I don’t think it’s up to the immigrant to decide, it’s up to the country receiving them. I think they have the right to decide their own criteria.
Apparently I am not communicating clearly. (Or maybe I am – please let me know. ;))
Were I contemplating immigrating to another country (New Zealand? Australia? Canada?), my first move – what I feel would be my first responsible and obligatory move in the matter – would be to go to that country’s embassy or other some such diplomatic office, and inquire as to the procedure for legally immigrating. Did I wish to further pursue the matter, my second action would be to initiate that procedure. I like to think that I do not fancy myself so entitled that I do not have to abide by immigration requirements.
I agree – that’s how it should be done.
The problem is the US has the major problem no-one has ever dealt with properly and something has to be done about it. It’s physically impossible to just deport 11+ million people, so another solution has to be found for those already here. That’s what I’m talking about – I guess we were at cross purposes a bit – I’m seeing your comments in a reader rather than the original page, so I could easily have lost the context. 🙂
OK, I’m the one that’s confused.
Disregard my previous.
If youse(sic) elect duckface Trump I swear Canada will move to a place with a less leaky border. Don’ tempt us! 😜
Speaking of Borders (a defunct bookstore chain for those that don’t know), there are quite a few Mexican establishments here in Colorado Springs, but I had never seen a Mexican bookstore until a few days ago. Curious, I walked in and started leafing through volumes. A clerk came over and asked if she could help me find anything.
“Do you have Donald Trump’s book detailing his immigration policy towards Mexicans?”
“Fuck you! Get out! And STAY out!!”, she replied.
“Yes, that’s the one. You have it in paperback?”
Clever. An original?
Nope – an older bro told me yesterday in an e-mail from somewhere else. It is pretty fresh meat, though.
Anyone who belives trump will abide by the pledge he signed with the ‘Publicans if he isn’t their nominee for pres is a ‘publican. The guy has no scruples and apparently can buy his way out of anything. Won’t think twice about braking pledge and running independant. well because – according to trump – the world loves him.
And he will say ‘I didn’t want the Republican nomination anyway’. I have seen that that is his pattern. When he does not get what he wants, he says he never wanted it.
I don’t think their supporters want a “decent” president.
Just an indication of how swift Trump is – He says 26,000 unreported sexual assults in the military. He doesn’t seem to know that about half of those were male on male, the dip shit.
Just an afterthought on the subject of sexual assults in the military. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand attempted to pass a bill in congress some time ago that would have had great affect in stopping most of it (male on male or male on female) but the congress rejected it. One very dumb Senator from South Carolina who also happens to be running for pres. helped kill this bill along with his bud John McCain. Just goes to prove that having been in the military is no sign you know anything about it. You can still be as stupid as Trump.
If they are unreported how can anyone know the numbers?
Confidential surveys are commonly used, with the same sorts of extrapolation techniques used by pollsters to predict elections.
And there’re lots of ways that one could approach the questions from different directions, including comparisons with other similar organizations with better reporting mechanisms. If the numbers tend to converge, you can be reasonably confident.
I don’t know the specifics in this case, but that’s the general idea.
b&
The only viable Rep. candidates, IMO, are Jeb Bush and Chris Christie.
Trump (and Carson) should fade over time, although I am surprised they are doing so well now so I could be wrong about everything here.
Doesn’t that last tweet basically amount to Trump claiming he can sexually satisfy America?
He surely believes he can.
With his hands tied behind his back. And a tongue-guard on.
Trump isn’t going to be satisfied with just satisfying the country. It’s going to be the most phenomenal ride of your life.
Feel free to cringe, but you’re not going to get away without getting hair in your eyes.
Shame there’s already a copyright on the novel “The Ugly American”; it would make a great title for Trump’s campaign bio.
In one of his idiotic tweets quoted in HuffPo, Trump complains that Angelina Jolie has “been with so many guys she makes me look like a baby.”
So how many guys have you been with, Dumbold? (Re your baby fetish, for a price a swell like you shouldn’t have much trouble finding a “Mistress” who caters to that.)
Move over, Herr Doktor Freud; it’s the dawn of the “Trumpian slip.”
Since titles aren’t subject to copyright, that’s not a problem.
Well, then, “Ugly American” it is. Mr. Trump, start those presses! Ambassador Harrison Carter MacWhite, the character Brando played in the film version of the story, will simply have to suffer The Donald’s competition.
He’s launching his own line of lingerie now? Is there no end to this persons abilities? Or no start?
Only someone with a Trumpian ego would dare put out a line of slips — after Liz Taylor wore the slip-to-end-all-slips (for pretty much the entire movie) as Maggie the “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”
He’s the gift that keeps on giving…!
Let’s not forget he also endorses ACN, inc. Which is an MLM company that has complaints all over the Web about its misleading practices. I suppose that’s part of his jobs plan?
“[Trump] deleted the comment below, but the damage was done, as it always is when you post inanities on the Internet.”
What damage? Trump is all about pictures at this time. He’s trying to build a portrait of Hillary that will do two things:
1. Show Hillary’s inability to lead a country, in this case by showing that she’s incapable of leading her own husband.
2. Make you think of the election in terms of Trump Vs Clinton, not republicans vs democrats. If he can get everybody to think like that, then he’ll win the republican nomination simply because noone that votes in the primaries will know that there is another choice for the republicans.
At the moment I’d say Trump is quite successful.
As for his first tweet, it has nothing to do with him being misogynistic. He is, but that neither his point nor what people will remember. He’s trying to make you think that he’s smart enough to have realised there would be an increase in sexual assaults in the army if you allowed men and women to serve together whereas the politicians of both parties did not. Again, he’s painting pictures in peoples minds, this time trying to make you feel like he’s “one of us”.
Let me just finish this by saying that I’m hoping america will see through Trump and vote for someone sensible instead. I’m not from the US and considers most candidates too far to the right for my liking. And if you want to read more about how Trump is using words to his advantage, go and read Scott Adams blog at http://blog.dilbert.com/