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The star of English comedian John Oliver (sorry for him, America) has been rising fast this past week, largely (or entirely) due to the viral success of his ‘Make Donald Drumpf Again’ routine, a 20 minute rant that has since been shared over 50 million times on facebook and viewed over 4 million times on YouTube.
The piece has been praised as “timely”, “politically explosive”, and “devastating”. Observers (mainly on the centre left) claim Oliver has ‘destroyed’ Trump’s credibility, if not his entire candidacy in one fell swoop. Is this true? No.
The majority of Oliver’s points in this clip are embellishments of points already made elsewhere, often with greater force and skill. Not one of them is valid. Few of them even have a cogency able to survive the deduction of humour. Let’s go through a few of them.
Oliver repeatedly notes that Donald Trump is unpredictable and has changed his political positions over time. This was likely intended to make Trump supporters question their favoured candidate’s authenticity. Like previous attempts to wound Trump’s reputation, this failed miserably. As Mr Trump himself has noted, Ronald Reagan – the untouchable giant of recent Republican history – shifted position on many important topics prior to settling on his widely adored Presidential agenda. So have many other great political figures. Though this defence is simple, it is also devastating. Why the hell can’t a man change his mind? Do figures on the left hold everyone to this rigorous account? If a right-winger goes to the left later in life, would they be so suspicious of his or her integrity? Of course not. The matter should thus be closed.
Another charge Oliver advanced in the Drumpf routine involves Trump’s claim that we should kill (or threaten to kill) the families of terrorists in order to make them play ball. Trump’s rationale on this matter (almost always excluded from the quote in reports) is that terrorists care about little outside of their own private universe. They are obviously, demonstrably willing to sacrifice the lives of random Muslims for their eschatological cause. They are also obviously, demonstrably willing to sacrifice their own lives, which they view as intolerable spiritual encumbrances obstructing entry into a garden of olives and virgins. It is rational – whatever else it is – for Trump to float the idea that these brutes may care about their families, if about anything at all.
I don’t believe for a moment that Mr Trump would order US airmen to bomb the houses of innocent people. It is more likely that his comments were meant as an argument for intensive bombing – which might result in the deaths of innocents. This is a crucial distinction; one the media should be more careful to add when they raise the issue.
Oliver’s argument that Trump is a bad businessman is both untrue and completely irrelevant. Trump is obviously a very successful man, worth – even according to the estimates of his enemies – over 8 billion dollars. Though the son of a wealthy businessman, Trump was supplied with a comparatively tiny loan by his father which he has since multiplied consistently with no outside help. Turning a small amount of money into a huge amount is no small art. If you don’t believe me, try turning $1000 into $80,000. If it was easy, everyone would have a tower.
As I say, Trump’s financial history is not only fake but irrelevant. Trump is not running as a businessman. He is running as a patriot. Even if Trump Steaks or Trump University did fall flat, why would this have anything to say about the billionaire’s competence as a leader? It could even be said to recommend him further. The world economy is like a violent sea. Its current tosses big and small ships alike. Every vessel, however expertly designed, is at risk. What matters most is not the occasional random, unforeseeable shock of fortune, but the staying afloat. Trump has absorbed great turbulence over his life and still managed to survive and flourish beyond it. Experience like that cannot be bought.
The only original conceit of the Drumpf routine is Oliver’s genuinely penetrating insight that ‘Trump’ rhymes in the unconscious mind with ‘luxury’, ‘quality’, ‘exclusive’ and other aspirational nouns and adjectives. Ordinary folk, Oliver explained, instinctively associated names with the qualities their bearers are famous for. Tiger Woods, for a different example, brings to mind victory, health, Black achievement and sporting excellence. You are substantially more likely to buy a product with the name Tiger Woods emblazoned on it than one emblazoned with the name of Vanilla Ice or George Zimmerman. Similarly, in politics – a choice of product like any other – we are naturally drawn to individuals based on positive associations. Trump is wealth. Trump is success, luxury and New York. Trump is a five star hotel on the top floor of the capitalist universe. People find this very difficult to refuse.
But does this observation make choosing Trump for President any less rational? No, it doesn’t. Trump is not only admired for subliminal reasons, but for fully rational, real-world advantages. He is (as he is absolutely right to remind us) the only self-funded candidate. This matters a great deal, much more than Trump’s detractors are willing to admit. Marco Rubio, his articulate speaking aside, is a bought and paid-for puppet of the Republican establishment. His manifesto is ghost-written by wealthy donors who are completely unaccountable to – and disinterested in – the general public. The American people are no longer willing to accept this callous type of flyover politics; the politics of ‘we know what is good for you because we have degrees and you don’t’.
If Oliver’s routine was a serious attempt to cripple Trump and take him out of the game then it has surely failed. Trump’s polling figures are as high as ever. Not one of the tycoon’s rivals appears able to mount a consequential challenge. Super Tuesday was a splendorous triumph for The Donald. He won states in the north and in the south, perplexing analysts who had long called these for Rubio and Cruz respectively.
Although (surprisingly) Oliver didn’t dwell on it too heavily, we must also address here the idea that Trump is somehow a ‘racist’ or a ‘White Nationalist’. Of all the slurs directed at him, this is by far the most frequent and potentially effective. Where is the evidence?
Some might immediately point to the comments the candidate made about Muslims – namely, his lightening-rod suggestion that the US bar foreign Muslims for a temporary period on security grounds. This proposal has been wildly criticised by all and sundry, but is it racist? No, obviously not. As the world should be tired of hearing by now, Islam is not a race. Muslims are not a biological family. To propose their exclusion is no more racist than proposing the exclusion of Mormons. There are White Muslims, Arab Muslims, Persian Muslims, Turkic Muslims, Chinese Muslims, Indonesian and Malaysian and African Muslims. Under Trump’s policy, all will be subject to the same measure, whereas Christian Arabs, Atheist Turks or Buddhist Malaysians will not be. Bottom line – race is irrelevant.
Trump’s attitudes to Mexicans and Blacks are also far from troubling. As regards the former, the billionaire has famously called for the deportation of 11 million illegal migrants. While sensational to an unreliable and skittish media, this isn’t even a policy shift. It is the enforcement of an existing law. It should be no more controversial than to propose the enforcement of parking legislation. Trump is not opposed to Mexican Americans legally resident in the United States. To the contrary, he has repeatedly praised the ‘spirit’ of the Mexican people and highlighted his determination to improve living standards and job opportunities for the Latin and Hispanic community.
Trump’s anti-immigration posture is for the benefit of all working Americans, with no distinction made of race, religion or class. It is a policy that should be welcomed by the Right and Left alike. Illegal immigration devalues the native labour force and undercuts the wages and expectations of American workers. It isn’t fair. It isn’t right. It cannot be tolerated.
Donald Trump is an opportunity that will not come again. He is a one-off: unscripted, un-bought, willing to fight for real-world advantages and speak up against real-world injustice, strong enough to resist the fury of a whipped up media class, patriotic enough to risk a personal fortune to enter politics – this is far from the ordinary. Should he be rejected, something amazing will have been squandered; something historic will have been rejected, and for no greater reason than a queasy fear of the novel and the real.
Trump’s manifesto is the red pill, the uncomfortable jerk that awakens the comfortably numb out of their demon-haunted repose. Trump will redefine American politics, smash the cross-party liberal consensus and reintroduce essential ideas into a pacified and muddled American consciousness. The ‘conservatives’ who are bulking at the prospect of his presidency never were conservatives to begin with. The liars are being separated from the truth. The cards are being laid on the table.
Will you stand with him?
D, LDN
Defend the Modern World 
Was this post a thought experiment? What I mean by that is are you genuinely supportive of Trump? Or are you, for the sake of intellectual posterity and integrity, providing a charitable interpretation of Trump’s campaign? If not — and I understand your British, so American politics isn’t directly relevant to you — who do you like?
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*you’re
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As the leading Western nation and as the largest economy and military power on earth, American politics is definitely relevant to the world, and especially to the rest of the Western world like the U.K.
Donald Trump represents a definite turn towards common sense politics in the Western world and also a return to a sense of self preservation. Trump’s comments on Immigration and ISIS are very rational and seem crazy only because the political discourse and mass media is so infected by political leftism that any idea uncomfortable to the leftist agenda is deemed ‘crazy’ or ‘racist’.
DTMW, eventhough is not an American, hopes that common sense politics return to the Western world and also hopes to be one day a (legal) immigrant to America. He does not want to leave a rapidly Islamizing Europe only to see America also on the same insane path.
That’s why he supports Trump. And, because the Internet is global, and since anyone can read his blog in America, he hopes to convince middle-of-the-road American voters to vote of Trump.
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Well, I did not mean that the US, being the leader of the free world, was not relevant to other Western nations. I just meant that POTUS and American government cannot make law and policy for British citizens as they are not British elected officials, and thus politics here aren’t directly relevant. For instance, Trump legally can’t build a wall separating England from the rest of Europe.
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Athena has clarified my position very well.
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What are your objections to Trump?
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I’m ambivalent toward Trump. I agree with much of what you’ve written. That, his election could change American politics indefinitely and potentially for the better. Astute Observer’s comment and yourself make a strong point about his ability to widen the Overton Window already on his campaign by asserting commonsense on immigration that has become unmentionable given political correctness.
Here’s a good summary of my position on Trump:
http://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/maverick_philosopher/2016/03/still-more-on-the-trump-phenomenon.html
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Trump’s alleged lack of self-awareness is more due to the persona he has created for the purposes of the election. He’s trying to portray himself as a strong-man. There’s nothing wrong with that in my opinion. These are turbulent times and a strongman is exactly what America needs.
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I like Trump. He remembers me on Scrooge McDuck.
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Is it supposed to be a satire on his billionaire status? If so, it’s good that he’s a ‘Scrooge McDuck’ as he is self funded and therefore not beholden to special interest groups and lobbyists.
I think that he’ll act in what in America’s and by extension the free Western world’s interest.
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Okay, I like to make yokes. Generaly I would prefer Cruz, but I don’t think Trump would be a catastrophe. But I doubt he will change very much. He is a crony-capitalist. He will make great speeches but that will be all. I think he will be a sort of american Merkel. Someone who makes left politics with a party of the right.
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Trump is rather left-wing on certain matters. I don’t like the protectionist comments he has made. But these are tiny objections in the greater scheme of things. We are at war with Islamist terror. Trump understands this and shows a willingness to fight.
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I’d be comfortable with Cruz, but he lacks many of Trump’s strengths. As for the others – Rubio is over. Kasich never began.
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He’s certainly very proud of his wealth.
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He should be, as he earned it by legitimate businesses and by creating value. He, therefore has a lot of experience in negotiation and is very valuable in negotiations with foreign nations like Iran.
Listen to his interviews on foreign policy. They are very logical and rational and entirely in America’s and the West’s self interest.
Amazing guy!
I hope and wish that he becomes the next president of the United States.
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I was initially opposed to him. But ultimately, I realize that the system shock necessary – and Trump’s the man to do so. My hopes are that he wins, and permanently shifts the Overton Window to accept criticism of indiscriminate migration and cultural relativism.
That, and the apoplectic fits that the Left will throw will be fucking delicious.
Anyways, power in the US is a zero-sum game. The Left has known this for years, the Right still hasn’t figured it out. Trump is the first right-winger to recognize this, and he’s willing to use Alinsky tactics; thus, he will serve to advance the spread of the neoreaction.
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I agree. Trump – however he performs as President – will change US politics forever. He will set many helpful precedents.
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Hopefully, he’ll help to initiate politics of common sense and self preservation to the rest of the Western world, especially to Europe, which seems to be on the path to cultural and demographic suicide. Trump famously dared to call Angela Merkel a ‘stupid woman’ for her suicidal policies on immigration. We need more Trumps in Europe!
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Trump would have a very hard time getting elected in Europe. Note that even the far-right Swedish Democrats have disavowed Trump as ‘Fascist’ – as have most of the conservative parties in the EU parliament.
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*Sweden Democrats
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Ted Cruz seems to be solid on Islam. Trump is untrustworthy in my opinion.
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My previous comment on his untrustworthiness was based on a comment I remember after the Jihadis were shot dead in Texas attacking the Muhammad cartoon exhibition. He said something about ‘why did they feel the need to provoke?’ Which is the default response of lefties. I must say you make a good case for Trump here and it is persuasive. But I’d like to be able to trust him more consistently on Islam.
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Cruz said that? That’s out of character. He’s usually pretty unequivocal on Islam. I hope it was a one-off blip.
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No! Trump said it. And he attacked Pamela Geller.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3067689/Donald-Trump-hammers-organizer-draw-Muhammed-contest-says-s-just-taunting-everybody-free-speech-debate-grows-following-Texas-shooting.html
Ted Cruz is solid on Islam as far as I can tell. This makes me think Trump is not trustworthy. I fear he is pulling the wool over people’s eyes. He’s only pretending to take the threat of Islam seriously. There’s too much of him that is insincere. And this is the reason why.
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He may have said those things for political reasons. He doesn’t want to come off as extreme.
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I’m positive Trump is on the side of free speech.
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http://judgybitch.com/2016/03/02/the-trump-win-is-easy-to-explain-we-are-at-war/
The anti-feminist blogger Janet Bloomfield AKA Judgy Bitch explains why she supports Donald Trump.
“Here is what I think the Trump Train boils down to:
WE ARE AT WAR!
This is not a conventional war. This is not a war as war is traditionally understood. But it is war, nevertheless. We are being invaded. And the political left is welcoming the invaders and trying to make the resistance fighters lay down their arms and offer themselves as lambs to the slaughter.
It is not going to happen.
When a real, actual threat arises, normal people understand, instinctively and intuitively, that patriarchy is the best form of protection for everyone. And they turn to a strong, uncompromising, unambiguous leader, like Donald Trump. The left adores casting Trump supporters as ‘driven by fear’, but absolutely refuses to address whether than fear might just be rational.
Donald Trump is winning because Donald Trump is the only candidate who appears to understand that we are in serious trouble. Are his policies and ideas the best ones we have to fight this war? Probably not. But he is the only one offering even the HINT of a fight. Trump is winning because voters have no other sane choice.
The cultural left, aided and abetted by feminism, has succeeded in making patriarchy, men, masculinity and fatherhood dirty words that cannot be spoken aloud, but when the bodies start piling up, people respond honestly if not openly, and turn to patriarchy, men, masculinity and fatherhood to save them. Because we’re not stupid. We will die if we don’t.”
Great words!
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I agree with her entirely. Nice to see some Western women are conscious of the Islamic threat to their life and liberty.
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those are great words.
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I am, as of now, staying apolitical, as difficult as that may be. However, I did want to share a posting on Facebook of a letter written by Trump’s military schoolmate, Peter Ticktin. Here it is in its entirety:
Peter Ticktin
March 4 at 8:40pm ·
“VOTE AS YOU WISH, AND LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT TRUMP – – A personal note from Peter Ticktin who knows the guy from high school:
As a law firm, we at The Ticktin Law Group do not like to get involved in politics. As soon as we endorse one side, we risk alienating everyone on the other side. Also, our lawyers and staff are, themselves, on both sides. Politics is not our game. However, Justice is!
If you saw a guy get publicly smeared, and you knew him well from the days you were friends and seniors together in high school, if you knew him to be a decent and honest man, would you want to say something? This is why I need to share what I know.
I was aghast at watching last night’s debate. It was a set-up. The moderators, Cruz, and Rubio were all like little alligators trying to take a bite out of Trump. Yes, Donald Trump has had some failures, but he has been exceedingly successful. None of this came out. Instead, there was a general attack. Rubio simply makes up lies. He pretends that Trump has small hands and makes fun of him for something which isn’t even real. He pretends that Donald wets his pants, and makes fun of him, as though it was true, and then he calls Donald Trump a “Bully.”
I am not suggesting that you should vote or not vote for anyone. I just need to defend a former friend who is being smeared.
Like Donald Trump, I attended New York Military Academy (“NYMA”) for high school. In fact, in our senior year, together, Donald was my captain, and I was his 1st Platoon Sergeant. I sometimes joke that I ran his first company for him, Company “A.”
People don’t really change much from the ages of 17 and 18, and I know this guy. I know him to be a good decent guy. We lived and breathed an Honor Code in those years. It wasn’t just a rule. It was our way of life. Neither Donald, nor any other cadet who graduated with us would ever lie, cheat, or steal from a fellow cadet. These values became irreversibly intertwined in the fabric of our personalities, of who we are.
Of the 99 guys (no girls in those days) in our class, there is not one who I know who has a bad word to say about Donald Trump. Think of it. With all the jealousies which arise in high school and thereafter, with all the potential envy, not one of us has anything other than positive memories of this man. How could we? He was an “A” student, a top athlete, and as a leader, he was highly respected. We never feared him, yet we never wanted to disappoint him. He had our respect. He was never a bigot in any way, shape or form. He only hates those who hate. Of course he denounces the KKK.
As to the discussion with the New York Times, it is his choice to release the ‘off the record’ remarks. However, if he does, it opens the door for all political opposition to make that demand for everyone, and that means that our press will never get those ‘off the record’ remarks which help them to understand the realities of the campaign. Moreover, the idea that Donald Trump confessed some alternate theory of his position is preposterous. Can anyone believe that all those NY Times reporters are walking around knowing some deep dark nasty secret about a guy who is seeking an endorsement?
The Republican establishment is afraid of Donald Trump. Why? They are afraid that he will lose to Hillary. They don’t hate Donald. They hate her. They are so fearful that they fail to see that by expanding the base of voters for Trump, he is more likely to win.
Watching the chorus of whiners, decriers, denigrators, and self-righteous put-down experts from so many directions, from Mit Romney, to Megyn Kelly, Little Mario, it has to make you wonder. Why? Why are so many people so angry with Donald Trump, that they are lying, name calling, ridiculing, and demeaning him as they do. Either they are afraid, or they know him to be evil.
This is why I feel the need to speak out at this time. I know this man. He is a lot of things, but he is not evil. He is a decent honest guy who loves this country, and who is willing to sacrifice so much of what is left of his life, because he knows that this country needs to be fixed, and that it is going to require someone who can do the job. He just doesn’t see anything around him other than political hacks, so he is willing to take this huge responsibility.
I’m not saying that he is the only one who can do the job. My point is simply as to his motivation and his goodness.
This next decade is going to be one of major changes. We all see the climate changing, and the world food supply is getting lower. Our fish stock around the world is running low. Oil prices will cause countries to fail. The Middle East is beyond repair, and we have become weak and ineffective around the world. Donald Trump sees the issues and knows that he can assemble leaders who would have the best chance of fixing things. This is why he is running. He does not need it for his own aggrandizement. He doesn’t need another big jet or to take up residence in the White House. He just wants things to be fixed, and he knows that the politicians won’t fix anything.
I knew Donald Trump and was close to him in our senior year in high school. I just want you to know that there is nothing to fear from him. His character is as good as it gets. He is a patriot, taking on a heroic task, and being thanked by massive abuse.
If you want to see a true reflection of a man, look at his children. Need I say more?”
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Thank you for this quote. It confirms my view of Trump. He is a man of considerable expertise. He is far more sober-minded and qualified to tackle the big problems America (and the Western World) face than the usual politician types. We would be crazy to refuse his offer of leadership.
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Most of Trump’s associates have only good things to say about him. Contrast this with Cruz…
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Makes me realize just how powerful the spin doctors are working to discredit him. The major issues are, as of late, his hair, his hands, his manhood and his foul mouth. I believe that is what is know as “ad-hominem” attacks and usually indicate weakness on the side of those staging the attacks. But then I would expect nothing less from these professional carpetbaggers. (“professional” political hacks/propagandists)
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Rubio has been particularly childish.
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Trump has done one serious service he will always be remembered for, and that is reveal that the two-party system is a sham and a fraud. They are opponents in the same way professional wrestlers in the WWE are, in that they pretend to hate and fight each other in a pantomime when in fact they are cooperating to a desired predetermined outcome.
We see the vitriol coming from the Left as per usual, but the so-called conservatives on Mole Newz, National Review and other “right-wing” sources are also firing on him. Their specious claims that he is not a real conservative, it is to laugh. Was Bob Dole, John McCain or Mitt Romney conservative? Romney said the usual crap to throw a bone to the base and when nominated was practically indistinguishable from a Democrat.
The base has been betrayed, and the system is a lie. They are a criminal gang. They collude for the donors and care nothing for Americans or the West. In truth they are political whores bought and paid for to service the needs of their patrons and sugar daddies.
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I agree. He’s shattered the deceptive façade of the RINOs. He’s forcing the Republicans to reform.
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http://www.faithfreedom.org/why-i-stump-for-trump/
The Ex-Muslim blogger and the founder of the site faith freedom.org has this to say about Trump.
Now, in regards to the question I say that if I were to become the supreme leader of the free world I will build a big beautiful wall between Muslim countries and non-Muslim countries and will make Muslims pay for it. Unlike Trumps wall mine will have no doors and no windows and will be as tall as the stratosphere so no plane can fly over it. I have been calling for the secession of all ties with Muslims for years.
When you stop Islamic expansion Muslims turn to each other and will start killing one another. This is not such a bad thing after all considering the alternative which is killing us. Eventually the survivors will come to their senses and will leave Islam. If we keep them at bay at least we will be saved. Leave Muslims alone. Build the wall and don’t peep inside. Let them do what they do best. i.e., killing each other.
wholeheartedly even if it may prevent me to travel to USA. The point is not to ban Muslims, because it would not be practical in the long run, but to raise an important and ignored issue that there is a problem with Islam and we need to address it. We have been ignoring this problem for 1400 years and Islam has kept growing. The very first people who had to address this problem were the Meccans. They didn’t and as the result the world is paying the price. Time has come to get to the bottom of this problem and nothing more than a crisis will do it.
The key in Trump’s speech is “until we find out what the hell is going on.” Well you and I know what the hell is going on but the world does not. It is up to us to explain it to others. The problem is not people, but the ideology, the religion that inspire these people. The problem is the Quran and the belief in a psychopath mass murderer.
Once the problem is understood the solution will become very easy. All we have to do is show Muslims that Islam is a lie. Nobody wants to believe in a lie. We left Islam, not because we are smarter. We just had the chance to learn the truth. If others are given the same chance most of them will leave Islam too and the rest will be so demoralized that they give up their insanity.
I believe this is the beginning of the end of Islam. People cannot sit forever like ducks waiting to be killed by a slave of Allah. Backlash is inevitable and the anti-Muslim sentiment has been steadily on the rise. I rather have people like Trump and Wilders who want to bring the problem to the forefront and discuss it than wait until vigilantes butcher Muslims in the streets. Muslims are victims of their ideology. We have to fight that ideology and Trumps plan is the best way to do that. Once Muslims are banned entering America the world will have no choice but to discuss the problem of Islam. That means the end of Islam. Islam cannot stand scrutiny. It is a religion based on lies. With scrutiny it will be destroyed.
This is the best thing that can happen to Muslims. Freed from the claws of this demonic faith, Muslims will stop their insanity and will begin to build their countries. Instead of brainwashing their children with hate and teaching them the Quran they will send them to real schools to learn science.
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Nicely put.
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I trust the American people will make the right (no pun intended) decision when it comes to that first Tuesday in November.
The credibility of left leaning news organisations and many commentators has been seriously tarnished – did you know every article in the Huffington Post featuring Donald Trump has a tagline from the editor at the end that says he is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist, birther and bully who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S…?
This is a necessity as earlier on in December they had a stance that they would no longer feature any articles on Trump on their news pages: only in the entertainment sections – as they viewed his campaign as a sideshow. Due to his continued success in the lead up to the primaries they have had to backtrack, the American people are no longer willing to eat up whatever these media companies believe is best for them…
Despite his tough talk, and the crumbling of the Republican machine, Donald Trump remains a survivor. At this time, I would not be surprised if he invited Hillary Clinton or others on the left to take up one of his top cabinet positions. He will use the best people he has access to if he earns the privilege to lead America.
I always respect the democratic process, and it is inspiring to see it prevail despite the continuing attacks from elites from the right, and the the left.
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The Huffington Post is the worst news outlet in the world. They don’t even pretend (as Fox does) to be balanced.
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I think Trump may well know more about You-Know-What and You-KNow-Who than he is letting on, for the moment. Way back in the 1980s he was already getting a bad feeling about the Ummah, or at least some of it… like Libya, and Pakistan. Have you seen this? Really really interesting. A reprint of an interview that was done with him, way way back in 1987.
It was brought to my attention here
http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/63778/Trump%2Don%2Dthe%2DThreat%2Dof%2DNuclear%2DProliferation%2Din%2D1987
‘Sunday, 6 March 2016
‘Trump on the Threat of Nuclear Proliferation in 1987
‘Ron Rosenbaum is reprinting his interesting 1987 interview at Slate.’
and I looked it up at the original.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_spectator/2016/03/trump_s_nuclear_experience_advice_for_reagan_in_1987.single.html
He was worried about nukes getting into the hands of the truly irrational… like Qaddafi, and the mad mullahs.
His – Trump’s – uncle was an MIT scientist: nuclear physics and nuclear medicine.
“It was his uncle, Trump tells me, who got him started thinking about The Subject.
“He told me something a few years ago,” Trump recalls. “He told me, ‘You don’t realize how simple nuclear technology is becoming.’ That’s scary. He said it used to be that only a few brains in the world understood it and now you have a situation where thousands and thousands of brains can easily understand it, and it’s becoming easier, and someday it’ll be like making a bomb in the basement of your house. And that’s a very frightening statement coming from a man who’s totally versed in it.”…”.
“….Trump’s fears, which center on a Third World madman getting the bomb. Like Qaddafi.
Particularly Qaddafi.
‘Because Trump’s got inside information on the character of the Libyan dictator. From Qaddafi’s pilot.
“I have a pilot who works for me who used to be Qaddafi’s pilot,” Trump is telling me as we head through the crowds on Fifth Avenue in the direction of “21.”
“He’s a highly trained American pilot.
“And I asked him, ‘What kind of guy is Qaddafi?’
“And he told me, ‘Mr. Trump, you’ve never seen a man like this. This man would get onto his plane, and he’d slap his subordinates in the face. A total schizo.’ ”
‘The pilot quit Qaddafi, Trump says. “He was being paid a fortune—he’s a great pilot—but he said, ‘I couldn’t stand it. He’d get into the plane, he’d scream, shout, slap people. He was crazy. You never knew. Hair-trigger.’ ”
‘Hair-trigger. Trump foresees a situation soon when such hair-trigger heads of state will have their hands on multiple nuclear triggers.
‘And it drives him crazy that nobody in the White House senses the danger.
“The fact is, it’s already very late. It’s one of the great problems of the world. Not one of them. It is the. …”.
“So what’s the solution? I ask him. How do you get the French to stop, how do you get French technology out of the hands of the Pakistanis at this point?
“I think you have to come down on them very hard economically or whatever way,” Trump says. “I think the solution is largely economic. Because there are so many of these countries that are so fragile and we have a vast power that’s never been used. They depend on us for food, for medical supplies. And I would never even suggest using it except on this issue. But this issue supersedes all other things.”
He pauses.
“I guess the easy thing would be to say you go in and clean it out.”
“Like the Israelis did with the Iraqi plant?”
“I don’t necessarily want to advocate that publicly because it comes off radical. And you know, without a lot of discussion prior to saying that, it sounds very foolish and this is why I get very concerned about discussing it at all.”…”.
Y’know, it occurs to me to think that perhaps the drive to build up resources, between 1987 and 2015, *twenty-eight years* of has had *this* at the back of it, all the time. To build up resources and then gamble it *all*… on a final throw. On what he is doing now. In order to try to do something, at the eleventh hour and fifty-ninth minute.
G K Chesterton said that one of humanity’s favourite games was “cheat the prophet”.
Well, strikes me that the great American unwashed might just be getting ready to Trump the Prophet.
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I agree. Trump hides his intelligence behind his bravado. He’s far from the idiot depicted in the hostile media.
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Sure he’s a showman. That’s America. And he has a distinctly plebeian flavour. That’s America, too.
It is a terrible pity that Oriana Fallaci is dead. Because I think she had America to rights, in a flaming passage in “La Rabbia e L’Orgoglio”, written at white heat in the wake of the September 11 attack, which she witnessed; she was in New York at the time, it was her adopted city.
Here’s what she said:
“My father used to say, “Communism is a monarchic regime, and it’s an old–school monarchy. Because it cuts off men’s balls. And when you cut off a man’s balls, he’s no longer a man.” He also used to say that instead of freeing the plebes, communism turned everyone into plebes. It made everyone starve to death.
“Well, in my view America frees the plebes. Everyone is a plebe there. White, black, yellow, brown, purple, stupid, intelligent, poor, rich.
“**Actually the rich are the most plebeian of all. Most of the time they’re such boors! Crude, ill–mannered. You can tell immediately that they’ve never read Galateo, that they’ve never had anything to do with refinement and good taste and sophistication. In spite of the money they waste on clothes, for example, they’re so inelegant as to make the Queen of England look chic by comparison** {my emphasis – dda}
‘But they are freed, by God.
‘And in this world there is nothing stronger or more powerful than freed plebes. You will always get your skull cracked when you go up against the Freed Plebe.
‘And they all got their skulls cracked by America: English, Germans, Mexicans, Russians, Nazis, Fascists, Communists. Even the Vietnamese got theirs cracked in the end, when they had to come to terms after their victory so that now when a former president of the United States goes there to visit they’re in seventh heaven. “Bienvenu, Monsieur le President, bienvenu!”
‘The problem is that the Vietnamese don’t pray to Allah.
‘It’s going to be much harder to deal with the sons of Allah. Much longer and much harder. Unless the rest of the Western world stops peeing its pants. And starts reasoning a little and gives them a hand…”.
…
“Because when the destiny of the West, the survival of our civilization is at stake, we are New York. We are America. We Italians, we French, we English, we Germans, we Austrians, we Hungarians, we Slovaks, we Polish, we Scandinavians, we Belgians, we Spaniards, we Greeks, we Portuguese.
“If America falls, Europe falls. The West falls, we fall…”.
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A wonderful quote by a wonderful writer.
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