Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Thursday, August 20, 2015

Donald Trump: "A most genuine jerk."

UPDATE:

Putting Trumpism Into Practice by Infidel753









Pro-life Doctor Ben Carson's suggestion for our immigration problems?

KILL THEM!


"You look at some of these caves and things out there one drone strike, boom, and they’re gone!"  He continued by stating: "I’m suggesting we do what we need to do to secure the border, whatever that is."






August 20, 2015



Trump's Immigration Policy, or: A Farce in Six Pages



Here are the various TGOP presidential candidates on the Trumpster's plan to fundamentally transform America by changing the Constitution:


Dr. Ben Carson:

"...said that he supports ending birthright citizenship, which he called “stupid.”

 "For a woman to be pregnant and say, 'I'm going to go to the United States and have my baby there so that I can have an anchor' is stupid," Carson said, according to a local TV station in Phoenix. "We can keep families together. If they came here and did that, we can still keep them together by packaging them up and sending them back."


"...packaging them up..."  Does he mean like putting them in cardboard cartons and taking them to the local UPS store?  Is this a nice way to talk about human beings?





Carly Fiorina:

“...we should put all of our energies, all of our political will into finally getting the border secured and fixing the legal immigration.”


John Ellis Bush:

"The ex-Florida governor quickly dismissed Trump’s plan suggesting that it wasn’t 'grounded in reality.' "


Senator Lindsey Graham:

"The senator from South Carolina escalated his ongoing rhetorical battle with Trump, calling the businessman’s plan 'absolute gibberish.'

'It is unworkable. Mitt Romney said his biggest mistake as a candidate for president was embracing self-deportation,' Graham told CNN’s “The Situation Room.” 'That hurt our party. Donald Trump's plan is forced deportation. It's not going to work; it is unworkable.' ”


Rand Paul:

" 'His [Trump's] immigration policy, that seems to have won him a lot of attention, is to send 11 million people to Mexico?,' " Paul told the Independent Journal Review. 

" 'How is he going to practically do that? If he is going to take the time to do that then why is he all of the sudden going to re-admit them all?' " He added 'someone should ask him some practical questions about… why his policies are the opposite of what they were just a few years ago.' ”


More HERE.




 5 facts about illegal immigration in the U.S.


 Fewer immigrants are entering the U.S. illegally, and that’s changed the border security debate



 A TGOP Trump supporter tells us why the billionaire would make a great president: 

 "Being a businessman, he knows the ways around. I don't think he'd go to Congress and ask. I think he'd just do it."

That person is probably the same type of Tea Party malcontent who's accused President Obama of being a dictator/tyrant shredder of the Constitution. Or maybe he or she is just plain stupid?


Megan McArdle:


"Politically, Trump is, of course, at least as inauthentic and dissembling as the rest of them, from his opinions, which drift upon the prevailing populist winds, to his wild lies about what he will be able to do if people actually elect him. But he appears to be a most genuine jerk, which is one more symptom of sincerity than most candidates are able to muster."







34 comments:

Dave Miller said...

Shaw... here's the struggle for the GOP with immigration.

There are between 10 and 11 people here without papers, or illegally, as some prefer.

Everyone knows we are not sending police, troops, ICE or anyone else on a massive roundup of people, and then putting them on planes to their home countries. Studies show that the number from Mexico stands currently at 5.9 million, so we have plenty of folks here from other places as well.

People may want to do that and may feel it is in the best interest of our country, but the simple fact is, we are not going to do that. Period.

The starting point of any intelligent conversation on immigration reform must begin with that reality. If it does not, people are not being honest or are choosing to ignore reality.

The GOP problem is that the people that vote in the primaries are the loudest "send them all home" folks. To win the nomination, a candidate must appeal to this group, however misguided and non reality based it is.

Seriously, look at Bush... he now says he supports birthright citizenship but that there needs to be greater enforcement of that. What does that mean? Greater enforcement? Like making sure they are born here, or is using code to say he doesn't really support it?

And he's one of the moderates.

The GOP, in their zeal to win those more extreme votes, make it very hard for many in the general election to support them. Indeed, one columnist, after crunching the numbers, has said the GOP will need almost 45% of the Latino vote to win in 2016. How will that happen if they classify Latinos as rapists, criminals and "ladrones."?

It's a vexing problem of their own making...

Shaw Kenawe said...

Need a reason why a modern Tea Party conservative should not be allowed anywhere near the presidency?

Here's a pretty good one:

THURSDAY, AUG 20, 2015 07:32 AM EDT
Conservative radio host’s comically horrific immigration plan: Let’s reinstitute slavery to build Donald Trump’s wall

"What's wrong with slavery?" he asked on a recent radio program

As if the GOP’s decision to start seriously debating how to undermine the 14th Amendment weren’t bad enough, earlier this week an influential conservative Iowa radio host Jan Mickelson debuted a brilliant idea for how to deal with undocumented immigrants — reinstitute slavery.

On his August 17th program, Mickelson proposed putting up signs all over Iowa saying that “as of this date, 30 to 60 days from now, anyone who is in the state of Iowa who is not here legally and who cannot demonstrate their legal status to the satisfaction of the local and state authorities here in the State of Iowa, become[s] property of the State of Iowa.”


That isn't some disturbed, drunk staggering from bar to bar, blubbering, while in an alcoholic daze, what he thinks should be done about immigration problems. This is a guy who pulls in thousands and thousands of Tea Party listeners, many of whom probably nodded, rubbed their chins and said "Great idea!"

The modern TeaPublican Party has great ideas: Let's reinstitute slavery!

And let's not forget their great idea of medically unnecessary forced ultra-sounds via inserting a probe into a girl's or woman's vagina.

Or bringing prayers (Christian prayers of course) back into public school classrooms.

Or the presidential candidate (Santorum) who said that birth control was "just wrong!"

Or the presidential candidate (Huckabee) who thinks it's a swell idea to force a raped 10-year old girl to carry her step-father's fetus.

Do these people actually know we're in the 21st century and not the 17th? I doesn't appear that they do.


Les Carpenter said...

It is a complex problem, one both parties have shared in creating. Finding a solution first requires this truth be acknowledged.

Dave is right, this country is not going to round up 11 million illegals and depart them only to bring a share of them back. It is simply rhetoric for the base, reasonable folks know it is ludicrous.

The really only sensible answer is to grant a pathway to citizenship for those already here and at the same time tighten border security, and choke off all avenues of illegal entry going forward.

Legal immigration and naturalization is not a bad thing, as a nation of immigrants we should all know this. But it must be controlled effectively. It is a fact this nation could easily become over populated and eventually its resources and infrastructure taxed to the limit.

Think about it. It is time to stop kicking the can down the road.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Forgot the LINK: HERE.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Several forms of the Dream Act have been introduced in the US Congress, and none have passed. President Obama backed the D.A. again (I think it was in 2012?).

HuffPost: "The DREAM Act was first introduced in 2001 by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and came closest to passage in 2007, when it fell eight votes short of bypassing a filibuster. But previous Republican supporters, most notably Hatch and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), have since made a radical shift to the right on immigration.

Coming off of a harsh anti-immigration law in Arizona, SB 1070, and a campaign season with numerous Republicans ads stoking fear about the border, the current Republican message is "secure the borders first."

A $600 million border security bill passed by the Senate in August did not silence these complaints.

"... most Republicans claiming it would be wrong to pass the DREAM Act when illegal immigrants can still enter the country. (An estimated 50 percent of illegal immigrants did not enter the country illegally, but overstayed their visas.)"


With the political parties so hopelessly divided, I doubt any sort of immigration legislation will ever be passed.

But what is certain is that Trump's harebrained ideas around immigration are nothing more than grandstanding blather: Round up the 11 million undocumented aliens, throw them out (or package them up as Dr. Carson suggests), then let the "good ones" back in?

That's an idea one would expect to hear from someone who is hopelessly clueless. IOW, someone 25% of the GOP thinks is smart. Donald Trump is a bollixed know-nothing's idea of a pol with great solutions to complicated issues.

The Wank Files said...



"That's an idea one would expect to hear from someone who is hopelessly clueless."

but the twenty-five percent of the rethuglican party are convinced that trump will beat whoever is the democrat nominee in a nationwide contest...laughable...i guess math isn't a strong suit for wankers...but they're convinced "hitlery" will be frog-marched to some far-away prison for doing what other politicians have done before...they are the real "dreamers"...

Paula said...

DONALD TRUMP never stops amazing people with his never ending jerkiness:

"Trump, the Republican presidential frontrunner, told CNN's Chris Cuomo that he would remind the pope that ISIS radicals want to kill him and take over the Vatican.


"I'd say, 'ISIS wants to get you,'" Trump said. "You know that ISIS wants to go in and take over the Vatican - you have heard that. That's a dream of theirs."

Cuomo asked if he would really try to scare the pope.

"I'm going to have to scare the pope," Trump said. "The pope, I hope, can only be scared by God, but the truth is - you know, if you look at what's going on - they better hope that capitalism works, because it's the only thing we have right now. And it's a great thing when it works properly."

So DONALD TRUMP says the pope can only be scared by God, but then goes on to tell Cuomo how he'll scare Pope Francis, cuz, DONALD TRUMP thinks of himself as GOD.

A Dark Furry Thing said...

Donald Trump is nothing more than the newest shiny object the low-information voters are looking at, like crows who find something glittery on a vacant field and bring back to their nests. Crows of course are smarter than the average Tea Bagger.

Infidel753 said...

"...packaging them up..." Does he mean like putting them in cardboard cartons and taking them to the local UPS store?

Hey, Carson's a moderate. Unlike Trump, he favors using boxes with air holes punched in them.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Here's Dr. Ben with another crazy idea for getting rid of undocumented human beings:

On Wednesday, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson ratcheted up his border rhetoric by advocating military drone strikes on American soil to combat illegal immigration. Speaking near the U.S.-Mexico border, Carson told reporters:

You look at some of these caves and things out there one drone strike, boom, and they’re gone!

He continued by stating:

I’m suggesting we do what we need to do to secure the border, whatever that is.


So kindly Doc Ben suggests we bomb them! Now there's a suggestion right from the heart and mind of a guy who likes to remind people about how devoted he is to Christ. (WWJB? Who Would Jesus Bomb?)

I know there are people who believe kindly Doc Ben is brilliant, even I have said so where it concerns his technical ability as a medical doctor. But I don't think we can continue to believe in someone's overall brilliance when he continually says stupid things.

Sorry, Dr. Ben, "packaging them up" or "one drone strike, boom, and they're gone" may sound like great to the low-info trogs in your party, but those ideas are not consistent with what America is about. Most of us understand we have a immigration problem, but we also understand that treating people like trash and fantasizing about killing them is not the way to solve this human problem.

Clearwater, Florida said...

Doktor Carson's suggestion we murder people for crossing a border (the East German Solution reversed) has become public record. He now has to defend his suggestion that we kill mothers, fathers, and children by drone-bombing them in caves. There's so much stupid that comes out of this guy's head one wonders about his mental stability at this point. Doktor Carson and the Trumpistas, on the wrong side of history: past, present, and future.

When will Trump add the machine guns to the top of his imaginary, yooge, beeyootiful wall?

BB-Idaho said...

The enigma is not that we have jerks running for high office. It is that they have
more than an iota of followers.

Dave Miller said...

Another day, another stupid statement. I hope he stays in the GOP Top Ten so we hear how he defends this idiocy.

Shaw Kenawe said...


BB-Idaho:

"The enigma is not that we have jerks running for high office. It is that they have
more than an iota of followers."


Like this madman:

"Iowa radio host and influential conservative kingmaker Jan Mickelson unveiled an immigration plan that would make undocumented immigrants who don't leave the country after an allotted time 'property of the state,' asking, 'What's wrong with slavery?' when a caller criticized his plan."


BB-Idaho, many other people wonder about the same thing:

From Digby:

Calling the Iowa state fair "the carnival of the damned," Charlie Pierce wonders why any American politician would ever engage, not with Mickelson, but with the audience that tunes in for this sort of vulgarity.


Dave, I don't know if Dr. Carson really believes in or is serious about his ideas for solving immigration problems in this country, or if some advisor told him he has to out-crazy the craziest in the TGOP in order to gain in the polls.

Jerry Critter said...

Drone strikes indeed! That's not the kind of "American Exceptionalism" we need.

Dave Miller said...

Shaw... Each day brings more inanity...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/08/21/the-new-political-code-word-for-the-2016-elections/?tid=HP_opinion

Racist southerners were passionate too, but were not the best our country had to offer...

Just sayin...

A Tea Party Movement said...

"Evangelicals were supposed to hate Donald Trump….

In reality, many top evangelical leaders admire Trump’s chutzpah—and his conservative conversion story.

Mammon has something to do with it:

The Donald J. Trump Foundation has made donations to evangelical groups like Iowa’s The Family Leader ($10,000 in 2013), Samaritan’s Purse ($10,000 in 2013) and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association ($100,000 in 2012).

But mostly, it seems, they admire Trump as the embodiment of everything that right-wing evangelicalism represents. Says Steve Scheffler, a Republican National Committeeman and top man of Iowa's Faith and Freedom Coalition: 'They’re looking for an outlet to vent their frustrations.'

An 'outlet,' for instance, that praises materialism over spiritualism — an outlet that revels in military firepower — an outlet that preaches that "getting even"is infinitely better than turning one's cheek.

You know, real 'Christian' stuff. Which is why we're not surprised that Trump is sweeping right-wing evangelicals off their feet. Like Josh Duggar, they've never met a hypocrisy they didn't love.

Trump need not pander to these people. In his adopted persona, he is these people."

Les Carpenter said...

Peanuts, Popcorn, and Cracker Jacks...

Anonymous said...

It is not like we have smart voters who pay attention to what a candidate stands for.
We are dealing with emotion not reason.
After all the last two elections were won by someone with a speech and no experience or ideas. Of course we see the results of those votes with a weak economy, no wage growth and all we hear is passing blame.

The difference between trump and Obama is trump has accomished something.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Anon: "It is not like we have smart voters who pay attention to what a candidate stands for.
We are dealing with emotion not reason."


"After all the last two elections were won by someone with a speech and no experience"


SK: Anonymous, you just proved what you wrote in your first statement. You wrote with emotion and not reason. Barack Obama had more experience than the bloviating carnival barker, Trump. And Mr. Obama, when he ran for a second term, had FOUR YEARS OF EXECUTIVE BRANCH EXPERIENCE. However, we we did have a "business" preznit with George Dubya Bush. He had an MBA from Hahvahd Business School. Remember how great that businessman was for the financial health of this country? Emotion, not reason is what your statements are full of.



Anon: "...or ideas. Of course we see the results of those votes with a weak economy, no wage growth and all we hear is passing blame."

Obama's second term is on pace to be the best ever for private sector job growth

More ignorance, emotion, and complete lack of reason.

Anon: "The difference between trump and Obama is trump has accomished something.

SK: Trump has accomplished building casinos, gaudy buildings, and golf courses, experiences that have absolutely nothing to do with running a country. Oh, and yes, he's been and married 3 times, so the Family Values people will love that and the fact that we'll be able to see his 3rd wife's photo shoot, with her posing on a satin-sheeted bed in her lace panties and bra, with one of her breasts hanging out for all those horney white Goopers to gawk at. Classy, eh? Just what the Xtian Family Values prayed for: Our first playmate FLOTUS.

But let's give the Trumpet credit for being a most excellent buffoon and blathering crap nozzle.

Also, why have you stopped using your name, skud?

Shaw Kenawe said...

RN, indeed.

ATPM, evangelicals can be easily bought.

Dave, Trump showed his complete lack of moral character by not condemning what his two fans did to that poor homeless man.

Jerry Critter, it's exceptionalism for those who don't know the meaning of "exceptionalism."

Stupid things Conservatives say said...

"I find it impossible to avoid the suspicion that Trump is in the race at the behest of the Clinton’s. Having him there now serves as a distraction, and when he runs as an independent, facilitates the old Clintonian strategy of triangulation."

Conservatives are astounded that their followers can support a bigoted demagogue with no values like Trump that they need to blame everyone else but their Stupids for his popularity with the dumbasses of their party. So it's the Clintons fault? The butt hurt is major in the Rethuglican Party right now because sane Americans and the world are laughing at them.

It ain't Clinton's fault that a major jackass like Trump found a home and approval in todays GOP, and it ain't a surprise to the rest of us who see through this charlatan.

Shaw Kenawe said...

StCs,

A YOOOGE! conservative crowd in Alabama came out to greet the Trumpet and listen to his rambling, incoherent demagoguery. He told them what they wanted to hear, they cheered and grunted their approval. It was Alabama, afterall.


America’s Worst-Educated States

10. Oklahoma

9. Tennessee

8. Indiana

7. Nevada


6. Alabama
Bachelor’s degree or higher: 22.3%
Median household income: $41,415 (5th lowest)
Pct. below poverty level: 19.0% (7th highest)

Alabama has one of the nation’s worst high school attainment rates. Among adults 25 and older, 17.3% do not have high school diploma, the fifth-worst percentage in the U.S. For those aged 16 to 19, just 93.7% were either still in high school or had graduated, among the lowest rates in the nation. Only 22.3% of adults have at least a bachelor’s degree in Alabama.


5. Louisiana

4. Kentucky

3. Arkansas

2. Mississippi

1. West Virginia

Apparently, a poorly educated electorate is Trumpet's best hope for winning the GOP nomination.

So the Clintons must have convinced the state of Alabama to poorly educate their citizens so that a demagogue like Trump could be accepted as a legitimate candidate for the most powerful position in the world.

Yeah. That's what happened. Trump's popularity in the 6th least educated state in the country has nothing to do with it. /sarcasm/

Deez Nutz said...

Welcome to the TeaParty GOP:

"...those who have long enjoyed portraying themselves as the “Guardians of our Constitution”, through strict interpretation of the same, and the proponents of law & order as the bulwark of an orderly society—of course I’m speaking of Republicans—are the very folks who no longer have much use for the Constitution when it fails to meet their desires or live up to their expectations.

Appearing on Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News program Tuesday night, Donald Trump declared that the Fourteenth Amendment—which specifically and clearly guarantees citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the United States and who are subject to U.S. jurisdiction—is unconstitutional.

When O’Reilly took exception to Trump’s version of the Constitution and suggested that Trump’s plan to deny birthright citizenship would require a Constitutional Amendment, Trump argued that he didn’t have time for the process laid out by the Founders to alter the Constitution and that he would not be required to go that route because the Fourteenth Amendment is not going to “hold up in court.”


But President Obama shreds the Constitution, he's lawless and a tyrant!

But in the teaminded party Trumps disregard for the constitution is okay because he "tells it like it is" and he's Richy Rich, and has a sexy wife who poses in lace bra and panties for all the world to see her ass! Now that's class!

But Michelle Obama suggested that our children eat healthy food and exercise?! All with her clothes on! How dare she! That's "no class" in the tea party republican world. If only more presidential candidates wives would have their pictures taken in their underwear, this would be a better country! And more people would respect women for their looks and sexy bodies!

So we're waiting for Dr. Ben's wife to show off some of her assets, like the Trumpet's wife did!

Jerry Critter said...

So Trump wants the 14th amendment declared unconstitutional (which of course can't be done) and he gets cheered. Perhaps we should toss the 1st and 2nd amendments into the unconstitutional bin also. Let's listen to the yelling then!

Shaw Kenawe said...

"So Trump wants the 14th amendment declared unconstitutional (which of course can't be done) and he gets cheered."

Yeah. Trump keeps feeding them teh stupid,and they keep eating it up. Shows how ignorant they are about our Constitution. But they're absolutely certain Mr. Obama is shredding it.

Ignorance is bliss, and so are potatoes!

Jerry Critter said...

Here's another category where Alabama is leading the nation.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Bottomless wingnuttery:

"Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump took his road show to Alabama Friday night, appearing at Ladd–Peebles Stadium before a crowd estimated at 20,000, many of whom matter-of-factly shared their racist views with visiting reporters.

As Trump spoke to to his assembled fans and curiosity seekers, one man could be heard yelling “white power!” (see video below) in between breaks in Trump’s stump speech.

Wearing what is becoming his trademark campaign speech golf hat reading “Make America great again,” Trump hit many of his familiar themes, including bashing “illegals” whom he says are are destroying the U.S.

Trump again pitched building a wall between Mexico and the U.S. saying, “we’re going to build it” while stating Congress could end the guarantee of citizenship for children born to immigrants in the U.S.

“The 14th Amendment — I was right on it. You can do something with it, and you can do something fast,” Trump said. “In the case of other countries, including Mexcio, they don’t do that. It doesn’t work that way. … We’re the only place just about that’s stupid enough to do it.”

Trumps comments found favor with many in the cheering crowd with one local man, Jim Sherotta, 53, telling a reporter from AL.com, he’d like to see bounties placed upon the heads of undocumented workers coming over the border.





There it is. Your modern Repub Party. Do away with due process, change the Constitution, and shoot to kill anyone coming over the border, or better yet, bomb them in their caves. That of course includes pregnant women, fetuses, babies, and children, you know, the humans the wingnuts believe are life's most precious! It's wonderful, in a very sick sort of way, to see the wingnuts lose all pretense of being anything but a lawless, blood thirsty mob. How quickly they've kicked their Jesus under the bus and made a short-fingered vulgarian their newest idol.

Shaw Kenawe said...

From Jerry's link:

"An analysis of leaked Ashley Madison data by scientist Jake Popham shows Alabama is the least faithful state in the country, at least when it comes to how much money people spent on the extramarital dating site. Alabama comes in first on the list, followed by Colorado and Washington, D.C."

Ah yes, one of the Bible Belt's most Bibley Bible state. And the Baby Jesus wept.

Les Carpenter said...

I'm thinking about blogging about beer and pretzels.

Shaw Kenawe said...


I like craft beers. One of my favorites for the summer is Allagash White Ale. Allagash Brewing Company, Portland, Maine.

Dave Miller said...

You should RN... you've probably got some great regional craft brews up there...

Shaw Kenawe said...

Trump: The Politician of Hatred:

DONALD TRUMP’S rapidly expanding catalogue of bombast is already a weighty tome, and it’s a fool’s errand to take each of his utterances seriously. Still, his loathsome comment on Wednesday, in which he excused violence against a Hispanic man in Boston as “passionate” acts of “people who are following me,” taps into a dark vein in American history and merits special attention.

In the Boston incident, two brothers were charged with using a metal pole to assault a 58-year-old Hispanic man. The man, who was homeless, was left with a broken nose and other injuries to his face, arms and chest. “Donald Trump was right, all these illegals need to be deported,” one of the brothers, Scott Leader, told police, the Boston Globe reported.

When Mr. Trump was told of the incident, in which the brothers also are alleged to have urinated on the man before beating him, he said the following: “It would be a shame. . . . I will say that people who are following me are very passionate. They love this country and they want this country to be great again. They are passionate.”
[...]
The truth is that Mr. Trump deliberately whips up popular rage for political advantage. By spewing hatred on the stump, Mr. Trump encourages it in the bleachers and on the streets, then sanctions it when it occurs. Remember: He also minimized the death threats Ms. Kelly received after his dustup with her, telling the Hollywood Reporter, “I’m sure they don’t mean that,” then pivoting to stress his “respect for the people that like me.”

Mr. Trump is not the first politician to inspire and then explain away crimes of hatred; he’s just the most recent one.

okjimm said...

RN.."I'm thinking about blogging about beer and pretzels. ." I thought about that too....and then realized it would subtract from time available to drink the beer. ohohoh...and forget the pretzels....go with just plain cheddar slices.