Trump in a vacuum

[New York Times Reader Comment, 12-11-15] ------------ Trump in a vacuum is hard to understand.  Add some context, though, and he starts to make more sense.


We have a president who refuses to acknowledge that ISIS is a masterful foe.  He insists the Syrian vetting process is fine and dismisses Americans' concerns.  Then we have jihadists entering the country demonstrating that the vetting process is not fine.


Trump without Obama would be nowhere. ---------------- [end, Reader Comment]


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After those two incidents that happened one right after the other -- the horrible guy who shot several people at a Planned Parenthood place in Colorado, and then the horrible husband-and-wife who shot people in San Bernardino, California -- it makes you think about stuff. 


There's a strong sentiment among some Americans for gun control -- I've never joined in that, thinking bad guys will find a way to get guns, whatever, I don't know, and then things happen that make you think again. 


Why ARE we allowing people who are on the no-fly list to buy military-grade assault weapons and ammo?  (It sounds like a stupid question.  But then you realize, If you have to ask that question, then it's a stupid situation.)  We allow guns to be sold -- apparently -- to anybody-and-everybody.


Talk about crazy -- all we have to do is look at the photos of these trigger-happy yo-yos or extremists or whatever they are -- the Colorado one looks crazy-stupid because his eyes, in the picture, were open too wide ("wild-eyed") --


and the San Bernardino husband looks evil in the airport photograph because his eyes are half-closed...


and all we have to do is look at these people, and at what they've done, and it could make the most ardent gun-fan ask himself, "Do we really want to sell assault weapons to all miscellaneous fruitcakes, rum-dums, and no-brainers that ask for 'em?"  Would we also like to give big boxes full of farmer's matches to four-year-olds and tell them to go play...?


Then there are the Internet Commenters who say we're overreacting on terrorism, that "bathtubs kill more people than terrorists do" ... (then I get a REALLY weird mental picture...)


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// Reader Comments from the New York Times, December 11, 2015 //




George in Monterey
To be clear, I don't think Trump will ever be our president.  But he has achieved something quite extraordinary.  He has obliterated the idea that the democrats or republicans give a damn about any of us.


They are all on the gravy train and now seem to be running for the exits.  While his methods are coarse, to say the least, we should be grateful that Trump has called out the elephant in the room before he leaves the stage.






57nomad, Carlsbad, CA
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952


"Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate."


The real haters are those who are asking American citizens to sign their own death warrants by importing barbarians that want to murder us.






Jay in Nice
Hillary who along with her husband has received $140 million from corporations the last seven years is going to fix income inequality and is the great hope of the middle class.  Yes, indeed!


There are reasons for Trump's rise which have nothing to do with racism and hate, but have everything to do with the current corrupted political system.






Birch, in New York
So the entire political class is going to cave to Trump when not even a single vote has been cast?  With Mrs Clinton in full panic mode?  This is why so many people are fed-up with politicians. 


They stand for nothing and hew which ever way the wind is blowing. 


If Mrs. Clinton had a core platform which she truly believed, she wouldn't have to worry about Trump.  But if she is trying to find the wind Trump is sailing on, she's likely to fail.  Trump isn't doing that.  Neither is Bernie Sanders.  And that seems to be where the real contest lies.






Angelar, Grand Prairie
Trump stopped being funny when his fascist rhetoric increased his popularity rather than decreased it.





(Donald Trump's cameo appearance on a second-season episode of "Sex And The City" -- circa 1999)




Paul Schlacter, St. Louis MO
It's fascinating listening to all of the Trump detractors completely baffled by the Trump phenomenon.  He's untouchable, and they can't stop it.  How incredibly frustrating that must be.


Every effort to derail him, whether by liberals, establishment Republicans or the main stream media, only seems to strengthen him.  They're flailing around like fish on dry land.


I'm not even a "Trump guy," but this is just delicious to watch.






Joe, New York
Democrats?  Democrats?  Bernie Sanders' name doesn't even appear.  This article is about Hillary.  I'm a Democrat and, as far as I am concerned, she is not.  Yet another example of horrible, disingenuous and transparent bias on the part of the Times.






reader
Both Hillary and the New York Times disgust me.






S, Richmond VA
Bernie is the only rational and honest candidate in this race.








Stephen, Oklahoma


I am astonished, but not surprised, that the political elites are clueless about how they created Trump. 


When political elites refuse to acknowledge or actively deny evident realities -- such as that there is significant, active animosity of Muslims, perhaps up to 20% worldwide -- they invite the kinds of "politically incorrect" statements for which Trump is famous. 


No one except Democratic politicians from Obama down are deceived about Islamic radicalism and terrorism, least of all Muslims, mostly moderate themselves.  Trump may well be too extreme -- but he is closer to the truth of the matter than they are.  He acknowledges a short term and a long term problem.






CJ in Ohio


So she's shocked that people are sick of the outright lies they have been told for a generation by politicians who say what we want to hear and do whatever makes them richest.  How much money is she worth now?  Where did that come from? 


She's just amazed that people aren't buying the lies anymore and that applies to both parties. 


I hope the Republicans do keep Trump from being nominated by rigging the convention.  He'll run as an independent and we'll have a new party that isn't beholden to the good old boys club.  At least we have a shot at it.  We know what we will get with anyone else.  More of the same.








Missouri


DC politicians are so disconnected from "the folks" out here, that they don't understand the depth of anger we feel toward a government that totally ignores our opinions and lives in their own cloistered little world. 


The politicians talk to each other, and to the press, and they think everyone thinks like they do . . . . or that those that don't are some radical fringe that can be ignored.  I am NOT a Donald Trump fan -- I think he'd be a disaster for the country.  But I totally understand the anger and frustration his supporters are feeling, when we've been basically ignored for years.






P Henry, Massachusetts
I'm not sure who is more out of touch with the American people, the establishment of both political parties or the mainstream media.  We'll see who has the last laugh.






Jeff Lee, NY
I left the GOP this year.  I've been a supporter for 40 years.  I left, not because of Mr. Trump, but because of what the GOP as a party now stands for.  I will be voting for Mrs. Clinton because I know I will safely sleep at night with my family.  She is, in my view, the most qualified candidate.






monte4amy, New York
The elitist, anti-flyover country, anti anyone who isn't a member of the all knowing club echo in these comments is deafening but not loud enough to drown out the fact that if he stays in the race and continues to say what the majority of the electorate, the silent majority, knows is needed to be said, that Donald Trump will be the next President of the United States of America. 


I don't want to waste time here and most wouldn't read it anyway, but US Code compels the POTUS to do what Trump proposed. 


Not only that, Jimmy Carter halted all Iranians entering the USA during the hostage crisis.  Both of the previous sentences are summations and don't contain the full facts but the gist is enough.  Here's some more gist:  President Trump, get used to it.






TS, California


Anyone thinking to themselves that Americans will never elect a politically inexperienced hack, based on their celebrity and tendency to throw verbal grenades, would be wise to recall governors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jessie Ventura....






Andy, Texas
Hillary and the Dems always get upset when they find out that the minds of the American voters are not so easily stomped down and ignored.  Trump may be a doofus, but all the candidates on both sides are doofuses. 


At least he is a doofus willing to say what he thinks and what many Americans are feeling, as opposed to the other doofuses who just say what they think will get them the most votes or are the "right" things to say.  While I would find it difficult to vote for Trump, I will gladly vote against Hillary if Trump is the opponent.






Paul Bassoon - Tokyo, Japan
All the while - there is literally no coverage of Bernie Sanders in the mainstream media.  Trump sells advertising for TV and cable channels -- it's that simple. 


More Americans support Sanders over Trump head to head -- but Bernie gets something like 1/20th the media coverage. 


It is a queasy situation to watch the country get so influenced by TV ratings.  But that's nothing new I suppose.






Telstar, United States
I am now convinced that this country is filled with gullible, uneducated people.


No wonder Trump thinks he's smart






JE - White Plains, NY
Hillary's a weak, plastic candidate, that's why in 2008 Obama (who's turned out to be a disappointment) won the Democratic primary.  At first many Americans thought Hillary would win, but Obama came out of nowhere and beat her.


This time around she's only leading because the too big to fail and jail casino banks such as Citibank, Goldman Sachs, and J.P. Morgan etc. have given her vast amounts of campaign cash and the sold out mainstream media





has anointed her as the front runner.


Sanders is not likely to win the primary, simply because he doesn't have the backing of the financial oligarchy and its media that has its death grip on the country.


Since Hillary's not popular, this opens the door for clowns like Donald Trump to rise to the top of the political trash heap.






New Haven, CT
There's only one guy in all of the presidential campaign occupying the position Trump occupies.  Everybody else sounds the same.  I don't care if it's Hillary or if it is Carly Fiorina.  I don't care if it's Rubio or if it's Ted Cruz.  They all sound the same.  What do they all do?  They are condemning Donald Trump.


Donald Trump is condemning ISIS.  Donald Trump is condemning illegal immigration.  Donald Trump is condemning donor-controlled United States leadership.  Donald Trump is condemning trade policies which have gutted our middle class.  Everybody else is not, they are condemning Donald Trump.






David in San Francisco, Calif.
Trump is ripping the veneer off the heart and soul of the Republican electorate, and it is an ugly mess.






Kovács Attila in Budapest
So now it is Donald Trump who determines the subject of the political debate.


Hillary Clinton is very badly equipped to confront him.  She should let Bernie Sanders be the candidate.






Maine
There's a whole lot of things that Clinton and other establishment politicians don't get.  They've been spending too much time hanging out with, and working for, the elite, and ignoring the needs of everyday Americans. 


Wall Street - Goldman Sachs in particular - pushed the economy over a cliff.  Millions of people lost their jobs, their homes and their retirements, and nobody was ever punished. 


Rather, they walked away with millions in bonuses after the taxpayers bailed them out. 


The American public is still (rightly) furious over this.  It violates in the worst way the American principle of fairness.  And what does Hillary do?  She hangs out with these people.  They're her biggest contributors.






Pennsylvania
The rightist slide into the swamp has been as precipitous as it has been appalling.  It's been ongoing for decades.  Each step takes them and us further into the mud.




...At every stage the trajectory of smarts has been downward.  The cause is the right-wing dominated media, who parrot and ape their lies and misinformation without challenge.  This is what appealing to an actively misinformed electorate looks like.






New Hampshire
Geez seriously.  Trump is the least fascistic of the Republican field--admittedly that's faint praise.  And he*s not saying *bar all Muslims forever.*  He said *until we can figure out how to deal with this.*


...Just as Ultra-Ultra-Orthodox Judaism has become a terribly destabilizing force in communities in NY and NJ, taking political control away from local people and establishing mini-theocracies, Muslims adhering to the Saudi-spread version of Islam want to establish the same sorts of communities. 


Just like the breakaway fundamentalist Mormon sects that have made certain communities in the Southwest untouchable.


The danger isn't Islam per se, just as mainstream Judaism and mainstream Christianity aren't dangers.  The danger is the implacable drive of all fundamentalists to turn our country into theirs.


Formerly very liberal European nations have discovered what happens when YOU honor multiculturalism but THEY do not. 


Trump in many ways is bombastic and he clearly needs heavy therapy for certain longstanding personality issues.  But not everything he says is foolish or unjustified.


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