Donald Trump
Occupy Democrats
Who else does he need to insult before Republicans force him to
resign from the presidential race?
Thanks to Point Counter Point.
A bunch of rag tag Colonists cared enough to oppose Tyranny, sacrificing their lives.....and now Americans embrace the same tyranny?
Jim Wright
Yesterday, Miami, Florida. Trump interview. Subject: US Navy Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba:
Reporter: “Would you try to get the military commissions, the trial court there, to try U.S. citizens?”
To be clear, the reporter is asking the man who wants to be president of the United States, the man who claims he's READ THE CONSTITUTION, if he as president would try United States citizens -- UNITED STATES CITIZENS, civilians -- in a military court.
Repeat, Trump was being asked if he would consider trying US civilians in a military court. That's what he's being asked. There is no ambiguity. The question is clear and specific: Should military courts have authority over US citizens?
That's the question.
Now, as an American, if you don't already know the correct answer, if you don't immediately understand why trying a civilian under military authority is 1) unconstitutional, 2) illegal, and 3) unAmerican, then you need to get your ass back to school immediately. Don't vote. Don't say another word. Don't. If that question doesn't set off every warning bell in your head, then you are not qualified to be a citizen of this republic.
And what did Donald Trump answer?
What indeed.
Trump “Well, I know that they want to try them [American citizens accused of terrorism] in our regular court systems, and I don’t like that at all. I don’t like that at all. I would say they could be tried there [at Guantanamo Bay, under military authority]. That would be fine.”
That would be fine.
That would be fine.
If you can't see why this man is utterly and completely unqualified to serve in ANY elected position in the United States of America let alone as President, if that answer alone doesn't prove as much in your mind, then as I said above, you don't meet the minimum requirements for citizenship.
Trump will not make America great.
There is nothing whatsoever great about this dangerous madman.
We have long since passed the point where Trump's tendency to fascism can be ignored.
We have long since passed the point where the repeated, daily now, multiple warning signs can be dismissed as sarcasm, or jokes, or Trump just being Trump.
In the wreckage following WWII, people asked over and over, and continue to ask up to this very day: How could this have happened? How could you people, you Germans, how could you let that madman destroy your republic, destroy your nation, destroy your people, destroy your civilization? How? How is that possible? Why didn't you DO SOMETHING?
And the answer was: We didn't know. We thought he would make Germany great again. We thought he would make Germany for Germans, get rid of the undesirables. We thought he would rebuild our military, make it mighty again. We thought he would make the world fear us, respect us, acknowledge our superiority. He said he'd give us jobs, rebuild our infrastructure, make us all rich. We didn't know. We didn't know until it was too late!
Well, America, WE don't have that excuse.
WE do know.
And you're looking at it. You're looking at it every single goddamned day. You're looking at the pinched ugly faces of racists and bigots and haters, the KKK and the Neo-Nazis, Homophobia, Transphobia, Islamophobia, Anti-Semites, violence and fear of every kind touted as American values, jingoism, military fetishism, America for Americans, walls, propaganda sold as truth despite its OBVIOUS AND PROVABLE falsehood, the cult of personality, the fear of the other, the suspicion that our neighbors and our government are plotting against us, the appeal to some supposed lost greatness, the nostalgia for the good old days of glory, and now the suggestion that civilians should be tried by military tribunal -- free of the burden of law, the Constitution, appeal, and all the values we Americans hold most dear. The very ideals those like Trump would say make us "exceptional," that is what we would deny others.
How could this happen?
It happens when the ideals of hope and optimism and community are replaced with fear and hate and intolerance. It happens inch by inch, day by day, as the idea of The Other takes hold. It happens when reason is replaced by the mindless shouting mob, when a nation that calls itself exceptional compromises its values for expediency, for rendition, for torture, for indefinite detention without trial or appeal.
That's how it starts.
And you don't have to look very far to see how it ends.
How could this happen?
It happens because we let it happen. Because we dismiss the warning signs. Like Bhopal. Like Chernobyl. Like the Titanic. Like ten thousand other disasters that could have been prevented and weren't.
Every day this guy gives warning. Every day.
Every day the alarms sound. Every day it grows worse.
Every day you see what an America under Trump would be like.
How could it happen?
Exactly like this.
Progressive Politics's photo.
Anyone get it?
Dan Rather's post.
Dan Rather
No trying-to-be objective and fair journalist, no citizen who cares about the country and its future can ignore what Donald Trump said today. When he suggested that "The Second Amendment People" can stop Hillary Clinton he crossed a line with dangerous potential. By any objective analysis, this is a new low and unprecedented in the history of American presidential politics. This is no longer about policy, civility, decency or even temperament. This is a direct threat of violence against a political rival. It is not just against the norms of American politics, it raises a serious question of whether it is against the law. If any other citizen had said this about a Presidential candidate, would the Secret Service be investigating?
Candidate Trump will undoubtably issue an explanation; some of his surrogates are already engaged in trying to gloss it over, but once the words are out there they cannot be taken back. That is what inciting violence means.
To anyone who still pretends this is a normal election of Republican against Democrat, history is watching. And I suspect its verdict will be harsh. Many have tried to do a side-shuffle and issue statements saying they strongly disagree with his rhetoric but still support the candidate. That is becoming woefully insufficient. The rhetoric is the candidate.
This cannot be treated as just another outrageous moment in the campaign. We will see whether major newscasts explain how grave and unprecedented this is and whether the headlines in tomorrow's newspapers do it justice. We will soon know whether anyone who has publicly supported Trump explains how they can continue to do.
We are a democratic republic governed by the rule of law. We are an honest, fair and decent people. In trying to come to terms with today's discouraging development the best I can do is to summon our greatest political poet Abraham Lincoln for perspective:
"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
Lincoln used these stirring words to end his First Inaugural Address. It was the eve of the Civil War and sadly his call for sanity, cohesion and peace was met with horrific violence that almost left our precious Union asunder. We cannot let that happen again.
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