Trumped up ...

[JR*]

Let's see. Mosques should be placed under surveillance; Moslems should be made to wear "identity badges"; Moslems should be forbidden from entering the United States (including US citizens who happen to be outside the country) ... Donald Trump is beginning to remind me of a certain personality from the fairly recent past, but I'm not sure who ... Yours from the Beer Cellar, JR.

[Nickdfresh]

He's becoming rather unhinged. Some people see him as refreshing and honest, but I think he's the drunk guy in the bar that has diarrhea of the mouth...

[tankgeezer]

He may feel himself to be outspokenly honest, and perhaps to a degree he is. (He is a business man, and making Pitches is part of the marketing game, so some hyperbole, and Bombast should be expected) But more often these days I hear conservative people shifting from the Donald to Ben Carson, or Carly Fiorina . The reason being that Talk is cheap, and while speaking skills are a good, and useful trait for a President, the job is less about fiery oratory, and more about wits, and reason.

[leccy]

There are calls by MP's in the UK to ban him from Britain under the same rules that ban hate preachers and extremists.

[tankgeezer]

Might work, unless he is actually elected to the Office.

[leccy]

Would be interesting as Britain has banned other national leaders due to their politics and actions.

[JR*]

I understand that the UK (like here in the Emerald Isle) has a procedure whereby securing a substantial number of signatures to a public petition (300,000 in UK, I think) in favour of a particular topic requires the House of Commons to debate the matter - whether in Select Committee or on the Floor of the whole House I am not sure. The result of any such process would count as "advice" to the Government, but would not compel it to act in accordance with the result. At least one British national newspaper, this morning, claimed that the required number of signatures had been obtained for an "exclude Trump" proposal. I understand that the UK has, in the past, excluded a number of foreign politicians and agitators, but never, I think, in response to a public petition. I am not sure whether "the Don" has any intention of visiting Britain in the near future - but I can easily see why the British Government would welcome such a visit like a hole in the head ... Yours from Doonbeg (Trump) Golf Resort, JR.

[JR*]

PS - I recall that there was a strong campaign to exclude Robert Mugabe, Dimzabwe's geriatric dictator, from the country on an occasion on which he was due to visit on an official/protocol occasion. Not sure whether there was a petition attempted here. At any rate, the proposal went nowhere; Mugabe's visit went ahead. Best regards, JR.

[leccy]

The present move against Trump has the backing of (and instigation) of a few members of the very left leaning opposition. It would be awkward for the present government but probably no more so than the recent Saudi visit or Chinese State visit.

[pdf27]

I understand that the UK (like here in the Emerald Isle) has a procedure whereby securing a substantial number of signatures to a public petition (300,000 in UK, I think) in favour of a particular topic requires the House of Commons to debate the matter - whether in Select Committee or on the Floor of the whole House I am not sure. The result of any such process would count as "advice" to the Government, but would not compel it to act in accordance with the result. At least one British national newspaper, this morning, claimed that the required number of signatures had been obtained for an "exclude Trump" proposal. I understand that the UK has, in the past, excluded a number of foreign politicians and agitators, but never, I think, in response to a public petition. I am not sure whether "the Don" has any intention of visiting Britain in the near future - but I can easily see why the British Government would welcome such a visit like a hole in the head ... Yours from Doonbeg (Trump) Golf Resort, JR.

The required threshold for a debate in Parliament is 100,000 - to date the total has reached 450,000.

[tankgeezer]

Some say (sorry Top Gear) that he will be attacked for his being an outsider who has the means to win an election without the help of the political establishment, and this in the minds of those insiders makes him unpredictable, and uncontrollable (not under the thumb) by the establishment. They also fear that Trump will make good on his statements that he will root out culpable politicians, and prosecute them and happily assist in demolishing the legally questionable acts of predecessors' Administrations. (Not play the good old boy game) It will be interesting to see what happens should he find himself elected next year. Personally, I don't believe that he would much care if the U.K. wouldn't allow him to visit. Who knows, he may own some of it.

[leccy]

Some say (sorry Top Gear) that he will be attacked for his being an outsider who has the means to win an election without the help of the political establishment, and this in the minds of those insiders makes him unpredictable, and uncontrollable (not under the thumb) by the establishment. They also fear that Trump will make good on his statements that he will root out culpable politicians, and prosecute them and happily assist in demolishing the legally questionable acts of predecessors' Administrations. (Not play the good old boy game) It will be interesting to see what happens should he find himself elected next year. Personally, I don't believe that he would much care if the U.K. wouldn't allow him to visit. Who knows, he may own some of it.

He badgered Scotland to sell him a site for a golf course I despite local protests. Politicians were his friends after his showmanship sold the ideas. But some of his comments a deliberately inflamatory, he says we have a Muslim problem in the UK, we have radical muslims we also have radical Christians.

We have Christians murdering each other in the UK over centuries old issues (oddly they stopped when 9/11 happened and US support for their 'political wings' ended, never mind a few months later when a few of their members were caught training drug lords how to fight US troops).

The vast majority though of all the various religions do not have an agenda or any issues, comments like his though sow distrust and cause issues, can be used to sway people.

US presidential hopeful Donald Trump has claimed the UK has a “massive Muslim problem” as a petition to bar him from visiting Britain topped 400,000 signatures.

Mr Trump also claimed yesterday that he should be thanked for investing in Scotland instead of stripped of an honorary degree and axed as a business ambassador.

Robert Gordon University (RGU) in Aberdeen this week revoked the doctorate of business administration he was awarded in 2010 amid outrage over his calls for Muslims to be barred from entering the US.

And First Minister Nicola Sturgeon removed his membership of the GlobalScot business network.

Mr Trump had been appointed as a GlobalScot ambassador by Labour's then first minister Jack McConnell in 2006.
However, a Scottish government spokeswoman said on Wednesday that Mr Trump's "recent remarks have shown he is no longer fit to be a business ambassador for Scotland".
Mr Trump - who has developed a golf resort at Menie, north of Aberdeen - was awarded an honorary degree by RGU in 2010.
But the university said his comments had been "wholly incompatible" with its ethos and values.

The US presidential hopeful said: "I have done so much for Scotland, including building Trump International Golf Links, Scotland, which has received the highest accolades, and is what many believe to be one of the greatest golf courses anywhere in the world.
"Additionally, I have made a significant investment in the redevelopment of the iconic Turnberry Resort, which will have massive ballrooms, complete room refurbishments, a new golf course and a total rebuilding of the world famous Ailsa course to the highest standards and specifications of the Royal and Ancient.
"If they - Nicola Sturgeon and RGU - were going to do this, they should have informed me prior to my major investment in this £200m development, which will totally revitalise that vast region of Scotland.
"The UK politicians should be thanking me instead of pandering to political correctness."

[Rising Sun*]

Trump is a modern American version of Enoch Powell, with none of Powell's intellect and sophistication but, alas, all of Powell's ability to play to the lowest, meanest and uninformed beliefs and unfounded fears in the moronic majority of voters which responds to political histrionics unaffected by rational analysis and knowledge.

Powell's Rivers of Blood speech http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/3...od-speech.html is a template for the xenophobic fear-mongering of the likes of Trump in all nations, who predict the destruction of their nation if [insert preferred group / nationality / race / religion] is not oppressed, excluded and, ideally in Trump's case, sent back where they came from.

No doubt the native peoples in the USA, Canada, South America, Africa, Australia, and many other places would think this is a good idea if the clock could be wound back a century or five.

Unfortunately for them, the immigrants who displaced their ageless possession of their lands over the past few centuries are predominantly European.

And now the Europeans (in the widest sense of those with European origins in English speaking countries outside continental Europe and Britain) who, on the historical time scale, very recently took the lands of the native peoples by violent conquest at worst and brutal dispossession at best are moaning about Muslims being a threat to the end of civilisation as we know it. I'm old enough to remember much the same complaints (as stated by Powell) in my country since WWII about Vietnamese (oddly enough fleeing the land laid waste by my country and others supposedly to defend the world from communism and then abandoned to communists), Greeks, Italians, Maltese, Cypriots, Turks, Yugoslavs, Balts, etc etc.

I don't have any problem with rounding up and imprisoning or even executing people who are major threats to local or international peace and harmony (which, admittedly, put the likes of Dubya, Rumsfeld, etc at risk not so long ago when they were pursuing the same policy in Iraq), but I have a major problem with a modern form of Nazism which attributes all the ills of the world to a given religion and wants to persecute all its adherents.

If Trump was focused on violent jihadists it wouldn't worry me, but focusing on all Muslims is no different to the Nazis focusing on all Jews. Or the Zionists in Israel focusing on Palestinians who, quite unreasonably in the Zionists' view, are still pissed off about being kicked out of their homes and homeland and relentlessly oppressed by the Zionist invader. Or the same sorts of mindless oppression and extermination which fuelled Rwanda, Kampuchea, etc etc

Anyway, democracy being the great achievement that it is in America and elsewhere, where the person / party with the most money has a much better chance of winning, Trump deserves to win if that's what his money buys and the electorate wants. Then he can set about denying equal rights to Muslims, Mexicans, and everyone else he doesn't like by rounding them up and shipping them out, contrary to the US Constitution / Bill of Rights which, quaintly, contemplates that only wrong doers shall be subjected to lawful penalties.


Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

[Rising Sun*]

The US presidential hopeful said: "I have done so much for Scotland, including building Trump International Golf Links, Scotland, which has received the highest accolades, and is what many believe to be one of the greatest golf courses anywhere in the world.
"Additionally, I have made a significant investment in the redevelopment of the iconic Turnberry Resort, which will have massive ballrooms, complete room refurbishments, a new golf course and a total rebuilding of the world famous Ailsa course to the highest standards and specifications of the Royal and Ancient.
"If they - Nicola Sturgeon and RGU - were going to do this, they should have informed me prior to my major investment in this £200m development, which will totally revitalise that vast region of Scotland.
"The UK politicians should be thanking me instead of pandering to political correctness."

None of Trump's alleged vast financial contributions to stopping Scotland sinking unforgotten into the North Sea would have occurred if the Scots, being a people disposed to perverse pastimes to while away long dull nights in the gorse when the haggis isn't flowering, or whatever gives rise to haggi reproducing, hadn't invented golf.

If Trump wasn't such a historically ignorant, self-centred, smug, unoriginal capitalist bigot who has managed to reduce in real terms the worth of the wealth he inherited while persuading the gullible television world, and lately the American electorate, that he is the improbable capitalist child of King Midas and Jesus Christ incarnate, he'd know that he should be grateful to the Scots for inventing golf, without which he couldn't be stroking his knob with misplaced self-satisfaction that he is conferring untold wealth on the Picts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcnFbCCgTo4

[JR*]

Latest Trumpery - the Don want's to close down "parts of our Internet" where "our enemies" are active, and use what is left of it "to find out ... all about ISIS and kill it". On this point, I gather that one very elderly US public representative tweeted "I don't think it works like that". For some reason, Trump does not seem to know this. Even I know this. Meanwhile, Trump continues to dominate the opinion polls, lording it over his rivals for the Republican nomination. Of course the Republican leadership hates Trump, and for good reason. As for their support base ... do they really, really want to lose the General Election ? Or is it just a lot of naughty Democrats taking the p*ss ? JR.