In the UK there's a move to ban Trump for his hate speech.

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/12/britons-…

CNN's new poll out today actually shows Trump up 13% on Cruz in Iowa, 33% to 20%. This will only help with primary voters.

Too much salad and not enough melting all around.

Remember when Tom Lehrer decided to quit doing political satire after Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize ("No way I could top that!")? Trump is threatening to drive a lot of standup comics out of the business.

Everyone keeps saying Trump is imploding and he's going to be out soon. But after months he's the only candidate to maintain the pole position in the GOP field. Better start dealing with the fact this freak is the nominee of the GOP.

Quick, everyone give the blowhard more attention. Like they say, always respond to a troll.

Part of me is laughing
Part of me is cringing

God I hate American "Politics"... sigh

"his analysis and solutions are as misinformed and ill-considered as mine! he's got my vote!"

why.bmp

Maybe Trump desperately wants to get out of the race, but to save face he's saying the most outrageous and unbelievable things to self-destruct - only it's not working!

This is the first thing out of a GOP mouth that didn't make me gag in some time:

http://youtu.be/x44EREtI7uY

Don't know much about Sen. Sasse, but Trump could stand to listen to this young whippersnapper.

He's the nominee, unless the local, county, and state GOP organizations around the country somehow implant actual brains into their convention delegates. (But if they did, said delegates would no longer be Republicans.) It's lovely imagining how depressing this all is to the Republican National Committee.

@14: I bet Reince Priebus is sweating bullets now, ordering extra security for the 2016 Republican Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.

@3, and we could ask the former Pope Ratzinger to head the Federal Bureau of Inquisition. Before he was pope, he was the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was the direct successor to the Inquisition.

Who let all of this riffraff into the room?

http://www.pink-floyd-lyrics.com/html/in…

There are 50 Muslim-majority nations. Is Trump suggesting diplomats from those countries, and their staffs, won't be allowed on US soil? Has he given any thought to what the impact would be not just on Embassy Row, but also on the UN?

For that matter, I didn't notice him saying this wouldn't apply to American citizens who happen to be Muslim.

Republicans are going to self explode with this guy. Now, he's hated on Mexicans, War Heroes, women who menstruate, Muslims.. Etc.
Not many people left on his team.

The real conundrum a candidate like Trump poses is that, by going "full-metal crazy", he's making the rest of the GOP clown car look positively reasonable by comparison.

@7

The people who think Trump is "imploding" every time he spouts his stupid hate-filled shit are people who have the refreshing - but wrong - idea that people are reasonable, logical and nice.

This latest outrage isn't going to lose Trump any votes in the primaries. It might just help him gain a few from Cruz, Carson, and the rest.

I am foreign, so perhaps it's not my position to say so, but as Trump gains strength, he is becoming a greater and greater threat to the American way of life, and (more importantly as far as I'm concerned) to the rest of the world. In the unlikely event that he doesn't start WWIII, his policies will destroy the American economy, and that destruction will cause a global economic collapse.

We can't stop him, because we don't get to vote.

You can.

If Trump wins the Republican nomination, which seems increasingly possible, all sensible Americans, Republican, Democrat, or actual left-wingers, must get out and vote for whoever the leading candidate opposing him (probably Hillary, but you never know). The rest of the world needs Americans to turn out like they never have before.

And if there are things that you don't like about Hillary (or whoever), vote for her anyway, and suck up the things you don't like for four years. No spoiled ballot papers, no third-party candidates, no protest votes: just keep Trump out. Please.

@19

There are plenty people left on his team. All he needs is the stupidest 51% of the people who turn out to vote.

After two years of living with Tony Abbott as Prime Minister, I know that being completely f---ing mad doesn't prevent people from getting into power. But Trump is in a different league to Abbott.

While I agree that the devolution of the rhetoric is troubling, we should remind ourselves that his big 33% lead in the polls at this point probably really only translates into about 5% of the total electorate.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/dear…

And I recommend this episode of On the Media for giving yourself a little sanity check on the supposedly huge divisions between progressives and conservatives in this country, especially the last segment with Michael Lind.

http://www.onthemedia.org/story/on-the-m…

@3: The runaway leader in your party. Aren't you proud?

Saw a tv piece on a Trump Rally, I could swear their chant sounded Nazi like.
Very very spooky.

@26:

Figures you of all people would purport to know what Black People will - or won't - do.

But hey, thanks for whitesplaining that for the rest of us.

@21: Counterpoint: I will vote for Trump for President over Hillary. It will be a disaster if he's elected, but voting for the lesser evil for the last 20 years hasn't worked. If we want change, we have to either elect politicians who reflect change, or elect politicians who will make change impossible to resist. Hillary is neither of those categories, Trump is the latter.

How would Trump designate Muslims? Would he force them to wear crescent patches on their clothing?

We're on the road to fascism and that never ends well.

Trump is what the Republicans have been pandering to for decades, since Nixon, and especially in the past 8 years under Obama. Yes, there is an ugly racist underside to America, and their party is Republican.

Which is, of course, dying. They have nothing new to offer besides outrageous over-the-top bigotry. Why is anyone surprised that Trump is the front-runner?

Personally, even though he's a narcissist, I don't think he's as racist as he says he is. He knows exactly what will get the conservative base all fired up and excited. They value hating brown people. Women are sex objects. LGBT are jokes at best, horrors at worst. End of story.

As horrific as it looks from the outside, this is really what we've all known will happen: an implosion of the Republican party. Trump is hated by the party elite, and they won't back him. He is loved by the people doing the actual voting.

If you depend on zombies to obey you, don't be surprised when they turn on you and eat your brains.

While the Republican elite don't speak out against Trump and his growing fascism, then they are all tarred with the same brush.
They should find some moral courage and expell him from the party.
Let him go independent, his rat bag group go with him.
Pity you guys aren't dragged to the polling booth like Aussies are. It is compulsory to vote here, and we have a big turn out to vote.
Why is Trump getting such media coverage constantly? Where are the other candidates' rallies and what is being said? I hear nothing of Bernie or Hillary. Just Trump and his simplistic, cruel, reality show type performances.

@32: I think you answered your own question with your last sentence. Bread and circuses.

"There are 50 Muslim-majority nations. Is Trump suggesting diplomats from those countries, and their staffs, won't be allowed on US soil?"

Not to mention, does this mean that the US is going to end diplomatic relations with those countries, since you better believe that if the US expels ambassadors that those countries will do the same? Will the US conduct all its consular business for US nationals living and working abroad via the Swiss embassy, like has been done in Iran for a generation?

Will US nationals in countries where Islam is the official religion be expelled by their host country? If they are not citizens, it can happen. The Sultan of Brunei is not one to suffer fools lightly, and expatriate workers are common over there. Same with the United Arab Emirates--try telling the Sheik of Dubai what to do.

All of that is just on the nuts-and-bolts of running a country. It doesn't even take into account the breathtaking human toll such a policy would take.

@18 and @34, also, OIL.

@29

This is what scares me. There are lots of people like you who somehow think that America is terrible because of liberalvaluesgaymarriagepoliticalcorrectnessblackrightsallpoliticiansarethesame or whatever, and who think that voting for "change" is the answer.

Fascism is change. But it is not good change. A fascist America is a disaster for America and a disaster for the rest of the world.

America has is faults, but it's not terrible.

And if you hate America so much as it is, why don't you just leave? Go to Russia. They voted for change and got an idiotic, homophobic, racist, bellicose fuckwit "strongman" President. If you want to live in a country ruled by someone like Trump, save the rest of us from the same fate and get on a plane to Moscow.

@32

“Pity you guys aren't dragged to the polling booth like Aussies are.”

I think a strong turnout might help beat Trump.

But do remember that compulsory voting gave us Tony Abbott, who is basically Trump-Lite.

@18, 34: Apparently he would allow those people in, but not permit Americans who are Muslim to return from abroad.
@36: You have me on the wrong side of the aisle. I think America could be GREAT because of liberalvaluesgaymarriagepoliticalcorrectnessblackrights, but Hillary can't make America great. She can only continue the degradation of the middle class.

@38

I'm delighted to hear that I've got you wrong: it is always nice to find out that someone isn't evil.

But more of the same - even if you don't like it - is a far, far better thing than any of Trump. By voting for him in order to force some sort of cataclysmic change that might go your way, it's far more likely that you're opening the door to long-term fascism.

I hate to go all reductio ad Hitlerium on you, and honestly, I normally don't: there's only been one leadership candidate in a major power who has reminded me of Hitler in the recent past (and that was Bo Xilai, and every day I am thankful that he is in jail).

But I think we can be pretty sure that there were sensible, progressive people who were frustrated with the inability of the Weimar Republic to get anything done. They were frustrated that the government couldn't stop the slide of the middle class. They wanted something to change, and they thought that voting for an extremist would shake up the establishment. They didn't think voting for him would lead to what it did: they thought his stupid racist shit was just electioneering. They just thought voting for him would create a situation in which progressive forces would be forced to get their act together and enact real change.

And I genuinely think we're looking at the same here. We've got an "anti-politician" or a "political outsider" who is spouting absurd extremist nonsense in order to pander to a hardcore of stupid people and racists, just like Hitler did. And he's built his profile and built on that support, just like Hitler did. And he's telling everyone his country is broken, just like Hitler did. (And let's get this straight: America has its problems, but IT IS NOT THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC. It's not even present-day Spain. Your country is rich, and it can continue to head in the right direction: look at gay marriage, and the fact that people are finally getting angry about black people being killed by cops. Things are getting better. Not as fast as you'd like, but they are.) But anyway, he's telling everyone his country is broken, and that a new kind of politician is the only way to fix it. And what he wants is to get elected, and then recreate everything the way he wants it.

And you have to stop him.

It's very specifically down to people like you.

There's plenty to dislike about Hillary. But under Hillary, things - the economy, the state of the middle class, the state of the poor, gay rights, women's rights, ethnic minority rights, etc - will get either a little bit better or a little bit worse. Which is OK. Not brilliant, but OK.

Under Trump, everything will change. Muslims will - he's making this increasingly clear - be rounded up for heaven knows what sort of fate. LGBT rights will be rolled back pretty much instantly. The tax system will be redrawn to completely destroy the poor, cripple the middle classes, and enrich the super-rich in a way that Bush II could only dream of. Your international trade will collapse, leading to massive job losses, and shortages of goods. There's a strong likelihood that you'll become embroiled in lots of wars with absolutely no international support. Millions, around the world and in America, will die.

And you say you're willing to vote for this because you're a bit pissed off that things aren't really changing for the better as fast as you'd like.

Please don't. People like you are the people who will decide whether or not America has a fascist future.

Just live with the mediocrity of Hillary and campaign for change from within. Please.

@36

"I think America could be GREAT because of liberalvaluesgaymarriagepoliticalcorrectnessblackrights, but Hillary can't make America great."

What do you mean by "Great" here? Was it Great before? Can it be Great in the future? Is it somehow destined to be Great in a way that other countries aren't?

And why does America have to be Great? Why can't it be Good? Or Nice? Or OK? Or A Bit Better Every Year?

I hear this "making America Great" a lot, but no-one ever says what it means or why it is important.

@sh1331 Relax, yeah I know this Trump thing is noisy, vile, and potentially world threatening but it will all be over by March 2016. Trump will not make it to the Republican Convention. When the dust settles it will be Clinton v Bush in the main.

Yeah I know Jeb is polling really badly right now but the Bush family has been playing this game a long time. When the time comes the long knives will come out.

As for the VP slots, mmmmm I'll toss a dollar on Rubio as Jeb's pick and one of the Castro brothers as Clinton.

@41

If someone had told me a few years ago that in 2015 I'd be hoping for a Bush victory, I'd have assumed they were mad.

But I hope you're right.

@36:

"If you want to live in a country ruled by someone like Trump, save the rest of us from the same fate and get on a plane to Moscow."

They would, but most Americans suck at learning other languages, and Americans who lack critical thinking skills *really* suck at learning other languages.

How long a period of cop murders, drone strikes, and continued abrogation of duty to protect the weak in society must I accept? How much suffering must I accept because the alternative may be worse in the short term?

Trump has put the spotlight on killers. He suggests banning Muslims from the USA, and compares the war on terror to the Second World War where German and Japanese were placed in internment camps.
By my understanding, the perpetrators of the 300 mass shootings in the US this yr, were not done by Muslims, they were however overwhelmingly done by men.
Logical conclusion to that,
Trump shit face, is to intern men till we know what the hell is going on.

@47

"How long a period of cop murders, drone strikes, and continued abrogation of duty to protect the weak in society must I accept? How much suffering must I accept because the alternative may be worse in the short term?"

If you have any common sense, you must suffer an infinite number of such violations, while working to make things better.

What you're saying is:

- Because you are not comfortable with a small (but certainly unacceptably high) number of instances in which cops murder black people, you would like to replace politicians who don't approve of such murders with one who supports them.
- Because you are not comfortable with drone strikes, you would like to replace politicians who sometimes use such strikes with someone who wants to destroy the Middle East and kill everyone who lives there (except the Israelis, who I think he assumes are immune to radiation sickness or something).
- Because you think the current administration doesn't really do enough to help the weak, and a similar future administration will be similarly lacking, you want to replace this with a President who will actively attack the weak and make his main economic policy one to redistribute income from the poor to the rich.

Do you honestly think this is a good idea? Why and how?

- How is a million black guys being killed by the police with the support of the President better than a few hundred being killed against the wishes of the President?
- How is the death of some terrorists with some terrible collateral damage worse than flattening three or four countries, and killing millions of people, many of whom are demonstrably innocent and who would have been able to escape had it not been for the policies of the person you would vote for as President?
- How is the best way to solve poverty driving more and more people deeper and deeper into poverty?

Please explain to me what the hell you're thinking.

Also, as I asked before, please let me know what you mean by "Great", and why this is desirable.

@48,

God, I hope you're right.

@50: I understand where you're coming from with your middle section, but your first paragraph is obviously insane.
- Do you really think Trump will let cops kill a million people??
- Do you really think Trump will nuke anybody?
- Revolution.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=great
Because having a shitty country isn't good? What are you honestly asking?

@37. True, we got Abbott. Because the mob before him had made such a performance. And it was the Australian people who took him down, over many months of hating his guts in the polls.
He's doing a Trump over here now. On some sort of talking circuit. Idiot.
Trump is waking up America, he and his ilk, ie; Kim and Co , have been putting people to sleep, and now a big wide awake moment.
Trump is a fool. Everybody knows it except the few rat bag white folk who are holding onto an old form.
Long as everybody votes.

@52

"- Do you really think Trump will let cops kill a million people??"

I think it'll certainly be in the hundreds of thousands if he gets the opportunity. I'm sure he'd like to. I doubt most current cops would be up for it, but I'm sure Trump could find some volunteers among his supporters.

" - Do you really think Trump will nuke anybody?"

Yes. Absolutely.

"- Revolution."

Right. So you think the best outcome - better than a Hillary Presidency slowly improving the things we've discussed - is the chance of a civil war?

Yeah. 'Cause they're always a laugh.

Time to break out the yellow Stars of David, folks. And the pink triangles.