Friday, November 20, 2015

Trump's candidacy must go down in flames ASAP.

I'm hoping it goes down in flames, period, but if he's backing this, now would be the time.

Now, the question is, did he endorse mandatory registration?

I happen to think that Trump is an ill-informed opportunistic blowhard who doesn't believe a lot of the crap he's peddling. 

Ed Morrisey (also not a Trump fan) puts together a case that Trump was talking about immigrants, but that doesn't help much, given the other crap he's peddled recently:

Allahpundit remarked yesterday that he couldn’t tell if Trump was being serious, or if Trump was in effect trolling the reporter. In this exchange, Trump is serious, but possibly confused between what Hillyard asks — registering all Muslims — and what Trump seems to answer, which is registering Muslim immigrants. When Hillyard catches up to him the second time, Trump stops answering his questions when asked to explain the difference between his proposal and the registration of the Jews in Nazi Germany, as the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” plays surreally in the background. It appears that Trump has no idea what Hillyard means.

The problem with assuming that Trump’s only talking about Muslim immigrants is the interview yesterday, when Trump at least did not object to special IDs and warrantless searches for Muslims regardless of their status. Two days ago, he was talking about having the government shut down mosques, which also doesn’t sound like Trump’s limiting his actions to Muslim immigrants. But even if this is a case of two people talking past each other, the questions from Hillyard aren’t terribly difficult to figure out. Instead of listening to them, Trump just seems to uncork a series of platitudes that are non-sequiturs to the questions, without bothering to reframe the question first. He looks lost, and then even more so when Hillyard makes the obvious comparison to the Nazis and the Jews.

Either way, it’s an appalling idea, and one that flies in the face of the First Amendment. First off, what’s the need for a special database for Muslim immigrants, even if Trump is just talking about immigrants? All legal immigrants get “registered,” and fixing the visa system would ensure that they get tracked along with everyone else. Putting Muslims in a special class is not just unconstitutional, it’s unnecessary, and proposing it is needlessly provocative politically.
Look, I think our hypersensitive approach to combatting Islamic terrorism is counterproductive and reality-defying. The reports of the slaughter refused to name the obvious source of the attacks, then the bodies of the slain haven't cooled before the media is hard at work, peddling worries about a backlash against Muslims and an entire American political party can't even say "radical Islam." It's an obscene, grotesque spectacle that doesn't get better with age. 

But what Trump is apparently proposing is even more obscene. One doesn't have to bathe in the treacly PC drivel to recognize that fascism isn't the right response.

God have mercy. 

3 comments:

  1. He "clarified" that was acknowledging the reporter's question, which doesn't exactly sound like a denial. For once I'll play charitable and assume he didn't endorse the idea, but the fact that this clown can't even take a question like "should we round up the Muslims and register them" and shoot it down with a firm "no" is enough.

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  2. And by the way, when dd Ace become just a sycophantic little suck-up for Trump?

    http://ace.mu.nu/archives/360190.php

    Speaking of which, I love how the new bad guy for the Trumpkins is Rubio. I mean Rubio morphed into Jeb's role as Emmanuel Goldstein so seamlessly. Of course he is just keeping the seat warm until Ted Cruz climbs even higher in the polls, and before you know it Ted Cruz will be the Establishment darling according to these Mensa candidates.

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  3. Trump's latest comment that thousands of of New Jersey Muslims were openly celebrating the events of 9/11 is just one more exaggeration in a parade of many. This man is a demagogue pure and simple. His comments about fellow Republican candidates are useful for the Democrats. In a way, he is like Hillary. Followers of both Trump and Hillary really don't care that the candidates are unfit to serve. Hillary is female and Trump is an antiestablishment candidate. Nothing else matters.

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Be reasonably civil. Ire alloyed with reason is fine. But slagging the host gets you the banhammer.

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