The biggest threat to Americans these days, according to Republican politicians: Refugees from Syria
By Patrick
The attacks in Paris, the shocking mass murder of innocent people is a tragedy in many different ways. While families and friends mourn the dead, and a city is under shock, the fallout is dramatic in other ways as well: The vicious extremism of the "Islamic State" (IS), or "Isis", as it is usually called in the USA, is also a gift for the extremists in our own Western countries: For the bigots, the haters, the right-wing extremists.
The situation especially in the USA has been bad enough before the Paris attacks. While the USA is by far not the only Western country where right-wing extremism is on the rise, or "right wing populism", as it is sometimes called, there is hardly another place where it has become more "mainstream." The Republican Party has become a cesspool of bigots and haters, with Donald Trump as their most prominent face. It is virtually impossible to imagine how the USA would be transformed, if the GOP would win the presidency, because the radicals within the party seem to be the unchallenged leaders these days.
So the party of moronic solutions, like "We need more guns to fight gun violence", "The best health insurance is no health insurance (because "government dependency", naturally), "The best strategy against war is to start more wars", now has a new idea: "The best way to protect ourselves from IS/ISIS is to reject refugees from Syria, and to punish Muslims living in America."
Before the fight broke out, Trump had already warned the audience that Islamic State fighters might recruit their children online and called for an impenetrable wall along the southern border, prompting the crowd to chant: Build a wall! Build a wall! Build a wall! In his nearly hour-long speech, Trump listed graphic details of murders committed by people who had entered the country illegally, promised to bar Syrian refugees from living in the United States because they might be terrorists and called for heavy surveillance of "certain mosques."
"I want surveillance of these people that are coming in, the Trojan horse. I want to know who the hell they are," Trump said. “I don't want the people from Syria coming in, because we don't know who they are. We don't know who they are. And I don't want them coming in."
Trump also said he watched as "thousands and thousands of people" cheered the fall of the World Trade Center on 9/11, which gave the impression that he was talking about Muslims being happy that so many Americans died. Officials have repeatedly debunked rumors that Muslims in New Jersey were celebrating the attacks at that time.
What "fight" was Trump talking about? Well, an incident at the rally which was not surprising at all:
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- A white man punched and attempted to choke a black protester who was thrown on the ground at a Donald Trump rally in Birmingham on Saturday morning, as an onlooker yelled, "Don't choke him! Don't choke him!"
The protester, identified by local media as well-known activist Mercutio Southall Jr., started shouting during Trump's speech and could be heard yelling, "Black lives matter!" A fight broke out around him, prompting Trump to briefly halt the rally and demand removal of Southall.
"Get him the hell out of here, will you please?" Trump said.
The crowd alternated between cheering and booing as security officers pushed their way through the crowd of several thousand. Southall fell to the ground and was surrounded by several white men who appeared to be kicking and punching him, according to video captured by CNN. A Washington Post reporter in the crowd watched as one of the men put his hands on Southall's neck, and heard a female onlooker repeatedly shout: "Don't choke him!"
Trump is by far not the only Republican politician who came out against accepting refugees from Syria, as Stephen Colbert noted:
From "Salon" (two years ago, one would have thought that this is from "The Onion"):
But Donald Trump says that Syrians are not going to want to come here anyway. Right now the United States is entering winter while Syrian refugees are probably more accustomed to higher temperatures. Trump wants to know why the hell they’d come to Minnesota where it’s under 40 degrees.
“It’s a tough call for refugees,” Colbert said. “Do I want to stay in a war zone where my family faces almost certain death or do I want to go somewhere where I have to put on a jacket before I go to the mall? I mean you’re walkin’ around, you’re carrying your coat. You get all sweaty. You go outside and forget to put it on and then you get a cold. I’ll take my chances with ISIS.”
Trump's remarks about the database prompted harsh criticism:
Quote:
The Muslim Public Affairs Council’s Hollywood Bureau says it’s received dozens of phone calls from people offering support
Donald Trump’s statement on Thursday that he would “absolutely” institute a mandatory Muslim registry has sent a shudder down the spine of the Hollywood Muslim community, worried that the GOP frontrunner’s rhetoric is getting out of hand.
“My heart breaks,” veteran screenwriter Kamran Pasha told TheWrap. “The American people are better than this.”
Trump’s statements — as well as those of GOP rival Ben Carson, who on Thursday compared the risk of allowing Syrian refugees into the U.S. to having “a rabid dog running around your neighborhood” — drew harsh criticism from both Muslim and Jewish members of the Hollywood industry.
“This is utterly offensive and so antithetic to the founding principles of America, it would be almost funny if it weren’t so disturbing,” Democratic political consultant Donna Bojarsky, who is Jewish, told TheWrap. “Civil liberty is something that’s important to the Hollywood creative community and the Muslim community, so there’s definitely a common cause to be made here.”
In an interview with Yahoo News, Trump said that he would consider requiring Muslim-Americans to register with the government and giving them special identification identifying their faith. On Friday, the GOP frontrunner tried to walk back his remarks, which had been recorded on camera. “I didn’t suggest a database — a reporter did,” Trump tweeted. “We must defeat Islamic terrorism & have surveillance, including a watch list, to protect America.” But many felt Trump’s suggestions resemble Nazi laws imposed on Jews during World War II, including requiring them to wear a gold Star of David on their clothes.
“The rhetoric is getting to a kind of place where we’re talking about the equivalent of putting yellow stars on Muslims,” Pasha said. “Muslims are very easy targets in this country.”
It is not surprising at all that the terrorists from the IS want nothing more than to alienate, to separate Muslims from the Western societies they live in. The rhetoric of Donald Trump and many others plays straight into the hands of the terrorists:
Quote from "The Intercept":
IN A STATEMENT PUBLISHED in its online magazine, Dabiq, this February, the militant group the Islamic State warned that “Muslims in the West will soon find themselves between one of two choices.” Weeks earlier, a massacre had occurred at the Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The attack stunned French society, while bringing to the surface already latent tensions between French Muslims and their fellow citizens.
While ISIS initially endorsed the killings on purely religious grounds, calling the murdered cartoonists blasphemers, in Dabiq the group offered another, more chilling rationale for its support.
The attack had “further [brought] division to the world,” the group said, boasting that it had polarized society and “eliminated the grayzone,” representing coexistence between religious groups. As a result, it said, Muslims living in the West would soon no longer be welcome in their own societies. Treated with increasing suspicion, distrust and hostility by their fellow citizens as a result of the deadly shooting, Western Muslims would soon be forced to “either apostatize … or they [migrate] to the Islamic State, and thereby escape persecution from the crusader governments and citizens,” the group stated, while threatening of more attacks to come.
But what else can you expect from the "Party of boundless stupidity", the party that proudly presented Sarah Palin to the world, who makes a very happy impression these days, as she sees her dreams come true:
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin thinks a President Donald Trump is “a very real possibility.”
“I think it’s a very real possibility because people are really tired of professional politicians who, you know, won’t call it like they see it and maybe don’t have life experiences that allow them to prove a track record of success,” the former vice presidential nominee said in a radio interview with WBT Charlotte’s News Talk radio on Thursday.
“That’s refreshing about Trump," she said. "He’s a fighter. We know he’s gonna put America first, and he really nailed it early on what the main problems are in America right now, so it’s a very real possibility.”
But Trump isn’t the only one Palin can see in the White House.
“There’s also of course a possibility that people are going to recognize in, say, Ted Cruz, that he knows what he’s doing and he’s a great guy. He could certainly help put the country back on the right track,” she said. “Thankfully, we have a strong, competitive primary … as opposed to the other side of the aisle.”
Really, Trump or Cruz, that's it? The first wants to transform America into some sort of fascist state, the other wants to transform America into a Christian fundamentalist state, basically into the "Iran of the Western World." That's some choice indeed!
Yes, Americans are better than that - but will sanity prevail against hysteria and bigotry in the end?
The IS (or "Isis") surely hopes that Donald Trump will win.
A striking number of leading mental health experts are concerned enough about the possibility of a Trump presidency that they’re willing to speak out, publicly, about the candidate’s “Textbook narcissistic personality disorder.”
During a recent interview with Vanity Fair, developmental psychologist Howard Gardner, a professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education, referred to Trump as “remarkably narcissistic,” while clinical psychologist Ben Michaelis used the term “Textbook narcissistic personality disorder,” to describe Trump.
Michaelis went on to explain, “In the field we use clusters of personality disorders. Narcissism is in cluster B, which means it has similarities with histrionic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, and antisocial personality disorder. There are similarities between them.”
Going on, Michaelis described Trump’s constant belittling of other people as a ‘symptom’ of a deeper problem.
“To degrade people is really part of a cluster-B personality disorder: it’s antisocial and shows a lack of remorse for other people. The way to make it O.K. to attack someone verbally, psychologically, or physically is to lower them. That’s what he’s doing.”
Michaelis expressed his concerns about a Trump presidency, saying,
“He’s applying for the greatest job in the land, the greatest task of which is to serve, but there’s nothing about the man that is service-oriented. He’s only serving himself.”
Indeed, narcissism is characterized with by an exaggerated sense of self-importance, as well as a lack of concern or empathy toward others.
KCCI-TV, CBS News and the Des Moines Register will co-sponsor a debate among the Democratic candidates for President tonight live from the Sheslow auditorium, Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.
The moderators are John Dickerson, anchor of the CBS News program “Face
the Nation”; Nancy Cordes, the CBS News congressional correspondent;
Kevin Cooney, an anchor for KCCI-TV in Des Moines; and Kathie
Obradovich, political columnist at The Des Moines Register.
Coverage of the debate will begin at 8pm ET and the debate proper will begin at 9pm ET. Due to the devastating events last night in Paris the emphasis of the debate will now focus on the issues of terrorism, national security and foreign relations.
On Cable & Satellite TV Since
CBS is a free broadcast station anyone should be able to tune-in to
their local CBS affilate and watch the 2nd Democratic debate. Just be
sure to select the HD version of the channel!
On PCs CBS News will make the Democratic debate available on the CBS News live web page.
Anyone using a PC should be able to access the website through
a browser as long as video streaming is not blocked.
[http://www.cbsnews.com/live/]
On Mobile Devices CBS
News has mobile apps for Apple iOS, Google Android, and Windows
devices. Just download the app from the device’s app store to stream
over Wi-Fi or 3G/4G networks.
On Streaming Media Players The
CBS News app is available for streaming media players including Apple
TV, Fire TV, and Roku among others. Just download the app from the
player’s app store if you haven’t already to stream the debate
using internet service.
On Radio CBS News
will also broadcast the debate on radio stations nationwide, available
over-the-air or through local affiliates or apps such as Radio.com
and CBS Radio News apps for iOS and Android devices.
On Twitter Twitter
has also partnered with CBS for the debate, so Twitter users will be
able to follow the conversations and trending tweets throughout
the broadcast.
Another week, another GOP debate night. This time hosted by Fox Business and The Wall Street Journal. Same format, kiddies debate followed by the prepubescent teen debate.
Fox Business News anchors Sandra Smith and Trish Regan accompanied by WSJ Washington Bureau Chief Gerald Seib will moderate the kiddie debate at 7.pm ET.
At 9pm ET there will be a two hour debate moderated by FBN Managing Editor Neil Cavuto and FBN Global Markets Editor Maria Bartiromo. They will be joined by WSJ Editor in Chief Gerard Baker.
The first debate features recently demoted Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee who will be joined by Bobby Jindal and Rick Santorum.
Second debate comprises of Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Jeb Bush, John Kasich and Rand Paul.
The debates will be streaming live at FoxBusiness.comor you can watch via the Fox News app. No authentication from a cable or satellite provider is necessary.
Line-up for the main GOP debate on Tuesday, 10th November.
Fox News has announced that the line up of candidates for the main debate on Tuesday, 10th November, remains mostly the same. That is apart from the rather delicious fact that both Mike Huckabee and Chris Christie will now join the "Kiddies Table". Both candidates failed to reach the required 2.5% polling required and will face off against Bobby Jindal and Rick Santorum.
This will be a huge blow to Chris Christie in particular but I'm glad to see Mike Huckabee getting his marching orders.
The polling figures for George Pataki and Lindsey Graham were so low that they will not take part in any debate and the likelihood is that we will see several campaigns fold down over the coming days. Let me know what you think about these latest developments in the comments. Thanks. ++++++++ News reaches me that there has been a shake up in Alaska and Palin buddy and appointee Franci Havemeister has been fired from her position as Head at Agriculture after an investigation. Details are sketchy and as I learn anything new I will update.
+++++++++
UPDATE:
Democratic Forum Moderated by Rachel Maddow. Tonight between 8 - 10 pm ET.
Tonight on MSNBC Rachel Maddow will put questions to the Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Saunders and Martin O'Malley live from Winthrop University, Rock Hill, South Carolina.
The candidates will appear individually on the stage - this is not a debate and Maddow will talk to the candidates "sequentially, one on one".
Feel free to leave your impressions in the comments. I'll try and join you but can't promise to be free.
