Trump is not a Racist

Here.  Long but full of information.

A YUUUGE Reason Not to Vote for Trump

There are many reasons why Trump would make a terrible Republican nominee.  But here is another.  Trump has promised again and again that he will appoint the best and the brightest to solve all of the problems in the U.S. (another area where he proves his Democratic credentials)  Yet against this we have some very good inductive evidence that he will not: ge has failed miserably and embarrassingly in appointing people to ensure that he has loyal delegates voting for him after a first vote in the convention.  On this score Cruz has proved his political brilliance far surpasses Trump's arrogant bravado.  Yet another example of the aphorism that actions speak louder than words.

Arkansas is the latest.

Going to a Trump Rally!

A reader reports about his trip to a Donald Trump rally:

At around midnight on Friday, I RSVP'd for a ticket to today's Trump rally in _______at the airport. I drove down to the airport, and it was pretty wild. There were tons of state police and sheriff officers, and the road was lined with people selling Trump merchandise (many of the sellers were black, I noticed).

I was parked and at the gate over a half hour before the event started, and they were already turning people away. I never made it inside. One of the sheriff officers said that the Trump campaign made 25,000 tickets available, but the airplane hanger could only fit about 6,000 people. What a douchey thing to do!

So, I hung outside the gate for a while with disappointed Trumpsters. Some of them hoped that Trump would hear word of his people getting turned away and would get them in. Across the street, protesters lined up and shouted at those of us on the Trump side of the street. I took a bunch of videos on [my wife's] old de-commissioned iPhone, but, I haven't figured out a way to get those videos uploaded to anything yet.

Basically, the protesters were almost all college aged kids, 2/3 of them were white, 1/3 were black, and they were morons. Many of them had signs that said, "Trump's a fascist", with pictures of Hitler, "Bigots", and "Fuck Trump" etc. They were fairly aggressive with the verbal insults toward the Trumpsters, who were mostly there just to see the rally, and weren't interested in being made into news items. But at the same time, they were Trumpsters, and some of them could not suffer the protesters calling them racists. I heard several shout things like "This is the only real job you've ever had!" [TB: Nice one!]  "Fuck you!" "Go to a socialist country ya buncha socialists!" All entertaining stuff.

At one point, the crowd started chanting "Trump, Trump Trump!" and the protesters chanted back "Bernie, Bernie, Bernie!" Many of them held Bernie signs. The Trumpsters then started the "USA!" chant, and the protesters chanted "USA!" back across the street. I stuck around for a few more minutes and then left. I'll definitely watch the local news tonight. A guy a couple feet away from me was interviewed by a local channel.

One observation I made, however, was that these protesters were definitely the instigators. I'm now more sure that most of these fights happening at Trump rallies were probably started by aggressive protesters.

Who is supporting Donald Drumpf?

It can't be conservatives.  The latest in this bizarre primary from the CNN town hall meeting:

When asked what the three most important functions of the federal government are, he didn't say to legislate, judge, and execute the laws.  He did not say to protect the borders, enforce justice, and administer regulations on commerce between states and foreign nations.  He said the greatest is security (so far so good).  Then he added, "I would also say healthcare, education."  So according to Trump, the federal government has failed miserably in two-thirds of its functions for most of its history since healthcare and education have mainly been functions of state and local governments. 

He went on to say that abortion should be illegal and women punished for having abortions.  But what conservative organizations have been taking that position?  The conservative position has been that Roe should be overturned and the prerogative to legalize or illegalize abortions returned to the states.  Abortion providers in some states would then be subject to punishment if they broke the relevant laws.  (Trump later redacted his idiotic remark presumably after someone with a brain told him it was not the politically correct thing to say....)

"Make America Great Again!"

Say what you will about Donald Trump (I've said a bit, mostly not in his favor) but his slogan taps into one American sentiment diametrically opposed to another.

The Inegalitarian Sentiment: One should do what one can to make one's country as best as it can be, even if this means that it is better than others.

The Egalitarian Sentiment: Equality is the highest value, so if that means making one's country as mediocre as every other that is fine as long as equality is achieved.