If You Can't Say Anything Nice . . .

. . . then you're probably Donald Trump.  Or a Trump supporter.

"Yes, Dave," I hear you reply --- or at any rate, I would if anyone read this blog --- "But what about YOU? It seems like all you can do is call Trump a bully and an asshole.  Tell us something we don't already know!  Tell us something positive and uplifting!"

That's fair.  I don't want this blog to be a place where I do nothing but complain.  So instead I'll talk about Hillary Clinton.

Why should you like Hillary?  I'm glad you asked!  Hillary provides 112 Reasons (and counting!) why she should be president.  There's a lot of rhetoric, and a lot of repetition, but there are actually at least 30 good, solid ideas in there.  Here are a few of my favorites:

• She’s set another big goal: To generate enough renewable energy to power every home in America within 10 years of her taking office.
• The economy is stronger when a Democrat is in the White House.
• Hillary will defend Planned Parenthood and women’s health care from Republican attacks.
• Hillary believes that raising middle-class incomes is the defining economic challenge of our time—and she has a plan to do just that.
• Because every 4-year-old in America should be able to go to a high-quality preschool in the next 10 years.
• We need to invest in infrastructure and rebuild or expand our roads, bridges, rail, broadband, public transit, and water and energy infrastructure.
• Because we should hold corporations and individuals on Wall Street accountable—and prosecute them when they break the law.
• It’s time to end for-profit private prisons in America.
• Hillary will put a stop to Republicans’ systematic efforts to stop millions of people from voting.
• She will provide funding to make sure body cameras are available to every police department in America to increase accountability on both sides of the lens.
• She has called out the Republicans’ offensive, inflammatory anti-Muslim rhetoric because she knows it’s against our values as Americans—and our national security.

Of course, there are a lot of details to be filled in, but all of these ideas/plans/reasons at least sound (a) Like good ideas, and (b) Like plausible ideas.  Unlike Trump's plan to build a 2000-mile-long wall on the Mexican border and make Mexico pay for it.  Or any of his other plans.

The Real Question About Corey Lewandowski

The Corey Lewandowski incident demonstrates that Trump is a bully and an asshole.  This isn't news.

The real question everyone needs to be asking Trump right now is this.  When you're president, how much illegal activity will you allow in your White House?  You've promised to keep Corey Lewandowski on your staff even if he is convicted of criminal battery.  Will you retain White House staff convicted on criminal charges?

Will you pardon White House staff indicted or convicted of criminal wrongdoing?  If not, why not?  Are there certain crimes you will tolerate and/or pardon, but others you won't?  If so, would you please provide a list of all criminal activity you deem acceptable in a Trump White House?

The Bully Asshole

It is now beyond dispute that Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, grabbed (now former) Breitbart New reporter Michelle Fields after a Trump rally in Florida on March 8.  How do I know this?  Because Kevin Drum has the frame-by-frame proof:

This proves three things, actually:

1. Michelle Fields was telling the truth when she said: ". . . I was jolted backwards. Someone had grabbed me tightly by the arm and yanked me down. I almost fell to the ground, but was able to maintain my balance. Nonetheless, I was shaken."  This is hardly surprising, since Washington Post reporter Ben Terris was an eyewitness to the event, who confirmed at the time that Lewandowski grabbed her.
2. Corey Lewandowski is a liar.  I can't find any reports directly quoting Lewandowski as denying that he grabbed Fields, but the Trump campaign sure did, so he must have lied to Trump.  Either that, or Trump decided to deny Fields' accusation without bothering to ask Lewandowski what happened, which doesn't make Trump look good.
3. Corey Lewandowski is a bully.  Because even though he knew full well Fields was telling the truth about the incident, he decided to attack Fields in social media rather than apologizing, calling her an "attention seeker".

In spite of all this, Trump and his campaign continue to stand solidly behind Lewandowski.  Today Trump gave every excuse in the book for Lewandowski's awful behavior: accusing Fields of changing her story (she didn't), suggesting that when Fields tweeted out a picture of bruises on her arm, that those bruises were there before Lewandowski grabbed her (wishing doesn't make it so, Donald), that she would have screamed if Lewandowski had really hurt her (she probably would have if she had known at the time that Lewandowski and Trump were going to be such dicks about it), and that "I think it's very, very unfair to a man with a wonderful family, back in New Hampshire, who gets, what, a criminal situation, over that?  I think it's a very, very sad day in this country when a man can be destroyed over something like that."

No, Donald.  Since you've been a spoiled brat since birth, I know you don't understand this, but it's called consequences.  This is another Thing Everyone Knows.  When you hurt someone --- even if you don't mean to --- you bear the responsibility of making it right.  If Lewandowski had the moral ethics of a 6-year-old and apologized to Fields and accepted responsibility for his actions, this would have been over in minutes.  I have no doubt Fields would have forgotten about it and nothing would ever have been reported in the media.

Instead, Lewandowski lied and attacked Fields further, so getting slapped with criminal charges is exactly what he deserves.  Losing his job is exactly what he deserves, no matter how wonderful his family in New Hampshire may be.  So if you had any understanding of right and wrong, Donald, you would cut Lewandowski loose.  The fact that you continue to defend him --- even to the point of saying you'll stand by him if he's convicted --- shows that you're as much of a bully as Lewandowski.

It doesn't matter that Lewandowski didn't pull Fields to the ground (she said "I almost lost my balance", and there's no way Trump can prove that she didn't).  It doesn't matter that the only real harm to Fields was some light bruising.  The bottom line is: Lewandowski lied about physically confronting Fields, then bullied her about it.  The fact that Trump continues to defend him shows that Trump values loyalty over accountability, loyalty over honesty.  And the fact the Trump continues to attack Fields shows that he's a bully too.  And NONE of those things are desirable qualities in a president.

Open Letter from a Trump Defector

Via Digby, the former head of the Make America Great Again Super PAC explains why she's now urging Trump's supporters to abandon him:

The hard truth is: Trump only cares about Trump.

And if you are one of the disaffected voters — one of the silent majority like me — who wanted a candidate who could be your voice, I want to speak directly to you as one of his biggest advocates and supporters.

He is not that voice. He is not your voice. He is only Trump's voice.

Trump is about Trump. Not one of his many wives. Not one of his many "pieces of ass." He is, at heart, a self-preservationist.

. . .

And he has no problem abusing your support the same way he cheated hard-working men and women out of millions of dollars, for which he is now being sued.

Never Thought I Would Run for Office

We have discussed how Donald Trump has a long and colorful history of making disparaging, disrespectful comments about women.  Today on the radio in Wisconsin, host Charlie Sykes challenged Trump on his comments, to which Trump replied:

I never thought I would run for office . . . . Many people, you know, Howard Stern would interview me and everybody would be having fun and the women would be laughing.

Oh, so I guess it's okay that he's a big, sexist asshole, then.  I guess it's only wrong if you know you're going to run for office and say those things.  Never mind that only three of the 8 comments highlighted in the Our Principles PAC ad came from Trump's Howard Stern show appearances, and never mind that the things Trump says are just the tip of the iceberg.

The guy is just awful.

The Truth Generator

There are lots of Things Everyone Knows (by which I mean, things that are absolutely true, which everyone should know and practice, but which some people unaccountably don't).  I won't be around long enough to document all of them on this blog, but I made an attempt to automate the process.  In fact, it's the first thing I ever wrote on this blog.

I call it the Truth Generator, because it generates over 220,000,000 different statements, each one of which is 100% true.  It's basically just a lot of examples of The Golden Rule which, according to Wikipedia, occurs in some form in nearly every religion and ethical tradition.  It is something, it seems, which everyone in the world can agree on, although many people forget about or overlook it.

It's the Truth Generator I think Jesus would have written, if JavaScript had been available to him.

More on the Misogynist Trump

A number of people have written about, or otherwise discussed Trump's history of demeaning, insensitive and disrespectful comments about women.  Yesterday, Franklin Foer published possibly the definitive history of Trump's misogyny over at Slate.

As an added bonus, we get a few peeks into Trump's formative years, which suggest that he's always been a bullying asshole.  And one Thing Everyone Knows is, it's not okay to be a bully OR an asshole.

Torture is Wrong

Here's one more Thing Everyone Knows: Torture is wrong.

The very root of the word --- from the Latin 'tortus' --- means 'twisted'.  Torture is a twisted practice, and only a twisted individual would sanction its use.  The Spanish Inquisition, The Viet Cong, Saddam Hussein --- all of these were rightly condemned for the practice of torture.  Another thing that makes America great is the Eighth Amendment prohibition against 'cruel and unusual punishment', in which category torture definitely qualifies.

Donald Trump, naturally, doesn't understand any of this.  He has come out in favor of waterboarding and worse.  Unfortunately, the last Republican administration made a concerted effort to persuade the public either that waterboarding isn't torture, or that torture is just fine.  Fortunately, when a sane person claimed the presidency, he abolished the practice of waterboarding.  But by this point, a lot of Republicans had already been convinced that torture is not only okay, but necessary on occasion.  It's likely that most if not all of these Republicans are now Trump supporters.

In any case --- as Everyone Knows --- torture is still wrong.  However, Trump doubled down on his pro-torture stance in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Brussels, Belgium.  A number of people better informed than Trump criticized his comments, including Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who said:

“Torture is immoral and illegal,” the congressman continued. “It is also a great way to get people to say anything to make the pain stop, and send authorities chasing false leads. Comments by Donald Drumpf espousing the virtues of torture are spoken by a person with no national security experience and who obviously knows little about how to obtain reliable and accurate intelligence.”

Schiff also called Trump's statements "quite simply, appalling and dangerous to our national security."

Trump hits the Daily Double again, championing policies which make America less great and less safe.  But don't just take my word for it, or Adam Schiff's or that of the other three U.S. intelligence officials cited in the Daily Beast article.  Consider the Senate Intelligence Report which concluded that torture is an ineffective means of obtaining information.  Consider terrorism expert Malcolm Nance, who speculates that Trump's most recent comments are again assisting ISIS in recruiting more terrorists to their cause.

And for the capper, consider the opinion of the Economist Intelligence Unit, a highly-respected forecasting and advisory service which currently ranks a Trump presidency as the sixth-greatest threat to global stability, equal to the threat posed by Islamic terrorism:

There have been many discussions about whether torture is effective, and those discussions will continue for many many years.  But whether it's effective or not, it's wrong, under all circumstances, full stop.  That's one Thing Everyone Knows.

Donald Trump's Greatest Hits from the Washington Post

Three days ago, Donald Trump sat down for an interview with the editorial board of the Washington Post.  I haven't read through it myself, but I've heard it's comedy gold.  I've been meaning to go through it to call out the juiciest bits, but now I don't have to.  Kevin Drum has it over at Mother Jones.

There were two other interesting outcomes of this interview.  The first is that on the basis of this interview, the Washington Post editorial board concluded that electing Trump poses a radical risk to the nation.

The second, far less significant, but still telling outcome is that at the end of the interview, Trump hit on/flirted with (depending on one's interpretation) one of the interviewers, Karen Attiah.  Rather interesting for a married presidential candidate with a history of philandering and disrespect toward women.

This is an example of the 'clownish buffoon' Donald Trump, in contrast to the 'scary dictator' Donald Trump we see at other times.

I Love Minnesota in the Springtime . . . .

So today, this happened:

A few weeks back, our snowblower stopped working because someone's tire chain had fallen off in the street, and it got tangled up in the snowblower rotor.  And we never bothered to deal with it.  So I got to shovel out roughly 12 inches of wet, heavy snow out of our driveway by hand.

After I was done, my 22-year -old stepson arrived (good timing) and informed me that there is no snow whatsoever on his college campus, about 15 miles north of here.

Life is good.

Cruz Wants to Party Like It's 1954

Since we're on the subject of Ted Cruz and his idiocy, now seems like a good time to discuss comments Ted Cruz' national security adviser, Clare Lopez, made on a South Carolina radio program earlier this month.  It turns out Lopez is a well-known conspiracy-peddling loon who insists that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the U.S. government, and that Obama is on their side.  When discussing legendary fear-mongering Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, Lopez thinks he was just great:

We can go all the way back, of course, to the time of the Cold War and back to the 1920s, ‘30s, ‘40s when communists, you know, the KGB, infiltrated our government at the very highest levels. And then, like now, we were unprepared and in large measure unaware of what was going on, at least until the House Un-American Activities got rolling in the 1950s with Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who absolutely was spot-on in just about everything he said about the levels of infiltration.

Was McCarthy really absolutely 'spot-on' in his accusations?  All of this happened during the Cold War, and indeed there were Soviet spies in the U.S., as well as U.S. spies in the U.S.S.R.  But McCarthy insisted the infiltration was much greater than it actually was, and his accusations were pretty much never backed up by any facts.  Let's see how the Encylopaedia Britannica, hardly a tool of the liberal media, documents Senator McCarthy's actions:

 Although he failed to make a plausible case against anyone, his colourful and cleverly presented accusations drove some persons out of their jobs and brought popular condemnation to others. The persecution of innocent persons on the charge of being communists and the forced conformity that the practice engendered in American public life came to be known as McCarthyism.

Yes Ms. Lopez, yes Mr. Cruz, let's relive the good old days, when you could recklessly accuse anyone of anything and ruin their lives.

Apparently Lopez has been repeating her drivel to anyone who will listen since 2009, and insists that Obama only took out bin Laden so America wouldn't realize him for the scurrilous traitor he is.  Cruz has this woman, Trump has Corey Lewandowski, and these two guys are the only contenders standing for the Republican nomination for president.  Eisenhower and Reagan would be so proud.

Cruz Wants to 'Patrol and Secure' Muslim Neighborhoods

Today ISIS launched terror attacks in the Belgian capitol of Brussels, with the death toll currently at 30 people.  Roughly 230 others were wounded in the attacks at Brussels airport and Maelbeek metro station.  Naturally Donald Trump and Ted Cruz were falling over each other trying to come up with the stupidest and most inflammatory response.

Cruz' opening salvo was to treat all U.S. Muslims like criminals, saying "We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized." I mean sure, practically NONE of the Muslims in the U.S. are radicalized currently, so obviously we need to view all Muslims with suspicion and treat them like they're terrorists.  And I bet if we do, sure enough, we'll create find some radicalized Muslims!

Yes, there have been terrorist acts carried out by Islamic extremists on American soil in recent years, including the San Bernadino shootings, the Boston Marathon bombings, and the Fort Hood shootings, to name a few.  All levels of law enforcement should take any steps necessary to respond to a credible threat, whether that's from an Islamic terrorist or a tea-party terrorist.

But saying that all Muslims are a threat --- which is effectively what Cruz is doing when he calls for police to "patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods" --- is not only irresponsible, it's un-American and counter-productive.  Irresponsible because it treats law-abiding U.S. citizens as criminals, and because it incites anti-Muslim hate crime.  Un-American because one of this country's founding principles is the right to free expression of religion.  And counter-productive because it gives young Muslims here and abroad a reason to believe that they need to fight for their religion against American oppression.

To put things in perspective, we are in the midst of an epidemic of mass shootings in the U.S. (some by Islamic terrorists, but mostly not), and the standard reaction by conservatives like Cruz is emphasize their love of guns and the Second Amendment.  It's telling that Cruz (and Trump) only want to 'get tough' and trample civil liberties when a Muslim is the one pulling the trigger.

Trump's Foreign Policy - Part 3

Part 1, Part 2

I wonder what Trump supporters think Trump will do to 'Make America Great Again'.  I wonder when they think it stopped being great in the first place.

For my part, here are just some of things I think are great about America:

• From the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Sure, it should have said 'people' instead of 'men', but that's one hell of an idea.  Notice how it doesn't say anything like 'except Muslims', or 'only Americans' --- since there was no America then.
• From George Washington: ". . . the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support."  Washington wrote this letter in 1790 to assure a Jewish congregation in Newport, Rhode Island that they would not face discrimination for their religious beliefs.  This letter may have influenced the First Amendment's explicit affirmation of the right to free exercise of religion.
• Habeas corpus, which protects people from unlawful imprisonment --- and which would make it damn difficult for Trump to 'go after' families of suspected terrorists.
• The Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination and double-jeopardy.
• First Amendment protection of the right to freedom of speech and right to peaceably assemble --- for example, in a mosque.

There's more, of course, but this is enough for my current purpose.  Has America always lived up to these ideals?  Hell, no.  Slavery was an atrocity, the echoes of which reverberate to this day.  No less awful was the treatment of Native Americans at the hands of the U.S. government.  And there were Jim Crow laws, and lynchings in the south.  And the fact that women couldn't vote until 1920.  And Japanese interment camps during WWII.  And discrimination and violence against gays and lesbians.

Every country has aspects of its history it regrets.  The thing that makes America great is that we have learned from these missteps and others, and that we now widely recognize that we were wrong.  And most important of all --- that we continue to reach for these ideals, and take care never to repeat these mistakes.

Trump doesn't understand this, which is why he doesn't hesitate to be derisive of women, or Muslims, or Mexicans, or those who disagree with him; or to mock a disabled reporter on national television.  And when he's criticized for it, he complains about political correctness.  What Trump and his supporters don't understand is that when we condemn his actions, it's not political correctness --- it's the collective wisdom of a nation earned over more than two centuries.

Trump's plans to ban Muslims and close down mosques and take out Muslim families and start a fight with Mexico about a stupid wall won't make America great again.  In fact, it will do exactly the opposite.

The Company You Keep

A few days ago, I wrote about Sarah Palin and concluded: "It says nothing good about Donald Trump that he welcomes the endorsement of someone as awful as Sarah Palin."  It seems that Trump has other associations that call into question his judgement about people.

Today Buzzfeed published yet more accounts of Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski being an awful person, generally bullying people and harassing women in particular.  This comes more than a week after former Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields filed criminal charges against Lewandowski for grabbing her and nearly dragging her to the ground at a Trump event in Jupiter, Florida.  If Lewandowski were working on any other presidential campaign, Republican or Democrat, he'd be out on the street.

As of now, the Trump campaign is standing behind Lewandowski, which is admirable if Trump truly believes he's innocent of any wrongdoing.  However, the quantity of complaints against him, together with the fact that Washington Post reporter Ben Terris corroborates Fields' allegations as an eyewitness, suggests that Trump, an alpha bully, is attempting to cover up the bullying behavior of his subordinate by a) Denying everything, and b) Blaming the victim.

Perhaps the most interesting part of this story is the Trump campaign's most recent defense of Lewandowski, as published by Buzzfeed.  It seems that whoever wrote it was too lazy to separate their righteous indignation from their counterattack:

“Your story is false, which is no surprise coming from a reporter with an established track record of inaccurate posts about Mr. Trump, and has been repeatedly wrong on everything from claims that Mr. Trump would never run for President to this latest nonsense.

“After months upon months of repeated attempts to malign Mr. Trump, it has become clear some have turned their attention on Corey, a political professional who has worked tirelessly to Make America Great Again. Corey is a loyal aide and trusted advisor to Mr. Trump, and is otherwise a private citizen who does not deserve anonymous, disparaging and false accusations and will fight back will all available legal remedies peddled by a disgruntled blogger.”

". . . will fight back will all available legal remedies peddled by a disgruntled blogger."  THAT'S the kind of bullying argle-bargle I've come to expect from Trump and his supporters!

Trump's Foreign Policy - Part 2

Part 1, Part 3

A couple of days ago, we discussed Donald Trump's idiotic plan to keep Islamic terrorists out of the U.S. by temporarily barring all Muslims from entering the country.  The emphasis of that post was to discuss how ineffective such a policy would be, as illustrated by the game 'Is Donald Trump Smarter than a Terrorist?' (spoiler alert: no).

The focus of today's discussion is the actual harm such a policy would do.  It's pretty simple: If you single out some portion of the population and impose special restrictions on them, they tend to resent it.  Any gun-owning Trump supporter knows what I'm talking about.  A lot of right-wing gun-owners (incorrectly) believe that President Obama wants to take their guns away, and a lot of them love their guns so much --- a little too much, in my opinion --- that they come up with stuff like this:

If that's how you feel when you think the government is coming after your guns based on some conspiracy theory, imagine how much worse it is when a major-party candidate for President actually says he's going to ban everyone in your religion from entering the country.  Or even worse, that he'll close down some of your churches.  He's said these things about Muslims --- not just those guilty of terrorism, ALL Muslims, no matter how law-abiding.

Even worse, he's said that he would 'take out' the families of suspected terrorists --- not actual, convicted terrorists, mind you, just suspected terrorists.  It's not clear whether he means executing those families or merely arresting them, but either way, punishing innocent people for the actions of their family members is not only un-American, it's the kind of thing Stalin would do.  If you're Muslim, wouldn't this just scare the hell out of you?  You don't control what your relatives do, and you sure as hell don't control what other people suspect your relatives of doing.  And at this point, Trump seems to be pretty damn suspicious of all Muslims already.

For the most part, Trump's rhetoric is merely horrible, divisive and terrifying.  But it's also one hell of a recruiting tool for ISIS.  Like everyone else in the world, the vast majority of Muslims find terrorism abhorrent, so it's very difficult for groups like ISIS to recruit new members to their cause.  But the best way they can convince young Muslims to give up their lives for their cause is to persuade them that the West wants to destroy Islam, and that extreme measures are needed to defend their culture.  When Trump effectively declares a war on Muslims and their families, it makes ISIS's job that much easier.

This isn't just theoretical.  More than two months ago, CNN reported that a Somali terrorist group used Trump's policy of a ban on Muslims in a recruiting video, a video which is likely just the tip of the iceberg.

Trump's rhetoric has done more than just radicalize Muslims, however.  It's also emboldened racists in the U.S. to start applying Trump's policies prematurely, contributing to a recent spike in hate crimes against Muslims.  In some cases Trump's influence is beyond question.

Tearing the country apart, promoting hate crimes and helping ISIS in their recruiting is quite a record of accomplishment for a candidate who hasn't officially claimed the GOP nomination yet.

Dueling Campaign Ads - Round 1

From Trump:

And a response from Priorities USA on Clinton's behalf:

Trump's Foreign Policy - Part 1

Part 2, Part 3

Donald Trump is a foreign policy genius.  At least he believes he is:

Asked on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” who he talks with consistently about foreign policy, Drumpf responded, “I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things."

"I know what I’m doing and I listen to a lot of people, I talk to a lot of people and at the appropriate time I’ll tell you who the people are," Drumpf said. “But my primary consultant is myself and I have a good instinct for this stuff."

One of Trump's boldest foreign policy proposals thus far is a proposal to --- temporarily --- bar all Muslims from entering the U.S. The rationale for this proposal, of course, is that there are some Muslim terrorists in the Middle East who have attacked the U.S.  Enacting this policy would be roughly akin to putting all of the Cliven Bundy-supporting yahoos under house arrest just because a handful of them illegally occupied that wildlife refuge in Oregon --- but of course THAT would never happen because those guys are white Americans, and anyway most of them probably support Trump.

When asked how he would enforce this policy, Trump said --- and I'm not making this up --- that border agents should ask visitors whether they are Muslim before allowing them in the country.  And that's some foreign policy genius, right there.  To demonstrate the genius of the plan, I've devised a little game I like to call 'Is Donald Trump Smarter than a Terrorist?'  The way you play is, you select a terrorist to try to illegally sneak into America, and see if Donald Trump is smart enough to stop him.  Give it a whirl!

Choose a terrorist to try to outsmart Donald Trump! Armenian Terrorist Bolivian Terrorist Catholic Terrorist Militia Terrorist Muslim Terrorist Palestinian Terrorist Saudi Terrorist

Trump: Are you a Muslim? Terrorist: No.

Notice that the result is pretty much the same no matter what kind of terrorist tries to sneak through.  And that list of potential terrorists isn't totally a joke, either.  Some Palestinians are definitely terrorists, as are some Catholics (think Irish Republican Army).  And of course, practically all of the September 11 hijackers hailed from our good friend and ally, Saudi Arabia.  So not only is it easy for actual Muslim terrorists to evade Trump's clever plan, focusing on one religious group means that other kinds of terrorists get missed.

"But," you say, "I'm sure Trump will actually find better ways to identify the Muslims!  And of course he wouldn't focus only on Muslims!  He would make sure other checks were done to stop all terrorists!"

Maybe, although given his foreign policy brilliance so far, I have my doubts.  But yes, there are ways of trying to determine whether a person is lying about their religion --- it just seems like a waste of time when there are also checks to determine whether that person is likely to be a terrorist.  Checks which are already being done.

So not only would Trump's policy be ineffective, there's no need for it in the first place.  In reality, the only reason to implement a policy of barring Muslims from the U.S. is if you just don't like Muslims, which of course is bigotry.  And Trump's supporters may still believe that it doesn't hurt to have a temporary ban in place, just in case --- but of course that belief is quite wrong, as subsequent posts will discuss.

Things Everyone Knows

So in case you accidentally found yourself looking at my latest blog, you may have wondered about the title.  "Why," you may have asked yourself "has Dave chosen to name his blog 'Things Everyone Knows'?"

Well, partly because the name "Everyone Knows" was already taken.  But more to the point, I learned a great many lessons as a child.  Things like 'play well with others' and 'sharing is important' and 'think about how the other person feels' and stuff like that.  I learned these lessons well, but I made the critical mistake of thinking that everyone learned these lessons as a child.  Clearly some people did not:

Now it goes without saying that as a parent, I have done my best to teach my children these Things Everyone Knows.  And I think they've learned these lessons very well!  You're great, kids!  But there are still other people out there who had to miss that day in school, or had to sit in the back and couldn't read the blackboard, or who are just plain bastards.

Whatever the case, I decided to start blogging again to do what I can to get the message out there.  For example, it is NOT okay to deny someone admission to the U.S., or close down their place of worship, just because they are Muslim.  Really not.  In fact, merely suggesting such a thing seriously is un-American!  I thought everyone knew this, but apparently they do not.

So that's the deal with the name.  I'm not a grandparent yet, and hopefully won't be for several years, but I would really, really like it if when my grandchildren grow up, everyone actually DOES know these things, and lives by them.  Because if they do, this country will be a truly wonderful place.  Trust me.

A Television Character

Welcome to a new installment here at Things Everyone Knows, a little thing we like to call The Trump Campaign Lies About Everything and Knows You Won't Care.

On Fox News today, Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson dismissed concerns that the recent Our Principles PAC ad would hurt Trump with voters.  This is the ad in which several women read aloud some of the truly loathsome things Trump has said about women over the years.  Why is Pierson unconcerned?  Because according to her, "A lot of those statements is what Mr. Trump made as a 'television character'".

Now if Ms. Pierson's statement were true, this would effectively exonerate Trump.  For example, I don't hold it against Anthony Hopkins that he played the role of a cannibal in Silence of the Lambs.  However, I'm not aware that Mr. Trump has ever had a significant acting role in a TV series.  To my knowledge, the only 'television character' he's ever played is that of Donald Trump, on the 'reality' TV series The Apprentice --- although IMDB does show he's made a half-dozen cameo appearances on series such as The Jeffersons, The Nanny, and Sex and the City.

If any of the quotes in the Our Principles PAC came from those sitcoms, then I agree Trump should get a pass.  But if they came from The Apprentice?  Um, no, just because you appear on TV doesn't allow you to avoid responsibility for any nasty thing you decide to say then.  Sorry.

But do any of those quotes even come from The Apprentice?  If you've considered any of Trump's public statements critically, you should expect that none of them do.  And because I love researching stuff like this, I tracked down all of the full quotes presented in the ad, to find out when Trump said them.  They are:

1. "A person who is very flat-chested is very hard to be a 10."
2. "Look at that face.  Would anyone vote for that?"
3. "She had the height, she had the beauty.  She was crazy, but these are minor details."
4. "I like kids.  I mean, I won't do anything to take care of them.  I'll supply funds, and she'll take care of the kids."
5. "You know it really doesn't matter what they write, as long as you've got a young and beautiful piece of ass."
6. "That must be a pretty picture, you dropping to your knees."
7. "There was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her --- wherever."
8. "Women, you have to treat them like shit."

According to Buzzfeed, quotes 1, 3, 4 came from interviews Trump did on The Howard Stern show.  I guess Pierson would claim he was a 'radio character' for these.  Number 2 was a comment Trump made about his opponent for the Republican nomination, Carly Fiorina, before she dropped out of the race.  Number 5 comes from a 1991 interview Trump gave to Esquire.

Number 6 actually does come from an episode of The Apprentice.

Number 7 was famously Trump's opening salvo in his ongoing feud with Megyn Kelly, after she hurt his feelings in the first GOP debate by actually asking him hard questions.  Ironically, it seems that the thing which most upset Trump about Kelly's questions is that she challenged him about his history of offensive comments about women.

Finally, according to the Daily Beast, the final Trump statement referenced in the ad comes from an interview Trump gave to New York magazine in 1992.

So let's see . . . Pierson claimed that 'a lot' of these statements were made when Trump was acting as a 'television character', even though The Apprentice is a 'reality' TV show, presumably starring the 'real' Donald Trump.  And even though only one statement out of 8 was actually made on that show.  And, it seems, not one of them was made on The Nanny or similar sitcom.

Reasonable people might conclude that Pierson is lying, knowing that you won't care.  But perhaps we should give her a pass on this one.  After all, she did say these things on the Fox TV network --- perhaps Pierson just made this statement as a 'television character'.

Trump's Thoughts About Women

If you're a woman planning to vote for Donald Trump --- um --- why?

This video was created by Our Principles PAC, a group founded and run by conservative Republicans in opposition to Trump's candidacy.

It's great that Donald Trump has at last provided something that Republicans and Democrats can agree on: that he's a colossal, sexist pig.

Punk Ass Little Thuggery

I love Sarah Palin.  I hate Sarah Palin.  I love her to the extent that she's a human being, and thus deserves to be accorded the same respect and dignity as all human beings.  Other than that, I hate her.  I hate her because she can get up in front of a crowd of Donald Trump supporters, and accuse those who protest Trump's events of 'punk ass little thuggery'.

I'll admit, I haven't been following the circus that is the Trump campaign all that closely, and not all of the clowns are Trump or his followers.  But I believe that up until now, most if not all of the 'thuggery' has originated from the Trump side.  What Palin is actually doing here is heaping scorn on people who disagree with her, ironically while invoking the First Amendment.

But that's not the worst hypocrisy in Ms. Palin's tirade.  The worst part is that the Palin family is practically the dictionary definition of 'punk ass little thuggery'.  And sure, perhaps that's being a bit harsh; if Track really is suffering from PTSD, that's a serious matter.  But that doesn't excuse the rest of the Palin family for their general awfulness.  And if he's suffering so much that he's suicidal, maybe Sarah should be with him, using her considerable resources to get him the help he needs, rather than sticking her face in front of every TV camera she can find.

It says nothing good about Donald Trump that he welcomes the endorsement of someone as awful as Sarah Palin.

Let's Start with the Basics . . .

It's wrong to hate someone just because they're British.  Some British people are wonderful people, and some are complete jerks, just like short people.