Things Not Everyone Knows: Trump and National Security

Hopefully, Trump's supporters and opponents alike can agree that Trump has no idea how to be the President.  Outside of scamming money from his customers and business associates, he seems not to know much of anything.

After all, he nearly let Ted Cruz snatch the Republican nomination from him because neither he nor his advisers bothered to learn the rules of the game.  Real Clear Politics, no tool of the 'liberal media', characterized Trump as aggresively ignorant.  His plan to deal with the federal debt is widely recognized as something which would destabilize the world economy.  He didn't know what Brexit was just days before the vote, and the day after it passed, he tweeted from Scotland about how the passage meant the people there "took their country back", despite the fact that Scotland voted to remain in the EU by a 62-38 margin and despite the fact that Brexit's passage will likely result in the dissolution of the UK.  Trump and his campaign clearly don't know anything about U.S. election law, either, since they've been illegally spamming foreign parliaments with fundraising emails.

Evan Trump's campaign chair Paul Manafort told "Meet the Press" last Sunday that Trump "doesn’t need to figure out what’s going on in order to say what he wants to do."  If Trump's campaign manager can admit on national TV that Trump doesn't know what's going on, then hopefully his supporters will concede that point as well.

So I have to ask the Trump supporters: Why would you want a president who knows nothing about the job, and clearly isn't interested in learning how to do the job?  Would you hire someone to build your house if they know nothing about carpentry, electrical wiring, or plumbing?  Would you let someone remove your appendix without medical training?  And if so, could you please schedule the surgery to take place before the election?

It's hard to understand why Trump's supporters are so excited to vote for someone so willfully ignorant.  Many of them aparently find Trump's lack of political correctness refreshing; I've already explained why that's a really stupid reason to vote for someone to be president.  Another reason, apparently, is because a lot of them believe that Trump is the right candidate to defeat ISIS.

But if ending global terrorism were easy to do, it would already be ended.  It's really, really hard to protect innocent people from someone who is willing to blow himself up.  And not only is Trump clueless about fighting terrorism, his position of wanting to ban Muslims from the country and engage in torture is actually helping ISIS to recruit new members.

Of course, when it comes to fighting terrorism, I don't know anything, either.  Neither do most (or all) of Trump's supporters.  So maybe --- just maybe --- we should listen to people who actually know what they're talking about.  Back in March, 121 Republican national security professionals wrote an open letter explaining why they believe a Trump presidency would make America less safe, including the facts that "He is fundamentally dishonest" and "His embrace of the expansive use of torture is inexcusable".

So if you're a Trump supporter, and you actually care about keeping our country safe, you should read this letter, and recognize that these 121 people know more about national security than you or me, or Donald Trump.  And then you should reconsider why exactly you plan to vote for him.

In Praise of Political Correctness

Of all of the reasons for supporting Donald Trump, this is by far the stupidest:

If Hillary wins, we're going to see a further tightening of PC culture. But if Trump wins? If Trump wins, we will have a president that overwhelmingly rejects PC rhetoric. Even better, we will show that more than half the country rejects this insane PC regime. If Trump wins, I will personally feel a major burden relieved, and I will feel much more comfortable stating my more right-wing views without fearing total ostracism and shame. Because of this, no matter what Trump says or does, I will keep supporting him.

This attitude strikes me as so monumentally stupid, I've already written about it once before.  But I'm returning to it to make a couple of additional points.

First, if you feel 'burdened' by having to hide your political views, then perhaps you should re-examine those views to see whether there's a reason for you to be ashamed of them.  Whatever you believe --- even if you're a hardcore racist --- you should believe it without reservation, and be prepared to stand up for those beliefs.  If you're not ready to do that, it's probably because you know your 'beliefs' are wrong somehow --- selfishly motivated, bigoted, etc.

Second, if you feel that other people unfairly condemn you for your views, there are a lot of things you can do about that.  Ideally you would try to engage them in a dialog to try to come to a mutual understanding of your differences.  If that's not possible, you could simply change the subject.  At the extreme, you could never speak to that person again.  But hoping that your choice of President will improve the situation makes about as much sense as hoping that your choice of energy drink or hair color will improve the situation.

But the most important reason it's stupid to support Trump due to his 'political incorrectness' is this (via Digby):

An online survey of approximately 2,000 K-12 teachers by the Southern Poverty Law Center found toxic political rhetoric invading elementary, middle and high schools, emboldening children to make racist taunts that leave others bewildered and anxious.

“We mapped it out. There was no state or region that jumped out. It was everywhere,” said Maureen Costello, the study’s author. “Marginalized students are feeling very frightened, especially Muslims and Mexicans. Many teachers use the word terrified.” The children who did the taunting were echoing Trump’s rhetoric, she said. “Bad behavior has been normalized. They think it’s OK.”

Is political correctness annoying at times?  Sure.  Do some people take it too far?  Absolutely.  But that's a problem with the individual, not the concept of political correctness.

Fundamentally, if someone tells you you're being politically incorrect, what they're trying to say is: "Don't be an asshole".  When Donald Trump talked about blood coming out of Megyn Kelly's 'wherever', he was being an asshole.  When he mocked a reporter's disability, he was being an asshole.  When he made approximately half a million disparaging remarks about women, he was being an asshole.  If you're opposed to political correctness, basically you're in favor of being an asshole.  (When the concept of political correctness came into the world, it was politically incorrect to call someone an asshole, so you called them politically incorrect instead.)

Personally, I don't want the President of the United States to be an asshole, and I don't know why anyone would.  I also don't want a President (or presidential candidate, for that matter) promoting assholic behavior.  Just about everyone was bullied at some time or another when they were young, and I'm sure just about everyone can agree that we DON'T want our children to be bullies and assholes.

So why would you choose to support a candidate for President, 'no matter what he says or does', just because he's a really, really major asshole?

Paul Ryan and Nikki Haley try to Have it Both Ways

The Republican party in the U.S. is almost completely devoid of politicians with any sense or courage.  I would like to think that Nikki Haley is an exception.  In addition to removing the Confederate flag from the state capitol, this happened yesterday:

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said Thursday she wishes Donald Trump communicated differently because bad things result from divisive rhetoric, as evidenced by last June's massacre in Charleston.

The Republican governor said divisive speech motivated Dylann Roof to gun down nine black parishioners at historic Emanuel AME Church. Police have said the white 22-year-old charged with their killings wanted to start a race war.

Wow!  A Republican governor willing to condemn Trump's incendiary rhetoric!  Way to go, Governor Haley!

In an unrelated event, Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan had this to say about Trump's ploy to get judge Gonzalo Curiel to recuse himself from a lawsuit over Trump's scam university:

"The comment about the judge the other day just was out of left field from my mind. It's reasoning I don't relate to," Ryan said in the interview, which was highlighted by BuzzFeed. "I completely disagree with the thinking behind that and so he clearly says and does things I don't agree with."

Way to go, Mr. Speaker!

On the other hand, in the same interview, Ryan reiterated that he continues to support Trump for president.  And although Haley's support for Trump has been lukewarm at best, she has acknowledged that she will support him as the Republican nominee.

So although Republican politicians with sense or courage are rare, it appears that Republican politicians willing to put principle over politics are entirely nonexistent.

Donald Trump is a Xenophobic Crybaby

What's the title of this blog?  'Things Everyone Knows'.  So I doubt I'm breaking new ground here by pointing out that Trump is a xenophobic crybaby.

But to get into the specifics, everyone knows by now of Trump's infamous promise to build an idiotic wall on the border between the U.S. and Mexico, even though the number of Mexicans in the U.S. illegally has been steadily declining for nearly a decade.  And everyone also knows that Trump set up a scam university to bilk people out of millions of dollars, and is currently being sued for it.

Naturally, being guilty as hell, the trial isn't going well for Trump.  And so just as naturally, Trump is whining about it:

Presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump doubled down Friday on attacking a federal judge for his ethnicity and argued that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel should recuse himself from cases involving scandal-plagued Trump University. . . . “I've had terrible rulings, I've been treated very unfairly. Now, this judge is of Mexican heritage,” Trump began. “I’m building a wall. I’m building a wall.”

There's no way to know, of course, but since Curiel is a judge, I'm going to guess that he has better than average common sense.  So I think it's likely that Curiel thinks Trump is a horrible person.  And for all we know, Trump may be right that Curiel opposes both Trump and his plan to build a wall on the Mexican border.

None of which makes a damn bit of difference when it comes to Trump University.  Judges don't recuse themselves just because some party in a case is a scumbag.  If that were the standard for recusal, then precious few cases would ever be tried, and there would effectively be no judicial system in the U.S.  If Curiel had previous business dealings with Trump, or any kind of personal relationship with him, or if a member of his family had been fleeced in the Trump University scam, that would be one thing.

But the simple fact that Curiel MIGHT disagree with Trump politically?  Sorry, Donald.  Stop your whining and take your punishment like a man.  And maybe stop trying to scam people.

Furthermore, if we accept Trump's preposterous claim that Curiel must recuse himself, where does it end?  He can't be judged by a Muslim, or a woman, or anyone who's ever voted for a Democrat, or for any of Trump's 16 primary opponents, or anyone with non-Anglo ancestry, or . . . .

Trump Supporters are Cowardly Idiots

Via Digby, I saw this interview today with an anonymous Trump supporter.

He allowed me to reproduce our conversation on condition of anonymity, out of concern for how the views he expresses might be used to deny him future opportunities.

No matter what this idiot thinks, he does not live in a police state.  No jack-booted government thugs are going to break down is front door, slap him in chains, and drag him off to jail in front of his sobbing wife simply because he supports Donald Trump.

On the other hand, people like me will call him a cowardly idiot.  And apparently, that's enough to scare him into anonymity:

Disagreement gets you labeled fascist, racist, bigoted, etc. It can provoke a reaction so intense that you’re suddenly an unperson to an acquaintance or friend. There is no saying “Hey, I disagree with you,” it's just instant shunning. Say things online, and they'll try to find out who you are and potentially even get you fired for it.

Admittedly, cyberbullying is a genuine concern these days, and there's no way to know for sure, but it seems much more likely that the bullies are the ones who support Trump and the victims support Clinton rather than the other way around, seeing as Trump is a bully himself.  And no matter who wins in November, that's not likely to change any time soon.

If you believe in something enough to vote for it, you should stand behind it.  Watch how it works:

I think Donald Trump is a dangerous, ignorant asshole, and therefore I plan to vote for Hillary in November!!!!  And my name is at the bottom of each post.  Was that so difficult?

Fundamentally, this guy supports Trump for one reason and one reason only:

If Hillary wins, we're going to see a further tightening of PC culture. But if Trump wins? If Trump wins, we will have a president that overwhelmingly rejects PC rhetoric. Even better, we will show that more than half the country rejects this insane PC regime. If Trump wins, I will personally feel a major burden relieved, and I will feel much more comfortable stating my more right-wing views without fearing total ostracism and shame. Because of this, no matter what Trump says or does, I will keep supporting him.

So let's see.  Apparently this guy is upset because one or several people labeled him "fascist, racist, bigoted, etc." and decided to stop being friends with him.  So he logically decided that the best way to change that would be to support a presidential candidate with a long history of bigotry and xenophobia and disrespecting women.  And to maintain that support "no matter what Trump says or does".  If he truly believes this is going to change the way people react to him, he's an idiot.  And because he doesn't have the courage to declare his support publicly, he's a coward, too.

However, I must admit that there are plenty of people who DO support Trump openly.  Those people are only idiots, not necessarily cowards.