Eileen Kersey writing out of Yorkshire, England

David Cameron thinks Donald Trump deserves respect

5/5/2016

Op-ed: They say politics can sometimes make for strange bedfellows.

Thursday UK Tory PM David Cameron has said that Donald Trump deserves respect but why should we be surprised at that?

They are after all both on the right-wing of politics, come from privileged backgrounds and may have to work together at a future date.

The Guardian picks up on Cameron's earlier claim which he has refused to retract however. It was "made when a Trump candidacy still seemed an unlikely prospect" and was that "the billionaire’s proposal for banning Muslims from the US was “stupid, divisive and wrong”."

Simple. It was!

A widely supported petition asking that Donald Trump was banned from entering the UK received enough signatures for it to be debated in the House of Commons but MPs refused to act.

They maybe already sensed Trump could be elected.

May 5, 2016, Donald Trump looks set to be the Republican candidate in the Presidential race. Hillary Clinton also appears to be home-free in her quest to be the Democratic candidate although Bernie Sanders is still trying to rain on her parade.

Trump's opposition for the GOP nomination fell by the wayside bit by bit leaving him the last man standing.

Democrats must be made of sterner stuff than right-wing Republicans as veteran Sanders has said he will stay in the race until the last vote is cast.

In the end it may be down to money.

Cameron says he respects billionaire Trump for making it through the gruelling Republican primary process but surely it is the American voters who deserve respect and sympathy?

In some ways the USA is in permanent election mode.

Presidential elections are held every four years and in between there are midterms and more.

The long, drawn out process of electing a leader for GOP and for the Democrats drags on and on.

It means that more often than not Americans are being bombarded with sound-bites, campaign specials, meetings, TV debates and more constantly.

Trump chose to run for GOP nominee but the people are simply dragged along for the ride.

Perhaps Trump's nomination will help the Democrats win government again but maybe not.

In a worst case scenario the people may opt for POTUS Donald J Trump even while the rest of us ask - are they nuts?

More:
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Donald Trump tells fellow Americans do not visit unsafe UK
Citizens of the World petition Donald Trump
From a not so funny Donald Trump rally
TV politicos and news sources hand election to Trump
Mad world of Donald Trump appeals to right wing loons

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Donald Trump tells fellow Americans do not visit unsafe UK

29/3/2016

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And that was 2014

Op-ed: So Republican hopeful nominee and possibly next President of the USA is warning his fellow Americans not to visit the UK in light of the Brussels terror attacks last week but why now?

This is not the first terror attack in Brussels in recent times and then there were the terror attacks in France and of course the home-grown terrorist Anders Breivik who killed so many in Norway a few years ago.

Could this latest publicity stunt by old fart-face Trump have less to do with the safety of Americans and all to do with his election campaign, appealing to the fear in US voters and offering citizens of the UK a little payback after so many of us signed a petition asking he was banned from entering the UK?

That petition garnered so many signatures, and on the government's official petition website, that MPs were forced to debate it in the House of Commons.

In the end MPs hedged their bets and dismissed it as if we ever end up with POTUS Trump they will have to do business with the guy.

After all the UK and the USA are firm allies right??

According to a fairly right-wing publication in the UK, the Daily Express :

The Republican front-runner has suggested Britain was among countries which have become “weak” and cannot protect themselves.

Mr Trump said that Europe had “very, very severe” problems when it came to terrorism and that it needed better law enforcement.

He spoke out as riot police in Brussels fired water cannon at far-Right protesters yesterday.

Officers tried to restore order after the group, making Nazi salutes and chanting, confronted Muslim women among crowds paying tribute to last week’s bomb victims.

Correct me if I am wrong but surely it is only days ago Trump supporters were making news headlines in the USA and across the world as they responded to protesters with those self-same salutes?

And note it is the far-Right making waves across some parts of Europe; deluded people who believe all people of the Muslim faith are would be or actual terrorists.

Still Trump has furthered that view when for instance he announced that he Donald J Trump was calling for a ban on all Muslims entering the USA which was why people in Britain signed the petition to ban him in their tens of hundreds of thousands.

Verbally attacking the UK may further his campaign for GOP nominee but will it help him become President of the USA? Perhaps, who knows what really goes on in another country?

The USA is so large it is likely that people in different parts of that country know little of what really goes on in others sates so many miles away.

But he is welcome to his view.

He is a man who opens his mouth and spews out abuse at the drop of a hat and some Americans appear to lap it up.

Yes empty vessels like Trump continue to make the most noise.

When all else fails he cites his wealth as proof but of what we have no idea.

When an American Twitter follower asked me 'why not visit the USA' he was not keen on my response. It was this; no I have no yen to ever visit the States; perhaps at one time but not anymore.

The daddy of all terrorist attacks in the West was 9/11 and the people of the USA may feel that security is now tight as hell following that attack.

But me I do not want to visit a country where the cops are armed and for all I know every other person at least is also carrying a weapon. In some States I would know as they open-carry and that scares the hell out of me.

So before Trump gets off his high horse he may like to explain how as a gun supporter he will make his country safe?

Until that changes I for one have no interest in visiting the USA and I am not alone.

I imagine Trump rattled Britons may now stay away from the USA as the Trump motor-mouth carries on in Hitler style talking the talk of hate. Well his father was of German stock.

News alert Trump: few countries are potential terrorist attack free these days.

SUPGV have it right

And we remember Trayvon Martin and so many more; at least in the UK you cannot be murdered and your killer claim self-defence and walk free.

Check out the statistics below from Gun Violence archive and I think we know which country is not safe:

2016
Total Number of Incidents 11,947
Number of Deaths1 3,058
Number of Injuries1 6,141
Number of Children (age 0-11) Killed/Injured 130
Number of Teens (age 12-17) Killed/Injured 689
Mass Shooting 56
Officer Involved Incident 1,128
Home Invasion 518
Defensive Use 371
Accidental Shooting 591
Gun violence and crime incidents are collected/validated from 1,500 sources daily – incidents and their source data are found at the gunviolencearchive.org website.
1: Actual number of deaths and injuries
2: Number of INCIDENTS reported and verified
Numbers on this table reflect a subset of all information
collected and will not add to 100% of incidents.
www.gunviolencearchive.org www.facebook.com/gunviolencearchive
Data Validated: March 29, 2016

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Mad world of Donald Trump appeals to right wing loons

12/3/2016

2 Comments

The stuff of nightmares

Op-ed: What the USA decides politically is up to voters in that huge country but that decision will impact on the world. The USA as a super-power has it all to play for and all to lose.

In late January this writer watched a Channel 4 documentary featuring Matt Frei as he went on a Trump rally whistle-stop tour of the States or at least a few of them. The documentary was called "Look inside the mad world of Donald Trump"

but two months later the Trump is still going strong.

The footage of a Trump rally will have received a mixed reaction but it was all too easy to feel some concerns.

'Over here' most people were aghast.

The nationalistic fervour involved by the rally organisers obviously appealed to the Trump devotees but surely not across that vast continent?

Well if polls are to be believed Mr Donald J Trump is on his way to the Republican Party nomination so he is appealing to plenty of right-wing voters.

In some ways that could be good news for the opposition the Democrats but maybe not this time.

It seems celebrity entrepreneur and little rich-kid grown big Trump has tapped into migration and terror fears with offering the right to bear arms thrown in for good measure.

How his divisive and backward ideas have gelled with the current voting generation of the USA is difficult to understand if you have just one tiny liberal bone in your body but he has.

Robert Weller, a writer in Colorado, has been following Trump's apparent rise to glory which has been egged on by the mainstream media and he shares our concerns.

We British people tend to cringe away from nationalism. Scotland has broken away from the England in many respects and up to a point so has Wales and parts of Ireland; currently those parts of the UK are nationalistic but nothing like Mr Trump and his fans.

But as a celebrity he is simply playing to the crowd and what his policies really entail is not clear.
In general English people cringe when we see Americans hand on their chest as the country’s anthem is played although there was a time in the UK when people got to their feet in the UK when our national anthem was played. It was played at the end of play in cinemas but the rush to get out before the Anthem, added to changing times, led to a change, many years ago.

And we can all love our countries without having to show it to the world in such a way.

We laugh at North Koreans expressing their love of Kim Jong-Un as in that case it is easy to see fear is their driving force.

And Brits being Brits it was not long before different versions of the Trump rally ‘over there’ anthem was penned.

But when the laughter subsides and the vote is cast will we ever see President of the United States of America Donald J Trump?

We have to hope not. Memes comparing him and his rallies to Hitler have too much of a ring of truth to them.

[As GOP nominees drop out they are slowly but surely endorsing him. That could be as they want a nice fat job in his administration or because he has told them he is simply playing the crowd and has no will to implement some of the wild promises. By the time it is clear though it will too late to back out]

Check out: Donald Trump the bigot
Trump’s not Hitler, he’s Mussolini: How GOP anti-intellectualism created a modern fascist movement in America

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David Cameron thinks Donald Trump deserves respect

Donald Trump tells fellow Americans do not visit unsafe UK

Mad world of Donald Trump appeals to right wing loons

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