Trump Answers Charges of Sexism With More Sexism

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Donald Trump, the Republican presidential frontrunner and not exactly friend of women, was expected to say some confrontational things at the first Republican presidential debate.

But when his machismo went up against Megyn Kelly, the Fox News personality, debate moderator and nonstop voice for women’s issues, he didn’t stand a chance. In fact, Kelly spent most of the debate grilling Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and more candidates with surprisingly tough questions over reproductive rights and beyond.

“You’ve called women you don’t like fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals,” Kelly began her question, about as directly as you can.

“Only Rosie O’Donnell,” Trump interrupted with a sneer, earning cheers from the crowd.

Kelly wasn’t having it. Any of it.

“For the record, it was way beyond Rosie O’Donnell,” Kelly said – before launching into a laundry list Trump’s most misogynistic moments:

“Your Twitter account has several disparaging comments about women’s looks. You once told a contestant on the Celebrity Apprentice it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees. Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president? And how do you answer the charge from Hillary Clinton – that you are part of the war on women?”

Trump, unchastened, responded with a misdirect: “I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct.”

Then he made a veiled threat at Kelly herself.

“What I say is what I say, and honestly, Megyn, if you don’t like it, I’m sorry. I’ve been very nice to you, although I could probably maybe not be based on the way you’ve treated me, but I wouldn’t do that.”

(h/t The Guardian)

Reality

Donald Trump responded to a question about past sexist and misogynist comments and responded with… more sexist and misogynist comments.

To try to gauge how unpresidental that was, try to imagine your favorite president publicly making comments like:

  • I just spoke with that fat pig Angela Merkel and we’re going to open up trade talks.
  • So I want to thank that dog President Park Geun-hye for our shared commitment to promoting a more peaceful world. I wonder if Huckabee was right and she eats dogs?

Furthermore Trump hid behind political correctness in his attempt to redirect the conversation. See, he’s not an sexist for making those comments, you’re what is wrong with this country for being offended by his sexist comments. There are so many inherit logical flaws with this argument. Just to name a few:

Media

Links

We’ll be tracking this under the Trump-Kelly feud tag.

Trump Companies Use and Commit Fraud on H-1B Visa Workers

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While Trump has bashed the H-1B visa program in multiple debates and makes lowering the number of H-1B visas a top policy decision for his immigration reform.

Increase prevailing wage for H-1Bs. We graduate two times more Americans with STEM degrees each year than find STEM jobs, yet as much as two-thirds of entry-level hiring for IT jobs is accomplished through the H-1B program. More than half of H-1B visas are issued for the program’s lowest allowable wage level, and more than eighty percent for its bottom two. Raising the prevailing wage paid to H-1Bs will force companies to give these coveted entry-level jobs to the existing domestic pool of unemployed native and immigrant workers in the U.S., instead of flying in cheaper workers from overseas. This will improve the number of black, Hispanic and female workers in Silicon Valley who have been passed over in favor of the H-1B program. Mark Zuckerberg’s personal Senator, Marco Rubio, has a bill to triple H-1Bs that would decimate women and minorities.

Requirement to hire American workers first. Too many visas, like the H-1B, have no such requirement. In the year 2015, with 92 million Americans outside the workforce and incomes collapsing, we need companies to hire from the domestic pool of unemployed. Petitions for workers should be mailed to the unemployment office, not USCIS.

Ut-Oh!

Not only was Donald Trump extensively using the H-1B visa program for his own companies, he tried to import at least 1,100 foreign workers, and he has been accused of fraud and treating models at his model agency “like a slave.”

 

Links

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/immigration-reform

Donald Trump’s companies tried to import at least 1,100 foreign workers

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-model-felt-slave-working-donalds-agency/story?id=37313993

Trump Barring Des Moins Register From Campaign Events

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After an editorial published by the Des Moins Register that criticized Trump for his comments about John McCain’s war record and called on Trump to quit the Republican race, the entire newspaper was barred from future Trump events.

Trump’s national campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, told political columnist Kathie Obradovich in a phone call that the Register was being excluded from the event because of the editorial. “We’re not issuing credentials to anyone from The Des Moines Register based on the editorial that they wrote earlier in the week,” he said.

Links

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2015/07/24/trump-barring-des-moines-register-campaign-event/30645343/

Donald Trump Loses Libel Lawsuit Over Being Called a ‘Millionaire’

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Trump Nation by Timothy O'Brien

A New Jersey appeals court has affirmed a lower court’s ruling to dismiss a defamation lawsuit brought by Donald Trump against a book author who claimed the real estate magnate/reality TV star isn’t really a billionaire.

In a ruling, the appeals court affirms that Trump hasn’t demonstrated that author Timothy O’Brien committed “actual malice” by citing three unnamed sources who estimated the net worth of The Apprentice star to be between $150 million and $250 million.

Trump filed the $5 billion lawsuit in 2009 over O’Brien’s book, TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald. The lawsuit was rejected in 2009 by a New Jersey superior judge. Trump then appealed the judgment on the theory that relying on anonymous sources could rise to the actual malice standard needed for public figures to prevail in a libel suit.

But a New Jersey appeals court doesn’t see the logic here. According to the decision:

“There were no significant internal inconsistencies in the information provided by the confidential sources, nor was there ‘reliable’ information that contradicted their reports, so as to provide evidence of actual malice. Nothing suggests that O’Brien was subjectively aware of the falsity of his source’s figures or that he had actual doubts as to the information’s accuracy.”

The latest decision will likely give Trump another reason to gripe about the nation’s libel laws. In past public comments, Trump has said these laws “have never been fair.”

As for Trump’s own estimation of his net worth, Trump’s lawyer says it has been “proven conclusively” to exceed $7 billion.

Then again, during a deposition, Trump admitted that his sense of financial worth depends on his feelings day-to-day. Asked whether it was really true that his “net worth goes up and down based upon [his] own feelings,” here’s Trump’s funny response:

“Yes, even my own feelings, as to where the world is, where the world is going, and that can change rapidly from day to day. Then you have a September 11th, and you don’t feel so good about yourself and you don’t feel so good about the world and you don’t feel so good about New York City. Then you have a year later, and the city is as hot as a pistol. Even months after that it was a different feeling. So yeah, even my own feelings affect my value to myself.”

Links

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/donald-trump-loses-libel-lawsuit-232923

http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2016/03/14/trump-biographer-timothy-obrien.cnnmoney

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-07-21/dear-mr-trump-i-m-worth-10-billion-too-

Trump Slams McCain As a War Hero Because He Was Captured

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Trump calls McCain not a war hero

Presidential candidate Donald Trump sparked yet another backlash among his fellow Republican candidates Saturday when he said that Sen. John McCain was only considered a war hero because he was captured – and seemed to mock him for that fact.

At the Iowa Family Leadership Summit when moderator Frank Luntz brought up McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, Donald Trump said:

He’s not a war hero.

After an audience response that was less than impressed at his comment, Trump tried to walk back his comment.

He’s a war hero ’cause he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured, OK? Perhaps he’s a war hero, but right now he’s said some very bad things about a lot of people.

Trump caught flack from every direction but refused to change his stance on McCain. When asked by ABC News whether he owes McCain an apology, Trump said:

No, not at all.

Then continued:

People that were not captured that went in and fought, nobody talks about them. Those are heroes also.

Later when confronted with his comments about McCain by a veteran and supporter at a rally, Trump flatly lied that he never made those comments.

VETERAN: I come here because you made a comment to John McCain that you don’t think that captured soldiers are heroes

TRUMP: (interjecting) Oh no no no I was, I never did that.

 

 

VETERAN: What I want you to do, is just clarify that for me because I think it’s important for all these people here, and for a lot of veterans in Ohio—especially Ohio—and I know what you were doing.

 

 

TRUMP: (again interjecting) You know exactly when I was doing. But they are heroes, just so you understand, they are real heroes. Thank you.

Media

Links

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-john-mccain-war-hero-captured/

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/18/politics/donald-trump-john-mccain-war-hero/

http://www.weeklystandard.com/trump-falsely-claims-he-never-said-mccain-wasnt-a-hero/article/2001538

Trump Claiming the Support of a Group of New Hampshire Veterans But Didn’t

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Trump speaking in Ames Iowa

Trump in July formed the “Veterans for Trump” group following inflammatory remarks suggesting that Arizona Sen. McCain was not a war hero because he was taken prisoner in Vietnam. “I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump said at a July 18 event in Ames, Iowa.

“These veterans have pledged their support to Mr Trump in the primary, and they will be advocating for him,” a press release on Trump’s website stated a few days later.

But according to a report from the Guardian later that month, several veterans listed as members said they had no idea they were on it.

“I haven’t told anyone I want to get in on that,” Ernie Fusi, one of the World War II veterans listed, told the paper. “I’m not going to do any campaigning.”

Trump’s operation pushed back against those assertions, writing that the campaign “has written confirmation of support from each of the individuals listed as part of the New Hampshire Veterans Coalition, including those quoted in this story. We are extremely proud to have their support.”

Links

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/trump-attacks-mccain-i-like-people-who-werent-captured-120317

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/25/donald-trump-veterans-john-mccain

Trump Tweets Photos of Nazi Soldiers

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Real-estate developer Donald Trump’s Twitter account deleted a tweet on Tuesday that contained small images that some people identified as World War II-era Waffen-SS soldiers.

trump-tweet-nazi-soldier

On the surface, Trump’s tweet was innocent enough. It featured a photo of the Republican presidential candidate embedded in an American flag. Within each of the three visible red stripes were photos of money, the White House, and soldiers.

But former National Security Agency analyst John Schindler repeatedly wrote on Twitter that the men at the bottom of the photo were actually Nazi soldiers.

Trump’s campaign subsequently deleted the tweet and told The Hill that an intern was at fault. Michael Cohen, a Trump spokesman, reportedly pointed to Trump’s Tuesday event in Charlottesville, Virginia, and said the real-estate developer was not involved in the creation of the image.

“A young intern created and posted the image and did not see the very faded figures within the flag of the stock photo,” Cohen told the paper. “The intern apologized and immediately deleted the tweet.”

Reality

In all honesty this is probably just what it seems, an intern not knowing any better. But it doesn’t exactly help Trumps image when it comes to white supremacy.

Mother Jones was able to track down the original stock photo and photographer, apparently shot during a reenactment.

trump-tweet-nazi-soldier-closup

Links

http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-nazi-imagery-tweet-2015-7#ixzz3jvoRY8Ob

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/07/insane-story-behind-trumps-nazi-tweet

Trump Defends Mexican Rapists to Washington Post

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Donal Trump announces campagin

Speaking with to Robert Costa of the Washington Post, Donald Trump defends his racist statements made during his candidacy announcement saying it was “okay” for him to have described undocumented immigrants as “rapists.” When asked about the using a word like rapists to describe a population, Trump responded:

It is a very rough word. It’s okay to use.

Also, lots of cursing:

  • “Look at that guy, look at what he did, killing that beautiful girl. [Expletive] animal.”
  • Who the [expletive] are you?
  • If I didn’t make a fortune, who the [expletive] is going to buy “The Art of the Deal”?
  • Their lives are [expletive] over.
  • What the [expletive] else do you have? Are you finished yet?

It’s a very interesting read and worth your time.

Link

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/07/12/listening-to-donald-trump-swear-and-talk-politics-on-his-private-plane/

Trump Rallies a New “Silent Majority”

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Donald Trump claims that he rallies a new “Silent Majority”. For those not familiar with politics, the Southern Strategy focus on motivating the “Silent Majority” which is a racist code word for “white people.”

“It comes deeply from Richard Nixon’s basic political orientation,” said Rick Perlstein, a historian who has written multiple books on conservatism and the Nixon era, including Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America and The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan.

The language of the silent majority, was a distillation of Nixon’s political philosophy, “the idea that there are two kinds of Americans — the ordinary middle-class folks with the white picket fence who play by the rules and pay their taxes and don’t protest and the other are the people who basically come from the left.”

And over time, the term silent majority was used to exclude more than just anti-war protesters. The “noisy minority,” as Perlstein called it, was fairly large. “It was black civil rights militants,” he said. “It was feminists who were supposedly burning their bras. It was students who were smoking drugs. It was rock ‘n’ roll bands. It was everything that threatened that kind of 1950s Leave It to Beaver vision of what America was like before everything literally and figuratively went to pot.”

Media

Links

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/us/politics/donald-trump-defiantly-rallies-a-new-silent-majority-in-a-visit-to-arizona.html?_r=0

http://umich.edu/~lawrace/votetour10.htm

http://www.npr.org/2016/01/22/463884201/trump-champions-the-silent-majority-but-what-does-that-mean-in-2016

Donald Trump Confronted By Mexican Man ‘Did You Read the Statue of Liberty?’

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After Donald Trump spoke in Vegas today, a man who said he’s from Mexico confronted him during his Q&A and said he’s “incredibly insulted” by what Trump has been saying about illegal immigrants and Mexico.

He told Trump he’s being unfair to paint all illegal immigrants with a broad brush, but Trump piped up, “Did the government of Mexico ask you to come up and say this?”

The man dismissed Trump’s comment and asked him if he would build walls around every U.S. state to keep out all the rapists and criminals who are already in the United States and cross state lines.

Trump continued to stand by everything he’s said thus far on the matter, and right before they moved on, the man shouted, “Did you read the Statue of Liberty?”

Reality

It was completely unfair of Trump to dismiss this voter’s concerns and turn around and ask if the Mexican government sent him. There’s a word for this that escapes me at the moment, but it isn’t a good word.

Fact is, when you look at the national sexual assault statistics, 52% of perpetrators are white.

Media

Links

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/man-confronts-trump-during-qa-did-you-read-the-statue-of-liberty/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0nii7mxpFc

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