Donald Trump has called for the internet to be turned off so that children can no longer use it.
The presidential hopeful said that “We’ve got to maybe do something with the internet,” because it was being used to radicalise people. He said that he would “see Bill Gates” so that he could look into “closing it up”.
Children in America are “watching the internet and they want to be masterminds”, Trump said in a speech.
“We’re losing a lot of people because of the internet,” Trump said. “We have to see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what’s happening.
“We have to talk to them about, maybe in certain areas, closing that internet up in some ways. Somebody will say, ‘Oh freedom of speech, freedom of speech.’ These are foolish people.”
Reality
I’m a software engineer. The sheer lack of any serious understanding of technology makes them The Donald look old and stupid.
Furthermore, Bill Gates, who stepped down from Microsoft in 2014, had nothing to do with the development of the internet and instead ignored it until 1995. Microsoft is responsible for developing Internet Explorer and Edge which are browsers of the internet, meaning they understand the code of a webpage (HTML, Javascript, CSS) then paint the layout and text on your screen. It’s like a
At a campaign speech in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., Trump first went after the media, again.
“The mainstream media wants to surrender the constitution. These people back here,” said Trump motioning to the camera crews in the back of the room, “are the worst. They are so dishonest … 70 to 75 percent are absolutely dishonest. Absolute scum. Remember that. Scum. Scum. Totally dishonest people.”
Trump singled out NBC’s Katy Tur, referring to her as “little Katy” and calling her a “third-rate reporter” all because of how she reported on a recent Trump rally.
“What a lie it was. What a lie. What a lie it was from NBC to have written that … A third-rate reporter. Remember that. Third rate.”
Katy Tur responded gracefully on Twitter.
Awww. Women in the crowd are giving me sympathetic looks.
On December 7th, 2015, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump released a statement calling for the ban on an entire religion from entering the United States of America.
Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on. According to Pew Research, among others, there is great hatred towards Americans by large segments of the Muslim population. Most recently, a poll from the Center for Security Policy released data showing “25% of those polled agreed that violence against Americans here in the United States is justified as a part of the global jihad” and 51% of those polled, “agreed that Muslims in America should have the choice of being governed according to Shariah.” Shariah authorizes such atrocities as murder against non-believers who won’t convert, beheadings and more unthinkable acts that pose great harm to Americans, especially women.
Mr. Trump stated, “Without looking at the various polling data, it is obvious to anybody the hatred is beyond comprehension. Where this hatred comes from and why we will have to determine. Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life. If I win the election for President, we are going to Make America Great Again.” – Donald J. Trump
Reality
This is, by far, one of the most bigoted statements Trump, or any other politician, has made in my lifetime. The lies used to push a nationalistic agenda places him in history among the likes of France’s National Front.
Does a President have this authority?
Trump has asserted that U.S. immigration law would grant him the authority to institute
the ban. Although he has not cited any particular provision, it appears he is invoking 8 US Code § 1182(f) the authority vested in the president to suspend entry of “any class of aliens.”
But Congress cannot grant, and a president cannot exercise, authority that would violate the Constitution. In light of the constitutional flaws in Trump’s proposed ban, § 1182(f ) either must be read narrowly not to authorize such unconstitutional conduct, or it should be struck down as unconstitutional insofar as it authorizes such a ban.
Is Trump’s proposal constitutional?
A ban on Muslim U.S. citizens from entering the United States would be a blatant violation of due process and equal protection under the Fifth Amendment and the basic principle that the government may not banish its citizens or deny them entry to the United States.
In addition, any religion-based bar on the readmission of lawful permanent residents — who have a lawful right to readmission (particularly after a brief trip abroad) unless and until the government can prove they should lose that right — should fail under the Due Process Clause.
What about Trump’s evidence he used for justification of a ban?
While the study Trump cited does exist, it’s not at all clear that it supports his argument that “there is great hatred towards Americans by large segments of the Muslim population.” There are several important problems with the survey that call into question whether the results are representative of the entire U.S. Muslim population. It was an online, opt-in survey, which tend to produce less reliable samples because respondents choose to participate. In traditional polling methods, everyone in a population has a chance of being selected for the survey, meaning the results generally reflect the country’s demographics.
In a press release by Donald Trump’s campaign and reiterated in almost every Republican debate:
Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.
Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life.
Reality
While Korematsu v. United States has never been challenged and could be a slim avenue for implementation, most legal scholars would deem this bigoted plan unconstitutional. Trump’s proposal would violate the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses, the equality dimension of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, and the Constitution’s general prohibition on religious tests outside of the immigration context as it would also conflict with the spirit of the No Religious Test Clause of Article VI.
At an event in North Carolina, Trump was interrupted no fewer than 10 times by different protesters, many of whom shouted, “Black lives matter.” Trump responded by waving them off and dismissing their concerns, as boos rained down from his supporters.
“These are not people,” Trump said. “Just remember that.”
Donald Trump has been heckled at rallies before, but this time, in less than an hour, Trump was heckled at least five separate times. A few of those protesters could be heard chanting “Black Lives Matter!” In every instance, the crowd booed and/or drowned them out with chants of “USA! USA!” After one of the hecklers was escorted out, Trump railed against what he expected the media coverage would be, saying the press always exaggerates people disrupting his rallies But as CNN’s Noah Gray reported tonight, there were potentially up to 10 separate incidents.
Reality
Violence at Trump rallies by supporters is the norm.
Forcibly removed from #trump rally. Trump supporters kicked me, grabbed my neck, pushed me, and more all while security jacks me up. Awful
When Trump addressed the Republican Jewish Coalition, he tried to relate to the crowd by invoking the stereotype of Jews as talented and cunning business-people.
“I’m a negotiator, like you folks”
Trump said, before referencing his book “The Art of the Deal.”
“Is there anyone who doesn’t renegotiate deals in this room?” Trump said. “Perhaps more than any room I’ve spoken to.”
The presidential candidate then predicted he would not gain the support of Jews in his bid for the White House because he is independently wealthy.
“You’re not going to support me because I don’t want your money,” he said, adding that, “you want to control your own politician.”
Reality
Elliott Abrams, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, told ABC News that such remarks “made a lot of people nervous, first because he made what many viewed as an anti-Semitic joke about how all the Jews were in business … [and] he didn’t seem to know the issues.”
Other Jewish-oriented news agencies were not happy about Trump’s remarks.
The online newspaper Times of Israel called it offensive stereotyping. “Trump on Thursday invoked a series of stereotypes about Jews that are often deemed offensive and even anti-Semitic.”
The Jewish news site Forward.com called his remarks “cringe-worthy.”
However the Anti-Defamation League at the time said: “We do not believe that it was Donald Trump’s intention to evoke anti-Semitic stereotypes.”
Trump later made more missteps with the Jewish community by calling his policy “America First” which has historical significance, and tweeted out images that came from neo-Nazi websites with anti-Semitic imagery.
Ironically, Trump has many close Jewish family members. His daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism in 2009 before marrying the real estate mogul Jared Kushner. Trump and Kushner raise their two children in an observant Jewish home.
In an interview on Fox & Friends the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said that he’d like to “take out” the families of terrorists.
“I would knock the hell out of ISIS… [and] when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families. I say ISIS is our number one threat, we have a president who doesn’t know what he is doing and all he’s worried about is climate change, he thinks climate change is something that’s going to go kill us.”
Reality
All four Geneva Conventions from 1949 contain “Common Article 3,” which applies to “armed conflict not of an international character.” What does that mean? The U.S. Supreme Court, in the 2006 case Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld, ruled that “armed conflict not of an international character” means a war that is not fought against a sovereign state. (A sovereign state simply means a country with a recognized government.) Since groups like ISIS are not considered sovereign states, that means that Common Article 3 applies to the current war on terrorism.
According to Common Article 3, people who are taking no active part in the hostilities “shall in all circumstances be treated humanely… To this end, the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever … violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture.”
Experts said this language would make Trump’s approach a violation of the Geneva Conventions, assuming that the family members were not taking part in terrorist activities.
The New York Times is angry that Donald Trump appeared to mock one of its reporters who has a physical disability, but the candidate denied Thursday that he was mimicking the reporter.
In a statement Trump said:
I have no idea who this reporter, Serge Kovalski (sic) is, what he looks like or his level of intelligence
After confronted with backlash, Trump backtracked and in his speech at a rally:
I merely mimicked what I thought would be a flustered reporter trying to get out of a statement he made long ago. If Mr. Kovaleski is handicapped, I would not know because I do not know what he looks like. If I did know, I would definitely not say anything about his appearance.
In an article The New York Times then pointed out that Serge Kovaleski covered Donald Trump extensively for many years, rebuking Trump’s claim that he does not know him. Trump responded with even more insults:
Serge Kovaleski must think a lot of himself if he thinks I remember him from decades ago — if I ever met him at all, which I doubt I did.
“He should stop using his disability to grandstand and get back to reporting for a newspaper that is rapidly going down the tubes.
Trump claims he has the world’s greatest memory, but now he claims he doesn’t know a man who covered and interviews him for The New York Daily News for ten years.
Media
Reality
Trump mocks Serge Kovaleski
By stating, “You should see the guy”, then making hand and arm motions to imitate him Trump obviously knows who Kovaleski is, as Trump was Kovaleski beat for many years. To debate otherwise requires a burden of proof. Trump said things about Kovaleski’s appearance and clearly mocked a reporter with disabilities.
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said he not only would bring back waterboarding, the controversial interrogation technique discontinued by the Obama administration, but also would “approve more than that,” even if such tactics prove ineffective.
“Would I approve waterboarding? You bet your ass I would — in a heartbeat.”
Trump said to loud cheers during a rally at a convention center here Monday night that attracted thousands.
“And I would approve more than that. Don’t kid yourself, folks. It works, okay? It works. Only a stupid person would say it doesn’t work.”
Trump said such techniques are needed to confront terrorists who “chop off our young people’s heads” and “build these iron cages, and they’ll put 20 people in them and they drop them in the ocean for 15 minutes and pull them up 15 minutes later.”
“It works,” Trump said over and over again. “Believe me, it works. And you know what? If it doesn’t work, they deserve it anyway, for what they’re doing. It works.”
Reality
Torture is illegal, unethical, and simplydoesnotwork. When a subject is in pain, people will say anything to get the pain to stop. Most of the time, they will lie, make up anything to make you stop hurting them. That means the information provided during the time of torture is useless. It is irresponsible to forget the lessons we learned during the war against terror for Donald Trump to suggest a war crime.
