During Xmas I remember my friend saying "how come that idiot Trump hasn't be thrown out yet?" After further discussion we concluded that he must be saying what 40% of delegates wanted to hear, probably because many hated the way the politicians were pussy footing around the issues.

An opinion piece in the australian reflects my opinion on the issue.

"On December 7, Donald Trump issued his call for a ban on Muslim immigration into the U.S.— “until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” It’s hard to recall a statement by a public figure that was met, instantly, with almost universal condemnation, including from most of the Republican presidential candidates.

Between that day and the end of 2015, Donald Trump’s support in the national opinion polls went up to nearly 37 per cent, a substantial number by any measure. Welcome to the revolt of the politically incorrect.

Forget the controversy over Donald Trump’s Muslim ban. This unique political campaign is about more than that. Donald Trump and indeed Ben Carson popped the valves on pressure that’s been building in the U.S., piece by politically correct piece, for 25 years. Since at least the early 1990s, a lot of the public has been intimidated into keeping its mouth shut and head down about subjects in the political and social life of the country that the elites stipulated as beyond discussion or dispute. "

Is Trump your political hero then Shadow Minister?
You think because he whips up a bit of terrorist fear in the hearts of some vulnerable, ignorant Americans, that we should perhaps use him as a model for our politicians?

Here's the thing Shadow Minister, long before Trump made his ignorant anti-Muslim declaration, most intelligent people saw him for what he really is...a rich, bigoted, racist, mysogynistic buffoon.
He would never have got as far as he has in American politics without his money.

Yes, Americans need their new Archie Bunker - not for his actual views, but for the guts to express them in opposition to the politically-correct tyranny.

People feel what they feel and suppressing them from telling the truth about it is not the answer.

I'm pretty sure that in real life, if Donald comes to power he will not fulfil any of these rhetoric promises, nor would his supporters expect him to.

I'm sure that if the US survived George W. Bush,
they'll survive Donald Trump. Although realistically
I would be very surprised if Trump won the election.
We'll have to wait and see. Still, they did vote
for Ronald Reagan, for Arnold (the terminator),
and perhaps they will vote for Trump?
Only in America.

US politics resembles a 3 ring circus to me, so a lack of interest means I will not comment on Trump or Obana or Clinton.

However, as for Australia his comment about banning further muslim immigration is spot on. We need to ban muslim intake of refugees and migrants so as to prevent a situation like Britain and Europe now have.

Crime and anti-social conduct by muslims has been rampart there for years and has been ignored by our politicians. Maybe this latest outrage of sex assaults by muslims will alert some of our brain dead polys. It must be noted that the outrageous conduct was carried out by the so called 'moderates', the ones supposedly fleeing Syria from the ISIS. Such conduct is not good enough for my Australia, by any measure and is perfectly obvious why muslims cannot fit into our society.

Suze,

For the illiterate, I at no point condoned anything that Trump said. I personally think that he is a boor. However, while I don't believe that he has any chance of winning an election even if he wins the Republican nomination, I am interested in the public reaction to his directness after years of sanitized public debate regulated by the thought police of the left.

Comedian after comedian etc have pulled the piss out of the PC debacle, but still we are getting top level universities all but banning any debate on topics that might offend someone somewhere, and creating "safe places" for the handful of delicate young men and women that want to believe that they live in Nirvana.

It is time for these pansies to realize that there is no such thing as the right not to be offended.

I see what you mean Shadow Minister, but I don't believe that the so-called 'PC brigade' have the political clout you think they have in America. If they did, they wouldn't have the mad right-brigade continually vetoing the important push for gun control would we?

Do you think it is the 'left' controlling that madness in America?
I don't think so.
The far-right Tea Party has huge clout too, so what are you on about?
Do you think there are no university educated people within many of the far-right brethren?

I just tend to agree with the statement- only in America...

With a country still catering for cowboys of 100 years ago, and nothing insight for a change. It may become the very thing that leads them into another civil war. That is besides ongoing atrocities. When those rules were made there was a definite lack of foresight, being stuck in the old days.
Trump is a blagard and unrealistic, we had one of those also. So you know everybody is allowed their opinion. As far as a president, it remains to be seen as funny things happen in their society.
Obama gave you a clue at what the problem could be last week, I think he learnt that from our experience.

If guns cause crime then why isn't the USA at the top of the crime list?

Why do other countries with gun control have more crime than the USA?

Must be some reason.

Guns cause death Is Mise, which is why we have far less gun deaths than the US per capita by a long way. Most are bright enough to see the damning statistics that prove this fact.

Happily, Australia is bright enough to keep our gun laws tough, and hopefully even tougher soon.
One only needs to listen to the idiocy of gun enthusiasts like Trump, and the shoot-em-up NRA members, to see the mentality of those guys.

I doubt Obama cares what happens in other murderous countries, he just wants to stop the carnage in his own country. He talks about our laws as a goal for the US.
I am proud of Australia.

Well much as you may hate it, folks had better start hoping Trump wins.

It appears he is the only thing likely to prevent the multiply failed Clinton woman from getting into the white house.

After 8 years of the totally bumbling Obama, even another 4 of such an incompetent dill in the job would probably sink the US below the recovery level.

Without the US, even in it's decline, we have little chance for our grand kids having a decent future.

Hasbeen "Well much as you may hate it, folks had better start hoping Trump wins."

You can't be serious? Trump got where he is through his money, and not his merit.
I don't want anyone like him being in any position of power.
His hair piece alone should scare people off!

Trump is popular with a good portion of the US public and a bigger portion of the Republican supporter base because he's prepared to say what most of their leaders have been too intimidated to say.

Large parts of the US know that the open southern border is a disaster, but the pollies have been tippie-toeing around it trying to sound like they want to do something while trying real hard to not say anything that the PC police will label racist.

Trump just says he'll close it, build a wall, and then laughs at the outrage from the PC police. And he's loved by a growing number of voters for it. He doesn't have 40 page policy statements with all the minutia as to how he'll stop it, but the people know that he'll do whatever is necessary whereas all the others will do all they can to avoid doing anything as they have for the last 2 decades.

He says that under his presidency, people will be able to say "Merry Christmas" again. Now we all know that that's not literally true but people also know what he means by that - that the presidency will actively seek to reverse the war on western culture that has been waged by the Democrats and acquiesced to be the establishment Republicans.

Trump is saying what so many have felt and said behind closed doors for years. He's saying it and mocking those who express outrage and that's why Republican voters are flocking to his cause. When Hilary says she'll make the election about women's rights he says she might start by addressing her husband's misogyny. The PC police gasp, the establishment blush and Hilary changes the subject. And he gets MORE supporters.

I still think the machine-men will finally wear him down, but don't write him off just yet.

Trump is the only real candidate that can beat Hilary.
Hilary can probably beat most of the republican candidates in a debate but not Donald Trump, he'll carve her up.
Hilary should not be allowed anywhere near the Whitehouse, she is a compulsive liar and a criminal and she should be put in prison for treason.

Gee Armchair Critic, you really don't like Hilary do you!
She doesn't do much for me either, as I think any woman who would let a man like Bill publicly humiliate her with his infidelity, and then stay with him, is a fool at best.

However, Trump makes her seem like an ideal candidate.
I just can't get past his hair...

Hey Suseonline,
Yes Donald's hair does look kind of silly sometimes but obviously he's comfortable with it and that makes it kind of amusing.

Bill and Hillary are more like the power couple from 'House of Cards' than a normal husband and wife, both have played around, Bills had mistresses, Hillary's been with others as well (Its said that Chelsea may not be Bills) and there's even talk she's got girlfriends..

Here's an interesting link..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton_sexual_misconduct_allegations

There's a lot a scandals that have happened with the Clintons that aren't well known.
I'm going to add just a few now and maybe I'll add some more tomorrow.
http://www.independentsentinel.com/lest-we-forget-hillarys-china-gate-scandal/

Which leads us to the next scandal.
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/04/real-benghazi-story.html

This creates a bit of a dilemma, because Hillary was Secretary of State under Obama during this time, so this makes Obama complicit in arming the terrorists to overthrow Assad.

Also another factor of this private email server scandal is that the server was unsecured (could be easily hacked, and was) and Hillary may have been doing this on purpose as a covert way to sell classified info (which she directed her staff to strip the 'classified' from the documents before sending them to her) in exchange for campaign contributions to The Clinton Foundation as per the Chinagate scandal.

Currently, the FBI may be about to indict her.
http://spectator.org/articles/65131/bells-toll-hillary

Next I'll have to talk about the Neocons to tie all this into current events.

Suse,

Guns don't cause death, they may be an instrument of death but they don't cause it.
Did cars cause the deaths on the road over the recent Christmas/New Year period?

But why don't you answer the question?

"If guns cause crime then why isn't the USA at the top of the crime list?"

"Still, they did vote for Ronald Reagan, for Arnold (the terminator), and perhaps they will vote for Trump? "

Schwarzenegger can never run for president.

If they voted for Trump and he turned out to be even half the president as Reagan, the USA would have made an excellent choice. Reagan was a truly great president and all the Republican candidates try in some fashion or another to paint themselves as Reaganites. One of the reasons Trump is popular is that many see him as being closer to Reagan than any other candidate

Is Mise,

"If guns cause crime then why isn't the USA at the top of the crime list?"
If the USA isn't at the top of the crime list then why is its prison population so high?

Aidan,

Because they lock criminals in prison.

However it doesn't have the world's highest crime rates and as it has the most guns in private hands and, if as is always being alleged that inanimate guns cause crime, then why doesn't it have higher crime rates than some countries that have gun control?

Is Mise, I didn't suggest the US had a higher crime rate because of guns. People cause crime, not guns, so it is a silly point anyway.
Suggesting death by guns is significant in the US is a valid point. Bullets from guns kill people, no doubt about it.

I am happy with our low numbers of guns and resulting gun deaths in Australia, although we can certainly tighten up the laws even more.

When someone is about to make a comment about race, it is almost a requirement these days to say something like..."I'm not a racist but...."

I'm not a gun owner/supporter but....

Gun deaths in the US are around 32000. Of those more than 2/3rds are suicide. Gun deaths as murder/manslaughter are less than 9000. Still a big number but not outrageous as compared to some other nations.

It should also be noted that these deaths have been declining since the mid 1990s even while the number of guns have been increasing. That's not the sort or correlation you'd expect if the main problem was guns.

But the main point I wanted to make was one of the main reasons the US has such high numbers of gun deaths and incarcerations is the drug war. The US Department of Justice has estimated that up 50% of gun deaths are related to drugs - people trying to get them, people trying to steal money to get them and most importantly people fighting gang-wars to monopolise their sales area.

Many people (but a minority nonetheless) over the years have proposed ending the drug war. Legalise the lot and let it all be sold under government supervision in the same way as legal drugs like tobacco and alcohol are. The drug war would end overnight. The prisons would start to empty and the US gun death statistics would fall to something like those of Australia.

But something like that is too hard. There is a natural tendency among most people to ban that which they don't like and/or don't understand. Ban drugs, ban drugs, ban discriminatory speech.

Whereas if we adopted an 'un-ban' approach, almost certainly things would improve.

Suze,

The left never ceases to astound me with its naivety.

From 2009 when TA became leader of the opposition, I heard nothing but how unelectable TA was, how stupid he was, etc, even after he reduced labor from a huge majority to a minority government.

Trump didn't become a multi billionaire by being stupid, he is also under spending many of his rivals. The smart money would realise that he probably knows exactly what he is doing, and it is working.

Trump is a not a career politician, and has largely nothing to lose. However, he is decades being the pollies that have risen through the ranks and cannot win with a carbon copy policy platform of mainstream contenders.

He has divined a rich lode of resentment towards career politicians and their sanitized and marginally indistinguishable policy platforms and mining for all it is worth.

I admit that much of American politics seems counter intuitive and while I am strongly pro gun regulation, the feeling I get from the few Americans I know is that guns are a symbol of independence, and that there is deep suspicion of "Big Brother" trying to regulate their lives. Similarly after 911, muslims have been viewed with deep suspicion, and the news from Germany confirms their fears.

Suse,

You said "Guns cause death...."

How can inanimate objects cause anything?

But if, as you said,"Guns cause death" then why is the US gun death rate lower than some countries with much tougher gun control?

The Us with the world's highest civilian gun ownership ought, by your reasoning, to have the world's highest gun death rate.

Mhaze and Is Mise, by anyone's estimation gun-related violence is much worse in the US than here. I wasn't discussing any other country, but if you want to look up and provide statistics for other countries, knock yourself out. Mhaze, death by suicide with a gun is just as easy as death with a gun against others. Too easy, and just as tragic.

Wikipedia : "Gun violence in the United States results in thousands of deaths and injuries annually.[1] According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2013, firearms were used in 84,258 nonfatal injuries (26.65 per 100,000 U.S. citizens) [2] and 11,208 deaths by homicide (3.5 per 100,000),[3] 21,175 by suicide with a firearm,[4] 505 deaths due to accidental discharge of a firearm,[4] and 281 deaths due to firearms-use with "undetermined intent"[5] for a total of 33,169 deaths related to firearms (excluding firearm deaths due to legal intervention). 1.3% of all deaths in the country were related to firearms.[1][6]"

A dreadful indictment against guns if ever I saw one.
Trump is a laughing stock for most intelligent Americans and will never win an election.

The US constitution is the contract between the government and the citizens and sets out the rules in which government can rule over the people.
It's not just about hunting, self-defense, protecting stock or other owned property.
The Second Amendment is the ultimate check on government and provides the people with the means to resist a tyrannical government.

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

I've just been reading up on Donald Trump and he is impressive, probably make a good President.

//If the USA isn't at the top of the crime list then why is its prison population so high?//

//Because they lock criminals in prison.//

If they're black (a joke). The U.S. don't exclusively imprison black people; they just imprison them at a much higher rate than they do white people.

Cue our local KKK representative to tell us all how much more evil blacks are than whites...

//If guns cause crime then why isn't the USA at the top of the crime list?//

Probably because it has such a large population.

In Europe, the country with the highest crime rate is the Vatican - not because high-ranking Catholic clergy are crooks, but because it has a very low official population and an enormous influx of tourists every day. Lots of tourists = lots of pick-pocketing and bag-snatching = lots of crime = ridiculously high crime rate in a state populated by monsignors, bishops, cardinals et. al.

//I've just been reading up on Donald Trump and he is impressive, probably make a good President.//

Don't believe everything you read.

I've been listening to him, and he sounds decidedly dodgy to me. When a charismatic orator with a ridiculous haircut, an over-blown sense of his own self-importance, clear megalomaniac/narcissistic tendencies but truck-loads of popular support gets up on stage, I can't help but have flashbacks to the Nuremberg rallies.

It's as if he doesn't realise that the Constitution of the country to whose flag he swears allegiance guarantees freedom of belief, expression etc. Halfwit.

The enemy of your enemy is not always your friend, Is Mise. Sometimes he is just clown in a silly wig.