By Ted Belman
I watched the Hannity interview from 4 weeks ago and a current speech.
He is for job creation, against illegal immigration, against the Iran deal, against Hillary, Jeb Bush and John McCain, for bombing the oil supplies that ISIS controls, for protecting Israel, for standing up to Iran etc etc.
He is not polished but he holds your attention. He knows his stuff and speaks without a teleprompter.
I’d vote for him
I think my commentary — 6 pages -would be too long for this venue. Besides, I have no idea what you mean as I see nothing on the left side called Chit Chat.
@ martin: If you wish post your commentary on this site at Chit Chat. (see left side).
@ Bear Klein:
Actually, I went to Israel in 2002 to serve as a volunteer with the IDF at the time of the Intifada, when people feared riding on busses. I do remember the Soldiers carried their weapons slung over their shoulders. I did not see civilians openly armed.
Incidentally, Upon my return I penned my thoughts on Israel’s problems and If you care to critique my thoughts I will email them you. As far as I’m concerned, I would not change a word of it 13 years later.
mdk4130@aol.com
@ martin:
You have never been to Israel I suspect. Soldiers (active duty) carry their rifles with them wherever they travel. No solider is concealing. IDF soliders on buses, hitchhiking…. have their service issued weapons with them.
When I was a civilian I obtained a gun license. Who said anything about hiding the weapon. Yes with a license you may conceal a weapon or not.
Luckily in Israel compared to many countries Israel has very low level of violence (gun or otherwise). What is dangerous in Israel are the roads or should I say the drivers. Even though they keep saying it is getting better.
@ Bear Klein:
The point I was bothered about is the need to get a license from my State to be permitted to possess a firearm and then hide it.
I do not know if Israelis and Soldiers who are licensed walk about armed or are their guns hidden from view? My preference is for unconcealed not concealed weapons .
@ ArnoldHarris:
This site, perhaps, is not the appropriate place to comment on guns but I have always found it ridiculous to carry a gun concealed. Concealed from what?
I am an old Navy Gunner’s Mate. I am licensed you carry concealed but I will go nowhere without my gun in my car and on my seat than I will go without gas.
What I want is a carry law unconcealed. If you’re carrying and a law-abiding citizen , I am not troubled to see it ; if you’re not, the bad boys will conceal it anyway. So what’s the big deal about concealed?
Men were more courteous to each other when they all carried swords at their sides.
@ ArnoldHarris: Arnold Israel has a pretty balance of who can have a gun and security in general. If someone is know as mentally ill or dangerous they will not be allowed to have a gun license. Sometimes things need to be fixed and it is not like in the USA. They can be fixed.
For example when I lived on the Golan, it was very easy to obtain a gun license. I had to show I knew how to use and care for my weapons (one weapon I brought from USA and the other was a rifle issued by the kibbutz security coordinator. They issued a letter of approval which I provided to Interior Ministry to obtain my gun license.
The soliders carry their guns while traveling. If you live somewhere were their is regular potential danger gun licenses are easy to obtain and communities have organized security which is usually coordinated with the IDF.
USA and Israel living conditions are not always analogous.
1) There is a long time between now and candidate selection time next year. Remember what happened to Herman Cain and a lot more such early risers. But increasingly, Hillary Clinton is beginning to look no more electable than Thomas Dewey or Adlai Stevenson.
2) The politically organized American gun owners, and I am one of them, will never support the election of any candidate who threatens us with gun control, which we consider unconstitutional. I know all of this first-hand, because for more than 20 years, I have been one a number of election volunteer coordinators (EVCs) for the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Affairs (NRA-ILA), in my case for Wisconsin’s 2nd Congressional District. We were the ones who testified incessantly before state legislatures all across the country on behalf of concealed carry firearm rights, As a result, we not only won that political struggle in most US states; but in addition, we helped considerably to win conservative control of the majority of those legislatures. We, the armed and politically organized citizens of the United States constitute the world’s largest army. More importantly, we are aware of that power, and we intend to keep it that way. Along with Jabotinskyist/Kahanist undiluted Zionism, the National Rifle Association is one of my main focuses of allegiance. It’s just too damned bad that the citizens of Issrael lack the same rights to keep and bear arms that we have here. The day may well come when you will need just that all across Israel.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
@ zionlover:
Cruz is my favorite as well, but the Donald has got spething special–a real possibility of getting elected as things are going now. The band wagon may start to roll and everyone will jump on board if Donald wises up soon. I don’t want to repeat myself but let me reply with the following as well:
The only way to get out of the mess excessive Democratic liberalism and timid Republicans have created is to Trump them all. We have lost this country to immigration, to demography and the Blacks who will vote for a Democrat even if it was Donald Duck. And don’t wince–that’s a fact!
Just listen to the word on the street. You can hear the sense of the time. It’s not that Donald talks too much or has a big mouth. It’s that many people are beginning to feel revulsion at the sight of Obama, Clinton, Maddow, and Sharpton–and more. They feel like puking. You know what I mean. Obama has pimped all of us and there’s no one else but Donald making emotional contact to the average voter . Donald they feel will not let America become a Greece and for that we need a sharp businessman at this perilous time, not a life-long “get-along” politician who can retire with a pension just by serving one term. Hey! Great job if you can get it. They know the secret of getting elected is by hanging around with the big-shots in their communities, and doing them favors–not with the ordinary voter. They leave it to TV to till tell the voters who to vote for. That’s called democracy.
Wait and you will see. Donald is smart and like any smart guy running for president he will soon get a lot of smart guys to help him lay out what will make a winning agenda. Campaigning has become big business. That’s his bag! If he gets serious he’ll soon start talking like a politician. He’ll find the right words to say at rallies — just like the rest of them. He’ll tell it “like it is”– about our failed immigration policies, the perpetual Middle East quicksand, our dead-in-the-water economy , our failed criminal justice system, what will we want America’s place in the world to be, our national debt cancer – an incurable sickness because every one of us thinks lunch is free. Donald will not let us go bankrupt, if we do, it’s our fault.– and anything else he will dream up. At this time there’s no profit in wasting words by bashing what all the Democrats and Republicans have done, bad mouthing them will get him nowhere – just a cheap shot. He has to show he’s bigger than that. It’s where he wants to go and why is the message we need to hear!
Understand? At this stage the campaign is all just talk and canned speeches and flashy slick expensive ads on TV and campaign costs for polling and pop corn and the Internet–“Hey, Buddy, can you spare just 5 bucks?” That’s all any of the candidates can do at this time .Soon we will vote. Take your pick. Sink or swim! That’s it, citizen! Just pay your taxes on time and shut up–or go on welfare. No tears, please!
I’m surprised nobody mentioned Ted Cruz. He has the right opinions and he doesn’t back down. Unlike Trump, he has been vocal about his support for Israel for years, is not a loose cannon and did not have liberal opinions a short time ago (as Bear Klein and others mentioned) I trust Cruz a lot more than Trump.
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/2015/07/24/trump-helps-faltering-hillary/
I think I can feel the sense of the time. It’s not that Donald is Donald, with al his faults, but that the people are beginning to feel revulsion at the sight of Obama – with all his faults. People feel sick, they feel Obama has pimped them and there’s no one else but Donald telling it like it is while images of congress in session is boring them to death . Donald they feel, will not let America become a Greece and for that we need a sharp businessman, not a hungry politician.
@ Boldeagle:
You are correct it is very early to know if Trump is for real. Herman Cain had a lead once upon a time and he went nowhere (at least not to the White House).
The people who like Trump really like him but he is also building a lot of negatives, due to the direct off the cuff style that also gets a lot of people to like him.
That said Florida, Nevada, New Mexico are all swing states that have sizable Hispanic populations. Trump with his comments about Mexicans will not be able to get enough of these voters to win these crucial states.
Florida is particularly crucial. If he can not win Florida he must win both Ohio and Pennsylvania to have a chance in a general election. That is a tall order.
The corporatist goons who run the GOP are the best friends the Democrats have:
GOP Elites Plot to Bar Frontrunner Trump From Debate
Many national Republican officials are increasingly resigned to Mr. Trump’s looming presence. At a meeting of the Republican Governors Association this week in Aspen, Colo., donors and operatives mused about how to prevent him from hijacking the debate.
One idea that came up was to urge three leading candidates — Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor; Mr. Walker; and Senator Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) of Florida — to band together and state that they would not participate in any debate in which Mr. Trump was present, using his refusal to rule out a third-party bid as a pretext for taking such a hard line. The thinking, according to a Republican involved in the conversations, was that the lesser-funded prospects who have been eclipsed by Mr. Trump would follow suit, and the TV networks airing the debates would be forced to bar Mr. Trump in order to have a full complement of candidates.
But none of the campaigns have shown any appetite for such solidarity, for reasons ranging from their strategic interests and not wanting to make Mr. Trump a martyr, to fear of making an enemy of Fox News, the preferred cable network of conservatives and the host of the first debate.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/07/23/gop-elites-plot-to-bar-frontrunner-trump-from-debate/
We have more than a year to discover if Trump can maintain his lead and if he shows that he has what it takes to lead the country. He is a GREAT candidate if only because he doesn’t need to beg for money from interest groups. He’s exactly what many of us have wanted all along, an independent person who does the right thing, politics be damned.
No one says he is perfect but compared to Obama, he walks on water. The world would wake up to the US once again and he would garnish respect throughout the world. No one, and I mean no one, would take him as a lightweight.
One concern is that someone may wish to take him out before it goes too far. There are those who would like to see him out of the way and it’s not impossible that one group would try. Of course I don’t want it to happen. I want Trump to lead the nation as he is the best chance to recover ground after Obama gave away so much of it. Trump would fix the military, create jobs and most important give people a sense that things are going to be alright.
Those who are in interested in Polls. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/
@ bernard ross: If I may know where do you live?
babushka Said:
babushka Said:
babushka Said:
thanks for this info, I never realized that Trump could thiink outside of an ideological box. I am now going to look into his specific stand on issues because if what you say is true he is closest to my stand on specific issues so far. the fact that he is an experienced businessman but not an ideologue is even better. Trump is a simple staraight forward common sense candidate and is not concerned with polls on his views. Trump will tell the truth on his beleifs the others will all vacillate according to how polls will take it. Ill go with trump if he keeps up his attacks on the establishment and ideologues. Others have questioned Mcain so I am not troubled by any sacred cows. there are no sacred cows for me and all those mealy mouthed gop who jumped on the bandwagon agianst trump on the mcain issue will ge no vote from me, they are hypocrites. I liked his comment that smooth talking graham could not hold a job in the private sector, true of many incompetent pol puppets like obama
Bear Klein Said:
any evidence for this. I would be wary of any polls asserting this as BS polls abound at election time. I expect that all those republican “front runners” are enormously embarrassed by trumps performance with the grass roots and big money will pay a lot to get rid of trump and get in their man… Bush of course.
I never took Trump seriously in the past but he appears now to be the only GOP who is doesn’t sound like a typical PC parroting clone. He appears to be the only one who isn’t an ideological parrot or like Bush an establishment stooge. I like Trumps straight talk and the fact that he is pragmatic rather than an ideologue. For me a political ideologue is like voting for a mullah: his decisions are based on his religion or ideology.
The appearance of the argument that Trump cannot take the swing states sounds like inverted logic to me. Swing states are in the middle and Trump could appeal to more independent voters who vote on individual issues rather than ideologies, like me. I agree with some issues towards the left and others to the right. Having lived and received medical treatment in both US private systems and foreign national systems, I prefer a move toward healthcare determined by medical rather than insurance reasons. I have no fear of national medical security. I don’t mind his gun control position as I agree with the right to bear arms but believe assault weapons need greater regulation. As for Israel I am 1000% for killing the enemy without risking soldiers lives, transferring all hostiles to avoid the double standard created by jews transferred from arab countries, exploiting every covert dirty trick against enemies in media and politics, etc. Trump appears to be the only person who can think pragmatically. In any case I am for practical pragmatic solutions to problems and Trump is not afraid to go outside of ideological envelopes.
the same factor that brought in Carter and Obama still exists which is why I completely disagree with trump being unable to win swing states. People are sick of smooth talking pols. Sanders is popular because he can mix socialism with gun toting, also not completely in the ideological box. Trump is a businessman who is experienced in the world which is why he is unafraid of universal healthcare. The same things that make me like trump now when I thought he was a jerk before can affect other voters. He talks straight on immigration and the GOP is full of BS. He talks straight on Obama birth certificate, student record, constitutional crimes etc whereas the GOP are afraid of the birthers tag. The fact that he is unafraid of universal health care and supports the 2nd amendment together with his believable support of Israel is moving me to his corner. The rest are all the usual suspects.
http://crooksandliars.com/2015/01/donald-trump-outs-himself-liberal
http://downtrend.com/71superb/donald-trump-is-not-just-a-clown-hes-a-liberal-anti-gun-clown
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/18/trump-just-another-liberal/
Trump’s attacks upon the corrupt, malicious GOP machine are most welcome, but he is no conservative.
Bon voyage v lo leehtraot!
Trump is on the right side of issues but will not win (see my moderated above analysis).
Polls show Bush, Rubio or Walker could beat Hillary in swing states.
Trump if was to get Republican nomination would lose general election. He will not win swing states which are needed for any Republican to win a general election. (Republican needs to win two of these three states Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania).
Nationwide polls (where Trump is doing well) are less important than polls in swing states and the first few states with primaries.
Gets my vote too (had I one).
Trump is a formidable American. Of course and as expected, his trek will be mined by the RINOS, the MSM and so called “democrats”. Still he can win. He and a couple of other Republicans are the best options today.
Good luck to all three of them…