Donald Trump Presidential Campaign Thread

[Thorolfr]

Did his foundation take 10s of millions of dollars from countries that execute gays?
Would you criticize Trump as being anti-gay if he met with the Pope?

If people in the US were really concerned about what happens to gay people in Saudi Arabia, maybe they would refuse to import any oil from Saudi Arabia. But we import 1.06 million barrels of oil from Saudi Arabia every day or 11% of our oil imports and the second biggest source of US oil imports after Canada. So how much money is the US paying to Saudi Arabia every day for their oil? A lot more than 10s of millions of dollars, and that’s every day.

 

[grotto]

Trump is now criticizing the Republican party for his lack of success in fundraising and is threatening to abandon the Republican National Committee and the rest of the GOP ticket which usually relies on the GOP nominee to raise hundreds of millions for the national field organization.

Trump has hardly made any of the phone calls to potential donors or done any of the other fundraising that most candidates need to do.

---

Sorry, don’t believe it! He has financed his own campaign until he has been declared the Republican nominee which is more than any other candidate in recent history.

 

[estesbob]

If people in the US were really concerned about what happens to gay people in Saudi Arabia, maybe they would refuse to import any oil from Saudi Arabia. But we import 1.06 million barrels of oil from Saudi Arabia every day or 11% of our oil imports and the second biggest source of US oil imports after Canada. So how much money is the US paying to Saudi Arabia every day for their oil? A lot more than 10s of millions of dollars, and that’s every day.

We are talking about contributions made directly to the Clinton foundation by these countries-not oil sales. If the Clinton’s are gay friendly why would they accept this money?

 

[Thorolfr]

We are talking about contributions made directly to the Clinton foundation by these countries-not oil sales. If the Clinton’s are gay friendly why would they accept this money?

And why would we do business with a country that kills gays? Why would we pay our money to them?

Do you regularly do business with companies or people that you consider to be doing immoral things or does this not concern you?

 

[GaryTaylor]

Why, if there was any transparency with Obama and HIllary we would know some of those answers.

If people in the US were really concerned about what happens to gay people in Saudi Arabia

I think thats the point, many are concerned but not Obama and Hillary. They are paid off for their silence apparently.

Key International Actors

During a visit to Saudi Arabia in March, US President Barack Obama did not discuss human rights issues with Saudi officials. State Department spokespeople stated that the US was “troubled” over the conviction of Waleed Abu al-Khair and “concerned” over Raif Badawi’s harsh sentence. Otherwise the United States did not criticize Saudi human rights violations beyond Congressionally-mandated annual reports. In 2014, Saudi Arabia was classified as a Country of Particular Concern under the US International Religious Freedom Act for having engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom.

On December 27, 2013, a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) joint security agreement came into force. The agreement’s 20 provisions include a vaguely worded article that would suppress “interference in the domestic affairs” of other GCC countries, which could be used to criminalize criticism of Gulf countries or rulers. Another provision provides for sharing citizens’ and residents’ personal data at the discretion of Interior Ministry officials, apparently without judicial oversight.
BROWSE COUNTRIES

hrw.org/world-report/2015/country-chapters/saudi-arabia

HILLARY’S TOP DONOR Sentenced Gay Men Caught Dancing Like Women to 14,200 Lashes

thegatewaypundit.com/2016/06/hillarys-top-donors-lashed-gay-men-caught-dancing-like-women-14200-times/

When President Barack Obama was preparing for his third presidential visit to Saudi Arabia last year, he made it clear that the close U.S. ally’s human rights abuses would not be up for discussion. “Sometimes we have to balance our need to speak to them about human rights issues with immediate concerns that we have in terms of countering terrorism or dealing with regional stability," he told CNN in January 2015 in anticipation of his first face-to-face with then-newly minted King Salman.

During the year that has lapsed between his third and now fourth presidential visit to Riyadh (currently taking place), Obama has done more than simply withhold criticism from the kingdom. He has politically and militarily backed Saudi Arabia’s murderous war on Yemen, which has been waged for over a year with U.S.-manufactured arms. He has stood by as the government carried out a rash of politically motivated executions, including the killing of prominent dissident and protest leader Sheikh Nimr Al-Nimr.

Throughout Obama’s presidency, Saudi Arabia has remained a top importer of U.S.-manufactured weapons, including the tanks the government used to invade Bahrain in 2011 and help violently repress its pro-democracy movements. On its own soil, the kingdom has maintained an oppressive system of male legal guardianship, under which women can’t obtain higher education or even a passport without approval from a father, husband or son. It’s an understatement to point out that the president has strayed far from his 2002 call to “make sure our so-called allies in the Middle East, the Saudis and the Egyptians, stop oppressing their own people.”

“The Obama administration has supported and created the worst human rights conditions in Gulf countries ever,” Ali Al-Ahmed,the director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs, told AlterNet.

But now, the special relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia is giving rise to bizarre developments in domestic politics, as the president aggressively lobbies to shield the kingdom from legal charges over its potential role in the 9/11 attacks, including by campaigning against bereaved U.S. families.

alternet.org/grayzone-project/why-obamas-campaign-shield-saudi-arabia-scrutiny-erodes-human-rights-around-world

 

[Monkey1976]

And why would we do business with a country that kills gays? Why would we pay our money to them?

Today I learned that not only is talking to someone the same as wholeheartedly endorsing their ideas without question, buying a necessary product from a supplier willing to sell it cheaply means that one agrees with every aspect of the seller’s politics, religion, and culture.

 

[Thorolfr]

Why, if there was any transparency with Obama and HIllary we would know some of those answers.

I think thats the point, many are concerned but not Obama and Hillary. They are paid off for their silence apparently.

hrw.org/world-report/2015/country-chapters/saudi-arabia

thegatewaypundit.com/2016/06/hillarys-top-donors-lashed-gay-men-caught-dancing-like-women-14200-times/

alternet.org/grayzone-project/why-obamas-campaign-shield-saudi-arabia-scrutiny-erodes-human-rights-around-world

Can you quote any source which reports that George W. Bush or any Republican president ever criticized the Saudis for the way they treat gay people? You say “many are concerned”, but I’ve never heard of any prominent Republicans who have ever expressed any concern.

 

[estesbob]

And why would we do business with a country that kills gays? Why would we pay our money to them?

Do you regularly do business with companies or people that you consider to be doing immoral things or does this not concern you?

Actually i do-I refuse to tax returns for people who have income from Abortion providers. I also will not accept strip clubs or marijuana stores as clients. How about you?

 

[estesbob]

Can you quote any source which reports that George W. Bush or any Republican president ever criticized the Saudis for the way they treat gay people?

Did the Saudis ever make direct contributions to them?. Again you fail to see the difference between purchasing something as opposed to having money directly given to you.

 

[Thorolfr]

Actually i do-I refuse to tax returns for people who have income from Abortion providers. I also will not accept strip clubs or marijuana stores as clients. How about you?

But you have no problem with using Saudi oil?

 

[Thorolfr]

Did the Saudis ever make direct contributions to them?. Again you fail to see the difference between purchasing something as opposed to having money directly given to you.

So it’s OK to purchase things from bad people but not to accept money from them? I’m not clear on what the moral distinction is between the two. By purchasing something from bad people, you’re allowing them to live off of the business you provide them and you’re making them richer. How is that moral or OK?

 

[GaryTaylor]

You say “many are concerned”, but I’ve never heard of any prominent Republicans who have ever expressed any concern.

You never heard of Mark Kirk? I think you should take another look at the gay community…

dailykos.com/story/2016/3/11/1499865/-Does-the-Human-Rights-Campaign-Want-Republicans-to-Keep-the-Senate

The HRC’s president said that they chose to endorse Kirk because he was the first Republican to support the Equality Act, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of groups constitutionally protected from discrimination.

 

[GaryTaylor]

But you have no problem with using Saudi oil?

Actually I do and have a problem arming them as the worlds weapon dealer also as mentioned above. I find it even more concerning with the USA with the Obama and Hillary gun agenda as its quite hypocritical but predictable. However, its consistent with the discussion and their bought and paid for Islamic sympathy from which fundamental radicalization breeds, which they still refuse to openly discuss. Pretty much comes around full circle to Lynch-Obamas her boss.

 

[Thorolfr]

Actually I do and have a problem arming them as the worlds weapon dealer also as mentioned above. I find it even more concerning with the USA with the Obama and Hillary gun agenda as its quite hypocritical but predictable. However, its consistent with the discussion and their bought and paid for Islamic sympathy from which fundamental radicalization breeds, which they still refuse to openly discuss. Pretty much comes around full circle to Lynch-Obamas her boss.

I’m not excusing the Obama administration’s unwillingness to confront the Saudis or criticize them in any way, but it’s hardly only Democrats that look the other way. It’s a bipartisan attitude and the Bushes also treated the Saudis with kid gloves. We’ve been treating the Saudis as a major US ally in the Middle East for more than 60 or 70 years.

 

[GaryTaylor]

I’m not excusing the Obama administration’s unwillingness to confront the Saudis or criticize them in any way, but it’s hardly only Democrats that look the other way. It’s a bipartisan attitude and the Bushes also treated the Saudis with kid gloves. We’ve been treating the Saudis as a major US ally in the Middle East for more than 60 or 70 years.

Obama has been President 8 years now. Its not a comparison of two wrongs making anything right. Thats not a argument but a consistent point of the two. Bush obviously had flaws in this area with the globalization and interconnected diversity of the world. Same optics as Obama also, theres some wrong consistencies of both and more indicative of a failed foreign policy than anything. However this went much further with Obama. And we see it still with the 28 pages and 911 as posted.

But you might want to also read this.

o Greg Angelo, president of the Log Cabin Republicans, it was a tremendous step just because Trump acknowledged gay Americans, something many GOP politicians have been afraid to do.

“That speech that Trump gave in New Hampshire was historic,” says Angelo. “We’ve never had a presumptive Republican nominee for president of the United States use the term ‘LGBT community,’ let alone make an appeal to the LGBT community for support. That speech came at great potential political risk. He could have tiptoed around why the people at Pulse nightclub were targeted, but he did not. He frequently and explicitly said he would be a friend of the LGBT community, something unprecedented in Republican politics. He’s the most pro-gay Republican nominee for the presidency the party has ever had.”

Nonetheless, the Log Cabin Republicans – the nation’s largest organization dedicated to supporting LGBT friendly conservatives – hasn’t endorsed Trump yet. Angelo wants a meeting with the candidate to hash out exactly where he stands on a host of issues to achieve clarity and make sure he wouldn’t roll back any of the gains made for the minority group in recent years.

usnews.com/news/articles/2016-06-21/why-gay-men-are-gaga-for-hillary-and-how-trump-is-making-a-play-to-poach-them

 

[GaryTaylor]

Donald Trump’s meeting Tuesday with hundreds of powerful evangelical Christian conservatives smacked of an ancient Biblical test, one in which a condemned man is thrown before bloodthirsty lions to determine the power of his faith.

Yet like the proverbial Daniel, a man of strong belief who was rescued by angels, Trump emerged from the closed-door meeting in New York City without a metaphorical scratch – and with a standing ovation for telling his audience what they’d hoped to hear.

Declaring religious liberty is “the No. 1 issue,” Trump reportedly said he’d appoint anti-abortion judges,

usnews.com/news/articles/2016-06-21/trump-preaches-to-the-choir-in-meeting-with-evangelicals

Christians are voting for Trump. We don’t know what Democrat Catholics are doing anymore. Voting for abortion and religious persecution of the Little Sisters.

 

[Thorolfr]

buying a necessary product from a supplier willing to sell it cheaply means that one agrees with every aspect of the seller’s politics, religion, and culture.

In what way is oil a necessary product? You could always walk or ride a bicycle or a horse or buy an electric car. Oil is not the same as air or water which are unquestionably necessary for any living being. People lived a long time on this planet without needing oil. It makes life much easier for us now but is not a necessary product and it is certainly not necessary to get oil from one producer (Saudi Arabia). And I have no evidence that Saudi Arabia sells it’s oil cheaper than anyone else. I’m sure that most oil producing countries sell it for whatever the rate is on the world market.

 

[Peter_J]

Skeptical, yes but never cynical.

Aha!

Just saw these polls.

Monmouth University has HRC winning by 7 points.

Yes, but that’s with a much larger staff, way more money, and neither of her arms tied behind her back.

 

[Peter_J]

She is ahead at the moment in various polls and the Real Clear Politics average, but it doesn’t mean things will stay that way.

Point made by Republican strategist:

“past nominees such as George H.W. Bush suffered worse polling numbers than Trump early in their campaigns, only to go on to win the White House.”

thehill.com/homenews/campaign/283688-trumps-campaign-hits-a-wall

If Bush can overcome an 80% disapproval rating, or whatever it was, then I’d say anything is possible.

 

[GaryTaylor]

winning by 7 points.

Some 6 others 5. Basically a tie. Thats with Clintons 900 employees and Trump 90 and 45 million opposed to 1.5. And after wrapping up the democrat nomination and the President endorsing her [while being FBI investigated]

Looks like Hillary is just not going to get any better.