...to think surely nobody will vote Donald Trump now?

[QuizteamBleakley]

Donald Trump thinks there should be a ban on all Muslims entering the U.S.

Beeb news here.

I haven't read it all but Claig I like your replies. I love to read and try to understand other, less common viewpoints. There is so much information out there on 'the elites', it is a very powerful group.

'you mean, being a fascist disqualifies you from being elite?'

As the good American commentator on BBC Newsnight said in answer to Kirsty asking him about Clinton's desperate last throw of the dice statement that "Trump is dangerous", he said "it is laughable to think that Trump is a little Mussolini".

The elites are desperate, calling Trump a fascist and not politically correct is all they have left. It would work here, the BBC would pull it off here with the "drilled in" public here, but it won't work with American people. The more they insult Trump, the more the elite and their puppet politicians call him "dangerous", the higher his polls go because as the good US commentator said on BBC Newsnight, the people "have contempt for the political class".

No, being rich does not make you elite.

It does actually. Even in america. Not many people are rich. funny how that elite thing works.

Most of the other republican candidates are terrified of actually standing up to Donald Trump - which is kind of odd if he is this mavricky (where have we heard that before??) character who espouses free thought.

Claig, I suspect you are a persona operated by the Trump camp (in fairness one of the more interesting interns who actually understands that there is a world outside the US - a world that he hopes will not include people who realise that U Penn is an Ivy league school :) ) Good luck to you in your long career in DC.

Yes Claig, the US standard of living is falling and the middle class has been so sqeezed it is no longer the dominant social fierce in the USA. On that we agree. I just don't think DT is the solution. I'd be much more minded to go with Bernie Sanders.

Piglet, DT is really more if a racist, populist demagogue than a facist.

Fierce = force

Autocorrect!

'It does actually. Even in america. Not many people are rich. funny how that elite thing works.'

You can be as rich as Croesus and still not be welcome in certain clubs. Being rich does not buy you access to the top table and does not give you top status like hereditary wealth does. There are gangsters and the mob who are richer than princes, but they aren't part of the elite club.

'Most of the other republican candidates are terrified of actually standing up to Donald Trump - which is kind of odd if he is this mavricky (where have we heard that before??) character who espouses free thought.'

They are terrified because he has hit them and dropped their poll ratings everytime they have stuck their necks out. The guy from Ohio and the servant Lindsey Graham have been vicious against Trump but he has knocked them out everytime. The ones who are still left in the race are biding their ytime waiting to hit Trump when he is down. They don't want to make their move too soon because riling Trump is like poking a bear and they don't ant to feel his bite.

'Good luck to you in your long career in DC.'

I love Trump and would be honoured to be on his team, but I am in the UK and am English, not American, but that doesn't mean that I don't love Trump and want him to win because I know that if Trump wins and makes America great again, then he will make us great again over here because he will end political correctness and spread wealth, business and freedom.

'the US standard of living is falling and the middle class has been so sqeezed it is no longer the dominant social fierce in the USA'

Yes and that is a tragedy for the most dynamic, innovative, entrepreneurial, high-tech country on the planet. That is why the American people have had enough, that is why they want Trump because Trump offers hope, he says "let's make America great again", he says he is not a "career politician", he is a billionaire who understands business and can get things done, and that is what the American people want.

Sky News was in washington interviewing Americans about Trump's statements, and it concentrated on people criticising Trump, but at the end, it said "a woman watching in her car heard what we were saying and beckoned us over". She said "we love Trump, we don't agree with everything he says, but we think he can get the job done".

I am not an American, but I hope Trump wins and gets the job done too, because that will improve our lives here too because Trump is for the people.

'I just don't think DT is the solution. I'd be much more minded to go with Bernie Sanders. '

The Sanders thing is interesting and is the polar opposite of the Trump thing. Sanders shows that Democrats are also disgusted with the Establishment elites like the Clintons. They also want change. However, Sanders is unlikely to beat Clinton and even if he did, it is very unlikely that America would vote for socialism.

Trump is a capitalist, an arch capitalist and businessman, and that will appeal to many people because they believe in capitalism. But Trump is not a crony capitalist, he is against the "free trade" brigade, he is for "fair trade, not free trade" and for bringing jobs back to America and for American protectionism and tough trade deals with the rest of the world which will bring back off-shored jobs to America.

No one knows what Trump will really do, but there is no better choice, no other choice for real change, an end to political correctness and a fearless determination to "make America great again". There is no other game in town for America or the people pf the whole world.

Piglet John is wise.

The US is certainly not the most high-tech country on this planet, claig. I wouldn't say it's the most innovative either.

Not be a long shot.

The New York subway doesn't even have countdown clocks for most of its lines! And as for the banking system here, everyone still writes cheques! Internet is slow and expensive, I could go on and on!!

It's not just political correctness or anti-establishment. What he says is just insane and very offensive to many. He won't win. As soon as the othre contestants start to drop out, most normal Republicans will consolidate around the remaining ones. Even if he wins the nomination, he won't win against Clinton. If he runs as an independent, that'd be great because he'd split the republican vote ensuring a democrat victory.

But don't worry, he will win because the American people are going to beat the elites.

No sleep being lost about claig's prediction here. Not since she told us that UKIP were going to win lots of seats in the UK election.

'The US is certainly not the most high-tech country on this planet'

You are right but that is only because of the lack of investment in the public sphere and in public infrastructure where bridges are rusting and infrastructure is not rebuilt. But the world runs on US technology, designed and thought up in America, but often made in China. Trump is going to refocus on rebuilding America, scaling back the wars across the planet and bringing jobs from Mexico and China back to the States. He says he will tell Ford to build factories in America, he will tell the biscuit factories to stop shutting down their US plants. He says "we are losing at everything, the people in charge don't have a clue" and he will shake things up and make things better.

'What he says is just insane and very offensive'

Yes because he is intentionally using that as a tactic to distance himself from everyone of the "career politician" pack. He won't do half of what he says and will probably do the opposite, but he says got puppets like Rubio arguing the fine details of whether Trump's crazy statements will work. Trump is laughing, playing with the puppets, entertaining the people and showing them that he is bigger, bolder and better at getting things done than the fearful clique oc "career politicians". Trump is manipulating the media, outsmarting the entire elite and they have no answer to him or his style.

'most normal Republicans will consolidate around the remaining ones'

Pat Buchanan again

"GOP Elites Call for Purge of Trump
...
“Marginalizing Trump” carries no risk of “alienating a substantial Republican cohort,” Will assures us, for these “Trumpites” are neither Republicans nor conservatives. Better off without such trash.

The Post’s Michael Gerson says “establishment Republicans” must “make clear that [Trump] has moved beyond the boundaries of serious and civil discourse.” He loathes the Trumpites as much as Will.

Trump’s followers are “xenophobic,” Gerson tells CNN. They have a “resentment of outsiders, of Mexico, of China, and immigrants. That’s more like a European right-wing party, a UKIP or a National Front in France. Republicans can’t incorporate that.”

But if the GOP has no room for Trump’s followers, it has no future. For there simply aren’t that many chamber-of-commerce and country-club Republicans."

buchanan.org/blog/gop-elites-call-for-purge-of-trump-16357

Trump speaks to ordinary voters, not the media and managerial elites. He speaks in unpolitically correct language, direct language, that speaks to peope on the street, not people in palaces and establishment suites. Clinton, the policy wonk, will flounder when Trump starts on her, when Trump takes the gloves off. "Policy", five-point plans, detailed briefs etc won't beat Trump, because Trump deals in emotion, in simple short messages like "let's make America great again" and that is what ordinary people want to hear, not carbonization quotas, global waffle and gridlock.

Trump will win back lots of voters he has offended because Trump will offer jobs and a better future. He says he is a "uniter", he used to be more like a Democrat, he is not right or left, he will get things done, he is not in the pockets of party elites, they can't stand him because he is with the people and they aren't.

'Not since she told us that UKIP were going to win lots of seats in the UK election.'

Farage is OK, but he has weaknesses, he is nowhere near as fearless as Trump, he couldn't get a grip of his party and sack all the Establishment stooges and plotters placed in his party by the elite to deliberately undermine him. He hasn't got what it takes, he doesn't want to go all the way.

Trump, on the other hand, is like nothing the world has seen before.Trump is like the legendary Ross Perot. But Perot pulled out of the race and many analysts say it was due to threats made against his family by factions of the elites. They asked Roger Stone, Trump's former aide, "will Trump let us down, will he fold, will he pull out at the end?", but Stone said, "Trump is going nowhere, he won't fold, he is in it to the end, he is going all the way" and that is what scares the bejeezus out of the elites and their cadres of paid-for puppets.

Love your posts claig - & agree with everything you say.

Thanks, SurferJet.

It's all about the people against the uncaring, fat cat elites, who work for the Establishment and not for us. Trump is the hope for people across the world, that the elites can be beaten and that the people can win again, that the lies and spin will end. The media, the money, the Oxbridge teenagers and Harvard gurus are all lined up against Trump, desperately trying to stop him, but although they have all the money and all the spin, they don't have the people, and we are going to win.

The Labour Party has an 'elite' who said, at the outset that Corbyn couldn't win. Then those pesky ordinary people didn't come to their senses.

Now, I have no idea where the tipping point would lie the various rounds that lead towards the eventual Presidential election. But I don't rule out the possibility that there is one.

Tired of the establishment that got them in to one mess after another? More of a theme than we realise, what with Bush family associated with warmongering, and Clinton directly responsible for US response to the Arab Spring that turned out so badly, someone who just goes for isolationism is bound to appeal.

meditrina, you are right, it is the same phenomenon that we are witnessing all over the world.

Remember how here, Tory politicians and Lib Dems said that "we hear you", "we've got the message" and that politicians don't speak the language of the people when UKIP shocked them all by winning the Euro elections? The same divorce between the public and the politicians is happening all over the world because the political class everywhere works for elites rather than the people.

But Farage and Corbyn are disappointments because neither of them are strong enough to defeat their own Establishment plotters in ther own parties, neither of them has got what it takes to beat the elites and fulfil their promise to the people.

It is not easy to defeat the elite, they have all the money, all the power, all the media and all the networks and think tanks.

Bernie Sanders can't beat that lot, they will bring him down. But there is one man who can beat them - billionaire Trump - who is so politically incorrect that nothing they say can scare him. He is their pantomime villain, and the people will have the last laugh.

"EXCLUSIVE: Newt Gingrich: ‘The Country Is in Rebellion,’ Trump Can ‘Kick Down the Doors’

Newt Gingrich told Breitbart News that the country is in rebellion against the coastal power centers and that Donald Trump might be the candidate who can “kick down the doors” of the establishment.

Former House speaker Gingrich weighed in on Trump’s rise.

“I think he represents a different era” in the same conservative movement, Gingrich said. “The system has become so incompetent and outrageously bureaucratic. The centers of power are so, so in New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, that the whole rest of the country is in rebellion. And people are looking for somebody who can kick down the doors.”

“It’s a very deep, very real movement,” he said."

www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/12/11/exclusive-newt-gingrich-country-rebellion-trump-can-kick-doors/

We live in amazing times. The BBC asked "is Trump unstoppable?". They hope he is, but millions hope he isn't.

Sorry, the BBC hope Trump can be stopped, but the people hope he can't be stopped.

The problem with Trump is he is questioning the use of fear to control people and their decision making processes. Fear is an incredibly powerful tool that UK and US governments are too keen to use because it makes life easy for them to do what they want. He is saying there is another better way. The establishment doesn't like this.

Do I want trump to win? Nope
Do I want to be controlled by fear? Nope
Do I think things will change if Trump doesn't get in? Nope
Am I sick of the current situation? yep
Do I think that there is hope for the future? Nope

...because he will end political correctness and spread wealth, business and freedom.

What on earth does "end political correctness" mean exactly?

As for freedom, that's plainly bollocks; he doesn't plan on much freedom for Muslims does he?

Remember this is a man who took his inheritance and squandered it repeatedly - The Washington Post worked out that if he'd taken his inheritance and invested it when he was 32, he'd be twice as rich as he is now - instead he's been dicking around and is inexplicably feted as some sort of business genius; he isn't, he's average at best.

I'd also like politicians to make clear and reasoned decisions and take action only where the is a plan that has clearly laid out goals and route to achieve them, not the knee jerk nonsense that is currently going on that makes things worse because it is not thought through to the long term end game.
Don't think that will change either.

I see today Trump has had the audacity to criticise the Saudi Royal who had a go at him for using "Daddy's Money" - the irony.

'Do I think things will change if Trump doesn't get in? Nope
Am I sick of the current situation? yep
Do I think that there is hope for the future? Nope'

But that is what they want you to feel, that everything is hopeless that nothing can ever change that they will take care of business for us and tell us how it will be. Aerosmith and all the rest of them stopped Trump using any of their songs for his campaign. They are all against Trump. Trump phoned up a singer he knows from Celebrity Aprrentice and asked him if he could use his song for his campaign. The singer doesn't support Trump politically, but likes Trump personally and he had teh courage to go against the elite's wishes and say yes you can use my song and play it to the people. The song sums Trump and the people up, it's called "We're not gonna take it"

Trump will change things. He is not taking all this abuse from the elites for nothing. People don't queue up at his speeches for nothing.

"Trump supporters' second choice? Trump

As they waited in line at the Iowa State Fairgrounds here on a chilly Friday evening, Donald Trump's supporters made it clear they weren't going anywhere -- literally and figuratively.

Sean Hadley, 47, and Sandy Hadley, 54, drove three and a half hours from their Lawrence, Kansas, home Friday and arrived outside the Varied Industries Building on the fairgrounds, waiting from 9:30 a.m. until the doors opened.

And who else would they vote for if Trump dropped his White House bid?

"There aren't any," Sean Hadley said. His wife, Sandy, quickly chimed in: "He's our guy."

"There isn't anybody else. Everybody else is bought and paid for, no matter what party," said Sean Hadley, a safety professional and veteran who enrolled in the Navy reserves after 9/11."

edition.cnn.com/2015/12/11/politics/donald-trump-iowa-voters/index.html

They are all bought and paid for, but no amount of money in the world can beat the hopes and dreams of the people.

'What on earth does "end political correctness" mean exactly?'

It means restoring liberty, restoring freedom of speech, restoring commonsense. Their control mechanism is over, they can't bully Trump, they can't bully the American people, they can't bully the world anymore. It's over.

And how can you tell that it's all over?

"Donald Trump vs the world's leaders"

[[http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/11/politics/donald-trump-world-allies-turn-on-candidate/[[

Trump vs the world's puppets, blowing in the wind like scarecrows who have been unmasked and lost their respect.

And here is the final way you know that Trump will win

"Saudi Prince Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Calls Trump a Disgrace"

www.nbcnews.com/news/world/saudi-prince-prince-alwaleed-bin-talal-calls-trump-disgrace-n478926

Will Trump kowtow like the world's puppets? Will the American people kowtow? I don't think so. That is why it is over.

It means restoring liberty,

By banning Muslims - not very libertarian.

restoring freedom of speech

Where's it gone - he's free to say whatever he likes and he's exercising that right - as I'm sure you know, it's a constitutional right in the USA, fiercely defended.

restoring commonsense[sic]

What?

Their control mechanism is over, they can't bully Trump, they can't bully the American people, they can't bully the world anymore. It's over.

Why - you can't bully a bully?