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    JVBaseballSuperstarGabrielle Bluestone
    12/07/15 4:46pm

    I just had to explain to a pro-Trump coworker how, since he’s not president, this is pretty much meaningless.

    I’m not even sure if the president has the ability to keep a specific religion out of our country, or if it’s even constitutional. I’m guessing no on both.

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      WhippingPostJVBaseballSuperstar
      12/07/15 4:48pm

      98% of Trump’s platform seems unconstitutional.

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      burnedoneanddoneJVBaseballSuperstar
      12/07/15 4:49pm

      Not to be snarky towards you, but the First Amendment basically makes something like this unconstituional. Not that the bigots care.

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    Gary-XGabrielle Bluestone
    12/07/15 4:44pm

    Maybe this will finally kill his campaign?

    Ah, hell, who knows.

    I really want to be a fly on the wall of some GOP leadership meetings after this.

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      HiMyNameIsJayAgainGary-X
      12/07/15 4:46pm

      Maybe this will finally kill his campaign?

      It’s kinda sad, to be honest.

      I kinda hoped he would win the Republican nomination.

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      lunchcomaGary-X
      12/07/15 4:46pm

      Nah. The person who thinks a wall on the Southern US border is a good immigration proposal wonders why Trump didn’t think of this before now.

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    caekislove-caekingitupGabrielle Bluestone
    12/07/15 4:43pm

    So, how does this work? How do we prevent ISIS or whoever from just lying and claiming to be Christian or something? Please tell me it involves free ham at customs!!

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      Beet Arthurcaekislove-caekingitup
      12/07/15 4:46pm

      Also a good way to keep out the vegans!

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      Xyzzycaekislove-caekingitup
      12/07/15 4:49pm

      Didn't Jeb tell us that you can just tell?

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    99Telep☺dpr☹blemsGabrielle Bluestone
    12/07/15 4:45pm
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      jokepitch99Telep☺dpr☹blems
      12/07/15 4:54pm

      With this image, anything left of me that was pure and innocent has died.

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      Ian99Telep☺dpr☹blems
      12/07/15 4:57pm

      How grotesque...

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    ARP2Gabrielle Bluestone
    12/07/15 4:49pm

    I work for a global tech company, where a number of our employees are muslim. Are they simply not going to be allowed to come to the US for meetings or work? If so, I’m sure the other tech companies would be totally fine with that.

    But hey, it sounds good to angry retirees.

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      skefflesARP2
      12/07/15 4:53pm

      Probably sounds good with a lot of younger millennials too, less competition for jobs stateside if they are deceived into thinking that this means less outsourcing and less importing of labor. Of course it doesn’t work like that, but they won’t know that yet.

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      FrederickDouglassskeffles
      12/07/15 5:00pm

      We can only hope this type of dog whistle bullshit doesn’t have the same kind of pull on the Millennials as it does the Baby Boomers.

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    ArnheimGabrielle Bluestone
    12/07/15 4:55pm

    Here’s my thing: Religious extremism is religious extremism, regardless of which -ism fomented that extremism.

    The Christians have the Crusades (and Fundamentalist Christians have their current actions; I teach in the American South—let it be known that telling folks the Bible is not “a viable source for papers in a rhetoric course” is evidently invitation for a firestorm of complaint).

    Islam has many current high-profile (though far from all) acts of modern terrorism.

    The Jews have—my historical illiteracy is showing here: have the Jews committed a serious atrocity (I’m a Deist, for reference, so I haven’t a dog in this fight)? I’d appreciate education from reliable sources here.

    Most major religions have produced fundamentalist splinter groups that have done batshit stuff in the name of the faith.

    That is not—and cannot—be an indictment of the faith as a whole. People do stupid shit in the name of belief systems, theistic or otherwise, all the fucking time. We cannot deny the whole as a response to the affront of a small part of that whole.

    We just can’t.

    Or, if we can, I’d like to see every Christian thrown out of Massachusetts. Those witch trials, y’know?

    TL;DR: Part for whole thinking sucks for a good reason—and we’ve seen the impact of the politics of fear on too many nations in the past. Must we revisit the lessons of seven decades past to learn the outcome of the day?

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      BusySeasonBluesArnheim
      12/07/15 5:07pm

      Do people who bring up the Crusades not realize that it was mostly because of the Islamic invasion of Europe? You do know that they were finally pushed out of Europe after the battle of Vienna in the late 17th century, yes?

      It’s almost like, most commentators here would have rather the Europeans lose the Crusades and thus Europe.

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      Daniel al-JaʿfarīArnheim
      12/07/15 5:10pm

      Here’s my thing: Religious extremism is religious extremism, regardless of which -ism fomented that extremism.

      Yes and no. The thing is, a lot of useful data suggests that most religious extremism (and here I mean violent religious extremism, specifically) is simply secular/political grievances dressed up in religious verbiage + violence. When it comes to, say, ISIS, I have seen reasonable arguments on both sides of that, which I think can be more or less reconciled this way: Individuals who join are often irreligious or not especially devout and have political grievances, while at an organizational level, there is more undiluted violent religious ideology.

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    lobstrGabrielle Bluestone
    12/07/15 4:54pm

    My wife and I have a little running bet: After the whole McCain is a pussy loser for being captured bit, I was certain he was done for #becauseVeterans, but nope, there he was, to everyone’s shock, fucking rising in the polls! — and this after the Mexicans bringing drugs comment, the Univision backlash, Macy’s pulling his crap off the shelves, and all the mean-spirited unpresidential trolling, all the stupid shit he’s said, bad uninformed answers to interview questions, etc, etc, etc, it goes on forever.

    And so, I believe he could be the only person on this planet who could actually get away with publicly saying the N-word in a speech (I love the *n-word*s... and the *n-words* love me!) and all the dumbfucks will applaud him for speaking his mind and “saying what they’ve been wanting to say!”, and it wouldn’t affect him in the slightest — in fact, his polls would probably rise even more. My wife disagrees and thinks that’s where people would finally draw the line. It’s coming, folks.

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      RandomGuySomewherelobstr
      12/07/15 4:59pm

      I’m sure your wife is a lovely woman. But holy shit, she could not be any more wrong. I hope you wagered something good.

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      Ianlobstr
      12/07/15 5:00pm

      “I’m tired of political correctedness!!! I’m glad he said...that word.”

      I totally agree. I’m sick of people who say that.

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    gilbertkittensGabrielle Bluestone
    12/07/15 4:55pm

    The only real question left is: how does the Republican party go back to just being pro-free-markets after they’ve gone full crypto-fascist?

    I know that, historically, parties swing back and forth, but, even given the existence of Dixie-crats and all they stood for as compared to the modern Democratic party, how does a party go so fully crazy and anti-American without staying that way permanently?

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      Ballastgilbertkittens
      12/07/15 4:57pm

      Hate to break it to you, but both major parties in the US are pro-Free* Market.

      *- “American-controlled”

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      GoLikeHellMachinegilbertkittens
      12/07/15 5:01pm

      It depends on whether or not they win, and by how much. If they get completely crushed (and give up Senate seats) even big donors are going to start demanding that heads roll within the GOP. This is really one of the last Presidential* elections they can win; demographics are simply getting too far away from them.

      Now, it’s important to remember that they can still win state elections and off-year elections in droves, because Democrats either don’t go to the polls, or can’t get registered.

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    ArkGabrielle Bluestone
    12/07/15 4:49pm

    Wow. He literally, factually, is a goddamn fascist.

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      CryptidArk
      12/07/15 5:06pm

      That’s the thing. I used to feel slightly embarrassed at calling Donald Trump things like “Nazi troll doll,” but he is stirring resentment and thriving on fear so nakedly that all of the usual lefty hyperbole sounds dry and neutral. He is making no bones of his racism and xenophobia and distrust of the educated middle-class.

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      Dirty FoolArk
      12/07/15 5:16pm

      Every time he starts spouting shit like this I can’t help but think: isn’t this how Hitler started and rose to power? WTF.

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    Quantum SuicideGabrielle Bluestone
    12/07/15 4:44pm

    He’s such a dick.

    At this point, it just doesn't feel like there's anything else to say about him really.

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      BulfrightQuantum Suicide
      12/07/15 4:58pm

      All Trump shirts should come in this color and only this color.

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      Quantum SuicideBulfright
      12/07/15 7:08pm

      Brown’s too good a color for his merch.

      He should just have his supporters smear themselves in human feces and then draw an outline of “Trump” on their chests.

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