CounterCurrent — Donald Trump Says Muslims Should Be Forced To Wear ‘Special ID Badges’

Republican presidential candidate and frontrunner Donald Trump has just crossed the line from his usual rhetoric into full blown Nazism.

Hey, it worked for the Nazis.

CounterCurrent
Donald Trump Says Muslims Should Be Forced To Wear ‘Special ID Badges’

M. David; Reagan Ali and Abu Hussein

Think Progress
Trump’s Idea To Shut Down Mosques Is Really Popular With Republicans

Kay Steiger

Notice that Trump is being specific in his proposals in comparison with the other GOP candidates.

Glenn Greenwald — The Anti-Muslim Controversies of the Last Week, Reimagined

Parody replacing "Muslims" with "Jews" in recent political grandstanding.

Actually, this not new and not anywhere as bad as it has been in the past. See the anti-Catholic (Anti-Papist) furor in the campaigns of Al Smith and later JFK, for instance, or the red-baiting accusing anyone who was not hard right of being pink if not red and calling for ostracizing them. 

It's gutter interest politics that works on a pretty large group of Americans, or it would never surface in political discourse. Interestingly Ben Carson is now trending after his anti-Muslim remarks.

The question is whether this appeal can rise above about 30% of the GOP and GOP-leaning voter pool, where Trump seems to be stuck. 30% isn't going to carry the day. Now he is competing with Carson for that segment.

Dismal.

To his credit, Ted Cruz came out and said that Carson's view about not allowing a Muslim president was unconstitutional. But so fare the GOP celebrities have been silent on the Muslim-bashing, apparently in deference to the base.

The Intercept
The Anti-Muslim Controversies of the Last Week, Reimagined
Glenn Greenwald

Good riddance! Scott Walker, sadistic twerp lapdog of the Koch Brothers drops out of the 2016 presidential race!

Good riddance to this sadistic lap dog of the Koch Brothers. (And wannabe "Koch-ite," Anthony, "I'm a five-foot-two big shot" Scaramucci. Good call, mooch!)

Walker can go back to Wisconsin and continue his bully reign against the working class now. Jerk.

Scott Adams — Political Reporters Cover a Business Candidate

The presidential campaign is being covered by political reporters, for the most part. That makes perfect sense because the subjects of the reporting are mostly politicians.

But Donald Trump is a business person. If you apply a political filter to a business person, you get nonsense. Likewise, if you have a goal-oriented view of the world, as politicians typically do, a business person with a “systems” approach would appear crazy.

That brings me to Trump’s newly-published immigration policy. For our purposes here, you don’t need to know the details. All you need to know is that it sounds totally impractical and draconian.

If you apply a political filter to his proposal, it is pure nonsense mixed with evil and flavored with crazy. That’s how the media is reporting it all over the Internet. Just like Trump planned.

If Trump were a goal-oriented thinker, or even a real politician, the reporters would be interpreting this situation correctly. They would report that Trump’s plan is ridiculously impractical and even inhumane. And they would be right.

But reset your filter for a minute. Remember that Trump is a business person who promises to bring a deal-maker to the job of President. Now look at his crazy plan again but use your business filter this time.…

Scott Adams Blog
Political Reporters Cover a Business Candidate
Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert

Thom Hartmann — Why Surprising Numbers of Republicans Have Been Voting for Bernie Sanders in Vermont

Why is Bernie Sanders, a socialist, so popular with people who should hate "socialism?"

The answer is pretty simple.

While Americans disagree on social issues like gay marriage and abortion, they're actually pretty unified on the bread and butter economic issues that Bernie has made the core of his campaign.

In fact, a recent poll by the Progressive Change Institute, shows that Americans overwhelmingly agree with Bernie on key issues like education, health care and the economy.

Like Bernie, 75 percent of Americans poll support fair trade that "protects workers, the environment and jobs."

Seventy-one percent support giving all students access to a debt-free college education.

Seventy-one percent support a massive infrastructure spending program aimed at rebuilding our broken roads and bridges, and putting people back to work.

Seventy percent support expanding Social Security.

Fifty-nine percent support raising taxes on the wealthy so that millionaires pay the same amount in taxes as they did during the Reagan administration.

Fifty-eight percent support breaking up the big banks.

Fifty-five percent support a financial transaction or Robin Hood tax.

Fifty-one percent support single payer health care, and so and so on.

Populism is popular. Who knew?

AlterNet
Why Surprising Numbers of Republicans Have Been Voting for Bernie Sanders in Vermont
Thom Hartmann

Brad DeLong — Must-Must-Must Read: Lee Drutman at Vox on the Shape of the Electorate

There is more value added about the 2016 election in this one Lee Drutman Vox article than in everything published by the WaPo and the NYT national news staffs so far this year!…

Populism is rising with Trump and Sanders benefiting.

Grasping Reality
Must-Must-Must Read: Lee Drutman at Vox on the Shape of the Electorate
Brad DeLong | Professor of Economics, UCAL Berkeley

Zaid Jilani — Bernie Sanders Campaign Calls Out Hillary's College Plan: 'Disappointment'

The difference between the two plans seems to be the difference between Sanders' democratic socialist worldview and Clinton's neoliberal one. For Sanders, college is a right, just like K-12 education, or police and fire services. You will get it, fully subsidized, because it is an essential. For the Clinton campaign, college is still a privilege, something you have to pay for and work for, even while you are a student. It's a consumer good. The competing plans are a microcosm of the two candidates' approach to policy.

AlterNet
Bernie Sanders Campaign Calls Out Hillary's College Plan: 'Disappointment'

Zaid Jilani

Pavlina Tcherneva — Why Bernie Sanders Should Add a Job Guarantee to His Policy Agenda

I assume that Stephanie will pass this along to Bernie.

New Economic Perspectives
Why Bernie Sanders Should Add a Job Guarantee to His Policy Agenda

Pavlina Tcherneva | Assistant Professor of Economics at Bard College, Research Scholar at The Levy Economics Institute, and Senior Research Associate at the Center for Full Employment and Price Stability

Brian Murphy — Meet ALEC's (Hoped For) Man in Washington: Scott Walker

It’s a mistake, therefore, to think of ALEC primarily in terms of its documented association with Charles and David Koch. Rather, it’s an organization that facilitates intimate and discreet lobbying opportunities where donors have access to a self-selecting set of willing accomplices drawn from the nation’s fifty state legislatures. Those lawmakers are often pampered on donors’ dimes at the organization’s gatherings. And all of it is tax deductible for the companies because ALEC turns what would ordinarily be lobbying expenses into ‘scholarships’ for state lawmakers to further their educations. So if you’ve ever wondered why voter ID laws, so-called ‘right to work’ laws, attacks on private and public sector unions, attacks on clean air standards and sustainable energy, pro-charter school bills, attacks on college accreditation and teacher certification, laws proposing to centralize rulemaking on energy, pollution, power plants, state pension investments, tort reform, or food labeling seem to pop up in different state capitals seemingly simultaneously, with the identical legalese backed by the same talking points and even the same expert witnesses, ALEC is often the reason.

And now, heading into 2016, one of the group’s most high profile alumni is Scott Walker. It’s possible that no American politician who holds office today has worked harder to successfully advance ALEC’s agenda than Walker. And no previous candidate for the White House has ever owed so much to ALEC at the outset of his campaign.….

If Walker is elected, it won't be Scott Walker that's really POTUS, but rather Alec Walker.

TPM
Meet ALEC's (Hoped For) Man in Washington: Scott Walker

Brian Murphy

Murtaza Hussain — Scott Walker Foreign Policy Guru Called for Nuking Muslim Countries, Mass Deportations

At an event earlier this month to formally launch his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker cited a man in the crowd named Kevin Hermening as a formative influence on his foreign policy thinking. Hermening, a former U.S. Marine who was held hostage during the 1979 Iranian revolution, is a longtime friend of Walker, and has been described in press reports as “the face of Walker’s foreign policy.” The governor has repeatedly cited Hermening as a major influence on his worldview, including his opposition to the Obama administration’s recent nuclear deal with Iran.

But Walker’s choice of Hermening as a foreign policy counselor raises serious questions about Walker’s understanding of the issues. Hermening has publicly advocated conducting nuclear strikes against the capital cities of Muslim-majority countries, as well as the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, particularly those of “Middle Eastern descent” from the United States.

In 2001, Hermening wrote an op-ed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel calling for a response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks that would include “the destruction of the capitals of Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan and Yemen,” unless the governments of those countries unequivocally agreed to help kill Osama bin Laden. “Every military response must be considered, including the use of nuclear weapons,” he wrote. In his commentary Hermening also called upon the United States to erect security fences “along the entire perimeter of the United States,” as well as deport “every illegal alien and immigrant, with a focus on removing those of Middle Eastern descent.” ….

Walker responded to Bice’s column on Monday. “I’ll speak for myself,” he told the Journal Sentinel. “My policy is very clear, and it’s not aligned with what he said in that particular column.” Walker told the newspaper that he does not consider Hermening an adviser, even though his campaign has featured him prominently. Walker’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment from The Intercept.…

The Intercept
Scott Walker Foreign Policy Guru Called for Nuking Muslim Countries, Mass Deportations
Murtaza Hussain

Jonathan Allen — Bernie Sanders's ideas are so popular that Hillary Clinton is running on them

Overton window shifting left?
Vox
Bernie Sanders's ideas are so popular that Hillary Clinton is running on them

Jonathan Allen

And populism may "in".

Can Ted Cruz's hawkish populism actually win?

Zack Beauchamp

Josh Kraushaar and Alex Roarty — GOP Poll: Foreign Policy, Not Economy, Voters’ Top Concern

Republican strategists believe a growing body of evidence suggests that national security could play a pivotal role in the next election. 

Fear factor increasing as terrorism is perceived to be rising and the world becomes less stable.

National Journal
GOP Poll: Foreign Policy, Not Economy, Voters’ Top Concern
Josh Kraushaar and Alex Roarty