The Trump phenomenon

Paladin1 wrote:

That said Trump makes an excellent point about the professional instigators of which we've seen at G8/G20, IdleNoMore protests and various blockades.

Unless you mean the police and their agent provocateurs I have no idea what you mean by "professional."  Who do you think is footing the bill to pay people to go into the streets and protest? 

"Trump makes and excellent point" is an oxymoron.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/03/11/who-the-hell-is-supporting-donald...

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/03/13/upshot/the-geography-of-trumpism.ht...

mother nature reacting to Trump winning the Louisiana primary?

CrossTalk: Trump vs Neocons

https://youtu.be/6kzcz_amy6s

"On this edition of CrossTalk we have a look at who really supports the Party of War."

Paladin1 wrote:

That said Trump makes an excellent point about the professional instigators of which we've seen at G8/G20, IdleNoMore protests and various blockades.

Kropotkin1951 wrote:

Unless you mean the police and their agent provocateurs I have no idea what you mean by "professional."  Who do you think is footing the bill to pay people to go into the streets and protest? 

Paladin1 wrote:

Police and their agent provocateurs are professionals for sure (I should have mentioned that in my post). While all protestors are obviously not paid there are however examples and stories of professional protestors.   Examples come from the G8/G20, INM and blockades etc.. where the same people repeatedly show up consistantly from one side of the country to the other. If you're genuinely curious/interested I'll spend some time and get examples and references for you Kroptkin.

I have heard this line in BC from every right wing politician we have. You don't need to give me examples. It is a nasty statement meant to marginalize and frankly is an insult to protestors.  You are using this site to promote right wing agendas when you adapt their insults.

I have gone to protests in numerous cites and often have traveled to assert my right to protest. You I gather have never protested anything except maybe protestors.

Obama on Trump's popularity.

Quote:

“What is happening in this primary is just a distillation of what’s been happening inside their party for more than a decade. I mean, the reason that many of their voters are responding is because this is what’s been fed through the messages they’ve been sending for a long time — that you just make flat assertions that don’t comport with the facts. That you just deny the evidence of science. That compromise is a betrayal. That the other side isn’t simply wrong, or we just disagree, we want to take a different approach, but the other side is destroying the country, or treasonous. I mean, that’s — look it up. That’s what they’ve been saying.”

What I fear comes next is Trump having thugs in matching outfits patrolling his rallies, especially in open carry states.

kropotkin1951 wrote:

....

I have heard this line [professional protesters] in BC from every right wing politician we have. You don't need to give me examples. It is a nasty statement meant to marginalize and frankly is an insult to protestors.  You are using this site to promote right wing agendas when you adapt their insults.

Correct.

But if there were "professional" provocateurs  (ie.  involving sophisticated strategists  planting violent provocateurs to link Trump with the FUD of chaos) you'd have to look at who would benefit.

It would be neither the Clinton nor Sanders camps, both of which would do best against the T-Rumpasaurus rather than the  more establishment clutch of GOP sociopathic candidates whom the establishment media could endorse.

There is a real fear loose cannon Trump could sink the GOP.  Large numbers of the  vilest GOP neocon warmongers are already lining up for the vile Hillary. Additionally the multi-trillion dollar "defense" industry--and the financial industry-- do not want the uncertain risk of a unpredictable Trump.

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This is essentially a hoax. You're now going to see these phony demonstrators, these ringers, showing up at other Trump events.

Presumably "ringers" is just a shorter and less objectionable term for "professional protesters".

But in an "Occam-esque" sort of way, when someone refers to "professional protesters" or "paid shills" or whatever, I immediately wonder whether there might be some who would do the same work for free.  Because who would be stupid enough to pay people to do something that others would do -- and maybe even WANT to do -- for nothing?

Politics is a blood-sport now.  Your party isn't just a group of candidates who represent what you believe, it's a cause unto itself.  So yes, you probably will see these "ringers" again, because until they're dead on the battlefield, they still have a duty to that cause.

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Usually these 'ringers' or 'provocateurs' are police.

I don't really think they're on anyone's payroll.  To whatever degree they even exist, I think they're individuals who've wound themselves up.

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The man acts like El Duce

The Mexican wrestler?

Actually, there was an El Duce.  But trust me, you don't want to Google it.

OK.  But if you believe that the protesters might be nothing more than paid state agents, then the left surely shouldn't support them, or their actions, yes?

From the link in #34:

Quote:

The effort to shut down Trump’s rally was prompted by anger that the New York billionaire would seek to bring his campaign to the college, which has a very diverse student body. As Alex Seitz-Wald detailed in a report for NBC News, a number of student organizations decided at a meeting last Monday to organize a protest. “He’s marginalized and dehumanized a lot of different groups, and they all come together,” Juan Rosas, one of the student organizers, told Seitz-Wald. After a student posted a petition on MoveOn.org, outside groups and activists also got involved. “Everyone, get your tickets to this. We’re all going in!!!! ‪#‎SHUTITDOWN,” Ja’Mal Green, a Chicago activist and singer who has been helping to organize protests against the city’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel, wrote on his Facebook page.

From the point of view of the protest’s organizers, Trump’s decision to call off the rally was a great success. And it is likely to encourage similar efforts in other cities. “Remember the #TrumpRally wasn’t just luck,” People for Bernie, a group of activists that supports Bernie Sanders’s Presidential campaign (but isn’t formally associated with it), tweeted shortly after the Chicago event was cancelled. “It took organizers from dozens of organizations and thousands of people to pull off. Great work.”

Why would any bona fide progressives want to do exactly the same thing as -- and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with -- some paid cops??

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Alan is correct about the media being somewhat to blame for blindly showing Birther Trump's antics without the essential criticism required to put a halt to this nonsense.

What constitutes this "essential" criticism of Trump's silliness?

If some crank-with-a-microphone claims that Sanders was actually born in Sri Lanka, is the media obliged to debunk this, or can they just say "Crank-with-a-microphone Claims Sanders Born In Sri-Lanka"?

And really, it's not like the media could even debunk it.

Birthers: "OF COURSE the media would say that!  They know who to tug the forelock to!!!!"