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The Internet Censorship Communications Government Republicans Security United States Politics

Donald Trump: America Should Consider "Closing the Internet Up In Some Way" (dailydot.com) 735

Patrick O'Neill writes: Hours after Donald Trump suggested the U.S. ban Muslims from entering the United States, the leading Republican presidential candidate said America should also consider "closing the Internet up in some way" to fight Islamic State terrorists in cyberspace. Trump mocked anyone who would object that his plan might violate the freedom of speech, saying "these are foolish people, we have a lot of foolish people ... We have to go see Bill Gates," Trump said, to better understand the Internet and then possibly "close it up."
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Donald Trump: America Should Consider "Closing the Internet Up In Some Way"

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  • Oh the Irony..... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by beheaderaswp ( 549877 ) * on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @08:17AM (#51079899)

    Ironic isn't it that Trump wants to kill the very instrument that would be most effective in de-radicalizing people?

    Free speech and free flow of information does more good than harm. Seems counter intuitive to lock violent radicals out of the very information that could change their minds, educate the ignorant, and carry a non violent message.

    Sure terrorists use the Internet to recruit. But how many people did not join up because of information on the Internet?

    Are we really so scared that we will turn proto-fascist?

    • by Hognoxious ( 631665 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @08:26AM (#51079993) Homepage Journal

      No, no, no. See, it's not fascist if you only do it to bad people.

      I wonder who nutty old Uncle Don will go for next?

      • Re:Oh the Irony..... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by cayenne8 ( 626475 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @12:28PM (#51081991) Homepage Journal

        I wonder who nutty old Uncle Don will go for next?

        You know, I have a theory.

        I think Donald came into this thing, as a lark...running for president would get him a lot of attention and when he dropped out after a good showing, he's have more demand for him thereafter on news, etc.

        I think, this long term support as nominee has surprised even HIM...who likely didn't want to really be president, just to run and get some "credit"....

        I think with his marks in the polls, it is scaring even HIM that he could get the nomination, and therefore...is amping up the "crazy" to be able to get out of being nominated, yet still never have to voluntarily drop out, etc.

        I think theres a possibility he got into this never meaning to win...and is maybe scared shitless he might really do it...?

    • by davide marney ( 231845 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @08:28AM (#51080001) Journal

      Cut to the chase, Trump supporters. Upstream of using the Internet is thinking. Thinking leads to bad thoughts, and bad thoughts lead to bad acts. Our only hope now is to outlaw thinking. Do it now! For the children ...

    • by fuzzyfuzzyfungus ( 1223518 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @08:33AM (#51080029) Journal
      There's also the fairly obvious (though unlikely to be heard on your local talking heads cable show) problem that adopting a variety of blatantly illiberal 'security' measures that trample all over the alleged virtues of 'the west' and 'the free world' is a really, really good way to help convince anyone who thinks that we are decadent, corrupt, hypocritical, and more hype than substance that they are absolutely right.

      Even if we were doing a 100% perfect job of upholding our noblest values, we can't expect to win them all; some people actively dislike the best aspects of our civilization; so they will be a tough crowd. For the people who agree that we've got a noble theory; but can only laugh bitterly at the 'liberty and justice for all' part because...price and participation may vary...the further we go into overtly illiberal tactics, the more reasonable their conviction that we are long on talk and short on substance.

      Even if we were willing to sacrifice our own freedoms for the alleged benefits, which we shouldn't be; it's not clear how 'liberal democracy' wins the war of ideas by turning to fascism as soon as it starts to get nervous.
    • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @08:38AM (#51080071)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • by beheaderaswp ( 549877 ) * on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @08:47AM (#51080135)

        And yet you have those rights, which you are apparently willing to die for, because of idealists.

        The irony club has beaten you like a baby seal.

        Because you cannot beat Trump and maintain our standing in the world (what's left of it) by folding on basic rights, in the face of maniacs.

      • by DarkOx ( 621550 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @09:14AM (#51080357) Journal

        I absolutely do not support Trump's proposal, but guys like you are precisely the sort of idealists that he will steamroll over without any effort in the public spotlight. Everyone else out there can see that as a matter of fact, the Internet enables terrorist recruitment probably 10x better than broadcast media did in the 60s to late 80s/early 90s.

        The way I talk about the Internet is the way most gun rights activists talk about guns. I care more about freedom than security. "If it saves one life" is not an argument to me. I'd rather lose lives in the name of freedom than save lives in the name of security.

        In this case Trump might be right. I know I am going to get flamed into oblivion for saying so but you have to consider the alternatives. The lone wolf threat is probably the most impossible one we face. The talking heads and G-men have been quick to argue there was little or no communication with ISIS. That is not really true though it ignores the fact the one-way communication is still communication. Its also the hardest to cope with because even if we can known who has heard or seen what, in America we don't punish people for listening to things.

        I see three options here:

        1) Do nothing, This would be best but politically will be impossible after another attack or two.

        2) EFF's nightmare, we start monitoring and logging just about everything that happens on the Internet, no more anonymity, broken encryption and systems with backdoors. Government thought police to knock on your physical door when you post the wrong kind of comment. All of this being ineffective to boot as criminals and terrorists will find ways to use side channels, steganography, and other methods to pass information around the Internet anyway. Innovation stifled as 'legitimate' applications can't be used until the government has facility to manage and monitor them.

        3) Cut the cord, Great Firewall of America. We stop routing traffic to and from unfriendly parts of the world. For this work we have be willing to cast a broad net. You can't say lets cut off Afghanistan and Syria but let Pakistan and Iraq stay connected. After all the boarders weak and ISIS/Taliban/What have you will use the coffee shot the next town over if that is what they have to do. We would need to consider cutting off 'allies' (I use the term loosely) like Turkey and Saudi Arabia in regions know to be terror hot beds as well unless they are prepared to police things somewhat like option (2) although that is more practical in their societies.

        I don't like option 3, but its a hell of a lot better than option 2. Politically speaking we are going to get (2) if we don't support something 'crazy' like (3). That is the current political reality. We build the Internet if proves to be to dangerous or we are to afraid to allow just anyone to use it however they like, than I say lets keep it for ourselves and for western society and culture rather than destroying it for ourselves, in the name of it being a small world or something.

        • by Oxygen99 ( 634999 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @09:27AM (#51080469)
          4) Accept that living in a free society with free ideas means that some people are going to get the hump and shoot up the place from time to time. You can't legislate against nutjobs with guns. What you can do, perhaps, is to both win the ideological argument and make it harder for said nutjobs to get guns.
          • by DarkOx ( 621550 )

            I think my number (1) pretty well covers (4). Do nothing is the 'right thing to do' but politically its not going happen. If you stop people like Trump and Cruz from solving the problem in their lousy but not all together bad for you and I way, you will get Hilliary, Jeb, or Marco doing something that will be a whole lot more shitty.

            It will be like when Jesse Ventura got elected in MN. Trump will probably tackle ISIS and have some success even if you don't approve of his methods. The rest of his time wi

            • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

              "Trump will probably tackle ISIS and have some success even if you don't approve of his methods" Well any intelligence I might have thought you held just evaporated. How exactly is mildly retarded Trump going to tackle ANYTHING? What experience does he have? oh, just go get a small loan of a million dollars from friends. Sure, that qualifies you to tackle a global alliance of terrorists being funded directly and indirectly by the 3 largest and most sophisticated armed forces on earth. He's a clown, he
              • by DarkOx ( 621550 )

                Its like Curz said the other day "I'll direct the pentagon to destroy ISIS"

                Guess what that would probably work and I would expect Trump would say something similar. It would probably work. Our Generals don't get where they are in our armed forces by not being effective. If a president told them "eliminate ISIS, I really don't care how and I'll back you" they could probably get it done.

                Most presidents don't have the will do the politically unpopular things they would likely want to do. That isn't necessa

              • Hear Hear!!!

                I'm pretty conservative, and lean republican, but I've frequently voted against republicans who rubs me the wrong way... with Trump I don't know where to begin. He is an embarrassment to Republicans, to politicians, and even to human beings. Every time he speaks he offends me, and I will vote for ANYBODY who runs against him. A president needs to have strength, poise, and compassion. Trump only aspires to one of those things and he is failing miserably at it.

            • I think my number (1) pretty well covers (4). Do nothing is the 'right thing to do' but politically its not going happen. If you stop people like Trump and Cruz from solving the problem in their lousy but not all together bad for you and I way, you will get Hilliary, Jeb, or Marco doing something that will be a whole lot more shitty.

              "Politically" the "do nothing" may seem impossible, but "realistically" it probably will. Candidates say a lot of shit on the road to get their drones to yell and scream on TV so that they appear popular, and thereby get people to support them in polls because you don't want to look like you're backing a loser. Thus, the Trump-radical snowball effect.

              But exactly HOW is anyone going to "shut down", or even "monitor", the Internet, particularly without also affecting the MONEY that depends on the Internet ev

          • Comment removed based on user account deletion
            • You can't legislate against nutjobs with guns.

              Australia did (both conservatives and liberals) and it appears to be very effective.

              Most Americans seem to work from the basic principle that everyone will always have easy access to guns one way or another, and so it's pointless trying to legislate against them at all.

              Whatever your position on gun control, it is certainly a fact that the US has a far higher proportion of people owning firearms than other countries, and so it would require a much more extensive government intervention.

              When they basically banned handguns and most weapons except shotguns and hunting rifles in the UK, it

        • by stabiesoft ( 733417 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @09:57AM (#51080719) Homepage

          The cut the cord could be analogous to customs, where "packets" have to pass thru customs. Shoot, we litigate IP, we shift tax burden thru IP, why not make IP go thru customs like real stuff.

        • 3) Cut the cord, Great Firewall of America. We stop routing traffic to and from unfriendly parts of the world. For this work we have be willing to cast a broad net. You can't say lets cut off Afghanistan and Syria but let Pakistan and Iraq stay connected. After all the boarders weak and ISIS/Taliban/What have you will use the coffee shot the next town over if that is what they have to do. We would need to consider cutting off 'allies' (I use the term loosely) like Turkey and Saudi Arabia in regions know to be terror hot beds as well unless they are prepared to police things somewhat like option (2) although that is more practical in their societies.

          That's Trump-level stupid. It's not remotely going to work without completely abolishing freedom of speech (one of the things the US does get right). "The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it" [wikiquote.org]. You cannot stop a one-way flow of information. You cannot even stop routing unless you forbid VPNs. In a pinch, I'm sure the EFF, the ACLU, or even Anonymous will provide anonymous routing. Good luck shutting them down without going all the way to Big Brother.

    • by Type44Q ( 1233630 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @09:13AM (#51080341)

      But how many people did not join up because of information on the Internet?

      Me, for one. When they showed up at the door, at first I thought they were Mormons (Jehovah's Witnesses tend to dress a little shabbier). The only way I could tell they were actually Isis was when I saw the little star-and-crescent pendants they were wearing. In any case, I invited them in and we discussed the ins and outs of their theology over a couple rounds of scotch I had tucked away for just such an occasion (I thought they might balk at the offer but they said that while it was okay for their suicide bombers to drink, recruiting is considered such a shitty assignment that drinking is pretty much encouraged). Anyway, after our conversation had run its length, we had a cheerful departure and I watched them slowly weave down the driveway in their bullet-ridden Hilux (barely managing to avoid snagging their bed-mounted 50-cal on a low-hanging limb). When I'd gone back inside, I sat down and spent some time researching on the Internet, giving careful consideration to the various merits of their belief system (there were more than a few, I assure you), However, in the end I decided that while having to wear a long beard would suck (too itchy) and I don't much care for the thought of eating goat (their eyes weird me out), being outnumbered by 72 virgins would be the real deal-breaker: Six dozen entitled, passive-aggressive little bitches that are guaranteed to be terrible in the sack (being virgins and all)... no thank you.

    • Re:Oh the Irony..... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by MachineShedFred ( 621896 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @09:34AM (#51080505) Journal

      I'd be happy if we could close up Trump in some way.

      How the hell is he still leading the field on the Republican side? Is this some vast right wing conspiracy to get Hillary elected so they can have 4 more years of 'shredding the Constitution' and 'destroying America' rhetoric?

      Signed,
      A registered Republican who votes for sane candidates... when there are any.

      • by captjc ( 453680 )

        How the hell is he still leading the field on the Republican side?

        The last few decades have shown that the Republican Party is dominated by the craziest person with the loudest voice. Whereas elections were won by who could prostitute themselves to the richest sugardaddy. Now we have a loud, insane guy who is his own sugardaddy.

        Then again, I don't truly believe that Trump is as popular as he appears. It is just that the Media loves a side-show. Half just want the comedy, half are just filling time with his antics. Donald Trump is a brand and he really knows how to market

    • Free speech and free flow of information does more good than harm. Seems counter intuitive to lock violent radicals out of the very information that could change their minds, educate the ignorant, and carry a non violent message.

      Do you have any evidence to back up this assertion? This sounds like one of those assertions that people claim because they think it "makes sense" and is "obvious", but in reality there's actually no evidence to support it at all.

      Just look at how politics in America have gone since

  • Trump is a troll (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @08:17AM (#51079905)

    America should consider ignoring Donald Trump in every way. The guy is the political equivalent of a troll. He adds nothing but noise to the political debate. It merely deflects attention from things that actually matter.

    • by silentcoder ( 1241496 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @08:28AM (#51079997)

      Careful thats what they said about Goldwater. Then he won the nomination. Sure he lost the general but 4 years later Nixon won with Goldwater's policies wrapped in subtler language. Trump could spell a fascist victory in subtler language for another gop candidate in 2020...

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by MBGMorden ( 803437 )

      To some degree Trump is refreshing. A lot of people have become absolutely fed up with political correctness that has run amok in the country in the last few decades (and it seems particularly within the last 5 years or so). They feel so oppressed by this sense of having to tip-toe around everyone's feelings and sensitivities that anyone who throws that out with blatant disregard is exciting.

      They know he's an idiot, just like I know a bacon double cheeseburger is terrible for me, but when you've been on a

  • by s_p_oneil ( 795792 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @08:18AM (#51079921) Homepage

    "We have a lot of foolish people" If that's not irony, I don't know what is.

  • Godwin (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Culture20 ( 968837 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @08:18AM (#51079931)
    He's like Hitler. Using my account because I actually believe this now. I rejected my friends' comments as silly Godwin-law rhetoric until now.
    • And when he proposed every single Nuremberg law you didnt see it ?

    • Re:Godwin (Score:5, Interesting)

      by aaaaaaargh! ( 1150173 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @08:35AM (#51080043)

      You're exaggerating. He might mess up his country and a bunch of other countries in bad ways if he is elected, but he's nowhere as dangerous or evil as Hitler. He's essentially a clown, a narcissist entertainer who was blessed with and psychologically corrupted by a lot of inherited wealth. The kind of guy who is proud to be an asshole and actually is one, as opposed to all these likable 'nice assholes' who in reality aren't.

      Yes, it will be Hillary vs Trump, Trump will become the next George W. Bush^3 of the USA, and after his reign,the US might be at the brink of a civil war, but at least its going to be entertaining. In the long run, a weak and reasonably fucked up US can be beneficial to Europe, so I don't worry too much.

      • GP is right. Hitler was a failed painter before his circumstances changed. Give Trump some power and he'll vigorously exercise it without a second thought - all while considering himself virtuous for doing so.

        http://hawaii.edu/powerkills [hawaii.edu]

      • Re:Godwin (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Jason Levine ( 196982 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @08:50AM (#51080159) Homepage

        To be fair, while he hasn't proposed concentration camps yet, neither did Hitler when he was first rising to power. I have a feeling the German people would have rejected "let's kill all the Jews and everyone who disagrees with me" if he led with that idea. Instead, he began with smaller ideas. You are suffering (which Germany was and which Trump supporters seem to think America is) and it's all these people's fault (putting the blame on another group - be they Jews, Muslims, or Mexicans). Then, since it's all their fault, they should be identified (star on their clothes or a national Muslim database) and segregated from "normal society." Then, you need a task force to deal with these undesirables (Trump's Deportation Force might not be as bad as the SS on paper, but I doubt the SS on paper was exactly what they became).

        No, Trump isn't Hitler, but he's stoking the same xenophobic flames, is proposing clearly unconstitutional ideas without care as to their legality, and doing so while his supporters seem to say "We don't care if it's legal or not, those people need to be 'taken care of.'" History has shown us where this path leads and it's NOT a nice place. It's certainly not anywhere that I'd want America heading towards.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by ti1ion ( 239188 )

        First of all, it will not be Hilary vs Trump. Hilary, yes. Trump? I would be willing to place a friendly wager with you that it will not be Trump. Not by a long shot. Yes, he is getting all the media attention because he's a nutjob and what media outlet doesn't like to cover a story that writes itself? It's easy money.

        Second, all of you amaze me in your ignorance of the American political system. The President does have power, but Congress has a lot more. Appropriations, oversight, you name it and C

    • Re:Godwin (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ameline ( 771895 ) <`moc.liamg' `ta' `enilema.nai'> on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @09:02AM (#51080263) Homepage Journal

      It's fascinating to observe -- this must be what it was like in the early 30's in Germany, watching the fascists rise to power.

      I'm waiting for him to talk about "solutions" to the "Muslim problem" -- final ones, even.

    • Close, but who he is really like is Benito Mussolini - the man who prepared the way for Hitler.

      "The Donald", "Il Duce", it is an eerie parallel

      Mussolini predated Hitler's rise to power by a decade and was petulant when Hitler did show suitable obsequiousness acknowledging his seniority in fascism. Even that narcissistic self-regard sounds exactly like Trump.

  • by eumoria ( 2741315 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @08:20AM (#51079935)
    What is the disease does this country have in listening to people like this? I realize there are other candidates that are clearly not all there upstairs but when is this Trump shit gonna go away. Fuck that idiot and fuck his hi-jacking of the discussion.
    • Re:Disease (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Jason Levine ( 196982 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @09:10AM (#51080313) Homepage

      What is the disease does this country have in listening to people like this?

      Because there is a change happening in America. No longer can "old, white Christian guys" (OWCG) be assured that they are the most powerful group. Now you have "upstarts" like women and Latinos and non-Christians gaining power. OWCGs see this as a threat but they feel powerless to stop them. Trump taps into OWCGs' frustration and fans their various hatreds (xenophobia, racism, etc). He says what they are all thinking because he himself is an OWCG. So they follow him and cheer him on without worrying about where his proposals will lead America. Because they see a Trump presidency as returning OWCGs to the seat of power and shoving everyone else back into their "proper place" of obeying the rules that OWCGs set.

      In the long run, OWCGs can't win. This change will happen whether they like it or not. When I have grandchildren, they will regard many of the OWCGs ideas the same way most of today's society regards "black people should be kept separate and second class from white people." Yes, there's an ever-diminishing fringe that believes that, but society at large has moved on. OWCGs will be that fringe in a few decades. The only question is whether we'll keep moving forward or if President Trump will hit the brakes for a couple of years (slowing us down but not stopping us).

    • Re:Disease (Score:5, Interesting)

      by tbannist ( 230135 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @09:21AM (#51080409)

      What is the disease does this country have in listening to people like this?

      Greed.

      Seriously, you can trace this all back to Tobacco companies fighting to protect their profits. In the early 1970s they devised a strategy to manufacture anti-government propaganda and "grassroots" organizations to distribute them. These organizations provided both inspiration and support to the Koch brothers when they started their own anti-government advocacy and recruiting group in 1984, Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE). As an interesting note, Ron Paul was the first director of Citizens for a Sound Economy. In the 80s and 90s, CSE was funded by Philip Morris, General Electric, Exxon and Microsoft (among others). In 2004 it split into FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity.

      Both of CSE's successor groups were involved in creating the Tea Party political movement, the goal of that movement was to get people who have not normally been involved in political groups involved (specifically on the far right side of the Republican). They use populism and demagoguery to motivate these people, so it should be no surprise that the end result is support for populist demagogues. However, those same attributes have been driving reasonable people out of the party, as each election cycle the people motivated by the populist rhetorical impose more stringent populist requirements on the leadership, continually pushing them to the right. At first the Republican leadership embraced the new populism because it helped them win elections they had no right to win, now it may too late for them to salvage anything from the ruins of the party. Increasingly, it seem, the only Republicans who matter are the radical Tea Party ignoratti.

      So the genesis for Trump's success lies in advocacy groups created to lobby for the right to poison and kill your customers and neighbours. Caveat Emptor, America! Freedom is cheaper than responsibility!

  • by turbidostato ( 878842 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @08:20AM (#51079939)

    "We have to go see Bill Gates," Trump said, to better understand the Internet and then possibly "close it up.""

    Why Bill Gates? We all know he has nothing to do with the internets and it was Al Gore the one who invented it. But, of course, Trump wouldn't engage a dem even to save the country of those pesky... well, everybodies.

    • Must be either because Bill Gates is a CEO or because he's a billionaire. Looks like those are the only people Trump wants to talk to.
    • by Zocalo ( 252965 )
      Possibly because the kind of "person" that might actually agree that Trump's policies make sense will have some vague notion of Bill Gates as having something to do with computers and, by inference, the Internet? Somehow I doubt the current captains of the industry, even those with a lot of mainstream media coverage, are going to achieve the same level of name recognition - let alone the people that head up the companies that you'd *really* need to be talking to try and make something like this actually ha
    • by mwvdlee ( 775178 )

      Bill Gates has many years of experience in trying to ignore, downplay, take over and, finally, destroy the internet.

      More likely though, Trump probably just likes the idea of renaming the Internet "Trump Gates".

    • by beheaderaswp ( 549877 ) * on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @08:53AM (#51080187)

      The biggest Irony of all:

      Microsoft is the worst example of TCP/IP expertise. Going to Gates, would be like questioning Steve Jobs about the NT kernel.

  • by Zontar The Mindless ( 9002 ) <{plasticfish.info} {at} {gmail.com}> on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @08:21AM (#51079945) Homepage

    Jeb Bush has summed up Trump very nicely, and in a single word: "Unhinged [twitter.com]".

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Meanwhile Eric Schmidt proposes a ContentID-like system to suppress "hate speech". [bbc.com]

    Pick your poison, left or right, up or down, makes no difference.

  • by Roadmaster ( 96317 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @08:24AM (#51079973) Homepage Journal

    HAHAHAHA Because Bill Gates, of all people, understood the internet from the get-go.

    It's not a series of tubes, it's a Tidal Wave [wikipedia.org].

  • America: The Don Should Consider "Closing the Don's Pie-Hole Up In Some Way"

  • I dont care how crazy it comes off or about getting modded down. Trump is a ringer who's only purpose is to make sure no Republican candidate has a chance in the elections.
    • Re:Trump is a plant (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Jason Levine ( 196982 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @08:55AM (#51080213) Homepage

      If he's a ringer, then what does it say that he has the backing of enough Republicans to keep ahead in the polls - ahead of the "real" GOP candidates?

      If he's not a ringer, then the same question applies.

      Ringer or not, he's ahead in the polls. There's a worrisome number of people who are saying "Close down Mosques? Sounds good. Track all Muslims? Great idea. Ban all Muslim immigrants and form a deportation task force to get rid of 11 million Mexicans? Fantastic!"

  • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @08:39AM (#51080079) Homepage

    You know SNL has really hit it over the top this year with this Donald Trump for president running gag.....

  • Which country is calling? The country of UNIX? The country of the Chrysler 440 cubic inch engine? Throw the clown out and be American Americans!
  • by sdaemon ( 25357 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @08:50AM (#51080157)

    Wouldn't Al Gore be the better person to talk to about changing internet Architecture?

  • by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @08:50AM (#51080167)

    that keeps that hairpiece on the skull. It sinks in and poisons what's left of his brains.

  • by allcoolnameswheretak ( 1102727 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @09:08AM (#51080305)

    Many people make fun of Donald Trump or don't take him seriously. What most don't realize is that he is represents the pinnacle of what the Republican Party has become. All that he says is little more than populist slurs and factually incorrect statements, barring any context. He is extremely anti social, anti socialist and very pro industry and military. He resents using government money for social programs but has no problems spending the same taxpayer money for military projects. His world view is an immature outlook where the US is at the center and the rest is a nuisance or a playground for the military. He willingly and knowingly misleads the public using fear, uncertainty and doubt tactics. When he's on television he revels in the attention and uses it to entertain people with outlandish rants and to polish his public image as an anti-establishment rebel, while saying absolutely nothing of consequence. He is the kind of person that can only appeal to, for lack of a better word: white trash and its scary that it has come so far that he reaches mass appeal in the US. Abraham Lincoln must be turning in his grave from what his party has become.

  • by Tomahawk ( 1343 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @09:10AM (#51080315) Homepage

    Outside of the USA, the USA doesn't have a great image. It never really had, to be honest.

    And, unfortunately for the USA, Donald Trump is doing absolutely nothing to make that image any better.

    If anyone were to look just at Donald and how he represents you guys, then they will see an idiot, a racist, a bigot, a religious intolerant... he posses, in their worst forms, all of the bad stereotypes applied to "Americans". And, in many ways, he is the most un-American person one could point to. Taking just the simplest of American values - Freedom: He wants to close down the internet, ban Muslims, and have everyone saying 'Merry Christmas', because that's obviously what Freedom means to him.

    I really feel sorry for you guys. He really does make the whole country look like a joke. I dare not imagine what your country will become if he were to be elected.

    To be honest, there's an awful lot of things that he says that reminds me of one Adolf Hitler.

    - observations from an outsider.

  • by Mishra100 ( 841814 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @09:20AM (#51080403)

    I've always thought that Trump just does this because he likes the attention. His comments lately may be him trying to get out of the race.

    Trump likes his riches too much to actually be president. It's never felt like he actually wants the job.

  • by MobyDisk ( 75490 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @10:18AM (#51080909) Homepage

    Both Trump and Clinton said the same thing. Why only attack one of them in the summary when the article criticizes both parties? This goes to show that both sides have no concern for the constitution, and are probably just pandering to fears.

    The article says:

    Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton urged tech companies to “deny online space” to terrorists. Clinton then anticipated and waved away presumed First Amendment criticisms. We’re going to hear all the usual complaints,” she said on Monday, “you know, freedom of speech, et cetera. But if we truly are in a war...

    Wow, she basically summarized the first amendment as "blah blah blah" and justified that it is okay to violate the constitution during wartime. This is the exact same kind of logic that was used 200 years ago that made us write those constitutional amendments. We have been fighting the same political battles for 200 years.

  • by Jeremi ( 14640 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @10:53AM (#51081319) Homepage

    Are we witnessing the final stages of some sort of Trump Rhetorical Singularity?

    It seems like every news cycle he has to top himself by saying something even more hyperbolic, and that in the last week the velocity of the hyperbole has been noticeably accelerating.

    At this rate, I assume that by Saturday he will be calling for the immediate launching of nuclear missiles against every country that might harbor terrorist, and where he goes after that nobody can even speculate.

    Good times!

  • by QuestorTapes ( 663783 ) on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @01:20PM (#51082591)

    Doesn't that pinhead Trump realize Microsoft doesn't understand the Internet - That's why the Internet runs on Linux and BSD. Hell, even MS is recommending deploying their Azure environment on Linux...

To communicate is the beginning of understanding. -- AT&T

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