How many Trump supporters do we have on a2k?

To expand on this subject, the Chinese Jews history is an interesting one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_China

"Jews and Judaism in China have had a long history. Jewish settlers are documented in China as early as the 7th or 8th century CE. Relatively isolated communities developed through the Tang and Song Dynasties (7th to 12th centuries CE) all the way through the Qing Dynasty (19th century), most notably in the Kaifeng Jews (the term "Chinese Jews" is often used in a restricted sense to refer to these communities)."

Here's a partial excerpt: "...the first Jews immigrated to China through Persia following the Roman Emperor Titus's capture of Jerusalem in 70 CE. A large number of Jews emigrated from Persia during the reign of Emperor Ming of Han (58-75 CE). "

It's great to see you posting again, CI. Hope you are feeling much better.

Best post yet CI.

Plus he's a bully, bossy and totally without class.

Feeling much better, and at 80 yo, that's saying somet'n.

That's great (by the way, you made me laugh when you stated my profession was 'purse snatcher') loved it

A little laughter keeps us healthier.

If you check what the other candidates have been saying you might find that the Donald is just expanding on some of their outlandish statements.

"Limit certain travel privileges" is pretty vague.

I lump all the Republican candidates together and hope like hell none of them gets elected. Especially Trump and Cruz.

Unfortunately, that's not the only screwup the US made in toppling the leaders of countries.

OK FIRST OF ALL...WHY ARE YOU GUYS COMMITING PUBLIC SUICIDE? DONT VOTE FOR TRUMP

Trump already disqualified himself by banning all Muslims to come to this country. I guess, he never learned about our Constitution.

When my daughter was in China she asked a shopkeeper if he knew of any Chinese Jews. He didn't, but he had plenty of strawberry, raspberry, pineapple and even mango chews.

Trump Sets His Own Campaign on Fire: The Donald's Increasingly Insane Behavior Is All Part of a Strategy
Trump's brazen rhetoric and willingness to run as an independent may be proof that he was bullshitting us all along.
By Sean Illing / Salon
December 12, 2015

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Photo Credit: Christopher Halloran/Shutterstock.com

“I mean, say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos.” – Walter Sobchak, “The Big Lebowski”
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It may be too generous to call Donald Trump a fascist or a jingoist – that implies he actually believes something. If you look closely at his past, however, you’ll find nothing resembling a philosophy or a value system. He’s flopped with the political winds for decades, taking contradictory positions on a number of issues, including health care, taxes, gun control, and foreign policy.
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As Politico reported back in July, “Over the past two decades he [Trump] was a Republican, then an independent, then a Democrat, then a Republican. Now, registered as an independent, he leads the Republican 2016 presidential field.” This incoherence is reflected in Trump’s public remarks as well.

In 1999, for example, Trump left the GOP, saying “I believe the Republicans are just too crazy right.” Five years later, after quitting the Reform Party, Trump officially registered as a Democrat, telling CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that “It just seems that the economy does better under Democrats.” Also in 1999, Trump said he was “very pro-choice,” yet in January he told Bloomberg News that he’s “pro-life and I have [always] been pro-life.”

And the list goes on.

Like almost everyone else in the media, I’ve spent an egregious amount of my time analyzing Trump – Is he serious? What’s his strategy? Does he really want to be president? We’ll never know for sure what Trump was thinking when he lurched into this race, but this much is clear: He’s in over his head.

Rachel Maddow put an interesting question to her audience this week:

“It’s time to look seriously at this question, which is the question of whether or not Trump is trying to blow up his presidential campaign? Has he been spooked by his own impenetrable lead in the polls? Is he trying to get himself effectively kicked out of the Republican Party so there’s no longer a threat he might actually get nominated as that party’s nominee for president, or, God forbid, that he might win the office.”

Given how malleable his convictions are and how increasingly insane his proposals have been, it’s entirely possible that Trump is looking for ways to exit this race without appearing to quit. A “winner” like Trump can’t be seen losing to low-energy “losers” like Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio – that would undermine his brand and thus defeat the point of running in the first place. If he does want out, he needs to save face, to leave on his own terms.

I suspect even Trump underestimated how stupid and credulous the conservatives supporting him would be. He’s dominated the polls for several months now without dignity or the aid of a single substantive idea or proposal – only half-baked slogans and incendiary rhetoric. And no matter how offensive he is, or who he insults (including Veterans), his numbers go up.

Perhaps Trump thought his “campaign” would last a few months; that it would boost his brand, keep him in the headlines, and hopefully sell a few books. But this thing spiraled out of control, and in ways no one could have anticipated. Trump, as much as anyone, knows his campaign is a farce.

Trump is a businessman, the consummate self-promoter. He wants to flip buildings, make deals, and continue being Donald Trump, whatever that means. Being president is impossibly difficult, even if you understand the issues and have the requisite experience. A real estate mogul with a company to manage cannot – and would not – seek this job.

Naturally, Trump is insisting that he’s in this to win it. In an interview published this morning in the Washington Post, he doubled down on his commitment: “I will never leave the race.” But like everything else Trump says, there’s no reason to take this seriously.

One indication that Trump is torpedoing his own campaign is that he continues tofloat the idea of running as an independent, not a Republican. If he wants to preserve his brand and ensure that he has no chance of becoming president, this makes a lot of sense. Were he to win the Republican nomination, he would almost certainly lose a general election, but there’s no guarantee of that.

As an independent, however, he’d have even less of a chance to win, but he would have all the leverage in the world without the fear of his bluff being called. And he’d remain in good standing with his followers, who would interpret such a move as more evidence of Trump’s anti-establishment credentials.

Is this not the best of all possible outcomes for Trump at this point?

If it happens that Trump was, in fact, bullshitting this entire time, then it makes him all the more detestable. He appears completely indifferent to the consequences of his campaign. He’s made a mockery of our political process and he’s cultivated a dangerous climate with his fascistic rhetoric, and for no reason but his own self-aggrandizement.

Trump would collapse under the weight of his own shame if he were capable of that emotion. But, alas, he isn’t, and so the circus rolls on.

Sean Illing is a USAF veteran and a former political science professor. He is currently a staff writer for Salon. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter. Read his blog here.

Not that anyone asked, but I'm a Big Picture sort of guy. I see a much larger national problem that exists whether or not this candidate or any other candidate gets elected. Larger issues are present here besides incompetence or amorality or personality quirks.

Why diminish our focus and watch every twitch in this flawed election cycle? It's all about the larger picture to me :

What President is going to preside and lead a country and super-power and not continue the downward slide that the USofA has had with this (or the next) lame, obstructionist Congress? These are critical times..especially with the flare-ups and unstable gov'ts in Middle East and world-wide incidents of terrorism. There looms man important election ..not jsut as Presidency...but also of the Congressional members.

Who will lead them and get them to stop obstructing the governing and helping all classes...not jsut the rich?

I recognize my own cynicism but I wonder now if I'm cynical ENOUGH?

We elect congress, and the enemy is us!

Robert Reich
10 mins ·
Ted Cruz is on a roll. He’s now leading in Iowa according to several polls, and is gaining momentum primary states. Pundits are predicting he’ll soon displace Donald Trump. But what does Cruz stand for? Here are ten Cruz missiles:
1. He supports a Constitutional amendment mandating Congress pass a balanced budget. It’s a terrible idea that would eliminate fiscal policy as a tool to balance the economy during recessions.
2. He wants to cut corporate tax rates to 15 percent. Another bad idea. Corporations don’t need a tax cut, and the cuts would have to be made up by individual taxpayers.
3. Cruz wants to repeal the Common Core education standards from the federal government. Why? They’re already voluntary and provide good benchmarks.
4. On immigration, he’d block any current effort that lets undocumented immigrants legally remain in the U.S. He’d triple the number of border patrol agents and quadruple their equipment. Another stupid idea that would break up families and fail to deal with the underlying issue of how to regularize the immigration status of millions who have been in the United States for many years.
5. Repeal Obamacare. As he showed in his 2013 23-hour speech on the Senate floor, he’s adamantly opposed to the new health care law and wants it repealed in entirety.
6. Leave it up to states to decide whether to allow gay marriage. He says only the four states specifically named in the Supreme Court decision on gay marriage Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee) must abide by the ruling, and other states should ignore it. That’s nuts. The Supreme Court decision was intended to have national scope.
7. He thinks there should be strict limits on abortion. Cruz has staunchly supported bans on any taxpayer funding of abortion and bans of so-called partial birth abortion. This is a big reason why evangelicals love him.
8. Elect the Supreme Court. He wants to abolish lifetime appointment to the court and subject justices to periodic election instead. This would require a Constitutional amendment, of course, and it’s nuts. The Court has to be independent of politics. It’s already too politicized.
9. Cruz wants to move toward a flat tax. This would increase the tax rates of the middle and lower-middle class and reduce them for the rich. He also wants to abolish the IRS.
10. On the Islamic State, Cruz doesn’t want to send in U.S. ground troops -- yet. But he says that if Kurdish fighters on the ground can’t do it, we should send troops.
Trump is a bigot and a buffoon. Cruz is a right-wing zealot and unprincipled opportunist. That these two would emerge as the leading Republican contenders for president of the United States as we head into a presidential election year is terrifying.
What do you think?

It's more than terrifying because those two crazies have support from too many in this country - mostly the uneducated.

I think you've got something, there. It isn't the way they are; it's the number of people who support the way they are.