Donald's Dust: Asbestos, the World Trade Center and The Dangerously Wrong Opinions of Trump

by Nomad

Trump's love for the cancer-causing material asbestos goes back for decades. Trump has boasted of its effectiveness and safety before the Senate. Tell that to the firefighters, cleanup crews, and first responders who were exposed to the 400 tons of asbestos that blanketed the streets of Manhattan on September 11. 

The Conspiracy Theory that Trump Doesn't Talk About

For a man who enjoys his conspiracy theories, Donald Trump seems pretty ignorant of some of the most interesting ones. One 9/11 conspiracy theory that made the rounds involved the suspicion of an inside job and billion dollar insurance fraud. 

For what it's worth, the theory runs something like this:

Six months prior to the attack, the WTC was privatized and, after drawn-out negotiations, finally leased to a private developer. On July 24, 2001, just six weeks before 911, that $3.2 billion bid by the Silverstein Group- made up of property developer Larry Silverstein and investors Lloyd Goldman and Joseph Cayre- was accepted.
A noteworthy milestone. It was the first time in the building's 31-year history that the complex had changed management, the first time it had been leased to a private entity.

According to the theory, the WTC wasn't exactly the prize catch that the developer had been lead to believe. on the other hand, the problem was not exactly a secret.
The Port Authority, according to some sources, considered the WTC a headache. The city had attempted on several occasions to get permits to demolish the Twin Towers but was turned down due the known asbestos problem.

The conspiracy theorists will tell you that

it was well-known the only reason the building was still standing until 9/11 was because it was too costly to disassemble the twin towers floor by floor since the Port Authority was prohibited legally from demolishing the buildings.

The owners of the towers were looking at a hefty bill ($200 million) for mandated "renovations and improvements, most of which related to removal and replacement of building materials declared to be health hazards in the years since the towers were built." 

We are talking primarily about asbestos. 

That figure for clean up would have reportedly represented an entire year's worth of revenue from the WTC.

Closing Mosques: Trump Exposes The Right Wing's Hypocrisy on Religious Liberty

by Nomad

Well, I suppose we ought to be thankful to Donald Trump. Whether it's intentional or not, nobody has done more to expose the abject hypocrisy of so many of the position of the Republican Party than The Donald. 
The tragi-comedic aspect of it all is how so few conservatives actually notice it when the hypocrisy is on full display.

As we all witnessed with the Paris attacks, there is no tragedy too horrific that Republican wouldn't dare to make political use of. While this habit might offend and shock our allies around the world, Americans have become unshockable and somewhat desensitized to it. The rest of the world might call it "shameless" but jaded Americans now just say, "what else is new?"

Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, an opportunist to the core, is certainly no exception. Take the outrageous remark he made  the other day about closing mosques. In order to stop radical Islam, the US government may be forced to close mosques.

He wasn't specific whether he meant particular mosques or all mosques. (A statement like that really demands clarification too.)

In an interview on Fox News  Trump was asked about his earlier statement, Trump refused to back down an inch: 

"Nobody wants to say this and nobody wants to shut down religious institutions or anything, but you know, you understand it. A lot of people understand it. We’re going to have no choice."

It was, he implied, the only effective way to protect America from attacks like the one we saw on Friday which left 130 Parisians dead. 

Hannity did not seem to think there was anything extraordinary in the suggestion.