Bill to prevent China from buying Alabama real estate passes House
On Tuesday, the Alabama House of Representatives passed legislation that would forbid Chinese citizens, Chinese businesses and corporations, and the Chinese Communist Party and government from being able to purchase land and other real property in the state of Alabama. House Bill 379 (HB379) is sponsored by House Majority Leader Scott Stadthagen. Stadthagen said, “They are the biggest threat to us.” The synopsis states, “Under existing law, an alien, whether resident or nonresident, may own, hold, or dispose of real property with the same rights as a native citizen. This bill would prohibit Chinese citizens, the Chinese government, or Chinese entities from acquiring title to real property in the state.” State Representative Mary Moore said they were not a problem until Ronald Reagan. “When President Reagan started encouraging our companies to go overseas,” Moore said. “That accounts for a lot of poverty, especially in southern Alabama and eastern Alabama because they were clothing manufacturers.” “The problem is bigger than the state of Alabama,” Moore said. “President Reagan loved China, and they became a superpower.” Stadthagen explained that if his bill passes, “They can’t purchase property in Alabama.” Rep. Jamie Kiel said, “Your bill protects the state from the communist Chinese.” “My district was also impacted by the great sucking sound of jobs leaving the country that Ross Perot talked about, and that was under President [Bill] Clinton in 1994 with NAFTA,” Kiel said. “President [Barack] Obama said that the relationship between the U.S. and China was the most important bilateral relationship in the world.” “Whoever started it, it is time to stop it, and I appreciate the bill,” Kiel said. Rep. Tracy Estes said, “For those who may think that the Chinese are not the greatest threat to this country, don’t be fooled.” Rep. Napoleon Bracy asked, “What prompted this?” Stadthagen explained, “In the last year, the Chinese have purchased over six billion dollars’ worth of property.” “This is a protection bill,” Stadthagen said. “I know of several real estate contracts that are in progress.” Bracy asked, “What if they are already here?” “Then they are already here,” Stadthagen answered. “What if they wanted to expand?” Bracy asked. “Then they have to get a citizen or a dual citizen to purchase that property, and they can lease it from them,” Stadthagen answered. Bracy asked, “Could this hurt the economy?” Stadthagen said that it had not in the other states that have done this, but admitted, “This is something that is fairly new.” Stadthagen said, “The Department of Commerce wants to talk to me about it before it goes upstairs to the Senate.” Bracy said that a Chinese corporation had bought piston engine manufacturer Continental Motors. “Continental is in Mobile,” Bracy said. “Are they the enemy? They are providing jobs to our citizens. They are providing over 300 jobs.” “If Continental Motors decides to leave and those 300 jobs and their $75 million investment leaves with them, then we are impacting a lot more people than what this was designed to impact,” Bracy said. Rep. Tim Wadsworth expressed concerns that the way this was written would also apply to Taiwan. “Taiwan is not a part of it,” Stadthagen said. “About 90% of the semiconductor chips in this country are made in Taiwan,” Wadsworth said. “China and the U.S. actually consider Taiwan to be one country as part of the one-China policy.” Rep. Sam Jones said, “Continental Motors was a U.S. Company that sold out to China. They have been in Mobile for over 50 years.” Jones said he had been on several international job recruiting trips as the Mayor of Mobile. “We weren’t recruiting politics – we were recruiting jobs and companies,” Jones said. “Do I support the communism in China? No, I don’t, but we are a world economy.” Stadthagen said, “Do you know how many acres of land are owned by other countries? 1.4 million acres in Alabama are owned by foreign countries.” Jones said, “Alabama exports surged to over $25 billion last year. Our two largest trading partners are Germany and China.” “We don’t handle foreign policy,” Jones said. “That is not what we do here. You don’t know the facts because you have never spent any time recruiting industries.” “We watch Florida and pass everything that they do down there,” Jones said. “I am surprised that we have not passed anything about Mickey Mouse yet. We follow Florida, but we aren’t Florida.” Rep. Neil Rafferty asked about Chinese people that have moved here seeking asylum. “They can lease a house or property while they work on their citizenship,” Stadthagen answered. Rafferty asked, “Why don’t we do this for Vietnam or Laos? They are communist.” “They are not a threat to us,” Stadthagen answered. Rafferty asked, “What other countries would you do this with? “North Korea and Iran,” Stadthagen answered. Rep. John Rogers said, “The federal government is the one who ought to be pulling the trigger on China.” “If China were to stop exporting all the stuff they make for us, we would be in a world of hurt,” Rogers said. “This concerns me because it seems to single out one particular race. I like Chinese food.” Rogers asked, “If China called in our debt, can we pay it?” Stadthagen answered, “We can’t.” Rogers said, “Can you imagine if we had a war with China? We will have to draft you.” Rep. Barbara Drummond said, “I am here standing for Mobile. Brookley is in my district, so I have seen this business grow. I have seen Brookley take off. They are contributing to our local economy. They are contributing to the Alabama economy. I know China is a communist country, and I know how they treat women, and I don’t like that.” Drummond said, “Our Chamber has red-flagged this for us and said that this is going to hurt.” Rep. Ben Robbins offered an amendment addressing members’ concerns. The amendment exempted companies already operating in the state and Taiwan from the legislation. Stadthagen accepted the amendment as friendly, and it was adopted in a 100 to 0 vote. SB379 passed the House in a
Darryl Paulson: The zenith of Donald Trump
Here are two critical points concerning Donald Trump. First, he is barely a Republican. Second, he is certainly not a conservative. It is obvious that Trump is leading the field of 17 Republican candidates. His support in four recent polls all had Trump in first place, ranging from a low of 21 percent in the Bloomberg poll to 26 percent in both the Fox poll and the Monmouth University poll. That’s the good news for Trump. The bad news is that Trump may move up a few points, but he has reached the zenith of his support. A recent Economist/YouGov.com survey found that about a third of Americans had a favorable view of Trump and 58 percent had an unfavorable view. Trump will soon be taking the “down” elevator in public opinion polls. The same poll found that when the numbers were broken down by age, race, region, gender and income, Trump’s unfavorables were substantially higher in every category but one: voters 65 and older. His support among African-Americans, Hispanics and women is almost nonexistent. A Rasmussen Poll released Tuesday found strong evidence that the Trump decline may have already started. A survey of 651 likely Republican voters conducted between Sunday and Monday, found that support for Trump has declined from 24 percent to 17 percent in the past 10 days. Trump’s support among men has fallen from 30 percent to 19 percent, and support from women has dropped from 22 percent to 14 percent. Trump is at the top right now because he is perceived as the non-politician in the age where Americans of all political stripes hate the establishment. Voters are frustrated and alienated with politics and politicians, and Trump has successfully appealed to them. Trump’s supporters see him as the outsider who will shake-up the system, much like those who supported George Wallace and Ross Perot were viewed as political mavericks. Trump’s one major contribution to the presidential race us that he has demonstrated to the other candidates that the voters do not like them and their hollow promises one bit. Trump will falter for many reasons. As Larry Thornberry has written in The American Spectator, a leading conservative publication, Trump is “an arrogant, self-satisfied, crude and pompous windbag and bully who grossly overestimates his knowledge, his successes, and, not the least, his charm.” He attacks any critic as “stupid” or “loser,” but has a political glass jaw when he is criticized. Trump will lose because he is running as a Republican this year simply because he feels like it. He quit the party in 1999 saying that “Republicans are just too crazy right.” He then hired Roger Stone, who resigned as Trump’s campaign manager a few days ago, to consider a 2000 run as a Reform Party candidate. In 2009, Trump was back as a Republican. The next year he decided he was an independent and then in 2012, he was once again a Republican. His moving from one political party to another, all for political expediency, might remind Florida voters of Gov. Charlie Crist. Trump is the Bernie Sanders of the Republican Party. Both Trump and Sanders are running to lead a party that neither really calls home and that both have spent more time disparaging than uplifting it. During most of the first decade of the 21st century, the vast majority of the $1.5 million that Trump donated to political candidates went to Democrats, including contributions to Nancy Pelosi and $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation. When asked about his contributions to both Democrats and Republicans, Trump justified them by saying, “When you give, they do whatever you want them to.” I am sure that will appeal to Americans who hate politics for precisely that reason. Trump will lose because he is not a conservative in a party that is dominated by conservatives. In a 2000 book Trump called himself a “liberal” on health care. He supported a single-payer health plan that conservatives loathe, and he was once pro-choice, although he now says he is against abortion. A few years ago, Trump supported a 14.25 percent mega-tax on those making more than $10 million. Now he wants to cut income taxes in half. As Bruce Bartlett, former aide to U.S. Rep. Jack Kemp, said of Trump: “He is nothing if not inconsistent. He’s been on every side of every issue from every point of view as far as I can tell.” If you have not noticed, Trump is also delusional. He calls immigrants “rapists and murderers,” and then says he will win the Hispanic vote. He insults conservative icon Megyn Kelly for attacking him unfairly and having blood coming out her eyes and “whatever.” Trump also believes he will win the votes of women. Republicans, conservatives and Americans deserve better than Trump. “Donald, you’re fired!” Darryl Paulson is Professor Emeritus of Government at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg and resides in Palm Harbor.
Debate shatters Fox News ratings record, Donald Trump feels heat
Donald Trump always boasted about his ratings for “Celebrity Apprentice.” Now he can say the same thing about his first presidential debate, even if he didn’t like the show very much. Thursday’s prime-time GOP candidates’ forum on Fox News Channel reached a stunning 24 million viewers, by far the largest audience ever for that network and any cable news event. The closest was the 1992 “Larry King Live” debate between Al Gore and Ross Perot on CNN, which was seen by 16.8 million people, the Nielsen company said. In fact, it stands as the most-watched television program of the summer so far, beating the last game of the NBA Finals and the women’s World Cup soccer finals, Nielsen said. The debate left front-runner Trump singed by the aggressive questioning of Fox’s moderator team of Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace. Trump tweeted out criticism of the moderators as “not very good or professional” and retweeted a message from a supporter who called Kelly a “bimbo.” Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes called his moderators “the best political team ever put on television.” Trump became the focus of Thursday’s forum right away, when Baier asked the 10 candidates onstage in Cleveland which of them would not pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee or run a third-party candidacy. Trump was the only one to raise his hand, leading opponent Rand Paul to criticize him. Kelly’s sharp first question noted that Trump had called women he didn’t like “fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals.” When Trump suggested he had only insulted Rosie O’Donnell, Kelly corrected him and asked whether this represented the proper temperament for a president and left him vulnerable to charges that he is part of a war on women. Trump pointed to his lack of political correctness. “I’ve been very nice to you although I could probably not be based on the way you’ve treated me,” Trump told Kelly. “But I wouldn’t do that.” Wallace asked Trump two tough questions and, in a quick-moving format that allowed little time for followups, both times came back at Trump for not answering them. Wallace asked Trump to provide proof for his earlier statement that the Mexican government is sending criminals to the United States, and later questioned him on how he could be trusted to run the nation’s economy when his companies have declared bankruptcy four times. Baier asked Trump to reconcile his past support of single-payer health care with his opposition to President Obama‘s health plan, and what he felt he received in return for past political donations to Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi. Kelly also pointed out Trump’s past support for Democrats and asked, “when did you become a Republican?” “I don’t think they like me very much,” Trump said. Later, Trump wrote on Twitter: “I really enjoyed the debate tonight even though the @foxnews trio, especially @megynkelly, was not very good or professional.” In another message, he wrote that Kelly “really bombed.” He retweeted several messages from others who criticized Fox, including one who wrote that “Fox viewers give low marks to bimbo @MegynKelly.” On Fox after the debate, Kelly noted that it “creates an awkward dynamic” to have Trump attack her after she has asked a tough question about what he has said and done to women. “I’m extremely proud of all of the moderators – they asked tough, important questions and did their job as journalists,” Ailes told POLITICO. “I think that was the best political debate team ever put on television. Their performance was outstanding.” Fox had attracted attention prior to the debate for deciding to include 10 of the 17 declared candidates in the prime-time debate. The other candidates competed in a forum that began at 5 p.m. ET to an audience of one-quarter the size. Still, even the earlier forum attracted a larger audience than all but five of 18 Republican debates televised during the 2012 election cycle. The most-watched GOP primary debate for the 2012 election, on ABC in December 2011, had 7.6 million people, Nielsen said. Fox attracted just under 12 million viewers for its 2012 Election Night coverage, its previous standard for biggest audience. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
