I read the comments on Donald Trump in 2013 with some dismay. We are now down to seven people who might become President of the United States:

Jeb Bush
Hillary Clinton
Ted Cruz
John Kasich
Marco Rubio
Bernie Sanders
Donald Trump

Maybe Joe Biden might get into this at some stage, or Michael Bloomberg, or Ben Carson may come back into it, but that’s all that’s left. That’s it. No one else. It is one of the above and no other.

Then there are the problems the United States now confronts – the US being our last hope for a defence of the West – problems from open immigration, a rapidly descending economy and a clueless millennial generation who you could easily imagine voting in a Hugo Chavez. And so I said, after watching the video of Trump in 2013, that Trump is the best of the lot. He not only has sentiments that match my own [92% as it happens] but he has the force of personality that might actually bring it off. He is our Churchill circa 1940.

I can see just as easily as anyone else that he is not your standard issue highly polished product of the elite establishment in the US. He is crass and loud and bumptious and vulgar. All true, but he is also smart, and shrewd, and tuned in and hard edged. But most of all, the things he wants are the things I want, the most important ones being the preservation of the United States as the land of the free and the defender of our values. He also has the one element none of the others on the Republican side have, a fighting will that will not be pushed around by the media and the left.

And I am not even going to say something like he’s not perfect, because, for all I know, given the way things are and what now needs to be done, he may well be exactly what is needed. He may exactly suit the times we are in.

There’s the list above. If it’s not Donald Trump then who among that list should it be instead? If you think it’s any of the others, then we will just have to agree to differ. But in my view, it will be a tragedy if he does not become president because all other choices will either hasten the ruin of the US or at best delay the now almost inevitable by a year or two. He may end up unable to stem the tide of history, but given the moment we find ourselves now in, Trump is the only candidate who has even a ghost of a chance to pull it off. Why others cannot see the same is absolutely beyond me. First, though, he has to win. Then we can worry about the rest.

The great Mark Steyn is in Australia and has a posting on his website with the cryptic title Wanted: More Warts. Read the post, and then read the interview with Christian Kerr his post is based on: Europe’s open doors are a civilisation death wish (so, by the way, are America’s). This is from the interview:

Free speech is at the heart of Steyn’s message. He is surprised that the controversial section 18c of our Racial Discrimination Act is still standing when his own country successfully repealed the equivalent parts of its Human Rights Act in 2013.

“Free peoples are losing the habit of free speech,” he says. “They’re taught, not really just at university but in fact from kindergarten, that there is a correct view of certain subjects and that incorrect views are distressing. The last two generations raised in the Western world, they don’t do that thing, the apocryphal Voltaire line, ‘I disagree with what you say but I’ll fight to the death for you to.’ They’ll fight to the death for you not to be allowed to say it.”

The consequences can be disturbing. “People can actually lose the spirit of liberty and once you’ve lost that there are not a lot of easy paths back,” he cautions.

How stupid we are in not protecting what we have from marauders. It is not too late, but it is getting later by the day.

This is the conclusion from someone who has written a book with the title, 9 Presidents Who Screwed Up America–and Four Who Tried to Save Her. The article is titled, Which candidate will screw up America the least, and this is what he said at the end:

Trump may not be able to “make America great again” on his own, but he would be the one who would screw it up the least. The others would eventually have to be added to a Volume 2 of my 9 Presidents Who Screwed Up America. Trump, at least, would have a chance to be considered for the “Four Who Tried to Save Her.”

If you’re the sort of person who thinks that Obama has had his good points and his bad points, you are not the sort of person who will see how necessary Donald Trump is. But he is. In a normal world Hillary would have zero chance of being president but this is not that world. If you don’t want Hillary to win, Trump is the only candidate who might stop it from happening.

[My thanks again to Autumn Baroque.]

This is Donald Trump receiving an award from the American Spectator in 2013, long before he was running for President. Listen to not just what he says – which are themes he has been discussing since entering the race – but also how he says it – which is temperate, balanced and filled with common sense. And he knows a thing or two about budgets, deficits and getting value for money. There is no doubt in listening to this that he is not a Democrat and is a Republican, but of a kind not hitherto seen. From this point on, for me it is Donald Trump for President. America’s problems may be too large to fix, but if they can be fixed, he is the only person in public life who has the potential to do it.

Not the high probability choice a year ago but now a very real possibility. A capitalist from the .01% versus a socialist of the most Chavez variety, each representing their parties. This satire on The First Trump-Sanders Debate is from Politico and therefore from the left. Nevertheless, satire though it may be, has a certain plausibility. A sample of what is worth reading in full. And do note that while Trump’s version is a wild exaggeration of what he would say, Sanders actually reads precisely like something he might really say. The left cannot make fun of its own.

Ifill: Now to our closing statements. Sen. Sanders, you are up first.

Sanders: This has been a very illuminating debate. We’ve seen firsthand the anger, the aggression, the last gasps of the 1 percent. They see a revolution coming. We are going to seize the tools of the state and bring prosperity to millions of Americans who have been oppressed for so long.

Trump: Bye-bye, Santa. Bye-bye, Jesus. Bye-bye, Easter.

Ifill: Sen. Sanders, please finish your statement, sir.

Sanders: The system is rigged, folks. That’s it. Thank you.

Ifill: Mr. Trump?

Trump: We are going to make America great again. I’ve said this many, many times throughout this campaign and people nod their heads. I don’t know—I guess no one’s ever said something like this to them before. We don’t think America can be great anymore. But we can be. I see this guy, Bernie Sanders, and I think about what the Russians tried to do to us in “Rocky IV.” And Sylvester Stallone—and I love Sly who has endorsed me, by the way—and he wouldn’t put up with it. Neither should we. And Mexico will pay for our border wall. We are going to start winning and make everyone else lose. And we are going to save Christmas and Santa Claus from the Hunt for Red October over here. Thank you.

That’s how it ends. Now read what comes before always mindful of the state of mind of the journalist who put it together.

It’s by “a Jordanian-Palestinian politician” but it’s also in the Jerusalem Post: Saudi Arabia is bringing Iran to its knees. This is the opening para:

On January 11, 2016, Iran’s official media confirmed the state had filled the Arak nuclear reactor core with concrete. In short: Iran has killed its flagship nuclear site and its nuclear program is now limited to smaller projects, paperwork, research and, of course, propaganda videos.

Now read the rest. It turns out the bit about Arak is true. This is so extraordinary I have to ask why have I not heard any of it anywhere else before?