# Donald Trump is now a birther **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 17, 2011, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-now-a-birther/575044 "2011-03-17T17:38:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-now-a-birther/575044/241 "2011-04-10T02:55:50Z")
Like when we suggest that Reagan was a meth-addicted tranny, or Wm. F. Buckley was an agent of a Jesuit conspiracy, they just take it in stride, don’t get bent out of shape. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-now-a-birther/575044/242 "2011-04-10T03:13:34Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > What I don’t understand is why this is such a big deal to the left. If it’s a bullshit claim, then it’s a bullshit claim and should therefore be easily blowoffable. But no. Just the mention of Obama’s birth sends lefties into spasms of indignation, hatred and name-calling. This is precious beyond words. The real problem with “birtherism” isn’t the drooling batshittery of its true-believer proponents, or the fact that’s it’s an absurd lie being promulgated on the naive and racist for purely partisan ends, to de-legitimize a democratically elected President rather than focus on his actual platform. It’s that _the Left is somewhat annoyed by it._ ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-now-a-birther/575044/243 "2011-04-10T03:43:20Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Why the nonstop intolerant derision of “birthers” and the de riguer assumption that they’re wackos? Umm…because they are wackos and they are deserving of whatever derision has been heaped on them. At the very least they’re idiots who aren’t going to let themselves be swayed by the facts. And, even if you could somehow convince them that Obama was born in Hawaii, they’d just pull some other bullshit theory out of their asses about why he’s not a citizen -like the bullshit theory that states since his dad was a British subject, that makes him British. I guess by that reasoning, Donald Trump wouldn’t be eligible for the presidency either, since his mother is Scottish. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-now-a-birther/575044/244 "2011-04-10T04:24:23Z")
Scottish? I thought he was [Jamaican](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HJUkwvG-Ads/TZS18_HyCuI/AAAAAAAAAHg/hsv3e0OZyNE/s1600/Jamacian%2BBirth%2BCertificate%2BPuts%2BDonalds%2BBid%2B.jpg)! CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-now-a-birther/575044/245 "2011-04-10T11:30:24Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > What I don’t understand is why this is such a big deal to the left. If it’s a bullshit claim, then it’s a bullshit claim and should therefore be easily blowoffable. But no. Just the mention of Obama’s birth sends lefties into spasms of indignation, hatred and name-calling. If you are so truly convinced that Obama is in the clear on this, why is it such a big deal to you? Why the nonstop intolerant derision of “birthers” and the de riguer assumption that they’re wackos? All the hate, ire and indignation over this question frankly smacks of protesting too much. One would think the logical response would be to shrug your shoulders and say “Who cares? Let 'em think what they want.” But it isn’t, and so I’m left to wonder why this issue gets under the skin of lefties like it does? What I don’t understand is why it’s such a big deal to you that you are called a racist? If it’s a bullshit claim, then it’s a bullshit claim and should therefore be easily blowoffable. But no. Just saying that you are a racist sends you into spasms of indignation, hatred, and name calling. If you are so truly convinced that you are in the clear on this, why is it such a big deal to you? I could keep going, but I’m relatively sure you’ve gotten the point. I’ll also add that I’m not sure why the whole birther thing should only bother people on the left. It’s an attempt to delegitimize a president based on nothing more than iditiotic disproven rumors. It’s also completely fucking wrong. Maybe it’s just because he’s not “your” president or because you’d clearly clean Donald Trumps asshole with your tongue. Maybe it’s just because the loonies that are doing it are on your side of the aisle. Kind of like that kooky molesting uncle that everyone on your side if the family knows is harmless as long as you keep the kids away from him when he’s had a few. Or it’s not a big deal to you because you’re a racist. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-now-a-birther/575044/246 "2011-04-10T12:08:39Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > What the heck are you talking about? > > Are you saying that a photo of my drivers license posted on the internet is not good enough for the police to use instead of a real copy of my driver license? > > Why are\*\* YOU! \*\*saying that a photo on the internet is not good enough? You didn’t read what you quoted, did you? ---
**Author:** ![Susanann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@Susanann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susanann)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-now-a-birther/575044/247 "2011-04-10T12:20:43Z")
Originally Posted by Susanann What the heck are you talking about? Are you saying that a photo of my drivers license posted on the internet is not good enough for the police to use instead of a real copy of my driver license? Why are YOU! saying that a photo on the internet is not good enough? > [@Mr.Miskatonic](#): > > You didn’t read what you quoted, did you? I am not sure everyone here completely understands what and who the\*\* “birthers”\*\* are. Broadly speaking, anyone who does not totally, completely, and exclusively accept a photo image of anyone’s document (including obama) that is posted on the internet to be as good as viewing an original document in person…is a “ **birther** ”. If YOU don’t accept obama’s posted document image and if you dont also accept my document posted electronic image as a totally valid legal substitute for the physical document, then necessarily you are a **birther**. ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-now-a-birther/575044/248 "2011-04-10T12:49:00Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > This is precious beyond words. The real problem with “birtherism” isn’t the drooling batshittery of its true-believer proponents, or the fact that’s it’s an absurd lie being promulgated on the naive and racist for purely partisan ends, to de-legitimize a democratically elected President rather than focus on his actual platform. It’s that _the Left is somewhat annoyed by it._ Beautiful. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-now-a-birther/575044/249 "2011-04-10T13:52:06Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > Broadly speaking, anyone who does not totally, completely, and exclusively accept a photo image of anyone’s document (including obama) that is posted on the internet to be as good as viewing an original document in person…is a “ **birther** ”. You have, of course, personally verified the birth certificate of every president in your lifetime except Obama. Haven’t you? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-now-a-birther/575044/250 "2011-04-10T14:45:26Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > I am not sure everyone here completely understands what and who the\*\* “birthers”\*\* are. Yes. Idiots who cannot evaluate evidence as they are blinded by their psychopartisan nature. > [@](#): > > Broadly speaking, anyone who does not totally, completely, and exclusively accept a photo image of anyone’s document (including obama) that is posted on the internet to be as good as viewing an original document in person…is a “ **birther** ”. No. People who are birthers are ignoring a host of evidence, both physical, legal, and logical in favor of a ludicrous fantasy that doesn’t even pass the sniff test out of the gate. > [@](#): > > If YOU don’t accept obama’s posted document image and if you dont also accept my document posted electronic image as a totally valid legal substitute for the physical document, then necessarily you are a **birther**. Wrong. Completely and utterly wrong. A failure of an argument on so many levels I don’t know where to begin. ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Jocko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uncle_jocko/32/2932_2.png) [@Uncle\_Jocko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Jocko)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-now-a-birther/575044/251 "2011-04-10T15:55:12Z")
While Trump has his army of investigators romping across Hawaii (no doubt staying away from the beaches whilst they work), is he aware of the birth announcement posted in both Honolulu newspapers in August 1961? One would think that simple fact would cut all this birther nonsense in its tracks. One would think. If one had any common sense. Then one does a quick Google search just to nail down the actual images and dates and whatnot … The arguments from birthers about the newspapers announcements literally made my IQ drop by a dozen points. Ye gods, people … it’s a freakin’ birth announcement! I used to work in newspapers, I kinda know how this thing works. Claiming it was ‘altered’ or ‘planted’ or ‘warped in from another dimension’ (okay, I made that last one up, but it makes as much sense as the other arguments) is loony talk. How can ANYONE … ANYONE with two functioning brain cells … take any of this seriously? I weep for our future. Which I have seen, since I’m just here to plant a birth announcement for our President-for-Life, who shall be anointed by mass acclamation in 2056. Shhhhh! Don’t tell anyone! ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-now-a-birther/575044/252 "2011-04-10T16:22:13Z")
> [@Uncle\_Jocko](#): > > I weep for our future. Which I have seen, since I’m just here to plant a birth announcement for our President-for-Life, who shall be anointed by mass acclamation in 2056. Shhhhh! Don’t tell anyone! That wouldn’t happen to be President Camacho, would it? ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-now-a-birther/575044/253 "2011-04-10T19:12:10Z")
> [@Harborwolf](#): > > It’s also completely fucking wrong. Maybe it’s just because he’s not “your” president or because you’d clearly clean Donald Trumps asshole with your tongue. Maybe it’s just because the loonies that are doing it are on your side of the aisle. Given that **SA** twice has jumped into threads to lend his support to birther trolls, it’s presumably not just an excess of Trump-love that motivates him. ---
**Author:** ![Chen019](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f19dbf/32.png) [@Chen019](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chen019)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-now-a-birther/575044/254 "2011-04-10T20:35:19Z")
> [@Uncle\_Jocko](#): > > While Trump has his army of investigators romping across Hawaii (no doubt staying away from the beaches whilst they work), is he aware of the birth announcement posted in both Honolulu newspapers in August 1961? > > One would think that simple fact would cut all this birther nonsense in its tracks. One would think. If one had any common sense. Then one does a quick Google search just to nail down the actual images and dates and whatnot . Not that I care, but that doesn’t establish much: > [@](#): > > As far as her comments on the so-called “birther” issue, I don’t need Ms. Collins’s advice. There is a very large segment of our society who believe that Barack Obama, indeed, was not born in the United States. His grandmother from Kenya stated, on tape, that he was born in Kenya and she was there to watch the birth. His family in Honolulu is fighting over which hospital in Hawaii he was born in-they just don’t know. > > He has not been able to produce a “birth certificate” but merely a totally unsigned “certificate of live birth”-which is totally different and of very little significance. Unlike a birth certificate, a certificate of live birth is very easy to obtain. Equally of importance, there are no records in Hawaii that a Barack Hussein Obama was born there-no bills, no doctors names, no nurses names, no registrations, no payments, etc. As far as the two notices placed in newspapers, many things could have happened, but some feel the grandparents put an ad in order to show that he was a citizen of the U.S. with all of the benefits thereto. Everybody, after all, and especially then, wanted to be a United States citizen. [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/opinion/lweb08trump.html?\_r=3](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/opinion/lweb08trump.html?_r=3) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-now-a-birther/575044/255 "2011-04-10T20:41:22Z")
'cause, you know, his Mother being an American citizen wasn’t good enough… ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-now-a-birther/575044/256 "2011-04-10T20:44:16Z")
> [@Chen019](#): > > Not that I care, but that doesn’t establish much: > > > [@](#): > > > > As far as her comments on the so-called “birther” issue, I don’t need Ms. Collins’s advice. There is a very large segment of our society who believe that Barack Obama, indeed, was not born in the United States. His grandmother from Kenya stated, on tape, that he was born in Kenya and she was there to watch the birth. His family in Honolulu is fighting over which hospital in Hawaii he was born in-they just don’t know. > > > > He has not been able to produce a “birth certificate” but merely a totally unsigned “certificate of live birth”-which is totally different and of very little significance. Unlike a birth certificate, a certificate of live birth is very easy to obtain. Equally of importance, there are no records in Hawaii that a Barack Hussein Obama was born there-no bills, no doctors names, no nurses names, no registrations, no payments, etc. As far as the two notices placed in newspapers, many things could have happened, but some feel the grandparents put an ad in order to show that he was a citizen of the U.S. with all of the benefits thereto. Everybody, after all, and especially then, wanted to be a United States citizen. > > [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/opinion/lweb08trump.html?\_r=3](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/opinion/lweb08trump.html?_r=3) My God, are you stupid to have posted that. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-now-a-birther/575044/257 "2011-04-10T20:44:44Z")
I like the construction “but some feel the grandparents put an ad in order…”. The idea is so silly not even Trump will actually take ownership of it. He has to attribute it the always mysterious “some people” ---
**Author:** ![Chen019](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f19dbf/32.png) [@Chen019](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chen019)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-now-a-birther/575044/258 "2011-04-10T21:08:50Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > My God, are you stupid to have posted that. Yeah, but you’re retarded. Just like your mother, nah nah nah nahnah 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-now-a-birther/575044/259 "2011-04-10T21:09:07Z")
> [@Chen019](#): > > Not that I care, but that doesn’t establish much: > > > [@](#): > > > > Everybody, after all, and especially then, wanted to be a United States citizen. > > ] > > [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/opinion/lweb08trump.html?\_r=3](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/opinion/lweb08trump.html?_r=3) Although they apparently didn’t want to be a US citizen badly enough for Obama’s mama to simply stay in the US in the first place… ---
**Author:** ![Ograbme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Ograbme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ograbme)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-now-a-birther/575044/260 "2011-04-10T21:10:26Z")
“Man this country is really poor and shitty, what should we do to ensure a better life for our child?” “I know! Let’s put out a notice in a Hawaiian newspaper to trick people forty years from now that he is eligible to be President of the United States.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-now-a-birther/575044.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-now-a-birther/575044.md?page=14)