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HOW TO AVOID VACATION RENTAL BOOKING MISTAKESWhat better way that to find a vacation rental home for when you roam around the world? Just find one that looks decent and just book it…Simple, right?…Or is it?Below is our vacation rental advice to help you avoid serious mistakes and horrors on your next vacation rental booking when picking a vacation rental off the internet.1. BEFORE YOU BOOK–REALLY LOOKRemember this mantra-Before you book- take a second look!Heck, take three or four more for that matter! While the pictures may look great, you really need to read all the text for the details of your selected vacation rental home.Then read it again. Check it to make sure:It is really the perfect match for you and your special one or familyThere are no missed special caveats in the house rules that cause it to be a failed choice for anyone in your groupThe location is really right for you.2. ASK- DON’T JUST PRESUMEDon’t be surprised-ask questionsWe discovered that on our vacation stay in France not everyone has closets! As a result of our presumptions our family of 7 were challenged to store away our belongs in the small apartment. The listing may say it has a coffee maker, but did you know there are at least three different types! Unlike our vacation rental home, Abalone Bay, not everyone provides towels and linens. Ask if you need to pack them too. And if you must remain connected to the wide world out there, make certain they not only have WiFi but the strength needed to make that online call home.Get all the nitty gritty details first before you find out that the stroller and suitcases and baby don’t all fit in the elevator at the same time.Here is a list of other items to ask about before you book:Ask questions related to privacy, location of neighbors.What foods, condiments, household supplies are available and what you need to supply?Does the home have the necessary cooking tools needed if preparing a special meal, such as Thanksgiving dinner?Pet policy and costs- NEVER just bring your pet assuming it would be ok, it may cost you in fines or lo$$ of deposit if you do.Pet-related amenities, health requirements for the vacation rental that does allow pets, are there poop bags, other amenities, how secure is their fence, does your pet need shots and health record verification?Total number of people allowed (this includes any not listed on the rental agreement you wish to invite to party while you’re there)What are their rules and the community’s laws on partying or noise. Is there a quiet hour?Accessibility- Are there stairs, elevators?Children/baby furniture- are there high chairs, playpens, cribs, toys, things to prevent boredom once the thrill of arrival is gone?Safety factors- Is the house child-proof, is there street lighting, security services, medical services available, is there a Safe Harbour plan or resources? For example see Abalone Bay’s information: Emergency Information for Abalone Bay & the Mendonoma area: there is only a medical clinic available for emergencies, the nearest hospital is a 2-hour drive along the coastal mountains, though we do have ambulance helicopter service.3. KNOW WHO YOU ARE SPEAKING WITH AND WHO WILL BE THERE TO GREET YOU.When booking online check out the Owner and/or the Property Management’s “About Us” page.We want you to know us by visiting our “About Us Page”. We live in Virginia, but our home is in California. That is why we use a property management team that provides you great pre-booking attention, welcomes you, provides you keys and passes, and is available to answer your questions before during and after your stay. We also make ourselves available for questions through our Contact Page, and social media outlets including Google Plus Page, Twitter account, Facebook Page.But you may stumble upon another home that is not as open and friendly, and definitely not managed by the owner. That’s why it is important to communicate extensively either by email or better yet by phone. You’ll be better able to sense by the agent or owner’s tone, choice of words, and willingness to answer questions if you will really be welcomed in his home.Then DOUBLE CHECK across the internet (look at Facebook profiles, website profiles, other searches) to see if there are any discrepancies between the online description of your host and the other resources.Remember to ask:Who you are speaking with. Is it the owner, a property manager, a concierge service, or the guy next door?Is the contact person verified, highly rated?Who will be assisting you with your arrival, and difficulties you may experience, and your check-out.If you ever find any discrepancy, be safe–move on to your next choice for vacation rental!4. READ ALL THE REVIEWSBe sure to read all the reviews- good and bad, and owner responseRemember when we said, Before you book- take a second look? That also includes reading reviews closely and carefully. Read all of them. Look not only for what the guests had to say, but also how the owner or manager responded to both the positive and negative comments. This way you’ll discover more clues about the location and how the owner or manager deals with issues noted by past guests. Don’t forget to look at other review sites such as Yelp, Google, TripAdvisor, and even Facebook Page reviews to double check what the place really is like.5. CHECK FOR FEES, ADD ONS, AND TAXESMore and more communities are clamping down to be sure vacation rentals are paying their taxes. When you get to the fine print look for added taxes not immediately included in the daily rate. Frequently both state and local boards are collecting a Transit Occupant Tax or TOT. Check to see if your vacation rental is following the law.Ask about cleaning fees and any damage deposits required. If you are bringing your pet there may be a limit on pets and added fees for the privilege of bringing them along.Some homes and agencies also offer travel and damage insurance. Others may offer recreational items (bikes, kayaks, fishing equipment) for an added cost.Just so you know–Abalone Bay’s fees and taxes explained here in our Guest Info Page.6. DETERMINE WHAT ADDED SERVICES ARE PROVIDEDWhen we traveled to Paris, we were thrilled that our host was able to arrange for a taxi service to pick us up as well as had full maid service. I know of other home-owners that provide a cook to prepare meals, or have a large welcome basket filled to the brim with goodies. Some will even let you use their car or bikes!While we don’t do all of that for our guests at Abalone Bay, we do have a bottle of wine set out and do make sure that there are some basic supplies available. And we can offer you suggestions of where to go to rent a bike, or who to see for a private tour guide for touring the area. If you need a special item ask about it. We do our best to accommodate our guests, because we are also nice business folks. That may not hold true for the next guy.7. BOOK THROUGH LEGITIMATE WELL KNOWN SITES, SKIP UNKNOWN OR SKETCHY SITESPay attention to the address link that is usually displayed at the bottom of your browser or email.To be safe, just stick with the listing sites that you are familiar with. But also remember that many homes, such as our vacation rental, Abalone Bay, also have their own booking sites or listing agents through their property management company.Don’t be tempted by a bargain deal advertised by a pseudo vacation rental home owner or property site. It is especially critical that you verify the site you are booking operates through a secure payment system.Just do your homework by using a Google or other search sites to verify if it is an official website.When you communicate via email, take a closer look at the links in the emails. Check to see if the communication is from someone other than who they claim to be. Hover your mouse cursor over a link (but don’t click), and watch for a text area to either at the bottom of your browser, or above/beneath the cursor. This text area shows the real address the link would take you to if you clicked on it.And most importantly- NEVER wire money without:Knowing for certain who the owner and/or the property manager areVerifying by calling directly to confirm the rental’s legitimacy8. REMEMBER YOU ARE RENTING A HOME, NOT A HOTELWhile we pride ourselves at having many hotel-like amenities, Abalone Bay is really our personal vacation home that we are honored to share with you. Other homes you may encounter on the booking sites may not necessarily be as elegant as ours. In fact, you may find some home owners enjoy a more funky style of living, with older décor, and less attention to detail, especially of cleanliness. But if you can live with funk then by all means consider that listing.9. SPEAKING OF CLEANLINESS…While Abalone Bay staff inspects our home just before you arrive to assure it’s spic and span, others may not be as spotless. If you are a germaphobe bring or buy sanitizing wipes, or rethink selecting a vacation rental as your choice for vacation accommodations. If you have allergies be sure to ask about the products used to clean the home.10. AND… SPEAKING OF RENTING A HOME…WATCH THE NOISE AND NUMBERSSimply put, be a good neighbor. You are staying in someone’s home, most likely surrounded by neighbors. In place are sure to be local laws or regulations about excess noise and people partying in the home you are renting. Because too many vacation rentals have had a history of trouble and noise, many communities are actually outlawing vacation rentals in their neighborhoods all together. They no longer want frat parties in their backyards.And remember you have signed a contract booking the home for a finite number of people. Do not expect you can just toss one more friend in a sleeping bag on the floor or throw a rave. That could co$t you in loss of deposit as well as other fines.Respect the home, respect the neighbors, respect the laws.11. LISTEN TO AND THEN FOLLOW THE OWNER’S ADVISEMany hosts, like ourselves, have a plethora of information for their guests that they the are eager to share. Our intimate knowledge of the best and worst spots posted on our Experience and Explore Page is invaluable. Some even have published guide books, like our Insiders Guide to California’s Mendonoma . Check out their websites to see what restaurants to eat at, where to shop, where to go with the kids . Upon arrival read our “Welcome Book” that tells you the WiFi code, what will happen when you don’t latch the shed with the garbage containers.12. CHECK ALL THE HOME’S POLICIES AND REGULATIONSIf the owner says the home is non-smoking then that means you may NOT light up…. not even if you are hanging your head out of the window.Is there a no-shoe-on-in-the-home policy? Then kick them off before you enter.Follow the rules.It’s as simple as that.13. DON’T SUCK UP ALL THE WATER, ELECTRICITY, GASLove mother earth- don’t waste its resourcesBe energy conscious and go easy on the water. California is in a drought for the fourth straight year. Water rates have increased. Communities are fining home owners for over use. Propane and gas heat must be ordered then trucked in.We take energy and water conservation seriously. Other owners do too- in fact some actually put their utilities on a timer. Others have them wired to shut off if a window is open while you have the AC or heat running.Love mother earth- don’t waste its resources and expect the owner to be happy about the increased bills or even fines you caused.14. VERIFY IF THERE IS PARKINGVerify if the garage is available or notImagine making the 3-hour drive up the winding coast to Abalone Bay in your new shiny open-top convertible only to discover too late that our garage is not available for parking. Rather, Abalone Bay only has open parking spaces available.But we do have parking, unlike many other places that make you hunt for it then hike blocks away to park your car…if you’re lucky.So it’s well worth repeating…Before you book- take a second look! Then ask the following questions:Is there covered parking available?How many cars are accommodated?What parking restrictions are there?Must we have special tags showing?If in a public space, is parking validated?(By the way… We will be adding a two-car garage for your use later in 2016!)15. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ACCESS TO PHONE SERVICE- WHETHER IT IS LOCAL OR INTERNATIONALThis information is so very important to have on hand, especially when traveling into remote areas or internationally. We don’t wish to have you make the news because you were unable to call out for help.Make sure your phone has international service and that you know how to call the local emergency number. Assuring you have phone service can help you access 911 services as well as allow you to call your mom to assure her you’re all right.We at Abalone Bay are especially sensitive to this as ONLY PHONES THAT ACCESS VERIZON HAVE SERVICE. When the service works, it can be spotty at best. This is true for The Sea Ranch and much of Mendonoma Area. Abalone Bay’s land line provides free local, national and limited international telephone service to its guests.16. BE PREPARED IN CASE OF EMERGENCIESBe like a Boy Scout — always prepared!You never know what could go wrong, what accidents may happen, what horrors you may encounter, what natural disasters could befall. And if you happen to be far away from home, in a foreign country where you are unfamiliar with the language or customs, or new to an area, getting help may not be easy.Make sure you do the following to protect yourself when staying a vacation rental or other rented space:Make sure you have the address of where you are staying before you leave.Become familiar with the area in case you need to leave for help or services.Give a friend or relative the host’s address and keep it easily accessible when needed quickly for emergencies.Purchase travel and/or damage insurance that protects against loss of deposits in case you have to seek a late cancelation, accidental damage or breakage at the home.Know how to call the local emergency numbers- put them in your speed dial before you arrive.17. CONTACT THE OWNER OR PROPERTY MANAGER IF SOMETHING IS AMISSCall the owner before you get to this pointIt is always best to communicate with the owner or property manager BEFORE an issue puts a damper your holiday fun, or worse, becomes a crises. Once you’ve arrived at your destination, take a closer look to see that everything is in tip top shape. Most owners will be quick to come to your aid to resolve any problems you are experiencing.Just give them a call!18. PAY IT FORWARD-GIVE A REVIEW THAT IS GENUINELY HELPFULOur last vacation rental advice is to be sure to write a review of your stay once your holiday has ended. The next vacationer looking at this property will thank you for it. And so will owners and property managers- they want to know how they are doing.Just as you (we hope!) read all the reviews – both good and bad, it’s now your turn. Help out other travelers by sharing your opinion of the home by writing a concise, honest evaluation of your stay. This helps out the owner too by letting him know that he’s doing a great job or there is something needing improvement.Here are a few tips to help you organize your thoughts and pass it forward to the next vacationer looking for an awesome vacation location:Rate your stay from 5-stars (Awesome!) to 1-star (Run away as fast as you can).Title your review concisely. It should describe your trip including any specific experiences you had (good or bad) and a some detail explaining your opinion.If a specific issue was resolved by a staff member, or a someone went above and beyond to help sort out a problem mention them in the feedback to recognize. Otherwise leave personal names out of your review.Give in-depth descriptions and details that reflect your personal experiences. It is wise though to mind the Goldilocks Principal- keep it not too long, not too short…but just right. In literary terms, it’s longer than a tweet, but (much) shorter than a novel. Include information about who traveled with you, the quality of amenities, what you thought of the service. what you thought of the rooms, things you got to see or do, and your recommendations while staying there.Add photos that show not only the location but what was done there.SO NOW GO AHEAD… Like the B52sRoam if you want to, roam around the worldRoam if you want to, but do so better prepared!Roam if you want to, roam around the worldRome if you want to with our Vacation Rental Advice!

(Because functionally it acts like one, in several ways, sorry to say.) Here are my experiences 1) in an Italian hospital and below 2) I miei viaggi in treno:As a visitor to Rimini I had to go to the emergency room in an Italian (public) hospital in the evening. I phoned ahead and was told it didn’t matter what time of day or night I went to the hospital. So I relied on their advice and went around 7pm. But no.I had to wait from 8pm until 2am for a simple ankle X-ray, because I was triaged as “non-emergency”, although I had huge swelling and couldn’t walk and was in a fair amount of pain. Ambulances with batches of accident cases kept arriving sporadically and getting seen ahead of me. And I sure did get a bill. Nobody suggested “Get a taxi home, take some anti-inflammatories, get some sleep, and come back at 7 in the morning just before there are more doctors on day-shift”, although I asked several times over the course of hours. When after ~4hrs waiting I steered (backwards-rowed, really) my wheelchair with crutches over to the admin’s desk to ask exactly that (for like the third time), she shouts at me “Thatsa not my problem!” in bad English and simply walks off on me. [EDIT: Rimini is a tourist center with 2.5 million non-Italian speaking international visitors annually, almost all of whom speak English and would need to use English to communicate functionally with the medical staff. Functionally, Rimini’s economy depends on non-Italian-speakers (British, German, Russian, French, Dutch, Chinese, etc.). (If I was in a remote part of Italy this would be utetrly different). Clearly a patient with a more serious condition than me might not be effectively diagnosed or treated, due to the bad English of the medical staff. Equivalently, if the doctor could functionally communicate to me in French, German or any other language we both speak, that would be fine too. But they didn’t. I didn’t expect “everyone” to speak English or even 10% of the people I met. But the doctors who see hundreds of non-Italian-speaking patients a year, would need to, and that has serious consequences.]Finally the incoming accident cases dried up and I got Xrayed, 5.5 hours after arriving. But then the radiologist misread the Xray and did not get told my statement of symptoms that I’d given to the nurse, and he didn’t functionally speak English, so I had to call for yet another nurse to act as interpreter and wait 30min more just to have someone re-explain to the radiologist what I’d already told them hours earlier, in inglese (it’s not like it was complicated either, just pointing to body parts and explaining “bone is not broken. But lots of pain”). (The radiologist’s written report was a terse two-liner which essentially said “Xray shows bone is not broken”, which was precisely what I had told them when I arrived 5 hours earlier, i.e. nothing I didn’t know already. It didn’t contain any advice whatsoever about level of pain, whether to take any medication, how much, which type and for how long, bandaging (elasticated?), or rest, or use crutches.)So I after I made a minor fuss that as doctors they were actually obligated to actually tell me how to treat the pain, they applied a crap non-elasticated bandage and told me to get medication, but it was 1:30am and they refused to tell me where (if anywhere) in Rimini actually was open and selling the stuff (trick question: there wasn’t anywhere!); bear in mind I was a tourist and dependent on taxi in a city I’d never been to before and didn’t speak the language. So I said to unhelpful-attitude-problem-admin “There’s no point in telling me I must take anti-inflammatories now when I can’t buy them anywhere until the morning and I’m in serious pain, yesterday I couldn’t get out of bed till midday and tomorrow I’ll be worse; can you please just give/sell me a couple, I can pay?“ and again she just gave me attitude problem and it wasn’t her job-description, she’s-a-not-a-doctor. Finally I managed to persuade the discharging orderly to go ask one of the other nurses to give me a couple, which I immediately took.Then after being discharged I had to wait yet another 15 min to get a taxi out of there, despite a steady stream of taxis kept stopping only 50m away to drop patients outside then drive away empty, because they said they wouldn’t allow a taxi to enter the ambulance bay (it had a huge canvas awning they only opened for incoming ambulances. That was not the only circus-like resemblance). I contemplated hobbling outside to try to flag down a taxi or phone for one (Rimini seems to have strange regulations that you can’t hail a taxi in the street, or at least almost all taxis are radio cabs, cannot be hailed, unlike the larger cities, and of course no ridesharing like Uber). Oh and they wouldn’t sell me crutches either. Again, I offered to pay on the spot. You might think that for people that complain so much about hospitals being underfunded, that selling basic essential medical equipment in a casualty department to a (literally) captive customer-base was a no-brain proposition. Or at least that there was a crutch sales/rental service that would deliver to tourist hotels, for a reasonable fee. But no. (Pharmacists are also unionized, so maybe that’s part of the reason. But I never realized you needed to be a member of a union just to sell basic non-prescription non-pharmaceutical items like crutches, in Italy. It’s not like there’s going to be a thriving black market in reselling crutches at ‘street prices’. Taxi-drivers are also unionized. Perhaps taxi-drivers should start selling crutches, esp. the ones who are up working at 2am and near the hospital. I seem to have unwittingly hit my head off every one of the monopolies Franco Caporale mentions in his answer).The whole thing was like the Marx Brothers with white coats, and not in the least amusing.I have visited hospitals in the actual third world and they were more polite and helpful, even if they had less to work with, and had to function in worse circumstances. And the ones in the Philippines also speak much better English.The next day I took my oh-so-hard-earned prescription to the pharmacist (when it was actually open, despite that that messed up my schedule). The pharmacist gives me a lecture about how topical steroidal creams can be sold over-the-counter in Italy, unlike “how your FDA [in the US] restricts it”. It seemed a strange point to have national pride about, unlike say World Cup prowess or the local Arco di Augusto or marketplace where Caesar allegedly gave his “Alea iacta est” speech to the troops in 48 BC before crossing the Rubicon, but who am I to judge. She was quite cute, and being lectured about Italian-pharmaceutical-regulatory superiority by her was actually quite pleasant. But their (or any other) pharmacy didn’t sell crutches. For that you strangely have to take another taxi to one of the very few medical-equipment stores, which was nowhere near either the pharmacy, the town center, the hospital or public transit. (Maybe there is some mutual agreement between Italian medical professionals, pharmacists and taxi drivers that maximizes their collective revenue and job security. Perhaps if they restricted selling of crutches to Bologna the train drivers could get a slice of the action, too.)Oh and here’s another funny anecdote from another Rimini taxi-driver on a different day: I offered to pay my (~€10) fare by credit card since I was low on cash and didn’t want to go to the ATM. He kept asking me to pay by cash instead. I asked if it was due to the CC merchant costs being really high, and he said no, just that all the banks were crooks, insinuating they all asked for kickbacks or something, and started telling stories about that. I couldn’t tell if this was simply a cover story for tax evasion or legit, anyway I paid in cash as he insisted. Strange country. To think 2012 Greece got so heavily criticized for low tax compliance throughout the service economy. Maybe I should have haggled a “cash discount”. (I didn’t, and I tipped him as I always do, despite this meant I’d have to hobble off to find an ATM that afternoon.) Surreal. (Then again, it is the birthplace of Fellini.)Despite all this, Rimini is actually a really charming city, beautiful uncrowded sandy beach with clear (Adriatic) water, immaculately-preserved ancient Roman architecture and town walls, walk/cycle-trails, Fellini Museum, great restaurants and cafes, fun stuff for kids, visit San Marino by bus 25min away, local festivals etc. and well worth visiting. A perfect blend of history, contemporary and things to do, but affordable and not overrun with hordes of tourists unlike Venice/Rome/Milan. Rimini airport has almost no scheduled services (only charters from Russia in the summer), so either fly into Venice and take train, or take HSR/fly into Bologna. I loved it and I would go again. Croatia is just a short trip away if you want the Game-of-Thrones trail, or whatever.Here are some more anecdotes from other viaggi in Italia. Italian Frecciarossa high-speed trains are actually fantastic, comfortable, efficient, quiet, air-conditioned, in-seat power outlets, 180mph, great restaurant car menu at good prices, and amazing delis in each large station - totally unlike American Amtrak or the not-even-high-speed planned California High Speed Rail that we might get to see around 2029/2031.However Italian Locale/non-express train services are something else: dog-slow, hot, unreliable, no air-conditioning, people standing for hours, no wifi, no electricity, nowhere on train to buy bottled water. I became used to the killer phrase “[The train from X has] Y minuti di retardo” from multiple station announcements, to the extent that it was a genuine shocker if something was announced as arriving on time. Late one Sunday evening (previous to the above Rimini visit) I was on a local Salerno train trying to make my Napoli-Roma-Bologna Frecciarossa scheduled connection which I had reserved. The local train was already running >30min late when I boarded at a small local station, but in the following 3+ hours they didn’t make a single announcement whatsoever about the expected delay in arriving in Naples, for those of us connecting. Eventually a largeish conductor ambles around to check tickets. So I ask him how late we are and what happens if I miss my connection in Napoli? He just replies “no inglese” and makes to walk off. I ask him again in pidgin Italian and tell him it’s important: roughly how late will we arrive? Will I have to sleep overnight in Naples train station? (I thought that Frecciarossa reservations were for a specific time and you forfeited $$$ if you were late, like an airplane ticket, because that’s how the Trenitalia website makes it seem). Conductor merely answers “Vediamo!” and gesticulates theatrically and shrugs. Tired, stressed, late, dehydrated, linguistically challenged and culturally marooned, I decided to simply let the worrying go at this point for the sake of my sanity, but equally pondered that someone from a punctuality-based culture like Japan, Germany or Switzerland might lose it at this lack of collective responsibility and just freak out at his casual disregard and choke him out of it. Anyway it turned out there was another Frecciarossa on the same route within the hour, which I caught. Neat. Better than flying in the US. For God’s sake why didn’t he just tell me “Don’t worry, there will be a later train, your ticket will still be valid for that?”Just not a fan of Italian public hospitals and their attitude and basic competence. And yes, they sent me a bill.

BEGIN ADDENDUMToday is October 15, 2016. When I wrote the answer below, some 10 months ago, many facts about Trump were not well known. Since then, much evidence of past misdeeds have come to light, and Trump has also repeatedly damned himself by his own words.So I’m updating my original answer:Trump is, in my not-so-humble opinion, a racist. Unequivocally.From Huffpost’s Here Are 13 Examples Of Donald Trump Being Racist:He attacked Muslim Gold Star parentsTrump’s retaliation against the parents of a Muslim U.S. Army officer who died while serving in the Iraq War was a clear low point in a campaign full of hateful rhetoric.Khizr Khan, the father of the late Army Captain Humayun Khan, spoke out against Trump’s bigoted rhetoric and disregard for civil liberties at the Democratic National Convention on July 28. It quickly became the most memorable moment of the convention.“Let me ask you, have you even read the U.S. Constitution?” Khan asked Trump before pulling a copy of the document from his jacket pocket and holding it up. “I will gladly lend you my copy,” he declared.Khan’s wife Ghazala Khan, who wears a Muslim head scarf, stood at his side during the speech but did not speak.In response to the devastating speech, Trump seized on Ghazala Khan’s silence to insinuate that she was forbidden from speaking due to the couple’s Islamic faith.“If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me,” Trump said in an interview with ABC News that first appeared on July 30.Ghazala Khan explained in an op-ed in the Washington Post the following day that she could not speak because of grief over her son.“Walking onto the convention stage, with a huge picture of my son behind me, I could hardly control myself. What mother could?” she wrote. “Donald Trump has children whom he loves. Does he really need to wonder why I did not speak?”He claimed a judge was biased because “he’s a Mexican”In May, Trump implied that Gonzalo Curiel, the federal judge presiding over a class action against the for-profit Trump University, could not fairly hear the case because of his Mexican heritage.“He’s a Mexican,” Trump told CNN of Curiel. “We’re building a wall between here and Mexico. The answer is, he is giving us very unfair rulings — rulings that people can’t even believe.”Curiel, it should be noted, is an American citizen who was born in Indiana. And as a prosecutor in the late 1990s, he went after Mexican drug cartels, making him a target for assassination by a Tijuana drug lord.Even members of Trump’s own party slammed the racist remarks.“Claiming a person can’t do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said in a reaction to Trump’s comments, though he clarified that he still endorses the nominee.The comments against Curiel didn’t sit well with the American public either. According to a YouGov poll released in June, 51 percent of those surveyed agreed that Trump’s comments were not only wrong, but also racist.Fifty-seven percent of Americans think Trump was wrong to complain against the judge, while just 20 percent think he was right to do so.When asked whether he would trust a Muslim judge, in light of his proposed restrictions on Muslim immigration, Trump suggested that such a judge might not be fair to him either.The Justice Department sued his company ― twice ― for not renting to black peopleWhen Trump was serving as the president of his family’s real estate company, the Trump Management Corporation, in 1973, the Justice Department sued the company for alleged racial discrimination against black people looking to rent apartments in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.The lawsuit charged that the company quoted different rental terms and conditions to black rental candidates than it did with white candidates, and that the company lied to black applicants about apartments not being available. Trump called those accusations “absolutely ridiculous” and sued the Justice Department for $100 million in damages for defamation.Without admitting wrongdoing, the Trump Management Corporation settled the original lawsuit two years later and promised not to discriminate against black people, Puerto Ricans or other minorities. Trump also agreed to send weekly vacancy lists for his 15,000 apartments to the New York Urban League, a civil rights group, and to allow the NYUL to present qualified applicants for vacancies in certain Trump properties.Just three years after that, the Justice Department sued the Trump Management Corporation again for allegedly discriminating against black applicants by telling them apartments weren’t available.In fact, discrimination against black people has been a pattern in his careerWorkers at Trump’s casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, have accused him of racism over the years. The New Jersey Casino Control Commission fined the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino $200,000 in 1992 because managers would remove African-American card dealers at the request of a certain big-spending gambler. A state appeals court upheld the fine.The first-person account of at least one black Trump casino employee in Atlantic City suggests the racist practices were consistent with Trump’s personal behavior toward black workers.“When Donald and Ivana came to the casino, the bosses would order all the black people off the floor,” Kip Brown, a former employee at Trump’s Castle, told the New Yorker for a September article. “It was the eighties, I was a teen-ager, but I remember it: they put us all in the back.”Trump disparaged his black casino employees as “lazy” in vividly bigoted terms, according to a 1991 book by John O’Donnell, a former president of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino.“And isn’t it funny. I’ve got black accountants at Trump Castle and Trump Plaza. Black guys counting my money! I hate it,” O’Donnell recalled Trump saying. “The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.”“I think the guy is lazy,” Trump said of a black employee, according to O’Donnell. “And it’s probably not his fault because laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is, I believe that. It’s not anything they can control.”Trump has also faced charges of reneging on commitments to hire black people. In 1996, 20 African Americans in Indiana sued Trump for failing to honor a promise to hire mostly minority workers for a riverboat casino on Lake Michigan.He refused to condemn the white supremacists who are campaigning for himThree times in a row on Feb. 28, Trump sidestepped opportunities to renounce white nationalist and former KKK leader David Duke, who told his radio audience last week that voting for any candidate other than Trump is “really treason to your heritage.”When asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper if he would condemn Duke and say he didn’t want a vote from him or any other white supremacists, Trump claimed that he didn’t know anything about white supremacists or about Duke himself. When Tapper pressed him twice more, Trump said he couldn’t condemn a group he hadn’t yet researched.By Feb. 29, Trump was saying that in fact he does disavow Duke, and that the only reason he didn’t do so on CNN was because of a “lousy earpiece.” Video of the exchange, however, shows Trump responding quickly to Tapper’s questions with no apparent difficulty in hearing.It’s preposterous to think that Trump doesn’t know about white supremacist groups or their sometimes violent support of him. Reports of neo-Nazi groups rallying around Trump go back as far as August.His white supremacist fan club includes the Daily Stormer, a leading neo-Nazi news site; Richard Spencer, director of the National Policy Institute, which aims to promote the “heritage, identity, and future of European people”; Jared Taylor, editor of American Renaissance, a Virginia-based white nationalist magazine; Michael Hill, head of the League of the South, an Alabama-based white supremacist secessionist group; and Brad Griffin, a member of Hill’s League of the South and author of the popular white supremacist blog Hunter Wallace.A leader of the Virginia KKK who is backing Trump told a local TV reporter earlier this month, “The reason a lot of Klan members like Donald Trump is because a lot of what he believes, we believe in.”And most recently, the Trump campaign announced that one of its California primary delegates was William Johnson, chair of the white nationalist American Freedom Party. The Trump campaign subsequently said his inclusion was a mistake, and Johnson withdrew his name at their request.He questions whether President Obama was born in the United StatesLong before calling Mexican immigrants “criminals” and “rapists,” Trump was a leading proponent of “birtherism,” the racist conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States and is thus an illegitimate president. Trump claimed in 2011 to have sent people to Hawaii to investigate whether Obama was really born there. He insisted at the time that the researchers “cannot believe what they are finding.”Obama ultimately got the better of Trump, releasing his long-form birth certificate and relentlessly mocking the real estate mogul about it at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner that year.But Trump continues to insinuate that the president was not born in the country.“I don’t know where he was born,” Trump said in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday. (Again, for the record: He was born in Hawaii.)He treats racial groups as monolithsLike many racial instigators, Trump often answers accusations of bigotry by loudly protesting that he actually loves the group in question. But that’s just as uncomfortable to hear, because he’s still treating all the members of the group — all the individual human beings — as essentially the same and interchangeable. Language is telling, here: Virtually every time Trump mentions a minority group, he uses the definite article the, as in “the Hispanics,” “the Muslims” and “the blacks.”In that sense, Trump’s defensive explanations are of a piece with his slander of minorities. Both rely on essentializing racial and ethnic groups, blurring them into simple, monolithic entities, instead of acknowledging that there’s as much variety among Muslims and Latinos and black people as there is among white people.How did Trump respond to the outrage last year that followed his characterization of Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists?“I’ll take jobs back from China, I’ll take jobs back from Japan,” Trump said during his visit to the U.S.-Mexican border in July. “The Hispanics are going to get those jobs, and they’re going to love Trump.”“The Hispanics are going to get those jobs, and they’re going to love Trump.”Donald Trump, July 2015How did Trump respond to critics of his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the U.S.?“I’m doing good for the Muslims,” Trump told CNN in December. “Many Muslim friends of mine are in agreement with me. They say, ‘Donald, you brought something up to the fore that is so brilliant and so fantastic.’”Not long before he called for a blanket ban on Muslims entering the country, Trump was proclaiming his affection for “the Muslims,” disagreeing with rival candidate Ben Carson’s claim in September that being a Muslim should disqualify someone from running for president.“I love the Muslims. I think they’re great people,” Trump said, insisting that he would be willing to name a Muslim to his presidential cabinet.How did Trump respond to the people who called him out for funding an investigation into whether Obama was born in the United States?“I have a great relationship with the blacks,” Trump said in April 2011. “I’ve always had a great relationship with the blacks.”Even when Trump has dropped the definite article “the,” his attempts at praising minority groups he has previously slandered have been offensive.Look no further than the infamous Cinco de Mayo taco bowl tweet.Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrumpHappy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics! https://www.facebook.com/DonaldTrump/posts/10157008375200725:0 …Former Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) had a good breakdown of everything that was wrong with Trump’s comment.“It’s like eating a watermelon and saying ‘I love African-Americans,’” Bush quipped.He trashed Native Americans, tooIn 1993, when Trump wanted to open a casino in Bridgeport, Connecticut, that would compete with one owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Nation, a local Native American tribe, he told the House subcommittee on Native American Affairs that “they don’t look like Indians to me... They don’t look like Indians to Indians.”Trump then elaborated on those remarks, which were unearthed last year in the Hartford Courant, by saying the mafia had infiltrated Indian casinos.In the 1980s, Donald Trump was much younger, but just as racist as he is now.He encouraged the mob justice that resulted in the wrongful imprisonment of the Central Park FiveIn 1989, Trump took out full-page ads in four New York City-area newspapers calling for the return of the death penalty in New York and the expansion of police authority in response to the infamous case of a woman who was beaten and raped while jogging in Manhattan’s Central Park.“They should be forced to suffer and, when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes,” Trump wrote, referring to the Central Park attackers and other violent criminals. “I want to hate these murderers and I always will.”The public outrage over the Central Park jogger rape, at a time when the city was struggling with high crime, led to the wrongful conviction of five teenagers of color known as the Central Park Five.The men’s convictions were overturned in 2002, after they’d already spent years in prison, when DNA evidence showed they did not commit the crime. Today, their case is considered a cautionary tale about a politicized criminal justice process.Trump, however, still thinks the men are guilty.He condoned the beating of a Black Lives Matter protesterAt a November campaign rally in Alabama, Trump supporters physically attacked an African-American protester after the man began chanting “Black lives matter.” Video of the incident shows the assailants kicking the man after he has already fallen to the ground.The following day, Trump implied that the attackers were justified.“Maybe [the protester] should have been roughed up,” he mused. “It was absolutely disgusting what he was doing.”Trump’s dismissive attitude toward the protester is part of a larger, troubling pattern of instigating violence toward protesters at campaign events that has singled out people of color.One reason Trump may have exhibited special disdain for that particular demonstrator in November, however, is because he believes the entire Black Lives Matter movement lacks legitimate policy grievances. He alluded to these views in an interview with the New York Times magazine this week when he described Ferguson, Missouri, as one of the most dangerous places in America. The small St. Louis suburb is not even in the top 20 highest-crime municipalities in the country.He called supporters who beat up a homeless Latino man “passionate”Trump’s racial incitement has already inspired hate crimes. Two brothers arrested in Boston last summer for beating up a homeless Latino man cited Trump’s anti-immigrant message when explaining why they did it.“Donald Trump was right — all these illegals need to be deported,” one of the men reportedly told police officers.Trump did not even bother to distance himself from them. Instead, he suggested that the men were well-intentioned and had simply gotten carried away.“I will say that people who are following me are very passionate,” Trump said. “They love this country and they want this country to be great again. They are passionate.”He stereotyped Jews and shared an anti-Semitic meme created by white supremacistsWhen Trump addressed the Republican Jewish Coalition in December, he tried to relate to the crowd by invoking the stereotype of Jews as talented and cunning businesspeople.“I’m a negotiator, like you folks,” Trump told the crowd, touting his book The Art of the Deal.“Is there anyone who doesn’t renegotiate deals in this room?” Trump said. “Perhaps more than any room I’ve spoken to.”But that wasn’t even the most offensive thing Trump told his Jewish audience. He implied that he had little chance of earning the Jewish Republican group’s support, because his fealty could not be bought with campaign donations.“You’re not going to support me, because I don’t want your money,” he said. “You want to control your own politician.”Ironically, Trump has many close Jewish family members. His daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism in 2009 before marrying the real estate mogul Jared Kushner. Trump and Kushner raise their two children in an observant Jewish home.Then in July, Trump tweeted an anti-Semitic Hillary Clinton meme that featured a photo of her over a backdrop of $100 bills with a six-pointed Jewish Star of David next to her face.“Crooked Hillary - - Makes History!” he wrote in the tweet, which also read “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever” over the star.The holy symbol was co-opted by the Nazis during World War II when they forced Jews to sew it onto their clothing. Using the symbol over a pile of money is blatantly anti-Semitic and re-enforces hateful stereotypes of Jewish greed.But Trump insisted the image was harmless.“The sheriff’s badge ― which is available under Microsoft’s ‘shapes’ ― fit with the theme of corrupt Hillary and that is why I selected it,” he said in a statement.Mic, however, discovered that the the meme was actually created by white supremacists and could be found on a neo-Nazi forum more than a week before Trump shared it. Additionally, a watermark on the image leads to a Twitter account that regularly tweets racist, sexist political memes.He treats African-American supporters as tokens to dispel the idea he is racistAt a campaign appearance in California in June, Trump boasted that he had a black supporter in the crowd, saying “look at my African American over here.”“Look at him,” Trump continued. “Are you the greatest?”Trump went on to imply that the media conceals his appeal among African Americans by not covering the crowd more attentively.“We have tremendous African-American support,” he said. “The reason is I’m going to bring jobs back to our country.”In fact, Trump has the lowest level of African-American support of any Republican presidential nominee since 1948, according to FiveThirtyEight. As of the most recent polling, just 2 percent of black voters plan to vote for him ― fewer than the percentage who plan to vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein or Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson.It’s may not be surprising that Trump has brought so much racial animus into the 2016 election cycle, given his family history. His father, Fred Trump, was the target of folk singer Woody Guthrie’s lyrics after Guthrie lived for two years in a building owned by Trump pere: “I suppose / Old Man Trump knows / Just how much / Racial hate / He stirred up / In the bloodpot of human hearts.”And last fall, a news report from 1927 surfaced on the site Boing Boing, revealing that Fred Trump was arrested that year following a KKK riot in Queens. It’s not clear exactly what the elder Trump was doing there or what role he may have played in the riot. Donald Trump, for his part, has categorically denied (except when he’s ambiguously denied) that anything of the sort ever happened.END ADDENDUMI don't think he actually is a racist, but I don't think it matters. What does matter, I think, is the psychological relationship between Trump and his followers. I'm not a trained psychologist, but I do think he is a textbook example of someone with a narcissistic personality disorder, also known as megalomania. Here are its signs (from Wikipedia):Narcissistic personality disorder is characterized by an over-inflated sense of self-importance, as well as dramatic, emotional behavior that is in the same category as antisocial and borderline personality disorders.In addition to these symptoms, the person may display arrogance, show superiority, and seek power.The symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder can be similar to the traits of individuals with strong self-esteem and confidence; differentiation occurs when the underlying psychological structures of these traits are considered pathological. Narcissists have such an elevated sense of self-worth that they value themselves as inherently better than others, when in reality they have a fragile self-esteem, cannot handle criticism, and often try to compensate for this inner fragility by belittling or disparaging others in an attempt to validate their own self-worth. Comments and criticisms about others are vicious from sufferers of NPD, in an attempt to boost their own poor self-esteem.Who are his supporters? They are almost exclusively white people who lack a good education and are anxious about the state of the country and their personal well-being and status as citizens.So you have an insecure man who craves personal validation speaking to groups of people who want their anxieties addressed.Trump needs people to cheer him on, so he experiments with different ways to present himself. He sees that the more outlandish his behavior, the more a certain group of people flock to him.Now all Trump needs is to bind these people to his stage persona. He does that by assuaging the crowd's anxieties with a simple, emotionally powerful theme: other people are the cause of our distress. Those people can come from any group: Mexicans, Moslems, liberals, you name it. By using scapegoats, Trump transforms anxiety into hatred. Hatred soothes anxiety by making one's emotions somebody else's fault.So, Trump gets psychological validation from the crowd, and the crowd gets its anxieties addressed. The circle is complete.And thus we find ourselves in the midst of a hurricane....