2016 Democratic Thread

[Steve9347]

This is definitely one of those "horror face" moments:

 

Voices From Donald Trump’s Rallies, Uncensored

 

Garbage Candidate for Garbage People is too kind, really.

That's not an America I want any part of - absolutely terrifying.

[greg775]

This is definitely one of those "horror face" moments:

 

Voices From Donald Trump’s Rallies, Uncensored

 

Garbage Candidate for Garbage People is too kind, really.

How can you call millions of Americans "garbage?" I don't get it. If we Americans think millions of us are "garbage," well God help us all. This world is OVA.

[Quin]

How can you call millions of Americans "garbage?" I don't get it. If we Americans think millions of us are "garbage," well God help us all. This world is OVA.

 

Um, did you watch that?

 

Cause pretty easy.

[greg775]

What is Obama doing giving 400 million bucks to Iran? WTF? Yet no scandal? Impeachment hearings over this one?

 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/03/politics/us-...0-million-cash/

 

Also ... I see on TV 63 percent of Americans think Hillary is dishonest. And yet she's a runaway winner. What a country. What great candidates. s***, maybe the election is rigged. I see Trump had 5,000 supporters turned away by fire marshals at a rally. What is going on? He's trailing by 10 points in the polls and yet everywhere he goes he sells out huge arenas? Our country is in trouble, folks. There could be riots if Hillary wins. These Trump supporters are pretty vocal and they might freak if there is any sign of this being rigged.

Edited August 4, 2016 by greg775

[Quin]

What is Obama doing giving 400 million bucks to Iran? WTF? Yet no scandal? Impeachment hearings over this one?

 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/03/politics/us-...0-million-cash/

 

We should have spent $1.1 trillion on invading instead.

[greg775]

We should have spent $1.1 trillion on invading instead.

When are we going to hold our government officials accountable? They all are out of control. And our candidates? One is a pathological liar and the other is certifiably mad. And both are over 70. Where's the young blood, the new ideas? I want Jesse Ventura as a write in. I'll probably actually write him in.

Edited August 4, 2016 by greg775

[Quin]

When are we going to hold our government officials accountable? They all are out of control. And our candidates? One is a pathological liar and the other is certifiably mad. And both are over 70. Where's the young blood, the new ideas? I want Jesse Ventura as a write in. I'll probably actually write him in.

 

"I want young blood! Not people that are over 70!"

 

*decides to write in a 65 year old*

 

I guess...that's not wrong.

[StrangeSox]

watching someone still trying to pull the "both sides!" gambit at this point is just sad

[Y2HH]

watching someone still trying to pull the "both sides!" gambit at this point is just sad

 

And watching someone still trying to pretend it's not both sides at this point is just sadder.

[bmags]

I know you guys are hurting, and feel like lashing out. But deep down you are thankful that we will save you from an existential threat to democracy and global safety. You could choose America too.

 

Oh and #bothsides

https://datavizblog.files.wordpress.com/201...rison.jpg?w=906

[StrangeSox]

And watching someone still trying to pretend it's not both sides at this point is just sadder.

 

If you can't see a Grand Canyon-sized gap between Clinton and Trump when it comes to the question of qualified to hold office, there is something wrong with your brain.

[lostfan]

And watching someone still trying to pretend it's not both sides at this point is just sadder.

Do you spank it when you do this? I need to know.

[Kyyle23]

When are we going to hold our government officials accountable? They all are out of control. And our candidates? One is a pathological liar and the other is certifiably mad. And both are over 70. Where's the young blood, the new ideas? I want Jesse Ventura as a write in. I'll probably actually write him in.

 

"He sounds electable, folks"

 

greg775, 2 days ago

[StrangeSox]

Do you spank it when you do this? I need to know.

 

It's buried pages back at this point, but illinilaw had a very solid response the last time someone tried to say Trump and Clinton were equally bad.

 

here it is:

 

To me, the biggest problem with this election is that there is a false equivalency being made that states Clinton and Trump are opposite sides of the same coin. That cannot be further from the truth. Whether you like the Clintons or not, Hillary Clinton has not called to stop all Muslims from immigrating to the US. Hillary Clinton has not called Mexicans "rapists" and "murderers." Hillary Clinton has not threatened to back out of NATO because other countries aren't pulling their weight. Hillary Clinton has not wished for the glory days when you could rough up protesters, or offered to pay the legal bills of a guy who punched a protester. Hillary Clinton has not invited a foreign country to hack her competitor and influence the election.

 

In this forum, we have had people laugh off Trump's comments. He's joking! He's talking about an unlikely scenario! This election isn't a simple difference in political philosophies (though that exists - the idea of Trump appointing multiple Supreme Court justices is terrifying). This is about an election where the Republican nominee's temperament makes him singularly unqualified to hold the highest office in the country. This isn't Romney, McCain, either of the Bushes, Reagan, etc. where I disagree with their philosophy on governance or social issues. It's something more than that.

 

Simply put, Donald Trump is a special kind of bad in Presidential politics in my lifetime. If you live in a swing state, please pay attention to the polls. A vote for anyone other than Hillary Clinton in those states is a vote for Trump.

 

Or more pithily, as conservative author PJ O'Rourke put it:

 

"I am endorsing Hillary, and all her lies and all her empty promises," O'Rourke continued. "It's the second-worst thing that can happen to this country, but she's way behind in second place. She's wrong about absolutely everything, but she's wrong within normal parameters."

 

Trump is wrong in ways that are far, far outside of the "normal parameters" of policy disagreement. As someone who's perhaps biggest reservation about Clinton is her hawkishness, I still feel entirely comfortable with her in control of nuclear weapons. Can anyone trying to pull a both-sides argument say the same about Donald "I must respond to every slight,perceived or real, no matter how small for days on end" Trump?

Edited August 4, 2016 by StrangeSox

[bmags]

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/mela...n-donald-226648

 

"Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!"

 

Just kidding! I worked on a tourist visa in Brazil under the table. Of course, when I did that, I didn't then marry someone who worked to punish all other illegal immigrants.

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[pettie4sox]

I know you guys are hurting, and feel like lashing out. But deep down you are thankful that we will save you from an existential threat to democracy and global safety. You could choose America too.

 

Oh and #bothsides

https://datavizblog.files.wordpress.com/201...rison.jpg?w=906

 

Sanders is the only that doesn't have his pants on fire...

 

hmmmm

 

[bmags]

When are we going to hold our government officials accountable? They all are out of control. And our candidates? One is a pathological liar and the other is certifiably mad. And both are over 70. Where's the young blood, the new ideas? I want Jesse Ventura as a write in. I'll probably actually write him in.

 

Why do you think this is remotely corrupt. These are the types of powers we've fallen back on giving to the exec branch/CIA (more often). We did in fact illegally enter their water space. It was resolved quickly and without escalation by a money transfer. That's...that's pretty much the best case scenario with an unfriendly regime.

[StrangeSox]

Why do you think this is remotely corrupt. These are the types of powers we've fallen back on giving to the exec branch/CIA (more often). We did in fact illegally enter their water space. It was resolved quickly and without escalation by a money transfer. That's...that's pretty much the best case scenario with an unfriendly regime.

 

It's money that the US has been holding since 1979 when they made a weapons deal with the Shah shortly before the Iranian revolution. We never transferred the weapons, but we've been holding the money since and that's how it's grown to $1.7B with interest. It was sent as a literal pallet of cash because we have no formal banking ties with the Iranian financial system.

[bmags]

Also wasn't this reported in January? Or am I nuts?

[bmags]

Sanders is the only that doesn't have his pants on fire...

 

hmmmm

 

 

But he was "false" more often.

 

Either way, it shows party values.

[lostfan]

Also wasn't this reported in January? Or am I nuts?

Yes. Coworkers are going "why were they hiding it? Most transparent administration in history!"

 

Just because YOU treat Breitbart as a legitimate news source, that doesn't mean the rest of us are ignorant

[Jenksismyhero]

It's buried pages back at this point, but illinilaw had a very solid response the last time someone tried to say Trump and Clinton were equally bad.

 

here it is:

 

 

 

Or more pithily, as conservative author PJ O'Rourke put it:

 

 

 

Trump is wrong in ways that are far, far outside of the "normal parameters" of policy disagreement. As someone who's perhaps biggest reservation about Clinton is her hawkishness, I still feel entirely comfortable with her in control of nuclear weapons. Can anyone trying to pull a both-sides argument say the same about Donald "I must respond to every slight,perceived or real, no matter how small for days on end" Trump?

 

I love that normal parameters line.

[StrangeSox]

But he was "false" more often.

 

Either way, it shows party values.

 

The 2012 GOP postmortem highlighted epistemic closure and a frequent fanning of the flames of Bircher-type stuff as sources of the party's problems. They've since launched a few more Benghazi investigations and nominated Donald J. Trump for President.

[StrangeSox]

I love that normal parameters line.

 

Yeah, O'Rourke can turn a phrase.

 

Obama's way of putting it wasn't as witty, but I think it conveyed the same message:

 

Because a lot of people depend on the White House getting stuff right, and this is different than just having policy disagreements. I recognize that they all profoundly disagree with myself or Hillary Clinton on tax policy or on certain elements of foreign policy. But there have been Republican Presidents with whom I disagreed with, but I didn’t have a doubt that they could function as President. I think I was right, and Mitt Romney and John McCain were wrong on certain policy issues, but I never thought that they couldn’t do the job. And had they won, I would have been disappointed, but I would have said to all Americans they are -- this is our President, and I know they’re going to abide by certain norms and rules and common sense, will observe basic decency, will have enough knowledge about economic policy and foreign policy and our constitutional traditions and rule of law that our government will work, and then we’ll compete four years from now to try to win an election.

 

But that’s not the situation here. And that’s not just my opinion; that is the opinion of many prominent Republicans. There has to come a point at which you say, enough. And the alternative is that the entire party, the Republican Party, effectively endorses and validates the positions that are being articulated by Mr. Trump. And as I said in my speech last week, I don’t think that actually represents the views of a whole lot of Republicans out there.

 

As much as Romney would do or say some silly things (trees are all the right height) and was running on policies I thought would be harmful and counterproductive, there was never really a question that he was competent enough to do the job.

 

That makes me wonder what sort of effect Trump will have on future campaigns. How much will any politician be held accountable for a gaffe in the future if the near-constant stream of garbage from Trump is the comparison?

[StrangeSox]

Holy moly this last week of polling for Clinton. After this morning's Fox News Clinton +10 poll, she's sporting a +5.9 average on RCP.

 

The NYT has a really cool poll-tracking site, The Upshot. You get their model plus a regularly updated chart of what the other aggregators are predicting nationally and state-by-state, and if you scroll to the bottom, there's a neat "what-if" widget where you can see the paths to victory for each candidate by assuming one or the other wins a given swing state.