2016 Democratic Thread

[Y2HH]

Yeah, the Republicans have no interest in finding anything out about Hillary. They didn't even try. They blew 2 years and a couple million dollars on blow.

 

[StrangeSox]

I don't think anyone's commented on it here, but there was a landmark ruling overturning Texas's HB2 anti-abortion law on Monday, and it in effect invalidates similar anti-abortion laws in 25 states.

[StrangeSox]

alito also had himself a good cry over the court declining to hear a challenge to Washington's law that doesn't allow pharmacists to decide they don't want to do their job

 

This case is an ominous sign.

At issue are Washington State regulations that are

likely to make a pharmacist unemployable if he or she

objects on religious grounds to dispensing certain prescription

medications. There are strong reasons to doubt

whether the regulations were adopted for—or that they

actually serve—any legitimate purpose. And there is

much evidence that the impetus for the adoption of the

regulations was hostility to pharmacists whose religious

beliefs regarding abortion and contraception are out of

step with prevailing opinion in the State. Yet the Ninth

Circuit held that the regulations do not violate the First

Amendment, and this Court does not deem the case worthy

of our time. If this is a sign of how religious liberty

claims will be treated in the years ahead, those who value

religious freedom have cause for great concern.

[StrangeSox]

Trump's been soliciting a bunch of foreign government reps for donations for some reason.

 

Yesterday, Caitlin MacNeal reported that Donald Trump had been bombarding MPs from the United Kingdom with fundraising emails asking for money to fund his campaign against "Crooked Hillary." Then last night I reported that Trump and his sons have been upping the ante and sending emails to every member of the parliament of Iceland also asking for money.

 

“I have no idea why he emailed me the letter,” said MP Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson, a member of Independence Party. “This whole matter is very perplexing. The letter left me speechless,” said MP Katrín Jakobsdóttir, head of the Left Green Party. If you're wondering if this is as bizarre as it sounds, Yes, it totally is. Trump and his wastrel sons appear to be developing a new composite literary form - the hybrid campaign money ask/Nigerian email scam email. 'Dearly Beloved in Christ, I am former billionaire Donald Trump, now fighting to regain my fortune from Crooked Hillary ..." But once I posted about Iceland, the floodgates truly opened. Those weren't the only countries.

 

I've now confirmed that Trump and sons have also been sending emails to all the MPs in Australia and Denmark. I have unconfirmed reports that MPs in Canada also received them. Indeed, Labor MP Tim Watts of Australia tells me he's gotten a flood of emails from the Trump's asking for money to defeat Crooked Hillary.

 

Clearly, the organizational genius behind this campaign should be put in charge of the executive branch of the United States government.

 

[CrimsonWeltall]

alito also had himself a good cry over the court declining to hear a challenge to Washington's law that doesn't allow pharmacists to decide they don't want to do their job

 

"There are strong reasons to doubt whether the regulations were adopted for—or that they actually serve—any legitimate purpose. "

 

Um, allowing people to get the medication their doctors prescribed for them?

[StrangeSox]

"There are strong reasons to doubt whether the regulations were adopted for—or that they actually serve—any legitimate purpose. "

 

Um, allowing people to get the medication their doctors prescribed for them?

 

Hilarious contrast to his 50-page meltdown in the Texas HB2 case where the intentions of their regulations were both laughably obviously anti-abortion and obviously didn't serve any legitimate purpose. Alito's easily the biggest hack on the court.

[StrangeSox]

I'm eagerly awaiting the RNC this year. Most big-name GOP politicians have either outright declined or haven't been invited to speak, Trump may speak every night himself, and they're planning on having a "winners night" with "athletes and coaches"

 

Remember when we thought Romney's "the trees are just the right height" and Eastwood yelling at a chair were peak election absurdity? If we only knew...

Edited June 29, 2016 by StrangeSox

[GoSox05]

Mike Ditka introducing Donald Trump would be great.

[bmags]

Trump's been soliciting a bunch of foreign government reps for donations for some reason.

 

 

 

Clearly, the organizational genius behind this campaign should be put in charge of the executive branch of the United States government.

 

It's funny because they clearly just bought a bunch of list serves since the primary did not create a functional list of people for them to fundraise for.

 

It's not funny because in a normal campaign this would be deemed a malicious act, but because they are such a dumpster fire it is just ignored.

[StrangeSox]

Trump University isn't the only scam real estate 'school' Trump's been involved with:

 

Plagiarized Lessons and Deceptive Tactics: A Look Inside the Trump Institute

 

He poured his own money into Trump University, which began as a distance-learning business advising customers on how to make money in real estate, but left a long trail of customers alleging they were defrauded. Their lawsuits have cast a shadow over Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign.

 

But Mr. Trump also lent his name, and his credibility, to a seminar business he did not own, which was branded the Trump Institute. Its operators rented out hotel ballrooms across the country and invited people to pay up to $2,000 to come hear Mr. Trump’s “wealth-creating secrets and strategies.”

 

 

As with Trump University, the Trump Institute promised falsely that its teachers would be handpicked by Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump did little, interviews show, besides appear in an infomercial — one that promised customers access to his vast accumulated knowledge. “I put all of my concepts that have worked so well for me, new and old, into our seminar,” he said in the 2005 video, adding, “I’m teaching what I’ve learned.”

 

Reality fell far short. In fact, the institute was run by a couple who had run afoul of regulators in dozens of states and been dogged by accusations of deceptive business practices and fraud for decades. Similar complaints soon emerged about the Trump Institute.

 

Yet there was an even more fundamental deceit to the business, unreported until now: Extensive portions of the materials that students received after forking over their seminar fees, supposedly containing Mr. Trump’s special wisdom, had been plagiarized from an obscure real estate manual published a decade earlier.

 

Trump being exposed as a two-bit con artist slime ball is a nice side-effect of his narcissistic campaign.

[StrangeSox]

538's first election forecast started today. Hillary slightly about 80% chance of winning, Missouri is considered the closest toss-up state.

 

I'm guessing that Trump will get a small convention bump (barring anything absolutely ridiculous happening, which is gotta be a 50/50 shot), Clinton will continue to consolidate Bernie holdouts and improve her numbers to maintain a popular vote margin approaching 10 points, Trump will be declared the "winner" of the first debate no matter what to help feed a horse race narrative, and we'll get the biggest electoral blowout since Reagan in November.

 

edit: based on the current polls, which are somewhat reliable as we approach the conventions (where they drop off again in predictive powers for a few weeks), Texas is more likely to turn Blue than Florida is to turn Red this year.

Edited June 29, 2016 by StrangeSox

[bmags]

I don't know, it will normalize a bit. Any speech he doesn't fall on his face will be him "turning into a real candidate", and he has a real communications team now that apparently took away his twitter. People have dumb memories. But I expect him to still get at LEAST 45% unless we keep seeing 10% libertarian numbers.

[StrangeSox]

I don't know, it will normalize a bit. Any speech he doesn't fall on his face will be him "turning into a real candidate", and he has a real communications team now that apparently took away his twitter. People have dumb memories. But I expect him to still get at LEAST 45% unless we keep seeing 10% libertarian numbers.

 

He's been stuck around a 40% ceiling for a while now, and while his campaign is professionalizing a bit, they still have little funding and next to zero infrastructure going into July. He's also alternating between "presidential" scripted speeches and his usual manic rallies, and he still has at least some control over his own twitter (plenty of dumb stuff in the last couple of days).

 

 

 

In news related to the brexit thread and how there's no way racial rhetoric is becoming more widespread:

 

Jim Acosta ✔ @Acosta

Trump warm up speaker Howie Carr in Bangor: "You know Elizabeth Warren right? Woo woo woo (hand over mouth)."

2:51 PM - 29 Jun 2016

162 162 Retweets 102 102 likes

*rolls eyes so hard*

Edited June 29, 2016 by StrangeSox

[StrangeSox]

how Trump won the Republican primaries

 

[bmags]

He's been stuck around a 40% ceiling for a while now, and while his campaign is professionalizing a bit, they still have little funding and next to zero infrastructure going into July. He's also alternating between "presidential" scripted speeches and his usual manic rallies, and he still has at least some control over his own twitter (plenty of dumb stuff in the last couple of days).

 

 

 

In news related to the brexit thread and how there's no way racial rhetoric is becoming more widespread:

 

 

*rolls eyes so hard*

 

There is going to be an element of people telling the pollsters one thing and voting another way, guaranteed. Trump guilt.

[StrangeSox]

There is going to be an element of people telling the pollsters one thing and voting another way, guaranteed. Bradley effect.

 

Check out his speech today, more rambling nonsense, focusing on whether he played golf in Scotland, again bragging that he has less than 100 people on staff. He's been reduced to bragging about a poll because it shows him down only 2 points.

 

Trump supporters have tended to be loud and proud, and if anything, he typically under-performed primary polls.

Edited June 29, 2016 by StrangeSox

[StrangeSox]

Jesus christ

 

Jim Dalrymple II ✔ @JimDalrympleII

A plane just flew over Trump’s NH speech. He paused & pointed up. “That could be a Mexican plane up there. They’re getting ready to attack"

 

With video:

https://twitter.com/JimDalrympleII/status/7...src=twsrc%5Etfw

 

[pettie4sox]

lol I would love to be a fly on the wall at RNC headquarters right now.

[StrangeSox]

lol I would love to be a fly on the wall at RNC headquarters right now.

 

eta: trump responds to insane rambling question asking him to fire all Muslims from the border patrol and TSA with "we are looking into that"

 

 

Edited June 30, 2016 by StrangeSox

[pettie4sox]

 

eta: trump responds to insane rambling question asking him to fire all Muslims from the border patrol and TSA with "we are looking into that"

 

 

Good gracious... Time to make some easy money and bet the max on Clinton. He is horrendous.

[StrangeSox]

Obama signed the Puerto Rico debt rescue bill

[StrangeSox]

Lots of reporting out there that newt Gingrich is being seriously considered for vp.

 

Oh and the guy running the vetting process is the same guy who okay'd Palin

[Balta1701]

Lots of reporting out there that newt Gingrich is being seriously considered for vp.

 

Oh and the guy running the vetting process is the same guy who okay'd Palin

I like the Mike Pence report. They actually haven't gone out of their way to offend the gay community in this campaign yet while offending basically everyone else who isn't a straight white male, so he'd perfectly fill the role of checking that off the list.

[StrangeSox]

Trump points at man in crowd from Turkey and asks, "are you friend or foe?"

 

Don't worry, just a tiny minority of people are openly racist, and having the Republican presidential nominee saying garbage like this for months on end definitely has no effect.

 

Gotta ban the hibbi jabbies!

[StrangeSox]

I like the Mike Pence report. They actually haven't gone out of their way to offend the gay community in this campaign yet while offending basically everyone else who isn't a straight white male, so he'd perfectly fill the role of checking that off the list.

Is pence even really liked in Indiana?