2016 Presidential Race

[The Sybian]

A FB "friend of a friend" posted this. And, I'm somewhat shocked that most people in the comments loved it. Yikes.
The Biblical Case for Voting for Donald Trump

I hope you find this study as useful as I did. Unfortunately, there will likely be legalists who take issue with the integrity of my exegetical conclusions here. If that’s you, I just want you to know that before I wrote this I prayed about it. And I feel really good about where I’m at right now.

that made me laugh

That left me so confused. Further proof that Conservatives can't do satire. Reading through, I kept thinking that the guy in no way tied the Bible quotes to Trump. Like saying "choose the lesser of two evils," but not saying or implying Trump is less evil or more evil. Maybe if I knew the guy was anti-Trump, I would have realized what he was going for. I started to read through the comments to figure out if this was a horrible attempt at satire, or a complete lack of logic. It seems half the commenters didn't realize he wasn't serious. My favorite comment was that the GOP and Conservative media have given Obama a complete pass for 7.5 years, and full out attacked Trump. One comment said it was great, considering the author, so I googled and see he is a RW radio guy who announced he left the GOP because he hates Trump.

[Johnnie]

[rass]

https://vine.co/v/5AFAzwhubeZ

[Ryan]

There's some damn good comedic timing buried in that discarded Syracuse mascot suit sometimes

[Johnnie]

It's about fucking time he said something.

[howard]

One of the most amazing differences is how the stars and influential people get involved with the political cycle in the USA…

Is that what the kids are calling it nowadays?



(just playing, you make a good point. As long as I'm playing, didn't Maggie have a thing with Ted Kennedy?)

[sancarlos]

Ronnie Wood says he did her.

[Johnnie]

From the same speech with the baby incident:

This is fucking infuriating. I don't know how to not overreact to this.

[howard]

let me make a serious point, which is really important for our society to recognize (although I won't be holding my breath, they'll eventually get it.)

Trump is going to get whopped in the general election there is no doubt. But how did he win the Republican primary? That's what gets me.

That's a novel in and of itself, but there's a lot of reasons.

Here is one big one (or two). There are two important institutions in our nation, each independently should have never let this happen. Their failure to perform the important function of preventing a hopeless assclown from getting this close to the presidency is not a sudden fault or flaw. This inexcusable failure only illustrates their complete bankruptcy and uselessness, which must be admitted by our society or thing will get even worse. Such a catastrophic failure so vastly overcomes whatever 'good' that may be argued that they do completely irrelevant. These two institutions are fit only for extinction, or such radical reformation as to render them completely unrecognizable from their current evil, bastardized form. As unrecognizable as they are today from their form just a few decades ago.

The Republican Party. The news media. Failure.

Time to replace, and yes, my dear boy, history proves they are eminently replaceable. Of course, they will not go quietly or quickly, but they are going.

Soon to be gone, but not soon enough for me. Hopefully soon enough to prevent further catastrophic failures, but not much hope for that from me. Until then, I'll just continue to see them as they are, along with all the other institutions of democracy which are in varying states of failure and decay.

[brian]

From the same speech with the baby incident:

This is fucking infuriating. I don't know how to not overreact to this.

I don't know how anyone currently serving or who has served could see that and even consider voting for him. I just don't get it.

[howard]

[Johnnie]

I don't know how anyone currently serving or who has served could see that and even consider voting for him. I just don't get it.

Literally only it's because he's "not Hillary." That's it. He's a Republican who isn't Hillary. He could have sacrificed that crying baby while wearing that purple heart and he's still get the vote.

The GOP has this lock on most military minds because "democrats = evil." I experienced it heavily in Louisiana and Arizona. White Christian males are just victimized, man. It's those fucking liberals taking their rights away.

If it weren't for military rules prohibiting me from going apeshit on social media or otherwise, I would have been far more vocal. Instead I'll share the occasional Duffel Blog article and photo of my travels so I don't get in trouble.

[The Sybian]

Doubling down on the attacks!

I can't even begin to explain how horrible the conspiracy leaps are here. Hogan Lovells in the merger of Hogan Hartson (one of the biggest international firms based in DC), and Lovells, one of the biggest London based firms. According to the Wikis, they are the 11th biggest law firm in the world, so of course you can find clients based in the Middle East. The firm has 2,500 attorneys, there are a hell of a lot of matters going on in the firm, but the evil Mr. Khan is automatically tied to every potentially suspicious client? The firm did work for people tied to the Saudi government? Hogan Lovells specializes in government law and lobbying, of course they handled political issues.

But the kicker? Khan wasn't even an attorney. He was an IT guy. How the fuck to they tie in an IT guy to evil conspiracies?

Although he did not practice law while at Hogan, Khan was well versed in understanding the American courts system. On Thursday night, he described his late son dreaming of becoming a military lawyer.”

His son wanted to be a JAG attorney, so he is well versed in the law? Holy fuck. Does being "well versed in the court system" mean shit wrt shady ties to Saudis? And Khan only worked there from 2000-2007. They are connecting him with clients the firm handled after he left his position as an IT guy! Oh, it gets worse.

“Many lawyers at Hogan Lovells remember the week in 2004 when U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan lost his life to a suicide bomber,” Polantz wrote. “Then-Hogan & Hartson attorneys mourned the death because the soldier’s father, Khizr Khan, a Muslim American immigrant, was among their beloved colleagues.”

Colleagues mourned a coworker's son being killed 12 years ago, so that means he has "deep ties" connecting him to conspiracies between the Clintons? Then they bring up that the Clinton's hired an attorney from Hogan to prepare their taxes during the years Khan worked at Hogan. So their tax attorney is tied to the IT guy in a different practice group, in a different office, and somehow links Khan to the Clintons 9 years later? Even if he was linked somehow, that does nothing to change the fact that his son, a Muslim immigrant, died in Iraq.

The worst part, most people who accept Breitbart as legit news will believe this hodge podge of gibberish somehow makes Khan implicit in scandals between the Saudis and Clintons. My brain fucking hurts. Goes to Newt's point, facts aren't important, it's how you feel. This article makes it feel like Khan is evil, so what that there are absolutely no facts to support this feeling.

[brian]

I think at least #1 is a slam dunk.

[EnochRoot]

let me make a serious point, which is really important for our society to recognize (although I won't be holding my breath, they'll eventually get it.)

Trump is going to get whopped in the general election there is no doubt. But how did he win the Republican primary? That's what gets me.

That's a novel in and of itself, but there's a lot of reasons.

Here is one big one (or two). There are two important institutions in our nation, each independently should have never let this happen. Their failure to perform the important function of preventing a hopeless assclown from getting this close to the presidency is not a sudden fault or flaw. This inexcusable failure only illustrates their complete bankruptcy and uselessness, which must be admitted by our society or thing will get even worse. Such a catastrophic failure so vastly overcomes whatever 'good' that may be argued that they do completely irrelevant. These two institutions are fit only for extinction, or such radical reformation as to render them completely unrecognizable from their current evil, bastardized form. As unrecognizable as they are today from their form just a few decades ago.

The Republican Party. The news media. Failure.

Time to replace, and yes, my dear boy, history proves they are eminently replaceable. Of course, they will not go quietly or quickly, but they are going.

Soon to be gone, but not soon enough for me. Hopefully soon enough to prevent further catastrophic failures, but not much hope for that from me. Until then, I'll just continue to see them as they are, along with all the other institutions of democracy which are in varying states of failure and decay.

Set aside the obvious decay of the Republican Party....Can you expound on your thoughts re: News Media?

I've long since held the belief that the news media has also failed us. Frankly, it's a dinosaur in the face of social media. While hope and change took to social media in '07 and catapulted an otherwise qualified man to the presidency, this time it's a vastly more sinister, contemptuous flip-side that's taken hold, attempting to elect an eminently unqualified man to the presidency. The news media is powerless to stop it, except document it all along the way.

[DSafetyGuy]

The news media undertook a major shift when they started being owned by publicly traded corporations whose primary goal was to make money. Trump became a ratings magnet, so networks started booking him solely to boost their ratings so they could charge more for advertising rates.

Sybian wrote upthread that "Once he started saying crazy shit and inciting violence at his rallies, he (Trump) started getting a ton of media coverage. I saw a calculation monetizing the amount of free media attention, and it was astronomical. No idea how they came up with the figure, but he got more air time than anyone else by a long shot."

I saw a graphic about it during the primaries and think that calculation was based on valuing Trump's total airtime as if commercial time had been purchased. His air time was valued at more than the next three or four candidates combined.

[EnochRoot]

The news media undertook a major shift when they started being owned by publicly traded corporations whose primary goal was to make money. Trump became a ratings magnet, so networks started booking him solely to boost their ratings so they could charge more for advertising rates.

Sybian wrote upthread that "Once he started saying crazy shit and inciting violence at his rallies, he (Trump) started getting a ton of media coverage. I saw a calculation monetizing the amount of free media attention, and it was astronomical. No idea how they came up with the figure, but he got more air time than anyone else by a long shot."

I saw a graphic about it during the primaries and think that calculation was based on valuing Trump's total airtime as if commercial time had been purchased. His air time was valued at more than the next three or four candidates combined.

Thanks for the clarification. I'm going to go hug my dog.

[howard]

Can you expound on your thoughts re: News Media?

Hey he asked.

I promise, promise, I will be super brief. Two part answer.

Part one. The major media, now with ownership concentrated in a small number of huge corporations, functions as nothing more than propaganda arms of those extremely powerful corporations, serving above all else preservation of the status quo. A status quo of continual concentration of wealth and power by those few corporations and their partners (banks, wall street, etc.) Even the Washington Post is owned by Bezos. Since the New York Times sounded the battle cry for war in 2003, led by Judith Miller's lies about Iraq, it has been an obvious truth, getting worse each year.

The coincidental occasional reporting of the truth about this or that only serve to provide a barely plausible deniability. Or an accident of incompetence; I haven't fully decided.

The march to war with Russia, begun with the tsunami of lies about the Ukraine situation two years ago, continuing with the 'Putin hacked the DNC' bullshit is the most deadly and dangerous project, aside from the larger economic theft.

Part two. On a much lower level of function, they treated Trump as a ratings getter, and packaged coverage of him like all the other entertainment functions of media. (Thank you Roone Arledge, you started this shit with Nightline, turning the news division into another Wide World of Sports/Monday Night Football production company. But I digress and in the effort to tie this all to sports, I'm getting wordy.) All they cared about was getting headlines and eyeballs regarding Trump. True journalists, and there were/are plenty all around the web, appropriately treated Trump in one or more appropriate manners; as a fucking joke, and any one who seriously supported/voted for him likewise a fucking joke; or as below deserving of serious attention because of his vast well of disqualifying characteristics; or, simply hammering over and over the litany of well-documented facts from three decades as a public figure the true nature of Trump; or best of all approaches to the story, by treating seriously the deep frustration and anger of the otherwise pretty reasonable millions of Americans, frustrated and angered by how horribly fucked up things in this country really are, between war and wall street. Frustrated and angered to the degree that they seriously consider and end up voting for Trump (or a wild-haired Socialist Jew from Brooklyn.)

That is the biggest failure, yet it is a feature, not a bug. Serving the mission to preserve the rotten status quo. Ignore the valid and real frustration and anger; paint it as a bunch of ignorant racist redneck bubbas (or unrealistic naive spoiled entitled millennial Bernie Bros) whom irrationally reject the 'things are just fine, vote for more of the same' crap we are being fed.

What Brexit, Trump and Saunders tell us, when you severely restrict the options for expressing the conclusion that things are fucked up and bullshit, for election cycle after cycle, by limiting the choices to no choice at all, when offered a horribly flawed option but a true option that clearly expresses rejection, the people will use it to express their rejection. If you make peaceful, rational change impossible, you make radical, revolutionary, and irrational change inevitable, to paraphrase. And we will see plenty more, restriction and reaction.

Of course the media did what they did, and does what they does.

Hope that isn't too wordy or repetitive, but it's has the virtue of accuracy.

[EnochRoot]

Can you expound on your thoughts re: News Media?

Hey he asked.

I promise, promise, I will be super brief. Two part answer.

Part one. The major media, now with ownership concentrated in a small number of huge corporations, functions as nothing more than propaganda arms of those extremely powerful corporations, serving above all else preservation of the status quo. A status quo of continual concentration of wealth and power by those few corporations and their partners (banks, wall street, etc.) Even the Washington Post is owned by Bezos. Since the New York Times sounded the battle cry for war in 2003, led by Judith Miller's lies about Iraq, it has been an obvious truth, getting worse each year.

The coincidental occasional reporting of the truth about this or that only serve to provide a barely plausible deniability. Or an accident of incompetence; I haven't fully decided.

The march to war with Russia, begun with the tsunami of lies about the Ukraine situation two years ago, continuing with the 'Putin hacked the DNC' bullshit is the most deadly and dangerous project, aside from the larger economic theft.

Part two. On a much lower level of function, they treated Trump as a ratings getter, and packaged coverage of him like all the other entertainment functions of media. (Thank you Roone Arledge, you started this shit with Nightline, turning the news division into another Wide World of Sports/Monday Night Football production company. But I digress and in the effort to tie this all to sports, I'm getting wordy.) All they cared about was getting headlines and eyeballs regarding Trump. True journalists, and there were/are plenty all around the web, appropriately treated Trump in one or more appropriate manners; as a fucking joke, and any one who seriously supported/voted for him likewise a fucking joke; or as below deserving of serious attention because of his vast well of disqualifying characteristics; or, simply hammering over and over the litany of well-documented facts from three decades as a public figure the true nature of Trump; or best of all approaches to the story, by treating seriously the deep frustration and anger of the otherwise pretty reasonable millions of Americans, frustrated and angered by how horribly fucked up things in this country really are, between war and wall street. Frustrated and angered to the degree that they seriously consider and end up voting for Trump (or a wild-haired Socialist Jew from Brooklyn.)

That is the biggest failure, yet it is a feature, not a bug. Serving the mission to preserve the rotten status quo. Ignore the valid and real frustration and anger; paint it as a bunch of ignorant racist redneck bubbas (or unrealistic naive spoiled entitled millennial Bernie Bros) whom irrationally reject the 'things are just fine, vote for more of the same' crap we are being fed.

What Brexit, Trump and Saunders tell us, when you severely restrict the options for expressing the conclusion that things are fucked up and bullshit, for election cycle after cycle, by limiting the choices to no choice at all, when offered a horribly flawed option but a true option that clearly expresses rejection, the people will use it to express their rejection. If you make peaceful, rational change impossible, you make radical, revolutionary, and irrational change inevitable, to paraphrase. And we will see plenty more, restriction and reaction.

Of course the media did what they did, and does what they does.

Hope that isn't too wordy or repetitive, but it's has the virtue of accuracy.

Thanks. I think it's a matter of unchecked capitalism, where we've simply got too much money in the hands of the few. Wedge issues pop up each election cycle. And the parties would have it no other way.

[Pruitt]

One of the most amazing differences is how the stars and influential people get involved with the political cycle in the USA…

Is that what the kids are calling it nowadays?



(just playing, you make a good point. As long as I'm playing, didn't Maggie have a thing with Ted Kennedy?)

Here's our former first lady showing off some Canadian beaver.

[howard]

I used to be a big fan of capitalism. Basically a true believer. Despite reading Marx's critiques when I was young (college). But, after seeing all the shit of the last 10 years, and re-reading Marx, I've drastically changed my views. I still fully reject Marx's prescription, but damn if his diagnosis isn't spot on.

The flaws of capitalism I used to think were avoidable by an enlightened democracy. The description of those flaws as inevitable is confirmed more and more each year.

I haven't thrown in the towel on capitalism, but I am the product of a period of and geographic location of history that was consistently moving toward enlightenment. Until it reversed and started moving the other direction, coincident with concentration of wealth, power and weakening of democratic features in our republic. I still think sound money would avoid at least some of the concentration of wealth processes, if not drastically slow the process, as well as address some of the other stark failures of capitalism.

Lots of smart folks declared capitalism a failure in the 1930s. Then we had these decades where it was great to be an American, (even a black, brown or female American) rendering such judgments wrong. Now we have this, and such judgments may have only been premature.

Of course, without specific definitions of capitalism, democracy, liberal enlightenment these discussions can quickly go off the rails. But in general terms, yeah I agree there are aspects of capitalism currently unchecked, which had been checked in the pretty recent past. Whether those checks were doomed to eventually fail, or they were ignorantly removed by us the people and could be put back in place, I'm not sure.

[The Sybian]

Here's our former first lady showing off some Canadian beaver.

So that's the hole your current PM crawled out of, eh?

[EnochRoot]

I used to be a big fan of capitalism. Basically a true believer. Despite reading Marx's critiques when I was young (college). But, after seeing all the shit of the last 10 years, and re-reading Marx, I've drastically changed my views. I still fully reject Marx's prescription, but damn if his diagnosis isn't spot on.

The flaws of capitalism I used to think were avoidable by an enlightened democracy. The description of those flaws as inevitable is confirmed more and more each year.

I haven't thrown in the towel on capitalism, but I am the product of a period of and geographic location of history that was consistently moving toward enlightenment. Until it reversed and started moving the other direction, coincident with concentration of wealth, power and weakening of democratic features in our republic. I still think sound money would avoid at least some of the concentration of wealth processes, if not drastically slow the process, as well as address some of the other stark failures of capitalism.

Lots of smart folks declared capitalism a failure in the 1930s. Then we had these decades where it was great to be an American, (even a black, brown or female American) rendering such judgments wrong. Now we have this, and such judgments may have only been premature.

Of course, without specific definitions of capitalism, democracy, liberal enlightenment these discussions can quickly go off the rails. But in general terms, yeah I agree there are aspects of capitalism currently unchecked, which had been checked in the pretty recent past. Whether those checks were doomed to eventually fail, or they were ignorantly removed by us the people and could be put back in place, I'm not sure.

I'm not going to pretend to know the answer to your last query...But I will add to your words that the greatest boon to American prosperity: the middle class, was largely brought about by arguably the most socialist act in United States history: the G.I. Bill.

[Pruitt]

Here's our former first lady showing off some Canadian beaver.

So that's the hole your current PM crawled out of, eh?

She may have been a crazy stoner, but she gave birth to 2 sons on Christmas Day.

Incroyable!

[P.D.X.]

So it begins.

[howard]

[EnochRoot]

So it begins.

I want to give Obama credit somehow for getting out in front of this by calling on the GOP to do the right thing.

Because by doing that, he's effectively hemming them into their commitment to Trump.

This is hilarious.

[Johnnie]

The RNC stuck its dick in crazy. And now crazy is pregnant.

John Oliver was pretty good this week too, btw:

[rass]

[howard]

I'll watch this one:

[The Sybian]

I've been a huge fan of watching clips of her making a fool of herself, blatantly lying and making up facts, showing a complete lack of understanding basic concepts and complete ignorance of major issues. I've spared you all, and haven't posted (m)any clips, but you have to see this video of her on CNN. She is so far off the rails the CNN hosts were left speechless at the end. I think the wheels have finally come off the Trump Train.

[EnochRoot]

I've been a huge fan of watching clips of her making a fool of herself, blatantly lying and making up facts, showing a complete lack of understanding basic concepts and complete ignorance of major issues. I've spared you all, and haven't posted (m)any clips, but you have to see this video of her on CNN. She is so far off the rails the CNN hosts were left speechless at the end. I think the wheels have finally come off the Trump Train.

I saw this go down this AM. The guest on the left (don't know his name or position, but it's presumably Clinton-related), summed it all up quite succinctly for everybody.

Another guy equally galling?

Rick Scott, Governor of FL.

[Johnnie]

That's what a Facebook flame war looks like in real life.

Except at some point it gets to ad hominems and Godwin's law.

This woman is disgusting and worse than Michelle Malkin and Anne Coulter could ever be.

[Ryan]

Luckily she looks pretty swarthy so there's no way his supporters even pay attention to her

[degenerasian]

Insane last 24 hours

[rass]

And since then there has been the Joe Scarborough nuclear thing and the reported pending GOP intervention.

[DaveInSeattle]

A quick look at RNC headquarters:

[Pruitt]

Wow, just wow.

I don't think I have ever heard a more incompetent spokesperson in my life. Is she a volunteer, or does she actually collect a salary.

Someone should tell her that it is not pronounced "eye-rack." And that - on top of her beyond clumsy attempts at spin and obvious lying - a phrase such as "You can't put the onerus on Donald Trump" doesn't inspire confidence.

I look forward to hearing more from this bitter sorority girl.

Terrible quality of the video, but listening to her, I was reminded of this guy.

[P.D.X.]

That WaPo interview is gold.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the ... now-about/

(Couldn't help reading it imagining Trump talking like Larry David's Steinbrenner)

[Pruitt]

That WaPo interview is gold.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the ... now-about/

(Couldn't help reading it imagining Trump talking like Larry David's Steinbrenner)

Whoa! Does he maybe think that being President is just a gig? Something he can do while still running his other businesses. Like being on "The Apprentice?"

Also got to say that the sexual harassment comments that dribbled from his maw (and were later doubled down on by one of his spawn) are among the most offensive things I have ever heard.

Guarantee that all of us know at least one or two women who have experienced this stuff. These people are unbelievable.