2016 US Presidential Election Pt. III

[Moonlit_Angel]

Originally Posted by corianderstem

Now, however, he will comment on stuff like that saying "well, maybe this isn't true, but boy isn't it a terrible idea if it IS true???"

So it's come to that line of thinking for some voters now? That's depressing.

I have a cousin who, according to my sister, likes to post a LOT of anti-Obama stuff on Facebook. Fortunately, since I'm, like, hardly ever on there, I get to bypass it. But my mom, sister, and I definitely stick out in our family, as most of our relatives lean conservative. My mom's talked about how she's had to bite her tongue sometimes during phone calls with her brother and sister.

Originally Posted by anitram

Carly Fiorina is a pathological liar. She honestly frightens me more than the rest of them.

She's very terrifying. She almost makes me long for the hilarity that is Sarah Palin.

Almost.

Originally Posted by Mack_Again

Only thing that I truly remember from Republican thing is all cringeworthy; like Trump's everything, Ted Cruz' weird videos with families, Jeb! disappearing, etc.

On the note of Ted Cruz, I've seen mention of that clip of him making bacon with a machine gun or something like that, and seriously, what in the hell is that all about? Why does he think that makes him look like some sort of cool, macho badass? It's so stupid.

[Headache in a Suitcase]

This is pretty much what Boehner just threw up his hands and gave up

Just have to hope that the end result of this idiocy is a split in the party with the more moderate Republicans breaking off, picking up a few centrist democrats and some independents, and forming a viable third party.

For the life of me I can't understand why being fiscally conservative means that you have to also be a homophobic racist douchebag with a closet full of guns; but I guess that's what the GOP is going for.

[Irvine511]

happy holidays, everyone!

Diane Farmer, 54, is a lifelong Democrat from the New York City area now living in Palm Beach County, Fla. She attended Catholic schools and later belonged to unions while working for a phone company and then in a court clerk’s office. She voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. But Farmer says she’s never been more excited about a candidate than she is this time. Her choice? Donald Trump.

The convert to Trumpism shared her enthusiasm while stopping by glitzy Trump Tower on New York’s Fifth Avenue to pick up her fifth “Make America Great Again” cap (free with every $30 campaign contribution). “What he’s saying is what everybody’s thinking,” she said. “Too many people are getting free stuff. We should send the illegals out of the country. I want them off welfare and food stamps. Go home, and come back again when you’re ready to work.” As for the Middle East: “We should have dropped the bomb and ended the issue. We need to annihilate that, uh ...,” she said, trailing off.

This holiday season, Trump’s glowing fireplace of fury is firing up people like Farmer who used to look to the left—as well as a surprisingly wide swath of the Republican Party—for answers. He’s scoring his highest numbers ever among Republican primary voters—35 percent, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. Enthusiasm for him only grew after he called for a ban on Muslims entering the country. To some, he seems divisive, but not to Farmer. “I thought Obama would be a unifier since he’s black and white and Muslim [sic]. But he’s an antagonizer,” she said. “We need to try something different. We can’t live like this.”

Yup, it’s an angry Christmas, and it’s worth thinking about why. Something has changed to create such a shift in the public’s leanings, from taking a chance on Obama’s audacity of hope to delighting in Trump’s straight-up audacity. Fear of Islamic terrorism has something to do with it. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that achieved approximately nothing and the stunning rise of China as a rival power have also left many Americans feeling confused and vulnerable. But the most potent fuel for Trumpism is undoubtedly the sick economy. A long stretch of underperformance has seeded mistrust in the American Dream among millions of would-be breadwinners, especially people without college educations.

As everyone knows by now, a winner-take-all economy is producing big gains for a thin stratum at the top but little for anyone else. Bernie Sanders likes to point out that the top 10th of 1 percent of families control as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. The inflation-adjusted income of the median American household is lower now than in 2000. On average, young men are earning less after inflation than their fathers did at the same age. More than a fifth of American children live below the poverty line, according to Census Bureau data. Even though the unemployment rate is down to 5 percent and the last recession ended in 2009, 72 percent of Americans think the country is still in a recession, according to a Public Religion Research Institute survey released last month.

This isn’t good for business, which is getting targeted for blame: Eighty-six percent of respondents in the PRRI survey said corporate offshoring of jobs is somewhat or very responsible for America’s economic troubles, up from 74 percent in 2012.

Two kinds of populists come to the fore when anger over inequality and perceived injustice runs high, says Luigi Zingales. An Italian-born economist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and author of the 2012 book A Capitalism for the People, Zingales says Theodore Roosevelt represents the best kind of populist: someone who fought corruption and broke up monopolies to give ordinary people a chance. Trump, says Zingales, is more about affixing blame than creating opportunity. He likens him to Silvio Berlusconi, the freewheeling media magnate who was elected prime minister of Italy four times but was ultimately convicted of tax fraud. Trump and Berlusconi, Zingales adds, “are both very good at talking to the stomach of the people.”

The erosion of trust that’s both reflected in and accelerated by the Trump phenomenon has real economic consequences. Business is hard to conduct in societies with low levels of trust. The share of people who agree that “most people can be trusted” varied from a high of 66 percent in the Netherlands to a low of 3 percent in Trinidad and Tobago in the World Values Survey, 2010-14. Government and commerce can grind to a halt when trust is absent.

The U.S., with 35 percent saying most people can be trusted, is in the top third of countries for societal trust, which helps explain why it is one of the world’s richest nations. That endowment of stability doesn’t come with a lifetime guarantee, however, and U.S. politics has lately taken on a spiteful cast. “While Americans are inclined to ‘hedge’ expressions of overt animosity toward racial minorities, immigrants, gays, or other marginalized groups, they enthusiastically voice hostility for the opposing party and its supporters,” according to Fear and Loathing Across Party Lines: New Evidence on Group Polarization, a study by Stanford political scientist Shanto Iyengar and Princeton postdoctoral researcher Sean Westwood that was published this year in the American Journal of Political Science. In four experiments, the authors found that discrimination based on political affiliation “exceeds discrimination based on race.”

Marriages across party lines are down to below 10 percent from more than 30 percent in the 1960s, Iyengar says, citing others’ research. The fabric of society is fraying. “I don’t want to sound like I’m an alarmist, but I could see the possibility of violence, large-scale street movements which are politically motivated,” he says in an interview.

Congress isn’t helping matters, because it’s even more polarized than the society it’s supposed to represent. The result is debt-ceiling brinkmanship and repeated stalemates over legislation. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed with the votes of 73 percent of Democrats in the Senate and 94 percent of Republicans, a fairly narrow partisan gap. In contrast, the Affordable Care Act of 2010 passed with the support of 100 percent of Senate Democrats and zero percent of Republicans, notes Michael Cembalest, chair of market and investment strategy at JPMorgan Chase.

Trump complicates the polarization story because he draws support from some disaffected Democrats, like Farmer. But that might simply mean that the political parties themselves are realigning. The free-trade and open borders philosophy of pro-business Republicans is not, to say the least, on the rise.

Absent another Teddy Roosevelt riding into town, there’s no easy solution for what ails the country. The hard solution is to rebuild trust by fixing the economy so it works for everyone. But turning things around will require everyone working together. Which isn’t happening because, well, Americans no longer trust each other. There’s the dilemma in a nutshell. Happy New Year!

Why This Year’s Christmas Season Is So Angry - Bloomberg Business

[Moonlit_Angel]

“I thought Obama would be a unifier since he’s black and white and Muslim [sic]. But he’s an antagonizer,” she said. “We need to try something different. We can’t live like this.”

Sooooooooooooo...they're disappointed that Obama didn't unify the country, and that's why they're voting for Trump, because they think he will?

Eh?

(We won't even get into this lady's claim that Obama is a Muslim.)

Originally Posted by Headache in a Suitcase

For the life of me I can't understand why being fiscally conservative means that you have to also be a homophobic racist douchebag with a closet full of guns; but I guess that's what the GOP is going for.

This is my question, too.

If this is the sort of shit that Boehner walked away from, that actually makes me respect him a little more. Any Republican/conservative worth their salt should be deeply embarrassed by this crop of candidates, and the voters who support their outlandish excuses for policies.

[BigMacPhisto]

Originally Posted by Headache in a Suitcase

I'm thinking more and more that Chris Christie is gonna pull a John Kerry. Sit steadily just outside the leaders and watch them knock each other out. Go out and win New Hampshire and get a big push from Uncle Mo as the top three rip each other's stupid heads off.

It's certainly possible. He's one of the only four with a chance now (along with Trump, Rubio and Cruz) as I now consider the Jeb! campaign to be finished after this last debate and his poll numbers now barely hovering above people like Huckabee and Fiorina.

[BigMacPhisto]

Originally Posted by Headache in a Suitcase

For the life of me I can't understand why being fiscally conservative means that you have to also be a homophobic racist douchebag with a closet full of guns; but I guess that's what the GOP is going for.

Because without the white trash vote, they'd never contend in any elections. How are you going to sell people on something that caters exclusively to the interests of the rich?

It's the same reason why right-wing parties rarely ever hold power in European countries...the public knows better and only turn rightward after something major happens like the recent global economic crash or a bubbling under resentment of immigrants and/or fear of terrorism. Without these wedge issues like abortion and "states rights!" it becomes pretty apparent what they're all about.

[trojanchick99]

[Bluer White]

Originally Posted by anitram

Carly Fiorina is a pathological liar. She honestly frightens me more than the rest of them. Maybe it's because her face doesn't move. She must be using Nicole Kidman's botox guy.

I get the joke. Even like it

Get back to me when Mrs. Clinton's physical attributes are fair game.

[Mrs. Garrison]

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Originally Posted by BigMacPhisto

Because without the white trash vote, they'd never contend in any elections. How are you going to sell people on something that caters exclusively to the interests of the rich?

Because that's not really true in every example. You can be a socially conscious fiscal conservative. It you can be fiscally conservative and be a cunt.

You can be Mike Bloomberg and be very kind to developers and the financial district, and at the same time spend more money on programs for the social good than every other mayor in new york city history combined (and match it with your own wealth).

Flip it to the other side - it biggest causes of our financial crisis, the cancelation of Glass-Steagall and the housing bubble - were enacted by a popular Democratic president / future first man.

Our biggest problem in this fuck hole of a country is our complete and utter inability to compromise on ANYTHING.

Anyone who is willing to take a little from here and a little from there is squeezed out, no matter what party he's in. If he's a Republican they're called a closet liberal, and vice versa. It's kinda why we suck.

Compromise. Not a dirty word.

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Originally Posted by Headache in a Suitcase

“So, Admiral Ackbar, what do you think of Cruz emerging as a more level-headed alternative to Trump?”

Originally Posted by trojanchick99

[DaveC]

I knew I'd seen that somewhere before.

[Mack_Again]

New Yorker Cartoon is politicized as hell nowadays.

[corianderstem]

I love the joke that you can take any New Yorker cartoon and replace it with the caption "Christ, what an asshole" and it works in some manner.

[Mack_Again]

Am I the only one whose favorite New York Cartoonist is Roz Chast?

[Irvine511]

Originally Posted by corianderstem

I love the joke that you can take any New Yorker cartoon and replace it with the caption "Christ, what an asshole" and it works in some manner.

That, or, "Hello. I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn."

[corianderstem]

Speaking of, there's a documentary on HBO this month about the New Yorker cartoons.

Also, in today's FUCK YOU, DONALD TRUMP news:

To start the call, Mika Brzezinski asked Trump if he liked the endorsement (Putin had called Trump “very talented” on Thursday).

“Sure, when people call you ‘brilliant’ it’s always good. Especially when the person heads up Russia,” Trump said.

“Well, I mean, it’s also a person who kills journalists, political opponents, and invades countries,” Joe Scarborough countered. “Obviously that would be a concern. Would it not?”

“He’s running his country and he’s a leader,” Trump said. “Unlike what we have in this country.”

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/18/po...tin/index.html

[BVS]

It makes this post even more relevant:

Originally Posted by Oregoropa

It's appealing on the right in lieu of Obama's professorial parsing statements that sometimes are void of emotion. Not saying they're bad in substance, but stylistically Trump is the opposite in machismo.

There are Americans who admire the Putin machismo and symbolic presence he projects. Ride now it looks like he is running train on the world stage.
Attachment 10505

Now Trump supporters want that eagle back.

Attachment 10506

I apologize to those offended by this image haha




Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

[BoMac]

Genies are a threat to national security and must be stopped:

Poll: 30% of GOP voters support bombing Agrabah, the city from Aladdin | US news | The Guardian

[BigMacPhisto]

Really doesn't look like we're going to have anymore dropouts until right around Iowa. I imagine about a week before when someone like Santorum realizes they aren't gaining any traction that they'll call it a day and endorse somebody else and, of course, many others will pack it in after losses in Iowa and/or New Hampshire. Just baffling that so many of these losers think they can right their ship over the next six weeks.