U.S. Elections: The Narcissist and the Nineteenth Amendment

[Ormond]

Another thing to admire about Michelle Obama:

http://www.npr.org/2016/10/13/497817419/michelle-obama-trump-comments-have-shaken-me-to-my-core

 

 

[Lany Freelove Cassandra]

5 minutes ago, Ormond said:

Another thing to admire about Michelle Obama:

http://www.npr.org/2016/10/13/497817419/michelle-obama-trump-comments-have-shaken-me-to-my-core

 

 

I was nearly in tears listening to her speech.

[Mlle. Zabzie]

She really is good.

Separately,  just for the record, Marc Kasowitz, to my best knowledge, is an a$$.  He is known to run his firm as a petty kingdom (basically, the only other person who is a true "partner" there, at least by reputation, is Hector Torres).  Having known people who work there, including at the income partner level, and heard stories, it surprises me NOT AT ALL that he has taken this representation.  That said, I completely live in a glass house, because if I listed the companies and people that we represent y'all would probably ban me, at least from this thread.

[MerenthaClone]

Just now, Mlle. Zabzie said:

She really is good.

Separately,  just for the record, Marc Kasowitz, to my best knowledge, is an a$$.  He is known to run his firm as a petty kingdom (basically, the only other person who is a true "partner" there, at least by reputation, is Hector Torres).  Having known people who work there, including at the income partner level, and heard stories, it surprises me NOT AT ALL that he has taken this representation.  That said, I completely live in a glass house, because if I listed the companies and people that we represent y'all would probably ban me, at least from this thread.

I hope not.  Reprehensible people deserve good, competent legal care just like they deserve other human and civil rights.  

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

I cannot believe the hypocrisy of Trump supporters. I've seen so many Trump surrogates today on the T.V. saying that we know Bill Clinton is a rapist who sexually assaults women because we've heard from women who've come forward and told their stories, but we have to ignore the women coming forward saying the same thing about Trump because it's an obvious political hit job and they're lying liars who lie. 

[Maithanet]

Good news is that Trumps support is really cratering in the past two weeks.  It seems like every day there is another devastating poll.   In the past two days we've seen:

Michigan - Clinton +10 and Clinton +12

Florida - Clinton +6

Pennsylvania - Clinton +9

New Hampshire - Clinton +11

Ohio - Clinton +9

Now yes, I'm cherry picking a little, those are the better polls for Clinton.  But when the "good" polls for Trump are Clinton +3 in Florida or +1 in North Carolina, that is really a bad state of affairs (for him).  Early voting has already started, and will really get going over the next week. 

 

[Maithanet]

double

[Dr. Pepper]

26 minutes ago, Lany Freelove Cassandra said:

I was nearly in tears listening to her speech.

Same, I was choked up.  None of the kids in my house are old enough to understand but I had them listening anyway.  

Michelle Obama has slayed it with the speeches this season.  

[alguien]

I wonder if Michelle would ever consider running for office? I remember one of her professor's mentioning once that between her and Barack, he always thought she'd be the one to run for public office. 

[Fez]

9 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

Good news is that Trumps support is really cratering in the past two weeks.  It seems like every day there is another devastating poll.   In the past two days we've seen:

Michigan - Clinton +10 and Clinton +12

Florida - Clinton +6

Pennsylvania - Clinton +9

New Hampshire - Clinton +11

Ohio - Clinton +9

Now yes, I'm cherry picking a little, those are the better polls for Clinton.  But when the "good" polls for Trump are Clinton +3 in Florida or +1 in North Carolina, that is really a bad state of affairs (for him).  Early voting has already started, and will really get going over the next week. 

 

The good poll for Trump today is him back to +1 in Ohio from NBC (Plus Raz showing him +2 nationally, but I'm fairly certain they make up their numbers). Which isn't much, but its not like every poll has gone into blowout territory.

[IheartIheartTesla]

I wish Michigan had early voting so I could be done with this election.

As I have mentioned before, I am more interested in Snyder's super-majority being eliminated this election. It might actually happen that the state House will flip, but it might depend slightly on the coattails of the Presidential election.  There has been little attention paid to the states local elections which will also be crucial to the agenda of of whoever is in the White House.

[butterbumps!]

I know this is well-trodden territory but.....

@briantw said in the previous thread

Quote

I honestly don't see how anyone could support Trump at this point.  The sad part is that Hillary really isn't much better.  She's certainly the lesser of two evils here, but the lesser of two evils is still evil.  It really is a shame the DNC fucked over Bernie Sanders, because it would have been great to have a president who actually does things because he wants to serve the people.

I find these sorts of comments incredibly disturbing, as they don't simply drag Hillary down (which I wouldn't take issue with).  Creating these sorts of false equivalences and referring to both as "evil" also serves to normalize the incompetent orange imbecile.    His enormities are just too far beyond the pale for comments like these, and these equalizations are very grating to me.

But comments like this are incredibly common, and I wonder if the breakdown is in perception, or simply communication.  In the event what you typed (or anyone who has said similar) is not truly how you honestly feel, reframing it something like "Hillary is really far from the sort of person I'd like to support" seems much more productive and accurate to the situation.   

[OldGimletEye]

Just a little more on Republican Responsibility for Creating Donald Trump

Soon after the economy imploded the Republicans went around trying to push the story that the CRA was responsible for causing the economy to implode. I think Rush Limpdick repeated that story incessantly. According to Republicans the CRA, by trying to help minorities, evidently, was responsible for the financial implosion.

Trouble was is that the CRA story never had much empirical support. It was largely a figment of the Republican Party’s mind.

But, even if the CRA story were true, it seems that would pose some theoretical problems for the way the Republican Party likes to think about markets. If the CRA was actually causing Banks to give out riskier loans, then why wasn’t that risk priced into MBS’s?

Now maybe the CRA story wasn’t entirely motivated by racism as it was partly due to the Republican Party’s unwillingness to change their views about how markets and financial markets might actually work. Whatever the precise reason, I’m pretty sure the CRA story helped to create the idea in some people’s minds that minorities or, at least programs meant to help them, was responsible for the crash.

And if course there was always the accusations of Obama being “the food stamp president” which I’m pretty sure had some racial connotations. And then the whole birther thing.

So yeah, I’m not inclined to let the Republican Party just walk away from this thing and say,”it wasn’t us man!” without saying, “get back here”.

[Ariadne23]

This whole video today from Anonymous about a video of Bill Clinton via Jeffrey Epstein is bullshit or at least hyperbolic yeah? I mean it also says Epstein is an Israeli agent and Clinton's team intentionally helped Trump become the Republican nominee to avoid Bill's Epstein issues since he's a shared connection, so it's wrapped in at least a little tin foil right? 

[briantw]

15 minutes ago, butterbumps! said:

I know this is well-trodden territory but.....

@briantw said in the previous thread

I find these sorts of comments incredibly disturbing, as they don't simply drag Hillary down (which I wouldn't take issue with).  Creating these sorts of false equivalences and referring to both as "evil" also serves to normalize the incompetent orange imbecile.    His enormities are just too far beyond the pale for comments like these, and these equalizations are very grating to me.

But comments like this are incredibly common, and I wonder if the breakdown is in perception, or simply communication.  In the event what you typed (or anyone who has said similar) is not truly how you honestly feel, reframing it something like "Hillary is really far from the sort of person I'd like to support" seems much more productive and accurate to the situation.   

I meant exactly what I said.  Hillary Clinton is a terrible candidate for president.  She'd be damn near unelectable in a general election if she were going against anyone other than the guy that will probably go down as the worst presidential candidate in American history.  Hillary is corrupt to the core and a criminal.  She's bought and paid for by rich corporations and serves their best interests, not the best interests of the American people (which, to be fair, is a charge that could be leveled at a lot of politicians on both sides of the aisle).  She's actively targeted and tried to suppress the voices of women who were raped or assaulted by her husband (who she has stood by to advance her political career) in the past while trashing Trump for the same types of illicit activities.  She's definitely committed obstruction of justice by deleting emails after she was subpoenaed, and she admitted to that in the most recent debate.  Her and her husband used their foundation to exploit Haiti while it was in crisis and make money for her rich friends.  She worked under the table with the DNC to ensure that Bernie Sanders didn't get a fair shake and to make sure that she was the candidate for president this year.  And those are only the tip of the iceberg that is Hillary Clinton.  

Pretending that Hillary is anything other than the lesser of two evils is covering up for her many sins.  She's not a good person.  She's a career politician who has cared about little other than advancing herself and her own best interests throughout her career.  She's a public servant who has served herself and her rich friends rather than the public, and will continue to do so when she's president in a few months.  She's lied and cheated and covered things up and continues to do so, and she got a pass from the FBI for something any normal person would have been imprisoned for.

Again, I think Trump is a worse person and candidate and would have been an abject disaster as president, but Hillary is absolutely the lesser of two evils here.

And lest you think I'm some bitter Republican pissed that my party is imploding, I'm a Democrat and have never been registered as anything other than a Democrat in the fifteen years (approximately) that I've been eligible to vote.  Hillary Clinton, to me, represents everything wrong with American politics and the direction the Democratic Party has been heading.  It's just a shame that the Republican Party has gone completely batshit insane the past ten to fifteen years and can't nominate someone who is fucking sane enough to win a general election.

[The guy from the Vale]

@kairparavel

I've spent the last few days incessantly listening to the Hamilton soundtrack. The idea of HRC as a Miranda-esque Burr, with Trump a far darker version of LMM's Hamilton, makes a ton of sense to me. Or, as he said during his SNL skit:

 

Quote

But if you get to New York, please come and see Hamilton. It's such a nice escape from all the craziness in our world right now. It's about two famous New York politicians locked in a dirty, ugly, mud-slinging political campaign. Escapism!

 

[Zorral]

1 hour ago, Dr. Pepper said:

Same, I was choked up.  None of the kids in my house are old enough to understand but I had them listening anyway.  

Michelle Obama has slayed it with the speeches this season.  

She was nearly in tears -- there were tears in the First Lady's voice for certain.  O I'm going to miss her, the first First Lady with whom I have ever felt any identification personally.

Women everywhere are starting to trigger with memories of sexual abuse with this endless drumbeat of the orange stalin howling about Clinton being a rapist.

There are voices that would really like the third so-called debate canceled.  We all know what this is now.  There are no more surprises here.  The shame of our nation is seen globally.  Why feed into it.  What I think personally about this suggestion, I don't know.  Is there any election law in either party's national committee about such a thing?  Debates of this nature are rather new thing, going back to Kennedy - Nixon, I think.  Of course long ago there were the Douglas - Lincoln debates.

 

 

[mormont]

I think, on the 'just as bad' front, we sometimes need to remind ourselves about just how bad Trump actually is.

Racism. Incitement to violence. Mocking the disabled. Refusing to publish tax returns. 'Blood coming out of her wherever'. More racism. Mocking prisoners of war. A clearly bogus medical report. Reacting to a terror attack with a tweet saying 'appreciate the congrats for being right'. Mocking women's personal appearance. Lies about 9/11. More racism. Lauding torture - not as a technique for getting information but as an end in itself. Threats to the free press. More incitement to violence. Baseless accusations about electoral fraud. Equivocating about white supremacist support. Speaking in favour of nuclear proliferation. Insinuations about the sitting President. Attacks on a Gold Star family. Bragging about sexual assault. And all of it larded with lie after lie after lie. Not just lies: great, big blatant lies, denying that he said or did things that are indisputably on the record.

ETA - I haven't even covered half of Trump's campaign, here. And any one of these would have sunk any other politician's career for good, this shit is what Trump's run is actually based on.

Clinton isn't perfect. But I have yet to see or hear any accusation against her that is unique or even unusual in a person who has a long political career. She's made mistakes and misjudgments. But they're mistakes and misjudgments that are typical of many male politicians, none of whom get vilified the way she does. Put a male candidate with Clinton's record against Trump and there would be none of this 'just as bad' stuff going on.

[OnionAhaiReborn]

 

How Evan McMullin Could Win Utah And The Presidency

It would take a fascinating scenario — in which much of the technical detail of how we select presidents comes into play — for McMullin to be sworn in as the 45th president, but the chances of its happening are slim, not none. Indeed, his chances of at least making things very interesting may be as high as 1 to 3 percent — about the same as the odds of the Cubs’ coming back to beat the Giants on Monday.

...

The idea that an independent candidate could swoop in to win has been largely dismissed, on the grounds that any conservative-leaning third-party candidate would be more likely to hurt Trump than Clinton, thus making a Clinton victory more likely. But McMullin may have one advantage that other second-tier candidates do not: Utah.

His path to the presidency basically looks like this:

1. Win Utah

2. Deadlock the Electoral College

3. Win in the House

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

3 minutes ago, mormont said:

I think, on the 'just as bad' front, we sometimes need to remind ourselves about just how bad Trump actually is.

Racism. Incitement to violence. Mocking the disabled. Refusing to publish tax returns. 'Blood coming out of her wherever'. More racism. Mocking prisoners of war. A clearly bogus medical report. Reacting to a terror attack with a tweet saying 'appreciate the congrats for being right'. Mocking women's personal appearance. Lies about 9/11. More racism. Lauding torture - not as a technique for getting information but as an end in itself. Threats to the free press. More incitement to violence. Baseless accusations about electoral fraud. Equivocating about white supremacist support. Speaking in favour of nuclear proliferation. Insinuations about the sitting President. Attacks on a Gold Star family. Bragging about sexual assault. And all of it larded with lie after lie after lie. Not just lies: great, big blatant lies, denying that he said or did things that are indisputably on the record.

You forgot that he doesn't seem to know anything about how the government works. Kind of a big deal.....