Il Douché and His Discontents: The 2016 Primary Voting Thread, Part 4

would watch the best man with goole and alfred

have had empire in my amazon shopping cart for ~3 years. maybe now is a good time finally buy it.

you can buy shares that bernie won't be the dem nominee at predictit for 80c, which is insane, but with their $850 cap and 5% fee for withdrawals it's not really worth it. maybe if it goes down to 75c

unexpected post!

ha i thought i've been pretty clear that while i'm rooting for bernie i don't think it's likely he's gonna win. certainly his odds are worse than 4:1, however you feel about hm

wonkish doesn't mean "intellectual" it means obsessive about the details of policy. It is associated with a type of intelligence but not necessarily grand strategy, long view or vision.

i can buy that cruz is brilliant even though i've never been sadistic enough to seek out any evidence

i didn't just mean wonkish when i said bernie doesn't seem smart (although i find the 'don't ask for specifics, we're gonna figure out how to do it once we get elected' attitude arrogant and also weirdly lazy of the campaign? like there's tonnes of progressive/socdem policy people who could write him up some stuff, it's not like he's the first person to have thought of how to make college free or break up banks), to me he seems like an incurious old hippie. not an idiot, but just, you know, someone with a smug bumper sticker. like he believes in alternative medicine and shit. or like, despite being the guy who brings up the 1% at every opportunity i read somewhere some close friend of his saying he never read a page of Capital in the 21st Century and never would (ok granted it's a punchline how long and boring the book is but like, you could probably read the one book ever written that exists about the one topic you talk about, you know?)

it's awesome that an old hippie dude like that became senator and was on the right side of history while america was doing some dark shit, and he's a strangely enchanting orator who can bring a tear to my eye at his best. i don't think 'smart' is a necessary condition to be a politician, but it's definitely a quality i want leftist candidates to have. people already think all leftists are dumb idealists, i think it helps to have some public figures who can offset the image deficit. plus, like, we may just have one shot to bring social democracy to america, you don't wanna fuck it up

Admittedly this is one thing I do find frustrating about Sanders -- I think he IS smart enough to just suck it up and memorize a little more detail fed to him by policy people the way most candidates do it. The Daily News interview was frustrating, because it wasn't like his answers were really that bad if you dissected them but he sounded so unprepared on things that he actually DOES have opinions about. I don't actually care if he read Capital in the 21st Century (a lot of people who claim to have done so have only read small excerpts), but he could easily read a few articles about it and have some talking points.

I took what he said about too big to fail institutions, for example -- if you take out some confusion that was actually caused by the questioner moving the ball (he kept switching from the executive to the fed in a way that made no sense and did not respond to what Bernie was saying), his answer was perfectly right. But he does need to be able to do better on the spot answering -- I don't need him to be an expert on the details, many presidents and governors are not, but I kind of want to feel that he cares about knowing the details a little more.

Lol Trump

More and more thinking my comment way upthread about him being slightly W-like in his simplicity was right. And I don't think that's per se a bad thing -- W was, unfortunately, a very effective president in a lot of ways. I think Sanders has good instincts and common sense and the right beliefs, so I'm ok with him not knowing every detail of what a post-breakup JPMorgan Chase would look like, I just want him to try a little harder, at very least to quiet the doubters, since this is so obviously a weakness for his campaign.

ap call wisconsin for cruz

The Republican side is so uninteresting when Cruz does well.

AP calls Wisconsin for Sanders

That was painful. "This election is about God, freedom, and security." Give me Trump's bluster and complete lack of conviction about anything any day.

not an idiot, but just, you know, someone with a smug bumper sticker. like he believes in alternative medicine and shit.

tbh i think that he kind of does? seems irrelevant but i think there's some stuff he said and wrote about it back in the day that the republicans would happily circulate if they had a reason to

he's said some dumb shit about medicine but nothing that would ever hurt him in an election

not an idiot, but just, you know, someone with a smug bumper sticker. like he believes in alternative medicine and shit.

tbh i think that he kind of does? seems irrelevant but i think there's some stuff he said and wrote about it back in the day that the republicans would happily circulate if they had a reason to

― arts and crafts THIS GUY (daria-g)

the GOP believes in alternative medicine too: if you're poor and have no insurance, you die.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CfU0WeJWwAACw8z.jpg

oh man. where to start? way to assume the nomination belongs to your campaign and thus the voters who voted against you are helping to "steal" it.. accusations of illegal coordination with a super PAC like it's no big deal.. also is "whomever" the correct usage here, I don't think it is?

a neurosurgeon running for the GOP's nomination for president couldn't even bring himself to defend the childhood vaccine schedule, these people arent drawing those kinds of lines in the sand xxp

As someone who rode the Obama Birther movement to political prominence, Trump understands how to speak to conspiracy theorists. This just shows his allegiance to his roots.

'You Might Very Well Be the Cause of Cancer': Read Bernie Sanders' 1970s-Era Essays

i'm sure there's plenty more where this came from and nobody has really done anything with it in the primaries because tbh who cares, but i do think it would hurt him in a general election

Every time things don't go Trump's way, his reactions force me picture him in short pants and a beanie, his face turning red, a lolly in his hand, as he stamps his foot and squeals "Not fair! Not fair!" over and over, a thin trickle of urine running down the inside of his right leg and collecting in his shoe.

is not having read capital in the 21st century really such a big deal for bernie? and is piketty really the whole field of 'economic stuff bernie talks about'? can't immediately find it now but i recall reading something about how his financial policies had been influenced by certain heterodox economists

also is "whomever" the correct usage here, I don't think it is?

it isn't, because it's the subject of the clause "whoever is the Democratic nominee"

seriously. "steal the nomination" which he hasn't won yet
and every team who pulls off a 4th quarter comeback steals the game right

i'll admit say that a lot of that shit is pretty embarrassing -- especially the water fluoridation crap, yeesh -- but i don't really buy that it'd be a big deal in an election. it would be a part of a larger narrative of him being a crazy lefty, sure, but i don't think this kind of stuff would really move the needle much by itself

except for the new jersey generals xp

As I mentioned elsewhere in one of these threads, the 30 For 30 documentary about the USFL and Trump buying the Generals and ultimately destroying the league should be required viewing for anyone considering voting for him.

I really can't imagine 40-year-old essays (or 20-year old essays, or...essays in general) being a thing anyone cares about but who knows

bernie wrote all that stuff so long ago that i think he could plausibly dismiss it as silly stuff he thought when he was younger -- and most of it probably is.

kind of wondering why trump is so pleased with himself for calling ted cruz "lyin' ted".. okay stopped wondering a few seconds later when i realized the answer is that trump isn't very bright..
cruz doesn't strike me as particularly a liar? his creepiness and horrendous policy ideas are right there out in the open?

xpost the other stuff is way weirder than the water fluoridation! maybe since i've been exposed to a fair amount of new age garbage (i go to a lot of yoga classes), i find it v maddening when people don't believe in science

man i hate to say it, but if hillary wrote even one of those the internet would go completely batshit

having worked in the health care field in VT for a couple of years i definitely know bernie (like most vermonters) to be generally sympathetic to alternative medicine. and as someone relatively hostile to that field it's not something i'm particularly happy about, but the policy effects are relatively minor

Trump's "Lyin' Ted" thing comes from Cruz's campaign calls during the Iowa caucuses claiming that Ben Carson was dropping out of the race.

bernie's quackery from 40 years ago >> hillary's super-predator rhetoric from 20 years ago

tbh i was chill about alternative medicine nonsense too until i heard from totally well-educated, upper middle class friends that some of their totally well-educated, upper middle class friends were not vaccinating their children.

well that and yoga teachers saying stuff like recovering from postpartum depression and similar maladies was about choosing to be happy, and other yoga teachers advocating for homeopathic remedies for actual injuries, and such.

basically sometimes i think it can be dangerous

yeah i just rolled my eyes at the fluoridation thing in particular because it's such a typical lefty science denier thing, and such a dumb thing to be against. tho given bernie's good-government views i'd be shocked if he still held those views xxp

"super-predator rhetoric" ie one comment she made one time, back when the crime bill in question had near universal support?
or did she give a speaking tour about super predators that i missed, i'm open to new info

http://www.oregonlive.com/today/index.ssf/2016/04/wisconsin_primary_live_updates_1.html

"We will disclose the hotels and the room numbers of those delegates who are directly involved in the steal," he told a radio interviewer on Monday. And he will send Trump supporters to those rooms.

motherfucker it isn't a steal it's the goddamn rules the Republicans agreed on during the 2012 RNC (that will likely change again), ffs you don't own shit. you don't like it, form your own damn party.

cruz doesn't strike me as particularly a liar?

he is a horrible, well-practiced liar and prevaricator.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/01/ted_cruz_may_be_the_most_gifted_liar_ever_to_run_for_president.html

having worked in the health care field in VT for a couple of years i definitely know bernie (like most vermonters) to be generally sympathetic to alternative medicine. and as someone relatively hostile to that field it's not something i'm particularly happy about, but the policy effects are relatively minor

― k3vin k., Tuesday, April 5, 2016 11:03 PM (5 minutes ago)

i should clarify that i mean that policy effects visavis alternative medicine BERNIE has been involved with are relatively minor -- things like expanding access to acupuncture at the VA and stuff. not that anti-science policies in general are harmless

when a girl pushes aside all that her mother has 'taught' her and accepts her boyfriend's love

28-year old Bernie comes across as a tad bit sad here

kind of wondering why trump is so pleased with himself for calling ted cruz "lyin' ted".. okay stopped wondering a few seconds later when i realized the answer is that trump isn't very bright..

I think it's partly because when he flings shit it often sticks. He could just as easily have said "Oily Ted" or "Loser Ted" or "Flip-Floppin' Ted," "Small-Dicked Ted," "Canadian Ted," or whatever. Whether it fits Cruz particularly doesn't matter. The point is that it gets remembered and repeated.

Someone arbitrarily gave me a nickname in high school - it wasn't insulting or demeaning, just an arbitrary bit of goofiness - and the ONE person from my high school who went to my college happened to be one of the people who knew about it. Hence it lived for years longer than it should have, just because sometimes nicknames are viral like that.

looks like bernie is gonna rack up a 13ish point win tonight

xxxpost there are moments where I hear Trumpers rattling on about Cruz's infidelities and I have to remind them of their own candidate's fling with Marla Maples when I realize "Goddammit you cumstains, you're actually making me defend Ted Cruz right now" (insofar as "ad hominem tu quoque counts as a 'defense' I guess)

xpost acupuncture is cool though. some of the stuff i support, don't get me wrong. would totally try acupuncture if i had a need, i've heard good things.

do a lot of people have a knee-jerk tendency to defend cruz against accusations of infidelity because it's way more upsetting to believe them. i don't mean politically i mean like ew gross no way

"super-predator rhetoric" ie one comment she made one time, back when the crime bill in question had near universal support?
or did she give a speaking tour about super predators that i missed, i'm open to new info

― arts and crafts THIS GUY (daria-g), Wednesday, April 6, 2016 3:09 AM (4 minutes ago)

did bernie sanders give a speaking tour about alternative medicine and water fluoridation? as opposed to making some questionable statements back in the late 60s/early 70s when that nonsense was everywhere

Sanders’s indulging of the anti-science/anti-GMO crowd (or the extent to which he’s part of that crowd) is the principal thing that gives me pause about his candidacy. franklym it’s a rank embarrassment.

oh no another DISASTROUS WIN for Bernie

lol you guys always throwin the dirt on

btw W is smarter than most of us

also i think i made it to p 150 of Piketty (the graphs helped)

"you guys" - this phrase does a /lot/ of work in your posts

i voted for bernie btw