Curb Your Authoritarianism? The 2016 Conventional Wisdom Thread (Elections, Part 6)

http://i.imgur.com/XfytbaM.jpg

Sen. Dole, Robin Dole, Shirley Temple Black

I'm glad the millions of government money spent on investigating Benghazi makes night 1 dope as fuck

Ain't No Party Like A Benghazi Party...

yeah, they sure do start off with a bang, huh

whatever leftover underdog appeal tebow had left in my heart has turned to dogshit

Night 1: A Benghazi focus, followed by border patrol agents and Mr. Shaw, whose son was killed by an undocumented immigrant.

this is just incredible

it's like the stones bringing out stevie wonder

actually didn't this happen at altamont

I'm totally fine with disliking both candidates and therefore not voting but this is definitely the clearest case of "lesser of two evils" as there will ever be in my lifetime (for the record, I think Hillary will be just fine)

― frogbs

honestly this election for me has revealed the limitations of the "lesser of two evils" voting policy. because i look at all the republicans advocating voting for trump on the grounds that he's the "lesser evil" and i think, boy, that's just the wrongest thing i can possibly imagine. it's not merely that they're factually wrong in calling him the "lesser evil". saying these things exposes the moral corruption inherent in giving one's endorsement to someone you truly believe is a terrible person.

people who believe sec. clinton is evil should not vote for her. i think they should strongly challenge their assumptions as to why they believe that, but if your options are two people you strongly believe to be evil, non-participation in the process is an ethical option.

for the record, i do not believe sec. clinton is evil.

Yeah it's incredibly frustrating - people dislike Hillary because she's a corporate shill (whatever that means), meanwhile their candidate is actively pursuing his business interests while running for office, and frequently boasts about not paying taxes and dicking over his business partners. They talk about how they "just don't trust her", while supporting a candidate who literally just makes shit up on the spot, with Politifact ranking 75% of his statements as False (that number rises to 90% if you include the ones ranked "Half True"). The Jim Jeffries bit where he describes Trump as being like a kid running for class president..."We're gonna have two lunches...and a soda machine in every room!!" is so spot on. I mean if you cut all the bullshit and just look at the facts - Hillary mostly tells the truth and has gotten great marks when she's been on the job. Our country is by nearly every metric better off now than it was 8 years ago. I really do not understand what people voting for Trump actually think he's going to do in office.

Establish a Department if Ultimate Fighting?

Hillary mostly tells the truth and has gotten great marks when she's been on the job

lie la lie

lol

https://www.propublica.org/article/what-newt-gingrich-really-thinks-of-donald-trump

lol

https://www.propublica.org/article/what-newt-gingrich-really-thinks-of-donald-trump

― frogbs

fuck. guys, you're supposed to release this _after_ trump names him as his veep!

americans are going to look back on the email scandal + wonder wtf they were thinking when they invested so much attention + concern into it. they're a bunch of easily manipulated dupes who think that they're savvy, cynical operators.

she definitely took a hit in the polls but with these news cycles it will be forgotten about soon enough .

I'm guessing that without the email scandal people would sub in something else, right? Like it serves as an outlet for natural distrust.

the fact that Trump has anything more than an outsider shot is still legitimately terrifying, though

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/15/us/politics/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-poll.html?_r=0

Mrs. Clinton’s six-percentage-point lead over the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump, in a CBS News poll last month has evaporated. The two candidates are now tied in a general election matchup, the new poll indicates, with each receiving the support of 40 percent of voters.

media is pretty disingenuous too - cherrypicking polls to make the race look closer and more dramatic than it is to sell clicks. but i guess we knew all this going in. still disappointing to see NYT do huffpost level analysis w/ the veneer of sophisticated gray lady.

A how-to manual:

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/election-update-when-to-freak-out-about-shocking-new-polls/

looks like Trump's support isn't going up, rather Clinton's supporters are jumping to 3rd parties

so should clinton be focusing her efforts on gary johnson?

http://worldif.economist.com/article/12166/world-v-donald

RBG just apologized for her comments, god damnit

Guessing this means Donald flipping out and acting like a child is gonna be vindicated

I've seen a lot of friends-of-friends flipping from Bernie to Johnson in the past few days. It's weird and dumb.

i find the bernie-johnson flip useful because it indicates what percentage of bernie supporters don't actually believe in any of bernie's policies, but were only supporting him because of personal animosity against clinton. looks like roughly a third or so.

johnson is getting more support than stein right now because johnson, unlike stein, is a professonal politician. of course that means that he could be undermined fairly easily just by pointing out his history as a republican. anybody whose support is based on who they're not tends to suffer when it becomes apparent who they are.

Also, in fairness, penis.

new board decription

It's not that different from our current board description!

i find the bernie-johnson flip useful because it indicates what percentage of bernie supporters don't actually believe in any of bernie's policies, but were only supporting him because of personal animosity against clinton

i've found that a number of bernie supporters are not necessarily animated entirely by clinton animus (though that's likely present) but by not necessarily progressive ideologies, such as 'anger at the establishment' (in which case even a switch to trump is possibly justifiable), social libertarianism (pot smokers), anti-war/anti-imperialism (the last two both make sense switching to johnson), anti-status quo/accelerationism, and even special snowflakeism (in which case opposition to mainstreamism is the animating factor). i think it's dumb to go from bernie to johnson or trump bc it indicates a lack of substantive ideology/policy but there are somewhat understandable reasons.

"i find the bernie-johnson flip useful because it indicates what percentage of bernie supporters don't actually believe in any of bernie's policies, but were only supporting him because of personal animosity against clinton. looks like roughly a third or so."

I think personal animosity is maybe a reach (although I'm sure there is some). At least a portion of that support is equivalent to Perot's for example which had more to do with perception that he was "more independent" or "not status quo" than it did with any specific policy positions. Same for the Trump frankly.

basically the grown-up voters are going to have to take the reigns to keep trump out of power. unfortunately there are a lot of people in this country who aren't mature enough to make political decisions that will maintain stability, keep the economy somewhat running, make even incremental steps towards preserving the environment, etc. luckily the latter group are not the likeliest voters. if you hate the system and want it destroyed/think it's completely corrupted, generally you're less likely to participate in it.

the grown-up voters the grown-up votersthe grown-up votersthe grown-up votersthe grown-up votersthe grown-up votersthe grown-up votersthe grown-up votersthe grown-up votersthe grown-up votersthe grown-up votersthe grown-up votersthe grown-up votersthe grown-up votersthe grown-up votersthe grown-up votersthe grown-up votersthe grown-up votersthe grown-up votersthe grown-up votersthe grown-up votersthe grown-up votersthe grown-up votersthe grown-up votersthe grown-up votersthe grown-up votersthe grown-up votersthe grown-up voters

right, not you

http://www.rollcall.com/mike-pence-chosen-as-trumps-v-p-nominee/

lol site swamped

boring

nice shitty choice. not sure what voters he expects Pence will help him pick up.

And all the McNuggets Christie fetched were for naught

i wonder what their source is.

this tweet from paul manafort was minutes ago:

https://twitter.com/PaulManafort/status/753626002056622080

Re: @realDonaldTrump VP selection, a decision will be made in the near future and the announcement will be tomorrow at 11am in New York.

i'm bummed, i was pulling for newt

fuck, now indiana is going to be stuck with an even worse governor. god dammit.

Pence is such a boring choice. Sad!

m yglesias is speculating about tom vilsack for vp. well it would make my parents happy.

Aaaaand Jesse Ventura comes out in support of Gary Johnson:

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/13/jesse-ventura-why-im-voting-for-libertarian-candidate-gary-johnson-for-president-commentary.html

W. Post also talking Agriculture Secretary Vilsack with Clinton too

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2016/07/14/daily-202-keep-an-eye-on-tom-vilsack-in-hillary-clinton-s-veepstakes/57870a37cd96926bdf4092b6/

no newt? looks like I got the copyright on "All Wives Matter" for nothing.

roflz

Jesse Ventura: Still Alive!

mike penis more like amirite