Buttload of Faith: the 2016 Presidential Primary Thread (Pt 2)

plenty of ways to get delegates that aren't related to primary/caucus votes

all of which I can't really imagine Trump succeeding at - dude's a populist not an apparatchik, so he either wins primaries/caucuses or its over

yeah i wasn't arguing that was a way for the Howling Rug to sneak in

rubio comes off plenty hapless to me

if anyone's gonna exploit non-primary/caucus delegate commitments it's gonna be Cruz

if a state's Repubs does give Big T 50% or more, i think it should be called "buying the pink rug"

nh went for buchanan twice so i can totally see trump taking it. evangelicals a bigger factor in iowa (ask jimmy carter) which is probably one reason cruz has been able to pick up the carson voters.

trump doesn't have to take 50% of contested delegates fwiw though i do think if he doesn't have the majority and there's someone near him (esp if it's rubio) the superdelegates will throw it to someone/anyone else. good lord imagine the fallout and the carnage.

lookin forward to it tbh

Trump is so hated by the GOP they'd find a way to ratfuck him out of the nom but he ain't gonna win it anyway. anomalies be damned.

At a friend's housewarming party on Saturday I hung out with a longtime bro who works for HRC's campaign. According to their "numbers," only Rubio worries them a bit.

I reminded my friend, who unlike me was born in Cuba, that Rubio will be hated by every other Spanish-speaking minority.

i'm guessing Sanders just drew a knowing chuckle

he doesn't do "chuckles"

*bass solo*
https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fi.kinja-img.com%2Fgawker-media%2Fimage%2Fupload%2Fs--QsNxXhZS--%2Fc_scale%2Cfl_progressive%2Cq_80%2Cw_800%2F18sjq33uxink6jpg.jpg&f=1

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CVpwUqxVAAAv-kZ.jpg

still haven't had a moment to ask a Trump supporter when they felt America was last truly great, and whether this greatness has slowly bled off or if there was a singular moment of transition

i'm not sure how i'd answer that question myself. is America "great" right now? no. when was it last great? i don't know...i guess it was never great.

Make America Great For The First Time

america is exceptional and only became not-quite-great seven years and one month ago obvs

it was great when Trump's dad was getting fed handouts for his building projects

yeah idk I think "greatness" is wrapped up in this whole idea of exceptionalism and drum-beating nationalism and patriotic bullshit

"make america an even better place to live" doesn't have much of a ring to it, though

mookie might be on to something

You'd get a lot of "America was great in WWII" answers, overlooking the fact that during WWII the government ran almost everything, controlled wages, prices and rationed most commodities.

but we did bomb a lot of ppl

http://www.pcdon.com/Waving_Flag_on_3D_Pole-160x120.gif

Clinton wrote an op piece for the NYT today: "How I'd Rein In Wall Street"

someone report

left out the g

reign, more likely, right

omg I think I just Morbsed myself

we're all morbs today

she ain't no g

xxxpost

man

went to get yer story for you morbz and the times BREAKING NEWS banner popped back up again to reiterate

Donald J. Trump has called for the United States to bar all Muslims from entering the country for the time being 3:49 PM

anyhoo the tail end of hilz' op-ed goes

My comprehensive plan has already won praise from progressives like Sherrod Brown and Barney Frank. Here’s what it would do.

First, we need to further rein in major financial institutions. My plan proposes legislation that would impose a new risk fee on dozens of the biggest banks — those with more than $50 billion in assets — and other systemically important financial institutions to discourage the kind of hazardous behavior that could induce another crisis. I would also ensure that the federal government has — and is prepared to use — the authority and tools necessary to reorganize, downsize and ultimately break up any financial institution that is too large and risky to be managed effectively. No bank or financial firm should be too big to manage.

My plan would strengthen the Volcker Rule by closing the loopholes that still allow banks to make speculative gambles with taxpayer-backed deposits. And I would fight to reinstate the rules governing risky credit swaps and derivatives at taxpayer-backed banks, which were repealed during last year’s budget negotiations after a determined lobbying campaign by the banks.

My plan also goes beyond the biggest banks to include the whole financial sector. Some have urged the return of a Depression-era rule called Glass-Steagall, which separated traditional banking from investment banking. But many of the firms that contributed to the crash in 2008, like A.I.G. and Lehman Brothers, weren’t traditional banks, so Glass-Steagall wouldn’t have limited their reckless behavior. Nor would restoring Glass-Steagall help contain other parts of the “shadow banking” sector, including certain activities of hedge funds, investment banks and other non-bank institutions. My plan would strengthen oversight of these activities, too — increasing leverage and liquidity requirements for broker-dealers and imposing strict margin requirements on the kinds of short-term borrowing that also played a major role in spurring the financial crisis. We need to tackle excessive risk wherever it lurks, not just in the banks.

Second, I would appoint tough, independent regulators and ensure that both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are independently funded — as other critical regulators are now — so that they can do their jobs without political interference. I would seek to impose a tax on harmful high-frequency trading, which makes markets less stable and less fair. And we need to reform stock market rules to ensure equal access to information, increase transparency and minimize conflicts of interest.

Finally, executives need to be held more accountable. No one should be too big to jail. I would seek to extend the statute of limitations for major financial crimes to 10 years from five and enhance rewards for whistle-blowers. I would work to ensure that financial firms admit wrongdoing as part of settlements in instances of egregious misconduct, and increase transparency about the terms of settlement and the fines actually paid to the government. Fines should be more than just the cost of doing business to these companies — they should be an effective disincentive for illegal behavior.

And it shouldn’t just be shareholders and taxpayers who feel the pain when banks make bad decisions; executives should have skin in the game. When a firm pays a fine, I would make sure that the penalty cuts into executives’ bonuses, too. And I would fight to close the carried interest loophole that gives some fund managers billions of dollars in tax breaks: They should be taxed like every other citizen.

Republicans may have decided to forget about the financial crisis that caused so much devastation — but I haven’t. The proper role of Wall Street is to help Main Street grow and prosper. When our financial sector works the right way, it helps families buy their first homes, entrepreneurs start and grow small businesses and hardworking Americans save for retirement. Rather than pursuing the kind of high-stakes speculation that devastated our economy before, Wall Street should focus on building an economy that creates good-paying jobs, rising incomes and sound investments so that more families can achieve the security of a middle-class life.

xp yeah, me too.
i have to think this is trolling now, it's too completely insane.

http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/12/07/donald-trump-calls-for-banning-muslims-from-entering-u-s/?module=Notification&version=BreakingNews®ion=FixedTop&action=Click&contentCollection=BreakingNews&contentID=55556649&pgtype=article

“Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life,” he said.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Trump confirmed the authenticity of the statement. Asked what prompted it, Mr. Trump said, “death,” according to the spokeswoman.

well then we better ban high blood pressure too then Donald

font looks familiar

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CVp3MbGUAAA2Hxr.jpg

Death is the name of his dog

a modest proposal

"My proposal would be so modest. You watch!"

'mohammed was a loser, there aren't even any good pictures of him'

grossness of any such proposal aside, how do you determine if someone is a muslim? the japanese internment camps were one of the worst missteps ever enacted, but it was based on someone being an immigrant or a descendant of an immigrant from a particular country, something that could theoretically be checked via records

other than "you're a muslim if you admit you're a muslim, or we SAY you're a muslim" how would this even work?

"i'm coming from saudi arabia and i'm an atheist" declaration seems like it'd be a way around any such ban, but...

yeah it is utterly useless.

surely we can devise some tests, let's get to work

1) ask them to face Mecca. If they face in the correct direction they are obviously not American.

plus the obvious next step is to round up muslims, because why would you stop letting muslims in if you're not going to do anything about the ones that are already in etc etc

what a gesticulating sack of crap

A spokeswoman for Mr. Trump confirmed the authenticity of the statement. Asked what prompted it, Mr. Trump said, “death,” according to the spokeswoman.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/donald-trumps-call-to-ban-muslim-immigrants/419298/

roundup of insta-reax

Rand Paul tried to introduce a bill preventing anyone from 33 countries including the UAE, Iran, Russia, Turkey, Kuwait, Indonesia and Nigeria from entering the U.S. last week so I'd imagine Trump's proposal would be an extension of that.

When asked by The Hill whether that would include Muslim-American citizens currently abroad, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks replied over email: "Mr. Trump says, 'everyone.'"

has Trump even read the First Amendment

really wish my goddamn friend would stop posting OMIGOD THE HORROR posts on Facebook. That's what this imbecile wants.

*friends