I will keep doing, but not worth it! The 2016 Presidential Primary Voting Thread

i just think the democrats could run a family of possums stuffed in a gym bag and beat trump, he's a truly awful general election candidate

I missed this joy from earlier

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/ted-cruz-ad-porn-actress-219170

im looking at the 2012 map and there are a few states that were decided by a fewer than 5% margin of victory.

obama's were ohio, florida, colorado (barely), virginia
romney had north carolina

gop would have to swing all those obama states (and keep nc) to win. trump ain't winning colorado.

if cruz is the nominee, it's hard to see him winning ohio. florida, maybe.

Trump or Cruz is not winning Florida.

skimming that paglia thing, i realize she reminds me of this line from the pilot of twin peaks, in re. weathermen:"Diane, if you can get paid to be wrong 50 percent of the time … now that's working!"

The GOP convention is the third week of July. The vote is in November. I feel very comfortable in saying that Cruz or Trump would say a number of things in that amazing span of time to really turn off most of the general voting population, whether or not this country is center right or it isn't.

Of course, George W. Bush took the medal not once, but twice. So, who even fucking knows.

george w. was just bumbling, he'd be the moderate candidate running right now

like, he was a term and a half governor of a giant state and son of a former pres. he was the "compassionate conservative", "uniter, not a divider". ppl liked him. trump and cruz are wholly different political animals.

Trump or Cruz is not winning Florida.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, February 11, 2016 11:26 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i legitimately trust your judgment on all things florida, so this makes it even more of a shut case for the dems

Trump even tries to show his ass in O-Town, I'ma flatten him with a golf cart

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ca_VGjeWEAAplCO.png

makes u think

who do i have to vote for to get the "humanity is doomed but my administration will invent the space ark and colonize distant planets" policy? gingrich?

― Mordy, Wednesday, February 10, 2016 11:45 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

way behind on this, but

http://www.zoltanistvan.com/

http://www.transhumanistparty.org/TranshumanistBillofRights.html

lol @ sady doyle disingenuous deflection

Watched a bit of the debate last night. It's a tough choice on foreign policy, two competing strains of ignorance. Not sure I'm comfortable with either as CIC, though Clinton's potential behavior is more predictable (and more of the same).

BTW, is ISIS really a threat to the US, or just US interests? Because if random small scale shootings are our bar, we clearly have no ability to or interest in seriously curtailing those. But does ISIS aspire to larger scale violence here, that we know of?

The range of presidential behavior on 'foreign policy' in the permanent war economy seems quite limited to me.

Am beginning to see the first outside confirmation of suspicions that tickle the back of my mind every time I pass a gas station. Big Oil is being crushed by the Saudi trade war. Since politics is by this point wholly a subsidiary of capitalism, this has significant implications for the race.

Cruz, for instance, is I believe significantly funded by rogue oil billionaires. If I were a rogue oil billionaire, I'd be really wanting some of that money back right about now.

Long-term, this could also be a boon for environmental policy, as climate change denialism is significantly funded by these institutions. Mind you, that's assuming we can weather the serious national security hazard of continuing to be dependent on Saudi and Russian energy resources...

"he's a sneering cad, there's got to be some awful skeletons in his closet, no?"

people know trump from t.v. but i don't know if they know about all the shady financial stuff/mob ties/federal investigations into his corrupt shit. but maybe they don't care.

DR.MORBZ did you at least crack a smile watching that bernie kissinger moment!!?? i know you hate all these people, but come on...give the mensch some credit for that one...

i liked what i read. i don't watch this stuff!

(there are rep movies in nyc, only reason for living at the moment)

i posted a clip of it above.

one more time...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCjQbTEuoDU

"a very good book by the way..."

i love that part.

I've noticed some FOX News types capitalizing the "D" in Bernie's "democratic socialism"

looking forward to the inevitable "Democrat socialism"

Big Oil is being crushed by the Saudi trade war.

Anyone else see/hear/read that Saudi Arabia has been cutting benefits and raising taxes (assuming they had any to begin with) for I think the first time ever? 50% gas tax hike. And (from ... CNN?):

The gas hike is just the beginning. Water and electricity prices are also going up, and the government is scaling back spending on roads, buildings and other infrastructure.
Those cuts might sound normal for any government that is running low on cash. But it's especially problematic in Saudi Arabia because the vast majority of Saudis work in the public sector.
About 75% of the Saudi government's budget comes from oil. The price of oil has crashed from over $100 a barrel in 2014 to around $36 currently. Most experts don't expect a rebound anytime soon.
The Saudi government used its vast oil wealth to provide generous benefits to its citizens. When the Arab Spring rocked the Middle East in 2011, the Saudi king spent even more in an effort to subdue any discontent in the country.

But yeah, back to foreign policy, I don't expect much from the US government, or at least from a Dem administration. Recent Dems seem to have had a flexible/ad hoc foreign policy, for better or for worse. Which is better than the intractable with or without you stance that drives the GOP, which is always for the worse. But I'd really like to hear from Sanders some sort of specifics. When someone asks him about, say, the Syrian civil war, I'd love to hear a strategy or solution (and maybe I missed it) beyond not voting to invade Iraq in 2002. When someone asks how he'd respond to Russian aggression, I want to hear more than stuff about Kissinger. If someone asked him how he'd handle refugees from South America, I'd love to hear a bit more from him than "break up the banks." Obviously the easy way out of these kind of questions is to demote ourselves from super-power/world police/exceptionalist mode and just go isolationist, but I'm not sure any president is prepared to do that.

And would Sanders, if he was elected, prove just as intractable on the world stage as he is on domestic economic positions? He needs to hold firm to his ideals to distinguish himself from Clinton's slipperiness, but that position also sort of boxes him in, doesn't it?

I'd really like to hear from Sanders some sort of specifics

it would be nice to hear this from any candidate ffs

what are Hillary's specifics? keep doing what we're already doing? brilliant plan, look where our foreign policy has gotten us in 15 years. THAT is being boxed in.

Trump wants to build a wall!

hit the dump button on all campaign rhetoric the second the election is over

eg the vital question of Quemoy and Matsu btwn JFK-Nixon

Anyway, that's what I was saying: Sanders is about holding steady to his ideals, but he has offered nothing specific to hold steady to beyond what he has not voted for in the past, which is only an opposition strategy (see: GOP congress) and not a real option when you are in charge of making big decisions. But Hillary's position is totally consistent in its messy ad hoc inconsistency with recent policy, Dem or otherwise, which is both big stick and hammer waved in the same clenched fist. Blow up, rebuild, replace, remove, repeat, as the direction of the wind dictates.

Like, I know exactly what I'd get from Hillary internationally, and I doubt I'd like it. But no idea what I'd get from Sanders. Has anyone given him the same Name the Leaders of the Middle East quizzes that have stumped the likes of Trump et al.?

Ubek-Beki-Beki-Stan-Stan

My impression is that pretty much no presidential candidate is ever able to tell you exactly what s/he would do about anything in a debate that actually coincides perfectly with their post-election reality. Not to mention that if you actually had a genuinely good strategic idea on foreign policy that wasn't already well-known, there might be reasons not to spell it out. I agree that under Obama foreign policy has felt a little "ad hoc" -- we're backing away from something that seems like it hasn't worked, or at least hasn't worked by liberal standards, but we aren't quite sure what to replace it with.

in a debate *in a way that* actually coincides...

I can't tell you what a hoot it was to hear Kissinger condemned.

'events, my dear boy, events'

Pierce:

...(C)ynic that I am, I also am Catholic enough to believe in redemption, and I also am an adherent of the political philosophy espoused by Benjamin Bow Hannaford, the fictional president created by the late Drew Pearson in two novels: in a democracy, the right things always get done for the wrong reasons. For whatever the reasons, sincere or strategic or something in between, HRC has gotten right where she needs to be going into South Carolina. However, even as she uses the Obama presidency as both sword and shield, she also has to hope that the African-American voters down in the home office of American sedition don't remember what she and her husband said about the president before she went to work for him....

(Clinton:) "I am not a single-issue candidate, and I do not believe we live in a single-issue country."

Now, it's preposterous in the extreme to say that Bernie Sanders, of all people, is a one-issue candidate in this context. He was fighting for LGBT rights when the previous president Clinton was signing DOMA. He was railing against the monied interests when the previous president Clinton was signing away Glass-Steagall. He was standing up for unions when the previous president Clinton was pushing NAFTA. It also is preposterous in the extreme to believe that Sanders doesn't realize that economic inequality is the only form of inequality that needs to be addressed in the country. But HRC did an exceptional job making that argument on Thursday and, maybe, she has put away the things of her husband's presidency and truly has been moved by the populist ferment that, in truth, began on the lawn of the Wisconsin state capital five years ago this week. Anything's possible. What is undeniable, however, is that, absent the presence of Bernie Sanders in this campaign, we'd never know any of that for sure.

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a42081/democratic-debate-milwaukee-recap/

"the right things always get done for the wrong reasons"

I always figured someone said this before I did btw

Calling Sanders a "one-issue candidate" is like saying abortion is a 'social issue.'

money runs the world

i'm not even going to bother but u kno what thread that belongs

no i think u need to tell me.

read that sentence literally. it is not code for something.

the populist ferment that, in truth, began on the lawn of the Wisconsin state capital five years ago this week.

I took part in those protests and I really don't agree with this analysis

lol mordy

heh

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Cruz-campaign-pulls-ad-featuring-softcore-porn-6825320.php

plz amplify, eephus

I took part in those protests and I really don't agree with this analysis

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, February 12, 2016 10:16 AM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i was there too, and i have no idea what he's driving at. the WI protests weren't the start of anything, i don't think.