US Politics Thread |OT| THE DARKEST TIMELINE

[agrajag]

Trump is a man of god.

Which one?

Beelzebub

[Kara]

After host Dom Giordano pressed McCain on how he can promise that Republicans will block Clinton’s appointees when they did not block President Obama’s appointment of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, McCain noted that a handful of Republicans did support Sotomayor. This time around, however, he says things will be different.

“I promise you that we will be united against any Supreme Court nominee that Hillary Clinton, if she were president, would put up,” McCain told Giordano. He added that “this is why we need the majority.

Oh boy!

Truthfully I find it optimistic that one would even be appointed after January 2017. The electorate has yet to definitively punish Republican legislators for their behavior during the last 8 years and why would they give away SCOTUS for possibly quite awhile when 4-4 "decisions" will simply allow their strategy of death by a thousand cuts to continue at the state level?

[Kara]

In less predictable news, somehow the PSL got their presidential ticket on the California ballot under the Peace and Freedom moniker.

Finally being able to vote for printed-on-the-ballot Marxist-Leninists. 

[benjipwns]

being able to vote for printed-on-the-ballot Marxist-Leninists

[seagrams hotsauce]

syph why are you so weird

[Syph]

syph why are you so weird

haha elaborate hombre

[Samson Manhug]

Whichever one is god of the oil fields, probably:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/oklahoma-oilfield-prayer-day_us_57fdc266e4b0d505a46b0a98

any chance to post this

(Image removed from quote.)

!!

I know that guy and was down the hallway when this was taken

[Raist]

 

[VomKriege]

Gotta corner the crazies market early if you want to be the next D'Souza or Dylan Avery.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

As an update, Scott Foval got fired from his job.

[VomKriege]

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/788099178832420865

Speaking of Assange, it seems his Internet was cut off... by Ecuador. 

Leaked memos seems to indicate, as one would expect, that there is a lot of frictions at the embassy and that Assange mental state is deteriorating.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/jamesball/mr-white-and-mr-blue?utm_term=.flKbVWA1g#.rq2obpGv8

[zomgee]

Tangentially related to politics, Sheriff Joe Arpaio is calling for "volunteer armed Posse members to partner up with my deputies while on patrol."

https://business.facebook.com/sheriffjoearpaio/videos/1332200690154082/

So now he's asking the public to protect the cops.

https://staging.mcso.org/Multimedia/PressRelease/Sheriff%20Arpaio%20Mobilizes%20Armed%20Posse.pdf

[VomKriege]

A pretty depressing portrait of a Trump supporter by the WaPo.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/finally-someone-who-thinks-like-me/2016/10/01/c9b6f334-7f68-11e6-9070-5c4905bf40dc_story.html

“He really does love us”

[Trurl]

Is there a specific logical fallacy that is committed by yelling "false equivalence!" anytime the two parties are compared?

[agrajag]

This whole election has been depressing and eye opening about just how stupid at least half of the US population is. Especially with this rigged election meme that Trump has been pushing gaining traction. Of course his supporters eat it right up, who happen to be, what, about 40% of thr country? And an increasingly obstructive and unhinged 40%. And I have no doubt there will be massive riots when the election doesn't go in their candidates' favor.

[Kara]

Is there a specific logical fallacy that is committed by yelling "false equivalence!" anytime the two parties are compared?

Ignoratio elenchi.

[TakingBackSunday]

Of course his supporters eat it right up, who happen to be, what, about 40% of the electorate? And an increasingly obstructive and unhinged 40%. And I have no doubt there will be massive riots when the election doesn't go in their candidates' favor.

ftfy

[Joe Molotov]

Trump is a man of god.

God has abandoned him.

[Madrun Badrun]

So the only thing Trump did today was say that 1.6 million dead people won't vote for him and kiss a small girl in a creepy way.  How boring. 

[Brehvolution]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

This reads "Donald Trump: He can't read this, but he is afraid of it."

[close]

[Human Snorenado]

LARRY, LARRY, LARRY

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/hustler-s-larry-flynt-offering-1m-any-scandalous-trump-recordings-n668086?cid=sm_fb

[ToxicAdam]

And an increasingly obstructive and unhinged 40%. And I have no doubt there will be massive riots when the election doesn't go in their candidates' favor.

ehhh. I see this said every 4 years. The doom and gloom surrounding the potential of a second Obama term is much worse than what I've seen this year.

National politics is just team sports. People root for the team (even if they don't like the candidate) and even if they lose they take solace in knowing they can blame all their problems or the countries problems on 'the other guy'. There's a very large contigent of conservatives that are very happy in the position of the critic instead of the defense.

[Human Snorenado]

...you seriously trying to pretend that the obstruction that has bordered on if not fully embraced sabotage of the past 7+ years from the GOP, both the institutional (congress) and propaganda (fox news, talk radio, etc) wings is normal?

[agrajag]

Definitely not normal. Nothing about these elections is normal.

[james]

When the Texas Department of Transportation signed a deal for the first public-private toll road in the state, it touted the partnership as a win for everybody: The San Antonio-Austin area would get a new section of highway at no upfront cost to Texas taxpayers, private developers would run the operation and profit over time, and the state would own the road and earn millions of dollars in toll revenue.

http://projects.expressnews.com/the-end-of-the-road-texas-130-toll-road

What could go wrong?

I for one cant imagine why a Republican talking point package could ever fail. I think Ill stop reading there.

[Phoenix Dark]

drudge front page (kinda nsfw)
http://i.imgur.com/HJfzQKA.jpg

Trump is running the campaign many on the right have begged for, for YEARS. All that "why didn't they talk about Rev Wright/Ayers/cocaine/Benghazi/etc" bullshit handwringing has produced...this. And the result will be a loss bigger than McCain and Romney's. 

[Mandark]

I don't think we're at a point where there's going to be widespread violence spilling over from the campaign, but politics aren't exactly normal and functional over on the GOP side these days.

The constant fuckery from Trump has completely overshadowed the fact that we're going a full year with an empty Supreme Court seat, and that nobody wanted the job of Speaker of the House, after the last guy quit cause he didn't want to deal with the bullshit.

[james]

I don't think we're at a point where there's going to be widespread violence spilling over from the campaign, but politics aren't exactly normal and functional over on the GOP side these days.

The constant fuckery from Trump has completely overshadowed the fact that we're going a full year with an empty Supreme Court seat, and that nobody wanted the job of Speaker of the House, after the last guy quit cause he didn't want to deal with the bullshit.

Remember when shutting down the government would cause them 50+ house loses?

My old GAF account remembers.

[Mandark]

haven't read gaf in a decade but do recall you saying the vp debate would really hurt clinton so

[james]

haven't read gaf in a decade but do recall you saying the vp debate would really hurt clinton so

In a normal election it would have. Im sorry I didnt predict pussygate

[Mandark]

no that's wrong and dumb

[james]

no that's wrong and dumb

Ask Mccain

[TakingBackSunday]

no that's wrong and dumb

Ask Mccain

There's a huge fucking difference between the absurdity and ignorance of Palin and the boring white man politick of Tim Kaine.

[Mandark]

also the polls moved towards obama the week before the 08 vp debate but not the week after it

so still wrong and dumb

[Phoenix Dark]

McCain was losing before and after the Palin debate. If you want to argue the selection of Palin had a negative impact on McCain sure, I can buy that (terrible/reckless selection, invalidated the campaign's experience argument against Obama, etc). The VP debate didn't matter, and probably never really matters.

[Mandark]

iirc the poli sci is divided on Palin's impact, between "very small, but more than other VP choices" to "basically nothing."

In any case there was no movement to Trump between the VP debate and the pussy tape.  Which is unsurprising cause it was a fucking vice presidential debate.  Lordy.

[Tasty]

Remember when, brehs?

Ryan is a fucking idiot but he didnt trip over himself twice during the same tripping over movement

Did anyone vet this clown?

And it does fucking matter. 65 million people will be watching this. If just 10% are swayed...

Its over. Hillary hands over the keys to the basket of deplorables.

Im sorry the democrats snatching defeat from the jaws of victory - again and again and again - bothers me

See also: Rubio leading

CBS declared Kaine the loser.

Damage control by the "yas queen" crowd activated

All hands on deck at Hillarys rapid response team

Record being corrected

When "this wasnt that bad nobody watched" is your go-to spin, you know you fucked up

Talk around the water cooler today is that the debate shifted people from Hillary back to undecided.

Big win for Jill.

[agrajag]

I remember the Palin fiasco very clearly. McCain's campaign was dead in the water before he announced his VP pick. Picking Palin was looked at as either a "bold move picking a female running mate" or a desperate hail mary tactic (depending  on who you ask) and initially gave him a big boost in the polls. Only after she's done her media rounds and started seeing Russia from her house did McCain's approval ratings start dropping back down to pre-Palin levels. So to say she hurt him in the election is wrong, she just had very little positive effecg on the outcome. McCain would've lost with or without her.

Same goes for Tim Kaine.

[Mandark]

Plus it's basically impossible to disentangle Palin from convention bounce, given the timing.

[Mandark]

I dunno if he's an alt account or an actual concern troll, but my use of capitalization and punctuation are typically indicators of how seriously I'm taking someone.

[Stoney Mason]

Veeps never matter. Even when they are on the incompentent scale like Palin or Quayle or on the more effective sides of things like Gore, or god forbid Cheney.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

They probably matter a little but its so minor on the scale of things.

[close]

Never forget the shade.

 

[Kara]

The constant fuckery from Trump has completely overshadowed the fact that we're going a full year with an empty Supreme Court seat, and that nobody wanted the job of Speaker of the House, after the last guy quit cause he didn't want to deal with the bullshit.

Or the fact that we might never again reasonably expect there to be a consistently clean debt ceiling vote.

The last few years have set horrible precedents, and we can only hope they wither the way impeaching the president for lying went during George II's reign.

[Trurl]

If veeps don't matter then why are they picked to complement the ticket?  Or is this also a myth?  If it's electorally unimportant I say pick a boring person close to retirement who would be a good steward should the worst happen.

[Tasty]

If veeps don't matter then why are they picked to complement the ticket?  Or is this also a myth?  If it's electorally unimportant I say pick a boring person close to retirement who would be a good steward should the worst happen.

Their face/name is semi-important for brownie points but the actual candidates aren't.

[Phoenix Dark]

If veeps don't matter then why are they picked to complement the ticket?  Or is this also a myth?  If it's electorally unimportant I say pick a boring person close to retirement who would be a good steward should the worst happen.

I mean...they matter, but they are not that big of a deal nationally. LBJ helped JFK win Texas, but has a VP had that type of impact recently? I don't think so. It's easy to say Kaine will help Hillary win VA and while I'm sure he helps, the demographics on the ground have been trending blue for quite some time.

Seems like VPs are moreso about evening out a ticket and targeting specific demographics. Maybe Joe Biden made some rural white democrats feel better about Obama in 08. Maybe Pence reassures some evangelicals about Trump. Perhaps Kaine being the only sane white man on a presidential ticket this year has some value to some folks. Who knows.

[Mandark]

I could see it being more important back when the national parties were amalgams of more conflicting regional interests.  Making sure another bloc was represented on the ticket would be a way to hold the coalition together, ie Democrats having southern VP picks to balance Stevenson and JFK after Strom Thurmond broke away in 1948.

Basically we treat it as more important than it is because 1) everything has only a marginal effect, but it's all cumulative and campaigns have to try to get all the details right, and 2) saying "well it will be determined by the underlying fundamentals" is a really boring thing to say over and over for the better part of a year.

[Madrun Badrun]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/18/politics/rice-trump-2006-comments/index.html

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Barack Obama's brother, Malik Obama, is going to be at the third rally tomorrow as Donald Trump's guest: http://time.com/4536121/malik-obama-donald-trump-third-debate/

[agrajag]

Malik sounds like a Yu-Gi-Oh! character

[Tasty]

Malik sounds like a Yu-Gi-Oh! character

He was.

[Syph]

So Ecuador just confirmed they cut off Assange's internet access because he was interfering with the US election by posting the leaks. Note the timing.
I'm the last person to subscribe to a conspiracy theory or any of that shit but this is pretty fucked.
I know people will be blinded by their Hillary euphoria (again, for the record, I don't support Trump) and pretend this isn't happening but it is.

[Mandark]

Note the timing.

k

[Tasty]

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/6f997f97c5f140a29f385ea05f1b642c/wikileaks-assanges-internet-link-severed-state-actor

In follow-up messages posted Tuesday, the group claimed U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had personally intervened to ask Ecuador to stop Assange from publishing documents about Clinton. Citing "multiple US sources," WikiLeaks said the request was made on the sidelines of a visit by Kerry and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa last month to Colombia to show their support for a peace deal with leftist rebels.

So post the sources or the evidence? You run a leaks website ffs.

The foreign ministry said that while it stands by its 2012 decision to grant Assange asylum based on legitimate concerns he faces political persecution, it respects other nations' sovereignty and doesn't interfere or support any candidate in foreign elections.

"The decision to make this information public is the exclusive responsibility of the WikiLeaks organization," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"While our concerns about Wikileaks are longstanding, any suggestion that Secretary Kerry or the State Department were involved in shutting down Wikileaks is false," U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said in an email. Speaking to reporters later, deputy spokesman Mark Toner said Kerry never even raised the issue or met with Correa during his visit to Colombia.

[Madrun Badrun]

Its not like he is running wikileaks on a server out of the embassy

[agrajag]

 

So Ecuador just confirmed they cut off Assange's internet access because he was interfering with the US election by posting the leaks. Note the timing.
I'm the last person to subscribe to a conspiracy theory or any of that shit but this is pretty fucked.
I know people will be blinded by their Hillary euphoria (again, for the record, I don't support Trump) and pretend this isn't happening but it is.

[tiesto]

Malik sounds like a Yu-Gi-Oh! character

I was thinking Tales of Graces Malik:

[Great Rumbler]

Barack Obama's brother, Malik Obama, is going to be at the third rally tomorrow as Donald Trump's guest: http://time.com/4536121/malik-obama-donald-trump-third-debate/

 

[Phoenix Dark]

Who wants to bet Trump got this "bring family members/former friends/accusers to court" thing from The Godfather II.

[Kara]

So Ecuador just confirmed they cut off Assange's internet access because he was interfering with the US election by posting the leaks. Note the timing.
I'm the last person to subscribe to a conspiracy theory or any of that shit but this is pretty fucked.
I know people will be blinded by their Hillary euphoria (again, for the record, I don't support Trump) and pretend this isn't happening but it is.

At the behest of noted capitalist flunkie Rafael Correa, of course.

[thisismyusername]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/18/politics/rice-trump-2006-comments/index.html

@ Trump. I shouldn't be surprised, but I still am.