US Politics Thread |OT| THE DARKEST TIMELINE

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Just to secure my position as being resentful of Nate Silver, here's this:

[benjipwns]

one on the articles on there twice isn't even by nate

[benjipwns]

from the nickelback article:

PD there's still hope! still hope!

[Kara]

I don't actually hate ol' Nate Manganese (he was quite accurate in 2012 iirc), but I think he's a convenient embodiment of how truly disconnected the professional class is from real life America (and history, I guess).

Also he probably thinks bunting is never the correct decision for a batter.

[Trent Dole]

So it's Drumpf vs. Hitlery then.

[Mandark]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/15/AR2009041502861.html

That's my favorite Will column, or at least the one that's Peak George Will.

Acting like he's the last voice of Fred Astaire's generation, and not the same age as Keith Richards.  Sheesh.

[Mandark]

I don't actually hate ol' Nate Manganese (he was quite accurate in 2012 iirc), but I think he's a convenient embodiment of how truly disconnected the professional class is from real life America (and history, I guess).

Please elaborate.

[Madrun Badrun]

Time to make my exit to New Zealand. Bye yall

why not Canada? 

[Atramental]

So it's Drumpf vs. Hitlery then.

So what kind of future dystopia do you have a hankering for?

Blade Runner or Mad Max? 

[Madrun Badrun]

Bladerunner, easy

[Purrp Skirrp]

Won't he drop like a rock once we get in the real political machine though ?

"Drop like a rock" implies that he'll ever actually be at a point high enough to fall from.

[Atramental]

Bladerunner, easy

Yep. Count me in on Blade Runner as well. 

[thisismyusername]

Blade Runner or Mad Max? 

Have they invented Narcotic spray paint yet? Because I could go for being Kamikrazy.

[thisismyusername]

LYIN' TED DROPS OUT

Best thing to come out of this: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4hs1qj/megathread_ted_cruz_suspends_presidential_campaign/d2rtuo1

[benjipwns]

Denim is the infantile uniform of a nation in which entertainment frequently features childlike adults ("Seinfeld," "Two and a Half Men") and cartoons for adults ("King of the Hill"). Seventy-five percent of American "gamers" -- people who play video games -- are older than 18 and nevertheless are allowed to vote. In their undifferentiated dress, children and their childish parents become undifferentiated audiences for juvenilized movies (the six -- so far -- "Batman" adventures and "Indiana Jones and the Credit-Default Swaps," coming soon to a cineplex near you). Denim is the clerical vestment for the priesthood of all believers in democracy's catechism of leveling -- thou shalt not dress better than society's most slovenly. To do so would be to commit the sin of lookism -- of believing that appearance matters. That heresy leads to denying the universal appropriateness of everything, and then to the elitist assertion that there is good and bad taste.

[Trent Dole]

So it's Drumpf vs. Hitlery then.

(Image removed from quote.)

So what kind of future dystopia do you have a hankering for?

Blade Runner or Mad Max? 

omfg

[Joe Molotov]

If Donald Trump is the Nickleback of GOP candidates, is Indiana his How You Remind Me?

[Human Snorenado]

Guys, Todd Starnes' twitter feed is a thing of glory right now.

https://twitter.com/toddstarnes/status/727659072242241537

[Joe Molotov]

Let us take a moment of silence to remember the DEEP BENCH™.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/dec/28/joseph-curl-republicans-have-deep-bench-for-2016-d/

Bill Kristol, the editor of the Weekly Standard, counts some 26 potential candidates: “John Bolton, Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal, John Kasich, Pete King, Mike Pence, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, Rick Santorum, Joe Scarborough, Scott Walker, and Allen West … Dick Cheney, Tom Cotton, Mitch Daniels, Joni Ernst, Newt Gingrich, and Rudy Giuliani.”

“Each of you would be a better president than Hillary Clinton. You would deserve the thanks of man and woman if you beat her. And if your name is not on this list, don’t feel slighted. Rather, feel free to volunteer you’re also more ready than Hillary. If you think you’re the right person go for it.”

I'm glad the right person has volunteered to go for it.

[benjipwns]

NRO's twitter feed:
https://twitter.com/NRO/lists/nr-primary-tweets

Byron Tau ‏@ByronTau  4h4 hours ago
Cruz volunteer just told me "We just lost the constitution because of the media — because people like you."

[benjipwns]

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/434911/donald-trump-and-hillary-clinton-need-third-party-challenger

America needs a third party alternative, and it needs one quickly. As I tweeted earlier tonight, Americans who constantly complain about corrupt and politicians have voted by the millions to put two of the most dishonest candidates in America front and center in the general election. Throughout this election season, we’ve talked about various “lanes” to the nomination. There was the so-called establishment lane, the conservative lane, and the populist lane. Why don’t we create a new lane? Let’s call it the integrity lane, and it’s the lane for people who refuse to support corruption – who refuse to waste or destroy their moral capital by arguing endlessly over the “lesser of two evils.” Why not reject evil entirely?

Already we’re seeing formerly stalwart Trump opponents fall into line and kiss Trump’s ring. It’s a disgraceful sight, and most of these men and women will one day feel shame for their choice.  The conservative movement will live on, but it will be healthier in both the short and long term if its core voters can rally around a banner this November. Who will step forward? Will anyone?

[benjipwns]

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/434906/pre-planning-my-i-told-you-so

Remember, You Asked for This
by KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON   May 3, 2016 10:20 PM @KEVINNR
I want to leave a note here, because I expect to have many occasions to link back to it in the next several months.

Americans and Republicans, remember: You asked for this. Given the choice between a dozen solid conservatives and one Clinton-supporting con artist and game-show host, you chose the con artist. You chose him freely. Nobody made you do it.

I will be reminding you all of that, from time to time.

[Kara]

I don't actually hate ol' Nate Manganese (he was quite accurate in 2012 iirc), but I think he's a convenient embodiment of how truly disconnected the professional class is from real life America (and history, I guess).

Please elaborate.

Why do I suddenly feel like Mitt in a presidential debate.

Sorry to be terse, but by that I meant things like:

-The other side of income inequality. The discussion on this topic tends to focus on how much JOB TITLE makes contra their staff, not how little people are actually expected to live on, and the avenues they turn to to survive those realities. (From relying on scum like check cashers to cheating on taxes and getting in hot water with the IRS.) People don't like working hard to barely squeeze by, that makes them angry, and people wracked by emotion don't make logical decisions. :Spock:

-There is a world that doesn't show up in consensus reality. From off balance sheet accounting, to informal dispute resolution, to child abuse (big ups to the GOP and the fourth estate for saddling us with a child predator as Speaker of the House), there are things that exist but aren't officially recorded. I realize that someone like Nate would find this topic anathema, but when people aren't on the record they surprisingly act and believe things contrary to what goes on the record. (In December I believe studies showed that people were more inclined to show support for Trump in anonymous polling, especially college educated voters.)

-People who say racist, sexist, or otherwise bigoted shit can in actual fact be racist, sexist, or otherwise bigoted and want a government that implements those values. (The party of small government is saying who can and can't use bathrooms, as an example.) I am in no way surprised that Trump was dominating in California polling, our disenfranchised racist minority has been absolved of having to even pretend and use coded language for quite awhile now.

[benjipwns]

Meghan McCain ✔ ‎@MeghanMcCain
I guess when I said in 2012 that my party was going to evolve or it was going to die - it was easier to choose death.
7:34 PM - 3 May 2016

But what does Bristol Palin have to say about it?

[benjipwns]

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-republican-voters-decided-on-trump/

For a candidate like Trump to win nomination, it means that several things have gone wrong — both for the Republican Party and in the assumptions we made about how party nominations work.

If you’d told me a year ago that Trump would be the nominee, I’d have thought you were nuts. Don’t just take my word for it: Read what I wrote about Trump in July or August or even in November. Those pieces variously treated Trump’s nomination as being somewhere between improbable and extremely unlikely. You can also read pieces from October, December or January that were less skeptical of Trump’s chances and show how our opinion of him evolved over time. Still, other than being early skeptics of Jeb Bush, we basically got the Republican race wrong.

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

meghan mccain

I keep waiting for her heel turn to the dems. At this rate it'll probably only happen after her dad croaks, but it will happen.

[benjipwns]

Doesn't a heel turn imply people like and root for her in the first place?

And she already did the Kerry supporter who "saw the light" when her dad became the nominee thing.

What does she have other than her dad's last name to get her deals with FOX News and Clear Channel?

"I didn't even take econ in college. I don't completely understand it so I'd hate to make a comment one way or the other," said McCain, who worked on her dad's campaign and has publicly spoken out against Democratic competitors on her blog, www.mccainblogette.com. "I keep reading and I just don't understand it."

The self-proclaimed lack of understanding didn't stop the 24-year-old McCain from slamming President Obama's omnibus spending bill on "Fox and Friends" Thursday morning -- she railed against the package.

"I think it's so disappointing, and it's scary," McCain said.

She also spoke out against house Democrats' rumored supplementary bill, calling it "the second stimulus package Nancy Pelosi's talking about that I think doesn't make sense."

Speaking of the election, you've written that you nearly overdosed on Xanax on election day 2008. What happened?

The day before election day, someone had given a friend an envelope of Xanax that was for emergency use only, and I was having a total panic attack. I was really on bad terms with a lot of my dad's staff and advisers. I was sort of the rebel wild child, and they thought of me as a loose cannon. She was supposed to give me one Xanax, but none of us had ever taken prescription medication before, and she gave me the equivalent of four or five. I was completely passed out for 24 hours.

She described her aims in this way: "All I am trying to be is a young, cool Republican woman for other Republican women."

Following the April 2009 party switch by Senator Arlen Specter from Republican to Democratic, conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh suggested that many Republicans wished both John McCain and Meghan McCain would leave too. Meghan McCain's tweet in response was, "RED TIL I'M DEAD BABY!!! I love the republican party enough to give it constructive criticism, I love my party and sure as hell not leavin!"

Leon H. Wolf wrote "It is impossible to read Dirty, Sexy Politics and come away with the impression that you have read anything other than the completely unedited ramblings of an idiot."

[chronovore]

http://reverbpress.com/news/trumps-america-woman-who-painted-naked-trump-beaten-by-his-goons/

Fucking disgusting goons. Immortan Donald's mob-ruled wasteland future grows nearer by the day.

[chronovore]

Bladerunner, easy

Typical skin-job response.

[VomKriege]

Every day at school to open with the pledge of allegiance and the pledge of the President having massive hands tots for real. 

[Brehvolution]

Cruz is out and Kara is back.

America is great again!

[Tasty]

[james]

I thought Cruz was in it til the end. I'm so confused. Apparently running with Fiorina was more terrible than I thought.

What people dont understand is that the election is not about policy. It is not about taxes, or international relations, or social issues.

Its about the individual.

When people attack Obama, they dont really attack his policies. They attack the person.

He leads from behind
Hes spineless
Hes compromisor in chief
He's a loser

Trump has been leading from day 1 because of his personality.

It's all about the image. He's a winner. He wins.

Note every time his rival collapsed is because they appeared weak.

Rubio started acting like Trump and his numbers fell off a cliff because it as desperate and weak.

Like a loser.

Cruz fell off a cliff when he started acting desperate. The deal with Kasich. The Fiorina hail marry.

Weak. Like a loser.

As the rivals collapsed, Kasich went nowhere. Why? Because hes been a loser the entire race.

I said this back in August and I was right.

This country doesnt give a shit about policy or politics. Its a popularity contest. It's American idol. Skill doesnt matter, looks and personality do.

[Tasty]

https://politicalwire.com/2016/05/04/flashback-of-the-day-27/

[Brehvolution]

He leads from behind

I always hated this sentence. Oh, you mean like a general in the military? 

[Tasty]

Welp.

[benjipwns]

John Kasich is dropping his presidential bid, according to a senior campaign adviser, one day after Donald Trump became the presumptive nominee and Ted Cruz bowed out of the race.

The Ohio governor had long ago been mathematically eliminated from clinching the GOP nomination outright but had hoped to emerge as a consensus candidate at a contested convention.

[Tasty]

I really wanted to see a contested convention because it would have been an absolute death blow to the GOP's general election chances.

[benjipwns]

Even Hillary supporters don't want the next Democratic nominee to drop out!

[benjipwns]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/04/opinion/campaign-stops/the-defeat-of-true-conservatism.html?_r=0

When Donald Trump knocked first Jeb Bush and then Marco Rubio out of the Republican primary campaign, he defeated not only the candidates themselves but their common theory of what the G.O.P. should be — the idea that the party could essentially recreate George W. Bush’s political program with slightly different domestic policy ideas and recreate Bush’s political majority as well.

Now, after knocking Ted Cruz out of the race with a sweeping win in Indiana, Trump has beaten a second theory of where the G.O.P. needs to go from here: a theory you might call True Conservatism.

True Conservatism likes to portray itself as part of an unbroken tradition running back through Ronald Reagan to Barry Goldwater and the Founding Fathers. It has roots in that past, but it’s also a much more recent phenomenon, conceived in the same spirit as Bushism 2.0 but with the opposite intent.

If Bushism 2.0 looked at George W. Bush’s peaks — his post-Sept. 11 popularity, his 2004 majority — and saw a model worth recovering, True Conservatism looked at his administration’s collapse and argued that it proved that he had been far too liberal, and that all his “compassionate conservative” heresies had led the Republican Party into a ditch.

Thus True Conservatism’s determination to avoid both anything that savored of big government and anything that smacked of compromise. Where Bush had been softhearted, True Conservatism would be sternly Ayn Randian; where Bush had been free-spending, True Conservatism would be austere; where Bush had taken working-class Americans off the tax rolls, True Conservatism would put them back on — for their own good. And above all, where Bush had sometimes reached for the center, True Conservatism would stand on principle, fight hard, and win.

This philosophy found champions on talk radio, it shaped the Tea Party’s zeal, it influenced Paul Ryan’s budgets, it infused Mitt Romney’s “You built that” rhetoric. But it was only in the government shutdown of 2013 that it found its real standard-bearer: Ted Cruz.

Trump proved that many of the party’s moderates and establishmentarians hate the thought of a True Conservative nominee even more than they fear handing the nomination to a proto-fascist grotesque with zero political experience and poor impulse control. That goes for the prominent politicians who refused to endorse Cruz, the prominent donors who sat on their hands once the field narrowed and all the moderate-Republican voters in blue states who turned out to be #NeverCruz first and #NeverTrump less so or even not at all.

Finally, Trump proved that many professional True Conservatives, many of the same people who flayed RINOs and demanded purity throughout the Obama era, were actually just playing a convenient part. From Fox News’ 10 p.m. hour to talk radio to the ranks of lesser pundits, a long list of people who should have been all-in for Cruz on ideological grounds either flirted with Trump, affected neutrality or threw down their cloaks for the Donald to stomp over to the nomination. Cruz thought he would have a movement behind him, but part of that movement was actually a racket, and Trumpistas were simply better marks.

[Brehvolution]

Ah yes, the magical unicorn that is True Conservatism™.

True Conservatism™ never fails because you can always move the goalposts.

[benjipwns]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/h-a-goodman/clinton-should-concede-to-sanders-before-fbi-reveals-findings_b_9836720.html

[tiesto]

I thought Cruz was in it til the end. I'm so confused. Apparently running with Fiorina was more terrible than I thought.

What people dont understand is that the election is not about policy. It is not about taxes, or international relations, or social issues.

Its about the individual.

When people attack Obama, they dont really attack his policies. They attack the person.

He leads from behind
Hes spineless
Hes compromisor in chief
He's a loser

Trump has been leading from day 1 because of his personality.

It's all about the image. He's a winner. He wins.

Note every time his rival collapsed is because they appeared weak.

Rubio started acting like Trump and his numbers fell off a cliff because it as desperate and weak.

Like a loser.

Cruz fell off a cliff when he started acting desperate. The deal with Kasich. The Fiorina hail marry.

Weak. Like a loser.

As the rivals collapsed, Kasich went nowhere. Why? Because hes been a loser the entire race.

I said this back in August and I was right.

This country doesnt give a shit about policy or politics. Its a popularity contest. It's American idol. Skill doesnt matter, looks and personality do.

I think it's because Trump focused more on the economy and pushed aside social issues. It's hard to really care about transgender bathrooms or #blacklivesmatter or abortion or whatever the hot-button social issue of the day is when your wage growth is stagnant and your employment prospects look dimmer by the day.

Trump and Bernie were the 2 candidates who made the economy the prime focus of their campaigns, and while Bernie lost he still did much better than nearly anyone could have imagined when he first joined.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

So do they still keep the primaries going or will they just wrap it up here?

[Joe Molotov]

:jkcry

[Human Snorenado]

Every scheduled primary will keep happening. People can vote for whoever is on the ballot, but basically it's over. Trump is the nominee.

[Brehvolution]

Ted Cruz believes, man. Holy shit does he ever. Enough to bundle all his horror up into more-or-less plausible human form and ooze his way within sight of the most powerful elected office on Earth. He is the truest of believers. And the right stiff-armed him in favor of a big orange inheritance baby. Not a more conventional, middle-of-the-road candidate, but a great big combed-over shit-for-brains whose platform begins and ends with him pointing down at the pile of cash he landed on at birth and bellowing, “I’m a winner.” I’m laughing my ass off. Fuck him.

[Madrun Badrun]

[Joe Molotov]

STRONGEST CANDIDATE IN OVER 100 YEARS

[Phoenix Dark]

We fucking did it, brehs

I remember PD predicted that Trump wouldn't win a single primary

It really fucking happened.

The positions we took in the past don't matter. What's important now is we find a path forward in Iraq.

[benjipwns]

HillaryGAF (to use for some examples since I bathed in there today) sure has a burning and ever growing hatred for a losing old man from Vermont who agrees with their queen "93% of the time" and I haven't seen anything like it outside of Lakers fans circa 2009-2011.

"i loathe the man", "do-nothing Senator", "he has gone too far", "the most delusional man in this primary season", "He is an idiot. Asshole. Senile. Grandpa.", "the Democratic party needs to start taking full Chipotle fueled dumps on him", "if it were up to Bernie Sanders alone, my friends and family would have no access to health insurance", "selfish egotist just wants to continue his cult of personality", "he's got a martyr/victim complex", "shitty personality", "he started this, it's his job to unite the party", "angry old out of touch loon", "people like Bernie can afford to be selfish because their rights aren't on the line in this election"

And that's what they say about him. Not the braindead uninformed liberal left-wing loser college kids and voters he's scammed out of their virginity.

I mean sure, whatever, Sanders supporters are as nuts as the rest, and his campaign's never scaled up properly from a 5% Kucinich-Paul2008 style protest deal and we've known he'd lost from before Iowa. Tearing into people and their hero and demanding THEY suck it up and follow The Party is the exact way you aren't going to get these people you're so concerned about to turn out for Hillary or in mid-terms. (The Anti-Hillary protest vote that's been lifting Bernie to 50/50 status will settle for her over Trump and does vote.)

In short, I'm mainly just concerned about the fact that this is how they treat their nominal allies. How are they going to react when Trump wins?

[benjipwns]

I think the care free 1990's and then national security hysteria really did a number on the establishment punditocracy. As 9/11 faded and the economy deflated the issues that were considered in the past are back. The Bernie/Trump crossover area in the Venn Diagram is basically the Perot complaint.

And both parties have kinda let themselves go in terms of policy making and innovation. Good or bad, the DLC and Gingrich-era did a lot of policy rethinking and reexamining. Like on tax and welfare reform. Now there's treading water, rehashing old ideas again and again, and mostly just a "stop everything" mentality. And the latter is in both parties too. The Democrats themselves tried everything they could to hopefully wiggle out of health insurance reform and keeping up with the required changes it wroth. Became more about passing something to call reform rather than what it was.

Rahm's "points on the board" strategy.

[Broseidon]

https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/718836449424977920

[jakefromstatefarm]

(Image removed from quote.)

Ted Cruz believes, man. Holy shit does he ever. Enough to bundle all his horror up into more-or-less plausible human form and ooze his way within sight of the most powerful elected office on Earth. He is the truest of believers. And the right stiff-armed him in favor of a big orange inheritance baby. Not a more conventional, middle-of-the-road candidate, but a great big combed-over shit-for-brains whose platform begins and ends with him pointing down at the pile of cash he landed on at birth and bellowing, “I’m a winner.” I’m laughing my ass off. Fuck him.

Alberto's obituaries are maybe my favorite part of following this primary season, his one on Rand Paul was great.

From the comments on the Cruz piece:

Also, congratulations to republican and businesswoman, Carly Fiorina, who just cut the overhead of the Cruz campaign by 100%. That’s how you turn around a company!

[Joe Molotov]

I wonder how they're holding up at RedState...

http://www.redstate.com/diary/apkyletexas/2016/05/04/dear-delegates-please-save-party/

So do what’s in your heart. You have it in your powers to change all the convention rules, to refuse to cast your first ballot votes, to refuse to even show up for first ballot voting.

I can almost certainly guarantee you, if you delegates hijack the convention and install your own candidate, there will be no uprising from the Constitutional Conservatives. I can’t think of a soul on the right that would pick up a pitchfork or a torch and try to drag you out of Cleveland on a rope. There would be no tar-and-feather from this political corner. In fact, your choice could quite likely win the whole enchilada, and make you all into heroes.

http://www.redstate.com/diary/clconnett/2016/05/03/support-trump-trash/

Trump is trash.  He is scum.  If you support him, you are trash.  If you claim to be a Conservative and don’t call him out for this crap, then you are not a Conservative.

http://www.redstate.com/diary/Martin_A_Knight/2016/05/02/trump-voters-disrespected.-deserve-it./

Which is why the threat that the coalition of low IQ personality cultists, Birthers, 9/11 Truthers, Neo-Nazis, unrepentant segregationists, modern day know-nothings, WWE and Jerry Springer afficianados that Trump has brought out of the fever swamps would be upset and no longer call themselves Republicans should have no bearing on the decision to deny Trump the nomination other than to make it more attractive.

Apart from the fact that up to 90% of them have never voted before, most would not vote again if Trump is not on the ballot. In addition, welcoming their presence into the Republican coalition, as some idiots claiming “pragmatism” e.g. Jon Huntsman, would fundamentally taint the GOP in the eyes of the wider electorate for years to come.

 

[CatsCatsCats]

It's okay, just take their money on predictit instead

[curly]

I kind of wish some of the r/politics Bernie Bros talking about how Clinton is going to prison for receiving emails would just up and die. Or do so after Hillary receives the nomination. Either slit their wrists, jump off a building, or just straight up collapse of a brain aneurysm. It would be great if there were a few less of them. Or none of them really, but even a modest reduction would be great.

You seem much more likely to die of a brain aneurysm than any of them tbh

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Nobody should be surprised Donald Trump won.  The whole winner take all/winner take most system that was created this go around was to push through an unpopular candidate, specifically this guy:



If "true conservatives" like at Redstate really thought that people would accept another Bush, it's little surprise that they find themselves on the outside of their own party.

Edit: I like this other video better

[curly]

Nobody should be surprised Donald Trump won

lol

[Trent Dole]

Drumpf is trash.  He is scum.  If you support him, you a Conservative.