US Politics Thread |OT| THE DARKEST TIMELINE

[Mandark]

Elected Republicans especially don't want to piss off the 30-40% of their constituents who voted for the guy (and the rest who are going to mostly vote for him in November).  Even if he's an awful candidate, he'll be mostly popular among GOP voters.

Among pundits I expect to see a whole lot of "I know I said #NeverTrump, but in light of Hillary Clinton's OUTRAGEOUS RECENT STATEMENTS I have realized that the most important thing..."

[Phoenix Dark]

My #NeverTrump Rubio stan friend has been quite quiet lately after Rubio basically endorsed Trump yesterday lol.

Who would have thought Mitt Romney would be one of the last principled republicans left.

[Oblivion]

Yeah, this "REPUBLICAN CIVIL WAR" thing is horseshit. The Republican base absolutely loves Trump, and that means Republican politicians will be forced to love him as well (and many of them already do).

[Human Snorenado]

Elected Republicans especially don't want to piss off the 30-40% of their constituents who voted for the guy (and the rest who are going to mostly vote for him in November).  Even if he's an awful candidate, he'll be mostly popular among GOP voters.

Among pundits I expect to see a whole lot of "I know I said #NeverTrump, but in light of Hillary Clinton's OUTRAGEOUS RECENT STATEMENTS I have realized that the most important thing..."

October Brooks and Douthat columns are going to be magical reads.



As far as the rank and file GOP membership, if what I think happens (loss worse than either of the past two general elections, with terrible Senate and pretty bad House losses) I predict that we'll get a month or so of shrill "I told you so!" type stuff along with some more "the way forward has to be inclusive, blah blah blah" Burkean drivel that will go away as soon as Hillary is inaugurated, replaced with the same mindless rejection of anything the Democrats propose. Rinse and repeat ad infinitum.

[benjipwns]

Never did I imagine that the last days of the American empire would be this interesting.

The last days? Benghazi was just a warm up for the Hillary corporate war machine.

[Kara]

Who would have thought Mitt Romney would be one of the last principled republicans left.

It's easy to stand on principle when you live on principal.

[bluemax]

The latest from the delusional Bernie-Stan on my FB feed: https://pivotamerica.com/bernie-sanders-wins-nevada-caucus/

[brawndolicious]

Elected Republicans especially don't want to piss off the 30-40% of their constituents who voted for the guy (and the rest who are going to mostly vote for him in November).  Even if he's an awful candidate, he'll be mostly popular among GOP voters.

Among pundits I expect to see a whole lot of "I know I said #NeverTrump, but in light of Hillary Clinton's OUTRAGEOUS RECENT STATEMENTS I have realized that the most important thing..."

October Brooks and Douthat columns are going to be magical reads.



As far as the rank and file GOP membership, if what I think happens (loss worse than either of the past two general elections, with terrible Senate and pretty bad House losses) I predict that we'll get a month or so of shrill "I told you so!" type stuff along with some more "the way forward has to be inclusive, blah blah blah" Burkean drivel that will go away as soon as Hillary is inaugurated, replaced with the same mindless rejection of anything the Democrats propose. Rinse and repeat ad infinitum.

While I agree that November 3rd will probably have much , I think the Republicans will be in denial for a LONG time that it was anything other than their choices that caused the women/hispanic/black vote to go against them in never before seen numbers. When you nominate a Trump to try to undo 8 years of Obama, you can't do anything to bury that truth. If anything this hurts the establishment even more since they're cheering on this grandstanding piece of shit for 6 months and they failed so it's like whatever principles they acted like they had are out the window.

[benjipwns]

nsfl: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CiWp9ftUYAErDDf.jpg

[benjipwns]

Got reminded of this old typo from the Bush Regime years:


IIRC, he had started this FOIA request in 2004 or something.

[Am_I_Anonymous]

I don't really think you people want to put trumps stupid ego up against White water. Just saying.

[benjipwns]

The reporter who spoke with Donald Trump spokesman “John Miller” in the 1990s is suggesting Trump leaked the controversial audio tapes that may show him masqueraded as his own spokesman.
 
Reporter Sue Carswell told Fox News host Megyn Kelly on Friday night that she did not leak the tapes, and that nobody but her and Trump would have had access to them.
 
The Washington Post reported Friday morning that the tapes reveal Trump posed as his own spokesmen, named “John Miller” and “John Barron,” when speaking to tabloid reporters on the phone in the early 1990s.
 
Carswell said she did not provide the tape to the Post.
 
“The main thing here is that I didn't leak the tape, and there are two people on the conversation,” she told Kelly.
 
Carswell added that she had only one copy of the tape and it could not have been stolen.
 
"Who else would have had a copy of the tape?" Kelly asked.
 
"Donald Trump," Carswell said, prompting a long pause as Kelly pantomimed her head exploding and disembodied laughter came from the Fox News studio.
 
"You are suggesting Trump leaked this to The Washington Post?" Kelly followed up.
 
"Yes,” Carswell replied. Asked why, she continued: ”You got me. He’s done stranger things."
 
"Because he loves publicity?" Kelly asked. “You are suggesting that he may want us talking about this right now because it generates a new cycle, perhaps?"
 
"Hello, Donald," Carswell joked in response.

[VomKriege]

He's playing us like damn fiddles !

[Am_I_Anonymous]

Well if he did anything he fully exposed the raw petulant teenage acting American collective psyche to the world.

Fuck, it's embarrassing. I would not hire either one of these two for any customer facing position and one of them is going to be my bosses bosses bosses bosses boss. Fuck.

[benjipwns]

one of them is going to be my bosses bosses bosses bosses boss. Fuck.

No, they are public servants who sacrifice for their calling.

[Phoenix Dark]

I don't really think you people want to put trumps stupid ego up against White water. Just saying.

Nobody gives a fuck about white water in 2016. It didn't end the Clintons in the 90s, it won't end them now. Jeez...

[Mandark]

Yeah, you really have to be inside a partisan bubble to think the wider public gives a shit about Whitewater.

It's like liberals who convinced themselves Valerie Plame was going to bring down the Bush administration.  Shit, even that was fresh news and not stale going on two decades.

[benjipwns]

Nobody gives a fuck about white water in 2016. It didn't end the Clintons in the 90s, it won't end them now. Jeez...

Had lunch with a friend of mine who works at the RNC; he did opposition research in Arkansas in the 1990s. General impression I got: this isn't a normal general election, the typical rules don't apply. They're going scorched earth on Hillary and this time they already have all the facts needed to bury her.

[Trent Dole]

This is going to be one of the ugliest campaigns ever.

[Madrun Badrun]

Holyshit Whitewater?  What's the next thing that will bring down Hilary?  Bill's sex scandals?  Vince Foster?

Benghazi, to FBI indictment, to whitewater is a chain of critical thinking that's turtles all the way down. 

[Mandark]

Speaking of retro scandals, when Obama's out of office will we finally get Michelle's "whitey" tape?

[benjipwns]

Media lay the groundwork for Hillary, the victim

While the 2016 campaign has been hard to predict, the media know how they want to play it: Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee, will be the dignified victim of relentless "attacks" from her wild and hostile Republican opponent, Donald Trump.

The press has painted the picture clearly in the days since Trump became the de facto GOP nominee. In a May 6 interview, NBC "Nightly News" anchor Lester Holt encouraged Trump to "start on her" by asking if there is anything that is "off the table" when it comes to campaigning against her.

"You've said a number of times that you haven't started on Hillary Clinton," said Holt, inviting Trump to strike his opponent. "So start on her. Give me three words that you would use to define her, that you will use as you press forward."

By comparison, Holt interviewed Clinton in January and he asked her to respond to criticism she faces from her political opponents.

"I was wondering, you've obviously been in tough battles, political battles," said Holt. "But do you get your feelings hurt sometimes?"

Granted the opportunity, Clinton took it. "I have led a very public life now for 25 years," she said. "I've been subjected to all kinds of attacks, in large measure because of what I stand for and what I fight for. But I'm going to answer questions regardless of where they come from or who poses them."

Jake Tapper told the same story in a May 6 interview on CNN.

His flair for the insult made its way into his run for the Republican nomination. He devastated Jeb Bush's candidacy by calling him "low-energy," an emasculating moniker that stuck. For Marco Rubio, it was "little Marco." For Trump's last standing serious threat, Ted Cruz, it was "Lyin' Ted."

And his cannon was regularly trained on his critics in the media, which could give members of the press a reason to dig into their opposition toward him.

"You know, when I watch a George Will or a Charles Krauthammer, you know, I've watched them for years, they're losers," Trump said last summer, referring to the popular conservative columnists. "They're just losers. They sit there, they haven't done anything."

Of Will, Trump said in January, "Take away the glasses, he looks like a dumb guy."

Trump's barbs were lobbed with glee, and they electrified supporters at his massive rallies around the country. And, though the smart thinkers in Washington thought Trump's mouth would do him in, the opposite happened. He charged his way to the GOP nomination after crushing Ted Cruz in Indiana in late April.

But Clinton hasn't been a quiet bystander, and she seems to relish her role as a critic of Trump's campaign style.

She initiated her first big attack on Trump in December, saying in an interview with an Iowa newspaper that the billionaire developer has "demonstrated a penchant for sexism," citing disparaging comments he had made about some women.

She has repeatedly called him a "loose cannon."

And Clinton allies have said worse. The op-ed pages of the national newspapers, which are more sympathetic to Democratic causes, regularly dub Trump a "racist," "bigot" and "xenophobe."

In an interview with the Washington Post in March, David Brock, a longtime Clinton ally and Democratic strategist, reduced Trump's entire candidacy to "the last stand of the angry white man."

On MSNBC that same month, Brock threatened to "make the case to the American people against Donald Trump in a way that the Republican Party, frankly, has failed to do."

Even so, Clinton is consistently set up by news reports and interviews as the unfortunate recipient of incoming fire.

"Clinton's team is preparing for what could be one of the nastiest campaigns in recent memory," wrote Dan Balz, the Washington Post's top political reporter, in a story published in early May. It went on to quote Clinton's campaign manager Robby Mook.

"Hillary set out a year ago to be a champion for everyday people and to help families finally start getting ahead again in this economy," he said. "That's what she's going to keep talking about in the general election ... Trump, I'm sure, will try to bully and throw out insults. That's not going to derail her."

NBC News analyst and GOP strategist Mike Murphy said on April 27 that Trump's "method" is "to turn on the insult comedy against Hillary Clinton," and that her "big judo move is playing the victim."

The opening sentence of a New York Times report published the next day said that Trump "is likely to attack" Clinton in a general election face-off "precisely because she is a woman."

[Human Snorenado]

It only took 25 years, but the crack investigative team the right wing assembled has finally broken Whitewater!

[benjipwns]

How do we know she didn't admit to it all in yet to be released e-mails?

[Great Rumbler]

The opening sentence of a New York Times report published the next day said that Trump "is likely to attack" Clinton in a general election face-off "precisely because she is a woman.

This seems to be a rather sensible prediction.

[Tasty]

It only took 25 years, but the crack investigative team the right wing assembled has finally broken Whitewater!

The smoking gun was in her vagina the whole time. Damn crafty women, can't be trusted.

[bluemax]

The latest from the delusional Bernie-Stan on my FB feed: https://pivotamerica.com/bernie-sanders-wins-nevada-caucus/

This happened over a month ago and changed nothing.

This guy is continually linking to out of date Bernie shit hoping it means something.

[Madrun Badrun]

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/cia-tip-off-led-to-jailing-of-mandela-9mwcsdq9c

[Kara]

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/cia-tip-off-led-to-jailing-of-mandela-9mwcsdq9c

Ah the joys of anti-communism intersecting with racism.

[VomKriege]

http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/05/15/bill-kristol-republican-spoiler-renegade-jew/

Jew on Jew violence.
Also Trump was endorsed by Tyson and at least one other boxer who is african-american and it means something apparently.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/280014-the-wire-actor-wendell-pierce-arrested-for-allegedly-attacking

Bunk Moreland attacked a Bernie supporter in Atlanta.

[Phoenix Dark]

http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/280014-the-wire-actor-wendell-pierce-arrested-for-allegedly-attacking

Bunk Moreland attacked a Bernie supporter in Atlanta.

There you go. Giving a fuck when it's not your turn to give a fuck.

[Madrun Badrun]

http://www.wgal.com/money/revealed-saudi-arabia-owns-117-billion-of-us-debt/39571826

Be a political hostage to a nation that doesn't let women drive or Jin be flaming 

[Mupepe]

Saw this sign on the side of the road today.

Maurice Cook for Sheriff

[studyguy]

I already mailed off my California by mail ballot. As far as I'm concerned my job here is done.
Now all that's left is to watch everyone catch up to what we already know will happen come June.
Media still gonna play it like it's a neck and neck race when it hasn't been for the longest.
 

[Madrun Badrun]

http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/280014-the-wire-actor-wendell-pierce-arrested-for-allegedly-attacking

Bunk Moreland attacked a Bernie supporter in Atlanta.

http://www.starwipe.com/article/wendell-pierce-assaults-bernie-sanders-supporter-e-2842
better report

[bluemax]

A month or so ago the Bernie Sanders campaign texted me inviting me (by the wrong name) to come out and vote in the Seattle primary.

Today they called me and asked me if I was gonna go and vote for the Bern tomorrow in Kentucky.

I told the nice old lady that they need to fire whoever is administrating their databases.

[Mandark]

https://twitter.com/marcorubio

huh

[Kara]

http://www.wgal.com/money/revealed-saudi-arabia-owns-117-billion-of-us-debt/39571826

Be a political hostage to a nation that doesn't let women drive or Jin be flaming 

Did you even read the article you posted?

[T-Short]

http://m.dailykos.com/stories/2016/5/16/1527124/-Conservative-congressional-candidate-shares-screenshot-forgets-to-close-porn-windows

Nice. Should have been Trannysurprise

[recursivelyenumerable]

Yeah, you really have to be inside a partisan bubble to think the wider public gives a shit about Whitewater.

It's like liberals who convinced themselves Valerie Plame was going to bring down the Bush administration.  Shit, even that was fresh news and not stale going on two decades.

this did give me an excuse to rewatch one of my all-time favorite SNL skits

[Kara]

http://m.dailykos.com/stories/2016/5/16/1527124/-Conservative-congressional-candidate-shares-screenshot-forgets-to-close-porn-windows

I wouldn't vote for this guy just because of the righthand side taskbar. Scust.

[Am_I_Anonymous]

http://m.dailykos.com/stories/2016/5/16/1527124/-Conservative-congressional-candidate-shares-screenshot-forgets-to-close-porn-windows

I wouldn't vote for this guy just because of the righthand side taskbar. Scust.

How can people be this stupid? It's painful.

[Purrp Skirrp]

None of yall heeding AiA's warnings

[Madrun Badrun]

Now the FBI will really really take her down. 

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

https://twitter.com/BillKristol?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Bill Kristol is hard at work planning for a third party run.  One of the ideas he actually suggested for the name of the political party was The New Whig Party.  Fortunately he settled on Renegade Party.  Favorite selections at the moment seem to be Tom Ridge as the Presidential candidate and Ben Sasse as the VP.

We also need the ability to display Tweets on this board.

Edit: Even though I know Kristol won't go through with it, I hope he does.  At best this party will get 0.5% of the popular vote and the Bush family dynasty will be forever beshitted.

[Joe Molotov]

benji help

[Great Rumbler]

If they can get Lorenzo Lamas on the top of that ticket, then they've got my vote locked down.

[Kara]

Adopting the Whig moniker would be a little too on the nose, which is saying something considering that the GOP operated on a doctrinaire rubric for evaluating candidates for years until the Trump hostile takeover.

[Mandark]

https://twitter.com/theshrillest/status/728079335572131840

[VomKriege]

Saunders walked away when asked to comment on the ruckus (protests with violent outbursts from supporters of him) in Nevada 

What the fuck is he doing ? He's looking more and more like some unhinged old ass.

[Mandark]

And now he's released an official statement basically blaming the party and repeating boilerplate stuff about real change vs. big corporations.

Shit's embarrassing.

[Brehvolution]

[Mandark]

Is there anything that gets people to act a fool more than a failing presidential campaign?  Hillary was basically a right-wing populist for a few months in '08, Rick Perry made the second-most disliked Youtube video in '12, Bernie's been telling superdelegates to overturn the popular vote, and I don't even have time for all of the Ted Cruz fuckery.

Kasich is maybe the only loser this cycle to come out with his dignity intact, and his campaign was essentially a season of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.

[CatsCatsCats]

Well what's the point of super delegates if not to over turn the popular vote?

[Phoenix Dark]

Imagine the response if Hillary was down 300 pledged delegates and demanded that super delegates over turn the will of the voters.

[Mandark]

Yeah, the Sanders campaign and its surrogates and supporters spent months and months talking about how superdelegates were conspiring to throw the election to Hillary, and how horrible, undemocratic, and disenfranchising that was.  My FB feed was rife with that shit, and complaints about how news outlets showing delegate totals were "lying" by including supers.

Until she whooped him in the actual primaries and suddenly it's "the superdelegates have a real responsibility to the party to pick the most electable candidate for this fall."

Even for election season, the sheer chutzpah of that hypocrisy is impressive.



edit: Because of the way the primaries worked out, Sanders is asking the superdelegates to mostly go against the choices of black and latino voters which would be, y'know, not super fantastic.

[Kara]

If you believe that you can make the world a better place (from the research I've read on the subject, politicians on the whole genuinely believe this about themselves, which just goes to show that you really can buy whatever you want these days), it must be incomprehensibly difficult to accept the fact that people reject not just you personally ("on to the next one" wouldn't be a meme masquerading as frequently offered advice here if people didn't care about personal rejection), but your offer to make the world demonstrably better as well.

[Mandark]

Makes sense.  In What It Takes, about the 1988 primary season, every candidate seems to really deeply believe that they'll win over the voters, if only given the opportunity to show their real self and get their message across.  The candidate pool is mostly made up of very successful people who don't have a ton of experience losing.

On top of that personal and intellectual rejection you can pile on high stakes, huge sunk costs, and few (if any) future chances.  It's almost surprising that so many candidates get winnowed early in the process.

Must be similar insane pressures for Olympic athletes in obscure sports.

[Phoenix Dark]

A major problem I have with this is that he chose to play the game with his own rules and lost. Just as you can't really win the GOP nomination without the Evangelical vote, you can't win the democrat nomination without the black vote. Both demographics heavily reside in the south, making the area important in republican and democrat primaries. Sanders had no plan to win those voters. I think a lot of that is simply due to the fact that he didn't expect to get this far, which is understandable. But when you dismiss the outcome as "oh, those are conservative states so of course I didn't do well" you sound like a dumbass. All while celebrating wins in...Oklahoma and Nevada.

Then there's the issue of open/closed primaries. You're running for the democrat nomination in the democrat party. This isn't a wide open race, most states have specific party based rules...and there's nothing corrupt about that. Michigan has an open ballot where we can vote in either primary, but I wouldn't want every state to be that way. If anything it would make sense for political parties to have open contests in swing states (like Ohio) while closing things off in base states (you know, like New York for democrats or Texas for republicans) as a means of testing the viability of your candidates. Presumably both democrats and republicans want a candidate who can appeal to some independents but also is the defacto choice of the party.