US Politics Thread |OT| THE DARKEST TIMELINE

[Samson Manhug]

Great replies:

Gary Johnson just got stumped on MSNBC when asked about Aleppo and the situation in Syria. "What is Aleppo?"

— Alan Rappeport (@arappeport) September 8, 2016

https://twitter.com/arappeport/status/773851058401603584

[Great Rumbler]

A Nov. 26 article in the District edition of Local Living incorrectly said a Public Enemy song declared 9/11 a joke. The song refers to 911, the emergency phone number.

[Samson Manhug]

Thoughts?

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/294979-conservative-media-jumps-on-hillarys-earpiece

spoiler (click to show/hide)

https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/14039

[close]

(No AIA)

[Brehvolution]

Remember all the talk of how the media was in the bag for Obama before the election? I never saw it. You can definitely see that the media is in the bag for Trump.

[TakingBackSunday]

it's a little infuriating how softball Laur was with Trump

[Mandark]

Johnson mentioned that the retirement age for Social Security benefits ought to be raised. When asked to what age it ought to be raised, he got defensive. “Look, I’m not getting elected king or dictator here. I’m looking to get elected President of the United States that has constitutional limits. . . . Seventy-two seems like a good starting point.”

Oh cool, 72 is also the life expectancy for black men in the US.

[Mupepe]

Johnson mentioned that the retirement age for Social Security benefits ought to be raised. When asked to what age it ought to be raised, he got defensive. “Look, I’m not getting elected king or dictator here. I’m looking to get elected President of the United States that has constitutional limits. . . . Seventy-two seems like a good starting point.”

Oh cool, 72 is also the life expectancy for black men in the US.

Something something take responsibility for your health and life expectancy free market something

[VomKriege]

Oh cool, 72 is also the life expectancy for black men in the US.

Oh, don't worry, it's only a starting point ! Average being 78 on your side of the pond, he'll probably get you all to work till death no matter your skin color come his second mandate.

[benjipwns]

Johnson mentioned that the retirement age for Social Security benefits ought to be raised. When asked to what age it ought to be raised, he got defensive. “Look, I’m not getting elected king or dictator here. I’m looking to get elected President of the United States that has constitutional limits. . . . Seventy-two seems like a good starting point.”

Oh cool, 72 is also the life expectancy for black men in the US.

"Oh, really? 73 then."

[Samson Manhug]

I remember 72 being the life expectancy for an American male in the early '90s. Progress!

[Mandark]

Remember when Bush was trying to privatize Social Security?

I read the argument from multiple people that the current system screws over black workers because they die earlier.  These people, as a general rule, never voluntarily brought up the gap in life expectancies (especially in the context of public policy) before or since.  Funny, that.

[Great Rumbler]

it's a little infuriating how softball Laur was with Trump

Yeah, I heard he didn't really press Trump at all and then devoted nearly a third of his time with Hillary to her emails.

[Great Rumbler]

June 6 -- Boosting his friend George W. Bush to reporters, Gov. Gary Johnson of New Mexico recalls a conversation they had at a conference on state government. ''George turns to me and says, 'What are they talking about?' I said, 'I don't know.' He said, 'You don't know a thing, do you?' And I said, 'Not one thing.' He said, 'Neither do I.' And we kind of high-fived.''

[Tasty]

June 6 -- Boosting his friend George W. Bush to reporters, Gov. Gary Johnson of New Mexico recalls a conversation they had at a conference on state government. ''George turns to me and says, 'What are they talking about?' I said, 'I don't know.' He said, 'You don't know a thing, do you?' And I said, 'Not one thing.' He said, 'Neither do I.' And we kind of high-fived.''

This sounds like a deleted scene from Parks and Rec.

[Joe Molotov]

Thoughts?

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/294979-conservative-media-jumps-on-hillarys-earpiece

spoiler (click to show/hide)

https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/14039

[close]

(No AIA)

I missed the "state.goy" the first time this was posted. Now we know why Kara's been too busy to post lately.

[Great Rumbler]

Earpieceghazi

[benjipwns]

  Rumbler

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/another-group-that-loses-if-trump-wins-animals/2016/09/06/270eb888-7478-11e6-be4f-3f42f2e5a49e_story.html

[Momo]

Hilary Clinton - "United States of America does not invade other countries to plunder and pillage" 

[Samson Manhug]

"The Trump campaign is claiming that he just accidentally did an interview on Kremlin-owned television."

https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/774064019346862081

[Boogie]

"The Trump campaign is claiming that he just accidentally did an interview on Kremlin-owned television."

https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/774064019346862081

 

[benjipwns]

[Great Rumbler]

What is going on with Giuliani's face these days? It looks like it's molded out of Play-Doh.

[Brehvolution]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-rejects-michigan-ban-on-straight-ticket-voting/2016/09/09/7ce6bff6-7533-11e6-be4f-3f42f2e5a49e_story.html

The justices declined to get involved in a political controversy that began when the state’s Republican leadership passed a bill to end 125 years of straight-ticket voting, which allows a voter to vote for all candidates of a desired party by taking a single action.

 

Can you be any more blatant? Stay losing, Michigan.

[benjipwns]

The courts claims are odd since straight-ticket voting tends to increase spoiled ballots which makes the person have to vote again which doesn't "save time" and it only applies to a third of the ballot. In most of the eight straight-ticket states it benefits the GOP. I'm not sure it benefits the Democrats significantly in Michigan enough considering their natural advantage to claim discrimination.

About 59 percent of all Wayne County ballots used the straight-party option, and Democratic straight-ticket ballots outnumbered the GOP ballots almost 5 to 1.

The No. 2 county in straight-ticket balloting was Ottawa, a Republican stronghold where GOP straight-ticket ballots outnumbered the Democratic ballots 3 to 1. 

Among the  counties that provided data, the lowest percentage of straight-ticket ballots was in Dickinson County in the Upper Peninsula. But even there, 34 percent of ballots used the straight-ticket option.

The lawsuit to stop the implementation of straight-ticket voting was filed in May by the A. Philip Randolph Institute, a black labor organization labor, which argues the law disproportionately impacts African-Americans, who are more likely to vote a straight-party ticket.

But the results of the MLive survey show the straight-ticket option is popular far beyond urban minority communities.

Justin Roebuck is clerk of Ottawa County, where less than 2 percent of residents are African-American. In 2012, 57 percent of Ottawa County voters opted for the straight-ticket option.

The arguments in the legal case "made it sound like the big impact was in places like Detroit and Flint, but it impacts all of us," Roebuck said.

Whatever the merits of the legal arguments, Roebuck and many other election clerks are happy with the rulings so far that have blocked the implementation of the law this November.

"It would be a very big deal if we had no straight-ticket option" in a presidential election when the ballot is unusually long, Kalamazoo County Clerk Tim Snow said. "The timing is pretty bad."

They'll ban it again before this happens:

"We absolutely have to have no-reason absentee balloting," Snow said.

Gov. Rick Snyder agrees with the need for no-absentee balloting

"It should be noted, however, that the Governor also included a signing letter to legislators explaining that he felt this bill was just the first step and they needed to take action on secure, no-reason absentee voting," Adler said.

I still say the state should strip incumbency and party markers from the ballot. Especially the former. And that will be part of my 2020 VP platform.

[benjipwns]

OH NO THE AGENDA HAS BEEN EXPOSED



MORE TRUTH BOMBS IN SPOILERS:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[Joe Molotov]

Koch Brothers are in the pocket of Big Hillary, confirmed.

[benjipwns]

"you are a bunch of social justice warrior snot noses" - alex jones on libertarians (11:12 in second video)

[benjipwns]

The House on Friday unanimously passed a bill that will allow 9/11 victims' families to sue Saudi Arabia for damages. The Senate also approved the bill unanimously in May. President Barack Obama has threatened to veto the legislation, setting up a potential veto override, which would be the first of Obama's presidency.

[benjipwns]

"this guy is a total kook, listen to this boob, this guy is a real kook, listen to this bubbling fruitcake" - alex jones on william weld

"FREE ME FROM THESE PEOPLE"

[Brehvolution]

The House on Friday unanimously passed a bill that will allow 9/11 victims' families to sue Saudi Arabia for damages. The Senate also approved the bill unanimously in May. President Barack Obama has threatened to veto the legislation, setting up a potential veto override, which would be the first of Obama's presidency.

Eh, how are they going to enforce the payouts? Also, what makes it so Afghanistan or Iraq couldn't do the same to us? Why wasn't this done under Bush? It's been 15 years!

[Great Rumbler]

Wikileaks in 2012 published emails from Syrian government officials obtained by hackers, but the website did not include an email noting that the Syrian regime transferred more than $2 billion to a state-owned Russian bank, according to a Daily Dot report published on Friday.

Hmm...seems a bit suspicious, but could have just been an innocent mista-

"It is disappointing to see Daily Dot pushing the Hillary Clinton campaign’s neo-McCarthyist conspiracy theories about critical media.” (WikiLeaks threatened to retaliate against the reporters if they pursued the story: “Go right ahead,” they said, “but you can be sure we will return the favour one day.”)

Oh.

[Steve Contra]

It's been great watching two people as obsessed with image as Trump and Assange are become stooges for Putin.

[benjipwns]

Remember Iran’s Role in 9/11
Forgetful officials should not be rewarding Tehran for its deadly actions with gifts like sanctions relief.
By JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN
Sept. 7, 2016 7:21 p.m. ET

‘Never forget” is the commitment the American people made after Sept. 11, 2001. Yet sometimes our leaders seem to have forgotten Iran’s role in that worst terror attack on American soil, and Iran’s continuing assistance to terror organizations and operations around the world.

Dangers Rise as America Retreats
Fifteen years after 9/11, the next president will face greater risks and a weaker military to combat them.
By DICK CHENEY and  LIZ CHENEY
Sept. 9, 2016 6:45 p.m. ET

Fifteen years ago this Sunday, nearly 3,000 Americans were killed in the deadliest attack on the U.S. homeland in our history. A decade and a half later, we remain at war with Islamic terrorists. Winning this war will require an effort of greater scale and commitment than anything we have seen since World War II, calling on every element of our national power.

Defeating our enemies has been made significantly more difficult by the policies of Barack Obama. No American president has done more to weaken the U.S., hobble our defenses or aid our adversaries.

President Obama has been more dedicated to reducing America’s power than to defeating our enemies. He has enhanced the abilities, reach and finances of our adversaries, including the world’s leading state sponsor of terror, at the expense of our allies and our own national security. He has overseen a decline of our own military capabilities as our adversaries’ strength has grown.

[Joe Molotov]

I'm sorry, it's the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Sixteen and we have to take seriously the options of Dick Cheney and Joe Liberman? I don't think so, Tim.

[Trent Dole]

Yes, Dick, I remember the greatest attack on american soil that is a tleast partially attributable to the administration which you were part of's gross negligence and complete and utter incompetence. I remember how you dumbfucks oversaw an entire american city get destroyed too. But yeah, these past 8ish years of deficit reduction and job growth are far more horrible than anything you can claim a prt in and thus we'd better vote for your party in November. Right.

[Syph]

nah fuck it ill bite
as an observer the dealings with Iran have been shameful if you adhere to realism in international relations and care about how America project itself
as usual i will qualify that i am right-wing but cmon breh how you gonna cater to them like you have been
at the very least
the very least
at
the
very
least
the optics of the Iran transactions have been and are brutal

im not the biggest fan of invoking 9/11 though
i think they are shitty enough as it is to not need to use that trump (heh) card

[Mandark]

as an observer the dealings with Iran have been shameful if you adhere to realism in international relations and care about how America project itself

lol

[VomKriege]

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/295273-trump-i-would-shoot-at-confrontational-iranian-ships

Truly a modern day Castlereagh.

[Boogie]

as an observer the dealings with Iran have been shameful if you adhere to realism in international relations and care about how America project itself

lol

haha ya wat

[Great Rumbler]

the optics

Don't go down this road, Syph. Don't do it, breh.

[Samson Manhug]

Optics are irrelevant as applied to Realism I’d think, but how ‘bout dem optics:

U.N. nuclear agency says Iran sticking to nuclear deal

[Rufus]

Didn't make them say sorry and pinky swear. Diplomacy invalid.

[Tasty]

We should have done the Iran Deal with North Korea back in the day, if we did then maybe we wouldn't have this mess.

http://www.vox.com/2016/9/9/12863700/north-korea-nuclear-test-five-bad

People hope that you’re going to be able to use sanctions to put political pressure on a government. But, hey, we’ve tried that with North Korea, and that’s not worked.

So what we’re left with is to negotiate. And that’s hard, because they’re unpleasant — an ugly, ugly, ugly government. Nobody wants to sit down to a state dinner with Kim Jong Un while people in North Korea are starving. But the reality is that there’s not any other way to get them to not build this stuff other than to persuade them not to.

And this is a huge problem: The North Koreans have always been super clear that they’re willing to trade away stuff that they haven’t done yet for promises of a better relationship, but they’re not willing to trade away stuff that they have done.

So 20 years ago, when we were talking with them about a missile deal — that was a great deal. They’d built hardly any of these things, so locking them in place — even though we couldn’t get rid of the last few missiles — would have been amazing.

But we were, like, total dicks about it. We were like, "No, no, it has to be everything." And they said, "Okay, we’ll build some more stuff."

ZB: Is this a little window into what we would have been seeing, in a few years, if there hadn’t been an Iran deal to cut off Iran’s nuclear pathway?

JL: Oh, God, yeah.

This is why I’m so frustrated with the people who are against the Iran deal. If we had bombed them, and they had gone the North Korea route, then in 10 years we’d be exactly where we are with North Korea. President Ivanka Trump would be issuing a statement about how she’s not going to accept a nuclear Iran and North Korea.

That’s ultimately our problem. We don’t have any tool other than negotiating with [rogue states]. And negotiating with them is hard because they’re ugly, and it requires admitting that our strategies for the past 15 years have been a total sinkhole.

[Phoenix Dark]

Isn't everything Iran is doing meaningless optics? They are adhering to the deal, doing what they said they'd do - which we all presumably agree is a good thing, and the important thing. If anything their boat antics and other things seem moreso like propaganda for their own people, a front that they are still defiant and sticking their fingers in the face of evil America. Why should the US over react to meaningless optics, and potentially imperil the actual progress that has been made. Just to "save face?"

[VomKriege]

Didn't they held prisoner british sailors a few years ago ? Don't remember the details. But yeah it's all chest thumping. No one really want to escalate over that.

[Madrun Badrun]

Isn't everything Iran is doing meaningless optics? They are adhering to the deal, doing what they said they'd do - which we all presumably agree is a good thing, and the important thing. If anything their boat antics and other things seem moreso like propaganda for their own people, a front that they are still defiant and sticking their fingers in the face of evil America. Why should the US over react to meaningless optics, and potentially imperil the actual progress that has been made. Just to "save face?"

Just like a lot of the push back from the GOP is just meaningless optics and propaganda for their own voters as well.  Give it a few years and it will turn into a 70's-90's china type situation where both sides take pot shots at each other for public consumption while lessening sanction and increasing economic ties. 

[Joe Molotov]

Dude, how high af is Gary Johnson right now?

https://www.buzzfeed.com/davidmack/gary-johnson-syria?utm_term=.gxqoWeXze#.yjQywVY4V

Weld is just like

[Brehvolution]

Watching the deplorable seethe.

[benjipwns]

Dude, how high af is Gary Johnson right now?

https://www.buzzfeed.com/davidmack/gary-johnson-syria?utm_term=.gxqoWeXze#.yjQywVY4V

Weld is just like

I'll actually defend this one despite all my usual disclaimers regarding The Party and so on. This is how Gary actually is answering a lot of stuff, even like about pot and stuff that he knows backwards and forwards. He doesn't do talking points or anything like it really but he's not as good of thinker on his feet as he thinks he is. But nobody has ever paid attention to him before he started polling at 10% and now that he has the "Aleppo and Aleppo! What is Aleppo!" moment. CNN never did all these "town halls" for the LP let alone the Green Party before.

And he looks really bad when he's next to Weld who's a goddamn Jedi Master. (Romney was right, flip the ticket, except the LP wouldn't accept it.)

Weld actually does that smirking a lot whenever anyone is talking, it's funny. In the one town hall as soon as he heard the start of a question he was just  and zoned out while the questioner went on for like two minutes because he already knew what he was going to say.

[benjipwns]

~4:40 lol at Gary lost and pleased by Weld just knowing

[benjipwns]

one of the deplorables

[Syph]

the optics

Don't go down this road, Syph. Don't do it, breh.

ok i laughed at that choice quote lol


also hillary comments are hilarious because it's a romney 47% moment but it wont stick
the clinton armor is impenetrable
i dont think her underlying numbers change much
the swing in polls is basically are you including 3rd party and/or is trump hot or not
i honestly think if trump could stick to a literal script for a month he would win
but as he has proven time and time again he can't do that and hence we have the current situation of the guessing game
clinton will probs win in the end though but i don't think it will be a landslide
such a weird election when both candidates are this disliked lol

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Apparently Hillary fainted at a 9/11 ceremony this morning.

Meme magic is apparently real.

Edit: Whether people like it or not, her health is absolutely going to be the key focus of the campaign moving forward.  She won't be able to open up another jar of pickles and hope this goes away.

Edit2: http://www.jpost.com/US-Elections/Hillary-Clinton/Hillary-Clinton-reportedly-faints-at-New-York-911-ceremony-467455

Edit3: CNN reporting on it now.

[Phoenix Dark]

Tim Kaine 2016

[Dennis]

Well, if you can't take the heat.......

[Madrun Badrun]

Apparently Hillary fainted at a 9/11 ceremony this morning.

Meme magic is apparently real.

Edit: Whether people like it or not, her health is absolutely going to be the key focus of the campaign moving forward.  She won't be able to open up another jar of pickles and hope this goes away.

Edit2: http://www.jpost.com/US-Elections/Hillary-Clinton/Hillary-Clinton-reportedly-faints-at-New-York-911-ceremony-467455

Edit3: CNN reporting on it now.

Can't wait to see the picture on drudge report showing the invisible wires holding her up during the debates. 

[Dennis]

Video of Hillary fainting.

Republicans were not happy with Katie Britt�s bizarrely dramatic State of the Union rebuttal. �What the hell am I watching?� one Trump adviser wondered to Rolling Stone

More: https://t.co/vRpEAfKBZHhttps://t.co/vRpEAfKBZH

— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) March 8, 2024

https://twitter.com/zgazda66/status/774993814025011200/video/1

[Madrun Badrun]

That looks less like fainting and more like low batteries. 

[VomKriege]

Tim Kaine 2016

srsly

I don't think Hillary is going to die or anything and her health is probably be fine but so what? Worst case scenario, Kaine will be president. How is this bad news? Why is Trump and his basket making such a big deal out of it?

pathetic

Reagan possibly going senile during his second term is a heated contention for a reason. Worst cases are not dying into office, but being gravely mentally incapacited before the election or impaired to exercice the function properly.

Feeling dizzy and a cough in itself might just be two meaningless episodes but regardless of their gravity or lack thereof, the Trump campaign will milk it hard and it could sway some voters : no one want to put into office a liability.

EDIT: And yeah it all hinges on a looney tunes level understanding of health anyway, but you know, we voters dumb dumb. Some are sold on the narrative she's secretly impaired, this will add to it.

[Dennis]

Weekend at Hillary's.