The Next Election, Political News, and Other Forms of Comedy (US, UK, & Intl)

doghouse said:
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The entire campaign, encapsulated.
 
For doghouse doghouse , a double dose of IQ lowering today

Stopping Donald Trump at the Convention | Ian Welsh

Stopping Donald Trump at the Convention
2016 MARCH 4

by Ian Welsh
So, this is the plan. All the major candidates stay in the race, strategic is encouraged, and if Donald doesn’t have the majority of delegates at the convention, only a near-majority (because, don’t kid yourself, he’ll be close), they’ll vote for someone else.

If Clinton took the nomination from Sanders using super-delegates, well, that would cause a lot of Sanders supporters to refuse to vote for her.

But if Republicans do this there will very likely be riots and the Democratic nominee will almost certainly win the ensuing election. I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump ran a third party campaign.

The Republican establishment response to this has been more than tone-deaf. Using Romney to attack Trump? NeoCons writing a letter claiming he’d be bad for foreign policy? (Worse than them?)

All they are proving is that they don’t get it. They’re saying that the shitty world they and Democrats have created is acceptable to them, and telling people to vote for Trump.

This has been brewing for a long time. I’ve warned since I started blogging that the US had set up the conditions for a hard man of the right or left, or a man on horseback. People wouldn’t put up with a shit economy forever. And because the right is stronger in the US it seems likely to be Trump instead of Bernie.

And if Trump does fail this time? Doesn’t much matter. He’s shown how to do it. Someone else will.

The US economy sucked before the financial crisis.

It fell off a cliff after that and never recovered for ordinary people. Bush’s economy was trash, yes, but a lot of people got to participate in the housing bubble until it crashed. The current property bubbles are elite ones in a few cities like New York and San Francisco. The stock market, which is one of the best bull markets in history, is not something most ordinary people had much skin in (no, your Pension or 401K does not cut it.)

People WILL NOT TOLERATE this.

Last time the US got FDR. This time… not likely to be so lucky.

(Note also “Wall Street going nuclear on Trump.” Yeah, that’ll convince people not to vote for him. Because he opposed free trade? These people are so disconnected from street reality they might as well live on Neptune.)


This concern about Trump forcing the US military to commit war crimes is beyond farcical | Ian Welsh

This concern about Trump forcing the US military to commit war crimes is beyond farcical
2016 MARCH 4

by Ian Welsh
Look. The US army when Iraq was invaded, committed the exact same war crime that most Nazis were hung for at Nuremburg. They attacked a country which offered the US no threat.

The only defenses are the “good German” defense and “we didn’t know” argument (the “I couldn’t be bothered to actually pay attention” argument.) Or perhaps the “they keep us in a cage and feed us propaganda argument”.

But Iraq was a war crime. Once in Iraq the US military deliberately targeted civilians, engaged in torture, and so on.

Are people seriously wringing their hands about the prospect of Trump “making” the US military commit torture, and kill the families of its enemies as if the US has not already done both?

Oh yes, hitting all those weddings and funerals with drones wasn’t “meant” to kill civilian members of the family. No sir. It just happened to.

Over and over and over again.

Trump is only tearing off the pretense. If the US military revolts against his orders it will not be because of what he is ordering, but because he does not leave them a fig-leaf pretense of honor, and because internal factions want to take him down, not because they give one fig about committing war crimes.

Trump’s crime is his refusal to veil his monstrosity with hypocrisy.
 
There was a poll, and I forget where and the exact numbers, but it was during the 2000 election, when the dot-com boom was in full roar. Time, or Newsweek, or somesuch. And of the people they polled, something like 45% believed themselves to be in the top 1% of wage-earners. And of the rest, some insane number like 80% believed that they would be in the top 1%. It was batshit lunacy. I need to look it up again. I forget the numbers but it was bonkers. We had all lost our collective minds. I don't think we ever recovered.

There is this undercurrent in America that we are all -- even the guy with the Trump sign in his yard above -- just one lottery ticket, one lawsuit, one YouTube video, away from being fabulously wealthy. The way the oligarchy manipulates this illusion to keep retards from voting in their own best interest makes me twitch, as if metal spiders are crawling around under my fingernails.

I want to smack the fuck out of the sagging, toothless asshole ahead of me in line who's sorting out his change to buy a can of Pringles, a Coke, and a sheet of scratch tickets when I see that he has a new TRUMP bumper sticker on his '91 Ford Tempo. Yeah, buddy. Trump is one of you. He's looking out for you, all right.
 
Rain Man said:
There was a poll, and I forget where and the exact numbers, but it was during the 2000 election, when the dot-com boom was in full roar. Time, or Newsweek, or somesuch. And of the people they polled, something like 45% believed themselves to be in the top 1% of wage-earners. And of the rest, some insane number like 80% believed that they would be in the top 1%. It was batshit lunacy. I need to look it up again. I forget the numbers but it was bonkers. We had all lost our collective minds. I don't think we ever recovered.

There is this undercurrent in America that we are all -- even the guy with the Trump sign in his yard above -- just one lottery ticket, one lawsuit, one YouTube video, away from being fabulously wealthy. The way the oligarchy manipulates this illusion to keep retards from voting in their own best interest makes me twitch, as if metal spiders are crawling around under my fingernails.

I want to smack the fuck out of the sagging, toothless asshole ahead of me in line who's sorting out his change to buy a can of Pringles, a Coke, and a sheet of scratch tickets when I see that he has a new TRUMP bumper sticker on his '91 Ford Tempo. Yeah, buddy. Trump is one of you. He's looking out for you, all right.
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I agree with your general theme, and specifically your concluding remarks. But I can tell you that America still gives the opportunity for getting filthy rich like no other, through a great idea, innate business instinct, dumb luck, or all of the above. Russian Oligarchs notwithstanding.

I think this is one of the biggest disconnects people have. The American dream isn't what about 99% of people think it is. The American dream is get rich or die trying. It's rags to riches for some, not rags to moderately comfortable for all.
 
The american dream can be done anywhere, you guys are from here and see it that way, most people see the american dream as in getting in debt, talk about what they have that they dont actually own like the leased car, the marvelous house that will take them 30 years to pay and so forth. I was born in a fucking shit hole and through hard work my parents did what they needed to do which was work their asses off. The one thing that america has till a certain level is that it enforces law and there is security both as in not getting robbed, and that the country is not gonna become a smouldering shithole from early the morning to the sunset like it happened in Venezuela. Also the tax system is absolute bullshit, but the truth still stands, the US is an amazing country.
 
Quiet as it's kept, I grew up in a trailer park on an Indian reservation. I'm no Monty Burns -- I live in a barn in a neighborhood of seven-figure homes --but friends who knew me as a child would think I made a deal with the devil if they could see me now. You can go a long way in this country if you are just willing to risk working yourself to death. Fucked is relative.

It is an amazing nation. It really is.

 
Leitmotif said:
The american dream can be done anywhere, you guys are from here and see it that way, most people see the american dream as in getting in debt, talk about what they have that they dont actually own like the leased car, the marvelous house that will take them 30 years to pay and so forth. I was born in a fucking shit hole and through hard work my parents did what they needed to do which was work their asses off. The one thing that america has till a certain level is that it enforces law and there is security both as in not getting robbed, and that the country is not gonna become a smouldering shithole from early the morning to the sunset like it happened in Venezuela. Also the tax system is absolute bullshit, but the truth still stands, the US is an amazing country.
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People can see that as the American dream if they want, but it ain't. That's just keeping up with the Joneses which is what the middle class been doing for a century. This whole brouhaha we are seeing now is the middle class get their panties in a bunch because their government bribe has gotten smaller.

I've lived all over the world, and it's a different ball game here. Only place I have been similar is Hong Kong. Get fabulously wealthy or go out in blaze of glory.

You are on point with the law and order though, that's what makes it all tick.
 
They are bashing Trump on German websites as well now.
Yes, he's telling all sort of shit to get elected, but how is that different to all the other candidates (or politicians everywhere)?
But lets not forget what/ who the alternatives are:
A crazy Texan and a schoolboy from Florida. Do people want them to run the country? How bad do those two have to be to make people prefer Trump over them.
I also read somewhere that some people are concerned about Trump and Putin getting along (too) well, becoming buddies, so to speak. Bonding over being rich and how great Eastern European women are.
Holy shit, leaders of super powers getting along, that's really bad.
 
In any other election year, Hillary would be a terrible candidate and the GOP would coast to victory. How Reince Prebius, or however it's spelled, hasn't lost his job yet is beyond me.
 
John Lee Pettimore III said:
In any other election year, Hillary would be a terrible candidate and the GOP would coast to victory. How Reince Prebius, or however it's spelled, hasn't lost his job yet is beyond me.
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Reinhold Reince Prebius. Reinhold is an old German name, meaning ruler, advisor. Question answered. He's a born leader, he can't be fired.

"Rein" = reign, rule
"hold" = pleasant, lovely
 
I still think that Reince Priebus sounds like a name from Star Wars. Specifically, one of one of those bounty hunters in Empire Strikes Back who got his own action figure but never had any lines.

Plus, somebody has cite that fucker for illegal use of at least one silent 'e.' Pick one; I don't care which.
 
I get the feeling that "Reince" is some sort of short form for "Reinhold". Which is a weird name to give to your newborn boy, either way.

Has the search for a candidate always been this time and money consuming?
In Europe, the various parties decide themselves (no public voting) by asking their members who should be their main candidate for chancellor or prime minister. In Germany it's usually the chairman/ -woman of said party.
Why can't the US parties (after all, there are only 2) decide who they want to run for presidency without all this TV debate shit. Each candidate writes in what he/ she/ hen wants to do and how and then the party executives can decide.
That way you can avoid all that BS on TV and elsewhere in the media. I know it's a billion $ industry, but I think the money should be spent elsewhere.
 
Having just spent the past week in Georgia, including Super Tuesday, I have to say Mr. Trump sucks all the oxygen out of any real political discourse. I had to listen to Herman Cain on the radio blasting the media's portrayal of him and only allowing call ins to his show who were sympathetic to Trump. Being in the hotel, in the break room with Fox News on 24/7 (why Fox? I'm in the hometown of CNN), in the office and at dinners, Trump comes up about 5 or 6 times a day. I was in Georgia when Romney was making his run and it was nowhere as intense as this.
 
Trump creates ratings, that's what it is all about. None of the other candidates do it at that rate.
And from what I can gather there isn't a real political discourse going on anyway.
Making fun of the candidates size and body parts? WTF?!
Trump is a decent entertainer, but that's it.
Cruz looks like a creep and I wouldn't trust the Rubio guy with a pair of kid safe scissors, let alone the letter opener in the Oval Office.
The really sad bit is that all candidates will sell what little soul they've got left to get into office (except Sanders, maybe, I don't know).
And that's not really a quality you want for the leader of a nation with (one of) the most powerful military in the world.
 
Fwiffo said:
Having just spent the past week in Georgia, including Super Tuesday, I have to say Mr. Trump sucks all the oxygen out of any real political discourse. I had to listen to Herman Cain on the radio blasting the media's portrayal of him and only allowing call ins to his show who were sympathetic to Trump. Being in the hotel, in the break room with Fox News on 24/7 (why Fox? I'm in the hometown of CNN), in the office and at dinners, Trump comes up about 5 or 6 times a day. I was in Georgia when Romney was making his run and it was nowhere as intense as this.
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You poor bastard.
 
It's actually quite sad that a political process ends in a dick measuring contest.
I know that hasn't happened yet, but it's just a matter of time.
 
BTW, I'm actually surprised that nobody called Rubio a racist after his remarks about people with small hands.
I mean, Asians have (relatively) small hands...
 
How much do the respective US candidates pay their (over) enthusiastic supporters?
I have trouble to believe that it's genuine.
 
Lets assume he becomes president:
Can Canada cope with the US refugees? Imagine all those lefties/ liberals leaving the country...
Can Mexico handle the deported?
And if not: Who will be the IRL Mr. Garrison to make things right?
 
I hate Alan Grayson, but holy shit is this a beatdown of his opponent in the Democratic primary for his Senate seat.

I ate lamburger. And I hate lamburger

When I was in college, I cleaned toilets. When the rich kids were playing varsity lacrosse, or fencing, or crewing, I was cleaning their toilets. That was my varsity sport. I made less than four dollars an hour.

I had to be very careful with money. For dinner, I often made myself hamburgers from ground lamb, because when I was in college, it was the cheapest meat you could buy. A pound of ground beef cost 99 cents; a pound of ground lamb cost only 79 cents a pound. Occasionally, just 69 cents a pound. I could make four decent lamburgers out of that. Put that together with a store-label can of corn or green beans for 27 cents (black letters on a white background on the label), and voila! – dinner.

I actually hate lamburgers. But that’s what I could afford.

I know what it’s like to struggle. When you send this campaign $10 or $20 or $27, I know how much that means to you – and it means that much to me. It means so much to me >>

I remembered this when I heard that my spoiled trust-fund opponent, Richie Rich, took SEIU’s “Minimum Wage Challenge” this week. (His name isn’t really Richie Rich, but if it were Richie Rich, that would be more real than his real name.)

Richie Rich has never worked a day in his life in any real job. He “worked” for his father’s construction company, which he refers to as “day labor.” (Maybe it was, for his chauffeur.) He owns an enormous yacht called “Cocktails.” His father was so proud that he was able to buy little Richie a Congressional seat – right after the election, he gave little Richie a $5 million “gift.”

But little Richie Rich is quite the faker, so he felt that he could con his way through the Minimum Wage Challenge. Maybe he thought that he was auditioning for Eddie Murphy’s part in the remake of “Trading Places.” So when he got to the part of the challenge about living on $17 a day for food (actually the budget for a family of four, not one out-of-touch frat boy), this is what the out-of-touch frat boy did: he went to the drug store CVS to buy his groceries, and he bought a whole lot of expensive, name-brand crap. That’s his idea of how poor people save a penny.

Here’s what the Twitter said about this:

“What a doofus.”

“1. Don’t buy groceries at CVS.
2. Don’t buy name brands.
3. You suck at this.”

“He bought name brand sh*t at CVS [OMG emoji]”

“You’re buying groceries from CVS like a moron.”

“What kind of idiot does their grocery shopping at CVS?”

“Um, your 1st mistake is name brand, 2nd is CVS. Idiot.”

“LOL at buying name brand items while doing a ‘look at me’ challenge. No wonder we are $19 trillion in debt. Take a hike.”

“This just proves that you have never even tried to stretch a budget. Idiot.”

And then, rather than actually eating the groceries from CVS, Richie Rich went to a $1000-a-plate, port-and-caviar-and-cigars campaign fundraiser. I’m serious. But maybe he didn’t inhale.

Help me stop this empty-suit poser from buying a U.S. Senate seat. It won’t cost you $1000, just $10 or $20 or $27. Just click here >>

Our political system is jam-packed with fakers, liars, frauds, imposters, pretenders, fabricators, cheaters, swindlers and con artists. I can beat this one. But I’m going to need your help to do it.

Please help >>

Courage,

Rep. Alan Grayson
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