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Ted Cruz Drops Out Of The Republican Presidential Race (washingtonpost.com)
rmdingler writes: Ted Cruz drops out of the presidential race after losing in Indiana. Donald Trump has become the presumptive nominee before Hillary has locked things up versus Bernie. This is huge. Cruz's decision to drop out came after losing significantly to Trump in the Indiana primary. "I said I would continue on as long as there is a viable path to victory. Tonight I'm sorry to say, it appears that path has been foreclosed," Cruz told a small group of supporters Tuesday night. "Together we left it all on the field in Indiana. We gave it everything we got, but the voters chose another path." He said he would "continue to fight for liberty," but did not say whether or not he would support Trump as the nominee. The exit comes soon after he announced former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina as his running mate in a desperate move to keep his candidacy afloat.
R. Daneel Olivaw for President!
"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race." - H. G. Wells
Namely "Cruz for President"
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Trump should just drop out, too. He can't get enough votes with just support from only the white male population.
Only one Republican crazy person to go and then it is complete!
Checkmate, Republicans.
Signed, Everyone that's not a Republican.
Considering how he now has to lay off his entire campaign staff, picking Carly Fiorina as his running mate looks more and more like a brilliant decision!
Someone's God lied to them......
"Some books contain the machinery required to create and sustain universes."-Tycho
I wouldn't say "Huge". I'd say a %$%^$ nightmare. Except that it may have done some good in showing the Republican party and their deep-pocket funders like the Koch brothers where a race to the bottom eventually gets them.
Where does this take us? Trump is going to score well in conservative White districts, and Clinton (yes, I like Sanders, but he doesn't have the delegates) is going to score well enough to beat him with less conservative Whites and everyone else. I don't know if enough people would have voted for Clinton without someone who inspires people to vote against him like Trump. But even people who would in another situation never have voted for Clinton will cast votes against Trump. Clinton just got handed the White House. Game over.
What really troubles me is what happens after the election. 40 years of anti-intellectualism and pandering to prejudice and we got a significant part of the country voting for someone who really would not have been good for the country. The historical parallels are obvious. What do we do now?
Bruce Perens.
Oh, wait... yeah, it is.
I have inside information that he's undead.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
I'm not in the US so all I get are news paper reports.
Is it possible for trump to win the presidency? From the outside he looks incredibly divisive even in his own party, but are there enough disenfranchised people that would jump on his band wagon to get over the line?
We had a similar muppet in Australia called Clive Palmer who managed to get elected to our house of reps despite all the press saying he didn't stand a chance.
As a political analyst its simple to understand why a ted cruz candidacy was untenable. We simply need to look at the facts.
.04%. now, while this number is rising at an alarming rate, is nowhere near the 34% required for Ted Cruz to survive outside his spacecraft. his inability to handle Nitrogen and Oxygen perhaps cost him valuable facetime with the american people. Any reasonable subterranean intergalactic cephalopod species could surely identify with the all too common problem of our atmosphere and its no reason to think Ted didnt understand this problem acutely.
1. total Co2 in the earths atmosphere is around
2. The mindgasm with Carly Fiorina was tentative, as the aetherial fluids clearly hadnt been administered yet and the nanites had no substrate on which to build the newmind. Carly lacked ambition, determination, and a plan. Most importantly, she lacked the void stare, obedient subservience, and slow speech and gait that are all classic telltale signs of "the syrum." Of course Ted could have used the mindworms, but its unlikely a true fiscal conservative would take to using them. Theyre just too costly in a campaign.
3. despite liberal restucturing in the identity chamber, teds human form was too precitable and beginning to arouse suspicion of his youthful, larval past as the zodiac killer. Had he simply taken the time to explain that humans are a complete nutritional delicacy for his species and that 4-5 are required to exit the larval stage and return to the hivemind, most conservatives would have viewed this as a good leadership quality.
so heres hoping the Yaylaka prince Don-Al of Ukador persei 9, commonly known as "Don-Al Trumph" does better. and before you bash the candidate, its worth remembering his speech seems to approximate normal english almost 60% of the time! Quite an achievement if youve never slid into a humanform that may or may not have been a long haul trucker from illinois whos been missing for 36 years and presumed dead. I think we can all agree when he says "hail Ji-Ban-Lau forever" he means it.
Good people go to bed earlier.
if that retard needs my clearence to fuck off, so fock off at once, you bastard.
About damn time. You are the weakest link, goodbye.
Make some positive changes, as this country is sliding into third world status/"late Empire" conditions, or GTFO. Cruz, Rubio, and Kasich were the GOP Establishment's attempt to elect another controlled opposition candidate.
Wait a second...
Rafael Cruz AND Glen Beck both said Ted Cruz was "anointed by god" to be the next president. How could god have gotten it so wrong??
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
I give Slashdot a lot of leeway with anything remotely related to tech...
But COME ON. In no way does purely political news belong here. I can (and have) got this same news item EVERYWHERE. Can't we have one place on the planet that does not cover every minute of the presidential elections? Couldn't you at least have waited until an article came along about how people were using 3D printers to replicate model Trump hair to wear in support or something?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
If need be, I'm ready to vote for Trump!
I had something for this!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Ok, I know almost none of you would vote for me, but you should...
I'd split right down the middle...
If we can afford our current military, then we can afford to provide basic services to our people. Americans should not be going hungry, or lack for medical care.
Single payer universal health care, free at the point of service. It should be a basic human right. The NHS in the UK isn't perfect, but it spends FAR less than the US does per person and provides at least basic universal care, free at the point of service. It is a crime against humanity that the US does not do this.
As for companies, I'd end the corporate income tax, it is stupid. Companies don't pay tax, people do. Instead I'd adjust the tax rates, no exemptions.
$0-$100K - 10%
$100K-$1M - 20%
$1M+ - 30%
All income from any source, capital gains, labor, etc. is taxed at the same rate. No deductions.
National Sales Tax of 10%, all state sales taxes abolished. No exceptions whatsoever. 7% of sales tax goes to the states, 3% to the federal government.
Monthly food benefits, all US Citizens (must prove citizenship) will get $300 a month for food, this compensates for food sales being taxed.
No more child tax credit, no earned income credit, nothing. Instead, every US Citizen (again, must prove citizenship) will get $500 a month for basic living expenses, this is a citizens dividend for being an American.
I would end birthright citizenship for foreigners, one of the parents must already be a US Citizen to enable the child to be one.
I would cut the military in half, the world does not need a US Policeman. I would probably however, nuke the middle east, because those people are savages living in the 12th century and we'd all be better off without them. (ok, maybe not, but I'd want to!)
---
There are many more things that I'd do, but that would be the start of it. I would never get any votes with that plan I don't think, but it strikes me as quite reasonable. If we can afford 11 nuclear aircraft carriers, then we can afford to take care of our people.
And I'm a right-wing Republican who strongly believes in capitalism... but regulated capitalism, because you need strong rules or people will abuse it.
a nation founded on liberty for all...unless you are black
no wars of gain..outside of spanish american, mexican
only in america penniless immigrants son super successful...i couldn't find any examples, but i'm sure there are some
He's not dead yet.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
All that really needs to be said is Hillary is powerless to stop Trump among just about ALL voting groups, read :
Looking back: How Trump Beat Hillary
Unless the Democrats are smart enough to actually nominate Sanders, which they are not.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I've been following Scott Adams' blog, and he has some insightful things to say about Trump and how he manages to win.
Scroll back a few entries in the blog and they're pretty interesting.
With that background, I've just this morning figured out how Trump managed to pull it off: he's been using "sad" as a verbal kill-shot.
Check out any image of Ted Cruz, and the most notable feature is his sloping eyebrows. He's definitely got that "sad puppy-dog" look.
Trump has been using "sad" in his speeches for months, and associating it with all sorts of slightly pejorative things. He's never made it specific that he's doing this as an association to Cruz, and "sad" is not extreme rhetoric so it escapes peoples' notice. (He sometimes calls Ted sad, but I'm talking about all the other "sad"s over the past few months.)
Furthermore, he masks it by giving people a more transparent and direct kill-shot: "lying Ted Cruz". People are distracted by the extreme moniker and reject it, and all the while they don't notice that they are slowly building an association between "sad" and a wide range of slightly bad things.
So when they see Ted on stage or in the media, that association is what they feel.
I think it's a case of priming, and Trump has masterfully arm-wrestled Ted's reputation to the floor without him realizing it.
Pundits are quick to point out that Trump's unfavorability is at 70%, and all polls show that Hillary would beat Trump in an election.
What they *don't* say is that Hillary herself is only 12 points lower (56% unfavorability), and that's bound to change over the next 6 months.
In fact, Hillary's unfavorability seems to be creeping up of late, and Trump's is falling.
It's starting to look like he might win.
And that he's winning on purpose.
Who'd of think it?
No joke?
Trump has a lot of negatives, yes.
And that might matter - if he were not running against Clinton.
Read Looking back: How Trump Beat Hillary
It's pretty amusing how much your posts parallels all of the people claiming Trump had no chance of winning the Republican nomination... The fact is you simply do not understand the vast majority of voters, women and men, white and black, hispanic or any other racial groups.
You've not even factored in how much more strongly Trump is against big banks than Clinton is (not hard to do since the Democrats have for some time been deeply intertwined with the likes of Goldman Sachs, which Trump has taken very little money from banks and has a natural animosity towards them having had to go through them in dealing with business ventures).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Trump is literally going to plaster the walls with Hillary, after the first debate that all become apparent even to you... I doubt Hillary will do more than one open debate, and then where will the reclusive sulking get her? Exactly nowhere.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Silent Ted Cruz?
Is there such a phenomena even in parallel worlds?
He'll be back.. filiblustering the entire Election. More Green Eggs and Ham Fiorina!
WOW between a sociopathic narcissist temper-tantrum bully republican and a Washington democratic insider who thinks National Security laws do not apply to her, it is just for the little people.
It truly is the Apocalypse and don't know if the USA could ever recover from this.
Looks like Hillary is going to be the Commander in Chief. This is the best thing that can happen:
1: Her husband presided over the best economic times the US has ever had. No subsequent CIC can hold a cigar to Bill Clinton and his economic growth.
2: They did more to watch for IP and stop copyright violations than any President beforehand, with the DMCA/WIPO acts.
3: They took steps to protect children on the Internet with the CDA, which no other administration has had the guts to do. It did get struck down by SCOTUS, but with one loony out of there, we should see 5/4s on the reasonable side (i.e. safety on the streets, with firearms bans like in NYC upheld.)
4: They managed to convert a dire enemy of the US (China) into a close trade partner. Same with India.
5: Clinton's policies for sentencing like three strikes laws and other mandatory sentences have kept our country safe.
6: The assault weapons ban enacted gave us over a decade of no school shootings (maybe we should do like Australia or Venezuela and have a complete citizen gun ban. Both countries now have murder a rates a tiny fraction of what they were before the bans.)
7: There were no wars or trillion dollar boondoggles under Clinton's administration.
I am anxious for Camelot to return, and the saxophone to play again from the Oval Office.
what they think is move any equipment lubrication. You ggodbye...she had see. The number [klerck.org]=? it there. Bring
I'm hoping this election cycle results in the GOP splitting in two.
How does that not happen without the Democrats splitting similarly?
I have a number of strongly Democratic friends on Facebook. I have NEVER seen such a massive dislike of the front-runner (Hillary) and support for the candidates being shafted (Sanders). I would be surprised if even half of the Democrats I know will vote for Hillary ever.
The same is true on the Conservative side of course, with (again) probably about half not willing to vote for Trump either...
So to me that means the end of BOTH parties as we know them, and some very large percentage of hugely disenfranchised swing voters. Trump gets most of those this round but it doesn't seem like all of those people can stay registered as Republican or Democrat, and no way will they identify with libertarians... so it effectively means a large unaligned block of simply Independent voters.
I don't know what happens after this but moth parties are in for a major overhaul, and if neither can do it both will lose big-time.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Celebrate diversity, right? Democrats could not convince the electorate of their ideas, so they changed the electorate — by diluting it with a heavy dose of people from countries, where the government is the source of what little wealth there is.
They don't mind big government, and are happy to receive "free" help from it. The dilution is ongoing — while the same Administration fought tooth-and-nail to deport refugees from a rich country, who fled over homeschooling...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Clinton is 16 points lower, not 12 points as typoed.
The most recent unfavorability ratings are:
Trump's unfavorability has dropped to 65%.
Hillary's rating has been mostly steady at 55%.
So this month there is only 10 points difference.
Man, I *totally* can't type numbers tonight!
The 56 <-> 70 numbers were correctly entered. The difference between them is 14 points!
It may surprise you, but Hillary is not Bill.
The only effort Hillary got to lead during Bill's time was a healthcare fiasco that sunk any healthcare reform for Decades, and even now only gave us "reform" that was meant to boost the insurance industry profits, not help people.
If Hillary was president will she accept idea one from philandering Bill? Hell no. It's health care fiascos all the way down, only in the space of foreign relations, the economy, etc. We already had a preview of what Hillary looks like as foreign policy genius with everything that has happened in Libya, Syria, and Russia. If you liked all that you will LOVE four years of Clinton at the helm!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It's a democracy, right?
The majority wins, even if they later on have to say autsch!, it hurts.
That's how things work. There are many examples in history where the majority was all excited about a person and full of hope and the shining luminary ran the cart in the ditch big time.
We'll see what happens.
There was a saying, that the lower consciousness cannot recognize the higher, only the reverse works....
Maybe democracy isn't fitting this scheme.
What an awesome post!
I've already posted in this thread, but if I had the mod points you would get them!
Broadcast to the rest of the world. Hillary vs. Donald. Proceeds to pay off the national debt and really tall wall needed to keep the remaining 322,760,000 citizens from leaving.
Meanwhile Ben Carson is still standing in the hallway waiting for the New Hampshire debate to begin.
If they stall too long they might have to consider Trump's nominee instead.
2016
And to top it all of, Cruz accidentally punches his wife and elbows her while giving a hug onstage.
It's completely accidental, all of us have done the same thing at some point in our lives, and I hate that this is what's going to be all over the news tomorrow.
I'm a big fan of rational political discussion, and this media circus makes me sick.
Just some observations about Trump.
1. He is vindictive.
2. He holds grudges.
3. He's on record in a film interview being asked "If you were to run for president, which party would you run?" and answering "Republican. Those idiots will believe anything."
4. The Republican party snubbed him really hard in the 2008 and 2012 election cycles. See #1, #2, #3.
5. He regularly golfed with Bill.
6. You do not invite your political enemies to your wedding.
I expect Trump to drop out of the actual Presidential Campaign in late September, early October, leaving the Republican Party with no viable candidate in the election - giving the US the first "by default" Presidential election in history, putting an unelected Hillary Clinton in the White House.
But if he doesn't drop out, I am voting for him. Because there is no way I could bring myself to vote for the woman who said "Oh, I just hate this base. This will be the first one we close during BRAC."
And appropriately, the captcha is "Pretend"
In 40 years the major cities will be full of 80 year olds and people serving them coffee.
Except for SF which will be entirely populated by 20 year old billionaires. (all coffee shops staffed by robots there).
The future belongs to the people that show up, and the only people having babies in significant numbers are in rural areas.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Looks like Hillary is going to be the Commander in Chief. This is the best thing that can happen:
1: Her husband presided over the best economic times the US has ever had. No subsequent CIC can hold a cigar to Bill Clinton and his economic growth.
2: They did more to watch for IP and stop copyright violations than any President beforehand, with the DMCA/WIPO acts.
3: They took steps to protect children on the Internet with the CDA, which no other administration has had the guts to do. It did get struck down by SCOTUS, but with one loony out of there, we should see 5/4s on the reasonable side (i.e. safety on the streets, with firearms bans like in NYC upheld.)
4: They managed to convert a dire enemy of the US (China) into a close trade partner. Same with India.
5: Clinton's policies for sentencing like three strikes laws and other mandatory sentences have kept our country safe.
6: The assault weapons ban enacted gave us over a decade of no school shootings (maybe we should do like Australia or Venezuela and have a complete citizen gun ban. Both countries now have murder a rates a tiny fraction of what they were before the bans.)
7: There were no wars or trillion dollar boondoggles under Clinton's administration.
I am anxious for Camelot to return, and the saxophone to play again from the Oval Office.
You just missed which god. Lucifer incarnate, after all.
It seems insane to leave when Bush was president, only to return under Obama who had an even worse unprovoked war in Libya, who decided that instead of intelligent troops who could avoid shooting may innocents he would rather fight with indifferent and blind drone strikes, who made sure that Syria was to become a wasteland....
In your hatred of Bush, you helped grow something far more vile. But that what else would come of raw hate other than something vile?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The founding fathers never thought or anticipated that their great great great... grand sons would be corrupt and anti-American. This is what we see in families where the future generations destroy the best values generated by their ancestors. Had the founding fathers had one more amendment, call it
Anti-Corruption amendment and declared that all political crooks will be expelled from the US soil and their crime is against the whole USA and its hard working people. It is too late now. Most corrupt republicans and many democrats do not care about America or its citizens and in the pocket of lobbyist.
It does not matter Ted Cruz or Santa Cruz wins, they will destroy our unique democracy.
Can't say I like Hillary that much, but there is one major aspect I do like: She has excellent taste in enemies. Not saying that the enemy of my enemy is automatically my friend, but her loudest and most prominent enemies are on the scale from "despicable" to totally "despicable". I'm liking her more and more just for the nasty things the flagrant bastards say about her.
The second thing I rather like about her candidacy is that she is obviously vastly more qualified and competent than Trump (or Cruz) and significantly better than any of the other prominent candidates the so-called Republicans were considering. If they had found a candidate like Abe Lincoln, Teddy, or Ike, today's fake Republicans would have booed him out of the first debate.
The main reason I still prefer Bernie is that his primary personal identity is "idealist", and I think they are basically harmless compared to most of the alternatives. Hillary's #1 identity is probably "corporate lawyer" and "idealist" probably isn't in her top 10. I'm not sure "politician" is in the top 5, but she has Bill on her side, and his clear #1 is "politician", so I think she's covered there. (President Obama is also a primary politician, if you ask me, and I regard that as a bad (but evidently almost absolute) requirement for the office these years. I think Carter and Ford were the last exceptions.)
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Country may be fucked. But it's going to be one hell of an election year. Buckle up and pass the popcorn.
My money's on Trump. Why?
1. He has already shown your polls and theories and all are a bunch of horseshit. He has won the Republican nomination against all odds, same situation in the general - except
2. Trump is vicious and Clinton's closet is full of skeletons. For fuck's sake, the woman could be dragged into court over the e-mail thing any day now! She has said and done plenty that won't play well with voters. Benghazi? The story about getting shot at? She is not as likable as Slick Willy.
I hope Trump wins just so I can come read the comments on the Slashdot story.
Have you not seen a series of Sanders supporters here saying they will vote for Trump? It astounds me how few people here see the cross appeal.
What is really going to blow people's minds is when Trump asks Sanders to be his VP. Only thing that can stop that happening is Sanders.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
So long Rato
Ted Cruz and the GOP tried every dirty trick they could think of to stop Donald Trump.
Nothing worked.
The voters want Trump.
I will never have respect for Cruz, Kasich, Romney or many other members of the Republican Party who tried to go behind the backs of the will of the people for political gain.
To hell with them all.
Now support your nominee.
It's Donald Trump!
George Vreeland Hill
Clinton just got handed the White House. Game over.....
Well, the question is if it enough people are going to vote?
With the poor voter turnout in the US, anything could happen... The sane people might be too ignorant to actually vote.
It's not a given that Trump won't win. Because Americans don't care. So anything could happen.
Good thing is that US geopolitically is as good as ever. Europe as usual is in trouble...
Please elaborate? There is UK voting on EU membership (ironically the politicians there is probably learning the same lesson as the GOP: don't produce fear mongering using opinions you don't really share)...
Then there is some ongoing financial trouble in Greece... Economic growth isn't completely back yet (but that the same case for 99% of the Americans).
But these are likely solved given time and luck, things are definitely being addressed.
The whole refugee crisis, is not a crisis, just an under-investment in refuges... The European countries can fix that anytime. It's mostly a superficial issue, not actual trouble in any sense.
So I'm curious how do you see a Europe in crisis?
Now watch Trump air Hillary's dirty laundry 24x7 all the way until the election. I would not be that she would win, especially if he starts acting more "presidential" so to speak. There are a shit ton of very bad skeletons in her closet, some of them chucked there by her husband.
You guys are proper fucked.
..and don't let the door hit you on the way out.
We now will hopefully have a 4 year respite from having to deal with hearing more of this crackpot evangelical nonsense and assorted deluded fantasies.
The president's powers are so limited without a cooperative congress that none of this matters anyway. As much as I detest Clinton, she will probably win. The house and senate will probably remain very Republican and nothing will get done. Unless she screws up royally, Hillary will probably be re-elected which will again push congress more Republican in the mid-terms.
Get ready for 8 more years of nothing getting accomplished. I would be surprised if the supreme court seat is ever filled. Maybe 2024 will offer something different.
Vote Trump.
If it comes down to Hillary or The Donald, I think the lessor of two evils is The Donald, simply because his unfiltered rants are preferable to the shrill non-answers given by the consummate politician.
In truth, the results will be pretty much the same either way, so for me it comes down to who's press conferences I'd rather hear for the next 4 years. (Or less, Hillary could stroke out at any time, and Trump could just say "fuck it", so it will be interesting to see who the veeps are...)
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
If those that dislike Hillary and Trump voted for a single 3rd party candidate, they'd probably win. I'm a Bernie supporter that has decided to vote 3rd party. I've heard "you're wasting your vote" every time I've mentioned it. I don't care at this point. It's the only way we'll ever buck the current two party system.
American politics can be nonsensical ... That said Canada is a way way cooler place.
The analysis is all bullshit. Scott Adams is full of shit and possibly mentally deranged. The word "sad" is not what swung that primary election.
And "Priming" routinely fails all of the replications anyone tries for it. From your link: "Nobel laureate and psychologist Daniel Kahneman has called on priming researchers to check the robustness of their findings in an open letter to the community, claiming that priming has become a 'poster child for doubts about the integrity of psychological research.'"
Gee, "some random anonymous dude on the internet", that's a particularly cogent and persuasive argument you got there.
I happen to know that priming works because I use it.
As one of my AI lectures, I use a priming example that requires audience participation(*). It's always worked, never had it fail.
But again, who am I to argue? I'm just another "dude on the internet".
Here's a video of Derren Brown using priming as a sort of magic trick.
Priming is sort of like bullets. The fact that *you* don't believe in them doesn't mean that they don't work.
(*) As part of my argued position that AI is not based on hidden Markov models. HMMs are a fine construct and a fertile ground for research and innovation, but have nothing to do with AI.
The folks with Parliamentary systems seem to be able to handle this better than we do.
Oh Really
(Fox News was only news site I could find with working non-flash video)
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Well, yesterday. Whatever. All I know is our long national nightmare is finally over... Except for the near certainty of a Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton Presidency. I'm still hoping Jibbers will send an asteroid to destroy the Earth before the general election. But Jibbers Crabst works in mysterious ways. May his naysayers boil for all eternity in the great stock pot of brackish water!
Hillary has one thing over Trump. She has experience with political campaigning going back decades
All of that experience is experience in LOSING.
She lost the nomination to Obama.
She lost her attempt at healthcare reform when her own well-liked husband was president.
Even now she is actually losing against Sanders, even with a billion super delegate firewall arrayed against him it's hardly enough. Only the incredibly rigged system built to assure her coronation makes it fairly certain she will be the Democratic candidate, but how can it be a victory if there never was a real fight to begin with?
Basically she has lost at just about everything she has tried... she was the mastermind behind Libya after all, which went ever worse than Iraq.
She has just as much money, if not more than Trump.
So what do you think Money does? Magically win elections? Nope. Hasn't been true for some time now. Many, many spoiled elections where big money lost... And Trump so far has been winning spending just about nothing compared to other candidates. Why should that not remain true going forward? Now that Trump is the official candidate do you think Trump will get less or MORE coverage?
You also seem to have totally forgotten where Hillaries vast money has COME from. It's all as dirty like a mud pit in a tar storm. It's every single favor bought during her time as secretary of state, every large "donation" from every big bank and insurance company you can think of. THAT's an ASSET?
Her money, and where it came from, is actually her biggest albatross...
Even one of the Koch brothers spoke out in her favor.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA and you think that's going to go over well with all of the incredibly pissed off Sanders voters? Or sway even a single conservative?
These are the people that matter, and who elect the candidates.
No, they are the ones who pull some strings but people like you forget voters are very much an independent whaling mass who were just barley under control in the past, but no longer seem to be...
the Sauds are likely going to throw a lot of money her way
Like I said, mud pit in a tar storm.
but because she IS the system.
And that... is why you FAIL.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I guess people of USA are tired and want to commit harakiri with a rusty, dull blade (Trump). Goodbye US of A. I will miss your cars! I'll see you when i get there (afterlife that is).
You underestimate the dislike for Clinton.
Take the Hillary vs Trump debacle as an opportunity to vote for a Libertarian candidate! Or, really, any third-party candidate. You won't be contributing to the eventual failure of the American people to elect a decent leader, and you will be contributing to the long-term emergence of a viable third party which we desperately need.
Time for a good old fashion assassination!
What they *don't* say is that Hillary herself is only 12 points lower (56% unfavorability), and that's bound to change over the next 6 months
In fact, Hillary's unfavorability seems to be creeping up of late, and Trump's is falling ...
England's Leicester became the champ, even though they were roundly dismissed at the beginning of this year's Premier League
I started to keep track of Leicester's progress 2 months into the season and boy, did they gain momentum
Same thing with Trump's campaign --- now I gotta reckon that I have been pretty interested in Trump ever since I read about his first marriage with a foreign beauty queen --- but the longer I observe Trump's campaign the more it looked to be a replication of Leicester's progress
My own prediction is that on Jan 21st 2017, the new president who moves into the White House gonna have a 'J' in his name
Dude, if you could make all that happen you got my vote. Problem is that common sense (your approach) doesn't work in politics. But I agree with the simplicity of your plan.
Only thing I know is that the next President is going to be the most hated one of all history.
Polls are garbage until like a week from the election. If you want to know probabilities, look at people who study such things dispassionately... people who have money riding on making the correct assessment and are unlikely to be clouded by their political preferences... bookies.
Election Betting Odds
The party bosses, still interfering with the voters right to elect a serial killer.
At the beginning of this little endeavor by the 17 candidates on the republican and the 3 on the democrats. The republican put on notice the media that they were not going to fall for the "Gotcha" questions.
What has followed is this drivel of debates where the candidates just spew what ever their platforms are and no one is asking them any questions. They are just feeding the monster they created in the first place.
For fuck sakes at least go down fighting, Media asking questions to tough questions is how you vet these morons, it how it showed that Sarah Palin was not fit for office.
You keep saying that US president is the most important job in the world. Wake the fuck up and ask these guys questions and not just fluff.
I know you have your agenda and ratings are king but come on.
Perfectly spoken for someone who has now idea how democracy works and who doesn't actually understand much. Do you even know who said "I didn't vote for him, but he's my president and I hope he does a good job"?
Hint: He was a sincere conservative but too wise to run for president. Unlike a certain fool who took the country halfway down the rathole, mostly by destroying most of public education.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
The fundamental problem is that most of the so-called Republican Party now stands for "government of the corporations, by the lawyers, for the richest 0.1%", while Trump is much simpler. He just wants "government of the Donald, by the Donald, for the Donald", and that is why they hate him.
The threat is that his supporters are gullible or ignorant or both. The gullible ones believe whatever Trump says that they personally agree with, even though he has been on every side of every issue. The ignorant ones have fundamentally short attention spans and can't even remember what he said yesterday.
Going forward Trump is going to create so much confusion that he might actually win. He is a master of playing the mass media for fools, and I'm strongly reminded of a book Harlan Ellison wrote in 1968, when he predicted that Reagan would eventually become president only because he really understood television. As I've already noted, Trump is a con man or liar (or both), but he understands how the new social media work.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Carly is like the kiss of death... Ted Cruz shot himself in the foot by announcing the VP would be the biggest idiot in IT history.
I can't believe it! Otherwise this is just a dumb ass space filler.
Clinton is a square shooter
I wonder how he is going to do it.
Trump has barely spend any money at all by today's standards. To air dirty laundry you need to convince a lot of media sources to give you air time to pour through that dirty laundry.
Media sources are really torn. Trump generates a lot of viewership and extraordinary ratings, which means money to the media sources. However most mass media pundits clearly dislike Donald.
I am putting my money that Media will go after the ratings and money. People will be entertained. The show must go on. This is America!
Build that wall! Trump 2016!
Remember, we in Canada don't have right wing radicals in power any more. We provide an American quality of life without Trump level racism or radicalism. Come live the good life you always dreamed and never found (aka, the American dream). Plus, if you are an international business owner, if Trump does become president, your business would find relations with your international parts in other nations, including India, China, most of Europe and the UK rather strained, whereas here in Canada, we are nearly everybody's friend (with a few exceptions in Afghanistan). Amazon liked us so much, they tested their drone delivery services here. So it's a benefit to your business to host your internal corporate headquarters with us. Plus, we have better health care than at least 50% of the USA (the ones that choose not to participated in extended Medicare/medicaid and we likely have better government health coverage then those that did). Lots of room in Nova Scotia at Cape Breton Island, but we have room in other places too.
Better politics, better international relations, better health care, friendlier people, less racism. USA quality of life. What more could you ask for?
Canada: It's better up here, eh?
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
Time to start a campaign to elect Mike Rowe as a write in candidate!
Although I am happy to see Cruz drop out I am even more happy to see Carly Fiorina get taken out with him. She was a bigger threat to the middle class than Cruz. Now we just need to get Trump elected to shake up Washington and get this country refocused on internal growth.
-==- Buy a Mac and leave me alone!
What the heck does Kasich think he is achieving by still running?
I'm voting for honest Gil Fullbright.
We were all told that Ted Cruz had been anointed by God himself to be the next President. Clearly dropping out of the race is blasphemy to the Almighty. What the hell is wrong with Cruz, has he completely lost his faith? Why doesn't he stay in the race and wait for the miracle that he should know is coming?
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Love him or hate him - Trump has run a brilliant campaign. Personally I don't think he will be able to implement half of the policies he has promised but that doesn't seem to matter to his supporters. I think it comes down to this - a lot of people are pissed off right now. Some people are pissed off about the economy, some about ISIS, some about immigration, you name it. Somehow he has managed to unite these groups.
I think a lot of people are tired of the same old political BS we get every election cycle and are not in a hurry to have another lawyer in the White House. Trump represents the anti-politician. Is he full of shit too? Yeah, probably. Time will tell. But some people are willing to take that chance.
I never saw Cruz as a viable candidate in the first place. His appeal is too narrow. In a general election he would be nothing more than a bible belt candidate. We saw this in how poorly he did in the north east. That pitch to include Fiorina was pure desperation. How can you even announce a running mate before you have won the nomination? The fact that she would even accept it probably speaks more to her desperation than his.
...our new Trump overlords.
Never mind the Doomsday Clock, we need a Trump Doomsday Clock. If this fat bastard becomes POTUS, it's Game Over for the United States, and maybe the rest of the Free World, too. No, I'm not kidding. He'll ruin us.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
So I've had some predictions, and it looks like I am doing pretty good so far. I have a friendly two part 10$ bet with a friend at the start of this whole mess. The first part was that Trump would win the Republican nomination, the second was that he would beat Hillary to become president. Neither of us live in the US, but he thought I was crazy to take that side of the bet.
There are a whole lot of reasons for this firstly the Republicans showed a lack of cohesion by diluting their leader nomination with 16! candidates. Trump if he has done anything well with his life it was building the name recognition of the "Trump" brand. If you asked 10 people who the candidates are, most people probably couldn't remember the other 15 names, but everyone will know who the hell Trump is. Second, for having so many candidates, how the heck did you find so many crazy ridiculous people? I mean Trump for all the nutbar things he has said, is the least crazy person on the list. I know I was briefly excited about Ben Carson, hearing he as a neurosurgeon, I figured he must be smart and educated, surely he will have some good ideas! Though it seems all you need is steady hands, not a stead mind... (Though I did seem him on the Daily Show and he did seem much better, perhaps he just did a really horrible job of presenting himself). At any rate another thing is that he is "honest" and not a politician, which speaks to a lot of voters who are really disenfranchised with the whole process and want real "change" (would be funny if he stole Obama's slogan!). Lastly Trump is able to reasonably argue that his fiscal success, and deal making etc... will be a boon for the American economy, jobs, etc... As that is always a top 3 if not #1 election issue every single year. So yeah, I predicted it, and I am not in the least surprised. For good or ill, I also think that he was the only one that could challenge the Democrats.
Now on the other side, the Democrats, I really like Bernie Sanders, I think he would probably be the best thing for the US in a very long time. That said, I think Hillary is going to beat him for a number of reasons. First is the fact that he is Old. Just some bad timing really. You only have a set window to be able to do this sort of thing, and he couldn't have won against Obama, but now he is the oldest Candidate, and while not by a large margin, he also does really look old, which people make fun of all the time. There would be the fear (real or not) the guy might die while in the job, never a good thing. Here is where him having a really really strong VP running mate would have made a huge difference I think. The other thing that Hillary has going for her that Bernie does not is a lot of the minority vote, which I am not sure really why to be honest, but it is definatly there. Lastly and also a big one is Money. Hillary has a ton of it, and Bernie does not. In US politics this doesn't always trump (pun intended) not having it, but it does make a big difference. As Bernie has pointed out Hillary stands for the wall street, and a lot of special interests which also inflates her coffers. So unfortunately for Bernie (and probably the US) I think Hillary has a big advantage and is likely to win the Democrat nomination. Oh and Hillary also has a whole bunch of "super delegates" in her corner, which if I am honest I am really not all that certain how that all works, but it doesn't sound good for Bernie.
Now when it comes down to the actual election between Hillary and Trump, I think there is (as crazy as it sounds) a pretty good chance, and I would say a better chance that Trump will win over Hillary. When my friend was incredulous over this prediction asking how that is even possible, the first thing I pointed out was US recent historic voting record. They elected George W Bush, despite him being the obviously crazy guy that he was. Then they elected him again. So just like Toronto mayoral races, where a guy like Mel Lastman gets two terms, a guy like Rob Ford can also win. So there is a precedent for electing a pr
Six hundred and sixty six comments? That's not a coincidence!
Damn, not much of a choice left...an unpolished blowhard or un-convicted felon with zero accomplishments and a payola sheet a mile long.
Society fail. Super sized!
They know that the Republicans control both the House and the Senate, and that the SCOTUS is even, and missing a judge.
Normally that would matter more but this year the feelings about BOTH Clinton and Trump are so strong is has driven that long-term fact to the back of everyone's minds.
And even if you DO think that is a factor, do you think Clinton would push a more left leaning justice than Trump? I think it's a wash. So it's not like that's even a factor.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Trump got a *higher percentage* of female voters in New York than Clinton did!
The laughable mistake you make is thinking that anyone besides those who hated trump already cared a whit about what he said. In effect, Trump offended no-one because there was no effect from any of his statements that supposedly offended people.
Now, you may not attribute much voting power or political astuteness to those groups, but I do.
I attribute a great deal of power to those groups. But unlike you I understand the degree of Trump support within said groups, which you are trying to hide your head in the sand and ignore.
In particular, Trump is vasty more popular with millennials than Hillary is, primarily because of all of the things Hillary has done to stop Sanders. Do you really no see that?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Insightful. The USA appears to be following past empires -- Russia, Greece and Rome in particular -- down the path of controlling itself to death.
Except for nuking the Middle East, this sounds pretty good actually. I do disagree on the tax rates; it should be 0% for lower incomes. Since you've thrown a UBI in there, it doesn't have to be very high, maybe the first $10k is tax-free. However, to make your UBI and universal healthcare work you'll need much higher taxes at the top end, more like 50% for the $1M+ people and 35% for the $100k-1M people.
As for the military, the thing really needs to be revamped. We should be able to afford just as much military hardware for half as much money. Look at how much an aircraft carrier costs now. 20 years ago, it was around $2.5B for a carrier. Now it's suddenly $15B. Military costs have risen far more than the rate of inflation. And there's been a huge amount of merging in the defense contracting industry, which probably isn't a coincidence. I'm not exactly sure what the solution is, but we taxpayers are not getting much for our defense dollars, and it needs to be fixed.
This is a problem I see with a lot of analyses: they assume that current costs are fixed or rising, and that there's no way to make them lower. The government does have the ability to change the costs of things if it manages things smartly. And it is possible to manage things more intelligently: various European countries have proven this by doing it. Healthcare costs (per capita) are much cheaper there, telecom/internet service is much cheaper, etc.
Media gives Trump free air time because gas bags bring higher viewership.
mfwright@batnet.com
And Teddy Roosevelt did some good stuff, too. Today's politics don't seem to be too linked to the old systems, and in particular today's so-called Republican Party is just a brand hijack. No relation to the progressive and liberal Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln or the pragmatic if too-pro-business-for-my-taste GOP.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Except for nuking the Middle East, this sounds pretty good actually.
I was mostly joking there... that is an emotional viewpoint, not a rational one. At the end of the day, rational would win. (I think!)
I do disagree on the tax rates; it should be 0% for lower incomes. Since you've thrown a UBI in there, it doesn't have to be very high, maybe the first $10k is tax-free.
Actually, that is why I put a UBI in there, to avoid 0% tax rates.
I believe that everyone should pay something into the system, everyone takes part. If millions of people pay nothing, then they have no investment in the system.
Consider UBI to be the counterbalance to the removal of 0% tax rates.
However, to make your UBI and universal healthcare work you'll need much higher taxes at the top end, more like 50% for the $1M+ people and 35% for the $100k-1M people.
Maybe... I haven't done a serious study on it or anything, but consider that large numbers of people pay amazingly little in taxes. Under my plan, my personal tax rate would double, for example.
As for universal health care, I don't think that would cost a dime, it may save money. Take all the money from insurance companies, all the money from medicaid, all the money from welfare, food stamps, writeoffs from medical bills not being paid, plus the economic damage from 1 million+ bankruptcies from medical bills, and I think it pays for itself.
Of course, I'd do it differently... I'd suggest simply hiring 250,000 doctors, pay them a salary, and tell them to take all comers with the goal to provide quality patient outcomes. Consider that we don't allow "for-profit" police departments or fire departments, some things just shouldn't be profit driven. Of course doctors have to be paid, but they don't need half a million dollars either.
Keep in mind, my wife is a doctor, she makes in the comfortable six figures, but takes home less than half of it. She has to employ a medical billing person who does nothing but chase down insurance companies for money. She would LOVE to take a $100k salary and just treat all comers, free of charge.
As for the military, the thing really needs to be revamped. We should be able to afford just as much military hardware for half as much money. Look at how much an aircraft carrier costs now. 20 years ago, it was around $2.5B for a carrier. Now it's suddenly $15B. Military costs have risen far more than the rate of inflation. And there's been a huge amount of merging in the defense contracting industry, which probably isn't a coincidence. I'm not exactly sure what the solution is, but we taxpayers are not getting much for our defense dollars, and it needs to be fixed.
Yep, that is a long story in itself... In short, we love flashy and fancy, but we tend to waste a huge amount of money. We make far too few long term plans. The F22 is wonderful and you need those, but the F35 has been a mess. And they KEEP trying to kill the A10, what a wonderful and cheap airplane, I'd love to build 200 more of them.
One thing that I'd like to consider is merging all the services into a united military service. There is a lot of overlap between the branches and while they would fight tooth and nail, the question is how much could be saved by having a single purchasing department instead of 5, a single testing center instead of 5, etc.
Maybe lots, maybe little, but I'd look at it.
As for the carriers, keep in mind that exists for 2 reasons:
1. Jobs program
2. Maintaining the ability to build nuclear ships at all - once lost, that ability is hard to get back
European countries have proven this by doing it. Healthcare costs (per capita) are much cheaper there, telecom/internet service is much cheaper, etc.
Too many Americans think we're the best at EVERYTHING, without being willing to look at other nations and seeing what they do best... This is foolish, we are not the only "great nation" in the world.
As for the carriers, keep in mind that exists for 2 reasons:
1. Jobs program
2. Maintaining the ability to build nuclear ships at all - once lost, that ability is hard to get back
I disagree: nothing about these two factors have changed in 20 years. But the costs are far greater. There's other factors at work.
Too many Americans think we're the best at EVERYTHING, without being willing to look at other nations and seeing what they do best... This is foolish, we are not the only "great nation" in the world.
We have a massive case of NIH.
Actually, that is why I put a UBI in there, to avoid 0% tax rates.
I believe that everyone should pay something into the system, everyone takes part. If millions of people pay nothing, then they have no investment in the system.
This isn't a big point, but I somewhat disagree. The UBI still isn't much money, and I think people should be encouraged to work. I think a tax-free amount at the onset would help that, because taxes discourage activities. Give them a little carrot that they can keep 100% of their first $10k and not have to bother filing taxes. After that, they have to pay, but then they won't feel so bad about it because they're making more significant money (and are probably more educated anyway). Again this isn't a big point; where and how much to set these taxation thresholds is something you really need to do a big study for.
He tells some people one thing, and others something completely different. Hence why religious wars and schisms happen.
Of course, I'd do it differently... I'd suggest simply hiring 250,000 doctors, pay them a salary, and tell them to take all comers with the goal to provide quality patient outcomes.
That would be a quarter or so of the doctors in the US now.
Even allowing for this only being partial coverage, that's still a large way off.
One thing that I'd like to consider is merging all the services into a united military service. There is a lot of overlap between the branches and while they would fight tooth and nail, the question is how much could be saved by having a single purchasing department instead of 5, a single testing center instead of 5, etc.
Maybe lots, maybe little, but I'd look at it.
The Defense Logistics Agency has been in existence since the 1960s.
You'd do well to look at it.
Not to mention the GSA.
Honestly, you may be well intentioned, but your facts are off.
From my perspective in Europe, I want to thank America for putting on the hugely entertaining and suspense filled spectacle the U.S. Presidential race has become every 4 years. It must cost billions and there's always blood on the floor. This time it's much better than usual. Just like in Ireland, you don't seem to mind if the candidates are lacking in sanity (e.g. Trump), or wit (e.g. George W. Bush), and it really adds to things that you take it so seriously. From here, we can enjoy the show, but you have to put up with the consequences.
This one seems set to top Al Gore vs George W. in 2000 for negative voting in November, presuming it's Trump vs Clinton. Would people sleep with Donald Trump's finger on the Nuclear Arsenal? Personally, I thought the real power in the U.S. lay with an Oligarchy of big business interests & lobby groups who can and do "fund"(=buy) politicians by financing their campaigns. For example, perhaps that's why George W Bush appointed an ex-Monsanto exec as head of the FDA, for him to whitewash GMOs (Monsanto's Products) as "Essentially the same" AGAINST the advice of FDA Scientists, and modern research highlighting valid concerns. Many unhealthy aspects of the American diet can be traced directly to favorable political appointments or decisions, and thence to the corporate profit motive. But the convoluted Election process is better than reality tv - it's reality!
we will get a new letter from the zodiac soon, lol
Kodos' human suit runs out of power:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
And the hands malfunctioned...... https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Cruz killed his own campaign by choosing that nag Fiorina as his running mate. She's almost as laughably pathetic as Palin.
Cruz is simply too polarizing to be a politician. He needs to get a job as a televangelist.
Wrong. It is EXACTLY because Trump is despised by the extremes of both the left AND right that he will win.
That's because Trump the the candidate VASTLY closer to the center of the political divide than Hillary is or ever can be.
There's a reason why Trump polls with 2x the minority support of any previous Republican candidate.
There's a reason why Trump got a higher percentage of women voters i the New York primaries than did Hillary.
It's because the people who are not at the extremes, real people living real lives LIKE Trump, or at least think he's way better than Hillary and admire his candor EVEN IF THEY DISAGREE WIHT HIM.
That last part is really the thing you and others are incapable of comprehending, why his eventual landslide election will be such a mastery to you for all time.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Amazing he dropped out.
Trump will destroy her in the debates, and if we're lucky Hillary will slip and reveal her TRUE SELF again and again!