Countdown to Extinction: The 2016 Presidential Election

[Xerxes]

In the comments section there is an astute reply to the obvious question why Hillary ain't twenty points ahead by now:

"because she's a woman. (I'm a woman too, just telling like it is. Any man going against trump would be 30 points ahead). As much as I like Hillary, and I do like her, the reality is I don't think many people are ready to see a woman as president."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/09/22/this-is-why-hillary-clinton-isnt-50-points-ahead-or-even-10-points-ahead/

[Karl Henning]

Amazing report about an incoherent Trump speech. Particularly the part at the end, about "maybe you want to go to a movie afterwards, but you're still excited about me, and besides, they don't make movies like they used to do anymore. so you go home" is bizarre and I'd almost say Snyprrrish.

He gibbers, no question.

[André]

Sarurnay Night Live's take on the presidential debate

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-BkOGxahd-E

[Madiel]

I wish every citizen of the US used every legal means to pay as little in federal income taxes as possible.  The less money the federal government has the less harm it can do.  Most of the pragmatic work of government occurs at the local level which is funded by property, sales, and other taxes.  The federal government has entered into areas it does not belong, e.g. education.  Government works best the closer it is to the people, the more remote are the levers of power, the less accountable government is to the people.

The US attitude to its federal government always puzzles me a little. I mean, I do understand that there's a debate to be had about the best level of government to handle various matters, but there's a hostility in the US that I don't detect here. Even allowing for the fact that I live in the national capital and therefore don't automatically hear locals saying how power should reside in the states.

To me, all governments are accountable in the same way, at the ballot box. And these days distance isn't really an issue. I mean, sure, maybe Washington DC is a long distance away physically, but e-mails and phone calls and facebook posts don't have a distance problem.

And something like education... sorry, but what exactly is different between the educational needs of a child in Arizona and the educational needs of a child in Vermont? Apart from having some different lessons when it comes to environment and biology, and some different lessons about state history, what is so different that the federal government couldn't have any interest in some general standards applicable across the whole country?

[Karl Henning]

If sanantonio finds it so laudable in El Tupé that he has fiddled his taxes, why the hesitation to release the returns?  Clearly, the idea appears to be, that it is activity in which El Tupé can take pride.

[NorthNYMark]

If sanantonio finds it so laudable in El Tupé that he has fiddled his taxes, why the hesitation to release the returns?  Clearly, the idea appears to be, that it is activity in which El Tupé can take pride.

In fairness to Sanantonio, he could find it laudable, but know that many voters would not. However, I suspect that the lack of taxes paid is not the sole or even primary reason for Trump's lack of transparency here. Most people already assumed he (like most people in his position) didn't pay income tax. Given the apparent return address on the material, I suspect his campaign may have wanted to leak this now, both to get the no-tax clamor out of the way, and to make people feel like the cat was already out of the bag enough to weaken further demands for release of the returns, which probably reveal something far worse

[kishnevi]

The US attitude to its federal government always puzzles me a little. I mean, I do understand that there's a debate to be had about the best level of government to handle various matters, but there's a hostility in the US that I don't detect here. Even allowing for the fact that I live in the national capital and therefore don't automatically hear locals saying how power should reside in the states.

To me, all governments are accountable in the same way, at the ballot box. And these days distance isn't really an issue. I mean, sure, maybe Washington DC is a long distance away physically, but e-mails and phone calls and facebook posts don't have a distance problem.

And something like education... sorry, but what exactly is different between the educational needs of a child in Arizona and the educational needs of a child in Vermont? Apart from having some different lessons when it comes to environment and biology, and some different lessons about state history, what is so different that the federal government couldn't have any interest in some general standards applicable across the whole country?

In the US, education began as a state/local matter.  The federal government has gradually grown more involved, especially with the No Child Left Behind Act passed under GWBush. One of several things that conservatives hold against him. But basically, the traditional view is that education is best handled at the level where parents are most active: the local.

The basic complaint against the federal government is that it is too much under the control of the bureaucracy and the financial and political elites.  Trump's shtik is that he can shake up the bureacracy and that he against his fellow members of the elites.

[Madiel]

In the US, education began as a state/local matter.  The federal government has gradually grown more involved, especially with the No Child Left Behind Act passed under GWBush. One of several things that conservatives hold against him. But basically, the traditional view is that education is best handled at the level where parents are most active: the local.

The basic complaint against the federal government is that it is too much under the control of the bureaucracy and the financial and political elites.  Trump's shtik is that he can shake up the bureacracy and that he against his fellow members of the elites.

Just to be clear, education is a state matter here in Australia as well. What's happened is a sizeable amount of federal influence because (in part due to a couple of court decisions a couple of generations ago) the federal government has a lot of the money and it places conditions on the funding.

The thing is, while there is definitely some grumbling at times about federal overreach, it just doesn't seem to rise to anything like the level of distrust in the US. I don't know if it has anything to do with the sheer number of states (getting 6 states and 2 territories around the bargaining table is difficult enough, I can't imagine what it's like trying to talk to 50), or if it's due to the origins of the USA as a rebellion against a distant government (as opposed to Australia's origins as a free trade deal) and/or the Civil War, but it really does feel like there is a greater antipathy in the US.

[kishnevi]

Just to be clear, education is a state matter here in Australia as well. What's happened is a sizeable amount of federal influence because (in part due to a couple of court decisions a couple of generations ago) the federal government has a lot of the money and it places conditions on the funding.

The thing is, while there is definitely some grumbling at times about federal overreach, it just doesn't seem to rise to anything like the level of distrust in the US. I don't know if it has anything to do with the sheer number of states (getting 6 states and 2 territories around the bargaining table is difficult enough, I can't imagine what it's like trying to talk to 50), or if it's due to the origins of the USA as a rebellion against a distant government (as opposed to Australia's origins as a free trade deal) and/or the Civil War, but it really does feel like there is a greater antipathy in the US.

It reaches deep into US history.  Some conservative writing will leave you convinced that the Constitution of 1789 was a powergrab from the states to the national level by centralizing elites led by Hamilton, and should have been defeated.

And the Civil War is a philosophical quagmire because it ended a very evil thing (slavery) by totally redoing the state vs federal balance in an unjust way, and the South tried to use a good thing ( the status quo ante of the Constitution) to protect that evil thing.

[drogulus]

    I don't believe slavery alone made states bad, nor do I believe the Federal government and Constitution were inferior power grabs to state level ones with their religious supremacy and abrogation of liberties. Until the Constitution applied to states they were tyrannies. They held no moral high ground. What's changed? Virtually every conflict today is between federal power protecting individual rights against state sponsored abuse. This has always been the case. This will continue to be the case. Personally I see the federal grab of "high ground" authority as inevitable.

[Madiel]

Some conservative writing will leave you convinced that the Constitution of 1789 was a powergrab from the states to the national level by centralizing elites led by Hamilton, and should have been defeated.

And sour grapes, we have learned, have no time limit.

[Que]

White House candidate Donald Trump's allies have said he is a "genius" if a report is true that he paid no federal income taxes for 18 years.


I don't think I would call a businessman who lost near a billion dollars a genius, but that's just me...


Making sure the loss was tax purposes deducted from any subsequent profits, was the job of his accountants. It doesn't tell us anything about Trump's (business) capabilities.

Q

[Turner]

I´m probably not the only one who felt that those glasses also undermined his credibility a bit, when he was describing Trump´s tax evasion as the work of a genius.

[Karl Henning]

In fairness to Sanantonio, he could find it laudable, but know that many voters would not. However, I suspect that the lack of taxes paid is not the sole or even primary reason for Trump's lack of transparency here. Most people already assumed he (like most people in his position) didn't pay income tax. Given the apparent return address on the material, I suspect his campaign may have wanted to leak this now, both to get the no-tax clamor out of the way, and to make people feel like the cat was already out of the bag enough to weaken further demands for release of the returns, which probably reveal something far worse

I expect you are right, that there are yet less flattering details to be aired if El Tupé were to release the returns.

But, I do not quite credit your suggestion that this is anything his campaign strategized;  that presupposes a discipline and focus which the campaign has consistently lacked.

Thank heaven.

[zamyrabyrd]

Washington and Lincoln should be turning in their graves at the low level to which this election has sunk.

[Rinaldo]

Washington and Lincoln should be turning in their graves at the low level to which this election has sunk.

Especially Abe, given that it's his party who sunk it. I've just read about the voter suppression in NC and it makes my stomach churn. Sad!

[Karl Henning]

Either this is not what his campaign meant, or it is what they meant and it was dunderheaded.

After details from Donald Trump's 1995 tax return revealed he may not have paid federal income taxes for as many as 18 years, voters in the critical battleground state were quick to criticize him and question his business acumen.

[Karl Henning]

Washington and Lincoln should be turning in their graves at the low level to which this election has sunk.

Indeed. But (again, without pretending that the Democratic nominee was 'the perfect choice') it is exactly the trajectory which one expected, given that the GOP nominated its present monstrosity.

[zamyrabyrd]

Indeed. But (again, without pretending that the Democratic nominee was 'the perfect choice') it is exactly the trajectory which one expected, given that the GOP nominated its present monstrosity.

Both parties could have and should have come up with something better. Sanders was only a side-kick ready for disposal once the lady got the nomination.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Both parties could have and should have come up with something better. Sanders was only a side-kick ready for disposal once the lady got the nomination.

Democrats had two or three acceptable choices. Republicans had 17 to choose from, easily a half dozen of whom would have been credible candidates. Instead it chose to nominate what in any other cycle would have been one of its joke candidates: this walking piece of human stench, this nauseating piece of garbage, this gigantic sociopathic turd.