Countdown to Extinction: The 2016 Presidential Election

[Rinaldo]

[André]

Canada's leading newspaper, Toronto's Globe and Mail, issued its editorial position on the US election. White-knuckle time for the rest of the world.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/dear-america-please-dont-vote-for-donald-trump/article32655412/

[James]

Dumb statement. Hate when kids post shit that they think 'sounds' cool while ignoring the stone cold facts.

[drogulus]

 
   Hey Canada, you better watch out or somebody's going to make you great again. You only get one warning.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

The American Conservative has an interesting election symposium. Most contributors appear to be voting 3rd party, or not voting at all:

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-american-conservative-presidential-symposium/

The closest to my way of thinking is Gene Callahan (not previously familiar to me). Like him, I am currently planning to vote for the female candidate born in Chicago (no, not her).

[Mahlerian]

This election scares me more than any other I've experienced.  I don't understand how partisanship has reached such an impasse that people on one side can't even discuss anything with the other, and I'm disturbed by the possibility of a president displaying that same closed-minded tendency.

[amw]

Good to see that the conservative white strategy for winning the election is proving to be the usual one.

[zamyrabyrd]

Jumping ship:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/casar-vargas/why-i-can-no-longer-suppo_1_b_12698874.html

"It took me a long time to write this. I had to dig deep into my being to come up with these words. I'm recanting my endorsement of Hillary Clinton for the presidency.

I'm aware of how vindictive Clintonians can be. I'm not speaking about the Clintons themselves, but of those surrounding them. Perhaps the saying is true: dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres. Your staff, your donors, your surrogates, and those you surround yourself with are a reflection of who you truly are, no? If not, why not curb any unacceptable behavior? Silence, indifference, or inaction is as incriminatory-at least to me.

There has been no repudiation, let alone denunciation, of what was said in those emails-just denial, finger pointing, and doublespeak. To appoint the very same folks who carried out many malicious behaviors to tip the scales for Hillary is just as unpardonable. Why reward unethical behavior? It's mind-boggling...

Bernie Sanders was treated horribly by the DNC, the Clinton crew, and the Obama administration, and by proxy, many of us were also stung. Without any apologies. In fact, we received nothing but contempt from the Clinton campaign and her surrogates. Then they expected us to fall in formation. Many of us did. I said I would endorse Hillary if she won the primary fair and square. And I did, but that was before I got a hold of all the highly unethical things that happened to get her to win...

I've seen how our heroes, activists, journalists, and celebrities have completely sold their souls to support something no person with an iota of morality would do. I've seen them say and do things to derail candidates who would have been a million times better for those less fortunate around us. It's unfortunate most pretend to fight the establishment, to act like they love the people more than they love the struggle and the relevance that it brings them. I am not one of those and I won't continue to be until the good Lord takes me.

Yes, I am heartbroken, I am angry, I am defeated, but I will rise and continue to advocate for you, for my people, for those that don't have a voice. But I refuse to be a pawn, a conduit of their oppression, of their disenfranchisement, of their brutalization, of their exploitation, of their lives and deaths. That's what a Hillary Clinton endorsement means to me."

[North Star]

Jumping ship:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/casar-vargas/why-i-can-no-longer-suppo_1_b_12698874.html

You cut out a part from that quotation.

"I'm not telling you not to vote for her. I'm aware of what is at stake. The Supreme Court and a petulant man-child that might quicken the apocalypse, I know."

[zamyrabyrd]

You cut out a part from that quotation.
"I'm not telling you not to vote for her. I'm aware of what is at stake. The Supreme Court and a petulant man-child that might quicken the apocalypse, I know."

I tried to keep the most salient points. It escapes me what the Supreme Court has to do with the apocalypse.

You can have this back however:
"I rebuke with my heart, mind, and soul all the twisted narratives of sexism, misogyny, racism, and classism lay at our feet. Though some of them are legitimate, most were used to derail valid grievances from our communities and completely erase us. Our voices were drowned out by empty accusations, by a nefarious usage of identity politics recommended by one of our own, no less. That is a bamboozling of POC and unsuspecting allies. This is why Hillary Clinton doesn't deserve our vote, among many other reasons.

Many of us have been groundlessly accused of being politically illiterate, of having a conscience, and of being idealistic for expecting fairness. As if caring about our fellow human beings and we was such a bad thing. Without our love for others, without empathy, we are nothing but empty vessels, carcasses without souls, worthy of none of the things we cherish the most. Fairness is ingrained in our brains. If you don't really care much for it then you might just be a psychopath or a made sociopath. There's no going around that. Are you one? I hope not."

Latin America has always been the quarry for leaders who take advantage of good nature and poverty. Their corrupt politicians feed the masses platitudes (like what HRC is doing) and give them hope soon to be dashed to the ground. It looks like Vargas "got it".

[Karl Henning]

At a speech, Obama defended an El Tupé protester, reminding everyone that we live in a country of free speech, that the protester is apparently a veteran and his service therefore to be respected, and that he is elderly and ought on that count as well to be respected.

Later El Tupé lied (which, we all know, is what he does) about how the President treated protesters worse than does El Tupé.  Not long ago, El Tupé (I remind you) told people to escort a thug out of the rally, and the "thug" turned out to be a black El Tupé supporter (who is still going to support him . . . I think I recall someone here mentioning the Stockholm Syndrome, earlier).

So, all of you who want this champion of the truth and of free speech in the White House, I salute you.

[Mirror Image]

There is a phrase I think of that dates back to the French Revolution that I can only imagine Trump yelling at the top of his lungs: "Off with their heads!!!"

[Karl Henning]

I hope ørfeo will forgive this, but I'll link to a video piece, which I think is of interest and only touches upon the campaign indirectly, in the matter of third-party candidature effect (and so is possibly an item he might otherwise have missed): The Ross Perot Myth.

[Karl Henning]

I hope ørfeo will forgive this, but I'll link to a video piece, which I think is of interest and only touches upon the campaign indirectly, in the matter of third-party candidature effect (and so is possibly an item he might otherwise have missed): The Ross Perot Myth.

Potential applicability to the present election:  The Democratic candidate was not the strongest (and had shaky popularity even at the time of that race);  the GOP candidate (in this case, an incumbent) had terrible approval ratings (this season, we would say strong unfavorables) and never led his opponent in any polls throughout the season.

[snyprrr]

A Republic If You Can Keep It


Caligula If You Can't

[snyprrr]

OK, I will clean the dried blood and offal from this Thread and promise not to Post until after Tues. 0:)

[Karl Henning]

(I know- incoherent ranting)

Unusually cogent, for you 

[Karl Henning]

We all know this would not be quite true until Tuesday night;  but a Las Vegas journalist-cum-politics-expert has pronounced El Tupé "dead" in Nevada.  Which, if true, complicates El Tupé's electoral math.

[drogulus]

 
     Nate Silver Is Unskewing Polls — All Of Them — In Trump's Direction

     Interesting, and of course "unskewing" is how Romney became convinced he was going to win. Maybe Silver unskews better. He has the popular vote as +3% for HRC, but says this is in the margin or error. Huffpo has it more like +4.6%, though I think their argument is that when you aggregate polls only the assumption that all errors go the same way could produce the narrowest margin for Trump. They also say the same methodological flaw applies to the 538 state projections. Silver is processing a kind of trend analysis that Huffpo thinks is disguised punditry. I don't know who's right, though I wonder how Silver manages to arrive at a 35% chance of a Trump victory. It's far from where the other best pollsters are, usually a sign of partisan malignancy (not that there's anything wrong..... ).

[Herman]

A guy at a Reno, Nevada Trump rally holds up a sign 'Republicans Against Trump' to (silenty) protest the way this campaign has evolved, and ghets beaten up by the crowd, yelling he wants to kill Trump with a gun.

After the situation has cleared up Trump people keep talking about the media having whipped up violent animus against their candidate, and that things could have gone really bad in Reno.

Classic Mussolini stuff.