Countdown to Extinction: The 2016 Presidential Election

[Pat B]

My only point Pat is that just citing it's a legal construction does not suffice to dismiss constitutional issues.

Well, I'm glad you recognize that it's not just a group of people.

[arkiv]

[(poco) Sforzando]

Smart, too.

[arkiv]

Family values

[Marc]

Family values

Ivanka Trump is a dish.



If only she were running...

[Karl Henning]

Smart, too.

No one else is smarter!

[(poco) Sforzando]

No one else is smarter!

I feel a blond joke coming on . . . .

[André]

Smart, too.

C'mon, guys. This quote is 4 years old ! Trump has probably changed opinion 8 times on the subject since then. 

[Gurn Blanston]

C'mon, guys. This quote is 4 years old ! Trump has probably changed opinion 8 times on the subject since then.

Even if it was just 4 weeks old...   

[Ken B]

Smart, too.

You mean that sarcastically but it really is. This is a very effective bit of brand building. It ties together several threads that Trump has woven his platform from, with a sly appeal to conspiracism. Four years ago Trump was a second tier celebrity. Now he has about a one chance in three or better of being president.

I too underestimated Trump. But I like to think I have learned better.

[(poco) Sforzando]

You mean that sarcastically but it really is. This is a very effective bit of brand building. It ties together several threads that Trump has woven his platform from, with a sly appeal to conspiracism. Four years ago Trump was a second tier celebrity. Now he has about a one chance in three or better of being president.

I too underestimated Trump. But I like to think I have learned better.

There's a difference between smart and shrewd. Shrewd I'll grant him. Smart I don't know about.

[Pat B]

You mean that sarcastically but it really is. This is a very effective bit of brand building. It ties together several threads that Trump has woven his platform from, with a sly appeal to conspiracism. Four years ago Trump was a second tier celebrity. Now he has about a one chance in three or better of being president.

I too underestimated Trump. But I like to think I have learned better.

But did you misunderestimate him?

[Karl Henning]

There's a difference between smart and shrewd. Shrewd I'll grant him. Smart I don't know about.

He's here at the Langham today to raise funds.  I weep to think that there are people in Massachusetts who will fund his campaign.

[Ken B]

But did you misunderestimate him?

That too.
I really have a lot of sympathy with his supporters who feel like they are treated with contempt. I have been telling people the major parties have to deal with this or we would see the fringe exploit it. Trump isn't really fringe, he's not idea driven, but he sure has figured out how to exploit them.

[Karl Henning]

I really have a lot of sympathy with his supporters who feel like they are treated with contempt.

Yes, and it really is the fault of The Establishment that El Tupé is the one to seize this opportunity.

[(poco) Sforzando]

That too.
I really have a lot of sympathy with his supporters who feel like they are treated with contempt. I have been telling people the major parties have to deal with this or we would see the fringe exploit it. Trump isn't really fringe, he's not idea driven, but he sure has figured out how to exploit them.

Which is what I mean by shrewdness but not necessarily intelligence.

While standing in front of an unusual backdrop of what appeared to be stacked bales of crushed aluminum, Trump slammed globalization and said that it made "the financial elite" very wealthy, noting that "I used to be one of them. Hate to say it."

Used to be? You mean the Donald, like St. Francis of Assisi, has renounced all his worldly possessions and now is "one of us"? Hardly. This is the same wealthy pseudo-populist who comes to Scotland bragging about how Brexit will pour money into his exclusive golf course, which you better believe none of the thousands attending his rallies could ever afford, and which, as Knight66 said on the Brexit thread, is indicative of "how much the locals round his course detest him. This for damaging their properties, which he regarded as unsightly. He has cut off water to one elderly woman's house, piled up a huge hill of earth blotting out another house and its views and light and claimed that one guy lives like a pig in a pigsty; he lives in a modest old-fashioned and tidy looking house."

I get why his supporters feel they are treated with contempt. I see the anger of people who thought they were playing by the rules, you know, work hard and you'll get ahead, be all you want to be, land of opportunity, and all that happy horseshit Americans like to feed themselves. And then they find it's all a lie: they're struggling under debt, student or otherwise, they're unemployed or underemployed, they have no assets except their houses which are often under water and no funds for retirement, they see the 1% gaining exponentially while they fall behind more and more. 

Problem is that they've hitched their wagon to a clever, narcissistic snake-oil salesman who promises to build his wall and tell off China and keep out the Muslims and deport the Mexicans and make America white again. But if he's elected, they'll find he won't be able to make good on any of these promises and that he's still one of the .01% who talks a good game because they're desperate, but who wouldn't think twice about cutting off their water and blocking their light and telling them they live like pigs in a pigsty.

[Madiel]

Yes, a man busily building a golf course in Scotland (including trying to get a neighbour to pay for a wall) is hardly an appropriate person to be telling other folks how nasty globalisation is.

[Karl Henning]

El Tupé sends email to foreign lawmakers in fundraising effort, disregarding the mere illegality of all that. No one is smarter about campaign finance!

[Karl Henning]

Because, no, the Britain and Europe thread is no way funnier than the US election!

http://www.youtube.com/v/gthEktOSpH4

[Karl Henning]

Nobody has more class than the guy in Scotland wearing a Make America Great Again hat.