Countdown to Extinction: The 2016 Presidential Election

[Karl Henning]

I always go to Sam Wang's site for election projections:

http://election.princeton.edu/category/2016-election/

Thank you.

[Rinaldo]

I always go to Sam Wang's site for election projections:

http://election.princeton.edu/category/2016-election/

FiveThirtyEight is great as well.

[Karl Henning]

Here's how poorly is [El Tupé] doing in New York: For every four Republicans in this poll, two back [El Tupé], one backs Clinton and one hasn't made up his or her mind (rounding a bit). That is not a recipe for success.

[Madiel]

(Of course, the election is not for another three months, merciful heavens . . . and who knows what might happen in the interval.)

Right now it appears that the main thing that will happen is that Trump will constantly talk about the election being "rigged", setting up his supporters to riot in the streets when he fails to win the victory that he has brainwashed them into believing is rightfully is.

Seriously, I'm scared by his rhetoric on this. In an increasingly vacuous landscape of trends and memes with little in the way of factual reporting, people are going to believe what they want to believe, and a whole horde of people who already believe their country is being taken from them (as if it was theirs to own in the first place) are absolutely ripe to believe a narrative that says they were prevented from reclaiming their property. And who the hell knows what will happen after all that work at attacking the legitimacy of the election.

[Karl Henning]

Right now it appears that the main thing that will happen is that Trump will constantly talk about the election being "rigged", setting up his supporters to riot in the streets when he fails to win the victory that he has brainwashed them into believing is rightfully is.

Actually, one opinion piece I saw this morning argues that, yet again, he's shooting himself in the foot:  whining that the process is supposedly "rigged" does not incentivize your supporters to get out and vote.

[Karl Henning]

Who are [El Tupé] voters? A new portrait emerges

[Ken B]

I assume you refer to the recent (2015) canadian general election.

A weird assumption, since we were talking about when a major party was crushed because its voter base was split. I mean 1993 when the Tories were reduced to 2 seats and Reform became a significant vote-getter for former Tory voters.

Going from consecutive majorities to 2 seats is getting crushed.

[Karl Henning]

He's "doing well with women." "The Hispanics love" him. He "has a great relationship with the blacks" and has "tremendous support among African Americans." These are the lies [El Tupé] tells himself.

Further support for the thesis that El Tupé is the candidate uniquely suited to usher Hillary into the White House.

[Brian]

Rudy Giuliani, mayor of New York City in 2001, just told a crowd that there were no radical Islamist terrorist attacks in the United States before the Obama presidency.

Also, Ivanka Trump and Wendi Deng Murdoch - rumored to be Putin's summer fling - are vacationing together.

[Karl Henning]

Rudy Giuliani, mayor of New York City in 2001, just told a crowd that there were no radical Islamist terrorist attacks in the United States before the Obama presidency.

Come on! He was being sarcastic 

[Ken B]

Rudy Giuliani, mayor of New York City in 2001, just told a crowd that there were no radical Islamist terrorist attacks in the United States before the Obama presidency.

Also, Ivanka Trump and Wendi Deng Murdoch - rumored to be Putin's summer fling - are vacationing together.

I'd need a quote. Rudy is notorious for dragging 9/11 (his shining moment) into everything. And I have heard him discuss the earlier bombing of the WTC. I suspect we have some deliberate misundestanding going on here. Got a full quote with a link?

[Daverz]

Rudy Giuliani, mayor of New York City in 2001, just told a crowd that there were no radical Islamist terrorist attacks in the United States before the Obama presidency.

Trump's sarcasm is infectious. [Damn, Karl beat me to it.]

Also, Ivanka Trump and Wendi Deng Murdoch - rumored to be Putin's summer fling - are vacationing together.

I just don't know what to make of this one.  Bizarre.

[Pat B]

Right now it appears that the main thing that will happen is that Trump will constantly talk about the election being "rigged", setting up his supporters to riot in the streets when he fails to win the victory that he has brainwashed them into believing is rightfully is.

Seriously, I'm scared by his rhetoric on this. In an increasingly vacuous landscape of trends and memes with little in the way of factual reporting, people are going to believe what they want to believe, and a whole horde of people who already believe their country is being taken from them (as if it was theirs to own in the first place) are absolutely ripe to believe a narrative that says they were prevented from reclaiming their property. And who the hell knows what will happen after all that work at attacking the legitimacy of the election.

https://twitter.com/oliverdarcy/status/764909726278836225

TL;DR: right-wing talk-radio host finally notices he can't control the monster he helped create

[North Star]

I'd need a quote. Rudy is notorious for dragging 9/11 (his shining moment) into everything. And I have heard him discuss the earlier bombing of the WTC. I suspect we have some deliberate misundestanding going on here. Got a full quote with a link?

Here on video:
http://twitchy.com/sd-3133/2016/08/15/sorry-what-rudy-giuliani-just-made-quite-the-claim-about-terrorism-before-obama/

[Brian]

He must have meant 7 years and miscounted. He sounds old and senile.

[North Star]

He must have meant 7 years and miscounted. He sounds old and senile.

Yeah, 'we didn't have any attacks during Bush presidency after the last one during Bush presidency, until the Obama presidency' would make so much more sense.

[Ken B]

Here on video:
http://twitchy.com/sd-3133/2016/08/15/sorry-what-rudy-giuliani-just-made-quite-the-claim-about-terrorism-before-obama/

So it is a distorted quote. I here bold the elided part.
"under those 8 years before Obama ..."
He is not saying before Obama there were no Islamist terror attacks. That claim is false.
Now what about those 8 years? He is talking about the claimed effectiveness of the Patriot Act in preventing acts of terror, up until the next one occurred. This is puffing about GOP people and policies allegedly kept us safe and Obama-Clinton did not.  That act was passed in October 2001 , and according to this list  [asin]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Islamist_terrorist_attacks[/asin] the next Islamist attack was in June 2009, when Obama was president. "So 7 years and 8 months" would be more accurate but I think most people will accept 2009 from 2001 as being 8 years.
So, yeah, deliberately playing dumb to misunderstand.

[Pat B]

So it is a distorted quote. I here bold the elided part.
"under those 8 years before Obama ..."
He is not saying before Obama there were no Islamist terror attacks. That claim is false.
Now what about those 8 years? He is talking about the claimed effectiveness of the Patriot Act in preventing acts of terror, up until the next one occurred. This is puffing about GOP people and policies allegedly kept us safe and Obama-Clinton did not.  That act was passed in October 2001 , and according to this list  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Islamist_terrorist_attacks the next Islamist attack was in June 2009, when Obama was president. "So 7 years and 8 months" would be more accurate but I think most people will accept 2009 from 2001 as being 8 years.
So, yeah, deliberately playing dumb to misunderstand.

Check the entry for July 4, 2002. The statement is false even if you spin "8 years before Obama came along" to mean something other than the 8 years before Obama was inaugurated.

ETA: there is a longer list here. Some but not all of these are Islamist.

I think Giuliani has completely lost it.

[Brian]

So it is a distorted quote. I here bold the elided part.
"under those 8 years before Obama ..."
He is not saying before Obama there were no Islamist terror attacks. That claim is false.
Now what about those 8 years? He is talking about the claimed effectiveness of the Patriot Act in preventing acts of terror, up until the next one occurred. This is puffing about GOP people and policies allegedly kept us safe and Obama-Clinton did not.  That act was passed in October 2001 , and according to this list the next Islamist attack was in June 2009, when Obama was president. "So 7 years and 8 months" would be more accurate but I think most people will accept 2009 from 2001 as being 8 years.
So, yeah, deliberately playing dumb to misunderstand.

"8 years before Obama" don't start in October 2001, they start in January 2001.

I don't think Giuliani is lying insanely, any more than you do - I think he just counted wrong. Counting wrong seems more likely than having a secret alternate counting system.

[Parsifal]

So it is a distorted quote. I here bold the elided part.
"under those 8 years before Obama ..."
He is not saying before Obama there were no Islamist terror attacks. That claim is false.
Now what about those 8 years? He is talking about the claimed effectiveness of the Patriot Act in preventing acts of terror, up until the next one occurred. This is puffing about GOP people and policies allegedly kept us safe and Obama-Clinton did not.  That act was passed in October 2001 , and according to this list  [asin]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Islamist_terrorist_attacks[/asin] the next Islamist attack was in June 2009, when Obama was president. "So 7 years and 8 months" would be more accurate but I think most people will accept 2009 from 2001 as being 8 years.
So, yeah, deliberately playing dumb to misunderstand.

No one is playing deliberately dumb to purposefully misunderstand. There are no 8 years before Obama that do not include 9/11. It is not deliberately dumb to be puzzled at this statement, and not realize that he "probably meant 7 years and 8 months." The conclusion being drawn is that Giuliani is an unhinged rabid partisan who is desperately trying to blame everything on Democrats. It is not clear to me that 9/11 was any sort of shining moment for Giuliani. Bloomberg was subsequently elected Mayer of New York and Giuliani claimed that the results of that election had to be suspended because only he could be Mayer of New York after 9/11.