2016 U.S. Presidential Elections: The Circus Is In Full Swing

[Anthropoid]

Wow, a new entrant with some substance to him!
http://www.webb2016.com/on-the-issues/

First reaction is: I'd vote for the guy. Problem being: he'll never get nominated.

 

[cwr]

I guess for me, I'm already resigned to the Republicans nominating some quack or Jeb Bush, who is, well, a Bush.

If the Dems pick Hillary then the country is truly ****ed for the next 4 years, but Sanders and Webb seem to be not as corrupt as everyone else.

 

[Anthropoid]

I guess for me, I'm already resigned to the Republicans nominating some quack or Jeb Bush, who is, well, a Bush.

If the Dems pick Hillary then the country is truly ****ed for the next 4 years, but Sanders and Webb seem to be not as corrupt as everyone else.

You and I both know how this is going to play out. Biggest pocket book wins the nomination. Biggest Carnival Barker wins the election.

 

[Austupaio]

First reaction is: I'd vote for the guy. Problem being: he'll never get nominated.

Yeah, but... but... ****, you're probably right. I've told people I know about Webb, but what difference would that ever make.

I guess for me, I'm already resigned to the Republicans nominating some quack or Jeb Bush, who is, well, a Bush.

It's really worth pointing out that Jeb is not George. Either of them.

 

[cwr]

You and I both know how this is going to play out. Biggest pocket book wins the nomination. Biggest Carnival Barker wins the election.

You're right that at this point Webb has about as much chance at the nomination as Lincoln 'Metric' Chafee. Sanders has somewhat of a chance, especially with his gains in early states.

Clinton's going to win the pocketbook game; but it's worth remembering that the Sanders campaign has far less overhead than Clinton's so they only need 40-50 million by the end of the year.

It's really worth pointing out that Jeb is not George. Either of them.

Jeb's said some stupid **** too, but also generally comes across as a corporate tool just like Clinton.

 

[Austupaio]

There's not a single candidate for anything in this country who is not a corporate tool and that includes Webb, Sanders and even the Pauls.

 

[cwr]

Sanders is clean. Whatever you think of unions, they benefit from increased jobs in their sectors. https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cycle=Career&type=I&cid=N00000528&newMem=N&recs=20 Sanders's voting record is also entirely consistent with his rhetoric also; a rare thing for a politician. (I don't agree with him on everything, but the fact that he is honest about what he thinks makes up for that completely in my book)
Webb is admittedly less clean, there's a little Goldman and Time Warner there... https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cycle=Career&type=I&cid=N00028058&newMem=N&recs=20
Weirdly little information is available for Jeb Bush, only covers 1997-2002, clearly not the bulk of his fundraising years. http://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/contrib.php?cycle=2016&id=N00037006&type=s
Rand Paul's got that nice Koch hand pulling his strings: https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cycle=Career&type=I&cid=N00030836&newMem=N&recs=20
Compare that to Hillary. https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cycle=Career&cid=n00000019

Sanders is no corporate tool. A union tool maybe, but that's a much better thing to be a tool of considering that it is in the interests of unions to prevent outsourcing and create jobs.

 

[Dodes]

During a visit to New Hampshire on Wednesday, Jeb Bush was asked about his plans for tax reform. Mixed in with talk about an ambitious goal of 4% US economic growth was a bit of advice that left the Republican presidential candidate scrambling to explain himself.

"We have to be a lot more productive, workforce participation has to rise from its all-time modern lows," Mr Bush told the editors of the New Hampshire Union Leader in an interview that was broadcast online. "It means that people need to work longer hours and, through their productivity, gain more income for their families. That's the only way we're going to get out of this rut that we're in."

隐藏

隐藏: Only through diligence and Bald Eagle tears, can we achieve the economic prosperity of powerhouses like Mexico, Greece, and Ireland.

 

[Úlfheðinn]

"We have to be a lot more productive, workforce participation has to rise from its all-time modern lows," Mr Bush told the editors of the New Hampshire Union Leader in an interview that was broadcast online. "It means that people need to work longer hours and, through their productivity, gain more income for their families. That's the only way we're going to get out of this rut that we're in."

"Work harder lower and middle class America, your slacking is driving us down."

Sometimes I wonder if republican candidates are in some endless competition to prove that they can out capitalist everyone else.

"Oh, you want to cut all welfare! Well, **** you, I want to make poor people pay money to breath air!!! ALSO, remember voters!!! I hate socialism, Obama and I promise to kick Putin in the nuts! Vote me 2015!!!"

Edit: for the record, Democrats are idiots as well.

 

[Harkon Haakonson]

Edit: for the record, Democrats are idiots as well.

Eh, not nearly as much.

 

[SwadianJedi]

A girl I know who's a Democrat has told me (among other things):

"Did you know Samsung makes 293 trillion dollars a year? Think of all the stuff that we could go if Samsung wasn't greedy."

"There should be a limit to how much money corporations can make."

"We need more of it (Gun Control), because no one should be able to own those modern machine guns that fire 200 bullets a second."

Unlike the rest of the country, the people around here who are republican tend to be very understanding of issues, and also tend to criticize the GOP's überchristian-ness. On the contrary, many democrats tend to be more like the person I previously described.

 

[kurczak]

"Did you know Samsung makes 293 trillion dollars a year? Think of all the stuff that we could go if Samsung wasn't greedy."

It's one of the golden rule of politics - when we want stuff, it's social justice. When they want stuff, it's greed.

 

[Austupaio]

Unlike the rest of the country, the people around here who are republican tend to be very understanding of issues, and also tend to criticize the GOP's überchristian-ness. On the contrary, many democrats tend to be more like the person I previously described.

It's the same here, all the democrats are stupid hippies and the republicans are mildly educated, but of course this is a democrat stronghold. Go to a republican stronghold and it's the opposite, the democrats may not be mouth-breathing parasites and the republicans are all stupid rednecks.

So do you want to be a stupid redneck voter or a stupid hippie voter? Remember that either party is trying to take away more of your rights and screw you out of your cash harder, they're just tackling the issue from different directions.

 

[Mage246]

"Did you know Samsung makes 293 trillion dollars a year? Think of all the stuff that we could go if Samsung wasn't greedy."

She knows about Samsung's intergalactic operations? 

 

[Anthropoid]

"We have to be a lot more productive, workforce participation has to rise from its all-time modern lows," Mr Bush told the editors of the New Hampshire Union Leader in an interview that was broadcast online. "It means that people need to work longer hours and, through their productivity, gain more income for their families. That's the only way we're going to get out of this rut that we're in."

"Work harder lower and middle class America, your slacking is driving us down."

Sometimes I wonder if republican candidates are in some endless competition to prove that they can out capitalist everyone else.

"Oh, you want to cut all welfare! Well, **** you, I want to make poor people pay money to breath air!!! ALSO, remember voters!!! I hate socialism, Obama and I promise to kick Putin in the nuts! Vote me 2015!!!"

Edit: for the record, Democrats are idiots as well.

You left out rounding up gays and communists into "Re-Education Camps," deporting all Latinos, turning the Mexican-U.S. border into DMZ-style no-mans-land, and reinstating Christian school prayer.

 

[Dystopian]

"We have to be a lot more productive, workforce participation has to rise from its all-time modern lows," Mr Bush told the editors of the New Hampshire Union Leader in an interview that was broadcast online. "It means that people need to work longer hours and, through their productivity, gain more income for their families. That's the only way we're going to get out of this rut that we're in."

"Work harder lower and middle class America, your slacking is driving us down."

Sometimes I wonder if republican candidates are in some endless competition to prove that they can out capitalist everyone else.

"Oh, you want to cut all welfare! Well, **** you, I want to make poor people pay money to breath air!!! ALSO, remember voters!!! I hate socialism, Obama and I promise to kick Putin in the nuts! Vote me 2015!!!"

Edit: for the record, Democrats are idiots as well.

You left out rounding up gays and communists into "Re-Education Camps," deporting all Latinos, turning the Mexican-U.S. border into DMZ-style no-mans-land, and reinstating Christian school prayer.

Don't forget the good 'ole "America isn't a secular nation, never says so in tha consti-tatution! Its God's Nation!"

This is a direct quote from my cousin's father.

 

[Austupaio]

As loath as I am to admit it, 'separation of Church and State' isn't really codified and is more of a passing fancy than a real tenet of the U.S.

 

[Mage246]

Not codified? It's explicitly codified:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;"

 

[Austupaio]

@Mage: A line which has been heavily debated for quite some time regarding both intent and interpretation. Even that aside, it has and will continue to influence actors of legislation sub-consciously, and it's difficult to say that it's a real problem. As someone with a bone to pick with organized religion, I personally have trouble finding that inherently religious legislative topics breach that, honestly somewhat weak, separation. I'm not even sure how much intent was there, at the time of writing, to keep religion out of government, rather than keep government out of religion.

Thankfully, it shouldn't really matter as the U.S. and most of the world seems to passively become more secular over time.

Edit; Dystopian's post disappearing confused me a bit.

 

[kurczak]

The way I've always understood it, is that is a separation between the institutions of government and (any particular) church, rather than some sort of "abolishment" of religiosity in public life.