US Presidential Contenders

[Buster's Uncle]

Okay so ha ha ha.  Very funny, we got punked.  You punked the World with this T rump and Hillary circus but now you're scaring us.

Please finish the joke and come out with the REAL contenders for Pres.

...Do what the dirty, dirty feriner says, people; he's right...

[Dale]

* Thought you had this one here.  Had to "borrow" from the other place. *

[Buster's Uncle]

One of my best early efforts, that modification.

We aren't flooded with Bruce and Tex here, oddly enough, or I probably would have installed it.  Lotta furriners, but them's mostly Euros.

-Everybody gets a free smilie install request, BTW, and you ain't used yours, Bruce...  I've totally got the file somewhere...

[Dale]

One of my best early efforts, that modification.

We aren't flooded with Bruce and Tex here, oddly enough, or I probably would have installed it.  Lotta furriners, but them's mostly Euros.

-Everybody gets a free smilie install request, BTW, and you ain't used yours, Bruce...  I've totally got the file somewhere...

It's called Right-Click Save-As. 

[Rusty Edge]

Sadly, I think the "Real Candidates" were supposed to be Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush.

[Buster's Uncle]

I was always pretty sure of that. 

It's called Right-Click Save-As. 

Yeah; first thing I did to make that one.  Are you asking for the Bruce smilie or not?

[Dale]

I was always pretty sure of that. 

It's called Right-Click Save-As. 

Yeah; first thing I did to make that one.  Are you asking for the Bruce smilie or not?

It's up to you.  Your forum, your rules.  If it's there I might use it, if not I might just link it again like I did above.

[Buster's Uncle]

I'll wait until you feel like using up your free request, then...  -Or Kilkakon and Flygon get active again with you; they're Bruces.  Something I deem useful to enough people doesn't use up a freeby - Geo was good at coming up with those, but used his freeby on this, note the hovertext.   

[Rusty Edge]

This talk of smilies makes me nostalgic for The Enterprise vs. the Romulans. 

[Buster's Uncle]

It was never installed as a smilie - I album img-linked it, and it's still there.

[Rusty Edge]

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/former-mass-gov-william-weld-being-considered-libertarian-party-vp-n576256

Politics
 
May 18 2016, 1:31 pm ET
Libertarian Party Candidate Gary Johnson Chooses Former Mass. Gov. Bill Weld as His VP
by Leigh Ann Caldwell

Favored Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson has agreed to join forces with former Massachusetts Governor William Weld for the Libertarian Party's nomination. Weld will run for the party's vice presidential slot, possibly bolstering the third party's appeal to general election voters.

Weld was a popular governor in the 1990s with crossover appeal and could boost the legitimacy of a third-party option for voters disgruntled by presumptive Republican nominee Donald [Sleezebag] and likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

"It brings an enormous amount of credibility to what it is I'm doing," Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico, said in a statement. "I'm unbelievably flattered by this and humbled."

The official announcement is expected Thursday morning.

Johnson was the party's nominee in 2012 and won 1.2 million votes, more than any previous Libertarian presidential candidate. Four years later he could be an even greater contender as some Republicans, including party leaders like Mitt Romney, have voiced their desire for an alternative presidential candidate to [Sleezebag]. Weld could help him do that.

Weld, a fiscal conservative and social liberal, won two terms as a Republican in the heavily Democratic state of Massachusetts, including with 71 percent of the vote in his re-election. His political preferences have spanned the political spectrum. He endorsed fellow Massachusetts politician Romney in the last presidential election but supported Barack Obama in 2008.

But first, Weld, currently a consultant in Boston for ML Strategies, must appeal to Libertarian Party purists at the upcoming nominating convention. One component of his resume could help him do that: He entertained the idea of running for governor of New York as a Libertarian in 2006.

The Libertarian Party holds its nominating convention Memorial Day Weekend in Orlando, Florida. While Johnson is favored to win, it is expected to be a close race.

John McAfee, 70-year old cyber entrepreneur who was also being sought by police in Belize for a murder, is also running and has attracted support.

The party does not hold state-based primaries. Instead the nominee is chosen by party activists at the convention through a voting process of elimination. Rounds of voting occur until a candidate wins a majority of support.

"The convention can sometimes be unpredictable," Nicholas Sarwark, chair of the Libertarian Party told NBC News. "In 2004, neither front runner won."

[Rusty Edge]

Libertarian hopeful Gary Johnson denies rumor of ‘eight-figure’ Koch campaign donation
By David Weigel May 19


Libertarian presidential hopeful Gary Johnson pushed back on a report that David Koch, the billionaire who once ran as the party's vice presidential nominee, was ready to fund his campaign.

"To my knowledge, it's not happening," said Johnson, in a short interview Thursday. "That's not to say it isn't, but it would be a surprise to me. We tried to talk to Kochs during the last cycle, and we couldn't do it. There are a lot of people who are expressing interest, in a big way, to be a part of this, but I'm not naming names. I can say that I haven't reached out to the Kochs."

A top Koch Industries official also said the story was inaccurate.

“Reports that David Koch has pledged his support to Gary Johnson – or any candidate running for president for that matter – are untrue," Philip Ellender, president of public affairs at Koch Companies Public Sector, said in a statement.

The rumor began with a story by a freelance contributor to the Daily Caller, which cited "a source within Johnson's campaign" to claim that Koch would spend "tens of millions of dollars" to help Johnson if he won the Libertarian Party's nomination next weekend in Orlando. A non-denial by "a source close to David Koch" powered the rest of the story, as Johnson's small organization generally dodged the question.

Were Koch to invest in the Libertarian Party, at all, it would represent a major break from 2012 -- when he served as a Republican delegate for Mitt Romney -- and a flashback to an awkward past. In 1980, Koch joined the Libertarian Party and spent $2 million to boost the party as its candidate for vice president. The result was the best showing in the party's history, with 1.06 percent of the popular vote. (In 2012, Johnson became the first Libertarian to crack 1 million votes, representing 0.99 percent of the electorate.) In the aftermath, Koch and allies like Cato Institute founder Ed Crane were effectively chased out of the party by a "paleo" wing that worried about the party being watered down.

"Koch explicitly wants to run the movement like a corporation," wrote Murray Rothbard, a paleolibertarian thinker and activist, according to Brian Doherty's movement history "Radicals for Capitalism." To Rothbard, Koch represented the party "sliding down the slippery slope to opportunism and sellout of libertarian principle," and by 1984, that faction was defeated.

David Koch, and his brother Charles, turned their energy and donations over to libertarian think tanks, reengaging in electoral politics during President Obama's term. Some of the divisions inside the libertarian movement were smoothed over as Koch funding helped elect conservative Republicans and as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) attempted to build bridges between his father's "liberty movement" and the Kochs by appearing at their donor summits.

Still, Johnson's campaign is in no position to confirm that Koch would spend more than any third party has ever received to help a Johnson-led ticket. "It sounds like someone who wants to be a player said something he couldn't know," suggested John Vaught LaBeaume, a Johnson spokesman. Johnson, who announced this week that former Massachusetts governor William Weld would serve as his running mate if nominated, wouldn't comment on how the Koch rumor would play.

"I couldn't say either way whether it affects the delegates in Orlando," he said.

Last month, the Federal Elections Commission reported that Johnson's 2012 campaign remains $332,191 in debt.

Matea Gold contributed to this report.


-----------------------------------------

Well, I hope Johnson gets the nomination. A double governor ticket would be a qualified outsider ticket.

Any of the other Libertarian candidates would probably be considered a joke, even though they are smart people.

[Buster's Uncle]

A Koch brother a LIBERTARIAN?  Phooey.  They're CEOcon/Theocon or something.

(I have the vague idea that David is the oldest, and not one of the two in charge of the business that you hear about pulling -I almost left out the word vile here- political shenanigans, so I may have just been very unfair...)

[Buster's Uncle]

Robert Kagan: Columnist Pens 'This Is How Fascism Comes to America' Opinion Piece on Donald T rump

"The Republican Party’s attempt to treat Donald T rump as a normal political candidate would be laughable were it not so perilous to the republic," Kagan wrote in the The Washington Post piece.

The Post link:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/this-is-how-fascism-comes-to-america/2016/05/17/c4e32c58-1c47-11e6-8c7b-6931e66333e7_story.html

-I've got a thing today I need to wrap up, so somebody actually read the article and either post it or tell me to go ahead when I'm free later.  I've been thinking this all along; first the unforgivable excesses of the Cheney administration, now a hate-peddling demagogue doing appallingly well.  -Literally appalling, not a figure of speech.

We are on that road.

[Rusty Edge]

Hence my adoption of the term "The Leader" months ago. What you didn't know is that while I was reading about the violence and the pledges at the rallies, I was usually humming "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" or that tanker's song from the movie Battle of the Bulge.

When this Fascism comes to pass, as it probably will, I'll be sure to thank those who accepted The Patriot Act, and the media people masquerading as journalists. I'll also thank Hillary, who seemed to be more intent on telling everybody to get in line behind her, NOW, she means it, because she's Hillary, she's paid her dues, and she's paid for the super delegates, and now we all owe her, than she was on acknowledging the Sanders supporters and making some concessions to them to unite her party.

Maybe I shouldn't blame her for that. Green Party frontrunner Dr. Jill Stein, is quick to point out how the Democratic Party has a history of absorbing and ignoring progressive movements like Jackson's Rainbow Coalition. It's S.O.P.

Perhaps I should instead thank the RINO hunters, who made the BIG TENT small enough to be taken over by an interloping barker.

The people will get what they ask for, and the historians will sort it out. Well, maybe the European historians will have to do it, because I have a feeling that the Trumpidency will do more than "loosen up libel laws" when it comes to protecting the legacy of "The People's President".