US Presidential Contenders

[Dale]

I'm not trolling.  I am advocating a protest vote to teach the Pollies a lesson.

It's voting day for us today.  I predict that the primary vote of the 2 main parties will be low in protest of them.  Lots of minor party / independent primary votes today, but as usual, the preference flow will go to the 2 main parties.

But enough protest votes and it'll hit the 2 main parties financially.  It's $2.30 a vote to the parties you know.

EDIT: Just to clarify, the primary polls of the 2 main parties are low for them.  We've got the highest ever non 2 main party polling every seen in our history.  We're talking about 23% polling against the 2 main parties!!!

[Buster's Uncle]

I already lodged a protest vote, for Sanders.  I never thought he was going to win.  I seem to always make protest votes in the presidential primaries.

Look - I don't entirely disagree that the system needs some serious blowing up, but I'd vote for You for President of the US before --- that trashy fame-hungry no-class celebrity.

I'm sick of lowest-common-denominator ignorant bad-mouthing substituting for political discourse since that disgusting empty shirt Reagan made it popular when I was still a kid.  The Know-Nothing party got stuck with just about the worst possible 'person' imaginable to try to tempt me into a protest vote with this time...

[Dale]

Sanders is not a protest vote. Sanders is a Democrat alternative. But still a Democrat vote.

If you truly wanted to protest vote you'd vote for an Independent.

[Buster's Uncle]

He's a fake Democrat - having you not been keeping up that much?

-Turns out that back in the 90's, before disgust with the Cheney Bund soured me to the news completely, I was a bit of a C-Span junkie, and always wondered who the Independent was who always seemed to be there, voting, and getting it right as near as I could suss out what the bill was really about.  Turns out that was Mr. Sanders.  I like a lot of things about him, and contentiously-working Congressman I agreed with w/o knowing who that was, is one of them.

-He was a protest vote only in the sense that I didn't think for a second I was voting for someone who would actually win - I genuinely like the cut of his jib in a lot of ways.

[Dale]

Says here he's a Democrat.

https://berniesanders.com/?nosplash=true%2F

Not hard to understand that one.

[Buster's Uncle]

Not hard to find out when he changed registration to democratic, either.

[Kirov]

Just to bounce this idea around more, and I'm knocking on wood here, what, in your opinion, is the extent of POTUS' actual power? Like, suppose a criminally insane pig got the job - to what extent can he actually get his way? Speaking of things like dismantling NATO, building that wall, etc. I mean, he's still surrounded by sane people, right? Both the establishment and the democratic institutions should contain him at least somewhat, shouldn't they?

[Buster's Uncle]

So, SO much depends on the leadership ability of the Prez.  -He has all these POWAHS, but is easily blocked on a lot of them if he's bad at tapping into the zeitgeist - witness Bakrama, who seems to be a good man who looks great to other countries - but hasn't lived up to his potential as a leader.  95% of everything anyone the slightest bit to the right of him says about him is utter fantasies and lies -socialist, my butt; he's barely even a Democrat- and he's not popular enough that the righties are too embarrassed lie their pants off non-stop about him for the last seven years.  (Making themselves obnoxious beyond description in the process, to those of us who bother to think for themselves and actually look at what the President has done and said.)

The real power is with the people, swear to God, even in our present corporate oligarchy trying to veer over into outright fascism.  Money can buy ads, but it can't make people believe what they don't want to.

-Furthermore, we don't actually know what the Pig would actually DO, given the chance; he's a habitual liar on a scale that makes Bill Clinton look like Mr. Rogers, and we have little idea what he really thinks and believes when he's not spouting garbage for the attention.  I cannot rule out that he'd end up being competent and sane in the office - though I can rule out him ever behaving with class, dignity and integrity in public...

-Which is to say, he's gonna lose, but he probably wouldn't start WW3 like he seems poised to try if you believe what he says, if he got in...

[Dale]

Well our election yesterday has certainly been an eye opener!  And will create a number of shocks over the next few weeks.

No result as yet.  The 2-party preferred result is split 50-50, with Coalition taking 50.04% and Labor 49.96%.

At present (76 seats to win):
Coalition: 67
Labor: 67
Greens: 1
Others: 4
Unknown: 11

So those last 11 seats will determine who wins.  The election could go in a number of directions from here:

1. It's possible for Coalition to win enough seats to form majority Govt.
2. Labor isn't ahead in enough unknown seats to form majority, but can form minority Govt.
3. It's doubtful the minors will play with the Coalition, so it's possible we go back to the polls.

[Buster's Uncle]

Coalition would be Liberal and who else?

[Dale]

Liberals
National Party (most States)
Liberal National Party (LNP Queensland only)
Country Liberal Party (CLP Northern Territory only)
National Party of Western Australia

Whilst the Nationals are in coalition, WAs section of the party is under a different agreement and speak separately to the main National party.

[Rusty Edge]

I won't call this gleanings, because it's more like meanderings and musings tonight.

So- the Attorney General hasn't recused herself, she simply said she will accept the FBI's recommendation on the Clinton probe. I guess it is a criminal investigation because a judge used the term, and Hillary voluntarily underwent a 3&1/2 hour interrogation Saturday. That should have been the last step. Either they have what they need to prosecute a crime or they don't.  When we will learn that, I have no idea.

----------

Gary Johnson was interviewed on CNN. They were asking him about the other candidates rather than what his positions were. Usually he pivots back to issues. Today he said that he doesn't think Hillary met the criminal intent threshold. He said that [Sleezebag] was a racist. He didn't finesse it the way that Hillary and Obama have. Racist became the soundbite, and now those looking for a diversion from Hillary's hardships ran with it.

Me, I'd go with the "I don't want to talk about Donald and Hillary, they have a right to a fair trial, and Libertarians stand up for everybody's rights all the time."


Johnson got a lot of hate from the [Sleezebag] voters in various comment sections and facebook. Well, I can see that if they are insisting that all is mere political correctness, and that [Sleezebag] "tells it like it is" , calling him a racist is calling them racists, too. It's like saying the Emperor has no clothes...or maybe a sheet.

I wished that Johnson would have stayed on message, but [Sleezebag] has been trying hard not to speak his name, so possibly it was a ploy for attention. Or maybe he figured he had to answer in order to proceed.  Gary explained  it this way - "Sometimes you just have to say it."

I haven't been following [Sleezebag] very closely on my fishing trip. After all, I was on vacation, and that was one of the things I was eager to get a break from. I got away from seeing him as a nationalist fascist - until one of his supporters actually referred to him as "THE LEADER" ( using all upper case throughout her post, because it's always persuasive).

But as readily as I would dismiss [Sleezebag]'s various remarks as rude, biased or bigoted, I have to admit that when I look at the big picture they are racist, or would be if they were backed by the power of the presidency.

For starters we've got this- -enables-racism]http://reason.com/archives/2016/03/16/donald-[Sleezebag]-enables-racism
then there's his remarks about the native Americans  with a casino not looking Indian enough, suggesting that they were mafia, his remarks about Elizabeth Warren, his rapists and murders remark that cost him his tv show, his remarks about the judge presiding over his class action suit, his remarks at the rallies, about protestors, his remarks about head scarves, and Muslims. Some of it slanderous, some of it inciting violence.

-------------
My wife is a Johnson convert. This interview was the first she'd heard of his athletic prowess. She was impressed. His achievements  do underscore one thing- He's very willful, and not a quitter.
Or as he says- Expect the unexpected, when it happens you can curl up in a ball and cry, or you can keep putting one foot in front of the other.

[Rusty Edge]

Today I woke up pondering that [Sleezebag] might not be at all racist, and is simply a manipulative race baiter.

That doesn't make me feel any better.

[Buster's Uncle]

In a real way, that would be kinda worse.

-It's what I've been assuming.

[Rusty Edge]

“We are not going to vote for the demon named Hillary because they are threatening us with the devil named [Sleezebag]. We will vote for a saint no matter what, and if that saint is not Bernie Sanders, then we will vote for the saint named Jill Stein,” said Bill Taylor, a Philadelphia activist who is helping to plan four days of demonstrations in support of Mr. Sanders at the Democratic convention this month.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/jill-stein-the-green-partys-presumptive-presidential-nominee-makes-inroads-1467413879