The 2016 US Election (Part II)

[Purple]

Eh, an uninvited hug from a stranger could plausibly be construed as sexual harassment.

I would not call it sexual. But I would get upset if someone just barged right into my personal space and gave me a hug for no reason. Hugs are reserved for people emotionally close to you and not something you just hand out like handshakes.

[The Romulan Republic]

Not inherently sexual, but I suspect if you went up and hugged a random strange of the opposite sex, there is a non-neglibeable chance you'd be sued and/or charged for sexual harassment or assault.

[Purple]

Not inherently sexual, but I suspect if you went up and hugged a random strange of the opposite sex, there is a non-neglibeable chance you'd be sued and/or charged for sexual harassment or assault.

Oh, absolutely. I was talking about my own reaction and not disagreeing with you about the general principal. Overall it's basically a combination of personal factors, cultural factors and all sorts of other things. It's just that in my particular case I see the whole thing as a rather unwelcome way to spread a political statement.

[The Romulan Republic]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-e ... SKCN0WQ27D

A New York appeals court on Thursday upheld a lower court's dismissal of a suit seeking to remove Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz from the state's primary ballot because of his Canadian birth.

The New York Appellate Division agreed with the lower court ruling that the suit should be thrown out because it missed the deadline for filing an objection to Cruz's appearance on the April 19 ballot. Lawyers for Cruz successfully argued that the objectors had filed their petition nearly three weeks late.

The appeals judges said they would not address the merits of the case, saying they were "academic."

Roger Bernstein, a lawyer for the petitioners, said his clients intend to appeal the decision.

New York residents Barry Korman, 81, of Manhattan, and William Gallo, 85, of Manhasset, had filed the suit, arguing that because Cruz was born in Canada, he is not a "naturally born" citizen as the Constitution dictates for a U.S. president.

Cruz has defended himself against similar claims in multiple states, saying he was a U.S. natural born citizen at birth because of his mother's U.S. citizenship at the time.

Cruz was born in 1970 in Calgary, Alberta.

(Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Dan Grebler)

Much as I loath Cruz, I'm kind of happy about this. I prefer to see peoples' rights as citizens expand, not contract as a rule, I oppose the rule that one must be born a citizen to be President as xenophobic nationalism and don't wish to see it interpreted more loosely/broadly, and Cruz's situation is almost identical to my own (except that I'm not running for President and have no plans to ever do so ), so a ruling against him would have essentially said that I am in a sense a second class citizen due to where I was born.

[Simon_Jester]

I think we should change the constitution to say that immigrants can run for president (as opposed to only those born on US soil or born to American parents). But at the moment, we haven't.

That said, Cruz's defense is valid- being born on foreign soil doesn't make you not-a-citizen.

[Raw Shark]

On the subject of non-sexual hugging: I went to school with a very large number of gay dudes. My perspective may be somewhat skewed on this - as long as my penis is not being fondled, I'm calling it fair ball.

[Borgholio]

On the subject of non-sexual hugging: I went to school with a very large number of gay dudes. My perspective may be somewhat skewed on this - as long as my penis is not being fondled, I'm calling it fair ball.

What about fair balls?

[Raw Shark]

On the subject of non-sexual hugging: I went to school with a very large number of gay dudes. My perspective may be somewhat skewed on this - as long as my penis is not being fondled, I'm calling it fair ball.

What about fair balls?

No better than dark balls. Let's not be racist, here.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Not inherently sexual, but I suspect if you went up and hugged a random strange of the opposite sex, there is a non-neglibeable chance you'd be sued and/or charged for sexual harassment or assault.

Well, yes, but the person at the Trump rally wasn't doing that. They were asking people whether they wanted a free hug.

Seriously, have people here never heard of the "Free Hugs Campaign" before? I've seen it in every major US city that I've been to, multiple times. Groups of people that stand in busy public areas with signs or t-shirts that say "Free Hugs". It's a fairly prevalent thing, and has been going on for years (IIRC a year or two ago a couple men got arrested in Saudi Arabia for daring to offer free hugs, as well). They don't go around ambushing people with hugs, they literally just stand around and if people get nearby they ask if they want a hug. Not gender specific or sexual.

[Dominus Atheos]

Fox News

Sanders To Tax Churches!!
What do you think about U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders new proposal that would tax Churches and Synagogues at a 90% tax rate to provide more social programs for the poor?

“The American dream has become a nightmare”, Sanders told Fox News ,”let us wage a moral and political war against the billionaires and giant megachurches, whose policies and greed are destroying the middle class of America.

Sanders claims that about only 1% of Church tithes goes to help the poor and that many in the clergy,especially Protestant ministers in the South,use most of the money collected to buy “condos in Florida and hookers.”

“We have seen it even in the Catholic Church”,Sanders continued,”you give people a bunch of money they don’t have to pay taxes on and they just go crazy and start molesting little kids.”

Christian Ministers have denounced this plan, claiming that it is terrible. In addition, the famous evangelist Ray Comfort said “This is a plan inspired by the devil himself.We cannot allow the government to deny a Christian his right to show his love of God by giving God his money.Of course you can’t literally give God your money so they just give it to me to hold for God.”

It is estimated that if you tax the churches in America, the state would generate around $830.5 trillion in annual tax revenue if the exemption was lifted on their $600 trillion in untaxed properties.

If only...

[Dalton]

It's tiresome seeing these badly shopped fake lower thirds...

[The Romulan Republic]

Not inherently sexual, but I suspect if you went up and hugged a random strange of the opposite sex, there is a non-neglibeable chance you'd be sued and/or charged for sexual harassment or assault.

Well, yes, but the person at the Trump rally wasn't doing that. They were asking people whether they wanted a free hug.

Seriously, have people here never heard of the "Free Hugs Campaign" before? I've seen it in every major US city that I've been to, multiple times. Groups of people that stand in busy public areas with signs or t-shirts that say "Free Hugs". It's a fairly prevalent thing, and has been going on for years (IIRC a year or two ago a couple men got arrested in Saudi Arabia for daring to offer free hugs, as well). They don't go around ambushing people with hugs, they literally just stand around and if people get nearby they ask if they want a hug. Not gender specific or sexual.

Well, I've got not problem with that.

Its kind of silly, but if that's what they want to do with their time, and they aren't imposing on anyone else... okay.

[Purple]

Seriously, have people here never heard of the "Free Hugs Campaign" before?

Nope. Being from Europe I have little to no contact with american movements like that. So I made assumptions that based on your description have wrong. My bad.

[bilateralrope]

Fox News

Fuck you for disguising the URL.

[Terralthra]

Yeah, how dare he link to the site debunking the false claim. Have you heard of mousing over a link? Sheesh.

[Flagg]

It's tiresome seeing these badly shopped fake lower thirds...

If it were any day but April 1...

[Dominus Atheos]

Fox News

Fuck you for disguising the URL.

WTF? You didn't actually believe a story that was posted on April Fools Day, did you? And as Dalton pointed out,you should have been able to tell from the terrible photoshop!

[Flagg]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-e ... SKCN0WQ27D

A New York appeals court on Thursday upheld a lower court's dismissal of a suit seeking to remove Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz from the state's primary ballot because of his Canadian birth.

The New York Appellate Division agreed with the lower court ruling that the suit should be thrown out because it missed the deadline for filing an objection to Cruz's appearance on the April 19 ballot. Lawyers for Cruz successfully argued that the objectors had filed their petition nearly three weeks late.

The appeals judges said they would not address the merits of the case, saying they were "academic."

Roger Bernstein, a lawyer for the petitioners, said his clients intend to appeal the decision.

New York residents Barry Korman, 81, of Manhattan, and William Gallo, 85, of Manhasset, had filed the suit, arguing that because Cruz was born in Canada, he is not a "naturally born" citizen as the Constitution dictates for a U.S. president.

Cruz has defended himself against similar claims in multiple states, saying he was a U.S. natural born citizen at birth because of his mother's U.S. citizenship at the time.

Cruz was born in 1970 in Calgary, Alberta.

(Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Dan Grebler)

Much as I loath Cruz, I'm kind of happy about this. I prefer to see peoples' rights as citizens expand, not contract as a rule, I oppose the rule that one must be born a citizen to be President as xenophobic nationalism and don't wish to see it interpreted more loosely/broadly, and Cruz's situation is almost identical to my own (except that I'm not running for President and have no plans to ever do so ), so a ruling against him would have essentially said that I am in a sense a second class citizen due to where I was born.

I don't agree with the Constitution on this, but how in the fuck can he be born to a Cuban father and * likely American mother living in Canada (*HUGE GRAIN OF SALT WARNING: I don't recall the gritty details but I'd heard his mother voted in Canada while living there at a time when one couldn't hold dual citizenship under Canadian law and to vote she'd have had to renounce her American (or any other non-Commonwealth citizenship) also making her son, Rafael "Ted" Cruz an illegal immigrant and ineligible to hold his Senate seat, who should also be deported according to US law. But I can't remember where I'd seen this (and Google won't work for me right now, which figures) so, again: HUGE GRAIN OF SALT) in Canada.

This is pure legalism, because it is the law of the land, so how in the fuck is that a "Natural Born United States Citizen"? I mean I think you give a pass to a McCain, who was born in Panama due to his father being in the Military, and him being born in a Panama Canal Zone (IIRC, it may have been a hospital in Panama, but you get my drift) hospital, but there was a serious question about him as well.

But Rafael "Ted" Cruz... I dunno. It's a serious matter. I mean this is the exact situation the idiot Birthers used saying Obama was born in Kenya (which we all know he wasn't, he was born in the United States of America State of Hawaii to a Kenyan father and American mother.) and thus couldn't be POTUS.

Frankly, it's a matter for SCOTUS and Congress and the States to fix. So since it hasn't been, we operate under the Constitution we have, not the Constitution we want ( ), I don't see how Rafael "Ted" Cruz can in any way be a "Natural Born" American Citizen.

So he's completely ineligible in my opinion, which doesn't matter to anyone involved in the study of Constitutional Law, nor should it.

[Ralin]

but I'd heard his mother voted in Canada while living there at a time when one couldn't hold dual citizenship under Canadian law and to vote she'd have had to renounce her American (or any other non-Commonwealth citizenship) also making her son, Rafael "Ted" Cruz an illegal immigrant and ineligible to hold his Senate seat, who should also be deported according to US law. But I can't remember where I'd seen this (and Google won't work for me right now, which figures) so, again: HUGE GRAIN OF SALT) in Canada.

It's been awhile so I don't have a source handy, but I looked it up awhile back and if I understand it right the gist is that you can renounce your citizenship all the fuck you want abroad, but unless you follow the US government's (lengthy, expensive) process for doing so it has no legal weight as far as America is concerned.

Some countries require you to provide proof that you have done this, but no one can actually force the US to not consider you a citizen and the US has seen fit to make the process difficult and uncertain. Other countries, like Panama (seriously they apparently have the easiest to obtain citizenship in the world) just require you to give a statement renouncing when you go through the process.

EDIT: To be clear, I have no idea where on that spectrum Canadian renunciation requirements falls/fell.

[Flagg]

but I'd heard his mother voted in Canada while living there at a time when one couldn't hold dual citizenship under Canadian law and to vote she'd have had to renounce her American (or any other non-Commonwealth citizenship) also making her son, Rafael "Ted" Cruz an illegal immigrant and ineligible to hold his Senate seat, who should also be deported according to US law. But I can't remember where I'd seen this (and Google won't work for me right now, which figures) so, again: HUGE GRAIN OF SALT) in Canada.

It's been awhile so I don't have a source handy, but I looked it up awhile back and if I understand it right the gist is that you can renounce your citizenship all the fuck you want abroad, but unless you follow the US government's (lengthy, expensive) process for doing so it has no legal weight as far as America is concerned.

Some countries require you to provide proof that you have done this, but no one can actually force the US to not consider you a citizen and the US has seen fit to make the process difficult and uncertain. Other countries, like Panama (seriously they apparently have the easiest to obtain citizenship in the world) just require you to give a statement renouncing when you go through the process.

EDIT: To be clear, I have no idea where on that spectrum Canadian renunciation requirements falls/fell.

Makes sense. Like I said, huge grain of salt. But I still don't see how he could be considered a natural born American citizen, which has always meant you had to be born (originally in one of the 13 colonies that formed the USA) on American soil. I mean the McCain situation was actually a valid concern/topic of debate among Constitutional scholars. I think he'd have been given a pass considering his parents were living in the US controlled Panama Canal Zone due to his father being deployed there, and IMO that should be the case for any child born either on or off base if one or both parents are deployed diplomatically or militarily overseas, but I don't know that the Constitutionality of that holds up. It would have to be bent.

[Flagg]

Fox News

Fuck you for disguising the URL.

WTF? You didn't actually believe a story that was posted on April Fools Day, did you? And as Dalton pointed out,you should have been able to tell from the terrible photoshop!

Shut up you asshole! You made someone feel stupid on April 1! That's worse than forced abortions, kicking puppies, and defecating in a toilets water tank after a friend defecates in the bowl and doesn't flush! You're a MONSTER!

[Simon_Jester]

Makes sense. Like I said, huge grain of salt. But I still don't see how he could be considered a natural born American citizen, which has always meant you had to be born (originally in one of the 13 colonies that formed the USA) on American soil. I mean the McCain situation was actually a valid concern/topic of debate among Constitutional scholars. I think he'd have been given a pass considering his parents were living in the US controlled Panama Canal Zone due to his father being deployed there, and IMO that should be the case for any child born either on or off base if one or both parents are deployed diplomatically or militarily overseas, but I don't know that the Constitutionality of that holds up. It would have to be bent.

Children born overseas to American parents in general receive American citizenship by right of birth, Flagg. You don't have to go through any special naturalization process for that to happen.

So if Cruz's mother was an American citizen at the time he was born, he's an American citizen.

[Dominus Atheos]

Probably, but it's fun to point out. Cruz is supposed to be a Constitutional Originalist, he's supposed to ask "what would the Framers think?" for every constitutional issue. It's very unlikely that they would consider someone born to a foreign father on foreign soil to be a "natural born citizen". Back then, only the father's nationality would have mattered to them, not the mother's.

[Simon_Jester]

Hm.

I'm not saying this to be hostile, but I've never heard that before. Can you document it?

[Dalton]

What's even more fun to point out is the fact that somehow that naturalization rule magically doesn't apply to the "secret Kenyan" Obama