The 2016 US Election (Part III)

[Executor32]

Well, we could finally get an answer on Cokegate.

Precisely why I said, "Bring it on, Sniffles."

[Vendetta]

Look, Donald "Dunning-Kruger" Trump knows he is a winner. He knows he wins, and he knows he won those debates and everyone should be able to see that he won. If everyone else is saying that he in fact lost the debates his opponent must be cheating, because he doesn't lose, he's a winner.

[Q99]

Let's not forget that Obama actually scored a pretty significant landslide, given today's environment. Given Bush's historic unpopularity, not to mention that the fucking economy collapsed, Obama's 2008 should be seen as a the high-tide mark for the contemporary Presidency. If someone like Trump were nominated in 2008, AND we were coming off of the Bush presidency, AND the economy collapsed, AND Obama were the nominee, I have no doubt that he would have won a 450EV victory.

That being said, lots of shitty candidates should expect to get about 40% of the vote. I'd be very surprised if Trump were any different.

35-37% is generally considered near the BTK limit (or sometimes the Alan Keyes limit*) in a national election- even a horrible candidate will almost never drop below that level.


*Alan Keyes ran against Obama for senator as an out-of-state, bad-for-a-republican candidate with no local base or reputation (changing his legal residency to Illinois literally days before) as a replacement for a candidate who had to drop out due to scandal. Same race, so minimum variables aside from that. Largest margin in state history but Keyes got 27% of the vote anyway, suggesting that's about the hard bottom limit for Republicans in Illinois.

[The Romulan Republic]

And Illinois isn't exactly a red state.

So yes, you're probably going to get around that minimum for a Republican no matter what.

[The Romulan Republic]

So apparently Paul Ryan has been trying to scare the Republican base into voting by saying that if the Democrats take the Senate, they'll make Bernie Sanders head of the Budget Committee.

I don't suppose its occurred to him that this will also have the effect of encouraging progressive turnout.

[Q99]

So apparently Paul Ryan has been trying to scare the Republican base into voting by saying that if the Democrats take the Senate, they'll make Bernie Sanders head of the Budget Committee.

I don't suppose its occurred to him that this will also have the effect of encouraging progressive turnout.

Yes, thank you again Mr Ryan

I don't know if the dems would really put Bernie there, but hey, I'm sure it's in consideration now!

[Simon_Jester]

Bernie Sanders is a lot less likely to get a plum position like that than he would've been if he'd thrown in the towel a few months earlier in the presidential election.

So, Donnie Douchebag seems to think Hillary was on something during the last debate:

Trump says there should be a drug test before the next debate
TOM BOGGIONI
15 OCT 2016 AT 13:07 ET

In a speech in New Hampshire, Saturday morning, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump suggested that rival Hillary Clinton is using performance enhancing drugs and said drug tests should be administered before Wednesday’s debate in Las Vegas.

Pointing out that Clinton has not been on the campaign trail in preparation for the debate, Trump said she was getting “pumped up.”

“Athletes, they make them take a drug test, right. I think we should take a drug test prior to the debate,” Trump said.

“Why don’t we do that? We should take a drug test, prior, because I don’t know what’s going on with her, but at the beginning of her last debate, she was all pumped up at the beginning, and at the end it was like, ‘Oh, take me down,'” Trump shouted.

Watch the video below via Twitter:

https://twitter.com/aletweetsnews/statu ... 9043237888

I say bring it on, Sniffles.

Exactly how does Trump think that it would be harder to defeat someone on drugs in a debate? Does he think there are "smart pills" that make you smarter, or "convincing pills" that make you convincing? If so, why isn't he already taking them?

[The Romulan Republic]

Supposedly, Bernie doesn't actually want the Budget Committee post- he wants to be head of the HELP committee. Still, of all the things to try to scare voters with... Paul Ryan should be trying to drive a wedge between the Clinton campaign and Bernie supporters, not tell us that if the Dems. win the Senate, our dreams will come true.

But we're getting a little ahead of ourselves- committee postings are something of a moot point until after election day.

[NettiWelho]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DcATG9Qy_A

How can the emails be both fake and stolen at the same time?

[FireNexus]

Turns out you can steal some emails and pepper in some fake ones. Russians are actually known for doing this.

[Flagg]

They are airing ads here with Dr Ben Carson (who needs to gat a mirror and perform brain surgery on himself)...

What makes you think he hasn't? Remember, he became known for pioneering a procedure that, at high risk, can save a patient's life by removing one half of his brain...

Maybe he did 2 of those on himself.

[Flagg]

Given how many times Trump has accused Clinton of something, only for it to be revealed that he is guilty of something similar but worse, I'm thinking that the thing Trump really doesn't want Clinton to do here is to accept the drug test on the condition that Trump also gets tested.

Well, we could finally get an answer on Cokegate.

Cocaine has a pretty short halflife, iirc. All Donnie Douchebag has to do is abstain for a bit ( ) and then do a line off Wolf Blitzer's ass right after the piss test.

[TimothyC]

Exactly how does Trump think that it would be harder to defeat someone on drugs in a debate? Does he think there are "smart pills" that make you smarter, or "convincing pills" that make you convincing? If so, why isn't he already taking them?

The theory on the right is that Clinton's health is worse than it seems (The guy with the epi-pen that follows her around, the 'catheter bags on the leg' ect.), and that she's drugged up for the debates to keep from having a coughing fit or from collapsing (like she did at the 9-11 memorial service).

Note: The following is simply to provide an explanation, and said explanation is NOT endorsed by the poster.

Also: Simon, I tried a couple of times to call you this weekend, but it went to voicemail every time.

[Simon_Jester]

Oi. Sorry, my phone battery ran down and I had no occasion to call anyone so I didn't realize it. I'll try to remember to be on AIM more in the evenings; I've fallen out of that habit for a number of reasons.

[bilateralrope]

Look, Donald "Dunning-Kruger" Trump knows he is a winner. He knows he wins, and he knows he won those debates and everyone should be able to see that he won. If everyone else is saying that he in fact lost the debates his opponent must be cheating, because he doesn't lose, he's a winner.

Which is going to make his reaction to losing the presidency rather interesting.

[Vendetta]

Yes, for "May you live in Interesting Times" values of interesting.

Of course, it's also likely to spark a full scale domestic in the Republican party, as its various not-really-overlapping interest groups look to blame each other for the quality of the candidate.

[The Romulan Republic]

Our country's politics continue to descend into the abyss:

First their's this story, from my former hometown, and a long-time Democratic stronghold which, as I recall, went to Obama by over 80%, no less:

http://www.dailycamera.com/boulder-coun ... -advocated

At least five Boulder Valley high school students have been expelled in the wake of the suicide last month of a student who led a Nazi-themed group chat on Facebook that advocated killing African-Americans and Jews.

Boulder police say about 15 students at multiple area schools participated in what the teens called the "4th Reich's Official Group Chat," according to a report released Tuesday.

Police were alerted to the group following the Sept. 21 death of a Boulder Preparatory charter school student who had taken his own life "to show his allegiance to the Nazi party and the killing of Jewish people," according to the report — which did not identify the juvenile.

Along with Boulder Prep, the members of the Facebook chat attended Boulder High, Centaurus High in Lafayette, Monarch High in Louisville, Pomona High in Arvada and Colorado Mountain College.

The chat group's "4th Reich" title was a reference to a hypothetical successor to Adolph Hitler's Third Reich in Nazi Germany. The leader of the chat identified himself as "The Fuhrer," and others adopted various military titles used by Hitler's SS paramilitary forces.

The members talked about "killing all Jews and "n******," according to the police report, and posted images of guns, referenced "the final solution" and "white power," and were told they needed to recruit other students "so they can complete their 'mission.'"

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One wrote: "You can hang Jews on trees, shoot them right in the knees. Gas as many as you please," according to the police report.

After investigating, Boulder police declined to press charge against any of the students involved because there was "no evidence or documentation to support there being any credible threat," according to the police report.

Boulder Valley spokesman Briggs Gamblin said the district also investigated the social media comments and took "appropriate responsive action" with the students involved.

The district cannot provide specifics about disciplinary action because of federal privacy laws, he said.

According to the police report, the five students involved who attended Boulder Prep were expelled from the school. It's not known whether students at other schools faced expulsion.

Lili Adeli, headmaster at Boulder Prep, said the Gunbarrel school addressed both the suicide and the Facebook chat's discriminatory language.

"We did a lot of work with the students to help ensure their safety and mental health and healing," she said. "It can bring up their own thoughts of suicide and previous trauma."

That work included checking with students through phone calls and text messages outside of school hours to make sure they were safe, she said.

"We've continued to keep the lines of communication open," she said.

Adeli said school staff members also have made it a top priority to educate students on inclusiveness and the importance of speaking out against derogatory language.

The chat group was reported by a parent of a Boulder Prep student. When the group's "second-in-command" was contacted by police, according to the report, the student said "the whole thing was 'funny' and he would not actually ever do any of those things."

The Anti-Defamation League also received a complaint about the group, regional director Scott Levin said.

"From our perspective, we believe law enforcement and the school district are both taking appropriate action," he said.

Still, "it's very disheartening when you hear this type of thing is taking place," Levin said, noting that seven Boulder Valley schools use the Anti-Defamation League's "No Place for Hate" program.

Amy Bounds: 303-473-1341, boundsa@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/boundsa

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/militia-mem ... tack-plot/

Three members of a Kansas militia group were charged Friday with plotting to bomb an apartment complex that’s home to Somali immigrants in the western Kansas meatpacking town of Garden City, a thwarted attack prosecutors say was planned for the day after the November election.

patrick-stein-kansas-milita-2016-10-14.png
Patrick Stein was one of three men arrested Oct. 14, 2016 in an alleged plot targeting Somali immigrants in the western Kansas meatpacking town of Garden City. SEDGWICK COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

The arrests were the culmination of an eight-month FBI investigation that took agents “deep into a hidden culture of hatred and violence,” Acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall said.

A complaint unsealed Friday charges Curtis Wayne Allen, 49; Patrick Eugene Stein, 47; and Gavin Wayne Wright, 49, with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. Their first court appearance is Monday.

All three men are currently in the Sedgwick County jail on one count of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction, reports CBS affiliate KWCH.

If convicted, all three could face life in prison.

Prosecutors said the men don’t yet have attorneys. Publicly listed phone numbers for the men couldn’t immediately be found.

The men are members of a small militia group that calls itself “the Crusaders,” and whose members espouse sovereign citizen, anti-government, anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant extremist beliefs, according to the complaint.

The complaint alleges group members chose the target based on their hatred for Muslims, people of Somali descent and immigrants - and out of a desire to inspire other militia groups and “wake people up.”

The FBI began a domestic terrorism investigation of the group in February, and a confidential source attended its meetings in southwestern Kansas.

In a June meeting, Stein brought up the Orlando nightclub shooting, and proposed carrying out a similar attack against Muslim refugees in Garden City, according to the complaint.

kansas-plot.jpg
Gavin Wright was one of three men arrested Oct. 14, 2016 in an alleged plot targeting Somali immigrants in the western Kansas meatpacking town of Garden City. SEDGWICK COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE
They ultimately decided to target the apartment complex because of the number of Somalis who lived there and the fact that one of the apartments was used as a mosque. The complex houses about 120 Somali residents, Beall said.

The complaint said that Stein discussed the explosives used in the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City by Timothy McVeigh.

The men, who were arrested in Liberal on Friday morning, performed surveillance of the apartment building and prepared a manifesto, Beall said.

In a profanity-laced conference call that law enforcement monitored, Stein said the only way “this country’s ever going to get turned around is it will be a bloodbath,” according to the complaint.

If convicted, the men could be sentenced to up to life in federal prison without parole.

Heidi Beirich, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, called the details of the plot disturbing, saying it “should serve as a warning to those who traffic in the politics of fear and bigotry.”

Garden City is home to a Tyson Foods beef slaughterhouse that has drawn a diverse immigrant population to the area.

Dr. John Birky, a physician who’s helping to create a clinic and working with refugees on a language program, said some local residents fear the refugees, mistakenly associating them with militants in Somalia.

“People do express more of a general sentiment of, ‘Why are we letting these refugees in here? Why are we? They’re taking our jobs, plus they’re Muslim,’” he said.

kansas-plot-2.jpg
Curtis Allen was one of three men arrested Oct. 14, 2016 in an alleged plot targeting Somali immigrants in the western Kansas meatpacking town of Garden City. SEDGWICK COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE
Birky said between 300 and 500 Somali refugees live in the area. The state Department for Children and Families said that of the 906 refugees who arrived in Kansas from October 2014 through January 2016, 68 were from Somalia, or 7.5 percent.

Garden City Mayor Chris Law said in a statement that he was shocked by the planned attack, and Birky called it “crazy.”

Birky said most are fleeing militants in Somalia and want to assimilate once they reach Kansas.

“They’re trying to make a better life for their families here,” he said. “They want to pursue the American dream.”

Friday’s arrests and charges prompted the Council on American-Islamic Relations to call on state and federal law enforcement agencies across the nation to increase protection for mosques and other Islamic institutions. The group also cited reports of threats against a Michigan center and anti-Muslim graffiti at a New Jersey mosque.

“We ask our nation’s political leaders, and particularly political candidates, to reject the growing Islamophobia in our nation,” Nihad Awad, the group’s national executive director, said in a statement.

The case is the latest involving militia groups in the state. Earlier this year, a planned armed protest outside a Wichita mosque prompted the Islamic Society of Wichita to cancel an appearance by a speaker whom protesters believed supported terrorism.




The Justice Department’s National Security Division created a new position a year ago to help coordinate investigations into violent homegrown extremism, like the one that resulted in the three arrests.

© 2016 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Notably, they had allegedly planned their attack for the day after the election.

And in what appears to be someone on the Left echoing the terrorist tactics of the far Right, this happened:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/17/us/no ... .html?_r=0

A firebomb tore through the Republican Party headquarters in North Carolina’s Orange County on Saturday night, and graffiti warning its members to flee town was painted on the walls of a neighboring building, the party and police officials said on Sunday.

The party posted images on Twitter of the damaged building in Hillsborough, N.C., on Sunday afternoon that showed blackened walls, charred couches and burned campaign signs for Donald J. Trump and several local candidates. A window was broken, and a swastika was spray-painted nearby alongside the words “Nazi Republicans leave town or else.”



The bombing occurred at a tense moment in American politics, just three weeks from Election Day and near the end of a divisive presidential campaign that has seen deepening hostility and suspicions between supporters of Hillary Clinton and those of Mr. Trump, who has repeatedly said that he believes the vote will be “rigged” against him.

On Sunday, the Hillsborough police said the fire had been caused by a firebomb thrown through a window of the office, which is in a shopping center about 14 miles outside Durham.

The damage was not noticed until Sunday, when a business owner called the authorities around 9 a.m., the police said. Gov. Pat McCrory said in a statement that no one had been injured.

“This highly disturbing act goes far beyond vandalizing property; it willfully threatens our community’s safety via fire, and its hateful message undermines decency, respect and integrity in civic participation,” Mayor Tom Stevens of Hillsborough said in a statement. “Our law enforcement officials are responding quickly and thoroughly to investigate this reprehensible act and prosecute the perpetrators.”

The Hillsborough police said they were investigating the attack along with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

In a statement to The Charlotte Observer, Dallas Woodhouse, the executive director of the state Republican Party, called the bombing “political terrorism.”

“The office itself is a total loss,” he said. “The only thing important to us is that nobody was killed, and they very well could have been.”

“Whether you are Republican, Democrat or independent, all Americans should be outraged by this hate-filled and violent attack against our democracy,” he added. “Everyone in this country should be free to express their political viewpoints without fear for their own safety.”

Mr. McCrory, a Republican, condemned the bombing as “an attack on our democracy.”

“Violence has no place in our society — but especially in our elections,” he said in his statement. “Fortunately no one was injured; however, I will use every resource as governor to assist local authorities in this investigation.”

And, of course, Right-wingers have jumped all over this one like kids in a candy store, using it to blame the Left and label us terrorists. Including, of course, the Orange Rapist himself:

http://www.vox.com/2016/10/16/13301040/ ... irebombing

Donald Trump has accused unnamed Hillary Clinton allies of being the arsonists behind the firebombing of a Republican headquarters in North Carolina on Saturday.

Taking to Twitter Sunday afternoon, Trump alleged that “animals” representing Clinton and Democrats in North Carolina had helped destroy the Republican Party’s offices in Hillsborough, North Carolina.


Local law enforcement is investigating after somebody threw a flammable bottle through the office’s windows on Saturday night, setting much of the furniture inside ablaze, according to the Charlotte News-Observer. In addition to the fire, someone spraypainted an adjacent building with the message, “Nazi Republicans get out of town or else.” Nobody was injured in the attack.

Trump didn’t provide any evidence for the claim that people representing Clinton were behind what Republican officials in North Carolina are calling “an act of political terrorism.” (Trump did say the attack occurred “because we are winning,” though most polls show Clinton leading in the state by several points.)

Authorities have said nothing to give any reason to suspect Clinton or North Carolina Democrats orchestrated the attack. Local law enforcement, Clinton, and Republicans in North Carolina have all responded by condemning the attack and calling for a full investigation.




Why Trump’s comments should worry us
In isolation, Trump’s wild claims would be worrisome enough: presidential candidates don’t normally make unfounded accusations that their opponents are using covert agents to carry out fire-bombings. (Knee-jerk accusations of violence also seem like a dangerous thing for a commander-in-chief to have a habit of doing.)

But there’s another critical context for understanding Trump’s Tweet: The Republican presidential nominee has begun making increasingly conspiratorial claims that a cabal of “global elite”s is rigging the election for Clinton.

As part of that, he’s begun encouraging his fans to monitor polling stations in places like Philadelphia — a sign his supporters are interpreting to mean that they should racially profile polling stations. Just today, top Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani was on cable TV claiming that the vote totals of the “inner-cities” were prone to massive voter fraud (they’re not).

As Vox’s Dara Lind has written, this is extremely dangerous:

Trump has urged his followers to spend time on Election Day intimidating nonwhite voters. He tells them that after they vote on November 8, it’s their duty to go en masse to “some other place” and make sure that no one’s engaging in voter fraud ...

It’s one thing to have election monitors stationed at polling places to make sure poll workers and campaign volunteers aren’t breaking election law; it’s quite another to encourage groups of vigilantes to hang out at polling places in unfamiliar neighborhoods, with the stated goal of making people feel too uncomfortable to vote if they look like they shouldn’t be voting.
Baselessly accusing Clinton of being behind the firebombing is crass. But it’s also being used to fit a broader narrative his political opponent is so dangerous, so crooked, that she’s willing to commit acts of terrorism to influence the voting results. And if that’s true, then of course she’s willing to steal an election by other means, and of course his supporters should doubt the results.

We still have 22 days left in maybe the most acrimonious political campaign in modern American history. And that is a lot of time for Trump to prime his most extreme followers to believe they’re up against not just someone willing to skirt email management rules, but a criminal willing to risk actual, real-world violence against American citizens.

When in actuality, Dems. have been raising funds for the firebombed Republican office.

Edited because of bad link.

[The Romulan Republic]

Some have already compared the NC bombing (rather prematurely and excessively, in my opinion) to the Reichstag Fire. Certainly Trump seems to wish to use it in that manner, however, once again proving that he is a hypocrite six ways to Sunday.

Edit: On a cheerier note, my favourite comedian did a fine piece on third party candidates:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3O01EfM5fU

[Thanas]

Both Jill Stein and Gary Johnson are idiots. News at 11.


One is a weakling with no principles and the other has no idea how government works.

[The Romulan Republic]

Hmm, Arizona's gone back to leaning blue in Polls-only and the Now-cast, and their seems to be a little movement in Clinton's favour in Alaska. Still a long shot though.

But I honestly think that we will probably flip Arizona.

Also, Bernie is in Colorado today, visiting Boulder and Fort Collins to campaign for the health care referendum (and hopefully get out the progressive vote). As an (absentee) Colorado voter, I'm glad Bernie is paying my home state some attention.

[Crossroads Inc.]

NPR Just did a small story about the fire bombing.
Aside from mentioning that NC seems almost certain to go Blue, they did note that the Democratic part IS indeed fundraising to repair the damage and is actually physically on hand helping people clean up and clear away damage.

I hate to be a conspiracy theorist.... But with the way things are going I seriously would not be surprised if it turned out to have been started by someone FROM the party itself, bombing their OWN building in an attempt to frame Liberals.

[Iroscato]

NPR Just did a small story about the fire bombing.
Aside from mentioning that NC seems almost certain to go Blue, they did note that the Democratic part IS indeed fundraising to repair the damage and is actually physically on hand helping people clean up and clear away damage.

I hate to be a conspiracy theorist.... But with the way things are going I seriously would not be surprised if it turned out to have been started by someone FROM the party itself, bombing their OWN building in an attempt to frame Liberals.

That's a road you probably don't want to go down unless you're armed with some hard evidence in the first place, IMO.

I'm just happy to see a little bit of unity in this godforsaken election, myself.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Oh I hear ya. And don't get me wrong, I am in no way saying it DID happen that way. Because there IS exactly zero evidence for it right now. Just, you know... Poetic Justice and all ;P

but yeah, if nothing else, its nice seeing the local gems coming immediately out to help support as reassuring. .

[Simon_Jester]

Hmm, Arizona's gone back to leaning blue in Polls-only and the Now-cast, and their seems to be a little movement in Clinton's favour in Alaska. Still a long shot though.

But I honestly think that we will probably flip Arizona.

Told. You. So.

But yes; good news all around, things are clearly tipping in Clinton's favor in what we normally think of as red states, and there are still about 3-4 weeks and another debate before the election, plus any media bombshells the Clinton campaign has been holding in reserve (i.e. someone willing to come forward with rape charges).

[Though I will note for consistency's sake that if the rape in question happened, say, twenty years ago... I can't treat such accusations against Trump any differently than I treated accusations against Bill Clinton]

[SolarpunkFan]

Well, seems I was beaten to the GoFundMe campaign news. Well, it's at least a little story to brighten my day.