20 thoughts on “News/Politics 2-29-16

  1. Here’s the problem with making a deal with the devil. Either way, you lose. The devil will always get his due.

    http://www.bizpacreview.com/2016/02/28/trump-answers-gop-lawmakers-threats-to-drop-him-like-a-hot-rock-if-they-want-to-play-that-game-311145

    “Donald Trump responded for the first time on Sunday to a New York Times story that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell allegedly said Republicans will drop the front-runner “like a hot rock” if he is the party’s nominee, and the real estate tycoon warned that the GOP is going to have “a big problem.”

    McConnell was said to have also laid out a plan that would allow GOP senators to do even further, as seen here.”

    ““The pledge is a two-way street, and if it’s not that way they’re going to have a problem, a big problem with me,” Trump said, before warning that “we have tremendous amounts of people.”

    Host Jake Tapper pointed to the hashtag #NeverTrump, which trended throughout the day Saturday, noting that rival Marco Rubio participated in the effort, and asked Trump if these efforts violated the Republican Party’s loyalty pledge.

    “Totally,” the real estate tycoon said. “If they want to play that game, I can play that game much more than they can, and I have a lot more people than they do.””
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    And for once the egomaniac is right. R’s made the deal, and now they have to live with the results. They thought there was no way to lose, that Trump would never be the nominee. Now what?

    Turn on the Donald, and he goes 3rd party, and the Commie or the Liar win. And the R party get’s destroyed by infighting. It’s win/win for Trump, lose/lose for everyone else, except Dems. Now what?

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  2. it isn’t “the commie and the liar” It’s “the commie and the crook”. “Liar” is too broad a term in politics. I like everything abut Berne Sanders but his philosophy of government.

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  3. A friend pointed out that, as a matter of integrity, the other candidates cannot go back on the loyalty pledge. Some may be tempted to, if it comes to that, but their integrity would be (rightfully) questioned. They painted themselves into a corner with that.

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  4. From where it stands now, there’s simply no real good way out of this and no “good” ending imaginable.

    I doubt there will ever be any unity behind any candidate coming out of the convention, party-sanctioned or not. It’ll be at least 3 factions going their own way. If Trump somehow doesn’t get the nomination on a first ballot — and another candidate winds up getting nominated — Trump will blow out of there with all of his righteous indignation he can muster and take his supporters with him.

    If he does get the nomination, a whole lot of us won’t — can’t — vote for him.

    And so it’s looking like another 4 years of the Democrats. I don’t see how it comes out any other way, not from where we sit right now anyway. It’s basically imploded and I don’t think there’s enough time to put it all back together again. Blame who or what you will, but the upshot is that Humpty Dumpty has had a great fall …

    There will be nothing left but to vote your conscience and pray, pray, pray (or maybe praying should come first).

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  5. This is a very weird political time. Both sides are eating their own. The Republican front runner is doing everything he can to destroy fellow conservatives, including FOX news and on the other side, BLM is harassing Hillary and the PC police are going after academia and Hollywood.

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  6. “very weird” is an understatement. There will be many books written about this one.

    Meanwhile, from George Will:

    http://www.nationalreview.com/article/432062/donald-trump-republican-party-2016-chris-christie

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    Donald Trump’s distinctive rhetorical style — think of a drunk with a bullhorn reading aloud James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake under water — poses an almost insuperable challenge to people whose painful duty is to try to extract clarity from his effusions. For example, last week, during a long stream of semi-consciousness in Fort Worth, this man who as president would nominate members of the federal judiciary vowed to “open up” libel laws to make it easier to sue — to intimidate and punish — people who write “negative” things. Well. …

    … “Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide, / In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side.” So begins James Russell Lowell’s 1845 poem protesting America’s war with Mexico. The Republicans’ moment is here. …

    We are about to learn much about Republican officeholders who are now deciding whether to come to terms with Trump, and with the shattering of their party as a vessel of conservatism. Trump’s collaborators, like the remarkably plastic Chris Christie (“I don’t think [Trump’s] temperament is suited for [the presidency]”), will find that nothing will redeem the reputations they will ruin by placing their opportunism in the service of his demagogic cynicism and anti-constitutional authoritarianism.

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  7. Who is sticking to the policies?
    Who is not attacking the others?
    Who has a plan for the direction of the country?
    Who has a passion for the country and the offer it has had for people to rise up from poverty?
    Ben Carson. Still in the game.

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  8. Now, if a few million others will take note, take a look at the guy and his plans, and ask, “How in the world did we let the media slip this guy under the rug?” and vote with their brains rather than anger, we may just make it.

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  9. “It’s not funny anymore.”

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/02/29/donald-trump-isnt-funny-anymore-and-we-all-have-to-stop-him/

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    Some look for a silver lining in the hope that Trump’s policy rhetoric may be posturing. I agree that, if he’s elected, there’s a good chance he won’t pursue the policies he has championed. He might not round up and deport 11 million men, women and children who are living unlawfully in the United States in less than two years. He might not establish a police state. He might not impose massive tariffs and risk destructive trade wars. He very well might govern as a centrist technocrat. As a guy who can make a deal. Maybe so; maybe not.

    But the American president is not merely a package of public policy proposals. The president is our head of state — our chief public representative, a living symbol of the nation. However he would actually govern, Trump is simply unfit to hold this office. …
    _____________________________________________

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  10. “I think this campaign gives me reason to think someone has released LSD into the water system in this country, and every single day one looks at the news and cannot even fathom that it’s happening. Yet, every day there is something totally surprising, sometimes shocking and often horrifying.” — Russell Moore

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  11. Haha — I see on Politico that the Democrats are drawing up a plan to “shatter the GOP.”

    I don’t think the Grand Old Party needs any help at this point, it seems to be doing a successful job of committing suicide all by itself. 🙂

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  12. Interesting clips. I still remember my mom giving money to one of the neighborhood gardeners so he could afford the the application for amnesty during Reagan’s term.

    Unfortunately, our country since then has failed to figure out how to secure the border and now the issue has expanded so much that it is a real problem. Having an open border is ultimately unsustainable — especially with regard to economic, health and education benefits. Eventually, there’s just not going to be enough resources to provide for everyone.

    I’ve always thought that we should work to make illegal immigration harder and legal immigration easier (for those who truly want to come here and stay); and work permits for those who don’t want to stay permanently, but that needs to be somehow regulated as well.

    It’s one of those issues we’ve simply failed to adequately address — and now, like so many other things, it’s a big, contentious mess. 🙄

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