The 2016 Presidential Candidates Thread

[grokit]

During his speech he said he never uses the "F bomb". I've heard him say fuck, he's such a liar.

Did you see bill maher last night?
He showed a video hit parade of f-bombs from the donald


On the other side of the spectrum,
democratic socialism is taking hold all around the world:

Money Revolution: Making Banks Public And Locally Accountable

New Yorkers Protest the $3 trillion Wall Street bailout, Wall Street, NYC, September 25, 2008. Photo: A. Golden via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND).

The world is undergoing a populist revival. From the revolt against austerity led by the Syriza Party in Greece and the Podemos Party in Spain, to Jeremy Corbyn’s surprise victory as Labour leader in the UK, to Donald Trump’s ascendancy in the Republican polls, to Bernie Sanders’ surprisingly strong challenge to Hillary Clinton – contenders with their fingers on the popular pulse are surging ahead of their establishment rivals.

Today’s populist revolt mimics an earlier one that reached its peak in the US in the 1890s. Then it was all about challenging Wall Street, reclaiming the government’s power to create money, curing rampant deflation with US Notes (Greenbacks) or silver coins (then considered the money of the people), nationalizing the banks, and establishing a central bank that actually responded to the will of the people.

Over a century later, Occupy Wall Street revived the populist challenge, armed this time with the Internet and mass media to spread the word. The Occupy movement shined a spotlight on the corrupt culture of greed unleashed by deregulating Wall Street, widening the yawning gap between the 1% and the 99% and destroying jobs, households and the economy.

Donald Trump’s populist campaign has not focused much on Wall Street; but Bernie Sanders’ has, in spades. Sanders has picked up the baton where Occupy left off, and the disenfranchised Millennials who composed that movement have flocked behind him.

The Failure of Regulation

Sanders’ focus on Wall Street has forced his opponent Hillary Clinton to respond to the challenge. Clinton maintains that Sanders’ proposals sound good but “will never make it in real life.” Her solution is largely to preserve the status quo while imposing more bank regulation.

That approach, however, was already tried with the Dodd-Frank Act, which has not solved the problem although it is currently the longest and most complicated bill ever passed by the US legislature. Dodd-Frank purported to eliminate bailouts, but it did this by replacing them with “bail-ins” – confiscating the funds of bank creditors, including depositors, to keep too-big-to-fail banks afloat. The costs were merely shifted from the people-as-taxpayers to the people-as-creditors.

Worse, the massive tangle of new regulations has hamstrung the smaller community banks that make the majority of loans to small and medium sized businesses, which in turn create most of the jobs. More regulation would simply force more community banks to sell out to their larger competitors, making the too-bigs even bigger...

(more)
https://www.popularresistance.org/money-revolution-making-banks-public-and-locally-accountable/

 

[CuckFumbustion]

Trump is now talking about changing the laws that would effect freedom of the press. He's unhappy about all the "untrue" stories about him. Now that the press is starting to show negative stories about him, he's getting pissed at the press.

I wish I could say I am surprised by that. 'Trump said he would like to lower that standard. "We're going to have people sue you like you never got sued before," he said.' Time to hit him back now and keep the pressure on. He has a mountain of bad business practices and I keep hearing from him how wonderful he is. Many Trump supporters think he has the business sense to run a country (like a hotel or a real estate business) He has all the qualifications to be a Very Bad President. WWF and Reality TV added to the mix.
Here's Why Republicans Have Kept Silent on Donald Trump's KKK Endorsement

Yes, Trump University Was a Massive Scam

The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative

With GOP nomination looming, Trump is slated to take witness stand in fraud trial

 

[IAmKrazy2]

Alright. I barely read this thread. And i will be honest, i do not follow politics as closely as let's say... Lions football. Not closely at all in fact. But i do always vote.

I typically have voted Democratic in the past. Issues such as the war on drugs, police accountability, non violent offenders in jail, have often swayed my decision.

So who would that make my horses? Bernie or Hillary right? Anyone want to tell me that would be a great decision or a bad one and why? You see some of the issues im interested in above. I am middle ground on gun control too. I have several myself, and a concealed pistol permit for Michigan but almost never carry. Only under rare circumstances.

So lay it on me. Is that the likely candidates for pro medical and states right to choose recreational marijuana? Bernie and Hillary? Who is better?

Thanks. And i am going to report my post right away to see if this should be its own thread. Sorry mods.

 

[grokit]

Hillary want to move mj to controlled substance schedule 2.
Bernie supports complete decriminalization

 

[CarolKing]

@IAmKrazy2 after this Tuesday we will get a good feel as to who will be left in the race. Many state caucuses will decide.

I don't like the way the caucus system is because mores states seem to grab control over the presidential race while others states are towards the end. It just doesn't seem like a fair system as it is now.

Edit
Twelve states are having caucuses plus Puerto Rico on this Tuesday. The democratic caucus is today in S. Carolina.

Pay attention as to what's happening - that's one of the reasons why Bernie will have a tough time winning over Hillary because all the young folks aren't voting and paying attention.

 

[IAmKrazy2]

Sorry for my ignorance but what happens Tuesday? Tacos? Yum.

 

[lwien]

Trump added that, should he win the election, news organizations that have criticized him will "have problems." He specifically cited The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Trump said ......."We're going to have people sue you like you never got sued before," he said.

Because the Supreme Court has repeatedly endorsed the existing legal standard, Trump could not change libel laws as they affect public figures by executive order or even with an act of Congress, Leslie said. "I've never heard of politicians say they would repeal case law established under the First Amendment," he said. "You'd really need a constitutional amendment to do that."
---------FoxNews

Also...........considering the infantile, very un-presidential remarks recently from the candidates, the GOP is cementing their reputation as the laughing stock of US politics. They continue to distance themselves from any possibility of ever winning the general.

 

[Gunky]

It's looking more and more like Trump gets the nomination. The repubs are already writing off the presidency and Mitch McConnell is planning ads for repub senatorial candidates to disavow Trump in order to squeak back in.

Part of the mistake of voting 'to send a message' or voting for an unlikely outsider in order to shake things up is: our government works by gaining majorities in the two houses of congress. It's all about parties and politicking and cobbling together majorities and making deals. Outsiders, absolutist types sent to washington to poke the establishment in the eye, generally get nowhere because nothing happens without allies, group support, mutual back-scratching etc. See Ted Cruz. He has never accomplished anything except help shut down the government and fuck up our credit rating. Jimmy Carter is an example of a Democratic outsider who did not have much of a constituency in congress.

Obama, though not the ultimate insider, is a mainstream dem. When he got in with democratic majorities in 2008, it was actually possible to do things, and he managed to pass a few important things, like the stimulus (without which we would still be in near-depression conditions like much of Europe where they actually carried out the austerity prescribed by repubs) and the health care bill (millions got access and overall yearly health care cost increases declined). Republican midterm gains meant that eventually nothing could be enacted and parts of the health care law that needed tweaking could not be patched. Let's learn the correct lesson here: big change came about when the democratic party was given the presidency and majorities in congress. Voting in an independent with the idea that he could shake things up is to put in place an isolated president who has no constituency in congress, another Jimmy Carter.

 

[grokit]

Huffpost just called south carolina for hillary

Black votes matter

 

[howie105]

It's Hillary and Donald. Everyone else is eating dust and is technically finished. The writing on the wall is clear now. It's Donald vs Hillary. What a riot this is going to be.

Stock up on popcorn and parachutes.

 

[lwien]

Trump refuses to disavow David Duke or the KKK. Claims...............ignorance.

 

[CuckFumbustion]

Sanders - I'm not counting him out entirely, don't plan on voting for him. Doubt Hillary would have him as a VP. But he still has a podium to at least put out his less lofty proposals before bowing out or do more TV appearances.
Former Christie campaign finance chair slams Christie endorsement of Donald Trump

Trump refuses to disavow David Duke or the KKK. Claims...............ignorance.

His Dad know the KKK. Being ignorant of the KKK is a dis-qualifier. Either way fire the Donald.
Report: Trump's Dad Was Arrested In 1927 Ku Klux Klan Brawl With Police

http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/...r-kkk-shirt.cnn/video/playlists/donald-trump/

 

[cybrguy]

Oh boy this is gonna be fun! McConnell is not only giving permission, he is encouraging his down race candidates to run against the top of the ticket. This is going to be serious entertainment.

I wonder if the Popcorn Purveyors have a deep enough supply...

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

Mitch McConnell: Republicans will drop Trump ‘like a hot rock’ if he wins the nomination

In private meetings in Washington, Republicans are preparing for their latest worst case 2016 election scenario: Donald Trump might be their presidential nominee.

Normally at this point in the election cycle the GOP would be gearing up for attacks on their anticipated Democratic rival for the White House. But party leaders are so distraught at the idea of the blustery businessman heading the ticket, that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has taken to advising candidates to keep their distance from Trump.

According to the New York Times, McConnell is assuring Senate candidates running for reelection that they should feel free to run ads against Trump if they feel he is hurting their own campaigns. According to senators attending private lunches with the Majority Leader, McConnell is taking the approach that Trump will lose badly in the general election and that senators should sell themselves as a bulwark against a Hillary Clinton presidency.

Pointing out that he still won easily when President Bill Clinton was reelected, McConnell reportedly told colleagues that the party will drop Trump “like a hot rock” if he is the nominee.

News of the party’s preemptive rejection of the potential nominee comes after a luncheon meeting attended by Republican governors and donors in Washington on Feb. 19 where political guru Karl Rove warned that Trump may be unstoppable for the GOP — and that his nomination could destroy other Republican candidate’s chances in November.

According to people who attended a private presentation hosted by the conservative billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch, Trump’s record was deemed utterly unacceptable, causing high profile donors to hold back on donations out of fear it will be money that will be wasted.

As for stopping Trump from becoming the face of the party come November, Republicans are flummoxed.

“There is no mechanism,” said Former Gov. Michael O. Leavitt of Utah. “There is no smoke-filled room. If there is, I’ve never seen it, nor do I know anyone who has. This is going to play out in the way that it will.”

 

[howie105]

Trump has enough on his plate to answer for without having to answer for the sins of relatives. If I had to do that I still would be looking out from behind bars ands in some cases hanging from a limb. Guilt through association is a cheap trick that I wish people would let go of.

 

[lwien]

As I said a long time ago, I still believe that Trump will eventually run as an independent.


Either way, he WILL lose the general but he has made it a very entertaining primary, eh?

 

[cybrguy]

The only way for the Republicans to get him off the top of the ticket is to incite him to run as an independent. He will NOT want to do that as the cost of running will be much greater, and he knows he will lose, so he won't want to waste all that "hard earned" cash.

At least then the down ticket repubs won't have to run from their standard bearer, but they will have ZERO chance to win with him pulling 20% or so off the top...

 

[His_Highness]

But Trump gave his word he wouldn't run independently.

Is there no trust left in this world of ours?

 

[lwien]

But Trump gave his word he wouldn't run independently.

Is there no trust left in this world of ours?

He gave his word that he wouldn't run as an independent with one caveat which was.........as long as the GOP treats him fairly and THAT is his way out of that commitment.

 

[Gunky]

I would say that this is one of the more amusing and entertaining presidential election years, but there is a tragic side to it. The major candidates of one party are threatening children who were born and grew up here and are citizens of this country with immediate deportation along with their undocumented parents. Real kids, who are now wondering what is going to happen to them. Same with another group of children brought here at an early age who have grown up here and know no other home. On the strength of this threat to children rests much of one candidate's campaign.

 

[lwien]

I would say that this is one of the more amusing and entertaining presidential election years, but there is a tragic side to it. The major candidates of one party are threatening children who were born and grew up here and are citizens of this country with immediate deportation along with their undocumented parents. Real kids, who are now wondering what is going to happen to them.

Yeah........the kids, and it's not just the kids who are in fear of being deported. I'm concerned about ALL the kids who have seen and heard their presidential candidates behave in this way. How does one, as a parent, explain this? It almost gives credence to the bullies on the school grounds as a viable way to behave, eh?

Considering the respect that one should have for the office of the presidency, this is more than just a little embarrassing and while I did say that it was entertaining, there is a flip side here.

 

[CarolKing]

The RNC is telling their senators not go go to the Republican Convention if Trump is the nominee. You might be right @lwien this would piss Trump off and he might go as an independent.

Yesterday a parent was stating that they aren't allowing their children to watch the presidential primaries.

 

[lwien]

The RNC is telling their senators not go go to the Republican Convention if Trump is the nominee. You might be right @lwien this would piss Trump off and he might go as an independent.

I would love to be a fly on the wall during these recent RNC meetings. Now THAT would be entertaining..........but flys can't laugh. FUCK !!!

 

[His_Highness]

The immigrant deportation debate is particularly thorny because who the hell wants to answer a child who asks 'But didn't they break the law by coming here illegally'? I guess it depends on the age of the child.

Glad my kids are all grown up.....

 

[Gunky]

More people are now leaving the US and going back to Mexico than come in. The whole immigration 'issue' is bogus. The adults they are threatening to deport are the ones who do most of the back-breaking agricultural labor in this country. It's stupid and paranoid and cruel and not even a pressing issue. It's a bogus scapegoat to whip up bigotry and distract lower class whites. Every repub wants to spend vast sums building this Maginot Line of a wall project. We actually need these people and they contribute a lot to our society.

 

[howie105]

The republican party is going through a period of readjustment which was inevitable given the gap that has grown between its leadership and its base. In the end adjustments may be made or faked and there will be a new presentation or real changes. The funny thing is that I see the start of a similar effect starting with the democrats.