Guard Dog

If any candidate fails to get the minimum number of delegates in the GOP they go to a brokered convention. Trump will be put down then but it will be a dumpster fire and stink to high heaven. Whomever the nominee is, I hope it doesn't happen that way. This whole elections is just awful. In my lifetime I can't remember a time we were forced to choose from a more repugnant and despicable pool of candidates. Except maybe 2012. 2008 wasn't so hot either. Come to that 2004 was pretty bad. And 2000? Don't even get me started. Two choices and both were wrong. To paraphrase Andy Warhol sooner or later everything descends into parody.

I really enjoyed Flowers for Algernon.

I'm voting first thing tomorrow. I'm not a registered Republican but we use a hybrid Primary here. I can affiliate with the Republicans at the poll tomorrow to cast a ballot.

Which is really ironic since the last two "one of us" candidates were the son of multimillionaire oil men (GWB) and the son of an already successful property multimillionaire (Trump) so are about as far from the Average Joe on Struggle Street as you can get. And GWB was a near unmitigated disaster, too. It's not just the US that has this phenomenon though, our Prime Minister is a multimillionaire banker (!) who is seen as just one of the guys because he admits peeing in the shower and likes to sexually harass people with pony tails seems like a nice guy to have a beer with. Though at least he is first gen wealthy and not from family wealth. Damn! You beat me to it. I was going to say if folks are looking for one on "us" they are barking up the wrong tree with Trump.

Dr. Pepper or Mr. Pibb would work

Atlanta Braves must be the same for baseball then I guess. Nah, no one hates the Braves. They're harmless. The baseball equivalent would be the New York Yankees. Except when they win they do it with class so it's hard to hate them. I still find a way though

Ok, I've got to stop playing this game and go do something productive.

Thanks Shady, I'll give that a look.

Earlier I started writing a post that sounded good at first but devolved into a three paragraph rant. I deleted it before posting because I like all of you too much to make you read it. But I can sum it up this way, the love of real liberty is being lost in this country. If it isn't already gone that it. The religious right wants a government that will force everyone to behave like they think christians should. The socialist left idolaizes Europe and wants a government that will force everyone into their interperetation of "benevolent" socialisim. The center left & right want a government that makes the world safe for corportatisim and "secure" state where everyone is watched. All of them say they favor small business but nose of them really do because small business can't help them. Where do you turn when you just want to be left alone? The Libertarians. But small good that does when no one listens.

He plays well to the disenfranchised party base. He hits all their buzzwords and topics and seems like he'd be WoD's personal favorite for "never ever EVER give anything away!". It's no surprise that he's winning the party where voter base considers getting 99% of what they want an utter failure. The thing is he'll either wind up against Hillary who's moderate enough she could probably catch several of the voters who feel Trump is to insane to vote for, while also getting the consistent democratic majority (in recent years/last decade) of the youth vote in a situation where many would turn up simply NOT to see Trump attain presidency. Or he'd be up against Bernie, who's activated the disenfranchised liberal base and would probably be able to get the entire party behind him because (as of right now) the democrats are significantly better organized than their opponents. You right. The sad thing is the party base is disenfranchised because the elected politicians go to Washington and become big government liberals. They are nearly indistinguishable from the Democrats except on the odd social justice issues they feel offers the opportunity to "throw the base a bone". Now in response to that disenfranchisement the base is supporting a man whose few policy admissions favor big government authoritarianism and who has been pretty left of center on almost all his public utterances over the years. This is a classic example of cutting off your nose to spite your face. Trump fits into the paleo-conservative folder, which in turn leaves a lot of libertanians, constitutionalists and mostly neo-cons scratching their heads. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleoconservatism Why not vote for Gary Johnson, btw? Why not indeed. Why haven't we heard more about this one I wonder: http://www.shawnasterling.org/. Well besides the fact she is only on the ballot in Kentucky. And has no shot. She does seem to be a big 10th amendment proponent though and this is one of my big issues. In the end any vote not for either the R or D is, at best, a statistical statement. The Libertarian & Green Parties are growing but neither projects to ever reach the big stage.

Well, I'm not voting for Trump. No way, no how. And I'm sure as hell not voting for a goddamned democrat. Not now, not ever. The love of freedom, liberty and federalsim does not exist in any of their hearts. So it looks like I'm voting LP this year for President. Besides, someone has to.

He plays well to the disenfranchised party base. He hits all their buzzwords and topics and seems like he'd be WoD's personal favorite for "never ever EVER give anything away!". It's no surprise that he's winning the party where voter base considers getting 99% of what they want an utter failure. The thing is he'll either wind up against Hillary who's moderate enough she could probably catch several of the voters who feel Trump is to insane to vote for, while also getting the consistent democratic majority (in recent years/last decade) of the youth vote in a situation where many would turn up simply NOT to see Trump attain presidency. Or he'd be up against Bernie, who's activated the disenfranchised liberal base and would probably be able to get the entire party behind him because (as of right now) the democrats are significantly better organized than their opponents. You right. The sad thing is the party base is disenfranchised because the elected politicians go to Washington and become big government liberals. They are nearly indistinguishable from the Democrats except on the odd social justice issues they feel offers the opportunity to "throw the base a bone". Now in response to that disenfranchisement the base is supporting a man whose few policy admissions favor big government authoritarianism and who has been pretty left of center on almost all his public utterances over the years. This is a classic example of cutting off your nose to spite your face.

He's going to win. Dammit he should not win but he's going to: http://freebeacon.com/blog/7-reasons-democrats-should-be-terrified-of-donald-trump/ Well, you all know what I think: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HowVkIzBixc

I woke up at 5AM, made coffee, sat down and on a whim made a new PoE charachter and started playing. Next thing I know it's 9:45. How the HELL did THAT happen? It didn't seem that long! That game is great. I hope they are not done with that franchise.

The only gambling I'd ever do there is blackjack and it's not hard to win or lose modestly at that game as long as you can do simple math in your head. I'm not talking about card counting just simple probabilities.

Not exactly news. The younger generation usually is liberal. You've head the old saying: If you're under 30 and you're not a liberal you don't have a heart. If you're over 30 and you ARE a liberal you don't have a brain.

How cool is this? I love this tradition: http://www.treehugger.com/culture/icelanders-give-books-christmas-eve.html And to think, all I ever do on Christmas Eve is get drunk

Ah Vegas, it's been too long. Actually it was just two or three years ago. I lucked my way into an all access pass to the rugby sevens championship. Now that was a lot of fun.

Well I know he doesn't want us drinking large sodas. He's not what I'd call a big fan of the 2nd 4th & 5th Amendments either.

I'll admit I'm not a fan of Bloomberg. He's very much a "government knows best" and "we don't want to hurt you but it's for your own good" kind of politican. And we already have no want of those.

I took it with expanded answers and I answered all the questions:

If Trump gets nominated I'll probably go that way. I can't bring myself to cast a vote for him.

After some thought the Guard Dog endorsement for President of the United States in 2016 goes to ​drum roll please.... ​MARCO RUBIO. Yes after a long and exhaustive vetting process I've decided to vote for Marco Rubio. After considering the merits of the other candidates it was an easy choice: ​Ted Cruz: Talks about how he is the true conservative in the race but sometimes does not seem to understand what that even means. He reminds me a little too much of Martin Sheens character in the movie The Dead Zone. ​Bernie Sanders: Vote for a septuagenarian socialist who spent his honeymoon in the Soviet Union? I don't think so. Hillary Clinton: Um, no. She is dishonest in the extreme, sour, unlikeable, and I'm reasonably certain she is a flesh eating lizard beast in disguise. Donald Trump: He hasn't said a single intelligible thing beyond generic soundbites. Plus he IS a flesh eating lizard beast. Apparently he thought the disguise was optional. ​Ben Carson: A genuinely good, thoughtful and intelligent man. I admire him very much and don't think he has any business being in the White House unless he is on the tour. He's in way over his head. ​John Kasich: Who is he again? Rand Paul: Ah what might have been. So I'm left with Marco Rubio whose biggest attributes are he's not Donald Trump or Ted Cruz. But in a year of lowered expectations it turns out that is enough. So next week I'm voting for Marco and if he gets nominated he's got my vote in November too. I'd mention the great privilege it is to be able to cast a vote to choose our political leaders but when you can't gin up much enthusiasm and find yourself going through the motions the privilege sort of feels hollow. ​

A Trump Presidency would not necesarily be a disaster. As long as he is man enough to understand what he knows and what he doesn't he can recruit a cabinet and staff of smart and capable people. Executive leadership is all about communicating a vision to your team and then getting out of their way and letting them excecute it. In fact some of our best Presidents have been "hands off" leaders and some of our worst have been micromanagers.