Pidesco

I thought this was pretty good. It's on Republicans, Trump, small government and bigotry. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/interrogation/2016/10/rick_perlstein_on_how_the_republican_party_will_recover_from_trump.html

The party of personal freedoms and small government opened that door over 10 years ago. And neither party has been interested in repealing it since. Is that part of the libertarian platform?

Which specific personal freedoms have they restricted, so far?

Actually one of the lanes continues exactly like it did before. No one is really actively bothering to fix the pavement, or add safety railings (they interfere with personal freedoms, apparently), or even draw lines on the ground. That lane is still in the same basic condition as before, at least, even if you are still in for a bumpy ride.

Two threads merged.

Yes the media has been creating a narrative against Trump since at least the 80s, leading up to this election. He was always the prototype of the corrupt, scruple-less real estate magnate. After the mess with Ivana and Marla Maples he was also seen as a sleazeball because, surprise, he is one. Up until the birther press conference the media, during this campaign, was actually giving a giant pass to Trump (as long as he didn't explode in a gaggle of nativist incoherent babble, he was being potentially presidential). In any case you are giving a lot more power to the media than it is warranted. Bernie lost because was too much to the left for the Democratic base. It's just demographics. His excellent performance speaks volumes for the move left on the part of of the Dem electorate, but he still didn't have a chance of gaining the nomination. As for the DNC actively working with the media to influence opinion, I'd be flabbergasted if that wasn't the case for both sides of the aisle since, at the very least, the muckraker days. It just so happens, regarding this election, that creating a narrative against Trump isn't so much digging stuff up as it is quoting him verbatim and let him stand on his own horribleness. The odds are stacked against Trump but the responsibility lies squarely on his shoulders. It's really weird to me that HRC and the current DNC seems to be where the buck stops, for a lot of people. Digging dirt on your opponents has been standard procedure since forever. Ditto for saying one thing in private and another in public. All I've seen in the recent Podesta leaks doesn't surprise me in the least. Political parties shouldn't be like this? Sure. Is the political modus operandi fundamentally different from 2008 or 2000 or 1988 or 1980 or pick any year? No.

http://istheelectionrigged.com/

Well, they are married. And kudos given their age.

Holy cow, you've managed to ensure I will never buy this game with a single post. As time doesn't pass like in Fallout it should really not be much of a constraint. It will just encourage you to everything before you leave an area.

Closed for length. Continued here.

Ascension! Health insurance was the ongoing discussion in the last posts of the previous thread.

Isn't Obamacare increasing premiums for some income brackets because insurers are trying hard to get back to the previous status quo where they could screw over the insured with more ease?

We are not a democracy. We are a representative republic. And the electoral college, while it is a throwback to a time when it took days to get from one side of the country to the other it still serves a purpose today. Without it New York, California, Texas, Florida, and Pennsylvania could decide the election by themselves. States like North Dakota, Wyoming, Alaska and the other low population states would be left out of Presidential politics altogether. Their concerns will be ignored forever. On a practical level it would require one of two things. A Constitutional Amendment. That probably will not happen. Or a Constitutional Convention. I seriously doubt the country would even survive that. So we are stuck with it. @Shady I'm not so sure that's true. There is still a scenario where Johnson can win this thing. And it only happens BECAUSE of the Electoral College. Thanks for stating it clearly, but I understand that perfectly and that's exactly my point. The country of "don't tread on me", personal freedoms and the government is not to be trusted puts states rights above individual rights. And by the way, those states still end up controlling Presidential election outcomes.

I really have trouble understanding how all Americans seem to be proud of saying that the US is the "greatest democracy in the world", but conversely don't seem to have a problem with the electoral college. It's such a clear cut undemocratic mechanism.

Where's the Swede?

Trump isn't deemed a racist because he's the Republican candidate. It's the other way around. He was already racist and he won the primary partly because of that.

What will the reality denier say about reality? Whatever he wants.

http://fortune.com/2016/06/07/donald-trump-racism-quotes/ Did everyone suddenly forget who Trump is?

The definitive Clinton biography: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2016/10/14/the-hideous-diabolical-truth-about-hillary-clinton/?utm_term=.ba7f62307da5

I merged all the topics that seemed to be about the same game freezing issue.

30 million? Wot? Are they going to snatch people from Mexico illegally to make up the illegal immigrant numbers?

That's actually my biggest problem with the current election, the nomination of Trump by the GOP has served as a gigantic distraction from the real issue which is that the big players in the financial market are still doing the same things that led to the latest mess. All the talk of immigration, refugees, emails and the Trumpiness itself, permitted Clinton to not have to focus on the biggest issue of the time which is that the government dropped the ball in terms of getting the big banks under control. This is what you get when the opposition over the past 8 years is a mélange of idiot populism, nativism, racism and shouting Benghazi at regular intervals.

Perhaps he can also explain how the lack of regulations was responsible for both the crash of 1929 and the crash of 2008. And how an improvement of regulatory oversight through the New Deal saved the US from depression. Hurlie is a history teacher, I think.

Explain to them how Libertarian economic policy is based on deregulation inspired by philosophical dogma instead of actual evidence and everyone should quickly jump to the libertarian camp.

The polls still don't factor fully the tape revelation and the debate probably won't be good in the polls for Trump. As I understand it the press conference he did with the Bill Clinton victims went down like a rock with women, which is the demographic that's screwing him over in the polls right now. That being said I don't think Electoral college results from polling will get worse than what they currently are for Trump. At worst Arizona will flip to Clinton, but that's more or less meaningless at this point. Clinton is already sweeping practically all swing states. Anyway, what's interesting now is how all the current GOP brouhaha will affect the Senate and the House. In particular, if the GOP lost the House it would be a party ending upset of apocalyptic proportions.