US Election 2016

[Guard Dog]

There is another good reason for Sanders to keep going. If Hillary ends up getting indicted (not likely but not impossible) he will be the lone horse in the race. Don't think that hasn't crossed his mind.

[Gorth]

Chance of winning based on the current UK betting markets:

The same betting markets that offered 5000:1 for Leicester winning the Premiere League

[Leferd]

 

Chance of winning based on the current UK betting markets:

The same betting markets that offered 5000:1 for Leicester winning the Premiere League

Heh! Even long shots can win, right? That's exactly why some people should take that 5,000 to 1!

[Meshugger]

 

 

Chance of winning based on the current UK betting markets:

The same betting markets that offered 5000:1 for Leicester winning the Premiere League

Heh! Even long shots can win, right? That's exactly why some people should take that 5,000 to 1!

 

 

Place a bet on the behalf of the forum on Joe Biden. If he wins, then use the money for the next Obsidian kickstarter.

[Leferd]

Good sir, it is not legal in California to engage in gambling activities, and especially so if it relates to Presidential Elections. That is a federal offense!

[ShadySands]

http://www.hulu.com/watch/895509

[Meshugger]

Good sir, it is not legal in California to engage in gambling activities, and especially so if it relates to Presidential Elections. That is a federal offense!

 

In no sense did i suggest any engagement in any illegal activities, my good sir. I was only musing in hypothetical scenarios that only ruffians make their acquaintence to. 

[Raithe]

[Meshugger]

http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/04/27/donald-trump-rejects-false-song-globalism-nationalist-foreign-policy-speech-2/

 

 

 

“We will no longer surrender this country, or its people, to the false song of globalism,” the billionaire stressed. “Under a Trump Administration, no American citizen will ever again feel that their needs come second to the citizens of foreign countries.”

 

Oh dear, the guy is going to have an assissination attempt on him in the near future. The assassin will be of course a mentally ill Cruz-supporter who thinks that Trump has betrayed God and the constitution for his views on transexuals in the bathroom.

 

//edit: I do smell a slight calculated move to appeal to Bernie supporters there.

Edited April 27, 2016 by Meshugger

[Elerond]

http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/04/27/donald-trump-rejects-false-song-globalism-nationalist-foreign-policy-speech-2/

 

 

 

“We will no longer surrender this country, or its people, to the false song of globalism,” the billionaire stressed. “Under a Trump Administration, no American citizen will ever again feel that their needs come second to the citizens of foreign countries.”

 

Oh dear, the guy is going to have an assissination attempt on him in the near future. The assassin will be of course a mentally ill Cruz-supporter who thinks that Trump has betrayed God and the constitution for his views on transexuals in the bathroom.

 

//edit: I do smell a slight calculated move to appeal to Bernie supporters there.

 

Question is will Trump continue his fight against globalism with continuing to producing his company's goods in Mexico and China?

[Valsuelm]

http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/04/27/donald-trump-rejects-false-song-globalism-nationalist-foreign-policy-speech-2/

 

 

 

“We will no longer surrender this country, or its people, to the false song of globalism,” the billionaire stressed. “Under a Trump Administration, no American citizen will ever again feel that their needs come second to the citizens of foreign countries.”

 

Oh dear, the guy is going to have an assissination attempt on him in the near future. The assassin will be of course a mentally ill Cruz-supporter who thinks that Trump has betrayed God and the constitution for his views on transexuals in the bathroom.

 

//edit: I do smell a slight calculated move to appeal to Bernie supporters there.

 

While my jury is out on whether Trump is sincere or not, I have zero doubt there will be some very serious attempts to off him if he is. This is one of a few reasons I'm hoping he doesn't pick an establishment VP. I hope he's smarter than Reagan was.

Edited April 27, 2016 by Valsuelm

[Malcador]

Someone needs to squeeze him on what 'rebuilding' the US military actually entails and what is broken with it right now that prevents it from doing its work.

 

As for changing US policy to serve US interests, that seems like no change at all ? And caring about how people "feel" ? Trump's a SJW!

 

D'oh missed the transcript link. Odd to read. But ok, was as expected the US military is too small, using B-52s, etc. That section on rivals is rather amusing as well. Cuba, Saudi Arabia

Edited April 27, 2016 by Malcador

[Valsuelm]

 

http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/04/27/donald-trump-rejects-false-song-globalism-nationalist-foreign-policy-speech-2/

 

 

 

“We will no longer surrender this country, or its people, to the false song of globalism,” the billionaire stressed. “Under a Trump Administration, no American citizen will ever again feel that their needs come second to the citizens of foreign countries.”

 

Oh dear, the guy is going to have an assissination attempt on him in the near future. The assassin will be of course a mentally ill Cruz-supporter who thinks that Trump has betrayed God and the constitution for his views on transexuals in the bathroom.

 

//edit: I do smell a slight calculated move to appeal to Bernie supporters there.

 

Question is will Trump continue his fight against globalism with continuing to producing his company's goods in Mexico and China?

 

 

If he's sincere, yes.

 

Trump's a businessman. Unfortunately due to NAFTA and some other 'free trade' agreements coupled with the taxes levied to support our massive 'welfare state' and a long list of costly regulations it's a no-brainer for many businesses (particularly manufacturing) to ship jobs to other countries. So much a no-brainer in many cases that it's either do that or die.

 

I've spoken to a few folks at a couple different companies who were involved in the decision making process to close a plant in the US, and ship it overseas. While I've no doubt the proverbial heartless CEOs do exist aplenty, the folks I spoke with were torn in no small way at deciding to do what they did. They didn't want to send those jobs elsewhere, but to stay competitive in their business (or even in business at all) it was something that had to be done. I had one guy I sat next to on a flight who worked for a company that made fire extinguishers give me the math on the difference in cost to produce in China vs the cost to produce in California (where the company had been based for decades). This was years ago so I don't remember the exact numbers. but it was truly astounding how comparatively inexpensive it was to send parts to China to be assembled and then have the product shipped back to the U.S..

 

Another guy I know is the CEO of a more than 200 year old local company with an international presence that is the last in the U.S. to produce what they make. Their biggest competition is in China from companies that used to produce in the U.S., and his father (the former CEO) is often down in D.C. lobbying people in congress to change various 'free trade' policies so they can avoid closing their plant and moving operations overseas. They very much want to stay in the U.S. but I'm told that in the long run they may not be able to if current 'free trade' conditions persist. There's a lot of businessmen and businesses that are anti 'free trade', that ultimately end up shipping jobs overseas because of it.

 

One of the greatest lies perpetrated on the people of various nations is that 'free trade' is good for them. Within a nation it certainly is, but internationally it has varying costs and benefits. It is not uncommon for the ultimate cons to far outweigh the pros, especially when one nation has a higher standard of living and greater labor costs than another. Historically and in modern times 'free trade' has generally only benefited the very upper class. The blue bloods, the robber barons, and oligarchs who have in modern times essentially bought and paid for most of the politicians at the national level of most if not all western nations.

 

One thing I like about Trump, is he is one of the only people to ever run for President (or anything else on the national level) in the last few decades to even say 'free trade' is a problem, let alone the big one that it is. Most candidates have always bent down to worship the genitals of the 'free trade' oligarchs. It was the biggest problem I had with Ron Paul. A guy who I liked for his principles and philosophy, but who fell far short pragmatically on the two issues Trump has made the foundation of his platform: immigration and 'free trade'.

 

Anyways, to sum up, good businessmen are going to do what is best for their business, whether they like it or not. Pragmatism rules the day in the business world. There are oodles of BS governmental rules, regulations, etc that benefit some business decisions and punish others. In short, the U.S. Federal government policies for many decades has created a business atmosphere where the smart business decision for many companies is to ship many jobs overseas. Just because they do so, doesn't mean they really wanted to, or agree with the government policies that created the situation that caused them to make the decision to send those jobs overseas.

Edited April 27, 2016 by Valsuelm

[Guard Dog]

 

TRUMP: Secondly, we have to rebuild our military and our economy. The Russians and Chinese have rapidly expanded their military capability, but look at what’s happened to us. Our nuclear weapons arsenal, our ultimate deterrent, has been allowed to atrophy and is desperately in need of modernization and renewal. And it has to happen immediately. Our active duty armed forces have shrunk from 2 million in 1991 to about 1.3 million today. The Navy has shrunk from over 500 ships to 272 ships during this same period of time. The Air Force is about one-third smaller than 1991. Pilots flying B-52s in combat missions today. These planes are older than virtually everybody in this room.

Rebuilding the military does not necessarily mean increasing manpower to pre-1993 levels. You achieve the same ends by reducing the operational tempo and deployment commitments and at the same time same money for weapons development. If it were me rather than rebuilding a military designed to fight major WWII style battles I'd focus on streamlining and rapid reaction/high mobility forces augmented by increased unmanned, airborne and naval assets. Unless we see another world wide conflict I believe heavy infantry and armor are going the way of the Greek Phalanx. But where we do need to rebuild and see a change of vision is the intelligence services.   

[Valsuelm]

Huffpost Sanders supporter asks the FBI nicely to indict Hillary

[Hurlshort]

Pilots are really flying B-52's?

[Guard Dog]

Yeah they are still around

[ShadySands]

Yes, there are 70 something still in service

 

Agiel would probably know better

[Malcador]

Pilots are really flying B-52's?

Yup, been through many revisions and expected to be used for another 10-20 years I think. Age isn't everything, people still use AK-47s and 74s to good effect and other stuff is 'old' in the military space.

 

Guess the 52s are somewhat costly to fly, though.

[Guard Dog]

In terms of lift vs payload capacity only the C5 Galaxy has it beat. And it's just a cargo plane. A really... really big one.

[Valsuelm]

Ugly man announces ugly woman as his choice for VP

Ugly woman says ugly man will say anything to get elected, before she literally sings her praise of him.

 

True beauty or lack of it is on the inside, of course.

Edited April 28, 2016 by Valsuelm

[Malcador]

In terms of lift vs payload capacity only the C5 Galaxy has it beat. And it's just a cargo plane. A really... really big one.

They need to make a AC-5 gunship :D

[BruceVC]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/russia-love-why-kremlin-backs-trump-132620811.html?ref=gs

 

You know any candidate has  a serious problem around credibility  when Putin supports them unreservedly, I was watching a news clip on   CNN and they were interviewing people on the streets of Moscow. People were saying things like " we think Trump is a wise and bold leader "  ....apparently Russia is the ONLY  country where most people, outside the USA, see Trump in a  favorable light 

[Meshugger]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/russia-love-why-kremlin-backs-trump-132620811.html?ref=gs

 

You know any candidate has  a serious problem around credibility  when Putin supports them unreservedly, I was watching a news clip on   CNN and they were interviewing people on the streets of Moscow. People were saying things like " we think Trump is a wise and bold leader "  ....apparently Russia is the ONLY  country where most people, outside the USA, see Trump in a  favorable light 

 

Completely meaningless argument unless you can provide reasons in themselves why anyone should take heed of what the people of Paris or Berlin thinks over what the people of the streets of Moscow say.

[BruceVC]

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/russia-love-why-kremlin-backs-trump-132620811.html?ref=gs

 

You know any candidate has  a serious problem around credibility  when Putin supports them unreservedly, I was watching a news clip on   CNN and they were interviewing people on the streets of Moscow. People were saying things like " we think Trump is a wise and bold leader "  ....apparently Russia is the ONLY  country where most people, outside the USA, see Trump in a  favorable light 

 

Completely meaningless argument unless you can provide reasons in themselves why anyone should take heed of what the people of Paris or Berlin thinks over what the people of the streets of Moscow say.

 

Not meaningless at all. Its actually quite simple  because its about the reality of how well a certain leader has done in running a  country overall

 

Putin has a very high approval rating in Russia yet the Russian economy is in a recession and Putin has mismanaged economic growth....yet he is still popular 

 

So if the average Russian citizen thinks Putin is a great leader and they think Trump is a good leader they either don't understand or care about economic metrics and  how they reflect on a leaders true success

 

So in summary if your economy is in a recession this is a bad thing, it doesn't matter if you have a strong military or if you control the domestic  media narrative and the citizens  "think you great " or " its the fault of the West for our financial situation " 

 

This is about the economic reality of any country and how the citizens hold there leaders responsible for that economic reality