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JackOLantern1337 Shameful Display from The Most Miserable Province in the Russian Empir Since: Aug, 2014 Relationship Status: 700 wives and 300 concubines
Shameful Display
#111351: Feb 8th 2016 at 2:12:58 PM

[up] Teddy was running against two men who shared many of his ideological principles. Bloomberg would be running against what most Americans see as a Fascists, and what most see as a Communist. He might have a shot.

I Bring Doom,and a bit of gloom, but mostly gloom.
PotatoesRock Since: Oct, 2012
#111352: Feb 8th 2016 at 2:26:50 PM

Not really. Both parties are heavily partisan as hell. There's no real undecided/independent voters in the way one thinks.

Krugman notes Kasich believes the Fed keeping the Interest Rates at 0 are what damaged our economy

So, everyone of them besides the Fascist are basically crackpots on the economics, except the Fascists' preference in Judges and Racism cancels out what economic sensibility he has.

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#111353: Feb 8th 2016 at 2:28:01 PM

Yeah, Kasich looks like a classical hard money type, which is, from Krugman's point of view, even more of a disqualifier for the presidency than wanting to mass-deport Mexicans.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
TheWanderer Student of Story from Somewhere in New England (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Wishfully thinking
Student of Story
#111354: Feb 8th 2016 at 2:39:00 PM

So, he's going to kamikaze the country by ensuring a Republican win?

Honestly, I don't think the fear of Bloomberg being an independent is warranted. Dude is a man without a country. Maybe I say this because I'm from NYC, and even though I wasn't living there while Bloomberg was mayor, I go to pains to keep up with its politics. But Bloomberg has plenty of ground for both righties and lefties to despise: among righties he became infamous as mayor for policies like trying to ban oversized sodas, and limit sodium intake, but especially for his gun control efforts, which got him railed against as the NYC big government freedom hating liberal, (never mind that he spent 2 terms as a Republican after being handpicked as a successor to a past Republican mayor, and only jumped off that ship in 2009 when the Republican brand was extremely toxic in NYC) and liberals have plenty of room to despise Bloomberg on many ground, especially civil rights issues with both Stop and Frisk, (which was proved to a failure many times over) and with stalking mosques outside of his jurisdiction to spy on Muslims.

And both sides can hate him, rightfully, for the evidence that a number of departments, but especially police and schools, were forced to fix the statistics to make Bloomberg's administration look good. (Protip for you, Mike: when your high school graduation rate has a huge jump while every other single measurement of student achievement is either flat or down, people know you're fucking with the system just so you can create an excuse to pat yourself on the back. Cops spending years secretly recording your police brass giving them instructions to write more fines while ignoring or downplaying actual crimes is kind of a giveaway too.)

As for his economic policy, it's basically the same BS center right, austerity is great, run everything like a CEO looking to get a big quarterly stock spike that everyone on both sides of the aisle is sick of.

So that leaves him trying to sell either his famous antipathy towards guns, willingness to interfere in the daily life of people, and relative lack of religion to Southern Conservatives, or his violations of Civil Rights and common sense to Coastal Liberals. It's not going to fly. There a reason why in Bloomberg's last election in NYC he had to spend $108 million dollars to defeat a no name city bureaucrat who spent 10 million and yet Bloomberg barely won.

Dude is going nowhere.

| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |
Luminosity Since: Jun, 2012 Relationship Status: Lovey-Dovey
#111355: Feb 8th 2016 at 2:41:37 PM

And here I am thinking "Who the hell is Bloomberg?"

TheWanderer Student of Story from Somewhere in New England (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Wishfully thinking
Student of Story
#111356: Feb 8th 2016 at 2:51:10 PM

Quick low down because that question has been asked before: Michael Bloomberg is a billionaire businessman/engineer, former Mayor of New York City from 2001-2013. Despite first being a Republican and then an Independent, the hard right held him up for years as the face of "nanny state paternalism" and liberal excess.

In actuality he operated as a mostly not crazy plutocratic Republican, albeit one with a strong dislike of guns and not being religious. For other details, see my prior post.

| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |
ILoveDogs Since: May, 2010
LogoP Party Crasher from the Land of Deep Blue Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: You can be my wingman any time
Party Crasher
#111358: Feb 8th 2016 at 3:15:28 PM

[up][up] What is it with semi-independent New York billionaires coming out of nowhere and acting like Spanners In The Works in this election?

edited 8th Feb '16 3:16:24 PM by LogoP

It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.
FFShinra Since: Jan, 2001
#111359: Feb 8th 2016 at 3:19:18 PM

@on the subject of Kasich, he says that but does he practice it that way in Ohio?

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#111360: Feb 8th 2016 at 3:26:19 PM

I'm not sure that's relevant, since Ohio is not a sovereign currency issuer and is thus forced to maintain a balance of payments, like any other U.S. state.

edited 8th Feb '16 3:26:44 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
FFShinra Since: Jan, 2001
#111361: Feb 8th 2016 at 3:29:49 PM

No, but does his behavior on what he can do with the state budget suggest he'd match his rhetoric overall? After all certain strategies in some economic areas betray an attitude toward other areas.

Basically, rhetoric is cheap and I'd rather see if there is anything he has actually done that suggests he's serious. Perhaps his record during Congress can shed light?

SolipsistOwl Since: Jan, 2016
#111362: Feb 8th 2016 at 3:46:11 PM

The FBI formally confirmed that its investigation connected to Hillary Clinton’s private email server remains ongoing in a letter released on Monday.

The letter from FBI general counsel James Baker comes one day before the New Hamshire primary.

The message does not offer new details about the probe, which the bureau has been reluctant to discuss. However, it represents the FBI’s formal notification to the State Department that it is investigating the issue.

[* * *]

FBI Director James Comey has previously referenced the FBI probe, which the bureau had previously declined to confirm or deny in court filings last year.

Key details about the probe remain unclear, such as whether it is tied to a possible criminal case or whether it has expanded beyond an initial security review.

Comey has previously said that bureau investigators “don’t give a rip about politics,” and would not be put off by the looming presidential campaign.

FBI confirms Clinton probe

edited 8th Feb '16 3:47:57 PM by SolipsistOwl

Silasw A procrastination in of itself from A handcart to hell (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#111363: Feb 8th 2016 at 3:48:58 PM

Well of course it's ongoing, saying "nothing was done wrong and this entire thing is pointless" would cause a ton of backlash against the FBI from republicans, the FBI will keep it going until after the election, if they did otherwise I wouldn't put it past republicans to try and derefund the FBI.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
SolipsistOwl Since: Jan, 2016
#111364: Feb 8th 2016 at 3:50:24 PM

[up]The point is that this is the first time the FBI has actually confirmed the investigation was even happening.

BonsaiForest Since: Jan, 2001
#111365: Feb 8th 2016 at 3:54:33 PM

I do wonder how quickly the nonreligious are growing in the US. We could really throw a monkey wrench in the politicians' "Jesus Jesus Jesus" BS they pull to make people support whatever.

A liberal Christian friend of mine points out that there's no support for many of their policies anyway, and shouldn't they be feeding the poor and healing the sick like Jesus commanded? So I imagine if the nonreligious were large in number, the same policies would still be promoted by the Right, just using religion as an excuse less and less.

After all, I'm convinced that people do what they want to first, then justify it later. Removing one justification doesn't change their behavior, is the justification was nothing more just that: a justification, not their actual reason for their behavior or policy.

Silasw A procrastination in of itself from A handcart to hell (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#111366: Feb 8th 2016 at 3:56:28 PM

[up][up] So? I'm sure that the FBI investigate bogus stuff all the time, they have to at least do their due diligence and check that the obviously bogus bullshit is indeed bogus bullshit.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
SolipsistOwl Since: Jan, 2016
#111367: Feb 8th 2016 at 3:57:45 PM

The letter from the FBI also said their investigation involved things "related to use of" the E-mail server, meaning there's more than just the security compromise initially believed.

edited 8th Feb '16 3:58:18 PM by SolipsistOwl

Silasw A procrastination in of itself from A handcart to hell (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#111368: Feb 8th 2016 at 4:03:33 PM

No it means they're looking into the possibility of something other than just that, if anything actually happened or not we don't know.

The FBI will have to at least look at every accusation that's been throw at Clinton, that doesn't mean any of them have any basis in reality.

edited 8th Feb '16 4:04:41 PM by Silasw

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
Ogodei Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers from The front lines Since: Jan, 2011
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
#111369: Feb 8th 2016 at 4:17:31 PM

For my part, i'd threaten to defund the FBI for wasting taxpayer money on a manufactured scandal.

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#111370: Feb 8th 2016 at 4:18:55 PM

It's not really the FBI's fault. They are supposed to investigate reports of federal crimes.

[down] Nobody has said anything about actually defunding the FBI. We are just observing that we wouldn't put it past Republicans if the FBI tells them to get stuffed about the Clinton emails.

edited 8th Feb '16 4:19:43 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
BonsaiForest Since: Jan, 2001
#111371: Feb 8th 2016 at 4:19:03 PM

Defunding the FBI means letting crime increase. Are petty politicians really that fucking stupid?

LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#111372: Feb 8th 2016 at 4:19:44 PM

Yeah, this is what happens when you let dogma replace reason.

Oh really when?
Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#111373: Feb 8th 2016 at 4:21:20 PM

[up][up]Teaching abstinence only allows abortions to increase. If the Republicans are stupid enough to do that this would not shock me.

BlueNinja0 The Mod with the Migraine from Taking a left at Albuquerque Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
The Mod with the Migraine
#111374: Feb 8th 2016 at 4:50:51 PM

Defunding the FBI means letting crime increase. Are petty politicians really that fucking stupid?
Yes.

And speaking of petty, Republicans stop pretending to even listen to the President.

In a harsh partisan snub, the Republican chairmen of the Senate and House budget committees—Senator Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming and Representative Tom Price of Georgia—have chosen not to invite Shaun Donovan, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, to testify about the administration's plan, set to be released on Tuesday as part of the traditional budget week festivities.

"Rather than spend time on a proposal that, if anything like this administration's previous budgets, will double down on the same failed policies that have led to the worst economic recovery in modern times, Congress should continue our work on building a budget that balances and that will foster a healthy economy," Mr. Price said in a statement.

Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader, called the decision an insult and said it was representative of the "corrosive radicalism that has gripped congressional Republicans." White House officials said it raised doubts about the frequent Republican leadership claims to restore "regular order" in Congress.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
SolipsistOwl Since: Jan, 2016
#111375: Feb 8th 2016 at 6:33:06 PM

Just don't be surprised if the Director of the FBI resigns sometime around June.

edited 8th Feb '16 7:20:07 PM by SolipsistOwl


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