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NativeJovian Jupiterian Local from Orlando, FL Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
Jupiterian Local
#116001: Mar 15th 2016 at 8:19:47 PM

Kasich seems the best bet of the remaining GOP candidates, though that's more or less the definition of damned with faint praise. (I actually would have preferred Rubio, myself.) Cruz is a religious nutjob that would get up to who knows what insanity, and Trump is Trump. Kasich is a hard-right economic "debt is bad and we should go back on the gold standard" nutjob, but with our economy in decent shape, there's a limit to how much damage he can do, especially if the Democrats manage to hold onto at least one house of Congress and get a Supreme Court justice appointed before Obama's term is up.

That said, if Trump runs as an independent beats whoever the official GOP nominee is, then we're looking at the original "Republicans completely lose control of their own voters and the party collapses" scenario.

Of course, you might notice that I'm being optimistic, here — either way, the Dixiecrats stop being taken seriously. Worst case scenario is actually that Trump gets the nomination and uses that to revitalize his supporters into a Tea Party style movement to seize control of the GOP entirely. Then the patients would really be running the asylum.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
tricksterson Never Trust from Behind you with an icepick Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
Never Trust
#116002: Mar 15th 2016 at 8:25:40 PM

[up][up][up]They'll build a wall to keep us out.

Trump delenda est
Bat178 Since: May, 2011
#116003: Mar 15th 2016 at 8:27:31 PM

That wall he wants to build is probably to keep Americans in rather than Mexicans out, as even Mexico would be better than Trump-ruled America.

Shippudentimes Since: Dec, 2012
#116004: Mar 15th 2016 at 8:35:35 PM

I'd vote for Kasich if he stands a chance. Ditto for Sanders/Clinton depending on if Trump wins the GOP nomination. Out of the two Democratic nominees this round, Sanders seems like a rare functioning paradox, a passionate, level-headed candidate who'll do anything for those that come asking for help. With what I've seen of Trump, a quarter of the things he says makes me want to laugh, punch him in the face, and hide in fear. I saw the trailer for The Purge Election Day today', and after watching tonight's episode of The Daily Show as well as different news sources and being reminded of the horrific footage of what happened during a Trump rally this weekend (including some properly terrifying POV of one of CBS News' cameramen being forcibly dragged away and thrown down (with a boot around the poor man's neck) as well as the rather disgusting reaction of the more extreme of Trump's supporters) was starting to make me think that the Purge franchise might be a little bit Too Soon if Trump's elected.

Also, I'm wondering how he's getting so far ahead in the polls with what he's saying and what his supporters are being shown to do.

edited 15th Mar '16 8:40:26 PM by Shippudentimes

Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Shippudentimes Since: Dec, 2012
#116006: Mar 15th 2016 at 8:55:12 PM

Here, and not attempting to disparage anyone, but I thought the only way a man like Trump could have been voted for is the same reason you see so many spam accounts on You Tube. From what I've seen on news and news parody shows, I'm terrified for America.

wehrmacht belongs to the hurricane from the garden of everything Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
belongs to the hurricane
#116007: Mar 15th 2016 at 9:02:33 PM

I don't actually think Trump is going to be elected, but I don't think people should be complacent about this either and stay home or w/e.

I mean, I can't tell anyone what to do, but if I was an american, I wouldn't stay home.

Ominae Since: Jul, 2010
#116008: Mar 15th 2016 at 9:06:58 PM

I be keeping an eye on reactions on countries that have policies on not discriminating against Muslims in the wake of Trump's campaign.

Demonic_Braeburn Yankee Doodle Dandy from Defective California Since: Jan, 2016
Yankee Doodle Dandy
#116009: Mar 15th 2016 at 9:18:12 PM

Part of me wants to check on how r/politics is dealing with Bernie's loss, but I'm not sure I could deal with it tonight.

Maybe tomorrow.

Rubio is out.

And then their were 3.

edited 15th Mar '16 9:24:10 PM by Demonic_Braeburn

Any group who acts like morons ironically will eventually find itself swamped by morons who think themselves to be in good company.
TheWanderer Student of Story from Somewhere in New England (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Wishfully thinking
Student of Story
#116010: Mar 15th 2016 at 9:24:29 PM

Well, I've been saying since all the way back in December that tonight was probably going to be the stake in the heart of Bernie's campaign, but it's sad to see it come. He'll split Illinois and Missouri about 50/50 from the way it looks at the moment, but that is so far from what he needed from tonight. Florida, NC, and even Ohio gave big wins to Clinton, which will put her more than 300 delegates ahead, and there just isn't a way to reverse that. Even 200 was almost impossible, 300 means he's officially sunk.

I know Sanders said that he'll fight to the convention, presumably just to keep his ideas and a genuine leftward push going in the Democratic party, but even that might become hard for him. If he's not an actual threat for the nomination, then eventually he's not going to get the press he needs to push those ideas and argue people to his side. And somewhere, it becomes a man speaking to nothing but the air, as so many Republican candidates have found.

Congrats to Clinton for having learned some lessons from 2008 and running a tighter ship this time. I hope she gets all the rest, money, and ammo she needs for the general.

In other news, North Carolina voter ID laws do exactly what Republicans intended them to and turn people away from the polls en masse

North Carolina’s controversial voter identification law is being used for the first time in Tuesday’s primary, and registered voters are experiencing the consequences of the voter suppression measure.

About 218,000 North Carolinians, roughly five percent of registered voters, do not have an acceptable form of government-issued ID that is now required under state law to cast a ballot. Early voting offered a glimpse of the problems that will arise on Tuesday — during the past ten days of early voting, many college students were blocked from the polls. North Carolina’s WRAL reported that 864 people across the state had cast provisional early ballots because they did not have acceptable forms of ID, and four of the five counties with the highest concentrations of provisional ballots from voters without ID were in places with college campuses.

Bob Hall, the executive director of Democracy North Carolina, told Think Progress that the voter protection hotline is receiving many calls, “disproportionately from young people and students,” who are being told they do not have acceptable ID, so they have to “go through the maze of filling out forms” and provisional ballots. Those ballots run the risk of being challenged and not being counted.

...

Elderly voters told the Nation’s Ari Berman how the voter ID law imposes similar barriers to voting to what they experienced in the Jim Crow South. Rosanell Eaton, a 94-year-old voter, had to recite the Preamble to Constitution to vote in North Carolina in the 1940s. Last year, she had to make 11 trips to state agencies to comply with the voter ID law.

”We had 100 years of pushing away people from the polls,” Hall said about North Carolina. “It was really only in the early 21st century, after 2000, that our participation started to come up, and now we’re going right back to this message of ‘elections are not for you.’”

Like in South Carolina, voters without ID can cast a provisional ballot if they have a “reasonable impediment” to getting photo ID, including lack of proper documents, work schedule, or family obligations. But unlike South Carolina, the impediments voters can list are limited and will not cover any voter without ID. Early voting data has shown that while black voters make up 22 percent of the state’s voting population, they account for 26 percent of those who said they had a reasonable impediment for not having an acceptable ID.

Some of the state’s restrictive voting measures are not in place on Tuesday, but will go into effect before November’s general election. North Carolina voters are permitted to vote outside their normal precinct on Tuesday because of a court injunction, but this stipulation will not be in place in November because it was eliminated by Republican-engineered legislation. Hall noted that it is likely to disenfranchise many voters in November — even this year, voters are being rejected from voting at other precincts because of confusion by poll workers.

After this Election Day, same day registration will also be eliminated in North Carolina. Hall said he saw “thousands of voters in the early voting period whose right to vote was protected through the use of same day registration, so when that does get repealed, it will have a big impact.”

Apple lawyers completely dismantle the FBI's BS arguments about needing Apple to hack iPhones for the FBI, do a mic drop over the bloody corpse of the FBI's arguments

IN THE SHOWDOWN between Apple and the Justice Department over an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooting suspects, one question has loomed large. Why hasn’t the FBI sought assistance from the National Security Agency—which employs some of the nation’s top hackers—to crack into the iPhone? Apple has touched on that question lightly in other briefs filed in the case, but today it focused on it more extensively in its latest brief submitted to the court.

“The government does not deny that there may be other agencies in the government that could assist it in unlocking the phone and accessing its data; rather, it claims, without support, that it has no obligation to consult other agencies,” Apple wrote, noting that FBI Director James Comey danced around the question of NSA assistance when asked about it during a recent congressional hearing.

And if the FBI can’t on its own break into iPhones without NSA help, it should invest in developing that capability, Apple says, instead of seeking unconstitutional ways to force tech companies to assist it.

“Defining the scope of the All Writs Act as inversely proportional to the capabilities of the FBI removes any incentive for it to innovate and develop more robust forensic capabilities,” Apple wrote. The company quotes Susan Landau, a professor of cybersecurity policy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, who has said that “[r]ather than asking industry to weaken protections, law enforcement must instead develop a capability for conducting sophisticated investigations themselves.”

edited 15th Mar '16 9:25:45 PM by TheWanderer

| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#116011: Mar 15th 2016 at 9:25:47 PM

Sanders is up by less than 1% with 94% of the vote counted in Missouri, Clinton has won the other four contests.

Not a nice night or Bernie, he'll be hard pressed to keep his momentum up now. Delegate wise? He's probably cooked.

Also, the Republican race in Missouri is too close to call, Trump is ahead by about .5% with 99% of the vote in. Might need a recount there.

edited 15th Mar '16 9:27:35 PM by Rationalinsanity

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
NickTheSwing Since: Aug, 2009
#116012: Mar 15th 2016 at 9:27:42 PM

Hey, I recall we had a poster from NC, and they posted about seeing people who might be Lion's Guard.

Did they dress in Hugo Boss? How heavy did they Put On The Reich?

I also recall seeing posts saying they identified their group as Lion's Guard SS. The Schutzstaffel is officially back.

edited 15th Mar '16 9:28:21 PM by NickTheSwing

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#116013: Mar 15th 2016 at 9:52:29 PM

And now Clinton is up in Missouri, by .2% with 99% of the vote in. Not much of a difference delegate wise but losing all 5 states could be a fatal hit to the morale of the Sanders campaign.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
ILoveDogs Since: May, 2010
#116014: Mar 15th 2016 at 9:55:08 PM

Chin up; perhaps this means that liberal candidates will start to succeed in elections of the future.

edited 15th Mar '16 9:55:21 PM by ILoveDogs

Cid El Cid Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: Hiding
El Cid
#116015: Mar 15th 2016 at 10:10:50 PM

To be honest, I find it pretty strange that some of these people are embracing the Nazi image. I mean, for all their ignorance, one would think they'd remember that America Won The War.[lol]

As a side note, some of the people I've talked to say they prefer Clinton not because she is better but because they think Sanders a) won't get anything done, b) could actually lose against Mr. Trump.

It reminds me a little about our own elections four years ago: our candidate from the left seemed a little but too Chavez/Morales/Castro for most everyone except hipsters and the lower class (excluding indigenous groups), meanwhile the right-wing candidate was too scary for the people who wanted some progress and too stupid for those who thought she'd be the same as the last two presidents (i.e. a total failure). Long sory short, we ended up electing the candidate from the political party that had previously ruled the country for 70 years, the same party everyone claims to hate.

It seems that, no matter the side of the fence, Mexicans never change. XD

Bat178 Since: May, 2011
#116016: Mar 15th 2016 at 10:40:29 PM

[up] It wasn't even America who won the war. It was America, Canada, the UK, Australia, and a whole bunch of European resistances. America stole all the credit, though, because the UK lost it's superpower status soon after the war ended, Europe needed help from America to rebuild, and Russia started taking the eastern half of the continent over and got demonized.

edited 15th Mar '16 10:49:14 PM by Bat178

Eschaton Since: Jul, 2010
#116017: Mar 15th 2016 at 10:44:09 PM

[up][up]You know, the fascination with fascism isn't too hard to understand, if you subscribe to the line of thought that Sanders only has support from young voters because they are too young to understand the "reality" of socialism, meaning the USSR. Because if that's the case, consider how much longer real fascism has been out of the public consciousness. Of course, if people know exactly what they're doing and think it has genuine merit, that makes things completely different.

As for the "unelectable" argument, which has been gone over here several times with polls that show otherwise, I do find it extremely telling that even CNN commentators, while admitting that they have no data to prove it, claim these recent primaries might be a wake-up call for people to "get serious" and pick a more "reliable" candidate.

Cronosonic (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#116018: Mar 15th 2016 at 10:44:11 PM

Rubio is out, only Drumpf, Cruz and Kasich left. Wow, the establishment only has Kasich left to go with, that's gotta suck for them.

Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#116019: Mar 15th 2016 at 10:44:21 PM

[up][up][up]Yes, but Trumpets wouldn't know that.

edited 15th Mar '16 10:44:56 PM by Protagonist506

Leviticus 19:34
LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#116020: Mar 15th 2016 at 10:51:15 PM

Again, a lot of Trump supporters are Neo-Confederates, Klan members, and Skinheads.

The Nazi parallels are deliberate and encouraged.

Oh really when?
Ominae Since: Jul, 2010
#116021: Mar 15th 2016 at 10:59:05 PM

Anonymous takes on Trump again.

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#116022: Mar 15th 2016 at 11:08:01 PM

Anon can't do jack against him. Anything they could dig up, short of him actually being Bill Clinton in a really good costume, would just help him.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
TrashJack Confirmed Doomer from beyond the Despair Event Horizon (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Confirmed Doomer
#116023: Mar 15th 2016 at 11:15:06 PM

[up] Nothing short of Trump eating a baby live on camera could hurt him. Heck, he could probably do that and be cheered on by the raving lunatics who idolize him.

I weep for America if Trump is our next (and let's be honest, final) President.

edited 15th Mar '16 11:16:19 PM by TrashJack

"Cynic, n. — A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be." - The Devil's Dictionary
Eschaton Since: Jul, 2010
#116024: Mar 15th 2016 at 11:19:35 PM

[up][up][up][up]Ironically, I'd say those are the least dangerous elements, in and of themselves. Because they've been around for a while, but were marginalized.

But now they have a legitimized vehicle for their views, because a major trend among the otherwise "regular people" who support Trump is a growing sense of marginalization. And it's this angle, that sees any effort to elevate minorities as an attempt to make minorities superior, that sees equality as oppression, that is the most serious. It allows them to distance themselves - in their minds at least - from avowed racists, and establish themselves as true patriots.

edited 15th Mar '16 11:21:06 PM by Eschaton

Medinoc from France (Before Recorded History)
#116025: Mar 15th 2016 at 11:20:04 PM

[up][up]It's a well-known fact that Reps only care about babies before their birth.

edited 15th Mar '16 11:20:24 PM by Medinoc

"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."

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