Trump - Clown Genius

[jacob]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/poli ... /83873076/
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nati ... story.html

Cruz drops out.

[IlliniDave]

Starting to hear reports Cruz threw in the towel.

McCain says he's voting for Hillary.

Hats off to Trump. When this all started I never thought he had a chance.

[Spartan_Warrior]

The reporter I work with said the press pool is rooting for Sanders LOL. Was he supposed to do this well tonight?

According to the last polls I'd seen he was down by about as much as he won; but then he's shown a pattern of outperforming the polls in open primaries like Indiana, where independents can vote in primaries. His appeal among independents is no joke. They number something like 40-45% of the electorate.

Go figure, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, head of the DNC, blatant Clinton shill, says if it were up to her, she'd exclude independents from voting in Democratic primaries: http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/pre ... dents-from

Which is funny, because if it were up to me, I'd exclude Debbie Wasserman Schultz from political office.

The problem for her line of thinking, as the Dems may learn, to their sorrow, is that the general IS an open election.

[Dragline]

She really is an ass. I bet if HRC loses, she'll be partially to blame. If I were Trump, I'd be collecting the DWS clips now to show later in places like North Carolina and Ohio.

What's funny about this now, with Cruz dropping out, the whole media drama will shift to the Democratic side.

Cruz has to feel like HRC in 2008. Say nice things about a guy you think is harmless early on, and all of the sudden your evil emperor plans are torn asunder.

[IlliniDave]

What's funny about this now, with Cruz dropping out, the whole media drama will shift to the Democratic side.

It's understandable the big story was Trump/Cruz last night, but I was surprised at the relative silence of the mainstream media regarding Sanders' win. I know Trump made a lot of noise about it, but if anyone is getting hosed by a quasi-rigged system it's Bernie.

These primaries have been educational for me, I'd never heard of a "superdelegate" nor the impact they can have on the democratic nomination process.

The big question now is what will the Sanders supporters do in the general (assuming Clinton is the candidate)? I think many will just stay home. I think Cruz supporters will largely, though reluctantly, line up behind Trump. The outcome could be in the hands of the Sanders supporters if they decide to make their voices heard.

[jennypenny]

I asked my friend about the shift in focus to the Democrats and whether that meant Clinton would finally feel the heat about the homebrew server, Benghazi, etc. He said probably but didn't think it would amount to much. He said most of the reporters think the skeleton in Clinton's closet is her health, and it's the story they all want to break.

[Dragline]

Glad he is gone after the shenanigans with Kasich. That is true arrogance and I am happy voters have responded to show their displeasure.

Anybody seen Bill lately? He's been stumping for Hillary in Kentucky and he looks pretty bad physically, at least to me. Are there any health issues?

Who knows? He has a family history of heart problems and had by-pass surgery. His complexion does look a bit gray these days, but I wonder if that has something to do with heart/cholesterol meds.

But hold on, folks, you're not going to believe this but there's a Bill Clinton DIET CONTROVERSY. And it depends on what the definition of "vegan" is:

https://newrepublic.com/article/117776/ ... led-we-are

Time for Congress to subpoena Ornish and Hyman and get to the bottom of this scandal. Have they been paying the Clintons or have the Clintons been paying them?

I really laughed when I got to the conclusion that the most effective regimen that he's apparently ever been on involved eating one meal per day that was relatively high protein and low carb.

[Spartan_Warrior]

I'd like to point out again to the Cruz supporters that Bernie is arguably the most Christian candidate running. He is also neither Hillary nor Trump, so... a lot there to love.

[Spartan_Warrior]

I was surprised at the relative silence of the mainstream media regarding Sanders' win.

Really? I wasn't.

Sanders Supporters Protest Media Blackout Outside CNN — CNN Completely Ignores Them

Bernie Bias: The Mainstream Media Undermines Sanders at Every Turn

Washington Post Ran 16 Negative Stories on Bernie Sanders in 16 Hours

I'll say this again, too: the mainstream media doesn't fear Trump. They do fear Bernie Sanders. Take from that what you will.

I definitely agree that it's been an educational primary. One of the main reasons for me is revealing which corrupt corporate entities to boycott. The unfortunate part is, as an EREr, I was already de facto boycotting many of them.

[Dragline]

No true Christian . . . oh, wait, that's a fallacy.

But come on SW, to Cruz supporters, Bernie is what is known as an "apostate Jew" and therefore might be the Antichrist. I need to get you some Pat Robertson videos from the 1990s to set you straight, son.

Although he is coming around to the Muslims now since it seems more in vogue these days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq63SCigu8s

He's certainly lost some his fire in his old age, though. I guess being wrong about the end times over and over again will do that to you.

[Dragline]

On the other hand, that annointed by God thing didn't work out quite right for Teddy either: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNa5w9js48s

[Spartan_Warrior]

@Dragline: Haha, I'm not going to defend how he reached the conclusion, but at the end of that video I think his message was not to spend time worrying about who the Antichrist is. I can get behind that.

@FFJ: This chart was already discussed earlier, but it shows Bernie as the most libertarian of all candidates running (by considerable margin):

http://www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2016

With the exception of single-payer health care, I honestly don't see how government's role would be increased by any of his policies, particularly not in any way that bears relevance on the average person's daily life. If anything, his stances on the drug war, prison industry, Wall Street bailouts/regulations, war on terror, Patriot Act, privacy/whistleblower protection, gun control (mostly), LGBT, abortion, and other social policies, et cetera, seem to favor personal liberty over big government intrusion.

Which of Bernie's policies do you fear will increase government's role in your daily life in a negative way?

[Dragline]

@Dragline: Haha, I'm not going to defend how he reached the conclusion, but at the end of that video I think his message was not to spend time worrying about who the Antichrist is. I can get behind that.

As I said, he's kind of slipping in his old age. He was much stronger on this stuff when he was running for president himself back in 1988. He placed second in Iowa that year.

[IlliniDave]

I'll say this again, too: the mainstream media doesn't fear Trump. They do fear Bernie Sanders. Take from that what you will.

I think they do fear Trump, so much so that they are, on the whole, actively campaigning against him. Bernie they seem to try to ignore into irrelevance.

[enigmaT120]

The Onion might be afraid of Trump (they don't dish any dirt on him yet) but I'm surprised how well Cruz did considering all the stuff they dug up on him:

http://www.theonion.com/article/ted-cru ... rmin-52859

http://www.theonion.com/article/thousan ... ruz--52862

[oldbeyond]

Thinking about it, the amazing thing isn't that HRC is battling a Jewish socialist and an unfiltered reality-TV and real estate mogul, but that no one in the establishment managed to come up with a passable effort to manage the reality of this chart:
http://mic.com/articles/107622/this-ter ... .U7D0f9Czx

Add to that the tremendous inflation in education and healthcare(which to add insult to injury pays the wages of the people on the right hand side of the decimal point) and you get, well, this mess...

There are of course a lot of other issues being voiced in the election, but Americas descent into oligarchy seems to be on the lips of the supporters of Sanders and Trump alike.

[Spartan_Warrior]

@IlliniDave: You could see Big Media's treatment of Trump as campaigning against him--one could argue that's how they want you to see it.

But people in show-business go by another adage: "There's no such thing as bad publicity."

Publicity is what they've given Trump in spades, and how they've starved Sanders at every turn. Who's benefited from it?

It's possible they didn't know what they were doing. IMO, it's also possible they know exactly what they're doing.

[jennypenny]

If you like Kunstler's brand of humor, this week's post is funny ... Send out the Clowns

@SW--I'm pretty sure Trump is universally detested by the MSM. Some because they don't like him or his politics, others because he made them eat their words by winning the nomination. It's kinda funny because privately he's very well liked, or at least he was.

[Spartan_Warrior]

Well, I wouldn't suggest the media likes Trump or is campaigning "for" him, per se. I do think there is a case to be made that many media outlets and talking heads (at least on the so-called "liberal" side) have deliberately overplayed the Trump card in order to create a bogeyman scary enough to rally the electorate around their preferred candidate ("whoever she may be," as Obummer put it).

They had to legitimize him a little to make him a scary enough threat that people will hold their noses and vote for Clinton, and I think they were happy to do that much. But I will agree they may have underestimated the populist pain on both sides of the electorate and thus failed to foresee the popularity of either Trump or Bernie. To that extent, you could say the plan unexpectedly backfired.

Also, I'm not saying they like or support Trump necessarily. I'm just saying the media doesn't fear him. There is a difference between liking/supporting Trump and fearing him. I think what we're seeing in the media is fear-mongering, not actual fear--again, big difference. I think big media execs would rather have Clinton (based on their donations), but they know they could still use Trump. I think Trump and the media are very good at using each other. He gets exposure, they get ratings. To me it appears symbiotic.

The almost desperate attempts to downplay and ignore Bernie, on the other hand, seem more telling. The big media execs know he'd be bad news for folks like them--which of course means good news for people who want things like open democracy or authentic journalism.

I also don't know that Trump made the media eat their words by winning. It seems to me that Clinton and Trump have been the predicted nominees for months, and that's almost exclusively how the media has framed it.

I could be wrong. Sometimes I still have trouble believing Trump is even a real candidate and not some kind of plant to hand the election to Clinton, because this scenario is literally an establishment wet dream. How do you force one of the most transparent and disliked puppets on the voters? Make the alternative look as much like Hitler as you can.

P.S. All this said with the caveat that I don't even have cable or watch mainstream news outlets, so these observations are made based on individual clips and alternate news sources, from the outside looking in, as it were.

P.P.S. Some of you are saying that now that Cruz is out, all focus will be on the Democratic side, e.g. Bernie vs. Hillary. We'll see if that's the case... but while we're throwing e-bets around, I'd put e-money on the media continuing to ignore Bernie and instead ramping up the Hillary vs. Trump drama even more. They'd rather not even acknowledge that Bernie is still in it. That takes away from the narrative.

[Dragline]

This is why people will vote for Clinton. This is why I will probably vote for her.**

What? Benghazi! Whitewater! Emails! Huma's husband's (that's Anthony Weiner) junk! Bimbo eruptions!

But will she be the new Bill? Or the new Dick? Cue "Twilight Zone" music . . .

http://www.prospectingmimeticfractals.c ... ic-rhyming

MSM finally catching up on why HRC is so much like Nixon -- with a little help from Thinking, Fast and Slow: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2 ... s-feelings