Mikee

It depends on whether civilization continues to advance or descends into an unending dark ages.  That depends on what human nature actually is.  If the human race becomes truly civil Islam will be dead.  How it happens is irrelevant.  It's more virulent practitioners will be killed and not be replaced.

1 hour ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Suddenly I feel deplorable...

That was probably one of the stupidest things Hillary Clinton has ever said and I don't mean factually. I mean politically.

It's a dumbass thing to trash talk voters if voters are what you are trying to get. Just ask Romney.

She might be trying to imitate Obama's "they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment" comment to fundraisers. (OK, OK, Obama got away with trash talking voters. But he almost didn't. That was not his finest hour politically.)

I hope she likes the money from the snoots because I don't think she is going to like the widespread resentment this comment is going to make among independent voters. Especially because "basket of deplorables" goes quite a bit further than Obama's comment, which was a description with an insinuation. Clinton's comment is outright trash talking.

Michael

Michael,

It makes sense if they are indeed planning to cheat and steal the election.  Making out Trump supporters to be sub-human monsters, stupid, bigots, exploiters of "the people" is a perfect way to make people in positions of counting votes to throw certain votes into the trash bin.  They rely on the "folks" they've community organized to do the right thing for "the people" and feel morally justified doing it.  I've seen too many tells from Hillary and Obama and I know they're not stupid or weak.  Somethings up.

1 hour ago, KorbenDallas said:

Meanwhile, Obama's still clueless:

Obama is not stupid or clueless.  I smell a rat.  He's playing dumb, the polls are rigged and Clinton is playing the fool.  Something's up, the dirty tricks on election day will be beyond belief.  And they will continue to play the fool.  "Who, me?  I'm the peoples choice!", and they'll believe it because they think only their community organized liberal schooled cattle are "the people".  With the support of the journalists, rote learner tenured academicians and establishment rino's who on the right will have the will to argue about the outcome?

I've been hoping Dr. Thomas Sowell would come around and say something positive about Donald Trump:  http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2016/08/18/trump-and-blacks-n2207012

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-10/wikileaks-assange-hints-murdered-dnc-staffer-was-email-leaker-offers-20k-reward-info

"... the Clinton related body count so far this election cycle:  Five in just under six weeks - four convenient deaths plus one suicide... "

And Trump is a "threat to the republic" because...why?

Lessons from Venezuela

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHTOVdjAy-k

" It takes a long time for a country to reach this level of dysfunction but the path is pretty clear.It’s the path of government corruption and socialist demagoguery."

Trump 2016

1 hour ago, jts said:

The demented witch's physical health will almost certainly not survive the term of one of the world's most stressful jobs, perhaps not even the campaign. Theoretically she probably could get better but her doctors will give her poisons drugs and consequently she will get worse even as she appears to get better.

 

Thanks ZeroHedge

I didn't get destruction so much as non-participation.  Inventing an alternate way of living, using a different form of money and just dropping out of the pay your taxes and live a mindless existence by the rules of the elite power mongers.  Not scary to the Trumps of the world who would just trade with them, terrifying to the Clintonites.  I spent decades reading the anarchist literature, I'm comfortable with the intellectual types who just want to be left alone.  I have trouble with trying to define rights, personal or property, without a structure and philosophy of defending them.  Without a police force every person walking down the street without the expertise and means to defend themselves with deadly force essentially has no rights in an anarchist society.  An invitation to thuggery.  That's the trouble I have with anarchism.  But, private money, private exchanges, life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, real capitalism and markets in everything, what's not to like?  The millennials who hate the right and the left?  Maybe Anonymous appeals to them, maybe they're smart enough to realize what they criticize as "capitalism" is nothing of the kind and come around to Von Mises and the Austrians.  Could happen.  Fuck the socialists and Marxists and hippies.  I don't think that's what Anonymous is, Marxists and hippies and Sander supporters.  I could be wrong, I'm just an old man, 99.9999% ignorant.  (Last month it was only 99.999%, but I'm older and wiser now).

Message to the Citizens of the World

What's next?

58 minutes ago, SteveWolfer said:

I have no idea what you are saying.  In 2008 I voted Libertarian, and it was a mistake (which I've admitted) but only because of the supreme court.  Apart from the supreme court appointments which can destroy constitutionality itself we have to do something to break this downward spiral of the lessor of two evils (that get more and more evil). 

As for the "holier than thou" bullshit and your smart ass assertions about what you think I want... hey, stuff them where the sun don't shine.

Same old, same old...   How convenient it is, forgetting.  The conversations should still be there.  Unless RoR is even deader than it appears.

13 minutes ago, SteveWolfer said:

If a vote were between "We poke out your right eye with a sharp stick, or we poke out your left eye with a sharp stick," I wouldn't vote - at a certain point, a vote becomes a sanction. 

Unless I feel confident that Trump will stand by that list of supreme court nominees, I'll vote for Gary Johnson.  Will Gary Johnson become president (with or without my vote)?   No.  Not a chance.  Then why vote for him?  Because if the other two choices are too awful, I'd prefer to add a tiny bit to the presence of the Libertarian party.  Maybe in this election cycle, where the unfavorables are unbelievably high, the Libertarian party will break 10% in the popular vote.  That would be something significant - not in terms of the next 4 years, but maybe down the road if these two corrupt and disgusting political parties continue their downward spiral of unpalatable offerings.

Please remember, that most of what encourages you to vote for Trump rests upon the judgment that he probably isn't really going to be a fascist, or that he isn't really a progressive, or that he really isn't just a con-man, or that he isn't narcissistic enough to be truly dangerous.  Not much we can do but look, listen, and make our best guess.  What doesn't make any sense is to pretend that guess is something we can be as certain of as tomorrow's sunrise.

If, at the last minute, it turns out that Hillary is going to cream Donald in this election, then I'll probably vote Johnson.  If I'm going to throw my vote away, I'll do it on someone representing mostly good political principles.

If, at the last minute, it turns out that Trump is going to cream Hillary and doesn't need my vote at all, then I might vote Johnson.  If my vote isn't needed in selecting the next president, then why not add that tiny bit to the popularity of the Libertarian party.

If, at the last minute, it might be close, then it goes back to my judgement of whether or not Trump would honor that list of supreme court choices.

In 2008 your reasoning for not voting against Obama was [paraphrasing] "we haven't hit the bottom yet, people won't wake up 'til we hit bottom".  Same old holier than thou (the entire population of the world) crap.  When you have a goal it takes baby steps, anything else is fantasy.  To you the whole of humanity is an ass you want to see smacked over the head with a 2x4.

Jon: What I said.

3 minutes ago, Jon Letendre said:

Either Hillary or Trump will be president.

If the election was between 80% taxation rate or 20% taxation, what exactly would be the point of ignoring the fact that one or the other would come to be? Pretend that "no taxation" is expressed by staying home and watching 80% win? The pleasure of paying 80% taxes with the shallow pride that "other people voted for that, not me. I am pure, I have never voted for taxes"?

Excellent.  I don't think the point can be made any clearer than that.  Not that it will make a difference...

25 minutes ago, PDS said:

So, can you tell me what Cruz specifically said this morning that you found contemptible?   Anything specific? 

“I am not in the habit of supporting someone who attacks my wife and attacks my father,” Cruz told the Texas delegation at a breakfast in Cleveland. He added: “That pledge was not a blanket commitment that if you go and slander and attack Heidi, that I'm going to nonetheless come like a puppy dog and say thank you very much for maligning my wife and maligning my father."

Bullshit.  Cruz set the anything goes of a personal nature ground rules, not just against Trump but everyone else as well.  Trump was circumspect relative to Cruz, he got most of his backlash over his remarks on issues not personal attacks.  Cruz just lost, he's a loser and can't stand it.  Everything is personal to him.

47 minutes ago, PDS said:

Mikee:

I'm curious:  from what you watched this morning, what did Cruz say that was contemptible?

The blatant hypocrisy.  His pretense of being greatly offended by Trump's "attack" on his wife Heidi.  His own dirty tricks during the campaign, notably against Ben Carson were underhanded to the extreme which is why I started calling him "Crafty Cruzy", a play on "Tricky Dicky".  He does not have the integrity of character to run for any office in my opinion.  And his camp through PAC's, which he denied having any control of but did not try to at all in any perceptible way to control or censure, were the source of the original attacks on Trump's wife which caused the reaction of Trump in a Twitter message which Trump pulled fairly quickly and apologized for.  Trump was rightly offended and angry at Cruz's dirty tricks and responded in kind which was unfortunate because Trump has gotten a lot of criticism for it, unfairly in my view.  Cruz brought the GOP campaign into the gutter and should be blamed for it.  Contemptible, he's dead to me.  I had every reason to support him because I was an early and strong supporter of Carly Fiorina, and a strong critic of Trump.  Cruz says some of the right things about issues I care about but its a character issue.  I wouldn't trust Cruz with power, whereas I believe Trump will find good advisors and will listen to them and make good decisions, good for the country and consistent with the principles most people in this country love living here for.

Just watched Cruz this morning.  A contemptible man...  Hopefully the last I'll see of this man on the national stage.  "Crafty Cruzy", his lies and dirty tricks during the campaign were much worse than Trumps comments after his own wife was insulted.  Cruz, in his heart, is gutter low life and mean spirited.  Trump got him right.

I quoted from the article.  BTW:  http://blog.dictionary.com/advice-vs-advise/

NY Sun:  http://www.nysun.com/editorials/mike-pences-prescience/89653/:

" Donald Trump’s choice of Mike Pence for vice president would — if it is confirmed tomorrow — be a promising pick for those of us who see a restoration of sound money as the essential precondition for returning America’s economy to a trajectory of jobs and growth. "

Victor Davis Hanson:  A Long Trump Summer

" Before summer is over, we may see things now scarcely imagined that will make Brexit seem anticlimactic. "

Interview from June 10

Paraphrase: the Republican establishment, the elites, will never recover.

" Although guilt is alleged until adjudicated. "

Convenient to believe this.  All that is needed is avoid adjudication then Presto!...Innocent!  Precious.  Angels singing.

No charges for the corrupt liar Clinton, but Martha Stewart goes to prison for...what?  Is this really the same FBI?  Martha Stewart takes advice from a stockbroker, saves $45,000 and goes to the federal pen for "obstruction of justice".  Our corrupt politicians are immune from these same insider trading laws, the Clinton's have enriched themselves many times over by taking advantage of this immunity.

" There is no limit to how much money you can earn on insider trading in the House or Senate. Lawmakers and their staffers are specifically exempted. "

Evidently this immunity extends beyond insider trading.

If people in power are "openly admitting it's a world government" doesn't that mean they don't think anyone can do a damn thing about it?  That it's over?

It's all about power.  They either have it or they don't.  We'll see if there even is an election or if Trump is still alive when we get there.  Brexit is already sounding like it's dead.  The people be damned.  What'ya gonna do?  Shut up and take your handouts...  There wouldn't have even been a referendum if they'd thought they would lose it.  When the results get reversed what will anyone do about it?  They'll say "the people" changed their minds...  "they didn't mean it".

I'd rather be a pessimist and be pleasantly surprised.

I think the guy is deeply embarrassed that his attention getting "ISIS wants to get me, but the FBI/NCIS says it's okay" bit sunk his own ship.  If I were him I'd go bury my head somewhere in shame indefinitely.

Peter Hitchens:  First thoughts on the Referendum

"The referendum achieved, by a dangerous short cut, something I have been hoping for and arguing for and seeking for many years – an alliance between the social conservatives trapped and ignored in a liberal Tory Party and the social conservatives trapped in a liberal Labour Party. I had long believed (since the isolated example of a November 2004 referendum on regional government in the North-East) such a combination would throw the ghastly forces of Blairism into the sea.

The problem is that this potent temporary alliance has dissolved now that the referendum is over."

Casting doubt on whether the referendum will actually be implemented or politics as usual prevent it.  The people be damned if they decide differently than their betters.  What better way to prove it.

Donald Trump statement on Brexit

Zero Hedge:  Trump issues statement on Brexit

"The people of the United Kingdom have exercised the sacred right of all free peoples. They have declared their independence from the European Union, and have voted to reassert control over their own politics, borders and economy. A Trump Administration pledges to strengthen our ties with a free and independent Britain, deepening our bonds in commerce, culture and mutual defense. The whole world is more peaceful and stable when our two countries – and our two peoples – are united together, as they will be under a Trump Administration. 

Come November, the American people will have the chance to re-declare their independence. Americans will have a chance to vote for trade, immigration and foreign policies that put our citizens first. They will have the chance to reject today’s rule by the global elite, and to embrace real change that delivers a government of, by and for the people. I hope America is watching, it will soon be time to believe in America again."