Presidential race 2016

[Midwest Spy]

That smell that is wafting over the crowds at his rally's might fool some as the smell of roses but it is the smell of victory.

He's got about as much a chance of that as I do in morphing into Julia Child.

Julia is a handsome woman.

[Duchess]

I was talking about her skills in the kitchen.

[Duchess]

Republicans really need to start speaking out against this rigged election bullshit. What are they waiting for?

[HairOfTheDog]

Republicans really need to start speaking out against this rigged election bullshit. What are they waiting for?

I think they might be waiting for Trump to shut up with that bullshit because it's not based in fact and they know it. His surrogates are all giving different interpretations of what he REALLY means, which doesn't align with what he REALLY said. Plus, the states where he stands a chance of winning all are governed by Republicans.

The states manage their own election processes and protocols and do a good job working bi-partisan to ensure integrity, according to the various research reports conducted over the years. Some voter fraud cases have been identified, but they've been small scale and didn't affect the election outcome. One of the reasons our voting system is so manual and old-school is to keep it decentralized and prevent organized corruption on a national level.

Anyway, the final debate on Wednesday night should be interesting. Chris Wallace of Fox News will moderate the debate; maybe he'll ask Trump to explain his "rigged/fraud" rhetoric. Who knows what the hell to expect at this point, but these are supposed to be the six 15-minute topics to be discussed.

1. debt and entitlements,
2. immigration,
3. the economy,
4. Supreme Court,
5. foreign hot spots,
6. the candidates' fitness to be president.

[Duchess]

I think they might be waiting for Trump to shut up with that bullshit because it's not based in fact and they know it. His surrogates are all giving different interpretations of what he REALLY means, which doesn't align with what he REALLY said. Plus, the states where he stands a chance of winning all are governed by Republicans.

I don't believe he's going to shut up. He's out there everyday screaming that everything under the sun is rigged against him. I think the top Republican leaders have a responsibility to come out and denounce this crap. I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for it to happen. I've never seen a group of men who are so goddamn spineless in my life. They may carry the title of leader but they are not leaders, not by any stretch of the imagination. Paul Ryan & Mitch McConnell are a joke.

Speaking of Mitch McConnell, for months those people have blocked a Supreme Court nominee saying it was for the next President to nominate, now that they see their candidate has basically lost, he has come out and said he will block any nominee Hillary puts forth. It's because of bullshit like this that the people are fed up with their crap. They have a grade school mentality, we don't like that kid so we aren't going to play with him. Assholes.

[HairOfTheDog]

^
I heard Paul Ryan issue a statement that the elections in our democracy are fair and he has confidence in the system.

Chris Christie also directly stated that there is no evidence of voter fraud conspiracy.

Marco Rubio firmly declared that the voter/poll rigging rhetoric is false in a senatorial debate last night as well.

From what I've seen, it's really only Guiliani, Gingrich, and Sessions who are trying to bolster Trump's baseless claims that the election is rigged at the polls. They're citing small scale examples of voter fraud from ages ago and I don't think anyone who reads or checks facts believes them. They're just firing up the Trump core and standing by their man's rhetoric that "people in inner cities", "illegal immigrants" and "dead people" are conspiring with the Democrats to snatch victory from Donald Trump. It makes no sense logistically or historically, and I think it's a pitiful sham slam on democratic elections and the country for the sake of Trump's ego.

Most of Trump's politician surrogates aren't willing to float that sham slam on the country and the states and are instead claiming he really meant that the media is conspiring against him. Trump IS claiming that the media is conspiring against him, but he is also absolutely and repetitively insisting voter/poll fraud conspiracy. Pretending like he didn't say it just makes the surrogates look disingenuous and silly; Trump's on numerous rally and interview videos saying it. He's gone so far as to call upon his loyalists to essentially deputize themselves and monitor polling stations, leading many from both parties to fear real voter intimidation/suppression will take place under the guise of preventing non-existent voter fraud.

I think CNN is unbalanced in its coverage, focusing too much of its time on repetitive negative Trump stories; I think Trump and company have a legitimate point on that front. I can't watch CNN for too long at a time. FOX is just as bad or worse in favor of Trump and Republicans and I can't watch it for too long either. I just watch a little of each after watching video of the candidates' themselves, in their own words, and reading the public docs/statements. It's not hard to get news and facts and form opinions without subscribing to any media outlets' overt or implicit bias.

[HairOfTheDog]

And, I heard John McCain say that Congress won't consider/approve any Supreme Court justices nominated by Clinton.

I agree with you Duchess; that's the kind of bullshit that puts off the majority of the American people (including fair-minded Republicans). It's, to me, an admission that some of our elected leaders put partisan competition over democracy and the good of the people.

I did see that a McCain staffer walked that statement all the way back this morning though.

[Duchess]

^
I heard Paul Ryan issue a statement that the elections in our democracy are fair and he has confidence in the system.

Chris Christie also directly stated that there is no evidence of voter fraud conspiracy.

Marco Rubio firmly declared that the voter/poll rigging rhetoric is false in a senatorial debate last night as well.

From what I've seen, it's really only Guiliani, Gingrich, and Sessions who are trying to bolster Trump's baseless claims that the election is rigged at the polls. They're citing small scale examples of voter fraud from ages ago and I don't think anyone who reads or checks facts believes them. They're just firing up the Trump core and standing by their man's rhetoric that "people in inner cities", "illegal immigrants" and "dead people" are conspiring with the Democrats to snatch victory from Donald Trump. It makes no sense logistically or historically, and I think it's a pitiful sham slam on democratic elections and the country for the sake of Trump's ego.

Most of Trump's politician surrogates aren't willing to float that sham slam on the country and the states and are instead claiming he really meant that the media is conspiring against him. Trump IS also claiming that the media is conspiring against him, but he is also absolutely and repetitively insisting voter/poll fraud conspiracy. Pretending like he didn't say it just makes the surrogates look disingenuous and silly; Trump's on numerous rally and interview videos saying it. He's gone so far as to call upon his loyalists to essentially deputize themselves and monitor polling stations, leading many from both parties to fear real voter intimidation/suppression will take place under the guise of preventing non-existent voter fraud.

I think CNN is unbalanced in its coverage, focusing too much of its time on repetitive negative Trump stories; I think Trump and company have make a legitimate point on that front. I can't watch CNN for too long at a time. FOX is just as bad or worse in favor of Trump and Republicans and I can't watch it for too long either for the same reasons. I just watch a little of each after watching video of the candidates' themselves, in their own words, and reading the public docs/statements. It's not hard to get news and facts and form opinions without subscribing to any media outlets' overt or implicit bias.

Sessions is a sitting Senator, it's doubly fucked up that he would sanction those ridiculous comments regarding rigging of the election.

I just heard about Christie's comments when I got back home. I saw a headline saying Kelly O had interviewed him but I haven't had a chance to read the story yet.

I've been getting most of my news lately from the embedded journalists, as well as some network and cable reporters, all with Twitter accounts. Some are better than others but they all manage to convey what they need to in a few words and they all seem to have the news before it actually hits the airwaves.

[Ski at 1SKY6]

Declaring voter fraud is just Trump's way of firing up his base. I can cite two instances of vote manipulation; JFK's 1960 win and more recently Bush 2 and the Florida recount.

[Maggot]

I've always thought the pubs should get buses especially in big cities and feed people lunch before bringing them to the polls too. Maybe someday........

[Duchess]

Who pays for lunch?

[Maggot]

Who pays for lunch?

charity.

[Carsman]

I'm looking forward to the debate tomorrow, really don't know why, as I really don't want to vote for either of them!

[Maggot]

voter fraud


Voting is decentralized people! Did anyone get the memo?

[HairOfTheDog]

I read your article Maggot.

1. There is no fraud proven.
2. If there was attempted fraud involved, the system worked the way it should and identified a potential problem, now under investigation.
3. I think it makes more sense to let the investigation determine if there was a software issue ,or if someone is trying to create the appearance of attempted fraud, or if there really was attempted fraud......... before insisting that this report proves that voter ID fraud, which has been found to be almost non-existent in the past, is a widespread problem.

IF it turns out that the liberal Patriot Majority group did attempt to engage in voter fraud, they're going down. That's jail time for those involved.

[Duchess]

Trump is bleating about fraud because his ship is sinking, not because there is evidence of fraud.

[Carsman]

It was in the news today, the Clinton camp requested "no hand shaking" by both families tonight. Smart!

[Duchess]

Meanwhile at the debate -

Trump: Nobody has more respect for women than I do.

Wallace to laughing audience: "please, everybody."

[Clang McFly]

Meanwhile at the debate -

Trump: Nobody has more respect for women than I do.

Wallace to laughing audience: "please, everybody."

I think he meant to say "Nobody inspects more women than I do."

[Duchess]