Trump Torpedoes North Korea Talks Before They Start

[FORD]

The Republican Party primary system is actually as rigged as the corporate "Democrats", they just use a different method. In several of the "red" states, the Republican party has a "winner takes all the delegates" policy, regardless of how many of the votes the candidate actually got. In the 2016 primary, the Republicans started out with a fully loaded clown car with 18 or so candidates in it. Cheeto actually didn't win a true majority (50% or better) in any primary until New York, which was about halfway through the cycle. Most of his early wins averaged 30% of the vote, sometimes even less. But he took all the delegates in those states.

Now if I were a Republican voter in a state where Cheeto had 32% of the votes and the guy I voted for had 31.5% (say, Kasich or Cruz, for example, since they were the guys who usually took 2nd or 3rd), I would be pissed off at Cheeto getting 100% of the delegates, despite getting less than 1/3 of the vote.

So a different system than the stupidelegates, but just as artificial, as far as reflecting the will of the actual primary voters.

[Nitro Express]

The Republican Party primary system is actually as rigged as the corporate "Democrats", they just use a different method. In several of the "red" states, the Republican party has a "winner takes all the delegates" policy, regardless of how many of the votes the candidate actually got. In the 2016 primary, the Republicans started out with a fully loaded clown car with 18 or so candidates in it. Cheeto actually didn't win a true majority (50% or better) in any primary until New York, which was about halfway through the cycle. Most of his early wins averaged 30% of the vote, sometimes even less. But he took all the delegates in those states.

Now if I were a Republican voter in a state where Cheeto had 32% of the votes and the guy I voted for had 31.5% (say, Kasich or Cruz, for example, since they were the guys who usually took 2nd or 3rd), I would be pissed off at Cheeto getting 100% of the delegates, despite getting less than 1/3 of the vote.

So a different system than the stupidelegates, but just as artificial, as far as reflecting the will of the actual primary voters.

I really hate party politics. I would rather just see individuals run. Political parties make voting like sports. People tend to vote for the team rather than who is actually best suited for the job. It's the way the game has been played though. I guess it's human nature to do it this way.

[Terry]

What probably hurt the Democratic Party more than anything was using superdelegates to throw Bernie under the bus and give the nomination to Hillary. Notice Hillary won't go away either. It just proved the Democratic Party isn't so Democratic. The Republican Party doesn't have superdelegates and if they did they would have thrown Donald Trump under the bus and gave us their stuffed suit. As far as Trump being involved with the Russians the Mueller investigation hasn't proved anything nor will it ever prove anything. It's laughable. Trump like Bernie was an independent candidate who rode on a major party to win the presidency. Bernie could have beat Trump. It would have been close but the Democrat Party self-destructed pulling the Hillary trick. The Republican establishment sure as hell didn't want Trump or any non-establishment candidate to win. Why? All the corruption they all are involved in. As long as you get someone like Hillary or George W Bush in nobody goes to jail. This is the real issue. Let's say Bernie was a true outsider. He would be putting up with the same shit. Especially if he was about cleaning up the Department of Justice and the FBI. Oh man they would be pointing to his honeymoon in the Soviet Union and calling him a Russian double agent and all that shit. It's not who's president as much as who the president works for. If he works for the American people the establishment in Washington are really going to hate them. Lefty or Righty.

I think if Bernie had declared a few months sooner than he had, which would have given him a bit more time to catch fire in terms of his rallies and the amount of people he was reaching (considering mainstream tv news outlets were giving him a minimal amount of coverage - and the coverage he did get was mostly dismissive in terms of him being a pie in the sky candidate - and his campaign had to rely much more on grass roots outreach - word of mouth via rallies and internet - than Clinton's did by virtue of her being the preferred candidate of the media and the Democratic Party), he could have possibly overtaken Hillary in the primaries.

As it played out, even if there hadn't been clear bias on behalf of the DNC, I tend to think Hillary still probably would have edged him out in the primaries even if she hadn't benefitted from the media bias and the DNC rigging. Also, to be clear, there was no way in practical terms that the DNC wasn't going to do everything it could to make sure Hillary was the candidate. There was no way the DNC was going to surrender to Sanders without resistance and allow Sanders to take control of the party: he would have been beholden to virtually none of the professional demo players in the party had he won, and these same players were convinced (despite polling taken during the primaries to the contrary) that Bernie would be a sure loser in the fall.


Mind you, none of that means I don't agree that the theoretical purpose of the DNC re: primaries is to ensure all the candidates on the ballot have equal access to the machinery of the party during the primaries, and that the DNC members/superdelegates have a responsibility to determine which candidate is the strongest for the general election (as opposed to which one they would LIKE to run in the general). However, we all know the world doesn't work that way. Hillary, above all else, thought her candidacy and the Presidency (much like her Senate seat and her Cabinet position) were owed to her because:

a) She stood by her husband during his sex scandal

b) She felt she should be the first woman president

c) She didn't try to divide the convention in 2008 via her endorsement of Obama

And the majority of the DNC agreed with all of that.


The majority of the Republican Party establishment were shitting their pants as 2015 rolled into 2016 and none of the boilerplate hack candidates could put Trump away. Doubtless shitting their pants because much like Trump himself they thought he would never win, and even if Trump DID win he wasn't beholden to the GOP Establishment. Same deal as Sanders and the Dems.

And I'd have to imagine now that the centrist, middle of the road operatives of both parties are feeling like they have a very feeble grip on their parties going forward, considering how close Sanders came running far to the left of Hillary and Trump going out and whipping up massive crowds just flat-out SAYING the things he did that other GOP candidates would only dog-whistle in code.

In the end, though, these same middle of the road operatives don't really give a shit if their candidates win or lose, because these operatives for the most part only pay lip service to the ideals of conservatism and liberalism: it's the campaign cash, pork barrel dough and consulting fees that motivate them. While doubtless it would be preferred if the candidates they work for win their elections, there are plenty of ways for operatives to make money even when their party loses.

As to Mueller, while the optics, facts and text of what we know regarding Trump's various campaign operatives and their meetings/connections with various Russian actors have been established - and there's just too much of it for a reasonable person to think it was all coincidental - actually PROVING the Russian operatives were taking direct orders from Putin or the Kremlin to specifically collude with Trump campaign staff in order to deny Clinton victory...I tend to doubt there's going to be smoking gun-type memo spelling out "The Plan"...and short of several of Trump's campaign advisors going on the record and saying "yes, it did in fact happen and it happened as the result of intentional planning, and Trump in fact knew about it beforehand" all you will have is circumstantial evidence. That type of evidence regularly convicts lesser citizens of crimes, but the standard (one would hope) for removing a President from office is a bit higher than that.

The best shot Mueller has is to get Trump under oath. Trump lies with the same ease in which he breathes, so Trump's only chance of not opening himself up to perjury charges is to plead the 5th or refuse the subpoena: while doubtless Trump believes he can obfuscate a Mueller line of inquiry in the same manner as his testimonies in the many civil suits against him attempted to, were I one of Trump's legal team now I'd just tell him to take the 5th. Much easier to take the 5th/refuse to testify and then go on to tweet that he did so because it was all a "witch hunt" than to lie. And we ALL know Trump lies. And lies. And, even when the truth would suffice, Trump STILL lies. The Mueller inquiry isn't some civil suit like the Trump University sham where Donald can throw $25 million at it and ultimately make it go away after the con was exposed.


Having said all that, I'll be surprised if the Mueller investigation ultimately results in Trump being impeached, let alone removed from office.

[Nitro Express]

A large amount of the Republicans would have been fine with Hillary as president. Look. It's not about politics. It's about staying out of jail. There are so many crooks in the government on both sides of the isle nothing scares the shit out of them more than an outsider winning the presidency. That can be a liberal like Bernie or more of a conservative like Trump. Doesn't matter who it is but if they think there is a chance they might go to jail the establishment will do anything to remove that president. Mueller is a crook. End of story. He has nothing to lose so he's pulled out all the stops. Him and Comey are worth millions of dollars and they didn't make that by obeying the law. The investigation is going to fizzle and who knows we might see Mueller running off to a non-extradition country. Maybe the drug lords he turned a blind eye towards will do him a favor. They fight and then they run.

[Nitro Express]

Haha! Even Louis Farrakhan knows The Department of Justice is the Department of Just Us. The politicians and bureaucrats can rob and steal with impunity but a citizen can go to jail in a heartbeat. I wasn't expecting Trump to fix much if anything but I knew he would stir the pot and the pot needs stirring. Bring all the swamp muck up for everyone to smell and see.

[FORD]

[Seshmeister]

I really hate party politics. I would rather just see individuals run. Political parties make voting like sports. People tend to vote for the team rather than who is actually best suited for the job. It's the way the game has been played though. I guess it's human nature to do it this way.

As I understand it the US system was meant to not have party politics when it was being designed.

The problem now is that like the UK system there is no way in a million years anyone would choose to copy either if you were starting with a clean slate. It's completely ridiculous to try and reflect the wishes of 300 million people in the 21st century using a 2 party system.

[Seshmeister]

Mueller is a crook. End of story. He has nothing to lose so he's pulled out all the stops. Him and Comey are worth millions of dollars and they didn't make that by obeying the law. The investigation is going to fizzle and who knows we might see Mueller running off to a non-extradition country. Maybe the drug lords he turned a blind eye towards will do him a favor. They fight and then they run.

What?

How is Mueller a crook?

I know American State TV (Fox) is running a propaganda campaign against him now but please explain the evidence for that I had only heard that from the crazees in the past?

[ZahZoo]

I'm not seeing the Mueller crook angle either...

[FORD]

[FORD]

[Nitro Express]

I'm not seeing the Mueller crook angle either...

Let's say he was a bit blind towards drug dealing and money laundering.

[Nitro Express]

As I understand it the US system was meant to not have party politics when it was being designed.

The problem now is that like the UK system there is no way in a million years anyone would choose to copy either if you were starting with a clean slate. It's completely ridiculous to try and reflect the wishes of 300 million people in the 21st century using a 2 party system.

Do we even need a congress anymore? They really just do nothing and cost us a lot of money. We could do electronic voting from the state level. The states were supposed to have most the power. All the federal government was supposed to do was represent the states internationally. Protect the states. Provide a supreme court to go to if something was deemed unconstitutional. The problem is states don't mint their own money and since the federal government has a non-ending line of credit in the world's reserve currency, it can own the states since most of them depend on federal funding and have nothing to really fight back with. It wasn't an accident that someone made the capitol dome in Washington look like a big nipple. The whole country sucks off of it.

[Nickdfresh]

"Oh, you don't like the wargames? Oh, okay we'll just cut those out as long as you pinky swear to get rid of your nukes! Anything else you'd like my good friend Kim?"

[FORD]