Half-baked Republican Presidential Fruitcakes (and fellow confections)

PopePalpatine

PopePalpatine wrote: »

Trump is revealed as an investor in Energy Transfer Partners and Phillips 66, respectively an operator and a sizeable shareholder in the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Perspective required

Trump’s financial disclosure forms show the Republican nominee has between $500,000 and $1m invested in Energy Transfer Partners, with a further $500,000 to $1m holding in Phillips 66, which will have a 25% stake in the Dakota Access project once completed.

ETP : http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/etp
Market Cap - $21.91B

PSX : http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/psx
Market cap - $42.24B

I owned €300 of Eircom Shares once.

silverharp

recedite wrote: »

Who'd have thought that Michael Moore would ever vote Republican.
Are the audience completely gobsmacked, or just in a very quiet mood?

seemed to be nodding, I think he is still a Hillary supporter

recedite

silverharp wrote: »

I think he is still a Hillary supporter

Hard to tell from that clip; he seemed a bit demented.
He'll probably vote for Trump, and then immediately sign himself into a mental institution.

recedite

BTW Trump has been totally up front about his energy policies all along.
There is no doubt that he would facilitate the fossil fuel industries, while rolling back on renewable energy and climate change initiatives/subsidies.

robindch

recedite wrote: »

BTW Trump has been totally up front about his energy policies all along.

Has he? Apart from his Mexican wall - it'll be a "great wall" and getting the government of those "bad hombres" to pay for it of course - I'm hard pressed to think of a single policy which he has announced clearly and unambiguously, and once announced, has stuck to consistently and coherently.

As Sam Harris points out, Trump appears to invent policy as the words leave his lips - with all the foresight of a balloon careening around a room as the air escapes.

recedite

robindch wrote: »

Has he?

For example in the recent TV debate...

recedite wrote: »

He did unfortunately tell us about the "clean coal" that has been discovered "under our feet" in the last few years. So a clear signal that he would roll back on all of the green energy and anti-global warming policies that the EU is pushing for.
He's probably gung ho for doing a deal to carve up the oil drilling rights of the arctic with Putin, and to hell with the environmentalists.
"Clean coal" actually refers to a process of burning it at very high temperatures (gasification), resulting in reduced pollution. Trump appeared to think it was a type of coal, but he was probably getting mixed up with the fracking gas that has been harnessed in recent years in a big way, in the USA.

If he forms an administration, he will have to form a clearly defined policy.
But for a presidential hopeful, its enough to signal the general direction.

silverharp

robindch wrote: »

Has he? Apart from his Mexican wall - it'll be a "great wall" and getting the government of those "bad hombres" to pay for it of course - I'm hard pressed to think of a single policy which he has announced clearly and unambiguously, and once announced, has stuck to consistently and coherently.

As Sam Harris points out, Trump appears to invent policy as the words leave his lips - with all the foresight of a balloon careening around a room as the air escapes.

I like his #draintheswamp ideas , hard to see Clinton wanting any reforms in that direction

robindch

recedite wrote: »

If he forms an administration, he will have to form a clearly defined policy. But for a presidential hopeful, its enough to signal the general direction.

Not really - I'd prefer to see solid, coherent, comprehensible policies announced and maintained, rather than ideas coming and going like Harris' overinflated balloon. Based upon his activities over the last year, I have no trust that he will stick to any promise made - even in the unlikely event that he does manage to develop a policy and stick to it through the campaign.

silverharp wrote: »

I like his #draintheswamp ideas , hard to see Clinton wanting any reforms in that direction

Can't disagree with most of the sentiment, though the actual policy has some curious holes - like for example, providing dog-whistle encouragement to the Russian government to attack his political opponents.

Still though, as above and allowing that I would love to be proven wrong, given the man and his temperament, I can't imagine that he'll hold himself accountable or coherent on this policy any more than he's been able to hold himself accountable or coherent on anything else.

A generally useful rule.

If the 'policy' fits in a tweet, it's not a policy.

PopePalpatine

robindch wrote: »

Not really - I'd prefer to see solid, coherent, comprehensible policies announced and maintained, rather than ideas coming and going like Harris' overinflated balloon. Based upon his activities over the last year, I have no trust that he will stick to any promise made - even in the unlikely event that he does manage to develop a policy and stick to it through the campaign.

In fairness, he probably will stick to his energy policy - how else will the Republicans shill for Big Oil?

Qs

robindch wrote: »

Has he? Apart from his Mexican wall - it'll be a "great wall" and getting the government of those "bad hombres" to pay for it of course - I'm hard pressed to think of a single policy which he has announced clearly and unambiguously, and once announced, has stuck to consistently and coherently.

As Sam Harris points out, Trump appears to invent policy as the words leave his lips - with all the foresight of a balloon careening around a room as the air escapes.

Might have helped if one of the debate moderators had asked him about it.

PopePalpatine

Melania claims that as First Lady, she would tackle cyberbullying. Excuse me while I go fix my irony meter.

PopePalpatine

Another day, another Alex Jones breakdown.

robindch

Two classy stories to wrap up the nastiest election campaign I ever hope to witness.

In San Diego, a catholic church instructs its flock that they'll go to hell if they vote for Hillary:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/11/04/mortal-sin-to-vote-democratic-says-san-diego-catholic-church-linking-hillary-clinton-to-satan/

While in New York, a catholic priest makes an appeal for votes for Trump by laying an aborted foetus on his altar - an act which turned the stomach of the archdiocese sufficiently that they blogged about it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/11/07/a-catholic-priest-put-an-aborted-fetus-on-the-altar-in-an-appeal-for-donald-trump

recedite

robindch wrote: »

Two classy stories..

...although it should be noted that the events depicted in them were not endorsed by either the Trump campaign or the RCC.

robindch

recedite wrote: »

...although it should be noted that the events depicted in them were not endorsed by either the Trump campaign or the RCC.

I didn't say they were quite the opposite really, since I included a direct link to the RCC's repudiation of the priest's actions with the aborted foetus.

I posted the above simply to show how deranged the election has become and I'm sure the two stories above are but two of thousands of similar accounts. The point being that there now appears to be no significant non-violent limit to what people are prepared to do.

BTW, relatedly, here's the BBC's Steve Rosenburg on the incendiary propaganda concerning the US election which the Russian government is feeding its citizens:

https://twitter.com/BBCSteveR

silverharp

robindch wrote: »

I didn't say they were quite the opposite really, since I included a direct link to the RCC's repudiation of the priest's actions with the aborted foetus.

I posted the above simply to show how deranged the election has become and I'm sure the two stories above are but two of thousands of similar accounts. The point being that there now appears to be no significant non-violent limit to what people are prepared to do.

BTW, relatedly, here's the BBC's Steve Rosenburg on the incendiary propaganda concerning the US election which the Russian government is feeding its citizens:

https://twitter.com/BBCSteveR

its all round though, one of the UK news channels had some chef on yesterday saying to vote Hillary because Trump was going to kill "the gays" :rolleyes: . The media have been the worst performers, they have lost a lot of credibility. Maher's mia culpa was a hoot

Qs

Maher is such a joke. He's rhetorically a lot closer to Trump than he is to those establishment republicans he is pretending to apologise about.

recedite

robindch wrote: »

The point being that there now appears to be no significant non-violent limit to what people are prepared to do.

Was there ever? There have always been nutcases around, and there always will be.

robindch wrote: »

BTW, relatedly, here's the BBC's Steve Rosenburg on the incendiary propaganda concerning the US election which the Russian government is feeding its citizens:
https://twitter.com/BBCSteveR

Which bit do you object to?
The bit about both the main candidates being unpopular, or the bit about the missiles.

recedite

USA USA USA !

Republican President
Republican Senate
Republican House of Representatives

This thread will doubtlessly have more material in the coming years. God Bless Murica.

robindch

A appalling result.

One can only hope that the institutions of US democracy can withstand the coming assault from a crazy political party controlling the legislatures and a counter-factual sociopath as executive.

On the plus side, recreational marijuana was legalized in Massachusetts, Nevada and California - they're going to need it.

recedite

robindch wrote: »

On the plus side, recreational marijuana was legalized in Massachusetts, Nevada and California - they're going to need it.

Also looking forward now to improved respect and cooperation from the USA regarding Russia, China Iran etc... the total annihilation of Islamic State, and a speedy end to the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

silverharp

recedite wrote: »

Also looking forward now to improved respect and cooperation from the USA regarding Russia, China Iran etc... the total annihilation of Islamic State, and a speedy end to the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

nice to see the Cold War II just ended last night

FA Hayek

recedite wrote: »

Also looking forward now to improved respect and cooperation from the USA regarding Russia, China Iran etc... the total annihilation of Islamic State, and a speedy end to the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

+1

To understand one of the reasons why Trump won, all you have to do is look at the sneering attitude in the media, new and old, towards him and most importantly his supporters.

Water John

Emmet, the GOP is a coalition. Best of luck on DT getting funds from the conservative wing, Paul Ryan & Ted Cruz.
Hope DT acts as President for all Americans. Lot of angry people out there. As some one said on radio, their lives and quality of life have stagnated or gone backwards since 1980's.
It the case here too with short work contracts etc. People flailing around looking for a solution.

PopePalpatine

IMHO, I think whoever won tonight will be a 1-term president. Clinton would get hamstrung by a Republican Congress, and would probably face a more palatable Republican in 2020, probably Paul Ryan, who doesn't have the baggage of bragging about sexual assault. I hope the Dems learn their lesson from this.

Water John

Water John wrote: »

Emmet, the GOP is a coalition. Best of luck on DT getting funds from the conservative wing, Paul Ryan & Ted Cruz.
Hope DT acts as President for all Americans. Lot of angry people out there. As some one said on radio, their lives and quality of life have stagnated or gone backwards since 1980's.
It the case here too with short work contracts etc. People flailing around looking for a solution.

I'm not happy about the result, so I think you've managed to read something I haven't written?

I've pointed out that the majorities are all Republican now, and so this thread (which feeds off the nonsense that comes out of them) will surely have more fuel in the coming years.

Water John

Any good non establishment candidate on either side would have won.
Both parties should seriously look at their nominating procedures.
The extremes in each party get to pick the candidate.

smacl

recedite wrote: »

Also looking forward now to improved respect and cooperation from the USA regarding Russia, China Iran etc... the total annihilation of Islamic State, and a speedy end to the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

Ah yep, send in the marines to blow the shoite out of some ragheads and end this war on terror, like its never been tried before. What could possibly go wrong :rolleyes: