So, here’s what’s been going on with the leading candidates from both parties (plus one wannabe Napoleon).
- Donald Trump: I don’t like the Keystone XL pipeline because I don’t want America to be buying oil from those shifty Canadians.
- Bernie Sanders: People who refuse to accept the dogma of anthropogenic Global Warming (Climate Change) must be prosecuted so that we can aggressively enact the Green Agenda.
- Hillary Clinton: Second Amendment? That’s just for muskets and hunting rifles.
- Mike Bloomberg: The guy who wants to make both guns and soda pop illegal is also considering dropping his tiny hat in the ring.
This may be an election in which determining the lesser of two evils is nearly impossible. If neither party nominates anyone sane, I will be taking a good long look at the Libertarians this time around.
I was just editing Book 12 of my SciFi ebook series and I had totally forgotten than Donald Trump, in hologram form, makes a cameo appearance. He is the host at a giant casino on Ganymede that features the solar system’s largest and classiest sexateria.
I thought that the Keystone XL pipeline was going from Alaska down through Canada? Or did I mishear that?
At this point, I just care about three things: securing the borders, putting a temporary moratorium on the entry of Middle Eastern Muslims (with a proviso to allow Middle Eastern Christians and Yazidis refugee status), and putting Americans back to work. And I’m at a point where I really don’t care who does it or how they do it.
My top three:
1. Defend Constitutional/Human Rights.
2. Enforcement of Immigration Laws
2. Growth-Oriented Regulatory Reform.
I wish I had voted for Gary Johnson last time in 2012 instead of holding my nose and voting for Romney. In 2008 I pulled the lever for Bob Barr, Libertarian. If Trump gets the nod in 2016, I will either vote Libertarian or the Constitution Party.
Errr…, what’s a sexateria?
V, maybe I’m just young and naive, and lack perspective, but it just seems like nobody in Washington really gives a damn about the Constitution. People on both sides of the aisle twist it to get whatever they want. The Left insists that the Second Amendment is about recreation, and not about self-defense or keeping the government from overstepping its boundaries. The Right applauded the Patriot Act, and only started complaining about government surveillance when their own surveillance programs started getting turned against them. The Courts can make the Constitution say whatever the hell they want it to say. Those sworn to defend it are more concerned with filling diversity quotas.
The American political system is one of the most hidebound and restrictive in the world, excepting single-party dictatorships. And right now, it’s dysfunctional as all hell. It assumes that one party supports big government, and the other supports limited government. Except the leadership of the limited government party has decided that it rather likes big government, too. And lots of politicians who claim to like limited government come to the “revelation” that they like big government, too. When the liberals are in power, they get their way and the country keeps getting worse. When the conservatives are in power, the liberals still get their way, and the country keeps getting worse. And the conservatives keep saying, “We’ll put up a fight next time, for real, vote us in again and pinky-swear that we’ll fix things!” And like idiot Charlie Brown with that football, Republican voters keep voting them in.
Republicans in Congress passed a budget that permitted the immigration of 500,000 additional Middle Eastern Muslims to this country, despite all the evidence in the world that it will be disastrous. And Paul Ryan gets up and says that it would be “racist” and “anti-American” to deny people who support ideas counter to our way of life a chance to invade (no, not move here, INVADE, they’ve been quite clear about their intentions in Europe) us.
So, long story short: neither party really cares about the entire Constitution and have parts they want to rip out; the Republicans have given up trying to be any sort of opposition to the Democrats; the military keeps letting itself get shoved in a wood chipper by bureaucrats and politicians who hate them, all while trying to turn themselves into the world’s best-armed Tumblr blog; the conservative movement has not gotten a single thing done since I’ve been born and has relied on the whims of the Supreme Court, and its resident talking heads are pissed off that people are tired of it not delivering on its promises and are shopping around for a new right-wing political movement; and finally, the Constitution has been reduced to a piece of paper to get used like a prostitute in Tijuana by both parties.
Can you blame me for wondering what would happen if a missile hit the State of the Union?
Can you blame me for wondering what would happen if a missile hit the State of the Union?
I will just say there are things I contemplate in private that I would never say on this blog and leave it at that.
One thing I will say, I have faith that there is only so much stupidity that Nature will put up with before she snaps back.
Something unfortunate at the SOTU wouldn’t change a thing since a Rump of the Senate and House purposefully are absent at an “undisclosed location” during any gathering of the Joint Houses. At-least one Cabinet Officer in the Line of Succession is also absent along with at-least on Justice of the Supreme Court to preserve the “Continuity of Government” for all three branches.
Any sitting Federal Judge can swear the surviving senior Cabinet Officer in as POTUS, and the Rump Congress would legislate as two Committees-of-the Whole until special House elections could be held, and replacement Senators appointed. The new POTUS and Rump Senate would appoint addl. JOTSCs so the Court had three or five Justices to restore judicial collegiality. The Federal bureaucracy and the DoD would muddle along as always.
The entire system is remarkably resilient.
I’m all in for Gary Johnson. He has a solid record as Governor. I doubt I’ll ever pull the lever for a Republican on a national ticket again.
I wrote in Howard Phillips in 1996, instead of the designated loser Bob Dole. Time is past for me to prostitute my vote. Voting for the lesser of two evils has brought us to this point. Voting my conscience now.
I voted for Gary Johnson in 2012 due to his governing experience and his policy positions. While I personally identify as Libertarian, I do not belong to a party and wait until the parties have officially chosen their candidates before making a decision of who to vote for. However, when looking at all of the candidates currently running, Gary Johnson would have my vote if he makes it on the November ballot.
In a lot of ways, I’m just past trusting anybody.
Yeah, Trump has tapped into a lot of anger that I think is legitimate (anybody who is currently screeching “They’re all just a bunch of NAZIS!!!” has lost whatever respect I had for them), but I don’t know if he’s sincere, and while I do think he would at least try to deal with immigration, I think some of his economic policy is just more of the same cronyism.
Cruz is the one who displays the most “traditionally conservative” traits, but his working-class hero shtick has been hampered by the revelations of the loans given to him by Goldman-Sachs, which raises concerns that he’s owned by the same fat cats who got Washington to save themselves from the recession. And while I don’t think him being born in Canada is an issue, the fact that “natural-born American” has never been defined could be an issue if the Dems find a judge who’s willing to cause problems about it.
And Rubio… he might be the “safest” choice, but the past four election cycles saw a “safe” candidate, and those led to a president whose administration was the definition of “middling,” and two milquetoast candidates who lost to a know-nothing know-it-all.
So, in the end, it comes down to who the Democrat nominee is. If it’s Hillary or Sanders and one of those three is the nominee, I’ll vote and take a long shower afterwards; no matter how bad they are, they have to be better than Hillary or Bernie. If it’s a mid-carder, maybe I’ll vote Libertarian, or be a troll and write in Tyrion Lannister or something like that. If it’s Hillary or Sanders and Jeb or Kasich, I’ll just withdraw my support from the whole system and just stay home.
I did research on the Constitution Party, and they are ultra religious nuts. I will pass on them and go Libertarian, although I am not fond of some of their positions. They are anti military to some extent, and they want to end all surveillance of Americans. I think we do too much of that, but they go to the other extreme. They are good on economic issues, however.
SeanL, I had loans with Citibank and USBank. Will that disqualify me from running for public office because they own me?
Regarding Cruz’ loans, he did disclose them, he did pay them back or mostly paid them back. If your spouse was working at Goldman Sachs and you needed a loan, of course you would use them to get one. There was no special treatment in either direction. I don’t see a problem here.
And I doubt anyone will find a judge to say Cruz isn’t a natural born citizen when the law clearly defines him as such.
§301 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, in effect when Cruz was born in 1970. It provides that “a person born outside the geographical limits of the United States. . . of parents one of whom is an alien, and the other a citizen of the United States who, prior to the birth of such person, was physically present in the United States . . . for . . . not less than five years, at least two of which were after attaining the age of fourteen years” is a citizen of the United States.
Trump is just being a dick in spreading rumors and casting doubt. There are big Trump supporters on FB who are repeating this garbage and calling Cruz the liar. (Got into it with someone yesterday…they said Cruz voted yes in the final TPP, saying he’s a liar and a traitor. A simple search showed me he voted no to TPA – the fast tracking and the final TPP vote, which he said he will not vote for, won’t come until November.)