2016 elections - because it's never too early

[Admiral Yi]

Why?

Because they got a lot of bets on non-Hillary types.

[Syt]

SNL's take on the second and worst ever presidential debate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhpHp31ozxQ

When satire and reality become indistinguishable ...

[Syt]

Meanwhile, in Canada ....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stGhjokq57U

[Martinus]

This elections feel like Tiberius running against Livia...

[Syt]

Every other year or so, and definitely in US presidizzle election years, I re-read Transmetropolitan, basically a satirical comic about a future Hunter S. Thompson style journalist taking on corrupt politics. There's lots of sex and violence.

Anyways, a main arc is the election of the new president. The incumbent "The Beast," is a corrupt, hard nosed, vile slob who's interested in maintaining the status quo and keeping  the machine that is the country running smoothly. His opponent is Gary "The Smiler" Callahan, an outwardly pleasant candidate who runs for president for the sole reason that he thinks that he should be president so he can fuck with people.

The arc loosely parodied the Bush v Gore campaign of 2000, but it seems every four years we come closer to the parody of having to choose between two reprehensible candidates.







Of course we're still a far cry from that comic's Heller figure:

[garbon]

SNL's take on the second and worst ever presidential debate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhpHp31ozxQ

When satire and reality become indistinguishable ...

I also like Melania's song that she wrote all by herself (Tiffany Trump is finally allowed out of the attic).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJBL7kuzvsg

[Liep]

The Donald watched the Donald and he did not like it.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/787612552654155776

[Martinus]

The Donald watched the Donald and he did not like it.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/787612552654155776

Ok that's pretty lame of Trump. I don't think I can, in good conscience, fake-support him any more.

[Legbiter]

Trump had a GOP Hindu Coalition event in NJ yesterday.



Indian military dance troupe.



Pepe in the wild.

[Ed Anger]

WHO IS WATCHING THE FRONT DESK AT THE RUN DOWN MOTELS THEY OWN?

[CountDeMoney]

TECH SUPPORT LEVEL 1 YOUR NAMES NOT STEVE I CAN TELL

[lustindarkness]

WTF? LOL

[Syt]

Trump had a GOP Hindu Coalition event in NJ yesterday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/15/us/politics/indian-americans-trump.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur

Your typical Trump rally this was not.

First there was the ritual Hindu fire, a yagna, which burned in his honor. Then there were the posters, standard Donald J. Trump head shots except for a touch of artistic interpretation: a tilak, the red dot symbolic of the spiritual third eye in Hindu culture, smudged on his forehead.

This celebration of Mr. Trump in New Delhi in May, and others like it in India this year, are the work of a small, devoted and increasingly visible faction of Hindu nationalists in India and the United States who see Mr. Trump as the embodiment of the cocksure, politically incorrect, strongman brand of politics they admire.

[Syt]

Giuliani and Gingrich say no fair elections in Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Chicago, possibly because Blacks, Hispanics:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/16/donald-trump-rigged-election-poll-giuliani-gingrich-pence

[...]

But then the former New York mayor jumped from media criticism into racially charged territory, saying "there have been places where a lot of cheating going on", citing two cities with large black populations, Philadelphia and Chicago.

Giuliani claimed, without evidence, that Pennsylvania Democrats bussed voters in from Camden, New Jersey, and that "dead people generally vote for Democrats". To back up his claims of voter fraud, he said the Republican president of the New York Yankees had stopped bussing voters around the deeply Democratic city's boroughs.

"To say Philadelphia and Chicago would be fair, I would have to be a moron to say that," Giuliani said.

The claims about Philadelphia, at least, appear to be drawn from a conspiracy theory born in 2012 after Mitt Romney failed to win a single vote in 59 almost wholly black precincts of its 1,687 total. Obama won 85% of the city, 52% of Pennsylvania, and 93% of black voters nationwide.

Conversely, he could not win a single vote in whole counties in deeply conservative Utah that year. John McCain failed to win votes in Chicago and Atlanta precincts in 2008.

Philadelphia's Republican party and an investigation by the city's Inquirer newspaper found claims of fraud or wrongdoing were baseless, and larger studies have found cases of in-person voter fraud have been exceedingly rare over the last six years.

Giuliani and Trump, however, have continued to argue that it does exist, and blamed "inner cities", which Giuliani said Republicans "don't control".

That phrase has offended many African Americans, who hear in it a outdated and hyperbolic vision of their lives that does not match with rising quality of life for many minorities.

Trump has repeatedly said, for instance, that black and Hispanic Americans are "living in hell". When a black voter asked him in the second debate whether he would serve "all" Americans as president, he began speaking of "inner cities", unprompted by anything in the man's question.

Gingrich also said, without evidence, that fraud had taken place in cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago and St Louis, telling ABC that Ryan knows only "honest elections" in his midwest state of Wisconsin.

Gingrich said he thought Ryan should "go and look at the history of Philadelphia, including four years ago, the intimidation".

Some of Trump's own supporters have said they intend to go to polls to intimidate voters.

"Trump said to watch your precincts. I'm going to go, for sure," Steve Webb, a 61-year-old Ohio voter told the Boston Globe this week. "I'm going to go right up behind them. I'll do everything legally. I want to see if they are accountable. I'm not going to do anything illegal. I'm going to make them a little bit nervous."

Giuliani tried to downplay similar remarks by Trump supporters about a "coup" and "bloodshed".

"You can find just as many wacko nuts on her side," he said.

[CountDeMoney]

Some of Trump's own supporters have said they intend to go to polls to intimidate voters.

"Trump said to watch your precincts. I'm going to go, for sure," Steve Webb, a 61-year-old Ohio voter told the Boston Globe this week. "I'm going to go right up behind them. I'll do everything legally. I want to see if they are accountable. I'm not going to do anything illegal. I'm going to make them a little bit nervous."

I can see the Plain Dealer headline the next day: Local Pro-Trump Poll Challenger Dies From Injuries, Victim's Orifices Found Stuffed With Ballots

"You can find just as many wacko nuts on her side," he said.

My sister and I have already planned on how to deal with the possibility of bail for my mother, in the event she loses her shit on Election Day.