2016 elections - because it's never too early

[garbon]

You just couldn't help yourself, could you, guys? If something doesn't fit your narrative, it has to end with namecalling and attacks on character. 

you mean doing like you constantly do?

Edit: ohh, nice, there is a new filter on the forum 

It's messed up my sig.

[Martinus]

Sav's sig thing is fucking funny. 

[DGuller]

It was funnier when Seedy was craving big black cock rabbits.

[CountDeMoney]

I have no idea who 'Tablet Magazine' is but I am glad somebody is bothering to expose those crazies in the Green Party
...
It is this kind of pandering to idiots and ignorance that drives me nuts in modern politics.

That is why we need to remain a two-party system:  the crazies on both the left and the right become marginalized in the wider party picture--as they should be, where their influence comes and goes with the poltical zeitgeist.

Granting them their own place at the table as parties of equal weight legitimizes their goofiness, and you wind up with Europe.

Fuck that.

[Sheilbh]

Extraordinary to see a SC poll with Clinton only two behind Trump.

[Solmyr]

I have no idea who 'Tablet Magazine' is but I am glad somebody is bothering to expose those crazies in the Green Party
...
It is this kind of pandering to idiots and ignorance that drives me nuts in modern politics.

That is why we need to remain a two-party system:  the crazies on both the left and the right become marginalized in the wider party picture--as they should be, where their influence comes and goes with the poltical zeitgeist.

Granting them their own place at the table as parties of equal weight legitimizes their goofiness, and you wind up with Europe.

Fuck that.

The Green parties in Europe are nowhere near the level of craziness that Jill Stein seems to be. In fact, they are some of the more reasonable ones here.

[Admiral Yi]

The great thing about Trump is he never ever ever takes back anything he says.

[Sheilbh]

I have no idea who 'Tablet Magazine' is but I am glad somebody is bothering to expose those crazies in the Green Party
...
It is this kind of pandering to idiots and ignorance that drives me nuts in modern politics.

That is why we need to remain a two-party system:  the crazies on both the left and the right become marginalized in the wider party picture--as they should be, where their influence comes and goes with the poltical zeitgeist.

Granting them their own place at the table as parties of equal weight legitimizes their goofiness, and you wind up with Europe.

Fuck that.

The Green parties in Europe are nowhere near the level of craziness that Jill Stein seems to be. In fact, they are some of the more reasonable ones here.

That depends a lot on the Green Party in question.

[jimmy olsen]

Sickening
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/secret-service-protected-katy-tur-at-trump-rally

The Secret Service protected MSNBC reporter Katy Tur after Donald Trump launched a personal attack at a December rally.

The candidate had previously blasted her as "dishonest" for her coverage of protests at an earlier rally and demanded an apology, which Tur refused to give.

"What a lie. Katy Tur. What a lie it was," Trump said, pointing at Tur from the stage. "Third. Rate. Reporter. Remember that."

In an essay for Marie Claire, Tur wrote that the crowd turned on her "like a large animal, angry and unchained." Afterwards, the Secret Service took what she described as the "extraordinary" precaution of walking Tur to her car.

It was unlikely, Tur said, that any future attack by the candidate could be "as scary."

Trump has a history of lashing out at what he calls the "very, very dishonest" media, and a slew of reporters and publications have been denied access to Trump's campaign events, including The New York Times, BuzzFeed News, Telemundo, Politico and The Des Moines Register.

[Admiral Yi]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/08/politics/republican-national-security-letter-donald-trump-election-2016/

Open letter from 50 former GOP national security officials saying Trump is not fit to be president.

[OttoVonBismarck]

I can't help but agree with Marti on Islamism, and disagree with Sheilbh. I don't much care if Muslims adopt democracy if that democracy becomes a mechanism for adopting Sharia law. I have no problems with Muslims adhering the Sharia law in their religious, private lives. No different than Jews choosing to follow certain Jewish religious laws in the U.S. or the Catholic Church operating under canon law, but the state cannot, and must not, implement Sharia. The reality is it seems to me, there is a worrying trend in which more secular leaning dictatorships in Muslim countries (at least in the MENA/great-West Asia region) when replaced by democratic movements,  they're replaced by ones that want to impose Sharia law and largely shut down democracy once they've "won." For that reason I was pretty happy when al-Sisi couped Morsi and honestly wish Erdogan had fallen to a coup.

There are certainly Muslims who are content to live in Western, liberal democracies. But there are far too many that believe they have a religious obligation to alter any society in which they live to impose Islamic government on everyone. That ideology, rightly, should be viewed similarly to Nazism and addressed as such.

[Berkut]

I think the focus on Sharia is mis-placed. It isn't about "Sharia" per se, which is a specific set of religious rules, but rather on the general idea that there is a role for religion to play in secular, government rule of law, whether that be Sharia or even just making sure we throw gay people off of cliffs, or have separate rules for desirable Muslims versus not desirable.

I agree with Marty in the broad outlines of his objections, but of course he takes them to a ridiculous extreme.

Obama is not ignoring Islamism, he is just making a conscious decision to handle it in a certain manner. I may not agree with that approach, but it is ignorant to present that approach as "ignoring Islamism" because it doesn't align with how Marty thinks it should be addressed.

[CountDeMoney]

The Green parties in Europe are nowhere near the level of craziness that Jill Stein seems to be. In fact, they are some of the more reasonable ones here.

I dunno, man...I'm old enough to remember the late 70's-early 80's and the Euro Greens, particularly their participation in the Freeze movement.
Now, Euro Greens may have become conventional corporate sell-outs now, but they were nuttier than squirrel shitback then, and even Stein doesn't go that far.  Now they're just older.

[CountDeMoney]

The great thing about Trump is he never ever ever takes back anything he says.

True.  He'll say it three other ways afterwards, but he won't walk back anything. So strong.

[OttoVonBismarck]

I think the focus on Sharia is mis-placed. It isn't about "Sharia" per se, which is a specific set of religious rules, but rather on the general idea that there is a role for religion to play in secular, government rule of law, whether that be Sharia or even just making sure we throw gay people off of cliffs, or have separate rules for desirable Muslims versus not desirable.

I agree with Marty in the broad outlines of his objections, but of course he takes them to a ridiculous extreme.

Obama is not ignoring Islamism, he is just making a conscious decision to handle it in a certain manner. I may not agree with that approach, but it is ignorant to present that approach as "ignoring Islamism" because it doesn't align with how Marty thinks it should be addressed.

I mean, Sharia is Islam's religious law. It's certainly not unique in having a religious legal system, Christianity has had it (at least the Catholic Church), Judaism has it etc. It also isn't unique in commingling it with secular law--for a long time violating Church laws in the West could see you tried in a Church court and even put to death for your crime. The difference is by and large we no longer accept as valid Church law having any say in secular government. Sharia is relevant because it is the law that certain Muslims wish to impose on society (and in fact, have, in many places.)

It's definitely possible to oversimplify Islam. For example almost all practicing Muslims follow one of the schools of Sharia law, to varying degrees, in their personal behavior. Many of them that do so are fine, moral people. There also isn't one universally agreed upon Sharia, with many different schools of Islamic jurisprudence out there.

But it's also possible to understate the reality that there are many Muslims who not only seek to impose religious laws on all of society, but they represent an ongoing, violent threat throughout the MENA region and Europe.