~*~Unofficial 2016 US Presidential Election Thread~*~

[Warren Dew]

So the Iowa Freedom Summit is in the books. Iowa is the first state in primary/caucus season and IFS is where all of the GOP go to pander to the evangelicals and try to get a leg up.

http://www.iafreedomsummit.com/

Speaker List
Congressman Marsha Blackburn
Congressman Rod Blum
Ambassador John Bolton
Gov. Terry Branstad
Dr. Ben Carson
Gov. Chris Christie
Senator Ted Cruz
Senator Jim Demint
Congressman Jeff Duncan
Senator Joni Ernst
Carly Fiorina
Gov. Jim Gilmore
Speaker Newt Gingrich
Senator Charles Grassley
Gov. Mike Huckabee
Senator Mike Lee
NH State Rep. William O'Brien
Gov. Sarah Palin
Gov. Rick Perry
Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds
Senator Rick Santorum
Donald Trump
Gov. Scott Walker.

Notably missing from the list are Mittens Romney and Jeb Bush who are both seriously considering a run. Its particularly interesting to see neither attend because on one hand both are at their weakest with the tea party/evangelical crowd. OTOH its their pandering to those crowds which liberals will jump on. Gov Christie could be said to be in the same boat, but he did make an appearance.

Christie is desperate. Or maybe he's just so full of himself that he thinks they love him. Or both.

[GT2211]

The List so far

Democrats:
Hillary Clinton

Republicans:
Ted Cruz
Marco Rubio
Rand Paul

[OlivierK]

What a dire choice.

[Boyle]

The List so far

Democrats:
Hillary Clinton

Republicans:
Ted Cruz
Marco Rubio
Rand Paul

Makes me wonder if Sanders is gonna run. I don't think he or Warren should, to be honest, because they can make so much noise from where they sit. Being the President isn't quite as fun as we're led to believe, especially not with a hostile Congress.

Though, if Sanders won, Congress would get markedly less hostile, I think. Just something about the way he looks. . .

[Warren Dew]

The List so far

Democrats:
Hillary Clinton

Republicans:
Ted Cruz
Marco Rubio
Rand Paul

Makes me wonder if Sanders is gonna run. I don't think he or Warren should, to be honest, because they can make so much noise from where they sit.

Warren could arguably make more of a difference from the sidelines; as a candidate Fauxcahontas Warren would have to spend most of her time dealing with issues of her being personally privileged and out of touch. As it is, she can leave that part to Mrs. Thinks-she's-a-big-deal-so-she-can-park-in-handicapped-spots-without-being-more-than-mentally-handicapped Clinton.

Being the President isn't quite as fun as we're led to believe, especially not with a hostile Congress.

I think Obama is proving that once you're a lame duck, you can pretty much ignore Congress.

[GT2211]

Martin O'Malley is in and has my support
http://www.vox.com/2015/3/23/8272423/ma ... s-steagall

Unfortunately for the click-counters and cable news ratings, the Clinton-Warren race isn't going to happen. But if it's the ideas you're interested in, it's worth paying attention to former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley who is officially launching his campaign today and actually running on the issues people want to hear about from Warren.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... wrong.html

From 2000 to 2010, the incidence of crime in Baltimore dropped 43 percent, outpacing by a stretch the 11 percent drop that the nation saw during that period. The crime rate dropped by 40 percent. Graduation rates rose. Median home prices doubled. A new biotech park was built on the city’s east side. A new performing arts center was built on the west side. O’Malley was obsessed with numbers and metrics, and set up a 311 call center to track citizen complaints. A program called Project 5000 enlisted volunteer attorneys to help deal with the city’s massive vacant home problem as titles to those homes was eventually transferred to individuals and nonprofits for redevelopment. The school system was pulled back from the fiscal brink. CitiStat, designed to track crime, helped bring the crime rate down and created a budget surplus of $54 million that was then reinvested in schools and programs for children. At last, the population stabilized. It was no longer necessary to flee, if you could. The number of college-educated 25-to-34-year-olds living within three miles of downtown Baltimore increased 92 percent in the 10 years after O’Malley became mayor, fourth among the nation’s 51st-largest metro areas.

[Jerome Da Gnome]

Well, the crime stats are misleading.

He faked the crime stats, having the police write up felonies as misdemeanors, there was one story in the Sun where someone reporting having been mugged at gun point for their wallet was written up as a lost property case.

Plus he had them do mass arrests with a zero tolerance policy. I remember one example of arresting a law abiding citizen in his back yard drinking a beer ...

Ohh, and the millions upon millions of dollars that just disappeared from the Baltimore City school system, like literally disappeared. They never found it, it really did just disappear .. not that they looked real hard, but that is what you get in a one party State.

In 2005, the Police Department made more than 100,000 arrests in a city of 640,000 people. The following year, the NAACP and the ACLU sued the city on behalf of 14 people, alleging that their arrests indicated a broad pattern of abuse in which thousands of people were routinely arrested without probable cause. The city settled the lawsuit in 2010 for $870,000, agreed to retrain officers and publicly rejected zero-tolerance policing.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryla ... tml#page=2

With that said, he is most probably the Democratic nominee.

[Teague]

Bernie Sanders!


Nuff said.

[GT2211]

Bernie Sanders!


Nuff said.

I don't see myself voting for someone who is so opposed to nuclear power.

[ScholasticSpastic]

Well, the crime stats are misleading.

He faked the crime stats, having the police write up felonies as misdemeanors, there was one story in the Sun where someone reporting having been mugged at gun point for their wallet was written up as a lost property case.

Plus he had them do mass arrests with a zero tolerance policy. I remember one example of arresting a law abiding citizen in his back yard drinking a beer ...

I'm going to leave most of what you said alone and focus on what I've quoted. The second sentence/paragraph appears to be saying that this person has artificially deflated crime statistics. Then the next sentence after the paragraph break talks about this person engaging in behaviors which would artificially inflate crime statistics.

Which is it? Did they deflate or inflate the crime statistics? And, whatever your response, how do you account for the actions you've talked about which would have an effect opposite whichever effect you claim this person had?

[Jerome Da Gnome]

He did both.

They made a ton of arrests for minor offenses on the premise that if everyone was locked up there would be no big crimes, but most were not prosecuted, so they were not counted as crimes for the FBI stats. Plus they took big crimes and wrote them as minor crimes or non-crimes, like a mugging is written as lost property.

[Teague]

Bernie Sanders!


Nuff said.

I don't see myself voting for someone who is so opposed to nuclear power.

So you're ok letting the rest of the country rot just because you don't like one issue? So you won't be voting at all for anyone then, will you with that attitude!

What are his alternatives to Nuclear - since you know so much you know what that is, right? Or are you just picking one thing you don't like because you need an excuse not to vote for him, you know, like a reason and that's the only one you could really find?

[willhud9]

You are engaging in dogmatic hyperbole.

If GT doesn't find Sanders the best candidate than he doesn't.

Sanders campaign is built on promises he cannot keep. The president does not have authority to do change a lot of what he wants changed and if he seeks to try to abuse his power as president the far right and the courts would definitely take him down.

Realism in the world of politics is sometimes more important than zealous idealism.

[Jerome Da Gnome]

What are Sanders' major platform stances?

[Teague]

What are Sanders' major platform stances?

Breaking up the huge banks.

bringing back wealth equality

raising the minimum wage

creating jobs by investing in the crumbling infrastructure

Taking on Wall street and the billionaires.

Protecting social security/medicare and medicaid (SS btw has a surplus of 2.5 trillion and can sustain itself for the next 19 years)

Protecting the US postal service (once again, Koch funded shills are spreading disinformation about this too, it's not losing money at all).

Working to a UHC solution that is better ran and more cost effective.

These are just a few of the things he stands for - not sure what Will's going on about either. Many cities already have raised the minimum wage to $15 - Investing a $trillion in rebuilding the roads, bridges railways will make 13 million good paying jobs

He's also into weathering homes and making them much more energy efficient as well as reducing the dependency on fossil fuels and making corporations pay the fucking tax they owe.

[Jerome Da Gnome]

What are Sanders' major platform stances?

Breaking up the huge banks.

He is against the Federal Reserve system? What is the replacement he proposes?

[Jerome Da Gnome]

What are Sanders' major platform stances?

bringing back wealth equality

Bring it back to what point? How?

[Jerome Da Gnome]

What are Sanders' major platform stances?

raising the minimum wage

To what?

creating jobs by investing in the crumbling infrastructure

We heard this one from the last guy...

Taking on Wall street and the billionaires.

What does that mean?

Protecting social security/medicare and medicaid (SS btw has a surplus of 2.5 trillion and can sustain itself for the next 19 years)

How?

All SS money is spent as it comes in, the surplus is an accounting fraud that if a business did it, the officers would be jailed.

Protecting the US postal service (once again, Koch funded shills are spreading disinformation about this too, it's not losing money at all).

Are you claiming the postal service funds itself with no tax money?

Working to a UHC solution that is better ran and more cost effective.

How?

[GT2211]

What are Sanders' major platform stances?

Breaking up the huge banks.

While I don't actually agree with O'Malley on this issue. As I noted earlier, he has been running on the financial platform everyone was hoping Warren would run on. He has been as big of a supporter of re-instituting Glass-Steagall as any candidate.

bringing back wealth equality

This is kind of a vague platform stance.

raising the minimum wage

O'Malley successfully passed legislation to raise the min wage in Maryland to $10.10 and has been advocating for a while the same wage that Sanders just came out in favor of.

creating jobs by investing in the crumbling infrastructure

O'Malley successfully raised taxes to raise the infrastructure funding in Maryland and implemented a 48 hour guarantee on fixing pot holes in Baltimore, a city that had pretty bad roads.

Taking on Wall street and the billionaires.

See Vox link above.

Protecting social security/medicare and medicaid (SS btw has a surplus of 2.5 trillion and can sustain itself for the next 19 years)

O'Malley would like to expand SS.

Protecting the US postal service (once again, Koch funded shills are spreading disinformation about this too, it's not losing money at all).

I could care less if the USPS disappears.

These are just a few of the things he stands for - not sure what Will's going on about either. Many cities already have raised the minimum wage to $15

AFAIK 2 cities have passed legislation to do that, and in LA it isn't even scheduled to take effect til 2020 and Seattle's til 2017.

[Teague]

What are Sanders' major platform stances?

Breaking up the huge banks.

While I don't actually agree with O'Malley on this issue. As I noted earlier, he has been running on the financial platform everyone was hoping Warren would run on. He has been as big of a supporter of re-instituting Glass-Steagall as any candidate.

bringing back wealth equality

This is kind of a vague platform stance.

raising the minimum wage

O'Malley successfully passed legislation to raise the min wage in Maryland to $10.10 and has been advocating for a while the same wage that Sanders just came out in favor of.

creating jobs by investing in the crumbling infrastructure

O'Malley successfully raised taxes to raise the infrastructure funding in Maryland and implemented a 48 hour guarantee on fixing pot holes in Baltimore, a city that had pretty bad roads.

Taking on Wall street and the billionaires.

See Vox link above.

Protecting social security/medicare and medicaid (SS btw has a surplus of 2.5 trillion and can sustain itself for the next 19 years)

O'Malley would like to expand SS.

Protecting the US postal service (once again, Koch funded shills are spreading disinformation about this too, it's not losing money at all).

I could care less if the USPS disappears.

These are just a few of the things he stands for - not sure what Will's going on about either. Many cities already have raised the minimum wage to $15

AFAIK 2 cities have passed legislation to do that, and in LA it isn't even scheduled to take effect til 2020 and Seattle's til 2017.

It's not vague when 99% of all new wealth generated goes to the top 1%.

Sanders has been in favour of raising the minimum wage for years - he didn't just come out with it. Sanders wants $15.

Did O'Mally also give tax breaks to the wealthy?

I believe it's going to be increasing over the years not wait till 2020 and suddenly go up.

Sanders has been for all his points his entire political career.