Testing Episode IV: A New Lament

[The Spartan]

Am I the only one who is horrified/embarrassed, but also weirdly amused by Trump being the Republican front runner?

[joviwan]

I am genuinely, actually frightened of the entire republican line up, and especially Trump.

[Ralin]

I maintain that America is doomed every day Mike Huckabee isn't in the White House.

[Bounty]

I am genuinely, actually frightened of the entire republican line up, and especially Drumpf.

It's sad and embarrassing more than anything.

[adr]

If Hillary Clinton wins the nomination, Trump is probably our best bet at getting a centrist in the White House.

(iow America is p messed up yo)

[The Spartan]

Yeah, but I doubt Trump would get elected even then.

Last I checked, Clinton has a "strongly dislike" rating among likely voters of around 33%, but Trump's is 56%. In that vicinity anyhow.

[Ralin]

Good thing that stuff about him picking Joe Arpaio as his running mate was a hoax. That probably would have clenched the win for Trump.

[F.J. Prefect, Esq]

If Hillary Clinton wins the nomination, Trump is probably our best bet at getting a centrist in the White House.

(iow America is p messed up yo)

centrist doesn't mean changing your mind every day for no reason

[The Spartan]

I shudder to think what his brownshirts thugs supporters will do when they lose.

[Stofsk]

At first I found it amusing that Trump threw his hat in the race and the Republican primary in general has just been a clown car with unlikable candidates. Now I'm more ambivalent. It's still funny that Trump has done so well and frustrated the Republican establishment with his success (my heart bleeds for them, it truly does) but at the same time his public rallies are looking more and more Nazi-like and Trump has been especially bold-faced with his lies and it doesn't seem to be hurting his campaign. I doubt he could win the general election though. Which I guess makes this primary stoush even more a wombat than normal.

[F.J. Prefect, Esq]

I don't think he could beat the Bern and the Donald would get rolled by Hot Rod.

Then again I used to think of him as a joke candidate and now he's winning the Repub primary so

[Stofsk]

I still think he's a joke candidate

it's just the joke stopped being funny awhile ago

[uraniun235]

this is the culmination of decades of poisonous rhetoric and arguing in bad faith. this is what you get when you anoint dipshits like Karl Rove and Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh to be the standard-bearers of your movement. the real monster isn't the republican party, or donald trump, or whomever; it's the turbid mass of spiteful ideology and misdirected anger, and the republicans have just found out that they're not the only ones who can crack a whip at it. the republicans were just fine with trump shouting about WHERE'S THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE??? but now that he's off the leash they're shocked, just shocked. fuck them all


it is also the best possible chance at destroying the coalition of interests that make up the republican party. if trump wins the nomination, the election is almost certainly going to go to the democrats, and there's a good chance a lot of republicans will stay home rather than vote for trump. if trump gets fucked over at the convention, there's a good chance he'll basically set the building on fire and spur a civil war within the party over the election being "stolen" by the elites.


this isn't "embarrassing" or even shameful. shameful was killing countless thousands of iraqis on a god damned lie. shameful was the republicans dog-whistling shit like "where's obummer's BIRTH CERTIFICATE". shameful was deciding that holding someone, anyone accountable for literally torturing prisoners to death was "too sanctimonious." this is a glorious blowback that has already bitterly disappointed the hopes of presumptive assholes like JEB! and we should all laugh heartily at the harvest they have so busily sowed all these years.



fuck

them

all

[Big Orangutan]

I also think the Neoliberal Globalisation Crapatalism has long ago reached the tipping point of diminishing returns for most increasingly frustrated people (outside of cheaper, nicer electronics) and a dangerous guy like Trump is tapping into that as well, even if he's part of that problem.

[Stofsk]

fuck

them

all

[adr]

amen

[Civil War Man]

it is also the best possible chance at destroying the coalition of interests that make up the republican party. if trump wins the nomination, the election is almost certainly going to go to the democrats, and there's a good chance a lot of republicans will stay home rather than vote for trump. if trump gets fucked over at the convention, there's a good chance he'll basically set the building on fire and spur a civil war within the party over the election being "stolen" by the elites.

My father self-identifies as an independent*, though based on his political beliefs I'd classify him as being an old school New England Republican. He's also said that, if the race came down to Clinton vs. Trump, he'd actively vote for Clinton because, as much as he doesn't like her, he considers the stakes to be too high. He hasn't specified what he'd do in a Sanders vs. Trump campaign. I can't imagine him actually voting for Sanders, but the idea of a Trump presidency legitimately scares him, so he might not vote in that instance.

It wouldn't necessarily be without precedent. My mom and I aren't sure how he voted in 2008, but we suspect he didn't vote for President that year because even though he didn't agree with much of Obama's platform and thought well of McCain, Palin was just that poisonous to the ticket.

*to be fair, about 80 or 90-something percent of Rhode Islanders are registered as Independent, since the state runs semi-open primaries where people who are registered Republican or Democrat can only vote in their party's primary, but Independents can vote in either.

[Losonti Tokash]

ilu bill

[F.J. Prefect, Esq]

[Ralin]

The thing that gets me is that while I'm leaning pretty strongly toward Hillary, Trump is the only candidate who has shown any sign that he would treat the War on Drugs like the national priority it deserves to be. Taking on that Mexican drug lord who came after him on Twitter counts for a lot in my book. There are literally entire states where you can openly purchase the drug marijuana and the police won't do a damn thing about it. We're in the middle of the second American Civil War for all practical purposes, only the government isn't doing their part to fight back.

[The Spartan]

Laid off! Yay!

[joviwan]

aw shit, that sucks, dude

[Ralin]

That sucks man. I know the feeling.

On that note, apparently the school that fucked up my visa shut down. Haven't gotten the details out of the other foreign teacher yet

[The Spartan]

Thanks, guys.

I'm probably lucky to have made it this far what with working in Oil and Gas. Maybe this will give me an opportunity to get out of that field; hell, I didn't particularly want to get into it in the first place, that's just where the jobs have been.

Or maybe I'll win the lottery that I all-but-never play and retire to an island where I can lie on a beach drinking things with umbrellas.

It's probably the first one...

[Ralin]

My father is an oil rig supervisor and he's been worried a lot about his job lately. Though he says he's more likely to take a heavy pay cut than get fired.