Presidential Race 2016

[Lihu]

6 hours ago, Jeremie Boop said:

You weren't the one who made a flippant, dismissive comment. In my view/opinion, we really don't need to make more intoxicants legal. I know people don't think that marijuana is a gateway drug, but for every person I know that has done it they have also gone on to doing stronger drugs. Anecdotal, I know, but it's been my experience so it's what I have to go by. People also don't like the "slippery slope" argument but I feel like it would apply. I mean people say "but alcohol is legal" so it's not a stretch to imagine down the road they will use the same argument "but weed is legal" to push for something else. Now, that's not to say I'm going to get all up in arms if at some point it is legalized, because if that's what the people vote for then that's what's going to happen. I'd just prefer it didn't happen. Again, I really don't care to continue discussing this. I admit that I'm very biased against drugs and there really isn't anything that can be said to change that. It just really bothers me that one of the reasons people use for legalizing it is "but look how much money the taxes will bring in". And in all honesty, I'm only against recreational use legalization. Any legitimate medical use of it I've no problem with.

 

I apologize for not keeping out of the legalization discussion, though, because I know it really should be left to people who are much more objective about it.

It's not anecdotal. There is an affinity for people to get more of a certain effect than they are accustomed. Once getting high with pot  is not enough they move on to other things. I took a drugs and society course in college, and they described this effect. Don't remember the name.

In any case, outlawing stimulants like alcohol and marijuana don't work very well. You end up with more organized crime and more users than if they were legal. It's been and still becoming more chic to break the law a little bit.

Make it legal, and make it unpopular with ads like "Who wants to be a wino on the street?" Or whatever makes sense?

I'm pretty sure Trump thinks drugs are just stupid, but I don't think he'll declare a war on it? He's smarter than the typical career politician, and would likely deal with real problems.

[Gunther]

On Wednesday, March 23, 2016 at 4:56 PM, Abu3baid said:

On Thursday, March 24, 2016 at 8:57 PM, pumaAttack said:

 

2 hours ago, newtogolf said:

I think I'm too old to feel the "Bern" but I don't see the allure of a guy who was basically a bum until the age of 40 who then became a politician.  

I think the PC term is hobo.  Yeah, it is mind boggling.

[Elmer]

9 hours ago, newtogolf said:

I think I'm too old to feel the "Bern" but I don't see the allure of a guy who was basically a bum until the age of 40 who then became a politician.  

Isnt that what GWB did?

[Ernest Jones]

14 minutes ago, Elmer said:

Isnt that what GWB did?

Lol. Bazinga!

[newtogolf]

Well the GOP race just got more interesting.  The National Enquirer released a story today claiming Ted Cruz had extra-marital affairs with at least 5 different women and suggests that one worked for Trumps campaign and another for Carly Fiorina.   NE broke the story on John Edwards so this story is being given a lot of credibility and the Washington Post has claimed via twitter that they have confirmed two of the women he had an affair with.  The FEC is looking further into a $500,000 donation from Cruz's Superpac to Carly Fiorina's, on suspicions this donation was related to the affair Cruz allegedly had with a campaign member of Fiorina's. 

I'm sure we'll see Ted crying at a press conference in the next few days given today is Good Friday and Easter is Sunday. The question is does he beg for forgiveness or does he back Kasich and hand Kasich all his delegates to go head to head against Trump as the establishment has wanted.  

Also makes you wonder who fed the NE the juicy details, Trumps campaign or the GOP establishment.  In any case, does Rubio jump back in or is this finally a two person race between Kasich and Trump?

[Ernest Jones]

16 hours ago, Jeremie Boop said:

Thanks for trivializing the effects I've seen to people I love with such a flippant response.

Spoiler

Sorry, not trivializing the effects you have seen, but I was trivializing the whole gateway position because that argument deserves ridicule. You'll get no argument from me that drugs ruin lives and families, but not pot, that's silly. Are there outliers? Of course, but those are exceptional cases often involving underlying issues that existed independently from puffin' on the odd spliff. 

People can have wine with dinner every night and not end drinking Aqua Velvet in a parking lot just like people can smoke cannabis every night after dinner without ending up doing crystal meth in a parking lot.

Give people a little credit AND a little more responsibility for the choices they make.

 

[trapdodger]

Well, I voted Hillary to get Bill back and I'm independent. Donald Trumps business talent would go a long way but I just don't trust a man with gold plated rooms in his house. Reminds me of dictators. Just get the feeling he wants in office to find ways to pad his wallet after years of spending money for lobbying. Cruz is just to conservative and dismissive to anyone that doesn't agree with him. He is a real spook. Sanders is just not intimidating enough for foreign policy. That leaves Hillary. I swear, if it weren't for her husband I would skip this years voting process. Before anyone smokes me for saying Bill, remember he was way better than any president elected after him and I bet Monica was a republican lol.

I respect everyone's right to vote and everyone's opinion. This is only mine :)

[boogielicious]

28 minutes ago, newtogolf said:

Well the GOP race just got more interesting.  The National Enquirer released a story today claiming Ted Cruz had extra-marital affairs with at least 5 different women and suggests that one worked for Trumps campaign and another for Carly Fiorina.   NE broke the story on John Edwards so this story is being given a lot of credibility and the Washington Post has claimed via twitter that they have confirmed two of the women he had an affair with.  The FEC is looking further into a $500,000 donation from Cruz's Superpac to Carly Fiorina's, on suspicions this donation was related to the affair Cruz allegedly had with a campaign member of Fiorina's. 

I'm sure we'll see Ted crying at a press conference in the next few days given today is Good Friday and Easter is Sunday. The question is does he beg for forgiveness or does he back Kasich and hand Kasich all his delegates to go head to head against Trump as the establishment has wanted.  

Also makes you wonder who fed the NE the juicy details, Trumps campaign or the GOP establishment.  In any case, does Rubio jump back in or is this finally a two person race between Kasich and Trump?

The NE was right about this too! 

I just thought this thread needed a bit of humor in this ugly race.

[newtogolf]

3 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

The NE was right about this too! 

I just thought this thread needed a bit of humor in this ugly race.

Ugly is a nice word at this point.  Trump and Cruz will have an uphill battle given all the dirt against them.  Kasich has been unscathed to this point, but depending on what Ted does, the spot light could be placed on him next, hope he cleaned his closet better than Ted did. 

[iacas]

1 hour ago, newtogolf said:

The question is does he beg for forgiveness or does he back Kasich and hand Kasich all his delegates to go head to head against Trump as the establishment has wanted.

Is that how it works? I thought in some states the votes went to the person who had won the majority?

[saevel25]

12 minutes ago, iacas said:

Is that how it works? I thought in some states the votes went to the person who had won the majority?

They basically become free agents, 

Quote

Delegates from a dropped-out candidate become free to elect the candidate of their choice at the convention. However, there’s a significant difference between “suspending” and formally ending a campaign in a contested convention, in that the candidate can re-enter the race and reclaim his delegates. If Trump fails to secure the nomination on the primary trail, Rubio could re-activate his campaign and reclaim his delegates.

I always thought a better solution would be you list the candidates in order of how you support them. You can leave off candidates if you really don't like them. If that candidate drops-out then the 2nd person gets the delegates. If there is no 2nd person then they become free agent as above or they just don't count which could lead to more contested conventions. 

[Lugowskins]

20 hours ago, Jeremie Boop said:

I just don't, mostly for personal reasons stemming from friends and family who have ruined their lives by using drugs. One of the reasons people give, like you did, that "but look at the money it can bring in" really bothers me. It's like saying, as long as we can make money off of it that's all that matters.

I was simply using that as one of the selling points and yes tax dollars are a big part of the pros of legalization, but I feel keeping people out of jail for possession is even more important because I have been around it most of my life (I'd say 14 my friends started using it and I think I was 17 when I first tried it) I don't see it as a big deal at all let alone something someone should be sent to prison over. I will beat this point to death of the painkiller over doses how it has drastically dropped in states that have legalized it. Doctors prescribe drugs FAR more dangerous than marijuana every day and yet this plant is a schedule 1 drug on par with heroine and LSD.... I call bullshit

[newtogolf]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

Is that how it works? I thought in some states the votes went to the person who had won the majority?

This is what I had read;

Quote

Primary seasons usually start with several candidates. Ordinarily, candidates drop out of the race after poor showings as the season wears on. So what happens when a candidate drops out after having won some delegates? This is actually a little murky. Ostensibly, the delegates go to the national convention uncommitted, like superdelegates. There, they should be allowed to vote however they choose.

These delegates may also be folded into another candidate's delegates. If a candidate drops out of the race, he or she may endorse a rival candidate in the same party. Once this happens, the delegates formerly belonging to the candidate may pledge to the endorsed one.

 

[boogielicious]

24 minutes ago, newtogolf said:

This is what I had read;

 

Makes you wonder why there a primary election with actual voters, doesn't it?

[newtogolf]

25 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

Makes you wonder why there a primary election with actual voters, doesn't it?

Exactly, between the uncertainty of what happens to delegates of candidates that drop out and the super delegates in the democrat primaries we don't seem to control much.  

[Braivo]

6 hours ago, newtogolf said:

Well the GOP race just got more interesting.  The National Enquirer released a story today claiming Ted Cruz had extra-marital affairs with at least 5 different women and suggests that one worked for Trumps campaign and another for Carly Fiorina.   NE broke the story on John Edwards so this story is being given a lot of credibility and the Washington Post has claimed via twitter that they have confirmed two of the women he had an affair with.  The FEC is looking further into a $500,000 donation from Cruz's Superpac to Carly Fiorina's, on suspicions this donation was related to the affair Cruz allegedly had with a campaign member of Fiorina's. 

I'm sure we'll see Ted crying at a press conference in the next few days given today is Good Friday and Easter is Sunday. The question is does he beg for forgiveness or does he back Kasich and hand Kasich all his delegates to go head to head against Trump as the establishment has wanted.  

Also makes you wonder who fed the NE the juicy details, Trumps campaign or the GOP establishment.  In any case, does Rubio jump back in or is this finally a two person race between Kasich and Trump?

This story has some legs, top trend on Twitter right now is #CruzSexScandal. Wild. That $500,000 donation to a rival's campaign is going to be tough to sweep under the rug. 

Even if nothing more comes of this it has dented Cruz enough to likely lose Wisconsin which is polling at a dead heat right now. If Trump takes Wisconsin his path to the required delegates is pretty clear as he will win NY and CA handily. 

Even if Cruz were to order his delegates to vote for Kasich it is not enough to stop Trump, and Kasich won't win evangelical states like Cruz has been doing. 

In short, it is, and has been, over for a while. Trump gets the nomination. 

[Lihu]

Still hoping for a Sanders vs Trump election. It'd be an honest battle for the white house, but it will likely be a landslide victory for Trump versus Clinton when they uncover yet another scandal on her and it sticks.

So far, Trump hasn't had to do anything to his opponents. He can just sit there spouting off what he thinks while not having to spend a lot of money and let them hang themselves.

[Fourputt]

On 3/24/2016 at 0:28 PM, newtogolf said:

 

Trump talked about it, I talk about it but talking about it and actually starting an campaign fund and doing it are very different things.  If he was interested in politics, he could have run for Mayor or Governor of New York, he could have run for congressman or senator but he never made an effort to become a "politician" until now.  

As for GW and Obama, I agree, not everything that went wrong the last 16 years can be blamed on them but a good amount of it does.  When a company fails the CEO gets fired, if the federal government was run as a business Obama and GW would have been fired.

 

It's not all gloom and doom but we need a POTUS that is going to start to fix things and not just grow government to a bigger and less manageable blob of waste and abuse of tax payer money.  

If the US government was run like a business the presidential selection process wouldn't be run like a popularity contest.  We'd have a board of directors who choose the CEO (President) from a list of qualified applicants, and the board would have a personal stake in the success or failure of the company under his leadership.  That stake would hopefully be an inspiration to put someone in place who would move the company (or country if you will) forward.  

What we have now is 2 power structures working their hardest to tear down the 2 seemingly most popular candidates with the people (Trump and Sanders).   Because of the power they wield, they are taking the place of that board of directors, but their impetus is not the success of the country, but the furthering of their own political machines.  The more we are stuck voting for no other choices but the status quo, the less likely we are to ever see any real change.  Any such change would be in direct opposition to what the power cabals require for their own survival.