The New American Politics thread

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

Why do people work as garbage men? Can we all agree that is a pretty awful job? Is it that much worse than picking lettuce? There are a lot of crappy jobs that people do.

In most of North American being a garbage man is just driving a truck and pushing a button to extend the bin catcher. It's a driving job.

[Dogbert]

Nominee Admires Daughter's Cleavage. #TrumpSpeechIn4Words

[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

Agree, but whatever the cost of a head of lettuce, . In a country where 2/3rds of the population has less than $1000 that is a big deal.

The Republican party is aggressive towards both unions and illegal migrant labour. It is a paradox in my view.

Agriculture is already unionized. Meet Cesar Chavez and the UFW.

Republicans hope to bust up this and similar organizations that would provide a living wage. It is right to work laws in Republican states, and the use of undocumented illegal workers that are being used to bust unions or making them illegal all together. They establish a national wide defacto standard and they can make unions illegal on the federal level, which is really sad. These no mind Republicans fight like rabid dogs protecting the 2nd amendment, but think nothing of crushing the protections in the 1st amendment every opportunity they get.

[Drak]

David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, announced a campaign on Friday to seek a United States Senate seat in Louisiana, where he will try to capitalize on a history of inflammatory speech and on the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump.

Mr. Duke, who is running as a Republican, served as a Louisiana state representative and has run unsuccessfully for the State Senate, governor of Louisiana, Congress and president. He joined a sprawling field for the Senate seat being vacated by David Vitter, a Republican, intensifying what was already poised to be a raucous race.

“I believe in equal rights for all and respect for all Americans,” Mr. Duke said in a campaign video. “However, what makes me different is I also demand respect for the rights and the heritage of European Americans.”

Mr. Duke also said that “European Americans need at least one man in the United States Senate — one man in the Congress — who will defend their rights and heritage.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/23/us...cle-click&_r=0

[Senator Clay Davis]

Well he beat that one loser Romney, but he couldn't beat that other loser who got captured. Sad!

The Republican National Convention clearly reached its crescendo on Thursday night. The four-day run-up until Donald Trump's accepting of the nomination, while giving a strong ratings performance, did not bring any atypical highs for the political meetup. Trump's speech didn't change that narrative by much.

With all three broadcast networks and cable news networks now tallied for the 10 p.m. hour, it appears just over 31.5 million viewers tuned into Trump's extended time on stage.

There are still a few adjustments and adds expected on Friday afternoon. To prove to be a bigger draw than RNC headliners of the recent past, Trump's final tally will need to be higher than 30.3 million to top Mitt Romney in 2012. The candidate already has that in the big. But with nearly 40 million viewers tuning into John McCain in 2008, that showing will not be matched.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/liv...mps-rnc-913569

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by Drak

David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, announced a campaign on Friday to seek a United States Senate seat in Louisiana, where he will try to capitalize on a history of inflammatory speech and on the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump.

Mr. Duke, who is running as a Republican, served as a Louisiana state representative and has run unsuccessfully for the State Senate, governor of Louisiana, Congress and president. He joined a sprawling field for the Senate seat being vacated by David Vitter, a Republican, intensifying what was already poised to be a raucous race.

“I believe in equal rights for all and respect for all Americans,” Mr. Duke said in a campaign video. “However, what makes me different is I also demand respect for the rights and the heritage of European Americans.”

Mr. Duke also said that “European Americans need at least one man in the United States Senate — one man in the Congress — who will defend their rights and heritage.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/23/us...cle-click&_r=0

Doesn't this all illustrate how goofy our discussion of this issue has been?

I mean, "European American" isn't a race either, any more than "Mexican" or "Muslim." So by that logic, I guess Duke is not really a "racist."

And whether or not Trump agrees with Duke--Duke clearly thinks he has found an ideological fellow traveler in Trump. The evidence suggests he is right about that.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

That statement is, itself, deliberately worded not to be racist, which is why it's so jarring. A KKK member saying “I believe in equal rights for all and respect for all Americans"? Since when is that a thing, unless you're implying that members of the races and religions you don't like aren't actually Americans?

[Senator Clay Davis]

Duke has almost no chance to win so while it's interesting that he's involved, the GOP almost certainly won't let him run, and he's DOA as an independent.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by Zarley

Illegal immigration is undeniably a problem for the U.S. Having a massive supply of below market (essentially indentured) labour is not productive in the long run, just look at how that's worked in places like South Africa.




Full Article

The U.S. agricultural economy has been happily chugging along based on slavery indentured servitude or illegal immigrants for two hundred years, it appears to be hugely productive.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Haven't seen this anywhere else yet, but is Booker leaking Clinton's VP pick?

Cory Booker ‏@CoryBooker
KAINE IS ABLE!!!

[Caged Great]

Kaine is officially the VP.

Bad pick in my opinion.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

I guess not leaked by much, Clinton just confirmed it herself. Tim Kaine is the choice.

[Caged Great]

Hillary basically picked an equally boring moderate.

That's not going to uplift anyone or make anyone excited.

Especially when it is likely going to be a turnout election, getting two boring people on the ticket may prove fatal.

[GGG]

Per fovethirtyeight it improves her general election chances by .7%.

This means it looks like strategy is to go after free trade bush/Romney republicans.

A lot tougher to do that with Warren on the ticket.

[nfotiu]

I've always liked Kaine. I'd pick him to be president over anyone who ran for either party's nomination. He seems reasonably popular in Virginia so it probably locks up our state.

[Drak]

Clinton/Kaine

CK

Everyone loves Louis CK.

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by Caged Great

Kaine is officially the VP.

Bad pick in my opinion.

Disagree, it's an excellent pick...

A: He's from a Swing State
B: He's from a Swing State with a democratic governor (so if they win they don't lose a seat in the senate).
C: He's unquestionable competent. Heartbeat away and all that.
D: He's inoffensive. First rule of VP pick club... do no harm.
E: He'll be an effective campaigner.

Fact is with Trump as the opposing nominee you don't need to fire up the base... Trump will do that for you. You can't out anti-establishment Trump so you double down on experienced competence.

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by Dogbert

#TrumpSpeechIn4Words

Make America Hate Again

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Yeah, I can see the logic behind Kaine--but I think as much as Kaine is a pick that offends no-one, my feeling is that he also excites no-one.

And though he is from a "swing state," Virginia isn't really a "tipping point" state in my view. If the Democrats lose Virginia, they will also (likely) lose North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Ohio--and if they lose those, that will be the election.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

It's encouraging if only because I've been saying throughout that the message isn't, "this guy is a bad person", it's "this guy cannot do the job and would be catastrophic for the country". Kaine is clearly competent and is the "I'm an actual adult" choice.