The 2016 US American Election Thread

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by photon

Hey if Trump can do it...

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr’s re-election campaign is refusing to provide The News & Observer with details of his campaign schedule, effectively limiting the newspaper from reporting on Burr’s public appearances.

Burr spokesman Jesse Hunt said concerns with The N&O’s coverage of the race have prompted the campaign to ban the paper from receiving event information.

“Paul (Shumaker, Burr’s lead political strategist) put an embargo on sending you scheduling details until you demonstrate the ability to cover this race from a balanced point of view,” Hunt said in an email.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/pol...111595167.html

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ETA: Ugh, robocalls in Utah trying to get people to support Trump instead of McMullin (they're not approved by or paid for by the Trump campaign):

My name is William Johnson. I am a farmer and a white nationalist. I make this call against Evan McMullin and in support of Donald Trump.

Evan McMullin is an open borders amnesty supporter.

Evan has two mommies. His mother is a lesbian, married to another woman. Evan is okay with that. Indeed Evan supports the Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage.

Evan is over 40 years old and is not married and doesn’t even have a girlfriend. I believe Evan is a closet homosexual.

Don’t vote for Evan McMullin. Vote for Donald Trump. He will respect all women and be a president we can all be proud of.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewir...-robocall-utah

Is this supposed to get people to "support" trump?

[PsYcNeT]

Fox News Donald Trump, not racist bigoted misogynistic a white nationalist, but #1 with white nationalists.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Who here isn't rooting for McMullin in Utah? Both because #### Trump, and because it opens the door to President Evan McMullin, he of 6 electoral college votes.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by HockeyIlliterate

And, in regards to caucuses, everyone who shows up does have the same influence.



Well, I'm not sure that I am arguing that point, but...

If, for example, you wanted a road in your neighborhood paved, what do you think would accomplish that goal more effectively: Going to city council daily and pressing your case publicly (and enlisting others to do the same), or just casually emailing your request to your councilperson (and enlisting others to do the same)?



Why should any effort be spent in trying to listen to a "silent" anything---majority or minority? They are silent, and thus they aren't saying anything to listen to any way. If a "silent" group wishes to be heard, then they need to speak up and, you know, stop being silent.

Everyone who shows up.

So your advocating democracy should be available to those who can show up from 4-8 on a Tuesday. It seems odd that on the one hand you want to have voting holidays to provide more access yet on the other hand support a system that limits access. Even with a holiday the disabled, the service industry, medical doctors and other emergency personal would be restricted from attending caucuses.

The silent majority voices their opinion in votes for the status quo every election.

Look at the 14th st bus lanes. If you go by the council speakers it's opposed 50-1. Whereas the silent majority trusts the expert to give them the infrastructure required.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Where was this months ago?

The FBI has been conducting a preliminary inquiry into Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort's foreign business connections, law enforcement and intelligence sources told NBC News Monday.

Word of the inquiry, which has not blossomed into a full-blown criminal investigation, comes just days after FBI Director James Comey's disclosure that his agency is examining a new batch of emails connected to an aide to Hillary Clinton.

And it comes a day after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid criticized Comey's revelation and asserted that Comey possesses "explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors, and the Russian government."

The FBI did not comment. Manafort told NBC News "none of it is true ... There's no investigation going on by the FBI that I'm aware of." He said he had never had ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin, or had dealings with Putin and his government. He said any suggestion of such ties was "Democratic propaganda."

"This is all political propaganda, meant to deflect," he said.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/...n-ties-n675881

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Cube Inmate

And you don't think that's dangerous?

Definitely not. Who defines who doesn't care? Who defines who's dumb?
Should people who don't care pay less taxes too?

[photon]

RE McMullin: Totally!

This is really interesting, Slate might be scooping NYT (so it'll also be interesting to see if the NYT hurries something out the door).

Basically there seems to be some evidence of communication between Trump servers and Alfa-Bank, the largest private commercial bank in Russia. The nature of the communication suggests human initiated (such as email) rather than from malware or a bot. At one point Alfa-Bank was contacted by the Times and almost right after that the apparent communication ceased. A few days later a new Trump server was setup and the very first request for the IP address for that new Trump server was from Alfa-Bank.

The article is pretty dense, it tries to unpack things but it'd be a long read for someone not familiar with the inner workings of the Internet. And it's not really a smoking gun as the communications themselves aren't accessible, just that they took place. But it certainly is suggestive and if private citizens can find what they did, it's hard to believe the FBI et al wouldn't be aware of this and more.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_a...th_russia.html

[Drak]

Originally Posted by photon

RE McMullin: Totally!

This is really interesting, Slate might be scooping NYT (so it'll also be interesting to see if the NYT hurries something out the door).

Basically there seems to be some evidence of communication between Trump servers and Alfa-Bank, the largest private commercial bank in Russia. The nature of the communication suggests human initiated (such as email) rather than from malware or a bot. At one point Alfa-Bank was contacted by the Times and almost right after that the apparent communication ceased. A few days later a new Trump server was setup and the very first request for the IP address for that new Trump server was from Alfa-Bank.

The article is pretty dense, it tries to unpack things but it'd be a long read for someone not familiar with the inner workings of the Internet. And it's not really a smoking gun as the communications themselves aren't accessible, just that they took place. But it certainly is suggestive and if private citizens can find what they did, it's hard to believe the FBI et al wouldn't be aware of this and more.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_a...th_russia.html

I just read about this via another website poster's link

[AltaGuy]

Originally Posted by photon

RE McMullin: Totally!

This is really interesting, Slate might be scooping NYT (so it'll also be interesting to see if the NYT hurries something out the door).

Basically there seems to be some evidence of communication between Trump servers and Alfa-Bank, the largest private commercial bank in Russia. The nature of the communication suggests human initiated (such as email) rather than from malware or a bot. At one point Alfa-Bank was contacted by the Times and almost right after that the apparent communication ceased. A few days later a new Trump server was setup and the very first request for the IP address for that new Trump server was from Alfa-Bank.

The article is pretty dense, it tries to unpack things but it'd be a long read for someone not familiar with the inner workings of the Internet. And it's not really a smoking gun as the communications themselves aren't accessible, just that they took place. But it certainly is suggestive and if private citizens can find what they did, it's hard to believe the FBI et al wouldn't be aware of this and more.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_a...th_russia.html

As long and painful as this election period has been, it would all be worth it if I got to watch a trial for treason starring Donald Trump when it was over.

[Drak]

Isn't Trump also being tried in Dec for rape?

[direwolf]

Frightening article from Nate Silver today about Trump continuing to narrow the gap. Clinton still has the advantage, but things aren't looking particularly rosy for her campaign at the moment.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/...-with-clinton/

At this point, the election is a long way from being in the bag for Clinton. Both FiveThirtyEight’s models and betting markets give Trump about a 1 in 4 chance of winning the election, about the same chance as the Chicago Cubs have of winning the World Series.

[photon]

Originally Posted by Drak

Isn't Trump also being tried in Dec for rape?

Of the 13 year old? The initial conference is in Dec.

[Cube Inmate]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Definitely not. Who defines who doesn't care? Who defines who's dumb?
Should people who don't care pay less taxes too?

You defined it yourself -- "even if I don't care." While I was being a little bit facetious with my question, I think it's a huge problem that people can and DO resort to the argument that all votes are equal and think that fact somehow justifies their choice to vote from a place of complete ignorance.

[photon]

By many measures, Chobani embodies the classic American immigrant success story.

Its founder, Hamdi Ulukaya, is a Turkish immigrant of Kurdish descent. He bought a defunct yogurt factory in upstate New York, added a facility in Twin Falls, Idaho, and now employs about 2,000 people making Greek yogurt.

But in this contentious election season, the extreme right has a problem with Chobani: In its view, too many of those employees are refugees.

...

Then this summer, Breitbart, the conservative news website whose former executive chairman, Stephen K. Bannon, is now running the Trump campaign, began publishing a series of misleading articles about Chobani.

One drew a connection between Chobani’s hiring of refugees and a spike in tuberculosis cases in Idaho. Another linked Chobani to a “Twin Falls Crisis Imposed by Clinton-Era Pro-Refugee Advocates.” A third conflated Chobani’s hiring practices with a sexual assault case in Twin Falls involving minors.

As Brietbart began publishing its articles, the online attacks grew more intense. On Twitter and Facebook, users called for a boycott of Chobani. An image was widely shared on social media that claimed Mr. Ulukaya was “going to drown the United States in Muslims and is importing them to Idaho 300 at a time to work in his factory.” And bloggers fabricated stories claiming that Chobani was pressuring local officials “to facilitate their multitude of Muslim friendly/Islamification requests.”

Soon the mayor of Twin Falls, Shawn Barigar, found himself at the center of a conspiracy theory.

“It got woven into a narrative that it’s all a cover-up, that we’re all trying to keep the refugees safe so that Chobani has its work force, that I personally am getting money from the Obama administration to help Chobani hire whoever they want, that it’s part of this Islamification of the United States,” he said. “It’s crazy.”

As the online comments escalated this summer, Mr. Barigar and his wife received death threats.


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/01/bu...s-threats.html

[FireGilbert]

^I was just reading that myself. The American dream has been flipped upside down if an immigrant starting a very successful business which employs other immigrants is now considered a bad thing.

Also, I am currently enjoying a delicious Chobani pumpkin pie yogurt and just figured out how to stop Briebart articles from coming up on my FB feed so today has been a win so far.

[photon]

"A Veteran Spy Has Given the FBI Information Alleging a Russian Operation to Cultivate Donald Trump"

In June, the former Western intelligence officer—who spent almost two decades on Russian intelligence matters and who now works with a US firm that gathers information on Russia for corporate clients—was assigned the task of researching Trump's dealings in Russia and elsewhere, according to the former spy and his associates in this American firm. This was for an opposition research project originally financed by a Republican client critical of the celebrity mogul. (Before the former spy was retained, the project's financing switched to a client allied with Democrats.) "It started off as a fairly general inquiry," says the former spook, who asks not to be identified. But when he dug into Trump, he notes, he came across troubling information indicating connections between Trump and the Russian government. According to his sources, he says, "there was an established exchange of information between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin of mutual benefit."

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/...e-donald-trump

[Drak]

Hillary has now tweeted about the Slate Story. Picking up steam.

[photon]

Haha, kid trolls Obama by trick-or-treating in a lame duck costume.



http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know...d-as-lame-duck

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The complaint alleged that a teacher at the Academy of Excellence, a public charter school in Phoenix, singled out a Muslim refugee student for his faith and nationality. The teacher, Faye Myles, told the student, A.A., that she couldn’t wait for Trump to become president because that would mean the student could get deported.

A.A. is a Muslim refugee from Somalia who came to the United States in 2012. Up until January, A.A., an 11-year-old, had been enrolled at the school as a sixth grader.

“I can’t wait until Trump is elected,” the teacher reportedly told the student. “He’s going to deport all you Muslims. Muslims shouldn’t be given visas. They’ll probably take away your visa and deport you. You’re going to be the next terrorist, I bet.”

The complaint further alleged that Myles’ harassment “was extensive,” going so far as to choke A.A. “until his eyes began to water from the pain.” The teacher also showed the class a video clip of the September 11, 2001 hijackers and suggested that A.A. was going to become a terrorist, saying “That’s going to be you.”



https://thinkprogress.org/trump-teac...t-51d9380dc80a

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by direwolf

Frightening article from Nate Silver today about Trump continuing to narrow the gap. Clinton still has the advantage, but things aren't looking particularly rosy for her campaign at the moment.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/...-with-clinton/

the odds for both the Cubs and Trump have improved. Both are now 5 to 2.

[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by direwolf

Frightening article from Nate Silver today about Trump continuing to narrow the gap. Clinton still has the advantage, but things aren't looking particularly rosy for her campaign at the moment.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/...-with-clinton/

Really? Frighting? Trump is still at best a 25% chance. Let's not start screaming the sky is falling yet.