The 2016 Presidential Election Trainwreck

[cougjunkie]

I am so excited for Trump to be our next president. I feel like after he is elected he will stand up and let us all in on some sort of secret, that this was a social experiment to prove just how dumb the American people are.

[Walter Sobchak]

I watched that and it was crazy. It is one thing to be confidnet in oneself, but he could be dillusional.

I think you've hit the nail on the head... a strong pickle hangover is the only reasonable explanation from Trump at this point.

why would trump or cruz delegates approve rule changes that let someone other than their candidate win?

How the establishment will now try to steal the nomination from Donald Trump

A snippet from the article written by a dude that served as a senior adviser to the Ron Paul 2012 Campaign (supporting links removed; see original):

[...]

#2) The RNC Rules Committee will likely change the rules back to a five state requirement needed to put a name in nomination at the Convention. This will make it easier to nominate Rubio, Cruz, Kasich and even Romney. Trump operatives should block this change and keep it at eight, which was originally designed to protect Romney, the expected incumbent.

#3) Make sure that you have your own people chosen as delegates to the convention. The insiders will fight you to the death over this, saying that it doesn’t matter, that you won the primary or the caucus and so the actual delegates are bound by law to vote for you anyway. (Not true.)

They will say that the governor and the senator and the old former chairman, who has been to every RNC since Eisenhower, should be able to represent their state. Be courteous and reasonable but you also need large numbers of your own reliable Trump supporters chosen as delegates.

Keep in mind, the only rules that bind the delegates are the rules of the party and those very delegates can change those rules.

What if there is a media hyped Trump scandal and the party votes to “unbind” the delegates on the first ballot? Then they can vote for whomever they wish.

What if Trump does not win on the first ballot and there is a second ballot? They will then vote their real choice and you will have lost all of those states you thought you had won in primaries.

#4) The place of the caucus that selects the actual delegates who go to the district or state convention may suddenly change without your knowledge. Linked by a telephone chain the insiders will meet without you. Your folks will show up at one hotel and the meeting will take place at another.

#5) The time of the meeting may suddenly change. Your people can show up and find that the building is locked and authorities will say you are too late to be allowed in to participate. This happened many times in 2012, with hundreds of screaming voters left outside.

#6) The chairman may say “Ayes have it,” even if they don’t. This happens at the precinct, county, district, state and even national level. What are you going to do about it? Sue? Meanwhile, their winning precinct delegation will go onto the State Convention as delegates representing your opponent.

You may appeal to the RNC for justice and they may support the cheaters because you don’t have enough of your own people as delegates serving on the Rules Committee.

#7) Off duty police may arrest and detain your newly elected Donald Trump GOP officers. Yep, that happened to us. Your people may be kept for hours in jail cells and those who protest may be arrested as well.

#8) Precinct, County, State leaders may charge a last minute tax. This happened in 2012 in Alaska. Voters who had not been tipped off could not vote without paying $10. Credit cards not accepted. This worked so well at excluding voters in Alaska that Romney operatives used it in King County, Washington. They also turned away young people who did not appear on their outdated voter registration lists.

#9) If the Caucus Chairman is replaced or does not like the outcome of the vote they may suddenly declare the process invalid. For example, they may say that the new chairman is a Trump partisan and thus it is now a Trump event and the GOP insurance for the event is invalid and thus the meeting is ended. See the video above.

#10) State Conventions will prepare ballots misspelling Trump and then later discount them in the voting for those pledged delegates.

#11) Fake ballots will be distributed listing establishment names as the official Trump delegates, confusing the voters. They may also try to split the Trump slate by nominating competing Trump delegates with real names of public figures.

#12) Counting the ballots at the various conventions will be an exhausting business with delays, postponements until the next day, seals broken on the voting boxes, and all kinds of chicanery.

#13) They may cancel the voting due to weather in a key precinct that is heavily Trump, throwing the State. Even though the weather turns out to be fine in the given precinct.

#14) At convention you may find hotel rooms cancelled. And other rooms may be bugged. They may arrange for the bus bringing your delegates to the Rules Committee to get lost and changes to convention rules may happen in your absence.

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[Jeff Lebowski]

Just a hunch, but I don't think SU is in favor of privatizing roads.

Probably not.

That's the classic problem with libertarianism. It is a compelling theory, but it breaks down when you start applying it to real-world issues.

[Uncle Ted]

I think you've hit the nail on the head... a strong pickle hangover is the only reasonable explanation from Trump at this point.




How the establishment will now try to steal the nomination from Donald Trump

A snippet from the article written by a dude that served as a senior adviser to the Ron Paul 2012 Campaign (supporting links removed; see original):

It seems the establishment is already preparing Paul Ryan to take over. And Trump is hinting to his supporters to burn down the convention if something like that happens. It should be fun to watch!

[Omaha 680]

I am so excited for Trump to be our next president. I feel like after he is elected he will stand up and let us all in on some sort of secret, that this was a social experiment to prove just how dumb the American people are.

On that note this was a funny read my brother posted to Facebook. It's pretty good satire because the first 1/3 of it sounds totally believable.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/what-i-l...umps-campaign/

[wuapinmon]

[Color Me Badd Fan]

http://theweek.com/articles/613016/d...blem-not-think

Another article that goes into the intricacies of the delegate selection process and how a lot of delegates will be sent to the convention that only need to vote for Trump on the first ballot, but will go for someone else on a second vote. Trump has not been building bridges with the state GOP officials, while Cruz has.

As Maximus said, there's that rule that the only candidates that can be voted on are those that won a majority of delegates in 8 states or territories. Trump has already qualified and Cruz is at four. Cruz will undoubtedly get there with Utah, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, etc. It's unlikely that there will be enough turncoat delegates to change that rule.

[creekster]

I know this will confirm just how shallow I am, but is it just me or does Hillary have tiny hands on short arms? Whenever I see her gesticulating at the podium it looks like she has T-rex arms. And if THAT's not impugnable, I don't know what is.

[pelagius]

I know this will confirm just how shallow I am, but is it just me or does Hillary have tiny hands on short arms? Whenever I see her gesticulating at the podium it looks like she has T-rex arms. And if THAT's not impugnable, I don't know what is.

Reverse Halo effect?

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Probably not.

That's the classic problem with libertarianism. It is a compelling theory, but it breaks down when you start applying it to real-world issues.

Uncle Ted, are you against public roads, courts, police and firefighters?

...yeah...didn't think so.

There's a pretty wide gulf between the corrupt hellholes that are Detroit, Baltimore, Philly, etc. and not having public roads and courts of law, and I don't think being a libertarian means you don't believe there should be public roads. It's a belief in limited government, not non-existent government.

[Topper]

Probably not.

That's the classic problem with libertarianism. It is a compelling theory, but it breaks down when you start applying it to real-world issues.

If you mischaracterize it, it does.

The central focus of libertarianism is the protection of personal liberties. Pelagius identified some of the theoretical applications which pragmatic libertarians are not calling for, the gold standard and elimination of the Fed.

Libertarianism in its practical formulation is the adoption of socially libertarian ideals, conservative fiscal approach re-shaping government to control the growth of government and to allow the private sector as much discretion as possible.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

I know this will confirm just how shallow I am, but is it just me or does Hillary have tiny hands on short arms? Whenever I see her gesticulating at the podium it looks like she has T-rex arms. And if THAT's not impugnable, I don't know what is.

You're getting an apple shape confused with a pear. No, Hillary doesn't strike me as a T-Rex.

[BlueK]

Probably not.

That's the classic problem with libertarianism. It is a compelling theory, but it breaks down when you start applying it to real-world issues.

I think that's true for the most pure version of it. The problem with the Libertarian party is that for most of them everything is all or nothing. Taken to that extreme, of course it's no longer practical. I consider myself to be a libertarian. I'm not of the purest variety, but I do believe our government has gone way too far in the opposite direction, so I'm happy if we could make push it back in the libertarian direction on pretty much almost everything. I don't expect we ever could or would want to go all the way, but that's hardly a possibility anyway.

[creekster]

Reverse Halo effect?

Maybe, but she has so many undesirable characteristics That I am not sure which one is causing it.

[Topper]

Uncle Ted, are you against public roads, courts, police and firefighters?

...yeah...didn't think so.

There's a pretty wide gulf between the corrupt hellholes that are Detroit, Baltimore, Philly, etc. and not having public roads and courts of law, and I don't think being a libertarian means you don't believe there should be public roads. It's a belief in limited government, not non-existent government.

It meas fiscal responsibility. For example, government employees, except for the military to preserve independence, should not have defined benefits, but rather defined contributions in terms of retirement plans.

It means the first solution for a perceived problem should not be a government solution. The last solution should be government.