The 2016 Presidential Election Trainwreck

[Color Me Badd Fan]

I know everyone can read Nate Silver's blog, but Trump is now up to 44%. It appears as if he's going to win one of Maine's electoral votes and is competitive in winning the state's winner take all electoral votes too.

It will be interesting to see the trends in NH, PA and Wisconsin. Along with Maine, those states are about as white as Utah and Trump seems to perform better there than Romney was four years ago.

[Sleeping in EQ]

http://www.sltrib.com/news/4375993-155/clinton-campaign-launches-mormons-for-hillary

[Maximus]

6% went to charitable causes. The rest has gone to paying lavish salaries, including Chelsea's, and trips and accommodations that I'm sure weren't austere. The idea that it's actually a charity is widely mocked. On their tax returns, they failed to initially report millions of dollars.

Plus, as SoS, something like half the people she met with according to her calendar were donors to the Clinton Foundation.

Trump can tee off on Hillary all day if they want to discuss some gaudy self-portrait he spent a few thousand dollars on.

link to 6%?

[imanihonjin]

http://www.sltrib.com/news/4375993-1...ns-for-hillary

To me, the harder Clinton makes a push for Utah, the more concerned she is becoming about this election. Utah and its 6 electoral votes could be a difference maker.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

link to 6%?

http://thefederalist.com/2016/09/16/clinton-foundation-spent-6-percent-charitable-grants-2014/

Even a chunk of the charitable donations went to other foundations ran by Clinton Foundation board members, the whole thing is a scam.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

To me, the harder Clinton makes a push for Utah, the more concerned she is becoming about this election. Utah and its 6 electoral votes could be a difference maker.

She'll never get Utah's votes. Maybe she thinks it would have an effect in Nevada.

[imanihonjin]

link to 6%?

The Clinton Foundation is crap but the 6% (I actually thought it was 10-12%) is not an accurate reflection of that type of foundation. You have two different types of Foundations, active and grant making entities. Active entities are the type that actually develop and maintain charitable programs so their operational expenses can be very high but to determine whether those expenses are genuine necessitates a much deeper dig.

Grant making entities are the type that don't actively develop and maintain their own charitable programs but rather contribute resources to entities that do. The Clinton Foundation is the first type of entity. The 6% that CMBF is referred to is what the Clinton Foundation gave to other charitable organizations, but does not reflect the money it spent on producing and maintaining its own charitable programs. It is a very deceptive figure and while I loathe Hillary, I think she can easily be attacked on grounds that don't require deception.

[Sleeping in EQ]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/20/politics/george-hw-bush-hillary-clinton/

[creekster]

The Clinton Foundation is crap but the 6% (I actually thought it was 10-12%) is not an accurate reflection of that type of foundation. You have two different types of Foundations, active and grant making entities. Active entities are the type that actually develop and maintain charitable programs so their operational expenses can be very high but to determine whether those expenses are genuine necessitates a much deeper dig.

Grant making entities are the type that don't actively develop and maintain their own charitable programs but rather contribute resources to entities that do. The Clinton Foundation is the first type of entity. The 6% that CMBF is referred to is what the Clinton Foundation gave to other charitable organizations, but does not reflect the money it spent on producing and maintaining its own charitable programs. It is a very deceptive figure and while I loathe Hillary, I think she can easily be attacked on grounds that don't require deception.

The linked articel discusses that, obliquely, a bit.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

The Clinton Foundation is crap but the 6% (I actually thought it was 10-12%) is not an accurate reflection of that type of foundation. You have two different types of Foundations, active and grant making entities. Active entities are the type that actually develop and maintain charitable programs so their operational expenses can be very high but to determine whether those expenses are genuine necessitates a much deeper dig.

Grant making entities are the type that don't actively develop and maintain their own charitable programs but rather contribute resources to entities that do. The Clinton Foundation is the first type of entity. The 6% that CMBF is referred to is what the Clinton Foundation gave to other charitable organizations, but does not reflect the money it spent on producing and maintaining its own charitable programs. It is a very deceptive figure and while I loathe Hillary, I think she can easily be attacked on grounds that don't require deception.

The in-house stuff is also largely bullshit

http://thefederalist.com/2015/04/28/top-clinton-foundation-official-this-is-not-charity/

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Btw, I'm not suggesting at all that Trump by comparison is Andrew Carnegie or Bill Gates. If anything, he's worse but on a smaller scale.

[Commando]

So I'm sure you've all seen this bit of stupidity floating around from none other than Orange Man's progeny:

Embedded Tweet

So how many Syrian refugees have gone radical and killed somebody? Zero? Got it. I think our bigger Syrian refugee problem is that some Americans don't feel compelled to help their fellow man because they've let a twisted version of patriotism get in the way of their humanity.

For those who think you may agree with Don Jr., this is why you are wrong and the rest of us think it's a despicable, intellectually reprehensible argument:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/09/19/donald-trump-jr-inadvertantly-encourages-america-to-scoop-up-refugees-by-the-handful/?postshare=2361474400417991&tid=ss_fb

[frank ryan]

trump could win. just imagine that scenario

It's terrifying.

[YOhio]

trump could win. just imagine that scenario

To me the biggest threat to Trump winning is that it's a validation and mandate of his dishonest and selfish approach to life. We'll have obliterated any character qualification, real or perceived, that we have for a POTUS and it will be hard to re-establish that standard. I feel pretty much the same way about Hillary.

Now if you can separate this from actual governance, I don't anticipate it would be a lot worse than Hillary or Obama. He has almost no political principles so he'll pretty much drive with traffic when it comes to real domestic policy. He would never have the stomach for a fight like Obamacare. Smart pols from both sides will play to his vanity and pretty much get whatever they want from him.

His approach toward FoPo will hinge on a few things. First, the inevitable friction and influence between the Woolsey and Flynn factions in his world. Second, whatever Ivanka is eating for breakfast. Third, he saw on O'Reilly the night before that caught his ear. His penchant for saying stupid shit will frustrate his staff, unnerve America's allies and confuse America's enemies while his admirers will mindlessly retweet and meme. In this chaos Trump thrives because whatever the issue, he's happy if the conversation will inevitably point back to him.

In terms of appointments, it would probably be typical GOP faire with a bias toward Eastern Liberals and Southern Racists (weird alliances in this campaign). Outside of Tom Tancredo I don't see anyone west of the Mississippi getting any real love from Trump. His cabinet will be interesting. It would probably look about the same as whatever Ted Cruz would have put together, except maybe he'll include a longtime Limo driver or one of his kids. But I think his cabinet will be pretty empowered because Trump is too lazy to try and care what they do, though he won't hesitate to throw them under the bus if anything goes South. The one area his fans will be sorely disappointed will be in SCOTUS appointments. He doesn't have the stomach, skill or ability to get anyone on his list through the Senate and he really doesn't care. Getting the deal/nomination through will be much more important to him than the judge.

[Omaha 680]

I saw a snippet of a Clinton speech today. She was talking to a bunch of college students. Of course she pandered shamelessly talking about free college and no debt for anyone. But the line that really floored me was something like this: "If you work hard, you deserve a well-paying job doing something that you love to do." I think the quote was even more ridiculous than that but I'm trying to not go overboard. She is the reasonable candidate and this is what passes as economic policy now. We are doomed unless the robots completely take over in which case we are doomed anyway.