2016 USA Presidential election thread II: And. Here. We. Go!

[Andalusian girls]

How bad does a person have to be for us to take joy in his pain? Electroshocking gay teens with taxpayer dollars bad? Hundreds of HIV victims because he turned a blind eye bad? His pain over his dead dog is literally nothing compared to what he has done.

I'll be that classless cunt. Sucks for his dog, of course.

i would say taking joy in the pain of another is a moral failing no matter their offenses. and as compassion is not a zero sum system we can be sorry for a man feeling sadness over his dead dog while sympathizing with the individuals his policies have negatively impacted.

empathy is the greatest of the virtues, and while it need not always influence our behavior (that is recognizing Pence is human with the capacity for suffering does not mean we oppose his policies or wish for the end of his political career any less) i believe it does our humanity a disservice to only selectively extend it. though it is often difficult our compassion ought reach individuals far worse than Mike Pence.

[Zealot]

I've been following the explanations for the point increases, including the addition of previously undecided voters or conflicted Republicans who wouldn't have gone to Hillary anyway, but it still shows that he's far from out of the race.

Let me be perfectly clear - while I don't expect him to win, the fact that any chance of him doing so remains is a constant source of frustration and depression for me.

[archibaldcrane]

Also, as I predicted, Trump did hit bottom. He's been climbing steadily up ever since. I don't expect his chances to ever get back to where it looked like he would win, at least not in the next two weeks, but the further out in time we go from the debates the better his numbers get. FiveThirtyEight has his overall chance of winning up to almost 20%, double what it was just a few weeks ago.

Eh, let's not exaggerate - Trump's recent low was 11.X% a week+ ago, now it's 17.0%. That's basically fluxing between a 7 point Hillary win and a 6 point win. Hillary's numbers have risen in the past two weeks, Trump's have just risen a tiny bit more. They're both pulling in from undecideds and 3rd parties.

[Byrthnoth]

Hillary/Trump's October ceiling/floor were around the same place as their August ceiling/floor. I suspect the backslide will continue, but fortunately early voting has already started.

[Fiye]

So its official that a bush ruined Trump?

[Marootsoobutsu]

:-S While I can rejoice at a political career I may detest being ended, I don't take joy in the suffering of anyone (or at least, try not to), and there is no metric by which someone else's pain should be my pleasure, or at least not explicitly for the fact that it is their pain. I can enjoy my own triumphs, even if it's someone else's failure, but I shouldn't enjoy it for the express purpose *that* it is someone else's failure.

Hate is too strong an emotion to give someone else. Pity someone who is ignorant, mourn their poor decisions, certainly. Wish for their enlightenment, not their suffering.

It's fine to feel joy that something awful may be ending, if you so view Pence's political career, but wishing ill on the man himself is ugly. It's easy to feel sympathy for people we like, but there's nothing praiseworthy in it, either. That's basic. Feeling sympathy for someone whom you have every right to despise... that's something to strive for, not something to mock or scorn. Not because he deserves it (though maybe he does), but because it makes YOU a better person than you were before.

[Zealot]

I don't think I can overstate how sad it makes me to hear someone's dog died. I'd be upset to hear Blondie passed away.

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[archibaldcrane]

So its official that a bush ruined Trump?

Nah, Hillary ruined him in the first debate, that is 3/4ths of the current gap. The tape/accusers/other debate losses/Trump account for the rest.

[archibaldcrane]

Hilldog is precariously close to losing AZ/IA/OH though if she slips any further, which would be a shame, I want her to get into that Obama 08 / Bill Clinton electoral vote range.

[Quicklet]

I've been following the explanations for the point increases, including the addition of previously undecided voters or conflicted Republicans who wouldn't have gone to Hillary anyway, but it still shows that he's far from out of the race.

Let me be perfectly clear - while I don't expect him to win, the fact that any chance of him doing so remains is a constant source of frustration and depression for me.

Hilldog is precariously close to losing AZ/IA/OH though if she slips any further, which would be a shame, I want her to get into that Obama 08 / Bill Clinton electoral vote range.

Maybe Rick Wilson is massively trolling everybody, but he seems to think Trump hasn't hit rock bottom yet and the worst is still to come.

[Day]

I don't think I can overstate how sad it makes me to hear someone's dog died. I'd be upset to hear Blondie passed away.

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I like dogs more than most people, no hyperbole.

[Uzor]

I like dogs more than most people, no hyperbole.

To be fair, I think most people do. Place a random dog, cat and person next to each other, and most people would pick the cat or dog as the most likeable live thing there.

[Fiye]

I don't trust cats.

[myreality]

If we want Trump to decrease in numbers just put him on T.V. and ask him another question about women or pretty much anything else requiring specifics.

[Fondue]

Don't talk bad about mama Hillary like this.

Hohohohohoho


I'm thinking national guard

[archibaldcrane]

Hohohohohoho


I'm thinking national guard

I hear they give great bonuses, almost hard to believe in size

[myreality]

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/...ard-over-voter

Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday blasted Donald Trump after a report that the Republican's presidential campaign has three "voter suppression" drives in effect to lower turnout for Hillary Clinton.

"Anybody who is suppressing the vote because they know that those people will vote against them is a political coward," the Vermont Independent and former White House candidate tweeted

Come on Donald, respond in all your glory.

[Quicklet]

Former Miss Finland gave an interview alleging Trump groped her during the 2006 Miss Universe pageant.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewir...ing-allegation

“Trump stood right next to me and suddenly he squeezed my butt. He really grabbed my butt,” she told Ilta-Sanomat. "I don’t think anybody saw it but I flinched and thought: 'What is happening?'"

Laaksonen said that she also attended a number of parties with other pageant contestants and Trump's wife, Melania.

"Somebody told me there that Trump liked me because I looked like Melania when she was younger," she told the newspaper. "It left me disgusted."

[Aerin]

I'm going to leave this here, in preparation for the inevitable posts claiming "voter fraud" or "stolen election" etc.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/27/politi...ing/index.html

In regards to what happened in Texas:

Some voters in Texas, which began its early voting period this week, have experienced problems casting their ballots. A Randall County voter recalled her own mishap in a Facebook post on Monday, saying that she tried to cast a straight Republican ballot -- including a vote for Trump and his running mate, Mike Pence -- but wound up inadvertently selecting the Democratic ticket of Clinton and Tim Kaine.

...

Potter County, which borders Randall County, has encountered similar problems. In each case, officials have attributed the problems to human error. "There is nothing wrong with any of the machines we use for voting," Potter County Judge Nancy Tanner said in a statement this week. "They do not flip your vote. They do not flip parties. Humans do that." Frank Phillips, the elections administrator in Arlington's Tarrant County, said that his investigation "indicated that the voter did not follow the directions for straight-party voting."

Randall County uses the Hart Intercivic eSlate for its elections, an electronic system that allows voters to turn a wheel and push a button to indicate preferences, and Lackey said those machines "work exactly as intended." Moreover, voters are dealt a summary screen at the end of each ballot, which allows them to confirm their choices before casting. Lackey said she is confronted with such confusion most election cycles, and this year has been no exception. Her personal hypothesis is that voters, so accustomed to touch screens in their everyday lives, hit the machine's button after indicating their choices, inadvertently "deselecting" their preferred vote.

In regards to Georgia:

In Georgia, a voting machine in Bryan County was removed from service after the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper reported to election officials that it may have been "flipping" some voters' choices for president. A voter told the newspaper that it took three tries Tuesday before his choice of Clinton was correctly recorded. The voter, who requested anonymity from the paper to discuss his experience, said the touchscreen initially selected Trump. He said his wife had a similar problem on the same machine.

King said a calibration error may be at fault. If improperly calibrated, the screen could be off 3/8th to 1/2 an inch, and other factors -- including whether voters have long fingernails, were wearing jewelry, had long sleeves or were leaning on the machine -- could be responsible as well.

tl;dr Some people are stupid and can't follow instructions. Machines can have problems too. It happens to both Democrats and Republicans.

[Byrthnoth]

The miscalibration thing is always what I assume in these cases. There's a touchscreen at my local supermarket that is off by up to an inch depending where you are on the screen.