THE 2016 US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

I've been waiting like three years to ask you for help getting a Hipinion account, Soma. I just haven't been able to decide on a username.

Also, am I the only person who's desperately hoping/waiting for a Bernie Sanders-themed Amon Duul II remix called "Sanders in the Rain"? I'm sure I am, but I just as surely hope I'm not. Kind of similar, I suppose, to when I argued for Obama's use of Motorhead's "Bomber" in 2008 and 2012.

Yeah, it's a terrible username. It's like a stoner's XBOX live account or something. I was thinking I could just change it once I was activated or something.

Ҩ wrote:But her AIPAC speech was some insane bullshit. She basically is making the claim that anyone who is involved with the BDS movement is anti-Semitic and is conflating the Israeli State with Jews.

This is one of the actually insidious aspects of her reign at the State Department. She is a thoughtless, pro-Israel zealot who is a shill for the neoconservative Israel lobby. This has also had major implications in California and the UC system, which is currently being run by heartless bureaucrat and former Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano: http://www.salon.com/2016/03/22/anti_zionism_does_not_equal_anti_semitism_someone_please_tell_hillary_clinton_and_the_university_of_california/

The pro-Israel establishment in America has spent an incredible amount of effort trying to silence dissent in an obviously hypocritical and dangerous manner, rather than advocate for any real peace process.

jasperness wrote:The pro-Israel establishment in America has spent an incredible amount of effort trying to silence dissent in an obviously hypocritical and dangerous manner, rather than advocate for any real peace process.

FUCK YOU

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/03/31/larry-summers-colleges-have-become-hypersensitive-to-racial-prejudice-why-not-anti-semitism/

The problem is that the pro-Israel establishment has been synonymous with American foreign policy for decades now. Obama is the first American President (probably ever) to level any criticism against the actions of the Israeli State. Which is one of my favorite aspects of his Presidency. And it only makes sense. Obama is a neoliberal and Netanyahu and the Likud Party are right-wingers. So the issue here is political.

That's where our news outlets always miss the boat. Israel's politics are not monolithic. There is no consensus within the country about their relationship with Palestine, the greater Arab region, or Zionism. Just as there isn't a consensus here in the States. Or in Europe. Or in the Arab world. These aren't cultural debates and critiquing Israeli policy doesn't reflect some unconscious anti-Semitic drive.

When these political debates get framed within the language of culture it becomes incredibly dangerous and it props up problematic arguments like Huntington's 'Clash of Civilizations' and makes them appear accurate. Our journalists here should take their professional responsibilities seriously and stop couching complex political issues in the language of unassailable cultural differences because they are helping to perpetuate a discourse that is directly complicit in the death and suffering of literally millions of people throughout history, into our present day.

Instead all I have seen this election cycle are terrible op-ed articles about how the rise of Bernie Sanders and democratic socialists that are critical of Hillary Clinton are just privileged, white, college-educated people who are more concerned with intellectual purity than they are in helping to solve or alleviate the real issues in the world. Which is just such tired bullshit logic and it's truly nauseating that people are dumb enough to agree to it.

Domestically, this is about two competing ideologies that have very different approaches to tackling issues of economic (in)justices. Obama and the Clintons will continue to deride Republican rhetoric while adopting policies (like the Affordable Care Act) that are actually produced by conservative think tanks that maintain that it is impossible to provide better health care and education to people without acknowledging the primacy of market logic. Conservatives claim that this is the virtuous solution while liberals will maintain that it is the only possible solution. This is Hillary's line about single payer every time. The political climate, as it stands, makes it untenable to ever push single payer health care so instead we have the responsibility to all support the reformist policies of Obama against conservative attacks. But this is the logic of neoliberalism that is so toxic in that it always squashes alternatives as impossible and untenable pipe dreams that only exist in the minds of chin stroking intellectuals.

Internationally, this is much more complicated. But continuing to support the neoliberal ideology wherein the United States uses transnational institutions (World Bank & IMF especially) to push through their interests while pretending to speak for the 'world community' is foolish and morally bankrupt. I realize that Donald Trump's worldview is scary and needs to be challenged and combated. But that doesn't imply becoming an apologist for the status quo.

It's all just so tiring. People are such fucking idiots. There is this guy on the hipinion thread (his name is Universe) who I just want to smack the shit out of so badly because he represents everything wrong with 'liberal' America today.

About time:
http://pitchfork.com/news/64525-andrew-wk-organizes-his-own-political-party/

Teachers unions are on strike today. 4pm @ Thompson Center downtown. Go support them.

This is a hit job where the hits R all swiftly executed backhands to the face: http://www.gq.com/story/melania-trump-gq-interview

Great shit!

It appears Donald Trump, now that every other republican candidate has been wiped out, suddenly needs something like $1.5 billion in campaign financing and is looking towards the republican base 4 support.

Wasn't one of the key pillars of a Donald Trump run 4 president was that he was outside the scope of political contributions and thus not beholden to his money men? It makes sense that he would wait until there R no other viable republican candidates in the running but seems a bit early to start asking 4 money when not asking 4 money is one of your only "strong points"

Washington Post clearly running with the narrative of "From Real Estate Mogul to White House" this morning. I don't think we're too far away (maybe already there) from all the disgusting shit that's gone on during the primaries being swept under the rug by the media. Next up: Trump is actually a great candidate!

There is no way in Hell. These next few months R going to get boring. I think it already has. People R tired of hearing his whiny bullshit everyday. No doubt he will resort to some despicable tactics with Clinton (he already has). And the Clinton - Trump debates will be must watch television from an entertainment perspective.

Overall, this is all just really awful 4 our great Republic.

Trump said he was self financing, but it was always a lie .
He never "gave" any $$ to his campaign. He did loan $$ to his campaign.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-wont-self-fund-general-election-campaign-1462399502

don't worry everyone, he just "reversed course"

“I’ll be putting up money, but won’t be completely self-funding,” the presumptive Republican nominee said in an interview Wednesday. Mr. Trump, who had largely self-financed his successful primary run, added that he would create a “world-class finance organization.” The campaign will tap his expansive personal Rolodex and a new base of supporters who aren’t on party rolls, two Trump advisers said.

aka he's completely fucked and about to get STEAMROLLED by the Clinton machine

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-tells-kimmel-hed-be-willing-to-debate-sanders-4-charity/

this is a great example of how the insanely entitled convince themselves of terrible stuff because they have zero perspective:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/a-dialogue-with-a-22-year-old-donald-trump-supporter/484232/

to this young man political correctness is the biggest issue in the entire world because he feels bad when people call him a Nazi 4 suggesting we should temporarily ban Muslim immigration into America (which is completely unconstitutional and literal, legal discrimination based on religious orientation). he is willing to gamble the stability of the Western world and put millions of minorities at risk because he sees "the world becoming less and less tolerant of right-leaning views" from the view of his office building in San Francisco.

so illustrative:

I do have some worries about Trump. I really do. If I lived in Ohio or a swing state, I might even be more worried. But I C this overwhelming PC culture, especially online. I get frustrated by the dialogue of letting immigrants into the country without control, letting Black Lives Matter protest without consequence, watching qualified Asian and White students lose places in universities and companies in the name of diversity. I worry about how companies R taking on the rallying cries of these causes, particularly the monopolies that Google and Facebook have.

but don't worry. he says he's not a racist, so he must not be.

I am in zero ways a white nationalist or supremacist, and I consider myself a feminist

but he also believes this:

I probably have benefitted from illegal immigration more than I have been harmed, true. Even legal immigration has benefits 4 me; my fiancee is a second-generation immigrant (her parents came here legally). I think most of my opposition comes from what I feel is a loss of the patriotic American identity and the advancement of multiculturalism and political correctness.

Long term, illegal immigrants will have children who will compete against my children 4 university spots and job opportunities. It's admittedly very selfish, but I do want to ensure the greatest advantages I can give them.

Do these "anti-PC" people think political correctness means something different than respecting people who R different than U?

chrondog wrote:but don't worry. he says he's not a racist, so he must not be.

I am in zero ways a white nationalist or supremacist, and I consider myself a feminist

but he also believes this:

I probably have benefitted from illegal immigration more than I have been harmed, true. Even legal immigration has benefits 4 me; my fiancee is a second-generation immigrant (her parents came here legally). I think most of my opposition comes from what I feel is a loss of the patriotic American identity and the advancement of multiculturalism and political correctness.

Long term, illegal immigrants will have children who will compete against my children 4 university spots and job opportunities. It's admittedly very selfish, but I do want to ensure the greatest advantages I can give them.

Wow.

Wow.

Nauseating.

reuben wrote:Do these "anti-PC" people think political correctness means something different than respecting people who R different than U?  

A lot of old people seem to think that it means health and safety.

These "Trump catching up to Clinton in the polls" articles R terrifying me.

Fighting "PC culture" is actually a hugely important issue to millennials. Like, it's literally the only thing they've brought to the table at this point (shaming "SJWs," gamergate, etc).

Everyone treats the "everything is going to get better once all the boomers die" narrative like it's fact but I fear that nothing could be further from the truth.

Ned Braden wrote:These "Trump catching up to Clinton in the polls" articles R terrifying me.

I thought the most recent poll (whatever that's even worth at this point) had him in the lead this week?

Even the fact that such a thing could ever happen should be terrifying but I wouldn't take it too seriously until the democratic primaries R over. A lot of fools still on the #NeverHillary train.