Trump!!!

[Garmel]

Typical crap journalism from Rolling Stone.

 

[Joe Fan]

Wow, I'm totally surprised about that chart JF. Was it an anomaly for Mass, or is that true overall?

That's the thing -- I posted because it's Massachusetts
Wouldnt have even looked at Iowa or Arkansas

 

[Mr. Deez]

Kind of interesting -- Trump won GOP voters with postgraduate degrees in Massachusetts

Of course, you could fit all the Massachusetts Republican primary voters with postgraduate degrees inside a decent sized closet.

 

[Mr. Deez]

But Washington is freaking out about Trump in a way they never did about Bush. Why? Because Bush was their moron, while Trump is his own moron. That's really what it comes down to.

I don't think that's true. Most people who are freaking out about Trump aren't doing so because he's dumb. They're freaking out because of what he claims he'll do if he wins, and if course most Republicans are freaking out because he's liberal and can't win.

Madison and Jefferson never foresaw this situation. They knew there was danger of demagoguery, but they never imagined presidential candidates exchanging "mine's bigger than yours" jokes or doing "let's laugh at the disabled" routines. There's no map in the Constitution to tell us how to get out of where we're going. All we can do now is hold on.

Madison and Jefferson didn't foresee this situation in part because they weren't very democratic. They didn't believe in just any dumbass walking into a polling place and voting. Not only have we taken voting rights radically further than they did, we actually treat voting as a virtue and a civic duty. We think it's great when we have high turnout, which inherently means more idiots in the voting booths.

 

[Musburger1]

I didn't take the article as completely serious, but written in jest with some truth and plenty of exageration. But you have to admit, neither Bush nor Trump come across as great intellects.

 

[Joe Fan]

Of course, you could fit all the Massachusetts Republican primary voters with postgraduate degrees inside a decent sized closet.

Somebody voted for Brown and Romney

 

[Mr. Deez]

I didn't take the article as completely serious, but written in jest with some truth and plenty of exageration. But you have to admit, neither Bush nor Trump come across as great intellects.

You're right. They don't. However, that has never bothered me about either. For one thing, I don't think Trump is actually dumb. I think it's an act. We assume that smart people are above acting like jackasses, but the truth is that they don't have to be.

Also, though I don't think you can be a colossal lame-brain and be a good president, you don't have to be a genius either. Wisdom and character are more important than intellect. Woodrow Wilson was a smart man, but he wasn't a good president. Ditto for Jimmy Carter.

 

[Joe Fan]

There were ~631,395 voters in the Mass R primary (that number represents 99% of reported votes).
It was a record turnout with roughly 20,000 quitting the Dems to crossover.

 

[Mr. Deez]

Somebody voted for Brown and Romney

How many were Republican primary voters with postgraduate degrees?

 

[Joe Fan]

How many were Republican primary voters with postgraduate degrees?

There were ~631,395 voters in the Mass R primary....

19% of 631,395?

 

[Mr. Deez]

19% of 631,395?

I'm skeptical of that figure, especially if Massachusetts has an open primary.

 

[Joe Fan]

More --

Massachusetts Primary Results:
Romney 266,313 in 2012
Trump 311,313
And Trump was opposed by a much larger field

 

[Joe Fan]

I'm skeptical of that figure, especially if Massachusetts has an open primary.

You dont think 631,395+ votes were cast in the 2016 Mass R primary?
Or, you dont think nearly 20% of them have PG degrees?

It all makes sense on the surface to me (1) turnout is way up all over the country, (2) primary voters are generally better educated than general election voters, and (3) Mass has THE highest percentage of highly educateds of all states (we exclude DC).

 

[Joe Fan]

Apparently part of Romney's speech has leaked

Here was Romney back in 2012

 

[Joe Fan]

It will probably surprise some of you to learn that Time Mag is still in business
How, i do not know

 

[Joe Fan]

This is just another meme -- but it is pretty amazing how many Republicans who have been rolling over for Obama for the past several years are now vigorously investing themselves into stopping Trump

 

[Mr. Deez]

You dont think 631,395+ votes were cast in the 2016 Mass R primary?
Or, you dont think nearly 20% of them have PG degrees?

It all makes sense on the surface to me (1) turnout is way up all over the country, (2) primary voters are generally better educated than general election voters, and (3) Mass has THE highest percentage of highly educateds of all states (we exclude DC).

I don't think 20 percent of them are actual Republicans and have PG degrees. I suspect that many Democrats crossed into their primary.

 

[Crockett]

I honestly like Mitt Romney. But he really has no place in getting into a pissing contest with Trump over who is "genuine."

 

[Joe Fan]

I don't think 20 percent of them are actual Republicans and have PG degrees. I suspect that many Democrats crossed into their primary.

You got any facts to back up that bias?

 

[Mr. Deez]

You got any facts to back up that bias?

No. Like I said, I'm skeptical, but I'll readily admit that I don't know.

 

[Seattle Husker]

Going back to the John Oliver piece, I found the breakdown on Trump's campaign financing enlightening. Has Trump really only put in ~$250k of his own money? He's taken $7M in donations from voters and loaned his campaign ~$17M from his businesses that could be paid off by campaign donors at any time, with interest.

Trump is brilliant. This "self funding" façade is hilarious. So, Trump is the "creditor" that he'll owe at the end when he goes and asks for money to pay off the debt to his companies. Maybe he'll file for bankruptcy so his companies get a write-off?

 

[nashhorn]

I'm with you on this SH. I too found that amazing, and quite brilliant. Perhaps that kind of financial creativity could actually help us gain some success against the debt. But the again perhaps it only means more of the unique Govt bookkeeping. You know where an reduction in 'increase' spending is considering savings.

 

[Seattle Husker]

I'm with you on this SH. I too found that amazing, and quite brilliant. Perhaps that kind of financial creativity could actually help us gain some success against the debt. But the again perhaps it only means more of the unique Govt bookkeeping. You know where an reduction in 'increase' spending is considering savings.

I'm biased but I suspect more "creativity". Of course, I'm biased and think Trump is anything but a fiscal conservative based on the way he runs his companies. His success is largely by living on the edge of fiscal solvency and minimizing the impact of the bankruptcies. When you have a lot of money you the investors are more willing to absorb the haircut on bad investments.

 

[Joe Fan]

Mitt Romney is speaking at the Hinckley Institute.
He must really love Jodie Foster

 

[Seattle Husker]

Mitt Romney is speaking at the Hinckley Institute.
He must really love Jodie Foster

I only caught ~5-10 minutes of the end. There wasn't anything that hasn't already been said with the notable exception of Romney trying to goad Trump to releasing some New York Times interview tapes. He eluded to Trump show his duplicity on immigration in that interview behind closed doors.

 

[theiioftx]

I wish someone more relevant to the Trump base had given that speech. Like Stone Cold Steve Austin.

 

[Joe Fan]

I only caught ~5-10 minutes of the end. There wasn't anything that hasn't already been said with the notable exception of Romney trying to goad Trump to releasing some New York Times interview tapes. He eluded to Trump show his duplicity on immigration in that interview behind closed doors.

Many of the things Romney said about Trump today he could have said about Obama, yet never did.

It is all so weird. The RNC/Establishment types are investing more effort to defeat Trump than they ever did to defeat Obama. How do we account for this? The only explanation I can come up with at this moment is that they are concerned with their own self-interest. That, if Trump wins it all, they fear they will be swept out of the party and lose their influence. And so they are fighting to save their own turf. Not just to remain relevant, it's more than that. It's the type of fight you see from a cornered wild animal. They are fighting for their own survival -- which translates in real life to retaining their power and control. They are putting self in front of country.

 

[Joe Fan]

South Carolina Primary Votes
Trump 2016: 239,851
Romney 2012: 167,279
Romney 2008: 64,970

 

[BevoBeef]

This is just another meme -- but it is pretty amazing how many Republicans who have been rolling over for Obama for the past several years are now vigorously investing themselves into stopping Trump

Those who know the type of man that Trump is actually need to be concerned about what will happen if Trump becomes president. There is a podcast by Dick Morris that describes what kind of president he would be. Morris says he knows well what kind of person is Trump because Morris' father was one of Trump's lawyers for over a decade. Trump is a power broker and nothing like an ideologue. Once Trump decides what he wants to do, all ideology and political correctness will fall by the wayside. When he decides what he wants, all kinds of aggressive pressure will be applied by Trump to get his way. You will either love Trump, or you will hate him. If the Senate goes Republican with Trump being president ----- LOOKOUT !! Trump's power for pushing legislation through will rival LBJ's ability to whip the legislators toward his voting desires. Conservative principles will disappear if it means the difference in making a deal. Odds would be high that a Trump presidency would last for only one term.

Morris tells the story about a mansion in Virginia that Trump wanted to buy. A bank owned the property and could not agree with Trump on the price. What Trump did was to buy in a separate deal all the land around the house. The bank then had to sell to Trump because you could not get access to he house after Trump blocked legal access to the residence structure. This would be what new legislature going through both houses would be like. No conservative principles would be sacred in the process of making a deal in forging towards a lot of forced compromises. That is the reason for the organized effort now going into place to stop the Trump nomination.

My fear for a Trump presidency is along three lines of thought that favor a stop-Trump movement. (1) Trump's replacement nomination for Scalia will probably be along moderate lines. The prediction for what will happen in a possible 5-4 conservative vote (as with Scalia being there) will be thrown into further disarray with the type of Justice appointed by Trump. (2) Tort reform will disappear and there will be all kinds of civil lawsuits that will start going through the legal system --- causing certain kinds of costs to increase exponentially. (3) It is unclear what will Trump's foreign policy become. However, I think the odds would highly favor more American bodies coming back from overseas due to mistakes in judgement and lack of appreciation for what our foreign adversaries might do. The lines in the sand that Trump will draw in the MEast will zigzag all over the place. One of Trump's problems will be that he will not listen to his advisers once he believes himself to be correct by gut-instinct.

 

[Joe Fan]

it's getting to be a pretty long list of people and groups Trump has taken on --

The RNC
The Republican Establishment
Mitt Romney
The entire Bush Family
Niki Haley
Marco Rubio
Ted Cruz
Obama
HRC
Bill Clinton
Bernie
The Pope
The Government of Mexico
Two past Mexican presidents
The Government of China
The MSM

You have to admit that is a pretty impressive list (and I probably missed someone). Who else in the world could survive all of that?