Danny Bateman

I know we're in the Repub thread, but even in here, this wall nonsense is just that... nonsense. Here are a few articles you should look over regarding the viability of such a wall: A description of Trump's wall from an engineer with good desriptions Here's why Trump doesn't fundamentally understand the implications or expedience of his immigration policy Trump's flawed view on economics as a whole The last two are particularly in step with my own personal thinking. I'm by no means an economist, but even I can tell when Trump talks about "losing to China, losing to Mexico, etc.," he's just totally wrong about the way trade with those countries work. I asked another person here and got no response. Tell me how Trump gets this wall built? Slapping an embargo on Mexico or imposing massive tariffs on them is going to be very harmful to OUR economy, despite the trade deficit he cites with them. Furthermore, there's no legitimate way to force Mexico to pay for the billions and billions of dollars it will take to build this wall. We've already had MULTIPLE Mexican presidents tell Trump to pound sand. So please, tell me where Trump gets the actual support to do this? He's acting like when he takes office, he's going to be able to do a lot of things unilaterally that he isn't actually going to be able to do.

And Trump came out on stage to Sirius. Damn it. NOW HE'S GONE TOO FAR!

I thought about Australia, but when you start researching the wildlife that lives there... NOPE. I've always wanted two visit there, but I found out the other day that they use a funky looking five time zone system with half hour increments...? I mean, what the hell is that about?

They never had it..

All wrong. Substance is hope and change? Black lives matter? Dude D's run on no substance always R's run on substance then confuse people and never deliver and always grow government anyway. Trump is running on pragmatic clear END STATES and not on some bullsh#t programs that will cost infinite money forever. Build the wall, mexico pays. This is a good black and white result and it's frankly simple to do including the Mexico pays part. Qualifications huh? A 44 year old senator? A 73 year old cook who's never managed a thing? An old white lady who only managed something for 4 years and got historically terrible results and lost top secrets because she's above the law? Most others in the race have actually proven they are NOT qualified. Obama? His qualifications were a complete joke. Least qualified in a century (probably for all time). Dude...we SHOULD be a government of the PEOPLE by the PEOPLE not a political ruling class. Our Presidents should usually NOT be Senators they should be CEO's and Generals and Governors (if you actually care about executive leadership experience which along with intelligence and integrity are the only things I care about). I'm going to ignore the middle of the that because of the obvious bias. Logically, how the hell does Trump legitimately make Mexico pay for a wall? Before you say leverage Mexico via the "billions" that we lose to them, there have already been MULTIPLE MEXICAN PRESIDENTS who have straight up told Trump to f*ck off and they're not going to pay a cent. For a negotiator, that's a hell of a starting point. I'd like to also point out that essentially slapping an embargo on Mexico would hurt our economy a good chunk as well. Tell me, logically, how he gets it done. Piece by piece. I very much agree about government being by the people for the people. But do you sense the irony dripping when you say you care about a president with intelligence and integrity, while defending Trump?

BAHAHAHAHAHAHA Donald gets audited because he's such a strong Christian. He's "negotiating" with the IRS and thus can't release returns. He's calling for Vicente Fox to apologize for saying "I won't pay for that f---ing wall" because the people heard a bad word. ^^^ These are quotes, folks. Cuomo is grilling him. That was probably better than the debate.

Just thought that exact thought earlier. Ted Cruz finds lots of things interesting.

His followers are a load of mouth breathers. They wouldn't know substance and introspection if it whacked them over the head. It amazes me that people can just hear the stuff he says and lap it up without a second thought. Someone described it aptly earlier today: "They don't care about substance or policies or credentials, they just want someone who will burn Washington to the ground, and they think he'll do it."

Medicaid or Medicare? I thought the consensus on Medicaid was that it didn't reimburse near as well as the rates of other insurers and therefore didn't cover very many things. Regarding Medicare, I shadowed with a PT clinic where the wife handled insurance, and she said Medicare was her favorite program to process because with a supplemental plan, damn near everything was covered and it was relatively straightforward. Medicare might be what I was talking about. I don't know a lot about it. I'm talking about old people government health aid that we already have Gotcha! That's Medicare. Haha. Medicaid is the government insurance for lower income people. What I said above still applies. Medicare does need some cost control measures, and I know for a fact Hillary has a proposal for that. Don't know about anyone else. What the hell is Trump rambling about? "Audit... Very large... polls... Gonna win." He's like a mad lib at this point.

Medicaid or Medicare? I thought the consensus on Medicaid was that it didn't reimburse near as well as the rates of other insurers and therefore didn't cover very many things. Regarding Medicare, I shadowed with a PT clinic where the wife handled insurance, and she said Medicare was her favorite program to process because with a supplemental plan, damn near everything was covered and it was relatively straightforward.

Rubio just made Trump look like a punk. That was fantastic.

Kinda puts a tarnish on that entire platform, doesn't it? Another one of those issues he's rife with waiting to be used against him in the general.

Sandoval saying he's not interested in a spot on the Supreme Court. Interesting gambit on the President's part, but it may have just fizzled out. I think I believe that he wouldn't have actually nominated Sandoval anyway, though, and this was maybe just an attempt to show that the Republican Congress is willing to eschew their own party in an attempt to be obstructive and attempt to wait for a larger gain were they to gain the White House. I'm sure they feel confident that President Trump will appoint "the best people" to fill any SC vacancies. I hope this blows up in their faces.

Would you vote for him if he got the nomination? I think that's the issue here. He clearly is getting a lot of the Christian vote in the primaries. Or at least the "Christian" vote. No. I will not vote for Trump in any circumstance. Same thing goes for Cruz and Hillary and Sanders. I think something to keep in mind here is that we are talking about strictly republican primaries with an extremely poor field. To some extent, primary voters have to pick one of the morons. They could pick no one. But the Republican primaries are having record turnouts. I have no idea what the Christian % of the primary voters is though. I'm also Christian, for the record, and don't understand why so many fellow Christians are staunchly in support of the Republican party except the ones who list abortion as their most important or only cause. Moreover, I think it's rather disgusting the way Falwell and Robertson are going out of their way to be buddy-buddy with Trump when he wants to do an interview with them. I'm going to stop short of questioning the man's faith (taking Jeb!'s lead ), but I wish a significant figure in the faith community would stand up and call him on his deplorable, un-Christian sentiments. Like the Pope? I don't know what the solution is, and I really don't think it matters. I think people have made up their minds about him, and the more they are questioned, the more staunch their support becomes. It's frustrating. Whoa. That's a pretty bad oversight on my part. I hear that guy carries some weight. Anywho, the Pope had to be baited into the subject by a reporter. I'm glad that he came out and said something, because I think he made a salient point. It appears no one is going to just come out and flat out say "Trump is acting like a dick, that's not Christian." Trump is playing with a bit of an advantage because people don't usually like to call someone on hypocrisy if it involves faith. I have no such reservations, however, because I think he's on multiple occasions espoused views that are contrary to my core view of what it means to be a Christian.

Net Worth: Between $3 and $10 billion. Somehow I can't force myself to care. Especially when he's freely using his pulpit to spread bigotry and incite violence. I didn't say you cared I said what you said was false. My point wasn't that it was false. Just that the concept of needing to pat any of the Trumps on the back for "lost wages" is ridiculous.

Zoogs, good point about Schumer. I can clearly see the difference between McConnell simply denying any of the Repubs will play ball with any Obama nominee and Schumer attempting to advise that Bush appoint a moderate. Initially, I viewed Schumer and the Dems as attempting to force Bush's hand and dictate the terms of the candidate. But I guess that is the Senate's job... to advise the President on whom they think would be a suitable nominee. That definitely falls under the umbrella of "advice and consent." Regardless. on the surface this seems like it should be a rather cut and dried process, but it certainly seems there's quite a good bit of wiggle room for people to inject their own personal best interpretation of the Constitution and their best vision moving forward.

If you understood that what you believe is actually false, then your confusion would be solved. Christians by and large definitely do not staunchly support the Republican party. Rather they somewhat staunchly anti-support Dems since Dems do more damage to them than Reps do. Christians with some wisdom, so, some but not all, staunchly support almost no one since they understand that all people are sinners, power corrupts, etc. Staunch support typically indicates "faith in man" which is a very bad idea. You should find some smarter Christians to hang out with. Good post, Sargon. Very grounded.

Net Worth: Between $3 and $10 billion. Somehow I can't force myself to care. Especially when he's freely using his pulpit to spread bigotry and incite violence.

Just heard what I previously thought to be a sane analyst laud the Trump family for their sacrifices in "going all in" to help Donald's campaign. My reaction:

Would you vote for him if he got the nomination? I think that's the issue here. He clearly is getting a lot of the Christian vote in the primaries. Or at least the "Christian" vote. No. I will not vote for Trump in any circumstance. Same thing goes for Cruz and Hillary and Sanders. I think something to keep in mind here is that we are talking about strictly republican primaries with an extremely poor field. To some extent, primary voters have to pick one of the morons. They could pick no one. But the Republican primaries are having record turnouts. I have no idea what the Christian % of the primary voters is though. I'm also Christian, for the record, and don't understand why so many fellow Christians are staunchly in support of the Republican party except the ones who list abortion as their most important or only cause. Moreover, I think it's rather disgusting the way Falwell and Robertson are going out of their way to be buddy-buddy with Trump when he wants to do an interview with them. I'm going to stop short of questioning the man's faith (taking Jeb!'s lead ), but I wish a significant figure in the faith community would stand up and call him on his deplorable, un-Christian sentiments.

That one is actually pretty good. I'd give it about 3 out of 4 barks.

Shameless copy from a fellow on Reddit by the name of IUHoosier_KCCO: IMO, the Constitution isn't explicit enough regarding the process whereby the Senate decides to "advise and consent" on a nominee. This allows the Senate to be able to interpret it at their whim in order to tip things in favor of their party. Obviously McConnell seems like a hypocrite. But the Schumer and the Dems did the same thing in 2007, and Obama was a part of it. Amending the Constitution would be the simple fix, but in partisan politics, nothing is so simple.

Cruz has lots of money behind him and I could see him continuing the delusion that he can actually win for quite a while. CNN was saying this morning that apparently he's reached a boiling point and will now aggressively go after Trump instead of "not responding in kind." So, that could be interesting. Screw that, Bernie would try to put the bill on the tab of the 1%.

I think you might be right, and it'd be funny in a schadenfreude kind of way for about 2 seconds, and then it would be tremendously sad. Repubs better be careful here. If they do ignore an Obama nominee and the Dems do manage to win the election, they're going to get an even more liberal judge than he would likely nominate.

I'd like to add that any anecdotal evidence about past successes of ANYONE financially need to be viewed thru the lens of THAT era. The money and company Trump inherited from his father in the late 60's/early 70's were worth a hell of a lot more back then. When he talks about "a small loan of a million dollars," is worth about $7 million today when you adjust for inflation. I have tremendous respect for anyone who has bettered themselves through schooling and/or hard work to earn financial security in life. But to act like everyone has the tools to do so, or whether Donald Trump is some kind of financial savant for how he's grown his wealth, is legitimately absurd. Zoogs is trying to argue that not everyone has the tools and support they need to thrive or even live a decent quality of life. I'm by no means an uneducated or blue collar guy-- I work hard and I'm going back to school in the fall to get my doctorate-- but I definitely think not everyone has the same opportunity to pursue education and are instead thrust into working multiple dead end jobs to try and support themselves and their families. I just think those people deserve a decent life, too.