US Election: 2016

[CougarKing]

McDonald's branches in China probably aren't as bad as KFCs in China, which don't serve gravy, but instead have corn and egg tarts/ "Dan-ta" on the side:

CNN

Donald Trump: No state dinner -- only Big Mac -- for China's president

By Jeremy Diamond, CNN
Updated 7:43 AM ET, Tue August 25, 2015

Washington (CNN)If Donald Trump is president and the leader of the world's second-largest economy comes to Washington, he can expect little more than a Big Mac from McDonald's -- O.K., make that a double.

Trump vowed Monday not to throw Chinese President Xi Jinping a lavish state dinner as the Chinese leader will enjoy in September when he visits the U.S. for meetings with President Barack Obama, a little over a year after Jinping hosted Obama in China.

"I'd get him a McDonald's hamburger and I'd say we gotta get down to work, because you can't continue to devalue (the Chinese currency)," Trump said Monday night on Fox News. "I would give him a very, yeah, but I would give him a double, probably a double size Big Mac."


(...SNIPPED)

 

[CougarKing]

While China is a serious foreign policy topic, all the potential GOP candidates are making weirder and weirder sound bytes on the subject:

Unlike what Trump said last week, there would be no Big Macs for Chinese Pres. Xi Jinping if Scott Walker is the U.S. president. hehehe.

Shanghaiist

Presidential hopeful Scott Walker says Chinese leaders should be taken to the woodshed, not White House

In a race for the Republican nomination for president that is rapidly turning into a contest of who can say the meanest things about China, presidential hopeful Scott Walker from Wisconsin had the latest quip on Friday saying that Chinese leaders should be "taken to the woodshed" rather than the White House.
Earlier this week, Walker joined other Republican voices in calling for President Barack Obama to cancel an official state dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping over concerns about China's militarization of the South China Sea and cyberhacking.
Of course, Walker himself lobbied to meet personally with Xi back in 2013, appeared on Chinese state-run television in 2012 and has set up ventures to promote trade between his state and China.

(...SNIPPED)

Meanwhile, it seems there was a precedent for mass deportations (of thousands) from the US after all:

Canadian Press

Donald Trump's deportation call, birthright repeal similar to 1930s' mass removal of Mexicans
The Canadian Press

By Russell Contreras
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's call for the mass deportation of millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally as well as their American-born children bears similarities to a large-scale removal that many Mexican-American families faced 85 years ago.
During the 1930s Great Depression, counties and cities in the American Southwest and Midwest forced Mexican immigrants and their families to leave the U.S. over concerns they were taking jobs away from whites despite their legal right to stay.
The result: Around 500,000 to 1 million Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans were pushed out of United States during the so-called 1930s' repatriation.

(...SNIPPED)

Meanwhile, Scott Walker calls for a northern wall on the US border with Canada:

Canadian Press

Wisconsin governor calls building northern wall along Canadian border a legitimate issue
The Canadian Press
By Kevin Freking
Republican presidential candidate Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks during a meet and greet with local residents, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015, in Harlan, Iowa. Walker wowed Republicans at the Iowa Freedom Summit
WASHINGTON - Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is putting a new twist on the topic of securing the border, a staple among the GOP candidates running for president, by pointing north.
Walker said in an interview that aired Sunday that building a wall along the country's norther border with Canada is a legitimate issue that merits further review.
Republican candidates for president have often taken a get-tough approach on deterring illegal immigration, but they usually focus on the border with Mexico. Walker was asked Sunday morning on NBC's "Meet the Press" whether he wanted to build a wall on the northern border, too. Walker said some people in New Hampshire have asked the campaign about the topic.


(...SNIPPED)

 

[cupper]

Meanwhile, Scott Walker calls for a northern wall on the US border with Canada:

Canadian Press

Walker is a lightweight's lightweight

It's not like all of us Canadians are building catapults and sling shots to get across the border.  https://youtu.be/EdD0A9XIk6U

Last I checked, all the disgruntled 'mericans were planning to move north because of the pro gay rights, anti-capitalim creeping socialist attitudes, anti-gun, anti-pro life, anti-freedom, atheistic dope smoking degenerates that are taking over the country.

Welcome to Canada folks! Enjoy your new life.

 

[dapaterson]

Meanwhile, Scott Walker calls for a northern wall on the US border with Canada:

Canadian Press

Well, that would have kept Ted Cruz out...

 

[George Wallace]

It's not like all of us Canadians are building catapults and sling shots to get across the border.  https://youtu.be/EdD0A9XIk6U

Last I checked, all the disgruntled 'mericans were planning to move north because of the pro gay rights, anti-capitalim creeping socialist attitudes, anti-gun, anti-pro life, anti-freedom, atheistic dope smoking degenerates that are taking over the country.

Welcome to Canada folks! Enjoy your new life.

You got it all wrong.  It is like the Communists who built the Wall.  It isn't to keep people out; it is to keep people in.

 

[cupper]

You got it all wrong.  It is like the Communists who built the Wall.  It isn't to keep people out; it is to keep people in.

OK, if you put it that way, where do I sign up to start laying bricks? ;D

 

[The Bread Guy]

Well, that would have kept Ted Cruz out...

As well as (maybe) a lot of smuggled guns ....  >

 

[tomahawk6]

Its a dumb idea by a Governor that I like.Unfortunately for him and most of the field Trump has tapped into the feelings of many Americans.If Trump opts for a third party run he will give the election to a democrat.It happened before with Ross Perot.

 

[a_majoor]

How Google intends to take over the world, or How I learned to love Donald Trump and support the Communist PArty of the United States.

How Google Could Rig the 2016 Election

Google has the ability to drive millions of votes to a candidate with no one the wiser.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/how-google-could-rig-the-2016-election-121548.html?hp=m2#.VdZovEuRtC0

This isn't exactly new, Facebook has also done studies of how they can manipulate their users, and in that case the CEO is a prominent and very open supporter of the Democrats. Wikipedia is also well known for the propensity of their volunteer editors to constantly rewrite articles and ban people from doing updates or changes, particularly in anything which involves culture, politics and so on (to get a feel for how manipulative they really are and how far they are prepared to go, read this: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/01/30/wikipedia-climate-fiddler-william-connolley-is-in-the-news-again/).

Social media and the Internet are huge PSYOPS playing fields for the Progressives (most normal people have jobs and lives so cannot obsessively monitor Wikipedia pages and edit out inconvenient facts).

 

[CougarKing]

And sure enough, Walker's idea is ridiculed in the Twittersphere/Blogosphere:

CBC

Canada-U.S. border wall idea ridiculed on social media
CBC – 3 hours ago

Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin a Republican contender for the president's job, has been ridiculed online since raising the idea of building a mammoth security wall along the Canada-U.S. border.
Walker entertained the idea during an interview on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, where he called the wall a "legitimate issue."

It's rare to see the Canadian border being discussed during a presidential campaign, as candidates more often talk about the southern border. Walker's fellow presidential candidate, Donald Trump, has called for a "real wall" to be put up between the U.S. and Mexico. And he plans to get the Mexican government to pay for it.

(...SNIPPED)

 

[cupper]

As if this campaign wasn't bad enough, we now have do deal with morons declaring their candidacy for 2020. When will this madness stop?

 

[tomahawk6]

As if this campaign wasn't bad enough, we now have do deal with morons declaring their candidacy for 2020. When will this madness stop?

Its called democracy cupper.Sometimes it aint pretty,but it beats the alternative. :camo:

 

[cavalryman]

Its called democracy cupper.Sometimes it aint pretty,but it beats the alternative. :camo:

You mean the dynastic Clinton/Bush struggles?  ;D

 

[cupper]

Its called democracy cupper.Sometimes it aint pretty,but it beats the alternative. :camo:

 

[Edward Campbell]

I just saw this on the web:

         

 

[cupper]

I just saw this on the web:

         

:rofl:

You know, this explains a lot about what happened during Bill's time as President.

 

[CougarKing]

Meanwhile Trump says he will change the name back...

BBC

Mount McKinley's Alaska name Denali is restored by Obama


After decades of controversy, the name of Mount McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America, has been changed back to its original native Alaskan, Denali.
The 20,237ft (6,168m) peak was named by a gold prospector in 1896 after he heard that William McKinley had been nominated to become the US president.
US President Barack Obama announced the change ahead of a three-day visit to Alaska to highlight climate change.
But Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner has denounced the move.
The new name Denali translates as High One or Great One and is used widely by locals.

(...SNIPPED)

 

[a_majoor]

And more of why Trump and Bernie Sanders are so popular:

NOT YET, BUT OBAMA IS TRYING: Victor Davis Hanson, “Is the West Dead Yet?”


Immigration is a one-way Western street. Those who, in the abstract, damn the West — as much as elite Westerners themselves do — want very much to live inside it. The loudest anti-Western voices in the Middle East are usually housed in Western universities, not in Gaza. Jorge Ramos is a fierce critic of supposed American cruelty to illegal immigrants — so much so that he fled Mexico for America, became a citizen (how is that possible, given American bias against immigrants?), landed a multimillion-dollar salary working for the non-Latino-owned Spanish-language network Univision, and then put his kids in private school to shield them from hoi polloi of the sort he champions each evening. Now that’s the power of the West. . . .

But as in mid-fifth-century Athens and late-republican Rome, there are signs that the West is eroding — and fast. The common Western malady is age-old and cyclical. . . . In the case of modern America, Britain, and Europe, the sheer material bounty spawned by free-market capitalism and legally protected private property, combined with the freedom of the individual, creates a sort of ennui. Boredom is the logical result of that lethal mix of affluence and leisure. .  . .

Take the ongoing mass exoduses from the Third World into Europe and the United States. . . .But note that no elite Westerner wants to face the cause of the malady: namely, that the failure in the Third World to adopt Western ideas of consensual government, equality between the sexes, free-market capitalism, individual liberty, and transparent meritocracy logically leads to mayhem and poverty. . . .

But it is worse than that: Western elites deny their own exceptionalism, and deny any reason for their own privilege other than the easy private guilt of citing the Holy Trinity of “race/class/gender.” . . .

The first casualty in a bored and would-be-revolutionary society is legality. And certainly in the West the law — whose sanctity built Western civilization — has become a joke. New Confederate-style nullificationists in San Francisco demand that federal immigration statutes not apply to their sanctuary city, even as they insist that a minor clerk in Kentucky be jailed for nullifying a Supreme Court edict allowing gay marriage. Kim Davis should indeed be jailed for obstructing a federal mandate, but only after the neo-Confederate nullificationist mayor, Board of Supervisors, and sheriff of San Francisco. . . .

What the West worries about is not poverty, but disparity: No one argues that the rioters at Ferguson did not have smartphones, expensive sneakers, hot water in their homes, air conditioning, and plenty to eat — it’s just that they did not have as many or as sophisticated appurtenances as someone else. Michael Brown was not undernourished or in need of the cigars he lifted. . . .

Virtually every American must palpably sense the country’s rapid decline since President Obama assumed office. It’s not just economic stagnation; it’s a moral, religious, cultural and legal free fall that turns the stomach. That’s why the 2016 presidential election isn’t so much about needing an “experienced” politician (i.e., someone who cares more about being a member of the D.C. club than listening to Americans living outside D.C.), or even the candidates’ positions on particular issues.

It’s about a desperate, visceral longing for someone who believes that America is the greatest force for good on earth, that it occupies a special position of power that in large part determines the stability and prosperity of the globe, and that its own goodness and quest for fairness should not be used against it by those who plot to destroy it from within.

As we free fall from the Obama era of weakness and indecision, Americans’ top priority seems to be avoiding career politicians whose well-rehearsed, mellifluous, politically correct words instinctively smack of arrogance, weakness, guilt, insincerity or paternalism. D.C. has turned into the Capitol city portrayed in the Hunger Games–corrupt, privileged, arrogant, condescending, manipulative, shallow, materialistic, weak, and utterly ignorant of the needs of those who live beyond its borders.

The political class has forgotten who is actually “boss” in our constitutional republic– We the People outside of D.C.  The boss is now interviewing presidential candidates to ascertain who understands this basic principle, and accepts that the job description entails being the leader of ordinary (not merely elite) Americans, and a staunch defender of American interests.

The political elites in this country are apoplectic that their “insider” candidates are doing so poorly. The rest of the country is enjoying the fact that they have choices other than candidates who espouse the same old interchangeable, predictable, politically correct B.S.

 

[CougarKing]

Some food for thought for the US GOP debates next Wednesday:

Diplomat

GOP Debates: China As Foil
Will China-bashing or cool-headed candidates prevail?

By Mercy A. Kuo and Angelica O. Tang
September 10, 2015

(...SNIPPED)

GOP candidates have plenty of fodder to fire away at China – the impact of China’s recent stock market rout on global markets, aggressive island-building in the South China Sea, relentless cyberattacks into U.S. government data systems, ongoing human rights infringements, among many other issues.

We offer three measures of messaging for addressing China issues throughout the campaign season:

Cooler heads prevail. Pragmatism will prevail over politicization of China policy. U.S. leadership in Asia and toward China is best exercised with fortitude and principles. As former U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Platt advised in our Rebalance Insight conversation, “The Chinese have become accustomed over the years to China bashing and harsh rhetoric during U.S. presidential campaigns…That said, Beijing will be listening carefully. Candidates who articulate an informed, practical approach to U.S. engagement in Asia, stick up for their principles and their old friends (including Chinese), and espouse peaceful engagement across the region will earn respect in Asia and votes at home.”

Strategically global, tactically local. Skillful candidates will demonstrate strategic thinking  with tactical understanding of U.S. leadership in Asia vis-à-vis China. Contenders would be well-served to explain the benefits of bilateral cross-border investments and job creation in the context of intensified global economic competition. A default rhetorical device is to attribute weak U.S. economic performance to Chinese machinations as a zero-sum game. This approach may appeal to local constituencies, but oversimplifies structural challenges in both countries’ economies and an increasingly interdependent global economy. Concurrently, China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea warrants a strategic security approach that has local effectiveness with regional allies. Donald Trump’s China-chiding is a case study in how his brand of hyperbole garners vacuous hilarity. Scott Walker’s serial flip-flopping on multiple issues, including China – calling on President Barack Obama to show backbone and cancel the U.S.-China summit, while embracing Chinese trade opportunities for the state of Wisconsin – erodes the credibility of his candidacy. Having vaulted into next week’s first-tier debate line-up, Carly Fiorina has ratcheted up national security rhetoric to sustain a viable candidacy with calls for a more aggressive U.S. approach toward China. As Ben Carson’s poll position rises, his prosaic warning against overconfidence and ineptitude driving U.S. decline and fueling China’s rise lacks a bipartisan policy plan. Taking a swipe at the Obama administration’s excessive spending, Chris Christie has used the China card to reinforce his straight-talking-tough-guy persona amid sinking polls. Though Marco Rubio has eloquently laid out his pillars of U.S. foreign policy, time will tell if his strident stance on China’s human rights record is political theater or true moral resolve. In fundraising with U.S. expats in China and Hong Kong this week, Jeb Bush’s outreach to the American business community in Asia is expected to “elevate his stature in the region,” while his linkage between “anchor babies” and “Asian people” stoked the ire of Asian American communities at home.

Address the audience(s). Multiple audiences are in play at the debates – the American electorate, campaign supporters, donors, pundits, U.S. allies and their publics – Australia, Canada, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, among others – opinion influencers, and rivals. Tailored messaging that resonates will convey presidential grit with a blend of wit and wisdom. While showmanship and gamesmanship will be on full display, winning candidates may opt to channel their inner Ronald Reagan with content and conviction in explaining why respected U.S. leadership in Asia and resolutely strengthening U.S.-China relations go hand-in-hand.

 

[Kilo_302]

And more of why Trump and Bernie Sanders are so popular:

This article is a bit of a laugh. Trump and Sanders are so popular because Americans are starting to realize the "system" as it exists is not working for them. The Clintons, Obama, and all of the rest of the current candidates on both sides of the aisle have been bought and paid for, and they won't really change much going forward. Trump would continue the same neo-liberal approach to the economy, but he throws in some good old-fashioned xenophobia and fascism.

Don't forget it was Bill Clinton's Democrats who completely dismantled the welfare system and removed the divide between investment and personal banking which led to the 2008 crash in the first place. There are no progressives here outside of Bernie Sanders, who is not as far left as Trump is to the right. We're seeing the classic move to the opposite ends of the spectrum that occurs when capitalism finds itself in crisis. Sanders may be able to save it if he follows the Roosevelt example and addresses the gross inequality that a main cause of the current social unrest. If he's not successful, whoever is elected will continue the deregulation and "death by a thousand cuts" approach to public services, exposing more and more Americans to the effects of the market. Then we'll get a real revolution on our hands, and it will probably be far-right in nature if the past is any indicator. Trump is extremely dangerous, and if  it's not him, it will be a future leader who will plunge the US into real fascism. I'm surprised we're here already, but 14 years of war have accelerated things a lot.