a clown car full of millionaires: the 2016 presidential primary thread

no one's upset. believe it or not there are plenty of people -- not necessarily on this board -- who, between the "george bush doesn't care about black ppl" thing to the "political" messages of some of his work, think kanye has some sort of coherent political ideas or is generally a thoughtful guy. it's ok to laugh at them

don't really buy into the whole grading artists/atheletes etc on a curve when it comes to their political beliefs. it's pretty patronizing tbh

kanye's complete incoherence is what makes him interesting half the time and so painfully ridiculous the other half

"george bush doesn't care about black ppl"

I happily clown on Kanye but also have to admit that was one of the greatest moments of live television I have ever witnessed

tbf Ben Carson probably is by far the most brilliant of the current GOP candidates on account of he's a brain surgeon

Weirdly enough, I have doctor friends who constantly insult the intelligence of surgeons, reasoning being that the problem has already been diagnosed and treated, and here at the end of that long, complicated process comes this hotshot whose desired skill set is steady hands and the ability to stay awake for long hours.

He's definitely the most brilliant on account of the others pretty much being open-mouthed dead fish morons, though.

steady hands and the ability to stay awake for long hours

hey man I've never thrown anyone out of bed for this

possibly bc you haven't met ben carson yet

Weirdly enough, I have doctor friends who constantly insult the intelligence of surgeons, reasoning being that the problem has already been diagnosed and treated, and here at the end of that long, complicated process comes this hotshot whose desired skill set is steady hands and the ability to stay awake for long hours.

This is a historical thing, isn't it. Surgery was always looked down upon as mere technician grunt work, and barbers did it forever.

http://hotoffpress.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/theodoric-of-york-medieval-barber.jpg

it's just hilarious that even when Republicans get a friggin brain surgeon, he's still an idiot

maybe next time around they'll get a rocket scientist

has anyone made "being president, it's not brain surgery!" buttons yet

Not only do my doctor friends and family rip on surgeons, they basically blame them for giving other doctors a bad name. They say surgeons are often jerks/bullies, who basically only work when they have to/are scheduled, for a ton of money, and then are the ones buying the big boats, golfing, etc. Obviously a big generalization, but basically what I imagine to be the exact opposite of rocket scientists. Anyway, I'd always heard that surgeons and plumbers use the same set of skills, except I guess an asshole plumber will lose work whereas a surgeon can get away with it. Don't know anything about Carson's disposition, but wasn't he a college foosball wiz? That's gotta count for something.

I want an anesthesiologist presidential candidate, those dudes understand risk

"Interestingly, no one has denied that babies are being butchered for their body parts at Planned Parenthood clinics and elsewhere," Ms. Fiorina said as supporters clapped.

oh Carly, I'm pretty sure loads of people have denied this

starting to suspect Planned Parenthood removed and sold off Carly Fiorina's brain when she was a baby

so recent media blitzed trump is at war again with fox?

totally misread this as

so recent media blazed with trump?

Obviously a big generalization, but basically what I imagine to be the exact opposite of rocket scientists

on this theme, i once read a scientist pointing out that rocket science is possibly the easiest science, since it basically comes down to putting a bomb in a tube, capping one end, and setting it off

yeah, we basically had rockets figured out half a century ago, meanwhile cancer is still doing its thing.

i think maybe we are downplaying the complexity of rockets a bit rn

it's no harder than landing on the moon. just point the (really easy to make) rocket at the moon, take gravity into account, land on the moon

badabing badaboom

north korea cries

some of you may have questions regarding donald trump's opinions on climate change. luckily, in his interview with Hugh Hewitt the other day he cleared things up:

Well, first of all, I’m not a believer in global warming. And I’m not a believer in man-made global warming. It could be warming, and it’s going to start to cool at some point. And you know, in the early, in the 1920s, people talked about global cooling. I don’t know if you know that or not. They thought the Earth was cooling. Now, it’s global warming. And actually, we’ve had times where the weather wasn’t working out, so they changed it to extreme weather, and they have all different names, you know, so that it fits the bill. But the problem we have, and if you look at our energy costs, and all of the things that we’re doing to solve a problem that I don’t think in any major fashion exists. I mean, Obama thinks it’s the number one problem of the world today. And I think it’s very low on the list. So I am not a believer, and I will, unless somebody can prove something to me, I believe there’s weather. I believe there’s change, and I believe it goes up and it goes down, and it goes up again. And it changes depending on years and centuries, but I am not a believer, and we have much bigger problems.
You know, I talk about global warming. You know, to me, the worst global warming, and I mentioned this to you once before, is nuclear warming. That’s our global warming. That’s what I see, because we have incompetent people, and we have these rogue nations, and not even rogue nations anymore. You know, we had a case where Vladimir Putin about three months ago threw out the nuke word. And I never thought I’d hear that from a Russia. But he said they’d better, essentially, they’d better be careful, because you know, we are a nuclear nation. That was a hell of a statement for him to make. And that’s a statement that’s made because of a lack of respect.

― 1996 ball boy (Karl Malone), Wednesday, September 23, 2015 11:22 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there's a team of big oil PR people that are dispatched to coach people like trump on what to say about this sort of thing, right...and that's what he's clumsily summarizing...like no one actually believes trump is up til 4 am reading about global warming, scribbling on a dry erase board, removing his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose going "it doesn't add up.."

or is that so obvious as to be a given

Enjoying lurking on this thread. Do you all think Biden is getting in or not? Would love your take.

Thanks

I'm sure Biden is getting all kinds of encouraging noises right now from worried big money (mostly Wall Street) democratic donors, who see how HRC's negatives are helping to push Bernie Sanders forward in Iowa and NH, which, if he does surprisingly well in those states in early 2016, it could conceivably lead to the public noticing Bernie's issues and positions and responding well to them. They see Biden as an insurance policy against Sanders getting anywhere near the nomination.

My sense is that Biden has already demonstrated that he has been bitten by the presidential bug. He's run more than once. If there's enough money and endorsements waved under his nose, so that he sees a chance to win, he'll get in the race. But it will take a fairly powerful injection of promises to get him over the hump and into the race.

If I had to bet straight up even odds, I'd say no, he won't take the plunge. But if you gave me, say, 4 gets me 7, I'd be tempted to take those odds.

Biden's not getting in, would be a disaster and an embarrassment to anyone who doesn't follow Beltway politics.

He'd probably rather be governor of Delaware

governor of Citibank

i am finding myself buying into the sanders hype in spite of myself. he's likeable! he seems fairly accurate in his portrayal of a democracy gone wrong! he's got the youth movement! he's an old plainspoken jewish guy and i tend to trust them.

Rocket _science_ is fairly straightforward, since we've know all the math for like a century

Rocket _engineering_ is hard as FUCK, which is why 50 years after the Apollo program we still lose rockets, like the one that went ker-blooie a few months back. It's also why a physics sandbox game like Kerbal Space Program is so great as you can built whatever demented halfwit contraption you can think of, stick it on a rocket pad, then watch it blow up gloriously with your pilots hopefully ejecting in time

Signed, an aerospace engineering grad

Biden's not getting in, would be a disaster and an embarrassment to anyone who doesn't follow Beltway politics.

^^^

my general impression of aerospace engineering comes from when a friend of mine worked for most of a year on a satellite project the core group had been working on much longer than that, and after the launch and jubilant afterparty, featuring tearful encomia to the deeply fulfilled project director, he said his goodbyes and drove home and got a text on the way saying the satellite had fallen into the sea

if the timing of that story is impossible i'm sure i'm the one who's ornamenting

if Biden was considering a serious run, would he tell the national Jesuit magazine "Abortion is always wrong"?

http://americamedia.org/content/all-things/biden-interview-starts-new-conversations-abortion-debate

DLH, yup, that'll happen

if Biden was considering a serious run, would he tell the national Jesuit magazine "Abortion is always wrong"?

http://americamedia.org/content/all-things/biden-interview-starts-new-conversations-abortion-debate

― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Friday, September 25, 2015 2:25 PM (48 minutes ago)

eh, a liberal catholic can think that, deontologically. anyway, if he were to run, it'd be because hillary was crumbling and they'd need someone to bernie's right

I went to a deontologist once. Couldn't find a thing wrong with my teeth.

that seems right.
let's go out on a limb and say hill gets the nom. Biden is not gonna be a veep. Sanders as veep doesn't sound likely. Warren is a double female ticket, too risky. Who goes on the ticket? Booker?

Castro?

Gore?

definitely someone depressing

I've always wondered. When we say "it's not rocket science," that means "it's not hard." But if you are a rocket scientist, then one presumes rocket science is (relatively) easy. So when faced with something easy, would you say "it is rocket science?"

definitely someone depressing

this is a long way out but my guess would be either someone from the House or someone from an otherwise safe seat (either governorship or senate). Booker's probably not a bad guess. Warren would be a stupid choice and I don't think she would do it either.

Clinton/Klobuchar '16

Not all day jobs are easy, even if there are repetitive parts

Julian Castro is totally gonna be VP

oh that guy, yeah he would make sense

would ostensibly put Texas in play, which would be a major headache for the GOP