October 18, 2016

"He started whining before the game's even over."

Said President Obama about Donald Trump's assertion that the election system is rigged.

But isn't that the best time to protest that a game is rigged — before the game is over? After it's over and you've lost, you seem more self-interested and less credible.

I think Obama's point would be better if he'd said "He started whining when he saw that he was going to lose the game." (And Obama did also say something like that: "If whenever things are going badly for you and you lose, you start blaming somebody else, then you don't have what it takes to be in this job.")

ADDED: Instapundit, quoting the quote in the post title, says: "To be fair, isn't this what someone who rigged an election would say?"

193 comments:

MayBee said...

Obama never whines.

Michael K said...

Obama knows how it is being rigged, or at least his controllers know exactly how.

Massive vote fraud is under way and word is creeping out.

Assange will probably be arrested and accidentally shot escaping so that is the end of Wikileaks.

MayBee said...

I really do not think it is seemly for a sitting US President to discuss the election in such terms in an international press conference.

I can't believe there's been so little commentary on how out of the norm this is--- especially considering the Obamas are pretending to "go high".

Bill, Republic of Texas said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
David Begley said...

Hey, Barack. STFU.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

That man is so lovely.

Gk1 said...

This is just a glimpse on how insufferable Obama will be as an ex-president. He knows no boundaries and thinks anyone gives a shit what he thinks 24/7. Imagine when Hillary has to deviate from the "proper" laws and programs he set up. Go back to the golf course, ASSHOLE.

EsoxLucius said...

Obama, like Hillary, knows what it's like to repeatedly be pulled over by the cops and then declared innocent. Ladyfingers doesn't.

Expat(ish) said...

Two known examples of rigging at the national level:
1> Kennedy/Johnson vs. Nixon/Lodge
2> Al Franken vs. Norm Coleman

The first gave us: Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, and Vietnam
The second gave us: Obamacare

-XC

BarrySanders20 said...

Can't I just eat my waffles?

narciso said...

of course, remember how he won his first race, he disqualified all the rival candidates, behind the scenes, he did a similar thing with the senate race, forcing ryan and blair hull out, through the leaking of their divorce files, (that was axelrod's job)

CJ said...

Trump is no more vulgar, inciting, dishonest, or unqualified than Obama is. I wish the media would portray Obama as the mean (read: low), petulant dickhead he really is.

Balfegor said...

And Obama did also say something like that: "If whenever things are going badly for you and you lose, you start blaming somebody else, then you don't have what it takes to be in this job."

Yes, Obama. That's exactly right.

Etienne said...

I think he's being ill advised.

No one cares about that. It's not something the peasants can change, or fight.

What Trump needs to do is concentrate on four things that are easily remembered:

1) I'm going to run a 1 trillion dollar surplus for 4 years.
2) I'm going to shut down the obsolete government agencies.
3) I'm going to get rid of income tax and go to a consumption tax.
4) I'm going to bring our troops home from World War II, and Korea, and reduce nuclear weapons by 50%.

Theranter said...

If you'd plowed through the actual WikiLeaks emails all weekend as I did, you'd understand Trump has every reason to whine. Really bad stuff for our Republic in there.

Maybee and Prof. Althouse, thanks for the kind words re my rant on the TG patient yesterday. Much appreciated.

EsoxLucius said...

MayBee: I seem to recall your Saint Reagan flacking for George H W. On the other hand, McCain and Romney didn't want W around.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Isn't the Democrat idea of 'systemic racism' an endorsement that the game is 'rigged' to disadvantage millions -- millions! -- of Democrat voters? With no actual evidence of rigging other than that they are losing, over and over?
They oughta just take their fuckin' medicine.
Losers.

traditionalguy said...

Rigging elections used to be hard wrk to rig a mass of PAPER absentee mail out ballots filled and unwitnessed by others, and usually already and counted and kept close by if needed.

But now the computer memories without a paper trail are 100% riggable; and low and behold, Soros supplies the computer softwear used in 17 swing States. And his cohort Obama just announced that the count is in and it strangely matches their falsified Polls.

Mike Sylwester said...

When is the right time to complain that big donations from rich people determine the election results?

SteveR said...

The only response to accusations that its rigged, is that its "whining". Of course nothing inspires confidence that its honest and fair unless, of course, you you only require confidence of winning.

hawkeyedjb said...

Good thing we're electing one of these two to an insignificant post instead of Most Powerful Office in the World. Oops.

Mick said...

Obama whines about White people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fItxli7-uU0

Trump Rallies are packed (10-15K people) Rock Concerts, The Crooked Old Lady's Rallies barely fill a high school gym (500 people).

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/10/trump-momentum-growing-with-half-a-million-at-his-rallies-since-july/

The Polls are a lie.
Trump Landslide.
Book it.

hawkeyedjb said...

"If you'd plowed through the actual WikiLeaks emails all weekend as I did..."

...You would have read more of them than all the reporters in the MSM combined.

hombre said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
EsoxLucius said...

coupe: We agree, I'd vote for a president who did those things. My problem with ladyfingers is bigger than his disregard for the law. He doesn't seem to listen to any advice, legal or otherwise. As long as he gets his name in what he calls 'the paper', and normal people call the National Enquirer, it's good for him. I worry for this country when he inevitably looses. Second Amendment solutions have consequences.

Michael K said...

The thought that occurs to me right now is the "Rotten Boroughs" of England that elected Parliaments until The Reform Act of 1832, which set up real polling places and reformed voting.

The big difference then was that even the corrupt Parliaments before reform were patriotic and won the Napoleonic War.

What we have now is a trough filled with pigs who care nothing for the country and are pulling it down.

JPS said...

Oh, he knows what it takes.

"It's hard to look like a leader when you look like Alibi Ike, the character in a Ring Lardner short story who wasn't a very good baseball player, but it was never his fault. This president has blamed George W. Bush, the Japanese tsunami, Greece, the Euro, the Arab Spring, Republicans, the Tea Party, and ultimately James Madison, for giving us the separation of powers, for all his problems. And that does not project leadership."

- George Will, five long years ago.

hombre said...

Fundamental change:

- Sitting Democrat President campaigns to put matriarch of crime family in WH.

- Non-partisan Pew research finds four million dead people on voter rolls.

- Democrat DOJ sues states to prevent purging dead people from voter rolls.

- Democrat DOJ sues states to prevent implementation of voter ID.

- Hacked emails show DNC rigged matriarch's nomination.

- Sitting Democrat President accuses matriarch's opponent of "whining" for pointing out potential rigging of election by Democrats.

This, despite the axiom that brain dead people are most likely to vote for Democrats.

Democrats have no shame.

Achilles said...

The Wikileaks's have sunk Hillary with the voters.

Hillary's only chance now is voter fraud.

Lewis Wetzel said...

It is really difficult to believe that you'd think about a president Trump or Hillary and you'd say to yourself "Hey! Obama was better than this guy!"
Worst economic recovery since the great depression. Wars all over the globe. Race riots in major cities. Massive government spending and tax increases on virtually all Americans. More deficit spending than anyone else in the 4.5 billion year history of planet Earth. Muslims terrorists shooting up army bases, government offices, and gay nightclubs on American soil.
SHAME ON YOU DEMOCRATS! SHAME!
Are you happy now? Huh? Is this what you wanted?

Achilles said...

Obama has easily been the worst president this country has ever had. Buchanan didn't hide his disastrous bungling behind massive, repeated and clearly obvious lies.

Amexpat said...

Obama knows how it is being rigged, or at least his controllers know exactly how.

How is Obama or HRC going to rig the election in Florida or Ohio, two critical swing states with a GOP governor? The main point Obama made in answering the question is that because of the decentralized state run voting system, the Federal government can't rig an election.

Of course, elections have and can be tampered with at the state level. But Trump seems to be alluding to some grand conspiracy against him led by the media. But the media is not monolithic anymore and the media outlets give their viewers the type of coverage they want. Their ratings vary according to that. I saw recently that CNN was ahead of Fox news. My guess is that their Trump bashing is helping CNN to get higher ratings because there a large number of people that like to see him get bashed. Fox got high ratings for years, because they attracted viewers that liked their point of view.

JPS said...

Achilles,

"The Wikileaks's have sunk Hillary with the voters."

Disagree. They have dissuaded no one who wasn't already going to vote against her.

It's shocking to me that more people don't care about the corruption that was manifest in the first Clinton administration, and has been tooling up for an epic sequel, but they don't.

Wince said...

Which is the more ridiculous claim?

A national election is rigged (Trump)?

The "system" is rigged (Warren)?

Gk1 said...

"Barack Obama: If we turn against each other based on division of race or religion. If-if-if-if-if-if-if-if-if-if-if we fall for, you know, a bunch of okie-doke, just because, you know it-it-it. You know, it-it-it-it-it-it sounds funny or the tweets are provocative."

Yeah, that's real presidential.

narciso said...

why did the judge extend registration, for a week, sans the regulations, actually four million fewer turned out in 2012, but the ones that did were hive,

mccullough said...

Obama is whining about Trump's whining. Each of their whining is a calculated political tactic.

Gk1 said...

“You start whining before the games even over — if, if, if, if, if, if whenever things are going badly for you and you lose, you start blaming somebody else?” he said, stuttering.

Yes, the Cicero of the modern ages on full display.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Obama is so un-presidential.

sunsong said...

PBS Newhour disputes Trump's bull shit claim:

link

Paul Snively said...

I wonder if we'll ever get past the parsing of the words, the implications, the gotchas, the snark, etc. and maybe concentrate on whether we actually have a functioning republic or not?

TreeJoe said...

Somehow, the democratic party has convinced sufficient people that voter fraud is less of a concern than putting very mild restrictions on voting that could serve as "disenfranchisement" of impoverished communities.

As pointed out elsewhere, you only need a few things to put a huge wrench in large scale voter fraud:

1. Require paper based voting
2. Restrict mail in voting to very specific populations and enforce rigorous mail-in voting checks given the extra time available to vet such votes.
3. Dye the finger/thumb of a voter at the time of voting.

It is beyond ludricrous the number of proven instances of voting fraud. And it doesn't even have to be actual malicious voting - it can simply be the incidents of more voters voting than are on a counties voting rolls, or large numbers of deceased individuals voting, or large number of deceased individuals remaining registered to vote 1+ year after their passing.

These mistakes and lack of controls enable challenged elections, yet there is no serious desire to fix them - primarily driven by democratics efforts to block change.

J. Farmer said...

Hmm....didn't Obama pretty much blame the British and the French when his Libya intervention disaster went tits up?

Bill Peschel said...

Meanwhile the Pew Charitable Trust reports that we have more than 4 million ineligible voters on the rolls. Nearly 3 million voters are registered in more than one state. Nearly 2 million are dead voters.

And the Democrats refuse to help clean these rolls up, and block voter ID, even though it has not been shown to repress minority representation in states that use it.

You don't need much fraud to tip the scales. Under the Electoral College setup, an organized movement in Philadelphia -- long known for its election fraud -- is all that's needed to flip the state Democrat.

Add to that the study that showed that without the media thumbing the scale, our politics nationwide would look more like Utah's, it becomes clear how rigged the system has become.

J. Farmer said...

@Paul Snively:

"I wonder if we'll ever get past the parsing of the words, the implications, the gotchas, the snark, etc. and maybe concentrate on whether we actually have a functioning republic or not?"

That greatly presumes that the elite want a functioning republic.

rehajm said...

Professional whiners like Obama know you don't start whining until after the fact.

rehajm said...

"Barack Obama: If we turn against each other based on division of race or religion. If-if-if-if-if-if-if-if-if-if-if we fall for, you know, a bunch of okie-doke, just because, you know it-it-it. You know, it-it-it-it-it-it sounds funny or the tweets are provocative."

Yeah, that's real presidential.


The search for the inscription under his colossal in front of his library is over.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

So noble, so above-the-fray, so self-aware ('cause Obama never whines or complains about "the refs" himself, of course)...I can see why you'll miss him so much, Professor.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"PBS Newhour disputes Trump's bull shit claim:"

Unbiased sources are more effective in furthering an argument. Just a tip.

david7134 said...

I get the sense that many feel the race is over, it ain't. I feel that the media is trying to introduce a sense of defeat and that is not true. Sure, if you look at the polls you will become despondent, but the polls have been consistently wrong. Remember, when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor we did not give up.

Gusty Winds said...

Funny, the O'Keefe video just released (part II), walks us all through Scott Foval, a proud Democrat operative, and resident of Madison, WI, giving his expertise on Democrat efforts in voter fraud and rigging elections.

Well timed all around.

GWash said...

I'll be waiting for the PROOF of massive voting fraud on Nov 9th... i'm sure you will all be ready to provide... unless there is another voter fraud suppression conspiracy in our future!

Matt said...

david7134 said...
"but the polls have been consistently wrong. Remember, when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor we did not give up."

WTF? Satire?

Hagar said...

Trump's "rigging" refers to more than election fraud. It is also about the entire MSM, except perhaps the Australian Mr. Murdoch's publications, giving up all pretense of reporting on events and going full out on partisan advocacy, and about wheeling and dealing with the resources of the people's government for partisan purposes.

BTW, on the subject of election fraud, if it does not exist to any noticeable extent, why does the Democratic Party to this day insist that we should not worry about the Kennedy brothers meeting with Sam Giancana and his capos at Sinatra's place in 1960 because it was "only" to discuss the organization of election fraud in Illinois? Likewise that the valise full of cash from Joe Kennedy that Judith Campbell brought to Giancana was only for financing said election fraud? And finally that we should not worry about any of that either, because Kennedy would have won even without the Illinois vote?
There seems to be a lot of "cognitive dissonance" or something going on here.

Matt said...

Bill Peschel
"it becomes clear how rigged the system has become."

Meanwhile the Republicans have more governorships than Democrats and control the House and Senate with the largest Republican majority since the 71st Congress of 1929–1931. But you say their is voter fraud? Hmmmm, who is it benefiting? Let's see some proof and not just nonsensical comments.

Gusty Winds said...

Scott Foval. Vote fixer. Corrupt intimidator. Dumbass pontificater.

Proud liberal resident of Madison County, Wisconsin.

Well placed. So close to home.

MayBee said...

So Russia is not trying to hack our electoral system? Or it is? Or....

HoodlumDoodlum said...

narciso said...of course, remember how he won his first race, he disqualified all the rival candidates, behind the scenes, he did a similar thing with the senate race, forcing ryan and blair hull out, through the leaking of their divorce files, (that was axelrod's job)

Yuuup. Convincing a judge to unseal an opponent's custody filing records (part of his divorce) despite both parents' request that they remain sealed--what a lovely thing to do! I bet you admire the absolute hell out of that, Professor Althouse.

Hey, everybody remember when newspapers sued to have John Kerry's divorce records unsealed (when he was running against George W Bush) but the judge in that case said no? Isn't that how the rule of law is supposed to work--against Republicans only? Gotta love politics, huh?

Fabi said...

President Promdate has never undergone any kind of scrutiny or significant opposition in his entire life -- yet he still whines constantly. Petulant, pouty, pusillanimous.

SayAahh said...

Obama was whining before the game began.

Matt said...

I just hope all this 'voter fraud' talk means Republicans will decide to stay home and not vote. #Awesome!

MayBee said...

Meanwhile the Republicans have more governorships than Democrats and control the House and Senate with the largest Republican majority since the 71st Congress of 1929–1931

I think the courts have more power, and many have overturned voter ID laws.

I've moved a lot recently, and I've got no doubt in my mind I could vote in 3 different states this election.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Oh, and remember, that was the SECOND time that lovely Mr. Obama used the tactic of unsealing divorce records to win an election!

One month before the 2004 Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate, Obama was down in the polls, about to lose to Blair Hull, a multimillionaire securities trader. But then the Chicago Tribune leaked the claim that Hull's second ex-wife, Brenda Sexton, had sought an order of protection against him during their 1998 divorce proceedings.

Those records were under seal, but as The New York Times noted: "The Tribune reporter who wrote the original piece later acknowledged in print that the Obama camp had 'worked aggressively behind the scenes' to push the story." Many people said Axelrod had "an even more significant role -- that he leaked the initial story."

Both Hull and his ex-wife opposed releasing their sealed divorce records, but they finally relented in response to the media's hysteria -- 18 days before the primary. Hull was forced to spend four minutes of a debate detailing the abuse allegation in his divorce papers, explaining that his ex-wife "kicked me in the leg and I hit her shin to try to get her to not continue to kick me."


After having held a substantial lead just a month before the primary, Hull's campaign collapsed with the chatter about his divorce. Obama sailed to the front of the pack and won the primary. Hull finished third with 10 percent of the vote.


Obama's Signature Move: Unsealing Private Records

Now a lot of people would say "wow, what a scumbag lowlife Chicago politician this guy is--politics in that town sure are dirty and the people who thrive in that environment seem to be the ones most willing to get dirty themselves and smear others."

But Professor Althouse, you know, her conclusion instead is "what a lovely man, I sure will miss him."

Thanks, voters.

MayBee said...

Remember when he said "They treat me like I'm a dog"?

Remember when the word was that Obama thought America was just ungovernable?

EsoxLucius said...

Yeah, Obama is petulant, pouty, and pusillanimous, and ladyfingers and all of you aren't. That's a good one.

Thorby said...

When more than 90% of 'journalists' give cash to one of two candidates. When one of the two candidates is provided with the questions before the debates. When a debate moderator e-mails one of two candidates and expresses support and admiration. And, when debate moderators run interference and defend the same one of the two candidates. Then, I think one can safely say that the 'game is rigged'.

In 2012, it was George Stephanopoulos who set up the contraceptive war on women against Romney. In 2016, it was Anderson Cooper who set up the 'attacks women' war on Trump. In 2012 it was Candy Crawly who entered the debate on Obama's behalf against Romney. In 2016, it was Martha Raddatz who entered the debate on Clinton's behalf. So, the attack patterns are the same. Again, I think it is safe to say that the 'game is rigged'.

Gahrie said...

I'll be waiting for the PROOF of massive voting fraud on Nov 9th... i'm sure you will all be ready to provide... unless there is another voter fraud suppression conspiracy in our future!

It's hard to provide proof of voter fraud when you don't have to prove who you are when you vote.

What "proof" would you expect to see?

Matt said...

Thorby said...
"When more than 90% of 'journalists' give cash to one of two candidates..."

Maybe it just means Republicans [conservatives] don't enter the news business as much as Democrats [liberals] do?

Fabi said...

Esox with a tu quoque. Lulz

MacMacConnell said...

" Let's see some proof and not just nonsensical comments."

Won't be any legal proof of voter fraud, AG Holder shut down that division when Obama was sworn in.

Democrats oppose every attempt to clean up voter registration rolls even though it is a legal requirement of the "motor Voter" law.

buwaya said...

"Maybe it just means Republicans [conservatives] don't enter the news business as much as Democrats [liberals] do?"

This is true. There is a strong personality filter in this thing, at a professional-career level.

But it means that, for instance, engineers and technicians end up with far less political influence than impractical cretins do, because they are focused on genuine problems of the world, and therefore cannot keep the dummies from creating human problems. They are busy keeping a stream of food, fuel, water, energy and all the sorts of stuff getting to us, without which we would die.

The impractical cretins therefore get free reign to keep us well supplied with a stream of lies, which is their professional product.

So there is a market failure here, which should inspire you left-wing sorts to come up with a solution.

EsoxLucius said...

Ladyfingers doesn't need proof of anything, he'll tweet at 3:00 am on 11/09 that he predicted the election was RIGGED and pray his his minions don't see him as a LOSER. Then all of you trolls will go away and this board won't be petulant, pouty, petty and pusillanimous anymore.

buwaya said...

"I'll be waiting for the PROOF of massive voting fraud "

This sort of thing requires a large scale after the fact investigation which can take months or years even if pursued with energy and rigor. This is, as noted, made much more difficult if the proper controls and audit tools are not in place beforehand.

This is why international voting transparency NGO's stress systematic pre-election security policies such as accurate voter rolls and voter ID's.

Speaking as a former volunteer for NAMFREL (National Movement for Free Elections, Philippines, 1980-86)

Matt said...

Mac McConnell said...

"Won't be an legal proof..."

Don't kid yourself. The term 'voter fraud' is code for "all those inner city multicultural folks are stealing elections from rural white conservatives." You guys didn't accept Obama as president and now if Hillary wins you'll tell us she won because millions of dead people voted or some sh*t. But as I noted; Republicans have more governorships than Democrats and control the House and Senate with the largest Republican majority since the 71st Congress of 1929–1931. But, yeah, voter fraud is somehow only affecting elections when a Democrat gets into office. How convenient. Tell you what, why don't you guys field a better Republican candidate some year and maybe you'll win and all this 'voter fraud' stuff will magically disappear. Winning does that. It makes partisans suddenly sane and rational again.

buwaya said...

Esoxlucius,

I have seen elections stolen. The conditions of this one (and many others in the US to tell the truth) do not inspire confidence. Florida absentee ballots in particular seem to me to be a rally high probability source of fraud.

Its lucky that California isn't competitive, because here its the wild west.

sunsong said...

Trump is a loser and way too childish to be President. That's why he won't win - despite his desperate efforts to blame voter fraud or the media or whatever else he can throw out there.

Strong men take responsibility...Trump is weak.

buwaya said...

"all those inner city multicultural folks are stealing elections from rural white conservatives."

As it happens, its extremely easy to steal or rig the "urban" vote, especially to fake turnout, if voter registration is poorly maintained. Thats where voter registration WOULD be poorly maintained, and also where the election personnel are most easily suborned. Also where the greatest rate of voting errors occur, which are a rich source of judgment calls.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Matt said...Maybe it just means Republicans [conservatives] don't enter the news business as much as Democrats [liberals] do?

Weird how disparate impact & implied bias only seem to apply in certain situations, isn't it?

I mean, when few black people try out to be firefighters and as a result the firefighting force of a city is mostly white, why that's proof of racial bias, right there! It means the culture must not be sufficiently supportive, see, so institutional racism (as well as individual racism) & historical prejudice/discrimination.

Too few blacks, too few gays, too few women = proof of discrimination & hatred.
Too few conservatives? Hey, it's probably some self-selection and/or fault w/conservatives themselves.

Gotta love Lefty consistency.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

sunsong said...Strong men take responsibility...Trump is weak.

I did not have sexual relations with that woman

Brando said...

I wouldn't write off complaints of rigging just because Trump's a whiner. A whiner can be right too!

His complaint about the media is partly right. A lot of the media can't stand him, and it shows. People have biases, but in journalism they need to do more to make sure those biases don't bleed through. In a lot of cases, they don't even try with Trump.

Of course, the media also made him what he is--his constant free media and the fawning treatment he got until recently--well he wasn't whining then! Live and die by the same sword.

Does a biased media even swing an election? If it did I figure he'd be down at 5%. Clearly a lot of people don't trust the media already, and even those who do probably don't care what the media says about him.

Rigging the voting--well, he's jumping the gun on that, unless he's talking about early write in voting which is starting. But he's preaching to the choir on it.

EsoxLucius said...

Bernie Sanders is campaigning in Arizona today, and Hillary is running ads in Texas. I smell an avalanche and a mantate.

Drago said...

Sending: " Strong men take responsibility...Trump is weak."

Hey, remember when obambi tried to pretend he didn't create his own "red line" in Syria?

"Taking responsibility", dem style.

Sebastian said...

@bu: "accurate voter rolls and voter ID's" Standard in civilized countries. All racist, of course.

buwaya said...

"His complaint about the media is partly right."

Thats right - only partly because it doesn't go far enough.
This is a coordinated machine, not just a disparate bunch defending their interests.

"Does a biased media even swing an election?"

Yes, definitely. It worked for the Soviets, that's why they put so much effort into foreign media. The only question here is if can swing it enough.

"Rigging the voting"

This is a general US problem that is not taken sufficiently seriously. There is far, far too much smoke here to dismiss. It is EASY to set up trustworthy elections, its been done in places with far worse problems than the US. There is no reason to oppose these, unless one side is indeed taking advantage of the opportunity to commit hanky-panky.

damikesc said...

This is a general US problem that is not taken sufficiently seriously. There is far, far too much smoke here to dismiss. It is EASY to set up trustworthy elections, its been done in places with far worse problems than the US. There is no reason to oppose these, unless one side is indeed taking advantage of the opportunity to commit hanky-panky.

The elite seemed to take the FL election as reason to do away with paper ballots and any semblance of a paper trail. But it's useless because Progressives are always able to "find" more votes. It's uncanny.

EsoxLucius said...

What media is biased against Republicans? Sumner Redstone's Viacom? Ralph Robert's Comcast? Robert Pittman's ClearChannel? Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp? Robert Iger's Disney is the only news corporation headed by a left of center CEO. If you think the media is biased, look inside your own house.

Matt said...

HoodlumDoodlum

"Gotta love Lefty consistency."

Gotta love Righty straw men arguments. I made an observation about which types of people on the political spectrum *might* be attracted to being journalists. I didn't say that was a good thing or a bad thing. I also said absolutely nothing about black people as firemen etc. Don't take other people's absurd arguments and lob them onto my comments. That's not a winning argument or an accurate one.

J. Farmer said...

@EsoxLucius:

"If you think the media is biased, look inside your own house."

The media is not necessarily biased towards Republicans, but it is certainly biased towards conservatism. And there is practically no conservatism in Washington, DC regardless of how many D's and R's occupy how many offices of power. The Democrats and Republicans do not represent two broadly ideological groups but are essentially two wings of the same globalist party. The practical indistinguishability of the two main parties is exactly what paved the way for Trump's insurgent candidacy.

Gusty Winds said...

I work with a guy that lives in Kenosha, WI. He sent photographs of 10 School buses with Illinois plates all lined up at a Kenosha polling location to the Journal-Sentinal (who showed no interest). The location is infamous for turning in their results last.

The buses wait outside, and at the end of the day they go through the rolls to see who didn't show up to vote, unload the buses, and say "today you're so and so, here's a ballot, you know what to do". And if you don't think that's real, you're part of the voter fraud problem. If you talk to people from Kenosha, they KNOW it.

Wisconsin has a law not allowing a polling places to close if people are in line. So they line the people from the buses up at the last minute, tell them who to vote for (which could include Paul Ryan), and turn their results in last. It's been going on for years, as admitted by Scott Foval.

Unknown said...

If EsoxLucius cannot see the media bias against Republicans, that just goes to show his or her blindness.

It's not Comcast, it's NBC/ CNN/ CBS/ ABC and Garnett newspapers, at the minimum.

Then let's look at Facebook, Google, Twitter: all who are openly censoring conservatives now.

But for proof; just read wikileaks, where the open collusion between the Democrats, the government, and the media: all the exact same thing now, is just plain and in the open. There is literally no difference between our elected officials, the media, and the Democrat party apparatchiks. They move between all three effortlessly. Our government used to have three branches: President, Congress, and Courts. Now it's "Democrat Party, Media, and bureaucracy" that rules us all, and all are the exact same people.

Plus on the subject of voter fraud, O'Keefe's gotten video evidence (released today) where Democrat party officials boast about stealing elections for the last 50 years and how they move people around to commit massive vote fraud.

--Vance

buwaya said...

"Sumner Redstone's Viacom? Ralph Robert's Comcast? Robert Pittman's ClearChannel? Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp? Robert Iger's Disney is the only news corporation headed by a left of center CEO"

Sumner Redstone is 93 years old and isn't really running his companies.
He is also a Democrat and normally supports democrats.

Re Roberts (Brian, current Chairman of Comcast) From wiki -

Since 2006, Roberts has donated more than $76,000 to Democratic candidates, and $13,500 to Republican candidates.
In December 2009, Roberts wrote a letter to President Barack Obama, endorsing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

And etc.

I recommend also you have a look at the end of "Animal Farm"

Gusty Winds said...

Hey I'm thinkin' Gwash with an October 2016 blogger profile, and Matt with no shared profile are paid trolls from the Clinton Camp. We should all be complimented. We've had others in here in the recent past.

EsoxLucius said...

damikesc: I don't know about the elite, but as an election official in a midwestern state in 2000, I remember Diebold trying to get us to buy their touch screen paperless machines. Walden O'Dell, the CEO of the corporation, later reveled that he was RNC, and was subsequently fired. While I will admit to shenanigans on both sides of the aisle in the past, the current system of voting is as secure as it can be engineered, and the workers the envy of any other country.

Thorby said...

"Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it: - Santayana

For those who do not remember the past, I give you 'Landslide Johnson', an exemplar of voter fraud.

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/11/us/how-johnson-won-election-he-d-lost.html

I still do not understand why a law professor would support a candidate, Clinton, who has repeatedly demonstrated her contempt and violation of the law. Her lawlessness contaminates those around her. Our society is dependent on the perceived legitimacy of our elected officials. When that is stripped away, as it has been in this case by Wikileaks, there is no trust between the people and their government. This becomes a perilous state, as has been demonstrated many times by history.

Michael K said...

But you say their is voter fraud? Hmmmm, who is it benefiting? Let's see some proof and not just nonsensical comments.

I suspect local elections are harder to fix because the local people know each other. Orange County CA had an example about ten years ago when a Congressional election was won by 456 votes by illegals.

The stories of destroying absentee ballots are much more common this year and absentee is easier to fix. One such example was described the other by a supposed poll taker. The "poll worker" wanted the resident to sign a form, which was a form that would allow someone else to order an absentee ballot.

Lots of stories this year. Holder stopped an investigation in 2009 in Philadelphia.

DAN said...

Gosh, how will any of us know what to think when Obama is gone? I bet he gets a show on MSNBC.

buwaya said...

National Enquirer just dropped their story - see Drudge -
Fixer who procured sex for Hilary.
Plus misc and etc nefarious deeds.

The National Enquirer is a solid source, which says a great deal about the US press.
I am sure the Daily Mail, etc. will pick up.

MacMacConnell said...

Matt

There is plenty of social science research on illegal voting. It's gone on forever because it serves the Democrats' purposes.
Who was Jim Jones and why was he photographed with Democrat presidents and politicians? Was he popular in those circles because he was a great preacher? No because he specialized in making sure Democrats around San Francisco got majorities in elections by busing illegal voters around to where they were needed. There is a reason he left the country.

Matt said...

Gusty Winds said...
"Matt with no shared profile are paid trolls from the Clinton Camp."

See, more conspiracy stupidity. Gusty has no actual argument so he claims I'm paid by the Clinton camp. Yes that's it. Because showing a profile must certainly mean a commenter here is NOT getting paid, right? I've been posting on Althouse for years. I hang around because Ann is one of the more sane Republican / conservatives on the web. There are fewer and fewer each year as you guys dive off the deep end believing anything you read from election rigging to contrail conspiracies.

MacMacConnell said...

Didn't the National Enquirer get the John Edwards story right? or was it the blue dress?

GWash said...

Gusty Winds, I've been reading and commenting for a while now and i'm constantly assuring you folks that i'm not trolling for any one and surely not getting paid to type this... just interested in the discussion here.. some of it is crazytown and very interesting insight to the mindset of you guys... anyone with a different take on politics here is generally and unfairlt put in the 'troll bucket' ... first attracted to the blog way back from Andrew Sullivan's blog and althouse's mentions of dylan (one of my fav musicians)
so label me if you must... just a bit short sighted and unfair...

buwaya said...

"Who was Jim Jones and why was he photographed with Democrat presidents and politicians? Was he popular in those circles because he was a great preacher? No because he specialized in making sure Democrats around San Francisco got majorities in elections by busing illegal voters around to where they were needed. "

Most famously the 1975 Barbagelata-Moscone mayoral election that entrenched the Democratic party in San Francisco. I was working with the San Francisco Republicans in the late-80's-early 90's as a volunteer and there was chapter and verse about that one, so openly corrupt it was, and there was no legal relief in spite of photographic evidence, etc. due to the prosecutors/city attorney/judges all being complicit within the system.

I learned all I needed to know about US and California election procedures and controls at that time.

And, note, the Jim Jones/Peoples Temple members were organized in what was then San Francisco's/East Bay black underclass. The "urban vote". The details no doubt vary from city to city, but it was most certainly "organized" here, by the successors to Jim Jones.

Gusty Winds said...

Here's voter fraud Scott Foval's Huffington Post profile. Bet it doesn't last much longer.

From the profile: "During the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election cycle he reported about alleged voter suppression tactics in Midwestern battleground states for The Huffington Post's OffTheBus campaign news site and his blog ScottsBigMouth.com...

Oh...the rich irony. O'keefe has this fraud on tape saying, "we've been been bussing people in for fifty years".

Seems he's a contributor to the Liberal Wisconsin Gazette too.

Wisconsin in the voter fraud hizzouse!!!

Thorby said...

'There are fewer and fewer each year as you guys dive off the deep end believing anything you read from election rigging to contrail conspiracies.'

----

John Podesta has not denied the validity of the Wikileaks e-mails. He just complains about the means used to obtain them. We do not know for certain whether Russia is the source. However, let's just say that Russia is behind it. To complain that Russia is trying to influence the election while taking foreign money (i.e., 'Take the money') is typical political hypocrisy.

Sydney said...

The last presidential election I worked as an observer at my very own polling place. I saw people from a group home for the mentally disabled brought in by their supervisors clutching Obama cards and getting help filling out their ballots by their group home helpers. I saw the machines malfunction early in the morning when the conservatives tend to come in to vote. Because I was an observer, I had to go downtown to the election board to vote early. The polls there were manned by people I know from the community and from my practice. I also know them to to be union activists. The early voters didn't have voting machines- it was done the old fashioned way with punch cards and their were ballots stacked to the ceiling in the room with the workers. I lost all skepticism about voter fraud that year. I lost all confidence in the system that election.

Rusty said...




Blogger Michael K said...
"Obama knows how it is being rigged, or at least his controllers know exactly how."

You've lived in Chicago, Doc. You know he know exactly how it works.

wildswan said...

The central core of what Trump is saying is that in the process of globalization the US is negotiating bad deals for itself. Whether it is allowing Mexico to have the kind of immigration laws and enforcement that are called racist in the US so the US is flooded with cheap labor whereas Mexico is flooded with tourist dollars or allowing China to manufacture in disregard of environmental laws while continuously ratcheting up US treaty obligations on the environment thus making manufacturing expensive here and cheap there or allowing Russia to disregard the UN in Syria while agreeing with Russia that we will abide by UN treaties or allowing NAFTA signatories to disregard labor laws while holding the US by treaty to different standards - we are making deals that impoverish the American people as a whole. That's what Trump sees. The business he's in, building and contracting, has slipped because of these deals so he is aware.

Negotiators from other countries can see that Obama will give in if they just say "that sounds like colonialism" and Hillary is for sale. So they work out bad deals for us. That isn't free trade - that's rot at the top.

And who suffers? The people at the bottom - the blacks displaced by Hispanics, the less educated displaced by Chinese manufacturing. Then the better-off say "oh, only the poor love Trump" or else they divide and conquer by telling the blacks "Trump equals KKK." Pretty cynical for Democrats to talk that way when you think that globalization caused the black employment rate to fall from 84% to 50% and only Trump is talking about a change from the bad deals that led to that. And what he's saying is what the Democrats used to say.

The rot is at the top - the media, a lot of the political class, the universities. They can fix an election, perhaps. Hope not. They can't fix the chaos resulting from the bad deals if they never try. 1,000 more shot in Chicago this year than last year mostly in one area. Schools in that area too terrible for kids to escape through education. No jobs in that area. Cheating at the polls deprives people in that area of representation. Democrats - you did this. Why do you even dare ask people to vote for you?

Karen said...

The greatest example of projection ever:

"If whenever things are going badly for you and you lose, you start blaming somebody else, then you don't have what it takes to be in this job."


Rusty said...

J. Farmer said...
@Paul Snively:

"I wonder if we'll ever get past the parsing of the words, the implications, the gotchas, the snark, etc. and maybe concentrate on whether we actually have a functioning republic or not?"

That greatly presumes that the elite want a functioning republic.

Something we can agree on. Of course they don't want a functioning republic. You can't buy votes in a functioning republic.

Matt said...

Trump led in the GOP primary polls and he won. "That's America and truth!" Trump is losing in the general election polls and will very likely lose the election. "That's rigged polls and voter fraud!"

You can't make this stuff up.... Actually you can!

viator said...

Did The National Enquirer just declare the game's over?

From the people who broke the John Edwards/Reille Hunter tale...

The National Enquirer

The Enquirer will reveal the fixer’s dossier of smoking gun proof, including 24-years of documents, notes, and journals.

Unknown said...

Gusty Winds said:
The buses wait outside, and at the end of the day they go through the rolls to see who didn't show up to vote, unload the buses, and say "today you're so and so, here's a ballot, you know what to do". And if you don't think that's real, you're part of the voter fraud problem. If you talk to people from Kenosha, they KNOW it.

Can you provide an address or name for this polling place? I'd love to do a little road trip with my camera and document it.

rehajm said...

Paid troll Matt said...

I hang around because Ann is one of the more sane Republican / conservatives on the web.


If you hung around here you would know Ann is not a Republican / conservative.

Michael said...

Matt

Brexit

Gusty Winds said...

Here's how corrupt and coordinated it is. If you look up Scott Foval in Google News, the closest mainstream to mention the guy is fox. No one else.

NBC loves doing undercover camera stings on pedophiles. That's a good thing. The whole bust in for the gotcha moment. Heroes. Moral high ground. It's all for the children.

But when it comes to Democrats they have a different standard. It's not fair! Can't be verified! O'Keefe is a hack. He's never been invited to Podesta's house.

Any journalist worth a shit should be looking up Scott Foval and tracing his connections. But they won't. They are operatives of the Democrat party and the Clinton campaign.

At this point I have more faith in the accuracy of the Enquirer Story linked above, than I do anything published by the NYT's, reported on by CNN, or puked out of the mouth of George Stephanopoulos.

Unknown said...

Isn't it sad that the National Enquirer is more believable than the Washington Post about Hillary Clinton and Democrats?

But for the "Trump's losing it and whining!" I've heard that this whole "It's rigged!" is actually 1) a play for the Berniebots, who also know that their election was rigged, and two, to let the DNC know that if they try anything funny, like they always do, and as documented by video evidence just released today, then he will fight it.

Without vote fraud, would the Dems win anything?

--Vance

rehajm said...

At this point I have more faith in the accuracy of the Enquirer Story linked above, than I do anything published by the NYT's, reported on by CNN, or puked out of the mouth of George Stephanopoulos.

I've been checking in to CNN after being stuck at a dinner where CNN was on the television over the bar. I've concluded the CNN crawl is broken and nobody's noticed. Every time I tune in it reads, 'BREAKING NEWS: Trump...'. the gibberish after that changes, but the first part never changes. Broken!

eric said...

The Dems have had a common playbook for years.

1) Cheat to win elections and accuse Republicans of cheating to keep focus off themselves.
2) Treat minorities with disdain and call Republicans racist to keep focus off themselves.
3) Treat women like they are lesser creatures and call Republicans sexist to keep focus of themselves.
4) Raise money through nefarious means and accuse Republicans of doing so to keep focus off themselves.

This is why some of us love Trump. He isn't accepting this game and playing by their rules. He is trying to make the rules the same for all.

But, this is upsetting to the Democrats. They aren't accustomed to having to play by the same rules. It's driving them insane.

American Liberal Elite said...

I wish I could vote for a third Obama term. That is all.

lemondog said...

BO whining about Trump whining

MathMom said...

First, the appeal to authority, and to "experts", which means, whatever you might want to think, whatever proof you might have, you're just too stoopid. Then, watch the fucker just after 0:48: "...instances of significant voter fraud are (pause) not to be found...", followed by the tongue thrust. Lying sack of shit.

Tongue Body Language

Inside the mouth

With mouth closed and tongue inside the mouth, you can still sometimes see what it is doing, although this is a hidden action and often the person themself does not realize they are doing this.

Pressed against the cheek it can indicate thinking and uncertainty. This can also indicate contempt and a form of duper's delight, especially when done briefly.


Then the asshole warms to the task, and after his "by the way" segue, even starts doing the home-boy accent, and gives us a couple more tongue thrusts, just because he's so damned much smarter than the rest of us.

January seems very far away.

CJ said...

With friends like Democrats, who needs enemies like the Soviets. The Democrats have tampered with elections ever since they started the KKK.

Matt Sablan said...

I doubt the election is rigged, as in, there's already a tally somewhere saying who wins X, Y and Z votes.

But, yes. In Virginia, we've had people arrested this year for conspiring to fake votes for Democrats by registering dead people to vote.

Trump is being sensationalistic and over-stating the case, but everyone pretending there's no funny business is just wrong.

Michael The Magnificent said...

Rigging the Election - Video II: Mass Voter Fraud

Matt said...

eric said..
1) Cheat to win elections and accuse Republicans of cheating to keep focus off themselves.
ANY PROOF THAT 'CHEATING' WON OBAMA THE LAST TWO ELECTIONS? YEAH, DIDN'T THINK SO.

2) Treat minorities with disdain and call Republicans racist to keep focus off themselves.
PRESIDENT OBAMA IS A MINORITY AND A DEMOCRAT. DEMOCRATS HAVE 81 MINORITES IN CONGRESS WHILE REPUBLICANS HAVE 16. THAT'S NOT TREATING THEM WITH DISDAIN. THAT'S THE BEGINNING OF REALIZING THEY EXIST IN AMERICA.

3) Treat women like they are lesser creatures and call Republicans sexist to keep focus of themselves.
HILLARY CLINTON IS A WOMAN. TRUMP'S PAST WITH WOMEN IS AT THE VERY LEAST SEXIST.

4) Raise money through nefarious means and accuse Republicans of doing so to keep focus off themselves.
IS NEFARIOUS ILLEGAL? YEAH DIDN'T THINK SO.

I'M GLAD YOU ARE NOT VOTING THIS YEAR. MUCH MORE ENJOYABLE TO WHINE THAN WIN I GUESS.

Diogenes of Sinope said...

The Democrats unquestionably rigged the primary elections against Bernie Sanders.

The media rigged the Republican primaries for Trump.

The Obama administration used the power of government to rig the election against Romney.

Writ Small said...

Bernie talked a lot about the system being "rigged," so on the one hand it's a clever appeal to his supporters to use the same language. On the other hand, it's how losers talk. Obama is right about that much.

Remember the Hugh Hewitt line "If it's not close, they can't cheat"? This year is shaping up to be, "if it's not close, they won't need to bother to cheat." But voter fraud is a worthy topic. The "we can't check identification because voter suppression" line from the Democrats is transparent BS. As long as Republicans don't use it as an excuse for why Trump loses, it's a better use of energy than purging disloyal Republicans.

Also, Matt's point about House, Senate and Governor seats is spot on. Being on the Left or using sarcasm does not invalidate the points. When Republicans put up articulate, attractive candidates who can make the conservative arguments, they win most every red state and a few purple and blue ones, too. When they put up angry populists who only pander to the base and "tell it like it is," well, we'll find out how that strategy works in a few weeks.

Fabi said...

It has to be true if it's typed in all caps.

Darrell said...

4 million dead/ineligible voters on voter rolls. Democrats sue to keep dead voters from being stricken from voter rolls. See Drudge.

Darrell said...

When he started out they called him a stuttering clusterfuck of a miserable failure. Now? Come to think about it, they still do.

jr565 said...

You know who complained that the election was rigged also? Hillary clinton. When she ran against Obama she accused the Obama camp of stealing votes in Colorado. She said they swarmed colorado with illegal votes.
Now that we see the release Veritas tapes of how they operate, this accusation seems totally legit. Trump, I dont believe was even talking specifically about voter fraud when he said the elections were rigged. I think he meant more that the media was engaged in rigging the election so their gal wins. However, he seems to be the most right of anyone. The dems ARE engaged in rampant voter fraud.
Maybe Marco Rubio, rather than carrying the water of the very people who did the deed, might want to watch the tapes put out by O'keefe and perhaps cede the point to Trump.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Thorby,


I still do not understand why a law professor would support a candidate, Clinton, who has repeatedly demonstrated her contempt and violation of the law.

Nostalgie de la boue.

Bad Lieutenant said...


I'M GLAD YOU ARE NOT VOTING THIS YEAR. MUCH MORE ENJOYABLE TO WHINE THAN WIN I GUESS.


Look at this miserable schmuck, he's right. You NeverTrumpers! He's DARING you to fight the Ds! He's taunting you!

But orange. But tic-tacs. But snorting.

If you think the Republic can take eight more years of this (what on earth makes you think HRC wouldn't be reelected?), you don't know what the hell is going on.

Anonymous said...

"The Wikileaks's have sunk Hillary with the voters.

Hillary's only chance now is voter fraud."

On what planet? LOL!

jr565 said...

Heres hillary supporters saying Obama commited voter fraud - in 2008!

http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/obama-voter-fraud/2008/10/27/id/326134/

and here is mention of the leaked emails of two clinton lawyers who thought that Obama did in fact commit voter fraud at time: http://dailycaller.com/2016/10/15/emails-clinton-allies-believe-the-obama-forces-committed-voter-fraud-in-08/

So, Matt, as per usual is full of sh*t

Anonymous said...

"I wish I could vote for a third Obama term. That is all."

Me too.

Unknown said...

I hope Trump wins and the Republicans pass some good anti-vote fraud laws. Make the Democrats squeal. Make their days of bussing people around to vote multiple times; the dead voting for them; college students voting two or three times; end it.

The Dem's claim there's no vote fraud worth worrying about, so surely they will support it? Maybe the whole purple ink bit?

Get rid of early voting and make everyone use the purple ink. That should do wonders for America.

--Vance

Anonymous said...

"Hey I'm thinkin' Gwash with an October 2016 blogger profile, and Matt with no shared profile are paid trolls from the Clinton Camp. We should all be complimented. We've had others in here in the recent past."

Bwahahahahahahaha!

Hey, here, here, waving my hands.... it''s me, I'm the paid troll! The DNC is paying me a pretty penny too. I'm getting rich and having fun at the same time, whoopee! Win/win!

Roughcoat said...

Goddamn, I do so hate Obama.

Anonymous said...

Yes, and that hate for Obama gave birth to the monster called Trumpism.

SukieTawdry said...

The president is an expert on blaming others but I sincerely doubt he thinks he doesn't have what it takes to be in the job. In fact, I'll bet he puts himself in the top five presidents ever.

A 2012 report by the Pew Center on the States found that 24 million voter registrations — one-eighth of all registrations nationwide — were either invalid or inaccurate, including more than 1.8 million dead people who were still registered.112

A 2014 study found that two years earlier, some 155,692 registered voters in North Carolina alone had first and last names, birth dates, and final-four Social Security Number digits that matched those of voters who were registered in other states.113

The same study also found that 35,570 people who had actually voted in North Carolina, had first names, last names, and birth dates that matched those of voters who had cast ballots in other states.114

In 2008, Democrat Al Franken won a highly controversial U.S. Senate race in Minnesota by just 312 votes. It was later discovered that 1,099 felons — all legally ineligible to vote — had cast ballots in the election, almost exclusively for Franken.115

A 2006 study found that 77,000 dead people were listed on New York's statewide database of registered voters, and that as many as 2,600 of them had somehow managed to cast ballots from the grave.116

In Milwaukee in 2004, approximately 5,300 more ballots were cast, than voters who were recorded as having shown up at the polls.117

In 2008, election officials nationwide had to discard at least 400,000 bogus voter registrations submitted by ACORN,118 the now-defunct criminal operation masquerading as a “community organization.” (Speaking at ACORN’s 2006 national convention, Mrs. Clinton said: “I thank you for being part of that great movement, that progressive tradition that has rolled across our country.”)119

In 2011, a Colorado study found that of the nearly 12,000 non-citizens who were illegally registered to vote in that state, about 5,000 had taken part in the 2010 general election.120

In ten Colorado counties in 2012, voter registrations outnumbered the total voting-age population by between 4% and 40%.121


The Clinton Record

Michael said...

"I wish I could vote for a third Obama term. That is all."

Me too.

Why, bless your heart!! You can!! Keep that 2% growth going. Keep those 90 million out of the work force. Gin up some more regs. Awfucikngsom.

Michael said...

Matt

FYI. Only people with a screw loose choose to write in all caps. just a head's up.

320Busdriver said...

TRUMP SAYS HE WILL PUSH FOR A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO ESTABLISH CONGRESSIONAL TERM LIMITS!!!!!

VOTE TRUMP

320Busdriver said...

That deserved all caps Mike, sorry

SukieTawdry said...

That greatly presumes that the elite want a functioning republic.

Well, of course they don't. Answering to the people, or even the people's representatives, is so bourgeois. And time consuming. And you have to pretend you care about the bourgeoisie's concerns. Very annoying. An oligarchy is ever so much more practical.

buwaya said...

The current BEA estimate has
1Q2016 Real GDP at 0.8% annualized
2Q2016 Real GDP at 1.4% annualized

For the first half we are looking at annualized growth @ 1.1%

For what its worth.

Scott M said...

then you don't have what it takes to be in this job

...said the man who has proven over and over again that he doesn't have what it takes.

Roughcoat said...

Yes, and that hate for Obama gave birth to the monster called Trumpism.

Trumpism is my fault!

buwaya said...

Trumpism is the first order consequence of simple economics -

Total population Employment rates - Q1 15-64

2001 - 74%
2007 - 71.5%
2010 - 66%
2016 - 69%

Personal welfare in general simply hasn't caught up to what people remember.
Odds are we are on the edge of another recession (world trade is looking very bad), and the US GDP is struggling. And this is a long "expansion" in the US, from 2009, so we may be due. This isn't going to help the employment rate.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Obama's hate for America gave birth to Trumpism.
What is 'Trumpism', anyhow? Politifact will tell you that Hillary, like Trump, is against both free trade and open borders.

buwaya said...

You know, down in the trenches (literally, see below) the US economic problem is really easy to understand.

This is what modern politics is all about, all the hue and cry about anything else is beside the point -

http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/22880

"EPA Expands Power by Calling Plowed Farm Fields 'Mini Mountain Ranges'

When farmers plow their land, it produces grooves called "furrows," bordered by small ridges of dirt.

But in pursuit of new regulatory powers, federal agencies refer to the little dirt mounds by another term: “mini mountain ranges.” That seemingly absurd distinction is being used to impose more federal control over private land use decisions made by U.S. farmers.

That was the claim described in a U.S. Senate committee report released Sept. 20. The committee reviewed the powers held by the nation’s two largest environmental regulation agencies, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency, and a proposed regulatory rule.

The rule, called “Waters of the United States,” uses the Clean Water Act to give both federal agencies expanded jurisdiction over private land use decisions. The Senate report suggests the dispute over whether the rule goes beyond what the law authorizes will ultimately be settled by the U.S. Supreme Court. It accuses the federal agencies of playing word games to get around laws in place that restrict their oversight.

..."

Read the whole thing. Note all the required elements - laws created by unaccountable entities through creative interpretation of existing laws. Additional reporting and compliance tasks. Vulnerability and business risk due to bureaucratic second-guessing.

And, note, the only entity that can prevent this absurdity is the Supreme Court. There is nothing else left.

“Does kicking a pebble next to water create a mini-meteor? Is a puddle a mini-ocean? Who knows?” Bakst wrote in an email. “The moral of the story is furrows will mean what they want them to mean until the courts stop them. Of course, Congress should have been stopping this nonsense a long time ago.”

A rational, honest country with a rational, honest people would be holding an election about matters of this nature. But as we see even in this exalted forum the mindless horde of Unknowns and Matts find reality outside their comprehension.

CWJ said...

Once again, I wonder what it is about certain posts that bring out the trolls.

In this case, it would appear that Obama's own rise through the ranks due to multiple instances of campaign tampering, and the subject of voting fraud on a day when powerful evidence of it's historical and continued existence comes out have smacked the hornet's nest.

EsoxLucius' repeated references to Republican governors and congressional majorities are particularly galling. Regarding the first, how many of those Republican governors are in safely red states. Even if they wanted to, how many electoral votes could Republican governors flip versus Democrat governors. How many local precincts in battleground states are controlled by Republican precinct captains, etc. Regarding the second, I believe saying that voting is a local issue so congress doesn't matter is one of the Dems talking points. So congressional majorities on top of how safely red from where these congressmen/senators come are irrelevant. Finally, we're left with who has the will to perform voter fraud, and in that case who controls how many states, districts, precincts is irrelevant, unless one side is less scrupulous than the other. Someone recently posted a study claiming to find Republican precincts where their were more votes cast than registered voters. I think they found something like 6 in the entire country. I can hear the Philadelphia precinct captains now laughing "slackers."

I believe you, EsoxLucius, know these things. So you're either an insincere sophist hack (my guess), or you need to up your game.

Roughcoat said...


Yes, and according to the troll who calls himself "Unknown" (not THAT Unknown, the other one) my hate for Obama "gave birth" to the monster called Trumpism.

I gave birth to a monster! Who knew that it was in me to do so?!

Suck on it, you pathetic worms: I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.

This is gonna look real good on my resume.

W.B. Picklesworth said...

You've got to hand it to President Obama. He is masterful at trolling from the bully pulpit. He realized from the beginning that he could be as childish as he liked while being portrayed as reasonable and mature.

It must feel awful to never be held accountable and to thereby be a slave to your nastiest impulses. What a disservice the press and his party has done to Obama as a man.

Anonymous said...

Roughcoat,
Eh, you're not even the flea on your dog's back, much less anything as important as a destroyer of worlds. Well, OK, maybe you've helped destroy your party and the conservative movement for generations to come, but don't get a big head now.

buwaya said...

Unknown, you have done more. You have helped redefine furrows in farmers fields as mountain ranges. See above. Be proud.

buwaya said...

Oh the list of achievements of Unknown.
Shutting down poor kids access to online classes also, because free university lectures should not be made available to the public.

buwaya said...

And lets not forget the oldie but a goodie, preventing Jaime Escalante from teaching many thousands of Chicano kids to pass the Calculus AP's. And ongoing to this day! No more Escalantes! Very proud you must be of that one.

buwaya said...

Some time ago I posted a link to a brand new 25,000 page (with linked docs, conservatively) DOT/EPA agreement on emissions guidelines for diesel trucks. Just one particle of such things in fact, merely a pebble to sample it. The mountain ranges (certainly not furrows!) of such documents are a monument to human genius, greater than the pyramids. Or, rather, to Unknowns genius.

buwaya said...

And lets consider High School reading lists. I posted one the other day, which compared...not quite well to what we had in the fourth grade. That is a matter or pride too, its not easy to drive things to such straits. These are your people Unknown! There should be a holiday for this one.

Sebastian said...

@WS: "When Republicans put up articulate, attractive candidates who can make the conservative arguments, they win most every red state and a few purple and blue ones, too. When they put up angry populists who only pander to the base and "tell it like it is," well, we'll find out how that strategy works in a few weeks." But the GOPe didn't do anything! "We"voted for Romney and he lost! The globalists are screwing the people! You know the Trumpites' drill. Sure, November should beat some sense into them. But, judging by some of the Trumpites' reactions on this very blog, it looks like, at the national level, the losers actually want to keep losing. I'm not sure anyone will be able to cure that political insanity.

Achilles said...

Blogger Unknown said...
Roughcoat,
"Eh, you're not even the flea on your dog's back, much less anything as important as a destroyer of worlds. Well, OK, maybe you've helped destroy your party and the conservative movement for generations to come, but don't get a big head now."

I read roughcoat's post. The sarcasm was obvious. You aren't very smart.

Laslo Spatula said...

"How many votes did you cast today?"

"Four so far, mister."

"Outstanding! Get in the Van! Get - In - The - Van! What did they get you for the last votes -- a pack of cigarettes?"

"They already have given me TWO packs of cigarettes. And I held out for menthols and a free lighter: I'm not stupid."

"So what do you need for me to get you to vote again at the next stop?"

"I wanna Big Mac."

"Big Mac? What is that -- about three dollars?"

"Twelve dollars."

"Big Macs are twelve dollars now?"

"I want twelve dollars for a Big Mac. And I want five dollars for a Coke."

"That seems a little steep..."

"Then you can just let my ass out right here. Makes no difference to me who buys my votes."

"Okay, okay: twelve dollars for a Big Mac, and five dollars for a Coke. But I want THREE votes for that."

"Sure thing. For an even twenty I'll even intimidate some voters for you, too."

"That sounds promising..."

"Oh yeah. I walk up on those people and give them the spooky eye and the jingle fingers: they get to leaving, fast."

"It's a deal."

"I want the money up front, my man."

"Up front? I don't know: how can I know to trust you?"

"Don't you go and make this a race thing, motherfucker."

"Okay, okay, payment up front, payment up front..."


I am Laslo.

Anonymous said...

Achilles is even dumber than he thinks I am. No kidding he was being sarcastic, so was I dummy.

Skeptical Voter said...

Well Obozo started whining when a reporter shouted out a non scripted question at this press conference. Obama is in no position to cast stones about "whining".

BN said...

Buwaya, who really needs his own blog because, truth @ 1:59: "They are busy keeping a stream of food, fuel, water, energy and all the sorts of stuff getting to us, without which we would die."

So, right there, that's the problem. Pol Pot was right. People won't really Revolution until they're starving. So all we have to do is kill all the engineers/doers (right after the lawyers, of course, because, lawyers).

Who's with me?

Lewis Wetzel said...

Note that in Laslo's dialog, no ballot fraud has occurred, according to the definition of ballot fraud used by leftists and the mainstream media. That is because the van driver did not cast a ballot (so no fraud) and repeat voter is motivated by Big Macs and smokes, not altering election results (so no fraud).

Roughcoat said...

I am Jack's raging bile duct.

BN said...

Obama McDreamy's with me. Or at least he once was.

Gahrie said...

DEMOCRATS HAVE 81 MINORITES IN CONGRESS WHILE REPUBLICANS HAVE 16.

Everyone of the Democratic minorities was elected from a Gerrymandered minority-majority safe district, while every Republican minorities was elected from a white-majority district.

CWJ said...

Me @ 7:21,

Matt not EsoxLucius. My mistake. Though disappointed. I had remembered Matt as a better commenter in the past than what he's showed this thread.

Achilles said...

Hillary has lost Megan Kelley. She is airing the Patrick Kennedy story now.

Hillary will not survive this. Maybe with a Rubio or Bush or Romney they would let her slide. But Trump will not. Why did Trump win the nomination? Because we are tired of corrupt politicians like Hillary Clinton getting away with getting rich while they sell influence.

Democrats have been caught on camera inciting violence against trump supporters and discussing how to commit voter fraud. The money trail is documented.

Almost all political donations from reporters go to Clinton. Reporters are giving debate questions to Hillary.

It is disgusting. People who support this are disgusting. The only chance Hillary has is voter fraud.

Achilles said...

Blogger Unknown said...
"Achilles is even dumber than he thinks I am. No kidding he was being sarcastic, so was I dummy."

Go google sarcasm. Then you will understand why your post wasn't sarcasm.

cubanbob said...

Achilles said...
Hillary has lost Megan Kelley. She is airing the Patrick Kennedy story now"

No. She lost her ratings. She is walking it back. Money talks.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Every once in a while, this election season, it is good to remind folks that Bill Clinton's history of sexual assaults, sexual harassment of his employees, and lying under oath in sexual harassment civil suits, goes back decades, not weeks or days, and has resulted in his impeachment, and eventually to a guilty plea and the de-facto permanent suspension of his law license.
From Slate, which is sympathetic to the Clintons:
The president admitted that he gave misleading testimony in the 1998 Paula Jones case about his affair with Monica Lewinsky, accepted a five-year suspension of his Arkansas law license, and promised to cover $25,000 in legal fees related to disbarment proceedings against him in Arkansas. In exchange, Ray agreed not to indict Clinton on perjury charges
Clinton settled the sexual harassment filed against him Paula Jones by paying her $850,000.
There is one vote you can cast to put a liar and pervert in the White House. That vote is not for Donald Trump.

cubanbob said...

I have to admit it is amusing to hear the whinny little bitch whine about Trumpy whining.

BN said...

Buwaya again: "A rational, honest country with a rational, honest people would..."

I see a problem there. What's Plan B?

n.n said...

Obama the Pro-Choicer (e.g. "="). Obama the class diversitist (i.e. institutional racist, sexist). Obama backer of abortion rites in a "final solution". Obama at Planned Parenthood's Mengele division. Obama the immigration reformer (e.g. refugee crises). Obama the progressive warmonger. But he's charismatic and a whiner... I mean, winner. I suppose that kind holds some appeal.

chickelit said...

Blogger Unknown said...
'I wish I could vote for a third Obama term. That is all.'

Me too."

Then vote for Hillary with all your heart. She is running as a third Obama term, warts and all. THey both embrace corruption.

Anonymous said...

"Disgusting baaaaaaddddd people."

Broken record.

Anonymous said...

"Hillary won't survive this!"

LOL

Lewis Wetzel said...

Blogger Unknown said...
'I wish I could vote for a third Obama term. That is all.'

2% GDP growth. Race riots in the inner city. Terrorist attacks on US soil every few months. What's not to like?
You'll notice that Obama doesn't even talk about his policies promoting economic growth anymore. And the press doesn't ask him about his economic policies. The days when Democrats dreamed of factories full of lunch-box-joes taking home modest, but reliable and gradually increasing paychecks, are long gone.
Now they are all about BLM and Global Warming. 'Cuz they fix that with a little authoritarianism and screwing with people whose votes they don't want or need anyway.
Democrats! The party of the people with felony convictions and/or graduate degrees!

Michael K said...

I'm looking back at BREXIT to see how confident the "Remain" people were.

It's probably lost for Trump but that is not a certainty,

I hope Trump has some lawyers who know about vote fraud. At least better than Coleman's lawyers were.

Brando said...

Obama's trying to get under Trump's skin, using "whining" to question Trump's manliness. Will Trump take the bait?

damikesc said...

I've been checking in to CNN after being stuck at a dinner where CNN was on the television over the bar. I've concluded the CNN crawl is broken and nobody's noticed. Every time I tune in it reads, 'BREAKING NEWS: Trump...'. the gibberish after that changes, but the first part never changes. Broken!

CNN, remember, said it was ILLEGAL to go to a website and view Wikileaks material on Hillary and her supporters.

Sorry, it's illegal for YOU. The press has "special" rights.

Also, Matt's point about House, Senate and Governor seats is spot on. Being on the Left or using sarcasm does not invalidate the points. When Republicans put up articulate, attractive candidates who can make the conservative arguments, they win most every red state and a few purple and blue ones, too. When they put up angry populists who only pander to the base and "tell it like it is," well, we'll find out how that strategy works in a few weeks.

Yeah. President Romney has been great, hasn't he?

"I wish I could vote for a third Obama term. That is all."

Me too.


Funny. I wish he had a serious heart attack.

Odds are we are on the edge of another recession (world trade is looking very bad), and the US GDP is struggling. And this is a long "expansion" in the US, from 2009, so we may be due. This isn't going to help the employment rate.

Especially given that we have effectively 0% interest right now, so the Feds have nothing they can do. The nearly hundred year experiment in allowing the Feds to try and "smooth" over economic upheaval is about to be proven to be a disaster of the highest order.

Read the whole thing. Note all the required elements - laws created by unaccountable entities through creative interpretation of existing laws. Additional reporting and compliance tasks. Vulnerability and business risk due to bureaucratic second-guessing.

And, note, the only entity that can prevent this absurdity is the Supreme Court. There is nothing else left.


Not true. Congress can stop it if they want to. Sure, the Democrats will fight it hard. The Republicans, if they want it to end, have the tools to end it or shut down the government indefinitely. They don't have the guts to use the tools.

But, judging by some of the Trumpites' reactions on this very blog, it looks like, at the national level, the losers actually want to keep losing. I'm not sure anyone will be able to cure that political insanity.

Your way has won ONE Presidential majority since 1988.

One. And it wasn't a big one.

One in 28 years.

Show me the fucking success of your strategy, please.

Bad Lieutenant said...


BN said...
Buwaya, who really needs his own blog because, truth @ 1:59: "They are busy keeping a stream of food, fuel, water, energy and all the sorts of stuff getting to us, without which we would die."

So, right there, that's the problem. Pol Pot was right. People won't really Revolution until they're starving. So all we have to do is kill all the engineers/doers (right after the lawyers, of course, because, lawyers).

Who's with me?
10/18/16, 8:47 PM


BN, the pharmacy called, your meds are ready, they've been there for a month, aren't you going to pick them up?

CatherineM said...

So if Trump wins, it's legit, but if he loses, it's rigged, stolen, a fraud?

So much stupid.

Brando said...

"So if Trump wins, it's legit, but if he loses, it's rigged, stolen, a fraud?"

Being a Trump fan means accepting multiple contradictory stories at the same time.

Don't worry--they're just trying to lay the ground so they can blame anyone but their hero when he loses. It's much easier than accepting that they blew the best electoral opportunity they had in decades.

Lewis Wetzel said...

If Gary Johnson wins, he will light a fatty, make a presidential declaration that it is now 1986 again, and that Sheena Easton is new First lady of AMERICA! FUCK YAH!
I just found this on Johnson's wikipedia page: "While in college, Johnson earned money as a door-to-door handyman."
This is the beginning of every porno I have ever seen.

damikesc said...

So if Trump wins, it's legit, but if he loses, it's rigged, stolen, a fraud?

The Democrats are rigging the vote. They're on VIDEO admitting to it. If he wins in spite of that, it is quite legit. If he loses, then yes, they stole it.

Think back to Coleman v Franken. Coleman lost because the Dems could out-corrupt him.

walter said...

"If whenever things are going badly for you and you lose, you start blaming somebody else, then you don't have what it takes to be in this job"

Says the wonderful man with the bleating scold.

walter said...

Michael K said...
Obama knows how it is being rigged, or at least his controllers know exactly how.
Massive vote fraud is under way and word is creeping out.
Assange will probably be arrested and accidentally shot escaping so that is the end of Wikileaks.
--
Sounds like Hil prefers drones.
Seems unlikely Assange is the only player within wikileaks.

By the way, spent some time yesterday listening to to a conversation where I noticed the tension between "voter fraud is not widespread" and "Don't disenfranchise voters with photo ID requirement because elections can be decided by a handful of votes."