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by PufPuf93 » Sun Jun 12, 2016 3:52 pm
by coffin_dodger » Mon Jun 13, 2016 3:46 pm
The best way to help Israel deal with Iran's growing nuclear capability is to help the people of
Syria overthrow the regime of Bashar Assad.
Negotiations to limit Iran's nuclear program will not solve Israel's security dilemma. Nor will
they stop Iran from improving the crucial part of any nuclear weapons program — the capability
to enrich uranium. At best, the talks between the world's major powers and Iran that began in
Istanbul this April and will continue in Baghdad in May will enable Israel to postpone by a few
months a decision whether to launch an attack on Iran that could provoke a major Mideast war.
Iran's nuclear program and Syria's civil war may seem unconnected, but they are. For Israeli
leaders, the real threat from a nuclear-armed Iran is not the prospect of an insane Iranian leader
launching an unprovoked Iranian nuclear attack on Israel that would lead to the annihilation of
both countries. What Israeli military leaders really worry about -- but cannot talk about -- is
losing their nuclear monopoly. An Iranian nuclear weapons capability would not only end that
nuclear monopoly but could also prompt other adversaries, like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to go
nuclear as well. The result would be a precarious nuclear balance in which Israel could not
respond to provocations with conventional military strikes on Syria and Lebanon, as it can today.
If Iran were to reach the threshold of a nuclear weapons state, Tehran would find it much easier
to call on its allies in Syria and Hezbollah to strike Israel, knowing that its nuclear weapons
would serve as a deterrent to Israel responding against Iran itself.
by 82_28 » Tue Jun 14, 2016 5:55 am
NEW YORK—Immediately after she clinched the 2,383 delegates needed to secure the Democratic presidential nomination Monday night, campaign aides announced that Hillary Clinton had retreated to a dark corner of her Brooklyn headquarters and entered the beginning of a 16-week incubation period.
Top-level staffers confirmed that the lengthy gestation phase, during which the former secretary of state will undergo significant physical and political changes while encased upside down in a gray-brown, 7-foot-tall chrysalis, will prepare the candidate for the difficult and protracted general election cycle ahead. Officials added that once Clinton has completed her transformation into her mature, final-stage form, she will wriggle free from her cocoon and return to the campaign trail.
“As soon as we informed Hillary that she had reached the number of delegates necessary to secure the Democratic nomination, she thanked the staff and then promptly began secreting a thick, resinous substance from her oral gland and fashioning it into a protective casing around herself,” said Hillary for America communications director Jennifer Palmieri, explaining to the press that Clinton has been eating several times her body weight daily while campaigning in preparation for the energy-intensive hibernation and metamorphosis process. “She completed her encasement several hours ago and is now pupating comfortably inside. As we speak, Hillary is rapidly altering, developing an entirely new anatomy and a complex vision for a united, prosperous America that works to lift up each and every one of us.”
“You can rest assured that once Hillary uses her powerful mandibles to chew her way out of the cocoon, she will emerge stronger than ever and ready to take on Donald Trump,” Palmieri added.
Officials within the campaign stated that the initial stage of Clinton’s metamorphosis appeared to be proceeding on schedule, noting that after completing her chrysalis—a moist, semi-translucent husk attached via a silken thread to the rafters of her campaign strategy room—the former first lady began releasing enzymes that dissolved much of her soft tissue mass while her heart rate dropped to a single beat every 40 seconds. Moreover, a network of veins and arteries reportedly formed just beneath the pod’s surface, which political experts stated would provide the candidate with a constant supply of oxygen as her political image and rigid presidential thorax slowly develop.
Sources added that they were confident the pupa will be sufficiently advanced by late July to take part in the Democratic National Convention, where it is expected to be wheeled onstage to shed its mucosal lining in front of the assembled crowd, thereby officially signifying Clinton’s acceptance of the nomination.
“Although her metabolism may have slowed to a near halt and her body may be currently differentiating within the nutrient-rich liquid medium inside her suspended cocoon, Hillary remains committed to creating good-paying jobs, making college affordable for all citizens, and ensuring paid family and medical leave for hardworking Americans,” said Palmieri, who noted that Clinton is expected to exit her chrysalis several hours prior to the first presidential debate on September 26, enough time for her lymph-covered body to dry off in the sun and for her to gain full control over her forelimbs before taking on her opponent. “While securing the nomination is a significant step, it’s important to remember that we’re only halfway there. The towering, full-grown version of Hillary that will emerge in several months still needs your vote in November.”
“But the choice is clear,” she added. “When voters consider Hillary Clinton’s constantly scanning compound eyes, her long record of helping middle-class families, and her barbed pincers poised and ready to strike, they’ll see that she is the only candidate truly qualified to lead this nation.”
At press time, the latest polls showed Clinton’s approval rating climbing to the highest levels of the campaign in the hours since she enclosed herself away from the public inside a thick shell of chitin.
by Grizzly » Wed Jun 15, 2016 10:33 am
by PufPuf93 » Wed Jun 15, 2016 4:57 pm
by American Dream » Wed Jun 15, 2016 5:02 pm
by Wombaticus Rex » Thu Jun 16, 2016 11:32 am
by Luther Blissett » Wed Jun 22, 2016 5:03 pm
Nearly Half of Sanders Supporters Won't Support Clinton
The Vermont senator says he'll work to defeat Trump, but has yet to endorse the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
In the two weeks since Hillary Clinton wrapped up the Democratic presidential primary, runner-up Bernie Sanders has promised to work hard to defeat Donald Trump — but he’s given no sign he’ll soon embrace Clinton, his party’s presumptive nominee. Neither have many of Sanders’s supporters. A June 14th Bloomberg Politics national poll of likely voters in November’s election found that barely half of those who favored Sanders — 55 percent — plan to vote for Clinton. Instead, 22 percent say they’ll vote for Trump, while 18 percent favor Libertarian Gary Johnson. “I’m a registered Democrat, but I cannot bring myself to vote for another establishment politician like Hillary,” says Laura Armes, a 43-year-old homemaker from Beeville, Texas, who participated in the Bloomberg poll and plans to vote for Trump. “I don’t agree with a lot of what Trump says. But he won’t owe anybody. What you see is what you get.”
Conversations with two dozen Sanders supporters revealed a lingering distrust of Clinton as too establishment-friendly, hawkish or untrustworthy. As some Sanders fans see it, the primary was not a simple preference for purity over pragmatism, but a moral choice between an honest figure and someone whom they consider fundamentally corrupted by the ways of Washington. Sanders has fed these perceptions throughout his campaign, which is one reason he's having a hard time coming around to an endorsement.
Voters like Armes, who says she’ll “definitely” vote in November, highlight the difficulty Clinton faces in unifying her party. Clinton’s paltry support among Sanders voters could still grow, as his disheartened fans process the hard-fought primary campaign. But the Bloomberg poll found that only 5 percent of Sanders supporters who don’t currently back Clinton would consider doing so in the future.
Eric Brooks, 52, a community organizer in San Francisco, won’t be among them. “I will absolutely never vote for Clinton,” says Brooks, a Sanders supporter who participated in the Bloomberg poll. Although Brooks indicated in the poll that he’ll support Johnson, that is not his intention. “I’d be okay voting for Johnson as a protest vote,” says Brooks. “But as a Green Party member, I’m going to vote for [Green Party candidate] Jill Stein. If you care about the climate, like I do, it makes a lot of sense strategically to vote for Stein, because she could get five percent, which has implications for the Green Party getting federal funding.”
Brooks says he doesn’t worry that supporting Stein could throw the election to Trump because he expects Johnson, the Libertarian, to siphon Republican votes from Trump: “Nobody in this election has to worry about being a spoiler.”
Democratic officials can take solace in a host of recent polls that show Clinton beating Trump, despite her weak showing with Sanders voters. Clinton leads Trump by six points (45.4 percent to 39.4 percent) in the RealClearPolitics average of polls and by 12 points (49 percent to 37 percent) in Bloomberg’s poll. In addition, voters historically rally around their party’s candidate, even after a divisive primary. After beating Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primary, exit polls showed that Barack Obama won 89 percent of Democrats in November.
Still, for many Sanders supporters, opposition to Clinton is the basis of their political identity. Thirty minutes before the start of a June 9th Sanders rally in Washington, D.C., the crowd broke into a chant: "Bernie or bust! Bernie or bust!"
"There's zero percent chance that Hillary Clinton could ever get my vote," said Perry Mitchell, a 31-year-old nonprofit worker from Baltimore. "She's a corporate candidate. I don't vote for corporate candidates. I don't do the lesser of two evils."
Even if the alternative is Trump?
"You're choosing between fascism and oligarchy," Mitchell said. His 23-year-old brother, Brady, interjected with a more vivid analogy to the Clinton-Trump choice: "Die by quicksand, or die by bullet?"
The Mitchell brothers represent a brand of diehard Sanders voters who are causing anxiety in Clinton’s world. Like Brooks, both intend to vote for the Green Party’s Stein if Clinton secures the Democratic nomination. It could be that none of these Sanders supporters was ever truly “gettable” for Clinton, regardless of whether or not Sanders ultimately chooses to endorse her. (“She’s a war criminal,” says Brooks.)
But other Sanders supporters with a dim view of Clinton appear to be driven at least in part by the Vermont senator’s message. If Clinton is nominated, says 31-year-old Bako Nguasong, “I don't know if I'm voting. She's definitely the lesser of two evils, but I don't trust her.” She adds: “I know Donald Trump is evil, he's a racist, he's a misogynist." But Clinton, she said, is "not for the people. She's about money."
A Sanders endorsement — should it eventually come — could potentially sway these voters. Others have already reconciled themselves to backing Clinton. “The party needs to be unified," said Albert Arevalo, a 27-year-old rally-goer who preferred Sanders in the primary. "A vote for Trump would have me deported," he quipped, noting that he is a gay Latino. "A true Bernie fan would be stupid to not vote for a Democrat. By being ignorant and not voting you are electing a racist troll.”
Debbie Braaten, a Maryland-based artist who also plans to back Clinton in November, agreed. "It's childish in a way,” she said. “I hope Bernie says something about that to people."
If Sanders does endorse Clinton, even some of his staunchest “Never Clinton” supporters could ultimately come around. “I do follow her on Facebook, and I don’t care about her emails,” says Armes, the Beeville, Texas, homemaker planning to vote for Trump. “Ugh, this is so hard. I guess an endorsement would probably sway me.”
by Iamwhomiam » Wed Jun 22, 2016 5:36 pm
by Nordic » Thu Jun 23, 2016 5:23 pm
by 8bitagent » Fri Jun 24, 2016 3:51 am
by Nordic » Wed Jun 29, 2016 10:34 pm
by NeonLX » Thu Jun 30, 2016 9:27 am
by NeonLX » Thu Jun 30, 2016 9:31 am
Iamwhomiam » Wed Jun 22, 2016 4:36 pm wrote:Interesting. We have a Johnson running for president.
I though Trump was the only dick in the contest.
by Luther Blissett » Thu Jun 30, 2016 10:21 am
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