News 2016 U.S. Presidential election - the highs and lows

shyvas said:
That is putting it mildly.:rolleyes:
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That is my opinion and I believe it should be printed on the front cover of Forbes Magazine, the Washington Post and The Telegraph and any other publication where it can be seen by all.
 
Freesia said:
That is my opinion and I believe it should be printed on the front cover of Forbes Magazine, the Washington Post and The Telegraph and any other publication where it can be seen by all.
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Yes indeed. :pI would imagine that some Hollywood script writers are already busy writing out scenarios and we will
very shortly have a mini series and/or film in the near future.
Cliff hangers and all, the campaign is full of 'what is on the agenda within the next hour' ? Everytime I listen to the news there is a new story. Even the vice president Pence was in a plane incident when his plane skid of the runway at NY.
 
I forgot what I came on this thread to say. I was watching some news coverage yesterday and the UK presenter was reporting from the US. He said that the country is so divided at the moment. There was a survey on political views that showed that Republicans dislike Democrats even more than they dislike atheists. The presenter was laughing and so was I as it seems weird to me (and maybe British people in general) that some people would dislike atheists so much.:confused::p

I think it must have been this. Partisanship and Political Animosity in 2016 | Pew Research Center

PP_16.05.17_antipathy_overview_thermometer.png
 
Moll Flanders said:
I forgot what I came on this thread to say. I was watching some news coverage yesterday and the UK presenter was reporting from the US. He said that the country is so divided at the moment. There was a survey on political views that showed that Republicans dislike Democrats even more than they dislike atheists. The presenter was laughing and so was I as it seems weird to me (and maybe British people in general) that some people would dislike atheists so much.:confused::p

I think it must have been this. Partisanship and Political Animosity in 2016 | Pew Research Center

PP_16.05.17_antipathy_overview_thermometer.png
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That study underscores the tribalistic nature of American politics, and also explains why Republicans are supporting Trump even though he doesn't hold Republican views on his major policy points.

I would also point out that a lot of this is racial - the views of Republicans of Democrats being lazy and dishonest corresponds to the common white perception of black and brown people being lazy and dishonest. It's a not very subtle subtext.
 
Moll Flanders said:
I forgot what I came on this thread to say. I was watching some news coverage yesterday and the UK presenter was reporting from the US. He said that the country is so divided at the moment. There was a survey on political views that showed that Republicans dislike Democrats even more than they dislike atheists. The presenter was laughing and so was I as it seems weird to me (and maybe British people in general) that some people would dislike atheists so much.:confused::p
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You'd be surprised how much they are hated here. Atheist = immoral, dishonest, evil, etc. If you put an Atheist bumper sticker on your car, it's guaranteed your car will be damaged in some way. There are even states that won't let you hold an office if you're one. Although it's illegal, once in a while they try to enforce it.
...The state bans have been invoked rarely since 1992, according to legal experts. In South Carolina that year, Herb Silverman, a math professor at the College of Charleston who is an atheist activist, was denied a position as a notary public. His case went to the South Carolina Supreme Court, and in 1997 he won. In North Carolina, after Cecil Bothwell, a writer, won a seat on the Asheville City Council in 2009, his opponents tried to invoke the State Constitution’s atheist ban to deny him his seat, but they soon backed down.

Organizers with Openly Secular see the bans as evidence of the quiet bigotry and discrimination faced by many atheists, agnostics, humanists and freethinkers. They point to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Centerthis year showing that nearly half of Americans would disapprove if a family member married an atheist.

Pew also found that 53 percent of Americans polled in April said they would be less likely to vote for a presidential candidate they knew was an atheist. Being an atheist was found to be the least desirable trait a candidate could have — worse than having cheated on a spouse or used marijuana...
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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/u...eists-push-to-end-largely-forgotten-ban-.html[/QUOTE]
 
Speaking of the tribalistic nature of American politics:

For the past decade or so, I've been playing a game with myself. When I'm watching a program in which politics is being discussed and I see new faces, I try to guess whether the person is going to be Republican or Democrat or someone to the left of the Democrats. I've gotten to be about about 90% correct, based solely on their faces, before they ever open their mouths or are introduced. (Libertarians generally look like Republicans, so I haven't tried to separate them out.)

It's largely a matter of facial expression, although with women, there's often a big assist in terms of amount of makeup worn.
 
Indian Summer said:
BTW, why is the FBI rather than state police running the Weiner investigation?
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I heard yesterday that the FBI were involved as the girl Weiner was sex texting is underage and it crosses state lines so it is a federal case, something like that. I'm sure someone can correct me if that's wrong.
 
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