The Political Junkie™ Thread - USA Edition

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**d-usa**

If they wait it can turn into a "Republicans don't care about the poor or minorities" event during the general election even though whoever is nominated won't have anything to do with what happened. It would benefit them to get ahead of that narrative now.

**LordofHats**

CptJake wrote:
Dealing with Flint now, rather than during the general election, would make a lot more sense. The voting public has short memories for the most part.

Given how long court processes take, the case might come to a head in the middle of an election year.

**Gordon Shumway**

I'm sort of worried about ole Whembly. He hasn't piped in about Clinton's woes lately, nor about either of the last two debates. If any of you know him peRsonally, maybe you should check up on him. Mayb3 the state of the republican primary is too dep4essing for him right now.

**Breotan**

Gordon Shumway wrote:
I'm sort of worried about ole Whembly. He hasn't piped in about Clinton's woes lately, nor about either of the last two debates. If any of you know him peRsonally, maybe you should check up on him. Mayb3 the state of the republican primary is too dep4essing for him right now.

Now that you mentioned it, Frazzled has been MIA from the forums for a few weeks, too. I wonder which country they're trying to overthrow...

**Ensis Ferrae**

Breotan wrote:

Now that you mentioned it, Frazzled has been MIA from the forums for a few weeks, too. I wonder which country they're trying to overthrow...

Is it possible there's been an Alpha Legion plot, and ol' Frazz is taking a short vacation from our own little Mos Eisley??

**Breotan**

Ensis Ferrae wrote:
Breotan wrote:

Now that you mentioned it, Frazzled has been MIA from the forums for a few weeks, too. I wonder which country they're trying to overthrow...

Is it possible there's been an Alpha Legion plot, and ol' Frazz is taking a short vacation from our own little Mos Eisley??

As long as he isn't one of those folk on that road trip to the National Wildlife Refuge up there in Oregon.

**Co'tor Shas**

I think we would have heard if a large number of wiener dogs had attacked FBI and police.

**Ahtman**

Co'tor Shas wrote:
I think we would have heard if a large number of wiener dogs had attacked FBI and police.

Not if it is secret and part of the Illuminati's plans.

**BobtheInquisitor**

Nah, they were holed up with dildos, not dildo shaped dogs.

**Dreadwinter**

*puts on tinfoil hat* What is Whembly and Frazzled are the same person?

**d-usa**

Whembly posted a couple days ago, so he's probably just taking some time away from the OT for whatever reason.

**Dreadwinter**

d-usa wrote:
Whembly posted a couple days ago, so he's probably just taking some time away from the OT for whatever reason.

Don't ruin this for me! The X-Files just started back up, I NEED THIS!

Edit: NVM, Whembly ruined everything :(

**Iur_tae_mont**

http://gawker.com/chris-christie-im-gonna-start-pounding-the-meat-joe-1755917752?utm_medium=sharefromsite

Obviously taken out of context, but someone needed to post this.

**Tannhauser42**

Well, just because someone has to do it (for Whembly), here is the latest:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/29/politics/state-department-to-release-clinton-emails/index.html

Anyhoo, I'm starting to think that all future debates must require the candidates to be hooked up to a polygraph machine. Should definitely make things interesting.

Also, for someone who likes to call everybody else a sell out, Ted Cruz's campaign wallet certainly seems to be doing quite well.

And, I've started hearing the political ads on the radio here in Texas. Guess what? Still the same ol' BS. GOP dude running for Texas Railroad Commissioner (the office also has authority over the energy industry in TX). His ads, of course, are blaming Obama, talking about securing the border, stopping refugees, etc. I suppose they figure it worked in 2014, so not having any actual substance should still work in 2016, right?

**DutchWinsAll**

Dreadwinter wrote:
*puts on tinfoil hat* What is Whembly and Frazzled are the same person?

One at least hid his partisanship well and was a crafty debater.. The other just rambled about his dogs thinking it was funny or something.

**Ustrello**

Well this is pretty interesting and could have some serious ramifications

http://news.yahoo.com/hacker-attacked-largest-us-police-204000991.html?nf=1

Sensitive documents and internal communications from within the largest police organization in the country are starting to leak onto the open internet. The hacker behind the leak goes by the alias "the Cthulhu," and is also responsible for a number of high-profile breaches, including a massive hack of the crowdfunding site Patreon.

The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), which has thousands of local chapters representing over 325,000 police officers, has confirmed the documents are real and that the FBI has been notified.

The leaked documents include forum postings, names and addresses of police officers and contracts made with city authorities. The first release is only 259 MB, but the Cthulhu claims to have an additional 18 terabytes worth of data that he will comb through and potentially begin releasing over time.

"A society cannot be at peace when the citizens and the enforcers of the law are at war."

**d-usa**

Cruz is getting a bit desperate:

http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/01/30/iowa-official-criticizes-cruz-campaign-over-mailer/

HAMLIN, Iowa — Iowa’s secretary of state chastised the presidential campaign of Senator Ted Cruz on Saturday for sending a mailer that he said violated “the spirit of the Iowa caucuses” and misrepresented state election law.

The mailer, flagged by a handful of Twitter users and confirmed as authentic by the Cruz campaign, included a warning of a “voting violation” in capital letters at the top of the page.

It informed voters they were receiving a notice “because of low expected voter turnout in your area.”

“Your individual voting history as well as your neighbors’ are public record,” the flier read. “Their scores are published below, and many of them will see your score as well. CAUCUS ON MONDAY TO IMPROVE YOUR SCORE and please encourage your neighbors to caucus as well. A follow-up notice may be issued following Monday’s caucuses.”

Below the text was a list of names, letter grades and percentage scores.

The secretary of state, Paul D. Pate, called the effort “misleading.”

“Accusing citizens of Iowa of a ‘voting violation’ based on Iowa caucus participation, or lack thereof, is false representation of an official act,” Mr. Pate said. “There is no such thing as an election violation related to frequency of voting. Any insinuation or statement to the contrary is wrong and I believe it is not in keeping in the spirit of the Iowa caucuses.”

Mr. Pate added that his office never “grades” voters, nor does it maintain records of caucus participation. He said that the office also did not “distribute” voter records, but they were available “for purchase for political purposes only, under Iowa Code.”

The existence of the mailers was first reported by the Independent Journal.

The Cruz campaign confirmed the mailers had originated from the campaign and said there was nothing inappropriate about the materials.

“These mailers are common practice to increase voter turnout,” said Matt Schultz, the campaign’s Iowa state chairman and a former Iowa secretary of state. “Our mailer was modeled after the very successful 2014 mailers that the Republican Party of Iowa distributed to motivate Republican voters to vote, and which helped elect numerous Republican candidates during that cycle.”

Speaking to reporters on Saturday evening in Sioux City, Mr. Cruz said he would “apologize to nobody for using every tool we can to encourage Iowa voters to come out and vote.”

**Iur_tae_mont**

If anything it'll probably hurt his chances.

If I was on the fence about who I was going to vote for and got something like this in the mail, I'd probably go out of my way to not vote for him just out of spite for wasting my time with stupid nonsense.

**Ustrello**

Wow that isn't creepy as hell. I mean he is already getting flak for being born in Canada and this won't help at all.

**dogma**

The funny thing is that you don't even need real numbers to influence voter participation. Just make a list of people who likely know each other, put the recipient at the bottom, and the recipient becomes more likely to vote because they need to keep up with the Joneses. It was established a long time ago that social pressure is an effective way to motivate people.

**Breotan**

Cruz is all about political stunts. Most of us saw that when he forced the government shutdown last year. Stuff like this is mainly why I support Rubio over Cruz.

**dogma**

What surprises me is that he's so transparent about backing the mailer, it's the sort of thing I would expect to come from a 3rd Party with the candidate never speaking on the matter.

**whembly**

I'm surprised Cruz's campaign would do that. It's skeezy. I wonder if the internal polls is causing them to be this desparate. He's defending this tactic:
Sauce:

Speaking to reporters on Saturday evening in Sioux City, Mr. Cruz said he would “apologize to nobody for using every tool we can to encourage Iowa voters to come out and vote.”

Yeah... I don't like it at all...

<---hoping that Rubio is gaining momentum.

Also, there's this:
Official: Some Clinton emails 'too damaging' to release

#EmailGate just got real yo.

**Tannhauser42**

whembly wrote:
I'm surprised Cruz's campaign would do that. It's skeezy. I wonder if the internal polls is causing them to be this desparate. He's defending this tactic:
Sauce:

Speaking to reporters on Saturday evening in Sioux City, Mr. Cruz said he would “apologize to nobody for using every tool we can to encourage Iowa voters to come out and vote.”

Yeah, how many pages ago did I say "but they did it, first/too" belongs on the elementary school playground?
It's like Cruz simply never learned the lesson "if you want to be the better man, you have to actually be the better man." Certainly, that's a lesson lost on most politicians, but Cruz just seems to take things to the next level.

**Peregrine**

whembly wrote:
I'm surprised Cruz's campaign would do that.

Allow me to explain why:

“Our mailer was modeled after the very successful 2014 mailers that the Republican Party of Iowa distributed to motivate Republican voters to vote, and which helped elect numerous Republican candidates during that cycle.”

**Co'tor Shas**

whembly wrote:
I'm surprised Cruz's campaign would do that.

I have a theory.

It's because.... he's a sleaze-ball.

**dogma**

Peregrine wrote:

Allow me to explain why:

“Our mailer was modeled after the very successful 2014 mailers that the Republican Party of Iowa distributed to motivate Republican voters to vote, and which helped elect numerous Republican candidates during that cycle.”

Apparently this...

...was one of them.

**d-usa**

Peregrine wrote:
whembly wrote:
I'm surprised Cruz's campaign would do that.

Allow me to explain why:

“Our mailer was modeled after the very successful 2014 mailers that the Republican Party of Iowa distributed to motivate Republican voters to vote, and which helped elect numerous Republican candidates during that cycle.”

I honestly have less of an issue with a state party mailing stuff to state party members to tell them "vote party" than I do with an individual campaign mailing out fake official looking violation notices.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

dogma wrote:

Apparently this was one of them.

I really don't have a problem with that, like, at all.

That's a "vote early, vote often" kind of flier, doesn't name names, and doesn't pretend to be any sort of official "notice of violation".

**whembly**

It's still skeezy d... and yes, both parties does this as it smacks of peer pressure.

OFA did this really well...

It's like football now... its become a "copy-cat league" these days.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
EDIT: I re-watched the GOP debate.

Cruz didn't hurt himself... he did "whine" a bit at one of the moderators over the debate rules. *shrugs*

Rubio - is it a Cuban/Latino attribute to "talk fast"? Geez... he may want to go decaf. I think I agree with all the pundits that Rubio pulled away and made a "Statement" for the voters.

Everyone else was "meh".

**dogma**

d-usa wrote:

I really don't have a problem with that, like, at all.

That's a "vote early, vote often" kind of flier, doesn't name names, and doesn't pretend to be any sort of official "notice of violation".

Yeah, that's a reasonable distinction. I highly doubt that picture was associated with whoever got the mailer, it was probably just a generic image of suburbia with some location tags on top of it.

whembly wrote:
It's still skeezy d... and yes, both parties does this as it smacks of peer pressure.

But peer pressure isn't going to just disappear. Hell, one of the bedrocks of advertising on social networks is peer pressure; the same goes for pretty much anything that involves some level of socialization. Gyms are probably the worst offenders because they combine positive and negative reinforcement.