Donald Trump, the road that might not lead to the White House!

[DownwardDog]

What on earth is a beta?

Not an alpha. Like Bob out of Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads.

 

[killer b]

I think it's some sort of 'empowering' reclamation of 'beta male'

 

[TomUS]

Just think about it. If Trump loses the Republican nomination then Cruz could win. Cruz would be a much worse President if everything went wrong. For that matter would Clinton be any better?

Yes, far better than Cruz or Trump. It's not even close.

 

[ItWillNeverWork]

I think it's some sort of 'empowering' reclamation of 'beta male'

The internets never fail to bemuse.

 

[sleaterkinney]

What on earth is a beta?

Someone who hates SJWs.

 

[killer b]

Apparently this is a portrait that Trump commissioned, which hangs in his Florida residence.

I'm warming to him.

 

[weltweit]

Apparently this is a portrait that Trump commissioned, which hangs in his Florida residence.

Yes, but who is it a portrait of?

 

[killer b]

I'm guessing trump hasn't always been an older gentleman. Once it seems he was a thrusting young pace-bowler.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Yes, but who is it a portrait of?

Shane Warne.

 

[The Boy]

Tbh, I wouldn't be surprised if Trump genuinely thinks that's what he looks like.

 

[redsquirrel]

Shane Warne.

Tony Greig surely

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

PBS News Hour interviews family working on Donald Trump's campaign:

Tar Heel family explains why they support Trump

 

[J Ed]

PBS News Hour interviews family working on Donald Trump's campaign:

Tar Heel family explains why they support Trump

Ah, that's where the woman with the neo-Nazi tattoos comes from.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Ah, that's where the woman with the neo-Nazi tattoos comes from.

I had hoped that I just imagined seeing those when I watched it last night. It was up and gone before I could tell for sure. It does look awfully odd that PBS didn't notice.

 

[J Ed]

I had hoped that I just imagined seeing those when I watched it last night. It was up and gone before I could tell for sure.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

I have to wonder if being unable to get jobs is party due to those tattoos. Even people with "regular" tattoos get discriminated against.

 

[Idris2002]

I have to wonder if being unable to get jobs is party due to those tattoos. Even people with "regular" tattoos get discriminated against.

Is the use of the Celtic cross as a far-right symbol widely known in your part of the world, though? I mean, would normal people know what it meant?

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Is the use of the Celtic cross as a far-right symbol widely known in your part of the world, though? I mean, would normal people know what it meant?

I think knowing that would be related to what social class you belong too. If you're poorer, you're exposed to a lot of different things than if you live in upper-middleclass suburbia. If you're well off enough, you can be cushioned, to some extent, from the rougher world. This came from PBS. I wouldn't be suprised if it passed by a lot of them. But, if you went to your average Wallmart, the clerk would recognize it. I'm certainly not suggesting that there's no racism in suburbia. It just take a more "polite", "you're not invited to dinner" form.

 

[teqniq]

As there's no GOP nomination thread and as other posters have expressed concern on this thread over Ted Cruz, here's another reason why:

Ted Cruz Names Anti-Muslim Conspiracy Theorist As Top Foreign-Policy Adviser

 

[bluescreen]

As there's no GOP nomination thread and as other posters have expressed concern on this thread over Ted Cruz, here's another reason why:

Ted Cruz Names Anti-Muslim Conspiracy Theorist As Top Foreign-Policy Adviser

That link isn't working for me, but this one does.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/03/cruz-names-anti-muslim-paranoic-as-top-adviser.html

 

[teqniq]

Fixed

 

[bluescreen]

It's jaw-droppingly batshit crazy stuff he believes.

 

[J Ed]

It's jaw-droppingly batshit crazy stuff he believes.

Just like the frontrunner for the GOP nomination, no one mentions the years he dedicated to the birther racism anymore, it's almost like it never happene and we are just accepting that it is all normal now.

 

[bluescreen]

It's jaw-droppingly batshit crazy stuff he believes.

For Gaffney, Barack HusseinObama is but the tip of the iceberg — in truth, the Muslim Brotherhood has placed operatives throughout the federal government. Among their top agents: Clinton adviser Huma Abedin and anti-tax zealot Grover Norquist. In conservative circles, it's one thing to accuse liberals with foreign-sounding names of “stealth jihad.” It’s quite another to say the same of a white male libertarian who has devoted his life to the noble cause of widening the income gap. After Gaffney wrote a full book on Norquist’s alleged sharia schemes, he was banned from the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference. (The strongest verifiable evidence of Norquist’s jihadist sympathies appears to be that his wife is a Muslim-American).

Here are some other things that Gaffney believes:

1. Saddam Hussein was behind the Oklahoma City bombing.

2. Obama incorporated the Islamic crescent into the logo of a new missile-defense group.

3. By appointing a Muslim-American to New Jersey’s state judiciary, Chris Christie may be complicit in treason.

 

[Lord Camomile]

Just like the frontrunner for the GOP nomination, no one mentions the years he dedicated to the birther racism anymore, it's almost like it never happene and we are just accepting that it is all normal now.

I'd been wondering why that hasn't come up, seemingly at all, if not from the candidates then at least from the pundits and commentators.

 

[J Ed]

I'd been wondering why that hasn't come up, seemingly at all, if not from the candidates then at least from the pundits and commentators.

The other Republicans don't bring it up because a lot of Republican voters believe it.

 

[bluescreen]

Slightly OT

From Lincoln's famous “fourscore and seven years ago” to Roosevelt's iconic line “the only thing to fear is fear itself,” the White House has been inhabited by some pretty eloquent orators over the centuries. However, the current crop of presidential hopefuls appear to fall well below the mark set by some of their predecessors, according to a new study that suggests that the linguistic complexity used in campaign speeches is comparable to the reading level of a middle school student (grades 6 to 8, covering ages 11 to 14).

To conduct the study, researchers from the Language Technologies Institute at Carnegie Mellon University analyzed transcripts of recent speeches by five presidential candidates, and used a “readability model” to assess their “lexical contents and grammatical structure”. According to the sophistication of the vocabulary and syntactic organization of these addresses, the researchers were able to ascribe each speech a “reading level” corresponding to a particular grade within the American education system.

Assessing the announcement of candidacy speeches made by Hilary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz, the study authors found that Clinton and Trump used the least advanced vocabulary, comparable to a grade 8 level, while Sanders utilized the most complex terminology, speaking at a grade 10 to grade 11 standard. Grammatically, Trump’s address was the most basic, with a linguistic structure similar to what one would expect from a grade 5 student.

Although Clinton’s choice of words was among the most rudimentary during her announcement of candidacy, she was also found to have the highest level of “standard deviation,” which reveals the degree to which candidates change their vocabulary between speeches. This flexibility may indicate a higher capacity to tailor the linguistic complexity of her discourse in accordance with her changing audiences.

The study authors also compared the lexical intricacy of present candidates with a selection of past presidents and found that, on the whole, Ronald Reagan used the most advanced words while Donald Trump’s vocabulary was the least developed. Grammatically, Lincoln’s addresses were the most sophisticated, reaching a grade 11 level, while George W. Bush’s speeches were the most primitive.

Presidential Candidates Speak At Grade School Level, According To Study

 

[J Ed]

Although Clinton’s choice of words was among the most rudimentary during her announcement of candidacy, she was also found to have the highest level of “standard deviation,” which reveals the degree to which candidates change their vocabulary between speeches. This flexibility may indicate a higher capacity to tailor the linguistic complexity of her discourse in accordance with her changing audiences.

That is interesting, I have definitely picked up on that before now.

 

[TomUS]

As there's no GOP nomination thread and as other posters have expressed concern on this thread over Ted Cruz, here's another reason why:

Ted Cruz Names Anti-Muslim Conspiracy Theorist As Top Foreign-Policy Adviser

My god. Gaffney is a pure right wing war monger from way back. Long before the Muslims are out to get us hysteria, he's been on American TV advocating more weapons, more war...."they" are always out to get us & the answer is always military. Jeb! & little Marco were almost as bad as Cruz. I truly fear for America & the world if a Republican gets the White House.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Is the use of the Celtic cross as a far-right symbol widely known in your part of the world, though? I mean, would normal people know what it meant?

It (the equal-armed, circled cross) is quite widespread in right-wing iconography. It's not helped by the fact of a current of "Celtic Nationalism" (yes, they really are that stupid) in the Euro and US right alongside the "Germanic Nationalism" that fuels all those fuckwitted hard-right "Norse Heathens"/Odinists that are a "thing" in Europe and North America.
Always sad when iconography gets appropriated by fuckwads.