Feel the Bern

[Tom O'Donnell]

Re: Feel the Bern

And Trump is no half-bright con man, either. He's way better than average.

That sounds about right to me. He's a way better conman than Bernie Sanders, for example, who is at best average.

[Peter McKillop]

Re: Feel the Bern

A couple more entertaining quotes from the RS article:

Cruz certainly has an odd face – it looks like someone sewed pieces of a waterlogged Reagan mask together at gunpoint

In the age of Trump, the Cruzes of the world also have to be rebels against the "establishment." This requirement makes for some almost unbelievable rhetorical contortions."Government," Cruz now ventures, "should not be about redistributing wealth and benefiting the corporations and the special interests."

[Ken MacDonald]

Re: Feel the Bern

Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone magazine has written an article about Donald Trump.
Matt wrote some excellent stories about the financial collapse of 2008 and all the corruption and fraud surrounding Wall Street.
He has become one of my favourite authors. Here is a link to his article.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...pable-20160224

I am going to read it in full later today, but here is a excerpt that is just priceless.


President Donald Trump.

A thousand ridiculous accidents needed to happen in the unlikeliest of sequences for it to be possible, but absent a dramatic turn of events – an early primary catastrophe, Mike Bloomberg ego-crashing the race, etc. – this boorish, monosyllabic TV tyrant with the attention span of an Xbox-playing 11-year-old really is set to lay waste to the most impenetrable oligarchy the Western world ever devised.

It turns out we let our electoral process devolve into something so fake and dysfunctional that any half-bright con man with the stones to try it could walk right through the front door and tear it to shreds on the first go.

And Trump is no half-bright con man, either. He's way better than average.

Is that the same magazine of journalistic excellence that published the article "A Rape On Campus" in late 2014?

[Ken MacDonald]

Re: Feel the Bern

Double Post

[Bob Gillanders]

Re: Feel the Bern

Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone magazine has written an article about Donald Trump.
Matt wrote some excellent stories about the financial collapse of 2008 and all the corruption and fraud surrounding Wall Street.
He has become one of my favourite authors. Here is a link to his article.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...pable-20160224

I am going to read it in full later today, but here is a excerpt that is just priceless.


President Donald Trump.

A thousand ridiculous accidents needed to happen in the unlikeliest of sequences for it to be possible, but absent a dramatic turn of events – an early primary catastrophe, Mike Bloomberg ego-crashing the race, etc. – this boorish, monosyllabic TV tyrant with the attention span of an Xbox-playing 11-year-old really is set to lay waste to the most impenetrable oligarchy the Western world ever devised.

It turns out we let our electoral process devolve into something so fake and dysfunctional that any half-bright con man with the stones to try it could walk right through the front door and tear it to shreds on the first go.

And Trump is no half-bright con man, either. He's way better than average.

[Paul Bonham]

Re: Feel the Bern

Can't say for sure what it proves, but one thing for sure we can say is that Rubio burned him bad in last night's debate....

Two major things against Rubio:

(1) He believes the Constitution is not a living document. No matter how much society changes, we must continue to be governed by ideas and principles as documented 200+ years ago. This is very similar in concept to the teachings of ISIS.

(2) He wants to roll back, eliminate government regulations that prevent companies from ripping off citizens. In his words, regulations are a barrier. Well, yeah, so are speed limits, but if we didn't have them, traffic deaths would be triple what they are. Even with regulations, we have trouble keeping companies in line, as shown by Volkswagon cars producing many times acceptable pollution levels. And just today, word that WalMart has been selling cheese products with wood pulp in them. A Rubio presidency would result in many, many more such stories.

Personally, not impressed with Rubio at all. He rails against politicians who say anything to get in power... and he sure sounds just like them.

[Neil Frarey]

Re: Feel the Bern

Can't say for sure what it proves, but one thing for sure we can say is that Rubio burned him bad in last night's debate. I'm confident as we head into March The Donald will regain any traction lost one way or another. Major media has already fact checked Trump to the nth degree.

No GOP candidate in history of the party has lost the nominee from the position Trump currently enjoys...

[Bob Gillanders]

Re: Feel the Bern

98% gave Trump U and Excellent rating.

98%....according to Trump. That's just BS.
Thanks for the link, just proves he has lots of good lawyers.
AFAIK, there are many more cases pending. It was mentioned at the debate tonight, so maybe we get more details.
It was nice to see finally some of the candidates grow a pair and finally attack his credibility.

[Duncan Smith]

Re: Feel the Bern

Paul, have you heard of Trump university? Students fleeced into believing they will learn Donald's secrets of real estate investing. Many of them are now suing.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYxHLhsRyTA

I have a difficult time understanding why this hasn't been reported on the campaign trail. Are the media afraid of Trump's lawyers?

Trumps hotel projects in Toronto and Florida ( I think it was Ft. Lauderdale ) both smelled like con jobs when they were completed. Investors buying condos found out that the numbers they were fed were misleading ( that's the nice word for it ) in Toronto and in Florida they discovered that the lead on the project was a convicted felon. Trump has had several of his large businesses go bankrupt over the years and seems to be good at abusing business law to his advantage.

Until some older generations die out, there is still a large block of American voters who are basically to some degree racist. And a slumping economy is new to the US, they aren't coping very well. Just read today that Iowa wants to make it legal for toddlers to use handguns under parental supervision. Apparently, they fear the young tykes will lack shooting skills at age 18. Trump plays to those fears, he wants to ban all Muslims from entering the US by law.

[Neil Frarey]

Re: Feel the Bern

98% gave Trump U and Excellent rating.

And perhaps another reason why this allegation is lacks credibility is because of a similar try to smear Trump:

Tarla Makaeff filed a similar class action against Trump and Trump University in 2010 alleging deceptive business practices. The case is no longer a class action and Trump is no longer a defendant.

Found mentioned here:

http://www.courthousenews.com/2015/0...-rico-case.htm

[Bob Gillanders]

Re: Feel the Bern

There was a news piece on Sunday: apparently Trump makes a lot of his money through licensing his name to real estate developments. People who buy into these developments get to meet Trump, and are led to believe that Trump is actually the developer. When it goes south, the investors find out that Trump has no involvement and can just walk away, and somewhere in the contract in very small print it mentions that he was not the developer.

Paul, have you heard of Trump university? Students fleeced into believing they will learn Donald's secrets of real estate investing. Many of them are now suing.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYxHLhsRyTA

I have a difficult time understanding why this hasn't been reported on the campaign trail. Are the media afraid of Trump's lawyers?

[Tom O'Donnell]

Re: Feel the Bern

Trump's "Make America Great Again" = Reagan's "It's Morning in America Again", no? The guy sells the sizzle, not the steak, because for most voters that's what they care about. Does anyone in Canada believe that on competence/experience alone Justin Trudeau would really make a better PM than either Harper or Mulcair? Harper was just unlikable in tone and action and it was time for him to get the heave-ho.

A question for Canadians: if Canada had its own version of Donald Trump in the business world (Conrad Black? LOL! or maybe a former sports great like Gretzky) and this character were to run for PM in Canada, and were to make unbelievable statements as Trump is doing... would Canadians be duped as easily as Americans are being duped by Trump? ...

[Tom O'Donnell]

Re: Feel the Bern

... Is a house of Kardassian candidacy in our future (assuming that no one blows up the world in the interim)?

I think Trump, and to some extent Sanders, has opened the door for a lot of people who would never consider running for POTUS to seriously consider it. That's a good thing, imo. What has the establishment in the parties managed to dredge up? Another Bush and another Clinton.

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: Feel the Bern

A question for Canadians: if Canada had its own version of Donald Trump in the business world (Conrad Black? LOL! or maybe a former sports great like Gretzky) and this character were to run for PM in Canada, and were to make unbelievable statements as Trump is doing... would Canadians be duped as easily as Americans are being duped by Trump?

Yes, they probably would be duped by someone telling them what they wanted to hear. I had a discussion with someone who took a more pessimistic view of human nature than I, who said that my view was skewed towards the optimistic because I mostly dealt with chess players and their parents who are not representative of the public at large (being more inclined towards the logical). That person who has been right on the last five or six Canadian, Ontario and U.S. elections is probably right on this.

I recall some social research study which indicated that you could achieve remarkably accurate predictions of election results by simply showing the pictures of the candidates to some very young children (on the order of five years old) and asking them who should win. There was some question early on whether the Donald wasn't simply a Manchurian candidate running to ensure that Hillary would win. If he was, I think he has moved beyond that in the scope of his ambition. It is ironic that he is running as an outsider when he is clearly the ultimate insider. It probably won't be as bad as everyone thinks but then again it might be worse. Is a house of Kardassian candidacy in our future (assuming that no one blows up the world in the interim)?

[David Gordon]

Re: Feel the Bern

There is some buzz on Kevin O'Leary of Shark Tank fame making a run for the conservative leadership.

http://www.macleans.ca/politics/otta...vative-leader/