Politics The 2016 US Presidential Election

I have to say, the abortion thing is one of the most annoying examples of right-wing hypocrisy in social issues-- the major exception being the Catholic Church. I don't agree with them at all, but I will give credit where credit is due. They are against abortion, but they are also against the death penalty and in favor of aggressively compassionate social welfare programs. Their position is that life begins at conception, and is precious from that instant until God takes life away Himself. I don't agree with the "life begins at conception" part, but I can't fault them for having a position and sticking with it on all points.

But they seem to be the only ones. Virtually all the rest of the Christian right wing seems to be eager as all fuck to prevent abortions, but they're not interested in giving mothers publicly funded medical care; or supporting Federally mandated paid maternity and paternity leave; or providing low-cost child care to working parents; or properly funding education and guaranteeing free college education; or providing social services and community services to keep kids safe, well-fed and cared for, engaged in school, learning skills, and healthily socializing instead of dropping out, staying poor, and/or getting lost in drugs, gangs, child trafficking, or homelessness; or creating a justice system that is not overloaded with nonviolent offenses and geared towards punishment as a tool for funding private prisons, but instead is oriented on punishment only for serious violent offenses, and rehabilitation in all other cases, and basic decency and safety even for prisoners.

In other words, their position basically is, "Unborn fetuses are God's beautiful special creations, don't you dare harm them or you'll go straight to hell! But once those little bastards are born, fuck 'em all, let's stamp those poor crackers, n*****s, s***s, and whatnot right out, because they're all just thieves, rapists, and welfare leeches."

Maybe I'm just a poor, ignorant Jew, but it doesn't seem very Christian to me....

 

Many of the fiercest anti-abortion people I know aren't religious at all. I think the core of their position is that there should be consequences for premarital sex.

 

Many of the fiercest anti-abortion people, i.e. Republicans in Congress, want to eliminate all Title X family planning funding, even though such funding cannot be used for abortion, and replace it with failed abstinence only programs.

Republican policy: Oppose abortion and oppose the most effective programs to prevent abortions.

 

The Republicans in Congress will certainly be squirming in their seats next month (Sept 24) when Pope Francis addresses a joint session of Congress, the first pope to do so.

There will be squirming issues for Congressional Democrats as well....abortion, gay marriage.

Given the unprecedented nature of a papal address to Congress, the National Catholic Reporter raised the question of how members of Congress should respond.

Papal address to Congress: symphony or opera?

I am in the opera camp.

 

Perspective from the rude pundit.

 

More on the lighter side of the interminably long campaign.

 

Rick Perry, thankfully, is definitely Running On Empty.

 

"But even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked"
~ Bob Dylan (It's Alright, Ma)

 

My predictions for this debate tonight:

Trump will be attacked on multiple fronts, Fiorina will get a few jabs in about her face, Bush will meow into the wind, Carson will be calm and mostly quiet, the lesser players will say the same stuff they have been and barely louder than the crickets. In a couple days the Donald will whine about fairness and "Gotcha Questions" before fading into a sad history in a couple months.

 

Spot on so far

 

what

a

clown show

 

honestly sometimes when trump talks he says what some people are thinking but are afraid to say

 

On one of the "talking heads" news programs a political analyst commented that Trump has an advantage over the actual politicians in that he can say whatever he wants because he doesn't have to worry about reelection, answering to constituents and financial supporters, etc. That makes sense to me. The bad part is he can play to peoples unfounded fears, as well as their legitimate concerns. People want to hear a strong message, they don't want to know the details such as "How do you plan to get that program through Congress? How do you plan to pay for it?."

Are we going have another "Reagan Revolution?"--Just do something/anything right now! And don't worry about paying for it until much later.

 

Congress would never work with him, ever. He'd just try to executive order EVERYTHING