US General Election 2016

{{{Well I think the question 'is Donald Trump' racist' has been answered- yes. How the hell he thinks saying a federal judge cannot be trusted to do his job beuase he has Mexican heritage is not racist beggars belief. Even his own supporters cant defend this one.

On related news the US practise of limiting the amount of terms a President can serve has always seemed odd to me in a democracy, as it means the person the people want they may not be able to vote for.
Currently Trump's popularity is at 41%, Clinton at 37% and Obama at 50%- but no one is allowed to vote for the person they like most- doesn't seem democratic to me
I am pretty sure if Obama could stand in this current farce of an election he would easily win again. But the rules take that choice out of the hands of the people. }}}}

Term limits are actually pretty popular. A lot of people want to have them for Congress too. Back in the '90s there was a ballot initiative in Arkansas to impose Congressional term limits in that state and it passed with 60% of voters in favor, but the Supreme Court struck it down. That said, even Presidential term limits are a pretty recent phenomenon (only since 1951); several countries in the Americas have used term limits since before then.

EDIT: more recent polling

Rasmussen (2011): 71% of likely voters in favor of Congressional term limits
Gallup (2013): 75% of adults nationwide in favor of federal term limits

I agree that Obama could win in this election (just like Eisenhower could have won in 1960, Reagan could have won in 1988, and Clinton probably could have won in 2000). But voters of both parties tend to be in favor of term limits. Has something to do with the distrust of "professional politicians", though in the case of Congress people keep voting for their incumbent Congresspeople even while complaining about how horrible and stagnant Congress is.

{{{{Interesting, given the person you are about to elect will be less popular than the person you are getting rid of for no other reason that the rules say he has to go.
Heres a question, if Obama could stand again, and he was standing right now in this cycle, against Trump- who do you think would win?}}}

I was making another edit to my post while you were posting. I agree that Obama would in 2016 if he was eligible. This is IMO the fourth time we've been in this situation since term limits went into effect.

But when "the rules" are in place because they're approved by the vast majority of voters ... that's democracy in a republic.

Also it's worth keeping in mind that Obama's second term would have been very different if he was worrying about having to get re-elected again, and I think his support among Democrats would be depressed as a result (he would certainly have been less blasé about executive orders and thus gotten less done), making his chances of winning worse than they look in our actual timeline.

As to the Trump racism issue, it's actually rather subtle. Trump is saying a Mexican-American will be biased because of things Trump has said about Mexicans. That statement on the face of it is probably true, and should not be labelled as racist. It's all the things he's said about Mexicans that qualifies as racism - the evaluation of how Mexicans would react to does not.

{{{I disagree Halfy- he is saying the judge cannot be professional enough to carry out his job impartially because his racial heritage will get in the way of his judgement all because Trump said stuff about Mexicans- that is the very epitome of racism. The judges racial heritage has nothing whatsoever to do with his ability to carry out his job. And I see no evidence presented whatsoever so show that his heritage in anyway effects their professional judgements}}}

Aye. Racist. Also, xenophobic seems appropriate. White through and through. Sexist. Homophobic? Don't know... To be despised by even the normally tolerant... Yep. A boy born rich and with no empathy for anyone except his own. How can such a one even pretend to lead all in the great American melting pot? Well, he pathologically can't and will make no effort to anyway. Begone Trump!

chris63 wrote:

Miss Piggy? Typical and stereotypical easy call for the average sexist. Whenever women are looked at satirically, it always has to be gender based, don't it - and usually a Miss Piggy kind of thing. Or how they dress. Or how big they are, or how big their tits are (or aren't), or, if they're forthright and opinionated, how "shrill" and "emotional" they are.

I must protest, Beeker is being gravely insulted.


Why is matching Clinton with Miss Piggy being sexist?  The males are matched with males and no word of complaint.  The only other woman is the singer from the rock band.  I think Sesame Street deserves more complaints of sexism than whoever matched clinton with Piggy; there's not much choice.

I see it as lazy sexism, that's all I can say. Interesting to see what the females in Forumshire think???

Actually, the only muppet who seems to match is Bernie Sanders...

Orwell wrote:

Actually, the only muppet who seems to match is Bernie Sanders...

Couldn't that be seen as ageist?

You men just don't have eyes that see...

Actually, Bernie and muppet just look a bit alike. Miss Piggy looks nothing like Hillary. Also, any woman who is competent and confident and speaks her mind will automatically be likened to Miss Piggy tropes. Just saying.

Matt Bai writing for Yahoo:

One of the more illuminating moments of the campaign, I thought, was when Trump told Anderson Cooper, in a CNN forum, that his father had warned him away from leaving Queens to do business in Manhattan, because “that’s not for us.” You could almost hear the voice of the father whispering, evermore: “We don’t belong, son. They’ll never accept us.”

Everything in Trump’s spectacular American story – the labeling of high-rise towers with giant, gilded nameplates, the impersonating of a media flak so he could gush about his own business acumen and sex appeal – has been fueled by this need to prove himself special and deserving. So has the improbable campaign that has now landed him at the pinnacle of legitimacy.

Orwell wrote:You men just don't have eyes that see...

Actually, Bernie and muppet just look a bit alike. Miss Piggy looks nothing like Hillary. Also, any woman who is competent and confident and speaks her mind will automatically be likened to Miss Piggy tropes. Just saying.

As I said, Sesame Street deserves the label of sexism, not the person who is busy matching up muppets and has few female characters to choose from.

I think it merely hinges on a few broadstroke similarities, Miss Piggy is blonde and female, Bernie has grey hair poking out, Trump has a ginger fright wig and the scary dude at the end seems to be frowning. I don't think its much deeper than that really.

Trump has called women pigs when he wants to belittle them so maybe is not so innocent after all. I think it depends on the intent of the OP, it could just be an innocent joke.

Chicken... Brook brook brook....

unfortunately all the good things the Daily Show does is basically preaching to the choir.

Peter Cook always used to joke when people asked him the influence of satire about how effective the german cabaret tradition of the 1930s had been in stopping the rise of nazism and Hitler.

Satire can't change the world. All it can do is point out hypocrisy and let people think for themselves. Puncture pomposity, afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. That should be more than enough of an ask of comedy, no.

{{{{ }}}}

Let me know if I'm interpreting Trump right: if every person in America, young or old carries a gun (sometimes the very young haven't got an adult right there with them, you know, maybe at a park near home with friends), then mass murderers will get a bullet 'boom' in the forehead, thus cutting down on the number of the murdered, depending on how quickly someone has the presence of mind to shoot back ('boom' to the forehead) when the mass murderer starts the rampage. Ten year olds could be trained to do it, if we start training them from about seven in my guesstimation. Also, make sure you take your gun with you to a party, just in case of  mass murderers - or some dude annoying you, come to think... You know, some dude probably will once the alcohol and recreational drugs kick in, so it's good advice all round innit! Thanks Trump. You are so presidential in your manner, mien and thinking.