As we previously discussed, Twitter has become a lightening rod for the free speech community — repeatedly accused of content-based censorship and a liberal bias. Twitter was recently accused of a departure from the policy of unfettered free speech in the filtering of negative comments against President Barack Obama. Then Twitter banned Milo Yiannopoulos in a very disturbing move against a conservative speaker. Now, Twitter is back in the news targeting another conservative. After releasing two viral videos, Project Veritas Founder and President James O’Keefe was barred from access to his Twitter account for 12 hours (with review for a permanent ban). Twitter again appears to have little explanation for suspending another conservative other than the content of his speech.
Shortly before his suspension, O’Keefe released a video showing Democratic Election Commissioner Alan Schulkin discussing voter fraud and making damaging comments concerning the election. The next day he released a video showing a Hillary Clinton staffer making embarrassing comments including how he could rip up Republican voter registration forms and not be reprimanded.
O’Keefe was only given notice reading “Hi James O’Keefe,Your account @JamesOKeefeIII has been locked. Please go to Twitter now to fix the issue with your account.” However, there was not explanation and only a reference to the rules page. Twitter has been previously accused to showing little concern for the due process of those banned from its site, including full explanations for cutting off users.
Once again, I find the pattern of suspensions of Twitter to be highly problematic. Twitter is an important site for social media and free speech. I hold no brief for O’Keefe and I have not watched his work. I realize that he is controversial and we have discussed past controversies. However, Twitter has developed a reputation among its critics for speech regulation with a particular penchant for cutting off conservatives.
Twitter later revealed that it was the second video of the Clinton staffer that was deemed to be “harassment” because he is shown saying “I think the bar of acceptable conduct in this campaign is pretty low. To be fired I would have to grab Emma’s ass twice and she would have to complain about it, I would have to sexually harass someone.” However, there is no allegation that the tape contains false information. I remain concerned over the lack of a clear rule. Would any undercover videotape be barred under this rule? Was there something about this videotape that distinguishes it from other embarrassing undercover stories?
What do you think?
I think twitter’s suppression of free speech is unacceptable. There are disturbing trends these days in the media surrounding the issue of so-called “fake news.” The problem with this idea is, who gets to decide what is fake and what is not? It seems best to leave this decision up to the public and, by extension, the educational system. The introduction of fact-checking organizations, as if they could provide an infallible, objective measure, further complicates the situation. The fact is that even people running these fact-checking organizations have a political bias.
Twitter has been skewing everything for this entire campaign cycle. I think the results we saw Wednesday proves that Twitter only represents a very vocal minority. This is proof that celebrities don’t control the minds of all Americans and just because Twitter says it doesn’t mean it’s true. Thoughts?
I think people are tuning out more and more people who have traditionally had the biggest platform. The last election proved that celebrities and prestigious writers at the New York Times and the Washington Post can scream and cry all they want, no one really cares. With each new attempt, these elites further discredit themselves, with more and more people leaving.
Someone asked the Libertarian candidate Johnson what “a leppo” was. He was not sure what they meant.
I ask you bloggers what a hypocrite is. Few respond. I am not speaking about an animal called a hippo.
I am referring to JT who complains about Twitter and yet censors all sorts of people and dogs off of this blog.
Where da Barkindog at?
I don’t think anyone can say that nodapl is a conservative group yet they and unicorn riot have been blocked by twitter and FB. This is showing us the deep state, how they don’t want people thinking and acting on our own and the earth’s behalf. They want obedience and no questions of their right to rule, pillage and destroy.
Check out this twitter feed if you have time as well as unicorn riot. https://twitter.com/nodapl
The oligarchy means business and they do not take kindly to anyone who stands up to them, liberal or conservative.
Re the tax exempt status of churches: Are public universities supposed to be restricted in political activities and advocacy.
I.E., do similar 503c restrictions apply to both?
You’re talking to people who have a comprehensively sectarian conception of fair play. They cannot process this question (except to call you a ‘liar’ or a ‘conservative nitwit’).
Churches are exempt from all kinds of laws and restrictions regarding taxes, zoning codes and so forth. The deal has always been that they retain their special status if they follow the separation of church and state.
If you are really interested, I recommend http://www.churchlawandtax.com which lays it out pretty clearly:
“Although charities are precluded from intervening in political campaigns, the IRS has seen a growth in the number and variety of allegations of such behavior by section 501(c)(3) organizations during election cycles. The increase in allegations, coupled with the dramatic increases in money spent during political campaigns, has raised concerns about whether prohibited funding and activity are emerging in section 501(c)(3) organizations. If left unaddressed, the potential for charities, including churches, being used as arms of political campaigns and parties will erode the public’s confidence in these institutions.”
Universities are exempt from income taxes because they are perceived as doing a public good. There is a pretty good explanation here:
http://www.aau.edu/workarea/downloadasset.aspx?id=14246
Philly T.- I read both of the links that you posted.
But I didn’t find an answer to my earlier question about possible 503c restrictions on political activity on tax exempt public universities.
The restrictions on keeping tax exempt status for churches are there, but the lines are blurred.
What I haven’t been able to find out is if there are ANY similar lines/ restrictions on public universities; i.e., do the restrictions churches have under 503c apply to universities, which appear to get their tax exempt status under the same 503c language.
My understanding of the Johnson Amendment is that it DOES apply to all 501(c)(3) organizations. The IRS says they:
“may not be an action organization, i.e., it may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate in any campaign activity for or against political candidates.”
The Johnson Amendment (1954, and yes it was Lyndon Johnson) is the basis for the prohibition. The IRS interprets it this way:
“Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. The prohibition applies to all campaigns including campaigns at the federal, state and local level. Violation of this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes. Those section 501(c)(3) organizations that are private foundations are subject to additional restrictions that are not described in this fact sheet.”
see: https://www.irs.gov/uac/election-year-activities-and-the-prohibition-on-political-campaign-intervention-for-section-501-c-3-organizations
Thanks….that’s more specific info I was looking for on the 503c restrictions.
Issues like “school sponsered prayer”, thru the secondary level, have been pretty well-defined by a number of court decisions going back to the 1960s.
Funding/ subsidies using taxpayer $s at the college level are more more relaxed.
E.G., a veteran can use GI Bill benefits at any college, and expenses at a private religious college with an ROTC program can be paid by a ROTC scholarship.
In the case of churches, I think that historically they’ve been given a lot of laditude in promoting political causes, but not officially endorsing candidates from the pulpit.
At public colleges and universities, I don’t know if the issue of revoking 503c tax-favored status has ever come up.
One of my parents was a federal gvt. employee subject to provisions of the Hatch Act.
The 503c issue, and a very basic knowledge of the Hatch Act, prompted me to think about where public colleges fit in.
Faculty and staff are rarely federal employees, but I don’t know of any state(s) parallels to the Hatch Act.
“Sponsored”
No, churches are not exempt from local land use regulations and tangles over zoning variances are quite common.
You are incorrect.
See The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA)
You can read the Wiki article here or look it up elsewhere if you please. This law has been contested locally of late when Muslims have gone about building new mosques.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_Land_Use_and_Institutionalized_Persons_Act#Zoning_and_land_use
In part:
“General rule. No government shall impose or implement a land use regulation in a manner that imposes a substantial burden on the religious exercise of a person, including a religious assembly or institution, unless the government can demonstrate that imposition of the burden on that person, assembly or institution
is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest; and
is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest.”
None of that exempts churches from land use regulations. What it does is impede local zoning authorities by insisting on a balancing test. That shouldn’t be objectionable to a normal perosn. Progressives are not normal. They are offensive.
OK then. Clearly you either didn’t read or comprehend anything I posted. So you’ve made it clear that your hatred of progressives outweighs your ability to think clearly.
Thanks for settling that, and good day.
Wait a minute your quoting Wiki? I’ve seen you write negative posts when it came to Wiki and Hillary, now Wiki supports your position. Your a joke.
The new statute of limitations date of Nov. 8, 2016, supercedes all previous limitations.
“Coincidentally”, Gloria Allred handled lawsuits against Meg Whitman (R), and Swarzenegger(R).
Both lawsuits were initiated during the latter stages of the Whitman and Swarzenegger campaigns- another “coincidence”.
Allred became famous when she represented Nicole Brown Simpson. I think if I were going up against a powerful man like Trump or Cosby I might hire her.
If you were going up against a powerful man like Bill Clinton, I don’t think she’d be available.
As a Hillary delegate at the Convention this summer, and as a Hillary donor, her favorite targets are on the other side of the aisle.
Paula Jones used Kelly Ann Conway’s husband as her legal advisor. Is that a coincidence?
The Paula Jones lawsuit was settled 18 years ago for $850,000.
That was the full amount sought by Ms.Jones.
I haven’t checked to see if Paula Jones tried to hire Gloria Allred, but I doubt that Allred would have been interested.
I haven’t checked to see if Trump was a Democrat, Republican, or Indepent back then.
He’s switched
back and forth so often it’s hard to remember what he claimed to be back then.
I know he wasn’t a political candidate in the 1990s….in fact, he was never a political candidate until about a year ago.
Meg Whitman, Arnold Swarrzeneggar, Herman Cain, and Mitt Romney were all political candidates targeted by Allred.
Allred tried, and failed, to pull off an “October surprize” against Romney…her just happen to surface in OCTOBER.
With the exeption of Herman Caine, who left the race months before the 2012 GOP nomination, there is a pattern of her zeroing in on GOP candidates very close to elections.
The Allred ROMNEY OCTOBER SURPRIZE WAS, OF COURSE, OCT. 2012.
And I love when Liberals who support Michael Moore and the Clinton crime family complain over James O’Keefe showing the TRUE face of Liberalism. Telling the truth has truly become a subversive act.
The only true face O’Keefe showed was the face of a stereotypical racist hack. He’s a joke.
And conservatives are not being targeted by anyone. The “mainstream” media is NOT liberal, its corporate and they are not anywhere near the same thing.
There are five a’s in raaaaacist. Get it right, illiterate twit.
Conservatives have been unfairly targeted by the mainstream media, IRS, Facebook and Twitter. Unlike #BlackLivesMatter, we don’t riot. We must continue to take the moral high ground. In the end, perseverance and honesty will prevail.
Calling O’Keefe a filmmaker is an insult to real filmmakers. He is a liar, a felon and a conservative nitwit. I do know that he plead down to a misdemeanor, so don’t waste your time reminding me, but he is a felon nonetheless.
And since when is Twitter not supposed to restrict the speech of a lying felon like O’Keefe? It seems to me that the censors here on this very board have banned or restricted liberal/progressive speech on a pretty regular basis. (and no, please don’t bother telling me they aren’t the same thing, because if you think so, you aren’t really either one, thank you). It’s the government that is not supposed to censor speech. If you don’t like Twitter, go tweet somewhere else.
You want to see what happens to free speech unmanaged? Go tp MySpace and have a look around. It’s a hellscape of porn, hate, racism and human waste. The race to the bottom does not take long in places like that.
Speaking of the race to the bottom…the Trump Campaign seems to be imploding with the force of a neutron star. They’re talking about flipping Utah, Texas, maybe North Carolina. Taking back the Senate and down to +-5 in the House.
I hope that whatever is left of the Republican Party will step up after this slaughter and counsel their flock to accept the election and get on with their lives.
Are you familiar with the IRS? Lois Lerner?
Of course. And just like ALL the Benghazi investigations which turned up nothing, this one was the same.
” An investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation, completed in 2015, found “substantial evidence of mismanagement, poor judgment and institutional inertia” but “found no evidence that any IRS official acted based on political, discriminatory, corrupt, or other inappropriate motives that would support a criminal prosecution.”
Conservatives, especially religious conservatives, have. Persecution complex unparalleled in US history. In FACT there are dozens, if not hundred of churches which should have their tax exempt status revoked for getting involved in elections and politics. Almost always the conservative ones.
Conservatives, especially religious conservatives, have. Persecution complex unparalleled in US history. I
I suppose whatever delusions help you feel better about your essential viciousness.
YADA..YADA..YADA. Your schtick is tedious and vapid. This guy has more integrity than Fat Michael Moore. Damning w/ faint praise..I know.
Dance, My comment was to the German Shepherd.
LOL…and Nixon and his henchmen would not have been caught if not for a whistleblower. Keep that in mind when you talk about investigations turning up nothing. Of course one only has to merely look at Comey, Lynch and Hillary to see that, but thats only assuming one isnt a blind partisan idiot drinking purple koolaid.
What are you talking about? Mark Felt did them a favor by volunteering, at age 90, to play Deep Throat. Close students of All the President’s Men have taken apart their account of contrived signalling and clandestine meetings. With little doubt, “Deep Throat” was a composite.
The question which arises is the degree to which the Washington Post was able to collect salient information in advance of the U.S. Attorney’s office and the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice. Tell me, what did Woodward & Bernstein know that Messrs. Silbert, Glanzer, Campbell, and Petersen did not know?
In a matter of days in June of 1972, it was known by the general public and law enforcement that the senior figure among five men arrested at the Democratic National Committee’s offices was in fact James McCord, the chief of security at the Committee to Re-elect the President. Red flag anyone? By December of 1972, it was known by all and sundry that someone was supplying E. Howard Hunt’s household with wads and wads of cash which his wife was shlepping around with in her handbags. By March of 1973, the Counsel to the President (John Dean) was singing like a canary to Messrs. SIlbert, Glanzer, and Campbell (who already had identified Gordon Liddy, general counsel to the CRP as the mastermind of the cloak-and-dagger activities of the CRP and were beginning to hunt down who was responsible north of Liddy in the hierarchy).
Whistleblower my ass.
Because no democrat canddate has ever stood in a church pulpit on a Sunday morning.
phillyT
re: “They’re talking about flipping Utah, Texas, maybe North Carolina.”
Sure “they” are talking. that’s all they can do – talk! Thousands turn up for Trump rallies, Stein and Johnson supporters are happy with their candidates.
Michelle Obama only got a few hundred in Manchester, NH. Although plenty of coverage in the MSM where she professed to be oh so upset with the Trump tape. And this woman listens to rap – seriously?
Listen to your liberal friend Michael Moore and weep. People are fed up!!
Friends:
I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I gave it to you straight last summer when I told you that Donald Trump would be the Republican nominee for president. And now I have even more awful, depressing news for you: Donald J. Trump is going to win in November. This wretched, ignorant, dangerous part-time clown and full time sociopath is going to be our next president. President Trump. Go ahead and say the words, ‘cause you’ll be saying them for the next four years: “PRESIDENT TRUMP.”
Never in my life have I wanted to be proven wrong more than I do right now.
I can see what you’re doing right now. You’re shaking your head wildly – “No, Mike, this won’t happen!” Unfortunately, you are living in a bubble that comes with an adjoining echo chamber where you and your friends are convinced the American people are not going to elect an idiot for president. You alternate between being appalled at him and laughing at him because of his latest crazy comment or his embarrassingly narcissistic stance on everything because everything is about him. And then you listen to Hillary and you behold our very first female president, someone the world respects, someone who is whip-smart and cares about kids, who will continue the Obama legacy because that is what the American people clearly want! Yes! Four more years of this!
You need to exit that bubble right now. You need to stop living in denial and face the truth which you know deep down is very, very real. Trying to soothe yourself with the facts – “77% of the electorate are women, people of color, young adults under 35 and Trump cant win a majority of any of them!” – or logic – “people aren’t going to vote for a buffoon or against their own best interests!” – is your brain’s way of trying to protect you from trauma. Like when you hear a loud noise on the street and you think, “oh, a tire just blew out,” or, “wow, who’s playing with firecrackers?” because you don’t want to think you just heard someone being shot with a gun. It’s the same reason why all the initial news and eyewitness reports on 9/11 said “a small plane accidentally flew into the World Trade Center.” We want to – we need to – hope for the best because, frankly, life is already a shit show and it’s hard enough struggling to get by from paycheck to paycheck. We can’t handle much more bad news. So our mental state goes to default when something scary is actually, truly happening. The first people plowed down by the truck in Nice spent their final moments on earth waving at the driver whom they thought had simply lost control of his truck, trying to tell him that he jumped the curb: “Watch out!,” they shouted. “There are people on the sidewalk!”
Well, folks, this isn’t an accident. It is happening. And if you believe Hillary Clinton is going to beat Trump with facts and smarts and logic, then you obviously missed the past year of 56 primaries and caucuses where 16 Republican candidates tried that and every kitchen sink they could throw at Trump and nothing could stop his juggernaut. As of today, as things stand now, I believe this is going to happen – and in order to deal with it, I need you first to acknowledge it, and then maybe, just maybe, we can find a way out of the mess we’re in.
Don’t get me wrong. I have great hope for the country I live in. Things are better. The left has won the cultural wars. Gays and lesbians can get married. A majority of Americans now take the liberal position on just about every polling question posed to them: Equal pay for women – check. Abortion should be legal – check. Stronger environmental laws – check. More gun control – check. Legalize marijuana – check. A huge shift has taken place – just ask the socialist who won 22 states this year. And there is no doubt in my mind that if people could vote from their couch at home on their X-box or PlayStation, Hillary would win in a landslide.
But that is not how it works in America. People have to leave the house and get in line to vote. And if they live in poor, Black or Hispanic neighborhoods, they not only have a longer line to wait in, everything is being done to literally stop them from casting a ballot. So in most elections it’s hard to get even 50% to turn out to vote. And therein lies the problem for November – who is going to have the most motivated, most inspired voters show up to vote? You know the answer to this question. Who’s the candidate with the most rabid supporters? Whose crazed fans are going to be up at 5 AM on Election Day, kicking ass all day long, all the way until the last polling place has closed, making sure every Tom, Dick and Harry (and Bob and Joe and Billy Bob and Billy Joe and Billy Bob Joe) has cast his ballot? That’s right. That’s the high level of danger we’re in. And don’t fool yourself — no amount of compelling Hillary TV ads, or outfacting him in the debates or Libertarians siphoning votes away from Trump is going to stop his mojo.
Here are the 5 reasons Trump is going to win:
Midwest Math, or Welcome to Our Rust Belt Brexit. I believe Trump is going to focus much of his attention on the four blue states in the rustbelt of the upper Great Lakes – Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Four traditionally Democratic states – but each of them have elected a Republican governor since 2010 (only Pennsylvania has now finally elected a Democrat). In the Michigan primary in March, more Michiganders came out to vote for the Republicans (1.32 million) that the Democrats (1.19 million). Trump is ahead of Hillary in the latest polls in Pennsylvania and tied with her in Ohio. Tied? How can the race be this close after everything Trump has said and done? Well maybe it’s because he’s said (correctly) that the Clintons’ support of NAFTA helped to destroy the industrial states of the Upper Midwest. Trump is going to hammer Clinton on this and her support of TPP and other trade policies that have royally screwed the people of these four states. When Trump stood in the shadow of a Ford Motor factory during the Michigan primary, he threatened the corporation that if they did indeed go ahead with their planned closure of that factory and move it to Mexico, he would slap a 35% tariff on any Mexican-built cars shipped back to the United States. It was sweet, sweet music to the ears of the working class of Michigan, and when he tossed in his threat to Apple that he would force them to stop making their iPhones in China and build them here in America, well, hearts swooned and Trump walked away with a big victory that should have gone to the governor next-door, John Kasich.
From Green Bay to Pittsburgh, this, my friends, is the middle of England – broken, depressed, struggling, the smokestacks strewn across the countryside with the carcass of what we use to call the Middle Class. Angry, embittered working (and nonworking) people who were lied to by the trickle-down of Reagan and abandoned by Democrats who still try to talk a good line but are really just looking forward to rub one out with a lobbyist from Goldman Sachs who’ll write them nice big check before leaving the room. What happened in the UK with Brexit is going to happen here. Elmer Gantry shows up looking like Boris Johnson and just says whatever shit he can make up to convince the masses that this is their chance! To stick to ALL of them, all who wrecked their American Dream! And now The Outsider, Donald Trump, has arrived to clean house! You don’t have to agree with him! You don’t even have to like him! He is your personal Molotov cocktail to throw right into the center of the bastards who did this to you! SEND A MESSAGE! TRUMP IS YOUR MESSENGER!
And this is where the math comes in. In 2012, Mitt Romney lost by 64 electoral votes. Add up the electoral votes cast by Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It’s 64. All Trump needs to do to win is to carry, as he’s expected to do, the swath of traditional red states from Idaho to Georgia (states that’ll never vote for Hillary Clinton), and then he just needs these four rust belt states. He doesn’t need Florida. He doesn’t need Colorado or Virginia. Just Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. And that will put him over the top. This is how it will happen in November.
The Last Stand of the Angry White Man. Our male-dominated, 240-year run of the USA is coming to an end. A woman is about to take over! How did this happen?! On our watch! There were warning signs, but we ignored them. Nixon, the gender traitor, imposing Title IX on us, the rule that said girls in school should get an equal chance at playing sports. Then they let them fly commercial jets. Before we knew it, Beyoncé stormed on the field at this year’s Super Bowl (our game!) with an army of Black Women, fists raised, declaring that our domination was hereby terminated! Oh, the humanity!
That’s a small peek into the mind of the Endangered White Male. There is a sense that the power has slipped out of their hands, that their way of doing things is no longer how things are done. This monster, the “Feminazi,”the thing that as Trump says, “bleeds through her eyes or wherever she bleeds,” has conquered us — and now, after having had to endure eight years of a black man telling us what to do, we’re supposed to just sit back and take eight years of a woman bossing us around? After that it’ll be eight years of the gays in the White House! Then the transgenders! You can see where this is going. By then animals will have been granted human rights and a fuckin’ hamster is going to be running the country. This has to stop!
The Hillary Problem. Can we speak honestly, just among ourselves? And before we do, let me state, I actually like Hillary – a lot – and I think she has been given a bad rap she doesn’t deserve. But her vote for the Iraq War made me promise her that I would never vote for her again. To date, I haven’t broken that promise. For the sake of preventing a proto-fascist from becoming our commander-in-chief, I’m breaking that promise. I sadly believe Clinton will find a way to get us in some kind of military action. She’s a hawk, to the right of Obama. But Trump’s psycho finger will be on The Button, and that is that. Done and done.
Let’s face it: Our biggest problem here isn’t Trump – it’s Hillary. She is hugely unpopular — nearly 70% of all voters think she is untrustworthy and dishonest. She represents the old way of politics, not really believing in anything other than what can get you elected. That’s why she fights against gays getting married one moment, and the next she’s officiating a gay marriage. Young women are among her biggest detractors, which has to hurt considering it’s the sacrifices and the battles that Hillary and other women of her generation endured so that this younger generation would never have to be told by the Barbara Bushes of the world that they should just shut up and go bake some cookies. But the kids don’t like her, and not a day goes by that a millennial doesn’t tell me they aren’t voting for her. No Democrat, and certainly no independent, is waking up on November 8th excited to run out and vote for Hillary the way they did the day Obama became president or when Bernie was on the primary ballot. The enthusiasm just isn’t there. And because this election is going to come down to just one thing — who drags the most people out of the house and gets them to the polls — Trump right now is in the catbird seat.
The Depressed Sanders Vote. Stop fretting about Bernie’s supporters not voting for Clinton – we’re voting for Clinton! The polls already show that more Sanders voters will vote for Hillary this year than the number of Hillary primary voters in ’08 who then voted for Obama. This is not the problem. The fire alarm that should be going off is that while the average Bernie backer will drag him/herself to the polls that day to somewhat reluctantly vote for Hillary, it will be what’s called a “depressed vote” – meaning the voter doesn’t bring five people to vote with her. He doesn’t volunteer 10 hours in the month leading up to the election. She never talks in an excited voice when asked why she’s voting for Hillary. A depressed voter. Because, when you’re young, you have zero tolerance for phonies and BS. Returning to the Clinton/Bush era for them is like suddenly having to pay for music, or using MySpace or carrying around one of those big-ass portable phones. They’re not going to vote for Trump; some will vote third party, but many will just stay home. Hillary Clinton is going to have to do something to give them a reason to support her — and picking a moderate, bland-o, middle of the road old white guy as her running mate is not the kind of edgy move that tells millenials that their vote is important to Hillary. Having two women on the ticket – that was an exciting idea. But then Hillary got scared and has decided to play it safe. This is just one example of how she is killing the youth vote.
The Jesse Ventura Effect. Finally, do not discount the electorate’s ability to be mischievous or underestimate how any millions fancy themselves as closet anarchists once they draw the curtain and are all alone in the voting booth. It’s one of the few places left in society where there are no security cameras, no listening devices, no spouses, no kids, no boss, no cops, there’s not even a friggin’ time limit. You can take as long as you need in there and no one can make you do anything. You can push the button and vote a straight party line, or you can write in Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. There are no rules. And because of that, and the anger that so many have toward a broken political system, millions are going to vote for Trump not because they agree with him, not because they like his bigotry or ego, but just because they can. Just because it will upset the apple cart and make mommy and daddy mad. And in the same way like when you’re standing on the edge of Niagara Falls and your mind wonders for a moment what would that feel like to go over that thing, a lot of people are going to love being in the position of puppetmaster and plunking down for Trump just to see what that might look like. Remember back in the ‘90s when the people of Minnesota elected a professional wrestler as their governor? They didn’t do this because they’re stupid or thought that Jesse Ventura was some sort of statesman or political intellectual. They did so just because they could. Minnesota is one of the smartest states in the country. It is also filled with people who have a dark sense of humor — and voting for Ventura was their version of a good practical joke on a sick political system. This is going to happen again with Trump.
Sure, thousands go to Trump rallies. And I remember thousands at Mondale rallies in October of ’84.
Thanks for the enormous copy&paste job. I’m sure that took some effort.
All I can say is that Nate Silver now has Clinton at 85%+ to win.
As for Michael Moore, please Google the phrase “rope-a-dope” and you’ll get some idea of what he’s up to.
Trump is going to lose and lose big. There is an excellent chance at the Dems retaking the Senate and trimming the House lead to +- 5 seats.
I know that delusional Trump supporters are expecting a miracle at the last debate, but REALLY? The man cannot control himself. He is such a spoiled entitled narcissist that he won’t bother to prepare…again. Expect another train wreck.
I hope that whatever is left of the Republican party after this disaster will step up and tell all the INSANE Trump supporters that they lost, she won, accept it and get some Preparation-H and move on.
Simply repeating calumnies uttered earlier in the thread by people more concise is not an argument.
bwhahahhhahhaha thanx for the laugh. who did you copy your rant from? I have read that entire long winded self absorbed morally righteous indignation 1k times in the past year it never gets old (no one pays attention to it ) only think imploding is all the shill bots that will be out of their paid social posting jobs on twitter, than what? free lance rofl. and the whole narrative about flipping Utah and Texas i live in Texas and shows how asinine your comments are if you really believe what you say
Preach it. I come to this site less and less these days because the comments section a lone is mostly a cess pool of the same 15 bigots with nothing to do all day. I get Turley is more right leaning and that’s why I come here, but the idea that Milo suspension is controversial is bizarre. If we are treating a private company like a public square, fine, but even in the offline world we have laws that govern harassing other members of society – so why are we upset that when what we hold up as the digital replication of that real world space acts on that as well? Milo, O’Keefe, etc have made careers out of harassing and defrauding people not perserving some great noble conservative ideology.
discograph – Milo gives speech that you can attend or not attend. There is no fraud in that. O’Keefe is an underground film maker who outs varies frauds.
Milo systematically organized his fan base to harass other members of the public square. Thus, he was banned from the square as he was infringing on the rights of others in the square. Pretty simple. This is not a conversation about Milo on college campuses which is a different discussion.
O’Keefe is constantly impersonating legitimate organizations to defraud them and is generally incompetent enough with his sloppily edited videos that he discredits himself, his cause and outs himself.
If you think either of these people are some great crusaders for conservatism or democracy you are part of the problem.
discograph – Milo usually speaks indoors so I am not sure what public square you are talking about. The name of the square would be helpful.
O\’Keefe took down ACORN (although they just rebranded themselves) and he had done other videos. Moore does the same thing. In fact, there are sites that list the problems in Michael Moore’s films.
C. U. N. T Can’t Understand Normal Thinking.
https://twitter.com/magnifier661/status/786959957300158465
We’re looking at Twitter closely regarding a syndicated investment opportunity. Thus far continuity is questionable. There would be no question as to investment into a truly objective platform such as this. Regardless of political proclivity, all investors or houses look at this and sees Twitter ingratiates one over another. Principals of their own accounts will not invest in any form of informational manipulation. If investors from the right or left want to invest or purchase this enterprise, Twitter where straddling the fence of being bone fide will lose half its customers. The value is an objective free speech platform for all.
Actually, have given Twitter serious consideration as an investment. The first thing I look for are dividends. The second an openness to welcome a diversity of opinion. Third, a site where you can agree to disagree with civility. In short, Twitter is still under investigation!