President Donald Trump

[GwynnInTheHall]

I guess the question for Nots is--what specifically, prevents you from voting for Sanders?

[Sour Masher]

I guess the question for Nots is--what specifically, prevents you from voting for Sanders?

See above--Socialism (more government and government control) and Taxes to fund said socialism.

[nots]

I guess the question for Nots is--what specifically, prevents you from voting for Sanders?

He is advocating for an enormous expansion of the federal government. Put another way....I can’t think of a candidate (in my adult life at least) more at odds with a Libertarian point of view.
On a personal note, I like him a lot. He is more honest than just about anyone in politics IMO. He has stayed true to his beliefs for decades. He got shafted last time by the DNC, so I am sympathetic to him for that. If he won, I won’t avoid watching him on TV the way I do with Trump. But his beliefs are most certainly not mine and I believe What he advocates for would be catastrophic economically.

[nots]

Thanks. So to clarify, you don't like Trump and wouldn't vote Trump regardless of the Democratic nominee, but your choice to either vote for the Democratic nominee or to vote 3rd party could, in fact, hinge on whether the Democratic nominee is a perceived moderate like Biden or Bloomberg, versus a perceived progressive or democratic socialist?

Bloomberg (for me at least) has proven he can do a very tough job well. I hate the Big Gulp stuff, but otherwise I am confident he would be a fine President.
I have a lot of reservations about Biden (mostly age related) but I imagine he would govern as a moderate and he leads in most of the polls so I feel like he has a good chance to be the nominee. Not my guy, but not problematic for me.
I like Klobuchar and Gabbard (especially Gabbard and her isolationist stance) but they aren’t going to be the nominee. I sort of like Yang too (though he doesn’t seem to get as much coverage as the rest of the field).

[revo]

16-year old Greta Thurnberg was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, and the Moron-in-Chief reacts predictably, tweeting “So Ridiculous” and then bullying her. Did I mention she’s just 16 years old? America is a worldwide embarrassment. Thanks GOP.

[Sour Masher]

16-year old Greta Thurnberg was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, and the Moron-in-Chief reacts predictably, tweeting “So Ridiculous” and then bullying her. Did I mention she’s just 16 years old? America is a worldwide embarrassment. Thanks GOP.

Not his first time picking on her. She handles it like a champ.

[heyelander]

Bloomberg (for me at least) has proven he can do a very tough job well. I hate the Big Gulp stuff, but otherwise I am confident he would be a fine President.
I have a lot of reservations about Biden (mostly age related)

Not to side with Biden, but Bloomberg is 9 months older than he....

[Sour Masher]

Not to side with Biden, but Bloomberg is 9 months older than he....

Yeah, he, Biden, and Sanders are all scary old. But I think nots was referring to how Biden is showing his age more in terms of mental lapses, which I agree, he is. The possibility of any of them keeling over during the general scares the bejesus out of me, though.

[nots]

Not to side with Biden, but Bloomberg is 9 months older than he....

Very true, but I think he is showing far less signs of his age than Biden is. Biden makes me very nervous with the way he is acting, but he is the moderate that clearly polls the best against Trump, so fingers crossed I guess.

[Sour Masher]

Every time he says something awful like this (suggesting a fine, life-long public servant who recently died is in hell), and he says something awful like this just about every day, and sometimes many awful things a day, I'm dumbfounded by how the sheer volume of these things seems to have deadened the public to them. If any former president said something like this, it would be a big story for weeks, and it would haunt his presidency. Yet for Trump, it is just Trump being Trump and voters accept it.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...ncy/ar-BBY9M8D

[Sour Masher]

I wasn't expecting a call for removal of Trump in Christianity Today, but I'm glad to see it. It doesn't seem to have a wide readership, but it does seem to still be an important publication for many evangelicals. I applaud their courage in taking this stance--this will clearly anger many of their readers, but they published it anyway. Does anyone think it will have an impact?

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct...om-office.html

[The Feral Slasher]

I wasn't expecting a call for removal of Trump in Christianity Today, but I'm glad to see it. It doesn't seem to have a wide readership, but it does seem to still be an important publication for many evangelicals. I applaud their courage in taking this stance--this will clearly anger many of their readers, but they published it anyway. Does anyone think it will have an impact?

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct...om-office.html

probably not much, but maybe as much as Russian troll farms. Ha Ha. Who knows, but nice to see it.

[revo]

Trumpie Matt Bevin loses the Kentucky governor's race, so as payback, he makes 400 pardons before he leaves town, including that of a murderer who's family donated $41,000 to his campaign and a child rapist convicted last year, because the 9-year old's "hymen was still intact."

https://www.npr.org/2019/12/20/790182205/ex-kentucky-gov-defends-controversial-pardons-for-child-rapist-murderer

[DMT]

Trumpie Matt Bevin loses the Kentucky governor's race, so as payback, he makes 400 pardons before he leaves town, including that of a murderer who's family donated $41,000 to his campaign and a child rapist convicted last year, because the 9-year old's "hymen was still intact."
https://www.npr.org/2019/12/20/79018...apist-murderer

I'd love to see some retributive justice meted out to this POS.

[Sour Masher]

I'd love to see some retributive justice meted out to this POS.

I wouldn't lose any sleep over that either. I don't know how he sleeps at night, though.

ETA: I mean, really, what kind of sick bastard does this? It makes one question the whole notion of pardons when murders and child rapists can pay some scumbag politicians to get out of jail. What a miscarriage of justice. If there were a hell, I'd hope Bevin and the scumbags he let go back into society without paying for their crimes go to it (not all of the pardons, but the most egregious and serious ones, like the child rapist). I really don't know what I'd do in a situation like this if the man who repeatedly sexually assaulted my daughter was sentenced to 23 years but got out in one. It sounds like the premise for a vigilante movie where the hero goes after both the criminals and Bevin.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ho...8ta?li=BBnb7Kz

Here are some excerpts--really, this is not justice. It is frightening that one man, on the way out, can make unilateral decisions like this. I know this sort of thing have happened before, but to this extent, and with these sorts of crimes. It is appalling.

Mr. Bevin issued more than 600 pardons and reduced sentences in the final weeks of his administration. They included cases in which the governor — in an extraordinary exercise of personal judgment that went well beyond typical governors’ pardons — released inmates serving time for serious crimes, based on his own conclusion that they had been wrongfully convicted.

Many of the reprieves had been advocated by defense lawyers or groups who challenge questionable convictions. But a review of pardon orders, court records and interviews with lawyers and Bevin administration officials shows that in a number of cases, Mr. Bevin went even further than those recommendations, and in some instances made his decision without a single consultation with prosecutors or the families of victims.

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FRANKFORT, Ky. — The mother was at home preparing cheese sticks and a milkshake when she got the call. On the other line, a prosecutor had surprising news about the man who had been convicted of repeatedly sexually assaulting her child and sentenced last year to 23 years in prison.

Matt Bevin et al. standing in front of a building: Matt Bevin, center, conceded the gubernatorial race to Andy Beshear, his Democratic challenger, in November.
© Timothy D. Easley/Associated Press Matt Bevin, center, conceded the gubernatorial race to Andy Beshear, his Democratic challenger, in November.
In one of his last acts in office, the outgoing governor, Matt Bevin, had weighed in on the case. Citing a lack of physical evidence and a “sloppy” investigation, Mr. Bevin issued an unconditional pardon. The man, Micah Schoettle, 41, a close relative of the girl, walked out of prison.

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“I just kept saying, ‘How? How? How?’” recalled the mother, who asked not to be named to protect the identity of her teenage daughter, who said she was 9 when the assaults began. “He spent less time in prison than he did molesting my child.”

Mr. Bevin issued more than 600 pardons and reduced sentences in the final weeks of his administration. They included cases in which the governor — in an extraordinary exercise of personal judgment that went well beyond typical governors’ pardons — released inmates serving time for serious crimes, based on his own conclusion that they had been wrongfully convicted.

a woman standing next to a man in a suit and tie: Patrick Baker was flanked by his attorneys during a news conference this week. Mr. Baker said he looked forward to living his life with a “little more privacy” after his pardon.
© Destinee Ott/The Richmond Register Patrick Baker was flanked by his attorneys during a news conference this week. Mr. Baker said he looked forward to living his life with a “little more privacy” after his pardon.
Many of the reprieves had been advocated by defense lawyers or groups who challenge questionable convictions. But a review of pardon orders, court records and interviews with lawyers and Bevin administration officials shows that in a number of cases, Mr. Bevin went even further than those recommendations, and in some instances made his decision without a single consultation with prosecutors or the families of victims.

“You have police, F.B.I., judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers, hours and hours of work undone on the whim of one person,” said Leland Hulbert, who prosecuted a case in which the governor simply wanted to give the defendant a second chance. “It’s almost like a godlike power.”

In the case of Mr. Schoettle, Mr. Bevin inflamed controversy further this week when he said there was no evidence that the girl had been raped, in part because her hymen was intact — a factor most experts say cannot be considered as proof that a sexual assault did not occur.

His final flurry of pardons and sentence reductions amounted to a remarkable act of reprieve, both in volume and nature. Experts say it is unusual to issue so many clemency grants at the very end of a term, and particularly unusual for a governor to act as the personal arbitrator on wrongful conviction claims, even more so in cases, such as Mr. Schoettle’s, still making their way through the appeals system.