November 2016

[Reverend Jim]

A note to everyone on Daniweb who is eligible to vote this November, especially young voters who show up in notoriously low numbers. This is not like making a bad decision, knowing your parents are there to save you. There is no safety net. There is no do-over. If you, the voters, f**k this up, there is nobody to bail you out. And if your country goes down the tubes you'll probably take the rest of down with you.

[AssertNull]

I'm seeing an uptick from both the Trump and Hillary camps in preparing for violent riots in the days before and after the election (people buying guns, stocking food and water, generators, etc.). These are mainstream folks, not apocalyptic survivalist types. I've also seen an uptick in wariness between the races. From the Trump side, he's already fanning the flames saying that he is ahead in the Florida polls, so if he loses there, it's because the election is rigged. Some might recall the 2000 election, which came down to Florida and some questionable recounts. Al Gore told his followers not to fight it for the good of the country and conceded to George W. Bush. I can't imagine Donald Trump being that magnanimous in defeat.

If Trump wins, well no one on the Left thinks he can win fair and square, plus the Bernie folks already think the whole process is rigged, so again, riots. It's clear that Russia wants Trump to win and IS trying to rig it so he wins, and Trump is inviting them to do that even more. USUALLY, Russia wanting you to win the election makes you lose the election, sort of like having the KKK or Al Qaeda endorse you. But this election's made a mockery of every precedent ever set. I think that if Hillary is smart, she'll run an ad campaign that says, "Putin likes Trump and Trump likes Putin. Vote Clinton". Over and over again. That and an ad pointing out that Trump was leading the "Obama was born in Kenya" movement. Over and over again.

[Reverend Jim]

There is an ecosystem at work which filters certain guests and viewpoints across the major networks. These guests in turn know what their assigned role is within the highly choreographed—although not often if ever explicitly stated—rules of the performance. The host moderates; “both sides” of an issue are presented; false equivalency is maintained; untruths and outright lies are allowed to go uninterrogated and exposed; the echo chamber reverberates; the commercials are then played.

• Chauncey DeVega

[Agilemind]

I'm seeing an uptick from both the Trump and Hillary camps in preparing for violent riots in the days before and after the election

Well haven't people been reporting the country is the most polarized since the Civil War for several years now? Every election, I wonder why there isn't more seccessionism in either the Blue or Red states. Blue states would be (by most definitions) better off leaving than they are staying.

[Reverend Jim]

Just like in the primaries, Trump is already saying that if he loses it's because the system is rigged against him (even though every attempt to rig elections, at least in the last few decades, has been done by the GOP - gerrymandering, targeted voter ID laws, etc). Plus, he keeps on ramping up the outrageous statements/stunts. Speculation has been he doesn't want to win, but if he loses he wants to claim that he was cheated out of it. Then he can carry on flogging his "brand".