kimmy

The Hillary health-scare tactic is just preaching to the converted anyway. Nobody who has decided against Trump is going to say "gee, Hillary might be in poor health... better vote for that senile crazy-person." In fact the health scare hype might actually be somewhat reassuring to those who have decided to "hold their nose" and vote for Hillary as the less-awful option. Potential campaign slogan: "You Might Not Be Stuck With Her For Long!" -k

How many deaths are a direct result of Christianity? And let's not muddy the water by conflating stuff done by Christians to stuff that can be blamed on Christianity. "George W Bush was a Christian and hundreds of thousands of deaths can be argued to be a result of decisions W made while president, therefore those deaths are a result of Christian teachings" is an absolutely crappy argument, so let's not even bother with it. There's a lot of material to work with-- Crusades, a Spanish Inquisition, witch burnings, violent eradication of pagans, residential schools, some amount of religiously-motivated hate crimes, potentially an argument that religious support enabled the slave trade, and I'm probably not even scratching the surface. So what about Islam? Given the numbers of people executed by Islamic states in past and present times for crimes like homosexuality or blasphemy or atheism, the number of people killed in Islamic wars of conquest, the role of Islam in spreading terrorism and in present-day war in Syria, Islamic justification of murder such as honor killings or "insulting the Prophet", I don't think Islam has anything to teach anybody about respecting human life. -k

Doesn't matter. If Hillary falls ill and Tim Caine takes over, that's still preferable to a Trump presidency. If Hillary falls ill and Caine gets hit by a bus and Paul Ryan takes over, that's still preferable to a Trump presidency. If hillary falls ill and Caine gets hit by a bus and Paul Ryan gets hit by a meteor and Orrin Hatch takes over, that's still preferable to a Trump presidency. If Hillary falls ill and Caine gets hit by a bus and Ryan gets hit by a meteor and Hatch gets abducted by aliens and the Secretary of State takes over, it's still preferable to a Trump presidency. And so on. Any conceivable sequence of events that might happen after a Clinton victory is preferable to one in which Trump becomes President. -k

Hi Topaz, I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. Stay strong, and take comfort in your loved ones. -k

You guys are being silly. Do you really believe military information disseminated to the press by the president (be it Obama, Bush, or whoever) hasn't already been vetted by military advisors? To borrow the football analogy from earlier, the stuff they're saying publicly is like announcing that your gameplan is to score touchdowns by passing and running, and to prevent your opponent from scoring touchdowns. -k

The less-than-stellar Avengers: Age of Ultron movie kind of dampened my enthusiasm for the Marvel movies, but I decided to give Ant-Man a look when I noticed it's on Netflix. I actually quite enjoyed it, in large measure because of Paul Rudd as Scott Lang. His dorky, good-natured charm makes him easy to cheer for. It was also nice to see Michael Douglas back on screen, playing Mr Miyagi to Rudd's Danny. Douglas portrays Dr Henry Pym, the original and long-retired Ant-Man, who needs an apprentice for an important mission... and he's convinced that Scott Lang is the man for the job. Evangeline Lilly co-stars as Dr Pym's skeptical daughter Hope. The premise of the movie-- Ant-Man can shrink to tiny size and control legions of highly-enthusiastic ants-- is used to great effect in creating a number of inventive action sequences and hilarious sight-gags. While other super-hero movies are leveling entire cities, Ant-Man has a train-wreck... involving a model train-set. I think what makes Ant-Man work is the same elements that made Guardians Of The Galaxy such a huge hit-- inventiveness, a brisk pace, a good mix of action and comedy, and characters that audiences connect with. -k

I admire your optimism! No matter how bleak the news, there's always a positive way to look at it! Headline: Trump's campaign manager on the take from pro-Putin operatives. Positive spin: "Trump improving relations with Russia!" Headline: Trump on pace for devastating defeat. Positive spin: "Trump on pace to beat Mondale, McGovern!" Headline: Increasing speculation that Trump may be mentally ill. Positive spin: "Trump bringing increased attention to mental health issues!" Headline: Trump proposes plan to turn people into Soylent Green. Positive spin: "Trump announces action on homelessness!" You just keep on reaching for that star! Having this revealed doesn't "weaken the republic". You know what would weaken the republic? Having a President whose inner circle are in the pockets of America's biggest geopolitical rival. You don't think that's important news? You think American voters would be better served if the newspapers hid this story? Also, this information wasn't obtained illegally, it was obtained from an anti-corruption probe in Ukraine. -k

Trump says he'd be winning by 20 points if it wasn't for that darned media! I wonder how his supporters reconcile their tough-guy image of him with the angry little man pouting about media coverage. I also wonder how many of the people who blasted Rachel Notley for revoking the press credentials of Ezra Levant's crappy website from her press conferences are Trump boosters? I wonder how they feel about the growing list of news sites that are banned from Trump events? -k

Well if the elites think he's bad, then that must mean he's good! -k

So the latest thing going around is the possibility that the Republican National Convention is going to pull its resources out of Trump's campaign for presidency to focus on trying to help Republicans win their races for congress or senate. There was a rumor going around that RNC chairman Rince Priebus called Trump and read him the riot act, threatening to pull RNC resources from Trump unless Trump gets his shit together and stops going off-message. However, both Trump's people and the RNC people are denying such a conversation took place. -k

A lot of people are talking about it. I don't know if it's true or not. How can we know if it's true until we see his tax returns? -k

Yeah, just a bunch of nobodies like Tom Ridge, Michael Chertoff, and John Negroponte. -k

There's no doubt a Trump presidency would be bad for Canada-- his protectionist views alone enough to assure that, even if all the other worries about his competency and mental health are overstated. Canadians are not the only ones who Fear Trump Big Time, as the growing number of Republicans For Hillary attests. -k

I've been hearing from people-- smart people, very smart people-- that Trump doesn't want to release his tax returns because he donates money to NAMBLA. I don't know if it's true. Maybe it's true, maybe it's not true, I don't know. Maybe it's not true. Can we be sure it's not true until we see Trump's tax returns? His long-form tax returns? -k

What conspiracy? It's a megalomaniac rich guy and his friends doing exactly what you'd expect a megalomaniac rich guy and his friends to do if they had the power to redo the tax code and financial regulations to their liking. The only mystery here is why anybody expected anything else from him. And I certainly don't buy the notion that Trump is so incompetent that he doesn't understand that his plan is a massive gift to himself and his family. He might be completely disconnected from reality when it comes to how badly his campaign is floundering right now, and he might be out touch with a large portion of the electorate, but when it comes to dollars and cents I strongly doubt he got to this point in his business career without learning anything. -k

So you think this billionaire has been co-opted and convinced by other billionaires to come up with an economic plan that's a gigantic gift to billionaires? Here's an alternate theory: he came up with an economic plan that's a gigantic gift to billionaires because it's what he wants, and other billionaires are supporting him because they want the same thing. Many of the names on his economic team of advisors are apparently people he's had business relationships with. These are his friends and colleagues; it's not any wonder that they share his ideas about how to "make America great again". -k

Perfect! I think Trump fired Corey Lewandisky... maybe there's a job opening at Trump HQ. -k {"...in fact some Democrats did cross the border into Georgia but they were quickly defeated and beaten to death with their own shoes!"}

I don't think he seriously wants Hilary or her hypothetical future Supreme Court nominee to be assassinated. I think it was an off-the-cuff attempt at humor, consistent with his other off-the-cuff remarks. And obviously it's not something anybody should joke about, given America's long history of assassination attempts and current hyper-polarized political climate. I think it's another indictment of his character that he'd joke about something like that, but I don't think even his harshest critics honestly believe he's calling for the assassination of Clinton or her Supreme Court nominees should she become president. -k

How disconnected from reality is Trump? He''s so detached from reality that he thinks he's winning. -k

You think Trump just met these guys last week? You think Trump was really planning on being the champion of the working man, until these investment bankers and hedge fund managers just showed up and convinced him to turn his "economic plan" into a massive gift to their industry and to the super-rich? -k

His campaign damage control media relations team is trying to spin it that Trump was talking about "2nd Amendment people" voting this fall, even though that's clearly not the context of Trump's comment. A bad joke from a guy who is completely oblivious. -k

Indeed. As things stand right now, the Republicans could nominate a monkey in a funny hat and still be guaranteed to win several Deep South states. However, it's a monument to Trump's incompetence that right now, even Georgia is changing from a Republican fortress into a "battleground state". -k

Yeah yeah, "Hilary is owned by the banks", and "Trump is gonna go after the hedge fund guys." Except it turns out that Trump's whole economic advisory team is investment bankers and hedge fund guys. Trump says he's here to save the middle class, but he's proposing all the same stuff that Mitt Romney wanted last time, the stuff that Wall Street types and the wealthy have been clamoring for. Repeal Dodd Frank! Financial deregulation! Tax cuts for the wealthy! Lower capital gains taxes! Get rid of the estate tax! Wall Street doesn't own Trump, so I guess it's just a coincidence that Trump's economic platform is the same stuff that investment bankers and hedge fund guys and the super-rich have been clamoring for for decades. Are you a big enough sucker to buy what Trump is selling? -k

Yeah, that was what Romney supporters and the right-wing media outlets like Breitbart said in 2012. They were convinced, right up to the end, that Romney was going to win, despite all the polls that said he was losing. And they're doing the same this year. They've invented their own little alternate reality, where their guy is sane, and is telling the truth, and "doing alright". -k

How are they ever going to learn to function in a modern society if we just keep letting them act like they're back in the middle ages? -k