Quote:

---

While Hillary Clinton has spent the presidential campaign saying as little as possible about her ties to Wall Street, the executive who some observers say could be her Treasury Secretary has been openly promoting a plan to give financial firms control of hundreds of billions of dollars in retirement savings. The executive is Tony James, president of the Blackstone Group.

The investment colossus is most famous in politics for its Republican CEO likening an Obama tax plan to a Nazi invasion. James, though, is a longtime Democrat — and one of Clinton’s top fundraisers. The billionaire sculpted the retirement initiative with a prominent labor economist whose work is supported by another investment mogul who is a big Clinton donor. The proposal has received bipartisan praise from prominent economic thinkers, and James says that Clinton’s top aides are warming to the idea.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by SIGNYM:

That line of questioning [What is your plan B?] should have been expanded to many areas to get the candidates off off their facile - but shallow -talking points.

Also, Trump's I will keep you all in suspense" was an interesting answer.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by G:

Make America New Suckistan - he will make America so hated Internationally ...

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by second:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by G:

Make America New Suckistan - he will make America so hated Internationally ...

---

"Will," you say? Trump has already done it.

Tehran, Moscow and plenty of other unfriendly governments are using coverage of the election as anti-American propaganda. The Persian theocracy’s censors allowed state-run television to air the third U.S. presidential debate. The network also aired the second showdown between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton two weeks ago — the first full coverage of a U.S. presidential debate in Iran.

Iranian television pundits discussed Trump’s claims that the U.S. election is “rigged.” They even used the opportunity to quote a writer who argued that our elections have been manipulated for “nearly 200 years.”

Trump made claims of a fraudulent election to bizarre speeches about “international banks.” Trump says the Iraqis’ Mosul offensive was timed for Clinton to “look good.” Trump also declared Iran “the big winner” in a Mosul victory, although it’s unclear whether he meant that it would be better to leave the Islamic State in charge there. I don’t know how to say “big winner” in Persian, but the people of Iran were saying it Wednesday night.

To say that Trump deals in conspiracy theories is an insult to the honest, hardworking Americans who think that aliens crash-landed in Roswell.

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2016/live-updates/general-election/rea
l-time-fact-checking-and-analysis-of-the-final-2016-presidential-debate/

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by G:
It's possible - using my Super Magneto Ultra Spin Master set to Positive 11 - that Trump will do what the Republicans have been trying to do since Bush II: he will destroy the Republican party. My Spin Master says we can hope that from the Ashes and from the all too vivid memories of Trump 2016, they will build a new party based on the polar opposite of the Trump model. Trumponian Vitriol will be largely confined to a single frequency, channel 66, and only infect the mentally weak and sickly, who contribute virtually nothing to this country anyway. In other words, this could be the emotional ass whoopin' we all needed (I know, I know, I thought that was Sarah Palin too).

---

Quote:

---

Stephen Douglas told Abraham Lincoln, who had just defeated him for the presidency, “Partisan feeling must yield to patriotism. I’m with you, Mr. President, and God bless you.”

Well, in that same spirit, I say to president-elect Bush that what remains of partisan rancour must now be put aside, and may God bless his stewardship of this country.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by THGRRI:

Trump is totally void of loyalties to this country and our republic SECOND. Not to worry though he's through.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by THGRRI:

I'll spell it out. Trump will not be president. I predicted his starting a TV network after the elections many months ago.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by second:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by THGRRI:

I'll spell it out. Trump will not be president. I predicted his starting a TV network after the elections many months ago.

---

I'm just thankful that all debates are finished. My nightmare was Trump bringing a two shot derringer to the debate and killing Hillary then himself. OMG, who would we vote for then? Would we have to endure another year of primaries and conventions to choose two new candidates for President? I couldn't take anymore. Luckily, I've already mailed my ballot in weeks ago. I don't need to pay attention to politics until next year.

Unless there is a local runoff election, then it is back to the polls.

---

SECOND,ed

____________________________________________

Russia trolls get contract extension
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=60719

Quote:

---

Originally posted by THGRRI:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by second:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by G:

Make America New Suckistan - he will make America so hated Internationally ...

---

"Will," you say? Trump has already done it.

Tehran, Moscow and plenty of other unfriendly governments are using coverage of the election as anti-American propaganda. The Persian theocracy’s censors allowed state-run television to air the third U.S. presidential debate. The network also aired the second showdown between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton two weeks ago — the first full coverage of a U.S. presidential debate in Iran.

Iranian television pundits discussed Trump’s claims that the U.S. election is “rigged.” They even used the opportunity to quote a writer who argued that our elections have been manipulated for “nearly 200 years.”

Trump made claims of a fraudulent election to bizarre speeches about “international banks.” Trump says the Iraqis’ Mosul offensive was timed for Clinton to “look good.” Trump also declared Iran “the big winner” in a Mosul victory, although it’s unclear whether he meant that it would be better to leave the Islamic State in charge there. I don’t know how to say “big winner” in Persian, but the people of Iran were saying it Wednesday night.

To say that Trump deals in conspiracy theories is an insult to the honest, hardworking Americans who think that aliens crash-landed in Roswell.

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2016/live-updates/general-election/rea
l-time-fact-checking-and-analysis-of-the-final-2016-presidential-debate/

---

Good discussion. It's hard to tell what damage, or as of yet, unrealized good will come from all the negative things Trump has said about our allies. Right now it has had a negative effect yes. Yet this is the first time foreign countries have seen many Americans are willing to separate themselves from them. It could make them better allies because they do count on the United States in a multitude of ways. This is something only time will tell.

____________________________________________

Russia trolls get contract extension
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=60719

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by second:
In the third debate, Trump blithely crapped on America’s most important tradition.

The United States have had 240 years of the military following civilian orders, so we’ve never had a coup. Presidents who are voted out leave office, so we’ve never had an armed revolution.

No other country in the world comes close. It’s by far American citizens’ most valuable political inheritance.

So it shouldn’t be any surprise that Trump just declared that he’s happy to throw it all away, like an underperforming casino or a 40-year-old first wife.

When asked by the moderator, Chris Wallace, if he would say “that you will absolutely accept the result of the election,” Trump replied “I will look at it at the time” — and then launched into a long diatribe about how the election is unfairly rigged against him.

“But sir, there is a tradition in this country,” Wallace interjected, “that no matter how hard fought a campaign is, that at the end of the campaign, that the loser concedes to the winner — not saying that you are necessarily going to be the you loser or the winner — but that the loser concedes to the winner and that the country comes together in part for the good of the country. Are you saying that you are not prepared now to commit to that principle?”

Trump answered: “What I’m saying is, I will tell you at the time. I will keep you in suspense, okay?”

Trump’s tantrum has to be viewed in the context of this American history:

The most remarkable thing about the American Revolution is not that George Washington took office but that he voluntarily left office after two terms.

The U.S. went on to develop a tradition of accepting election results even under the most shocking conditions. For instance, during the final stretches of the 1968 president race between Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey, President Johnson learned that Nixon had been privately negotiating with the government of South Vietnam to prolong the war and prevent a peace deal that would help Humphrey.

Johnson considered making the information public. However, his advisor Clark Clifford counseled him that “some elements of the story are so shocking in their nature that I’m wondering whether it would be good for the country to disclose the story and then possibly have Nixon elected. It could cast his whole administration under such doubt that I think it would be inimical to our country’s best interests.”

Here’s what Al Gore said to Bush after he conceded the highly contested 2000 election:

Quote:

---

Stephen Douglas told Abraham Lincoln, who had just defeated him for the presidency, “Partisan feeling must yield to patriotism. I’m with you, Mr. President, and God bless you.”

Well, in that same spirit, I say to president-elect Bush that what remains of partisan rancour must now be put aside, and may God bless his stewardship of this country.

---

Lots of people and things get called “un-American” and it’s almost never true. But Donald Trump is genuinely, deeply un-American.
https://theintercept.com/liveblogs/thirddebate/trump-blithely-craps-on
-americas-most-important-tradition/

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by SIGNYM:

The proof of the pudding, so to speak, will be when Hillary announces her Cabinet.*

* Secretary of Commerce

---

Quote:

---

The proof of the pudding, so to speak, will be when Hillary announces her Cabinet.*
* Secretary of Commerce = SIGNY

Commerce? [sarcasm] Is that your idea of an important appointment in order to know what Hillary really will do?[/sarcasm]

---

Quote:

---

Nobody believes it, but politicians mostly keep their promises.

---

Quote:

---

It is a scholarly conclusion that approximately zero normal people believe: Politicians make good-faith efforts to enact their campaign promises, and they are generally pretty good at getting the job done.

---

Quote:

---

Political campaigns are full of big public pledges, and academic research indicates that those pledges are mostly kept. They are mostly kept by American presidents, mostly kept by members of Congress, and mostly kept by foreign politicians, too.

---

Quote:

---

Academic research on politicians and promises suggests a simpler method: Check her campaign website. In other words, Clinton’s promises tell us a lot about what will happen if she wins the election, and they tell us even more about what she will seriously, energetically try to do.

---