DescentBB

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign feels whimsical, like a practical joke or publicity tour gone awry. But it turns out the Donald is running a long con. A new report in Politico suggests Trump has been plotting this stunt for years, and he knew exactly what he had to do to succeed.

http://www.salon.com/2016/02/01/donald_ ... d_con_job/

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/ ... -it-213581

I really hope Trump is gone soon.

20-20 convenient conspiracy building. I'm not impressed.

I don't think he will be, for a while. New Hampshire should give him some legs, NS. This is a lesson to the right-wing.......if you create a monster, it will come back for you.

I’m pretty sure Trump created himself.

From where I sit it seems to me the Republicans have been sitting back and waiting for Trump to self destruct, which I see as a big mistake.

One of the reasons I left the party was lack of real political savvy.

Spidey wrote:From where I sit it seems to me the Republicans have been sitting back and waiting for Trump to self destruct, which I see as a big mistake.

Maybe. There is always a risk that moving to dismiss Trump early would have negative effects, like legitimatizing his campaign in some way, giving him even more undeserved attention, and highlighting GOP dysfunction. I imagine the choice not to act was based on probabilities: Trump has a ~100% of blundering his way out of the race whereas taking him out early does not increase that probability and could cause damage to the party.

Still I agree with you way more than I disagree. The party needed to put it's foot down early and get behind the best candidates and not muck around with all the has-beens from previous elections.

Spidey wrote:I’m pretty sure Trump created himself.

.

I'm pretty sure the press created the Trump phenomena

He's using the press like a cheap whore.

Spidey wrote:I’m pretty sure Trump created himself.

quite true, but the right-wing pressure on the GOP created the climate in which he can resonate.

Spidey wrote:He's using the press like a cheap whore.

not so sure it isn't a two way street. Notice how, post-Iowa, the fawning over Trump is plummetting, most of the daily cycle. They used him for ratings, and therefore INCOME. Note that they still are....CNN runs a fluff interview tonight to try and counter the viewership of the first 2 person Dem debate.
All about the ratings, and as they say, follow the money. End ot the day, Trump will be destroyed by decent journalism,but in the meantime, when little is set in stone, the networks will milk every last dollar they can get out of the sideshow barker.
Good points above, by the way, regarding the need for Preius or someone to have stomped the Trump business down a bit at the outset, but now, that horse(horses ass?) has left the barn.

And will soon become a

I give it two weeks!

wow, watching the rolling polls from NH, the Donald just might pull defeat from the jaws of victory. He's been dropping a point or so per day since Monday.

RCP still has him up 17 points. You have a link for daily poll results in NH?

woodchip wrote:RCP still has him up 17 points. You have a link for daily poll results in NH?

RealClear is a decent composite, great for spotting trends, although overall not as accurate, because they include some really biased polls(in all directions). For NH, I go by WMUR/UNH polls, although perhaps out of loyalty to my undergrad alma mater(UNH). Here you go, and note page 4, the list of folks people say they wouldn't support, it's sort of interesting. As far as support, the Donald has slipped under 30%, and leads by 11 percent as of yesterday:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/04/politics/ ... index.html

Don't know it is that Trump is falling as that Rubio has taken a giant rise of 7 % in 3 days. Note Trump still maintains his 29% share for those same three days. The 5% that Christie lost may have contributed to Rubios rise...at least according to your poll.

woodchip wrote:Don't know it is that Trump is falling as that Rubio has taken a giant rise of 7 % in 3 days. Note Trump still maintains his 29% share for those same three days. The 5% that Christie lost may have contributed to Rubios rise...at least according to your poll.

he does seem to have stopped the skid at 29% looking at today's numbers. Trump was at 36% not that long ago. Rubio is working on momentum from Iowa and an influx of super-PAC cash for attack ads. I think Cruz is doing far better than I thought he would. Why Bush is still even running eludes me. Did anyone here see him, with his Mom(who once famously said, 'we've seen enough Bushes in the White House') last night. Was painful to watch, just awkward, even subdued at times. Just NOT anything that wins anywhere.

it should make you as happy as me to see THIS classic fade-in-the-stretch, Woody:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/poll-hillar ... ationally/

Well heres hoping this is the last we see of her. If she doesn't get the nomination, she will have to be really worried about the FBI investigation. As a non player, Obama and the DOJ may not be as interested in protecting her.

callmeslick wrote:

woodchip wrote:Don't know it is that Trump is falling as that Rubio has taken a giant rise of 7 % in 3 days. Note Trump still maintains his 29% share for those same three days. The 5% that Christie lost may have contributed to Rubios rise...at least according to your poll.

he does seem to have stopped the skid at 29% looking at today's numbers. Trump was at 36% not that long ago. Rubio is working on momentum from Iowa and an influx of super-PAC cash for attack ads. I think Cruz is doing far better than I thought he would. Why Bush is still even running eludes me. Did anyone here see him, with his Mom(who once famously said, 'we've seen enough Bushes in the White House') last night. Was painful to watch, just awkward, even subdued at times. Just NOT anything that wins anywhere.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s lead widened in New Hampshire just days before the primary, according to the latest CNN/WMUR tracking poll.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/pre ... re-primary

be interesting to see what happens Tuesday after last night. Trump's open support of Eminent Domain is not going to sit well with New Hampshirites, nor other New Englanders. He failed to differentiate between ED for public projects vs private enterprise, and that is a big New England legal deal ever since the court ruled in the Bridgeport, CT case a few years back.
Second, anyone who LISTENED to Trump last night, and put two and two together now should grasp that he is, indeed, calling for Universal Catastrophic Medical insurance. Yes, it would be lest robust than Bernie's and still apparently rely on private insurers, but he did call for it.

callmeslick wrote:He failed to differentiate between ED for public projects vs private enterprise

In one of the interviews I saw him give after the debate, he made a decent point that even such "private" use of Eminent Domain mostly needs a public benefit angle to even be considered. (jobs, etc) Of course, he kind of stepped on his dick during the interview by saying he made out great because Atlantic City collapsed, so it was good that he didn't build whatever he wanted to build. Either way, I think he would've scored some decent points if he mentioned that during the debate.

the apple doesn't fall far from the tree:
http://dailycaller.com/2016/02/09/eric- ... ses-video/

A nice little analysis of Trump's trumpism....

[youtube]TDrCt60aMCE[/youtube]

Well that pretty much sums it up.

Only point of disagreement with what he said was the point about making consumer* goods more expensive, when in fact this is exactly what the government did for two centuries to protect American industries and jobs.

Why they stopped doing this isn’t really a mystery if you think about it.

*Cheap foreign goods

And the anti trumpsters keep getting more and more desperate as Nov draws nigh. Funny how we don't see these same people attacking Hillary Clinton and her crooked world...tell me, has anyone died due to Trumps inept decision making skills? Does the world view America as being stronger or weaker since Obama/Hillary ran things? Has Trump gloated about killing people (We came, we saw, he died...referring to Libyan leader Qaddafi ) Yes kiddies, Trump is a scary guy if you are a liberal or a Washington elite.

woodchip wrote:And the anti trumpsters keep getting more and more desperate as Nov draws nigh. Funny how we don't see these same people attacking Hillary Clinton and her crooked world...tell me, has anyone died due to Trumps inept decision making skills? Does the world view America as being stronger or weaker since Obama/Hillary ran things? Has Trump gloated about killing people (We came, we saw, he died...referring to Libyan leader Qaddafi ) Yes kiddies, Trump is a scary guy if you are a liberal or a Washington elite.

Trump's a fake Woody. I hope you and millions of others realize that before it's too late.

A vote for Trump is a vote for Hillary. You will get her elected.

woodchip wrote: Yes kiddies, Trump is a scary guy if you are a liberal or a Washington elite.

well, you consider me liberal, and I've been in and around partisan politics my whole life, and not one thing about Trump is scary. Our nation can survive incompetent Presidents(Grant,Harding,others), deals pretty well with inexperienced Presidents(Washington, Lincoln, Kennedy, Carter, Reagan, and Obama were all deemed inexperienced at some point) Trump might be the ultimate mix of both, but the bottom line is that he is NOT, EVER going to be elected President. Nearly half of the GOP doesn't care for him. At the rate this primary mess is going, Trump will lead all others with 35% or so of the elected delegates, but it would be easy work for the party to put pressure on Bush, Kasich, Rubio, Carson to pool resources, along with the Super delegates, chosen by the party insiders and carry the day. It seems unlikely that Cruz would go along, so it will become critical for Cruz to be kept in check, too. At any rate, I don't see the whole thing ending without a LOT of hurt feelings and to such a level as to hurt in November. There will be a similar, but more manageable issue if Sanders got the nomination stolen at a convention,but if he loses the primary process outright, I think the Dems will largely pull together. They understand the stakes involved, here. Thus, I find it unlikely that Trump is the nominee, but if he is or isn't, I envision the election being won by far greater Dem unity, and ground game(I've seen a lot of rank incompetence at street-level politics from the GOP which is shocking to me).

Spidey wrote:Well that pretty much sums it up.

Only point of disagreement with what he said was the point about making consumer* goods more expensive, when in fact this is exactly what the government did for two centuries to protect American industries and jobs.

Why they stopped doing this isn’t really a mystery if you think about it.

*Cheap foreign goods

I liked more expensive consumer goods. At least they actually worked as intended for more than a year. I've got a 1 and 1/12 year old Bosch dishwasher. It started acting up just as the warranty expired, requiring me to do some repairs, and it's still acting flaky. The design has problems that really can't be fixed and the computer board loves to fail in these units. Looking around shows me there's not much better options. They're all junk, even super high end and the Bosch wasn't cheap. At least the damn thing's quiet, when it works.

I've also got a 22 year old Jenn-Air oven and stovetop. They still work and I still use them, even though a couple of things have failed and the particular broken parts are no longer available, so I've had to fix things in ways the manufacturer never intended. I've been wanting to replace that oven, since it's the timer that's now dead, but everywhere I read about modern appliances, problems, problems, problems or nothing but crap. Mostly because of issues with the built-in computers or cheaply made parts. Cheap, cheap, cheap. So I'm not going to buy one. Another lost sale. Americans are so stupid. They want cheap, but they're actually paying more to keep replacing that cheap.

I did recently buy an American-made product called a Thermopen. The company stands by the quality of their products and it shows. It's well made, they have a long warranty, the customer service is outstanding and the product actually WORKS. They even replaced a temperature probe cable that was damaged in manufacturing, on their dime, with free shipping back to me. They didn't even want the damaged one back, so I've got 2 probes until the damaged one fails. Now that's what I'd like to see in a company and their products.

I think Andy Borowitz got this right: "Say what you want about Donald Trump, but he is not a stupid man. He is a smart man, with a keen understanding
of what stupid people want to hear"

Must…resist…must…resist…

callmeslick wrote:I think Andy Borowitz got this right: "Say what you want about Donald Trump, but he is not a stupid man. He is a smart man, with a keen understanding
of what stupid people want to hear"

Could say the same about Hillary or Crazy Bernie

tunnelcat wrote:

Spidey wrote:Well that pretty much sums it up.

Only point of disagreement with what he said was the point about making consumer* goods more expensive, when in fact this is exactly what the government did for two centuries to protect American industries and jobs.

Why they stopped doing this isn’t really a mystery if you think about it.

*Cheap foreign goods

I liked more expensive consumer goods. At least they actually worked as intended for more than a year. I've got a 1 and 1/12 year old Bosch dishwasher. It started acting up just as the warranty expired, requiring me to do some repairs, and it's still acting flaky. The design has problems that really can't be fixed and the computer board loves to fail in these units. Looking around shows me there's not much better options. They're all junk, even super high end and the Bosch wasn't cheap. At least the damn thing's quiet, when it works.

I've also got a 22 year old Jenn-Air oven and stovetop. They still work and I still use them, even though a couple of things have failed and the particular broken parts are no longer available, so I've had to fix things in ways the manufacturer never intended. I've been wanting to replace that oven, since it's the timer that's now dead, but everywhere I read about modern appliances, problems, problems, problems or nothing but crap. Mostly because of issues with the built-in computers or cheaply made parts. Cheap, cheap, cheap. So I'm not going to buy one. Another lost sale. Americans are so stupid. They want cheap, but they're actually paying more to keep replacing that cheap.

I did recently buy an American-made product called a Thermopen. The company stands by the quality of their products and it shows. It's well made, they have a long warranty, the customer service is outstanding and the product actually WORKS. They even replaced a temperature probe cable that was damaged in manufacturing, on their dime, with free shipping back to me. They didn't even want the damaged one back, so I've got 2 probes until the damaged one fails. Now that's what I'd like to see in a company and their products.

Any appliance I buy in the future will have no micro boards. I have a White Westinghouse stacking washer/dryer that has been good for close to 30 years. No micros, just dials. My micro board dishwasher is approaching 10 years old and waiting for it to fail. Stove has dials for burners but micro for oven temps. So I'll wait and see how that does. Frig is all micro but new so may have 8-9 years. Just looking on line, consensus is micros last about 10 years. My 2 cents

how readily available are the non-chip varieties? I'd like to know where to look further, as I am likely replacing all kitchen appliances(or at least a fridge and stove)in Virginia, and eventually a couple more up north. I've been underwhelmed by SOME of the newer appliances purchased in recent years. Notably, a Fridgidaire fridge that is a complete POS, haven't seen issues with our Bosch dishwasher and we run that thing like a taxi. Still, it's barely two years old. A made-in-USA washing machine(wife picked it, forget brand name at moment, perhaps Whirlpool) has also run well under heavy workload, but is also only two years old. The fridge in Virginia is being replaced for mere cosmetic reasons and is over 36 years old, and both houses have identical stoves that are pretty damned old, too. Sucks to be sounding like an old coot saying, 'they don't make them like they used to', but dammit.

Don't know slick, but if you find anything post it here.

In this case it is nice to be a nerd, because I know what components on these major appliances actually fail and I can often replace them myself. The only circuit board I had to replace was controlling a fan in the back of the fridge, and it was under warranty/recall because it was a defect in the original design which caused ice/condensate to build up on the board, the replacement sealed and insulated the circuits away from the cold so it hasn't failed since. There was also a component near the compressor that used a ring made out of a semiconductor to regulate some part of the compressor cycle, the way it worked was the warmer the ring got the less electricity it would conduct. Unfortunately it melted down at some point and the compressor couldn't start, gave off that nice burning electronics smell for a little while which tipped us off. We could have called a service tech to come look at it which would have cost $150, instead we looked it up online and got a 3 pack of the replacement part for $5, the first one of which is still working fine to this day years later.

We had a top loading washing machine break down because the teeth on a plastic gear in the drive mechanism sheared off, the replacement gear was reinforced with a steel core. Speaking of washing machines, if you disassemble a front loading washer you can see they have a significant advantage over top loaders in simplicity, they are belt driven by a single motor giving them way fewer moving parts to break down.

My brother had a the heating element in an electric oven actually explode once and blow open the door. We were all like "I thought it was gas stoves that were supposed to explode...".

I haven't seen a glow plug ignition gas appliance fail yet, so those are very reliable. The spark ignited appliances are a bit more touchy in my experience though, but usually still easy to fix.

woodchip wrote:Any appliance I buy in the future will have no micro boards. I have a White Westinghouse stacking washer/dryer that has been good for close to 30 years. No micros, just dials. My micro board dishwasher is approaching 10 years old and waiting for it to fail. Stove has dials for burners but micro for oven temps. So I'll wait and see how that does. Frig is all micro but new so may have 8-9 years. Just looking on line, consensus is micros last about 10 years. My 2 cents

Well, I did buy a set of Speed Queens, a front loading washer and dryer set, after a 25 year old Maytag stacker gave up the ghost and the parts couldn't be had. They're U.S. built, but with components sourced from who knows where. Not much in the way of microchip boards (although they do have a couple of small controller boards) and simple as hell to repair. No fancy settings, no fancy steam modes, absolutely simple. Still going strong after 4 years. Got an LG fridge with a controller, so I'm holding my breath after 6 years. I'd still like to find an oven without a computer built into it. Ditto for the stove top. Bosch puts in computer boards into their appliances and people have had nothing but issues. An oven or stove top isn't something I want going on by itself, or turning off at random times.

But the damn dishwasher is pissing me off. Whenever there's a power glitch, you have to reset the controller computer. It's got touch controls on the top of the door. Those controls sense the moisture on your fingertips. The top of the door sits under the counter top. The door gasket leaks a little steam sometimes, so the stupid controls tend to sense the moisture and shut off the dishwasher or put it into some weird mode, occasionally, so I have to babysit it. I also had to replace the door latch and latch sensor since the nylon plastic it's made up off warped because I tended to leave the door open overnight to dry the thing out and keep it from getting stinky after it had run. After a year of doing this, that plastic latch eventually warped and it wouldn't hold the door fully shut, which also threw off the door closed sensor, making the controller think the door was open, usually partway through the cycle. So this thing has 2 problems that both affect the door. One I fixed, the latch, the other is something I have to live with.

Krom, when I was a kid, my mother's Frigidaire oven had an element that blew up while I was baking something. It sure made a loud noise and scared the hell out of me. I didn't know an element could blow up like that. I guess it makes sense since so much current is going through the thing.

Krom/TC, did those elements blow during cooking cycle or cleaning cycle?

Cooking cycle here.

When it comes to cooking something on top of the stove, either boiling or frying, I just hate electric. Gas is the only way to go for that, so much easier to control. Ovens are more tolerable because you just set a temperature and its internal thermostat takes care of the rest, even if electric is still slower than gas, but forget the range top.

woodchip wrote:Krom/TC, did those elements blow during cooking cycle or cleaning cycle?

Baking biscuits of all things. Under 350 degrees F. When it blew, the whole kitchen lit up in orange and white. At least the door stayed shut.

Krom wrote:When it comes to cooking something on top of the stove, either boiling or frying, I just hate electric. Gas is the only way to go for that, so much easier to control. Ovens are more tolerable because you just set a temperature and its internal thermostat takes care of the rest, even if electric is still slower than gas, but forget the range top.

Be that as it may, I'm still far more comfortable with the finicky uneven electric elements than I am with piping highly flammable gas into my domicile.