Originally posted by Tubetone: . . .What is hard for many to understand sometimes is the interplay between personal faith and politics. . .That he became an elector is not a stretch to me but he was just not ready in his own moral framework for the job.
Your several paragraphs above are an excellent summary of the evangelical dilemma, and why "perfect is the enemy of good enough".
Well said, Tubetone.
Thanks,
Sap
November 28, 2016, 09:22 PM
Bigboreshooter
Did Hillary Clinton just squander her "get out of jail free" card?
Hillary Clinton has never played the board game, “Monopoly”.
How do we know? Because even novice players learn quickly that you always hang on to a “get out of jail free” card. No matter what. You never know when you’re going to need it. And you usually do.
Clinton had such a card… and has managed to recklessly squander it.
So what happens now? Will she draw that other dreaded card: “Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $ 200” ? For Clinton, who could face serious criminal jeopardy, this is no game.
Post-Election Rapprochement
The night Clinton lost the presidency, she telephoned Donald Trump to concede. We now know that it was President Obama who persuaded Clinton to make the gracious concession.
According to a soon-to-be published book by two Washington journalists, Obama told his former Secretary of State, “You need to concede.” At that point, it was clear the Democratic nominee was losing Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania and had no hope of winning the White House. Clinton heeded the advice and made the call. Wise move.
The president-elect was clearly moved by what he described as a “lovely” conversation with Clinton. “It was a tough call for her. She couldn’t have been nicer. She’s very strong and very smart”, Trump told CBS News' “60 Minutes”. The newly-elected president suddenly seemed reluctant to have his Department of Justice pursue Clinton for criminal wrongdoing.
After spending months promising his supporters that he would see to it that Clinton is prosecuted over her email server and, perhaps, the Clinton Foundation, Trump reversed himself.
In a meeting with the New York Times last week, he all but ruled out recommending a special prosecutor or criminal charges. “It’s just not something that I feel strongly about. I don’t want to hurt the Clintons, I really don’t. She went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways.”
Clinton’s election night concession seemed to have prompted Trump to hand her a “get out of jail free” card. If she was moving on, then he was moving on. And so would the nation.
But in politics, what is given… can be taken away. Especially when the recipient of a generous gift exhibits a conspicuous lack of gratitude. Which is precisely what Clinton has now done.
A Game of Chance With No Chance
Clinton’s campaign announced over the weekend that it will join efforts to push for recounts in the key states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania in a futile effort to deprive Trump of the needed 270 electoral votes and, thus, the presidency.
It is the definition of a fool’s errand. A game of chance with not a scintilla of chance to succeed.
Recounts almost never swing enough votes to change the outcome. Clinton would have to do it in not one, but all three states. In Pennsylvania alone, the law on a voter-initiated recount is next to impossible to meet. It demands notarized voter affidavits in each and every 9,163 election districts. The deadlines are imminent and, in some districts, have already passed. Forget the fact that Trump’s lead in the state exceeds 70,000 votes.
Clinton’s decision to embrace a challenge to Trump’s election is both confounding and inexplicable. Why would she chance angering the very individual who holds her fate in his hands? It’s like an inmate taunting a jailer. You’d have to be obtuse to do it.
Already, Trump has responded with a series of furious tweets reminding Clinton that she already conceded. One of his top advisers hinted that retaliation works both ways. Trump might easily reconsider his decision to forego a case against his former adversary.
So why would Clinton deliberately antagonize someone who is notoriously mercurial? With a wave of his hand, Trump could signal his new attorney general to reignite a Justice Department criminal investigation of Clinton or, in the alternative, appoint a Special Prosecutor to consider charges. After all, FBI Director James Comey laid out a meticulous case of how Clinton violated the Espionage Act, but then dismissed it by claiming that “no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case”.
Sorry, Mr. Comey, but there are plenty of reasonable prosecutors who would be eager to do so.
Stupid Is… As Stupid Does
As the great American philosopher, Forrest Gump, pointed out, an intelligent person who does stupid things is still stupid. Common sense, or lack thereof, is evidenced by a person’s actions.
While Clinton may be a smart person, it makes no sense whatsoever for her to risk criminal indictment by alienating the one person who can best insulate her from the legal consequences of her own extremely careless, if not intentional, conduct. And for what? A recount that is destined to fail?
By contesting the presidential election, Clinton does damage only to herself. When, during the election, Trump suggested he might not accept the result if he lost, Clinton called it “horrifying.” Did it ever occur to her that she is now committing the same “horrifying” act she so vehemently condemned?
Donald Trump made billions of dollars accumulating properties in a way the inventors of “Monopoly” envisioned. He knows how the real game is played.
Hillary Clinton does not. She held a treasured “get out of jail free” card… but wasted it for nothing.
When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. Luke 11:21
"Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists." -- George W. Bush
November 28, 2016, 10:03 PM
MitchbSC
Just a reminder from Colin Powell ... "Everything HRC touches she kind of screws up with hubris"
They don't think it be like it is, but it do.
November 28, 2016, 10:28 PM
EZ_B
Report: Obamacare Critic Tom Price To Be Trump’s Selection for Health Secretary
President-Elect Donald Trump is preparing to unveil his pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services, and a report says he will pick major Obamacare critic Tom Price, a six-term Congressman from Georgia.
The announcement of Price’s appointment may come as soon as Tuesday, according to a Monday evening report by The New York Times.
Price is a well-known critic of President Obama’s signature achievement, the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. In October, for instance, Price said Obamacare was in “near total collapse.”
In an October 1 Republican address, Price decried the collapse of Obamacare and blamed Democrats who “ignore the evidence and the voices of those who are being harmed by Obamacare” and continue to push the failed program.
In that same address, Price said Republicans were offering a “a bold vision to bring America’s healthcare system into the 21st century.”
Indeed, as far back as 2013, Rep. Price proposed to repeal and replace Obamacare by introducing the “Empowering Patients First Act,” which would provide coverage for those with pre-existing conditions. “[T]o make sure no one is priced out of the health insurance market because of a pre-existing illness or injury, the Empowering Patients First Act provides for the creation of robust pooling plans that would ensure that any one person’s health status does not increase his or her costs or the costs of others in the same pool,” Price’s said at the time.
Price also participated in one of the last joint appearances of Donald Trump and VP-Elect Mike Pence in the days before Election Day to tout the now President-Elect’s healthcare policies.
If confirmed as Health Secretary, congressman Price would take responsibility for a department with an annual budget of over $1 trillion, along with agencies that regulate food and drugs and medical research.
Jill Stein has everything she needs to launch a presidential recount. She's got the cash, the grassroots fervor and the spotlight of an adoring media. But there's one thing she needs to overturn Trump's victory: a calendar.
Stein missed Pennsylvania's deadline to file for a voter-initiated recount. That blown deadline is a huge blow for Democrats who have pinned their hopes on recounts in the Keystone State, Michigan and Wisconsin.
"According to Wanda Murren, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of State," the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Monday, "the deadline for a voter-initiated recount was Monday, Nov. 21."
To keep their hopes alive, Stein has mounted a legal challenge in an attempt to force a recount. While the chances of litigation are uncertain, the vote tally is clear. Trump beat Clinton in Pennsylvania, a feat not accomplished by a Republican since Ronald Reagan in 1984.
While it wasn't a landslide, it wasn't close either. Trump carried the state by 70,000 votes, a significant margin that will be hard to overcome.
And even if Stein manages a recount in Pennsylvania, nothing's guaranteed. Of the thousands of statewide races in the last 15 years, only 27 have been decided by recounts and only three challengers have pulled off an upset.
From what I understand, there are three ways to get a recount in PA: 1. Automatic recount if the difference in votes is .05% or less. That's not the case here. 2. Voter initiated. Missed the Nov 21 deadline. And 3. The third way a recount can occur is if a candidate files in court and can present evidence showing there’s a probability of widespread voter fraud in the state — enough that the court would deem the state’s election results compromised.
That (3) appears to be the route Stein is taking now. Now this is just a wild assed guess, but if the court grants this stupid request, then they're probably going to uncover some voter fraud, but it's going to be in places like Filthydelphia, Shitsburgh & other Dem strongholds. The results are going to make them look more stupid than they are now.
------------------------------------------------
"It's hard to imagine a more stupid or dangerous way of making decisions, than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong." Thomas Sowell
November 29, 2016, 09:11 AM
Balzé Halzé
I really wish he would think twice before "tweeting," our better yet, just put the smartphone down.
Trump floats 'loss of citizenship or year in jail' for flag burning
Maxwell Tani
59m President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday floated potential legal consequences for flag burning, which the Supreme Court has previously ruled is a legally protected form of speech.
"Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag — if they do, there must be consequences — perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!" Trump wrote on Twitter.
The Supreme Court, most recently in 1989, has ruled that flag burning is legally protected under the First Amendment, despite efforts by Congress and President George H.W. Bush to criminalize it.
It's unclear what prompted Trump's tweet Tuesday, though it came amid a contentious debate at Hampshire College in Massachusetts that has prompted protests. Hampshire decided to stop flying the American flag on its main flagpole after students were accused of burning one after Trump's election.
Though he has rarely appeared in public since his election earlier this month, Trump has used Twitter on multiple occasions to criticize political opponents and protesters. Just days after his election, the president-elect railed against supposed "professional protesters, incited by the media."
~Alan Acta Non Verba NRA Life Member (Patron) God, Family, Guns, Country
Men will fight and die to protect women... because women protect everything else. ~Andrew Klavan
November 29, 2016, 09:14 AM
parabellum
Quit your bitching, and stow this Goddamned "recount" horse shit. It doesn't matter. Don't you guys understand what's going on here? They're trying to demoralize you and it's working on some of you. Want to come across as a weakling? Some of you are doing a superb job of it.
Snap out of it. Show some backbone, gentlemen.
For some of you- apparently- winning the fucking election isn't enough. You're STILL worried to death about everything. Jesus. I'm tired of it. Try displaying courage, please. At least try it.
November 29, 2016, 09:20 AM
Paragon
I have decided to be calm. There is nothing they can do now. The man will be sworn in. No wailing and gnashing of teeth will change it.
NRA Basic Pistol Instructor NRA Range Safety Officer
November 29, 2016, 09:21 AM
Andyb
"Pickin' stones and pullin' teats is a hard way to make a living. But, sure as God's got sandals, it beats fightin' dudes with treasure trails."
"We've been tricked, we've been backstabbed, and we've been quite possibly, bamboozled."
November 29, 2016, 10:00 AM
2012BOSS302
Regardless what the corrupt, irrelevant media is saying - this is what is happening.
Donald Trump is not a politician, he is a leader, politicians are a dime a dozen, leaders are priceless.
November 29, 2016, 10:06 AM
sdy
Two "feel good" things:
1. We are 3 weeks past the election. With each day, Clinton seems smaller and smaller and more terrible as a candidate. Even from the Dem side.
On the other hand, Trump's stature seems to be rising. The man once thought to be unworthy is looking like a formidable president.
2. Trump's administration picks so far are fully supportive of his campaign promises.
Sessions for AG. Heck, you could stop right there and day dream about the possibilities
Price for HHS. Oh yes. Goodbye obamacare
Bannon for close advisor.
Education and UN picks look reasonable and widening the broad acceptance to the party.
Ryan and McConnell know they dodged the bullet and Trump helped them rather than hurt them.
Mattis possible for Defense. Clarke possible for DHS.
