I'm fortunate that though I've got some friends who are pretty far on the left and the right and post about the election from time to time, I've never been personally attacked for where I stand. I suspect that a big part of that is that I follow a personal rule (as do, it appears, just about all of my friends who engage politically on FB,) that it's fine to attack the candidates and positions, but it's not ok to attack the persons who hold the positions or support the candidates.

Only once have I felt the need to restrict/censor someone on my wall, and that was this morning. It happens that the person who crossed the line isn't a "real-life" friend, but someone from the text sim community. I have a friend--Tripp--from way back. Haven't seen him in person since the early/mid 90s. (I did see his wife--who he was dating back then--at my niece's funeral this February, though.) Today he is a police officer and a Trump supporter. I posted the "95% Of African Americans" video last night. Nearly all of the responses were from anti-Trump people mocking Trump for that foolishness, but Tripp posted something starting with "Well I support Trump and even I know he is wrong." Someone else posted something anti-Trump right after him, and Tripp responded "I am going to have to overlook you {name} cause any human being who has a Rick Flair picture posted up there has got to be cool!" Point being, no on--other than HRC and DJ--was being criticized until the text sim dude in question jumped in with a vicious personal attack not on Trump, but on Tripp himself. The attack ended with a comment along the lines of "no one with an IQ above 80 could support Trump." I don't think Tripp's IQ is quite that low, but honestly it's likely below average. Either way, he's a freaking human being who deserves to be treated with some level of dignity. Lord knows I can be as condescending as the next guy, but that was just wayyyyy over the line.

So, Markus, if you read this, that's why I deleted your post. ;)

Based on the left-wing's words, you don't seem to care for most white people. Based on the left-wing's actions, you don't seem to car for most black people.

I see how it gets confusing. ;)

Related to the comments about FB...

Trump Supporters Try to Convince #NeverTrump to Get on Board by Insulting Them | RedState

LOLZ. Private message gold from an old buddy from my 'hood.

"Saw your FB post about Trump. You went to private school, married a white girl, and it look like you live out in the suburbs. If Trump can't even get you to vote for him, how the hell he gonna get 95% of us?????"

:lol:

Made me :lol:

At least if I hate everyone there is no prejudice!

They're not even waiting:

I know most of FOFC doesn't see the media bias outside of Fox News, but this is a pretty solid example of CNN spin.

From my FB feed which is probably 65%-70% right-leaning...so I couldn't find this link at Huffington Post.

https://www.facebook.com/UncleSamsMi...8357226360281/

CNN should get hammered for that.

But I'll counter the bias accusation with the multitude of stories on Hillary's "illness".

I didn't even click the link. At this point, anyone who rails about Fox News without following it up with an attack on CNN or MSNBC loses me pretty quickly. As I despise both candidates with a passion, I can see the bias happening on all sides. It's a disgrace.

That said, I can save everyone a ton of time when it comes to POTUS. It's Hillary. Period. She's getting in. This race is going to be over at least a month before the polls open. That isn't me saying I support her. (I really, really hate her) It isn't me crying about Trump losing (he's horrible, the guy is seriously a despicable person) It's just reality.

As far as the election cycle goes, I continue to be horrified about the fact we can't even discuss issues in this country anymore. "I believe we need better border security" may as well be me saying I'm a racist scumbag who hates anyone but whites. "The BLM movement has some good points and we need to look at race relations between police and minorities" You can guess what many Trump supporters say about me when I utter that line.

We can't improve if we can't even have an open discussion, right?

Some real geniuses on both sides of the aisle in the comments there. Yeesh.

The extremists on both sides don't want discussion despite how much they talk about wanting it.

Politics have been turned into a professional sport where you take your side and defend it in the face of everything.

Gary Johnson. Vote him in. If you dont like him. In 4 years vote in a Hillary or a Trump.

Nah.

I wonder which group is larger: people who say there is no/little media bias or people who say other people don't think there is media bias. :)

When did you go from turgid for Trump to jonesing for Johnson?

I can't bring myself to read open-comments like that anymore. FOFC is about as far out as I will go on the internets with regard to listening to other people's opinions.

A vote for Gary Johnson is a vote for a Republican, in terms of what that means for the Scalia seat.

Since Republicans are the ones engaged in Senate fuckery with regard to that seat right now, no, I don't think I'll be voting for anybody who'd give them what they want.

Even if I'll be voting for Hillary Clinton literally because the Republican electorate apparently can't find its collective ass with both hands, a flashlight, and the owner's manual.

Pence's first reaction to Trump's claim is priceless.

Suckers.

And now Trump tells O'Reilly his immigration policy will basically be the same as Obama and Bush.


Suckers.

Well, Jon is about to go livid...

(we did tell him this was going to happen, though)

Melania Trump has learned a lot from her husband...

Melania Trump starts legal process against Daily Mail over 'defamatory statements'

Seriously though all power to her if these accusations are false.

Not sure I believe in "escort" which is what the article is on. But I can easily believe she was out of legal immigration status and the Dems should pursue that. Not that it really matters now but it would be great to play that illegal card (if true) against Trump

I think I've said this before here, but if Trump is elected, he'd probably be our most liberal president.

Except that he'd launch military strikes against those who insult him on twitter. Not sure exactly where that falls on the liberal/conservative scale. We'd probably need a new standard for how to describe that, some kind of Trump scale.

I agree with you on that, but wow if that could be proven...

I think it would really depend on Congress. My guess is he'd sign basically anything that came to him and then claim it was his idea all along. As long as he got credit for it I think he'd sign a Bernie budget or a Ryan budget.

That's my impression as well. He has no interest in the actual work to pass his own legislation.

You're forgetting, Sportsdigs had me writing off Trump weeks ago.

I think there's a famous quote that goes....


"There is no limit to what a man can do as long as Trump gets the credit for it."

I was on a post convention high.. Then reality set in.

I was leaning Johnson before the final speech.

And the way Trump is acting, Im worried. Thoiugh not as worried if HRC is elected.

Is she still running? All I hear about is how good Gary Johnson is and how bad Trump is. :D

Clinton Foundation and emails seem to be the key talking points right now (besides Hillary's health ... I'm more worried about Trump's possible dementia).

The Dems need to start throwing stuff back on Trump to give the press something else to feed on ... I don't think Trump has said anything too bad since the new campaign manager came onboard.

They need to go on a full throated defense of the Clinton Foundation. They have done enormous good for millions of people around the world, specifically HIV and malaria healthcare. They should turn this around and compare the Clinton Foundation to the Trump Foundation.

Trump Campaign Manager: We’re Actually Winning Right Now, Because of ‘Undercover Trump Voters’ | Mediaite

So it isn't skewed polls this year, is undercover voters who are too embarrassed to tell pollsters that they plan to vote for Trump.

Is that really the narrative you want to go for? Well, we're really winning because people are embarrassed of our candidate?

If it's the best you've got you may as well go with it.

wow just wow. Not sure how she said that with a straight face. Nice slam on educated voters too.

Donald Trump Shouldn't Release Tax Returns, Son Says

So on one hand you really don't learn much from tax returns, and you are worried about people who don't know anything about them (i.e the press) making stuff about them? How about people who do know, are you worried about them? Haven't found anything in Hillary's/Kaine's returns you can use against them have you?

They said the same thing in the primary, and Trump did not out-perform his polls there.

Saw this tweet from Trump during the ebola scare:

Good God, now Trump is campaigning with Nigel Farage.

And don't forget Geert Wilders was at the convention.

How long until an endorsement from Marine Le Pen?

This part stuck out.

“You would have a bunch of people who know nothing about taxes trying to look through,"

If that doesn't come across as elitist and 1% ish and I don't know what will.

The irony of this statement, when applied to Obama's birth certificate, would be tremendous.

I get that Trump couldn't win with his deport them all strategy, but it was the biggest motivating force for his supporters. How can he survive bailing and now basically supporting Rubio's immigration policy?

Currently Obama oversees the deportation of nearly a half a million people a year. How is Trumps (or Rubios) plan different? I'm guessing Trump has backtracked on building a wall? So what's left that he is willing to change?

He's in favor of punitive measures against anyone he dislikes (especially the media) and lowering taxes on himself ... oh and abolishing any restrictions on business which might reduce his income.

(Trump the man of the (cough) people)

Remember back when pretty much everyone used to say they couldn't stand negative campaign ads??? Stands in pretty sharp contrast to a Presidential election season where it seems that the most frequent argument for voting one way or another is "because the other candidate is soooooo bad!" We may *say* that we hate negative campaigning, but we seen to be proving by our actions that we think it's effective.

to be fair, find me two candidates from the last 30 years or so more thoroughly reviled by the other party's base. This isn't strictly "negative campaigning works."

This is one candidate has been Public Enemy #1 (or possibly #2 adjusting for recency bias) for the GOP since, what, 1993? The other candidate delights in saying the most outrageous things just to piss off "the other side." He's the poster boy for "stigginit."

To the extent Mr. Trump has a negative profile in this race (ignoring what may have come before), it's entirely self-inflicted. Republicans have been trying to destroy Hillary Clinton with negative campaigning since her husband was in office. It hasn't worked for them yet, but they've shown no inclination to stop fucking that chicken.

Oh, it's always been effective. That's why campaigns use it, even though people say they don't like it. The only issue is going too far with negative campaigns; other than that, it works quite well.

http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/06/28/success/

I may never trust an internet quote again... :(

Give me negative campaigning over candidates trotting out their spouse and children in matching Nantucketwear for a fake smiley-happython any day.

That's probably a good idea as most internet quotes attributed to historical figures are fake.

Unrelated news: Terminator X is 50 today.

And 93% of statistics are made up.

Ugh, what's next? You're probably going to be trying to tell me that when George Bernard Shaw sent him two tickets to the opening night if his play with a note saying, ”Bring a friend, if you have one," Winston Churchill didn't fire back a response of, "You and your play can go fuck yourselves."

Trump says he'll lay out 'exact plan' on immigration soon - POLITICO

So 70-odd days to the election and you don't have an exact plan for your #1 issue yet?

It's gonna be terrific, he can tell you that. Well worth the wait.

Can someone paraphrase or post the article in the Washington Post "Blacks and Hispanics are doing great in polls for Donald Trump, in polls that don't exist" or a similar title? I've reached the stupid monthly limit for their website, so get sent to their subscription page any time I try to see an article there, and can't find it anywhere else. Thanks!

Oh I'm sure. Even better than build a wall.

Trump may not end up on the ballot in Minnesota.

Republican Party of Minnesota forgot to put Donald Trump on Minnesota ballot, scrambling to fix it | City Pages

Likely more proof of the election being rigged for $hillary or something.

He doesn't want to upstage the unveiling of the GOP plan to replace Obamacare.

heh

People used to claim to watch a lot of PBS too.

Both are bullshit, always have been.

I may speak a LOT about the Follies of Trump's Campaign (well, a lot of it is because there are a lot of follies to talk about), but I will give Kellyanne Conway tons of credit and respect for going into the "belly of the beast", so to speak, speaking to one of the most liberal hosts in America, and pretty much keeping it cordial and flowing the entire time.

Love to see the reverse happen, maybe we'd all realize that the people on the other side of these issues are human too.

Rachel Maddow’s fascinating duel with Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, annotated - The Washington Post

How is Hillary's different? She's long had a track record of being against illegal immigration, deporting children, and building walls.

Loved that interview, very impressed with Conway, reminds me a lot of Ken Mehlmen, who I loved-always on messages, always cool and calm and amazing at making the most critical charges seem boring. Trump might make this a whole lot closer if he keeps putting people like her in front of cameras, rather than the typical loons.

He at least did let Anderson Cooper know an update on the plans for the wall.

"People are not going to be able to tunnel because we’re gonna have tunnel technology.”

When is she unveiling her plan?

Well, I mean this was hard.

Immigration reform | Hillary for America

::rolls eyes:::

But googling just so HARD!!

Wow... a great speech yesterday by Clinton, where she laid down example after example after example of Trump saying racist things and supporting racist goals. It was a comprehensive takedown.

It seems clear that Clinton's strategy is going to be to keep punching--hard. Which is probably the right approach to take against a bully.

It has the added bonus of keeping the news about him and not about her.

It has the added, added bonus of giving the media something for clicks that isn't Trump's pivot.

Finally some evidence of that voter fraud Trump has been talking about that will rig the election.

Trump campaign chief Steve Bannon is registered voter at vacant Florida home | US news | The Guardian

Wonder what the odds are of getting campaign manger #4 soon.

... Oof. That's an unforced error.

Sopan Deb on Twitter: "Conway today on GMA: "Republican presidential nominees usually aren’t bold enough to go into communities of color." https://t.co/GDTbwzRlpE"

great throwaway buried line in that article about his ex-wife's house.

"a man of Latino appearance in his 20s was the only male ever seen there."

yeah and a domestic violence charge from 1996 as well. Real winner there Donald. Not surprised the media is digging stuff up on this guy.

Why could have imagined someone hired away from Breitbart could have a sketchy past. :confused:

She's bringing him to heel on racism!

I know!

John Oliver and his team of researchers are off for a month, coincidence ? ;)

I somehow get the impression that the power of the president to do good things on his own is kinda limited, while the power to screw things up by being a stubborn, incompetent person is more pronounced. Especially considering the likelihood of either candidate listening to their respective advisors that have the actual know-how on certain topics ...

HA! It really did seem like a Oliver style point-by-point deconstruction at times.

Well, that's no fun. I'm not going to click on that link anyway else I might start getting Hillary adverts.

The mere fact that we can spout off Trump's basic plan without googling it and not Hillary's is telling.

You mean the plan he hasn't released yet? In the past week, he has mentioned there could be a path to letting people stay, as well as saying there is no path to letting people stay.

All we really know is there will be tunnel technology.

Well, Trump does seem good at digging...

Maine governor: The 'enemy' is people of color | TheHill

This is what I'm talking about when I say electoral reform is necessary before we can have more than two major parties. Maine now has a racist governor who was able to win his first election with only 38% of the vote because Maine has no runoff system.

Well the two party system has given us two candidates that the majority of America doesn't want this year so the point is?

Trump is trying to play both sides with the word criminal. I hope he's pinned down on whether that means crimes beyond immigration status or simply immigration status.

Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump

Dwyane Wade's cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago. Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will VOTE TRUMP!
12:26 PM - 27 Aug 2016

Indeed and both times the independent was a left of center candidate. In most other states there would be a contested Democratic primary, but Maine has a history of these 3rd party runs. And sometimes they are successful, such as Senator Angus King... who, btw, caucuses with the Democrats.

I think he stopped trying to put multiple thoughts together to form a logical conclusion a very long time ago.

I'm not particularly a Johnson guy, but I thought this was clever and very funny.

Not too shabby. :)

That was awesome!