Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Well, Bed-Stuy would be fun to watch because there's be all the rotten vegetables getting tossed. But out on the Island, said person would just quietly disappear.

Re: Hilary had nothing to do with UBS
 

Do you choose to starve instead? Do you say "I don't like Wendy's or McDonald's, and the place I really want to have lunch to day is that little place in Paris I went to once that was excellent, so I will vote to have lunch at the Paris place, even though I cannot realistically get there today"?

Re: Arise, ye workers from your slumber.
 

You should write her in. After all, she's the ideal candidate for you. Not like that would be a protest vote or anything

Re: Arise, ye workers from your slumber.
 

I apologize for overstating the thought that had gone into Bernie's "plan". I should have recognized that when people think they've found the Messiah, they tend to stop asking about the details.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

depends on the neighborhood. just as likely to have bearded hipsters quietly making snide comments to each other about him, for a few minutes, then leaving.

Re: MONEY IS BAD, SEND IT TO ME
 

Sidd. Remember your blood pressure. Calm Down.

It's just another preacher infomercial on a loop. Turn the channel. It will run its course.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

I get that Trump doesn't play the game well, and that we lawyers especially should hold that against him. But when Trump underperforms in the delegate count relative to his popular support with GOP primary voters, don't you think it's going to be a problem for the party too?

Re: Hilary had nothing to do with UBS
 

Me too. And sometimes I also want a pony.

eta: Not to eat, though.

I hear that, and likewise try to avoid putting myself in a position where I have to choose one or the other or starve. Sometimes that takes some work.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

But I think, if anything, he has overperformed in delegate count relative to his support with voters. Does he not have a higher percentage of delegates awarded (at least on the first ballot) than he has won of the popular vote? He generally had an advantage in a crowded field that has now narrowed significantly. He has yet to win a majority in a single state, and is only polling 52% in his home state, when his main competition famously insulted it, and his other competition hasn't won a single delegate since Rubio dropped out weeks ago.

Re: Hilary had nothing to do with UBS
 

And when you are in a restaurant that has only chicken and beef on the menu, do you order the fish? Because, you know, you shouldn't be limited to choosing only what is actually there....

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

They all over performed in the delegate count relative to their support with voters, because there were other candidates in the race who have fallen out. Not that you're wrong, but I don't think it goes to the point I was trying to make.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

I see your point, but it is pretty much entirely the fault of "I hire the best people" Donald Trump. I think that the Cruz campaign is playing by the rules in a much more honorable way than Trump surrogates who suggest the violent intimidation of delegates in Cleveland to get their way. And I think that, generally speaking, the rules on the R side are much more fair.

On the Dem side, for example, Bernie won Wyoming with 56% of the vote. But because of the way the delegates are allocated and super delegates, Bernie and Hillary ended up with a 7-7 split on the proportional delegates. And Hillary had already picked up the 4 super delegates. So Bernie won 56% and came in second in the state by 4 delegates. That is an entirely different problem than we have on the R side, and is a lot more contrary to the will of the voters, is it not?


Oh and for the weekend update, Trump is getting his ass handed to him in the selection of the bound delegates in North Carolina. Cruz swept CO and Indiana and went 11 for 12 in Iowa. And quite humorously in CO, where there were several hundred people running to be delegates and they were identified by number only on the ballot, Trump's "best people" put 5 of 13 wrong numbers, and included unpledged delegates and a Cruz supporter on its voter recommendations. The alternate slate also included numbers of Cruz supporters. Then the campaign put out an updated slate, but still included the Cruz supporter on it. Only a real crack campaign apparatus tells people to vote for the other guys in multiple states. It's not the rules that are the problem. The problem is the Trump campaign. To his credit, he did shut out Cruz delegates in Michigan over the weekend from the important rules committees, because the Kasich delegates who said they would vote with the Cruz people turned. Further evidence that Kasich remains only to do Trump's bidding.

As I was saying last week regarding NY and how a lot of Trump supporters won't be able to vote for him... it came out this weekend that Ivanka and Eric Trump can't vote for their father because they didn't change their voter registration by last October. Oops.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

But that's wrong. The super delegates can change their mind and vote Bernie if they want, which is what many did last time around when it became clear that the voters preferred Obama.

All the focus on super delegates is weird. They aren't going to matter.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

They can change their mind. Or they can tip the scale and give the nomination to the loser in popular votes - by design.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

I don't get the complaints about superdelegates in caucus states. Bernie won Alaska with a grand total of 440 votes. He got 156 votes in Wyoming. These are tiny, tiny caucuses. There will be many superdelegates elected to the DNC or other offices with more votes than that.

It's one thing to complain about this in NY, where millions of people vote. I understand that, and if I were writing the rules, I'd look at either binding superdelegates in such states on the first ballot or just eliminating or lessening them. But then, if I were writing the rules, we'd eliminate caucuses.

Today's Morning Briefing from the Times
 

"An international conference on money laundering and financial crimes begins today in Florida, at a time when the topics are under intense scrutiny thanks to the Panama Papers.

There is also renewed attention on big bills.

Lawrence H. Summers, the former Treasury secretary, has been pushing for a global agreement to stop issuing high-denomination notes, and the European Central Bank is considering eliminating the 500-euro note.

The idea is to make it harder for corrupt politicians, drug cartels, tax evaders and terrorists to make large cash transactions that don’t generate electronic records.

Few of us use the $100 bill, and hardly any Europeans come across the 500-euro note on a regular basis.

But lawbreakers would much rather carry a five-pound stack of 500-euro notes, worth $1 million, than a 110-pound pile of $20 bills worth the same amount. (We don’t have that kind of money, but these researchers weighed the bills.)

The U.S. stopped issuing $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills in 1969.

While the notes remain legal tender, any still floating around are most likely fakes."

Summers (just for Sebby): https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...it_nn_20160411

500 Euro Note: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/16/bu...=74468950&_r=1

Here's the paper Summers references: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/m...it_nn_20160411

TM

Re: Today's Morning Briefing from the Times
 

You are the matador, Sebby is the bull, this post is the red towel. Cue the mayhem, and tell Hank to get his clown suit on.

Re: Hilary had nothing to do with UBS
 

I'm kind of sick of this conversation. But that is a terrible analogy given the fact that your choices won't be a pick between Wendy's or McDonalds vs Shit Sandwich Express for the next 4 years.

TM

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Right, they are there to protect the party - during the party's candidate selection process - from a candidate like Trump. Or arguably one like Bernie, who only joined for this race.

But the Dem process, in which all states award pledged delegates proportionately, is far less susceptible to nominating someone who lost the overall popular vote than one that features winner take all delegate allotments.

And yet there's all this discussion about how super delegates could do a thing that they've never done and are in little danger of "having" to do and likely would not do even if they "had" to.

Ironically, if the Dem primaries were winner take all, Bernie would not even be close enough to be complaining about super delegates.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

I agree - the super-delegates are a potentially Not Democratic element to the Democratic Party's presidential nomination process. I think that there are problems with both parties' systems, but I am Not Sure that there are any "perfect" (as defined by who or what, exactly?) solutions. I suspect that there will be some tinkering by both parties after the election.

And I agree with the point you made earlier about Cruz's team knowing the rules and maximizing delegates based upon them knowing the different rules in each state. Even pros who hate him and his politics have expressed admiration for his campaign staff who've maximized his chances to get the nomination by working the rules.

And there's absolutely nothing wrong with it - Obama's team did the same thing in 2008 in places like (I think) Nevada because Mark "Genius" Penn didn't bother to learn the rules because his "shock and awe" strategy lock the nomination up for HRC instantly.

ETA: McGovern did the same thing to HHH in 1972, and Reagan did it to GHWB in 1980.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Re: Today's Morning Briefing from the Times
 

You want it to be one way, you want it to be one way, you want it to be one way, but it's the other way.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

We lawyers appreciate the way that knowing how to play the process can give you a tactical advantage, and in a race where no one is the clear winner, a tactical advantage may be enough. But most people think that the person who gets the most votes should be the winner, and are apt to see a process that rewards clever tactics as inherently flawed. Trump is running against, in part, government institutions that reward and advantage those who know who to play the inside game, and if the GOP finds a way to exploit process to make someone else the nominee, his voters are going to be royally pissed. As a Democrat, I take some delight in that, but there you go. You are right that the primary process has similar flaws on the Democratic side, but this time around they seem to be somewhat less material, even if Susan Sarandon feels otherwise.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

But the basic rule is clear. It takes a majority of the delegates to win on the first ballot. Period. Empirically, Donald Trump has received a larger delegate premium (number of delegates relative to the % of the popular vote) than has Cruz. Nothing that Cruz is doing will matter if Trump wins on the first ballot, the vast majority of delegates Cruz is "winning" lately are bound to vote for Trump on one or more ballots. You can't receive 37% of the vote and then act as if it is unfair that you are not being treated as the winner of a majority. I understand that if the rules said the plurality vote gets the win, that he would have a valid complaint, but the rules have never said that. But his problems are not all due to the superior Cruz organization -- Trump's problems in Indiana are due to a form of wholly organic #NeverTrumpism. The problem for Trump, is he has had a recent stretch of missteps and gaffes, and on top of it has been losing. A lot. Perhaps his campaign would be doing better if he put less effort into whining and more into winning.

I agree it's kind of sucky the CO GOP didn't have a primary or preference straw poll, but that was known last summer. And Trump declined to appear at the CO convention in order to spend more time in NY. You don't see Kasich bitching about it.

ETA: Trump supporters released the home address and phone number of the Chair of the CO GOP, who has now received thousands of threats of bodily injury and death, among other things. And yet it is the Trump campaign who accuses Cruz of Gestapo tactics. Because, as you well know, the Gestapo was infamous for its uncanny knowledge of GOP delegate election rules.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

You, and other Republicans, seem rather put out that Trump is a whiny obstructionist.

I'm just going to let that comment sit there.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

I don't see how he's obstructionist. He has every right to do what he's doing (except for the part where he accuses Cruz of coordinating with his Super Pac or intimidating or bribing delegates with no evidence). He's just whiny.

And elections have consequences. So perhaps Trump should try winning some.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Lovely. The primaries will remain interesting through the convention, and probably beyond.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Whoa. So do revolutions. I'm a little behind on the Daily Dose because of a busy work and social schedule. Sunday night, I checked out rap enigma Jay Electronica (who is known by some as the man who broke up the Kate Rothschild and Ben Goldsmith super-marriage). In his classic Exhibit C, he references this gem, Gil Scott-Heron's ruminations on revolution, which is yesterday's belated Daily Dose:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnJFhuOWgXg

Re: Today's Morning Briefing from the Times
 

Nope. I'm done with this.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Trump and Bernie are running against opponents and their own parties. I'd say they have a right to complain about that.

But you're right -- Trump needs to stop whining about Cruz out-gaming him. What Cruz did in CO was fair under the rules. I don't like it. No one likes that sort of thing. But Trump's a big kid, and he uses rules (bankruptcy, often) to screw other people all the time. And it's not like Cruz isn't exactly the kind of opponent you need to watch like a hawk. The guy's such a despicable, universally loathed piece of garbage, he knows he can't win on straight votes. He's got to try to win with gamesmanship. And he's a lawyer - a brilliant, pathologically ambitious, incredibly devious lawyer.

Donald wasn't watching the shop. When you don't watch the shop, people rob it.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Seventy percent of Bernie's followers said they will not support HRC in a recent poll. Imagine the percentage of Trump supporters who'll refuse to get behind anyone else. 80-90%?

Re: Is Ted Cruz or Donald Trump Satan? Discuss.
 

Yeah, but a large percent of those Bernie supporters will change their mind.

Re: Today's Morning Briefing from the Times
 

Not really a challenge. Just some information you might find interesting.

TM

Re: Is Ted Cruz or Donald Trump Satan? Discuss.
 

And the only people answering those polls are the most ardent Bernie supporters. Everyone else isn't trying to waste their time with those fucking things.

TM

Re: Is Ted Cruz or Donald Trump Satan? Discuss.
 

Word. Every minute you spend taking a poll is a minute less you spend living. Last night was night two in a rare 2-shows-in-2-nights run for me. French producer and musician St. Germain. If you you think his ambient house sound is dated, I urge you to see him live. For his eponymous album last year (the first in something like 12 years), he recruited a bunch of African musicians to do a Mali-influenced sound. I think the album is pretty good, but live, his show is fucking great. His band is from all over (I caught Mali, Senegal, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and there were many other countries represented). And they are TIGHT. Anyway, it got me thinking about the cross-pollination between U.S. funk and African sounds in the 70s. James Brown was informing Fela's music and vice versa, and all over Africa (and especially in Nigeria), an American-sounding funk scene was blossoming. Fortunately, a lot of it has been captured and released (or re-released) in various compilation albums. This one is from a band called the Sahara All Stars of Jos, and is called "Take Your Soul." Your Africa-inspired Daily Dose of Funk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt1w...&nohtml5=False

Re: Is Ted Cruz or Donald Trump Satan? Discuss.
 

Have I mentioned how much I enjoy this Daily Dose of Funk mission you have undertaken? "Musical Education Flower" is one of my favorite versions of the 32 flavors (and then some) that is The Pretty Little Flower.

Would it be cliched old white guy of me to mention that "Graceland" was my first experience in knowing that an American album included and had been influenced by the music of African Africans (as opposed to African Americans, a fact that even I was aware of)?

Probably, but this just goes to show you what you are dealing with. Anyway, thanks!

Re: Is Ted Cruz or Donald Trump Satan? Discuss.
 

You have mentioned it, but thanks. Graceland was 1986? I don't think I was listening to much if any African music at the time, and I was certainly introduced to Ladysmith Black Mambazo by that album. So no shame there as far as I am concerned.

Re: Is Ted Cruz or Donald Trump Satan? Discuss.
 

Yes, 1986. And it was a bit controversial because he recorded it in Johannesburg in violation of the cultural boycott* of apartheid-era South Africa that was in effect at the time. But for a good reason, perhaps? I don't know.

*See e.g. "I ain't gonna play Sun City!"

Re: Is Ted Cruz or Donald Trump Satan? Discuss.
 

To be fair, those people are justifiably angry that their candidate has had this election stolen from him by all those people voting against him.

Re: Is Ted Cruz or Donald Trump Satan? Discuss.
 

In your Eyes by Gabriel with Youssou N'Dour was also 1986.