Juliajms

I like Bernie, but that is crazy. The way I see it the next president is mostly going to be playing defense anyway. Congress is completely hostile. I'm just hoping we can stop the Republicans from completely obliterating women's rights and trampling on the poor. That's why I'm not too fired up about which democrat wins. HRC and Bernie voted the same 94% of the time when they were in congress anyhow. If anything I'm hoping Bernie won't hang on too long when it becomes clear he won't win. HRC needs to save her money for the general election. People have been telling me since last fall he isn't a threat, yet here we are.

I take it Bush leaving the race mostly helps Rubio? I'll admit I felt a little bit sorry for Jeb through this. I thought he had a good chance when this whole thing started, which goes to show how out of touch I was with the average Republican. Is this really the party the GOP elite created? I'm not so sure. If it were wouldn't they be flocking to Rubio? If it is, I'd say Frankenstein has lost control of his monster and the villagers are f*cked. Here is a good piece on Trump by Ezra Klein. I think he makes some great points. http://www.vox.com/2016/2/10/10956978/donald-trump-terrifying

I agree this is terrible, but I don't think Sanders has said anything to encourage or condone this type of behavior. In that sense the candidate himself is different from Trump, even if he has also acquired some racist and sexist followers.

No need to worry Carl. Donald Trump is kicking ass and taking names. I'm so horrified by this turn of events. It's not even that I think he could truly win the white house. I'm just completely disturbed that so many people are voting for someone who outright said he would ban a particular religion. The very people who are constantly quoting the constitution when it comes to their gun rights. Add all the other horrifying things he's said and this is an incredibly disappointing result.

This cartoon made me laugh, especially the pope holding up the cross like he's confronting Satan. http://www.politico.com/gallery/2016/02/matt-wuerker-political-cartoons-february-2016-002194?slide=0

Yeah, that was a bad one for Sanders. Both these camps are having some trouble with their "surrogates". I like it better when they aren't attacking each other. Let the Republicans continue to destroy each other while looking completely unhinged, while Clinton and Sanders stay civil.

I enjoyed President Obama's press conference today. He really went in on the Republicans for being science deniers. Saying the American people are too sensible to elect Trump. Then pointing out that Rubio put forward an immigration bill and is now running away from it as fast as he can. If only he had named Rubio directly it would have been even better.

I think the first time Michonne held Judith is the most beautiful scene of the show. DG told us everything we needed to know about Michonne's backstory with the way she acted that scene. It was perfect.

I agree with you that there was a lot of material there and they could have slowed things down. In the beginning people were having a hard time keeping all of the characters straight, so maybe they didn't want to make the show even more dense, idk. As it turns out a lot of people are pretty obsessed with the show and they probably could have done more. I just wonder if they are going to get the cast to sign for season 8. So many of the actors are British and they are notorious for leaving popular shows for the sake of art.

I avoid info about the comics at all cost, but Jessica never felt like a true road block for Rick and Michonne. She felt temporary from jump. I also never felt Rick loved Jessica. Overall, I don't ship much on this show either, but I think eventually Rick will figure out that Michonne is supposed to be part of his family. It's just a natural fit. One thing that's unrealistic about this show is the lack of hook ups. People in this situation would be having a lot more casual sex. That's one reason I thought Shane and Andrea made sense. There would also be a lot more sexual assault going on when people get captured by the bad guys. I'm thankful they've spared us that, but it would definitely be a thing if society broke down. I guess they touched on it with Maggie and the governor.

Maybe BC is hoping to be VP or maybe it's just his ego.

I felt bad for Sam. He was just a scared little boy. Once Jessica saw him die horrifically it was a mercy she went too. A mercy for many viewers as well, I won't deny. They faked me out with Glen. I thought they were gave him back only to have him die right in front of Maggie. I'm glad that didn't happen. I like the doctor, I'm glad she managed to survive. Glad to see she's also getting stronger in terms of treating patients. I can't believe Rick trusted Gabriel with Judith. I must have missed what he did up to that point to earn that kind of second chance. In the end he did earn it I suppose.

They lost me when Cruz accused Rubio of going on Univision and saying in Spanish (!!) that he wouldn't fight President Obama's immigration bill. It was completely ridiculous. They were calling each other out on any compromise they ever made on the subject and it was completely disingenuous.

This Republican debate is truly surreal. I'm watching two Latinos argue about who hates immigrants more. "I do!" "No, I do". I'm not particularly liberal on immigration, but this is ugly. This was truly a race to the bottom exchange by pretty much everyone except Jeb.

The Republican establishment packed the group at the GOP debate. I'm not sure if I should be grateful or annoyed at more dirty tricks and rigging by the elite. http://www.vox.com/2016/2/13/10987776/republican-debate-audience-booing

I don't disagree that the structure of our system is rigged, but people who don't vote just make that even more of a guarantee. I also think that most of the people in power who are hard right on social issues are at this point the worst out there on economic issues, and are also heavily racist, so while social issues aren't a monolith, they are a smokescreen. For instance, Republicans in states like Kansas who campaigned in large part on "family values" have spent years ardently working to stop minority voters from being able to go to the polls and also spent years wasting money on garbage like drug tests for welfare. I think in a great many cases they are not at all a smokescreen. I find educated liberals vastly underestimate the influence of religion on this society. There are a ton of people out there who truly believe life begins at conception and that's how Jesus wants it. If you hold that belief of course it's going to be a litmus test, how could it not be? On top of all that he entire state of Kansas is basically owned by the Koch brothers and is quickly going to hell in a hand basket thanks to that fact. There are also a ton of poor working class white people who resent welfare. Scared to death that a neighbor one wrung lower on the economic ladder will get something for free. Obviously, they should be worried about corporate welfare and the billionaires not paying their fair share, but they don't see that. They see poor kids getting the proverbial skittles and resent it. That's suck a backwards ingrained mentality that I don't know how anyone can break through it, tbh.

I don't blame people for being cynical about politics. There are a lot of people in this country just struggling to make it through the day. I remember the summer during college I worked in a grocery store. Every day my feet hurt so much I sure as hell wasn't spending much time worrying about politics and I didn't even have kids to take care of. I think a lot of people forget how hard he daily grind can be if you are doing a blue collar job. Also, yes it makes a difference who is elected, but we've had a democrat in the white house for the last 8 years and economic inequity is at an all time high, so if people think the very structure of our system is rigged, I'd say they have a point. I think it matters more in terms of social issues than in economics and poor people are not monolithic in terms of social issues. I often hear people say "why don't these people vote their interests?" They do, it's just that they have interests other than economics. This is still a deeply religious country no matter how much that frustrates some of us (myself included).

I'm sure Obama will try to shame the Republicans into letting his nominee come to a vote, but these are a bunch of shameless zealots who are going to use every possible tactic to delay. This really makes my blood boil. I hope every reasonable citizen will contact their members of congress and demand that they do their damn jobs.

In a completely non personal way, I'm pleased that Scalia's days on the court are over. Sorry for his family, of course.

Closer to "mooslim" is correct. You'll hear it now that you know. I didn't know for the longest time and I don't think you have to know if you are the average person. You can't know everything about everything. If you are the president (or want to be) and we are at war in the middle east you should get it right, imo.

Interesting. Yikes, all of a sudden I feel old. I'm used to people in those types of positions being older than me, usually by a lot. I see he's from Texas.

Speaking of vice presidents in the unlikely event Sander's won, I could see HRC as his VP, but I can't imagine vice versa. They seem to get along so well it almost seems like the natural solution, but I'm sure she's going to want to go more to the center. My guess is she'll go for a white Christian male. I haven't seen much talk of VP choices on the talk shows, but I'm interested to see who makes the short list.

I like that HRC pronounces "Muslim" correctly. It's a small thing, but in these times it's nice to see. I definitely agree with the pundits who say she's stronger on foreign policy, although given her resume it would be sad if she weren't.

Doesn't that mean she basically got the actor playing T-Dog fired?

At least Sanders has come out and disavowed his sexist followers. Hillary was up on stage with her cronies telling women that there's a special place in hell for them if they don't fall in line. Not sure how it gets more condescending than that. Sanders can't control a few dozen online nutters, nor is he responsible for them, but Hillary can control the message on her own stage. Too bad she was smiling, clapping and agreeing. I won't really let it turn me against HRC, when the threat of Trump and Cruz looms, but it was a ridiculous blunder.