US Politics Mega-thread - Page 5356

For Florida residents who think they can ride out Hurricane Matthew, Gov. Rick Scott has just three words:

"Evacuate, evacuate, evacuate."

"There are no excuses. You need to leave," he said on Thursday morning. "This storm will kill you. Time is running out."

Along the coast in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, millions of residents have been urged to head inland as the powerful hurricane makes its approach.

The storm is strengthening as it batters the Bahamas and moves toward Florida, the National Hurricane Center says. As of Thursday morning, it was a Category 3, but is expected to intensify back into a Category 4 as it nears the Florida coast late Thursday and early Friday, the agency forecasts.

At least 16 people have died as the storm tore through Haiti, Cuba and now the Bahamas, though some news reports say the death toll reaches into the dozens.

In Florida, more than 3,000 people were already in shelters as of Thursday morning, The Associated Press says. More than 1.5 million people in the state have been "urged or ordered to leave the coast," the wire service wrote.

Hospitals and a nursing home near Daytona Beach are transferring patients and residents to facilities further inland, the AP says.

Not everyone is retreating from the coast: One resident of Cape Canaveral told the AP he plans to ride out the storm in his RV less than a mile from the shore. "The hype is going to be worse than the actual storm. I feel I can do quite well," he said.

Scott exhorted any Floridians thinking similarly to change their minds immediately. "If you're reluctant to evacuate just think of all the people this storm has already killed," he said. "You and your family can be among these numbers if you don't take this seriously. "

He warned of winds between 100 and 150 mph, capable of taking down even well-built houses. "No one should take any chances," he said.

In Georgia, where the coastline is relatively short, Gov. Nathan Deal is urging more than 500,000 people to evacuate — the first time the state's coast has been evacuated in 17 years, the AP reports.

On October 06 2016 17:10 iPlaY.NettleS wrote:

Like bombing Libya?
The irony here being that Obama has issued more executive orders than all previous presidents combined.

Donald Trump on Wednesday chalked up his long history of making insulting comments about women to “entertainment.”

"A lot of that was done for the purpose of entertainment,” the Republican nominee told Las Vegas’ KSNV-TV. “I can tell you this: There is nobody — nobody — that has more respect for women than I do.”

Asked about his habit of rating women on a scale from 1-10 and criticizing their bodies, Trump attributed his comments to his public persona as host of NBC’s “Apprentice.”

“You know, you’re in the entertainment business. You’re doing ‘The Apprentice.’ You have one of the top shows on television. And you say things differently for a reason,” Trump said.

Though he assured KSNV reporter Jim Snyder that it would be “easy” for him to tone down those remarks, the real estate mogul’s gendered criticisms have endured long into his presidential campaign.

During the 2016 race, Trump has hinted that Fox News host Megyn Kelly treated him unfriendly because there was “blood coming out of her wherever,” called Kelly a bimbo, and mocked the appearance of Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) wife.

As recently as last week, Trump went on a tear against former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, who he previously called “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping” for gaining “a massive amount of weight” after winning her title. He also targeted Hillary Clinton for her husband’s extramarital affairs.

Trump’s suggestion that he only made derogatory comments about women to bolster his public image as a billionaire playboy also contradict a slew of recent news reports about how he treated women in private.

In an Associated Press investigation out this week, over 20 people who worked on “The Apprentice” described Trump’s inappropriate behind-the-scenes behavior, which included making lewd comments about a camerawoman who he said reminded him of his eldest daughter, frequently remarking on staffers' bodies, and requesting that one contestant twirl before him so he could look at her figure.

On October 07 2016 01:31 Yoav wrote:


How is that ironic? Dubya and Obama both massively expanded executive power in ways that make Donald Trump way more of a threat (and, incidentally, HRC too, but more in the area of "the president gets caught doing something unethical" scale than the "Poland ceases to exist" scale). My major problem with the two last presidents has been that they valued their ends so far above the importance of the institutions of democracy that they spent political capital making themselves personally powerful rather than fighting for reforms of the system to make Congress functional. As a result, we are left with an unreformed Congress and an imperial presidency, which leaves you with the worst of both worlds. Goals, no matter how noble, that are pursued to the detriment of the political system, are pursued wrongly.

On October 07 2016 02:01 Gorsameth wrote:

How do you fight for congressional reforms when congress is in the hands of a party who will never ever work with you?

Seriously. How?

On October 07 2016 02:03 Gorsameth wrote:

"I make fun of women because it gives everyone a good laugh".

And his voting share amongst women fell another X points...

On October 07 2016 02:42 LegalLord wrote:
So given that pretty much no one is talking about the VP debate, neither here nor anywhere else, I am led to believe that it simply is going to be confined to the deepest depths of irrelevance.

I know people generally say VP debates don't matter, and they usually don't, but I'm not sure that it's true in all generality. The consensus for Biden-Ryan seems to be that it blunted the momentum of the Romney campaign after the first debate.

On October 07 2016 02:42 LegalLord wrote:
So given that pretty much no one is talking about the VP debate, neither here nor anywhere else, I am led to believe that it simply is going to be confined to the deepest depths of irrelevance.

I know people generally say VP debates don't matter, and they usually don't, but I'm not sure that it's true in all generality. The consensus for Biden-Ryan seems to be that it blunted the momentum of the Romney campaign after the first debate.

On October 07 2016 02:42 LegalLord wrote:
So given that pretty much no one is talking about the VP debate, neither here nor anywhere else, I am led to believe that it simply is going to be confined to the deepest depths of irrelevance.

I know people generally say VP debates don't matter, and they usually don't, but I'm not sure that it's true in all generality. The consensus for Biden-Ryan seems to be that it blunted the momentum of the Romney campaign after the first debate.

On October 07 2016 03:02 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:


Plus all those Republicans who deny climate change...