2016 United States Election

[tinwë]

Don't Order (the) Soup

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Dentures of Saruman

I think we have a winner.

[Alatar]

Draugluin offers Silmaril...

[Maria]

There's a very long list here:
http://www.abbreviations.com/serp.php?st=DOS&p=99999

I think I like Degradation of Service the best.

[Inanna]

Dentures of Saruman

I think we have a winner.

Agreed.

[Cenedril_Gildinaur]

DoD regs concerning classified material et al are not the same as DoS regs.

The federal laws that cover both DOD and DOS regulations are the same, even if the specific departmental regulations differ.

[axordil]

And evidently there's no case that can realistically be made that those laws were broken. Comey wasn't exactly a fan of the Clintons. It's clear from his tone he wishes there was a case. But there isn't. Anything else is moot.

[Túrin Turambar]

Trump has had a small surge in the polls. Nowhere near enough to put him in the lead, and Clinton is still in a commanding position. 538's model now no longer classifies Georgia and Arizona and battlegrounds, puts Trump in the lead in North Carolina, and has Pennsylvania and the Great Lakes states in play. But Clinton still has statistically-significant leads in Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Ohio. I wonder if this is from the server issue returning to the news, and how the polls will react to the likely selection of Indiana Gov. Pence as Trump's running mate or the Nice attacks. Of course, you can follow little bumps in the polls too closely.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

If things follow the usual pattern (always a question mark in this unusual election cycle), he will surge even more from his convention bump. But since this time the conventions are basically back to back, that should not last long, as it will be immediately followed by Clinton's convention bump.

The Ruth Bader Ginsberg feud was one of the weirdest things in this weird election cycle. She obviously was out of line in calling out Trump, as she herself belatedly realized, but the fact that she felt compelled to do so is pretty telling as to how threatening a potential Trump presidency is.

[yovargas]

Good on her for acknowledging it was a mistake.

[Primula Baggins]

Yes. But she got her assessment of Trump out there—which may have been the point, if she is concerned about him at that level. Get it said, then take the criticism.

[Faramond]

I think we are fortunate that most Supreme Court Justices don't feel compelled to comment on elections, no matter how strongly they feel about them. We are also fortunate that most of them don't take the expedient and ethically deficient course of "get it said and then take the criticism."

Ginsburg's comments tell us nothing about Trump's character. Only about her own.

[Primula Baggins]

I wasn't praising her, Faramond.

[axordil]

Anything that helps destroy the fantasy that SCOTUS is apolitical is ultimately a good thing.

[Inanna]

The bit that made me cringe were RBG's comments that went like this "Imagine if Scalia had been there".... I agree, but while reading it, I went "ouch".

[Cerin]

It wouldn't have occurred to me to interpret the incident as a calculated decision to 'get things out there'. It isn't as if she was providing secret information that wouldn't be known if she hadn't said what thousands of other people have already stated, and thousands more will state by November. I assumed she just forgot herself while answering questions.

I'm surprised reporters (or whoever it was) would ask her things it was inappropriate for her to comment on.

[Primula Baggins]

They do it all the time! Hoping for something indiscreet and therefore newsworthy. This time they got it.

[River]

It was out-of-character for her. I suspect she knew what she was doing and what the repercussions might be.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Ginsburg's comments tell us nothing about Trump's character. Only about her own.

The more I think about it, the more I agree with this. I have long admired Justice Ginsburg, and one error in judgment is not going to undo that, but I would lying if I said that it didn't lessen my opinion of her. Or that I am not concerned about the potential long-term ramifications of her action.

[Faramond]

For the record, I think Ginsburg's character is far better than Trump's character, in spite of these comments. And I don't think she should resign. I mean, people are way to quick to try to get people fired for one mistake. But the Supreme Court should be apolitical.

When there are election polls, the number everyone reports is the margin between Trump and Clinton. One poll has Clinton up by 12, I think. One has them tied. One has Trump up by 7! Most have Clinton up in the single digits.

But the number I'm interested in isn't the margin. It's the percentage who aren't naming either candidate. That's the number I want to see rise. That's the number that give me hope. It's routinely in the low teens, the twenties, even getting up to almost 30 in some polls. A vote for a third party isn't really a vote for Clinton, or a vote for Trump. It's a vote for something we think is better.