"When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him."
-Jonathan Swift

I just have to say: Hillary, wtf happened today?

I saw something online that said she had been diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday. Did you see the video of her trying to get into her car? She nearly passed out, had to have a couple of people almost carry her.

When that van appeared, replacing a large SUV, the Trump people on the Internet made a big deal about "Hillary's handicap van" and how she would no longer be video taped climbing up a step to get into her vehicle. The general response was that they were the tin foil hat brigade. The most noteworthy aspect of the video is how the detail swiftly moved to block the view after she fell to prevent further video taping. When the person being protected collapses like that and the security personnel's first response is to wall off the media's view, it makes me think that her physically collapsing is not shocking to those who around her on a day to day basis.

Honestly, she and the entire media claiming it was because of the "heat" is simply incredible and I don't understand why there exist people who buy into this. And there's her feet being dragged along, unable to move on her own. Stress of the campaigning (honestly non-existent compared to Trump) taking a visible toll perhaps?

In 2008 McCain, when it was claimed he was too old and frail, released hundreds of pages of medical files. Hillary has released almost nothing and Trump, nothing at all. He'd be the oldest person to ever take the presidency and Hillary, the 3rd oldest.

She probably left the 9/11 service early because she was "dehydrated" and "overheated". I can't believe it. Wtf Hillary!

The campaign only stuck to that story for about 90 minutes, then when they knew that the video had surfaced, the story changed. Try to keep up.

Hilary was possessed by the spirit of a deceased rodent...aint that right gopher..

At least she has 1/2 a brain which is double trumps.

her speech declaring the demographics of trump supports as all sorts of phobic was spot on . WITH ONE EXCEPTION...the vast majority are simply sick and tired of the lies and spin and double speak of modern politicians. If she had said that and said she is listening then all the disenfranchised disillusioned voters may actually start to be heard.

Gopher as to the security blocking the " view" if a politician goes down that is kinda their job. IE a gunshot sound would occur after the person went down so its a trained response to block all views and cover the politician if they go down no matter whom they are ,

I've witness politicians trip before. I do not remember the detail behaving as Hillary's did in any previous individual case. During this cycle, we have seen the security swarm Hillary before in public and we have seen them swarm Trump. In neither incident did they block media view as they did on Sunday.

Smokey Gun said "her speech declaring the demographics of trump supports as all sorts of phobic was spot on . WITH ONE EXCEPTION...the vast majority are simply sick and tired of the lies and spin and double speak of modern politicians. If she had said that and said she is listening then all the disenfranchised disillusioned voters may actually start to be heard."

So we are all bigots I guess? My support for a candidate has nothing to do with the identity politics the left plays. As a business owner, my income depends on other small businesses I can sell my services to. Under Obama, the small business closure rate is higher than the small business opening rate. Essentially, big business got bigger and small business got smaller. That trend will certainly continue under Hilz.

My support for DJT is partly my belief that he will be good for middle-class america, which is basically the engine of the country's economy. The other part is of my support is exactly what you said - tired of BS politicians who say anything and do nothing. Hillz would be more of the same...at least Trump has the potential to be different. I don't expect it, but can be more optimistic for a changing of the guard under a Trump presidency vs another 4 years of Clinton/Obama team in power.

How many times has Trump declared Chapter 11? And you think he's going to be good for businesses? And if you think Trump isn't lying, or spinning, or double speaking then I've got a bridge I'd like to sell you.

Having a business declare bankruptcy isn't personally declaring it. And many of the Trump bankruptcies were after he sold off conot rolling intrrest. That said, he is basically a corporate raider (a legal pirate) and is deserving of scorn for that.

His businesses have a 98% success rate. He's created over 500 hundred business, with 10-11 that failed, four of which went through Chapter 11 bankruptcy (reorganization). While both Chapter 11 and Chapter 13 procedures involve obtaining legal protection from creditors, it's important to distinguish that Chapter 11 involves structuring a reorganization of the business so that some (case by case determination) of the debts will be paid off according to the schedule . Chapter 13 is the belly up, walk away method. Additionally Chapter 11 is almost frequently mandatory a precusor to Chapter 13 cases. It is unclear who many of the four Trump owned businesses bankruptcy cases went to Chapter 13, but all four of them entered Chapter 11, and made attempts to pay off creditors in accordance with the law.

At the end of the day Trump's four business (not personal) bankruptcies only further demonstrate his business acumen and understanding of both the law and the economic landscape. His companies took advantage of legal protections, as any business would. It seems that a majority of people who think this is a negative fail to understand the very nature of corporate law and the economic vernacular of the modern day. Trump understood that the laws apply to everyone, rich, middle class, and poor (his opponent clearly cannot say the same thing). These people also struggle with elementary school mathematics. It must be that dividing 11 by 515 is too complex for them. The failure result is 2% rounded to the nearest whole number, leaving 98% of the ventures successful. To those who still think that Trump's four corporate bankruptcies makes him a failure please enlighten us to the economic successes of the Affordable Care Act, the City of Detroit, Castro's Cuba, or that charming tropical paradise in Venezuela. For those are the alternatives to Trump now. They will bring us massive overpowered government of socialism, which has proven over and over again does not work.

Well said. As I stated earlier soewher ein this thread, I don't believe he will be the great leader he is claiming he will be. I do believe he will be much better than the alternative.

As for his economic stances - he's pretty spot on. This country is not in good shape. Economy is very sluggish only being held in check by historically low interest rates. At least he is talking about trying to fix it. According to Hillary/Dems everything is Rosie gold and running smoothly, which it isn't...at least in my personal experience in my line of work, which should outweigh anything a politician claims to grab your vote.

Reducing the corporate tax rate alone would be of a great benefit to the economy.

"Better than the alternative" is the only rational reason to vote for either of them, in my oh so humble opinion.

First off, to the Hillary people bringing up bankruptcies, the appropriate response is "Whitewater". Cue endless loop video of Bill joking about their supposed almost comic lack of business acumen during his various deflections. You don't get to have it both ways.

To the Trump people, Trump's small handful of businesses that have cycled in and out of bankruptcy are actually his biggest and most important individual businesses. I actually sat down and read The Art of the Deal last year and he brags extensively about how skilled he was at running gambling and hotel businesses prior to them all failing.

The one comment that I will add is that I find it terribly interesting that Wilbur Ross, who was Trump's main antagonist in most of his bankruptcy legal proceedings has been an early and vocal supporter of Trump for President. Carl Icahn has also wrestled with The Donald in bankruptcy court and has been a major supporter of Trump for Presidents. So it would seem that while his bankruptcies were real and significant, the very men who had to wrestle with The Donald in the mud over the relevant commercial debts are essentially his biggest supporters as a candidate. Make of that what you will.

For those who are all "Trump can't run a casino", read the following article and learn a thing or two about the failure of Atlantic city's casinos (not all were Trump's and he sold his last 10% off to Icahn before it declared bankruptcy.


http://philly.curbed.com/2016/8/4/12376514/trump-taj-mahal-closed-atlantic-city-casinos

In short, Atlantic City has it's own issues that are not Trump's fault.

So...

Well then.
As someone currently living on the other side of the globe,
I am really enjoying the show of an IQ test the US are putting up...

Popcorn and machine guns ready

Indeed, those percentages are... Impressive!

And it is (semi)official. The AP has called it and Hillary called him to concede.

@gopher - based on trade policy alone, time to emigrate?

Truth and Amby, I hear that the rest of the map is buying 10,000 units+ of American Deplorables.

So a member of my social circle emailed me to admit that he has been maintaining an Excel sheet of every "testable hypothesis" he has me positing in writing in obvious preparation for a comprehensive "I told you so". He informs me that nearly every prediction I have made since February has been validated.

I will make the observation that had the media done a remotely professional job (had the predictions that they publicized accurately represented the actual landscape) Trump would have carried Minnesota, the one state Reagan lost. The protest candidates on the Right (Johnson and McMullin) rang up a vote total more than three times Hillary's statewide margin....both massively outperformed their national averages because suburban Republicans had allowed the media to convince them that Minnesota was uncompetitive. The mass of frat boys at my polling station yesterday morning claimed to be all voting for McMullin. Last night, Hillary had only a 6% lead with all of Hennipen County and Ramsey County in and before Dakota and Scott Counties had had even a single precinct report and the other big suburban counties only half in. But for unusually high votes for Johnson and McMullin from the Red counties, Trump well could have carried Minnesota. That is a sign of a national landslide.

@Amby....I'd be happy to discuss Trade Policy at some length, but the field of academic professionals cannot reasonable assert to "know" that Trump's analysis is wrong. Even Paul Krugman made that comment back in the Spring. Modesty however is not a common characteristic among policy oriented macroeconomists.

"I will make the observation that had the media done a remotely professional job"

I suppose that depends on what you consider their job to be, gopher. I'm not trying to be a smart ass here because I understand your point, but it seems clear to me that journalism is all but dead. The media is a collection of politically motivated operatives, barely even attempting to cloak their bias. What we sawlast night was that the media has been as out of touch with the American people as the political establishment has been. Will those lessons be learned? Doubtful I think. In general most people see the media as an outlet to reinforce what they already belief, and seek outlets that do so. Those few actually trying to become more informed are cheated by the absence of integrity in the profession of journalism.

For anyone wanting out: http://www.australia.gov.au/information-and-services/immigration-and-visas/migration-to-australia

Got a shortage of purple haired Gender Studies Majors with facial piercings Down Under? Would y'all be game for some forcible resettlements? What would we need to do to assure them refugee status?