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3 hours ago, MisterSwig said:

Ok. I misunderstood the intention of your posting of her video. But do you at least see our problem here? The candidate most like an Objectivist is Libertarian Gary Johnson, but he lacks a serious, national, political focus. It's like he's running for governor again. Very uninspiring and seemingly aloof to truly important, history-making issues, such as the war against Islamic fundamentalism and the corruption of the American Establishment. Still, I might vote for him at the last minute, since I'm in California and another Hillary vote is nearly worthless here, except perhaps as part of the general, popular-vote protest against Trump.

Yes, I see the problem.

To get an Objectivist elected as president, or at least someone sharing key values like Gary Johnson, will take a lot of work and it won't of course happen in this election, or possibly a few to come.

However we have to take a long term view and start now. 

It's like Brexit in the UK. It's a long term game.

 

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38 minutes ago, softwareNerd said:

I just got a voice mail from Mike Huckabee. Essentially,  he said I should think of Trump like an Emperor Caesar controlling things like the economy, while helping our colonized pharisees enforce their religious laws. 

Was that the actual verbiage??

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3 hours ago, JASKN said:

Was that the actual verbiage??

:) Transcription thanks to Google Voice. I fixzed some obvious mistakes, but there may be one or two words (salt? devote?) that were transcribed incorrectly.
 

Quote

 

Hello, this is Mike Huckabee, and I'm calling to urge you to go to the polls next Tuesday, or better yet: vote early by mail or absentee ballot.

Jesus commanded us to render unto Caesar what was his and render unto God what is God's. As Christians, we're called to be the salt and the light of society. So support candidates who stand for life and marriage, religious freedom and Israel. Urge your friends and family devote as well. Thank you, and God bless you.

 

 

Edited by softwareNerd
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5 hours ago, Jon Southall said:

or at least someone sharing key values like Gary Johnson

When asked to name his favorite world leader, Gary Johnson couldn't think of one. After 24 hours of thinking, the name he came up with was Vicente Fox, the guy who started the drug war in Mexico.

So the only key value I can think of that you share with Gary Johnson is that you both have better things to do than to bother with facts.

Edited by Nicky
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6 hours ago, softwareNerd said:

I just got a voice mail from Mike Huckabee. Essentially,  he said I should think of Trump like an Emperor Caesar controlling things like the economy, while helping our colonized pharisees enforce their religious laws. 

Sounds like Huckabee has picked up the Alt-Right meme. 

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2 hours ago, softwareNerd said:

:) Transcription thanks to Google Voice. I fixzed some obvious mistakes, but there may be one or two words (salt? devote?) that were transcribed incorrectly.

Salt is a Christian reference ("Matthew 5:13 You are the salt of the earth"). I would have found it surprising if Huckabee would have drawn a comparison between Trump and Caesar with some kind of explicit detail, but the transcript is standard Christian mumbo jumbo, referencing itself more than what's going on today.

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14 hours ago, Nicky said:

When asked to name his favorite world leader, Gary Johnson couldn't think of one. After 24 hours of thinking, the name he came up with was Vicente Fox, the guy who started the drug war in Mexico.

So the only key value I can think of that you share with Gary Johnson is that you both have better things to do than to bother with facts.

Take it up with Mr Swig. In his judgement, Gary Johnson is the closest to an Objectivist candidate in the USA. I had no reason to suspect his judgement was wrong - and he may wish to defend his evaluation.

Whether it is Gary Johnson or not, the point is it ought to be a candidate who best represents what your values are. Does Clinton or Trump even come close to that? Not in my estimation.

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10 minutes ago, Jon Southall said:

Take it up with Mr Swig. In his judgement, Gary Johnson is the closest to an Objectivist candidate in the USA. I had no reason to suspect his judgement was wrong - and he may wish to defend his evaluation.

Whether it is Gary Johnson or not, the point is it ought to be a candidate who best represents what your values are. Does Clinton or Trump even come close to that? Not in my estimation.

Peikoff/Binswanger 2016... let's make it happen.  

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31 minutes ago, Jon Southall said:

Take it up with Mr Swig. In his judgement, Gary Johnson is the closest to an Objectivist candidate in the USA. I had no reason to suspect his judgement was wrong - and he may wish to defend his evaluation.

Minor correction: I didn't say he was most like "an Objectivist candidate", only that he's most like an Objectivist, which I base on some of his economic and social ideas. His foreign policy and trade positions are mostly garbage. And as far as I know he isn't guilty of terrible immorality, but then the media have not scrutinized his life as much as Trump's and Clinton's.

I'm not a fan of the Libertarian Party, so I'm not going to defend their candidate. He has a lot of serious problems. Anyone can go to his website and compare his views to Objectivism and judge for themselves. Rolling Stone also has a synopsis of his platform.

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Looks like the polls were way off, and overestimating Clinton's support in key states. In states she's supposed to be tied with Trump, she's losing badly, and in states where she's supposed to have a comfortable lead, she's tied.

It's gonna come down to Michigan and Wisconsin. If she wins both, she'll probably win. If she loses either, she'll probably lose. If she loses both, it's over.

 

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Yep, looks like it's President Trump, with a Republican Congress behind him for the next four years. Only silver lining is that he'll lose the popular election (he'll only end up getting about 47%).

But mainly I'm just hoping that he didn't mean anything he said this past year, and he's actually the moderate leftist he seemed to be before he started campaigning.

15 minutes ago, JASKN said:

My emotion is telling me I should have ticked against Trump, but it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

Where did you vote? I'm asking because Pennsylvania and New Hampshire are virtually tied (last I checked, Trump was leading by 15 votes in NH), and might be headed for a recount.

It's still a longshot, though. Clinton would still need to win Michigan (she's behind by 1% there, with 70% of the votes counted), but, if she pulls it out, Pa and NH would become the deciding states (actually, they'd likely be the difference between a tie and Trump victory...Clinton doesn't seem to have a path to 270, only to a 269 tie).

Funny side note: in all three states Clinton would need to get to 269 (Pa, NH, Michigan), Trump's lead is less than Jill Stein's votes. I know Jill Stein voters are too blissfully unaware of the concept of numbers to ever realize this, but they just handed Trump the presidency.

Edited by Nicky
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7 hours ago, Nicky said:

... I'm just hoping that he didn't mean anything he said this past year, and he's actually the moderate leftist he seemed to be before he started campaigning.

Yup, odds are he'll likely be a middling guy, like almost every president ever. If I'm optimistic, I'd hope he'd be a "Nixon-to-China" president, enacting comprehensive immigration reform that allows almost all illegals a path to residency, enacting TPP-lite, and choosing a SCOTUS judge who is not too serious about enacting religious injunctions.

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