2016 Presidential Elections Vote-All

His idea was to have UW-Madison take $200 million in cuts, telling professors that "Maybe it’s time for faculty and staff to start thinking about teaching more classes and doing more work." The school would be under a tuition freeze until 2017, which means that their most successful professors are already looking at other institutions which can offer them better deals. As public research funding drops, it's hoped that corporations would step in to fill the void. (What could possibly go wrong?) At the same time, he wants to put $500 million in bonds out for a new basketball stadium for Milwaukee.

Scott Walker has a high school education, but he's a college dropout.

The Walker administration has also caught some much deserved flak for rewriting the mission statement for The University of Wisconsin in the budget.

For 111 years the university system has followed what is called the "Wisconsin Idea" which calls for the university to serve a role to serve and stimulate society through instruction, research, extended training, and public service to help educate people and improve the human condition as well as search for truth.

The Walker administration cut all that hoity toity language and replaced it with a statement that the mission of the university is to "meet the state's workforce needs." Walker then went on to deny that he or anyone in his administration had made those changes except that edits show that an analyst in the state office budget had made changes and, when questioned by university officials about it, said that the wording wasn't going to change and the university could basically pound sand.

So, yeah, Walker is following in the footsteps of the Kansas Experiment and trashing everything that adds value so he can cut taxes. This man would be poison for the country.

What is Walkers appeal? I find the idea of voting for that man incomprehensible.

NathanialG wrote:

What is Walkers appeal? I find the idea of voting for that man incomprehensible.

The 'R' by his name.

That's all I can come up with.

He has an R next to his name and he is a white male. That is enough to get 40% of the vote guaranteed.

NathanialG wrote:

What is Walkers appeal? I find the idea of voting for that man incomprehensible.

He fulfills the current Republican prime directive: piss off Democrats

Tanglebones wrote:
NathanialG wrote:

What is Walkers appeal? I find the idea of voting for that man incomprehensible.

He fulfills the current Republican prime directive: piss off Democrats

Bingo. Aside from that, he's gotten a massive Republican agenda pushed through in a blue state against die hard Democratic opposition. His brand of crazy is kind of boring and rooted in terrible economic policy, rather than the vaccines-cause-illegal-immigrant-abortions kind of crazy that most of the Republican candidates are running with right now. And he's far more politically capable than he seems at first glance.

Demosthenes wrote:

A picture of the Koch brothers pretty much perfectly illustrates, for me, what's wrong with Capitalism at this point: No one ever has enough. These guys have enough money to live more than comfortably for a dozen lifetimes... but they still gotta try to buy every election so people will pay more and more for their crap so that they have even MORE money to do... what with? I feel like there's gotta be some diminishing returns eventually on money to happiness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...

edit: Demyx'haused!

Robear wrote:

Walker wants to mandate the hours that professors at a *research* university put into teaching (more) and also wants them to focus on research with immediate and obvious business benefits. He could not get more shortsighted if he mandated single-use lab buildings...

That's not short-sighted at all. Research and knowledge are the primary enemies of the modern Republican party.

Jeb Bush just dumped emails, home addresses, and social security numbers of Florida residents online

Jeb Bush, a rumored 2016 Republican presidential candidate, just decided to publish hundreds of thousands of emails sent to him during his time as governor of Florida. On its face it seems like a great idea in the name of transparency, but there's one huge problem: neither Bush nor those who facilitated the publication of the records decided to redact potentially sensitive personal information from them.

"In the spirit of transparency, I am posting the emails of my governorship here," a note on Bush's website says. "Some are funny; some are serious; some I wrote in frustration." Some also contain the email addresses, home addresses, phone numbers, and social security numbers of Florida residents.

I am all for transparency but I find it hard to believe he (and his team) would make such a serious mistake. If he does continue to run it will certainly be fodder for "what kind of leader would he be?," type attacks.

I wonder if he could be legally liable if and when those folks have their identities stolen.

Maybe he's trying to get the critical pro-Doxxing vote?

kaostheory wrote:

I wonder if he could be legally liable if and when those folks have their identities stolen.

Identity theft, HIPAA/PHI..

what a moron/asshat

I'd lose my job if I did something like that. Oh, and probably get sued into the ground.

Tanglebones wrote:

Maybe he's trying to get the critical pro-Doxxing vote?

It's all about ethics in politics...

kaostheory wrote:

I wonder if he could be legally liable if and when those folks have their identities stolen.

The article doesn't seem to think so.

This would also fit in the rape culture thread, but most people are pretty confident this bozo is gonna run for President. Scott Walker wants colleges to stop reporting sexual assault numbers.

I'm not sure anymore who is more terrifying between Walker and Scalia.

Seth wrote:

I'm not sure anymore who is more terrifying between Walker and Scalia.

Certainly Scalia. Walker is only ever running for elected office, worst case, voters have the option to recall him (again) or not elect him. Scalia is there for life, or until he chooses to retire. Literally the only way to get him off the bench is his death or his retirement, it's terrible.

Seth wrote:

This would also fit in the rape culture thread, but most people are pretty confident this bozo is gonna run for President. Scott Walker wants colleges to stop reporting sexual assault numbers.

I'm not sure anymore who is more terrifying between Walker and Scalia.

That just screams, 'I am a rapist!' Having worked with many young victims of sexual assault and rape, the perps are always quick to justify their own behavior and also defend other perps.

That Walker thing: holy what the f*ck? D:

Reaper81 wrote:
Seth wrote:

This would also fit in the rape culture thread, but most people are pretty confident this bozo is gonna run for President. Scott Walker wants colleges to stop reporting sexual assault numbers.

I'm not sure anymore who is more terrifying between Walker and Scalia.

That just screams, 'I am a rapist!' Having worked with many young victims of sexual assault and rape, the perps are always quick to justify their own behavior and also defend other perps.

It sure wouldn't hold up in a court of law, but I do believe this is the simplest possible explanation for this kind of thing.

Put it another way, I wouldn't want to be alone with a man who wants to remove requirements for people to report sexual assaults.

Demyx wrote:
Reaper81 wrote:
Seth wrote:

This would also fit in the rape culture thread, but most people are pretty confident this bozo is gonna run for President. Scott Walker wants colleges to stop reporting sexual assault numbers.

I'm not sure anymore who is more terrifying between Walker and Scalia.

That just screams, 'I am a rapist!' Having worked with many young victims of sexual assault and rape, the perps are always quick to justify their own behavior and also defend other perps.

It sure wouldn't hold up in a court of law, but I do believe this is the simplest possible explanation for this kind of thing.

Put it another way, I wouldn't want to be alone with a man who wants to remove requirements for people to report sexual assaults.

I wonder how DoJ views this.

Reaper81 wrote:

I wonder how DoJ views this.

If recent Republican stances are any kind of predictor, I bet Walker will make the argument that the Federal government can't tell state governments what to do.

A new feed I just looked at was chock full of prospective Presidential candidates making bold statements on various issues which would seem to be their way of staking out their spot among their prospective supporters.

Rick Perry spoke up on unemployment.

Potential presidential candidate Rick Perry dismissed the significant jobs gains under President Obama, telling a conservative group on Friday: "The unemployment rate is a sham."

The nation's unemployment rate has fallen to 5.7% in January, from 10% in October 2009, 10 months after Obama took office.

But Perry told the Conservative Political Action Conference that it's a sham because it "leaves millions of American workers uncounted."

Marco Rubio weighs in on immigration.

Rubio elicited laughter from the audience at CPAC during a Q&A session with Fox News' Sean Hannity when he admitted that his support for the 2013 bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill "wasn't very popular, I don't know if you know that from some of the folks here."

Changing his tune ahead of a probable 2016 presidential run, Rubio now says that he "gets" that there are millions of people living in America illegally who have not broken any other law, but that he has "learned you can't even have a conversation about that until people believe and know… that future illegal immigration will be controlled."

So not exactly a huge change but he appears to be trying to tiptoe the line here. Keep out all illegal immigrants but do something about the ones here. Not quite sure what it is he would do though.

And of course the Republican Party in general has gone back to the well of pushing for war and talking about how Democrats simply can't defend the country.

Likely 2016 candidates, from Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz to Scott Walker and Carly Fiorina, all roused the crowd by promising a tougher brand of foreign policy than the one practiced by Obama and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Former Senator Rick Santorum, the runner-up for the Republican nomination in 2012, called for 10,000 U.S. ground troops in the middle to battle ISIS and urged “bombing them back to the seventh century.”

This view is increasingly popular within the party. A mid-February poll conducted by CBS News found that 72% of Republicans favor sending U.S. ground troops into Iraq or Syria to fight ISIS militants, an increase of seven percentage points since only October. That leap comes as the issue replaces the brightening economy at the top of newscasts.

...

Fiorina blistered Obama and Clinton for dithering: “While you seek moral equivalence,” she said, “the world waits for moral clarity and American leadership.” Walker, who has risen in the early primary polls by positioning himself as a conservative fighter, suggested he would take an aggressive stance on foreign policy. “If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world,” Walker said. (A spokeswoman for Walker’s political-action committee later clarified that the governor was “in no way comparing any American citizen to ISIS.”)

Wheeeee!!! Let's get more of our soldiers back in the middle east cause that worked great the last few times we tried it. I also love how engaging in diplomacy is viewed as weakness and "dithering". So lots of the world views America as a war mongering nation intent on imposing it's will on other nations. How could we fix that horrible misperception of our great nation? I know! By sending tens of thousands of soldiers to other corners of the globe and "bombing them back to the 7th century" while telling other nations what they should be doing. That's just providing leadership. I did find it interesting that Russia wasn't mentioned though they did, of course, go back to the threat of Iran, lack of support for Israel and "national defense" in general.

When the economy is bad we focus on the economy. When the economy is good we focus on war. What is wrong with us?

But Perry told the Conservative Political Action Conference that it's a sham because it "leaves millions of American workers uncounted."

Meanwhile, MILLIONS OF JOBS FROM KEYSTONE!*
*Not a real number, but most of them will disappear when the pipeline is done and only maintenance work is needed going forward.

Likely 2016 candidates, from Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz to Scott Walker and Carly Fiorina, all roused the crowd by promising a tougher brand of foreign policy than the one practiced by Obama and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Former Senator Rick Santorum, the runner-up for the Republican nomination in 2012, called for 10,000 U.S. ground troops in the middle to battle ISIS and urged “bombing them back to the seventh century.”

Soooooo... what's that about fiscal responsibility?

When the economy is bad we focus on the economy. When the economy is good we focus on war. What is wrong with us?

Republicans gotta bank on two things, man. Being viewed as the fiscal conservatives (fix the economy when it's broken... not that they can follow through...), and being the strong military party (so when the economy is good, can't talk about fixing it so... let's go kill some bad guys until we've totally f'ed up the economy again! Then we can talk about that some more!).

Sounds like they're still doing the same old thing--not talking about new ideas and blaming all our woes on the other team. And also all that social conservatism nonsense.

edit: Actually Cruz's idea to put all our IRS agents on the Mexican border is so crazy it might just work!

edit edit: interesting discussion on Republican strategy to broaden its base. aand I love how Grover references Frank Underwood as a model of political strategy. Niiiiice.

They are going to have the best possible platform that can appeal to Southern Christian white males over 60...

Likely 2016 candidates, from Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz to Scott Walker and Carly Fiorina, all roused the crowd by promising a tougher brand of foreign policy than the one practiced by Obama and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Hahahah oh god this is just... I mean. I know "political party says one thing, does another" is kind of old hat, but this is just hilarious to me. I barked a laugh out loud.

Conservative strategy in a nutshell, complete with typos:
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/ayK3Yqe.png)

I work in communications. This strategy sucks.

...personal freedom is what binds us together?