Both Obamas Speak Out on the Folly of a 'Protest Vote'

Apparently the powers that be in the Democratic Party believe that on balance both of the principle alternative party candidates - namely Gary Johnson and Jill Stein - are picking up support from voters they believe would otherwise be inclined to vote for Hillary Clinton. So now they are rolling out the big guns.

President Barack Obama warned in a radio interview on Wednesday that Americans who vote for Libertarian Gary Johnson or Green Party candidate Jill Stein in November risk putting Donald Trump into the White House, as he sought to blunt momentum for third-party candidates.

“If you don’t vote, that’s a vote for Trump,” Obama said in an interview on the Steve Harvey Morning Show. “If you vote for a third-party candidate who’s got no chance to win, that’s a vote for Trump.”

Meantime, in a campaign appearance for Hillary in Philadelphia today, First Lady Michelle Obama weighed in on the same subject:

[video:https://youtu.be/JejWDmrvaqE]

My, my - don't you just love the smell of desperation in the morning? I'm not sure what it smells like, but it's probably not victory.

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gendjinn's picture

They must be horrified at the prospect of having to sit through birther Trump being anointed.

Do you think the Democratic establishment would have the balls to skip it?

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TheOtherMaven's picture

There is precedent - a couple of outgoing Presidents despised their successors so much that they got out of DC rather than sit through the inauguration.

John Adams was the first - he was in a coach back to Quincy, MA while Jefferson was taking the oath of office.
John Quincy Adams was as bad a sport as his father, skipping the inauguration of Andrew Jackson.
Andrew Johnson snubbed Ulysses S. Grant's inauguration because Grant let it be known that he would not ride in the same carriage as Johnson.

Woodrow Wilson rode to the Capitol with Warren G. Harding, but did not attend the ceremony (he may not have been up to it, since he was still in poor health after that stroke).

Richard Nixon left DC in disgrace prior to Gerald Ford's inauguration - there was no real reason for him to attend anyway.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

He opposed slavery, even though he ultimately caved in order to get Southern support for revolution. He was humble and patriotic enough to serve as a rep after having been POTUS--a lifetime of service to his country.

Also prescient:

Animated by his growing revulsion against slavery,[7] Adams became a leading opponent of the Slave Power. He predicted that if a civil war were to break out, the president could abolish slavery by using his war powers. Adams also predicted the Union's dissolution over the slavery issue, but said that if the South became independent there would be a series of bloody slave revolts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Quincy_Adams

Just riding back and forth to Massachusetts in winter before global warming deserves props, as does leaving his beloved wife to cope on her own in dangerous times.

Not to mention, he did some good acting in that Spielberg film and that TV series.

His wiki is well worth reading.

Okay, you caught me. I'm a fan.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

His support for the Sedition Act really distresses me, BECAUSE I like him.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Adams was far less mixed than most. I don't know of a one that was perfect.

On the bright side, the Acts were repealed during Jefferson's adminstration.

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gendjinn's picture

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Citizen Of Earth's picture

When did you ever hear pols even acknowledge 3rd party voters, much less deploying a President to scold voters.
Hahahah. #JillNotHill

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

Hillbilly Dem's picture

it's enough to get them to convince the POTUS to go out on the stump for her and actually SCOLD voters who plan on voting for a 3rd party candidate. Anecdote: About 3 weeks ago, a retired state trooper told me he'll vote for Stein or Johnson. He said "I don't owe it to the 2 party system to vote for one of those two crummy nominees they gave us."

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"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey

gendjinn's picture

Then half of Johnson and Stein will bolt in the booth to GOP/DEM respectively. That and the Bradley Effect/Shy Trumper makes the electoral math very challenging for Clinton.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

just stay home. If they bolt anywhere it will be to their living-room couch. Or the nearest bar. (Can't blame 'em.)

This is not 2000. This is another country.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

gendjinn's picture

Podems/Syriza/Brexit type election but the Trump is amazing at scaring the herd back into the pen.

2k was about 50% bolted. To the degree it's less than that should give us a yardstick to estimate the numbers of the awakened since then.

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Yup, people in the US have learnt to recognize the signs of electoral cheating more easily after 2000.

http://www.michaelparenti.org/stolenelections.html

The Stolen Presidential Elections
(updated version, May 2007)

In one of the closest contests in U.S. history, the 2000 presidential election between Democratic Vice-President Al Gore and Republican governor of Texas George W. Bush (hereafter referred to as Bush Jr. to distinguish him from his father who was also a president), the final outcome hinged on how the vote went in Florida. Independent investigations in that state revealed serious irregularities directed mostly against ethnic minorities and low-income residents who usually voted heavily Democratic. Some 36,000 newly registered voters were turned away because their names had never been added to the voter rolls by Florida’s secretary of state Kathleen Harris. By virtue of the office she held, Harris presided over the state’s election process while herself being an active member of the Bush Jr. state-wide campaign committee. Other voters were turned away because they were declared--almost always incorrectly--“convicted felons.” In several Democratic precincts, state officials closed the polls early, leaving lines of would-be voters stranded.

Under orders from Governor Jeb Bush (Bush Jr.’s brother), state troopers near polling sites delayed people for hours while searching their cars. Some precincts required two photo IDs which many citizens do not have. The requirement under Florida law was only one photo ID. Passed just before the election, this law itself posed a special difficulty for low-income or elderly voters who did not have drivers licenses or other photo IDs. Uncounted ballot boxes went missing or were found in unexplained places or were never collected from certain African-American precincts. During the recount, GOP agitators shipped in from Washington D.C. by the Republican national leadership stormed the Dale County Canvassing Board, punched and kicked one of the officials, shouted and banged on their office doors, and generally created a climate of intimidation that caused the board to abandon its recount and accept the dubious pro-Bush tally.1

Then a five-to-four conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court in a logically tortured decision ruled that a complete recount in Florida would be a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause because different counties have different ways of counting the votes. At that point Gore was behind by only a few hundred or so votes in Florida and was gaining ground with each attempt at a recount. By preventing a complete tally, the justices handed Florida’s electoral votes and the presidency to Bush, a stolen election in which the conservative activists on the Supreme Court played a key role. ...

... The 2004 presidential contest between Democratic challenger Senator John Kerry and the incumbent president George W. Bush amounted to another stolen election. ...

... In various states and counties the subterranean war against electoral democracy continues.6

http://www.diggers.org/freecitynews/_disc1/0000001e.htm

How Jeb Bush Stole the 2000 Election for His Brother

From: By Greg Palast
Date: 26 May 2002
Article

Harper's Magazine

March 1, 2002

Ex-con game: how Florida's "felon" voter-purge was itself felonious; Annotation; election law; Brief Article

By Greg Palast

http://www.dummies.com/education/politics-government/supreme-court-case-...

Supreme Court Case Study: Bush v. Gore

Perhaps no event better illustrates the power of the United States Supreme Court than the resolution of the 2000 presidential election. Just when you thought the separation of powers issue had been settled once and for all, the Court stepped in to adjudicate who had won the biggest political contest of all. Legions of Court watchers, law professors, media commentators, and armchair legal analysts across the country thought the Court’s willingness to step into the fray was a major misstep. Still, somebody had to decide who’s in charge! ...

.

.. Needless to say, the George W. Bush camp was jubilant. Al Gore supporters were incensed. Many people were simply happy to have things settled. But others worried that the Court had gone too far. In the past, in landmark cases like Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which put an end to legal segregation, and United States v. Nixon (1974), which led to the first presidential resignation under threat of impeachment, were unanimously decided. After Bush v. Gore, the concern was that the Court had not only overreached itself but undermined its authority by not speaking with one voice. That split decision, 5-4, suggested that Bush v. Gore was a political, not a judicial, decision. ...

... Why, then, did the Supreme Court agree to get back into the fray after the election of 2000? In a sense, the justices had no choice. When the contest between George W. Bush and Al Gore proved too close to call, the contestants resorted to a series of lawsuits in an effort to settle the matter. These suits proceeded simultaneously in the state court system and in federal court. The cases largely concerned the matter and manner of vote counting (and recounting) in the pivotal state of Florida. There were charges of voter intimidation, ballot rigging — all manner of political shenanigans. Something had to be done. ...

Not an investigation and effort to achieve justice - no, no! Never that! And so it goes, on and on, and on to here.

http://phys.org/news/2012-11-voting-machines-election.html

Voting machines remain worry in US election
November 3, 2012 by Rob Lever

Few want to even think about it, but the 2012 US election result could be clouded by problems with voting machines ... again.

Twelve years after the Florida punch card debacle in which thousands of votes went uncounted in the crucial state, some experts cite similar concerns about voting technology.

"I'm not sure we've made forward progress since 2000," said Douglas Jones, a University of Iowa computer scientist and co-author of a book published this year, "Broken Ballots."

"We've put a tremendous effort into changing the voting systems, but in many cases we've discarded systems too quickly and replaced them with systems that we haven't examined enough."

Jones said technology used on some vote machines is now close to a decade old and should be updated. And some systems have security flaws or may not allow for recounts or audits, he noted. ...

From 2012 to 2016 - but it's not a 'real' 'worry' :

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/paperless-voting-could-fuel-rigged...

Paperless voting could fuel 'rigged' election claims

Amid Democratic fears of hackers and Trump's warnings about 'cheating,' some key states still rely on electronic voting machines that lack a paper trail.

By Eric Geller and Tim Starks

09/07/16

Voters in four competitive states will cast ballots in November on electronic machines that leave no paper trail — a lapse that threatens to sow distrust about a presidential election in which supporters of both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have raised fears about hackers tampering with the outcome.

The most glaring potential trouble spots include Pennsylvania, where the vast majority of counties still use ATM-style touchscreen voting machines without the paper backups that critics around the country began demanding more than a decade ago. It’s also a state where Trump and his supporters have warned that Democrats might “rig” the election to put Clinton in the White House, a claim they could use to attack her legitimacy if she wins.

Similar paperless machines are used heavily in Georgia, where the presidential race appears unusually close, and to a much smaller extent in Virginia and Florida, both of which are phasing them out. Florida has almost entirely abandoned the electronic machines following a number of elections that raised red flags, including a close 2006 congressional race in which Democrats charged that as many as 16,000 votes went missing.

This time, in a year marked by charges that Russian-linked hackers have breached Democratic Party organizations and state election offices, the lack of a paper ballot record in key states poses two potential risks to public confidence in the U.S. electoral system: It creates the danger that someone could alter the results in ways that are nearly impossible to detect, security experts say, with no hard-copy record that would allow a manual recount. Beyond that, supporters of the losing candidate could simply refuse to accept the results — a response that Trump supporters are already encouraging if he loses.

“The risk of Trump saying the election was stolen or rigged is unacceptably high,” said Matt Mackowiak, a GOP consultant who has harshly criticized Trump’s campaign strategy. “That there are several states that won’t have statewide printouts of votes would only add gasoline to the fire if he were to light the match.” ...

Luckily, the Clintons have no trouble with concerns regarding (more) stolen elections, so it's all A-OK!

While a lot of us Bern with indignation.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

opened and the rise in the anger meter. Things are a lot worse for a lot more people now. Not to be discounted, those two factors.

#DemExit wouldn't have happened in 2000. Voters still believed then that the Dems were the good guys, or at least significantly better than the Republicans. That line doesn't have the same selling power it did. Not even close.

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"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." --Jiddu Krishnamurti

ThoughtfulVoter's picture

A protest vote would be if we voted for Trump, just to keep the ethically challenged Clintons away from the white house for another four years!

Voting Jill or Gary would be a conscience vote.

There is a difference, Obamas, because no way no how will we ever vote for Hillary!

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The Aspie Corner's picture

His legacy would have been far better had he chosen not to get on his knees for the corporate state rather than govern for us instead.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

This framing aims to delegitimize any candidate outside the duopoly and invalidate valid reasons to vote FOR a 3rd-party candidate who best represents our views rather than AGAINST the D or R quadrennial offering. (We're called childish/selfish/ignorant of how first-past-the-post systems work. We're assaulted with identity politics of blame and shame. We're guilt-tripped and told what will be all our fault.)

Because, realistically, the Electoral College is an insuperable barrier to a 3rd-party win nowadays, we're told we're throwing away our votes, when in fact, we're using them as the barely audible voice we still have in the rigged system we have. If enough of us do that, our combined voices may reach a decibel level that can't be ignored.

I'm not hopeful about that, but I sure as hell won't be badgered into voting for one candidate I find unacceptable or against another I also find unacceptable. Nor will I allow myself to be put on the defensive about that.

EDIT: How is casting my vote for a candidate I support any more "throwing it away" than voting for a candidate I don't support? If I object strongly to the other presidential offerings, it sure seems like a waste of my vote to cast it for any of the options I don't want. And it matters not that I know I'll end up with one of the objectionable options anyway. Even so, in what rational universe would I voluntarily vote for any of the "strongly don't want" options? "Lesser evilism" exists as a campaign strategy to discredit this argument.

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"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." --Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

Obama is providing advertising for Gary Johnson and Jill Stein.

The wheels really have come off.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

karl pearson's picture

For someone who claims to have all this experience and competency, why does Clinton need so much assistance from all the bigwigs in the Democratic party and in the media? At this point, a truly skilled politician running for President would be out campaigning for Democratic senators and congressional candidates. Instead, "everybody and his brother" has to stop what they're doing and bail Hillary out of another mess.

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Bollox Ref's picture

In such an established manner. No whistlestop tours for her, supporting parallel Democratic efforts along the way.

She appears to have no stamina.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

riverlover's picture

Sorry for caps, but that is how it seems. My visage sick, haggard to rouged (!) cheeks and dentured smile would take longer for me on many counts, including IV infusion of $$, not a source available for me, a Demexit product.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

I've seen some sort of new under-the-skin filler injection touted in the sort of internet ads I'd never click on - maybe one of her staff did that for her?

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

hat tip to Powell. No soul, no principles, no honesty, no trustworthiness, etc. Just wants to be the first woman President.

#JillNotHill.

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It's about all she has, aside from her immediate familiy members (what a crew!) and hundreds of millions of dollars.

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Amanda Matthews's picture

Cretin ran on a 'liberal' platform, governed 150% the opposite direction.

Screw both these people. They need to sit down and shut up. They're going over the line when it comes to meddling in this election. Particularly Barry and his FBI BFF Comey.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Roger Fox's picture

We use the term " Universe". Johnson and Stein have made the universe 16% smaller. This new paradigm is something the Clinton campaign can't wrap their heads around. Where are they going to get the votes they need to get past 50% plus one.

OF course Hillary could have just proposed to beak up the big banks, create jobs, raise the min wage to $15, go to Single payer, and she'd clean Trump's clock, Johnson would get 2-3% and Stein wouldn't get past 1%.

Cause Trump is viable, is all on the Bush's and Clinton's.

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FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

thanatokephaloides's picture

OF course Hillary could have just proposed to beak up the big banks, create jobs, raise the min wage to $15, go to Single payer, and she'd

....... be completely disbelieved, as there's no reason to believe the Pander Bear when she makes statements like these.

One of Bernie's main strengths was that he had fought for all that stuff before he proposed it as a Presidential Candidate; and so people actually believed him. Therefore, he had to be neutralized.

Enter D. Trump, stage right; enter H. Clinton, stage left. Exit Bernie (for all practical intents and purposes).

Diablo

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Hawkfish's picture

My vote is not a "protest". I'm voting for the candidate who

  • Has a platform closest to my actual views
  • Has a record of standing up for those views
  • Has jumped through enough legal hoops to be able to win

If you want my vote next time, then it's a simple optimization problem. If not, then I'm sure you understand what you need to do. Which includes giving up if your views and personality don't match that of enough of the electorate.

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We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg

Wed, 09/28/2016 - 8:09pm — Hawkfish

Oh for the love of Mike

My vote is not a "protest". I'm voting for the candidate who

Has a platform closest to my actual views
Has a record of standing up for those views
Has jumped through enough legal hoops to be able to win

If you want my vote next time, then it's a simple optimization problem. If not, then I'm sure you understand what you need to do. Which includes giving up if your views and personality don't match that of enough of the electorate.

Or fit a democracy!

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

A vote for a Democrat is a vote, but a vote for anyone else is a protest vote? Really? Why? Where do Democratic politicians, who think we should do away with "entitlements," get their sense of entitlement? Or their privilege? Or their hubris, for that matter?

This is so frustrating. Every four years, there's a Presidential election which is, trust me, folks, THE wrong election for a protest vote, but I was never given a protest vote. I guess I missed the day my state was giving out a right to vote called a "protest vote." I have only something called "a vote." In 2016, I shall use my Presidential vote to try to help the Green Party get on the ballot in 2020. Anything to make inroads into the insane duopoly that gave us two corrupt psychopaths as nominees for President. If I did have a protest vote, I'd love to use it to express my utter disgust with the worst set of Presidential candidates in U.S. history.

In most elections these days, it is Republicans who must run against candidates to their right, often several, but they never whine about that because no one is entitled to a clear field. In 2000, the candidates of seven parties ran for President. To Bush's left were the candidates of the Democratic Party and the Green Party. To Bush's right, however, were four candidates, count 'em, four. Yet, the only so-called "third" party candidate we ever hear about is Nader, a man who did more for Americans before he turned 40 than the Clintons and the Obamas combined. I am so ashamed and sorry that I never voted for him. I will never inflict that shame and regret on myself again and certainly not for the likes of Hillary Rodham Clinton. I really don't care which incompetent psychopath gets the Oval Office this time around.

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ThoughtfulVoter's picture

...which incompetent psychopath gets the Oval Office this time around.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

I don't care either.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Daenerys's picture

Just to see how many people actually don't vote for her heinous and thereby telling these assclowns to go fuck themselves. It's really going to be something.

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This shit is bananas.

Citizen Of Earth's picture

a direct message to Hill -- "GFY Hellery." Hahaha.

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

The next person who says this, i'm going to ask them if I should just vote for Trump then. Since it's apparently the same.

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Thaumlord-Exelbirth's picture

It's like they never consider the idea that a vote for a third party candidate is also a vote that Trump won't be getting. I wonder why they wouldn't be concerned at all that by discouraging people away from voting third party they could increase Trump's vote count.

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Maybe because Hillary IS SO getting her turn this time and TPTB have invested many billions in her, because the Clintons are going to give them the world to squeeze like a fracking orange under global law they'll be making themselves, just like the Clinton votes?

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0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

http://www.votepact.org/

It reveals their hypocrisy.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Oh, boy, does it ever - great site, thanks!

Now, if only my recs would stick...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Late Again's picture

a third-party vote is a vote for Trump, then following that logic isn't a vote for Trump actually two votes for Trump?

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"When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained." - Mark Twain

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

scolding meme, Hillary needs to start measuring the windows for drapes

in her three-home Chappaqua "compound."

Here's hoping her interior designer has good taste.

Then again, what am I thinking? Who needs persuasion when they have rigging?

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I will not cast a "protest" vote. My vote will be cast for actual freedom, for policies that are beneficial to all people, for candidates that are rational and stable. My vote will also be cast with a strong note of pure, unadulterated vengeance. The Democrats back-stabbed and cheated the only decent candidate, they committed election fraud on a grand scale, and they did it with breathtaking arrogance. Clinton-era policies wrecked my home state, and contributed to literally killing friends of mine before their time. If you think I would vote for another Clinton, EVER, even up against Satan himself, you are delusional at best.

I was canvassing for the Democratic Party before I even entered high school. Though I remained Independent, I have voted for Democratic candidates, an overwhelming majority of the time. I and others like me have been your foot-soldiers, and now we have been spit upon from on high. You are not chiding a bunch of children for refusing to fear the mercenary orange bogeyman correctly. You are speaking the same old threadbare "designated villain" propaganda to grownups who have finally seen through it.
You are not speaking truth to power, you are speaking lies to awareness and rage.

I hereby commit my vote to trying to legally hurt the "Democratic" Party as best I can, forever. Since I am obviously biased at this point, and not likely to stay even this polite about it, instead here's Samuel Clemens to explain how it works. -And no, I haven't changed his use of the masculine pronoun. In his day, only men voted. A different era.

"Each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak. And it is a solemn and weighty responsibility, and not lightly to be flung aside at the bullying of pulpit, press, government, or the empty catch-phrases of politicians. Each must for himself alone decide what is right, and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic, and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide it against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country -- hold up your head! You have nothing to be ashamed of." -Mark Twain; Letters from the Earth

My decision is to oppose the major party duopoly, and in particular, the Democratic Party. My decision is to support the Greens, since they are sane and correct, and your party is wrong, in so many ways. And it is the right and patriotic thing for me to do. And I am holding my head high.

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"Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

Wonderful, fellow-Peasant! You've nailed it to the heartless!

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Christine.MI's picture

My vote is NOT a protest vote! I am VOTING FOR someone who recognizes the status-quo is not working and wants to move the country forward in a sane way. In a way, I do want my vote to register as a big FU to the whole deplorable lot of them, but more importantly, I want it to be a vote for who best represents my values.

Voting for a pig and a warpig is not a sane choice. So yeah, FU HRC/PO/FirstLady/DNC/DINOs!

Aaannndd, don't wag your finger at us!

Where's the double middle finger emoji when you need one?

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Daenerys's picture

here's this:

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This shit is bananas.

elenacarlena's picture

it a self-fulfilling prophecy, but we're not playing along any more.

If everyone who likes Stein votes for Stein instead of out of fear of Trump, then she'll win. If everyone considering staying home instead votes for Stein, she'll win. In 2014, 67% of eligible voters stayed home. That's a massive potential pool of Stein votes.

Besides, I tried to tell them to vote for Bern because "fear Trump!" They didn't listen to me. Why should I listen to them?

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Please check out Pet Vet Help, consider joining us to help pets, and follow me @ElenaCarlena on Twitter! Thank you.

riverlover's picture

I so like being lectured down to.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

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