quade

Do you know what that MEANS?!?!? Nothing really. It means absolutely jack shit and is the argument of an imbecile and by that I don't mean you, but Trump himself. Go ahead, ignore California and New York with regard to the US. Good luck with that. Good luck paying for things. quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver

In 1992, Clinton beat his father, GHWB. Jerry Baumchen Yep, ya got me. Force of habit in typing the characters. quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver

But still 3.1 percentage points more than Clinton in '92. Clinton's percentage win over GWB was 5.56%. That's what "won by" means; the difference between the two. quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver

It will make for a great trivia question in 20 years, but sadly the point is moot. Trump won the US elections by getting only a slightly larger percentage of votes than Dukakis got losing in 1988. Let THAT sink in for a minute. Trump won by -2.10% of the vote. The third largest popular loss yet electoral win in the history of the US. quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver

While I appreciate your take on it, the reason has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact the numbers are too large or difficult to add properly. The reason is that if we accept a popular vote we have to assume that 50 states and Washington DC have not screwed up their count through ineptitude or dishonesty. It's not a matter of high numbers, but where those numbers come from. If you don't accept the vote counts as reputable and trustworthy, then why accept the Electoral college votes based on them? It's another level of abstraction. It's like saying you won't trust the numbers of a thermometer to tell you the raw data, but you'll fully accept it saying you have a fever. It just doesn't make sense. quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver

While I appreciate your take on it, the reason has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact the numbers are too large or difficult to add properly. quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver

Hadn't you heard (from the Trump camp), actual numbers don't matter. As long as Trump won the Electoral by a few votes, he won bigly and in a "landslide." quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver

Because it would require a US Constitutional Amendment to change it directly. That is extraordinarily unlikely to ever happen since it would require a 2/3rds vote in Congress and an additional 3/4ths state ratification. Look, it's pretty clear that if the US were starting from scratch in 2016 we'd NEVER decide on the Electoral College as a system. We've never pushed for it in any other country on the planet when "helping" them to set their own governments up. As far as I can tell, we're the only country that has anything even remotely like it. It was a flawed system from day one and will continue to be until changed, but as I've said, that's highly unlikely. That said, I think if we care about the Electoral College so damn much, we really ought to free the electors to vote however they want, as originally intended, or stop with the "winner take all" nonsense we have at the state level. The current system is completely out of whack. quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver

I wonder if Trump needs somebody to run the FAA? Seems about right. quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver

Because of the original sin of the US, slavery. Pure and simple, that IS the reason. That IS how the "electoral college" came to be. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Fifths_Compromise quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver

I gotta say, the right currently has, without a doubt, the highest number of "sore winners" in it I've ever seen. I can not in my lifetime remember any winning team anywhere gloating more. None. Not in politics, not in sports, not even on an elementary schoolyard. quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver

The issue is, that was the idea of why it was created, but the unintended consequences of the how it happens in practice fixes nothing since we still have the exact same issue. Rather than a few states with the largest populations having more power, it shifts the power to a few "swing" states. It fundamentally breaks the system it was put in place to fix and ultimately fixes nothing. If you don't think the current system panders to a few select states and has an unfair distribution of electoral power, you simply have not been paying attention to how elections spend their money and in which states. quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver

The "beauty" of a private security force is they don't have to follow the same laws. I can't imagine that's going to go over well with his Secret Service guys though. quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver

Luxury... quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver

I'm just disgusted by everything about the kid's story. If he wanted to fly so badly, he could have earned it. quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver

Is there someplace on that web site I can tell the guy to go F himself? quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver

One of the things a lot of plutocrats miss when swapping donations for ambassadorships is, in history, there are a lot of dead ambassadors. quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver

No. You really, really do not need to go on. Especially since that's not the topic of discussion in this thread. quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver

I think the link you provided pretty much proves he doesn't exist. quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver

You're ignoring facts again. Sorry. There was a Congressional investigation and a bi-partisan report on it. It's in the public record. I'm sorry if you don't feel that's enough, but just like the current topic, at this point I can't imagine anything we could show you which you would accept. quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver

Chiefly by recognizing the claim isn't just being made for US domestic and left vs right purposes since, as previously stated, there are high-ranking members of both the House and Senate from both parties who have sat in the same briefs by intelligence agencies and come to the same conclusion. If this was ONLY a Democrat vs Republican issue, that would not be the case. quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver

Unfortunately, it's not. Emphasis mine. Source and more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_Report_on_Pre-war_Intelligence_on_Iraq quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver

Check the dates. quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver

The fault in Iraq was not the fault of the intelligence agencies. The fault was in the cherry picking of data by certain members of the Bush Administration. It's a discussion for another time and place. quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver

And there is the problem, because I'm reasonably certain you, Rush, would also never accept a blanket statement about it from the current President of the US. You'd want, and maybe even deserve, corroboration from others in government. You'd want, and maybe even deserve, statements from members of the Senate from your own party. Fortunately, we have that. We have statements from not just these government agencies, but also statements from high-ranking members of the GOP who sit on intelligence committees and whose job is it to oversee and recognize petty bullshit from stuff that we should take seriously. All we, both you and I, are ever going to get that we personally can understand, are statements from people we can either trust or not trust. We can weigh that trust against the totality of our experience in what we've observed from those people in the past. We, both you and I, are NEVER going to fully understand this the raw data level. We, both you and I, simply do not have those skills. quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver