2682

Don’t write us off just based on Armando’s opinion; he is in a tough spot and he’s right that the state govt is bending over backwards to be unhelpful if you are not well employed and insured. The state has a few pockets of liberalism, and the major cities are more purple, but if you get just a few miles outside of urban areas it can be like time travelling back to the '60s.

For example: I’m a HAM, and listening to the chatter on the repeaters of the clubs around Raleigh is like reading WorldNetDaily. Most of these guys build and operate very technical radio setups and have studied and passed license tests which are almost the equivalent of college freshman engineering courses, but most seem to believe:
[ul]
[li]that global warming is a complete hoax made up by the govt in order to control of the energy sector, and to slow developing nations’ advances
[/li][li]most meteorologists are in on the hoax, because they are all paid by NOAA/NWS, but the “independent” meteros will tell you it’s all made up “like the 1970s global gas shortage”
[/li][li]anyway, carbon can’t be a problem in the atmosphere, because we all know plants take in CO2 and make O2
[/li][li]also, it has been proven that photos of ice loss in the arctic have been photoshopped
[/li][/ul]
So it varies :) There are a lot of good NC geopolitical notes here if you are interested http://www.city-data.com/forum/north-carolina/1191612-conservative-vs-liberal-areas.html

And so I am not too off-topic, NC voted for Obama his first term, but against him for his second. And current polling suggests Carson would beat Clinton by 5+ points here right now. wince

2683

Be careful about that. Most of that “current polling” is weighed towards contacting Republicans so that they get good numbers for the GOP primary. The Quinnipaic poll that I cited above says that both Rubio and Carson would win in a head-to-head matchup with Clinton, but if you dig down into their numbers you’ll find that of those respondents who self-identified with a party, 51% said they were Republicans. Nationwide, only 43% self-identify as GOP if there is not an “Independent” option in the poll.

So basically a poll that over-sampled conservatives has Rubio and Carson beating Clinton. That’s not something that should concern Hilary’s campaign.

2684

Yeah, polls are a minefield at the moment. There were a couple of polls earlier in the week showing Carson ahead of Trump - but they were small-sample polls that had margins of error of 5% and 6% respectively. So for either poll it’s possible Carson’s lead was just a sampling fluke (though Carson is clearly catching up to Trump, as the poll aggregators show.)

The honest answer at the moment is “Who the hell knows?” (See the 538 roundtable above.) But that doesn’t make for catchy headlines.

2685

So Ben Carson believes that the Egyptian Pyramids were built by Joseph to house grain. This came from an old talk that he did, but he then reiterated it was still his belief.

Is this really just a ploy by History Channel to see how well their marketing for Ancient Aliens has penetrated different market segments or something?

And various of scientists have said, ‘well, you know there were alien beings that came down and they have special knowledge and that’s how-’ you know, it doesn’t require an alien being when God is with you.”

Well, I suppose there’s point to be made somewhere in there. If you have an omnipotent being on your construction crew, that would likely be beneficial. [/snark]

2686

Poor Jeb!

Bush Sr. critical of Cheney and Rumsfeld

2687

I guess the best way to spin that is “Ben Carson does not believe the pyramids were built by space aliens”. I love the “various scientists” bit.

Carson is simply amazing. Its like having the guy who used to stand in the middle of Ludwig’s Fountain wearing a skirt and bikini top yelling at the whole populace of Sproul Plaza be leading the race for the republican presidential nomination.

2688

Trump and Carson have qualified for Secret Service protection. The mind reels.

2689

Kind of amazing, really. It’s like Bush Sr. does not give two fucks in terms of timing.

Meanwhile, Rumsfeld pushes back and basically says "eh, the guy’s old and senile."

2690

I thought this was suitably Machiavellian.

Take this with a huge pinch of salt, because i got it from /r/4chan

Zi0jHfa.jpg941×5313

Domains owned by a guy called Luke Montgomery, who did virals for Clinton and may be independent anyway.

2691

LOL, text in an HTML page is rock solid evidence. IT’S SCIENCE!

2692

FALSE FLAGZ!!

2693

Ugh. This dude is the worst:

http://billforfirstlady2016.com/pages/about-luke-montgomery

2694

No, that just led to the FEC filings, and the Luke Montgomery guy.

2695

The Rubio tax plan.

Past efforts to model smaller tax cuts tended to find sharply regressive outcomes once financing was included. Gale, alongside Peter Orszag and Isaac Shapiro, looked at the distributional implications of paying for the Bush tax cuts through either spending cuts or a mix of spending cuts and tax increases. Once financing was measured, the tax cuts were only “net tax cuts for about 20-25 percent of households” — they were “net tax increases or benefit reductions for the remaining 75-80 percent of the population.”

Take a midway point on the cost of Rubio’s plan — $8 trillion. That’s a huge amount of money to find. To give a sense of scale, all federal spending on Medicaid over the next 10 years is projected to be about $4.4 trillion. Add in all of Obamacare’s tax credits, and you’re only at about $5.3 trillion. So you could wipe out all spending on Medicaid and Obamacare — hell, you could also cancel all food stamps for good measure — and you still won’t have fully paid for Rubio’s tax cuts.

Most government spending is progressive. As for the spending that isn’t progressive, well, there’s no evidence that Rubio wants to cut it — we know he opposes defense cuts, for instance. So it’s hard, or maybe even impossible, to see how he’d pay for his tax plan without making it much, much more regressive than it already is.

2696

For the Fox Business debate on November 10: Christie and Huckabee were demoted to JV, and Pataki and Graham are out.

For the Democrats, a picture of Hilary, Bernie, and Martin O’Malley appeared in the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ captioned O’Malley as an “unidentified man,” causing much consternation. After the required Twitter shitstorm, they claimed it was done on purpose as a joke.

2697

Honestly, they should just cut all the tax brackets except the top one. Folks would have a much harder time making an argument against such a tax cut.

2698

I can’t understand this conspiracy. As far I can tell people think a guy whose primary source of income is selling merchandise of Bill Clinton wearing a dress somehow equals HILLARY WANTS TO PAY YOU 5000 DOLLARS TO SABATAGE TRUMP’S SNL APPEARANCE. HILLARY IS EVIL!1!

2699

But it’s only fair that everyone get one! Mind you the word “fair” only relates to when rich people benefit, if you use it in any other case it means you feel entitled or something. Bootstraps and whatnot.

2700

Well, technically, the folks in the top bracket would actually STILL get exactly the same tax break, in terms of dollars, as the person making the absolute most money in the next bracket down… since all their money up until that point would benefit from the same tax cut.

I realize you were joking, but all jokes aside, a tax cut to every bracket except the top one would actually benefit everyone, even the ultra rich.

Now, maybe they might say, “Yeah, but that tax cut is a trivial slice of my taxable wealth… I don’t even give a shit about it if it’s only 22k!”

And… yeah. That’s the point. You probably don’t need a tax cut that bad if the price of a car is trivial to you.

2701

Carson has said a ton of really dumb things, but this still surprises me.

Who exactly is voting for this guy to be president?