I picture Donald Trump sailing a Snark. He keeps it at his private island (frequented by the Jubjub and the Bandersnatch) and eats lobster while talking in contemptuous tones of the sharks.

Bernie Sanders sails a 420 named "Smokin'". He promises everybody one of their very own along with lifetime free sailing classes - with no plan whatsoever to find instructors or pay for it.

If Hillary Clinton had her way, she'd confiscate all the Gunboats and restrict their use to government and law enforcement personnel only. Her private G4 would be piloted by her Secret Service detail and she'd sip martinis while foiling to her next Wall Street speaking engagement.

Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and John Kasich repeatedly splash each other with oars; fall in the water; snag on trees; run aground on sandbars; and get stuck between locks as the three men attempt to row a pram up the Thames - to say nothing of the dog.

The way this election is shaping up -- I wish "none of the above" was a choice on the ballot.

Nope, sometimes a question is just a question Karl. I know you insult for your own amusement and you couldn't care less if your message is heard so I get you. Tim on the other hand, he wants to be heard.

This is FAR from the first time there have been no good choices in our presidential elections. It's our "duty" to vote, but when we're given no good choices, we're kind of stuck.

As for whether we openly discuss politics in this country: I have observed that healthy debate amongst friends is acceptable, just be aware that you may strike a nerve, and you probably want to avoid open discussions at work or in a bar (so as to avoid unintended consequences from passers-by). Most of us here are friendly enough to discuss, or wise enough to abstain.



Hey, a sailing-related reference. Only, I can't follow the logic. PROs run races, judges run protests. Not sure how an outsider PRO (or judge, for that matter) makes your point. Or, am I completely lost?

Mike

This one is especially bad, they're all just horrible people or just plain moronic. Some are both.

I stopped voting against candidates a while ago. Which means I wouldn't vote for Romney just because I don't want Obama to win. Instead I'd vote for Gary Johnson. I'm in the minority on that for sure, but I think it'd be a different world if people weren't so hung up on voting for a party.

I've said this before a z zillion times, doing away with payroll withholding and forcing people to actually write a check out for their taxes would drastically change their involvement. That's also precisely why it won't happen.

Fourteen years ago a lot of people in Holland were fed up with the governments based on pacts between 4 or 5 different polical partys.
There was even a name for that sort of coalition governments. They were called "purple". However people started to complain more and more about the ruins that this establishment created. Finally it ended up in despair and powerlessness feeling of the voters.

Then a remarkable man stood up (Pim Fortuyn) in the political scene. A fat lot of political laws and manners he cared! He was very well-spoken, eloquent, and he picked a quarrel with the whole press media and with every other political leader!
Took political incorrect points of view, was racistic and offended openly women. (exactly like Trump, but more civilized, certainly not moronoic)

But boy, what a succes he had, people adored him . He was way ahead of all the other partys in the polls . He gave people hope and they felt represented by him.

It still is a pity that, at his height, he was murdered just before the election date, in the street. Shot by a fanatic milieu- activist. His murderer has just become free these days and is walking total free on the street, even giving interviews.

But we will never know what our country would have looked like nowadays, if Pim Fortuyn was elected.

With me, a lot of people in Holland believe that he was assassinated by secret orders of that establishment!

Almost Prophetic

Dave, it was not meant as an insult, just an observation, sorry you took it that way. I know I was a lot more left leaning before my taxes went up!

To be clear, I am neither a republican or democrat, both parties are too extreme, Right and Left, for me.

I have always been an independent and I've always voted for which ever party's candidate I think will do the best job for Americans re jobs/economy/defense.

Unfortunately, this time around I doubt that either choice will be good for America, so I may sit this one out.

Trump talks a lot of smack but he's just a blowhard. Did you see the John Oliver piece on him recently? I'll try to post a link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGc2nN9OguQ

And I wouldn't trust Hillary (or Bill!) as far as I could throw her fat, Wall Street funded, lying butt. I could -almost- get behind Bernie, but for all the free stuff he wants me to pay for... again!

(I've already paid for my 4 years of college and all 4 of my kid's 4 years of college, now he wants me to pay for -all- kid's college?)

You're right. I should have used the term "judge" rather than PRO.

If a judge isn't used to the tricks a particular fleet can pull they won't always be looking for those offenders... I'm sure there are many tricks out there, but maybe "pumping" in a laser fleet would be an example. If I was a judge coming out of another discipline (maybe Stars), I might not immediately recognize the pumping offense and therefore some offenders may get away with it...

Or am I way off base trying to paint my analogy?

Well, you kinda have to in FL if you want to vote. It's a "closed primary" state whereby if you are not registered with a party, you can't vote IN PARTICULAR CIRCUMSTANCES (like no candidate from NPA is running)

So all those yoots who registered NPA (no party affiliation) can't walk into the PPP (presidential preference primary) this Tuesday in FL and expect to see a ballot with Hillary, Bernie, The Don, Marco/Polo, Teddy and the rest.

The NPA ballot will only show some non-partisan county election/ballot question stuff.

So, Karl, they made the sausage pretty tough to swallow here in the sunshine state. kind of like the political mafia.

I would estimate many folk are "issue" voters rather than "party" voters. But you have to know how the game works to be effective. So if you switched to NPA, you could box yourself out of the chance to promote a candidate you share SOME views with in lieu of getting presented with a candidate you share NO views with...

3500 years ago, Hammurabi attempted to develop a system by which the "powerful" did not harm the weak. I think we're still trying to make that ideal system work. We're just not very good at it.

I think we should just tax jet pilot horse-owners. and buy foiling G4s for everyone.

OK, I'm with you on the sailing part (although now you're now talking about umpires, which are a different animal).

Anyway, how does this tie back to the political point you were trying to make? Are you saying the rich guys want the outsiders who don't know what to look for, or the insiders who will look the other way?

Mike

I voted for an outsider, wasn't concerned at all about it. Though my choice had no political experience, he had (in my mind) good judgement. I feel that is more important than say 20 years of living off the taxpayers dime.


I think Trump is a joke, and I think calling him a true political outsider is a bit of a stretch. I do not see a public servant in him at all. I am in the large group that will be REALLY REALLY REALLY torn if it comes down to trump and Hilary.

We are getting bombarded with mud slinging adds down here in FL now that the FL Primary is quickly approaching, and phone calls from pollsters as well. I've never been able to vote in a FL Primary because I'm not registered as either D or R, not that the primary matters at all. Looks like it's going to be Trump V Hillary, unless Trump strokes out or Hillary gets arrested. A sad day for America.

Oh, and Ronald, that's quite a story about Pim getting shot before getting elected, I'd guess the shooting was set up by the establishment too!

Ronald,

we who are not immersed in US society easily misunderstand or mis-apply when comparing our values and political beliefs to the US. Even though we are cultural cousins and friends - their culture is quite a bit different from european, dutch or norwegian culture.


Conservative or right leaning politics in the US is a wholly different game than norwegian conservative. Our right wingers take positions on the utter left wing of the democrats from what I (mis)understand.


Trump is a very interesting case. Sharing borders with Russia tends to make norwegians quite interested in NATO. Trump seems to have some thoughts on NATO which can change our borders and definately our budgets. I'll probably be conscripted from 5 days of annual service to who knows how many annual days in fatigues if he is elected president.

What remains to be seen is the real impact of an eventual Trump presidency. Even the president of the USA is limited by laws, senate, congress and political/economical supporters. Executive powers are overrated.



Trump would be sailing a chromed 200 feet Gunboat surrounded by TV crews of course. Media coverage is everything as Trump knows very well.

Hillary would not be sailing at all - but as a PR stunt she would go aboard a replica of the Mayflower with a colored crew. I dont think there is anything she would not do to gather votes?



Otherwise I think this terms primaries are all to focused on sinking ships, as usual.

My impression of Trump is, he really doesn't know much about anything. What he does know is, he's not too bright, certainly not on foreign affairs, but as he himself said when questioned on it, "I'll hire the best and brightest." That's his plan. Get someone else to do it. Someone much smarter than he is, hire an expert. Nothing wrong with that, at least he admits it. But he's used to just waving his hand in the air and all his employees jump up and get it done, or... "You're FIRED!".

That only works in the business world, where the CEO is the 'King'. It doesn't work in our Congress and Senate. He cannot fire any of them. So how's he plan to implement any of his sky hi promises, if he just pisses off 50% of the people he needs to vote Yes on some of this stuff?

First, I think Trump is probably pretty smart. Its his motivations that I find problematic.

I do not believe that a president needs to be an expert on everything, no one can be. I think a good presidents surrounds himself in advisers who are experts in a given field. The president then makes decisions from the information presented to him by his advisers.

Mmmmyeah, I get that, but all his "I'm going to build a 10' wall and get Mexico to pay for it!" rhetoric is getting old.

Yeah, sure you are.

And then the drug cartels will just get an 11' ladder or tunnel under it, like they've been doing for years. Trump you're an idiot!

What they should do is have the military set up a drone patrol just like over Afghanistan, with rockets, and blast anyone who enters the 'Death Zone' which would be about a 5 mile wide swath along the boarder, too far to tunnel under. Take out a few drug convoys and that stuff will stop pretty quickly.

Of course they'll always be smuggling people and drugs in trucks...which make excellent target practice for A10's!

Huh, seems like I heard that something like that happened somewhere in history over there in Europe. I wonder how that turned out?

they would all be on Chinese junks.
because they are junk bs talkers.
When have any of the talking points before an election ever been acted upon once the election is over? i mean "they" are going blow your brains out in public if you don't do what "they" tell you, if you are POTUS.

The cayotes will just charge more and fly them to Canada where they can cross freely... or we'll have to build a 10' wall across that border too?

Or they can just sail them off the coast of Brownsville, TX up until there is a quiet beach and dump them off...

I posit that the walls around Israel/Palestine have done a LITTLE to stem all the nonsense over there (tunnels, ladders, corrupt checkpoint folk) but have not really eliminated the problem.

And for the economic migrants, I can almost understand why they'd risk it to earn 10x as much as they could in the US (and send it back so when they return they can retire).

It is sad that our immigration policy is so restricted they have to consider illegal crossing (which bars them from free travel back and forth so they're stuck in the US if they cross successfully).

Would you rather have a bunch of illegal immigrants stuck in the US ( and collect social benefits - housing assistance, SNAP, etc) or "green-card" migrants who can leave when they're done with the work? I believe the green-card folk have to pay taxes, don't get Social Security, and have to return to their home country in order to renew the permit.