The Goat Pen

So, tonight is the first day of an annual conference I attend at the Carolina Hotel in Pinehurst. It is a conference for high end commercial real estate developers so this group is pretty privileged from a social standpoint. Each year the evening starts out with cocktails, then progress over to dinner, followed by a speaker giving an industry update. Then afterwards a good number of us hang out at the bar area and usually watch tournament basketball. This year the event was moved up earlier in the week so now no tournament games, but the election results will start coming in. Most of these guys are not big fan of Trump's because things are pretty good for them right now and they don't want anyone to rock their financial boat. This ought to be interesting.

Just shut up and keep the horderves coming.

eCat wrote:good point

And that seems to prove my point that Trump is far more divisive that Obama or anyone else. Regardless of who's starting the trouble, there's trouble that hasn't been seen on a presidential campaign since the '60s or at least early '70s.

And then there were 3.

Are you talking about your balls again?

The GOP says it won't confirm anyone Obama nominates, so he nominates Garland Merrick, whom Orrin Hatch was just saying would be a good candidate but Obama would never pick him. So does Obama even care about Merrick or is he just trying to call Hatch's bluff?

I think Obama should nominate someone

I think Congress should vet that person

and then if they want to kill his nomination, then do it

but this avoid and delay stuff is the kind of shit that bites Republicans in the ass when they are the minority

The problem is two fold for Republicans - one, they are bowing to the Cruz mentality of just being a complete road block to democrats which they think their voters want (they might - I don't really know) and 2. If Obama does happen to nominate a moderate that is palatable to the country, they won't be able to stop the process.

Saint wrote:The GOP says it won't confirm anyone Obama nominates, so he nominates Garland Merrick, whom Orrin Hatch was just saying would be a good candidate but Obama would never pick him. So does Obama even care about Merrick or is he just trying to call Hatch's bluff?

It's not Hatch's bluff he's trying to call, he's trying to show that Hatch has no real power and also cast Cruz in a bad light. This stagnation is bigger than Orrin Hatch. Actually, he would probably play ball with a nominee if not for the real hardline minority that controls the Congressional acts of the GOP.

Merrick pushed for DC Gun control

He ain't getting it

Nobody cares about DC gun control. You can't hunt squirrels in the District.

I heard the best idea today. Stall until after the election and if the PAH wins, confirm him.

Very statesman-like...

10ac wrote:I heard the best idea today. Stall until after the election and if the PAH wins, confirm him.

Enough Democrats may filibuster that. The big issue is does it hurt the Republican senators running for reelection. If a close election, they may break ranks. They probably shouldn't though, as Ginsberg, Breyer and maybe Kennedy are likely to go in the next 4 years.

What the?

Welcome back, Spacer.

its always good when people come back

interesting take.....

“For a campaign frequently depicted as offering a rallying point for the white working class, the people volunteering to help Mr. Trump here are noteworthy for their ethnic diversity,” reported the Times on Sunday. “They include a young woman who recently arrived from Peru; an immigrant from the Philippines; a 70-year-old Lakota Indian; a teenage son of Russian immigrants; a Mexican-American.”

The Times article included anecdotes from several campaign workers, and drew some common themes.

any spoke openly about how fears centered on race and ethnicity were at the heart of their support for Mr. Trump. To a large extent, they traced those fears to the scars they still bear from the Great Recession — lost jobs, drained 401(k)’s, home foreclosures, rising debt, the feeling that the country is broken,” the Times wrote.

“More than anything, several Trump volunteers here said, the Great Recession exposed a corrupt, out-of-touch ruling class in Washington that allows big corporations to outsource jobs at will while doing nothing to address millions of illegal immigrants who compete for jobs and drain government coffers,” the Times wrote.

“In Mr. Trump, they say, they see a potential antidote to all of this. A man too wealthy to be bought or co-opted. A man with the blunt-force clarity to declare that he is ready to Make America Great Again,” the Times wrote.

“I think we’ve come to the conclusion that our country is falling apart, and we have to take care of it,” said Mireya Linsky, 55, a Cuban-born Jewish woman.

If Obama really wanted to mess with the Republicans, he would nominate Donald's sister.

eCat wrote: “I think we’ve come to the conclusion that our country is falling apart, and we have to take care of it,” said Mireya Linsky, 55, a Cuban-born Jewish woman.

Their support of Trump is a symptom not a cure.

What about cured ham?