Who are the top republican presidential candidates for 2020?

[redwood66]

Shame on you!

We live in a free country, a democracy. People are allowed to spend their vote in any way they see fit. If you believe differently, contact your representative and ask that laws be passed to dictate how a person may vote!

Of course they are HC. I just happen to think this particular practice is reprehensible. That doesn't mean I want a law against it per se. There are many things that are allowed under the law that are reprehensible to me morally and I am sure there are to you as well.

 

[Tekate]

In your opinion, in mine it's an honest opinion, free speech and all. Too much judging and not enough reading.

Again, shameless.

 

[ksinger]

It's got a total of 17 posts. It's even over in the NIRDIS thread being a jerk. At best it's a troll, at worst it's a bot. I'm voting for bot, given the types of responses, especially to Maria D's quotation of the Jabberwocky.

Don't engage guys. If it gets too annoying we'll just have it evicted.

 

[monarch64]

Sounds like Ruby is back...except the prose is just slightly off.

 

[ksinger]

Sounds like Ruby is back...except the prose is just slightly off.

Nah. Ruby actually made more sense, sad to say.

 

[monarch64]

Nah. Ruby actually made more sense, sad to say.

Ok, then my money is on that guy who flounced several months ago—the one with the tattoos of the Rolex logo and other jewelry-related themes. He was SUPER bitter.

 

[monarch64]

At least you figured out a part of who I am.

Awww, Rodentman, is that you?

 

[Matata]

www, Rodentman, is that you?

I wondered the same thing. How's retirement suit you Rodie?

 

[ksinger]

I suggest we dick with the algorithm and spew more nonsense verse at it. That seems to flummox it back to single-word responses. Not that the ones that manage to struggle up to a whole (awkward) sentence, are much more entertaining of course. Needs better coding, I'm thinking.

So, how about.....

Well, poop. Better respect the copyright. Let me find another....hmmm.....

Hmmm...how about some handy quotes from James Joyce?

“In the ignorance that implies the impression that knits knowledge that finds the nameform that whets the wits that convey contacts that sweeten sensation that drives desire that adheres to attachment that dogs death that bitches birth that entails the ensuance of existentiality.”

 

[Matata]

It's Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Even though the sound of it
Is something quite atrocious
If you say it loud enough
You'll always sound precocious
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
Because I was afraid to speak
When I was just a lad
Me father gave me nose a tweak
And told me I was bad
But then one day I learned a word
That saved me aching nose
The biggest word you ever heard
And this is how it goes
Oh, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Even though the sound of it
Is something quite atrocious
If you say it loud enough
You'll always sound precocious
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
He traveled all around the world and everywhere he went
He'd use his word and all would say there goes a clever gent
When dukes and Maharajahs pass the time of day with me
I say my special word and then they ask me out to tea
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Even though the sound of it
Is something quite atrocious
If you say it loud enough
You'll always sound precocious
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
So when the cat has got your tongue
There's no need for dismay
Just summon up this word
And then you've got a lot to say
But better use it carefully
Or it can change your life
For example
Yes?
One night I said it to me girl and now me girls my wife
Oh! And a lovely thing she is too. he he he
She's Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Songwriters: Richard Sherman / Robert Sherman

 

[Matata]

Oh stop stop I’m getting suffocated!

Aw c'mon. That's a cheery tune to get your toes tapping.

 

[Dancing Fire]

I'm amazed at how often we have to remind conservatives that this is indeed still a free country.

You should remind the Dems.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/22/us/conservative-activist-assault-uc-berkeley/index.html

 

[ksinger]

OK, now I'm bored with the algorithm.

 

[Matata]

OK, now I'm bored with the algorithm.

I'm bored in general which gives me the munchies and I'm trying really hard not to dive face first in a package of Ghirardelli dark chocolate.

 

[House Cat]

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

 

[Maria D]

I'm bored in general which gives me the munchies and I'm trying really hard not to dive face first in a package of Ghirardelli dark chocolate.

Have you tried Divine Chocolate? It's so smooth and yummy!

 

[Matata]

Have you tried Divine Chocolate?

It lives up to its name for sure. I've settled for a protein shake. Gotta keep on track with my weight training meal plan.

 

[Maria D]

It lives up to its name for sure. I've settled for a protein shake. Gotta keep on track with my weight training meal plan.

I read your workout routine on the other thread. It exhausted me reading it! Yes, you definitely need that protein.

 

[redwood66]

I guess someone got the Dr. evicted. That was quick.

 

[Dancing Fire]

I guess someone got the Dr. evicted. That was quick.

Is there another Dr. in the house?

 

[ksinger]

Drat. Looks like someone is not going to get top marks on his senior project in bot-writing at
Hacker U.

 

[Maria D]

Former Illinois Congressman, a Tea Party Republican and current conservative radio talk show host, wrote this Op-Ed for the NYT.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/opinion/joe-walsh-trump-primary.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytopinion

Joe Walsh: Trump Needs a Primary Challenge
The case for a contender from the right.

By Joe Walsh


There’s a strong case for President Trump to face a Republican primary challenger. I know a thing or two about insurgencies. I entered Congress in 2011 as an insurgent Tea Party Republican. My goals were conservative and clear: restrain executive power and reduce the debt. Barack Obama was president then, and it was easy for us to rail against runaway spending and executive overreach.


Eight years later, Mr. Trump has increased the deficit more than $100 billion year over year — it’s now nearing $1 trillion — and we hear not a word of protest from my former Republican colleagues. He abuses the Constitution for his narcissistic trade war. In private, most congressional Republicans oppose the trade war, but they don’t say anything publicly. But think about this: Mr. Trump’s tariffs are a tax increase on middle-class Americans and are devastating to our farmers. That’s not a smart electoral strategy.


It’s one of the many reasons Mr. Trump is ripe for a primary challenger. In fact, it would buck the historical trend if he didn’t have one. More often than not, unpopular presidents face primary challengers.


Since leaving Congress in 2013, I’ve been the host of my own conservative talk radio show several hours a day, five days a week. The only time a majority of my conservative audience has noticeably broken with the president is when he signed the omnibus spending bill in 2017 that ballooned the deficit. Fiscal responsibility is an issue the American electorate cares about but that our elected officials disregard from the top down — including the Tea Party in the Trump era.


Fiscal matters are only part of it. At the most basic level, Mr. Trump is unfit for office. His lies are so numerous — from his absurd claim that tariffs are “paid for mostly by China, by the way, not by us,” to his prevarication about his crowd sizes, he can’t be trusted.


In Mr. Trump, I see the worst and ugliest iteration of views I expressed for the better part of a decade. To be sure, I’ve had my share of controversy. On more than one occasion, I questioned Mr. Obama’s truthfulness about his religion. At times, I expressed hate for my political opponents. We now see where this can lead. There’s no place in our politics for personal attacks like that, and I regret making them.


I didn’t vote for Mr. Trump in 2016 because I liked him. I voted for him because he wasn’t Hillary Clinton. Once he was elected, I gave him a fair hearing, and tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. But I soon realized that I couldn’t support him because of the danger he poses to the country, especially the division he sows at every chance, culminating a few weeks ago in his ugly, racist attack on four minority congresswomen.


The fact is, Mr. Trump is a racial arsonist who encourages bigotry and xenophobia to rouse his base and advance his electoral prospects. In this, he inspires imitators.


Republicans should view Mr. Trump as the liability that he is: No matter his flag-hugging, or his military parades, he’s no patriot. In front of the world, he sides with Vladimir Putin over our own intelligence community. That’s dangerous. He encouraged Russian interference in the 2016 election, and he refuses to take foreign threats seriously as we enter the 2020 election. That’s reckless. For three years, he has been at war with our federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, as he embraces tyrants abroad and embarrasses our allies. That’s un-American.


And despite what his enablers claim, Mr. Trump isn’t a conservative. He’s reckless on fiscal issues; he’s incompetent on the border; he’s clueless on trade; he misunderstands executive power; and he subverts the rule of law. It’s his poor record that makes him most worthy of a primary challenge.

Mr. Trump has taken the legitimate differences that Americans have on policy and turned them into personal division. He’s caused me to change my tone and to reflect upon where I went over the line and to focus on policy differences moving forward.


We now have a president who retweets conspiracy theories implicating his political opponents in Jeffrey Epstein’s death. We now have a president who does his level best to avoid condemning white supremacy and white nationalism.


Yes, William Weld, the former Massachusetts governor, is challenging Mr. Trump from the center. But the president is more vulnerable to a challenge from the right. I’m on the right, and I’m hugely disappointed that challenge hasn’t yet materialized.


Mr. Trump’s most vulnerable against a challenger who’d make the case for strong borders — instead of warning of “invaders,” dragging us down, turning neighbor against neighbor. A majority of Americans want fixes to our most basic problems.


We need someone who could stand up, look the president in the eye and say: “Enough, sir. We’ve had enough of your indecency. We’ve had enough of your lies, your bullying, your cruelty, enough of your insults, your daily drama, your incitement, enough of the danger you place this country in every single day. We don’t want any of this anymore, and the country certainly can’t stand four more years of it.”

 

[AGBF]

I just found this thread and I think some posts must have been deleted. There appear to be a lot of interesting quotations from authors with whom I am familiar put up by posters I know for reasons that escape me. However, there are also some obscure references to past posters who sometimes posted controversial comments. Drat! I missed it all. I have been obsessed with studying languages on Duolingo. I have spent almost no time on Pricescope.

A report on my progress: I slog through all the French exercises, but I am almost as high as Duolingo allows a person to go on their rating system. I got my owl in French ages ago.

Italian, Spanish, and German are going nowhere fast.

I keep getting promoted in Czech and I don't know why. I don't understand a word of that language!

AGBF