Azalin

Turn down the vitriol, little guy. You responded to this question regarding the governor of New York State: "Can someone explain to me how he can force $15/hr without a law in place?" with a comparison to the right to bear arms, which makes absolutely no sense at all. You may want to 'smart your posts up' a bit if you want to conduct any kind of dialogue.

'Going to be'? I'd say it already is.

It's pretty tough to take Trump seriously as a candidate, but he's getting a lot of traction with people because he's saying things that many people - not just republicans - have been dying to hear their candidates say for years. Republicans have been bending over backwards to try to dispel the image that they hate immigrants, minorities, the poor, women, etc by not taking a hard stance on much of anything. As a result, they get candidates who come off as spineless kitties and wind up losing elections. If other republicans are smart, they'll take notice of how Trump resonates with so many people and adopt a more aggressive method of campaigning.

Would you mind clarifying the connection between the NY governor's $15/hour minimum wage decree and federal encroachment on our 2nd amendment rights?

It's easy to see why he had the effect on people that he did. I was still in my youthful neo-communist phase during his presidency, but even then I had to admit that he was not only a likeable guy, but things had actually begun to turn around under his administration. Republicans have been looking for the next Reagan ever since those days.

Are you kidding? You've generated some first-class infighting with one simple post. Now all your cabinet members are at each others' throats, all too preoccupied to thwart any of your machinations. That's leadership right there.

The only time I can remember conservatives banding together in large numbers was during the Reagan years. He was really good at selling his vision, to the point where even a lot of democrats supported him rather than their own party. Nobody else in my lifetime has been able to rally conservatives like that, specifically because they weren't Reagan.

Do they speak Farsi as well?

Now that I think about it, I'm already the US Ambassador to the UN according to GreggyT's post from several months ago. In fact, I was having a very difficult time conducting a dialogue with that impertinent Ambassador from Iran. Every time I would offer him a kebab and tell him to chill, he'd start screaming 'death to America' in that Farsi grunt-speak of his.

I never mouth off to the police, but I rarely get stopped for anything (4 times in my whole life). If I still smoked, and a cop who had pulled me over told me to put out my cigarette, I'd have something to say about that too. The officer in question was way too heavy-handed in dealing with Bland, but she should have seen where this was heading and at least tried to mitigate her response somewhat - if a cop is being a jerk, they're not going to back off if you give them a hard time. Only an idiot does that. Still, this case is particularly disturbing because it somehow resulted in Bland's death, presumably a suicide. From what they're reporting locally, the Texas Rangers are investigating this, and they have a reputation for being both thorough and tenacious. I'm confident that if there was any foul play involved in Bland's death, they will uncover it.

Apparently not. I'm betting 'no'.

We have a winner.

Your logic is quite similar to mine. I just don't get too wrapped up in supporting individual candidates at this point in the game. I'm not overly ideological either - I just want the government to be less preoccupied with getting into all aspects of our lives and restrict the amount they can extract from my wallet. Both sides are pretty bad about that, but one is worse than the other, so I will vote against them. Again.

You were quite literally understanding my own words better than I was. At this point in the process, I never really have a 'favorite', but of the entire field of republicans who've announced their candidacy, the ones who stand out the most with me are the three who've not held public office - Fiorina, Trump, and Carson. Fiorina sounds pretty sharp when she speaks, but she sounds the most like a politician of the three. Carson stands out to me for his intellect and sincerity. Trump stands out because he's upsetting an apple cart that I believe really needs to be upset. There are a few among the remaining republicans that I like (Kasich in particular), but once again, I'll be going to the polls to vote against whoever the democrat nominee turns out to be.

Screw that, let's start a confederacy.

Ugh. I should wait until I wake up a little more before posting in the morning. You apparently understood what I was saying better than I did. Yes, I meant to say that I vote for the lesser of two evils. Good grief.

Yep, from my point of view, anyway. I don't trust any of them, and I'm sick to death of career politicians. Over the years I've found myself leaning to the right when compared with most people, but that's as much a consequence of the democrats moving so far to the left over the last several decades as it is my values evolving as I age. I pretty much go into the voting booth thinking 'this person would suck as president, but this person is really gonna suck', and vote accordingly.

It sounds to me as if you're a perfect fit for press secretary.

FWIW, I've never actually voted for anyone I thought was 'my' candidate, but have always voted against what I consider to be the lesser of two evils.

No, no, no - you're not thinking like a politico at all. All we need to do is contrive a crisis or two, and then take the initiative in remedying the problem. Personally, I'm appalled at the excessively high - nay, prohibitively high cost of quality, craft-brewed American beer. As Americans, we all deserve to enjoy a finely brewed American beer, and I'm just the person to help bring this fine American product into everyone's home. You should consider the lack of quality, affordable prostitution for Americans. That would be fun to pursue as well.

Elizabeth Bathory would simply say that life imitates art.

You apparently do not live in Texas.

I've seen a lot of reviewers with the same criticism, and I don't get it either.

Me too - I was in Martinsville Virginia, on vacation at my great-uncle Howard's house.

No argument there.