It's tough being a black Republican.

One of my closest friends happens to be a black Republican, and she was astonished when she started getting Obama monkey emails from the local party chapter. (She didn't vote for Obama, but she doesn't loathe him and certainly has no issues with his race.) She still doesn't seem to get that people like her aren't completely welcome in what she likes to think of as her party.

It's such a bizarre error. How did the states get moved around? I figured that you generated these things by using the equivalent of the fill tool in Paintbrush on a fixed map outline. Is someone intentionally sabotaging the campaign from the inside?

It's not that weird; a portion of the image was moved. Computers and glitches go hand in hand.

Those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. As someone who is Jewish, it disturbs me not only that people say things like this but that people listen and go "yeah right!". People often forget Hitler was elected (more or less fairly). There was a fairly sizeable portion of the population that didn't need to be beat up to vote for him, a sizeable portion quite willing to pull on a nice comfy brown shirt...

Still not convinced either he or Carson actually want to win. That said I'm sure his poll number will go up on these remarks.

To be fair there's only so far you can draw parallels. After all Germany was close to civil war (much of it fueled by the Nazis and Communists) when Hitler was rising to power. Also Hitler wasn't elected, he was appointed Chancellor by Hindenburg. After that you had fun things like the Reichstag fire and the Night of the Long Knives before things really kicked off.

But you're right about the Nazis having a lot of support. Any time a country's economy is in the shitter you'll see a rise in nationalism and fascism, just look at the situation in Greece right now.

When it comes to Ben Carson, I come up with a different theory every other day. This is today's:

He plays the race card in reverse. I have to give him credit, it's a brilliant scam, white folks are eating it up. By virtue of fulfilling the stereo-type that white America claims that it wants, a black man that doesn't scare them, he is now entitled to their vote and financial support. Which is actually funny because Barack Obama is one of the least scary people I've ever seen but he couldn't bring himself to completely denounce "blackness" so he just didn't make the cut. In order to be the right kind of black man you have to be humble, soft spoken, honest (snort!), smart, polite, deferential to white people, clean cut, white talky with your words, against any kind of government help for brown people, ... oh, and a self-loathing race-traitor. Once you tick all of those boxes, conservatives can support you and feel super good and awesome about themselves because they were never really racist, it actually always was the fault of those bad black people. Meanwhile, Carson makes bank.

Cue the usual suspects to call me a racist for making these remarks.

Whilst Hillary is a white woman that scares most people.

Or rocket science.

The conservatives don't like her either.

Then we had a broad coalition.

I resent the use of the word "broad". In future correspondence, please replace "broad" with "self empowered, fully actualized, woman-goddess". Thank you so much.

Noted

It was implied.

I was being only partially facetious. He really is attempting to denounce his blackness for the sake of a white conservative audience. He has reformed himself so he isn't black (a threat) anymore.

I am being completely not facetious. It may seem like sarcasm (or an attempt at levity) because it sounds so ridiculously outlandish. I'm sure I'll get in trouble on this thread because many white people do not like to talk about, or even acknowledge, racism. I think they believe that by even admitting that racism exists, they are somehow acknowledging that they themselves personally are racist. I don't know what exactly that's all about but it's kind of like dads talking/hearing about their daughters' periods or sexuality ---- VERBOTEN.

Anyhoodles, I can't tell if this is all completely cynical on Carson's part or if some part of him really feels this way in his heart. He definitely has issues when it comes to Obama. The one time he actually publicly lost his shit was during the press conference where he was claiming that he was being treated unfairly and Obama was never scrutinized to this level. His voice went up several octaves when he was ranting about Obama's academic records and that whole Occidental College malarkey. He was practically keening. WTF?

On the other hand, in recent history, he used to not identify with any political party and has voted Democratic in the past. This transformation directly coincides with his rise to stardom, transitioning from medicine and into public speaking/book selling, and becoming filthy rich.

FWIW, I tried to read a few pages of one of his books in Barnes and Noble the other day. It was the most unreadable piece of garbage I've had the misfortune to come across in a very long time.

Cue Boiler to remind us that Hillary's book is way worse...