[Skip Dewahl]

Ah, I see the usual suspects not doing what they know best, shutting up and entertaining, meanwhile (to paraphrase), Hillary happens:
https://www.rt.com/news/353036-germa...losion-killed/

[Quincy Lehr]

Erm, Skipperdoodle...

A turd tsunami of compromising things have hit the DNC, the Clinton campaign, etc. over the past couple of days, and you go blaming her for something that, save at many, many, many removes (maybe, according to a certain line of reasoning) had nothing to do with her. Have you checked your tinfoil hat for structural soundness lately?

[Julie Steiner]

Quincy, I think Skip is equating Hillary with the substance that is proverbially said to happen, rather than blaming her for the incident to which he has linked.

(Skip, to avoid such misunderstandings, in future you might want to save the expression "Hillary happens" for situations in which Hillary actually has some obvious degree of involvement.)

[Edited to say: Clearly, the following message by Skip, and his comment on another thread, indicate that I was wrong. He really does mean to hold Hillary personally to blame for every violent act by anyone who wishes to glorify their senseless violence by affiliating it with Daesh. I stand corrected.

That said, I still don't see what is accomplished by mocking and antagonizing Skip, just to further rile him up, any more than I can see what was accomplished when people would mock and antagonize my father in one of his manic phases, just to further rile him up.]

[Skip Dewahl]

"Hillary happens" because "Obama occurs", both being comfortable with what they consider as lone kooks murdering an acceptable amount of people going about their business. They also believe that 911 was an aberrancy, nothing to do with Islam. Meanwhile, Syrians are now entering the country by the planeload and we are asked to trust the Prez that no fanatics are among them. You've even got celebs like F. Murray Abraham getting into the act by saying "From the Middle East to the Midwest" .
What ever happened to getting in line and waiting your turn? Are we to become a dumping ground because of Obama's hands-off policy?
Sharia, let's all gaily twirl for Sharia... Yep, from West Side Story to West Side Gory.

[Quincy Lehr]

Oh, Skippolicious!

I get the character you're trying to do here--the racist blowhard who makes a highly dubiou point about American immigration with an example from
Germany--and while I grant that the character has comic potential, don't you think you're... you know... playing it too broadly?

[John Whitworth]

What is it that Skip said tha is so dubious, Quincy? If it were my country (which it isn't of course) I would not be happy with the present immigration policy. And I would hazard there are more Americans who feel like Skip that feel like you.

Not the right kind of Americans, I grant you.

[Quincy Lehr]

John--

Taking an example from Germany to criticize American immigration policy, which is fairly different, and in which Clinton played very little role in the relevant time period, strikes me as simply bad logic. One could somewhat circuitously note the effects of NAFTA and, what is it, American military action in seven Middle Eastern countries as causes of mass migration, but Skip didn't take that route. Nah, he went racist.

[Max Goodman]

Statistics!

GOP Convention Gets Rare Negative Rating

Trump's convention, according to this poll, made 36% [of likely voters?] more likely to vote for him, and 51% less likely, with 14% undecided. This is so meaningless as to be misleading. What did those voters think before the convention? Most of them (if we can believe other polls) had already made up their minds. If the chance that a voter would vote for Trump dropped from 5% to 3%, or rose from 95% to 99%, what effect will that have on the election? Without additional information, these numbers mean nothing.

The same is true about the numbers we constantly hear regarding how unpopular both candidates are. They never tell us the overlap: how many of those voters who disapprove of Trump also disapprove of Clinton? And of which do they disapprove more? When we're told X% disappove of him, it sounds like those people won't vote for him, but 'taint necessarily so.