Thank goodness TechDirt and the NYT continued to follow this story and outed the troll: Smart Options (in context even the name is f'ed up). It's a good read and even has cringingly terrible troll on troll fighting: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150510/07083630948/patent-trolls-frivolous-attack-startup-forces-startup-to-sell-out-to-another-patent-troll.shtml

Stories like this simply crush my desire to strike out on my own in software development. We seriously need patent reform!

I'm glad we didn't make the same mistake the kind countries of Europe did, and instead we have a vetting process to help ensure that only genuine refugees are coming in. I'm not saying the approach is necessarily the best one, but what can you do when so many economic migrants are clogging the system (on purpose) for people in genuine need of help. (I'm a refugee myself btw).

If it was up to me I'd add some additional tests to ensure that these people are fit for a modern society too, you know, to make sure my daughter/wife/mother/sister etc can go outside on their own, unlike some cities in Europe now.

But then again if it was up to me, neither of the 3 major political parties would be in charge since they're all useless. Liberals are just a mouth piece for big business (literally, that's why they were formed). And they all also look like the bad guys from any 80s and 90s kids cartoon. The Labour party is well meaning, but ultimately as lame, pathetic and gut-less as their "leader", they simply don't stand for anything and all of their policies boil down the lowest common denominator. The Greens driven by emotion not facts, and now they don't even seem to care about the environment very much.

There needs to be some kind of progressive party that is capable of driving humanity forward into the future, instead of weighing it down with traditions of the past. The whole system needs a huge reform.

I doubt he'll be remembered as anything other than a massive disappointment

Edit: Re-reading that, it came across harsher than I had intended. I think Obama was a good guy with mostly good intentions (still not keen on his policy of murdering brown people in other countries without due process).

But his healthcare was half-assed, he did nothing about gun control, and he STILL hasn't closed Guantanamo. Meanwhile, privacy rights have further eroded under his watch, and whatever legislation he apparently put in place around Wall Street is clearly not working. I'm not sure he's even looked at campaign finance reform.

Granted, a lot of that is down to an increasingly intractable (read: borderline retarded) republican congress, but the fact remains, he didn't achieve nearly as much as was hoped for.

Yes, we clearly disagree about independent voters' responsibilities. That's fine. Just know that when you assign blame, many won't accept it.

Yes, I also hope current poll numbers and trends reverse....unless Sanders IS the nominee, in which case I hope current poll numbers remain the same.

What? What argument? Instead of answering? I discussed your two suggestions, and offered two of my own, one being (I think) a more palatable alternative to your tax proposal for steadying markets, the other being campaign reform. To quote myself...
"Tax on investment transactions...you've GOT to be kidding, she'll never consider any such thing, it goes against her own, and her donors interests. A speed limit on trading info so everyone has an equal chance would work better.
The one you didn't mention is the MOST important in my eyes, and also a non starter from her or them....campaign reform...both finance AND how elections operate from districts to electronic voting machines and everything in between."
Is that an argument? It certainly wasn't meant as one.
It was meant as simple and fairly civil (if slightly snarky) answers to your question (answers that I guess you missed), with a note that IMO, my (and likely your) preferred planks are not going to be addressed acceptably by Clinton, and clear reasons why I think that. That was not meant to start an argument, I'm sorry you take it that way.

No, I don't think I said that. Again, it would be nice, but if she locks it up (not counting super delegates) then Bernie's run as a Democrat is over, as is all hope. I don't hold onto even a shred of hope that he'll sway her policy, no matter what he gets her to say during the election.
She's already been incredibly inconsistent on the minimum wage thing, actually taking 3 positions in one sentence in one debate. Can't trust her.
Tax on investment transactions...you've GOT to be kidding, she'll never consider any such thing, it goes against her own, and her donors interests.
A speed limit on trading info so everyone has an equal chance would work better.
The one you didn't mention is the MOST important in my eyes, and also a non starter from her or them....campaign reform...both finance AND how elections operate from districts to electronic voting machines and everything in between. Without that, we'll never get candidates that will work for us OR fix the system that supports them, or even be able to trust our elections. As I see it, Sanders is our one and only hope of fixing the system, so the only hope of saving the union.

Interesting. In that scenario, after I regain consciousness and pick my jaw up off the floor, I would both support the only decision that I think might save the party (one I don't belong to, BTW) and the reform movement and I would support Clinton supporters in their complaints that it was totally unfair. (EDIT: To that end, fixing the system should be job 1 to return 'fairness' to the process)

What I think we need most of all is campaign reform, not just finance reform but complete election rules reform from redrawing district boundaries on up. Sanders is the only one with a dog in that fight...or at least with a dog on the right side of that fight, so if using the current unfair rules to that end is the only option, I would forgive it just this once, but I would expect it to be fixed so it won't happen again.

Yes, in a way it's lucky my vote 'doesn't count'. In another, it's incredibly disheartening. This primary vote may be the first vote in a presidential campaign I will have ever cast that might make a difference, and also may be the last.

That video explains exactly why in the end, voting for the lesser of two evils leads to the greater. Without a third party popping up from time to time forcing parties to realign nothing will ever change. The same two parties keep swapping power. The spoiler effect is a necessary sacrifice, required to effect change in a first past the post system.

Ideally our senators would implement voting reform and end first past the post. Not likely to happen if they are all benefiting from the current system.

@newtboy and @ForgedReality
First up, I'm not saying I like Hillary, but let's be real here; Trump is much, much worse.

Hillary's a liar and a felon (citation needed, btw)?
Trump wants to bring back torture, to close the country to Muslims and deliberately bomb people's families. Yeah, he might not get to do any of that, but the fact that he WANTS to is fucking terrifying.
So, yes, she's undoubtedly the lesser of two evils.

As for voting for someone other than Hillary or Trump, as far as I'm aware, right now, there aren't any other candidates announced (assuming Hillary gets the Dem nomination, which she will, as I already explained because numbers).

A quick google doesn't show any other third party candidates (although it did reveal that Roseanne Barr once ran!) for this year. Bernie has said nothing about running as an independent, so right now your options are almost certainly Trump or Clinton.

But let's say for the sake of argument that Hillary gets the dem nod and Bernie decides to run as an independent.

Now in a sane political system, I would absolutely advocate voting for your favourite candidate, but the US election system is so fundamentally broken that voting for Bernie would hand Trump the election. That's the reality.

@Baristan
"Voting your conscience and losing to Trump is far better!!! Eventually a third party can form and whittle away at the two sided party. "

No, that doesn't happen. *related=http://videosift.com/video/The-Problems-with-First-Past-the-Post-Voting-Explained

A third party rises up, splits the vote of it's nearest rival and then disappears over the next couple of election cycles.

Your voice is already inconsequential. The US badly needs election reform.

It SUCKS, and by FSM, I really hope I'm wrong. Maybe Bernie will somehow snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, but it's just really unlikely.

But above all, you cannot elect Trump. If you really think he wouldn't be worse than Hillary, then I'm sorry, but you're fucking delusional.

Look, I REALLY wanted Bernie to win. I even checked if there was some way I could donate to his campaign as a non-US citizen. But it didn't happen. You (plural, US voters, especially democrats) had your chance and y'all done fucked it up and now you have to live with the choices you've made.

I fear you are making the same mistake the Clinton campaign makes. You think that if the candidate of choice for so many, Bernie, is no longer an option, his supporters will vote for the other Democrat....but Bernie's supporters are largely independents that don't support him because he's the Democratic candidate of choice, they support him DESPITE the fact that he's running as a Democrat.
Bernie is supported because of his perceived honesty and the documented stances he takes on various issues, mostly finance reform but many, many others. It is not the kind of support you can hand off to someone else, particularly not to someone that is the antithesis of the stances and values that garnered the support in the first place. Even if Sanders does endorse Clinton (I think he will, he said he would and he's seemingly a man of his word), I'm guessing a large part, likely the majority of his supporters still won't vote for Clinton, most of the young ones will just not vote at all, and some will vote for Trump out of spite or anger. That may hand the house and senate to the Republican's as well....so it's even worse than you think.
Not to mention the likely indictment(s) a few weeks before the election with no time or opportunity for her to defend herself against the charges. The Republicans control that process, it's insanity to think they won't abuse it.

She doesn't just need Bernie, she needs the independents that want Bernie's policies. I fear she will NEVER get them, they mostly despise her and distrust her immensely, which is one more reason the DNC pushing so hard for her makes no sense to me, it's a game they can only lose, even if they win.

Your video, Bernie Sanders On Campaign Finance Reform, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Let's be realistic, most of the work our war planes do has collateral damage. We don't simply use them on 'the bad guys', but again that is a simplification to allow you moral latitude.

Non-smokers are no better than smokers, I know since I used to be a smoker. Just because I decided that I no longer wanted to smoke doesn't mean I feel the need to go up to someone smoking and start telling them how much better I am that I quit. Again, I'm not any better of a person than they are, I just chose to do something different. That is one of the things you can't seem to grasp, because you continue to say that morally you are more good than someone who does not practice a vegan lifestyle. You aren't.

As far as the functional capacity for feelings, of course animals feel pain, it is a stimuli that helps in their survival instinct. That instinct is what drives them to avoid pain because it means they might not survive. It doesn't mean that they have the logical thought capacity to relate pain to more than an instinctual response. I am pretty sure that no pig ever felt pain and said to itself, I feel pain therefore I exist as a being, they felt the pain and instinct told them to get away from it. Plants even have stimuli that they will respond to in order to grow or try to avoid damaging forces, but they aren't self-aware. Neither are animals until you get to a certain level of intelligence, like dolphins or great apes.

I grew up in the country, I have seen first hand and used my hands in regards to the butchery you speak of. Never once have I had a pig who had seen another be slaughtered do anything that would give me the belief that they were responding in any other fashion than a "shit, flight time since I might be next" natural instinct that is in all prey animals. Factory farms may not be totally humane, and that should be reformed, but all they are doing in the end is killing prey animals on a much larger scale than I did growing up.

I was thinking much the same thing. I think he's hamming it up a bit to suit the show, but that was some pretty deep honest introspection there, along with an almighty well of angst.

I'm starting to get why people vote for Trump. To throw a radical in to the equation, for better or worse. It's a gamble, and it's likely going to turn out bad if he wins the presidency, but it's not like the establishment is going to magically reform itself...

And though it's his show and he's trying to run it, I though Colbert was actually ruining it a little bit. It became apparently pretty early in that Bill was talking from the heart for a change (rather than shooting from the hip), it might be worthwhile listening.

Cenk WAS a denier of the Armenian genocide and wrote a paper back in his school days in which he put those beliefs to hard paper. Despite him having named his network after a group responsible in said genocide, he is quite adamant that he has changed his opinion and admits younger him was wrong.

I've not looked close enough to say if he's reformed or not, but the entirety of his personality and behaviour today is so jerkish I strongly dislike him regardless of if he's reformed from his 'worse' past.

I would actually say that's what makes a personally successful politician, but not a professionally successful one, and as far from a perfect one as it's possible to be.
I think we need both election reform and finance reform to make a difference. Election reform to be able to actually hold politicians accountable to their voters at least once every few years, and finance reform to make them want to work for the voters rather than the donors.

A perfect politician would be fair minded, not greedy, not ego driven, not 'tribal', honest, willing to sacrifice for the greater good, thoughtful, consistent but willing to change in the face of new information, moral (not the kind of morality where you force your specific morals on others, but the kind of morality where you can be a role model for them), and still influential and successful at not only finding solutions to problems that are at least palatable to all, but also successful at getting them implemented. I'm not sure I've ever seen one of those...but as I see it, Sanders checks more boxes than most, far more than any other candidate.

Better to blow up few abortion clinics than to murder 50 Million babies.. But hey who's counting. Hitler would be proud.


Bernie stands for unrealistic ideas. Nothing more.

Income inequality-- If you feel bad about that Take every dollar you make over the 15$/hr living wage and give it to someone.-- You can't -- You won't. You , like me are selfish pricks like everyone else. But you wont mind if it is done by force on you employer.

Free tuition? Bull -- nothing is free in life. If you pay for it It will have more value to you.

Getting big $ out of politics-- Agree but will never happen.. Sounds nice though.

Creating decent jobs. 8 Years of Democrat control and zero happened. You think a socialist can make a difference. .What is a decent job? I never had one. One you like or one that pays you more that you are worth? I think the unicorn would be discovered first.

A Living wage 15$/hr -- I feel that he is cheating people should be 35$/hr What is the right number-- Its what the market will bear.


Climate change this is BS but I'll go along-- Tax people and companies, which pass to consumers -- We are poor enough under the Obama economy ... Trying to get blood from a rock.


Humane Immigration-- Bernie is a son of an immigrant who came here legally. IF you want these illegals taking you son and daughters and your job buy all means vote for Bernie If your that stupid I suppose the illegal is smarter than you.


Family values. The best family value is for the family to stay together where there is 1 provider and the other provided love, support, encouragement anytime of day , not just after 7pm when both parents come home.. Progressive democrat policies has its price and destroyed the family unit. Bernie just wants more PTO.

Reforming wall street--Obama was the biggest giver of money to wall street in history---Under he and the democrats they created Quantitative easing -- This dumped trillions directly into big banks and wall street.. ..

Bernie stands for unrealistic ideas. Nothing more.