I hear you, me too. Here's an example. Every single candidate has said they would increase defense spending from current levels. Every candidate has also said that they would cut taxes. Yet, none of them has put together a concrete plan on how to pay for it. We are currently running a rather large deficit. So if we are going to 1) balance the budget, 2) increase defense spending and 3) cut taxes, I would like to see a specific plan, with actual numbers, on how they propose to do what they are saying they will do. This isn't difficult stuff, and frankly a first year journalism major should be able to enunciate the follow up questions necessary to elicit the plan that each one has. If they don't have a 'real' plan, then that should be vetted as well. This is my frustration with the current political climate. A lot of the questions last night were 'oh, so and so said that you were X' - please comment.' That does nothing to actually educate the voter as to what the candidate actually intends to do - and more importantly - IF the candidate has the ability to do it. For instance, a candidate saying 'I'm going to repeal Obamacare' should be taken to task over the fact that they don't have that power. They can sign into law a repeal passed by Congress, but they can't do it by fiat. It would be nice if a moderator pointed that out.
Four years ago they were asking candidates if they like Elvis or Johnny Cash better. This is for people running for the President Of The United fucking States. The people running it are retarded tabloid fucks and the hosts act like trashy 80's talk show hosts, ratfuckers blowing smoke up everyone's ass while intentionally targeting the guests against each other. Is it going to keep getting worse, or perhaps it will improve and one day society will look at this method of POTUS debates as utterly flashy and sleazy pro wrestling bullshit.
That's the problem. Those debates are pandering to the WWE crowd. Trump's campaign is exactly like an episode of Smackdown. A show which he has appeared on. This debate was slightly better than Fox's. At least a couple times (ok, once) the candidates were asked to actually answer the question. However, Bernie Sanders' live tweeting was both sad and hilarious to read. His last message was, "I've had it. I'm going home." Which kind of broke my heart. Come actual debate time, not one of those clowns on stage last night would last a minute. They weren't even prepared to debate the guys on the same team, how the hell are they going to get through Bernie or Biden, or even Hillary? I refuse to believe the GOP has not one sane moderate they're willing to up, even if that person is a complete liar. This nonsense WILL hurt them.
I think a few could debate fine, the problem was a "debate" featuring 10 fucking people up there isn't a debate, its a shouting match. And it was poorly moderated most of the time. Sure there were a "few" times the candidates were forced to focus on a point, but the debate was 3 hours long and most of it was just shouting out buzzwords. That debate should be the beginning of the end for Trump (though who knows). It showed both the good and the bad. Good? Love him or hate him, he's a smart guy and way more clever than most of those slapdicks. He was quicker with quips and responses. And you have to begrudgingly respect him for sticking to his guns, especially when every politician falls over themselves to hedge. That being said, he had nothing of substance in regards to anything relating to politics, and when he was pressed, his answers were outrageous and not founded in anything workable. Ted Cruz is a fucking joke of a melt face in his father's suit. He turned every question into a sermon that was canned bullshit. He's not far behind Huckabee in terms of dislike. How the fuck is Ben Carson a thing. He's either looking like he just woke up from a nap or hasn't been paying attention, or invoking some antiquated bullshit as strength for his position. He's probably a great doctor cause his voice is soothing as fuck though, bedside manner like you read about. Fiorina was the clear winner. She was direct, and prepared, and not ready to back down. I was fairly impressed. However, some of her statements in regards to global economics were really short sighted and she was an AWFUL CEO. So that is concerning. TL;DR As someone who skews conservative largely due to financial reasons, this is a fucking mess.
I wonder, does it even matter what the GOP candidates say? Are these yokels actually going to go vote in the primary, or would they stay home? Isn't it a foregone conclusion these people ultimately vote GOP either way? Welp, these people will end up costing you a lot. A lot. Pretty much all of them are looking to start a new war. I still think Trump is the best candidate and I *still* have no idea what his ultimate goal is. That is troublesome for me, but not for others it seems. Last night was the first of many chinks to his armor. Fiorina's foreign policy would be disastrous economically and socially, and her stance on Planned Parenthood (defund it at all costs even if it shuts down the government) is nothing shy of evil. Plus that whole CEO thing where HP stock dropped 70% and never recovered. Slate said she came out the clear winner too, however I did not get that impression. Honestly couldn't tell you who DID. I could go on a long rant about Huckabee. I'll just say I am legitimately afraid of a man like that in a position of authority.
Oh they already have. The radicalization of the GOP and the preponderence of fuckfaces like Cruz, Huckabee, and company have invalidated (IMO) the two most promising conservative candidates since Dole and Bush: Jon and the governor version of Mitt Romney. Romney is a case study, a moderate and sensible governer (a Republican elected in MA for gods sake) who was pushed way to the right by the GOP until he was a joke. My comment about Fiorina was more about her poise and refusal to jump into the hokey banter fest that everyone else did. Her geopolitical outlook sounded firm and decisive, but the militarization and show of might in response to Russia is a terrible idea and clearly she had no idea of global economic implications. PP has become another bullshit lightning rod. I don't think even Pro-Choice supporters are thrilled about some of the horrifying videos and details the candidates were hammering on, but to use that as motivation to get that aggressive is asinine. Its like banning eating meat cause you don't like some factory farming practices.
As others have mentioned, if the school honestly thought it was a threat there would have been an evacuation to ensure the safety of all students and staff and a bomb squad would have been called to ascertain what that object was. That is the proper protocol for a perceived bomb threat. Obviously that did not happen because they either a) realized the chances of that clock being a bomb was 0% or b) they really did not care about their responsibilities as school administrators. I am going to assume they went with option A because they actually confiscated it. Would you touch anything that you would think it's a bomb? I do believe it was his family that alerted the media because of how egregiously this situation was handled by both the police and the school administration. Please correct me if I'm wrong. As far as who made it a point of his religion? I believe that is the collective public opinion. This new story first came to my attention because it was trending on Twitter and the consensus seems like it was based on Islamophobia. The media seems to be reporting that consensus as well, no article has came out and state that the police arrested a 14 year old boy because he was Muslim. I personally do not believe that a 14 year old John Smith from Irving Texas who made a homemade clock and decided to bring it to his school to show his new engineering teacher in hopes of impressing her, would wind up being detained, interrogated by the police and coerced into writing a statement without his parents present. Which is absolutely illegal under any circumstances, and the police chief in Irving, Texas will tell John Smith's parents that he wasn't aware that they weren't present when his police officers were interrogating their child and that there will be no investigation into the matter. "A reporter at a news conference Wednesday asked Chief Boyd about the allegations that Ahmed was told he could not call his father and was interrogated alone for some time at the station. "I'm not aware of that," the chief said, adding that the incident isn't being investigated." http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/16/us/texas-student-ahmed-muslim-clock-bomb/ On top of that, the Police Departments Spokesperson decided to release a statement saying that a 14 year old child who was detained by police without his parents being present should have been more forthcoming while he was under the threat of arrest, thus also confirming that he was illegally interrogated without his parents present: "A spokesman for the Irving Police Department, James McLellan, told the Tribune that arresting Ahmed was the appropriate course of action. “When we attempted to question the student about what it was, what it was for, why he brought it to school, he only said it was a clock,” McLellan said. “Not knowing what he was going to do or why he had it, with the information they had, the arrest was appropriate.” Although Ahmed explained that the device was a clock he’d made himself, McLellan said, Ahmed declined to provide other information." “He was very short and abrupt with the officers, and he would maintain to us only that it was a clock,” McLellan said. “If he’d been more — if he’d explained what he explained to the media — I’d venture to say the outcome may well have been different.” https://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/16/irving-police-drop-charges-against-muslim-student/ And then he was handcuffed for his safety and the safety of the officers, after everyone was sure that the clock wasn't a bomb since they have confiscated it and was about to charge him for bring a hoax bomb to school: "School officers questioned Ahmed about the device and why Ahmed had brought it to school. Boyd said Ahmed was then handcuffed “for his safety and for the safety of the officers” and taken to a juvenile detention center. He was later released to his parents, Boyd said." http://www.dallasnews.com/news/comm...ted-after-taking-homemade-clock-to-school.ece Yes, 5 police officers were afraid that this child might harm them so they put him in handcuffs. This was how his father found him.
Dude. It's right there on his hat. I guess I'm in the minority here, and since I am not trained to recognize an explosive device and maybe watch too much TV, I have to say, this looks kinda bomby to me: Whether his name was John Smith or Ahmed Mohamed, I'm pretty sure most of the other parents at the school are glad they were cautious. He seems like a pretty smart kid. I find it hard to believe he was so innocently unaware that what he built could be interpreted that way, and he didn't offer a clear explanation when asked. I didn't see the info elsewhere - if he did this for a school project, why wasn't his teacher defending him?
You're right, you do watch too much TV. A key feature of an explosive device is an explosive. A jumble of wires and a bright LED, while the "money shot" in every shitty TV show, is at most merely the detonator. Without anything to detonate, it can never be a bomb.
But they weren't. They didn't take it seriously, at all. How were they being even remotely cautious? They didn't evacuate the school, they handled the clock... they were mindless drones that basically overreacted to their initial media and tv-fueled fears, and didn't have the common sense to adjust that train of thought as soon as they figured out the truth of the situation. Same goes for the cop.
That's a good point. Ahmed could have just said that, too, right? Like he could have said, "what's the big deal? That rosin bag there is not C4, it's just a rosin bag that I decided to add to make this clock look cool. And, even though I'm really smart and can build a clock, it never occurred to me that TV bombs are often constructed inside a brief case for dramatic effect, and it never occurred to me that when I lifted up the lid on my case, it would appear to someone like it's a bomb, and that they wouldn't be able to immediately recognize there's no explosive hidden in the lining of the case." I'm just saying I have questions. It appears that the device plugs in, but also has a battery. And, surely it wasn't plugged in while he had it in his bag in class. So, when it beeped during class and alerted the English teacher, there was a battery making it beep. Where is the battery in the picture? Was the clock showing time of day or counting down? Since Ahmed's father occasionally "returns to the Sudan to run for president," I assume they've had a few political discussions in their house. It's not outside the realm of possibility to think Ahmed purposefully built this device hoping for exactly the reaction he got.
Who cares if he did it intentionally or not? The end result is the same... the teachers and the cops acted inappropriately enough that POTUS noticed and responded.
He wasn't doing it for a school project, he brought it in to show it to his new engineering teacher in hopes that it will impress her. Mind you he is a freshman in High School and the new school year just started a few days ago for most kids around the country. What looks "bomby" to you, looks kind of like a computer chip inside a small briefcase of sorts to me. I'm still looking pretty hard for the dynamite, C4 or anything that might actually explode. Also, not sure what bomb on TV you've seen that requires an wall plug to operate and detonate? But I am just as clueless as you about bombs and that is probably a good thing. Not to mention the administration and the police thought it looked "bomby" enough to cause all this ruckus; detain and interrogated a child but not "bomby" enough to actually follow proper protocol of evacuation and calling a bomb squad. Instead they confiscated it. On the scene. With no need for experts to evaluate before they physically handled it. I am not sure how the other parents in the school feel, but the actions of the school administration and the police did not protect their children should it have been a credible threat. They did not evacuate the school, and they did not call a bomb squad. Detaining and interrogating a 14 year old child does not make their children any safer. What worries me a bit is that the onus is on the 14 year old child to explain himself to the police about what he did when he should NOT have been questioned in the first place without parental supervision. You do realize that the reason why we require parental supervision during an interrogation of a minor is because they are usually scared shitless around the police and sometime may not be able to articulate themselves?
I'm a school administrator in Texas. For once, I feel a little qualified to offer my input on a subject. Given the information that is out there right now, this is what in my opinion the school SHOULD have done, in accordance with best practices and the laws in our state: Spoiler: probably common sense to most of you The first time a teacher or authority figure had a question regarding the device, they should have first asked the child. If they were not satisfied with the answer and/or wanted to verify out of an abundance of caution, they should have gone to the administration of the school. The administration should then have confiscated the device and notified the child's parents. Regardless of what the child's parents said, they had the authority to and should have either A) kept it in their office until the end of the school day and told the child to take it home, or if they did not feel comfortable with the device at school B) told the parents to pick it up or send someone authorized to pick it up. Generally-speaking, regarding items of safety, the parents have one hour from first contact to go to the school. IF the school felt that the device posed an immediate danger to the safety of the staff and students, they could have notified the police, but under those circumstances they should have first notified the parents they were calling the authorities and given them an opportunity to retrieve the device first. Under ABSOLUTELY NO CIRCUMSTANCES should the child's name have been made public, not to other students, certainly not to other staff members, and definitely not to media. Generally the school has the duty to protect the child's privacy unless protecting such constitutes a security risk. The child is a juvenile, and they can and likely will be sued if the child's attorney believes they released his name or at least were haphazard regarding his privacy. If the child brought the device at the encouragement of a staff member at the school (like for a science project, because the teacher wanted to see it, whatever) then the school is beyond fucked. Well, they're regular-fucked anyway, because apparently it's run by an administrative staff who thinks a model of the solar system is grapeshot. How the police handled this is so wrong to the extent I question whether we know the full details yet, specifically what the school told them and what they were presented with when they arrived. I'd also be very curious to see a timeline of events, who called whom when and who was told what when. I'd say this would all come out in the inevitable civil suit, but that has a snowball's chance of happening. I'd be shocked if the district wasn't working on a settlement plan already.
Should he just carry the circuit boards around in his pocket? Of course he put them in a case. You know no bomb has a red LCD display right?
The clock bombs do. It's the hip new muslim terrorist fad. He probably just left the bomb part at home.
I'm with Rush on this one.That thing in the suitcase looks nothing like a clock. This article sums it up nicely. http://www.independentsentinel.com/when-a-clock-looks-like-a-bomb-its-islamophobia/ As others have pointed out, the way the administration and police handled it was laughable. However, rather than immediately deciding that the lack of urgency and caution in their reaction was because they were racist, my opinion is that they were merely incredibly stupid.
This is the serious thread, if you would like a new conspiracy theory thread please feel free to suggest one. There is no basis for this assumption and if you have empirical evidence to support that theory I implore you to share. You believe that a 14 year old child would purposely build a clock to bring to his High School to show his new engineering teacher because he likes to build things and wants to show her in hopes that: - The teacher and school administration would interpret it for a bomb, but not credible enough to actually follow the proper protocols for an actual bomb threat to evacuate the school and bring in a bomb squad. - Have the police called to the school to detain and question him without parental oversight. - Blame him for not being able to articulate himself during their interrogation without parental oversight - Then have the police threaten him with charges for bringing a HOAX bomb to school because they were able to determine without need for expert opinion that it wasn't a real bomb, but the need to charge him with something trumped common sense - Eventually have 5 police officers arrest him and put him in handcuffs and taken to a juvenile detention center before he was released to his father. Yes, He masterminded the entire chain of events in hopes that he - 14 year old Ahmed Mohamed from Irving, TX will be able to make national news in the US to help his father run for Sudanese Presidency. I need a drink.
I'm not trying to be obtuse here, but you know what else looks like a clock that's been taken apart? It starts with a "B".