Random Politics & Religion #00

Lesser of two evils? Look at the people running on her side. She's the greatest of six evils.

Who else is running on her side besides Sanders? The two evils are dem and rep, and when you compare her to the likes of trump and bush, obviously progressives are getting behind her.

According to the Virginia straw poll, we also have Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Martin O'Malley, and Jim Webb. Of course progressives aren't going to like Trump and Bush, but Hillary Clinton? Really? She's the closest thing to a Trump or Bush that the Democrats have.

You realize that your explanation can be used for either side right? The only difference is I have not heard of one person on the right, that would get behind Bush or Trump the way Dems bend over backwards for clinton.

Do you spend a lot of time around people who bend over backwards for hillary or do you just think that's what they're doing?

Sadly. I know a few people that think clinton is their savoir. They are not the brightest crayons in the box. Even some people on this site would vote for that pathetic lying hypocrite.

So, by "the dems" you really mean a couple people you know personally and your assumptions about a handful of people on the internet... Got it.

Hillary has a commanding lead in the Dem side of the polls according to RCP. +48.5% over her nearest competitor. Jeb Bush is up 5.8%. Somebody has to be bending over backward for Hillary.

Hillary has a commanding lead in the Dem side of the polls according to RCP. +48.5% over her nearest competitor. Jeb Bush is up 5.8%. Somebody has to be bending over backward for Hillary.

The word "assumptions" coming from you is priceless.

Because she declared 6 months before anyone else and has raised 3 times as much as the nearest competitor? Or because months before the first primary she's the only name anyone has even heard before?

Yeah, those phone polls over a year before an election really nail it down.

Because she declared 6 months before anyone else and has raised 3 times as much as the nearest competitor? Or because months before the first primary she's the only name anyone has even heard before?

Assumptions!

Does it rustle your jimmies when someone steals your act?

If she makes it past the debates as the clear frontrunner,

That is what you call.

The Balkan countries aspiring for European Union membership can reach their goals despite the crisis in Greece, Angela Merkel said Wednesday as she began a two-day tour of the region.

The German chancellor visited Albania and Serbia whose ambitions to join the EU have been complicated by the Greek financial turmoil. She is to travel to Bosnia on Thursday.

Merkel praised Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, who is campaigning for Serbia's EU membership despite strong opposition from a pro-Russian nationalist bloc, for accepting austerity demands from the creditors.

"I think the prime minister is pursuing this policy not because he wants to please anyone outside Serbia, but out of the conviction that less debt, less new debt, leads in the end to lower interest payments and more room to spend and invest in the future," Merkel said in Belgrade. "And I think we are not seeing that things in Greece are going so successfully at the moment."

"We are in a very different situation here (in Serbia), in which a government is pursuing out of conviction a path that is not easy, but one which will — just as in Ireland, in Portugal, in Spain — yield success. I am firmly convinced of that," Merkel added.

Serbia, Albania and Bosnia have declared their desire to join the EU, but in the wake of the Greek bailout turmoil Merkel and other EU leaders are likely to be more wary of admitting countries with troubled economies.

Martin O'Malley

Is he still just low-key campaigning in the Northeast? It seems like most of the buzz was surrounding whether he was going to run. After the official announcement, haven't heard/read much other than the continual, innocuous yammering about Hillary and Sanders.

Poor Littlefinger Carcetti.

Hillary has a commanding lead in the Dem side of the polls according to RCP. +48.5% over her nearest competitor. Jeb Bush is up 5.8%. Somebody has to be bending over backward for Hillary.

Um, aren't you a statistician? Because I hope you are trying to make a bad joke, rather than draw a meaningful conclusion from different statistical (sub)populations.

I know you can't draw conclusions from polls such as this due to glaring flaws in data collection and analysis coupled with incongruous groups, but that doesn't make them meaningless.

The U.S. Mint said on Tuesday it temporarily sold out of its popular 2015 American Eagle silver bullion coins due to a "significant" increase in demand, the latest sign plunging prices have spurred a resurgence of retail buying.

In a statement sent to its biggest U.S. wholesalers, the Mint said its facility in West Point, New York, continues to produce coins and expects to resume sales in about two weeks.

This is the second time the mint has sold out of silver coins in the past nine months - it ran out of 2014-dated American Eagles in November last year.

In 2013, the historic drop in precious metals prices unleashed a surge in global demand for coins, forcing the mint to ration silver coin sales for 18 months.

Dealers attributed the recent rush to purchase silver coins and bars to its low price relative to gold.

The gold-silver ratio was "way out of whack", said Jon Edelman, owner of Edelman's Coins in Jenkintown, PA.

"That was a sign that silver was too low and people started buying. People view it as an opportunity in the long run."

On Tuesday, one ounce of gold would buy as much as 78 ounces of silver, which is historically a very wide spread.

It's not clear if Tuesday's rout had spurred a fresh round of spot buying, but demand has been healthy in recent months.

Sharp breaks in gold and silver prices typically boost buying among collectors and other retail investors, whose buying habits are sensitive to price moves.

Due to its greater affordability, silver sales tend to outstrip gold in volume terms and attract a lot more retail buyers.

Last month, coin sales surged to 4.84 million ounces, the highest since January and more than double the 2 million ounces sold a month earlier.

On Tuesday, spot silver prices sank almost 7 percent to $14.65 per ounce, the lowest for the year as the dollar climbed and amid a broader exodus of cash from commodities.

Could you clarify?

It's an observational study. You're not going to prove anything with a statistical degree of confidence, but it still has educational value. It's also open for debate, though.

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley pledged to sign legislation on Thursday permanently removing the Confederate battle flag from the state capitol grounds, following an emotional debate spurred by the massacre of nine black churchgoers last month.

Haley said she would sign the bill into law at 4 p.m. EDT, and Charleston's Post and Courier newspaper said the flag would be removed at 10 a.m. on Friday. It will be taken to the "relic room" of a military museum in Columbia, the state capital.

The flag nicknamed the "Stars and Bars," carried by Confederates in the 1861-1865 Civil War, is seen as a symbol of racism and slavery by many but of Southern heritage by others. It has flown at the state capitol for more than 50 years.

South Carolina's House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the bill just after 1 a.m. EDT on Thursday after a debate that began on Wednesday. The Senate passed it earlier in the week, also by a huge margin.

In a statement early Thursday, Haley said, "It is a new day in South Carolina, a day we can all be proud of, a day that truly brings us all together as we continue to heal, as one people and one state."

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) welcomed the move, calling the flag "one of the longest standing symbols of hatred and exclusion."

Confederate flag coming down in South Carolina after wrenching debate

Problem solved.

Its meaningless when you observe a group who has 2 choices and has never heard of one of them. The evil you know, etc

Confederate flag coming down in South Carolina after wrenching debate

Problem solved.