2017

Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

There are a ton of stories breaking today, and not one of them was about the increasing chatter from Twitter about Trump’s deteriorating mental state, his mood swings, or how there are discussions about the 25th Amendment.

Because there is so much tonight, and it’s late, I’m including the links to stories, and maybe a couple lines about each.

TRUMP LAWYERS OFFER TO MEET WITH MUELLER.

ROGER STONE HAS UNTIL FRIDAY TO REVEAL HIS CONTACT WITH RUSSIA TO HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE OR FACE SUBPOENA.

MUELLER LOOKING INTO CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA.

US TROOPS DEPLOYED TO NATO BASE IN POLAND. RUSSIA VOWS RETALIATION.

RUSSIA, TWITTER BOTS, AND FACEBOOK SCRUBS DATA.

EVEN MORE KUSHNER SF-86 SCREWUPS.

TRUMP DISRESPECTED FLAG. HYPOCRISY METER IS OFFICIALLY BORKEN.

GOP SENATOR BEN SASSE GETS SASSY.

Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska issued a statement Wednesday night that read, “Mr. President: Words spoken by the President of the United States matter.”

He continued, “Are you tonight recanting of the oath you took on January 20th to preserve, protect, and defend the First Amendment?”

SPORTS TEAMS ABANDONED TRUMP HOTELS.

KELLY NOT LEAVING TODAY.

That’s it for today. I expect tomorrow to be even crazier. I didn’t even cover Puerto Rico, the Executive Orders about the ACA, the new cabinet appointment for DHS, the thoroughly corrupt appointments for NOAA or Pipeline Safety, or their nutty interpretation of why the Presidential Records Act doesn’t apply to them, or how the lawyer representing the Russian Lawyer for the June 9 meeting, Natalia Veselnitskaya, was Scott Balber, one of Trump’s former lawyers.

Let’s see how the Friday News Dump goes.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

The Multi-Party System

This article is almost complete hypothetical, and is the result of a twitter discussion with @justapedn from Saturday 10-7-2017. Since I’m a little too verbose for 140 characters, I decided to write a blog post about it.

What would a multi party political system look like in the United States?

Like I said, this is all hypothetical, based off of what’s known, what’s being reported, and what’s being rumored.

THE SET-UP, OR WHAT’S ASSUMED FOR THIS EXERCISE.

Assume that at some point between 2018 and 2022, the Republican Party as it exists today ceases, likely due to implications from the Russian Investigation.
Also during this time, the Democratic Party also has its own problems, and falls apart.
The Green Party goes through a reorganization. Jill Stein goes to jail.
Major campaign reforms are enacted, all the way from a Constitutional Amendment overturning Citizens United down to shortening campaign season.

COLLAPSE OF THE TWO PARTY SYSTEM

So, how do I think the current system dies?

In fire. And a whimper.

During the investigations over the next couple years, the ties of Dark Money will come to the forefront. The RNC leadership laundered Russian money into their 2016 campaigns, and the DNC will be involved in some other shenanigans.

In the fallout, both major parties fracture. Whether any piece of them survives is up in the air, but for this piece, I’ll assume they both die.

THE NEW PARTIES

The names are placeholders. Actual party names may vary.

Nationalist Party. Made up of the Deplorables, the Alt-Right, and hard liners on immigration.
Religious Party. The “Religious Right” get their own party.
Conservative Party. For fiscal conservatives who aren’t as hung up on social issues.
Moderate Party. Made up of a mix of centrists from both Democratic and Republican Parties.
Liberal Party. For the more left-leaning members of the old Democratic Party, but not radical by any definition.
Socialist Party. The fringe left. Over time, their policies become the platform of the Liberal Party.
Libertarian Party. This party sees a new age as those that labeled themselves as Libertarians all of these years join this party.
Green Party. This party reorganizes into one that focuses on environmental issues.

CHANGES TO THE ELECTION SYSTEM.

For the most part, I don’t see too many changes at the state and local levels in the Primary elections. It would be the same as today, just more party options.

Where I see changes taking place would be in the General election.

With 7 or 8 options for an office, there’s a good chance that none of them get a majority. There are two ways this can be handled. Either have the top two contestants take place in a run-off, or use ranked voting.

I prefer ranked voting, as there wouldn’t be a need for a separate day of voting. Each voter would rank their choices from first to last. If no one claimed a majority, whomever had the most last place votes is eliminated. Then, the numbers are recalculated, removing the eliminated candidate from the new count. This continues until someone has a majority.

For example, let’s say Al, Bob, Chuck, Dave, and Ed are running for Congress. Al received 35%, Bob 30%, Chuck 20%. Dave 10%, and Ed 5% out of 100 votes. No one won the majority, so it goes to the rankings. Al had the most votes, but was last in more than half the ballots. Most people said “anyone but Al.” Al is eliminated. Bob now has 30/65 votes. Still not a majority, so another round of eliminations. The next worst one was Dave. Since Dave had 10% of the original vote, that gives Bob a majority.

Bob wins the race, and it’s all done in a night.

CHANGES TO CONGRESS

Surprisingly, there wouldn’t be much change to Congress.

At least, as far as the structure goes.

Unless a party has a full majority, then get ready for coalition governments and a lot of deal making and compromising.

For example, let’s say the Moderates win 200 out of 435 House seats. That’s not enough for a majority. They’re still 18 seats short. All of the other parties could combine against them, or the Moderates could make a deal with one of the other parties that has at least 18 seats to confirm that they maintain the leadership. They could join with the Liberals to institute new health care reforms, or the Conservatives to enact a new jobs program.

CHANGES TO THE PRESIDENT

This is where things get weird.

Assuming the Electoral College is still in use, we might see some interesting deals come out of the Presidential Election.

If a candidate does not receive a majority of the Electoral College, the House of Representatives then decides the President, while the Senate chooses the Vice President.

However, there is a month between the General Election and when the Electoral College meet. That’s more than enough time for either a run-off or some kind of deal.

Let’s say the Moderates have the most assumed EC votes after the General Election, but not a majority. They have 230, but need 40 more. The Socialists won California with 55 electoral votes. To avoid this going to the House, the Moderates and Socialists strike a deal. Maybe the Socialists will endorse the Moderates if they adopt a particular platform and name their candidate to a cabinet position.

Similar deals would happen at or after the Electoral College as well.

WHAT DOESN’T CHANGE?

Hopefully, nothing negative changes with the judiciary. Local races will still be based off of local interests. And, in some areas, running on a particular ticket would be a bad idea.

That’s it for today. I’ll get back to the normal posts tomorrow. By the way, if you’re on Twitter, follow @justapedn. He’s a pretty cool cat.

Thank you, and have a good one.

Drip, Drip, Drip

This article is a little change of pace from the normal daily posts, and jumps into the realm of speculation. I’m going to answer a question I’ve seen on Reddit and Twitter several times since this whole mess started.

“If it’s as bad as they’ve said it is, and the spooks knew, why are we just getting a piece or two at a time?”

The first part refers to the theft, espionage, and treason committed by Donald Trump, his staff, campaign, and the Republican Party.

Spooks in that sentence refers to spies, like the CIA, NSA, MI6, FVEY, and every other country in the world.

The last part is about the steady pulse of information and stories coming out about the investigation, like a faucet dripping.

To answer this question, I’d like to War Game out what I think could have happened had we gotten the whole story at once.

For this exercise, just like in Geometry class, we need to state our assumptions.

ASSUMPTIONS

At least 70% of the rumors are true. Trump, his staff, family, and Campaign committed election fraud, espionage, and treason with the Russians reporting to Vladimir Putin.
The Right Wing Media, including Fox News, Breitbart, Daily Caller, snd InfoWars, knowingly spread propaganda originating from Russia.
Russian money was laundered to the Republican National Committee, and that the leaders of the Party assisted in those matters.
Social Media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit not only let Russians use their platforms to spread propaganda and influence the election, but those platforms profited from it.
Intelligence organizations the world wide knew all of the above.
All of the events up to the election are the same.
All events in this War Game are based off of a quick strike hypothesis, in which the Obama government moves fast after the election.
Following Murphy’s Law, several things go wrong. Horrifically wrong, and at the worst time.

WAR GAME TIMELINE

November 8, 2016

Election Day. Even though Donald Trump loses the popular vote by more than 3 million votes, he squeezes out a minuscule margin in three key states to win enough presumptive votes in the electoral college to become the assumed President-Elect.

November 9, 2016

While the MSM starts asking what went wrong, President Obama meets with the National Security Council. They know what they know, and have three choices. They can either act swiftly to stop Trump from becoming President, let jurisprudence take its toll, or let our allies handle Trump.

This is where the War Game diverges from the regular timeline. In this War Game, Obama chooses to remove the Trump threat immediately. Operation: Bystro (fast in Russian) is authorized. Donald Trump will be arrested right away, along with his family members, staff members, Vice President-Elect Mike Pence, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Jason Chaffetz, several Russians involved that live in the United States, and several people at Fox News like Sean Hannity and Rupert Murdoch, as well as people at Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Breitbart, and other websites. On top of these arrests, several media outlets would close to control panic and the narrative.

It’s decided that since most of the principals will be in Washington the next day, the move will be made when Trump visits the White House.

Several people question the timing of implementing this plan so quickly. If one piece of the operation misses the window, then there could be a disaster.

Still, the administration presses on with Operation: Bystro.

November 10

Trump meets with Obama in the White House. Everything seems like normal, until senior FBI officials walk into the meeting, joined by the head of the Secret Service. The SS Agents are confused as the FBI officials make their way to Trump and arrest him for a whole slew of charges, including espionage.

Across town, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are picked up from a meeting they were attending. Jeff Sessions is arrested at his office.

In New York, Don Jr. and Eric are in Trump Tower with their families. Paul Manafort is downstairs in his suite.

A ruckus is raised outside as a squad of FBI agents roll up to the building.

Across town, the Fox News HQ is about to get some unexpected visitors.

The plan has kicked off, and not even a half hour in, the first SNAFU occurs. One of Rudy Giuliani’s moles finds out about the plan and informs Rudy, right before being rounded up. Rudy calls a producer at Fox News just minutes before the FBI gets there and breaks the story that Donald Trump has been arrested, and that the rest of the family, and his staff, are wanted. Rudy hops in his car and leaves his place, moments before the G-Men get there.

As Fox News is breaking this story, they go dark. In mid-sentence, they go dark.

Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit are visited by FBI Agents in San Francisco. Their presence is tweeted and retweeted millions of times that day. The three biggest social media sites start acting a little wonky, then go silent.

The White House announces that they will hold a press briefing at 15:00 EST, followed that evening by a national address by President Obama.

Jared and Ivanka are airborne at the time, but they’re alerted to these developments by Rudy. They instruct the pilot to get out of American air space as quickly as possible. The pilot complies.

Mike Flynn and his son are also arrested in New York.

The next disaster of the day occurs at Don Jr.’s arrest. One of his bodyguards opens fire on the FBI agents, and is killed.

Carter Page, thinking he’s some kind of hero, greets the agents coming to arrest him with a shotgun. One agent is hurt, but not killed. Carter is killed in response.

At 15:00, the White House releases a statement, saying that neither the President nor President-Elect will be available for a press statement, and that President Obama will address the nation that night.

As this is going on, a lone reporter from the Washington Post gets a shot of Donald Trump and some of his cronies being escorted into the back of a van, and he’s wearing handcuffs.

Rudy Giuliani is stopped at a traffic stop a trying to get out of New York City. As the NYPD stops him, the FBI show up to apprehend him. This turns into a stand-off between the two law enforcement agencies. A minor scuffle breaks out between them, until senior officers from both sides show up to calm everyone down. They reach an agreement. Rudy will be allowed to be taken home, but he will be under house arrest until the morning, when he’ll be taken out of town.

Jared and Ivanka’s plane deviates from its flight path, and heads for the Caribbean. Air traffic controllers are confused by this move. Eventually, someone from the USIC informs them that the plane is full of fugitives. F-16’s are scrambled from Florida to intercept, but the plane is already within Cuban air space.

In the evening, news of Trump’s arrest hits the news, along with everything going on at Fox News, Facebook, and Twitter. Several people are seen leaving Fox News HQ under arrest, including Sean Hannity.

At night, President Obama addresses the nation. He announces that Donald Trump had been arrested for election fraud, money laundering, RICO, and espionage. He also goes on to indicate that the Russian Government had helped Trump steal the election, and that while they were still investigating whether actual votes were changed, he does admit that voting rolls were hacked, which caused millions of voters to be denied the right to vote. The nation is an in unprecedented constitutional crisis, but America will prevail.

MID-NOVEMBER

The country is dazed as, over the next couple weeks, more and more information comes out about the depths Donald Trump sunk to in order to win the presidency.

The government is shaken, as many members of the House and Senate were arrested for accepting campaign funds from Russia.

Right Wing Media doesn’t know how to react. On the one hand, Trump committed treason. On the other hand, screw Obama and Clinton. Many of the websites, like Breitbart and InfoWars, lose their hosting, but soon come back with Russian domains.

Twitter and Facebook return to semi-normal operations. Fox News remains off the air, as their role in spreading propaganda comes to light.

Alex Jones dies in a standoff with police executing an arrest warrant. After shooting at the police and killing two officers, he eventually takes his own life via shotgun haircut.

LATE NOVEMBER TO MID DECEMBER

Tensions are running high. Protests on both sides get ugly across the country. Violence occurs at one rally in Minneapolis, where Trump supporters attacked HRC supporters that were protesting a recent attack on a mosque. At least once a week, there’s an attack from one side or the other.

Jared and Ivanka show up on Breitbart Russia. They talk about being harassed on the run, and of their heroic escape from Cuba to El Salvador to China to Russia. This is completely made up, but Trump’s supporters eat it up with a spoon. They call on “true patriots to do what must be done.”

DECEMBER 19, 2016

The Electoral College, after being given a classified briefing on the election, vote in favor of Hilary Clinton to become the 45th President of the United States of America. She wins in considerable fashion, pulling in over 350 votes. Out of the remainder, about 40 of them still voted for Donald Trump, 100 abstained, and the rest split between John Kasich, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz. Tim Kaine becomes the Vice President.

LATE DECEMBER TO EARLY JANUARY

Tensions continue to rise throughout the country. Small bands of Trump supporters take up the call to “do what must be done.” Fringe groups on the right and left join together to take a stand against government tyranny.

JANUARY 3, 2017

In the most bizarre Congressional session in history, the Senate convenes and refuses to certify the previous election or the Electoral College counts. This standoff ends with a compromise. HRC will name several key members of the Republican Party to her cabinet, as well as offer amnesty to low-level Republican members of Congress that didn’t knowingly accept money from Russia or aid Trump, in exchange for certifying the election results. Clinton and Obama agree.

JANUARY 20, 2017

Hilary Clinton is sworn in as POTUS. Throughout the day, riots break out across the country. Protests and counter-protests turn violent.

From Russia, the cries for violence and revenge grow louder.

LATE JANUARY TO FEBRUARY

The first series of coordinated attacks takes place in Portland, OR, as white supremacists attack several mosques, temples, and synagogues in a 72 hour period. Similar attacks occur in South Carolina, Alabama, and Pennsylvania.

MARCH 6, 2017

Following repeated calls from Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump through Russian sponsored Breitbart, an assassination attempt is made on HRC. She escapes injured, but lives. The assassin was a male follower of the Alt-Right.

APRIL TO JUNE

The first trials begin in the espionage saga of United States vs Trump. Many staffers turn state evidence to implicate their bosses.

Michael Flynn is found guilty of espionage and sentenced to death.

Paul Manafort is found guilty of many crimes, and is sentenced to a very long stay in Federal prison, pending extradition to Ukraine.

Steve Bannon kills himself in prison awaiting trial.

JUNE 15, 2017

Another assassination attempt is made at Hilary Clinton, but this time she’s not so lucky. She was shot by a young woman who at first was a supporter of Bernie Sanders, but eventually joined Team Trump. This woman will turn out to be a Russian agent provocateur. HRC is shot three times, and spends two weeks in a coma. Tim Kaine becomes the Acting President.

JUNE 30, 2017

HRC is pulled off of life support and dies. Tim Kaine is sworn in as the 46th President of the United States.

SUMMER 2017

Nothing happens in the Congress as half of the House is in legal limbo, awaiting trial for election fraud and campaign finance violations. The Senate is in shambles as well.

Violence spreads across the country, with organized paramilitary groups openly taking part in armed attacks against government officials and buildings. The worst of these attacks takes place in Idaho, where the Governor called in the State Militia to try to keep the peace. It turned into a massacre as State Militia, US Military, and Armed Civilians attacked each other in Boise.

Evidence comes to light that Russia was behind not only Clinton’s assassination, but also the attacks in Boise and elsewhere. Relations with Russia reach an all-time low.

Tim Kaine, in an attempt at trying to heal wounds, nominates Lindsay Graham of South Carolina to be his Vice President.

By the end of Summer, there are an average of 30 Americans killed per week in acts of domestic terrorism. That number only increases as pressure on Russia increases and Trump’s trial gets closer.

CONCLUSION

If we were given all of the information at once, and if the authorities had acted at once, we would be in the middle of a civil war right now.

Some Americans could handle the truth, some of us were paying attention as this unfolded, but most people couldn’t handle it.

Had this unfolded, we’d call it a coup if it took place anywhere else. And rightly so.

This is why we’re getting all of this one piece at a time, like Johnny Cash’s Cadillac.

Thank you, and have a good one.

2016 GOP Primary

One question that I've been asked time and time again, is "how in the ever loving fuck did Donald J. Trump become President of the United States of America?"

The short answer is, it's complicated.

The not-as-short answer is he somehow won the nomination of the Republican Party, then somehow won the general election, with a little help from his friends.

This article will cover the first part of that statement, the Republican Party Nomination Process.

Heads up, the language may be a little harsher than normal.

First, a little background. The U.S. is essentially a two party system, the Democratic and Republican parties. The Democrats are the left wing, liberal party while the Republicans are the right wing, conservative party. One thing that this country does differently that everyone else is associating red with conservative and blue with liberal. This is flipped in Europe. So, a "blue state" is more liberal.

The Republican Party was founded in the 1850's a liberal and radical party of abolitionists. Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. He was also a liberal. The parties flip sides every generation or two. The current sides were drawn in the 1960's when the Democrats signed the Civil Rights Act into law, causing the Southern (racist) part of the party to join the Republicans.

The Republicans are also called the GOP, or Grand Old Party. Kind of ironic since the Democrats were founded a solid 30 years before them.

The primary system is different from state to state, but consists of each state choosing a nominee by assigning delegates to vote at the party convention where the person is officially nominated.

Sounds simple? Well, we're Americans. We find new and interesting ways of fucking shit up.

The presidential campaign race unofficially began some time in 2012, after Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney, and news pundits had nothing else to talk about for a few years. A lot of names would be tossed around, built up, and torn down over the next couple years. People would launch focus groups and exploratory committees, create PAC's and Super PAC's, and beg for money.

Running for any office is expensive. Federal office is more expensive. The Presidency is obscenely expensive. In 2016, both Trump and HRC spent or had spent on their behalf over a billion dollars each.

Winning the election requires name recognition, being able to stand out from the crowd.

Winning an election requires a media presence. It requires knowing how to use the camera and web to your advantage.

As much as I'd love to attribute Donald Trump's GOP win to unlawful shenanigans, I can't. First, I haven't seen or heard of any evidence. Second, the rational explanation fits the facts better.

There are four major reasons how Donald Trump won the GOP Primary.

He took advantage of the 24 hour news cycle to increase name recognition.
He stood out in a crowded race.
He was willing to reach depths no one else tried.
He took advantage of a broken system.

THE 24 HOUR NEWS CYCLE

There used to be a time when a single news story in politics would last a long time, and details were fleshed out carefully by reporters who dug deep to find a story. Every night, a handful of men would read the news to an entire nation, for a half hour every night. These stoic arbiters of truth would discuss the top stories from the nation, and around the world, as the populace watched.

Then Cable News happened.

People could now get their news at anytime of the day or night, not just at dinner time. As news broke around the world, here was CNN.

A funny thing happened after CNN came about. It wasn't exactly a new thing, but if you only have to fill 30 minutes a night, it's easy to hide.

The Slow News Day.

Some days, nothing happens. There are no stories to break, no major events taking place, nobody famous dies or has a baby. No one goes to war, or gets arrested for accepting bribes.

In the era of Cronkite and Murrow, if nothing happened, they could fill the half hour with an expert interview, in-depth analysis, or an editorial speech.

CNN, on the other hand, has a big problem on a slow news day. They have to pull out all the stops for each and every minuscule issue. But if nothing happened that day, too bad.

To complicate matters, CNN originally was commercial free. At some point in the mid-80's, they figured out that they could make money from running commercials. Over time, they became dependent on the commercial revenue. They went from reporting the news to making money by reporting the news. It's a slight difference, but their unofficial business model switched to selling commercial space.

This business model became very successful. So successful, that others joined the fray. MSNBC, CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox News, Fox Business, Current, OAN, and many more. The playground was getting pretty crowded. All of these places, plus the internet, made things…interesting.

Two ways evolved for these places to grab viewers. Either by delivering the best, most thoughtful and researched stories, or screaming at each other and playing to the customer base. The latter seems to have won.

This created a vacuum where even the slightest transgression, like wearing a tan suit or ordering dijon mustard on a burger, could generate dozens, or even hundreds of hours of coverage.

The end effect is that by 2015, the news channels had essentially scared off most people, or solidified them to only watching the news their "side" supports, like politics was a sport. It created the false equivalency fallacy.

Enter Donald Trump.

A man without shame. Loud, brash, obnoxious, ignorant, without a filter for his mouth. A man who's very existence is an insult to politicians and public servants.

Donald Trump would take advantage of the 24 hour news cycle by being himself. Cable news wanted viewers, and Trump's fuckup-du-jour would bring eyes to the channel.

STANDING OUT IN A CROWDED RACE

The 2016 Democratic Primary election became more of a coronation than a race when Joe Biden decided not to run. HRC faced some competition from Bernie Sanders, but not enough to defeat her.

The GOP Primary, on the other hand, was a crowded cluster of 17 men and women. Okay, 16 men and 1 woman. This article lists all of the candidates that ran, tried to run, thought about running, or toyed with running at least once.

Why so many? Obama.

The United States tends to swing back and forth between the two main parties. Since Truman left office in 1953, the only time that the presidency stayed with the same party for more than two terms, and that was from Regan to Bush Sr. in 1988. The odds were in their favor. Whoever won, would be short-tracked to the White House.

Seventeen candidates.

Fifteen white guys, one woman in Carly Fiorina, and Bobby Jindal.

Nine governors, five senators, one CEO of a Fortune 500 company, one neurosurgeon …

And a Reality TV show host.

Here's who Trump went up against, and what they were known for.

Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana
Carly Fiorina, CEO of HP
Rick Perry, Governor of Texas
Scott Walker, Governor of Wisconsin
George Pataki, Governor of New York
Lindsey Graham, Senator of South Carolina
Mike Huckabee, Governor of Arkansas
Rand Paul, Senator of Kentucky
Rick Santorum, Senator of Pennsylvania
Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey
Jim Gilmore, Governor of Virginia
Jeb Bush, Governor of Florida
Ben Carson, Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery
Marco Rubio, Senator of Florida
Ted Cruz, Senator of Texas
John Kasich, Governor of Ohio

This list is in order of how they performed, from worst to second place.

Trump stood out from this crowd not by being the best candidate, or the best person to serve as President. He stood out by being wholly and woefully unqualified, unquestionably ignorant, obtuse on policies and facts, and belligerent to his opponents.

REACHING NEW CAMPAIGN DEPTHS

Donald Trump had less money, experience, knowledge, skill, and patience than all of his opponents. What did he have that his opponents didn't?

A complete lack of shame, and no compunction about playing dirty.

Someone in Trump's camp knew that Donald would not win a traditional campaign against qualified politicians. Ever.

The only he could win was by changing the game. Fighting dirty, appealing to the undesirable elements of the party, and going to new places to wage this battle.

Name calling isn't new in an politics, but there's usually a little bit of respect between the candidates. Going back to the founding of this country when Thomas Jefferson called John Adams a hermaphrodite, they still respected each other. Donald Trump doesn't respect anyone. He either looks down on a man, or admires their strength. I said man because I honestly do not believe he is capable of viewing women as anything other than objects to control and acquire. (I'll have more on his messed up psyche later.)

Donald Trump needs positive affirmation. It's a fatal flaw in people with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and this desire to be loved outweighs social norms like not attacking a candidate's spouse in a debate, or claiming that Ted Cruz's father helped kill JFK. He cares more for that little heart at the bottom of his tweet than he does about the feelings of those he attacks.

Soon, the crowds ate this shtick up. His twitter followers, human and boy alike, pounded that like button like it dispensed free meth. (Of course, the Russian Bot Army doesn't show up till late June, early July.)

Donald Trump's platform of "Make America Great Again" also reached a new low. Donald didn't just accept the fringe, he actively embraced it and courted it. He went after the conspiracy theorists, the racists, the dominionists, the autocrats, and anyone else against the "Deep State." His team went to Twitter, 4Chan, and Reddit to recruit fans to create memes to spread, and jumpstarted support throughout the country.

How did this play on the air? Pundits talked about Donald Trump's disaster-du-jour. People paying attention were completely and totally disgusted by his behavior.

People not paying attention to the news heard his name.

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF A BROKEN SYSTEM

Now, it's time to vote. The Primary system in the U.S. is… broken to say the least. Instead of all states voting at the same time, they're staggered over months. Each state has their own rules as to how delegates get selected for the party conventions. Some use votes open to all voters, some are open only to registered party members, some use a caucus of party officials.

Each state also has rules on how they award delegates, but for the most part, they're split with most going to the winner, then the rest awarded by district or county winners. Not only is it possible for a candidate to win all of a state's delegates without winning a majority of the votes, it's pretty common. For example, South Carolina is a winner take all primary. Trump claimed 32.5% of the vote. 67.5% of the people voted against him, but since he had the highest single tally, Donald Trump won all 50 delegates.

What was that 67.5%? 45% of that was Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio split down the middle. The rest were split evenly between John Kasich, Jeb Bush, and Ben Carson.

But, you might be asking "how did Donald Trump win?" Here's a thought experiment.

There are 17 candidates, each asking a pool of 100 voters to elect them.

10 of those 100 are crazy. Another 10 are completely undecided. The remaining 80 voters will choose between the best qualified candidates, and ruled out 1 candidate.

The crazy people love that 1 candidate, while the other 16 candidates are trying to split the pool of 80. The last 10 will pick randomly between the top 5.

What does this mean? The worst candidate has at least 10 votes, probably 12, 4 candidates have 7 votes, and the rest have 5 each. The Crazy Candidate wins.

That's how the race started. Within a couple races, the field narrowed to Trump, Cruz, Rubio, Kasich, and Ben Carson. This was the build up to Super Tuesday.

Super Tuesday is when the most number of states, 11 in 2016, hold their primary. It will make or break a candidate. Going into Super Tuesday, Trump had a lead, but wasn't insurmountable. By the end of the day, Trump had taken a commanding lead.

Let's go back to the thought experiment. Instead of 17 candidates, the race starts with 9. What happens then?

The Crazy Candidate still has their 10 guaranteed, but so do the other 8. The undecided voters make the choice.

This phenomenon played out during Super Tuesday when multiple contests were very close. Trump won many races, but they were very close.

For the remainder of the race, Trump fought a three headed dog that refused to work together. Cruz, Rubio, and Kasich couldn't beat Trump individually. They split the responsible votes between themselves.

How could this have been prevented?

Next part of the thought experiment. Instead of 17 candidates, we're down to 5. What happens then?

The Crazy Candidate still has their guaranteed 10 votes, and 10 people will split the vote among all five candidates. However, the 4 serious candidates each take 20 votes. The Crazy Candidate ends with 12 votes while the other 4 have 22 each. The Crazy Candidate is done.

Imagine, for a moment, that the Presidential GOP race after Iowa, the very beginning of the race, if either Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio dropped out of the race. Let's say Ted dropped out and pledged his delegates to Marco. And after Super Tuesday, John Kasich did the same, leaving a Rubio versus Trump race. What happens then?

Crunching numbers from this link, Marco Rubio still loses New Hampshire, but takes South Carolina. Nevada still goes to Trump. Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia now belong to Rubio. He would take a commanding lead, and wouldn't look back. He would have won every contest for the next month. By the end of March, Marco Rubio would have been so far ahead that no one could catch him. By my calculations, he would have won the nomination by April.

Why Rubio? He doesn't microwave fish in the lunchroom.

CONCLUSION

By taking advantage of a broken system, a 24 hour news cycle desperate for footage, and engaging the fringes of the party, Donald Trump was able to stand out enough from the competition to win the 2016 Republican Party Nomination for President of the United States of America.