Source: NY Times

Speaker Paul D. Ryan condemned on Tuesday the proposal by Donald J. Trump that Muslims be barred from entering the country, saying it is “not what this party stands for.”

Offering a markedly stern reproach for Mr. Trump, who leads most polls of the Republican presidential field, Mr. Ryan said he had opposed including religion requirements in a recent bill to tighten refugee admittance restrictions because freedom of religion is “a founding principle of this country.”

“This is not conservatism,” he said at the House Republican leadership’s weekly news conference. “What was proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for and, more importantly, it’s not what this country stands for.”

Mr. Ryan has made it a policy not to comment on the presidential race, making his comments on Mr. Trump — “an exception,” as he prefaced it Tuesday — all the more striking. He said that in addition to having Muslim members of the armed forces and in Congress, there were many Muslims fighting terrorism alongside the United States.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/12/08/paul-ryan-on-donald-trump-this-is-not-conservatism/

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Gotta give him some credit on this one, he was spot on here.

The last one to drop out was Jindal. But there are so many more who are just clouding the debates. Pataki, Graham, Santorm, Christie, Kasich, and Huckabee need to realise it's a lost cause. I get why Bush isn't dropping out, because the establishment keeps telling him he'll go up in the polls and win. But the others? Come on.

And we're not perfect in this either. O'Malley has zero chance of winning, and is only hurting Bernie in close states like NH. So when do you think we'll see some more candidates drop out? Or are some waiting for the first primaries?

Source: GQ

Paul Ryan wants to be more than just Speaker of the House of Representatives. He wants to be a cool Speaker of the House of Representatives, and he's going pretty far to prove it to you. Yesterday, one month into his new gig, the republican speaker posted a picture of himself to Instagram with the following caption.

"Waiting on confirmation from the House Historian, but apparently, I’m the first Speaker to sport a beard in about 100 years."

Read more: http://www.gq.com/story/paul-ryan-beard-reveal-politics-grooming

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I wish more people in politics would have facial hair. The whole clean-shaven look for politicians has to go. First in 100 years is crazy.

Source: ABC News

A fired-up Sen. Ted Cruz this morning challenged President Obama to a debate over Syrian refugees, lashing out at Obama over his Tuesday comments in the Philippines.

"I want to encourage you, Mr. President, come back and insult me to my face," Cruz said today. "Let’s have a debate on Syrian refugees right now. We can do it anywhere you want. I prefer it in the United States and not overseas where you’re making insults. It’s easy to toss a cheap insult when no one can respond, but let’s have a debate.

"I got to tell you, it is utterly unbefitting of the president to be engaging in those kind of personal insults and attacks," he continued.

The Texas Republican and presidential candidate appeared outside the Capitol Hill Club with recent supporter Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, who also called Obama's comments "more than a little rich."

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/ted-cruz-challenges-president-obama-back-insult-face/story?id=35279725

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Is this a thinly veiled threat by Cruz?

How many people do you know who swim in the Mississippi River with all of their clothes on? Perhaps someone high as a kite or drunk off their face, but the autopsy said there were no drugs or alcohol in his body. I find it highly suspicious.

Source: CBS

GRANBURY, Texas -- A driver seen on video swerving into a motorcycle, sending its driver and passenger tumbling onto the pavement, may face charges in the crash, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

The video recorded Saturday by another motorcyclist, and which has more than two million views on Facebook, shows rider Eric Sanders crossing double yellow lines in an apparent effort to pass a car on Texas's Tin Top Highway.

The car can then be seen sideswiping Sanders' bike, on which Sanders' girlfriend was also riding.

Two were sent tumbling along the pavement and to the side of the road.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/charges-possible-after-texas-driver-seen-on-video-swerving-into-motorcycle/

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This is disgusting. As a rider, I see hatred on the road all the time for motorcyclists.

She is awful on 4th Amendment issues. I can't believe that she still has support here.

There was an old HBO movie called Fatherland which is about the US winning the war with Japan, but losing to Germany. But I would like to talk about the opposite.

Let's say we beat Germany exactly like we did. For some reason, we don't use "The Bomb" on Japan, and we just invade them. One million die, and we retreat. What would happen next? What would happen in the immediate years, like the 50's and 60's? What would the world look like today? How long would the ground war have lasted? 10 years? More?

Edit: Please folks, the purpose of this thread is to solely talk about what would happen if Japan had repelled a potential US invasion. Please don't make comments like "There is no way they could have won" or "They would have surrendered after the invasion." Remember, on paper it looked like there was no way we would not prevail in Vietnam.

Second edit: I'm sorry for not being more clear. I'm only talking about had they successfully repelled a US invasion, not if they attacked the US mainland.

Source: Kotaku

Nintendo has just issued a short statement announcing that president Satoru Iwata has passed away at the age of 55.

The statement reads:

Nintendo Co., Ltd. deeply regrets to announce that President Satoru Iwata passed away on July 11, 2015 due to a bile duct growth.
Iwata was forced to skip last year’s E3 due to his poor health, and shortly afterwards underwent surgery to remove the bile duct growth. A few months later, in the wake of concerns over his health, he said via Twitter “I’m progressing well”.

Iwata first joined Nintendo’s HAL Laboratory in the 1980s, where he worked on games like Balloon Fight and EarthBound. He became a Director of the company in 2000, and in 2002 was appointed as only the fourth President of Nintendo when he succeeded Hiroshi Yamauchi.

In his time as President, Iwata oversaw some of the strongest (Wii, DS) and weakest (GameCube, Wii U) periods in Nintendo’s history as a video game company. In recent times, he developed almost cult status as the host of the Nintendo Direct programs.

Read more: http://kotaku.com/nintendos-president-has-passed-away-1717386412?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Facebook&utm_source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow

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Nintendo Presidents last until they either die or are very old and retire. He was only their 4th president, for 13 years (last one lasted 53 years). Very sad news. RIP.

Just helping get the word out here, that Clinton has not taken a stand. If she doesn't have an opinion yet on something this huge, then she isn't qualified to be president.

Now, I believe she almost certainly has an opinion, she's far too intelligent not to. So, why is she silent? Possible reasons:

1) She supports it. She doesn't want to say it though, because it will hurt her with the left, especially union voters (and rightfully so). I believe there's an 80% chance this is the reason.

2) She opposes it. She is silent because this will put her at odds with the President. Sure, she's polling way ahead of everyone, but if Biden runs and Obama supports him, her support erodes fast. 18% chance this is the reason for her silence.

3) She really has no idea if she supports it or not, or something else. 2% chance.

So, what do you think she does? She can't stay silent forever. My guess is she comes out with a half-assed answer, like "There are many bad things in this trade deal, and I would have pushed for blah blah, but I'd grudgingly support this bill if I were president. It's better than no deal."

I support Bernie, but there are circumstances where I can support her. There is no way I will vote for her if she comes up with that reason and talks on both sides of her mouth.