2016: A Damnable Year

Kind of the point, if you can name any politician with those restrictions, they're either from old media, or indie-ish media (or party propaganda). So, if the vast majority of fictional politicians are presented as bad people (with the only exception being Knope), how do you expect people to care if they feel it's just "choosing between giant douche and turd sandwich"? No one will.

Basically, we need political role models in fiction.

edited 11th Nov '16 2:37:42 PM by IFwanderer

1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV

On the plus side, Trump has already backpedaled on half his policies, if his recent statements and hundred day plan are any indication. "We'll put a 45% tariff on Chinese CHYNA goods" became "we may threaten a 45% tariff if the Chinese yuan is 45 percent overvalued, which it isn't" (not that this policy had much of a chance of passing in his own party anyway). "We'll deport all 12 million illegal immigrants" (a la Sarkozy) became "we'll begin on the plan to deport the 2 million criminal illegal immigrants" (again, not like even his own party was in favor of the original plan). "We'll ban Muslims from coming in" became "What? I never said that". It'll still be bad, but not disastrous. He's even started to backpedal on Obamacare.

He's definitely going to go through with the Wall, but that's a good thing. It'll waste 20 billion dollars, but it also won't actually accomplish anything while giving the impression that he's keeping his promises. It's a good publicity stunt for his base. However, that same base will likely be extremely pissed at him in 4 years when it turns out he can't actually fulfill his main campaign promise of bringing jobs back to rural areas- because that's just outright beyond the president's control.

edited 11th Nov '16 3:29:09 PM by MonsieurThenardier

"It is very easy to be kind; the difficulty lies in being just."

Er... The wall itself would bring jobs "back", from building, maintaining and patrolling it.

edited 11th Nov '16 3:33:51 PM by IFwanderer

1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV

20 billion from where? Because at this rate dude is gonna have to completely bankrupt his personal wealth in order to do it.

raising taxes, no wait, his party won't let him. Instead he'll just print some, but inflation may go crazy, so the same result. What he'll do is seizing it from minorities, I guess.

edited 11th Nov '16 3:43:20 PM by IFwanderer

1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV

Mexico will pay for it. Haven't you guys been paying attention?

edited 11th Nov '16 3:51:35 PM by Wyldchyld

If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.

Slashing welfare most likely.

It'd be nice if people would just tank up and do their jobs as citizens. Seriously, it takes an hour to look at policy promises and make a decision, then a few more hours to go out and vote, but nope. We've got to pay attention to the media circus and hang around whining about how everyone is corrupt, instead. Yeah, you might vote for the wrong person, but at least you made an effort; there are billions of people around the world who are never going to get that chance.

Of course, that's not happening, so your idea is a good one.

Trump actually got fewer votes than Romney or Mc Cain, despite the population being higher than it was 4-8 years ago. "Actually get out and vote" is the lesson to take from both this election and Brexit.

"It is very easy to be kind; the difficulty lies in being just."

Mexico will pay for it. Haven't you guys been paying attention?

But American jobs will still come from the armed recruitment to invade Mexico, slave their people, and force them to build the Wall.

Why to stop there, though? Just make them build the wall at the frontier with Guatemala, then massacre the bastards, annex their whole country, and be done with it. Why to stop at taking Texas and California from them?

I'm a Latino, of course I'm not fucking serious here, just fucking bitter.

Trump is not going to build a fucking wall. Why isn't he going to build a fucking wall? Because he can't get twenty billion dollars to build a fucking wall, that's why. (Among other things.) Once again, he's just telling the people what they want to hear. Plus, with Pence likely being the real power behind the Presidency, it's even less likely that we'll actually get it, because he knows how to actually govern. And one important part of governing is knowing not to spend twenty billion dollars on fucking walls.

Wouldn't he need more than twenty billion to build, maintain, and staff the supposed wall?

Disgusted, but not surprised

For accurate cost projections, consult the archives of the DDR.

I don't know...it is more than mistrust...take Merkel, a lot of people are now angry with her because how she handled the refugee crisis, and there are certainly a few who say that she is a backstabber, but all in all, there are few people who truly think that she is particularly corrupt. Well, living in a little apartment and buying food in the local Aldi certainly helps her image a lot.

Checking a party's policies can be rather terrible.Cause they can very easily go back on them.

"We won't raise taxes/pension limits!We won't lower wages/pensions!"

Then boom.Or "We'll totally respect that referendum,for sure!"

Though they can be somewhat faithful to their social?Racial?Not sure what the term,policies,most of the time.Economy's harder to be honest about.

edited 12th Nov '16 1:05:06 AM by alekos23

Secret Signature

Is this really it? I thought I was finally doing ok with a decent job in the Netherlands but will I have to go back to Portugal and wait for the end of the world? I keep hearing that since I have a degree I should be safe but I can't hep but be afraid. I have no family support, no friends, I don't know hwat to do.

Europe hasn't gone round the bend yet. The press is currently hyping Le Pen as the inevitable doom of the Union, but you know what.. I don't believe that even a little bit, and neither should you.

The trump will probably blow up the us economy. Again. But as long as we don't cut our own feet off with another round of austerity in response then that is not going to do it either.

So, basically, don't panic. It's not good, but the world will go on. And if it doesn't, we can burn in nuclear fireballs while working to make the future better where we are, there is no need to huddle at home for that.

A lot of people also didn't expect Brexit or that Trump would win....

But then, I was right with my pessimistic view on this year, I might be right with my more optimistic view on next year, too....

Trump was expected to be close. The front has made it to the second round of the presidential elections before. They don't have the support to make it further, and they have not magically gotten twice as popular in the last decade. More popular, sure, that's just down to Marie being rather better at politics than her father ever was, but not.. "50% of the vote" popular.

Well, that would be France and in Germany, it is very unlikely that the AFD gets the most votes, too...especially not a total majority, no party gets this, they all have to pair up with someone else, and no party would go into the bed with the Af D.

That leaves the Netherlands, though....

After an entire year of "this can't possibly happen" situations that did, I'm not going to say she can't win until she loses.

1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV

I have heard that exact same argument applied to the Netherlands (PVV also has nowhere near enough support to get a majority and no one wants to make a coalition with them). Still, you never know...

I admit, I am not familiar with the system in the Netherlands...in Germany, every party which gets at least 5% is part of the parliament, the one with the most votes usually picks the chancellor (meaning, either the CDU/CSU or the SPD) but it can only reign if it has an absolute majority...which it gets in a coalition with at least another party (theoretically the other parties could pool their resources together and build a coalition which doesn't involved the winning party but has the absolute majority but, well, no-one ever dared to do THAT). Unlike the US, we currently have four parties in the government, CDU/CSU, SPD, Die Linke (the left) and Bündniss 90/Die Grünen (the greens). And then there is the FDP (the liberals) which didn't make it past the 5% last election, but I actually hope for a come-back. Do you see now how unlikely it is that one party manages to get more than half of the seats on its own? That has never happened. Never.

Has this been posted yet? I feel like this really should've been posted here.

I'm starting to think all the jokes about Bowie holding the universe together were legitimate.