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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
The supreme court can't ban abortion. Even federal law technically can't thanks to the 10th amendment, no more than the federal government can ban murder because doing so isn't an enumareted power and the 10th blocks the Fed from having those. All the supreme court can say is that it's not a protected constitutional right, and then we'd lose it in a bunch of states, and probably have to at least fight against ballot initiatives in all 50 states that will try to crush it (although state constitutions are also a part of that dialogue).
Similarly the Supreme Court can't declare marriage = 1 man, 1 woman. That's why there was always talk of a marriage amendment.
I still think gay marriage is safe even in the worst case scenario because it's impossible to put the genie back in the bottle. It would be like if Southern states tried to re-outlaw miscegenation: what are you going to do, automatically annul all of those marriages? Welcome to years of legal hell as courts will now have to determine who owns what for all of those couples.
Apparently Bolton won't be Sec of State. That's apparently going to Gingrich.
http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37931552
Because nothing commands respect on the global stage like Newt Gingrich as your chief diplomat.
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.![]()
Yeah, I honestly don't think a lot of currently existing LGBT rights are in jeopardy. What will be more likely is that they'll try to stonewall any new legislation furthering their rights from happening, and generally make life for LGBT people harder extralegally.
edited 10th Nov '16 1:50:16 PM by AlleyOop
That 50% of the women who voted didn't think Trump's transparent misogyny was off-putting enough to avoid voting for him is depressing and tells me too many of them don't properly respect themselves or just hate nonwhite people that much that Trump treating them like meat doesn't matter.
I'm not surprised Clinton would struggle to win over women. She's a woman. There's nothing like women-on-women aggression and disapproval. Misogyny doesn't just come from men, it comes from women, too. I remember a lot of women being interviewed at Trump rallies about why they preferred Trump to Clinton, and it was like being thrown back into history, during the time of the Suffragettes.
- Women are too emotional to be president.
- Women shouldn't be as unemotional as she is.
- She's a wife and mother, she should be happy with that.
And one person who wasn't a Trump supporter, but who stated she didn't support Clinton because (note, not a direct quote):
- She's a traitor to women's lib because she's not girly girl enough for me to believe her when she claims to be a feminist.
Actually, this last point irritates me so much that here's an article, written in 2007, about someone who had a conversation with women who made exactly that point. Bear in mind, the women spoken to in this article consider themselves to be feminists.
Why Women Hate Hillary
Opinion piece, 26th April 2007
Hillary, by contrast, seems to want to be more like a man in her demeanor and politics, makes few concessions to the social demands of femininity, and yet seems to be only a partial feminist. She seems above us, exempting herself from compromises women have to make every day, while, at the same time, leaving some of the basic tenets of feminism in the dust. We are sold out on both counts. In other words, she seems like patriarchy in sheep’s clothing.
One of progressive feminism’s biggest (and so far, failed) battles has been against the Genghis Khan principle of American politics: that our leaders must be ruthless, macho empire builders fully prepared to drop the big one if they have to and invade anytime, anywhere. When Geraldine Ferraro ran for vice president in 1984, the recurring question was whether she had the cojones to push the red button, as if that is the ultimate criterion for leading the country. And while American politics has, for years, been all about the necessity of displaying masculinity, Bush, Cheney and Rove succeeded in upping the ante after 9/11 so that the sight of John Kerry windsurfing meant he wasn’t man enough to run the country. But now, with the massive failures of this callous macho posture everywhere–a disastrous war, a deeply endangered environment and more people than ever without health insurance–millions are desperate for a new vision and a new model of leadership.
All of this frames many women’s reactions to Hillary. If she’s a feminist, how could she continue to support this war for so long? If she’s such a passionate advocate for children, women and families, how could she countenance the ongoing killing of innocent Iraqi families, and of American soldiers who are also someone’s children? If it would be so revolutionary to have a female as president, why does she feel like the same old poll-driven opportunistic politician who seems to craft her positions accordingly?
Maybe women like me are being extra hard on Hillary because she’s a woman. After all, baby boomer women couldn’t be “as good” as men in school or the workplace; we had to be better, to prove that women deserved equal opportunities. And this is part of the problem too. We don’t want the first female president to be Joe Lieberman in drag, pushing Bush-lite politics. We expect something better.
edited 10th Nov '16 1:59:53 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.![]()
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The same Gingrich who advocated for child labor? The one who said the Trump administration should not be moderate in the slightest?
I can't help but feel this is an extremely cruel cosmic joke. Not Gingrich specifically, just everything that's going on atm.
edited 10th Nov '16 1:51:50 PM by Draghinazzo
An overview of how feasible Trump's early proposals are.
http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37862521
There are women who think that Hillary is too emotional while others think that she's too unemotional? Wow. She really couldn't win with them.
I wonder how much of those feelings were genuine and how many were the result of fear of what men would think of them if they supported Hillary.
Do not obey in advance.It was quite obvious from the beginning that Trump wasn't interested in draining the swap or sticking it to the Washington elite. He just wanted to join the club. Or maybe not. I still really cannot get a good read of Trump.
@Draghinazzo: Thus far, what's happening in the USA now pales to the political insanity of the early 20th century. Just to put things in perspective.
edited 10th Nov '16 1:58:53 PM by CaptainCapsase
Considering this was a surprise victory where it shouldn't have been, I'm inclined to ignore the so-called experts and watch with baited breath to see whether he's an annoying breeze or the literal next Hitler.
Considering Executive Orders are actually illegal, yet everyone under the sun keeps using them, there's every possibility we've been had by an obfuscation act and Trump really will be the end of Democracy.
Pretty much. For a thin-skinned massive-ego'd blowhard like Trump, getting the Presidency became a real goal because then they would *have* to respect him.
Not realizing that being President, of either party, usually makes you the automatic target of hatred by about 60 million Americans and a billion or so America-haters abroad. And it becomes a knife-edge. If he's (somehow) a great president, he will finally get respect. If not, he will live forever as a punchline or an object of scorn.
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Oh, you're back.
But my main point is, it doesn't matter if he could have won in the general, because he didn't win in the primaries, and at that point it's more on the voters for not following throw with how important this was than on the candidate (any candidate).
edited 10th Nov '16 2:02:06 PM by LSBK
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That's why I'm trying to cut myself off for a bit.
My impression of really hardcore Bernie supporters is similar to that of Trump. Obviously radically different politics but the general "I like what he says and don't really care about the how to do t" is the same.
edited 10th Nov '16 2:06:15 PM by LSBK
From that article:
Still not sure if this means he actually has to do anything to try and meet the targets. Probably not?
I'm religiously avoiding any political comment sections right now. That's a first step.
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Even normal world leaders ignore international law when it suits them. Trump wants to toss the Geneva Conventions, the Paris Accord is nothing to him.
edited 10th Nov '16 2:05:30 PM by Rationalinsanity
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.I'm sure that we've gone through many worse things, yes. That's the one thing that comforts me, that these are more or less cycles. I think a lot of us are just too young to not have lived through something like this.
Also, I'm fairly sure that the elites dislike Trump and consider him a complete boor. Becoming President at best means they might hide their distaste when meeting him but talk shit behind his back.
I'm actually surprised and gently relieved. My facebook was overwhelming supportive and mournful, not full of told-you-soing Bernie Bros or gloating Trumpkins. It means i've done a good job connecting with good, thoughtful people in the last 10 years for the most part. My webforum homes have been pretty good about it too, but that's just down to good moderation (here, Penny Arcade, and GAF).
If you want my opinion, what you really mean is that you've done a great job insulating yourself in an echo chamber not particularly different from the one Trump's supporters find themselves in. 99% of your time talking politics is better spent interacting with people with whom you disagree.
edited 10th Nov '16 2:09:19 PM by CaptainCapsase
Honestly I expect that ultimately Trumpence is going to be less Mussolini and more Berlusconi. Mired in corruption and scandals and bigotry, but not the end of the world. Ultimately we'll come out with another Obama. And we can't do that last bit if all we do is panic and freak out that it's the end of the world. FFS people like Bill Nye are working hard coming up with ways to fight climate change in the private sector, it's better to use that energy spent on negativity and doomsaying to help people like him. And push for ground initiatives to get Trump out ASAP.
As for social media, I'm taking a long break from Tumblr outside of fanartists and people I trust to be reasonable. Unfortunately, not only does the userbase of that side frequently represent the worst excesses of the left, they also seem to have deleted the messaging function so it'll be harder to find alternate ways of contacting all my online-only friends there. But my Facebook's been fine for the most part. The few Trump supporters on my FB friends list have proven them to be of the deplorable kind so they're out the door, and the handful of friends posting active America self-hate lean towards being legitimate social justice warriors of the 2012 kind, but everyone else has been really supportive and optimistic otherwise.
edited 10th Nov '16 2:16:25 PM by AlleyOop

Holy crap those cabinet picks, we are well and truly screwed. There will be no recovering from them.