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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

speedyboris Since: Feb, 2010
#153976: Nov 11th 2016 at 8:08:12 AM

Too many of you have upside down American flags. I can't tell you apart. (says the guy who has no avatar)

So I was at the gym last night and on CNN they were touting that the stock market had its highest surge ever yesterday. I didn't have headphones so I couldn't hear why, but I'm honestly surprised, considering all the unrest and uncertainty going on.

Memers Since: Aug, 2013
#153977: Nov 11th 2016 at 8:08:53 AM

Considering that all of his seriously bad stuff are still on his to do list I doubt it, I seriously think he will do it all if only to keep digging the hole.

But the damage the republicans in general are going to kill me so that is just as bad.

edited 11th Nov '16 8:10:42 AM by Memers

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#153978: Nov 11th 2016 at 8:09:06 AM

They are optimistic about Trump just being a normal Republican. If he does crazy shit (ie: the Republican platform), their tone will change overnight.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
RedRob Since: Feb, 2016 Relationship Status: One Is The Loneliest Number
#153979: Nov 11th 2016 at 8:09:14 AM

[up]x8 Simple, president of the world is what he's going after next.tongue

Though what you said gives me hope that he's going to do nothing as president. Though Pence is going be de-facto president then. I feel sorry for LGBT people everywhere as well as glad that I'm a straight white male, though I'm slightly ashamed for thinking such.

edited 11th Nov '16 8:09:48 AM by RedRob

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet Unless I grew it. In that case, throw it in the trash.
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#153980: Nov 11th 2016 at 8:10:50 AM

I don't think it's shameful to feel grateful that you personally won't suffer as much. That shouldn't be contradictory with offering your sympathy, support and solidarity for the minorities that will suffer.

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#153981: Nov 11th 2016 at 8:10:55 AM

LGB Ts are in trouble with Trump or Pence, the difference is trivial. Pence style fanatics control Congress, and Trump may not hate LGB Ts as much as his VP and fellow Republicans, but he won't refuse to any human rights violations they pass.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Karkadinn Karkadinn from New Orleans, Louisiana Since: Jul, 2009
Karkadinn
#153982: Nov 11th 2016 at 8:11:09 AM

If they actually try to nuke Medicare, they won't just delete it wholesale. They'll do something like 'if you're above X age, you get grandfathered in, but if you're below X age, you get nothing.' That way they get to keep their elderly voters intact. and by the time the younger ones grow into their worsened situation, it will have had time to become the new normal, just like how people accept college and medical expenses as being what they are.

Why do they do it? Because it feeds into their narrative that giving universal benefits to people via the government is always a bad thing. Even if it's benefits that you paid for with your own taxes previously. Maintaining control of how people view government 'handouts' is literally more important to the GOP's existence than keeping their own voters alive.

Of course it's self-destructive in the long-term, but that's true of practically every single thing that the GOP does. Their game plan has always been to seize as much advantage as possible without regard for the consequences and play the blame game as necessary later.

Furthermore, I think Guantanamo must be destroyed.
maus42 Since: Aug, 2016 Relationship Status: Complex: I'm real, they are imaginary
#153983: Nov 11th 2016 at 8:11:10 AM

@The Wanderer

You should not be concerned with the Electoral College and the presidential elections if you want smaller parties on the table: you should be concerned that smaller parties are constantly present on the parliamentary level (the Congress) and not in insignificant numbers. Then they are established as a major political players, and everything else follows from that.

What then would probably happen in the presidential elections depends on the specifics of how the electoral college functions ( I'm not too familiar with the technicalities ).

If electors are allowed to vote on their own initiative if no candidate manages to get the 270 votes on the first round, all major party candidates, including the not insignificant 3rd parties, will certainly have a chance (and sometimes even them if they manage to present a suitable compromise candidate). This is how electoral colleges have functioned in multiparty democracies, or at least in the one I'm familiar with, Finland. Also the Pope selection process, the conclave, is not dissimilar. Expect lots of politicking and backroom deals and such, but on the other hand, your president-elect will probably be a seasoned and qualified politician. It's a less direct form of democracy than currently popular in the West, but still an acceptable form of representative democracy.

If the elector's can't vote for anyone but the person written in their mandate, I understood the U.S. constitution specifies that the House will select the president in a process which will be not dissimilar to what I outlined above.

edited 11th Nov '16 8:14:24 AM by maus42

FluffyMcChicken My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare from where the floating lights gleam Since: Jun, 2014 Relationship Status: In another castle
My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare
#153984: Nov 11th 2016 at 8:15:33 AM

One thing that I couldn't help but notice throughout the past two election cycles is a strong tendency for Asians immigrants living in the US to seemingly forget that they are considered colored in this nation. As a result, there seems to be a subconscious notion among Asian immigrants that they are equivalent to white people, and that issues pertaining to blacks and Hispanics don't really have a impact on them.

Boy, they're in for a rough awakening.

Asian Americans report voting barriers and discrimination in several states

In First, Illinois Elects Asian Americans to Federal, State, and County Governments

Asian-Americans Running for Political Office Reflect Growing Electorate

IndirectActiveTransport plays capoeira from Chicago (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Every rose has its thorn
plays capoeira
#153985: Nov 11th 2016 at 8:17:36 AM

Two days and my health insurance already went up. I was planning on looking into the dot gov for potentially better deals but the President elect says he's going to repeal Obama care so I just stuck with it, at least I have health insurance, and have a good chance of keeping it.

I kinda feel bad for the people who can't afford the company plan, though, especially since I've learned some of the non voters have been having registration issues since the local elections earlier in the year(would have been nice to know that before two elections came to pass).

Buldogue's lawyer
Wryte Since: Jul, 2010
#153986: Nov 11th 2016 at 8:18:03 AM

That's the silver lining, isn't? He's probably not going to go through with most of his bat-shit insane policies, only telling the people what they wanted to hear before showering them with false hopes and empty promises. So not only may his Presidency not be as bad some people have feared, but his voterbase might get so ticked off that he'll get booted out of office in 2020 too.

That's not much of a silver lining. My concern now is that Pence is going to end up doing most of the actual work of the office, since Trump obviously doesn't care (hell, doesn't even understand) about most of the job. Being president is nothing but an ego trip and a way to line his own pockets to Trump, and he'll push anything that doesn't directly serve those purposes off on someone else.

Some people I've talked to are afraid to impeach Trump because then Pence would be president, but we're getting Pence no matter what. At least removing Trump would remove the dangerously random factor from the office. I at least trust Pence not to want to launch nukes if someone insults his hands.

The bar is lower than it's ever been right now.

edited 11th Nov '16 8:20:04 AM by Wryte

AngelusNox Warder of the damned from The guard of the gates of oblivion Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
Warder of the damned
#153987: Nov 11th 2016 at 8:19:02 AM

I wouldn't mind the conservative enclaves committing metaphorical suicide by supporting politicians and measures that will make their lives miserable on the long run and perpetuate the problems afflicting them.

What I do mind is when the drag not only themselves but everyone else and the world along to the cesspit they dug for themselves and jumped on it.

Inter arma enim silent leges
CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
FFShinra Since: Jan, 2001
#153989: Nov 11th 2016 at 8:35:29 AM

In that case the White House might actually pressure them to drop it, since the future cabinet has already said they ain't gonna bother now that they have the presidency. They want to at least try to not look dictatorial and Gowdy wouldn't help that notion.

On the other hand, fighting a friendly congress early might end their honeymoon so they might cave.

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#153990: Nov 11th 2016 at 8:36:29 AM

I'm not sure Congressional leadership will want to push that too much, jailing a defeated opponent risks making them a martyr/makes you look like a tyrant. Especially if its coupled with Trump going Nixon on everyone.

It would take a special kind of incompetence to turn HRC into an imprisoned icon, but a rigged investigation/trial by a party that about half the country hates might do it.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#153991: Nov 11th 2016 at 8:39:14 AM

Investigate all they want: if the FBI couldn't come up with anything to justify an indictment, no action of Congress can do it.

edited 11th Nov '16 8:39:29 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Memers Since: Aug, 2013
#153992: Nov 11th 2016 at 8:42:13 AM

Let them focus on that as smokescreen to distract them from doing more damage to the country.

nightwyrm_zero Since: Apr, 2010
#153993: Nov 11th 2016 at 8:44:38 AM

[up]x7 I might be giving them too much credit, but I don't think the GOP will be dumb enough to try to impeach Trump. Trump is vindictive to his enemies but very susceptible to flattery. Trying to impeach him would just make them his enemies. I think the GOP would just hold their nose and flatter Trump so they can get what they want. I think for the next four years the government will function like being ruled by a weak absolute monarch. Lots of maneuvering for power among the aristocracy, cronyism, and little regard for the common people.

edited 11th Nov '16 8:44:58 AM by nightwyrm_zero

FluffyMcChicken My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare from where the floating lights gleam Since: Jun, 2014 Relationship Status: In another castle
My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare
#153994: Nov 11th 2016 at 8:45:45 AM

‘Shoot The B*tch!’ ‘Hang The N*gger!’: Unfiltered Rally Videos Show Trump’s America

The worst part of all this is how, as I've mentioned before, many of the younger Trump supporters are otherwise perfectly sociable, friendly, and bizarrely fascinated with the foreign cultures that their candidate despises.

Wryte Since: Jul, 2010
#153995: Nov 11th 2016 at 8:48:22 AM

I might be giving them too much credit, but I don't think the GOP will be dumb enough to try to impeach Trump.

Oh, I'm not holding my breath. I'm just saying it would be preferable, in the same way it would be preferable to be punched in the face than forced to play Russian Roulette.

nightwyrm_zero Since: Apr, 2010
#153996: Nov 11th 2016 at 8:50:33 AM

[up]Oh yeah, it would be great if the GOP really tried to impeach Trump. The massive GOP civil war would be extremely entertaining. But I don't think they will really go that route.

blkwhtrbbt The Dragon of the Eastern Sea from Doesn't take orders from Vladimir Putin Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
The Dragon of the Eastern Sea
#153997: Nov 11th 2016 at 9:00:57 AM

A bizarre article, that nonetheless has some very important points

"But the thing is, those little red squares are full of Americans who don’t see themselves as haters or bigots, racists or misogynists. Rather they see themselves as the heartland of America, because they are. They see themselves as the ones who feed the world and keep the wheels turning, who love their God and their children and their country and their way of life. If you drive through those red areas on the map as I did last month and you listen to the radio, to the endless sermons of fire and divine wrath, to the Good Ol’ Country Boys singing about flags and trucks and guns, to the endless conspiracy theories of doom and betrayal from the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones, you start to get an idea of why they voted for Donald Trump. I mean, somebody is listening to those broadcasts or they wouldn’t be so damned popular or so many.

It wasn’t the email. Or Benghazi. Or any of the myriad debunked conspiracy theories. Or rather, it wasn’t just that.

Clinton’s professionalism, her ground game, her polish, her experience, even her pantsuits, all worked against her here.

.....

Those people, if you call them up on the phone and ask if they are racists, they’ll say no. Because they don’t think they are. Because to them racism is burning crosses and lynching and they aren’t doing any of that. But they don’t want brown people moving into their neighborhoods, because on TV people with dark skin are thugs and rappers and terrorists and not like them. If you ask if they hate Muslims they’ll say no, but they love Jesus and they hate terrorists and the sons of bitches who blew up the World Trade Center, just like their grandparent hated the Japs and the Krauts. They don’t hate Mexicans, they hate people who take their jobs. They go to a Trump rally and who do they meet? People just like them, people who look just like they do, who own farms and small businesses, who lost their jobs to Mexico and Bangladesh, who are angry that they have to pay taxes to support welfare cheats and moochers, who go to the same kind of church they do and worship the same God. They want America to be great again like it used to be for their grandparents, that golden magical time of the 1950s with jobs and traditional marriages and white picket fences and they don’t want to hear about how that time wasn’t a paradise for everybody. They don’t want change. They want it the way it was. And that’s why Hillary Clinton lost.

.....

But that’s also how we fix it. You see, Trump is about to learn the Obama Lesson. Trump is about to face Obama’s Gitmo. He’s not going to be able to make good on his campaign promises. Not all of them. Not the ones which matter most to his supporters.

.....

But here’s the real kicker: Republicans will now have to govern.

Donald Trump will now have to govern.

It’s all on them. All of it.

If they fuck this up, they’ll never get elected again.

That disorganized bombastic campaign appealed to the people who put him into power, but that’s not going to work in office.

Not at all.

And all the people he’s so far produced or suggested to help him with the task of governance are terrible at it. And the one thing Americans, especially those Americans in the little red squares, will not tolerate is incompetence.

Say to the others who did not follow through You're still our brothers, and we will fight for you
Elle Since: Jan, 2001
#153998: Nov 11th 2016 at 9:03:41 AM

Thread hopping back in but nothing really to add and probably won't stick around much at least until I finish some work that has been suffering. My mood has stabalized to the point I won't bite people's heads off at the drop of a hat at least.

I don't have much I can personally do at the moment but I'll be keeping my eye out for ways to help where my skills will be useful. Even if it's just providing escapism through writing.

Also, welcome back, Cap.

NoName999 Since: May, 2011
#153999: Nov 11th 2016 at 9:05:21 AM

Honestly, how are portraying them as self centered any better than portraying as racist?

It's getting annoying that they have this special snowflake mentality about themselves that's been around since the Reagan years.

Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#154000: Nov 11th 2016 at 9:05:41 AM

I'm not optimistic enough that the republicans won't get elected again. That seems to be taking things for granted, which is a huge reason why this election turned out this way.

We can't take anything for granted.


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