US Elections

[Duncan Smith]

Re: US Elections

I'm really not sure why some of the posters here are so caught up in American politics and the bs that exists in that arena. Americans face some big issues and they want magic solutions. No politician is going to tell them that their taxes have to go up for at least a decade to help fix things, but it's inevitable. Canada went through the same problem in the 1980s. Health care costs are also going to be massive for years, and there is no real solution to it until they radically revise their whole system, and they lack the political willpower to do that ( I'm not talking about repealing Obamacare which is a given ).

Nobody can know exactly how this will turn out, but my gut says Trump will disappoint his followers within 3-4 years tops and maybe then they have a serious mandate ( whether it's him or someone else ) to make the real fixes that work. If he gets some stuff done good for him, the one advantage he has is he's starting from a better place then Obama had to deal with ( bipartisan political fights, looming deep recession, housing crash, high unemployment ). Obama actually added 10 million jobs since 2009. Might not be great jobs but the US faced much greater threats in 2008.

[Brad Thomson]

Re: US Elections

And Brad..... you're as bad as Neil Frarey for avoiding questions.

That I take as a compliment.

[Paul Bonham]

Re: US Elections

And the breaking of promises has already begun. Two critical provisions of Obamacare are now going to be kept.

Just saw an ABC 20/20 profile of Trump, and someone on the Trump team was asked about the 3 grown-up Trump children, Eric, Don Jr. and Ivanka. The interesting answer was that "You don't want to mess with them. They are killers."

The entire Trump family seems to me an immoral, wealth-driven, self-serving bunch who have no idea how to guide America. The children are supposed to go back to managing Trump's company, but for the moment they are involved in forming the administration. This is how Trump is going to surround himself with experts? A terrible beginning.

I'd love to walk in the room they are meeting in, wearing an "I see stupid people" T-shirt.

[Bob Gillanders]

Re: US Elections

"A respectful pause" for the process and the electorate. "They have something to teach us."

Trump critics "take him literally, but not seriously", while
Trump supporters "take him seriously, but not literally."

I find the PBS segment, Shields and Brooks, more educational on what happened than most of the mainstream talking heads arguments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GXAVp6_KBQ

[Brad Thomson]

Re: US Elections

more educational on what happened than most of the mainstream talking heads arguments.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GXAVp6_KBQ

It is not difficult to determine what happened. This was not an upset. The favourite won. He was winning all along. But the "mainstream" media did nothing buy feed us a pack of lies and fabricated polls that were no reflection at all of the actual will of the people. The high level powers that control the media were doing all that they could to cause their crony to win, but Trump had such massive and overwhelming support among the people that the attempt at a fix failed.

This was a fantastic triumph for democracy, and a big time slap in the face for the evil powers that seek to dominate our planet.

(Now, of course if Trump is bought and paid for just like the rest of them have been, at least since they shot Kennedy, then I guess we are out of luck.)

[Brad Thomson]

Re: US Elections

We now have a lot of protests, riots, terrible scenes and even a shooting since the election ended. Why do we suppose that this is the case?

Well, a huge number of people, a majority of voters to be sure, honestly thought that their candidate would win because the mainstream mass media told them that she would. So, when she didn't win they all think something was fixed!

And of course they were right.

[Bob Gillanders]

Re: US Elections

We now have a lot of protests, riots, terrible scenes and even a shooting since the election ended. Why do we suppose that this is the case?

Because it was a very close election!

The popular vote (last time I looked, they are probably still doing some recounts?)

Clinton - 60,467,245
Trump - 60,071,650

Trump won the electoral college, so he gets to be President.
But she won the popular vote. So it isn't surprising some Democrats feel cheated.

If the results were reversed, don't you think Trump supporters would be rioting?
Of course.

[Brad Thomson]

Re: US Elections

If the results were reversed, don't you think Trump supporters would be rioting?

If Hillary had won we would be seeing FAR worse, agreed.

[Bob Gillanders]

Re: US Elections

If Hillary had won we would be seeing FAR worse, agreed.

If you mean more rioting, yes we agree.

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: US Elections

If you mean more rioting, yes we agree.

That is nonsense. There were no riots when Obama won. Republicans don't riot. They respect the laws of the land. Even the tea party rallies were restrained and saw the protesters cleaning up the litter after themselves.

The riots and the assaults on Trump supporters are the death throes of the Democratic party in a Wikileaks world.

[Mark Biong]

Re: US Elections

I'd love to walk in the room they are meeting in, wearing an "I see stupid people" T-shirt.

I haven't seen billionaires who are stupid people. They can have a low/average IQ but they are very smart to choose the right people who can play and win the game and make them rich. They chose to be rich so do not blame them for being one. We are from one of the religious sectors who prayed and our prayers got answered. We believe that Trump will make/change "America great again". Americans need changes and the electoral college won and not the majority vote of the electorate. https://www.facebook.com/prageru/vid...3270108382513/

[Kevin Pacey]

Re: US Elections

Perhaps anarchists are behind a lot of the protesting/rioting (not suggested much in the mainstream media, afaik); here's a link briefly discussing contemporary anarchism in the US:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarch...emporary_times

[Paul Bonham]

Re: US Elections

"A respectful pause" for the process and the electorate. "They have something to teach us."

Trump critics "take him literally, but not seriously", while
Trump supporters "take him seriously, but not literally."

I find the PBS segment, Shields and Brooks, more educational on what happened than most of the mainstream talking heads arguments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GXAVp6_KBQ

I saw the PBS segment when it aired. Those 2 are good, I do like to hear their thoughts, but I don't think they have special insight just because they are on PBS. Some of the more mainstream people are very politically savvy as well.

I disagree with the quote, that Trump supporters don't take him literally. I think they take him both seriously AND literally, and even MORE than literally. By that I mean, they know the true meaning of his coded phrases. And even if the next day Trump has to back off of some of those phrases, his supporters know what he really meant AND that he really meant it.

When Trump said at a rally, "I could walk down main street and shoot someone, and they'd still vote for me" he meant it very literally. And it turned out to be true: after Trump's 2005 Access Hollywood bus comments about groping women came out, I doubt if a single one of his female supporters gave it any thought at all. He still won handily the suburban married women vote.

I see Brad has now taken the "fixed election" argument and attached it to the Democratic voters. I won't address him further, since anyone who won't back up his or her arguments has zero cred. The election never was fixed, but even that argument the Trump voters did take literally, and yes, if Hillary had won you would be seeing MUCH more violent reaction with the words "rigged" and "fixed" being a prominent part of that.

I also see Brad's true bias has come out. He tried getting us to believe that he wasn't really taking sides in this election, now he's calling the Democrats "evil people". I'd already calculated his bias, so it's no surprise. Of course, if they were as evil as all that, they might not even respect the democratic process. But let's give Obama kudos for bringing Trump to the White House and presenting us with a very civilized and cordial face to the transfer of power.

Now we just have to stand back and let the Trumps do their own damage.

[Paul Bonham]

Re: US Elections

I haven't seen billionaires who are stupid people. They can have a low/average IQ but they are very smart to choose the right people who can play and win the game and make them rich. They chose to be rich so do not blame them for being one. We are from one of the religious sectors who prayed and our prayers got answered. We believe that Trump will make/change "America great again". Americans need changes and the electoral college won and not the majority vote of the electorate. https://www.facebook.com/prageru/vid...3270108382513/

I didn't say anything about Trump's status as a billionaire nor that his being rich makes him stupid. But people that choose to be rich do so at the expense of others. Many of them realize this once it's all done and set up charities and foundations to pay back. Trump sets up a foundation which is used as a front to buy himself things, such as a 6-foot tall painting of HIMSELF.

More details here:
Trump Least Charitable Billionaire
and note that this was published years before Trump even ran for President.

Excerpt:
"During the past two decades, the Trump foundation has made charitable contributions totaling a paltry $6.7 million.

Both the amount of money Trump has donated to his own foundation as well as the aggregate contributions made by the not-for-profit group are pitiful when compared to the philanthropy of other high-profile tycoons like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison, Ted Turner, Michael Bloomberg, David Geffen, or S.I. Newhouse."

What does your "religious sector" think about groping women? About banning Muslims entirely from the U.S.? About using bankruptcy law to enrich oneself while at the same time shafting hard-working and ethical small business owners and workers? About renting condos but banning blacks from tenancy? About believing a judge whose parents are Mexican cannot do his job impartially, and that the vast majority of Mexicans in the U.S. are rapists and criminals and "bad hombres"? About believing a POW is not a hero for his country?

Your "religious sector" sounds as immoral as Trump himself, or maybe it's just YOU. What kind of god are you praying to?

[Tom O'Donnell]

Re: US Elections

http://nypost.com/2016/11/11/new-yor...w-it-on-trump/

It appears the NYT learned that many subscribers share the idea that they were biased against Trump, and that choice has financial consequences.