Countdown to Extinction: The 2016 Presidential Election

[Spineur]

This is quite funny

The Simpsons predicted President Trump 16 years ago as 'a warning to America'




http://metro.co.uk/2016/11/09/the-simpsons-predicted-president-trump-16-years-ago-as-a-warning-to-america-6245205/#ixzz4PXIOOMnx

[zamyrabyrd]

He's not a career politician, so he never created the problems, he's a private sector man .. and things were way messed up before Trump got elected. He signed up for this though and now he and his cohorts have A LOT of work to do. And he's only got 4 years. Not an easy job. We'll have to see what happens.

Ditto.

[Karl Henning]

Not a career politician, but a career con man.

He may have no talent for governance.  I hear he's hot stuff on Twitter, though.

[Karl Henning]

In Michigan, Clinton got 13 percent fewer votes than Obama. Trump got 7 percent more than Romney.

In Pennsylvania, Clinton got 5 percent fewer votes than Obama. Trump got 9 percent more than Romney.

In Wisconsin, Clinton got 15 percent fewer votes than Obama. Trump did slightly worse than Romney -- in a state that was home to Romney's running mate.

Whether it was a failing of the get-out-the-vote efforts outside of urban areas, or dampened enthusiasm for Clinton (who, as we all have always acknowledged, was a historically unpopular Democratic Party nominee), that reduction in turnout was the killer.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Also, the stock market's collapse based on overnight futures predictions never happened.  Currently the DOW is at 18,505.76 +173.02.  Of course this could change, but I am glad the markets seem to be keeping their collective head.

The Nikkei is down nearly 5.5% .

[Brian]

Whether it was a failing of the get-out-the-vote efforts outside of urban areas, or dampened enthusiasm for Clinton (who, as we all have always acknowledged, was a historically unpopular Democratic Party nominee), that reduction in turnout was the killer.

You left out increased difficulty of voting for poor/Democratic people. There are many explanations, and I believe many of them will prove true in combination.

[Karl Henning]

You left out increased difficulty of voting for poor/Democratic people. There are many explanations, and I believe many of them will prove true in combination.

And it is worth remembering that the President-elect made voter intimidation one of his consistent talking-points.

[Herman]

And it is worth remembering that the President-elect made voter intimidation one of his consistent talking-points.

correct, which is why the early voting was so enthusiastic.

[jochanaan]

So now he talks about "bringing us together"?  When he spent 16 months dividing and, now, conquering?

-- Positive thoughts.  Think positive thoughts, jochanaan.

Government by corporation.  Why and how should Trump, a product of the same Wall Street he supposedly derides, rein it in, especially since he seems to have promised to remove all those "environmental regulations" other administrations and Congresses have upheld?  And more violence and police brutality, not from Trump necessarily but from some of his supporters.  These possibilities raise my anxiety level...

[(poco) Sforzando]

So now he talks about "bringing us together"?  When he spent 16 months dividing and, now, conquering?

Typically when a politician talks about bringing us together, he (obviously not she) means bringing everybody together who was with him in the first place, and ignoring the other 50% of the country that fears and despises him.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

As the shock wears off, the cooling down begins. I found this on Rod Dreher's blog at The American Conservative:

By the way, I just ran into a working-class Hispanic immigrant friend. He's not worried. He said, "A lot of Latino people, we know that Trump was really just saying that the immigration should be done the right way. We know he's not really against us. Who hired all the Latinos to build his buildings? Trump. It's not such a bad thing that he wants immigration by the rules." For what that's worth.

BTW, Trump got more Hispanic votes than Romney did.

[Herman]

As the shock wears off, the cooling down begins. I found this on Rod Dreher's blog at The American Conservative:

By the way, I just ran into a working-class Hispanic immigrant friend. He's not worried. He said, "A lot of Latino people, we know that Trump was really just saying that the immigration should be done the right way. We know he's not really against us. Who hired all the Latinos to build his buildings? Trump. It's not such a bad thing that he wants immigration by the rules." For what that's worth.

BTW, Trump got more Hispanic votes than Romney did.

Not sure he hired undocumented Latinos for building projects.  But he sure did not pay them.

[Tritone]

I presume you have names and addresses to support that assertion.

Even as I write this a re-run of Clinton's 'concession' is on in the background; she's still banging on about "the glass ceiling".  Still that privileged, middle class aspiration and nothing to do with the working men and women who just want something decent by way of a living standard for their children.  She just has NO IDEA.

And I hope Trump can stop the march of pc, Thought Police and repression through America's institutions.  It's the most insidious aspect of our modern age.  And this from self-described 'liberals' who wouldn't know real 'liberalism' if they fell over it.  I remember going to a lecture from Niall Ferguson, who works in a major American university.  He said he was 'at the coalface' but seemed to think the pc/safe spaces/trigger warning/thought police would be self-limiting but I never shared his optimism.

If it takes a revolution of Trump to free them of the shackles of repression then so be it.  In the past, wars have been fought to free people!!

[Madiel]

"The country" is in a mess. Wake up Aussie!

All the economic data says that you're wrong. That while various people have been convincing the populace that things are getting worse, things have actually been getting better.

Well, apart from the part where Americans kill each other in ever greater numbers and the police pitch in with the killing, but good luck with Republicans fixing THAT mess.

[North Star]

All the economic data says that you're wrong. That while various people have been convincing the populace that things are getting worse, things have actually been getting better.

Well, apart from the part where Americans kill each other in ever greater numbers and the police pitch in with the killing, but good luck with Republicans fixing THAT mess.

Or indeed the financial inequality.

[Madiel]

And I hope Trump can stop the march of pc, Thought Police and repression through America's institutions.  It's the most insidious aspect of our modern age. 

While I actually agree that there are times, particularly in the USA, that the campaign for taking offence at things goes too far, there is something fundamentally wrong with choosing to respond to that by electing someone who finds it okay to mock the "other". Especially when the "other" includes fully half of the population in the form of women.

amw already provided the link that explains how this is all driven by resentment.

Yeah, okay, so you don't want to be told how you have to respect people who aren't like you. It's so tiring having to think about the feelings of others, right? Life was so much better when you could just "tell like it is" and admit that you don't like people who don't resemble yourself, that you didn't want to understand them, and you certainly didn't want to share jobs and positions of power with them. Behaving like a civilised member of a global society is so much work, and you don't want that. You want to be able to kick back, relax, and just spout whatever sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, disabled-mocking shit bubbles out of your subconscious.

[Madiel]

He's not a career politician, so he never created the problems, he's a private sector man .. and things were way messed up before Trump got elected.

I find it vastly amusing that anyone would think the private sector has no role in creating problems.

Who the hell do you think lobbies politicians to create the laws that they do?

[Tritone]

While I actually agree that there are times, particularly in the USA, that the campaign for taking offence at things goes too far, there is something fundamentally wrong with choosing to respond to that by electing someone who finds it okay to mock the "other". Especially when the "other" includes fully half of the population in the form of women.

amw already provided the link that explains how this is all driven by resentment.

Yeah, okay, so you don't want to be told how you have to respect people who aren't like you. It's so tiring having to think about the feelings of others, right? Life was so much better when you could just "tell like it is" and admit that you don't like people who don't resemble yourself, that you didn't want to understand them, and you certainly didn't want to share jobs and positions of power with them. Behaving like a civilised member of a global society is so much work, and you don't want that. You want to be able to kick back, relax, and just spout whatever sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, disabled-mocking shit bubbles out of your subconscious.

Imposed doctrine from the State will never make people better human beings. I'm sure, if I scratched beneath the surface, I'd find you don't think institutionalized religion could do that either - indeed, that they've failed miserably!!   And you obviously have, like Clinton and her "deplorables" a frightful opinion of human beings.  I've always believed them to be better and far more generous that you obviously do - not at all needing the State to tell them what to do, think and how to behave.  So, I can see why you're aligned with Clinton.  Poor little snowflake.

[Madiel]

Tritone, I write laws for a living. So yeah, I spend a large part of my life telling "people" (often companies, not actual human beings) what to do, and it's usually because what they've been doing of their own accord was being selfish arseholes.

But political correctness has little to do with law. It mostly has to do with all those non-traditional groups having a voice and saying they'd quite like to stop being put down all the time.

My own minority status is not immediately visible from just looking at me, so I don't face much trouble. But I sure as hell would prefer to live in a world where people in positions of authority explicitly say that it is NOT okay to make fun of me, to discriminate against me, to threaten me, to bash me or to kill me. Rather than a world where people in positions of authority either endorse the verbal steps or engage in it themselves.

This "little snowflake" is here standing in for all the other snowflakes who didn't make it. The ones who were killed or who were driven to kill themselves. The ones who are too scared to speak.

I don't have a frightful opinion of all human beings. Just the ones who think that they can treat other human beings as a little less human.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Poor little snowflake.

Is that an example of how "human beings are better and far more generous, etc., etc."?