Donald Trump

[iNow]

And yet we wonder why so many choose an, apparent, idiot like Trump.

I actually DO wonder why so many people choose that as a response. It's a bit like having a splinter in your toe and choosing to address it by amputating your leg at the knee using a dull rusty tree saw or seeing an ant in your kitchen and choosing to address it by lighting the entire house on fire with your children sleeping upstairs. Edited November 3, 2016 by iNow

[dimreepr]

I actually DO wonder why so many people choose that as a response. It's a bit like having a splinter in your toe and choosing to address it by amputating your leg at the knee using a dull rusty tree saw or seeing an ant in your kitchen and choosing to address it by lighting the entire house on fire with your children sleeping upstairs.

 

 

You clearly don't lack a very good education and with that, probably, a reasonable living.

 

Culture exists on a spectrum from the individual through local and onto national and beyond; to understand an others culture without dipping your toe, is difficult indeed.

 

But I do get your point and it reminds me of a BBC radio 4 program by Rich Hall "this election will either give us the first female POTUS or the last POTUS".

[CharonY]

I always found the electorate system slightly weird, as it does not necessarily reflect the popular vote. However, if this election was based on the popular vote, it seems that Clinton is less than 3% up....

[imatfaal]

A few days ago I wanted iNow out on the streets of Texas to cement an amazing victory for Clinton - now I want Phi out on the streets of Colorado to sure up a potential victory (thank you Director Comey). Come On Phi! Colorado is 70:30 likely to go Clinton; if this moves any further towards Trump I am not sure I am going to sleep till the concession speech out of sheer worry.

 

Colorado and Penn voting red would probably swing it for Trump - maybe even Pennsylvania and little New Hampshire would be enough

[Phi for All]

A few days ago I wanted iNow out on the streets of Texas to cement an amazing victory for Clinton - now I want Phi out on the streets of Colorado to sure up a potential victory (thank you Director Comey). Come On Phi! Colorado is 70:30 likely to go Clinton; if this moves any further towards Trump I am not sure I am going to sleep till the concession speech out of sheer worry.

 

Colorado and Penn voting red would probably swing it for Trump - maybe even Pennsylvania and little New Hampshire would be enough

 

I was up at my local library branch helping out today. They have early voting and mail ballot dropoff. The number of people who had questions about their vote being counted was depressing, but I'm glad they were asking, and glad to let them know they had nothing to fear in that regard.

 

There were some who went inside for the mail dropoff because they had library business or they wanted an I Voted! sticker (one of the cheapest, simplest, most effective ways to reward/remind/shame others to vote), but one lady didn't want to use the outside dropoff because she said it would be too easy for someone in a truck to come swipe the whole thing! I pointed out the camera mounted above the box, and another camera watching that camera, and mentioned that tampering with one ballot carries a hefty penalty, so imagine what stealing a whole boxful would be risking? She still went inside with her ballot.

 

 

 

 

More and more, I think Putin wants to do something really bold to cement himself in Russia's leadership position. He's being back-patted by his peers, including Trump, for his maneuvering in Syria and making Obama's policy look bad. If he can take credit for disrupting the US and NATO without facing prosecution over tampering with another country's elections, Russians will elect him for life, and if Trump as POTUS just shrugs, Putin gets his legacy. This scares me almost as much as Trump.

 

White supremacists seem poised for another civil war, and Trump has helped them think they have all kinds of support in this. This also scares me. The thought of being beaten up or shot for looking like the type of person who would beat people up or shoot them based on what they look like leaves me thoroughly depressed (and more than a little confused).

 

I don't think Trump is a good businessman. If you sign a contract, both parties are usually happy about the arrangements. If you renege on that contract, or try to renegotiate it after the contracted work was completed, you aren't being savvy. You aren't being a ruthless businessman. You're being a crook.

 

Trump's vague, wait'll you see, we're gonna fix that approach isn't good for business. Mexico has already had investors pull out of deals because they're afraid of the wall. Markets are falling on speculation that he's going to kick the props out from under every standing deal. Countries are distancing themselves from relationships with the US that used to be courted. Trump is bad business.

[Ten oz]

Fetishizing a return to yesteryear is very much a race, gender, and class-specific phenomenon.

 

For some, former greatness was embodied by keeping negros in their place, women pregnant and in the kitchen and secretaries with asses ready to be fondled with impunity, and upper-middle class life achieved through a low effort, low hours, low education requirements job.

 

For others, yesteryear calls to mind memories of hangings, beatings, rapes, segregation, poverty, ostrcization, subjugation, squaller, ill-health, and a sense of lack and otherness that showed no signs of relenting and which was itself systematically bolstered, enforced, and codified by law, centers of power, employers, and others.

 

It was a time of more rigidly experienced us-and-them, and it's only when you were squarely within the "us" population that you could possibly have any proclivity or desire to return to that age. Fetishizing a return to yesteryear is very much a race, gender, and class-specific phenomenon.

You are correct. My post was partially sarcastic. I actually think it can be almost entirely be boiled down to a sense of privilege a specific portion of the country feels. Everyone, on both sides, understands that Trump isn't qualified on nurmerous levels to be President but his supporters don't care. It is their turn. They are "real" Americans and they want to be back in the drivers seat. They want the drivers seat and view which road we are on, what car we are all in, conditions, and destination as superfluous factors.

 

When I was a children my family would drive from California to Texas in the summers to visit family. Typically the drive took about 26-29hrs. My father always tried to knock the whole thing out without stopping. My mother, normally around the 12hr mark, would recommend rest stops to break at and that my father let her drive some. Despite fatigue my father would never give up the drivers seat. Even once when he was experiencing cramps (gas and constipation) that had my mother looking at a map of New Mexico for the nearest hospital my father drove. In that specific case he eventually found a truck stop and sat on a toilet for a couple of hours. Then he was back in the drivers seat. Clearly my father was not always the fittest to drive. espicially once my older brothers were of driving age. There were multiple people in the car (van) who at any time were well rested and more capable of driving safely. My father literally risked the lives of his wife and children for no reason other than not wanting to give up to drivers seat for a couple hours so he could nap. And crazy thing is there was nothing unusual about it. That is what dads did when I was a kid.

 

Voting for Trump is not about Trump. It isn't about celebrity worship. Trump isn't clever and doesn't have some special gift for gab. We just had 8yrs of a black man as President who helped immigrant children, the LGBT community, and poor people afford healthcare. Self anointed real Americans just want the drivers seat back. Clinton obviously has a much more thorough understanding of gov't and a set of policies that are in line with the law and have a history of working. It doesn't matter. Trump supporters just want power back, period. It doesn't matter they are too tired to drive and pose a safety risk that puts others lives in jepardy. Their rightful place is the drivers seat, Obama had his 8yrs, it is their turn.

 

 

*edted a few typing errors

Edited November 4, 2016 by Ten oz

[dimreepr]

...

I think we know who he's, accurately, describing.

I level this accusation at all those that have more than they actually need, a home, food/water and family; those with all the little extras we take for granted and treat as if they are somehow a human right like the TV, phone, computer etc etc

 

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for. - Epicurus

Edited November 4, 2016 by dimreepr

[Airbrush]

Voting for Trump is not about Trump. It isn't about celebrity worship. Trump isn't clever and doesn't have some special gift for gab.

We just had 8yrs of a black man as President who helped immigrant children, the LGBT community, and poor people afford healthcare. Self anointed real Americans just want the drivers seat back. ... Trump supporters just want power back, period. It doesn't matter they are too tired to drive and pose a safety risk that puts others lives in jepardy. Their rightful place is the drivers seat, Obama had his 8yrs, it is their turn.

 

It's about both, self-anointed REAL Americans just want the drivers seat back...Trump supporters just want power back, and Trump, through his celebrity and clever gift for BSing, has sold a load of bull to his supporters. Yeah, that's the ticket, I'm going to shake everything up, turn everything upside down, do everything you can dream of, because what the hell do you have to lose? Promise them the world, it doesn't matter that I don't even know if it is possible. And he has convinced them he can do what he says to an absurd degree. That is clever con man work.

 

To summarize my theory of "Make America Great Again" is that INSIDE THE MIND OF TRUMP, as an accomplished narcissist, that translates into English as "Make America like the 1960s Again, because that was MY wild and wonderful decade of excellence, and when I turned groping women into an art form. That was topped off by my coronation as King of my fathers businesses. That was the decade, the 1960s, bring back the likes of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones!"

 

At every rally you hear "You can't always get what you want.....but if you try some time....... you just might find.....you get what you need."

Edited November 4, 2016 by Airbrush

[dimreepr]

people are so afraid to lose what they imagine as needs, that they turn their back on people with actual needs; what we've spent on the road to protect us from that fear could house every last refugee, not to mention the avoidance of that road would have saved every last refugee from being a refugee.

[Ten oz]

 

It's about both, self-anointed REAL Americans just want the drivers seat back...Trump supporters just want power back, and Trump, through his celebrity and clever gift for BSing, has sold a load of bull to his supporters. Yeah, that's the ticket, I'm going to shake everything up, turn everything upside down, do everything you can dream of, because what the hell do you have to lose? Promise them the world, it doesn't matter that I don't even know if it is possible. And he has convinced them he can do what he says to an absurd degree. That is clever con man work.

 

To summarize my theory of "Make America Great Again" is that INSIDE THE MIND OF TRUMP, as an accomplished narcissist, that translates into English as "Make America like the 1960s Again, because that was MY wild and wonderful decade of excellence, and when I turned groping women into an art form. That was topped off by my coronation as King of my fathers businesses. That was the decade, the 1960s, bring back the likes of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones!"

 

At every rally you hear "You can't always get what you want.....but if you try some time....... you just might find.....you get what you need."

You are giving Trump and his supporters far too much credit in my opinion. The conservative base have proven repeatedly they will support, vehemently support, unintelligible public speakers. George W Bush served 2 terms and was sternly supported by his base despite clearly being somewhat of an idiot. Bush's lack of public speaking ability is a point everyone concedes now that he is out of office and it isn't worth pretending otherwise about. In 2008 sixty million people voted for McCain/Palin. Sarah Palin was a star who drew huge crowds. The right loved her! Yet Sarah Palin was such an incompetent public performer that simply asking her what she likes to read was too challanging for her to answer. Rick Perry served 14 YEARS as Governor on the 2nd largest state in the country. He was so bad that during his presidential campaign on 2012 he literally gave up trying to answer a question in the middle of a response during one of the debates and simply said "oops".

 

Calling Trump a "gifted" speaker implies his supporters are beig influence by something understandable. These are the same people who supported people Todd Akin and his "legitimate rape" comments. It isn't that Trump gabs well, it is that his supporters do not care what anyone says. They reject climate change and evolution. Not because there are talented speakers and celebrities making stirring speeches against those things but rather because they just don't care. Trump had them at hello. Nothing Trump says matters to them. It is purely identity politics.

 

Trump suceeds because his supporters are pushing the bus and not because Trump is driving it. I fear Trump's supporters more than I fear Trump. They are the ones electing Tea Party members to congress. Trump's supporters were extreme well before Trump came along.

Edited November 5, 2016 by Ten oz

[CharonY]

Looking at the election results as they come in and with Trump leading all I have to say: seriously?

[iNow]

He won. She lost.

 

Now Republicans control the Presidency. They control the House. They control the State houses. They control the seats on the Courts, and if current trend continues tonight they control the Senate.

 

They'll still blame others and Dems and "liberals" when things go wrong, but there are no more simple scapegoats or easy bogeymen to blame.

 

Eager to see... GREAT according to whom?

[Memammal]

Terrible Trump To Truimph..?! This is pretty devastating news, not only for America but also for the rest of the world. There is a sweeping move towards the conservative right across the globe, I fear, and volatility and typical right wing agenda's are likely to become the norm. Terrible timing i.t.o. global warming. This man could take the world past the tipping point.

[CharonY]

Even the popular vote.

[StringJunky]

Why are the Western countries becoming insular and self-serving? I ask this WRT the popular vote. We've just done it in the UK. The idea of global co-operation is taking a back seat, it seems.

 

What has Obama's government done so wrong?

[DrKrettin]

Terrible Trump To Truimph..?! This is pretty devastating news, not only for America but also for the rest of the world. There is a sweeping move towards the conservative right across the globe, I fear, and volatility and typical right wing agenda's are likely to become the norm. Terrible timing i.t.o. global warming. This man could take the world past the tipping point.

 

Chomski is on record as saying that voting Trump as president signals the end of our species. Devastating news, and an insight into what the majority of Americans think - if that is the right verb to use.

[CharonY]

Why are the Western countries becoming insular and self-serving? I ask this WRT the popular vote. We've just done it in the UK. The idea of global co-operation is taking a back seat, it seems.

 

What has Obama's government done so wrong?

 

Considering his current rating I doubt that it is down to him. What he may have done is to alienate the uneducated white vote, possibly by virtue of not being white (considering that most administrations have done little for them) and thus galvanizing them. But I guess there will be many more analyses of the demographics soon enough.

[Delta1212]

Why are the Western countries becoming insular and self-serving? I ask this WRT the popular vote. We've just done it in the UK. The idea of global co-operation is taking a back seat, it seems.

 

What has Obama's government done so wrong?

A rapidly changing global culture and economy that has largely left behind anyone who isn't fairly highly educated and located in or around a major urban population center. Rising global wealth that has gone pretty much exclusively towards the already wealthy or raising the standard of living in very poor countries with wage growth and standard of living in rural and poorer areas of Western countries stagnating or even shrinking. A culture shift in the direction of a global, urban cosmopolitan way of life that runs very counter to the traditional, provincial life that many people grew up with and are accustomed to.

 

These are rather shocking results because of the scale of the effects being unanticipated, but the reasons aren't really all that mysterious. The world is becoming increasingly urbanized, and for the people who are a part of that urbanization process the benefits to themselves and to the world at large are clearly visible. But that same process is killing off an older way of life, and the people who are either unwilling or unable to make the transition have been squeezed by it, and now they've reached the point where they are flipping out in a big way because no one has been listening to them.

[Memammal]

^ In addition, was this not the last election before the USA's demographics will change towards a white minority..? A bit of paranoia and a last grasp at the straw, perhaps?

[nec209]

Why are the Western countries becoming insular and self-serving? I ask this WRT the popular vote. We've just done it in the UK. The idea of global co-operation is taking a back seat, it seems.

 

What has Obama's government done so wrong?

 

From what I get from reading here and there it not what he has done it is move to big government. Some where first term or second term Obama became big government. I think this why lot people voted for Trump. The end to big government and government spending.

[Delta1212]

^ In addition, was this not the last election before the USA's demographics will change towards a white minority..? A bit of paranoia and a last grasp at the straw, perhaps?

That's not happening for quite a few cycles yet if trends hold.

 

From what I get from reading here and there it not what he has done it is move to big government. Some where first term or second term Obama became big government. I think this why lot people voted for Trump. The end to big government and government spending.

Big government is a term that gets thrown out a lot because intuitively, it seems easy to understand, and yet really, it doesn't mean anything at all. Which is handy because it means that the speaker can make it mean whatever they want.

[Memammal]

That's not happening for quite a few cycles yet if trends hold.

OK, I read or heard it somewhere...it was probably referring to current birth rates.

[nec209]

The population of the United States has literally doubled from the day Donald Trump was born through now. The internet did not exist, we did not have man made satelites in orbit, cigarettes were physician approved, and minorities legally dicriminated against and segregated. The country is a completely different place today. There is no glory to return to. The definition of progress is forward or onward. Why anyone accepts a definition of backward makes no sense . Repblicans often say the gov't should be ran my like a business. Successful businessed do not look backwards. Successful business are not focused of shrinking their base, moving away from technology, becoming less integrated, and change adverse.

 

Why are so many millions of people seduced by the promise of yesterday? It is the promise of tomorrow that has delivered time and time and time again!!!

 

I think what he means by Make America Great Again is more America made goods. The democratic party and republican party responsible for lack of jobs and allowing business to move to China, South Korea and India and trade. And he will like is more of an old German model. I don't know how far trump will go that every thing must be made in America and limit trade at all cost.

That's not happening for quite a few cycles yet if trends hold.

 

Big government is a term that gets thrown out a lot because intuitively, it seems easy to understand, and yet really, it doesn't mean anything at all. Which is handy because it means that the speaker can make it mean whatever they want.

 

There was no such thing as tea party movement before Obama so some where first term or second term it became issue. And big government become hot topic and turn people off Obama.

 

Obama campaign for election was lot more radical left than his term in office!!!! But Obama got slapped with recession when he took office so none of the radical left campaign like universal health care and tax the rich and give to poor never happen. What did happen was money to wall street and stimulus package. Now where did tea party movement start was it before election or the money to wall street and stimulus package it may been both!!

 

And than is second term cause he could not pass universal health care no money because of the recession!!! He supported Obamacare that many view has big government money to the poor. And this turn many people away from the democratic party.

Edited November 9, 2016 by nec209

[Ten oz]

^ In addition, was this not the last election before the USA's demographics will change towards a white minority..? A bit of paranoia and a last grasp at the straw, perhaps?

You mean a pularity? There is no single racial group which will be as larger or lager than whites in our lifetimes. Asians are 3% of the U.S. population, Blacks 13% of the U.S. population, and etc. White are and will continue to be, for a very long time, the largest single demo in the country.

He won. She lost.

 

Now Republicans control the Presidency. They control the House. They control the State houses. They control the seats on the Courts, and if current trend continues tonight they control the Senate.

 

They'll still blame others and Dems and "liberals" when things go wrong, but there are no more simple scapegoats or easy bogeymen to blame.

 

Eager to see... GREAT according to whom?

This was a gaint blow to progressives. There may not be another chance to like this with the supreme court for another few decades. My generation sat on the sidelines and watched Bush get elected while making the two evils argument. It seems millions of us most learn again the elections matter and all candidates aren't equal. Very unfortunate.

[imatfaal]

and Ten Oz - all through this campaign from the primaries to doomsday today I have been warning you and others about the dangers of over-estimating the voter and counting Trump out. Damn, I wish you had been right that Trump would never command more than a third of the vote, would never make it through the primaries, would never this, would never that...

 

It is through our hubris as liberal moderates in the UK that we have renounced membership of the progressive and humanitarian European Union; I fear that same inability to imagine one could be wrong has helped cause this terrible event in the USA.

 

There has been a divide for many years between the liberal moderate urbanite and those who feel disenfranchised by them - the poor under-employed, un-employed and unfairly-employed; the Little-Englander/daily mail reader (insert correct cultural reference here); the uneducated and proud of it etc. But this was acceptable as I and the other middle class liberal sophisticates were able to continue to govern (often with a fair and egalitarian agenda) and the disaffected stayed on the outskirts. But around the world the reactionary right are now leveraging the bitter spite and anger of the frustrated mass to advance their own agenda - and whilst the rich right plutocrats control much of the media they will continue to succeed.

 

The far-right alliance has woven such a clever myth and presented such a palatable lie that the turkeys have voted for thanksgiving.