I can't believe no one has started one yet. But anyway here we are. We're basically a Wisconsin or Michigan call for Trump away from the unthinkable happening. Even if Clinton pulls this thing out, I am very scared for our country. Because it shows bald-face lies, and racist, misogynistic and xenophobic rhetoric is a winning strategy. The people who hold those views will be even more emboldened and I think it's clear that there is NOTHING anyone with a D behind their name can do change those people's minds. I don't think this is as anti-Hillary as Bernie supporters may like to believe as just the same anti-Government as usual, pro-hope and change movement that propelled Obama to the Presidency. The GOP went "all in," in proving that government is dysfunctional through their own obstructionism and they have been rewarded for it because they were right. The fact that parts of Michigan could have their water poisoned by GOP decision making, and the auto-industry saved by economic decisions made by a Democratic president and so many people still think that GOP is the answer to the loss of manufacturing jobs in their state, I find unfathomable. The type of thing that leads me to the think that the GOP controlling all 3 branches of government and things not going their way is the only thing that *might* change minds. I say might because the amount of mental gymnastics required to pick Trump in the first place, means it's easy to see how people would still blame Democrats and immigrants for their problems. On a more positive note, my city voted on whether we could have public high-speed internet service as an option and not just Comcast monopoly...the public high speed internet service is winning by a lot.
I just have not been able to watch. Just watched a cat documentary on Netfix to keep our minds occupied. I do not fear too much for ourselves. We are old and not much is likely to change. (Although I realize it could.) But I do not want my grandchildren growing up in this. One granddaughter for sure is going to be devastated. No sleep for me tonight.
Even though it hasn't been called by everyone yet, Wisconsin is going to go for Trump. President Trump it will be. We're not particularly worried about ourselves. We live in a blue state, DH's job should not be affected, a poor economy may actually drive more business to his company as people look for "options." But we have friends that are gay, minorities, immigrants (although they are US citizens now) and I worry for what will happen to them. Trying to decide if I should buy the British pounds for our March vacation, from our bank before the dollar crashes or is it already too late to make that call.
Several weeks (months?) ago, someone asked what you fear most about a Trump presidency. I'm not sure I answered it, but I will now. My fear is that he will "Executive Order" the heck out of things and we have a non-functional court system that will be able to function as a roadblock and say, "No, you can't do that." It won't matter if the things are not Constitutional, the red states will be itching to follow through and the rhetoric will be, "voters picked Trump, don't dare go against the will of the voters."
There is that and my other fear. That he will be impeached or forced to resign and we will be faced with President Pence. It is all to scary for me to face just yet. Watching Zootopia now to keep my mind occupied.
So the Rs have the House, Senate, most state governments, and a vacancy on the SCOTUS with three other seats held by 80+-year-olds, and over top of it all quite possibly the most unqualified world leader of all time. It's going to take days for me to process this. Even though I've been saying all along that this could happen, the ramifications that it actually did are still hitting me, hard. All the most horrible things about my country that I didn't really believe, deep down inside ... they're all true. All of them. And since I'm an employed relatively healthy Protestant honky, I'm in way better shape than a sizable chunk of my country ... and the world. Sorry world. Your trust in us was badly misplaced. Oh well, time to get ready to go to my government job. Today will certainly be interesting.
I'm up because I can't sleep. Only in part because of the results, but also because my husband went from feeling a little off to having a 102 degree fever and aches which means he has the flu. You know how men get when they get sick. But I've seen quite a bit of, "Calm down, everyone thought Bush would destroy things, and he didn't, we'll get through this." Except we were on the brink of global recession when Bush left office. Destroy was very close at hand, but enough establishment types got scared to death that they hedged and went more Keynesian with their economic remedies. Which is not the choice that today's Trump electors supported. Economically, globally we can easily be right back where we were; quicker than I think people could even consider. Totalitarian regimes just scored a major victory in terms of a win for 1. courting fundamentalism and 2. the US being the stern authority figure willing to slap down such entities. Those two elements will have major destabilizing consequences throughout the world, to which the US will not be immune. People may have a hard time adjusting to globalization, but it's a train that can't be stopped no matter how many people wish it were so. So in addition to what I previously mentioned of being scared of. You can add economic destabilization leading to recession/depression globally, and war in Eastern Europe as empire building comes back into fashion. Resulting in a negative feedback loop that people can't even imagine could happen in a post WWII society. Our relative peace and prosperity have been taken for granted. Mawnck, I hope your job survives the next Congressional budget. I might be afraid that it might be seen as part of the Liberal spending agenda that should not be part of the Federal government spending. Certainly, if your audio/visual department were important to the American people, private funds would be sufficient to keep it operating.
I stayed up a little late watching the results come in, but went to bed well before things started to turn. I woke up a couple hours ago and foolishly decided to check my phone, and never got back to sleep. I'm definitely surprised by the outcome, particularly the across-the-board sweep, but not nearly as shocked as some of my friends in soCal, who I don't think have ever met a person with opinions different than their own. It's going to be a struggle for everybody to put the pieces back together, but I think it will be especially rough in places like that. How did we all manage to become so isolated? Ironically, that's one of the few things that I considered a positive for Trump over Clinton. Had Clinton won, the Democrats would be falling over themselves to make sure her agendas got pushed through. Very few of the Republicans like Trump, and his platform is hardly conservative in the traditional sense; Republicans have also spoken out in the past about Obama's excessive use of executive orders. That means that there are two parties that have large contingents of the legislature who are opposed to him and would be willing to block his policies. As we've all seen, congress is great at blocking progress, so my hope was that they could keep Trump relatively powerless; then again, I didn't think they would take the senate too, so who knows
The things about that ... (1) He doesn't have policies. You're giving him too much credit. His policies are whatever the last person who he talked to say they are. I'm quite convinced that the GOP establishment is right now formulating an elaborate plan on how to manipulate and control the orange simpleton (sorry, President-Elect Orange Simpleton) and I have no doubt that it will be at least somewhat successful. His campaign seemed to have pretty much figured it out, unfortunately right about the same time as the Comey letter. (2) So you think the 3 or 4 GOP Congresscritters who had the gumption to oppose him during the election are going to be enough to stop his whims, er, policies now? Best case: They're able to control him, in which case we'll be living the worst-case supply side/Tea Party nightmare scenario. Worst case: They aren't able to control him. In which case we'll be living - briefly - in a Tom Lehrer record. The more I think about this, the worse it gets. Imagine what Putin is gonna do now. Just imagine. If I lived in the Balkans, I'd be booking a one-way flight to AnyplaceElseStan right now.
I wrote this earlier, but wasn't sure if I should post it. But now reading mawnck's post, why not. I don't really think that the GOP Congresspeople will stop Trump's legislative agenda. Over the several election cycles centrist GOP politicians have been basically witch-slapped (you know what I really mean) by their electorate. GOPers who did not actively support Trump during the election cycle, are going to have to prove their loyalty or suffer the consequences. I think we're probably going to hear a lot about Trump's first 100 days the most "successful" in regards to amount of legislation passed. However, it will likely be the brain children of his surrogates like Pence, Christie, Guiliani and Gingrich because they have the experience. So I guess it won't exactly be the Trump agenda.
So you don't have to tax your imagination too hard ... While the US is distracted by the election, rebels in Aleppo are bracing for one final assault
I literally feel physically sick this morning. After feeling sick last night. So many questions for the future. So much disappointment that so many of my fellow Americans could be either so gullible as to be taken in by this con man, or so actively happy to vote for him because his racism and sexism are to them a feature, not a bug (and yes, any internet comments board will show you these people absolutely exist - I just had hoped there weren't so many of them). 2000 was a special case because of course it wasn't settled on Election night. So I'm remembering what I felt in 2004. I was bummed. To me, Bush had shown himself unworthy of election after 4 years, but a bare majority disagreed with me. I didn't like it, but it felt different than this. I'm far more disheartened, and a little scared too. I'll probably be okay. I'm white, male, and although I'm gay (and anti-gay rhetoric has heated up too, with some gleefully willing and eager to take away recent rights) I don't think I have too much to worry about there, living in NYC (if I lived in rural America I might feel differently). But if I were black or brown or Muslim - or for that matter, Estonian - I'm sure I'd feel more than a little scared right now. The alt-right has been emboldened and all too eager to step on those "others." And because I'm an empathetic guy and want to believe better of our country, I'm scared myself for what could happen, even if it doesn't happen to me personally. Someone - Norquist? - said months ago that he knew Trump was unqualified, but all he needed to have was a working right hand that could sign the legislation Paul Ryan would be writing. Breathtakingly cynical, of course, but there it is. Maybe, as mawnck says, that's our best-case scenario. That Trump will show little inclination for the hard work of governing and will delegate just about everything unceremonial to others - remember that report that Trump Jr. told Kasich that if he was the running mate, he could be in charge of "domestic and foreign policy" and that his Dad would be in charge of "making America great again?" So essentially we have co-Presidents Ryan and Pence. A Tea Party nightmare, as mawnck said, but perhaps stable. Of course, Trump will still be the President. Which means he can unstabilize things at any moment. Especially in terms of foreign affairs. How will he react to the inevitable criticism any president receives? Will he try to crack down on dissenters or journalists? Will he get away with it? I'm sure he's going to have an enemies list that makes Nixon's look like nothing. Will it be worse than that? It strikes me that he will not be able to make good on nearly any of the promises he made. That's true of all politicians to a degree, but it's going to be especially true here, because of the size of his promises, and the fact that those big promises are in large part what made people vote for him. He can't make Mexico pay for a wall, even if he builds it. He can't bring back those manufacturing jobs that went to China and elsewhere - those jobs aren't coming back. (More of them were lost to automation anyway, and that will only continue apace.) He can't slash taxes by trillions on the wealthy and not see a budget shortfall like we've never seen before. He can't enact protectionist policies without costing far more jobs than he saves. So will those angry white working glass guys figure out they've been betrayed? Will we have four years of confirmation bias - those guys saying it's not Trump's fault, and it's really all Obama's fault or The Establishment's fault or the fault of those immigrants who haven't been deported yet? Or will they figure out they've been duped and react accordingly? I'm not quite sure at this moment which would be worse. I'm sure we'll all have plenty more to say later. Trying to think of a better best-case scenario, there's always the chance that people WILL blame Trump for what I think is a pretty inevitable economic downturn, if he does even a fraction of what he's saying he will. That 20 million people who lose their health insurance (many of them the white working class) will say "hey... wait a minute... you said you'd replace it with something....???" That his unpopularity (and he IS unpopular broadly, let's not forget - he will probably begin with the lowest favorability rating ever) will only grow as his incompetence and worse is revealed. Lots of Republicans turned against Bush, don't forget. And plenty of people only voted for him because they hated Hillary and are hoping he'll "change Washington" somehow. And if he doesn't... ?? Or maybe more of what he's already done is revealed. There's plenty. Or maybe there's a major scandal to come; does anyone think a Trump administration would be scandal-free?? Maybe when he's no longer the shiny object that people took a chance on, and instead the entrenched president who isn't delivering, that enough of the people who voted for him see the light, along with all those who didn't vote for him, and creates a critical mass. Maybe the 2018 midterms resemble 2006 more than 2010 or 2014. The anger moves to the left, as it did during the Bush years. It's a hell of a way to run a country. I'm just trying to think of something that doesn't leave me feeling so sick.
I wouldn't bank on it. The Senate was blue for the taking this time, but next time it's not nearly as favorable for the Democrats. Four years at a minimum we're looking at.
I know the map is tough for 2018 in the senate, but the Dems did pick up some House seats last night, and if they can pick up a bunch in 2018 as in 2006, they get chairmanships, subpoena power, etc. All depends on how badly Trump does and how angry the left is 2 years from now I think. Maybe Trump will surprise me and do well. I'm not saying it's impossible. But I'm not banking on it.
Very well said Dabob, that sums up how I feel. My wife and I feel positively ill this morning and are utterly embarrassed to call ourselves American in front of all our European friends and family. They think America has gone mad. Quite frankly, so do we.
Is Trump still expected in court on charges of fraud re: Trump University? Will this still be adjudicated? If so, what could the possible outcome be? Would/Could it affect his holding office?
Yes; if the prosecutors are gutsy enough; I'd have to research it; and I suspect that would end up going to the SCOTUS. The good news is that President Pence would at least have some comprehension of what nuclear bombs actually do.
