Escher's Waterfall
Bluelight Crew
Some town in Vermont/Quebec. It's pretty famous.
The US/Canada border is technically not open, but it's pretty porous in spots and run on the honor system.
2017 Trump Presidency Thread
- Thread starter Escher's Waterfall
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Some town in Vermont/Quebec. It's pretty famous.
The US/Canada border is technically not open, but it's pretty porous in spots and run on the honor system.
Erikmen
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- May 3, 2014
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- 20,707
Because you wanted to say that all politicians lie. BS, Trump lies every day, all the time. He's totally childish and arrogant. Pay for the wall!! Yell, bully but doesn't actually follow up or do anything. Where's the wall? Insulting a friend country is different from having balls.
Obama was a great president, they can't be compared. Not only because Obama is part of this world History and have had historical approval rates (58%%)) but also for his greatness as a person, to have actually done a lot in the middle of a Great Recession just to start. Trump will never get close to the man Obama is. Look at how the country is now.
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Fresco
Bluelighter
OMG!!! After googling it, I should've known.
Its part of my Lake Champy folklore......LOL.
Seriously though, I love you Americans.
I'm so hurt for all kinds of reasons
right. so his three biggest promises were drain the swamp (not so much), repeal and replace obamacare (it's going to be so easy! wait. nobody knew healthcare could be so complex!) and this wall...
his scorecard is shaping up to look pretty terrible at the end of his term.
alasdair
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zephyr
Ex-Bluelighter
Hows rebuilding Detroit going?
LucidSDreamr
Bluelighter
You have to understand why electoral college is in place. Its so major urban cities cant rule the whole country, and rural areas get a say in politicial matters.
See map (red is Republican, blue is Democrats). If EC wasnt in place the whole map would be blue
so they people that pay less in taxes because they are poor fly over states, and that don't produce anything economically comared to the tech and biotech industries of the west and northeast, that don't produce world class educational institutions....these people get an EQUAL say....hmm sounds like welfare to me, or socialism. except instead of resources its votes given to them for free
Scrofula
Bluelight Crew
Yeah, if you look at it by population, you remember, nobody lives in that sea of red. (I used to think of it like Pakinstan's "Tribal Zones" where the Federal Government doesn't have much control, till someone pointed out, oh yeah, we do still have tribes that live out there.)
The good news is that fewer and fewer people live out there, more come to the cities where they're forced to interact with people who aren't white and christian, find out the Muslim at the liquor store is totally normal and doesn't want to murder them with his sharias. They also run into conmen and learn not to be so fucking gullible.
The map is taken from a slightly biased place, but it's a still from the interactive here.. (YOu can spin it around and everything!)
2016 margin of victory by county by number of votes:
The good news is that fewer and fewer people live out there, more come to the cities where they're forced to interact with people who aren't white and christian, find out the Muslim at the liquor store is totally normal and doesn't want to murder them with his sharias. They also run into conmen and learn not to be so fucking gullible.
The map is taken from a slightly biased place, but it's a still from the interactive here.. (YOu can spin it around and everything!)
2016 margin of victory by county by number of votes:
Scrofula
Bluelight Crew
Tightest correlation among Trump voters: white from a smallish town and never left.
If you live in a largish city or moved, like ever, you tended more toward Hilary. Source? Twothirtyeight,com somewhere, I'll find it if anyone demands.
Those are correlations; obv. some people who have moved still went with Trump, but it's the tightest.
ETA: red America, if you picture us "elite" looking down at you condescendingly from our elitist coastal towers, no, we're looking down at you with disgust and contempt. I'm from the equivalent part of my state, and know what it feels like . . . when it's unfair. This revulsion is totally justified.
Over half an hour? I'll keep spamming.
Electoral college was just another compromise with slave states. They were (and are still somewhat) sparsely populated . . . by whites. Let 'em count their slaves as 3/5 of a voter for Congressional seat allotment, go ahead and let that count toward the presidency too.
And thus my vote is worth a third that of someone in North Dakota, 200 years later (true fact).
If you live in a largish city or moved, like ever, you tended more toward Hilary. Source? Twothirtyeight,com somewhere, I'll find it if anyone demands.
Those are correlations; obv. some people who have moved still went with Trump, but it's the tightest.
ETA: red America, if you picture us "elite" looking down at you condescendingly from our elitist coastal towers, no, we're looking down at you with disgust and contempt. I'm from the equivalent part of my state, and know what it feels like . . . when it's unfair. This revulsion is totally justified.
Over half an hour? I'll keep spamming.
Electoral college was just another compromise with slave states. They were (and are still somewhat) sparsely populated . . . by whites. Let 'em count their slaves as 3/5 of a voter for Congressional seat allotment, go ahead and let that count toward the presidency too.
And thus my vote is worth a third that of someone in North Dakota, 200 years later (true fact).
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Shimmer.Fade
Bluelighter
I didn't take you to be an optimist. There may be a few pieces of wall, but there will be nothing like what Trump sold to his shit eating gaggle of geese.
Many professionals in the area of border security have said over and over again that the best solution is using drones to patrol the border, and people to respond to what the drones see. Physical walls have a horrible price to performance ratio at a larger scale.
Shimmer.Fade
Bluelighter
In response to why the electoral college is flawed, and why not just people in big cities are marginalized:
Take Oklahoma for example. In Oklahoma the majority winner takes all electoral college votes. Say you have a close race at 51% to 49%. Guess who takes all the electoral college votes? The 51%. The 49% just lost everything. Their voices are completely silenced. Usually Oklahoma goes something like ~70% red to ~30% blue. It would be very easy to give 7/10 to the Rs and 3/10 to the Ds, but the Rs are rabid in their protection of voter suppression/disenfranchisement.
The USA is supposed to be a representative democracy, but we are much closer to an autocratic oligarchy in practice. In the end the biggest issue is that we are presented a false dichotomy election after election, and neither side truly represents the people. Economic inequality has never been so pronounced on such a large scale. However, I do not endorse a false equivalency between the Rs and Ds. The Rs are far more autocratic and much more likely to ram through legislation for corporations and wealthy individuals as opposed to representing their actual constituents.
The USA is more broken than most people want to admit. It is far more comforting to pretend things are ok and that it's all business as usual. The Ds sit there and watch, and the Rs pour on more gasoline.
Take Oklahoma for example. In Oklahoma the majority winner takes all electoral college votes. Say you have a close race at 51% to 49%. Guess who takes all the electoral college votes? The 51%. The 49% just lost everything. Their voices are completely silenced. Usually Oklahoma goes something like ~70% red to ~30% blue. It would be very easy to give 7/10 to the Rs and 3/10 to the Ds, but the Rs are rabid in their protection of voter suppression/disenfranchisement.
The USA is supposed to be a representative democracy, but we are much closer to an autocratic oligarchy in practice. In the end the biggest issue is that we are presented a false dichotomy election after election, and neither side truly represents the people. Economic inequality has never been so pronounced on such a large scale. However, I do not endorse a false equivalency between the Rs and Ds. The Rs are far more autocratic and much more likely to ram through legislation for corporations and wealthy individuals as opposed to representing their actual constituents.
The USA is more broken than most people want to admit. It is far more comforting to pretend things are ok and that it's all business as usual. The Ds sit there and watch, and the Rs pour on more gasoline.
Scrofula
Bluelight Crew
My favorite is how you (not nec. you, but US citizens) don't have any right to vote for president in the first place. You have a right to vote for your representatives in Congress, and that's it (federally).
There's nothing in the Constitution to say how the states choose their electors. It's just that now all fifty states agree to use the popular vote. Nothing says it has to be winner-take-all, and I think like nebraska and Maine or some shit (there's two anyway) don't do it that way. California could, if it wanted, put me in charge of choosing electors, which I'm willing to accept if it comes with a per diem.
There's nothing in the Constitution to say how the states choose their electors. It's just that now all fifty states agree to use the popular vote. Nothing says it has to be winner-take-all, and I think like nebraska and Maine or some shit (there's two anyway) don't do it that way. California could, if it wanted, put me in charge of choosing electors, which I'm willing to accept if it comes with a per diem.
cj
Bluelight Crew
The biggest indictment of the Trump presidency is his inability to bring unity on any issue. Going to visit a hurricane ravaged state should be a slam dunk politically but he manages to fuck it up. It's embarrassing how bad this guy is. Going from a great president in Obama to a shit show like Trump is jarring.
I live in Alabama. After the election all the talk radio morons talked Trump endlessly. They don't do that so much anymore. Buyer's remorse is setting in slowly but surely.
I live in Alabama. After the election all the talk radio morons talked Trump endlessly. They don't do that so much anymore. Buyer's remorse is setting in slowly but surely.
Scrofula
Bluelight Crew
My deepest sympathies to you and your living situation. I try to remind myself it could always be worse.
Fresco
Bluelighter
Actually, every time you eat a sandwich or a burger, there's about a 90% chance that food staple was produced in one of your "poor fly over States". If you think thats not "producing anything economically", you and me must have a different understanding of economics
well said.
regardless of people's opinions of obama, he was a great president,in the sense that he was a statesman, in intellectual, great speaker - and yeah, he endeavoured to bring people together.
trump thrives on division. well, "thrives" is a bit generous. thriving implies functioning on some level.
he's the most inept politician i've ever seen...and he's running the most powerful government in the world (into the ground).
i find him uncomfortable too watch, because there's something about loathing a man so clearly unwell that makes me feel guilty...until i remember what a spiteful person he is and i just look forward to his downfall (the downfall that's been gathering steam since the moment he took office)
Fresco
Bluelighter
Thats because (by nature) he's not really a politician
Thats not true at all!! Stop it with this negative talk
he is a politician - he's the president of the united states.
just an incredibly bad politician with experience and absolutely none of the skills required to do the job.
it's not negative to point out that an erratic, egomaniac, hypersensitive crackpot with documented links to organised crime and white supremacists has taken over the government, and is dismantling it, piece-by-piece (starting with all his own staff, advisors and top people.
i'm just telling what i see - a mess. i'm not being negative, i'm being straight.if anything, the stuff i said about obama was me being positive, because i was disappointed with his presidency that promised so much - but at least he had dignity. trump's embarrassing.
just an incredibly bad politician with experience and absolutely none of the skills required to do the job.
it's not negative to point out that an erratic, egomaniac, hypersensitive crackpot with documented links to organised crime and white supremacists has taken over the government, and is dismantling it, piece-by-piece (starting with all his own staff, advisors and top people.
i'm just telling what i see - a mess. i'm not being negative, i'm being straight.if anything, the stuff i said about obama was me being positive, because i was disappointed with his presidency that promised so much - but at least he had dignity. trump's embarrassing.
Blue_Phlame
Bluelight Crew
it makes me hopeful that anyone can become president. Even if you don't have any experience, or have any skills, you can still become the POTUS. How inspiring!
Fresco
Bluelighter
We get it, SJ. You dont like the man 8)
I've watched quite a bit of Celeb apprentice shows, and I've watched many of his interviews,. I think he's a decent person who wants the best for America, and I think the US is gonna be just fine. Stop being so negative!
Fresco
Bluelighter
Yes, because becoming a billionaire requires no like skills whatsoever
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