US Politics Thread |OT| THE DARKEST TIMELINE

[Nola]

Things I saw on twitter today:

Someone saying not to let the media gaslight us into thinking Trump is okay.

Lots of people re-tweeting letters to the daughters of celebrities.

People saying an article that says we shouldn't try to understand all the people from rural America who feel forgotten by the rest of the country is an important piece of journalism.

It feels like the whole smug liberal thing is being amped to 11 even though they lost.

I guess I expect people to act more rational and less emotional and it is too soon to even begin to hope for that.

Lots of liberals seem to still be stuck in the denial phase. For most, it'll pass. Maybe 

[bluemax]

Things I saw on twitter today:

Someone saying not to let the media gaslight us into thinking Trump is okay.

Lots of people re-tweeting letters to the daughters of celebrities.

People saying an article that says we shouldn't try to understand all the people from rural America who feel forgotten by the rest of the country is an important piece of journalism.

It feels like the whole smug liberal thing is being amped to 11 even though they lost.

I guess I expect people to act more rational and less emotional and it is too soon to even begin to hope for that.

Lots of liberals seem to still be stuck in the denial phase. For most, it'll pass. Maybe 

Maybe, I guess. I just think people are glossing way too much over the fact that 47% or so of the country didn't vote. But I'm a lot less emotionally involved in this whole thing than the people I know.

Folks, this candidate would have won the primary and the election:

Embarked on a grassroots campaign to, in his own words, "take back America from the confederacy of corruption, careerism, and campaign consulting in Washington". In his stump speech, first used while officially announcing his candidacy on the steps of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he told listeners that he would only be accepting campaign contributions from individuals and that he would not accept over $100. Continuing with his populist reform theme, he assailed what he dubbed "the bipartisan Incumbent Party in Washington" and called for term limits for members of Congress. Citing various recent scandals on Capitol Hill, particularly the recent House banking scandal and the large congressional pay-raises, he promised to put an end to Congress being a "Stop-and-Shop for the moneyed special interests".

His name?

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Jerry Brown.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Brown#1992_presidential_election

[close]

Hey, his aura smiles and never frowns.

[Nola]

Things I saw on twitter today:

Someone saying not to let the media gaslight us into thinking Trump is okay.

Lots of people re-tweeting letters to the daughters of celebrities.

People saying an article that says we shouldn't try to understand all the people from rural America who feel forgotten by the rest of the country is an important piece of journalism.

It feels like the whole smug liberal thing is being amped to 11 even though they lost.

I guess I expect people to act more rational and less emotional and it is too soon to even begin to hope for that.

Lots of liberals seem to still be stuck in the denial phase. For most, it'll pass. Maybe 

Maybe, I guess. I just think people are glossing way too much over the fact that 47% or so of the country didn't vote. But I'm a lot less emotionally involved in this whole thing than the people I know.

Oh for sure. Shit like that, that speaks to the turnout, is definitely getting passed over by many. I certainly think there is a lot of liberals that are just refusing to allow themselves to have any introspection or constructive thoughts right now, but there seems to also be another group that seem to be largely over-thinking this as well.

[VomKriege]

I was thinking how a lot of left-leaning/democrat/liberal people who live in red parts of states or red states often get sick of it and move to somewhere more liberal.  Well if this happens regularly, doesn't this just push things more red?  I mean the progressives end up in cities already progressive and the red counties have one family or one person less to go against to stay red?  I wonder how much this grouping of similar politically minded groups keeps the status quo and prevents counties from changing along with demographics.

I think you're making a mistake by thinking this in party terms. Of course, it is very common that the hinterland will be more conservative while the big cities are more cosmopolite and there's of course an amount of loyalty and tradition in how they cast votes. But as you know, party loyalty in the US flipped "instantly" the moment Democrats became the one to pass civil rights. Political platforms are not immuable, election is an always-new competition where most of the vote is up for grabs (deeply militant and ideological voters are not the majority) and last but not least the seemingly tight grip parties have on some regions is also a product of the way the institutions are setup and the district map drawn (gerrymandering).

Ultimately it's the platform you have to tailor for the voters, not the other way around. You're not gonna transmogrify Kentucky farmers into Starbuck-sipping SJWs. If you want to win their vote you must engage them at their level.

[VomKriege]

Okay what's the fucking deal with people believing Michelle Obama would make a good national candidate ? She reportedly hates politics too !

[Take My Breh Away]

Okay what's the fucking deal with people believing Michelle Obama would make a good national candidate ? She reportedly hates politics too !

They are the same dems who were on team "YASS QUEEN" and still believe everyone who voted for Trump is a racist biggot. And just because Michelle made some good speeches on the campaign trail that she would be good enough, she campaigned for better education and encouraging healthy living (Especially assisting poor people eating healthy) in the position of FLOTUS and did very well with those that she is somehow qualified to run.

Those people are still in the bubble thinking it was racism and not the fact that Hillary's campaign was fucking terrible on top of the fact people fucking hated Hillary that the dems lost. Michelle doesn't want to run, both Obamas said they are done with politics after they leave in January.

They have to eat that L and pray Biden decides to go in 2020 or Bernie doesn't decide "Fuck this gay earth. Peace, I'm out" and dies in the next few years.

[VomKriege]

Speaking of fickle loyalty to parties, Dems shouldn't take the minorities for granted in the demographic shift. Doing the right thing today doesn't mean they will owe you tomorrow...

[Trent Dole]

I toxxed for Hill on SA and am now out :10bux: if I want back in. :^)

[Take My Breh Away]

Okay what's the fucking deal with people believing Michelle Obama would make a good national candidate ? She reportedly hates politics too !

They are the same dems who were on team "YASS QUEEN" and still believe everyone who voted for Trump is a racist biggot. And just because Michelle made some good speeches on the campaign trail that she would be good enough, she campaigned for better education and encouraging healthy living (Especially assisting poor people eating healthy) in the position of FLOTUS and did very well with those that she is somehow qualified to run.

Those people are still in the bubble thinking it was racism and not the fact that Hillary's campaign was fucking terrible on top of the fact people fucking hated Hillary that the dems lost. Michelle doesn't want to run, both Obamas said they are done with politics after they leave in January.

They have to eat that L and pray Biden decides to go in 2020 or Bernie doesn't decide "Fuck this gay earth. Peace, I'm out" and dies in the next few years.

It can't be either Biden or Sanders. You need a newcomer, like Obama was.

While a newcomer would help, they don't really have many who could inspire the sort of rallying Bernie and Obama did at the minute. Bernie and Obama were the sort of candidates that wouldn't just get a dem up on their ass to vote, but make sure they brought ten voters along with them. Hilary never had that. Biden I could see, especially in the blue collar Rust Belt regions, getting a lot of support as well because he's confident but easy going. And he'd connect well with the audience. Plus, he would bring along the track record of the Obama administration of showing how they created jobs and got unemployment down to 5%.

Unless there is a newcommer that could really inspire confidence and that buzz Obama had. It would probably be worth putting a known quantity out in 2020 that does have those benefits.

In other news, apparently the Brits are mad as fuck this morning because the first two countries Trump called to discuss policy and trade were Egypt and Ireland. Britain was last in the queue and apparently Trump doesn't give a fuck about a post Brexit trade deal.

[VomKriege]

It's all been a bit lost of the no doubt incredible analysis we partake in but I also wanted to say this : Good luck to US Boreans, stay firm and hope you won't get fucked over in the next four years.

[ToxicAdam]

Been think about the win and I think was really bothers me is that it destroys be belief that America was slowly becoming socially more equitable.  I think I truly believed that Trump wasn't electable because he's Trump and its not 1954 anymore.  This bothers me more than the things he's going to do. 

Progress isn't a steady climb. It can go backwards and forwards at the same time.

[Himu]

Holy shit. You fucking morons.

And some began pointing fingers at the young campaign manager, Robby Mook, who spearheaded a strategy supported by the senior campaign team that included only limited outreach to those voters — a theory of the case that Bill Clinton had railed against for months, wondering aloud at meetings why the campaign was not making more of an attempt to even ask that population for its votes. It’s not that there was none: Clinton’s post-convention bus tour took her through Youngstown, Ohio, as well as Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, where she tried to eat into Trump’s margins with his base. In Scranton and Harrisburg, the campaign aired a commercial that featured a David Letterman clip of Trump admitting to outsourcing manufacturing of the products and clothes that bore his logo. And at campaign stops in Ohio, Clinton talked about Trump’s reliance on Chinese steel.

But in general, Bill Clinton’s viewpoint of fighting for the working class white voters was often dismissed with a hand wave by senior members of the team as a personal vendetta to win back the voters who elected him, from a talented but aging politician who simply refused to accept the new Democratic map. At a meeting ahead of the convention at which aides presented to both Clintons the “Stronger Together” framework for the general election, senior strategist Joel Benenson told the former president bluntly that the voters from West Virginia were never coming back to his party.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/hillary-clinton-aides-loss-blame-231215

The new Democratic map? Wtf?

[ToxicAdam]

I don't think there was much Hillary could have done in those parts of the country. It's the same places she struggled with when she faced Obama in '08 and Sanders in the Spring.  The 'anyone but Hillary' sentiment is very strong.

[Himu]

Either way, it doesn't look like Democrats took it quite that seriously to me. They gambled our lives with overconfidence. In hindsight, I feel Pence was a bad VP choice.

Hillary was a flawed a candidate. Accepting it now. I won't say that Bernie would have won, though.

I'm hoping dems learn from this and ostracize Clinton aides because damn. The very definition of liberal smugness.

[Himu]

PD you have to tell me what you think about Clinton not polling Michigan pre-election.

[nachobro]

I don't know if Bernie was the right choice but Hillary was definitely the wrong one. How does a campaign ignore advice from Bill fucking Clinton on how to win votes with the rural and working class populace? How goddamn distinguished mentally-challenged do you have to be?

[Himu]

I can't fucking believe this.

[Phoenix Dark]

She lost by less than 20k votes here iirc. I've been too busy and disappointed to look at the county numbers of interest but apparently she under performed in Detroit. Ironically the same thing happened during the primaries, where I also felt confident she would win. But doing it again in the general despite having the president and the full weight of national media/attention focused on the election...yikes.

I've always said Michigan will be a red state, all you have to do is look at the district map of the state and take the gentrification of Detroit into account. I didn't expect it to happen this year or in 2020. Are we a red state going forward? TBH I don't think so, I think it'll shift back. But clearly not for a democrat like Hillary. Obama stomped Romney here four years ago...

The thing that boggles me is that these are states she struggled in during the primary, yet little attention was paid to them for the general.

[Himu]

I don't think there was much Hillary could have done in those parts of the country. It's the same places she struggled with when she faced Obama in '08 and Sanders in the Spring.  The 'anyone but Hillary' sentiment is very strong.

True enough but they didn't even try. They didn't have any numbers at all. What the fuck!

[Phoenix Dark]

She could have done better but ultimately she probably would still lose based off PA alone.

The funny thing is that the death of manufacturing began in the 80s. NAFTA's impact on it is disputed. But you can't win that argument with rural white people.

I mean bro...Trump got around the same amount of votes that Romney got in Wisconsin, when Obama trounced him there. And Hillary got far less. Jesus...

[zepblackstar]

Holy shit. You fucking morons.

And some began pointing fingers at the young campaign manager, Robby Mook, who spearheaded a strategy supported by the senior campaign team that included only limited outreach to those voters — a theory of the case that Bill Clinton had railed against for months, wondering aloud at meetings why the campaign was not making more of an attempt to even ask that population for its votes. It’s not that there was none: Clinton’s post-convention bus tour took her through Youngstown, Ohio, as well as Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, where she tried to eat into Trump’s margins with his base. In Scranton and Harrisburg, the campaign aired a commercial that featured a David Letterman clip of Trump admitting to outsourcing manufacturing of the products and clothes that bore his logo. And at campaign stops in Ohio, Clinton talked about Trump’s reliance on Chinese steel.

But in general, Bill Clinton’s viewpoint of fighting for the working class white voters was often dismissed with a hand wave by senior members of the team as a personal vendetta to win back the voters who elected him, from a talented but aging politician who simply refused to accept the new Democratic map. At a meeting ahead of the convention at which aides presented to both Clintons the “Stronger Together” framework for the general election, senior strategist Joel Benenson told the former president bluntly that the voters from West Virginia were never coming back to his party.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/hillary-clinton-aides-loss-blame-231215

The new Democratic map? Wtf?

Lets ignore the former two term president who pretty much originated the term of triangulation in politics on how to get votes.

holy shit.

[Himu]

Democratic Party must keep Clinton's that are not Bill away now. Drop them.

[Great Rumbler]

Howard Dean and Bill Clinton as DNC co-chairs, please.

[Phoenix Dark]

Nah throw all the Clintons in the bushes. It doesn't take a genius to know ignoring potentially vulnerable blue states is a bad idea.

And Dean is given too much credit for 2006. That wave was coming regardless due to Bush and Iraq.

[Himu]

I'm down for Keith Ellison.

[Steve Contra]

http://imgur.com/a/hAUjD

 :'(

[tiesto]

http://imgur.com/a/hAUjD

 :'(

My ex got me a subscription to Wired last year for Christmas, this issue is co-edited by Obama. Great interview with him discussing AI, space travel, tech. It's really cool to have had a president with futurist and techie leanings, and now he's being followed up with someone whose "10 year old good with computer".

[VomKriege]

There's a story making the rounds that 90k Michigan voters filled their ballots... Except for the presidential line.

[zomgee]

There's a story making the rounds that 90k Michigan voters filled their ballots... Except for the presidential line.

What like they didn't want to choose, or they missed it?

The reflection on the vote is almost as infuriating as the October lead up to election day.

[T-Short]

http://imgur.com/a/hAUjD

 :'(

[benjipwns]

I still think it's time for the democrats to try Reagan-type superstar.  Too bad Tom Cruise is crazy scientologist, I'm trying to think of really big name drawn in famous people that would get star support across the map.

I've been seeing this a lot, especially on GAF.

Reagan wasn't any kind of media superstar, he was a B/C-actor. He was basically out of acting and doing speeches for GE when he did the commercial for Goldwater that made him a conservative "superstar" and eventually got him elected Governor of California.

Both of the last two Democratic nominees got "star support across the map": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hillary_Clinton_presidential_campaign_endorsements,_2016#Celebrities

[VomKriege]

Reagan was head of the actor's guild though, wasn't it ? Some policy experience.

But yeah b-lister at best. Gil Scott Heron even had a song about it.

There's a story making the rounds that 90k Michigan voters filled their ballots... Except for the presidential line.

What like they didn't want to choose, or they missed it?

The reflection on the vote is almost as infuriating as the October lead up to election day.

Abstained.

[benjipwns]

Yeah, that was at the start of the 50's except for his interm comeback for a few months later. He was basically out of "real" work.

Reagan was old when he got to the national level of politics. Especially for the time.

[Freyj]

http://imgur.com/a/hAUjD

 :'(

God damn that's some feelings

[ToxicAdam]

The funny thing is that the death of manufacturing began in the 80s. NAFTA's impact on it is disputed. But you can't win that argument with rural white people.

The difference between the 80's and 90's was that in the 80's the plants just closed. In the 90's, you had healthy (and unhealthy) businesses leveraging their workers to take less or they would move.  Although many times that just meant moving to the Deep South where they were building the new plants for them (through tax abatements).

The one thing that the Rust Belt doesn't acknowledge is the effect automation had on their industries. In many cases, what took 10 workers to make a widget in the 70's could be done with 3-4 workers in the early 90's. That was happening regardless of what was going on in D.C.

 

[VomKriege]

Meh. "Those jobs are never coming back", maybe that's true (I think it is), but politics are supposed to think about what's ahead and possible alternatives. They better be finding one soon too, because if those jobs were killed by automation, plenty more industries will follow the same path in a not so far future.

[benjipwns]

Alec Baldwin’s portrayal of Donald Trump on “Saturday Night Live” helped make the “monster” that beat Hillary Clinton in their race to the White House, former R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe told the actor Tuesday.

The award-winning rock singer was making an Election Day appearance on Mr. Baldwin’s “Here’s the Thing” radio talk show on New York’s WNYC when he accused the actor of contributing to the Republican candidate’s rise by spoofing him frequently on “SNL in the run-up to Tuesday’s vote.

“It is so sad that we have allowed ourselves to sink to this level of really entertainment, that’s what it is,” Mr. Stipe, 56, said in the rare radio interview. “I blame media completely for it, including ‘Saturday Night Live.’”

“What does it feel like from inside? What does it feel like playing that character?” Mr. Stipe asked the actor. “It’s satire, it’s brilliantly done, but it’s still adding to the push of … Warhol said, I think, there’s no such thing as bad publicity. How have we created this monster? How have we put our particular American brand on this thing?”

According to Mr. Baldwin, he initially rejected the idea of portraying the Republican candidate for president upon being asked by “SNL” producer Lorne Michaels.

“When I was approached by Lorne, who is a friend of mine, to do it, my first impulse was ‘no,’” Mr. Baldwin said. “Because in order to do that effectively, you need to have some appreciation of the person … for which Trump I have none.”

“Wow,” replied the singer.

[Rufus]

http://imgur.com/a/hAUjD

 :'(

that's my president

oh wait

Geert Wilders will be my president

Now you jinxed it.

[benjipwns]

Trump shuffles transition team, elevating Pence and top Jeff Sessions aide, diluting Christie's role

[Rufus]

It's petty, but seeing a sycophant snubbed gives me energy.

[benjipwns]

America's funniest human:

Those of us who have been left in the cold by this apparent affirmation of a white supremacist patriarchy (and sorry, white women who voted for Mr. Trump, but your shelter is illusory) are tough.

We have been weathering this hurricane wall of doubt and violence for so long, and now, more crystalline than ever, we have an enemy and a mandate. We have the smirking apotheosis of our oppression sliming, paw-first, toward our genitals. We have the popular vote. We have proof, in exit polls, that white women will pawn their humanity for the safety of white supremacy.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hillary-clintons-vaunted-gotv-operation-may-have-turned-out-trump-voters_us_582533b1e4b060adb56ddc27

“Why aren’t I 50 points ahead?”

That’s the question that Hillary Clinton asked a group of labor organizers in late September when she was up by 7 points in the national polls.

Clinton volunteers were inadvertently turning out Trump voters. Possibly in significant numbers.

Volunteers for the Clinton campaign in Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina have reported that when reminding people to vote, they encountered a significant number of Trump voters. Anecdotal evidence points to anywhere from five to 25 percent of contacts were inadvertently targeted to Trump supporters.

This is a big deal because when voters are engaged by a volunteer they are significantly more likely to cast a ballot in an election. To make matters worse, because Republicans had a non-existent ground game in many areas this cycle, this powerful reminder from a Clinton volunteer to get out and vote might have been the only personalized GOTV communication these Trump voters received.

The campaign’s text messaging GOTV effort may have been the worst offender. Volunteers reported as many as 30% of the replies they received from voters they were urging to get out were Trump supporters.

whoops

[benjipwns]

Thomas Frank stealing arguments from The Bore posters?

Clinton’s supporters among the media didn’t help much, either. It always struck me as strange that such an unpopular candidate enjoyed such robust and unanimous endorsements from the editorial and opinion pages of the nation’s papers, but it was the quality of the media’s enthusiasm that really harmed her. With the same arguments repeated over and over, two or three times a day, with nuance and contrary views all deleted, the act of opening the newspaper started to feel like tuning in to a Cold War propaganda station. Here’s what it consisted of:

Hillary was virtually without flaws. She was a peerless leader clad in saintly white, a super-lawyer, a caring benefactor of women and children, a warrior for social justice.

Her scandals weren’t real.

The economy was doing well / America was already great.

Working-class people weren’t supporting Trump.
And if they were, it was only because they were botched humans. Racism was the only conceivable reason for lining up with the Republican candidate.

How did the journalists’ crusade fail? The fourth estate came together in an unprecedented professional consensus. They chose insulting the other side over trying to understand what motivated them. They transformed opinion writing into a vehicle for high moral boasting. What could possibly have gone wrong with such an approach?

Put this question in slightly more general terms and you are confronting the single great mystery of 2016. The American white-collar class just spent the year rallying around a super-competent professional (who really wasn’t all that competent) and either insulting or silencing everyone who didn’t accept their assessment. And then they lost. Maybe it’s time to consider whether there’s something about shrill self-righteousness, shouted from a position of high social status, that turns people away.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/11/11/colin-kaepernick-didn-t-vote-don-t-complain.html

Stop blaming angry white men. Blame Colin Kaepernick. And if you are black or brown or young and didn’t vote—blame yourself.

[studyguy]

How is Christie even being considered for anything when he's likely due in court for his bridge fuckery isn't he?
Just expecting a pardon in the event something does come down that pipe or what? 

[benjipwns]

”I am confused, angry, depressed. I feel much like I do when I receive the comments on a rejected paper that the reviewers have torn apart. This morning I realized that I don’t actually know a Trump supporter who I could talk to about the election. How can I reach the public if I’m only speaking to my own circle?”—anthropologist Peter Peregrine, quoted by Nature, Nov. 9

[Himu]

Holy shit, news media is RUTHLESS on Clinton today. They are fucking DESTROYING HER.

[zomgee]

Meh. "Those jobs are never coming back", maybe that's true (I think it is), but politics are supposed to think about what's ahead and possible alternatives. They better be finding one soon too, because if those jobs were killed by automation, plenty more industries will follow the same path in a not so far future.

Heeeeeeeere come fracking jobs!

spoiler (click to show/hide)

rumble rumble

[close]

[benjipwns]

Was going to post this elsewhere but guess better to keep in politics thread. Just happened to have long ago scheduled appointments with both my psychologist and psychiatrist the last two days. Both immediately asked about thoughts regarding the election and later expressed surprise at how many people were coming in and scheduling appointments over the election, the latter was completely baffled about it.

Initially I assumed they were asking about the election because of my poli sci and such but now I'm rethinking. (<- most dense person of all confirmed )

[I'm a Puppy!]

Meh. "Those jobs are never coming back", maybe that's true (I think it is), but politics are supposed to think about what's ahead and possible alternatives. They better be finding one soon too, because if those jobs were killed by automation, plenty more industries will follow the same path in a not so far future.

The argument isn't an argument. It's a fact. I see it all the time. Hell, I facilitate it. And it's not just manufacturing/low skill jobs. The past few years I've seen tech that will put engineers, HR managers, financial analysts and computer support out of work. And yeah there are some jobs to support that. But not everyone is going to have those skills and you need less of them for example a team at Oracle that used to require 250 coders ten years ago is now supported with less than a hundred for the same product and that's the product that does the automation. Remember in another thread I talked about a friend that got laid off after over a decade with a firm? He's just one of a bunch because software has gotten to a point where you don't need a person with a masters in mathematics to help you figure out the stats of your business. He'll get a job eventually, but it wont pay as much. And he's far from unskilled. I just sold some tech to a company that will turn their 30 person team into an 8 person team within 2 years. Those jobs? They're not coming back. Tech isn't going to get worse. It's only going to get better. There will likely be a time soon where this tide will end and I'll be out of a job myself. Any one who thinks the jobs are coming back are either delusional or missing basic knowledge on how staffing works.

The fact is we're hurtling towards a post scarcity world. And the fact of the matter is captialism has no answer, no tools to deal with that. 

You think middle america is in despair now? Wait until 4 years of trump doesn't bring jobs back.

[Himu]

How is Trump planning on bringing jobs back anyways short of embracing old energy companies?

[james]

Lets ignore the former two term president who pretty much originated the term of triangulation in politics on how to get votes.

holy shit.

Ah yes, the Al Gore strategy.

Im too young so I dont know how that turned out. Well, I presume.

[james]

Sorry Harambe... and people who believe Harambe votes were actually being counted by someone.

Some states count and tally every write in

[benjipwns]

Why would Hillary want to get votes from fascist misogynist white supremacists???

Better to lose than encourage them.

[zomgee]

”I am confused, angry, depressed. I feel much like I do when I receive the comments on a PS4 game that the reviewers have torn apart. This morning I realized that I don’t actually know a Trump supporter who I could talk to about the election. How can I reach the public if I’m only speaking to my own circle?”—neogaffer y2Kev, quoted by archive.is, Nov. 9

[Himu]

http://www.salon.com/2016/11/09/the-hillary-clinton-campaign-intentionally-created-donald-trump-with-its-pied-piper-strategy/

[Himu]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/11/10/1596184/-Trump-gets-to-work-helping-LGBT-Americans-by-tapping-anti-gay-Ken-Blackwell-to-his-transition-team

i am fucked but at least i have lube to prepare me for it 

[zomgee]

GREAT PLAN, BART.

[zepblackstar]

Lets ignore the former two term president who pretty much originated the term of triangulation in politics on how to get votes.

holy shit.

Ah yes, the Al Gore strategy.

Im too young so I dont know how that turned out. Well, I presume.

For Al Gore, it was a disaster. Bill knew how to sweet talk the Bubbas and hob nob with the "elites"

Gore even in his home state of Tennessee was looked at as a bit of an asshole.

[VomKriege]

http://www.salon.com/2016/11/09/the-hillary-clinton-campaign-intentionally-created-donald-trump-with-its-pied-piper-strategy/

That's actually the worst thing Clinton did, by far. She basically helped (or wished to, it's not clear how they followed through) arm and enable this monstruosity because she thought it was better to have a strawman instead of a real political contest.

How is Trump planning on bringing jobs back anyways short of embracing old energy companies?

If he's serious ? Protectionism, tariffs, massive subsidies (oh the irony !) and/or public works with an healthy side serving of fracking all over the place. Probably will lift regulations too to "ease job creators". Even if he goes through with that, it's not clear he can pull it off or that he won't crash the economy in the process : All that cheap stuff manufactured overseas ? Pretty convenient in a lot of areas, especially for people on a budget. Without a change in some higher paradigms, it will be next to impossible to pull such a policy off.

In reality ? Probably subsidies, incentives to bring foreign investments and making a big fuss everytime a few thousand jobs will be created.
Also less visas and more deportations.

[zepblackstar]

What he can do is propose tax breaks/cuts , stimulus zones in the rust belt area. Hype it up and when the companies still refuse, blame them to the people who will focus on them, not him.

[I'm a Puppy!]

Yeah, tarrifs and protectionism? I am baffled that a republican would even discuss that. I have to admit it'll be funny to watch republicans who have been touting "free market" for decades do a complete 180 on this. If he does get that done somehow it will create a collapse as basic goods skyrocket in price. He'll ease regulation on small business. that will do nothing, big business is too powerful.

The one thing he COULD do is end the H1B thing. That could actually help. But there's a LOT of money behind keeping it.