For those worried about a Trumptastrophe, just remember one thing

[Tom Sawyer]

The reason that the border is closed is because of the wall that we're building and the first payment from you guys to have us build it is due next Tuesday, so get out your damn checkbooks.

I thought you guys used chequebooks up there?

Yes and if we were paying for the wall, we would be getting out our chequebooks. You're the ones giving the money for it, though, so we use the American term.

 

[Malintent]

Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before the healing can begin.

The ignorant masses have spoken, we must now deal with the consequences.

The "masses" voted for Hillary. She won the popular vote.
The House appointed Trump via the electoral college system (that MUST go).

 

[untermensche]

The sun will come up the morning humans destroy the whole thing with some nuclear stupidity.

Trump just makes that a little more likely.

 

[bilby]

Yeah, but I liked the US being a pretty decent and strong country. But I suppose all empires fall.

And I can give up on the idea of my daughter going to college in 15 years/

Yea, it's not going to be a fun four years. Affordable college is done. Millions will lose their health insurance. The budget deficit will explode. The environment will continue to suffer.

LOL at 'four years'.

You don't seriously think that there will be another election, do you?

 

[LordKiran]

Yea, it's not going to be a fun four years. Affordable college is done. Millions will lose their health insurance. The budget deficit will explode. The environment will continue to suffer.

LOL at 'four years'.

You don't seriously think that there will be another election, do you?

Bilby, our democratic institutions have survived worse. Trump is many things but he isn't about to herald the end of our democracy. The people in power may showboat but they all know Trump's win was predicated on Hillary being deeply unpopular to people who would otherwise reliably vote blue and even then the vote was STILL split right down the middle.

 

[Trausti]

Yea, it's not going to be a fun four years. Affordable college is done. Millions will lose their health insurance. The budget deficit will explode. The environment will continue to suffer.

LOL at 'four years'.

You don't seriously think that there will be another election, do you?

We are a federal republic with separation of powers. Anyone attempting a coup would fail embarrassingly.

 

[bilby]

LOL at 'four years'.

You don't seriously think that there will be another election, do you?

We are a federal republic with separation of powers. Anyone attempting a coup would fail embarrassingly.

Really? With the new executive in the position of getting to appoint a decisive share of the judiciary, and with his party in control of both legislative chambers?

I'm not seeing where the powers are being balanced here, much less separated.

Trump barely needs a coup; just a declaration of a state of emergency will do the job.

 

[Trausti]

We are a federal republic with separation of powers. Anyone attempting a coup would fail embarrassingly.

Really? With the new executive in the position of getting to appoint a decisive share of the judiciary, and with his party in control of both legislative chambers?

I'm not seeing where the powers are being balanced here, much less separated.

Trump barely needs a coup; just a declaration of a state of emergency will do the job.

I'm aware that people can get let down when elections don't go there way, but these hysterics are plain silly. Like when some conservatives worried that Obama might seek a third term. Plain silly.

 

[bilby]

Really? With the new executive in the position of getting to appoint a decisive share of the judiciary, and with his party in control of both legislative chambers?

I'm not seeing where the powers are being balanced here, much less separated.

Trump barely needs a coup; just a declaration of a state of emergency will do the job.

I'm aware that people can get let down when elections don't go there way, but these hysterics are plain silly. Like when some conservatives worried that Obama might seek a third term. Plain silly.

I hope you are right.

I am not reassured by the total absence of a reason to think that you are.

 

[credoconsolans]

Really? With the new executive in the position of getting to appoint a decisive share of the judiciary, and with his party in control of both legislative chambers?

I'm not seeing where the powers are being balanced here, much less separated.

Trump barely needs a coup; just a declaration of a state of emergency will do the job.

I'm aware that people can get let down when elections don't go there way, but these hysterics are plain silly. Like when some conservatives worried that Obama might seek a third term. Plain silly.

Considering that where and when they could, Republicans gerrymandered the voting districts to give themselves the edge, and they still almost lose and during the Obama years, the Republicans did their best to inconvenience people who normally vote Democrat (like college students who are now forced to go home to vote), I'm with Bilby. Look at Guiliani. A great hero of 9/11. But he'd just lost the mayoral election. He decided that since the disaster was unprecedented, he should stay in office past his time...you know, to make sure things were OK. New Yorkers had to hound him out of office. And isn't NYC mostly blue?

Imagine great swathes of the nation being red or dominated by red thinking folks.

If a Democrat in the next presidential race looks good, all that needs to happen is some real or imagined emergency come up and those in power might think it's a good idea to postpone elections. Who could stop them? The Republican dominated Congress? The Republican White House? The Republican dominated SCOTUS?


It wouldn't take much.

 

[blastula]

The sun will still rise tomorrow morning

If it did, it's behind the very depressing bank of clouds.

It is a dark day for the USA.

The only silver lining is that Trump will only last 4 years because his presidency will be a total disaster and all those who didn't vote for him get to mock the deplorables that did, once he completely fails to restore American to 1950s white, Christian, male dominated supremacy as he promised.

If our country can survive him.

I wouldn't be counting him out in 2020. Bush won in 2004 after both 9/11 and Iraq. Demagoguery and fearmongering work.

 

[Ford]

I'm aware that people can get let down when elections don't go there way, but these hysterics are plain silly. Like when some conservatives worried that Obama might seek a third term. Plain silly.

I hope you are right.

I am not reassured by the total absence of a reason to think that you are.

We've been through this before. During Bush's time in office the GOP held all three branches of government AND we were at war. There were people on the left who fretted over Bush simply refusing to step down, but he did. The same worries were floated about Bill Clinton. I'm not worried.


In fact I'm even less worried about Trump, because (as we learned in the primary) a significant portion of his own party can't stand him.

 

[Trausti]

I'm aware that people can get let down when elections don't go there way, but these hysterics are plain silly. Like when some conservatives worried that Obama might seek a third term. Plain silly.

Considering that where and when they could, Republicans gerrymandered the voting districts to give themselves the edge, and they still almost lose and during the Obama years, the Republicans did their best to inconvenience people who normally vote Democrat (like college students who are now forced to go home to vote), I'm with Bilby. Look at Guiliani. A great hero of 9/11. But he'd just lost the mayoral election. He decided that since the disaster was unprecedented, he should stay in office past his time...you know, to make sure things were OK. New Yorkers had to hound him out of office. And isn't NYC mostly blue?

Imagine great swathes of the nation being red or dominated by red thinking folks.

If a Democrat in the next presidential race looks good, all that needs to happen is some real or imagined emergency come up and those in power might think it's a good idea to postpone elections. Who could stop them? The Republican dominated Congress? The Republican White House? The Republican dominated SCOTUS?


It wouldn't take much.

How do you postpone elections when the federal government doesn't run elections? Elections are run by the county. That's the great benefit of federalism. Power is distributed all over.

 

[credoconsolans]

Considering that where and when they could, Republicans gerrymandered the voting districts to give themselves the edge, and they still almost lose and during the Obama years, the Republicans did their best to inconvenience people who normally vote Democrat (like college students who are now forced to go home to vote), I'm with Bilby. Look at Guiliani. A great hero of 9/11. But he'd just lost the mayoral election. He decided that since the disaster was unprecedented, he should stay in office past his time...you know, to make sure things were OK. New Yorkers had to hound him out of office. And isn't NYC mostly blue?

Imagine great swathes of the nation being red or dominated by red thinking folks.

If a Democrat in the next presidential race looks good, all that needs to happen is some real or imagined emergency come up and those in power might think it's a good idea to postpone elections. Who could stop them? The Republican dominated Congress? The Republican White House? The Republican dominated SCOTUS?


It wouldn't take much.

How do you postpone elections when the federal government doesn't run elections? Elections are run by the county. That's the great benefit of federalism. Power is distributed all over.

Where I live, Republicans dominate my state. They could easily do it. And you can't hold a general election if all the states aren't participating, right?

 

[Trausti]

How do you postpone elections when the federal government doesn't run elections? Elections are run by the county. That's the great benefit of federalism. Power is distributed all over.

Where I live, Republicans dominate my state. They could easily do it. And you can't hold a general election if all the states aren't participating, right?

Do you seriously thing that's going to happen? This isn't just hyperbole? Is this your first election cycle?

 

[credoconsolans]

Where I live, Republicans dominate my state. They could easily do it. And you can't hold a general election if all the states aren't participating, right?

Do you seriously thing that's going to happen? This isn't just hyperbole? Is this your first election cycle?

Trausti, the Republicans in my state gerrymandered the voting districts. They've now been in power for over 25 years.

A woman has reproductive freedom in this country. It is her right to seek an abortion if she wants one. The Republicans in my state passed a bogus condescending law to 'ensure the safety of women' in abortion clinics by making their doctors have admitting privileges in the local hospitals. They did this to NO OTHER type of clinic. As a result, the abortion clinics in Texas started closing.

In the US, all citizens are supposed to have equal rights under the law. It's in the Constitution.

In my state, the Republican lawmakers passed laws making marriage only for straight people.

When SCOTUS ruled on gay marriage rights, some of our lawmakers told their judges to ignore the ruling.

I do not put anything past what the Republicans are capable of.

 

[bilby]

I hope you are right.

I am not reassured by the total absence of a reason to think that you are.

We've been through this before. During Bush's time in office the GOP held all three branches of government AND we were at war. There were people on the left who fretted over Bush simply refusing to step down, but he did. The same worries were floated about Bill Clinton. I'm not worried.


In fact I'm even less worried about Trump, because (as we learned in the primary) a significant portion of his own party can't stand him.

Trump is not Bush or Clinton.

That others had the opportunity to do the wrong thing and didn't take it is no guarantee that nobody ever will.

Lots of bank managers don't steal the money that they hold in trust. Does that mean that it is OK to hire a known thief to manage a bank?

Trump is a narcissist, a megalomaniac, a demagogue, and believes that the rules are for the little people.

Why would he pass power to a successor? He believes that he is the only person who is good enough to hold it.

 

[Jayjay]

We've been through this before. During Bush's time in office the GOP held all three branches of government AND we were at war. There were people on the left who fretted over Bush simply refusing to step down, but he did. The same worries were floated about Bill Clinton. I'm not worried.


In fact I'm even less worried about Trump, because (as we learned in the primary) a significant portion of his own party can't stand him.

Trump is not Bush or Clinton.

That others had the opportunity to do the wrong thing and didn't take it is no guarantee that nobody ever will.

Lots of bank managers don't steal the money that they hold in trust. Does that mean that it is OK to hire a known thief to manage a bank?

Trump is a narcissist, a megalomaniac, a demagogue, and believes that the rules are for the little people.

Why would he pass power to a successor? He believes that he is the only person who is good enough to hold it.

There are too many people in government and the military who would have Trump kicked out in a heartbeat if he tried something like that. 200+ years of tradition is nothing to scoff at. It's simply unthinkable, even by Trump scale of unbelievability.

 

[bilby]

Trump is not Bush or Clinton.

That others had the opportunity to do the wrong thing and didn't take it is no guarantee that nobody ever will.

Lots of bank managers don't steal the money that they hold in trust. Does that mean that it is OK to hire a known thief to manage a bank?

Trump is a narcissist, a megalomaniac, a demagogue, and believes that the rules are for the little people.

Why would he pass power to a successor? He believes that he is the only person who is good enough to hold it.

There are too many people in government and the military who would have Trump kicked out in a heartbeat if he tried something like that. 200+ years of tradition is nothing to scoff at. It's simply unthinkable, even by Trump scale of unbelievability.

Sure.

It's unthinkable that Trump could become the Republican nominee.

It's unthinkable that Trump could become president.

It couldn't happen here. We're different and special. Descent into tyranny is something that happens to someone else. Until it happens to you.

 

[credoconsolans]

Trump is not Bush or Clinton.

That others had the opportunity to do the wrong thing and didn't take it is no guarantee that nobody ever will.

Lots of bank managers don't steal the money that they hold in trust. Does that mean that it is OK to hire a known thief to manage a bank?

Trump is a narcissist, a megalomaniac, a demagogue, and believes that the rules are for the little people.

Why would he pass power to a successor? He believes that he is the only person who is good enough to hold it.

There are too many people in government and the military who would have Trump kicked out in a heartbeat if he tried something like that. 200+ years of tradition is nothing to scoff at. It's simply unthinkable, even by Trump scale of unbelievability.

I thought there were plenty in the military that should have kicked Trump to the curb when he insulted POWs and our generals.

Trump will be sitting in the White House in January.