US Politics Thread- Stick Together till this Shitstorm's Past

[Xita]

[rainbow]Welcome to the US Politics Thread![/rainbow]

This doesn't mean that you can't bring in International Politics/News into this thread, it's just that the US is where this thread will be primarily focused. Americans can also bring up politics going on in their own state if they want to

Now let's look take a look at our national government:



Oh woops wrong photo

Just in case you've been cryogenically frozen for ten years and have no idea what's going on here is our president-elect soon to be actual president in mid-January:



Donald J Trump

If you're short on time and need a quick rundown as to why this guy is insane and should not be president here's a post he tweeted not even a day ago:

The world was gloomy before I won - there was no hope. Now the market is up nearly 10% and Christmas spending is over a trillion dollars!

And boy does he tweet. A lot. Makes you wonder what he'll tweet when he's actually in office.

And if you're thinking, "that's not that bad" Slate is here for you with a very long list of reasons for why he shouldn't be president, many of them from his mouth.

So now you might be thinking, well wait a minute, if this guy is so bad then how in the hell did America vote for this guy?

Well this is a complicated answer. The first and important answer is we're fucking dumb and like to hurt ourselves  

The second answer is a lot longer and more boring. The first part of it is that the majority of Americans didn't actually vote for Trump, they voted for the other presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. Votes are still being tallied, but she has a massive lead over Trump in the popular vote.

So now you're probably thinking: Wait. So how did Trump win then? This is a simple answer, the Electoral College. You can read more about it in the link, but to sum it all up, to make smaller (population) states feel more important they made up the electoral college to make things more fair between the states. Trump basically got enough votes from Hillbilly and Jim who want their jobs in the places where it was most needed to tilt most states in his favor. Whereas states with massive populations like New York and California overwhelmingly voted for Clinton, leading to the disparity we have here.

The Electoral College is dumb and probably hurts more than it helps (if I live in a state that always votes red, why would I even bother voting when my vote doesn't count?) but it's kind of pointless to talk about taking it out now that republicans are aware that this is what they have to do to win.

And then there's the other, messier part of the election like voters who stayed home, third-party voters, and general distate of Clinton as a candidate.

But anyway, you might think that Trump is bad, but hey, the people under him can't possibly be that bad either right?

Right?

If you're LGBT or a woman then yes, they can be  

Our vice president, Mike Pence, is probably more "sane" then Trump, but that's the problem with him. Have you ever heard of the phrase, "It's always the quiet ones?"   It's exactly like that. Pence wants to have various policies that would be catastrophic for LGBT people and women. And he doesn't seem to care much about races that aren't white either.

And then you have various garbage people Trump has hired to help him, such as Steve Bannon as Chief Strategist and big bank people with zero political experience like Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State, whom is also good friends with Putin. Like Trump himself and many people he hired.

His most concerning appointment (really, if what I said earlier wasn't bad enough) is his appointment of Scott Pruitt to head the EPA. A climate change denier who is also fighting the same agency he's been appointed to head. So world, look forward to one of the most powerful countries on Earth making zero progress on climate change in 4 years, in a time where we really REALLY need to do something about it. Hooray.

And to make matters even worse, all national branches of government will soon belong to the Republican party, making it easy for them to pass laws and erase any kind of progress Obama has made over the past 8 years. So say goodbye to the Affordable Care Act, as well as executive orders made to protect LGBT people from discrimination.

It's gonna be a bad time.

Let's discuss  

[Xita]

Obama says "tensions will be reduced" after Trump get's intel on Russian hacking

“My hope is that when the president-elect receives his own briefings and is able to examine the intelligence as his team is put together and they see how professional and effective these agencies are, that some of those current tensions will be reduced"

I know Obama has to do this to not make it look like the current state of the govt and America isn't in full dumpster fire but that doesn't make it not annoying Obama, you know the trash Trump has on his team ("put together" gtfo with that mess). And you know damn well Trump isn't going to listen to a single thing the agencies tell him on the russian hacking. He's been trashing them all week, why would he listen to them now?

[Xita]

Also Hope in 2017 LUL

[taulanaewn]

I can't wait for the genuine "thanks Obama"s.

[Xita]

That was happening towards the end of the election

[Nessness]

burn down the entire administration

[Bitterness]

Hey, at least you have a functioning judiciary

[Xita]

For now

[Nessness]

Hey, at least you have a functioning judiciary

the fact that it's our only real bastion of defense against the orange apocalypse is disheartening

[Bitterness]

Hey, at least you have a functioning judiciary

the fact that it's our only real bastion of defense against the orange apocalypse is disheartening

You'll be fine. Never underestimate a strong and independent judiciary

[Princess Alexandra]

But he has a Supreme Court pick doesn't he? The American judiciary branch isn't quite as independent as you think.

[Bitterness]

But he has a Supreme Court pick doesn't he? The American judiciary branch isn't quite as independent as you think.

How many Supreme Court judges does he get to pick?

[Princess Alexandra]

One until another dies. Some are rather old at this point.

But the conservative-liberal split int the supreme court is already 4-4 so even with one pick he can dramatically change the face of the court

[Bitterness]

Well, now this depends on whether "Conservative" amounts to "spineless Trump's bitch that wants to/can see everyone who isn't an old white male dead or enslaved", which I really fucking doubt it is

And if I'm wrong, me being wrong will be the least of your worries

[Nessness]

Well, now this depends on whether "Conservative" amounts to "spineless Trump's bitch that wants to/can see everyone who isn't an old white male dead or enslaved", which I really fucking doubt it is

the U.S. can surprise you in the worst ways [ice]

[Xita]

The first domino falls

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/justice-department-warned-administration-michael-flynn-could-be-blackmailed-official-n720476?google_editors_picks=true

Media is about to go HAM now that there's blood in the water

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