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The Trump Administration

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Posts

  • Raiden333Raiden333 Registered User regular
    So It Goes wrote: »
    He's right, Brietbart was there weren't they

    They were the only ones who had a saved spot!

    There was a steam sig here. It's gone now.
  • Santa ClaustrophobiaSanta Claustrophobia Ho Ho Ho Disconnecting from Xbox LIVERegistered User regular
    The guy who based an enormous part of his presidential run on fake news has within a few weeks time has taken a stance against fake news.

    I can't even begin to string together the right words.

    'Christ, what an ignorant asshole.'

  • kedinikkedinik Captain of Industry Registered User regular
    TryCatcher wrote: »

    Trump, and I'm being serious here, can't go for the throat

    He doesn't know how to attack someone without sounding like a petulant child

    He doesn't think or write or speak clearly enough to go for anyone's metaphorical throat

    I made a game! Hotline Maui. Requires mouse and keyboard.
  • OneAngryPossumOneAngryPossum Registered User regular
    He already used the secret service to detain the press at his birther power play (prevented them not only from following him, but leaving the room to enter public spaces for some time). He got away with that, and I really thought journalists would lose their minds out of a sense of self-preservation.

    Maybe tomorrow!

  • Harry DresdenHarry Dresden Registered User regular
    edited January 2017
    kedinik wrote: »
    TryCatcher wrote: »

    Trump, and I'm being serious here, can't go for the throat

    He doesn't know how to attack someone without sounding like a petulant child

    He doesn't think or write or speak clearly enough to go for anyone's metaphorical throat

    He goes for their ankles, with his baby Tyrannosaurus Rex arms.

    Harry Dresden on
  • MuddBuddMuddBudd Registered User regular
    The guy who based an enormous part of his presidential run on fake news has within a few weeks time has taken a stance against fake news.

    I can't even begin to string together the right words.

    It just takes one.

    Projection.

    There's no plan, there's no race to be run
    The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
  • DedwrekkaDedwrekka Metal Hell adjacentRegistered User regular
    TryCatcher wrote: »
    Also, checking Twitter, apparently Trump talkied about privatizing VA and nobody is paying attention to it.

    We really aren't. Veterans groups (like the VFW and The American Legion) have been warning him that if he tries they're going to make it tough on him. They're basically the public face of veterans and are so established that when you think "elderly vet" you probably think about them wearing a VFW hat. They usually stay out of politics, as full organizations, but they can make it rough.

  • SurfpossumSurfpossum A nonentity trying to preserve the anonymity he so richly deserves.Registered User regular
    kedinik wrote: »
    TryCatcher wrote: »

    Trump, and I'm being serious here, can't go for the throat

    He doesn't know how to attack someone without sounding like a petulant child

    He doesn't think or write or speak clearly enough to go for anyone's metaphorical throat
    You know that, and I know that, but to his fan base he sounds like a real leader. Obama, by contrast, is... I don't even know. Arrogant, fake, condescending.

    One of the most mind-bending things to me has been that anyone could listen to Trump and fall for anything he says when he's so transparently an ignorant bullshitter, and yet here we are.

  • a nu starta nu start Registered User regular
    The guy who based an enormous part of his presidential run on fake news has within a few weeks time has taken a stance against fake news.

    I can't even begin to string together the right words.

    He's not against fake news. He's still just railing against the LAMEstream media, just using the term fake news in an effort to discredit them further and embolden his base.

    The part I think is funny is when he talks about political witch hunts. When he tweeted that last night, I heard a distant yell of "Are you fucking kidding me?" that sounded oddly Clinton-like.

    Number One Tricky
  • AstaerethAstaereth In the belly of the beastRegistered User regular
    Surfpossum wrote: »
    kedinik wrote: »
    TryCatcher wrote: »

    Trump, and I'm being serious here, can't go for the throat

    He doesn't know how to attack someone without sounding like a petulant child

    He doesn't think or write or speak clearly enough to go for anyone's metaphorical throat
    You know that, and I know that, but to his fan base he sounds like a real leader. Obama, by contrast, is... I don't even know. Arrogant, fake, condescending.

    One of the most mind-bending things to me has been that anyone could listen to Trump and fall for anything he says when he's so transparently an ignorant bullshitter, and yet here we are.

    Con artists don't work by fooling you; they pick people who are inclined to fool themselves.

    ACsTqqK.jpg
  • MayabirdMayabird Pecking at the keyboardRegistered User regular
    Astaereth wrote: »
    Surfpossum wrote: »
    kedinik wrote: »
    TryCatcher wrote: »

    Trump, and I'm being serious here, can't go for the throat

    He doesn't know how to attack someone without sounding like a petulant child

    He doesn't think or write or speak clearly enough to go for anyone's metaphorical throat
    You know that, and I know that, but to his fan base he sounds like a real leader. Obama, by contrast, is... I don't even know. Arrogant, fake, condescending.

    One of the most mind-bending things to me has been that anyone could listen to Trump and fall for anything he says when he's so transparently an ignorant bullshitter, and yet here we are.

    Con artists don't work by fooling you; they pick people who are inclined to fool themselves.

    Example: ever notice how the Nigerian scam emails are always so terribly written? That's intentional; it weeds out people with the sense to know that official documents wouldn't look so shabby and fake. People who aren't going to be fooled will roll their eyes and delete; they would've been a waste of time and effort. People who aren't that bright are the potential marks.

  • kedinikkedinik Captain of Industry Registered User regular
    Surfpossum wrote: »
    kedinik wrote: »
    TryCatcher wrote: »

    Trump, and I'm being serious here, can't go for the throat

    He doesn't know how to attack someone without sounding like a petulant child

    He doesn't think or write or speak clearly enough to go for anyone's metaphorical throat
    You know that, and I know that, but to his fan base he sounds like a real leader. Obama, by contrast, is... I don't even know. Arrogant, fake, condescending.

    One of the most mind-bending things to me has been that anyone could listen to Trump and fall for anything he says when he's so transparently an ignorant bullshitter, and yet here we are.

    Well it appeals to some people, definitely

    I was pretty sad to see the likes and shares on Trump's tweets more-or-less double after he won the election

    Apparently, lots of people had been enjoying the raw bile he was spewing, but had been afraid to admit it publicly until victory normalized him

    I made a game! Hotline Maui. Requires mouse and keyboard.
  • vsovevsove ....also yes. Registered User regular
    kedinik wrote: »
    Surfpossum wrote: »
    kedinik wrote: »
    TryCatcher wrote: »

    Trump, and I'm being serious here, can't go for the throat

    He doesn't know how to attack someone without sounding like a petulant child

    He doesn't think or write or speak clearly enough to go for anyone's metaphorical throat
    You know that, and I know that, but to his fan base he sounds like a real leader. Obama, by contrast, is... I don't even know. Arrogant, fake, condescending.

    One of the most mind-bending things to me has been that anyone could listen to Trump and fall for anything he says when he's so transparently an ignorant bullshitter, and yet here we are.

    Well it appeals to some people, definitely

    I was pretty sad to see the likes and shares on Trump's tweets more-or-less double after he won the election

    Apparently, lots of people had been enjoying the raw bile he was spewing, but had been afraid to admit it publicly until victory normalized him

    That's part of it, but the responses to his tweets trend a lot more heavily towards the negative. And if you look at some of the likes/retweets, a lot of them are pretty obvious bots.

    A lot of them aren't, of course. There are some truly terrible people out there. But for like.. three weeks post-election, there was a thread on every. Single. Tweet. Trying to sell mugs with 'Liberal Tears' on them. And they were the exact same chain of tweets, every time, with 1K+ likes/retweets in several cases.

    WATCH THIS SPACE.
  • A Kobold's KoboldA Kobold's Kobold He/Him MississippiRegistered User regular
    A question from a person who hasn't been keeping up with the news lately:

    What sort of thing would be enough for Trump to have to leave the White House?

    I mean, Trump doesn't seem to have any shame whatsoever…

    Switch Friend Code: SW-3011-6091-2364
  • OrcaOrca Also known as Espressosaurus WrexRegistered User regular
    The guy who based an enormous part of his presidential run on fake news has within a few weeks time has taken a stance against fake news.

    I can't even begin to string together the right words.

    We have always been at war with Eastasia. The fake news are the news organizations that do investigative reporting, obviously. We know they're fake because they say bad things about the Cheeto in Chief.

  • monikermoniker Registered User regular
    vsove wrote: »
    kedinik wrote: »
    Surfpossum wrote: »
    kedinik wrote: »
    TryCatcher wrote: »

    Trump, and I'm being serious here, can't go for the throat

    He doesn't know how to attack someone without sounding like a petulant child

    He doesn't think or write or speak clearly enough to go for anyone's metaphorical throat
    You know that, and I know that, but to his fan base he sounds like a real leader. Obama, by contrast, is... I don't even know. Arrogant, fake, condescending.

    One of the most mind-bending things to me has been that anyone could listen to Trump and fall for anything he says when he's so transparently an ignorant bullshitter, and yet here we are.

    Well it appeals to some people, definitely

    I was pretty sad to see the likes and shares on Trump's tweets more-or-less double after he won the election

    Apparently, lots of people had been enjoying the raw bile he was spewing, but had been afraid to admit it publicly until victory normalized him

    That's part of it, but the responses to his tweets trend a lot more heavily towards the negative. And if you look at some of the likes/retweets, a lot of them are pretty obvious bots.

    A lot of them aren't, of course. There are some truly terrible people out there. But for like.. three weeks post-election, there was a thread on every. Single. Tweet. Trying to sell mugs with 'Liberal Tears' on them. And they were the exact same chain of tweets, every time, with 1K+ likes/retweets in several cases.

    There are people on Twitter who aren't bots? Like, actual real people?

  • Twenty SidedTwenty Sided Registered User regular
    edited January 2017
    Impeach Trump and convict the fucker right after that. I'm tired of having war criminals and traitors for Presidents. It should've happened back in the Bush era. It should happen now.
    It won't. But it'd be actually be a victory for common decency for once.

    Twenty Sided on
  • ArcTangentArcTangent Registered User regular
    moniker wrote: »
    vsove wrote: »
    kedinik wrote: »
    Surfpossum wrote: »
    kedinik wrote: »
    TryCatcher wrote: »

    Trump, and I'm being serious here, can't go for the throat

    He doesn't know how to attack someone without sounding like a petulant child

    He doesn't think or write or speak clearly enough to go for anyone's metaphorical throat
    You know that, and I know that, but to his fan base he sounds like a real leader. Obama, by contrast, is... I don't even know. Arrogant, fake, condescending.

    One of the most mind-bending things to me has been that anyone could listen to Trump and fall for anything he says when he's so transparently an ignorant bullshitter, and yet here we are.

    Well it appeals to some people, definitely

    I was pretty sad to see the likes and shares on Trump's tweets more-or-less double after he won the election

    Apparently, lots of people had been enjoying the raw bile he was spewing, but had been afraid to admit it publicly until victory normalized him

    That's part of it, but the responses to his tweets trend a lot more heavily towards the negative. And if you look at some of the likes/retweets, a lot of them are pretty obvious bots.

    A lot of them aren't, of course. There are some truly terrible people out there. But for like.. three weeks post-election, there was a thread on every. Single. Tweet. Trying to sell mugs with 'Liberal Tears' on them. And they were the exact same chain of tweets, every time, with 1K+ likes/retweets in several cases.

    There are people on Twitter who aren't bots? Like, actual real people?

    Where else would you go to shop for mugs?

    ztrEPtD.gif
  • MuddBuddMuddBudd Registered User regular
    moniker wrote: »
    vsove wrote: »
    kedinik wrote: »
    Surfpossum wrote: »
    kedinik wrote: »
    TryCatcher wrote: »

    Trump, and I'm being serious here, can't go for the throat

    He doesn't know how to attack someone without sounding like a petulant child

    He doesn't think or write or speak clearly enough to go for anyone's metaphorical throat
    You know that, and I know that, but to his fan base he sounds like a real leader. Obama, by contrast, is... I don't even know. Arrogant, fake, condescending.

    One of the most mind-bending things to me has been that anyone could listen to Trump and fall for anything he says when he's so transparently an ignorant bullshitter, and yet here we are.

    Well it appeals to some people, definitely

    I was pretty sad to see the likes and shares on Trump's tweets more-or-less double after he won the election

    Apparently, lots of people had been enjoying the raw bile he was spewing, but had been afraid to admit it publicly until victory normalized him

    That's part of it, but the responses to his tweets trend a lot more heavily towards the negative. And if you look at some of the likes/retweets, a lot of them are pretty obvious bots.

    A lot of them aren't, of course. There are some truly terrible people out there. But for like.. three weeks post-election, there was a thread on every. Single. Tweet. Trying to sell mugs with 'Liberal Tears' on them. And they were the exact same chain of tweets, every time, with 1K+ likes/retweets in several cases.

    There are people on Twitter who aren't bots? Like, actual real people?

    They haven't quite driven off everyone yet. They're working on it.

    There's no plan, there's no race to be run
    The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
  • GaddezGaddez Registered User regular
    furbat wrote: »
    Well, I guess the line has been drawn in the sand.

    Either some evidence turns up and this is true, and the scandal devours Trump's presidency.

    Or, there is no evidence and the story here is the fake news attacking Trump. The nuances between CNN and Buzzfeed are going to be lost on most. And if the story is fake, I think most people are going to see Trump as justified.

    Gonna be honest with you: I don't care if it's real or not if it takes trump down.

    Which is a terrible shitty point to be at and the sort of unprincipled BS I decry at every turn, but the fact of the matter is I'm tired of seeing trump skate away scott free from the kind of shit that ends the careers of far more qualified politicians.

  • GaddezGaddez Registered User regular
    A question from a person who hasn't been keeping up with the news lately:

    What sort of thing would be enough for Trump to have to leave the White House?

    I mean, Trump doesn't seem to have any shame whatsoever…

    Impeachment, death or a praetorian style coup by the secret service.

  • Commander ZoomCommander Zoom Registered User regular
    MuddBudd wrote: »
    moniker wrote: »
    vsove wrote: »
    kedinik wrote: »
    Surfpossum wrote: »
    kedinik wrote: »
    TryCatcher wrote: »

    Trump, and I'm being serious here, can't go for the throat

    He doesn't know how to attack someone without sounding like a petulant child

    He doesn't think or write or speak clearly enough to go for anyone's metaphorical throat
    You know that, and I know that, but to his fan base he sounds like a real leader. Obama, by contrast, is... I don't even know. Arrogant, fake, condescending.

    One of the most mind-bending things to me has been that anyone could listen to Trump and fall for anything he says when he's so transparently an ignorant bullshitter, and yet here we are.

    Well it appeals to some people, definitely

    I was pretty sad to see the likes and shares on Trump's tweets more-or-less double after he won the election

    Apparently, lots of people had been enjoying the raw bile he was spewing, but had been afraid to admit it publicly until victory normalized him

    That's part of it, but the responses to his tweets trend a lot more heavily towards the negative. And if you look at some of the likes/retweets, a lot of them are pretty obvious bots.

    A lot of them aren't, of course. There are some truly terrible people out there. But for like.. three weeks post-election, there was a thread on every. Single. Tweet. Trying to sell mugs with 'Liberal Tears' on them. And they were the exact same chain of tweets, every time, with 1K+ likes/retweets in several cases.

    There are people on Twitter who aren't bots? Like, actual real people?

    They haven't quite driven off everyone yet. They're working on it.

    One of the little bits of color, in one of Charles Stross's post-apocalyptic stories (mostly biowar, in this case), describes two bots on an otherwise deserted IRC channel earnestly (if repetitively) pretending to be hot, young and single in an attempt to get the other to download their malware.

  • AstaerethAstaereth In the belly of the beastRegistered User regular
    A question from a person who hasn't been keeping up with the news lately:

    What sort of thing would be enough for Trump to have to leave the White House?

    I mean, Trump doesn't seem to have any shame whatsoever…

    Trump won't leave the WH voluntarily unless he's about to be impeached anyway (in which case he might ragequit to save face). He might leave unvoluntarily if he died or lost in 2020 or made it to 2024.

    The obstacle to impeachment is the GOP Senate, for whom it is not currently a good idea politically because they fear being primaried by Trump's loyal fanbase. Getting around that obstacle requires some combination of giving Democrats the Senate in 2018 and/or Trump's base turning on him sufficiently for the GOP to impeach without losing their seats or hurting the party too badly.

    So, it's not likely any which way you look at it.

    ACsTqqK.jpg
  • Harry DresdenHarry Dresden Registered User regular
    Gaddez wrote: »
    A question from a person who hasn't been keeping up with the news lately:

    What sort of thing would be enough for Trump to have to leave the White House?

    I mean, Trump doesn't seem to have any shame whatsoever…

    Impeachment, death or a praetorian style coup by the secret service.

    CIA/spy apparatus and/or military backed coup

  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    It would be highly amusing if Trump was impeached and refused to leave, which would lead to him getting arrested by the Secret Service.

  • Waffles or whateverWaffles or whatever Previously known as, I shit you not, "Waffen" Registered User regular
    edited January 2017
    Am military, can confirm that the military is to worried about playing the Game of Thrones for promotions. Trump promising an expanding military basically pacifies the military since it'll be promotions for e'erybody.

    Waffles or whatever on
  • Raiden333Raiden333 Registered User regular
    edited January 2017
    Gaddez wrote: »
    furbat wrote: »
    Well, I guess the line has been drawn in the sand.

    Either some evidence turns up and this is true, and the scandal devours Trump's presidency.

    Or, there is no evidence and the story here is the fake news attacking Trump. The nuances between CNN and Buzzfeed are going to be lost on most. And if the story is fake, I think most people are going to see Trump as justified.

    Gonna be honest with you: I don't care if it's real or not if it takes trump down.

    Which is a terrible shitty point to be at and the sort of unprincipled BS I decry at every turn, but the fact of the matter is I'm tired of seeing trump skate away scott free from the kind of shit that ends the careers of far more qualified politicians.

    I'm honestly having an identity crisis over it. Politics was one of my biggest hobbies behind video games, and one of the things I took pride in was that I was on the team that was using FACTS and playing WITHIN THE RULES even when it hurt us, and we were scrappy enough that we were gonna win anyway garsh dun it!

    And now half of me is already willing to throw that shit in the garbage and say "well fuck it there's no morals in a knife fight", which also drives me to get personally depressed in myself for discarding my "political morality" that fast, which sort of makes me want to just go full ostrich on it.

    It's a weird depressing cycle I've been shifting through.

    Raiden333 on
    There was a steam sig here. It's gone now.
  • Harry DresdenHarry Dresden Registered User regular
    Waffen wrote: »
    Am military, can confirm that the military is to worried about playing the Game of Thrones for promotions. Trump promising an expanding military basically pacifies the military since it'll be promotions for e'erybody.

    Maybe the lower ranks, the Pentagon however...

  • MvrckMvrck Dwarven MountainhomeRegistered User regular
    Political morals are only useful until the literal nazi is in the White House.

  • CalicaCalica Registered User regular
    Every now and again in these threads someone opines on the likelihood that the United States will "shatter" or "splinter" or some such, and it makes me wonder what that would even look like. As much as we like to talk about "red states" and "blue states," in reality our divisions aren't nearly so neatly grouped geographically. So if, say, the election results were overturned tomorrow,* what would actually happen other than a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth? A sharp increase in domestic terrorism? Like, what could actually happen that would be worse than what we're already staring down the barrel of?

    *obviously not going to happen; it's just the most potentially-destabilizing thing that came to mind.

  • furbatfurbat Registered User regular
    This seems obviously fake to me. I remember every BS scandal about Obama back in 2008 that right wing echo chambers believed in, this seems like that.

    The difference is that there is so much bad blood between Trump and everyone in the media and in DC, in both parties, that the people who don't care if something is true as long as it destroys Trump is a large percentage of everyone. This group includes McCain apparently.

    Should be interesting to see how this plays out. I don't think anyone is going to win through this though.

  • DasUberEdwardDasUberEdward Registered User regular
    The guy who based an enormous part of his presidential run on fake news has within a few weeks time has taken a stance against fake news.

    I can't even begin to string together the right words.

    'Christ, what an ignorant asshole.'

    who became the leader of the united states.

    this is why words are failing me.

    steam_sig.png
  • Waffles or whateverWaffles or whatever Previously known as, I shit you not, "Waffen" Registered User regular
    Waffen wrote: »
    Am military, can confirm that the military is to worried about playing the Game of Thrones for promotions. Trump promising an expanding military basically pacifies the military since it'll be promotions for e'erybody.

    Maybe the lower ranks, the Pentagon however...

    For enlisted Army side, advancing in rank is as easy as showing up to work on time in the right uniform. Anyone can pin E4 (Specialist) in roughly 18 months if they're outstanding at their job. For the NCO ranks, E5 (Sergeant) is obtainable if you really want it/plan on staying for longer than four years. After E5, it can get tough depending on your MOS (job), but overall, getting E6 (Staff Sergeant) is possible. Its not until E7 (Sergeant First Class) and above, that promotion gets difficult. Avoiding the weeds of it, expanding the military means for the careerists that promotion is easier to obtain, therefore you get more money, and can probably sham your way to retirement.

    For Warrant Officers and Officers, this is where it gets interesting. Right now, promotion rates for Second Lieutenant to First Lieutenant is 99%. The only way you don't pin 1LT is if you get a DUI, have intercourse with a subordinate, or do something that's incredibly dishonorable and brings dishonor upon yourself and the Army. First Lieuteant to Captain are roughly ~90% (plus/minus 5%) depending on your job. You basically don't make Captain if you get a DUI, bang a subordinate, or get fired, but getting fired isn't a 100% won't promote. At this time usually 50% or more of the O2s in the Army usually get out at this rank because they didn't plan on making the Army (or military) a career or that they decided the Army isn't for them. From O3 (Captain) to Major, I think promotion rates are 60%-80% range. You'll get Major if you really want it. Again, at this bracket you'll see a lot of attrition because the majority of Captains get out after they complete their Company Command / Key Development billet for that rank. After that K/D time, its Staff for the next six to ten years and that turns most Officers off. Major to LTC IIRC is something like a 50% promotion rate, LTC to Colonel is like 25% or less, and less than 10% make General Officer. You begin to see a lot of that treachery I mentioned in those field grade billets as peers try to axe one another for top block evaluations that can make/break promotion.

    Overall, what I am getting at with these poorly written, poorly explained, and fatigued posts is that the dreams of a military coup are non-existant. The Military (Army in my case) is infatuated with Trump. The military almost always votes GOP. Trump ran on the platform of making the military bigger and better. The military tends to look positively on GOP candidates not because they're getting us quagmired in pointless wars, but because they increase military spending, which equals more Soldiers. More Soldiers also mean that they'll need more Leaders to manage them. That ultimately means you have a higher chance to get promoted in the end. Trump choosing Mattis wasn't a bad move because the military loves him. The only story that immediately comes to mind is that he was responsible for firing a high ranking officer for basically failing at his job and the Officer Corps idolizes him for that.

    I can post more if you want tomorrow. I'm on mobile and delaying going to bed atm.

  • ArcTangentArcTangent Registered User regular
    .
    Calica wrote: »
    Every now and again in these threads someone opines on the likelihood that the United States will "shatter" or "splinter" or some such, and it makes me wonder what that would even look like. As much as we like to talk about "red states" and "blue states," in reality our divisions aren't nearly so neatly grouped geographically. So if, say, the election results were overturned tomorrow,* what would actually happen other than a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth? A sharp increase in domestic terrorism? Like, what could actually happen that would be worse than what we're already staring down the barrel of?

    *obviously not going to happen; it's just the most potentially-destabilizing thing that came to mind.

    A constant rolling tide of escalating demonstrations and civil unrest. That spike in hate crimes will super spike as people feel the need to take justice into their own hands. The urbanites will demonstrate which easily become (or as we saw with Portland, will be reported as) rioting. The Federal Government's ability to police all this shit won't work because they're the betrayers and will be resisted by both sides every step of the way. They'll need to cede power and authority to the state governments to maintain a semblance of order as every politician hurries back to their home states to try to shore things up, leaving an even weaker Fed behind. Soon enough, the de facto law of the land are the state governments, who will group into loosely formed coalitions and soon form their own join agreements and projects. The Fed will try to impose their will, but they gave up all their control and can either invade or continue to cede authority until there's none left.

    Fiction writing is fun.

    ztrEPtD.gif
  • electricitylikesmeelectricitylikesme Registered User regular
    Calica wrote: »
    Every now and again in these threads someone opines on the likelihood that the United States will "shatter" or "splinter" or some such, and it makes me wonder what that would even look like. As much as we like to talk about "red states" and "blue states," in reality our divisions aren't nearly so neatly grouped geographically. So if, say, the election results were overturned tomorrow,* what would actually happen other than a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth? A sharp increase in domestic terrorism? Like, what could actually happen that would be worse than what we're already staring down the barrel of?

    *obviously not going to happen; it's just the most potentially-destabilizing thing that came to mind.

    A practical trajectory would be the continuance of antagonism between the CA state government and the Federal government. The precursor to a secession would be the Californian government cutting off the distribution of taxes/funds to the Federal government, probably as a result of disputes over various "you must respect other states shitty laws" federal legislation, likely as a result of progressive escalations.

    Either the Federal government backs down, or you have the Trump admin ordering US soldiers to forcibly start occupying US territory, and how it goes basically depends on what the military chooses to do.

  • GaddezGaddez Registered User regular
    furbat wrote: »
    This seems obviously fake to me. I remember every BS scandal about Obama back in 2008 that right wing echo chambers believed in, this seems like that.

    The difference is that there is so much bad blood between Trump and everyone in the media and in DC, in both parties, that the people who don't care if something is true as long as it destroys Trump is a large percentage of everyone. This group includes McCain apparently.

    Should be interesting to see how this plays out. I don't think anyone is going to win through this though.

    The thing is, Trumps forign policy platform flies in the face of some 70 years of philosophy for absolutely no gain other then Russia being marginally more friendly at the expense of china and europe as a whole (either of which are more valuable as allies then russia). Further he had a prfect opportunity to defend himself yesterday and utterly shit the bed instead.

    Him being blackmailed by GRU and the FSB would explain this bizzare behaviour quite easily.

  • SpoitSpoit *twitch twitch* Registered User regular
    ArcTangent wrote: »
    .
    Calica wrote: »
    Every now and again in these threads someone opines on the likelihood that the United States will "shatter" or "splinter" or some such, and it makes me wonder what that would even look like. As much as we like to talk about "red states" and "blue states," in reality our divisions aren't nearly so neatly grouped geographically. So if, say, the election results were overturned tomorrow,* what would actually happen other than a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth? A sharp increase in domestic terrorism? Like, what could actually happen that would be worse than what we're already staring down the barrel of?

    *obviously not going to happen; it's just the most potentially-destabilizing thing that came to mind.

    A constant rolling tide of escalating demonstrations and civil unrest. That spike in hate crimes will super spike as people feel the need to take justice into their own hands. The urbanites will demonstrate which easily become (or as we saw with Portland, will be reported as) rioting. The Federal Government's ability to police all this shit won't work because they're the betrayers and will be resisted by both sides every step of the way. They'll need to cede power and authority to the state governments to maintain a semblance of order as every politician hurries back to their home states to try to shore things up, leaving an even weaker Fed behind. Soon enough, the de facto law of the land are the state governments, who will group into loosely formed coalitions and soon form their own join agreements and projects. The Fed will try to impose their will, but they gave up all their control and can either invade or continue to cede authority until there's none left.

    Fiction writing is fun.

    I totally expect some 80's-90's style race riots the next time there's a police shooting.

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  • ArcTangentArcTangent Registered User regular
    edited January 2017
    Calica wrote: »
    Every now and again in these threads someone opines on the likelihood that the United States will "shatter" or "splinter" or some such, and it makes me wonder what that would even look like. As much as we like to talk about "red states" and "blue states," in reality our divisions aren't nearly so neatly grouped geographically. So if, say, the election results were overturned tomorrow,* what would actually happen other than a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth? A sharp increase in domestic terrorism? Like, what could actually happen that would be worse than what we're already staring down the barrel of?

    *obviously not going to happen; it's just the most potentially-destabilizing thing that came to mind.

    A practical trajectory would be the continuance of antagonism between the CA state government and the Federal government. The precursor to a secession would be the Californian government cutting off the distribution of taxes/funds to the Federal government, probably as a result of disputes over various "you must respect other states shitty laws" federal legislation, likely as a result of progressive escalations.

    Either the Federal government backs down, or you have the Trump admin ordering US soldiers to forcibly start occupying US territory, and how it goes basically depends on what the military chooses to do.

    Yeah. This is more in line with what I expect to happen, depending on how brazen the Republicans are. If they start stripping away a state (well, California's) sovereignty, while also trying to strip away Federal protections under the claim of "it's up to states to decide rights", that shit's going to end up in the Supreme Court where either it's decided that Kansas does get to decide California law with California going full rage-mode in response, or that the Feds don't get to dictate shit over the states, whereupon Cali starts enacting literally every ultra progressive thing they want while the Feds get the invade or cede authority choice.

    ArcTangent on
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  • tbloxhamtbloxham Registered User regular
    furbat wrote: »
    This seems obviously fake to me. I remember every BS scandal about Obama back in 2008 that right wing echo chambers believed in, this seems like that.

    The difference is that there is so much bad blood between Trump and everyone in the media and in DC, in both parties, that the people who don't care if something is true as long as it destroys Trump is a large percentage of everyone. This group includes McCain apparently.

    Should be interesting to see how this plays out. I don't think anyone is going to win through this though.

    Yeah, I remember all those fake scandals too. Every time Obama's team had clear, precise evidence completely disproving each one because he is a career politician who had been dealing with accusations like this for years. He handled each one with incredible professionalism, and none of them were ever taken seriously in any way other than by the crazies on the right.

    Theres a reason birtherism, for all its absurdity, was the most convincing scandal!

    Here we see...

    1) A scandal which is completely believable
    2) Denials which don't actually disprove any aspect of the wide variety of claims
    3) Assaults on those reporting the existance of the documents as purveyors of fake news
    4) The president falling apart in his first press conference
    5) The president seemingly in a drug fueled rage at 4:20 AM posting in ALL CAPS
    6) Russia claiming they totes didn't do this (when if they didn't view the president as corrupted and totally in their pocket they would have every reason to say "The Russian Government does not comment on the existence or non-existence of intelligence operations)

    I admit, it is SUSPICIOUSLY perfect. And it does seem like manna descending from heaven. But, it's not shown any cracks yet. When they do show up, I guess I'll be glad to see them? I suppose the President being a Russian spy is a bad thing, so lets hope he's not?

    "That is cool" - Abraham Lincoln
  • Panda4YouPanda4You Registered User regular
    furbat wrote: »
    This seems obviously fake to me. I remember every BS scandal about Obama back in 2008 that right wing echo chambers believed in, this seems like that.
    rolleyes.gif


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNa2B5zHfbQ

    http://i.imgur.com/Kuq9xw1.png

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