Post-Election Protests

There were major protests last night in Seattle, New York, Philadelphia, DC, Oakland, Chicago, Los Angeles, and elsewhere. Protesters chanted "Not My President." Although described as "spontaneous" obviously these rallies were organized via social media.

While I applaud my fellow citizens' fervor, I cannot approve of protesting. Every citizen has a vote, and if the vote doesn't go your way, you must find a way to accept the will of the majority. (If you didn't vote, as some of them admitted, you have no right to be upset.) Rather than protesting a legal, orderly transition of power, people should be asking themselves WHY Trump won -- and working on THAT.

I see two reasons.

First and foremost, people want change. The cesspool of Washington is still evident, even after Obama promised his "hopey changey thing." The government doesn't work for the people. Trump appealed primarily to blue collar workers (even though I don't believe for a minute that he represents them or will do diddly shit for them). The economy still sucks.

Second, Hillary was not just a "flawed candidate," she represented the epitome of establishment Washington. She was not a vote for change.

Exit polls indicated people who wanted a change in the direction of the government voted 78% for Trump, 19% for Clinton.

Sanders would have swept the vote.

Lots of analysis on the radio yesterday about what Trump's administration will do.

Obama's executive actions, taken because Congress obstructed everything he proposed, will be the first to be reversed because that can be done with the stoke of a pen.

Quote :

Barack Obama has spent years using his authoritative pen to sign executive orders into law because Congress constantly prevented him from approving his particular set of rules.  To date, Obama has signed 235 executive orders dealing with every issue from climate change to national security.
Here is a list of orders we can expect to see Trump handle immediately:
Climate change- The Paris Agreement, EPA regulations, Clean Power Plan
Trade- North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Negotiations
Health Care- Any order that supports Obamacare (a program that Congress has to repeal)
Immigration- Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA)
National Security- Ensuring Lawful Interrogations, Iran Sanctions
You can also expect to see any miscellaneous regulations involving the economy, gun sales, and technology restrictions to be abolished.

 Longer term, Trump will sign the next Congressional bill repealing the Affordable Care Act.  He would entertain a Constitutional amendment bestowing personhood on fetuses.  

One possible good thing I heard, he has apparently floated the idea of a spending a half trillion dollars on infrastructure.  The catch is, it's not public money -- he somehow thinks he can get private companies to pay the cost -- perhaps by selling the roads & bridges to the high bidder.  That would transform the nation's highway system alright.

Hooray for the protestors! I wish there had been millions rather than thousands.

NoCoPilot: wrote:

...you must find a way to accept the will of the majority.

The majority voted for Hillary Clinton. Democrats normally get more votes for the House, but the Republicans get more jerks elected. Will of the majority? Noy by my count. "Accept"? You mean roll over and accept what's coming? Fuck that.

What exactly does it mean, "people want change"? Do they have any idea what that means? What changes do they want? Do they believe Drumpf will provide those changes? Bullshit.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Every citizen has a vote.

If you believe that, you haven't been paying attention.

NoCoPilot wrote:

If you didn't vote, as some of them admitted, you have no right to be upset.

This is one of those lines that people repeat without giving any thought to it. And it's  horse shit. Voting or not, people have the right - some would say obligation - to make their feelings known.

Right. And the pope makes birth control decisions.

Do you work at being abstruse? Or is it a genetic thing?

_Howard wrote:

The majority voted for Hillary Clinton.

The very SLIMMEST of majorities (50.0975% to 49.9025% according to this morning's count) and by the rules of our democracy the Electoral College takes precedence anyway.

_Howard wrote:

Do you work at being abstruse? Or is it a genetic thing?

"You no playa the game, you no maka da rules."

These discussions would be more worthwhile if we all spoke the same language.

②欲望の危機に対する回想

NoCoPilot wrote:

②欲望の危機に対する回想

Thanks for clearing that up.

NoCoPilot wrote:

_Howard wrote:

The majority voted for Hillary Clinton.

The very SLIMMEST of majorities (50.0975% to 49.9025% according to this morning's count) and by the rules of our democracy the Electoral College takes precedence anyway.

A slim majority is still a majority. I am well aware of the Electoral College, but your statement was "...you must find a way to accept the will of the majority." You did not say, "...you must find a way to accept the will of the Electoral College."

Okay.  "You must find a way to accept the outcome of the election as defined by our national rules and laws."

45% of the eligible electorate chose not to vote.  Does that mean only 55% of the subjects have Don Drumpf as their leader?  No, it does not.

55% x 49.9% = 27.445% of the electorate actually voted for the shitheel.  Does that mean only those 59 million voters have to follow Trump's laws?  No it does not.

90 million people chose not to vote.  The election was won with less than 60 millions votes.

Fuck those people, and the others who voted for Johnson, Stein or a write in.  They deserve four years of Trump. They put him in office, equally as much as the people who voted for him.

NoCoPilot wrote:

 They deserve four years of Trump.  They put him in office, equally as much as the people who voted for him.

If only it was 4 years. Trump is getting set to do damage that will take 60 years (or maybe never) to fix.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Fuck those people, and the others who voted for Johnson, Stein or a write in.  They deserve four years of Trump.  They put him in office, equally as much as the people who voted for him.

Interesting how you place the blame on people who did not participate.

_Howard wrote:

Interesting how you place the blame on people who did not participate.

I do.

Edmund Burke wrote:

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

You're making the unsubstantiated assumption that if all those people had voted, then the outcome would have been different. Do you have any proof of this?

The asshole is tweeting again. According to him, these are "professional protestors."
What a fuckhead.

From one of my wife's people. Remember, this is from a banker - not exactly a Bernie supporter.