11/16/16 12:04 AM

Upon Trump's victory, I almost immediately began to look past the distraction of the candidate and his words, controversial as they were.
Right off, I can see that this is just another Republican vs. Democrat changeover, with all the familiar sort of changes and stasis associated with that. Suddenly, Donald might just as well be GWB, actor-in-chief.

As for the party change, seems like just the excuse to lock in the democrat's huge health insurance premium increases, while dropping the associated benefits to poorer folks, continuing the hawkish meddling (foreign policy-wise), while bringing in a new era of corporate environmental destruction.

Maybe another financial crisis and bail out with more borrowed capital(?), I'm almost holding my breath waiting for that.

11/16/16 9:50 AM

Images of idiots wailing in the streets like little kids who didn't get the toy they expected for Christmas aside, I don't expect anything drastic to happen in a hurry, if at all. Trump is going to stumble around for a bit while figuring out how the system works (or doesn't). The fact that he's been so quiet it actually somewhat reassuring. Hopefully, it means he's doing his homework.

What may be interesting to see is how long it takes him to transition from businessman to politician. There will likely be a lot more hiring and firing in the short term, but it should taper off over time.

Of course, I'll be waiting for whatever legal bombshells come along to distract and/or derail the process...

11/16/16 11:06 AM

"idiots wailing in the streets"

The news here did some research of what percentage of the protesters here actually voted.
Google for this info by you and you will probably see the numbers are crazy low.

11/16/16 3:25 PM

It's somehow hard to imagine Trump giving his first actual presidential speech, again like GWB it's gotta have some weird, comedic angle to it, seems likely to bring some laughs(?).
But policy direction changes might not be so funny.
It's like I'll be sitting there as if watching Saturday Night Live(?).

11/16/16 3:30 PM

Question on the Energy and Interior positions is this. Is DT just setting up a picture for negotiation leverage with oil producers to strengthen that trade leverage. ICC risk and all...

Then he will just put other folks in. Seems like his kind of 'art' of the deal I'd estimate. I am probably being too optimistic as I dance on acceptance. Although I fully expect anger to come back in and out for 4 years...

11/16/16 4:44 PM

Considering that he's a deal maker, it stands to reason that his initial positions on anything will be well outside of what he actually wants. That leaves plenty of negotiating room without ever having to compromise anything that really matters to him.

11/16/16 4:56 PM

At least "mandate" isn't being bandied about like it was with GWB. It's been mentioned a couple of times but it lacks fervor, thank goodness. It cracked me up when 44 was elected by his large margins the same pundits reacted with "this is no mandate!"

Appointments - Disappointments:
My early reaction to the election was "this will give the people who say it wasn't Obama's race a chance to prove themselves." ...not so much now.

I still retain hope in the media, but wow, go to opposing outlets: the reporting has almost no overlap. There remains Meet the Press, etc.

Rest in peace and please look over us Gwen Ifill.

Breitbart, InfoWars:
Now that they have a pass to the inner sanctum will their bright light expose all? </sarcasm>

11/19/16 11:17 AM

OK, 13 year minor rape case dropped, no fraud charges on the Trumo U.

I wonder exactly what percent of their moneys the dummies that lined DT's pockets will realize?

11/19/16 11:58 AM

A quick calculation says $25M less various fees divided by 6,000 complaints and you get something less than $4K, probably more like $3K. No much payout compared to what they paid in.

11/19/16 12:12 PM

That smells like a pretty shitty rebate of sorts.

I hate that guy... Not that it was not apparent previously. Upgrading my opinion to black hole of douche. ;)

11/19/16 4:44 PM

Yeah, $12.5M / 6000 = $2083.33

Twelve and a half?

Yes, 12.5, the lawyers are going to make a killing settling it for the number of billable hours they put in.

And just to ameliorate any hard feelings of members of the bar who may be reading: They earned it.

11/19/16 6:12 PM

Isn't class action suit always end up like that?

The individual never got much despite any dramatic "win". I think I must be a "winner" in at least 1/2 dosen class action suits of varying kind. I even got some small amount checks. Totally inconsequential amount.

The lawyers got their share alright.

Seems to me the point is to punish the wrong practice of whatever corporation. If so, I can accept. Is that so? Some of your lawyer folk care to chime in?

11/19/16 10:47 PM

The Russians hacked Trump's businesses, his campaign, and the RNC. Unlike their handling of the Democrats' data, they haven't handed it over to Wikileaks because they are going to blackmail Trump with it.

Why not go ahead and shift tenses?

...because they are blackmailing Trump with it.

11/20/16 11:23 AM

"Seems to me the point is to punish the wrong practice of whatever corporation."

Punish? [not singling you out, just that word]

Perfect example of the rigged system Pres DT approves of.

End result to the corps: 25 million dollars free money for as long as you can keep it in courts.

Pay back a stupidly small amount of the fraud 'legally' after unmitigated use of the money for the duration.

Easy to see how the check and balances protect the public...

11/20/16 2:19 PM

A large percentage of them are complete garbage that shouldn't be allowed, but there are specific jurisdiction with judges that are known to be predisposed to certifying class actions. IIRC, the main one is in Texas. Typically, they sue manufacturers over essentially nothing, like typos in marketing literature. The attorneys make millions while the class members get a handful of dollars. It's a disgusting and corrupt practice, and a complete abuse of the class action system, but it's legal.

That said, the Trump case is entirely different, as it appears that fraud was willfully committed on a large scale. While the plaintiffs deserve more than they're getting, they're doing a lot better than most class action members.

11/20/16 7:37 PM

I'm involved with a couple of civil rights organizations and the increase in hate incidents around the country is pretty much what can be expected when someone who shoots off his mouth the way the Donald does gets elected. It normalizes behavior that would otherwise be suppressed becuase it is ddemed unacceptable. The Donald has reset the moral compass for the United States, and not in a good way.

11/20/16 8:03 PM

I totally agree with everything you said, except the part about him being elected is not necessary.

He normalized all those behaviors even if he didn't get elected. When 40+% of the voters elected him, it says something really disturbing!

11/20/16 8:42 PM

"I'm involved with a couple of civil rights organizations and the increase in hate incidents around the country is pretty much what can be expected when someone who shoots off his mouth the way the Donald does gets elected. It normalizes behavior that would otherwise be suppressed becuase it is deemed unacceptable. The Donald has reset the moral compass for the United States, and not in a good way."


I'm looking at this as there being a chasm between The Donald's "shooting off his mouth" and the media's equally-weird standards of political "correctness".

We the sheeple are given a choice between The Hillary and The Donald, and it might as well be Donald Duck, both politicians standing clear of either side of a chasm where most voters would want them to be instead of constantly trying to disguise their special-interest affiliations with their respective extremist/dramatist political positionings .
The media runs this circus.

The two parties have become this joke, where we can vote for a president that we hate, and so hate each other for it. And the chasm keeps getting bigger apparently, like they want us citizens to fall into it and be buried I guess...

11/20/16 9:16 PM

"The two parties have become this joke, where we can vote for a president that we hate, and so hate each other for it. And the chasm keeps getting bigger apparently"

It is the shock jock business model pretty much. The spouting mouth piece is insulated by the camera or mic.

If you think decorum was dead in the house and senate starting in 2008, just wait. GOP sheep will follow their leader I am afraid.

11/20/16 10:22 PM

quote:

---

I'm looking at this as there being a chasm between The Donald's "shooting off his mouth" and the media's equally-weird standards of political "correctness".
...
both politicians standing clear of either side of a chasm where most voters would want them to be instead of ...

---

11/21/16 8:55 AM

No response about my paranoid fantasy?

11/21/16 10:31 AM

Now the genius wants the Hamilton actors to apologize for speaking freely. Someone please give this idiot a pocket constitution. Wait, he may just use it for the first book to start burning.

Last edited by Sparky on 11/22/16 12:18 AM; edited 1 time in total

11/21/16 11:47 AM

"No response about my paranoid fantasy?"

Too real to joke about

Last edited by April on 11/21/16 1:18 PM; edited 1 time in total

11/21/16 12:08 PM

...and not completely unlikely. In general, I brush off conspiracy theories, but yours may actually have some truth to it. We'll see.

The country has become increasingly polarized since the 1980s. Hopefully this is as bad as it gets, because it seems that the next step would be open violence on a large scale. After the inauguration, I suspect that things will either settle down (if Trump moderates his positions, which seems likely) or get seriously worse (if Trump's campaign rhetoric is truly what he plans).

Between now and then, there will be a lot of speculation and hand-wringing. Much of this has already been pretty off-the-wall ("He could create this disaster or he could create that disaster.") and serves no useful purpose other than to gin up people's fears, which may be what the press and the pundits want.

I'm going to take a wait and see approach, which I feel is the sensible thing to do. I simply don't see any point in getting all worked up based on speculation.

11/21/16 2:12 PM

They just want Trump in because they know Putin can play him like a fiddle.