aradan said:
instead of voting blank (not voting for any party) they voted for harambe, not bad at all
I guess when you don't live in this country, provided you liked the meme in the first place, it would be pretty funny.
If you could not support either Clinton or Trump, you would have been better supporting one of the third party candidates. That sends a stronger msg and also could have helped make a third party viable instead of throwing your vote away.
Tensa said:
10/10
Haha but honestly none of the US parties that have any power is a "left wing" party.
Kiho said:
If you could not support either Clinton or Trump, you would have been better supporting one of the third party candidates. That sends a stronger msg and also could have helped make a third party viable instead of throwing your vote away.
You make a valid point, but I don't think it coulda worked. For instance, when Gary Johnson admitted in an interview that he didn't know what Aleppo was or what was going on there, it made him look kinda ignorant.

I do think it's kind of dumb and pointless that people have been protesting Trump's win. I mean, like it or not, he's gonna be head honcho. The best thing us US citizens can do now is try to get along. Turn the other cheek. Act like adults.
"Like we did to you when our choice wasn't made elect every other time." - Trump supporters
otaku_emmy said:
For instance, when Gary Johnson admitted in an interview that he didn't know what Aleppo was or what was going on there, it made him look kinda ignorant.
rofl, I remember watching an evening talk show many years ago, about the time Bill Clinton was bombing the shit out of Serbia......There was a senator, (cannot remember his name) was ranting about Milosevic.....The host brought a globe over to the senator and asked him to point out where was Yugoslavia.....he could not. I would bet that most of the US congress would fail a geography test where they had to fill in the names of all the nations in the UN on that globe. I could not name them all (but I do know where Yugoslavia was and where Aleppo is), but then again, I am not in the position to vote on deleting any of them from the world, USA congressmen are.
FoliFF said:
Haha but honestly none of the US parties that have any power is a "left wing" party.
On the contrary, both US parties are ''left wing''. It's simply a matter of in which ways are you more liberal toward what.
Cade said:
On the contrary, both US parties are ''left wing''. It's simply a matter of in which ways are you more liberal toward what.
There is very little difference between the Dems and Reps. Both parties are beholden to Wall Street, the MIC and Big Business. What differentiates them is which businesses and the Rhetoric that their respective politicians regurgitate all over us.

On a related note: There has been a spate of reworked Obumber "Hope" images as Trump Nope images, but This one is the definitive exemplar!
I'll just post these 1, 2, 3, 4 videos are still relevant explaining just why U.S election is very flawed.

And sadly U.S isn't alone in this regard.

In other news: The Rules for Rulers and Rulers follow-up
You seriously expect any election to not be flawed? Stop dreaming of ideal worlds. Those went away with monarchies where it was straightforward as fuck.
Tensa said:
You seriously expect any election to not be flawed? Stop dreaming of ideal worlds. Those went away with monarchies where it was straightforward as fuck.
Successors to the throne were not always straight forward, especially when there were more than 1 heir - A classic example is the Wars of the Roses which were a series of wars for control of the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet, the House of Lancaster, and the House of York, whose symbol was a white rose. Wars, assassinations and intrigue were the rules of those days. Now we have color revolutions, arab springs or maidan squares.
Tensa said:
You seriously expect any election to not be flawed? Stop dreaming of ideal worlds. Those went away with monarchies where it was straightforward as fuck.
We still have a monarchy in Denmark...
vf.nightcore said:
We still have a monarchy in Denmark...
And in England, Spain, Thailand, Japan.....But the monarchies have no real power anymore, just irrelevant figure heads.

FoliFF said:
... explaining just why U.S election is very flawed. ....
There are 3 main reasons why the US elections are flawed.
  • PACS and big money influence.
  • Concentration of the News Media in a small number of hands.
  • The two party system which effectively shuts the door on any independent option
There are people who complain endlessly regarding the electoral college, but for all the "issues", it does serve to limit fraud at the ballot box. Imagine a close election like that in Florida when we had the infamous "hanging chads" (Bush W over Gore) but across the entire nation? The electoral college contains such issues as recounts as well as fraud to individual states. It is rare for a president to win the electoral college and loose the popular vote - happens now and then, The 2016 election - 200,000 votes out of 131.7 Million - That is 0.17% and as far as I am concerned, that is in the noise. The electoral college is an effective noise filter in these cases. Hillary's popular votes came mostly from two populous states, California and New York. Many states that went for Trump also had significant imbalances in the votes, but California and NY are very populous. They also gave Clinton a big proportion of her electoral votes. I say fair enough.

If you are going to argue that the electoral college should go, then the senate should go too as it also does not provide representation proportional to popular vote.
I bet I was the only one on Kona that voted Trump. I did so for a lot of reasons that many here might not understand, due to age. It wasn't about Caucasians being disenfranchised, nor race or gender/sexual orientation stances; it was about the insane policies of taxation, rights and economic stability that Liberals/Democrats continue to push. Trump wasn't my first choice (to be sure) but as someone who has watched the Clintons from 1992 on, I (and literally everyone I know) were not going to allow a corrupt, murderous and incompetent Hillary in office. When you've raised three children and lived about a third of your life serving in wars, and observing directly the mess that the rest of the world is, you become angry when watching your country continue to fail. I'm not just blaming Democrats, Republicans are at fault also, but I've watched more assaults on my rights over the years (51 of them) coming from the left. I still remember when Carter gutted the CIA, something that took the US three decades to correct ( I had a direct hand in fixing this mess while serving, but cannot go into detail), needless to say, the world is NOT ready for one big group hug like so many on the "left" believe. I remember being outraged when Bill Clinton enacted the 1994 Crime bill and NAFTA. Unlike what the morons in the media are saying, a lot of us Conservatives are degreed, non-religious, understand the issues and are generally intelligent (at least most of the people I know- I'm sure there are quite a few knuckleheads as well...On both sides). The Liberal elites in this country awoke a sleeping dragon and we aren't going to sleep again for decades. My father used to say that you can ask most Americans who won the Super Bowl, and most can tell you; but ask them what the first six Amendments to their own Bill of Rights are, and they're clueless. In my lifetime, I've met more Liberals that fit that description than Conservatives. As for any person here that claims Trump will bankrupt/destroy/squash the country's economy/rights/foreign policy, I say, hold your tongue until he's out of office, as he is most likely will surprise you. And no, I'm not going to get into an argument here about my comment, it's just my two cents...Thanks and good night.
^
And thus the argument about old people vs young people voting is null.

Older people do know better.
Animeticklesmytoes said:
When you've raised three children and lived about a third of your life serving in wars, and observing directly the mess that the rest of the world is, you become angry when watching your country continue to fail. I'm not just blaming Democrats, Republicans are at fault also, but I've watched more assaults on my rights over the years (51 of them) coming from the left.
I feel the same about my country... 22 years in the army, to see my country fail on all points.
When I see all these activists going in front of the white house, I can't stop laughing, because Trump did nothing, and people are already bitching about him, and, in most cases, these people didn't even voted.
Animeticklesmytoes said:
-snip- it was about the insane policies of taxation, rights and economic stability that Liberals/Democrats continue to push. Trump wasn't my first choice (to be sure) but as someone who has watched the Clintons from 1992 on, I (and literally everyone I know) were not going to allow a corrupt, murderous and incompetent Hillary in office. -snip-
*Looks at previous presidents and then at Trump* From what I can see he's the same as those before him. With that all I can see he will be the same as them if not worse, especially on the foreign affairs. Can't speak when it comes internal affairs. So really, he's isn't that much different from Hillary either.

Sadly these politicians are more talk than action in the end. I'm just waiting for Trump to become Putin's bitch.
Honestly, I'm just hoping the rest of the world doesn't judge us just because the majority voted Trump into office. The anti-Trump sentiment is not limited to just within the United States, and it doesn't help that a lot of people on an international scale thought of us as "Ugly Americans" even before the election results. My most immediate concern right now is America's image in the eyes of the rest of the world.
I didn't vote in either the primaries or the general phase of the election. I consider myself to be neither a cultural or ethnic "American" nor to be a citizen of the USA or a member of its society, and I have no intention of contributing to it. But as someone who nevertheless has exposure to the situation in the US right now (and over the past ~2 years), I'll share my thoughts.

About the election conduct

About the post-election protests

About the media

About Clinton

About Trump

About Sanders

About the future

P.S.
FoliFF said:
*Looks at previous presidents and then at Trump* From what I can see he's the same as those before him. With that all I can see he will be the same as them if not worse, especially on the foreign affairs. Can't speak when it comes internal affairs. So really, he's isn't that much different from Hillary either.

Sadly these politicians are more talk than action in the end. I'm just waiting for Trump to become Putin's bitch.
Being civil with other leaders does not make one a bitch, it is however the first step to being diplomatic and a statesman, something that has been completely lacking from the US State Department for some time. That does not mean you agree with the other side, or cave, it does however leave everyone more room for maneuver and negotiation.

As far as corruption goes - colluding with the supposedly neutral DNC to suppress Bernie is serious corruption. The Clinton foundation's pay to play should be enough to get a conviction for treason - nothing less.
Jack Ma (Alibaba founder) addresses Davos regarding Trump's comments vis-a-vis off shoring and outsourcing of American jobs:

“Over the past, the Americans had thirteen wars spending 40.2 trillion dollars,” said Ma, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “What if they spent a part of that money on building up the infrastructure, helping the white-collar and the blue-collar workers? No matter how strategically good it is, you’re supposed to spend money on your own people.”

“And the other money which I’m curious about is that when I was young, all I heard about America was Ford and Boeing and those big manufacturing companies. The last 10-20 years, all I heard about is Silicon Valley and Wall Street.”

“And what happened? The year 2008: the financial crisis wiped out 19.2 trillion dollars in the USA alone and destroyed 34 million jobs globally. So what if the spent on Wall Street and the Middle East was spent on the Mid-West of the United States, developing the industry there? That could change a lot.”

“So it’s not that other countries steal jobs from you guys, it is your strategy! You do not distribute the money in a proper way,”

Wa comments on the WTO:

“The WTO was great but it was mainly designed for developed countries and big companies. There’s no opportunity for small business. We want to build up an EWTP – an Electronic World Trade Platform – to support young people, small business.”

“And the other thing is that the WTO is a very interesting organization. When you put 200 government officials in one room, ask them to agree on something – it’s impossible! I can never imagine that they agree on something together. Business should be designed by business people, so we believe the EWTP should have businessmen sitting down together, agree on something, negotiate on something, then get endorsement from the government.”

~~~~
The Chinese business magnate earlier in January met with US President-elect Donald Trump, who has bemoaned the loss of American industry and jobs due to the outsourcing of labor to countries like Mexico and China. Ma, however, has a different view of what is behind the US economic decline.
~~~~
It is always important to see how the other side views the situation. Trade negotiations between China and the US are going to be interesting.....