Gas Bandit's Political Thread V: The Vampire Likes Bats

His cabinet list is like a list of the most cruel, shitty people in the history of modern politics.
But all the kind of Republicans I would've expected of Cruz or if Pence had been the frontrunner. As Dave said in the other thread, "really draining the swamp there." This is hardly the shake-up a grenade would be and more just a Republican in the White House.
 
But usually when a president (of either party) builds his cabinet, it's more of a mix of people; some you might have heard of, others probably never unless you really follow politics. This reads more like an episode of "Celebrity Apprentice: White House Edition". It's like he didn't ask who would be the best fit, but who has even the least politically-minded American heard of, because his cabinet needs to be "the most YUGE, all-star cabinet EVER!".

I was joking in the other thread that it's like watching the Legion of Doom form in real life, but maybe that's not so far off after all.
 
Something I just realized.

People against Hilary - even Trump - kept going on about the lives she was responsible. They quoted Benghazi or referenced general Middle Eastern incidents. Some people nicknamed her Killary. So they apparently care about foreign Muslim lives.

And yet those same people want to deport all American Muslims and say hateful things about them.
 
Something I just realized.

People against Hilary - even Trump - kept going on about the lives she was responsible. They quoted Benghazi or referenced general Middle Eastern incidents. Some people nicknamed her Killary. So they apparently care about foreign Muslim lives.

And yet those same people want to deport all American Muslims and say hateful things about them.
They don't give a shit about Muslims.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
The House Republicans have voted unanimously to keep Paul Ryan as their speaker. The Democrats are delaying their leadership vote until the 30th. Keith Ellison might end up the new DNC chair.

Portland protesters rioters continue property destruction for 5th day, attack camera crews, distribute leaflets warning that snitches will get what's coming to them:


And it turns out, more than half the ones arrested thus far didn't even vote.

Rahm Emanuel vows that Chicago will always be a sanctuary city. Interesting how state's rights/local ordinances suddenly trump (no pun intended) federal law when it's for a democrat cause.

Rumor on the mill says there's going to be a whole lot of executive orders rescinded (for example, the unconstitutional illegal immigration ones) once Trump is in the office. One can only wonder what executive orders Trump will start writing. After all, he'll have the same "phone and pen" Obama did when he wasn't getting his way. Didn't I warn about this exact thing? Yes I did, back in January.

"Congress has failed to act" is not grounds for appropriating the powers of the legislative branch. If most americans agree on it, they can elect representatives who will act upon their will.

Just because the second amendment says that *congress* shall make no law doesn't mean the President gets to.[DOUBLEPOST=1451964257,1451963965][/DOUBLEPOST]A better measure of "is this overreaching" is to consider what you'd think if "President Trump" issued the exact opposite executive order. Say, for example, eliminating any requirement for any firearm dealer to be licensed or perform background checks. Kinda wish that one had to go through congress, wouldn't ya?
 
If they care enough to march in protest, they could have bothered voting.

I think the electoral college needs to be done away with. It makes people feel like they've got no skin in the game - often correctly.
 
If they care enough to march in protest, they could have bothered voting.

I think the electoral college needs to be done away with. It makes people feel like they've got no skin in the game - often correctly.
The electoral college ensures candidates don't just pander to the dense cities. It allows small states to have some skin in the game and not get steamrolled. Simply abolishing the electoral college with no backup plan to account for the side effects of that choice is a terrible idea.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
If they care enough to march in protest, they could have bothered voting.

I think the electoral college needs to be done away with. It makes people feel like they've got no skin in the game - often correctly.
Without the electoral college, no political opinion outside of New York and California would matter.

Furthermore, until it benefitted him this election, Trump wanted to do away with the electoral college. If that doesn't give you pause, I am not sure what will.
 
The electoral college ensures candidates don't just pander to the dense cities. It allows small states to have some skin in the game and not get steamrolled. Simply abolishing the electoral college with no backup plan to account for the side effects of that choice is a terrible idea.
Except instead they pander to Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin. Yeah, this system is much better.

 
OK, so if President Trump ends up being the spectacular failure we all expect, will his name become synonymous with failure and then by default supplant the use of the word trump in card games?
 
If they care enough to march in protest, they could have bothered voting.

I think the electoral college needs to be done away with. It makes people feel like they've got no skin in the game - often correctly.
Remember the Texas school board controlling what's in textbooks? That's pretty much the exact reason to have something like the electoral college.

It's also important because the President is supposed to serve not only the citizens, but the state's interests as well.
 
Except instead they pander to Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin. Yeah, this system is much better.
As I saw pointed out elsewhere, things change. Not too long back California was a Republican stronghold and Texas a Democrat stronghold. Now California is so blue that a Republican doesn't stand a chance outside of some (relatively) lightly populated counties, and a Democrat in Texas doesn't stand a chance outside of DFW/Houston/Austin/San Antonio.

Electoral college works the way it is supposed to work, since we are a Republic with representational democracy and not direct democracy. IF you want to change it, will the replacement be better? and can you get 60% of Congress and 75% of the States to ratify a new Amendment to the Constitution?
 
An aside: I thought I recognized the name of "Reince Preibus."

Turns out, he and I have something in common - we both graduated with Political Science minors from UW-Whitewater...
 
As I saw pointed out elsewhere, things change. Not too long back California was a Republican stronghold and Texas a Democrat stronghold. Now California is so blue that a Republican doesn't stand a chance outside of some (relatively) lightly populated counties, and a Democrat in Texas doesn't stand a chance outside of DFW/Houston/Austin/San Antonio.

Electoral college works the way it is supposed to work, since we are a Republic with representational democracy and not direct democracy. IF you want to change it, will the replacement be better? and can you get 60% of Congress and 75% of the States to ratify a new Amendment to the Constitution?
"It's always been that way" is a terrible reason to keep it.
 
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/16/us/politics/trump-transition.html

So, um, the Trump transition team has essentially gone full Hunger Games. Chris Christie's out, and everyone associated with him is being purged, because Trump is letting his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, make the decisions. Christie prosecuted Kushner's father while a US Attorney in New Jersey. His transition team has not gotten in touch with the State Department or DoD and is contacting foreign heads of state without being briefed on them. Giuliani's trying to insist that this is all part of the normal process (it isn't) and foreign leaders are being routed to Trump Tower to try and get in touch with the President-Elect. Eliot Cohen, a conservative Republican and former member of the Bush State Department, had come up with a list of people that might be useful to the administration. Apparently this was considered to be an insult by the transition team, and they strongly rebuffed his efforts. As a result, he is now telling people to "stay away".
 
What a fucking mess.

Where is Pence in all this? He's an evil scumbag, but he knows this shit better than Trump or anyone of Trump's associates. Is he just sitting back with a smile, watching it all fall apart, waiting for his moment to take the reins?
 
Apologies if someone mentioned already, but I think fully-proportional apportionment by state popular vote is a good way to assign electoral votes as opposed to our current system. It makes the EV much closer to the popular vote, which is general good for democracy, but maintains the normalization factor of the EV system that prevents political dominance of every issue by voters in NY, TX, FL, and CA.

Also, do away with electors as a concept if people aren't electing them. I get that Madison saw the electors as a control on the federal government, but in the long-term, it enshrined the ability of a group of unelected elites to reverse the will of the people. Right now, state party leadership (which is also generally unelected) select their electors, and most of them are state legislators or local politicians or party leadership cronies. If your state legislators are anything like mine, that should fucking terrify people.
 
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Apologies if someone mentioned already, but I think fully-proportional apportionment by state popular vote is a good way to assign electoral votes as opposed to our current system. It makes the EV much closer to the popular vote, which is general good for democracy, but maintains the normalization factor of the EV system that prevents political dominance of every issue by voters in NY, TX, FL, and CA.

Also, do away with electors as a concept if people aren't electing them. I get that Madison saw the electors as a control on the federal government, but in the long-term, it enshrined the ability of a group of unelected elites to reverse the will of the people. Right now, state party leadership (which is also generally unelected) select their electors, and most of them are state legislators or local politicians or party leadership cronies. If your state legislators are anything like mine, that should fucking terrify people.
I'm not sure the bolded part would be true.
 
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