US Politics Thread 2016-2020
 

To be opened for business somewhere around 19th December or whenever the presidential voting has taken place.

Its official Trump wins!

Well, let's see how he goes. I don't need to say any more than that because I've already said it, so now we just see what happens. But there will be lots of criticisms of him, no doubt, some warranted, some not, but that's what happens when you are President. If Trump really wanted the job, he may soon find himself regretting that desire, if he didn't...well, he should have known better than to tempt fate. :03:

Good luck with it.

I hope we are nnot tweeted into a war! Someone needs to pull the tweeting app off his phone.

Maybe this is the answer? :D
https://s6.postimg.org/en55oagn5/pro...ck_daonhz2.jpg

Your cartoon reminded of this little problem surfacing soon and very soon:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...b039044709b933

Donald Trump Reportedly Plans To Keep Private Security Team As President

The secret service is not going to just get along with anyone ... guns around the president should be well trained Secret Service men and women not a bunch of good ole boys.

definitely!

About time you lot got a thread all in one place. :03:

Well its going to be interesting times ahead here outside America and for you guys there you will be right on the ball. Lets see if Trump tones down the mouth and tweets and gets down to business.

As I posted before, let's give the man a chance. Not like there is anything else we can do. We will have plenty of time to hate Trump during his term. Let's wait until he actually does something wrong.

There is an outside chance Trump could pull a Schwarzenegger; when Arnie was elected Governor of California, the CA-GOP was salivating at the chance to impose their policies on the state's population; a grand collection of initiatives was placed on the state ballot after Arnie took office with the confidence his imprimatur would sway the voters; the end result was a very, very hard slap-down by the voters and Arnie immediately sang a different tune, much to the dismay of the shattered CA-GOP. Then, again, what did the CA-GOP expect from a guy married into the Kennedy family? Farfetched this could happen with Trump? Well, remember, Trump was a Democrat originally, and he has already backtracked or modified on a few of his more popular campaign pledges (special prosecutor for Hillary, complete repeal of Obamacare, etc.) and, while he claimed he would 'drain the swamp' in DC, he seems to have been hiring on some of the 'gators as members of his team. What was that old saw? "The more things change, the more they remain the same..."...



<O>

Fake news.

Not much you can do, right. Half of the US population voted for this man.

Or.... they voted against the other candidate. :hmmm:

Not half of the population, about half of the population that was not too lazy to get off their butts and get out there and vote. Once in four years, we have the chance to vote for our president. I guess that is just a bit too inconvenient for almost half of the population. :down:

Nationwide, it was the lowest voter turnout in 20 years.

Voter fraud is not a problem in the US. Voter apathy is.

But the parties don't seem to be concerned with that. No headlines in addressing voter apathy.

This does raise an interesting question. Is the president required to have Secret Service protection? I will have to research that. It may not be up to the president. I am pretty sure that the USSS has the authority to "interdict" if there are any private security forces around the president.

I hope to see something constructive done about or with the affordable care act.

rates, for literally every single person i personally know both on "Obamacare" and with employer provided health care has increased anywhere from 3 to 6 times over the past few years.

The health insurance in my family is provided through my wife's employer offered health care plan, we have received letter after letter about rate changes over the past couple of years.

i can personally guarantee that the first 25-30% of each of her work month goes just toward covering premiums and the cost is ridiculous. especially where i am concerned because prior to ACA, i had NO health insurance, no premiums, i literally always either paid cash for what few medical treatments or doctor visits i needed or signed up on a payment plan to pay $100 a month (or some other amount) until the debt was paid.

admittedly that was easy to do in my 20s and early 30s, and as age creeps up on us both health will certainly decline and paying cash becomes unreasonable or outright impossible.

but, the bottom line is, the government does something like pass the ACA to "help you" and then they end up bleeding you dry by pulling money out of your check.

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next up, congressional term limits, congressmen (and women for the sake of being pc :doh: ) get elected and then they end up keeping their seats for 40 and 50 years simply because it is human nature to resist change... well, the cornerstone of progress is change, get them in, let them innovate with fresh ideas for 4 or 6 years and then push em out!

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remove the golden parachute

put all of the congressional leaders on social security, remove the lifetime income guarantee, and require all congressional leaders to be on the same health care plan as is offered by the government. period. remove the first class citizen status these idiots have

I take it that you are unaware that this already is in place.

1. Members of Congress have been paying into Social Security since 1984 (PL 98-21).

2. Members of Congress are in the same retirement pension plan as other federal employees. Members of Congress are eligible for a pension at the age of 62 if they have completed at least five years of service. Members are eligible for a pension at age 50 if they have completed 20 years of service, or at any age after completing 25 years of service. The amount of the pension depends on years of service and the average of the highest three years of salary. By law, the starting amount of a Member’s retirement annuity may not exceed 80% of his or her final salary.

3. Prior to 2014, members of congress were covered by the same health plan as other federal employees -- The Federal Employee's Health Benefits Program.But starting Jan. 1, 2014, House and Senate members, and their staffs, can only obtain employer-subsidized, private coverage through the exchanges established under the ACA. So actually members of Congress lost their health coverage through the FEHBP and now has to purchase private insurance through the ACA exchanges.

It keeps going around the Internets Tubes how congress is in a special class and are exempt from pretty much anything. Members of Congress are federal employees and their benefits are in the same class as for other federal employees. There are some minor differences but they are truly minor.

I think quite simply they are going to gut Obamacare and not look to replace it for a while - that might take years even - - even though trump had mentioned a while back in passing he likes some parts, i cant imagine that he is going to really stick with that, when he flips on everything else and it is not even in line iwth the GOP who despise anything that isnt controlled by private interests looking for a profit and driven by some quite backward and disturbing ideologies sadly.

affordable quality health care is not impossible - most developed countries have it no problems - we have it in australia, where it is a mix of public and private and that works well, i think most australians are happy to pay the fraction they do into medicare.

All the ideology aside though there are inevitable problems - if the population is aging, getting sicker and needing more regular care, also if the overall health of a population declines - evident with the rise in junk food consumption and obesity levels in the western world in the recent decade, and also access to fresh food, clean air and clean water

-one thing i am very concerned for my US friends about is that Trump and the people he has gathered want to eliminate the EPA - this is madness really, - getting rid of regulatory bodies pretty much guarantees the further contamination of water supplies
- and this is already a big issue in the USA - not just Flint, but in many other cities where lead levels are even higher as it has been found now

and if you want to see what air quality looks like with no regulations on pollution just look at China now, where the air pollution is so bad that even flights are ground, and similarly in Delhi.

It is galling and beyond disturbing the kind of apocalyptic levels of insanity that are being harnessed to form the Trump admin - slipping into very dark dark places.

20-30%? What on Earth are you guys doing? :o

I don't pretend that our system is perfect but it certainly seems a lot simpler. You pay in a certain percentage of contribution each paycheck, which varies depending on your pay rate, and that is all sent to the National Insurance Fund which then helps fund the service so that it is free of charge at point of delivery.
The US health care system seems complex for no reason other than the sake of being complex. :hmmm: I just don't get it.

The GOP led destruction of the USA's programs like ACA, social security and its various regulatory bodies and institutions aside

trump himself is descending now well into running a far right fascism and knitting such deep system divisions into all parts of not just the government, but also the media and now the intelligence bodies -

here is another example of the despotic autocracy that is now powering up

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/20/dona...NESsg.facebook

I really am quite deadly serious about all this and am fearful for the lives of not just the american population but the whole globe.