Going to be an Interesting 4 years

[MiniDave]

No matter what your political affiliation........ 9.gif

[Merlin]

How I feel right now is the moment you wake up in a strangers bed and realize that the woman sleeping on your arm is not the one you remember from the night before.

I feel like I knew what would happen with Hillary, but Trump will be an unknown trip.

[MiniDave]

It's sad in so many ways, that this is the country we've become - that THIS is considered the best, brightest, most capable person to lead our country into the future and to be our "Face" to the world.

[Kermy]

Its scary for the rest of the world as well.

[MPlayle]

This campaign was not about "the best, brightest, most capable" person for US president (or almost any other office as most of the candidates sucked).  It was an ugly "reality TV slugfest" of mostly crappy candidates and ran for two years of effort.

The results remind me if the REM song: "It is the end of the world as we know it"

Bleh.

9.gif

[BruceK]

Well, one thing for sure, nobody will be thinking of the Who song:  Meet the new boss.  Same as the old boss.

For so many years, our presidential choices have been cut from pretty much the same mold, with only very slight differences depending whether they had a (R) or a (D) behind their names.  Think about it: we've had two presidents from the same Bush family and we nearly got two presidents from the same Clinton family in just a generation or so.   Were we so happy with status quo result of this political inbreeding that we couldn't fathom anything else?   

For good or bad, the deck has finally been reshuffled.  We might end up with an Ace, or we might end up with a Joker.  But it is going to be damn interesting to see something different.   

Plus, if is very fun to watch all the liberals lose their minds.   I'm thinking of investing in U-Haul stock.  They should do very well if everyone who promised to move to Canada, actually goes through with it. 

[MiniDave]

 I agree that this was not a political campaign, more and more this country is fulfilling the "prophecy" of the movie Idiocracy - if you haven't seen it, rent it from Netflix or wherever you get you movies, it's pretty funny in it's own right, but boy is it ever prescient too.

No one is going anywhere......it's all posturing.

However, if Texas secedes like they've been threatening too, I might move a bit south!  ;D

[94touring]

I'll break the mould here and say I'm pleased he destroyed the media and establishment.  Might actually get something done for once.

[MiniDave]

What he claims he's going to do is wipe out the Obama presidency - everything that's been done over the last 8 years will be reversed.......how can that be good for the country?

I am not a Hillary supporter mind you, I thought she was a bad choice as well. In fact none of the candidates that ran in either party impressed me....so call me neutral. But I never thought Trump was the answer either......

I seriously don't think he'll get anything done that benefits the majority of the people, but big business will do just fine....just like under the last bunch. The problem isn't the pres, it's the congress....those are the guys that make things happen, not the pres.

What media did he destroy? What establishment? The republicans still control the senate and congress, the same Supreme Court judges are sitting...what exactly is he going to do?

[94touring]

I loath Obama care so I'll be happy when that's gone. 

[MiniDave]

Obama care is the only way I and my wife could get health insurance. What did it do to you?....since you have healthcare thru your employer you didn't have to worry about whether or not you got sick - but the rest of us sure did. One bad thing and we're wiped out financially - a whole lifetime of work down the drain. But when you're not covered by an employer's policy and you've had a heart problem or cancer - no insurance company will touch you. What do you do then? We lived without insurance and held our breath that nothing bad would happen....and we were mostly lucky - nothing more did.

And those who claim it's the Pres who wrote that policy are naïve at best - he asked the congress to find a way that all Americans could have affordable healthcare - and our lovely congress dropped the ball right into the lap of the insurance industry and said, here - you write this, we don't know a damn thing about insurance since ours is free for life. And that's what became the Affordable Care Act - put the blame where it belongs.

[BruceK]

I think there are a few good things that are part of Obamacare that I hope remain.  Among them :  prohibitions of denying coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, and allowing unmarried dependents up to age 26 to remain on parent's plan, among them.  I'm sure there are more.   Whatever happens, it needs to be better and not just different.

[MiniDave]

And California legalized Marijuana - they estimate first year's tax revenues to be more than $1 billion......as did Nevada and Massachusetts - Colorado, Washington State and Oregon along with DC already did it years ago.

My former employer found that it was cheaper to provide insurance for all his employees than only for the ones who signed up - paying the premiums for all employees was cheaper than paying them for the 10 or so people who signed up.

[BruceK]

And California legalized Marijuana - they estimate first year's tax revenues to be more than $1 billion......as did Nevada and Massachusetts - Colorado, Washington State and Oregon along with DC already did it years ago.

It's not like the state is going to reduce other taxes to give $1 billion back to the taxpayers as a result of not needing it from them anymore.  They will simply absorb it like they always had it.   

[Merlin]

It will be nice to see all of the freeloaders from California that moved to Colorado, pack up and go back to California.

If it took an act of congress to get ObamaCare passed, it will take another to get it repealed. It may change, but it is staying. As an employer Obamacare cost us a fortune and forced reduction in the workforce. I have friends that have to pay the penalty this year because they can't afford to get healthcare. Before, Aetna hooked them up OK.

[John Gervais]

I'm a happy camper; I was a Trump supporter right from the start. 

And what about CNN's pathetic bias and inaccurate reporting?  Shameful -

And I sincerely hope that Hillary gets a knock on the door from that as-promised special prosecutor to look closer into her willful deception and criminal mishandling of classified information.  Lock her up.

Undocumented immigrants as they're known today were known only months ago as illegal aliens in the U.S. should be deported - the operative word, 'illegal' means that they're residing in breach of the law, that is to say unlawfully and thereby essentially criminally.  How can it be legal for an illegal immigrant to buy a house, own/register/insure a vehicle, have a job - (how does the employer get around the employees W2-form or is it the W4 - I can't remember) and so on???  I baffles me, like so many other issues.

I have no sympathy nor tolerance for illegal aliens - fill out the forms, come in legally.  No problem.  Criminal illegals?  Tag them, send them back, not re-release on American streets.

Build a wall - I've known many Border Patrol agents who rescue (save) so many illegals from the Arizona desert.  Mexico complains about the cash and guns from the U.S. to Mexico.  The wall will be good for both sides. 

The United States is of the people, by the people and for the people - American people, of the United States - not other countries imposing their quotas, wills and social/economic problems on the U.S..

Growing up in the '60's/'70's and 80's, I saw a progressive decline in patriotic pride as I grew older.  Products used to be advertised and promoted as 'Made in U.S.A.' and nearly every car had an American flag sticker on the quarterlight window.  Anti-trust laws (or something like that - I can't remember...) and 'trade agreements' made it illegal to advertise American stuff to Americans and I thought it odd.  Now there are very few ordinary manufacturing jobs, very few ordinary products produced locally and we're pretty much forced to buy imported goods.  Sure, we still make stuff, but as I travelled through many smaller cities and towns in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine on my last visit to the U.S., I couldn't believe the number of pizza parlors and nail salons, not much else.  A healthy economy doesn't survive long with citizens merely passing cash between each other, but money needs to exit and re-enter the circle.  Of course, this is simplified, but I felt badly when I drove past many closed (non-competitive) industrial buildings.

Again, I'm a happy camper.  The House and Senate should also be grateful that they had Trump hauling in the hoards of disenfranchised 'deplorables' which enabled Republican control.  I hope they reciprocate and allow him (and his staff) to define, refine and manage.


Edit - I feel compelled to continue my rant.  Hyacinth and I were watching a panel discussion on a Danish news program this evening and one well-known politician was whining (scared) about how Trump is putting European security at risk by 'threatening' to abandon (or at least be selectively involved in) NATO.  A different guy on the panel thankfully agreed with Trump that NATO members haven't been paying their share, and pointed out that Denmark pays only 1.2% of it's 2% membership dues.  The first guy then explains that Denmark has re-structured it's military to make it more efficient and that this justifies its current contribution, as Danish participation is now more effective.  He then explains that it would cost billions to come up to the full 2% and asked where that money would come from, should Denmark be forced to increase it's defense budget appropriately.  Someone mentioned that the U.S. currently pays around 75% of the NATO budget, up from 50% at the end of the cold war.

I'm sitting there, mouth-breathing and with knuckles dragging as only a 'deplorable' can, wondering how that .8% became misappropriated in the first place and how audacious it is to assume that any NATO nation can expect host services from the U.S..  Bunch of parasites...  Pay up!

[Jims5543]

I loath Obama too and hope Trump dismantles everything he has done, ESPECIALLY Obamacare.

My entire adult life I have always been responsible and carried health insurance. Once the Obamacare game started in Congress, I noticed my insurance was steadily getting more expensive.

It got so expensive we had to switch from full blown health insurance to a HSA catastrophe policy which would cover our asses.


Then that got too expensive, then ACA kicked in, we went to sign up, they wanted $1200 a month, and I would have a 13K deductible and co pay all the way up no matter how much I spend.

So, I can get shit insurance for $1200 when I used to have a fantastic policy for $400 a month for my family.

My mortgage payment is not $1200 a month.

So Dave, I am happy you have insurance when you could not, I no longer have insurance because I refuse to pay $1200 a month for a shit policy.



20 Trillion in debt, if that pay to play bitch got in office we would have doubled that again in 8 years at least added another 10 Trillion in 4.

This has to end, we are going to take some lumps getting out of this mess that is for sure, but we need to if this country is going to continue.

I for one am happy a businessman is in the WH. I really hope he can get some shit done for a change and clean out all the clutter.

If none of you have read any of the Wikileaks you have no business blaming America for this presidency.

Here is a news flash for you, Bernie was picked to be a stooge for Clinton to rally people behind him and then he was to be a pied piper and bring them to her.

They also wanted Trump to be their opponent because he was a clown that would be easy to beat. It is all in the Podesta Emails.

We also kept a Muslim woman (Huma) out of the WH, with her Mother and Father having ties to radical Islam.  With Clintons lack of discretion regarding her email server and handling of classified documents. There are american servicemen sitting in jail for mishandling classified information and committed much less of a crime than Clinton and did not rush to destroy evidence.


They forgot one thing, America just told the politicians and the ridiculously biased media.  "FUCK YOU!!"

I am pretty pumped, I have only slept for 2.5 hours last night, I am hungover and I am smiling!  I waiting until 2:30 for Clinton to give her concession speech that did not happen, I fell asleep before Trump took the stage at 3am.

I never voted in my life, I registered to vote in this election because I believe this man is a combo breaker and is going to get this county back on the right track. Just as I believe Brexit will make the UK a much stronger nation in the end.

And if he gets nothing but shit from the career types in DC, guess what? He will tell America, he will blow the whistle on this good old boy club.

If you are getting your News from CNN, MSNBC and Fox you have been duped.

[MiniDave]

You all keep insisting the it's Obamacare- like he wrote the damn thing. The insurance companies wrote it, and now the insurance companies are showing record profits - yet the Pres is somehow to blame?

What he wanted was a way for ALL Americans to be able to afford health care - the title of the act is The Affordable Care Act - put the blame where it belongs.

And you think a "businessman" is going to somehow look out for the little guy? Ha!

Please understand, I am not a Clinton supporter either - I think they both are the least worst possible choices out of a field of horrible choices......it was all shit IMHO. Still is......

[Jims5543]

Obama care is the only way I and my wife could get health insurance. What did it do to you?....since you have healthcare thru your employer you didn't have to worry about whether or not you got sick - but the rest of us sure did. One bad thing and we're wiped out financially - a whole lifetime of work down the drain. But when you're not covered by an employer's policy and you've had a heart problem or cancer - no insurance company will touch you. What do you do then? We lived without insurance and held our breath that nothing bad would happen....and we were mostly lucky - nothing more did.

And those who claim it's the Pres who wrote that policy are naïve at best - he asked the congress to find a way that all Americans could have affordable healthcare - and our lovely congress dropped the ball right into the lap of the insurance industry and said, here - you write this, we don't know a damn thing about insurance since ours is free for life. And that's what became the Affordable Care Act - put the blame where it belongs.

For every Congressman in Washington voting for Obamacare there were 7 SEVEN lobbyists pandering to them to make sure their special interests were covered.  This insurance was never about the people it was about profit for hospitals and insurance companies and how we can force the people to pay in.

What they did not bank on is people like me and there are many of use, the upper middle class that refuse to participate. We are healthy we take relatively good care of ourselves and the WANT us. We are not playing. I am happy to pay the fine each year.  I have not made a medical claim in 15 years, neither has my wife. We are what they want. What they are getting is the poor who live on McDonalds and do not live healthy lives and have lived with problems for years, they are all bombarding the hospitals with big claims and bankrupting the insurance companies.

I did not work insurance companies are running from it and the ones remaining are demanding large rate hikes.  It is imploding anyway.




 

[Jims5543]

You all keep insisting the it's Obamacare- like he wrote the damn thing. The insurance companies wrote it, and now the insurance companies are showing record profits - yet the Pres is somehow to blame?

What he wanted was a way for ALL Americans to be able to afford health care - the title of the act is The Affordable Care Act - put the blame where it belongs.

And you think a "businessman" is going to somehow look out for the little guy? Ha!

Please understand, I am not a Clinton supporter either - I think they both are the least worst possible choices out of a field of horrible choices......it was all shit IMHO. Still is......

I used to pay all my employees health insurance back in the day. They actually had a choice, since group rates were more expensive. They could opt for insurance, or they could take a small bonus if they opted out.  Insurance ran an employee back then $20 a week.  Once it started to spiral out of control in anticipation of Obamacare, I had to stop offering to them.

He made some lofty promises, he is not a politician.

He better come through or he will be out in 4 years.  I hated  GW Bush and I cannot stand Obama. These last two administrations destroyed this country, it has to stop.

Our founding fathers were all businessmen first and politicians second. It is about time we got back to that.

[BruceK]

However, if Texas secedes like they've been threatening too, I might move a bit south!  ;D

Actually, overall, I would say that Texas is quite satisfied with the results, so no there will be no talk of secession (for a while). 

Meantime, it is the delicate snowflakes and old granola munchers in the People's Republic of California who are having a really, really, really hard time dealing with reality and are now talking secession: 

http://www.businessinsider.com/california-secession-calexit-2016-11

[John Gervais]

Yeah, drain the swamp.  I used to vote, and stopped for some reason after I moved here - the process was too cumbersome.  So, this year, I sent my documents to the county of my last residence and overseas-voted in Pima County, Arizona. 

I fell asleep last night before the tally was finished.  Hyacinth woke me and said it looked really good for Trump as she left for work.  I called her shortly after, sipping my coffee and as giddy as a school boy on Christmas morning; twas more than a victory for Trump, it was a complete crushing of the nepotistic establishment.  Wow! 

I wore a red river-driver shirt in honor of 'the people's' victory.

I nearly vomitted when I saw CNN's guy 'Van Jones' telling about how his kids were crying in their corn flakes and muslim friends asking if they would be deported.  C'mon, Van, put some fuzz on those peaches and get some analytical brain cells.  Tell your friends that if they're not on a watch list and aren't illegal, then they're just residents/citizens, like everyone else.  And I blame the media for splitting the population into ethnic groups for pandering Party romances - why aren't Americans simply 'Americans' anymore??? 

In my opinion, it's most relevant to view that Trump won the necessary electoral college votes, not that X-ethnicity constituted only 'Y' percentage and that's where the Democrats need to focus.  I don't care how many 'X'-ethnicity vote, only that Americans, after all we're all constitutionally equal, exercise their privilege.

I'd love to see Ted Nugent play Stranglehold at the inauguration

[Jims5543]

I was wrong there were not 7 lobbyists per congressman there were 8. I just looked it up.

https://www.publicintegrity.org/2010/02/24/2725/lobbyists-swarm-capitol-influence-health-reform

A Center for Public Integrity analysis of Senate lobbying disclosure forms shows that more than 1,750 companies and organizations hired about 4,525 lobbyists — eight for each member of Congress — to influence health reform bills in 2009.

Despite the recession, 2009 was a boom year for influence peddling overall with business and advocacy groups shelling out $3.47 billion for lobbyists to represent them on all kinds of issues, according to the nonprofit group Center for Responsive Politics.

What was that about OUR interests being thought of?

Stop watching CNN (Clinton News Network) and other biased media.

Trump is not a monster. Do you know who Jennifer Hudson is? She is a singer from American Idol. Some of her family members were gunned down in cold blood in Chicago many years ago.

This is what a business man does who does not give a shit about anyone.

http://people.com/celebrity/donald-trump-shelters-jennifer-hudson/

Donald Trump doesn't just have the golden touch for business – he also has a heart of gold.

The real-estate mogul has been housing Jennifer Hudson and some of her relatives at the Trump International Hotel & Tower free of charge.

"She's a great girl. And we're protecting them well," Trump told PEOPLE at a benefit honoring Australia director Baz Luhrman at the Museum of Modern Art Monday night. "They are very safe."

Hudson has been seeking refuge at the Trump holding since her mother, brother and nephew were murdered in Chicago on Oct. 24.

4 more stories in addition to Hudsons.

http://ijr.com/2015/11/461306-these-5-acts-of-kindness-reveal-theres-more-to-donald-trump-than-just-his-celebrity-persona/


This is a man who does not care about anyone but himself. You will never see any of this on the news.

[Jims5543]

Plus this made it all worth it. Liberals crying.  FYI - When Obama got elected I knew it would Fuck me over and it did in more ways than just Health Insurance. I never protested or tore through the streets acting like an ass.

[94touring]

Obama is most definitely to blame for the unaffordable care act as I like to call it.  He signed the damn thing.  I have too many friends with outrageous premiums, 1000-1500+ a month.  They can't afford it.  Many who just pay the penalty to avoid it.  How absurd to be forced by the government to pay for something you don't want to use, or in many cases can't afford to use.  And yes, this year when country wide premiums sky rocket in Obama Care, my premiums go up 22.6% as a side effect.