World is Falling Apart Thread (Locked forever)

[Blu]

I agree, there won't be much political change in this next four years. However, global diplomacy and international relations are likely to go south, given Trump's demeanor thus far. The way he's handling the Taiwan and China situation is so friggin naive it's downright sad. He has no context of the history of the KMT in Taiwan, and that Taiwan is starting to shrug some of the baggage from the KMT/ROC rule through its elections. His tweets are inflammatory, devoid of nuance and understanding, and stoke the coals. He really needs to be reeled in by his handlers. For example:

Bill Bishop, a Washington DC-based China expert, said he sensed “abject despair” in the US capital at how Trump was now conducting US-China relations through misspelled tweets.

“This is unpresidented behaviour by a precedent-elect,” joked Bishop. “It would be funny if the stakes weren’t so high.”
China should plan to take Taiwan by force after Trump call, state media says. “This is not a business deal. This is a political relationship between nuclear powers who are already on the path towards conflict in several dimensions,” added Bishop, who publishes the influential Sinocism newsletter.

“This kind of uncertainty, this kind of petulance, this kind of random tweeting… is not a grand strategy that is going to push the Chinese onto their heels so they are going to make concessions. This is juvenile, immature, inexperienced behaviour that has the potential to lead to many problems in the US-China relationship, some of which could have some pretty serious and damaging ramifications.”

[CRTGAMER]

EDIT
Smooth Presidential Transition - What is President Obama doing!?
Letting criminals go, reducing sentences on other prisoners, regulations on off shore drilling, increased restrictions on Coal Mines just signed on Dec 19th and not voting or vetoing on the Israel settlements today. A lot of clearing his unpopular checklist at the end of his term. The Democrat Party is already hurting, these moves have put them on life support!

No need waiting for a Press Conference, straight from the President Elect. We get the information direct and faster then the News Media who broadcast their biased version later on the very same tweet.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/

The resolution being considered at the United Nations Security Council regarding Israel should be vetoed. As to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th.

http://thehill.com/regulation/306564-ho ... obama-regs

House passes bill targeting ‘midnight’ Obama Regulations
The House on Thursday <Nov 17, 2016> passed legislation that would allow Congress to overturn in a single vote any regulations finalized in the last days of the Obama administration. Despite Democratic opposition, the Midnight Rule Relief Act passed largely along party lines, by a 240-179 vote. The bill would amend the Congressional Review Act to allow Congress to overturn many rules all at once by way of a resolution.

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Electoral College in Jeopardy?
Edited my previous two Replies and this post, the Electoral College really needs dumped. Bill Clinton is an Democrat Elector for New York and of course voted for his wife. House Speaker Pelosi has a daughter as an Democrat Elector for California. There is also a Father and Daughter Republican Elector team taking up 2 of the 16 Elector slots in Michigan. So corrupt, considering how much power the Electors have.

Seven Electors voted for other people not even in the Election and ignored the voters they were supposed to represent. Some states have laws preventing Electors from changing their vote against the voter results, other states just impose fines. Any Elector who is "faithless"; their political careers are over and will never be an Elector again.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/mon ... 9c1af07fbb

The Electoral College is a medieval relic. Only the U.S. still has one.
The Founding Fathers did not invent the electoral college. It goes as far back as the 11th century, when it began to be used to elect Frankish, Carolingian, Bohemian, Hungarian and Polish kings. These princes were elected by their peers, gathered in colleges of electors formed by dukes, marquises, counts and bishops. Similar formulas were used to elect high magistrates in the city-republics of northern Italy, and abbots and abbesses in the Dominican and other monastic orders.

If the electoral college were replaced by direct popular election, not only electoral strategies but also the parties themselves would likely change as a result. In presidential elections by nationwide popular votes, campaigns would focus not on swing states but on more populous states. Overall voter turnout would probably be higher than it is today. Smaller states would no longer have such influence during primary season. Even the number of viable candidates might change, depending on how the new electoral rule were designed.

Electoral College Winner Take All Per State - A Broken Democracy
Take a look at the quote below which shows how close the Popular Actual Votes were in the two largest population states of Texas and California.

The Electoral College nullifies the lesser votes in each state. Democrat votes for President are ignored in Texas! Republican votes for President are ignored in California!

If the Electoral College is abolished, all the votes including the win and the lose votes of each state; the entire Actual Total Votes would be counted as a nation wide total.

One Person Does Not Equal One Vote
Take a close look at the red and blue of Texas in particular. The argument that the Electoral College evens up rural vs populated areas have no bearing in the vote counts of each state. However, rural states have more vote power nation wide due to the disparity of Elector representation compared to population; not an equal range in each state! Of course the higher percentage of votes are in the cities, it should be since that is where most of the population is located.

Under the Electoral College one person equals one vote does not apply nation wide.

http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/

Texas 2016 general Election Total Votes - Electoral Voted Republican (Red)
4,685,047 Votes (52.23%) 38 Electoral to Donald J. Trump (Win Votes Counted)
3,877,868 Votes (43.24%) - 0 Electoral to Hillary Clinton (Lose Votes Nullified)
406,311 Votes (4.53%) - 0 Electoral to other Candidates (Lose Votes Nullified)

California 2016 General Election Total Votes - Electoral Voted Democrat (Blue)
8,753,788 Votes (61.48%) - 55 Electoral to Hillary Clinton (Win Votes Counted)
4,483,810 Votes (31.49%) - 0 Electoral to Donald J. Trump (Lose Votes Nullified)
1,000,286 Votes (7.03%) - 0 Electoral to other Candidates (Lose Votes Nullified)

[marurun]

The "biased media" (I can only guess what outlets you really mean with this) are not so biased as you seem to think. I support the president's initiatives when I heard all about them on NPR.

[CRTGAMER]

The "biased media" (I can only guess what outlets you really mean with this) are not so biased as you seem to think. I support the president's initiatives when I heard all about them on NPR.

I sure don't, especially releasing all the criminals. President Obama throwing in all the last minute sign offs that would have hurt him in the polls. Obvious done at the end since he is leaving office, not realizing or not caring he is just killing his own party from reelection.

Oh the news is horrible, not even news at all and way too biased. It has gotten so bad, I now avoid the big three. Watch a local independent station and read all Trump's tweets. I also watch Fox News Channel though biased to the right more palatable versus the outright lies of ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN. Give Tucker Carlson a whirl with an open mind, he has great interviews and often confrontational on important topics such as the Electoral College and double standards.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/11 ... rning.html

There's this massive and terrible disconnect between the governed and the governing
New Fox News prime time host Tucker Carlson said Monday that his new program would ask "straightforward questions" of people across the power centers of American life.

"It’s not just a TV show, it’s a reaction against what we just saw in the past year-and-a-half," Carlson said, "which is the press falling down in its basic obligation, which is to be a watchdog against people with your money and power over you. And they decided that they identified more strongly with certain politicians than with their readers or viewers. And so, I hope to just recapture some of the basics," Carlson said, "like challenge people on their power, pierce pomposity, crush smugness. You know, just like the normal things you’re supposed to do if you’re a journalist, no? There’s this huge and massive and terrible disconnect between the governed and the governing, and to sort of explain to the people [in Washington] what the rest of the country’s thinking, I think, would be a great service and I hope to provide it."

The power of the Tweet
As mentioned, Trump's tweets are the News Media source that they build a story from. Boeing has offered to reduce the price of the new president Plane contract simply because of Trump's tweet with the news Media hyping it up.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/

Based on the tremendous cost and cost overruns of the Lockheed Martin F-35, I have asked Boeing to price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet!

Just one day later, why didn't the current administration do this! Love it, Trump is cleaning up the waste.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-t ... SKBN14D003

Lockheed Martin CEO commits to driving down F-35 fighter's costs
Lockheed Martin Corp said its Chief Executive Marillyn Hewson gave U.S. President-elect Donald Trump a personal commitment to bring down the price of its F-35 fighter jet, after he heaped pressure on the aerospace company over the cost.

Lockheed's shares fell on Friday after Trump's message on Twitter, and after he earlier tweeted that he had asked rival Boeing Co to "price-out" an older aircraft as an alternative. Hewson said in a statement tweeted by Lockheed that the company would "aggressively" drive down the cost of the F-35, which brought in about 20 percent of Lockheed's sales last year. Trump's transition team did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Lockheed shares ended down nearly 1.3 percent in Friday trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

[BogusMeatFactory]

Yeah I don't know why Obama didnt plunge Lockheed Martin down the crapper. You do realize he wants them to take an old jet, make it do all the fancy new jet stuff like vertical take off and hover and do so for less money than it took to develop the original. Which I may add is a statistical impossibikity. Of course the deep fried cheetah doesn't understand reality so there is that going for him.

Am I taking crazy pills here? Is this reality? Merry Christmas ya crazy robot.

[dsheinem]

CRT, do you realize that there are people whose job it is to suss out news media bias, to determine the veracity of information those news outlets report on, and to report on the media itself?

These individuals - who often have many years of schooling and who have been doing this job for decades - routinely and roundly reject the kinds of sources you are championing.

Here's a good map:



So before you just knock sources as "horrible" or "way too biased", take some time to understand what those words mean. Given ample reflection, you may end up pulling the wool off your own eyes.

--

Also, as a side note, Trump's Twitter-based strategy of making foreign policy statements is terrifying. I mean, he called for a return to a nuclear arms race. Do Trump supporters yearn for the good 'ol days of the Cold War? Duck and cover FTW?

[Reprise]

I also watch Fox News Channel though biased to the right more palatable versus the outright lies of ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN.

Sorry, I'm British. Fox News spout outright lies all the time. For example, I (a white, non Muslim, "indigenous" British atheist) somehow managed to travel to that "completely Muslim", "no go zone" Birmingham last week.

[TSTR]

I like that map.

[MrPopo]

Also, as a side note, Trump's Twitter-based strategy of making foreign policy statements is terrifying. I mean, he called for a return to a nuclear arms race. Do Trump supporters yearn for the good 'ol days of the Cold War? Duck and cover FTW?

I'm a glass half full kind of guy, so I see a new Cold War as a way to get NASA funding again. Especially if we can convince Trump that our enemies are trying to build a base on Mars to steal our freedoms or some shit.

[CRTGAMER]

@ BogusMeatFactory - The F35 can be configured with or without the vertical takeoff, depending on an armed forces needs. Vertical Takeoff for the Marines and Catapult capability for max air speed for the Navy. Trump has certainly brought out the focus on Government waste with simple Tweets. The immediate stock shares drop brings quick responses to reduce costs from Contractors abusing the Taxpayers. When you think about it, the contract waste has gone on for many years. I "fly" the JSF version of the plane in the DOS game TFX.

Also, as a side note, Trump's Twitter-based strategy of making foreign policy statements is terrifying. I mean, he called for a return to a nuclear arms race. Do Trump supporters yearn for the good 'ol days of the Cold War? Duck and cover FTW?

I'm a glass half full kind of guy, so I see a new Cold War as a way to get NASA funding again. Especially if we can convince Trump that our enemies are trying to build a base on Mars to steal our freedoms or some shit.

That is interesting, bit of repeat history turning weapons for good; the German V-2 rocket scientists and the race to the moon. I don't see Trump wanting nuclear weapons for the sake of an arms race. Just an opposite approach to the passive response we have been taking. Nobody wants Nuclear Suicide, just a sad reality of what man has become shaking the bigger stick to maintain "Reagen's Peace Thru Strength".

Look how biased the news Media is. The Wall Street Journal Video that is linked above took Trump's Tweet twisting it into Quoting NBC on an Arms Race, the commentator read out loud the tweet as it is read the same time by the viewer. A QUICK POPUP CUT SHORT AFTER THE COMMENTATOR SPEAKING THE UNDERLINE PART, THE VIEWER HAD NO CHANCE TO READ THE ENTIRE TWEET! Completely taken out of context and again not showing the entire story even in something as a short tweet! That is the power of the Media, how organizations can change perspectives to their agenda.

Thanks to the video now on the internet, a simple pause and screenshot attached below to read the ENTIRE Tweet right at the red line cutoff. This is why I like reading the Tweets straight from the President Elect. His entire post for the world to judge without any sort of bias editing.

Trump Nuclear Wall Street Journal.JPG (61.42 KiB) Viewed 871 times

@ dsheinem - Considering that News Media Map is putting ABC, Irresponsible Journalism of NBC, CNN, Wall Street Journal (see above) and the NY Times as middle ground; the map looks in itself biased to me! That is the thing, no news is neutral! Take in what News source you prefer, just don't believe all true and not biased. That is the way I feel about Fox News Channel, biased to conservative views to me more palatable. versus the Liberal channels. People have different liberal to conservative preferences and will watch TV News that appeal to them.

Weird for a Conservative as myself puts out so much negativity on the Electoral College. In the mainstream, its the Democrats that wants to trash it. These seem opposite of many posts on the subject.

The World’s Smallest Political Quiz is a fast, fun and accurate assessment of a person’s overall political views. The Quiz presents a new political map that is far more accurate than the old “Left versus Right” line, based on ten questions on specific political issues to find your place.

https://www.theadvocates.org/quiz/quiz.php

Sorry, I'm British. Fox News spout outright lies all the time. For example, I (a white, non Muslim, "indigenous" British atheist) somehow managed to travel to that "completely Muslim", "no go zone" Birmingham last week.

Not sure if you saw this yet, some British guy that puts it right on the level why Democrats lost and Trump the wrong choice. The next four years will prove if the comedian commentator was right or wrong on the Electoral College (the people only advise) vote of Trump.

Jonathan Pie - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLG9g7BcjKs