The Many Faces of US Politics...

[sid waddell]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38397594

In his latest Twitter tirade, President-elect Donald Trump has claimed he could have won more votes than his rival Hillary Clinton.
"I would have done even better in the election, if that is possible, if the winner was based on popular vote - but would campaign differently," he said.

The Republican insisted his strategy was more "sophisticated".

He won nearly three million fewer votes than the Democratic candidate, but prevailed in the electoral college.

The arcane but all-important institution formally certified him earlier this week as winner of the 2016 presidential election.

But the Manhattan billionaire is apparently still chafing at critics' claims that he lacks a popular mandate.

In two other tweets on Wednesday morning, Mr Trump said: "Campaigning to win the Electoral College is much more difficult & sophisticated than the popular vote. Hillary focused on the wrong states!"


There has never been a president like this one. It is going to be a very bumpy ride.

He may well be right here though. You would campaign differently if you wanted to win the popular vote. You'd attack California, New York and other populous cities to at least try and minimise the opponent's wins there.

To win the electoral college, you identify the swing states, regardless of population or demographic, and you spend all your money trying to win them. Hillary Clinton campaigned in Arizona 2 days before the election FFS, rather than making sure she had Michigan and Pennsylvania tied up. That was crazy.

Hillary barely campaigned in NY or CA, beyond fundraisers. We hardly saw a single presidential election ad here in NYC - maybe one or two a week. Ohio had them on every 3 minutes! And that was just tv, not robocalls and so on.

Hillary went to AZ because the polls suggested she might have a shot there, at least of making it competitive. Only at the last minute did they realize PA and so on were so direly vulnerable, hence the Independence Hall event the night before the election.

No way in hell was Trump ever winning CA or NY or making it close, same as Hillary in places like TX.

Take a look at her events in October: https://hillaryspeeches.com/speech-archive/2016-2/october-2016/

Its pretty clear, fundraising aside, that the rallies and speeches were focused on the battleground states, PA and MI among them.

That's my point J70. The electoral college means it is pointless campaigning in those states. And because they are so populous that skews the popular vote. If it truly was one man one vote and all votes were equal, those states would be contested a lot more and you can't assume the popular vote would be the same in them. They'd still be blue states but the margin might be a lot tighter.

Re Arizona I would have been amazed if she won it. I think her husband was the last democrat to win there and before him I don't know.  And the state is gun friendly and bordering Mexico with an immigration problem.

The system won the election for democrats and not one peep was heard out of them ar the time, your hero won LA and New. York and precious all else, the system is needed but certainly is not without its flaws.

Liberals and Trump alike need to move along, he won, they won, what's the problem??

Which election did the system win for the Democrats?

[whitey]

1 he lied.
2 the FBI intervened
3 the plámás
4 media gave him a free ride
5 many GOP voters are as thick as shit

Lol....keep it up.

The thick as shit GOP voters who swing it for him voted for Obama twice so get down off your high horse

[seafoid]

1 he lied.
2 the FBI intervened
3 the plámás
4 media gave him a free ride
5 many GOP voters are as thick as shit

Lol....keep it up.

The thick as shit GOP voters who swing it for him voted for Obama twice so get down off your high horse

Evangelicals will be waiting a long time for Trump to drain that swamp of special interests. The GOP will betray the dumb and ignorant over and over.

[stew]

1 he lied.
2 the FBI intervened
3 the plámás
4 media gave him a free ride
5 many GOP voters are as thick as shit

On point 5, I love your thinking, keep that idiocy up, at least they were smart enough to get up,off the couch, the union lickers didn't bother their collective holes,probably too busy selling their food stamps for meth. )

[muppet]

Russia swung it for him.

Look at your own outrage at the words 'emails'.

What was in those emails again?

Emails shemales......Democratic operatives planted a hidden camera at a closed door Romney fundraiser and broadcast his 47% comment to the world which very possibly cost him the '12 election.

Regardless of how the emails came into the public domai , it was the content that cost them votes.....content that they alone were responsible for

If she was a better candidate, the emails wouldn't have mattered a fluck. Democrats start off with a huge advantage under the electoral college system and she still fvcked it up.....and she ran a shit campaign

https://www.google.com/amp/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_582cacb0e4b058ce7aa8b861/amp

B-b-but you were completely outraged at those emails!

You said you would have supported her if you lived in a swing state. Now what was in those emails that changed your mind? Trump supporters chanted, like a Mugabe mob, 'Lock her up'. For what?

[seafoid]

1 he lied.
2 the FBI intervened
3 the plámás
4 media gave him a free ride
5 many GOP voters are as thick as shit

On point 5, I love your thinking, keep that idiocy up, at least they were smart enough to get up,off the couch, the union lickers didn't bother their collective holes,probably too busy selling their food stamps for meth. )

Trump will shaft them. The GOP have been doing it since Reagan.

[stew]

1 he lied.
2 the FBI intervened
3 the plámás
4 media gave him a free ride
5 many GOP voters are as thick as shit

On point 5, I love your thinking, keep that idiocy up, at least they were smart enough to get up,off the couch, the union lickers didn't bother their collective holes,probably too busy selling their food stamps for meth. )

Trump will shaft them. The GOP have been doing it since Reagan.

What do you think the democrats have been doing to middle Africa and the minority communities? Thats right, shafting them.

Both parties are in freefall and neither is capable of governing, the USA needs a viable alternative to both parties, a social liver, fiscal conservative central party that does pander to the like of the NRA and big tobacco etc, sadly it will not happen and the top and liberals will continue down this ruinous path they are on,

[whitey]

Russia swung it for him.

Look at your own outrage at the words 'emails'.

What was in those emails again?

Emails shemales......Democratic operatives planted a hidden camera at a closed door Romney fundraiser and broadcast his 47% comment to the world which very possibly cost him the '12 election.

Regardless of how the emails came into the public domai , it was the content that cost them votes.....content that they alone were responsible for

If she was a better candidate, the emails wouldn't have mattered a fluck. Democrats start off with a huge advantage under the electoral college system and she still fvcked it up.....and she ran a shit campaign

https://www.google.com/amp/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_582cacb0e4b058ce7aa8b861/amp

B-b-but you were completely outraged at those emails!

You said you would have supported her if you lived in a swing state. Now what was in those emails that changed your mind? Trump supporters chanted, like a Mugabe mob, 'Lock her up'. For what?

I wasn't "outraged" at the emails

I was outraged at the fact Chelsea Clinton stole money from the Clinton Foundation to pay for her wedding

I was outraged at the fact that senior DOJ officials were emailing John Podesta to give him a heads up about the investigation

Having 3 family members in the military, (one with a possibly the highest levels of security clearance) I was outraged that Hillarys emails were on Anthony Wieners laptop.

[muppet]

Russia swung it for him.

Look at your own outrage at the words 'emails'.

What was in those emails again?

Emails shemales......Democratic operatives planted a hidden camera at a closed door Romney fundraiser and broadcast his 47% comment to the world which very possibly cost him the '12 election.

Regardless of how the emails came into the public domai , it was the content that cost them votes.....content that they alone were responsible for

If she was a better candidate, the emails wouldn't have mattered a fluck. Democrats start off with a huge advantage under the electoral college system and she still fvcked it up.....and she ran a shit campaign

https://www.google.com/amp/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_582cacb0e4b058ce7aa8b861/amp

B-b-but you were completely outraged at those emails!

You said you would have supported her if you lived in a swing state. Now what was in those emails that changed your mind? Trump supporters chanted, like a Mugabe mob, 'Lock her up'. For what?

I wasn't "outraged" at the emails

I was outraged at the fact Chelsea Clinton stole money from the Clinton Foundation to pay for her wedding

I was outraged at the fact that senior DOJ officials were emailing John Podesta to give him a heads up about the investigation

Having 3 family members in the military, (one with a possibly the highest levels of security clearance) I was outraged that Hillarys emails were on Anthony Wieners laptop.

So you were and weren't outraged about the emails.

Ok.

And what does a security clearance matter anyway? Trump has cancelled his intelligence briefings because he is 'smart'. Thus your president thinks security briefings only for dumb people?

[screenexile]

Seeing as Trump has won the election does that mean Fox/Breitbart/Infowars are the Main Stream Media now??

[sid waddell]

"Draining the swamp" #168...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/21/carl-icahn-donald-trump-special-adviser-regulation

Trump adds billionaire Carl Icahn to team as special adviser on regulation

Yet another wealthy businessman, who invests in the oil industry and bought the president-elect's floundering Atlantic City casinos, joins transition team

Donald Trump added another billionaire to his presidential transition team on Wednesday: Carl Icahn, the 80-year-old activist shareholder and long-time friend who once helped Trump keep control of his troubled New Jersey casinos.

Icahn will be a special adviser to the president-elect overseeing regulation, according to the transition team.

According to Forbes, Icahn has a net worth of $16.5bn adding his wealth to a team that already looks set to be the wealthiest White House team in history. Trump had considered him for the post of Treasury secretary but Icahn rejected the suggestions saying: "I'm not ever going to be secretary of anything in Washington."

This appointment is not an official government position and Icahn will therefore not have to divest of his vast business holdings in order to comply with government-mandated conflict of interest rules.

The hedge fund manager has been one of Trump's closest advisers and officially endorsed the president-elect in the summer of 2015. "Carl was with me from the beginning and with his being one of the world's great businessmen, that was something I truly appreciated," said Trump. Trump said Icahn's "help on the strangling regulations that our country is faced with will be invaluable".

Icahn has been a persistent critic of government regulation, most recently "crazy regulations" at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He is a major investor in CVR Energy, an oil refiner, whose business he claims has been harmed by EPA regulations.

Trump consulted with Icahn before appointing Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma's attorney general and another EPA critic, to head the agency.

"I am proud to serve President-elect Trump as a special adviser on regulatory reform," said Icahn. "Under President Obama, America's business owners have been crippled by over $1tn in new regulations and over 750bn hours dealing with paperwork. It's time to break free of excessive regulation and let our entrepreneurs do what they do best: create jobs and support communities."

The billionaire, who has a home near Trump's Palm Beach base, Mar-A-Lago, started his career on Wall Street and has built a reputation as a fierce corporate raider.

Before Trump's elevation, Icahn was best known for his often heated battles with executives at companies, including Apple, eBay, Dell and Time Warner. In 2015 he took on Apple's chief executive officer Tim Cook, telling him the iPhone-maker was "dramatically undervalued".

In the 1990s Icahn was a bondholder in Trump's failing Taj Mahal casino in New Jersey. Trump was able to keep control if the casino despite failing to make payments to Icahn and other bondholders thanks in large part to advice given by another Trump appointee, Wilbur Ross, a billionaire bankruptcy expert and now Trump's appointed commerce secretary.


----

The last part I bolded has to be satire.

[whitey]

Russia swung it for him.

Look at your own outrage at the words 'emails'.

What was in those emails again?

Emails shemales......Democratic operatives planted a hidden camera at a closed door Romney fundraiser and broadcast his 47% comment to the world which very possibly cost him the '12 election.

Regardless of how the emails came into the public domai , it was the content that cost them votes.....content that they alone were responsible for

If she was a better candidate, the emails wouldn't have mattered a fluck. Democrats start off with a huge advantage under the electoral college system and she still fvcked it up.....and she ran a shit campaign

https://www.google.com/amp/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_582cacb0e4b058ce7aa8b861/amp

B-b-but you were completely outraged at those emails!

You said you would have supported her if you lived in a swing state. Now what was in those emails that changed your mind? Trump supporters chanted, like a Mugabe mob, 'Lock her up'. For what?

I wasn't "outraged" at the emails

I was outraged at the fact Chelsea Clinton stole money from the Clinton Foundation to pay for her wedding

I was outraged at the fact that senior DOJ officials were emailing John Podesta to give him a heads up about the investigation

Having 3 family members in the military, (one with a possibly the highest levels of security clearance) I was outraged that Hillarys emails were on Anthony Wieners laptop.

So you were and weren't outraged about the emails.

Ok.

And what does a security clearance matter anyway? Trump has cancelled his intelligence briefings because he is 'smart'. Thus your president thinks security briefings only for dumb people?

Lol-it didn't do Obama much good sitting in on all his briefings.....how are the JV Terrorists doing these days. I wonder if he sent them a holiday card

[stew]

That Weiner had classified material on his laptop should have had him and his idiot wife in the big house and Clinton with them.

[muppet]

Russia swung it for him.

Look at your own outrage at the words 'emails'.

What was in those emails again?

Emails shemales......Democratic operatives planted a hidden camera at a closed door Romney fundraiser and broadcast his 47% comment to the world which very possibly cost him the '12 election.

Regardless of how the emails came into the public domai , it was the content that cost them votes.....content that they alone were responsible for

If she was a better candidate, the emails wouldn't have mattered a fluck. Democrats start off with a huge advantage under the electoral college system and she still fvcked it up.....and she ran a shit campaign

https://www.google.com/amp/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_582cacb0e4b058ce7aa8b861/amp

B-b-but you were completely outraged at those emails!

You said you would have supported her if you lived in a swing state. Now what was in those emails that changed your mind? Trump supporters chanted, like a Mugabe mob, 'Lock her up'. For what?

I wasn't "outraged" at the emails

I was outraged at the fact Chelsea Clinton stole money from the Clinton Foundation to pay for her wedding

I was outraged at the fact that senior DOJ officials were emailing John Podesta to give him a heads up about the investigation

Having 3 family members in the military, (one with a possibly the highest levels of security clearance) I was outraged that Hillarys emails were on Anthony Wieners laptop.

So you were and weren't outraged about the emails.

Ok.

And what does a security clearance matter anyway? Trump has cancelled his intelligence briefings because he is 'smart'. Thus your president thinks security briefings only for dumb people?

Lol-it didn't do Obama much good sitting in on all his briefings.....how are the JV Terrorists doing these days. I wonder if he sent them a holiday card

Ah right.

[muppet]

That Weiner had classified material on his laptop should have had him and his idiot wife in the big house and Clinton with them.

What should Hillary be in jail for again Stew?