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Presidential Election

38K views 422 replies 51 participants last post by  lolachampcar 
#1 ·
I know we are not suppose to post political stuff but dam with Clinton vs Trump how can this be avoided. I'm leaving in the morning so please let me know when and if the coast is clear to return from Brasil.:(.


On one hand Clinton who clearly the law was broken by her people/her and not to mention the possible racketeering that took place with donations with Bill's foundation and no given notice as required to the state department. And then there's Trump. I use to stick up for him years ago every time someone called him an a@@hole. Well people need to realize if things don't change that at some theoretical point the US economy will not be able to make a comeback. It will just be a stall to an eventual end at the best. I can say a few things about what I hear about Trump and how he handles contractors but business tactics are one thing and breaking the law is another. Just think about your vote and what it will mean for the next 4 years. Don't be a knucklehead vote one way or the other but vote.
 
#2 ·
I voted two weeks ago, absentee ballot, turned off the news shows, stopped listening to talk radio, limited my internet access to a few sites, Mclarenlife included and could not be happier. In fact, I am in Singapore and will be flying back on election day so won't know the results until I land at LAX on Wednesday, unless the pilot spoils the fun. But to be honest, the part I'll miss will be watching the political pundits heads explode...both sides are so invested in an outcome, it will be epic.

I'm not saying who I voted for, but I definitely voted against a candidate, not for. And I agree, America needs a big awakening before it's too late.

Christian
 
#3 ·
Chicken - I'll take the bait I'm from CA and voted Trump - This country doesn't have the time to get a big awakening delivered from Liarly. :D
 
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#4 ·
As an outsider (living outside the US) neither candidate is any good and Trump especially would never get close to a chance of running for a position of power anywhere but the good ol USA. Scary that someone who has no concept of the destructive power of a nuclear weapon and is so easily provoked on twitter of all places is in the running to have access to the most dangerous weapons on the planet.

Planning on moving to the US in about 5 years, personally I'm hoping if Trump gets in he doesn't get 4 more years....
 
#6 ·
I’m a Brit who’s been living in the USA, on and off, for the last 12 years and can honestly say that I’m happy that I can’t vote in this election (not a US citizen). I’d imagine that other than the hard-liners most people will not be voting for a candidate but rather against the one they dislike the most.
Don’t get me wrong I’m invested in this election as I’ll be here for the rest of my days and my kids will be going to college here and then living their lives here too. It just seems almost embarrassing that this great country has ended up with two candidates that make it really hard for most people to like and want them to have the most important job in the land. :(
 
#7 ·
With all due respect, I love how the rest of the world likes to categorize this election "only in America" do I need to bring up such bastions of democracy as:

Fistfights in parliaments
Political debates that end in violence
Porn stars running for national office
Presidents with known and loved mistresses
Decorum prohibits my even describing some political posters in stoic Deutschland.

So those that live in glass houses should dress in the basement.

We only have 240 years at this whole self governance thing so we're relative amateurs. European democracy has us beat by a long shot when it comes to this shit. This is a human issue that knows no national boundaries.
 
#9 ·
Couldn't agree more. A friend suggested that our legislators should wear jackets like NASCAR racers with the corporate logos of their contributors.

That this election is even close could only have happened at this instant with these players. Either one in a vacuum would be unelectable. I was going to make plastic clothes pins, one side red, one side blue with "Election 2016" on them. Ostensibly to wear on your nose during the casting of your vote.

Regardless, I can't in good conscience not cast a vote against a criminal enterprise. I fully understand those that can as along as they understand me. We need a reset.

What a gherkin we are in.
 
#10 ·
Dear American Electorate,

Please make the following two requirements a litmus test for your vote-

(1) The person running will not accept money from anyone and
(2) the person running will make their top domestic priority making money (in all its forms) in politics illegal.

Yes, it will be hard. Yes, the people we hire will make mistakes and corrections will be needed. Vested interests are a maze and it will take some time to unwind it. Lastly, yes, it really can be done. We own this, are responsible for it being broken and can fix it.

Close your eyes and imagine waking with 80% of the electorate openly telling pollsters and the media of the above requirement. Good people from the left, right and center would return to politics out of a sense of public service. We keep the diversity of choice while removing the influence of money.

Please!
 
#18 ·
I love this!

My mind can not understand whats happening, but at the same time I think its just insanely impressive that it really seems like anyone can become the ELECTED! leader of the USA. I never thought I would see the 'american dream' happening in this kind of scale...I honestly dont know if i should laugh or shed a tear.

Well, lets see if a businessman can be a better President than a politician.
 
#24 ·
Don't know too much about American politics and can't say my values are quite the same as Trump.....but, I know enough to know that I would have voted for Trump. Hilary a simply terrible candidate. There seems to be a mood in both the UK and US for choosing political solutions that shuns the sort of nice, comfortable, spun out rhetoric that makes people feel better about what they are not happy with - the sort we have all been served up in the last couple of decades. The 'political elites' have seriously misjudged their electorates and are paying the price. Trump's speech was pretty good and statesmanlike too. Unexpected if you didn't see through the heavy media bias against him. I can't call myself a fan but I could never think 'Americans got hoodwinked' or those who voted for him are either racist, sexist or stupid. I can understand why he won and I'm not in the least bit surprised he did.
 
#27 ·
Social media has become very powerful, the usual propaganda (TV/NETWORKS) must look at themselves and maybe re-think what they do everyday.
They won't. The same geniuses that were wrong about all the predictions are the same go to people telling us what we need to thing about it today. It's madness. No learning.

That is somewhat expected. The real problem is everyone is so absorbed with finding confirmation bias, on both sides, that no one is actually listening to one another. That needs to end. People should really try to get one another. Just my $0.02. As always, YMMV.
 
#28 ·
been an extraordinary thing to watch as someone who doesn't have a vote... it affects us all of course wherever we live in the world.. I would have been horrified at having to make a choice between the two candidates as presented myself.. I don't envy that choice..

I would guess ultimately that the American nation is bigger than any of its politicians and hopefully as per normal it will change very little in most people's lives.. it will be fun to see the president trying work with his own senate and house of representatives when they clearly have more contempt for him than if he were a president from the other side of the aisle..
 
#37 ·
Better to experiment than make the same mistakes over and over. Could one even imagine if companies were run like politics i.e. appealing to the lowest common denominator with no accountability?

Change is good either way

Oh and BTW - the IT stocks I follow (Apple, Google, Microsoft) hardly flinched
 
#31 · (Edited)
It's been strange to watch from a land far far away........but at least, it seems to me, the American system has a 'shout up' before it votes, even if it gets bitchy and playground like at times. Here in the UK we are now having our 'shout up' after the vote!

My American friends living in America all said weeks ago that Trump had it nailed because there is so much anger and frustration with the established politicians plus the legacy of Clinton/Bush/Bush/ Obama.

Seems to me very like the Brexit mind set.

I do think the next phase will cause people to polarise even further or make them realise alternative ways can be of benefit ......I will not bet on that one.

Interestingly if you had placed £5 on the treble of Brexit, Trump and Leicester City winning the Premiership you would be £3 million better off today.
 
#32 ·
I held me tongue when I posted this first or more likely bit my tongue. Having two daughters and having heard first hand stories over the years was a hard pill to swallow. He's been both a neighbor in Greenwich & Bedford at times and my brother has had more business contact with him than I. But I talk to many small & big owners of service companies and contractors in general. Common complaint with them with the Trump people is the tactic of getting work that was completed and not paid for at a lower price. Have heard dozens of times well we'll just go the bankruptcy route if we can't come to agreements with all.


1.3 billion $$$ Clinton vs 800 million for Trump campaign. I think both crazy amounts.


Not surprising acceptance speech most president elects try to unite everyone together in their speech. He was very nice with what he said towards Clinton. Wonder if he will still ask his attorney general to go after Clinton. I think with the combined issues could be bigger than Watergate and Clinton has certainly tarnished the Obama administration I believe history will show.


I guess the word EPIC is the word of the day. Having seen the inner workings of the military industrial machine for the past 40 years (which basically has stripped this country of its wealth) I can't imagine how President Trump will attempt to alter or rebuild the Washington machine.


Funny comment the other day to my daughters I told them the economy was so great when Pres. Bill Clinton was in office that if allowed I would vote for him today. Other than my mother one of the top three brilliant people that I have conversed with.


Never thought in my lifetime I would see another actor/performer as president.


The American Dream is that what people are saying-anyone can become president. Wonder what Arnold S. is thinking. Yes we know he's not American born. Pump it up!


My brother texting me all night playing with certain markets, we'll see the outcome when I get back.


As ex-military still will support my president. Will be interesting on inauguration day between Trump & Obama. I'm sure things will be civil and gracious but boy oh boy President Obama stating Trump is dangerous and unfit to run the country. I know Trump that frigging stuff sticks with him and has a record of getting revenge in some sort of way.
 
#38 ·
I am not a fan of Trump, but I voted for him as I run a large company in the USA that Hillary has tried to personally force me into shutting down.

I have spent more time in Washington dealing with her, her handlers, her crooked supporters that at times I thought I should fold. But, I have thousands of employees world wide that rely on my company and that is what kept me fighting the bitch.

99.9% of the people do not know how the world works. She is part of the .1% who is in the middle of the deal making and wants her family to conquer all at the expense of every other citizen.

I also have a daughter and it is bullshit to believe this had anything to do with the empowerment of women or their rights as individuals.
 
#33 ·
Don't you just love it when the pompous intellectuals get it so terribly wrong? Turns out the electorate does just what an electorate is designed to do. It speaks its mind. That fact that the establishment missed the call by a country mile should give us all pause for thought about the information we so readily consume...I'm enjoying the media chagrin more than anything right now.
 
#35 · (Edited)
I'm not defending the "pompous intellectuals" (although God knows, I'm one of them), but the error in the pre-election polls is being attributed in part to the possibility that many people who voted for Trump were not comfortable declaring their intentions to pollsters (that is, NOT speaking their minds - at that time).

I can see that - you (I too) desperately want to make a protest vote, vote for anyone but a career politician, and at last such an option is available - but you end up having to make Hobson's choice.

It should be a very interesting next four years! A lot will depend on the people Trump surrounds himself with. That's what I'm watching for. He is sufficiently ignorant of government that having the right people whispering in his ear could shape his path. He is clearly capable of finding skilled tax accountants and laywers ... and writers (where would be be had not Tony Schwartz proposed and written "The Art of the Deal"?).

Let's hope he's not afraid to have some strong, competent and forward thinking advisors. (Trying hard to be optimistic here ...)
 
#36 · (Edited)
Hillary gave a great speech. I actually felt for her for the first time ever.

People STILL don't get why polls are so off. Jerry Seinfeld doesn't feel comfortable talking at universities because even jokes get harsh blow back from liberals. If you have a different view, you MUST be a racist etc. No one wants to deal with that, so many trump supporters lied to the pollsters, lied to their friends, and even now, many will never admit they voted for him, because they feel THAT much oppression from the left.

And the right is equally to blame for these broad brush paintings of people, that if you don't agree with me you must be a commie, or you must be a fascist/racist. People do not have enough of a respect for one another to try to understand each other and to understand fair and reasonable people can and do disagree on issues. That is ok and good even, in that everyone wants the best for the country. Just because they have different ideas on how that might best work doesn't make them bad people. Whether it's abortion or right to life where the outcomes are that stark, good and reasonable people have good heartfelt reasons for those differences of opinions. It doesn't mean you hate women or you hate life. They are tough issues, but there is no compassion for each others genuine difficulties on what the other thinks is a reasonable difference of opinion.

This polarization is a disaster, because in the end, we all have a lot more in common than differences. But you wouldn't know it by the media and people that want power, that use those differences to divide us, rather than to say those are reasonable and human and fair things for us to struggle with as a people.

Until that changes, I fear, we will always be working counterproductively, against one another, rather than with one another. I genuinely believe our differences are among our greatest strengths, and when one group uses those differences to shame another for those differences without genuine desire and efforts for understanding, we are being counter productive.

Certainly the media isn't learning jack. They are going to the VERY SAME 'experts' that were wrong about EVERYTHING in this election for their thoughts on what it means, why it came out this way, how we should think about it, and future outlooks. It's a bit like asking Steve Ballmer on what Apple's future direction with the iPhone should be. Honestly, Back to the Future had a better prediction model than all the 'experts': cubs won the world series, we have hover boards everywhere, the Chinese fired up a fusion reactor for over a minute, and BIFF won the presidency. Asking these same people on their thoughts for how we should think about the outcome is Einstein's very definition of insanity. And sadly, I don't see it changing either.

One thing I PRAY PRAY PRAY PRAY is that BIFF is gracious about Hillary. No reprisals on this email FBI garbage and nonsense. His speech was ok. Let him use his strengths to do good for the country (and pray his many weaknesses are minimized by good advisors and the other branches of govt) and lets move past this disaster garbage of an election.

As always, YMMV.
 
#41 ·
And the right is equally to blame for these broad brush paintings of people, that if you don't agree with me you must be a commie, or you must be a fascist/racist. People do not have enough of a respect for one another to try to understand each other and to understand fair and reasonable people can and do disagree on issues. That is ok and good even, in that everyone wants the best for the country. Just because they have different ideas on how that might best work doesn't make them bad people. Whether it's abortion or right to life where the outcomes are that stark, good and reasonable people have good heartfelt reasons for those differences of opinions. It doesn't mean you hate women or you hate life. They are tough issues, but there is no compassion for each others genuine difficulties on what the other thinks is a reasonable difference of opinion.
The right may be guilty of dismissing the left, but is no where near equally guilty. It's one thing to disagree with someone, even call them subjectively stupid for political beliefs, but the left goes beyond that and insists that you are literally a bad person through all of the labels you mentioned and more.

Even the typical "you're stupid" goes beyond on the left... in their eyes the supporters on the right must be objectively stupid, objectively dumb, objectively ignorant, with no hope of redemption. Those on the right are literally mentally defective people because of their beliefs, and that's the only explanation outside of the again supposedly objective racism, sexism and whatnot.

When one side tells you to your face that you are literally mentally retarded and a racist for your economic beliefs, your constitutional beliefs, and so on, it completely shuts down the conversation. The self-purported most open and accepting party is the most bigoted and bullying of all.
 
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