The Political Thread

[Pseudonym]

Can he be thrown out in a vote of no confidence if he does something awful? 

[Arcadia]

Nope, we don't have that mechanism. Has to be impeachment, or wait for an election. The latter would probably be faster, given the current makeup of Congress. They will deal with the devil, if it means staying in power.

 

What I suspect is that his party will indulge Trump until they've been able to appoint an arch-conservative to the Supreme Court. After that, all bets are off, because they won't need him anymore to get their way; they'll just need lawyers.

[Shadow Dweller]

:think: If he got himself impeached, Pence is going to take over, isn't it?

[Arcadia]

That is correct. Some people think Pence would be even worse, because he's a genuine conservative, unlike Trump. I don't know ... I think at least Pence genuinely wants what is best for this country. I'm not so sure about Trump.

[Fantasy Lover]

I can't believe I'm watching the inauguration, I keep hearing this in my head

[Arcadia]

 

I'm not watching it. I can't. My head might explode.

[Fantasy Lover]

I hope something happens, the idea of Trump being in power horrifies me.

Oh I'm sure something will happen, there is no way he will last 4 years. We have to wait whether it will be impeachment or something else.

[Arcadia]

Mmmm... I don't know. I really don't know. This is a new world, to me. Nobody seems to care about the content of his character. Nobody with the power to do anything, I mean. It's very disturbing.

[Shadow Dweller]

I remember JFK, a US President who made too many powerful enemies...

[J.P.]

The news about T rigt now remind me about the old "good" times under communistic dictature, only with other political orientation. And that happened like in two days. I cannot believe what is going on.

What irritates the hell out of me though, is that T opponents are using the same stupid methods his supporters do - concentrating on hardly important details, ridiculing, bulling, calling names, calling his son authistic etc. It doesn't matter how many people came to the inauguration, what is the point of proving how many came and it it's the smtalles or second smallest crowd and why.

 

What is interesting, that it seems to be the most important thing for him the day after. That Twitter user's settings were manipulated to still follow the official government accounts. That critical voices had been silenced.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-interior-department-twitter-retweets-ordered-shut-down-a7538951.html

 

http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/21/media/sean-spicer-press-secretary-statement/index.html?utm_campaign=news-alert&utm_medium=email&utm_source=app

[Fantasy Lover]

I remember JFK, a US President who made too many powerful enemies...

At least JFK hadn't people protesting.

 

 

 

The news about T rigt now remind me about the old "good" times under communistic dictature, only with other political orientation. And that happened like in two days. I cannot believe what is going on.

What irritates the hell out of me though, is that T opponents are using the same stupid methods his supporters do - concentrating on hardly important details, ridiculing, bulling, calling names, calling his son authistic etc. It doesn't matter how many people came to the inauguration, what is the point of proving how many came and it it's the smtalles or second smallest crowd and why.

 

What is interesting, that it seems to be the most important thing for him the day after. That Twitter user's settings were manipulated to still follow the official government accounts. That critical voices had been silenced.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-interior-department-twitter-retweets-ordered-shut-down-a7538951.html

http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/21/media/sean-spicer-press-secretary-statement/index.html?utm_campaign=news-alert&utm_medium=email&utm_source=app

Yikes! This is bad. At this rate the us becomes a dictatorship :/.

[Arcadia]

Jesus H. Christ.

 

I hadn't heard about either of those, JP, thank you for posting.

 

I think it's clear Trump is going to try to de-legitimize the mainstream press. And the press has done such a poor job lately, it won't take much to do so. Hell, I know people who already refuse to believe anything except what they see on Fox News.

 

Ha, interesting ... even Fox News is calling Trump's spokesman a liar on this one. Wonder what his supporters will make of that.

 

I won't be a bit surprised if Trump tries to shut down PBS. The right has been trying to dismantle it for years.

 

Wow. I was half asleep when I turned my laptop on. I'm awake now.

[Pseudonym]

I don't think it'll happen, but if Trump were impeached what happens then? Does Pence automatically become president? When Cameron resigned as Prime Minister last year there was a big debate about who would be up to replace him, his party had to elect a new leader amongst themselves to become PM. We didn't get to vote in a new leader, but it wasn't set in stone who it would be, there were a few options the party could have gone for. 

[Arcadia]

Yes, Pence would automatically become president. So there probably wouldn't be much change in policy direction, we'd just have a less embarrassing president. Pence is arch conservative, but at least he's a human being.

 

In case I haven't mentioned it before, the Republicans are already going after funding for the arts, including PBS, which helps fund ... you guessed it ... Sherlock. So even if there is another season, don't count on support from your cousins across the pond. Besides, you people keep promoting diversity. Can't have such subversive messages over here, we might actually be encouraged to think for ourselves.

 

Sorry. It's another dark, gloomy, miserable morning, and the rain of crap out of Washington is already grinding me down.

[Pseudonym]

:( How depressing. Don't PBS get their funding from advertising?

[Arcadia]

They get it from multiple sources, including "sponsors" (advertisers). But a large chunk is federal funding. A lot of smaller stations will probably not survive without it. I'm being a bit facetious about funding for Sherlock ... I think most of that actually comes from the entity known as Masterpiece, which has very wealthy donors. Still, there's bound to be an impact.

[Pseudonym]

Well, we don't know if or when Sherlock will be back anyway, but it's still disturbing. 

[Arcadia]

Yup. In sooooo many ways. :(

[Fantasy Lover]

I'm probably going to cause a discussion, but this genuinely upset me http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-abortion-men_us_5886369be4b0e3a7356a7910?ncid=engmodushpmg00000003 NNNnnooooo WWWwwyyy?

[Arcadia]

Trying to please his supporters on the religious right, who don't think abortion should be allowed. Here we go again. :(

[J.P.]

Jeez. This is at least as bad as the "red" demagogy I witnessed (but they at least made some sense back then).

Waking up every morning is like waking up in 1984.

 

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/transcript-abc-news-anchor-david-muir-interviews-president/story?id=45047602

[Fantasy Lover]

Fun fact: the sales of that book skyrocketed

[Arcadia]

I can't read it. He talks like an eight-year-old, with an eight-year-old's understanding of the world. A lying eight-year-old, who thinks he won't be caught because he's gotten away with so much already.

[T.o.b.y]

I can't get over "alternative facts". It would be funny if it wasn't so disturbing.

[Surelock]

Do any of you guys have twitter?

 

There have been these really funny arguments between Trump and Vincent Fox Quesada, the former President of Mexico, going on twitter. Trump keeps saying that Mexico will pay for the wall. Then Quesada replies by saying things like:

 

 

^Who knew that this is what International Relations would look like in 2017 folks.