Why just half? Trump has already said that Putin can do (direct quote) “whatever the hell he wants”. Why would Putin stop at just half of all that valuable land? Why, in fact, would Putin stop with Ukraine when all of eastern Europe is up for grabs? Putin famously considers himself not so much a president of Russia as an imperial czar, and his vision of Russia is that of a new, reincarnated Soviet Union, only greater.
I think less a “power” than a “foreign body” as doctors euphemistically refer to the various things people stick up their ass and can’t get out again.
Or as I said in another thread, an invasion by a 300-pound orange virus.
Also: even if the VP gets half of the Cabinet on board, doesn’t the president just need to scrawl out a written declaration that no inability exists — three words, is all — at which point you’d need two-thirds of the House and the Senate on board?
If you don’t have that, then AFAICT the whole thing goes nowhere; but if you do have that, then AFAICT you’d already have enough votes to impeach and remove regardless of whether the VP or any Cabinet members are up for it.
(For those who don’t Twit or for whom this doesn’t load, it’s the quote from the first Captain America: “So many people forget that the first country the Nazis invaded was their own.”
The main thing I’m worried about is that at least two Supreme Court justices will retire almost immediately, thereby allowing the Heritage Foundation to nominate that many justices to the bench- and those justices will be far right, young, and will be on the bench for decades to come. It’s the gift that keeps on giving to corporations and conservatives.
I imagine that Aileen Cannon expects to be one of those nominations, but I think she’s going to be disappointed- Trump has the transactional memory of a goldfish, and once he’s out of her court (which, of course, will happen very soon, now that he’s won the election), she’s useless to him.
Oh, the country is well and truly fucked for the rest of my life. I feel truly sorry for my kids and grandkids, particularly my two gay grandkids. This voting generation will be cursed by all for a very long time, IMO.
I feel the same. My only saving grace is that my children and my immediate family (one gay brother) are all deceased and I have no grandchildren. So it’s just me who will have to muddle through this storm.
I don’t have any hope left to give at this point except to keep surviving for now.
Me? I am hoping that my time here ends soon naturally/organically.
I wish you well. Do what you can to make your family safe and comfortable and enjoy your time with them.
Vance’s “ideas” that women without children shouldn’t be able to vote and a family should get votes for its children that are actually voted by the father, aren’t “within normal parameters.”
I’m sorry, I’ve been commuting or working the last couple of hours, so I haven’t seen the latest news. Did we lose the House?
Not that losing the Senate isn’t bad enough. Trump can now appoint whoever he wants to every post that opens up, judicial 
, civil, or military 
And all a Democratic House can do is stop Trump from passing stupid or dictatorial legislation or repealing legislation he’d like to be rid of. On one hand, if we keep the House, the moronic tariff won’t happen. On the other hand, an unrepealed Clean Air Act or Clean Water Act don’t mean much when Trump puts an antediluvian “dirty air means prosperity” oilman in charge of the EPA.
Yes, Democrats 178, Republicans 198.
Senate has 42 Dems. 52 Repubs.
White House has one (1) vengeful demented orange doofus.
I takes 218 for a House majority. Dozens of House races still haven’t been called yet.
Yep. I chose not to travel to the US at all in his first term, and now, I’m going to do it again. I’m old enough now that this might mean I never travel to the US again. By the time they clean up this mess, I might be too old to want to deal with the bullshit of long-distance travel.
Just to tarnish the silver lining a bit. Trump won’t care at all about all that Project 2025, Handmaid’s tale stuff. Which doesn’t mean it won’t happen. What it means is, he’ll be fine with Vance et al. doing whatever they want on that front, so long as they kickback enough $$$$ to Trump, and don’t say anything bad about Trump. It’s the mafia way; a Made Man can do whatever he wants, so long as he keeps the Don(ald) happy.
The problem with stacking the cabinet with sycophants and yes-men is, those lily-livered panty-waists typically latch onto the strongest person around. If Trump continues to decline, and Vance decides to make his move, with the backing of the P2025 crowd, don’t be surprised when these guys stampede their way to Vance’s door to declare their loyalty to him.
A Strong Man government only lasts as long as the Man continues to be Strong.
Thanks for the clarification. I see that neither the House nor the Senate results are complete yet, but Republicans do have a significant lead in both.
I’ve also just seen an economic opinion piece that can be added to the OP. Trump’s proposed tax cuts, tariffs, and immigration clampdowns are all going to be inflationary, which puts pressure on regulators to raise interest rates. Which is great for fat-cat bondholders but not so much for those holding debts, like homeowners with mortgages,
I’ve said for months now, I can’t imagine a world in which Trump wins the presidency, but the GOP loses Congress. They might not have a huge majority, but they’ll have enough of one.
Let’s not forget climate change. Working on the effects of that is right out the window. Environmental protections are gone and the rich will be able to do what they want with resources like national parks, that should belong to all of us.
Obamacare is toast, so those of you that need health care but aren’t well off, too freaking bad.
Privatization of government services like FEMA and the Post Office. If you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. Government is for the benefit of the rich, don’t you know.
The social safety net, Social Security, Medicaid, low-cost housing programs and the like - those will be shredded. Some may take longer than others, but they all have targets on their backs now.
Actually, for people currently holding bonds, renewed inflation will be a very bad thing - bond prices will go down as interest rates rise, and holders will be stuck with lower-yielding instruments than can be obtained on the market. Similarly, homeowners with mortgages will - as long as they maintain employment, and stay in their current home - do well in a high-inflation environment, as long as their mortgages are fixed-rate (in a sense, they are on the other side of the bond trades).
Once the rates go high, of course, things are better for those who buy bonds and worse for those who borrow for mortgages - the latter will cause a great deal of pain for those who want to sell, as housing prices will plummet because of lower affordability. Interest on the federal debt will also go higher, which will force painful cuts in government services and benefits. But hey, that’s for the Democrats to clean up later, right?
You mean the JD Vance who previously called Trump “unfit for the nation’s highest office” and that “he could be America’s Hitler”, and then boosted for him in 2020 and joined him for this campaign? The JD Vance who believes that people who do not have children are not invested in the future of the country and should have less of a say in elections? JD Vance who won’t answer straight questions about his stance on Project 2025?
You are straining way to hard to find some “silver lining” in JD Vance despite his history of doing and saying whatever he needs to in order to get into power and impose his own theocratic view of what society in the United States should look like.
To be frank, we are doing essentially nothing effective to mitigate or prepare for the impact of climate change regardless of who is in office. But yes, we can expect Trump (or Vance) to open up everything from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the Grand Canyon to any kind of extraction that oil and mining companies will pay leases for.
Stranger