This was a close presidential election, and obviously we WON if you count the popular vote. But we LOST due to various quirks and flaws in our system, and just because of timing.

But now the winning party is granted immense power to do whatever they want politically, and the losing party is practically powerless. OK, fine. Elections have consequences.

Nonetheless, what pisses me off no end is that when the GOP squeaks through in an election, they push their extreme agenda, with no consideration to the Dems at all. Has Trump made one appointment that wasn't far right so far?

Whereas, it seems when the Dems win (Obama is a case in point), they try to govern from the middle and accommodate the right, they pick Republicans for cabinet positions and so forth.

WHY?????

Source: Wash Post

By Washington Post Staff November 28 at 9:25 PM
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), an orthopedic surgeon who has been one of Capitol Hill's fiercest critics of President Obama's health care law, to be secretary of health and human services, a person briefed on the decision confirmed Monday night.

The public announcement of Trump's selection of Price, a six-term congressman who chairs the House Budget Committee and is regarded as a policy wonk, is expected to be made as early as Tuesday.
This is a developing story. It will be updated.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/11/28/trump-picks-congressman-tom-price-as-health-and-human-services-secretary/?hpid=hp_no-name_no-name%3Apage%2Fbreaking-news-bar&tid=a_breakingnews

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oy

I will look forward to Ted Cruz's commentary
https://twitter.com/neeratanden/status/802878953966993408

in response to

Cruz: "My hope" that US foreign policy under Donald Trump "will no longer be a policy of weakness and appeasement." #thisWeek

https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/802877831801896960

I agree with this:

BlackMamba Politics ‏@MambaPolitics 6h6 hours ago
@neeratanden @ThisWeekABC It's not a radical thought that Ukraine in its entirety is annexed back into the Russia Federation

I want a fighter, a firebrand. We need someone who can call out the GOP for the liars and assholes and psychopaths they are, and really frame liberal issues strongly. We have such a great case.

We need people who can grab the attention of the media.

Why can't we have that?

Or does the media just not allow such people on TV?

Added on 11/26: Another thing is why do GOPers get in power and then govern from the far right, whereas when Dems get in power, they always govern from the middle? This pisses me off no end.

Another question is-- how much do we want to be like the GOP assholes in style? Is it better to be nice and lose or play rough and dishonestly and win?

Trump is obviously unfit and unqualified for the presidency. Anyone with a non-biased brain can see that.

The media could have easily destroyed him if they wanted.

They didn't.

Oh, they covered his multiple transgressions and some of his lies, but never really delved into his real scandals and his deep corruption. Or did they even spend much time on the Russian connection?

Instead the narrative was all about Hillary's emails and the Clinton Foundation.

More than any other factor, the media destroyed Hillary's reputation and skewed the election, and handed the presidency to the reach of Trump.

Some say, oh the media just saw Trump as good for ratings. I really wonder if there was something deeper than that.

Theories:

1) they just saw him as good for ratings, period

2) they are spineless idiots and got manipulated by conservative elites into destroying Hillary

3) they are really conservative at heart, and know Trump will push a hard conservative agenda

4) some sort of deeper storyline-- perhaps to do with the trend towards nationalism

5) something more sinister?

When or if Trump is sworn in as president in less than two months, he will immediately start profiting from his businesses around the world that have his name on them. Taking foreign money as president is a violation of the Constitution. How is this not a problem for Republicans? The only thing I can figure is that the GOP is using this as a built-in escape mechanism if they can't control Trump and they can use it as leverage to get him to do what they want. This is the most incredibly corrupt system I can imagine and it's just too crazy coming from a guy who said he wanted to "drain the swamp".

Good job GOP!

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/23/13715150/donald-trump-emoluments-clause-constitution

Article II, section I, subsection 7 of the US constitution.
The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.

2 of them (MI, WI) have been taken over by hard right Republican governors and strong Republican statehouses in recent years.

I'm sure it's not a coincidence that these states flipped red in 2016.

And of course in the key swing states, FL and OH, hard right Republican governors and strong Republican statehouses have taken over.

Of course, new voter ID laws and ensuing voter suppression were a major factor in some of the states.

But was there something more?

Could a real election theft have been going on too? Does anyone here really put it past the GOP to rig this thing?

This article is quite interesting and informative on how it could have been done--
http://www.billjamesonline.com/fixing_a_presidential_election/

Generally I think she ran a good campaign and I've been avoiding picking on her. But there are some things that could have been done that would have made a huge difference:

1) they way over-estimated how much Republican voters would overlook Trump's flaws-- I think they took for granted that he wouldn't get that many votes

2) they didn't control the media; they reacted too much to Trump, instead of trying to drive the agenda-- things like "America is still great", the alt-right speech, even "Stronger together" was a reaction to his divisiveness

3) they never crafted a SIMPLE economic message

Other mistakes:

4) not having large rallies until the very end

5) not having rallies in key swing states

6) disappearing after election night-- where's the fight for the aftermath, or even making sure the vote is counted properly?

https://gop.com/100-day-plan-action-survey/

Lots of misleading questions and choice, but if you have a minute, might be fun to mess with them.

The moment Trump said John McCain wasn't a war hero because he was captured, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

The moment Trump said we should ban all Muslims from entering the US, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

The moment Trump said he wanted to deport up to 11 million people from the US, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

The moment Trump retweeted an anti-Hillary meme from an anti-Semitic site, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

The moment Trump tweeted that global warming/climate change was a Chinese hoax, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

The moment went on the conspiracy idiot Alex Jones show during the campaign and praised his work, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

The moment Trump refused to back down from his claim that thousands of Muslims were cheering in New Jersey on 9/11, and said the news media was hiding the story he saw on this, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

The moment Trump mocked a disabled person during his campaign rally, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

The moment Trump mocked Hillary for being sick, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

The moment Trump hinted that 2nd amendment people could stop Hillary, and talked about her Secret Service protection being taken away to see what happened, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

The moment that Trump said if he was elected that Hillary would be put in jail, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

The moment that Trump said the election was rigged and would only honor the results of the election if he won, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

The moment Trump went on a diatribe about a Miss Universe pageant being overweight, the day after his first presidential debate, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

The moment Trump was heard on tape bragging about sexual assault, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

The moment Trump said that all the women who accused him of sexual assault were lying, and it was conspiracy by the Clinton campaign, and said one of his accusers was not attractive enough for him to go after her, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

The moment we knew Trump had had sexual assault charges filed against him, and that his ex-wife had accused him of rape, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

When Trump refused to release his income taxes despite having global business dealings, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

When Trump asked Russian hackers to hack into State department emails, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

When Trump said US intelligence agencies were lying about Russian hacking, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

When Trump blatantly lied over and over on almost every topic, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

When Trump hired alt-right propagandist Steve Bannon to run his campaign, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

When Trump showed he had no consistent or coherent policy ideas, didn't know the constitution, wanted to use nuclear weapons, wanted to have more countries have nuclear weapons, wanted to weaken NATO, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

When Trump spend years pursuing the idea that Obama was not a US citizen, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

The moment Trump showed he had no idea how a blind trust would work for his businesses, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

The fact that Trump repeatedly insulted women's looks and generally acted as a bully, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

The multiple shady connections of the Trump campaign to the Russian government and Trump repeated praising of Putin, should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

Trump's apparent bribery of FL Attorney General Pam Bondi, should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

Trump's transparently bogus Trump University, should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

Trump's vulgar demagoguery and multiple serious news sites saying he was a threat to democracy, should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

A long list of Republican national security experts, and nuclear weapons commanders saying Trump could not be trusted, should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

Trump's petty, shameless, narcissistic personality should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

Trump's history of housing discrimination should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

The Never Trump movement within conservatism and the GOP should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

The moment Trump’s ghostwriter for his “Art of the Deal” book, Tony Schwartz confirmed how terrible Trump’s personality and basic knowledge was, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

The moment Trump proposed waterboarding and worse to terror suspects, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

The moment Trump said we should kill the families of terrorists, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

The moment Trump said Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama founded ISIS and refused to retract it, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

The moment we found out that Trump lost almost $1 billion in one year, in the casino business, and then used that to not pay taxes for years, it should have ended his run as a presidential candidate.

So what the hell happened???