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Are you Americans crazy enough to put Donald Trump in office?

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>Who said -I'm- angry? I think it's fucking hilarious. Personally I can't actually
>support putting somebody that unqualified into office. But I've thoroughly enjoyed
>the show.

I am in a similar boat.

In skydiving there's always the guy who will not learn. He asks 100 people if he should downsize from his Safire2 149 to a Katana 99 and 99 say "that's crazy." The last guy says "hey, do whatever you want." And he hears only that. The S+TA tries to talk him out of it, but he's just an old fossil who doesn't understand the newbie's mad skillz. His friends try to talk him out of it; he gets new friends.

Then he gets the canopy and starts jumping it. And almost immediately gets grounded for endangering other people. So he goes to another DZ where the S+TA doesn't know him and jumps there.

The above actually happened to me when I was at Brown (different canopies back then, same idea) and it was both funny and sad to watch. Watching him take out Airspeed by the mockup was hilarious. (His excuse? He said "look out" and they didn't move out of the way when he was landing.) And his landings were . . . exciting. Also somewhat terrifying.

I knew he was going to hurt himself; the only question was how. I hoped it wasn't crippling, but I also hoped it was enough for him to learn.

On the sunset load that day we got the call that we were on a hold while the ambulance cleared out. No one had to ask who it was. When we went to the hospital later, it was just a broken thumb. That wasn't big enough. We all gave him grief and he missed the rest of the boogie, which was probably for the best.

He kept jumping the canopy and eventually broke his back and pelvis so badly that they said he would never walk again. Last I saw he was sort of getting around with a walker. That was too big an injury to learn from.

A friend of his - equally foolish - broke his femur about a year later. That was enough. He learned, and when I lost track of him he had upsized a bit and become a much better canopy pilot.

Watching Trump over the past year has been similarly hilarious and sad. The guy is having a policy discussion with someone and doesn't know what the nuclear triad is - and tries to wing it. The best he can come up with was "I think, for me, nuclear is just the power, the devastation is very important to me." And people took him seriously.

He claims to respect women - and then a tape emerges of him bragging how his celebrity status lets him "grab them by the pussy." But that's just locker room talk, he would never actually do it. Except for all the women who said he did. His reply - I will sue them! And people still took him seriously.

And now he's won the presidency. I predict that the right wing will gloat for a few months, then realize "holy shit, we have to defend this guy's actions for the next four years!" And at that point, the equivocating you will see will make Rubio look like a firm, decisive kind of guy. They will be in the position of defending someone who is proposing the biggest spending increases in history, and defending an alliance with one of the worst strongmen in the world. And that will be a lot of fun to watch.

So the US chose him, and for four years we will have a Trump president. Sometimes you have to let people - even entire countries - femur. You hope they don't, but you also realize that that's the only way some learn. Meanwhile we will have a real live reality show in the White House.

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lurch

I will now pop back in to a total necro thread just to say...

Yes. Yes, they are.
Angry people have broken the system.
We have just witnessed the biggest "Fuck You" vote in human history. The punch line to the greatest practical joke ever pulled.
Looks like the clown gets to drive.
It's the facepalm heard around the world.
Fasten your seat belts.
-B



Michael Moore agrees with...a BIG FUCK YOU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKeYbEOSqYc

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I stopped coming to dz.com long time ago. just out of curiosity I came back to read what people were/are thinking after choosing the POTUS#45.
This thread is the best read on the whole website for years. thx to all participating
The universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle

dudeist skydiver # 666

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billvon

So the US chose him, and for four years we will have a Trump president. Sometimes you have to let people - even entire countries - femur. You hope they don't, but you also realize that that's the only way some learn. Meanwhile we will have a real live reality show in the White House.



I largely agree with your sentiments and hope that, when a fast decision is made that must be accurate and elegant, he does not fuck it up. I hope he surprises me and pulls it off.

The bottom line is that, as dreadful an option as he is, Hillary was a significantly worse choice for a long list of reasons.

If nothing else good comes of this, the entertainment value of witnessing the wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst the Hillary supporters is priceless.


BSBD,

Winsor

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I'm still laughing days later just because of how unlikely, yet inevitable all this has been.

I don't do hatred. Hatred is weakness, a childish indulgence I don't have time for. But to the extent I'm capable of it, I hate that system. Everything that system is supposed to stand for was subverted decades ago to serve the interests of the people who run it. They don't "represent" the public, they view the public as something to be herded, controlled, manipulated and made to do what -they- want. Deceived into obeying the wishes of the pols instead of the other way around.

All my life I have known that the entire mess is so complex, the reasons and mechanisms giving rise to that state so convoluted as to be impossible to fix or undo without breaking that system. Ten million dirty deals, watered down compromises that render the solutions impotent or only serve the interests of the people behind the curtain.

Obamacare... supposed to help with intolerable medical expense, ends up literally selling the bodies of the american public to the insurance companies... Affordable, my ass, working man can't afford insurance, now the IRS is coming after him to fine him for not being able to afford it... legally -forcing- the poor to shovel their last dollars into the pockets of the insurance execs in exchange for empty promises of coverage that covers nothing... this is justice? This is sanity?

"Work within the system" sounds as nonsensical to me as the idea of looking at a car that has been shredded and crushed and optimistically but naively thinking, well, if we just all cooperate and work within the system of auto repair we can fix it right up. People polishing little fragments and congratulating themselves thinking they've accomplished something, ignoring the wreckage all around them.

That system, has desperately needed a reset, ctrl-alt-del forced systems crash.

I have just witnessed that systems crash. Trump didn't "work within the system", he broke it. While everyone chimped out screeching racist, sexist, homophobe blah blah every name in the book they were doing so because he was rejecting that delicate balance of corruption and substituting the kind of force necessary to break the decades-long gridlock designed to prevent actual change.

He succeeded. What we get is a soft-reset, a controlled system crash without taking the entire system down in disordered and violent collapse that would have cost so many lives.

If Trump had not been elected the alternative would have been a very, very violent collapse crash sometime in the next couple decades, when the last of the jobs vanish, the race war breaks out into a slaughter, the police state goes to open war against its own population, a population it can no longer control due to its own corruption, and the only solution it knows is to double down on that corruption and -make- the rubes comply... the last of the middle class destroyed and with nothing left to lose, the politicians walking away with the last of the golden eggs of american prosperity leaving the rest of the population to kill each other fighting over the scraps that remain.

Trump had to happen and he did.

We just saw the most unthinkable turnabout, ever. The republican party turned on their own frontrunner and united with the dems in opposition to him. He forced that system to break cover and reveal itself for what it really is... a one-party system with two faces designed to make sure it is never, ever voted out of power.

It just got voted out of power. For the first time in my life, I actually believe in that system, now. Because it WORKED.

When everybody gets tired of screeching in outrage about him and the dust settles, I'm looking forward to seeing how many things actually get fixed now that both parties have been defeated, the fake two-party system's power broken and their ability to prevent constructive change broken with it.

-B
Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

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***He succeeded. What we get is a soft-reset, a controlled system crash without taking the entire system down in disordered and violent collapse that would have cost so many lives.

Maybe, maybe not.

While I agree with most of your post about the system, well thought out and well written, Trump may not have been the best man to "break" the system and the "reset" may or may not be all that 'soft'.

He's a demagogue. He used the standard tactics & techniques that "wannabe dictators" have used throughout history (Hitler comes to mind first, but there are dozens of others that are just as apt).

The outcome of a Trump administration may well be a

Quote

a very, very violent collapse crash sometime in the next couple decades, when the last of the jobs vanish, the race war breaks out into a slaughter, the police state goes to open war against its own population, a population it can no longer control due to its own corruption, and the only solution it knows is to double down on that corruption and -make- the rubes comply... the last of the middle class destroyed and with nothing left to lose, the politicians walking away with the last of the golden eggs of american prosperity leaving the rest of the population to kill each other fighting over the scraps that remain.

.

It remains to be seen.

THIS article looks at what has happened in the past, what has happened recently and how they correlate. For me, the scariest line is the final one:

"Perhaps I’m just writing this so I can be remembered by history as one of the people who saw it coming."

I don't know if any of this will come to pass. I certainly hope not.

But the analysis of the Russian behaviors is pretty close, as far as I can tell. There's a lot of indications that Trump is either in bed with or under the control of the Russians. I don't realistically see the Baltics, Georgia or the Ukraine being independent in five years (or less).

But it's what we (as humans) do. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.
Fear leads to the...

Orange Side.
"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

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wolfriverjoe

From the link:

Lead people to feel they have lost control of their country and destiny, people look for scapegoats, a charismatic leader captures the popular mood, and singles out that scapegoat. He talks in rhetoric that has no detail, and drums up anger and hatred. Soon the masses start to move as one, without any logic driving their actions, and the whole becomes unstoppable.

There is an entire book written on this topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_True_Believer
It is one of the most important books I ever read, and generally no one I talk to has ever heard of it.

When I was in junior high school, for a book report I opted to read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rise_and_Fall_of_the_Third_Reich
That also left a lasting impression.
"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

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lurch


Obamacare... supposed to help with intolerable medical expense, ends up literally selling the bodies of the american public to the insurance companies... Affordable, my ass, working man can't afford insurance, now the IRS is coming after him to fine him for not being able to afford it... legally -forcing- the poor to shovel their last dollars into the pockets of the insurance execs in exchange for empty promises of coverage that covers nothing... this is justice? This is sanity?



Don't look now, but: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/12/business/insurers-unprepared-for-obamacare-repeal.html

:D:D:D

ETA And look out Ron; They're coming for your Medicare!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/11/11/is-paul-ryan-already-eyeing-medicare-cuts/
"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

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Wolf, I very hope you're wrong about that outcome.
Unfortunately, you're right, I too see a distinct possibility of the whole thing turning out that way. That's the thing about chaos. You often see abrupt inversions of effects on very large scales.

Another one of the many reasons Trump was elected was because the left liberal culture war thing... once very necessary, to push for the rights of women, blacks, gays, succeeded too well. The narrative to the straight white male demographic slowly changed from "Us, too, dammit" to "Not you anymore, not at all, you the evil bad guy now, straight white males root of all evil must be cast down" to the point of colleges mandating indoctrination classes where white people learn about how evil and racist they are just for being white.

To the point that I cannot view any form of media for 5 seconds without being hit by -something- jamming race issues in my face and blaming it on white people.
The left overshot its goal of being a uniting force and slammed straight into being as divisive as possible, screeching, labeling, silencing and condemning anything not in enthusiastic agreement with its agenda.

What we all just saw was pushback. Trump realized he could gain at both ends... feed off all the screeching outrage while laughing at it and even taunting it in blatant public defiance of it and looking like a hero to every poor working class schmoe whose life has been wrecked by the system as it is now, (see that beautiful Michael Moore piece) represented by the same people accustomed to being able to destroy people by calling them racists.

Right now is still chaos while we see how emergent forces rebalance themselves. I'd hope to see the culture pull together... the left just got its ass kicked because it spent too much time screeching and playing social justice warrior and not enough time paying attention to actual issues like the former middle class wondering how to feed their kids. This should serve as a lesson that, ok, deadlock's broken, can both sides start trying to fix the stuff Trump got elected on?

The current rioting is ominous as fuck, though. The other likely Trump effect which the rioting may be the first signs of, is it took a whole bunch of already cracked social divides and crises that were just barely holding stable, and cracked them wide open all at once.

There are a whole bunch of social and economic stresses that were already stretched to a hair shy of the snapping point. Some, far past it, and the only reason they hadn't snapped, was it got that way gradually, frog in a jacuzzi style, or the way you can supercool a bottle of water far past the crystallization point if you do it slowly enough. It's only 21 degrees and still liquid so long as nothing disturbs it...

The seething resentment in the black community for one. The anger of working people about things like the obamacare individual mandate for another. "We're barely surviving here and now we're being told we will buy insurance at a thousand a month at gunpoint?" The entire generation that just got enslaved to college debt that didn't buy them anything because the jobs disappeared.

Then you thump that bottle. You elect Trump. And a wave of crystallization driven by excessive energy differential passes through that bottle and the entire thing freezes solid in 5 seconds.

When that happened in 1989 half the eastern bloc fell apart virtually overnight.

In human terms it means large scale violent change that occurs apparently out of nowhere, as large portions of the population get pissed off all at once and try to do something about it. Usually something destructive.

If it happens it'll happen fast. Given how far gone this system had to be for Trump to get elected, that violent change may last for some time, too.

Question is, is it gonna happen and what's the trigger? Maybe it's already been triggered, or maybe it won't be triggered at all. Maybe the election riots are the beginning of that wave, or maybe they're just a few cracked stresses resolving themselves and will settle to a new equilibrium.

Time will tell.
Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

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billvon

>Who said -I'm- angry? I think it's fucking hilarious. Personally I can't actually
>support putting somebody that unqualified into office. But I've thoroughly enjoyed
>the show.

I am in a similar boat.

In skydiving there's always the guy who will not learn. He asks 100 people if he should downsize from his Safire2 149 to a Katana 99 and 99 say "that's crazy." The last guy says "hey, do whatever you want." And he hears only that. The S+TA tries to talk him out of it, but he's just an old fossil who doesn't understand the newbie's mad skillz. His friends try to talk him out of it; he gets new friends.

Then he gets the canopy and starts jumping it. And almost immediately gets grounded for endangering other people. So he goes to another DZ where the S+TA doesn't know him and jumps there.

The above actually happened to me when I was at Brown (different canopies back then, same idea) and it was both funny and sad to watch. Watching him take out Airspeed by the mockup was hilarious. (His excuse? He said "look out" and they didn't move out of the way when he was landing.) And his landings were . . . exciting. Also somewhat terrifying.

I knew he was going to hurt himself; the only question was how. I hoped it wasn't crippling, but I also hoped it was enough for him to learn.

On the sunset load that day we got the call that we were on a hold while the ambulance cleared out. No one had to ask who it was. When we went to the hospital later, it was just a broken thumb. That wasn't big enough. We all gave him grief and he missed the rest of the boogie, which was probably for the best.

He kept jumping the canopy and eventually broke his back and pelvis so badly that they said he would never walk again. Last I saw he was sort of getting around with a walker. That was too big an injury to learn from.

A friend of his - equally foolish - broke his femur about a year later. That was enough. He learned, and when I lost track of him he had upsized a bit and become a much better canopy pilot.

Watching Trump over the past year has been similarly hilarious and sad. The guy is having a policy discussion with someone and doesn't know what the nuclear triad is - and tries to wing it. The best he can come up with was "I think, for me, nuclear is just the power, the devastation is very important to me." And people took him seriously.

He claims to respect women - and then a tape emerges of him bragging how his celebrity status lets him "grab them by the pussy." But that's just locker room talk, he would never actually do it. Except for all the women who said he did. His reply - I will sue them! And people still took him seriously.

And now he's won the presidency. I predict that the right wing will gloat for a few months, then realize "holy shit, we have to defend this guy's actions for the next four years!" And at that point, the equivocating you will see will make Rubio look like a firm, decisive kind of guy. They will be in the position of defending someone who is proposing the biggest spending increases in history, and defending an alliance with one of the worst strongmen in the world. And that will be a lot of fun to watch.

So the US chose him, and for four years we will have a Trump president. Sometimes you have to let people - even entire countries - femur. You hope they don't, but you also realize that that's the only way some learn. Meanwhile we will have a real live reality show in the White House.



I'm a conservative but more libertarian than anything else. I just want to say... nail on head Bill. This example is just perfect.... for me anyway.

"Sometimes you have to let people - even entire countries - femur."
PERFECT!
Life is all about ass....either you're kicking it, kissing it, working it off, or trying to get a piece of it.
Muff Brother #4382 Dudeist Skydiver #000
www.fundraiseadventure.com

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So now what? Happy?

The world is shaking and those who do not is laughing. Very few of his fans, believe what is going on, or blindly repeat "he is doing what he said he was going to do! Im talking about non Americans first hand experience.

I say, fuck it, and hope he do not to much damage to our world. 4 years to go, and 20 Years to recover.

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since SC has become very quiet (it's not what it used to be two or three years ago) there's only three people left to give you answer: rush, airdiver & ron. but as they are diehard supporters there might be some bias in the answers :P

The universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle

dudeist skydiver # 666

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434

So, what do you Trump people think so far? Happy now? He make you proud?

Or do you regret?



Happy, prayer now for President Trump's protection. That's my 33 1/3%.
Look for the shiny things of God revealed by the Holy Spirit. They only last for an instant but it is a Holy Instant. Let your soul absorb them.

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434

What would jesus do?

I can tell you, it looks like Monty Python's Flying Circus show. Explain for me, and everyone else, why do you consider Donald as a better person for office, than anyone else. Why?

Believe me, I have seen some few debates, and it is fascinating so many people actually seriously saying they are going to vote for him. I just cant get it.



This is even better than Monthy Python, no one could ever made this up. Congratulations to all of you who made this possible.

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The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. H.L. Mencken, 1920, Baltimore Evening Sun.
...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

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434

What would jesus do?

I can tell you, it looks like Monty Python's Flying Circus show. Explain for me, and everyone else, why do you consider Donald as a better person for office, than anyone else. Why?

Believe me, I have seen some few debates, and it is fascinating so many people actually seriously saying they are going to vote for him. I just cant get it.



Well, how is it going?

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nolhtairt

***

Quote

Well, how is it going?



As expected, badly.

Derek V



That's a matter of perspective.

From the perspective of the United States of America, it is going very badly indeed. Her enemies are no doubt enjoying it.
Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

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jcd11235

******

Quote

Well, how is it going?



As expected, badly.

Derek V



That's a matter of perspective.

From the perspective of the United States of America, it is going very badly indeed. Her enemies are no doubt enjoying it.

I think we're good.
Look for the shiny things of God revealed by the Holy Spirit. They only last for an instant but it is a Holy Instant. Let your soul absorb them.

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