[0762]

Yep! This kinda character, a political demagogue, thrives on not being challenged on any extreme measure (or 'chancing it') that he imposes - all part of the extreme persona that he displays and which we have previously observed or read about in past political history events that are similar to this one! A time will hopefully arrive when watchful political figures in the US Senate and in Congress will see through the façade, quickly 'put this president elect in his place' and restrict his powers considerably. Thankfully that political 'safety valve' is still in place esp to cover for that kinda demagogue who thinks he can bypass the system and 'go it alone' because he has no time for the respective US houses of influence and the people within them.

[0762]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-37997045

And the inhouse bickering begins as Trump tries to organise his right-wing team that have not started their damaging politics yet. I really must nod at the suggestions of nepotism that Trump unsurprisigly leans towards. We can add that to the previous criticism of plagiarism that was levelled at the president elect and his campaign team a few months ago - as seedy as f### and ties in very well with his iffy tax avoidance schemes and utilising the FBI to suddenly appear out of nowhere during a crucial part of a US electioneering campaign. I'm also curious to hear John Carey's comments at the climate change summit in Morrocco and hope he's frank and honest re Trump's inspired revised negative energy philosophy that is definitely worthy of huge criticism!

[0762]

One interesting voting figure emanating from the US voting authority (now all votes finally counted) more or less confirms that Hillary Clinton 'pulled' well over 2 million votes more than Trump the eventual victor (?). This confirms the bizarre way that American politics and elections are set up and how the votes are distributed and how millions of decent American voters must be seething that this clown has been foisted upon them - IMO a shocker and this aint democracy!!

[St Charles Owl]

Not sure where you are getting your numbers from but she polled almost exactly 1m votes more than Trump, with Michigan still to declare their result, although he is ahead there by less than 20k. In the end she will end up with less than 50% of the vote, there have been four occasions where a majority vote candidate did not win the election!! The electoral college is an interesting phenomena but the way it works is not unique. It's not that much different from the U.K. version of constituencies, a system where the popular vote can also not be won by the largest party. Part of me thinks a straight count of votes would be better in both countries but the "power" held by the States over here and constituencies over there is something the won't want to give up, particularly here!! The states carry a lot of the law making, tax raising and individual policy making decisions themselves, a bit like the UK with a devolved Scotland but with more individual power, because of that feeling of being a big part of the decision they won't give up the electoral college system easily.

[0762]

The votes were still being counted up to about last Wednesday and that 1M figure that you referred to has now been supplemented by an extra 1M+ - from a bbc world source. IMO the 'first past the post UK system' is as shit as the US one - it suits the Tories who generally hold  about 25-30% of a loyal voting support while the rest of the voting population either hate their divisive politics, and their links with the privileged and elite, or other voters just have no sway with Tory politics whatsoever. TheTory Party (and Tory infighting) was one of the main factors for Brexit ever happening and I'll never forgive them or that stupid imbecile, Cameron, for allowing it to happen at all!!!! No time for toerags and no time either for the privileged and racially biased Eton or Oxbridge supply of top UK politicians who are normally toerags!!

[St Charles Owl]

All votes have now been counted but the Michigan result is still going through their legal process of reviewing and authenticating the cast ballots because the margin of difference was so small. As it stands Trump is 13,000 votes ahead in the official count with a total vote of 4.8m. I believe they have to do this review if the result is within a certain percentage between the candidates, and this one is about as close as you could get!!

Assuming this result stands then the popular vote will be:

Clinton - 47.9%
Trump - 47.1%
Others - 5%
Clinton has 1,100,605 more votes than Trump.

[0762]

One way or the other, Trump winning this election is an absolute disgrace and no wonder America's voting population has been so polarised in a situation that has never ever happened before in US political history. I'm listening to President Obama on his farewell visit to Germany and how articulate and decent a character this man is compared with the this oddball of an incoming president who was amazingly voted in by a significant proportion of people who Trump himself described as the 'stupid vote' that could play a big part in making him president - he was never fit to be a US president as Obama rightly described him a few weeks ago!!! As usual, the USA (or more aptly - part of it's population) baffles the world again! Nuts!

[St Charles Owl]

One way or the other, Trump winning this election is an absolute disgrace and no wonder America's voting population has been so polarised in a situation that has never ever happened before in US political history. I'm listening to President Obama on his farewell visit to Germany and how articulate and decent a character this man is compared with the this oddball of an incoming president who was amazingly voted in by a significant proportion of people who Trump himself described as the 'stupid vote' that could play a big part in making him president - he was never fit to be a US president as Obama rightly described him a few weeks ago!!! As usual, the USA (or more aptly - part of it's population) baffles the world again! Nuts!

Actually, this will be the 5th US Presidential election where the winner got less overall votes than the loser. The last time this happened was in 2000 when Bush got less overall votes than Gore. If there is one benefit to come out of this it has seen serious debate over the electoral college and how the votes are distributed among the states. As I said before though, the states like their bit of power in the whole Presidential process, so I am not sure it will be easy to get them to give it up.

As regards those who voted for Trump, I think its unfair to call them all nuts, there were many reasons why educated, reasonable people voted for him that were nothing to do with racism or any other ism out there. But, the republican party consistently target the lowest level of the US society, white, uneducated southern men and women, people who in general are not educated or intelligent enough to see past the rhetoric or even have the means to gut check what is being said. They on the whole do not watch mainstream TV, they watch Fox News and the crap they spout, they listen to Rush Limbaugh on the radio, a guy as right wing as they come and they are often inherently racist under the surface. Trump did a superb job in getting these people out to vote, something Hillary could not do with the Latino and black vote that she needed to combat the rednecks!!

Obama is light years ahead of Trump in terms of being a statesman and a President, of that there is no doubt, I just wish he had been able to do more than he did during his 8 years, as that would have allowed any Democrat to succeed in the election following him!!

[0762]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38021820

Here's the latest 25M dollar Trump concession re his fraudulent Trump University shenanigans. I've no doubt he has decided to 'fork out' on the huge number of lawsuits because he now finds himself in a President elect position!! Otherwise, I'm certain he would've tried to let it 'drag on' for even more time. As said in a previous thread - seedy as f### and I still can't believe so many reasonably intelligent American voters even considered this guy as nothing other than an utter fraud!! A shocker!! By the way, Obama didn't manage to do enough because the US Senate and Congress were both dominated by republicans - that made it difficult from his inauguration onwards although he still managed to draw some concessions from opponents who were always gonna 'play political games' during his presidency.

[St Charles Owl]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38021820

Here's the latest 25M dollar Trump concession re his fraudulent Trump University shenanigans. I've no doubt he has decided to 'fork out' on the huge number of lawsuits because he now finds himself in a President elect position!! Otherwise, I'm certain he would've tried to let it 'drag on' for even more time. As said in a previous thread - seedy as f### and I still can't believe so many reasonably intelligent American voters even considered this guy as nothing other than an utter fraud!! A shocker!! By the way, Obama didn't manage to do enough because the US Senate and Congress were both dominated by republicans - that made it difficult from his inauguration onwards although he still managed to draw some concessions from opponents who were always gonna 'play political games' during his presidency.

These settlements were always going to have to be made once he won the election. There is no way that a President is going to get dragged through the courts for this type of case, I expect there was a lot of pressure put on him to shut up and settle!!!

I don't think you fully appreciate the American mood at the moment with regards to trump. I know many people who voted for him despite disagreeing with all the crap he spouted because they completely distrusted Hillary more than they distrust him!! He is known for saying what he thinks, we saw that in all its glory when he was off script plenty of times and while they may not agree with everything he says or potentially believes, they do not believe a word Hillary say!! Hillary was a bad candidate at this time for the democrats and it played right into Trumps hands!!

As regards Obama, he has a Democratic majority in both the Senate and the House after his first election win in 2008. It was in his 2nd term where the pendulum swung the other way to republican control.