Donald Trump is the 45th president of America

[Mmm_fish_tacos]

What really is absurd is the US trying to funnel the political views of over 300 million people into two parties, that is absurd.

Yes it is. I don't feel i fit in either group.

[DerNebel]

How did you get 1/5? 130m/320m is more than a third. And a good amount of the population can't vote yet

Tell me more of these coalitions.

Yeah, I can't stand the two party system. It mutes the voice of millions. But the ones in charge won't want to change it. Keeps them in power and easier to manipulate


From what I gather, 200m are registered to vote. Around 130m are going to vote.

Basically in Germany federal elections work as follows (this is simplified of course):

Every party that manages to get over 5% of the votes gets a certain number of seats in parliament based on how well they performed in the election. The party that gets the most votes overall wins the election and is now forced to go into negotiations with the other parties in parliament to form a coalition that makes up an absolute majority in parliament so they can form a government (assuming of course that they don't get an absolute majority on their own, which I don't know if it has happened before). After that the parliament can vote for the chancelor, which will usually be the candidate that the winning party has chosen before the election. So while parties are using their chosen chancelor candidate for campaigning prior to the election, you're not directly voting for the candidate but for the party.

[the-pi-guy]

Since when do non us citizens and children get to vote?

60/200*100 = 30%

I'm just saying that's where he got his numbers.  

[Max King of the Wild]

I'm just saying that's where he got his numbers.  

It makes more sense now. I've been seeing people saying 50% refrained from voting

[Mmm_fish_tacos]

It makes more sense now. I've been seeing people saying 50% refrained from voting

It would be nice if we could come up with a vote from home system. At least then people would have no excuse.

[Legend]

It would be nice if we could come up with a vote from home system. At least then people would have no excuse.

I posted before about this but colorado has this figured out. Every registered voter had a mail in ballot sent to them. They could fill it out and mail it in at any time, or they could go to the polling places and drop it off, or they could just go to the polling places and vote in person.

[nnodley]

Yes it is. I don't feel i fit in either group.

agreed!  I don't feel I fit into either as well.

[Max King of the Wild]

agreed!  I don't feel I fit into either as well.

Me neither. Hence my third party vote

Basically in Germany federal elections work as follows (this is simplified of course):

Every party that manages to get over 5% of the votes gets a certain number of seats in parliament based on how well they performed in the election. The party that gets the most votes overall wins the election and is now forced to go into negotiations with the other parties in parliament to form a coalition that makes up an absolute majority in parliament so they can form a government (assuming of course that they don't get an absolute majority on their own, which I don't know if it has happened before). After that the parliament can vote for the chancelor, which will usually be the candidate that the winning party has chosen before the election. So while parties are using their chosen chancelor candidate for campaigning prior to the election, you're not directly voting for the candidate but for the party.

Wait so... Let me ask this. Let's say this election happened in Germany and had the same results.  roughly:

48% dem.
47% repub
4% libertarian
1% green.

In the German system, you'd need to form coalitions. Which would most likely align as 49% Dem/green and 51% repub/libertarian. So in that scenario, trump would still likely be the chancellor?

Help me understand by using these results for your system as an example

[the-pi-guy]

NeoGAF

NeoGAF

[DerNebel]

Me neither. Hence my third party vote
Wait so... Let me ask this. Let's say this election happened in Germany and had the same results.  roughly:

48% dem.
47% repub
4% libertarian
1% green.

In the German system, you'd need to form coalitions. Which would most likely align as 49% Dem/green and 51% repub/libertarian. So in that scenario, trump would still likely be the chancellor

Assuming that the Democrats would not be able to form a coalition with the libertarians or even the repub's you're correct. Would be an interesting scenario, because of what a key role the libertarians would play. But the whole coalition system imo is a good way of preventing the hatred between two opposing parties from becoming as ridiculous as it appears to be the case in the US right now, cause while you can say that you refuse to form a coalition with a certain party (pretty much every german party is pretty adamant about not forming a coalition with the AfD for example), you never know what the future might force you to do one day.

For the last 3 years now we had a big coalition between the conservative CDU/CSU and the left leaning SPD in Germany for instance, which would be somewhat comparable to a coalition between the Republicans and the Democrats (though it has to be said that our entire political system is a lot more left leaning than what you have in the US, our conservatives might be more left than your Democrats).

A successful Democracy with more than two parties doesn't work without coalitions imo.

[Aura7541]

NeoGAF

NeoGAF

Heard that Pence is the one in charge of all these appointments. I really wished that Trump chose a different running mate like Rand Paul.

[darkknightkryta]

its a sign of bad things to come,  itll be a rough 4 years.  i wont be surprised if we see impeachment hearings in the next 4 years.

my biggest fear is the effect this presidency will have on the sciences.  

As long as he's not a psycho like our old pm...

[the-pi-guy]

.

How serious is the refugee situation over there?

[DerNebel]

How serious is the refugee situation over there?

We are all under sharia law. /s

Define serious. There's a lot of them here, there's also a lot of people complaining, but from my personal experience I've seen nothing happening whatsoever. From what I've heard the situation is more difficult outside of the cities however. The things that have happened (like new years in Cologne) have been in the news, so I don't have to tell you about them.

It's a difficult situation and I'm sure not everything has been or is being handled correctly, but I still completely believe that Germany has made the right decision here.

[the-pi-guy]

Donald Trump is about to face a rude awakening over Obamacare

After reiterating his promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, President-elect Donald Trump has indicated that he may keep two of the law's most popular provisions. One is straightforward enough — children up to the age of 26 being allowed to stay on their parents' plan. The other — preventing insurance companies from denying coverage because of preexisting conditions — offers a perfect illustration of why Trump and most of the other Republicans critics of Obamacare don't understand the health insurance market.

Let's say that in the beautiful new world of "repeal and replace," insurers are required to sell you insurance despite the fact that your kid has a brain tumor.  Insurance companies know what to do with that. Their actuaries can calculate that kids with brain tumors typically require (I'm making this number up) about $200,000 a year in medical care. So they'll offer to sell you a policy at an annual premium of $240,000.

At this point your response will probably be that such an outcome is not fair. When the law says insurance companies can't discriminate on the basis for pre-existing conditions, surely what it means is that they have to charge roughly the same price for health insurance, irrespective of your pre-existing condition. In the language of insurance, that's called "guaranteed issue at community rates."

Unfortunately, in the states that have tried guaranteed issues at community rates, the insurance markets have collapsed. That's because if you guarantee everyone the right to buy health insurance at community rates, then some consumers will game the system. The young and healthy ones won't buy any health insurance at all—they'll go without until they are diagnosed with diabetes or a brain tumor or get hit by a truck crossing the street.  And when that happens, they will immediately call up Aetna or Anthem and exercise their right to buy health insurance at the low community rate, irrespective of their medical condition. It won't be long before insurance companies begin losing a ton of money and are forced either to raise premiums through the roof or stop writing policies altogether.

So how do you prevent that kind of gaming of the system by consumers?  Well, that's easy.  You require that everyone buy at least some minimal level of insurance at the beginning of every year, so they can't buy insurance only after they get sick. Let's call that an" individual mandate."  But because you can't expect poor people to pay $1,000 a month, they will require subsidies to keep their out-of-pocket costs to something like 10 percent of income.  To pay for the subsidies, a new tax will be required.

So let's review what just happened. To guarantee that people with pre-existing conditions can get affordable health insurance, you need to have rules requiring guaranteed issue and community rating.  To keep insurance companies in business because of guaranteed issue and community rating, you need to have an individual mandate.  And because poor people can't afford health insurance, you need subsidies. Combine all three, and what you have, in a nutshell, is ... Obamacare.

We are all under sharia law. /s

Define serious. There's a lot of them here, there's also a lot of people complaining, but from my personal experience I've seen nothing happening whatsoever. From what I've heard the situation is more difficult outside of the cities however. The things that have happened (like new years in Cologne) have been in the news, so I don't have to tell you about them.

It's a difficult situation and I'm sure not everything has been or is being handled correctly, but I still completely believe that Germany has made the right decision here.

I'm wondering how much truth there is to all the refugee claims.