Play Cassandra with me...

[Hell Hath No Fury]

What do you see happening in the first two years of a Clinton presidency?

I see the TPP passing, Keystone being resurrected, and the Iraq nuke deal trashed. And we will bomb someone new. Your thoughts?

[monmouth4]

1. I was thinking earlier she is going to screw up, it's inevitable. She'll do her four years and then

she'll be gone. Let her get this out of her system as they say, and then we can concentrate on getting a true Democrat in office. I doubt Bernie would be interested, he would be too old but don't expect her to do eight years...

[Hell Hath No Fury]

3. I hadn't really though of that angle --

of her being only a single term President. I can definitely see investigations coming down the line. Nothing the GOPers love more than that. :/ I also think the Clinton Foundation thing is going to blow up and hamstring her further.

[hopemountain]

12. yup. there goes their private space ship with

walk in closets for her vast array of designer pant suits and countless servants to attend to her every want or need.

[RobertEarl]

2. Yeah, bombs away

We will see the new administration bend over backwards to placate the republicans.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

5. Hope she's not stupid enough to go for any type of --

deregulation crap -- that's the kind of thing GOPers could get behind and fuck us all with.

[RobertEarl]

9. There is no telling how far they will cater

The R's already have their knives out. The Clintons have a history of doing the bidding of the republicans even as they are being sliced and diced.

Obama, cut and bleeding, to his credit, managed to make some progress. I don't think the Clintons have as much guts as Barack.

Meanwhile, more and more people are opting out of the game, and basically saying 'Leave me alone'. The reduced numbers of people voting in the primaries is proof of that. Democracy is very, very ill. That's not Bernie's fault.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

15. Yeah, the primary numbers --

if accurate -- are very disturbing. Another big fear is Trump blowing himself up to the point he is out and the GOP putting someone more mainstream/acceptable in against Clinton. She goes up against almost anyone but Trump and she is toast.

Yeah, once Bill didn't have to face reelection he did some serious (and damaging) dancing with the GOP. I think he best we can hope for is four years of gridlock and a couple of not shitty Supremes pics.

[RobertEarl]

20. Best we can hope for

My best hopes I will keep to myself, because expressing such would garner the attention of the PTB on DU and cause me difficulties. Besides, stating such will not matter in the long run as the situation is in the hands of other PTB that are tasked with justice.

Now, if justice is denied, then yes, we are looking at four mean, nasty years of DC politics and violence spread like butter on the arms manufacturer's toast.

[pangaia]

26. I've thought for weeks now that trump will not end up being the nominee.

That worries me more than if he IS the nominee.

Hell, a sea cucumber should be able to beat him.

[dflprincess]

32. She does say she can "work across the aisle"

and you know that can't be good for us.

[desmiller]

4. More wars. More of our loved ones getting killed for the rich.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

6. My worry is she is going to go all in on --

Assad. That would be a clusterfuck of the Iraq magnitude.

[desmiller]

8. .....Jesus. A clusterfuck of epic proportions, Fury.

[Kelvin Mace]

7. Impeachment proceedings

Endless investigations, default on national debt, economic implosion, drill-baby-drill, Keystone approved, more bridge collapses, ecological and climate disasters, move to privatize Social Security, war, anti-government terrorism.

Should I go on?

[Hell Hath No Fury]

16. Interestingly, I work in an industry that is considered a --

"canary in a coalmine" when it comes to the economy -- interiorscape plant service. I have noticed we have started to lose clients again after a few years of somewhat stability. Such loses are usually a sign of Business doing some belt tightening. That this is happening here even here in red hot SF is "interesting". Obama certainly gave the economy a serious kick start but nothing has been done to address the problem for the long-term.

Yeah, I too see lots of Third Way "fixes" coming down the pike.

[Kelvin Mace]

30. I work for a company that does heavy machinery

and sales have been off six off the last seven months and orders are slowing down (we get orders 2-3 months out). Given that the GOP will not vote for anything but tax cuts and gutting the safety net, things do not bode well for the future.

China will be a serious problem since once they go into recession, they will start cashing in all of that US debt they've been buying. We have a number of states on par with Venezuela economically (Kansas comes to mind) and they are completely in the thrall of the GOP.

[GoldenThunder]

10. Climate collapse hit high gear last year.

Two years of extra climate collapse later, there won't be much of and American political system left to kick around anymore.

[PoliticAverse]

11. Entitlement reform like Bill Clinton mentioned to Paul Ryan. n/t

[Hell Hath No Fury]

17. Oh yeah, I can see Bill thinking --

this is their change to finish what he started. To be honest, I think Bill actually likes the challenge of working with the GOPers more than the Dems.

[PoliticAverse]

18. Bill is much more a "political animal" than Hillary - it's why he gets along so well with the Bushes

[hopemountain]

13. i posted the tpp, tpip, fracking and keystone

Last edited Wed Jun 8, 2016, 11:03 PM - Edit history (1)

all being proclaimed the new law of the land and the planet - on another thread.

shudder.... i left out the iran nuke deal... and we both left out all out war in syria along with the enforced draft.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

19. Syria REALLY has me worried.

Between Hillary's lovefest at AIPAC and her working closely with Bibi and his new crazy-ass Defense Minister, I dread what she will be up to when it comes to the Middle East. She has made SOOO many bad decisions on foreign policy -- now that she is Top Dog and she can truly play it like she wants to without O tempering it at all -- my stomach just curdles at the thought.

[hopemountain]

23. i hear that ! and all at the expense of not

listening to bernie and others warning about north korea and china.
we already know she is intimate with the saudis and putin via the saudis.

[djean111]

14. Social Security slashed.

Pete Peterson is probably dancing with joy.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

21. Seeing who she appoints --

will tell us EVERYTHING about her plans -- we'll know immediately.

[hopemountain]

24. oh hell, no -

not if she wants a re-election.

i am on social security. i will have go off grid and live in a tent.

[Jim Lane]

33. "Grand Bargain" to cut Social Security but, for political reasons, not cut current benefits

If Clinton becomes President, she'll continue and even intensify Obama's tendency to accept right-wing deficit hawkery. She'll be less likely than Obama to get on TV and say something like "We have a deficit problem. Our deficit is too low."

There will probably be a Clinton-GOP deficit-reduction deal, but they won't want people like you up in arms and imperiling their re-election, so the Social Security cuts will be more subtle:
* higher age for eligibility for new retirees
* switch to chained CPI to make calculations of future benefit increases "more accurate", i.e., lower, but even though the purchasing power of your monthly benefit will go down, its amount stated in current dollars will go up, so the cut will be less evident
* in calculating new retirees' initial benefits, bring wages forward to present value by using the CPI, not the average increase in wages
* maybe fiddle around with the Internal Revenue Code to make more of the total benefit payments subject to income tax

Take heart, though, you won't suffer alone. The deficit-reduction deal will have many other bad components that hurt many other people.

[hopemountain]

34. thanks. but,

didn't president obama recently support bernie's platform for expanding social security and not using CPI?

[Jim Lane]

35. Obama has improved his negotiating over his years in office

With the stimulus, Obama made a mistake by beginning with a proposal that was designed to appeal to the GOP (smaller than economists said was needed, and inefficiently weighted toward tax cuts). The Republicans gratefully accepted his concessions and voted against the bill anyway. His recent support for Bernie's platform is an example of a smarter approach to dealing with the Republicans.

BUT this thread isn't about Obama. It's about predicting what a Hillary Clinton presidency would be like. She touts herself as a moderate, a centrist, a progressive who gets things done, and who gets them done by reaching across the aisle, because she's better than Bernie at working with Republicans. She will want to have something to show for that approach, and one such trophy would be a "Grand Bargain" on deficit reduction. Perhaps the Republicans, after a suitable amount of horrified screaming about the evils of taxation, will accept some small tax increase (say, getting rid of the carried interest loophole that people like Romney exploit) in exchange for getting a lot of their wish list in cutting social programs. That's the basis for my prediction that Clinton, if elected, will strike a deal that reduces Social Security.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

22. Assad will be gone and the US will be bombing Iran

an increase in fracking

[Hell Hath No Fury]

25. Lebanon and Jordan --

must really be shitting bricks these days. Fracking? Oh yeah, lots ad lots of fracking.

[yourpaljoey]

27. WW III

She has her eye on Putin and she ain't backin' down.
She will poke Russian Bear until the cold war goes hot.
Missiles will go flying, and it won't just be Russia and NATO.

[peace13]

29. Just like* had to get Saddam for talking mean to pappy!

They get a fight up their behind and nothing doing but they have to bring it on! It will not end well for the US.

[peace13]

28. Fracking will flourish and the ACA will begin to be dismantled.

More wars. Fights with Putin. Our borders will be closed to Americans who want to get out.

[mak3cats]

31. Frankly, I don't see a Clinton presidency...

...because if she's the nominee, I think she will lose. JMHO.