US Politics |OT|

[SanAndreasX]

Pemalite said:

My US investments has started to decline by a few points, so pulled the pin before I lost any significant amount of money. (So I am still ahead).
Smarter to invest in Europe in the long term I think, far more stable and a larger market. Stuff the USA.

Super Annuation (Which is compulsory here) which is currently 4.2~ Trillion and set to be the largest pension scheme in the world by 2030 (For a population of only 27~ million with a GDP of 1.7~ trillion) has also been hit hard by Donald Trumps garbage, I am down a few grand on that, others are far far worst off who invested in US markets.

Crypto is down significantly, so might be worth watching Bitcoin over the coming weeks for a good cheap pickup on that.

Everything is borked.

Out of curiosity does the USA have triggers in place to eject a president who catastrophically damages the nation? Here we can fire our prime minister via a few triggers, notably the Governor General can fire our leader when our leader breaks the law or is just a fuckwit.

Politically we are starting to see a shift in sentiment here... Our conservative leaders have now started to change their tune to push more progressive ideas rather than ideas similar to Trump to gain the popular vote.

The USA has the 25th Amendment, which supposedly allows the VP and the Cabinet to remove the president from power by preparing a written statement to Congress. That would make J.D. Vance acting president, however, and I'm not sure that is an improvement. An acting vice-president would also be chosen at that time. There are also no snap/special elections for President. Presidential elections can only be held the first Thursday of every fourth November under the 25th Amendment, and at no other time. Vance would be acting president until 2028, at which time he would likely run unless he's such an unmitigated disaster that even he doesn't want to try or that the government or his party lets him know that it is in his best interests to not run.  And I'm guessing that besides the fact that Vance and the Cabinet are just as horrible as their boss, they're also cognizant of the fact that removing Trump from office would have every right-wing lunatic from Texas to Florida baying for their hides.

Other than that, no. There's no such thing as a "no confidence vote". Your governor-general is the proxy for your head of state (the King), while your prime minister is the head of government. In the U.S., the president is both head of state and head of government.  He can only otherwise be removed by a lengthy impeachment process where the threshold of conviction in the Senate is far too high (67 out of 100 Senators). And again, in the 0.001% chance they got a conviction, that would not trigger any kind of election until the regular presidential election in 2028. Vance would serve out the rest of Trump's term. That is part of why presidential elections have Americans at each others' throats every 4 years. You're stuck with the winner, during that time, no matter who it is, and a lot of damage can be done within 4 years.

As for your upcoming elections, I hope Australians are paying attention to the U.S. and Canada. Peter Dutton and Gina Rinehart are basically your version of Trump and Musk. I would not trust either one of them to keep any promises they make. Albo and Labor need to make that crystal clear to the Australian electorate.

Last edited by SanAndreasX - on 09 April 2025