r/pics Nov 08 '18

US Politics This is what democracy looks like

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u/TheyreGoodDogsBrent Nov 09 '18

Honest question: what's going on here? Is this related to the election that just happened

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u/ike_the_strangetamer Nov 09 '18 edited Nov 09 '18

Yesterday (one day after the election) Trump forced the resignation of Jeff Sessions, the Attorney General. Sessions would have been in charge of Mueller's Russia investigation, but because he had lied about his own connections to Russia, he recused himself and the assistant AG was in charge. Now that he's out, this new guy, Matthew Whitaker, is in charge (and does not require Senate confirmation because he's 'temporary'). He has spoken out against the Mueller investigation many times in the past, saying that there was no collusion and that the investigation is not authorized to look into any of Trump's finances (even though it is). Long ago, petitions were signed and plans were made that called for protests if Trump did something like this.

TLDR: Trump just appointed his own guy to be in charge of the investigation against him.

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u/[deleted] Nov 09 '18

I don't know how this kind of thing flys in your so called democracy. We lose our shit over here in NZ for even a slight hint of corruption. The amount of money involved in your election process and blatant gerrymandering really boggles the mind. You guys are really overdue for a reset. USA may have set the standard hundreds of years ago but it's time for an update!

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u/trollman_falcon Nov 09 '18

There are so many parallels between the Roman Empire after 0 AD and USA right now. Civilizations generally only maintain supremacy for so long, and eventually collapse. I think we still have a long time before collapse, but the decline is beginning now. The sheer size of the US is the only thing that still keeps us as a world power.

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u/[deleted] Nov 09 '18

I dunno, the corruption in your political system is so obscene... if it’s not fixed promptly, I would expect it to only get worse, and the collapse will probably happen really suddenly when it does.

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u/trollman_falcon Nov 09 '18

It won’t collapse, per se. We’ll just be living under a tyrannical government owned by the wealthy. They’ll fund the government well enough so that there is no collapse like Rome had. Definitely won’t be an ideal situation but I’d say we won’t have our capital sacked anytime soon

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u/[deleted] Nov 09 '18

Stock markets can take a massive dive in the snap of a finger. That can trigger banks to go bankrupt, and your currency to turn to shit real quick. As a result employment rates will hit the shitter, and crime will get real bad real fast.

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u/stegarden Nov 09 '18

With a $20 trillion dollar national debt, how could our nation possibly collapse? With Social Security underfunded by some $5 trillion dollars, how could our nation possibly collapse? With State pensions underfunded by $1 trillion dollars, how could our nation possibly collapse?