US election: this is what will happen

The reason is conscription for all males between the ages of 20 and 41 - even going to university doesn't get you off (it just allows you to postpone your time in the army). Conscientious objection is illegal, and generally you can't get a job in Turkey without completing military service.

The only exception (my Turkish barber tells me) is that upon paying £7000 to the government, Turks living abroad only have to return to Turkey to serve three weeks in the army.

 

I wouldn't worry about the BBC for much longer. With the Brexit / Trump revolution, they are surely on borrowed time. They'll be a long distant memory along with the NHS.

 

Yes, I do understand all that... my point is that their military spending isn't detrimental to their military size/scale and efficacy... if you take a one-size-fits-all approach, spending is below 2% = bad... then Turkey is an outrider. The only NATO member to commit ground forces to fighting ISIS for example.

 

And Hilary received more votes than the Donald.
*doublefacepalm*

 

Considering the choice they were presented with...

 

51% didn't vote in 1996 (when Bill Clinton was re-elected). That was followed by 49.7% who didn't vote in 2000 when George W Bush was elected. There hasn't been a turnout of more than 58% for an American presidential election since the 1960s. I guess a lot of people were turned off by the style of campaigning this time around.

 

Conscripts are only paid pocket money, so enormous cost savings are possible compared with armies of professional soldiers.

 

And Yoda you have become


like a grope, you would Mr Trump?
***** you can grab them by.

 

Although the turnout was low, it is measured differently in the USA from here - there it is expressed as a % of the Voting Age Population (which might include millions ineligible to vote) whereas here it is a % of those actually registered to vote. I still can't get over the turnout for the EU Referendum. Only 72% means that more than a quarter of those entitled to a vote failed to use it. Mind-boggling.

 

Plus it's like our system in a way. Texas is never going to vote Democrat and California doesn't vote Republican so US voters also get 'wasted vote' syndrome just like the British electors in Maidenhead or Bootle.

My cousin couldn't find her voter registration card (she was told she was "cancelled" and she'd have to go back to Philly) and her husband told her not to bother as it wouldn't make any difference! Luckily she DID find it.

But it's only the battleground states that are going to swing the decision anyway.

 

Before the million and oneth vote can win the election the first million must be cast. Unless there are no Republicans in California or Democrats in Texas people have to vote for their party to win.

 

This Election still ain't over:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...ican-electoral-college-trump#comment-88926638
Eight faithless electors have declared so far - quite extraordinary. Unfortunately for Hillary, seven of them are refusing to vote for her! These people are refusing to call themselves "faithless" or "rogue" electors. Apparently they are being "Hamiltonian" in disregarding their voters' wishes. What a ludicrous system to have 130 million Americans vote, only for their wishes to be entirely disregarded by 538 people.

 

I wonder what odds you would have got at the bookies if you'd have bet on Trump winning the states and the Electoral College, but losing the popular vote by a wide margin, before John Kasich being chosen President by the House of Representatives after a massive EC rebellion? It's not too late to place your bets!

 

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/donald-trump-electors-lessig-232598

As the rebellion gathers momentum (perhaps!)

 

Meet Eric Greitens, the newly-elected Governor of Missouri (http://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/missouri-governor-koster-greitens):

 

I suspect that the BBC brand will be sold off in the not too distant future.

 

Any bears in those woods?

 

To the new Murdoch Sky network?

 

The charter renewal has just been agreed, hasn't it? That guarantees the licence fee for, I think, 11 years at least...