TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Following

The General US Politics Thread

Go To

Nov 2023 Mod notice:


There may be other, more specific, threads about some aspects of US politics, but this one tends to act as a hub for all sorts of related news and information, so it's usually one of the busiest OTC threads.

If you're new to OTC, it's worth reading the Introduction to On-Topic Conversations and the On-Topic Conversations debate guidelines before posting here.

Rumor-based, fear-mongering and/or inflammatory statements that damage the quality of the thread will be thumped. Off-topic posts will also be thumped. Repeat offenders may be suspended.

If time spent moderating this thread remains a distraction from moderation of the wiki itself, the thread will need to be locked. We want to avoid that, so please follow the forum rules when posting here.


In line with the general forum rules, 'gravedancing' is prohibited here. If you're celebrating someone's death or hoping that they die, your post will get thumped. This rule applies regardless of what the person you're discussing has said or done.

Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

PotatoesRock Since: Oct, 2012
#160526: Dec 4th 2016 at 6:51:20 PM

Supposedly Trump and the Republicans can't run completely ruffshod of the Corps. It has relative independent agency from the Executive and Congress.

Congress and Trump could try to push for an alternative location to be built faster but "No means no", and Corps needs 2 years to reevaluate.

edited 4th Dec '16 6:54:11 PM by PotatoesRock

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#160527: Dec 4th 2016 at 6:53:33 PM

[up][up] Bannon is a dangerous man. He wants to tear down the "establishment" — Democrats and Republicans alike — and replace it with something far worse. And now he's on his way to the WH.

edited 4th Dec '16 6:53:54 PM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
Mio Since: Jan, 2001
#160528: Dec 4th 2016 at 6:56:06 PM

I fear Trump my just have gall and be teflon enough to be able to order the National Guard to remove the protesters Bonus Army-style and get away with it.

Given that it's probably for the best that this did not drag out any longer then it has, and hopefully it won't come back up for awhile.

Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#160529: Dec 4th 2016 at 6:56:59 PM

While on the subject of Bannon, what's this "New Deal for Whites" that's been spoken about in the same breath as him? Or am I just talking nonsense, because I swear I've read something like that in this thread...

DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#160530: Dec 4th 2016 at 7:03:06 PM

[up] I'm pretty sure it would be illegal to only give Federal Benefits to One "Race" of people and denying all others. That would be violating countless Civil Rights Laws in this country.

LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#160531: Dec 4th 2016 at 7:07:13 PM

Explicitly yes but we've done it many times before.

Oh really when?
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#160532: Dec 4th 2016 at 7:11:00 PM

Remember, this is the same asshole who once suggested that people of Asian and Indian descent becoming a majority of the high powered executives in Silicon Valley (which isn't actually true — most of them are still white men) had no place in a "civic society".

As a Taiwanese-American, this somewhat irks me.

Disgusted, but not surprised
CrimsonZephyr Would that it were so simple. from Massachusetts Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
Would that it were so simple.
#160533: Dec 4th 2016 at 7:26:05 PM

""New Deal for Whites"

There already is one. It was called the New Deal.

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."
PotatoesRock Since: Oct, 2012
#160534: Dec 4th 2016 at 7:29:03 PM

He wants one that's even whiter and paler than the previous one.

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#160535: Dec 4th 2016 at 8:01:40 PM

Trump's rhetoric is spreading north, Alberta is probably going to be consumed next election and I'm not sure the Federal Conservatives can contain this garbage in their own ranks.

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/edmonton/chris-alexander-lock-her-up-chant-anti-carbon-tax-1.3880911

Even if Trump doesn't start a major war, crash the economy or cause climate change to run rampant....the far right is going to go on a rampage. The American electorate failed to stop them, and now its up to their equally fallible counterparts around the world to man the trenches.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
TacticalFox88 from USA Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Dating the Doctor
DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#160537: Dec 4th 2016 at 9:12:18 PM

[up] It's nice that 99% of the comments on his Twitter Feed are calling him a spineless coward (which he is) and a vile cartoony villain. I don't know if Paul Ryan can keep his seat in 2018 if this is a common occurrence on his Twitter.

AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#160538: Dec 4th 2016 at 9:16:21 PM

I'm not sure how opinions on Twitter affect his ability to keep his position. Wasn't he just voted into that by his party? Not sure they care about Twitter insults. (I think politicians in general kind of need to take such things with a grain of salt, since a hundred forty characters on a social media site are not exactly insightful criticism.)

AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#160539: Dec 4th 2016 at 9:18:34 PM

Nobody pays attention to Twitter comments most of the time. And these kinds of posts in general tend to be a magnet for strong opinions from the opposite side. It doesn't really mean much, not even as a gauge of how widespread opinions necessarily are.

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#160540: Dec 4th 2016 at 9:50:06 PM

I would assume that Ryan runs in a solidly run district.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
JulianLapostat Since: Feb, 2014
#160541: Dec 4th 2016 at 11:22:12 PM

@Julian last page: I think it's a dangerous mistake to dismiss Bannon a mere kleptocrat. He actually believes in tearing down both the Republican and Democratic party establishments and in at least some of the poison he's responsible for peddling through Breitbart. And more importantly, he appears to know how to manage Trump and is more competent than him.

1) He's not tearing the Republican Party Establishment. Paul Ryan is in charge of the House, Mitch Mcmconnell is in charge of the Senate, Gingrich and Giuliani have Trump's ear...All Trump has done has brought in the Boyar Class that has secretly under-girded the party to the surface as direct representatives. His cabinet includes Betsy Devos an under-the-radar theocrat operating the Midwest, and Mike Pence is another theocrat in the waiting. This is no change in the Republican platform or status-quo, its just the same old thing...only without any pretenses. The Republicans are now the party of robber barons and neo-confederates. Before there was a surface pretense and even some fleeting moments of sincerity...now it's out loud and proud.

2) Bannon's entire career shows nothing more than the profile of a craven opportunist and Social Climber. He was a Reaganite in The '80s, then an investment banker/financier, somehow coattailed of Seinfeld by getting a cut of its royalties and then piggy-bagged on that appalling website. There's no plan to tear down anything in that profile. Just a conventional Republican Rule-Abiding Rebel similar to the Tea Party and Sarah "Maverick" Palin.

3) Being more competent than Trump is Damned by Faint Praise...Trump didn't get to be Trump by competence. He got there by being lucky. Bannon is riding off the coattails of that luck, not creating anything.

4) Bannon might trick people in that he's a pseudo-intellectual rather than anti-intellectual as most Republicans are, and he calls himself a "Leninist" (with no idea what the real Lenin did and said, the real Lenin was a defiant anti-racist) but that's meaningless. He's just a hack having a late-life crisis with too much money and Delusions of Eloquence.

edited 4th Dec '16 11:23:33 PM by JulianLapostat

MadSkillz Destroyer of Worlds Since: Mar, 2013 Relationship Status: I only want you gone
JulianLapostat Since: Feb, 2014
#160543: Dec 5th 2016 at 1:46:34 AM

That's why I think Kushner is interesting. He was the guy who actually got Trump elected and he's disturbing because he's seemingly the most normal level-headed guy in the Deadly Decadent Court.

Bannon is just an opportunistic clown.

RedSavant Since: Jan, 2001
#160544: Dec 5th 2016 at 2:13:39 AM

Kinda wish they'd gone the full mile and dressed Bannon as Hitler.

Then again, SNL had better keep on Trump's ass this whole four years after all the press they gave him.

It's been fun.
Krieger22 Causing freakouts over sourcing since 2018 from Malaysia Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: I'm in love with my car
Causing freakouts over sourcing since 2018
#160545: Dec 5th 2016 at 3:55:39 AM

N.C. man told police he went to D.C. pizzeria with assault rifle to ‘self-investigate’ election-related conspiracy theory. By firing in it. What do you think I am going to say next? If he were a minority he wouldn't have lived.

A North Carolina man was arrested Sunday after he walked into a popular pizza restaurant in Northwest Washington carrying an assault rifle and fired one or more shots, D.C. police said. The man told police he had come to the restaurant to “self-investigate” a false election-related conspiracy theory involving Hillary Clinton that spread online during her presidential campaign.

The incident caused panic, with several businesses going into lockdown as police swarmed the neighborhood after receiving the call shortly before 3 p.m.

Police said 28-year-old Edgar Maddison Welch, of Salisbury, N.C., walked in the front door of Comet Ping Pong and pointed a firearm in the direction of a restaurant employee. The employee was able to flee and notify police. Police said Welch proceeded to discharge the rifle inside the restaurant; they think that all other occupants had fled when Welch began shooting.

Welch has been charged with assault with a dangerous weapon. Police said there were no reported injuries.

Interim D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham said police arrived on the scene minutes after the first call, set up a perimeter and safely arrested Welch about 45 minutes after he entered the restaurant.

Police recovered two firearms inside the restaurant; an additional weapon was recovered in Welch’s car.

Vivek Jain, of Potomac, Md., was eating lunch inside Banana Leaf, a nearby Indian restaurant, when Comet patrons came rushing inside. He said Banana Leaf was locked down for about 90 minutes.

“A bunch of people ran in from Comet and said a man walked in with a gun,” Jain said.

About 45 minutes later, he said, he saw a man walking backward out into the street with his hands in the air.

“He laid down on Connecticut Avenue and he was immediately picked up by the police and taken away,” he said.

The popular family restaurant, near Connecticut and Nebraska avenues NW in the Chevy Chase neighborhood, was swept up in the onslaught of fake news and conspiracy theories that were prevalent during the presidential campaign. The restaurant, its owner, staff and nearby businesses have been attacked on social media and received death threats.

Although police initially said it did not appear the incident was related to the threats, businesses and residents immediately surmised it might be connected to “pizzagate.”

James Alefantis, the owner of Comet Ping Pong, said in a statement: “What happened today demonstrates that promoting false and reckless conspiracy theories comes with consequences. I hope that those involved in fanning these flames will take a moment to contemplate what happened here today, and stop promoting these falsehoods right away.”

The restaurant’s owner and employees were threatened on social media in the days before the election after fake news stories circulated claiming that then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her campaign chief were running a child sex ring from the restaurant’s backrooms. Even Michael Flynn, a retired general whom President-elect Donald Trump has tapped to advise him on national security, shared stories about another anti-Clinton conspiracy theory involving pedophilia. None of them were true. But the fake stories and threats persisted, some even aimed at children of Comet Ping Pong employees and patrons. The restaurant’s owner was forced to contact the FBI, local police, Facebook and other social-media platforms in an effort to remove the articles.

Last month, citing its policy against posting the personal information of others, Reddit banned the “pizzagate” topic.

But it didn’t stop the harassment, and nearby businesses have received threats as well, according to police. On Sunday, Washington Post reporters involved in this article were the target of online threats shortly after it posted.

Matt Carr, the owner of the Little Red Fox market and coffee shop, said his business started getting threats last weekend. They got 30 to 40 calls before they stopped answering calls from blocked numbers, he said. “One person said he wanted to line us up in front of a firing squad,” said Carr, who spent more than an hour in lockdown with his employees Sunday.

The threats were all tied to the Comet Ping Pong accusations online, he said. “There’s some old painted-over symbol on the marquee that they claim is an international symbol of pedophilia and that there are underground tunnels. . . . There’s some video on You Tube that has almost 100,000 views and talks about me, the owner of the Little Red Fox, by name.

“This was our worst fear,” he said, “that someone would read all this and come to the block with a gun. And today it happened.”

Politics and Prose, the bookstore that has been a Washington institution and neighborhood fixture for more than 30 years, was in the middle of a book event when attendees and staff saw police converging on the block, said Bradley Graham, a store co-owner.

They, too, had received threats recently, Graham said, and were planning to meet with police Monday “because we had feared that what, up to now, had been simply despicable menacing verbal attacks online or on the phone might escalate.”

Graham said he was told that the gunman walked into the kitchen at Comet Ping Pong on Sunday, “presumably looking for the alleged tunnels” where children were hidden and tortured. Graham believes that account of the gunman’s actions came from an employee at the restaurant.

He said the businesses are hoping to get more police protection, “and we would also hope that law enforcement authorities will be prompted to take additional measures to shut down the sites where this hateful material is being spread, and also measures to try to trace the menacing phone calls.

“ . . . We’re all rather shaken,” he said.

“Political figures have the means to deal with conspiratorial allegations and threats, but your neighborhood mom and pop shop does not,” Carr said later in an email. “I make coffee and breakfast burritos for a living. This is out of our league.”

D.C. Council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) was getting gas down the street from Comet Ping Pong and saw what she described as intense police activity around the restaurant. Cheh said she spoke with Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), who had been briefed by police. At the time she spoke to reporters, Cheh didn’t know the gunman’s actions were connected to the false rumors surrounding Comet Ping Pong, but she was concerned.

“It’s very, very worrisome,” Cheh said. “I’m just very worried that [the rumors] may have unleashed people who are unstable to pursue violent action, as has happened before.”

She praised the speed of the police response, which she said may have prevented an attack. “It all looked so efficient and professional. I was very pleased it was locked down so quickly.”

Gareth Wade, 47, and Doug Clarke, 50, were sitting down for pizza and beer at Comet when they spotted a commotion. All of a sudden, said Wade, “the server said someone just walked in with a shotgun.

“A man had just walked into the building, passed us into the back of the building, he seemed to have a shotgun or a rifle-type of [gun] and said we ought to vacate the building,” Wade recalled the server saying.

They rushed out of the restaurant and had planned to head to Politics and Prose, where Clarke’s wife and 5-year-old took shelter, but they got separated. Clarke and Wade were met by a heavy police presence when they attempted to join up.

“Police said you can’t go to the bookstore,” Wade said. They ended up behind the police barricade at Connecticut Avenue and Fessenden Street. Clarke’s wife and son were forced to remain inside the bookstore. Meanwhile, Clarke was trying to reunite his son with a present he had received for his fifth birthday, a stuffed lion that they were forced to leave inside the restaurant.

“He’s kind of shaken up about the whole thing,” Clarke said. “We’ve been talking a lot about it and trying to help him understand. That he was a man with a weapon, weapons are bad — he was not a nice person.”

Note: Contrary to what Reddit claims to have done, I can confirm that discussion of this particular conspiracy theory is still going on there. I am not giving them the ad revenue or the conspirators more airtime.

Also, does anyone have any idea as to what tier exactly this level of projection is? The child porn substitute term allegedly in play here first showed up on 4chan - not exactly something middle age politicians throw around.

I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiot
PushoverMediaCritic I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out. from the Italy of America Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
#160546: Dec 5th 2016 at 4:09:40 AM

I am overwhelmed with disgust.

Ogodei Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers from The front lines Since: Jan, 2011
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
#160547: Dec 5th 2016 at 5:43:09 AM

I read a brilliant idea for SNL: they should have a live ticker of anything Trump tweets during their show, as well as TV screens that the actors can see so that they can mock him in real time in front of millions of Americans.

Of course, their spineless hackery helped normalize him in the first place, so i don't know if they have the guts.

BonsaiForest Since: Jan, 2001
#160548: Dec 5th 2016 at 8:07:31 AM

Now the conspiracy nuts are saying that the "pizzagate" moron is a government plant.

When there's evidence the conspiracy belief may be wrong, the conspiracy merely gets bigger.

A painful reminder of my own conspiracy nut days. Damn.

Geostomp In the name of the POWER, I will punish you! from Arkansas, USA Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: What is this thing you call love?
In the name of the POWER, I will punish you!
#160549: Dec 5th 2016 at 8:12:38 AM

It's only going to get worse since Trump will gladly spread whatever conspiracy the thinks benefits him at the moment and none of the Republicans will lift a finger to stop him since they won't risk losing the opportunity to pass their horrible ideas or make appeals to their increasingly rabid base. The media will be useless for dispelling these since they must forever be "balanced" and treat every single nonsensical lie as equal to any actual truth. Meanwhile, the Republicans base will only get more and more racist and delusional until they cause utter chaos in the public for daring to question their great leader.

This is getting worse and worse.

"When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all" Futurama, Godfellas
Julep Since: Jul, 2010
#160550: Dec 5th 2016 at 8:22:51 AM

I think that, while Trump's utter stupidity and recklessness might throw foreign powers off-guard in the first few months, they will quickly adapt to it. I think foreign governments tend to be...how to put it...smarter than your average Trump supporter. Also more in touch with reality, which is still pretty influential in the world no matter how much you deny it.


Total posts: 417,856
Top