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KarkatTheDalek Not as angry as the name would suggest. from Somwhere in Time/Space Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: You're a beautiful woman, probably
Not as angry as the name would suggest.
#175376: Feb 22nd 2017 at 11:22:41 AM

[up][up][up] How poorly were things run in the Nixon administration?

edited 22nd Feb '17 11:22:52 AM by KarkatTheDalek

Oh God! Natural light!
Elle Since: Jan, 2001
#175377: Feb 22nd 2017 at 11:24:21 AM

So Daily Kos tends to be too hyper-partisan for my taste but this is interesting: there's a petition to the Supreme Court to nulify the results of the presidential election and it's working its way through the bureaucratic chain

Here is the record of the case docket: as of today it's been "distributed for conference" for March 17th, meaning it's on the agenda for SCOTUS to decide whether to hear the case.

The justification is that the Russian interference constitutes foreign invasion which the Constitution enjoins the federal government to protect the states against and SCOSUS has original jurisdiction over cases which involve foreign states.

CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#175378: Feb 22nd 2017 at 11:25:00 AM

[up][up] Notoriously badly; Nixon shared many of Trump's flaws (minus the womanizing AFAIK), though unlike Trump he was smart enough to make it work for a time.

[up] That will be shot down unless you can provide proof of tampering with voting machines, which is astronomically unlikely to have happened without it being noticed.

edited 22nd Feb '17 11:25:49 AM by CaptainCapsase

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#175379: Feb 22nd 2017 at 11:25:41 AM

Indeed, setting a precedent for impeachment in cases of incompetence or unpopularity is not a good idea. It needs to be reserved for clear criminal activity that transcends politics. Otherwise you could have a party take control of Congress and use the threat of impeachment on a president on loose charges.

A handful of Dems wanted to impeach Dubya back in 06, but that would have been moronic, if it were possible, (even putting aside the whole President Cheney thing, and impeaching him afterwards would rightfully be called out as a non-violent coup) and in the end their short and mid term interests were better served by keeping him in office.

[up]One positive thing more or less everyone says about Nixon is that he was totally devoted to his wife. Her illness and death basically finished him off. Besides, with Kissenger in town there weren't many women available.tongue

edited 22nd Feb '17 11:27:01 AM by Rationalinsanity

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
FictionAddiction Lurker turned Troper from My Home, duh Since: Dec, 2016 Relationship Status: Singularity
Lurker turned Troper
#175380: Feb 22nd 2017 at 11:26:54 AM

If we are comparing the current cultural and political to Video Games I personally see a lot of parallels to Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, especially concerning fake news and "alternative facts".

I am a simple man, I like stories therefore I dissect and discuss them.
CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#175381: Feb 22nd 2017 at 11:27:34 AM

[up][up] If the bar for impeachment becomes that low, the system would be de facto parliamentary which, if nothing else, is at least workable, though that would depend on people getting used to the President serving at the will of congress.

edited 22nd Feb '17 11:30:20 AM by CaptainCapsase

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#175382: Feb 22nd 2017 at 11:37:07 AM

I saw a headline on CNN that a suicide bomber in Mosul was Id's as an ex-Gitmo detainee. Think that might be relevant locally?

CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#175383: Feb 22nd 2017 at 11:38:00 AM

[up] Trump will probably at least bring it up to try and build domestic support.

In other news, Paul Ryan's tax plan is running into problems with the Republican congress over the use of a Border Adjusted Tax to make up for the revenue lost from tax cuts. Ironically that's one of the most reasonable sounding (at least on paper) parts of the tax plan.

edited 22nd Feb '17 11:42:31 AM by CaptainCapsase

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#175384: Feb 22nd 2017 at 11:40:21 AM

@Fighter: incidentally, mentioned for the sake of context, Spec Ops: The Line is a serious deconstruction of the military shooter as power fantasy. Brutally so because it does it with a bit of a bait and switch of presenting itself as a pretty average game at the start before everything goes horribly wrong.

It really is. Fantastic deconstruction of the right-wing power fantasy that most military shooters tend to be. God, that game is good.

Trump will probably at least bring it up to try and build domestic support.

I don't know. He might be too busy making up fictional terror attacks to notice. Did you hear London got nuked off the map? It was probably ISIS. Hillary Clinton ordered them to do it in order to distract everyone from her losing Presidential campaign. She can do that 'cause she's the founder.

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
KarkatTheDalek Not as angry as the name would suggest. from Somwhere in Time/Space Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: You're a beautiful woman, probably
Not as angry as the name would suggest.
#175385: Feb 22nd 2017 at 11:45:07 AM

[up] I realize you're joking, but I'm kind of hoping that that sort of thing ends up causing his downfall - he finally tells a lie so big and so obvious that nobody, not even his own supporters, is willing to put up with it.

edited 22nd Feb '17 11:45:17 AM by KarkatTheDalek

Oh God! Natural light!
Silasw A procrastination in of itself from A handcart to hell (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#175386: Feb 22nd 2017 at 11:46:46 AM

Yeah the former gitmo inmate was apparently a Brit who traveled there before ISIS became a thing, he likely went to join AQ before the split.

So either he was always a member of AQ and got released because the evidence was tainted due to torture, or he wasn't originally a member of AQ but joined out of spite after being tourtured for no reason.

edited 22nd Feb '17 11:47:28 AM by Silasw

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#175387: Feb 22nd 2017 at 12:01:38 PM

So the debate for DNC chair is coming up tonight. Best of luck to those involved, I'm personally hoping for Ellison, and apparently so is Mayor De Blasio as of last night. Along with Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, among other congressional colleagues of his.

I don't mean any disrespect to Tom Perez, but Ellison probably has the best shot at mending the divide between the progressive left and centrists, and we're not going to win in 2020 without addressing those divisions.

edited 22nd Feb '17 12:13:40 PM by CaptainCapsase

Hodor2 Since: Jan, 2015
#175388: Feb 22nd 2017 at 12:30:52 PM

Agreed. He's not only very capable and an effective advocate of the party's positions, but since he's the pick of the "disruptive" wing of the party, his being elected would go along way toward promoting unity, especially since he's understandably gotten endorsements from "establishment" figures- I saw yesterday that John Lewis endorsed him.

JBC31187 Since: Jan, 2015
#175389: Feb 22nd 2017 at 12:31:12 PM

Yeah, I think Ellison might be better optics-wise, since he's a black Muslim in Trump's America. And I think Perez might be more useful where he is right now. But he and Perez are so close policy-wise that I'm fine with either. I'm more terrified that we're going to see more infighting even though the barbarians are inside the White House rubbing their grubby little fingers over everything.

DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#175391: Feb 22nd 2017 at 1:01:11 PM

[up][up] The Sanders wing will be thrilled to see Ellison win, beyond a radical here or there, and he's got reasonable support from centrist democrats. Perez on the meantime will relieve certain centrists, but he'll struggle greatly with the progressive left unless he can pull off some very effective outreach.

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#175392: Feb 22nd 2017 at 1:07:15 PM

Is it normal for a person to tweet with so many exclamation marks? https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump (Last two tweets at the time of posting innocuous)

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Hodor2 Since: Jan, 2015
#175393: Feb 22nd 2017 at 1:09:04 PM

[up][up]The one thing I would quibble with is that my impression is that Perez is a progressive, as are a fair amount of Democrats disliked by the "Sanders Wing". I see it more as a situation where the Sanders wing aren't really within the Party. Rather, like Sanders himself, they are people who often agree with Democrats/Progressive Democrats on issues, but are as likely or even more likely to attack Democrats as they are Republicans. And so besides being a great guy and very qualified, what's good about Ellison is that he's liked by these people and likes the Democratic Party.

Like the idea of Sanders as a party leader doesn't work, because his whole shtick is being outside of /in opposition to the party. Ellison doesn't have this issue.

Edit- Shtick might have too negative of a connotation here. But Sanders certainly places a fair amount of emphasis on not being part of the Democratic Party, even if he ran as its Presidential candidate. This is most clearly signaled by the fact that he identifies as being an Independent, not a Democrat and that he returned to this status immediately after the last round of Presidential primaries.

edited 22nd Feb '17 1:12:53 PM by Hodor2

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#175396: Feb 22nd 2017 at 1:16:22 PM

[up][up][up] On some level the dislike for the democratic party establishment from the Sanders wing comes from a belief that many of them are either unwilling to push for more comprehensive progressive change or incapable of carrying that particular torch due to incompetence or complacency, and on some level I definitely agree with that assertion; the democrats are in a truly awful position as a party; me saying we may need to compromise with Republicans where we can was more due to the fact that the GOP holds virtually all the cards than any expectation that such deals will have a positive outcome rather than merely mitigating potential damages.

Note that since Sanders was elected as an independent, he was obligated to return to the senate as an independent. Considering his age it's entirely possible he'll end up retiring before he has to run again.

edited 22nd Feb '17 1:19:15 PM by CaptainCapsase

Hodor2 Since: Jan, 2015
#175397: Feb 22nd 2017 at 1:19:43 PM

Honest question- who are you considering as the members of the Sanders wing?

I'm curious because my impression of this "wing" as well as my impression of the people you are talking about is in respect to people on the political left who don't identify as Democrats (although they will generally vote for Democratic candidates), which wouldn't really make them a "wing" of the party.

Hmm- that didn't make much sense. I mean are there actually elected officials in this "Sanders wing"? There's definitely Democrats whose positions are closely in line with those of Sanders (i.e. Ellison, Warren, and the infamous Gabbard), but except for the last of these, they don't have the oppositional attitude toward the Democratic Party that you are talking about.

edited 22nd Feb '17 1:22:01 PM by Hodor2

CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#175398: Feb 22nd 2017 at 1:22:39 PM

[up] Sanders leaning politicians generally aren't oppositional towards the democratic party (nor is Sanders particularly hostile towards the party), but the base that supported him isn't particular keen on the current party leadership. We desperately need new faces in the party leadership (like Ellison), because the old guard (in my opinion) simply isn't up to the monumental task ahead of them.

edited 22nd Feb '17 1:26:30 PM by CaptainCapsase

Hodor2 Since: Jan, 2015
#175399: Feb 22nd 2017 at 1:26:19 PM

Sorry. I don't think I'm making sense. I guess what I'm trying to ask is that when you are talking about the Sanders wing, are you talking about elected officials or a group of voters/constituents? My sense is the latter, but I wanted to clarify.

CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#175400: Feb 22nd 2017 at 1:27:21 PM

[up] Constituents, not elected officials, as far as who I think Perez will have trouble with. Both him and Ellison are fine in terms of support from party officials, Ellison is ahead by a fair bit in terms of endorsements in fact, but not enough to be a shoe in.

edited 22nd Feb '17 1:28:42 PM by CaptainCapsase


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