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

MadSkillz Destroyer of Worlds Since: Mar, 2013 Relationship Status: I only want you gone
Destroyer of Worlds
#176526: Feb 28th 2017 at 9:56:50 PM

US to drop the third biggest GDP.

China and India are going to be first and second.

Canada to drop out of top 20.

Most of the big EU countries are going to decline and drastically in Spain and Italy's case.

Asia is going to catapult upwards. Big gains for Middle East but drastically huge gains for East Asia like India, China, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Phillipines. South Korea falls though.

Vietnam's growth is so amazing that it'll be above Canada, Spain, Italy and Australia by 2050.

More mixed in Latin America. Colombia and Argentina decline but Mexico goes from the 11th biggest GDP to 7th and Brazil goes from 9th to 5th even above Russia.

Russia retains its position as 6th biggest economy.

edited 28th Feb '17 9:57:08 PM by MadSkillz

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
#176527: Mar 1st 2017 at 12:24:17 AM

That's GDP Growth not actual GDP by the way.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
MadSkillz Destroyer of Worlds Since: Mar, 2013 Relationship Status: I only want you gone
Destroyer of Worlds
#176528: Mar 1st 2017 at 12:48:34 AM

[up]No it's actual GDP.

Some are just growing much faster than others.

math792d Since: Jun, 2011 Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#176529: Mar 1st 2017 at 1:55:19 AM

It's also going on GDP per PPP rather than nominal GDP, hence why it's saying China is currently the world's biggest economy.

In other words, it's saying 'how much can you purchase in the country's internal market for its GDP.' That's why you're seeing India and Vietnam spike - their growth-to-cost-of-living figures are disproportionately in favor of the latter.

edited 1st Mar '17 1:56:43 AM by math792d

Still not embarrassing enough to stan billionaires or tech companies.
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
#176530: Mar 1st 2017 at 1:56:40 AM

[up][up]Actually it's neither, the US has the largest GDP (nominal) in the world, its second in GDP (PPP), which I belvie is the rankings used. However the US's drop to third place is simply a prediction and not something that is happening now, its predicted to happen come 2050, so there's still another 33 years before the US drops a position in the world rankings.

edited 1st Mar '17 1:57:07 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
MadSkillz Destroyer of Worlds Since: Mar, 2013 Relationship Status: I only want you gone
Destroyer of Worlds
#176531: Mar 1st 2017 at 2:28:04 AM

Makes sense

justhelping Since: Dec, 2016
#176532: Mar 1st 2017 at 3:50:08 AM

Here's my view on the speech: it was somehow good enough that I heard you guys, the most fanatic Democrats I've ever seen in a forum or discussion, actually give trump a little bit of credit.

TerminusEst from the Land of Winter and Stars Since: Feb, 2010
#176533: Mar 1st 2017 at 3:53:56 AM

Or his speech writer. His vocabulary is so atrocious that the French and Japanese have no idea how to translate him.

Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
PhysicalStamina i'm tired, my friend (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Coming soon to theaters
i'm tired, my friend
#176534: Mar 1st 2017 at 4:12:08 AM

Only those two?

i'm tired, my friend
IFwanderer use political terms to describe, not insult from Earth Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Wishfully thinking
use political terms to describe, not insult
#176535: Mar 1st 2017 at 4:31:15 AM

[up]Only those two have been reported to say that. I'm pretty sure I'd have the same problem if I tried translating him to Spanish.

edited 1st Mar '17 4:32:19 AM by IFwanderer

1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV
Zendervai Since: Oct, 2009
#176536: Mar 1st 2017 at 5:29:22 AM

English is one of the very rare languages where you can chop a sentence up and move the components around and still be understood just fine. In langauges like French and Japanese, where there's a lot of control over linguistic drift, dialects are like 90% accent, and there's some degree of mutual incomprehensibility.

I think I said this ages ago, but the translation difficulties reminds me of C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet. The villain has a pretty awful human supremacist eugenicist plan to kill off the Malacandrans (Martians) and have humans take over Mars before using it up and moving on. In English, he's actually pretty eloquent and can make it sound not that bad. However, the Malacandrans don't speak English. So the main character, who learned the local language, but not all that well yet, translates the villain's speech into really broken Malacandran, accidentally stripping away all the rhetoric and making it really obvious what he actually wants to do.

W Ith Trump there's kind of the opposite problem. If you make him understandable in translation, you're putting words in his mouth that weren't there before, because doing that involves trying to determine what he's actually saying. If you translate literally, he's spouting off literal gibberish because neither French nor Japanese grammar can be messed with the way he messes with English grammar.

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
#176537: Mar 1st 2017 at 6:30:06 AM

This is more polite and laconic than my opinion of the speech.

You know what, I don't think I can claim to understand Berner Twitter.

No, seriously, I can't.

I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiot
CenturyEye Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign? from I don't know where the Yith sent me this time... Since: Jan, 2017 Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
#176538: Mar 1st 2017 at 6:47:21 AM

"great statement [in response to Perez]. Stop grading trump on a curve."
I'll let that speak for my opinion of the above[up] and... Georgia Republicans dazzled by Trump’s speech, despite few new specifics
WASHINGTON — In the lead up to Donald Trump’s speech Tuesday, several of Georgia’s Republican congressmen said they were looking for concrete policy specifics from the new president on issues like health care and infrastructure.

They got relatively little of that, especially by way of new details — such presidential speeches to Congress are designed, after all, to be broad and sweeping — but the state’s Republicans were still dazzled by Trump’s address.

“It was certainly beyond my expectations,” said Rep. Rick Allen, R-Evans, in an interview Tuesday night. “I thought he would do well but I couldn’t argue with anything he said.”

Carter said the speech, along with private conversations between Republican leaders and the administration, has given the GOP enough information to begin coalescing around a single Obamacare replacement plan.

“I think we’re all getting to the point where we’ll be on the same page and certainly move toward that health care system that we know that we need that’s based on free market principles,” said Carter, who called Trump’s speech “awesome,” “refreshing” and “exciting.”

Former House Speaker and Georgia Rep. Newt Gingrich, who watched the speech from the front row of a balcony in the House chamber, was also glowing about Trump’s performance:

President Trump gave the most compelling speech of his life tonight.Powerful, clear, building on his promises, real leadership.

Allen was particularly jazzed about Trump’s more optimistic and unifying tone.

“The man showed his heart tonight and his passion,” he said. “How can you disagree with anything that he said?”

Georgia’s Democrats, meanwhile, held their tongues.

Only in GA...

Look with century eyes... With our backs to the arch And the wreck of our kind We will stare straight ahead For the rest of our lives
DeMarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#176539: Mar 1st 2017 at 7:01:05 AM

The spedch was nice, but is ultimately unimportant. When we see his proposed budget, then we will know how things are really going to be.

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
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
#176540: Mar 1st 2017 at 7:08:10 AM

Sort of related to this topic due to confusion over a Trump-led US' role in Syria (Believe me, I was surprised too) the Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic is out. It's a cheery read.

Reminder: Tulsi Gabbard is an apologist for the people behind everything documented here, in addition to many, many other abuses in the rest of Syria. There's potential here for an attack ad that would make Daisy look like a sugar bowl.

I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiot
NativeJovian Jupiterian Local from Orlando, FL Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
Jupiterian Local
#176541: Mar 1st 2017 at 7:17:17 AM

Something I haven't seen much discussion of here: one of the things Trump mentioned last night was creating an office under the Department of Homeland Security called "Victims Of Immigration Crime Engagement" (VOICE). He didn't really say what this office would actually do, though. I suspect it will basically become an anti-immigrant propaganda machine.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
LinkToTheFuture A real bad hombre from somewhere completely different Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: What's love got to do with it?
A real bad hombre
#176542: Mar 1st 2017 at 7:21:06 AM

The whole thing is purely for the optics of it to pander to his base and make immigrants look bad but it's still super unsettling

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison
Luigisan98 A wandering user from Venezuelan Muscat Since: Oct, 2013 Relationship Status: I <3 love!
A wandering user
#176544: Mar 1st 2017 at 7:35:15 AM

[up] The ACLU meanwhile will start putting their shades on say: "Bring It".

The only good fanboy, is a redeemed fanboy.
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#176545: Mar 1st 2017 at 7:40:30 AM

Even the White House can't believe the press response to Trump's speech

https://mobile.twitter.com/costareports/status/836930472945020928

"Some sources in WH are frankly surprised at how pundits are warming to the speech. Say Trump has not changed, no big shift in policy coming."

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#176546: Mar 1st 2017 at 7:43:35 AM

[up] Bannon must be thinking "Wow, this is almost too easy. Kind of takes the fun out of this."

Disgusted, but not surprised
NoName999 Since: May, 2011
#176547: Mar 1st 2017 at 7:50:27 AM

Are the standards really this low for Trump?

How is this fair for anyone? We expected everyone else to form a complete sentence and to not be a dick to people.

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#176548: Mar 1st 2017 at 7:55:33 AM

[up] Like Balmung said, people are really desperate to normalize what's happening.

Disgusted, but not surprised
NoName999 Since: May, 2011
#176549: Mar 1st 2017 at 8:04:51 AM

But the bar is now so low, kindergartners are able to pass it.

We hold kindergartners to a higher standard than the fucking President of an entire country with a population of 300 million.

Advarielle Homicidal Editor Since: Aug, 2016
Homicidal Editor
#176550: Mar 1st 2017 at 8:07:13 AM

That VOICE unit isn't only fitting, but a surprisingly good acronym. Considering that it's impossible that this name comes from Trump, whoever name this unit is either good at wordplay or has a very dark sense of humor.

Only an experienced editor who has a name possesses the ability to truly understand my work - What 90% of writers I'm in charge of said.

Total posts: 417,856
Top