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
That's another reason why I thought about trading away that wall against HR1; either Trump sycophancy wins out and you get a huge government improvement bill against a symbolic pseudo-concession (border walls are far more expensive than the cost Trump is demanding) or you can get Trump and Evil Turtle to turn on each other. Then you could try to convince hardcore Trump supporters (of which there are many) that Senate Republicans aren't worth voting for.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
X3 There’s a reason that Republicans are trying to stop these people voting, it ain’t because they think they’ll vote Republican.
![]()
Always in power and there always being reasonable people in control of one third of the process aren’t the same thing.
I wonder of sort of why Turtle kept/is keeping the shutdown going is because it draws a lot of legistlstive focus, Dems are going to have trouble finding the time to push their new laws forward if they’re constantly fighting to keep the government open.
Edited by Silasw on Jan 31st 2019 at 12:00:38 PM
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranI don't think Turtle is going to turn on Trump because he's in charge of the Republican Party in large part because Trump eliminated all of his rivals.
To make a sufficiently geeky analysis.
People keep trying to make Mitch into The Starscream.
He's not Darth Vader, though, or even Count Dooku.
He's Mas Amedda.
A nasty little troll of a bureaucrat who could never take over even if he wanted to.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.See, my impression was the reverse: Evil Turtle is the Big Bad, the person responsible and with the biggest role in bad things which happen but who uses distractions like Trump really effectively to obscure his string pulling. I am not really familiar with Star Wars but IMO Palpatine would be the closest comparator to Mitch.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanThat's an attitude that I take no small comfort in that, specifically, the Turtle is a Big Bad Wannabe.
Mitch was the first Republican to fully embrace Trump with the possible exception of Mike Pence and basically has acted and sold the GOP on the idea that he was a useful fool. That Trump could be used to enforce Mitch and his section of the party's social (and economic) agenda. Because of Trump, all of Mitch's rivals have fallen apart and he's constantly supported Trump's stupidest ideas.
Except, well, Trump can't be controlled.
We see with the ACA that Trump's support is conditional at best and while Mitch and company got their tax cut, Trump was all for that anyway.
He's not benefited save by running behind Trump, chasing him and trying to beg him to do X and Y, IMHO.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.So to use another geeky analysis: Evil Turtle is Paragus and Trump is Broly.
Though I really want to know what kind of lunatic would think an egomaniac Wild Card like Trump would be easy to control.
An elected politician.
Latest news is that Mitch is moving to avoid a second shutdown. He has reportedly given his committee chairmen wide latitude to negotiate with Democrats. I dont know what he intends specifically in regard to the wall money.
Edited by DeMarquis on Jan 31st 2019 at 9:23:17 AM
I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.So here's a fun fact - apparently Roger Stone has a Netflix documentary about him.
The closing line of the trailer? "I revel in your hatred because if I weren't effective, you wouldn't hate me."
Fucking hell, he really is a Card-Carrying Villain! As highlighted on Samantha Bee's show
, he actually considered his name's inclusion on a list of people who received slush funding during Watergate to be "pretty cool", when his parents were mortified.
Edited by ironballs16 on Jan 31st 2019 at 9:57:49 AM
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"It ain't a guarantee but it's likely. Making Election Day into a federal holiday makes it easier for the working class to get time away to vote. This disproportionately affects impoverished communities, mostly minority, who tend to vote Democrat.
People who work middle-income jobs that provide vacation benefits, upper-class jobs where they aren't on a clock at all, or who are simply well enough off that missing a day's labor won't impact them in any appreciable way have an undue advantage with the current system. By keeping Election Day on a Tuesday, our system makes it so that you can literally be too poor to vote.
This is a feature, not a bug, as the Founding Fathers intended for the U.S. to be a democracy only for wealthy white men, who were considered by their statuses of "wealthy", "white", and "male" to be fundamentally smarter than other citizens of the U.S. and therefore more fit to decide the fate of the country.
We've made great strides in tearing down many of the restrictions on voting put in place to achieve that terrible, terrible idea. Eliminating the dynamic of polls only being open on work-days during work-hours is the next target.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Jan 31st 2019 at 8:50:52 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Geez, that's terrible!
Why not just put the election day on a Sunday so people won't have to miss work to vote? That's how we do here, and it works out fine.
Granted, voting in Brazil is more of an obligation than a right, as you're fined if don't vote without a proper justification.
Edited by HailMuffins on Jan 31st 2019 at 12:56:46 PM
While making election day a federal holiday would be great, it's not a panacea as the lower working classes will be unaffected. People at fast-food joints, cashiers, nannies, the like don't get federal holidays off. The lowest-income workers still need those hours.
Don't get me wrong, it's still the least we can do and it makes basic sense, but I'm not as excited about it as I once was.
Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.That is true. Which is why in addition to the federal holiday, I would also like to see the federal government adopt a mail-in ballot standard like what we have here in Colorado.
In Colorado, the state mails us our ballots a month in advance, along with a comprehensive booklet that breaks down every bill and measure on the ballot, providing an explanation of what each ballot item is, arguments for and against passing it, and an economic analysis of how the passage of the item will impact our state economy.
We can then mail or drop off our ballots at our leisure.
Democratically speaking, we're spoiled. It's also probably not a coincidence that Democrats hold all three branches of our state government as of the 2018 mid-term.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Jan 31st 2019 at 9:04:24 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.The bottom line is that voting should be convenient enough that people shouldn't have to make a Sadistic Choice between earning food money or exercising one of their friggin' rights as a US citizen.
Disgusted, but not surprised![]()
....I honestly cannot tell if you're being sarcastic or not...
Edited by HailMuffins on Jan 31st 2019 at 1:10:58 PM
@Tobias: Yeah, making sure people have access to and are aware of their rights and options is the best fix. You could have the easiest system in the world with mail-in ballots and long hours, but if people don't know about it, they can't take advantage of it.
Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.Voting shouldn't be taxing. It should be made as easy as possible. You know what voting day looks like for me? Taking a five minute stroll past the next ballot box, pretty unlikely that there is much of a line. Or taking a five minute stroll to the next mail box if I requested letter voting. I don't even have to register.

HR 1 might enable enough people to vote that the Republicans can never again get total government control, it’s a risky strategy but there’s some logic to it.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran