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

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#289851: Sep 12th 2019 at 10:47:33 AM

So Trump is going to cut down the clean water regulations because...?

(Seriously, if there is no good reason, then his administration has just reached the levels of a "Captain Planet villain" level of stupidity and shortsightedness... and I know that the creators of that series had to make its villains "unrealistically evil" just so it wouldn't hit too close to home.)

Trump is a real life version of these villains, ain't he?

Seriously, what is wrong with him?!

What is the reason behind this cut-back?!

Trump's been a Captain Planet villain for years. One takeaway I have from the last three years is that I can never again complain about mindless one-dimensional villainy in fiction being unrealistic.

Trump loathes environmentalism. He has, in the past, accused the climate change debate of being a Chinese hoax intended to cripple American industries on the global economy. He is utterly convinced that each and every environmental reform exists for the sole purpose of sabotaging our businesses and destroying our economy, and no force on Earth will persuade him otherwise.

As much as people gripe about Trump "not having an agenda" and just wanting to get rich, he actually does have very strongly-held beliefs which drive his policies. Much like the racism, his anti-environment wonk is another of those beliefs.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Sep 12th 2019 at 11:50:43 AM

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#289852: Sep 12th 2019 at 10:48:45 AM

So Trump is going to cut down the clean water regulations because...?

Because Republicans consider corporate profits to be significantly more important than public safety.

This is not a new thing.

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
ironballs16 Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Owner of a lonely heart
#289853: Sep 12th 2019 at 11:03:01 AM

[up][up]

There's a reason we have an entire trope involving Reality Is Unrealistic.

"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#289854: Sep 12th 2019 at 11:08:40 AM

Hoggish Greedly at least loved his family and stopped polluting when they were endangered by his activities.

Sly Sludge was willing to switch to eco-friendly disposal when it was more profitable.

So, Captain Planet villains actually are MORE nice than the GOP.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Sep 12th 2019 at 11:09:02 AM

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#289855: Sep 12th 2019 at 11:10:56 AM

Eh, I'm sure there are Republican politicians who love their families. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if it was the norm.

In their kind of "Screw you got mine" mindset families tend to be slotted under "mine" instead of "you".

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
danime91 Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#289856: Sep 12th 2019 at 11:11:38 AM

Yeah, in the end even Captain Planet villains have somewhat understandable motivations. Trump, on the other hand, seems to be driven only be hate and spite.

speedyboris Since: Feb, 2010
#289857: Sep 12th 2019 at 11:19:39 AM

If anything, Trump is like Verminous Skumm in the episode "A Formula for Hate".

Trump Reassures Those Worried That He’s ‘Far Stronger’ Than John Bolton on Venezuela: "He was holding me back!"

Edited by speedyboris on Sep 12th 2019 at 11:48:26 AM

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#289858: Sep 12th 2019 at 12:11:03 PM

Yeah, in the end even Captain Planet villains have somewhat understandable motivations. Trump, on the other hand, seems to be driven only be hate and spite.

Trump is driven by a variety of deep-seated character flaws, any one of which should have rendered him ineligible for the highest office in our nation. I'm not a doctor and am nowhere near qualified to try and armchair diagnose Trump with an actual medical disorder. But I can tell you the kind of person Trump is.

  1. Trump is a petty egotist, utterly terrified of even the slightest public embarassment. His greatest fear is public humiliation. He craves praise and loathes being contradicted. If Trump's shoe is untied, you goddamn let it stay untied; point it out to him and he will ruin your life in retribution.
  2. Trump is a con artist and has been all his life. It's second-nature to him. He built his entire career on a web of lies spinning out of more lies. Fabricating lies comes to him as a reflexive second-nature. He'll do it without even thinking about it.
    • This point melds with point #1 to create an inability to say the words, "I don't know." If asked a question he doesn't know the answer to (approximately 90% of the questions he's asked as POTUS), Trump will make up an answer on the fly. If the press calls him out on the lie, he will embark on a campaign to vindicate himself and spite the press for embarrassing him.
  3. Trump thinks that he's a super-genius, possibly the smartest person who ever lived. This makes sense when you consider the combination of his wealth and privilege with point #1. Trump has spent his whole life surrounded by people who knew better than to contradict whatever dumb thing spills out of his mouth, and he's always shirked responsibility for failures. When something goes well, it's always because of Trump's Very Smart Ideas from his Very Big Brain.
    • This also melds with point #2. Trump knows that half of what he says is full of shit. He has, on occasion, bragged about it. But he's also convinced of his own super-intelligence. HE knows he's lying, but he's pretty sure the rest of us are all too stupid to see through his transparent falsehoods. He's like a child conspicuously standing in front of the cookie jar, giggling to himself that you can't see his hand reaching in behind his back. "I'm so clever."
  4. Trump is a conspiracy theorist. He is still, to this day, as POTUS, totally convinced that the nation is being secretly run by a cabal of Democrats, foreign agents, and Jews "Globalists".
    • He's also convinced that the entire U.S. intelligence community is a part of the secret Deep State conspiracy. "Fortunately", because of #3, Trump also knows that he doesn't need their intelligence anyway. He's the smartest man who ever lived, after all, and can just know the right things to do without their input. With super-intelligence like his, Trump knows he can just meet with foreign leaders directly, 'cause he'll be able to outwit them at every turn with his master negotiating skills. And if they try to pull a fast one on him, he's sure he'll see right through it, 'cause he's a super-genius and they're not. Who needs spies?
  5. Trump is a White Supremacist. He'll never say it directly, but he's happy to use super-secret signals he came up with from his Very Smart Brain to dogwhistle his support to them. The rest of us are too stupid to catch on, of course.
  6. Trump is a sex pest. But again, we're too stupid to catch on to the very obvious things he says and does with his giant, unparalleled intellect. Besides, he's pretty sure that approximately 100% of all men everywhere behave the same way that he does. And it's not like anyone he has ever met would consider telling him otherwise.
  7. Trump, despite being the smartest person ever with his very large brain, is actually pretty dim-witted. About, well, basically everything. He doesn't really understand complex topics. He thinks that the existence of snow during winter disproves global warming, and he once outcompeted himself into bankruptcy by buying multiple casinos in the same geographic area.
    • This also bounces off of #1; Trump has never had to actually learn and become educated, because no one is willing to contradict him. If everyone you meet will agree with you that Coffee is the capital city of our 63rd state, Chicago, then why would you need to study anything?
    • This has also ramped up the conspiracy theorist side of him. For the first time in his life, people are lying to the public and saying that Trump is wrong about the Very Smart Things he's being right about. Or the Very Smart Lies he's knowingly telling. Why would they be trying to humiliate him like this? Is he being undermined by the Deep State?

Etc. etc.

If you're ever wondering "Why did Trump do X?", always keep in mind that Trump is basically living in an entirely different world that we are. Everything he says and does is done through the f*cked up lens of immense privilege, deep-seated stupidity, and unrelenting egotism.

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
speedyboris Since: Feb, 2010
#289859: Sep 12th 2019 at 12:37:54 PM

[up] You forgot "Must be the center of attention at all times"- although I suppose that could be considered part of #1. Just one of countless examples: When he pushed someone out of the way so he could be front and center on camera.

Edited by speedyboris on Sep 12th 2019 at 12:39:09 PM

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#289860: Sep 12th 2019 at 12:52:42 PM

Andrew Mc Cabe (former deputy head of the FBI, who opened up the Obstruction case against Trump after Comey got the put) may be facing imminent indictment. Specifically, he may be charged with failing to disclose his involvement in a media report on the Clinton emails days before the 2016 election.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/12/politics/andrew-mccabe-justice-department/index.html

Not sure how he can get a fair trial given that Trump will be all over Twitter calling for him to be strung up.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
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
#289861: Sep 12th 2019 at 1:10:08 PM

Barr isn’t an idiot, going after people who hurt Trump for crimes they committed against Hillary is a way to make people very conflicted.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#289862: Sep 12th 2019 at 1:32:27 PM

Trump is an actual rapist. He's been accused of it multiple times, including by his own wife.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
tclittle Professional Forum Ninja from Somewhere Down in Texas Since: Apr, 2010
Professional Forum Ninja
#289863: Sep 12th 2019 at 2:23:20 PM

Russia's foreign ministry has made a request with Interpol to locate the US spy who was extracted back in 2017 and his identity recently revealed.

"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#289864: Sep 12th 2019 at 2:41:04 PM

Barr isn’t an idiot, going after people who hurt Trump for crimes they committed against Hillary is a way to make people very conflicted.

This move predates Barr, in fact.

They did the same thing to Comey. They tried to conceal their true motives, obstructing the Russia investigation, by claiming that Comey was fired for violating the Hatch Act in November 2016 to sabotage Hillary.

The hope was that the shouts of vindicated Democrats cheering for Comey finally getting his comeuppance would drown out any concerns over the Russia thing. And then it would all just go away.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Sep 12th 2019 at 3:42:26 AM

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
CookingCat Since: Jul, 2018
#289865: Sep 12th 2019 at 3:58:21 PM

Can the next president executive order these regulations back? Also, California are telling the concentration camps and private prisons in their state to get fucked: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/12/california-private-prison-ban-immigration-ice

Edited by CookingCat on Sep 12th 2019 at 4:07:34 AM

Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#289866: Sep 12th 2019 at 4:04:35 PM

And private prisons,this is important because while you can prevent the creation of the camps stamping out the private prisons is going to be much harder,especially when they're profitable,furthermore,what's to stop someone having a prison as an undeclared private prison?

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
unknowing from somewhere.. Since: Mar, 2014
#289867: Sep 12th 2019 at 4:05:45 PM

Tobías Is right in that Trump Is More move by instint that any belief system, even Is racism seen More a series of Dicks moves that anything concrete, which Is why he insist in the wall, he just a) dosent like latinos because he thinks they cheat him(unlike when he does so, in that case the guy Is a cry baby) and b) he need Is monument, he reaaaaally wanted.

Which it goes with the second issue Tobías left out: his distaces for restrain, he thinks he see reality as it Is and if he said something then Is true and I feel Is one of things that endering Is base: the idea of saying stuff beyond the no written rule of political poliness(what people confuse with political correctness).

Also, is the reason for double standards amount conservaties: they think they Being rude Is by product of saying the truth, while dems are just Being mean.

Or in short"i just said you are shit, you really mean that"

"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"
Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#289868: Sep 12th 2019 at 4:26:36 PM

Debate's in about half an hour. What are we expecting to see?

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#289869: Sep 12th 2019 at 4:59:02 PM

Well, we get the big three (Biden, Sanders, Warren) on the same stage for the first time. Should be good just for that.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
AzurePaladin She/Her Pronouns from Forest of Magic Since: Apr, 2018 Relationship Status: Mu
She/Her Pronouns
#289870: Sep 12th 2019 at 5:00:35 PM

Safe bet that LGBTQ Rights are largely ignored. That's what I'm watching for.

We'll see though.

The awful things he says and does are burned into our cultural consciousness like a CRT display left on the same picture too long. -Fighteer
MarqFJA The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer from Deserts of the Middle East (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
#289871: Sep 12th 2019 at 5:00:50 PM

@TobiasDrake: In your opinion, what do you expect to happen if Trump somehow ends up being bombarded from practically every direction with all the truths that both contradict his self-delusions and loudly point out his flaws, at such an intensity that even the remaining yes-(wo)men around him are more or less drowned out? Do you think he'll snap, and if so how?

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#289872: Sep 12th 2019 at 5:10:59 PM

I missed what Yang said. What was up with that?

AzurePaladin She/Her Pronouns from Forest of Magic Since: Apr, 2018 Relationship Status: Mu
She/Her Pronouns
#289873: Sep 12th 2019 at 5:14:59 PM

He's doing a giveaway. As if politics isn't already too much like a game show.

The awful things he says and does are burned into our cultural consciousness like a CRT display left on the same picture too long. -Fighteer
Larkmarn Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Hello, I love you
#289874: Sep 12th 2019 at 5:22:11 PM

I can see the he as headlines now. "Elizabeth Warren wants to raise taxes on the middle class to take their health care away."

Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.
fruitpork Since: Oct, 2010
#289875: Sep 12th 2019 at 5:25:00 PM

He’d probably end up like a collapsed narcissist. Which would be a nightmare.


Total posts: 417,856
Top