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

DrunkenNordmann from Exile Since: May, 2015
#323276: Aug 11th 2020 at 7:54:19 AM

[up][up][up]

That mountain's also a holy site. Just because some asshole has already desecrated it, doesn't mean we should let another asshole desecrate it any further.

Edited by DrunkenNordmann on Aug 11th 2020 at 4:54:48 PM

We learn from history that we do not learn from history
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#323277: Aug 11th 2020 at 8:03:53 AM

Speaking purely for myself, I don't believe in "holy" sites, but I do have respect for sites of cultural significance, which it clearly is, and which we clearly violated so we could put a bunch of faces on a mountain.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#323278: Aug 11th 2020 at 8:27:16 AM

Mexican Migration Could Be the First Crisis of 2021: The pandemic has worsened all the factors driving migrants north, not least from Mexico.

Looks like the first crisis is already looming for whomever wins the election.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
ciyinwanderer Since: Dec, 2018
#323279: Aug 11th 2020 at 8:29:31 AM

Really at this point, all the crises need to stand in line. There is plenty of competition to be the "first" for the next administration.

This signature was thumped to preserve the dignity of the moderators.
3of4 Just a harmless giant from a foreign land. from Five Seconds in the Future. Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: GAR for Archer
Just a harmless giant from a foreign land.
#323280: Aug 11th 2020 at 8:47:43 AM

So apparently on Sep 30 it's time for another round of everyone's favorite game;

SHUTDOWN OR NO SHUTDOWN

"You can reply to this Message!"
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#323281: Aug 11th 2020 at 8:48:55 AM

Oh yes, just what we need, yet another shutdown.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#323282: Aug 11th 2020 at 8:56:09 AM

Some points about mountain:

1. I fully support sand blasting off the Confederates of Stone Mountain. The bass relief is a symbol of hate and like an enormous statue of Hilter.

2. The Lakota have been building a mountain top statue of Crazy Horse directly across from Mount Rushmore (albeit about 17 miles away) for 75 years. Its controversial but I occasionally donate to it.

It'll be twenty times the size of Mount Rushmore

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
PhysicalStamina i'm tired, my friend (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Coming soon to theaters
i'm tired, my friend
#323283: Aug 11th 2020 at 8:56:51 AM

If Republicans/Trump cause another shutdown months before the election, it's pretty much game over for them.

i'm tired, my friend
Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#323284: Aug 11th 2020 at 9:00:14 AM

I think it's been game over for the Republicans for awhile now actually,they're self destructing out of spite

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#323285: Aug 11th 2020 at 9:04:02 AM

Germany’s leading newsweekly decries Trump’s incendiary approach: 'Should we be worried about the United States?' the influential publication asks

Note the cover of Der Spiegel where Trump holds a lit match in the White House while the country burns behind him, and the nickname "Der Feuerteufel", the fire devil (or firestarter, really). The reference seems to be to the burning of the Reichstag, and the Germans are clearly very concerned about the rise of another fascist dictator.

Here is the English version of the Spiegel article.

Edited by Redmess on Aug 11th 2020 at 6:07:48 PM

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#323286: Aug 11th 2020 at 9:10:43 AM

There's no way the Republicans can win a democratic election now.

My problem is that they know this and are willing to destroy the Post Office and engage in other mass fraud.

What happened in Georgia could happen in every state.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#323287: Aug 11th 2020 at 9:13:53 AM

[up][up]How am I supposed to know? I only know about mountains from tv. tongue
Pft, TV. I listen to Night Vale public radio because they tell the truth: Mountains are not real.

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#323288: Aug 11th 2020 at 9:20:26 AM

If Republicans cause a shutdown, it will not affect their election chances one way or another. One thing that's been consistent about the Trump Presidency is that for an overwhelming majority of Americans, there is nothing, absolutely nothing that will sway their opinion for or against Trump. The amount of voters who haven't been entrenched in ironclad positions since around the start of 2018 is a fairly inconsequential 3%.

And Republican congresscritters getting voted in or out will be heavily influenced by downticket votes from the Presidential election. For a Republican in Congress, it must be simultaneously liberating and disheartening to know that it is nearly impossible to gain or lose support during this Presidency provided they bend the knee and offer their fealty.

In many ways, the Trump Administration gave the U.S. a small taste of what life under an authoritarian dictator is like. Not a full dose, but a sample.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Aug 11th 2020 at 9:24:56 AM

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#323289: Aug 11th 2020 at 9:28:31 AM

Beware the Guns of August—in Asia: How to Keep U.S.-Chinese Tensions From Sparking a War

The article is paywalled so I can't read it, but this is what Fareed Zakaria writes about it in his newsletter:

Tensions between the US and China are running high, but at Foreign Affairs, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd writes that the two powers’ emerging “cold war” could become a hot one. Domestic politics are part of it: With President Trump rattling US sabers at China and Democratic rival Joe Biden “determined not to be outflanked,” Rudd warns that the months leading up to the US election will be marked by “a dangerous political and strategic cocktail: a weakened Trump, an uncompromising Biden, and an under-pressure [Chinese President] Xi ready to pull the nationalist lever” and gin up even more anti-American sentiment at home.

An accident could set things off. Mirroring political tensions, American and Chinese boats and planes have grown more aggressive in conducting maneuvers in Western Pacific waters, and it “is far from certain” that protocols for avoiding collisions “will be effective with the rapid increase in air, naval, and other military assets in the area, where there is already a history of near misses between U.S. and Chinese military ships and planes,” Rudd writes. “The South China Sea has thus become a tense, volatile, and potentially explosive theater at a time when accumulated grievances have driven the underlying bilateral political relationship to its lowest point in half a century. … The general pattern of near misses in the past has shown U.S. aircraft or naval vessels swerving and changing course at the last minute in order to avoid collision. It is not clear, however, whether these procedures, or those of the Chinese navy and air force, have now been adjusted to a more offensive posture.”

Rudd suggests we keep in mind the lesson of World War I: that “a relatively minor incident (the assassination of an Austrian archduke in Sarajevo in late June 1914) can escalate into a war between great powers in a matter of weeks,” even if the entire world finds actual fighting impossible, up until the moment it begins.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#323290: Aug 11th 2020 at 9:32:40 AM

I think coronavirus has actually shifted the needle significantly and that is wrong, Tobias.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#323291: Aug 11th 2020 at 9:37:43 AM

Here's a CNN article about increases US-China tensions:

increases military drills as tensions with US heat up

So how worried should we be about a war between the US and China?

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
megarockman from The Sixth Borough (Experienced Trainee)
#323292: Aug 11th 2020 at 9:41:08 AM

I brought this up previously in the China thread: Mom and I had a discussion about this the last time I visited them (background: my parents immigrated from Taiwan to the US in the mid-70's). She believed the chance of a shooting war was over 50%; I thought it was closer to 10% (and the general feeling I got when I asked about it there was that even 10% was an overestimation).

The damned queen and the relentless knight.
AzurePaladin She/Her Pronouns from Forest of Magic Since: Apr, 2018 Relationship Status: Mu
She/Her Pronouns
#323293: Aug 11th 2020 at 9:41:32 AM

We survived Reagan and the Soviet Union. I think we can take this President without a war.

Having said that, be more concerned if Trump openly starts stirring jingoism and calling for immediate regime change. Which he hasn't, yet, but he's unpredictable enough that...who knows?

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
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
#323294: Aug 11th 2020 at 9:41:50 AM

The previous shutdown was also one of the few things to move the needle on Trump’s approval.

Though even the biggest events of his presidency have only moved things by about 5%. A shutdown combined with COVID and recent race issues could get Trump into the 30s, but I doubt anything short of actually shooting someone on 5th Avenue could get him to the low thirties.

[up] Other regimes know to ignore Trump’s ramblings and the military know how to loose the paperwork if Trump tries to start a war without Congress’s approval.

Edited by Silasw on Aug 11th 2020 at 4:43:04 PM

“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
#323295: Aug 11th 2020 at 9:42:46 AM

Reagan fell into mental infirmity.

Otherwise, he might have gotten a third term.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#323296: Aug 11th 2020 at 9:45:00 AM

Well, Trump's approval ratings dropped noticeably after the last shutdown and rebounded once it ended, so it's not necessarily a given that his base won't erode in such a context. But I think that Congressional Republicans will rather fold than drive Trump's approval ratings farther down.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#323297: Aug 11th 2020 at 9:47:30 AM

Trump's ratings are on a bit of an upswing, actually.

Trump's Approval Rating Is Getting Better as Election Draws Closer: Polls

And yeah, the situation seems rather perilous at the moment. The way US and Chinese ships and planes are constantly near-missing each other is unnerving. It is a disaster waiting to happen. Wars have started before over such incidents.

Edited by Redmess on Aug 11th 2020 at 6:50:46 PM

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
AzurePaladin She/Her Pronouns from Forest of Magic Since: Apr, 2018 Relationship Status: Mu
She/Her Pronouns
#323298: Aug 11th 2020 at 9:50:20 AM

[up]x3 He literally couldn't, constitutional amendment.

My comment on Reagan was more him being the Most Likely President to Cause A Nuclear War, and us managing to avoid WW3 under him. My point being that though things are tense, and they can always get worse, we aren't at Defcon 1.

[up] Ambar used to talk about how planes were shot down multiple times during the Cold War without major war. Trust me, we are not in the danger zone yet.

Edited by AzurePaladin on Aug 11th 2020 at 12:51:25 PM

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
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#323299: Aug 11th 2020 at 9:54:16 AM

Would a war automatically be a nuclear war, though? It's not like we don't have conventional wars any more, after all.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
TitanJump Since: Sep, 2013 Relationship Status: Singularity
#323300: Aug 11th 2020 at 9:56:37 AM

The only wars Trump starts, are "Twitter Wars"

There is enough sane people around to stop him whenever he wanted to bring out the nukes.

So him starting a war?

That is the one line the "GOP/MAGA death cult" won't cross (hopefully)


Total posts: 417,856
Top