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
Senators serve for 6. It's House Reps that are stuck at 2.
Sasse's idea is to limit Senators to a single 12-year term. He thinks that 12 years would be sufficient time for experienced political leadership to develop and have its day, while still creating a scenario in which re-election is not a possibility and therefore Senators can cast votes and introduce bills based entirely on their morals, ethics, and values rather than trying to look good for voters.
Which is a polite way of saying "Single term limited Senators don't have to represent their constituents at all 'cause there's no fucking consequences for pissing off the people who put them there." As usual, it's the term limits argument, spinning an anti-democratic claim that the real problem with our government is the voters, not their representatives, and that if the reps didn't have to care what voters think, they'd be able to create a much better and stronger nation.
"I'm not the bad guy for sacking and pillaging the country. The voters are the bad guys for making me sack and pillage the country. If I could just serve out a decade without caring what voters think, things would be totally different, I assure you."
And, yeah, this asshole legit wants to eliminate direct election of Senators, further distancing the Senate from the American public. The fact that a Republican can even suggest these anti-democratic ideas out loud and not be immediately shunned really shows how far our democracy has fallen these last four years.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Edit: reply to a no-longer-here post.
Edited by ShinyCottonCandy on Sep 10th 2020 at 1:51:34 PM
My musician pageTrump has actually accomplish quite a bit during these four years, all things considered.
1. He has managed to make every single cartoon-villain, no matter how two-dimensional or stupid, credible by being even worse than they are.
2. Shown to America and the rest of the world how utterly corrupt to the core the GOP are-
3. Exposed how dangerous and fake the channel FOX really is by letting it become his propaganda machine with zero ties to reality what so ever.
4. Exposed the lethal flaws in the justice system by being allowed to appoint one of the most fascist-aligned human beings on the planet to become his personal "fixer" as the AG and turn the DOJ into his personal "law firm"
5. Exposed the loopholes in the presidency that allows whoever is in the Oval Office to commit all kinds of crimes and not face the consequences for them while in office.
6. Revealed what he really is like. (his persona in the Apprentice, which his cult know him as, is actually a completely fake one. So his cult are worshiping a shadow that isn't actually real.)
...
Not bad for a despicable pile of orange jello that has been left out from the fridge for four years...
Senate Republican Covid bill fails to gain 60 votes.
It was even smaller than their last bill. Everyone knew it wasn't going to work, Moscow Mitch just wanted something the Republicans in danger of being voted out this year could point to and pretend they cared about helping fight the pandemic.
If my dad ever saw this thread, he would probably go into a rant about "fake news and liberal propaganda."
That's honestly the sad truth about the Republican Party. I'm sure that there are some really nice people who are part of it, but it's just that they follow a very limited set of people (Rush Limbaugh, Ben Shapiro, etc.), creating a cult mind where anything that goes against there beliefs is immediately bad. And the extreme side has been influencing the mainstream Republican Party more and more lately, resulting in Q Anon and other crazy movements.
> Can we at least wait for Trump to win the goddamn election before assuming the worst? -_
I think there's some part of people who are morbidly convinced of a Trump victory that actually want him to win,just a small scared part mind you where his victory of 2016 looms over them still
Biden will probably win given how poorly Trump handled his response to the virus as well as other crisises ,Conservatives will bitterly complain that the Democrats took advantage of these crises and that Trump was the victim of sheer bad luck,ignoring entirely how most of his problems were self made from the start
Edited by Ultimatum on Sep 10th 2020 at 10:54:44 AM
have a listen and have a link to my discord serverI’m at this point fairly confident that Biden will win, but I’m more concerned with how fast the general public will forget this whole mess and drag us right back.
My musician pageI think its going to be really,really hard for people to ignore what's happened during Trump's time as President,which is going to really uncomfortable moving forward when they keeping getting reminders,almost daily
"This [latest thing] is because Trump isn't it?"
"Yup,hopefully Biden can fix it"
have a listen and have a link to my discord server
I feel like it's been brought up in this thread before, but there's definitely a tendency for people to go out of their way to forget things like this once it's no longer in their face.
https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2020/09/10/day-1330/
Day 1330: "Phraseology."
U.S.: Total confirmed cases: ~6,391,000; deaths: ~192,000
Source: Johns Hopkins University
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
💻 COVID-19 Live Blogs: New York Times / Washington Post / CNBC / CNN
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/10/world/covid-19-coronavirus.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/09/10/coronavirus-covid-live-updates-us/
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/10/coronavirus-live-updates.html
https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-09-10-20-intl/h_3fb0ec936be1e75e22c128fa0ba387f0
🗳 How To Vote In The 2020 Election In Every State. Everything you need to know about mail-in and early in-person voting in every state in the age of COVID-19, including the first day you can cast your ballot in the 2020 election. (FiveThirtyEight / Washington Post / NBC News / Wall Street Journal)
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/how-to-vote-2020/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2020/how-to-vote/
https://www.nbcnews.com/specials/plan-your-vote-state-by-state-guide-voting-by-mail-early-in-person-voting-election/index.html?cid=bc_npd_nn_ms_np-1_200816
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-vote-by-mail-in-every-state-11597840923
2/ Russian hackers targeted one of Biden’s election campaign advisory firms. Microsoft recently alerted the campaign that over the past two months, the hackers targeted staff at the Washington-based campaign strategy and communications firm, SKDKnickerbocker, which has been working with Biden and other Democrats. The hackers failed to gain access to the firm’s networks. Meanwhile, a Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the allegations as “nonsense.” It is unclear whether Biden’s campaign was the target or whether the hackers were attempting to gain access to information about other SKDK clients. (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-cyber-biden-exclusive-idUSKBN2610I4
3/ Senate Republicans failed to advance their coronavirus stimulus bill – four months after House Democrats passed their $3 trillion plan. The $300 billion package would have reinstated enhanced federal unemployment insurance at $300 per week through Dec. 27 – half of the $600 weekly payment that expired at the end of July – established legal protections for businesses and health providers, added funding for testing and vaccines, and provided money for schools and child care. Democrats called the package inadequate and refused to accept any proposal less than $2.2 trillion, arguing that it did little to address the economic devastation of the pandemic. The package fell short of the 60 votes needed to move toward passage with all Democrats and one Republican opposed, leaving no clear path forward for economic relief before the November elections. (CNN / Washington Post / ABC News / CNBC / New York Times / Wall Street Journal / The Guardian)
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/10/coronavirus-stimulus-update-senate-relief-bill-fails.html
The algorithm used by the Department of Health and Human Services to allocate pandemic relief money to hospitals discriminates against predominantly Black communities. (Bloomberg)
People who tested positive for COVID-19 were more than twice as likely to report eating or drinking at a bar or restaurant in the past two weeks. (NBC News)
4/ Unemployment claims remained unchanged at 884,000 people last week. Continuing claims, meanwhile, increased to 13.385 million. Overall about 29.6 million people are receiving some form of assistance from state and federal programs. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, has fallen to 8.4%. [Editor’s note: The Labor Department changed how it seasonally adjusts and reports the numbers, so the past two weeks’ totals are not directly comparable to reports from earlier in the pandemic.] (Bloomberg / CNBC / Wall Street Journal / New York Times)
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/10/us-weekly-jobless-claims-total-884000-vs-850000-expected.html
5/ The Justice Department charged 57 people with stealing more than $175 million from the Paycheck Protection Program meant to help small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic. Federal law enforcement authorities have reportedly identified nearly 500 individuals suspected of committing coronavirus-related loan fraud and have opened “several hundred” investigations. (CNBC / Politico / New York Times)
6/ Trump bragged that he protected Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman from Congress after ordering the assassination of the American journalist Jamal Khashoggi. “Yeah, but Iran is killing 36 people a day, so —” Trump told Bob Woodward for his upcoming book, “Rage,” before Woodward redirected the conversation. “I saved his ass,” Trump reportedly said. “I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop.” The CIA concluded that Prince Mohammed had personally ordered Khashoggi’s murder. Trump has used executive power to veto a bipartisan bill to end U.S. support for the Saudis in Yemen, as well as bypass congressional efforts to block an $8 billion arms sales to Saudi Arabia. (Business Insider)
7/ Trump called a reporter a “disgrace” after asking why the president lied to Americans about the severity of COVID-19. ABC News correspondent Jon Karl – referring to audio recordings from February of Trump saying COVID-19 was “deadly” while he was publicly minimizing the threat of the coronavirus – asked Trump during a news conference: “Why did you lie to the American people, and why should we trust what you have to say now?” Trump didn’t answer the question, but instead replied: “That’s a terrible question and the phraseology. I didn’t lie. What I said is we have to be calm. We can’t be panicked.” Trump insisted that he was a leader and it was his duty to have “confidence in our country” and not “instill panic” by “jump[ing] up and down and start shouting that we have a problem that is a tremendous problem.” But as one Trump campaign adviser said: “Hard to say fake news when there is audio of his comments.” (Politico / The Hill / New York Times / CNN / Axios)
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/09/politics/trump-woodward-fallout-coronavirus/index.html
[Woodward Book] Trump said he does not believe he has a responsibility to understand the “anger and pain” felt by Black Americans because of his privileged upbringing. (NBC News)
[Woodward Book] Trump claimed that North Korea’s Kim Jong Un told him how he had his own uncle killed, bragging that Kim “tells me everything.” (ABC News)
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/book-kim-jong-told-trump-killing-uncle-72918567
poll/ 46% of American households report facing serious financial pain during the coronavirus pandemic. 54% of those with household incomes under $100,000 reported serious financial problems, compared to 20% of households with incomes greater than $100,000. 35% say they have used up all or most of their savings, and 28% report serious problems paying off debt. (NPR)
poll/ 51% of voters in six 2020 swing states said Trump is mentally unfit to be president, while 49% said he is fit to hold the job. Similarly, 52% to 48%, also responded that Biden is mentally unfit to be president. (CNBC)
poll 61% of voters would prefer to vote before Election Day, compared to 39% who would prefer to vote on Election Day. 46% of voters said they are uncomfortable going to a polling place. (Washington Post)
https://www.axios.com/trump-supreme-court-list-90b32844-534d-43e2-9b3a-7cdf8ee65e37.html
A federal judge rejected Trump’s bid to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that Trump’s inaugural committee and the Trump Organization misused nonprofit funds to enrich Trump’s businesses. The suit was brought by D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine in January and claims that Trump’s inaugural committee was aware that it was being overcharged for services at Trump’s D.C. hotel in 2017 and still spent over $1 million at the hotel. Some of the money was spent on a private party for Trump’s three older children. Part of the inaugural committee’s argument is that Racine’s office failed to show a violation of the Nonprofit Act and that the committee is not “continuing to act” in violation of the law. D.C. Superior Court Judge José López rejected that argument and allowed the suit to move forward. (NBC News)
Trump’s reelection campaign asked a federal judge in Las Vegas to block a Nevada law and prevent mail-in ballots from being sent to all active voters in the state. Lawyers for the campaign argues that sending ballots to nearly 1.7 million active voters will hurt Republicans and “‘confuse’ their voters and ‘create incentive’ to stay away from the polls.” The campaign also argued that it forces Republicans to divert resources to “educating Nevada voters on those changes and encouraging them to still vote.” (ABC News)
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/trump-campaign-asks-us-judge-kill-nevada-vote-72929328
Why anyone is foolish enough to share their conspiracies with Donald Trump is beyond me... The man can't keep a secret to save his life.
Hope shines brightest in the darkest times"Only the Obama WH can get away with attacking Bob Woodward."
- 2013!Trump being proven wrong by 2020!Trump
We learn from history that we do not learn from historyLast year I posted
that Trump nominated a 37-year-old anti-LGBT extremist to a lifetime seat and the Senate confirmed her along party lines.
She's now on Trump's shortlist of SCOTUS candidates.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The Democrats are going to have to fill in every loophole and fix every "honor system" in place. The next 4 years are basically going to be filled with them having to fix the system completely by having to code into actual written rules things that were previously just honor bound to follow, and having to institute actual requirements on things that it was never necessary on before. The Republicans are destroying this country, but in doing so are exposing every little thing that needs to be changed at the same time.
The Supreme Court Justices should be required to have been a Judge for X amount of time. The Majority Leader should not be able to just prevent things from being heard whenever they want to. There needs to be actual protocols to deal with those in charge of the Do J if they decide to go rogue alongside the President or the House/Senate.
And so on and so on. We're going to be seeing a complete rework of our government in the coming years, we're not going to be able to afford for anybody to ignore what has happened.
Edited by ScubaWolf on Sep 10th 2020 at 12:57:25 PM
"In a move surprising absolutely no one"

Well I was more meaning the Supreme Court. And... crap nothing can go right this year.
I don't know about that, Biden's well on his way to win in November, and the Senate is in play. Not everything is bad.
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang