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
![]()
TRUMP: Here's the thing; I did not explicitly state that I believe that all immigrants should be kicked out of this country. I said that Mexicans are rapists who are stealing our jobs and should be sent back to their country, and I stand by that. But not once in recent memory have I said, in these exact words, that 'All immigrants should be kicked out of this country.' You've got nothing before this to quote me on, though I guess now you've got something to quote me on.
INTERVIEWER: ...Okay, but about your wife—
TRUMP: She stays, yes.
edited 20th Aug '15 2:54:45 PM by kkhohoho
Arab American fantasy author Saladin Ahmed was talking about how nervous non-Americans get during our election season because of the possibility of getting bombed to hell by whoever our new leader is. He suggested that countries where and with which we've waged war should be allowed to vote in our elections for precisely that reason.
He was probably only halfway joking.
edited 20th Aug '15 5:57:24 PM by Aprilla
I can see his point. Hell, I'm Canadian (so pretty safe from any American invasion
) and I'm worried that if the conservatives win in both countries I'll see Canadian soldiers killing and dying in Iran pointlessly (the paranoia of the right/Israel's government doesn't count) within a few years.
The GOP has long since ceased to be reasonable on any front as a whole. Maybe a Trump defeat in the general is what they need, cause the defeat of their establishment candidates is only pushing them further right.
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.@Fighteer, Aszur: I'm not sure that it's quite as insane as you think that the Supreme Court might blatantly throw out 150+ years of precedent and the Constitution in favor of Republican political objectives.
Kennedy tries to be an honest jurist, sure. Roberts seems to be moving in that direction. Scalia, meanwhile, marches entirely to his own drum - I think that directly having the Supreme Court invalidate a Constitutional amendment would give his "originalist" brain a little too much of an aneurysm. But I can see Alito and especially Thomas declaring the 14th Amendment unconstitutional because they said so - and I can see some of the candidates in the Republican field appointing three more justices who intend to "restore the True Constitution."
What stops this is the growing weakness of the Republican Party on a Presidential level - which is something that still requires constant action and vigilance by the Democrats to exploit.
That one was always weird to me. It felt like the 18th amendment should have enabled the Volstead Act, and then they just needed to repeal the Volstead Act, not the 18th amendment, unless they were so zealous that the amendment itself banned spiritous liquors, rather than giving Congress the authority to ban them, an important distinction. Or perhaps they just thought it was unnecessary to still have the amendment on the books even if they could repeal prohibition normally.
Plus the only part they would need an amendment for is to deal with the manufacture and sale of liquor within state boundaries, since otherwise you could ban interstate liquor sales under the commerce clause.
Of course, i've never read the 18th amendment. That would help.
No, the amendment itself literally banned all alcoholic beverages.
"After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all the territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited."
@Ogodei: Are you saying that a Republican President and Senate could not deliberately appoint insane justices to the Supreme Court if they wanted to make the law jus sanguinis? Or, for that matter, appoint justices who are so contemptuous of the rule of law that they will say that the Fourteenth Amendment is not a law, regardless of "how it is?"
The Supreme Court has become so politicized lately that I don't really have confidence that someone won't try to do just that if the Republicans get both the Senate and the White House.
edited 20th Aug '15 8:15:31 PM by Ramidel
Not 100% sure the actual voting base ISN'T with Trump. It's the Rich Old White Guys that wouldn't be okay with some of Trump's positions.

"Mister Trump. Would you be willing to kick your wife out of the country along with the rest of this nation's immigrants?"
Sad part is he would likely say yes to that anyway.
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes