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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!
(•̀⤙•́)
#129576: Jul 11th 2016 at 10:47:44 AM

I'm actually really glad that didn't happen. It would have been great if Sanders won, but being picked as a default choice isn't really winning and could have damaged the morale of the party. Having that happen to either Clinton or Sanders would have given Trump one hell of a line of attack, and we shouldn't be remotely confidant enough to give that guy any advantages.

Yeah. Even if the DNC went with Sanders because Clinton was indicted - which wouldn't even be necessary, as others have noted - that would just mean that Trump would almost certainly win the White House. In such a universe, he would do a lot of praising towards Hillary, talking up her credentials and her policies and her abilities, and then turn around and go, "She was the best the Democrats had to offer. THE BEST. And she was a criminal! If the best Democrat is a liar and a fraud, what can we expect from the guy who lost to her?"

Despite what some of his fans may have believed, there was never going to be a version of this election in which Hillary getting indicted over the email controversy resulted in a President Sanders.

There's another hypothetical world in which Hillary Clinton, having not been indicted, and cleared of all potential charges, takes office in February and immediately faces articles of impeachment drafted by a hostile Republican House of Representatives. In theory, they could do this for her entire term: tie up the proceedings of Congress with an infinite series of impeachments.

Ugh, don't give the GOP ideas. ~.~

Donald Trump is seriously considering Michael Flynn, a retired general and former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, as his pick for vice president.

Oh god, he's perfect in all the wrong ways. His crazy matches Trump's crazy.

You know that one movie, uh, "Every Movie The President Ever Appears In"? You know that crazy military yahoo who's like, "These reasonable responses are bullshit! We need to shove nukes up the conflict's ass and rocket it into space! That's the only way to keep America safe from magic alien jihadist turbo-Hitlers!" That's Flynn. Every version of this character is Michael Flynn.

edited 11th Jul '16 10:48:16 AM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
DirectorCannon Since: Nov, 2011
#129577: Jul 11th 2016 at 11:00:43 AM

There's been a shakeup in the Indiana Senate race. Baron Hill has stepped down from the Democratic nomination and widely popular former Senator Evan Bayh is stepping up to take his place.

The race just shifted from "likely R" to "lean D" and the state is now a Presidential toss up.

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#129578: Jul 11th 2016 at 11:03:46 AM

Do we know what prompted the stepping down?

Elle Since: Jan, 2001
#129579: Jul 11th 2016 at 11:05:57 AM

Reaction to Flynn: Apparent willingness to prop up dictators as long as they oppose the big scary -isim of the decade. This is how we created so many of our current messes. *facepalm*

edited 11th Jul '16 11:06:17 AM by Elle

Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#129580: Jul 11th 2016 at 11:13:48 AM

[up]To be fair, that's also how we get out of at least some of our problems. We couldn't have stopped Hitler if we weren't willing to team up with Stalin.

Leviticus 19:34
DirectorCannon Since: Nov, 2011
#129581: Jul 11th 2016 at 11:16:47 AM

[up][up][up] Baron wasn't faring well in polls against the Republican nominee Todd Young.

However, Bayh seems poised to blow Young out of the water.

Additionally it seems to be a move to inject some enthusiasm back into the ticket since Governor candidate John Gregg's "Not Pence" campaign strategy seems to be in trouble with Pence being tapped for Trump's VP.

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#129582: Jul 11th 2016 at 11:23:58 AM

[up][up] Sure, we could. It would have just taken longer and would probably be significantly more horrible.

But also remember that after stopping Hitler, we marched straight into fifty years of horror as the world sat in trepidation, wondering whether it would be us or the Soviets who pulled the trigger and murdered the Earth.

The Cold War is the ur-example of "Yesterday's strange bedfellows are tomorrow's horrible new crisis." The dictators we prop up and then have to overthrow afterwards are just following in Stalin's footsteps.

edited 11th Jul '16 11:24:56 AM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
flameboy21th The would-be novelist from California Since: Jan, 2013 Relationship Status: I <3 love!
ironballs16 Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Owner of a lonely heart
#129584: Jul 11th 2016 at 11:35:53 AM

So, comedian Jim Jeffries is making headlines for his political commentary regarding Trump during his "Freedumb" special on Netflix. And I gotta admit, the excerpt from it (seen here) is pretty right on the nose in regards to radicalization and how counterproductive it is to view all Muslims as terrorists-in-waiting.

“Now you’re a 16-year-old boy or girl that’s a Muslim living in this country,” he continues, describing a hypothetical scenario. “You’ve lived your entire life in this country. You’ve always considered yourself American and then all of a sudden someone who could be your President says you are not welcome here and that you should be put on a register. Now that kid, how f*cking quickly do you think that that kid could be radicalized now? Before he wasn’t gonna be radicalized at all.”

[down]

Yeah, it's the Then Let Me Be Evil trope as applied to reality.

edited 11th Jul '16 11:45:43 AM by ironballs16

"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#129585: Jul 11th 2016 at 11:39:18 AM

[up] Yeah, it's a basic paradox of prejudice: acting as if all members of a group are potential X's makes it more likely for them to choose to become X out of resentment. It's great if your agenda is to generate scapegoats to rile your constituents up against, though.

edited 11th Jul '16 11:39:39 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
OblongReality Unwanted Anachronism. Since: Aug, 2015 Relationship Status: One True Dodecahedron
Unwanted Anachronism.
#129586: Jul 11th 2016 at 11:52:20 AM

Trail of Tears, Japanese-American Internment Camps, Andersonville.

Oh the fun things people get up to when they start dehumanizing the other.

Elle Since: Jan, 2001
#129587: Jul 11th 2016 at 11:54:56 AM

Hitler v. Stalin was admittedly much more "the fate of the world truly at stake in wartime" circumstance where the one's I'm thinking about are the Cold War ones. Iran. Iraq. Afghanastan. Central and South America.

Also think the Obama administration half-assed Syria and that might have created more problems than if we'd thrown our full weight behind the rebels...allowing for the fact there might be internal politics I don't know enough about since so much of that region is tied up in "the Americans want to control everything" paranoia.

OblongReality Unwanted Anachronism. Since: Aug, 2015 Relationship Status: One True Dodecahedron
Unwanted Anachronism.
#129588: Jul 11th 2016 at 11:58:38 AM

[up] The Syrian rebels, of which you'd have to declare which particular brand you're speaking of, are almost entirely composed of disparate factions of people with a wide array of motivations. Very, very, precious few of them have the "best interests" of anyone other than their particular clan/tribe/sports team at heart. Backing any single one of them could very easily alienate seven others.

Syria, like many other nations in that area, is a cluster created by the Cold War.

Elle Since: Jan, 2001
#129589: Jul 11th 2016 at 12:05:00 PM

So, internal politics I'm pretty ignorant of. :P

In that case, I dunno, maybe better to do nothing at all if they're all shady. But if it involves putting our troops on the ground, either commit fully or don't at all. And that includes staying for the cleanup and rebuilding after.

PhiSat Planeswalker from Everywhere and Nowhere Since: Jan, 2011
Planeswalker
#129590: Jul 11th 2016 at 12:06:29 PM

Look up Wahhabi Islam vs basically every other sect of Islam and that should explain why it would be a very bad idea to back rebel groups in Syria. It also explains a lot about ISIS and why it's bombing other Islamic countries.

Oissu!
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#129591: Jul 11th 2016 at 12:07:57 PM

The fundamental paradox of Syria is that there aren't very many "conventional good guys". There are plenty of folks who just want peace/to be able to live without violence and there are folks who want to oust Assad. Sometimes those groups overlap, but often they don't.

edited 11th Jul '16 12:08:51 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
PhiSat Planeswalker from Everywhere and Nowhere Since: Jan, 2011
Planeswalker
#129592: Jul 11th 2016 at 12:09:16 PM

Oh no, definitely not. Just guys backed by one side and guys backed by another. And civilians who either don't care either way or just want to live their lives.

edited 11th Jul '16 12:10:13 PM by PhiSat

Oissu!
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
#129593: Jul 11th 2016 at 12:30:02 PM

There were conventional good guys in Syria, but Assad shot them all while the international community was dithering worrying about the Islamists Assad had let out of jail. Which was Assad's entire reason for letting the Islamists out, though he might not have needed to do that if he'd just trusted Putin to protect him.

Well the Kurds are still around and have build up an alliance of non-Kurds that's working with them.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#129594: Jul 11th 2016 at 12:32:07 PM

I can't imagine Assad is gonna come out of this conflict alive. Once it's all settled we'll find him in a ditch somewhere and the Russians will have found a new proxy to work though.

Oh really when?
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#129595: Jul 11th 2016 at 12:33:50 PM

[up][up]The Kurds aren't exactly saints; they have insurgent movements in other nations, like Turkey. It's difficult for our armchair generals to understand that every single faction with the ability and/or motivation to take up arms in that region has a beef with at least one other faction that we like and/or an alliance with a faction that is extremely antagonistic to our interests; and these beefs are cultural and of long standing.

[up] Cockroaches like him have enormous resources of ingenuity when it comes to staying alive. Russia isn't going to shoot him and dump him in a river; they need him in power. Plus, it's certain that he's got precautions against exactly that event.

edited 11th Jul '16 12:35:13 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
TheHandle United Earth from Stockholm Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
United Earth
#129596: Jul 11th 2016 at 12:37:33 PM

He's basically King Aerys the Mad.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
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
#129597: Jul 11th 2016 at 12:40:19 PM

Different Kurds has insurgency movements in Turkey, the Iraqi lot are basically their own state and the Syrian lot seem to keep screaming "what the hell guys?!" whenever their brethren in Turkey start blowing shit up.

Now the Syrian Kurds aren't saints, there have been a few reports of at least threats of war crimes. But I'd hardly say the issue the Kurds have with Turkey is a reason to dislike them, the Turkish goverment is thin skinned, prone to angry outbursts, and is helping ISIS either though wilful incompetence or actual malice. The Turkish goverment can go join Pakistan in the "why are we allied to you nuts again?" corner.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#129598: Jul 11th 2016 at 12:42:26 PM

The Turkish government is explicitly arming and supplying ISIS. Really if we didn't need that buffer against the Russians we'd have put them on our shit list a long time ago.

Oh really when?
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#129599: Jul 11th 2016 at 12:44:03 PM

Turkey is an unreliable ally to anyone as long as Sultan Erdogan is in power. And I wouldn't be surprised if he declared himself President for Life at some point.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Greenmantle V from Greater Wessex, Britannia Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: Hiding
V
#129600: Jul 11th 2016 at 12:44:21 PM

[up][up] And the Greeks toonote ? smile

edited 11th Jul '16 12:44:37 PM by Greenmantle

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