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

pwiegle Cape Malleum Majorem from Nowhere Special Since: Sep, 2015 Relationship Status: Singularity
Cape Malleum Majorem
#137301: Sep 4th 2016 at 11:12:14 AM

Don't bother trying to sway the Republicans with facts, their minds are already made up. To them, Hillary is considered guilty until proven guilty, and even if she's not guilty, she's guilty anyway.

This Space Intentionally Left Blank.
Jasaiga Since: Jan, 2015
#137302: Sep 4th 2016 at 11:40:23 AM

And people keep calling me crazy when I say racism and sexism are, at their core of the main political issues with our beloved Republic.

BonsaiForest Since: Jan, 2001
#137303: Sep 4th 2016 at 12:04:56 PM

The comments on the video about Milo and Lesilie Jones are disgusting. Looks like the manosphere found a video to flood with comments praising Milo and condemning his target.

TacticalFox88 from USA Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Dating the Doctor
#137304: Sep 4th 2016 at 12:19:50 PM

Never read Youtube comments. Like...ever.

You'll find haters even on Baby and Cat videos.

New Survey coming this weekend!
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#137305: Sep 4th 2016 at 12:21:22 PM

[up] 'Dem Siamese cats! They're un-American and should go back where they came from.

Bat178 Since: May, 2011
#137306: Sep 4th 2016 at 12:22:35 PM

[up] Don't virtually all breeds of cats and dogs come from Europe and not America?

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#137307: Sep 4th 2016 at 12:34:02 PM

[up] In real life, no idea. In the context of this joke, it's irrelevant

TacticalFox88 from USA Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Dating the Doctor
#137308: Sep 4th 2016 at 12:44:10 PM

What if I told you I've sen Facebook comments with that "joke" but being completely serious?

New Survey coming this weekend!
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#137309: Sep 4th 2016 at 12:59:35 PM

[up]I would be more dismayed than surprised.

NativeJovian Jupiterian Local from Orlando, FL Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
Jupiterian Local
#137310: Sep 4th 2016 at 1:01:18 PM

Don't virtually all breeds of cats and dogs come from Europe and not America?
Quite a few are European, certainly, but not "virtually all". There are plenty of American breeds, and also a fair number of Asian ones as well.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
Elle Since: Jan, 2001
#137311: Sep 4th 2016 at 1:46:58 PM

We have American big cats like the lynx and mountian lion but I'm pretty sure felis domesticus came over with the colonists and any American breeds would have come after the fact.

...this is off topic. But kitties.

[down]Well, yeah, dogs I knew were around that long.

edited 4th Sep '16 1:54:30 PM by Elle

Euodiachloris Since: Oct, 2010
#137312: Sep 4th 2016 at 1:50:42 PM

[up][up]Yup. You can find dog breeds native to all parts of the world. Heck, the chihuahua? Mexican as all get-out with a genetic history going back at least a thousand years — not much mixing (I'm not one of the ones who thinks the merle coat came from Chinese hairless mixes). And, the Xolo? Goes back even further. How do we know? Mummies. Dog burials.

Landraces are a thing: where you get mutts and mogs, you get naturally occurring landraces adapted to fit the local environment over time... which can become breeds with a little more time to document what you've got and what you're doing with it. smile

[up]Nope: not with dogs. Dogs came with the first immigrants. As in, those who crossed the land bridges to become the Really The Very First Nations and more. smile Will be relatives of the Asian Spitzen and dingos.

edited 4th Sep '16 1:59:28 PM by Euodiachloris

AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#137313: Sep 4th 2016 at 2:07:56 PM

Apsos and spitzes are considered the most ancestral dog breeds which suggests that domestication first happened in Central Asia or so.

FFShinra Since: Jan, 2001
#137314: Sep 4th 2016 at 2:10:30 PM

...Wasn't it just recently discovered that there may have been two seperate domestication events?

Euodiachloris Since: Oct, 2010
#137316: Sep 4th 2016 at 2:26:32 PM

[up][up]For dogs? More than that. There used to be a whole load of wolf breeds... and dogs didn't just come from one particular kind.

There's a lot of grey, golden and Some Other What Didn't Survive The Ice Age Undogged species of wolf in there. :/ Which suggests several domestications across Afro-Eurasia.

Cats may have gone through something similar, as they're not just from the African wildcat, genetically. There's a significant amount of Asian jungle in all domestic cats. <_<

edited 4th Sep '16 2:30:18 PM by Euodiachloris

FFShinra Since: Jan, 2001
#137317: Sep 4th 2016 at 2:39:00 PM

[up]Well headlines a few months ago were only confirming two, so <shrug>. If there is more, that just underscores my initial point.

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#137318: Sep 4th 2016 at 2:44:32 PM

Trump surrogate admits falsifying biographical claims

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/03/politics/mark-burns-donald-trump-interview/index.html

Washington (CNN) - A top Donald Trump surrogate admitted to falsifying some of his professional accomplishments after a contentious confrontation with CNN anchor Victor Blackwell.

South Carolina preacher Mark Burns, who regularly introduces Trump at his campaign events, had listed on his church's website that he had a Bachelor of Science degree and served six years in the Army Reserve.

Burns, however, was never in the Army Reserve. He was in the South Carolina National Guard, from which he was discharged in 2008, CNN found.

As far as a Bachelor's degree, North Greenville University told CNN he only attended the school for one semester. Burns admitted that he did not finish his degree when CNN asked him about it.

When CNN confronted Burns about the various professional and social exaggerations he had featured on his biography, Burns first said the page had "obviously" been either "manipulated or either hacked or added."

But the site host, Wix, said there was no evidence of a hack.

"This is not fair at all," Burns told Blackwell during the interview. "I thought we were doing a profile and all of a sudden you're here to try to destroy my character."

"I'm not here to destroy your character," Blackwell replied. At one point, Burns told Blackwell he believed the interview was off the record, to which Blackwell responded, "I didn't agree to that."

Burns abruptly ended the interview by walking away.

CNN followed up with the Trump campaign and was provided with a statement from Burns:

"As a young man starting my church in Greenville, South Carolina, I overstated several details of my biography because I was worried I wouldn't be taken seriously as a new pastor. This was wrong, I wasn't truthful then and I have to take full responsibility for my actions," Burns' statement reads. Burns said he did not know if he had been vetted by the Trump campaign.

Krieger22 Causing freakouts over sourcing since 2018 from Malaysia Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: I'm in love with my car
Causing freakouts over sourcing since 2018
#137319: Sep 4th 2016 at 10:40:57 PM

The founder of Latinos for Trump, the man who made taco trucks on every street corner sound like a bad thing, is unsurprisingly a real estate scammer.

One of the really scummy things to come out of the Great Recession were the predatory real estate scammers who crawled out of the woodwork to promise families they'd help save their houses, only to actually take their money.

It turns out Mr. "Taco Trucks On Every Corner" Latinos for Trump founder Marco Gutierrez was one of those. Here is his Linked In profile, screencapped here for posterity.

According to HERA, a non-profit state organization which helps people with housing issues, Gutierrez is a serial scammer. In their 2013-2014 Annual Report, they describe their own dealings with him, when his abuses of immigrants and their loan modifications came to light.

Abuses leveled at immigrants can be particularly vicious. As part of a foreclosure rescue scam, Marco Gutierrez bullied and intimidated HERA’s monolingual Spanish-Speaking homeowner client, charging over $16,000 for a loan modification. He took the homeowner’s car as partial payment but never changed registration, racking up unpaid tickets under the homeowner’s name. When HERA helped the homeowner complain to authorities, the scammer filed a meritless lawsuit against the homeowner (and against a HERA staffer). In the course of defending the case, HERA discovered that Gutierrez was a serial litigant who had filed dozens of actions against his “clients”. Gutierrez was using the court system to bully vulnerable residents across several counties into paying amounts they did not owe him and to retaliate against those who complained about his practices. After defeating Gutierrez’s claims HERA brought a successful vexatious litigant motion against Gutierrez. As a result, both HERA’s client and countless other unrepresented homeowners who might have fallen prey to Gutierrez’s tactics are now protected.

The California Department of Real Estate has also brought actions against Gutierrez. In a 2011 action, they sought to revoke and/or suspend Gutierrez' license for collecting advance fees for a home retention action, only to take additional funds from the homeowner's checking account to pay his Comcast and Sprint bills instead of helping them to keep their home.

As a consequence of that action, Gutierrez and his wife were barred from any dealings with individual homeowners, though they did not lose their license entirely.

Apparently Mr. Gutierrez is also a serial bankruptcy filer. According to court documents from 2014, Gutierrez has filed bankrutpcy at least 14 times. A potential creditor and former friend explained how they used bankruptcy filings as sort of a pyramid scheme:

During the time I was working with [Debtors] they explained to me how they were using the bankruptcy court to prevent foreclosure on their home and to prevent other collection efforts, since they had no money. Mrs. Gutierrez explained to us that the way they were preventing a foreclosure was by filing for bankruptcy and then not following up on a legal requirement and the case would be dismissed. She explained to us that sometimes there was a three month period between the filing and the dismissal and that interfered with the foreclosure.

This is the man who created the "Latinos for Trump" group. He aspires to be Donald Trump, clearly. Serial bankruptcies, scamming immigrants, trying to use a federal program to help people save their homes as a personal piggy bank. These are characteristics of the man he supports so fervently.

How he lives his life is none of my concern, until he pops up on television claiming it's a terrible thing for taco trucks to be on every corner while exploiting immigrant families to pay his Comcast and Sprint bills. Then it's worth taking a closer look at his credibility to see whether he deserves attention.

He clearly does not.

(h/t Tawni via Twitter)

I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiot
Xopher001 Since: Jul, 2012
#137320: Sep 4th 2016 at 10:53:02 PM

...Why were we talking about cats and dogs a page ago?

Krieger22 Causing freakouts over sourcing since 2018 from Malaysia Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: I'm in love with my car
Causing freakouts over sourcing since 2018
#137321: Sep 4th 2016 at 11:01:42 PM

[up]The "send _______ back to where it came from" meme the American Right has fallen in love with taken to absurdity.

I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiot
Bat178 Since: May, 2011
#137322: Sep 4th 2016 at 11:41:46 PM

[up] That could also apply to food, as most of the food Americans eat originated in Germany, Belgium and Italy.

edited 4th Sep '16 11:42:19 PM by Bat178

Krieger22 Causing freakouts over sourcing since 2018 from Malaysia Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: I'm in love with my car
Causing freakouts over sourcing since 2018
#137323: Sep 5th 2016 at 12:13:46 AM

As it turns out, Donald Trump donated USD 35K to Greg Abbott's gubernatorial campaign after the latter dropped a probe into Trump University.

WASHINGTON — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott received a $35,000 donation to his successful gubernatorial campaign from Donald Trump. This after a Texas probe into Trump University was dropped in 2010, according to the Associated Press.

The AP reported that Abbott, a Republican, was serving as Texas Attorney General at the time, and opened a civil investigation of "possibly deceptive trade practices" into Trump University, but quietly dropped it when the organization agreed to end its operations in Texas.

Trump subsequently donated $35,000 to Abbott's successful gubernatorial campaign, according to records obtained by the AP.

The AP reported that a spokesman for Abbott declined to comment.

Former Texas Official: Abbott Not Involved in Trump University Decision

Trump University guides unsealed this week by a federal judge in southern California undercut Trump's portrayal of his one-time real estate seminar course as an uncontroversial operation. Instead, the manuals reflect boiler-room sales tactics — the proceeds of which went largely to Trump.

The manual for the staff at Trump University events was precise: The room temperature should be 68 degrees. Seats should be arranged in a theater-style curve. And government prosecutors had no right to see any documents without a warrant.

Instructing employees how to stall law enforcement investigations might seem like an unusual part of running a real estate seminar company. But at Trump University — which drew investigations by Democratic and Republican attorneys general alike — it was par for the course.

One guide encouraged staff to learn prospective enrollees' motivations in order to better sell them on products: "Are they a single parent of three children that may need money for food?" the guide asked. When people balked at paying for expensive courses, the suggested response for Trump University staff was harsh.

"I find it very difficult to believe you'll invest in anything else if you don't believe enough to invest in yourself and your education," the guide offered as a recommended response.

Those who bought into Trump University ended up paying as much as $34,995 for what was purported to be private mentoring with supposed real estate experts — some of whom Trump himself later acknowledged were unqualified.

"It's fraud. ... straight-up fraud," said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman during an MSNBC interview on Thursday morning.

Schneiderman is suing Trump over Trump University in separate but similar case.

"He was clearly in charge of pitching this scam university to people," said Schneiderman.

With past Trump-affiliated business failures and controversies, Trump has often distanced himself by noting that his only financial involvement was a branding agreement. In the case of Trump University, however, Trump's ownership is not in dispute — Trump wanted the business for himself.

When future Trump University President Michael Sexton pitched Trump on the deal, he wanted to pay Trump a flat fee in a licensing deal. Trump rejected that, Sexton said in a deposition.

Trump "felt this was a very good business, and he wanted to put his own money into it," said Sexton, who ended up receiving $250,000 a year from Trump to run a business in which Trump held more than a 90 percent stake. The design of the Trump University operating agreement "was entirely in the hands of the Trump legal team," Sexton said.

Other court records and depositions showed that Trump and senior members of the Trump Organization were responsible for reviewing and signing all checks — and that Trump withdrew at least $2 million from the business.

Trump reviewed the advertising for Trump University's courses, Sexton said. And he did not believe Trump ever looked at what the three-day seminars included.

"Mr. Trump is not going to go through a 300-page, you know, binder of content," Sexton said.

The impression of Trump's involvement given to potential customers was quite different, according to a script for Trump University telemarketers.

"You know who my boss is, right?" the script reads. "Mr. Trump is on a mission to create the next wave of independently wealthy entrepreneurs in America. Is that YOU?"

Trump has defended Trump University by citing surveys in which 98 percent of students reported being pleased with the program. But those surveys took place before students had experienced the full program and were not anonymous, plaintiffs lawyers have said. A higher percentage demanded refunds later.

As scores of students complained that Trump University was a ripoff, the Better Business Bureau in 2010 gave the school a D-minus, its second-lowest grade. State regulators also began to take notice.

Besides the probe that led to Schneiderman's suit, and Abbott's investigation, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi briefly considered joining with Schneiderman in a multi-state suit against Trump University.

Three days after Bondi's spokeswoman was quoted in local media reports as saying the office was reviewing the New York lawsuit, the Donald J. Trump Foundation made a $25,000 contribution to a political fundraising committee supporting Bondi's re-election campaign.

Bondi, a Republican, soon dropped her investigation, citing insufficient grounds to proceed.

I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiot
TheHandle United Earth from Stockholm Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
United Earth
#137324: Sep 5th 2016 at 12:40:55 AM

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Ramidel Since: Jan, 2001
#137325: Sep 5th 2016 at 11:54:49 AM

Obama defends football player Kaepernick's right to sit out the national anthem.

Kinda silly that Obama had to say this, but America's a country of protest, and that goes up to and including flag burning. Sitting out an anthem is pretty tame.


Total posts: 417,856
Top