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
I wonder if this election season will give the House Of Cards writers a blank check to go balls out batshit crazy and then when fans cry foul they point to 2016 and say "Hey, it's not that crazy."
New Survey coming this weekend!So why not have the equivalent of 'superdelegates' in the general election as well? That way someone like Trump can never be elected at all. Unless I'm misreading what you said (in which case I apologize - I don't want to put words in your mouth), you're basically advocating that 'there are perceived flaws in a democratic system, so let's make it more oligarchical'. The Republicans could also have easily prevented someone like Trump from winning the nomination if they had not tried to appeal to racist sentiment and therefore normalized these ideas (this is exactly how the far right grew in popularity in Europe as well, by the way).
And you shouldn't portray Sanders supporters as uninformed, since aside from possibly preventing future progressives from winning the Democratic nomination, the superdelegates also had an effect on this primary race: they were reported together with the regular delegates in the media, which made Clinton's lead appear to be insurmountable at all stages of the primaries (in New Hampshire, for example, Clinton won as much delegates as Sanders, despite the fact that Sanders won the primary with a larger than 20% margin).
edited 19th Sep '16 2:18:27 AM by Perian
These games look more like parodies than the real thing. Poe's Law aside - while Trump is completely impossible to parody, that doesn't mean he can't be made to look like...as much of a joke as he is.
In other news, Alaska Senator finally sues Governor Bill Walker for illegal cut to the Permanent Fund Dividend
. While his legal reasoning seems pretty sound, I'm doubtful it'll succeed - the lawsuit is mainly a re-election stunt and in any case we won't get the balance of our dividends until the suit resolves.
Maybe our protestors need better signs. Like, say, movie posters
◊.
A Trump political simulator would be singular in that the straight and parodic versions would be identical. You would start in a crime- and poverty-ridden America, and when elected, woud have one option: BUILD A WALL. And after you make Mexico magically pay for it, suddenly, America becomes Great Again™.
Construction Simulator 2016. Except you don't get any budget.
Until you finally get one when the government realizes that Mexico will never pay. As such they end up raising taxes. In Texas, this is seen as a betrayal, and the game ends up being a survival where you try to escape overarmed rednecks on their pickups who, for once, stop looking after the illegal migrants and go after the people responsible for the wall.
edited 19th Sep '16 5:24:48 AM by Julep
Krugman: Vote as if it Matters
It behooves the parties to make sure that they don't nominate a madman in the first place, though. Primaries, by their very nature, are easier to game than general elections are. Because they're a smaller voting pool to begin with, and turnout tends to be lower even among those eligible to participate, the vocal minority becomes louder. Superdelegates act as a buffer against this effect.
And for the record, superdelegates only actually consist of about 15% of the total delegate count. In 2016, there were 712 superdelegates out of 4,763 total votes. That's enough to tip the scales in a tightly contested race (where two candidates have nearly 50% each), or play kingmaker in a primary with a wide field (eg, four or five major candidates each with a sizable chunk of the pledged delegates), but not enough to overturn a popular decision for a single candidate.
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.![]()
Don't worry, I'm not voting for Gary this time around. Two reasons: One, I've altered my viewpoint on libertarian platforms since then, and two, the election's too important to take votes away from Hillary.
"And even if they manage that, then the Supreme Court will stand up and say "lol, no"."
Again, the point is rendered moot if the Supreme Court is majorly made of GOPers.
edited 19th Sep '16 7:41:48 AM by speedyboris
Though maybe pragmatists like Roberts and Kennedy won't go too far, if only to retain the Court's legitimacy. That's probably the reason Roberts saved the ACA. But if Scalia, Ginsberg and maybe Bayer get replaced by Trump wackjobs (assuming the Dems don't retain enough Senate seats to give the GOP a taste of their own obstruction medicine and say "No" before they Rs finish their sentence) there's going to be trouble.
Also, found a good op-ed stating that while "October Surprises" historically have little impact on Elections, this election is anything but normal and changing technology (and people committed to stopping one of the candidates) should actually bring out a story that sticks in the following weeks.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/19/opinions/october-election-surprise-zelizer/index.html
edited 19th Sep '16 8:02:43 AM by Rationalinsanity
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.It's very important to hammer the young (18-25 year old) voters on the elections-have-consequences thing, the younger end of that cohort won't have well-formed memories of the Bush Administration and was barely alive in the 2000 election itself.
It's unfortunate that some of the people who think that both sides are the same are beyond recall, but most of them could probably be sobered up with a well-reasoned argument.
Captured is much, much better than dead.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"![]()
![]()
![]()
The young almost unanimously side with Clinton over Trump in a two-person race, so the best option for the Democratic Party to retain young people is to make sure that people only know about those two options. Clinton and Trump are just derisive candidates for the vast majority of Americans. It's hard to convince people to vote when they see a bad option and a worse option, and that is what both candidates are seen as by the voters. It also makes sense that both candidates would be unpopular... Trump's a detestable bigot and Clinton has been dogged with accusations for over 25 years. No matter how false those accusations against Clinton are, it is hard to overcome over 25 years of propaganda.
How did they go from him sleeping to a shootout?
Oh well,they caught him alive,but at the expense of injured officers
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/37399898
edited 19th Sep '16 9:32:56 AM by Ultimatum
have a listen and have a link to my discord server
x3 What false accusations.
America and it's allies are being subjected to more and more terrorist attacks. I hope, whoever becomes the next President will address the grievaces of many muslims in a more intelligent way, but I doubt it. I don't think invading their countries and trying to democratize them by force helps.
edited 19th Sep '16 10:24:02 AM by 940131

Why so surprised? there are already porn parodies of this election cycle, a Trump game is the least shocking content.
Not even mention the horrors spawning from Fanfiction.net
Inter arma enim silent leges