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

Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#153651: Nov 10th 2016 at 5:34:14 PM

There's several things a Trump administration could do that would produce the appearance of a good economy while creating a colossal bubble

What measures are these and how likely are they to implement them? Most of the assessments of Trump's proposed ideas have disastrous results for the economy.

CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#153652: Nov 10th 2016 at 5:35:00 PM

[up] I don't think Trump's proposed policies have any bearing on what will actually be done in office.

edited 10th Nov '16 5:36:30 PM by CaptainCapsase

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#153653: Nov 10th 2016 at 5:35:52 PM

Pence would be worse (or the same, the GOP will pass its agenda regardless of what Trump thinks) domestically. In terms of international relations he'll be more stable and reasonable, but that's a very low bar.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#153654: Nov 10th 2016 at 5:35:56 PM

Fair enough, but what about my other question?

CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#153655: Nov 10th 2016 at 5:36:42 PM

[up] He could drastically increase government spending to stimulate the economy (presumably subsidizing oil companies and the like to get the GOP on board)...And not stop the spending (or veto bills to stop it) when the economy is in danger of "overheating".

That, incidentally, is one of the things that eventually would have imploded the economy of Nazi Germany.

edited 10th Nov '16 5:39:04 PM by CaptainCapsase

InAnOdderWay Since: Nov, 2013
#153656: Nov 10th 2016 at 5:36:58 PM

Trump doesn't have 9/11, hopefully. It's just hype at this point.

If we're at 4 years without conclusive strides in Trump's promises, the DNC is going to fucking pounce on the chance to Round 2 the election. And this is ignoring all the work to be done in preparation for thr 2018 elections.

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#153657: Nov 10th 2016 at 5:38:57 PM

Trump might be between a wall (tongue) and a hard place. If he goes too extreme he turns off moderates and encourages the left to stop him at every turn. If he tones it down and becomes W 2.0, he pisses off his hardcore base, who go back to not voting

edited 10th Nov '16 5:39:16 PM by Rationalinsanity

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
thatguythere47 Since: Jul, 2010
#153658: Nov 10th 2016 at 5:39:16 PM

@canada: We've pretty much gotten the shite end of the deal with NAFTA so a renegotiation can't do much worse. Too rich to sell cheap shit to yanks and too small to take over industries.

Is using "Julian Assange is a Hillary butt plug" an acceptable signature quote?
AngelusNox Warder of the damned from The guard of the gates of oblivion Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
Warder of the damned
#153659: Nov 10th 2016 at 5:39:43 PM

  • Cut taxes for everyone and hope trickle down economy fixes things
  • Cut government spending
  • Pay the debt and keep it low
  • Create jobs for his voter base through government spending

He can't even pick two without entering in conflict with the others. His entire economic policy puts him in a deadlock that will force him break several of them in the process.

I'd rather he forget the first 3 and focus on the last one listed but I don't think that his running mates will like that.

edited 10th Nov '16 5:41:03 PM by AngelusNox

Inter arma enim silent leges
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#153660: Nov 10th 2016 at 5:40:13 PM

@Bluefish: Also, the bright side to that story is that the woman was let go. Proves that some police officers still have some degree of fairness to their proceedings.

I don't know that she would have been treated that way if she were black and male, however.

AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#153661: Nov 10th 2016 at 5:40:21 PM

This is horrible. This is supposed to be one of the safer places. It's not physically close to where I work, but my lab is part of the NYU system. That means my friends and coworkers could be at risk. Oh geez sad

CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#153662: Nov 10th 2016 at 5:40:36 PM

@rational: It's very possible the economy might end up doing decently for some time under a GOP administration assuming they tone things down a bit, only for a repeat of 2008 to happen 5 years down the line.

edited 10th Nov '16 5:41:30 PM by CaptainCapsase

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#153663: Nov 10th 2016 at 5:40:51 PM

@Grounder Well, the UK has basically three kinds of immigration...from the commonwealth (and states which used to be part of it), from inside the EU and from Asylum-seekers / refugees. So...let's take this apart....

The first group is pretty much an UK issue and not related to the EU at all. But if the current talks with India are any indication, some of those states might use the opportunity to pressure the UK into being more inviting.

The second group is an EU issue but it is actually the fault of the UK that there is a problem at all. See, it was the UK which pushed for adding the Eastern European states in the first place and is on the UK to design the rules in a way that it ensures that what happens is a transfer of workers rather than people. In fact, the UK is more or less the only EU state which considers EU immigration a problem. Even the right-wing parties of other countries focus more on the third big group - which are the asylum seeker and refugees.

Which is actually the group the UK is the most fearful of...and the one which has the lowest immigration rate due to the fact that currently the EU acts like a giant protection shield. Since the UK is not part of Schengen, it can easily keep Asylum seekers out (hence the situation in Calais). But once it is no longer in the EU all bets are off. Above all, one of the treaties which won't apply to the UK anymore is the Dublin agreement. Dublin allows the UK to send every asylum seeker back to other EU countries (meaning wherever the asylum seeker or refugee was registered first). But once the UK is no longer part of the EU, once the asylum seekers and refugees have managed to cross the border to the UK, they are the problem of the UK. Meaning they have the same problem Greece and Italy have: They can't send the people back into a war zone and even if they are from one of the so called "safe countries" deportation is often difficult because the African states tend to have zero interest into taking back their own people.

In short, the UK used to have a "wall" against the most problematic kind of immigration (problematic because it is the most difficult to control, unless you are the US and can do multiple security checks before allowing entry), and said wall was the EU....and once they have left, the wall will be gone.

That is the ironic thing in all this...right-wing politicians tend to have the worst solutions to problems which ail their most enthusiastic voters.

edited 10th Nov '16 5:42:36 PM by Swanpride

rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#153664: Nov 10th 2016 at 5:42:40 PM

@alt-left discussion: I'm not really that afraid of the alt-left as they've been described, since they tend to cannibalize themselves too easily to be a threat outside of small groups, for the most part. As a friend of mine has said, turns out people who are against centralized authority... tend to be fairly fractured and scattered in reality. The alt-right's different since their brand of ideological purity actually works very well for creating internal cohesion because they're all in complete agreement on what and who they hate.

Don't get me wrong, there's definitely issues with people perverting social justice rhetoric for their own purposes (Riley on Tumblr being the most infamous example), and issues when it comes to intersectional politics, but overall they're not nearly as dangerous as the alt-right because of their ultimately self-destructive nature (Which is what happens when people are more concerned with not looking problematic rather than actually trying to change.), though I do think they do need to be countered on the microscale.

Also, while the left has a (very real) antisemitism problem, I feel like it's a bit intellectually disingenuous to talk about it as if antisemitism doesn't cross political lines, it just takes different forms depending on whether it's left or right-wingers doing it.

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
megarockman from The Sixth Borough (Experienced Trainee)
#153665: Nov 10th 2016 at 5:43:01 PM

[up][up][up]Meanwhile, would any of that show up in the rural Rust Belt towns that voted for him out of desperation?

edited 10th Nov '16 5:43:11 PM by megarockman

The damned queen and the relentless knight.
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#153666: Nov 10th 2016 at 5:43:22 PM

@Alley Oop: Earlier Crimson Zephyr made a rather dark statement about how we shouldn't be complacent because the blackshirts are in every corner.

He's not wrong.

AngelusNox Warder of the damned from The guard of the gates of oblivion Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
Warder of the damned
#153667: Nov 10th 2016 at 5:43:50 PM

@Alley you know what is worse? Trump supporters are claiming those events are false flags by liberals to make Trump look bad.

Inter arma enim silent leges
CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#153668: Nov 10th 2016 at 5:44:12 PM

@rmc: The left isn't necessarily for or against central authority, and indeed, I would argue that some elements of the social justice community display an alarmingly authoritarian mindset. With the current radicalization of the right, that seems the most likely avenue for a similar radicalization to occur on the left.

@mega: Possibly, especially if there's major government spending initiatives in those areas; I'm not convinced Trump won't pursue a Bread and Circuses approach, and after the massive upset Trump accomplished, I'm not sure the GOP establishment won't be immune to Trump's rather unique "charms".

[up] It could just be a troll who couldn't really give a shit about politics. Statistically speaking, it's far, far less likely to encounter a Trump supporter in New York city than say in Alabama.

edited 10th Nov '16 5:48:24 PM by CaptainCapsase

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#153669: Nov 10th 2016 at 5:52:29 PM

I wonder if Trump getting access to top secret intel briefings will change him at all? Or just governing in general?

Almost certainly not, but stranger things have happened....

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
IFwanderer use political terms to describe, not insult from Earth Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Wishfully thinking
use political terms to describe, not insult
#153670: Nov 10th 2016 at 5:53:56 PM

To be frank, South America doesn't have much to offer besides commodities, a mildly attractive export market and cheap labor.

On the third part, it seems we (Argentina) are good for outsourced software development. 1, 2, 3.

1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV
Gilphon (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#153671: Nov 10th 2016 at 5:54:06 PM

@Cap: Some elements, maybe, but when the main thing preventing a group from getting real power is that they're entirely too fractious and divided to actually accomplish anything, it's a bit of a given that some elements will be trending in just about any direction you can think of. That's sort of the point.

I mean, by all means try to discourage them from doing things you disapprove of. But you haven't sold me on the idea that this is a thing that's really worth worrying about.

Bat178 Since: May, 2011
#153672: Nov 10th 2016 at 5:54:47 PM

And some of us on the Left are concerned about the rest of the world as Trump has said the US wouldn't defend Europe or East Asia if he is elected and we have relatives living in those places, as well as his rise might cause even more right-wing psychopaths to rise in other 1st World countries.

AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#153673: Nov 10th 2016 at 5:55:19 PM

The last thing sure, but he already walked back on his threats to South Korea.

Gaon Smoking Snake from Grim Up North Since: Jun, 2012 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#153674: Nov 10th 2016 at 5:55:26 PM

I think Presidency will change Trump, but not in a Heel–Face Turn way. I think the responsabilities of governing will just slowly eat away his sanity and physical health and leave him as a shell of the man he once was. Similar things have happened to literally all of America's previous Presidents, and they were in both superior mental and physical health than Trump, and more up to the task of rulling. Trump, who's a rotten orange with limbs and has the mental fortitude of a rusty bucket of racist crabs whose concept of ruling is as limited in reach as his tiny hands are, will be eaten alive by those four years.

edited 10th Nov '16 5:56:35 PM by Gaon

"All you Fascists bound to lose."
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#153675: Nov 10th 2016 at 5:56:04 PM

His rise has probably given a lot of encouragement to neo-fascists and rightists in Brazil, just for one thing.


Total posts: 417,856
Top