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
Likewise, the one state assembly rep I voted on the R ticket for appears to give a very significant damn for getting local public services and healthcare funded. (Compare to the national ticket where all the Republicans were of the rabid Trump supporter sort.) Much of the state level rhetoric centers around the Democrats being concentrated mostly in NYC and out of touch with the needs of Upstate.
A president doing his job not from the White House but from a tower with his name on it that he owns sounds like something Lord Business from the Lego movie would do. We are literally blurring the line between reality and cartoon villainy. This is like some bullshit I would expect to see in some wacky foreign cartoon from, I don't know, Japan, making fun of American stereotypes. "Their president is the richest man in the country, and runs it from a sky scraper with his name on it." And because he "won" we're just supposed to put up with this shit.
@Star: It presents a problem for satirists in particular because the man is already a cartoon. Where do you take the donald trump character?
@insane: four more years!
Does it kinda stress anyone else out seeing the level of clusterfuckness that is currently going on and realizing he's not even president yet? It's gonna be a rough four years.
Is using "Julian Assange is a Hillary butt plug" an acceptable signature quote?His sigil will be a red eye blonde wig.
His Cabinet are his Nazgul.
Steve Bannon is the Witch-King.
Romney is Saruman.
The people are Frodo and right now we are struggling.
Sauron was actually competent though, that's why half the villain comparisons don't work for Trump.
I could see the alt-right/deplorables as Uruks though.
My preferred sci-fi/fantasy analogue for Trump is a Ferengi. As Major Kira put it: ""They're greedy, misogynistic, untrustworthy little trolls, and I wouldn't turn my back on one of them for a second."
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.I'm adding in Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish.
Voldemort does come to mind but Fantastic Beasts has me currently convinced that HP wizarding society is fucked up so still kinda stuck in Cry For Devil mode for the bastard.
edited 25th Nov '16 6:31:43 PM by probablyinsane
Plants are aliens, and fungi are nanomachines.Trump is Ramsay(he keeps winning when by all means he really shouldn't), Bannon is Roose(evil, cunning and things ahead) and Comey is Walder Frey.
The Democrats are the Starks. Hillary is Catelyn Stark. The election was our Winterfell.
Wisconsin is going to do a recount of its votes thanks to Jill Stein.
edited 25th Nov '16 8:34:07 PM by MadSkillz
![]()
![]()
![]()
And now humanity gets to pay for their short-sightedness. Unless Trump pulls complete 180 on climate change and stays there....
Agreed. In this case, hope is the first step on the road to disappointment.
edited 25th Nov '16 8:44:54 PM by Rationalinsanity
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.Guys, even if there was evidence of Russian tampering, they won't overturn the election. Unless its proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that Trump/his campaign/the RNC/etc was complicit in a hypothetical tampering (good luck getting that through, the FBI has already been compromised), in which case you might see an impeachment down the line. Or a general strike forcing action.
Its over, unprincipled Republicans, unmotivated Democrats, and impulsive swing voters ruined basically everything. Don't get your hopes up over anything like this, focus on the future.
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.Just got an AP notification that Fidel Castro has died.
Cuba's Fidel Castro, who defied US for 50 years, has died: http://bigstory.ap.org/5ef60f67cefb46869c5b6e5814588dec&utm_source=android_app&utm_medium=copy_to_clipboard&utm_campaign=share
edited 25th Nov '16 9:56:53 PM by sgamer82
One villain dies, another rises.
@kkho It's just Wisconsin for right now. If it turns out that Hillary won then maybe more will follow.
I would assume that Wisconsin's electors would vote for Hillary so that'll help her out.
And we already have 6 electors willing to go rogue on Trump to get someone else in.
Someone I follow on twitter noted the irony of Castro dying on the single biggest day of capitalist excess.
![]()
See for yourself
. No, that is not made up.
Trump taps billionaire investor Ross for commerce secretary
The official isn't authorized to publicly discuss the matter and requested anonymity.
Reputed by Forbes to be worth nearly $3 billion, Ross would represent the interests of U.S. businesses domestically and abroad as the head at Commerce. His department would be among those tasked with carrying out the Trump administration's stated goal of protecting U.S. workers and challenging decades of globalization that largely benefited multinational corporations.
With a Florida home down the road from Trump's Mar-a-Lago retreat, the 78-year-old Ross played a role in crafting and selling the president-elect's tax-cut and infrastructure plans. Ross has suggested that much of America is disgruntled because the economy has left middle-class workers behind and says Trump represents a shift to a "less politically correct direction."
"Part of the reason why I'm supporting Trump is that I think we need a more radical, new approach to government — at least in the U.S. — from what we've had before," Ross told CNBC in June, referring to Trump's blunt tone and sweeping promises to reinvigorate economic growth.
Despite his embrace of populist rhetoric, Ross has enjoyed a patrician lifestyle. He frequently commutes between his offices in New York and home in Palm Beach, Florida, according to Haute Living magazine. He maintains an art collection worth more than $100 million that includes works by the Belgian surrealist Rene Magritte. A graduate of Yale University, he pledged $10 million to help build its management school.
For 24 years as a banker at Rothschild, Ross developed a lucrative specialty in bankruptcy and corporate restructurings. He founded his own firm, W.L. Ross, in 2000 and earned part of his fortune from investing in troubled factories in the industrial Midwest and in some instances generating profits by limiting worker benefits. That region swung hard for Trump in the election on the promise of more manufacturing jobs from renegotiated trade deals and penalties for factories that outsourced their work abroad.
A specialist in corporate turnarounds, Ross buys distressed or bankrupt companies at steep discounts, then seeks to shave costs and generate profits. Some of those cost reductions have come from altering pay and benefits for workers. Since 2000, his firm has invested in more than 178 companies.
Ross most prominently created four companies through mergers and acquisitions that focused on steel, textiles, autos and coal. In some cases, Ross has sold the companies he packaged to even larger globe-spanning companies. In 2005, he sold the International Steel Group, which included the former Bethlehem Steel, to the Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal.
And while his investments appear to have proved generally lucrative, they have also at times brought troubling publicity.
In early 2006, the Sago coal mine owned by Ross exploded, triggering a collapse that killed a dozen miners. Federal safety inspectors in 2005 had cited the West Virginia mine with 208 violations.
Ross said afterward that he knew about the safety violations but that the mine's management had assured him that it was a "safe situation."
"Oh, my God, it's the worst week of my entire life," Ross told ABC News days after the collapse.
If confirmed by the Senate as commerce secretary, Ross would oversee nearly 47,000 employees and a budget of roughly $8 billion.
Among its responsibilities, the Cabinet department provides data on the economy through the Census Bureau and monitors the environment through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
One former commerce secretary, Donald Evans, noted that a prime responsibility is opening up markets around the world for U.S. companies and workers.
"What you are is ambassador to the world from America," said Evans, who served under President George W. Bush. "It's critically important when you go to other countries that, first and foremost, you care about them, the citizens of their country."
That advice clashes somewhat with the promises made by Trump, who campaigned on the doctrine of putting "America first." The president-elect told voters that Mexico, China and other countries had played U.S. trade negotiators for fools.
"Under a Trump administration, no American citizen will ever again feel that their needs come second to the citizens of foreign countries," Trump said in April.
Well, if they wish to die in a coal mine or from inhaling coal particles, why not? 24 years at Rothschild Inc.? Being a fly on the wall at Bannon's office when he heard is going to be fun.
I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiot

And if you deal with normal state/local level Republicans in your area, they're likely to you know. Not sound like cartoon villains.
Hell the representative in my area who runs unopposed for the last decade or so? Their platform is literally "Keep kids in seat belts once they get a car and lets make sure senior citizens can get their drugs and medical care easily and keep taxes in the area low."