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
![]()
Yes. He'll probably be remembered as one of the worst prime ministers - and that was before the EU referendum (or even the Scottish referendum).
edited 30th Nov '16 6:02:23 PM by Wyldchyld
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.@Potatoes Rock Yes. The "pig-fucker" was very unpopular with them. Even other Tories didn't particularly like him. Scotland hated him so much that it's one of the reasons the referendum to leave the UK was so close. Yes, Scotland very nearly decided to ditch the UK just so they wouldn't have to put up with Cameron's shit anymore.
Okay, it was far from the only reason, but it was a reason.
@Elle
At this point, if the GOP put up Dubya for a third term, I'd be all for it.
edited 30th Nov '16 6:06:07 PM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprisedHuh, so Trump will be able to send unblockable text messages
to everyone in the nation once in office, since the President can apparently do that. Given his twitter habits, I shudder to think of the possibilities. Oh, and twitter is threatening to ban Trump if he breaks their rules
.
edited 30th Nov '16 6:08:51 PM by CaptainCapsase
So all these Faithless Electors are from states Hillary won? 0 are from any state Trump won?
Man, I didn't realize how unpopular Hillary was.
Also, if all the current Faithless electors (which is 9 so far?) vote for Evan Mc Mullin (a moderate Independent Conservative), then I will be right in that he actually got Electoral Votes.
I've definitely heard of one who sited Religious Reasons. Regardless, neither of them are important, sadly, because they quit instead of joining the Faithless Electors.
edited 30th Nov '16 6:23:44 PM by DingoWalley1
Remember that Romney was hardly very popular among Republicans in the 2012 primaries. They grumbled about him being Mormon and there was talk that Romney would be the guy who brings the GOP back from crazy town and be its Internal Reformist.
Low standards, scummy standards, but worth keeping in mind. His dad, George Romney was a Civil Rights supporter.
Mc Mullin isn't a climate change denialist and says he respects the Supreme Court's decision on same-sex marriage. I know the bar is set low since we're dealing with Trump and Pence so anything looks saintly compared to them, but even among Republicans we could do worse.
I agree that FADA and climate change are the main things we need to watch. If FADA passes, civil rights as we know them in the USA are more or less fucked as long as it stays. If the USA does nothing to alleviate climate change, the whole planet is fucked. Maybe it still is — the planet may very well be past the point of no return barring some miraculous discovery or innovation — but doing nothing will just bring our inevitable doom a lot closer. And even if all we can do is slow it down, that would at least buy time for us to come up with a better solution.
Net neutrality is also something to consider. If the Trump administration really goes through with eliminating it...
I kind of miss the days when the worst legislation we had to worry about was the TPP and TTIP. And this is coming from someone who was not a fan of either.
edited 30th Nov '16 6:32:55 PM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprised

Stick every last failure to him, and talk policy and issues.
This only works if the media is willing to report news on a factual basis. This approach was attempted, and failed, in the UK's EU referendum campaign. The failure was the way the media covered the campaign.
The Leave campaign hired former campaign managers of Trump's, which is why the Leave campaign was so similar to Trump's campaign (and partly why Farage helped Trump campaign - tit for tat). As far as the media was concerned, the only Remain campaign was Cameron's campaign, which engaged in the same kind of bullshit campaign as the Leave campaign, but couldn't play it anywhere near as well.
However, Cameron's Remain campaign was not the only Remain campaign. In fact, it was the smallest Remain campaign because absolutely no Remain groups wanted to share a platform with him - he was far too toxic, and had too much history of lying and exaggeration (something the Trump-influenced Leave campaign took to a brand new level, beyond anything Cameron could keep up with).
The other Remain campaigns travelled the country tirelessly and used Social Media as much as they could because the media utterly refused to cover them except on the 'rare' occasion something occurred that they could spin in a negative way to try and damage those campaigns. The biggest reason for alternative Remain campaigns to refuse to share Cameron's toxic platform was because their entire approach was to talk to people about their fears and misconceptions about the EU. Their campaign was based on education and facts.
The media didn't give it any airtime at all for a number of reasons, the biggest being the fact the the UK media has had an anti-EU agenda for forty years and therefore has never been interested in discussing the truth about the EU. The other being that these campaigns were being driven by people the media regards as threats to the Tory-led government (the devolved parties such as SNP and Plaid Cymru, the Greens, Corbyn's Remain campaign, and even Tory Remain supporters who rallied around former Prime Minister John Major).
If there is a hostile media in place that has an agenda of either supporting a specific political group, or has an agenda to create the most sensationalised news for ratings, this tactic - while needed - will never work.
This is not simply a problem of how politicians need to strategise their message, it's about the role - and agendas - of the media as well.
edited 30th Nov '16 6:00:58 PM by Wyldchyld
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.