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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.

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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

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#166051: Jan 10th 2017 at 5:51:50 PM

[up] They're not gonna chance it until his approval ratings go lower.

Disgusted, but not surprised
TacticalFox88 from USA Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Dating the Doctor
#166052: Jan 10th 2017 at 5:52:50 PM

Remember how some of us thought 2016 was the bottom of the barrel?

2017: lmao hold my beer

New Survey coming this weekend!
RedSavant Since: Jan, 2001
#166053: Jan 10th 2017 at 5:53:30 PM

Congress can't ignore it? You mean the same Congress that chastised the Democrats for even thinking about possibly blocking a Supreme Court nom after successfully stonewalling Obama's pick for months?

Ha, no. Don't make me laugh. Trump is unsinkable - half his followers think every deplorable thing he does is the coolest shit ever.

edited 10th Jan '17 5:53:46 PM by RedSavant

It's been fun.
kkhohoho (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#166054: Jan 10th 2017 at 5:56:06 PM

[up]DEPLORABLES: Did you just seriously piss on the President's bed? Dude, that is totally... AWESOME BRO! THAT IS LIKE THE COOLEST THING EVER! LOL!1!

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#166055: Jan 10th 2017 at 5:58:53 PM

[up] So some people not only just want to watch the world burn, they want to piss on the ashes too.

Disgusted, but not surprised
FluffyMcChicken My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare from where the floating lights gleam Since: Jun, 2014 Relationship Status: In another castle
My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare
#166056: Jan 10th 2017 at 5:58:58 PM

Smithsonian: State Department Apologizes for "Lavender Scare".

Yesterday, outgoing Secretary of State John Kerry issued a formal apology for years of discrimination at the State Department against the LGBTQ community. “In the past—as far back as the 1940s, but continuing for decades—the Department of State was among many public and private employers that discriminated against employees and job applicants on the basis of perceived sexual orientation, forcing some employees to resign or refusing to hire certain applicants in the first place,” Kerry wrote. “These actions were wrong then, just as they would be wrong today.”

According to Camila Domonoske at NPR, the apology was suggested by Maryland Senator Ben Cardin, ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in a letter in late November. He also suggested that an era known as the “Lavender Scare” be addressed in the State Department’s museum. “Of course, the measures we take today cannot bring back years of anguish or erase decades of institutionalized homophobia, but we can ensure that such injustices levied against the LGBT community are never repeated again,” Cardin said in another statement in December, reports Domonoske.

The Lavender Scare was a time beginning in the late 1940s and continuing through the 1960s when thousands of suspected homosexuals were fired from the State Department, reports Judith Adkins for the National Archives and Records Administration's official magazine, Prologue. It coincided with the Red Scare and Senator Joe Mc Carthy’s lengthy set of hearings trying to expose suspected communists in the government, Hollywood and the military, reports John Fritze at The Baltimore Sun.

According to Susan Donaldson James at ABC News, the scare also extended to the military, government contractors and other agencies. But at the State Department, homosexuals were thought to esecially singled out because they were beleived to be a security risk "on the ostensible grounds that their sexual orientation rendered them vulnerable to blackmail, prone to getting caught in 'honey traps', and made them security risks,” writes Cardin.

In fact, though the height of the Lavender Scare was decades ago, Cardin writes that as late as the 1990s State Department employees were being investigated for homosexuality. While many have applaud Kerry’s apology, David Johnson, history professor at the University of South Florida and author of The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government tells Domonoske it does not go far enough. “The apology made it sound like the State Department was just one of many institutions that was discriminating against gay men and lesbians ... that it was just sort of run-of-the-mill 1950s anti-gay discrimination,” he says. “In fact, the State Department was unique in its level of homophobia.”

Cardin says he will introduce legislation in the Senate for a formal Congressional apology and will also allow those fired during the Lavender Scare to officially to correct their employment records.

Bat178 Since: May, 2011
#166057: Jan 10th 2017 at 5:59:36 PM

[up][up][up][up] And they confirm the stereotype the rest of the world has of Americans being complete idiots, if America didn't already just by electing Trump and not having laws about who he can choose as cabinet members.

edited 10th Jan '17 6:00:05 PM by Bat178

RedSavant Since: Jan, 2001
#166058: Jan 10th 2017 at 6:03:14 PM

God damn, John Kerry, I'm gonna miss you. A whole pack of politicians we didn't deserve and then threw under the bus.

It's been fun.
TacticalFox88 from USA Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Dating the Doctor
#166059: Jan 10th 2017 at 6:07:52 PM

ROFL

New Survey coming this weekend!
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#166060: Jan 10th 2017 at 6:09:08 PM

I knew Trump was going to figuratively piss all over American democracy, but I never imagined it wasn't just going to be figurative.

Disgusted, but not surprised
StarOutlaw Since: Nov, 2010
#166061: Jan 10th 2017 at 6:10:13 PM

So a quick bit of research shows that Obama only ever visited St. Petersburg in 2013 and did not visit Russia after that.

So yeah, Obama never actually slept in that bed again, so defiling it really was petty and pointless. I'm sure Trump was hoping Obama would have visited Moscow again.

RedSavant Since: Jan, 2001
#166062: Jan 10th 2017 at 6:11:53 PM

Bets on how long until this is non-news, if the report is true, and how many months it gets paraded around, if it's a hoax? I'm guessing two days for the former and forever for the latter.

It's been fun.
FergardStratoavis A Fluff Ringer from Bellveins (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: A gay little love melody
A Fluff Ringer
#166063: Jan 10th 2017 at 6:14:32 PM

Really, you'd have to catch the man red-handed on camera by now and even then odds are he would be defended by his staunch supporters somehow.

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#166064: Jan 10th 2017 at 6:16:20 PM

And this is the man that's going to "restore" America's reputation...?

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
kkhohoho (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#166065: Jan 10th 2017 at 6:18:02 PM

[up]Oh, he's going to restore it alright. He's going to restore it back to the way it used to be under good ol' Andrew Jackson. Either that or Nixon. (Maybe both?tongue)

RBluefish Since: Nov, 2013
#166066: Jan 10th 2017 at 6:19:10 PM

I doubt anything solid will come out of this - it's just an leak, albeit an explosive one. He'll continue to be America's number one golden boy, although the transfer of power may be less fluid as a result of this sudden stream of information. One thing's for sure - this story is making a big splash on the Internet. And it indicates that trickle-down economics will be the key, despite the PEEOTUS's refusal to liquidate his assets.

What? Tonight we laugh at pee jokes. Tomorrow we die in a nuclear inferno, but tonight we laugh at pee jokes.

"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."
AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#166067: Jan 10th 2017 at 6:22:03 PM

Is anyone watching the farewell address? He's trying to be uplifting and giving a vague framework for going forward right now.

rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#166068: Jan 10th 2017 at 6:22:19 PM

Anyone else watching Obama's final speech?

EDIT: [nja]'d

edited 10th Jan '17 6:22:34 PM by rmctagg09

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
nightwyrm_zero Since: Apr, 2010
kkhohoho (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#166070: Jan 10th 2017 at 6:24:27 PM

[up]x4 Dude, we already knew most of this beforehand. I don't think learning that Trump likes to take Golden Showers raises the possibility of nuclear armageddon any higher than it is. So you don't need to mention it twice on the same goddamn night like it has.

edited 10th Jan '17 6:25:36 PM by kkhohoho

RBluefish Since: Nov, 2013
#166071: Jan 10th 2017 at 6:29:16 PM

Should I have potholed that entire post to Joking Mode? I had thought it was obvious enough already.

"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."
RBluefish Since: Nov, 2013
#166073: Jan 10th 2017 at 6:37:02 PM

No problem. This is far from the first time I've accidentally failed to communicate tone in my posts, so I think it's something of a recurring problem with me. I just felt like making a bunch of pee jokes right there.

Anyway, I also can't bring myself to watch Obama's farewell speech. Too depressing.

"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."
TacticalFox88 from USA Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Dating the Doctor
#166074: Jan 10th 2017 at 6:41:04 PM

Obama throwing so much shade he might cause a solar eclipse.

New Survey coming this weekend!
Bat178 Since: May, 2011
#166075: Jan 10th 2017 at 6:42:21 PM

[up][up][up][up] And stop saying there is going to be a nuclear war. We didn't use nukes when Reagan and Bush were in charge, and several crazier countries than the US *cough*Pakistan*cough*North Korea*cough* have nuclear weapons and haven't used them before, so it's not a very high possibility.

edited 10th Jan '17 6:43:30 PM by Bat178


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