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
We currently have a government where a single party has partial-to-complete all of the branches of the government. The only reason we won't get a complete reversal of LGBT rights is probably because the Republicans might not be willing to kill the filibuster.
This is of course disregarding the fact that it's now a legitimate tactic to delay accepting a supreme court justice in order to have your own party select them. That alone is a terrifying sign in the times to come.
Someone else tried this exact cabinet? When has Linda Mc Mahon been called racist?
That was referring to Jeff Sessions
, who is currently up for Attorney General.
![]()
And they were voted in. Democracy.
edited 20th Jan '17 1:49:01 PM by Wolfenmaus
Hate Lives In A Small Town, and if you're Almost Human, it'll lead you To The Bottom Of The Sea.Quoth Wolfenmaus:
edited 20th Jan '17 1:51:15 PM by Medinoc
"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."Somehow, voter ID laws are bad? What?
Hate Lives In A Small Town, and if you're Almost Human, it'll lead you To The Bottom Of The Sea.![]()
Voter ID laws are intentionally designed to suppress poor and minority voters, most of whom are Democrats. The amount of documented in-person voter fraud is nonexistent — something like twenty actual cases across the whole country over the past three or four national elections. You do the math. It's "black person repellent".
As for democratic legitimacy, more Democratic votes were registered in this election across all branches of government than Republican. Yet the Republicans enjoy control of the executive and legislative branches, and will soon have control of the judicial. What democracy?
edited 20th Jan '17 1:56:23 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Newly inaugurated Trump administration puts mortgage premium cuts on hold
Wow, they're not wasting any time, are they? So I guess if you're trying to buy a house for the first time, too bad, you're SOL.
Voter ID purports to address a problem (voter fraud) that largely doesn't exist and disproportionately affect poor people when it requires photo I Ds that have to be paid for or are difficult to get. i.e. those that don't have a car might not keep an active driver's license.
(Beat to it by Fighter.)
edited 20th Jan '17 1:57:49 PM by Elle
What democracy?
edited 20th Jan '17 2:00:26 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!""Oh, yes, they disproportionately disadvantage minority and poor voters. "
Because poor people and minorities are too stupid to know where the DMV is. That is what you're saying.
Do you think so poorly of those people? That those poor poor sheep need to be herded by those brave stronk liberal freedom fighters?
"has surrounded himself with white supremacists"
Ben Carson is a white supremacist?
edited 20th Jan '17 2:02:27 PM by Wolfenmaus
Hate Lives In A Small Town, and if you're Almost Human, it'll lead you To The Bottom Of The Sea.And I would once again draw attention to the nomination of Jeff Session as Attorney General, when he's a raging racist who was denied a judgeship in the eighties for that very reason.
Let me repeat that - he was too racist for Alabama in the 80s. Do you know how racist you gotta be to be too racist for Alabama in the 80s?
MLK's wife wrote a letter begging them not to make him a judge, because he would undo everything her husband had accomplished. Now he's going to be Attorney General.
"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."@I Fwanderer: Then Mr. Sykes is going to have to talk the truth, but through a Conservative Lens. He wants to quote facts and statistics and say "This is why X, Y and Z are lies"? Then he'll have to ignore saying what the sources are really from, and the Conservatives that blindly follow Conservative Pundits will listen. He can't say "I got these sources from this Source" because then they'll disregard it, and eventually him.
If he wants to make a difference, and awaken Conservatives to the cold hard truth, he's going to have to do it in the exact same way he, and other Conservative Pundits, made them blind in the first place. He has the power to do it, and it may be tricky, if not impossible, to do it. But if he really wants to fix the problems he caused, then he has to at least try.
edited 20th Jan '17 2:04:15 PM by DingoWalley1
People, before reporting him, keep in mind he's saying that what we're telling him sounds like "poor people and minorities are too stupid to know where the DMV is." not that he believes that. Will be editing this comment to actually answer that Forget it, making a new post cause the thread moves fast.
edited 20th Jan '17 2:11:43 PM by IFwanderer
1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KVOh for God's sake. At least make an effort to argue in good faith. There are just a few more people in Trump's cabinet than Carson.
Also, somebody wanna explain to this guy how voter suppression works? Because it's not "just sit around and hope that they can't find the DMV."
edited 20th Jan '17 2:05:24 PM by RBluefish
"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."

@Century Eye
"what is your background?"
High school graduate, currently in my third year in college for cell biology. If it helps, I'm bisexual.
"President Obama had to reassure his staff that democracy isn't at end (possibly insincerely as I assume he knows history)"
Checks and balances. Democracy isn't dead, in fact, it worked exactly how it was supposed to.
"I don't think I've seen a Trump rally without a Confederate flag flying or for sale nearby, and those same rallies are curiously devoid of minorities unless they're being assaulted. "
We haven't seen the same rallies, then.
"the black=criminal dog-whistle won't be going anywhere anytime soon."
Perhaps it will when the disproportionate crime demographics balance out.
"His cabinet appointment was rejected as too racist for a federal post decades ago."
Someone else tried this exact cabinet? When has Linda Mc Mahon been called racist?
"when a man campaigning to represent and lead you singles you out as vile criminals or barbarians living in hellhole cities and millions of your countrymen vote, at least partially on a platform of keeping you in your place...in 2016."
Much like a woman campaigning to represent and lead you singles you out as deplorable. Also, [CURRENT YEAR] is not an argument.
"And millions of my countrymen decided that my fate was irrelevant to them."
Perhaps because he ISN'T actually Hitler. Perhaps because minorities work in rural areas, and steel businesses, too. When you only look at the color of an act, and not the actual reason, you start seeing racism where it doesn't exist.
"This on top of taking steps to silence dissent"
The Charlotte riots, not to mention the protests going on RIGHT NOW, suggest otherwise.
"strong"
"Successful businessman billionaire."
'"those" people"
"Trade partners whose deals haven't been revised in decades."
Look, I get where you're coming from. I get that the idea of Trump is threatening from certain viewpoints, and I concur. Trump will most likely not dissolve the racial tension in the country peacefully. His climate change stance is against all evidence, and I fully understand that some illegals aren't here by choice.
That being said, a lot of what he says makes sense to me. The country spends billions a year on the illegal. The amount of military intervention against scientific development is worrying, and needs to be balanced. We need a stronger hand against those who profit off of us. And, no, he may not have political experience, but he has decades of administrative experience, which is to his benefit. I don't think gay marriage will be repealed, I don't think vaccines will be outlawed, and to assume that Trump is some sort of Ultra-Pol Pot is ludicrous in the extreme. Popular sovereignty exists for a reason.
edited 20th Jan '17 1:43:17 PM by Wolfenmaus
Hate Lives In A Small Town, and if you're Almost Human, it'll lead you To The Bottom Of The Sea.