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

3of4 Just a harmless giant from a foreign land. from Five Seconds in the Future. Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: GAR for Archer
Just a harmless giant from a foreign land.
#192001: Jun 5th 2017 at 3:01:52 PM

You know what thought just terrified me? What if this is the thing that convinces Trump the russians did meddle and he decides that reacting to it will make him loved.

Given his approach to foreign politics this worries me.

"You can reply to this Message!"
Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#192002: Jun 5th 2017 at 3:04:07 PM

The CBS article says that the report doesn't say that the Russians were actually successful in compromising the voting machine. It does say a separate spear-phishing attack was launched on local government organization and the NSA doesn't know if that attack was successful.

Even if they didn't get what they wanted, it does beg the question of what else they did we haven't discovered yet.

Elle Since: Jan, 2001
#192003: Jun 5th 2017 at 3:06:53 PM

In the process of reading the Intercept article, these are the salient bullet points:

  • Russian-directed phishing operations were aimed at VR Systems, a contractor that deals with voter registration databases, from which they tried to gain footholds in local election offices by emulating them.
  • This happened in October after Obama gave Putin the warning not to mess with the voting processes.
  • It is still not known whether the Russians succeeded in gaining any foothold that had actual influence on Election Day processes.

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#192005: Jun 5th 2017 at 3:22:23 PM

Could someone with more computer literacy than me (not hard) tell me what this type of hack could have achieved?

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#192006: Jun 5th 2017 at 3:43:52 PM

Destroying Theodore Roosevelt's Conservation legacy, one monument at a time.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/05/public-lands-uranium-mining-arizona-grand-canyon?CMP=share_btn_tw

And over a hundred cities and buisnesses commit to the Paris Agreement.

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/336403-governors-mayors-businesses-commit-to-paris-climate-pact-goals?amp

edited 5th Jun '17 6:28:44 PM by megaeliz

LinkToTheFuture A real bad hombre from somewhere completely different Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: What's love got to do with it?
A real bad hombre
#192007: Jun 5th 2017 at 4:14:19 PM

How big is this news?

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison
PushoverMediaCritic I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out. from the Italy of America Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
#192008: Jun 5th 2017 at 4:56:13 PM

[up][up]I cannot express my anger clearly enough.

TrashJack Confirmed Doomer from beyond the Despair Event Horizon (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Confirmed Doomer
#192009: Jun 5th 2017 at 5:05:06 PM

Man, if T.R. was still alive, he'd almost certainly hate what his party has become. And he'd probably fight them while he was at it.

"Cynic, n. — A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be." - The Devil's Dictionary
Elle Since: Jan, 2001
#192010: Jun 5th 2017 at 5:05:41 PM

It doesn't help us unless we can get the government to act on is (their failure to in itself being a story). We still need a smoking gun that directly ties Trump to this mess.

If a competent administration was in charge, there would be serious repercussions. Putin's government kept crossing the line they were explicitly warned not to cross after they were warned not to cross it.

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#192011: Jun 5th 2017 at 5:12:34 PM

[up][up]Him, Eisenhower, Lincoln, hell even Nixon would be disgusted at their foreign policy incompetence. Hell, both Bushes have all but admitted that the party has gone nuts.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
DrDougsh Since: Jan, 2001
#192012: Jun 5th 2017 at 5:15:38 PM

T.R. had issues with what the Republicans were becoming even during his own lifetime. That's why he split into the Bull Moose Party.

DeMarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#192013: Jun 5th 2017 at 5:38:10 PM

By emulating the software vender, they conceivably could have inserted viruses or other malware into local level vote counting machines.

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
Elle Since: Jan, 2001
#192014: Jun 5th 2017 at 5:48:49 PM

These were email phishing attacks to get at the credentials of people working in the election process. It doesn't neccecarily follow they got access to the voting machines/databases themselves. It depends on the level of access their catches had and what could be exploited from them/posing as them. The decentralization of our election system also makes it harder for a success in one place to translate to success in another (though it also works against us in that it's harder to get issues investigated).

edited 5th Jun '17 5:50:01 PM by Elle

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#192015: Jun 5th 2017 at 5:55:49 PM

And this is the moment I am expressing my gratitude that in my country voting still happens on paper.

Also, this would be MORE than enough reason to repeat the election.

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#192016: Jun 5th 2017 at 6:01:28 PM

This has convinced me that electronic voting is stupid, and that online voting is pants on head moronic. Paper>the FSB.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Elle Since: Jan, 2001
#192018: Jun 5th 2017 at 6:35:41 PM

There are things you can do to make computerized voting safe but those things are not well enforced by the people with power to enforce them and the states bristle at any notion of centralizing it. At the vert least there ought to be standardized enforcement of security (and the money to fund it).

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#192019: Jun 5th 2017 at 6:44:40 PM

No digital system is perfect. And elections don't have room for error.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
ironballs16 Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Owner of a lonely heart
#192020: Jun 5th 2017 at 6:46:06 PM

Just caught Seth Meyers' take on Trump's latest tweets, resulting in a rather brutal takedown of Kellyanne Conway saying, on Good Morning America, that the press shouldn't be paying so much attention to Trump's tweets.

GMA Host: That's his preferred method of communication with the American people.
Kellyanne: That's not true.

Seth then played a clip of her appearing on his show back in January stating this.

Kellyanne: I think his Twitter platform, like his social-media platform in general— has a combined 45 million followers, and it's his way to communicate, directly, with the American people.

edited 5th Jun '17 6:46:37 PM by ironballs16

"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"
CenturyEye Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign? from I don't know where the Yith sent me this time... Since: Jan, 2017 Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
#192021: Jun 5th 2017 at 6:50:21 PM

[up][up][up]The whole email part of that story may have been a violation of basic cybersecurity. Though a common one. Everyone's probably had to sit through the seminar about checking any emails from vendors, etc through IT.

edited 5th Jun '17 6:54:41 PM by CenturyEye

Look with century eyes... With our backs to the arch And the wreck of our kind We will stare straight ahead For the rest of our lives
Elle Since: Jan, 2001
#192022: Jun 5th 2017 at 7:00:45 PM

[up]TBH, I am savvy and have never been fooled by phishing attempts but I have done some very near double takes. On average it takes a lot of experience to know how to spot fakes and people at the low end of the bell curve don't learn well at all.

pwiegle Cape Malleum Majorem from Nowhere Special Since: Sep, 2015 Relationship Status: Singularity
Cape Malleum Majorem
#192023: Jun 5th 2017 at 7:34:47 PM

FDR had his "fireside chats" broadcast over the radio.

Trump tweets every inane thought that randomly crosses his feeble little mind.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen...

This Space Intentionally Left Blank.
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#192024: Jun 5th 2017 at 7:43:03 PM

[up] wrong party, but see your point.

Even Nixon had his good points. He signed the clean air act, which helped clean up pittsburgh and many cities. Imagine, government regulation doing something good.

I'm at my grandmas house, and she's listening to Fox News. It's facinating. They are playing to the emotions, and rationalizing hate. They have used the terms, extreme vetting without irony, 20,000 thousand jihadists living in the United Kingdom, Radical Islamic terrorism, and all I see is fearmongering. I swear they even suggested that we should have a policy on terrorism like after nine eleven or like during the Cold War. It almost sounded like House of Un-American Activities stuff.

edited 5th Jun '17 8:01:16 PM by megaeliz

ironballs16 Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Owner of a lonely heart
#192025: Jun 5th 2017 at 8:13:24 PM

[up]

To be fair, there wasn't much Nixon could do when a Lake Erie tributary caught fire in 1969, though it'd also caught fire 12 times before that. It's why The Lorax included the line "I hear things are just as bad up in Lake Erie", though later printings omitted it when the problem got addressed.

edited 5th Jun '17 8:15:39 PM by ironballs16

"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"

Total posts: 417,856
Top