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

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#236276: Mar 23rd 2018 at 8:41:43 AM

With any luck, Trump will demand that Bolton shave off his mustache and fire him for refusing.

Disgusted, but not surprised
Larkmarn Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Hello, I love you
#236277: Mar 23rd 2018 at 8:43:47 AM

[up][up][up] A: Just dropping links is against the rules. B: Thanks to the context provided by [up][up], it seems to be fear-mongering headline grabs. Yes, we know Bolton is a warhawk. That doesn't inherently scare me and it doesn't seem like there's much else to support the thesis other than that single point of reference.

edited 23rd Mar '18 8:44:06 AM by Larkmarn

Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#236278: Mar 23rd 2018 at 8:45:32 AM

Today's https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2018/03/23/day-428/ News Dump

1/ The Senate passed a $1.3 trillion spending bill late last night, avoiding another government shut down with less than a day before the deadline. The bill funds the federal government through the end of September and includes $700 billion for the military ($66 billion more than last year) and $591 million for domestic agencies ($52 billion more than last year). (Washington Post / NBC News)

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/government-spending-deal-clears-house-ahead-friday-deadline-n859101

2/ Trump threatened to veto the spending package because it doesn't provide funding for his border wall or address the fate of young undocumented immigrants. The bill adds nearly $1.6 billion for border security, including $641 million for about 33 miles of fencing. In a tweet, Trump said he is "considering a VETO" because the budget doesn't include the $25 billion needed to build his wall or protections for young undocumented immigrants. Trump, who has tried to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, wanted to trade long-term wall funding for protections for some young immigrants. (New York Times / CNBC / Bloomberg / Washington Post)

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/23/trump-threatens-to-veto-omnibus-spending-bill-over-daca-and-the-border-wall.html

3/ Another Trump lawyer is expected to step down later this year, contingent on Trump finding a replacement. White House Counsel Don Mc Gahn has told associates he'd like to leave the White House by the summer, but it could hold on through the 2018 midterms. Trump personal lawyer John Dowd resigned on Thursday. Trump wants to have a new White House counsel in place who he's comfortable with before Mc Gahn exits. (Politico)

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/23/don-mcgahn-to-resign-timing-482179

Who Has Left The Trump Administration: A timeline of all the departures so far.

https://talk.whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/t/who-the-fuck-has-left-the-trump-administration/908

4/ Trump will replace H. R. Mc Master with John Bolton as his national security adviser. Bolton a Fox News commentator and a former United States ambassador to the United Nations. Mc Master had reportedly been discussing his departure with Trump for several weeks. "The two have been discussing this for some time. The timeline was expedited as they both felt it was important to have the new team in place, instead of constant speculation," a White House official said. "This was not related to any one moment or incident, rather it was the result of ongoing conversations between the two." Mc Master, a three-star Army general, also announced that he would also retire from the military. Bolton will be Trump's third national security adviser in 14 months. Bolton also was passed over for a State Department job last year, because Trump didn't like mustache. (New York Times / Washington Post / Bloomberg / CNN)

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/22/politics/trump-replace-national-security-adviser-mcmaster-bolton/index.html

5/ Trump's tweet firing Mc Master disrupted John Kelly's plan to announce multiple administration departures at once. The White House has been waiting for an inspector general report on Veteran Affairs Secretary David Shulkin and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, who have both been accused of misspending taxpayer money. The Mc Master announcement was not expected to be made for at least another week. (Politico)

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/22/mcmaster-firing-trump-officials-cabinet-482165

6/ Trump has reportedly considered firing John Kelly and not replacing him, leaving Trump to essentially serve as his own chief of staff. Trump has discussed the possibility of having a handful of aides report directly to him, instead of going through a chief of staff. Steve Bannon said he doesn't expect Trump to replace Kelly if he leaves. "I've actually argued that if General Kelly at any time does decide to leave — (or) the president decides it’s time for him to move on — I don't believe there will be another chief of staff," Bannon said. "I think there will be five or six direct reports like there was in Trump Tower." (NBC News / The Hill)

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/379832-bannon-if-kelly-leaves-white-house-trump-wont-replace-him

7/ Steve Bannon oversaw Cambridge Analytica's early efforts to collect Facebook data as part of a program to build detailed profiles of millions of American voters. The 2014 effort was part of a form of voter persuasion touted by the company, which Bannon used to identify and test anti-establishment messages that later would be used in Trump's campaign speeches. Among the messages tested were "drain the swamp" and "deep state." (Washington Post)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bannon-oversaw-cambridge-analyticas-collection-of-facebook-data-according-to-former-employee/2018/03/20/8fb369a6-2c55-11e8-b0b0-f706877db618_story.html

The political action committee founded by John Bolton was one of the earliest customers of Cambridge Analytica. Bolton, of course, is Trump's incoming national security adviser. (New York Times)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/us/politics/bolton-cambridge-analyticas-facebook-data.html

The blueprint for how Cambridge Analytica claims it won the White House for Trump leaked. The 27-page presentation, produced by the Cambridge Analytica officials who worked closely on Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, show how they used Google, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, and You Tube. (The Guardian)

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/23/leaked-cambridge-analyticas-blueprint-for-trump-victory

8/ Former Playboy model Karen Mc Dougal said Trump once offered to pay her after they had sex. "After we had been intimate," Mc Dougal told CNN, "he tried to pay me, and I actually didn't know how to take that." Mc Dougal said Trump tried to hand her money immediately after their first sexual encounter more than a decade ago and that they were together "many dozens of times." (CNN / New York Times)

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/22/politics/karen-mcdougal-donald-trump/index.html

9/ Stormy Daniels' attorney implied that he has hard evidence of Trump's affair with the porn star, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford. Michael Avenatti tweeted a photo of a what appears to be a CD in a safe, with the caption: "If 'a picture is worth a thousand words,' how many words is this worth?????" The White House has denied that Trump ever had an affair with Daniels, who was paid $130,000 by Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, in 2016, weeks before the presidential election. The payment, Daniels says, was intended to buy her silence on the alleged affair. (The Hill)

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/379889-stormy-daniels-lawyer-posts-photo-of-mystery-disc-in-a-safe

10/ The "lone hacker" known as Guccifer 2.0 is actually a Russian intelligence officer. Guccifer claimed responsibility for the breach of the Democratic National Committee and the data dump of the stolen DNC emails. He publicly portrayed himself as the "lone hacker" who was able to penetrate the DNC, but a team of investigators identified him as an officer of Russia's military intelligence directorate, or GRU, after he failed to turn on the virtual private network (VPN) that he used to disguise his IP address. As a result, he left a real, Moscow-based IP address in the server logs of an American social media company. (The Daily Beast)

https://www.thedailybeast.com/exclusive-lone-dnc-hacker-guccifer-20-slipped-up-and-revealed-he-was-a-russian-intelligence-officer

edited 23rd Mar '18 8:46:14 AM by sgamer82

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.
#236279: Mar 23rd 2018 at 8:47:14 AM

I REALLY don't want a sex tape of Trump to come out.

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#236280: Mar 23rd 2018 at 8:49:37 AM

[up]TBF we don't have to actually watch it.

Disgusted, but not surprised
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#236281: Mar 23rd 2018 at 8:52:21 AM

[up][up][up] What's interesting to me, is that CA and the Russians used a lot of the same tactics and goals (to create dischord, suppress voter turn out, and drive up polarization), effectively making them (unwittingly or not) a Russian Asset.

edited 23rd Mar '18 8:54:09 AM by megaeliz

TheWanderer Student of Story from Somewhere in New England (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Wishfully thinking
Student of Story
#236282: Mar 23rd 2018 at 8:53:40 AM

Trump is threatening to veto the Omnibus spending bill, because it doesn't have enough funding for his wall.

Man, the stories I posted last night about the spending bill didn't even mention this, but as soon as I saw the wall was getting no funding I knew this was going to be a problem.

Why would Trump of the "three million illegal voters" have a problem with increased election security?

Securing election machines against hacking might prevent his Russian buddies from changing the vote totals recorded. According to Trumpism, security that keeps dark skinned people (and maybe women in the future) from voting is good and necessary to protect democracy.

By contrast, protecting voting machines from tampering is a needless waste of time and money by liberals who want to rig the system and can't get over that Trump won and the Russia investigation is a #Witch Hunt!!!!!1111!!!!!!!ONE!.

| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |
TheRoguePenguin Since: Jul, 2009
#236283: Mar 23rd 2018 at 8:54:10 AM

[up]x4 It's like the Ark of the Covenant. Just close your eyes until all the faces have finished melting.

edited 23rd Mar '18 8:55:04 AM by TheRoguePenguin

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#236284: Mar 23rd 2018 at 9:06:34 AM

[up][up] It also gives more funding for the FBI's election security measures.

And given that the FBI is the only one who seems to be taking this seriously...

edited 23rd Mar '18 9:15:29 AM by megaeliz

FyodorDose Since: Mar, 2018
#236285: Mar 23rd 2018 at 9:51:19 AM

I'm nervous about my boy's future. He's 16, and I was reading a few stories on twitter this morning, and several of them are all about how white teenagers are a danger to society- especially ones that grew up using the internet. Somehow being young, white, male, and using the internet in the early 2000s makes someone a hatred-filled nazi? I don't believe that for even a second. I don't want my son to be a scapegoat. I thought we were past blaming white teenagers and video games for everything.

TheRoguePenguin Since: Jul, 2009
#236286: Mar 23rd 2018 at 9:57:54 AM

Tell him not to get his news from Twitter.

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#236287: Mar 23rd 2018 at 10:00:51 AM

[up][up] Get him a subscription to the NY Times or WaPo.

edited 23rd Mar '18 10:04:38 AM by megaeliz

TheWildWestPyro from Seattle, WA Since: Sep, 2012 Relationship Status: Healthy, deeply-felt respect for this here Shotgun
archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#236289: Mar 23rd 2018 at 10:09:39 AM

And I’d add that I don’t think anyone is blaming white teenagers for anything, and the people who are telling you that are using it as a dog whistle.

They should have sent a poet.
NoName999 Since: May, 2011
#236290: Mar 23rd 2018 at 10:10:35 AM

Why are you guys suggesting the New York "Let's give a nice biography about a Nazi and almost hire a Nazi sympathizer" Times?

RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#236291: Mar 23rd 2018 at 10:15:16 AM

It's still got a higher standard of journalistic integrity than a site reliant entirely on ad clicks, for the most part. And it's a perspective that cannot be obtained for free.

Also, funding it drives Trump nuts.

Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#236292: Mar 23rd 2018 at 10:18:53 AM

Still doesn't mean we should advise them to get a subscription to the NY times. Wash Po and Vox are far better.

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
TheWildWestPyro from Seattle, WA Since: Sep, 2012 Relationship Status: Healthy, deeply-felt respect for this here Shotgun
#236293: Mar 23rd 2018 at 10:20:16 AM

The NYT has written some of the best-researched and in-depth articles I've ever seen. Just because there's one idiot Nazi (who is gone now, by the way) doesn't mean the entire newspaper is bad. It has outshone itself multiple times.

Case in point: in a sea of bipartisan arguing, smug commentators and BS in other news sites, they came out with this.

They're also some of the first to get breaking news, which is very useful for desktop notifications.

edited 23rd Mar '18 10:20:50 AM by TheWildWestPyro

Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#236294: Mar 23rd 2018 at 10:27:43 AM

[up]Frankly it's rather interesting that hiring a Nazi (and writing a very sympathetic piece of a different Nazi) are apparently just things that happen, The existence of well written articles does not detract from the fact that they have exhibited at best a tolerance towards the most violent and hateful form of White Supremacy in the past.

And they've previously hired a climate change denier as an op-ed columnist.

At best they're infected with the same #bothsides disease that gave us Donald Trump at worst they actually align with those positions. Regardless of the reason your defense of them is incorrect.

edited 23rd Mar '18 10:35:58 AM by Fourthspartan56

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
math792d Since: Jun, 2011 Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#236295: Mar 23rd 2018 at 10:29:19 AM

@236215

Judging by some of your past post history, I'm not sure if you're sincere or not, but in case you are, an explanation:

Nobody is arguing that being white is somehow causal of someone becoming a terrorist. I'm a young, white man, and while I may occasionally, hyperbolically, call 'eat the rich,' I haven't actually gone out and decided to cannibalize rich people. However, white supremacist violence has a long and storied history in the nebulously-defined 'Western World,' and far-right, antifeminist and Christian fundamentalist terrorism is carried out largely by young, entitled white men.

In and of itself, his whiteness means nothing. But generally speaking, whiteness correlates in the West with a sense of entitlement rooted in the Western world's history of colonialism, capitalist exploitation and perceived cultural 'superiority' over the rest of the world, and so people who feel as if the system is not giving them the entitlement it's promised are an easier (note, easier, not easy) target for targeted radicalization by these terrorist groups. Powerful groups trying to obtain more power by attempting to silence the voices of dissent that are trying to gain a foothold in a culture that despises them.

So if you want to avoid your kid becoming a fascist, the best safeguards are teaching him some feminist and postcolonial theory, making him understand how power dynamics work. You can't completely inoculate people against having false beliefs, but you can outfit them with the tools to make responsible decisions by teaching them to be critical.

Still not embarrassing enough to stan billionaires or tech companies.
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#236296: Mar 23rd 2018 at 10:34:05 AM

Judging by some of your past post history, I'm not sure if you're sincere or not, but in case you are, an explanation:

Nobody is arguing that being white is somehow causal of someone becoming a terrorist. I'm a young, white man, and while I may occasionally, hyperbolically, call 'eat the rich,' I haven't actually gone out and decided to cannibalize rich people. However, white supremacist violence has a long and storied history in the nebulously-defined 'Western World,' and far-right, antifeminist and Christian fundamentalist terrorism is carried out largely by young, entitled white men.

In and of itself, his whiteness means nothing. But generally speaking, whiteness correlates in the West with a sense of entitlement rooted in the Western world's history of colonialism, capitalist exploitation and perceived cultural 'superiority' over the rest of the world, and so people who feel as if the system is not giving them the entitlement it's promised are an easier (note, easier, not easy) target for targeted radicalization by these terrorist groups. Powerful groups trying to obtain more power by attempting to silence the voices of dissent that are trying to gain a foothold in a culture that despises them.

So if you want to avoid your kid becoming a fascist, the best safeguards are teaching him some feminist and postcolonial theory, making him understand how power dynamics work. You can't completely inoculate people against having false beliefs, but you can outfit them with the tools to make responsible decisions by teaching them to be critical.

[up] [awesome]

edited 23rd Mar '18 10:38:33 AM by megaeliz

TheWildWestPyro from Seattle, WA Since: Sep, 2012 Relationship Status: Healthy, deeply-felt respect for this here Shotgun
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#236298: Mar 23rd 2018 at 10:35:46 AM

math792d pretty much hit the nail on the head.

edited 23rd Mar '18 10:36:00 AM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#236299: Mar 23rd 2018 at 10:43:16 AM

WP is reporting that Trump has backed down from his veto of threat on the spending bill.


Total posts: 417,856
Top