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

Fighteer MOD Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#238451: Apr 12th 2018 at 10:36:31 AM

~megaeliz: You're a valuable contributor here, but if you're going to doxx people as a form of drama importation, you're gone. That's one of our most fundamental principles. I don't care what they've done.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
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
#238452: Apr 12th 2018 at 10:36:52 AM

You know I've never actually thought about it. Have the survivors of past shootings before in the past been targeted like this?

Probably has a lot to do with how the Florida students were the first to organize a nationwide movement, whereas the survivors of Columbine and Virginia Tech moreorless quietly went on with their lives without the mass reach of social media that was available to the Florida students. Meanwhile, the Sandy Hook survivors were clearly too young to organize on their own and needed their parents to do so for them.

[down] Huh, thanks for that info.

edited 12th Apr '18 10:40:37 AM by FluffyMcChicken

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#238453: Apr 12th 2018 at 10:39:36 AM

The relatives of the Sandy Hook victims faced death threats, especially after sites like Infowars started carrying the hoax BS stories.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Larkmarn Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Hello, I love you
#238454: Apr 12th 2018 at 10:40:30 AM

[up][up] Yeah, ever since the "crisis actor" narrative was created.

Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#238455: Apr 12th 2018 at 10:40:35 AM

I remember my mom having a similar "So what?" towards the Bill Clinton sex scandals. Though now, older and (hopefully) wiser, I wonder if Clinton's scandals has a similar problem of the cover ups crossing lines of legality.

Can anyone confirm or deny that? I know it's come up once or twice, but I can't remember if this angle ever came up.

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#238456: Apr 12th 2018 at 10:41:07 AM

[up][up] People are awful sometimes

edited 12th Apr '18 10:41:24 AM by megaeliz

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#238457: Apr 12th 2018 at 10:43:16 AM

[up][up] While improprieties were suggested many times around Clinton's various scandals, independent investigations found nothing worthy of prosecution. His impeachment (a political act, not a prosecutorial one) was ostensibly for lying to Congress, not any other crimes he may or may not have committed.

edited 12th Apr '18 10:44:58 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#238458: Apr 12th 2018 at 10:43:37 AM

[up][up][up] I have no doubt that if they did, the GOP would have been all over it and pushed even harder for impeachment.

[up][nja]

Disgusted, but not surprised
archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#238459: Apr 12th 2018 at 10:44:52 AM

Not that I particularly liked Clinton (I voted for him reluctantly) but his impeachment was more related to the fact that Republicans didn’t like him and saw an opening than anything he actually did.

They should have sent a poet.
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#238460: Apr 12th 2018 at 10:46:54 AM

Clinton's personal behavior towards women was ... regrettable, nor was he the most progressive choice possible for Democrats. However, he did accomplish some good things, and his administration is noteworthy as the point when Republicans decided to jump off the slippery slope in terms of ideological opposition to the very legitimacy of a Democratic President. You see, he stole George H. W. Bush's second term.

In truth, Republicans had it in for the Clintons all the way back in Arkansas. It's one of those irrational lifelong hatreds that is only barely understandable even if you know all the particulars.

edited 12th Apr '18 10:48:12 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#238461: Apr 12th 2018 at 10:47:17 AM

[up][up]And Trump has done things a thousand times worse, and they all think he's the greatest thing since sliced bread.

edited 12th Apr '18 10:47:38 AM by megaeliz

archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#238462: Apr 12th 2018 at 10:48:50 AM

He was probably the strongest in the Democratic field, but to me he always just seemed like the most conservative Democrat you could get. I suppose that’s probably part of why he won, but still.

The Clinton hatred is sort of insane and seemingly transcends actual politics.

edited 12th Apr '18 10:49:27 AM by archonspeaks

They should have sent a poet.
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#238463: Apr 12th 2018 at 10:49:19 AM

A thing that's occurred to me more than one and your replies have brought back to mind:

given how relatively fewer scandals tend to stick to the Democrats or don't cause nearly as many problems as Trump's have, either they simply don't do as many potentially scandalous things, or they are far better at avoiding or dealing with attention on them.

Either way, they seem to demonstrate much better skill at this entire politics thing than the Republicans, who had among their literal first acts of 2017, after they'd largely swept the 2016 election and seemed to hold all the cards, an attempt to gut a Congressional oversight committee.

edited 12th Apr '18 10:51:09 AM by sgamer82

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#238464: Apr 12th 2018 at 10:49:44 AM

It's just rather amazing how much the GOP hates the Clintons. It's Personal for them. Very personal.

[up]

A thing that's occurred to me more than one and your replies have brought back to mind: given how relatively fewer scandals tend to stick to the Democrats or don't cause nearly as many problems as Trump's have

Unless you're Hillary Clinton. Then you can't even sneeze without everyone hounding you forever.

edited 12th Apr '18 10:51:03 AM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#238465: Apr 12th 2018 at 10:51:44 AM

I honestly wonder if Trump doesn't have a higher number of controversies than Clinton at this point.

TheWanderer Student of Story from Somewhere in New England (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Wishfully thinking
Student of Story
#238466: Apr 12th 2018 at 10:52:26 AM

Wanna bet Trumpsters will make an about face on TPP?

Some Trumpsters are going to be livid over this, but others will follow the shift like the servile cultists they are.

I found one Breitbart article on it, written during the dead of the night which apparently got little attention. The article itself arguably soft pedals the whole thing, but the 10 comments on the article are all calling this "another betrayal" and asking if Trump thinks the base will stand for it.

By comparison an article from last week where McCain called for reentering TPP got almost 8,000 comments, with all the ones I saw in a quick read through slandering McCain and calling for his death.

Breitbart itself seems to be giving this whole thing some time and is weighing how to respond to Trump's talk. Whether the base will approve of this specific action, disapprove and have a huff, or shrug and decide "Meh, it's worth it to stick it to minorities" remains to be seen.

The relatives of the Sandy Hook victims faced death threats, especially after sites like Infowars started carrying the hoax BS stories.

From what I hear, they're still getting occasional threats and questions from "truthers" who think the "story" of Sandy Hook somehow doesn't hold up.

I was working in that town when it happened. I saw the grief. I will always have a special place of rage and hate in my heart for these deniers.

| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#238467: Apr 12th 2018 at 10:52:41 AM

[up][up]That's part of the problem. Like John Oliver said, it's like comparing a bed of nails to one nail.

edited 12th Apr '18 10:52:52 AM by M84

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
#238468: Apr 12th 2018 at 10:52:58 AM

I thought that the absolute hatred that the Republicans have against the Clintons is rooted in how they were originally Republicans but switched as they rose in influence, making them "traitors".

I've actually heard it before that their even greater hatred of Hillary is rooted in the idea that Clinton was more or less an upstanding Republican until she both literally and figuratively seduced him into becoming a Democrat.

edited 12th Apr '18 10:55:43 AM by FluffyMcChicken

CrimsonZephyr Would that it were so simple. from Massachusetts Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
Would that it were so simple.
#238469: Apr 12th 2018 at 10:55:09 AM

The problem with being choosy was that the Democrats had been out of the executive branch for a long time in 1992. They needed a presidency to build up that bench of center-left bureaucrats, even if that meant fielding a centrist on the ticket. In retrospect, it probably didn't help our current situation, but we would have lost otherwise.

Anyway, I don't approve of Clinton's sexual behavior, but there's never been a compelling case, one not tinged with conspiracy theories, for him being guilty of a crime. More damaging was the GOP's relentlessness in using anything and everything to topple his presidency, with no regard given to the precedent it would generate. I mean, the Lewinsky scandal probably irrevocably tainted the entire concept of impeachment because it was used in such a farce twenty years ago.

[up] Ugh, Bill was the Democrat, Hillary was the Republican. It was the other way around, and Hillary has been a Democrat since 1968.

edited 12th Apr '18 10:56:21 AM by CrimsonZephyr

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#238470: Apr 12th 2018 at 10:57:44 AM

https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2018/04/12/day-448/

Day 448: Retroactive privilege.

1/ Steve Bannon is working with White House aides and Congressional allies on a plan to cripple Robert Mueller's probe. The plan involves firing Rod Rosenstein, refusing to cooperate with Mueller's team, and having Trump assert executive privilege "retroactively" in order to argue that Mueller's interviews with White House officials over the past year should now be null and void. Bannon also said "Ty Cobb should be fired immediately." Trump, however, tweet that he has "full confidence in Ty Cobb." (Washington Post)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bannon-pitches-white-house-on-plan-to-cripple-mueller-probe-and-protect-trump/2018/04/11/1ec5b1b2-3d9f-11e8-a7d1-e4efec6389f0_story.html?utm_term=.fbeab258d83c

2/ Trump's allies plan to discredit James Comey's book tour with digital advertising labeling him "Lyin' Comey" in an effort to undermine the credibility of the former FBI director. Talking points will also be sent to Republicans before Comey's memoir is released next week, which will attack his credibility, conduct, and point out contradictions. (CNN)

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/12/politics/trump-comey-publicity-tour/index.html

3/ Trump tweeted that an attack on Syria "could be very soon or not soon at all!" Trump, trying to clarify his tweet yesterday that U.S. missiles "will be coming," claimed that he "never said when an attack on Syria would take place." In response, Syria moved its military aircraft to the Russian base near Latakia yesterday. (New York Times / Washington Post)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/04/12/trump-just-confirmed-his-intent-to-bomb-syria-after-sanders-tried-to-walk-back-get-ready-tweet/

4/ During his Secretary of State confirmation hearing, CIA Director Pompeo told senators that he has been interviewed by Robert Mueller. He declined to answer questions about his testimony to Mueller — or conversations with Trump — saying that the investigation is ongoing. (The Hill / Axios)

http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/382841-pompeo-confirms-he-was-interviewed-by-mueller

Pompeo failed to disclose last year that owned a business that imported equipment from a company owned by the Chinese government. Pompeo's new questionnaire submitted to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for his Secretary of State nomination is not publicly available. (Mc Clatchy DC)

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article208630194.html

5/ A former doorman was paid $30,000 in late 2015 to sign over the rights to a story about a rumor that Trump fathered a child with an employee in the 1980s at Trump World Tower, a skyscraper he owns near the United Nations. American Media Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, paid Dino Sajudin to give up exclusive rights to the rumor – and then never published an article about it – five months after Trump had launched his Presidential campaign. (The New Yorker / CNBC / Washington Post / CNN)

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/12/doorman-brokered-30000-tabloid-deal-over-trump-paternity-rumor-reports.html

6/ The company that owns the National Enquirer also paid Karen Mc Dougal $150,000 for a story it never published. The payout to Mc Dougal, a former Playboy Playmate, came eight months after American Media Inc. paid $30,000 to Trump's former doorman for his story. American Media Inc. is facing a Federal Election Commission complaint claiming that the $150,000 payment represented an illegal campaign contribution. (Associated Press / New York Times)

https://apnews.com/f37ecfc4710b468db6a103a245146172/%2430,000-rumor?-Tabloid-paid-for,-spiked,-salacious-Trump-tip

poll/ 56% of Americans believe that the National Enquirer paid for the exclusive rights to stories that may be damaging to Trump in order to keep them from being published. 39% said the allegation was "probably true," while 17% said it was "definitely true." (CNN)

http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/02/media/poll-national-enquirer-donald-trump/index.html

Notables.

A Pennsylvania school district armed teachers with wooden, 16-inch baseball bats in the event of an active shooter situation. School Superintendent William Hall said the bats are a "last resort" for teachers who want to fight back. (NBC News)

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pennsylvania-school-district-gives-teachers-small-baseball-bats-last-resort-n864986

Jared and Ivanka are heading to Lima, Peru with Pence for the Summit of the Americas. Trump originally planned to attend the summit but canceled to stay in Washington and monitor the situation in Syria. (Politico)

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/11/jared-ivanka-trip-peru-515554

Trump's federal judicial nominee refused to say whether she agreed with Brown v. Board of Education, which desegregated U.S. public schools. Wendy Vitter also maintained she could "put aside" her "pro-life" advocacy, and as a judge enforce the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision on abortion rights. (Huff Post / NPR)

https://www.npr.org/2018/04/11/601323110/wendy-vitter-wife-of-d-c-madam-senator-faces-thorny-hearing-to-be-federal-judge

Trump wants to roll back billions in spending from the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill he signed into law last month. Republicans who helped craft the legislation are skeptical. (Politico)

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/12/trump-congress-trillions-republicans-516856


Posting this news dump elsewhere, I saw a post, nothing sourced, saying Rodenstein was spotted leaving the White House.

edited 12th Apr '18 10:59:41 AM by sgamer82

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#238471: Apr 12th 2018 at 10:58:35 AM

[up][up]Yeah, Hillary was even a Goldwater Girl.

edited 12th Apr '18 10:58:50 AM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
JamieBGood meow Since: Aug, 2017 Relationship Status: Healthy, deeply-felt respect for this here Shotgun
meow
#238472: Apr 12th 2018 at 11:00:22 AM

assert executive privilege "retroactively"

Is that even possible?

jamie-b-good.tumblr.com
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#238473: Apr 12th 2018 at 11:02:42 AM

I'm honestly more concerned by the implied return of Bannon to the fold

Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#238474: Apr 12th 2018 at 11:10:16 AM

I've mentioned this before, but part of the reason why the republicans' embrace of Trump has been such an unveiling is because it shows a blatant double standard. They claim to be the party of family values, and that's why they made such a fuss about Bill Clinton's sex life, claiming that his horndog, philandering ways tarnished the image of the presidency.

And yet there they are with Donald Trump, who is a rapist, openly admits to sexually harassing people (some of whom were probably teenagers if his comments about the pageants are any indication), and resorts to misogynistic insults on twitter like a fourteen year old whenever any woman dares say something mean about him. All things considered, his affair with Stormy Daniels is one of the least malevolent of his behaviors, which also just makes the coverup of it look even more ridiculous in hindsight.

CrimsonZephyr Would that it were so simple. from Massachusetts Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
Would that it were so simple.
#238475: Apr 12th 2018 at 11:10:33 AM

[up][up]Bannon was a lightning rod for controversy, but AFAIK achieved very little policy, and anything "Bannonesque" can be laid at the feet of the entire Trump presidency, let's be real. Him being back would basically bury Trump in 35% approval numbers and below for the rest of the term.

edited 12th Apr '18 11:11:48 AM by CrimsonZephyr

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

Total posts: 417,856
Top