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

vicarious vicarious from NC, USA Since: Feb, 2013
vicarious
#243926: May 30th 2018 at 9:45:03 PM

https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.nytimes.com/2018/05/30/us/politics/obama-reaction-trump-election-benjamin-rhodes.amp.html

I couldn’t figure out how to copy and paste the article for those who don’t subscribe or out of free articles but

It’s a piece about Obama and his reaction towards Trump’s election sources by an upcoming memoir from one of his advisors

It’s incredible, very humanizing and makes me feel so much for him and well everyone that stands to lose from this current presidency

RedSavant Since: Jan, 2001
#243927: May 30th 2018 at 9:50:05 PM

Mr. Rhodes called Mr. McConnell's refusal “staggeringly partisan and unpatriotic.” But Mr. Obama, whose Supreme Court nomination had been blocked by Mr. McConnell for months, seemed less surprised.

“What else did you expect from McConnell?” he asked. “He won’t even give us a hearing on Merrick Garland.”

God damn, I miss Obama.

But days later, Mr. Obama seemed less sanguine. “I don’t know,” he told aides. “Maybe this is what people want. I’ve got the economy set up well for him. No facts. No consequences. They can just have a cartoon.”

He added that “we’re about to find out just how resilient our institutions are, at home and around the world.”

God damn I miss Obama.

edited 30th May '18 9:53:00 PM by RedSavant

It's been fun.
carbon-mantis Collector Of Fine Oddities from Trumpland Since: Mar, 2010 Relationship Status: Married to my murderer
Collector Of Fine Oddities
#243928: May 30th 2018 at 9:54:27 PM

It didn't get much attention, but apparently Trump has signed right to try legislation.

Even some left wing sources seem to be happy with this without realizing that it's the first major step towards completely gutting the power of the FDA.

Using terminal patients as their cover, they're essentially allowing patients to pay(like insurance would ever consent to cover it) companies to be their lab rats without any guarantee of success, and the companies have almost total malpractice protection.

The only "safeguard" is that the treatments go through phase 1 clinical trials, which only sets the maximum dose before it becomes life threatening. No controls over actual efficacy whatsoever.

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#243929: May 30th 2018 at 10:01:42 PM

[up] He's drastically overstating the impact of this. According to The NYT, The FDA already has a similar program in place since the 70s, that has proven to work reasonably well, and other state laws "right to try laws" have had very limited effects, as the process tends to be more cumbersome and expensive, and most it is covered through the existing program anyway.

The legislation that Mr. Trump signed into law on Wednesday allows terminally ill patients to seek access to experimental medicine that is not yet fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Whether it will save “hundreds of thousands of lives” is a prediction that is, at best, unclear. But the effect of similar laws in some states has been muted.

A program known as compassionate use, or expanded access, has been in place since the 1970s. It allows patients with a serious disease or condition to obtain experimental medicines; the Food and Drug Administration says it authorizes 99 percent of the requests for expanded access that it receives.

The new national law — like similar laws in more than three dozen states — allows patients and doctors to ask drug companies directly for access to the experimental drugs, rather than wait for approval by the agency.

Yet these laws “do not ensure that manufacturers will provide the drug or that insurance companies will cover the cost,” according to a policy report from Rice University. Obtaining the medicines from manufacturers can be more cumbersome than going through the Food and Drug Administration’s existing program, the report found.

Colorado enacted the first right-to-try law in 2014. Since then, “there have been no documented cases of anyone receiving access, because of a right-to-try law, to an experimental product that would not have been available via the F.D.A.’s expanded access program,” a 2017 study by researchers from New York University concluded.

edited 30th May '18 10:17:01 PM by megaeliz

carbon-mantis Collector Of Fine Oddities from Trumpland Since: Mar, 2010 Relationship Status: Married to my murderer
Collector Of Fine Oddities
#243930: May 30th 2018 at 10:18:16 PM

While those were points of concern, I am more concerned about terminal patients having their fears preyed on and wasting their final days on largely useless experiments and false hope, rather than palliative care and living out the remainder of their lives more comfortablly.

Edit- previous state level laws would be little more than tissue paper given that the FDA is a federal agency and overrules them.

edited 30th May '18 10:21:46 PM by carbon-mantis

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#243931: May 30th 2018 at 10:21:02 PM

As if it wasn't shitty enough that we've got All-Natural Snake Oil "alternative medicine" peddlers doing that...

Disgusted, but not surprised
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#243932: May 30th 2018 at 10:26:45 PM

Enough experiment fodder for any number of Wily Wonka-esque hijinks!

And bilking the last dollar from the dying.

A friend of mine said, "Is there anything Trump has done which has not been evil? It's a serious fucking question. I mean, even Emperor Palpatine freed Naboo."

edited 30th May '18 10:27:02 PM by CharlesPhipps

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#243933: May 30th 2018 at 10:29:17 PM

[up] No.

Pretty much everything we know he's ever done has been some degree of shitty. It's just a matter of how evil.

Disgusted, but not surprised
Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#243934: May 30th 2018 at 10:38:46 PM

He did bomb that one facility that was using nerve gas. My only complaint is that he didn't bomb it more.

Leviticus 19:34
CrimsonZephyr Would that it were so simple. from Massachusetts Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
Would that it were so simple.
#243935: May 30th 2018 at 10:59:53 PM

"I mean, even Emperor Palpatine freed Naboo."

Emperor Palpatine invaded Naboo. Really bad counterpoint. grin

"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."
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#243936: May 30th 2018 at 11:02:10 PM

Yeah, he was behind the Trade Federation in the first place and he was the one who assured them he would legalize their occupation.

Disgusted, but not surprised
Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#243937: May 30th 2018 at 11:08:53 PM

To be fair, Palpatine did save Anakin from Mustafar, that's probably the closest thing to being nice he's ever done.

Leviticus 19:34
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#243938: May 30th 2018 at 11:09:33 PM

[up][up][up][up] He only decided to do that because his most trusted advisors at Fox and Friends told him to, and the rest of his admistration didn't find out until he announced it to the world on twitter.

Which was also another problem, in itself. Even if it had been planned in advance, instead of an impulsive Fox and Friends driven decision, announcing it to the world in a tweet a week beforehand, is exactly what he shouldn't be doing.

edited 30th May '18 11:14:08 PM by megaeliz

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#243939: May 30th 2018 at 11:24:18 PM

[up][up] And then shoved him into a deliberately shoddy and uncomfortable life support suit to punish him for his defeat.

Disgusted, but not surprised
Hylarn (Don’t ask)
#243940: May 30th 2018 at 11:34:37 PM

It's kind of funny how people are complaining about the politics in the current Star Wars film when the "jingoism leads to totalitarianism" message of the prequels was so much less subtle

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#243941: May 30th 2018 at 11:49:58 PM

[up] That's because what they are really complaining about is that one of the main characters is black and the lead is female.

The bad guy being a whiny edgelord akin to the likes you'd see skulking about in an alt-right chatroom probably stings too.

Disgusted, but not surprised
MorningStar1337 The Encounter that ended the Dogma from 🤔 Since: Nov, 2012
The Encounter that ended the Dogma
#243942: May 31st 2018 at 12:18:16 AM

I did mention (though i forgot if it was here or in the narrative thread) that the new trilogy is likely a potshot to the people Rooting for the Empire because of their ideology.

edited 31st May '18 12:18:28 AM by MorningStar1337

rikalous World's Cutest Direwolf from Upscale Mordor (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
World's Cutest Direwolf
#243943: May 31st 2018 at 12:18:52 AM

The complaints about politics in Star Wars remind me of the ones about Wolfenstein. The movies have always been about a diverse coalition fighting a bunch of pasty fascists. The new trilogy just updated the inspiration to internet Nazis.

Deadbeatloser22 from Disappeared by Space Magic (Great Old One) Relationship Status: Tsundere'ing
#243944: May 31st 2018 at 6:46:53 AM

So Dinesh D’Souza is getting formally pardoned.

The Law and Order President, everybody. Along with a nice clear sign that he'll pardon anyone who kowtows to him loudly enough as the Mueller investigation ramps up.

"Yup. That tasted purple."
AngelusNox Warder of the damned from The guard of the gates of oblivion Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
Warder of the damned
#243946: May 31st 2018 at 6:54:18 AM

It is even more stupid when you consider how George Lucas used Nazi Germany to make the Empire in the first place. Iconography, the officer uniforms, the authoritarianism and the obsession with uber weapons.

But the average alt-righter is too stupid to realize that, including the obsession with Fight Club and missing the point over toxic masculinity completely, like they miss Star Wars being an anti-fascims movie.

Inter arma enim silent leges
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#243947: May 31st 2018 at 6:56:23 AM

Ideally there will be retaliation coming swiftly. Agriculture is a good opening blow.

And we should suspend NAFTA talks due to blatant bad faith negotiating.

edited 31st May '18 6:57:19 AM by Rationalinsanity

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
BlueNinja0 The Mod with the Migraine from Taking a left at Albuquerque Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
The Mod with the Migraine
#243948: May 31st 2018 at 7:20:37 AM

Ha! I wonder what the NRA has to say to that!
Probably some variation on "Fake News!"
... I'm sorry, what? Pornography drives people to commit gun violence?
Well, people stopped listening to them blaming video games for school shootings, even after someone tried to get an "Active Shooter" game released on Steam.
CIA report says North Korea won't denuclearize, but might open a burger joint
So the whole peace talk thing is just a ploy to launch Trump Burgers?

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
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.
#243949: May 31st 2018 at 7:24:54 AM

Well, time to bunk up on original American Peanut Butter tongue

"You can reply to this Message!"
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#243950: May 31st 2018 at 7:26:34 AM

Anyone who thought Trump was easing up on the trade war crap was clearly kidding themselves.

Disgusted, but not surprised

Total posts: 417,856
Top