USPOL Winter: barely-literate frogman powered by kitsch and bad intentions is POTUS

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > USPOL Winter: barely-literate frogman powered by kitsch and bad intentions is POTUS

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Goatse James Bond: Mar 28, 2010; If you see me posting please remind me that I have Charlie Work in the reports forum to do instead

Turkey gives recordings on Khashoggi's death to Saudis, US, Britain

What it says on the tin, we don't know the details on the tapes.

In one of his final actions as attorney general, Sessions moves to restrict police reform agreements

quote:

Civil rights leaders lashed out Friday at Jeff Sessions, who in one of his last acts as attorney general approved an order restricting the federal government�s ability to enforce changes at state and local law enforcement agencies accused of abuse.

In a memo released late Thursday by the Justice Department and praised by police organizations, Sessions expanded the requirements for court-enforced �consent decrees� reached with state and local government entities. Sessions signed the memo Wednesday, the day he resigned.

It says that two senior political appointees at the Justice Department must approve nearly all future agreements. The decrees also are to have a �sunset� provision, limiting them to no more than three years. And Justice attorneys now must meet additional requirements beyond establishing that a police department repeatedly violated the Constitution.

Civil rights advocates say Sessions�s move rolls back progress made under the Obama administration. During those years, the Justice Department opened 25 investigations into law enforcement agencies in cities including Chicago, New Orleans, Cleveland and Ferguson, Mo., and was enforcing 14 consent decrees and other agreements. After the 2015 death of Freddie Gray, who suffered a spinal cord injury while in the custody of Baltimore police, the Justice Department reached an agreement that called for officers to be trained in resolving conflicts without force.

...

One of Sessions�s first actions, taken in March 2017, shortly after he took office, was to order the Justice Department to conduct a sweeping review of all reform agreements with troubled police departments. He said the review was necessary to ensure that the decrees did not work against the Trump administration�s goal of promoting officer safety and morale while fighting violent crime.

Sri Lanka President Dissolves Parliament Amid Power Struggle

_{okay this last one isn't really uspol but there's no thread where it fits and the ongoing political crisis in SL is hilariously weird and clearly more about sneaky Game of Thrones backroom dealings than anything being publicly announced}

Tldr: current president, who was in the cabinet of the previous president and backstabbed the previous president to become the current president, fires the current prime minister and replaces him with the previous president. Prime minister argues that the president can't fire him without the consent of parliament, president suspends then unsuspends then (now) dissolves parliament and calls for new elections. Also, a weird alleged assassination plot.

Goatse James Bond fucked around with this message at 16:20 on Nov 10, 2018

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:16

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# ? May 15, 2024 16:06

CubanMissile: Apr 22, 2003; Of Hulks and Spider-Men

farraday posted:

I'm not complaining because it's obvious the mods don't give a poo poo and it's a waste of time, not because I agree with you. Sitting through ardenne's stupid-persons-idea-of-an -intelligent-person inanities on pluralism though isn't every worth it.

You can have your little hell thread, I'm out.

Ok, so yeah, that's a bonafide meltdown. I see your point KM. My point however is that there is no way I'm buying that this is happening because of pluralism or helping people, or any such nonsense as that. But I've derailed enough and said my part, so I won't comment about it again.

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:16

Tibalt: May 14, 2017; What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee

Spaced God posted:

sixers for anyone who doesn't post a tweet, animal tax, or link to a news story, and then this thread would be reasonable

I'm already kind of in that rhythm

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:17

sean10mm: Jun 29, 2005; It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, MAD-2R World

AFancyQuestionMark posted:

The QQCS thread was closed.

Also it had more drive by shitposting in it than the tread we were complaining about, somehow.

:ironicat:

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:17

mcmagic: Jul 1, 2004; If you see this avatar while scrolling the succ zone, you have been visited by the mcmagic of shitty lib takes! Good luck and prosperity will come to you, but only if you reply "shut the fuck up mcmagic" to this post!

Can you imagine the fox news ragegasm if Obama gave a presidential award to Soros or another big Dem doner? lol

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:17

Lightning Knight: Feb 24, 2012; Pray for Answer

*clears throat*

Don't make me fill the leper's colony again.

mcmagic posted:

Can you imagine the fox news ragegasm if Obama gave a presidential award to Soros or another big Dem doner? lol

I'm sure that this is a thing that actually happened and we've simply forgotten because Obama was 8 years of Fox News rage.

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:18

Chilichimp: Oct 24, 2006; TIE Adv xWampa

It wamp, and it stomp; Grimey Drawer

Since the thread is on this, I'm gonna chime in.

I'll admit, I preferred the Trump thread, because it was nice to just have a way of getting information about what a gently caress-up this entire administration is aggregated through one source.

I guess I'm fine with this, it's not much different. I've got no problem explaining to some chud rear end in a top hat why Trump sucks poo poo, but I'd prefer if the admins would stop handing out probs for bullshit reasons.

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:18

evilweasel: Aug 24, 2002

GreyjoyBastard posted:

Turkey gives recordings on Khashoggi's death to Saudis, US, Britain

What it says on the tin, we don't know the details on the tapes.

It's still kind of amazing to me how completely wired up the Turks apparently had the Saudi embassy. That's a massive security failure on the Saudis part and Turkey just keeps rubbing their nose in it.

evilweasel fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Nov 10, 2018

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:18

Party Plane Jones: Jul 1, 2007; by Reene; Fun Shoe

Mendrian posted:

The Trump thread had like a 15 page derail about grilling.

all right I'm going to say several things:

For several months I was the only mod who was looking at D&D reports for US primetime. There are other mods/IKs for other threads/time zones (ober for UKMT/Anidav for AUSPOL) but as I do not really know UK or Aussie politics and they don't know US we don't presume to mod anything but notable shitposting.

If you reported or got probated it's most likely I did it; otherwise guyovich caught you and probated you with a day due to the time zone difference so that you'd actually notice a probation. During the months of september to mid october I looked at and processed something around a thousand reports for D&D; this is partially why we asked for new mod recommendations earlier.

Let it be said that remaking USPOL as it is at the moment didn't arrive in a vacuum. The 4th Trump thread had become USPOL once again in all but name. When 11 people were murdered in Pittsburgh, there wasn't a single post about it in the USPOL thread. When other notable events were happening they weren't posted about in there either; they were put in the Trump thread. The main thing (for better or worse, depending on your point of view and I know CSPAM posters are going to make hay of this) was that Dems are Bad chat was dumped into the Thunderdome thread. This was enforced through warnings and probations.

This is not to say Dems are Good, You Should be Bowing Down to Your Lord and Savior Nancy Pelosi. Dems are at times decent, more often fuckups, and as always trying to maintain a status quo that prefers no real movement that transforms the fabric of American society.

I can certainly see why guyovich made the Thunderdome thread. Having processed that many reports and complaints means posters more often than not were using weaponizing them against people they disagreed with. Sometimes these reports were actually valid, sometimes they weren't. I personally don't love playing alternately hall monitor and school principal for grudges between people. Having looked at the reports since combining USPOL the numbers might have gone up (but then again, that might also be due to the midterms).

(On the subject of derails:
I didn't sit there constantly watching the Trump thread. Modding D&D is not my job. If you got away with talking about something inane like beer or pizza for several hours and I wasn't there to see it, congrats, I wasn't going to probate you for it half a day or days after the fact as by that time the derail had solved itself when the next horrendous thing out of the Trump administration slouched its way to be born reached the news.)

Having said all of that meandering pre-coffee text the current state/design of the threads/USPOL is something LK and I talked about previously and with Ardennes as a newly minted mod we'll all be talking about it. If you'd like to complain more about it you can PM me and I'll take your opinion into consideration.

tl;dr a bunch of words and things

AlBorlantern Corps posted:

Mods: Am I out of touch? No, no, it is every user who is wrong

I laughed at this.

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:20

There Bias Two: Jan 13, 2009; I'm not a good person

AFancyQuestionMark posted:

The QQCS thread was closed.

This is a problem. If a large number of users are expressing their discontent with a choice and the mod response is essentially "deal with it" or go elsewhere, people are going to go elsewhere.
This community isn't exactly swimming in new users, and alienating some because consolidating threads is easier seems like a terrible idea.

I also found the old Trump thread to be more readable because it was narrow in scope and there were fewer posts per minute. It was probably one of the most comprehensive sources of Trump news on the planet, and now it's being diluted even further for reasons.

e: this was written before the above post was made.

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:21

AFancyQuestionMark: Feb 19, 2017; Long time no see.

A new Trump thread.

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:21

Spaced God: Feb 8, 2014; All torment, trouble, wonder and amazement
Inhabits here: some heavenly power guide us
Out of this fearful country!

The second civil war doesn't start in DC, but on somethingawful dot com between the pro and anti trump thread factions

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:21

Arc Hammer: Mar 4, 2013; Got any deathsticks?

I really hope/dread if Trump makes a speech in France tomorrow. Can you imagine how poorly a rah-rah America so yuuuge and awesome speech would go over at a world war 1 memorial.

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:22

knox_harrington: Feb 18, 2011; Running no point.

https://mobile.twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1061257080533860353
https://mobile.twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1061257446151389185
https://mobile.twitter.com/EricColumbus/status/1061257657913405440

Maybe Rod will end up back in charge of the SCO

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:22

Zwabu: Aug 7, 2006

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/09/politics/2018-democrats-midterms/index.html

The fact that this take came from Chris Cillizza, of all people, and that I agree with it, is the most amazing thing about this article:

Chris Cillizza posted:

2018 was a WAY better election for Democrats than most people seem to think
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

The election results are in. Now what? 01:55
(CNN)Around 11 p.m., ET on Election Day 2018, the conventional wisdom congealed: Voters had delivered a split decision.

Yes, Democrats recaptured the House -- but they didn't achieve the blue tsunami of 40+ seats that some strategists had predicted in the days leading up to vote Tuesday. And Republicans had beaten three Democratic senators -- in North Dakota, Missouri and Indiana -- and had leads in Nevada, Florida, Montana and Arizona. Republicans had also won the governor's mansions in Florida and Ohio, two massive victories in states with big roles to play in the 2020 presidential race and the 2021 nationwide redistricting process.

"To be honest -- I'll be honest, I thought it was a -- I thought it was a very close to complete victory," President Donald Trump told reporters in a post-election press conference on Wednesday.
And if the election had ended at midnight on Tuesday night, it would have been a very good election for Republicans. But it didn't. Lots and lots of votes still needed to be counted. And as they have been counted -- and more and more races have been called -- it's become increasingly clear that the original conventional wisdom badly misses the mark. This was, in fact, a very good election for Democrats.
Consider this:
1. Montana Sen. Jon Tester, who trailed Matt Rosendale deep into Wednesday morning, eventually defeated his Republican challenger to claim a third term in a state that Trump won by 20 points in 2016. And Nevada Rep. Jacky Rosen, a Democrat, ousted Republican Sen. Dean Heller thanks to a massive influx of votes from Clark County (which contains Las Vegas).
2. In Arizona, Democratic Rep. Krysten Sinema took a slim 9,500-vote lead over Republican Rep. Martha McSally in the open seat Senate race after trailing for much of the previous 48 hours. (This one isn't over -- there are still roughly 350,000 votes still to count.)
3. Florida, which looked like a major success story for Republicans on Tuesday night, now looks much more muddled. In the Senate race between Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and Republican Gov. Rick Scott, there is almost certain to be a manual recount, with the two candidates separated by about 15,000 votes. In the governor's race, which Democrat Andrew Gillum previously conceded to Republican Ron DeSantis, the margin has continued to shrink since election night, with the two men now separated by just 36,000 votes out of more than 8 million cast. DeSantis' current .4% margin of victory means that race is set to be subject to an automatic machine recount.
4. House Democrats have now picked up 30 total seats. And of the 10 House races not yet called by CNN, the Democratic candidate leads in five. If those numbers hold, Democrats will get to a 35-seat pickup and might even gain a few more based on where the outstanding votes are coming from (Democratic areas? Republican ones?) in the remaining uncalled races. Tweeted Cook Political Report's House editor David Wasserman on Friday: "Final result: closer to 40 than 30. Largest Dem gain since Watergate."
5. In Wisconsin, Democrat Tony Evers narrowly defeated Gov. Scott Walker -- handing Democrats another win in another Midwestern state that proved critical to Trump's path to the presidency in 2016. The two other Midwestern states that Trump shocked the political world by winning -- Michigan and Pennsylvania -- elected and reelected Democratic governors on Tuesday. Democrats also took over the Illinois governorship.
6. At the state legislative level, where Democrats were crushed by Republicans in the 2010 and 2014 midterms, the party seized control of seven state legislatures, according to tabulations made by the National Conference of State Legislatures. (The chambers Democrats took over: New Hampshire's state Senate, Connecticut's state Senate, Minnesota's state House, New Hampshire's state House, Maine's state Senate and the New York state Senate.) According to the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, 372 state legislative seats switched from Republican to Democratic on Tuesday night -- although some counting of votes still remains.

None of this is to say that Republicans didn't win anything. They did! Ohio is a major win at the governor's level. And beating three Senate Democratic incumbents is a big deal.
But let's have some real talk here.
First, the Senate map for 2018 was one of the worst maps in modern memory for Democrats. They had 26 seats up, including 10 in states Trump won. Of those 10, five were states Trump won by double digits; three of those five (Indiana, Missouri and North Dakota) were places where Republicans won on Tuesday.) And in the only state Hillary Clinton won where a Republican incumbent was running -- Nevada -- Democrats won.
Second, it's crazy not to think of a Democratic gain of -- at least -- 35 seats in the House as anything short of a wave. (In 2014, when Republicans picked up 30 seats, it was rightly described as a national wave against then President Barack Obama.) Especially when you consider that Republicans dominated the 2011 redistricting process nationally, creating districts all over the country that tilted their way -- a high hurdle Democrats needed to overcome to win the majority.
Why aren't Democrats celebrating more given their gains? I think some of it has to do with the delayed nature of some of the races; lots of the better results for Democrats didn't come until Wednesday (or later) while Republicans got a lot of their good news before people went to bed on Tuesday night.

(more at link)

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:22

Lightning Knight: Feb 24, 2012; Pray for Answer

AFancyQuestionMark posted:

A new Trump thread.

No.

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:23

evilweasel: Aug 24, 2002

Lightning Knight posted:

I'm sure that this is a thing that actually happened and we've simply forgotten because Obama was 8 years of Fox News rage.

I can't find any similar ones here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom_recipients

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:23

John Wick of Dogs: Mar 4, 2017; A real hellraiser

Koalas Massacre posted:

Minds have been up.

What's done is done.

It's not changing.

Accept it and move on.

Very progressive stance there.

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:24

AFancyQuestionMark: Feb 19, 2017; Long time no see.

Lightning Knight posted:

No.

I don't get it. What's the purpose of preventing people from creating threads about narrow topics they want to discuss?

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:25

knox_harrington: Feb 18, 2011; Running no point.

Lol
https://mobile.twitter.com/marklowen/status/1061199406979076096

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:26

Insanite: Aug 30, 2005

AFancyQuestionMark posted:

I don't get it. What's the purpose of preventing people from creating threads about narrow topics they want to discuss?

What do you think this is? A discussion forum?

e: FWIW, as a writer and dork, I'd really enjoy something as narrow as a Trump rhetoric thread.

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:26

Nonsense: Jan 26, 2007

Very normal the media has suddenly stopped talking about the caravan. :thunk:

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:26

Spaced God: Feb 8, 2014; All torment, trouble, wonder and amazement
Inhabits here: some heavenly power guide us
Out of this fearful country!

knox_harrington posted:

Lol
https://mobile.twitter.com/marklowen/status/1061199406979076096

To be fair I do this sometimes.
However, I am not the president of the united states, nor do i meet with the leaders of either baltic or balkan states regularly

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:27

Lightning Knight: Feb 24, 2012; Pray for Answer

AFancyQuestionMark posted:

I don't get it. What's the purpose of preventing people from creating threads about narrow topics they want to discuss?

PPJ just made a long post explaining the primary motivations. I agree with him.

Y'all don't want a thread. You want a private Discord server which is your personal clubhouses. Which you now have, as of election night. In D&D, people who disagree with you (who aren't lovely racists like baquerd) are allowed to post.

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:27

corn in the bible: Jun 5, 2004; Oh no oh god it's all true!

baltics, balkans, whats the difference

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:28

mcmagic: Jul 1, 2004; If you see this avatar while scrolling the succ zone, you have been visited by the mcmagic of shitty lib takes! Good luck and prosperity will come to you, but only if you reply "shut the fuck up mcmagic" to this post!

What did Adelson and her warmonger criminal Husband get for that $115MM they dropped on the midterms? Giant GOP losses in their home state and in the House. Money well spent. Harry Reid is having his last laugh against these scumbags.

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:30

Chilichimp: Oct 24, 2006; TIE Adv xWampa

It wamp, and it stomp; Grimey Drawer

Lightning Knight posted:

PPJ just made a long post explaining the primary motivations. I agree with him.

Y'all don't want a thread. You want a private Discord server which is your personal clubhouses. Which you now have, as of election night. In D&D, people who disagree with you (who aren't lovely racists like baquerd) are allowed to post.

The gently caress? Someone toss me the link. I want into the Trump Thread discord clubhouse.

And honestly, if this was just called "USPOL/Trump: Please post here so non-US goons know what's happening" that'd be swell.

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:31

Party Plane Jones: Jul 1, 2007; by Reene; Fun Shoe

Chilichimp posted:

The gently caress? Someone toss me the link. I want into the Trump Thread discord clubhouse.

You really, really don't.

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:31

There Bias Two: Jan 13, 2009; I'm not a good person

Chilichimp posted:

The gently caress? Someone toss me the link. I want into the Trump Thread discord clubhouse.

Seconded. I also want in! Can it be posted in the OP for convenience?

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:31

Lightning Knight: Feb 24, 2012; Pray for Answer

Chilichimp posted:

The gently caress? Someone toss me the link. I want into the Trump Thread discord clubhouse.

If someone does post this, I will place it in the OP for everyone else.

Now if you would like to further yell at me about USPOL, I have PMs and an email address. Stop posting about it here.

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:31

Crow Jane: Oct 18, 2012; nothin' wrong with a lady drinkin' alone in her room

, imo.

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:33

Rectal Death Adept: Jun 20, 2018; by Fluffdaddy

There Bias Two posted:

This is a problem. If a large number of users are expressing their discontent with a choice and the mod response is essentially "deal with it" or go elsewhere, people are going to go elsewhere.
This community isn't exactly swimming in new users, and alienating some because consolidating threads is easier seems like a terrible idea.

I also found the old Trump thread to be more readable because it was narrow in scope and there were fewer posts per minute. It was probably one of the most comprehensive sources of Trump news on the planet, and now it's being diluted even further for reasons.

e: this was written before the above post was made.

Is it possible to you that fostering wider discussions might make for a more readable forum experience and create better quality content than one that was arguably just filling a psychological need of the posters that puts off anyone who doesn't have that same need? Everyone except the most militant liberals get extremely tired of a 24/7 running meltdown entering it's third year.

Perhaps the problem has been years of culling / directing the conversation in the way that the residents here demand and continuing to do it is only going to make the problem worse.

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:34

alpha_destroy: Mar 23, 2010; Billy Butler: Fat Guy by Day, Doubles Machine by Night

What ~~are the odds~~ is the over under that Trump calls Babe Ruth the real homerun king?

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:34

Nonsense: Jan 26, 2007

Donny loves A-rod.

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:35

SilvergunSuperman: Aug 7, 2010

Lol ah yes fostering conversations with the chuds will truly be the dawn of a new age of enlightenment for us all.

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:36

Owlofcreamcheese: May 22, 2005; Can't post for 9 years!; Buglord

Lightning Knight posted:

Y'all don't want a thread. You want a private Discord server which is your personal clubhouses. Which you now have, as of election night. In D&D, people who disagree with you (who aren't lovely racists like baquerd) are allowed to post.

Yeah but get this: I fundamentally agree with most every point the dems are bad people make. Obama is not far enough to the left, hilary clinton is a shallow capitalists, democrats are too right wing for a ,modern country.

I don't disagree with the substance of a single argument they make significantly. But the brand of posting is toxic to the point that their thread simply got zero posts on the day a bunch of democrats got bombs mailed to them because no one wanted to even engage with that news in that environment. A thread for issues with the democratic party and a tviv news thread that is light and fast moving makes sense and is way better supported by the forum software than this "both things are one thread now" model that is being enforced.

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:37

Tatsuta Age: Apr 21, 2005; so good at being in trouble

Crow Jane posted:

, imo.

Really I�m gonna miss the trump thread titles more than anything

But :justpost:

is right

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:38

Chilichimp: Oct 24, 2006; TIE Adv xWampa

It wamp, and it stomp; Grimey Drawer

Party Plane Jones posted:

You really, really don't.

I actually liked the ecosystem of posters we had, even the gimmick shitheads, so if there's a place those people are chatting now that we've been told we can't do it in D&D, I'd like to be part of it.

I'll keep following this thread and posting here instead of clambering for the old thread. I for one can't wait for people to fill me with other opinions that are valid like, "Trump is good actually, all you liberals are hilariously stupid" as I just purged my facebook of posts by my mostly conservative college friends.

See you out there, PPJ.

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:38

Fire Above: Mar 28, 2010

Trump thread was good cause the nature of it appealed to us non American posters who could give two craps about endless pages of "Schumer... bad?" discussion and instead could talk about how Trump is loving things up for all of us.

But I guess our only recourse now is to head to cspam and brave the trumops.

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:38

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# ? May 15, 2024 16:06

Crow Jane: Oct 18, 2012; nothin' wrong with a lady drinkin' alone in her room

SilvergunSuperman posted:

Lol ah yes fostering conversations with the chuds will truly be the dawn of a new age of enlightenment for us all.

To D&D's credit, there aren't any actual chuds here afaik

# ? Nov 10, 2018 16:38

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > USPOL Winter: barely-literate frogman powered by kitsch and bad intentions is POTUS

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