12 ms·

The only person to mention the federal government was you.

vacri 14y ago
but the real owner isn't me, it's the United States government - Locke1689, 5 hours ago I am not an American, but I've been online for nearly 20 years now, and I've seen a lot of US politics pass under the bridge. I've never seen anything that goes contrary to the notion that 'the United States government' is 'the federal government [of the US]'. The two terms are used interchangably in online discourse in my experience. If I am wrong in this, can you please provide me with some links to explain how 'the federal government' of the US is a different entity to the 'the United States government'. I'd be very interested to read them, because it would be a very curious oddity in the way politics are described over there. Does 'the federal government' operate at a higher or lower level than 'the United States government', or do they operate in parallel? It's an intriguing concept.
- argonaut 14y ago
  The fact that you're arguing over the synonymous/non-synonymous semantics of two phrases, rather than actually refuting locke's main point, says a great deal about your argument.
  - vacri 14y ago
    Can you please point out Locke's 'main' point, because it seems he's danced around a few topics to me. If you're talking about the parent of my last comment, it should be abundantly clear that I'm saying 'no, you did', which is directly refuting his point, with a quote, no less. The rest was a bit of poetic license called 'taking the piss'.
- Locke1689 14y ago
  What the hell? I hope you're not an American -- if civics and government class has so failed our students i would be extremely disappointed. The government of the united States is exactly that, ranging from the lowest town council member to the President. You do understand the concept of sets and subsets, right? The federal government is a subset of the government. That's why it has that additional qualifier.
  - vacri 14y ago
    Yeah, I don't buy your attempt at a 'save'.
    - deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
    - Locke1689 14y ago
      That's OK, I don't buy your attempt to be seen as educated on the topic. Your post is basically, "I don't really know anything, but I sure do read a lot of blogs." If you're actually interested in US govt. & politics open a first year textbook. The Constitution (and amendments) quite clearly describe the subdivision of governmental powers into 4 different areas: the legislative, the executive, the judicial, and the states.
      - vacri 14y ago
        Nice rebuttal: "Oh, it'll say it in this physical resource that you won't have access to". Looking through google for 'the United States Government', most of the results refer to the three branches, but describe other powers as falling to the states as a different entity, if they're described at all. Certainly if you look at news sources for terms like "called on the United States government", they're all federal-style issues, not state - state issues tend to be specified as such. You may also want to change the leading paragraph of the Wikipedia article, since it's peddling the "I don't really know anything" viewpoint, given how powerful WP is as a source. So, as I asked, do you have any reliable, definitive resources I can actually access, or are you content to just call me uneducated with a lazy, hand-wavy dismissal? I'm happy to be proven wrong, but not in the lazy way you're going about it.
        Locke1689 14y ago
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalism#United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalism#United_States 'James Madison asserted that the states and national government "are in fact but different agents and trustees of the people, constituted with different powers."'

vacri 14y ago

but the real owner isn't me, it's the United States government - Locke1689, 5 hours ago I am not an American, but I've been online for nearly 20 years now, and I've seen a lot of US politics pass under the bridge. I've never seen anything that goes contrary to the notion that 'the United States government' is 'the federal government [of the US]'. The two terms are used interchangably in online discourse in my experience. If I am wrong in this, can you please provide me with some links to explain how 'the federal government' of the US is a different entity to the 'the United States government'. I'd be very interested to read them, because it would be a very curious oddity in the way politics are described over there. Does 'the federal government' operate at a higher or lower level than 'the United States government', or do they operate in parallel? It's an intriguing concept.

argonaut 14y ago
The fact that you're arguing over the synonymous/non-synonymous semantics of two phrases, rather than actually refuting locke's main point, says a great deal about your argument.
- vacri 14y ago
  Can you please point out Locke's 'main' point, because it seems he's danced around a few topics to me. If you're talking about the parent of my last comment, it should be abundantly clear that I'm saying 'no, you did', which is directly refuting his point, with a quote, no less. The rest was a bit of poetic license called 'taking the piss'.
Locke1689 14y ago
What the hell? I hope you're not an American -- if civics and government class has so failed our students i would be extremely disappointed. The government of the united States is exactly that, ranging from the lowest town council member to the President. You do understand the concept of sets and subsets, right? The federal government is a subset of the government. That's why it has that additional qualifier.
- vacri 14y ago
  Yeah, I don't buy your attempt at a 'save'.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - Locke1689 14y ago
    That's OK, I don't buy your attempt to be seen as educated on the topic. Your post is basically, "I don't really know anything, but I sure do read a lot of blogs." If you're actually interested in US govt. & politics open a first year textbook. The Constitution (and amendments) quite clearly describe the subdivision of governmental powers into 4 different areas: the legislative, the executive, the judicial, and the states.
    - vacri 14y ago
      Nice rebuttal: "Oh, it'll say it in this physical resource that you won't have access to". Looking through google for 'the United States Government', most of the results refer to the three branches, but describe other powers as falling to the states as a different entity, if they're described at all. Certainly if you look at news sources for terms like "called on the United States government", they're all federal-style issues, not state - state issues tend to be specified as such. You may also want to change the leading paragraph of the Wikipedia article, since it's peddling the "I don't really know anything" viewpoint, given how powerful WP is as a source. So, as I asked, do you have any reliable, definitive resources I can actually access, or are you content to just call me uneducated with a lazy, hand-wavy dismissal? I'm happy to be proven wrong, but not in the lazy way you're going about it.
      - Locke1689 14y ago
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalism#United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalism#United_States 'James Madison asserted that the states and national government "are in fact but different agents and trustees of the people, constituted with different powers."'