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Google Maps in the US Will Change to Gulf of America and Mount McKinley

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Re: Google Maps in the US Will Change to Gulf of America and Mount McKinley

#61

Post by glimshe »

danaris wrote: post #57
glimshe wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The president was given this power by the people. Crowd sourcing this is a particularly bad idea as countries already have working institutions that map and name things. One alternative would be for Congress to create more barriers for name changes.

...Was he? Is "gets to rename any geographical feature in the general vicinity of the country on a whim" a usual power of the US President? I genuinely don't know the legalities around this, but given that, I would bet that most people who voted for Trump also didn't think they were giving him that power. (Whether they would have chosen to do so is a separate question.)

Do electors of any politician ever understand the full extent of their candidate's powers? They vote on people under the assumption that the person is the best choice (not necessarily a "good" choice) for the job given the system already in place.

Answering your question: yes, the executive branch can change geographical names in the US. Obama did that too with Mt Mckinley. This power extends solely to the names as accepted by the United States. If Mexico wants to change the gulf's name to "Gulf of the Aztecs" or "Gulf of qetwyetwdhxysysheussg", it can do that too.

SHOULD they do it? Now that's a different question.

Re: Google Maps in the US Will Change to Gulf of America and Mount McKinley

#62

Post by gatlin »

danaris wrote: post #58
nailer wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Asides from the GOP winning the popular vote, you seem to be counting people that didn’t vote as opposition rather than nulls.

That appears to be moving the goal posts. In your grandparent post, you simply stated that more than half the country support Trump; viciousvoxel was refuting that by pointing out that less than half the country voted for him. How many actively opposed him is immaterial to your initial statement.

What they meant through the imprecision of their language was that an election was conducted and he won by the rules of the contest, and now as the winner he is exercising authority commensurate with his new position.

Re: Google Maps in the US Will Change to Gulf of America and Mount McKinley

#64

Post by cempaka »

hcarvalhoalves wrote: post #63

That’s hilarious. It could be straight out of the “Idiocracy” movie script.

In "The Man in the High Castle" (Amazon TV series at least) the Nazis in the U.S. launch a "Jahr Null" initiative where they start the calendar at zero and purge a bunch of symbols of the old America (like the Statue of Liberty) and replace them. I feel like this is a kind of corn-pone Jahr Null.

Re: Google Maps in the US Will Change to Gulf of America and Mount McKinley

#65

Post by cempaka »

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #37
postepowanieadm wrote: post #34

What's so odd about it? Countries do that all the time, Czech Republic is now Czechia, Turkey is Türkiye, Haźlach is now Hażlach. USA may as well change it's name to "Trump land", and Germans will still call it Vereinigte Staaten and Iranians will call it Great Satan.

The odd bit about it is that we're talking about a body of international water, not a country. It seems fair that a country gets to decide what it is called (and other countries can call it whatever they decide), but in this case, there IS no 'owner' so no 'official' name. So long as "Gulf of America" only ever appears to users in the US, there may not be much of a problem at all. I guess the other odd thing about th…

> I guess the other odd thing about this is how quickly the change appears to have been adopted.

Silicon Valley is fully on board with the Trumpian "vibe shift."

Re: Google Maps in the US Will Change to Gulf of America and Mount McKinley

#68

Post by drawkward »

pmb wrote: post #18

Countries can tell companies what the maps of their countries should look like and what things should be called. For example, Google shows different info about the Kashmir region depending on whether you are in Pakistan or India or external to both, because of how the Indian and Pakistani governments define the borders and names of the region. If the US government changes a thing's name, then Google will change that…

The Gulf of Mexico is not a country.

Re: Google Maps in the US Will Change to Gulf of America and Mount McKinley

#69

Post by catlikesshrimp »

glimshe wrote: post #50
oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even "Gulf of America" wouldn't be SO bad if people like me (non-US English speaker) can wean ourselves off the habit of referring to the US as "America". I'm going to start doing my bit.

People in Latin America rarely call the US "America", although often call people born in the USA "Americano". Brazilians, Mexicans, Argentinans etc are all "Americans" technically. I think the name change was silly but "Gulf of America" is a better name.

>>People in Latin America rarely call the US "America", although often call people born in the USA "Americano".

As an American not from the US who lives in America but not in the US, the only Americans I have heard calling US citizens "Americans" are people who live in the US, be them US citizens or not. Many of them acquire a cuban accent, btw (florida effect)

The regular gentilice we use for US citizens is "gringo" I don't know the origin, but it is not used as an offence. Calling them "Americans" does sound odd and a little offensive, ironically!

Re: Google Maps in the US Will Change to Gulf of America and Mount McKinley

#70

Post by jfengel »

GJim wrote: post #55
pjc50 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The job of a head of state is to unite a people, not divide them "Head of state" is very much a job where you get to define your own mission and duties, including "sell cryptocurrency to suckers" and "sow division to exploit". Defining internal and external enemies is a very effective technique for retaining power.

> "Head of state" is very much a job where you get to define your own mission and duties King Charles III, all his modern predecessors and all other European Royal heads of state would rather disagree with that statement! As would the constitutionally elected presidents of most other countries of the world. The citizenry would get rid of them if they thought otherwise. Royals included.

Without meaning to Godwin the discussion, do you know what other constitutionally elected leader made it his mission to sow deep, deep, deep division within his country?
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