US Politics: The Accountability Problem

[S John]

1 hour ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Can you provide a blackface yearbook pic to prove your Virgina credentials?

LOL!  It’s times like these that I remind people that I was actually born in WEST Virginia.  Of course, the next time they do something embarrassing, like come in dead last in education or first in obesity, I’ll say, ‘hey, I pretty much grew up in Virginia.’  

Now that I live in Texas, it’s ‘hey, I live in Austin, we aren’t voting like most of the rest of Texas’

It’s all about mainting a degree of separation between myself and state level shenanigans.  Unfortunately there’s no dodging I can do when the US as a whole does something stupid or terrible.  

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

13 minutes ago, S John said:

LOL!  It’s times like these that I remind people that I was actually born in WEST Virginia.  Of course, the next time they do something embarrassing, like come in dead last in education or first in obesity, I’ll say, ‘hey, I pretty much grew up in Virginia.’  

Now that I live in Texas, it’s ‘hey, I live in Austin, we aren’t voting like most of the rest of Texas’

It’s all about mainting a degree of separation between myself and state level shenanigans.  Unfortunately there’s no dodging I can do when the US as a whole does something stupid or terrible.  

People should watch an episode of Buckwild to immerse themselves in all things WV has to offer (which is nothing). 

[S John]

16 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

People should watch an episode of Buckwild to immerse themselves in all things WV has to offer (which is nothing). 

Moonshine.  Never been to a WV wedding where the mason jars didn’t come out.  Makes bourbon look like a drink for children.

[Zorral]

I wasn't born here but I've been filing both NYC and NY State income tax every year for more years than Mz Z.  I've also lived in the same apartment all these years too -- before it was gentrified.

Before gentrification it was safe and nice -- and very quiet.

I am part of the same church community and its outreach programs all those years.  I vote there all these years too.

But quite some time ago this nice neighborhood became infested with howling others with no connection to anything here. Now there's hardly anything here -- not even chic and interesting clothing boutiques --  beyond very up market restaurants owned and operated almost entirely by people who aren't residents of the USA., i.e. they have no investment, zilch, in the neighborhood. There are entire weeks when one cannot walk on these sidewalks, where, when I used to get up to go to work uptown, there was nobody. These people without a clue crowding the sidewalks and yelling at each other aren't NYers but from Europe, Asia, Indiana, etc.

One by one the old businesses, the local businesses, have closed -- and nothing takes their place except for as long as it lasts a raw cookie dough joint, or yet another joint of $$$$ priced phony phoode created for instagram.  Friends with their own businesses with roots that go back generations not just to this immediately surrounding community but the larger one that used to be Little Italy etc. are having to close down because though their businesses are doing very well, the landlords are pricing them out -- expecting some really big box store or really expensive restaurant or clothing chain will move in -- this despite the ever growing number of places that have been vacant for years. I liked it better 20 years ago.

Whether or not this makes me a real NYer, doesn't matter.  I just live here.  Fewer and fewer people actually live here.  They're just blowing through on their way to owning a second condo somewhere else, while mountains of delivered packages that they are never around to receive pile up.

[Altherion]

5 hours ago, felice said:

Gentrification is the conversion of affordable housing stock to unaffordable housing stock. How can you recognise that lack of affordable housing stock is a problem without objecting to the process that brings it about? A better way to make a neighbourhood nicer and safer would be to increase the incomes of the current residents, rather than pushing them out and replacing them with people who are already well-off.

This "better way" has the same fundamental problem as "Why don't the coal miners learn to code?" The people who are moving in are well paid because they have skills and credentials which are valued by the local corporations. Despite the high cost of living, the competition for these jobs is very fierce and while some small fraction of the locals may, with a lot of effort and almost certainly additional training, be able to compete for these, there's simply no way that all or even most of them can do this.

[KingintheNorth4]

A shame that Ilhan Oman had to apologize for telling the truth about Republican support for Israel.

[Zorral]

1 hour ago, Altherion said:

This "better way" has the same fundamental problem as "Why don't the coal miners learn to code?" The people who are moving in are well paid because they have skills and credentials which are valued by the local corporations. Despite the high cost of living, the competition for these jobs is very fierce and while some small fraction of the locals may, with a lot of effort and almost certainly additional training, be able to compete for these, there's simply no way that all or even most of them can do this.

But the point again is these people extract value from what they've contributed nothing to, and put nothing of value in.

[Kalbear]

47 minutes ago, KingintheNorth4 said:

A shame that Ilhan Oman had to apologize for telling the truth about Republican support for Israel.

It's how it works, and its idiotic. Trump posts that a winter storm disproves climate change and we get crickets, but some administrative bullshit about the green new deal proves its bad. She says something inartful and true, gets slammed - and Trump references the trail of tears and nothing. 

[Altherion]

1 hour ago, Zorral said:

But the point again is these people extract value from what they've contributed nothing to, and put nothing of value in.

That depends on how you define value. They certainly contribute economic value to the corporations they serve -- otherwise the latter would not employ them.

[DMC]

Tentative deal reached to avert shutdown

Quote

The tentative deal includes $1.375 billion for physical barriers — a type of fencing that resembles the “steel slats” that Trump has specifically called for, according to a congressional aide briefed on the talks. It includes a total of 55 miles, which is just 9 miles shy of Trump’s last budget request.

In exchange, Democrats agreed to drop their demand to restrict the number of people who can be detained by Immigration and Custom Enforcement at a time. Negotiators agreed to fund a total of 40,520 detention beds for ICE, a roughly 17 percent reduction from current levels, the aide said.

 

[KingintheNorth4]

2 hours ago, Triskele said:

The Jewish Ezra Klein pointed out years ago that the AIPAC's of the world do this thing where anyone who criticizes them is trafficking in anti-Semitic stereotypes even when they are true (Klein's words italicized).  It's a neat trick where AIPAC is just about the most successful version of what they are anywhere in the world and also claim no one should talk about how good they are at what they do.

I think there's an ocean of difference between a Bannon-esque reference to "globalists" and simply pointing out the truth that there are powerful Israeli lobbies that influence US policy towards Israel.  

But even as I type that it's fascinating the tightrope walk the GOP has been doing where they're influenced so much by the latter in the halls of power while catering so much to the former in the voting booth.  

Yeah, and now GOP leader Kevin McCarthy is threatening punishment for Oman and Rashid Tlaib for their comments. They're really conflating the Israeli government with all jewish people.

[DMC]

2 hours ago, Triskele said:

The Jewish Ezra Klein pointed out years ago that the AIPAC's of the world do this thing where anyone who criticizes them is trafficking in anti-Semitic stereotypes even when they are true (Klein's words italicized).  It's a neat trick where AIPAC is just about the most successful version of what they are anywhere in the world and also claim no one should talk about how good they are at what they do.

I think there's an ocean of difference between a Bannon-esque reference to "globalists" and simply pointing out the truth that there are powerful Israeli lobbies that influence US policy towards Israel.  

Obviously Omar is entirely correct, but that's not really the point - nor is the GOP.  I agree with Klein's co-editor in regards to this being incredibly stupid politically.  It is still a political reality that Israel is a third rail issue within the Democratic party.  Both among her colleagues (who, yes, probably are the very people being patronized by AIPAC that Omar is referring to) and among a considerable portion of the Democratic electorate.  It has the ability to fracture the party as much any other issue.  The way to change that is to be sensitive to the suspicion of anti-Semitism, even if it is objectively unwarranted.  Flippant tweets don't help anybody, and has significant potential to harm her cause.  This is the Democratic leadership telling her to knock it off for those reasons.

8 minutes ago, KingintheNorth4 said:

Yeah, and now GOP leader Kevin McCarthy is threatening punishment for Oman and Rashid Tlaib for their comments. They're really conflating the Israeli government with all jewish people.

McCarthy has been threatening punishment of Omar and Tlaib for awhile now.  That's actually what Omar's tweets were responding to in the first place.

[karaddin]

On 2/11/2019 at 8:43 AM, The guy from the Vale said:

300'000 public servants in a city of almost 9 million is... not much.

Apologies if anyone has already pointed this out, but NYPD:

Employees	55,304

Over 1/6th of that total just in police employees. I'm sure the city would run better if that public servant count was higher and more services were handled in house.

[felice]

4 hours ago, Altherion said:

This "better way" has the same fundamental problem as "Why don't the coal miners learn to code?" The people who are moving in are well paid because they have skills and credentials which are valued by the local corporations. Despite the high cost of living, the competition for these jobs is very fierce and while some small fraction of the locals may, with a lot of effort and almost certainly additional training, be able to compete for these, there's simply no way that all or even most of them can do this.

I'm not suggesting the people living in poor neighbourhoods should be going after higher paid jobs! The idea is reducing inequality, with higher minimum wages and better welfare and public services funded by taxing higher incomes more.

[Fragile Bird]

I see attacks on Democrats continue.

Kamala Harris isn’t black enough (she’s married to a white man! How dare she call herself black!}. Her response is she was born black and will die black and she married her husband because they love each other.

And I just found out about the white security guard in Florida who started an internet rumor that AOC had a credit score of 430, had two checking accounts closed and had been evicted twice by sheriffs. A meme eaten up and spit out by Republican supporters everywhere. I wondered why I was always seeing comments to news stories about her along those lines.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

15 hours ago, S John said:

Moonshine.  Never been to a WV wedding where the mason jars didn’t come out.  Makes bourbon look like a drink for children.

I love how I say your home state has nothing to offer and you respond with “Hey, we’ve got super strong cheap liquor.”

Respect man.

[Jace, Extat]

Just now, Tywin et al. said:

I love how I say your home state has nothing to offer and you respond with “Hey, we’ve got super strong cheap liquor.”

Respect man.

What else is there?

Moonshine is life.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

13 minutes ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

What else is there?

Moonshine is life.

Look who’s talking, Ms. Indiana.  

[Larry of the Lawn]

1 hour ago, Fragile Bird said:

I see attacks on Democrats continue.

Kamala Harris isn’t black enough (she’s married to a white man! How dare she call herself black!}. Her response is she was born black and will die black and she married her husband because they love each other.

And I just found out about the white security guard in Florida who started an internet rumor that AOC had a credit score of 430, had two checking accounts closed and had been evicted twice by sheriffs. A meme eaten up and spit out by Republican supporters everywhere. I wondered why I was always seeing comments to news stories about her along those lines.

The sad/funny thing about the credit score/closed checking accounts/evictions is that they are essentially saying that being poor should prevent you from serving in office.  

I have shitty credit and have had checking accounts closed in the past and it's not something you do on purpose or try to make happen.  It's also a pretty shitty feeling to then spend what little money you do make chopping away at these debts.  I've paid insurance on a truck I couldn't even afford to put gas in, biking to work, to pay off shit like that.  

If probabaly be more likely to vote for someone who could relate to financial problems faced by those living pay check to pay check.

Also pretty hilarious that they attack her on these grounds considering the financial behaviour of Trump and his foundation and some of his appointees (looking at you, Pruitt, Zeinke, Whitaker, etc).

[Gertrude]

Yeah, the importance of credit score on personal/professional worth is a pet peeve of mine. Had a friend who's credit was destroyed by an abusive ex-husband and she went through a small slice of hell because of it.