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US Politics: Biden Hood - Prince of Plebs


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10 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

Whitmer is a fucking economic terrorist. 

To speak so of a woman who has literally been attacked by actual terrorists, against whom actual plots were made to kidnap and murder, who yet has the sheer guts to stand up to those sorts. Rants against her, advocating violence against Governor Whitmer, for being part of an environmentally responsible decision, ranted against,by a person in another country, probably won't get much traction here.  Other places online, sure -- see: plot to kidnap and murder.

Consider further before throwing rocks -- there are many who regard people who live by playing in the financial markets as economic terrorists -- at best.

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Just now, Zorral said:

Your argument won't find sympathy here in the USA, because, as mentioned previously, but probably not noticed in Canada.

"Gasoline and oil prices rise as a U.S. pipeline remains shut after cyberattack."

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/05/10/business/stock-market-today#gasoline-and-oil-prices-rise-as-a-us-pipeline-remains-shut-after-cyberattack

Yes indeed -- this is an interconnected world, just starting with the effect of the fluttering of a butterfly's wings having consequences thousands of miles away.

 

Unlike the Canadian story being totally unnoticed in the US, except, probably, in Michigan, the cyber attack on the pipeline in the US has been given wide coverage in Canada.

I’m actually pretty happy that’s happened. I hope the prices in the US soar. I just saw that the Biden administration has given permission for truck drivers to work longer hours because fuel is going to have be trucked in. Won’t that be good for the environment! Just what Whitmer wants to do to Canada.

The situation will only be temporary, though. Once Colonial beefs up their cyber security, the pipelines will flow again, unlike what will happen in eastern Canada if Whitmer is successful. We’ll have trucks and trains shipping in oil for either forever or for a decade anyway. A huge expansion of the pipeline that goes around Lake Supetior will have to be done, at a cost of billions, at a time when we actually want to reduce our use of fossil fuels.

That Colonial pipeline, btw, runs from Texas up the east coast of the US all the way to New England. Oh gee, how does it miraculously get there without crossing under rivers? It doesn’t. It runs under every major and minor river, including the Mississippi, from Texas to New England. Oh hell, why don’t all the states between Texas and New England shut down that pipeline, think of the hundreds of rivers and water tables in danger from the pipeline leaking? It’s a fucking time bomb!

Because the pipeline doesn’t leak and destroy the water supply for 200 M people, that’s why. Just like the Enbridge pipeline hasn’t leaked. To be clear, every pipeline does occasionally have leaks, and now and then there is a major leak. But they supply fuel to literally hundreds of millions of people. Shut down the Enbridge pipeline? Sure, when you shut down the Colonial pipeline. Live with that, eh?

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14 minutes ago, Zorral said:

To speak so of a woman who has literally been attacked by actual terrorists, against whom actual plots were made to kidnap and murder, who yet has the sheer guts to stand up to those sorts. Rants against her, advocating violence against Governor Whitmer, for being part of an environmentally responsible decision, ranted against,by a person in another country, probably won't get much traction here.  Other places online, sure -- see: plot to kidnap and murder.

Consider further before throwing rocks -- there are many who regard people who live by playing in the financial markets as economic terrorists -- at best.

Oh please, that’s utter bullshit. Whitmer is as much an economic terrorist to Canada as the Russians who hacked the Colonial pipeline are to the US. Open your eyes.

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Sounds quite Thatcherian, if i'm reading what y'all are saying correctly- she's doing a thing that ultimately probably does need to be done but doing it in the most callous possible way, with no thought of mitigating the impact on the people and communities on the receiving end. 

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6 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Oh please, that’s utter bullshit. Whitmer is as much an economic terrorist to Canada as the Russians who hacked the Colonial pipeline are to the US. Open your eyes.

You're irrational on this. You should be better, in the way you usually are. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

"As Scrutiny of Cryptocurrency Grows, the Industry Turns to K Street
Companies behind digital currencies are rushing to hire well-connected lobbyists, lawyers and consultants as the battle over how to regulate them intensifies."

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/09/us/politics/cryptocurrency-regulation-sec-ripple-labs.html?

Quote

 

WASHINGTON — When federal regulators late last year accused one of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency platforms of illegally selling $1.38 billion worth of digital money to investors, it was a pivotal moment in efforts to crack down on a fast-growing market — and in the still-nascent industry’s willingness to dive deeply into the Washington influence game.

The company, Ripple Labs, has enlisted lobbyists, lawyers and other well-connected advocates to make its case to the Securities and Exchange Commission and beyond in one of the first big legal battles over what limits and requirements the government should set for trading and using digital currency.

Ripple has hired two lobbying firms in the past three months. It has retained a consulting firm staffed with former aides to both Hillary Clinton and former President Donald J. Trump to help it develop strategy in Washington. And to defend itself against the S.E.C., it hired Mary Jo White, a former chairwoman of the commission during the Obama administration.

Ripple is just one of a long list of cryptocurrency companies scrambling for influence in Washington as the Biden administration begins setting policy that could shape the course of a potentially revolutionary industry that is rapidly moving into the mainstream and drawing intensifying attention from financial regulators, law enforcement officials and lawmakers.

....So far, cryptocurrency has been a highly volatile investment, but it is already starting to alter the way individuals, companies and even some central banks do business. Firms like Ripple, which is based in San Francisco, run cryptocurrency platforms that allow customers to make nearly instant global payments through a system that operates largely outside government monetary networks....

 

With so frackin' much wealth sloshing around the world 24/7, which isn't investing or doing anything in the least productive, only chasing its own tail for ever bigger and more immediate pixelated profits, spending only to be non-regulated by any state or nation, a financial development like this was inevitable, something outside of anyone's control. In the past of massive boom markets and technological innovation, new currencies and speculative instruments and modes always arrived too (followed by massive crashes, but the technological innovations in the market remained in play, and always come roaring back after stabilization while massive numbers suffer and often died from exposure and starvation).

Also states and nations play too -- as China is, with the objective of making its markets and money, the global benchmark for value, thereby displaing the US system along with the rest of the "west."


 

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New demographic analysis of the 2020 electorate is out: https://catalist.us/wh-national/

There's a ton of big takeaways, though no real surprises based on what was seen in preliminary data. The most important one may be confirmation that Trump did significantly improve his standing among Latino voters, gaining 8 points from 2016. He also gained 3 points among Black voters and 1 point among Asian American voters. Biden gained 4 points among White voters, which was the difference from Clinton.

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50 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Unlike the Canadian story being totally unnoticed in the US, except, probably, in Michigan, the cyber attack on the pipeline in the US has been given wide coverage in Canada.

I’m actually pretty happy that’s happened. I hope the prices in the US soar. I just saw that the Biden administration has given permission for truck drivers to work longer hours because fuel is going to have be trucked in. Won’t that be good for the environment! Just what Whitmer wants to do to Canada.

The situation will only be temporary, though. Once Colonial beefs up their cyber security, the pipelines will flow again, unlike what will happen in eastern Canada if Whitmer is successful. We’ll have trucks and trains shipping in oil for either forever or for a decade anyway. A huge expansion of the pipeline that goes around Lake Supetior will have to be done, at a cost of billions, at a time when we actually want to reduce our use of fossil fuels.

That Colonial pipeline, btw, runs from Texas up the east coast of the US all the way to New England. Oh gee, how does it miraculously get there without crossing under rivers? It doesn’t. It runs under every major and minor river, including the Mississippi, from Texas to New England. Oh hell, why don’t all the states between Texas and New England shut down that pipeline, think of the hundreds of rivers and water tables in danger from the pipeline leaking? It’s a fucking time bomb!

Because the pipeline doesn’t leak and destroy the water supply for 200 M people, that’s why. Just like the Enbridge pipeline hasn’t leaked. To be clear, every pipeline does occasionally have leaks, and now and then there is a major leak. But they supply fuel to literally hundreds of millions of people. Shut down the Enbridge pipeline? Sure, when you shut down the Colonial pipeline. Live with that, eh?

Yes, exactly, we should be phasing out fossil fuels and spending money to maintain that infrastructure and keep it safe and environmentally sound.  If that causes oil prices to go up, that's awesome.  Maybe it'll help push people away from it.  

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17 minutes ago, Fez said:

New demographic analysis of the 2020 electorate is out: https://catalist.us/wh-national/

There's a ton of big takeaways, though no real surprises based on what was seen in preliminary data. The most important one may be confirmation that Trump did significantly improve his standing among Latino voters, gaining 8 points from 2016. He also gained 3 points among Black voters and 1 point among Asian American voters. Biden gained 4 points among White voters, which was the difference from Clinton.

Yeah, if you'd told me in October that Biden would improve by 4 points in White voters, I would have thought that the polls were spot on and Biden would trot to an easy victory. 

Trump improving so much with Hispanics, particularly in Florida and Texas, was a huge surprise (yes I know the polls indicated this in fall 2020, but subgroup polling isn't great, and the trend was rarely to this extent).  From what I've read, the Republican pitch that helped win over many Hispanic voters was that the Republicans are the party of the working class, and Trump is sticking it to the "elites".  This argument ignores the GOP's openly courting white supremacists (Good people on both sides) and anti-immigrant legislation/rhetoric that often bleeds over into harassing actual Hispanic Americans.  But I'll admit, I don't know a lot of Hispanic Republicans.  

This is the death knell of the idea that demographics alone will doom the GOP.  If 4 years of Trump allowed the GOP to make real inroads with nonwhite voters, you have to assume that trend will continue when he's out of power.

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2 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

So back to something I brought up a few days ago, I saw the headline this morning that Dogecoin's value dropped by 30% over the weekend, largely because Musk joked about how it's obviously funny money. These new cryptocurrencies have to be regulated quickly, otherwise a lot of clueless low end investors are going to be really hurt by these massive swings. I read an article a few weeks ago about a family that sold their house to invest in them and shortly after they took a huge dip, basically leaving said family ruined. 

It dropped to a low that was the all time high last week...

It is not impossible that it will recover quickly. 

I'm not saying people should invest money they can't afford to lose in crypto but it is not like that does not happen all the time with altcoins. I mean dogecoin crashes all the time when the community focuses on a certain day. The people who got dogecoin for meme reasons back in the day are selling lots of coins on those days.

 

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I think an obvious takeaway of the huge issue of a pipeline failure or not being built is that it’s too many eggs in one basket. If one pipeline not getting approval or being hacked offline can cause these major problems, they are a bad idea. And that’s aside from the disastrous environmental impacts and the way pipelines are designed to fail mostly in ways that harm indigenous people, who oil companies and governments alike have decided don’t matter and have no say. Focus on renewables solves this issue and both Canada and the US have seriously lagged in getting there. Reliance on fossil fuels is a shitty deal for all of these reasons and it has become more expensive than renewables. That we have not gotten further into conversion is only through the will and money of oil companies and automobile manufacturers. That a pipeline decision in Michigan can do this to Canada at all is a failure in the system and wouldn’t be happening with solar or wind. 

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37 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

Yes, exactly, we should be phasing out fossil fuels and spending money to maintain that infrastructure and keep it safe and environmentally sound.  If that causes oil prices to go up, that's awesome.  Maybe it'll help push people away from it.  

 

 

Yeah, but like... create the alternatives first. Empirically making millions of people's lives much more difficult in the short, medium, and let's face it still long term by cutting them off from something that they have no good alternatives for is cruel. Like FB said, it's also not short- or medium- term helpful in the aspects you want it to be, coz having to truck in the oil is gonna be worse,

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9 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

 This is the death knell of the idea that demographics alone will doom the GOP.  If 4 years of Trump allowed the GOP to make real inroads with nonwhite voters, you have to assume that trend will continue when he's out of power.

Racial demographic change was never going to be enough to doom the GOP. As the data shows, 32% of Biden voters were White, non-college voters, making them the single biggest chunk of Biden support. Another 29% were White, college-educated voters. There's a simply enormous amount of White voters in this country, and that's why when some activists say Democrats can freely ignore the party's continued slide among white voters (at least until Biden), they have no idea what they're talking about.

The demographic change that might doom the GOP eventually is simply the age one. Among voters age 18-29 Biden won 60-37 and among voters age 30-44 he won 56-41. Both of which are improvements from 2016. Meanwhile, the share of the electorate that was in those ages increased from 23% to 31%, while the share that were baby boomers or older decreased from 51% to 44%. Gen X stayed constant. Another reason Trump kept things close, besides the inroads among nonwhite voters, is that he won new voters who were baby boomers or older. He did in fact find these long-standing non-voters and get them to show up. But they won't be in the electorate for too much longer. It could be that many younger voters will get more conservative over time, or that the currently non-voting younger voters are more likely to be conservative. But as things stand, that age issue is the big time bomb for Republicans. Not for 2024, but, if we still have free elections in 2040 Republicans are going to have needed to make a big change or just not be competitive anymore.

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24 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

Yes, exactly, we should be phasing out fossil fuels and spending money to maintain that infrastructure and keep it safe and environmentally sound.  If that causes oil prices to go up, that's awesome.  Maybe it'll help push people away from it.  

You know what? I don't disagree with what you are saying. I think the majority of the people in Canada (as opposed to the US) agree with that statement. But doing it by way of economic terrorism is not the way to do it. Whitmer, last fall, said she'd be willing to shut down the pipeline "because it provides no economic benefit to the people of Michigan". Of course, she didn't bother checking where the propane used in Michigan comes from (hint: it comes from the refinery in Sarnia, Ontario that produces the propane from the oil delivered by that pipeline). She'd love to see businesses fail in Ontario or close shop and move to Michigan, wouldn't she. In fact, I'm pretty sure her brain trust probably discussed that very point. Get those auto industry suppliers out of Ontario and into Michigan, what a win for Michigan!

That Colonial pipeline carries gasoline from the refineries in Texas and Louisiana up to Linden, NJ (not all the way to New England). You think that the states the pipeline runs through should shut it down, do you? You highlighted that section. Colonial supplies about 50% of the gasoline to the east coast of the US, almost an exact parallel to the Enbridge pipeline. Not exact, because the Enbridge pipeline carries oil to be refined into a multitude of products, so we will be short of gasoline, diesel, propane, aviation fuel, industrial oil by-products, all down by 50%, not just gasoline.

For those of you supporting Whitmer, I sincerely hope that after Colonial gets the pipeline up and running, the Russians hack it and take it down again, and again, and again. Really. You can run out of gas to run your vehicles, you can call for an ambulance and get told, sorry, we have no gas, you can have the back-up generators run out of gas in case of a power failure and have people die in the hospitals. In fact, if I were the Russians I'd hit the power grid next. No gasoline, no power. You can have businesses shut down and have people laid off because there's no gasoline. Because that's what Whitmer wants to do to eastern Canada. And that's not something blown out of proportion. Just think of a 50% reduction of fuel where you live.

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the GoP will also lose about a percentage point or so simply from gender as well (even among Latinos/LatinX the difference was 67/57).

I'd maybe wait another election cycle so we have 3 data points (1 point is datum, 2 is a line, 3 is a trend). Maybe Trump is like the Mule in the Foundation series and messes up forecasts into the future.

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"“It’s Been Hard Not to Roll My Eyes”"

https://slate.com/human-interest/2021/05/essential-workers-coronavirus-fear-anger-wfh-resentment.html

Quote

....Many of these workers resent that people upset over being asked to return didn’t display the same concern for the safety of those who have been there all along. And they wonder why they’ve been left out of so much of the national narrative about what this year has been like for workers. They haven’t been stuck at home baking bread or going stir crazy from being cooped up with family members; they’re out risking their lives working with the public and/or in close quarters with colleagues every day, and they feel invisible in much of the conversation about pandemic life. More than anything, they’re deeply, deeply exhausted....

Goes right along with this WaPo's story about this expanding restaurant owner in Miami thinking we shold all 'weep for me', unable as he and the industry are, at finding enough people to work in their intolerable conditions, for pennies and no bennies. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/05/08/restaurant-jobs-shortage-workers-miami/

The comments, which number nearly two thousand, are about 99.09 contemptuous of these boohooers.  I particularly am contemptuous because this is the first place where the speculation industry, capitalists in general, and rethugs in particular point when pronouncing that 'people don't want to work and prefer collecting massive government benefits. So make unemployment illegal!"  See: South Carolina, etc. Same states passing Jim Crow voting repression laws, who have 'right to work' / no right to unionize laws, etc. Also, recall these are the states that made it illegal for labor, i.e. African Americans, to leave neighborhoods and states and go elsewhere for work outside of sharecropping and domestic work.  They also are anti-vax, anti-mask, and totally in for rtump.

https://money.yahoo.com/south-carolina-cancels-federal-unemployment-benefits-212914813.html

https://abcnews.go.com/US/south-carolina-montana-declining-federal-unemployment-funds-huge/story?id=77553102

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/07/montana-south-carolina-ending-participation-in-fed-unemployment-programs.html

Why are they weeping though?  They've gotten what they've been howling about for decades: deportation and anti-immigration.  They promised then wages here would go up -- A Good Thing!  Now they have it, and yet, yet, yet, persist in whining ... about wages going up.

In the meantime the restaurant industry, i.e. owners and landlords, has gotten billions in federal  relief. Not to mention whole transfers of public, tax-payer owned property, for absolutely zero payment – nor do they even clean the messes their covid sheds make in the gutters, streets and on the sidewalks, where, of course pedestrians, blind people and people in wheelchairs can’t even navigate a path - -- again, capitalism for the poor, socialism for the rich.  This also reminds me a great deal of England and Europe in wake of the 14th centuries first three great waves of pandemic Bubonic Plague, passing laws to keep prices for wages for labor and prices of commodities exactly what they were prior to the Plague, even though so many had died (which contributed greatly to all sorts of social mobility upward for non-aristos in the 14th and 15th centuries).

And ya, there is, and will be, inflation of up the wazoo, due to choked, interrupted, halted supply chains for absolutely everything, everywhere in the world, along with some damned bad harvests due to not only pandemic, but catastrophic weather.  It's going to get quite bad, one may think indeed, if judging by historical periods in which pandemic coincided with bad harvests and labor shortages -- while war continued, unabated.
 

Homo saps are too stupid to survive.

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37 minutes ago, Fez said:

The demographic change that might doom the GOP eventually is simply the age one. Among voters age 18-29 Biden won 60-37 and among voters age 30-44 he won 56-41. Both of which are improvements from 2016. Meanwhile, the share of the electorate that was in those ages increased from 23% to 31%, while the share that were baby boomers or older decreased from 51% to 44%. Gen X stayed constant. Another reason Trump kept things close, besides the inroads among nonwhite voters, is that he won new voters who were baby boomers or older. He did in fact find these long-standing non-voters and get them to show up. But they won't be in the electorate for too much longer. It could be that many younger voters will get more conservative over time, or that the currently non-voting younger voters are more likely to be conservative. But as things stand, that age issue is the big time bomb for Republicans. Not for 2024, but, if we still have free elections in 2040 Republicans are going to have needed to make a big change or just not be competitive anymore.

I checked the 2004 Presidential Results (exit polls, couldn't quickly find the more robust 2004 data), and it was actually surprisingly different from 2020.  Kerry won the 18-29 group 54/45 (14 points worse than Biden) and Bush won 30-44 year olds by 7 points (thus Kerry was 21 points worse than Biden with this group).  30-44 year olds in 2004 were born between 1960 and 1974, and they were actually better for Bush than 45-59 year olds.  The 30-44 group from 2004 are now all in the 45-65 group in 2020, and that group is (not surprisingly) the best group for Trump. 

So yes, there really is something there in terms of age groups.  It is safe to say that the Republican brand is not doing well with basically all the voters born after 1980.  It is indeed safe to say that unless something changes and Republicans get a leader who can appeal to young voters (which is of course possible) then demographic changes do indeed portend increasingly challenging elections for Republicans as pre-1980 voters make up a smaller and smaller share of the electorate.  Millennials + Gen Z increased from 23% to 31% of the electorate between 2016-20.  I think this being a problem for Republicans at a national level will happen sooner than 2040, even by 2028 that group could be 45% voters. 

And of course,you are correct to add the caveat of whether we have meaningful elections in 2028 or 2040.  Republicans are certainly laying the groundwork right now for non-democracy by driving out anyone who admits that Biden actually got more votes. 

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29 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Goes right along with this WaPo's story about this expanding restaurant owner in Miami thinking we shold all 'weep for me', unable as he and the industry are, at finding enough people to work in their intolerable conditions, for pennies and no bennies. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/05/08/restaurant-jobs-shortage-workers-miami/

The comments, which number nearly two thousand, are about 99.09 contemptuous of these boohooers.  I particularly am contemptuous because this is the first place where the speculation industry, capitalists in general, and rethugs in particular point when pronouncing that 'people don't want to work and prefer collecting massive government benefits. So make unemployment illegal!"  See: South Carolina, etc. Same states passing Jim Crow voting repression laws, who have 'right to work' / no right to unionize laws, etc. Also, recall these are the states that made it illegal for labor, i.e. African Americans, to leave neighborhoods and states and go elsewhere for work outside of sharecropping and domestic work.  They also are anti-vax, anti-mask, and totally in for rtump.

 

 

I am a bit confused about how those two articles go together, and how either thing is South Carolina's fault or at all related to Jim Crow.

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3 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

 

 

I am a bit confused about how those two articles go together, and how either thing is South Carolina's fault or at all related to Jim Crow.

Easy, the red, racist Jim Crow states are also the biggest anti worker, pro scab states.

Eta: Flip your own Damn Burgers!!:bowdown:

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I've watched plenty of farmers in the past few years scream and holler about illegal immigrants and then moan and complain when they have no workers come harvest.  

The problem agriculture really has is that they need a lot of workers at a specific time of the year, but don't care a fig for them the rest of the year.  They (the farmers) just expect these workers to magically appear when needed, and then magically go back to supporting themselves some other way the rest of the time.

Oh and they also want to pay them basically starvation wages to do backbreaking intense labor for long long hours. 

And then the only people willing to do this (desperate illegal immigrants), they VOTE TO CHASE AWAY.

It would be hilarious if not for the whole human suffering angle.

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