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Someone Has To Do It: US Elections 2020

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    The one time payment is stimulus spending. The country will need that. Thanks to Pelosi and Schumer it's not going to anyone earning over $100k which means it'll actually get spent rather than go into savings. They also got the money to move from the idiotic payroll tax cut and into cash for people who need it.

    But, much more importantly in terms of protecting workers, they got a huge boost in the unemployment benefits. That four month guaranteed unemployment is a massive deal. It protects the people who're losing their jobs. $1200 was never going to protect anyone and isn't meant to protect anyone. But thanks to the Democrats there is actual money protecting those 3 million new unemployed this week.

    It seems ridiculous to complain about the Democrats on this one. Even more so by claiming that the $1200 isn't doing what it wasn't meant to do.

    The Democrats have done what seems to be a pretty damned good job considering that there's a Republican Senate and a Republican President. They've managed to get huge stimulus spending including huge protections for the newly unemployed, a hold on evictions for renters and late mortgages, and they've managed to get some oversight on the massive corporate slush fund.

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      Originally posted by Incandenza View Post
      Sweet baby Jesus wept.

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        The big increase in unemployment benefits is also a clever move politically because the GOP will face a Catch 22 in the Autumn: reduce it back down to previous levels and piss off a lot of voters or keep it at the new level until after the election and face the wrath of fiscal conservatives and Republicans who oppose unemployment benefit on principle.

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          Last week:

          Ignoring urgent pleas from medical professionals and other health experts to postpone primary elections amid the coronavirus outbreak, Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez late Tuesday encouraged states to go ahead with their scheduled contests, claiming "we can in fact have voting and protect our workers, our voters, our candidates."

          "I think it's a false choice to suggest we either have to protect safety or protect and ensure our democracy," Perez said in an interview with NPR late Tuesday as voters in Arizona, Florida, and Illinois went to the polls despite widespread calls for a delay. Former Vice President Joe Biden swept all three states.

          Perez urged upcoming states to make vote-by-mail available to all voters, but it is unclear whether such a solution could be implemented in short order.

          "What you saw in Arizona today, and in Florida, was in Arizona more people voted early than voted in the entirety of the Democratic primary in 2016," Perez said.

          In a statement earlier Tuesday, Perez critized Ohio's widely praised decision to delay its presidential primary, asserting that it "only bred more chaos and confusion."
          Today:

          [URL]https://twitter.com/BMarchetich/status/1243289084056997889[/URL]

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            Originally posted by Incandenza View Post
            t seems ridiculous to complain about the Democrats on this one. Even more so by claiming that the $1200 isn't doing what it wasn't meant to do.

            The Democrats have done what seems to be a pretty damned good job
            They've done a disastrous job

            1200 dollars is nothing.

            for that they;ve given trilllions to Trumps's friends with more-or-less no oversight whatsoever

            And the US is facing the worst pandemic in a hundred years without adequate equipment.

            Great job Pelosi and co.

            Last edited by Nefertiti2; 26-03-2020, 23:47.

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              Originally posted by Nefertiti2 View Post



              They've done a disastrous job

              1200 dollars is nothing.

              for that they;ve given trilllions to Trumps's friends with more-or-less no oversight whatsoever

              And the US is facing the worst pandemic in a hundred years without adequate equipment.

              Great job Pelosi and co.
              1 - again, the $1200 isn't meant to be recompense for losing a job or to get you through the recession. That's what the massive boost in unemployment is for.

              2 - not trillions, and there's a shit ton more oversight than was originally in the proposal

              3 - Yes, the US doesn't have adequate equipment. This bill could not address that. That requires direct action from the President.The bill does have a lot more cash for hospitals and states than the Republicans wanted it to have.

              4 - This actually had to happen with a McConnell run Senate and a President Trump. There's realpolitik involved. Clearly you'd have preferred the US economy in the shitter for months while Schumer and Pelosi held it hostage in order to get a perfect bill that was never going to happen.



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                SB provides a good summary of the Democrats' message for decades--"we aren't great, but it could have been a lot worse!"

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                  You know I disagree with you.

                  There are loads of good things in this bill; and I don't see a process for getting a better bill; and the economy needs a huge amount of stimulus very quickly.

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                    I’ve given up on this country. This is what a majority of my fellow citizens apparently want so I guess they’ll just get to have it.

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                      Originally posted by Incandenza View Post
                      SB provides a good summary of the Democrats' message for decades--"we aren't great, but it could have been a lot worse!"
                      Would you like to try to negotiate something better with Mitch McConnell? Of course we're not going to get something great, the country is being run by sociopaths.

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                        How are people who voted for the Iraq war still in power?

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                          A meaningful proportion of the electorate believes that the US forces found Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq

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                            could have done with being on that $1200 list. already spent it on a garage gym.

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                              That probably suggests that you wouldn't be a good recipient of it as you're already pumping money into the economy without any help from the Feds.

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                                greta to see you're both so relaxed about it

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                                  Ah, the relentless Nefertiti looking for a democracy to deliver something it has spent decades of proving itself incapable of doing.

                                  I am pretty relaxed about a Republican senate and president writing a huge check on the deficit. Sure, parts aren't ideal. The parachute payment ($1200) is something at least and the unemployment piece is very valuable. There is some governance on the bailouts to business.

                                  It is about making decisions. I decided to live in America. From your endless criticism you live on a cloud with a field full of pet unicorns. A pandemic isn't really a great time to enforce some form of structural reform. Glad your government is executing spectacularly on your every last wish.

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                                    Originally posted by caja-dglh View Post
                                    could have done with being on that $1200 list. already spent it on a garage gym.
                                    The privilege is repulsive.

                                    Wanting money to go to those who will be homeless and dying Is "Living on a cloud with a fied full of pet unicorns".

                                    Whilst a man who makes a living from imaginary numbers going up and down brags about having spent his handout ion his garage gym.

                                    "A Pandemic isn't time to enforce some kind of structural reform" who told you that - the pandemic fairy?

                                    A pandemic is an excellent time to impose structural reform -It would save many lives. But that's unresalistic.

                                    Stkill let's look on the bright side t I'm sure your company will benefit from the bailout -

                                    Maybe you've be able to build an extension with your bonus. There'll be lots of people needing the work.

                                    Keep lifting those weights, It help keep the unicorns away.
                                    Last edited by Nefertiti2; 27-03-2020, 23:51.

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                                      Kerching!
                                      I am pretty relaxed about a Republican senate and president writing a huge check on the deficit. Sure, parts aren't ideal. The parachute payment ($1200) is something at least and the unemployment piece is very valuable. There is some governance on the bailouts to business.
                                      https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1243681726012051456?s=20

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                                        Originally posted by Nefertiti2 View Post

                                        Whilst a man who makes a living from imaginary numbers going up and down brags about having spent his handout ion his garage gym.
                                        You really need to move away from attacking people for what they do. It's unbecoming in a place like OTF which is normally full of decent people behaving decently. Or is it your goal to make sure that nobody ever says anything personal on this site for fear that you will use it to abuse them at some point?

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                                          It was in jest, though I should know better than to even joke when you are around. It is all made in the US by the way, by one of the companies doing the most to invest in the country.

                                          I don't need a bail out nor care for one. You spend much time posting twitter links and critiquing it is hard to know what you want, but very clear what you don't. only now we actually see some words from you.

                                          You really want politics to hold any form of relief hostage any longer? That seems like a great idea from the land of Nefertiti? In this crisis you try and gain political gain? For your viewpoint of any more left-wing government in the US to be achieved you would get your hands burned so much it wouldn't happen in your great-great-grandchildren's lifetime. You like to attack things like you have the answers, but you clearly have not a fucking clue how the United States operates. You are here with your two cents every time, yet no concept when anyone tells you why it isn't going to work.

                                          So oh great one, how do you direct federal funds to the homeless within the legal constructs of the US?

                                          I might well need an extension. I have already known one person die in this pandemic and could easily end up with family living with me if some of them die too. A fair few are high risk. I would rather not have government spend any more time twisting around on wording of a bail out and get to trying to save people.

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                                            A pandemic would be a great time for structural reform if the ruling class were willing, but they're not. They're looking for ways to steal more and will blame the piled-up bodies on whomever is convenient. Better than even chances that the world will look more fascist than before after this blows over.

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                                              Originally posted by Incandenza View Post
                                              SB provides a good summary of the Democrats' message for decades--"we aren't great, but it could have been a lot worse!"
                                              Under the USAian election system and governmental structure that is pretty much inevitable. the whole system seems built to encourage stasis at best, or entropy. A president can do little good, but a reasonable amount of harm.

                                              If they were honest, the Dems would nominate Buttigieg and he'd run on a platform of "I won't change anything much but at least I won't be (such) a shambling, incoherent, embarrassing fool."
                                              Last edited by Lurgee; 28-03-2020, 20:32.

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                                                Interesting data point
                                                ​​​​​​
                                                https://twitter.com/samstein/status/1244062031461986310

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                                                  Originally posted by Lurgee View Post

                                                  Under the USAian election system and governmental structure that is pretty much inevitable. the whole system seems built to encourage stasis at best, or entropy. A president can do little good, but a reasonable amount of harm.

                                                  If they were honest, the Dems would nominate Buttigieg and he'd run on a platform of "I won't change anything much but at least I won't be (such) a shambling, incoherent, embarrassing fool."
                                                  You do occasionally get a president like FDR that shows that
                                                  a) The electoral system can produce presidents that operate for the benefit of the general population
                                                  b) There's a lot of positive change that a president can make through executive decrees alone

                                                  The frustration with the Dems is because:
                                                  a) Some of them naively think government is like the West Wing and it's an intellectual process of finding a compromise position between two opposing arguments, which has dragged policy to the far right
                                                  b) The rest of them have no interest in anything other than the status quo.

                                                  I don't think the whole system has to encourage stasis, it's a feature of having an opposition party that are really only interested in performative acts of resistance supported by a liberal media that seems obsessed with 'sports team' politics ('Blue no matter who') and pushing a Russophobia agenda.

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                                                    It's all explained by the capitalism koolaid if you ask me.

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