Biden / Harris Focused Discussion

[Omega10]

With the GOP currently imploding/splitting, 2022 might be a banner year for picking up Democratic seats. Hopefully we'll have a "perfect storm" of COVID defeated, Economy on the upswing, unemployment down, and the GOP still infighting. At the very least we might keep seats from going to the GOP as they typically might in an off year.

Not only that, but it may turn out that democrats get few if any legislative wins, but get our policies implemented anyways.

If enough companies start paying close to $15 an hour, well that might be good enough. The Green New Deal may never be passed in its entirety, but if the pieces get implemented one at a time, it may not matter.

The Texas Disaster has changed the way that the public views climate change, and is consistent with the priority that President Biden has already given it. One way for President Biden to get the Green New Deal enacted is to get the whole thing passed through Congress. Another way is for him to read what it is, and then implement each item in order of ease of implementation.

There are already a lot of environment laws on the books that are not being enforced. Just enforcing a lot of these existing laws could go a long way towards achieving the goals of the Green New Deal.

[Draco-Onis]

With the GOP currently imploding/splitting, 2022 might be a banner year for picking up Democratic seats. Hopefully we'll have a "perfect storm" of COVID defeated, Economy on the upswing, unemployment down, and the GOP still infighting. At the very least we might keep seats from going to the GOP as they typically might in an off year.

While I am hopeful we should not underestimate democrats ability to steal defeat from the jaws of victory. The party is really bad at messaging and capitalizing on republicans making fools of themselves.

[Benggaul]

The Texas Disaster has changed the way that the public views climate change

Ehhhhhhh not really. Or at least not from what I've seen. The majority of Trump-supporter Texans I've seen posting about it have been using it as proof that "Global Warming" isn't real. As usual.

[Draco-Onis]

Ehhhhhhh not really. Or at least not from what I've seen. The majority of Trump-supporter Texans I've seen posting about it have been using it as proof that "Global Warming" isn't real. As usual.

Trump supporters live in another reality however they are making a smaller percentage of Texas voters and people will be pissed about this. This is why the GOP is working overtime to pass bills to stop people from voting.

[Thepersona]

Ehhhhhhh not really. Or at least not from what I've seen. The majority of Trump-supporter Texans I've seen posting about it have been using it as proof that "Global Warming" isn't real. As usual.

Conservatives can get fucked then. Dumb imbeciles

[Breccia]

Conservatives can get fucked then. s

The problem is, they're not just going down with the ship, they're sabotaging the lifeboats.

[Bodakane]

Ehhhhhhh not really. Or at least not from what I've seen. The majority of Trump-supporter Texans I've seen posting about it have been using it as proof that "Global Warming" isn't real. As usual.

That's not intentional. It is literally that they are that fucking ignorant. The entirety of their biggest tent poles (guns, walls, religion, racism, etc.) is all based on an astounding and fundamental misunderstanding of the given subject matters.

[Breccia]

The majority of Trump-supporter Texans I've seen posting about it have been using it as proof that "Global Warming" isn't real.

I'm sure the thought of "being right" is keeping them warm while they have no heat, electricity, water or hope.

[Edge-]

I'm sure the thought of "being right" is keeping them warm while they have no heat, electricity, water or hope.

"Frank, my fingers are starting to turn black, the frostbite is really bad!"
"Sally, that's a small price to pay to own the libs. Shut up and go back to licking your frozen Chef Boyardee popsicle."

[postman1782]

"Frank, my fingers are starting to turn black, the frostbite is really bad!"
"Sally, that's a small price to pay to own the libs. Shut up and go back to licking your frozen Chef Boyardee popsicle."

I just think it is funny, that out of all of Texas, El Paso was the only part to be smart about winterizing their power, and joining the western cluster of electric grid. They may have spent some money in the short term, but at least they listened to the experts.

[Ivanstone]

That could very well mean that 1 million employees are paid substantially LESS than $15 an hour, but it certainly is a nice move.

It's at least a little piece of good news

Improved hourly wages are nice but useless without improved weekly hours. The latter is Walmart usually fucks over its staff.

[draynay]

I just think it is funny, that out of all of Texas, El Paso was the only part to be smart about winterizing their power, and joining the western cluster of electric grid. They may have spent some money in the short term, but at least they listened to the experts.

Apparently they learned their lesson in 2011 with a smaller-scale freeze that caused similar problems.

[Omega10]

Ehhhhhhh not really. Or at least not from what I've seen. The majority of Trump-supporter Texans I've seen posting about it have been using it as proof that "Global Warming" isn't real. As usual.

The hard core Trump supporters will post all they want. They are losing this battle. And Abbott's attacks on renewable energy has backfired and decreased support for fossil fuels and increased support for renewables.

Corporate America is putting into place plans to go all renewables over the next decade or so. This is exactly the goal of the Green New Deal. Maybe they are going slower than we would like, but at some point it's too late to go back.

Paywall site but the title says it all: Ford says it will phase out gasoline-powered vehicles in Europe (by 2030).

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/17/b...dfa9dae3cc2ae2

Ford is not the only major company gearing up to a renewable energy future.

On a different issue, President Biden is working on Females Lives Matter, not to mention Black Lives Matter.

Title: The White House Is Taking Women’s Issues Seriously. Really.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/16/u...dfa9dae3cc2ae2

Another paywall article, but it seems to talk about a gender council that President Biden is setting up.

So basically, President Biden can direct all the attention to the Senate where McConnell is given all the blame for things not getting done, while behind the scenes accomplishing pretty decent versions of a lot of the things we want.

- - - Updated - - -

Improved hourly wages are nice but useless without improved weekly hours. The latter is Walmart usually fucks over its staff.

A LOT needs to be done to upgrade conditions for American workers. You pointed out one of very many issues that need to be worked on.

[Edge-]

https://nypost.com/2021/02/18/presid...cartons-ready/

HOLY SHIT GUYS BIDEN CANCELED AN EVENT AND THEY CALLED AN EARLY LID, THE NY POST EDITORIAL BOARD IS FURIOUS AND THERE MUST BE SOMETHING NEFARIOUS GOING ON!

Please ignore the absolute mountains of actual work getting done, I guess because Biden isn't jet setting all over the country and is canceling some events here and there due to weather is just the fuckin worst. What the fuck is he doing IF WE CAN'T SEE HIM DOING IT?! WE HAVE NOT MASTERED OBJECT PERMANENCE AND DO NOT KNOW IF BIDEN STILL EXISTS WHEN WE CAN'T SEE HIM!

[postman1782]

https://nypost.com/2021/02/18/presid...cartons-ready/

HOLY SHIT GUYS BIDEN CANCELED AN EVENT AND THEY CALLED AN EARLY LID, THE NY POST EDITORIAL BOARD IS FURIOUS AND THERE MUST BE SOMETHING NEFARIOUS GOING ON!

Please ignore the absolute mountains of actual work getting done, I guess because Biden isn't jet setting all over the country and is canceling some events here and there due to weather is just the fuckin worst. What the fuck is he doing IF WE CAN'T SEE HIM DOING IT?! WE HAVE NOT MASTERED OBJECT PERMANENCE AND DO NOT KNOW IF BIDEN STILL EXISTS WHEN WE CAN'T SEE HIM!

They have to find something to make into a non-scandal while they ignored Trump and his 300+ golf trips in 4 years, and other literally illegal shit he has done.

[Omega10]

Trump supporters live in another reality however they are making a smaller percentage of Texas voters and people will be pissed about this. This is why the GOP is working overtime to pass bills to stop people from voting.

Abbott is really being taken to the cleaners as he tries to say things his supporters will agree with in a public forum.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-gov...052453616.html

Title: Texas governor walks back Fox News comments on Green New Deal, says gas, coal failed in Texas freeze

Excerpts:

While millions of Texans were without power in below-freezing temperatures Tuesday night, Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) went on Fox News and told Sean Hannity that the failure of the state's power grid "shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America." Abbott said "our wind and our solar got shut down," which "thrust Texas into a situation where it was lacking power in a statewide basis." The main culprit for the Texas power outages is failures in the natural gas sector, though, so on Wednesday, Abbott walked back his comments.

In a very nice way, the author stated exactly what Abbott said, and then said he was flat out wrong. Whether Abbott blatantly lied or is mind numbingly stupid is besides the point.

"I was asked a question on one TV show about renewable, and I responded to that question," Abbott said. "Every source of power that the state of Texas has has been compromised, whether it be renewable power such as wind or solar, but also, as I mentioned today, access to coal-generated power, access to gas-generated power, also have been compromised."

Abbott fails to mention that northern US states have wind farms that work in winter, as do Scandinavian countries. And oh yeah, the methods these other places used were suggested for use by Texas.

And now the author just goes off on Abbott for being so wreckless with the lives of the residents of Texas.

"Texas is still fossil-fueled," and it's obviously silly to suggest "the Republicans who run the state had accidentally adopted a Green New Deal that eliminated fossil fuels and destroyed the reliability of the grid," Michael Grunwald writes at Politico. "The real problem in Texas is the freaky weather, and unfortunately, climate change is delivering a lot more freaky weather" — a phenomenon Texas Tech climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe calls "global weirding."

Abbott, in explaining the Texas grid failures, pleaded Wednesday that "this is a once-in-every-120-year cold front that we have to respond to." But "today, only a fool expects a hundred-year drought or flood or snowfall event to happen once every hundred years," Grunwald said, and Texas — and America — need to prepare accordingly.

The fact that winter events that used to happen every 120 years now have happened twice in the past 10 years is clear evidence that climate change really is happening. This event really was caused by global warming as this warm version of Arctic air that is hanging around Texas is still quite a bit colder than what humans are good at living in. And yet, he still could have led Texas through this without it becoming a crisis with even moderately competent leadership.

[Cthulhu 2020]

https://twitter.com/AndrewSolender/s...20677918543875

I know this won't change any minds, but it may win a few hearts.

Biden plays Mario Kart, yo. Granted it looks to be the Switch version (I think? I only go as far as the N64 version) in an arcade cabinet, but that's probably cooler.

You may hate his policies, but his choice of game is just fine.

"HOW DARE BIDEN PLAY VIDEO GAMES WHILE PEOPLE ARE DYING"

Sounds like a bunch of progressives looking for anything to latch onto to criticize biden, considering Biden already submitted his relief proposal and it's in the process of going through the legislature. Not much Biden can do unilaterally.

Either that or some fucking hypocritical conservatives who not just three months ago said covid was no big deal.

[Magical Mudcrab]

"Frank, my fingers are starting to turn black, the frostbite is really bad!"
"Sally, that's a small price to pay to own the libs. Shut up and go back to licking your frozen Chef Boyardee popsicle."

Look, you just don't understand. They may lose their limbs to frostbite, they may lose their homes and livelihoods to the recession, they may lose loved ones to COVID, and they may getting radicalized by an out of control subsect of the American population which has existed since before the rise of fascism proper and helped inspire the Nazis, but at least the Democrats aren't winning. The moments the Democrats win, that's when things start to get bad. Those immoral, baby-eating fucks are trying to give those poor, uninsured Texans healthcare and stimulus relief, and no one in their right mind wants free healthcare and money.

- - - Updated - - -

Ehhhhhhh not really. Or at least not from what I've seen. The majority of Trump-supporter Texans I've seen posting about it have been using it as proof that "Global Warming" isn't real. As usual.

To be fair, climate change is not intuitive, which isn't helped by the fact that it's still commonly referred to as "global warming" when the two aren't actually synonymous and "global warming" implies warming, well, globally, so their ignorance is understandable. What isn't understandable is when elected officials, who are paid to be educated on these matters, are ignorant.

[Cthulhu 2020]

State college are free? I mean it seems the average debt for my state school is about 30k....

When I graduated from my state uni, the tuition per semester was at 6k, and had been rising rapidly every year since I entered that university. This was over a decade ago.

About 5 years ago I went to a local community college and got a good education that helped me improve on skills I already have and acquire new skills I didn't have, all for about 800 to 1000 a semester, depending on my course load.

I too want the system fixed, and forgiveness for people who had no choice but to go into debt to pay for post secondary education... BUT he does have a point. Lots of people go to out of state ivy league schools and go into debt for tens if not hundreds of thousands and then can't pay it off? This isn't the blue version of "welfare queen". This is "You needed a car to get to and from work, and instead of getting a modest used car for about 5 grand you chose to buy a custom luxury vehicle for 200 grand."

[Themius]

When I graduated from my state uni, the tuition per semester was at 6k, and had been rising rapidly every year since I entered that university. This was over a decade ago.

About 5 years ago I went to a local community college and got a good education that helped me improve on skills I already have and acquire new skills I didn't have, all for about 800 to 1000 a semester, depending on my course load.

I too want the system fixed, and forgiveness for people who had no choice but to go into debt to pay for post secondary education... BUT he does have a point. Lots of people go to out of state ivy league schools and go into debt for tens if not hundreds of thousands and then can't pay it off? This isn't the blue version of "welfare queen". This is "You needed a car to get to and from work, and instead of getting a modest used car for about 5 grand you chose to buy a custom luxury vehicle for 200 grand."

What a silly argument. “Lots go to out of state Ivy League schools”

There are only but so many of those! Ffs there are millions upon millions of students.

14.8 million students are enrolled full-time.
74.1% of all college students attend public institutions; 25.9% attend private institutions.
71.1% of all college students attend 4-year institutions; 28.9% attend 2-year institutions.