Biden / Harris Focused Discussion

[Rasulis]

What a classically American response. "The only possible options are those which currently exist in the United States."

Y'all are so deeply conditioned to accept mediocrity that you've become functionally incapable of imagination.

I am sure it is possible to develop very attractive dense high-rise neighborhoods. However, so far city planners in the US have not done a good job of that. The only reason the high-rise neighborhoods were so popular pre-covid was because all the offices were there. Post-covid, with work-from-home and the tendency to go with smaller offices in more residential districts, those neighborhoods became less attractive.

I don't want to sideline the thread anymore. If you are interested in discussing mid-rise vs. high-rise, I'll start a new thread.

[Endus]

Personally, I think it is depressing to be living among all those tall buildings. All concrete and glass. Almost non-existent greeneries.

Doesn't have to be that way, at all.



Beyond that, roof gardens are becoming more common, and it's not that hard to green up your own balcony space with pots or longer beds.

And when you compare it to a lot of modern subdivisions;



No thanks; my soul wants to die looking at this stuff. The "greenery" is gonna be 98% grass, and grass lawns are Satan's invention. They're terrible in pretty much every respect.

[Kaleredar]

What a classically American response. "The only possible options are those which currently exist in the United States."

Y'all are so deeply conditioned to accept mediocrity that you've become functionally incapable of imagination.

What incentivizes new builders to build something else?

The wealthy people who can afford the speculative luxurious, multi-room penthouse apartments live in fancy houses where they pay people to worry about maintenance and gardening and other “problems” with home ownership. So theres no incentive to build luxurious penthouse apartments, especially when they can cram many more single bedroom units into that same space to extract more money for a lot less investment.

With housing at such a premium, people have less a say in where they live, meaning that builders and management are at less of an incentive to build anything above the bare minimum. Because the bare minimum will still meet capacity.

And as I said it’s a cultural thing. Most people want to own land in the United States, not pay rent their entire lives. The end game is to own a home, not live above someone and below someone else. And very little coming from apartment complexes incentivizes otherwise, and little is incentivizing the owners and builders of said complexes to do anything different than what they’ve been doing.

If houses become more numerous and affordable, to where a mortgage payment on a small home and a medium apartment’s rent are roughly equal in price, apartment complexes might actually have to try and compete with them. “Americans should just want to live in high rises, and they should make better high rises to fit this” might be a nice sentiment. But there’s no push from anyone to make that happen.


But we’re getting off topic.

[Shadowferal]

It’s also dishonest for y’all to act like “apartments” automatically translates to sardine tin commie blocks.

"Dishonest?" We're talking from experience. Nothing dishonest about that.

But comrades, I think we can get around this. We can invent solutions for those in high density housing. They could be like communal parks for BBQs, or even communal gardens.

"Communal?"
I think you're missing the point.

[Ettan]

You guys need a new candidate, I think you should rally around Vermin Supreme. He runs democrat this year.
And unlike Biden he will actually be on the new Hampshire ticket.



In times of hardship you need someone with a solid boot.

However If free dental care and ponies for all does not fall in taste.
Paperboy Love Prince will also be a choice.




He seems a solid pick also.

[DarkTZeratul]

As Ettan mentioned, Joe Biden did not appear on the New Hampshire primary ballot due to party reasons I won't even pretend to understand. Marianne Wilson and Dean Phillips, seeing blood in the water, pounced.

Anyway, Joe Biden did no campaigning, ran no ads, spent literally no effort on New Hampshire and wasn't even an option on the printed ballots so his only votes were write-ins.

He still got 67% of the vote.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/23/polit...ary/index.html

[AntiFascistVoter]

Man the NYT and other prestige media should feel dumb for all those push polls from Harris(Mark Penn lul) that said "Bid is unpopular ssssssss"

[Breccia]

UAW endorses Biden.

[Benggaul]

A snippet from Conan's recent interview with Biden on his podcast "Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend":



Seems pretty damned coherent to me. I recommend the full thing for anyone who wants to give it a listen.

[cubby]

A snippet from Conan's recent interview with Biden on his podcast "Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend":

Seems pretty damned coherent to me. I recommend the full thing for anyone who wants to give it a listen.

Biden is entirely coherent. The arguments against him all come from GOP slander attacks, who conveniently ignore all the legitimate mental issues their savior Trump possesses.

I have a pro-Trumper who sits behind me at work and her throw-up-in-my mouth regurgitation of the GOP insanity talking points makes me cringe inside every time. They STILL talk about gas price increases....

[Cthulhu 2020]

Biden wins NH primary 73 - 20 AS A WRITE IN and is called a weak candidate.



Trump wins NH primary 53 - 46 and is called a strong candidate.



I distinctly remember Bernie coming close to tipping over Hillary in the 2016 primaries and everyone said she should have handed the candidacy to him. Maybe Trump should do the same with Haley. Though that's just me being hopeful because we know if Nikki Haley is the Republican candidate a lot of Republicans will stay home. Any black or woman candidate winning the Republican primary is dead on arrival in the general election because there's still a huge portion of the Republican voter base that's racist and sexist still.

[AntiFascistVoter]

I distinctly remember Bernie coming close to tipping over Hillary in the 2016 primaries and everyone said she should have handed the candidacy to him. Maybe Trump should do the same with Haley. Though that's just me being hopeful because we know if Nikki Haley is the Republican candidate a lot of Republicans will stay home. Any black or woman candidate winning the Republican primary is dead on arrival in the general election because there's still a huge portion of the Republican voter base that's racist and sexist still.

Looking back...
Hillary won Iowa by a coin flip. Then Bernie won New Hampshire 38% to 60%. So Bernie lead by a whopping 4 delegates. This was the "tipping point" i guess. After Super Tuesday , March 2nd. Hillary netted a lead of 165 delegates. Meaning Bernie would had to dominate in the remaining primaries.... statisitcally improbable at that point. But won a string low delegate count states like Wyoming. Was mathematically eliminated by the end of April.

But yea, people were still calling for it to be handed to him, bend the knee and such.

Bernie Bros was still considered an insult at this point, while also simultaneously denying that Bernie Bros even existed.

[Breccia]

What recession? Inside the gangbuster GDP report

Forget the much-discussed prospect of a soft landing for the U.S. economy. In 2023, there was no landing at all.

Big economic rules broke last year. The latest data to confirm that is the new GDP report showing very strong economic growth to conclude 2023, even amid a big cooldown in inflation.

Mainstream economists and policymakers believed a period of below-trend growth would be necessary to make progress on inflation.

Instead, above-trend growth in 2023 coincided with inflation falling sharply, reflecting improvement in the economy's supply potential.

The economy expanded at a 3.3% annualized rate in the fourth quarter, well above the 2% forecasters expected. That followed the previous quarter's blockbuster 4.9% growth.

GDP was 3.1% higher in the fourth quarter than a year earlier.

That represents an acceleration from 0.7% GDP growth in 2022, and trounced the growth rates of most other advanced countries — and the 1.8%-ish rate that economists consider the United States' long-term trend.

The fourth quarter's hot growth resulted from bustling activity across the economy.

Consumers spent more on goods and services, with personal consumption expenditures rising at a 2.8% annualized pace. That was responsible for nearly 2 percentage points of the fourth quarter's GDP rise.

Businesses spent on equipment, factories and intellectual property at a solid pace, with nonresidential fixed investment increasing at 1.9% — up from the previous quarter.

For two years now, Fed officials have spoken of the need for a period of below-trend growth to bring inflation into line. Now, they face the decision of whether to cut rates — to essentially declare victory on inflation — even as below-trend growth is nowhere to be seen.

A flourishing labor market, strong productivity gains and supply-side improvements — more workers joining the workforce, for instance — has (at least so far) meant the economy can keep growing at a solid pace without risking a pickup in price pressure.

"[W]e had significant supply-side gains with strong demand," Fed chair Jerome Powell said in his December press conference, adding that potential growth may have been higher than usual "just because of the healing on the supply side."

"So that was a surprise to just about everybody," Powell said.

"This report feels like a supersonic Goldilocks: very strong GDP reading with cool inflation," Beth Ann Bovino, chief economist at U.S. Bank, tells Axios. "Good news is good news."

"With high productivity levels, we can have strong growth with less inflation. That was the case during the last soft landing in the 90s," Bovino adds.

"Okay, but how much of this is Biden's doing?"

Oh, I have a quote for that.

We're bringing it (the GDP) from 1 percent up to 4 percent. And I actually think we can go higher than 4 percent. I think you can go to 5 percent or 6 percent.

Trump claimed he and his administration could do it...he failed, not even counting COVID, but he failed. If Trump claims that he could do it, that means it's the President's job and therefore Biden gets the credit.

I guess the other option is to admit Trump lied. Or, to admit that GDP growth isn't something directly caused by WH actions. Either way, if Trump tried to promise this, and tried to take credit when the numbers are good, Biden gets the credit when the numbers are good.

Regardless of how much Trump lies, there has been demonstrable effort on the GOP's part to try to paint the US as having a struggling economy. The facts aren't backing that up.

[Breccia]

To be clear, President Biden - while in office or as a private citizen - was never involved in any of the business activities we pursued.

Any statement to the contrary is simply false.

-- Hunter Biden business associate Rob Walker, under oath, to Congress.

[Kokolums]

Biden's support dwindles month after month.

Does he get the Walter Mondale treatment in November?


https://thehill.com/homenews/campaig...ng-biden-poll/

The last time a president averaged over 50% approval for a term was Bush43s first term. Every single president since then has averaged under 50%. Bush43 in his second term, both Obama terms, Trumps term, and Bidens term. And if not for 911, Bush43 likely would have under 50% in his first term as well.

The nation has been super divided for 20 years to the point where no president is popular.

There is only 1 national figure that could run for president that has decent, if not spectacular, popularity and that is Michelle Obama. But even then, shes only at 60% popularity, that would probably get dragged down under 50% during a campaign, and she doesnt want the job anyway.

There is a reason why political parties are seriously flirting with trying to get celebrities like the Rock to run. All the regular candidates have no appeal.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Recently Marcy Wheeler, a political journalist, requested public records of the search warrants filed against Hunter Biden

Marcy Wheeler successfully got the dates unsealed for David Weiss' search warrants and has found that he did NOT obtain a warrant to search Biden's iCloud for gun crimes evidence until AFTER he indicted Hunter for gun crimes.

So @Breccia, do we know what this means?

[Edge-]

Recently Marcy Wheeler, a political journalist, requested public records of the search warrants filed against Hunter Biden

Marcy Wheeler successfully got the dates unsealed for David Weiss' search warrants and has found that he did NOT obtain a warrant to search Biden's iCloud for gun crimes evidence until AFTER he indicted Hunter for gun crimes.

So @Breccia, do we know what this means?

https://twitter.com/emptywheel/statu...7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Apparently sauce for anyone interested.

And per Wheeler, this is a dickish but legal tool prosecutors can use - https://twitter.com/emptywheel/statu...79061495538074

[Breccia]

So @Breccia, do we know what this means?

I did not know, but @Edge- did, good catch.

[Paranoid Android]

Bidding to salvage a border deal in Congress that also would unlock money for Ukraine, President Joe Biden offered fresh assurances Saturday night that he would be willing to close the U.S.-Mexico border if lawmakers would only send him a bill to sign.

https://twitter.com/NewsHour/status/...JtfNK1INQ&s=19

I posted awhile back when they were making a deal.

As any left and I guess a Lib Democrat you should still be upset that Biden is caving in on an very right wing border policy. Now the Republicans are so messed in the brain they can't accept this.

I'm not happy at all that you are giving away extreme border policy for funding a war. I'm losing centrist here but fighting more for military spending than domestic is unbelievable.

Beating last year’s expectations and growing our economy from the middle out and the bottom up.

In this post he has screenshots of articls about the US economy and 3.3% growth this quarter.

Out of touch man! I swear these type of Democrats who could actually seize on Economic Populism is amazing. Most voters are not caring about this since they are still hurting. Ironically this growth helps the rich, who hate Democrats cause they just want tax cuts.

Border policy if you at least going to do it should have been tied to some housing bill. A build more housing or Democrat Congress person floated a great bill to kill private equity in housing market.

For sure Republicans would kill it, well they are killing their own border policy, but you then have something to fight and use bully pulpit on the campaign trail.

Imagine if we had one effective political party.

[Edge-]

https://www.eenews.net/articles/doe-...still-hate-it/

Biden isn't banning your gas stoves.

The final efficiency rule on cooking stovetops, including gas stoves, that DOE released Monday aligns with a compromise floated last year by the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) and the environmental group Appliance Standards Awareness Project.

The reworked rule allows stoves that consume 1,770 thousand British thermal units (kBtu) per year of gas. DOE says only 3 percent of U.S. gas stoves will be impacted.

That’s a much more flexible regulation than the 1,204-kBtu threshold initially proposed, which the department said would prohibit roughly 50 percent of the gas stove market.

So the new rule will apply to very, very few folks overall and also apparently largely has industry and environmental group buy-in as well. Surely this means the opposition to "BIDEN BANNING GAS STOVES" has disappeared, right?

“Once again, the Biden administration is taking aim at your household appliances,” said Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation ranking member Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who sponsored legislation with Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) against gas stove rulemaking.

“Rather than allowing American families to choose how they cook their food,” said Cruz, “the Biden administration is waging a multifaceted attack on natural gas and popular appliances.”

As noted, very, very, very few Americans would be impacted by this change. But let's look into this a bit at some of the criticism -

“The federal government has no business telling Americans how to cook their dinner,” Manchin, who is retiring from Congress but may still run for president, said last year.

Joe Manchin: Supporter of using radioactive material to cook your food because how dare the federal government tell Americans they can't cool their dinner over hot, radioactive uranium?

“The Biden administration’s push to control the kind of stove Americans use caused widespread backlash,” said Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.), who led House passage of H.R. 1615 against a CSPC rule, said Monday. “Now, it slapped a new face on its plan to dictate what is acceptable.”

Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio), a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce committee, agreed.

“I still believe the federal government should not be imposing its will upon free markets,” said Latta. “Whether it’s as small as 3 percent or as large as 50 percent, we simply need less government intervention and regulations, not more.”

Someone tell Rob Latta that just by existing, the federal government is imposing its will upon the free markets. That legislation criminalizing fraud is the federal government imposing its will on the free markets. That extensive contract law is the federal government imposing its will upon the free markets.

These people worship the alter of the "Free Markets" as if it's an inherently, unqualified good but have never once actually asked if it is. Because spoilers: It's not, and never has been.

Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.), who led House passage of H.R. 1640 against the DOE rulemaking, said she was “pleased” her bill might have helped inspire the update.

Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), new chair of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on the Environment, said that “instead of banning home appliances, such as gas stoves, the Biden administration finally followed House Republicans’ lead and worked with industry leaders and stakeholders.”

But hey, some Republicans aren't mindless reactionaries and can both see that this is a good move in general and that the department worked hard to seek compromise that could be accepted. That's just normal politics, which is rare nowadays.

The American Gas Association is suing DOE to block a separate rule on gas furnaces. Critics in Congress are similarly looking to block the efficiency regulation, along with many others.

Residential gas furnaces accounted for about 19 percent of annual residential energy use in the United States in 2022, according to the department.

Harbert, in a statement, said AGA was “optimistic DOE’s newfound recognition will carry over to their other rulemakings on natural gas appliances, including their rule on natural gas furnaces.”

The final rule Monday also sets new efficiency rules for smooth electric stovetops. DOE says nearly a quarter of the U.S. electric stove market will no longer meet legal efficiency standards. Smooth electric stovetops will need to comply with a standard of 207-kilowatt-hours per year, while coil electric stovetops are exempt.

“The main thing this does is ensure new smooth-top electric stoves don’t waste energy when they’re not even operating,” said Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project. “It’s a modest money-saver for consumers, with changes that would be challenging to even notice.”

How dare the Department of Energy have a vested interest in reducing energy usage, and consequently emissions, while saving Americans money by pushing for ever more efficient products? The unmitigated gall of a federal department trying to like...do its job and help people and look towards the future.

Damn Biden and his normal operation of the federal government, for the most part. How dare he do exactly one of the things he was elected to do. Republicans are furious about this.