The Politics Thread

[Khan]

Let's get real: the GOP would rather be caught having cheap, roadside motel room sex with underaged Taiwanese boys, who don't know a word of English, than bail out the middle and working classes.  We'll be lucky if they send each adult a coupon for half-off admission to the Jefferson Davis Museum in Killniggatown, KY.

Edited March 23, 2020 by Khan

[Vee]

 

[DramatistDreamer]

The reality is that many companies and organizations will not be able to make their way back after this coronavirus outbreak is over. Let's hope, at the very least, that the NRA is one of those organizations.

[DramatistDreamer]

Edited March 25, 2020 by DramatistDreamer

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Interesting ad. I wonder whether it will be effective. Many Americans are desperate to believe that this stimulus will somehow stave off the inevitable.

[Khan]

I still remember when George W. Bush* encouraged people to spend their stimulus checks in order to keep the economy from staggering, and then people turned right around and paid bills with them.  

 

These administrations never understand that the average American can't really think about "discretionary spending" when the rent and utilities are due.  You want people to pump money back into the economy?  Lower the damn rents, figure out why the costs of keeping the lights on and the houses warm in the winter (and cool in the summer) continue to rise and then lower those costs too!

 

(*At least, I think it was during the George W. Bush administration.  Maybe it was during Barack Obama's instead?)

Edited March 25, 2020 by Khan

[DramatistDreamer]

 

I agree.

There are fundamental structural problems that are keeping the working poor, poor. And it's just compounding over time. 

Take distance learning. Some cities/school districts have students that don't have access to computers or Internet access, everyone just seems to forget this. Now, some states with poor school districts are scrambling to try to get a computer and WiFi hotspot access to every student that has neither.  Why was this of no concern until now??  Actually, municipal governments should have been allowed to build their own secure networks but the corporations who built the broadband infrastructure and have already benefited mightily for over 20+ years (not including tax incentives) feel as though they should continue to reap the financial rewards in perpetuity, so they block (or try to block) all and any efforts for local/municipal governments to build their own Web.

 

GW Bush was the one who sent out those 'one-time' stimulus checks which did absolutely nothing for most people (I was one of those people) in the midst of a 'mini-recession'. That was before 9/11 which spurred most of the country (including NYC) into a larger recession which was before the Great Recession years later. 

 

Obama's stimulus (which was bullied down to a stingy total) was simply to dig out from the worst of the Great Recession and try to keep from going under into a Depression.

 

The thing that really causes me to SMH and be dubious about the effects of this stimulus is that corporations will still get most of that money.  Excuse me if I err, but wasn't it less than three years ago that corporations got a ginormous Tax Cut??  Yet, these companies still wring their hands about not being able to maintain and sustain??  Where did that money go? It sure didn't go toward better pay and benefits for employees!  That's right, it went into company stock buybacks!!  I'm sorry but many of these corporations are already sitting on money and should not be allowed to make scads more. Also, not all of the working poor will be getting checks.  During 9/11 many NYCers discovered that there were delivery people (some of whom died in WTC) who delivered food to workers in offices.  These workers often stayed 6 or 7 in one room because they could not afford even a studio on their own because they didn't make enough money.  Those people don't have the proper documentation for this type of one-time check.

 

There has to be a better way but American hasn't found one, or doesn't want to find one.

 

FWIW, solar would have provided a good way to lower costs (one of my mother's neighbors has solar and his utility bill is a fraction of the average bill) but federal funding (which had gone into the state's coffers specifically for solar installation/maintenance) was not renewed.  I was helping my mother to get solar when the company announced that federal subsidies had been pulled and they were no longer processing new applications.

 

There are many ways to change the systems in place but these corporations and their politically-connected cronies won't let that happen.  The same corporations that will be getting the biggest chunk of that stimulus money.

 

 

Anyway, this bill is not a fait accompli since it still has to go to the House. 

Edited March 25, 2020 by DramatistDreamer

[Khan]

 

Thanks, @DramatistDreamer.  I thought that had occurred during the George W. Bush administration, but I wasn't sure.

 

IIRC, Mama and Papa Khan used their stimulus check to pay on credit card bills.  If Mama Khan should receive a stimulus check this time around, she's already said we'll be using it to buy groceries as needed.  Either way, we won't be using the check in the way even the Democrats have intended.

 

[Vee]

 

[Vee]

 

[DRW50]

 

I keep thinking of the above when I see nonsense like this - a lengthy piece excoriating Democrats for giving the GOP ammo with various items in stimulus plans and budgets.

 

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/25/coronavirus-economy-stimulus-house-democrats-148512

 

The Democrats did not lose control of Congress because of money for honey bees - they lost it because of well-funded racism and extremism which culminated in a member of Congress being shot in the head. 

 

Meanwhile, Lindsey Graham is out there berating nurses and claiming they will scheme to get fired so they can sit at home counting money, and I don't see anybody in the Beltway saying a goddamn thing. 

[DRW50]

I forgot I had this browser window still open - @JaneAusten you might be interested in it (you've probably already read it, sorry). It's about Marie Newman.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/18/politics/marie-newman-illinois-primary/index.html

[DRW50]

I see that lots of leftist Twitter is pushing allegations about Joe Biden from last year that have changed and are from a major Putin supporter. It would be hypocritical of me to say these are lies, when I do think people who say they have been assaulted should be listened to, but they have disqualified themselves so many times in the past year (even the last month) that they do nothing to help people give her or her allegations any credibility.

[Vee]

 

[ReddFoxx]

An ad has to be completely false for television stations to take it down and nothing in that ad is false. Ads rarely get pulled.