2020 US Presidential Election

#7,921
I never thought I would say this but, given the circumstances, if I had to choose between disgraced former NYS Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Joe Biden, for president, I would prefer Cuomo.
 
#7,922
Biden did not have a good week, but it was a lot better for him than those who were victims of his ineptitude.

A truly awful week for Joe Biden
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

(CNN)This is a week President Joe Biden would like to forget. But Republicans won't let that happen anytime soon.

Consider the body blows he took this week:

1. The US ended its military presence in Afghanistan on Tuesday. While Biden spoke several times this week in an attempt to spin the withdrawal, the suicide bomber who took 13 American military lives last week and those of at least 170 others, coupled with the overall chaos of the pullout, reflected very poorly on him and his administration.

2. The economy -- plagued by the coronavirus Delta variant -- stalled badly last month. Just 235,000 jobs were created in August, the lowest number in more than six months. (Economists had expected more than 700,000 jobs to be created in August.)

3. Sen. Joe Manchin, a critical moderate Democrat from West Virginia, said Thursday that he believed his party needed to take a "strategic pause" in its efforts to pass a $3.5 trillion stimulus package that Biden has cast as necessary to lift the country out of the economic hole Covid-19 dug for it. Without Manchin on board, Democrats lack the 50 votes they need to pass the stimulus bill unless and until they can convince a Republican senator to cross the aisle, which, um, isn't likely.

4. A new national poll from NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist showed Biden's overall job approval dipping to just 43%, with 51% disapproving. Even more worrisome for Biden? The percentage of people "strongly" disapproving of how he is doing the job (41%) is more than double the number (19%) "strongly" approving of his job performance.
Any one -- or two -- of those developments would make for a bad week for ANY president. All four at once equal a truly awful week.

Biden, as his allies will note, still has plenty of time to rebound before the 2022 midterm elections, when his party will try to hold its narrow majorities in the House and Senate.

But a week like this has a tendency to linger in the political ether. Biden has to find ways to change the subject to more friendly political territory -- like, say, the abortion decision from the Supreme Court this week.

The Point: Every president has a week or two during their terms where everything, it seems, goes wrong. But, very few -- at least ones that get reelected -- have more than one or two.


https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/03/politics/biden-afghanistan-manchin-economy/index.html
 
#7,923
Really the ABCs of why unbridled free market economics leads to an absolute clusterfuck in the current housing market.

#Need4RentControl&PublicHousingCooperations

facebook_1630750695123_6839864163560181217.jpg
 
#7,924
@Juan, there's a chance that Powell will not be assigned for another term as FED chairman. The Progressive Caucus is using its leverage in Congress to bump him for someone who is more favourable towards social, ecological and economic justice

Progressives Urge Biden Not to Nominate Powell as Fed Chair (Dillard et al., 2021)

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a group of fellow progressive Democrats are calling on President Joe Biden to replace Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell when his term expires.

"We urge President Biden to re-imagine a Federal Reserve focused on eliminating climate risk and advancing racial and economic justice," the representatives wrote in the statement Monday. "This consequential appointment has the potential to remake the composition of the Board of Governors."

(...)

The members of Congress, in asking that Biden find some other, unspecified, nominee, are going against the preference of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who has told Biden advisers that she wants to see Powell renominated.

While the statement acknowledges the Federal Reserve has made "positive changes to its approach to full employment," the group criticized the central bank under the leadership of Powell.

"To move forward with a whole of government approach that eliminates climate risk while making our financial system safer, we need a chair who is committed to these objectives," the representatives wrote. "We urge the Biden administration to use this opportunity to appoint a new Federal Reserve chair."

(...)

Powell, however, has won over many other senior Democrats who say they would back him if he's Biden's pick. And a number of Republicans also back a Powell renomination as the best choice they are likely to see from a Democratic administration.
 
#7,925
Luman said:
Biden did not have a good week, but it was a lot better for him than those who were victims of his ineptitude.

A truly awful week for Joe Biden
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

(CNN)This is a week President Joe Biden would like to forget. But Republicans won't let that happen anytime soon.

Consider the body blows he took this week:

1. The US ended its military presence in Afghanistan on Tuesday. While Biden spoke several times this week in an attempt to spin the withdrawal, the suicide bomber who took 13 American military lives last week and those of at least 170 others, coupled with the overall chaos of the pullout, reflected very poorly on him and his administration.

2. The economy -- plagued by the coronavirus Delta variant -- stalled badly last month. Just 235,000 jobs were created in August, the lowest number in more than six months. (Economists had expected more than 700,000 jobs to be created in August.)

3. Sen. Joe Manchin, a critical moderate Democrat from West Virginia, said Thursday that he believed his party needed to take a "strategic pause" in its efforts to pass a $3.5 trillion stimulus package that Biden has cast as necessary to lift the country out of the economic hole Covid-19 dug for it. Without Manchin on board, Democrats lack the 50 votes they need to pass the stimulus bill unless and until they can convince a Republican senator to cross the aisle, which, um, isn't likely.

4. A new national poll from NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist showed Biden's overall job approval dipping to just 43%, with 51% disapproving. Even more worrisome for Biden? The percentage of people "strongly" disapproving of how he is doing the job (41%) is more than double the number (19%) "strongly" approving of his job performance.
Any one -- or two -- of those developments would make for a bad week for ANY president. All four at once equal a truly awful week.

Biden, as his allies will note, still has plenty of time to rebound before the 2022 midterm elections, when his party will try to hold its narrow majorities in the House and Senate.

But a week like this has a tendency to linger in the political ether. Biden has to find ways to change the subject to more friendly political territory -- like, say, the abortion decision from the Supreme Court this week.

The Point: Every president has a week or two during their terms where everything, it seems, goes wrong. But, very few -- at least ones that get reelected -- have more than one or two.


https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/03/politics/biden-afghanistan-manchin-economy/index.html
Click to expand...
The Afghanistan thing is definitely a bad look for Biden's presidency & it only amplifies the message to voters that ''Liberals'' don't know how to play power politics (theory that contends that distributions of power and national interests are fundamental causes of war and of system stability) against & in foreign countries.

The question remains how much it will influence the midterm elections in 2022. But from what I've seen in previous elections, voters are generally more concerned about the economy (especially when it concerns their own pockets) than about geopolitical, social & climate issues, so Biden really has to get the economy back on track again in order to convince them to vote for congressional Dems in the next elections.

I personally think Biden needs to put more pressure on Manchin to agree to the stimulus package, as it has more potential to provide jobs in the clean energy sector (even in the coal loving state of W-Virginia) than keeping the status quo (of dependency on fossil fuels).
 
#7,927
Christiaan said:
@Juan, there's a chance that Powell will not be assigned for another term as FED chairman. The Progressive Caucus is using its leverage in Congress to bump him for someone who is more favourable towards social, ecological and economic justice

Progressives Urge Biden Not to Nominate Powell as Fed Chair (Dillard et al., 2021)

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a group of fellow progressive Democrats are calling on President Joe Biden to replace Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell when his term expires.

"We urge President Biden to re-imagine a Federal Reserve focused on eliminating climate risk and advancing racial and economic justice," the representatives wrote in the statement Monday. "This consequential appointment has the potential to remake the composition of the Board of Governors."

(...)

The members of Congress, in asking that Biden find some other, unspecified, nominee, are going against the preference of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who has told Biden advisers that she wants to see Powell renominated.

While the statement acknowledges the Federal Reserve has made "positive changes to its approach to full employment," the group criticized the central bank under the leadership of Powell.

"To move forward with a whole of government approach that eliminates climate risk while making our financial system safer, we need a chair who is committed to these objectives," the representatives wrote. "We urge the Biden administration to use this opportunity to appoint a new Federal Reserve chair."

(...)

Powell, however, has won over many other senior Democrats who say they would back him if he's Biden's pick. And a number of Republicans also back a Powell renomination as the best choice they are likely to see from a Democratic administration.
Click to expand...
Interesting. Anyway I think if another candidate was chosen as FED chairman, it would be the perfect excuse to lose another 4 years doing nothing, with zero interest rates, which would make the current real estate and stock market bubble grow and grow, and that would pose major economic risks.

To me it is still shocking that Powell can be such a coward and do the opposite of what he advocated for in 2013, with worse economic indicators... I don't really know what the guy is doing, and what his real intentions are, but the way central banks are losing precious time to taper and raise rates is quite worrying.

I think it is important to look at the future and think about climate change, and create policies to tackle that, but it is pure hypocrisy to think that there is such a thing as "green financing" or "green transport" etc

Anything "green" has to be local, meaning less impact, meaning in principle less transportation, less cars, less consumption, and therefore at the beginning it would have an economic impact for which no politician or central banker wants to take responsibility.

I mean, how can aviation be "green"? Or producing cars?
 
#7,928
#7,929
Juan said:
Interesting. Anyway I think if another candidate was chosen as FED chairman, it would be the perfect excuse to lose another 4 years doing nothing, with zero interest rates, which would make the current real estate and stock market bubble grow and grow, and that would pose major economic risks.

To me it is still shocking that Powell can be such a coward and do the opposite of what he advocated for in 2013, with worse economic indicators... I don't really know what the guy is doing, and what his real intentions are, but the way central banks are losing precious time to taper and raise rates is quite worrying.

I think it is important to look at the future and think about climate change, and create policies to tackle that, but it is pure hypocrisy to think that there is such a thing as "green financing" or "green transport" etc

Anything "green" has to be local, meaning less impact, meaning in principle less transportation, less cars, less consumption, and therefore at the beginning it would have an economic impact for which no politician or central banker wants to take responsibility.

I mean, how can aviation be "green"? Or producing cars?
Click to expand...
I agree with you that there are many bumps on the road for the transition to a more sustainable economy and going 'local' is certainly an important aspect to facilitate that process.

Even though I (y) with your point that we need to get real about the potential of current green technology, I do think we can't permit ourselves the luxury to incrementally step away from our cheap addiction to fossil fuels. Time is not in our favour, as the UN Climate Report has already indicated that we maybe have 10 years left to act forcefully in order to prevent climate change catastrophe.

Green financing and green transport may not seem entirely carbon neutral, but if you take other factors into account that play a role in the reduction of fossil fuel consumption, it may be enough to reach a ''healthier'' greenhouse gas emission budget (e.g. per country), such as a ban on the extraction of fossil fuels (e.g. proposal to ban fracking in states like California), shift of fossil fuels subsidies to renewable energy, setting efficiency standards for specific sectors like the steel industry (f.e. in China), imposing a tax on meat consumption (f.e. a proposal on that issue in NZ), creating incentives to buy electric vehicles for example (like they do in Norway) & retrofitting buildings to become more energy sufficient.

Taken together, all these factors are crucial to make that urgent transition to a greener economy. But this transition also depends on us, as citizens, to make necessary contributions to make that happen and vote for politicians who understand this urgent matter.
 
#7,933
#7,935
Luman said:
We now are up to nearly 650,000 deaths from COVID-19, and Biden still has pages on his website attacking Trump and spreading fear and distrust, regarding the vaccines. At the rate we are going, with his incompetence and stupidity, we will have over one million dead next year. Anybody would have been better than Biden.

https://joebiden.com/2020/09/08/sta...suring-a-safe-and-effective-covid-19-vaccine/
Click to expand...
What you're doing is basically what I was hearing 4 years vs Trump from the other side. This never stops haha.
 
#7,936
Wrfortiscue said:
What you're doing is basically what I was hearing 4 years vs Trump from the other side. This never stops haha.
Click to expand...
There were no people dying from COVID-19 four years ago. I wish that it was like that, now, but we have two idiots in the White House overseeing the worst health crisis in our nation's history and doing nothing about it.
 
#7,937
Christiaan said:
I agree with you that there are many bumps on the road for the transition to a more sustainable economy and going 'local' is certainly an important aspect to facilitate that process.
Click to expand...
I am still optimistic about the human race and think that people can still discover that travelling to stay in an identical IKEA furnished apartment all around the world is not very interesting... local traditions are interesting, and re-descovering one's surroundings is interesting.
Christiaan said:
Green financing and green transport may not seem entirely carbon neutral, but if you take other factors into account that play a role in the reduction of fossil fuel consumption, it may be enough to reach a ''healthier'' greenhouse gas emission
Click to expand...
I agree with you on this. At the same time, I would like to see a different trend regarding tourism, with less trips, longer stays, and therefore less flights and less emissions.
Christiaan said:
Taken together, all these factors are crucial to make that urgent transition to a greener economy. But this transition also depends on us, as citizens, to make necessary contributions to make that happen and vote for politicians who understand this urgent matter.
Click to expand...
There was a recent article on plastic recycling quoting some brands that use recycled plastic bottles to create clothing items, from swimming trunks to shirts... anyway, one of the technicians interviewed about this technology (processing the plastic bottles to reuse them) said that the most ecological option is just purchasing high quality and durable clothes. He said that the most ecological clothing item is simply the one that lasts more.
 
#7,940
PeteJ said:
Christian should worry about his own country.
Click to expand...
We have to worry about the US because its politics affect us. That's why Afghan refugees are now living next to my place.

You know... "the dollar is someone else's problem" is what FED officials probably think :ROFL:
 
#7,942
Juan said:
We have to worry about the US because its politics affect us. That's why Afghan refugees are now living next to my place.

You know... "the dollar is someone else's problem" is what FED officials probably think :ROFL:
Click to expand...
Wrong. Each country has the right to pursue their sovereignty and refuse.

The rule of law means nothing nowadays so you might as well insist on securing your sovereign rights.
 
#7,944
Juan said:
I am still optimistic about the human race and think that people can still discover that travelling to stay in an identical IKEA furnished apartment all around the world is not very interesting... local traditions are interesting, and re-descovering one's surroundings is interesting.

I agree with you on this. At the same time, I would like to see a different trend regarding tourism, with less trips, longer stays, and therefore less flights and less emissions.

There was a recent article on plastic recycling quoting some brands that use recycled plastic bottles to create clothing items, from swimming trunks to shirts... anyway, one of the technicians interviewed about this technology (processing the plastic bottles to reuse them) said that the most ecological option is just purchasing high quality and durable clothes. He said that the most ecological clothing item is simply the one that lasts more.
Click to expand...
That's an interesting story @Juan. The recycle sector seems to be a booming business and there's still hope left for many for us here that it will play an important step towards more sustainability.

You're absolutely spot on about tourism as one of the most polluting factors of the current climate situation. You've probably heard or seen the news about the lack of courage of the European Parliament to impose laws and restrictions to make ''over tourism'' less attractive (e.g. cheap short destination flight tickets), as some EU countries, that largely depend on it, are afraid of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. Hopefully the MEPs of the EVP and right-wing factions will see that change is necessary to commit to climate neutrality by 2050.
 
#7,946
Well, it seems you have managed to read my posts through the cracks of my block wall, my dear arch-nemesis @PeteJ :rolleyes: Oh well, you know I don't have better things to do than minding my business with other countries. What else is there to do on a lazy Saturday?
 
#7,947
You're absolutely right @PeteJ. Nothing's too communist for me ;p

IMG_20210906_204543MP.jpg


Perhaps you can chip in this nice debate here on Tinnitus Talk and share some of your ideas about US & international politics. That's so much more refreshing than pulling the old ad hominem card.
 
#7,948
Juan said:
We have to worry about the US because its politics affect us. That's why Afghan refugees are now living next to my place.

You know... "the dollar is someone else's problem" is what FED officials probably think :ROFL:
Click to expand...
You are in the very small minority of Spaniards who do not like living next door to refugees. Spain (and the Spaniards) is one of the most welcoming countries for refugees. In fact, Europe overall, with a few exceptions such as "right-wing" Hungary, are very welcoming to refugees. So whatever few hundreds or thousands of Afghan refugees you will bring over as a result of Biden's failure pales in comparison to the millions of refugees you already have, so you can hardly blame refugee issues in Spain on the U.S.

Spain is the most welcoming EU country for refugees, survey finds
 
#7,949
Christiaan said:
You're absolutely right @PeteJ. Nothing's too communist for me ;p

View attachment 46506

Perhaps you can chip in this nice debate here on Tinnitus Talk and share some of your ideas about US & international politics. That's so much more refreshing than pulling the old ad hominem card.
Click to expand...
The first political activity that I saw while visiting Amsterdam, in the 1990's, was a demonstration in support of the American prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, born 1954, who was convicted of and sentenced to death for the murder of a police officer in Philadelphia in 1981. His death sentence was overturned in 2001, and he is serving a life sentence. I can not understand why this man, a convicted cop killer, has been glorified not only in the Netherlands but other European countries including France, where a street in Paris has been named after him.

Recently, in April 2021, the United Nations has been concerned about the killer's comfort, during a stay in the prison hospital for heart failure.

The article below fails to mention that Mumia Abu Jamal was tried in court and convicted by a jury of his peers, not simply "charged". Get out the handkerchiefs, and bring on the violins.

USA: Shackling of aged inmate, Mumia Abu-Jamal, is deplorable - UN experts
 
#7,950
Christiaan said:
Really the ABCs of why unbridled free market economics leads to an absolute clusterfuck in the current housing market.

#Need4RentControl&PublicHousingCooperations

View attachment 46452
Click to expand...
My reasons for not owning a home, have nothing to do with being priced out of it I simply do not want to take on the responsibilities of homeownership, so I rent and leave the repairs, heating, upkeep, property taxes, etc. to the landlord who is performing services that I reimburse him for. Many people feel this way. I would never want all housing to be government-owned, I support the free markets even though I have no real estate and never have.
 

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