The Biden Presidency - 2020

[GrantDawg]

Norfolk Southern requires employees to sue only in court jurisdictions that they choose. This is a "good for me, not for thee" lawsuit, and the Biden administration should be ashamed of themselves for joining it.

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[RainMaker]

This seems bad.

Even MORE proof that the EPA is LYING to the people of East Palestine.

THIS WATER IS INSANELY CONTAMINATED. pic.twitter.com/rNlNxxBTDd

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) February 16, 2023

[GrantDawg]

The EPA has warned against using ground water or drinking from wells until they are tested. What exactly is the lie, then? This seems to come from the sane people saying "no one is talking about East Palestine" when everyone is talking about East Palestine.

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[RainMaker]

This was the quote from the EPA.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan, who walked along a creek that still reeks of chemicals, sought to reassure skeptical residents that say the water is fit for drinking and the air safe to breathe around East Palestine, where just under 5,000 people live near the Pennsylvania state line.



“I’m asking they trust the government. I know that’s hard. We know there’s a lack of trust,” Regan said. “We’re testing for everything that was on that train.”

It's fine I guess, although they did dance around a lot of questions.


The story has definitely been covered, but I do think it's fair to ask why it's not getting more coverage. I saw some breakdown about how shooting down some high school kids weather balloon got like 8 times the coverage over a town that was destroyed through corporate and government negligence.


Also I think it's fair to start asking when criminal charges will come.

[GrantDawg]

Coverage of both was dictated by interest more than media. People were going crazy online about the balloon thing, which was always really a near non-story. I'm not seeing hardly any reporting on the balloon story now, but there is still a good bit of reporting in Ohio. I don't know if it is great that social media drives how major media covers stories, but that is where we are.

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[GrantDawg]

If I see another post of a train derailment with a comment "we are under attack" I am going to scream! There ate over 1,000 train derailment every year. This isn't just suddenly happening.

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[NobodyHere]

No disaster here.

FEMA advises Gov. DeWine Ohio is not eligible for assistance at this time

Biden is doing what he can to ensure that Ohio is red for the next generation.

[RainMaker]

There is nothing Biden can do until Dewine declares it a state of emergency. The Stafford Act ties his hands.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

There is nothing Biden can do until Dewine declares it a state of emergency. The Stafford Act ties his hands.

Well here's Biden's response

White House explains why it turned down disaster relief for Ohio

[bronconick]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

Well here's Biden's response

White House explains why it turned down disaster relief for Ohio

"But what East Palestine needs is much more expansive than what FEMA can provide," they continued. "FEMA is on the frontlines when there is a hurricane or tornado. This situation is different."

"The state needed help testing the water and air — EPA is providing it. They called for an investigation into the derailment — the Department of Transportation is on it. The Governor today asked for help to conduct additional public health testing and assessments — we’re deploying teams from HHS and the CDC to get that done," the Biden administration official told Fox News Digital.

"Each federal agency has its own unique role here, and we’ve mobilized an interagency team to get the people of East Palestine the support they need," the official said.

They're going to be cleaning that up for 20 years or more. That's not FEMA. We don't send FEMA to Superfund sites.

[miked]

Maybe, you know, Norfolk Southern should clean that shit up and pay for it.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by miked

Maybe, you know, Norfolk Southern should clean that shit up and pay for it.

That would be up to the EPA, and they say they have every intention of doing just that. The problem is the same as anytime a government agency comes up against a huge business. The EPA can levy huge fines and put "Joe's Chemical Shop" out of business without blinking an eye. But a multi-billion dollar business has an army of lawyers and lobbyist that can keep anything from happening quickly, if ever.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

That would be up to the EPA, and they say they have every intention of doing just that. The problem is the same as anytime a government agency comes up against a huge business. The EPA can levy huge fines and put "Joe's Chemical Shop" out of business without blinking an eye. But a multi-billion dollar business has an army of lawyers and lobbyist that can keep anything from happening quickly, if ever.

The lobbyists also work for the EPA, so they likely won't do much. And even if they could do something, the SCOTUS would probably rule that you can't punish companies for chemical spills because it's not in the constitution.

In a sane country, criminal charges would be filed and the company would be bankrupted or nationalized temporarily.

[GrantDawg]

Joe is walking around Kyiv as air sirens are blaring.

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[Edward64]

You go Joe

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Joe is walking around Kyiv as air sirens are blaring.

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Desantis' comments on this really exposed him. Hr tried to downplay Biden and Russia and accidentally ended up pointing out how much this administration has done to weaken and expose Russia.

This gop primary will be interesting. You have an ex president that can't really tout the two biggest accomplishments of his administration (operation warp speed and roe v wade) because they don't play well to significant subsets of voters and a 1 trick candidate that only knows how to fight culture wars.

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by Atocep

You have an ex president that can't really tout the two biggest accomplishments of his administration (operation warp speed)

The man puts his name on everything under the sun. And he could have easily called it the Trump vaccine and taken credit for saving millions of lives. And he just didn't.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

and the company would be bankrupted or nationalized temporarily.

Ah yes, good ol' socialism

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

The man puts his name on everything under the sun. And he could have easily called it the Trump vaccine and taken credit for saving millions of lives. And he just didn't.

I imagine there's a timeline where Trump took credit and did name it the Trump vaccine. His supporters flooded clinics asking for the Trump vaccine, not the bad one that kills you. Doctors just accept it and confirm they're getting the Trump vaccine and don't even bothering to try to explain there's no difference.

[GrantDawg]

The EPA has ordered NFS to pay for the clean up and the cost of impact on the area, and if they don't pay they will be assessed a fine three times the cost.
https://apnews.com/article/ohio-trai...7f56b5b8b4e44e

[albionmoonlight]

I wonder if the inevitable Supreme Court case holding that making a private company pay damages is unconstitutional will be 6-3 or 5-4 with Roberts joining the liberals?

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Ah yes, good ol' socialism

Disbanding is my first choice since they've shown they cannot safely operate in this country. But I assumed people would argue that we can't do it because it would hurt the economy, so nationalizing them would be the solution.

[NobodyHere]

Exactly what problem would nationalizing them solve?

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

Exactly what problem would nationalizing them solve?

It would get rid of the people who dumped a bunch of toxic chemicals on US soil while softening the blow to the economy from any disruptions.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

I wonder if the inevitable Supreme Court case holding that making a private company pay damages is unconstitutional will be 6-3 or 5-4 with Roberts joining the liberals?

That does feel like the direction we're going. And it's not like the liberal side of the bench is all anti-capitalist. There's at least 8, if not 9, very pro big business justices on the court. It's one of the underreported issues with the current court - even if it were more even on social issues, it would continue the rightward lurch of rights away from individuals and towards corporations.

SI

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

it would continue the rightward lurch of rights away from individuals and towards corporations.

Y'know, if I just accept that premise as "stipulated" and contemplate it a bit .. I'm pretty okay with it.

The cost/benefit analysis of "individuals" seems to be at an all-time low, at least there's some value (ostensibly anyway) in some of the corporations. At least a higher percentage.

The average U.S. nitwit isn't worth the cost of the rope to hang 'em with at this point afaic. So yeah, I'm in favor of the concept you suggest.

If you happen across some useful bio info on potential alien overlords though, I'd be interested. Might be a better option than both.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Y'know, if I just accept that premise as "stipulated" and contemplate it a bit .. I'm pretty okay with it.

The cost/benefit analysis of "individuals" seems to be at an all-time low, at least there's some value (ostensibly anyway) in some of the corporations. At least a higher percentage.

The average U.S. nitwit isn't worth the cost of the rope to hang 'em with at this point afaic. So yeah, I'm in favor of the concept you suggest.

If you happen across some useful bio info on potential alien overlords though, I'd be interested. Might be a better option than both.

I think the problem with that theory is that a corporation is just a collection of those same "nitwits", self selected for sociopathy in leadership

However, I, too, would be interested in subscribing to the newsletter of the alien overlord party for voting consideration

SI

[cuervo72]

Heh, come on SI - you know that sociopathy is a selling point for Jon. Shows him they're serious, committed. (To themselves and only themselves, but remember that Jon takes a dim view toward humanity.)

[RainMaker]

I know they had to bribe him out of the primary but couldn't they have made him Ambassador to France or something?

[Edward64]

All fluff I'm sure but it would be nice if there was an unsuccessful attempt. It would be great to lob a bunch of cruise missiles to blow stuff up there and take out more military leaders. And I'm sure Israel will be more than willing to help.

The Iranian situation is a mess. I think we have to accept that Iran will inevitably get their nukes unless there is another Osirak-like or Stuxnet event. I don't think Biden has any good options, economic sanctions don't seem to be working well.

IRGC commander says Iran seeks to kill Trump, Pompeo, others as revenge for Soleimani

A top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander said on Friday that Iran seeks to kill former senior US officials, including former President Donald Trump, for their involvement in the 2020 killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani.

“God willing, we will be able to kill Trump… [former secretary of state Mike] Pompeo, [former head of US Central Command General Kenneth] McKenzie and those military commanders who gave the order” to kill Soleimani, Amirali Hajizadeh, the head of the IRGC’s aerospace unit, said on state TV.

Hajizadeh made these comments while discussing Iran’s missile attack on the Ain al-Assad air base, which hosts American troops in western Iraq, on January 8, 2020, five days after Soleimani’s killing. No US troops were killed in the attack.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

Jon takes a dim view toward humanity.)

You'd be hard pressed to have a dimmer view than I do.

For years I referenced "the rule of 80", which basically said 80 percent of the people you encounter in a lifetime are simply too damned dumb to have been worth the trouble.

I've revised that to 90 as much as a decade ago.
And am seriously considering whether 95 might be closer to reality at this point.

[Lathum]

I wonder what the reaction would be if Iran took out Trump. Noy militarily, more culturally. And of course the conspiracy theories would be something to see.

[Edward64]

Interestingly, China did not pick up the hot-line phone for the balloon incident. Cultural differences apparently. But then, I'm not sure the balloon incident does rise to that level, I always imagine the hot-line to avoid military clashes or Armageddon scenarios.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/28/the-...e-hotline.html

Officially, China’s defense ministry said it declined a call about the balloon because the U.S. decision to shoot it down “failed to create a proper atmosphere for dialogue and exchange between the two militaries.”

Beijing’s decisions are affected by the government’s closed structure and national history, while U.S. expectations on international communication are embedded in a view about relationships in general.

Using a hotline to diffuse a potentially dangerous situation does imply there’s a situation that needs to be diffused, Bodine said. “But if one side of a relationship thinks there is a misunderstanding or a problem, then any marriage counselor will tell you the other side needs to at least listen to why.”

And if that side says there’s no problem, “all of your worries and concerns and worst-scenario nightmares about what’s going on in your personal relationship are not going to get better,” she said. “They’re going to get worse.”

[Lathum]

Supreme Court hearing the case today regarding Bidens power to forgive student loan debt. I'm sure it will go how we all think it will.

[NobodyHere]

Hopefully they reach the correct decision and decide Biden overstepped his authority.

[NobodyHere]

I don't know how much Biden had to do with this:

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/01/lill...insurance.html

But he needs to remind people that it happened under his watch. Especially when election season comes up.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

Hopefully they reach the correct decision and decide Biden overstepped his authority.

Read a CNN article on Robert's questions & statements. I think it's a goner.

[Edward64]

Glad to read they have started working on the Social Security imminent crisis, now estimated for 2032.

Senate group wades into tough talks on Social Security | The Hill

A bipartisan group of senators is treading carefully into the politically difficult discussion of making changes to Social Security to extend its solvency.

Senators from both parties who have been involved in the talks are tight-lipped when it comes to revealing details, though reports have begun to surface of discussions of potential changes to the age threshold for retirement and raising the taxable wage cap.

A report released by the Congressional Budget Office earlier this month warned that the Social Security trust fund could run out of money by 2032 — a year earlier than previously expected — without changes to existing policies.

I like this idea as an option. Put some of that money to work in the markets. This sovereign wealth fund should truly be a lock box where nobody, nothing can grab any of its funds.

One idea that has piqued interest on both sides of the aisle is to create a new sovereign wealth fund to help finance Social Security.

While senators say the overall plan is yet to be finalized, sources familiar with the proposal told Semafor that the fund could involve more than $1 trillion in seed money to help finance investments.

Have to address the inevitably drop in markets and 10-20-30+% losses and the panic/concern that would cause. There's some sort of 8% return guarantee. Have to read the details though, I think everyone knows nothing can guarantee a min 8% return each year.

According to Semafor, among the ideas being discussed as a potential backup plan if the fund falls short of at least 8 percent in return include upping the maximum taxable income and payroll tax rate. But both are proposals that could see a tough time garnering necessary support for passage in a divided Congress.

[flere-imsaho]

Sadly, I doubt anything bipartisan passes the House unless it includes a Special Commissions for Investigating Jewish Space Lasers to mollify Really The Speaker MTG.

[NobodyHere]

Right now I would be a hard NO on a sovereign wealth fund because I bet you those funds would get steered into companies owned by politicians. Or the funds would get put into the next Theranos or FTX.

[albionmoonlight]

If you are going to go through the trouble of creating a SWF and then say that if the fund does not guarantee 8% returns (which, as Edward notes, is impossible), then you will raise taxes, then that seems like a really inefficient Rube Goldberg machine.

Just raise taxes.

[miked]

The social security fix is so easy dumb. Just raise the wage cap and have people paying more into it. The problem is that the people making that much money are not as likely to need it, so they do not really care. Also, start taxing capital gains and carried interest the same as regular income. Why are people who work for their money taxed at a higher rate than people who earn the same money in the market? Is $1 earned on the stock market worth more than $1 earned at work?

[flere-imsaho]

The S&P 500 lost what, 20% last year? How is the public going to react when the Social Security Trust fund loses $200B (at least) in a single year?

I agree with NH that this is mainly a ploy to steer that money to specific financial institutions (which is why, if you look at the advocacy groups supporting this, they're bankrolled by financial institutions). If you had to do this, then I'd require it by law to be invested in an index like the S&P 500 or Russell 2000 with no management fees whatsoever.

But only after we do the more obvious fixes (like we talked about the last time in this thread) of upping the taxable income cap (or reinstating it on incomes, say, $1M+, or raising employers' portion of the payroll tax - since companies have lower taxes overall, or any of the other bunch of fixes I posted about last time).

[sterlingice]

I can't wait until we invest even more of our retirement monies into making corporations too large to fail in this country. That has no downside whatsoever

SI

[JPhillips]

lol that conservatives are floating an idea for the government to own the means of production.

[flere-imsaho]

Well, if you can't have fascism then at least you could have communism, right?

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

The S&P 500 lost what, 20% last year? How is the public going to react when the Social Security Trust fund loses $200B (at least) in a single year?

I agree with NH that this is mainly a ploy to steer that money to specific financial institutions (which is why, if you look at the advocacy groups supporting this, they're bankrolled by financial institutions). If you had to do this, then I'd require it by law to be invested in an index like the S&P 500 or Russell 2000 with no management fees whatsoever.

But only after we do the more obvious fixes (like we talked about the last time in this thread) of upping the taxable income cap (or reinstating it on incomes, say, $1M+, or raising employers' portion of the payroll tax - since companies have lower taxes overall, or any of the other bunch of fixes I posted about last time).

Can you imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth when government funds own companies that create devices for abortions? Sell the morning after pill? Sell sex products like lube and anal plugs?

[Edward64]

Just to be clear, the article said "both sides" expressed interest.

One idea that has piqued interest on both sides of the aisle is to create a new sovereign wealth

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by miked

The social security fix is so easy dumb. Just raise the wage cap and have people paying more into it. The problem is that the people making that much money are not as likely to need it, so they do not really care. Also, start taxing capital gains and carried interest the same as regular income. Why are people who work for their money taxed at a higher rate than people who earn the same money in the market? Is $1 earned on the stock market worth more than $1 earned at work?

Yup. Start taxing capital gains and you fix the problem immediately. It's silly that we've decided certain income is special and doesn't have the same rules.

This is seriously not a hard problem to fix.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Just to be clear, the article said "both sides" expressed interest.

Both sides were also interested in the Paycheck Protection Program and that turned out to be mostly fraud and handouts to people who didn't need it.