The Biden Presidency - 2020

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

The initial social media postings were about how the bridge collapsed on "Biden's watch."

Now that it has become pretty clear that it was a horrible accident and the President got out in front and acted all presidential and immediately indicated that we will do whatever we can to fix the bridge as soon as possible, I am seeing the social media change to "Why is Biden making the American taxpayer pay to fix the bridge instead of the 'Chinese shipping company?'"

and if we wait for whomever id financially responsible to pay they will scream about him not doing anything and why is it taking so long. The GOP echo chamber needs a constant stream of outrage.

[albionmoonlight]

Right. The obvious answer is to fix it ASAP and then spend the years/decades in court and in negotiations to recoup the money from the responsible parties.

Which is what they are doing.

Biden's quiet competence is sometimes at odds with the outrage machine.

[albionmoonlight]

dola:

I spoke too soon about it being clear that it was a horrible accident.

According to my Facebook feed, "multiple intel sources" have "confirmed' that it was a "Chinese cyber attack" designed to "divide the US along the Mason-Dixon line" in order to "accelerate our civil war."

I'm not sure where the "cyber" comes in. Maybe they remotely shut off the ship's power?

[cuervo72]

You mean they're off the "DEI Mayor" line of fault assignment?

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

dola:

I spoke too soon about it being clear that it was a horrible accident.

According to my Facebook feed, "multiple intel sources" have "confirmed' that it was a "Chinese cyber attack" designed to "divide the US along the Mason-Dixon line" in order to "accelerate our civil war."

I'm not sure where the "cyber" comes in. Maybe they remotely shut off the ship's power?

i think you need to get your Facebook feed looked at (not by the Chinese though)

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

dola:

I spoke too soon about it being clear that it was a horrible accident.

According to my Facebook feed, "multiple intel sources" have "confirmed' that it was a "Chinese cyber attack" designed to "divide the US along the Mason-Dixon line" in order to "accelerate our civil war."

I'm not sure where the "cyber" comes in. Maybe they remotely shut off the ship's power?

Some of the Twitter takes on this are scary. It's like 30% of our country just lives in an alternate reality.

I'm not on Twitter often but I've seen the Chinese attack, I've seen it blamed on some new world order globalist Satanism, I've seen it blamed on democrat sabotage, covid lockdowns, illegal immigrants. Just about everything.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Some of the Twitter takes on this are scary. It's like 30% of our country just lives in an alternate reality.

I'm not on Twitter often but I've seen the Chinese attack, I've seen it blamed on some new world order globalist Satanism, I've seen it blamed on democrat sabotage, covid lockdowns, illegal immigrants. Just about everything.

Hey, don't be racist ... you left out the Jews (as part of a the larger CIA/ISIS/Mossad conspiracy)

They already had those bots ready for the Russian concert attack so reusing them was just a matter of tweaking the scripts.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Hey, don't be racist ... you left out the Jews (as part of a the larger CIA/ISIS/Mossad conspiracy)

They already had those bots ready for the Russian concert attack so reusing them was just a matter of tweaking the scripts.

My bad, I forgot that people with space lasers are capable of anything.

[molson]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Some of the Twitter takes on this are scary. It's like 30% of our country just lives in an alternate reality.

I'm not on Twitter often but I've seen the Chinese attack, I've seen it blamed on some new world order globalist Satanism, I've seen it blamed on democrat sabotage, covid lockdowns, illegal immigrants. Just about everything.

It's really hard to tell how much of it is real. Chinese and Russian troll accounts still pump out hundreds of millions of fake social media posts every month. And surely a lot of those are accepted and then spread by real morons. But I like to tell myself fewer real people believe this stuff than it seems.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

Which is why DeSantis continuing to fight Disney was/is so weird.

Give a big press conference about fighting Woke Disney.

Then, a few months later, when no one is really paying attention, give Disney what it wants. No hard feelings, etc.

I guess credit to him for really meaning it.

Disney and DeSantis have settled their yearslong dispute | CNN Business

[Ghost Econ]

Originally Posted by molson

It's really hard to tell how much of it is real. Chinese and Russian troll accounts still pump out hundreds of millions of fake social media posts every month. And surely a lot of those are accepted and then spread by real morons. But I like to tell myself fewer real people believe this stuff than it seems.

You must have skipped the poll number discussions

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

Disney and DeSantis have settled their yearslong dispute | CNN Business

So we're going to end up right back where we were before war against Disney started.

Funny how Disantis seems to have largely took a step back from his attack on anything "woke" as soon as his campaign ended.

[Thomkal]

John Eastman has been disbarred in CA for his role for jan 6. not official yet as it has to go to the CA Supreme Court for the final verdict. His co-conspirator Jeffrey Clark disbarment hearing also going on today

[Thomkal]

Don't know whether to place this in the basketball thread or here. Representative Matt maddock, apparently rated as Michigan's most conservative representative, apparently thought he was on to finding Biden's "Secret Invasion of illegals" when he photographed and posted pictures of the buses that were being used at detroit's airport and getting a police escort. He sent the photos to the new head of michigan's gop, after the last one was kicked out for being too maga crazy, who then posted them himself without checking to find out who was in the buses.


Turns out it was the Gonzaga's basketball team in town for the next round of the NCAA's:


meidastouch.com

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Don't know whether to place this in the basketball thread or here. Representative Matt maddock, apparently rated as Michigan's most conservative representative, apparently thought he was on to finding Biden's "Secret Invasion of illegals" when he photographed and posted pictures of the buses that were being used at detroit's airport and getting a police escort. He sent the photos to the new head of michigan's gop, after the last one was kicked out for being too maga crazy, who then posted them himself without checking to find out who was in the buses.


Turns out it was the Gonzaga's basketball team in town for the next round of the NCAA's:


meidastouch.com

And this will do nothing to get him to take a step back and think, "hey maybe I'm dumbass". Instead he'll keep doing what he's doing and get reelected.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Atocep

And this will do nothing to get him to take a step back and think, "hey maybe I'm dumbass". Instead he'll keep doing what he's doing and get reelected.

yes you are probably right, but maybe it will spur the Democrats into running someone who can talk this and everything else he stands for/runs on and gets attention brought to his re-election.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Don't know whether to place this in the basketball thread or here. Representative Matt maddock, apparently rated as Michigan's most conservative representative, apparently thought he was on to finding Biden's "Secret Invasion of illegals" when he photographed and posted pictures of the buses that were being used at detroit's airport and getting a police escort. He sent the photos to the new head of michigan's gop, after the last one was kicked out for being too maga crazy, who then posted them himself without checking to find out who was in the buses.

Turns out it was the Gonzaga's basketball team in town for the next round of the NCAA's:

meidastouch.com

Bunch of extremely tall guys didn't tip him off?


Funniest part is he is doubling down online about it.

[Atocep]

My wife is visiting her mom/step dad in Texas right now. Her stepdad believes QANON is run by Obama to make republicans look bad. They're also convinced shit is hitting the fan after this election with Biden declaring marshall law and refusing to give up power. So they've bought some comms system and are stockpiling.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Bunch of extremely tall guys didn't tip him off?


Funniest part is he is doubling down online about it.

And calling people who call him out on it, "komrade"

[albionmoonlight]

I can understand not liking Biden because of inflation.
I can understand not liking Biden because one is socially conservative (abortion, LGBTQ, etc.)
I can understand thinking that he's too old.

But I cannot understand thinking that Biden is some sort of dangerous marshall-law-declaring wanna-be dictator. The two things he's most famous for are being super bipartisan and liking ice cream.

[flere-imsaho]

OK, first of all, "martial law".

Second declaring martial law so that you can be a dictator is exactly what someone who wanted all the ice cream would do.

So it makes logical sense.

Well, at least more logical sense than most everything else found in MAGA-land.

[GrantDawg]

It is actually Marshall's Law. The country is ruled by a discount clothing store.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Don't know whether to place this in the basketball thread or here. Representative Matt maddock, apparently rated as Michigan's most conservative representative, apparently thought he was on to finding Biden's "Secret Invasion of illegals" when he photographed and posted pictures of the buses that were being used at detroit's airport and getting a police escort. He sent the photos to the new head of michigan's gop, after the last one was kicked out for being too maga crazy, who then posted them himself without checking to find out who was in the buses.


Turns out it was the Gonzaga's basketball team in town for the next round of the NCAA's:


meidastouch.com

To be fair to him, they do have people born in South Korea, Serbia, Canada, and Croatia and no one on the team is actually from Michigan. The team does intend to occupy Little Caesars Arena and/or subjugate the other teams that will be at the arena for the entire weekend. If they succeed they will be moving on to do the same at State Farm Stadium back in Arizona (obviously to resupply through the comrade caravans at the border) so in a literal sense of the word I can sorta, kinda see where he is coming from.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

It is actually Marshall's Law. The country is ruled by a discount clothing store.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

Don't blame me, I voted for TJ Maxx.

[Edward64]

Ditto. I voted for Steinmart.

[Edward64]

Pretty sure we've heard this all before. But if you can pull it off Joe, this will cement your legacy win-lose-or-draw.

Hope making this public is part of the grand plan and not an off-the-cuff thing which will bring premature & unnecessary pressure to the participants.

https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-...-24/index.html

President Joe Biden said Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries are “prepared to fully recognize Israel” during remarks at an off-camera fundraiser Thursday night, according to reporters in the room.

Biden repeated calls for a “post-Gaza plan” for Israel, including “a train to a two-state solution.”

The remarks reflect Biden’s increased willingness to publicly call for Israel to increase efforts to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

"I won't go into detail now. But look, I've been working with the Saudis and with all the other Arab countries, including Egypt and Jordan and Qatar. They're prepared to fully recognize Israel, fully recognize Israel for the first time,” Biden said, according to reports from journalists in the room.

[RainMaker]

This will be big. Hopefully Iran shows some restraint.


US preparing for significant Iran attack on US or Israeli assets in the region as soon as next week | CNN Politics

[Edward64]

Very nice Joe.

A good $11.6B bet considering we need the Taiwanese foundries and the nowadays constant threat from Xi.

(Not sure about the investment in Intel though).

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/08/tsmc...a-plants-.html

TSMC’s Arizona subsidiary is set to receive up to $6.6 billion in U.S. government funding under a preliminary agreement announced by the Joe Biden administration on Monday.

The funding, under the US CHIPS and Science Act, will support TSMC’s more than $65 billion investment in three cutting-edge fabrication plants in Phoenix, Arizona, according to the nonbinding agreement.

The Taiwanese multinational semiconductor company is also eligible for around $5 billion in proposed loans under the CHIPS Act.
:
According to Raimondo, the funds will include $50 million to train and develop local talent in Arizona, with TSMC Arizona having already created more than 25,000 jobs and attracted 14 semiconductor suppliers for the state.

[Thomkal]

Man can't wait until we get trump in office so we can lose all these jobs Biden is creating....

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Man can't wait until we get trump in office so we can lose all these jobs Biden is creating....

Arizona and Georgia are the states that seem to be the biggest benefactors of those jobs, and they are both likely to flip to Trump.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Arizona and Georgia are the states that seem to be the biggest benefactors of those jobs, and they are both likely to flip to Trump.

and these plants will be completed during Trumps term and he will 100% take credit for them

[Ksyrup]

As the corrollary to "vote against infrastructure spending and then 100% take credit from bringing money to your district."

[RainMaker]

Why aren't people more excited about billions in handouts to a billion dollar foreign company for jobs thst won't be available for years?

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Why aren't people more excited about billions in handouts to a billion dollar foreign company for jobs thst won't be available for years?

I'm kind of skeptical as well. This could be the Foxconn plant in Wisconsin all over again.

[Edward64]

Makes pretty good sense to me. This is a pretty good win to run on.

The Biden administration is moving to expand background checks for gun purchases, fulfilling a key demand of advocates following the deadly shooting at a school in Uvalde, Texas.

The final rule, expected to be submitted Thursday to the Federal Register by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, would eliminate a loophole that has allowed sales of guns without background checks of guns outside of brick-and-mortar stores.

The article has a link to below including a graphic IO-02

https://www.atf.gov/firearms/docs/re...rt-ix/download

An analysis published last week from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found sales by unlicensed dealers were the most frequently used gun trafficking channel. From 2017 to 2021, the ATF traced more than 68,000 of these illegally tracked firearms to unlicensed dealers.

Figure IO-02: Number and Percentage of Cases by Top Ten Statutory Violations Identified, 2017 - 2021

1. Dealing in Firearms without a License - 35.3%
2. Provide False info to acquire firearm from FFL - 28.9%
3. Possession of Firearm(s) by convicted felon - 27.7%
4. Possession of Stolen firearm - 13%
5. Theft of Stolen firearm from a FFL = 11.3%
6. etc.

[molson]

$153 billion in student loans cancelled now so far. I didn't think I was eligible, applied anyway over a year ago, and got my public service program forgiveness notification this week wiping out my last $45k, plus a $9k refund (hopefully showing up in my checking account soon).

I know not everybody agrees with all that (I'm not even sure I do, ar least to the broad extent this is happening), but, its amazing to me how many lives this is impacting and how its largely going under the radar. At least relative to the SCOTUS ruling shutting down that $10k universal forgiveness. Which was such a drop in the bucket - people are getting $150k+ forgiven, every day.

[Edward64]

Congrats for winning the lottery!

[NobodyHere]

One more reason not to vote for Biden.

The guy has no idea how to do anything else except run up the deficit.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by molson

$153 billion in student loans cancelled now so far. I didn't think I was eligible, applied anyway over a year ago, and got my public service program forgiveness notification this week wiping out my last $45k, plus a $9k refund (hopefully showing up in my checking account soon).

I know not everybody agrees with all that (I'm not even sure I do, ar least to the broad extent this is happening), but, its amazing to me how many lives this is impacting and how its largely going under the radar. At least relative to the SCOTUS ruling shutting down that $10k universal forgiveness. Which was such a drop in the bucket - people are getting $150k+ forgiven, every day.

grats man

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

One more reason not to vote for Biden.

The guy has no idea how to do anything else except run up the deficit.

Are you talking about debt or the deficit?

Biden has been far better than the previous three presidents in reducing the deficit (which is not the same as running a surplus or

[Ryche]

It will be funny when Trump rails against student loan forgiveness and gets asked how many millions in loans he never paid back.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by molson

$153 billion in student loans cancelled now so far. I didn't think I was eligible, applied anyway over a year ago, and got my public service program forgiveness notification this week wiping out my last $45k, plus a $9k refund (hopefully showing up in my checking account soon).

I know not everybody agrees with all that (I'm not even sure I do, ar least to the broad extent this is happening), but, its amazing to me how many lives this is impacting and how its largely going under the radar. At least relative to the SCOTUS ruling shutting down that $10k universal forgiveness. Which was such a drop in the bucket - people are getting $150k+ forgiven, every day.

that is awesome....

I have a question that will see if an argument I make about this is correct.

What are you going to do with the extra income you now have?

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

One more reason not to vote for Biden.

The guy has no idea how to do anything else except run up the deficit.

You're right

The deficit should totally go towards more tax breaks for billionaires, stock buy backs, and maybe another aircraft carrier.

Screw the public defender and average citizen. Why throw them a bone.

[molson]

Originally Posted by Lathum

that is awesome....

I have a question that will see if an argument I make about this is correct.

What are you going to do with the extra income you now have?

The refund is ultimately going pay for my wedding this year. Otherwise, I was a bit over-extended on that (that wedding planning shit has a way of expanding past your initial expectations).

The extra income isn't a huge life-changer for me on a month-to-month basis, I was paid ahead on the loans, they were were locked in at a very low interest rate when I consolidated years ago, so I mostly just paid a little here and there to make sure the balance didn't increase, but it otherwise it made more sense to pay those slowly. So I may not be the right person to settle your argument. But most of the extra money will go towards my retirement accounts and paying down a HELOC balance (which may have the effect of me feeling a little more willing to spend on stuff like home improvements).

I started at $120k debt for college + law school in 2006 (way too much to take on, but, I was young and dumb and felt like I was at a dead end in life and my career, so I went for it.) Paid aggressively for a while, got about $20k in grants from my law school for doing public service along the way. I've had the last $45k for a few years now between paying only the interest, and the not paying at all during the COVID pause.

So I'm probably not the most sympathetic loan forgiveness recipient now in that they're not a huge life obstacle, but, I had a lot of lean years with this hovering over me, and my retirement investments were definitely delayed by years as I took that debt on.

[sovereignstar v2]

I'm sorry, we were looking for hookers and blow

[flere-imsaho]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

One more reason not to vote for Biden.

The guy has no idea how to do anything else except run up the deficit.

Narratively:

U.S. government deficits (and debts) didn't really exist before 1980 (at least not in the way we understand them) outside of emergency situations like WWII.

But Reagan needed a way to pay for tax cuts and military budgets and so he and Bush ran them up.

Clinton brought them back down, even to running a budget surplus. In those heady days of the late '90s there was even talk of the U.S. government going back to not having much in the way of debt.

Then Bush decided tax cuts and Medicare Part D were important, so he blew up the deficit again.

When Bush lost Congress the Democrats put a halt on as much as they could and the deficit shrunk again.

Then, thanks to the complete and utter lack of oversight of the financial sector under 8 years of the Bush Administration, 2008 happened, and deficits needed to be run to get the country out of a recession.

Despite this, Obama brought the deficit back down, cutting it by about 2/3rds.

Then Trump & tax cuts edged it back up. COVID blew it up, and now Biden has brought it back down to basically where it was in 2019.


If you care about debts and deficits, then Democratic Presidents are fiscally responsible and Republican ones are not. The facts are the facts.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

I'm sorry, we were looking for hookers and blow

Stimulate the economy, or other things.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

I'm sorry, we were looking for hookers and blow

My guess is that’s inflationary. I rather he put it into his retirement accounts.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by Lathum

You're right

The deficit should totally go towards more tax breaks for billionaires, stock buy backs, and maybe another aircraft carrier.

Screw the public defender and average citizen. Why throw them a bone.

Quite the false choice you got there.

We could just...not spend the money?

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

Quite the false choice you got there.

We could just...not spend the money?

We could just make people pay their taxes too.

Pfizer’s Massive Tax Dodge