General US Politics

[Acacia Sgt]

Well...

https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/wapo-material-on-foreign-nation-s-nuclear-capabilities-seized-at-mar-a-lago-147863621846
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/document-seized-trump-home-described-foreign-governments-nuclear-capabilities-2022-09-07/?utm_source=reddit.com
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-nuclear-secrets-mar-fbi-b2161376.html?amp&utm_source=reddit.com

Yikes.

[XRay]

I do not mind Californians moving to Texas, cause that is a good thing. We need to turn Texas blue. While Texas is sort of purple, it still got a lot of work left to do before it can transform from a shit hole Trump state into a modern civilized society. We are coming for you, Texas, and you will turn into a second California whether you like it or not.

As for NIMBYs in California, there are a lot of dumb zoning laws that some people want to preserve. In my opinion, residential zoning needs to be eliminated altogther, and if the residents do not want to, then those zones should be taxed at a much higher rate. Like at the very barest minimum, single family zones needs to be exterminated, cause for fuck's sake it is my fucking land, so if I want to build a detached housing unit, I should be fucking able to. Mixed zoning is so much better since you can just walk five or ten minutes to the grocery store literally down the street instead of driving a car across town, and that walking would help with our obesity too.

As for public transportation, I do not buy the bullshit that public transportation is unfeasible in America. Owning a car is expensive, as you will need to pay for the aquisition, taxes and insurance and other paperwork, maintaince, gas, etc., and if just half of that money went into our public transportation system, it will be so much better and more reliable, so people will save a shit ton of money. Sacramento's public transit is absolute fucking garbage, and while it is acceptable for people who travel for school and leisure where you have a bit more time on your hands, it is not really acceptable for full time work. The frequency of buses is around a fucking hour, and that is just unacceptable if you are already spending nine hours at work, as the wait time and travel time round trip could mean that you are spending like twelve hours of your day just for work.

[Armchair General]

8 hours ago, XRay said:

I do not mind Californians moving to Texas

I'm kind of ambivalent about moving to Texas, tbh. Northern New Mexico is out of the question. I'm kind of considering Arizona, but I'm still on the fence.

8 hours ago, XRay said:

Mixed zoning is so much better since you can just walk five or ten minutes to the grocery store literally down the street instead of driving a car across town, and that walking would help with our obesity too.

I kind of disagree on the residential tax hikes, provided that the house isn't paid off; because that'll be yet another bill on top of your mortgage in comparison to just paying rent at an apartment. As with mixed zoning, it's one of those things where it's an good idea; but the biggest concern would probably be the noise.

8 hours ago, XRay said:

As for public transportation, I do not buy the bullshit that public transportation is unfeasible in America.

It's unfeasible because you're spending at least half an hour waiting for the next bus or train. And it doesn't take you directly to where you needed to go if you're unfortunate enough to work/live an few streets away from the nearest bus stop.

 

8 hours ago, XRay said:

Owning a car is expensive, as you will need to pay for the aquisition, taxes and insurance and other paperwork, maintaince, gas, etc., and if just half of that money went into our public transportation system, it will be so much better and more reliable, so people will save a shit ton of money

I'm not exactly sure if this kind of math will work, here. I get where you're coming from, but the ratio between the taxpayers and public transportation isn't as small as you're making it out to be. Apparently, these new buses costs over $700,000. Note that the federal government is paying for most of it, but it doesn't cover the costs of operating them.

 

8 hours ago, XRay said:

Sacramento's public transit is absolute fucking garbage, and while it is acceptable for people who travel for school and leisure where you have a bit more time on your hands, it is not really acceptable for full time work. The frequency of buses is around a fucking hour, and that is just unacceptable if you are already spending nine hours at work, as the wait time and travel time round trip could mean that you are spending like twelve hours of your day just for work

Where I live, the wait time is around half an hour. You might be better off just getting an electric bike and hope that it doesn't get stolen, if you're staying in one place for an hour or so.

Edited September 15, 2022 by Armchair General

[X-Naut]

In other news Lindsey Graham has decided to cast his own stone in the abortion debate:

GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham introduces 15-week abortion ban in the Senate : NPR

[ping]

"We just think that states should be allowed to have their own legislature!", they said. Fucking ghouls.

[Etrurian emperor]

5 minutes ago, X-Naut said:

In other news Lindsey Graham has decided to cast his own stone in the abortion debate:

GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham introduces 15-week abortion ban in the Senate : NPR

Party of small government strikes again I see.

American conservatives are kinda shameful about state rights and have been since the 1800's. When they're not in power they demand states to decide matters, but the moment they get a chance they want their preferences settled into federal law. 

[XRay]

38 minutes ago, Armchair General said:

I kind of disagree on the residential tax hikes, provided that the house isn't paid off; because that'll be yet another bill on top of your mortgage in comparison to just paying rent at an apartment. As with mixed zoning, it's one of those things where it's an good idea; but the biggest concern would probably be the noise.

Residential zones should totally be taxed at much higher rates.

Single family zones are the absolute worst and should be treated as a sin tax like tobacco and alcohol, because the people who wants to enforce such a zone are not just reducing housing availability, they are also killing the planet by making cars mandatory to live in such a place.

45 minutes ago, Armchair General said:

It's unfeasible because you're spending at least half an hour waiting for the next bus or train. And it doesn't take you directly to where you needed to go if you're unfortunate enough to work/live an few streets away from the nearest bus stop.

In New York, the wait is literally ten to fifteen minutes for many stops during the day. It does get less frequent at late night, but for vast majority of people who work during the day, the bus system on top of the subway system is more than fine.

People got legs, so they do not need public transportation to take them directly to a destination. And Americans are fucking obese, so walking ten to fifteen minutes from the stop to the destination is a good thing. Hell, when I was doing my first internship over there, I did not take public transport at all and I walked 30 minutes to work.

55 minutes ago, Armchair General said:

I'm not exactly sure if this kind of math will work, here. I get where you're coming from, but the ratio between the taxpayers and public transportation isn't as small as you're making it out to be.

People are moving from the Bay Area to Sacramento, and it is clogging our local traffic pretty badly. It was not this bad when I was growing up. With all the extra people, our public transportation could be so much better with a larger tax base, and if even a fraction of that money in private transportation went into public transportation, I probably would not even need to own a car.

57 minutes ago, Armchair General said:

Where I live, the wait time is around half an hour. You might be better off just getting an electric bike and hope that it doesn't get stolen, if you're staying in one place for an hour or so.

Yeah, half an hour is not really acceptable in my opinion either.

We got rental bikes and rental electric scooters in our downtown area, so it beats driving a car in my opinion as parking is a hassle. Outside of downtown though, you basically need a car to get around, unless you live close by the light rail station and the place you are going to is also close by the light rail station.

My friends and I have thought about getting motorcycles, but it is not going to be a pleasant experience riding it for half the year. During the summer nowadays, it can get extremely hot, so being exposed to the searing sun with hot air blowing in your face can be pretty uncomfortable. It can also get pretty rainy during the winter here, so yeah, it is not exactly fun riding while wet. That just leaves spring and fall, and riding for only half the year at best does not seem too practical.

[Lord Raven]

8 hours ago, Armchair General said:

It's unfeasible because you're spending at least half an hour waiting for the next bus or train. And it doesn't take you directly to where you needed to go if you're unfortunate enough to work/live an few streets away from the nearest bus stop.

a lot of people in new york do not have a driver's license and get around just fine

Also, as someone who lives within 20 miles of two big city centers (DC and Baltimore), better public transportation would make it easier and safer to get to those big city centers from suburbs. The traffic is absolutely unbearable because public options are so limited

Edited September 16, 2022 by Lord Raven

[Armchair General]

1 hour ago, XRay said:

Residential zones should totally be taxed at much higher rates.

Personally, I believe that there's an limit to how long an individual can keep working. The only two options that I see is investing in an house and eventually paying only for the taxes, utilities, and the occasional maintenance project. And then there's the issue of trying to make rent with SSI.

1 hour ago, XRay said:

Single family zones are the absolute worst and should be treated as a sin tax like tobacco and alcohol, because the people who wants to enforce such a zone are not just reducing housing availability

This is kind of true, but the problem that I have with this is that nearly every other option has you sharing an wall (or an ceiling) with someone who possibly hates the noises that your kids make...Or that someone under you works at night. As for housing availability; there isn't an massive shortage of land in the rest of the country. Sure, this is about sometime within the distant future. But it's faster to build an house than an apartment complex and there's people who are very willing to live in either one of them. But one is appealing if you're on tight budget and enjoy moving around an lot while the other is an permanent residence that doesn't have an annual increase in the monthly payments.

 

2 hours ago, XRay said:

they are also killing the planet by making cars mandatory to live in such a place.

This is actually reliant on how the infrastructure was laid out and how far the neighborhood's average commute is. 

2 hours ago, XRay said:

People got legs, so they do not need public transportation to take them directly to a destination. And Americans are fucking obese, so walking ten to fifteen minutes from the stop to the destination is a good thing. Hell, when I was doing my first internship over there, I did not take public transport at all and I walked 30 minutes to work.

Well, it's not just obesity that's stopping people from walking. Sometimes it's constant pain. Other times, it's the weather. Or they might have another condition that adversely affects the way they breathe.

[XRay]

1 hour ago, Armchair General said:

Personally, I believe that there's an limit to how long an individual can keep working. The only two options that I see is investing in an house and eventually paying only for the taxes, utilities, and the occasional maintenance project. And then there's the issue of trying to make rent with SSI.

Mixed zoning is a thing. No one is stopping anyone from owning a residential property in a mixed zone area. Pure residential zoning is a blight that forces people who live in them to own a car, because they cannot walk anywhere to do what they need to do.

1 hour ago, Armchair General said:

This is kind of true, but the problem that I have with this is that nearly every other option has you sharing an wall (or an ceiling) with someone who possibly hates the noises that your kids make...Or that someone under you works at night. As for housing availability; there isn't an massive shortage of land in the rest of the country. Sure, this is about sometime within the distant future. But it's faster to build an house than an apartment complex and there's people who are very willing to live in either one of them. But one is appealing if you're on tight budget and enjoy moving around an lot while the other is an permanent residence that doesn't have an annual increase in the monthly payments.

Sound proofing is a thing. Just because the United States has a lot of land relative to population does NOT mean we should continue to expand our urban sprawl. Urban sprawl needs to be contained. It is faster to build several apartment complexes to house a thousand families than it is to build a thousand separate individual homes to house a thousand families, not to mention all the extra streets and infrastructure needed to cover a wider area. If people want to live in a purely residential area out in the suburbs, they need to pay for their fair share of infrastructure instead of having cities' urban cores and downtowns subsidize them. They deserve to have a sin tax levied on them.

1 hour ago, Armchair General said:

This is actually reliant on how the infrastructure was laid out and how far the neighborhood's average commute is. 

Just because infrastructure was laid down does not mean an area cannot be changed. You can narrow streets, add bike lanes, add or remove buildings, loosen zoning laws to allow businesses to set up shop and let buildings be built taller, etc. If most amenities are within walking distance, then you do not need a car.

 

1 hour ago, Armchair General said:

Well, it's not just obesity that's stopping people from walking. Sometimes it's constant pain. Other times, it's the weather. Or they might have another condition that adversely affects the way they breathe.

Then those people can get a car. Society should not make their city as if everyone is disabled. The vast majority of people can walk in the freezing snow and under the blazing sun just fine for fifteen minutes.

Edited September 16, 2022 by XRay

[Dr. Tarrasque]

9 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Party of small government strikes again I see.

American conservatives are kinda shameful about state rights and have been since the 1800's. When they're not in power they demand states to decide matters, but the moment they get a chance they want their preferences settled into federal law. 

And it should be no secret

[eclipse]

On 9/15/2022 at 11:50 AM, Etrurian emperor said:

Party of small government strikes again I see.

American conservatives are kinda shameful about state rights and have been since the 1800's. When they're not in power they demand states to decide matters, but the moment they get a chance they want their preferences settled into federal law. 

It's a pretty well-established pattern.  May they all be voted out.  Well, except for Graham, may he be forced to tell the truth in front of a judge in Georgia.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

Sounds like we need to add "Attack their pockets" to the usual "Follow the Money".

Here's hoping the Fox News lawsuit costs them dearly.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

Fetterman seems to be quite the perfect example of Democrats snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

[Acacia Sgt]

Well, that aged well.

https://apps.npr.org/election-results-live-2022/?#/states/PA/S

Fetterman won and flipped the seat. Though there's some concern with the Nevada one and Georgia going once again to runoffs, it seems the Democrats have retained their Senate majority.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Congrats also to the five out of five states (California, Vermont, Montana, Michigan, and Kentucky) that joined Kansas in protecting access to abortions when it was put to a vote. If the GOP want to take our rights away, they'll have to undermine democracy like normal fascists.

On 5/2/2022 at 7:33 PM, Zapp Branniglenn said:

I don't think this country is ready for the massive scale of incoming protests. And I don't think the Republican party is aware of the massive platform they just handed their opponents. 

This guy gets it. Congrats also to Tennessee for abolishing slavery (wait...wh-what?)

[Armchair General]

12 minutes ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

This guy gets it. Congrats also to Tennessee for abolishing slavery (wait...wh-what?)

You know, I really hate it when the news leave out the interesting details.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

8 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Well, that aged well.

https://apps.npr.org/election-results-live-2022/?#/states/PA/S

Fetterman won and flipped the seat. Though there's some concern with the Nevada one and Georgia going once again to runoffs, it seems the Democrats have retained their Senate majority.

That was surprising and hilarious. The rage from those expecting a massive red wave has been pleasant to see.

[Etrurian emperor]

I wonder if the Republican Supreme Court is kicking themselves over this. Without their intervention the Democrats might not have performed so well.

Its really funny that the Republicans might have lost out on a majority in Congress because they just couldn't wait to oppress people. The supreme Judges serves for live. They had no real reason to strike down Roe V Wade right before the midterms other than perhaps sheer arrogance.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

8 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I wonder if the Republican Supreme Court is kicking themselves over this. Without their intervention the Democrats might not have performed so well.

State legislatures ought to seriously consider putting abortion legality on the ballot in 2024. Republicans got their asses kicked disproportionately high in all five states that did this time - could be a golden goose for democratic turnout. 

[Etrurian emperor]

So could we say that Biden's been consistently underestimated by everyone? He's always presented as a weak candidate and politician yet things seem to constantly play out decently for him.

-Everyone assumed he wouldn't win the Democratic primary: He did win the primary.
-Then everyone assumed he wouldn't win the presidential election: He did win the presidential election.
-Then they assumed he'd be a weak president and wouldn't get anything done: He did get things done.
-They assumed he'd lead the Democrats to a titanic mid term defeat: He did not lead them to a titanic defeat.

And a lot of those expectations don't really hold up to scrutiny. Biden being a weak presidential candidate for instance. Its true that he's fairly boring and milktoast, but maybe that was a giant advantage in an era where much of the country is fed up with everything having been so extremely chaotic for years. And throughout his career Biden always had good report with the white working class, precisely the demographic that was lost to Trump because the likes of Clinton weren't ''folksy'' enough. Or how he's supposedly this extremely weak president despite passing a decent amount of legislation through a deeply hostile congress, and overseeing a united front against Putin, and expanding NATO significantly.

Could it be that Biden is actually a better administrator and politician than people give him credit for?

Edited November 10, 2022 by Etrurian emperor

[Armchair General]

1 minute ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Could it be that Biden is actually a better administrator and politician than people give him credit for?

Probably, but an lot can happen in two years, though.

[Shoblongoo]

17 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Could it be that Biden is actually a better administrator and politician than people give him credit for?

No.

Republicans are just bad enough that voters looked at what they were offering in the alternative and said: "absolutely not."
___

Addendum:

The biggest flex of the midterms was clearly the Florida GOP.

Not gonna toot Ron Desantis's horn too hard, because the last time a Florida GOP Governor was being hailed as the presumed republican anti-Trump + national frontrunner in a GOP presidential primary they were pushing Jeb.

But the GOP controls Florida. It use to be a swing state. Its Red now. 

Gotta go into future elections planning accordingly.
 

Edited November 11, 2022 by Shoblongoo

[Etrurian emperor]

2 hours ago, Shoblongoo said:

Republicans are just bad enough that voters looked at what they were offering in the alternative and said: "absolutely no

They were just as bad in 2016 too and that didn't really help the Democrats. And Desantis is about as bad a Republican as you can find and he did well.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Biden's administration is definitely surprising. I certainly don't recall him running on decriminalization of Marijuana and student loan forgiveness. These were far-left (whatever the heck that meant) pipe dreams two years ago. D candidates couldn't say the words "student loans" without pundits cutting them off with "unelectable". Biden plays with his cards close to the chest, which has proven useful.

Desantis seems the likely frontrunner for 2024. But that Primary is going to be a bloodbath if Trump will be peddling stories about how he really won in 2018. Heck, I almost believe it. Hoping that feud tears the GOP apart. I always detected a hint of prescience in this tweet:

If only someone would float the idea of starting a new 'Truth Party' to Trump. Just roll into his office with a banner that has the words TRUTH and TRUMP cris-crossed at the U to make a biblical cross.

Edited November 12, 2022 by Zapp Branniglenn