Political Discussion

Hemotep said:
I'm feeling especially disheartened by how blatantly fascist American politics is becoming and the Democratic party just burying their head in the sand. DeSantis banning transition care for trans youth and Medicaid recipients against the medical community's advice (except the stooges he and other fascist republicans have installed) is just cruel. They are trying to force the detransition or destruction of trans folks.

Then the idiot Ben Sasse put out a ridiculous article in The Atlantic that is so full of flawed logic and false equivalence that it never should have made it past the editor's desk. In which he disguises his opposition to student loan forgiveness as a bailout of a broken education system. A system that their policies broke. And it doesn't bail it out, it bails out students and disproportionately students of color and women who are more likely to go into serious student debt. Sonny Purdue, the new chancellor of the university system of Georgia, sent this out to all faculty in the system with a message that even if we don't agree we need to deal with the issues those who disagree with us raise. Which essentially is his way to jam things down the systems throat that actual educators know are bunk. He got the position as political bribery from Kemp, and despite having no experience in education said his goal is to bring conservative values to education. Since they don't actually care about education it is, of course, going to be disastrous and damaging to the most vulnerable in our society for whom education was one of the only available vehicles for a shot at social mobility. It wasn't until women and people of color gained entry into higher education that the financial burden was shifted onto the student, and that schools have been underfunded and shifted from a social good to a market model. They destroy and then once it is broken they force their changes upon us claiming that we broke it.

Biden wasn't lying when he said nothing would fundamentally change. We're on the same crash course since Reagan, accelerated by inept Democrats and the neo-conservativism of Bush and neo-fascism of Trump.

For years I've thought people were close to a breaking point, but when you add the economic inflation that is crushing the poor in this country, I fear we are in for some of the worst years of our lives. And that doesn't even address the shroud of death hanging over us all of climate change. Shit's going to hit the fan so hard and we're so unprepared for it.
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Yes, I see the same thing.
RenegadeMonster said:
There have been signs we could be heading towards a recession for a while now. But only this week did things really start to get serious.

The CEO of JPMorgan said we are in for an "Economic Hurricane". Several large tech corporations announced hiring freezes and layoffs today. Elon Musk today said he has a "bad feeling about the economy" and with that said announced that Tesla is going to lay off 10% of its employees or roughly 10,000 people as well as institute a hiring freeze.

What do these CEO's know that we don't? And what are they seeing that makes them say know is the time to reduce staff to ensure they meet their financial goals for their shareholders.
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I will see if I can find it, but I'm a bit busy.

There was an article that detailed some data out of the Fed (this data was for the last quarter of 2019) and it suggested that given what the Fed has been doing to prop banks up, our banking system is headed for a real come to Jesus, because they do not carry enough equity to cover a bank shortfall. The Fed predicted an economic down turn around this time that was headed to hit in 2020. The pandemic happened and people got personal loans which helped the market tremendously, but now the market is correcting down, as it should, given that these stock valuations are based on financialized companies that are all in debt from stock buy backs.
Hemotep said:
Sam's Club can't even keep this in stock anymore. It sells out instantly the last couple of restocks....
www.samsclub.com

Augason Farms Emergency Food Storage Kit (1 year, 1 person) - Sam's Club

Buy Augason Farms Emergency Food Storage Kit (1 year, 1 person) : Emergency Food Kits at SamsClub.com
www.samsclub.com www.samsclub.com

Time to share our depression era recipes! Like noodles with leftover grease (my grandpa's favorite every Saturday growing up).... It's an easy one. Just boil noodles and toss in whatever leftover grease there is in the iron skillet that's accumulated from the week. I've never eaten this, but he swore he loved it :-(

Also I do not recommend those freeze dried kits I linked to. A former friend of mine bought some and we tried it on a camping trip once and it was foul. Dried beans and rice are way better.

And I don't think it's realistic to do much emergency prep. I'm not going to deny my neighbor's food if I have any and the space/expense, makes it unrealistic.
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I have been going to the farmer's market and buying a lot of our meat, dairy and produce. If I can get it locally--and I mean through a local farmer--I have been trying to do that. The best thing to do is to act locally to shore up any local food supply chains. I am attempting to strengthen these supply chains because they will be able to respond to you quickly and with a lot more agility than a bigger retailer. I try to buy local products for most of my food so I know that if larger supply chains dry up, the smaller ones will be strong enough to supplement what the big supply chains can't.
 
Two opinion pieces from the guardian abozt yesterdays vote of no-confidence.
www.theguardian.com

Boris Johnson won the confidence vote but in every other way he is the big loser | Martin Kettle

The prime minister is damaged; so are the country and his party. His relief will not be long-lived, says Guardian columnist Martin Kettle
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

The second one was from before the vote but resonates even more with discussions about austerity and the politics of the right that we had here before
www.theguardian.com

This will be the result of tonight’s no-confidence vote: a huge lurch to the right and more austerity | Owen Jones

Whether Johnson is ousted now or in the coming weeks, the Tories will again grasp the Thatcherite mantle, says Guardian columnist Owen Jones
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
Jan said:
Two opinion pieces from the guardian abozt yesterdays vote of no-confidence.
www.theguardian.com

Boris Johnson won the confidence vote but in every other way he is the big loser | Martin Kettle

The prime minister is damaged; so are the country and his party. His relief will not be long-lived, says Guardian columnist Martin Kettle
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

The second one was from before the vote but resonates even more with discussions about austerity and the politics of the right that we had here before
www.theguardian.com

This will be the result of tonight’s no-confidence vote: a huge lurch to the right and more austerity | Owen Jones

Whether Johnson is ousted now or in the coming weeks, the Tories will again grasp the Thatcherite mantle, says Guardian columnist Owen Jones
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
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Whilst I don’t necessarily disagree with him here every time I see an Owen Jones piece I feel the need to point out that he’s a vile bully who dismisses anyone who veers even slightly from whatever the gospel according to Owen happens to be on that particular day.
 
www.cnn.com

Despite efforts to fight formula price-gouging, desperate families are paying top dollar

Every month, like clockwork, Renee Steiber got formula delivered to her home in the Chicago suburbs for her 11-year-old son, Owen. He has a feeding tube and needs a specialized formula, Neocate Jr., due to a rare disease that makes him severely allergic to a variety of foods.
www.cnn.com www.cnn.com

Humanity at its worst. Price gouging essentials needed to keep some people alive.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
www.cnn.com

Despite efforts to fight formula price-gouging, desperate families are paying top dollar

Every month, like clockwork, Renee Steiber got formula delivered to her home in the Chicago suburbs for her 11-year-old son, Owen. He has a feeding tube and needs a specialized formula, Neocate Jr., due to a rare disease that makes him severely allergic to a variety of foods.
www.cnn.com www.cnn.com

Humanity at its worst. Price gouging essentials needed to keep some people alive.
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I mean it’s pretty much everything. They’ve been making record profits while everything has become more efficient and prices keep going up.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
www.cnn.com

Despite efforts to fight formula price-gouging, desperate families are paying top dollar

Every month, like clockwork, Renee Steiber got formula delivered to her home in the Chicago suburbs for her 11-year-old son, Owen. He has a feeding tube and needs a specialized formula, Neocate Jr., due to a rare disease that makes him severely allergic to a variety of foods.
www.cnn.com www.cnn.com

Humanity at its worst. Price gouging essentials needed to keep some people alive.
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Don't get me wrong, but that is somehow the literal version of a first world problem . It is bad that people in a wealthy country don't get formula for their babies, it would terrify me as a father as well, UT we have to put this in the perspective that people in third world countries are starving while there is speculation with wheat and other basic food.
m.thewire.in

'Betting on Hunger': Market Speculation Is Contributing to Global Food Insecurity

An investigation has found that the industry and lobbyists have sabotaged efforts to rein in such behaviour.
m.thewire.in m.thewire.in
 
Jan said:
Don't get me wrong, but that is somehow the literal version of a first world problem . It is bad that people in a wealthy country don't get formula for their babies, it would terrify me as a father as well, UT we have to put this in the perspective that people in third world countries are starving while there is speculation with wheat and other basic food.
m.thewire.in

'Betting on Hunger': Market Speculation Is Contributing to Global Food Insecurity

An investigation has found that the industry and lobbyists have sabotaged efforts to rein in such behaviour.
m.thewire.in m.thewire.in
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Market and currency speculation really is the fucking pits, its the grossest of the already gross reality that is the financial system. Nothing about it has an utility at all, its just gambling. its whole existence just makes me so angry on so many levels.
 
I'm attending an academic conference this week, thankfully virtually since the school slashed my travel budget, and it's depressing as hell. Some of the new research from the three keynote sessions I've sat in on:

1.) In a longitudinal survey on American political leanings, this year shows over an 80% rise in the number of those answering in support of authoritarian politics and policies since Biden has been in office. And a statistically significant rise in those who answered that they think we need someone like *Adolph Hitler* to run for president and that they would vote for him. It was a literal question on the survey.

2.) A meta-analysis of recent research on climate change concludes that the UN report that said this is the last year in which change might have an impact before a run away effect occurs is optimistic and likely we've already passed that point. Globally we are using renewable resources at a rate 1.8 times faster than they can be renewed and 5x faster just based on US consumption. Inaction is led by the US who remain the largest polluter and biggest roadblock to global climate action. World militaries, again led by and large by the US military, are the leading polluters followed by about 100 corporations.

3.) Economic conditions for Americans under 40 are expected in the next five years to be worse than for any generation since the early 1900s, as the minimum living wage has now passed $25 an hour. While there were formerly two counties in the entire US where you could afford a one bedroom on minimum wage, there are now none. And food costs are estimated to rise by a minimum of 25% by the end of the year, placing additional stress on an already overextended food bank system and a major decline in federal funding for food programs this year.
 
Hemotep said:
I'm attending an academic conference this week, thankfully virtually since the school slashed my travel budget, and it's depressing as hell. Some of the new research from the three keynote sessions I've sat in on:

1.) In a longitudinal survey on American political leanings, this year shows over an 80% rise in the number of those answering in support of authoritarian politics and policies since Biden has been in office. And a statistically significant rise in those who answered that they think we need someone like *Adolph Hitler* to run for president and that they would vote for him. It was a literal question on the survey.

2.) A meta-analysis of recent research on climate change concludes that the UN report that said this is the last year in which change might have an impact before a run away effect occurs is optimistic and likely we've already passed that point. Globally we are using renewable resources at a rate 1.8 times faster than they can be renewed and 5x faster just based on US consumption. Inaction is led by the US who remain the largest polluter and biggest roadblock to global climate action. World militaries, again led by and large by the US military, are the leading polluters followed by about 100 corporations.

3.) Economic conditions for Americans under 40 are expected in the next five years to be worse than for any generation since the early 1900s, as the minimum living wage has now passed $25 an hour. While there were formerly two counties in the entire US where you could afford a one bedroom on minimum wage, there are now none. And food costs are estimated to rise by a minimum of 25% by the end of the year, placing additional stress on an already overextended food bank system and a major decline in federal funding for food programs this year.
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US is largest polluter? Sure it's not China? Like, how?
 
debianlinux said:
US is largest polluter? Sure it's not China? Like, how?
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The problem with this is that a large amount of the items that China manufactures (and thus creates pollution for) are items that are disproportionately being consumed by US and European citizens. So while China might be a big polluter, the majority of the items they are making, aren't for Chinese citizens. We are passing the pollution buck onto countries like China without talking about how much we, in the West, consume that comes from China. Pollution doesn't respect international borders and we need to talk about how many disposable and frivolous items we get from countries that actually make things, and how our consumer culture is a huge part of the problem.
 
debianlinux said:
US is largest polluter? Sure it's not China? Like, how?
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RenegadeMonster said:
China is for sure catching up, but at last check we still had the title.
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Hemotep said:
US still wins largely because of the military. Those aircraft carriers are insanely bad and we have many, whereas China only has one still I think.
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Yearly CO2 emissiond from China surpassed the US a couple of years ago and they are by far the biggest emittiert but countries like China and other countries make the argument that the industrialized Western World ran through years of high xarbon Emissionen and based their wealth on that, so it is hypocritical to put the blame on China now. Also what @nolalady said

ourworldindata.org

CO₂ emissions

How much CO₂ does the world emit? Which countries emit the most?
ourworldindata.org ourworldindata.org
 
Also while talking about climate change, one really easy thing we can do is to stop all commercial space flights and to ban the use of private jets.

This criticism around private jets comes as new research shows the luxury lifestyles of the richest 1% could jeopardize targets to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.

Per capita, the richest 80 million people in the world will account for 16% of total emissions globally by 2030, up from 13% in 1990.

www.forbes.com

118 Private Jets Take Leaders To COP26 Climate Summit Burning Over 1,000 Tons Of CO2

As the COP26 climate conference opened on Monday (1 November), 50 private jets landed at Glasgow and Edinburgh airports, ferrying their passengers to one of the most critical environmental summits in history.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com
 
Jan said:
Yearly CO2 emissiond from China surpassed the US a couple of years ago and they are by far the biggest emittiert but countries like China and other countries make the argument that the industrialized Western World ran through years of high xarbon Emissionen and based their wealth on that, so it is hypocritical to put the blame on China now. Also what @nolalady said

ourworldindata.org

CO₂ emissions

How much CO₂ does the world emit? Which countries emit the most?
ourworldindata.org ourworldindata.org
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This is different than the data they showed today, but either way they're both bad at it.
 
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