Politics And Current Events

[NTP66]

Thanks, Obama.

[eddy]

Democrats aren't going to get anything done and they'll be fine caving to the republicans and then talking about next time. It's quite embarrassing.

[Morkle]

So why is killing the filibuster still off the table? Why are they not stacking the courts? Is this really all because of Manchin? The way things are going anyways, they're going to get smoked here when house/senate seats are up.

[eddy]

Because they are all dadholes

[count2infinity]

The debt grew 7.8 trillion under the GOP in four years.

How much of that was just 2020?

[NTP66]

Year Debt (b) Ratio Major Events by Presidential Term
2017 $20,245 104% Congress raised the debt ceiling
2018 $21,516 105% Trump tax cuts
2019 $22,719 107% Trade wars
2020 $27,748 129% COVID-19 & CARES Act

[eddy]

Need more stimulus, I'd like to travel more. Thanks.

[count2infinity]

I don't have numbers, but it looks like about half just came in that last year?

He certainly didn't pay it down like he promised, but I have a hard time pinning the COVID debt on him.

[Viva la Ben]

Why did obama need to sign that 2008 stimulus package again?

It’s all bloviating.

[Trip McNeely]

How can normal human take the Republican Party seriously at this point?

[NTP66]

I don't think it's about assigning blame for the debt entirely. The money from Covid was required. But now the GOP doesn't want to deal with the budget because of it - that's the issue.

[RonnieFranchise]

So why is killing the filibuster still off the table?

Because then it won't be there for them to use later.

[Viva la Ben]

I don't think it's about assigning blame for the debt entirely. The money from Covid was required. But now the GOP doesn't want to deal with the budget because of it - that's the issue.

Right. Mitch raised the debt ceiling 3 times under Trump. The tax cut bill of 2017 didn’t pay for itself; instead it added to the deficit. Now the US is looking at default for the first time in its history.

[Viva la Ben]

It makes you wonder at how much worse the pandemic could have been when you factor in the incredibly effective leadership of the GOP.

[Tomas]

Et tu, Britain!?

(Translated with DeepL.com)

Source: https://www.idnes.cz/zpravy/zahranicni/ ... anicni_kha

We tell each other where to get gasoline. Europeans are shocked by Britain, says Czech woman
28 September 2021 15:26

Whoever has petrol at the moment drives kids from the neighbourhood to the activities. The shops sometimes run out of meat, sometimes out of fruit. And there is only one brand to choose from on the shelves, describes the consequences of the shortage of truck drivers in the UK, a Czech woman who did not want to give her name for personal reasons, but the editors know it. She has lived in the country for ten years and says Europeans are shocked by the British standard of living.

Recently we have published several articles about empty shelves and missing food in British shops and we have always had people in the discussions below claiming to live in Britain and not notice any problem. So what does it look like in your area?

It's always a local issue, of course, but even my friend in the north of England doesn't have fruit and vegetables. Fruit and vegetables were the first to run out. There used to be deliveries in the afternoon, but they've finished. Sometimes it gets replenished, but you can't tell.

First they didn't have toilet paper, then they didn't have flour. It happens here in north London, you walk into a normal big supermarket and it feels like communism. One type of product across the whole shelf. It looks full, but you have no choice. Or you go to the chemist and there's no detergent or washing powder.

It's not that you can't get anything, it's better, but there's always a shortage somewhere. There's a brand that's missing, which used to be the case. There used to be such an abundance that it seemed impossible to run out. I can't identify where the problem is, whether it's because of Brexit or the coronavirus. It's probably a combination of both.

Does this happen in the big stores or is it more likely to happen in the smaller ones? Or is it local?
The smaller shops here are run by Turks and Kurds, and they probably have their own suppliers, because maybe they had the toilet paper. It's always a period. Sometimes you run out of meat, sometimes you can't buy bottled water. Now we've been without water for about a fortnight. We were texting each other, "Hey, they've got it right here, go buy some." Because in Britain, tap water is quite nasty, so if you don't filter it, you don't drink it. We all buy bottled.

But now you can't even get expensive brands like Evian and it doesn't matter where you go. When we went to a more expensive chain this weekend, where the royal family goes shopping, they were also missing half their fruit and veg.

Could it also be that people are panicking and stocking up again?
That had an effect before, but you don't buy fresh food in stock. Although it is true that there is a rumour going around that there will be no medicine. So there's a lot of buying up of those now. And some people are also buying survival foods for extreme conditions, like high-nutrient bars and things like that, to survive the hard times to come. They're already buying for Christmas and it looks like there won't be enough turkeys. I don't know why.

In addition to food, there is now a shortage of petrol, which there is no one to deliver to the pumps. Some of them are closing, others have queues. What's it like in your area?
None of us have petrol. We call the tips where they just delivered it and there's always a long queue. When the kids have activities, whoever's got the petrol picks them all up and acts like a bus. And then it's the turn of whoever can find some gas. I'm afraid to take the risk and go somewhere to get it, because we'll be standing in line for an hour or two anyway, and it might happen that we'll run out of gas and won't even get back. And the distances here are very different from Prague.

Friends of mine have had their petrol station shut down in front of them because they simply ran out of petrol. There are chains that are more likely to have it, like Tesco. Some petrol stations have opened, but you don't know for how long. For example, one next to us opened yesterday, queued like mad and closed again after four hours. You can't be sure. And without a car, it's very expensive and time-consuming because of the long distances.

Coming back to food, have you noticed any French cheeses, wines or any European products that used to be in the shops since Brexit?
I haven't noticed that with French or Italian wines. But it's true that when my hair started falling out badly after the coronavirus, I couldn't get hold of any French products like Vichy. I just couldn't. Or they said they'd have it in a fortnight or three weeks. It wasn't just French cosmetics, but maybe German cosmetics that used to be widely available. This has really changed extremely. Eventually I gave up and found American alternatives because everything gets here very quickly from America.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps initially refused to fill the driver shortage with foreigners because, he said, "workers from Eastern Europe" were driving down British wages. Now he has relented on issuing temporary visas. Will that help?
If someone wants to earn extra money before Christmas, then maybe so. But they want to issue 10,000 of these visas, when there is a shortage of drivers, reportedly up to 100,000. The next question is whether they will pay enough.

Will the British want to take food to the supermarkets even with the pay rise?
If they do get a pay rise, then yes, because wages have been pitiful up to now. The only people who could do this work were really temporary workers from Europe. The real wage here won't even cover your rent, so unless you have twenty different sources, it's virtually impossible to survive. Unless you tell yourself you're going to live locked in a room for three months. Then you'll make money because you won't have any expenses. They've made slaves of the Europeans here.

Is British hostility towards "Eastern European workers" still alive and well? Even two years after Brexit?
I think they don't like Europeans in general. Of course we have friends here who like us. Quite often they have a Polish woman for a wife, an Italian or a Frenchman for a husband. But in general they don't like us here. Also because we have extremely high demands on life, on health care or schools and how things should be run in them. It's often the same here as in Queen Victoria's time. Even the French or the Italians, when they come to Britain, are completely shocked by the way things are here.

We Europeans are not used to that level. Just how much you pay for a flat and the conditions you live in afterwards. It's terrible. That's why the British prefer Indians and Africans who work and are grateful to be in Britain because it really is a better life for them. Not for us. Even my friends from Brazil say it's like the third world here, they've never seen such a terrible level of healthcare. If you don't pay for private care, then that's different.

And Eastern Europe, that's a chapter in itself. The contempt from the British is huge. Even we Czechs are Eastern Europe to them, no one here knows any Central Europe.

Looking at the way things are now in Britain, do people regret Brexit? According to some polls, a larger proportion of the population would no longer want to leave the European Union. Are you seeing that around you?
No, I think if it was put to a vote now they would be in favour of Brexit again. I think the British people are so terribly proud and angry - because the British government has been saying all along how the EU is at their throats and how it wants to punish them - that it has made them angry. Boris Johnson is even now talking about how he wants to save Britain and how Brussels is punishing him to show him. And people believe it. I think they've come to terms with leaving and both sides have found common ground. They want to do it together.

And what do they say about empty shelves and missing gasoline? Do they not see this as a consequence of Brexit?
Some people certainly do. But you can hide a lot of things behind the coronavirus, too. People tell themselves it's temporary and it'll be fine soon. They don't rebel, they just tip their hand and wait to see how it works out. Plus, people don't criticize the government as a matter of principle, which is something that is very different compared to the Czech Republic. The British are extremely obedient.

For example, once we met with families of different nationalities and we discussed whether we would get the coronavirus vaccine, what vaccine, what the pros and cons were. But the English will tell you, "We have Astra, we're used to listening, so we'll go for it." That's the way it was during the whole pandemic. The government started to have an opinion and everybody repeated it, then a week later it changed and everybody repeated it again, even if it contradicted the previous one. We Czechs are always looking at who wants to "out-pee" us where, but here they don't dispute it at all. They respect the government's decision.

[Gaucho]

welp

[Troy Loney]

Reinstituting barriers for trading capital and labor, who could have ever imagined that would cause economic complications?

[Troy Loney]

Looks like all the abstinence education worked. Big win for the moral majority

[count2infinity]

I wonder what that bump in 06-07 was… maybe just noise.

[MR25]

I wonder what that bump in 06-07 was… maybe just noise.

Is that when 16 And Pregnant first came out?

[shafnutz05]

I wonder what that bump in 06-07 was… maybe just noise.

Is that when 16 And Pregnant first came out?

That came out a couple of years later, but not a bad thought.

[genoscoif]

I wonder what that bump in 06-07 was… maybe just noise.

Is that when 16 And Pregnant first came out?

That came out a couple of years later, but not a bad thought.

Good news either way. I believe that abortion rates are dropping at a similar rate for that time period in that age group. That is all good.

[count2infinity]

Yup... sex education and teenagers having accurate information about how their body works and how they can prevent pregnancy, STDs, etc. along with increased access to contraception have done more for abortion rates than anything the GOP has done in the legislature in the last decade plus.

[AuthorTony]

I seem to recall reading that teens are also having much less sex than previous generations of teens. Seems like a perfect storm, in a good way.

[genoscoif]

Yup... sex education and teenagers having accurate information about how their body works and how they can prevent pregnancy, STDs, etc. along with increased access to contraception have done more for abortion rates than anything the GOP has done in the legislature in the last decade plus.

I thought it was just easy access to free pron.