Politics And Current Events

[tifosi77]

I think you need to read up more about the Newsom thing before you double down on it like that. It was bad enough that he'll never get my vote in the future, but imo the worst part of that dinner (which was a birthday celebration in early November, not a holiday gathering) was that it was for a lobbyist.

Edit: That and the fact that he only copped to it after photographs emerged.

[shmenguin]

also, my thoughts on it

1. What Cruz did was bad
2. Coming back and then lying about why you left made it worse
3. Still not as bad as politicians telling people not to gather during holidays and then gathering during the holidays

weirdly we're spending more time on Cruz than on the politicians in 3. I know I know, stop "bothsidesing" it, but to me it feels apt here. What Cruz did has bad optics but what Newsom did was legitimately dangerous

#3 is another common denominator. which is why it's not a juicy story. cuomo is bad, wolf is bad, newsome is bad, desantis is bad...not sure what you want here. is eating at the French Laundry worse than attending the rose garden super spreader event in october? no? ok...so what's the point here.

i agree that the cruz thing is overblown, but at the same time, he recently advocated to convert american democracy into a fascist regime. like, on the record and even asked to go in front of the SCOTUS with this pitch. the amount of dunking people want to do on him is up to them. same with someone leaking his texts. he's a butthole. he deserves extra scrutiny for literally everything he does until he removes himself from his position. if all this harassment helps with that, the ends justify the means in this case.

[Pavel Bure]

I do not like PennDOT, those bridge tolls are simply extra funding that will go anywhere but providing maintenance to those roads.

What slightly annoys me, is that I view roadways as a right, like, restricting access to a road by making it more expensive seems like extortion to me when the alternative is extra time.

**** PennDOT. They already reduced their spending a ton by laying off the majority of their toll workers earlier than expected.

[Troy Loney]

also, my thoughts on it

1. What Cruz did was bad
2. Coming back and then lying about why you left made it worse
3. Still not as bad as politicians telling people not to gather during holidays and then gathering during the holidays

weirdly we're spending more time on Cruz than on the politicians in 3. I know I know, stop "bothsidesing" it, but to me it feels apt here. What Cruz did has bad optics but what Newsom did was legitimately dangerous

Newsome is facing a recall vote, right? And that was definitely talked about. I think this is just recency bias as opposed to anything else. The Cruz thing will blow over in a couple days and only get brought up now and then to make fun of Cruz.

[shmenguin]

also, not to go full shaf, but I found this hilarious

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/fac ... 784119001/

Fact check: Politicians on both sides of the aisle have flouted COVID-19 guidelines

Our rating: Missing context
Based on our research, we rate this claim as MISSING CONTEXT. It’s true that some politicians have acted contrary to the social distancing and stay-at-home practices they are preaching, though Pelosi did not end up hosting a “giant reception,” as Wheeler’s tweet claimed. Ultimately, however, it’s not just some Democratic politicians flouting COVID-19 policies and guidance – such behavior has been seen on both sides of the aisle, including behavior resulting in a coronavirus outbreak at the White House.

how the **** is this "missing context"?!?!?! it's **** true. stop pussyfooting around and defending politicians because they're on your team

god dammit, this is the same reason why Trumpism is so rampant on the R side. People refuse to genuinely criticize people on their team. It's enraging. Genuinely enraging.

you're pretty confused about the actual issue. an individual politician behaving poorly is not in the same arena as said politician asking millions of their followers to join them in the behavior.

the right is always gonna have to eat **** on this one, asymmetrically. have enough people not died because of this misinformation for this to click?

[tifosi77]

Newsom is facing a recall effort. To date, I have seen precisely one (1) petition sign up location - Ralph's in Porter Ranch* - but the effort will likely gather enough support to get on the June ballot. (1.5 million verifiable signatures) I think at this stage it's 50-50 as to whether or not it will be successful, because (contrary to popular perception everywhere not here) the Democratic Party in CA is not a monolith, and there are too many people in positions of power who resent Newsom and his rise to national prominence and would be quite happy to see him neutralized. They won't necessarily provide aid to the GOP in the recall, but they aren't likely to do more than the barest minimum in its defense. So that makes it a bit of a crap shoot.

At the outset of the pandemic, Newsom was in the top echelon of governors in conducting the statewide response imo. As things wore on, that flagged and CA is now basically middle of the pack at this stage by most metrics. I do not support recall efforts, generally, but this one seems guided more by Trump politics than actual merit. Newsom's misdeeds do not rise to the level of Gray Davis, who was recalled 20 or so years ago for actively canoodling with utility companies during a...... wait for it....... electrical utility crisis.





* If you do a Google Box lookup of "Newsom recall" and Select Images, focus on the ones that show the petition stands; it's almost universally maskless chowder brains with Gadsden flags draped over the table and Trump flags on their Dodge Ram. There isn't widespread support for this, but there doesn't need to be for it to be successful. The shopping plaza where that Ralph's is located is the only place I've seen someone openly flouting the mask rules, and watching the cashier refuse to ring that lady up was one of the highlights of 2020 for me. What can I say, the last year set the entertainment bar pretty low.

[shmenguin]

California is the America of America. Impossible to manage because of a diversity of crazy people at all angles, while tooting its horn about its splendor...which is undercut by said crazy at every turn.

Newsome wasn’t going to be a star for the same reason the lady in New Zealand could sleepwalk her way to being queen covid. The more complex an environment is, the more difficult it is to manage.

This is a stark contrast to someone like Cuomo who thought it was a fair trade to sacrifice the elderly for political points.

You can’t just elevate every infraction to say Newsome somehow has caused more damage to this country than a Ted Cruz, for example.

[shoeshine boy]

Also, if the gas tax revenue is unreliable due to these volatile economic conditions, so would the traffic over the bridge.

electric cars are the bigger issue though so many doing WFH definitely affected state DOTs all over the country. I work for GDOT and we've been discussing electric cars for years. they use the roads essentially for free and there are plenty of Teslas and Leafs in my area. I drive a Prius so I spend about 1/3 of the amount on gas that my pickup/SUV driving coworkers do. I know that due to COVID we have several million less to spend on vehicles/equipment this year.

[dodint]

Yeah. I mentioned them a few posts later. From a forward looking perspective it makes perfect sense.

[dodint]

Along those lines, one thing I've heard that kind of makes sense is an annual use tax on mileage driven. You already supply your odometer reading when you renew registration and/or inspect the car here in PA. It wouldn't be much of a leap to put a small per mile rate that gets collected at registration. Would neatly solve the electric car issue.

Cyclists still get a free ride, tho.

[tifosi77]

Not if you hit them at the correct angle.

[Gaucho]

[faftorial]

This is a stark contrast to someone like Cuomo who thought it was a fair trade to sacrifice the elderly for political points.

Cuomo did really f up but that's worded like a Breitbart post.

[Morkle]

Along those lines, one thing I've heard that kind of makes sense is an annual use tax on mileage driven. You already supply your odometer reading when you renew registration and/or inspect the car here in PA. It wouldn't be much of a leap to put a small per mile rate that gets collected at registration. Would neatly solve the electric car issue.

Cyclists still get a free ride, tho.

Hmm how would that work? If it comes out a registration and it's a lump sum. Seems like that could impact someone negatively? I feel like that's a gotcha that would need to be discussed.

Unless you could defer it to something like your tax return, or pay it off over the year. But that's depending on the %. It's an interesting idea.

[shmenguin]

This is a stark contrast to someone like Cuomo who thought it was a fair trade to sacrifice the elderly for political points.

Cuomo did really f up but that's worded like a Breitbart post.

I wanted to be fair. I can’t just be a drama queen when it’s personally convenient for my politics.

[dodint]

Along those lines, one thing I've heard that kind of makes sense is an annual use tax on mileage driven. You already supply your odometer reading when you renew registration and/or inspect the car here in PA. It wouldn't be much of a leap to put a small per mile rate that gets collected at registration. Would neatly solve the electric car issue.

Cyclists still get a free ride, tho.

Hmm how would that work? If it comes out a registration and it's a lump sum. Seems like that could impact someone negatively? I feel like that's a gotcha that would need to be discussed.

Unless you could defer it to something like your tax return, or pay it off over the year. But that's depending on the %. It's an interesting idea.

Well, I mean, if it's tied directly to the odometer reading you would know through the year how much you owe. Say it's a penny per mile, which I think is high but easy to illustrate, it'd be mileage x .01. Average mileage is 12,000 a year. So 12,000 x $.01 for a payment of $120. Regular annual registration is $48, to put it into context in this example.

I don't see it as much different than how people do taxes. They live their lives all year then throw all the numbers into a software program and trust what it spits out.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

[Morkle]

Along those lines, one thing I've heard that kind of makes sense is an annual use tax on mileage driven. You already supply your odometer reading when you renew registration and/or inspect the car here in PA. It wouldn't be much of a leap to put a small per mile rate that gets collected at registration. Would neatly solve the electric car issue.

Cyclists still get a free ride, tho.

Hmm how would that work? If it comes out a registration and it's a lump sum. Seems like that could impact someone negatively? I feel like that's a gotcha that would need to be discussed.

Unless you could defer it to something like your tax return, or pay it off over the year. But that's depending on the %. It's an interesting idea.

Well, I mean, if it's tied directly to the odometer reading you would know through the year how much you owe. Say it's a penny per mile, which I think is high but easy to illustrate, it'd be mileage x .01. Average mileage is 12,000 a year. So 12,000 x $.01 for a payment of $120. Regular annual registration is $48, to put it into context in this example.

I don't see it as much different than how people do taxes. They live their lives all year then throw all the numbers into a software program and trust what it spits out.

Yea I don't think it would bother me that much. That would mean gas tax and everything would have to eliminated, or this on top of gas tax?

[dodint]

C'mon man, you, me, and PA know the answer to that.

But, yeah, I like use taxes and people using gasoline will get hit twice. I don't think you'll get a clawback on the gas tax. And I don't think it's as "non-viable" as these gov folks with their hands out say it is.

[Troy Loney]

Best news I’ve heard today

[shmenguin]

If this is the thing that Manchin does to tell his voters he’s his own man, in exchange for cover for supporting COVID relief and a GOP-free 1/6 Commission, ok. Fine. Tanden doesn’t matter.

But if this is a sincere statement, he’s a fool, and a gigantic obstacle for anything good to happen in the federal government until he loses 100% of his relevance 2 years from now.

[Troy Loney]

If this is the thing that Manchin does to tell his voters he’s his own man, in exchange for cover for supporting COVID relief and a GOP-free 1/6 Commission, ok. Fine. Tanden doesn’t matter.

But if this is a sincere statement, he’s a fool, and a gigantic obstacle for anything good to happen in the federal government until he loses 100% of his relevance 2 years from now.

If he pulled this **** on someone like, Ben Rhodes, or just a bland figure who is "political" or 'partisan' only because people are acting in bad faith, then f him. But this Neera nomination is such a face-rake thing for Biden. She is an obnoxious partisan, should not be holding a cabinet level position.

[tifosi77]

Yeah, when her name was put forward I sort of thought it was a Crank Yankers bit.

[shmenguin]

If this is the thing that Manchin does to tell his voters he’s his own man, in exchange for cover for supporting COVID relief and a GOP-free 1/6 Commission, ok. Fine. Tanden doesn’t matter.

But if this is a sincere statement, he’s a fool, and a gigantic obstacle for anything good to happen in the federal government until he loses 100% of his relevance 2 years from now.

If he pulled this **** on someone like, Ben Rhodes, or just a bland figure who is "political" or 'partisan' only because people are acting in bad faith, then f him. But this Neera nomination is such a face-rake thing for Biden. She is an obnoxious partisan, should not be holding a cabinet level position.

If the double standard of DeVos - in, Tanden - out is a thing, I sure hope it's limited to these types of non-critical positions. It's easy to live with if it ends here. But if Manchin wants to even entertain the notion of not rubber stamping Garland through...sigh.

[Troy Loney]

Sad