I have not been tuned in to much these days online or on the news, so I almost missed this. Lots of green jobs, I’m hoping!
Open thread
by TaMara| 83 Comments
This post is in: Climate Change Solutions, Open Threads, Politics
I have not been tuned in to much these days online or on the news, so I almost missed this. Lots of green jobs, I’m hoping!
Open thread
Comments are closed.
Jeffro
“…the wealthiest 1 percent…” DRINK ;)
Baud
Need to go bold. We need an Infrastructure Fortnight.
wvng
@Jeffro: the implied BFD, take another drink. This is all a very BFD.
MisterForkbeard
It’s a good speech. I can summarize:
Also, can I say how nice it is to know that the president is trying to make positive changes rather than sabotage us or sell out our infrastructure to business?
MisterForkbeard
@Baud: They can do a crossover with Fortnite, like so: https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/en-US/news/catch-the-kaskade-concert-in-party-royale-for-the-next-llama-rama
It is literally a game about building things (and shooting your friends). Lots of synergy here. :)
Jeffro
cue Fox News: “…this is just the Green New Deal, only proposed by Joe Biden, stalking horse for the extreme far left…” in 3, 2, 1…
Good luck with that, GQP!
(also President Biden just twisted the knife on ‘former leader…I guess he’s no longer the leader’ Mitch McConnell and I AM HERE FOR IT)
?BillinGlendaleCA
I’m not sure making it cheaper to get to Balloon Juice is a good idea.
mali muso
He sounds so reasonable, so calm and reassuring and also inspiring.
Brachiator
I guess it’s a start, but I am not impressed with the infrastructure plan. I would like to see a plan that is more tailored to Covid recovery. I would like to see more done to help small business and those employed by small businesses.
The GOP revised the entire tax code, individual, corporate, estate and trusts. I want to see more about the Biden plan here. I hope it does not just depend on tax increases. Again, a good start, but they need to be comprehensive.
When the GOP wrote the 2017 plan, they were sloppy and stupid and gave up a lot to big business. But they had an idea of what they wanted to do. I hope the Democrats have a better, smarter staff of people working on this. And more imaginative guidance from Treasury and other contributors.
Nora Lenderbee
Will they remove the limit on state-tax deductibility from Fed taxes? My Fed taxes went up under the Asswipe.
Feathers
I am waiting for some sort of pandemic windfall profits tax.
debbie
@Jeffro:
Listened to an interview with a GOPer who also used the phrase “Green New Deal.” Clearly this is an ALEC-type talking point.
I just hope Joe doesn’t try to sell his plan at the next wedding he crashes. //
EmanG
So, it’s finally Infrastructure Week?
Ken
BIDEN HAS ANOTHER “SENIOR MOMENT”
FORGETS WHO IS SENATE MAJORITY LEADER
ENTIRE INFRASTRUCTURE PITCH UNDERMINED
— MUST CREDIT SLUDGE —
Almost Retired
I am on Spring Break and sitting by the pool in Palm Springs. I was scrolling through Balloon Juice posts, and an ad for some sort of skin cream kept popping up promising to fix my sun-damaged crepe skin. After the fourth time that ad appeared in the comments of the same post, I moved into the shade.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Almost Retired: I got a nice bird’s eye view of Palm Springs last week from Keys View in Joshua Tree. Could even see Mexico from there.
WaterGirl
“Win the future.”
I hoped we would never hear that one again!
Still happy to have Infrastructure Week, though.
MazeDancer
Union! Union!
Joe Biden’s Dream America sounds wonderful!
mali muso
Well played, sir. Well played.
WaterGirl
Global Minimum Tax for corporations – 21% for the win!
mrmoshpotato
@mali muso:
How unpresidential! Where’s Rush Limbaugh when you need him to throw a fit about something stupid?
Oh right – still dead!
WaterGirl
@mali muso: well done, Pete! :-)
hitchhiker
@Jeffro:
Think how pissed Joe must have been when Mitch refused to hold a hearing for Merrick Garland. Of all the bullshit Mitch has pulled over the years, that brazen fuck-you to the Democrats, to the voters who elected Obama, and to Obama himself was the absolute worst.
Never, ever going to stop celebrating Mitch’s fall from power, and I laughed to see Joe rub it in.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
(link)
mrmoshpotato
@Feathers:
Making Amazon, and any others who don’t, pay federal income tax would be what you’re looking for.
sab
I got a surprise telephone town hall call from Tim Ryan yesterday, mostly devoted to infrastructure in the just passed relief bill.
I do taxes from a very white northern Ohio suburb. Covid has clobbered these people economically. I usually see maybe two unemployment 1099s per year. I have seen dozens this year.
Raoul Paste
@Almost Retired: “I am on spring break and sitting by the pool in Palm Springs……”
How nice for you
Jeffro
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: the center-center party flexes, and gets results!
NotMax
@Almost Retired
You should be okay. Balloon Juice is replete with shade.
:)
Chief Oshkosh
@Jeffro:
I missed that. What was the knife-twisting verbiage?
OTA: Doh! I get it now… Leader, no, my bad,… FORMER leader…
Ken
@Almost Retired: How very Big Brother. You may want to turn off the location feature on your phone. Or see if it has an option to only report your location to an accuracy of 50 feet or so.
Brachiator
@sab:
I hope these people are happy with the breaks the Democrats have given them. Also people taking Covid related early pension distributions.
Also, the IRS is issuing some new guidance on unemployment calculations for previously filed returns.
?BillinGlendaleCA
I have an appointment to be shot tomorrow afternoon, thanks Biden.
mrmoshpotato
@Ken: It’s probably the ad algorithms picking up on him being connected to a Florida ISP.
Patricia Kayden
@mali muso: About bleeding time!! Thank you President Biden!!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato: Palm Springs is in California.
Patricia Kayden
@?BillinGlendaleCA: ??
germy
How can anyone say this infrastructure plan isn’t comprehensive?
This thread has some details:
https://twitter.com/ZacAKAMadu/status/1377236438362816522
First, it looks like the Biden admin is leaning hard into $115 billion to “modernize the bridges, highways, roads, and main streets that are most in need of repair.” This reads less like business as usual at DOT, and more like smart streets with bike lanes and bus lanes.
$105 billion for rebuilding and upgrading public transit infrastructure. If I were a city planner for NYC, Philly, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis – cities with rusty, tired commuter trains and subways, I would be dusting off my wish list right about now.
$80 billion just for improvements to Amtrak, and especially the Northeast Corridor. Gateway Tunnel, Baltimore & Potomac Tunnel 2.0 are absolutely 100% happening.
$174 billion for the electric vehicle market, starting with 50,000 electric school buses (the latter was very much a MVP Harris idea). Michigan came through for Joe Biden, and he’s repaying the favor. This is how Democrats make the Rust Belt blue again.
The $20 billion racial justice plank of the American Jobs Plan looks absolutely incredible. Funds dedicated specifically for tearing down highways that cut off access to communities of color. This will transform neighborhoods from the South Bronx to Atlanta to Houston.
$111 billion for clean water infrastructure, including $45 billion for replacing all lead pipes and $56 billion for water treatment and sewage treatment plants. This former EPA law clerk is squealing with delight as I read this. (I worked primarily on sewer grants)
$16 billion specifically for plugging abandoned oil wells, gas wells, and coal mines. I don’t think people realize how much methane pollution – a very potent greenhouse gas – is just waste from abandoned mining and drilling sites. This is fucking huge.
$40 billion for public housing. There are so many NYCHA projects with broken elevators and boilers that don’t provide heat in the winter. This could give some of the most distressed housing stock critical repairs and upgrades.
$100 billion for construction, renovations, and modernization of public schools – with of course an emphasis on sanitation and cleanliness.
$25 billion for child care facilities. The fact that child care is being included in a national infrastructure plan has got to be groundbreaking. I don’t think there’s been anything like this since World War II.
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I meant California. ?
I saw “spring break” and thought about all the Florida asshats in the news.
West of the Rockies
@mrmoshpotato:
That still makes me grin.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Biden be do like that.
MisterForkbeard
OT, but just got my vaccine shot scheduled for mid April. Screw you, covid.
Gonna see if I can get an earlier appointment when eligibility opens up a bit tomorrow, but the light’s at the end of the tunnel :)
Almost Retired
@mrmoshpotato: When I say Spring Break, I mean it’s my wife’s Spring Break. And I should venture to add that she gets a Spring Break because she is a High School administrator, and not a student. I am not Matt Gaetz.
Catherine D.
WSJ is reporting a (possible) Democratic proposal to drop Medicare age from 65 to 60. Wouldn’t it be loverly!
John Revolta
@germy:
I’m still getting used to the fact that those are all billions, with a b. This is indeed a BFD.
Jeffro
@germy: it’s astounding, and the fact that rich folks’ taxes are (finally!) going to pay for it is THE BOMB
Baud
@germy:
Shit just got real.
mrmoshpotato
@Almost Retired:
I didn’t think so. Though Gaetz might also be “almost retired.”
germy
@Baud:
It’s a good thread. The writer gets into some other details of the plan, as well as the economics.
Almost Retired
@mrmoshpotato: Excellent!
Baud
Well this is unfortunate.
NYT
JoyceH
Let’s start calling the plan Rooseveltesque and referring to Biden as “JRB”. It will give the Republicans fits!
Baud
@JoyceH:
“I welcome their
hatredmalarkey.”germy
@JoyceH:
I got my first JRB jab last week… the pfizer one.
Ken
@West of the Rockies: isrushlimbaughdead.com is available, if you want to set up one of those single-purpose web sites like isabevigodadead.com or istheshipstillstuck.com, just so you can visit every day and see the big YES.
sdhays
@Baud: LOL.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Know which you are getting?
germy
germy
The Associated Press is doing the fine investigative journalism we need in these troubled times:
L85NJGT
On track for another spike and lockdown.
JoyceH
Another Roosevelt connection – a nipping German Shepherd named Major:
https://www.presidentialpetmuseum.com/pets/fdr-german-shepherd-major/
lollipopguild
@Baud: @Baud: No Adult supervision. Sorta like the trump administration.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: It said J&J, but then it says 1st dose, so I’ll find out tomorrow.
Brachiator
@germy:
Also, McConnell did not have problems with Trump’s tax cuts massively increasing the national debt.
These GOP clowns need to get a new act.
mrmoshpotato
@L85NJGT:
Glad I got my first dose today! Good on ya, ya dumbass slapdicks!
mrmoshpotato
@Brachiator:
Silly Brachiator. The national debt is only a problem for Democratic presidents, not for Rethuglican presidents, and definitely not for a Soviet shitpile mobster conman.
L85NJGT
@Baud:
States are doing a slow walk on expanding who qualifies because there aren’t enough slots for demand. Vaccine supply is now outpacing throughput. Those two shot vaccines are a 50% hit to capacity.
Jeffro
@L85NJGT:
@mrmoshpotato:
We have failed our “marshmallow test” so many times during this pandemic that even cynical ol’ me is floored. Seriously.
cain
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
Which means that the Dems are close to being defeated and that Biden Presidency is unraveling also Biden is old – his dogs are a menace – /media
Fair Economist
@germy: Speaking as somebody often concerned about “infrastructure plans” because they mostly build new roads and highways of dubious value, I have to agree this plan is *incredibly* good. Detailed, and covering a lot of ways that improve infrastructure in ways that have never been addressed before (such as taking down highways that mostly just get in the way).
Martin
Originally read as ‘sewer grates’. Much better on re-reading.
Martin
@germy: Public housing – good. I’ve been telling my state folks that the state should take every NIMBYed development project in the state, eminent domain it, and put up public housing. Either let the developers build, or the state will do it. But not building isn’t a solution. Privileged homeowners don’t get to filibuster housing.
They’ve already been doing a bit of this – various state agencies have been putting public housing on parking land around rail stations.
Brachiator
@mrmoshpotato:
I’m enjoying watching the GOP try to push the same old simplistic bullshit.
Martin
We build electric buses in CA. Harris looking out for her home state.
Proterra and Gillig are both located in CA. BYDs NA operations are in CA. They’re located here because we created a market here. Hey Ohio – create a market there, you have the workforce to make these.
mrmoshpotato
@Jeffro:
Hell, some people crammed both jumbo marshmallows in their mouths, and then demanded the rest of the bag!
mrmoshpotato
@Martin:
Thankfully other people work on sewer grates. Otherwise, driving would be an axle-busting good time!
mrmoshpotato
@Brachiator:
They have decades of practice.
WaterGirl
I found this on whitehouse.gov under the press briefings. If Biden made this overview clear in his speech, I missed it!
Kay
A relationship.
I love this story because I think Gaetz found out he was under investigation and then concocted a story that the (now former) DOJ official offered 25 million to bury the investigation.
Which isn’t even exonerating, is the thing. They could both be criminals.
Betsy
@JoyceH: I like it! Framing *and* schadenfreude!
sdhays
@Kay: I’m surprised you’re unaware of the “if someone tries to blackmail you to cover up your crime, you can’t be tried for that crime, ever” statute. Isn’t that covered in law school?
Betsy
@Fair Economist: Yes, I agree completely. No new highways. New highways are climate arson. And tearing down urban highways that destroyed (in fact deliberately targeted) entire minority neighborhoods is one approach to reparations!
Another Scott
I didn’t see the speech, but this is music to my ears. ScienceMag:
It needs to be sustained for generations (people aren’t going to go into STEM unless there are stable, good paying, satisfying jobs at the end of their training), but it’s a great start. Well done.
Cheers,
Scott.