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westslope

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Location: BC sage brush steppe

Posted: Jan 5, 2024 - 10:57am

black321 wrote:

Isn't this why we want viable candidates, from both parties?
A reasonable, charismatic individual who can lead.
Not one in his ninth decade, and another facing 90 years to life (lifted that from somewhere).

Yeah. The lack of good choices can occur in all kinds of democracies but appears to be particularly acute in the USA heading to November 2024 with two violent conflicts boiling away in the background, one which has the serious potential for horizontal escalation and other other which has serious potential for vertical escalation.

Time to ditch the presidential system and move to a system where the head of state and the head of government are separate individuals? One where multiple political parties have more potential for significant influence on the policy process?

black321

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Location: An earth without maps
Gender: Male

Posted: Jan 5, 2024 - 10:20am

islander wrote:

I waffle on the overall sentiment. Sure Biden has issues (which pres/candidate doesn't), but is this all just media needs a horserace BS? I can't believe that many people in swing states will really go Trump - especially after a true campaign gets going. But I also can't believe that he's likely to be the gop candidate either, so my judgment is clearly off. Regardless of candidates or election outcomes, the state of our politic is so broken that I'm genuinely worried about the future.

steeler

steeler Avatar

Location: Perched on the precipice of the cauldron of truth

Posted: Jan 5, 2024 - 9:50am

islander wrote:

I waffle on the overall sentiment. Sure Biden has issues (which pres/candidate doesn't), but is this all just media needs a horserace BS? I can't believe that many people in swing states will really go Trump - especially after a true campaign gets going. But I also can't believe that he's likely to be the gop candidate either, so my judgment is clearly off. Regardless of candidates or election outcomes, the state of our politic is so broken that I'm genuinely worried about the future.

Extremely hard not to be.

islander

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Location: West coast somewhere
Gender: Male

Posted: Jan 5, 2024 - 9:35am

ScottFromWyoming wrote:

Dean Phillips (about whom I have no opinion) is running. His facebook ads are beset by a Russianesque flood of bad information: That he needs to drop out because he's splitting the vote and guaranteeing a Trump win. That any primary opponent will make Biden look weak (as opposed to ...?). Or a bunch of Ridin' With Biden type of support, no actual conversation, just "Biden 100% *smileysticker*" ... I really can't tell whether it's true support, or if the GOP is praying for Biden to be the nominee.

I waffle on the overall sentiment. Sure Biden has issues (which pres/candidate doesn't), but is this all just media needs a horserace BS? I can't believe that many people in swing states will really go Trump - especially after a true campaign gets going. But I also can't believe that he's likely to be the gop candidate either, so my judgment is clearly off. Regardless of candidates or election outcomes, the state of our politic is so broken that I'm genuinely worried about the future.

ScottFromWyoming

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Location: Powell
Gender: Male

Posted: Jan 5, 2024 - 8:56am

Red_Dragon wrote:

100%

Red_Dragon

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Location: Dumbf*ckistan

Posted: Jan 5, 2024 - 8:50am

black321 wrote:

The man supposed to stop Donald Trump is an unpopular 81-year-old

In failing to look past Joe Biden, Democrats have shown cowardice and complacency

American politics is paralysed by a contradiction as big as the Grand Canyon. Democrats rage about how re-electing Donald Trump would doom their countryâs democracy. And yet, in deciding who to put up against him in Novemberâs election, the party looks as if it will meekly submit to the candidacy of an 81-year-old with the worst approval rating of any modern president at this stage in his term. How did it come to this?

Joe Bidenâs net approval rating stands at minus 16 points. Mr Trump, leading polls in the swing states where the election will be decided, is a coin-toss away from a second presidential win. Even if you do not see Mr Trump as a potential dictator, that is an alarming prospect. A substantial share of Democrats would rather Mr Biden did not run. But instead of either challenging him or knuckling down to support his campaign, they have instead taken to muttering glassy-eyed about the mess they are in.

https://www.economist.com/lead...

100%

black321

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Location: An earth without maps
Gender: Male

Posted: Jan 5, 2024 - 6:41am

The man supposed to stop Donald Trump is an unpopular 81-year-old

In failing to look past Joe Biden, Democrats have shown cowardice and complacency

https://www.economist.com/lead...

Red_Dragon

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Location: Dumbf*ckistan

Posted: Jan 4, 2024 - 4:19pm
JrzyTmata wrote: hey! Hey! HEY!!! sic 'im!

ScottFromWyoming

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Location: Powell
Gender: Male

Posted: Jan 4, 2024 - 11:30am
JrzyTmata wrote: hey! Hey! HEY!!!

JrzyTmata

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Posted: Jan 4, 2024 - 11:25am
ScottFromWyoming wrote: JrzyTmata pulled some strings. hey! Hey! HEY!!!

ScottFromWyoming

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Location: Powell
Gender: Male

Posted: Jan 4, 2024 - 8:18am
Red_Dragon wrote: Why is he still in office? JrzyTmata pulled some strings.

Red_Dragon

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Location: Dumbf*ckistan

Posted: Jan 2, 2024 - 6:18pm
Why is he still in office?

R_P

Gender:

Posted: Dec 11, 2023 - 10:41am
Kackling Killary's kiss of death

westslope

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Location: BC sage brush steppe

Posted: Nov 5, 2023 - 10:05pm

Proclivities wrote:

Isn't there a more appropriate thread for this discussion? Even the over-simplified and inaccurate, "bitter-old-guy-grumbling-at-the-end-of-the-bar" meme which started it doesn't offer a connection. Electric vehicles are manufactured and sold all over the planet (more sold in China and Europe (each) than the US) - not sure what the Democratic Party has to do with it.

The big push for the 'transition' is coming from the Democratic Party in the USA and the left-of-centre parties here in Canada: Liberal, NDP, Greens.

Some of the crazier rhetoric that is blaming every twitch and turn in weather on human-caused climate change is coming from politicians from those parties and their supporters.

The approach is what I call the 'War on Drugs' approach. Essentially leave demand alone and attempt to sabotage or block production and distribution of oil and natural gas. It is to be expected because of the importance of the cheap energy entitlement. Support for exceptional US policies is strong in both Democratic and Republican camps.

My big concern is that this approach is creating unrealistic expectations and alienating lots of people. Ultimately there is even less support for the 'transition'.

What are the concrete results in some cases? Natural gas pipelines are blocked so people continue to rely on propane and fuel oil. Yet, natural gas should likely be viewed as a key strategic transition fuel for several reasons. Example: expanding nuclear energy to provide sufficient base load will take many decades and will be at least initially very expensive.

Steely_D

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Location: Biscayne Bay
Gender: Male

Posted: Nov 2, 2023 - 12:12pm

kurtster wrote:

The entire push in the USA is originating from the democratic party. The platform is death to petroleum and all internal combustion devices, be it automobile engines, stoves, furnaces, turbines, etc. Biden began on his first day with killing the XL pipeline and has kept ongoing closing pipelines and killing domestic production. Better to import from our enemies than produce at home.

The EV is the party panacea. Plain and simple.

Short term thinking: I can drop my trash on the street; itâs just one piece.
Long term: I should pick up after myself or the streets will become filthy.

Short term thinking: I should mine and burn all the fossil fuels I can find no matter the cost to our land and peopleâs health.
Long term: That supply of dead dinosaurs is finite, and its supply and cost is controlled by others; if I really want freedom I need another more accessible supply of energy.

Or I could rephrase that all as Goofus and Gallant?

islander

islander Avatar

Location: West coast somewhere
Gender: Male

Posted: Nov 1, 2023 - 2:42pm

black321 wrote:

I think the oil producers are doing OK:

U.S. crude oil production climbed to a record 13.2 million barrels per day last week, government data showed on Thursday, topping the previous peak set in 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic decimated global oil demand.

In the year following the COVID-10 outbreak, weekly output tanked by more than 3 million bpd to a low of 9.7 million bpd, as producers reduced production to match the sharp decline in demand.

Drillers were briefly spurred back to their wells after Russiaâs invasion of Ukraine, which rallied U.S. oil futures to their highest in over a decade at $130 per barrel in March 2022.

However, drilling has slowed again despite U.S. President Joe Biden putting pressure on oil companies to increase production as markets grappled with the ramifications on energy supplies of the war in Ukraine.

https://www.reuters.com/articl...

See, Biden can't do anything right. Don't know how you put up with the incompetent, evil genius he is.

black321

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Location: An earth without maps
Gender: Male

Posted: Nov 1, 2023 - 1:44pm

kurtster wrote:

https://www.reuters.com/articl...

kurtster

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Location: where fear is not a virtue
Gender: Male

Posted: Nov 1, 2023 - 1:16pm

Proclivities wrote:

- not sure what the Democratic Party has to do with it.

Proclivities

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Location: Paris of the Piedmont
Gender: Male

Posted: Nov 1, 2023 - 9:38am
Isn't there a more appropriate thread for this discussion? Even the over-simplified and inaccurate, "bitter-old-guy-grumbling-at-the-end-of-the-bar" meme which started it doesn't offer a connection. Electric vehicles are manufactured and sold all over the planet (more sold in China and Europe (each) than the US) - not sure what the Democratic Party has to do with it.

maryte

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Location: Blinding You With Library Science!
Gender: Female

Posted: Nov 1, 2023 - 8:50am

ScottFromWyoming wrote:

lol Texas Public Policy Foundation. Now do gasoline! Figure in the costs of eminent domain for pipelines and rail transport, keeping BLM lands "public" so they can be drilled, pollution cleanup shucked off onto the public, etc. etc.

Seriously - ANYTHING TPPF has a hand in should be accompanied by the great rolling of eyes and a soupÃ§on of righteous indignation...for example: https://www.texasaft.org/uncat...

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