US Current Events November: D&D's Afghanistan

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > US Current Events November: D&D's Afghanistan

Tibalt: May 14, 2017; What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee

Grouchio posted:

You know things are back to normal when the monthly threads return

Let's hold off and see when the December thread gets posted before we start declaring a return to normal. We could still be looking at a second wave of seasonal megathreads.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2021 15:49

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 10, 2024 02:49

Tibalt: May 14, 2017; What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee

I don't think we're getting a vote on the BBB until the CPC follows through on their threat to vote down the BIF bill. After that, we'll see if Manchin and Sinema become more willing to compromise.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2021 19:59

Tibalt: May 14, 2017; What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee

TheIncredulousHulk posted:

Do you have any data to suggest that it has legitimately changed the lives of millions, because I'd be curious to see it

This is the report that a lot of people were talking about last time this conversation came up.

"The 2021 temporary expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) is unprecedented in its reach and is predicted to cut American child poverty by more than half. The expanded CTC provides families with $3,600 for every child in the household under the age of six, and $3,000 for every child between the ages of six and 17. Almost all middle- and low-income families with children are eligible for the CTC. Married parents making less than $150,000 and single parents making less than $112,500 per year will receive the full amount of the credit, which begins to phase out slowly after these income cut-offs."

So, as absolutely no surprise to anyone on this forum, giving people an extra $3k a month lets them save for emergencies, pay for housing and utilities, and provide for their children - without forcing families to jump through hoops or prove they weren't 'wasting' the money. Combined with other studies that showed that giving a lump cash payment instead of current welfare programs also didn't result in 'wasted' money by recipients, I feel pretty comfortable saying that a universal UBI program would be equally effective for households without children. I'd love to see the program expanded.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2021 22:05

Tibalt: May 14, 2017; What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee

Peter Daou Zen posted:

Youngkin +2 most likely due to the Republicans being re-energized from that stupid little tiki torch stunt.

Why pick that particular event as the turning point, and not "Parents shouldn't set school curriculums," or the BBB bill languishing, or the supply chain or covid issues?

The tightening in the polls happened before the stunt.

# ¿ Nov 2, 2021 13:57

Tibalt: May 14, 2017; What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee

Gripweed posted:

There's one thing I've never understood about the anti-third party argument. If a vote for Blanding is actually a vote for Youngkin because it's taking a vote away from McAuliffe, wouldn't a vote for Youngkin then technically be two votes for Youngkin because it's taking away a vote for McAuliffe and giving it to Youngkin?

But in that case, how do Democrats ever expect to win when their opponent's votes count twice as much as theirs?

Okay, so imagine you're about to join a Wizard's Tournament. There's two other wizards, one whose spell works 70% of the time and one whose spell works 90% of the time...

The actual answer is that, if McAuliffe was your preferred candidate, voting for Youngkin would 'count' as two votes as illustrated by the classic Matthew Broderick film Election. But voting for Blanding and not voting at all have the same effect (within that single election), assuming Blanding was truly unable to win. So, yeah, voting for Blanding is superior to voting for Youngkin but equal to just staying home from the perspective of preventing Youngkin from winning or ensuring that McAuliffe wins.

Edit: BlandING, YoUngkin.

Tibalt fucked around with this message at 16:09 on Nov 2, 2021

# ¿ Nov 2, 2021 16:05

Tibalt: May 14, 2017; What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee

Panzeh posted:

Ah, yes, third parties, famously, very successful in a political system where <50% = 0.

The main problem with FPTP voting is that someone with less than 50% of the vote can win, that's the whole reason why third parties are ineffective in America.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2021 18:38

Tibalt: May 14, 2017; What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee

Lib and let die posted:

You don't even need to leave the google search result page to know why we're sending interlopers to Nicaragua.

Why is the US loving around in Nicaraguan elections? Well,

Man, it's almost like things kept happening in Nicaragua over the last 40 years and didn't freeze in place in 1979.

Anyway, targeted sanctions, invasion with gunboats, same thing right? Absolutely nothing different about a unilateral military action and a international pressure campaign at all.

# ¿ Nov 4, 2021 19:23

Tibalt: May 14, 2017; What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee

rscott posted:

https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1461682195857293317?t=q6XbdTz72Q1NcvKhahPWBQ&s=19

Curious that Biden is doing this now, after all the protests that he simply can't even start the process of getting rid of DeJoy. If you were going to do it, why wait almost an entire year?

You could try reading the first line of the article you linked, where it tells you that Biden isn't renominating the DeJoy ally at the end of his term.

There might be a reason why Biden can't bend the folds of time to make December 8th, 2021 happen earlier in the year.

# ¿ Nov 19, 2021 14:42

Tibalt: May 14, 2017; What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee

The Sean posted:

Man was ahead of his time. If he started his career post-widely accessible internet he would be massively popular (not that he isn't, just, ugh, too soon for the king).

Naw, I disagree. I think the MTV music video boom is the best time, and likely the only time, that Weird Al could have flourished. There was enough mono-culture that everybody could 'get' a Bad parody song, but enough content being constantly produced that he had a wide enough array of targets. 10 years earlier and he's the Duck Disco guy, ten years later and he's one of the dozen parody music YouTube channels that I'm currently subscribed to.

# ¿ Nov 23, 2021 01:44

Tibalt: May 14, 2017; What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee

Releasing oil from the strategic reserve to relieve a temporary clustertruck that's causing a spike in oil prices seems like exactly the sort of situation where you should use the reserves, and by definition is a one-time band-aid fix while we work out a solution.

Are y'all so eager to hate Biden that you've got to make lower gas prices into a bad thing?

# ¿ Nov 23, 2021 14:54

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 10, 2024 02:49

Tibalt: May 14, 2017; What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee

Crows Turn Off posted:

Any reason why the Biden Admintration couldn't have or shouldn't have just ignored Trump's agreement/plan and done the "right" things instead (whatever the "right" things are)?

Because the Afghan war had been lost for a decade at least at this point, so staying in, breaking our word, and functionally breaking the ceasefire just so we could stick around for another 2 to 20 years and then leaving wouldn't have changed that.

The 'right' thing was "simply form a functioning government in Afghanistan fivehead" so yeah, gently caress that.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2021 00:42

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > US Current Events November: D&D's Afghanistan