All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Tami]

Is Biden's Climate Change policies any good?

I think it would be more fun to talk about the Republican's climate change policies.....because, well, you know, they don't have any.

[Kirby101]

Is Biden's Climate Change policies any good?

Yes, the original Infrastructure Bill had some very good parts addressing climate change. But another thing we can thank Manchin and Simena for crapping on.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

So! On a topic that's not Russia...

https://www.whitehouse.gov/kbj/

So on a scale of one to ten, one being not and ten being the most, how racist do we think the GOP is gonna get?

My guess? I’d say twelve. Qpublicans will have a field day happily butchering Ketanji’s name every chance they get, and, like with Obama, one or more of those cretins is bound to question the legality of her birthplace and if she’s really an American. THEN, they’ll go about dissecting her record before voting against her. Even though SCOTUS already has a right leaning majority, Qpublicans aren’t about to greenlight a black woman to join the high court. The racist base that supports the GQP would have a collective aneurysm if that happened.

[babyblob]

Large Explosions in Western Kyiv, Heavy fighting in the North or Kyiv, A battle underway in an Eastern Suburb of Kyiv and very heavy fighting in an area 20 miles south of Kyiv.

I am worried for the people of the city. I really hope they can stay as safe as they can but I know a lot of people are being hurt right now and it is saddening and sickening.

[JB]

They are helping...by not doing anything they enable Russia. Russia gets very little from the West so our sanctions do next to nothing, but if China was to say, "we're cutting off economic ties with Russia over this" it would end real quick because Russa both exports and imports a lot to and from China.

But China won't do that, because they think Russia's land grab is totally cool because they do the same thing all the time and plan on doing it again in the not too distant future. I don't get how people are confused by this.

A lot of people in the west are not aware of how economically tied Russia and China are. Most aren't aware of the EAEU. Russia, unfortunately, is not as isolated as we would like to believe.

Large Explosions in Western Kyiv, Heavy fighting in the North or Kyiv, A battle underway in an Eastern Suburb of Kyiv and very heavy fighting in an area 20 miles south of Kyiv.

I am worried for the people of the city. I really hope they can stay as safe as they can but I know a lot of people are being hurt right now and it is saddening and sickening.

Prayers to all innocent people in harm's way. A lot of people fled and there are refugee camps across the border in Poland and perhaps other nations. But so many stayed (or couldn't leave). Prayers all the way up.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

From what is claimed online the Klitchko brothers (boxers) are pledging to stay and fight in their country. It could be the end for them but history will look back good on them for putting their country above themselves.

[Xheight]

I think it would be more fun to talk about the Republican's climate change policies.....because, well, you know, they don't have any.

Well that isn't exactly true

Young Conservatives for Carbon Dividends to try and force a greater reaction from the national Republican Party on the issue of climate change. Even younger Republicans in Congress are starting to take action on the issue. Matt Gaetz, a 36-year-old Representative from Florida, has publicly acknowledged the existence of man-made climate change since he took office. With more and more millennials and Gen Zs becoming voters, the Republican Party will have to tailor its message if it hopes to remain competitive. Republican Representative Francis Rooney voiced such sentiment in 2019 when he criticized his fellow Republicans for not taking climate change seriously, warning in a letter “If we don’t change our party’s position soon, our voters will punish us.”
Congressional Republicans also feel emboldened to act on climate change because of the emergence of new technologies and policies that they believe can reduce carbon emissions without overburdening the economy. Utah Representative John Curtis, one of the leaders of the new Republican Climate Caucus, specifically outlined the use of new technologies to reduce carbon emissions as a key part of policies that they will promote. New think tanks led by long-time conservatives are also creating momentum for more right-wing policies to combat climate change by creating new research that backs up the efficacy of these kinds of solutions. In 2015, former conservative climate change denier Jerry Taylor founded the Niskanen Center, a think tank which he has used as a platform to argue for the compatibility of climate change policies with free-market principles. In 2017, former Republican Secretaries of State James Baker and George Schultz helped launch the Climate Leadership Council, which promotes solutions to climate change. While the organization does support bipartisanship to accomplish its goals, the business-friendly nature of the organization is apparent in its touting of the support of large corporations such as Ford.
The Republican Party’s stance on climate change is clearly undergoing a transition based on factors within and without. Despite the years of hostility to the environmentalist movement against climate change, leaders within the Party are recognizing that cutting carbon emissions can be done according to conservative values and is popular amongst their base and the population at large. While this change is significant, its backers will likely still have to contend with opposition to the climate deniers in the Party, including major Republican leaders such as Senator Ron Johnson. In addition, some liberal leaders have attacked the conservative approaches to climate change as ineffective and really only designed to promote private industries. It is possible that the next debate over climate change may not be whether it is real, but how best to combat it.

[Zauriel]

Well that isn't exactly true

Former Congressman Bob Inglis was awarded the 2015 Profile in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation "for the courage he demonstrated when reversing his position on climate change after extensive briefings with scientists, and discussions with his children, about the impact of atmospheric warming on our future."

His embrace of the scientific evidence of climate change and advocacy for a carbon tax drew intense criticism from fellow Republicans and it cost him reelection in the June 2010 Republican primary.

Bob Inglis also spoke against climate change denial, offshore oil drilling and warrantless surveillance.

He was one of seventeen House Republicans who voted for a Democratic resolution opposing the Iraq War troop surge of 2007.

On September 15, 2009, Inglis was one of seven Republicans to cross party lines in voting to disapprove fellow South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson for a lack of decorum during President Obama's address to a joint session of Congress. He was one of eight House Republicans to support the DREAM Act.

In 2015, he called for the recognition of same-sex marriage.

He stated if he was still in the House, he would vote to impeach Donald Trump.

[Mister Mets]

Yes, I know this isn't entirely on topic, but Russia, China, and hacking seem to be at the fore, so here goes:

I am extremely unhappy, and perhaps someone here can suggest a course of action. I discovered today I had part of my ID stolen. My name, and my address, but none of my financial information. The guy, who uses my name as one of his aliases, (this much I was able to discover myself, along with his address because he's stupid), brought a tablet computer. I got in touch with the company, which I'd never heard of, explained I am not him, and never have even been to Alaska, and they cancelled it, and put a fraud alert on the account.

But I want my pound of flesh. The Feds make it impossible to report these things, (in my case at least, asking for information I don't have), my local police have a cyber crime unit they want you to know, but apparently you have to hack it to find it. I was hacked years earlier, but I traced it to China, a notorious hacking "bank" that is widely known to be a CCP hacking station. Got that money back.

So how to I get them noticed by police, and how did they get only that information and NOT any financials.

Heh, because I'm the kind who carries a grudge, I found the person's apartment, and his name/alias. There are two people living there, a woman in her 80s, and a guy with a vaguely Eastern European name with no other information on him at all listed. I wonder who it was....

Still don't know who to report him to or how.

It may depend on the type of fraud. There are often major investigations that civilians aren't involved in where we won't get the satisfaction of knowing about an arrest. My parents got a bullshit phone call from scammers ten years ago claiming they owed money to the IRS (fortunately, they weren't tricked into giving any money) and many of those types of criminals have been arrested.

You might want to pester your members of Congress, and there is a page to report crimes to the Department of Justice.

https://www.justice.gov/criminal-cci...property-crime

[Mister Mets]

I know the right is having a field day with the rumor about China helping Russia but the reality is that we don't know what China is planning.

The US tried to work with China, and China shared intel with Russia.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/u...sultPosition=1

Over three months, senior Biden administration officials held half a dozen urgent meetings with top Chinese officials in which the Americans presented intelligence showing Russia’s troop buildup around Ukraine and beseeched the Chinese to tell Russia not to invade, according to U.S. officials.

Each time, the Chinese officials, including the foreign minister and the ambassador to the United States, rebuffed the Americans, saying they did not think an invasion was in the works. After one diplomatic exchange in December, U.S. officials got intelligence showing Beijing had shared the information with Moscow, telling the Russians that the United States was trying to sow discord — and that China would not try to impede Russian plans and actions, the officials said.

China's on the wrong side here, and we shouldn't provide moral cover for them.

[Tami]

The US tried to work with China, and China shared intel with Russia.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/u...sultPosition=1



China's on the wrong side here, and we shouldn't provide moral cover for them.

If I were to make a guess, I'd say that China is taking a wait-and-see attitude towards Russia. If Putin and Russia get away with doing what he wants to do in Ukraine, that would open the door wider for China to do whatever it wants, in Hong Kong, in Taiwan, or wherever.

If Putin fails, then the leadership of China would take that as a lesson in how not to get what you want.

[Tami]

New threat:



You know, somehow it doesn't surprise me.

Another take on this:

I looked into this and my read was that Rogozin wanted clarity on Biden's sanctions, because Biden's blanket assertion that Russian space program will be negatively impacted.

He alluded that without certain level of cooperation keeping ISS in sustainable orbit can lead to crash

[Iron Maiden]

Former Congressman Bob Inglis was awarded the 2015 Profile in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation "for the courage he demonstrated when reversing his position on climate change after extensive briefings with scientists, and discussions with his children, about the impact of atmospheric warming on our future."

His embrace of the scientific evidence of climate change and advocacy for a carbon tax drew intense criticism from fellow Republicans and it cost him reelection in the June 2010 Republican primary.

Bob Inglis also spoke against climate change denial, offshore oil drilling and warrantless surveillance.

He was one of seventeen House Republicans who voted for a Democratic resolution opposing the Iraq War troop surge of 2007.

On September 15, 2009, Inglis was one of seven Republicans to cross party lines in voting to disapprove fellow South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson for a lack of decorum during President Obama's address to a joint session of Congress. He was one of eight House Republicans to support the DREAM Act.

In 2015, he called for the recognition of same-sex marriage.

He stated if he was still in the House, he would vote to impeach Donald Trump.

Unfortunately he's former Congressman. But you did forget to mention he formed the Energy and Enterprise Initiative to promote action on climate change

[Tendrin]

If I were to make a guess, I'd say that China is taking a wait-and-see attitude towards Russia. If Putin and Russia get away with doing what he wants to do in Ukraine, that would open the door wider for China to do whatever it wants, in Hong Kong, in Taiwan, or wherever.

If Putin fails, then the leadership of China would take that as a lesson in how not to get what you want.

This is exactly the case. They're waiting to see how the rest of the world responds.

[JackDaw]

My guess? IÂ’d say twelve. Qpublicans will have a field day happily butchering KetanjiÂ’s name every chance they get, and, like with Obama, one or more of those cretins is bound to question the legality of her birthplace and if sheÂ’s really an American. THEN, theyÂ’ll go about dissecting her record before voting against her. Even though SCOTUS already has a right leaning majority, Qpublicans arenÂ’t about to greenlight a black woman to join the high court. The racist base that supports the GQP would have a collective aneurysm if that happened.

From the outside, I would say high.. but actually lower than ten.

The legal framework gives good support for racial equal, and schooling is integrated for example. The first is critical for enforcing individual rights in the present, and the second is critical for a better future society.

Compare that to say South African Apartheid for example in the past where people were forced to live separate lives at every level: separate buses, schooling, no marriages. It is really difficult to argue that present day US is not at least a bit better.

Again, it is possible to argue that some systems in the past were even worse than Apartheid: a ten society would be terrifying.

On the home front (I live in the UK, England specifically) I am not sure how I would rate it. There are less really, really obvious signs of racism than in the USÂ…public racist language is extremely rare for example and in the main openly racist politicians are not successful.

On that basis years ago, I would have said UK was much less racist than US. However, taking part in this thread for years has educated me to some of the more subtle forms racism can (and does) take, and I now believe there is less difference than I thought. I still think there is some difference, I would probably rate US as an 8, UK as a 6.

But honestly I can not think of any countries that I would rate as really, really low on this scale.