WTF is the deal with US states banning masks? Are they going to ban washing your hands next?
Are they going to ban washing your hands next?
Washing your hands removes vital oils used by forensics to identify you at a crime scene.
/s
They’re not banning masks for the KKK, if that helps understand their thinning…
The non quippy answer:
Wearing masks other than theatrical or things like Halloween masks was prohibited in many places prior to covid.
Some places were explicitly anti protest from the 1900s (unions), others anti hate crime (KKK). Some just had it as a thing that can be tacked on to other crimes. My state has a law that makes it a misdemeanor to wear a mask to conceal your identity while commiting a crime.
These laws are not unique to the US.
When covid came along, most states that had restrictions passed laws adding exceptions for health related face coverings.
In response to people protesting Israeli actions in Palestine, North Carolina repealed their relaxation of the mask rules, and refused to add a health clause, arguing that even though it’s illegal, it was illegal before covid and just never enforced, so it’s fine.
They also included an exception that allows for secret societies to wear masks or hoods in a parade or demonstration if they have a permit. That’s the KKK in a nutshell.
It’s preposterous bullshit intended to work as an election year headline grabber, since it’s anti mask, anti protester, and pro Israel all at once.
US conservatives turn EVERYTHING into a culture war.
It gets their base riled up and to the poles polls. They would very much like it if non-conservatives would stay home or vote third party.
They’ll ban toilet paper and cleaning up after you go. Touching your ass is so gay
Don’t forget they’re trying to end free school meals for poor families too!
They are trying to undo agency la wholesale. As in completely remove all corporate and industrial regulations through removal of the EPA, FAA, FDA, USDA, ect. Through plan 2025 they will undo life as we know it and send us back to the beginning of the labor movement in America.
The Republican mentality is that the constitution should be the sole governing document of America. No government agencies or regulation. It’s an unhinged, uneducated plan that will kill us all.
Not even the constitution. They literally break or say that “it was a mistake” for a majority of the constitution and pay judges to twist the meaning to fit their corporate donors’ wishes.
They literally want corporate feudalism where the only laws are those made by daddy corpo.
It’s actually quite crazy to see the amount of change Biden could get done even with out control of the legislative branch. Adding to that, the Republicans are in disarray too yet things still got done.
I’m surprised OP didn’t include the largest climate legislation in world history
I want to see another country or region beat us, as this would be welcome competition.
I’m surprised OP didn’t include the largest climate legislation in world history
New Infrastructure Law to Provide Billions to Energy Technology Projects
The bill spends enormous amounts on carbon capture projects that have historically produced lackluster results. It throws even more good money after bad on “clean hydrogen”, an absolute sinkhole of R&D over the last two decades. And then there’s the large investment in battery technology that’s… definitely better than the first two, but still relies on the kind of enormous strip mining and chemical processing projects that got us in the fossil fuels mess to begin with.
$12B on various kinds of carbon capture and $9.5B on hydrogen and another $6.5B on battery advancements, relative to the $0.4B spent on new renewable energy projects. Even our deplorable bankrupt nuclear programs get $2.5B, relative to technologies that have seen some of the best ROI on energy production since the ICE was invented.
Like, sure. Blah blah Trump Worse. But the Infrastructure Reinvestment Act is not a good bill by any other standard than “Better than what Republicans wanted”. Its the same bad California Tech Sector pipe dream ideas we’ve been flushing money down the toilet on since Bill Clinton was President.
I want to see another country or region beat us
You’ll find a line around the block. Spain’s sinking $89B in a renewable overhaul of its grid. France has been doing donuts around the US on nuclear power since the 70s. Italy’s completely overhauling its rail infrastructure (something Americans rip up more often than they rebuild) to use HVDC power.
Where the US tends to lead the pack is in private investment and that’s largely because Solar and Wind power built using cheap foreign imported steel and photovoltaics, have turned our decrepid electricity infrastructure into a gold mine of overpriced retail power. (Something new trade war restrictions may curtail in the next presidency).
The paradox in this is the threat that public investment and efficiency improvements in the grid threaten those profits. If you go around hooking up the fifth-gen molten salt nuclear power stations to an updated smart-balanced American grid, you’re going to tank the incomes of a litany of energy companies.
Nobody with a revenue stream coming from sky high auction-priced electricity coming of the Texas ERCOT system, for instance, wants us to slaughter the golden goose that is $3000 MWh peak electricity prices.
Without hydrogen or battery storage how exactly do you want to store energy?
Until renewable energy inputs approach the base load, there’s nothing to store.
After that, hydrogen is an awful storage medium because it’s so permiable. Even if you’re focused on long term energy storage needs, sodium and nickel batteries are proving far more efficient than hydrogen cells. We’ve known that since the 90s, but continue to invest wasted billion after wasted billion in a dead end technology.
enormous amounts on carbon capture projects that have historically produced lackluster results. It throws even more good money after bad on “clean hydrogen”, an absolute sinkhole of R&D
And yet both are desperately needed
- we’re already zooming past our climate goals for carbon emission, and rapidly approaching all the dangers that entails. While not putting fossilized carbon in the atmosphere to begin with is far better, it’s naive to think that will be enough. If there’s a practical way to recover some of that atmospheric carbon, we need to find it and scale up fast
- while we’ve found better technologies than hydrogen for personal transportation and power generation, there are still too many places we still need energy, where wires can’t go, batteries aren’t sufficient. Think of industrial uses like metal refining or concrete manufacturing, flying, shipping, construction, long distance trains, etc, that we don’t yet have a good solution for. Yes, even for storage: current storage technology is fantastic, but it’s not clear that it can scale. We do also need a hydrogen economy
And yet both are desperately needed
If you want to benefit climate change from the perspective of new technology, cancel the battery technology patents horded by fossil fuel companies.
All climate change bills are lipservice if we dont address the core problem, infinite growth capitalism.
If it’s not perfect we should do nothing you’re right. /S
You want to address big problems? We need more Democrats in control of the Congress and executive branch. Republicans will always push us back untill their platform changes.
The second part of your statement is the problem. We dont JUST need more Democrats. We need BETTER Democrats.
Like I said, these 1/300th steps ARE THE COMPROMISE.
The current trajectory, even with Democrats in charge, is certain death of Humanity due to Climate change. Republicans will just do it faster.
If you have more Democrats in power you can start to filter out the conservative and moderate Democrats. When we have the thinest majority possible, you can’t be picky with what gets passed as you need agreement from the full spectrum of Democrats. Manchin sucked as a Democrat. But he was vital in getting legislation passed that a Republican in his position wouldn’t pass.
Bringing this back to your original response, you’re complaining that any progress is bad if it doesn’t address the core issue, and I still disagree with that. Any progress is better than none and isn’t “lip service”, this is just how US government in reality works, you keep making larger more incremental steps. Our current steps aren’t sufficient, in that I believe you and I agree, but there will hopefully be better, stronger legislation to address root problems.
If both paths are resulting in a radical shift in human life, if not its outright destruction, then now, there really is no point on debating which evil is lesser.
You neoliberals are actually insane on the climate issue.
Only idiots are saying both sides are the same, but the only way to make Biden look good is to compare him to Trump. Such a low bar.
Lowering insulin prices is great, but its just another bandaid on the gaping, infected wound that is the US healthcare system. What happened to the public option that candidate Biden talked about so much?
Lowering cannabis to schedule 3 is a step in the right direction, now we can have legitimate legal studies on the drug. But this doesn’t have to go in baby steps, he could have just descheduled it. We will still be arresting and prosecuting and jailing, ruining lives and wasting loads of taxpayer dollars.
The infrastructure bill is just clearing the maintenance backlog, we still have no real plans for high speed rail. Our infrastructure is 10-15 years behind China and falling further behind.
And it was Sanders who actually got the Insulin reduction through, Biden just kind of accepted it as a win once it became inevitable.
People’s memory is so freaking short.
That’s how all of this works. Trump would have refused to sign it had it been brought to his desk. The president at best can block bills or try to set an agenda as party leader. Everything else relies on the house and Senate. Which we should remember they gave Sanders more power and important committee placement just for this reason.
I voted for Sanders in the primary twice. I would have loved to see him as president. However I think he’s been more productive as a Democrat senator than he realistically would have been able to as president.
Well we will never know because the DNC decided they get to pick the candidate not the people
The more primary votes for Sanders and for progressive candidates, the more likely are their ideas to make it onto the party platform, and the more likely they are to be appointed to positions of influence. It’s not all or nothing, but many bits and pieces where it all counts
What happened to the public option that candidate Biden talked about so much?
Pray tell, how would Biden get that passed with the current political setting?
Biden is a president, not a king, he can’t just deschedule marijuana unilaterally without causing problems, he needs Congress to help. Look at your answer to my first question to see how that gets done. Some info: https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/04/20/over-80-groups-urge-biden-administration-end-federal-prohibition-marijuana-and
Our infrastructure is 10-15 years behind China and falling further behind.
Again, look at your answer to my first question.
It feels like you want Biden to fix everything, while completely unaware of how our government works. Which brings us to why people compare Trump to Biden, because people will have to vote for one or the other in the election. Is you want better and more extensive changes, vote for the Democrats that can only take baby steps at the moment. When they get more control on Congress, they can make bigger steps.
When Biden was elected, Dems controlled both houses of congress. What stopped him from pushing his public option plan then?
What is stopping him from pushing to deschedule cannabis completely? Even if congress gets in his way, people would give him massive credit for actually trying.
You say we need to elect more Democrats to make bigger steps, but we did that in 2008 and 2020 and still we get baby steps. Why?
If the president is so powerless, then why are people worried about project 2025 and “dictator on day 1” Trump? Surely they must be confused, because the adults in the room like you know that the president is actually unable to pass meaningful legislation.
Please educate me since I’m completely unaware how our government works.
Dems controlled both houses of congress. What stopped him from pushing his public option plan then?
Manchin and Sinema, mainly, but also the 60-vote filibuster threshold. Forgot already?
then why are people worried about project 2025 and “dictator on day 1” Trump?
Because reasonable people don’t want the president to attempt authoritarian rule in order to progress his agenda. The fact that it is possible to do that is a big fucking issue and yet here we are, watching it happen with Trump. That doesn’t mean Biden should do it. It should not [and cannot be allowed to] happen at all.
If the president is so powerless, then why are people worried about project 2025 and “dictator on day 1” Trump? Surely they must be confused, because the adults in the room like you know that the president is actually unable to pass meaningful legislation.
I can never tell when someone is arguing in bad faith or legitimately saying something off-their-rocker.
If the president is so powerless, then why are people worried about project 2025 and “dictator on day 1” Trump? Surely they must be confused, because the adults in the room like you know that the president is actually unable to pass meaningful legislation.
If Biden gave the order to eliminate his political opponents, nothing would happen because the amount of Biden fanatics is pretty low. Trump has enough fanatics in his ranks (which include a lot of military/police) that they would just do it, legality be damned. And with the current supreme court legality is a fluid concept in favor of republicans, and they know it.
When Biden was elected, Dems controlled both houses of congress. What stopped him from pushing his public option plan then?
This is completely false. They had control of the House, and a tie breaker for the Senate. But that didn’t matter much because they need 60 senators to pass legislation without Republicans impeding.
What is stopping him from pushing to deschedule cannabis completely? Even if congress gets in his way, people would give him massive credit for actually trying.
It would be the judiciary that gets in the way as well as Republicans. You’d have people saying Biden is an idiot and only doing this to make it seem he’s trying while not actually accomplishing anything. He’s making meaningful progress now. Congress is who can actually fix our marijuana laws in a federal sense.
You say we need to elect more Democrats to make bigger steps, but we did that in 2008 and 2020 and still we get baby steps. Why?
Your premise is wrong again. If you have few Democrats in control you get baby steps. If centrist and progressives had the house, and 60 senators and the executive branch, larger steps would be taken. That’s not happened in about 24 years or longer. Republicans have had that more times so you can see the progress they’ve made at bettering out country these last 24 years.
If the president is so powerless, then why are people worried about project 2025 and “dictator on day 1” Trump? Surely they must be confused, because the adults in the room like you know that the president is actually unable to pass meaningful legislation.
For the same reason it’s easier and faster to shoot someone in the face than it is to arrest them, put them on trial and imprison them, Trump isn’t going about playing by the rules, and he has many Republicans supporting him. If Biden breaks rules, both Republicans and Democrats would step in to fix that.in addition, Trump doesn’t care about what will last, short terms goals are fine with him. Biden wants legislation that will get passed and not struck down by a conservative court.
We do have plans for highspeed rail, we’re building it in California, Navada, Florida, and the north east corridor right now, with plans to extend the network and add new lines.
Biden has also been funding renewable energy, and fighting inflation, forgiving student debt, and providing funding for first time home buyers.
We absolutely still need a public option for healthcare, and to decriminalize cannabis, but I don’t think you’re giving him enough credit. Biden has done more to help unions than Clinton or Obama. He’s been getting a lot done with a divided congress.
In 2008, both China and the US announced competing high speed rail initiatives.
According to wikipedia, China now has 43,000 km of high speed rail. The US has 80 km of high speed rail.
Yes Cali has plans for high speed rail, its pretty much the same plan from 2008.
And going down your list- renewable energy, fighting inflation, student debt forgiveness, homebuyer assistance - all of these are tepid, surface level initiatives that do not solve the underlying problems. So you’re right, I dont give Biden much credit.
In 2008
Check calendar
As it turns out, as the date changes the world changes as well. Sometimes you can’t have it all, sometimes plans have to change.
Sorry you don’t like the progress we have made 👉👈
but the only way to make Biden look good is to compare him to Trump
In a recent survey of 154 historical scholars measuring presidential ranking through the accomplishments of all 45 presidents, Biden ranked 14th, while Trump ranked dead last.
Its easy to say Trump makes another presidential option look good, because that’s absolutely true. But it’s a little dishonest to say that Biden’s not a decent president with a list of accomplishments that stand independent of Trump.
decent president
Personally, I believe Biden forfeited any claims to decency when he went on national television and lied to the American people about seeing pictures of 40 beheaded babies. This gruesome story, proved false by any serious accounting of Oct. 7th, was told to justify the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
But I guess I’m just an idealist.
You’re right, totally the exact same as trump
Lowering insulin prices is great, but its just another bandaid on the gaping, infected would that is the US healthcare system.
We have completely lost to Big Business at this point. No leader is willing to attack them and make meaningful legislation to rein them in because (stupidly) wealth growth revolves around financial markets and not actual production of goods. If you mess with the stock market you ruin everything from retirements to people’s employment. So government’s hands are tied and all they can do is treat the symptoms instead of the disease.
spoiler
sdfsaf
Lemme guess - the state’s representation is gerrymandered six ways from Sunday, all the people who could possibly be Democratic voters were tossed off the rolls about 30 minutes before the vote, and there’s only one ballot drop off point in the biggest urban area. Right?
Did they also outlaw giving out water in long voting lines too? Cause that one’s extra special.
