A thread for Democrats Only
POSTED BY: THGRRI
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 15:36
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A huge boost in infrastructure spending is very popular — if rich people pay for it
The idea of some kind of major federal infrastructure spending bill has circled for years now in Washington. It’s generally a popular idea that seems to have at least some support across party lines.
But new polling, provided exclusively to Vox by the Data for Progress think tank, underscores that public support for infrastructure spending is highly dependent on how you say you’re going to finance it.
When they framed the question as “some Democrats in Congress are proposing spending $100 billion per year for 10 years on a new infrastructure plan,” 62 percent of the public say they think it’s a good idea. But actual congressional appropriations either increase the budget deficit or else need to be offset with some kind of tax increase. And what Data for Progress — a group whose mission is to use credible polling to try to figure out what kind of progressive ideas are actually popular — finds is that the popularity of infrastructure spending varies widely according to how you say you’re going to pay for it.
A $1 trillion infrastructure package described as paid for by a wealth tax is overwhelmingly popular, securing support from over 70 percent of the public. By contrast, paying for increased infrastructure spending with a higher gas tax — an idea well-liked by technical experts across the board — is very unpopular, earning the backing of just 32 percent of voters.
Results like this are important for understanding the politics of specific issues. But they also illustrate a broader message about how politics works.
More about how politics works at www.vox.com/2020/5/21/21262211/infrastructure-spending-poll-stimulus
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Nobody takes any poll by a firm that calls themselves "Data for Progress" seriously. Certainly not a "Vox exclusive" poll.
It's gross how easily you are manipulated.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:There was no poll taken, but this is all Trump's idea:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Nobody takes any poll by a firm that calls themselves "Data for Progress" seriously. Certainly not a "Vox exclusive" poll.
It's gross how easily you are manipulated.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Trump Administration Reportedly Considered Conducting First Nuclear Test in 28 Years
The idea of carrying out the first nuclear test explosion since September 1992 is very controversial.
Experts said that any decision by the United States to carry out a test could have destabilizing consequences. “It would be an invitation for other nuclear-armed countries to follow suit,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association. “It would be the starting gun to an unprecedented nuclear arms race. You would also disrupt the negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who may no longer feel compelled to honor his moratorium on nuclear testing.”
The revelation of nuclear tests comes after Trump sought a big boost in nuclear weapons spending as part of his 2021 budget. Trump has been increasing spending on nuclear weapons every year since coming into office due in part to his “own belief that the United States should maintain the world’s most powerful nuclear force—and perhaps enlarge it,” the New York Times noted earlier this year. Proof that Trump is indeed a very stable genius.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/trump-administration-consi
dered-first-nuclear-test-decades.html
I took an informal poll and the Republicans think that testing nukes is brilliant. I think that is proof Republican voters aren't brilliant.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Truth is . . . Wait, do COVID deniers even know what the truth is?
Are these people lying to us or are they lying to themselves?
For years, that’s been the great imponderable of American politics, the question the rest of us asked as we watched nominal “conservatives” sink ever deeper into a morass of conspiracy, lies and alternative facts. Were they yanking our collective chain, working some deep strategy, invisible to our eyes? Or did they actually believe Barack Obama was a Muslim, born in Kenya? Or that Hillary Clinton ran a child-sex ring out of a pizza parlor? Or that the victims of mass shootings were really “crisis actors?”
It would be perversely reassuring to think they were lying only to us about all that, suggesting as it would that they understood the truth, but had, simply, if cynically, chosen for political advantage to deny it. If, however, they were lying to themselves, it suggested a people enmeshed in delusion and self-deception so profound they ought not be allowed to carry sharp objects.
Well, with the COVID-19 pandemic, we are seeing a definitive answer take shape, and it is not reassuring. Bad enough bands of putative conservatives have brandished guns in resistance to measures designed to save their lives and harassed reporters for daring to report the “fake news” of a health crisis that has killed more than 90,000 Americans. Then, on Monday, Donald Trump explained how he is guarding against infection.
“I happen to be taking” hydroxychloroquine, he told reporters. Why? “‘Cause I think it’s good. I’ve heard a lot of good stories.”
Unfortunately, none of those “good stories” is backed by even a smidgen of science. Hydroxychloroquine, a drug used to treat malaria and lupus, has not been shown to have any usefulness in warding off the coronavirus. In certain patients, it may even be linked to cardiac arrhythmia. In sum, then, hydroxychloroquine appears to be about as effective against COVID-19 as an injection of Lysol.
One may reasonably suspect, given Trump’s habitual estrangement from the truth and the unlikelihood of any doctor with an ounce of integrity prescribing that drug, that he’s lying and will soon claim he was just being “sarcastic.” On the other hand, given his penchant for magical thinking, his aversion to masks and other pandemic safeguards and the fact that doctors without integrity are not unheard of, it’s also reasonable to believe Trump is telling the truth.
More to the point, it’s reasonable to believe he believes taking hydroxychloroquine will protect him from the pandemic, even as the crisis continues to fell members of his own administration. Trump’s behavior, like that of the people chanting against masks and social distancing, raises an obvious question: Would they be acting this way if they thought it endangered their lives? Would they seek political advantage at the risk of their own health?
The answer is No. So what you’re dealing with here are not political actors, but true believers, exercising their true belief.
Granted, it’s hard to leave it at that. People are loath sometimes to credit the evidence of their own eyes and ears; they flinch from leveling judgments that clash too starkly with their understanding of how reasonable people behave. They look for a chain of logic, for reasons that might make sense to sensible people.
In so doing, they ignore the good advice of Dr. Maya Angelou: “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.”
Embrace that, and you will spend less time wondering how so many on the right can believe the coronavirus pandemic is a hoax when every day they see the death count rise.
They can because they can. And because they need to.
Dr. Angelou’s wisdom also makes the answer to that first question starkly, if frustratingly, clear. Are they lying to us, or are they lying to themselves?
The answer is, Yes.
www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article
242847231.html
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafir
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T 
Deep state describes dedicated, educated professionals. 
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Truth is . . . Wait, do COVID deniers even know what the truth is?
Don't bother trying to tell me what the truth is, smart guy. The CDC and the WHO change their mind on what the truth is on a daily basis.
Quote:
Are these people lying to us or are they lying to themselves?
For years, that’s been the great imponderable of American politics, the question the rest of us asked as we watched nominal “conservatives” sink ever deeper into a morass of conspiracy, lies and alternative facts. Were they yanking our collective chain, working some deep strategy, invisible to our eyes? Or did they actually believe Barack Obama was a Muslim, born in Kenya? Or that Hillary Clinton ran a child-sex ring out of a pizza parlor? Or that the victims of mass shootings were really “crisis actors?”
Get back to me when you admit the Russiagate conspiracy was a huge steaming pile of shit.
Otherwise, pot meet kettle.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:On Memorial Day weekend, Trump shows his true self
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Don't bother trying to tell me what the truth is, smart guy. The CDC and the WHO change their mind on what the truth is on a daily basis.
A century after the poppy began symbolizing Memorial Day, it's a good time to consider how we should memorialize the casualties of the pandemic. (In mere months, more Americans have died than in Vietnam and Korea combined.) The surgical mask might be a proper emblem, or perhaps the double helix of DNA. Both would honor the dead and the medical workers who saved the sick. Both would likely enrage President Donald Trump.
As the most somber national holiday weekend began, the president showed us how he feels about our current suffering. Saturday brought a blast of angry Twitter posts followed by a round of golf. At day's end he posted about a vile and baseless conspiracy theory that slanders one of his perceived "enemies" and torments the parents of a young woman who died of natural causes. In addition to another round of golf on Sunday, he offered this enthusiastic falsehood: "Cases, numbers and deaths are going down all over the country!" In fact, cases are still rising in many states and locales.
Trump's heedless holiday demonstrated that as his drive for re-election begins in earnest, he will not alter the formula that got him to the Oval Office in the first place. This method depends on the reliable power of divisiveness, anger, and activist rage. Although disastrous when tapped in response to a crisis like the current pandemic, Trump is using them as he did in 2016: to energize his base.
Much research has shown that many people find their sense of well-being and self-esteem rises when they feel anger or hatred of others. What the Wall Street Journal recently described as "the pleasure of hating" can bring people together to act against a common enemy whether that enemy is real or imagined. In his life before politics, Trump conjured up pop culture enemies like Rosie O'Donnell so he could engage in public fights against someone he hated. In his political incarnation, where the consequences are real and serious, he has used the same process but infused it with conspiracy theories about "Deep State" opponents
Trump either knows, or intuits, the power of this game. The more anger people feel, the less they are inclined toward moderation and compromise. The enraged are also likely to feel more motivated to vote against the object of their hate. Add Trump's ability to demonstrate feelings of hatred and revulsion -- take a peek at his rallies -- and it's as if he is broadcasting an official sanction for everyone to shed the restraints of decency and give free rein to their impulsive hatreds.
Is the president's rage sincere? His affection for theatrics and performance argue that it's all game. We all know that the president loves to use showbiz devices to capture attention. The question of whether he would or would not wear a medical mask to visit a Ford factory created a classic cliffhanger attraction. His frequent press conference meltdowns perform the same service, keeping us all tuning in. These and factors suggest it's all an act.
On the other hand, as we watch the president stagger through the Covid-19 emergency, golfing as The New York Times prepared to publish a roster of the dead, we should consider that the cruelty, the arrogance, the rage and deviance are not an act. When I see him now on television, I recognize the same pattern I saw when I interviewed him half a dozen times years ago. He is only truly animated, truly himself, when expressing disdain for others or love for himself. Hatred and conceit are his comfort zones, and he returns to them whenever he's under pressure.
Trump's sincere belief that anyone whose views differ from his must be an enemy explains why he recently attacked the science that showed the drug he touted and said he took -- hydroxychl
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Trump's heedless holiday demonstrated that as his drive for re-election begins in earnest, he will not alter the formula that got him to the Oval Office in the first place. This method depends on the reliable power of divisiveness, anger, and activist rage.
Are you kidding me? Are you so bereft of a sense of self awareness that you can pretend that is not the Democrat's MO?
It's called Identity Politics, genius. Democrats have been putting everybody into boxes and then making them fight each other like Betta Fish on a daily basis since 2007.
9 out of 10 activists that rage are from the Left. And with half the people wearing masks now, they feel right at home. Just ask your sockpuppet Reaverfan.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Trump – The Infallible Leader
Last week Joe Biden made an off-the-cuff joke that could be interpreted as taking African-American votes for granted. It wasn’t a big deal — Biden, who loyally served Barack Obama, has long had a strong affinity with black voters, and he has made a point of issuing policy proposals aimed at narrowing racial health and wealth gaps. Still, Biden apologized.
And in so doing he made a powerful case for choosing him over Donald Trump in November. You see, Biden, unlike Trump, is capable of admitting error.
Trump’s pathological inability to admit error — and yes, it really does rise to the level of pathology — has been obvious for years, and has had serious consequences. For example, it has made him an easy mark for foreign dictators like North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, who know they can safely renege on whatever promises Trump thought they made. After all, for him to condemn Kim’s actions would mean admitting he was wrong to claim he had achieved a diplomatic breakthrough.
But it took a pandemic to show just how much damage a leader with an infallibility complex can inflict.
We now know that during January and February Trump ignored repeated warnings from intelligence agencies about the threat posed by the virus. He and his inner circle didn’t want to hear bad news, and in particular didn’t want to hear anything that might threaten the stock market.
What’s really striking, however, is what happened in the first half of March. By then the evidence of an emerging pandemic was overwhelming. Yet Trump and company refused to act, persisting in their happy talk — largely, one suspects, because they couldn’t bring themselves to admit that their earlier reassurances had been wrong. By the time Trump finally (and briefly) faced reality, it was too late to prevent a death toll that’s about to pass 100,000.
And the worst may be yet to come. If you aren’t terrified by photos of large crowds gathering over Memorial Day weekend without either wearing masks or practicing social distancing, you haven’t been paying attention.
Yet if there is a second wave of Covid-19 cases, Trump — who has insistently called for a relaxation of social distancing despite warnings from health experts — has already declared that he won’t call for a second lockdown. After all, that would mean admitting, at least implicitly, that he was wrong to push for early reopening in the first place.
In some ways Trump is a pitiful figure — or would be, if his character flaws weren’t leading to so many deaths. Imagine what it must be like to be so insecure, so lacking in self-regard, that you not only feel the need to engage in constant boasting, but have to claim infallibility on every issue.
Biden, on the other hand, while not the most impressive presidential candidate ever, is clearly a man comfortable in his own skin. He knows who he is, which is why he has been able to reconcile with former critics like Elizabeth Warren. And when he makes a mistake, he isn’t afraid to admit it.
Over the past few months we’ve seen just how much damage a president who’s never wrong can do. Wouldn’t it be a relief to have the White House occupied by someone who isn’t infallible?
www.nytimes.com/2020/05/25/opinion/trump-biden-president.html
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Gotta love that media spin machine.
Biden apologized for a huge lapse in his demented judgement by once again letting his racism spill out of his mouth like diarrhea, but he said he's sorry so that's okay. (The more you people talk, the more this is starting to sound like a religion, innit? Confession, anyone?)
Maybe Roseanne Barr should have her show back. Or any of the other people you idiots cancelled for saying far lesser things than insinuating that all blacks should know their role and vote Democrat because black.
Too bad they can all get on the internet now and learn for themselves who the real racist party is. The Legacy Media is pretending it's not the Democrats, while plenty of black people are online being red pilled and speaking out against Joe.
Low voter turnout in November on top of a record black voter turnout for Trump is going to be hilarious to watch.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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