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The Biden Presidency Vol. 1

snuffbox

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Her apologies for saying absolutely correct things about Republicans just weren't enough for him.
 

King Kamala

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This is one of only good things Joe Manchin has done in past four years and it is probably for an absolutely stupid reason
 

snuffbox

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Manchin is now holding up Deb Haaland's nomination for Interior because she's a Native woman.
 

Baby Shoes

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Schmucks understanding numbers aside, these dopes who shouldn’t have been allowed to reproduce would probably have their kids back in school already had they not enabled someone denying there was a problem and letting it become the worst pandemic handling in the world
 

snuffbox

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This has been a bad week for the Biden admin. And a frustrating/depressing one for his supporters, myself included. The flimsiness on a minimum wage increase, the bombings in Syria, and, today, a choice to not hold the Saudi crown prince accountable for murdering Jamal Khashoggi. The evil cartoon of CPAC is distracting a bit from all that but we are capable of paying attention to more than one thing, and I think many will remember the Biden fuckups over the past few days.
 

909

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I'm bummed about the other stuff but what did people think he could do to MBS? Sanction him and crash the entire economy? Saudi Arabia ditches the petrodollar system and there goes the whole country and a lot of allies like Japan and Germany go down with it. It's pretty clear cut that our entire standard of life is based on this system.
 

King Kamala

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I really don't know what the hell US would be able to do about Saudi Arabia even if Bernie would've won. Being less dependent on oil would help our leverage but ha ha ha ho ho ho hee hee hee.
 

909

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The simple fact is that if you have the power to crash the world economy or you have nuclear weapons, you pretty much have the impunity to act however aggressively you want to on the global stage. Frankly I'm surprised it took so long for Saudi Arabia and Russia to understand this, or in Russia's case to understand it again. We shouldn't be allies with Saudi Arabia but I feel like if the general public understood what that meant, and how that would directly affect everyone's paycheck, people would freak out. The Saudis hold too much of our currency.

I really don't know what the hell US would be able to do about Saudi Arabia even if Bernie would've won. Being less dependent on oil would help our leverage but ha ha ha ho ho ho hee hee hee.

It's going to take a while for all that to happen. There are a lot of reasons why it has to take a while but the main one is to prevent the economy from crashing. There are a lot of reasons why it has to be that way, but one of the main ones is that doing something like an immediate sanction would lead to OPEC nations dumping our currency at Saudi Arabia's behest, which would render some portion of people's paychecks effectively worthless. We just can't scorch the earth with them even though everyone wants to. Personally I'm not cool with creating another Iraq like situation that someone would eventually come along and feel like it needs to be dealt with the same way.
 

snuffbox

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Yes, we've demonstrably been Saudi Arabia's bitch (some folks quite willfully bitchmade) since at least Sept 2001. But I still don't like it. And rationalizing it from comfortably afar doesn't make me feel any better about it.
 

snuffbox

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Why are progressives trying so hard to make sure people making 100k get a stimulus check?
 

Dandy

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If I can chime in without coming across as a braggart, I would like to address that. As I revealed in my Humblebrag thread, I made $113K+ last year; my wife made $108K+ last year; and our apartment rental brought in another $7K+ gross last year. Plus our tax return; plus our stimulus (which was based off the previous year’s return which had less income). We have three children, so our stimulus was pretty hefty even though as a household we were phased out a bit.

If we get even more from the stimulus this round, we will be throwing that money back into the economy as soon as it hits our account. It will be local, and it will be the epitome of the “velocity of money” principle. I am going to have my contractor do a complete bathroom renovation in the apartment; and I am going to do another project to my house. The contractor will both pay his employees as well as have money from the projects himself. He will buy meat off the local butcher shop that helps the farmers; he will buy items his three daughters want/need; and he will go visit some of his favorite locally owned restaurants. His employees will receive less as it will be wages only, but it is guaranteed work during the winter and will augment whatever stimulus money they receive. Those vendors, restaurants, and stores that I and these people will patron will have their owners spend locally as well.

See, no matter how badly the GOP and others have tried to condition the entire country to think, $228K is not “the rich,” and we have bills too. We are also almost guaranteed to spend that money. I could pad my savings or buy stocks, but I really want to get these projects knocked out without having to save up for them or allocate income that could go elsewhere so we do not feel a pinch. I also want to do my part in stimulating the economy.
 

snuffbox

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Thank you for providing an answer to the question, thoughtfully, and through the sharing of your lived experience.
 

Dandy

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You’re welcome. I just feel like the only reason the politicians are cutting the income level maximum/phase outs where they are is for the political game versus one another. There is no research or data that shows that arbitrary number to be the cliff at which people are not hurting. It’s all about who wants to “win” and show strength of party.

Hell, CURRENT income is not even considered as they are going off tax returns.
 

cobainwasmurdered

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the issue is people were promised the money with no strings. the language was clear. if people were told that people with more income would get less/no money it would be one thing. But the constant moving of the goalposts is incredibly frustrating. Most people understand that you have to make compromises because of the makeup of the senate but it doesn't change how frustrating it is. It also isn't a "progressive" issue. It's people across the spectrum.
 

BruiserBrody

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[quote author=BRODY link=topic=7317.msg606823#msg6
seriously, man?
To defend Snuffbox a bit, He and I live in Wisconsin, which is a cheap living spot overall. Loser Brody (see what I did there?) is about to pay off his 110K house within the next few months, and I claim Walmart as my employer. Having 100K a year feels like I should be eating venison and angus beef for each meal, while living in a large house in the north woods away from civilization. I make 33-34K a year, single and don't "need" the stimulus at all. My main non mortgage spending is vintage toys on ebay. That said, give me that bread!

My buddy at a local factory makes 40Kish a year, he's single and he spent upward of a 1000 bucks a month on action figures at times over the past 12 months.

TL/DR: Brody is an investment expert.
 
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