CoffeeAddict

CoffeeAddict, 2 months ago

Thoughts on this?

The important thing, of course, is to vote; Trump’s victory in 2016 could in part be blamed on the fact that few people thought he would actually win.

But, polls and pundits have consistently underestimated Trump’s popularity since the beginning; while the GOP has definitely been underperforming in the last few elections, it does the opposite in elections where Trump is on the ballot.

I’d like to believe what this article says is true - that his strength is fading - but only time will tell.

CoffeeAddict, 2 months ago

“If you can’t take it don’t dish it out.”

I know I am preaching to the choir here, but Trump has campaigned like a petulant child ever since he first announced his candidacy in 2016 and taken cheap shots at friends and foes alike.

If he doesn’t want people to make fun of him, then he can behave like an adult. But he won’t, so he shouldn’t be upset that Biden is taking cheap shots at him now too.

Trump also makes this really, really easy; he actually gave himself his own award and boasted about it on social media.

CoffeeAddict, 2 months ago

Yeah, I am generally not a fan of Biden’s protectionism - especially so in this case because Japan is an ally.

Also, (maybe this is just my impression as I do not have a source at the moment) Nippon Steel makes higher quality steel than US Steel.

Furthermore, my understanding was that the production capacity in the US was going to remain unchanged by this deal.

In the end, I think this would have been a good thing for US steel production because Nippon likely would have made it more efficient and better than it is currently.

Sadly though, it looks like protectionism is winning the day here.

CoffeeAddict, 2 months ago

And the GOP majority shrinks once again.

My guess is they are jumping ship early to escape the clownshow and hurt Johnson and the GOP on their way out.

CoffeeAddict, 2 months ago

At this point, nothing would surprise me with them.

Even if the dems were to somehow get Jeffries as speaker (through more republican defections) I don’t think there would be enough time to clean up the GOPs giant mess.

Might just be better for the dems to cut a deal with Johnson - save him from the Freedom Caucus in exchange for Ukraine Aid.

CoffeeAddict, 2 months ago

Here we go again…

Marjorie Taylor Greene: "I filed a motion to vacate today, but it's more of a warning than a pink slip," Greene told reporters on the Capitol steps.
"I do not wish to inflict pain on our conference and throw the House in chaos, but this is basically a warning," she continued, noting she has not imposed a "time limit" on the vote.
"It's time for us to go through the process, take our time and find a new speaker of the House that will stand with Republicans and our Republican majority, instead of standing with the Democrats."

This is a clownshow.

CoffeeAddict, 2 months ago

Facts don’t matter to the American right anymore.

CoffeeAddict, 2 months ago

I don’t have much experience with German conservatives, but a lot of experience with American ones - that’s largely why I specifically referenced American conservatives. Their indifference to (and often downright rejection of) facts that contradict their chosen worldview is maddening and makes me feel like I am going insane lol.

Anyways, for US conservatives, how they perceive economic performance is largely dependent on whether or not the president is a republican.

CoffeeAddict, 2 months ago

I think this has sadly become the truth, and I blame the right-wing media engine and the hyper-partisanship it helped facilitate.

Even when times are good, they pump the news with negative opinions and anecdotes on democrats and liberals; they downplay a good economy and focus on other “outrage material” to lower voter sentiment. (ie they will say the economy is good in spite of democratic policy, the democrats are allowing violent immigrants into the country, etc.)

Obama is actually a good example of this; at the end of his second term, the economy was actually very good and it was in part due to his administrations policies. Yet, his approval rating continued to drop and were rather low.

CoffeeAddict, 2 months ago

I agree with the part that the economy is not as good for the middle class has it has been in the past - the housing market (for another example) is a sick joke at the moment. I also saw another article that said the median American has about $8,000 savings (although it was unclear to me whether or not that included retirement savings such as a 401k.)

The middle class struggling though is something I think is caused by multiple factors, though many I think could be attributed to the (general) failure of trickle-down economics; after 40 years of data, it would seem the money did not, in fact, trickle down.

The thing that really perplexes me though is why this frustration is translating into Republican support in the polls when they have repeatedly acted against the middle class’s interests.

CoffeeAddict, 2 months ago

Today, President Biden will issue an Executive Order to protect Americans’ sensitive personal data from exploitation by countries of concern […] prevent the large-scale transfer of Americans’ personal data

[…] focuses on Americans’ most personal and sensitive information, including genomic data, biometric data, personal health data, geolocation data, financial data, and certain kinds of personally identifiable information.

[…]

The President has encouraged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to consider taking steps, consistent with CFPB’s existing legal authorities, to protect Americans from data brokers that are illegally assembling and selling extremely sensitive data, including that of U.S. military personnel.

Additionally, President Biden continues to urge Congress to do its part and pass comprehensive bipartisan privacy legislation, especially to protect the safety of our children.

It’s a start, but the last two paragraphs are probably what actually needs to happen. This executive order only stops the sale of data to “countries of concern” which will probably be defined further by the Department of Justice if it hasn’t already.

It also needs to be emphasized that, while this executive order is a good thing, it doesn’t stop data collection. Only legislative action through congress can stop that.

CoffeeAddict, 2 months ago

It’s always nice to see the crazies flounder.

CoffeeAddict, 2 months ago

It wasn’t even close. The bill, which would basically force the sale of TikTok, was passed 352 to 65 with 1 congressperson voting present.

It will probably pass the Senate. Biden has indicated that he will sign it if it passes, but even if he didn’t want to the vote was so decisive that he would be hard pressed to not sign it.

Thoughts on this? I have never used the app, but it looks like the app could be a real security problem (having an authoritarian regime with no respect for freedom of the press owning the largest social media and news distribution platform in the US is not a good idea, in my opinion.)

But, the bill doesn’t really solve the real problem which is data protection and privacy - Facebook, Google, etc are still collecting data at an alarming rate, even if they aren’t as efficient at it as TikTok.

CoffeeAddict, 2 months ago

I think I agree.

TikTok is just the best at the data-mining game, and the real reason it’s being banned is it’s connection to the CCP.

Facebook, Google, and all the rest have spent billions lobbying congress and also spent billions trying to replicate TikTok’s algorithm because they want to do the same thing… the real problem is data privacy, and that is the problem congress is not addressing.

CoffeeAddict, 2 months ago

I agree. This is the real problem.

CoffeeAddict, 2 months ago

I do think it’s connection to the CCP is the real reason it’s been targeted. Facebook & Google do the same stuff, just not as efficiently (though they’d love to).

All that being said, anyone familiar with China’s government knows they don’t give a rats ass about human rights, let alone privacy. TikTok’s CEO says they don’t share the data with the CCP, but I can only speculate as to whether that is true.

CoffeeAddict, 2 months ago

@LA9306 Completely agree with the fact that this is the least free market approach. TikTok was just an easy target, and we need much better data protection and privacy laws. We didn’t get that with this.

CoffeeAddict, 2 months ago

This is a good point - TikTok in China is almost a completely different app. It almost could be considered educational.

I am indifferent towards TikTok, but that is mostly because I don’t use it. I can see why there might be some national security concerns due to the amount of data it collects and due to the CCP having some strings in Bytedance. I think it would be better if this was more a set of regulations for all social media companies, not just a ban.

I do agree the vote probably would have been closer if it were a set of data regulations and privacy laws; Facebook and Google would lobby the shit out of that.

CoffeeAddict, 2 months ago

It is absolutely protectionist.

I am not sure if the national security claims are valid or not; I could see that going either way. Just having all that information could pose a problem, but the CCP is sophisticated enough to get that info through other means, too.

All that being said, Facebook and Google are absolutely happy about this. They have spent billions trying to replicate TikTok’s algorithm, and are failing. They are also lobbying congress to do nothing about data protection and privacy. It’s hypocritical for the US to only target TikTok.

But, it is also true that young people don’t vote, so TikTok is probably not the best audience for election disinformation.