20 votes

Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of September 16

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Tags: politics, recurring.weekly, usa

This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.

This is an inherently political thread; please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.

29 comments

  1. [3]
    hungariantoast
    Link
    A little late, but I enjoyed this headline for an Al Jazeera article about the Harris-Trump debate last week: Debate in nuclear-armed former colony fails to reassure global community Foreign media...

    A little late, but I enjoyed this headline for an Al Jazeera article about the Harris-Trump debate last week:

    Debate in nuclear-armed former colony fails to reassure global community

    Foreign media writing about the US the way US media writes about foreign countries will never not be funny to me.

    35 votes
    1. rosco
      Link Parent
      Lol, that article is hilarious! Thanks for sharing!

      Lol, that article is hilarious! Thanks for sharing!

      7 votes
    2. Habituallytired
      Link Parent
      This is the funniest thing I've read today, and honestly, we deserve it.

      This is the funniest thing I've read today, and honestly, we deserve it.

      6 votes
  3. [3]
    skybrian
    Link
    Alameda Food Bank services in jeopardy due to lawsuit ... ...

    Alameda Food Bank services in jeopardy due to lawsuit

    A lawsuit against the Alameda Food Bank’s new location may prevent it from feeding those in need, depending on how long the litigation lasts. On Tuesday, dozens rallied outside Alameda City Hall before the city council meeting in support of the food bank.

    ...

    The lawsuit was filed by two Alameda residents against the non-profit’s project to build a new location across the street. The food bank’s executive director Teale Harden says litigation could get in the way of construction.

    “It’s a CEQA lawsuit. It claims the city did not follow the proper procedures when approving our forever home project, which would nullify our approval of our building. It threatens to halt our project,” she said.

    ...

    Tod Hickman is one of the lawsuit petitioners. He says the city should have sold the food bank a better location down the road.

    “The location they want… It violates the law, violates CEQA. The main problem is the City of Alameda did not do proper review, environmental review of the project. They circumvented the law. This location is a historic parking lot,” he said.

    6 votes
    1. [2]
      MimicSquid
      Link Parent
      Historic ... Parking... Lot ...? Get out of here you NIMBY. That's more absurd than most defenses of the status quo.

      Historic ... Parking... Lot ...? Get out of here you NIMBY. That's more absurd than most defenses of the status quo.

      10 votes
      1. Melvincible
        Link Parent
        It is literally across the street too. The parking lot is big, mostly empty always, and surrounded by chain link fence. It's not nice in any way. It has a big ugly metal... thing? Cell signal...

        It is literally across the street too. The parking lot is big, mostly empty always, and surrounded by chain link fence. It's not nice in any way. It has a big ugly metal... thing? Cell signal structure? I don't know. Everything you'd want to go to nearby also has parking. I hope this all gets thrown out, I don't understand the motivation for messing with it unless he thinks he can disrupt them so much that they stop existing, which is honestly super fucked up...

        5 votes
  4. Papavk
    Link
    I recently came across this substack, Cross Tabs, but really her podcast on election polling. It's a really deep dive in how polls and surveys are developed, prepared and analyzed. I think there...

    I recently came across this substack, Cross Tabs, but really her podcast on election polling. It's a really deep dive in how polls and surveys are developed, prepared and analyzed. I think there is a lot of great insight into what we can and can't take away from the huge volume of polling information out there (and the, perhaps less than stellar, reporting of it). The discussions aren't just applicable to elections but also many other sources of information like regular government population surveys, academic surveys, exit polling etc. My favorite episodes so far have been 7, 16, and 18.

    4 votes
  6. DefinitelyNotAFae
    Link
    Penn State removes newspapers and their stands For apparently featuring political advertising (or advertising at all) including several Harris ads and several Get Out the Vote ads. Except they...

    Penn State removes newspapers and their stands

    For apparently featuring political advertising (or advertising at all) including several Harris ads and several Get Out the Vote ads. Except they were advertising previously, and then the university cut their funding entirely. Feels like a free speech/free press violation to me but I'm not a lawyer.

    4 votes
  7. [5]
    KapteinB
    Link
    Why Neither Harris nor Trump are Talking About the Deficit (TLDR News Global) Nebula YouTube

    Why Neither Harris nor Trump are Talking About the Deficit (TLDR News Global)

    In this video, we’re going to take a look at how both candidates’ policies would affect the deficit, why and when American politicians stopped caring about the deficit; and whether they should maybe be a bit more worried about it.

    Nebula

    YouTube

    3 votes
    1. [4]
      thearctic
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      To correct something, the video points to a clip where Trump seems to have confused the fiscal deficit and the trade deficit, but they seem to have misunderstood him saying that the role of the...

      To correct something, the video points to a clip where Trump seems to have confused the fiscal deficit and the trade deficit, but they seem to have misunderstood him saying that the role of the trade deficit in the fiscal deficit is understated.

      Their dichotomy between "orthodox economists" and "modern monetary theorists" disagreeing and, therefore, it being an open question whether America's debt trajectory will cause serious problems is strange. Almost like saying that there's great debate between physicians and anti-vax theorists and that therefore it's up in the air whether vaccines are safe. Also, a little quibble: orthodox and classical economics are not synonymous; orthodox is everything that's not fringe, while classical economics is the school of thought started by Adam Smith.

      2 votes
      1. [3]
        skybrian
        Link Parent
        Isn't there a lot of disagreement among non-fringe economists too? I'm thinking of Krugman making distinctions between "freshwater" and "saltwater" economists.

        Isn't there a lot of disagreement among non-fringe economists too? I'm thinking of Krugman making distinctions between "freshwater" and "saltwater" economists.

        1 vote
        1. [2]
          thearctic
          Link Parent
          Looking at this survey, economists across the board think debt is something to worry about to some degree or another. Even a "saltwater" economist like Krugman says that the debt to GDP ratio...

          Looking at this survey, economists across the board think debt is something to worry about to some degree or another. Even a "saltwater" economist like Krugman says that the debt to GDP ratio needs to be stabilized, which would require sustained levels of post-war growth—a solution that one can object to on its own grounds (environmental, social sustainability, wealth inequality concerns).

          1. skybrian
            Link Parent
            Haven’t read it in a while, but I found reading MMT stuff to be interesting, though not necessarily convincing, as a different interpretation of the same situation. The main thing I got out of it...

            Haven’t read it in a while, but I found reading MMT stuff to be interesting, though not necessarily convincing, as a different interpretation of the same situation. The main thing I got out of it is that the limits on government debt are rather fuzzy. Economies are built on promises and it’s a question of how long an economy can continue to mostly keep its promises.

            Promises to do what? It depends on what people value and what they will try to spend their money on. For example, we apparently value real estate quite a lot.

  9. [3]
    entitled-entilde
    Link
    Teamsters union declines to endorse in presidential election, breaking decades of precedent This seems like a big blow to Harris. If I take the articles word for it: But the article mentions a lot...

    Teamsters union declines to endorse in presidential election, breaking decades of precedent

    This seems like a big blow to Harris. If I take the articles word for it:

    He added, "We sought commitments from both [former president Donald] Trump and [Vice President Kamala] Harris not to interfere in critical union campaigns or core Teamsters industries—and to honor our members’ right to strike—but were unable to secure those pledges."

    But despite calling himself “the most pro-union President leading the most pro-union administration in American history,” Biden drew criticism from organized labor two years ago when he worked with Congress to pass a law that averted an impending rail strike.

    But the article mentions a lot of internal polling by the union (who demographically lean Trump) so maybe this is a self preservation move.

    3 votes
    1. MimicSquid
      Link Parent
      Yeah, the article talks about Biden stopping the rail strike, but leaves out the unions thanking him for getting them what they wanted.

      Yeah, the article talks about Biden stopping the rail strike, but leaves out the unions thanking him for getting them what they wanted.

      5 votes
  15. skybrian
    Link
    Congressional leaders reach deal to avert shutdown, boost Secret Service funds (Washington Post) ... ...

    Congressional leaders reach deal to avert shutdown, boost Secret Service funds (Washington Post)

    Congressional lawmakers on Sunday agreed to a deal to avert a looming government shutdown, advancing a three-month stopgap spending agreement with emergency funding for the Secret Service and without the harsh voter registration restrictions demanded by former president Donald Trump.

    ...

    Republicans are backed against dubious odds to maintain control of their slim House majority and a shutdown, which would shutter some vital government services, on the eve of November’s elections, could have put more GOP candidates in jeopardy.

    “While this is not the solution any of us prefer, it is the most prudent path forward under the present circumstances,” Johnson wrote Sunday in a letter to House Republicans. “As history has taught and current polling affirms, shutting the government down less than 40 days from a fateful election would be an act of political malpractice.”

    The legislation is a continuing resolution, or CR, that extends federal funding at current rates until Dec. 20. It includes an additional $232 million to boost security around the presidential election after agents thwarted a recent suspected assassination attempt on Trump, and green-lights faster spending from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to aid natural disaster victims.

    ...

    The arrangement sets up a frenzied week in Congress: Johnson will likely need to rely on support from Democrats rather than his own party to pass the measure; the Senate will need a bipartisan agreement to expedite the bill’s passage and beat the shutdown deadline.

    2 votes
  17. [3]
    updawg
    Link
    Voters split on whether Harris or Trump would do a better job on the economy, Israel/Palestine, immigration, crime...

    Voters split on whether Harris or Trump would do a better job on the economy, Israel/Palestine, immigration, crime
    https://apnews.com/article/harris-trump-economy-poll-inflation-dc80ac9e5d7da42900762910d5f0a283

    At times like these, it's important to remember Rajneesh's quote, describing how democracy basically means government by the people, of the people, for the people...https://youtu.be/QFgcqB8-AxE

    1. [2]
      ButteredToast
      Link Parent
      It may be a totally bunk evaluation of the situation but I have a hard time not tying this to the both the initial state of and following decline of the public education system. It was never...

      It may be a totally bunk evaluation of the situation but I have a hard time not tying this to the both the initial state of and following decline of the public education system.

      It was never really built to equip kids to become well-informed voters in the first place (instead concerning itself with producing a workforce for factories), but that’s only gotten worse over the years as programs have gotten cut, parents have cut holes in the curriculum to better suit their religious/political whims, etc. Kids are coming out of high school not the least bit prepared to function as adults, and that deficiency includes civic duties.

      5 votes
      1. anadem
        Link Parent
        Even the college/university education system is (or seems to me to be) morphing in the direction of producing drones rather than imbuing thinking. And it's exacerbated by the precarity of the...

        Even the college/university education system is (or seems to me to be) morphing in the direction of producing drones rather than imbuing thinking. And it's exacerbated by the precarity of the young, whose prospects for financial stability are undermined by our country's relentless capitalism.

        4 votes