POLITICS: what have you done for us lately?

[Bassist_Diver]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez published her outline of the Green New Deal online today. After reading it, I think it needs quite a bit of work if she wants it to have a snowball's chance of passing in the Senate, let alone the House. Concerns I see with it:

1. Insanely ambitious. Wanting net-zero carbon emissions by 2030 is simply not going to happen in this country. It will probably take that much time just to set up high-speed rail and convert everything to green energy, let alone implementing and enforcing it. (The most ambitious estimate prior to this was that net-zero carbon emissions would be feasible by 2050)

2. Ignores the elephant in the room that is urban sprawl. There's a mountain of evidence showing that urban sprawl contributes to increase car and bus (and now Uber. Sidebar - NYDOT and CADOT both released reports this week showing that ride sharing has actually led to MORE cars on the road and a 40% YOY decrease in public transportation) use, so unless you tackle that issue (and convince urban planners to make expansion more rail friendly) people will still need cars and buses. And this is without mentioning the elephant in the sky that is airplanes.

3. Tacks on a slew of initiatives that could easily be described as "socialist" by the GOP. One of the lines that's already making the rounds in conservative news and on the Hill is "economic security for all who are unable or unwilling to work." (emphasis added by everyone right of center) The fact that a majority of the outline's language falls into social welfare and benefits is also making the rounds, so this is being labeled as sort of "wolf in sheep's clothing" whereby AOC is proposing an environmentalist overhaul as a facade for sweeping socialist reform. Again, this is not going to sit well with the GOP-controlled Senate and will make it insanely easy for them to not vote on it (even some of the neoliberals still sitting in the Senate will be turned off by it). To be blunt - just based on the outline alone it's dead in the Senate water.

4. Pelosi has been championing environmental reform for years and she has already made it explicitly clear that she is not going to let anyone else get in her way. An editorial on CNN pointed out that while AOC is a sensation with the general population, in Congress she's still a greenie and Pelosi could not give less of a fuck about how many Twitter followers she has and how popular she is with the youth.

I like almost everything about the New Green Deal and AOC's positions (my only personal gripe is the timeline - 11 years is simply not possible). However, AOC has still only been a Rep for a hair over a month and doesn't know how things work in DC. I don't think that's registered or was even a blip on her radar thanks to the insane amount of media attention she's received since last summer, and it's clear all that attention has gone to hear head. She needs to pump the breaks a little and learn the ropes - both in legislation and in terms of making allies/not stepping on toes - otherwise her tenure will be cut extremely short.

[Chankgeez]

Not to mention that she's apparently not even on the climate change committee.

[Bassist_Diver]

Not to mention that she's apparently not even on the climate change committee.

Worse, Pelosi invited her to be on the committee but AOC declined. Like I said, she needs to learn how the Hill works before she shoots herself in the foot.

[Chankgeez]

Oh, I hadn't heard that.

Yeah, I agree though. Especially because she's always gonna be in the crosshairs of conservatives.

[friendship]

I gotta hand it to her for the audacity of her proposal, she's really Going For It. Maybe she's adopting the GOP strategy of shooting for the moon so when the inevitable compromise comes she'll land among the stars or whatever?

Why would she turn down a seat on that committee though?

[Bassist_Diver]

I gotta hand it to her for the audacity of her proposal, she's really Going For It. Maybe she's adopting the GOP strategy of shooting for the moon so when the inevitable compromise comes she'll land among the stars or whatever?

Why would she turn down a seat on that committee though?

She said she was already on too many committees and subcommittees. She is on the House Financial committee (which is unheard of for a fish) and she’s on a slew of other subcommittees, but if she campaigned heavily on the GND it doesn’t make sense to not leave space in her schedule for the climate change committee.

[PeteeBee]

Edit: someone beat me to it and said it better.

[friendship]

Ah, word. Thank you.

[Bassist_Diver]

You got it, famalam. Texas is the only state that maintains its own energy grid (and part of the reason our property taxes (and our extra electric bill fees) are so high is because we gotta chip in more maintain it) so the GND is being looked at very closely by our state legislature and the locals - especially here in Austin. AKA it'll cost us a helluva lot more than it will other states, so I wouldn't be surprised if our social welfare programs are rolled back even further as a result should this see the light of day. And if that were to happen it would be one step forward (green energy!), two steps back (at-risk and needy Texans are now getting LESS help and will see skyrocketing rates of social issues such as affordable housing, access to healthcare, SNAP benefits, unemployment insurance, Medicaid reduction, public transit, and more) I really need to move outta here.

I digress. In non-Green New Deal news, buckle up, buckaroo!

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4290 ... ouse-panel

ALSO

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/07/opinions ... index.html

[Sonaboy]

I agree with a lot that's been said here about her Green New Deal, but the tiff with Pelosi is overblown by press that are shellshocked by 2.5 years of WTFISHAPPENINGRN?!?
Pelosi understands how good AOC is at three things:
Drawing fire from conservos (and thus, away from Pelosi) and answering to it
Pulling in young, motivated women to primaries and voting booths
Channeling righteous anger into action, however misguided, without causing too much damage or bad optics

I predict Nancy P & AOC are going to suddenly find common ground between now and 2020, align their sails and quash their beef to conjure voter energy.
Just hoping the end result is more like two warrior queens holding their clenched hands high above a defeated enemy in the coliseum rather than Thelma & Louise dropping into the canyon

[Jwar]

Zero carbon emissions? That's not even possible. You'd have to wipe out all life for that to occur. LOL. What is that lady smoking? My guess is crack but I could be wrong. She is a politician, so most likely she can afford the good stuff. You know. Cocaine. hahaha

[Jwar]

Also, just to add to the convoluted bs that is. In Manhattan, KS they are finishing up a major project for testing all kind of nasty shit. It has a level 4 security clearance. It's an enormous place and all kind of people are freaked out there. My brother lives there and so does my tattoo artist. It has a huge concrete wall surrounding it, barbed wire and armed guards. It's a testing site in the heart of America.

Here's some info

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_ ... e_Facility

Replacing Plum Island.

[jrfox92]

*Net Zero carbon emissions?

It's carbon neutrality, not carbon non-existence.

[friendship]

We should probably end the entire human race anyway, just to be safe.

[Chankgeez]

Whoa, that's heavy. Plum Island's no joke. Messin' with animal diseases's scary.

Also, I wanna add, if we stick to medieval-level technology, we'll likely have less carbon emissions.