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U.S. Politics

Strike Eagle

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let's have an open discussion of US Politics regarding both federal & local political issues (states, counties & cities), while we have this open for a discussion let's stay civil and respect everyone's views/opinions no matter what political side someone may agree with.
@Bundeswehr @mtime7 @Scorpion and anyone else that feels like adding to this thread, feel welcome too
 
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Strike Eagle

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California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a $7.6 billion coronavirus relief package on Tuesday that will give at least $600 one-time payments to 5.7 million people while setting aside more than $2 billion in grants for struggling small businesses.

Newsom signed the law as Congress is debating a much larger stimulus package for the nation, a proposal that could also put money into the pockets of most Americans. And it comes as the first-term governor is facing a recall effort fueled in part by widespread anger over his handling of the coronavirus, particularly its impact on businesses.

"The backbone of our economy is small business. We recognize the stress, the strain that so many small business have been under," Newsom said at a bill-signing ceremony at Solomon's Deli in Sacramento. "And we recognize as well our responsibility to do more and to do better to help support these small businesses through this very difficult and trying time."

The Newsom administration still bans indoor dining in most of the state while limiting how many people can enter retail stores at the same time. Newsom has said Tuesday the state will ease those restrictions in five counties, with more to come in the coming weeks as the number of new infections have fallen in recent weeks along with coronavirus-related hospitalizations.

Newsom used his emergency powers in November to set aside $500 million for small business grants. In the first round of funding, the program received more than 334,000 applications totaling more than $4.4 billion in requests.

The law Newsom signed on Thursday puts another $2 billion into that program. Businesses with annual revenues between $1,000 and $2.5 million are eligible for the money, with a priority given to businesses owned by women and minorities and businesses in areas with high unemployment rates.

The Legislature will likely approve more aid for businesses next week. Lawmakers had planned to pass a bill on Monday that would have let businesses deduct up to $150,000 in expenses covered by federal loans from their state taxes - a $2 billion benefit over six years. But they decided to amend the bill to let businesses deduct more than $150,000 from their taxes, raising the price tag for the state to about $2.3 billion, Newsom said.

Once that law is passed, it will bring the total state stimulus package to just under $10 billion.

"That's big even for California standards," Newsom said.

The package includes $3.7 billion to pay at least $600 in one-time payments to about 5.7 million people. Most of these people will get the money by claiming the California earned income tax credit on their tax returns. In general, those are people who make $30,000 per year or less.




The money will also go to people who earn under $75,000 per year and use an individual taxpayer identification number to file their income taxes. These are people who don't have Social Security numbers, including immigrants who were ineligible for the federal stimulus payments Congress approved last year.
 

space cadet

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Don't really pay much attention to California politics, but they will have to pay for that somehow, they can't just print money like the Feds, and wealthy people are moving out, same with New York. Germany is having this same kind of problem, with their richest people moving to Italy.

To me, I think this Governor is just trying to save his skin
 

Jaeger

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Don't really pay much attention to California politics, but they will have to pay for that somehow, they can't just print money like the Feds, and wealthy people are moving out, same with New York. Germany is having this same kind of problem, with their richest people moving to Italy.

To me, I think this Governor is just trying to save his skin
I agree for the most part, considering many Californians are annoyed over his delay in the high speed rail project alongside increase in fuel taxes, creating a new "water tax", and he also refuses to acknowledge the growing homeless problem in L.A. & San Francisco. this $600 stimulus check, is a "hey I did something good, finally so don't be mad anymore".
 

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Boosted by strong name recognition, Andrew Yang is the leading contender in the Democratic primary race for mayor, according to a poll released Wednesday.


Yang garners 28 percent of likely primary voters, followed by Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams at 17 percent and Comptroller Scott Stringer with 13 percent, according to the survey conducted by Fontas Advisors and Core Decision Analytics.


One in four likely voters — 23 percent — indicated a preference for one of the other six candidates presented, while 19 percent of respondents were undecided.
“Our poll found that New Yorkers seek mayoral candidates who offer clear plans to tackle the many pressing issues facing the city, and voters especially value proven experience demonstrated in government or the public sector,” said Adam Roseblatt, president of Core Decision Analytics.


Rosenblatt noted that the crowded race to replace a term-limited Bill de Blasio is “still quite fluid at this time.”
Awareness appears to aid three candidates as of late January, though the vast majority of voters are unfamiliar with the wider set of prominent candidates running,” he said.


Other contenders include Shaun Donovan, who served as President Barack Obama’s budget director and housing secretary; former de Blasio administration officials Maya Wiley, Kathryn Garcia and Loree Hutton, and not-for-profit executive Diana Morales.
 

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Strike Eagle

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Fauci's 2,000 emails a day show how little U.S. officials knew in the early days of the Covid pandemic (cnbc.com)

  • The release of thousands of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s emails showed patience, diplomacy and diligence in his often late-night replies to high-level U.S. officials, famous performers and everyday people.
  • The emails also show the tremendous physical and sometimes emotional toll the pandemic was taking on the 80-year-old head of the NIAID.
  • The question of masks came up early and often and some of Fauci’s early advice later proved to be wrong.

On April 12, 2020, an official at the National Institutes of Health emailed Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, and then CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield fretting about the increasing hostilities between the U.S. and World Health Organization over the coronavirus pandemic.

Then President Donald Trump was threatening to withdraw funding from the international health organization for getting “every aspect” of the outbreak wrong




“I am concerned about the recent fight between the US and WHO because it may adversely impact the current global efforts in controlling the spread of COVID-19,” said the email, which also raised questions about the accuracy of China’s Covid-19 case and fatality data.

Fauci responded: “This pandemic has been extremely challenging for many countries around the globe including China and the USA. I can only say that I (and I am sure that Bob Redfield feels the same way) prefer to look forward and not to assign blame or fault.”

“There are enough problems ahead that we must face together,” he added


The message from the NIH official, whose name is redacted, was made public as part of a dump of thousands of Fauci’s emails from the first half of 2020, which were obtained by BuzzFeed News and other media outlets through the Freedom of Information Act. As director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases within NIH, Fauci was at the center of the storm.

The anxious note, and Fauci’s ominous reply, illustrate the chaos of the moment.

Covid cases and deaths in the U.S. had climbed to terrifying new highs since Trump declared the pandemic a national emergency a month before. State leaders had issued draconian lockdown orders, upending millions of lives and prompting an economic freefall. Testing, social distancing and contact tracing were in their infancy, hospitals were overwhelmed, crucial protective equipment was running short and vaccines had yet to be developed.

The president, who in January and February heaped praise on China’s response to the outbreak of the emergent virus, had sharply reversed his tone, slamming the WHO and Beijing and blaming both for the crisis.

Fauci had been receiving emails from people saying that a pandemic appeared likely in the days and weeks before the WHO’s official declaration on March 11, 2020.

Some asked him whether they should cancel large, in-person events, while others spitballed ideas for potential treatments and solutions to the outbreak. Some asked whether he thought Americans were adequately prepared

Fauci showed patience, diplomacy and diligence in his often late-night replies to high-level U.S. officials, famous performers and everyday people. The emails also show the tremendous physical and sometimes emotional toll the pandemic was taking on Fauci, who had become one of the most trusted sources of information on Covid-19 under a sometimes disjointed response under the Trump administration.

On Feb. 18, 2020, Fauci received an email from an apparent old acquaintance who asked if he was in town for a potential meet-up over the weekend. Fauci apologized, writing that he would not be able to connect and asked if they could meet some other time as he was working nonstop.

“The White House and HHS have me going 24/7 including Saturday and Sunday with the coronavirus crisis. I have seen my wife ... for a total of about 45 minutes over the past 10 days,” he wrote. “I hope that you understand.”
By late March, when the U.S. had a little over 153,000 Covid cases, Fauci apologized for taking so long to get back to another old friend, saying he was receiving more than 2,000 emails a day. In a separate email a few days later to Dr. J. Larry Jameson, a fellow physician at the University of Pennsylvania, Fauci said he was “completely swamped” and was getting “3 to 4 hours sleep per night.”

His emails are peppered with pitches from people of widely varying levels of expertise offering their best guesses for how to deal with the ongoing crisis.

One person who reached out in early March, describing himself as “neither a physician or a scientist,” suggested that the government expose U.S. adults to other known and “less lethal” coronaviruses to try to develop some level of immunity against the new virus.

Fauci responded at 10:50 p.m.: “Thank you for your note. AS Fauci.”

Quilter Ami Simms reached out in mid-March to offer her services to the NIH in making a pattern for face masks. She said she’s mobilized quilters for other causes in the past and there were “millions of sewers who would be delighted to step up and help right now.” Fauci forwarded the email to Dr. Andrea Lerner, a top medical officer at his agency.


His responses show the inbox-clogging input wasn’t always welcome.

“Please read this and figure out what the heck he is talking about and act according to your judgment,” Fauci wrote in a March 7, 2020 email to an NIH official, referring to a message he received making claims about a “game-changer” for Covid detection.

“Only 498 emails to go tonight,” Fauci added.

The varied advice and questions Fauci received over those early months showed just how much leading U.S. and international scientists, including Fauci himself, didn’t know about Covid at the beginning of the pandemic.


The question of masks came up early and often, and some of Fauci’s advice later proved to be wrong.

In a Feb. 5, 2020 email to American University President Sylvia Burwell, who served as HHS secretary under former President Barack Obama, Fauci advised her against wearing a mask at the airport. “The typical mask you buy in the drugstore is not really effective at keeping the virus out, which is small enough to pass through the material,” he wrote.


Chinese immunologist George Gao reached out to Fauci in late March to apologize for criticizing the U.S. mask policy. “How could I say such a word ‘big mistake’ about others? That was the journalist’s wording. Hope you understand,” Gao wrote.

The U.S. wouldn’t change its mask guidance until July.

Some of the email chains also turned out to be eerily prophetic.

Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson reached out to Fauci March 2, 2020 when there were 91 confirmed cased in the U.S., saying NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins told him that 5% to 20% of the country could get infected with Covid.

“A pandemic now appears likely,” he said. “Depending on the mortality rate, this could result in hundreds of thousands of deaths,” he wrote. Fauci said he was correct. Even if the mortality was 1% and just 5% of the U.S. population got it it, “we could have a few hundred thousand deaths,” he responded at 6:11 a.m.


A Feb. 1 email from Fauci’s deputy director at NAIAD, Hugh Auchincloss, indicates the agency was trying to determine whether it was involved in so-called gain of function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The lab has since been thrust into the spotlight on the debate over the origins of the virus after media reports surfaced that at least three researchers there had become sick enough from a Covid-like infection in Nov. 2019 to seek hospital treatment.
 

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Boosted by strong name recognition, Andrew Yang is the leading contender in the Democratic primary race for mayor, according to a poll released Wednesday.


Yang garners 28 percent of likely primary voters, followed by Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams at 17 percent and Comptroller Scott Stringer with 13 percent, according to the survey conducted by Fontas Advisors and Core Decision Analytics.


One in four likely voters — 23 percent — indicated a preference for one of the other six candidates presented, while 19 percent of respondents were undecided.
“Our poll found that New Yorkers seek mayoral candidates who offer clear plans to tackle the many pressing issues facing the city, and voters especially value proven experience demonstrated in government or the public sector,” said Adam Roseblatt, president of Core Decision Analytics.


Rosenblatt noted that the crowded race to replace a term-limited Bill de Blasio is “still quite fluid at this time.”
Awareness appears to aid three candidates as of late January, though the vast majority of voters are unfamiliar with the wider set of prominent candidates running,” he said.


Other contenders include Shaun Donovan, who served as President Barack Obama’s budget director and housing secretary; former de Blasio administration officials Maya Wiley, Kathryn Garcia and Loree Hutton, and not-for-profit executive Diana Morales.
I like the ‘ranked choice’ system introduced for the NYC Mayoral election whereby voters list all the candidates in order of preference. It means that your vote still counts even if you vote for a minority candidate because your second or third choices then come into play.

Are there any Republicans -or members of other parties - who have any credibility in this election?
 

space cadet

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I like the ‘ranked choice’ system introduced for the NYC Mayoral election whereby voters list all the candidates in order of preference. It means that your vote still counts even if you vote for a minority candidate because your second or third choices then come into play.

Are there any Republicans -or members of other parties - who have any credibility in this election?
you are talking about NYC, socialists lose to communists there
 

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nothing to do with elephants or donkeys, people don't understand that Bernie Sanders is neither a elephant or donkey, he's communist
Sorry: I was thinking of the party symbols. Doesn’t he run as an independent socialist but sit with the Dems in the Senate?
 

space cadet

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Sorry: I was thinking of the party symbols. Doesn’t he run as an independent socialist but sit with the Dems in the Senate?
yea, with the Democrat party, they accepted them in, knowing they needed their votes, you are supposed to smile at them and then laugh when the walk off, you are not supposed to vote for them, and now we have a problem
 

Strike Eagle

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I like the ‘ranked choice’ system introduced for the NYC Mayoral election whereby voters list all the candidates in order of preference. It means that your vote still counts even if you vote for a minority candidate because your second or third choices then come into play.

Are there any Republicans -or members of other parties - who have any credibility in this election?
not really, NYC is mostly democratic/liberal running mates, however Andrew Yang isn't too bad and wants to sit aside the two party system and work on things to benefit everyone no matter what their political stance is, which is why is highly liked here.

a local representative from NYC, Alexandria Cortez endorse a mayoral candidate, Maya Wiley which she was a former counsel member for the current mayor DeBlasio, and is very high end on the racial thing, which is why she isn't highly liked here, which in itself is a surprise
 

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I like the ‘ranked choice’ system introduced for the NYC Mayoral election whereby voters list all the candidates in order of preference. It means that your vote still counts even if you vote for a minority candidate because your second or third choices then come into play.

Are there any Republicans -or members of other parties - who have any credibility in this election?
NYC has 2 Republican Candidates running, Fernando Mateo and Curtis Sliwa

Sliwa's policies are basically a Giuliani 2.0, he wants high tax cuts across the city, reformed property taxes in the city, while also adding vocational classes at various schools so kids have proper training and knowledge entering work forces such as electricians and carpenters, basically he is trying to undo various things DeBlasio did to keep New Yorkers at home instead of moving to Florida and Texas

and Fernando Mateo, is basically a Trump 2.0, except as mayor. he wants to increase the NYPD budget by millions, hire an additional 20,000 officers (NYPD has ~40,000 active cops), wants to cut "red tape" and overregulation for small businesses, wants to protect landlords, he is also a bodega activist (supporting small time grocery store outlets) and is a big Taxi activist, no surprise there is personal connections there, his father ran a bodega and was a taxi driver. here's another one, Mateo also donated something like $20,000 to DeBlasio's campaign yet blames DeBlasio for NYC's "failures" so to speak, and says another democrat in power will end NYC, how ironic huh?

this is exactly why Sliwa hates Mateo, he called him out the other day for it.
 
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