Biden Promises $2 Trillion in Climate Action
Today, presidential candidate Joe Biden promised to spend $2 Trillion over 4 years to combat climate change, create middle- and working-class jobs, and even start to correct racial disparities.
On the one hand, I know mainstream Democrats promise the world and never follow through. I'd expect nothing less from Joe or Kamala (whoever ends up being the driving force behind the throne).
On the other hand, I do not recall hearing such specifics from a Democratic candidate before. Hillary never said much about climate change at all. Obama really didn't either. This seems somewhat tangible.
What is being said here has the basic outlines as to what I've been advocating for the past decade. Reduce the military by $300 billion per year, spend that to tackle climate change for the next 30 years. Biden's plan is basically $500 billion per year for only 4 years, but it is much more than I was expecting to hear from him. (It doesn't reduce the military as far as I can tell, but it is $2 trillion over 4 years versus the $1.2 trillion over the same time for my pie-in-the-sky plans.
What are your thoughts? Would this get you to cast a vote for the person who raked Anita Hill over the coals and helped to get Clarence Thomas approved, supported wars en masse, standing at the entryway to dementia, and is touchy-feely-hair sniffy with any young woman within arms length?
Should he actually be considered??? Or is it simply all bull . . .
Comments
I've got a bridge for sale.
Are you a bidder?
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
And I have some lovely riverfront property on Crystal River
to sell you. Northerners come one, come all! Don't y'all want a lovely Florida riverfront home?
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Here's the thing.
EDIT: Sorry, Pricknick; I didn't mean to aim this response at you, but at the diary.
The question you need to ask is: will the petrochemical and coal barons be OK with getting off of fossil fuels? Will they be OK with creating a green economy, spending money on alternative energy sources, reducing fuel consumption? What about the warmongerers, I mean the defense industry, that makes money off all these oil and methane wars? What about the CIA that also finds ways to profit and accumulate power via those same wars? What about the Wall St brokers that invest in petrochemical companies, coal companies, and war?
The most powerful people in the country are in the following sectors: security (both public and private), the military (both public and private), weapons production, energy (oil, methane, and coal primarily), big agriculture, and finance. Except for Big Ag, every other one of those sectors profits off fossil fuels.
In order to implement the changes implied by Biden's promise, the powerful people in those sectors have to be brought on board. They have to agree this is a good thing to do. There aren't more than twenty legislators in D.C., tops, that would challenge any one of those sectors, much less five of them. So, do they agree that we should get off fossil fuels and build a green economy?
If they don't, the next question is: have they lost their power over the federal government?
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Good points
and all we need to do to answer those questions is to look at who Biden puts in his cabinet that are going to be overseeing this part of his admin. And I seem to remember that Biden's boss also made these promises and then opened the country up to fracking as well as his sos Hillary running around the world getting them to do it to their countries too. And HisBoss also opened up more areas for offshore drilling after the BP blowout that killed large swaths of the Gulf of Mexico.
SO yeah if your bridge is
fullfor sale put it on Ebay.Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
I came to the same conclusion.
Would be glad to be wrong.
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/eee2315f-6c5e-46f8-bfd8-df62633fcc2c
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I assume
Biden's long-term care assistant made that comment.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
You gotta laugh or cry, so:
LOL!
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Politician's Creed: ''Talk is cheap."
Didn't Dubya make some concrete numerical promise about annual funding for rainforest preservation? It was that or something like it; I read it in one of Michael Moore's books.
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
That's called a double conundrum.
Mr. Moore is not one of my bragging points as a michigander.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
Spending more money on capitalist energy
-- while keeping everything else the same -- will simply supplement the fossil energy that's being used. Fossil fuel exploitation, and its resultant damage to the climate and to the Earth, will rage unchecked.
"A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy." -- Luigi Mangione
Also my first thought
feed $500 mil to fossil fuel to clean up their act, and then never check to see they do so. Bonus, get back $50,000 in camapaign contributions. Easy peasy.
To deal with the fossil fuel situation
there would have to be an honest conversation about what it would take to wean planetary civilization off of fossil fuels. It won't happen when all of the actors are banking on making more money from THEIR energy sources. The honest conversation has to be done objectively, and not in the spirit of "solar power is totally kewl, never mind the gallium mines." That should have been the lesson of that Gibbs movie "Planet of the Humans."
"A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy." -- Luigi Mangione
Regardless of gallium mines,
or whether solar power is good or not, solar power simply won't get the funding careless readers might imply from Biden's staffer's statement. So ultimately, it doesn't matter. The fossil fuel barons are like Charlton Heston; we can have our economy back when we pry it from their cold, dead hands. Most of them aren't interested in getting their money from rare earths instead.
That's been the message of the last thirty years.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
OK, so what's the plan?
$2 trillion doesn't move me unless I know where it's going. He's promising to cure a lot of ills with this $2 trillion, but is he saying how? Are they still holding to the 30 year plan for reducing carbon emissions (worthless, IMHO)? What kind of jobs are they creating? Where is the money going? What about fracking? What are they proposing for the US military, who are a large part of the problem? Most importantly, again IMHO, what are his plans for conservation and using fewer resources or is this just pouring more money into things designed to give us the illusion we can continue the lifestyle we have with no negative consequences?
Until I hear more specifics, I have to assume the worst here based on Biden's record, assuming it's not just "political speak" never intended to be acted on. Given Biden's reliance on Obama and Obama admin vet, how do we know this isn't going to be another "gee, I really wanted to do all this great stuff but the mean old Republicans won't let me" bait and switch? Anyway, it certainly doesn't earn my vote with out more info. Biden hasn't earned the benefit of the doubt and it's too easy to assume this money will be shoveled to the Musks and Bezos of the world with vague plans to innovate us out of this crisis and create McJobs.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
$3 Trillion for share buybacks and Executive bonuses
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Exactly --
Two trillion dollars is nothing considering that that's about what DC spent to keep the economy going for four months as they did practically nothing to contain/suppress the coronavirus. Institutionally this country doesn't have what it takes to correct major problems. DC is hooked on throwing money at problems: $1 for the masses and $9 for the big boys. The only reason Biden is the presumptive Democratic nominee is because the big boys like him well enough. The masses were never interested in having Biden own the Oval Office.
Saying goes,'The big print giveth, the small print taketh away'
The way things are going, he'll have to legalize
pot in order to get those revenues for his plan.
HAHAHAHA!
I don't believe a word that comes out of that man's mouth.
"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin
Illinois has
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
What he says
vs what he does, are two wildly different things. I don't believe any of this shit for two seconds.
Honestly, and obviously quite cynically, I think it will literally take, millions dying and bodies piling up in the street level of death, before the .001%, the real wealth, finally "get it", humanity really is at stake, and their ass is on the line too.
We're in the churn...
[video:https://youtu.be/G-rM5VyxVHk]
C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote
I’m even more cynical.
Until things directly impact the 1%, nothing will change. They still think they can outspend environmental catastrophe and by Koresh they’re going to try. When it disrupts the lives of the ultra rich, then you’ll see concern, on the taxpayer’s tab, natch. We plebes can die lying in the street, but If the richest still have their lifestyles, nothing will change.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
What a sweetheart deal, Mr. Biden has to offer,
another one that ends in broken hearts dealing with frigging betrayals all over again.
NO thanks.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Now you know why black voters don't like Biden and
won't vote for him.
[video:https://youtu.be/N3IUV-4Y8mc]
https://www.euronews.com/live
the video doesn't work
I don't know if you could find an alternate source, or maybe just write us a summary?
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
Without seeing the plan
a number is meaningless. Maybe he wants to give $500 billion per year in tax breaks to big banks. Maybe he wants to start 100 nuke plants that will never be finished. Maybe he wants to give everybody $200 towards an electric car.
I haven't heard "underground greenhouses to raise food when agriculture fails". I haven't heard "relocate populations inland". I haven't heard "underground cities that will withstand sustained 250 mph winds and 100 inch rainfall events". I haven't heard "offshore wind farms to desalinate water and pipe it onshore".
$2 trillion might buy us a bucket to hold a drop.
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone
There is no plan.
Spend a lot of money on "something green," and the capitalist system will magically produce a solution to all the environmental problems it has created. That's the plan. Why, did you have an idea that would work and which would fit within Joe Biden's ideological parameters?
"A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy." -- Luigi Mangione
Yeah, that is the plan,
just as you stated it:
Spend a lot of money on "something green," and the capitalist system will magically produce a solution to all the environmental problems it has created. That's the plan.
Or, that's what it would be if it were real at all.
What it probably will be more subsidies of the big energy companies. lots and lots of space bucks in exchange for some high-profile greenwashing.
That's if it even gets that far. I get the feeling I'm going to be hearing a lot about a filibuster next year. The Democrats' best friend.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
The plan is “say anything necessary to get votes”
and then forget all about it. That’s the only plan. Congress is never going to approve that kind of funding in any case, and Biden’s people know that. So should we all.
2 Trillion with a T Bucks?
But he will veto Medicare for All.
I don't vote because I do not believe the votes are counted accurately.
And the politicians are lying about their supposed efforts to put each other in jail as both Red and Blue parties represent the same group of donors and only pretend to fight each other.
And that same common source of finance for both parties is built upon perpetual war and corporate control over everything of significance, which means that nothing of significance can be changed by voting.
.
Aside from not voting at all -- a couple of Trills for climate catastrophe? You would think the pandemic would AT LEAST make people (or at least Presidential Candidates who are supposed to have a clue) realize that Money Does Not Necessarily Keep Mother Nature At Bay.
So in the joke election between two joke candidates, one of the joke candidates says that global warming is a joke and the other guy offers a joke solution of Two Trillion Dollars to solve the problem of global warming.
Personally, I am warming up to the Joe Biden Campaign. It is going to be a hoot. After spending a career representing the Democratic Leadership Council faction, the fiscally conservative and "realistic" progressivism that avoids the old "liberal" idea of "throwing money at problems," Joltin' Joe Biden finally comes on board for a Green Future -- by proposing to throw money at the problem.
By the way, what the fuck is a Trillion Dollars now? We just gave birth to several trillion Stimulus Bucks, mainly to prop up the financial markets. Now Joltin' Joe wants to print up a fresh couple of Trills worth of paper.
What is that going to buy now? Gross Domestic and Gross Global Product is in free fall and most countries are also "borrowing" money to offset the effect of massive inactivity. More "money" and less productive effort . . . . what does that sound like to you?
We are at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe. We might as well laugh at the jokes. They are indeed pretty fucking funny. I mean Donnie Shrimpfingers against Sleepy Joe -- seriously? Nope, there is no way to take either of these schlockmeisters seriously.
Most people don't. Almost half never vote and the biggest slice of voters is Independent.
I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.