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Former Republican Presidential candidate Herman Cain has died from COVID-19 complications.

https://www.vox.com/2020/7/28/21341077/eviction-democrats-bill-housing-emergencies-lifeline-program-pressley-harris-delauro
Peak neolib response to the eviction crisis
"We won't stop them from evicting you, but we'll give you money for lawyers"
what a fucking joke

>We won't stop them from evicting you

uhhh
what exactly do you think the lawyers are for, then?

You know for someone who claims to have supported Bernie Sanders you always come off as a ride-or-die neoliberal. They could do the humane thing and just make it impossible for them to be evicted since the US is in a recession. If congress can bail out corporations I think they can bail out average citizens.

>just make it impossible for them to be evicted

thats not possible. Something being illegal doesn't stop something from happening.
Do you know what is needed when illegally evicted? A lawyer.

>I think they can bail out average citizens.

But its not the average citizen needing bailed out, its the landlord, in this case. If would be more effective to give landlords money to cover their expenses (since its less than what they ask of from tenants) with a condition they don't kick anyone out. Thats a win win for everyone.

The Republicans' War against the Constitutionally-Mandated Postal Service continues.

I've never understood the drive of Conservatives to destroy the Post Office. Every single American will admit that it is the only part of the government that works.

Something to do with their fetish for privatizing everything

you don't understand why the political group that is against government run businesses to be against a government run business?
and idk who you have been talking to, but the post office is disliked by many people. 1 out of 4 americans aren't a fan of it
Republicans don't believe the government should intervene in any part of the economy other than during an emergency.

11111GET

Fuck politics, WALUIGI TIME

Well duh, if it's wasnt working privatizing it wouldnt earn any brib-I mean campaign contributions.

I don't think it'll be a big loss. Yes, it's bad that it's happening, but we have things like Amazon and FedEx for delivery and everything else can be done by email. Plus, taxes will be able to go to other services like education or the military.

Amazon isn't a delivery service, they only deliver some of their own products. Fedex and UPS cost literally 3 times as much to send a small package in the mail (~$2.74 usps vs $8.50 UPS/fedex)

Yeah, it's not like we're putting billions more into the military than what we need already
and none of it would go to education

@Master Pain
Sorry to get back to you so late.

>As far as the "pie" growing, wouldn't that lead to inflation?
As answered before, no. Because the pie isn't just the money supply, but goods, services, etc.
>If everyone had a billion dollars, wouldn't that billion not be worth much?
That is correct. But the real question isn't whether or not someone has a billion dollars, but what the purchasing power of what you can buy these days.
For example, you can make a comparison of the cost of goods from 1901 to 2002. You'd notice that in 1901, 42% of American's budget went to buying food. and in 2002, it was at 13%.

>Or is there someway that we can have an end-goal of improving the majority of people's well-being while also retaining the lavish lifestyle of rich people?

The majority of people's well being has, in general, has been improving. Although you can make an argument that the improvement has slowed down – due to a numerous combination of forces. And if you make a comparison of lives in the US vs the world, the overwhelming majority of Americans are in the top 1% of the world.

>but just about the fact that one person has so much influence over the economy.

How do you suppose someone like Jeff Bezos has a lot of influence over the economy? He doesn't have total control over Amazon – and as a public company it's beholden to it's investors. Although I do think that the big tech corporations do need to be broken up – not because power is concentrated to a single individual, but because it's concentrated in a single corporation. And Amazon has been, in particular, extremely a hostile corporation. And yet…the government has the power to break up the corporation – as it did with Microsoft in the 90s. And as much as Jeff Bezos can influence the corporate board of Amazon to be selective about where they would build the next Amazon warehouse or plant, so does some lowly, yet popular politician like AOC.

>I'm talking about stuff like Amazon being able to negotiate tax breaks that let them pay nothing in taxes, or paying for lobbyists, donating to super pacs, etc.

So I've always, always been highly bothered by this assertion. That these big corporations aren't paying taxes. When in fact it's a specific tax that they pay less of and because our business taxes are structured in such a way that a corporation can show low net profits and pay low taxes on those low net profits while making huge profits. This article covers it. I'll quote the specific paragraph:

"Amazon largely pays no corporate tax precisely because it reinvests those profits into its operations. Under a scenario where Amazon had no corporate tax breaks, it would disincentive the company from reinvesting and thus creating greater opportunity for the businesses and cities in which it operates. "

But here's the thing. Whenever Amazon needs to buy a new warehouse, or operations plant, it has to pay taxes on it. Whenever Amazon makes a sale, there is a sales tax. If Amazon owns property, it has to pay taxes on that. Every employee that works for Amazon has to pay an income tax, and payroll tax, which Amazon is liable for as well. So in the end, what Amazon doesn't pay in corporate taxes (which are in general relatively small part of the US tax income) it makes well up for it by providing a tax base through employing people, and purchasing equipment that – also employs people.

But this notion that X company doesn't pay taxes is a populist myth that is used, in my opinion, to dismiss a more fundamental question/issue: Why is our budgetary expenditure 50% higher than our income? The problem isn't tax revenue. The problem is spending. And it's terrible spending. Which is why I do not trust the Government to spend my money better than I can.

> How's a poor person gonna stop shopping at Walmart if they don't have enough money to shop elsewhere?

Interesting question. So doesn't that mean Walmart is providing something beneficial to this supposed poor person by having a business model that allows this poor person to purchase goods they otherwise wouldn't be able to?

To answer broadly. There has been a large movement – roughly since the 90s – for better corporate governance. I think the best way, as consumers, is to put pressure on corporations to become compliant with certain better ethical treatments. And we do see it everywhere. Products that specifically state they aren't tested on animals, for example, was a decision due to consumer pressure. Energy Star compliance. Ethically harvested. Fair Trade. Hell even the so called "Organic" label. Intel, for example, completely overhauled their logistics to make sure that all the parts that go into their chips are ethically produced. This was a decision on corporate level – not a government mandate. And I think, as a consumer, that should be encouraged. Now, I am not saying that's the only solution, or that it is a best one, nor are the ethical stamps if you will are always as ethical as we'd like them to be. A growing number of consumers have the luxury of making that choice and do pay attention to those choices. Even if there is a premium.

For example, I consider myself pretty cheap, but I do go out of my way to make sure that the eggs and chicken that I buy are cage-free, even I am paying a premium on that.

The trick is how to make that premium be affordable to more and more people – and there's been fairly good movements out there.

incidentally side note:

My largest critiques on Libertarians (who I am aligned with broadly) online is for all their talk about using private means to accomplish what the state is doing, hardly any of them actually engage in any community activity. Hardly any of them focus on creating, inventing, or making new, better ways, of accomplishing the things they bitch the state has to do. I for one think there are a shit ton of things that individuals can do to benefit their communities and take power away from the state and make it voluntary.

"We don't believe the post office works, so we'll make sure it doesn't work!"

Apply that argument to any part of government the modern Conservative movement tried to hijack for the past 40 years.

The replies to this tweet are exactly what you'd expect.

Boomers shouldn’t be allowed on the internet

I'd like to check in to make sure I haven't completely lost track in reality.

Did this happen?: This week, the president of the US threatened the integrity of the elections to distract from a ruinous economic report. However, since everyone was already used to that kind of stuff, most everyone was talking about the administration supporting a dangerously insane woman giving advice about Covid that will kill people. This last part happened while two prominent covid thruthers and administration supporters died of covid-19

This guys twitter feed reads like Alex Jones in tweet form.

I bet he was a long-time listener of Alex Jones back in the day.

Probably thought pokemon cards were the devil's work back in the day

Of course it's Florida

The Daily Mail released a leaked video of the body cameras from George Floyd's murder.

So not only did they murder him by choking him to death by kneeling on his neck for 10 minutes, but first they threatened him at gunpoint until he started crying and begging them not to shoot him.

Calling them pigs would be an insult to swine.

He was absolutely terrified of the police the entire time, worried they were going to kill him.
Crazy, huh?

I can't believe I didn't hear about this
President Donald Trump blasted regulations, and spoke at length about showers, dishwashers, and light bulbs, included a large crane and two Chevy pickup trucks.

How is this not a parody??

Because we are in the parody

"Okay, we won't shoot you. We'll just choke the life out of you. Because we can."

A massive explosion rocket Beirut, Lebanon today. Initial reports were that of a fireworks factory going off, which the first explosion looks like. However, the second explosion is too massive to be fireworks.

According to CNN and Ragıp Soylu who is a Turkish corresponded to Middle East Eye, "Director-General of the Lebanese Public Security: What happened [in Beirut] is not a fireworks explosion, but a high-explosive material that was confiscated for years"

According to CNN "Major General Abbas Ibrahim, of Lebanon's General Security Directorate, said the massive blast that shook Beirut's port area on Tuesday was caused by confiscated “high explosive materials.”

It would be "naive to describe such an explosion as due to fireworks," Ibrahim told Lebanese TV."

Before the explosion, me and my mother heard a sound of a fast plane similar to a fighter jet. Alot of people (including myself) are now suspicious it was from the plane (possibly from Israel).
The 2nd explosion, Jesus Christ, it was like a goddamn atom bomb. Never this country has experienced like this before.
Shit load of glass were shattered near the explosion radius from the sheer force of shockwave. Over thousands are injured and there are no room in hospitals.
Lebanon (as whole) right now:

It's a possibility, but I doubt it. IAF generally strikes at night, and from what I gather the Lebanese government doesn't wait long to point out it was an IAF strike. Not only that, but the Israelis use drones, almost exclusively, not planes for targeted strikes like these. Besides sources from Hezbollah told OTV Lebanon that there was "no truth" to reports that the explosion was caused by an Israeli strike on Hezbollah weapons at the port. Israeli defense officials denied that Israel had any connection to the incident. Hezbollah operatives were seen at the port after the explosion, according to Al-Arabiya. Al-Arabiya reported that the explosion occurred at a weapons depot belonging to Hezbollah. Also according to Al-Jazeera after the IAF strikes in Syria, against Hezbollah "Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah promised revenge, although Israeli commentators have said he seems eager to avoid a major escalation as Lebanon struggles with its internal problems."

I'd be curious to find out if it was an airstrike by planes which ones it could be. Maybe the LAF?

Does anybody knows if RC drones are loud as jets?

Even the jet powered ones wouldn't sound anywhere near as loud as say a fighter, because of their size

Even the jet powered ones wouldn't sound anywhere near as loud as say a fighter, because of their size

Man even Israel is offering Lebanon aid. Their help could be pretty useful, seeing as they're the pros when it comes to explosions and dead civilians in Lebanon

I don't know what reaction fits this better:
OOF, Shots Fired, or Yellow Card.

I wouldn't consider Hezbollah "civilians" ;)

I wouldn’t consider everyone targeted by “anti terrorists” to be members of the group they say they are
this goes for all states

Yeah, that was pretty shitty of me to say. Came from a bad place.
Civilians are always inevitably caught up in these conflicts.

Fighting terrorism with terrorism!

The president of the United States, everyone.

I actually agree with this. Too much income disparity. Changes must be made, and soon! https://t.co/YZx6gPDTMb

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2020

I'm not 100% sure what he, or any President can realistically do though.

Wisconsin Trump campaign member is trying to get Kanye West on the ballot.

Tells us all we need to know, really.

Why though?
kanye would just take votes from trump
unless that's the goal

You're right, the president literally has no power. They have absolutely no control over political or economic affairs. zero.

Then please, explain what the president can do about it.

The least he could do is stop being an obstructionist, since he's been on board with every tax cut and bailout for the wealthy. The rich aren't paying their fair share of taxes and he's okay with that.

So vote him out. We all need to.
He knows this, and he's doing everything in his power, and the power of his closest allies to make sure that doesn't happen, or else…

He gets his criminal financing discovered, as this NY prosecutor's subpoena is doing right now. And they complied.