State of the Union

OneBigClam

OneBigClam

Jes' fine
Jun 4, 2012
161,399
104,296
NH

Mob ravages California mini-mart during flash robbery near airport, shocking video shows​


You think they are proud of themselves? Is this a rite of passage now?
 
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Elkad

Elkad

Super Star
Oct 3, 2005
23,473
3,328
Jaedence said:
NYT is the new Fox news.
They have gone insanely right wing.
There are so many articles that are anti Biden it is shocking.
Click to expand...

They want Biden out because he can't win. I sure haven't seen them advocating for Trump, just a different Democrat.

538 is saying similar things.
Even though Biden’s chances have fallen considerably in our forecast — to 28 percent now from 35 percent before the debate — it’s still probably too optimistic.
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And there are plenty of others.
 
-Ducky-

-Ducky-

“money hungry yankee bitch"
Dec 26, 2001
36,464
9,024
Florida, LOL
Sounds like most prisons?

I am kind of thinking that the UK election aaant them over throwing the far right conservative mindset they just wanted something new.

The US is leaning conservative and from what I keep reading so is Canada. I think people are just upset with the status quo even tho the alternative isn’t better and in some cases worse.
 
Jaedence

Jaedence

Star
Feb 27, 2009
11,289
9,223
Oh noooooes!

"The net worth of Tesla’s headline-grabbing CEO Elon Musk fell by more than any other billionaire on the planet over the first six months of the year, according to Forbes’ estimate

Excluding the award, it was still a shaky six months for Musk’s fortune, as the value of his existing 13% stake in Tesla decreased by about $20 billion as shares of the automaker slipped 20% due to declining profits."


www.forbes.com

Elon Musk Is 2024âs Biggest Billionaire Loser So FarâPending His Big Bonus

The net worth of the world’s next 25 richest people rose by an average of $14.4 billion, but Musk remains the wealthiest man on earth thanks to his diverse portfolio companies.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com
 
Eager_Igraine

Eager_Igraine

By Jove I think you're on to something!
Oct 2, 2005
64,216
16,477
“We now find ourselves struggling with people who have evil intent,” Robinson declared, adding that “some folks need killing. … It’s a matter of necessity!”
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GOP gubernatorial candidate for NC. Well, at least he accurately reflects the values of his party.
 
Scarne

Scarne

Prime Member
Jan 2, 2002
48,826
14,272
He compared these supposed enemies on the American left to Nazis in World War II: “We didn’t argue and capitulate and talk about, ‘Well, maybe we shouldn’t fight the Nazis that hard.’ No, they’re bad. Kill them.”
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There were plenty of "America First" people who argued against the US fighting the Nazis.

And for most of the war, we weren't killing the Nazis because they were evil and needed killing. That tract didn't gain momentum until near the end as concentration camps were liberated.
 
Groucho48

Groucho48

Was that you or the duck?
Oct 3, 2005
48,077
19,561
They're trolling. Also probably hoping to get in on the wingnut welfare circuit.
 
Groucho48

Groucho48

Was that you or the duck?
Oct 3, 2005
48,077
19,561
Across the American South, tides are rising at accelerating rates that are among the most extreme on Earth, constituting a surge that has startled scientists such as Jeff Chanton, professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science at Florida State University. “It’s pretty shocking,” he said. “You would think it would increase gradually, it would be a gradual thing. But this is like a major shift.” Worldwide sea levels have climbed since 1900 by some 1.5 millimeters a year, a pace that is unprecedented in at least 3,000 years and generally attributable to melting ice sheets and glaciers and also the expansion of the oceans as their temperatures warm. Since the middle of the 20th century the rate has gained speed, exceeding 3 millimeters a year since 1992. In the South the pace has quickened further, jumping from about 1.7 millimeters a year at the turn of the 20th century to at least 8.4 millimeters by 2021, according to a 2023 study published in Nature Communications based on tidal gauge records from throughout the region. In Pensacola, a beachy community on the western side of the Florida Panhandle, the rate soared to roughly 11 millimeters a year by the end of 2021. “I think people just really have no idea what is coming, because we have no way of visualizing that through our own personal experiences, or that of the last 250 years,” said Randall Parkinson, a coastal geologist at Florida International University. “It’s not something where you go, ‘I know what that might look like because I’ve seen that.’ Because we haven’t. “It’s the same everywhere, from North Carolina all the way down to the Florida Keys and all the way up into Alabama,” he said. “All of these areas are extremely vulnerable.” The acceleration is poised to amplify impacts such as hurricane storm surges, nuisance flooding and land loss. In recent years the rising tides have coincided with record-breaking hurricane seasons, pushing storm surges higher and farther inland. In 2022 Hurricane Ian, which came ashore in southwest Florida, was the costliest hurricane in state history and third-costliest to date in the United States, after Katrina in 2005 and Harvey in 2017.
 
Groucho48

Groucho48

Was that you or the duck?
Oct 3, 2005
48,077
19,561
From a comment to the above article...

Watched the South Florida Water Management Governing Board meeting last week. One item was major maintenance planning and budget for five years firm, ten years in the ball park. From Palm Beach County down to Miami-Dade there are 29 major drainage canals that were built with the thought they would be able to drain by gravity into the Atlantic or Intercoastal Waterway and have control structures at their eastern terminations. The majority in the middle county, Broward. They are from 40-70 years old. Every one of them will need pump stations along with considerable repair/remediation to their existing structure. About $50million to as much as $100 million each. The five-year budget which includes far more than just them, and only includes five of them, $1.4 billion. The ten year ball park, $10 billion, which gets to 15 more.
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Meanwhile, developers and Republicans are doing their best to cover up just how serous the problem will be and are still pushing oceanfront properties.
 
Groucho48

Groucho48

Was that you or the duck?
Oct 3, 2005
48,077
19,561
In 2022, Arizona pioneered the largest school voucher program in the history of education. Under a new law, any parent in the state, no matter how affluent, could get a taxpayer-funded voucher worth up to tens of thousands of dollars to spend on private school tuition, extracurricular programs or homeschooling supplies.

In just the past two years, nearly a dozen states have enacted sweeping voucher programs similar to Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account system, with many using it as a model.
Yet in a lesson for these other states, Arizona’s voucher experiment has since precipitated a budget meltdown. The state this year faced a $1.4 billion budget shortfall, much of which was a result of the new voucher spending, according to the Grand Canyon Institute, a local nonpartisan fiscal and economic policy think tank. Last fiscal year alone, the price tag of universal vouchers in Arizona skyrocketed from an original official estimate of just under $65 million to roughly $332 million, the Grand Canyon analysis found; another $429 million in costs is expected this year.

As a result of all this unexpected spending, alongside some recent revenue losses, Arizona is now having to make deep cuts to a wide swath of critical state programs and projects, the pain of which will be felt by average Arizonans who may or may not have school-aged children.
Among the funding slashed: $333 million for water infrastructure projects, in a state where water scarcity will shape the future, and tens of millions of dollars for highway expansions and repairs in congested areas of one of the nation’s fastest-growing metropolises — Phoenix and its suburbs. Also nixed were improvements to the air conditioning in state prisons, where temperatures can soar above 100 degrees. Arizona’s community colleges, too, are seeing their budgets cut by $54 million.

Still, Arizona-style universal school voucher programs — available to all, including the wealthiest parents — continue to sweep the nation, from Florida to Utah.

In Florida, one lawmaker pointed out last year that Arizona’s program seemed to be having a negative budgetary impact. “This is what Arizona did not anticipate,” said Florida Democratic Rep. Robin Bartleman, during a floor debate. “What is our backup plan to fill that budget hole?”

Her concern was minimized by her Republican colleagues, and Florida’s transformational voucher legislation soon passed.

Advocates for Arizona’s universal voucher initiative had originally said that it wouldn’t cost the public — and might even save taxpayers money. The Goldwater Institute, a conservative think tank that helped craft the state’s 2022 voucher bill, claimed in its promotional materials at the time that the vouchers would “save taxpayers thousands per student, millions statewide.” Families that received the new cash, the institute said, would be educating their kids “for less than it would cost taxpayers if they were in the public school system.”

But as it turns out, the parents most likely to apply for these vouchers are the ones who were already sending their kids to private school or homeschooling. They use the dollars to subsidize what they were already paying for.
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In an email, Beienburg maintained that Arizona’s current budget mess wasn’t caused by vouchers; he blamed, among other issues, state revenue recently being lower than anticipated. (The Goldwater Institute in 2021 collaborated with Ducey to write and pass a tax cut that reduced income taxes on the wealthiest Arizonans to 2.5%, the same rate that the poorest people in the state pay, which is the leading cause of the decline in revenue.)
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www.propublica.org

School Vouchers Were Supposed to Save Taxpayer Money. Instead They Blew a Massive Hole in Arizona’s Budget.

Arizona, the model for voucher programs across the country, has spent so much money paying private schoolers’ tuition that it’s now facing hundreds of millions in budget cuts to critical state programs and projects.
www.propublica.org www.propublica.org

 
Eager_Igraine

Eager_Igraine

By Jove I think you're on to something!
Oct 2, 2005
64,216
16,477
It seems crazy to me that people don't realize one of the biggest benefits of public education for the average tax payer is the economy of scale it provides regarding education costs.

otoh, Arizona has been steadily becoming Florida West and the staggering amount of (conservative) retirees moving there have little interest in anyone elses' future
 
Sansfear

Sansfear

Super Star
Aug 18, 2008
32,677
18,208
One of my favorite quotes from Ducey (the AZ governor that pushed for that tax cut):

“Each and every Arizona taxpayer, no matter their income, will experience a tax cut under our historic tax reform,” Ducey said in a statement.

This is technically, true.

The tax rate for people making <$54K/year was 2.59%, and now it is 2.50%!

That means someone making $54K would save $48/year.

The old tax rate on the wealthy (>$347K/year) was 4.5%, that got lowered to 2.5% as well.

The average Arizona resident earning between $75,000 and $100,000 will save $231 a year in state income taxes, while the average taxpayer earning between $500,000 and $1 million a year will save more than $12,000, according to the Legislature’s budget analysts.
 
-Ducky-

-Ducky-

“money hungry yankee bitch"
Dec 26, 2001
36,464
9,024
Florida, LOL
Has anyone heard about what’s happening in Texas (Houston) with the linemen going to fix the electricity and people threatening them? Brandishing weapons throwing rocks and something I haven’t verified was someone put fentanyl in water but that doesn’t make sense.

I guess they’re mad the power isn’t getting out back on? Wtf I’d be gone fuck that noise turn on your own power
 
-Ducky-

-Ducky-

“money hungry yankee bitch"
Dec 26, 2001
36,464
9,024
Florida, LOL
Ok a quick google showed the fentanyl thing was fake which seems over the top but the other stuff isn’t, why would they be mad at the people fixing the electric!
 
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