President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

He's as much a Ranger as Trump was Michigan Man of the Year.

 

The bogus claim also goes to his character -- particularly because his propensity to promote his otherwise praiseworthy military record is and was a major selling point in his initial campaign.

 

The thing about Trudeau and Keystone XL (or the BC pipeline) is that I don't think Trudeau is that much into fossil fuels, but boostering for the oil sands pipelines are the only thing that keeps him from being Alberta's mortal enemy. Dad never really gave a fuck what Alberta thought, but Justin has a minority government and would probably like to have his next election later rather than sooner, especially since the Governor-General, who was hired on his suggestion (former Canadian astronaut Julie Payette), also had to resign this week after it was revealed that she is a remarkably shitty boss (and there were several reports she also hated the job).

 

I guess the 45th president was alright, according to this headline.

Biden sticks to vaccine goals nearly met by his predecessor

 

Last I checked, Canada has three oceans of its own, two of which have year-round shipping lanes. If they’re so in love with this pipeline, have it cut a 90-degree turn to Vancouver or Halifax.

Oh what’s that? They don’t want to risk fouling their seas or inland aquifers? Then it sure as shit isn’t our problem to solve for them.

 

Is it true that shutting down Keystone XL will put 50,000 people out of work? I keep seeing posts how Biden on his first day cost 50,000 jobs. I heard it was 1000. Just curious on the numbers.

 

Trump said lots of things. He never followed through. Trump did nothing to try to accomplish the goal.

 

No, it won’t.

These are short-term gigs. So it might be 2,500 actual human working four contracts each. Or more. Or less.

Lost in all this is construction isn’t actually happening thanks to SCOTUS upholding a lower court’s decision that KXL needed to do a comprehensive endangered species impact assessment. So they’d built about 1.2 miles before the courts shut them down last year.

 

Very fine people

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Capitol rioter charged with threatening to 'assassinate' New York congresswoman - CNNPolitics

 

PolitFact did a nice job with it.

PolitiFact - How Biden’s Keystone XL pipeline executive order affects American jobs

They were good, well-paying jobs (though hard work) that were, in many cases, a year or two long. They would have put a lot of food on a lot of tables.

There are arguments on both sides of the debate, although the arguments against the pipeline tend to be more moralistic than the arguments against it. In that way, it's similar to the arguments that often crop up related to casinos; everybody knows the revenue and jobs created by casinos are built on the backs of misery and lost income, but most people seem OK with them anyway.

 

Know what else puts food on a lot of tables? Heroin trafficking. And that arguably has done less damage to the planet than oil pipelines.