2020 Democratic presidential primary

Investment in R&D, such a small part of Sanders plan

ctrl+f "research and development" in his plan (https://berniesanders.com/issues/the-green-new-deal/)

However, the way Sanders is going on about it is very antagonistic (because that is what fires up his base) and unfortunately, climate action is going to need full cooperation from corporations.

there are plenty of companies who (say they will) voluntarily commit to various climate legislation and pacts, they're not all bad. but we're not dealing with "corporations" writ large. we are dealing with fossil fuel companies. i suggest reading Merchants of Doubt (Oreskes and Conway). they are motherFUCKERS. the sanders plan treats fossil fuels like white collar criminals, which they are.

maybe we could think about punishing the most successful white collar criminals of the century. then perhaps their successors won't be as eager fund disinformation campaigns for decades

I checked the R&D part and back of the napkin calculations it's like about 5% of the total plan.

I think Harris generally would, she endorsed the "Green New Deal" such as it was, but she's more cautious than Sanders is. I can't remember if she's endorsed one of the carbon dividend bills or not.

"cautious" is one way to put it. She co-sponsored his M4A bill but now says she wouldn't back it.

yeah that is dumb

I checked the R&D part and back of the napkin calculations it's like about 5% of the total plan.

5% of 16 trillion is $800 billion - does anyone else's plan allocate more money to R&D than that?

also, yes, R&D is important. especially with battery storage (to complement wind/solar). however, we have the tech and policy to address climate change NOW. more R&D is good, and since clean energy is already on its way to becoming the plurality of energy industry resources, i'm guessing there will be a lot more of it to come. but i have no problem with allocating a mere 800 billion to R&D and dedicating the lion's share of it to actions that can implemented asap

What’s in there for infrastructure? In a big country like America you can save a lot of money on storage by interconnecting the various electricity grids and using the Geographic spread of renewables. Storage is great but it should be only the last resort, do almost anything else first.

my entire green new deal is just replacing every interstate with high speed rail

sounds great, let's do it

but mah backyard

The importance of interstates is more about heavy trucks moving merchandise than about personal mobility over long distances, but if high speed rail got more people out of airplanes, that would be very good.

hm well what if we leave some of the interstates but ban personal autos from them, then the trucks will be more fuel-efficient and we can use the center lanes for the train

none of these candidates is running on exclusively train-based messaging and I'm disappointed YET AGAIN

wonder who did what to Joe Biden to get him to not run in 16 when his stock was higher and he wasn't as old

his son died

he should have run anyway; I mean I get why he didn't, but that would have been the right time.

the Dems seems unable to just admit that in order to build the society they desire, the majority of the middle class will have to pool money into governments plans like other nations do. What Sanders got right, I admit, is that it won't happen for as long as people see that Amazon and Apple don't pay a penny. What he gets wrong, is to think Amazon and Apple can pay all the pennies for not only this one large project, but for all large projects.

He has been completely upfront that he would raise middle class taxes to pay for M4A:
https://www.google.com/search?q=bernie+sanders+middle+class+taxes&oq=bernie+sanders+middle+class+taxes&aqs=chrome..69i57.517j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

His explanation was that his family wasn't prepared for the stress so soon after his son's death. But HRC moved fast and hard to tie up the establishment and big donors that Joe would have needed. Her efficiency in that regard may be measured by the fact that only Bernie chose to challenge her juggernaut - in a year without an incumbent.

What’s in there for infrastructure?

there's a lot of stuff about infrastructure, but only some of it is regarding electric grid infrastructure. quite a bit of it has to do with adaptation and resilience. however, it does say

"Build a modern smart grid. A smart grid means a resilient, secure, and intelligent electric grid system that is capable of managing high amounts of renewable energy, charging electric vehicles quickly, and maximizing efficiency. We will spend $526 billion on a modern, high-volt, underground, renewable, direct current, smart, electric transmission and distribution grid will ensure our transition to 100 percent sustainable energy is safe and smooth."

later on it, also says: "We will provide $130 billion for counties impacted by climate change with funding for water, broadband, and electric grid infrastructure investments." so apparently the $526 billion on the smart grid is not part of the $130 billion for "water, broadband, and electric infrastructure investments"

https://berniesanders.com/issues/the-green-new-deal/

none of these candidates is running on exclusively train-based messaging and I'm disappointed YET AGAIN

Ol' 45 got yr back

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0824/6367/products/T_SHIRT_FRONT_5970a05c-60ab-4b9a-b729-f8fb3ee26e0a_grande.png?v=1561544808

fascists used to be obsessed with the train running on time but now? pfft

Build the 7.4 million affordable housing units to close the affordable housing gap across the country and guarantee safe, decent, accessible affordable housing.

interested to know where these are going to be. if they're in low density sprawl that has the potential to undo a lot of the good stuff. are there any details?

and have we discussed the 2tn spending on subsidizing EVs (i.e. wealth transfer to rich) vs ~1tn on mass transit?

Clever new strategy

Joe Biden Asks Audience to Imagine Obama’s Assassination https://t.co/bTnSb5PZPs

— NYT Politics (@nytpolitics) August 23, 2019

jfc

The actual quote is more doddering than offensive but I maintain that running this guy in the general would be a fucking disaster

Other candidates need to start gunning for him, for real

Ultimately, only the oil internationals presently have the capital and refining/chemical engineering expertise to do projects like algal biodiesel or direct air CO2 capture at the required scales. I'd be fine with public apologies for past disinformation campaigns, and incentives/disincentives to get them on board with a beyond petroleum future that isn't just greenwashing.

Killing every incentive for taking fossil fuels out of the ground would be a good start, but on a practical level any swift transition away from oil/natural gas will require the participation of Big Oil. Nationalization is off the board as an option in the USA, short of open revolt in the streets. And face it, we're FAR more likely to see open revolt over trying to wean people off gasoline, than over oil company intransigence.

biden borrowing from hillary's '08 strategy?

I dont know if those competence and capacity claims for such programs are true sanpaku but if bigoil can’t monetize them by raping governments around the world, they will say they cannot, right? house always wins it would be a shame if the whole amazon burned down.

re Biden in '16, O told him nope it's Big Hil

I thought that was well chronicled?

some say that was her last major victory of the 2016 campaign

lol we’re all gonna die

The Democratic Party's centrist caucus -- which has openly criticized the Green New Deal for being unrealistic and unaffordable --is now tweeting out proposals "for an iceberg-making submarine that could produce 82-foot-wide, 16-foot-thick chunks of ice" to combat climate change. pic.twitter.com/BEbKOiZQU3

— Waleed Shahid (@_waleedshahid) August 24, 2019

#SiliconValley

team of designers from indonesia. let's point and laugh at them for trying.

Ilx prefers the old-school analog icebergs; they're so much warmer

So Bernie Sanders is speaking to @ueunion
tomorrow in Pittsburgh. Keep an eye on it: Could be his first labor endorsement of the 2020 campaign. (So far only Biden and de Blasio have gotten any official union support, and most unions are taking a long time to deliberate.) pic.twitter.com/BlbgnUR8oM

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) August 25, 2019

no labor endorsements for warren so far, i guess? i guess as weigel says, unions are still holding back for now, but she is strongly supportive of labor and her own campaign unionized earlier this summer

as I understand it she’s gotten some flak for her campaign staying at a nonunion hotel in vegas

i didn't think that was even possible!

I don't think technological proposals to solve this problem are stupid at all. GND yes, but you have to look into other things too, it's irresponsible not to.

iceberg things looks very minecrafty

it's just the sim quality starts to flag near the end

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61bqcIbsyGL._SL1000_.jpg

akm OTM

lmao

New national Monmouth poll:

Sanders: 20% (+6)
Warren: 20% (+5)
Biden: 19% (-13)!
Harris: 8% (-)
Booker: 4% (+2)
Buttigieg: 4% (-1)
Yang: 3% (+1)
Castro: 2% (+2)
O’Rourke: 2% (-1)
Williamson: 2% (+1)

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) August 26, 2019

Wow! For real? I’ll believe it when it’s reflected in other polls..

yeah it's a single poll and it's a national poll (there is no national primary), and biden keeps messing up, but not "lose half your supporters mess up" recently afaict, so it's very suspect. but i'm into it.

More info and data here

https://www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/reports/monmouthpoll_US_082619/