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On February 17 2021 10:24 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:Show nested quote +On February 17 2021 09:44 JimmiC wrote:On February 17 2021 08:56 farvacola wrote: I pray that folks in Texas realize how preventable this shit is so that they muster the political will to lead the way in fixing infrastructure. This winter storm has put a really sharp point on this with reference to the South, but the North has just as many problems that follow the same pattern. Tons of important infrastructure here is crumbling out of sheer neglect, and it’s not even an inherently partisan issue despite what Newt Gingrich and his ilk insist. The Republicans of Eisenhower’s day are rolling in their graves. I'm not really sure how it gets fixed, it appears to be a race to the bottom on taxes and a race to spend as much government money as possible privately. The stimulus package was the perfect opportunity to announce a whole bunch of repairs and needed infrastructure, create jobs and so but also fix so much that needs fixing. There seems to be no will from either side. I wonder if it is at all related to how almost anything that breaks in people's lives we don't fix we get a new one that the idea of upkeep and maintenance is not valued? I think it gets started with flipping Texas blue at the local/state levels. Which is easier said than done. Texas' gerrymandering is terrible and the mass last-minute closures of polling places in low-income and traditionally left-leaning neighborhoods that happen every election cycle make flipping blue very difficult.
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United Kingdom13775 Posts
I work with quite a few folks from Texas and I can do little more than wish them the best. Rolling blackouts are no fun and more than a little dangerous.
Failing infrastructure is rampant across most of the US, red and blue, and mocking that is honestly disingenuous. It's no more warranted here than it was for making fun of California when they had fire and rolling blackouts late last year. Yes it's preventable, yes there are specific failures of government that lead to this, but neither party has anywhere near a monopoly on failure to govern. I don't think Texas is the worst by a long shot; it's just one of those massive states where a failure of infrastructure will make international news.
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Well, Texas also put themselves in a really stupid hole by segregating their system from the rest of the US. This was entirely self inflicted. California's rolling blackouts due to wildfires were a pretty complex issue with factors a few layers deep.
This is just "we picked poorly". If they were connected to the grid normally they could just buy electricity at a higher rate like every other state is doing, and I don't think there's any actual benefit to doing what Texas did. All downsides aside from faux macho aversion to federal regulations.
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United Kingdom13775 Posts
Being critical of Texas' infrastructure choices is fair. Pretty hand-wavey to just dismiss California's failures as "a pretty complex issue" to justify several decades of policy failures leading to preventable disaster. A desire to have energy independence in a state where that's culturally important is also "a pretty complex issue" despite the fact that it's obviously bad policy.
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i think any spectacular failure of government that fails its citizens so absurdly is worthy of being mocked. any defense of the situation falls flat. it is no different from some of the wild fires. where these things can easily be prevented they should be.
it is absolutely made worse that Cruz specifically has a record of voting to leave the citizens of the country to their own devices when such a disaster strikes, and in this way it is not comparable to california wild fires. this is a different failure of government, and directly related to what is happening to his own constituents. this is his what he has routinely voted for. do you disagree? is that disingenuous?
this could have been avoided but wasn’t, and now that it’s here their representatives in the past through their actions have shown that it’s up to the constituents to stop dying because they don’t need the help. it is a blessing that the rest of the union doesn’t vote for such inferior leadership.
inferior auto corrected from inept but when it’s right it’s right.
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Biden saying he’ll eliminate interest is great. Would be especially great if he eliminates interest that already accrued
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Rush Limbaugh has died at 70.
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United States42803 Posts
On February 18 2021 02:48 farvacola wrote: Rush Limbaugh has died at 70. Of lung cancer. After years of smoking. And insisting that smoking doesn’t cause lung cancer. Killing Rush Limbaugh is the first thing he’s done that I approve of.
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On February 18 2021 02:51 KwarK wrote:Of lung cancer. After years of smoking. And insisting that smoking doesn’t cause lung cancer. Killing Rush Limbaugh is the first thing he’s done that I approve of. His passing certainly tests my ability to hold back from grave dancing, the number of people his ideas have harmed is incredible, smokers in denial being one among many such groups.
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On February 18 2021 02:48 farvacola wrote: Rush Limbaugh has died at 70.
RIP
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I'm wondering how much that's going to change politics. Limbaugh really was the best at conservative talk radio and everyone else was mostly just imitating him.
For all that he caused a shitload of harm, he was rarely boring. Same can't be said of Levin or Hannity. Levin's voice is so unpleasant that I'm amazed anyone ever thought of putting him on the radio and Hannity's only talent is obsequiousness towards whatever the GOP dogma of the day is. IE, Limbaugh actually created talking points, while Hannity is never going to do that and Levin's attempts have been... really bad. Glenn Beck is just Alex Jones on mood stabilizers.
None of the others are actually all that universally popular among conservatives and are at best 50% of Limbaugh's audience.
So I think it actually might.
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On February 18 2021 03:22 Nevuk wrote: I'm wondering how much that's going to change politics. Limbaugh really was the best at conservative talk radio and everyone else was mostly just imitating him.
For all that he caused a shitload of harm, he was rarely boring. Same can't be said of Levin or Hannity. Levin's voice is so unpleasant that I'm amazed anyone ever thought of putting him on the radio and Hannity's only talent is obsequiousness towards whatever the GOP dogma of the day is. IE, Limbaugh actually created talking points, while Hannity is never going to do that and Levin's attempts have been... really bad. Glenn Beck is just Alex Jones on mood stabilizers.
None of the others are actually all that universally popular among conservatives and are at best 50% of Limbaugh's audience.
So I think it actually might. Isn't Tucker Carlson getting all the numbers ?
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I wonder if the Texans shivering in their homes without basic electricity agree with him that being a 3e world country is the pinnacle of #freedom.
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On February 18 2021 03:27 Erasme wrote:Show nested quote +On February 18 2021 03:22 Nevuk wrote: I'm wondering how much that's going to change politics. Limbaugh really was the best at conservative talk radio and everyone else was mostly just imitating him.
For all that he caused a shitload of harm, he was rarely boring. Same can't be said of Levin or Hannity. Levin's voice is so unpleasant that I'm amazed anyone ever thought of putting him on the radio and Hannity's only talent is obsequiousness towards whatever the GOP dogma of the day is. IE, Limbaugh actually created talking points, while Hannity is never going to do that and Levin's attempts have been... really bad. Glenn Beck is just Alex Jones on mood stabilizers.
None of the others are actually all that universally popular among conservatives and are at best 50% of Limbaugh's audience.
So I think it actually might. Isn't Tucker Carlson getting all the numbers ? He doesn't have a radio show. So not really. He's too lazy to do a four hour daily radio show, so he's starting a new podcast.
Carlson is the highest rated tv host, but those numbers pale in comparison. Limbaugh got 15-20 million listeners a day, while the highest rated news show in the last month was Maddow at 4.2 million (which is considered very good). On a very good day Fox News might have hit 5 million, but that's a 1/3 of an average day for Limbaugh.
This is also true for Hannity - he gets maybe 20-30% of the audience of his radio show on his tv show. The importance of the tv shows is that law makers watch them. They (hopefully) don't have time to listen to 8-12 hours of right wing drivel and instead get the condensed 3 hour version that is the fox news primetime lineup.
Listening to talk radio is also viewed as a very blue collar thing to do, so it's beneath some of the more influential GOP politicians, while watching Fox News isn't considered a low class thing in the same way.
Basically, the actual base of the GOP listens to talk radio more than they care about Fox News.
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Good to know, I should've checked the numbers, thanks.
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On February 18 2021 03:34 Nevuk wrote:Show nested quote +On February 18 2021 03:27 Erasme wrote:On February 18 2021 03:22 Nevuk wrote: I'm wondering how much that's going to change politics. Limbaugh really was the best at conservative talk radio and everyone else was mostly just imitating him.
For all that he caused a shitload of harm, he was rarely boring. Same can't be said of Levin or Hannity. Levin's voice is so unpleasant that I'm amazed anyone ever thought of putting him on the radio and Hannity's only talent is obsequiousness towards whatever the GOP dogma of the day is. IE, Limbaugh actually created talking points, while Hannity is never going to do that and Levin's attempts have been... really bad. Glenn Beck is just Alex Jones on mood stabilizers.
None of the others are actually all that universally popular among conservatives and are at best 50% of Limbaugh's audience.
So I think it actually might. Isn't Tucker Carlson getting all the numbers ? He doesn't have a radio show. So not really. He's too lazy to do a four hour daily radio show, so he's starting a new podcast. Carlson is the highest rated tv host, but those numbers pale in comparison. Limbaugh got 15-20 million listeners a day, while the highest rated news show in the last month was Maddow at 4.2 million (which is considered very good). On a very good day Fox News might have hit 5 million, but that's a 1/3 of an average day for Limbaugh. This is also true for Hannity - he gets maybe 20-30% of the audience of his radio show on his tv show. The importance of the tv shows is that law makers watch them. They (hopefully) don't have time to listen to 8-12 hours of right wing drivel and instead get the condensed 3 hour version that is the fox news primetime lineup. Listening to talk radio is also viewed as a very blue collar thing to do, so it's beneath some of the more influential GOP politicians, while watching Fox News isn't considered a low class thing in the same way. Basically, the actual base of the GOP listens to talk radio more than they care about Fox News.
Wow, I had no idea Rush was that big.
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A random Texas mayor went full "the strong will survive" and told the residents that no one owed them anything. Also called everyone waiting in their homes lazy and blamed the socialist government. Full "pull yourself up out of the freezing temperatures by your bootstraps." I'm sure his COVID response was similar.
He since resigned and is no longer mayor. And now he's complaining that people are mean to him.
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