What does a BIDEN Presidency look like?

[OttoVonBismarck]

Harris describes himself as a left wing progressive, and does so pretty regularly. He definitely considers himself to be on the left.

Your "evidence" that he is not is to just recite the litany of sins the identity politics radicals have labeled him with when THEY claim he is on the right. That doesn't make him on the right.

That is evidence that my point is correct - that there are those on the left who look at what happened with the GOP and want to emulate it.

I never said he was on the right, so I can only assume you're having reading problems--I hope you can resolve them.

[Berkut]

OK, that was fun.

Sam Harris is a left wing progressive. 

Any census of podcasts that does not place him in the "left wing" column is incorrect.

[Josquius]

Tell me something here.
When you're on the ground in the US is "woke" really such a real thing and identity politics the domain of the left rather than the right, which isn't what I get from mostly online interactions with Americans and consumption of their media, or is berkut just odd?

[DGuller]

Is that a real question or just yet another deranged anti-anti-woke passive aggressive shot?

[Jacob]

Is that a real question or just yet another deranged anti-anti-woke passive aggressive shot?

Translation: "It's real."

[Berkut]

Tell me something here.
When you're on the ground in the US is "woke" really such a real thing and identity politics the domain of the left rather than the right, which isn't what I get from mostly online interactions with Americans and consumption of their media, or is berkut just odd?

I don't think there is any question that I am odd.

[Admiral Yi]

Tell me something here.
When you're on the ground in the US is "woke" really such a real thing and identity politics the domain of the left rather than the right, which isn't what I get from mostly online interactions with Americans and consumption of their media, or is berkut just odd?

I would say that identity politics is definitely a thing.  Wokeness per se is something I don't encounter a ton, less even than PC in its heyday, especially if we take the meaning as it was originally intended, which is it's a black only thing about the pervasiveness of racism.  Which is not to say that accusations of racism don't fly around all the time.  Just that people making the accusations don't wear shirts that say "I'm woke."

[OttoVonBismarck]

OK, that was fun.

Sam Harris is a left wing progressive.

Any census of podcasts that does not place him in the "left wing" column is incorrect.

Yeah because Hillary supporters who bashed Bernie back in '16 are left wing progressives. You're a special kind of stupid, aren't you? I often forget how worthless your opinions are, thanks for reminding me.

[Berkut]

Yes, you can choose to not support Bernie and still be a left wing progressive.

Your rather excitable hate speech does nothing for your argument, by the way.

[Berkut]

It is interesting that OvB defines "left wing progressive" strictly based on who someone supported in a primary. It doesn't matter what *policies* you support, or what your vision of the future is, or what you believe to be the right things to do - you didn't support Bernie over Clinton, so therefore you cannot be a progressive.

The embrace and glorification of the personality cult in place of actual principle is not something that only Trumpers hold to be self evident, apparently.

[Sheilbh]

If anything I think the trend to personality cult and the power of an individual in the system to "solve" things is stronger on the left/liberal side in recent years - I think in response to Trump. That the solution won't be through politics but a redemptive individual: Comey, Mueller etc. But also the weird personality cult around, say, RBG, similar around Hilary and even the weird stans of Jen Psaki.

I don't know if it's just that they're younger so it's maybe reflecting internet culture/stanning more or if it's something deeper (such as too much focus on individuals, reluctance to endorse "politics" maybe?).

[Eddie Teach]

I'll just say, Psaki is definitely cuter than Hillary or RBG.

[Barrister]

If anything I think the trend to personality cult and the power of an individual in the system to "solve" things is stronger on the left/liberal side in recent years - I think in response to Trump. That the solution won't be through politics but a redemptive individual: Comey, Mueller etc. But also the weird personality cult around, say, RBG, similar around Hilary and even the weird stans of Jen Psaki.

I don't know if it's just that they're younger so it's maybe reflecting internet culture/stanning more or if it's something deeper (such as too much focus on individuals, reluctance to endorse "politics" maybe?).

Remember also the messianic quality of the Obama 2008 campaign...

[Sheilbh]

Remember also the messianic quality of the Obama 2008 campaign...

Fair. But I liked that so it doesn't count

[OttoVonBismarck]

So interestingly the Florida legislature appears to be willing to go along with DeSantis' attack on Disney. This is some interesting stuff--Disney has been a reliable contributor primarily to Republican candidates for decades, I see this as a major opening front in the war between the "New GOP" and corporations. I wouldn't be shocked if in a decade's time the GOP is by far receiving less political support from corporate donors, probably by a pretty significant ratio if trends like this continue.

It looks like in terms of central Florida (which is no Democratic bastion by any means), it is mostly a net loss to do what DeSantis is asking for--which is dissolving the Reedy Creek Improvement District that operates Disney World. Right now Disney World does not pay full taxes to local governments (it does pay some local property tax though, and I believe always has), if the Improvement District is dissolved Disney can no longer legally operate a police department and would likely not be able to operate the fire department or EMS. This would mean Orange and Osceola counties would have to step in. The easiest way to do so would be to transfer those departments to those county governments. The Tax Collector of Orange County has said the cost of assuming responsibility for these services would be around $105m/yr net, even factoring in Disney now paying more local taxes. It would essentially require a 15 to 20% hike in the local property tax rate to cover the gap.

The Reedy Creek District also has $2bn in bonds outstanding, if it no longer exists as a legal entity the local governments become responsible for holding and servicing that debt. Note that currently Disney funds payments to these debts out of its own revenues, it appears that there is a decent chance DeSantis "punishment" for Disney will reduce Disney World's operating overhead by shifting the cost of emergency services on to the tax payers, and will reduce a bond liability they indirectly were taking care of by $1.5-2bn.