• Cyburbia is a friendly big tent, where we share our experiences and thoughts about urban planning practice, the built environment, planning adjacent topics, and anything else that comes to mind. No ads, no spam, and it's free. It's easy to join!

NEVERENDING ♾️ The NEVERENDING Political Discussion Thread

michaelskis said:
I admit there is a lot of RFK that is ridiculous (vaccines for example). I also firmly believe that there is a lot that he is 100% correct on when it comes to the health system in the US and the FDA's obedience to big pharma and processed food industry.

The reality is if you look at health today compared to even 20 years ago, we are a far sicker nation. When you go back 40 years, it is night and day worse.
Click to expand...

Because our diet is crap. 40% of the county I live in is obese. 40%!

The problem is Citizen's United. The SCOTUS made graft totally legal. If you want real reform, Citizen's United has to go.
 
michaelskis said:
With all that is going on, where is Congress, the Senate, and the Supreme Court? Why haven't they done more to step in?
Click to expand...
Laws are for honest people. As soon as SCOTUS decided Trump could have immunity while President all bets were off. He’s doing what he wants and has an army of minions that are doing his bidding.

Courts need time, lawsuits need plaintiffs with standing, and the GOP has a slim majority that can shut the Dems out unless someone finds their conscience.

Regardless of your political leanings you should absolutely 100% be alarmed at what has happened with the bribery and corruption case with NYC Mayor Eric Adams.

DOJ Prosecutor Danielle Sassoon’s letter to AG Pam Bondi should sound every alarm in the nation. If there was ever a quid pro quo, this is it. Other federal prosecutors have also resigned in protest.

NYT Gift Article https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/02/13/us/doc-annotation-letter-to-bondi.html?unlocked_article_code=1.xE4.Brg7.SzQqU-mnjs-f&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb (Read Danielle Sassoon’s Letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Annotated)
 
WSU MUP Student said:
I always buy the absolute cheapest eggs available so they probably punch then hen and make her watch as a few omelettes are made!

FWIW... there is a house we pass when we go to my parents where they sell eggs and we usually stop by and buy a dozen or two when we are out there. When we were out there a couple weeks ago, they were $5. They're probably the same ones that would go for like $15 at the store.

My parents always had chickens up until about 10 years ago and my dad would have a sign at the end of the driveway advertising "FRESH EGGS" and he always had a few regular customers but he was always surprised how many people he didn't know who would stop buy and it's not as if their road generally got a lot of traffic. The guy who managed a gas station with an automated car wash near them would also give him two car washes each week (one for my mom and one for him) for a dozen eggs each week. He still has a sign at the end of the driveway advertising hay and straw for sale and barters some of that away too. We've got a never ending supply of fresh honey and syrup from a guy he knows who he trades bales of hay to every couple months.

Recently I found out that my daughter's friend's neighbors have chickens. I need to find out if they sell their eggs... They live in the same community as us and you're supposed to have 5 acres if you want chickens but that would be like a $10m piece of property. They live sort of off in a very wooded corner of the community with a river and wetland behind their house so there are probably not many people to even notice or complain.
Click to expand...
Our neighboring county is very urban and also fairly progressive. They have allowed backyard chix for many years. BTW chickens don't have to be loud. You don't need a rooster. Female chix and humans alike ovulate anyway.
We had backyard chix for several years but couldn't keep predators out with our rudimentary digs.
Finally gave up on them.
 
Do you believe there is a centrist leader that can bring the country together in a few years? Let’s face it, with two extremest ideologies, people are more afraid of the other side than in support of one side or the other. Is there someone who really has the capability to get enough votes from both sides to get elected and really bring people together?

Or will we continue to be screwed by extremists?
 
michaelskis said:
Do you believe there is a centrist leader that can bring the country together in a few years? Let’s face it, with two extremest ideologies, people are more afraid of the other side than in support of one side or the other. Is there someone who really has the capability to get enough votes from both sides to get elected and really bring people together?

Or will we continue to be screwed by extremists?
Click to expand...

No. When a certain person passes, there may be a chance though.
 
kjel said:
Regardless of your political leanings you should absolutely 100% be alarmed at what has happened with the bribery and corruption case with NYC Mayor Eric Adams.

DOJ Prosecutor Danielle Sassoon’s letter to AG Pam Bondi should sound every alarm in the nation. If there was ever a quid pro quo, this is it. Other federal prosecutors have also resigned in protest.

NYT Gift Article https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/02/13/us/doc-annotation-letter-to-bondi.html?unlocked_article_code=1.xE4.Brg7.SzQqU-mnjs-f&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb (Read Danielle Sassoon’s Letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Annotated)
Click to expand...
Between that, the loosening of foreign bribery, the early pardons and clemency for people like Blagojevich and others, it's clear that any crime can be cleared with enough money or power to trade.
 
I'm
michaelskis said:
Do you believe there is a centrist leader that can bring the country together in a few years? Let’s face it, with two extremest ideologies, people are more afraid of the other side than in support of one side or the other. Is there someone who really has the capability to get enough votes from both sides to get elected and really bring people together?

Or will we continue to be screwed by extremists?
Click to expand...
I differ with labeling the "left wing" as extreme. More like rational people vs nutcase extreme neo-nazi-christian fascists.

The two sides are extremely far apart.
 
fringe said:
I'm

I differ with labeling the "left wing" as extreme. More like rational people vs nutcase extreme neo-nazi-christian fascists.

The two sides are extremely far apart.
Click to expand...
My point exactly.

Until we can recognize that there are extremes on both sides, both sides will dig in their heals and elect the worst candidates to prove a point.

Edit:
The sooner we look for reasonable common ground, even if it does not completely check all of the boxes on our personal agendas, the better off we will be as a society. This nation was founded on compromise, and compromises were needed to continue it for much of its existence. Without those initial compromises, we would not exist as a country today. Sometimes those compromises mean taking a small step backwards knowing that you will be able to take a large step forward in the future.
 
Last edited:
michaelskis said:
My point exactly.

Until we can recognize that there are extremes on both sides, both sides will dig in their heals and elect the worst candidates to prove a point.

Edit:
The sooner we look for reasonable common ground, even if it does not completely check all of the boxes on our personal agendas, the better off we will be as a society. This nation was founded on compromise, and compromises were needed to continue it for much of its existence. Without those initial compromises, we would not exist as a country today. Sometimes those compromises mean taking a small step backwards knowing that you will be able to take a large step forward in the future.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply. I still say that the non-Trump side harbors zero extremists. Can you name one? Liz Cheney? Adam Kinzinger? Even Bernie Sanders stands for the rule of law.
 
michaelskis said:
The sooner we look for reasonable common ground, even if it does not completely check all of the boxes on our personal agendas, the better off we will be as a society. This nation was founded on compromise, and compromises were needed to continue it for much of its existence. Without those initial compromises, we would not exist as a country today. Sometimes those compromises mean taking a small step backwards knowing that you will be able to take a large step forward in the future.
Click to expand...
Is there common ground to be had with republicans under trump? Is there something that democrats could come to the table and say we'll negotiate on this? I really can't think of anything. He's not working through congress so I don't know what role democrats would have in the governance under the current model.

There was an agreement last year on border security that was a pretty big compromise and trump killed it. There was an agreement on raising the debt ceiling earlier this year and Elon killed it. There have been a lot of areas of agreement in the past even though we focus on the division, but we're in a zero sum game right now.

While I may not agree with some of the more partisan members of either party, equating how the two parties act is no longer an apples to apples comparison. One party is actively tearing down government, destroying norms, and no longer acknowledges constitutional authorities.
 
I do agree the Dems should go all in on Single Payer.

Single Payer countries have better overall outcomes and pay much less for healthcare as a % of GDP.

Its just common sense.
 
Generally speaking, I think having less ideologically driven people in positions of power is a good thing, especially during a time like this where political divisiveness is at an all time high. There is certainly extreme ideology on the far left, but it has not completely taken hold of the entire Democratic Party in the same way extreme right wing ideology has been able to change so much of the Republican Party platform. I hate to say it, but I think that distinction between the parties is a big part of the explanation for how Republicans won in 2024. The New Deal could have only happened in the backdrop of the Great Depression, when so many Americans were desperate for the relief that job programs under the federal government became overwhelming popular. I don't want things to get worse for people, but maybe an existential threat is the only thing that even could shake off the cobwebs enough to convince people to find a common ground.

That being said, I sure hope the 'strategy' the Democratic Party lands on does not turn out to be the same approach as before, but just with things like climate change and DEI downplayed simply for the sake of avoiding controversy. I've seen throughout my adulthood this false belief that, if that one project or program just makes its way through the legislative gauntlet, on the other side people will eventually realize the benefits are greater than the costs. Maybe that worked in the past, but that's certainly not how things played out with the Affordable Care Act and I wouldn't be too surprised at this point if the BIL and IRA suffer a similar fate. This entire approach is still hinged on the belief that everyone coming to the table is doing so in good faith.

Democrats will need to be patient and wait to see how the Trump Administration navigates a real crisis before they commit to a newly defined policy platform. Maybe we'll see more Democratic governors in blue states propose to build up their own civil service and state capacity in place of what's happening to the federal workforce today. Even with that example, it will only work if it's built on a clear feedback loop. Whatever the strategy ends up being, I think the one thing Bernie Sanders was right on the money about is building a grassroots coalition. There is no messaging strategy that convinces a lot of moderate and center-right voters to all of a sudden change their behavior patterns and vote differently. I think the Democrats need to figure out how to effectively engage their own base first (exactly the same way Trump did), and eventually through momentum they can start to attract voters further right on the spectrum.
 
fringe said:
Thanks for the reply. I still say that the non-Trump side harbors zero extremists. Can you name one? Liz Cheney? Adam Kinzinger? Even Bernie Sanders stands for the rule of law.
Click to expand...

Rule of Law? Seriously? Coming from the same group that wanted to defund the police, set up autonomous zones, and has a long history of violence and disobedience over civility. I don't like what the current administration is doing either, but this binary R or D mentality is what got us here in the first place. So many people are running to one end or the other of the political spectrum thinking that they are balancing out the oppression from the other side. It only increases the oppression all the way around, hurting us all.



As for the three that you mentioned, they are all more in line with what I would want to see in DC. Search this thread to see what my past comments regarding Liz Cheney.

I had family on both sides say really nasty things to me when they found out that I didn't vote for their candidate.

It is people like Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey, Alexandria Cortez, Summer Lee, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer were top of mind of people who are not helping the situation.
 
michaelskis said:
Rule of Law? Seriously? Coming from the same group that wanted to defund the police, set up autonomous zones, and has a long history of violence and disobedience over civility. I don't like what the current administration is doing either, but this binary R or D mentality is what got us here in the first place. So many people are running to one end or the other of the political spectrum thinking that they are balancing out the oppression from the other side. It only increases the oppression all the way around, hurting us all.



As for the three that you mentioned, they are all more in line with what I would want to see in DC. Search this thread to see what my past comments regarding Liz Cheney.

I had family on both sides say really nasty things to me when they found out that I didn't vote for their candidate.

It is people like Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey, Alexandria Cortez, Summer Lee, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer were top of mind of people who are not helping the situation.
Click to expand...
Warren, AOC, and Liz are uppity women that a lot of guys cannot handle. Liz's Daddy is a war criminal.
 
A lot has happened in the past two months. I am shocked that the Democrats are not taking more advantage of this insanity and ashamed of the Republicans for not pushing back on Trump.

He might get his wish an the US be fully self sufficient... but it will be because no one will want to do business with us anymore. Oh and we don't have some of the natural resources needed to keep up, especially in the Technology sectors.

At the conference, I had a great conversation with woman from Canada, who was also muslin I believe, and she said that she was thinking about going to Grad School in the US, but has since changed her mind because she does not feel safe in the US anymore.
 
I am coming to the realization that voters want their elected officials to help with local issues. I think it is a top priority for most voters, even though such wishes and desires may not be articulated as such, and may be overshadowed by the usual concerns of income, taxes, and availability of jobs.

What I am realizing is that it seems many democrats have been unable to see this as they emphasize huge complicated issues like climate change, for example, that aren’t quite detectable by voters as having a local component. Perhaps also the propensity of democrats to tie all their concerns into a bill, a la Biden’s massive IRA bill, for example, and be process oriented that is fraught with many approval steps at the local, state, and federal levels, where each point in the process can involve public input, oftentimes provided by nefarious actors, confuses voters about local relevance even though such complicated bills are strong and supportive of local economic development.

Whereas certain republicans since January are using federal enforcement agencies to attack seemingly local issues. Removing certain kinds of people from communities seems to be perceived as solving local issues, dubious and concerning as that phrasing is for us readers. What I am trying to say is that the constant media drum machine about federal enforcement actions in towns and universities across the country seems to only portray a positive light to certain kinds of voter groups on the idea that the federal government is finally helping address local issues. Thus, the image is that republicans are winning, unwittingly shown on rinse and repeat loops on cable news, social media, and other information outlets.

I don’t like this. But I think this is what’s going on.

If I was a smarter person, I think I could have been more precise and concise with my words here, but I am just an observer spitballing all this. I can say, where I live, it is evident that regardless of your political stripe, that doing something concrete, tangible, and real for your local voters gets you an electoral win. I’ve read criticisms from these kind of successful politicians that squarely places blame on a national political machine that is unable to see the value of investing and directing funds to local candidates who aren’t exactly 100% supportive of a party platform that, according to these few and far between electeds, is ostensibly ignoring the local component that potential office holders inherently understand in their very fiber as key to their electoral success.
 
Road Diets no longer a good thing (even though data suggests otherwise) so all grants with wording “reducing lane capacity” will be considered “less favorably”



 
Planit said:
Road Diets no longer a good thing (even though data suggests otherwise) so all grants with wording “reducing lane capacity” will be considered “less favorably”



Click to expand...
Sigh. It is going to take years to fix what we are breaking. Funding for infrastructure really shouldn't be in the cross hairs. This lives in ED world too, where creating places requires the removal of car heavy environments. If we don't have State or Federal money to create places, how do we compete?
 
Breaking News: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth accidently sent an email to the Houthis about cosmetic product advice from his new makeup studio in the Pentagon.
 
1745626762136.png
 
I have one day left as a federal employee. As many of you know, I took at job at HUD in October 2022 in the Community Planning & Development office. I was stationed at my local field office that also housed Public & Indian Housing (PIH), Multifamily (MFM), Fair Housing (FHEO), Field Policy & Management (FPM), and Office of General Counsel (OGC).

CPD lost one person in the first Delayed Resignation Program offer. Then we lost two attorneys in OGC, two term limited employees in CPD, and the field office director when probationary and term staff were fired.

Then we were ordered back to work 5 days a week despite a ratified union contract setting our schedule as two days in office each pay period. A fair number of people have long commutes of 1.5-2 hours each way. We’re fortunate to be in a nice office as many field offices are utter crapholes and some did not have enough space to hold a 100% return to office.

We found out through a leaked document that HUD’s overall reduction in force goal was 50% across all divisions. CPD’s goal is 84%. CPD manages CDBG, HOME, HOPWA, ESG, and CoC grants for all entitlement cities, counties, and each state. CPD was also recently tasked with deploying Community Project Funding grants made by Congress. All told 900 CPD employees across the country manage over $12 BILLION in over 11,000 individual grant contracts annually. CPD is also tasked with field monitoring and completing several annual regulatory functions alongside grantees.

After the leak, all employees in FPM with GS13 and below pay levels were terminated and put on admin leave for 60 days. A few of my friends got caught up in this.

A second Deferred Resignation Program was offered at the beginning of April. CPD at my field office had 7 people including myself accept the offer to be placed on leave and paid through 9/30 and retain health insurance. I accepted due to being in “career conditional” status and would be in the next group terminated. If I stayed I’d only walk away with $8K. Several are combining the DRP with retirement. Now there are 8 people left to do the work of 16. About 10 others across the various divisions in my office also accepted DRP.

As the new HUD secretary is a retired NFL player and minister, all of his speeches and emails lean towards motivational with themes of bootstrapping and specific religious references (Email on Good Friday referenced Christian Easter, Jews wandering the desert, and Jesus). Add emails from DOGE under the guise of OPM requesting a weekly 5 point summary email from all federal employees, emails saying federal employees are lazy, partisan, under-qualified, and not hired or continued to be employed on merit.

Most things being reported in the news are happening, federal employees are stressed to the breaking point, DRP 2.0 has had a lot of employees across federal government opt in, and those that are left are left holding the bag. Please reach out to your Congressional delegation, be kind with any feds you interact with, and remember to vote.
 
For the Texas peeps:

House Bill 267: Relating to defenses to prosecution for certain offenses involving material or conduct that is obscene or otherwise harmful to children.

They are targeting the Librarians! I keep an eye on the land use bills, so this one was not on my radar. My public school librarian friend pointed this one out to me. This bill threatens librarians with criminal prosecution by removing the affirmative defense to prosecution language from Section 43.24(c) of the Texas Penal Code. The affirmative defense language exists to prevent frivolous lawsuits and prosecution. Basically, removing this language would allow parents to file lawsuits against librarians for having "obscene" or "objectionable" material in the library, on the shelves.

Please write your Texas reps to vote no on this bill!
 
It's the Economy Stupid... and the numbers are out.

money.com

After 100 Days in Office, the Stock Market's 'Trump Bump' Has Become a Trump Slump

All the stock market gains from the post-election Trump bump have been erased.
money.com money.com


Now I don't think it is all doom and gloom, we have been in worse places before... but what worries me is I don't think it will go the right direction anytime soon.

Having said that, I am tossing an extra 5% in my retirement investments knowing that everything is on sale and it will go up before I retire.
 
michaelskis said:
It's the Economy Stupid... and the numbers are out.

money.com

After 100 Days in Office, the Stock Market's 'Trump Bump' Has Become a Trump Slump

All the stock market gains from the post-election Trump bump have been erased.
money.com money.com


Now I don't think it is all doom and gloom, we have been in worse places before... but what worries me is I don't think it will go the right direction anytime soon.

Having said that, I am tossing an extra 5% in my retirement investments knowing that everything is on sale and it will go up before I retire.
Click to expand...
It’s the warning shot across the bow.
 
Is DOGE going to look into the wasteful spending on tRump’s birthday parade?

Excuse me, a military celebration.
 
Trump wants to reopen Alcatraz. If he wants to cut government spending, the construction work on Alcatraz seems to go against such thought. Closed since 1963 and a tourist destination. Visited one time in 2019 while at NPC. My third cousin 4x removed is the Birdman of Alcatraz.
 
We have a monthly subscription on Amazon for things that we use on a regular basis (toilet paper, dog food, vitamins, paper towel...). Last night I got an e-mail indicating that most of the stuff will be going up in price. It was the amount of increase that shocked me. As an example, dog treats are going from $9.48 per package to $12.98!

I think we are going to re-think which brand we use for some stuff and cut back on some of the other 'luxury' stuff and I don't think we will be alone in this. I wonder what happens to the economy when prices go up, the value of the dollar goes down, and people stop spending on non-essential items.

Oh that's right, the market crashes!
 
michaelskis said:
We have a monthly subscription on Amazon for things that we use on a regular basis (toilet paper, dog food, vitamins, paper towel...). Last night I got an e-mail indicating that most of the stuff will be going up in price. It was the amount of increase that shocked me. As an example, dog treats are going from $9.48 per package to $12.98!

I think we are going to re-think which brand we use for some stuff and cut back on some of the other 'luxury' stuff and I don't think we will be alone in this. I wonder what happens to the economy when prices go up, the value of the dollar goes down, and people stop spending on non-essential items.

Oh that's right, the market crashes!
Click to expand...
There's also impending supply chain issues if you track coastal port traffic (dramatically down), which means you may see further increases due to scarcity (and gouging that is practically never enforced). S&P is already down 20%.
 
The economy did shrink in Q1, so it wouldn't surprise me if we end up in a brief recession until these tariffs get sorted out.
 
Lots of federal programs, services and just plain needs are getting shifted to the states and ultimately to the cities we work in. Budget impacts will be bigly.

tRump will say 'I took care of these problems and shrunk the government' only for us to know he passed all of it to the states, who'll need to somehow fund the programs, of which several will be passed to the cities.
 
Planit said:
Lots of federal programs, services and just plain needs are getting shifted to the states and ultimately to the cities we work in. Budget impacts will be bigly.

tRump will say 'I took care of these problems and shrunk the government' only for us to know he passed all of it to the states, who'll need to somehow fund the programs, of which several will be passed to the cities.
Click to expand...
But...states and local government can't just 'make money' to cover deficits, if necessary.

images
 
Planit said:
Lots of federal programs, services and just plain needs are getting shifted to the states and ultimately to the cities we work in. Budget impacts will be bigly.

tRump will say 'I took care of these problems and shrunk the government' only for us to know he passed all of it to the states, who'll need to somehow fund the programs, of which several will be passed to the cities.
Click to expand...
When a large group of people will just "vote no" on all tax levies, this pressure is going to make doing good work MUCH harder. It may make the State and the Federal government look better, but the people who actually do the work are going to be incapable of getting enough money to do anything but the bare minimum.

Our selfishness as a nation is real. If it doesn't directly benefit me, I won't pay for it...
 
Hink said:
When a large group of people will just "vote no" on all tax levies, this pressure is going to make doing good work MUCH harder. It may make the State and the Federal government look better, but the people who actually do the work are going to be incapable of getting enough money to do anything but the bare minimum.

Our selfishness as a nation is real. If it doesn't directly benefit me, I won't pay for it...
Click to expand...
That apparently happened in recently in our last public school district in OH.

Luckily we moved back to Chicagoland just in time for the critical HS years.
 
JNA said:
From snopes.com

'Sesame Street' Has Been Parodying Donald Trump Since the 1980s?
www.snopes.com

'Sesame Street' Has Been Parodying Donald Trump Since the 1980s?

The children's television series has based four characters on Donald Trump, including one played by actor Joe Pesci in the 1990s.
www.snopes.com www.snopes.com
Click to expand...

Children's programing these days has become a big frustration of mine. Programs like Sesame Street and Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood actually helped build our generation. Kids programs today just distract and entertain. If you watch those shows today, not only is the message better, the pace is slower and more deliberate.


In regards to Trump, with all the issues going on today, it makes me wonder what the next administration will be like. I don't see anyone from either side rising to the top at the moment.
 
A 'gift' of a $400million+ 'flying palace' 747 from Qatar to be used as AirForceOne until the end of his term which it then gets transferred to his foundation?!?!?!?!?!?!??????????? This is just after the golf course deal for $5.5 billion in Qatar?!?!?!?????????????
Looks like pure, unadulterated bribery!




Who in here thinks there won't be some espionage, tracking, listening, electronic devices installed too, oh & aren't all AirForceOne s public property?
 
Back
Top