President Biden is heading to North Carolina on Thursday to announce $82 million in new investments to connect homes and businesses in the state to high-speed internet.

He will go to the Raleigh-Durham area in the critical battleground state to make the announcement, alongside Gov. Roy Cooper (D). The funding comes from the American Rescue Plan, which was the COVID-19 relief package Biden signed into law in 2021, and aims to connect an additional 16,000 homes and businesses in North Carolina.

The investment, according to a fact sheet from the White House, will also create jobs in manufacturing and construction to produce “Made-in-America fiber-optic cable that will build out internet infrastructure across the country.”

  • @givesomefucks
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    -211 months ago

    Sure it doesn’t work and voters have wised up to it… But this is what we always do so we’ll keep doing it even tho it doesn’t work!

    You know what we haven’t tried and will likely work?

    Actually putting the work in and trying to help Americans the entire term and not trying to only do the bare minimum for appearances to trick people into thinking they’re being helped…

    At least that way, even if we don’t get the votes, we’re helping people.

    For fucks sake, the most common reason most non voters have given for decades is that neither party legitimately wants to help them, they just get tossed crumbs before an election, and that’s only if they live in a battleground state.

    This shit isn’t complicated. It’s just helping Americans makes donors unhappy, and Dems consistently underestimate how much voters can see thru this pandering.

    • @Candelestine
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      611 months ago

      What do you call a nation-spanning infrastructure bill? Or offering cash payments to low income families so their kids can buy food in the summer?

      I’m all for criticizing Biden, but it should be honest criticism.

    • Flying Squid
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      511 months ago

      Voters have wised up to it? Do you have any actual evidence of that?

      • @givesomefucks
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        011 months ago

        Yeah, election results…

        In addition to surveys of non voters.

        I get a random person on social media not knowing that, but our president and his campaign team should.

        • Flying Squid
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          511 months ago

          Please present this evidence. Just saying you have evidence is not actually having evidence. I would like to see these surveys and how they show that voters have wised up to political pandering.

          • @givesomefucks
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            11 months ago

            Politics is simply not the way to make change, they said. Two-thirds of nonvoters agree, for example, that voting has little to do with the way that real decisions are made in this country; they are 21 points more likely to say so than people who voted.

            A majority also said they believe it makes no difference who is elected president and that things will go on just as they did before. Nonvoters were 29 points more likely to say that than people who voted. (Read more about why they didn’t vote, in their own words.)

            And

            Nonvoters are also more likely than voters to say that traditional parties and politicians don’t care about people like me; the mainstream media is more interested in making money than telling the truth; the American economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful; success in life is pretty much determined by forces outside our control; and to feel that most issues discussed in Washington don’t affect them personally.

            https://www.npr.org/2020/12/15/945031391/poll-despite-record-turnout-80-million-americans-didnt-vote-heres-why

            The article already says NC voted trump the last two elections, and I already quoted it…

            So I’m going to assume you don’t need another source for that

            • Flying Squid
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              311 months ago

              Well I’m going to need a source for why non-voters matter to a president when pandering to a state. They weren’t going to vote anyway.

              • @givesomefucks
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                11 months ago

                Well I’m going to need a source for why non-voters matter to a president when pandering to a state

                What?

                You want a source for why a candidate pandering for votes would care about people that aren’t going to vote?

                Literally the only point of pandering for votes, is to get votes…

                If not, what the fuck is the point of pandering at all?

                And why are you saying it doesn’t work?

                That’s how Obama and Bill Clinton got elected…

                And let me guess, you’re just going to ignore everything you were wrong about and ask for a source on that too…

                That’s called “sealioning”

                Edit:

                Yep. That’s definitely what’s happening and worth a block

                • Flying Squid
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                  511 months ago

                  To get votes… from people who vote.

                  • @Candelestine
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                    511 months ago

                    That’s a troll, fyi, I’ve run into him a couple times now. If you drive him into a corner he’ll just start name-calling and block you, so you can’t debate him in the future. He does not seem to realize this does not prevent us from leaving our own replies to his posts for everyone else to discuss, without him.

    • @[email protected]
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      011 months ago

      Just because you only pay attention around election time does not mean Biden has been doing nothing this entire time… that doesn’t make any sense. Like he hibernated through the term and only just now regained consciousness to campaign again?

      This reeks of both-sideism. Please compare the platforms and policies of the two sides you seem equally disillusioned with.

      • @givesomefucks
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        -111 months ago

        No, I have been paying attention…

        One of the biggest criticism of Biden s early years, was that he appeared to have no plan when he took office. He didn’t have anything ready to go, and said he would start to look into his various campaign promises.

        And before that was done, we lost the House.

        This reeks of both-sideism

        Republicans are a lost cause.

        If the only standard for the only other option is “not republican” then we, as a country not just a party, are completely fucked.

        1/3 of this country doesn’t vote, moving further right for decades isn’t working. It’s time to go back to FDR style Dems when Republicans could only manage to win two states

        https://www.270towin.com/1936_Election/interactive_map

          • @givesomefucks
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            011 months ago

            Benefit of the doubt that’s true and he did get some stuff done that was substantial:

            Is it enough to offset alternating with Republicans?

            Moderate progress only works if it’s steady. Ten steps back and five steps forward is still moving backwards.

            If moderate progress is the most we reach for, we’ll never make any progress on a long time scale when modern Republicans get equal turns.

            And the way to prevent that, is trying for faster progress. The party just won’t try that, because their donors don’t want it.

            Bringing us alllll the way back to 1/3 of voters just not voting.

            • @[email protected]
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              11 months ago

              Read about what he has done. You don’t need to make any assumptions.

              What should he do? Decree that college is free now and insurance is banned and so is homelessness etc? Realistically, he’s done a lot and is far more progressive than leftists tend to credit him for.

              At this point it feels like we are just finding ways to be dissatisfied tbh.

              Here is an opinion piece with more deets on stuff Biden has done:
              https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/13/why-progressives-winning-inside-democratic-party/

              • @givesomefucks
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                011 months ago

                You won’t answer my question…

                Do you think Biden has done enough in his four years to correct Trump’s?

                Do you think right now we’re better off than when Obama left office.

                Because if not, then moderate progress isn’t enough of a goal

                • Pheta
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                  111 months ago

                  I’m not sure why you’re trying to make a zero-sum argument here. Nothing in life is black and white, and just because Biden couldn’t measure up to your standards doesn’t mean we need to, or should, replace him.

                  Also, nobody is required to argue or refute any claims or points you’re trying to make. Biden didn’t face the same problems that Obama did. He doesn’t have the same faults or struggles, so why are we trying to make an apple-to-apple comparison when that’s not even what we’re discussing?

                  Personally, Biden’s executive orders read as very well intentioned, and I personally have directly and indirectly benefited from many of these. There are some things Biden has done that I have disagreed with, but overall, the executive orders and ruling policy of the Biden administration is a positive. If you read some of the executive orders, it’s pretty clear that Biden understands the issues that ail the public in most, if not all, sectors.

                  Gotta shout out a thanks to @naught for getting me interested in reading executive orders. For anyone curious, you can find it here: https://www.federalregister.gov/presidential-documents/executive-orders/joe-biden/2023

                  Really interesting stuff.