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The Biden Administration

Red Herring

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The conciliator
 

ceecee

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America's hidden depression: K-shaped recovery threatens Biden - Axios

700,000 Americans have been filing unemployment insurance claims every week for 37 weeks — nine months. Plus, 20 million people are still on the pre-pandemic unemployment rolls.

That's unheard of, and incredibly bad.

Government statistics — because of the way they've always been reported — understate lots of red flags.

The official unemployment rate has been dropping, but that's because:
It never really counted gig economy workers well in the first place.
Its data collection abilities have been severely crimped by the pandemic.
Lots of people are falling out of the labor force — not working and not looking.
What's next: 13.4 million people are on pandemic unemployment programs that expire at the end of the year — 27 days from now.

27 days.

Just like the stock market has nothing to do with the economy - unemployment numbers, the way they are reported, are also not the economy. They just want you to believe it is and many continue to buy this lie.
 

Z Buck McFate

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Transportation secretary seems an odd choice for Mayor Pete. I would have thought communications director would fit his skill set best.
 

Z Buck McFate

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America's hidden depression: K-shaped recovery threatens Biden - Axios



Government statistics — because of the way they've always been reported — understate lots of red flags.



27 days.

Just like the stock market has nothing to do with the economy - unemployment numbers, the way they are reported, are also not the economy. They just want you to believe it is and many continue to buy this lie.

This won't help: Republicans, Not Biden, Are About to Raise Your Taxes

The Trump administration has a dirty little secret: It’s not just planning to increase taxes on most Americans. The increase has already been signed, sealed and delivered, buried in the pages of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

President Trump and his congressional allies hoodwinked us. The law they passed initially lowered taxes for most Americans, but it built in automatic, stepped tax increases every two years that begin in 2021 and that by 2027 would affect nearly everyone but people at the top of the economic hierarchy. All taxpayer income groups with incomes of $75,000 and under — that’s about 65 percent of taxpayers — will face a higher tax rate in 2027 than in 2019.

For most, in fact, it’s a delayed tax increase dressed up as a tax cut. How many times have you heard Trump and his allies mention that? They surmised — correctly, so far — that if they waited to add the tax increases until after the 2020 election, few of the people most affected were likely to remember who was responsible.
 

Jaguar

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Biden expected to name former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm as energy secretary.
 

Jaguar

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Biden to Name Gina McCarthy, Former E.P.A. Chief, as White House Climate Coordinator
Ms. McCarthy will serve as a senior adviser to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., coordinating climate change policy throughout the government.
 

Virtual ghost

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Former US envoy to EU urges Biden to oust Trump’s ambassadors


Plus if we consider how unhappy some of the EU countries are with the ambassadors it is likely that there will be changes. After all good chunk of them probably doesn't represent the new administration that well.


Yeah, I think that the odds of that have really risen with recent events.






Biden’s Record-Breaking Cabinet Nominees, In One Chart


All of this could lead to some systematic changes.
 

Doctor Cringelord

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I don't care about the gender or race of his cabinet picks, I care about what their past records are and what they will or will not do as heads of those departments. Don't get me wrong, we've had mostly white dudes running these departments for a long time, and representation is important, but I'm sick of these fluff pieces from supposedly reputable, serious news sources that completely ignore the past resumes of his appointments. It's such a joke.
 

Coriolis

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I don't care about the gender or race of his cabinet picks, I care about what their past records are and what they will or will not do as heads of those departments. Don't get me wrong, we've had mostly white dudes running these departments for a long time, and representation is important, but I'm sick of these fluff pieces from supposedly reputable, serious news sources that completely ignore the past resumes of his appointments. It's such a joke.
If the best candidate for the job always turns out to be a straight, Christian, white guy, something is wrong somewhere. Exactly where requires some examination of the food chain in order to apply the best fix. Prioritizing demographic over qualifications isn't the answer, but there are answers for anyone willing to look. One approach I like is to insist that the applicant pool contain some percentage of underrepresented groups. That encourages recruiters to look for the best candidates in that demographic, along with the others. If they don't get selected in the end because a straight, Christian white guy is more qualified, at least they get the exposure, and hopefully some feedback on where they were lacking.
 

Red Memories

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I don't care about the gender or race of his cabinet picks, I care about what their past records are and what they will or will not do as heads of those departments. Don't get me wrong, we've had mostly white dudes running these departments for a long time, and representation is important, but I'm sick of these fluff pieces from supposedly reputable, serious news sources that completely ignore the past resumes of his appointments. It's such a joke.

They're just chasing the obsessive woke crowd clout who seriously thinks this is more important and doesn't care to look up the histories. It a high level mess.
 

Red Memories

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If the best candidate for the job always turns out to be a straight, Christian, white guy, something is wrong somewhere. Exactly where requires some examination of the food chain in order to apply the best fix. Prioritizing demographic over qualifications isn't the answer, but there are answers for anyone willing to look. One approach I like is to insist that the applicant pool contains some percentage of underrepresented groups. That encourages recruiters to look for the best candidates in that demographic, along with the others. If they don't get selected in the end because a straight, Christian white guy is more qualified, at least they get the exposure, and hopefully some feedback on where they were lacking.

I wish we didn't have to obligate them and they would just do it. I wish it were authentic. Like...I guess as a christian woman I am supposed to feel inspired by Barrett in the supreme court and with her histories, I'm really not. I don't feel very represented by her. But I am...supposed to I guess? What about those who really do read this history and feel angry that someone who is going to represent them poorly is chosen to represent them because it really just enables a train later of going "well see we tried to give them the job and they failed." I don't like the clout chasing crap. Get a qualified person free of racial, religious, and gender biases. I know, that is far too much to ask this country.
 

Coriolis

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I wish we didn't have to obligate them and they would just do it. I wish it were authentic. Like...I guess as a christian woman I am supposed to feel inspired by Barrett in the supreme court and with her histories, I'm really not. I don't feel very represented by her. But I am...supposed to I guess? What about those who really do read this history and feel angry that someone who is going to represent them poorly is chosen to represent them because it really just enables a train later of going "well see we tried to give them the job and they failed." I don't like the clout chasing crap. Get a qualified person free of racial, religious, and gender biases. I know, that is far too much to ask this country.
They don't "just do it". Studies have shown that people tend to recruit and hire people like themselves, unless they make a determined effort to do otherwise. If the hiring group were diverse to begin with, that would take care of itself, but because it usually isn't, that tendency to self-replicate replicates homogeneity, not diversity. Yes, if you scratch the surface you will see great diversity of thought among members of any identifiable group, whether Christian women (Sandra Day O'Connor and Sonia Sotomayor are both Christian, too), black men, gay Latinx, etc. But if you belong to any of these groups and don't see anyone from your demographic in a particular position, industry, organization, etc. it can be hard to see yourself there, either. That is why those "firsts", and indeed the first few, have such power. They are role models and show people what is possible.
 

Doctor Cringelord

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If the best candidate for the job always turns out to be a straight, Christian, white guy, something is wrong somewhere. Exactly where requires some examination of the food chain in order to apply the best fix. Prioritizing demographic over qualifications isn't the answer, but there are answers for anyone willing to look. One approach I like is to insist that the applicant pool contain some percentage of underrepresented groups. That encourages recruiters to look for the best candidates in that demographic, along with the others. If they don't get selected in the end because a straight, Christian white guy is more qualified, at least they get the exposure, and hopefully some feedback on where they were lacking.

Yes, this is fine. I'd also add to that a genderblind, raceblind evaluation process so the candidates' race and gender aren't evident, only their qualifications. This could help limit people making choices based on bias.
 

Totenkindly

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If the best candidate for the job always turns out to be a straight, Christian, white guy, something is wrong somewhere. Exactly where requires some examination of the food chain in order to apply the best fix. Prioritizing demographic over qualifications isn't the answer, but there are answers for anyone willing to look.

Right.

I mean, for high-profile positions, there's typically a "best" pool where all the candidates are capable of doing the job well, and at that point it makes sense to also consider representation.

You just also need to make sure that your "best of" pool should be screening ability rather than being biased and not actually screening for ability but more superficial traits. Doing blind reviews of credentials and background/achievement with names removed helps (you anonymize the applicant pool as much as possible to remove human bias). There can still be bias if certain groups got more development opportunities than others, but one just has to do the best with what one has, and keep working to make opportunities available.
 
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