Joe Biden tells coal miners they can "learn how to program"

[BoomerD]

Meh...this is the same kind of shit working- class people have heard every time their job is off-shored or eliminated....it's been that way since forever.

"Acme Buggy Whip Corp. is shutting down. What will I do to earn a living?"

"Learn to code."

 

[BoomerD]

Well I know you guys are trying to shove Gabbard off the stage, but last I checked, Warren and Klobuchar are still standing. Warren is waning a bit, but Klobuchar could surge if she has another strong debate performance.

As for diversity, even with Castro gone, you still have viable women candidates, a viable gay male and veteran, a Jewish democratic socialist and a Boomer.

If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve.

 

[VRAMdemon]

Stupid comment by Biden. It actually reminds me of the dumb shit that comes out of Trumps pie hole. As for it effecting Bidens "electability" - not so much. The poisoning has already begun. Trumps handlers have employed two strategies since 2015. 1) Create a bogeyman that he can point to and get people to hate. Hillary and her emails was the one that got him elected. The caravan from the south was one that got him some of his wall funding. He even managed to get people to vilify Mueller, a man of integrity. 2) Blame your opponent for standing in your way for making huge progress, but still claim to be making progress despite them. In other words, leave the Ds in power to some degree, but not enough to actually hurt you. Then you can blame them for not being successful.

The only way the coal miners would possibly vote for Biden, is if he bullshitted them like Trump did. And being a Democrat - highly unlikely.

Trump and his handlers are trying to create a new bogeyman with the Biden stuff. Anyone that engages in any debate about Biden is only helping him. If you acknowledge the boogeyman in any way, even to argue against it, you only make it more real. And it seems Biden himself doesn't shy away from the dumb poisoning comments. He is blaming the Ds for the impeachment "nonsense" and calling it a witch hunt, so it is a bit of a mix between 1 and 2. They have managed to convince millions people he is right. His handlers tactics are surprisingly effective and continue to be so. they aren't playing 8 dimensional chess, the playbook is like 2 pages long, but they are doing an effective job at keeping his base (and maybe a little more) distracted and focused on the wrong things. And..not surprisingly..So is Biden himself

 

[theeedude]

New hires need a lot of hand holding as well, even brilliant ones. Where there is a will there is a way. I personally don’t think its reasonable to necessarily convert every coal miner into a coder, at least not for complex work, but not all coding is complex.

There is no will and there is no way. Tech companies aren't going to bend over backwards to hire these people. Not without a huge government handout. Politicians pander to them because they are in politically important areas, but as far as tech industry is concerned, they are a bunch of backwards losers not worth trying to change.

 

[SMOGZINN]

If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve.

So, you intend to sit and be waited on? In other words another Trump.

 

[BoomerD]

So, you intend to sit and be waited on? In other words another Trump.

You must be a "young."

 

[Vic]

These coal miners are fucking socialists who expect the govt, taxpayers, and consumers to prop up their dying industry just so they can keep their jobs.

Biden is right. They need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and quit expecting the govt to give them handouts and free stuff.

 

[Vic]

Coal is a blue collar job. Hillary saying she's going to kill coal was very symbolic and used against her in multiple states. Now Sleepy Joe is making the same mistake.

No one and nothing are killing coal except itself and natural gas. The only mistake here is listening to socialist Trump trolls pandering for coal miner votes by making promises of handouts and free stuff.

 

[fskimospy]

No one and nothing are killing coal except itself and natural gas. The only mistake here is listening to socialist Trump trolls pandering for coal miner votes by making promises of handouts and free stuff.

Trump supporters love free stuff, it just has to be free stuff for them. Republicans generally feel this way, that's why they hated the auto bailout (going to people they thought were Democrats) and loved the farm bailout (going to people they thought were Republicans).

And people question why Republicans are the identity politics party.

 

[Vic]

Well I know you guys are trying to shove Gabbard off the stage, but last I checked, Warren and Klobuchar are still standing. Warren is waning a bit, but Klobuchar could surge if she has another strong debate performance.

As for diversity, even with Castro gone, you still have viable women candidates, a viable gay male and veteran, a Jewish democratic socialist and a Boomer.

Why do you feign so much concern for the Democratic party's nomination process while never mentioning a single word about the Republican party's nomination process? To their credit, at least the Democrats actually allowed more than one person on their stage..

 

[Vic]

Only one person gets the nomination. If you condition the electorate to expect that a candidate looks like them, you are inevitably going to disappoint a lot of people. Diversity is bigger and broader than race.

An Elitist looks down on the party that is still considering a diverse pool of candidates for the nomination as not being diverse enough, while he prepares to cast his vote for the party that didn't even consider any other candidate but the richest-born white male Boomer it could find.

 

[hal2kilo]

And that's the mistake that pretty much everyone here ignored.
Coal has been on the way out for a long time, and I'm sure most of the people in the industry know it, but he needed to be a bit less condescending. Don't piss off people you're trying to get to vote for you. That's politics 101 (a class Trump never took). Better to say that he would work on a way of transitioning those people into other industries.

What a snowflake nation we live in now. Telling people they need to think about a new way to make a living when your current way of making a living is gone, is now condescending. What happened to the lazy louts that call themselves Americans. There is this thing where you geographically change your location to find work. It called move! I moved 4 times in my career as a member of the corporate nomad society, each time improving myself and my position, if you don't think we are corporate nomads at this point, you need to wake the F up.

 

[Vic]

What a snowflake nation we live in now. Telling people they need to think about a new way to make a living when your current way of making a living is gone, is now condescending. What happened to the lazy louts that call themselves Americans. There is this thing where you geographically change your location to find work. It called move! I moved 4 times in my career as a member of the corporate nomad society, each time improving myself and my position, if you don't think we are corporate nomads at this point, you need to wake the F up.

We saw this same shit when the timber industry declined. For some reason, we are supposed to give handouts and free stuff to prop up a dying profession because of some nostalgic identity. When the truth is that being a lumberjack or a coal miner has always been shitty, dangerous, and low paying jobs that no one cared about until it became politically advantageous to pander to certain rural voters.
Oh, and we're supposed to believe lies that it was 'unnecessary' environmental protections, and not competition and automation, that brought about these industries' declines.

 

[ivwshane]

We saw this same shit when the timber industry declined. For some reason, we are supposed to give handouts and free stuff to prop up a dying profession because of some nostalgic identity. When the truth is that being a lumberjack or a coal miner has always been shitty, dangerous, and low paying jobs that no one cared about until it became politically advantageous to pander to certain rural voters.
Oh, and we're supposed to believe lies that it was 'unnecessary' environmental protections, and not competition and automation, that brought about these industries' declines.

Actually being a coal miner isn’t low paying. They usually start off at 50k and can go up to 150k and that’s the issue. It’s almost impossible to replace their current job with something equal or close to equal in terms of pay.

If trying to come up with a plan to help them is condescending and lying to them gets you votes then the smartest, moral strategy would be to ignore them.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

The OP like the rest of Republicans want to keep their people fat, dumb and ignorant. They only way to keep their votes.

The arrogance of this... I guess it isn't surprising seeing as to whom it's coming from.

 

[thilanliyan]

If trying to come up with a plan to help them is condescending and lying to them gets you votes then the smartest, moral strategy would be to ignore them.

That might work if it wasn't for the electoral college....unfortunately there are people in areas hard hit by globalization and/or tech progress whose votes count "more" than in other areas...so they can't be ignored.

 

[Vic]

Actually being a coal miner isn’t low paying. They usually start off at 50k and can go up to 150k and that’s the issue. It’s almost impossible to replace their current job with something equal or close to equal in terms of pay.

If trying to come up with a plan to help them is condescending and lying to them gets you votes then the smartest, moral strategy would be to ignore them.

My point there was with regards to the nostalgia surrounding the profession. I am aware that energy industry blue collar jobs are rather well paying. But how many people in Owsley county, KY actually have one of those jobs? Not many, because most of those Appalachian coal jobs were either automated or moved to Wyoming a long time ago.

I don't see the issue here as being about a plan to help anyone so much as that Biden's messaging was (no pun intended) off-code to the current political environment. In other words, Biden messaged bootstraps to the 'wrong people.'

 

[Vic]

The arrogance of this... I guess it isn't surprising seeing as to whom it's coming from.

The dishonesty of this... I guess it isn't surprising seeing as to whom it's coming from.

 

[Vic]

That might work if it wasn't for the electoral college....unfortunately there are people in areas hard hit by globalization and/or tech progress whose votes count "more" than in other areas...so they can't be ignored.

Which is why the Republicans are paying off these people to keep living in areas where the industries died over a generation ago. Although phony promises, food stamps, and opiates aren't much of a pay off.

 

[ivwshane]

That might work if it wasn't for the electoral college....unfortunately there are people in areas hard hit by globalization and/or tech progress whose votes count "more" than in other areas...so they can't be ignored.

We are only talking about coal miners here.
If your electoral strategy hinders on the support of 70k voters, you’ve already lost.

 

[ivwshane]

My point there was with regards to the nostalgia surrounding the profession. I am aware that energy industry blue collar jobs are rather well paying. But how many people in Owsley county, KY actually have one of those jobs? Not many, because most of those Appalachian coal jobs were either automated or moved to Wyoming a long time ago.

I don't see the issue here as being about a plan to help anyone so much as that Biden's messaging was (no pun intended) off-code to the current political environment. In other words, Biden messaged bootstraps to the 'wrong people.'

I agree with that.

 

[thilanliyan]

We are only talking about coal miners here.
If your electoral strategy hinders on the support of 70k voters, you’ve already

My post didn't mention just coal miners. There are other industries, manufacturing for example that are also hard hit. All those people can't just be ignored.

 

[ivwshane]

My post didn't mention just coal miners. There are other industries, manufacturing for example that are also hard hit. All those people can't just be ignored.

Well considering you responded to MY post and I was talking about coal miners specifically, as that’s what this whole thread is about.

 

[thilanliyan]

Well considering you responded to MY post and I was talking about coal miners specifically, as that’s what this whole thread is about.

My point is that the same issues that are faced by coal miners are happening in other areas and industries as well, and while you may be able to ignore the coal miners and win an election, the Dems can't ignore all those other people as well and expect to win. So a solution that works for coal miners might also work for those other people, hence they shouldn't just be ignored IMO.

 

[Starbuck1975]

An Elitist looks down on the party that is still considering a diverse pool of candidates for the nomination as not being diverse enough, while he prepares to cast his vote for the party that didn't even consider any other candidate but the richest-born white male Boomer it could find.

Diversity is a matter of perspective. Older black voters prefer Biden. Maybe we shouldn’t judge the quality of a candidate field by how many different M&Ms we can see.