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.”

  • Flying Squid
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    1611 months ago

    Presidents do this every time they’re up for re-election. This is nothing new. Of course they’re going to pander to states they want to win.

    • @WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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      611 months ago

      The kleptocracy already paid billions for high speed broadband infrastructure. Telcos stole the money, delivered nothing, and the kleptocracy kept giving them money.

      What’s changed?

      • Flying Squid
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        711 months ago

        I have no idea what changed. I didn’t say anything changed. I said he was pandering to the state, which is just what presidents do when they want to win a state and they’re up for re-election.

      • @givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        -311 months ago

        I think this will be the third time, but maybe the fourth? I’m not sure why it’s expected to work this time. Maybe Biden even knows that but just wants the optics? I don’t know what would be worse honestly.

        And yeah, if we’re subsidizing this states internet bills…

        The providers are just going to raise the price by that much in a year or two anyways.

    • @givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      -111 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@lemmy.world
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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@lemmy.world
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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@lemmy.world
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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@lemmy.world
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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

      • @naught@sh.itjust.works
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        -111 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@lemmy.world
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          011 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@lemmy.world
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              111 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.