Phil Hands for April 08, 2021

Typically bad.

Does Phil Hands not understand what human capital and social capital are?

Without social infrastructure the physical infrastructure is useless. GoComics has purged and continues to purge good cartoons and strips, but retains stuff like this.

I wouldn’t mind keeping the Infrastructure bill to just Infrastructure. But if it passes as is, I’m also good with that.

Not that hard, Phil.infrastructure nounin·​fra·​struc·​ture | \ ˈin-frə-ˌstrək-chər , (ˌ)frä \Definition of infrastructure1 : the system of public works of a country, state, or regionalso : the resources (such as personnel, buildings, or equipment) required for an activity2 : the underlying foundation or basic framework (as of a system or organization)3 : the permanent installations required for military purposes

Hopefully the son in this cartoon will end up smarter than the father…in the real world.

Or how people can’t go to work if there is not childcare? Pretty dense (and probably childless too).

You SERIOUSLY missed the mark on this one! >:(

OK. So we can agree that infrastructure includes highways, streets, bridges, tunnels, dams, mass transit, airports, water supply and resources, waste management, power generation and transmission, telecommunications, and hazardous waste management. And we can agree that every one of these focuses is in need of major improvements and upgrades due to long-term neglect and poor long-term planning. Now, to implement these improvements and upgrades we’re going to need — get ready for this — a human and supply-side “INFRASTRUCTURE” to make this all happen. We need educated and skilled workers along every step of the supply chain. We need equity in that education and those supply providers. We may need to supply some elder care or child care so workers are able to gain training and job market access. We’re going to need to design and build better ways of doing things (after all the whole intent is to build back better) which means we have to research and develop new ideas. This is all Economic Reality 101: To build something new (or to improve something old) you need to be able to think it, design it, acquire the materials to implement it, build it, maintain it, and put a system in place to anticipate future need. THAT is sound business. And THAT is why all the sorry-ass attempts with “Infrastructure Week” during the Orange Julius Administration failed.

Infrastructure is whatever the politicians say it is. Which is to say that it it is ANYTHING that underlies the ability of Americans to get to work and stay at work!

And Mr. Hands opinion of the items in the democratic definition of the “infrastructure” bill is totally irrelevant. Mr. Hands and every OTHER republican’s opinion became irrelevant when the Senate Minority leader, Moscow Mitch McConnell, announced to the world that no republican would vote for the package, no matter WHAT the democrats did to it – such a rejection leaves the democrats free to totally ignore the strident whines coming from the Right.

It is refreshing to observe the leader of the minority party giving the democrats such “carte blanche”, but there you are!

Ignorant Republican obstructionists are afraid of big words and their meanings.

If Republicans were truly interested in negotiation and cooperation, instead of partisan obstruction, then maybe Biden wouldn’t feel the need to roll so many things up into one piece of legislation…

Infrastructure is an investmeent in the USA. BS is what Phil Hands hands out.

Squirting squid ink at the word “infrastructure” is the only thing Conservatives have especially in the face of a proposal which is widely popular. It’s nothing but distracting performative art, like everything else Publicans (and their close relatives) MAGA people do.

Don’t you think that by trying to disparage and bad mouth the infrastructure bill ( which is way, way overdue) , the rePugnants are just making the case for fixing alll the crumbling and neglected foundations of our country. Don’t they want the seniors and disabled to be cared for?… Or fix the roads and bridges (of course if you travel exclusively by air, you can’t see how delapitated every thing is outside of their exclusive gated communities)? …or the green energy that needs to be encouraged? Why don’t the reThugs want us to stay competitive in the world market? Do they really want to live in an impoverished third world slum???

And I thought that care workers, et al, we’re economic resources.

Not only has the border crisis expanded but so, apparently, has the Congressional/Presidential pork barrel!

About 90 years ago, FDR came out with the New Deal. In it was infrastructure spending, including money for the Tennessee Valley Authority. It brought electricity to many parts of America that still used kerosene lamps and wood stoves.

If you had asked a person in 130’s America what infrastructure is, they probably would not have mentioned electricity, phone or education. Those were considered luxuries by many people outside the cities.

My point is that Infrastructure changes with the change in technology and the economy. You have to have a cell phone now, and you need Internet. The infrastructure we are investing in now is for the next 75 years.

We have an opportunity to really help the country going forward. It is not a Blue issue, it is not a Red issue…it is an American issue. Don’t get side tracked by people who make lots of money out of making you angry at the other side.

The proper definition of “infrastructure” changes as society and what it takes to support it change over time. As new medicines and devices are invented and made available to society at large, society adapts to them and includes them in its requirements. In the ’70s, no one required a COVID vaccine. Now they do. The definition must include what is required by everyone in a society, not just in your local sub-group.

Infra: “above, beyond or outside” Structure: “a physical or logical arrangement of parts”

So if you need trained people: Schools are infrastructure. If you need a workforce that’s not pissed off all the time: Fair wage laws are infrastructure. If you need to transport your goods: Railroad etc are infrastructure. If you need an informed populace: Internet is infrastructure. In fact, it is what Biden says it is, but the causation is backward from that: Biden says it because it’s true. (true-ish: Biden is a politician)

Durak’s Definition of Infrastructure:

“Promote the general welfare and provide the blessings of liberty”

Any further questions, Phil?

That’s the power of definition. I have to struggle to teach kids this power, and here’s an adult who also just doesn’t get how words work. John Locke, for one among many, notes that words are signifiers for simple ideas (cats, tables, trees) and complex ideas (democracy, justice, virtue), the latter of which require definition by each individual. Infrastructure is a complex idea, so needs to be defined.

All good things that Republicans like to ignore, to help pay for tax cuts on the rich.

Oh, we understand. It boils down to payoffs for DemoRat states!

What does “democracy” mean? Whatever Georgia Republicans want.

Joe Biden hero of the down trodden. Try to find the flaw in that.

New definitions of infrastructure as determined by DemocRats.