• arthurpizza@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    104
    ·
    3 months ago

    Biden has made significant progress for the average person during his presidency, which is disheartening given the potential for even greater impact. It seems he knows that simply meeting basic expectations will be enough to outdo previous leaders.

        • Kit
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          42
          ·
          3 months ago

          I suspect it’s also full of foreign agents acting on bad motives. That and children for whom this is their first election, who are caught up on ideals instead of slow and steady progress.

          • Optional@lemmy.worldOP
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            7
            ·
            3 months ago

            Agreed. Many appear to be attending foreign colleges which . . . well, makes sense, sort of.

          • crusa187@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            3 months ago

            We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there “is” such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.

            • MLK Jr

            Our climate is being destroyed irrevocably, wealth inequality is at record levels, and our corrupt government is completely up for sale and unwilling to represent the people. Corporate-run America is in a death spiral, and geriatric neoliberals are leading the charge. Foreign agents would tell Americans to slowly and steadily continue down this ruinous path as the rest of the world leaves us behind. But red blooded Americans understand how this isn’t sustainable for any length of time. Gradual incrementalism is a far cry from our salvation.

      • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        54
        ·
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        We need more Democrats in Congress for that. A third of the Senate and all of the House are up for election in November. Attendance at the polls is crucial for down-ballot candidates just the same as presidential.

        Vote in November, or be ready to accept what a Republican President, Congress, and SCOTUS decide for you.

        • meep_launcher@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          13
          ·
          3 months ago

          The thing that stinks is

          A) the electoral college makes it so only 4 or 5 states really matter

          B) there’s an amnesia about trump from the never trump republicans. My dad is conservative but didn’t vote trump. He thought he was an asshole. Now my dad talks about how Biden is crooked, and the only reason people hate trump is because, and his words, “orange man bad”.

          C) puritanical leftists have valid reasons to not like Biden, but they are willing to blow up the system as they always have. I say puritanical because I know there are pragmatic leftists who exercise restraint in their actions.

          In 2020, the suburban vote was a critical win for Biden. I’m hoping for the best, but I’m starting to sit with the fact that Trump has a decent, if not likely, chance of winning in 2020.

          • Wahots@pawb.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            16
            ·
            3 months ago

            C) is the one that is gonna be the razor’s edge on this stuff. Reasonable people will vote for Biden, but it’s the people that don’t feel like voting will matter or people who are dying on the hill of a single issue who are potentially going to fuck us and the entire rest of the world by not voting.

            I plan on voting for Biden because it’s the right thing to do for all Americans and our allies, and I really don’t want to be a tailgunner if Trump breaks up NATO and all the men get drafted for a world war to save Europe or Asia-Pacific again. Preventing assholes domestically and abroad from destroying peaceful countries would be nice.

            • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              8
              ·
              3 months ago

              is the one that is gonna be the razor’s edge on this stuff. Reasonable people will vote for Biden

              Funny, because whenever we say “Biden should have done Y not X” you all say “If he hadn’t then moderate democrats and some Republicans won’t vote for him.” They vote for him because they get what they want. Yet somehow we’re unreasonable when we refuse to vote for him when we don’t get what we want.

              You’re trying to hold leftists to a higher standard and it’s bullshit.

              • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                7
                ·
                edit-2
                3 months ago

                It’s the exact same standard. Do you really think all votes for Trump are going to be from supporters? Most will be from Republicans who don’t want a Democratic President.

                There’s a saying- Democrats need to fall in love, Republicans need to fall in line. It’s that mentality of inaction that causes us to regress as a nation every time a Republican takes office.

                In response, Democratic candidates move closer to center to capture more of the active voters, having the exact opposite effect that is intended by abstention.

                • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  3 months ago

                  It’s the exact same standard.

                  If it were the same standard then excusing Biden for catering to moderate voters because otherwise they’d abandon him would never happen. Either your reading comprehension is shit or you’re just plain lying. Moderate Democrat voters are getting everything they want. Leftists are getting bread crumbs and talking about abstaining from voting. You should be going after Moderate Democrat voters for being greedy. Not telling leftists they need to shut up and be grateful they’re getting bread crumbs.

          • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            10
            ·
            3 months ago

            The Electoral College has nothing to do with congressional elections.

            The rest of your points can be addressed by providing information to those who are misinformed or disenfranchised. Abstaining may not be a vote for Trump, but it’s a refusal to stand in his way.

              • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                edit-2
                3 months ago

                You vote for your Senators and House Representatives directly. The Electoral College has nothing to do with that.

                Each state has two Senate seats, voted on statewide. Districting does not affect that vote.

                Districting issues may make some votes less likely to make a difference in the House vote in specific districts in Republican states. That’s all the more reason to get as many Democrats to vote as possible.

                The average Democratic voting representation for congressional elections is less than 50%. We constantly complain about the repercussions of our own inaction.

        • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          3 months ago

          We need more Democrats in Congress for that. A third of the Senate and all of the House are up for election in November. Attendance at the polls is crucial for down-ballot candidates just the same as presidential.

          What guarantees can you give us they won’t “fumble” the ball like they did during Obama’s presidency? If they do will you finally acknowledge the fucking problem?

          • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            12
            ·
            3 months ago

            There’s none, other than the guarantee that Republicans will take the ball as far as they can in the opposite direction if we don’t vote. When was the last time a team won a game by walking off the field?

            • jaemo@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              3 months ago

              Man! I love when people reduce the nuanced complexities of modern politics to a team sport. That’s just such a great way to reframe any issue to an us or them context.

              And, when you get right down to it, that’s really what this world needs: more acceptance and enforcement of norms that pit half of us against the other half.

              Ah! Progress!

              • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                7
                ·
                3 months ago

                I agree that polarization is a real problem. The only reason I continued to use the analogy from the previous commenter was to maintain consistency in conversation.

                However, there are only two parties that are capable of winning this election. Believing otherwise is distraction, not progress.

                • jaemo@sh.itjust.works
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  ·
                  3 months ago

                  You are sadly correct. My comment was not meant, in particular, to call you or your habits out, but a cynical snipe at all of us. Apologies if it came across negative, cos that’s also not gonna help any 🤝

            • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              3 months ago

              There’s none

              Thanks for admitting that Democrat politicians are corrupt pro-corporate trash. Come up with a winning strategy and I’ll come back to the field.

      • deweydecibel@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        35
        ·
        3 months ago

        He can’t do that.

        People keep saying the things Biden have been doing are weak, half measures, but they have no idea what he’s actually capable of doing without Congress.

        He literally tried to wipe away a significant amount of student debt. He tried to fulfill that promise without Congress. The Supreme Court stopped it.

        • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          edit-2
          3 months ago

          Funny how often Democrats try to do things that will definitely fail but then with things they actually can change there’s always some bullshit excuse.

          We don’t have medicare for all or something similar because Democrats refused to make it happen during Obama’s term. That combined with the kid gloves they took to the financial sector during the financial crisis disillusioned a lot of people. Most Democrat politicians are corrupt pro-corporate trash.

          • Eldritch@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            3 months ago

            Because there wasn’t support for it. Sure it has pretty broad public support. But our elected officials don’t. It’s not a bullshit excuse. It sucks but it’s true. And acting like a child certainly won’t fix it.

            • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              edit-2
              3 months ago

              Because there wasn’t support for it. Sure it has pretty broad public support. But our elected officials don’t. It’s not a bullshit excuse.

              Those elected officials were Democrats. You’re just proving my point. When the power is out of their hands you’re like “Omg they want to and if you just vote harder they’ll totally do it!” but then when the power is in their hands you just shrug and say “They didn’t support it.”

              Yes, I know they don’t support it. That’s why I’m not voting for them.

              • Eldritch@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                3 months ago

                And that’s why they aren’t voting for it. No one is proving your point. And no it’s not just Democrats. Whatever conspiracy pit you frequent, you need to get out.

                • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  3 months ago

                  Are you a bot? It seems like you just lost the entire context of the conversation. Let me remind you.

                  Me:

                  We don’t have medicare for all or something similar because Democrats refused to make it happen during Obama’s term.

                  You:

                  Because there wasn’t support for it.

                  Me:

                  Yes, I know they don’t support it. That’s why I’m not voting for them.

                  You:

                  And no it’s not just Democrats.

                  Are you following along now Siri?

        • greenskye@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          3 months ago

          Honestly I think the entirety of the last 10 years of complete government failure should be tied back to the almost totally non-functional legislature.

          The president can’t pass laws. The supreme court would matter far less, if we weren’t trying to creatively reinterpret ancient laws and applying them to technology and culture that didn’t even exist at the time they were written. Instead of updating and clarifying any of those laws, the supreme court has been allowed to effectively make policy by continually shifting interpretations of a static and obsolete set of laws that Congress should have updated 20 years ago. Several times courts have effectively changed policy by saying ‘the law doesn’t mean that, go write an actual law for that, don’t just make shit up’ and then Congress just doesn’t react at all.

          If you look back at history, constitutional amendments were relatively regular up until recently. Can anyone imagine our current government passing an amendment for anything at all? Even the most minor tweak would be impossible in this Congress. Several of our major ‘wins’ were mere court cases and like we found out with abortion, what the court gives, the court can take away. Anything about our current day to day life that exists solely based on a court ruling we should be fighting to codify into law, but we all seem to recognize how futile that task is.

    • deweydecibel@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      36
      ·
      3 months ago

      which is disheartening given the potential for even greater impact

      What potential? Without Congress or the Supreme Court, what potential things could Biden be doing that would have “greater” impact that he isn’t doing?

      Something that doesn’t require a new law, and won’t be shot down by a hostile conservative court?

      Please give me examples.

      • rdyoung@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        26
        ·
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        They can’t give you any examples and neither can the dorkuses downvoting you. Biden has accomplished a lot with the maggats playing the “I don’t wanna” game whenever a dem is in office. He not only had to dig us out of the hole the orange menace left us in, he also has to cure cancer, be the first human to step on Mars, etc and even then people will find something to bitch about.

        With any luck (and a lot of hard work) we will have Biden for a second term and then a dem to replace him in 2028 so at least 12 years of the adults running things. Then maybe we can get some shit done and stop trying to tread water at best.

        • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          10
          ·
          3 months ago

          and then a dem to replace him in 2028

          HRC will win the primaries in 2028 and we’ll be having the same argument we’re having now. Pro-corporate trash isn’t doing the trick.

      • Zorque@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        20
        ·
        3 months ago

        Without Congress or the Supreme Court

        Pretty sure the potential lies in changing this.

        Vote. Not just for president, but for every office you’re able to. Because this shit isn’t just “Trump did it!” or “Biden didn’t do enough!” It’s also the legislators, and a lot of the judiciary they approved (and probably pushed during the Trump administration). Not to mention all the state and local reps that initiate most of the policies that affect people.

        • greenskye@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          3 months ago

          It basically all starts with Congress. We could fix so much shit if we ever managed to get a real majority (not 48 Dems and two ‘not technically Republicans’)

          • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            3 months ago

            We could fix so much shit if we ever managed to get a real majority

            We would just change it to “we could fix so much shit if we ever managed to get a supermajority.”

            And then redefine “supermajority” to mean 67.

          • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            11
            ·
            edit-2
            3 months ago

            You mean the bombs Biden shipped to Israel? Did the sharpie make them extra deadly or something?

            Lol bud all Biden’s “resistance” to Bibi is going to disappear the moment the election results come in. And you’ll still defend Biden anyway.

      • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        He could get caught trying.

        He could frame a big-picture vision of what he and Democrats value, expressed in terms that speak to Americans emotionally. He could push for policies that Republicans and the Supreme Kangaroo Court will shoot down, and then go to the American people and blame them for taking away good things that everybody wants.

        The student-loan debt relief effort had about 1 1/2 of those things. The rest of the time he tends to talk about particular bills and policies. Republicans can stop those, and those things become dead letters, but dreams and hopes are evergreen.

        • Strykker@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          3 months ago

          It takes immense amounts of time and effort to bring new items like this forwards, so each item you choose to do means time and money that can’t be used bringing a different policy forwards.

          Based on that why should Biden waste his time developing and bringing forward policies that the Republicans are obviously going to immediately shoot down, it just prevents him from being able to work on things that might actually get passed

          • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            3 months ago

            No, it really doesn’t. I can think them up by the dozens. If they’re not going to pass, there’s no reason to lay all the groundwork. But they’re still good for rhetorical purposes.

                • papertowels@lemmy.one
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  7
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  3 months ago

                  Because any president doing this immediately comes across as a 5 year old pretending to have a magic wand.

                  I’m looking at the list of a dozen items you made - you can’t just say “I want this” and not have a detailed plan for how it’s meant to be executed - where the money comes from, what effects it’s expected to have, etc.

                  When you are proposing legislation that you know won’t be able to be made into law, you’re just virtue signaling since even you believe there’s no real-world impact. People are even frustrated with Bidens attempts as they are - I’ve definitely read frustrated comments here talking about how Bidens approach to relieving student debt is so poorly thought out that nobody will actually benefit.

            • Strykker@programming.dev
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              5
              ·
              3 months ago

              Sure you can think up the tag line line liner title for each item but what about all the details? How will they work the restrictions the requirements the funding. How much of that requires large amounts of work just to be shutdown and tossed by the Republicans

              • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                3 months ago

                This is why Democrats struggle so badly, so I’ll say it straight up: It’s about sales. Reich is complaining that the public doesn’t lose its shit over arcane policy details. Yeah, sit down for this truth bomb (/s): That’s human nature. It’s not fair. It’s not right. It’s not good. It’s just the way it is. Complaining about it won’t help, or change the content of headlines.

                So somebody asks for examples of what can Biden do when he’s blocked by Congress? I say: Sell, sell, sell. Get in the PR game. Put on a show that the people in the cheap seats can enjoy. (That is a metaphor for a rhetorical spectacle that even politically unengaged citizens will hear about.) Show everybody that the problem is in Congress.

                What do the details matter? The headline is all that people will hear, and Republicans will block it, anyway. He needs to sell the perception that Democrats are trying. The details can come later, after they get the votes.

        • Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          3 months ago

          Shame on you for saying that! I’m sure you’ll be downvoted.

          He’s boring and uninspirational and isn’t accomplishing anything of note… but you should not question any of that!

          Just rah-rah until defeated, and repeat.

    • danc4498@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      3 months ago

      But don’t you think getting the 10 commandments in our classrooms will make things soo much better? 🙃

  • xantoxis@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    86
    ·
    3 months ago

    All of these things definitely were in the news, of course. They just don’t STAY in the news, and the public memory hole works fast.

    • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      36
      ·
      3 months ago

      Because they’re fucking bread crumbs. What you want us to hold a parade over credit card fees while housing, education, healthcare and food continue to become more expensive and Biden’s cabinet works to suppress wages? Neato.

      • greenskye@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        38
        ·
        3 months ago

        Ya, basically Biden is only able to solve minor first world problems instead of any sort of meaningful attempt on any of the several huge issues.

        This isn’t all his fault, he’s not a king and can’t do whatever he wants, but I also don’t often find my own managers all that happy with me when all I can say I’ve accomplished is minor, non-critical tasks and haven’t even started on the major work they want accomplished. Making a report look nicer and fixing the break room coffee machine isn’t going to cover for failing to launch our latest product. Americans are right to be disappointed in their government and we should be disappointed in our media for failing to stick to larger issues.

        • Daxtron2@startrek.website
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          26
          ·
          3 months ago

          I’m more disappointed in the people who keep voting conservative blockers into the senate and house than I am that biden won’t circumvent them.

          • FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            13
            ·
            3 months ago

            I’m disappointed in them and fucking livid at shitbags like Sinema who run on a platform and gleefully give the middle finger to everyone while they do the exact opposite once in office.

            • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              3 months ago

              This isn’t an accident. The same thing happened during Obama’s presidency.

              People don’t want to face facts: The Democrat party is filled to the brim with pro-corporate trash.

        • Tryptaminev@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          3 months ago

          Especially since Biden was brought into that position to do precisely that. Do some pet projects but not challenge the underlying root issues of inequality and peoples economic situation. Because that would be against the interests of the billionaire “donors” of the Dems and Reps.

            • Tryptaminev@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              5
              ·
              edit-2
              3 months ago

              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal

              Yes. They are pet projects compared to what other presidents have achieved and what is needed to change the country to an economically, socially and ecologically sustainable new status quo. Biden is preventing that change together with his DNC buddies who want to make sure the inequality in the US stays, the interests of the super rich are kept and the white upper class remains in power.

        • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          3 months ago

          He could have stayed out of the rail strike, he could have not gone around congress to ship weapons to Israel and he could have told Yellen not to make suppression of worker wages her goal.

          You’re trying to deflect blame away from him as if we’re all expecting him to do things he can’t. Biden isn’t acting in our interests and it should come as no surprise that means we’re not interested in voting for him again.

          • greenskye@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            3 months ago

            Do you think not voting will make the world better? Biden isn’t perfect and I’ll continue to pursue progressive candidates in primaries, but I don’t see what anyone gains by not voting or voting for someone who’s definitely going to do a lot more that I disagree with. I didn’t disagree that America has a right to be angry with him, regardless of any excuses, but you still live in reality and have to deal with the situation you have, not the one you want.

          • TheFonz@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            3 months ago

            Tell us you don’t know anything about how the rail strike got resolved and what the outcomes were…

      • OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        3 months ago

        They’re steps in the right direction, but in general I agree with the sentiment. We need much more drastic changes.

        • ikidd@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          3 months ago

          Trump’s going to make this a dictatorship if he’s president

          Biden can’t do anything slightly meaningful because the presidency doesn’t have as much power as people thing it does.

          I know this will get downvoted to hell, but jesus the hypocrisy of these sort of statements blows my mind.

          • Eldritch@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            9
            ·
            3 months ago

            It’s not hypocrisy. Republicans first tried to overthrow the government in the 1930s. They’ve aimed at ending democracy for a century at least. The reason Trump can do it has nothing to do with presidential powers. And everything to do with fascists in Congress. Who would support it.

            That you think it’s some sort of failing of Democrats or Biden. Just speaks to a completed lack of understanding, and no desire to engage with reality. That’s why you’ll be down voted.

            • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              3 months ago

              That you think it’s some sort of failing of Democrats or Biden. Just speaks to a completed lack of understanding, and no desire to engage with reality. That’s why you’ll be down voted.

              It’s rich for you to evaluate my desire to engage with reality from a person who’s trying to defend a party that produces 80 year old candidates from the primaries and then wondering why young people won’t vote. Historians are going to have a field day dissecting your delusions.

              • Eldritch@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                3 months ago

                I’m not defending them. I criticize them often. What I am doing, is commenting on your childish behavior.

                I know why young people don’t vote. Especially those that have been radicalized like yourself. With no strategic/critical thinking skills. Ain’t none of em good.

                • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  3 months ago

                  I’m not defending them. I criticize them often.

                  Bulllllllshit. I can tell from your comment lecturing young people and leftists is where all your focus is.

                  Take that energy to moderate voters electing procorporate trash in the primaries. Those are the people who lack strategy.

      • anticolonialist@lemmy.cafe
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        3 months ago

        Always beware of the fact, that the only thing hindering an all-out revolution is your fear of losing the scraps they throw at you. Gore Vidal

        • heavy@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          3 months ago

          Did you know that a lot of folks that received aid during the pandemic call it the “Trump check”?

          Do you think he takes credit for that?

    • Optional@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      3 months ago

      Yeah. But they’re not. Usually.

      Interestingly that’s more a function of media more than politics. Political movement “in a vacuum” doesn’t require popularity. But since we have put political power in the hands of everyone vs a king or whatever, the media is the ocean in which politics “swims”.

  • Queue
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    41
    ·
    3 months ago

    But they did make headlines, that’s how we know about these. The FTC and FCC doing their job more is good and makes headlines.

    It’s good, don’t get me wrong. But man it feels like table scraps compared to a lot on what Biden ran on in 2020.

    • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      64
      ·
      3 months ago

      Not really. The average person knows more about trump’s bowel movements than these accomplishments. The average undecided voter is lazy and needs information spoon-fed to them. That’s why it matters what is reported in the media.

      • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        24
        ·
        3 months ago

        And also, the people who run the media have very fucked up priorities. Biden’s NLRB can make historic strides in bringing unions back into American working life and they every so often run a story about it if there happens to be something they can say that has the word “Starbucks” in it.

        But, if either Biden or Trump ever farted on camera, it would be all we heard about for a month.

        • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          edit-2
          3 months ago

          if either Biden or Trump ever farted on camera, it would be all we heard about for a month.

          The public’s attention span has gone down, for better or words. It probably wouldn’t last that long. So we got that going for us.

          Remember the fucking “Dean scream”? Fuck policies, a dude yelled!

          • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            13
            ·
            edit-2
            3 months ago

            It started as a deliberate engineering technique. Let’s take the most left wing guy we can find, and make him look like an evil crazy weak moron fascist pants shitting wimp robot that nobody likes, by sheer force of peer pressure and insult. It hurt Al Gore and John Kerry quite a bit, and I think the Dean Scream was probably the peak of the middle school peer pressure bullshit. I think soon after that a lot of people just stopped paying attention to the TV news for anything. But it’s still happening; now it’s just phrased as things like “Biden is old and out of touch and we’re concerned that his polls are down.” I think around the time of Bernie Sanders (when no one gave a shit that they were broadcasting that he was officially not cool and a crazy person communist stupid head and everyone better stop liking him), was when they realized they’d have to regroup and come up with a fresh updated strategy with it.

            Also, the beast has gotten out of control, a little bit – it used to be exclusively a tool of the corporate media aimed at the lefty-est candidate, but it started being how the political press covered everything, to the point that they couldn’t really steer it anymore to shit exclusively on the left wing candidates they were trying to destroy. Then a while after that, Trump came along and was 10 times better at it than anything the news could come up with, and the rest is history.

        • Pelicanen@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          3 months ago

          When it comes to progress being made for unions, I think it might have something to do with the fact that the owners of the newspapers are billionaires.

      • Queue
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        3 months ago

        Sure, I agree that it should be brought up more, and that Trump gets endless free airtime even from liberal news outlets. But it’s just wild to go “No one remembers or talks about these, the media ignores it!” while we’re talking about it and the good it has done.

        • Optional@lemmy.worldOP
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          12
          ·
          3 months ago

          “We” are not the corporate media, but to your point they did dutifully report these stories, perfunctorily, on page 23 or behind the weather, sports, movie recommendations and lots of ads.

          The reporting was not commensurate with the benefits of the policies. As such, the people who most need to know about them likely won’t, but “we” do.

          • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            12
            ·
            edit-2
            3 months ago

            If there was a liberal equivalent to Fox News, they would be talking about it literally every night. Interviewing people who got jobs, putting up the numbers, airing new factories and manufacturing plants and putting up the numbers of how much of their funding came from Biden’s policies. Putting up the graph of how much Amazon is paying in tax now and tossing up softballs about how people must have been waiting for this for a long time.

            But because there’s nobody with 200 billion dollars just kind of sitting around that they feel like investing in setting up that kind of operation, it’s all in White House press releases and the occasional print story from some online news site that’s asking for donations and might be gone 2 years from now when the unsustainable nature of their business model finally becomes unavoidable.

            • grue@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              edit-2
              3 months ago

              If there was a liberal leftist equivalent to Fox News

              FTFY. Liberalism is right-wing economically, and therefore is motivated to downplay Biden helping workers over corporations just as much as Fox News is.

              • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                6
                ·
                3 months ago

                I actually wrote left wing originally and then edited it specifically to match Lemmy’s Overton window - I agree with you; his trade policies seem liberal to me, but union support and corporate taxes are pretty explicitly left wing I agree. But in Lemmy terms I think he wouldn’t be considered “leftist” unless he is overthrowing the means of production, maybe.

    • Optional@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      3 months ago

      But man it feels like table scraps compared to a lot on what Biden ran on in 2020.

      Given that the republiQans retook the house in 2022, what did Biden run on that he hasn’t delivered?

      • Queue
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        18
        ·
        3 months ago
        • Freeing Mexican citizens locked in cages at the border, but has in fact increased the numbers according to the ACLU, and now limiting the numbers of who can come in like fascist Trump wanted
        • The COVID pandemic is still ongoing, we’re just ignoring it while I’ve had friends die from it after it was “over” according to the CDC. Also removing the 14 day expected leave for it to improve companies fucking over sick and healthy workers alike the economy
        • Roe v Wade being reinstated, for the party that “cares about women’s rights”.
        • Minimum Wage increases (Yes Congress is in charge of the purse, but can he say “please fucking do it so everyone has better income?”)
        • Ran on trying to stop cops from shooting innocent civilians, but in his first State of the Union said “We don’t need to defund the police, we need to fund the police!” to bipartisan roaring applause. I know he has a fucking cop as a VP, but god damn.
        • And he’s not doing anything to stop Project 2025 from getting into place if Trump wins.
        • Could maybe consider giving new arms to Ukraine and stop funding explicit genocide in Palestine.
        • Didn’t help the unions during the rail strikes give into the demands for better worker safety and benefits, blocking it like how Reagan blocked the FAA from striking for safety and benefits
        • Still allows Trump-era expansions of spying agencies, that was made public under “constitutional lawyer and defender” Obama, and instated under Dubya.

        But we don’t have the President saying stupid shit on Twitter every day, so I guess that means we’re back to a sane normal, or whatever white cishet liberals need to say to sleep well at night. Ignore the bloodshed of BIPOC and queers, women and their doctors fleeing red states over being arrested for bodily autonomy, and that white nationalists just goosestep freely because its not respectable to tell fascists to fuck off and die, it doesn’t impact you, so it’s all sane politics and electable!

      • Snowclone@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        He means they aren’t brokered talking points. No one is pushing this, because there’s not a huge amount of money, bots, every news outlet that has a vested financial interest in getting Biden a second term.

        Trump was found guilty, took a huge hit in polls, then turned around and had the biggest funding boost in US history.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    32
    ·
    3 months ago

    Moderates:

    Biden has no power, he’s just a president!

    Also moderates:

    Look at these good things that happened while Biden was in office, he did this!

    Biden:

    Fuck congress, I’ll go around them if it’s something I want like supporting a genocide or violating human rights at our borders

    • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      Are you serious?

      When Dem Congress goes his way, the common parlance is that the president, as leader of the Dems, gets the credit as “he did it”. If you want to be pedantic, no he didn’t directly do it. It’s just common parlance to give the president credit for the things he pushes for.

      He can ask the Dem House of Reps and Dem senators to do things, but that is not the same. If Congress says no, there’s very little he can do. The President does not have absolute control - to pass legislation takes Congress.

      Or things like banning Non-Compete clauses. That was a government agency, which gets appointments. Biden didn’t directly make that decision, it came from his (or other presidents) appointments.

      Then you have Executive Action (EA) which can be used for some things. You can’t use EA for all things. But EAs are not laws, they can be undone by the next president lickity split.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        3 months ago

        Eh, I could live in one of the ~45 states where we already know what the result is…

        Everybody wants to act like we don’t know what votes mean these days. The sad truth is if you’re not in a battleground, it doesn’t matter who you vote for as president.

        Even 08 Obama that flipped a bunch of states, he already had it in the bag without them.

        • Zorque@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          18
          ·
          3 months ago

          Good thing there’s more than just a presidential race, then. In fact, you can vote in non-presidential races every year (depending on local elections). At the very least every two.

          Yeah, battleground states are important in presidential races… but every state matters in congressional and state/local races.

          • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            7
            ·
            edit-2
            3 months ago

            Yep, there’s even elections in non presidential years!

            What’s unfortunate is with a Dem presidential candidate like Biden that people aren’t excited about, is it makes the down ballot races less likely to win in red states. 08 Obama was fucking huge in that respect, and I’m feeling old now that it’s apparently ancient history and no one remember.

            Hell, even just 2020 there was that effect because people wanted trump gone and Biden was still an unknown to most Dems nationwide.

            Lots of people believed last primary and the promised Biden made.

            It’s hard to get that goodwill back from voters.

            • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              5
              ·
              3 months ago

              It’s hard to get that goodwill back from voters.

              Agreed. Most of these people don’t understand lots of people still remember the ways Democrats fucked us over during Obama’s term.

              • No public option in the ACA
              • Kid gloves for the financial sector while people were losing their homes
              • Huge surveillance expansion

              And more.

      • anticolonialist@lemmy.cafe
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        3 months ago

        I sure as fuck won’t. If your dog pisses on the floor and you give him a treat the dog’s going to think you wanted to piss on the floor again. That’s exactly what would happen if people re-elect Biden. Either start holding your own politicians accountable or quit punching at the people that are

  • Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    30
    ·
    3 months ago

    Expanding internet access in rural areas with the Build Back Better plan. That alone was a massive investment into our infrastructure.

      • Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        3 months ago

        I have family in rural NC , two different areas. Both have lived in those areas for 15 yrs. When AT&T pulled out due to not enough customers, they lost internet. The only option they had was 10 down, 1 up (advertised), for $65 a month.

        Last year they got word AT&T, and several smaller name companies were moving out there. Now they get 300 down, 10 up for $50.

    • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      I’m actually switching very soon to a fiber company that recently started covering my area and has only been active at all for a few years. They only have coverage in like three towns, and don’t cover all of any of them (mostly for obvious reasons related to local geography and where you reach the most people by running the lines).

      Is there any info on who got funding for Internet in rural areas via Build Back Better? I’m curious if Biden is the reason they are a thing and we have any broadband Internet competition at all.

      • fsxylo@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        20
        ·
        3 months ago

        There’s some dipshits that call Democrats Blue maga in a desperate last ditch effort to bring legitimacy to the notion that “both sides are the same”. Either because they want Trump to win or because they believe they’re an anime protagonist and they can will a third option into being. The /s means I’m sarcastically supporting that notion.

        • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          3 months ago

          No we call you that because you spend all your energy fighting us instead of working to rid the Democrat party of pro-corporate trash.

          • fsxylo@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            15
            ·
            edit-2
            3 months ago

            I spend more energy jerking off than talking to you. If you mean the incendiary way I talk down to people like you, that’s because I have fire on speed dial and “fuck off” just doesn’t cut it these days.

            PS -> I’m not a democrat. inb4: I’m not a Trump supporter either.

            • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              3 months ago

              I spend more energy jerking off than talking to you. If you mean the incendiary way I talk down to people like you, that’s because I have fire on speed dial and “fuck off” just doesn’t cut it these days.

              Great. Redirect that energy towards the people who keep voting for pro-corporate trash in the primaries.

          • Syrc@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            3 months ago

            instead of working to rid the Democrat party of pro-corporate trash.

            So how is that done exactly? By hiring hitmen?

            • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              3 months ago

              I think a great first step would be to stop spending all your energy lecturing leftists and go after the people who vote for this procorporate trash in the primaries. At the very least it would convince me you’re actually interested in solving the problem and not just trying to get people to kick the can for your benefit.

              • Syrc@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                3 months ago

                First, what exactly do you mean by “going after”? Again, do I have to break their legs or what?

                And most importantly second, where are those people? Because I’ve seen exactly none on Lemmy or Reddit. I would like to argue with someone who actually thinks Biden deserved the candidacy over others like Bernie, but they’re definitely not here and I wouldn’t even know where to “look” for them. I do what I can on the social I use.

                • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  3 months ago

                  First, what exactly do you mean by “going after”? Again, do I have to break their legs or what?

                  Lol I love how when I propose this people’s reading comprehension just falls off a cliff. Like they’re going ham on lecturing leftists and young people for their voting habits but super confused about what they could do with moderate voters.

                  But sure I’ll play along and pretend “go after” wasn’t clear in this context.

                  Here’s an example: Every time you have the urge to tell a leftist what to do on lemmy immediately log out. Go log into facebook. (Sign up if you don’t have an account). Find some Boomer who voted for Biden in the 2020 primaries and tell them that was a stupid decision.

  • Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    22
    ·
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    Negotiating drug prices? How about making price gouging ILLEGAL? How about a world market price for drugs instead of a monopoly market in America?

    I can go through the entire list like this. Trying to cheer for these crumbs is contortion at it’s most contorting.

    • Praetorian@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      18
      ·
      3 months ago

      Most governments negotiate the drug prices around the world. This is standard practice. They have buying power so they can get far better pricing than anyone else. Just because it’s a new concept to you, doesn’t make it stupid.

      • volodya_ilich@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        3 months ago

        The fact that it’s standard practice doesn’t make it non-stupid. Bullfighting in my country, Spain, is pretty stupid and unfortunately in some areas it’s general practice.

        The very concept of a patent is tenuous: “no, you can’t make this, this is MY idea and I get to decide who profits by how much and who enjoys my invention”. When applied to medicine, it’s downright immoral and murderous. Even with negotiation of drug prices, you end up with things like the Hepatitis C curing drug costing several tens of thousands of Euros per patient even in European countries, whereas it costs less than one tenth of that in some others. It’s just this is paid by the state and not by the end user so it’s not as Machiavellian as in the USA, but it’s still extremely fucked.

        If you want some of the few examples of countries that don’t follow the “standard practice”, you can look at Cuba being the first country in the world to double-vaccinate 95+% of their population with the COVID vaccine. How? State-funded research, and state-funded vaccine manufacturing, with the primary objective of vaccinating as many as possible as early as possible, instead of the profit motive as the driver.

      • Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        I sure don’t know everything, but why mention it then? It’s just normal? Or is this new for the US?

        How is it negotiation when there is only one medicine, like in the case of insulin, or even Zolgensma? What chips does the government have to negotiate with? Buying power doesn’t matter.

        I still think that’s screwed up, and needs fixing, but if it brought us in line with the rest of the world when it comes to drug prices, then bring it on.

        • NegativeInf@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          3 months ago

          They are negotiating the prices paid for drugs by Medicare. You know, like, the largest single purchaser of drugs in the country. That purchase power was not being negotiated prior. They have started with a list of 10 drugs and will expand over time. This can affect prices in a few ways, like insurers saying fuck that and wanting the same rate as the government, manufacturers could set the pricing to match across the board like Eli Lilly did for insulin for non Medicare patients, or we could vote for a fully democratic Senate, house, and president and get Medicare for all, with which this existing law would wield immense powers to negotiate far more benefits for many more people. Gimme 63 Dems in the Senate and shit will get passed. The reason we are stuck like this is that the margin is so slim nothing can happen.

          Here’s a quote from the HHS.

          The selected drug list for the first round of negotiation is:

          Eliquis Jardiance Xarelto Januvia Farxiga Entresto Enbrel Imbruvica Stelara Fiasp; Fiasp FlexTouch; Fiasp PenFill; NovoLog; NovoLog FlexPen; NovoLog PenFill These selected drugs accounted for $50.5 billion in total Part D gross covered prescription drug costs, or about 20%, of total Part D gross covered prescription drug costs between June 1, 2022 and May 31, 2023, which is the time period used to determine which drugs were eligible for negotiation. CMS will publish any agreed-upon negotiated prices for the selected drugs by September 1, 2024; those prices will come into effect starting January 1, 2026. In future years, CMS will select for negotiation up to 15 more drugs covered under Part D for 2027, up to 15 more drugs for 2028 (including drugs covered under Part B and Part D), and up to 20 more drugs for each year after that, as outlined in the Inflation Reduction Act.

        • Praetorian@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          3 months ago

          There are 3 companies that produce insulin. Why don’t you ask some of your Canadian neighbors how much they pay for insulin.

    • heavy@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      3 months ago

      I mean, I’m with you that would be great, but the President isn’t a dictator. I don’t know why this keeps coming up, I don’t want one person having the power to make huge sweeping decisions because they feel like it.

      Holding the president to an impossible standard is only going to hurt getting where we’re trying to go here.

    • Fedizen@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      3 months ago

      Comparably he’s doing more stuff than obama with less legislative backing. I think, in general, US presidents are going to be shit piles no matter what until our electoral system undergoes some changes (probably first at the state constitution level)

    • Wilzax@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      33
      ·
      3 months ago

      Genocide will happen no matter how you vote. One option will lead to more genocide than the other. The rest of the options are not options under our current political system. If you do not vote for less genocide, including by not voting at all, you are voting for genocide.

      • Fidel_Cashflow@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        15
        ·
        3 months ago

        If choosing the lesser evil still ends up at the most evil act someone can commit, was it ever really lesser evil? Or just slower, easier to ignore evil?

        • Wilzax@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          16
          ·
          edit-2
          3 months ago

          There is no “most evil act”. There is ALWAYS a way to make it worse. We need to take every possible step to make things better. And “better” doesn’t always mean “good”. Sometimes it just means "slightly slower slide to horrifically bad.

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        Biden is only choosing to commit genocide because he thinks he can win without my vote because of people like you enabling him, promising to vote blue no matter who. It is your fault that the uncommitted campaign and campus occupations and our voices have failed to push Biden on this issue. I recently listened to Hind Rajab’s call with The Palestinian Red Crescent Society again because of a new documentary on Al Jazeera (“The Night Won’t End”) and I want to fucking die. This is your fault. Own it.

            • fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              3 months ago

              I voted against him in the primaries and push for ranked choice voting. Unfortunately besides general unrest which will pressure biden but bolster Trump (who is NOW campaigning on crushing us for protesting the state of the war) we are acting too little too late. Maybe general unrest AFTER the election and if cooler heads don’t prevail might actually help.

              • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                4
                ·
                edit-2
                3 months ago
                1. There is no “after the election” for the people in Gaza. If this war is ongoing by January they’ll all be dead.

                2. Biden is already crushing us for protesting the war! Trump is late to the party.

        • madcaesar@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          11
          ·
          3 months ago

          Idiotic take. They all run on gasoline, so therefore clearly Saudi Arabia is to blame! But wait combustion also needs oxygen! It’s the tree’s fault! Don’t vote for the trees!

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            3 months ago

            Israel literally couldn’t get this equipment anywhere else. We’re the only one that could give them the weapons they need.

            • madcaesar@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              3 months ago

              🤣 🤣 🤣 Riiiiiight we’re the only weapons manufacturer in the world!! Kid, you really have no idea what you are talking about.

              • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                3 months ago

                Sure, they could get bombs and ammo elsewhere, but we’re the ones with the hardware and we’re also the only country that can supply Israel at the volume they need. No one else can make bombs as fast as the US and Israel’s own officials have openly said this. Also? Where the fuck else are they going to get $18 billion in F-15s? Why don’t you seem to know this stuff?

                That doesn’t even get into the way the US has been protecting Israel from Ansar Alla in the Red Sea and has pledged to protect them from Hezbollah if they invade Lebanon.

  • Red_October@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    20
    ·
    3 months ago

    Meanwhile: “Good isn’t perfect, so fuck that and fuck you.”

    Too many people are all too ready to say that improvement isn’t enough, it has to be a perfect and complete solution or else what was the point.

    • Optional@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      3 months ago

      Which says they’re either not clear on how this whole “government” thing operates (which, tbf most people aren’t) and/or too young to have had experiences with government much before, and/or deliberately parroting a talking point designed to depress turnout for one of a few reasons.

      It’s that last one that seems most in evidence unfortunately. And mostly from people who don’t seem to remember 2016 that well.

  • Kumikommunism@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    18
    ·
    3 months ago

    Banning medical debt from credit reports

    Negotiating drug prices

    He’s only able to do these because he opposes universal healthcare. He wants people to die of lack of access to healthcare (70,000 per year) or lack of insurance (45,000 per year). What do dead people, or people who can’t afford to be diagnosed, or people who can’t afford necessary procedures care about their credit reports or drugs they can’t get prescribed? Why would anyone cheer a horribly policy?

    As if the media aren’t congratulating him enough on his “tough red line” for Israel’s genocide that they somehow never break. Ever the victims, Democrats in power are.

    • Kit
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      36
      ·
      3 months ago

      Let’s not bash progress in pursuit of perfection. These policies are directly impacting me in the positive, which is more than we could say for the previous president.

      • Kumikommunism@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        14
        ·
        3 months ago

        Let’s not celebrate inaction on matters that mean life or death to people. None of the above have helped me, or anyone less fortunate than me.

        • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          22
          ·
          3 months ago

          None of the above have helped me, or anyone less fortunate than me.

          What? This is completely stupid. Of course lowered drug and removing medical debt will help people poorer than you. Those are exactly the people most harmed by medical debt and high drug prices.

          Starting to think accounts online that prominently advertise themselves as communists might not actually be commenting in good faith.

          • Kumikommunism@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            3 months ago

            removing medical debt

            He didn’t do that. This isn’t what it says. You are the one arguing in bad faith. Why lie? He would not do this, because it would harm his corporate backers in the medical industry. He did not remove any medical debt. Hell, he won’t even do the much less impressive thing and remove student debt.

            • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              10
              ·
              3 months ago

              It was shorthand for the thing we were already talking about “removing medical debt from credit reporting”. So yeah, you’re a bad faith troll.

              • Optional@lemmy.worldOP
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                3 months ago

                The gEnOSiDe DemoCRATz part, if not the username, gave it away immediately.

                Application for block is approved. ka-chunk

        • Wilzax@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          19
          ·
          3 months ago

          What an incredibly self-centered and damaging thing to say.

          These policies may not be helping you right now. But they are helping millions. And they aren’t making future change harder to enact than before. On the contrary, it sets the status quo a little bit more positive, making future improvements look like less of a drastic change.

          Don’t EVER bash progress. Bash inaction and bash negative side effects.

          • Kumikommunism@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            edit-2
            3 months ago

            I’m sure that’s very easy to say when you are comfortable, have health coverage, and are likely white.

            Much less easy if you are poor, homeless, an asylum-seeker, immigrant, Palestinian, live in a climate-affected area…

            Also, I care much more about those less fortunate than me than I do myself. The person I responded to was the one to make it about themselves. I’m the one talking about those who are being ignored, while you are the one ignoring them. Don’t talk to me about “damaging”.

            • Wilzax@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              12
              ·
              3 months ago

              Something good happened to someone. You said “Bad, not me!!” instead of “Great, now this!”.

              That is bad.

              • Kumikommunism@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                4
                ·
                edit-2
                3 months ago

                I’m just going to repost this because you are continuing to ignore the people that actually matter here.

                Much less easy if you are poor, homeless, an asylum-seeker, immigrant, Palestinian, live in a climate-affected area…

                Because there is nothing “great” about any of this. None of this fixes any of the problems, which is great for comfortable people like you.

                That is bad.

            • Kit
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              6
              ·
              3 months ago

              More Americans have Healthcare than ever before thanks to The American Rescue Plan.

              Biden’s initiatives have housed 1.2 million homeless people, and climbing.

              I was formerly homeless and didn’t have Healthcare. If Biden was president then, I would have been in a much better spot.

              How about you? You sound like you have never been homeless and have no idea what it’s like.

  • Yokozuna@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    16
    ·
    3 months ago

    Wait… no medical debt goes to your credit report? Is this a thing now or is it something he’s working on?

    • Optional@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      26
      ·
      3 months ago

      https://www.seattletimes.com/business/medical-debt-may-be-wiped-from-credit-reports-heres-why-thats-a-big-deal/

      The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has proposed a rule that would remove medical bills from credit reports, a ban that would prevent lenders from considering those debts when making decisions about whether to issue loans.

      The proposed rule change, announced Tuesday, would also increase privacy protections, help raise credit scores and prevent debt collectors from using the credit reporting system to coerce people to pay.

      . . . The proposed rule is open for public comment through Aug. 12, with the bureau working toward a final rule that would take effect next year.

        • Optional@lemmy.worldOP
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          3 months ago

          It does mean something. It means there’s a plan, a bill, an Executive Order, political capital, political will, money/budget, and to see it through to universal acceptance so that it can’t be immediately rescinded by the next orange rapist administration and it only takes votes.

          In many cases it is already actually happening. These are all real examples, real things that are, in fact, happening. Things often “never go anywhere” because right-wing sewerholes and their friends around the political spectrum destroy those efforts at every available opportunity.

          RepubliQans and their supporters have, often, stated that their only goals are to prevent efforts like these from “going anywhere”. It’s a constant fight just to keep what we have now ffs because big money buys fascists cheaply and that’s what we’re fighting every session, every conference, every vote, every goddamned time.

          I get cynical, it’s absolutely understandable but, after decades of mikquetoast middle-of-the-road republiQan-lite Democratic initiatives (think “better jobs” and “middle-class tax breaks”) we’re finally - after the deeply humiliating disaster of the trump “presidency” - finally getting traction, buy-in, and votes for real positive progressive things.

            • Optional@lemmy.worldOP
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              3 months ago

              Fair enough. Having lived through decades of continuous so-so blah Democratic actions, this latest movement is, possibly from just the failure of everything else they’ve tried instead of listening to the progressives, it’s well, pretty good. And it gives me some hope, should we survive the next existential threat, and the ones after that.

      • Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        3 months ago

        It didn’t even HAPPEN? What the hell homesweethomeMrL?

        I’m not going to factcheck your post. I have to dismiss it. You have clearly mislead us all

        If you’re TRULY on the side of facts and integrity, you should edit it and explain which items here aren’t actually done.

        Disgusting.

      • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        3 months ago

        You’re literally doing an impression of moderate democrat voters. You know that right? They’re the ones getting everything they want and they’re regularly used as the reason why Biden can’t do X, Y, or Z because he’d lose their votes.

        This is pure projection.

      • Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        3 months ago

        Well that’s great then! When Trump and his gang of maniacs get in they won’t be able to accomplish anything because of how the US government works!

        That’s so encouraging! Here I thought being President meant you could effect change.

  • hesusingthespiritbomb@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    Negotiating drug prices for Medicare. That’s a huge caveat, especially since this guy is tweeting this info out. Medicare is only available if you’re over 65.

    Like why lie?

    • Optional@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      3 months ago

      Lie?

      You mean understand how progress happens over a long period of time against intractable evangelical zealots who, helpfully, are also batshit crazy and rich?

      You want a five line recap of beneficial policies in 50 words or less with no context or qualifications. Ok. No, no, it’s a valid point that the drug price cap affects the most vulnerable on medicare. Would you also like to see those discussions and how they played out across the months to get that far? No. You would not.

      “Lie.” Please. Get in there and make it happen or understand the people who are already doing it are making the kind of progress we haven’t seen since the GOP became the GQP (including the Tea Party Fuckwits).

      Is it not enough? Are those mean ol’ liberals keeping the abundance of universal happiness from happening for (checks notes) genocidal . . . wtf . . . really? Geno- wow. Ok . . . genocidal reasons? Well, when you have your favorite orange rapist back in power you’ll be super stoked at all the progress you’ve been denied these whole . . year-and-a-half . . . of a friendly Congress.

      Everyone wants everything and thinks it’s just simple to build new policies and procedures in the middle of their constant attack and destruction by republiQans. And it does not now, nor has it ever, worked that way.

      “Lie.” Ffs.

  • Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    Capping credit card fees? At what, 25%?

    35% APR, compounded DAILY?

    What fees are we talking about? They’re already cash-it-here high. It’s there something worse than that? Is the president making their interest remain at a reasonable amount above prime?

    Now THAT WOULD be a cap worth bragging about.

    PS: How about cash-it-here, and title-loan, and buy-here-pay-here, and instant-refund tax preparers, and accident attorneys, and bail bonds, and pawn shops, and rent-a-centers, and dollar tree/dollar general, and all the other predatory bad-financial-decision institutions we allow to thrive in poverty-stricken areas?

    We know what we’re doing, and we just let that shit happen. Fuck us, we deserve whatever comes.

    • FreddyDunningKruger@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      3 months ago

      Oh look at you, the brains of the operation here. Do you know what the Republicans would have capped it at? NOTHING AT ALL. Do you know why the Democrats can’t deliver the perfect policies you demand? Because they have to fight against the other side tooth and nail to get anything through at all. Do you think the Republicans would be forgiving student loan debt right now? News flash: hell no. Do you have complaints about the way loans are being forgiven, oh of that I have no doubt. Do you know why you have those complaints? Because the Republicans are always chipping away and fighting against at every good thing that happens.

      You’d be that spoiled brat whose single mother comes home after working her ass off all day, and throws a fit because she made potato soup again when you wanted hamburgers, wouldn’t you?

      • Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        3 months ago

        Thanks for the tongue lashing, but I’m reacting to something. This shitty list and big downvote party.

        This was posted like a kid’s picture stuck on the fridge, and we’re supposed to all admire it. Fuck that. Don’t take me to a Dodge and tell me it’s a Mercedes.

        He’s not Trump. That’s the line. Nobody is moved by this post. It’s desperate. It’s pleading. And ultimately, it actually works AGAINST Biden’s reelection. Because it’s like telling a girl who’s rejecting you all the reasons she should love you.