Actually significantly below average even by the low bar of the Dem leadership. He was the most conservative democrat candidate in a field that included Amy Klobuchar and two billionaires, one of whom is a former republican.
He’s barely to the left of Joe Manchin and neoliberals pretend that he’s the most progressive president ever 🤦
And yes, of course he’s still a much better choice than the Mango Mussolini, but talk about a low fucking bar!
He is undeniably awful on some issues, however if you look at everything that’s happened under him, I think you’ll be surprised how much, lets say his people, have started to pull the US out of a 40 year old Reagan shaped hole.
Sure, he’s made some good cabinet appointments, but I guarantee that, for example, the excellent Lauren McFerran who’s been doing a great job at NLRB wasn’t his idea.
Party loyalists like the twitter troll Neera Tanden, unprincipled opportunists like Pete Buttigieg and conservatives like Merrick Garland are much more Biden’s speed.
Can you list out some of the legislation he’s helped pass and some of his executive orders?
Edit: Instead of everyone continuing with the “here’s one thing I didn’t like” game, here’s a non-exhaustive list for you:
- Rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement
- Rejoining the World Health Organization
- Revoking permits for the Keystone XL pipeline
- Ending support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen
- Withdrawing from Afghanistan
- Juneteenth National Independence Day Act
- American Rescue Plan
- Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
- CHIPS and Science Act
- Inflation Reduction Act
- Honoring our PACT Act
- Eliminating the Schedule F class of federal workers Trump created that stripped federal workers of job protections
- Restoring collective bargaining rights to federal workers
Well there’s the time he lobbied Congress to take away the rights of striking railway workers.
And then there’s the fact that he circumvented normal procedures to expedite weapons sales to Israel twice in December alone.
That’s just two of many examples of him being on the side of the rich and powerful and against regular people every time there’s conflict between the two groups.
How dare he… checks notes… prevent a national financial crisis but still worked to get the unions everything they wanted, and stand by our international allies in a crisis even when Congress won’t.
I guess you’d prefer a reality where he takes the fall for the consequences of the strike, Republicans win, and Israel is thrown under the bus, providing an example to our other allies that we will do the same to them as soon as it’s politically convenient. Brilliant politics.
prevent a national financial crisis
He did no such thing. That was just his bullshit excuse. The crisis from the next major derailment, one that could happen anywhere, including in major metropolitan areas, will likely be much worse than anything caused by upholding the rights of striking workers.
stand by our international allies in a crisis
Yeah, when those allies are operating an apartheid regime committing genocide, it’s not a good thing to pretend that automatically taking their side is the principled thing to do. The crisis is of their own making and US support in the form of weapons and funding is making it worse, not better.
Republicans win, and Israel is thrown under the bus
Bullshit. Republicans are MORE staunchly in favor of the Israeli government, being fellow fascists.
we will do the same to them as soon as it’s politically convenient
Yeah, because not enabling genocide by an apartheid regime is all about convenience! Gtfo with that bullshit!
- You seem to be under the impression that the strike was about safety, it was not. It was about sick days.
- Israel is neither genocidal nor an apartheid state, this is total hyperbole, and I’m very glad the Biden administration does not share your warped redefinitions of these terms. Biden is now putting sanctions on those who go too far in Israel, which I appreciate. I hope he goes after their right wing politicians next.
- The comment I was responding to wanted Biden to throw Israel under the bus, not the Republicans that would replace him due to the financial consequences of a national rail strike.
You seem to be under the impression that the strike was about safety, it was not. It was about sick days.
It was about both. You can repeat your narrative as many times as you want, doesn’t change the fact that you’re lying.
Israel is neither genocidal nor an apartheid state,
False. It’s by definition a case of both.
this is total hyperbole
Wrong again.
your warped redefinitions of these terms
Those aren’t my definitions. They are those of the Genocide Convention and South African Apartheid survivors.
Biden is now putting sanctions on those who go too far in Israel
Nope. He’s frozen assets of a handful of civilian murderers from the West Bank, but is still supporting the Israeli government genocide with weapons, funding and lying about the extent of their atrocities.
The comment I was responding to wanted Biden to throw Israel under the bus
Israel IS the bus and he’s throwing his own re-election prospects under it. He’s already alienated significant portions of crucial battleground states like Michigan and he’s hemorrhaging support from every voter who doesn’t consider massacring civilians the cost of doing business.
the Republicans that would replace him due to the financial consequences of a national rail strike.
Again, a purely fictional hypothetical invented to excuse the ongoing gross violations of labor rights by some of his favorite owner donors.
I swear you Biden stans are just as blind to the many faults of your Dear Leader as the Trump cult sometimes 🤦
Israel has not been found guilty of violating either statute, keep repeating it like a mantra but it doesn’t make it any more true. 21% of Israel’s population is Arab/Palestinian and they have full legal citizenship rights. Pretty odd for an, “apartheid state.” Israel is not attempting to destroy Palestinians in whole or in part, they are responding to an attack by a belligerent nation and going to great lengths to select legal targets in response even if they have significant collateral damage. It’s clear this is about self-defense and not racial based punishment, despite your uncharitable portrayal.
I swear you Biden stans are just as blind to the many faults of your Dear Leader as the Trump cult sometimes 🤦
Biden is the best president we’ve had in a long time and I’m tired of Hamas stans criticizing him for supporting our allies against unprovoked terrorist attacks. Supporting our allies in a time of crisis is the right thing to do.
Sick days (and other PTO) is a safety issue. Forcing employees to come in while sick or working them to the bone with no breaks makes for an unsafe working environment. When workers are tired or sick, they’re more prone to mistakes.
undermining the autonomy of workers to choose to strike is bad.
What are you, some kinda big mouth Co- . . . oh . . . . sorry. Carry on.
You said he got the unions “everything they wanted”. They wanted 15 sick days so I’ll wait for you to post a source saying every rail worker in all 12 unions now has 15 sick days. Or you can admit saying he got them “everything they wanted” is a lie.
Those striking railway workers eventually got their demands for sick leave met in their contracts with continued support from the Biden Administration AND our national economy didn’t grind to a halt
"We’re thankful that the Biden administration played the long game on sick days and stuck with us for months after Congress imposed our updated national agreement,” Russo said. “Without making a big show of it, Joe Biden and members of his administration in the Transportation and Labor departments have been working continuously to get guaranteed paid sick days for all railroad workers.
Source: https://www.ibew.org/media-center/Articles/23Daily/2306/230620_IBEWandPaid
They got a fraction of what they were asking for and they weren’t even asking for much. Their working conditions are still so awful that it’s only a question of time before the next major derailment disaster like the one in Ohio happens.
Next time, it might happen in a major metropolitan area, in which case many will die and the economy will suffer a lot worse than not trampling on their rights would have.
And even the tiny concessions they DID get in spite of Biden convincing congress to make them fight oligarchic railway companies without their best weapon, strike actions, was due to NLRB efforts with no help from Corporate Joe.
The strike threat was about paid sick leave, it wasn’t about railroad safety. Safety is an important issue too, but every single source from the time, even directly from the unions, explicitly discussed only paid sick leave. In that sense they got their demand met completely
It was about sick leave and improving the working conditions that are so awful that they’re literally making workers sick and trains less safe.
every single source from the time, even directly from the unions, explicitly discussed only paid sick leave
That’s simply not true. That’s the MSM and party narrative, but it isn’t the truth. Outlets less intertwined with the political establishment such as The Intercept and The Nation could have informed you better, had you bothered to look beyond the bubble.
in that sense they got their demand met completely
You mean in that entirely fictional sense? To quote the Nation piece:
this was never just a conflict over the number of paid sick days. About 115,000 workers represented by 13 separate craft unions, who keep 40 percent of the nation’s freight moving, got screwed. The coalition of interests that did the screwing includes: the executive boards of the seven class-1 carriers, most of Congress, and the president.
Yeah, I’m not really sure that’s the point. The fact that the only changes that are allowed to get through are what the president allows is disheartening. The fact is, these workers should have been able to strike on their own terms without being shut down. What happens with a more hostile leader? What Biden did was defang the Union in that instance. Threw them a bone afterward, sure, but he defanged them.
Without making a big show of it
That’s how Biden works! The corporate media is against Biden and it shows to those who can see. It’s tough getting the real news and that’s a massive problem for this country.
Those child detention centers at the border: still open on his term.
He’s still against universal healthcare. I am tired of folks beating people for wanting candidates that are more electable than Biden running instead of him. Universal healthcare polls well on the right and left.
That one issue tells you everything you need to know about him, he sides with corporate lobbyists before material needs of the people.
Remember how much political capital Obama had to spend just to get the ACA passed, and even then just barely? I would love universal healthcare but this probably isn’t the best time to push for it, at least not until fascism is defeated and Democrats have the numbers. The president isn’t a genie who can just make things like this happen unilaterally. The public may support it but Republicans do not.
democrats are fascists, so voting for them won’t stop it.
This is a bleak perspective and I refuse to believe that it isn’t a good time. When will it ever. That view will never produce change.
Pushing for legislation that is a non-starter when we are barely able to pass a budget to keep the government running isn’t a great strategy. Political capital needs to be spent where it is most effective, even if that means putting good legislation that isn’t viable on the back burner from time to time.
I hope we get universal healthcare sooner rather than later, but our problems are a little more existential right now. They might elect the guy who wants to end democracy. Sometimes we must compromise and do what is viable rather than what is desired. The good should not be sacrificed in pursuit of the perfect.
What polls are you looking at that have universal health care polling well on both sides?
Isn’t hard to find, because it never is in contention. Republicans in power, Democrats in power, want the status quo because of the lobby of pharma, healthcare insurance, and corporate control over our bodies. Those in the public on the right and left support government paid healthcare. https://news.gallup.com/poll/468401/majority-say-gov-ensure-healthcare.aspx
72% of Democrats, 13% of Republicans support government-run system
Currently, 88% of Democrats and 59% of independents but just 28% of Republicans think the government is responsible.
Your source seems to disagree.
Anyone that asks the question.
Every poll I can find has the large majority of Republicans opposing single payer health care. Some are in favor of “universal health care” but that being a mix of public and private similar to what the afordable* care act with the individual mandate did.
I love that railroad Striker story because it just makes identifying people online so easy. Because whenever people online complain about it it’s either one or two things, it’s either they’re completely ignorant of this actual scenario and what actually happened or they’re just being intellectually dishonest on purpose.
false dichotomy: i support the freedom to strike and anyone who challenges it is a class enemy
Right so the second one then, good to know. It’s always one or the other.
calling my dishonest doesn’t change that biden is a class enemy
I love that railroad Striker story because it just makes identifying people online so easy.
You love a story about blocking workers from striking? Cool bruh.
No, it just shows clearly who is actively informed on what happened and who is parroting nonsense information -either intentionally or not
I’ve seen it used by both sides for good and bad framing, depending on the level of detail they go into lol.
Sounds like you read the newspapers but that’s not where the real news is at. Corporations own the news. Dig deeper, a lot deeper. Biden isn’t as bad as the MSM wants you to believe.
You’re seriously saying that the MSM, most of which enjoys a symbiotic relationship with the DNC are portraying Biden as WORSE than he really is??
It’s because I consume media from OUTSIDE of the MSM bubble that I know he’s not anywhere near as great as the likes of Politico and NYT keep pretending.
So you’re going with the whole “liberal media” trope, eh? Figures.
Some tropes are based in truth and the one about the MSM consisting of billionaire-owned outlets that unquestioningly support either neoliberalism (Politico, MSDNC, NYT etc) or fascism (Faux News, Breitbart, WSJ editorials etc) is one of them.
MSM slobs his knob, what are you on about?
Rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement
Which is a non-binding agreement that the US is STILL not abiding by, so bfd.
Rejoining the World Health Organization
While continuing to downplay Covid-19, lifting the emergency status and forcing everyone back to work long before it was safe. Likely at the behest of donors.
Revoking permits for the Keystone XL pipeline
Which was a good thing more than made up for by mandating that any new renewable energy projects would be contingent on first increasing the amount of federal land leased for fossil fuel extraction many times over.
Ending support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen
Nope. The US is still very much supporting that genocide as well as the one in Gaza.
Withdrawing from Afghanistan
Which was a good idea horribly executed. Worst bungled end to a US war since Vietnam.
Juneteenth National Independence Day Act
Purely symbolic
American Rescue Plan
Insufficient but ok, I’m gonna be charitable and give him that one.
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
Mostly a giant giveaway to corporations, it privatized a lot more infrastructure than it paid to fix.
CHIPS and Science Act
Another corporate giveaway.
Inflation Reduction Act
Failed to live up to its name
Honoring our PACT Act
Ok, this was a good on.
Eliminating the Schedule F class of federal workers Trump created that stripped federal workers of job protections
While taking rights away from other workers.
Restoring collective bargaining rights to federal workers
Unless they bother some of his favorite donors like the railway workers did
How do you propose Biden stop shale drillers on private property in Texas and New Mexico? Well he signed a massive investment in green energy and infrastructure that can help renewable technologies compete more effectively with fossil fuels. Should more immediate and drastic action happen? I believe so, but Biden can’t do that without a Congress that agrees. Elect more Democrats to Congress
Weird how when there’s a Conservative in charge they have unlimited power to ruin the country, but the dems hands are so tied, he couldn’t possibly have done anything to stop the big bad oil companies.
Weird how it’s easier to break something than to build something
Could he not break the fossil fuel industry then?
He really can’t. Breaking the fossil fuel industry would require building a regulatory framework to do so, which would require congressional action. On the other hand, directing federal agencies to stop enforcing existing regulations and making internal decisions to undermine federal oversight of industry (aka breaking the regulatory framework) is much easier.
Also, when gas prices go up people get angry
thank you
he has the EPA.
The EPA was stripped of its power to regulate carbon emissions in 2022. Congress would need to pass another Clean Air Act for them to do anything. Even then with the Chevron precedent about to be overturned in the coming weeks, the EPA will have the authority to do…not a god damned thing.
https://www.npr.org/2022/06/30/1103595898/supreme-court-epa-climate-change
the same supreme Court which just got undermined in Hawaii?
make em do it again.
How? Hawaii has a state constitution backing their decision. What can the EPA do? Say they Regulate climate emissions and ban oil extraction tomorrow. What happens? Texas and the other red oil producing states just fall in line? They say “gosh, I guess they can tell us what to do even though my boys on the cout said they can’t, oh well, we lose”
Of course not. Blue states tend to not need to be told what to do and are often the ones making the standards that are later imposed by the EPA nationally (see CARB standards still regulating MPG for example). So the EPA will be telling red states what to do, with no authority to do so and you seriously think they will just…do it? In what universe do you live, because I’d sure like to be there.
Which has the power to do what in this case?
You would think, based on the name, protect the environment.
If you’re judging agencies by their names rather than the powers given to them through enacted legislation, I guess I don’t know what to tell you
Yeah he should really pull back on that giant “produce oil” lever he’s got on the Resolute desk with the presidential seal on the handle.
Or, you know, treat the climate apocalypse seriously.
Basically undoing everything Trump did. It’s not impressive enough. He needs to do newer and better things.
Holy shit do you ever annoy yourself with this shit?
He’s barely to the left of Joe Manchin
You know Biden & Manchin were in the same Senate together, right? So it’s in fact quite easy to look up & see that this is completely false.
He was the most conservative Democrat candidate
That’s not what voters thought during the primaries. This Business Insider ranking has him middle of the pack. And this Pew poll shows him having more liberal support than Bloomberg.
If you can show me a ranking of the candidates ideologies that shows Biden as the most conservative (actual data that supports your opinion, not just feelz), go ahead. I’ll wait.
I don’t thing “above average” was a reference to how liberal he is.
ITT: the same right wing trolls pretending to be leftists. Don’t even bother.
Not necessarily. There’s also the accelerationists that want to burn the whole thing down and believe that they’ll be around to rebuild their utopia in the ashes, without any regard for those who suffer and are murdered to try to achieve their selfish vision of society. All while ignoring the facts that accelerationism has never been demonstrated to actually work and that there’s a pretty decent chance that they would be targeted for murder if an authoritarian government took over, prior to societal collapse.
Yep. This is what happens when you make terminator movies: Everyone thinks they’re gonna be a hero freedom fighter against the cold, faceless oppressors.
Nobody ever considers the most likely scenario: you’re probably one of the skulls that the robot steps on as the camera pans up.
Jokes on you, I’m into that shit
accelerationists that want to burn the whole thing down and believe that they’ll be around to rebuild their utopia in the ashes
More that the system needs to be burned down because it is actively harming people. Whether Trump or Biden is in office, the DHS is responsible for the wrongful arrest and imprisonment of tens of thousands of people. The Pentagon and its affiliates are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands more. Our Treasury and Energy Departments continue to subsidize historic levels of pollution which cannibalize vast swaths of arable land for fictitious profits.
Burning the political system that’s destroying your country isn’t about utopian idealism any more than sabotaging the bulldozer headed towards your house is about building your dream home.
accelerationism has never been demonstrated to actually work
I’d point you to the US Civil War as a very classic historical counterpoint. The country had to pass through four years of hell and quite literally immolate a large portion of its interior in order to purge the accumulated sins of a century of chattel slavery.
This isn’t something anyone wants to live through, but we’re far better as a country for going through it than subjecting another century’s worth of Americans to the inhuman conditions of plantation bondage.
I’d point you to the US Civil War as a very classic historical counterpoint. The country had to pass through four years of hell and quite literally immolate a large portion of its interior in order to purge the accumulated sins of a century of chattel slavery.
I’ll start by saying that Sherman stopped too soon. But, I am curious as to how that provides evidence for accelerationism. The US Civil War was started by slavers that were mad about not being allowed to expand chattle slavery into new territories. Lincoln and the others still allowed allied slave states to exist and tried to prevent it by offering compromises.
This isn’t something anyone wants to live through, but we’re far better as a country for going through it than subjecting another century’s worth of Americans to the inhuman conditions of plantation bondage.
Agreed. Though the result was a significant improvement, though Jackson reversed too much.
I’ll start by saying that Sherman stopped too soon.
Based.
But, I am curious as to how that provides evidence for accelerationism. The US Civil War was started by slavers that were mad about not being allowed to expand chattle slavery into new territories
It started much earlier than that. John Brown and the abolitionist insurrection in Kansas and then Harper’s Ferry West Virginia gave secessionists urgency in a way that prior activists had not. The Underground Railroad was seen as a tool of northern politicians to steal southern slaves. Lincoln’s nomination to the Republican ticket was received as a plan by the majority party to curb slavery’s expansion which - at the moment when they were racing for new territory to expand into - would have crippled their already underdeveloped economy even further.
Fort Sumter was where the war began, but this was a country that had staring into the abyss of civil strife for the last decade.
Lincoln and the others still allowed allied slave states to exist and tried to prevent it by offering compromises.
Lincoln needed to keep the border states around the capital loyal, so he deferred emancipation until after Gettysburg by which time the southern military had lost its steam. But he was right in line with Thaddeus Stevens in ideology, even if he was more strategic in his governance.
Though the result was a significant improvement, though Jackson reversed too much.
I assume you mean… Andrew Johnson?
Yeah. One of the big what-ifs of the period is a President Benjamin Butler.
Thanks for the well thought out response.
Fort Sumter was where the war began, but this was a country that had staring into the abyss of civil strife for the last decade.
Absolutely. There were abolitionists at the signing of the US Constitution even.
I assume you mean… Andrew Johnson?
You are correct. I mix the two names up.
While I agree with everything and see it’s factuality, I still have some trouble connecting it to accelerationism. From my perspective it seems rather more in line with reform. Wouldn’t accelerationism in that scenario have been more along the lines of Lincoln pushing for more slavery to try to trigger a slave revolt?
I still have some trouble connecting it to accelerationism
The straightest line I can draw is to simply point at the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. This would have simply not been possible had the southern states not rebelled and - as a consequence - temporarily lost their statehood and representation. Without the Civil War you simply could not have had the majorities necessary nor the moral imperative of 600k dead Americans, to legally exorcise the ghost of slavery from the soul of the nation.
Absent things getting significantly worse, they could not have so rapidly improved.
Wouldn’t accelerationism in that scenario have been more along the lines of Lincoln pushing for more slavery to try to trigger a slave revolt?
Not Lincoln, but Polk and Tyler and Pierce and Buchanan (with Filmore being a Biden-esque dude who failed to stop the train from careening off the tracks). Lincoln was the consequence of half a dozen new slave states rapidly joining the union and spreading the curse of slavery like wildfire. The huge expansion in arable land available to slavers combined with a steady rise in the domestic slave population, resulted in slavery becoming this enormous economic engine that sucked in all the neighboring states and necessitating court decisions like Dredd Scott and new legislation like the Fugitive Slave Act.
Slave auctions right outside the halls of Congress, slave gangs kidnapping freemen as far north as Rhode Island and Wisconsin, and slaves being put on display in northern states by visiting southern plutocrats had a serious impact on northern perceptions of slavery. It wasn’t just a peculiar institution in a far away land, but a barbarism committed right out your own front door.
And it did culminate in a number of failed slave revolts, high profile slave murders, and various consequential conspiracy theories psychically destabilizing a lot of the southern population. John Brown’s raid was the fulfillment of a long-held fear in southern households - that one day all these slaves would rise up and murder their masters. And Lincoln’s election was seen as giving a guy like John Brown the Presidency.
That’s why the Civil War was already in full swing before Lincoln even took office. He didn’t need to do anything. The powder keg had already exploded before he even reached DC.
Thank you. I’ll have to read this when I’m in a better headspace to do so. I really appreciate your taking the time to write it and engage in good faith.
It has been a few months since you wrote this and I’ve finally been able to take since time to read it. I can certainly see the connections that you were making now. However, I’m not sure that I agree entirely with your conclusions.
The actions of the slavers were not intended to bring about positive change. Nor do I find evidence to suggest that making the world a worse place will inevitably push the pendulum in the other direction. It seems much more of a correlation/causation fallacy coupled with “ends justify the means” philosophy, intentionally inflicting suffering in the hope that it ultimately results in good, without concrete data to show that it would or even could.
However, again, I would like to thank you for taking the time to clarify. Both here and in other comment threads.
The thing is though, you might feel strongly about this and that’s absolutely fine, but most people just haven’t been pushed to breaking point yet. Like do I really want to engage in civil unrest and face state instigated violence against myself and probably my family, or do I just want to shuffle through the next 20 years with my head down hoping to have a few years peace before the grave.
Some people are already the head down, wondering what will kill them between a cop, homelessness or starvation.
Nononono you see life is easier if you just say BoTh SiDeS and move on. Sort of. You kind of have to repeat this mantra every time politics comes up for the rest of your life. But it sure beats thinking! That shit is hard!
If you keep saying “in a socialist utopia this wouldn’t happen” and do nothing long enough, a revolution will just happen and solve all the problems!
That’s what I’m saying!! Communism is the only way bro
Any day now!
If I put a picture of Karl Marx in my profile, does that make communism happen? I’ll do anything to have an excuse for not voting!
Nah you also gotta make sure to tell everyone on the Internet that both sides are the same so third party is the only real way
And when you or your partner get sent to prison because you had a miscarriage, you can rest easy knowing that at least you didn’t vote for the guy that wouldn’t have sent you to prison for having a miscarriage
Just a friendly reminder…
The first thing I’ll do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BdrOrwmk78Y
Im pro choice https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nmzdkAbu8dY
Not my highest priority https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RxiDZejZFjg
parody… No https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1z4uhxpOnN0
Man I guess this makes him worse than the guy that’ll throw gay people in prison or something
Don’t get me wrong, Fuck Joe Biden, but don’t act like he’s worse than the guys who promise to do awful things and then follow through on those promises
“Thinking is hard” is 5/4 of the way to right wing ideology.
Also 7/6 of the way toward a [insert label] person who thinks the whole system is so corrupt that we all may as well give up on anything but spreading doom
I think the best course of action is to just not vote! That way, I can be blamed when the United States becomes a facist religious country!
/s
Bro you just changed my life with this revelation!
life is easier if you just say BoTh SiDeS and move on
When they’re both drawing money from the same basket of mega-donors, they’re both pushing the same draconian border policies, they’re both encouraging historic levels of new carbon emissions, they’re both bankrolling an endless series of nightmare wars abroad, they’re both advocating lower taxes and privatization of Medicare/SS, they’re both deep in bed with Wall Street, they’re both “pro-life”, they’re both religious sycophants, they even both call one another “communists” as a derogatory slur…
FFS, man. Where’s the line?
But it sure beats thinking!
The more you think about it, the worse the situation looks. Its lose-lose. The only real question is whether we get Trump terrorizing the LGBT community at home or Biden flinging bombs at brown people living abroad.
Half the shit you said is flat out wrong, the rest is oversimplified thought-sloth. You’re 100% in the camp of thought avoidance if you can write this comment.
Half the shit you said is flat out wrong
Biden had a full Congress to work with when he took office in '21 and he rolled back virtually nothing advanced by Trump.
Actually, strike that. He let a bunch of the COVID-era good stuff lapse. No more monthly allocated child tax credits. No more suspended student debt payments. No more free testing and expanded Medicaid.
His immigration policy is worse. His foreign policy is worse. His fucking MONETARY POLICY IS WORSE. How do you pick the same Fed Chairman as Trump and get a worse monetary policy?!
thought avoidance
literally pointing at Biden’s actual policies while actually in actual office
These suck. Avoid that at your own peril.
Why are you lying about literally all of this? Satire or Putin puppet?
Have we moved from “Thought Avoidance” to “Insidious hand of the evil foreigner” this quickly?
People who allow themselves to think wonder “why”. Try it sometime.
Gibberish
Biden had a full Congress to work with when he took office in '21 and he rolled back virtually nothing advanced by Trump.
Yeah you have literally no idea what the fuck you’re talking about, like at all. That’s okay, not everyone needs to know everything about everything.
Check out Biden’s first 100 days of executive orders.
Immigration policy is worse
Objectively false as long as the perspective you have isn’t that of a xenophobic bigot.
His foreign policy is worse
Explain. If you’re referring to the stuff in Afghanistan then you’re unfortunately misled as Trump ensured that would have to happen through actions he took at the end of 2020.
“Literally pointing at Biden’s actual policies” by making shit up lmfao get the fuck outta here. Also, yeah, Dems had 2021-2023 to make stuff better. Unfortunately, yes, Sinema/Manchin have had disastrous effects in passing bills. Can you please point out a better bill from the current Congress or any Congress since Obama than the Inflation Reduction Act? Because I can’t.
I hope that you’re simply ignorant, the only other explanation is blatant malice.
Objectively false as long as the perspective you have isn’t that of a xenophobic bigot.
This, combined with the Texas state practice of police forcing migrants onto private property and then arresting them for trespassing has created an impossible situation for anyone seeking legal refugee status.
If you’re referring to the stuff in Afghanistan then you’re unfortunately misled as Trump ensured that would have to happen through actions he took at the end of 2020.
I’m referring to the ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the neighboring territories in Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon. I’m talking about our support for ethnic cleansing in Modi’s India and Zewde’s Ethiopia. I’m talking about our theft of $7B from the Afghani treasury on the departure of US troops, plunging the country into a famine. I’m talking about our continued military occupations in Haiti and Niger and Libya and Mali and Somalia. I’m talking about our tacit endorsement of the Polish blockade on Ukrainian harvest exports, because we’ve wedded ourselves to the US/EU agricultural deregulation efforts. And our support for Spainish, French, and German governments in the war on their own farmers who are in revolt over collapsing wholesale farm prices.
I’m talking about our $250B weapons export market in 2023, the highest in US history, which has contributed to escalating tensions from the Korean Peninsula to the Red Sea to the South Pacific.
Every year Biden has been in office has resulted in more war, more killing, more ethnic cleansing, in large part thanks to his international endorsement of some of the bloodiest wars since Vietnam.
“Literally pointing at Biden’s actual policies” by making shit up lmfao get the fuck outta here.
He has been a fucking disaster. In the midst of a labor shortage, he’s ratcheted up interest rates to depress wages. In the midst of record global temperatures, he’s overseen a new peak in US fossil fuel production and consumption. In the midst of record domestic energy consumption, his FTC and SEC have green-lit a new wave of bitcoin mining and energy hungry AI data harvesting.
More money than ever before for the FBI, the NSA, and the Pentagon. Some of the lowest salaries for educators, medical staff, and agricultural workers in 40 years. Biden’s “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act” has flooded the investment markets with cash while doing nothing to improve quality of life for lay workers or retirees.
This is all real shit. Its why he’s fucked in the polls. America under Biden has gotten materially worse. You are not better of today than you were four years ago and that’s saying something given where we fucking started.
I hope that you’re simply ignorant
You’re cruising for the edge of a cliff screaming “Just stay the course”, and I’m sure you’ll be back here blaming the folks that called it once you crash land into November.
This is the conversation created by the system. There were many other candidates than biden in 2020, but the party colluded to make biden the presidential nominee. Nothing stopped democrats from running a different candidate this year either except some superstition about the “incumbent advantage”. Remember when that incumbent advantage worked in trump’s favor in 2020…? Oh wait, it’s all bullshit when your favorability rating is so damn low like it is for biden right now. It’s okay, if we close our eyes and ears and scream “BUT THE OTHER GUY” loud enough, I’m sure it’ll all work out. We should be asking why the machine only has two buttons, starting from a low bar and only going lower.
Sounds like a great moment to remember this:
Biden signals to aides that he would serve only a single term
The Democratic party should act in accordance to what its members want to believe is most appropriate, not what its elites impose on them.
By “the party” you mean millions of voters? Or do you also just deny their agency?
Billions upon billions of dollars are spent on advertising and media and you think that this has no influence in a party-controlled process where the party can decide to tell others to drop and support a single candidate.
Name two states in the primary where Biden and someone under the age of retirement were running (and not dropped out and endorced Biden) that Biden won. SC and ???
… some superstition about the “incumbent advantage.”
We probably agree overall but I gotta point out: in political science, it’s definitely not considered superstition. If it were just throwing salt over the shoulder, we wouldn’t be able to consistently verify the hypothesis. It remains one of the stronger electoral advantages for outcome prediction.
That tangarine palpatine lost in spite of this advantage is more a testament to his lack of popularity among the general electorate. And btw one of the strongest known DISadvantages is having lost an election previously. The quants will have a field day with this one either way.
TL;DR Incumbency advantage is real.
We should be asking why the machine only has two buttons, starting from a low bar and only going lower.
A result of FPTP-voting and the way campaigns are financed. What you get is exactly what the old roman aristocrats intended, when they designed this system over 2 millenia ago to maintain influence: keeping money where the power is and vice versa.
The problem is that the democrats / social democrats around the world have really become corporatism and are now exploiting the far right - they don’t have to enact left wing policies and can move further to the right or just do nothing. And then you’re called to prevent “literal hitler”. Yeah you have to, but it’s a catch 22.
A “green new deal” or universal healthcare isn’t even talked about anymore. People are just so sick of this shitocracy. And it’s spreading everywhere.
My family fought in both world wars. My grampa was part of the North African campaign, a cousin went down on the HMS Hood after being sunk by the Bismarck during the Battle of the Denmark Strait…
Living in Canada and watching our neighbours to the south gleefully embrace the fascism we ALL fought against is both disgusting and terrifying.
How the hell did this happen?
Our election favourite (Canada) got the leadership by photo-opting with white supremacist groups and the notion one of his party rivals was a communist
Classic bullshit. He’s been spotted with right leaning groups a woman that actually hangs out with Nazis calls white supremacists. Unfortunately that woman is the finance minister.
Where does the finance minister come into play?
And it was his own followers calling Chong a communist during the race
She’s a bad habit of being photographed with ukraine immigrants waving blood n soil flags.
So not at all
It’s not my fault you can’t understand what you see.
So what is the connection between that and PP, are you saying they work together?
It’s all downhill
It’s the way things run
Because the old have illusions
And the young have funDisclaimer: not a historian. I only know enough to be dangerous.
I had a longer reply typed up, but then I blundered into this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism_in_North_America#United_States
In the 1920s, American intellectuals paid a considerable amount of attention to Mussolini’s early Fascist movement in Italy, but few of them became his supporters. …
According to Noam Chomsky, the rise of fascism raised concerns during the interwar period, but it was largely viewed positively by the U.S. and British governments, the corporate community, and a significant portion of the elite. This was because the fascist interpretation of extreme nationalism allowed for significant economic influence in the West while also destroying the left and the hated labor groups. Hitler, like Saddam Hussein, enjoyed strong British and U.S. support until his direct action, which severely damaged British and U.S. interests.[21]
My unqualified opinion is that there’s still remnants of this that track with old money. If this was possible, culturally, 100 years ago, there’s no reason why it can’t be true today.
AFAICT all of what’s happening now can be traced back to Reagan and Murdoch.
Patriotism is a hell of a drug. None of our countries were fighting fascism, exactly. That generations governments were trying to maintain their power, and it was a close fought battle both times. It was stopping the squareheads, krauts, bohunks and nips taking over then. It’s not like our governments don’t do fascist shit anytime they feel like, and can get away with it, but it is more that you think the governments over there, then, weren’t also riding that same line of how far they can push it.
Fundamentally: Boomers keep fucking over every generation after them. Literally every problem we’re discussing is a result of that fact.
Hitler only lived to age 56. If trump had only lived to 56, he would’ve died in 2002, before The Apprentice had even aired. That’s the better timeline for sure.
Trump had his moment hiding in the basement while it all crumbled around him, but he missed his chance to do the world the same courtesy.
oh shit!
Ok great, we worked out what to do on election day. Now, what are we going to do the rest of the time? We must organize and build political structures outside the two parties, must force action to change the way the fundamental government of the United States operates so that it is a democratic body void of money, gerrymandering, the senate, and the nature of the Supreme Court. Congresspeople must represent a realistic and small number of people.
This is the idea behind /c/inperson@slrpnk.net. The idea is, instead of using this platform to gripe at each other about “yes it is” “no it isn’t” “yes it is”, we can start to organize and make things better.
I propose that any time one of those awful “no one vote it definitely won’t matter trust me” posts comes up, we make a thread underneath it with some links to productive positive things we’re doing in addition to, obviously, voting for the guy who’s not going to blow up the country and piss on the ashes. Turn the shilling into a reminder to get out and do something concrete.
Right after I get done typing this I’m going to go back to trying to figure out a way I can volunteer some time to the Biden campaign. I’m going to be honest, I feel a little corny even typing that out, but I think trying to make sure Trump doesn’t win is for real the most effective thing that’ll set us up for more positive change and less end-of-the-world disaster in the near future.
No, volunteering for Joe Biden certainly is not the way to reform.
Post your recommended way to reform then. 100% unironically serious about that. All my previous posts were about “outside the establishment” venues, today’s was the first that was within the establishment.
here it isn’t a long read
Vote third party. Biden will lose this election anyways. It’s the perfect opportunity to jump ship.
Jesus christ this has gotta be one of the most annoying conversations people have every four years. uhhh we gotta vote because the other candidate is literally hitler guys he’s literally hitler. uhhhh noooo I don’t wanna vote at all because I’m cranky and my candidate has dementia and sucks waaaaah.
I feel like I’m stuck in a fucking time loop. I would much rather see people being like, oh you hate our options, like a sane person, but will probably vote anyways because it takes like an afternoon at most, if you really feel like it and hopefully don’t have anything more important to do? Instead of this meme, I’d rather see like, oh, here’s some shit you can do, here’s some organization you can join, here’s some place you can donate money, something like that. Here’s what building you should throw a brick through the window of, you know? I’d rather see that, than these dumb ragebait memes.
Where is the 3rd button with “Become an actuall democracy”?
As far as I’m concerned, Biden is running unopposed this year.
The media is more interested in promoting a contest than acknowledging the facts.
I sure hope you’re right
They’re not.
Terminally online redditors seem to forget that a fucking lot of people in this country are Republicans, we just don’t interact with them very much on left-leaning websites. Biden is absolutely not running uncontested, and we need to do our best to make sure Trump doesn’t win. Better to see Biden win by an absolute landslide then risk letting the electoral college fuck it up again
I think you’re misinterpreting my statement.
When I say Biden is running unopposed, I don’t mean that Trump won’t be on the ballot and I don’t mean that people won’t vote for him. The right wing has weaponized hate against liberalism to the degree where they’re willing to betray their entire country just to own the libs.
What I mean is that the media is always focused on the horse race. And I hate it. They are going to spend the next 9 months selling the idea of choice, but there’s not a choice. Everyday I see crap on the internet about how Biden is old and senile and anti-union and supports genocide and this and that. Promoting the horse race.
Donald Trump is a traitor to this country. After losing the election that tried to rig, he attempted to overthrow the government on National television. The crimes he is done that we know about are literally too many to mention.
He didn’t even bother to show up to the debates. The Republican party is just passively allowing this traitor to take their spot on the national ballot.
He’s not a legitimate candidate in any sense of the word. He should be in jail, disowned by the Republican party, and barred from running for office again.
I don’t live in a bubble, and I’m not going to make Hillary Clinton’s mistake by thinking that no one could possibly support Trump. Roe vs Wade was overturned, we’ve seen the price of not voting.
Better make sure, and get to the polls on November 5th
Figuratively Hitler. Literal Hitler is a skeleton by now.
Riddle me this. If he’s literally Hitler how come no one has used their hypothetical time machine to hypothetically eliminate him?
at some point, both factions gained access to the technology.
Secret third faction reveal at the end of season 2.
Is this an original writing prompt? Because I’d read the hell out of that book.
There was a guy who tried to rush the stage at a rally back in 2016. I remember wondering if he was a time traveler.
Somehow him being killed makes things worse. Next question.
Him being killed makes Mike Pence, an equally evil but significantly less stupid candidate, president
Maybe this is the optimal timeline and it just doesn’t look that way because we’re still in the middle of it and not at the end.
Yes, the US nuking Japan was horrific - but maybe we’d have had a much more brutal WW2 with half a billion lives lost if not for mutually assured destruction keeping it in everyone’s pants.
Yes, Hitler was horrific, but maybe the world needed a wake up call for the importance of at least some form of diplomatic structure like the UN and things like human rights observers.
Yeah, Trump is scary as shit in what it might mean for Western democracy. But maybe this period we’re in right now serves to push us forward to more modern democratic principles and protections suited to the modern age and not 1776.
Sure, AI misinformation and deepfakes are concerning - but maybe the proliferation of BS to an ad nauseum degree ends up undermining existing misinformation ops around things like vaccine denial or conspiratorial thinking where people currently gravitating to “doing their own research” online become better inoculated to BS by sheer volume of exposure to things they increasingly find they can’t trust.
We only see the means, not the ends or their possible variations.
So even if there are time travelers, perhaps they are quite committed to what seems a mediocre timeline because the odds just happened to play out in such a way that our misery paved the way to their paradise.
Bc Trump’s true worst enemy is his own mouth.:-P
Plus if he did die, they would just move on to Desantis or someone far worse.
The reason we need to have this conversation every time is because we want to live in a democracy
Even Hitler in his final hours wasn’t as utterly deranged as Trump.
Yeah, he at least had the decency to kill Hitler.
Hitler did a lot of meth man, I’m sure he was pretty deranged
Of course he was. But Donnie is on a whole other level.
Hitler had the guy that brought his cyanide capsules feed one to his dog. A German shepherd be reputedly loved.
To test the potency. He also married Eva Braun the night before they both suicided.
Trump would probably have given the pill to his wife and married the dog.
Trump hates dogs. And dogs hate him.
Which… what kind of person is hated by dogs? Like seriously.
They can probably smell the demonic possession.
Pretty sure satan lets cerberus cuddle up on the bed. (which is the real reason he has a big bed…)
It’s a lot closer than you are suggesting. Trump, Mussolini, and Hitler are all very similar.
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