• arthurpizza
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    1085 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.

    • OptionalOP
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      1175 months ago

      Significant progress is disheartening. Ok.

      Tough room.

      • zeekaran
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        605 months ago

        Lemmy is full of those childish people I met in college.

        • @[email protected]
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          465 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.

          • OptionalOP
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            75 months ago

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

          • @[email protected]
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            45 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.

      • @[email protected]
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        5 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.

        • @[email protected]
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          135 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.

          • @[email protected]
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            165 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.

            • @[email protected]
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              85 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.

              • @[email protected]
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                5 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.

                • @[email protected]
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                  15 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.

          • @[email protected]
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            115 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.

              • @[email protected]
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                5 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.

        • @[email protected]
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          85 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?

          • @[email protected]
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            125 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?

            • @[email protected]
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              45 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!

              • @[email protected]
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                75 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.

                • @[email protected]
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                  25 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 🤝

            • @[email protected]
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              15 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
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        385 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.

        • @[email protected]
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          85 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.

        • @[email protected]
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          5 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.

          • @[email protected]
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            35 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.

            • @[email protected]
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              5 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.

              • @[email protected]
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                35 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.

                • @[email protected]
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                  5 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?

    • deweydecibel
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      385 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.

      • @[email protected]
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        5 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.

        • @[email protected]
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          115 months ago

          Biden could fix everything and walk on water and they’d still hate for some bullshit that isn’t true or above their room temp iq.

        • @[email protected]
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          105 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.

      • @[email protected]
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        215 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.

        • @[email protected]
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          85 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’)

          • @[email protected]
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            25 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.

      • arthurpizza
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        175 months ago

        Maybe we could start by not aiding a genocide? Just spitballing here…

        • @[email protected]
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          105 months ago

          I’m just glad he’s not using a sharpie to write “finish them” on bombs instead of pushing for a cease fire.

          • @[email protected]
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            5 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.

      • @[email protected]
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        5 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.

        • @[email protected]
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          75 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

          • @[email protected]
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            65 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.

            • @[email protected]
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              55 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

              • @[email protected]
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                45 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.

              • @[email protected]
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                15 months ago
                • Build a giant net on the border with Canada to keep geese out.
                • Make Friday part of the weekend.
                • Give every new baby a chocolate eclair.
                • Issue bulletproof vests to all citizens to help survive mass shootings.
                • No more speed limits in Interstate highways. (Okay, absurd ones are harder to think of than real issues that people care about.)
                • Cheaper health care.
                • Cheaper housing.
                • Cheaper groceries.
                • Cheaper fuel.
                • Codify reproductive freedom in law.
                • Hold the media accountable to the truth.
                • Ban insider trading in Congress.
                • Ensure that people have secure jobs, with dignity.

                Details, schmetails. The post is a complaint by Robert Reich that voters aren’t paying attention to details. And ITT, plenty of Lemmings pointing out that Biden can’t pass very many policy proposals, anyway. The idea is to sell the perception that Democrats understand and care about issues facing Americans.

                The big picture comes first to get Democrats elected, then get down to the details.

        • @[email protected]
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          35 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.

    • @[email protected]
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      125 months ago

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

  • @[email protected]
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    895 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.

    • @[email protected]
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      385 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.

      • @[email protected]
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        395 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.

        • @[email protected]
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          265 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.

          • @[email protected]
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            135 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.

            • @[email protected]
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              25 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.

        • @[email protected]
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          75 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.

            • @[email protected]
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              5 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.

                • @[email protected]
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                  35 months ago

                  Why do you limit yourself and your political demands to the little box given to you instead of demanding to see the horizon?

        • @[email protected]
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          15 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.

          • @[email protected]
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            15 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.

          • @[email protected]
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            15 months ago

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

      • @[email protected]
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        135 months ago

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

        • sunzu
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          65 months ago

          We need new leadership, these geriatric parasites aint gonna do shit to really change anything.

          Their main job is to placate us while transferring nations wealth upwards. Looks at the national debt over last 30 years and nothing to show for it. Literally no infrastructure, no social support except for boomers/old. Everybody is also in more debt. Every major market is consolidated is being price gouged.

          This shit don’t happen on its own folks. Somebody did this…

          • ASeriesOfPoorChoices
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            35 months ago

            if by “new leadership” you mean “get the republicans out the senate and the house”, then yes. Jeesus. The president isn’t a god, you nutter.

          • @[email protected]
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            25 months ago

            While I fully agree with the sentiment of your comment, I need to remark that national debt is a non-issue. The central bank of the US, in this case the Federal Reserve, is the one and only entity in planet Earth with the power to create dollars at will. It doesn’t even need to print them, since money now is mostly digital, they can be created at a keystroke on a keyboard.

            As long as the national debt is denominated in USD, which it is, the US will never have a problem with debt payments, it could literally pay it all back early tomorrow pressing a keyboard 3 times, and it would cost taxpayers a grand total of $0.

            Debt is simply a useful tool for other reasons, like being able to control the interest rate of loans the economy (as we saw during the recent increase enacted to attempt fighting inflation), but public expenditure isn’t reliant on debt or even on taxes, since the government can create an arbitrarily large amount of dollars. The desirable amount to be created should be discussed with scientific evidence in hand, or even modulated over time responding to the markets and the situation of the economy and inflation, but debt is absolutely not a limit on public expenditure. The US could create as many dollars as desired to pay for infrastructure or social support (as it did during the very successful new deal, or the pandemic cheques, or rescuing silicon valley banks).

            • sunzu
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              15 months ago

              Yes national debt is not a problem for the state printing money… Make no mistake that it is has impact on people responsible for paying it.

              Where is this cavalier attitude coming from?

              Who do you think pays the interrest and where do you think that money goes?

              • @[email protected]
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                25 months ago

                Again, it’s not cavalier attitude, I’m at least as much of a leftist as you are, it’s just an explanation of the economics of the state and the public sector.

                Who pays the interest? The government. Where does that money go? A combination of private sector of this country and others, and the public sector of other countries, basically anyone who wants to buy public debt. Myself included btw. I’m not paying interest on my country’s debt, my country is paying me interest on the debt I purchased from it.

                I’m purely talking about public debt, not private debt. Unless someone in the private sector can get indebted in a currency they create and control, then they can’t pay for it immediately and without cost. It’s just that when people discuss the problem of national debt they’re usually talking about the debt of the public sector.

                • sunzu
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                  25 months ago

                  You are still missing the point.

                  Government has only one way to raise revenue, taxes. Taxes are paid mostly by working people, ie middle aged. Most of public debt is owned by the wealthy and old.

                  So public debt is transfer of money from working middle aged wager slaves to the wealthy owner elites.

                  What benefit did working people get from this national debt? None.

                  So while you point stands, public debt does not matter for the federal government.

                  You pretending like it has no impact on the people paying taxes is rather naive take on how it actually works.

                  It is an extraction racket, no amount of modern monetary theory bullshit explains away the economic toll that is imposed on the working people.

                  We are clearly suffering from it as we talking right now. QoL is going down, this is a direct result of failed fiscal and monetary policy.

      • @[email protected]
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        125 months ago

        Blame congress for 99% of that. The president doesn’t have as much power as people seem to think they do.

        • @[email protected]
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          75 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.

          • @[email protected]
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            95 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.

            • @[email protected]
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              5 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.

              • @[email protected]
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                35 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.

                • @[email protected]
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                  15 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.

          • @[email protected]
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            25 months ago

            The difference is that Biden is following the rules of office, while Trump has said he’s going to blatantly disregard them.

      • @[email protected]
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        05 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

    • FenrirIII
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      75 months ago

      And Trump will take credit for it all and his idiot believers will eat it up.

        • @[email protected]
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          15 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?

    • OptionalOP
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      45 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
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    445 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.

    • @[email protected]
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      655 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
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        265 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.

        • @[email protected]
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          5 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
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            5 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
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          15 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
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        45 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.

        • OptionalOP
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          135 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
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            5 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.

            • @[email protected]
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              5 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
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                65 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.

    • OptionalOP
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      155 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
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        205 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!

      • @[email protected]
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        5 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.

  • @[email protected]
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    335 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
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      5 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.

    • 555
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      85 months ago

      It’s gotta suck knowing you will still be voting for him in November.

      • @[email protected]
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        135 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.

        • @[email protected]
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          205 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.

          • @[email protected]
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            5 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.

            • @[email protected]
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              55 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.

      • @[email protected]
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        15 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

  • @[email protected]
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    315 months ago

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

    • krolden
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      45 months ago

      Lol what about like the ten times they’ve done that before

      • @[email protected]
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        25 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
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      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.

      • @[email protected]
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        215 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.

        • @[email protected]
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          105 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.

          • @[email protected]
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            5 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.

            • @[email protected]
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              15 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.

          • @[email protected]
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            35 months ago

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

            So how is that done exactly? By hiring hitmen?

            • @[email protected]
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              25 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.

              • @[email protected]
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                15 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.

                • @[email protected]
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                  15 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.

    • @[email protected]
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      365 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.

      • @[email protected]
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        155 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?

        • @[email protected]
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          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
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        5 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.

        • @[email protected]
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          115 months ago

          Trump is also choosing genocide because he can hope for people like you not to vote against him.

          • queermunist she/her
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            45 months ago

            There won’t be any people in Gaza left to kill by 2025 if Biden doesn’t stop the genocide.

            That’s your fault

            • @[email protected]
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              25 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
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                5 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.

        • @[email protected]
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          105 months ago

          I want to fucking die

          This is the part they don’t understand. We’re done with their shit.

        • @[email protected]
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          5 months ago

          He is not a legitimate candidate for president. It’s trump or Biden, no question asked.

          You can vote for one or the other, and your non (or third party) vote will have implicit favor, depending on your location, regardless of your intent.

          The primaries are over, pick trump or Biden. You get nothin else. Any ideological opinion on the value of voting or nonvoting ( moral or systemic) are moot, as the system is already constrained to 2 outcomes.

          Edit if you are not a Christian nationalist, any action you take that does not competitively keep trump out of office is against your interests. If your vote doesn’t matter because you are in a very blue place, you choose nonvoting out of privilege, and therefore put at risk neighbors at risk due to your lax conduct.

          • queermunist she/her
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            55 months ago

            He is not a legitimate candidate for president.

            He already cast his vote. Answer my question: did he vote for genocide?

            The primaries are over, pick trump or Biden. You get nothin else. Any ideological opinion on the value of voting or nonvoting ( moral or systemic) are moot, as the system is already constrained to 2 outcomes.

            This is not an ideological choice and this is not frivolous moralism. This is strategic.

            If Biden understood that he will lose if he doesn’t end the genocide then he will do anything he has to do in order to stay in power because he’s a politician. It’s plainly obvious that we have already pushed him on this issue and if we stay the course we can force him to capitulate to our demands. The only reason Biden has not already ended his support for the genocide is because of you blue-no-matter-whos doing everything you can to convince his team that he can have his genocidal cake and eat it too.

            If we were actually fucking united on this issue he would fold like wet cardboard! If his rallies were filled with protesters instead of blue-no-matter-whos chanting “four more years!” he would understand. He’s not a demon. He’s a politician.

            You stopped the uncommitted movement from succeeding. You stopped the campus protests from succeeding. Your fault.

            By refusing to stand with us all you are doing is ensuring the genocide will continue, either under Biden or under Trump.

            • @[email protected]
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              5 months ago

              Meh, you (and I) are in a constrained system. Any other words on choice are fluff.

              You’re ascribing emotions to something that has none. You’re ascribing motive to someone you dont even know.

              Thus far edit ive only declared I don’t want trump president. You don’t know my choices beyond that.

              • queermunist she/her
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                5 months ago

                I don’t want Trump president either, but if Biden does not stop he is going to lose.

                And so I have to use the only leverage I have to force Biden to stop supporting and carrying out genocide. If anti-Trump voters actually want to stop Trump then y’all need to understand that Trump is going to win because of the genocide. The people who don’t support genocide will not vote for Biden and the people who love genocide will vote for Trump, it’s lose lose.

                We have to force Biden to move on this issue or he’s doomed. It’s not about anyone’s feelings or emotions or what you truly want in your heart. Like I said, this is strategic. We are in a constrained system, this is the only strategy we have.

                Or is your plan to help Biden win just to scream at people who won’t vote for genocide?

                Because that’s doomed to fail. This is what you are voting for.

            • @[email protected]
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              25 months ago

              If we were actually fucking united on this issue he would fold like wet cardboard! If his rallies were filled with protesters instead of blue-no-matter-whos chanting “four more years!” he would understand. He’s not a demon. He’s a politician.

              This is just naive. Protesting against Biden’s Middle East policies is basically kids threatening to run away from home if their parents don’t buy them what they want.

              Of course Biden is never going to say this because, again, he’s a politician and has a public image to keep, but he could literally reply to said protestors “Or else? You gonna let Trump win and do worse? Yeah right, now shut up and vote for me”, and they would have absolutely nothing to answer.

              That’s how two-party systems work. You identify the worse outcome and vote for the other one. The only way to force the second-worst party to get better is to force the actual worst one to do it first.

              • queermunist she/her
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                5 months ago

                Protesting against Biden’s Middle East policies is basically kids threatening to run away from home if their parents don’t buy them what they want.

                They’re grown adults choosing to be violently beaten by cops and vigilantes for their beliefs. Have some fucking respect.

                Of course Biden is never going to say this because, again, he’s a politician and has a public image to keep, but he could literally reply to said protestors “Or else? You gonna let Trump win and do worse? Yeah right, now shut up and vote for me”, and they would have absolutely nothing to answer.

                You’re contradicting yourself.

                He’s a politician and has a public image to keep because he can’t just say shit like that, because he’s not actually invincible. Your cynicism is understandable, you’ve convinced yourself there’s nothing you can do so the guilt doesn’t eat you alive, but the truth is that Biden is vulnerable to public image because he still wants to be reelected. If he really believed that he was going to lose because of his support for genocide then he would change his policies. He can be pushed. You refuse to try because you’re scared.

                • @[email protected]
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                  25 months ago

                  Where am I contradicting myself exactly? He has a public image to keep, so he can’t openly say that. But he very much can act accordingly anyway, and that’s what he’s doing. Because he knows we have no viable alternative and anyone who seriously cares about minimizing casualties (so apparently not you) will not risk Trump getting reelected over some moral superiority that means nothing. He’s never going to lose over his support for genocide because you literally can’t vote against it. That’s how two-party systems work, period. The only reasons he can possibly lose over are differences between his agenda and his opponent’s, and genocide is unfortunately not one of those.

                  You’re the one trying to avoid guilt so that when a genocide-enabling candidate inevitably gets elected you can say to yourself “well at least I didn’t vote for them!”.

        • @[email protected]
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          125 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
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            35 months ago

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

            • @[email protected]
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              35 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
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                35 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.

    • bobburger
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      125 months ago

      You’re not in Gaza fighting the IDF, and you aren’t voting for the candidate that will do the most to mitigate The Genocide™, so it seems like you’re actively choosing more genocide. I’ll never understand you genocide enthusiasts, absolutely heartless.

        • bobburger
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          105 months ago

          Lol, good news is that both of us are doing the same amount to stop the invasion of Gaza right now. However, I’m advocating for deescalation in the future and harm reduction. Maybe even a Palestinian state of their own. You on the other hand are advocating for more genocide and an escalation of the conflict, complete with Israeli condos on the beach in Gaza.

          A fun fact about me, I’m also opposed to the Uyghur genocide being carried put by China, as well as the Ukrainian and Rohingya genocides being directly enabled by China. Curiously you only seem to be opposed to genocide if it’s a political liability for Joe Biden and can be used to get Trump elected. I wonder why that is.

          • @[email protected]
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            75 months ago

            Anti-genocide is pro-genocide, pro-genocide is anti-genocide and other Newspeak brought you by the crafty narrative-spinning minds at BlueAnon.

            • bobburger
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              95 months ago

              You’re not actually doing anything to prevent or mitigate genocide. You can pretend you’re anti-genocide all day long, but at the end of the day you’re doing absolutely nothing about it. And the one thing you can do to mitigate, vote for the candidate that is calling for restraint, you’re refusing to do.

              So you say you’re anti-genocide but your actions are 100% pro-genocide. You can lie to yourself but that doesn’t change reality.

        • bobburger
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          105 months ago

          Mitigation is a relative term. Biden’s policies are going a long way to mitigate harm done compared to Trump’s. You may not like it, but that’s reality.

          • @[email protected]
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            25 months ago

            Not actively doing worse than someone else is mitigation now?

            i was about to go “i guess burning forests is ok too as long as i point out someone worse”, but mothers and fathers are already crying over their dismembered kids in gaza, and the other way too.

    • @[email protected]
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      75 months ago

      You’re not voting for a president of a country, who has a relationship with another country that acts in its own interests and independence from the rest of the world.

      America is not the boss of the world, not the global authority, and no longer a beacon of progress and forward thinking. Israel is its own country, that brought something from another country for its own use. Another country’s decisions are their own - its not America’s fault any more than any other western country or arms producer… weapons aren’t manufactured and sold to be kind.

      • queermunist she/her
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        85 months ago

        If the US stopped providing bombs they’d run out of bombs. Israeli officials have literally said this!

      • @[email protected]
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        65 months ago

        Another country’s decisions are their own

        Biden chose to sell them weapons that he knew would be used for genocide. That’s not Netanyahu’s choice.

    • BigFig
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      65 months ago

      Good for you! ⭐ Here’s your star, move along

  • @[email protected]
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    5 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.

    • @[email protected]
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      185 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.

      • @[email protected]
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        65 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.

      • @[email protected]
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        5 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.

        • @[email protected]
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          65 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.

    • @[email protected]
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      85 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.

    • @[email protected]
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      35 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)

  • @[email protected]
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    205 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.

  • @[email protected]
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    205 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.

    • @[email protected]
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      415 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.

      • @[email protected]
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        155 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.

        • @[email protected]
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          255 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.

          • @[email protected]
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            55 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.

            • @[email protected]
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              115 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.

              • OptionalOP
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                35 months ago

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

                Application for block is approved. ka-chunk

        • @[email protected]
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          225 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.

          • @[email protected]
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            5 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”.

            • @[email protected]
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              145 months ago

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

              That is bad.

              • @[email protected]
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                5 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.

            • @[email protected]
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              75 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.

          • @[email protected]
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            65 months ago

            The person I replied to made it about themselves. If they are allowed to say “I think this is good because it helped me”, why am I not allowed to say it’s not good because it didn’t help me? Are you admitting that Democrats are “me first”?

            Also, conveniently leaving off the more important part of the sentence, aren’t you?

            • @[email protected]
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              55 months ago

              Huh? no evidence of that, or opinion on that is described in my comment. Why are you making things up?

              I’m focused on the words they used. This isn’t about their opinion on a political candidate, it’s their (in my opinion) flawed, antithetical position on the benefits of the self, not the group.

              Candidly, I strongly do not want trump to be president, as I have at risk folks in my family and community.

              I want the best available outcome for them, in an otherwise polluted system.

      • @[email protected]
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        75 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.

    • OptionalOP
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      65 months ago

      Yes, I also don’t understand how the US government works and have a keyboard!

      • @[email protected]
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        45 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.

  • @[email protected]
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    165 months ago

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

    • OptionalOP
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      275 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.

        • OptionalOP
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          55 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.

            • OptionalOP
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              35 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.

      • @[email protected]
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        25 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.

  • @[email protected]
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    135 months ago

    Yet when the people ask to not be owned by corporations, to have medical care, to not commit genocide, that all falls on deaf ears.

    When wall Street wants something done, Biden jumps to it.

    These are all sticking little plasters on the giant gaping wound and saying that you fixed it

    • @[email protected]
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      105 months ago

      i will never understand how people take the time to criticize biden when trump is the alternative. unless those people are actually troompa loompas/russians

      “not be owned by corporations” LOL yea… go ahead and vote against biden and see how that “not be owned by corporations” works out for you…

      • @[email protected]
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        55 months ago

        Pointing out that Biden is fucked up and is committing genocide does not have anything to do with trump. I’m not entirely sure how you even got to trump from what I said. That seems like a reading comprehension issue on your part

        Trump is fucking awful and would likely be worse than Biden in almost every way. No one, least of all me, said otherwise. That does not mean you can’t criticize Biden and the Democrats though. So not sure what your issue is but if you want to keep arguing a point I did not make then go for it and have fun.

        If you want to address the actual issues plaguing the world then stop pretending that either trump or Biden are the right way forward.

        • @[email protected]
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          35 months ago

          pretending that either trump or Biden are the right way forward.

          you typed a lot of shit to out yourself as a “bOtHsiDeSbAd” muppet. go ahead and keep shitting on biden для Родины!

          • @[email protected]
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            45 months ago

            Lol I’m not even close to Russian I just don’t like genocide and I don’t like the fact that most people in the states can’t generally afford to live properly. But sure because I point out that the Democrats, who I’ve voted for every single time since I’ve been able to vote, are also fucking up, that means I support Russia and trump. That makes a lot of sense.

            Again, you guys need to figure out your reading comprehension

            • @[email protected]
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              35 months ago

              You will never win, they don’t want real discussion. They want to pretend this election would be “in the bag” if people were smart, like them.

      • @[email protected]
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        25 months ago

        What are you trying to accomplish? Silence any criticism of Biden?

        Do you really think that if everybody would just NOT TALK BAD about Biden he would get elected?

        The Democrats had a wide open door here to inspire real change against the weakest candidate the Republicans have ever put up. TWICE. But instead of running somebody INSPIRING what did they do? They ran somebody who’s just NOT AS BAD as the Republican candidate.

        In 2018 when AOC surprised everyone by winning her seat and Democratic socialism made a big splash and there were so much excitement, what did the established Democratic party do? They squashed that shit.

        I don’t care about Biden, nobody does. I care about Democratic Socialism, and the Democrats don’t.

      • @[email protected]
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        15 months ago

        They’re all great things to point out and discuss, during primary season.

        Well they’re always relevant and worth discussing, but don’t make any sense in the context of the general election.

  • @[email protected]
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    5 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?

    • OptionalOP
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      95 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.

    • sunzu
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      55 months ago

      prolly because it is a twatter sound bite, not a proper policy white paper.