He has delivered the largest economic recovery plan since Roosevelt, the largest infrastructure plan since Eisenhower, the most judges confirmed since Kennedy, the second-largest healthcare bill since Johnson, and the largest climate change bill in history.
and none of it matters because the other side thinks the work of government is to do as little as possible for the people it fleeces.
And their propaganda has been so good for the last 60 years that even half the left believes it but think they’re immune to it. See motions to every thread in Lemmy
Upvotes? Oh, yeah, that tracks.
And yet the quality of life for Americans is still declining, while the wealth gap keeps growing.
Yep, and a bunch of the things Biden supporters want to tout are making this problem worse, because his economic legislation and climate legislation and healthcare legislation and all the rest is almost entirely just throwing taxpayer money at businesses and hoping it trickles down to us somehow
Narrator - It didn’t.
If at first you don’t succeed, give businesses more money and try again.
I would argue the quality has been improving as if late. But kind of hard to blame him for the fact that the world was gripped and massively disrupted a by a pandemic and the financial moves by the fed to stave off an even worse financial melt down led to high inflation. But we’re going in the right direction, even if it isn’t fast enough for some people.
Wages aren’t keeping up with inflation for most people. The wage increases reported are mostly driven by top earners. It isn’t moving at the bottom. Longer lines than ever at food pantries. I remember when Democrats used to at least pretend to give a shit about that stuff.
Wages aren’t keeping up with inflation for most people.
Been that way for a long time bud
Nothing new happens under the sun.
And that’s also not true for the past year. Wages have out paced inflation.
Whose wages?
Even without answering that question let’s take a look at the 2023 numbers. According to BLS weekly wages went from 55k to 59k a seven percent increase. Inflation was 3.4. So we regained 3.6 percent.
The pandemic alone was worth 10 percent. And we’ve been left behind by the hundreds of points over the decades.
So while technically true, your statement is very misleading.
The poster said that over the last year, wages have out paced inflation. Pointing out how that is not true for years prior doesn’t mean his statement is misleading.
My comment, where this all comes from, was about how things are getting better as of late. So in context especially the comment is appropriate.
It’s not technically true, it’s just true. I specifically said “for the past year”, so bringing up “over the decades” is what’s misleading.
Especially in the context of Joe Biden, who has not been president for the past several decades.
Wages aren’t keeping up with inflation for most people.
This is both very specific claim, but very vague as to what you mean. What is “many” and where are you getting these numbers?
This has been a decades long problem that he has contributed to over his entire career.
More specifics please.
But, ftr, we’re talking about his presidency, which has been way more progressive than him throughout his career.
1994 Crime Bill, giving many people records and restricting their access to voting/housing/jobs/life.
1996 one of 24 Democrats to vote for the Welfare reform bill that kicked many people off of government benefits and caused needless suffering.
2003 American Dream Downpayment Act. It increased the amount of Adjustable Rate Mortgage you could get and made them available to low income families. This would prove to be a trap in 2008 that anyone with a basic education in economics could see coming because the rate was adjustable.
That’s just three examples, I’m not going to keep going. This is an old problem, older than- Well I was going to say older than him but he was elected to the Senate in 1972. He has presided over the entire crushing of the middle and working class. And we put him in the white house for it.
1994 Crime Bill, giving many people records and restricting their access to voting/housing/jobs/life.
1996 one of 24 Democrats to vote for the Welfare reform bill that kicked many people off of government benefits and caused needless suffering.
2003 American Dream Downpayment Act. It increased the amount of Adjustable Rate Mortgage you could get and made them available to low income families. This would prove to be a trap in 2008 that anyone with a basic education in economics could see coming because the rate was adjustable.
That’s just three examples, I’m not going to keep going. This is an old problem, older than- Well I was going to say older than him but he was elected to the Senate in 1972. He has presided over the entire crushing of the middle and working class. And we put him in the white house for it.
Research constantly points to things getting worse, especially for younger generations. At best you could say the rate of decline has slowed somewhat recently.
And it’s unfair to blame it on the pandemic, the trends been going on for much longer.
That would all make it even less his fault tho…
It’s not his fault it happened, it’s his fault he’s not doing enough to fix it. He campaigned on the status quo, yet the status quo is the problem.
Fundamental change needs to happen.
Like what?
He’s not magic. He can’t actually wave a wand and do anything. He’s gotta get congress on board for anything meaningful that can’t be undone the second someone else sits in the chair. Incremental change sucks, but acting like he’s been doing nothing is dumb. That’s not to say he hasn’t done bad things (looks at Israel), but painting him as inept is disingenuous at best.
Explain what changes can happen with Republicans in charge of the House.
We could deschedule cannabi-- oh who am I kidding? We can support Netanyahu’s genocide even harder.
I like how you can’t imagine a leader actually wanting change.
Trump sure seemed to change a lot with a divided Congress… Biden isn’t doing it because he doesn’t want to. But because he can’t.
Cricket cricket
He’s been in politics for like half a century.
That has been a trend for decades so it’s not going to turn around overnight. He has made some big steps by expanding numerous quality of life programs.
Real wages (i.e. inflation adjusted) have been growing for the last year and are now even with what they were before covid.
In 2019 real wages were on par with what they were in 1973. That is no growth in over 50 years.
Of course things are going to go back to pre-Covid levels post-Covid. That’s not a sign that things are magically fixed. Housing and food costs are at extreme highs, the amount of people working two jobs to survive are at highs, etc. etc. CPI also lags behind on many things such as market rent.
And don’t even get me started on the generational gap, millenials, zoomers, and alphas are all far far worse off than previous generations.
That graph kind of sidesteps the actual problem. Inflation has run away so much that 1973 isn’t nearly enough. I know that seems weird because they used real terms but median wage increases since 1974 have lost to core inflation over the decades by over a hundred points.
What we’re actually seeing here is the worth of money adjusting. But if you put core inflation on there it would be an even higher line.
It’s worth mentioning that WEC is heavily pro-corporate and neo liberal. They’d love to push a graph that made it seem like everyone was panicking for no reason.
Cool, what does that have do with Joe Biden’s presidency? You know, the one that started Jan 20, 2021 and is the topic of this thread.
Massive systems, like the economy, don’t get fixed overnight. It took 40 years to fuck it up as much as it is now and it will probably take nearly as long to unfuck it.
In 2019 Joe Biden wasn’t president.
?!
Real wages (i.e. inflation adjusted) have been growing for the last year and are now even with what they were before covid.
See that? That’s where the other user was talking about 2019, hence me mentioning it before you came along and decided “fuck reading comprehension” and dropped the most useless comment in this thread.
Removed by mod
Bro holy shit go outside. You need some fresh air man
Removed, rule 3
Swing and a miss
Congratulations you swallowed a propaganda line that wasn’t even true when they printed it.
If by propaganda you mean statistics from the BLS, then yes. But I’m sure your gut feeling is far more accurate.
BLS never announced that. An “economic” think tank did. Coincidentally the math doesn’t work out and it’s an election year.
Yes, they did. They publish data monthly on average hourly earnings of all employees. It doesn’t take a master statistician to take that and compare it against CPI-U and see that the average earnings one is now bigger compared against a Jan 2020 baseline. Do you want me to send you my excel from last night?
So did they announce it or are you interpreting the data they put out.
Given the congress he has to work with, one could argue he’s been a better President than Obama was.
He’s been a better president than Obama was.
It’s not particularly close in my opinion.
I’m hella biased, but the SAVE plan and not accruing interest on student loans as long as you make payments is a huge win.
There’s no reason they couldn’t have done this under Obama…
Edit: just wanted to mention that this restructuring for student loans had absolutely nothing to do with Congress
The SAVE plan and the rules around PSLF really do make medical school a lot more viable for people like me. Doctors get paid a pittance in residency, and the interest on medical school loans would add up really fast on the old income-driven repayment plans.
Trust me I fully understand.
I went to med school, finished back in 2018.
If I never step foot into a hospital again it’ll be too soon.
I work from home now as a cloud engineer for a large US-based mortgage company.
I’m very happy now. I’ve already made my piece that my $350,000 in loans can only be solved by making minimum payments for 20 years.
All that being said, a lot of people are in a different boat than myself.
Their loans are much more manageable and I’m really glad they’ll be able to pay them off because interest isn’t accruing.
Who knows? I make enough now that I’m actually going to have to sit down and calculate whether it’s worth it to pay the loans off myself or just make minimum payments for 20 years and have the rest forgiven.
The SAVE plan and interest no longer recruiting is the only reason these possibilities are there.
Otherwise I’d have to resign myself to making 20 years of minimum payments and hoping that forgiveness plan is still in place.
In terms of stuff leftists want, Obama overpromised and underdelivered, while Biden underpromised and overdelivered. I’m not sure he actually delivered all that much more than Obama did on an absolute scale, but when expectations ranged from “1994 crime bill guy” to “at least he’s not Trump,” pretty much any policy that manages to edge past mediocre is a pleasant surprise.
I agree too. Obama had charisma and was a great speaker, but policy wise Biden is much better.
If Obama was firmer many current problems would not exist today. But it is easier to say now.
Obama had charisma and was a great speaker,
And as we’re seeing now with Biden’s poll numbers, unfortunately, that’s all that matters. Doesn’t matter how many good things you do to help people, all that matters is whether you have charisma and a good media relations team.
People are so stupid. Maybe democracy was a mistake.
Maybe democracy was a mistake.
It probably works fine if the majority of your population doesn’t have either CTE from your sports programs, lead poisoning, or something above an 8th grade education.
Obama was generally pretty terrible. Obamacare was a disaster and about the only good policies he had were around car emissions, which were significant but still. If you factor in the amount of political capital he had in 2009 it’s sad really.
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Some things never chnage
Weird, I never see Record oil extraction on his list of accomplishments, I wonder why that is? 🤔
Adjusted for inflation?
He’s been ok. Way better than that last guy though!
I feel that he is mostly honest and wants to do the right thing but he doesn’t always get it right. At least he tries.
If he didn’t run a campaign against Bernie, I’d agree. Bernie could have done wonders for this country.
He’s got women and children’s blood on his hands from Palestine. He’s only ok by comparison to the other guy.
For a president of a war mongering country like the US he is ok. But he is still a president of the US so murdering brown people is a sport for him.
Obama did pretty okay, I think he saved more brown people than he harmed with his diplomacy and middle eastern border strengthening policies. He was also reported to be very very unfriendly with Netanyahu.
I can’t speak for Clinton, but the people on either end of his administration certainly were shit.
Obama was catastrophic in foreign policy. He was just a puppet that did whatever the CIA told him to do. Netanyahu didn’t like him because he was black that’s about it.
He started like three wars, left Libya in chaos by overthrowing Gadaffi who didn’t want to give him oil, didn’t close Guantanamo Bay (one of his main promises), proscecuted Edward Snowden for exposing US war crimes, and a whole slew more.
I could sit here and type a paragraph about how much worse the trump and bush admins were about middle eastern military conflicts, mentioning the USA hasn’t officially declared war since WWII, but that would detract from my previous argument that he was decent even without comparisons. The major policy change of his admin was respecting older mutually drawn borders that led to a lot of peace talks and diplomacy with his administration which frankly didn’t exist before. Obama was single-handedly responsible for multiple nuclear disarmament deals and treaties, notably Iran. When he tracked down and killed Osama Bin Laden with a strike team to minimize excess casualties, he received praise from Muslim religious leaders.
Gaddafi took power in 1969 via violent coup and US Ambassadors were recalled in 1972. He started revolutions and funded rebels in like 8 countries, including the perpetually unstable country of Chad. Sanctions briefly relaxed after 9/11 in return for nuclear disarmament. Blaming Obama for the Libyan Protests and Rebellion, as a result of the Arab Spring, is like blaming the single extra straw for breaking the camel’s back.
Did Obama live up to the expectations set by his 2009 speech in Cairo, Egypt? No. Did he sometimes side with monarchs and dictators? Yes. Did he do a good job? I think so, I can’t imagine doing anything differently.
EDIT: Replaced some pronouns with names for clarity.
Bush was indeed far worse than Obama. Yet Obama continued everything Bush started. Obama did not save the middle east, he ruined it even more by starting three extra wars. It’s two sides of the same coin on foreign policy.
The only time Trump went Obama tier full idiot on foreign policy was when he drone striked the Iranian general Suleimani, he claims israel had a role in that. Luckily this didn’t lead to major escalations in the region.
Aside from that Trump just continued drone striking Syria, a war that Obama started.
Many middle eastern leaders aren’t the friendliest dudes. Gadaffi certainly wasn’t. But the questions that every American forgets to ask is “if we kill this guy, will the next guy be better or worse”? If you look at the state that Iraq, Libya etc are in now, it was certainly many times better before America destroyed it.
Of course that is an irrelevant moral question. The only real reason America kills leaders in the middle east is when they stop abiding the rules of the American Oil Cartel.
2011/03/20: Western oil companies operating in Libya have privately warned that their operations in the country may be nationalised if Colonel Muammer Gaddafi’s regime prevails.
From wikipedia:
The killing of Muammar Gaddafi took place on 20 October 2011
Obama was pretty bad on the war front.
- Obama killed US citizens without a trial in foreign countries.
- Continued and escalated drone strikes.
- Violated the war powers act with respect to Libya.
- Egypt coup + Bengazi was a massive failure.
- Created power vacuum for isis to rise.
- conducted military operations in foreign countries without their knowledge or consent.
Last I checked, before 2012 Egypt used to be under control of the very hostile and brutal Muslim Brotherhood and massive protests rocked the country since before Obama was even in power. To give you an idea of how bad the Muslim Brotherhood is, they literally founded Hamas across the border. Idk why everybody in this thread attributes literally everything that happened during the Arab Spring to the Obama Administration. News flash, those countries existed before Obama was president.
You are pretty much entirely incorrect. Before 2011, Egypt was under the control of Hosni Mubarak, a brutal dictator with mostly friendly ties to the U.S. The Egyptian people eventually revolted, and they were not happy with the U.S. afterwards; they pelted then Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s motorcade with tomatoes and eggs when she came to visit after the uprising.
The Muslim Brotherhood won the majority of the Egyptian parliament afterwards, and elected Mohammed Morsi as President, but their rule lasted barely a year before the were also met with massive protests. The military forced Morsi out and basically established a military dictatorship in 2013. There were always rumblings that the U.S. was working behind the scenes with the Egyptian military to destabilize Muslim Brotherhoods civilian government, but there’s no evidence of that. The Egyptian Military government then blamed the Brotherhood for a terrorist attack, a claim the Brotherhood denied, and banned the Brotherhood.
The Muslim Brotherhood were repressive and definitely supported terrorism, but they did not rule Egypt before 2011. There were a small blip between U.S. backed dictators.
Obama bombed millions using drones.
He is also OK for being a president of the US.
Not so subtle reminder that YOU are not immune to propaganda.
Compared to another 4 years of Trump? Absolutely.
But I don’t have to be ecstatic to choose between a prehistoric career politician, and an embarrassing, felonious dinosaur
Maintaining the status quo in the face of looming danger does not make you a great president.
The best thing about Biden is that he is not Trump.
Also we’re not only supporting a genocide, we’re footing the bill.
Background: I supported Bernie in the 2016 primaries; I ended up voting for Hillary. In 2020, Biden wasn’t even my 3rd pick in the Primaries (Warren, Sanders, maybe Buttigieg and even Steyer.). I still voted Biden, despite a clear lack of enthusiasm because I know how much easier it is to break and corrupt things than to simply maintain it or build upon a trillion-piece puzzle.
Overall, Biden has been a pretty great President if only for one simple fact: The genuine experience and expertise of his cabinet. When I think of Donnie, I think of Bill Barr, Richard Spencer, Mike Pompeo, and other scum of his cabinet. These people are psychopathic, smarter than Trump, and dangerous. While they’re incompetent in their actual roles, they leveraged their offices to incredibly nefarious ends.
The true stars of Biden’s administration has been his advisors and cabinet: Blinken, Yellen, Garland, Austin, Kirby, Bill Burns, Jake Sullivan, etc. These are the people that keep the machine running. Who actually take advice from reputable experts in respective fields, like Dr. Fauci.
So yes, given the bigger picture, Biden has been a great President; partly because of stability; partly because of contrast with chaos.
And folks, yes, it’s campaign season now. Expect a massive influx of ads and opinion pieces and a general attempt to drum up energy and awareness to a crucial election. Don’t shoot yourselves in the foot; the right has massive megaphones of propaganda they’re using every single fucking day to distort reality. Don’t be afraid to push back.
Biden has been a fine president, but notably failed to do a number of things that are important to me such as legalizing marijuana, codifying into law RvW, ending Citizen’s United, increasing the minimum wage, etc. I like Joe Biden, and he’s way better than the other guy, but I wouldn’t say “great”.
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And the things he could do unilaterally (student loan forgiveness), he absolutely tried to do , but was cockblocked.
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I’m shocked how so many people are extremely vocal about opposing a fascist government but then expect the US to give all power to the president for only the 3 issues they care about without understanding the horrific steps that’d follow as soon as a Republican gets into office…
DMV has its own safe space now? How do I get in that
First, you have to go to the DMV. And why would you do such a silly thing?
Most Americans don’t know how many reps are in the Senate or House
I’m not talking about Lemmy either. I mean your average person on the streets, especially in Bumfuck, IA. It doesn’t affect them enough to care.
One of them is 100 and that’s the actually high class people. The other is like 500 and there’s a whole bunch of uggos and sub-7s in there.
For the sake of any wayward souls reading this its 100 and 435.
I don’t know, Jackson ignored the Supreme Court and I think Lincoln was planning on ignoring the courts decision on Dred Scott.
Lincoln imposed martial law and suspended habeas corpus, ignoring the Supreme Court is pretty minor in comparison.
Well the only thing stopping a president from doing something is the will of the civil service to do it and the will of Congress to impeach them. Trump proved that. Why are we still playing gentlemen’s rules?
Trump is hardly notable for just doing things. Monroe told Europe to fuck off in the Americas or else with zero approval or power to enforce it. Jackson proved that by forcibly removing Indians from their lands. Lincoln did lots of questionable things during the Civil War. FDR basically joined WWII without congressional approval. Reagan managed to have people commit treason and have congress grant them immunity. Bush created gtmo as a prison camp. Obama proved it with the gulf drilling moratorium.
So again with my question. Why is it suddenly so important for Biden?
Honestly?
He has been fine, on the balance.I don’t like that he’s gone around Congress to sell weapons to Israel. The Palestine genocide is horrible, and it’s disgusting that he’s not doing everything he can to put a stop to it.
Side note: I know. The U.S. is morally contorting itself to replenish Israel’s weapons stocks because the U.S. needs Israel to be a regional bully to keep Iran and its proxies/the major oil suppliers in check while the U.S. and its European allies decarbonize their economies to a point where U.S. oil can supply them without causing domestic oil prices to spike. The U.S. doesn’t want Russia supplying them, so supporting a genocidal regime is the only palatable option - and Israel knows this, so they’re forcing the U.S. to be complicit.
But Biden leads the state dept, no? Why are their diplomats blocking the U.N. from stepping in as a peacekeeping force? He has other options than to be a pawn.Anyway.
My real problem is the Democratic Party. Polling shows that the average voter supports way more liberal policies than political parties do. But politicians tend to vote with economic elites, rather than the average person. And in this cherry-picked example, you can see voter turnout massively increased when people think their values are being represented (2018: Marijuana legalization, 2022: Abortion Rights.)Democrats had a majority in 2021/2022. They had the trifecta. They controlled the legislative and the executive.
They could have strengthened the VRA. They could have fixed campaign finance. They could have expanded the Supreme Court. They could have tried to do something about gerrymandering. (I know, states rights. Blech.) They could have rebalanced the House of Representatives. They could have made the temporary tax cuts for low earners under TCJA permanent, and’s made the permanent tax cuts for high earners temporary. They could have codified abortion rights. They could have amended the ACA to make it better. They could have forgiven student loans before it became a political mess.Nah. They whined about Manchin and Sinema – candidates their national and local parties supported. Said that’s why they couldn’t get anything meaningful done. Then they lost the house and now it’s just clown shoes all over again.
It’s not all the Democrats fault. Under the current system, it’s significantly easier to court a few monied interests – corporations that can chuck unlimited donations, or wealthy patrons that can spin up a PAC and launder their personal funds to you. It is easier. More money means they can devote more effort to court voters, spin narratives of good vs evil and how this election is the most important one. ‘It may be the last if we don’t vote blue no matter who!’
They didn’t fully create this system, but they are benefiting from it. They cater to the wealthy, make excuses to the voters for why they don’t do anything, and try just hard enough that they don’t lose elections. It’s why they chase the thin margins in “the middle” rather than disaffected liberal voters. So they can preserve a decaying status quo, rather than change it.Biden is the most prominent Democrat right now. All things being equal, he owns the Democratic Party’s failure to lead. And that includes their lack of action in 2021/2022 His successes are marred by the party’s failures. A referendum on him is as much a referendum on the Democratic Party as it is anything else. At least in my opinion.
I assume most others, regardless of whether or not they blame Biden or the party, feel the same. It might be a bit hasty to assume civic illiteracy if someone doesn’t take the time to name the individual sources of their frustration.
Same with Marijauna, one of the first things he did was call for rescheduling by the DEA who have been too busy masturbating in corners. He did, however, pardon a ton of people over weed offences.
He did, however, pardon a ton of people over weed offences.
How many?
In Early October 2022 he pardoned all simple marijuana possession charges via executive order. All of them.
“More than 6,500 people were convicted of simple possession between 1992 and 2021 under federal law, and thousands more under D.C. code, the officials said.”
Got a link for that quote? I’d like to learn more.
Drug schedules are set by the FDA. The FDA is part of the Department of Health and Human Services. The Department of Health and Human Services is part of the executive branch of the US government. The executive branch is headed by Biden. Short of just waving his hand and magicking the drug classification away, there is still a lot he could do to make it legal.
If you cant hold him accountable for not getting minimum wage increase because he can’t do it unilaterally why give him credit for things he cant do unilaterally, like the infrastructure bill? Clearly he didn’t do that unilaterally either so why should he get credit? You can’t have it both ways.
The President can’t reschedule marijuana?
edit:
The Congressional Research Service seems to think he could:
It’s not enabling genocide, so he can make up procedural nonsense to avoid doing it.
“Reschedule? Ok, tomorrow evening it is.”
- Dark Brandon
Stop trying to make dark brandon work. Fetch has a better chance than that.
It’s astonishing to me the supposed number of “informed” people with their moral purity on Lemmy don’t know basic US civics. But hey trendy nicknames worked for the low intelligence maga voters no reason it doesn’t work on them. Maybe they’ll realize it when Trump takes power again.
Proceedings to add, delete, or change the schedule of a drug or other substance may be initiated by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), or by petition from any interested party, including:
The manufacturer of a drug
A medical society or association
A pharmacy association
A public interest group concerned with drug abuse
A state or local government agency
An individual citizen
Not quite unilateral, but seems like he could lean a bit on Becerra and get the re/de-scheduling started. Congress handed that authority to the executive branch years ago.
That is happening, maybe slower than any of us want ( and honestly probably time a bit to help in the election), but the rescheduling process had begun.
Yes, they’ve said they’re looking into it like 3 times now.
The Railroad Union was all him. He can raise the minimum wage of federal workers, contractors, and sub contractors. He could have ended the Remain in Mexico program. He could have set the DOJ to monopoly breaking. He could have stopped supplying Israel. He could direct HUD to begin buying housing for direct rental programs…
The list goes on.
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Oh, yeah paying attention. Like when he banned Asylum seekers at the border. Effectively forcing them to remain in Mexico or in another dangerous country. They can use the CBP One app to apply from their home country, however this requires them to stay in the dangerous country to do so. He effectively continued the program while officially ending it. Don’t believe me? check out this Dissent from the court currently hearing it.
The Biden administration’s “Pathways Rule” before us in this appeal is not meaningfully different from the prior administration’s rules that were backhanded by my two colleagues. This new rule looks like the Trump administration’s Port of Entry Rule and Transit Rule got together, had a baby, and then dolled it up in a stylish modern outfit, complete with a phone app.
-Van Dyke, Ninth Circuit Appeals; East Bay Sancuatry Covenent V. Biden
And that HUD link is about them giving developers money. I want HUD to buy the office building, convert it, and rent it out at cost. That’s how we’re going to put a hole in the rental market bubble. Not by asking to them to please charge less.
As far as the minimum wage thing, I missed that. but it is a torrent of information, that you’re not getting all of either.
On top of Edward Teach’s comment, you also raised the issue of the railroad union. Guess what?
https://www.ibew.org/media-center/Articles/23Daily/2306/230620_IBEWandPaid
Biden did the right thing once again, and also managed to avoid a national logistics disaster. Please stop operating off of vibes.
Yeah that’s what everyone was afraid of, that people would just reference the Union’s own victory lap. The Unions called it a major victory but the actual union membership did not want that. They literally just wanted the ability to call in sick without being fired and to end the points system. Neither of which they got. The “short notice sick days” are scheduled a month in advance. And I sure hope they manage to schedule all of their sickness a month out, and within 7 days out of 365. None of Biden’s legislative promises appeared either because why keeping working on them after this victory lap?
The suits all got a pat on the back and the workers got fucked. Different day, Same America.
Also, it was never a national logistics disaster. We wouldn’t be the first country to have our logistics system go on strike. And we won’t be the last.
So just to be clear here, the union is taking a victory lap for getting what it wanted, but the union is also mad that it didn’t get what it wanted? Can you help me to understand where I can get more information about this pre-scheduled sick time?
I do also just want to note that my understanding is that the president does not make legislation, can you also point me to where he promised to do that?
The Union Leadership is taking a victory lap. The Union itself was and is furious about it. It’s not that complicated. And his promises are in the press release linked in the comment. As for how to find out about those sick days being a trap? You kind of have to ask the railroaders themselves. Nobody is covering the fact that the days still count against their points system, have to be scheduled, and that not all railroaders have them. The companies gave them mostly to people that don’t actually run the trains or do critical track work. So what most of us think of as a railroad worker, still doesn’t even have sick days. I hate to send people to reddit but r/railroading has been a good source through all this.
I get what you’re saying here but there must be SOMEONE reporting on this? I don’t know any railroaders so I can’t really ask them, you must understand though that it’s hard for me to agree with someone based on a “trust me bro”, especially on the internet. I also read the entire press release again for what it’s worth, they seem to have only stated that Biden was pressuring lawmakers to, well, make laws. Here’s the entirety of Biden’s thing:
I share workers’ concern about the inability to take leave to recover from illness or care for a sick family member,” Biden said. “I have pressed legislation and proposals to advance the cause of paid leave in my two years in office and will continue to do so.
Seems pretty reasonable? Idk, all that said I am in support of expanded workers rights and if this is indeed the case I hope it gets more attention soon and can be corrected, because 4 pre-scheduled sick days is pretty stupid lol. I promise I’m not being disingenuous, I’m just really not stoked about the idea of another Trump term and people seem to want to do nothing but yeet us off that cliff. Biden has been a better president than I expected and I’d like to keep democracy goin ya know?
Can’t he just sign executive action after executive action and ignore the court like Jackson did?
Don’t forget railroad buster Biden and Israel apologist Biden.
Still better than “million American deaths due to incompetence and pushing psuedo-science” trump though, don’t get me wrong.
Keep in mind, the Biden administration continued to negotiate on the unions behalf until the companies capitulated and gave sick days. The rail unions celebrated the victory and gave Biden credit.
The rail unions celebrated the victory and gave Biden credit.
There is a huge difference between union leaders and what they say on behalf of it’s members and the rank and file members themselves. Kneecapping rank and files power, their only power which is to withhold their labor, is not something that is celebrated.
Railroad Union buster… People might think he actually broke up the oligopoly on the rails.
The executive can’t make laws. Only congress can do that. And right now that means for those things to happen, Democrats have to control the House and 60+% of the Senate.
Or they have to be willing to use a simple majority to get rid of the filibuster.
They don’t have the guts because the 2024 senate election landscape doesn’t look great for Dems. Most of the purple seats that are up for reelection have democratic incumbents. Traditionally that would mean that Democrats will lose seats. They don’t want to hand republican candidates in these states the talking point of “authoritarian democrats” killing the filibuster with a 1 seat majority.
And what was the excuse in 2009 when they wouldn’t kill the filibuster for the public option? What was the excuse in 2021 when they wouldn’t kill the filibuster to codify Roe or pass the John Lewis voting rights act?
There is always, always some excuse from Democrats. You may be happy to be strung along forever with empty promises and flimsy excuses. I’m sick of it.
They should have in 2009. The map was also bad then but feasibly that was their last real chance to do it. Though if they had done so we almost certainly would not have the ACA now. If republicans hadn’t been stuck trying to dismantle it through budget reconciliation (to avoid the filibuster) it would have been trivially easy for them to kill it in 2014/2016.
It was never an option in 21. Dems technically had a majority (if the VP was in DC to cast a tie breaker) but Sinema and Manchin both public opposed killing the filabuster. It was DOA and bringing a DOA bill to the floor, in this case, would have been very bad. The first party to try to kill the filibuster HAS to make it stick. The first party to succeed will probably lose the the majority the next election, if they fail they will definitely lose it (while also de-stigmatizing it for the other party).
Everyone is sick if it. But if it comes down to tRump or Biden, it’s Biden all the way. This is not the year for a protest vote, at least not if you ever want to vote again. Also, traditionally, the second term of a Democrat president sees more getting done as they don’t have to care about getting reelected. They can take more politically risky moves that the elite and Republicans may not be fully onboard with or try to campaign against.
Bottom line is, we know both of the (presumed) candidates this year and I trust the current one far more than the previous one. Strategic voting is more important this year than any other time in history. Progress, even slower than we may like, is still progress.
Everyone is sick if it.
No centrist democrat is.
But if it comes down to tRump or Biden, it’s Biden all the way. This is not the year for a protest vote, at least not if you ever want to vote again.
And here we are again. I did not say people should not vote. I did not say people should vote for Trump. But the empty promises and the endless excuses need to stop, and they needed to stop decades ago.
Now Democrats are promising to stop fascism, and I see no reason to believe them because it’s a promise from Democrats.
All those things have to be done through Congress. If he had the majority to do it and didn’t do it, that would be a good reason to hold it against him.
If we want Congress to act we need to make sure he has the House and the Senate, and best to do it is to vote in upcoming election and make your friends and family to do the same
We had a majority in congress. But that majority was Democrats, so they found the no votes to maintain the status quo.
They didn’t really, they had a majority in the House, and not in the Senate, in 2022 things reversed.
They had a majority in both chambers.
I get that no Democratic majority ever acts like one so it’s hard to tell.
None of those things are the responsibility of the President.
I was really really really hoping Gerrymandering would be a key issue for his administration.
He set Harris on that issue early on, which is basically code for “it’s not a priority, will probably fail, and I don’t want to be associated with failure”. Which was kind of self fulfilling, because the VP just doesn’t have the stature to strongarm anyone into a reform.
I don’t “like” him at all, but I can acknowledge that he’s done a great job.
Then vote Democrat across the board. He needs a majority in both the House and Senate for some of those, and a super majority to go against the Supreme Court afaik.
Voting matters. If you want results, Biden needs the numbers.
Joe Biden is trapped in the White House. The Republicans refuse to let him out unless he pardons Donald Trump and let him be president. He needs your help but we can help him stop the Republicans from taking over the country.
All he needs is the 16 digits on the front of your mom’s credit card, as well as the 3 digits on the back but you must hurry, he doesn’t have much time.
You mean like all those other times Democrats had majorities and, checks notes, delivered milquetoast Republican bills?
You mean that one time for 3 months during Obamas term, where they were focused on trying to get Healthcare reform in? Because there’s no other time in recent history where the dems controlled both houses with a dem potus
Democrats had control of the senate, house of reps and presidency from jan 20th '21 to jan 3 23.
the current GOP control happened after the midterms in '22, at which point all progress stopped on, basically anything short of the most basic level of governance.
Yeah actually, because what we got was a repackaged healthcare bill that was written by none other than Obama’s presidential opponent Mitt Romney. It was a fucking godsend to insurance companies and hasn’t actually improved health outcomes for the average American. In fact if the current burnout working people in the Healthcare profession is anything to go by, this age of insurance is diametrically opposed to serving the public.
Or we could talk about Clinton’s pull yourself up by your boots straps impact on social safety nets and gutting of Wall Street and bank regulations maybe?
Even with its warts and all, the ACA is a godsend compared to what we had before, and even that barely passed.
I could go on citing the achievements of a president who actually cares about governing. All of these actions and numbers are important, but none matter as much as what Joe Biden has done to restore stability and decency to the presidency. One of the greatest gifts of a democratic civil society is the freedom not to think about government, to wake up and not worry about the mood of a leader. Joe Biden has made governing boring and predictable, both fundamental rights of the people in a healthy democracy.
As a Canadian this was one of the greatest benefits of the Biden Presidency. I can rest assured Biden won’t be contradicting the weather service, licking Putin’s boot or whatever stupid thing that’s going to end up on Canadian news five times a week.
This article is an archetypical “come on America!” fanfare to drum up patriotism and exceptionalism, it feels over the top to me as a non-american. However, I suppose we’ll have to try everything for Democrats to stop whimpering about Trump and sleep-walking towards his dictatorship.
none matter as much as what Joe Biden has done to restore stability and decency to the presidency
I expect more from a president than just not being an incompetent criminal.
Obviously biden not being an incompetent criminal is a huge plus, but I’d be embarrassed to cheerlead someone who’s greatest accomplishment is not being trump.
The article lists a slew of accomplishments that can be touted as the Biden administration’s greatest, please feel free to read it.
I know that acting President-like is something that should be a bare minimum expectation of a President, but here we are. I won’t lie there are a bunch of things I didn’t like from Joe but there are a lot I do, the Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act is my top pick. It’s the first step in a while that the U.S. got serious in funding public rail transport.
Let’s also not forget that the republicans are in a position to hinder any real progress. That’s how the system is designed, unfortunately. Biden would have achieved much more had the republican party not been so strong, and the only way to fix that is forcefully at the ballots.
Americans always act like the presidential election is the only one that matters. Having the presidency only gives you so much if you can’t rely on the senate.
The system was not designed that way. The filibuster is a self imposed rule that can be suspended and has been before.
And two shit bag “Democrats” fucked that prospect up, so what’s the point of bringing it up now? Filibuster may be “self imposed,” but when two wolves in sheep’s clothing stop any meaningful attempt to nuke it from orbit to get shit done, it is a sad rule the rest of us get to suffer because.
I’m just talking about the system. It was designed for 50+1 on normal votes.
Why did you put scare quotes around Democrats? Manchin and Sinema are all the party is.
The system is designed with the assumption that politically elected representatives would seek compromises in an attempt to reach what is best for the country, making sure it is very difficult for one fraction to get absolute political power.
The Republicans at some point realized the dominant strategy in this system, assuming their goal is power rather than the improvement of society, is to never compromise and to fuck everyone over at every option. The way the system is designed they are in a great position to do a lot of damage that way.
This article is an archetypical “come on America!” fanfare to drum up patriotism and exceptionalism, it feels over the top to me as a non-american.
It feels over the top to me, and my family’s lived in the US since 1733.
One thing I like about Biden is he’s boring and I can mostly ignore him. That’s what I really want from my government.
Are all this “wow Biden was actually the greatest president ever but we didn’t notice” news that started floating around a part of his upcoming election campaign?
“Actually you poors are having an amazing time and everything is great, you’re just too stupid to realize it.”
For liberals, maybe. For leftists, fuck no.
He’s been a boring mediocre president, but it’ll take that any day over a Republican.
Except for supporting the genocide of Gazan children, sure.
Don’t get me wrong, if my only options are a vindictive Orange wannabe dictator, and Biden, I’m still voting for Biden…but fuck, his support for Israel’s genocidal crusade is really fucking bad.
His support of Israel is consistent with American foreign policy writ large since 1947. That people want to place the ongoing genocide at his feet betrays the success of GOP and foreign propaganda, to wit: The absence of American support for Israel would not stop the genocide, and the position of the Biden administration in Israel and Gaza is the same as any other presidency, historical, hypothetical, or imaginary. That is, any US president would have the exact same policy, including Donald Trump, any other president in the last seventy-five years, and anyone who ever had a realistic chance at the Oval.
That’s because a US-Israel alliance, even in the presence of reprehensible acts by Netanyahu’s government and the IDF, is still better for the US, and arguably global stability, than any alternative. The best we can hope for, from any president, are calls for restraint and ceasefire, both of which Biden have made. Abandoning Israel as a US ally would be a disaster for the entire region, and more importantly it would make no difference whatsoever to the Palestinian people.
I don’t think the policy is morally good. But it’s rational. Criticizing Joe Biden for the genocide is like criticizing a commuter for their vehicle’s emissions. Yeah, things would be better if they were different, but Israel-Palestine isn’t a problem Joe Biden can solve in the real world.
The absence of American support for Israel would not stop the genocide
I’d say cutting out hundreds of millions of dollars in weapon exports would do a hell of a lot to slow it down
Yes, let them continue the genocide if they must, but as an American it makes me absolutely sick to know my taxpayer dollars are funding it. Biden is perhaps the most Zionist president in American history, and is largely responsible for the current state of affairs by providing cover for Israel and preventing the UN from performing peacekeeping duties.
Stop sending them money and bombs. Not another dime until they end the occupation. Palestine belongs to Palestinians, period.
His support of Israel is consistent with American foreign policy writ large since 1947.
Israel has never been this bad during our period of close alliance, and it’s making us as Americans less safe to stand with them.
This is spot on. Politics is all trolley problems. Biden is the one pulling the lever and there are certainly fair criticisms to be pointed at the set of actions taken within a realpolitik approach to this, but this relationship can be stretched or stressed, not broken. If it breaks, the humanitarian crisis to follow is magnitudes worse than the current conflict.
Time will condemn your words, and you. These are evil words, it is an evil position you take. No justification exists for the support of the acute execution of genocide. Whatever crisis you prognosticate by the breaking of the US, support for Israel has other means of mitigation.
Holy shit, is this someone who actually understands how foreign policy works AND you’re getting upvotes? There may be hope after all.
But seriously, if you read between the lines, the Biden administration has had some of the hardest rhetoric towards Israel in decades. It sounds very minimal in a vacuum but saying things like, “we might stop sending actual weapons and only infrastructure support”, is a huge step whether anything is actually done or not. It is very much a threat. The government in Israel absolutely knows what it means as well.
His support of Israel is consistent with American foreign policy writ large since 1947.
“That’s the way we’ve always done it” is a monumentally shitty justification for supporting genocide.
Say you don’t understand political nuances without actually saying it lmfao. “Why can’t we just change things when bad stuff happens” bc brother it is a fuckton more complicated than that.
Biden did not need to proactively circumvent congress to support Netanyahu’s genocide, and “we’ve always done it this way” is a shitty justification for supporting genocide.
Tell me you never want to change the monstrous status quo without saying it.
Stow the “your feeble mind can’t comprehend our advanced ways” horseshit. If you could defend supporting genocide, you wouldn’t need the gaslighting.
There are a handful of US politicians who don’t support Israel. There’s too much money and regional interests to do otherwise
Guess theres only a handful of good US politicians than.
ding ding ding
When Congress is constantly like half Republican, and then another portion of Democrats are basically neocons or populists, we’re left with a small percentage of progressives and liberals who want to actually make the country better
I swear, it feels like it would only make sense that Mossad has something on so many of these folks.
Like videos on little st james island?
Yeah, Biden’s legacy is simply that he’s not Trump.
That’s a very important thing, though. I wouldn’t put it past Trump to fully pull out of Ukraine without notice for Putin if he were re-elected. Then we’d be talking about millions of dead children, and all of their parents as well.
Stop confusing democrats/liberals with leftists.
Democrats will probably almost universally agree that he’s been a good president. Tribalism is a hell of a drug.
It’s the leftists that won’t. And speaking as a leftist, he’s done a lot better than I thought he was going to. He ended up pushing for more progressive ideas than I thought he would. Good for him. He’s been stymied by the courts and his own party on some of them. And that why I, as a leftist, think the democratic party is still (less) trash. They had a majority for two years. Did some stuff. Could have done more. You can be all “but but Manchin/Sinema” all you want, but I’ll bet all the money in my pocket against all the money in your pocket, than if Manchin and Sinema were to announce that yes, they’d vote to abolish the filibuster, there would be two other democratic senators who would come out and say no. And that’s fine as it relates to their world view. They’re liberals. They’re not leftists.
the United States is now producing more oil than any country in history.
lmao
Horay! Plus a little war profiteering; supporting a bit of genocide never hurt right? Not like his is the first administration to do it.
I don’t think Biden has links to any of the defense contractors profiting from our proxy wars. This isn’t a Haliburton situation. And he’s been reasonably tough on Israel. There’s a reason it’s Bernard Sanders who is the only one who can be really tough on them in Washington.
Reasonably tough would be following our laws and cutting aid off when there’s credible allegations of widespread war crimes.
We cut off funding for UNRWA for allegations against 12 workers out of several thousand. That’s the standard every other country and organization we fund operates by. Israel is straight up killing the journalists reporting on their war crimes and … Nothing.
To be clear, how we get widespread with a country and 12 with an organization is that with countries we’re willing to give aid to specific parts that are better behaved. So it has to be widespread there to be completely cut off. Still Israel has met that standard ten times over by this point.
Remember when Biden said no new *fracking on federal land? Then the Department of Interior, headed by his appointees, approved 1000 more drilling requests in the first year than Trump?
Pepperidge Farm 'members. they can’t grow cookies anymore because the oilly water kills the cookie plants.
Remember when “he did that”?
Ackchyually, Biden is a hero for doing thiis brave thing
#Joe Biden just did the rarest thing in US politics: he stood up to the oil industry
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/07/joe-biden-big-oil-lng-permits
In the election year.
After approving more than Trump did.
I call shenanigans.
You’re missing the point. Republicans have spun this tale that Biden is waging war on energy. All the data is the opposite. Of course he has to talk about this. If he rolls over and takes it, stupid ass moderates will believe it and reelect Trump, who will actually wage war on energy
So Bidens gotta become more and more conservative to appease moderates
Energy independence isn’t a conservative position??
Fossil fuel support is
Just admit you don’t give a shit about poor people who have to get to work with the only vehicle they can afford, which uses a combustion engine
I thought you were talking about energy production. We can get into vehicles if you want, progressive countries do things a lot differently than we do on that front too. Both being more considerate to poor people and reducing fossil fuel usage.
I will literally nut in my pants if we build a transnational passenger rail system on par with Europe
How well did becoming more and more liberal to appease progressives work out for Bernie?
If a commanding majority didn’t turn out for Bernie with free college, universal and free health care, forgiven student loans, and legal weed, I don’t think going further left is going to get Biden a whole lot of votes. The sad fact of the matter is that the middle actually shows up to vote, so you have to cater to them.
The whole “I’m not going to vote unless I’m inspired” bit has backfired horribly on progressives and socialists. Turnout for Bernie only confirmed the conventional wisdom. Politicians will try to win voters, not non voting complainers.
Youre not doin much convincing if it boils down to we should continue doing things worse because its more popular. The goal isnt winning some game at the cost of all of your principles, its implementing progressive policies.
Would you rather compromise on some of your principles to win and get to implement 50% of your progressive policies – or not compromise and lose and implement 0% of them, while conservatives meanwhile implement more conservative policies?
Thats not how i see things. On a sliding scale from progressive to conservative, we’re already on the conservative side, further into the conservative side than when Biden started. And we’re just going more in that direction. From union busting, to zionism, more roads and cars and fossil fuels, harsher border treatment, more military spending.
Do you think we’re more likely to get to the future you want if Trump wins or if Biden wins? I highly doubt it would be the same.
