#politics
The reason I keep harping against people who act like Joe Biden is the best president is this:
He isn't.
If we pretend Democrats are heroes for doing mediocreat best, it teaches them that they can keep being mediocre. It teaches them there are no consequences for bullshitting us - that they can be "heroes" for barely throwing us a bone in between throwing the rest of the cow to their lobbyists and big donors.
Less evil is still evil. Less incompetent is still incompetent.
@AskTheDevil He’s A+ in terms of governing.in my opinion.
@misslovelymess I guess you own large stocks, don't have credit card or student debt you can't get away from, are not mass-incarcerated in prison, and like fracking then. And I guess you don't need to buy medicine without insurance. And I guess it's okay for him to seek funding for Trump's wall, and close the border to legal refugees trying to follow the law. Because that's all part of Joe Biden's record.
I don't give A+'s to people who create problems like that and don't want to fix them.
@AskTheDevil With respect, you are devlisplaining me. Governing and politics are not the same. I was crushed by over 100k in student loan debt my entire life, until July 2023. It's gone. We lost our house due to fracking, when our water was contaminated, and I am now chronically ill and that happened in the Obama administration, with laws that were quietly put into place under Bush. The PFAS regulations are huge, and are a workaround to hold companies accountable. 1/2
@misslovelymess And who helped those companies frack and stay giant in the first place? Who helped deregulate the energy industry in the first place? And who protects one photogenic natural area from drilling because people cried about it, but then gives the drill-baby-drill go ahead for larger and just as important areas?
@AskTheDevil
George W Bush.
"Drill Baby Drill" was Bush/Cheney. And if we could all remember, Bush was the guy who was considered family, and considered them as such too, by the Saudi Royal family.
They actually could, and DID, affect world oil prices with a couple of phone calls, cuz the Saudis fully control OPEC, and Bush's "family" was the royal family.
@AskTheDevil
The thing I worry about is what humans tend to do: blame all their recent issues on a singular president because they're in office, That's why I praise Biden.
When he went on Bill Maher in 2007 saying he'd "sock the guy in the mouth" who called his mother's faith "quaint"...I'm not really a fan, but the energy industry's worldwide power as his fault? it's easy to pile on when you're in extremis, but "pile on" is (politically) how the "good guy" ends up losing.
@AskTheDevil
And yeah: I use "good guy" loosely.
no politician is a "good guy", they're only ever "comparatively better than that guy over there", so forgive the expression.
@AskTheDevil
Naw it's alright, you're still the only cause of my darkest nightmares, Dark Prince, I was just tossing in my 2 cents.
I can say the only president who ever managed to change the market from devastating inflation (which sucks the soul of working people almost worse than yourself 😉 )
was Jimmy Carter, by jacking up the Fed Interest Rate, and America rewarded him breaking the back of inflation 2 following generations...by giving him only 1 term as president.
@AskTheDevil
If Biden wanted to do lasting change and lose re election to the guy who WILL end democracy (this American Experiment to fall by the wayside of history) he would massively increase the Fed Interest rate and let whatever happens, happen. The aftermath would likely be a period of long-term low inflation, but then again maybe the "market forces" learned...how to simply...not react that way. And it might all be for naught.
@Usama_Backhair I'm not really sure he wants lasting change or to lose the election, I think he wants his picture up on a wall, and statues of him, and textbooks that say he was wonderful and a great negotiator and statesman.
And ya know what? I'd rather he get that, than Trump get it. It won't be the only thing Trump gets if he takes power.
@AskTheDevil
Fully agreed, you're right. I think that's his Achilles heel. The arrogance of politicians seems to be the only thing that gives them life...he wants to be loved, and I think the way he was wasting after Beau died and his political "star" was fallen, the adoration diminished, I think it was actually killing him. Physically. Remember how he looked?
he doesn't look like that anymore. Almost like the energy of love has some actual, physical power. I know, sounds cray, but 🤷♂️
@AskTheDevil
(sure: the facelifts and medical treatments prolly have a lot to do with it, I'm prolly reading too much into it.)
@Usama_Backhair It's not cray. Those are pretty big hits. I don't think he's a lizard - I know he looked devastated when Beau died.
He _is_ elderly, too (that's not a shot - so am I). There's mileage, and that pain is some of it.
@Usama_Backhair There were a lot of forces arrayed against him, but yes.
@Usama_Backhair I do not mistake "not as bad" for good. I try not to even _sound_ like I am doing that. : )
But it's one of my things. I mean, I'm designed to test, to accuse, to prosecute, to observe, to question.
It does _not_ make one as popular as one would think. Some people get all cranky about it.
; )