• Tinidril@midwest.social
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    7 months ago

    Biden has given a massive boost to unions in multiple ways, restarted enforcement of anti-trust laws, eased enforcement of Marijuana laws / moved towards decriminalization, and has forgiven $138 billion in student debt.

    I’m no fan of Biden and we should definitely demand better, but it’s ridiculous to claim he hasn’t done just one thing to make people’s lives better. This list is just off the top of my head, except the figure for student debt. I didn’t even include climate issues since there has been some bad to subtract from the good, but he’s been far better than any Republican would be.

    • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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      7 months ago

      what is this “move to decriminalization”?

      Just appoint a head of the DEA who won’t arrest people for pot and pardon everyone in prison for possession/distribution. He chooses to allow the violence of criminalization to continue.

      has forgiven $138 billion in student debt.

      The overwhelming majority of that was due to a bush-era law.

      We saw how much unilateral power the executive has under trump. We see how capable the democrats are of whipping the vote when it’s funding to bomb foreigners or lock them in cages. What would it take for you to realize they are not unable to do these things, but unwilling? I struggle to imagine a scenario that would prove that, which hasn’t already happened.

      • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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        7 months ago

        what is this “move to decriminalization”?

        Just appoint a head of the DEA who won’t arrest people for pot and pardon everyone in prison for possession/distribution. He chooses to allow the violence of criminalization to continue.

        You know he already pardoned everyone who was in federal prison for simple possession, 2 years ago, right?

        And told the DEA to reschedule it

        And passed a bill for full federal legalization, which the Republicans defeated in the senate?

        We saw how much unilateral power the executive has under trump.

        Yes, Trump famously got everything he wanted. Ukraine never got their military aid that he tried to block, and the Department of Justice famously bent to his every whim and prosecuted his political opponents when he kept ordering them to. I remember it well.

        We see how capable the democrats are of whipping the vote when it’s funding to bomb foreigners or lock them in cages.

        This is actually the most heinously dishonest of the things you’ve been saying but I have become discouraged and don’t want to spend too much more time researching and illustrating why this is all wrong.

        Family separation at the border was already dead when Biden took office; it only ran for about a year in the middle of his presidency. But Biden did start the task force to find the kids’ families and reunite them. The flow of immigrant children was quite literally in the exact opposite direction of what you’re saying under Biden: From being imprisoned in cages to being back with their families. Look up your own citation for it, I’m getting genuinely irritated that I have to spend time talking about this.

        • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          And passed a bill for full federal legalization, which the Republicans defeated in the senate?

          The president doesn’t pass bills, and this one wasn’t passed by those that do pass bills. Tell progressives again that they don’t know how government works.

          • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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            7 months ago

            I’m gonna cut to the chase of a longer comment I typed out. The only part that really needs to be said:

            “So, since there’s no way to argue with it factually, the combatant seizes on a deliberate misunderstanding of what I was saying and tries to reframe the whole conversation around that misunderstanding, in order to create a thing to disagree about which isn’t the factually-indefensible original thing to disagree about.”

            The rest and the context are pretty self-explanatory.

            • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              You wanted to give him credit for passing something that didn’t pass and that he can’t pass. If you don’t want people getting on your case for it, don’t tell others that they don’t know how government works.

              He proposed legalizing it. Nothing passed. Proposals and failures are not accomplishments. He doesn’t get credit for BBB for the same reason: it failed.

              You may be willing to give him credit for failures. I give him credit for his successes, such as selling weapons to Netanyahu for genocide.

              • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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                7 months ago

                You seized on literally the only thing in my long-enough-to-be-tedious list that was an attempt instead of an outcome, and are trying to spin it into me giving him credit only for failures. I’m almost impressed.

                The first two items in my list represented the successful outcome of his second attempt at something, after the first attempt was blocked, but those $144 billion and 40% reduction numbers are the outcome (after the initial much bigger attempt). Then comes the attempt at marijuana legalization. Every other item is simply the outcome.

                I think you should get some sort of award for how vaguely plausible you make this argument sound, given the yawning gulf between it and what actually happened, and the fact that the evidence for it not happening the way you said is literally just right up there in the comments up above (not buried away somewhere in some government document that there could be legitimate debate about how to interpret.)

                • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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                  7 months ago

                  You seized on literally the only thing in my long-enough-to-be-tedious list that was an attempt instead of an outcome

                  Well, if you’re going to try to give him credit for shit he hasn’t done, I’m gonna call you on it.

                  and are trying to spin it into me giving him credit only for failures.

                  Never said that. You’re telling on yourself.

                  • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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                    7 months ago

                    Okay, fine. Let me try again.

                    You seized on literally the only thing in my long-enough-to-be-tedious list that was an attempt instead of an outcome, and are dealing with it as if giving him credit for that attempt was the only thing I’d done, instead of one attempt listed among a big group of demonstrated successes. I’m almost impressed.

                    The first two items in my list represented the successful outcome of his second attempt at something, after the first attempt was blocked, but those $144 billion and 40% reduction numbers are the outcome (after the initial much bigger attempt). Then comes the attempt at marijuana legalization. Every other item is simply the outcome.

                    I think you should get some sort of award for how vaguely plausible you make this argument sound, given the yawning gulf between it and what I actually said, and the fact that the evidence for it not happening the way you said is literally just right up there in the comments up above (not buried away somewhere in some government document that there could be legitimate debate about how to interpret.)

                    Happier with that?

      • Tinidril@midwest.social
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        7 months ago

        Any new DEA administrator would have to be approved by the Senate, and an an appointment that was a defacto decriminalization vote would not pass.

        The bar that was set in this discussion was that Biden hasn’t done anything to improve lives. I have already made a comment elsewhere in this thread indicating that I do not suffer from the delusions you are putting on me. Biden absolutely should be doing more, that just wasn’t the bar presented.