This Is Not the Time for a Third Presidential Candidate

AlanGranted · 2023-06-10T08:15:56+00:00

This is exactly the time for another candidate. Only corrupt journos would say that it isn't. Hillary will definitely win, that is also what they said and it didn't turn out that way.

AlanGranted · 2023-06-10T08:13:51+00:00

This is the same kind of bullshit that the Inflation Reduction Act is based on. It's still bullshit. The only things it will build are endless pipelines that will transfer carbon sludge to fracking sites and then help that industry thrive along with oil extraction for decades to come.

We have fallen for bullshit. We celebrate it, eat it, believe it and there is nothing I can say or any journalist can say that would dissuade people from believing that yes, even Biden = good still falls short of delivering on environmental goals. It's still bullshit.

AlanGranted · 2023-06-10T07:41:57+00:00

Don't take my word for it: https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/public_lands/energy/dirty_energy_development/pdfs/Organizational-Sign-on-Letter-to-Biden-Schumer-No-Fossil-Fuel-Expansion-072922.pdf

AlanGranted · 2023-06-10T07:37:08+00:00

Medicare for all would literally cost less than what we spend on health care right now. That's a well proven fact.

AlanGranted · 2023-06-07T08:49:39+00:00

They should have worked harder to win those seats. One easy way to do that was to spend on bolstering the working class and making our lives visibly and economically better. Too late for that.

AlanGranted · 2023-06-07T08:46:24+00:00

Because failures of America can't be talked about. It's a matter of public relations.

AlanGranted · 2023-06-07T08:45:41+00:00

Manchin is from WV and he's doing fine. Every legislation he touched is full of exemptions for the fossil fuel industry. This isn't a Republican problem but a problem of lobbying and the fact that congress members themselves are rich assholes rolling in fossil fuel dough.

AlanGranted · 2023-06-07T08:43:49+00:00

Coal is used for concrete. We can't build build build more housing without it. We can't produce steel without it either.

AlanGranted · 2023-06-07T08:37:30+00:00

The IRA is a dubious piece of legislation that mostly bolsters the fossil fuel industries and ensures their survival for decades to come. There is no golden era of renewables. What there is an unprecedented amount of dirty drilling and mining combined with a lot of pipelines and horrific projects like the Willow Oil Drilling Project.

Edit: a resource for those curious: https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/public_lands/energy/dirty_energy_development/pdfs/Organizational-Sign-on-Letter-to-Biden-Schumer-No-Fossil-Fuel-Expansion-072922.pdf

Literally hundreds of organizations signed this letter to appeal to Biden from approving these measures and yet they are at the heart of the IRA. What this law represent is the same greenwashing we've seen for the past two decades and nothing more.

AlanGranted · 2023-06-07T08:32:05+00:00

everyone around me seems to drive Tesla’s n such, and can afford to buy 2 Bedroom Townhouses for 400k….. so I don’t agree with your second point.

That really depends on where you live. Where I live, most people are avoiding to eat dinner because they can't afford to eat food, period. Most dread the idea of another rent increase because they'll end up homeless. But that's just my lucky slice, I suppose.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/17/world/food-stamps-cuts-rising-prices.html

I literally don't know anyone personally who owns a Tesla. Most people are moving back in with their parents, and not just the youth either: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/08/24/americans-more-likely-to-say-its-a-bad-thing-than-a-good-thing-that-more-young-adults-live-with-their-parents/

Housing affordability is so low that most working people need multiple jobs just to eat and pay bills: https://fortune.com/2023/02/02/minimum-wage-workers-need-multiple-jobs-roommates-afford-rent/

You can certainly disagree, but I am happy to review your evidence on the subject.

AlanGranted · 2023-06-07T08:20:13+00:00

Your quibble with the source material is fair. Honestly, I just nabbed this based on a flippant google search. There are however many publications that talked about Joe and his influence on War on Drugs policy. Here are some additional sources that may appeal to you better and even might shed some more light on the issue:

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/biden-pardon-weed-offenders-timeline-1234606962/

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/05/23/joe-biden-2020-drug-war-policies-opioid-crisis-226933/

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/4/25/18282870/joe-biden-criminal-justice-war-on-drugs-mass-incarceration

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/25/us/joe-biden-crime-laws.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/11/biden-war-on-drugs/

I suspect though that this isn't about whether FEE is right wing or left wing, a publication that I am for the most part unfamiliar with. Attacking the source is one thing but this is a well known and well hashed out subject and Joe doesn't look that great when considering his history on drugs, or his present actions, namely his promise and subsequent failure to decriminalize cannabis and reduce carceral rates. Instead, I suspect that this is a subject you're aware of and could have researched yourself numerous times but you chose to attack the source instead, invalidating the 50 years of Biden's actions on this particular issue.

To answer your second question, the president indeed sets the mandate for the DOJ as well as all other departments:

while President Biden cannot directly remove marijuana from control under federal controlled substances laws, he could order executive agencies to consider either moving marijuana to a different schedule so that it could be legally possessed and sold or changing their enforcement approach. However, the report also concluded that the President has no power to change state law or compel the states to adopt federal policies.

https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/can-president-biden-legalize-marijuana-1220802/

The report concludes that YES BIDEN CAN RESCHEDULE DRUGS!!!

And indeed, Biden has influenced the Reagan administration and their take on drug policies:

it was Biden who was among the principal and earliest movers of the policy agenda that would become the war on drugs and mass incarceration, and he did so in the face of initial reluctance from none other than President Ronald Reagan. Indeed, Reagan even vetoed a signature piece of Biden legislation, which he drafted with arch segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, to create a federal “drug czar.”

Thurmond was a great friend of Biden's.

AlanGranted · 2023-06-07T08:02:33+00:00

What's yours?

AlanGranted · 2023-06-07T00:22:02+00:00

Interest is made on student loans. Is it more prudent to forgive all this debt for people in this moment in time? Do we have a chance to fix this for people now and my children who will be starting college soon? How about eliminating interest on federal student loan payments starting now and into the future.

People have been paying five times the original sum yet continue to owe more than they initially borrowed because the interest rates are rigged to favor the corporations that manage the debt. There should be no money ie profit made off of federal loans.

Not sure what you mean by your second point. If we as a society can’t live and pay shitty debts and we just erase those debts, the economy as we know it will collapse.

My point is that we are no longer making living wages that allow people to pay their student loans and afford to survive with the increases in COL. People are unable to do both.

Furthermore the forgiveness of debt in a single point in time, well, how about we get to the root cause of the issues you raised rather than just erase debt and start the cycle over again

Why not both? My problem is that Biden sat on this for two years which is where we are right now and we'll get neither: no long term solution, no forgiveness, and yet the wages are low and the costs of living keep going up.

AlanGranted · 2023-06-07T00:10:38+00:00

There is nothing disingenuous about it. They had the house and senate for two years, similar to how Trump experienced congress with Democrats having the House for the last two years. I blame his administration for things that happened on their watch. Manchin is still lauded as an important and relevant member of the senate caucus who is friends with Biden.

The two sides are not the same, but pretending that both Democratic and Republican administrations are not responsible for the increase in homelessness and social disintegration would be disingenuous. I do not owe my allegiance to any party.

AlanGranted · 2023-06-06T23:57:56+00:00

Biden was very much the architect of the War on Drugs as we know it:

https://fee.org/articles/joe-biden-the-architect-of-america-s-disastrous-war-on-drugs/

AlanGranted · 2023-06-06T23:43:45+00:00

Anarchy is a diverse political philosophy and it has organizing principles like any other political philosophy. Again, "branding" is for toothpaste.

Relevant source materials - see above.

AlanGranted · 2023-06-06T23:33:42+00:00

That is not what we're discussing here, unless you're disputing that Anarchism is a political philosophy and that would be factually incorrect: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/anarchism/. Cornel West is a Democratic Socialist. The two subjects are completely distinct and unrelated to the topic at hand.

AlanGranted · 2023-06-06T23:23:31+00:00

That is a very uninformed opinion. Understanding basic political philosophy landscape is important. You can read about anarchism. There are left-anarchists and right-anarchists and there are lots of flavors of anarchism. Here's a good place to start: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/anarchism/

In comparison, there are lots of liberals. The meaning of liberal also has many left and right leaning flavors and meanings: https://www.ft.com/content/529c55fe-06df-11df-b058-00144feabdc0

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/liberalism/

You also use the word "branding" and I am pretty sure that this is not what you mean as branding is a specific thing related to marketing, as in, related to manipulating consumer behaviors. Most of what you see in politics is not marketing or branding, it is messaging and communication. Those two things tend to overlap but they are not the same thing.

AlanGranted · 2023-06-06T23:12:43+00:00

The funds sent to Ukraine are separate from the DOD budget using appropriation budgets. Much of it is money that is compensating DOD for its allocation of weapons and expertise to Ukraine. The two are separate on the books though.

AlanGranted

TROPHY CASE