The Biden Presidency

[Nick Danger]

Imagine having no idea whatsoever what's happening with voting rights in the United States in 2022 but still feeling compelled to shoot your mouth off about it in public.

Hey genius, were there more or less places to vote in 2020 as opposed to, say, 2012?

Thanks Thomber! I haven’t had that good a laugh in several days. Yeah, this is about the number of polling sites.

[Nick Danger]

I don't see a single piece of evidence in that long-winded diatribe. I guess it's time.
Attachment 1360272

Noted, Flighty. You simply don’t want to talk about the total liberal breakdown that’s happening. I understand, being wrong all the time would bother me too.

[filghy2]

Some folks here have very selective memories, especially when they claim to be non-partisan. Is Joe Biden the first president to promise more than he could deliver?

Here's a bunch of things Trump said he would achieve but didn't:
- Replace Obamacare with a system that delivered better health cover at lower cost
- A tax reform that would not favour the rich or blow out the budget
- A major infrastructure package
- Raise average GDP growth to 4 per cent
- Eliminate national debt in 8 years
- Control and eliminate Covid-19
- Reduce the US trade deficit
- Denuclearize North Korea

Here's a summary of what he actually achieved in his 4 years. https://www.factcheck.org/2021/10/trumps-final-numbers/

[Nick Danger]

Some folks here have very selective memories, especially when they claim to be non-partisan. Is Joe Biden the first president to promise more than he could deliver?

Here's a bunch of things Trump said he would achieve but didn't:
- Replace Obamacare with a system that delivered better health cover at lower cost
- A tax reform that would not favour the rich or blow out the budget
- A major infrastructure package
- Raise average GDP growth to 4 per cent
- Eliminate national debt in 8 years
- Control and eliminate Covid-19
- Reduce the US trade deficit
- Denuclearize North Korea

Here's a summary of what he actually achieved in his 4 years. https://www.factcheck.org/2021/10/trumps-final-numbers/

Sorry Flighty I thought this thread was about The Biden Presidency. That’s why I was trying to encourage you to get on-topic. Trump hasn’t been President for a while but we can revive some of those old threads if that’s what’s still on your mind.

[filghy2]

Here's what happened to the key economic data in the first year of the past 4 Presidents.
https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-gdp-g...oyment-by-year
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/indicators

GDP growth
Bush 1.0%
Obama -2.6%
Trump 2.3%
Biden 3.8% (first 3 quarters only)

Unemployment rate
Bush up from 3.9% to 5.7%
Obama up from 7.3% to 9.9%
Trump down from 4.7% to 4.1%
Biden down from 6.7% to 3.9%

Inflation rate
Bush 1.6%
Obama 2.7%
Trump 2.1%
Biden 6.7%

So is the angst about Biden really justified?

These are facts: don't be afraid of them. The truth shall set you free.

[Nick Danger]

Here's what happened to the key economic data in the first year of the past 4 Presidents.
https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-gdp-g...oyment-by-year
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/indicators

GDP growth
Bush 1.0%
Obama -2.6%
Trump 2.3%
Biden 3.8% (first 3 quarters only)

Unemployment rate
Bush up from 3.9% to 5.7%
Obama up from 7.3% to 9.9%
Trump down from 4.7% to 4.1%
Biden down from 6.7% to 3.9%

Inflation rate
Bush 1.6%
Obama 2.7%
Trump 2.1%
Biden 6.7%

So is the angst about Biden really justified?

These are facts: don't be afraid of them. The truth shall set you free.

Hmm, according to Stavros we should give Trump credit for those numbers but I won’t invoke Stavros on you.

So we’re doing great! I (and every other American) didn’t notice. What did Biden do to bring about all this unprecedented prosperity? All I’ve seen is every piece of garbage legislation he introduces getting curb-stomped by his own party. A mystery is afoot.

[filghy2]

Sigh; roll eyes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americ...an_Act_of_2021

[Nick Danger]

Sigh; roll eyes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americ...an_Act_of_2021

That explains the monstrous inflation all right, nice pull, Flighty.

[Stavros]

I am not surprised that some Americans comfort themselves by denying the existence of Institutional Racism when it is documented on an almost daily basis. Denial of the Truth has become the curse of Donald Trump, and it is embraced by men and women who ought to know better, but like lawless creatures in Hobbes's 'State of Nature', prefer Emotion to Reason, Anarchy to Govenment.

When the Republican Party shares the allegations of voter fraud made by Trump, is it accidental, coincidental or deliberate, that in all the Counties in which the election is alleged to have been stolen, the majority of the population is populated by either Black or Minority people, defined as 'Non-White'? Is it even conceivable that where fraud did take place, it was Trump voters rising from the dead, or Trump voter clubs pooling mail-in ballots, and so on?

Why is it that when polling stations are closed for 'health and safety' reasons so that voters must drive 100 miles to vote, it happens in the Southern State in counties where the majority of the population is Black?

The answer is that this is how the law on elections is processed in order to limit the number of Black people who vote, indeed, to limit the number of Black people elected into public office. From numerous Black members of the Georgia Senate in the era of 'Reconstruction', in the last quarter of the 19th century, by 1902 laws had been passed to STOP BLACK PEOPLE VOTING so not a single Black person held elected office.
https://www.nypl.org/events/exhibiti...cians-congress

And here we are, in 2022, the Institution of the Law being used to take away Rights from American citizens guaranteed by the US Constiitution, but not universally applied. For only a deluded fool would deny that the primary aim of the laws being processed across the South and States where Republicans have signed up to Trump's Cult, is to STOP BLACK PEOPLE VOTING.

It is based on the glib assumption -attacked by Black members here- that Black peope vote Democrat, and the political aim is to deny Democrats the vote. But why not make an appeal to a broader range of voters by offering policies that appeal to all Americans regardless of their appearance; why not adopt a language and a tone that does not ridicule minorities, accuse them of being resposible for crime, for undermining the Morals of America, for undoing everything that started with the community in Jamestown in 1607?

The Republican Party is retreating into a fantasy world, but using the Institution of the Law to build itself a wall to shut out people it sees as a threat -but to its own existence, rather than that of the USA.

Biden has been in office for just under a year. To make so sweeping a judgment of it as an 'abject failure' is dismissive without much evidence. Was the withdrawal from Afghanistan a mistake, or an inevitable decision someone had to make, knowing it would always look bad? Who is responsible for Inflation, is it always the Government? Passing new laws that cost eye-watering sums of money make look extravagant, even reckless, but the judgment of their success will be a long-time coming, and might not be observable for at least two years, which is why rushing to judgment is a disappointment.

We have the four years of chaos to review, at least give Biden another year before making grand assessments. He might not be the most charismatic, or eloquent of Presidents, and his attempt to build a bi-Partisan coalition of intersts looks quaint in an age of Sectarian conflict, but does it make him look so bad when it is venal hypocrites like Mitchell McConnell who are standing in the way of progress?

Time is on Biden side right now, but the clock is ticking, and the world is watching.

[filghy2]

Biden has been in office for just under a year. To make so sweeping a judgment of it as an 'abject failure' is dismissive without much evidence.

It's amusing that the guy is painted simultaneously as an ineffectual irrelevance yet responsible for everything bad that's happened over the past year. He's a failure when 1 or 2 members of his party won't support legislation, but he's also a failure when he does get legislation passed. He's a failure for not eliminating Covid, even though it's the other party who has resisted any measures. He's a failure for not uniting the nation, even though it's the other party who promotes the Big Lie that his election was illegitimate.