You say the problem is being worked on in these things take time for multiple things. In other words, Biden has not done anything on these fronts

What an idiotic thing to say.

Biden is milk toast at best

You should look up that expression because you’re misusing it.

Yeah, I think the truth is that they have an institutional bias. Like, they believe in the value of government, so when people are attacking the government they tend to portray that in a negative light. It doesn’t matter if the government being attacked is liberal or conservative.

That may be, but he’s better at hiding it than Hillary. She seemed to always be making it clear that it was her turn. That message came across much more strongly than anything else.

Yes, I really think a major reason that the US is failing is the lack of an equivalent to Australia’s ABC, Britain’s BBC, Canada’s CBC, all the way to (I wish this were true) New Zealand’s ZBC.

Those public broadcasters anchor the news reporting space. Many people think they’re biased, and it’s probably true that they aren’t 100% neutral, and definitely have an institutional bias. But, the kinds of people who work for those public broadcasters really believe in their mission to tell the truth. Normal news consumers still end up in filter bubbles, but it’s really easy to pop out of those filter bubbles for a second and check out the public broadcaster. In the US, even the supposedly centrist for-profit broadcasters are heavily biased because they need to make money. The bias isn’t necessarily left or right, but it’s in favor of whatever’s sensationalist and will keep people glued to their TVs.

Student loans have not been canceled

Some have.

Non-Competes are still in effect

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/04/ftc-announces-rule-banning-noncompetes

Landlords are still price fixing and rent is still out of control

The problem is being worked on, the solution wasn’t instantaneous.

Amazon, Google and apple nor any other large companies have been broken up with antitrust

Not yet, these things take time. The final antitrust case against AT&T lasted 8 years, and it was only one of many. The antitrust case against IBM lasted almost 13 years.

Despite giving the IRS funding, the rich are still not paying taxes

Again, these things take time.

I don’t know if you’ve been to America or met most Americans, but most of us are really struggling.

So… something that has been happening since at least the Reagan years wasn’t turned around in 4, so Biden’s doing a bad job?

Because:

1. That’s something Israel is doing, not something the US is doing. As usual, the US is helping / shielding Israel, and that’s a problem, but that’s not the same as being directly responsible for it.
2. If Trump were in charge, it would only be worse. He’d be encouraging Israel to nuke Gaza.

• $35 cap on Insulin
• Student loan cancellations
• Restoring net neutrality
• Banning non-compete agreements
• Pardoned people convicted for simple marijuana possession convictions
• Funding important infrastructure projects
• Banning abusive and junky bank fees
• Going after landlords who are price fixing
• Minimum 15% tax on corporations, who otherwise use every trick in the book to hide their profits in tax shelters overseas
• Rejoined the Paris Accord
• Antitrust actions against Amazon, Google, Apple, various airlines, book publishers, even meat packers
• Blocking mergers that would reduce competition, like Krogers acquiring Albertsons
• Reducing fees real estate agents collect for home sales
• Requiring airlines to refund passengers for delayed or canceled flights
• Automatically recognizing a union when a corporation interferes with a union vote
• Massive climate wins in the Inflation Reduction act
• Giving IRS funding so it can go after the rich tax cheats, instead of just the poor people who make small errors
• Allowing Medicare to actually negotiate drug prices, instead of being forced to accept whatever the drug companies decide

And, this is despite a senate where Sinema and Manchin supposely give democrats a razor slim majority, but in reality they block almost everything. And, despite a congress that is currently republican controlled and block even the things their constituents want because they don’t want to let Biden have a win.

In what way (other than Gaza) is he not doing a good job?

It’s more like it’s in a coma right now. It’s not responding to stimulus, but there are signs of life. Theoretically if democrats win decisively, the Republican party could be forced to move to the center to become electable again.

But, if the Republicans win, it could be the end of democracy in the US. The Republicans know the odds of their winning another free and fair election are near zero, so their best bet to stay in power is to make sure they don’t have to face any more free and fair elections.

Despite all the chaos, despite the Republicans attempting to kill the democratic process, the Biden administration has actually managed quite a few meaningful and positive things. He’s not a very inspiring option as “leader of the free world”, but as someone who sits at the head of the table and delegates things out, his record is pretty good. But, it’s pretty damning that the system has Americans choosing between a criminal fascist, and an old man who probably won’t last 4 years.

They don’t really care too much about their base. It’s really their donors and themselves that they care about. The donors and the important people in the democratic party are very rich, so a Trump dictatorship would merely be an inconvenience and embarrassment to them. If it really got bad they’d move to another country and try to gain support as the legitimate government in exile.

I’m actually surprised we haven’t heard Trump talking about nuking Gaza yet.

In a first-past-the-post system, an independent only ends up stealing votes from the mainstream candidate that’s closest to their position. He’d undermine the Democratic candidate, making a Republican win more likely. He’s smart enough not to want to do that.

I agree, but I wish there were some way to ensure that voters were making an informed choice.

In the case of Bobby Sands, I assume they were. That was a high profile case. It’s even vaguely possible to make the case that he was a political prisoner.

But, almost daily I see interviews with Trump voters who seem to have lost their connection with reality. And, it’s not even a wrong but consistent worldview. It’s just a bunch of incoherent conspiracy theories that fall apart under the most gentle questioning. Unfortunately, there’s probably no way to restrict voting to only sane and well informed voters, because any restriction you put in place could be abused.

Probably not.

The army wouldn’t go along with it. Even in countries with dictators, they need to purge the army before they try anything too radical. And, often, the generals retain a lot of power.

Yeah, but the “for comedic effect” is key here. Unless you’re going for comedy or confusion, you shouldn’t refer to someone by a name they don’t use.

Especially given that prosecutions are often racially biased, and sometimes politically biased.

If an opponent with a criminal record can’t run, you incentivize an immoral president to have their political opponents charged with anything they can think of.

OTOH, the American electorate is filled with idiots. You would hope that people would see through a purely political conviction and not let that stop them. But, the reality is probably the opposite, a serial killer who ate his victims could run, and if the party got behind that candidate, half the electorate would not know he was a serial killer, or they’d vote for him anyhow, or they’d think his conviction was just a psy-op and his victims were crisis actors.

What does any of that have to do with presidential immunity? He could have done that at any time if he wanted to, but he doesn’t want to because he deeply believes in the system, and because people wouldn’t do it even if he called for it to happen.

He could murder congresspeople, but he can’t dissolve congress.

Immunity from prosecution doesn’t mean he can pass laws.

Theoretically he could murder members of the other branches of government until the remaining ones did what he wanted, but it doesn’t let him pass new laws or unilaterally change the constitution.

Especially when the alternative is a glass of poison. A warm, flat beer is not going to kill you, even though it might taste disgusting.

The worst thing is that you don’t get to choose whether you’re drinking the warm, flat beer or the poison. Depending on where you live your vote might not even matter. A bunch of uninformed and misinformed idiots in a few random states will decide for you which you’re drinking.