The brazen display of corporate power, as exemplified by Occidental Petroleum's monetary influence over critical safety legislation, illuminates the pervasive degradation of our democratic systems. It's nothing short of an affront that crucial regulations, designed to safeguard the public and born out of tragedies like East Palestine, are so easily thwarted by industry interests.

The lack of attention paid by mainstream media and politicians to these incidents is both disheartening and revealing, demonstrating the tendency to obfuscate corporate misdeeds and the adverse impacts of unfettered capitalism on public safety.

man I wish Biden was a strong advocate for even half of those things lol

Isn't it obvious? Most of the recent wave of users to federated sites was caused by the enshittification, which means:

when an online platform becomes more monetized and less user-oriented the longer it lasts.

This is a problem caused by capitalism. Therefore many of us will be anti-capitalists. Many of us will value creating things that put people over profits.

Can we get this neolib bullshit out of here?

The economy is not doing well for a majority of Americans. The majority of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and are not optimistic of the future.

They dealt with inflation by raising interest rates which harms the working class. They use the stock market to justify the economy, when 80% is owned by the rich. They use job numbers to justify the economy, when more and more people need to get 2nd jobs just to be able to afford a 1 bedroom apartment.

Please stop linking to mainstream media. It's so aggravating.

That's a great way to put it. Both parties are funded by dark money interests, one drives us to the right and the other keeps us in place. This is described as the ratchet effect

Biden joining + everyone else dropping out was the last hope the establishment had to kneecap Bernie, and it fucking worked

I think it’s a losing message to campaign on “everything is fine” when the vast majority of Americans are struggling.

Breaking Points covered this article and highlights that the current expectation is to simply say “we’re better than trump”. I don’t think this is very effective and believe that only an economic message can sway voters.

Not just any government, but a government captured by capitalism

The major oil companies acknowledged climate change is a major threat and they are primarily responsible for it decades ago

So fucking stupid that the forward party supports ranked choice voting and not STAR which is superior in every way
RCV oversells itself and some states are repealing it after being burned by it

• complex ballot
• easy to get your vote voided
• centralized, complicated tallying process
• can still cause vote splitting!!!

I doubt many of you have 3 hours to kill on this, but here's a debunk video. You can trim the first 40 minutes which covers approval voting

100%, but until I'm in that ballot box I'm gonna move the needle one day at a time ya know? Now's not the time to settle and too many seem to forget that

Exactly. Now is the time to change hearts and minds to demand more. By the time I'm in the ballot box I'll do what I need to but why not wear your heart on your sleeve until then? It makes no sense to not leave it all out on the field

He has definitely been positioning himself for it. The insulin moves are welcome, but the fact he let a single payer bill expire after promising to pass it leaves an all too familiar sting. But perhaps he can at least be moved on reducing prices for more pharmaceuticals and descheduling marijuana due to its legalization in CA. We'll see.

Inflation rate in a vacuum doesn't mean much. We lowered the inflation rate by harming workers, and our safety net is terrible. We could have dealt with the situation by using price controls and wealth taxes that affect the top rather than the bottom.

Finally, A Third Party For Billionaires

I'm going to assume you're acting in good faith, but I hope you realize how ridiculous that argument is. The only reason this is so is because the DNC is systematically shutting down the primary process and so elected politicians would be harming their negotiations by supporting challengers.

They for sure align more with Marianne WIlliamson whose policy page is the most detailed and progressive I've ever seen in my lifetime. Meanwhile, Biden is running on "finishing the job" and saying the economy is fine.

Yes! He's running as a green. And the democrats are 'concerned' and telling people don't vote third party or else you'll get trump!

But then when asked why they won't add something like STAR voting to their platform, they go quiet. They love holding us hostage and don't want to give that up! 🤣

"Vote Blue No Matter Who" has to be the most self-deprecating slogan of American politics I've ever heard of

I'm interested in understanding why so many have picked Joe Biden. According to several top posts, Lemmy is supposedly left wing, yet the vast majority are voting for a conservative democrat over the progressive.

Does anyone here actually care about pushing against dark money, treating climate change like an existential threat, and fighting for universal health care? What's drawing you to voting for him? Looking forward to respectful debate

Only one candidate has committed to:

• medicare for all
• free college tuition
• legalizing marajuanna
• eliminating the social security cap

It's all laid out in a policy page that's more detailed than even Bernie's ever was.

Meanwhile Biden's website just says 'lets finish the job'??

Can you find for me a single instance between either of her campaigns or in any of her books where she's talked about crystals or auras?

I find it appalling that a moderator would say such a thing.

I'l even steel man your argument for a second. What's worse: talking about auras or having the ability to reduce the price of all drugs and choosing not to do so, having the ability to fix so many broken families by descheduling marijuana but choosing not to do so, or having the biggest microphone in the world to say how unconscionable it is that we do not have a universal healthcare system and choosing not to do so?

I think if there was a regular debate schedule it could have gotten interesting. But with the way it is now, you're absolutely correct

If the DNC didn't say there would be no primary on day 1 then we might have actually been able to see people step forward. Marianne Williamson is at least running on the issues and is physically capable of having a two hour conversation. Biden... not so much