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Biden Administration: Likes and Dislikes

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Here’s a question for everyone. What do you dislike about the Biden administration? I don’t want vague answers like “inflation” or “crime.” I’m interested in hearing specifically what is the administration doing or not doing that you don’t like.

I assume there’s nobody on here who likes the Biden administration but in case there is, what specifically do you like? I’m completely open-minded to any answers that aren’t the infantile “because he’s not Trump / fascist / Nazi, etc.”

This is for the noble purpose of local political activity. I need to be able to talk to people with specific, clear examples.

24 responses to “Biden Administration: Likes and Dislikes”

  1. el Avatar
    el

    The first quoted sentence is a good reason imo to like the current administration:

    // For the first time in decades, the United States is not at war with anyone, anywhere. Directly, anyway. Now they take a completely different approach: they create conflicts, kindle them, but they themselves categorically do not intend to participate in them. Again, participate directly. Indirectly, the United States is the main sponsor of the conflict in Ukraine, and the recent escalation around Taiwan, which is still unclear where it will turn out, was initiated by the actions, again, of the United States. The trends are such that the time of traditional armies is a thing of the past. The states are preparing to conduct a completely different activity – the military-police. There are two armies that remain precisely armies – the Russian and the Chinese. They cannot provide a solution to global problems, but at the regional level they pose certain threats. Plus, the presence of nuclear weapons, but again, this is rather a phantom pain of the past than a tool for solving the military-political problems of the present. Apparently, one of the goals of the two conflicts – operating in Ukraine and potential in Taiwan – is to eliminate the military threat from the Russian and Chinese armies.

    Translated from a post I recommend and would love to hear your pov about:

    Смещение акцентов
    https://el-murid.livejournal.com/5204205.html

    Btw, you said N listened to Андрей Фурсов. I liked him too, but then he showed himself as a Putinoid.

    Pastukhov I do like.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      The US is “the main sponsor of the conflict in Ukraine”?? Which conflict? The war? Isn’t Russia the main sponsor of it?

      This guy is a well-known Putin propagandist. This is standard, old Putin propaganda.

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      1. cliff arroyo Avatar
        cliff arroyo

        “The US is “the main sponsor of the conflict in Ukraine”

        I think the putinistas keep saying things like that to excuse their failure…. losing to NATO (or even ‘just’ the US) is a lot easier on their egos than losing to lowly Ukraine… which is what they’re doing.

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  2. Pen Avatar
    Pen

    I absolutely detested the vaccine mandate he successfully put into place for healthcare workers (my state had already required it at the time, but it was still obnoxious), especially since later it was determined that not all people in federal positions would be forced to get the vaccine as well. The explanations for the wildly increasing gas prices were also kind of not as in-depth as I would have liked—and the solution he attempted didn’t have anything to do with the problem he cited.

    I’ve been watching for information related to the current order forbidding states from controlling certain prescriptions that are also used in abortion or miscarriage care (particularly methotrexate, namely because I have RA and am possibly looking at having to add that to my meds in the near future), but it sounds like it’s kind of hung up in different courts.

    Also if Just George is around, though I don’t see him here as often: this was the answer all along, apparently.

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  3. Pen Avatar
    Pen

    For some reason I think my comment went to moderation.

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  4. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    Biden administration part one (I’ll add maybe as things occur to me).

    likes:

    Got out of Afghanistan – yes it was terribly organized (on purpose?) but i’ll take it. Getting out was always going to be a mess and it could have been worse. Afghanis, I keep hearing, are over 90% on board with the Taliban’s agenda. Let’s leave them to it and stop worrying about them (as long as they stay there).

    dislikes:
    Kamala Harris – choosing her was either a publicity stunt gone wrong or a sop to silicone valley honchos who seemed to have a major hard on about her at one point. But, it’s really clear she’s not up to the job. She can barely string coherent sentences together on the simplest of subjects and word is that she simply doesn’t read (or understand?) reports made for her.

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. methylethyl Avatar
      methylethyl

      Afghanistan: yes! I know I’m not supposed to think that because all my news sources were very critical of the withdrawal. But we should never have been in Afghanistan, getting out was going to be messy no matter who did it, and staying because of dumb political inertia wasn’t ever going to make that situation better. I breathed a sigh of relief when we left.

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  5. methylethyl Avatar
    methylethyl

    Current admin:

    1) ended the “wait in Mexico” policy which was actively lowering unemployment levels for Americans.

    2) ended Trump-era federal defense contract with my sister’s company for blatantly political reasons, giving to contract to a wildly un-qualified contractor (can’t give the specs without identifying the company, alas)

    3) enforces vax-for-travel regulations against people who have a legal right to be in the US (such as spouses of citizens), but we’re just gonna let thousands if illegals pour over the southern border every week and not care about that? I’m not saying we should vax all the illegals. I’m saying it’s clear hypocrisy and there’s no reason whatever to force it on people who are here legally, and it seems petty and vindictive.

    4) Just raised taxes to “combat inflation”. (facepalm)– did it with a piece of legislation that costs $700bn (double facepalm), and half of that “let’s combat inflation” budget was for green new deal crap (i.e. bribery), which had nothing whatsoever to do with anything relevant to inflation.

    5) Actively asked social media platforms to secretly censor individual people such as Berenson and Wolf, whose views they didn’t like. That’s un-American.

    6) By maneuvering American businesses into a position where they felt they had to enforce vax mandates on employees… kinda sorta and maybe they didn’t actually have to after all because where’s the law eh?… they’ve opened those same businesses, many many many businesses, up to the coming flood of lawsuits (last I looked at Denninger there were more than 16,000 of them in the pipeline– vax injury, wrongful termination, religious discrimination, ADA violations, etc.). This, plus item 5, is a top example of the sneaky, underhanded, way these bastards operate. Never pass an actual law which can be challenged, just get private companies to (willingly or not) do your dirty work for you, so that when the lawsuits come, it’s private businesses that take the hit.

    7) Another fine example of that shady-dealing-as-routine-procedure: the EUA. We all know COVID isn’t an emergency any more. The emergency is over. Why the frack do we still have an EUA for the shots, instead of making them go through regular channels, regular safety regulations, and the same legal liability as flu shots? Why? Oh, because money. Government by effing gangsters. I know rule of law has been languishing for a while now, but this admin makes it so bloody obvious. It’s depressing. I LIKE rule of law.

    I’m sure there are more, but we’ve got places to go…

    Liked by 3 people

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      It’s definitely shocking that the White House actually spoke to Twitter about Berenson. This is a major violation of the constitution. And, as everybody knows, I’m very weary of using the f-word but the melding of the state with the corporations to effectuate control over citizens is the classical definition of the f-word. I didn’t think they’d go this far. I thought the Berenson ban was an individual decision of some Twitter busybody.

      This is much worse than Watergate and is getting much less attention.

      Liked by 3 people

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      1. methylethyl Avatar
        methylethyl

        Given how many ex-FBI agents are currently working at Twatter, a personal grudge by an employee is about the same as a personal grudge by the government.

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    2. bluebird of bitterness Avatar
      bluebird of bitterness

      Ditto to what methylethyl said.

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  6. ABC Avatar
    ABC

    There are many many things that I dislike about the Biden administration, and methylethyl has mentioned most of them. But the most important to me is how this administration cheapened and politicized science for control and politics. As a scientist, I will never ever get over this fact.

    Liked by 4 people

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    1. methylethyl Avatar
      methylethyl

      Yeah. Science, and medicine more generally. Finding out that treatment protocols in hospitals got dictated by what the government would pay for, over what was best for the patient… long after we knew better… that was a doozy. It had never before occurred to me to think that way about hospital care.

      My older two kids got most of the regular childhood immunizations. My youngest has yet to receive any. I’m deeply ambivalent about that now, when I wasn’t before. I keep thinking like… he’s three now, maybe we should start on that soon. And then it’s like… ugh. Do I trust any of those drug companies manufacturing this stuff, now? The last year or so has been kind of a deep-dive into drug company (lack of) ethics, liability laws, the total lack of mandatory safety tracking/reporting in the US, etc, and… no, I haven’t gone full-blown conspiracy fruitcake into vaccines-cause-autism or anything that wack, but geez, do I trust these medical treatments now? I have reservations. So whenever it comes up, like hey, maybe we should start that process with the youngest… it keeps being easier to put it off another month than to do it, you know? And going by the recent ordinary-childhood-vax stats in the US, I’m far from the only one in that boat.

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. Amanda Avatar
        Amanda

        I’ve heard Dissolving Illusions is good re explaining the regular vaccines. Several of the childhood ones have dubious value as they don’t actually work, others would be incredibly rare to get here and mild with good nutrition. The absolute explosion of the vax schedule post 1986 (when manufacturers got immunity from liability) really shocked me when I learned about it. Also the longer you wait the fewer doses are needed.

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        1. methylethyl Avatar
          methylethyl

          Oh, that’s good to know! I’ll have to check and see when we reach the minimum-number-of-doses age and maybe get the ones we want for youngest kid after that point.

          The sheer number of shots they want to give these days is pretty shocking.

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          1. random reader Avatar
            random reader

            Or just go without it. My biggest parenting regret is doing all the shots up till 18-months old. I wish I did not and would gladly change that if I could. My cousin’s child received a total of one shot when born in the hospital and nothing else after that. It could be a coincidence, but it is the healthiest child in the family (no allergies, no asthma, no nothing that plagues the rest of the children including mine). I have seen my child suddenly develop allergies to things they were able to eat without a problem at first, and then found out from a reliable source that sometimes that happens with the shots. So just congratulate yourself on skipping all of that and call it good.

            Liked by 1 person

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            1. random reader Avatar
              random reader

              By the way, my reliable source is a practicing immunologist who is a family member. This doctor told me that some food allergies tend to develop after childhood vaccines due to the way they are made/ingredients. Some of the allergies go away in time, some do not. According to them, this happened to some other children in our wider family (food allergy onset after vaccines), so there is likely some genetic component to this. I wish I knew that BEFORE doing all the vaccines. And let’s not even get started on antihistamines that you are then told to use every day that are allegedly without any side effects. Apparently, night terrors when you take them and itchy skin when you stop taking them are some of those non-existent side effects. My apologies for going off on a tangent.

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              1. methylethyl Avatar
                methylethyl

                No, it’s a great tangent. I’ll have to look into that. Still very much on the fence about whether to get any for the youngest, or just polio and tdap and call it a day, or what. Eldest got everything on the list except hepb and chickenpox, next kid got only the ones I had back in the early 80s, youngest so far hasn’t any, and… I dunno. They’re all pretty healthy and none have ever been ill enough to need a doctor or antibiotics. But the eldest takes longer than the others to shake off a cold. So I do wonder about that. I’m still pondering on it for the youngest, and haven’t decided yet. It can wait.

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  7. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    Biden like:

    He’s mostly doing and saying the right things about Ukraine.

    dislike:

    Too much talk and not enough of promised help materializes in a reliable fashion. Early on I expressed the fear that US help would be enough to keep the conflict going but not enough to definitively win. There are probably advisors seeing that russia isn’t getting very far very fast and want to draw things out to maximize damage to the russian military (rather than help Ukraine win).

    Is the US considering/considered eliminating tourist visas to russian citizens? It’s an idea that’s gained a lot of ground among the countries that know russia best and of course opposed by de facto russian ally Germany….

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  8. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    Also regarding biden likes and dislikes I’m mostly going to not say anything about covid because I didn’t follow the US situation closely (being more interested in countries closer to where I live) and the US should leave most covid policy decisions to the states…

    But… the Biden administration contacting twitter to de-platform Alex Berenson should be a major scandal of the kind that results in heads rolling…. fusion of the government and favored media…. not a good idea anywhere at any time.

    Liked by 2 people

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  9. Post Alley Crackpot Avatar
    Post Alley Crackpot

    It’s a Government Regime, and so I’m against it ipso facto, but for the sake of brevity, let’s refer to it as The Regime in true Salman Rushdie fashion.

    The Regime appears to tolerate corruption when it doesn’t openly embrace it, fund it, or give it lots of loving fondling with plenty of tongue.

    For instance: where’s The Regime when it comes to demanding an accurate accounting of the 2020 national elections for its own purposes?

    The Regime tortures its political opponents by means of running them through The Process, and so it’s the 1960s and 1970s all over again.

    This takes the form of The Regime running a former President through The Process of Discovery By Fabricated Rationale For A Raid, by putting its political opponents through institutional terrorism via the FBI, IRS, etc.

    The Regime appears to benefit from a multi-national covert surveillance umbrella organisation that makes it possible for The Regime to bully its critics further through direct intimidation, threats, and sometimes even assassinations.

    And the American citizen pays for The Regime through theft by takings (in violation of the 4th Amendment), inflation, corrupt dealing, insider trading, and nearly any other form of corruption that may be monetised or turned into a power structure.

    The American citizen also pays for The Regime by means of a New Underground Railroad in which a cheaper and more compliant labour force appears magically within the US borders to displace the American citizens from their multi-generational creations, some of which is rolled directly into the multi-national covert surveillance umbrella.

    But all of this pales by comparison to the incontinent and incompetent policy of The Regime that will eventually lead not to a single front war or even a double front war, but a war of a Neu Totaler Krieg in which every major former ally finally realises that they can in fact implement a “mute button” for American social, political, military, and economic policies.

    This will start first in the commercial sector by entire countries blocking American media, social tech, and financial tech companies so that they do not import the widespread corruption and give it a home within their own borders.

    If these observations make me out to be a nationalist of sorts, so be it.

    For what it’s worth, I also supported the covert project to rearm Taiwan with nuclear weapons (are you surprised, PRC?) as well as the covert project to transfer American nuclear weapons technology to Japan for self-defence purposes (are you surprised again, PRC?), and so my previous mentions of being in support of nuclear proliferation weren’t just glowing smoke.

    That the bulk of this happened covertly during the Trump regime makes it all that much more satisfying.

    Finally, in terms of using that “f-word”, I don’t think there’s anything that The Regime couldn’t fuck up when it’s not trying to fuck you or fuck your kids, so there’s that.

    Nota bene: we have not even scratched five percent of what I dislike in particular about The Regime.

    Liked by 2 people

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  10. ed Avatar
    ed

    There is a lot wrong with the Biden administration and I think that side of things has been covered very well, so I’ll focus on the positives:
    – His administration’s support for Ukraine has been very strong. Not as fast and proactive as we would like, but he’s doing everything that he reasonably could. From providing advanced weapons and funding to Ukraine, to sanctioning Russia and rallying the world against them. He gets a B+ there for me.
    – I think he gets more blame for inflation and oil prices than he should. He inherited a troubled economy and lots of uncertainty, and overall I think we’re doing OK. Things could certainly be or get much worse.
    – Seems to have a plan to address infrastructure, the environment, longer term economic and foreign policy. I’m very supportive of the latest bill that passed to address climate change and allow medicare to negotiate prices. To me that is a big plus.
    – For all criticism against his handling of COVID, the USA is in very good shape and most if not all restrictions have now been lifted.
    – Finally, I think his administration is professional. No major scandals or conflicts; I just like to be able to go about my life without having to hear about the president’s latest scandal.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      I agree with most of your points. Definitely, the inflation is the result of COVID mitigation that didn’t start with Biden. The last point, though – scandals are created by the media about the politicians they don’t like. If we take these manufactured scandals seriously, we allow a tiny group of maybe a few dozen journalists with very specific idiosyncrasies and lifestyles forever to decide who gets elected.

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      1. Post Alley Crackpot Avatar
        Post Alley Crackpot

        Don’t squander the “right not to be inconvenienced” …

        It’s one of those super-important rights in the Constitution. 🙂

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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