In reply to: The Biden administrations * posted by airborneirish
From the article below:
“U.S. officials privately acknowledge they’ve gradually relaxed some enforcement of sanctions on Iranian oil sales,” Bloomberg News reported in late August. The purpose of this policy was to encourage Iranian flexibility in nuclear negotiations, yet Tehran has only accelerated its drive toward a nuclear weapons capability.
Before Biden took office, Iran exported an average of 775,000 barrels per day of oil while the “maximum pressure” policy of the Trump administration was in effect. The average figure under Biden in 2023 is 1.4 mbpd barrels. The total estimated value of Tehran’s oil exports since February 2021 is between $88 billion and $98 billion.
In September, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies presented a method for estimating how much of Tehran’s estimated oil revenue is due to the relaxed enforcement of sanctions. Using new data from October, that method indicates that Iran earned an additional $32 billion to $35 billion because of lax sanctions enforcement.
There’s also the $6B that we paid to Iran to release five hostages.
Even going back to Obama, we have been soft on the Iranians. Obama went contrarian to prove that the Iranians could be trusted and bargained with. Since then, Iranian proxies have increased their aggressive behavior in the region. So much for buying goodwill.
There is a huge gap between do nothing and bomb Iran, right?
Who think Biden is awesome. There aren’t even many who think he’s just “good”.
That’s really all that matters.
you live in a swing state, you have the power to help keep a proven incompetent out of control monster out of a retaliatory second term. Everything else pales in comparison. That's your choice. Please own it. I am not interested in engaging in one more debate about Biden and the Democrats. In this case, not to choose really is to choose. (I see that Sununu, much praised in these precincts, says that he will vote for Trump. Of course.)
I suppose if there's a debate to be had, it's how much lasting damage you think Trump will or won't do. For the record, I don't share the hysteria of too many on the left. The country will survive four more years of this incompetent monster. But I'm hard pressed to think of even one way we or the world will be better off (does anyone think, e.g., Trump is going to help reduce the national debt, to pick the most defensible argument my GOP friends can make?). Maybe the fallout (metaphorical?) from four more years will help purge of us of MAGA fever once and for all.
Just like I did in 2016 and 2020.
I refuse to vote for candidates that I do not agree with, because of some lesser evil logic.
Our system is built upon checks and balances. I do not fear the orange monster, I just don't really want to live through it again. But if that is the will of the people, so be it. (Same goes for Biden winning. I'd rather not live through him, or Harris, but it is what it is.)
what happens. I confess I do not understand the indifference. But I could be the one who's wrong and it will just be another four years of watching our country trashed by a human being of unfathomable idiocy and vulgarity. We will, I repeat, survive. We're not Weimar.
While I agree with some, though certainly not all, of Trumps policies, I will not vote for him because I think he is a despicable human being and is unfit to occupy the office.
While Biden seems to be a better man than Trump, I agree with very few of his policies and his refusal to even consider the role of spending in inflation and deficits (admittedly Trump is poor here as well, but not nearly as bad) is disqualifying to me*. This, along with his refusal to address the chaos caused by his border policies are, to me, disqualifying.
* US Debt and defecits are far and away my most important issue.
board's center of gravity, if there is one. And debt and deficit are, as I expected, no. 1. "Indifference": okay, too strong and maybe unfair. I may be excessively grossed out by Trump's miasma of corruption in every sector of personal and public life. He secretes a pheromone that is peculiarly stimulating to a potent strain of American grievance and resentment. I can't think of a comparable figure in our political life from any point in the nation's history. He didn't create the grievance and resentment, which will be there when he finally pays the debt of nature. But he is really gifted at exploiting and stimulating it. Just profoundly depressing to see him gloating as he flies around on Air Force One and dominates our public life. His enemy list will make Nixon's look benign.
The decision is sad. I find Soren’s analysis compelling.
I voted third party in 2016. My vote for Biden in 2020 was the first for a Democrat in more than 20 years. Trump’s level of depravity and malice “mandate” a vote against him.
Sure, plenty of people here will vote for Biden, but the notion that Jimbo is mocking (that this board is full of rah-rah Biden cheerleaders) doesn’t make sense to me.
This board is very anti-Trump, but it’s not at all pro-Biden.
It’s usually based on a relative comparison to Trump.
At the end of the day, whether you vote for Biden because your car is covered in Biden stickers, or you do it by accident, the result is the same. It is a vote to keep him in office.
And is a one line emotipost that provides nothing.
I think because trump is so uniquely incompetent and embarrassing to traditional conservatives, many of them (rightly) have a bit of ennui in their choices this fall. They're not going to magically change all their principles to Democratic Party ones, and why should they? I totally get that!
However, some of them have instead chosen to take one of two routes:
- try to make Biden "just as bad" somehow, vs "wrong within normal parameters".
- attack the straw man that does not exist here; namely the rabid pro Biden voter.
Look, I'd kill for a ranked choice situation and a way out of this ever polarizing binary situation we're in. But we're a long way from "meh I don't care for Bush/Obama but life goes on".
Issues, it will be for the one with the less violent followers who did egg on a crowd to try and overturn the election.
I guess I'm tired of Boomer (or older) Presidential candidates.
Era irán policy that didn’t work then and isn’t working now. Trump had a far superior approach to Iran. Not everything he did was bad and should have ended.
But that is in the past. What we should be doing now is shutting down oil to Russia and telling them we aren’t going to just sanction these two idiots. We are going to bomb houthis and take their tankers until they all come to a table to talk with SA and Iran.
I hate trump but he would likely be in favor of such actions.
Instead we are falling into ww3 like Biden boarding Air Force one.
And again I have been right about all of this. Gaza is flattened. Millions displaced. Multiple states in the region have been sucked in and for those with their heads not up their assed we have now bombed targets in the region and actively defended Israel putting us servicemen at risk.
Other predictions from people who have more time to write because they don’t actually work:
No Iran support via drones to Russia. Wrong
Russia sanctions will cripple them. Wrong
Russian oil market will collapse. Wrong
Regime change In Russia. Holy hell wtf is wrong with some of you.
Biden pivot is good because Iranian women want regime change. Again wtf is wrong with you? Have you been to these countries?
Poland is stocking up on food and preaching learning to eat dirt to survive a drawn out war with Russia.
Bidens border policy is effectively an open border. Some ask how we are supposed to comply with asylum laws and manage the border. Sorry I’m not sure why that is a problem. Europe doesn’t allow such loose requirements, has much stricter rules, and still has incredible problems. Many of you need to get your head out of your asses and read international publications.