Oh I absolutely agree (speaking as someone who is basically working for the insurance coverage myself). Of course, the administration hasn’t exactly been very Johnny-on-the-spot with that either…
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Dear Joe,
WHAT THE FUCK.
Signed,
Someone who is somehow still disappointed despite bedrock-low expectations.
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The polite-liberal version of “You can stay in your shithole country and rot for all we care”?
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On the other hand, here we see him trying to do right, but facing the “it is far easier to destroy than to build” truism.
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The nominal alternative is the gas tax, which favors people who can afford Teslas. That’s still probably better, but what would be even better is a return to pre-Reagan income tax levels so we could afford (a) better public transportation where feasible, and (b) some kind of subsidy to make energy-efficient vehicles affordable for people where it isn’t. Looking at ‘use taxes’ to solve our infrastructure problems is a deliberate sleight of hand, to distract us from the fact that the people who benefit most from things like roads are not the people driving on them, but the people who own the corporations those drivers work for.
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Though Biden’s undiplomatic comments about Putin may have been unscripted, the impact has nonetheless been profound. Together with the harsh tone of the US-China foreign ministers meeting in Alaska — also provoked by the US side — it is clear there has been a major change in the atmosphere of US-China-Russia relations.
What will this mean in practice? Both Russia and China are signalling they will only deal with the West where and when it suits them. Sanctions no longer worry them.
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Nuclear weapons aside, (if only…) Russia is a third rate power at this point. China is a rising power, but not there yet. At least, for the moment, the US does not really have to worry about either one economically or militarily. Obviously, propaganda and cyber power is a different story, and diplomatically the last 4 years have left us as a joke and a punchline, which is not at all helpful. Also, both countries have seen how much success is available, and how easy it is to accomplish, by influencing our elections. The combination of military and economic power, government fragility and global disrespect could make for scary times coming.
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Wut? Okay, if you mean “not quite number 1 yet.”
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Biden spokesperson Jen Psaki worked for Israeli spy firm
President Joe Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki worked for an Israeli firm accused of involvement in surveillance of Palestinians under Israeli military occupation.
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I don’t want to let Russia and China off the hook for anything, but honestly, there is something to be said about America criticizing human rights abuses while it has actual concentration camps full of children put up along its border. 
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China yes, Russia no. If nothing else (and as @docosc points out, there’s plenty else), banking sanctions against Russian oligarchs have hit them hard, directly in the wallet.
@chenille This!
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Yep, and as Putin also added (as quoted in the piece above), in his response to Biden’s “killer” label:
In an unusually pointed manner, Putin recalled the US history of genocide of its Indigenous people, the cruel experience of slavery, the continuing repression of Black Americans today and the unprovoked US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the second world war. He suggested states should not judge others by their own standards: “Whatever you say about others is what you are yourself.”
He’s not wrong. 
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my one cavet there is that biden was responding to whether putin is a killer. biden didn’t put a hit out on trump during the election, hasn’t had critics pushed out of windows, hasn’t had reporters poisoned
so yes, both countries have a lot of blood - past and present - on our hands, and there’s a lot of work to do. ( russia certainly has never been nice to the indigenous peoples and religious minorities living there )
but putin’s murder and attempted murder of individual people so he can keep power is still a thing worth calling out
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It manages to be both whataboutism and a false equivalence when coming from Putin. From China, though, it hits pretty close to the mark. That doesn’t excuse their genocide of the Uyghurs, but it’s valid to criticize the US for our continued human rights abuses.
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Of course, it was Trump who killed the Iran nuclear deal. And if Biden somehow managed to get Iran to agree to it again, Jacobin would find something bad about it. They’re ideologically dedicated to the Democrats being Just As Bad As Republicans, especially when the Democrats are in power.
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