Oh I do not mean to suggest that they make false statements, just that they have an enormous bias, well as you said, towards providing "focused" coverage in some areas but then virtually nothing else.

So now he is trying to make his case to the American people, and like I guess he is worried (title of the OP) that nobody will believe him, b/c if he did good stuff then surely they would have heard of it (except... that is not the case - he did the good stuff, but they did not hear about it, at least not from the common news media).

And even that is irrelevant in a large sense, b/c Trump is in the news daily lately - but like, somehow that is working for him!? This is where I sigh and wonder if we will even have so much as the farce of a democracy a couple years from now, b/c if that is our mantra - that whatever the news shows is "good", while facts themselves are, if not "bad" then at least irrelevant? - then we deserve whatever we will have chosen for ourselves, at that time.

And yes, I know - "but they did...!" - and I am countering with "why didn't we do...?", like each individual state could implement some kind of ranked-choice voting? I don't know if that would work for the Presidential election, but if it would help with the members that we send to Congress and the Senate, then while it would take some few years, we could really change things, in less than a decade. But instead, I guess we just... won't?

Excellent points, truly.

Esp on congressional v presidential power/responsibility. I must admit im rather guilty of this, too. Its easy to hate on our cultures authoritarian tendencies that prevade in the stupidest fucking places, and yet i still consistently think, "wheres that marjuana legislation, Joe? Why arent you passing executive orders to prevent the intellectually challeneged baboon heading Texas from busing his responsibilities to my state? Or at least offer more executive support in handling the influx of ppl? Maybe something to give out more work visas, no?

Reading this tho reminds me, most all of that is legislative tasks. weve just all been brainwashed by years of executive encroachment to where the broken parts of our system behave extra broken.

Keep fighting the good fight. Your words hit hard.

Point of order, we are not legally bound to sell weapons to anyone. The Leahy Law actually bans the sale of weapons to countries or organizations credibly accused of war crimes. The creator of the Leahy Law has publicly said Israel should have been cut off by that law. Former civil servants have said that Israel gets a special vetting process that requires several political appointees to agree Israel is problematic. In contrast to any other country getting a single civil servant.

We are in fact taking great pains to send them weapons illegally.

Consider though what "unverified" means these days - the media circus is one of the three main sources that got Trump elected the last time (Hillary Clinton's corruption, e.g. with the DNC collusion, and Ted Cruz were the other two main ones iirc), so it seems like they have lost the public's trust?

Therefore if people turn to "unverified sources" - and who even is that really, like aren't Hank/John Green, Innuendo Studies, Kurzgesagt, CPG Grey, and then on the left the comedians like John Olivier, Jon Stewart, even fucking Bill Maher, and ofc on the right are those like Joe Rogan, Alex Jones, etc.? - can we really blame them, when the "verified" sources ARE lying to us? And keep in mind that people like Donald Trump, Mitch McConnel, Lindsey Graham, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Bohbert, etc. are among the "verified" ones, yes? They are "verified" by virtue of having the seal of approval by authority.

Maybe you mean places like the CDC, FDA, FBI, etc., and while I whole-heartedly agree, many others do not agree. (Also, Republicans like Trump are constantly ordering them to say or not say some things, like removing all words "Global Warming" or "Climate Change" from the official documents, and Yellowstone National Park was even forbidden to collect temperature data any longer - plus look into why doing taxes sucks, and why the post office sucks, it all becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when these organizations are targeted for destruction and then they get to cite how "unreliable" they are later, as if one action had nothing whatsoever to do with the direct consequences of it.) Meanwhile, in authoritarian communist China and Russia, the "verified" sources could be among the least trustworthy of them all? Now, the USA is not that... we have our own whole other thing going on here, but in both cases people turn to "unverified" sources for the same reason, and imho it is not the presence of the unverified sources that should concern us nearly so much as the absence of good information from verified ones - by which I mostly mean news media, but in some highly specific cases government agencies too, when they are forced to comply by a Congressional order despite the facts, possibly remaining under attack for YEARS until the director is replaced by someone who will be more easily controlled.

Also, of COURSE a lot of this comes from outside sources - I thought this was verified at some point - but also it would be a huge missed opportunity for that particular foreign not to take advantage of that opportunity, and they definitely are not that stupid. Also we do it ourselves to other nations all the time. Water is wet, stones are hard, h8rs gonna h8 and cheaters gonna cheat - at some point I don't even blame them anymore - or rather I at least cease to be surprised - and start blaming ourselves more for falling for such cheap tricks, over & over again! It is hard to get out of an abusive relationship, I get that, but if we need to do it then we just need to get it done, somehow! Or else we will fall, as a nation - and ngl that has a much better chance of happening now than it did back when Trump ran the first time.

Biden's handing of something that 100% should fall in the domain of Congress to solve. So may things that historically have been attributed to the President were ultimately created and decided on by Congress and the public attributes way more power to the President than they actually have because of it.

But the public is right to do this, particularly regarding international wars like Ukraine and Gaza. The United States has not declared war via Congress since 1942. Yet clearly we have fought plenty of wars since then solely under the command and authorization of the presidency alone. Which means there is 80+ years of precedence of creating an imperial presidency that authorizes Biden to act against both Russia and Israel. He is choosing not to avail himself of the precedent. And genocide is the result.

we're legally obligated to supply arms to Israel,

Israel is legally obligated not to engage in collective punishment, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. Yet, they are doing those acts anyway. The Constitution requires Congress to declare war. Yet Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, the War on Terror, Libya, Syria, and Ukraine/Gaza demonstrate that is apparently an illusory Constitutional requirement. Laws are meaningless if there is no enforcement mechanism.

I'm fairly convinced that a good chunk of the rhetoric spouted to not vote for Biden likely originated from foreign sources to plant the Idea in people's minds

This is undoubtedly true. And it is a sad reflection of the weakness of our system, our historical actions, and the intellectual capabilities of our citizenry that it is as highly effective as it is. Trump will destroy The West if he is elected in November. And plenty of Americans don't have a problem with that because they don't understand what it means. Which is a consequence of neoliberal privatization and deregulation of all social programs, including public education.

As Malcolm X said, this is Chickens Coming Home to Roost. And, unfortunately for us who live in the United States today, an innumerable number of Chickens are coming home to roost in our very near future. I wish I had been born in Denmark or Norway - at least their social democratic safety nets would allow my community to thrive as the world burns around us

I can't disagree with the age argument, these dinosaurs need to step aside and let the world change.

I do want to know what exactly Biden has genocided. The two groups in this world who are driving genocides are Putin's and Netanyahu's regimes. Biden has no control over them, and the only group that could enact a foreign policy to do anything here in the US is Congress. So if anyone is complicit in that, it's our "Currently Genocidal by Inaction Congress."

I get it though, doesn't roll as nicely off the tongue.

[Edit: a poster below pointed out that my joke was bad and I should feel bad. ]

Camilla was a poor choice at vp no matter how you swing it given the current progressive opinion on police.

Age: Yup, mostly.

On the bright side, neither President would likely actually do much of anything personally, but rather act as a prop for whatever team they choose to actually accomplish things behind the scenes.

And while I do worry about Biden's age, I also worry about Trump's too. What choices are we being offered there even? That ship has already sailed.

To be fair to Biden, he did keep his promise to those railway workers, to stay with them to negotiate better terms. They lost the urgency to have it all done prior to the holiday season, but they gained his involvement and that might even have worked out better for them than if they had tried it alone? But I truly don't know the details there, b/c while the news media splashed it up every single day when it was inflationary, they dropped it like a rock when he quietly got stuff done in the background.

He has delivered on at least some of his promises to workers. He needs to do more ofc, but also, he has been working towards that goal - e.g. it was REALLY, SUPER, EXTREMELY difficult to have lowered gas prices, and the ethics of how it eventually got done are even more than a little shady but... he managed it? Not everyone drives a car ofc, but both those who need one to get to work and those who buy things at stores should be highly grateful to him, but instead they just want more.

As they should - we all NEED more. And if elected again, he will work towards that, just as he has in the last four years. Though most of the lack of progress is due to Congressional bickering and in-fighting - did you know that the fiscal year for 2024 began back in fucking OCTOBER!? We are now in month number fucking SIX, almost ready to begin number seven, and we STILL do not have a budget for THIS YEAR!!! That is not the job of the President, that is solely on the feet of people like Matt Gaetz and Kevin McCarthy and now Mike Johnson. Speaking of, Trump will do even less for the working-man - he will CLAIM to do more, but he will ACTUALLY do less, just as he did before too, which is the largest part of what got us into this mess in the first place - e.g. with supply lines disrupted b/c of so very many truckers who flat-out died from COVID.

It helps to read between the lines: a President CANNOT simply "raise the minimum wage" - that's not within their job capabilities - he can only be receptive to and even outright PUSH Congress to do that. Which he sort has done but... see above.

Silent Genocide Joe and Prosecutor Kamala Harris are not America’s saviors neither is Trump

Abso-fucking-lutely. But we still have a choice what to do about it. Though one thing I agree with: Biden and Harris are NOT "the same" as Trump. Bad yes, but nowhere close to equally so. And "support" means different things depending on the context: imagine an abused spouse needing to divorce and get away - remaining there vs. leaving are both "bad" options, but one will result in a much better outcome, eventually, while the other may be suicide. It is not that they "want" to, they HAVE to, b/c the alternative is SO MUCH worse off. I feel your pain - I abso-fucking-lutely share it, but in a way, I suppose I "support" Biden too, as the lesser of two evils. (And even there, my main reservation is his advanced age, which as I mentioned earlier, what choice are we even being offered there at all, when his opponent is even older than him!?)

I do not know the specifics, but some kind of a contract - "provide for the defense against attack" and such.

Ofc you could argue that genocide could invalidate that contract, though much like the outright war crimes happening in Ukraine, you would have to prove that, to a governing body (and again, doesn't Israel have a veto power there?). Also Biden then loses any negotiation leverage he had to employ the carrot rather than the stick.

Also, there is whatever reason (cough oil cough) that we made the contract in the first place. If gas prices suddenly spike through the roof, Americans will complain bitterly and LOUDLY, and place ALL of the blame onto Biden, with NONE of it going to Israel.

Also, none of this matters really, b/c the job of President entails enforcing the contracts, not making up new ones - that is the job of Congress, who despite the fact that the 2024 federal budget started last October (look it up) STILL has not managed to pass the budget for THIS YEAR, 2024. We are nearly halfway through the ENTIRE YEAR - five months and 2 & 1/2 weeks behind us already - and despite ousting McCarthy and replacing him with Johnson, Congress is still gridlocked. Especially on this matter. And on Ukraine. And on the border. And on literally everything else.

People forget: but it is the job of Congress, not the President, to make funding decisions, like what monies go to what other country - otherwise he is bound to simply enforce whatever contracts were PREVIOUSLY signed, and there is only so much he can do to change that without their approval. This is what democracy looks like: to enforce the will of the people, who unfortunately are a divided nation right now, particularly on this matter where half the nation wants to send aid to Hamas, while the other half wants to send further aid (as in MOAR weapons) instead to Israel.