This action is a huge blow to the tar sands overall, and if the other pipeline gets too many set backs the tar sands might actually fold from lack of investment.
I had literally zero hopes for Biden, and this is already a net good. Consider me surprised.
i don't think i am going to convince anyone of my beliefs by hiding those beliefs. if i want to convince someone that the Democratic party is structurally incapable of preventing the incineration of the entire earth, i ought to tell them the truth about the party, which is that its seemingly progressive moves are never as radical as the press portrays, nor as bold as is necessary, and are generally meant to reduce political pressure and criticism from the activist left.
None of that is incompatible with what I'm suggesting. All I'm saying is to acknowledge small good things as small good things that need to be followed by much more, because writing off every positive development with "that's effectively worthless" will make anyone not on your side think you're unreasonable, or just an ass.
Imagine you wanted to run a marathon but were terribly out of shape. You tell Frank about this goal, and that you've started eating better. "Lol that's nowhere near what you need to be doing," he says. So you go out the next day and run, but all you do is half a mile. When you tell him, again it's "Yeah that's basically worthless if that's all you've got." You're sore, so you rest for two days and run a full mile on the third. Frank says, "You think you can just casually run whenever you feel perfect? You think a fucking mile is going to get you through this marathon? Christ, it took you 12 minutes? It's not even worth talking about."
That's what people sound like when they write off anything that doesn't by itself solve a huge part of the problem. That's what libs -- who are far too willing to believe Democrats are doing the best they can -- hear when Democrats do something decent and it's dismissed as nothing. You can be right -- Frank is right when he said you need to do a lot more to run a marathon -- but it's going to turn most people off.