Biden Running For POTUS

Hat tip to Naked Capitalism from the Water Cooler section. Here's the set up:

In the last week and a half, Newsweek has run two articles pitching a single-term Biden presidency to restore normalcy to American politics—one by Matthew Cooper titled, “Joe Biden Can Beat Trump in 2020, But Will the Democratic Party Let Him Run?,” and another by Gertz Kuntzman titled, “Biden Should Make James K. Polk’s One-Term Pledge and ‘Make America Normal Again.’”

This is a long article with detailed analysis. I will just highlight the main points the author makes against the Senator from MBNA:

Biden also demonstrated his fealty to finance in 2005 when he, like Hillary Clinton, backed the innocuously named Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, heavily pushed by MBNA, which weakened bankruptcy protections for consumers.

Biden is even closer to Wall Street than Clinton:

He’s been a strong Wall Street ally

One of the main criticisms of Hillary Clinton this past election was that she was inexorably close to Wall Street, having accepted campaign contributions from the likes of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, and of course, her paid speeches. Well, Biden may just be worse.

Biden "may just be worse" on lots of issues:

He wrote the original ‘94 crime bill and has defended it ever since.

. . .

Another Clinton-era policy Alexander targeted the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee for was the 1994 crime bill which, among other things, allocated $10 billion for the construction of new prisons and incentivised states to pass “truth-in-sentencing” laws. Such laws take discretion away from judges by requiring violent offenders to serve a minimum of 85 percent of their prison terms. Hillary Clinton’s infamous and racially-charged justification for the law—gangs of kids called “superpredators” needed to be brought “to heel”—became a hurdle her campaign arguably failed to clear in the general.

Maybe Atty. Gen. Sessions could be Biden's VP:

He’s a proponent of the War on Drugs

If progressives weren’t thrilled with Hillary Clinton’s milquetoast answers regarding medical marijuana, they’re really going to despise Biden’s record on drug policy. As Matt Ferner and Nick Wing of Huffington Post reported back in September of 2015, he co-sponsored the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 which expanded civil asset forfeitures in which law enforcement seize property suspected of being involved in a crime, without Due Process. Ferner and Wing continue on to explain that “Biden authored portions of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which created a 100-to-1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine.”

Biden is a warhawk:

He voted for the Iraq War

(nuff said)

Tough on security issues too!

He voted and likely laid the groundwork for the USA PATRIOT Act

Biden not only voted ‘yea,’ like Clinton, he arguably helped lay the foundation of the PATRIOT Act half a decade before it was passed . . . (Analysis omitted)

Probably not getting support from Dreamers:

He voted for the 2006 border fence. (Analysis omitted)

Again like Clinton, then-Senator Biden cast a ‘yea’ vote for the bill.

The Millennials will not like Biden at all:

He’s unreliable (at best) on Net Neutrality

Biden has long been a skeptic of net neutrality. In 2006, as a senator, he expressed the view that preemptive regulation on ISPs to guarantee the free and open internet were unnecessary. That position hadn’t changed by 2008.

No comment:

He voted for NAFTA and supported the TPP

The best reason for Biden not to run. Do the Democrats really want to go there again?

His candidacy would inevitably mean rehashing the same battles which Clinton’s 2016 general election loss already settled. Much as journalists and pundits are looking for familiarity in the face of a changing political landscape, polling at this point seems to indicate that if a septuagenarian is going to be the nominee, it will likely be the most popular active politician, Sen. Bernie Sanders. What better formula could there be for winning the next election than running the candidate who arguably would have won the last one?

Lots more details here:

www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/01/the-case-against-joe-biden.html

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Bollox Ref's picture

I seem to remember it being when the 99% get shafted and the 1% get to design bad cabana shirts.

In other words, business as usual.

If Biden is the answer, we need to take a good look at the question.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

thanatokephaloides's picture

@Bollox Ref

If Biden is the answer, we need to

.... be asking a whole other question!

Smile

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Bollox Ref's picture

@thanatokephaloides

Biden appears to be the default position for the so-called 'Democrats'.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

orlbucfan's picture

@Bollox Ref the GOPukes are already quietly targeting Medicare and Medicaid for privatization. They are stupidly trying to sneak by the voters. I drool at the prospects of finally seeing them and their fascist craporate lords and masters get squashed. DINOs, too. Rec'd!!

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Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

dervish's picture

@Bollox Ref I'll never forgive him for the bankruptcy bill.

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

snoopydawg's picture

He allowed Anita Hill to be silenced and shamed

Thomas had been accused of sexual harassment by his employee from the Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Anita Hill. The Senate hearings which Biden presided over, were particularly galling in retrospect as Hill’s testimony gave rise to interrogation by white men who attacked her personal credibility. Ultimately, Thomas was cleared and his nomination given the green light.

If I read one more article about how the democrats didn't learn any lessons after the election I'm going to come undone. Or one that says "If the democrats want to win back congress, they need to do ......"

Everyone knows what they need to do and so do they. The fact is they don't care if they're in charge or not. Well maybe they do, but if they are they know that people expect them to do something for us and that's not what they want to do. They are very happy being the Washington Generals and looking like they want to pass decent legislation that will help us, but geebus those republicans are just so mean. How much do spine transplants cost? Remember that one one?

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg longer to be in charge, at least not yet. Trump and his idiot crew are almost done putting into place things that will take decades to recover from. These parasitic Dems are fine sucking off the country, whining all the while, ginning up the latest outrage and feeding it carefully. It's a game for them, as long as they get their payoff they're fine "losing."

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

snoopydawg's picture

@lizzyh7

People are saying that Trump is ruining the country, but he's just the puppet for the ones pulling his strings in the background. All anyone needs to do is whisper sweet nothings in his ears and make it look like they are his ideas and he will sign anything put in front of him. What's happening is what congress has wanted to do for decades. Tax cuts, deregulation, cuts to the safety net and privatization of SS, MC and MD. HUD was defunded by 22% this year. Available homes for section 8 decreased from 11-4% during 2010-2016. The number of available places for people to live have wait lists up to 8 years in some states. This is just one more stain on this country that started during Reagan's presidency, but it's being accelerated within the last decade. All out assault on everyone who isn't f*cking rich!

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Daenerys's picture

@snoopydawg We're still having issues with our apartment back in Utah; I spent an hour on the phone today trying to get things cleared up. I called housing authority numbers and the recording at the West Valley one said applications for section 8 are currently closed and they have no idea when they'll be taking them again. Sad (It was useless btw since we weren't on section 8 or public housing and that's all they handle. Go figure.)

Anyway if by "make America normal again" they mean keep on with handouts for the 1% and corporate welfare and kicking the rest of the 99% while we're down then no thanks. BARF!!

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This shit is bananas.

snoopydawg's picture

@Daenerys

If they aren't taking any applications for housing that's a very bad sign for everyone in the area. Homelessness has started rising again for the first time since the depression repression and a lot of the problem is the hurricanes and the fires. There aren't enough people who work in construction anymore and with that many people needing rentals the people who are homeless for other reasons are being pushed to the back of the lines. The houses that are in the section 8 choices are beyond heinous. I looked at the ones available when I had a voucher and I just couldn't imagine living in them. Disgusting is too kind of word to describe them and they were also in dangerous neighborhoods. Drugs, crime and gangs, oh yippee.

Gee, maybe congress could find some money for this issue. Create a jobs program and build houses for the people who need them. One other thing that is adding to this is the banks and other financial institutions bought up huge blocks of foreclosed homes and are renting them out at very high prices. Even regular people are purchasing homes for pennies on the dollar after they are foreclosed on. Again, congress could pass legislation that made mortgage companies work with homes owners who could afford their houses if they could get their mortgages modified. Another article I didn't bookmark.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Daenerys's picture

@snoopydawg they aren't sending us a bill for the last month of rent that we owe, but they sent the entire remainder of our lease to collections immediately after we moved out, and they rented it again the next month. Part of the problem is they changed the management company right after we moved and turned over the entire office. The manager I spoke to today said we only owe $766, but collections claims we owe $3400-something. We're trying to get the apartment management to send us a bill for the $766 so we can pay it and be done with it. It's already dinged our credit score. She said she emailed the collection company the revised amount last week but they called last night still asking for the same amount. Like do you really think the collection company is going to change it on their end?? I intend to keep harassing them until we get a real bill.

Anyway I know public housing is shit. I don't know what it's like in the twin cities area but I imagine it's the same story. Ain't it great? Gotta get on a waiting list for years just to get into some shitty run-down slum in the bad part of town. Disgusting is too mild a word. But we're better off than a lot of countries!! (BARF)

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This shit is bananas.

Meteor Man's picture

@snoopydawg

How real estate barons and investment bankers plotted the destruction of working-class New York.

From Jacobin:

The latter constituted so-called “planned shrinkage” policy of the mid-seventies, which cut off public services (transit, sanitation, police, and fire safety) to poor and working-class communities in order to drive them out of the city. The attitude underpinning planned shrinkage is best summed up in these remarks by the Housing and Development Administration chief at the time, Roger Starr:

We should not encourage people to stay where their job possibilities are daily becoming more remote. Stop the Puerto Ricans and the rural blacks from living in the city … reverse the role of the city … it can no longer be a place of opportunity… Our urban system is based on the theory of taking the peasant and turning him into an industrial worker. Now there are no industrial jobs. Why not keep him a peasant?

www.jacobinmag.com/2018/01/new-york-gentrification-real-estate-deindustr...

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

snoopydawg's picture

@Meteor Man

And that it's being done on purpose. NYC isn't the only place that it's happening. SF has a huge housing problem too and I bet it's happening in all major cities. As I've stated, we're seeing an all out assault from the PTB with the help of congress. In no sane world would this be happening. The U.K. is also being hit with austerity policies as is France, Brazil and some of the countries that used to have great policies that helped people. How much longer will we be compliant with this war against us? I don't see it ending well for us if we try to do something.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Pluto's Republic's picture

@Meteor Man

...surpassed the rate of homelessness during the Great Depression.

When I mentioned that to a friend in New York, he told me that it is the fault of the homeless people. He explained that when you can't afford the rent in the city, then you move out to one of the boroughs. Or even further away. Then you get up much earlier and commute to work. He told me that when he and his wife were first married, they had to move to Brooklyn for cheaper housing. That's what everyone has done for decades, he said. But now, when the average rent has soared to more than the average person can earn in a month, they aren't leaving. Instead, they live on the streets, and that's why the homeless rate looks so high. But that's a "false statistic."

My first thought was that only a Democrat (he is with Her) would take the time to explain the homeless myth to me so that I could understand it. A Republican would merely blurt: "We shouldn't let these bums into New York in the first place."

There's a subtle difference between the two.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

@Pluto's Republic He's a New York transplant from the Midwest who is constantly telling us the superiority of NYC over everywhere else in the known universe. This is exactly the same logic he would use. I haven't had this exact conversation with him, but I have heard a "blame the homeless" streak in talking to him before. Oh, and he just had to move back to the Midwest because he couldn't afford his literal shithole apartment in the city anymore and didn't own reliable transportation to move farther out.

He was solidly with Her and still is. I mean, aggressively anti-Sanders, anti-Greens "with HER".

As I understand it, he pretty much spends his days now wallowing in self-pity because he had to move and telling everyone how they don't understand how African-Americans feel. (He's white.) I haven't figured out how that registers with the casual antisemitism he's picked up since being out there, but I digress. Needless to say, I don't spend much time with him if I don't have to. I haven't figured out if his attitude was a New York thing or a Her thing or where it came from.

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Pluto's Republic There's a difference between moving to Brooklyn and moving out past Newark, you ass.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Pluto's Republic And you're right about the Republicans. Though I remember that in the 80s, there were Republicans that sounded just like the guy you were talking to. They've all migrated into the Democratic party and now they pretend they care about social justice for everyone who isn't poor.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Pluto's Republic to be homeless. I actually had a friend say that, one that I work on constantly to get her out of the stupid bubble. But those old platitudes she and the rest of us have been fed over the years once in a while come roaring out. It's supply and demand, don't we know that? I think I set her straight there but you never know. Today's naivete from her was that SS is "broke anyway, right?" Jesus. Of course I will rebut that shit, as I constantly do.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Meteor Man Or just change the climate so he starves to death? All seven and a half billion of him.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Meteor Man's picture

@snoopydawg
Has been updated and seems to taking productive steps in the right direction:

Backbone Campaign's Artful Activism is bold, principled, powerful, and invigorates social movements striving for equity and justice.

http://www.backbonecampaign.org

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Outsourcing Is Treason's picture

Biden wrote that awful bankruptcy bill.

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"Please clap." -- Jeb Bush

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

Will the Democratic Party Let Him Run?

Pretty much says it all about both the state of the Party and the state of Joe Biden.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Not Henry Kissinger That's *funny*.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Lenzabi's picture

DNC elites want to play with the same old, lame old that lost them 2016, and may also lose 2018 with their republican-Lite brand. they are forever lost.

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So long, and thanks for all the fish

Big Al's picture

make sure they follow the red election ball and not get outside their little boxes, maybe a revolution or something. Biden won't run, he's too fucking old for one, but there's one thing that everyone always forgets.
He's a war criminal. As V.P. he participated in the decision making process with fellow war criminal Obama in committing war crimes.
I can't believe I'm the only one who ever says this.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Big Al He might run. Biden/Kamala Harris. I could see it.
Since it's about nothing but maintaining a pretense, that kind of changes the rules of campaign politics.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Meteor Man's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
One (or two) terms for Joe and two terms for Oprah. Then two terms for Oprah's VP and all of our problems are solved.

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

@Big Al
who ever says X is a war criminal in the context of electoral success because you're the only one who thinks it has an effect on the outcome.

Being a war criminal did not have a quantifiable effect on Hillary's loss.

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TheLeftistheCenter's picture

Biden is just a neolib with a kinder gentler front, but hes as beholden as any and very flub prone so would likely end up pulling a Hillary and losing.

Its obvious they are trying to blunt Bernie now and create their 'star' candidate and then use Hillary losing as an excuse to blame Bernie and not let him run again in the party so 'he doesnt hurt' their chosen one.

Bernie is the only real Pres candidate thats any threat to the establishment exactly because he can win with out taking a penny from them, so im pretty sure after the last close call scare they are just going to not let him run in the party, which is what I think Bernie actually wants at this point. There is no way to win indy cold, but if the party publicly doesnt allow him in, then they give him the cover he would need to run indy without alienating many but the establishment tools.

Many dems who voted for Hillary still liked Bernie, but they just bought into the 'experienced and cant lose' bullshit which will be a lot less convincing next time around so with the party giving cover Bernie could be the real fist contender for an indy win because he actually draws from the right and the left, plus I think that would spur a lot of 'dont bother to vote's to actually come out and vote.

I would love Biden vs Bernie vs Trump, not that Bernie would guaranteed win, but that it creates that opportunity the establishment does everything to prevent because it will be a real shot at breaking the rigged game and also forcing the dems to shit progressive or just get off the pot.

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riverlover's picture

candidate, ostensibly on the D side. This is getting tiresome already and I #DemExited a long time ago.

The test flag-raising will continue. I hope it bores the Hillarybots. She will try again, I fear. Look for another tell-all book soon. From Her. Gosh, I am cynical.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

"Shook it up in east Virginia, now my friends say I'm here to stay. I'm a three time loser."

Joe Biden is a disease, call him Mr. Primary 'cause that's where he takes the piss for President. Every time. Run Joe Run! He thinks everything is a "BFD" now, Hollywood appearances blew that empty head up bigger than Trump's Richard Cranium hat. It will be hilarious, I think.

see joe run

D-Value 2020 Debate: Harris, Booker, harpO, Biden. LOL! Please laugh? I'm dead already. Death by focus group.

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They've been grooming Biden for a while now, that's pretty obvious. But I'm curious how an old, white, male politician with the Anita Hill hearings in his past and a (rumored) history of being a groper plays in the #metoo identity politics era they've helped push? Aside from his disastrous policy leanings, which no one but us crazies seem to pay attention to, this is the stuff that gets people's attention. Unless they throw some cold water on all that, I'm not sure how Biden doesn't fracture the party further or at least increase the apathy even further (which could be the issue.)

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

What exactly would "normal" be?

I presume, the Obama Administration, of which Biden was a part?

Did the Oprah thing flop, or was it just a way to make people more inclined to run to Biden's arms?

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

jorogo's picture

Can't leave unmentioned perhaps the most globally-threatening facet of Biden's mania - his unquestioning support for the US-facilitated-and-backed fascist coup regime in Ukraine, a key policy issue capable of unlocking military, possibly including nuclear confrontation with Russia.

If you can stomach more than a gut-full of the neo-con Russia-phobic rhetoric and outright lies supporting their "report", this can serve to give you a sense of why Biden is referred to as "Uncle Joe" by such fascist-leaning elements.

ForeignPolicy.com's "What Will Ukraine Do Without Uncle Joe?"

Uncle Joe and fascist friends_1.jpg
Photo Credit: Getty Images/Foreign Policy illustration

The Biden Effect

Ukraine’s government has relied heavily on its direct channel to the U.S. vice president, and Biden’s departure will leave a gaping hole. The vice president’s impact is largely based on the force of his big personality, his backing from Obama, and his long track record of promoting a robust American role in Eastern Europe — from supporting NATO’s enlargement to pushing for U.S. military intervention in the Balkans in the 1990s.

There's more here....lots more. A good, sickening read. No mention, however of Hunter Biden earning somehow finding his way into a position on the board of Burisma Holdings, Ukraine's largest private gas firm.

IMHO - Corrupt as Hillary, unhinged as Trump. IOW - great choice for the Dem's nominee.

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"If I sit silently, I have sinned." - Mossadegh

It seems that the question involves, can we fool enough of the people (long) enough of the time to get good old Uncle Biden in to continue and advance what TPTB are guiding Trump to do in cementing The Plan while keeping both the people and Leaky Old Biden censored, until it's too late? Making the answer, of course, more censorship and propaganda. Not to mention more, and more private, (in more than one sense,) electoral cheating.

Some of Biden's more revealingly verbal Bush-like moments (Bush: R for Research into how to implement a fascist state; Biden: D: for how to Develop it, for the final solution.)

https://www.thoughtco.com/top-joe-biden-gaffes-2734434

The Top 10 Joe Biden Quotes and Gaffes

... 6. "You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.... I'm not joking." --Joe Biden, in a private remark to an Indian-American man caught on C-SPAN, June, 2006

5. "When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed.

He said, 'Look, here's what happened." –Joe Biden, apparently unaware that FDR wasn't president when the stock market crashed in 1929 and that only experimental TV sets were in use at that time, interview with Katie Couric, Sept. 22, 2008

4. "Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America.

Quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me." --Joe Biden, speaking at a town hall meeting in Nashua, New Hampshire, Sept. 10, 2008

3. "Look, John's last-minute economic plan does nothing to tackle the number-one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S, jobs." --Joe Biden, Athens, Ohio, Oct. 15, 2008

2. "Stand up, Chuck, let 'em see ya." –-Joe Biden, to Missouri state Sen. Chuck Graham, who is in a wheelchair, Columbia, Missouri, Sept. 12, 2008 ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q1z532U7hE

Joe Biden Says Dumb Things
DavidsProductions

Published on 20 Sep 2008

This 2nd video cuts the first part of the debate question shown on the previous video, (which I've left in mainly for that reason); the statements where he's a gaffe-machine, prior to the included question about whether he'd have the discipline required for the international stage, answering yes to howls of audience laughter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2w2JpBTHVc

WATCH JOE BIDEN'S GREATEST HITS AS VP | famos productions

Published on 24 Jul 2016

Former US Vice President Joe Biden's Greatest Hits, Gaffes, & Funny Moments from Speeches, Debates, Conventions etc. UPDATED FOR 2016. Includes: memes, shotgun, big stick, four letter word, big deal, anthony weiner, trump, biden rule...

http://www.africanewsanalysis.com/political-plagiarism-is-embarrassing-b...

Political Plagiarism Is Embarrassing but Quite Common – By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

09/01/2017

... During the late 1980s, for example, the now-outgoing Vice-President of the United States, Mr. Joseph Robinette Biden, was forced to drop out of a Democratic Party presidential-primary race when it came to light that he had been appropriating some memorable quotes from then-British Labor Party Leader Neil Kinnock without giving the requisite credit to the originator of those ideas. ...

Link is dead, but searched and found gold: this detailed and telling article, as timely now as then, is important in the context of a planned Biden run and of the all-for-profit-and-power-generated odds being stacked ever-higher against even near-term human species survival, should be read in full at source if at all possible and spread around. As we know, but too many may not, Biden's a combination/continuation of Bush-2, the Clintons and Trump, in an 'Uncle Joe' mask, and exactly what could be expected to be found eminently supportable by The Psychopaths That Be under current conditions.

This is more than an article; this gives the elements of an excellent and essential diagnosis of an example of the pathology which has taken over the US political/military system in the process of taking over the world, albeit rapidly destroying it in the process.

And it's rather worse than unfortunate that the (hardly inordinate) length of the following might discourage some, in a situation where (apart from other, device/bandwidth restriction-related, factors) so many people have been conditioned to sound-bytes which discourage the ability to follow any complex thought process or independently formulate/communicate any complex ideas, together with all hope of honing nuanced understanding and well-grounded critical thought... such qualities as these - together with human capacities such as empathy, ethics and longer-term thinking beyond the fulfillment of our own self-directed desires - being what's most needed right now to combat the Psychopaths That Shouldn't Be stealing what remains of our resources, democracy, lives, planet, future... even our history, via propaganda/censorship...

(Edit: Never mind, cut out some concerns which are, luckily, nothing. Slate page URL changes when you hit the bottom of the current page, before it changes to the next story, which I hadn't noticed before. Thank FSM! Have a lot of very weird computer stuff going on and getting paranoid, lol.)

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history_lesson/2008/08/t...

The Write Stuff?
Why Biden's plagiarism shouldn't be forgotten.
By David Greenberg
Aug. 25 2008

Also in Slate: Shmuel Rosner examined the "erratic pragmatism" of Biden's Middle East policy. Jack Shafer called Biden "the unusually creepy kind" of plagiarist.

... The incidents of plagiarism and fabrication that forced Joe Biden to quit the 1988 presidential race have drawn little comment since his selection as Barack Obama's vice presidential running mate—just as revelations of plagiarism by Stephen Ambrose and Doris Kearns Goodwin scarcely hurt their book sales. In 1987, before Biden quit the race, he called the incidents "a tempest in a teapot." Although most reporters disagreed then, at least enough to pursue the story, they seem now—perhaps jaded by two decades of scandal-mongering—to have come around to Biden's view.

But Biden's exit from the 1988 race is worth recalling in detail, because his transgressions far exceeded Obama's own relatively innocent lifting of rhetorical set pieces from his friend Deval Patrick, which occasioned a brief flap last February. Biden's misdeeds encompassed numerous self-aggrandizing thefts, misstatements, and exaggerations that seemed to point to a serious character defect. In some ways, the 1988 campaign—in which scandal forced not just Biden but also Gary Hart from the race—marked a watershed in the absurd gotcha politics that have since marred our politics and punditry. ...

... What is certain is that Biden didn't simply borrow the sort of boilerplate that counts as common currency in political discourse—phrases like "fighting for working families." What he borrowed was Kinnock's life.

Biden lifted Kinnock's precise turns of phrase and his sequences of ideas—a degree of plagiarism that would qualify any student for failure, if not expulsion from school. But the even greater sin was to borrow biographical facts from Kinnock that, although true about Kinnock, didn't apply to Biden. Unlike Kinnock, Biden wasn't the first person in his family history to attend college, as he asserted; nor were his ancestors coal miners, as he claimed when he used Kinnock's words. ...

...Michael Dukakis' adviser John Sasso had seen the Kinnock tape. Without his boss's knowledge or consent, he prepared a video juxtaposing the two men's speeches and got it into the hands of Dowd at the Times, David Yepsen of the Des Moines Register, and NBC News. When the story broke on Sept. 12, Biden was gearing up to chair the Supreme Court nomination hearings for Robert Bork, Ronald Reagan's far-right nominee. Biden angrily denied having done anything wrong and urged the press to chase after the political rival who had sent out what came to be called the "attack video."

Unfortunately for Biden, more revelations of plagiarism followed, distracting him from the Bork hearings. ...

...If that wasn't bad enough, Biden admitted the next day that while in law school he had received an F for a course because he had plagiarized five pages from a published article in a term paper that he submitted. He admitted as well that he had falsely stated that British Labor official Denis Healey had given him the Kinnock tape. (Healey had denied the claim.) ... The latter two of these fibs were small potatoes by any reckoning, but in the context of other acts of dishonesty, they helped to form a bigger picture. ...

... Newsweek soon reported on a C-SPAN videotape from the previous April that showed Biden berating a heckler at a campaign stop. While lashing out at the audience member, Biden defended his academic credentials by inflating them, in a fashion that was notably unbecoming and petty for a presidential candidate.

"I think I probably have a much higher IQ than you do, I suspect," Biden sniped at the voter. "I went to law school on a full academic scholarship." That claim was false, as was another claim, made in the same rant, that he graduated in the top half of his law-school class. Biden wrongly stated, too, that he had earned three undergraduate degrees, when in fact he had earned one ...

... The sheer number and extent of Biden's fibs, distortions, and plagiarisms struck many observers at the time as worrisome, to say the least. ...

The press should give his record since 1988 a thorough vetting. It's worth knowing whether the odds-on favorite to be our next vice president has truly reformed himself of behavior that can often be the mark of a deeply troubled soul.

Despite the use of selected portions, in partial paragraphs, there is sufficient presented above to show the blatant indications of a ingrained degree of pathology with which we have become all too familiar; the first section quoted demonstrates the increased level of the capture of the corporate media by 2008 since the previous instance cited, from 1987, and the totality of Biden's character issues of concern, as taken with the 2nd and other references throughout, all reinforcing this and speaking of easily identifiable psychopathy of the (generally) allied and Mafia-like sort of organized fascist thuggery which has lied/cheated/bought/bribed/blackmailed/bullied its way into control over the governments - and from there the media, markets and military - of America and too many other countries of the world.

(Below) Some hopes need their diapers changed...

https://www.quotes.net/authors/Joe+Biden

Famous quotes by »
Joe Biden
...
Found on CNN
7 months ago

America will never, ever, ever stand down, we are Boston. We are America. We respond, we endure, we overcome and we own the finish line.

– Joe Biden

...

Found on CNN
8 months ago

Yeah, I am. I'm going to run in 2020.

– Joe Biden

...

Found on CNN
8 months ago

We came to Toronto with three specific goals: to make sure the global (economic) recovery is strong and durable; to continue reforming the financial system; and to address the range of global issues that affect our prosperity and security. And we made progress in each of these areas.

– Joe Biden

Found on CNN
9 months ago

I hope that the current administration lives up to the promises it has made to advance human rights for everyone by raising this issue directly with Russia's leaders, the United States must lead the way to demand an end to these egregious violations of human rights.

– Joe Biden

...

Found on CNN
1 year ago

We are watching Iran like a hawk, if Iran violates the deal the U.S. will act. The U.S. will act. Our commitment is unambiguous.

– Joe Biden

Found on CNN
1 year ago

There is no excuse for killing innocents or remaining silent in the face of terrorism.

– Joe Biden

Found on Reuters
1 year ago

We're committed to making sure that Israel can defend itself against all serious threats, maintain its qualitative edge with a quantity sufficient to maintain that.

– Joe Biden

...

Found on CNN
2 years ago

This party, our nation will be making a tragic mistake if we walk away or attempt to undo the Obama legacy, the American people have worked too hard and we've come too far for The American people. Democrats should not only defend this record and protect this record, The American people should run on the record.

...

Found on CNN
2 years ago

Folks, the American people are with us. I know it doesn't feel that way, but I'm telling you, I'm telling you the American people agree with us.

– Joe Biden

...

Found on FOX News
2 years ago

Ukraine is fighting for their very survival right now, russia continues to escalate the conflict by sending mercenaries and tanks we euphemistically [call].

– Joe Biden

...

Found on FOX News
2 years ago

President Putin continues to call for new peace plans as his troops roll through the Ukrainian countryside and he absolutely ignores every agreement that his country has signed in the past and he has signed recently, we, the United States, and Europe as a whole, have to stand with Ukraine at this moment. Ukraine needs our financial assistance and support as it pursues reforms and even in the face, in the face of this military onslaught.

– Joe Biden

...

NO MORE EVIL, Please!

7th try at posting this, keep getting 'can't find server' but could on a page I just opened, to see if it had gone through anyway...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

WaterLily's picture

@Ellen North If Biden does, in fact, turn out to be an actual candidate for 2020, please turn this comment into a full-blown essay so that more eyes will see it, and spread it.

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@WaterLily

I was hoping that someone better equipped might do that - hint! lol

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Amanda Matthews's picture

I’ve always been tickled when ignorant Dims talk about this guys ‘progressive’ credentials. He’s been itching for a war with Russia for decades. Anybody else remember this letter authored by the PNAC ack in 2004 that he sugned?

An Open Letter to the Heads of State and Government
Of the European Union and NATO
September 28, 2004

As citizens of the Euro-Atlantic community of democracies, we wish to express our sympathy and solidarity with the people of the Russian Federation in their struggle against terrorism. The mass murderers who seized School No. 1 in Beslan committed a heinous act of terrorism for which there can be no rationale or excuse. While other mass murderers have killed children and unarmed civilians, the calculated targeting of so many innocent children at school is an unprecedented act of barbarism that violates the values and norms of our community and which all civilized nations must condemn.

At the same time, we are deeply concerned that these tragic events are being used to further undermine democracy in Russia. Russia's democratic institutions have always been weak and fragile. Since becoming President in January 2000, Vladimir Putin has made them even weaker. He has systematically undercut the freedom and independence of the press, destroyed the checks and balances in the Russian federal system, arbitrarily imprisoned both real and imagined political rivals, removed legitimate candidates from electoral ballots, harassed and arrested NGO leaders, and weakened Russia's political parties. In the wake of the horrific crime in Beslan, President Putin has announced plans to further centralize power and to push through measures that will take Russia a step closer to authoritarian regime.

We are also worried about the deteriorating conduct of Russia in its foreign relations. President Putin's foreign policy is increasingly marked by a threatening attitude towards Russia's neighbors and Europe's energy security, the return of rhetoric of militarism and empire, and by a refusal to comply with Russia's international treaty obligations. In all aspects of Russian political life, the instruments of state power appear to be being rebuilt and the dominance of the security services to grow. We believe that this conduct cannot be accepted as the foundation of a true partnership between Russia and the democracies of NATO and the European Union.

These moves are only the latest evidence that the present Russian leadership is breaking away from the core democratic values of the Euro-Atlantic community. All too often in the past, the West has remained silent and restrained its criticism in the belief that President Putin's steps in the wrong direction were temporary and the hope that Russia would soon return to a democratic and pro-Western path. Western leaders continue to embrace President Putin in the face of growing evidence that the country is moving in the wrong direction and that his strategy for fighting terrorism is producing less and less freedom. We firmly believe dictatorship will not and cannot be the answer to Russia's problems and the very real threats it faces.

The leaders of the West must recognize that our current strategy towards Russia is failing. Our policies have failed to contribute to the democratic Russia we wished for and the people of this great country deserve after all the suffering they have endured. It is time for us to rethink how and to what extent we engage with Putin's Russia and to put ourselves unambiguously on the side of democratic forces in Russia. At this critical time in history when the West is pushing for democratic change around the world, including in the broader Middle East, it is imperative that we do not look the other way in assessing Moscow's behaviour or create a double standard for democracy in the countries which lie to Europe's East. We must speak the truth about what is happening in Russia. We owe it to the victims of Beslan and the tens of thousands of Russian democrats who are still fighting to preserve democracy and human freedom in their country.

http://web.archive.org/web/20070811110517/www.newamericancentury.org/rus...

In between Bergner and Bildt you’ll find the signature of:

Joseph R. Biden

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Daenerys's picture

Great, another (D) candidate showing open contempt for part of their supposed "base".

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This shit is bananas.

dervish's picture

Hillary can just run against Bush, ad nauseam, just like the pundits said she would. Why do we need any parties beyond the Bush and Clinton crime families?

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

@dervish

Maybe they still feel that they can fool some of the people (that there's still democracy in America) enough of the time by bringing out other CorpaDems to run (with billionaire approval) for high public/private office?

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

SnappleBC's picture

That's the thing. It isn't a rehashing. It's an ongoing battle. They will put up a plutocratic front man and we (the people) must fight that.

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

mimi's picture

to see who it is. Yacke-di-yack ...

Don't forget:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us-TVg40ExM]
and Joe Biden never sat on the Dock of the Bay.
[video:https://youtu.be/Es3Vsfzdr14]
Biden go home. It's time.

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