Biden News 1/9/2023
This will be brief.
An al Jazeera update on "Israel war on Gaza" has some thoughts:
‘Biden looks heartless or clueless’ -- this Tweet by Stephen Walt was picked up by al Jazeera
And this is a quote from a televised broadcast:
No US pressure on Israel beyond ‘doublespeak’ statements: Analyst
“Nothing in the US’s policy actions – beyond certain doublespeak that we see or tweets that are written by the teams of everybody from the secretary of state to the president of the United States and other members of the government – seems to signal that there is any material pressure on Israel,” Halawa told Al Jazeera’s Inside Story.
But, honestly, who can blame Team Biden for virtue signaling when that's what his audience demands:
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said US President Joe Biden should speak out against Israeli war crimes and the killing of journalists.
“Yet all we hear from administration officials are denials of the obvious genocide taking place and actions in support of that genocide, forced starvation and ethnic cleansing,” CAIR Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said in a statement.
“The majority of Americans reject the Biden administration’s hypocritical and inhumane stance on the unfolding genocide in Gaza. It is time for President Biden to align his statements and actions with the will of the American people and call for an immediate ceasefire and a just and lasting peace.”
Wouldn't it be better if CAIR merely asked Biden to be honest? If he really supports genocide, the better to get him out of the White House in a year.
Meanwhile, in the "not popular policy" category, we have this:
Biden speech in South Carolina church interrupted by protesters They're also in Dallas.
So what happens in these campaign stops? Joe Biden is attacking a prior Donald Trump statement about the economy:
Biden slams Trump for ‘revealing twisted true colors,’ hoping the economy crashes in 2024
That's not a surprise. It's interesting, though, that Joe Biden is campaigning in states where, in November, electoral votes will probably not go to Joe Biden.
Also --
Joe Biden to Upend Millions of Americans' Jobs Under New Rule
This one's a puzzle.
With the new legislation, independent contractors would be entitled to the same benefits and legal protections as regularly employed workers. It would replace the Trump administration's regulation that said any workers who own their own business or have the ability to work for competing companies can be treated as contractors.
So what sort of benefits do "regularly employed workers" have these days? I guess I was occasionally one of those. It seems to me that management cuts their hours so that they're classified as "part-time," so -- in short -- they don't get benefits. So being an "independent contractor" -- that's a legal designation, a step away from "part-time employee," but apparently not a big one for a lot of businesses.
Comments
Protester video, and The Duran covers Raytheon Man
First the protester video:
then The Duran:
"the Democratic Party is not 'left'." -- Sabrina Salvati
The statements from Biden lately are weird
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"I have been quietly discussing the Palestine problem with Nutty yahoo."
oh sure, that's reassuring
Regarding the ongoing genocide: "There is nothing I can do."
should have added "about anything"
does not reflect well on his mental disabilities
"There is nothing I can do"
means "don't even think of asking me to stop sending bombs to Israel."
One reason I've been doing these "Biden news" diaries is that there's a curious situation going on with Biden's campaign. The only pitch he can find that he thinks will gain him any traction is the "Trump is worse" pitch. But it's quite unclear at this point whether or not Trump will survive all of these ninety-something charges that have been brought against him! So if Trump is convicted before the Republicans meet in the summer to choose a Presidential candidate, or even afterward, then what?
"the Democratic Party is not 'left'." -- Sabrina Salvati
someone once said "democracy is messy"
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considering we do not even have a democracy here it is more than messy
the DNC is not entertaining the idea of primary challengers, so it seems
they are putting all their eggheads in one basket.
'Trump bad' didn't work for Hillary quite as well as planned.
They think this will work this time? Doubt it.
Granted they didn't have the bought and paid for DOJ to whittle
around the edges last time. Either they let him run or hell breaks loose.
How about,
among many other things, the fact that in dozens of US states, their election laws require a third party candidate to select his VP in the next month or two to be eligible for the general ballot, while major party candidates have until their late summer conventions to choose. Crazy unfair, and conveniently puts added pressure on the non-duopoly candidates.
On the VP for RFK Jr, mixed rumors over the weekend that he is going to select Tulsi Gabbard during his upcoming visit to Hawaii. Not sure if these rumors are true. But it wouldn't be a bad pick.
Works for me
Let's see how radical the voters get.
Haven't backed a winner in donkey years.
I just don't see
many other good picks for him, although the other rumor is that no, it won't be Tulsi but someone not on many radars at this time. Most of the online chatter about Kennedy VPs have mentioned Vivek, Rand Paul, Jesse Ventura and Justin Amash.
Jesse is too old for the younger look that is needed right now overall and for the ticket. And I don't like the idea of a Unity Ticket where he would select more of an R conservative type for supposed broader appeal. I'm a big believer in assassination insurance, something that the unity tickets for Lincoln and JFK lacked.
I wish Tulsi had more govt. experience--
my guess, just a guess, is that the Clinton machine saw to it that she would be out of office-- and that she was not married to a beach comber, but, overall, she would be about the best pick for Kennedy. With Harris on the Dem ticket, and Haley likely to be on the R side, he needs someone to appeal to the all-important testosterone-addled vote. (I don't like any of them, so I am going with the looker.) She is a good public speaker, has a fantastic persona, and he needs a surrogate out there campaigning for him. Democrats don't win the presidency without the three West coast states. If Tulsi can campaign throughout the west, where she ought to be popular and effective, if she can, as a veteran herself, articulate an anti-war, anti-imperial overstretch message, she could either help Kennedy win in the House of Representatives or set up groundwork for a new party in areas which both major parties thought they owned.
Mary Bennett
@wokkamile I liked Kennedy
I liked Kennedy until his rabid zionism came to the fore. If there isn't any difference in the USEmpire foreign policy, there is likely to be little difference with its domestic one.
At this point the empire is essentially in it's death throes. Might as well prepare for the collapse.
I feel exactly the same way about Kennedy.
I do not want my country to be Little Israel Lackey. The more vested in Israel the Zionists politicians become, the less interest I have in sharing the World's stage with that country.
I have read many experts say that as things are going, there will be no Israel in a decade.
I would like to spend at least a few years of my life free of the Israel shackles.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I'm giving him
the benefit of the doubt that at least in important part his very strong pro-Israel views are driven more by politics than not, and so on this one issue attitudes on the stump would diverge from atitudes taken once in office. As I see it, he's earned that with all his prior exc work fighting powerful interests on the environment, calling out sold out regulatory agencies, and of course his legal work in the covid vaccine mandate area. The latter factors go considerably beyond what the usual pol offers, which is mostly easy centrist rhetoric and safe positions taken, not effort expended and putting himself and his reputation on the line.
So RFK Jr has built a great deal of goodwill for this voter that cannot be swept away by this one dicey issue. If however he suddenly reversed gear and began beating the war drums against Ru, China or Iran, then it would be time for me to meet with my crack team of occasionally sober political advisers and decide on another course of action.
Genocide being whittled down to
"One dicey issue."
I didn’t have that on my bingo card….sheesh! Yeah what’s a few million more deaths of Palestinians as long as the rest of Kennedy’s agenda gets done. From his rhetoric I’m guessing that if he was president today he too would block the ceasefire and getting desperately needed aid into Gaza because they are naughty people and terrorists who hate Israel for no reason which puts him on par with Biden and Blinken.
Ahh well…one death is a tragedy while millions of deaths are considered a genocide. Or something like that.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
RFK Jr. is like "Maul" in Star Wars
He sounds educated and convincing and he's certainly capable of expressing some truths ignored by others, but he's gone over to the Dark Side. The end-result is that he will cause a lot of chaos. That is what he, like "Maul," is good for. The real question about RFK Jr.'s candidacy is one of whether anything of value will arise out of the chaos he causes.
"the Democratic Party is not 'left'." -- Sabrina Salvati
Sorry, not
familiar w the Star Wars reference. But a little chaos to shake things up in this rotten, rigged political system is probably not a bad thing.
Caitlin….
During Trump we found out that every new Secretary of State meets with the past ones who are still living so that the new guy gets on board with the plans that have been set in motion long ago. Trump was so ticked at what Brennan and Albright were doing he revoked their security clearances. If Kennedy gets elected he will follow what previous presidents have done. No he won’t bring the troops home and close bases. If he even suggested doing that he would be killed just like his father and uncle. Y’all do know why John Kennedy was killed right? Ever listen to his peace speech? It’s online.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Presidential races do matter -
-- just not in the way that is popularly acknowledged.
1) Caitlin Johnstone is right to acknowledge that there really aren't any good Presidents. The problem is that exceptionally bad Presidents open doors for legions of grifters. Foreign policy provides a good example of this phenomenon. Nixon and Reagan opened doors for the militarism of all of their successors, whereas Carter did not send in troops to Nicaragua to prop up the Somozas. It was Bush hijo and not Clinton who gave us the war on the world. And now we have Biden, whose team is bringing the war on the world to a new, terrifying, stage, in which hundreds of thousands of corpses pile up in new wars (Ukraine, Mideast) every two years. This phenomenon isn't that noticeable -- at least not yet -- because the difference between the exceptionally bad and the merely bad is a difference of degree. No President comes close to being good.
2) The current chaos with three candidates running outside of the major parties offers us an example of how it might be possible that a lot of people -- a much bigger chunk than in any of the previous elections -- could actually stand up to their politicians, could say to them: "we won't vote for any of you unless and until you quit your bullsh#t." And they could say this as a collective in a way that would have consequences.
3) The Sixties -- when you had most of the shadow government assassinations -- was a period in which a rather small population was allowed to think that it could change the world. The circumstances of that time allowed them to believe that they had more influence upon the world than was in fact the case. Real change awaits a much larger population of change agents than that which existed in the Sixties.
At any rate, it's just a ride.
"the Democratic Party is not 'left'." -- Sabrina Salvati
Great analysis, Cassiodorus
I guess you've seen this already, but might be of interest to others ...
If I wanted to be an Israeli,
I would move there.
I am sick of our Presidents bending the knee to that country at US and the world's peril. It is the red line for me.
Backing the genocide is like begging for terrorist attacks in our back yards.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
To each
his own red line. We're all a little different and come at these issues from different perspectives. RFK Jr, for me, has banked a considerable amount of goodwill and so I'm not going to toss him aside easily. YMMV.
And it would be a shame and crashing bore if we all agreed on every single issue or candidate, don't you think?
A bit of disagreement
about politics and religion is good for one's heart rate and heart health, IMHO!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Well...
The ethnographic subjects of Barbara Myerhoff's Number Our Days, a study of a Jewish senior center in Venice, California, used to get all hot and bothered in arguments about Zionism because arguing about politics eased their arthritis pains...
"the Democratic Party is not 'left'." -- Sabrina Salvati
That is much healthier
than addictive pain meds.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I don't like his stance on Israel, either,
but just how much daylight is there between what he says and what other presidents have done once in office? Embassy to Jerusalem? Has the Israeli govt. moved itself to Jerusalem? What will happen if Trump is elected? What further outrageous token of affection will Bibi be demanding next?
Right now it doesn't look as if Kennedy will be elected, but it does look like he has enough support to 1. make a vote for him an effective, as in, PTB might have to take notice, protest vote, and 2. form the nucleus of a competent third party. By competent, I mean non-ideological, not crazy and not attracting the drama queen poseurs of any persuasion and standing for policies which might actually make it possible for honest Americans to rebuild our country.
Mary Bennett
good point about
Trump's policies on Israel. BB and Donald were more sympatico on a personal basis. Trump has always admired the autocratic types. Biden and BB are more at arms length. Unfortunately Biden is too old, stubborn and set in his ways, or too easily swayed by the FP establishment to lay down the law with the Israelis.
I think the last President that moved to the Left
I think the last President that moved to the Left after getting elected was LBJ (on the domestic front) while simultaneously expanding the Viet Nam debacle. Carter gets a pass because of revisionist history, he started deregulation (with Ted Kennedy), and started funding the Mujaheddin (we all know the long arc of that story).
Excepting Israel,
RFK Jr like me has mostly lib/prog-leaning views with a sprinkling of positions more con-leaning or perceived as such by the establishment. Tougher border control is a position where, on what should be a sensible bi-partisan position of strong borders, he is more in line with Rs, and me. Ds and Biden are creating a politically losing look with the current lax policies.
On Israel, where for whatever reason RFK Jr has gone further than I would have expected or wanted, there is at least the virtue of having created some political space to move back later to a more moderate position, imo. I would have preferred of course that he had gone no further than the garden variety middle to begin with, but there might well be an interesting backstory here yet to be written.
@wokkamile Voting to fix this?
Voting to fix this? Really?
? If you are
referring to indy candidates getting on the ballot in the various states, ideally there should be a federal law to handle that and bring all the states in line, as it's a federal office at stake. Say, the indy candidates have to have picked a VP by the end of August to qualify for the ballot.
When you don't
have a good record to run on, or those stupid voters just aren't getting that you've brought inflation and their cost of living down and all is humming along nicely, then you do what pols do and run on how bad and even dangerous your opponent is. And Biden has a lot to work with in that regard. It worked for him in 2020 in his Covid Basement Campaign.
But he's not the challenger this time and covid restrictions are no longer, and so there's going to be the unavoidable voter calculation about what Joe has done for them the past 4 yrs. All the polling for many months suggests voters are not happy with his record as they wonder who else might be out there who could be an improvement.
As for Trump, cranky GOP voters did the wildly unexpected in 2016 by easily nominating him with all the ugly personal negatives on display at the time. They'll likely be unmoved by any felony convictions in 2024, though that question is less certain. It appears Haley is fairly well positioned to be the GOP's plan B if those convictions turn out to be one outrageous red line too many for the R masses.
Oh no
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not Nikki, please no!
Nikki Haley is a creature of billionaires.
Checks & Imbalances: These Billionaires Are Backing Nikki Haley
A fair number of these billionaires are "Democrat" billionaires, as you can see from the above article. It seems the point is to cement-in the neoconservative foreign policies being invented by Team Biden as we speak. Nikki Haley is rabidly neoconservative. I suppose they think that, come November, nearly all of the voting public will say "gee, both of the major party candidates support genocide and oppose civil liberties. I guess I'll have to vote for one of them!"
One major hindrance to Nikki Haley winning the Republican nomination is that she's said a lot of things that should rightfully piss off the "libertarian" portion of the Republican electorate. Remember that the Reagan coalition that gave us the present-day Republican Party was so powerful in the Eighties that it dominated the Electoral College in the vast preponderance of the fifty states. Walter Mondale won only Minnesota and DC in 1984. This coalition was made up of fundamentalists and libertarians. No informed libertarian will want Nikki Haley to win the nomination.
"the Democratic Party is not 'left'." -- Sabrina Salvati
Re Haley,
no doubt a major, reflexive hardline neocon. Not familiar w her previous statements that would put her at odds w the libertarian branch, but usually those things get forgotten or overlooked when those same libertarians consider the D alternative. Unless of course they've already gone full Libertarian. Who is the LP running this time?
A pretty good article with regards to Nikki Haley's chances in
upcoming primary. Not that I care how it will eventually turn out.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/01/10/haley-iowa-2024-primar...
Toss out all
the analyses about class divisions in the party, etc. Haley can only hope to emerge by DJT losing significant support from any criminal convictions prior to the convention or the perception that a conviction is imminent and certain and that nominating him is too big of a risk.
Haley is the fallback candidate, Plan B. Of course she hopes to catch fire in the early primaries and win straight up, but that's still a very long shot. She is however clearly the strongest non-Donald candidate left in that race.