The received wisdom about Joe is that he is the ultimate nice man. From personal experience with him I do not think so.
At his request I took an Arab client to see Biden in his offices in the senate and found that he bristled with hostility against the man before he had said a word about anything. Biden was so clearly programmed by his staff handlers to be completely a Zionist asset and hostile to Arabs that what there was of his mind was completely unreachable.
On that occasion the Arab in my company was so bold as to express a hope that peace could be achieved through a two state solution. Biden flew into a rage and yelled at him that if he did not admit that Arab intransigence was wholly responsible for Israel's problems, he would physically throw his visitor out of the offices. Biden's staff handlers glowed with satisfaction. It was clear that the staffies wanted to expose him to Middle Easterners from time to time for the purpose of keeping him focused on the issue.
I told Biden that the man was trying to be polite and compromising and he told me to shut up. One of the staff whispered to him and he then thanked me for my service. It was clear that they had him under excellent control.
A big problem with Uncle Joe is that he ain't too bright and that unfortunate fact is sadly apparent to all who deal with him. His ridiculous public statements are legendary and caused not by clumsiness with language. No. They are caused by a basic lack of intelligence .
His habit of pawing at women, and children unlucky enough to be with him in public is also legendary. The Democrat politico in Hawaii who complained about him experienced what can only be described as his normal mode of operation. The occasion in which Jeff Sessions pushed Biden's hands away from a 12 year old girl is one of many similar spectacles available on the internet if you want to take the time to find it. The picture at the head of this piece is animated. Double click on it.
And then there was the Anita Hill hearing during Clarence Thomas's confirmation tot the Supreme Court. I happened to be in the States at the time and watched the whole show on TeeVee. It was evident that he was incapable of running the hearing in such a way as to be fair to either Thomas or Hill. It was just sad.
If the Democrats nominate this nasty chump for president they will deserve what they get, and he will probably lose. pl
Pat, the disregard for a persons, especially a female’s, personal space is what I always deeply disliked. Both verbal and physical. Maybe someone close to me showed exactly those features?
Perfect observation, well written:
On that occasion the Arab in my company was so bold as to express a hope that peace could be achieved through a two state solution. Biden flew into a rage and yelled at him that if he did not admit that Arab intransigence was wholly responsible for Israel’s problems, he would physically throw his visitor out of the offices. Biden’s staff handlers glowed with satisfaction. It was clear that the staffies wanted to expose him to Middle Easterners from time to time for the purpose of keeping him focused on the issue.
When was that? Strictly, I wonder to what extend handlers are still necessary nowadays.
Any one who publicly boasts that he has stopped Ukraine from investigating the company who paid his son’s firm $2,000,000 per year can’t be too bright.
This is going to be an interesting primary. I’m by no means a Trump supporter, but the Democrats have just become unhinged.
The Democratic field is not just large and “diverse,” it is out of touch with the public and with reality in a great variety of different ways. Each candidate is appealing to a different “interest group” (minority). Harris advocates reparations for the “victims of slavery,” Warren a “wealth tax” to pay off student loans, Biden courts the establishment, Sanders counts on the college dropout crowd…
The media is spinning like a top as they woo and worship first one and then the other. As for Biden, the media was plucking his corpse before he announced, and they are damning him with faint praise now. They will become buzzards again soon enough.
Joanna/Barbara/LeAnder – Why the new name?
I am playing with the idea that the Democrats know they can’t win the White House in 2020 as they are lacking anyone with the talent and are fighting against an excellent economy with policies that the majority of Americans don’t want (or at least the majority from an electoral college perspective).
Thus, they are reverting to plan B – stay on a message that will keep their congressional districts secure.
Biden is just an artifact from the faction that still holds out some hope of being able to appeal to normal Americans and to not face a total slaughter in 2020 presidential contest.
Gabbard would have been the better choice, but she’s out by default because she’s ardently against the FP Borg.
Biden is not only too old for the job, but his deficiencies – that you point out – are pretty obvious to anyone watching the man in action. But he does appear more stable and normal than the other candidates. And there is all of the monkey business with his son and the Ukraine that would surely present a problem.
Hello sir,
I would like to comment on the post above if I may?
The question that has been really bugging me for a long time is that why aren’t more people speaking out about him, politicians like him and the tribe that they belong to, i.e.the tribe of New Democrats? I mean, why do people like Biden whose voting record, behaviors, policies, etc. are out there in the open still get elected to U.S. Senate for 40+ years? Why do people vote for him, and not Ralph Nader? Are corporations and PACs “REALLY THAT POWERFUL that keep people like him afloat? Why don’t people care about the real problems that the American society is afflicted with? Do the American people really think that people like Biden would solve the Opiod Crisis? or the crmbling infrastructure? or mindless military interventions abroad? or the automation? or the healthcare? For heaven’s sake, the problem is not in the Middle East, or Russia or Venezuela or else. The problem is right here in the Congress with people like Biden, Menendez, Graham, Schumer, Cruz, Rubio, Pelosi,…Why can’t there be people like Ron Paul, or the late Bill Fullbright or McGovern in the congress? why don’t people care about their own country and its leaders who govern them??? Sir, what do you think about all this?
Sometime ago, I came across this video by this YouTuber, Mark Dice who was at a popular beach in Southern California where he interviews young and older people there and asks them all kinds of really simple 2nd grade questions about their own country like, ‘what day is the 4th of July?’ or ‘who is George Washington?’ or ‘what does D.C. stand for?’ and hardly anybody could answer them. I have put a link to one of his interviews below if anyone was interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-Be9f7Ovgg
How does such mediocrity rise to the top in the United States? I agree he is beyond simple with his stupidity displayed for decades.
If I was in the leadership class of China or Russia I would just sit back and let time take its course. They must have contempt for the Political leadership class of our country. Why do anything when your natural opponent will elect idiots? The natural course of being led by idiots such as Bideon or Bush II is decline in power. Evidence by China militarizing the South China Sea.
We made China wealthy by giving them 1/3 of our manufacturing base and they responded by expanding Geographically. How stupid is that? Maybe History will be kinder or maybe History will be more damning.
Colonel Lang,
Hopefully Biden will be forced to withdraw before too long. At the moment he seems to be the darling of the corporate centrists. I do not think this will last. For anyone who watched him “torture” Anita Hill in the Clarence Thomas hearings, the idea of this man running for President is appalling.
Besides the Ukraine scandal involving Biden’s son Hunter, there’s also another financial scandal in Joe Biden’s past in which a brother was used instead as the conduit to enrich the family: without experience as a builder or developer, Jim Biden nevertheless became a partner in a real estate company that soon thereafter won an extremely lucrative government contract ($1.5 billion) to construct housing in Iraq. As a partner and rainmaker, Jim’s profit was surely in the millions:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/where-theres-trouble-youll-usually-find-joe-biden
https://nypost.com/2012/10/23/crony-capitalism-joe-bidens-brother/
Biden’s not the first and only profiteering pol of course, but when combined with his evident ignorance and other liabilities, his competitors in the DNC primaries have an awful lot of fodder to use against him if they so wish.
1. Let us not forget Caitlyn Caruso who, at 19, was at a University of Nevada sexual assault conference where she had spoken about her assault and “friendy Joe” placed his hand on her thigh after she spoke. I am almost 68 and I cannot remember any time when it was okay to put your hand on a woman’s thigh in a public setting. By the way, she is now 22, so this was just 3 years ago. Currently he is the Democrats hope but, not for long.
2. You may not like Trump but, he is a good campaigner. He dispatched all the Republicans last time. He will not be easy to beat. Underestimating him is not a good plan.
3. Last weekend Bernie Sanders had house party events at 5,000 locations. He has money for the campaign, people on the ground, and an organization. I think he will be the Democratic candidate if the DNC is prevented from torpedoing him. He looks like he will put up a good fight and IMHO might be able to beat Trump. He is also the old time Demos/Wall Street people’s worst nightmare. Socialism? It looks like we are in crazy land now, so let’s have Medicare for all.
4. Pass the popcorn this is going to be interesting.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1122337240330297344
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1122337243744497664
Serious trolling by Trump. Shows how good he is with memes.
The Democrats need someone who is equally or more savvy with digital media than Trump to even have a shot at competing. Like most presidential elections the winner will have to take states like Fkorida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. So far the only Democrat IMO who can challenge Trump on his vulnerabilities is Tulsi Gabbard. However, she’s unlikely to get out of the starting gates as both the Democratic establishment and the corporate media will paint her as an anti-Semitic poodle of Russia. Having said that among my kids and grandkids generation I’m hearing many say that while Tulsi has no chance to win the nomination they plan to vote for her in the primary. I find this viewpoint very interesting.
Re: How does such mediocrity rise to the top in the United States?
The answer is really quite simple. Joe Biden, and many more like him, are fully owned vassals of Wall St., Israel, the Military-Industrial Complex, and other such interests.
They provide value by doing what they’re told. In return, they get plenty of “campaign contributions” (bribes) which allows them to financially overpower any potential competitors.
For the most part, this model works time and again, so that when, occasionally, some maverick like AOC slips in, it’s a remarkable event.
Biden’s first campaign stop was in Pittsburgh, PA, this afternoon. He was invited by the Firefighters union and appeared in Union 249 Temple a community called Lawrenceville, on a low bluff southeast of Monongahela River.
One of the dozen-or-so city police officers providing security (which was minimal) said the crowd in the hall likely numbered under 750, with perhaps a hundred more outside watching a Jumbotron.
(nb. The laissez faire security was noteworthy, especially in light of the fact that at least one of Pittsburgh’s beautiful music halls recently installed security gates that patrons must pass thru on their way to hear Beethoven. )
Guesstimate that 90% of crowd white; not very many grey haired supporters, but there were several infants in carriages.
Jill Biden did warm-up for Joe — she was pretty good. Too bad she did not mention her Italian background — Pittsburgh still has a strong Italian community, marked by a number of Italian specialty food shops in the City’s lively Strip District. Even so — Pittsburgh’s Italian neighborhood has been shamed out of its annual Columbus Day street celebration by a Black woman who lives in Polish Hill.
Joe’s opening words were “. . . and against anti-semitism . . . Trump enflames . . .”
The rest of his talk was predictable.
One notable feature at the rally: vendors sold and supporters wore yellow T-shirts, pins and posters declaring, F*%k Trump.
That’s Joe Biden’s platform.
Biden is more of a Centrist than the other Democrat candidates which suits me just fine. He is of the age where many men were huggers and I don’t think his hugs and touches were sexual. Inappropriate maybe but compared with Trump, Biden is an angel. All I want out of Biden is one term to reset the image of the Presidency. Yes Biden may be 2 years older than Trump and maybe not the smartest bulb in the lamp but he will bring calm to our foreign and domestic policy.
There is no way he would repeat Trump’s attempted trick on North Korea by agreeing to pay for Wambler’s medical bill and then reneging. How is he suppossed to get North Korea to agree to denuclearization when his word is no good and neither is his written agreements.
I think Trump’s economy is still riding on the sugar high of a huge tax cut and a deficit generating budget. The effect of those two sugar pills will soon run it’s course with nothing left to keep the economy chugging along at a high rate. If the economy dips, what does Trump have to run on? Is his war on Brown people going to be enough?
I think Trump has a good chance to win in 2020 because in the minds of 10’s of millions “his sxxt don’t stink”, but in my mind most of the Democrats would be better and Biden would be my choice.
jdledell
I will enjoy watching him crash and burn.
Correction: Lawrenceville is on South bank of Allegheny River, about 4.5 miles East of Downtown Pittsburgh and The Point — where Allegheny and Monongahela join to form Ohio River.
for an outside observer with limited background reference your vignette of Joe Bidet has rather confirmed my worst suspicions,
considering my being outside of the American cultural orbit, could you be enticed to offer an appraisal of Tulsi Gabbard?
my initial impression is that she’s made of the right stuff, am I woefully misleading myself?
Matt – I share your admiration for the lady in spite of her obligatory positions on various domestic issues, but she has no chance of gaining the nomination.
As will I. Crash and Burn For Biden Sounds Very Good To Me.
OB –
That certainly describes our Congressman, as far as detachment from his district voters. He does get greater campaign funds. Few political skills, no evident intellect, but he must know how to take direction adequately. Over time he has developed that glossy, well fed, better tailored, rosy sheen that seems to come to those who put down roots in D.C.’s power corridors.
Still he gets reelected, defeating obviously more able candidates, when they bother to challenge him. I have yet to meet a Republican (he is Republican) who likes or votes for him in the primary. So there must be more to it than campaign $ alone.
The Republican primary is where the choice is made in our district; even very moderate Democratic candidates, who would be Republicans on the coasts, never win. Clearly voting is a team sport for many.
There is, also, the trick of attracting/?encouraging too many challengers. In the last primary, the 5 challengers received more votes altogether than the incumbent, but he received more votes than any other individual candidate.
Name recognition? Vote counting? Gerrymandering. I suspect there are a bag of tricks and psyche levers that can be deployed to tilt towards a desired outcome. Campaign finance may be the most important, but not the only one.
In the end, voters are presented with limited information and disappointing options much of the time.
why not?
What chance of a late arrival by Hilary Clinton? Let the lightweights strut their stuff and demonstrate their appeal to minority groups, then the big centrist “uniter” is called forth from the depths of the mines of Moria as the only heavyweight who can deal with Trump.
As will I. I suspect his crash and burn will be the most spectacular of any Democratic candidate.
It would be interesting to know your opinion on why the better candidates never have a chance of winning nominations in your country.
Paco – Nearly universal suffrage results in elections that choose people like the electorate.
walrus – If you do “back azimuths” on all the “resistance” phenomena of the period from early 2016 on, the lines all converge at HC’s feet. she is waiting for the call.
jdledell
In my opinion Tulsi Gabbard is the only one speaking sensibly about why it will be difficult to get a deal done with North Korea. Gaddafi did a deal with the US, gave up his nuclear program, and then died a gruesome death at the hands of US backed rebels. Then Hillary Clinton danced on his grave. Tulsi is the only presidential candidate talking about the deleterious effects of America’s ongoing regime change wars.
Compared to Tulsi, I see no difference between Biden and Trump.
Col. Lang
I too share your admiration for Tulsi. I have contributed to her campaign and plan to contribute more. While she may have no chance as the Democrat primary voters are not mavericks, her voice is necessary as it is the only one so far in this campaign across both parties that points to the insidious hold by Saudi Arabia & Israel on our foreign policy and how destructive it is to US interests. Even Trump who campaigned against our endless wars that have cost us trillions turns out to be Bibi’s bitch. While the NY Times cartoon was clearly inappropriate, the point that Trump is being led by Bibi was spot on. If they had removed the Star of David around Bibi’s neck and the yarmulke on Trump would the cartoon have received as many denunciations?
And once again I wish we still had the “like” button.
Bernie & Tulsi 2020? pass the popcorn.
Interesting that Tulsi Gabbard gets mentioned several times by the commenters here. I think her foreign policy positions are so good that she could cut deep into the core of Trump’s voter base and that potentially makes her a very dangerous rival – but her radical green economic policies are too far out to make her viable overall. And I doubt that she’s just ticking boxes with those as “obligatory” when she run in the Democrat primaries, my impression is that she really believes those.
I hold a PhD and I support Sanders. I am a supporter of Sanders not because I agree with his policies, but because I know that his policies are *his* and are driven by principle and not big money. (Politicians answerable to big money can have no principled policy. This is an empirical observation.)
Most of the conservatives I am friends with don’t like Sanders much, but understand that he *is* different because of his reliance on regular citizens as opposed to Zionists and Corporations. Zionists and Corporations are no more friendly to the aims of a principled Conservatism than they are to those of Social Democracy. So by all means find a Republican candidate not beholden to them and we can have a real debate, a real election, and a real republic.
Imagine that Ron Paul were twenty years younger and running for President as a Republican on a platform of non-interventionism and anti-monopolism. I think he’d be opposed by all the same powers who oppose Sanders but would garner a lot of actual grassroots conservative support. I agree less with Paul than I do with Sanders on economic policy, but–again–I would regard Paul as a principled candidate worth engaging and honorable enough to negotiate with. And I would support Paul over any Democratic nominee other than Sanders or Gabbard for these same reasons.
We need to stop thinking in terms of “Right” and “Left” and “Republican” and “Democrat” and start thinking in terms of real citizens vs. Zionists and Corporations. Regular citizens, even when they disagree on principle, can negotiate honorably on that basis and come to a more peaceable compromise–and one that I am confident would be much better for the country as a whole than any that would be allowed by the current powers that be.
There is some point in Emma Sky’s book “The Unraveling” when Joe Biden is visiting Iraq in August of 2010 and the results of the elections six months earlier come to a head, and in the middle of difficulties in forming a government, Odierno and his advisors, including, especially, Sky, believed that if Maliki remained prime minister, a large part of Iraq’s population would feel that the election had been nullified. Sky, Odierno, and a variety of people who spoke the language and understood the situation opposed Maliki, but Biden decided to keep Maliki on as prime minister. As he decided to do that, one of his complacent, throw-away lines, to Sky (Odierno was evidently there too) was the remark that there are often elections in the United States that do not bring about any change. Biden’s remark seemed inappropriate in the setting in which he made it, and in Sky’s presentation, his decision to support Maliki appears as a kind of key moment in losing any hope of anything other than continued conflict and eventual partition.
Putting aside the question of whether Sky was a little naïve, Biden’s treatment of the efforts of the American officers seems, from Sky’s account, to have been blatantly disrespectful, I wonder if any of your readers with experience in like situations have read the book and have comments about Biden’s actual influence?
An AKA would be handy, leaNder, next time you switch. Regards.
It takes a lot to shift allegiance at the local level, if it’s as in England; and reading of Obama’s early career and a few hints dropped by Trump in his campaign it is. Patronage and the swapping of favours, particularly in planning (zoning) matters means that no matter what complaints and disappointments there may be with policy and personality the local level groups adhere to what they are used to and what works for them. Surely also the tradition of Congressmen being judged on how successfully they bring home the bacon, in the form of government spending and projects for their area, means not being judged on their political merits as long as they stay roughly to the accepted line.
Way back Lincoln functioned very efficiently on this basis, if anecdotal evidence is to be believed, nurturing support by taking great pains with the allocation of low level government jobs even as President. Greater pains than he sometimes took with the execution of official business. I think it’s possible that this great machine of influence and patronage right down to the local level accounts for the stability of the established parties even when, as now, those parties are not that responsive to shifts in electoral opinion.
Would this not mean that once a Congressman is dug in, he’s got support all the way down the line and is therefore difficult to shift?
Rho
I’m far from socialism but what we have in the US is no longer competitive entrepreneurial capitalism. Instead what we have as another SST correspondent Jack says so well is the “symbiotic relationship between big business & big government”. I suggest Jonathan Tepper’s recent book “Myth of Capitalism” where he provides detailed research on the market concentration across many many industries from agriculture to airlines & media. Both parties endorse this relationship that stifles competition and a market economy where legislation is enacted that enables & protects this concentration.
As we saw with the mortgage credit crisis, there was privatization of speculative financial profits and socialization of speculative losses. Wall St gets bailed out with trillions while Main St got shafted.
We have spent and continue to spend trillions on endless wars that does not get invested in infrastructure and on the commons.
We also see the Fed create “money” out of thin air to inflate financial assets that only a minority own. Congresses & Presidents of both parties have added federal debt in the trillions. Trump will be adding a trillion dollars to the national debt in each year of his presidency. Both George Bush & Obama doubled the national debt in their terms.
These are radical economic policies!
Tulsi may advocate for the Green New Deal but at the end only Congress can appropriate. As President however she CAN end the wasteful trillions in expenditures on our endless wars. This is why I will continue to contribute to her campaign even if it is a lost cause.
ISL
I am hoping for a Bernie/Tulsi ticket. Among other things – it will be hard to smear him with “Bernie bros” type foolishness with her on the ticket. The biggest thing holding her back is that the media is pretending she does not exist.
Remember:
Politicians are the obnoxious kids in high school who never got over the thrill of being class secretary.
Politicians running for high office are NEVER qualified to hold that office.
And they all run on a slogan of “White Men suck.”
What will they do with Buttigieg – a white man who DOES suck?
Good thing that you’re not negotiating with the N. Koreans.
Paying extortion money immediately marks you as a chump.
That’s the kind of thing that the “brilliant, civilized” Obama would have done – see his so-called “negotiations” with Iran.
Dictators don’t deal in honor, they deal in ruthlessness.
Define “better.”
Swamp establishment empty suit?
Trump would probably make a contribution to a Clinton primary campaign.
Hi, this is Struela, which should be struela, where applicable, and fasteddiez, or Fasteddiez. Typepad seems to be more of a pain to transfer to from disqus, but who cares. on Biden, it’s important to note that he has run for president twice, and did not make the cut. He must be destroyed politically. As for Tulsi, if she becomes less viable through the debates it will be the dems’ doing through the trickery visited on the Bernmeister last time. When this happens, Bernie should announce that she should be his VP. She would definitively appeal to younger folks should they be alive and not piles of ashes. Plus, Bernie is getting on with age, though decidedly smarter than witless Joe ever was. One of his potential shortcomings is that he is a Jew, not an issue for the richest of the rich, unless you factor in his pronunciamentos on the Izzies’treatment of the Palestinians.
That is exactly what he should be: A bidet installer, notwithstanding his lack of plumbing knowledge nor any other blue collar skills, with have largely gone to China; other low wage countries; traded in for Opioid know how.
BP
Ben Hunt, who is a game theory expert and financial market analyst has been studying narratives and the common knowledge game. This is an excellent note that gets to the heart of what economic policies are considered right in narrative world.
https://www.epsilontheory.com/this-is-water/
Corporate America spends more on stock buybacks that benefit insiders and management than on Capex – new plants and machinery. Notice that executives get most of their compensation from tax-advantaged stock-based compensation. IBM balance sheet is my poster child. Take a look at Apple quarterly results that were announced today.
https://twitter.com/pierpont_morgan/status/1123332467979583488
Yeah, but he didn’t inhale.
rho
Are you possibly getting Tulsi confused with AOC with respect to her “radical green economic policies”? From what I have seen I think Tulsi’s positions are quite moderate on these issues and she is really trying to distinguish herself on the “regime change wars” issues. As time has gone on I have come to like Tulsi more and more and AOC less and less, because I think AOC is arrogantly overreaching while Tulsi is appealing to middle America.
Tulsi was raised socially conservative and is in the National Guard – she is not a typical lefty.
“I am a supporter of Sanders not because I agree with his policies, but because I know that his policies are *his* and are driven by principle…”
You don’t agree with his principles, which are the foundation of his policies, but you’re a supporter. That’s some curious logic there.
EO,
Crowley brought home billions to NYC and he still lost a primary election. That’s where the political race is in gerrymandered districts.
So does Trump sink her campaign with threats of an indictment or of a pardon?
leAutre, maybe? I’ll think about it.
How’s Brexit going? Didn’t have much time to check British media like usually. Looks like Labor is as split between fringes and center as the US democrats. Relying on the Spectator’s newsletter in this case.
Is this a sign of a more general trend in the “West”, a cultural turn from the center towards the right. And if so, to what extend does it move “the West” and Israel closer, never mind that Tel Aviv is a gay parade heaven. Semi-Irony-Alert.
Jack
Thanks. I’m a big fan of Epsilon Theory. I’ve had many interesting conversations with Ben & Rusty while they were at Salient. I appreciated their market analysis through the lens of game theory and history.
Ben’s note “Clash of Civilizations” echoes Col. Lang. Both erudite realists. It is telling that he quoted both Samuel Huntington & Kissinger in that note.
https://www.epsilontheory.com/the-clash-of-civilizations/
Unfortunately the neocon/ziocon domination of the groupthink is as Huntington called it “dangerous”. That’s why I admire Tulsi’s courage as she knows that she will be savaged by the so-called “serious” people who are ensconced in that groupthink.
but in my mind most of the Democrats would be better and Biden would be my choice.
This is either wonderfully cryptic/ironic while conveying reminiscences of the 2016 campaign. – At least for this language outsider.
Or you are a realistic voter. Maybe it’s that. 😉 How many are?
Anyway: Pretty amazing that in the US almost at the time the campaign ends the new campaign starts. Exaggerating slightly, admittedly.
Learn to read Fred. He is saying Sanders’ policies aren’t the reason he supports him, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t agree with them, he actually says he does agree with them. LOL.
Can’t say anything useful about that. That’s because it’s not possible to work out yet whether Westminster is colluding with Brussels to stop Brexit or Brussels is colluding with Westminster.
On matters of more immediate concern, when there’s a gap in the Colonel’s schedule I’m ready with some more insider information about making tea. Seems a trivial matter, but getting that right is all that’s needed to make your country perfect. Almost all – I take it you’re now working with Mrs Weidel to add the finishing touches to that perfection.
Ah yes. I remember seeing a map of an artfully gerrymandered boundary. Looked like Cantor dust after a heavy night out. We never gerrymander over here of course. We’re good people.
It simpler just to buy the politicians, both sides. Saves a lot of fussing.
Biden is not going to bring ‘calm’ to the ME if that’s what you’re thinking.
‘Biden is a self-described Zionist. During the interview conducted by the U.S. Jewish television cable network Biden said, “I am a Zionist. You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist.”
Regarding support for Israel within the Democratic Party, Biden has stated that the Democrats’ support for Israel “comes from our gut, moves through our heart, and ends up in our head. It’s almost genetic.”
And Biden thinks Jews invented America.
Biden: ‘Jewish heritage is American heritage’
Vice President Joe Biden spoke at length Tuesday night about the influence of Judaism on the United States, dating back to the country’s founding and to the present day as Jews helped shape views on gay rights.
“The truth is that Jewish heritage, Jewish culture, Jewish values are such an essential part of who we are that it’s fair to say that Jewish heritage is American heritage,” he said. “The Jewish people have contributed greatly to America. No group has had such an outsized influence per capita as all of you standing before you, and all of those who went before me and all of those who went before you.”
“You make up 11 percent of the seats in the United States Congress. You make up one-third of all Nobel laureates,” he said. “So many notions that are embraced by this nation that particularly emanate from over 5,000 years of Jewish history, tradition and culture: independence, individualism, fairness, decency, justice, charity. These are all as you say, as I learned early on as a Catholic being educated by my friends, this tzedakah.”
“The embrace of immigration” is part of that, as is the involvement of Jews in social justice movements.
“You can’t talk about the civil rights movement in this country without talking about Jewish freedom riders and Jack Greenberg,” he said, telling a story about seeing a group of Jewish activists at a segregated movie theater in Delaware. “You can’t talk about the women’s movement without talking about Betty Friedan” or American advances in science and technology without mentioning Einstein and Carl Sagan, or music and Gershwin, Bob Dylan and “so, so, so many other people.”
“I believe what affects the movements in America, what affects our attitudes in America are as much the culture and the arts as anything else,” he said. That’s why he spoke out on gay marriage “apparently a little ahead of time.”
“It wasn’t anything we legislatively did. It was ‘Will and Grace,’ it was the social media. Literally. That’s what changed peoples’ attitudes. That’s why I was so certain that the vast majority of people would embrace and rapidly embrace” gay marriage, Biden said.
“Think behind of all that, I bet you 85 percent of those changes, whether it’s in Hollywood or social media are a consequence of Jewish leaders in the industry. The influence is immense, the influence is immense. And, I might add, it is all to the good,” he said.
Jews have also been key to the evolution of American jurisprudence, he continued, namedropping Brandeis, Fortas, Frankfurter, Cardozo, Ginsberg, Breyer, Kagan. “You literally can’t. You can’t talk about the recognition of … rights in the Constitution without looking at these incredible jurists that we’ve had.”
“Jewish heritage has shaped who we are – all of us, us, me – as much or more than any other factor in the last 223 years. And that’s a fact,” he said.
“We talk about it in terms of the incredible accomplishments and contributions” of Jews in America, Biden added, but it’s deeper “because the values, the values are so deep and so engrained in American culture, in our Constitution.”
“So I think you, as usual, underestimate the impact of Jewish heritage. I really mean that. I think you vastly underestimate the impact you’ve had on the development of this nation. We owe you, we owe generations who came before you,” he said.”
https://www.politico.com/blogs/politico44/2013/05/biden-jewish-heritage-is-american-heritage-164525
I believe their point is that it is much more important to prevent Bernie from being elected that it is to get another Democrat elected. They will try to do that, but if getting Trump elected is what it takes to block Bernie, they’re OK with that.
The explanation at the time was that he was, indeed, bringing home the bacon, but he was also neglecting personal contacts with the people in his district, while AOC and her workers were diligent in knocking on doors and talking to people. Actually, he was a good, reasonably progressive Representative, but he became too wrapped up in his effort to become Pelosi’s successor. There’s an old political joke that ends up with, “Yeah, but what have you done for me lately?”
[cough] Rotten boroughs [cough].
Chuck T is right about what I meant to say. I could have made the point more clearly though.
Nonetheless, Fred, I am happy to defend even the position you ascribe me as holiding for the following reason. Suppose I disagree with some or all of Sanders’ policies but am convinced that he holds his policies on principle and will do his best to follow through on them. I then have a fairly accurate sense of what results I can expect Sanders to work toward toward if elected. I can currently obtain no such information for any of the other candidates (excluding Gabbard.) This means that regardless of what candidate X or Y says (including Trump), I can have no way of knowing that candidate X or Y actually means what s/he says and is committed to it as a matter of principle. Hence if I am going to cast a vote at all, the only vote I can cast which is based on plausible knowledge of what I’m voting *for* is a vote for Sanders. If you vote for any other candidate you have no idea what you’re voting for, only what that candidate has told you. But because of Zionism and Corporations and PACs, what s/he says cant be believed.
ligurio – You don’t seem to understand that being elected does not guarantee you the power to carry out your goals.
Off-topic but worth a mention: Gavin Williamson will no longer be
required to act the part of Secretary for British Defence.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-48126974
That, and the 80’s hitsong by Janet Jackson.
I remember very early in the Occupation period that Biden said quite a few times that the only answer will be to divide Iraq into three effectively separate countries . . . a Kurdistan, a Sunnistan and a Shiastan. Perhaps Biden’s strong support for al Maliki was based on Biden having a suspicion that al Maliki would be a vicious and corrupt-enough extreme political-Shia partisan to prevent intergroup politics from succeeding and to achieve the partition of Iraq.
If so . . . way to go Joe.
Here is a scary photo of Biden.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/30/clinton-era-politics-joe-biden#img-1
Was a key supporter of Mrs May but hasn’t been for a while. They say he was pro EU/UK defence integration but switched to being more in favour of the American alliance. Was worried about the risk to security posed by the Chinese Huawei deal. Also that he had became concerned about inadequate UK defence expenditure.
They say.
Possibly further enlightenment will come when he makes his valedictory speech in the Commons.
I came across Mr Williamson by chance when grubbing around the videos and transcripts of the Munich Security Conference. Been puzzling about this enigmatic statement from him ever since –
“The US has been stepping up its commitment to NATO. But, as Ursula and I agreed with Pat Shanahan when we met at NATO earlier this week, Europeans should not be spending two per cent of GDP on defence for America. We should be spending it for ourselves and our security. And, I applaud Ursula’s personal efforts to drive investment in German defence.”
Those were the days. And didn’t they put heart and soul into it! The joyous and uninhibited corruption of parliamentary elections in 18th and early 19th Century England puts today’s antics in the shade.
Biden is a disgusting phony. Having read the Colonel’s experience with him I did some goggling.
Read this article by Scott Ritter on how Biden treated him….its horrible.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/my-letter-from-joe-biden/