I'm a judo player, and our platonic ideal is to use the energy of our opponents' attacks against them in order to defeat them. It is in this spirit that I have wholeheartedly embraced the 'Sleepy Joe' moniker for President Joe Biden... we will all be sleeping better with an adult in charge of the executive branch.
I was all-in for Elizabeth Warren in the primary, seeing Joe Biden as too much of a centrist for me, but I think today's Joe Biden is a better man than 1980 Joe Biden or even 2012 Joe Biden. To crib a line from the Good Professor, Joe Biden has suffered incredible bereavement throughout his life...
His grief he will not forget; but it will not darken his heart, it will teach him wisdom. I believe that the Joe Biden who swore the oath of office today is wiser than those previous incarnations.
Joe Biden's ascent to the Presidency is an ascent to country wracked by the American Carnage that his ignominious predecessor spoke of, and subsequently created. Even before he was sworn in, Biden's attendance at a COVID-19 memorial service signaled his empathy and capacity for compassion. He will be burdened with the national pandemic response, a disaster that he inherits from an incompetent, corrupt scoundrel, and I personally don't see a turnaround in the bad situation for another six months or so... but he WILL respond.
Watching the inauguration ceremony, I was relieved to see that people with normal human emotions, empathy and camaraderie, had replaced an individual motivated purely by greed and grievance. Kamala Harris, a transformative figure as the first female, African-American, and Asian-American Vice President, radiated joy. Joe Biden himself delivered a much-needed call for unity (I expect that he will task his underlings in the DoJ to do the requisite ass-kicking):
But the American story depends not on any one of us, not on some of us, but on all of us.
On "We the People" who seek a more perfect Union. This is a great nation and we are a good people.
Over the centuries through storm and strife, in peace and in war, we have come so far. But we still have far to go. We will press forward with speed and urgency, for we have much to do in this winter of peril and possibility. Much to repair. Much to restore. Much to heal. Much to build. And much to gain.
Even more importantly, President Biden is demonstrating his commitment to a progressive agenda with his executive orders- rejoining the Paris climate accords, aggressively responding to the COVID pandemic, rejoining the World Health Organization, extending moratoria on evictions and foreclosures, reversing the travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries, reining in oil and gas extraction at national monuments, working for racial equity in federal programs, committing to giving the 'Dreamers' a pathway to citizenship, and other policies that appeal to the more progressive members of the Democratic Party. Today's Biden looks to me to be a changed man, much more liberal than the senator from business-friendly Delaware.
It's up to us to keep the pressure on the Democrats, to better reflect values of the progressive electorate that put them in the seats of power. We need to force Sleepy Joe to be a dream for us, even if it means he is a nightmare to others... such as these creeps.
I watched it, I watched the whole damn thing- that stupid excuse for a presidential debate. I'll admit it, I mixed up two pint-sized szarlotkas to make the viewing less of an ordeal... the first was one-third vodka, two-thirds apple juice, the second was half-and-half. Sure, I got a buzz, but it didn't help. The main takeaways from the debate are that Trump constantly talked over Biden and that Chris Wallace is a shitty moderator. The mics used for these debates should be on timers- after the alloted two minutes, they should simply shut off... we have the technology.
I wish Biden had been a little more barbed, ready with snappy comebacks to Trump's lies and distortions. It was cathartic to hear Biden tell Trump to shut up and to hear him call Trump the worst president that America has ever had:
The most surreal moment of the debate was when Trump accused Biden of a disastrous handling of the H1N1 flu outbreak, with 14K deaths, to the current COVID-19 pandemic, with over 211K deaths and counting:
"14,000 people died, not 200,000" -- BIden to Trump as he tries to do H1N1 whataboutism pic.twitter.com/EghoG2mzWK
At least he followed this up with a zinger about Trump's disastrous COVID-19 prognostications:
As Trump baselessly suggests that a coronavirus vaccine will be available as soon as next month, Biden interjects to say, "this is the same man who told you by Easter this would be gone away. By the warm weather it'd be gone ... maybe you can inject some bleach in your arm." pic.twitter.com/47mH71xo9J
Trump's response was a failure- one does not make sarcastic statements about a deadly pathogen.
It was also nice to hear Biden call Trump a clown, especially given Trump's excessive application of facepaint that night:
Perhaps Biden's best line of the night was 'get out of your bunker, get out of your sandtrap', highlighting both Trump's cowardice and his Marie Antoinette/Emperor Nero response to a crisis:
"You should get out of your bunker and get out of the sand trap and get in the Oval Office" -- Biden to Trump
It was a terrible debate, and the general consensus is that it was a Scheißeanzeigen, and I'm sure it didn't change any minds. I can't imagine that the next two proposed debates will be any better... at least I'll have time to restock my supply of Żubrówka.
ADDENDUM: I forgot to mention the elephant in the room, Donald Trump's exhortation for a right-wing gang to 'stand back and stand by'. Luckily, last weekend, with three and a half weeks of preparation, a national muster of these assholes couldn't assemble more than three-hundred or so in Portland:
"Proud Boys, stand back and stand by": It bears repeating -- there has been no presidential debate moment more disqualifying than this pic.twitter.com/n7hRT7P2g0
Watching coverage of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan has been painful, and the thought of women, girls, secular individuals, and LGBTQ folk left to the mercies of the Taliban is upsetting. That being said, the war in Afghanistan has been going on for twenty years, with no real progress in sight.
I stand squarely behind my decision. After 20 years, I’ve learned
the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces.
That’s why we were still there. We were clear-eyed about the risks. We planned for every contingency.
But I always promised the American people that I will be straight
with you. The truth is: This did unfold more quickly than we had
anticipated.
President Biden inherited an unwinnable mess from his four immediate predecessors, a Catch-46 situation. The Afghan War, originally meant as a police action to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden and uproot Al Qaeda, suffered from unforgivable mission creep, until the US military was bogged down in a morass of ethnic conflicts, all the while trying to establish a central authority. Well that central authority disintegrated, with the Afghan army, poorly paid and suffering abysmal morale, disbanded, and there are reports that deposed president Ghani absconded with a shitton of cash. The real problem is that corrupt, venal American officials engaged with corrupt, venal Afghan officials in order to pilfer from the American treasury for two decades.
I would argue that our adventure in Afghanistan was doomed from the start, as the Bush Maladministration took their attention off of the conflict and concentrated on attacking Iraq, all the while letting our diplomatic corps languish. To take it back even further, our adventure in Afghanistan was doomed by the fact that Al Qaeda and the Taliban were monsters of our own creation, as we armed the mujahideen who fought against the Soviet invasion. Fun fact- that whole 'Black Hawk Down' incident was made possible by the fact that American military advisors taught the fighters in Afghanistan how to take down Soviet helicopters with RPGs.
“I started the process, all the troops are coming home, they (Biden) couldn’t stop the process. 21 years is enough. They (Biden) couldn’t stop the process, they (Biden) wanted to but couldn’t stop the process.”
The effect of the withdrawal on Biden's long-term standing remains to be seen- while he is being lambasted by political opponents who are busy scrubbing their social media feeds of posts in support of Trump's withdrawal plan, the war was largely forgotten by those whose families were untouched by it, and support for a continual drain on our coffers is unpopular. The coverage of the situation in Afghanistan is painful but in six months, few people will even remember it. Biden isn't concerned with his poll numbers here, and I'm not even sure he's looking to run for re-election. He made a painful decision, he refused to let the situation fester for a successor to grapple with. He was in a Catch-46 situation, which nobody could have handled in optimal fashion, but he had to guts to make a decision, for good or ill.
The Republican line of attack on Joe Biden has been that he's old and senile, hiding in a basement (this is a weird detail, the guy presumably has at least one comfortable residence with multiple rooms). At tonight's debate, though, Trump will be facing the real Joe Biden, rather than the right-wing cartoon version of the man, which bodes ill for the abysmally stupid Donald. Already, the right-wing noise machine is claiming that Biden will use some sort of chicanery to defeat the infallible God-Emperor.
So far, we have claims (originated by conspiracy asshole Jerome Corsi) that Biden has received the debate questions in advance, though if Biden were a doddering dotard, how would he remember those questions. There is also the bizarre notion that Biden will be wearing an earpiece so he can be coached during the debate.
The longest-running conspiracy theory regarding the upcoming debate is that Biden has been taking performance-enhancing drugs since the primary debates, an accusation echoed by Trump's whacko White House doctor. I was convinced that Biden was taking Alex Jones' Brain Force Plus, with lead:
I now realize that I got it wrong, and that Biden will probably eat a kid before the debate:
This is all leading up to Trump accusing Biden of staying alert by using adrenochrome. https://t.co/3SNhXalWTc
Yeah, nothing beats the performance-enhancing power of sweet, sweet adrenochrome...
It seems clear to me that the Republicans know that Biden will wipe the debate stage with Trump tonight, so the excuses/accusations are flying thick and fast. It's a stupid runup to what promises to be an exceedingly stupid night.
Jesus, lady, Biden has been a private citizen since January 2017, but hopefully he won't be for much longer.
Of course, if Biden had been president, he would not have responded so poorly to the pandemic crisis. In October of last year, he even warned the public about the potential for a disastrous pandemic:
We are not prepared for a pandemic. Trump has rolled back progress President Obama and I made to strengthen global health security. We need leadership that builds public trust, focuses on real threats, and mobilizes the world to stop outbreaks before they reach our shores. https://t.co/1qqpgayUEX
The Obama Administration prepared a pandemic playbook, which the Republicans have denied. Trump also disbanded the National Security Council's Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense, supposedly as a cost-cutting measure.
The very idea of the RNC chairwoman calling into question Biden's COVID-19 response is a grotesque-yet-inept example of gaslighting. The Trump 2020 campaign is running on the thesis that 'Biden's America' is a disaster. In November, I'll take that risk and vote to see what Biden's America really has in store for us.
I don't mention Joe Biden all that often in my blog, though I sometimes reference him indirectly. For the record, I like Joe Biden, he's the sort of working class guy who never forgot his roots after he made it big... I picture him waking up most days and saying, "Wow, I can't believe that I'm here". While Biden is generally thought of as being gaffe-prone, he was always eloquent and compassionate while speaking at funerals, whether of fallen soldiers, assassinated police officers, or deceased statesmen. Biden has long known when he had to bring his linguistic "A game", because he has long known bereavement. Here is Biden delivering a speech about grief back in 2012:
Now, with the loss of his son Beau to cancer, Joe once again has to deal with bereavement. Beau Biden, a public servant like his father, was a contemporary of mine, so this particular death hits home, especially since I recently lost two friends and contemporaries this year. Beau Biden died all too young, like my recently departed friends Valerie and Richard. I'm sure that Joe Biden will be stalwart in the wake of his son's death, the guy has character. In response to the death of the Kennedys, Daniel Patrick Moynihan declared "To be Irish is to know that in the end the world will break your heart." I'm more of the opinion of the departed Phil Chevron, also Irish, who noted that hearts just crack, they never really break. I don't think Joe Biden's heart will break, he's too resilient for that to happen. It will definitely ache, but I have no doubt that he will continue to be a comforter of others suffering from heartache.
I've commented on how I admire compassionate Joe Biden, the man who (despite a reputation for gaffes) never falters when called upon to act as consoler-in-chief. I've also written about how I was pleasantly surprised by Biden-as-boss, the hirer-in-chief who has made historical appointments to important positions in the government. I have to admit, though, that my favorite Biden is snarky Biden, the Biden who, while leaving a press gaggle, responds to a BBC reporter, "I'm Irish." That's the best Biden, the one whose wit undercuts right-wing accusations of senility.
Snarky Biden was on hand at this week's White House Correspondents' Dinner, when the man showcased his ability to cut a mofo to pieces with a smile:
The best thing about it is that he didn't even mention The Former Guy by name, so any criticism of his joke is also an accusation of TFG. Once again, it's clear that one has to be on the alert in order to get one over on Sleepy Joe.
One of the most persistent right-wing tropes for the past six months is the false assertion that Joe Biden is senile- they adopted the former guy's moniker of 'Sleepy Joe' (which I have decided to embrace because we are all sleeping better now) and joked about how he was hiding in his basement (this makes no sense, because he's a wealthy guy with a big house- why the basement?). I know that right-wingers ensconce themselves in a bubble, but President Biden has had a consistent winning streak from day one. For a guy who had a reputation as a gaffe machine, the man never misspeaks when he's speaking about matters of personal loss... in these tragic times, his eloquence has been notable.
In his first prime-time address to commemorate the one year anniversary of the pandemic, Biden started off with the all-too familiar observation that the world stopped, that feeling of demarcation between the 'before time' and the plague year:
Good evening my fellow Americans. Tonight, I'd like to talk to you
about where we are as we mark one year since everything stopped because
of this pandemic. A year ago, we were hit with a virus that was met with
silence and spread unchecked, denials for days, weeks, then months.
That
led to more deaths, more infections, more stress, and more loneliness.
Photos and videos from 2019 feel like they were taken in another era.
The last vacation, the last birthday with friends, the last holiday with
extended family.
This really hit home. He acknowledged the sorrow that permeated everyday life, then found reason to be optimistic (here's where I repeat my assertion that Biden embodies this quote from Tolkien: "His grief he will not forget; but it will not darken his heart, it will teach him wisdom.")
While it was different for everyone, we all lost something -- a
collective suffering, a collective sacrifice, a year filled with the
loss of life and the loss of living for all of us. But in the loss, we
saw how much there was to gain in appreciation, respect, and gratitude.
Finding light in the darkness is a very American thing to do.
In
fact, it may be the most American thing we do. And that's what we've
done. We've seen frontline and essential workers risking their lives,
sometimes losing them, to save and help others. Researchers and
scientists racing for a vaccine. And so many of you, as Hemingway wrote, "Being strong in all the broken places."
Could you imagine the former guy quoting Hemingway? Also, Joe Biden made sure to give accolades to the common working people who have kept our society running during this crisis. I can't imagine the former guy, who sees everything in transactional terms, expressing his gratitude to anyone, let alone a bunch of peasants. With his talk of 'American carnage' back in the not-so-bad days back in 2016, the former guy found darkness in the light.
When Biden speaks about emotional matters, he speaks with authenticity. He incorporated personal tales of his father losing his job. He spoke about the loss of those social rituals which were made impossible by the pandemic, as he put it:
It's the details of life that matter the most, and we miss those details, the
big details and the small moments, weddings, birthdays, graduations,
all of the things that needed to happen but didn't.
The president also called for unity, and condemned the worrying trend of attacks against Americans of Asian and Pacific Islander descent:
The things we used to do that always filled us with joy have become
things we couldn't do and broke our hearts. Too often, we've turned
against one another. A mask, the easiest thing to do to save lives,
sometimes it divides us. States pitted against one another instead of
working with each other. Vicious hate crimes against Asian Americans who
have been attacked, harassed, blamed, and scapegoated.
At this
very moment, so many of them, our fellow Americans, they're on the front
lines of this pandemic trying to save lives, and still, still, they are
forced to live in fear for their lives, just walking down streets in
America. It's wrong, it's un-American, and it must stop.
President Biden exhorted Americans to pull together, and committed himself to telling the truth to the American people (no deception to avoid panic, because he trusts us) :
Look, we know what we need to do to beat this virus. Tell the truth.
Follow the scientists and the science. Work together. Put trust and
faith in our government to fulfill its most important function, which is
protecting the American people. No function more important. We need to
remember the government isn't some foreign force in a distant capital.
No, it's us. All of us. We, the people.
For you and I, that America thrives when we give our hearts, when we
turn our hands to common purpose. And right now, my friends, we're doing
just that. And I have to say, as your president, I am grateful to you.
Last summer, I was in Philadelphia, and I met a small business owner, a
woman. I asked her, I said, "what do you need most?" I will never forget
what she said to me. She said, looking me in the eye, and she said, "I
just want the truth. The truth. Just tell me the truth."
President Biden went on to detail his plan to get Americans vaccinated, and to get children back in school. He's taking the 'war on the virus' seriously, and he urged all Americans to join the war effort:
But I need you, the American people. I need you. I need every American
to do their part. And that's not hyperbole. I need you. I need you to
get vaccinated when it's your turn and when you can find an opportunity.
And to help your family, your friends, your neighbors get vaccinated as
well.
It was a relief to hear a speech from a man who has promised 'no malarkey'. President Biden hit the proper emotional notes, he refrained from blaming others for the current sorry state of the nation, he articulated actual policy goals, and he called upon what President Lincoln termed 'the better angels of our nature'. Once again, Joe Biden has shown that he is the right person for the Herculean task of cleaning out the Augean stables that the former guy's maladministration left him with. If you haven't seen the speech, it's a welcome return to an era in which government competence is valued:
And to think that Republicans are trying to claim that this man is senile...
A couple of posts ago, I wrote about the Trump fans' accusations that Biden would use performance enhancing drugs in the upcoming debate with their God-Emperor. Well, those relatively mundane conspiracy theories now pale in comparison with the more outré theories about Biden being electronically enhanced.
First off, we have the relatively normal notion that Biden had a wire feeding him audio information:
This QAnon account has over 5,000 retweets because it believes a crease in Joe Biden's shirt is some kind of wire.
These people can't even update conspiracy theories. Y'all think Joe Biden has some sort of secret Correct Debate Answer Earpiece and it's not Bluetooth? pic.twitter.com/YpOjAdeNwd
The idea of a Cyberbiden has an undeniable appeal:
Conspiracy theorists are going to accuse Biden of having so many cybernetic enhancements he's going to sound like some sort of transhumanist street samurai. pic.twitter.com/A8PeUO2WqL
Last night, President Biden went into mad dad mode, chastising those naughty childish types who refuse both vaccines and masks. In order to bring these idiots into compliance, he has implemented vaccine mandates for certain employees: those working for companies employing 100 or more persons (those not vaccinated will have to be tested twice a week), healthcare workers in facilities receiving federal funds, executive branch personnel, and contractors working for the federal government:
My job as president is to protect all
Americans. So tonight, I’m announcing that the Department of Labor is
developing an emergency rule to require all employers with 100 or more employees
that together employ over 80 million workers to ensure their work
forces are fully vaccinated or show a negative test at least once a
week.
..................................
My plan will extend the vaccination
requirements that I previously issued in the health care field. Already,
I’ve announced we’ll be requiring vaccinations that all nursing home
workers who treat patients on Medicare and Medicaid, because I have that
federal authority.
Tonight I’m using
that same authority to expand that to cover those who work in hospitals,
home health care facilities or other medical facilities. A total of 17
million health care workers. If you’re seeking care at a health
facility, you should be able to know that the people treating you are
vaccinated — simple, straightforward, period.
Next,
I will sign an executive order that will now require all executive
branch federal employees to be vaccinated — all. I’ve signed another
executive order that will require federal contractors to do the same. If
you want to work with the federal government and do business with us,
get vaccinated. If you want to do business with the federal government,
vaccinate your work force.
Thankfully, Biden also mandated stiffer penalties for assholes who abuse in-flight personnel, doubling the previous fines. Personally, I feel that lifetime flying bans and even public beatings (I'm only half joking) should be added to the penalties:
Today, tonight, I’m announcing that the Transportation Safety
Administration, the T.S.A., will double the fines on travelers that
refuse to mask. If you break the rules, be prepared to pay. And by the
way, show some respect. The anger you see on television toward flight
attendants and others doing their jobs is wrong. It’s ugly.
Biden also had strong words about the Republican politicians which have fought against state and local mask-and-vaccine mandates:
While the vaccines provide strong
protection for the vaccinated, we read about and hear about and we see
the stories of hospitalized people, people on their death beds among the
unvaccinated over the past few weeks. This is a pandemic of the
unvaccinated.
And it’s caused by the
fact that despite America having unprecedented and successful
vaccination program — despite the fact that for almost five months, free
vaccines have been available in 80,000 different locations — we still
have nearly 80 million Americans who have failed to get the shot. And to
make matters worse, there are elected officials actively working to
undermine the fight against Covid-19. Instead of encouraging people to
get vaccinated and mask up, they are ordering mobile morgues for the
unvaccinated dying from Covid in our communities. This is totally
unacceptable.
Let me be blunt. My plan also takes on
elected officials in states that are undermining you and these
lifesaving actions. Right now, local school officials are trying to keep
children safe in a pandemic while their governor picks a fight with
them and even threatens their salaries or their jobs. Talk about
bullying in schools.
If they will not
help, if those governors won’t help us beat the pandemic, I’ll use my
power as president to get them out of the way. The Department of
Education has already begun to take legal action against states
undermining protection that local school officials have ordered. Any
teacher or school official whose pay is withheld for doing the right
thing, we will have that pay restored by the federal government, 100
percent. I promise you, I will have your back.
President Biden also spoke of protecting workers who need time off for vaccination, and of seeking equity in COVID response for communities of color. He also spoke of providing doses of vaccines to poorer countries, and promised to release a detailed pandemic preparedness plan- notably, the Obama administration left Trump a pandemic response plan, which was ignored.
The speech was forceful and, as President Biden put it, blunt- it was the speech of an angry parent who has had enough of recalcitrance among his charges. Sure, the mandates will be challenged by Republican officials who wish to see Biden fail, even if it causes the deaths of their constituents, but such mandates as Biden has proposed have long been deemed constitutional. Sadly, the current Supreme Court, dominated by right-wing whackaloons, will most likely ignore precedent. The next few months will be a shitshow, but with last night's speech, Joe Biden showed that he means business, and will use his authority as Chief Executive to save people who will resent him for their deliverance.
Joe Biden is a man who talks readily, and with pride, about being an Irish-American guy from Scranton, Pennsylvania... this led to a hilarious Biden quip in response to a BBC reporter:
Biden is literally me any time I’m abroad and someone asks where in the UK I’m from pic.twitter.com/ERceMwZMdt
Ah, yes, that's our Bonny Biden Boy! Watching this, I thought to myself, I would sing Fields of Athenry to this man. For those unfamiliar with the song, it's a real tearjerker about a man sentenced to penal transportation to Australia for stealing grain to feed his children:
It's also a rebel song, about a man who refuses to bow down to an evil, incompetent government during a national crisis:
The last politician I sang Fields of Athenry to turned out to be a big disappointment, but I think Bonny Joe Biden will be responsive to the advice of younger, more progressive colleagues when he assumes the office of the presidency.
At any rate, the people of Ireland have been proud to claim Joe as a son of the diaspora. For his part, Joe Biden has stated his continuing support for the Good Friday Agreement, and for using trade deals to ensure that Brexit won't lead to a renewal of conflicts on the Republic of Ireland/Northern Ireland border. In my neighborhood, there is a sense of relief... earlier this year, there was a slight panic as even pale, blonde soccer moms who might have overstayed their visas were spreading a rumor the ICE was pulling people over at a traffic stop on the nearby highway. The fact that Biden could be a distant cousin is merely a bonus.
Back in the 2016 Democratic primary season, I was 100% in Liz Warren's camp. Having followed Joe Biden's career, I found him to be too much of a centrist, a corporation-friendly Delaware guy, for my comfort. I have to say that I have been pleasantly surprised by the man's 'presidenting'. I am especially pleased with Biden's historic nominees for his administration- the first Black female Vice President, the first Native American Secretary of the Interior. Biden, that old white man, had surrounded himself with talented women of color.
And here we have what an earlier Biden himself would call a Big Fucking Deal, but this is a bigger deal than the Affordable Healthcare Act- the confirmation of America's first Black woman as a justice of the Supreme Court. The Republican attacks on her were disgusting (claiming she was soft on sexual predators, and allegations that she wasn't well qualified, and the perennial 'most liberal nominee to the Supreme Court' assertion that they think sounds bad. She's brilliant, she's had a career which perfectly suits her for the position, and she is a history-maker. The naysayers' tears are delicious.
Again, I thought that Biden was going to be sort of a 'placeholder' president, one to keep things steady as the country moves to dig itself out of the ditch The Former Guy put it in, but the only placeholding he's doing is holding places open for a new generation of public servants who, in the aggregate, more resemble the population of These Here United States.
It's refreshing to hear a president-elect who can speak in full sentences, especially one who can tell the truth without sugarcoating it or burying it in heaps of denial and obfuscation. In his press conference today, Joe Biden told the cold, hard truth about the COVID-19 pandemic and the sacrifices it will demand of Americans:
Biden: "One thing I promise you about my leadership during this crisis: I'm going to tell it to you straight. I'm going to tell you the truth. And here is the simple truth: Our darkest days in the battle against Covid are ahead of us, not behind us." pic.twitter.com/h9qHnE2F49
Joe Biden is the sort of person who trusts Americans to rise up to the challenges of the day, not a coward who lies to people in an attempt to 'avoid panic'. Trump has governed as an evil version of Zaphod Beeblebrox, it's no wonder that he believed that not seeing the peril would somehow avert the peril.
The one thing that gives me some misgivings is Joe's trust that the Republicans, faced with an existential crisis, will join with the Democrats in order to protect their constituents:
Biden is really using this press conference to lean into the idea that when it comes to the coronavirus response and help to hurting Americans, he believes he can work with Republicans pic.twitter.com/f9vFahbmo8
He spent so much time in the Senate, he actually came to believe in the congeniality of political discourse, while those of us on the ground get an eyeful of the absolute hatred with which the Republican rank-and-file view anybody to the left of... I was going to write 'Mitt Romney', but they hate him too.
My hope is that Biden knows that the 'kumbaya' stuff is a pipe-dream, but that he will position himself as 'healer in chief' while letting his younger, more assertive surrogates go on the attack for him.
Biden's approach just might work, and might even be necesary in the unthinkable-yet-not-improbable event that the Republicans maintain control of the Senate.
At any rate, it's good to hear someone in a position of authority who can speak in complete sentences, cogent ones even. I'm actually willing to forgive the man an occasional gaffe and a snipe at the press.
I was out on the town when the news that Joe Biden had picked Kamala Harris as his running mate was announced, which gave me some time to consider the choice before commenting on it. I think that Harris was the best pick for Biden. She's relatively young, which will bypass fears of Biden's age being a factor in his term (Elizabeth Warren is a spetuagenarian, like Biden), and set her up for an eventual run in 2024 or 2028. She's the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, so she ticks a number of boxes in the 'historic run' column (just joking here)... she will be able to speak eloquently about issues faced by women, immigrants, and people of color. Harris has adopted the Green New Deal, which bodes well for solving environmental issues and creating well-paying jobs. As a corollary, she is also dedicated to combating environmental racism. To Joe Biden's credit, he nominated her even though she has never shied away from criticizing him throughout the primaries.
Predictably, Harris has been attacked by both the 'dirtbag left' and pretty much the entire right. The lefties refrain that 'Kamala is a cop' has been countered by a public defender who had dealings with her in court. One can certainly criticize such repressive policies as 'three strikes' law, but that can be laid at the feet of the voters. Oddly enough, one right-wing rag that has written numerous pro-police, anti-protestor screeds has a 'Kamala is a cop' shirt for sale. The right-wing has already started a bizarre farrago of attacks- she's a socialist radical, she's a repressive enforcer of unjust laws, she's not African-American, she's a black nationalist. There are even weird 'gotcha' attacks about her sister's use of hydroxychloroquine to treat her lupus. The election is going to be a shitstorm of racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and conspiracy theories, all promulgated by the most hypocritical bungholes on the planet. It's all they have, because Harris is a longtime public servant with some notable achievements under her belt.
I have no fear that these attacks will actually work, primarily because they are incoherent, but also because Kamala Harris is intelligent, unflappable, and has impressive knife skills:
She also doesn't take herself too seriously, which will serve her well on the campaign. I think she will make a perfect foil for Joe Biden, and I hope this career move will eventually end up with her in the White House. Now excuse me while I look up masala dosa recipes.
ADDENDUM: I figured I'd post a link to my 'Schrödinger's Blackness' post, because it will be relevant for the next three months to MUMBLEMUMBLE years. Simply put, the blackness of any Democratic politician cannot be determined until a right-winger figures out what sort of smear campaign to wage against said Democrat.
As soon as Joe Biden been sworn in as President of the United States, one of the looniest of the Republican newcomers in the House of Representatives has filed articles of impeachment based on, get this, his actions as President Obama's Vice President, over eight years ago:
“President Joe Biden is unfit to hold the office of the Presidency. His
pattern of abuse of power as President Obama’s Vice President is lengthy
and disturbing. President Biden residing
in the White House is a threat to national security and he must be
immediately impeached.”
The Republicans being a minority in the House, her articles of impeachment are a non-starter. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R- QAnon) knows that Biden won't be impeached, so this stunt seems like clout chasing among the Trump dead-enders. The articles aren't even part of a genuine impeachment effort, merely a performative trick.
The best thing about Greene's statement regarding her articles of impeachment is her set of accusations against Hunter Biden, who I don't recall being an elected official. These are particularly humorous in light of Trump naming his daughter and son-in-law as advisors:
Dragging the president's children into an impeachment proceeding doesn't seem to be a smart move while Trump's impeachment is ongoing. If Greene were really smart, she would impeach Hunter Biden's massive dong, basically playing the GOP's greatest hits. Every generation of Republicans needs a Democratic penis to threaten it, and Marjorie Taylor Greene is just the Republican to take the mantle from Ken Starr. If she demands that Sleepy Joe drop his drawers to show what he's packing, we might have to change his moniker to Mighty Joe Hung.
Last night's convention speech by Barack Obama really brought home the degree to which our nation has fallen. Just hearing an intelligent, compassionate man delivering a unifying speech highlighted how stupid and divisive the current Occupant of the White House is.
The Trump campaign is banking on the cynicism that Barack Obama mentioned... one of his big campaign pitches in 2016 was aimed at African-American voters: "What the hell do you have to lose?" We know the answer now- over a hundred-and-seventy American lives, millions of jobs, the esteem of allies worldwide.
Joe Biden isn't quite the orator that Barack Obama is, he's got a reputation of being a gaffe machine. Biden never misses a word, though, when it counts... I've never heard him misspeak when addressing a funeral or memorial service. The Tor Books website has a post about Meriadoc Brandybuck in LotR, which reminds me that Joe Biden has a hobbit-esque streak: "But it is the way of my people
to use light words at such times and say less than they mean. We fear
to say too much. It robs us of the right words when a jest is out of
place."
I've had several conversations online, and spoke at some length with my mom, about the role that Joe Biden will play if he wins the election- he will largely play the role of Healer-in-Chief, the kindly, empathetic figure who can work to reunite the body politic, the peacemaker who can reassure our allies that we are back on the right track. Barack Obama articulated the importance of Hope in the face of an election that increasingly looks rigged, cynicism about the validity of the electoral process only helps Trump. Biden cannot be a transformational figure such as Obama was, but he can act as a decent steward, one who remembers the values that, to use the cliche, made America great, and can rely on his younger proxies to make damn sure that the values that our society claims to embody apply to all people.
Oh, yeah, the right wing noise machine is at it again, trying to recapture that 2016 high with a lurid story about Hunter Biden's laptop, basically rehashing the Anthony Wiener laptop story. The evidence free conspiracy theories are all of a kind- this new one even alleges that, besides incriminating evidence of collusion with China, there is video of Hunter Biden torturing and molesting children. This is just like the Wiener laptop hard drive, reputed to have contained a video of Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin cutting a child's face off before sacrificing her to obtain her sweet, sweet adrenochrome.
It's lazy and stupid, but these are lazy and stupid people. The supposed source of the data is a Trump supporter with a sketchy story about obtaining the data on Biden's drives, and the promoter of the story is Rudy Giuliani... even convicted felon Bernie Kerik is trying to recapture his fifteen minutes of fame by jumping on this lurid fantasy, tailor-made for the QAnon crowd. The reporters at Rupert Murdoch's New York Posttried to keep their names off the byline. Flimsy evidence be damned, though, idiots have been spreading it on social media.
Like the Hillary/Huma video, evidence of Biden's crimes will never come to light, since it's all made-up nonsense. That being said, Hunter Biden has lost my vote!
Predictably, the Trump Maladministration ousted EPA scientists from academia and replaced them with fossil fuel and chemical industry flacks back in 2017, so this is a corrective measure. Of course, when Republicans do this, it's not political- only Democrats are so churlish to politicize science (or morals, or 'family values' or...). GOP representatives James Comer and Ralph Norman had the gall to write this to EPA chief Michael Regan:
“Traditionally science advisory boards are bipartisan panels used to provide advice to the administrator. Unfortunately, it appears the Biden administration is continuing to purge officials in the government who do not share its political beliefs. The midterm firing of science advisory board members within the first months of a new administration .... raises serious concerns about the politicization of the EPA.”
Here is where I note that the same 'researchers' who are trying to cast doubt on the connection between climate change and the burning of fossil fuels were the monsters who tried to obfuscate the link between cigarette smoking and cancer. There's no need to give these prevaricators a seat at the table when discussing such a crisis as global climate change. They just aren't good faith actors, and they would do their level best to derail any discussion of climate crisis mitigation.
Joe Biden has the Herculean task of cleaning out the Augean Stable that Former Guy turned the government into, and thankfully he's willing to do the necessary work. Starting with four dozen hired guns posing as scientists gives me hope that he is up to the challenge.
Even more importantly, President Biden signaled his commitment to science by elevating the role of Science Advisor to a cabinet position. The only thing that would make me more excited would be Biden's formation of a Science Ninja Team:
The one characteristic of 'Sleepy Joe' is that he is accomplishing a lot of good things. Today was a particularly busy day for President Joseph Robinette Biden and VP Kamala Harris, as they traveled to Atlanta to address members of the Asian and Pacific Islander community and visited the CDC, taking time to meet with Stacey Abrams, the Atlanta mayor, and Senators Warnock and Ossoff. When does Sleepy Joe even have time to sleep?
Introduced by a moving preamble by Vice President Harris, President Biden's speech was an appeal to the hearts and the minds of the American people. The president decried the 'skyrocketing' number of attacks on Americans of Asian and Pacific Islander descent and stated that xenophobia and violence against the elderly and women have no place in the US. Americans must stand together against hate. The epidemic of gun violence must be addressed. He then went on to praise the scientists of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and confirmed his administration's commitment to science, as embodied by the public servants at the CDC. He called upon the public to continue to practice COVID-19 mitigation procedures. The president also stated the importance of voter rights legislation, and committed to protecting voting procedures.
While President Biden doesn't deliver the oratorical heights of a Barack Obama, he speaks with conviction and emotion. He reminds the American people that they have obligations to society, and he takes his obligation to the public seriously. He really does come across as the right person for the right time, a hardworking, decent person who can rally the American people to work hard and be decent. President Biden continues to exceed my expectations.
About the title... I decided to fully embrace the 'Sleepy Joe' moniker bestowed by the Former Guy. Now that Joseph Robinette Biden is at the helm of state, everybody is sleeping better.
Ugh, it's debate number two between Biden and Trump. I just tuned in in time for Trump to blame Biden for the H1N1 flu response... in an outbreak which claimed 12,000 lives, compared to the current 220K plus. It'll be interesting to see how Vulgarmort responds to the post two-minute mic mute. Already, Trump is using the 'basement Biden' crack that the right-wingers love so much.
It's going to be a slog, a long night of idiocy and mendacity. I'm at work, so I can't drink while watching this. So far, the one bright spot is Kristen Welker's moderation, so much better than Chris Wallace's low-effort moderation. I have to confess that Miss Welker's attractiveness is also a welcome distraction from Trump's scowling mug.
At least Biden is on the attack, calling out Trump's ineptitude, and his 'fiddling while Rome burns' golf outings. I hope he keeps it up, enough with the malarky.
UPDATE: She really needs to use that mute button on that asshole. I do like fiery Biden, though.
The Big Bad Bald Bastard is a character played by Monsieur _______ of the City of Y______. The role of the Bastard is a handy one to play on subways, walking the streets, and in dive-bars, when being a nerdy, bookish sort is not to one's advantage.
