The Biden Presidency

[calodo2003]

Long time coming.

His Wiki is already updated.

 

[Sir Matt]

Looks like it...

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Disappointed we didn't get the Rock hinting at the news like he did with Osama.

I hope they say where he was for the last 20 years (I assume Karachi or somewhere in Pakistan).

 

[MTF]

Looks like it...

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I wonder how they're confident in the assessment that it was indeed him.

 

[RedDevilQuebecois]

Disappointed we didn't get the Rock hinting at the news like he did with Osama.

I hope they say where he was for the last 20 years (I assume Karachi or somewhere in Pakistan).

Or just having John Cena interrupting the show to announce the big news.

I wonder how they're confident in the assessment that it was indeed him.

They might have undercover assets on the ground and/or ways to confirm the identity of the dead target.

 

[Simbo]

Gotta love a good eye feck.

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[Raoul]

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[oneniltothearsenal]

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Biden has been doing some decent stuff lately. Hopefully, it helps with the midterms (and people still turn out remembering the SCOTUS decision on abortion).

 

[Raoul]

Biden has been doing some decent stuff lately. Hopefully, it helps with the midterms (and people still turn out remembering the SCOTUS decision on abortion).

It may help a bit, but the Dems are still going to get hit hard in the House. Decent chance of retaining the Senate though, especially with the GOP running intellectual titans like Dr. Oz and Herschel Walker.

 

[oneniltothearsenal]

It may help a bit, but the Dems are still going to get hit hard in the House. Decent chance of retaining the Senate though, especially with the GOP running intellectual titans like Dr. Oz and Herschel Walker.

I still can't believe they thought running Hershel was a good idea. They must think most swing voters will just vote on name recognition and not pay any attention to what he actually says.

 

[Raoul]

I still can't believe they thought running Hershel was a good idea. They must think most swing voters will just vote on name recognition and not pay any attention to what he actually says.

I think that's what they were banking on. He's a UGA football legend, long time friend of Trump's since the USFL days in the 80s, and they probably thought he would be a slam dunk because Trump would be all in on him. They didn't consider how much of a visceral moron he is, which is what will likely sink him in the end. Although he is unnervingly close to Warnock in the polls.

 

[nimic]

I still can't believe they thought running Hershel was a good idea. They must think most swing voters will just vote on name recognition and not pay any attention to what he actually says.

I'm sure there were a lot of very upset people in GOP headquarters when it became clear Herschel was going to run, and that he was actually going to get some support.

 

[nimic]

What would the practical consequences be of the Democrats controlling the Presidency and the Senate, and the Republicans controlling the House?

 

[WI_Red]

What would the practical consequences be of the Democrats controlling the Presidency and the Senate, and the Republicans controlling the House?

Judges get confirmed but no legislation gets passed. Like, none. Oh, and a bunch of executive branch people will be impeached. Like, alot.

 

[Raoul]

What would the practical consequences be of the Democrats controlling the Presidency and the Senate, and the Republicans controlling the House?

The Rs controlling the house would obviously mean gridlock and all kinds of hearings with the likes of Gym Jordan, Matt Gaetz, MJT to attempt to weaken the Dems prior to 2024. The Dems holding the Senate would be very important for nominating SCOTUS candidates and continuing some form of January 6th hearing if the Senate wanted to take it up. In terms of actual policy, the next few months are last chance saloon for the Dems (although Biden appears to have already gotten through what he wanted this week).

 

[neverdie]

the chips bill and this inflation or reconciliation bill are not perfect. biden framed it as "vested interests have lost" which is patent nonsense because the richest corporations are receiving taxpayer money, and a lot of it, to incentivize production. but despite that, those two bills still represent the most cogent pieces of reindustrialization legislation passed perhaps ever, at least since the onset of deindustrialization.

 

[neverdie]

It is true that ruling-class propaganda, constantly flooding the visual, auditory, and print media, can have a major influence on popular attitudes, manipulating the public into “conservative” political positions. But this doesn’t imply the typical Democratic argument that Americans are naturally moderate or centrist, nor does it mean that because they are somehow “steeped in the dominant themes of their nation’s history” they tend to reject left-wing ideas. Indeed, the very fact that it is necessary to deluge the public with overwhelming amounts of propaganda, and to censor and marginalize views and information associated with the political left, is significant. Why would such a massive and everlasting public relations campaign be necessary if the populace didn’t have subversive or “dangerous” values and beliefs in the first place? It is evidently imperative to continuously police people’s behavior and thoughts lest popular resistance overwhelm structures of class and power.

When we consider the findings of polls, we can see why the ruling class devotes such colossal spending to “manufacturing consent.” A few examples may suffice. In 1935, a Fortune magazine poll found that 41 percent of the upper-middle class, 49 percent of the lower-iddle class, and 60 percent of the poor thought the government should not allow a man to keep investments worth over $1 million. As late as 1942, 64 percent of people thought it was a good idea to limit annual incomes to $25,000. That same year, another Fortune poll found that almost 30 percent of the nation’s factory workers thought “some form of socialism would be a good thing for the country as a whole,” while 34 percent had open minds about it—which means only 36 percent thought socialism would be “a bad thing.” Given the resources and energy the business class had dedicated to vilifying socialism, these findings are striking.

They may bring to mind more recent findings. Gallup polls have found that 40 percent of Americans (and a majority of Democrats) have a positive view of socialism—which is a remarkable fact, considering that the mass media’s coverage of “socialism” is almost uniformly negative. For a similar reason, the 68 percent approval rating of labor unions is also noteworthy. According to the Pew Research Center, 59 percent of Americans are bothered “a lot” by the feeling that corporations and the wealthy don’t pay their fair share of taxes. Sixty-four percent of people think that protecting the environment should be a top policy priority. As usual, then, the populace is largely to the left of the two major political parties, even after being continually inundated by anti-left propaganda. In fact, a large number of people come very close to believing in communism: according to a poll in 1987, 45 percent of Americans thought the Marxist slogan “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” is so morally obvious it is enshrined in the Constitution!

It seems, in short, that we would do well to reject liberal shibboleths about the virtues of moderation and the essential conservatism of the American population. We should reject liberal idealism, airy abstractions about American values or traditions, the journalistic and scholarly tendency to take seriously empty political rhetoric. What matter most are the actual conditions in which people live and toil, the struggles (implicit or explicit) between economic classes and subclasses for greater power and resources, the basically realistic mentality of ordinary people. Beneath the political and cultural indoctrination we all experience, we have certain fundamental values: we want a degree of material comfort, control over our work and recreational activities, freedom to express ourselves creatively and independently, and a social and natural environment that permits health and mutual recognition. If activists and left politicians simply appeal to people’s realism, to their desire for emancipation and their understanding of an oligarchical political economy—as Bernie Sanders, for example, did in 2016 and 2020, thereby becoming arguably the most popular politician in the country—they are bound, sooner or later, to find political success.

In any case, even if it weren’t true that to embrace an economically left-wing message would be politically effective, it is simply a moral imperative in 2022 that we do so. Daily newspaper headlines tell of the cascade of crises the country and the world are facing. The time is long past for liberal half-measures. In the end, nothing can defeat a resurgent proto-fascism except a radical politics, a labor politics, which mobilizes millions of people to fight for economic and social democracy.

full article https://www.wrightswriting.com/post/the-myth-of-the-moderate-american

one of the better articles written of late. speaks particularly to the american history of class struggle and also to where representation needs to be. in the context of the biden presidency, it doesn't offer a direct critique but indirectly criticizes the kind of rhetoric establishment democrats use. america has never been a "moderate" country divorced from class struggle, it has always been the country in which labour activists were most brutally put down. see the amazon union busting as a recent example.

 

[neverdie]

As Washington mulls over the final text of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) approved by Iran and the EU, details have emerged on the deal’s term, which include guarantees against future US attempts to abandon the agreement.

The new terms, which include comprehensive sanctions relief for the Islamic Republic, also allow Iran to revive its enrichment program more quickly than before, in order to deter the US from exiting on a whim.

“The platforms of the centrifuges will not be destroyed and their connections and electricity are collected, which brings our rebuildability to under one year and is a kind of guarantee,” explains an Iranian source, giving an example of one of the deal’s terms that are more favorable to Iran than in the original 2015 document.

The ball is in Washington’s court to sign off on the final terms, which Iran approved earlier this week.

The source informed The Cradle that there are 21 guarantees written into the agreement to alleviate Iran’s concerns.

If Washington agrees to this final deal, its implementation will take place in stages, the first of which will be the signing of the agreement by all involved foreign ministers in the Austrian capital.

That same day, the US will cancel three executive orders by former president Donald Trump to withdraw from the JCPOA.

From here, the deal calls for a 60 day window during which Iran will test the agreement’s legitimacy and operability by selling oil to western countries, and accessing its funds frozen abroad.

Among several other points, the guarantees will include a statement made by US President Joe Biden and an official letter to be drafted by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

The source says that the terms include allowing Iran to continue research and development for its nuclear energy program for ten years, and call for the sale of the nation’s surplus uranium supply.

Sanctions against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) will remain in place, however, these will no longer extend to “partner companies” that engage in transactions with the special forces group.

This is in line with reports from last week, which claimed that the final draft proposal from the EU specified: “Europeans and other non-Americans could conduct business with Iranian entities engaged in ‘transactions’ with the IRGC without fear of triggering US sanctions.

https://thecradle.co/Article/News/14504

could be big news. this has gone back and forth since biden was elected. he campaigned on renegotiating and reentering the deal. if signed, he can easily sell it as significant for regional security preventing an arms race between iran and the saudis. those two have also had mediated talks coming in patches mostly to do with the yemeni war but also other issues. anyway will be a + if he gets it done before midterms on back of other domestic legislation.

 

[SirAF]

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[calodo2003]

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Slightly better, but his control of Sky thru proxy is really an anchor on him.

 

[KirkDuyt]

could be big news. this has gone back and forth since biden was elected. he campaigned on renegotiating and reentering the deal. if signed, he can easily sell it as significant for regional security preventing an arms race between iran and the saudis. those two have also had mediated talks coming in patches mostly to do with the yemeni war but also other issues. anyway will be a + if he gets it done before midterms on back of other domestic legislation.

You post quite alot of insightful stuff, but WHY WON'T YOU TYPE CAPITAL LETTERS. It physically kills me

 

[calodo2003]

You post quite alot of insightful stuff, but WHY WON'T YOU TYPE CAPITAL LETTERS. It physically kills me

S/he usually has interesting posts, but the no caps is challenging.

 

[calodo2003]

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[berbatrick]

so, senate polls are looking ok, after that by-election, house looks slightly possible, he's done something (inadequate, but still) on climate, now he has done a MAJOR campaign promise, and gas prices are going down.

old man still has something left in him.

 

[berbatrick]

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[neverdie]

If ConocoPhillips gets its way, there will soon be chillers on the Alaskan tundra, refreezing the ground so that it can support new oil drilling equipment. The Arctic permafrost is melting so fast, the company explains, that this perverse techno-solution is necessary. Nothing better expresses the cruel absurdity at the heart of ConocoPhillips’s “Willow Project” — its 30-year plan to extract hundreds of millions of barrels of crude from ecologically sensitive lands of the far North.

If approved, this plan will fashion a new Prudhoe Bay atop increasingly unstable tundra, locking in decades of oil production even as the climate crisis destabilizes ecosystems in Alaska and around the world. Unless the Biden administration stops this project, ConocoPhillips will massively expand petroleum production on Alaska’s North Slope — beginning as early as this winter.

Endorsing the Trump-era plan undermines President Joe Biden’s climate promises, threatens the health of the Indigenous community of Nuiqsut, and continues the long tradition of sacrificing large swathes of Arctic Alaska to the short-term interests of the fossil fuel industry. It also perpetuates the fantasy held by many Alaskan political leaders that unsustainable resource extraction can remain their state’s primary economic model.

The Willow Master Development Plan is staggering in scale. ConocoPhillips, the Texas-based oil and gas giant, proposes to industrialize enormous stretches of land, filling it with sprawling spiderwebs of fossil fuel infrastructure. The project would build five new drill sites, as well as pipelines, a gravel mine, a processing facility, an airstrip, gravel roads, ice roads, and more, all on federal lands in the Western Arctic. At peak production, the Willow Project will yield over 180,000 barrels of oil per day, and ConocoPhillips plans to drill there for the next 30 years. According to the Washington Post, the company has privately told investors that it will extract 3 billion barrels of oil — five times more than the estimate used by government scientists to assess Willow’s climate impact. All ConocoPhillips needs now is for the Biden administration to grant final approval.

The company plans to construct this project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, which — despite its name — is not a fossil fuel warehouse waiting to be tapped. Established in 1923 as the Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4 (to provide emergency fuel supplies to the Navy), it was renamed in 1976 and its management was transferred to the Department of the Interior. Spanning over 23 million acres, the reserve is the largest public land holding in the United States. It is also a vibrant and diverse ecological space sustaining huge populations of wildlife species that migrate from across the continent and around the world. Thousands upon thousands of shorebirds, waterfowl, loons, geese, and other birds seek shelter and sustenance in the reserve’s lakes and wetlands; beluga and bowhead whales, spotted seals, and other marine mammals feast in the neighboring waters; and the Teshekpuk Lake caribou herd, currently numbering over 50,000 animals, relies on the reserve as its calving grounds.

https://truthout.org/articles/big-o...ska-permafrost-so-it-can-keep-drilling-there/

thinking that melting permafrost in the arctic circle is an opportunity for extraction is the definition of insanity. biden's presidency needs to reverse these new leases and most existing ones which aren't scheduled to wind down their claims.

 

[utdalltheway]

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White House official Twitter account going after the GOP hypocrites. There’s a whole string of these tweets.
Finally, fighting fire with fire. No more of this “when they go low, we go high” BS.

 

[calodo2003]

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[WI_Red]

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[oneniltothearsenal]

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White House official Twitter account going after the GOP hypocrites. There’s a whole string of these tweets.
Finally, fighting fire with fire. No more of this “when they go low, we go high” BS.

Yeah, they need to get their heads out of the sand and push this angle hard so everyone in red states hears the hypocrisy that the GOP bleats - GOP congresspeople getting hundreds of thousands to millions of loans forgiven yet the rancid cnuts whine about wage earners getting 10K of debt forgiveness? Feck that, its time this is plastered all over media, billboards in their districts etc.

 

[calodo2003]

Mixed bag, but some positives...

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[Sir Matt]

Biden gave a good speech tonight denouncing Trump and the "MAGA Republicans" who are a threat to American democracy. Naturally, the American press can't wait to trip over their metaphorical dicks in attacking it as political and the optics of having it at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

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I'm glad they're finally fighting back.

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[bosskeano]

Funny b/c his entire presidential campaign was geared upon the rhetoric that he was here to bring all americans together and work with the other side....that's a lot of shit based on just how bulldogish he is throwing accusations and attacking the people who don't support him

 

[calodo2003]

Funny b/c his entire presidential campaign was geared upon the rhetoric that he was here to bring all americans together and work with the other side....that's a lot of shit based on just how bulldogish he is throwing accusations and attacking the people who don't support him

He’s attacking a portion of those who don’t support him.

You from the states?

 

[Sir Matt]

Funny b/c his entire presidential campaign was geared upon the rhetoric that he was here to bring all americans together and work with the other side....that's a lot of shit based on just how bulldogish he is throwing accusations and attacking the people who don't support him

He's attacking the people who tried to overthrow American democracy...and are still trying to.

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

Funny b/c his entire presidential campaign was geared upon the rhetoric that he was here to bring all americans together and work with the other side....that's a lot of shit based on just how bulldogish he is throwing accusations and attacking the people who don't support him

 

[SirAF]

Funny b/c his entire presidential campaign was geared upon the rhetoric that he was here to bring all americans together and work with the other side....that's a lot of shit based on just how bulldogish he is throwing accusations and attacking the people who don't support him

What an absurd take. Are you a Trumper by any chance?

 

[NotThatSoph]

What an absurd take. Are you a Trumper by any chance?

Trump, while a completed donkey on twitter, is a hell of a lot better than this soon to be vegetable we have now for president. Again, another topic for a different forum.

I just think with how the Bellingham thing has played out, we will be pissing ourselves for allowing this player to make a move elsewhere if we have the chance to sign him.

initiating a withdrawal after 20 years is and was sensible.....the way it was handled, the manner in which they withdrew and left everything behind including american citizens, afghan interpreters etc.....that falls completely on that racist houseplant of a president we have now

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Bossman very rarely replies in threads like these, though, he's the drive-by comment kind of guy.

 

[SirAF]

Bossman very rarely replies in threads like these, though, he's the drive-by comment kind of guy.

Oh, I see the kind of guy he is now. Best just ignore him then.

 

[calodo2003]

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[Carolina Red]

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