19
   

Monitoring Biden and other Contemporary Events

 
 
Lash
 
  -1  
Reply Thu 3 Oct, 2024 08:40 am
@izzythepush,
I think it can be parts of both.
Lash
 
  -1  
Reply Thu 3 Oct, 2024 08:41 am
@hightor,
A photo op doesn’t change where he’s been most days since he was ousted.
blatham
 
  4  
Reply Thu 3 Oct, 2024 08:52 am
@hightor,
Quote:
"America is a society in pretty grave circumstances, and it deserves better leadership than this."

I don't know about that. You could say that about the whole f-ing planet.

Yes. It seems we have a (somewhat understandable) tendency to blame local leaders even when the problem(s) are evident far more broadly in the world, eg inflation or a pandemic.
0 Replies
 
izzythepush
 
  2  
Reply Thu 3 Oct, 2024 09:32 am
@Lash,
The problem with inconsistency is that people doubt your veracity even when you're being sincere.

And your past record of dodgy links, paywalls, subs to Encyclopaedia Britannia etc. hasn't helped.

I can never tell when you're being sincere or opportunistic.
0 Replies
 
izzythepush
 
  4  
Reply Thu 3 Oct, 2024 09:41 am
@Lash,
You're paraphrasing Trump, that doesn't help your case either.
0 Replies
 
Lash
 
  -1  
Reply Thu 3 Oct, 2024 10:50 am
If Trump is paraphrasing me, he’s correct.
hightor
 
  3  
Reply Thu 3 Oct, 2024 10:57 am
@thack45,
Quote:
It can be a little frustrating, probably because overall I really like where his head is at.

I know what you mean. When I first discovered him, he was writing almost exclusively about societal collapse in the face of an impending environmental apocalypse. So the hyperbole didn't bother me that much and the condemnation of humanity's self-destructive behavior seemed correctly placed – and well-deserved. It's a little different when his topic involves political figures in a four year election cycle and the institutional failures of our two party system. Sometimes he seems a bit too fussy.
0 Replies
 
hightor
 
  3  
Reply Thu 3 Oct, 2024 11:06 am
Quote:
If Trump is paraphrasing me, he’s correct.

Except in this case, you're both wrong.
0 Replies
 
izzythepush
 
  4  
Reply Thu 3 Oct, 2024 11:40 am
@Lash,
He said it first, you're paraphrasing him.

This is what I mean, a simple google search reveals he said it days ago, yet you double down and claim he's paraphrasing you.

You're not six years old.
izzythepush
 
  4  
Reply Thu 3 Oct, 2024 11:50 am
@Lash,
Which is so vague as to be meaningless.

So much is hinted at, implied, without going any further, and I can understand why.

If America controls Israel yet is itself controlled by Jews, we're talking a popular far right claim about Western Governments.

ZOG. Zionist Occupation Government.

What's next, The Turner Diaries?

Or have they paraphrased you as well?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zionist_Occupation_Government_conspiracy_theory
0 Replies
 
izzythepush
 
  3  
Reply Thu 3 Oct, 2024 11:55 am
On the subject of military bases, the UK government is giving the Chagos Islands back to Mauritius.

Damn right!
blatham
 
  2  
Reply Thu 3 Oct, 2024 04:21 pm
A moment of respectful silence, please.
Quote:
Kyle Clark@KyleClark
2h
In March, I asked Tina Peters whether she and/or Donald Trump would be in prison in a year or two. She laughed and said if she thought she was going to prison she'd be relaxing on a beach somewhere. Today, she was taken into custody to begin a 9-year sentence.


PS... just saw video of her being cuffed. Classy/dignified her behavior was not.
Builder
 
  -3  
Reply Thu 3 Oct, 2024 07:54 pm
So, after admitting that he's no longer capable of the role of prez, Biden announces that Iran is going to get some good ol' US "diplomacy", setting the price of oil skyrocketing?

Nothing like a declaration of war to make your record of presidential blunders look complete, eh?
0 Replies
 
Walter Hinteler
 
  1  
Reply Fri 4 Oct, 2024 02:24 am
The GDR was founded on 7 October 1949 - 34 years ago it went under.

Recently, however, the second German dictatorship has been celebrating an ominous revival.
This threatens our democracy, and not just in Germany.
0 Replies
 
Walter Hinteler
 
  1  
Reply Fri 4 Oct, 2024 02:31 am
@izzythepush,
And now, Argentina vows to take ‘concrete action’ on the Falklands next following the Chagos Islands deal. (Again)
hightor
 
  1  
Reply Fri 4 Oct, 2024 03:39 am
@Walter Hinteler,
Gee, what would failing Argentinian politicians do if the UK did hand over the Falklands?
0 Replies
 
hightor
 
  3  
Reply Fri 4 Oct, 2024 03:51 am
Quote:
Former Republican representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming joined Vice President Kamala Harris on a stage hung with red, white, and blue bunting and signs that said “Country Over Party.” As Cheney took the stage, the crowd chanted, “Thank you, Liz!” The two were on the campaign trail today in Ripon, Wisconsin, the town that claims to be the birthplace of the Republican Party. It was in that then-tiny town in 1852 that Alvan E. Bovay, who had recently emigrated from New York, called for a new political party to stand against slavery.

The idea of a new party took off in 1854 when it became clear the Kansas-Nebraska Act permitting the westward expansion of human enslavement would become law. When they met in February of that year, people in Ripon were early participants in the movement of people across the North to defend democracy. Rather than standing against slavery alone, those organizing in 1854 stood against an entire political system, opposing the small group of elite enslavers who had taken over the U.S. government in order to establish an oligarchy and were quite clear they rejected the self-evident truth in the Declaration of Independence that all men were created equal. Instead, they intended to rule over the nation’s majority, whose labor produced the capital that southern leaders believed only elites should control.

In the face of this existential threat to the country, party divisions crumbled.

Pundits have described today’s event as a component of Harris’s ongoing outreach to Republicans, and in part, it is. That outreach, begun under President Joe Biden and continuing even more aggressively under Harris, is bearing fruit as in an open letter today, two dozen Republican former officials and lawmakers in Wisconsin endorsed Harris and her running mate Minnesota governor Tim Walz. “We have plenty of policy disagreements with Vice President Harris,” the Republicans wrote. “But what we do agree upon is more important. We agree that we cannot afford another four years of the broken promises, election denialism, and chaos of Donald Trump’s leadership.”

Lately, there have been indications of what returning Trump to office might mean.

On Tuesday, Trump suggested that the U.S. soldiers who sustained traumatic brain injuries (TBI) when Iran attacked an Iraqi base where they were stationed were not truly injured, but simply had “headaches.” Trump’s statement brought back to light a 2021 CBS report by Catherine Herridge and Michael Kaplan that found the injured soldiers had not been recognized with a Purple Heart, awarded to service members wounded or killed in the line of duty, despite qualifying for it. This slight meant they were denied the medical benefits that come with that military decoration.

The soldiers told Herridge and Kaplan that they were pressured to downplay their injuries to avoid undercutting Trump’s attempt to keep the casualty numbers in that incident low. With the story back in the news, Kaplan posted that after the report, the Army awarded the soldiers the Purple Hearts they deserved.

Journalist Magdi Jacobs recalled the argument of Trump’s lawyers before the Supreme Court that Trump could not prod a SEAL team to assassinate a rival because service members would adhere to the rules of their institutions. The Army officers’ bowing to Trump’s political demands proved that argument was wrong and set off “[m]ajor alarm bells,” Jacobs posted, suggesting that the military would not stand firm against Trump in a second term, especially now that the Supreme Court says a president cannot be prosecuted for crimes committed as part of official duties.

Scott Waldman and Thomas Frank of Politico’s E&E News covering energy and the environment reported today that two former White House officials said that Trump was “flagrantly partisan” when responding to natural disasters. One said that in 2018 Trump refused to approve disaster aid after wildfires to California, perceiving it as a Democratic state. To get disaster money, the aide showed Trump polling results revealing that Orange County, which had been badly damaged in the fires, “had more Trump supporters than the entire state of Iowa.”

Defending the Big Lie that Trump had won the 2020 presidential election, former Colorado county clerk Tina Peters in 2021 gave a security badge to a man associated with MyPillow owner Mike Lindell to enable him to breach the county’s voting systems in an unsuccessful attempt to find evidence of voter fraud. A jury found Peters guilty of four felonies related to the scheme. Today, District Court Judge Matthew Barrett sentenced Peters to nine years in prison.

But there are other stories these days of what the government can accomplish when it is focused on the good of all Americans.

About 45,000 dock workers in the International Longshoremen’s Association went on strike Tuesday when the union could not reach an agreement with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) employer group over a new contract. The strike shut down 36 ports from Maine to Texas, affecting about half the country’s shipping just as the areas hammered by Hurricane Helene desperately needed supplies. Dockworkers wanted a pay increase of up to 77% over six years and better benefits, as well as an end to the automation that threatens union jobs.

President Joe Biden reiterated his support for collective bargaining despite the threat to an economic slowdown from the strike. The Wall Street Journal editorial board excoriated Biden and the union, saying: “President Biden wants unions to have extortionary bargaining power, and he’s getting a demonstration of it on election eve. Congratulations.”

But today the International Longshoremen’s Association suspended the strike after USMX agreed to wage increases of 62% over six years. The two sides agreed to extend the current contract until January 15 to address the issues of benefits and automation. Administration officials White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, top White House economic advisor Lael Brainard, Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg helped broker the temporary agreement.

The government’s power to make things better is also on display amid the rubble and ruin left behind by Hurricane Helene. Yesterday evening, after taking an aerial tour of western North Carolina to survey the damage and receiving a briefing in Raleigh, President Biden thanked both “the Republican governor of South Carolina and the Democratic governor of North Carolina and all of the elected officials who’ve focused on the task at hand. In a moment like this, we put politics aside. At least we should put it all aside, and we have here. There are no Democrats or Republicans; there are only Americans. And our job is to help as many people as we can as quickly as we can and as thoroughly as we can.”

Biden explained that the federal government had 1,000 first responders in place before the storms hit, and that he had approved emergency declarations as soon as he received the requests from the governors. Yesterday he directed the Defense Department to move 1,000 soldiers to reinforce North Carolina’s National Guard to speed up the delivery of supplies like food, water, and medicine to isolated communities, some of which are accessible now only by pack mule.

He has already deployed 50 Starlink satellites for communication, and more are coming.

Teams from the Federal Emergency Management Agency are offering free temporary housing, as well as delivering food and water. They are helping people apply for the help that they need.

While Trump and MAGA Republicans insist that Biden is botching the response to Helene, CNN fact checker Daniel Dale noted that the response has gotten bipartisan praise. Republican governors Henry McMaster of South Carolina and Glenn Youngkin of Virginia both thanked Biden by name for what McMaster called a “superb” response.

So today’s bipartisan event in Ripon suggests far more than Democratic outreach to Republicans. It appears to be a commitment to a government that advances the interests of ordinary people, and protects the right of everyone to be treated equally before the law and to have a say in their government. Republican Abraham Lincoln articulated this worldview for his fledgling party in 1859 as it took a stand against oligarchs. Believing these principles accurately represented the aspirations of the nation’s founders, Lincoln called them “conservative.” People from all parties rallied to the party that promised to defend those principles.

“The president of the United States must not look at our country through the narrow lens of ideology or petty partisanship or self-interest,” Harris said today. “The president of the United States must not look at our country as an instrument for their own ambitions. Our nation is not some spoil to be won. The United States of America is the greatest idea humanity ever devised: the nation that inspired the world to believe in the possibility of a representative government. And so in the face of those who would endanger our magnificent experiment, people of every party must stand together.”

"In this election, putting patriotism ahead of partisanship is not an aspiration. It is our duty,” Cheney said. “I ask all of you here and everyone listening across this great country to join us. I ask you to meet this moment. I ask you to stand in truth, to reject the depraved cruelty of Donald Trump.

“And I ask you instead to help us elect Kamala Harris for president. I know…that…a president Harris will be able to unite this nation. I know that she will be a president who will defend the rule of law, and I know that she will be a president who can inspire all of our children—and if I might say so, especially our little girls—to do great things. So help us right the ship of our democracy so that history will say of us, when our time of testing came, we did our duty and we prevailed because we loved our country more.”

hcr
0 Replies
 
izzythepush
 
  2  
Reply Fri 4 Oct, 2024 03:56 am
@Walter Hinteler,
They've just signed a deal, so it's a bit late for that.

The Chagos Islands are part of Mauritius, The Falkland Islands are as far from Argentina as Morocco is from the UK.

Having said that I don't think our actions are entirely altruistic. The UK/US military bases are there for at least another 50 years, and asylum seekers can no longer use Diego Garcia as a quick way to claim asylum in the UK.
bobsal u1553115
 
  2  
Reply Fri 4 Oct, 2024 06:17 am
@Frank Apisa,
That's how I saw it, too, Frank. These haven't been a thing like a debate. They have been more a dog and pony show, or a Miss America depth of opinion: " Well, Mr Parks, what I'd like to accomplish during my one year term is to bring about world peace and end world hunger; as well as to finally understand how Contadina puts those eight great tomatoes in a little bitty can, and cure cancer!".

I miss the debates as they were moderated and held by the League of Women Voters. That they aren't now is because of Reagan.

The big reason Nixon "lost" on TV was his five o'clock shadow, his upper lip sweated - he seemed hinky and looked uncomfortable while JFK was cool calm and was made up by make up man before the debate. Image became more important than content.
0 Replies
 
Walter Hinteler
 
  2  
Reply Fri 4 Oct, 2024 06:34 am
@izzythepush,
https://i.imgur.com/MfjIUFRl.png

The Telegraph fears for the future of Gibraltar - the reaction from Gibraltar: Local NewsNo ‘read across’ to Gibraltar as UK gives up Chagos Islands sovereignty to secure future of military base, Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said on Thursday.

But the article about Johnson's "new idea" seems much more significant to me: the former prime minister told the Daily Telegraph there was a “strong case” for a vote on the ECHR, which some Tories blame for hampering their efforts to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Britain’s membership of the convention has become one of the most hotly contested issues in the Tory leadership battle. Some Conservatives have blamed the court in Strasbourg, which interprets the convention, for the previous government’s failure to implement the Rwanda deportation scheme, even though it was blocked by the UK supreme court.
Johnson, who is promoting his memoir, remains popular with many Conservative members, who will soon vote for the next party leader. Robert Jenrick, a frontrunner, is the only candidate to promise to take Britain out of the ECHR.

NB:
The Belfast/Good Friday Agreement includes participation in the ECHR as one of the required “safeguards to protect the rights and interests of all sides of the community”.

The Convention is also baked into the UK-EU Trade and Co-operation Agreement: in particular, the UK’s denunciation of the ECHR would be a ground for the EU to terminate the part of the TCA on law enforcement and judicial cooperation in criminal matters.

Additionally (and more important in my opinion), it would involve leaving the Council of Europe.

0 Replies
 
 

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