https://readsludge.com/2021/01/14/biden-picks-former-corporate-lobbyist-jaime-harrison-for-dnc-chair/

Friendly reminder that Joe Biden and his team remain an enemy of humanity everywhere.

I have to say, I'm not optimistic. Biden is already $4 trillion in the hole, and he hasn't taken office yet!

Yes, which makes it all the stranger why NOS4A2 comes up with a race issue from 1994. I have some theories why that is but can't be bothered to figure out which is which.

It has been a talking point among conservative discussion communities, which of course have conveniently picked out a black woman to aim their ire at. Of course, I have no doubt she is shit and that letter is, in fact, fucking terrible, but no more terrible than literally anyone else in the Biden administration. Biden himself is a fucking racist whose actions (four words: school segregation; crime bill) have done more to worsen the condition of black Americans in a way that the KKK can only aspire to.

NOS of course, being the rapacious cunt that he is, will only chime in when the issues involved somehow involve xenophobia over China or in this case, looking to poke the fires of racial tension.

Re: Biden's promised "domestic terrorism laws", i.e. Patriot act 2.0:

"The only way to sincerely believe more Patriot Act-like laws will benefit Americans is to believe that the US will only have wise and beneficent leaders going forward, and the only way to sincerely believe the US will only have wise and beneficent leaders going forward is to be completely shit-eating stupid."

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/01/15/consent-manufacturing-for-patriot-act-ii-continues/

"They’re not actually worried about “domestic terror”, they’re worried about any movement which threatens to topple the status quo. They want to make sure they can adequately spy, infiltrate, agitate and incarcerate into impotence any movement which provides a threat to America’s rulers and the system which funnels them wealth and power at the expense of everyone else. The movements which most threaten this are not rightists, who are generally more or less aligned with the interests of the oligarchic empire, but the left."

Whatever kind of administration America ends up with, I think it's fine to enjoy the great unTrumping while it lasts.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/17/joe-biden-executive-orders-trump-climate-iran-covid

The movements which most threaten this are not rightists, who are generally more or less aligned with the interests of the oligarchic empire, but the left." — StreetlightX

What left?

The Mormons used to top the list of violent domestic terrorists. Religion makes more terrorists than politics ever will.

There are now more soldiers protecting Biden’s virtual inauguration than there are in Iraq and Afghanistan—and this for the most popular candidate of all time. Washington looks like a green zone in some war-torn country. The FBI are vetting the soldiers, perhaps in case one has anti-Biden motives or some other version of wrong-think. Dems even introduced a bill so they could erect a fence around the capitol.

Washington resembles East Germany. This is what our new government thinks of its subjects.

Washington resembles East Germany. This is what our new government thinks of its subjects. — NOS4A2

That a bunch of violent Trump supporters will storm Congress to stop the inauguration of a democratically elected President? Where could they have got such an idea?

This is what our new government thinks of its subjects. — NOS4A2

It's not your government.

Rioters stormed Trump’s inauguration. Imagine the optics had he employed American soldiers to maintain law and order in the nation’s capitol. We don’t even need to imagine it; he was called a fascist dictator for even suggesting it as violent rioters tried to breach the Whitehouse fence.

Rioters stormed Trump’s inauguration. Imagine the optics had he employed American soldiers to maintain law and order in the nation’s capitol. — NOS4A2

We don't need to imagine anything in this case. It happened less than two weeks ago. Trump was apparently not under much threat since the crowd didn't try and lynch him. Biden is because the crowd did actually try and lynch the man who counted his votes. Different crowd. Trump protestors aren't a wild mob of homicidal maniacs. Trump supporters are.

I thought I had a pretty solid grasp of all the inhumane and outright life destroying policy positions that Biden had taken throughout his career of ruining lives. I was wrong:

"Plan Colombia was originally conceived as a peace and development proposal by then-Colombia President Andres Pastrana in 1999. However, in the Clinton administration’s hands, it was radically altered into a massive militarization of Colombian society, Biden successfully lobbying for 80 percent of the $7.5 billion total to go to the Colombian military (with much of the weaponry finding its way into the hands of far-right death squads linked to the government). In the era of 9/11, narco-traffickers were rebranded “narco-terrorists” as a flimsy justification for U.S. interference. Biden was among its key architects, telling the Des Moines Register in January that “I’m the guy who put together Plan Colombia,” adding that it “straightened that government out for a long while.”

What was billed as a huge anti-drug push turned into a war against the population, with the government carrying out a massive chemical defoliation regime, forcing huge numbers of people off the land and clearing it for multinational corporations. The plan also ended up giving the government and associated far-right paramilitaries carte blanche to massacre whom it liked under the premise that anyone opposing them were drug smugglers. Over 10,000 innocent civilians were murdered, the government dressing them up as narco-terrorists, their numbers being used to trigger more funding from the U.S. on the grounds that dead bodies equaled progress in the fight against drugs. Under Plan Colombia, the country became the most dangerous place to be a trade unionist, according to Amnesty International, with more unionist murders happening inside Colombia than in all other countries combined. The United Nations estimates that 7.4 million Colombians are internally displaced to this day because of the ongoing civil war and Plan Colombia, with millions more leaving the country altogether.

The plan’s stated goal of drug reduction did not even work, as cocaine producers simply moved across the border to other Andean countries not affected by the war, returning when the violence subsided. By 2017, domestic coca production reached an all-time high, according to the U.N."

https://www.mintpressnews.com/mass-incarceration-plan-colombia-biden-role-war-on-drugs/271375/

Biden was among its key architects, telling the Des Moines Register in January that “I’m the guy who put together Plan Colombia,” adding that it “straightened that government out for a long while.” — StreetlightX

I'm not saying this as any contradiction, but the thing that sticks out is how Biden keeps taking credit for stuff, and not good stuff. Usually an architect doesn't stop passersby outside a building, saying "You know, I actually built that."

Either he's surprisingly easy to shoulder out of his own work (worrying) or he seems addicted to taking credit for the work of others (also worrying).

Biden has always taken his aggression and hawkishness on policy as a sign of pride. His sense of accomplishment has always been built on taking the most militant option when presented with them - whether it be expanding the security state (Patriot Act), throwing poor and black people into prison (crime act), locking students out of bankruptcy and chaining them to their debts for life, taking pleasure in attacking victims of sexual abuse (Anita Hill), and in this case, making Colombia the hellish, militarized place it is. He takes pleasure in always opting for the most violent and hard-edged line, and you can see it in the way he continually boasts of these "accomplishments" everytime he's given the chance to. Gosh you can see it in how he interacts with voters who ask him critical questions - always with aggression.

Even if there's a large element of exaggeration in his actual role in pushing most of the above, it's a case of 'when a person tells you who they are, believe them'. Biden's whole life has been spent making life more miserable for people; his policy language is punishment and pain. There's no reason to think the next 4 years of his upcoming presidency will be any different. Ironically he is positively rosy when trying to work with Republicans, when, all of a sudden, he will sing paeans to 'bipartisanship' and 'working together'.

isn't this just political calculation? Being tough on crime and drugs is a conservative position and as a centrist this is what you need to pursue to hold the center.

That tells us he changes his political opinions as he changes his clothes, according to the fashion.

That tells us he changes his political opinions as he changes his clothes, according to the fashion. — Benkei

But he hasn't changed his political opinions. He has been remarkably consistent for 4 decades. And now he's proposing to extend his Patriot act, as among his first acts in office. Biden simply isn't a centrist, and never has been. It's fashionable to say that he's a Republican in all but name; frankly I think it's worse than that - I think he taught Republicans with the examples he set.

Yeah, a general boastfulness would probably cover it.

It seems like Democratic Presidents are becoming increasingly hardline as Republican ones become increasingly moronic, as if they're filling the void for making "tough decisions" (spin for unpopular solutions to genuine problems).

When was being tough on crime and drugs not fashionable for the conservative right? But notice his tone with respect to race, signing up to carbon treaties etc. and how that changed in less than 4 years.

33 pages and nearly 1 000 replies and the administration is taking office tomorrow.

Yet have to say that the OP from was spot on. This is the kind of opinions I look for in this forum.

And one Finn was wrong, but I said it was just a possibility :sad:

But in my defense, then another popular thread about one Coronavirus was just starting too.

The President has ties to Ireland through several great-great-grandparents who emigrated to America during the Famine.

From refugee to president. Cool.

President Biden's inaugural speech was an appeal for unity in face of significant adversity, and that's all very well - but it might be viewed as an idealistic conditionality on his promises to deliver for the American people, such that one has to wonder if he isn't getting his excuses in early!!!

I've watched a good few inauguration speeches now, and at best they set a tone - one might reasonably hope is not entirely discordant with the tone of things to come! It was a good speech. I hope it's a good Presidency. I wish President Biden and America all the very best of luck!

CNN are laying it on a bit thick. He's not the Pope, guys.

Our Virtual President

Like his hairline, his teeth, his military career, and his campaign, Biden’s inauguration was a virtual one.

CNN are laying it on a bit thick. He's not the Pope, guys. — Baden

It must be the relief of having a president who is not an evil, self-obsessed cretin. At last.

So Obama got the Nobel peace price basically for not being Dubya. How are they going to top that with Biden now?

The bad news is that the bar has been set so low, he doesn't even need to try in order to get approval from those who would support him in the first place, or even more broadly, those who opposed Trump. And those on the other side won't change their mind no matter what, so they don't matter either. So yeah, he could repeat that infamous Trump line about shooting somebody on Fifth Avenue and he wouldn't be wrong.

Are you getting a touch bitter?

:vomit: :vomit: :vomit:

:lol:

he doesn't even need to try in order to get approval from those who would support him in the first place, or even more broadly, those who opposed Trump. — SophistiCat

You’re early in your criticism. Give him a chance. I’m a European Bernite, never been a fan of Biden, but I broke in tears yesterday realizing that the Trump nightmare was over. Biden did that: he beat Trump. That’s already something to be grateful for.