Joe Biden 2: President Dark Brandon For The Win!

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

This will make TFG have another hissy fit:

 

[SPHASH]

Biden is on his way back from Israel.  Bunker Bitch would never have set foot in a war zone.

[Audrey2]

28 minutes ago, SPHASH said:

Biden is on his way back from Israel.  Bunker Bitch would never have set foot in a war zone.

Now you're being unfair. Don't you know Trump's bone spurs are incredibly painful, too painful for him to go to a war zone? When he plays golf on an almost daily basis he suffers through his horrific bone spurs. Why Trump should get a purple heart just for his bone spurs alone.

(Sadly we don't have a sarcasm font here.)

[GreyhoundFan]

Biden's excellent speech:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Go, Joe!

[CTRLZero]

Re: Sweden in NATO.  I’ve been taking a college extension course by the Associated Press (AP) on media and politics (today’s lesson was on Trump).  Since I downloaded the AP app, I’m trying it out.  More info from an AP article (sorry, it won’t link for some reason—I’ll probably flunk!  😁

Turkey lifted its opposition after U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration signaled it would let Turkey buy 40 new F-16 fighter jets and modernization kits from the United States. Ankara also received assurances from Sweden that it would help revive Turkey’s own quest to join the European Union.

Under the deal, NATO as an organization agreed to address Turkey’s concerns about terrorism. Stoltenberg said he had appointed an assistant secretary general to serve as his special coordinator for counter-terrorism.

[GreyhoundFan]

[47of74]

Looks like the President may have had enough of the media 

Quote

President Biden’s reelection campaign sent a memo to news outlets Tuesday asserting that there’s disparity in the way the media has covered polling, so far, following the coverage of the latest set of polls that show Biden trailing former President Trump in a hypothetical 2024 rematch.

The memo from Biden-Harris 2024 communications director Michael Tyler was sent first exclusively to The Hill. It will be sent to political directors, editors, and producers at major media outlets and television networks, according to the memo.

“Despite the ‘hair-on-fire’, ‘sky-is-falling’ tone we’ve seen from media coverage over the last few days, political predictions more than a year out tend to look a little different a year later. Gallup predicted an eight-point loss for President Obama only for him to win handedly a year later. A year out from the 2022 midterms, every major outlet similarly predicted a grim forecast for President Biden,” Tyler said in the memo.

Tyler cited polling that showed Biden leading Trump or is tied with the former president from Oct. 17 through Nov. 6, including polls from NPR/PBS/Marist, Yahoo News/YouGov, USA/Suffolk, and Quinnipiac University, among others.

 

[47of74]

And the White House celebrated his 150th judicial confirmation. 

Quote

One of the greatest responsibilities a President has is the appointment of federal judges. These judges—confirmed for life—play an integral part in our everyday lives. They oversee cases in which workers fight for safe conditions. They ensure trials are fair and efficient, helping our criminal justice system function. And they issue rulings on fundamental rights—from the right to vote to women’s reproductive rights.
 
Today, we reached an important milestone—the confirmation of 150 life-tenured federal judges since I took office. All of these men and women are highly qualified, faithful to the rule of law, and dedicated to the Constitution. They come from professional backgrounds that have for far too long been underrepresented on the bench—from labor and immigration attorneys to public defenders and civil rights lawyers. And they reflect the diversity that is our country’s strength: two-thirds of those confirmed are women and nearly two-thirds are people of color.

 

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

How many did what's his name appoint? I have no idea if that's a lot or a normal amount.

 

The news is depressing today. Lots of interviews with various disenchanted voter groups who are "biden hasn't done anything for us" so maybe we'll not vote for him.

Did the one before do stuff FOR you guys?? I doubt it.  These conversations are frustrating. 

Edited November 9, 2023 by WatchingTheTireFireBurn

[Audrey2]

2 hours ago, WatchingTheTireFireBurn said:

How many did what's his name appoint? I have no idea if that's a lot or a normal amount.

 

The news is depressing today. Lots of interviews with various disenchanted voter groups who are "biden hasn't done anything for us" so maybe we'll not vote for him.

Did the one before do stuff FOR you guys?? I doubt it.  These conversations are frustrating. 

Well the one before did hate the same people that the disenchanted voters hate. In fact he hated them and blamed them so noisily that the disenchanted voters felt like they were heard.

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

2 minutes ago, Audrey2 said:

Well the one before did hate the same people that the disenchanted voters hate. In fact he hated them and blamed them so noisily that the disenchanted voters felt like they were heard.

The interviews I've seen lately are with black voters and muslim voters....I'm feeling like maybe these groups really don't want to throw support towards what's his name and his gang.

[noseybutt]

2 hours ago, WatchingTheTireFireBurn said:

How many did what's his name appoint? I have no idea if that's a lot or a normal amount.

 

The news is depressing today. Lots of interviews with various disenchanted voter groups who are "biden hasn't done anything for us" so maybe we'll not vote for him.

Did the one before do stuff FOR you guys?? I doubt it.  These conversations are frustrating. 

234. The courts were a top priority for the former guy.

———————

Consider that it may not be baseless whining.

Trump’s criminal justice reform was appreciated in black communities. I heard very little about it in white communities.

2017-2019 were years where unemployment in black communities was lower than it had been in awhile.

The k-shaped post-pandemic economic recovery is very concerning in part because it disproportionately impacts black communities negatively while it’s obvious that some sectors are doing better than ever.

Some (otherwise liberal) black communities liked the conversations around school choice simply because there is exhaustion over ongoing school failures.

——————————

I want to add that I am deeply concerned about the future of our country and am reading and considering the comments and ideas shared here. 

I think it’s dangerous to write off opposing viewpoints too quickly without considering the merits. Many voters will ask themselves am I better with this administration than the one before…and we have some section of our country that are not doing all that great.

 I think this can get complicated real quick in rural areas. My family has close ties to a rural community in the Midwest that has been on the economic and population decline for decades. Not surprisingly, it’s a MAGA area. Things didn’t really improve under Trump but they sure seem to prefer it. So I am still pondering that one. 😂

 

 

 

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

well perhaps I'm ignorant on what's his name's justice reform....the whole "shoot shoplifters on sight" thing has certainly thrown me off. 

plus the rejection of anything black lives matters

plus "muslim ban"

as mentioned elsewhere there is a dearth of reporting in all areas, but I hadn't specifically noted much that he did that helped anybody besides his financial backers/other rich people.

I do recall a very impassioned speech at I believe it was a carrier HVAC plant where he supposedly got a lot of support for declaring that he'd keep manufacturing in the US, including that plant - and that plant pretty much immediately moved abroad.

I think also it's what's his name who was resisting solar factories and related businesses they were trying to set up in west virginia for former coal workers to learn a new trade...but he wanted to support coal...despite it being a dying industry, dangerous to workers, polluting their home towns, leveling mountains, and coal mining generally being a cycle of poverty thing in an ever depleted resource.

I admit though that I can't and don't follow all of the news. I do have a special place in my heart for west virginia/the rural mountains and the coal miners who I used to interact with in my job -  so it seemed very sad to me to deny them funding for that training/setting up training centers and what not.

 

[noseybutt]

39 minutes ago, WatchingTheTireFireBurn said:

well perhaps I'm ignorant on what's his name's justice reform....

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Step_Act

Muslim ban might deserve a separate conversation because Biden ended it officially, but there was a need for extra resources to clear the backlog and untangle related messes that simply didn’t happen. IOW, the Muslim ban ended for citizens shortly after Biden took office. It still hasn’t fully ended for the communities impacted. 

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

3 minutes ago, noseybutt said:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Step_Act

Muslim ban might deserve a separate conversation because Biden ended it officially, but there was a need for extra resources to clear the backlog and untangle related messes that simply didn’t happen. IOW, the Muslim ban ended for citizens shortly after Biden took office. It still hasn’t fully ended for the communities impacted. 

ok well that's really long and it's nearly 2 am here. I will try to look over that tomorrow...or...well...hmm not sure exactly when - I've got an unusually busy weekend which I'm not exactly excited about.

The muslim ban - so biden's on the hook for not being able to fully disentangle it given a divided ineffective congress? Are we also still blaming biden for afghanistan? what's his name thought that up and biden didn't have much ability to stop the wheels that were already in motion. 

Either way, I think the bigger concern for me is who *started* a "muslim ban" and happily and publicly called it that (and all the republicans who supported it). 

[noseybutt]

9 hours ago, WatchingTheTireFireBurn said:

ok well that's really long and it's nearly 2 am here. I will try to look over that tomorrow...or...well...hmm not sure exactly when - I've got an unusually busy weekend which I'm not exactly excited about.

The muslim ban - so biden's on the hook for not being able to fully disentangle it given a divided ineffective congress? Are we also still blaming biden for afghanistan? what's his name thought that up and biden didn't have much ability to stop the wheels that were already in motion. 

Either way, I think the bigger concern for me is who *started* a "muslim ban" and happily and publicly called it that (and all the republicans who supported it). 

Yes/No. Trump was an immigration horror.

But you have to back up and get more of the history. US has notoriously not done much either with regular updates to immigration laws OR enforcement of immigration laws with undocumented employees . My take: we need the cheap labor in agriculture and construction and other sectors and there has been no political will to change the situation because of the economic benefits.

Enter Obama (whom I really liked on many policies) who became known as the Deportee-in-Chief because more people were deported under him than ever before. Basically he advocated and funded and beefed up the law enforcement side of things without a balance of legislation reform. There are many people in this country undocumented who should have legal standing to stay (legitimate asylum cases) or it makes little sense to deport them since they are culturally American and contribute in meaningful ways. They need separated out from, say, the cartel cross-border meth runners. Under Obama, there was no sorting hat, so to speak, and many mixed status families were split up. In practice, there were a lot of parents sent home with their citizen children left behind.

As the already strained and Byzantine immigration system was falling apart under him and, because of deadlock with Congress, he responded with a series of executive orders that, whether intentional or not, made things better for some (DACA) and worse for others (asylum cases, mixed status families, veterans). By this time we have so many people detained, ICE begins the building of private prisons without basic oversight. Because immigration detainees are held on civil charges, generally, they do not have basic rights like attorneys, speedy trials, etc.

Obama did have major success with DACA, but it was bittersweet because it was so much more limited than what he had promised. And the mixed status families were feeling the brunt of separation.

Enter Trump. He starts with the Muslim ban and, later, the policy of separating minor children from parents who are seeking asylum. He can do so, in part, because we now expect and accept executive orders as there has been a slow shift over the years of immigration being handled by presidents rather than Congress, where it rightfully belongs. More importantly, he has an immigration apparatus that is way more funded and efficient than ever, complete with private ICE prisons.

Then the pandemic hits. That shifts things again mainly because jobs shut down and some migrants head  back to their countries of origin.

Biden takes office and he lifts the Muslim ban. Many other Trump immigration policies, he leaves in place. Including the wall. Including the ICE prisons. Including an asylum system that is dang near broken (with an exception for Ukrainians). Including an upsurge in deportations that harkens back to the Obama/Biden era.

It is easy to look at this from the perspective of the timeline of each president, that is, to divide the years 2008-2016, 2016-2020, 2020-present. But if you are an immigrant or mixed status family, it takes years and years for cases to resolve.

So what does this look like from within the communities?

The same. The very same.

Campaign Biden said I am not racist and I will prioritize immigration and and and…

But it’s the same.

 

(ETA This is what I think the Democratic Party is not fully grasping. Is it better to have someone racist in word and deed in charge? Or for someone who makes non-racist statements and campaign promises, yet enacts the same policies as blatantly racist dude? What is the difference?)

Edited November 9, 2023 by noseybutt

[Xan]

1 hour ago, noseybutt said:

(ETA This is what I think the Democratic Party is not fully grasping. Is it better to have someone racist in word and deed in charge? Or for someone who makes non-racist statements and campaign promises, yet enacts the same policies as blatantly racist dude? What is the difference?)

I get what you're saying.  However, there is a difference.  There's a chance that we can straighten out our immigration policies eventually.  I understand that this doesn't help people now and it's understandable that they're angry.  If Trump wins, he won't just not allow immigrations.  He'll deport people.  It won't be the white Europeans.  He's start with Muslims and then work his way down through what he described at "shithole" countries.  I see the difference as having some hope with the Democrats versus having no hope at all with the Republicans.

I feel that voting against Biden because he hasn't fixed immigration yet is punitive but it's a bit like cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.

[noseybutt]

20 minutes ago, Xan said:

I get what you're saying.  However, there is a difference.  There's a chance that we can straighten out our immigration policies eventually.  I understand that this doesn't help people now and it's understandable that they're angry.  If Trump wins, he won't just not allow immigrations.  He'll deport people.  It won't be the white Europeans.  He's start with Muslims and then work his way down through what he described at "shithole" countries.  I see the difference as having some hope with the Democrats versus having no hope at all with the Republicans.

I feel that voting against Biden because he hasn't fixed immigration yet is punitive but it's a bit like cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.

Again. I have no intention of voting for Trump or anyone who has ever been MAGA affiliated.

I am simply trying to explain what is happening with the poor polls that people here seem to be writing off as ridiculous and illogical when it's not.

I am skeptical that many communities impacted by immigration will vote Trump so much as they will stay home. (Especially with Muslim communities.)

Either way, it's important to sit up and listen and try to understand the dynamic. There is a sense of deep betrayal; that Democratic politicians have been using disenfranchised communities to get power without actually caring about the communities they promised to represent. That shift that happened with rural and/or working class southern white Democrats who turned Republican? Yeah, that shift continues just in different corners of our country.

@Audrey2 commented that Trump's rhetoric may have made people feel heard. That may have been a jokey or cynical statement, but I think there is something to that. Well, it may be worse than that. The fact that Trump was blatantly racist made him seem honest compared to politicians who talk the antiracist talk without walking the walk.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

@Xan-- Here is a link showing deportations 2008-2019: https://econofact.org/immigrant-deportations-during-the-trump-administration

The statement that Trump will deport everyone simply isn't accurate if based on history. When he was in office, deportations were relatively modest compared to Obama.

This is the kind of rhetoric that shows the disconnect in the country. People not directly connected to immigration tend to think Trump was an aberration when he wasn't. There is a similar divide with criminal justice. There was an interesting study several years back that showed that black Americans overwhelmingly had a direct connection to someone incarcerated while white people overwhelmingly do not. This means there are very different narratives around criminal justice.

One example. I had a 50-something Filipina American friend genuinely perplexed at the outrage of separating children from parents at the border. In the quest for immigration, she had been separated from her own mother for years as a young child. She was confused as to why people were so outraged, given family separation has been built into the process for decades. (And no, she was not pro-family separation. Quite the opposite.)

Edited November 9, 2023 by noseybutt

[Xan]

I think part of the problem with the polls is that people are expecting easy answers to complicated questions.  They want their money to stretch farther.  They want better jobs.  They want to not feel left behind.  They would rather have someone to blame than to confront the reality that situations are difficult to remedy.

Trump promises everything.  I don't think he delivers on anything.  To be fair, a lot of politicians promise to help and get into office immediately forgetting all about who got them there.  

If we really want to address the serious issues, we have to start at ground level.  We have to improve education so that we end up with more rational voters.  We need to figure out what's happened to our media.  We need to look at the near-monopolies controlling our drugs, our food supply, and our information.  We need universal health care so that people don't have to spend so much of their time, money, and effort trying to pay off medical bills.  

We need to remind the entire population that this is a country of immigrants.  Except for the Native Americans, we are all the descendants of immigrants.  I think it made the country stronger.  Demonizing any group is the beginning of splintering of the union.

Like I said, these are complicated problems.  No single administration has any hope of getting it sorted out -- particularly when you have nearly half the country voting for politicians who will thwart every attempt.

[fraurosena]

Anyway, to get back to Biden being Dark Brandon... 

 

 

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

I wish Biden would get out there more. I think people could be won over by somebody not spouting hateful nonsense 24/7. 

@noseybutt I give up. I think you're determined to complain about Biden and I'm not sure what your end point is. MANY voters feels disenfranchised for many reasons. I feel like we're running around and around on this.

Biden doesn't have some extra bonus level disenfranchisement that's more than other politicians. At it's *best* when it's working properly the federal government should be many compromises that don't quite make any body happy. But we've not had anything close to *best* function for nearly a decade.

My expectations are low. I would like there to not be a coup. I would like there to not be an openly racist right wing theocracy installed. I would like to have a budget that isn't just military spending and congressional salaries.  I could add more things but really if Biden can do those 3 things I will be ecstatic at this point. The house is on fire, we don't need to worry about the water pressure in the 2nd bathroom or replacing the water heater. We need to put the fire out.

 

Anyway - I hope the good outcomes in the elections that just happened don't lull the democrats into complacency. I think there was some fear and concern being stirred up right before. I think we need that but maybe it's a little too early and will wear off before it elections finally happen.

 

 

[noseybutt]

18 hours ago, WatchingTheTireFireBurn said:

I wish Biden would get out there more. I think people could be won over by somebody not spouting hateful nonsense 24/7. 

@noseybutt I give up. I think you're determined to complain about Biden and I'm not sure what your end point is. MANY voters feels disenfranchised for many reasons. I feel like we're running around and around on this.

Biden doesn't have some extra bonus level disenfranchisement that's more than other politicians. At it's *best* when it's working properly the federal government should be many compromises that don't quite make any body happy. But we've not had anything close to *best* function for nearly a decade.

My expectations are low. I would like there to not be a coup. I would like there to not be an openly racist right wing theocracy installed. I would like to have a budget that isn't just military spending and congressional salaries.  I could add more things but really if Biden can do those 3 things I will be ecstatic at this point. The house is on fire, we don't need to worry about the water pressure in the 2nd bathroom or replacing the water heater. We need to put the fire out.

 

Anyway - I hope the good outcomes in the elections that just happened don't lull the democrats into complacency. I think there was some fear and concern being stirred up right before. I think we need that but maybe it's a little too early and will wear off before it elections finally happen.

 

 

I agree this conversation is best laid to rest. But dang. I have tried hard not to assume ill motive on the part of anyone here and @WatchingTheTireFireBurn your conclusion is extremely off base.