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    Originally posted by S. aureus View Post

    You appear to be saying that Biden and the like are progressive here?
    No, he's more critiquing the internal structures within the Democratic Party, that have failed to maintain preparedness by way of comparison with the GOP. Because the electoral system in America comprises two biennial cycles (mid-terms, followed by Presidentials), campaigning should effectively be permanent, and as a consequence, membership and voting recruitment drives have to be well-oiled at county, state and federal levels. Unfortunately, because the DNC refuse to listen to the various Cassandras making these various points, both internally and in the media, it falls to progressives themselves to take the responsibility for these tasks, but in the absence of financial support, there is little AOC et al can do, bar use the digital platforms at their disposal.

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      Yeah that, thanks DR.

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        Originally posted by Bruno View Post

        Should we be sharing more tweets?
        Indeed.

        If it makes our overseas friends feel better, the current state of politics has pushed my anxiety to the point where I now am physically ill all the time and there's apparently nothing that can be done about it. A lot of people feel that way. So please do not lecture us about being "relaxed" about anything. Thanks.

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          Originally posted by Nefertiti2 View Post

          Do you mean a “ leftist candidate “ or a candidate prepared to address the crisies facing the world and the US in
          particular?
          Whichever you want it to be. Look how the Green New Deal has been approached and attacked. It is, sadly, electorally toxic.

          Because what astonishes me is the fact that you all feel so relaxed about the fact you’ve elected a waste of space.
          Maybe it is just being invested in a different way. Cos typing a lot on a generally UK based message board achieves jack shit.

          Biden isn’t as uncouth as Trump. His corruption will exist within clear and acceptable American boundaries And he won’t play golf so much.

          He is also going to do nothing about climate change, about the huge swathes of poverty sweeping across America, The fact that five companies control the means of communication and dominate the political discourse

          I wouldn’t mind – it’s your country after all – but you dominate the world
          Well, day 1 he will get back in to the Paris agreement. Which I am sure you will point to being inconsequential / a bare minimum, but it is something that currently is not the case. Similarly, if nuclear Armageddon is your worry, aligning with the rest of the world on Iran would also be a rather helpful change.

          Sure - if you are looking for world leadership, he isn't your guy. Though you could pretty comfortably argue that the US President has not been that in your lifetime. Also, determining that America dominates the world rather overlooks China.

          Anyway, what countless threads of numerous pages don't seem to have achieved in that the President is basically an empowered Head of State. Without the Senate (and congress to a lesser extent), the Presidential ticket is going to achieve very little. With a more pioneering President you would very quickly see how divided the Democratic party is in the Senate and that it would achieve even less than someone like Biden.

          The cards are heavily stacked against change. A seismic change from a President alone is very unlikely in this structure. There is a huge shift needed in overall electoral processes, voting patterns and candidates that is needed to get anywhere approaching the type of change that some advocate for.

          So, in summary - no President can achieve what you are looking for based on the way US Politics is structured. So - do you want Raoul or the Attorney driving?


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            Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post

            Indeed.

            If it makes our overseas friends feel better, the current state of politics has pushed my anxiety to the point where I now am physically ill all the time and there's apparently nothing that can be done about it. A lot of people feel that way. So please do not lecture us about being "relaxed" about anything. Thanks.
            There is no-one here who feels better because of that

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              Here's Noura Erakat on the same Palestinian question as that ZMag piece I posted earlier https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...-their-allies/

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                Thanks for that.

                Especially needed after Pompeo's latest antics.

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                  Originally posted by ad hoc View Post

                  There is no-one here who feels better because of that
                  The comment was "Because what astonishes me is the fact that you all feel so relaxed about the fact you’ve elected a waste of space."

                  Nobody is relaxed. We are all the dog in the "this is fine" meme.

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                    Originally posted by Diable Rouge View Post

                    No, he's more critiquing the internal structures within the Democratic Party, that have failed to maintain preparedness by way of comparison with the GOP. Because the electoral system in America comprises two biennial cycles (mid-terms, followed by Presidentials), campaigning should effectively be permanent, and as a consequence, membership and voting recruitment drives have to be well-oiled at county, state and federal levels. Unfortunately, because the DNC refuse to listen to the various Cassandras making these various points, both internally and in the media, it falls to progressives themselves to take the responsibility for these tasks, but in the absence of financial support, there is little AOC et al can do, bar use the digital platforms at their disposal.
                    Thanks for that.

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                      So, I think the thing with Biden is that he was literally nobody (except maybe James Clyburn)’s choice of candidate. The sensibles wanted Klobuchar, the technocrats wanted Buttigieg, the establishment-center wanted Harris, the establishment-left wanted Warren, the progressives wanted Bernie. But he ended up as the nominee through a mix of luck of timing of primaries and the anti-Bernie sentiment.

                      Nobody has particularly high expectations. What he offers is basically nothing more than Make America Normal Again. Although compared to America of the last four years and particularly last 8 months, that’s actually a big fucking deal. But nobody expects much progress beyond where we were in 2016.

                      And then there’s also the fact that a President can only do so much without Congress. And that even with a Democratic congress they would be hamstrung by the Manchins and Feinsteins. So even if we expected Biden to be the great progressive President, it wouldn’t happen. As Caja says, the structures in place in the US along with the bizarre right-wing nature of the US electorate mean that the change we really want will probably never happen here, and certainly not in the timespan of a four year cycle.

                      And I feel that people are desperate to be disappointed, to be proven right that the Democrats should have chosen Bernie or Liz or Pete or Amy. It feels premature to be upset about appointments to committees that are advising Biden on who will be appointed, but people want to do that.

                      There are going to be enough things in a Biden administration to get angry about. There will be some equivalent of Obama’s seemingly endless run of drone bombings of weddings in Yemen.

                      Meanwhile, let’s enjoy the positive things in the period before he can start really fucking up. Back in the Paris climate accords. Him stating that he wants us to stop using oil. The statement on trans rights that Ursus highlighted today. His unapologetic comments on unions. His apparent intent to go back into the Iran nuclear agreement.

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                        Obama wanted Bernie

                        let’s enjoy the positive things in the period before he can start really fucking up. Back in the Paris climate accords. Him stating that he wants us to stop using oil. The statement on trans rights that Ursus highlighted today. His unapologetic comments on unions. His apparent intent to go back into the Iran nuclear agreement.
                        and yes- these are things - which offer some hope.

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                          Really?

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                            Hope is all we've got right now.

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                              "Obama wanted Bernie" is what got me.

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                                So, I think the thing with Biden is that he was literally nobody (except maybe James Clyburn)’s choice of candidate.
                                That was true of Lincoln and a few other presidents, I think, back when the convention directly picked the candidates.

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                                  Obama wanted Biden, apologies

                                  And Biden wants to scam a whole lot of money out of donors- for what?

                                  https://twitter.com/histoftech/status/1329905964414361602?s=20

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                                    Because until the Republicans (GSA) sign the docs they don't get funding. So they do need money, though you would think as future President it would be relatively easy to secure an bank loan.

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                                      Precisely

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                                        Will anybody in the cabinet be under the age of 70?

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                                          Blinken is "only" 58

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                                            Who knew that francophiles were so dominant in the Democratic elite?

                                            https://twitter.com/DrSChouinard/status/1331004932774912007

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                                              Point of order on that Tweet - English isn't America's 'official' language. America doesn't have an 'official' language, at least not at a federal level. (I think some of the individual states have, though.)

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                                                I've only ever seen John Kerry reading French...

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                                                  On the environmental front, GM have dropped out of the Trump administration lawsuit against California over emissions regulations. I wonder why?

                                                  John Kerry gets a climate change czarship for his troubles.

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                                                    I know very little about any of the incoming Biden team apart from Yellen and Kerry. From what I've read they seem to be very, very focused as dull, safe pair of hands, types.

                                                    It looks very much like "Make American Boring Again" stuff. Functional technocrats from the mainstream of US technocratic thought. There are unlikely to be monstrous clusterfucks like disbanding pandemic planning teams and getting the CDC out of China. But there's also unlikely to be anything at all revolutionary.

                                                    I guess a best case way of looking at this is that these are people with loads of experience who will know that they're doing rebuilding the administrative state after its gutting in the last four years. And that's probably the most important and first thing that needs to get done before anything more exciting. So, that's good. But I have no expectation - with this lot - that anyone has any interest in using that platform for serious change once it is rebuilt. It's going to be a huge improvement but also pretty underwhelming.

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