Joe Biden is now POTUS

T_Holmes

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
. . . House Races in Ohio Will Test Democratic Divisions and Trump’s Sway

Two primary contests on Tuesday for open House seats in Ohio will act as a stress test for both Democrats and Republicans, offering early hints about whether party leaders are aligned with their voters ahead of the midterm elections next year.

Nina Turner et al. that are talking to each other: Nina Turner, third from right, built a national following as a surrogate for Senator Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaigns. She is now seeking a House seat in the Cleveland area.

© Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times Nina Turner, third from right, built a national following as a surrogate for Senator Bernie
Sanders’s presidential campaigns. She is now seeking a House seat in the Cleveland area.


a young boy standing next to a person: Shontel Brown is the candidate favored by establishment-friendly politicians and allied outside groups.

© Mike Cardew/Akron Beakon Journal, via USA Today Network Shontel Brown is the candidate favored by establishment-friendly politicians and allied outside groups.

In the Cleveland area, two Democrats are locked in an increasingly embittered and expensive clash that has become a flash point in the larger struggle between the party’s activist left flank and its leadership in Washington.

The early favorite to win, Nina Turner [from the party's "Progressive Wing"], is now trying to hold back Shontel Brown, the preferred candidate of more establishment-friendly politicians and allied outside groups.


Ms. Turner, a former state senator who built a national following as a surrogate for Senator Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaigns, has been buoyed by support from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and other leaders in the progressive movement.

Ms. Brown, (on the other hand) a local Democratic Party official, has benefited from the help of Hillary Clinton, Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina and others in party leadership roles.

2 House Races in Ohio Will Test Democratic Divisions and Trump’s Sway (msn.com)


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Honestly, if we don't put more progressives into office and get them into leadership positions (or at least show that we have their backs when it counts), we're probably going to end up just as screwed as if we let Republicans win.

Yes, the GOP bigwigs are garbage, and I absolutely oppose pretty much everything they say or do. But Dem leadership is literally centrist left, and just barely that. We won't get the change we need so long as they are there worrying about upsetting their personal/business interests.
 

QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator
. . . put more progressives into office . . . But Dem leadership is literally centrist left, and just barely that.

We won't get the change we need so long as they are there worrying about upsetting their personal/business interests.

Progressives, Centrists, Leftist . . .

. . . Its a "Big Tent".

How about some give and take over issues that results in progress?

Hell, but then again, what is progress?
 

T_Holmes

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
Progressives, Centrists, Leftist . . .

. . . Its a "Big Tent".

How about some give and take over issues that results in progress?

Hell, but then again, what is progress?
Hey. I'm all for open dialogues and proper compromises. I'd love to see Washington figure out how to make that happen. But I think a big step for that is establishing that the public wants that, and will start holding their leaders accountable when they won't make that happen.
 

QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator
‘It’s an act of war’: Trump’s acting Pentagon chief urges Biden to tackle directed-energy attacks

“If this plays out and somebody is attacking Americans [even] with a nonlethal weapon … we owe it to our folks that are out there,” said Christopher Miller

The suspected directed-energy attacks on U.S. government personnel worldwide are “an act of war,” said former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, who launched an initiative to investigate the incidents during his time at the Pentagon last year and is urging the new administration to stay on the issue.

“If this plays out and somebody is attacking Americans [even] with a nonlethal weapon … we owe it to our folks that are out there,” Miller, who served as former President Donald Trump’s acting defense chief from November until January, told POLITICO. “We owe it to them to get to the bottom of this.”


Diplomat overseeing 'Havana Syndrome' response is out after 6 months

By: Josh Lederman and Brenda Breslauer


AAOIKwk.img

© Provided by NBC News


September 22, 2021

WASHINGTON — The top State Department official overseeing the response to “Havana Syndrome” is leaving her position after only six months on the job, three officials tell NBC News.

Ambassador Pamela Spratlen had been brought back from retirement in March by the Biden administration to coordinate the agency’s response to the unexplained health incidents that remain unsolved after four years of investigation. At the time, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said her selection would “help us make strides to address this issue wherever it affects Department personnel and their families.”


Her departure this week comes as the State Department faces growing questions about its response to "Havana Syndrome" and the care and benefits being provided to suffering employees. In recent days, Spratlen had faced a public call for her resignation and numerous U.S. diplomats said she had lost the confidence of affected employees.

The State Department said Thursday that Spratlen was leaving now because she had “reached the threshold of hours of labor” allowed under her status as a retiree.

“We thank her for her service and invaluable contributions to the efforts of the Task Force,” a State Department spokesman said. “We expect to name her replacement soon.”

Plans for Spratlen’s departure from the job were finalized last week, two people briefed on the decision said.

Diplomats suffering from “Havana Syndrome” used a tense meeting with Blinken and Spratlen this month to voice growing dismay over continuing stigma and disbelief within the U.S. government about their injuries, more than four years after the incidents began in Cuba.

Many affected individuals have complained of hearing strange sounds or feeling bizarre sensations before developing symptoms including headaches, cognitive and balance problems, hearing loss and nausea.

On the call, Spratlen responded to a question regarding an FBI study that found no evidence of an attack and determined that the staffers were most likely suffering from mass psychogenic illness, or mass hysteria.

Spratlen responded by saying she had read the study but did not indicate that she agreed or disagreed with its findings — a response that Havana Syndrome sufferers on the call later described as “invalidating.”

Marc Polymeropolous, a former senior CIA officer who says he was hit by "Havana Syndrome" in Russia in 2017, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that declining to rule out the “mass hysteria” theory was “insulting to victims and automatically disqualifying” from leading the task force.

“State is not serious until Ambassador Spratlen is replaced,” Polymeropolous said.

Aside from the State Department task force that Spratlen oversaw, the White House National Security Council is overseeing a broader effort to investigate the cause of the incidents, which the U.S. government in 2017 described as “targeted attacks.” That effort involves outside medical and scientific experts as well as the U.S. intelligence community.

At least 200 U.S. government workers, many from the CIA and the State Department, have come forward to report suspected "Havana Syndrome" symptoms and incidents occurring on every continent except Antarctica.


Diplomat overseeing 'Havana Syndrome' response is out after 6 months (msn.com)


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T_Holmes

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
So we're back to the uncomfortable truth that if these people were any more capable than they were, we probably wouldn't still have a country at this point. Yeah, we barely have a working model now, but I'm just saying...
 

T_Holmes

Rising Star
BGOL Investor

Democrats don't believe in messaging. It has to be that simple. Because I swear, I have never seen a group of people so willing to let their opponents control information.

I get that they have been beaten in the past, but I'm seriously starting to believe that they'd rather be in the losing position "fighting tyranny" than in power an d actually doing something about the problems we have.
 

QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator
We Now Know Why Biden Was in a Hurry to Exit Afghanistan

There was a moment in Tuesday’s Senate hearing on the withdrawal from Afghanistan when it became clear why President Joe Biden decided to get the troops out of there as quickly as possible.



President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the end of the war in Afghanistan at the White House on Aug. 31. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

© Provided by Slate President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the end of the war in Afghanistan at the White House on
Aug. 31. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images


It came when Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, explained why he and the other chiefs—the top officers of the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines—all agreed that we needed to pull out by Aug. 31.

The Doha agreement, which President Trump had signed with the Taliban in early 2020 (with no participation by the Afghan government), required a total withdrawal of foreign forces. If U.S. troops had stayed beyond August, Milley said, the Taliban would have resumed the fighting, and, in order to stave off the attacks, “we would have needed 30,000 troops” and would have suffered “many casualties.”
However, it is extremely unlikely that the Taliban would have observed the semantic distinction. In their eyes, 2,500 U.S. troops would be seen as 2,500 U.S. troops, regardless of whether their mission was officially said to be “military” or “diplomatic.” Therefore, the Taliban would resume fighting, as Milley said they would, and Biden would then have been faced with a horrendous choice—to pull out while under attack or send in another 30,000 troops.

Some historical-psychological perspective is worth noting. In the first nine months of Barack Obama’s presidency, the generals were pushing for a major escalation of the war in Afghanistan—an increase of 40,000 troops—and a shift to a counterinsurgency (aka “nation-building”) strategy. Biden, who was then vice president, was alone in suggesting an increase of just 10,000 troops, to be used solely for training the Afghan army and for fighting terrorists along the Afghan-Pakistani border. As Obama recalls in his memoir, Biden urged the new and relatively inexperienced president not to be “boxed in” by the generals. Give them 40,000 troops now, and in 18 months, they’ll say they need another 40,000 to win the war. As Obama later acknowledged, Biden was right.

And so, as Milley was advising President Biden to keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, even while acknowledging that another 30,000 might be needed if the Taliban resumed fighting . . . it’s easy to imagine Biden thinking, “They’re trying to box me in, just like they did before, just like they’ve always done since the Vietnam War,” which was raging when Biden first entered the Senate in 1973 and has shaped his views on war and peace ever since.

Milley and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie,
the head of Central Command, both acknowledged at the hearing that the U.S. military was flying blind through much of its 20-year war in Afghanistan, the longest war in American history. The officers of the day tried to mold the Afghan army in their own image, making them too dependent on U.S. technology and support, so that once we withdrew, collapse was inevitable. Milley also noted that he and the other officers paid too little attention to Afghan culture and to the corrosive effects of the Afghan government’s corruption and lack of popular legitimacy. So, Biden might well have been thinking, why should he pay attention to anything these guys had to say on the war in Afghanistan, which they’ve been wrong about from the very beginning?

Biden made several missteps, some of them disastrous, in the pace and sequence of the withdrawal. Most of all, he should have pulled out all the spies, contractors, U.S. citizens, and Afghan helpers before pulling out all the troops. But on the big picture, he was right, and the generals, as they now grudgingly admit, were wrong.

We Now Know Why Biden Was in a Hurry to Exit Afghanistan (msn.com)

We now know why Biden was in a hurry to exit Afghanistan. (slate.com)
 

Camille

Kitchen Wench #TeamQuaid
Staff member
White dems and everyone else in the comments know this is a stupid idea, and therefore something they are encouraging Trump supporters to follow through on . The BGOL don't vote crew encouraging black folks not to vote sound just as stupid as Trump and the GOP is just as eager for black folks to follow through.

 

xxxbishopxxx

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
We Now Know Why Biden Was in a Hurry to Exit Afghanistan

There was a moment in Tuesday’s Senate hearing on the withdrawal from Afghanistan when it became clear why President Joe Biden decided to get the troops out of there as quickly as possible.



President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the end of the war in Afghanistan at the White House on Aug. 31. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

© Provided by Slate President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the end of the war in Afghanistan at the White House on
Aug. 31. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images


It came when Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, explained why he and the other chiefs—the top officers of the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines—all agreed that we needed to pull out by Aug. 31.

The Doha agreement, which President Trump had signed with the Taliban in early 2020 (with no participation by the Afghan government), required a total withdrawal of foreign forces. If U.S. troops had stayed beyond August, Milley said, the Taliban would have resumed the fighting, and, in order to stave off the attacks, “we would have needed 30,000 troops” and would have suffered “many casualties.”
However, it is extremely unlikely that the Taliban would have observed the semantic distinction. In their eyes, 2,500 U.S. troops would be seen as 2,500 U.S. troops, regardless of whether their mission was officially said to be “military” or “diplomatic.” Therefore, the Taliban would resume fighting, as Milley said they would, and Biden would then have been faced with a horrendous choice—to pull out while under attack or send in another 30,000 troops.

Some historical-psychological perspective is worth noting. In the first nine months of Barack Obama’s presidency, the generals were pushing for a major escalation of the war in Afghanistan—an increase of 40,000 troops—and a shift to a counterinsurgency (aka “nation-building”) strategy. Biden, who was then vice president, was alone in suggesting an increase of just 10,000 troops, to be used solely for training the Afghan army and for fighting terrorists along the Afghan-Pakistani border. As Obama recalls in his memoir, Biden urged the new and relatively inexperienced president not to be “boxed in” by the generals. Give them 40,000 troops now, and in 18 months, they’ll say they need another 40,000 to win the war. As Obama later acknowledged, Biden was right.

And so, as Milley was advising President Biden to keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, even while acknowledging that another 30,000 might be needed if the Taliban resumed fighting . . . it’s easy to imagine Biden thinking, “They’re trying to box me in, just like they did before, just like they’ve always done since the Vietnam War,” which was raging when Biden first entered the Senate in 1973 and has shaped his views on war and peace ever since.

Milley and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie,
the head of Central Command, both acknowledged at the hearing that the U.S. military was flying blind through much of its 20-year war in Afghanistan, the longest war in American history. The officers of the day tried to mold the Afghan army in their own image, making them too dependent on U.S. technology and support, so that once we withdrew, collapse was inevitable. Milley also noted that he and the other officers paid too little attention to Afghan culture and to the corrosive effects of the Afghan government’s corruption and lack of popular legitimacy. So, Biden might well have been thinking, why should he pay attention to anything these guys had to say on the war in Afghanistan, which they’ve been wrong about from the very beginning?

Biden made several missteps, some of them disastrous, in the pace and sequence of the withdrawal. Most of all, he should have pulled out all the spies, contractors, U.S. citizens, and Afghan helpers before pulling out all the troops. But on the big picture, he was right, and the generals, as they now grudgingly admit, were wrong.

We Now Know Why Biden Was in a Hurry to Exit Afghanistan (msn.com)

We now know why Biden was in a hurry to exit Afghanistan. (slate.com)
I didn't get the impression most people were upset about the deadline. It was about the last minute execution that made the whole thing look bad and annoyed folks.

I do understand that some folks didn't want us to leave at all.
 

MASTERBAKER

༺ S❤️PER❤️ ᗰOD ༻
Super Moderator
OPINION
Barack Obama’s humiliation of feeble ol’ Joe Biden
By
Miranda Devine
April 6, 2022 11:34pm
Updated



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Miranda Devine

MORE FROM:MIRANDA DEVINE
Someone in the White House must really hate Joe Biden.
Who had the stupid idea to invite his charismatic predecessor back to upstage the president and humiliate him before the world?
If the idea was to borrow the Barack Obama magic, it backfired. The president just looked feeble and unpopular against his limelight-hogging former boss.
Invited back to the White House for the first time in five years, Obama began his speech Tuesday touting the 12th anniversary of his Affordable Care Act by referring to the president as “Vice President Biden.”
He quickly followed up with “That was a joke!” but the point was understood by everyone, that Joe is the beta in that relationship, even if he is the most powerful man on the planet.
What does that make Obama?
Well, he mentioned himself 33 times during his speech, according to Steve Guest, communications adviser for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Obama sang his own praises as he rattled off a list of his presidency’s accomplishments.
There was little effort to burnish the battered reputation of the old man standing glumly alongside him trying to look jolly. Beside him, Vice President Kamala Harris was fairly bursting with excitement.
After the speech, the three luminaries mingled with the crowd, and that was where Obama showed his true colors.
In C-Span videos, you see Biden, quite cheery, glad-handing the crowd, Harris at his side, when suddenly, from stage left, emerges Obama, face creased into a handsome smile, eyeing the same group that Biden is schmoozing.
US President Joe Biden, and former President Barack Obama listen to US Vice President Kamala Harris (out of frame) speak on the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on April 5, 2022. It’s not too often that a former president like Barack Obama can embarrass President Biden at the White House.MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty ImagesVanishing smile
Harris senses Obama’s presence and whips around with a joyous expression, and they meet each other’s gaze for an instant. The smile vanishes from Biden’s face as Harris turns away. He spots Obama and a frown furrows his brow. Obama, by way of greeting Harris, tosses his head like a horse and she responds by hunching her shoulders like an excited kid. As a frowning Biden moves closer, she pirouettes to face him, looking faintly amused, her lips pursed in a sort of private “Uh-oh, lol.”
Biden’s face grows thunderous. He opens his mouth in a snarl, looking straight at the side of Obama’s head, and says something that sounds like: “It’s not my …” and then stops himself.
Obama ignores him and reaches into the little group of admirers before him, shaking hands and creasing his face into a handsome smile. At this stage, Harris has turned away from Biden and positioned herself between the two men, mirroring Obama’s charm pantomime.
Biden grimaces. Then he fixes his eyes on Obama. He reaches around Harris to touch Obama’s arm and attract his attention. Obama, smiling animatedly, ignores him, before maneuvering out of arm’s length.
Former U.S. President Barack Obama greets guests after speaking about the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid at an event with U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 5, 2022.  All eyes were on former President Barack Obama while sleepy President Biden hides behind the spotlight.REUTERS/Leah Millis
Biden scowls over his shoulder. Obama’s escape is foiled by a short, blond woman who lunges in to shake his hand. Biden looks stricken, staring at this woman who has eyes only for Obama and Harris at his side.
A few moments later, he makes his move. He thrusts out his left hand and places his long, white fingers on Obama’s right shoulder. You can tell Obama feels it, because he involuntarily jerks his head away, a micro-expression of what looks like disgust flitting across his face.
Biden is concentrating intently on his hand now gripping tightly onto Obama’s shoulder.
Obama’s eyes swivel in Biden’s direction but his head does not move. He lets go of the blond woman’s hand with a smile and leans away to shake off the hand now firmly attached to his shoulder. He and the blond woman start bantering. He laughs at something she says.
U.S. VPresident Joe Biden greets friend and former President Barack Obama during an event on the Affordable Care Act, the former president's top legislative accomplishment, as Vice President Kamala Harris reacts in the East Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 5, 2022. It’s obvious that Vice President Kamala Harris is patiently waiting to take over the Oval Office while Joe Biden’s poll numbers continue to dip.REUTERS/Leah Millis
Biden looks desperate and disbelieving as he clings to the shoulder of a man pretending he doesn’t exist.
Obama drops his shoulder, but can’t shake off the hand. A shadow passes over his face — anger, maybe, or exasperation. He raises his right hand high in the air and then dips it down into the crowd to shake another hand. He swings and dips and leans forward but the bony, white hand clings on.
Harris, mouth agape in an approximation of ecstasy, stares up at Obama with glistening eyes.
Obama tries again to shake off the hand, raising his arm even higher in an exaggerated goodbye wave to his admirers. But Biden clings on.
No one to talk to
One of the video clips, posted on social media by the Republican National Committee’s research team with the caption “Literally no one wants to talk to Joe Biden,” ends right there.
But the entire C-Span video shows that in the next moment, Obama gives in to the inevitable.
He swivels around to face Biden, and the hand finally lets go. He tosses his head slightly at the old man and raises his eyebrows as if to say, “What’s up?” As if he didn’t know.
Biden relaxes into a beaming smile, dignity restored, and finds a woman nearby for a courtly introduction to his ex-boss. Then Obama gestures lightly and moves off with Harris beside him, Biden trailing.
Another video showed Biden and Nancy Pelosi passing within inches of one another and avoiding eye contact. Biden walks in the other direction and raises both arms in a welcoming, “Look who’s here” gesture to nobody who is visible on camera, but appears to receive no response, so he turns back to where Pelosi had been and finds nothing but a golden curtain. His head turns and there, a few feet away, he sees Obama holding court, before eager acolytes.
No one notices Biden. He pauses before turning his back and walking away, shoulders slumped.
Rolling Stone and other Democratic operatives fanned out the next day to declare that the RNC’s video clips were maliciously edited and “taken out of context.”
But, sadly, they were not. You can watch the entire video from beginning to end and your sense of Biden’s abandonment by his party will not change.
With a haunting violin melody as soundtrack, the flags and young faces in military uniforms milling around in the background, there is something tragically iconic in that first video, in a way I think we can only dimly grasp today.
America’s adversaries will know exactly what to think when they see our forlorn, unloved president, wandering, neglected and ignored, around his own house, while his underlings fawn over his predecessor. Where were his staff to save him from humiliation? Where, for that matter, was Dr. Jill?
One thing is now clear: The VP is not a team player. If anything, Harris is actively working against the president and is in the secret thrall of Obama.
We also saw the true character of Obama. He is nothing but a Mean Girl, consumed with his own charms. What a piece of work! Would it have killed him to show a little grace and kindness to his floundering successor?
Humiliating the president of the United States publicly is wrong — even if it is Joe Biden.
In the end, maybe there was some 3D-chess genius in inviting Obama to the White House, because even Biden’s most ardent critics could not help but feel a twinge of sympathy for him.
 
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