McConnell’s freezes complicate Republican attacks on Biden’s age
McConnell’s freezes complicate Republican attacks on Biden’s age
Old friends Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell seem to be giving each other political cover as they face questions about their age and health.
Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell struck up a friendship during their nearly quarter-century in the Senate together. Now in their 80s, the Democratic president and the Senate GOP leader appear to be giving political cover to each other as they fend off questions about their advanced age and health issues.
Notably, McConnell, R-Ky., 81, hasn’t joined Donald Trump, 77, and other Republicans who have attacked Biden’s age, health and mental acuity as he seeks re-election.
And after McConnell’s second freeze-up last week, Biden was one of the first to call McConnell, telling reporters that his “friend” sounded like “his old self” and that such episodes are a “part of his recovery” from a fall and a concussion this year.
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Sickening to hear Biden call McConnell a friend. His fucking serious? Because if he is then means he dumber than thought. Our the whole blue vs red is all theater and they are all playing us for fools. Which is the most likely case.
If you're confused why Joe Biden is doing this, you don't understand the American form of government, how no one party can achieve anything on it's own without consensus, and that the hyper partisan fuck it all Republicans must be wooed, and have their balls cupped, in order to be soothed and tricked into thinking they really don't need to be so destructive, and that is what Joe Biden does, then you don't know much, and you don't know Joe Biden. He's been doing exactly this for the last 5 decades in elected office, and he's really really really fucking good at it.
This. He's not nearly as progressive as I'd like, but he accomplished much more in his first 2 years than I thought he could get done in 2 terms. The railroad strike thing was a massive letdown, but I understand that a major focus in that moment was the state of the economy, and it was very much getting back on track and an industry-wide strike would've resulted in more supply chain shit, more inflation, and damning criticisms that he failed to solve economic woes because he's too weak. He was looking at the bigger picture. A decent person would've supported the strikes, but Jimmy Carter proved that a decent person doesn't make for a very good president. Sometimes, you have to make tough decisions that conflict with your personal beliefs for the good of the entire country.
As an armchair quarterback who doesn't really know the nitty gritty details, I think I would've looked into nationalizing the rail industry entirely. If it's so important to national security that the workers are barred from striking and the companies are running the industry so poorly that even with unions they are skeleton crews with shit benefits and pay with an awful safety record, then those companies have lost the privilege of privatization.
He was looking at the bigger picture. A decent person would’ve supported the strikes, but Jimmy Carter proved that a decent person doesn’t make for a very good president
Jimmy Carter would also not have allowed rail workers to illegally strike, in violation of their contract, and in such a way that thousands of people would literally die. That is why their contract forbids striking.
Like Biden, Carter would have sought to continue to address issues regardless of the strike not materializing.
"We’re thankful that the Biden administration played the long game on sick days and stuck with us for months after Congress imposed our updated national agreement,” Russo said. “Without making a big show of it, Joe Biden and members of his administration in the Transportation and Labor departments have been working continuously to get guaranteed paid sick days for all railroad workers.
https://www.ibew.org/media-center/Articles/23Daily/2306/230620_IBEWandPaid
Then maybe we shouldn't have allowed the railway companies to try and fuck them over into suicide schedules for profit.
Or, and I'm just spitballing here, if the rail companies are that important then maybe they shouldn't be allowed to be run for profit. If they're that critical, maybe they should be GASP nationalized.
Maybe you should be angry at the financiers that bought the companies and forced the workers to run suicide schedules for forcing the workers into a position where they started to feel like they had to strike to have normal human lives.
You're blaming the victims here.
Then maybe we shouldn’t have allowed the railway companies to try and dick then over into suicide schedules for profit
Vote for Congresspeople who will change the law.
I do not appreciate Presidents changing laws on a whim. That's Trumpian horseshit.
I haven't blamed anyone for anything - I've simply explained the end result that occurred, because of Biden, after you stopped paying attention.
If you'd cared enough to continue following the story, I wouldn't need to explain any of these things to you. I knew what to look for because I did care enough to continue following the story.
We've had an imperial presidency since at least bush. If you'd cared enough to pay attention recently, you'd know that legal precedent has already occurred to give the president almost any power they want.
Calling that Trumpian either shows your age, or how long you've cared about this.
Incrementalism is an intentional tactic used by liberals to explain why they can't undo the things the right wing does, and to explain why they can't change things themselves when they are in power.
Liberalism is a fucking disease.
EDIT: Congress sure as shit wasn't required to fuck over all the air traffic controllers. Funny that. Congress is never required to fuck over workers, but it is always an excuse as to why we can't do things for the workers.
"imperial presidency" is not a phrase with any meaning. Imperialism isn't "shit I don't like."
In this case, Congress is literally the authoring body of the contract's binding legislation.
https://www.npr.org/2022/11/30/1139876084/congress-house-railroad-strike-bill
Consider knowing what you're talking about before getting mad about it.
The precedent had been set that the US president can assassinate US Citizens without trial or judicial overview, right?
You know who set that precedent, right? That it wasn't Trump, and there was no talk of impeaching the president that set that precedent, right?
We have a fucking imperialist presidency for the same reason people hated Trump (not a fan, or a right winger, before you accuse me of that.) People hated Trump for violating the norms of the office. Most of the powers Presidents have now are based on executive orders and precedent from previous presidents, not, you know, by actual laws. I am exaggerating for effect here somewhat, but not a lot. But violating norms is not a crime, especially when you don't have clear laws delineating what a president can and can't do. And it apparently isn't a broken norm to assassinate US citizens without a trial. I don't know how you don't consider that an imperial presidency. Or, you're just younger then 40 and haven't been paying attention.
If norms are all that define a position, and you have one side breaking the norms, and the other side following them and whining to a non-existent hall monitor that the other side is breaking, not the rules but the norms, then you get what we have now.
Justifying Democratic presidents not using power they absolutely have because of subsection 6 of paragraph 5 is just a self righteous way to justify why they didn't fight for you when the time came.
president assassinate us citizens
A drone strike against a terrorist group is both legal and not an assassination. They didn't isolate that one guy. He was killed while doing terrorist shit with a terrorist group, and the entire group was killed.
Two U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity stated that the target of the October 14, 2011, airstrike was Ibrahim al-Banna, an Egyptian believed to be a senior operative in al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
In other words, legal. Don't join Al Qaeda if you don't want to be hit by a drone.
Imperialism isn't "violating the norms of office" any more than it is "shit you personally don't like," and the above is not a violation of the norms of office, but rather something the President was given power to do by Congress, twice by that point.
I'm not sure what you wanted Biden to do here when he accomplished his goal without overstepping the bounds of his office, per the union that asked for help.
I wasn't talking about him, I was talking about his two children. Whom were absolutely not members of Al-Qaeda.
Remember, under Obama, the definition of being a terrorist was that you were male, over 14, and you were killed by the U.S.
Being a civilian in the Afghan/Yemen war was a privilege only women were afforded.Finally, it wasn't Al-Qaeda. I will excuse this one, because you wouldn't know it based on US reporting unless you specifically interested in the Yemeni conflict. The genocide we assisted in perpetrating in Yemen against the people of Yemen who would not/did not ally themselves, and never would with Al-Qaeda for religious reasons. The US did what it did in Yemen under the auspices of the AUMF. Which has, as the one limiting factor, that force be used against countries with an Al-Qaeda presence. Nevermind that they were the ones we were arming and backing in Syria. Nevermind that they didn't REALLY exist in Yemen, and the few that did were imported by 'us' (Saudi Arabia, not the US), and the houthi did fight quite hard against them, and certainly not in the area this individual was killed. Nevermind that the Yemeni 'Government' that was forced in by Saudi Arabia was not accepted as the legit government of the majority of the Yemeni people (hence the reason for the 'civil war'. We had to say they did to give the assistance that Saudi Arabia was demanding. The Yemeni 'government' was literally of puppet of Saudi Arabia that any sane person wouldn't listen to. They accused everyone of being Al-Qaeda because, as puppets of Saudi Arabia, they had explicit instructions on what to say to allow the US to continue supporting their puppet regime. You won't find this in the wikipedia article, by the by, this actually required some thought, analysis, and paying attention to the situation when it was happening.
And no, it was not approved twice by congress. Unless you are again counting the AUMF. which seems a pretty big stretch. That law wasn't written addressing the assassination of US citizens, does not explicitly state anywhere that it can be used for those purposes. Instead, Obama used the law in a way it was written to do something he wanted to do. I.E. he used powers not explicitly given to him to accomplish his goals. Huh. Imagine if his goals were to help workers.
Give me a definition of imperial that we don't fit then. I'm sure I'll enjoy the internal inconsistencies in the definition you give.
I want Biden to use power to help the people, and not the financier owners of the rail companies that exist to siphon of America's productivity like parasites. Because, frankly, there are far less bounds of the office than you are implying. This appeal to notional bounds is what Democrats always do to justify their feckless helplessness when it comes to helping their constituency.
Fuck, you're the definition of 'Scratch a liberal and a fascist bleeds.'
Exactly how many Republican votes has Biden got for Democratic legislation? Have you ever watched a Republican primary? Bipartisanship is the easiest way to lose a Republican race.
Only liberals believe bipartisanship works both ways. I get it, I was liberal once. But I stopped reading liberal op-eds and now I don't have this urge to blame everyone else when Biden does things that are unpopular with the majority of voters.
Who do you like to blame nowadays?
I blame the system, not the voters. Humans operating under good faith are well equipped to make sane and mutually beneficial decisions. So when the opposite is happening that is a sign of systemic problems.
This is Biden mistaking class solidarity with friendship because Democrats like him have to lie to themselves everytime they fuck over the many in service to the few.
I agree its always Democrats reaching across the aile while Republicans are straight up stripping our rights away and giving all the money to the top 1%.
It one big club and we aren't in it.
Yea, realizing it's all one club really opened up my political thinking.
Sorry they are down voting your top post to hell.
If only liberals had the same outrage for "moderate" Republicans supporting GOP propaganda as they do for people criticizing Biden from the left.
During the primary Biden kept saying he should be president because of his great relationships with republican Senators and that because of that he'd be able to get R's to vote with the Dem party...
He legitimately believes they're all a bunch of buddies.
I still dont know if it's better or worse if he's delusional... But either option isn't great
He literally accomplished that goal numerous times already.
It's not that hard to believe.
You have to remember that many politicians aren't true believers. From gay men who run on a 'family values' platform, black men or people in interracial relationships who run on a (borderline) racist platform, rich ultra-capitalists who pretend to be men of the people and promote populist crap, ultra conservatives who are privately quite liberal, highly educated people who pretend to be morons, city folks who pretend to be cowboys, those who run on a green platform while privately investing in fracking from the comfort of their private jet, those who promote conspiracy theories they find stupid, those who hate the people who elect them, etc. etc.
Just like someone on QVC selling overpriced watches, it's their job to pretend the product they're selling is the best option for those watching. When the cameras are turned off, even the more extreme ones inevitably drop the act and act more like normal human beings.
It's deeply cynical, it's caused damage to democracy, but it is what it is. It's like pretending to like arseholes if you're a waitress, except you get paid more.