The Biden administration

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JKR

Biden must rethink the US migration system, not just reverse Trump’s policies; The Guardian; Daniel Trilling; Feb. 23, 2021

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If Donald Trump’s presidency was a lesson in how symbolic acts of cruelty can be used to consolidate power, then his successors are trying to demonstrate that the same is true for benevolence. In just over a month, the Biden-Harris administration has issued a flurry of new directives aimed at reversing some of the worst aspects of the former president’s immigration policy.

Biden has declared an end to the travel restrictions imposed on numerous Muslim-majority countries, and committed to both reviving and expanding the US refugee resettlement scheme. The administration has presented sweeping new immigration reforms to Congress, which if passed would offer a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented people, promised a moratorium on deportations in most instances, and announced a plan to reunite children and parents torn apart by the grotesque family separation policy. On Friday, the US began allowing asylum seekers to cross its southern border for the first time since Trump’s “remain in Mexico” initiative was launched in January 2019.

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The Biden Administration's immigration policies are much better than the Trump administration's was but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

kropotkin1951

NorthReport wrote:
Well said JKR As if there is any comparison with Hitler lite who decided to defy science, and as a result 1/2 million Americans have died from Covid

Incarcerating under age immigrants/refugees in a for profit facility is democracy and freedom to its core. It is obviously a sign that Biden is not a fascist and Trump was.

I am truly grateful that Biden has re-opened a detention center that Trump opened first. You do know its the same center don't you?

NDPP

And speaking of the vast bleak, black US Gulag, (with over 2 million prisoners, the largest in the world), let us never forget the significant roles played by both Joe Biden and Kamela Harris in building and filling it. The following discussion includes one of the victims scooped up as a teenager who spent 28 yeears incarcerated in their prison hell.  Let us remember such things when Americans or their dupes, who rarely mention their own abominations, presume to lecture us instead on 'human rights' violations in  Russia, China, Syria etc.

On Contact: The Power of Classics (and vid)

https://www.rt.com/shows/on-contact/516090-classics-power-mass-incarcera...

"On the show this week, Chris Hedges discusses with Emily Allen-Hornblower and Marquis McCray, the power of the classics, such as Sophocles Philoctetes to elucidate mass incarceration...."

PS:

John Kiriakou: One Thing Trump Got Right

https://consortiumnews.com/2021/02/23/john-kiriakou-one-thing-trump-got-...

"One thing that most Americans didn't realize was that Trump pushed for passage of - and then signed into law - a measure that lifted a 26-year ban on giving prisoners federal education aid..."

NDPP

The Kids are Still in Cages (and vid)

https://twitter.com/richimedhurst/status/1364771744158998529

44:30 "Obama and Biden are the ones that built the cages and every administration is a continuation of the last one. What did you expect when you elected people whose entire careers were based on putting people in prisons?"

NDPP

'Justice Democrats' Sell Out Progressives Again - Protecting Neera Tanden

The Jimmy Dore Show

https://youtu.be/fyF1pepEpDE

"She's the worst of the worst..."

josh

The Biden administration will release an intelligence report Thursday that concludes that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, three U.S. officials familiar with the matter said.

The intelligence assessment, based largely on work by the CIA, is not new — NBC News was among the organizations that confirmed it in 2018.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/new-public-report-blame-saudi-crown-prince-2018-killing-jamal-n1258800

Michael Moriarity

Here's a video of Sam Seder and Emma Vigeland discussing Jimmy Dore's most recent appearance on Tucker Carlson's show. I think Seder and Vigeland are actual leftists, and Dore is not. NDPP clearly believes the opposite. Readers can draw their own conclusions.

NDPP

Biden opens detention site for migrant teens

https://youtu.be/o0djF6b6Nyo

"MSM, why so silent?"

Notice the obvious lengths some liberals will go to protect and defend the Biden regime from the same criticisms they leveled at the previous one.

Michael Moriarity

NDPP wrote:

Biden opens detention site for migrant teens

https://youtu.be/oOdjF6b6Nyo

"MSM, why so silent?"

Notice the obvious lengths some liberals will go to protect and defend the Biden regime from the same criticisms they leveled at the previous one.

None of the children detained by the Biden (or Obama) administration were separated from their parents, which was apparently an idea cooked up by out and proud racists Steven Miller and Jeff Sessions, and happily adopted by the then sadist in chief, Trump. These children all appeared at the border unaccompanied. Your repeated failure to point this out is typical of your contempt for facts, especially when they contradict your pre-formed conclusions.

BTW, I get "Video unavailable" when I click your link, which undoubtedly contains yet more misleading content.

NDPP

The Biden Administration is Taking Steps to Stay in Iraq Forever

https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2021/02/biden-administration-taking-ste...

"A recent briefing reveals expansive goals for the US war effort."

 

Biden Commits for Forever War on Afghanistan

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2021/02/biden-commits-to-forever-war-on-af...

The forever war in Afghanistan will continue. This again demonstrates that the US is no longer agreement capable. By staying there longer than May 1, the Biden administration will breech an international agreement the previous administration had made. It is unlikely the Taliban will agree to a prolonged stay from such an unreliable entity..."

 

US Approves Nearly $200 M Arms Sale to Egypt

https://www.dailysabah.com/world/americas/us-approves-nearly-200-million...

"US President Joe Biden's administration approved a nearly $200 million arms sale to Egypt but vowed to press human rights issues..."

 

US Reaffirms Weapons Sales to Philippines as Duterte Deliberates on Troop Deal

https://news.antiwar.com/2021/02/24/us-reaffirms-weapons-sales-to-philip...

"The US reaffirmed it will continue to sell weapons to the Philippines despite concerns over Manila's extrajudicial killings surrounding the country's drug war. A Pentagon spokesperson told Nikkei Asia that there are 'no restrictions' on US arms sales to the Philippines.."

NDPP

"Biden has approved $285 m worth of Raytheon* weapons deals before he approved student loan debt cancellation, rent forgiveness or $2000 stimulus checks."

https://twitter.com/SusanSarandon/status/1364817954135830535

*Biden's Defense Secretary, the ex Raytheon lobbyist will be pleased. Perhaps 'Mr 10%' will even get a cut. Or maybe such things all go through Hunter?

NorthReport

Some I presume unelected official has decided they can't raise the minimum wage. Thank goodness for Uncle Joe and Bernie who you can count on to do the correct thing here

https://www.rawstory.com/15-minimum-wage-stimulus-2650805638/

JKR

President Joe Biden is still enjoying sky-high approval numbers over a month into his term

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Morning Consult/Politico poll released Wednesday found President Joe Biden is still enjoying sky-high approval numbers over a month into his term as Congressional leaders – especially Republicans – languish in the negatives.

...

60%. That’s the share of voters who said they have an unfavorable view of former President Donald Trump, compared to just 37% who have a favorable view.

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NDPP

US has lost the right to lecture other countries on civil freedoms - diplomat

https://tass.com/politics/1260715

"The new US administration should first and foremost turn an attentive ear to its own citizens and not conduct a witch hunt at home and then hypocritcally speculate about human rights in other countries. In the current situation, Washington's lack of moral reasons for the endless lecturing of others on human rights and freedom is particularly obvious..."

kropotkin1951

NorthReport wrote:
Some I presume unelected official has decided they can't raise the minimum wage. Thank goodness for Uncle Joe and Bernie who you can count on to do the correct thing here https://www.rawstory.com/15-minimum-wage-stimulus-2650805638/

Indeed, tinker around the edges of the massive problems while trying not to rile the billionaires. Although I completely agree with his assessment of the facade of a democracy that he has played in for decades.

Yet because of the archaic and undemocratic rules of the Senate we are unable to move forward to end starvation wages in this country and raise the income of 32 million struggling Americans," he wrote.

 

kropotkin1951

JKR wrote:

President Joe Biden is still enjoying sky-high approval numbers over a month into his term

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Morning Consult/Politico poll released Wednesday found President Joe Biden is still enjoying sky-high approval numbers over a month into his term as Congressional leaders – especially Republicans – languish in the negatives.

This poll highlights the narrow range of issues that are allowed in mainstream discourse.  No questions on the size of the military budgets or the number of spy and security agencies. Although 12% of Americans appear to think that there are some issues to look at in this overarching category.

Security Issues – like terrorism, foreign policy, and border security

No questions on defunding ICE or the police and certainly none are going to ask Americans if they think their troops should all be brought home from overseas. I personally would love to see those kinds of questions so we could really know as people looking in whether it is the US elite that believe in the empire or whether it is the general population that thinks the US should have garrisons around the globe.

NDPP

US ethnic minorities, poor denied fair share of vaccines

https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/02/26/646084/US-Ethnic-Minorities-Po...

"The racial disparities in who gets a dose of the desperately-wanted coronavirus vaccine continues to roil the US. African-Americans compose 12% of the US population yet they have only received 5% of the vaccines. Sixty percent of America is White, and they have gotten 60% of the vaccines. Multiple studies point to a simple explanation: vaccines are overwhelmingly being sent to White neighborhoods."

NDPP

'Thanks for bombing my country, Joe Biden!'

https://twitter.com/richimedhurst/status/1365194791919771650

"It's fine. Just go back to brunch, liberals. The bombs are pink..."

 

JKR

kropotkin1951 wrote:

This poll highlights the narrow range of issues that are allowed in mainstream discourse.  No questions on the size of the military budgets or the number of spy and security agencies. Although 12% of Americans appear to think that there are some issues to look at in this overarching category.

Security Issues – like terrorism, foreign policy, and border security

No questions on defunding ICE or the police and certainly none are going to ask Americans if they think their troops should all be brought home from overseas. I personally would love to see those kinds of questions so we could really know as people looking in whether it is the US elite that believe in the empire or whether it is the general population that thinks the US should have garrisons around the globe.

Those would be good questions to ask but unfortunately both of U.S.'s political parties have very similar perspectives on those issues. Unfortunately most Americans supported the invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq as Americans were effectively manipulated by the GW Bush administration. I also suspect that most Americans oppose "defunding the police" as most Americans feel unsafe. However, I think most Americans would approve of the police being much less racist against African Americans. Republican voters probably think the police are not racist at all.

josh

President Biden has decided that the price of directly penalizing Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is too high, according to senior administration officials, despite a detailed American intelligence finding that he directly approved the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the dissident and Washington Post columnist who was drugged and dismembered in October 2018.

The decision by Mr. Biden, who during the 2020 campaign called Saudi Arabia a “pariah” state with “no redeeming social value,” came after weeks of debate in which his newly formed national security team advised him that there was no way to formally bar the heir to the Saudi crown from entering the United States, or to weigh criminal charges against him, without breaching the relationship with one of America’s key Arab allies.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/26/us/politics/biden-mbs-khashoggi.html

NDPP

Kunstler: Shadowland

https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/shadowland/

"How long will it be before the public realizes that Mr Biden is being strictly concealed from view by his managers? A few more weeks, maybe, I'd guess. What did they think they were doing when they engineered the election of this empy suit, this blank cartridge, this political mannequin, this man-who-isn't-there...?"

josh

As usual, Kunstler is wrong.  Biden has explicitly adopted a low key posture to contrast himself with the omnipresent Trump.  Most people have welcomed the change.

JKR

An Interview With James Howard Kunstler

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Kunstler: I think gay marriage represents a certain kind of cultural mischief that derives from the misguided crypto-gnostic wish in liberal America to transform human nature in the name of “progress.” I was in favor of so-called civil unions that would regularize property issues for same-sex couples who formed households, but calling it “marriage” was a sentimental error that would further damage a struggling institution in a culture that can’t withstand much more institutional failure. For me, it’s not a religious issue; I don’t practice any so-called “faith.” I believe in behavioral boundaries and I regard the campaign to abolish sexual categories—or endlessly expand them into meaninglessness—as unhelpful to the human project.

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NDPP

Doesn't mean he isn't right about Biden, which is what I posted.

ps: 'Marriage is between a man and a woman and states must respect that.' - Joe Biden, Meet the Press, 2006

JKR

Kuntsler also wrote: And then, what do the people of this country think when it becomes necessary to throw the switch on the 25th Amendment and remove poor Ol’ Joe from office on account of being simply unfit to continue serving?

Kunstler actually thinks it will become necessary to implement the 25th Amendment to remove Biden?!?! Kunstler can't be taken seriously. Maybe he's a comedian?

JKR

NDPP wrote:

ps: 'Marriage is between a man and a woman and states must respect that.' - Joe Biden, Meet the Press, 2006

For a decade Biden has supported gay marriage.

NDPP

Biden does airstrikes before relief checks!

https://youtu.be/10w4MhIEr7Q

 

"As President I will use military power responsibly and as a last resort. We will not go back to forever wars in the Middle East." - Biden.

https://twitter.com/thesiriusreport/status/1365207951246565377

 

Democrat reassures friend this is one of the good Syrian airstrikes

https://twitter.com/TheOnion/status/1365426424618889220

NDPP

#SilentSquad (and vid)

https://twitter.com/richimedhurst/status/1365876856159956994

"Fraud squad silent on Syria. Not a fucking word. It's as if it never happened. You knew they were going to give Biden a pass on everything and here it is."

 

josh

 

Congressional Democrats denounced the strikes almost immediately, saying the US is not at war with Syria and that lawmakers didn’t authorize any attack on Iranian-backed militants. As a result, they essentially argue Biden ordered an illegal launch.

“Offensive military action without congressional approval is not constitutional absent extraordinary circumstances,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), a longtime advocate for bolstering Congress’s role in authorizing military operations, said in a Friday statement. “Our Constitution is clear that it is the Congress, not the President, who has the authority to declare war,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) added on Friday.

Criticism continued in the House. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), a leading progressive foreign policy proponent, stated, “There is absolutely no justification for a president to authorize a military strike that is not in self-defense against an imminent threat without congressional authorization.”

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) also highlighted a 2017 tweet from current White House press secretary Jen Psaki that criticized then-President Trump’s decision to bomb Syria in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack. “What is the legal authority for strikes?” Psaki asked, noting “Syria is a sovereign country.”

“Great question,” Omar tweeted in response on Thursday night.

https://www.vox.com/22302970/biden-syria-iran-strike-kaine-sanders-khanna-murphy-legal

NorthReport

The USA haters are out in full force here. Meanwhile Biden is making progress with his stimulus package which has now cleared the House

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/26/politics/stimulus-package-covid-relief-ho...

kropotkin1951

NorthReport wrote:
The USA haters are out in full force here. Meanwhile Biden is making progress with his stimulus package which has now cleared the House https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/26/politics/stimulus-package-covid-relief-ho...

Sycophant for the evil empire. Never met a propaganda piece you wouldn't forward. All hail American Exceptionalism. The package is not bad but given the US problems it is merely a band-aid on a life threatening wound.

Biden is just another POTUS war criminal. He bombed another country without UN sanctions and that is a direct breach of international law.

In the meantime the real action is over at the military. Here are some great facts done by American citizens who are democratically trying to rein in the evil empire. Not all Americans are as deluded about Biden's real agenda as Josh and NR.

JKR

Eisenhower's 1961 Warning About the Military Industrial Complex; YouTube; Bernie Sanders Channel video

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Eisenhower's and others' fears have become the status quo. Bernie Sanders put up this video.

kropotkin1951

JKR wrote:

Eisenhower's 1961 Warning About the Military Industrial Complex; YouTube; Bernie Sanders Channel video

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Eisenhower's and others' fears have become the status quo. Bernie Sanders put up this video.

I have been following US politics since the 1970's and have agreed with American dissidents and their analysis of their own governments evil policies for those five decades. However I also see the vast majority of the US population as similar to the British people in the 19th century, they truly believe that they have the moral authority to rule the world, despite all proof to the contrary.

melovesproles

Good to see the Biden apologists are out in full force today.

Meanwhile Biden unsurprisingly stabs labour in the back (or front since only the Biden apologists didn't see this coming.)

On the Minimum Wage, Joe Biden Chose Failure

The Biden administration’s preemptive surrender on the $15 minimum wage is nothing like its guns-blazing approach to getting union-buster Neera Tanden confirmed for a White House job. The contrast demonstrates Biden’s lack of sincerity when he claims to be a working-class fighter.

The Florida voters who voted for a $15 minimum wage but couldn't bring themselves to vote for the Democrats don't look nearly as gullible as the Biden apologists.

NDPP

American Gulag

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/02/26/american-gulag/

"The US tops any other country in the world for its number of prisoners - over 2,300,000. China, by contrast, has roughly 200,000 prisoners. But the US general population is only 330 million, while China's is 1.4 billion. American prisoners constitute a much larger percentage of the population than there is in any other nation. The US has clung to this dubious distinction for decades.

Equaling the Soviet gulag at its height in the 1950s in numbers of prisoners, the US also locks away 61,000 of them in the torture called solitary confinement and 2700 in the terror called death row. These are not the policies and actions of a civilized society. This is barbarism. As long as this continues, any American politician who climbs up on a high horse about government abuse of citizens in another country is a pathetic hypocrite who deserves to be laughed out of public life..."

I can think of two right off the top...

 

kropotkin1951

NDPP wrote:

American Gulag

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/02/26/american-gulag/

“In 2017, there were 219,000 women in U.S. prisons and jails, most of them poor and of color,” Kaba writes, observing that the incarceration rate for black women is double that for white women. She argues that abuse survivors are systematically punished “for trying to protect themselves and their children,” that it is “hurt people who hurt other people,” and that prison simply should not figure in the equation."

I found that article disturbing and very interesting. Our parliament has not condemned the US for its human rights abuses but that is likely because as a Canadian they were pleased to see that the incarceration rate for black women is only double that of white women. In Canada on the prairies where our indigenous people are 15% of the population they make up nearly 90% of the female prison population.

 

JKR

kropotkin1951 wrote:

I have been following US politics since the 1970's and have agreed with American dissidents and their analysis of their own governments evil policies for those five decades. However I also see the vast majority of the US population as similar to the British people in the 19th century, they truly believe that they have the moral authority to rule the world, despite all proof to the contrary.

When I've been in the US I'm always amazed at how people on an individual basis there seem to be very similar to people in Canada and elsewhere. However, I think structurally the American political, judicial, and educational systems are very dysfunctional. Unfortunately since the US is the world's superpower, there dysfunctional system has a detrimental effect on the entire world. I think the best way forward for Canada is to just stick up for international law as much as possible. We should also learn from the US's failures and implement social democratic programs and make sure our judiciary is as independent as possible. 

NorthReport
NDPP

The US Military is Everywhere

https://youtu.be/-YR2TxHkb4c

"One of the first thing Joe Biden's administration did when it came into power a couple of weeks ago, was ask for an assessment of how big the US military presence is around the world. I attempted to map every US military base and it was not easy..."

NDPP

US Cites National Interests to Justify Why Biden Let MBS Off the Hook in Kashoggi Murder Case

https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/02/28/646277/White-House-Khashoggi-m...

"...That's what diplomacy looks like,' added Psaki."

And a sticky wicket too, when it is well known Biden and his boss, the peace-laureate president, Barack Obama were known to approve a predator-drone 'kill list' every 'Terror Tuesday' morning.

josh

Biden on Alabama Amazon unionization drive.

https://twitter.com/jeneps/status/1366193675697590272?s=20

 

JKR

Biden Backs Amazon Warehouse Workers' Union Drive; NPR; March 1, 2021

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Quote:

Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama voting to unionize won the backing of an important executive.

Without naming the massive e-commerce company specifically, President Biden said in a video posted late Sunday that he supports the organizing drive in Bessemer, Ala.

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Unions contributed a lot to Biden's victorious election campaign so hopefully they'll get a lot in return.

NDPP

Biden breaks campaign promise on MbS punishment - Psaki lies to hide that - Guardian fakes quote to hide Psaki's lie

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2021/03/jen-psaki-lying-in-an-assertive-to...

"During his campaign, President Joe Biden promised to punish Saudi Arabia's clown prince Mohammed bin Salman for ordering the murder of Muslim Brotherhood propagandist Jamal Khashoggi. Like most campaign promises Biden of course never had the intention to follow through on that. Biden's press secretary Jen Psaki, known for bullshit spoke in an assertive tone, defended Biden's falsehood with another lie..."

NDPP

Re; Biden supports unions? Aside from some theatrics and photo-ops, doubtful.

The Radical Imagination - Ep Feb 10, 2021: Economist Michael Hudson (and vid)

https://michael-hudson.com/2021/02/the-democratic-role-in-distracting-wi...

"Biden's long political career has been right-wing. He's the senator from Delaware, the country's most pro-corporate state which represents the banking and credit-card industry. Hardly by surprise, Biden has chosen corporate lobbyists as cabinet members, including the new Secretary of Defense. [Raytheon]. Biden's prejudices are why the Democratic National Committee (DNC) pushed him as their candidate..."

NDPP

Krystal Ball: On my Radar

https://youtu.be/KPwIIb2Tais

"How Biden lost the left in a single day. They hide behind their fake excuses and roll over immediately..."

 

Biden betrays working people again - back-tracking on $15 minimum wage

https://youtu.be/SRP6xPqPWGA

"US worst among developed nations for worker benefits."

NDPP

The world has caught on to arrogant woke western liberals...

MK Bhadrakumar:  US Exceptionalism Surges Again. Will it Fly?

https://www.indianpunchline.com/us-exceptionalism-surges-again-will-it-fly/

"...Suffice to say, the US is bringing disrepute and shame to the whole Western world by leading them into such a cynical game strutting around as champions of human rights when according to a recent estimate, more than half of all vaccines against COVID-19 have been reserved for 1/7th of the world's population.

It is utter moral bankruptcy that the US and its rich allies in the Western world - the so-called 'golden billion' on planet earth - walk into the UNHCR and start pontificating about human rights and pursue coercive approaches and unlawful methods of intimidation and pressure with narrow and self-serving geopolitical goals..."

Cheered on over and over again, fail after fail, disaster after disaster, here on this 'Canadian progressive website.'

NorthReport
JKR

NDPP wrote:

Cheered on over and over again, fail after fail, disaster after disaster, here on this 'Canadian progressive website.'

I think people on this 'Canadian progressive website' are apposed to American imperialism, authoritarianism, xenophobia, racism, sexism,  classism, corruption, and anti-intellectualism.

NDPP

Escalating the new Cold War with Russia via Ukraine

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/56354.htm

"Biden's unprincipled stands involving covert operations, blackmail, corruption, nepotism and state terrorism. Let us look at 'Ukrainegate' and Joe Biden's part in it."

NDPP

Biden Makes Excuses Not to Push $15 Min Wage

https://youtu.be/GxzzQ77VMYI

"I told you they were going to pull this trick, because we know who they are, these Democrats. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris can do this. Do they want to? No..."

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