US Politics: Biden vs. Ron DeCardassian in the Delta quadrant

[mcbigski]

On 8/21/2021 at 5:05 PM, Ran said:

I think a lot of Americans understand, or will come to understand, how genuinely important it is that Joe Biden was the president we had at this moment. He has been resolved to get the US out for over a decade, and when finally in the position to do it, he didn't shy away from the flak he'd get from the national security blob and the media. 

Maybe?  A decade ago he was Vice President.  I don't recall Biden making a stink about getting out of there.  And Trump fired two SecDefs for slow walking withdrawal plans.  If you want to talk about flak from the national security blob and captured establishment media...

I'm afraid that the genuine importance that JRB is currently in the White House won't end up being a positive.  I suspect that the only way to avoid a bloodbath of American citizens in Afghanistan involves pallets of Franklins at this point.  And while I hope this all blows over over the next week or so, why should the Taliban be afraid of a confrontation, at this point?  We've been routed, and are just hoping they let our civvies slink away.

[DMC]

34 minutes ago, mcbigski said:

A decade ago he was Vice President.  I don't recall Biden making a stink about getting out of there.

Biden's opposition to Obama's Afghanistan policy during his time as VP is rather thoroughly well-documented.

[Kalbear]

2 hours ago, mcbigski said:

I'm afraid that the genuine importance that JRB is currently in the White House won't end up being a positive.  I suspect that the only way to avoid a bloodbath of American citizens in Afghanistan involves pallets of Franklins at this point.  And while I hope this all blows over over the next week or so, why should the Taliban be afraid of a confrontation, at this point?  We've been routed, and are just hoping they let our civvies slink away.

Because for the last 15 years the US has thoroughly kicked Taliban's ass at every turn, and the only reason that they're doing well right now is because the US is choosing not to do anything. They have absolutely zero misconceptions of what is happening now and why.

They would like to control the country. They can't do that if the US bombs the shit out of them again - and that will happen if US citizens get killed by Taliban. 

[teej6]

3 hours ago, mcbigski said:

Maybe?  A decade ago he was Vice President.  I don't recall Biden making a stink about getting out of there.  And Trump fired two SecDefs for slow walking withdrawal plans.  If you want to talk about flak from the national security blob and captured establishment media...

I'm afraid that the genuine importance that JRB is currently in the White House won't end up being a positive.  I suspect that the only way to avoid a bloodbath of American citizens in Afghanistan involves pallets of Franklins at this point.  And while I hope this all blows over over the next week or so, why should the Taliban be afraid of a confrontation, at this point?  We've been routed, and are just hoping they let our civvies slink away.

Actually in an NYT interview during the campaign, Biden did mention he was against the troops surge in the Obama administration but was overruled by the military brass and others in the Obama cabinet. He even said, he came to this conclusion after several trips to the rural parts of Afghanistan and seeing first hand that prolonged US deployment there didn’t make much sense anymore. There are also other reports of him being in favor of counterterrorism ops and not nation building.

As to why the Taliban would care about killing Americans, it’s because they need the international community to recognize them this time around and most importantly they need funds… money frozen by the US and IMF. 

[DireWolfSpirit]

So the shameless scammers behind the fake audit of Arizona's election are so sick from the virus they need to delay their report to the Arizona Republicans. The Cyber Ninja CEO and 3 of the 5 on the audit team are all infected.

Arizona's sham election 'audit' report delayed after Cyber Ninjas CEO and others test positive for Covid-19

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/23/politics/arizona-election-audit-report-delayed-cyber-ninjas-covid/index.html

[Paladin of Ice]

1 hour ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

So the shameless scammers behind the fake audit of Arizona's election are so sick from the virus they need to delay their report to the Arizona Republicans. The Cyber Ninja CEO and 3 of the 5 on the audit team are all infected.

Arizona's sham election 'audit' report delayed after Cyber Ninjas CEO and others test positive for Covid-19

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/23/politics/arizona-election-audit-report-delayed-cyber-ninjas-covid/index.html

The interesting thing will be whether they're actually sick or this is just the latest of several excuses they've used to not turn over any findings. Maybe despite all their malice and incompetence they weren't able to find anything to support the GOP and are reluctant to admit it.

 

In other news, I can never get over just what a stupid clown show Fox news is. Sometimes it seems like they've just trying to find ways to score own goals. Here's the most recent one:

Fox News Host: Was the vaccine rushed? *Literally 40 seconds later* Other Fox host for the same goddamn show: What took so long with vaccine approval?!

[Week]

7 hours ago, mcbigski said:

And Trump fired two SecDefs for slow walking withdrawal plans.  

Citation needed.

Esper was fired after the election. Unrelated.

https://www.npr.org/2020/11/09/933105262/trump-terminates-secretary-of-defense-mark-esper

Mattis resigned over Syria (the arbitrary, capricious withdrawal left the Kurds in the lurch with little warning).

Pretty untruthy - one was fired for wholly different reasons* and the other resigned mostly due to Syria (though I'll grant the one shred of truth is he did disagree about Afghanistan).

*Groundwork for 1/6 too

[Centrist Simon Steele]

On 8/22/2021 at 5:36 PM, The Great Unwashed said:

Democratic moderates in Congress will never cease to amaze me; Democrats broke coverage and have a clear field to the end zone and House moderates want to spike the ball on the 2 yard line.

Yeah this shouldn't be glossed over. And when Pelosi had all 9 of them in line yesterday, last night Sinema and Manchin came out and said they won't vote on the reconciliation bill. I say progressives do it: tank it all. If you can't vote with your own party, then your party is broken. The 3.5 trillion dollar package even fell well short of change we need to making today considering climate change. 

[Altherion]

The House appears to be at a deadlock as of yesterday evening:

Quote

Confronting moderates, House Democratic leaders tried to muscle Joe Biden’s multitrillion-dollar budget blueprint over a key hurdle, working overnight to ease an intraparty showdown that risks upending their domestic infrastructure agenda.

Tensions flared and spilled into early Tuesday as a band of moderates threatened to withhold their votes for the $3.5tn plan. They were demanding the House first approve a $1tn package of road, power grid, broadband and other infrastructure projects that has passed the Senate.

Despite hours of negotiations at the Capitol, the House chamber came to a standstill and plans were thrown into flux as leaders and lawmakers huddled privately to broker an agreement. Shortly after midnight, leaders announced no further votes would be taken until Tuesday’s session.

It'll be interesting to see who will blink first. Pelosi and the left-wing House members can hold up the bipartisan bill, but Manchin, Sinema and the moderate House Democrats can hold up the $3.5T one. There doesn't seem to be any way out of this without someone looking weak.

[DMC]

20 minutes ago, Altherion said:

There doesn't seem to be any way out of this without someone looking weak.

Compromise is not weakness.

[Mindwalker]

Yeah, as soon as Sinema et al have chopped a good part off the 3.5 trillion, or removed/ changed the most progressive parts, or they get tax deductions for the wealthy, the house cor... I mean centrists will comply.

[DMC]

5 minutes ago, Mindwalker said:

Yeah, as soon as Sinema et al have chopped a good part off the 3.5 trillion, or removed/ changed the most progressive parts, or they get tax deductions for the wealthy, the house cor... I mean centrists will comply.

I'd still estimate the entire Dem leadership in both chambers have the upperhand against a handful of moderates.

[Varysblackfyre321]

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-approval-rating/
 

I think recent polling is showing Democrats are still not as partisan as the republicans.

I think Biden’s floor will be lower than Trump’s(which was a high floor) and Obama .

[teej6]

Reuters reporting that House Democrats reach tentative deal on Biden agenda 

https://reut.rs/3B5pd1W

[DMC]

32 minutes ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

I think Biden’s floor will be lower than Trump’s(which was a high floor)

35 is not a high floor.  I mean sure, it's a high floor considering what he did, but that's different.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, teej6 said:

Reuters reporting that House Democrats reach tentative deal on Biden agenda 

https://reut.rs/3B5pd1W

Wish there were more details, but it's good news regardless. I still have a hard time believing the final price tag will stay at $3.5T. 

[Martell Spy]

3 hours ago, DMC said:

I'd still estimate the entire Dem leadership in both chambers have the upperhand against a handful of moderates.

Well we saw what happened on the unemployment increase. Manchin demanded the benefit amount be reduced. After that was agreed to, Democrats inserted making UE tax free and Manchin accepted this. The benefit amount ended up much the same. Manchin got to appear obstinate though.

[DMC]

19 minutes ago, Martell Spy said:

Well we saw what happened on the unemployment increase. Manchin demanded the benefit amount be reduced. After that was agreed to, Democrats inserted making UE tax free and Manchin accepted this. The benefit amount ended up much the same. Manchin got to appear obstinate though.

Right.  It was a (temporary) $100 a week cut to a $300 benefit within a $1.9 trillion dollar bill that ended up being a fairly minimal concession - other than Manchin getting attention.

[Fez]

45 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Wish there were more details, but it's good news regardless. I still have a hard time believing the final price tag will stay at $3.5T. 

Though the big question mark is whether the progressives will agree to support the Sept. 27 vote if the other bill isn't wrapped up yet/they aren't happy with how things are going. It is possible there are a couple dozen House Republicans willing to vote for the first bill (even if McCarthy actively whipped against it I could still see 10-ish GOP votes), in which case it'd take quite a few progressives to tank the bill. But we'll see how things shake out.

[Week]

This headline - *chef's kiss*

https://www.salon.com/2021/08/24/lauren-boeberts-gas-problem-lawmaker-concealed-blatant-conflict-of-interest/

Down at the end...

Quote

Boebert has previously suggested that her restaurant, Shooters Grill in Rifle, Colorado, was the source of at least some of her family's income and a key part of the above-mentioned "backup plan" to ensure her family's stability. In fact, according to Boebert's financial disclosures, Shooters Grill has posted $600,000 in operating losses over the last three years, going back to well before the pandemic. Why a money-pit restaurant purchased a cargo plane in 2016, and whether the plane was used as a tax-avoidance scheme during the two years Shooters Grill owned it, remains unclear.  

Yup.