2020 Election

It's why I get all my news from Trumps twitter feed.

 

Today we took our parrot to a nearby park. What used to be a barren gravel parking lot is now a wetland teaming with mallards, ring necked ducks red wing blackbirds, frogs, turtles,and a resident great blue heron. This was a local project of the Recovery act...and a real uptick in quality of life for this Puget Sound area. Since wildlife and the environment have no voice it is our respocibilty to speak up. Our parrot lets us know when she wants to go see ducks by quacking loudly!

Quality of life is a valid social objective. For most of of my life we have allowed big business, money, power and greed to expropriate things like clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment that belong to all of us. Our Native American neighbors figured this out long ago.

Oh I can imagine life without the sprawling interstate system. Life with mass transit, compact cities without urban sprawl, healthy productive rural areas.....I remember this before the interstate.

 

Now that Biden has thrown his hat in the ring i've decided to research his long political history

A few things
-his track record on criminal justice is really, really bad. He took a very hard stance against drugs in the 80s and 90s (he said George HW Bush's policy didnt go far enough) and he wrote many of the laws that have resulted in the highest incarceration rate in the world (we've experienced a 500% increase since the War on Drugs began).

-he voted for the Defense of Marriage Act
-he voted for the Iraq War
-he has a long history of pushing policies in support of the banking industry. He was a big supporter of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, which contrary to its name actually took protections away from consumers during bankruptcy. He's voted against other consumer protections, one that would have allowed more protections for consumers during bankruptcy if they had large medical bills. MBNA, a financial institute based in his state of Deleware, has donated to his campaign more than any other donor and hired his son as a lobbyist, earning Joe Biden the nickname as the Senator from the state of MBNA.
-He supported the Patriot Act
-he drafted the Violence Against Women Act and calls it his single most important piece of legislation in his career (good on ya, Joe)
-he has a 60% approval rating by the ACLU
-he has co sponsored or been supportive of a many climate bills. I'm interested to hear more detailed policy on this as it has become apparant since his time in the senate and even his time as VP that we need drastic solutions to meet a drastic problem.
-he supports funding for public transportation
-he voted for the no child left behind act but in his defense he later expressed regret and said the act stripped too much funding from schools
-teachers unions seem to like him
-unions overall seem to like him
-he has supported various gun control measures over the years
-he strongly (very, very...very strongly) supports the state of Israel, verdicts out on how he feels about their treatment of Palestine
-of course we all know he was Obama's VP when Obama began support of Saudi Arabia in their war against Yemen. The Senate recently tried to end support and Trump vetoed it. So how the next president feels about supporting Saudi Arabia is a subject of great interest to me
-healthcare - we'll see. I know he'll make it an issue of importance but if I had to guess that will involve reviving the ACA rather than supporting single payer

Ok I think thats all for now. I tried to be fair. He seems to really care about environmental issues from what I can tell, I like that. His foreign policy, coziness with the banking industry, and especially his criminal justice record are absymal and will haunt him in debates in the same way they haunted Hillary.
Everything else is standard centrist Democrat from what I can tell. And he seems to do a lot of backtracking and expressions of regret in his older years regarding earlier policy

 

He’s an old straight white man

Dems won’t vote for one of those anymore.

 

A dirty dish rag would be better than Trump

We should all be critical and deliberate about choosing someone who best represents us during the primaries though, thats the purpose of primaries

 

I think the reason Joe shoots from the hip is because he's so self-absorbed he can't believe anyone doesn't like him. All he is aware of is self-love.

 

Say what you will about Joe, but at least he knows how government works. Contrast that with the current wh resident.

 

Trump is a case of someone watching others do it and figuring something like "if these jokers can do it, surely I can". He's caught in the naive trap of thinking that everything is a "deal" to be made. It's not. Sometimes there's an agenda that can't be denied and won't be diverted.

Joe is an old crony with decades of pure politics under his belt. Sure, he got rich by cutting deals, same as most of Washington. But he stayed in the game by playing it smart. Running for president now works in his favor as opposed to 2016. Biden took a gap year, so to speak. Which let any unfavorable aspects of the 2016 election cycle just float by him harmlessly.

It's still puzzling that he doesn't want Obama's endorsement. I can only assume it's because Joe knows some skeletons are about to get loose that the Obamas can't silence. Or it's because he knows he doesn't have an old white man's chance in ultraviolet hell of getting an endorsement from Barry. I wonder who Obama would endorse.

 

I'm still making up my own mind about the 2020 candidates. My first horse pick Beto hasn't been capturing much attention, and that's another thing it takes to win elections. Neon's not wrong, there is a traditional media firewall, but it can be shattered like Bernie Sander did by going on Fox News, and as much as I hate to give him credit, Donald Trump did by being so cartoonish in 2015.

Bernie also voted for the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act in 1994.

Biden who did vote for DOMA, also brought Obama over to team gay marriage.

Why Barack Obama Owes Joe Biden a Debt of Gratitude on Gay Rights

I'm not telling you Biden's the greatest. All I'm saying is that if we judge old people too much by 2019's values, we're bound to be disappointed. People should change their minds over time when evidence tells them to do so.

 

The secret to good trolling is a hint of truth to make it sting.

The only two candidates discussed much in this thread, and the leaders in the polls are straight white men.

 

So it would seem. But that's not the case as we shift into the real guts of the 21st century where harvesting cash and power by using the faults of the previous centuries has become a way of life for many. It has created a weird new set of alternative "classes" (for lack of a better way to sort it out).

We have the "Victim Class" which could be anyone. However, within the process of being a "victim" it pays to be able to trace your lineage in some way back to victims from decades and even centuries ago.

Then we have the "Oppressor Class" which are people who would not assign this title onto themselves since none of them actually oppressed anyone in their life. However, people who looked like them did terrible things to people who looked like today's victim class, so "naturally" the people who look like oppressors from the past MUST "step up" and accept any and all fault.

Then we have the "Paid Pawn" class which includes not only media and talking heads, but more recently have included professional protesters and hired "muscle". Few of them actually care about the issues and are only in it to get paid, score and beat up/slander anyone they can pin a label to.

We have always had the "Crony Class" which extends from local dog catcher to Washington. They actively promote only members of their family or their associated clan of besties. Like a guild they do their best to keep rising unknowns in their place and use them until they burn out. If one manages to reach the wealth/popularity border independently, the cronies will shun them and toss banana peels in their path at every opportunity. Cronies are not always political, of course. Their game is more like fraternal nepotism, as if they were royalty (with a fat slathering of raw arrogance).

I think one reason we don't have a planet ruled by a single entity/family is simply because there are too many that are also seeking to run the show. Anyone who dared to make a run for total domination would surely meet Caesar's fate; an inside betrayal. And with their drive extinguished, Rome would begin a long decaying cycle. Anyone who aspires to run the planet will fail until they can figure out a way to make all of the people the same.

So far, every attempt at that has failed miserably. No matter how many of the undesirable traits/habits are eliminated (usually by executions).

 

I would also include a "Mastermind Class", but defining it is a real handful. In the simple terms it's a string puller who doesn't usually wear a public face. But it could also be an army of bureaucrats who effect political/social/economic change without the burden of having to be elected.

But I'll have to ponder it more.

 

Must be systemic oppression and internalized misogyny.

Oh yeah, also rape culture and white privilege

 

No, it's the perception that the electorate has that prejudice, and therefore it would still be riskier for a non-white and/or woman to win. That's a realistic perception, and in this election it will be particularly important to run an electable candidate and not risk another four years of Trump. Woman, non-white, old, non-Christian, atheist, New Yorker, New Englander, Socialist are all high risk factors in American politics. That's the reality.

 

At this point name recognition is the game . Minnie Mouse ! Michelle Obama ! But who , after all , really wants to rule America ?

Administrator wanted ...

Jah Ras Tafari

 

Donald Trump and 20 Democrats, apparently!

 

The vote for the DOMA doesnt really bother me, no one believed in gay marriage back then. The acceptance of LGBT in mainstream society was a cultural zeitgeist, not a movement led by politicians.

It's the deleterious effects of his criminal justice policy that really gets to me

Bernie Sanders has spoken about his vote for the crime bill before, he voted for it because of other measures contained in it. I dont know that a vote is really comparable to Biden's role in spearheading policies and writing multiple laws that destroyed thousands of lives over decades and resulted in the highest incarceration rate in the world.

Changing his mind doesnt really undo the damage caused by the war on drugs and criminal justice "reforms" of the 80s and 90s. I'm not particularly interested in an "oops." I'm interested in policy that demonstrates a real commitment to reversing the disastrous effects of the failed war on drugs and introducing real criminal justice reform

Call me a purist, but I simply dont get Joe Biden or why he's being pushed as the front runner. If the Democratic party wants to get rid of our current present before he ruins lives and causes irreversible damage, why would a man who has already caused irreversible damage be an attractive candidate in any way?

This isnt 2004 when John Kerry was the best the Democratic party could find. There's a diverse field of candidates running and I find Biden one of the least appealing of the bunch.

 

Probably because he is leading in the polls.
Look, I get that you don't like Biden, you've mentioned that several times.
Go ahead and vote for Sanders, and hand trump another four years

 

I'm having a discussion (with Lode actually, not with you) and thinking critically. There's absolutely no reason to be rude. I'm free to talk about Biden as much as I like, this is a public forum and there's a handy "ignore" button if you dont like it. I'm not breaking any rules in this thread.

I would prefer for you to actually engage me and contribute something meaningful and intelligent to the conversation - you've given absolutely no reason for Biden being your chosen candidate beyond, "well he's leading in the polls and has name recognition." Would LOVE to hear some independent, critical thought from you regarding everything i've pointed out about Biden. But in lieu of that, the handy dandy ignore option should work fine for you if i'm annoying you

And by the way, your assumption that a vote for Sanders would hand Trump another 4 years is not based in actual reality. He beats Trump in the polls, including 3 key states - Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.