Tag: Democrat Candidates

In The Shadow Of RFK

As an old fart I remember when ‘Bobby’ ran for president and would most likely have won the nomination but his campaign was cut short by a bullet.

I bring this history up because Biden has announced he will seek re-election and he will have a challenger, for now, in RFK,Jr…

Most knowledgeable people know him basically from his anti-vaxxer stance……put he does have other facets as well…..

Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr., near the very beginning of his April 19 announcement to run for President in the Democratic Party spoke these words:

“Fifty-five years ago last month, I sat as a 14-year-old boy behind my father as he now announced in a Senate caucus room in Washington, DC, his campaign for President of the United States. And my father at time was in the same, in many ways, the same position that I’m in today. He was running against a President of his own party. He was running against a war. He was running against – he was running at a time of unprecedented polarization in our country.”

In this way the son tells us right away that he is “running against a war,” Joe Biden’s cruel US proxy war against Russia using Ukrainians as cannon fodder.

He reminded us that his father was given very little chance of winning and felt he would likely lose. But on the day of his assassination, RFK had won the California primary, an urban state, and South Dakota, a rural state. The son is telling us that his is a candidacy not to be written off lightly. RFKJr was polling at 14% among Biden voters even before he announced. And nearly 44% of Democrats want anybody but Biden, with only 25% wishing him to run in 2024.

A video of the entire two hour long speech, impressive in many ways, is to be found here and a transcript here. Kennedy did not read from a prepared text although the speech appeared to be carefully outlined. It had a refreshing air of informality. And it deserves a careful listen.

Many of the points in the speech are summed up in the section on “Peace” in RFKJr’s campaign website, Kennedy2024.com, as follows:

“Annual defense-related spending is close to one trillion dollars. We maintain 800 military bases around the world. The peace dividend that was supposed to come after the Berlin Wall fell was never redeemed. Now we have another chance.

“As President, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will start the process of unwinding empire. We will bring the troops home. We will stop racking up unpayable debt to fight one war after another. The military will return to its proper role of defending our country. We will end the proxy wars, bombing campaigns, covert operations, coups, paramilitaries, and everything else that has become so normal most people don’t know it’s happening. But it is happening, a constant drain on our strength. It’s time to come home and restore this country.“

“When a warlike imperial nation disarms of its own accord, it sets a template for peace everywhere. It is not too late for us to voluntarily let go of empire and serve peace instead, as a strong and healthy nation.”

And on Ukraine:

“In Ukraine, the most important priority is to end the suffering of the Ukrainian people, victims of a brutal Russian invasion, and also victims of American geopolitical machinations going back at least to 2014. We must first get clear: Is our mission to help the brave Ukrainians defend their sovereignty? Or is it to use Ukraine as a pawn to weaken Russia? Robert F. Kennedy will choose the first. He will find a diplomatic solution that brings peace to Ukraine and brings our resources back where they belong. We will offer to withdraw our troops and nuclear-capable missiles from Russia’s borders. Russia will withdraw its troops from Ukraine and guarantee its freedom and independence. UN peacekeepers will guarantee peace to the Russian-speaking eastern regions. We will put an end to this war. We will put an end to the suffering of the Ukranian people. That will be the start of a broader program of demilitarization of all countries.

“We have to stop seeing the world in terms of enemies and adversaries. As John Quincy Adams wrote, ‘Americans go not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.’“

Those are strong words and realistic categories like “empire,” “proxy wars,” “coups,” “geopolitical machinations going back to 2014,” all ugly imperial facts alluded to euphemistically or not at all in the mainstream media.

This is not to say that we should accept all of RFKJr’s words at face value. But given the present enthusiasm for war in every corner of the Democratic Party’s political establishment and among much of its base, it is difficult to see RFKJr’s candidacy as opportunistic. His candidacy deserves to be treated skeptically like all candidacies but not cynically. The speech should be listened to carefully in that spirit.

(antiwar.com)

I disagree with him on the vaxxer thing but I have no problem with some of his statements and so-called ‘plans’…..

His vaxxer thing will be the attack points from his adversaries.

Research your choices before you vote….the big picture should always be the deciding point not some narrow vision.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

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Gabbard–Choose Your Candidate Wisely

This is a cautionary tale for anyone in search of a candidate to support.

In 2020 when the Dem candidate pool vying for the nomination was a crowded mess—-I threw my support behind Tulsi Gabbard simply because of her strong anti-war position.

Since she pulled out of the nomination process she has made a dark turn….at least in my opinion…..and now she is leaving the Dem Party….but no one is sure where she will go after that…..

Tulsi Gabbard is leaving the Democratic Party once and for all. Per ABC News, the former House rep from Hawaii and presidential candidate made her announcement via Twitter. “I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that’s under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers who are driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue and stoking anti-white racism,” she said. Gabbard also accused Democrats of being “hostile to people of faith,” adding that they “weaponize the national security state to go after their political opponents” and “are dragging us ever closer to nuclear war.” Gabbard also took the opportunity to announce the launch of her new YouTube podcast and a 28-minute inaugural episode entitled “Why I’m Leaving the Democratic Party.”

Gabbard did not announce whether she will join the GOP, but as ABC reporters note, she “touted a number of traditionally conservative talking points, repeating right-wing rhetoric like ‘wokeness’ and ‘elites’” in both her announcement and podcast. Such terms are often circulated among GOP leaders and hosts at Fox News, where Gabbard is a regular contributor. Per the Week, Gabbard guest-hosted an episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight following the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago search, which she said “has set our country on a dangerous course, and there’s no turning back.” Gabbard also has a history as an “anti-LGBTQ activist” and is outspoken supporter of what its detractors call Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, according to Rolling Stone.

Gabbard’s apparent pro-Russia leanings have further isolated her from the Democratic Party. Per NBC News, Hillary Clinton said in 2020 (without mentioning Gabbard by name) that one Democratic presidential candidate was “a favorite of the Russians.” Earlier this year, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Gabbard’s tweet about supposed American-funded biolabs in Ukraine prompted Mitt Romney to accuse her of “parroting false Russian propaganda” that “may well cost lives,” according to Newsweek, which reported in July that Gabbard was included on a Ukrainian government list of Americans who promote Russian propaganda.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/11/tulsi-gabbard-announces-that-shes-leaving-the-democratic-party

Her critique of the Dems being warmongers is spot on…..but her other positions smack of homophobia, racism and other far right BS…..a critique of Gabbard’s decision….

https://www.comicsands.com/kenyatta-gabbard-leaving-democratic-party-2658440542.html

This all should make people looking for a candidate to research them well….

You may be supporting a candidate that you do not know.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–22Sep20

“War–What’s It Good for?”

My regulars here on IST know and understand that I am an antiwar voter and have been his 1970….and every election I am disappointed in the lack of an actual antiwar candidate or platform or anything that would say the we are against our endless wars.

And the election of 2020 is NO different…..neither Biden or Trump is what I would call antiwar…the rhetoric is not even there anymore.

It use to be that both major parties had an antiwar wing….but sadly those days are gone…gone….gone…..

Elect Joe Biden, former (Republican) Secretary of State Colin Powell said in his Democratic National Convention appearance Tuesday night, and he’ll “restore America’s leadership in the world.”

Powell’s comments were followed by a video touting Biden’s friendship with the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), another heavyweight GOP hawk. Meanwhile, there’s a pro-Biden super PAC of George W. Bush administration alumni, and Biden has racked up support from a who’s who of neoconservatives (Bill Kristol, Max Boot, David Frum, Jennifer Rubin), as commentators left and right have observed.

These alignments highlight an increasingly undeniable fact of American politics in 2020: The anti-war wing of both major parties is dead. Your presidential choice is between war and war. There’s no faction of Republicans or Democrats which combines real power with a durable, principled interest in turning American foreign policy away from global empire.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/anti-war-wing-both-parties-195532097.html

I am still an antiwar voter….I do not subscribe to the slogan that anybody but Trump….that sadly lacks any direction for this country.

Since I am still antiwar I will have to look elsewhere for a candidate…..and that means that I will be blamed for Biden’s loss….not to worry I am use to it.

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“lego ergo scribo”

NO! I Will Not Support Biden!

Bernie has come out in support of Joe Biden in 2020….and Biden has said he wants to gain the support of Bernie Bros…..

I will not support Joe Biden!

Why?

Do I want Trump to be beaten in November?

Of course I do….but then I ask….at what price?

Sorry to all those Biden supporters…..but to me he is just a reptile that will change his stands whenever it is most beneficial to him…..he has NO principles in my opinion.

For one I do not appreciate a candidate that would use the death of a child as a political prop…..or that uses a child as a prop at all.

Plus as a senior I remember Biden’s days of calling for a cut in Social Security to balance the budget….

And after a Republican wave swept Congress in 1994, Biden’s support for cutting Social Security, and his general advocacy for budget austerity, made him a leading combatant in the centrist-wing battle against the party’s retreating liberals in the 1980s and ’90s.

“When I argued that we should freeze federal spending, I meant Social Security as well,” he told the Senate in 1995. “I meant Medicare and Medicaid. I meant veterans’ benefits. I meant every single solitary thing in the government. And I not only tried it once, I tried it twice, I tried it a third time, and I tried it a fourth time.” (A freeze would have reduced the amount that would be paid out, cutting the program’s benefit.)

https://theintercept.com/2020/01/13/biden-cuts-social-security/

Of course in the name of votes he will back off this plan……

I read  a piece by Jennifer Matsui that I agree with completely and she says it so much more eloquently than I could……

It’s not just dementia behind his decision to make another failed bid for the presidency, but the still active reptile part of his part that has always been its guiding force. ‘Survival of the unfittest’ is the evolutionary principle of the political class and the law of the Swamp. Biden has always been a primordial, slime dweller with a keen cockroach-like ability to adapt to his surroundings. He can do the bidding of a pro-segregation Senator, taking the opposite stance of his party on the issue of bussing, while using Black Panther talking points to make the case for institutional racism. He can serve at the behest of the first black president as his official court jester without ever having taken an honest inventory of his past, except to fill in the blanks between writing and passing atrocious Republican bills with fabricated stories of civil rights heroism. Today, Biden sees his role as the DNC’s black vote magnet as a natural extension of his previous incarnation as a “tough love” foreman on Strom Thurmond’s cotton plantation. There, he sharpened the implements Master Thurmond used to keep the slaves in line.

As Vice-President, he put a drunk handyman spin on the murderous policies for the two parties he serves, making drone programs and regime change seem as harmless as pretend-pissing in a punchbowl. You might even say that pretend pissing in a punchbowl has been Biden’s stock in trade for his entire political career. Degenerative brain disease has eroded the buffoonery down to a husk, and made visible the incontinent serial killer behind Pogo the Senator. The brightly colored cords that the infamous clown killer used to publicly entertain children with sleight of hand magic tricks was the same ligature used in private to incapacitate his victims. On both occasions, his targets were willingly duped into entrusting their safety to a clown with handcuffs. Now the DNC is asking voters to do the same. Biden’s bland, the average guy next door appeal has always masked a homicidal predator, now reduced to a math-addled playground flasher.

Joe Biden: Survival of the Unfittest

Again I do not want you to convert the reader to my thinking….all I am doing here is explaining why Biden is out as a candidate for me….you must do what you think is best for the country.

I see some Bernie supporters have refused to support Biden even to the point of a Never Biden movement……

There’s no question it’s been a banner two weeks for Biden. But lurking in the background of his sudden ascension to all-but-presumptive nominee is evidence that at least some Bernie Sanders supporters might not migrate to him in November, weakening him in the general election.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/13/democrats-confront-a-never-biden-contingent-127438

I was not a Bernie supporter but I can get down with the movement of Never Biden…..

(About here I will get those that will start blaming me for their candidates loss…just like all those Hillary supporters after she got her butt handed to her by Trump)  (It was all us voters that did not vote for her that handed her the loss….had nothing to do with her being a POS as a candidate)

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

It Is Now Official!

Last night Joe Biden made his acceptance speech that he must give to make it official that he was the Dem candidate for president…….and that means that it is also official that the VP candidate is Kamala Harris….and there is where we pick up this post.

I have written several times that I do not support Biden nor his VP pick…..there are many reason, probably too many for a short post but I will hit n the main points….at least for me.

Since I am a foreign policy wonk let me start there….

Kamala Harris’ foreign policy record is coming under closer scrutiny now that she has been named as Biden’s running mate. The record shows a mix of fairly conventional liberal internationalist commitments with encouraging signs of opposition to some of our more reckless policies overseas. Harris has made some relatively hawkish noises on certain issues, such as North Korea, but her voting record on Yemen and Saudi Arabia over the last few years has been quite good. Joe Cirincione reviewed her record earlier this week, and he described her opposition to the war on Yemen:

…

It is worth underlining here that Harris was an early opponent to arms sales to the Saudis. That suggests that she could influence a Biden administration foreign policy in the right direction when it comes to reassessing the relationship with the Saudis. She has said that “we need to fundamentally reevaluate our relationship with Saudi Arabia, using our leverage to stand up for American values and interests.” It remains to be seen if she and Biden would follow through on that, but it is the right position to take. Her opposition to the war on Yemen could help keep Biden from backtracking on his belated pledge to end U.S. involvement in the war. She objected to Trump’s quasi-withdrawal in Syria because of the process (or lack thereof), but she has also said that she wants to get U.S. forces out of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.

What Is Kamala Harris’ Foreign Policy?

It seems that all pundits are happy with her choice to satisfy the “identity politics” thing……but why?

To me it appears to be another incident of “tokenism”……

To be sure, having a woman of color is something that in other circumstances ought to be celebrated. The US does indeed lag behind comparably developed nations when it comes to gender equality. But this is a clear case of tokenism when taken in a broader context. Though neither Biden nor Harris have spelled it out, it appears that race and gender were the major factor behind this choice.

After all, Harris performed poorly in the 2020 Democratic primary, failing to win a single state before pulling out in early December 2019. So she bucks the trend of a presidential contender picking a running mate who came up runner-up, or at least was a serious contender, in the party’s primary contest. Harris even attacked Biden during the primary for his close partnership in the senate with southern segregationists (which was, in fact, close friendship in at least one case). In short, she hasn’t done anything to endear herself to Biden nor demonstrated that she has significant broad support based on her own merits as a candidate.

Kamala Harris Represents Everything Wrong with Empty Identity Politics

I am not one of her supporters….and I read that black men are not thrilled with her as well……again I ask….but why?

Sen. Kamala Harris has a problem with Black men. Rather, Black men have a problem with Sen. Kamala Harris.

Since her selection as presidential candidate Joe Biden’s running mate, I’ve received a deluge of phone calls, text messages, and WhatsApp group chats from Black men — only two of whom had positive things to say about her. One was from someone who sees himself in Harris; like her, he has one parent from Jamaica and another from India. The other is totally aligned with her policy positions. Everyone else, though, is down on the pick.

This conversation is tough. Emotions are high. Nuanced discourse is rare. The discussion is either black or white. That all-or-nothing approach is already common on social media, but now it’s jumping into my real-life conversations. It’s shocking, even disheartening, but it’s not surprising.

Black men, let’s establish what we know. As Malcolm X said, the most disrespected, unprotected, neglected person in America is the Black woman. And yes, Harris is Black, so let’s stop with any false narrative that she’s not. Bad actors seeking to create dissent will do a good enough job spreading false propaganda without our assistance. It’s already beginning with the birther movement; the once-silent dog whistles have turned into a blaring sound system used at President Donald Trump’s rallies, White House press briefings, and on the presidential Twitter account. Therefore, we must have her back at all times during this election.

https://level.medium.com/why-black-men-dont-like-kamala-harris-and-how-it-can-stop-4d0b34a5415c

This is something that means little to most people for they are in the mode of “anybody but Trump”…….principles be damn!

As much as I dislike Trump principles still mean something to me.

Learn Stuff!

VOTE!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Dems In 2020

I have been writing about he Dems and the choice of the party to lead them to victory……and no I am not convinced the Biden can win……and if he does actually pull this election out of his butt then NOTHING will change for the average American.

Let’s be honest.

The Dems hand is weak….about all they have is “Beat Trump”…..did I say weak?  Read PATHETIC!

Before this year, it was almost unimaginable that anything could be a bigger story than a U.S. Presidential election.

However, COVID-19 has seriously disrupted the 2020 election—not only because it distorted or delayed many primaries, and eliminated in-person campaigning; but also because the candidates organized their campaigns and platforms around a world that doesn’t exist anymore, the world before the pandemic. And yet, because the public health crisis has effectively marginalized the election, there’s been little pressure to adjust to the new reality.

This will have to change by November. Democrats across the country, and presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden, must make major adjustments. The social and economic impact of the pandemic far outstrips any domestic crisis in our lifetime. If Democrats want to win, the writing is already on the wall: they have to move in a strongly progressive direction.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/05/14/democratic-partys-hand-weak-only-progressives-can-strengthen-it

The big problem is that the DNC has nothing to offer the voter as a new direction for the country…..there is NOTHING new…..they keep going back to the failed issues that keeps them in second place…..

So what is to be done? There are several possible paths forward.

One path is a return to the failed and discredited supply-side trickle-down economics espoused by Art Laffer and Stephen Moore, whose policies during the Reagan administration drastically increased economic inequality in this country, in part by relentlessly attacking labor unions and cutting taxes for the wealthy.

Another path is a return to the “normalcy” that characterized the Obama/Biden era of milquetoast Democratic party governance. During that time, the Obama/Biden administration refused to hold Wall Street and corporate America accountable for the massive consolidation of wealth by the 1 percent at the expense of working families. Joe Biden’s recent appointment of Larry Summers, an architect of Clinton-era Wall Street deregulation, as an economic adviser, is an ill portent for the future.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/05/14/democratic-party-cannot-defeat-trump-returning-past-failures

New polling shows that this election may be a replay of 2016…..Trump could lose the vote but win the electoral college…..

New polling from CNN shows the Democratic Party’s presumptive 2020 presidential nominee Joe Biden trailing President Donald Trump in crucial battleground states even as the former vice president continues to lead nationally—portending an ominous repeat of 2016.

“I hope everyone understands that Trump could lose the popular vote by an even bigger margin in November and still pull off the same narrow electoral college win,” tweeted Vox writer David Roberts. “In fact, that seems the most likely outcome.”

Roberts added that he was “really getting ‘reliving the exact same nightmare all over again’ vibes lately.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/05/14/bad-news-biden-new-battleground-states-poll-shows-trump-could-lose-popular-vote-win

Dems in 2020 should adopt a new slogan…”Same As It Ever Was”…..

A snooze of an election…..If you are looking for change then sadly you will be disappointed.

We can change the person in the White House but that does not mean society will change…..

Not to worry…..my readers will see this post again as the election creeps nearer.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Joe’s Our Man

How many of you think that Joe Biden was the nominee of the Dems? Well he was the presumptive nominee but now it is official (as if we needed this now)……

After primaries and caucuses in 42 states and the District of Columbia, Joe Biden won the last few delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination for president late Friday, per the AP. Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island were among the eight states holding elections Tuesday, but a huge increase in vote-by-mail ballots meant election officials were still counting ballots Friday. As the states that voted Tuesday updated their results, a team of analysts at the Associated Press parsed the votes into the correct congressional districts so the delegates could be allocated between Biden and Bernie Sanders. The former vice president now has a total of 1,993 delegates—it takes 1,991 delegates to win the nomination on the first ballot at the Democratic National Convention.

Biden became the party’s presumptive nominee two months ago, following decisive wins over Sanders in several March primaries and in Wisconsin on April 7. The Vermont senator, the final major challenger in the race, dropped out the next day. Biden would have wrapped up the Democratic nomination much earlier, if not for the coronavirus pandemic—15 states, along with Guam and Puerto Rico, postponed their nominating contests due to the outbreak. Still, it’s not unusual for a Democratic nominee to clinch the party’s nomination in early June. That’s when Barack Obama in 2008 and Clinton in 2016 reached the milestone.

Seems kinda subdued for he, Joe, has been acting like the crowned king of the DNC since the start of the pandemic.

So for me it is official…..I need to start looking harder for a candidate that I can actually support.

Learn Stuff!

VOTE!

Be Well….Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

RFK Dead!

There is lots of history happening around us but we should not lose sight of the history that preceded today’s situations….

Today 06 June 1968…the probable next president was shot and killed…

Senator Robert Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after winning the California presidential primary. Immediately after he announced to his cheering supporters that the country was ready to end its fractious divisions, Kennedy was shot several times by 22-year-old Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan. He was pronounced dead a day later, on June 6, 1968.

The summer of 1968 was a tempestuous time in American history. Both the Vietnam War and the anti-war movement were peaking. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated in the spring, igniting riots across the country. In the face of this unrest, President Lyndon B. Johnson decided not to seek a second term in the upcoming presidential election. Robert Kennedy, John’s younger brother and former U.S. Attorney General, stepped into this breach and experienced a groundswell of support.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/bobby-kennedy-is-assassinated

Americans lost their best chance of ending the war when RFK was killed.

Let us look into the possibilities if he had lived and become the president….

Historians have long wondered what would have happened had Robert F. Kennedy lived. What if he had continued his 1968 presidential campaign 50 years ago? Could he have forged a working-class political coalition that might have cauterized the nation’s racial wounds, arrested the slide into polarization and won working-class white support for the Democratic Party? Could RFK have built a multi-racial coalition featuring African-Americans and working-class whites?

These what-ifs have received more than modest attention from historians. In 1968, RFK was “the last liberal who could reach both races as well as both generations,” wrote historian John Morton Blum. At the time of his murder, Kennedy was beginning to construct “coalitions of supporters that cut across race and class lines,” historian James T. Patterson has argued. But beyond animating decades of historical scholarship and political analysis, the questions also emerged from a series of developments in 1968 that had begun to make Kennedy the unlikely face of a black-white lower-income political coalition.

https://www.history.com/news/rfk-what-if-he-lived

More thoughts of a what if…..

Most of us take history as a given, that things had to turn out as they did. But that assumption ignores the question, “What might have been?”

What might have happened if America had continued its World War II alliance with Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam instead of siding with French colonialists in the postwar world? What if President Eisenhower had embraced the Brown vs. Board of Education decision the day after it was issued and ordered school desegregation to start within a year? And would there have been an invasion of Iraq if Al Gore had been elected president in 2000?

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/390629-what-would-the-world-look-like-if-robert-kennedy-had-lived

I believe the world would look a lot different if RFK had lived and made it to the presidency.

Thoughts?

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“lego ergo scribo”

Biden On Trade

Looks like all the hard work the media and pundits have done is giving Biden the inside tract to the nomination….we can only hope that it is not so…..well he made it….Biden is the man with a plan…..at least that is his story.

But since Trump will probably run on his trade policies I thought maybe a look at those of Biden would be helpful…..

“In terms of the coming general election we don’t have to predict what [President Donald] Trump will be saying about Joe Biden, because he is already making those attacks. Trump—who won Michigan, who won Wisconsin, who won Pennsylvania—made one of his major campaign tenets his opposition to NAFTA and PNTR [Permanent Normal Trade Relations ] with China,” said Sanders.

“In 2016, he criticized those trade policies as being disastrous—and just yesterday, he made that claim,” Sanders continued. “The truth is, and we have to be honest about this, that NAFTA and PNTR cost this country well over 4 million good paying jobs. In Michigan alone, these disastrous trade agreements led to the loss of more than 150,000 good paying jobs. And not only job loss—when good paying jobs go, you are involved in a race to the bottom and employers can pay lower wages.”

“These trade agreements have been a disaster for the people of Michigan, the state of Vermont, and for the entire country. Joe Biden and I have very strong and different positions in terms of how we reacted to NAFTA and PNTR,” Sanders said.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/06/will-bidens-trade-policy-record-come-back-haunt-him-midwest

To be fair to Biden…..OnTheIssues.org asked some question to Biden…..if you are considering voting for Joe Biden then maybe get to know his policies before doing so…..https://www.ontheissues.org/International/Joe_Biden_Free_Trade.htm

Another look at Biden’s trade policies…..https://www.csis.org/analysis/what-former-vice-president-bidens-policy-trade

I would give you his website but they want my email and I refuse to give it….so if you can find another way into his policies I wish you luck.

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

 

Biden’s VP

The time is nigh (I always wanted to use that term)….the time is approaching when Dem. presidential candidate Joe Biden must choose his running mate, the VP candidate.

I gave my thoughts a few months back on who I thought he would choose…….https://lobotero.com/2020/04/28/vp-the-2020-64-question/

My thought was Amy Klobuchar…..but apparently black activists do not like the idea of her being the pick for VP…..

Sen. Amy Klobuchar has many qualities Joe Biden is looking for in a running mate. She’s experienced and aligned with the former vice president on the issues. They get along and didn’t have any ugly clashes during the primaries and debates. But she won’t help him beat President Trump, black and Latino political leaders say. Klobuchar didn’t attract the support of minority voters in the primaries, Politico reports. The sentiment that the Minnesota Democrat has ignored black voters is so strong that after a speech in South Carolina in February, the Rev. Al Sharpton publicly told her to address it. “Y’all need to talk to the black press,” he told Klobuchar in front of the audience, per the Washington Post, pointing to a journalist in the crowd. In Nevada, just 4% of the Latino votes went to Klobuchar.

Putting her on the Democratic ticket would “risk losing the very base the Democrats need to win,” said Aimee Allison of She the People. An op-ed in the Post by a group of black activists and strategists argued that picking Klobuchar would “only alienate black voters.” Many see Klobuchar as embodying the party’s larger dilemma: whether to focus on getting voters of color to the polls who sat out the 2016 election, or on the white voters in the Midwest who went for Trump. She “represents that tension,” Sharpton said. The senator recently has taken steps, working to pass legislation sought by black and Latino groups. And Klobuchar took part in an NAACP town hall about the pandemic’s toll on minority Americans. But one activist cautioned that building such relationships takes time. “It isn’t something you can do in a matter of weeks,” she said.

Amy is a perfect fit for the mamby-pamby policies of Biden….will be interesting to see who Joe listens to in this process.

Speaking of Afro-Americans……In familiar territory…..Biden speaks and has to remove foot from mouth and walk back the statements…..and he had a really monumental FU recently…..

Joe Biden made inadvertent headlines during an interview that aired Friday with Charlamagne tha God, co-host of the nationally syndicated radio show The Breakfast Club. The exchange came near the end of the interview, when the African-American host asked Biden to make a return visit because we’ve “got more questions,” reports NBC News. To which Biden responded:

  • “You got more questions? But I tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.”
  • Walking it back: After a day of negative reaction, Biden tried to do some damage control in a call with black business leaders, reports the Hill. “I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy,” he said. “I don’t take it for granted at all and no one should have to vote for any party based on their race, religion, or background. There are African-Americans who think Trump is worth voting for. I don’t think so and I’m prepared to put my record against his, that was the bottom line. … I shouldn’t have been so cavalier.”
  • Testy interview: During the interview, Charlamagne pressed Biden on a number of issues, including the 1994 crime bill he co-authored, calling it “damaging to the black community,” per Politico. Biden defended himself: “Take a look at my record, man! I extended the Voting Rights [Act] 25 years. I have a record that is second to none. The NAACP’s endorsed me every time I’ve run. I mean, come on.” The Hill has more on the overall interview, which it calls “at times contentious and awkward.”
  • Biden adviser: “The comments made at the end of the Breakfast Club interview were in jest,” tweeted Biden adviser Symone D. Sanders, “but let’s be clear about what the VP was saying: he was making the distinction that he would put his record with the African American community up against Trump’s any day. Period.”
  • Trump adviser: “It is clear now more than ever, following these racist and dehumanizing remarks, that Joe Biden believes Black men and women are incapable of being independent or free thinking,” writes Trump adviser Katrina Pierson.
  • Sen. Scott: Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only African-American GOP senator, faulted Biden on Twitter: “1.3 million black Americans already voted for Trump in 2016. Joe Biden told every single one of us we ‘ain’t black,'” he wrote. “I’d say I’m surprised, but it’s sadly par for the course for Democrats to take the black community for granted and browbeat those that don’t agree.”
  • A key issue: A New York Times story on the controversy suggests that Biden’s words “exposed wounds among Democrats that date to 2016, when many leaders felt the party took black voters for granted.”
  • A solution: At the Root, an exasperated Stephen A. Crockett Jr. makes clear he’s still voting for Biden. But that’s only because he’ll vote for anyone other than Trump. On Biden: “He’s the old white guy at the job who always wants to talk with you about basketball or hip-hop to prove that he’s not like the other white guys who mistake you for the valet.” Crockett’s solution to all this: “All Biden has to do is announce that his running mate is a black woman and then get out of her way. We know who Joe is and nothing he’s doing is making it better; in fact, he’s only making things worse.”

That interview should tell black people everything they need to know about Biden.

But are they listening?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”