The Biden Identity: the Prequel
Oh dear, before he has even got his foot through the door of the White House, the boots have been polished for Joe Biden, they are getting in first, and it's an angry stomp, not a tap dance.
Carl Gibson (who he?) gets the toes curling-
"Joe Biden has been President-elect for less than two weeks as of this writing. And even though he’s still months away from actually assuming office and facing Republican opposition in Congress, he’s already abandoning transformative change for tempered incrementalism. Progressives may have no choice but to primary him in 2024 if they want to avoid losing to an even worse version of Trump."
The grim details are here-
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/biden-alre...230256823.html
Erin Brockovich -all the drama of a Julia Roberts movie, with none of the play-acting, this is for real:
"For years, I’ve been trying to impart a simple concept that Superman is not coming.
Dare I say, I had hopes that this new administration would usher in the dawning of a new day. As picks for President-elect Joe Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) transition team were announced, I felt concerned and disheartened about a chemical industry insider being on the list. Are you kidding me?"
Even grimmer details here-
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/dear-joe-b...111010027.html
Cheer up, America, it can't all be bad...can it?
Re: The Biden Identity: the Prequel
I read the intercept article about Michael Mccabe that you hyperlinked https://theintercept.com/2020/11/11/...dupont-mccabe/
I didn't look at the article written by Erin Brockovich but I don't find the information in the intercept article to be that troubling. My understanding is that Michael McCabe is only being used for his institutional knowledge of the EPA during the transition period because he was Deputy Administrator of the EPA in the 90s. After his tenure at the EPA he defended Dow chemical and it appears his advocacy caused real harm and I would not want to see him in a policy role within the EPA.
But we do know that the transition process will not be characterized by cooperation and probably Trump's people have very little to offer since they left so many appointments empty anyway. If McCabe's role is just to help Biden's team understand how the EPA is run, I don't think it's an issue. Just my take but this is a space to watch because there is concern from some quarters about whether Biden will appoint people who are not fully committed to important progressive changes.
Re: The Biden Identity: the Prequel
Biden is naming John Kerry as Special Presidential Envoy For Climate. I think this is a good sign. Hopefully we see a commitment from Biden on climate issues.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/biden-to-name-john-kerry-as-presidential-climate-envoy/ar-BB1bhGSg?ocid=msedgntp
Re: The Biden Identity: the Prequel
Quote:
Originally Posted by
broncofan
Agree and also think that President-Elect Joe Biden is naming John Kerry as Special Presidential Envoy for Climate is a good sign. and also hope that we see a commitment on climate issues from Joe Biden.
Re: The Biden Identity: the Prequel
Like the man said, whoever it was -Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue...
I am aware of John Kerry and Janet Yellen, but have not heard of the others named so far. My original post was intended, in its somewhat flippant tone to suggest Biden will be tugged this way and that by the vested interests who want action NOW on their pet policy, and I don't doubt they are all worthy and marked URGENT!
Just to lob in some thoughts on foreign policy -
1) China -it seems to me that, rather than trade, the main issues that Biden may need to address concern Human Rights, if the Biden administration is to restore this term to America's political lexicon; and maintaining the force of internatonal treaties. Thus, the Biden administration cannot intervene in the domestic policies of China, with regard to what Mao mght have called the 'correction of the contradictions amongs the Uighur people' --but the pressure will be there to 'do something' or register disappproval in some way. So far, the Government of Myanmar has got away with its Genocide and displacement of the Rohingya people, and though action can be taken eg, by disengaging from Myanmar in terms of trade, what China has shown with regard to the US tariffs is that it can live with them or without them, so I don't see much room for progress here.
With regard to treaties, the Chinese have violated their treaty with the UK that returned Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, but again, there is little in practical terms the US can do to prevent HK from losing its autonomy, and the key here is the manner in which Xi has decided to become an 'activist' Premier asserting Chinese power, though taking risks with it too. Normally, in diplomacy a quid pro quo can re-calibrate difficult relations, but for all the goodwill that Biden will have when he enters office, I think the problem lies with an aggressive China that cannot be deterred from its current course without military means, and those means would probably not work anyway. As suggested above, economic sanctions don't apppear to work, and would thus be an empty gesture.
2) Middle East. There has been a lot of chatter in the past few days about Netanyahu meeting Mohammed bin Salman, though it is hardly a secret that Israel and Saudi Arabia have been co-operating with each other with regard to their common enemy, Iran. I have been appalled by Netanyahu since the 1990s when he emerged as the protege of war criminal Ariel Sharon, both of them rejecting the Oslo peace process, now buried under yet more settlement schemes, dead Palestinian bodies, and homes destroyed.
I am disappointed that more people have not condemned this trend where, under the disguise of 'Peace Treaties', Israel, which constantly claims to be the only democracy in the region, is so keen to make common cause with the region's dictatorships, or famly firms -which one suspcts Netanyahu would like Israel to be. And not just any old dictatorships, but ones up to their necks in the filthy war in the Yemen which Saudi Arabia, for all its trillion dollar armed forces, cannot win, and a Kingdom which, in addition to providing most of the 9/11 hi-jackers, arrested 10 year old boys some years ago who remain in prison awaiting execution, though MBS has hinted they might just have their sentences commuted, to life, presumably.
Yes, Governments have to deal with the reality that there are some unpleasant regimes out there, but while Netayahu is sharing a bed with MBS and his Arab brothers, where is the debate on the issue Israel cannot ignore? Is Biden going to take a different position on Israel, for example by demanding an end to the siege of the Gaza District which has caused so much harm and fed the resentment that enables HAMAS to survive? Where is the argument that if there is no two-state solution, there can only be one state, in which every citizen -Jew, Muslim, Christian, Atheist et al- has equal rights? Is this not the logical end-game that Netanyahu refuses to deal with, because it is easier to pick off one Arab state after another in the hope that Palestinian resistance will crumble, and Palestinians abandon their land and 'go and live somewhere else'?
So Israel makes common cause with billionaire dictators, big deal. But can Biden change the discourse? I would like to think so, but Obama failed, and I am not sure Biden can do better, at least not if the Democrats don't win the Senate.
Re: The Biden Identity: the Prequel
Hey, Joe, your in-tray is filling up...
"Boring, reassuring, normal – these are Biden’s great strengths. But he needs to be careful. They could also be his great weaknesses.
That’s because any return to “normal” would be disastrous for America.
Normal led to Trump. Normal led to the coronavirus.
Normal is four decades of stagnant wages and widening inequality when almost all economic gains went to the top. Normal is 40 years of shredded safety nets, and the most expensive but least adequate healthcare system in the modern world.
Normal is also growing corruption of politics by big money – an economic system rigged by and for the wealthy.
Normal is worsening police brutality.
Normal is climate change now verging on catastrophe.
Normal is a GOP that for years has been actively suppressing minority votes and embracing white supremacists. Normal is a Democratic party that for years has been abandoning the working class.
...So the question is: in an exhausted and divided America that desperately wants a return to normal, where will Biden find the energy and political will for bold changes that are imperative?"
https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...-gave-us-trump
