Joe Biden, Senator from Citibank (oops, DELAWARE), to Run for President

In the USA there are city police departments, county sheriffs offices, state police, ATF agents, transit agency police, truant officers, Border Patrol, National Park Rangers, FBI, Secret Service, and probably several other arms of government with police powers. I'd guess even the Bureau of Indian Affairs has its own little police force. Of these, the city police, county sheriff departments, and state police comprise by far the jurisdictions with the most numerous police officers. That's where almost all the cops are.

Of all these named agencies, only the FBI and ATF fall under the jurisdiction of the Justice Department. All the rest fall under other authorities, like city, county, and state governments, the Treasury Dept., the Interior Dept., Dept. of Homeland Security, and others.

I've learned something.

Yeah, it's not like I think Cop-mala was an actual cop. But having known a bunch of people who were locked up during her time as DA, and knowing her record, I'm a little surprised at the pushback. Of course it's a fine distinction, but who the fuck cares? She sucks! Most DAs suck!

DAs maybe aren’t cops, but (unless they are fairly radical) they are usually the ones who decline to bring charges against cops who murder people or otherwise abuse their position while on the job. I have no idea if Kamala routinely let murderers with badges skate, but surely that’s easy enough to find out?

it’s probably pretty easy to see how she ‘applied the law’ in cases the city of SF and state brought against poor people vs how they dealt with rich ppl & corporations

Her record is better than most, especially as AG, but it's still execrable.

For example, as AG she really fucked with this piece of shit sheriff who had a posse comitatus going around intimidating ethnic minorities with assault rifles. https://www.mtshastanews.com/article/20160608/NEWS/160609729

But there are too many other cases where she looked the other way when people with power and prestige were doing heinous shit, and also oversaw police in the state capitol that planned and plotted with white supremacist groups. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/09/california-police-white-supremacists-counter-protest

A friend of mine was one of the people stabbed by the fascist scum, so I'm pretty unequivocal that she sucks, for the most part.

What about Duckworth? Are there good reasons for her not being a top tier consideration? Genuinely curious; I don’t hat much about her.

don’t know that much*

I’m suspicious of Troops (apologies to ilxors who’ve served), but I honestly don’t know if they are any more of less inclined than the average democrat to give the DoD gabagoobillions of $$$ to bomb weddings and hospitals in the ME. Again, unless they are fairly radical.

I didn’t love the way Warren comported herself during the campaign and her age gives me pause, but if there’s ABSOLUTELY NO WAY the MA governor sticks some goofy “moderate” Republican dipshit in her seat she’d be my first choice, simply because she has a clear record of holding (or at least attempting to) the financial sector to account.

thx for the links table. and sorry about your friend.

I'm wondering what Charlie Baker would actually do if Warren got the nod. He seems to gets a lot of praise in the national media for being a Sensible Moderate Republican in a blue state. Along with Larry Hogan, he's seen as a Republican governor that Democrats can approve of. So, wouldn't appointing a Republican to fill Warren's seat tarnish that reputation and make it less likely for him to be reelected? (NB: I don't actually know anything about the on-the-ground dynamics in Massachusetts, so I could be totally off-base here.)

If I were Baker, I'd just appoint whoever loses the Markey-Kennedy primary.

... which is why Kennedy should just go away for now, and wait for the opportunity! His challenge of Markey is incomprehensible, and his name and wallet give him a fair chance of winning.

What about Duckworth? Are there good reasons for her not being a top tier consideration? Genuinely curious; I don’t hat much about her.

Lack of name recognition and the names being publicly thrown out are because of Biden's African-American woman promise.

why does baker not simply pick jeremy crombyn?

Milo, as one who has only a marginal interest in electoral politics (bc it's all mostly a scam IMHO), I will say that Duckworth has more name recognition than any of the Black women Biden is considering with the exception of Harris and maybe Abrams, mostly because of her military service and subsequent disability.

Like few peoole outside of the DC metro area know who Susan Rice is, and outside of Atlanta, not many know who Lance-Bottoms is.

I'm wondering what Charlie Baker would actually do if Warren got the nod. He seems to gets a lot of praise in the national media for being a Sensible Moderate Republican in a blue state. Along with Larry Hogan, he's seen as a Republican governor that Democrats can approve of. So, wouldn't appointing a Republican to fill Warren's seat tarnish that reputation and make it less likely for him to be reelected? (NB: I don't actually know anything about the on-the-ground dynamics in Massachusetts, so I could be totally off-base here.)

Do you remember when Mitt Romney appointed Scott Brown to be senator? Charlie Baker would find a new Scott Brown to appoint.

We'd end up having to deal with Senator Bruce Tarr, who would campaign like a reasonable human being and then morph into a raging cock as soon as he set foot in the Senate.

tbh, i thought susan rice was the attorney obama met on the tarmac and thought she would be a bad pick for that reason until like last week

i spend several % of my mental energy trying not to learn the details of conspiracies, but it went too far there in hindsight.

(substitute Tarr with any halfway prominent MA state Republican except Polito, who is not going to step down from being Lt Governor; you will get the exact same thing)

wasn't Romney already out of office in 2010-2011?

Sorry I'm getting rage-confused.

Brown won a special election. He replaced some placeholder who didn't run for the seat.

But the point remains that if you want to see a Republican senator in MA, you are really hoping Biden picks Warren.

def not worth it

Milo, as one who has only a marginal interest in electoral politics (bc it's all mostly a scam IMHO), I will say that Duckworth has more name recognition than any of the Black women Biden is considering with the exception of Harris and maybe Abrams, mostly because of her military service and subsequent disability.

I was just answering why she's (seemingly) not in the popular conversation - unlike Warren she doesn't have the name recognition, unlike the other names she's not an African-American woman.

I think Duckworth would be as fine a VP candidate as any of them. Except that, similar to Kamala, she's got a pretty good and safe job with room to expand her national profile if she wants it.

tbh, i thought susan rice was the attorney obama met on the tarmac and thought she would be a bad pick for that reason until like last week

― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Wednesday, July 22, 2020 12:25 PM (twenty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

She's not Loretta Lynch, but she was a prominent figure in the Benghazi "scandal" and therefore may carry similar baggage.

The lack of executive experience is an instant demerit for me. A pity about her. I learned a lot about the Armenian genocide and the Bosnian wars from A Problem from Hell.

...which was written by Samantha Power.

time for lunch!

confusing interventionist swine like Rice and Power is only natural

https://www.counterpunch.org/2013/06/06/susan-rice-power-and-empire/

My family owns at least three pieces of Warren apparel and picking her for veep would be bottomlessly stupid.

I have almost no respect for your isolationist views on American fopo, as we all know, but “interventionist swine” has a ring to it

not 'isolationist,' anti-genocide

that’s the part I do respect, the rest I still consider isolationist. I think you think the USA should draw down its meddling in foreign affairs to some sort of Mongolia level. I disagree.

she was a prominent figure in the Benghazi "scandal" and therefore may carry similar baggage.

From what I remember her role in Benghazi was repeating State Dept. talking points that turned out to be wrong on a Sunday talk show. But yeah I guess she has the same "was a favorite target of Fox News" negatives that Hillz had

https://www.vox.com/21322478/joe-biden-overton-window-bidenism

how is this for a morbsesque nickname for Joe Biden: "Joe Bidet"?

got him

I'm totally blackpilled at this stage and have resolved to no longer shit up American politics threads on here (too much) but I got to say I'm kind of looking forward to the (possible) Biden administration just for old joe's gaffes

u mean like "Trump is the first racist president"? gonna be hard to top.

I believe in him

https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/what-joe-bidens-climate-plan-really-signals

major takeaway:

I don’t want to go deeply into the details of the plan here, because chances are that few of the proposals will get enacted in their precise form, but they seem a truly useful compendium of the mainstream and obvious ideas for an energy and conservation transition. And they provide a good roadmap by which to steer, even if that map avoids the most controversial areas of the debate. (The plan is especially quiet about the efforts that will be necessary to limit mining and drilling for fossil fuels.) The best way to understand them, I think, is as a loud signal in the ever-louder conversation among élites about the trajectory and the pace of that transition.

I know I've complained about this before but every new joe biden mailing-list subject line sounds more and more like he's trying to hit on me (today: "I'd love to give you a call, Katherine")

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYjBhMWQ3NTUtNDdmNS00ODdjLWI5NjAtZWVlMjlhYTc5MzdlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQxNzMzNDI@._V1_.jpg