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

convincing hope Cory Gardner

Hadrian, honest question, what is your proposed alternative strategy?

There is only one thing to do: promise them—every day between now and the election—that if Graham et al go back on their word from 2016 and try to push through this appointment, that when the Dems take control of the senate they will kill the filibuster on day one. That's it. Period. And then actually follow through.

It's confounding how these people continue to let themselves get kicked in the teeth every single time

Why in the fuck would anyone in their right mind think that there is another way to derail this? People actually think Susuan Collins is going to see the light and stand in the way of a 6-3 court??

Mitch McConnell set the precedent. No Supreme Court vacancies filled in an election year. If he violates it, when Democrats control the Senate in the next Congress, we must abolish the filibuster and expand the Supreme Court.

— Ed Markey (@EdMarkey) September 19, 2020

This. All day, every day, on the hour.

I think it is possible to derail until the election, and if it's lopsided enough in favor of democrats, a lame duck process becomes more difficult. Of course the chances of actually stopping it may be nearly zero.

I agree, it's nearly zero...but at least leverage the sitiation politically so you can politically justify doing these things if/once you take power.

I mean...this is it now. This is the whole ballgame.

back to balls and strikes, eh

Both Romney and Collins at the last minute will be mollified by ‘a rare but welcome show of statesmanship by Trump’ to follow the advice of the hallowed Federalist society and pick 37 year old pervert with a Yale law degree who thinks each citizen should get multiple (or no) votes, based on net worth.

The best news for Biden in the four live-interview polls taken so far in Sept. (Fox, Marist, NBC/WSJ, Monmouth) may be that his numbers are holding steady among 1) seniors and 2) non-college whites - the two groups where Trump badly needs to get closer to his '16 numbers.

— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) September 20, 2020

So far, the average of these four polls' crosstabs has Biden +7.5 among seniors (vs. +9 in August) and -22 among non-college whites (vs. -21 in August).

Keep in mind, both these groups are overrepresented in the core battlegrounds (AZ, FL, MI, NC, PA, WI) vs. the nation.

— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) September 20, 2020

By contrast, per @Nate_Cohn, Clinton was -5 among seniors and -29 among non-college whites in final 2016 polls.

— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) September 20, 2020

I have to agree that I think a 6-3 court is a done deal. It's all about winning the Senate and making the court 9-6 in February 2021 and if Dems aren't willing to say and do this then buckle up for the middle ages.

this is pretty cynical...but to the extent it does seem inevitable, and in the probably foolish hope that Chuck Schumer would actually take the so-called nuclear option upon gaining a majority...I wonder if McConnell’s success in seating someone on the court would satisfy enough fence-sitting R voters that they don’t turn out in such force Nov. 3

No, we have to make the courts 43-6.

prolly so

Biden's been speaking for the last 15 minutes...reasoning, pleading, logic, fairness, etc. Seems completely wasted.

Getting sick of these emails pic.twitter.com/RCJz8Sz7Mb

— Brendan O'Hare (@brendohare) September 20, 2020

that is literally every campaign email ever.

you should see Jaime Harrison's. they read like a possessive lover.

Got my ballot in today's mail; it's already filled out and sealed in its double envelope, ready to be dropped in the box tomorrow.

The Republican Party didn't even bother running anyone for mayor or city council in my city.

xp you should read the text of the "email" lol

Hahaha welp expanding woulda helped

Biden Campaigns Door-To-Door In JPMorgan Chase Headquarters https://t.co/DoCDxSzN89 pic.twitter.com/k97WvFdj8M

— The Onion (@TheOnion) September 22, 2020

I lolled, then lolled again at the replies.

The New York Times
Opinion
Biden Could Be Our Second Catholic President. It Doesn’t Matter.

ok thx

~then why did you write it~

Is he a freemason? I hope so.

Which is to say that he is an ordinary Democrat — more or less his explicit pitch. Perhaps Catholics have earned the right to no distinction, the privilege of blending seamlessly into the social and political landscape of the United States, the freedom of having no special moral obligations. And what a wide, barren, featureless liberty it is. In summary Catholicism, like the United States, is a land of contrasts.

Oh.

lol

As Juan Guaidó speaks about the Venezuelan humanitarian crisis and the crimes against humanity perpetrated by Maduro, I reaffirm my commitment to stand with the Venezuelan people.

A Biden-Harris administration will always champion democracy and human rights around the world. https://t.co/N2uhrYOBcx

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 24, 2020

cool!

Cool, as in 'we actually don't support democracy, but coups aimed at supporting our buddies in the financial sector'?

Like I'm sorry, there's no way anyone with any knowledge of US foreign policy can take that shit seriously. Just more running roughshod and exploiting innocent people in the global south, then telling the honkies back home that you understand their concerns about their new Spanish-speaking neighbors.

It's that kind of tweet that makes people like me wonder whether it's worth voting for one piece of shit over another.

So you support Maduro?

Do you support Guaido?

No, probably the best thing we can do is let in more immigrants at this point. I’m not sure why Maduro gets a free pass though.

A lifting of sanctions and dialogue between the two sides would be good but we have Biden supporting someone whose only interest is to be president via illegal means. Just turn to Bolivia to see how that's going.

I don’t read that tweet as support for Guiado. It’s as much a call for elections as anything. Probably Guiado would stand a good chance if new elections happened, and he’s a horrible right-wing asshole. But otherwise there’s no democracy in Venezuela at all for the foreseeable future.

The Bolivarian revolution was one that came about from popular organizing against neoliberal globalization and so-called development forced on Venezuela. The response from the US was sanctions and other isolating tactics and an intentional course of delegitimization through propaganda and murder. Almost *everything* positive that has happened in Venezuela for the past 30 or so years has been completely decimated by a US desire to grab at its resources— any other read is on the side of empire, and thus illegitimate in my book.

The US essentially created the conditions that Maduro inherited from Chavez in order to claim that Maduro and the whole of the Bolivarian revolution was not working so the US could install a right-wing, repressive puppet that would be more amenable to US-based corporations exploiting the country's resources.

I'm not a huge fan of Maduro, but I'm certainly not a fan of Guaido, and anyone who actually believe in the so-called hallowed institute of democracy shouldn't be a fan of Guaido, either.

I'm really fucking tired of this idea that the US spreads liberty and democracy when mostly it spreads repression and death.

I'm certainly not going to argue with that as regards our historical legacy in South and Central America.

It's extremely disappointing that the alternative to Maduro seems to be Guiado. Unfortunately choices at election time are often messy and the prevailing alternatives will offer lots of cons. My general stance is that an incrementalist foreign policy shift in terms of how we treat our southern neighbors should be in favor of encouraging more legitimate elections, fewer human rights abuses, and trying to be mostly hands-off otherwise. I don't think it's practical to just shift to a truly isolationist approach as a way of apologizing for the treatment we meted out during the Cold War. A lot of these countries will still actually want some US involvement to balance China's increasing influence in the region.

In South Florida Venezuelan politics keep getting presented as unyielding binaries, and it frustrates the young.

A lot of countries could say the same about us. The US lecturing countries in the global south about human rights is laughable.

I don't disagree with that either but most foreign policy is "laughable" since it's always about looking for number one while selectively supporting certain goals for certain others

I mean if you want to call me cynical on this topic that's fine, all foreign policy is cynical from the outset.

Cynicism is both a diss and a major compliment to canines, when you think about it.

phaps it's time for a prez to publicly say FDR's "he's our sonofabitch"

If there was ever material for one of these thread titles it's "He's trying to have the Constitution of the United States swallow Clorox."

I haven't checked, but I hope the corporate twitter account of the makers of Clorox is somehow capitalizing on all this free publicity

Clorox: Get It Over With!

Interesting fact: if Biden were to win 100% of white college grads and nothing else changed, he'd win every state except West Virginia and Wyoming. https://t.co/Gmbkw4Vo0G pic.twitter.com/Op7PBvako2

— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) September 24, 2020

Dave has a different definition of interesting than I'm familiar with.

If only white college grads voted we'd have communism and Cubans in Florida would go to Mexico etc.