Biden / Harris Focused Discussion

[Spectral]

Sadly, this also seems to be a problem for the WH press pool. People are so used to the constant bullshit coming from the last administration, that they don't seem able to function as journalists during the Biden administration. Some of the questions that get asked actually make me shake my head. Like they need some gotcha or controversy that they can then tweet about, or report on.

Gee, I'm starting to think that the profession is largely rotten. That couldn't be the case though, it's just that Trump really messed them up good, not that they're a bunch of click-driven, gossip-mongering morons.

[Felya]

Gee, I'm starting to think that the profession is largely rotten. That couldn't be the case though, it's just that Trump really messed them up good, not that they're a bunch of click-driven, gossip-mongering morons.

This is about a John Cornyn tweet, who is a congressman...

[TigTone]

Gee, I'm starting to think that the profession is largely rotten. That couldn't be the case though, it's just that Trump really messed them up good, not that they're a bunch of click-driven, gossip-mongering morons.

Some News outlets and news websites seem to have become just another tool for marketing companies. Fishing up data from users clicking on those bait news stories and titles.

[Spectral]

This is about a John Cornyn tweet, who is a congressman...

The comment I replied to is referring to the White House press pool.

[Felya]

Some News outlets and news websites seem to have just become just another tool for marketing companies. Fishing up data from users clicking on those bait news stories and titles.

This is GOP complaining, not news outlets.

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The comment I replied to is referring to the White House press pool.

Then, both of you are misdirecting your ire... make that 3...

[TigTone]

This is GOP complaining, not news outlets.

I’m aware of the topic, not surprising they well find anything to start a false narrative to cry about.

[Felya]

I’m aware of the topic, not surprising they well find anything to start a false narrative to cry about.

Yes, including running a “comedy” segment on Fox News last week... making fun of the fact that Biden, isn’t starting Twitter feuds with little girls.

[Edge-]

Yes, including running a “comedy” segment on Fox News last week... making fun of the fact that Biden, isn’t starting Twitter feuds with little girls.

I don't think he's even honked a semi-truck horn or yelled at a kid mowing the lawn yet.

Are we sure he's even the president?

[Felya]

I don't think he's even honked a semi-truck horn or yelled at a kid mowing the lawn yet.

Are we sure he's even the president?

I’m just a little put off that the response to GOP congressman bitching that Biden is not resulting in controversy, being a sign of his frailty... is somehow being turned into the press being bad.

Edit: Oh and the context he later expanded on... is that he thinks Biden isn’t doing his job, but that some shadowy figure is... this isn’t a press is bad moment.

[Edge-]

https://thehill.com/homenews/adminis...structure-plan

More on, "Why bi-partisanship is dead and Republicans can't accept that they're a bunch of losers." Biden held a bipartisan meeting with Republicans on the infrastructure bill. What was the issue?

Wicker said it “would be an almost impossible sell for the president to come to a bipartisan agreement that included the undoing” of the GOP’s 2017 tax cuts law.

"I did tell him that," Wicker told reporters after the meeting. “Whether we'll be able to come to a bipartisan agreement that gets as expansive and as massive as he would like to, I don't know.”

First off, it's already a halfway point in bringing them back up to 28%, still below the 35% they were before the Republican tax cut.

Second off, the Republican tax cut still remains historically unpopular, which is surprising for a tax cut.

Third off, none of the magical economic boosts, none of the huge waves of domestic hiring, none of the massive reinvestment into companies, or really anything Republicans claimed their tax cut would do actually happened. If corporations didn't hold up their end of the bargain, I see no reason to continue rewarding them at the expense of our deficit/debt.

Bonus points?

Centrist Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio), an appropriator and member of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, said infrastructure is a popular issue in each of the 435 House districts. But he cautioned that Republicans are wary of excessive government spending, especially after Biden last month signed his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package into law.

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I’m just a little put off that the response to GOP congressman bitching that Biden is not resulting in controversy, being a sign of his frailty... is somehow being turned into the press being bad.

Edit: Oh and the context he later expanded on... is that he thinks Biden isn’t doing his job, but that some shadowy figure is... this isn’t a press is bad moment.

I don't know who asked it in the briefing room but like...the press corps does need to get their shit together. The, "Is this the new planes of the day?" type shit needs to stop, and half the time I tune in the questions make me think that many are still operating in Trump-mode and looking after easy writeups and clickable headlines. I hope they get back to more substantive policy related questions as the norm sooner rathe than later.

It's even hitting the WH press team, to boot.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/0...e-press-480673

Some troll duped a bunch of members of the press.

In a random development in the story tho -

A person who goes by the name “pres. arnie vinick,” formerly the president of the nUSA group of which Montagu was a part, sent POLITICO a screenshot from a Covid-19 response Zoom briefing held by the White House with “Kacey Montagu”’s virtual hand raised to ask a question.

Well someone is a West Wing/Alan Alda fan.

[Felya]

All troops out of Afghanistan by September 11th... Just announced...

[Milchshake]

All troops out of Afghanistan by September 11th... Just announced...

Pretty big deal. I wonder how long Tulsi fans will pretend this is not happening.

The editorial staff at Jacobin is also hella sad. They were very invested in calling Biden a warmonger:
The US Is Waging Neoliberal Forever Wars
The Biden Era Is Witnessing a Return of the Military-Industrial Complex
Biden Is Already Loading His Pentagon Transition Team With Pro-War Think Tank Staffers

whoopsie

[Shadowferal]

Gotta wonder if those troops have new assignments near Ukraine.

[Blur4stuff]

I'm sure Afghanistan is going to get worse, but I don't think that would change even if we stayed another 20 years.

[Felya]

Pretty big deal. I wonder how long Tulsi fans will pretend this is not happening.

I still don’t understand how Democrats became the warmongers... I missed that switcharoo...

[Templar 331]

Gotta wonder if those troops have new assignments near Ukraine.

Or Taiwan.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...el/ar-BB1fBLB4

[Ivanstone]

I still don’t understand how Democrats became the warmongers... I missed that switcharoo...

I still don’t understand how Democrats became the pedophiles...

Oh wait I do. One of the people pushing for the Iraq war was Speaker Dennis Hastert. House support of the Iraq War caused a lot of Dems to vote for the war. Hastert was both a Warmonger and a Pedophile. The plan was to take away all of his Warmongering Pedophilia and put it on the Dems. Especially that pizza-eater known as Kilary Klinton.

Ok it’s a dumb plan but it worked.

[Rasulis]

Or Taiwan.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...el/ar-BB1fBLB4

The US already have the 7th Fleet stationed at Yokosuka. China send airplanes and ships into Taiwan's airspace and territorial water, and the US send their destroyers regularly through the Taiwanese Strait. Tit for tat. I remember reading that half of the US Navy fighter pilots assigned to the Indochina theatre are Top Gun's graduates.

[Bodakane]

I still don’t understand how Democrats became the pedophiles...

Oh wait I do. One of the people pushing for the Iraq war was Speaker Dennis Hastert. House support of the Iraq War caused a lot of Dems to vote for the war. Hastert was both a Warmonger and a Pedophile. The plan was to take away all of his Warmongering Pedophilia and put it on the Dems. Especially that pizza-eater known as Kilary Klinton.

Ok it’s a dumb plan but it worked.

Do you need a smart plan to dupe dumb people?

[CostinR]

I do believe Biden is making the right decision in pulling out from Afghanistan. The US and it's allies lost the war years ago, pretending otherwise is delusion.

"But the Afghan women!" I'm sure we'll hear a lot of cries like that but in the end the American public decided long ago that spending tens of billions of dollars on supporting a broken country is not worth their time, plain and simple.

You can't force democracy and equality at the barrel of a gun.

I still don’t understand how Democrats became the warmongers... I missed that switcharoo...

You may wonder that, but many people who actually spent time following foreign policy during Obama's presidency remember his responsibility for Libya and Syria, the former being something that Obama himself admitted was the worst decision of his presidency.

But you're right Republicans are the far far worse offenders here, anyone who followed this remembers people like McCain, Rubio etc. fervently arguing for interventionism BUT because Trump spent a good portion of both his campaign in 2016 heavily criticizing not just Hillary but his own party ( see also South Carolina debate and how he went after Jeb ) and then his presidency trying to get out of conflicts only for Washington to tell him to go to hell: See his attempt to withdraw from Syria or heck even his push in Afghanistan things changed perception wise.

Also fun fact: Congress prohibited as part of the NDAA the US to lower troop numbers in Afghanistan without a report being sent to them because they hated the idea of withdrawing from Afghanistan. This was passed with overwhelming support from Republicans and Democrats.

https://www.stripes.com/news/middle-...-ndaa-1.658177

Why? Because many in Congress are delusional fucks that's why. Democrats may not openly criticize Biden on this issue ( they did Trump ), but they aren't in favor of it. They can't accept reality, a very bitter reality at that: That for 20 years the US, NATO and many allied nations fought a long bitter, expensive war that they lost.

Thousands of US and allied soldiers are dead, tens of thousands wounded and tens of thousands of Afghan soldiers are also dead. Trillions spent and for what? The Taliban to win anyway?

Make no mistake however: The taliban did win this war and the coalition failed quite badly.

At some point any nation should accept they've lost and cut their losses instead of wasting tens of billions a year from their defense budget on a lost war, especially when the US needs that money to deal with China and Russia. The US defense budget, as massive as it is, is too small for the insane missions Congress would have the DoD in: They want a top tier military able to defeat both China and Russia while also engaging at the same time in the Middle East from Syria to Iraq to Afghanistan.