Undemocratic Dem Joe Biden Announces His Candidacy for President
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Longstanding establishment figure Biden is Hillary-like with a gender difference, a presidential aspirant to be scorned, not supported.
He’s unapologetically pro-endless wars, pro-Wall Street, pro-the military/industrial/security/media complex, pro-corporatism over the general welfare, anti-peace, equity and justice for all, as well as lots more about him to deplore.
His establishment background gives him a significant edge over other Dem aspirants, no doubt having unannounced DNC support.
Will his campaign follow Hillary’s playbook, winning primaries by election theft and other dirty tricks? She stole the nomination from longstanding con man/undemocratic Dem Bernie Sanders. He and Biden are frontrunners in the race for party standard bearer.
Will Biden eclipse him and other aspirants with DNC help, working on his behalf like for Hillary in 2016, rigging things for his nomination? Equitably playing by the rules isn’t how he and party bosses operate.
Will the NYT serve as his press agent the way it backed Hillary? It sounds like it, saying he’s “offer(ing) himself as a levelheaded leader for a country wracked by political conflict, a rationale he believes could attract a broad cross-section of voters who want to move on from Mr. Trump,” adding:
“Mr. Biden is seen by many Democrats as a trustee of former President Barack Obama’s legacy (sic), perhaps capable of restoring the consensus-seeking liberalism (sic) of Mr. Obama’s administration.”
There’s nothing “liberal” about terror-bombing seven countries and bragging about it, about toppling democratic governments, supporting tinpot despots, forced-feeding neoliberal harshness on America’s most disadvantaged in deference to Wall Street and other corporate interests, being the nation’s Deporter-in-Chief, institutionalizing indefinite detentions by EO, his secret kill list, appointing himself judge, jury and executioner, breaching most positive campaign promises made, disgracing the office he held for 8 years.
Obama virtually endorsed Biden, a statement by a spokeswoman saying:
“President Obama has long said that selecting Joe Biden as his running mate in 2008 was one of the best decisions he ever made (sic),” adding:
“He relied on the vice president’s knowledge, insight, and judgment throughout both campaigns and the entire presidency (sic). The two forged a special bond over the last 10 years and remain close today.”
In March, the NYT practically urged Biden to run for president at a time when it claimed “the sharp left turn in the Democratic Party (sic) and the rise of progressive presidential candidates (sic) are unnerving moderate Democrats (sic).”
“Moderate” is code language for supporting privileged interests exclusively over the general welfare, operating largely no different from right-wing extremists.
Ahead of his Thursday announcement, a Biden for president website went up, soliciting contributions, joebiden.com saying: “I’m Joe Biden and I work for you (sic)…Are you with us (sic)?”
In January 2018, Biden said the following about Russia, falsely accusing the Kremlin of “brazenly assaulting the foundations of Western democracy around the world (sic)” – a US specialty Biden supported in Congress and as vice president.
He lied saying “(g)iven Russia’s aggression in Georgia (sic) and Ukraine (sic), NATO must continue to forward-deploy troops and military capabilities to eastern Europe to deter and, if necessary, defeat a Russian attack (sic) against one of the alliance’s member states,” adding:
“(T)he threat of unconventional and nonmilitary coercion now looms larger than ever (sic). More than a decade has passed since Estonia became the first NATO country to see its government institutions and media organizations attacked by hackers based in Russia (sic).”
“In the intervening period, the risk of a far more debilitating attack has increased (sic), but planning for how to defend against it has lagged (sic).”
“One step NATO members can take would be to broaden the responsibility for such planning beyond their militaries and defense ministries.”
“The EU and the private sector need to be part of such efforts, so that Russian strikes on infrastructure (sic) can be isolated and backup systems can be put in place.”
Biden backed two US wars of aggression on Iraq, along with years of genocidal sanctions, and preemptive wars on Afghanistan and Yemen.
As vice president, he supported the Obama regime’s wars in Libya and Syria, along with regime change in Ukraine, aiding the US-installed/Nazi infested putschist regime wage war on Donbass in the country’s southeast.
His Senate voting record revealed the true message of the man, supporting the USA Patriot Act and other post-9/11 police state laws — while opposing Net Neutrality in deference to communications industry donors.
He’s a vocal war on drugs supporter – a de facto war on poor Blacks and Latinos, imprisoning them en masse, largely for possession and use, a key factor behind the US having the world’s largest domestic prison system, a separate one operating globally.
For undemocratic Dems and corporate backers, Biden is considered safe, a longtime supporter of dirty business as usual, notable for his longstanding ties to Wall Street and other corporate interests.
He backed legislation making it harder for ordinary people to declare bankruptcy – to keep credit card companies and other corporate interests from getting stuck with unrepayable debt.
In a March 2019 Harper’s op-ed titled: “No Joe! Joe Biden’s disastrous legislative legacy,” Andrew Cockburn explained the above as follows, saying:
“Biden was long a willing foot soldier in the campaign to emasculate laws allowing debtors relief from loans they cannot repay.”
“As far back as 1978, he helped negotiate a deal rolling back bankruptcy protections for graduates with federal student loans, and in 1984 worked to do the same for borrowers with loans for vocational schools.”
“Even when the ostensible objective lay elsewhere, such as drug-related crime, Biden did not forget his banker friends.”
“Thus the 1990 Crime Control Act, with Biden as chief sponsor, further limited debtors’ ability to take advantage of bankruptcy protections.”
“Biden worked diligently to strengthen the hand of credit-card firms against consumers. At the same time, the credit card giant MBNA was Biden’s largest contributor for much of his Senate career, while also employing his son Hunter as an executive and, later, as a well-remunerated consultant.”
The notion of “Lunch Bucket Joe” was long ago debunked, an establishment figure dismissive of fundamental rights and welfare of ordinary people at home and abroad.
His contempt for ordinary people and racism is longstanding, on the Senate floor in 1975 saying about Black Americans:
“I do not buy the concept, popular in the ’60s, which said, ‘We have suppressed the black man for 300 years, and the white man is now far ahead in the race for everything our society offers.”
“In order to even the score, we must now give the black man a head start, or even hold the white man back, to even the race. I don’t buy that.”
He’s indifferent about police brutality in US inner cities, notably killer cops targeting Black youths, operating with virtual impunity.
As Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, he backed the 1994 Police Accountability Act, incorporated into the notorious 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act.
It requires the Attorney General to compile national data on excessive police force, Congress consistently failed to fund.
It doesn’t require local police agencies to keep records or submit data to the Justice Department. Nor does it criminalize police violence and excessive force as human rights violations.
Notably under the Clinton co-presidency, Bush/Cheney, and Obama/Biden, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies engaged in extremist racial/ethnic profiling.
The ACLU called it “a widespread and pervasive problem throughout the United States, impacting the lives of millions of people in African American, Asian, Latino, South Asian, and (Muslim) Arab communities.”
With federal, state and local support, racial minorities are systematically victimized, without just cause, often violently — in public, when driving, at work, at home, in places of worship, and traveling.
A “major impediment to (prohibiting it) remains the continued unwillingness or inability of the US government to pass federal legislation (banning the practice) with binding effect on federal, state or local law enforcement,” the ACLU added.
Nor do authorities comply with provisions of the 1994 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) that obligates all levels of government.
The Obama/Biden campaign “Blueprint for Change” rhetorically opposed racial profiling and related mistreatment. In office for eight years, they ignored the issue, nor was congressional legislation passed addressing it.
According to Biden, super-wealth is good so he endorses it. There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between him and Trump except for style – an old-time establishment pol v. a brazen billionaire businessman, now head of his party and president.
The US is a one-party state (the war party) with two extremist right wings. Everyone elevated to the nation’s highest office serves establishment interests at the expense of popular ones.
The 2020 race for the White House will turn out the same as earlier ones. Dirty business as usual always wins – campaign promises ignored once in office.
Biden and Trump resemble each other in various ways, including their mistreatment of women.
Repeated episodes of inappropriate touching are abusive and disdainful of their rights, treating women as objects or playthings, not co-equals deserving respect.
In the 1980s, Biden supported legislation NARAL called “the most devastating attack yet on abortion rights.”
In 1974, he said the Supreme Court went “too far” in its Roe v. Wade ruling, adding a woman should not have “sole right to say what should happen to her body.”
He, Trump, and many others in Washington crossed the line from decency and respect toward women to sexism, misogyny and male chauvinism too many times to ignore.
VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home – Stephen Lendman). Contact at [email protected].
My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home – Stephen Lendman). Contact at [email protected].
My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."
