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

"Defund" hasn't the bite of "abolish the police" for those who are vitally concerned, while it sounds no different than "abolish" to those who pay little attention and have a hard time with nuances.

For a thread so ripe with disingenuous claims of "denying voters agency"... this sure sounds like a mighty good, actual example of it. I think most adults with a functioning brain and a 3rd grade vocabulary can easily define and tell the difference between the words "defund" and "abolish" dude; they don't mean the same thing at all. The people that DO view any and all attempts at defunding and reform of the criminal justice system in this country as the same thing as a direct attack on the police don't do so because of some "lack of nuance"; they think that way because they are almost exclusively blue lives matter right wingers who are perfectly happy with the racist, corrupt status quo of US policing and don't want it to be changed or curtailed in any way. The same type of people who were never going to vote for the democratic nominee for president in the first place.

But you are right on one thing, "defunding" is a much less extreme, much more moderate and milquetoast proposal for attempting to tackle the enormous systemic problem of police brutality in this country than straight abolition of said police. And Biden, in a time where millions across the globe are protesting and fighting in favor of reforms more adamantly than maybe ever before, STILL can't develop the slightest bit of empathy for the countless men and women of color killed by that systemic injustice necessary to even consider that most anodyne of "solutions" to the problem. And in a year where unenthusiastic voter TURNOUT is Trump's best chance to win, a joint message of "Shoot em in the leg" and "I sympathize but don't actually support the idea of defunding, abolition, or concrete reform proposals of any kind outside of empty platitudes" on this issue is... far from the most appropriate or inspiring of platform to prospective voters.

I agree with Aimless, to the average citizen, who may or may not have a functioning brain but likely doesn’t spend hours every day consuming political news and argument, I would totally expect to hear “defund the police” and interpret that to mean “eliminate 100% of police budgets” even when that’s (often? shit I don’t even know for sure) not what’s being proposed, but rather just not continuing to give fund police departments at levels that embarrassingly dwarf all other city expenditures

social security / medicare for all, birth to the earth

The people that DO view any and all attempts at defunding and reform of the criminal justice system in this country as the same thing as a direct attack on the police don't do so because of some "lack of nuance"; they think that way because they are almost exclusively blue lives matter right wingers who are perfectly happy with the racist, corrupt status quo of US policing and don't want it to be changed or curtailed in any way.

I think the information that is reaching your consciousness is suffering from very lossy compression.

tremp3 phillips

there is/will be plenty of ppl who are like "abolish ICE? sure. abolish the police?? too scary!", I suspect

Maybe Biden can say 'demilitarize the police' indirectly by saying: 'What we need is to go back to the old community policing ... when you saw a cop on the corner and you asked him the way to the candy store. That kind of police officer, the fellow who salutes the old ladies and checks in on the barber - that's what we've got to get back to in our country'.

He already called for the police to shoot me this week.

I’ve never been happier that I don’t live in a “swing” state

Maybe Biden can say 'demilitarize the police' indirectly by saying: 'What we need is to go back to the old community policing ... when you saw a cop on the corner and you asked him the way to the candy store. That kind of police officer, the fellow who salutes the old ladies and checks in on the barber - that's what we've got to get back to in our country'.

― the pinefox, Tuesday, June 9, 2020 3:41 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

even better, let's demilitarize the police by giving them an extra $300 million!

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/06/10/biden-root-out-systemic-racism-not-just-divisive-trump-talk-column/5327631002/

Enough to get every police officer a set of knuckledusters with Community on one and Policing on the other.

not that I expected much but that is remarkably, offensively feeble. It's like he skimmed the first chapter of Vitale's book and wrote down all the headings without reading the text

How do you work up the gall to even mention body cameras as a solution right now?

they need the extra money to learn to shoot people in the leg

guys, please, no negative talk about Joe Biden in this thread

it's unseemly

I have nothing left pic.twitter.com/wDiqJk2T9d

— The Other Beth, who hates all of you (@BethLynch2020) June 11, 2020

seems fine

he sounds tired. a bit of Adderall might perk him up.

did someone in their 50s throw panties at him from the audience

I believe that was unperson

Otoh, this seems pretty cogent to me, but yes, they are exactly the same

Holy crap, Biden almost said racist f**ks just at his presser.

What a time to be alive! pic.twitter.com/Fiu0STimm7

— Danny Deraney (@DannyDeraney) June 11, 2020

lol

Sorry, what was the first thing?

don't think Beth Lynch is someone to listen to tbh

uh so he told Trevor Noah that the military can take Trump out of the WH in January

obv a lurker

don't think Beth Lynch is someone to listen to tbh

Did she create the video?

Like deepfake, I mean.

yeah....what?

that said, whoever made it look like he said this is a wizard

Profound! pic.twitter.com/3brOitRQUB

— Nate's Liver - Commentary (@SilERabbit) June 11, 2020

Statesmanlike.

It's probably not feasible to have a teleprompter in front of him at all times but maybe he could wear a monocle that's actually a little LCD screen for his staff to write for him on the fly?

random 10 second clips are not very convincing of anything

what abt a 5 minute clip where he does that^ right in the middle

don't know how that's some kind of evidence that he's unfit

you're right he's clearly sharp as a tack, anybody can see it

it doesn't seem all that unusual to me tbh

Biden seems unaware of any pro-slavery presidents in that first clip

and "the first major massacre of black wall street years ago" is a reference to tulsa not juneteenth

I think I've been reasonably critical of Biden's meanderings, but that particular 10 seconds out of context doesn't seem like a big deal to me. A friend's been recording some recent Zooms of ours, and that's par for the course with me three or four times every time we talk. (Which may, of course, signal concerns about me.)

it was fumbling but not egregious

a lot of you have such harsh opinions, and have more fortitude than I can even imagine

The point is that that clip is not the sole evidence of his decline, it happens every time he opens his mouth without someone writing for him.

It’s amazing that his constant lying about important shit just gets glossed over because he’s so clearly on the verge of not being competent to stand trial.

but that clip is not evidence of his decline at all

that clip is not evidence of his decline at all

I believe the usual term for this sort of mental process is confirmation bias. we all do it. milo is utterly convinced of Biden's unfitness for the presidency. a host of reasons underlie this conviction, but the primary reason seems to be Biden's politics. that's fair enough. their politics are very incompatible.

but from that starting point of political disagreement, milo seems to have become primed to see unfitness in Biden's every deed or word. If Biden is not sharp in a ten second clip it confirms his dementia. the clip doesn't need to prove his dementia, only confirm what milo was highly disposed to see, then saw, and now he sees confirmation of it constantly.

nobody's going to talk him out of that. I wouldn't bother trying.

the opposite could be said of the objections to this charaterization—that if Biden was a Republican his mental shortcomings would be loudly called out itt

anyway it's not "a ten second clip"...it's dozens and dozens of clips plus his debate appearances that clearly indicate he doesn't think very clearly, like if you really can't tell the difference in cognition btw this guy and most any candidate for president of the past half centurty (save maybe 2nd term Reagan) I really have no idea what you are watching

haven't seen this latest clip yet but for me it's more the gap btwn 1990s / early aughts biden and the guy we see now

In some ways, the discussion itself is the problem. It's probably not going away if--fair or unfair--such clips continue to exist. Some people will pounce on everything, some people will excuse everything, some will say, like I just did, "Well, this one's bad, this other one's taken out of context." It feeds on itself, and it's a distraction.

Maybe "rationalize" instead of "excuse."

milo I don't think any of that is true

sorry, confused hadrian for milo

hadrian...