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

at least Richmond will be out of congress I guess?

At least he didn't name Richmond head of the EPA.

Yet

Nearly 37% of respondents were in favor of completely dismantling the police department to give more financial support to local programs

sic, to be fair, this is 37% of people who live in Los Angeles; I completely believe that Joe Biden could swing behind a full police abolition program and still win LA. But it's not evidence that police abolition is nationally popular.

he could win nationally on the platform of abolishing the LAPD in particular

Miami did one of those there surveys too!:

The poll, conducted by the firm Bendixen & Amandi International for The United Faculty union of Miami Dade College, did offer this surprise: Though Blacks, Hispanics and whites differed in many beliefs, the biggest divide wasn’t race. It was age. People polled under the age of 30 believe more than their elders that there are racists in police departments, that money should be siphoned from law enforcement and poured into social services and that this summer’s Black Lives Matter protests were justified.

There were, however, several areas of almost universal agreement. A large percentage of all the groups agreed that Black parents are forced into the unjust burden of having to teach their children how to interact with police, for their own safety. They all overwhelmingly agreed on the need for civilian oversight, increased hiring standards, better training and body cameras for all police.

And most people questioned also said that while they don’t believe police departments should be financially hamstrung, reallocating a percentage of law enforcement funds to social services and economic development is the best use of tax dollars.

“What this shows is that the public values law enforcement, but recognizes there are issues that need to be resolved to strengthen the trust and relationship between police and the public,” said Fernand Amandi, president and chief executive of Bendixen & Amandi.

“What this shows is that the public values law enforcement, but recognizes there are issues that need to be resolved to strengthen the trust and relationship between police and the public,” said Fernand Amandi, president and chief executive of Bendixen & Amandi.

Fernand Amandi then noted that his firm was paid a very hefty fee to conduct the survey and write the accompanying report in support of these platitudes and he smiled broadly enough to split his face.

.@JoeBiden @Transition46 is set to choose Tom Vilsack as his ag secretary, despite concerns from Black leaders. "too little was done during his tenure to address the long legacy of discrimination against Black farmers." https://t.co/zeKLRS5Msm

— Kari Hamerschlag (@KariHamerschlag) December 9, 2020

https://prospect.org/cabinet-watch/biden-selection-process-veering-off-course-fudge-hud/

good writeup on the vilsack pick

good piece, thanks

he could win nationally on the platform of abolishing the LAPD in particular

I'm fine if he starts by saying that the police should only shoot protestors in non-West-Coast states, and the ones with radical left-wing governors should have their forces defunded

That's a terrific piece. I'm dispirited but unsurprised, especially the Defense Secretary pick (another military dude requiring a waiver?!). A quibble:

Impressions are being given that HUD and Interior are not important federal agencies but political chits to be handed out

Presidents have treated federal agencies and postings like political chits since Washington.

HUD and Interior are run by political appointees because they are politically important. The non-political expertise they need is already baked into the civil service staffing of those agencies.

Vilsack’s fuck-up re:Shirley Sherrod should disqualify him from any leadership post.

The non-political expertise they need is already baked into the civil service staffing of those agencies.

― Respectfully Yours, (Aimless), Wednesday, December 9, 2020 1:33 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Er, about that...

"politically important"

ffs once you have this job you *become* politically important. Is there no aspect of this utterly broken backroom order that you won't stooge for?

knowing how it's done

how it works in D.C.

s/he understands the system

etc.

like non-lifer/lobbyist candidates would just be airlifted into these jobs from way off grid somewhere

Why not appoint someone from high up the civil service chain and give them a speechwriter

ffs once you have this job you *become* politically important. Is there no aspect of this utterly broken backroom order that you won't stooge for?

ffs, get a grip. you are just knee-jerking.

politics and policy are joined at the hip. when I say a cabinet level department is "politically important" it is because that department is charged with carrying out the administration's policies. those policies can be corrupt or simon pure, but either way, the policies are political in nature.

xp I love this idea tbh, and I'm not even sure the speechwriter is required. Have YOU ever heard a speech from the secretary of agriculture? (Oh wait, yes, here in Wisconsin the current SecAg gave a speech where he said small farms were probably doomed and big agribusiness was the future, so maybe this proves even a speechwriter isn't enough)

silby otm

just this prevailing weird fetishization of "players" in the capitol like there's some rarified hermeneutics of taking campaign donations in exchange for shit legislation

Why not appoint someone from high up the civil service chain and give them a speechwriter

When you are president you appoint whoever you want. If you want a colorless functionary, you appoint one. If you prefer a hack, you appoint a hack. But the fact that the position is filled by appointment makes it political no matter how you slice it.

there's a lot of colorful functionaries out there I'm pretty sure

When you are president you appoint whoever you want

wait...WHAT?!

like poll some GS-12s for who they want as their boss

wait...WHAT?!

Are you playing games here? Cabinet level officials are nominated by the president, and are subject to senate confirmation. But the senate can't appoint anyone. Only the president can.

Sorry, yes, games. I am sometimes triggered by your relentless pedandtry.

it's pedantry

loool

I was hoping for an Aimless correction :(

haha sorry I couldn't possibly resist that

it was a meatball tbf

First you jump all over me and call me a stooge, while totally missing the point of my post. Then when I tell you what you got all wrong, I am a relentless pedant. You're an ass.

eh, go curl up w/ your West Wing box set

anyway I was making a joke, Captain Obvious

jokes usually incorporate wit or humor

have you see Kevin Hart

I can't think of a single reason why I should.

drilcorncobtweet.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZIwwf1onKM

High bitchassness quotient itt today

First you jump all over me and call me a stooge

he didn't call you a stooge, he said you were stooging.

first they came for the stooges, and I did not speak because I was not a wise guy

A friend's dad used to call the two of us "the two stooges" when he'd come home from work and find us high as kites, eating mangos, and wasting time on this stupid forum.

I wish I liked mangos. I live in a state where they're as common as cockroaches.

People worry that 'moderate' Democrats like Joe Biden are the same as Republicans. Our study suggests they may be right

Others aren’t so sure that political moderatism is a virtue. When it comes to addressing climate change, Eric Levitz of New York Magazine argued that “a major (obstacle) is the tendency of moderate Democrats to mistake their own myopic complacency for heroic prudence”. Political researcher David Adler found that across Europe and North America, centrists are the least supportive of democracy, the least committed to its institutions, and the most supportive of authoritarianism. Furthermore, Adler found that centrists are the least supportive of free and fair elections as well as civil rights — in the United States, only 25 percent of centrists agree that civil rights are an essential feature of democracy.

Strikingly, in almost every case, the responses of moderate men are very similar to conservative men and women. Their level of agreement with the statements above is as much as 14 percent lower than moderate women, who are more likely than men to lean Democratic, or liberal men and women.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RRyniZG0Jo

I agree with the thesis, hence my endorsement of Sanders and Warren. But the publication date is...September. So this statement:

Nevertheless, Biden’s popularity among Republicans has grown consistently in recent months.

is uh naive given what's happened since Election Day.

Also: I didn't know that by voting for Joseph Robinette Biden I'd get a president who'd nominate center-right SCOTUS candidates.

I remain agnostic on what his SCOTUS candidates would be like, but is there a reason to expect that they wouldn't be center-right?

Pub date aside, the sentence is just broad waffle anyway - dividing voters ideologically into Republican and Democrat camps is a kludge at the best of times in a two-party system, and pretty useless this year. Trump's swollen popularity is a cult of personality & marketing, not a considered commitment to either the real or stated aims of the R party, and Biden is the most profound "lesser of two evils" candidate in living memory, from a party whose wins primarily come from lesser-of-two-evils voters.

https://theintercept.com/2020/12/10/biden-audio-meeting-civil-rights-leaders/

Aggressively punching himself in the dick for Vilsack.