National Archives' defense of Obama-era records rings hollow in wake of Biden documents scandal - "The National Archives repeatedly defended itself over its handling of records from the Obama administration — but these statements now appear to ring hollow as the classified documents saga engulfs President Joe Biden. The National Archives released four separate press releases last year, which seemed to cast doubt on the idea that any records from the Obama years were missing or had been mishandled. The agency set up an entire section on its website, “Press Statements in Response to Media Queries About Presidential Records,” in early 2022 dedicated to its numerous press statements on the Trump Mar-a-Lago classified documents saga, but the National Archives has yet to issue one press release when it comes to Biden... The Republican-led Committee on Oversight and Accountability told the National Archives earlier this month it was investigating whether there was “political bias” at the agency... If Westerners understand viscerally what has happened – that the old liberal order is hanging by a thread and another template, rooted more in strategic resilience, military prowess and staunch commitment to Western values, must take its place – the question remains about whether we are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to truly achieve this. Such a pivot will cost money at a time when the West is haemorrhaging cash for its health services. And yet the British are loath to even countenance trimming other parts of the welfare state. Meanwhile, the French will not contemplate a world with a retirement age beyond 62. Nor are we willing to ramp up our energy self-sufficiency with nuclear or fracking – perhaps because, with net-zero policies, we are increasingly devoted not to making sacrifices for Western civilisation, but sacrificing Western civilisation for a more primitive greater good. Here we see a disturbing difference between the West and its enemy. Russia, despite its economic and demographic decay, views itself as belonging to a culture yet to fulfil its destiny. The West is increasingly resigned to its own decline and weary of its own values – not least freedom. This is why Russia’s ability to upend the world should not be taken for granted; and why, as it stands, the West is far from defeating Putin and all he stands for."
The Vacation Presidency | GOP
Escape The Echo Chamber - Posts | Facebook - "Assuming the Republican Party is reporting this accurately, I’ll repeat what I’ve said for previous presidencies… The President is rarely “off work”, they are receiving daily briefings, attending meetings, and taking calls. What is worth noting is that the press it’s once again exhibiting different reporting standards between presidents. They reported the running total on Trump’s days spent golfing, but not Biden’s days out of the office. Just as they maintained an ongoing “lie counter” for Trump but dropped the prescribe when Biden took office. This distorts the voters perceptions of presidents."
Derek H. Burney: Joe Biden's barely passing grade - "Biden is dogged by allegations in the non-mainstream media about his son Hunter. The younger Biden lied on a gun purchase application, which is a felony, but no legal action has been taken. Photos from when Biden was vice-president show Hunter and his father meeting Mexican and Ukrainian partners, which belies the president’s solemn assurance that he knew nothing about his son’s business activities. And the sale of art by Hunter to anonymous buyers for enormous sums has raised many eyebrows, including those of president Barack Obama’s former ethics adviser, but to no avail... The U.S. State Department’s decision to invite the disreputable UN Human Rights Commission to investigate racism in America has only exacerbated the political divide in the United States... President Biden rationalized the haphazard departure from Afghanistan by saying America had achieved its objective of “getting Osama bin Laden,” ironically action that, as vice-president, he had opposed... if I had to grade him today, it would be a “gentleman’s C.” Unfortunately, even his initially strong COVID performance — his singular achievement — is now moving backwards. And he merits no pluses on foreign policy that I can see."
From 2021
Meme - Jason Linkins @dceiver: "I wrote about hunting politicians down in public spaces, shouting at them, making them extremely upset, because they stole all of your political power and left you no other choice, which is true no matter what their clapped-out simps in the media tell you"
"Is Criticizing Joe Biden a Danger to Democracy? As concerns mount over the future of free and fair elections, a debate has broken out about whether the media must protect Biden to save the republic.
Jason Linkins"
Why Joe Biden's classified documents scandal worse Donald Trump's - "In some respects Joe Biden's apparent mishandling of classified documents may be worse even than Donald Trump's. The situation is extremely serious for both men, each of whom could feasibly have committed crimes under the Presidential Records Act, and the Espionage Act if they acted with "gross negligence". Mr Trump was found to be in possession of hundreds of classified documents while Mr Biden, so far, appears to have had about a tenth of that amount. However, the Trump documents were kept in a storage room, and in his office, at Mar-a-Lago, where he continued to live and work after leaving the White House. In Mr Biden's case, the first batch of classified material was found in a cupboard at a Washington think tank, where he kept a private office. Mr Biden stopped using that office when he launched his presidential campaign in April 2019. Yet the documents were still there over three years later, and found on Nov 2, 2022. It left open the question of who had access to them during those three years. In addition, the think tank - the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement - was not founded until 2018. No one, apart from perhaps Mr Biden, knows where the documents were between him ceasing to be vice president in Jan 2017, and the think tank office opening... Republicans are having a field day mocking Mr Biden. Did he not notice the boxes marked "Top Secret" in the garage next to his beloved 1967 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, they wonder. And who else had access to the garage? For example, his son Hunter, who was involved in various foreign business dealings. Mr Biden addressed the media, reading from a piece of paper, presumably drafted by his lawyers. He stumbled as he vowed to "fully cooperate" with the Justice Department investigation. It was not a good look for a president. To his advisers' chagrin he then went off script, trying to argue that his garage was kept locked, due to his Corvette being in there. As one eminent law professor pointed out, the "Corvette standard " does not feature in government protocols on handling classified material. Mockery aside, a special counsel is now investigating Mr Biden, as is already the case for Mr Trump. They are in the same boat, and taking on water... Mr Trump has argued that he declassified the Mar-a-Lago documents before he ceased to be president. As vice president Mr Biden would have had the same power to declassify the documents that later turned up in his office and garage. However, Mr Biden has not argued that he did so, instead suggesting that he was unaware the documents were there. His defence is ignorance, but that is not necessarily a defence under the law."
Charlie Savage on Twitter - "BREAKING: 5 more pages of Obama-era classified docs were found Thurs evening stored in a room adjacent to Biden's garage, the White House disclosed on Sat. The files came to light when DOJ went to pick up a page Biden's lawyers had found Wed night"
‘You don’t need to be contentious with me here, Ed’: Karine Jean-Pierre, CBS reporter clash over Biden docs - "White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had a heated exchange with CBS News correspondent Ed O'Keefe over President Biden's mishandling of classified documents."
Regina M on Twitter - "Let me be clear @SouthwestAir we need a firing right now of the pilot who thought he was going to disrespect the @potus while being paid by you. Figure it out. #BoycottSWAirlines"
Glenn Greenwald on Twitter - "Seems notable how much of liberal discourse is devoted to demanding that their political adversaries be fired, banned from the internet, or imprisoned. Such repressive measures are presumably necessary to prevent the US from becoming authoritarian or fascist."
Ironically, the person who wants the pilot fired boasts that it "Speaks truth to power" in its bio. Presumably you can speak truth to power only if it's "respectful"
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, A change of pace in the White House - "Mr. Biden, who earned the reputation over the years as being prone to verbal miscues has been careful in his public appearances. Sheltered his critics might say. Trump, on the other hand, seem to enjoy the sometimes raucous adlib exchanges with journalists until the last few months of his presidency when everything went into lockdown… He was regularly accessible to reporters in the White House press pool, probably more directly accessible than any modern president, even if the answers he gave to questions weren't always forthcoming or even factual. It's different with Biden. We can go days weeks without getting the president to answer a question. So far I've been in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One for presidential travel at public speeches and in virtual meetings with foreign leaders. I can count on one hand the number of times the President has responded to our questions. On most days at the White House, a lid, an end to public events for the day is announced by mid afternoon. The pace is decidedly slower now. Talk to Biden administration staffers and that's just how they like it."
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, America's Border Camps for Children - "We drove around the camp and found a spot where you could just catch a glimpse of the children's quarters. The vast white tents, at least 12 of them shimmered in the heat and the distance and a military security man drove up to us on the other side of the fence and stopped watching us closely. He made a call. We decided to leave. The trip was starting to feel like a trip to an authoritarian country, complete with a propaganda department to lead us astray. I'd requested access to the camp. The Department of Health and Human Services which runs it replied, reminding me how dedicated they were to openness and transparency, followed by a line saying no, access was not possible, not now. I'd been in touch with employees inside the camp. They’d told me that hundreds of children had had COVID and other illnesses including scabies, the flu, strep throat. An entire tent full of around 800 girls, I was told, had to be locked down because of lice. I knew it was bad in there. The problem was how to tell the story. A female employee texted me from inside the camp. She said she could come out and meet me at her lunch break. She followed our car to a spot in the desert where we wouldn't be seen and got into my car. Nervous she insisted that we didn't show her face, her t-shirt or even her shoes in any filming. Staff have been told not to talk to anyone about the camp. This is Biden's America and it felt absurd having to sneak around just to tell a story about children in distress. As if this was Zimbabwe or Sudan's Darfur. Several members of staff I was in touch with had of their own accord began to secretly take pictures in the camp and record audio of staff meetings and training sessions. They offered me the material. I was told where to go in town to pick up a memory stick. On it was the world's first look inside the tents… These were teenagers lined up in their hundreds to be marched to meals, each wearing a wristband that gets checked every time they leave their tent… I heard one employee talking about a child who was coughing up blood and was unable to get medical attention for hours. A 15 year old I spoke to who'd been in Fort Bliss and also preferred to remain anonymous, broke down sobbing after a few minutes of recalling his time there. He said he thought he'd never seen his family again and began to despair. He began to think of killing himself. Other children spoke of going to bed scared and feeling alone. Some lie listlessly on their beds all day. A staff member told me he had come across many children who had started to self harm... I was told of siblings being separated into different tents of children being put on a bus and told they were going home, and then taken off it again and told it was a mistake. One day staff say a contractor stole into a tent and raped a girl. The girls were given pregnancy tests. The guards read the results out in front of everyone. The government did not respond to our specific findings, but told us that the children in Fort Bliss were being properly cared for, and said that they had dramatically reduced the number of children in the camp. Fort Bliss sounds every bit as bad to me, as some of the sites children were held in under President Trump. But there's a great silence in America on the subject of these camps. It goes against the narrative of the Biden presidency, that Biden's agenda is to save democracy in our times. But what kind of country is it where children cut themselves out of despair in camps in the desert, and where the government tries to hide it?"
Damn Trump!
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, ‘This was perhaps the most consequential speech of his presidency...and I think his tone was perfect pitch’ - "I watched the Democratic Convention, for example. And what I was struck with was, it was light on policy and heavy on rhetoric. And, and I felt like that at times, I was almost watching a chameleon change colors on a strobe light. One minute, I thought, is Biden a moderate? Or is he a progressive? Is he a Trojan horse for the radical left wing of the party, or as even today, he pivoted because he never mentioned the looting going on in the United States. And he talked about peaceful protesting, which is the American right. But today, he actually addressed the looting going on in America, but still, he didn't praise law enforcement"
From 2020
Plus Biden amazingly but predictably blamed the "far right" for the looting
Joe Biden on Twitter - "Just months ago, Donald Trump was planning to allow oil and gas drilling off the coast of Florida. Now, with 56 days until the election, he conveniently says that he changed his mind. Unbelievable. You don't have to guess where I stand: I oppose new offshore drilling."
Biden Administration to Auction Off Gulf of Mexico for Offshore Drilling - "The Biden administration is preparing to auction off more than 80 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling companies less than a week after the United Nations COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, where global negotiations over plans to reduce fossil fuel emissions faced an official deadline on Friday. The annual Gulf of Mexico lease sale planned for November 17 in New Orleans is the largest federal offshore drilling auction in United States history"
WNBA star Brittney Griner released as part of prisoner swap with Russia - The Globe and Mail - "Russia freed WNBA star Brittney Griner on Thursday in a high-profile prisoner exchange, as the U.S. released notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout but failed to win freedom for another American, Paul Whelan, who has been jailed for nearly four years... Her status as an openly gay Black woman, locked up in a country where authorities have been hostile to the LBGTQ community, injected racial, gender and social dynamics into her legal saga and brought unprecedented attention to the population of wrongful detainees."
Great swap. An arms dealer for someone who did something that's also illegal in her home country and is being feted because of her race, sex and sexual orientation, while others who did the same languish (Marc Fogel). When you need to pander to your base...
Townhall.com on Twitter - ""You said the United States would stay vigilant. It sounds like the administration still sees [Viktor Bout] as a security threat, no?"
KJP: "We are always going to stay vigilant."
"So you still have security concerns?"
KJP: "I'm not the intelligence committee here.""
Meme - "Dog we got raw dawged
TheOne&Only17 @Only17Theone: "Viktor avgraged every month, 2500 torpedos, 75,000 AK 47s, 1700 assault rifles, 2500 grenades transfers per month the last two years
Brittany Griner averaged 14 pts and 8 Rb's per a basketball game
SMH"
BIDEN ADMITS PLAGIARIZING IN LAW SCHOOL - The Washington Post - "He also dismissed as "much ado about nothing" charges that in his stump speeches this year, he has used -- word for word and without attribution -- passages from other politicians."
Campaign Press Release - Copy That – Joe Biden's Long Record Of Plagiarism?
From 1987 and 2020
'There's a new sheriff in town': Biden says government has ignored US-made products for too long - "Biden vowed to increase accountability for federal agencies to buy products that have a 60 per cent or higher threshold of components made in America... The president finished the event with a 'Freudian slip' where he said he was vice president under President Donald Trump in 2009."
America first is only bad when Trump does it
Meme - Lindy Li: "This is OUR CITY. Good things happen in Philadelphia. Am I right?! "F- Donald Trump!" #Biden2020 #ElectionResults2020"
Lindy Li: "The Oregon dad who had the nerve to say Let's go Brandon to Pres Biden & First Lady Jill Biden is now saying it was "in jest". He calls himself a "free-thinking American and follower of Jesus Christ". Ever notice how it's always the Trump evangelicals who are the most hateful?"
Biden confronts a host of problems he can't do much to solve | CNN Politics
From April. Convenient
White House deletes tweet after Twitter adds 'context' note - "The White House deleted a Twitter post on Wednesday touting an increase in Social Security benefits for seniors after the social media platform added a “context” note pointing out that the increase was tied to a 1972 law requiring automatic increases based on cost of living changes. “Seniors are getting the biggest increase in their Social Security checks in 10 years through President Biden’s leadership,” read the tweet, which was posted to the official White House account at 4:45 p.m. on Nov. 1. On Wednesday, the tweet no longer appeared on the White House’s feed."
Biden says inflation caused by war in Iraq, says he misspoke because that's where 'my son died' - "President Joe Biden misstated during a speech on Tuesday that inflation was caused by the war in Iraq, before correcting himself to say the war in Ukraine. Biden said he misspoke because his son, Beau Biden, died in Iraq... Biden had said in a 2019 speech, "[Because] of exposure to burn pits, in my view — I can’t prove it yet — he came back with stage four glioblastoma. Eighteen months he lived, knowing he was going to die.""
He didn't even die in Iraq. So this is double dementia?
Meme - USA TODAY Politics @usatodayDC: "President Joe Biden said Wednesday the 2022 midterm elections could "easily be illegitimate" if Congress does not pass voting rights legislation." USA TODAY Politics @usatodayDC: "Biden will 'address the threat of election deniers' in a speech at 7 p.m. Wednesday from Washington's Union Station."
Joe Biden's 'extremely radical' billionaire tax plan is doomed to failure - "Chris Krueger, policy analyst at Cowen, says this will be an attempt to salvage Biden’s fiscal policy “in a great rebrand of Build Back Better into an inflation-fighting, supply-chain-fixing, deficit-reducing panacea”... About 12 European countries had a wealth tax in the 1990s but just three remain with France ditching its version in 2018 following an exodus of millionaires. The OECD concluded in one study that there were limited arguments for a wealth tax in addition to capital gains and inheritance taxes, warning they tend to be distortive."
Billionaire Tax Faces Likely Constitutional Challenge - WSJ - "Democrats’ fast-moving plan to tax billionaires’ unsold assets each year as they gain in value faces a potentially significant obstacle: the U.S. Constitution. If enacted, the tax would almost certainly face a legal challenge, given the clear incentive for a taxpayer to spend millions in legal fees to save billions on taxes. The likely argument: Taxing capital gains that haven’t been realized yet falls outside the income taxes allowed by the 16th Amendment that don’t have to be apportioned based on state population. Under current law, individuals pay capital-gains taxes only when the gain is realized, typically when they sell an asset, such as a stock, closely held business or painting."
In Powerful Call For Nation To Calm Down, Biden Falls Asleep | Babylon Bee
Biden snaps at reporter over Putin question: 'You're in the wrong business' - "President Biden snapped at a reporter at the end of his press conference Wednesday in Geneva after she asked why he was "confident" Russian President Vladimir Putin would change his previously malign behavior... Biden's angry response didn't sit well with some reporters. "If you’re the most powerful person in the world and you can’t field questions from the media without losing your temper, maybe you’re in the wrong business," New York Magazine's Olivia Nuzzi tweeted afterward. The rare unscripted moment came as Biden once again called on a pre-selected list of journalists before answering some shouted ones at the end"
Meme - Kamala Harris @KamalaHarris: "Say it loud, say it clear, everyone is welcome here. #NoBanNoWall"
"Kamala Harris to Guatemala migrants: "Do not come!""
We're still told that no one supports open borders
Biden DOJ Wins Lawsuit to Seize 260-Year-Old Texas Ranch Along Border - "In August 2020, then-candidate Joe Biden told reporters he would end all lawsuits seeking control of land along the Mexican border to be used to build border walls"
The Biden administration has a nepotism problem, says former Obama-era ethics czar - "President Biden, seemingly dead set on departing from the nepotistic tendencies of his predecessor, promised that he would not bring any member of his family into the administration. Biden has held true to this promise for his part – but over the last several months, his top aides have blatantly flouted it... Walter Shaub, a senior ethics fellow at the Project on Government Oversight and the former director of the United States Office of Government Ethics, called the hirings a "f**k you" to government ethics. "I'm sorry, I know some folks don't like hearing any criticism of him," he tweeted on Friday. "But this royally sucks. I'm disgusted. A lot of us worked hard to tee him up to restore ethics to government and believed the promises." He added: "The White House's defense that they had the minimum qualifications is total BS. The issue isn't whether they were qualified (some weren't). It's that a WH that promised diversity is giving these privileged white kids with connected mommies and daddies prime jobs over others!""
Biden May Buy Oil Just Below $80; Democrats Stymied Trump at $24 - Bloomberg - "The Biden administration is considering replenishing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve when oil dips below $80 a barrel, just two years after Democrats blocked former President Donald Trump from filling the reserve at a fraction of that price... Trump in March of 2020 was looking to stabilize the oil industry after Covid-19 hit in 2020 and crushed global petroleum demand. With oil at the time priced at about $24 a barrel, Republicans proposed spending $3 billion to fill up the reserve. But the idea became a political football in larger negotiations on trillions in coronavirus relief, with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer proclaiming that his party had blocked a “bailout for big oil.” That decision effectively cost the US billions in potential profits and meant Biden had tens of millions of fewer barrels at his disposal with which to counter price surges. It also will take more oil to fill the reserve than two years ago. In March 2020, the reserve had 634 million barrels stored out of a capacity of 727 million barrels. After a record drawdown last week, the reserve is down to 442 million barrels, its lowest level since 1984."
Venezuelan migrants in shock and limbo after new US immigration plan - "“The news hit me like a bucket of cold water,” says Alejaidys Morey, a 30-year-old Venezuelan woman, who until this week was planning to start traveling towards the United States. On Wednesday, the US announced that it is expanding Title 42 — a pandemic-era provision that allows migration officials to expel illegal migrants to Mexico on public health grounds — and unveiled a new program to allow some Venezuelan migrants to apply to arrive at US ports of entry by air with a cap of 24,000. Both plans are designed to dissuade Venezuelans like Morey from attempting to enter illegally and dangerously overland through the US-Mexico border.
President Biden's Supreme Court commission offers no solutions for the court's legitimacy crisis
Basically court legitimacy doesn't matter and liberals should just use the courts to push through their agenda
Extremists Launch Attack Against Saudi Oil Facilities. Biden Removed Them From Terrorist List. - "A group of Iranian-backed extremists, which Democrat President Joe Biden removed from the official Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list, claimed credit on Friday for an attack on Saudi energy facilities. “At (1725), Saudi Aramco’s Bulk Plant in Jeddah was targeted with an act of aggression, the early indications of which suggest that it was targeted by the terrorist, Iran-backed Houthi militia”... The Trump administration designated the Houthis, also known as Ansarallah, as an FTO and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) under the leadership of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The Biden administration quickly reversed the terrorist designation after taking over in early 2021."
LeGhoul Killer Moth on Twitter - Joe Biden: "Second: I’m calling on governors to pardon simple state marijuana possession offenses. Just as no one should be in a federal prison solely for possessing marijuana, no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason, either."
"kinda fucked up that he would just erase Kamala’s life work like that"
Biden Delaware visitors shrouded in mystery by Secret Service - "The Secret Service says it checked again and still can’t find any records that identify visitors to President Biden’s Delaware residences — where he has spent roughly one-fourth of his presidency... Transparency advocates of varying political stripes have fought in court for decades to identify presidential influencers, saying it’s important for the public to know who shapes government policy. Biden’s detractors, meanwhile, note that he made a habit of meeting with his family’s influence-seeking international business partners before he took office and question whether that remains the case... “If the Secret Service is doing its job, there has to be visitor records,” said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch. “If there aren’t any records, the scandal is much bigger than just a lack of transparency.” Biden took office last year vowing to uphold “the highest standards of transparency” and the White House congratulated itself shortly after he took office for resuming the partial release of West Wing visitor logs, which then-President Donald Trump discontinued in 2017... In a win for transparency advocates, the liberal group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) successfully sued to obtain records pertaining to a Japanese delegation visit in 2017 to then-President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, ultimately acquiring a list with 22 names... Although the White House says Biden stands by his 2019 claim that he’d “never spoken” with his son Hunter about “his overseas business dealings,” there’s a growing list of evidence to the contrary as federal prosecutors weigh tax fraud, money laundering and unregistered foreign lobbying charges against the first son, who recently paid the IRS about $2 million in back taxes. While vice president, Joe Biden attended with his son a 2015 DC dinner whose guest list included Russian billionaire Yelena Baturina and her husband, former Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov, according to records from a laptop that formerly belonged to Hunter Biden. Baturina, one of a dwindling number of Russian oligarchs yet to face US sanctions over Russia’s seven-month-old invasion of Ukraine, paid $3.5 million in 2014 to a Hunter Biden-linked firm... At the same 2015 dinner, a document indicates Joe Biden met with an executive from the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, which paid Hunter Biden up to $1 million per year to serve on its board despite no relevant industry experience as his VP father led the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy... In 2016, Hunter Biden emailed one of his Mexican associates, apparently while aboard Air Force Two for an official visit to Mexico, complaining that he hadn’t received reciprocal business favors after “I have brought every single person you have ever asked me to bring to the F’ing White House and the Vice President’s house and the inauguration.” Hunter Biden’s business partner Eric Schwerin visited the White House and vice president’s residence at least 19 times while Joe Biden was vice president, visitor logs show, casting further doubt on Joe Biden’s claims to have been unaware of his son’s business ventures. At his 2020 impeachment trial for pressuring Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, then-President Trump’s defense team cited visitor logs that showed Joe Biden met with his son’s partner Devon Archer in 2014 around the time both Hunter Biden and Archer joined the Burisma board."