Gosh, I sure hope Marjorie Taylor Greene keeps working for the Biden campaign

I worried that this ad by Joe Biden that quotes Marjorie Taylor Greene saying favorable things about him was a quote mine. I’m so used to creationists pulling out short quotes that mean something completely different from what the author intended that I was afraid the Democrats might be pulling the same dishonest stunt, because we know she hates him. But MTG words do make a pretty good campaign ad.

So I looked a little deeper. She actually said those things in a speech to TPUSA; she actually thought these things are bad for the country.

“Joe Biden had the largest public investment in social infrastructure and environmental programs,” Greene says in the ad, while images of the president smiling in various locations are shown as upbeat music plays. “That is actually finishing what FDR started, that LBJ expanded on and Joe Biden is attempting to complete.”

“Programs to address education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, transportation, Medicare, Medicaid. And he is still working on it,” she continues just before a Biden/Harris campaign logo appears on screen to end the video.

WTF? “education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, transportation, Medicare, Medicaid” are unpopular, awful programs for a president to promote, so she seeks to saddle him with that? FDR was one of our greatest presidents, and that’s a comparison she wants to make? That’s nuts, but it’s actually what she thinks.

Clinching it, MJT posted a response to Biden’s ad, and it’s a different excerpt from her TPUSA speech, filling in the gaps in Biden’s thoroughly edited version. What she was trying to communicate, poorly, was that Biden is a big fat socialist.

Lyndon B. Johnson is very similar to Joe Biden. How are they the same?

They’re both Democrat Socialists.

Lyndon B. Johnson was the majority leader in the Senate. Does that sound familiar?

He was Vice President to Kennedy. Joe was Vice President to Obama.

He was appointed as the president after JFK was assassinated, then he was elected.

His big socialist programs were the Great Society.

The Great Society were big government programs to address education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, transportation, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and welfare, the Office of Economic Opportunity, and big labor and labor unions.

Now, LBJ had the Great Society, but Joe Biden had Build Back Better, and he still is working on it.

The largest public investment in social infrastructure and environmental programs that is actually finishing what FDR started that LBJ expanded on, and Joe Biden is attempting to complete, socialism.

Biden is not a socialist, not even a Democrat Socialist. He is not trying to complete socialism, whatever that means. If the Great Society programs were socialism, then hooray for socialism, give us more of that, please.

Clearly, MTG was trying to put down Biden by chanting socialism, socialism, socialism at him, but by spelling out what socialism means to her, she’s basically educating everyone on what a good thing socialism can be.

Pay attention, Biden. Greene is actually telling you what works.

Biden’s speech

It was not a great speech. It was full of that tiresome American political boilerplate about liberty and equality, reinforced the myth of out wonderful founding fathers, reassured everyone that we are the greatest nation on Earth, and was full of “souls” and “God” to the point where I wanted to tell him this is not a church. But it did one thing clearly and sharply: it named an enemy. MAGA Republicans. They oppose democracy and we have to prevent them from getting their way.

That’s useful. It helps to have something concrete to oppose for now. He weakened it a bit by claiming that they weren’t the majority of Republicans — all you have to do is look at the divisions of the House and Senate to see that no, the majority of Republicans are aligning with MAGA Republicans — but it’s a start. I do believe that if you asked American voters to line up on one side of the MAGA Republican label or the other, most would shy away from putting on a red hat and puckering up to kiss Donald’s ass (or deSantis’ ass).

I listened to this once.

It’s not going to go down through history as particularly good oratory, but it does make one strong point.

By the way, Fox News put the speech on their channel, only they titled it Biden attacks his fellow Americans during Philadelphia speech. They shouldn’t object, since attacking fellow Americans, like Democrats and gay and trans folk and poor people and minorities and immigrants, is their stock in trade.

Why I think Kamala Harris is a plus mark for the Biden candidacy

I haven’t been reluctant to say that Biden is one of my least favorite candidates, and that my support is lukewarm. Harris wasn’t my top choice in the primaries, either, but I think she’s better than Biden, so I can’t help but see this choice as better.

But what really matters is her policy positions. She has a record! We can actually look up what Harris has supported. All I have to say is that she has a 100% rating from NARAL and an “F” from the NRA to make the case for her. She also wants legislation to combat climate change, co-sponsored Medicare for all, is pro-union, opposed Trump’s tax cut for the rich, and thinks we ought to support the US Postal Service.

This is not to say she’s perfect, but I can hope that she’ll advance some progressive causes. I have more confidence in that than I have in passive empty suit Biden.

Of course, either one is better than evil fucking clown Trump.

I didn’t need the ad to know I have to vote for Biden next fall

I hate it. I think Biden is a barely competent tool who is going to be a cheerleader for corporate America, but we’re not going to have a choice — it’s him or the totally incompetent grifter who is just in it for himself. Thanks, Democratic party! You’re a bunch of assholes!

But I do think they’ve put out an effective ad.

Remember, you’re not voting for a good candidate, you’re voting against a malignant one.

I can’t abide Biden

Please wipe that smirk off his face.

Especially not a Biden who is getting cocky. He thinks he has this whole thing in the bag. But it’s this failure of the system that really annoys me:

Biden’s confidence also rests on his position in South Carolina and a raft of Southern Super Tuesday states that include more diverse populations and more conservative Democrats. To that end, Biden said Monday, if he faltered in Iowa, he could still win the nomination. But if he won Iowa, Biden argued he’d be almost unstoppable.

And Biden said he doesn’t see anyone even close to him in South Carolina polling who could surge even if they won Iowa.

Iowa. South Carolina. Because of the screwy way our primaries are set up, these unrepresentative states early in the game have undue weight in determining who the rest of the country gets to vote on. Biden is relying on pandering to a few conservative states to game the system, and then the media will follow along and use the horserace model to let the early front-runner run away with it. Then, like Trump, he’ll rely on the aberration of the electoral college to give him a win. It’s no way to elect a president.

It’s a national office, have a day for national primaries. Then elect someone to the office on the basis of the popular vote with a national election. We have the last bit, but the rest…nope. It’s a disgrace.

That said, if he gets the nomination, even if it’s due to our broken, corrupt system, I’ll vote for him on election day. He’ll at least slow the country’s downward slide into fascism, but I don’t think he’ll do more than maintain the status quo.

Joe Biden, making promises he won’t keep

Do we really want a delusional old liar in the presidency again? Joe Biden is making ridiculous claims.

Speaking at a campaign stop in Ottumwa, Iowa, on Tuesday he discussed losing loved ones before making his promise.

“A lot of you understand what loss is and when loss occurs, you know that people come up to you and tell you ‘I understand’ if you lose a husband, a wife, a son, a daughter, a family member,” he said. “That’s why I’ve worked so hard in my career to make sure that — I promise you if I’m elected president, you’re going to see the single most important thing that changes America, we’re gonna cure cancer.”

No, we’re not.

I understand that cancer is an important personal issue to him, and I would approve of a candidate promising to invest more in biomedical research. If he had actually listened to doctors, if he had any understanding of cancer at all, he’d know that cancer isn’t one disease, it’s a moving target with a billion alternative strategies for evading treatment, and that by its very nature isn’t going to be susceptible to a magic bullet approach. It requires incremental improvements in management and treatment and diagnosis, and even then, sometimes the best doctors can offer is going to fail. He is promising snake oil. He isn’t paying attention to the advisors he ought to be listening to. He sure as hell isn’t personally going to deliver on that promise.

He might as well stand up on that podium and promise that he’s going to cure all viral diseases, eradicate all bacteria, end global climate change, end world hunger, emerge victorious from all wars, and colonize Mars, all between the years 2020 and 2028. No, he’s not. He looks stupid and glib and shallow doing it, too.

I wasn’t going to vote for him in the primaries anyway, but he’s doing his damnedest to make it difficult to vote for him if he wins the Democratic nomination. Which I earnestly hope he doesn’t.

I can’t believe Biden is the front-runner

A former writer for The Onion regrets the gentleness of their satirizing of Uncle Joe. Isn’t just the fact that “Uncle Joe” has become one of his nicknames telling enough?

I can’t speak for my colleagues, but at the time, I didn’t take him seriously enough to think we were doing anything wrong. I thought of him as little more than a political necessity: the older, more conservative white guy who softened Barack Obama’s image in regions where the prospect of a black president was too radical. A deeper dive on Biden never felt necessary.

I’ve since changed my mind. Today, Biden is the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, despite women calling him out for touching them in ways that made them uncomfortable at public events, and despite objections from the left wing of the party. He has said he has “no empathy” for the problems millennials are experiencing and claimed that Republicans will embrace bipartisanship after Trump is defeated. As I watch him campaign as an old (-fashioned, -school, -old) centrist, I realize how badly we screwed up. Instead of viciously skewering a public figure who deserved scrutiny, we let him off easy. The joke was funny, but it didn’t hit hard enough.

A Biden nomination by the Democratic Party would be another out-of-touch catastrophe. He generates no enthusiasm, except by comfortable older white people who like the fact that he’s not going to change a goddamn thing — smug confidence in the status quo might make him the Democratic nominee, but I don’t see him winning when all he can instill is apathy, and he’s going to be an easy target. Trump is going to claim that Biden is in the pockets of the bankers (not that Trump isn’t), that we can all see that patronizing women is fine and nice, that he’s the Establishment that the populists want to bring down.

If he does win, all we get is a right-of-center centrist who will waltz before congress thinking his affability gives him an edge, and the Republicans will just say “NO” and eat him alive. He’s the lose-lose candidate.

I’m just hoping he’ll commit some terrible gaffe and go down in flames before he’s the nominee, and I expect he’ll oblige. He usually does. Right now, though, the media seems to be anointing him as the right and electable candidate, so he might get the kind of pass no other Democrat would receive.

Better send in the riot squad

Tom Cotton has a plan to deal with those rioting students at Columbia.

The nascent pogroms at Columbia have to stop TODAY, before our Jewish brethren sit for Passover Seder tonight. If Eric Adams won’t sen the NYPD and Kathy Hochul won’t send the National Guard, Joe Biden has a duty to take charge and break up these mobs.

The “mob” of “Jewish brethren” holding Seder.

Jewish students celebrating Passover with the protesters.

Has anyone else noticed what a colossal ass Tom Cotton is?