Don’t be fooled by Joe Biden. He knows his infrastructure and education bills have as much chance at becoming law as the $15-dollar minimum wage or the $2,000 stimulus checks he promised us as a candidate. He knows his American Jobs Plan will never create “millions of good paying jobs – jobs Americans can raise their families on” any more than NAFTA, which he supported, would, as was also promised, create millions of good paying jobs. His mantra of “buy American” is worthless. He knows the vast majority of our consumer electronics, apparel, furniture and industrial supplies are made in China by workers who earn an average of one or two dollars an hour and lack unions and basic labor rights. He knows his call to lower deductibles and prescription drug costs in the Affordable Care Act will never be permitted by the corporations that profit from health care. He knows the corporate donors that fund the Democratic Party will ensure their lobbyists will continue to write the laws that guarantee they pay little or no taxes. He knows the corporate subsidies and tax incentives he proposes as a solution to the climate crisis will do nothing to halt oil and gas fracking, shut down coal-fired plants or halt the construction of new pipelines for gas-fired power plants. His promises of reform have no more weight than those peddled by Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, who Biden slavishly served and who also promised social equality while betraying working men and women.
Tag: campaign promises
Biden Lied About Yemen
The Biden administration has finally admitted that the US is indeed providing offensive material support to Saudi Arabia’s genocidal assault on Yemen, directly contradicting Biden’s February claim that it would no longer be providing offensive support in that war. We are being lied to about yet another US war by yet another US president.
“The United States continues to provide maintenance support to Saudi Arabia’s Air Force given the critical role it plays in Saudi air defense and our longstanding security partnership,” Pentagon spokesperson Jessica McNulty has informed Vox reporter Alex Ward.
“Multiple US defense officials and experts acknowledged that, through a US government process, the Saudi government pays commercial contractors to maintain and service their aircraft, and those contractors keep Saudi warplanes in the air. What the Saudis do with those fighter jets, however, is up to them,” Ward reports. “The US could cancel those contracts at any time, thus effectively grounding the Saudi Air Force, but doing so would risk losing Riyadh as a key regional partner.”
Crooks and enablers…
Biden DOJ Wins Lawsuit to Seize 260-Year-Old Texas Ranch Along Border
The Biden Administration took control of a Texas rancher’s border land on Wednesday. The action followed a victory by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas against the family which has owned the land since 1760.
Texas rancher Fred Cavazon has been fighting to keep control of his 6.584 acre ranch along the Texas-Mexico border since the administration of then-President George W. Bush. The fight continued during the Trump administration, Law & Crime reported.
That fight came to an abrupt conclusion on April 12 with U.S. District Court Judge Micaela Alvarez awarded the federal government control of the land. Two days later, the Biden Administration took possession of the acreage.
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 legal blog reported.
“End it,” Biden said in an interview with NPR’s Lula Garcia-Navarro. “End it. End. End. Stop. Done. Over. Not gonna do it. Withdraw the lawsuits. We’re out. We’re not gonna confiscate the land.”
Biden’s Plan to Create Police Oversight Agency Put On Hold, White House Says
A police oversight commission promised by US President Joe Biden during his election campaign has been put on hold, as the move was considered “not the most effective” against police brutality, Domestic Policy Council Director Susan Rice told Politico.
Biden pledged to establish a police watchdog within the first 100 days of his presidency last June, in the wake of the death of African-American citizen George Floyd while being arrested by a white police officer. The incident sparked mass protests against racially-motivated police brutality.
“Based on close, respectful consultation with partners in the civil rights community, the administration made the considered judgement that a police commission, at this time, would not be the most effective way to deliver on our top priority in this area, which is to sign the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act into law,” Rice said in a statement late on Sunday.
The authorities held consultations with police unions as well and concluded that an oversight commission would likely be redundant.
Biden Stalls on Ending Capital Punishment
Seventy-five days since taking office, President Joe Biden has yet to issue a promised executive order on the death penalty. And criminal justice reform advocates working closely with the administration are growing tired of the delay, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Two of these sources said they had each received assurances from transition officials that Biden would sign an executive order on capital punishment very quickly or “imminently” after he entered office. But in recent weeks, White House officials and close allies of the president have been quietly signaling to frustrated activists that a more forceful push on this type of reform will likely have to wait until some unspecified point after the new president’s first 100 days in office.
“It is complete bullshit that they’re dragging their feet on this,” one of the sources said. “We have been pushing them on this and barely getting anywhere.”
This source noted that Biden came into office promising the American people that he would dramatically reverse course, especially after Trump’s “killing spree.”
“And we’re still being told to wait and be patient,” the source said.
A candidate we can all believe in…
Marijuana Reform Omitted From Biden Transition Plan On Racial Equity Despite Campaign Pledges
Marijuana reform advocates have been looking for signs that an incoming president-elect Joe Biden will make good on his campaign pledge to pursue cannabis policy changes since the former vice president has been projected to win the election. But they didn’t get any such sign in a new racial equity plan his transition team has put forward.
While Biden emphasized on the campaign trail that cannabis decriminalization and expungements would be part of his racial justice agenda, the plan released over the weekend omits any specific mention of marijuana reform.
Many of the proposals are broadly described, however, and it’s possible that a policy like decriminalization could be folded into broader commitments to eliminate “racial disparities and ensuring fair sentences,” for example.
In any case, there’s been some skepticism on the part of advocates that Biden’s stated support for cannabis reform will be matched with administrative action. And although he and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have repeatedly promised to follow through with decriminalization and expungements if elected, that issue did not make the cut in the new “commitment to uplifting Black and Brown communities.”
The page says Biden is working to “strengthen America’s commitment to justice, and reform our criminal justice system” and lays out other specific promises that were often mentioned on the campaign trail alongside marijuana reform, such as a ban on police chokeholds and creating a national oversight commission to track law enforcement abuses. But cannabis reform is nowhere to be found in the transition team document.
In contrast, a still-live page on Biden’s separate campaign site for his “Plan for Black America” that he rolled out while running for president, includes the pledge to “decriminalize the use of cannabis and automatically expunge all prior cannabis use convictions.”
Seems unlikely…
Hungry, or hangry?
Hellbound and Down 
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