He certainly does screw things up…
Tag: joe biden
Short memories…
Biden’s Visit To Saudi Arabia Exposes The Ukraine Narrative For The Sham It Is
In a major walkback from his campaign pledge to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” for human rights abuses like the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, President Biden will reportedly visit Riyadh with the goal of persuading Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to help the US alliance win its economic war against Russia.
The Guardian tells us the trip “suggests Biden has prioritized his need to bring oil prices down and thereby punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, over his stand on human rights.”
So in order to punish Vladimir Putin for his war crimes and his assault on freedom and democracy, Biden will be courting a tyrannical war criminal whose country has no freedom or democracy.
Washington will be ending its brief diplomatic dry spell with a government that has been waging a horrific war against Yemen while suppressing any semblance of human rights at home in order to more effectively punish Putin for waging a horrific war against Ukraine which we’re told threatens freedom and democracy throughout the western world.
I am not the first to note the risible irony of this development.
“The Biden Administration is openly planning to pay homage to one [of] its closest allies — one of the most despotic and murderous tyrants on the planet, the Saudi Crown Prince — at the same time it convinces Americans its motive for fighting wars is to defend freedom and democracy,” tweeted Glenn Greenwald.
“The EU literally just banned oil from Russia (mimicking the United States’ actions) because they don’t want to give money to a ‘dictator’. So Biden is travelling soon to Saudi Arabia to try and bring energy prices down– which is a vibrant democracy, as you all know,” tweeted Richard Medhurst.
“As part of mobilizing support for the great war for ‘freedom’ in Ukraine, Biden will be visiting the great beacon of ‘democracy,’ Saudi Arabia this month. What’s a little murder and dismemberment between friends?” tweeted Joseph Kishore.
Indeed, one wonders if perhaps Putin could settle this whole conflict by staging a few mass beheadings and dismembering a Washington Post reporter with a bone saw to get on America’s good side.
A lot of people talk about the “hypocrisy” of the US empire, as though being hypocritical is the issue. But the complete lack of moral consistency in US imperial behavior is noteworthy not merely because of hypocrisy: it’s noteworthy because it shows the US empire has no morality.
Now Even The Elite Are Openly Admitting That America Is Facing An Absolutely Enormous Economic Crisis
Not too long ago, the elite were trying to put a happy face on our growing economic problems. It was obvious that things were trending in a very alarming direction, but they kept assuring us that any bumps in the road were just temporary and that a new golden age of prosperity was just around the corner. Needless to say, there were dead wrong, and now some of them are publicly admitting the truth. For example, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon just publicly stated that an economic “hurricane” is rapidly approaching…
Jamie Dimon is no meteorologist, but the JPMorgan Chase CEO is predicting an economic “hurricane” caused by the war in Ukraine, rising inflation pressures and interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve.
“Right now it’s kind of sunny, things are doing fine. Everyone thinks the Fed can handle this,” Dimon said at a Bernstein conference. “That hurricane is right out there down the road coming our way.”
JPMorgan Chase is one of the most important financial institutions in the entire world.
So it is a really big thing for Dimon to make a statement like this.
Of course he is right on target. An economic hurricane is coming, and it is going to be far more horrible than most Americans could possibly imagine right now.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also just said something that is making a lot of headlines.
Last year she insisted that high inflation would just be “transitory,” but now she is openly admitting that she “was wrong”…
“I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take. As I mentioned, there have been unanticipated and large shocks to the economy […] that I, at the time, didn’t fully understand.”
.@SecYellen on inflation being transitory: “I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take. As I mentioned, there have been unanticipated and large shocks to the economy […] that I, at the time, didn’t fully understand.” https://t.co/AlrXn4kT0r pic.twitter.com/9tqxo0iA3B
— The Hill (@thehill) June 1, 2022
It isn’t exactly a surprise that she turned out to be completely wrong about high inflation being transitory.
We knew that she was wrong when she said it.
But I will give her credit for publicly admitting a mistake. Many in Washington will never do such a thing under any circumstances.
At this point, it should be obvious to everyone that we are in the midst of an absolutely horrifying inflation crisis.
US To Sell Ukraine Advanced Drones Armed With Hellfire Missiles In Coming Days
Despite a mere days ago President Biden pledging in a New York Times op-ed that under his watch the United States would ensure it avoids supplying the Ukrainians with weapons which could penetrate deep inside Russian territory, given the potential for wider war with Russia, the White House is now said to be mulling the transfer of multiple MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones which can be armed with Hellfire missiles.
Reuters, citing unnamed sources, reports the Biden administration has notified Congress of the potential sale within “the coming days”. If it goes through, the sale would mark the largest and most sophisticated drones in Ukraine’s arsenal. It would also inch the US a bit closer toward President Zelensky’s prior request for the US and NATO to “close the skies” – or impose a No Fly Zone (NFZ) – despite Biden officials earlier admitting this would trigger automatic direct conflict with Russian.
The Pentagon is already supplying hundreds of AeroVironment’s Switchblade drones, which is a small, low-cost loitering munition or “suicide” drone. Ukraine has also already long deployed the Turkish-made Bayraktar, however, the General Atomics-made Gray Eagle is much faster and capable of carrying heavier munitions.
According to a brief comparative analsysis in Forbes,
The Gray Eagle carries up to four roughly 100-pound Hellfire missiles, whereas the Bayraktar can carry as many as four 49-pound laser-guided “smart micro” bombs.
Further, “The long-range model of the Gray Eagle drone is 28 feet long and can fly for over 41 hours with a top speed of about 173 miles per hour, while the Bayraktar is 21 feet long and can fly for 27 hours at up to 138 miles per hour.”
The potential transfer comes just as Biden authorized $700 million more in military aid to Ukraine. Reuters says the transfer is to include at least four Gray Eagle drones.
The Drive notes that with this type of advanced weapons system sale, there could be a few more hurdles along the way: “Typically a foreign military sale, even one financed by the U.S., as Reuters reports, has to be pre-approved by the State Department,” the report says.
And once again the Pentagon could be ordered by the administration to deplete its own crucial stockpile and arsenal in order to further arm the Ukrainians.
Slippery Slope: New U.S. Advanced Weapons for Ukraine
Peace advocates are warning that the Biden administration’s newly unveiled decision to arm Ukraine with advanced missile systems further heightens the risk of a direct military conflict between the U.S. and Russia, which accused the White House of “adding fuel to the fire deliberately” as Moscow’s deadly invasion of its neighbor rages on.
“The slippery slope leading to a direct U.S. confrontation with Russia just got a lot steeper,” Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the progressive anti-war group CodePink, wrote in response to the Biden administration’s move, which was followed by news that Russian forces are holding nuclear drills northeast of Moscow on Wednesday. “The U.S. and U.K. governments show no efforts or desire to achieve peaceful settlement of the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.”
The U.S.-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, also known as HIMARS, will give Ukraine the capability to strike Russian targets roughly 50 miles away with powerful, satellite-guided missiles. The rocket system, the most advanced weaponry the U.S. has sent to Ukraine to date, is manufactured by Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest military contractor.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Pentagon has spent around $5.4 billion to buy more than 42,000 HIMARS rockets since 1998.
Biden’s “Incredible Transition”: High Gas Prices, Supply Shortages Part Of Plan To Unleash Green Economy
As Americans bear the brunt of a sagging economy, the Biden administration appears to be framing this as a good thing, believing that citizens will be better off in the future if current supply shortages and high gas prices spiral out of control.
The United States, according to President Joe Biden, is in the midst of an “incredible transition”—one that will pave the way for a green economy.
While the administration may tout the benefits of a sustainable future, the question remains as to what will happen to average Americans while this “transition” takes place.
More importantly, what’s the endgame of all this that Americans don’t know about?
Biden, during a May 23 joint press conference in Japan with the country’s Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, used the word “transition” to seemingly admit that soaring gasoline prices are just part of his administration’s overall plan for moving from hydrocarbons to renewables.
“When it comes to the gas prices, we’re going through an incredible transition that is taking place that, God willing, when it’s over, we’ll be stronger and the world will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels when this is over,” Biden said.
The comment seems to suggest that ensuring the country’s gas supply is not high on Biden’s agenda, though the administration did announce to release of 1 million barrels of crude oil a day for six months between May and August.
Biden’s remarks angered some Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) said the president is “painfully out-of-touch.”
“The pain at the pump every #NY21 family feels is a direct result of Joe Biden and House Democrats’ Far-Left agenda,” Stefanik wrote on Twitter.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) also took exception, writing on Twitter, “the only ‘incredible transition’ we want from Joe Biden is his transition to retirement.”
“Every family in America is paying record-breaking high gas prices thanks to @JoeBiden’s war on American energy—but the president doesn’t care,” Scott added.
White House Supply Chain Advisor Is a World Economic Forum Climate Change Activist Who Worked at Hunter Biden’s Think Tank.
Aleading advisor to President Joe Biden on supply chains is an alum of several World Economic Forum climate change initiatives, who additionally served as a former fellow at a think tank chaired by Hunter Biden.
Betty Cremmins, whose LinkedIn profile reveals she’s held the position of Director for Sustainable Supply Chains at the White House, since February 2022, has overseen the U.S. government’s ongoing supply chain issues, exacerbated by policies that mandated vaccines for many American workers and truckers.
Prior to taking over the White House’s supply chain initiative, Cremmins was a National Security Fellow and Climate Affiliate Group Co-Lead at the Truman National Security Project. The Washington, D.C.-based, left-leaning foreign policy network has featured Biden’s son Hunter Biden on its board since 2011.
Archived versions of the organization’s website reveal that Biden ascended to the role of vice-chairman of the board, serving there until at least March 2019 and, therefore, overlapping with Cremmins’s fellowship.
Biden calls 9mm ‘high-caliber weapons,’ suggests banning them
President Biden on Monday took aim at 9mm handguns, appearing to suggest that the “high-caliber weapons” ought to be banned.
The president made the remarks outside the White House after returning from a visit to the site of a mass shooting in Texas where 21 people, including 19 elementary school children, were killed last week.
Recounting a visit to a New York trauma hospital, Biden said doctors showed him X-rays of gunshot wounds.
“They said a .22-caliber bullet will lodge in the lung, and we can probably get it out — may be able to get it and save the life. A 9mm bullet blows the lung out of the body,” Biden said.
“So, the idea of these high-caliber weapons is, uh, there’s simply no rational basis for it in terms of self-protection, hunting,” Biden added. “Remember, the constitution was never absolute.”
“You couldn’t buy a cannon when the Second Amendment was passed,” Biden said. “You couldn’t go out and purchase a lot of weaponry.”
The president, however, ruled out the possibility of issuing an executive order on guns, saying: “I can’t dictate this stuff.”
Biden Plans To Cancel $10,000 In Student Debt Per Borrower Ahead Of Midterms
As soon as this weekend, President Biden could announce a plan to cancel $10k in student debt per borrower, according to WaPo, citing three people with knowledge of the matter.
Biden could make the announcement at the University of Delaware’s commencement ceremony on Saturday. The plan would apply to Americans who earned less than $150k in the previous year or less than 300k for married couples filing jointly.
On April 6, the White House announced it would extend the pause of federal student loan repayments through August 31. It wasn’t clear if the administration would extend the moratorium beyond this.
The decision to wipe out $10k of student debt per borrow who meets requirements comes as President Biden’s approval ratings collapse.
Notice how the number of stories in the news of “student debt loan forgiveness” is soaring ahead of the midterms, but Biden’s polling numbers remain cratered.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan think tank, said canceling $10k of student debt per borrower would cost a whopping $230bln.
WaPo said, “most of the nation’s 41 million student borrowers stand to benefit.” Though, who exactly benefits?
Goldman Sachs’ Jan Hatzius found canceling the debt would mainly benefit middle- and upper-income households, contrary to the administration’s claims it would help the working poor.
Hellbound and Down 
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