Yep, fair criticism of any public figure is warranted and is part of the process of holding them to account.
In Biden’s instance, let him get in the door then, before criticizing what he may or may not do as President! Is that fair?
These sycophants would make sycophants blush. I actually started to laugh when I listened to it:
When he had nothing to do with it?
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The guy who talked right at the end was having none of that BS. He just wanted to cut through that crap.
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How the fuck do they get away with that level of bull crap?
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I don’t have an answer for that other than to point at American society. Don’t know what else to answer, but I rarely get shocked anymore when it comes to what Fox News broadcasts.
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There’s simply no checks over there. You’re free to spout any crap you want seemingly without being challenged. It’s mad.
And then it all makes sense now. The TV evangelists, utterly way off base Youtube channels, and the cherry on top being Trump. There’s no brakes, that whole society is a run away train.
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It’s called “freedom”, and it’s getting to be the same over here, too.
Which is quite scary when you think about it.
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- Reaches out to shake hand *
It felt a little tetchy in recent posts and if I added to any of that, apologies.
As we move forward, for me at least, obviously Trump was and is a horror show on any number of levels, but soon he will be out, and when the new regime is in, they should be open to criticism just like any other, so fair play.
I haven’t got a clue if they will be much different to earlier iterations of government. Probably not. My guess is NATO will be strengthened again and allies will feel like allies again. Participation in the Iran nuclear deal will be resumed. Relations with Russia will be more frosty than under Trump. And climate change will be much more of a focus.
Biden will probably meet with the Chinese leader at some point, as they are the two leading nations in the world and the recent trade and tariff disputes will need to be worked out, and it might also give a pretext to talk about Chinese expansion in the South China Sea and also around the world. Hopefully something will happen with Yemen, but I don’t see it as that high on the agenda in relation to these other things, unfortunately.
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Shakes hand.
I used Yemen as one example, the larger issue going forward to me are certain patterns in US foreign politics that could be observed over decades in the Middle East, South America etc.
You can rest assured though I will be among the first to sing the praise of Biden if he’s able to steer the US in a reasonable direction in foreign politics. What is reasonable might be somewhat up for debate, but you get my point. I’m not hellbound on pissing on Biden for the sake of it.
And just to clarify, seeing some of the posts here - I’m not a strict pacifist either, as lovely as that idea is in theory.
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Yeah I’d made that connection.
Really scary to have the freedom to express your views no matter how bat shit crazy they are and for that matter dangerous and pretty much zero come back.
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I think that is true, but the underlying relationship I suspect has been permanently damaged by the realization that Americans can do it all again in four years. Ironically, I think Trump really has been responsible for an increase in NATO defence spending. Within NATO, the other partners are increasingly thinking about the consequences about not being able to count on the US.
Were it not for the pandemic, my sense is that EU defence coordination would have been a major issue in 2020.
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My head hurts. Quoting unquotes now.
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From a UK perspective that kind of feels backwards
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What’s amazing is, he never said it. This is next level straw man stuff now.
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Somehow, given the current climate in the world today, that’s not really amazing either. I’d more shocked if he had!
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Howling!!! Fair point. I lost my senses (rare).
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You look at something like the JCPOA and there is an expectation that “Biden will get America back in” without consideration for Iran’s position. They complied and still got fucked, so why would they now jump back in to a deal with a 78 year old guy who isn’t even guaranteed to live through the finalization of the resumption of the agreement? People who think negatively about those effects tend to think about international partners just moving ahead without the US when it comes to diplomatic relations and trade agreements. But I wonder if there isn’t a different outcome that is arguably more problematic, and that is a tendency to enter negotiations but do so in bad faith knowing that the US does not have the capacity for continuity, meaning they can agree to stuff they dont want to go through with knowing full well the US will break their commitment before they do.
There is a story about Obama’s first big international meeting in 2009, maybe the G20, becoming an absolute shit show. It turns out that China had organized an off the books meeting among the Bric group leaders to secretly work together to oppose action on climate change, and when Obama found out about he crashed the meeting. What came out of that was the basis of what would be the Paris Climate accord. Yet before that could even kick in, the US pulled out. Likewise with TPP. This isn’t just a Trump thing either, as while I think Hillary’s opposition to TPP was performative, it definitely wasn’t going to get ratified by a GOP senate. What this all adds up to is the sense that countries can just nod their head in faux agreement with whatever a US administration pushes them to agree to knowing full well they will be let off the hook by the US’ lack of compliance. Of the two options, other countries coming together to put together legit deals without us is far better for the globe than this scenario.
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Doubly laughable in that Roosevelt was a self-described progressive liberal who does not fit at all well into current usage of any of those terms.
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