[Peace-discuss] Biden's making good on his pledge to not substantially change anything because he doesn't have to compete

[J.B. Nicholson]

Ron Szoke quoted the Washington Post and MSNBC:
> The new plans, which have come in speeches, interviews, and a 110-page policy
> document crafted with allies of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), provide a window into
> how Biden would govern, and they kick off a new phase in a campaign that until now
> has focused mostly on President Trump’s performance. As Biden releases more plans
> — including one on climate and clean energy investments this week — he appears to
> be drafting a blueprint for the biggest surge of government action in
> generations.
> 
> “I think the compromise that they came up with, if implemented, will make Biden
> the most progressive president since FDR,” Sanders, a democratic socialist who
> does not offer such assessments lightly, told MSNBC.

For a counter-narrative on this which isn't about propping up the cooperative 
Democratic Party or its proven neolib/neocon candidate/standards-bearer Joe Biden, 
consider Jimmy Dore's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzvWNs0vDAE which refers to 
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/08/biden-sanders-unity-task-force-recommendations-353225 
and 
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/08/889189235/democratic-task-forces-deliver-biden-a-blueprint-for-a-progressive-presidency

What's most striking, particularly being in the midst of a pandemic, is what's not 
recommended by these 'task forces' and what's not in Biden's plans. From Politico.com:


> The task force recommendations don't include the kind of wide-scale systemic
> upheaval that won Sanders such a fervent following in his two presidential
> campaigns - while provoking an outcry from moderate Democrats and Republicans
> alike. A single-payer health care system such as "Medicare for All," a "Green New
> Deal" overhauling environmental policy, and doing away with Immigration and
> Customs Enforcement are not among the policy proposals.

NPR pointed out:

> Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal co-chaired the health care task force. She has
> long pushed, like Sanders, for a single, government-run health insurance program
> but didn't bring that recommendation to the table in any of the meetings or
> negotiations.


In other words, she, like Sen. Sanders and now deceased Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) 
before her will abandon their own legislation (Jayapal wrote HR 1384 which replaced 
Conyers' HR 676) when needed. Jayapal has been Co-Chair of the Congressional 
Progressive Caucus since 2019. Dore rightly asks "What is the point of you 
co-chairing the fucking task force? What is the point of you being there? Anyone 
could show up and not fight for something!" and states "Jayapal is revealing to you 
that she is fucking worthless!".

His reference to "blue check Hollywood assholes telling you to vote Democrat" is a 
reference to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkKLJvucDUE where wealthy celebrities 
(who don't need the government's largesse) with Twitter accounts featuring a blue 
checkmark (indicating Twitter ostensibly verified that the person holds that Twitter 
account) tell you to vote for such a non-competitive candidate.


Dore doesn't get into Biden's foreign policy in this video (he has addressed Biden's 
belligerency in other videos). But The Boston Globe tells us there's no reason to 
expect change in a Biden presidency -- per 
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/05/30/opinion/would-biden-presidency-bring-substantial-change-us-foreign-policy/

> Little in Biden’s record suggests that he would back away from a foreign policy
> based on threats, coercion, sanctions, and war. He was an outspoken promoter of
> our 2003 invasion of Iraq. After Russia seized part of neighboring Ukraine in
> 2014, he insisted that Russia must be made to “pay in blood and money,” and tried
> unsuccessfully to persuade President Obama to supply heavy weapons to the
> Ukrainian army. He supports plotters who are seeking to overthrow the government
> of Venezuela. In January he cheered the American drone attack that killed Iranian
> General Qassem Soleimani, insisting that Iran has “supported terror and sowed
> chaos” in the Middle East. He has promised to “get tough with China,” and rejected
> as “absolutely outrageous” the idea that the United States should consider
> reducing its military aid to Israel. Most tellingly, he has asserted that in world
> affairs, the United States must be “at the head of the table,” or else “chaos will
> ensue.”
> 
> Given Biden’s depressing willingness to embrace the worst aspects of our post-Cold
> War foreign policy, what basis is there to hope that his presidency would move the
> United States in a different direction? One remarkable item on his political
> resume suggests that he does not believe bombing countries and deposing foreign
> leaders is always a good idea. In 2011, as vice president, he urged President
> Obama not to launch the war that ended up transforming Libya from the most
> prosperous country in Africa to a failed state and breeding ground for terror.
> Although he voted for the 1995 law that imposed harsh sanctions on Cuba, he later
> supported President Obama’s decision to seek reconciliation. He also endorsed his
> boss’s nuclear accord with Iran. After decades of promoting Saudi Arabian
> interests, he now promises to end American support for the Saudi bombing of Yemen.
> He has pledged to “bring the vast majority of our troops home from the wars in
> Afghanistan and the Middle East.”


It looks like a repeat of Hillary Clinton's most recent attempt at becoming president 
(possibly worse since Biden has been in power so much longer and made so many more 
bad choices) -- when trying to give "hope that his presidency would move the United 
States in a different direction" they mention only one thing which ended in wrecking 
Libya anyhow (slave markets are a frequently-cited indicator of how badly off Libyans 
are now) and even that is tempered with mentions of more economic attacks (sanctions).

It's Trump's election to lose. Perhaps the Democratic Party has (to borrow a phrase) 
brought Trump to heel so that party doesn't care if they lose. Therefore the 
Democrats can afford to offer up Biden as an insurance plan to fulfill their 
neocon/neolib desires if somehow Trump doesn't get enough electoral votes to win 
again. Either way, I think it's a safe bet that the permanent government is again the 
real winner.

-J