According to the Aussies I have read, France was over charging and under delivering. They missed multiple deadlines and had many price overruns. It sends like the Aussies got tired of being overcharged with nothing to show for it.

The Biden Presidency - 2020
 

I often feel that way about French dips at restaurants

I’m not even joking


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Have they ever bought anything from an American defense contractor before? They might be in for a bit of a surprise.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/17/polit...led/index.html

So much for rebuilding alliances.

:+1:

I have the feeling American defense contractors are better at customer service to their international clients. Something about the threat of actually losing the contract for hundreds of millions of dollars that makes them actually deliver.

They are still seething over the Freedom Fries thing. They just know how to play the long game.

dola:

Joking aside, I'd love to credit Biden for this. But I'm pretty sure any President is going to value American national security over French security contractors.

I was critical of Biden during the run because I didn't think he really took the China threat seriously. Liking him now. He is doing the right things with (re)building military & political alliances etc. in Asia.

He hasn't done much economically so far other than to hang on to Trump policies. I do hope the decoupling continues, manufacturing & trade with other Asian countries increases etc.

It is interesting no peep on rejoining the TPP deal. Things have changed since Trump dropped out of TPP but I'd think Biden want back in. I guess he made a conscious decision and said "I have a better way".

It's a banner morning for GOP governors. Missisippi's got absolutely torched by Jake Tapper for refusing to do anything different to reduce the COVID death rate in MS. GA Gov Kemp then said he's against a vaccine mandate because when we mandated the AIDS vaccine that didn't work.

There's an AIDS vaccine?

Kemp amended his statement and said he meant the HPV vaccine, which is required in some states and absolutely works but has a low uptake overall because of a lack of mandates in other states.

HPV is a perfect example of why mandates are needed. The number of parents willing to let their kid get cancer rather than protect them because of sex is appalling.

Sounds like Beto is gonna run for Texas governor. I think his "going to take your guns" comment during the debates is going to kill him.

Tragic all around.

The lack of coverage and outrage is somewhat predictable. If this had happened under a republican administration, there would be ad nauseum coverage on the major news outlets for weeks, and some of the folks in this forum would be in meltdown mode.

lol

Trump's drone strikes killed hundreds of civilians just in 2019 and nobody cared. This has been going on since Bush2.

Biden goes for bike ride at the beach amid national crises, refuses to answer questions | Fox News

If only he played golf all day instead...

No, there was mostly silence when we did it under the Republican administrations. I would say the same for Obama, but some progressive groups and news outlets took him to task.

Point is, killing innocent civilians has been the Afghanistan war plan for over a decade now. The media wanted the war so they largely ignored it. It's only a story now because the media is upset we are leaving and they look like complete hacks for their 20 years of support of it.

I borked up this thread with a link.

Just a reminder this is how you can fix it https://forums.operationsports.com/f...1&postcount=45

Yeah, Space Force. Looks cool.

Forget the naysayers Biden. You're doing the right thing by not dismantling it. You know there's a threat out there.

I do like those dress blues, Battle Star Galactica style.

Enjoyed the series but the main story line got too convoluted. Preferred the one-offs and non-mystical mumbo-jumbo stuff.

I mean they took their logo from Star Trek. Why not just take things from all the best sci-fi shows?

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The $1.2T infrastructure bill will come up for vote on Mon. We shall see what happens.

Article referred to "centrists". Then "liberals" as pushing for full package. Then also "progressives". Not sure difference between "liberals" vs "progressives". I'd always thought moderate liberals = centrists, radical/far left liberals = progressives.

Biden cools Democratic fever over domestic agenda, but can't cure it - POLITICO

In an alternate universe, Dems are passing both bills and preparing to blanket the country with local news stories telling people all of the awesome things that are in the bills.

Unfortunately, in this universe, Dems are telling voters that their own party's legislation is too extreme and also a corporate giveaway.

Solid politics by Dems, as always.

If the 1.2T does not pass the House, that's horrible for Biden.

If the 1.2T does pass the house, then that means that the White House has no leverage over the moderates to pass the reconciliation bill--Which everyone agrees would be good for the Dems politically if they passed as large as possible.

Unless I am missing something, it really does seem like the Dems are playing themselves.

And, in the meantime, the country is on track for a shutdown and debt default while the Dems control everything. Wonder who the voters will blame for that?

I agree with the Dems on policy, but politically, they really are like rooting for the New York Jets.

They are as bad as advertised at governing. I see why so many people don't vote Dem. The only thing that's going to keep me around is continued Constitutional crises. So, that's like a good news/bad news thing. They completely suck at doing anything to help anybody, much less themselves.

TBF the GOP is doing the obstruction thing perfectly. The same playbook. Yes the Dems can't get their house in order but if the GOP were a group of varied thoughts you'd have some people voting FOR things that other GOP members vote against. Unfortunately for our country they have become lemmings to the cause country be damned. If the country defulats on its debts I would reflect back on all of the times the dems coalesced and voted for passing resolutions to avoid doing so while the GOP was in charge... the other shoe drops and the GOP says F off. It'll be ugly for the DEMS but that's only because the GOP doesn't give two fucks.

Any alternate universe in which they pass both bills would need to be one in which they have larger majorities.

They keep portraying this as progressives vs moderates, but "moderates" in this case are just those who won't vote against their biggest donors. You can chart those people out to how much they've taken from the fossil fuel and pharmaceutical industry.

For instance, Sinema's stance on the pharma stuff is not moderate. 88% of the country supports negotiating drug prices. She's the extremist.

Top FL Senate GOPer is now going to evaluate all child vaccines to see if they are really necessary.

The GOP is an anti-vax party now.

Or go through the painful process of compromise. Start high/low, meet somewhere in the middle, make it somewhat win-win vs win-lose.

I'm not ready to give up on Biden. Still some hope for $1.2T and <$3.5T bills passing.

They have enough votes and they had a deal to pass both. It's really about a dozen Centrists, and they just need to decide if they are going to blow up the Biden agenda or not.

The House centrists really should be on board because a GOP wave election is going to take them out well before the AOCs of the party. Just look at who lost in 1994 and 2010.

The Senate is the problem. Manchin is probably not running again, so he'll do whatever and Sinema seems to be more focused on a high-dollar career after the Senate. But Biden should be able to work out something.

It's very much the ACA all over again, with Dems seemingly trying to convince the public that the legislation is a pile of shit. Excellent messaging, as always.

To call them centrists seems a bit dishonest. They're siding with special interest groups, nothing more. The ideas pitched in the bills are incredibly popular, even among both parties.

Let's just be honest and say that one party refuses to support any legislation. And a group from the other has been bribed to not support it. This has nothing to do with policy or political positions.

Andrew Yang's 3rd Party Has a Name: 'the Forward Party'

I bet Yang would still fail to get the presidential nomination from this party.

Really? When did this happen? When was there an agreement among all Democrats for both bills? I've never seen a quote from Manchin & Sinema, nevermind the others, being on board with the $3.5T package.


Eh, not really. This is like asking if people are for Medicare 4 All. They are, until you tell them that means giving up their current plan/doctor/etc. Then they don't like it nearly as much. As of a month ago, a little under half of independents and only 20% of Republicans were in favor of the larger bill. Republicans oppose free college almost 2:1. The child care aspect and Medicare expansion do have broad support, but it's a mixed bag in terms of public support overall and that's before you get into the fact that thinking individual ideas are good doesn't mean people support doing them all now, particularly with rising inflation concerns (polls on that are all over the map really so no firm conclusions there).

I think you have a good point on some individual issues. It doesn't really apply to a broad package like this though that has a lot of considerations mixed into it.

The two track idea was a part of things while they were negotiating with the GOP. That's why the GOP threatened to walk.

All I'm saying is what matters isn't how many centrists there are compared to progressives. If you're going to insist on the bigger bill, you need the progressives to be a majority of Congress or it doesn't work. 48% of Congress isn't enough. It doesn't matter if most of your party is on board if there's enough defectors to join the opposition and defeat what you're trying to do.

That's why when I read things like they have enough votes - well no, they really really don't have enough votes and they never did.

Everybody agreed on the two-track plan and then the centrists in the House bailed and now Manchin and Sinema are iffy. The Senate progressives would have never agreed to the bipartisan bill if they didn't believe the reconciliation bill would also pass.

Even now the progressives are willing to keep the deal, it's the centrists that are willing to blow everything up.

The issue Sinema is holding things up over is the prescription drug stuff. It is an issue that has the support of 88% of the electorate.

The other health care stuff which she also now opposes was LITERALLY WHAT SHE RAN ON IN 2018.

These are not political positions she is taking and we should stop labeling them as "centrist" or "moderate" here. She got $750k in donations, that's why she doesn't support the bill. Unless you believe her entire political ideology changed in the course of 3 years.

Being bribed to support or reject a bill is not a progressive, liberal, moderate, conservative, or whatever position. It's just paying for a vote.

Dems are now talking about adding dental benefits to Medicare...

that will begin in 2028.

That will surely help with the 2022 election.

I think we can safely conclude that AOC is anti-Israel and anti-Semitic. But does that make her a racist? I think used in the context of Germany WW2, yes. But in today's terms, probably not.

Don't understand her strategy. I'm actually okay with her getting it out of the $3.5T bill and forcing this other vote (nice win for her). But the Iron Dome is defensive and she won't get a lot of sympathy (other than for her radical progressive & anti-semitic supporters). Pick on other offensive military stuff we give/subsidize/sell to Israel and that is a better fight.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/24/polit...ion/index.html

Fwiw

Here in the states I don’t think you have to be anti-Israel to also be pro Palestinian

I am for example

I can’t understand why they over there can’t get along however I’ll admit that I don’t understand how humans treat each other the way they do globally.

I’m rooting for both sides of the argument over there to come together and live together in harmony. I’m pro Israel and pro Palestine.

Full transparency-I’m Jewish


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I also just don't understand why we are footing a billion dollar bill for a very wealthy country. Can someone explain that to me?

Still waiting for enough evidence to say Trump is a racist, but we've got plenty to say AOC is anti-Semetic?

lol

“Imeach Biden”.

Lauren Boebert might be the dumbest f*cking person on the planet. pic.twitter.com/AFZDzfBqtB

— Jo (@JoJoFromJerz) September 24, 2021

I don't disagree but can rationalize it. Not just $ but to show US commitment.

Bigger question is why are heavily subsidizing South Korea's defense. Talk about a rich country.

So you don't think she is anti-Semitic?

Nope, not playing that game.

That's fine. Don't bother responding to my posts with your quips if you don't want to engage in a discussion. It's worked great with your couple other bros.

I think she is pro-Palestinian. By some people's definition that would make her anti-Semitic. I don't think it necessarily has to be.

FWIW, the wiki definition is below.

I can see making the distinction between anti-semitic "hostility towards Jews" (as a belief, religion etc.) vs anti-Israel "hostility towards Israel" (the country and its policies). There is a nuance there.

I'm curious what about voting against a missile shield makes her "safely anti-Semitic". Like if I don't think we need a build F-22s, am I "safely anti-American"?

C'mon - you know the semantic games you started here, especially when you decide "oh and Nazi Germany" in the next sentence so let's not feign ignorance when you get called on it.

SI

Yes. I'm not about to lend credence to the accusation by arguing over who has the burden of proof.

It's not the vote itself. It's also the explanation for her present vote (and crying), somewhat one sided IMO. It struck me as anti-Israel and, by default, anti-Semitic. However, I do think it is fair to split the 2 and not assume they are the same if we make the distinction between religion and country.


Question to you - I'll assume you do not believe she is anti-Semitic. Do you believe AOC is anti-Israel?

I've only heard about the "Quad" this week. I'm sure there were stuff going on before this summit but am a little (but pleasantly) surprised. It pretty much confirms that Biden is taking China seriously and really hope he can keep us all working well together.

South Korea would have been a natural to make it the "Pent" but suspect it was mutually agreed that SK would have been too much for China. India's involvement is great but they've always been somewhat standoffish so hopefully it'll be a lot closer now militarily and economically.

I think one can also acknowledge a bad humanitarian crisis in one of the most complicated geopolitical regions in our world without any clear cut good answer and a lot bad ones. I think there's a distinction between the US's strategic goals with regards to a country and how we view their people.

SI

This is me. You can be against everything Israel wants the US to do and not be an anti-Semite. Policy positions do not inherently imply motivations and attitudes.

Good news that the $1.2T seems to be split from the larger $3.5T bill. Or do we assume there is backroom consensus on both bills and total $ (before $1.2T is voted on)? Regardless, the $3.5T will be less assuming Pelosi/Biden really can corral the moderates and the progressives together into a compromise. My guess is around $2.5T.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/26/pelo...e-delayed.html

I'll give their special interest groups credit for defining people as anti-semitic if they won't give a billion-dollar handout to a country. Even the "America First" folks cower in fear.

Israel does not represent every Jewish person. Just as a predominately Muslim or Christian country does not represent everyone of that faith. Israel is an apartheid state, something we usually condemn. I still think we'll look back in 30 years on Israel the same way we look back on apartheid era South Africa.

I don't know if there is a world politics thread around here somewhere. If so, the mods can move this there. Germany has moved to the left though we don't know who will be replacing Angela Merkel.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/26/europ...ntl/index.html

There isn't a far-right party claiming the election was stolen and crying for it to be just handed to them?

Crying and then trying to steal the election is the way all elite democracies function!

I'm not sure if these "top brass" actually put something down on paper. Article says "noted, discussion, talked etc." but I want to know if something was written as a presentation or in recap notes etc.

Don't know about this situation, but if there was something I wanted to be sure the client understood my POV, I would put it down somewhere officially.

Top generals contradict Biden, say they urged him not to withdraw from Afghanistan - POLITICO

He would've been excoriated if he didn't follow through and there's no guarantee it would've prevented deaths.

'Lying' to the media/public aside I'd practically give Biden more credit if he ignored military advisors and pulled out of Afghanistan anyway. I also agree with Edward that there's an awful lot of context missing from all of that. While a 2,500 man force might be considered 'small' in terms of manpower, how many bases were we supposed to keep open and maintain? How many contractors would be filling in that void? Was the endless funneling of resources and military equipment to the Afghan 'Army' a conveniently unmentioned part of that small force?

Fascinating battle between centrist vs progressives with Pelosi in the middle. Pelosi seemed hell bent on bringing separate votes this past weekend but guess progressives aren't going down easily.

Not a good week for Biden so far.

Progressives dig in as Pelosi tries to save key vote - POLITICO

Forget that bipartisan shit, Biden needs to keep his party on the same track.

American Greatness, a right-wing website, is running a story saying that Kristi Noem is having an affair with Chris Lewandowski. I don't care about the affair, but I'm fascinated wondering which other GOP hopeful is trying to eliminate her.

GOP Senate mavericks (Romney, Collins, Murkowski) and Democratic Senate mavericks (Manchin, Sinema) will all squawk to the press about maybe not being on board with their party majority. But, in the end, the GOP mavericks will vote with their party. The Dem ones really won't.

Democrats really do seem to love defeating themselves. Just pass the infrastructure bill for now. Do something good while you can.

All those people vote with who pays the bills. It's not a party thing.

Whatever Kirsten Sinema is doing is fascinating to me. I just read that her favorable/unfavorable AMONG DEMOCRATS is 17%/65%. It was 67%/15% on January 1st.

She has voted against raising minimum wage, altering the filibuster, and has generally been a "tough get" for Democrats on the more controversial votes this year and it seems like her base has quickly gotten tired of it.

I'm just wondering what her endgame is. Is she trying to be a maverick like John McCain?Is she really that much of a bipartisan, institutionalist? Is she just completely on-board with and loyal to her special interest groups? Does she already have a job as a lobbyist locked up?

I can't imagine that she thinks she can win re-election with this type of support from the Democrats and it isn't like the Republicans, who are applauding her now, are going to support her in a general election. It really is an unexpected set of stances that she is taking.I know Manchin is behaving similarly, but West Virginia and Arizona are two very different sets of voters. It seems unlikely that she could win a primary if this holds up.

People try to make her out to be more complicated than it is. She likes money, got bribes, and has decided that's the best path for her life. Not the first or last politician to go down that path.

She probably won't run in 4 years and will take a high-paying job as a lobbyist in the pharmaceutical industry.

That's not really true in all cases, or Obamacare would have been gone long ago.

Yeah, I really don't think it is more complicated than that. She has no intention of keeping this job. She going to cash out.

Perhaps, but what short term thinking. You can cash out higher as a long term Senator.

Though when she was in the House she was a very conservative Democrat. She has voted with business a lot. I think what has happened is that Arizona went blue a lot quicker than expected. So she was seen as a conservative Dem who could actually win the Senate seat to, actually you don't need to be that far right to win in AZ.

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Sinema was pretty far to the left when she started her career. Was a member of the Green Party and refused to take donations (called them bribes at the time). Now she's actively opposing issues she ran on just a couple of years ago. You don't flip that hard that fast without some kind of incentive.

She grew up incredibly poor. Got her first taste of the good life when she became a Senator and has taken a liking to it. Sure it might be short-sighted, but if you grew up without running water or electricity, having lobbyists throw money at you and your new designer lifestyle can have an impact.

Remember the power outages in Texas last winter? The legislature passed a bill requiring power companies to make winterizing upgrades to the power grid so that wouldn't happen again.

But it turns out that someone snuck in a provision where power companies can pay 150 dollars and not be required to do any upgrades.

Can any other state compete with Texas in the worst state competition?

Florida

Mrs. A and my son (tracked out) have a D.C. trip planned next week.

Glad to see that the shutdown has (almost certainly) been averted, so they Smithsonians, etc. will be open

And I think just the opposite. Independent voters control the national races here (30%+ registered independents) and they went for Trump in 2016, which is the same block that put Biden over in 2020.

Recent history here shows that to win a senate seat you need to be closer to center (not the same at all on the state senate level) and you can look at flake, McCain, Kelly and Sinema as proof of that.

Whatever her financial motivations, I think she is definitely looking long term, knowing that outside of getting primaried, she won't lose to about anyone the current GOP puts up, as long as she continues to court the center, because dems will not flip and most won't stay home because they want to avoid people like Wendy Rogers and Kelly Ward winning a national senate seat.

Kelly supports the bill and won his seat quite comfortably. Not really a good comparison.

One of her issues is with the pharmaceutical negotiating which is supported by 81% of the public and 61% of Republicans. So who exactly are these moderates she is lining herself up with?

The fact she won't say what she wants is a pretty good tell that this isn't about policy differences. She's trying to blow up a bill because she's gotten a truckload of cash from groups.

She is also not winning in 2024 if she blows this deal up. I'd be shocked if she even ran. Way more money in just being a lobbyist for a company that owes you some favors.

Both Machin and Sinema could be swayed with a few well-timed leaks from the DOJ. Machin's daughter is a criminal who should be in jail and Sinema's campaign finances is likely a treasure trove of criminal activity.

Message is simple. You can be a criminal and side with us or you can side with us and not be a criminal. But you can't be a criminal and not side with us.

When worlds collide!

Here's one I haven't heard before: Rep. Bucshon of Indiana suggests that a college athlete could sign an NIL with a foreign-owned company, and then be influenced by the government of that foreign country.

— Tom Schad (@Tom_Schad) September 30, 2021

It's hard not to feel like we're in the middle of collapse when there are so many obvious issues with this country/world that feel like they are at the tipping point: infrastructure, climate change, wage inequality, tax reform, health care, senior care, homelessness, mental health, etc. etc. and we are only willing to get in a massive stalemate battle over whether we should even acknowledge those issues, let alone do anything about them.

There is definitely no sense of urgency while both sides just try and screw each other

No way they can help the other side get their agenda through, can't let them win!

When the GOP's platform is basically "dismantle all government that isn't related to defense", I'm not sure how this is a "both sides" or "can't let the other team win" problem

SI

Does either side really care about anything other than what they want? Seriously, regardless of platform there is next to zero bipartisanship, though a higher percentage of how we got here falls on the GOP for sure.

The funny thing is that a lot of the social programs and even the child tax credit helps red states more than blue states. I'm not suggesting that they're doing this because it helps red states, but between the 2 dems are far more likely to pass legislation that helps both sides. Then when the GOP sees that something dems did that's popular with their voters they take credit for it and their voters believe them.

The first tweet is ripped from the pages of Duh magazine

Not so sure about the foreign influence BS

100% agree with this, GOP plays the game well this way and a lot of people are too naïve to see it

Oh yeah. I remember McConnell touting all of the money that was earmarked for fighting opioid abuse in KY in one of the bills that passed earlier this year despite near-unanimous GOP opposition - including him. I would call that shameless, but if the people who vote for you are too stupid to understand shame, maybe it doesn't exist.

Same with state block grants. Gives Republican governors money to spend on programs they get credit for without raising state taxes. Yet they will rail over federal spending that includes that money.

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It'll never happen & I'm not wishing for it or anything, but man Brett Kavanaugh dying of covid and Biden picking his replacement would be some ridiculous irony.

Good that he checked in. No idea how effective it was but couldn't hurt.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/01/polit...lay/index.html
... end up with nothing ... and a doomed presidency
There's always a game of chicken when dealing with budget.
Middle ground of $2.5T'ish sounds about right to me. Split the difference