Joe Biden Discussion

[The Green Barbarian]

[Pappywinkle]

Biden, Macron vow to hold Russia accountable for Ukraine 'war crimes'

U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday used the first state visit of his presidency to demonstrate unity with France's Emmanuel Macron on Ukraine, show willingness to speak to Russia's Vladimir Putin and assuage European anger over U.S. subsidies.

The president and First Lady Jill Biden were holding a sumptuous, star-studded White House state dinner, featuring music from Jon Batiste, and Chardonnay from the Napa Valley, in honour of President Macron and his wife, Brigitte.

But Ukraine, the biggest attack on a European state since 1945, remained the most pressing issue for the leaders, who vowed to continue robust support and to back Kyiv during the tough winter months.

Biden has so far resisted talking to Putin since the Russian leader launched the invasion in February, while Macron has kept lines of communication with Putin open. Russia calls the war a "special operation."

"Let me choose my words very carefully," Biden told a news conference with Macron. "I'm prepared to speak with Mr. Putin if in fact there is an interest in him deciding he's looking for a way to end the war. He hasn't done that yet."

Macron, for his part, said he would continue to talk to Putin to "try to prevent escalation and to get some very concrete results" such as the safety of nuclear plants.

The two leaders also sought ways to ease some economic tensions in Oval Office talks.

Biden pledged to Macron to make changes to U.S. legislation that passed the U.S. Congress this year that European nations fear will harm their economies. Bills aimed at boosting U.S. renewable energy and the semiconductor industry have "glitches" that can be addressed, Biden said.

Macron raised French and European concerns about subsidies in Biden's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a $430-billion US bill that offers massive subsidies for U.S.-made products and is aimed at addressing the climate crisis and promoting renewable energy.

At a meeting on Wednesday with U.S. lawmakers, Macron said the act was "super aggressive" toward European companies, one participant told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

"France did not come here to ask for some kind of exception for its economy. We came to share how the consequences of this regulation impact us," he said on Thursday.

European leaders say the legislative package signed by Biden in August is unfair to non-American companies and would be a serious blow to their economies as Europe deals with the fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"There are tweaks that we can make that can fundamentally make it easier for European countries to participate and or be on their own," said Biden, who said he and Macron had a long discussion about the topic.

Macron said it was important for the United States and its European allies to "re-synchronize" their approaches.

The leaders made "major progress" on how to alleviate the impact, and Biden could use executive orders to give European allies the same level of exemptions on local content as countries with free-trade deals, a French finance ministry source said.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/biden-mac ... -1.6670942

[gertlush]

I prefer the Guardians story today "Biden stabs Unions in the back"

[The Green Barbarian]

I prefer the Guardians story today "Biden stabs Unions in the back"

[Pappywinkle]

[Pappywinkle]

Biden rebukes Trump for saying constitution should be ‘terminated’

The Biden White House rebuked Donald Trump after the former president said the US constitution should be “terminated” over his lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

Andrew Bates, a White House spokesperson, said: “Attacking the constitution and all it stands for is anathema to the soul of our nation and should be universally condemned.”

Bates called the constitution a “sacrosanct document”, saying: “You cannot only love America when you win.”

Trump lost to Joe Biden in 2020, by more than 7m votes and by 306-232 in the electoral college, a result he called a landslide when it was in his favour in 2016, against Hillary Clinton.

Trump continues to claim that Biden won key states through electoral fraud, a lie that fuelled the deadly attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. Nine deaths have been linked to the riot, including law enforcement suicides. More than 950 people have been charged. This week, two members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia were convicted of seditious conspiracy. Other members of far-right pro-Trump groups face similar charges.

Trump was banned from Facebook and Twitter after the Capitol attack. He has not yet returned to the latter, despite its new owner, Elon Musk, saying he is free to do so. On Saturday, Trump used his own social media platform, Truth Social, to say of the 2020 election: “A massive fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the constitution.” He also said an “unprecedented fraud requires an unprecedented cure”.

Trump was writing after Musk claimed he would show that Twitter was guilty of “free speech suppression” by releasing evidence of how the platform responded to requests from campaigns in the 2020 election.

Trump is the only declared candidate for the Republican nomination in 2024 but he has faced increased criticism from Republicans and Republican-supporting media since midterm elections in which many of his endorsed candidates were defeated, including election deniers in battleground states. Republicans took the House, but only by a narrow majority, and failed to retake the Senate.

On Saturday, Trump also criticised the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, and “all of the weak Republicans who couldn’t get the presidential election of 2020 approved and out of the way fast enough”. Even after the Capitol riot, 147 Republicans objected to results in key states.

Senior Republicans have also criticised Trump over his decision to have dinner at his home in Florida with Nick Fuentes, a known white supremacist and antisemite. But though the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, has surged in polls regarding possible 2024 contenders, few in the party have broken decisively with Trump and those who have have largely been forced out.

On Saturday, Brian Schatz, a Democratic US senator from Hawaii, pointed to such hard political reality, saying: “Trump just called for the suspension of the constitution and it is the final straw for zero Republicans, especially the ones who call themselves ‘constitutional conservatives’.”

One such conservative is Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader battling to become House speaker. Not long before Trump said the constitution should be terminated, McCarthy said that when his party took control in January, it would demonstrate its constitutionalist bona fides by reading “every single word” of the hallowed document on the floor of the House.

On Sunday, Hakeem Jeffries, the newly elected Democratic leader in the House, told ABC’s This Week Trump had made “a strange statement, but the Republicans are going to have to work out their issues with the former president and decide whether they’re going to break from him and return to some semblance of reasonableness or continue to lean in to the extremism, not just of Trump, but of Trumpism”.

On the same show, Dave Joyce of Ohio, chair of the moderate Republican Governance Group, refused five opportunities to say he would not vote for Trump if he was the nominee in 2024.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... tion-fraud

[Pappywinkle]

Biden denounces antisemitism after Ye's remarks praising Hitler

President Joe Biden on Friday denounced antisemitism and urged other political leaders to do the same.

"I just want to make a few things clear: The Holocaust happened," Biden tweeted. "Hitler was a demonic figure. And instead of giving it a platform, our political leaders should be calling out and rejecting antisemitism wherever it hides."

"Silence is complicity," the president added.

Biden's post, while not specifically naming any people, follows recent antisemitic comments made by rapper Ye -- formerly known as Kanye West -- praising Adolph Hitler, and after former President Donald Trump hosted a dinner with Ye and white nationalist Nick Fuentes at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, when asked who Biden was referring to in his Twitter post, said, "I don't think it matters who in particular."

"I think what the president is trying to say is being silent is complicit, and when we see this type of hatred, when we see this type of antisemitism, we need to call it out," Jean-Pierre told reporters on Friday. "We need to be -- we need to be very, very clear and condemn that, and that's what you're going to continue to hear from this president."

Trump faced pushback from some Republicans after the dinner, with Rep. Kevin McCarthy -- in line to become the next speaker of the House -- telling ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce that he didn't think anyone should be spending any time with Fuentes.

Sen. Mitch McConnell went a step further, telling the press that anyone advocating with white supremacists or antisemites is "highly unlikely to ever be elected president of the United States."

Ye had his Twitter account suspended on Friday after his account appeared to show a swastika inside a Star of David.

Earlier, Ye praised Adolph Hitler and went on an antisemitic rant during an interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

Elon Musk, Twitter's new CEO, said the post violated the company's rules on incitement to violence.

One study from Montclair State University found hate speech increased on Twitter immediately following Musk's takeover of the platform. Musk has said he wants to embrace free speech on Twitter, saying the platform was unfairly infringing on free speech.

Jean-Pierre on Friday said Biden is "standing with the Jewish community" and highlighted his past condemnations of bigotry.

"The president, for years, including after the hateful march in Charlottesville that drove him to run -- his father had said, 'Silence is complicity,'" she said. "And as president of the United States, he feels that it's important for him to be very clear."

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-d ... d=94395541

[captkirkcanada]

Joe biden made money available for the north west to implement harm reduction . So cool an woke .

[motokelowna1]

Trumps Lobster Dinner

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[Pappywinkle]

[The Green Barbarian]

Joe biden made money available for the north west to implement harm reduction . So cool an woke .

he made money available by killing the Keystone Pipeline and thousands of jobs all in the name of a fairy tale. Very cool and woke indeed. Just the dumbest imbecile the US could ever have elected. Sleepy senile Joe is a disgrace.

[Pappywinkle]

Joe biden made money available for the north west to implement harm reduction . So cool an woke .

Yup, it's no wonder Biden's Democrats so thoroughly humiliated the GOP in the midterms.

Keep up the great work, President Biden!

[Pappywinkle]

[The Green Barbarian]

[Pappywinkle]