President Biden thread

6 hours ago, Beerman said:

"This is a frightening pattern. The world looks to the U.S. president to provide global leadership. That person must demonstrate calm and prudence while making decisions, knowing that every word will be scrutinized to ascertain U.S. policies. Biden’s consistent inability to perform this task means that aides must constantly “clean up” his remarks and clarify U.S. policy after the fact. One wonders what allied leaders must be saying to one another in private about Biden."......

....."Thus, Putin could easily believe that Biden’s gaffes are real U.S. policy, and that the White House’s walk-backs are meant to deceive him. Such a conclusion would be disastrous."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/28/stop-making-excuses-biden-gaffes-ukraine-russia/

 

You've grown found of Henry's opinions. I can understand why.  It's notable that he thinks that verbal gaffes diminish Biden in the eyes of world leaders, much like you do, and that he never had any concerns about Trump's alarming verbal weaknesses, gaffes and demonstrable lies, much like you didn't and still don't. That's a bunch of confirmation of your feelings and thoughts about Trump.  

Of course in reality, Trump was among the worst 5 presidents of all time and his bombastic and gaffe ridden communication style, while very thin on truths, facts or substance is known to incite the most radicalized supporters to violent and even un-American behavior.  Lots of linguists and psychology experts have written about what Trump's speech patterns revealed about him. What we do know is that Trump says what he wants regardless of facts or truth.  We know that Trump is well experienced in distilling his message into a sound byte. We know that Trump uses chaos or other disruption of norm to elevate his message in the general media.  We know that Trump never admits to being wrong or takes responsibility for his own words or actions. 

These things are all obvious when observing and listening to Trump and yet his supporters believe that world leaders have some much different POV from which to judge Trump's leadership as compared to Biden and would somehow consider Trump more competent or trustworthy.  

Henry is sure that people wonder "what allied leaders must be saying to one another in private about Biden.....Thus, Putin could easily believe that Biden’s gaffes are real U.S. policy, and that the White House’s walk-backs are meant to deceive him. Such a conclusion would be disastrous." Really, which people wonder that and why? The evidence, as presented in this thread before, shows the world leaders coalescing behind Biden's leadership on Ukraine. 

It sounds like Henry is laying the ground work to blame Putin's irrational military escalation on Biden and it appears that Trump supporters are happy to accept that.  Of course, as a group, Trump supporters have demonstrated an affinity for believing Trump level nonsense about Putin in the past.  Do you remember the Helsinki embarrassment?

7 hours ago, toomuchbaloney said:

You've grown found of Henry's opinions. I can understand why.  It's notable that he thinks that verbal gaffes diminish Biden in the eyes of world leaders, much like you do, and that he never had any concerns about Trump's alarming verbal weaknesses, gaffes and demonstrable lies, much like you didn't and still don't. That's a bunch of confirmation of your feelings and thoughts about Trump.  

Of course in reality, Trump was among the worst 5 presidents of all time and his bombastic and gaffe ridden communication style, while very thin on truths, facts or substance is known to incite the most radicalized supporters to violent and even un-American behavior.  Lots of linguists and psychology experts have written about what Trump's speech patterns revealed about him. What we do know is that Trump says what he wants regardless of facts or truth.  We know that Trump is well experienced in distilling his message into a sound byte. We know that Trump uses chaos or other disruption of norm to elevate his message in the general media.  We know that Trump never admits to being wrong or takes responsibility for his own words or actions. 

These things are all obvious when observing and listening to Trump and yet his supporters believe that world leaders have some much different POV from which to judge Trump's leadership as compared to Biden and would somehow consider Trump more competent or trustworthy.  

Henry is sure that people wonder "what allied leaders must be saying to one another in private about Biden.....Thus, Putin could easily believe that Biden’s gaffes are real U.S. policy, and that the White House’s walk-backs are meant to deceive him. Such a conclusion would be disastrous." Really, which people wonder that and why? The evidence, as presented in this thread before, shows the world leaders coalescing behind Biden's leadership on Ukraine. 

It sounds like Henry is laying the ground work to blame Putin's irrational military escalation on Biden and it appears that Trump supporters are happy to accept that.  Of course, as a group, Trump supporters have demonstrated an affinity for believing Trump level nonsense about Putin in the past.  Do you remember the Helsinki embarrassment?

And who believes that America is still the leader of the free world?  We elected Trump which puts us in the same handbasket with Bolsonaro, Victor Orban and Tucker Carlson.  IMHO, the baton has handed over to Angela Merkel while she was still in office.   With all our resources, we couldn't manage Covid because of our "leader of the free world."  Our death rates put us in the slot between India and the Philippines, hardly the place for the "leader of the free world."

On 4/13/2022 at 10:24 AM, toomuchbaloney said:

You've grown found of Henry's opinions. I can understand why.  It's notable that he thinks that verbal gaffes diminish Biden in the eyes of world leaders, much like you do, and that he never had any concerns about Trump's alarming verbal weaknesses, gaffes and demonstrable lies, much like you didn't and still don't. That's a bunch of confirmation of your feelings and thoughts about Trump.  

Of course in reality, Trump was among the worst 5 presidents of all time and his bombastic and gaffe ridden communication style, while very thin on truths, facts or substance is known to incite the most radicalized supporters to violent and even un-American behavior.  Lots of linguists and psychology experts have written about what Trump's speech patterns revealed about him. What we do know is that Trump says what he wants regardless of facts or truth.  We know that Trump is well experienced in distilling his message into a sound byte. We know that Trump uses chaos or other disruption of norm to elevate his message in the general media.  We know that Trump never admits to being wrong or takes responsibility for his own words or actions. 

These things are all obvious when observing and listening to Trump and yet his supporters believe that world leaders have some much different POV from which to judge Trump's leadership as compared to Biden and would somehow consider Trump more competent or trustworthy.  

Henry is sure that people wonder "what allied leaders must be saying to one another in private about Biden.....Thus, Putin could easily believe that Biden’s gaffes are real U.S. policy, and that the White House’s walk-backs are meant to deceive him. Such a conclusion would be disastrous." Really, which people wonder that and why? The evidence, as presented in this thread before, shows the world leaders coalescing behind Biden's leadership on Ukraine. 

It sounds like Henry is laying the ground work to blame Putin's irrational military escalation on Biden and it appears that Trump supporters are happy to accept that.  Of course, as a group, Trump supporters have demonstrated an affinity for believing Trump level nonsense about Putin in the past.  Do you remember the Helsinki embarrassment?

The article is a couple of weeks old and we've already discussed this "gaffe" so not sure why it was brought up again so I'll just ignore it.

However, it has nothing to do with Trump and your automatic default to Trump really isn't appropriate for this post in my opinion.  Many people left and right, including the President of France had concerns about this statement but like I said, we've already discussed it.  It's not about Trump.

But like I've said before, I won't tell you how to post, but I will comment.

On 4/13/2022 at 6:01 PM, subee said:

And who believes that America is still the leader of the free world? 

The White House does.  

Psaki said just the other day about Biden's talk of Russian genocide.

"Well, it’s — he’s the President of the United States and the leader of the free world, and he is allowed to make his views known at any point he would like."

Security advisor Sullivan has used the phrase in the past as well.  It's how the White House and Biden want to be considered.  

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2022/04/13/press-briefing-by-press-secretary-jen-psaki-April-13-2022/

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War and before the rise of China the U.S. was the one and only global "super power".  For a while Japan was an economic superpower but without the military might and they have stagnated in 90's and 2000's, and perhaps the UK could be considered a "super power" but not on the scale of the US.   Like the article Beerman posted, as such while the world may not use the phrase "leader of the free world" much, they listen, pay attention and dissect all we say and do. 

Fox News on the other hand is going with the idea that he's feeble and not the leader of the free world.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/biden-leader-free-world-absurd-devine

Maybe there is a a new leader of the Free World according to Polish Ambassador to the US

Quote

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the "leader of the free world right now," because of his refusal to stand down in the face of overpowering Russian aggression.  

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraine-zelenskyy-leader-free-world-takeout-podcast/?fbclid=IwAR1NziGjpcT_ECC817NDbyAJ_GVIV9njMTytBXoG4Lf0ZCL4ocEZFiwI3HU

58 minutes ago, Tweety said:

The article is a couple of weeks old and we've already discussed this "gaffe" so not sure why it was brought up again so I'll just ignore it.

However, it has nothing to do with Trump and your automatic default to Trump really isn't appropriate for this post in my opinion.  Many people left and right, including the President of France had concerns about this statement but like I said, we've already discussed it.  It's not about Trump.

But like I've said before, I won't tell you how to post, but I will comment.

You are allowed your opinion as to the relevance of Trump to every conversation about Biden's fitness or support in the global community from Trump defenders and supporters. I obviously disagree on a fundamental level as well as on a level of relevance. 

Do you know why our republic was so unprepared to defend itself against a corrupt right wing authoritarian and almost fell in the first coup attempt after only 4 years of corrupt right wing authoritarian push? It has to do with our reluctance to accurately define what we see here in the same way we might define similar political agendas in France, for instance.  To this day we seem reluctant to call those who facilitated a coup traitors and we allow them to remain in positions of authority in our congress and state governments.  And now we're supposed to ignore Trump's ongoing attempt to ruin this republic because his supporters keep projecting weakness upon the current POTUS, that Trump (and right wing propagandists) has convinced millions is illegitimate (just like he convinced millions that Obama was illegitimate). 

Yeah...propaganda about Biden's weakness on the world stage is all about right wing strong man rhetoric and Trump is the right wing benefactor of that nonsense.  I'm sorry that you can't see that. Until that connection is clearly seen by more Americans this country remains in deep and immediate peril.

https://theconversation.com/trumps-america-and-the-rise-of-the-authoritarian-personality-72770

Quote

In the early 1980s, Bob Altemeyer, a professor at the University of Manitoba, refined the work with the F-scale and came up with a new definition of the authoritarian personality. Altemeyer renamed the authoritarian personality “right-wing authoritarianism” (RWA) and defined it as having three related dimensions. These were: a submission towards authorities, endorsement of aggressive behaviour if sanctioned by authorities, and a high level of conventionalism – that is conforming to old traditions and values.

Among antisocial traits and attitudes investigated in psychology, RWA definitely ranks high up the naughty list. Right-wing authoritarians are, for example, more racist, more discriminatory, more aggressive, more dehumanising, more prejudiced and more sexist than individuals with low RWA. They are also less empathic or altruistic. Another downside is that they tend to think less critically, instead basing their thoughts on what authority figures say and do.

Research findings also suggest that those with high RWA are more likely to follow unethical orders. For example, in a replication of the famous Milgram obedience experiment in a video environment, high RWAs were found to be willing to use more powerful electric shocks to punish their subjects.

Keep in mind that this article was written in 2017...

Quote

So can RWA pose a threat for a democratic society? The answer is generally speculative, but at least hypothetically the answer could be yes. Some indications of its potential danger can be found in the following fields of research.

A study on university students has shown that the level of authoritarian attitudes is significantly higher immediately after a terrorist attack than during a non-threatening condition. This supports findings from longitudinal research showing that RWA increase when the world is perceived to be becoming more dangerous.

How such reactions relate to people’s political choices has suddenly become very relevant. Researchers interested in understanding destructive political leadership suggest that one must look at how environmental conditions, the followers and the leader interact with each other. This is what is referred to as the toxic triangle – a society with a high degree of experienced threat, a narcissistic or hate-spreading political leader and followers with unmet needs or antisocial values is at risk of adopting a destructive political course.

So it’s unsurprising to hear that authoritarianism was found to be one of the factors statistically predicting support for Donald Trump before the recent US election.

If we are paying attention as citizens we are aware of a the creep or even march toward right wing authoritarianism across the globe. Trump hailed and praised that as he and his republican sycophants pushed the USA in that direction...from directly involving family in politics to use of extortion as a form of "diplomacy" all the way to publicly praising and supporting right wing authoritarians like Orbàn or Putin. It would be unwise, in my view to not take every opportunity to remind people that our republic is under attack from right wing republican politicians led by Trump.  It is unwise to give right wing rhetoric about Biden the benefit of the doubt without highlighting the right wing authoritarian approach that would be elevated should we simply accept their appraisals and opinions on the the state of the union and what needs to be done to make things better. 

Nope, you aren't going to tell me how to post and your are certainly welcome to publish your opinions.  By now everyone has realized that I'm rarely going to let any suggestion that we shouldn't mention Trump when talking about American presidents or politics go without rebuttal.  Trump and his supporters both in government and in the voting booth are dangerous to this country, they represent a clear threat to our democratic republic.  We ignore that at our peril. 

3 hours ago, Tweety said:

The White House does.  

Psaki said just the other day about Biden's talk of Russian genocide.

"Well, it’s — he’s the President of the United States and the leader of the free world, and he is allowed to make his views known at any point he would like."

Security advisor Sullivan has used the phrase in the past as well.  It's how the White House and Biden want to be considered.  

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2022/04/13/press-briefing-by-press-secretary-jen-psaki-April-13-2022/

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War and before the rise of China the U.S. was the one and only global "super power".  For a while Japan was an economic superpower but without the military might and they have stagnated in 90's and 2000's, and perhaps the UK could be considered a "super power" but not on the scale of the US.   Like the article Beerman posted, as such while the world may not use the phrase "leader of the free world" much, they listen, pay attention and dissect all we say and do. 

Fox News on the other hand is going with the idea that he's feeble and not the leader of the free world.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/biden-leader-free-world-absurd-devine

I am speaking about the world OUTSIDE of the US.  It doesn't make any difference, in that context, what the WH thinks.  We may be at a time in history that doesn't have a "leader" of the free world left anymore.  That may be a luxury concept of the past .

37 minutes ago, subee said:

I am speaking about the world OUTSIDE of the US.  It doesn't make any difference, in that context, what the WH thinks.  We may be at a time in history that doesn't have a "leader" of the free world left anymore.  That may be a luxury concept of the past .

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/uk-s-johnson-biden-us-back-leader-free-world-n1258384

Quote

Joe Biden has put the United States back as leader of the free world in a fantastic move that has helped the West to unite, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday. "As you've seen and heard earlier, America is unreservedly back as the leader of the free world and that is a fantastic thing," Johnson told the Munich Security Conference, referring to a speech by the U.S. president earlier on Friday.

I agree with you, the "leader of the free world" is a concept of the past.  However,  like I said, countries while not necessarily using the phrase "leader of the free world" they still look to the United States as the preeminent leader/power and pay attention to our every move and words.  

This is why when Ragean said something about a "limited nuclear war" all of Europe went up in arms.  This is why when Trump said NATO is obsolete it caused much concern throughout Europe.    This is why when Biden says "genocide" or "Putin must be removed" they take notice and it's a big deal.  

Covid weakened our image, but Europe didn't seem to fair much better with high rates of infection, and protests. 

I would agree with you that during the Trump years Germany was the default leader of the free world, but it's not a title they seem to be interested in carrying.  There are many analysis about the relationship between the US and Germany, including the idea they seem to be moving more towards the US in alliance and away from France.  

The worlds strongest economies have a US military presence.  30,000 troops in South Korea, 55,000 in Japan, and 35,000 in Germany.  Like I said, the world doesn't blindly do what we say because of our money and military. They go their own way on foreign policy, climate change, and economic policy they still look to the US for protection and hope for good leadership.  In my opinion.

31 minutes ago, Tweety said:

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/uk-s-johnson-biden-us-back-leader-free-world-n1258384

I agree with you, the "leader of the free world" is a concept of the past.  However,  like I said, countries while not necessarily using the phrase "leader of the free world" they still look to the United States as the preeminent leader/power and pay attention to our every move and words.  

This is why when Ragean said something about a "limited nuclear war" all of Europe went up in arms.  This is why when Trump said NATO is obsolete it caused much concern throughout Europe.    This is why when Biden says "genocide" or "Putin must be removed" they take notice and it's a big deal.  

Covid weakened our image, but Europe didn't seem to fair much better with high rates of infection, and protests. 

I would agree with you that during the Trump years Germany was the default leader of the free world, but it's not a title they seem to be interested in carrying.  There are many analysis about the relationship between the US and Germany, including the idea they seem to be moving more towards the US in alliance and away from France.  

The worlds strongest economies have a US military presence.  30,000 troops in South Korea, 55,000 in Japan, and 35,000 in Germany.  Like I said, the world doesn't blindly do what we say because of our money and military. They go their own way on foreign policy, climate change, and economic policy they still look to the US for protection and hope for good leadership.  In my opinion.

And what good has all of this military might done for a Dr. No attempting to take over a country to have a port and show his might?  We are just as weak as everyone else in this attempt to avoid Putin's use of nuclear option.

8 minutes ago, subee said:

And what good has all of this military might done for a Dr. No attempting to take over a country to have a port and show his might?  We are just as weak as everyone else in this attempt to avoid Putin's use of nuclear option.

Did he attack Germany?  Has China attacked Taiwan or Japan.  Has North Korea attacked South Korea?  Our strongest allies have essentially remained safe since WWII and the Korean War.

Europe had a tendency to attack each other through the centuries and for the Western Part they haven't done that since WWII and the rise of the United States.

Obviously we can't stop war around the world.  Afghanistan also proved a lot to us.  But I don't think we're a weak and powerless country.  We too have the nuclear option.

If we aren't weak or powerless against Putin, does that mean that WE have to use the nuclear option first?  The whole world refuses to use the power they have because they don't want to start WW III.  I would say that we are in the position of weakness and Dr. No has won this war so far.  I wonder what would happen if the oligarchs got together and offered a one billion bounty on Putin.  It would be like a Dr. No movie:) But the collective patience might pay when Putin can't run a war and a failing economy at the same time.  But an awful lot of human suffering had to take place while the world did nothing "powerful" enough to stop this guy.  I still think steroid moon facies when I see his photos so we can only hope that he will die soon.