June 26, 2019

"Toward the end of his vice presidency, Joe Biden was a prime player in the administration’s bid to win support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership..."

"... the failed trade deal that was supposed to be the crowning achievement of Barack Obama’s presidency-long 'pivot to Asia.' Biden liked to hold up two maps of the Pacific region—one shaded in blue to show America’s influence in the region if the deal passed, and one shaded in red to show China’s growing influence if it didn’t. 'I think it’s very, very important to understand that the 20th-century rules of the road no longer exist, and new ones have to be written, and we should write them,' I heard him say in April 2015, to a gathering of the insistently moderate New Democrat Coalition at a hotel on the Chesapeake Bay. To other crowds, Biden and others in the administration would try to sell it as Obama’s trade deal, arguing that people should support it because they liked and trusted the president.... On the eve of the first presidential-primary debates, however, Biden’s 2020 campaign wouldn’t say whether he still supported the deal.... Even as Biden is running explicitly as a restoration of the Obama presidency, his campaign press secretary declined to comment on what his position is, other than to point to recent remarks the former vice president has made: that he opposes President Donald Trump’s trade war, and that he’d like higher labor standards in the revamped NAFTA agreement that the current administration is hoping to get approved by Congress. The campaign says more details on what he’d do on trade will be coming soon."

From "Joe Biden Won’t Say If He Backs the Trade Deal He Helped Sell/The Atlantic surveyed the Democratic presidential candidates on whether they support the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Only some took a definitive position" (The Atlantic).

He'll have more details on everything once he figures out what people seem to want. He's distinguishing himself as a follower. He was going to go big on Follower Of Obama ("FOO"), but he's modifying that with Follower Of The People To The Extent That Enough Of Them Follow Trump ("FOTPTTETEOTFT," pronounced FOT-ptee-tee-OH-tffft).

76 comments:

Phil 314 said...

“Only some took a definitive position”

The answer my friend is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind

tcrosse said...

42

Henry said...

Superb article.

MadisonMan said...

He's distinguishing himself as a follower

Exactly right, like so many Senators. A great reason not to elect them as leaders.

And a President must be a leader. From the front, not from the behind.

David Begley said...

America needs to realize that Joe is a tool for the Chinese.

gilbar said...

He'll have more details on everything once he figures out what people seem to want.

Hey! the man has principals! if you don't like them; he has others

iowan2 said...

Our future President of focus polls.

President Trump is shredding conventional wisdom. By conventional wisdom, I mean the State Dept. A Cabinet level agency that has perfected perpetual negotiation but never an agreement. President Trump sets a goal, then enters into negotiation. A negotiation that allows both sides a win. This is why President Trump is evil. He is doing, what the State Dept has failed to do. All of their wisdom and experience exposed as an elaborate facade.

Here, Joe doesnt know what his goal is supposed to be. Increase trade for US goods, or sacrifice US interests for the benefit of 3rd world countries. The later is the paradigm established after WWII that basically said the United States is all powerful and will sacrifice because we are guilty of defeating Fascist powers of Europe, and Imperial Japan.

Sebastian said...

"He'll have more details on everything once he figures out what people seem to want.

He'll have more details on everything once he figures out what a majority of moderate and sorta-lefty Dems seem to want, so that he can win the primaries. Problem is, SlowJoe has too big a record to pander effectively, and he is too white for Dems to go for an O do-over.

robother said...

"There's Uncle Joe, he's a movin' kind of slow...at the Junction."

traditionalguy said...

You have to admire a DC career pol who is loyal to the foreign Nation that has paid him the cash . Joe doesn’t take money from China and then sell them out to win elections. He is great Globalist who honors the Asian Masters of world cash flows that ignore National boundaries as no more than lines on old Colonial European maps.

Wince said...

...pronounced FOT-ptee-tee-OH-tffft.

It took me a little while to recall where I've heard that before, but that's a perfect match for Joe Biden.

Bill the Cat from Bloom County!

I Callahan said...

You remember Uncle Joe? He was the one afraid to cut the cake.

gilbar said...

Hillary: Selling American Uranium to the russians...... Just Fine
Jo Biden: Totally in the pocket of the chinese...... Just Fine
O'Bama: sending pallets of cash to his Islamic masters..... Just Fine

President Trump: has hotels or something......... IMPEACHMENT!!! Emoluments !!

gspencer said...

Joe Biden has helped give away American sovereignty his entire "career" (career being taking a public paycheck). He's pro-NWO all the way.

doctrev said...

Outstanding. I genuinely believe that building the TPP, but then excoriating it, is most of the reason why Hillary Clinton lost major industrial states that no Democrat has lost since the first Bush. That Biden is truly dumb enough to think he can win back Pennsylvania while being lukewarm on TPP is a sure sign that the White House paste stocks were dangerously low throughout the Obama treason. Trade is a ACTUAL critical issue, not the "ad hominem" attack that moronic LLR's insist built the Trump presidency. And every prominent Democratic presidential candidate since Ross Perot has lied about fixing it, then forgotten about it forever once in office. You won't be able to fool these voters, and Biden's not smart enough to make a worthwhile attempt.

Remember: Trump built USMCA in two years. Two years! The fraud is over, and he's going to be re-elected.

MountainMan said...

"Even as Biden is running explicitly as a restoration of the Obama presidency"

No.

Dave Begley said...

gilbar nailed it. Comment of the day award winner!

buwaya said...

Biden says what he is given to say.
That is, by the team that is managing him, and their funders.
The interesting part is, as Metternich used to wonder, what they mean by it.
There is no very accurate way to evaluate that as we lack necessary information.

narciso said...

These are not the droids yourd looking for.

narciso said...

The headline bots were giving the wrong story. Huh.

Fen said...

Good article. Nice catch.

Yang’s response perhaps best captures just how confused the Democratic Party is on trade right now: a candidate with no record in office, running a campaign with little to lose, still apparently finds TPP too tricky an issue to have a clear position on. On that front, he has company—including the race’s front-runner.

Perhaps it's not confusion but laziness. "Why should I put in the work during training camp only to throw the game once the season starts?"

I think the Dems know they can't win and are just dialing it in. There will be a race to not be the last one to leave the race.

Fen said...

Chuck: Trump apparently just lost his mind in a -

Off-topic material will be deleted and has been deleted. You will be ejaculated at a speed of more than 27 mph.

There is so much material here. Go to the last open thread if you have some other topic to discuss.

Chuck said...

Fen said...
Chuck: Trump apparently just lost his mind in a -

Off-topic material will be deleted and has been deleted. You will be ejaculated at a speed of more than 27 mph.

There is so much material here. Go to the last open thread if you have some other topic to discuss.


Good idea. I just did that.

Tina Trent said...

Following the smell of Chinese money funneling into his son's pockets.

narciso said...

I wouldn't be that congratulatory to drsghi:
https://mobile.twitter.com/W7VOA/status/1143855935837954048

Darrell said...

Joe should cure cancer before the election, just to prove he isn't a stupid bullshitter.

narciso said...

Heck of a job:

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/450100-senate-investigation-finds-multiple-federal-agencies-left-sensitive-data?fbclid=IwAR3jDB9bS947pSHhtwCVuMQMu8UJK4ThWci9dwfTIxHlt_JFpZCy5LLqsAY#.XRN5OdnocS8.facebook

buwaya said...

In the news, re "Russian Collusion", the Nordstream gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. This is the sort of real issue that underlies public sturm und drang.
This particular deal explains a lot of euro politics for instance, and some otherwise inexplicable moves like Germany's abandonment of nuclear power generation.

And besides that the strategic level of Eastern European disenchantment with the German political class, as it will boost Russian power, to their risk. The worst Polish nightmare is German-Russian collusion. It explains the German reluctance to reinforce Poland, and Polish hopes for US reinforcements - "Fort Trump", and the Bush ABM project, and "Russian Collusion" explains the Obama admin scuttling of that, and, perhaps, why Bertelsmann gave Obama $60million. And a great deal else.

It also suggests the Russian purchase of German politicians. But they do it with more subtlety in Germany.

That is something real, with a known value of concrete and steel and gas and calculable economic stakes. This is one of those things that help put solidity beneath the Metternichean question of "what does he mean by that". This case is relatively easy.

Other such things, unseen drivers for overt politics, are hidden in details of tax treaties and investment regulations, repatriation rules and legal risks, financial reporting requirements, etc. A morass of detail that represents great value for those driving politics.

Now to the TPP - that is far more difficult to untangle the underlying interests. Who expects to get what out of it, and "what do they mean by that", of any maneuver or statement of any player, it is murky to we the public, but it is necessary to understand the why of anything. But we don't know.

Tina Trent said...

The Democrats are stuck with the libertarians on this one: due to knee-jerk Obama fetish optics and the ignorant preference of young voters for literally anything branded global, they're actually feeling pressure to throw manufacturing jobs under the bus again. You just have to mouth some inanities about wanting higher standards for workers, though nobody even asks them which workers they mean. The triumph of demonizing American industrial bitter work clingers over all common sense is about to bite the Democrat candidates in their collective ass. Asses?

narciso said...

They used an ex?? Stasi operative to run nordstream, and put Schroeder on the board, drydens red to black paints the overall scheme

Henry said...

No handpicked successor ever runs on the record of a successful president. Not GHWB, not Al Gore, not Hillary Clinton, not Joe Biden.

The demands on a candidacy are different than the policies of a presidency.

chickelit said...

Hey Joe, where you going' with that bun in your hand?

buwaya said...

And, of course, one has to ask "what do they mean by that", about this article in the Atlantic.

Danno said...

So every Biden position will be focus group tested?

Nonapod said...

“it’s easy being Vice President – you don’t have to do anything.” - Joe Biden

Well, I guess you at least show enthusiastic support for your boss's' ideas.

In fairness, I imagine that most regular Dem voters don't even know or care wtf the "Trans-Pacific Partnership" even was, let alone what it entailed.

stevew said...

So, Joe's not a leader, here is my shocked face :-O

Will make for a nice contrast with Trump. Looking at the field of Democrats, there doesn't seem to be a lot of support for leadership. The only qualification for the candidates seems to be: defeat Trump. I'm not going to watch the debates tonight and tomorrow, I'll read up on how the candidates attempt to differentiate themselves.

Darkisland said...

This illustrates the problem of polling in general and its anti-democratic nature. Politicians do polls and focus groups to find out what people want to hear. They they campaign, promising to do what the polls show people want them to do.

They never have any intention of doing it of course, it is just cynical bullshit to get elected.

PDJT should implement the Royko Gambit (Mike Royko, late Chicago columnist). PDJT should explain why polling is against the people's interest. He should explain that there is no legal, moral or ethical reason to answer polls honestly. He should encourage people to lie to pollsters.

He should explain that he will tell us what he thinks should be done and if you agree vote for him. He has a pretty good track record of doing, or at least trying to do, what he promised in his campaign.

Then just run on record and principals.

Leave all the other schlubs not knowing what to do.

It would not take much. Just saying this, especially if backed up by a few percent of pollees would make polls worthless.

And a damn good thing too.

John Henry

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

"If it starts with the word "Trans"-- I'm for it !!"

He's also a big supporter of TFOU-- Trans-follicular Olfactory Uptake

or what is commonly known as 'hairsniffing'

Darkisland said...

Speaking of Royko, and perhaps off topic, I used to buy the books of his collected columns. He had an ongoing battle with Mayor "Dick" Daly. The old one, though I remember him attacking the son when he was just another grifting lawyer with a friend at city hall.

My favorite column was about a shiftless cousin who "had been unemployed so long he had forgotten what he was unemployed at" The cousin fell asleep on a park bench one sunny afternoon. An alderman spotted him and thought he looked so peaceful that he gave him a city job.

I'm probably lying about this since it has been 30 or more years since I last read it. But I think it was something like this.

John Henry

Darkisland said...

Watch Joe here talking about how they cut the top of his head off, twice. Well, trying to talk, some might say he sounds drunk.

-I [Biden] said: ‘What are my chances of getting off this table and being completely normal?’ He [surgeon] said: ‘Well, your chances of living are a lot better.’

“And I said, ‘OK. What are they?’ He said, ‘Well, they're in the 35 to 50 percent range.’



https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/brain-surgeon-told-biden-he-had-less-50-chance-being-completely-normal

So his surgeon thought his chances of being normal were rather low. I think the surgeon has been proven correct.

narciso said...

When would he be?

https://mobile.twitter.com/RichardGrenell/status/1143897626414387201

Ice Nine said...

Nice one, I Callahan.

mccullough said...

The Manchurian Candidate now opposes the TPP. His Red Masters are running his campaign. They went a return of investment on the $1 billion they gave to Coke Head Son.

They should let Junior and Coke Head debate. Some real scholars there. Probably no dumber than W.

wwww said...

"In fairness, I imagine that most regular Dem voters don't even know or care wtf the "Trans-Pacific Partnership" even was, let alone what it entailed."

Yeah. Twitter/ blog people vastly underestimate the faction of voters not on twitter/blogs. & they underestimate the public disinterest in the "news of the day" discussed daily on blogs/twitter.

News story #5,783 of how twitter/internet/ media wokeness is not predictive of primary voters.

buwaya said...

Very few people are in a position to understand the details, implications and probable consequences of TPP or anything like it.
And we have little idea of who expects to benefit, and who they expect to lose from it.

Democracy completely fails here.

buwaya said...

The only democratic check on such policies is as a way to implement the Chinese concept of the withdrawal of the Mandate of Heaven, wherin public unhappiness, generalized, for all sorts of deficiencies and calamities, is interpreted as a divine judgement. What the government has done wrong specifically cannot be singled out, or analyzed or corrected. There is no way to engineer solutions to specific policies.

It is of course futile to preemptively analyze policies. There is very little information to go on, and what there is is mainly rhetorical.

narciso said...

the last link is about a voa reporter misrepresenting part of a trump statement

Michael K said...

That is something real, with a known value of concrete and steel and gas and calculable economic stakes. This is one of those things that help put solidity beneath the Metternichean question of "what does he mean by that". This case is relatively easy.

The Russian-German collusion is easier to explain than The insanity of Australian politicians.

“The global business community is addressing climate-related risks to transition to a low-carbon economy. Clearly, to create a sustainable investment climate is to disclose and manage climate-related financial risks.”

“Climate change threatens the assets and operations of businesses, communities and governments. Most countries have signed the Paris Agreement and are transitioning to low-carbon economies.”

“The global business community is making significant strides to address strategic risks. The wave generated by the Taskforce of Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) is an exemplar.”

“Since then, key bodies such as the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), Australian Securi- ties and Investments Commission (ASIC), Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) and now the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) have confirmed the strategic need and the legal liabilities that require businesses to consider and report their climate-related risks.”


So, shutting off electricity is worth destroying the economy.

Naturally all electricity generation will be renewable by 2030 (largely state-owned), prices will be magically $7 per MWH lower (despite being $40+ higher right now), 50% of new car sales will be electric (gee, I wonder who they thought was going to win the election!), EVs will result in health benefits from . . . . drum roll please . . . . . a decrease in petrol pollution saving up to $735m per annum in Victoria alone (who knew we were all so ill from petrol poisoning?), and we will save hundreds of millions in interest payments on government debt because of APRA’s TCFD regulatory excellence. Total BS.

Maybe it's that business of being upside down but Australian leftists are even crazier than Democrats.

Doug said...

"FOTPTTETEOTFT,"
You forgot "LGBTQLMNOP"

Darkisland said...

Buwaya,

You are right about most people would not be able to understand TPP. That is not the real problem.

The real problem is that it was done in secret and not even Representatives and Senators, other than a very select, very few, were allowed to know what was in it.

I've not followed it closely since PDJT got elected but I think it is still secret, isn't it? Or has it been made public?

Hell, it might be the greatest thing since sliced bread.

But we, and our elected representatives, just can't know.

That pisses me off. A lot.

John Henry

wwww said...

This morning Trump tweeted some random girl he thought was Megan Rapinoe. He thought he was fighting with the soccer player.

I imagine the upcoming election campaign will be ridiculous.

https://twitter.com/meganrapino Maybe megan rapinoe @ meganrapino .

Doug said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Drago said...

wwww: "This morning Trump tweeted some random girl he thought was Megan Rapinoe."

My God!

Have you alerted Robert Mueller?

Drago said...

"In fairness, I imagine that most regular Dem voters don't even know or care wtf the "Trans-Pacific Partnership" even was, let alone what it entailed."

Of course not. Most voters are only familiar with those policies that impact them directly.

Key constituencies within the democrat base (union members in battleground states) are very aware of the impacts of NAFTA and TPP and other tariff/trade policies.

Thats one reason why Trump broke the Blue Wall and made LLR Chuck cry in a corner while sucking his thumb.

wwww said...

Have you alerted Robert Mueller?

Nope. I may alert the Chicago Style guide and ask for a copyeditor STAT!!! Random soccer fan girl got hate mail because of this mistake.

1) Hire a copyeditor and fact checker. He's a billionaire he can afford it.

2) The only job of said fact checker is to check Presidential tweets. This fact-checker guy must be on-call 24-7.

3) Fact Checker/ Copyeditor checks all tweets before Trump hits SEND.

4) If Trump is not sending out these tweets, the social media person needs to be reassigned yesterday.

Errors are unacceptable. Trump is the President of the United States of America. His tweets are official pronouncements of the President as the President. His person represents the USA; these tweets are not private messages for a private persona.

wwww said...

maybe megan rapinoe

@meganrapino
ngl thought it was a joke when i saw the d*nald tweeted me but here we are


mom come pick me up old men are attacking me
8:04 AM - 26 Jun 2019


Drago said...

LOL

wwww is clearly struggling as she comes to terms with the rapid and complete collapse of her latest hoax sexual assault accusation.

We see this alot on the left/LLR-left.

We will see it even more in coming months.

They have literally nothing else.

Drago said...

And remember, this is just months after the entire left and media went to DEFCON 1 against high schoolers.

And my personal favorite angle to this is wwww pretending Rapinoe hasn't been taking a knee in international competition and lobbing some vulgarities in public over the issue of visiting the White House.

Next up for wwww: How Trump violates the Constitution when he has a typo.

Drago said...

We have seen LLR Chuck morph into Inga, and now wwww is morphing into LLR Chuck.

The pattern of descent is unmistakeable and clear.

buwaya said...

"Hell, it might be the greatest thing since sliced bread.

But we, and our elected representatives, just can't know.

That pisses me off. A lot."

Almost nothing that goes on in your governments CAN be followed, even if fully disclosed to your representatives. There is so much of it and it is so complex that the information cost is overwhelming even if you took it as a full time job and you were trained and experienced in these matters as anyone can be. That is above and beyond any withholding of information.

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n.n said...

Joe "PC" Biden. He's still viable.

n.n said...

The Russian-German collusion

The communist-socialist and fascist axis.

n.n said...

It is of course futile to preemptively analyze policies.

The viability of democracy is inversely proportional to complexity.

narciso said...

Indeed:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1143890670739812353.html

rcocean said...

Biden is a 100% globalist who will NOT fight for America. He loves TPP - but he'll hide his support just like Hillary did.

The dodge that Establishment Dem's always do is to say they're in favor of Globalist treaty X, which will gut American Manufacturing BUT they're in favor of tough labor laws overseas and $$ for retraining.

Its just a scam. But D voters are so dumb, they fall for it every-time. I'm sure there are plenty of dumbshit "yellow dog" democrats in the Midwest sill waiting for Biden to get elected and redo NAFTA.

rcocean said...

Biden will support open borders, Climate Change, Amnesty, Globalist trade deals, and will appoint crazy Left-wing judges, all the while talking about how "Moderate" he is.

He'll be more a war-wonger than Trump. But will pose as the peace candidate to win votes. Will he cancel student debt or give us National Health insurance? Yes. But he'll hem and haw and dodge in order to appear "Moderate".

rcocean said...

People forget Clinton was supposed to be the "moderate" from Arkansas. Gore was the "Moderate" from Tennessee. After he lost, he dropped the mask, and became Mr. Crazy Climate change.

If you go back far enough, LBJ was supposed to be the "Moderate" Democrat who was going to keep us out of a Vietnam War, be fiscally responsible, balance the budget, and be middle of the road on race and social issues.

tim in vermont said...

It’s funny that the US leads the world in cutting CO2 emissions despite not signing any of these “accords.”

Hint for Slow Joe and his followers: “It’s fracking and natural gas."

wwww said...

wwww is morphing into LLR Chuck.

yeah sure it's part of my gender transition. Get ready for the new pronouns. Meanwhile, Pres of the USA should get a fact checker and never @ a random teenager again. It's not hard, hire a editor.

I'm kind of amazed that a bunch of people are this interested in the election, this far in advance. Are you all going to watch the debate? You couldn't pay me enough. It's the never ending election. Other countries get this done in 6 weeks.

narciso said...

That debate is going to be sound and fury signifying nothing told by a (chorus) of idiots
https://mobile.twitter.com/mindnotforrent/status/1143961997400317953?s=21

narciso said...

We're providing perspective on the head fool in the deck.

Rory said...

"It's the never ending election"

Half the country is still stuck in the last one.

Drago said...

www: "yeah sure it's part of my gender transition."

So, you are assuming LLR Chuck's gender, eh?

Drago said...

rcocean: "Biden is a 100% globalist who will NOT fight for America."

No Democrat will.

Which is why LLR Chuck fights so hard for the dems.

Darkisland said...

Blogger buwaya said...

Almost nothing that goes on in your governments CAN be followed, even if fully disclosed to your representatives.

That is certainly true and also pisses me off. We need representatives that will say "Stop, I cannot understand this bill/treaty/regulation and I am not going to vote in favor of something I don't understand"

But that is a whole 'nother issue.

We still need access to the original document, even if just to see how opaque it is and ask why they Hell we should support it.

John Henry