> [!info|no-icon flex bg-c-gray]- Video Transcript <br> _{**Click to Expand ➜**} > \- **[URL](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA)** > > - [00:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=1) so the election is over we have a new president and I'm sure everyone is eager to discuss what's next however I'm one of the weird people who wants to discuss the current president of the United States Joe Biden remember him on July 21st 2024 Joe Biden decided to end his bid for reelection that was weird right I don't just mean his historically unprecedented weird the only three US presidents of the 20th century who didn't seek reelection after one term were former vice presidents who had taken over the position upon their predecessor's passing but that's just one type of weird it was also vibrationally weird the past few years have been ripe with discourse about President Joe Biden's Health moments like his lapses and > - [00:52](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=52) presence his empty stairs his embarrassing FAA he's been unable to identify people like his defense secretary he's been misspeaking regly accidentally calling Vladimir zinski President Putin ladies and gentlemen President Putin President Putin you're going to be President Putin president zinski I'm so focused on beating Putin we got to worry about it oops or accidentally calling KLA Harris vice president Trump I wouldn't have picked vice president Trump to be vice president but I think she was not qualified to be president then there's the memory issues seemingly forgetting that congresswoman Jackie wski had died a month prior to to a White House conference and wondering aloud whether she was there or calling French prime > - [01:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=94) minister Emmanuel macron Mand as in 1980s prime minister of France Fran swam M Durand and then there was that debate dealing with everything we have to do with uh look if we finally beat Medicare thank you president uh Biden president Trump the American people and Biden's own party lit up with unimpeachable doubt about Biden's mental acuity apparently this is some stuff we've gotten after the election his internal polling was very bad so he and his team quickly manufactured an exit strategy they would hand this off to his young now seasoned vice president kamla Harris this would set the foundation for President Biden to construct a new image of himself as a sympathetic figure one who is being bullied for his age but > - [02:29](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=149) wisely stands his own increasing limitations one who after a 53-year career in American politics most of which was spent at the head of the nation's left of center party proudly hands his last and dream job off to a younger black woman Now setting the table for the future of his party and his country Mike drop walk off stage retire it almost makes you forget what he actually did during that half century long career the embarrassing presidential runs and devastating legislative decisions the protagonistic figure of a party shifting with the political tide a primary antagonist of leftwing sentiment in that party it almost makes you forget how we got to this position where many perceived the US's last Bastion of Hope against the > - [03:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=198) rise of new fascism was a man in his 80s who had helped build the very political climate he now promised to fix almost nobody as Martin Luther King what his legislative agenda was he marched to change attitudes when the women's movement started it did not move with a constitutional amendment they march to change attitudes but Frank I promise you you'll see my 15-point plans and 19point position papers but ultimately Frank this country needs a leader and leader change attitudes about people Joseph robinet Biden Jr was born November 20th 1942 a Scorpio in Scranton Pennsylvania his ethnic Origins are a mix of Irish English and some French his style of communication and mannerisms have always had a working class tint > - [04:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=260) straight talking old slang spitting wisdom but he's always claimed the middle class almost obsessively as we'll see in his political career there exists an important difference between those two middle class is one of those terms that we tend to take for granted we know it when we see it and we know it to be a real thing it's a reference to those of us who aren't poor nor necessarily working to make a living but definitely aren't rich either it's the thing your white friend from college often says he is which confuses you later on after you visit his house and find it has two stories a huge basement a big backyard with a swimming pool and four cars in that it is a highly political term and as with any highly political term it means different things to different > - [05:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=303) people often without them realizing that in Joe Biden's case it meant that his father once was rich but lost his fortune because of a scammer a piece for the New Yorker by Adam enus dives into the complex origins of the Lost Biden Fortune Biden in his Memoir wrote about opening a closet and finding his father's po Mallet equestrian boots riding breaches and hunting pinks items that suggested a past life of privilege at one point Biden senior had a lot of money but he lost it all for reasons that went mostly unexplained I never asked him much about his life and he didn't offer Biden wrote in 1930 Joseph Harry Biden Joe Biden's grandfather who worked a high-paying job in the American Oil company bought a duplex in Wilmington Delaware in 1934 he lost it > - [05:52](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=352) after falling into significant debt which pushed the family northward to Pennsylvania where Joseph Harry was relocated to a small smaller branch in 1937 young Joseph robinet Biden senior took a job at his father's company but the warmth of the organization was lost after its founder passed away Joseph Harry became a heavy drinker and died in 1941 of a cerebral hemorrhage Amo paid out his wife for a year in payments equivalent to his salary but after that year was over Joe Biden senior needed to get a new job he turned to his uncle and Godfather Bill Sheen senior who became Rich roofing for the US military and taking his time so as to get as much pay out as possible bro was a finesser but you know those War contracts pay well War pays well really afterwards Sheen > - [06:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=401) senior started building waterproof grave vaults and came into contact with a very interesting man named Arthur Brisco later Brisco and Biden's Uncle sold more than 18,000 grave vaults in Baltimore and Washington DC and each year brought in the equivalent of nearly 2 million today later the two went back into the war contracting business building plastic armor for warships Biden senior who had stayed with the sheen for periods of time in Baltimore and had been pampered by them was put in charge of its Boston division helping them with sorting out legal and labor problems the thing about Arthur Brisco is that he was according to Bill Sheen's grandson a scary guy he probably killed his second wife while having an affair he was unbothered by ethic iCal Scruples and he > - [07:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=451) and Sheen's edgy business practices were faced with aggressive labor unionization efforts which President Biden's father worked to stomp out Brisco reached out to Notorious crime bosses to try to violently attack unionization leaders paying the Frank Castello to keep the unions in line and having him pay them more than the union help was making Biden senior was not as rich as his uncle or his sedy partner from their business but he certainly was doing well the Biden family ended up buying a Dutch Colonial House in Newton Massachusetts they splurged on fur coats and Fine China and at one point had an Excursion of a friend's boat which he may or may not have burned in an insurance fraud scheme alongside his cousin Sheen Jr the Navy eventually caught on to the Shady > - [08:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=497) High salary payouts Brisco was offering his workers to Stave off unionization investigators found he had paid today's equivalent of over $7 million in illegal salaries and the company was essentially taken down by the national War labor board Brisco and Sheen senior were ordered to return a huge chunk of their salaries and Joe Biden's dad was suddenly out of money Joe Biden's mom Jean Biden and her side of the family the fegans were always disenchanted with Joe Biden senior the fegans were educated workingclass people and Biden senior was rich from war profiteers and he lived like it when that Came Crashing Down Biden senior was forced to relocate to Delaware but he made a good living later on as a used car salesman President Biden's family had money but > - [09:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=543) they weren't rich as far as his cousins the sheen there was far less Fortune Arthur Brisco got off well but Bill Sheen senior became broke and deadbeat his son Biden senior's cousin and close friend eventually drank himself to death in 1969 despite Biden's senior's pleas for him to slow down Joe Biden Jr took much of his working class adjacent ethos from his mother's side of the family he partly modeled himself after his uncle Boosey who died in World War II but he also shared that sense of ambition that his father lived with one thing about middle class people is that they usually don't want to be middle class they want to be rich this makes sense of course the world we live in becomes Kinder the Richer you get but the journey to becoming rich especially in a short > - [09:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=591) period of time is not one marked by morality when we examine Biden's life we can see patterns of a person always want ing more for himself but we also see a person who concerns himself greatly with tales of the average Joe as Adam enus notes in Biden's 2022 State of the Union Address he said so like many of you I grew up in a family when the price of food went up it was felt throughout the family it may be because of both sides of his family the one disgraced by exploitative business Endeavors and the one morally appalled by such a realm in the first place that the bidens disowned the scenes according to Bill the third's ex-wife Trudy their daughter captured the reality bluntly they ended up in the white house she said we ended up in the trailer > -[10:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=640) park don't let those dirty Reds get their hands on Grandma's boo so obviously Joe Biden did not slip and fall and land into the White House he wasn't Rich he wasn't groomed for political office from day one what he had was Verve as written in this flattering biography Joe by Biden a life of trial and Redemption by Jules wit cover Biden grew up fairly athletic though not incredibly so he never expressed interest in drinking or smoking he also had an interest in public service and a legendary sense of morality Whit cover Notes One famous anecdote Joe and the rest of the arch Mir football team would often go to the charcoal pit a hamburger joint that looked and still looks like an old diner with coin machines at each booth for > -[11:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=686) playing records now CDs the team in included the only black student at the school at the time Frank Hutchins and Legend has it that Joe led the whole team out on one occasion when the proprietor declined to serve him with his white teammates in the main dining area as I remember it fa said there was a bunch of us who went there they had a takeout window and Frank was told he could get something there and eat it in the car or something they wouldn't let him come inside and the whole bunch of us left Joe was part of the group I don't remember anyone person saying let's leave but I'm sure somebody said that because everybody decided well we'll either eat together or we're not going to eat at all Hutton much later said there were a number of these kinds > -[12:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=729) of incidents and it is clear to me Senator Biden could be referring to anyone and be perfectly accurate keep that story in mind it will become relevant later in this video Joe Biden knew his life goals from an early age a childhood friend notes that he never saw a soap box that he didn't want to get up on that he was knowledgeable about history and politics and that at around 17 years old after his father asked Joe what he wanted to be when he grew up he said Mr Walsh I want to be president of the United States Tales of Biden's youth are filled with Legends like these he was in many ways just one of the boys but he always wanted more for himself and he was resilient in the face of rejection one of the examples of this that has become most relevant in Biden's > -[12:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=776) later years is his experience with stuttering Biden had a mild stutter at an early age and was picked on for it at school childhood friends recalled one of the teaching nuns at St Paul's School sister Eunice nicknamed him bye-bye Blackbird because he stuttered his own name as Bubba Biden that's one of those old timey insults like raging ableism but in a very Whimsical way so Joe's sister Valerie Biden said that my brother was never going to let an impediment get in the way of what he wanted to do he was going to do it anyway it was was Valerie who throughout his life has been Joe's best friend Confidant and adviser Q Golden Girls music who would eventually become his devoted enthusiastic and Innovative campaign manager and there > -[13:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=821) are many stories of Biden struggling with his stutter at an early age particularly when in uncomfortable situations but being supported and fiercely defended by his loyal Irish Catholic Family he would eventually give the senior class welcome at his graduation in 1961 with ner a stutter at the University of Delaware he graduated with a double major in history and political science and developed a prodigious way with words he also gained life experience by working as a lifeguard at a public pool in a mostly black area he went on to study law at Syracuse University where he met his soon to be first wife neia Hunter and was an outstanding student keep that in mind it will also become relevant later > -[14:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=863) in this video he became a public defender and as a registered independent was often recruited by the Republican party to run for local office but in 1969 he registered as a Democrat and a year later made his first move as a politician running for the fourth district seat in Newcastle city council this is where we get into a book called yesterday's man the case against Joe Biden by Branco marich as the title implies it is a book critical of Biden's political career in it marich notes the segregated political reality of Delaware as Biden came of age and became a politician there race is something that Biden has spent much of his career ostensibly confronting he talks about his experiences with Injustice with interracial friendships his often black > -[15:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=910) clientele during his time as a public defender he has always marketed himself as above partisanship above elitism and acutely tuned in to the struggles of everyday life in America but that's the thing isn't it he has always marketed himself marich writes that Biden's campaign downplayed his party affiliation in promotional material understandable as he was running in a very Republican area after all and he won partly by railing against unchecked growth and Industrial Development swallowing up the County's green spaces and partly by tapping into themes that would prove electorally fruitful in subsequent decades he complained about the rapidly deteriorating crime situation in the county and the spread of drugs some note that the early Joe > -[15:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=958) Biden of the Newcastle city council was a staunch public housing Advocate this is not entirely true his was a less than full-throated advocacy everybody's opposed to public housing no one wants it in their backyard but damn it if you have a moral obligation provide it he told the Press while cautioning that he was not a crusader rabbit championing the rights of the people The Stance nevertheless earned him some enmity during the campaign including the label of nword lover you know it was the 70s it was it was a time you know his strategy of supporting certain policies but not too hard pissing off conservatives but not as much as other Democrats made him the Golden Boy of Delaware politics maybe even the state democratic party's great > -[16:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=1005) hope for 1972 as a newspaper profile of the councilman elect offer he was compared to JFK because he was young and handsome and his wife was pretty these are politics after all don't pretend like our values are any more deep these days Biden knew how to play both sides in a time that some saw as Rife with division the Civil Rights movements of the 60s as well as the anti-war movement left the United States a nation where great Progressive change was occurring as well as one full of riots and protest where citizens clamored at the chance to help the oppressed the rightwing became even more right-wing a theme to be repeated in later years with violent responses and hate crimes reaching the news at a higher rate where the country seemed overly polarized someone like Joe > -[17:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=1052) Biden could appeal to Common Sense quote unquote obviously everyone should be equal but let's not get too carried away obviously we should help the poor but we can't do it all for them they have to help themselves marches writes that Biden rubbished the idea of legalizing marijuana and he acknowledged his wife was the brains of the operation but he nonetheless opted for her to stay home and mold my children I'm not a keep them barefoot and pregnant man he said but I am all for keeping them pregnant until I have a little girl compromise I love it Biden took this momentum and quickly converted it into a famous 1972 campaign for Delaware Senate he'd spent about a year pushing for Progressive policies on environmental issues public housing and more but by the time the local housing > -[18:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=1101) authorities moved to convert private departments into public housing in Biden's District it did so with no involvement from the council himself who was too busy campaigning to discuss the plan bro was ambitious he announced he was running for Senate that March and he gave a long rousing speech where he basically said nothing in fact as marich writes until prompted by reporters he avoided the two hot button issues of the day Vietnam and busing Massy busing produces inferior education and education's the name of the game Delaware was solid nixonland and Biden carefully distanced himself from the president's Democratic opponent George McGovern he called McGovern's plan to pull all US troops out of Vietnam in 90 days slightly impractical and broke with > -[19:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=1150) the Democratic nominee on issues like defense cuts and Welfare and tax reform he continued to insist he wasn't as liberal as most people think and indeed Delaware Democrats whispered that he was more conservative than his Republican opponent in time he became more boldly anti- Nixon and more boldly anti-me pulling the threat at both ends or whatever the phrase is he supported some rehabilitative justice initiatives but he built favor with crowds for saying criminals are bad and should go to prison quickly after sentencing very bold stuff and he ran against incumbent Republican senator J Caleb bogs then 63 years old who he saw as becoming a bit too old for the job a series of newspaper ads pointed to Biden platform while at the same time reminding readers > -[20:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=1201) of boog's advanced years and subtly signaling to conservative voters it was part of the campaign message developed personally by Biden dear old dad may have been right for his time and I love him but things are different now keep that story in mind it will become relevant later in this video in a debate Biden criticized both parties for being controlled by Big Money keep that in mind it will become relevant and appeal to union workers and Grassroots efforts as the young candidate with bright ideas to change the political status quo despite the odds being firmly against him at the start of his campaign Biden won Valerie Biden describes this moment almost as if it were an act of God in her Memoir that night when we were declared Victors Ted Kaufman turned to > -[20:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=1248) me and said I will no longer believe anything is impossible at the Hotel DuPont I stood next to Joe as he was looking in the mirror fixing his tie he caught my eye and grinned hey Joe I said take a good look that's what a senator looks like in the end we won by 3,163 votes less than 1.5% it remains my most personal Victory and it's the one I Savor more than all the others with our kids our volunteers or hand painted signs our homemade spaghetti dinners our one-on-one coffee dates we had done it we'd beaten a candidate personally anointed by Nixon with nothing but creativity and gumption we had shaken up the political world oh it's hard not to feel inspired the middle class boy whose father had fallen from Fortune who dealt with a stutter in > -[21:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=1302) his younger years who loyally selected his sister and best friend to be his campaign manager at a time when women essentially never did such work pulled off an impossible victory in the state of Delaware all they had to do was play Both Sides throughout his early campaigns a fundamental question arose about Joe Biden what does he actually believe in marich writes a former state democratic party chairman who observed Biden's career from the start later recalled he had lots of energy and idealism and was always assertive but to my knowledge he had no substantive ideology Biden could pass off any hypocrisy as disagreement he could take a liberal stance on one position that would benefit him and then he could take a conservative stance on another > -[22:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=1346) position that does the same thing when criticized for being too conservative he could point out a liberal stance he took when criticized for being too liberal he could point out a conservative stance he took nobody would be 100% happy with him but not only was that unnecessary as long as he garnered enough votes from either side it was also by his rhetoric a type of strength instead of political parties taking strong positions based on evidence and firm beliefs a Joe Biden could depict them as unnecessarily polarized caught in some Petty argument people love this sort of thing and it's still echoed across Reddit comment sections to this day it's the call to compromise to look without bias and meet within common ground but just because a position is Centrist does not mean it's > - [23:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=1392) sensible if one side is pro- rism and the other side is anti-racism the common sense position is not maybe some racism this may seem like an exaggeration of Biden centrism but the political stances he went on to take could reasonably be considered Ed as absurd no matter he had what he wanted neither side 100% trusted him both sides kind of disliked him but both sides liked him enough and that's all that mattered as he went on to tell someone in the DuPont Hotel Corridor after his groundbreaking election liberals thought I was holding him back little did they know I'm not that liberal the conservatives thought I was too liberal [Music] no one can doubt that Joe Biden has been through unspeakable tragedy few compared > -[24:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=1443) to what happened just weeks after his remarkable election to the Senate on December 18th 1972 Biden's wife neelia died in a car accident she had pulled out from an intersection and was hit by a tractor trailer leaving a massive impact Biden for Senator literature and promotional materials scattered all over the road also killed in the accident was Naomi Christina Biden Joe Biden's one-year-old daughter their two toddlers Bo and Hunter were in the car too both survived but were left with injuries B broke his leg Hunter suffered a minor skull fracture Biden wrestled with giving up his senate seat contemplated giving up on life entirely he was talked out of it my wife was dead my daughter was > -[24:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=1496) dead and I wasn't sure how much Sons were going to make it the memorable photo of his being sworn into the Senate saw him take the Oath by Bo's bedside in the hospital his other family members including Hunter were also present often we struggle to see the humanity in politicians particularly ones with damning legacies but it is really important that we work through that struggle that we recognize that people can be traumatized and traumatize others that people can be quite normal in many ways even kind kind-hearted and admirable yet can cause significant problems for others just from doing their job you might realize at this point that this video is not going to be effusive with praise and sympathy for Joe Biden there is in fact much to > -[25:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=1543) despise about his legacy but I can only start to discuss that after acknowledging his Humanity otherwise I might as well be doing Bible study Biden started his decades long reign in the Delaware Senate by omitting to hire black people in his administration attracting the ey of the NAACP he gave paid speeches at fundraisers colleges and high schools which is now taken for granted as a classic trashy move of today's political climate but at the time was a bit more unusual but perhaps the most precient element of the beginning of his tenure was his having a controversial position on Israel throughout the years Biden has built a well-earned reputation as a big fan and Ally of the Israeli government and Colonial project I say imagine our > -[26:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=1591) circumstance in the world were there no Israel how many battleships would there be how many troops would be stationed marich notes the controversial interaction Biden had with a Jewish campaign volunteer which led to negative press in November of 72 just before the election on August 9th of that year he told the volunteer that taking a public position with his true beliefs on the matter would be political suicide and that whatever position he took would be his position for the rest of his career and then according to the Philadelphia Inquirer he told the volunteer this but if you want my true beliefs I think the only solution is to have the United States and Russia negotiate a settlement in the Middle East make Jerusalem an international City and have Israel give > -[27:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=1638) back all the territories that is occupied The Inquirer quoted Biden as saying based on Livingston's recollection Biden also allegedly said I don't think theed United States would be one bit weaker if Israel went under we shouldn't get tied down to countries like this salute and solidarity to based Anti-Imperialist comrade 1972 Joe Biden Biden and his campaign went on to call the volunteer a Flatout liar Biden claimed he had merely been arguing as The Devil's Advocate if he had said something like that referring to other alleged remarks that Israeli leaders were the world's biggest arm twisters and that Jews were too emotional about the country yikes Joe I wouldn't to put it that way the Devil's Advocate excuse was accepted with others present at the > -[28:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=1682) meeting confirming it the reporter of the story Norm lochman later opined that Biden is a rough talker when he thinks it's private keep this in mind it will become relevant later later on Biden would take on a full Backpage private ad in local paper the Jewish voice declaring America must ensure Israel's existence by among other things ensuring that Israel receives whatever weapons she needs I'm not even going to say the line again at this point this was one of numerous early signals of how Biden would move throughout his political career even to now when he is I must repeat still the president of the United States that is if you're watching this before 2025 in the case of Israel Biden helped to secure an unparalleled amount of us aid for Israel early on and to > -[28:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=1733) Scuttle a 1998 peace Proposal with Palestine and he told an assembly of Lobby that Americans cannot afford to publicly criticize Israel but there were signals in other areas of Biden's Politics As far as the Watergate scandal worthy of its own video as you may be aware 50,000 likes and I'll make the Watergate video Biden showed early on his Devotion to an idea of bipartisanship he warned fellow Democrats not to celebrate damage to the GOP because the demise of the Republican Party means your own demise it means the demise of the two-party system he tided democrats for trying to blame Watergate on the Republican party as a whole warning that political institutions were the fabric that keeps us together and if the public came to blame the GOP for > -[29:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=1783) what happened the system goes under his seeming eagerness to work with Republicans even those with abhorent political and personal views would rear its ugly head soon and perhaps become the calling card of his career his tax policy at first advocated for heavier taxation of the Rich and fossil fuel usage but by 1975 he was already warning of The Perils of deficit spending pivoting into the right-wing position of lowering taxation on the wealthy and cutting spending on social safety nets that would dominate this era of global politics but perhaps the earliest sign of Biden's dangerous reactionary Tendencies came in the form of his position on desegregation busing this was a policy movement in the early 19 7s which aimed to bring black children into > -[30:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=1830) schools that remained mostly or all white in the years since Brown versus Board of Education which made segregation of races illegal in public schools many institutions still used racist redlining tactics to maintain segregation in effect while not meeting the letter of the law for example in Nashville Tennessee more than nine out of 10 black students were still attending all black schools in 1969 this was the result of concerted efforts by segregationists who would boycott schools and threaten to commit acts of terrorism when small numbers of black students attempted to attend all white schools similar to his position on Taxation and Israel Biden began his career with a fairly Progressive vote on busing but his rhetoric signaled he > -[31:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=1877) could be swayed more and more towards conservative positions early on he voted against a bill that would essentially ban desegregation busing in Delaware anti-busing groups protested him voraciously even as he pleaded to demonstrators saying he wasn't as in favor of busing as they thought he would just have to prove it over the next 3 years marich writes Biden cast only a single Pro busing boote and 19 against of course it's not like he was racist or into segregation or anything he just wasn't into integration classic white liberal nonsense I'm against killing people I'm just not into protecting them either in that vein he gave Galaxy brainy hypotheticals to the press to explain his new found logic if there was a gas station which served 50 people on > -[32:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=1924) a given day and 25 of them are white and 25 of them were black you don't shut down the gas station because it can't prove exactly half of the people who use the gas station toilet were from each race what you do is you make sure there is no sign on the gas station toilet which says no Negroes as you may notice desegregation busting was very much not interested in shutting down schools since the whole point of it was to get kids into those schools who previously couldn't the schools would very much need to be open for such a thing to happen but Biden was happy to appeal to the worst fears of white racists the idea that black people were coming to arbitrarily shut down their racist schools and businesses in order to salvage popularity among his > -[32:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=1970) constituency with Delaware long having been a very white state if not supporting actual efforts to end segregation among children what would Biden actually do to combat racism well just powerful acts like tying a bus of visiting fifth graders you shouldn't hate black kids they had nothing to do with it and then he had the gall to congratulate himself on his nobility that comment he said loses me 5,000 parents votes but I don't give a damn this is the type of fake wokeism the right wing should actually be up in arms about but frankly it unsurprisingly emerges from their ideology appeals to their Politics as long as you say nice sounding things you don't actually have to do anything to change the world for the better in fact you can claim you're > -[33:37](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=2017) the one who's really tapped in as Biden did claiming busing didn't solve the real issues clearly as the Wilmington news journal reported then the real issues were how Biden would keep his seat he knows the votes are in the suburbs where whites turn red when they see a yellow school bus Biden's anti-busing record including a 19 1977 bill that former KKK recruiter and Democratic party Senator Robert bird found exceptionally racist drew the ey of civil rights activists to say the least ACLU leaders like Charles Morgan Jr compared him to famous segregationist George Wallace after which Biden told him I don't think I like you very much Mr Morgan and then you'll laugh after an end daacp leader said Biden's bill was a reflection of the sad history of racism > -[34:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=2066) in Delaware Biden gave the mother of all white liberal responses my heart is heavy he said his voice cracking for the first time I have heard an indirect insinuation that I'm a racist get ready Joe it won't be the last time as marich writes by November 1980 Biden had backed every anti-busing measure in the Senate over the previous 5 years that included repeated votes for anti-busing measures put forward by Arch conservative Jesse Helms votes that all came after his reelection but don't worry Joe Biden was still cool with black people according to Joe Biden I still walk down the street in the black side of town he said perhaps it was his vaed legacy as a Young Man Standing Up Against Racism or perhaps that black people themselves were split on the effectiveness of > -[35:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=2118) busing but Biden wasn't just ideologically opposed to the merits of busing he was arguably its most aggressive opponent in the Senate Des despite its Mission and its successes and his legacy here is not to be glossed over because US schools remain highly segregated to this day the schools Across the Nation are approaching levels of segregation that we saw prior to the 1970s politicians like kamla Harris and Barack Obama who Biden would later come to be running mates with at different points gave Biden a lot of heat for his record on busing you know there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bust to school every day and that little girl was me and yet it still wasn't > -[36:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=2169) nearly enough for one it gives an impression that Biden was a man of his time or suffered from naives that corrected with age in reality his position on busing was just one of many cases in which this supposedly intuitive and iron willed politician not only c d to the interests of the bigoted right-wing but fully tuck up their causes to a degree that can be described as nothing less than embarrassing Joe Biden's political career in the 1980s can be summed up with one word embarrassing it started with him caping for a sitting president in Jimmy Carter one who he had previously modled himself after as a politician due to his ability to use common sense rhetoric to espouse left politics with right-wing aberration but > -[37:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=2220) now recognized was getting dwarfed by the popularity of Ronald Reagan a political candidate endorsed by the KKK and project 1981 and ready to shift the country away from the legacies of the new deal and civil rights movement and into the bigoted plutocratic nightmare it is today and of course Joe Biden couldn't have any dignity about it he gave ringing endorsements of his party's candidates such as let's face it Jimmy Carter is not the finest thing since wheat cakes he's not the second coming he's not going to go down in the history books but he is doing a good job after Reagan won and after Biden claimed Reagan's economic policies would be disastrous Biden of course voted for Reagan's first budget Reagan passed tax cut after tax cut benefiting the wealthy > -[37:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=2267) and screwing over the working class and then after this lack of Taxation left a larger deficit in the budget Reagan's answer was obviously to screw over the workingclass more by cutting spending for social programs you know how this goes Biden used this moment in American politics to cement himself as a friend of the right Seated on the left he proposed a budget amendment in 1984 that he proudly claimed he'd plagiarized from Republican Pete Dupont he voted for several more of Reagan's bills and as politicians Like Bernie Sanders and Jesse Jackson imperfectly but steadfastly proposed programs uniting the working class across racial lines and against the president's attack on labor and human rights Joe Biden went to Birmingham Alabama and told a crowd of > -[38:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=2312) people a black man has a better chance in birming him than in Philadelphia or New York he did so at the start of his much hyped 1988 presidential campaign he had gone from being the hot new thing in the Democratic party to an established young but key figure he begun his major political career nearly two decades prior and was compared to JFK and his Run for the big office was colored by crash attempts at invoking a kennedy-esque optimism and Nostalgia for the American Spirit In other words it was about Vibes more than it was about actual policy ideas what a surprise that Joe Biden would run for office without any real ideas one of Biden's Chief consultants for his campaign was Patrick cadell the guy who is also known for Consulting on the campaign for New Coke > -[39:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=2358) in 1985 which is today seen as one of the worst marketing campaigns in history so that's a good sign two years later cadell a good friend of Biden's and a consultant on numerous unsuccessful presidential campaigns was wreaking havoc behind the scenes in what would be a hilariously bad bid cadel was notoriously temperamental his temper became legendary stories are told over and over by Veterans of past campaigns of screaming fights ending with a standard refrain of I'll ruin you or you're finished of intimidating calls doors slamming shut phones slamming down he scars you says one recipient of the cadell treatment but cadel's strength lay in his ability to study the populace as a pollster figure out which way the > -[40:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=2406) cultural wind was blowing and help design public appearances and speeches to address that which is what makes it hilarious that the campaign's downfall began because Joe Biden kept plagiarizing people in his speeches Biden would have been at least a contender had his campaign not been engulfed by a quick succession of scandals in September the first came when a Dukakis Aid tipped the press off that passages in a Biden speech about his own family history were plagiarized from UK labor party leader Neil kinnick who like Biden was trying to untether his party from its economically populist history a few days later the Press revealed other passages had drawn without attribution on the past eloquence of Hubert Humphrey and Biden's > -[40:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=2450) hero Robert F Kennedy at the same time it came out that Biden had failed a law class in 196 5 after lifting five pages from a law review article for an assignment yes it was getting that bad people were digging up Joe Biden's past and finding out that it wasn't quite what it was hyped up to be that included his supposed Legacy as a civil rights True Believer someone who stood up Against Racism remember that story from the biography of Joe Biden where he and his friends walked out of a diner because they wouldn't serve their black friend the Philadelphia Inquirer Tracked Down Biden's classmate now working as a doctor in Philadelphia who recalled that Biden and his party had never left the restaurant in solidarity in fact they hadn't even realized he had been thrown > -[41:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=2496) out until they had already finished eating and left Biden would eventually admit at the behest of reporters that his civil rights activism record was essentially just him being a lifeguard at a mostly black public pool then after having claimed that he was against the Vietnam War during his time in college a friend of his and neelia from back then stated that Biden was for a long time pretty much a supporter up until he ran for Senate in 1972 dude was a Vietnam War supporter when hair came out postm ey Massacre it reached a boiling point when Biden couldn't hold back his big mouth as was the rumor when he had his falling out with that pro-israel volunteer years before in this case it was an audience member gently questioning his law school > -[42:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=2540) career which caused him to become irate I think I probably have a much higher IQ than you do I suspect I went to law school on a full academic scholarship the only one in my in my class to have a full academic scholarship the first year in law school I decided didn't want to be in law school and ended up in the bottom two-thirds of my class and then decided I wanted to stay went back to law school and in fact ended up in the top half of my class I won the international mood Court competition I was the outstanding student in the political science department at the end of my year I graduated with three degrees from undergraduate school and 165 credits only need 123 credits and I'd be delighted to sit down and compare my IQ to yours if you'd like Frank I one > -[43:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=2582) thing all of this was proven to be untrue Biden had placed toward the bottom of both his undergraduate and Law School classes had a single degree with a double major had only been nominated for the political science award and had received a partial scholarship based on financial need I exaggerate when I'm angry he now explained Biden's campaign was done but this worked out for the best first in terms of Biden's actual physical health forcing him to get checked out for painful headaches he'd been suffering which revealed he had two brain aneurisms that could have killed him had he gone without treatment much longer but it also worked out in terms of his legacy his comeback from this health setback which I guess also conjured memories of his comeback from > -[43:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=2625) personal tragedy allowed him to return to the Senate with support and a claim he was suddenly allowed to be a noble and enduring figure again rather than the Perpetual liar and reactionary he'd been for several years years and I think even the bombast the bizarre disaster of a presidential campaign Biden suffered served as a distraction from the truly embarrassing parts of his political career in the 80s the ones that had real consequences that steeped him into unconscionable violence against oppressed people since the 70s Biden had been a staunt anti-crime guy and was early to the party in that regard today American politics is well known for a modern history of rhetoric against Crime the harshest sentencing possible for criminal offenders especially with drug > -[44:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=2671) rated crimes and especially from ethnic minority backgrounds for one of the most drastic states of mass incarceration in the history of statehood that Legacy was paved by Joe Biden Joe Biden's position in the early 1980s was that Ronald Reagan was not Tough Enough on drug crimes I want you to let that sink in Ronald Reagan was not as big on the police state and harsh punishment as Joe Biden was as much much as Biden would turn towards proposing budget cuts his position was always that law enforcement should receive more budgeting and he stood with far-right Republicans on proposing more and more Draconian crime bills with devastating ramifications let's get specific maybe you feel hesitant to call Joe Biden a racist maybe you feel that as much as he > -[45:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=2717) has some silly biases or has been complicit in some racist policies and outcomes in this country that he ultimately isn't someone or has never been someone who sees other races as inferior or hates black people or would truly wants to be racist against them maybe you have a different image in your head of a real racist of the kind of racist that represents the true foundational evil of this country and its oppression of black people maybe the person you have in mind is stom Thurman stom Thurman was Senator of South Carolina for 49 years Christ he was an avowed segregationist he believed black people were inferior to what people he held the longest solo filibuster in the history of the US Senate lasting just over 24 hours in opposition to the Civil > -[46:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=2765) Rights Act of 1957 which primarily aimed to support voting for black people that there's not enough troops in the Army to force their southern people to break down segregation and admit the into our theaters into our spring pools into our homes and into our churches despite saying this he went on to remain a prominent presence in American politics for the entirety of the late 20th century into the start of the 21st when he died at the age of 100 in 2003 shortly after which a woman named Essie May Washington Williams came forth and testified to the world that she a biracial black woman was stom Thurman's daughter her mother was a black teenager likely underage who worked as a domestic servant for Thurman's family in the 20s that's the > -[47:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=2823) 1920s to be clear and a 22-year-old Thurman impregnated her aside from consent being out of the question in a scenario like this an incident in which the roles were reversed a black man raping a young white woman impregnating her was the kind of thing Thurman killed black men for such as in 1942 when he sent a black man named George Thomas to the electric chair based on unreliable evidence aside from this minor personality flaw Thurman also had a history throughout his political career of sexually harassing women on Capitol Hill that guy you would say is a racist and a predator and an evil person right well he was also Joe Biden's friend so much so that when Thurman died in 2003 Biden eulogized him as a brave man whose lasting impact > -[47:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=2877) was a gift to us all James STM Thurman Fritz he was one complex guy and even if you wanted to argue somehow that despite the immorality of such a thing it may have been something he was pressured to do by the politics of the time you would be totally wrong he was one of only nine Senators out of 255 to attend Thurman's funeral so what leads to such a biz our friendship between two people who ostensibly have nothing in common between an enemy of civil rights and obviously a yifi civil rights activist in Joe Biden and turns out one of my closest friends ends up being strong Thurman a man whose background and interest at that time when I came were considerably different than mine > -[48:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=2929) political gain of course at first Biden was obviously hesitant to partner up with Thurman given who he was as a person and politician but Biden's thirst to lock up primarily ethnic minorities on minor drug offenses was simply too strong too politically beneficial for him to resist together they passed multiple bills through the early 80s including 1984's comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 or ccca under the new law assets could be seized by state and local law enforcement who were working with federal agencies simply on the basis of the probable cause that they had been used for or derived from illegal purposes if a drug crime had been planned or carried out on a premises for instance no conviction was necessary if state laws restricted > -[49:37](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=2977) police from seizing assets then no matter the ccca had local authorities send the property to be processed by the federal government which would then return up to 80% of the value to them neatly Sid stepping any restrictions this quickly became a go-to tool of rampant breathtaking abuse by law enforcement motorists mostly but not exclusively black and brown would be stopped searched and ultimately have their money and other belongings taken by police for reasons that could be generously called spous often with no evidence or charges of a crime and little to no hope of getting it back as early as 1991 a 10-month investigation by the Pittsburgh Press found 83% of all items seized by the DEA were worth less than > -[50:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=3024) $50,000 and that police had racially profiled stopped and taken the money of hundreds of people without finding drugs or filing charges today even with reforms forfeiture is a cash Bonanza for police departments with one former official calling it a free floating slush fund police used to plug budget holes stock their departments with unnecessary military equipment and weapons and naturally pay for parties and luxury goods for themselves between 1986 and 2014 the value of of property seized climbed 4600 from 93.7 million to 4.5 billion at the behest of fighting crime Biden had successfully facilitated the decades long wholesale robbery of workingclass Americans by law enforcement this type of aggressive support toward racially > -[51:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=3078) coded concerns of anti-black and anti-brown conservatives is one of the primary legacies of Biden's career he could talk all he wanted about common sense and being a true Ally of minority communities his policy was destructive it was championed by the biggest racists in the country and rather than being punished for it this Legacy cemented him as one of the leading Democrats in the US and paved the way continuously for his political successes to this day it doesn't matter whether or not they were deprived as a youth it doesn't matter not whether or not they had had no background that enabled them to become socialized into the fabric of society it doesn't matter whether or not they're the victims of society the end result is they're about to knock my mother on the > -[52:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=3128) head with a lead pipe shoot my sister so I don't want to ask what made them do this they must be taken off the street we should focus on them now if we don't they will or a portion of them will become the Predators 15 years from now and Madam President we have predators on our streets Joe Biden has apologized for a lot of things he apologized for opposing busing he admitted his rousing support of the 1994 crime bill under Bill Clinton's Administration was a mistake sad bill and the infamous super Predators rhetoric that accompanied it was perhaps the biggest legislation cementing the police state status of the US marich writes by the time Clinton left office the United States had the world's highest incarceration rate and > -[53:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=3182) two decades after the bill passed the federal prison population had more than doubled even the Bill's few laudable measures like the violence against women act which Biden had pushed for intensely and which motivated even critics like Sanders to vote for it further fed incarceration rates while doing little to bring down domestic violence and even exacerbated it in some cases he also apologized to Anita Hill later on who's Anita Hill you may be asking great question Anita Hill is a lawyer and professor at brandas University who in 1991 testified that Clarence Thomas a judge to be sworn in as Justice at the Supreme Court continuously sexually harassed her as her supervisor at the Department of Education and the equal employment opportunity commission Hill > -[53:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=3228) testified that Thomas would continuously make sexual advances on her as well as make lwd comments about the size of his penis beasti and films depicting rape scenes Thomas was and is a very right-wing Justice appointed by a right-wing president in George HW Bush Reagan's successor surely this is a slamdunk opportunity for Biden to challenge a president of the opposition party and his Supreme Court candidate whose views will be detrimental to democratic party policy right surely this is an obvious situation for Biden to stop what he had called an open campaign to shift the court dramatically to the right by fairly trying a man who had clear moral and behavioral failings right so Biden compromised with > -[54:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=3275) the Republicans to ensure Anita Hill whose anonymity was taken away despite her wishes after a senate leak had as difficult of a proceeding as possible while some Democrats wanted weeks to properly investigate the allegations Biden agreed to hold the hearings that Friday exclude questions about Thomas's sexual behavior more generally not take another committee vote and accept a full Senate vote the following Tuesday no matter what happened worse Biden agreed to republicans' request to let Thomas not only testify first rening on a deal Biden had made with Hill's advisers but also a second time giving him both the last word and a much larger Prime Time audience Thomas used it to issue what one GOP strategist called an item by item denial that gave us the newspapers > -[55:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=3322) the next morning Biden had agreed to the terms of the people who were were out to disembowel Hill one Kennedy Aid commented bitterly opening the hearings by stating that the primary responsibility of this committee is fairness Biden and the rest of the Democrats sat silent as the committee's Republicans took turns assassinating Hill's character she was a psychopathic Sex Fiend or pervert suffered from a delusional disorder committed Flatout perjury and plagiarized The Exorcist for her testimony which amounted to a smear campaign against Thomas when one senator asked Hill if she and Thomas had disagreed on abortion and roie Wade a question that could have embroiled Thomas in perjury given his testimony that he'd never discussed the case Biden > -[56:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=3367) interrupted to rule the question out of bounds most egregiously Biden failed to call several witnesses who would have corroborated Hill's testimony one witness who could have testified to Thomas's interest in pornography a key part of Hill's account was never called because Biden thought it was irrelevant and would have been wrong liting negative testimony solely to women who had worked with Thomas Biden ignored a personal note written to him by lilan mccuan a former assistant us attorney who had previously worked for Biden and dated Thomas reminding him of their relationship he did the same with a letter written to the committee by one of Thomas's former underlings at the EOC recounting his inappropriate behavior Angela Wright a conservative Republican > -[56:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=3411) Alum of Thomas's EEOC who had suffered similar treatment to Hill that she detailed to Biden's special counsel was subpoenaed by Biden to testify but after running out the clock by giving Thomas's 16 character witness's unlimited time to defend him Biden released her from The subpoena he issued a public statement of regret that the committee had run out of time privately his staff had pressured Wright to lie and say it had been her decision not to testify Wright had waited 3 Days To Tell her story for nothing her deposition was entered into the written record where no one could read it Biden never really believed Anita Hill was sexually harassed or in Hatch told the press as much later on and even if he did what was a little sexual harassment to him after all as > -[57:39](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=3459) underscored by Ted Kennedy's silence during the matter it's not as if politicians could judge Ohio Senator Howard medsen bom said it best if that sexual harassment half the Senators on Capitol Hill could be accused Biden himself was best buddies with STM Thurman for God's sake Biden used her case as a way to demonstrate to the world how hard he can ride for right- Wingers although by that point the message was already loud and clear in later years Biden would give beautiful tasteful messages about the Scandal saying things like I wish I could have done something before running for president in 2019 he called Hill hoping to assuage her with Sentiments of regret over what she endured Hill says Biden still even > -[58:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=3505) at that big age was unable to make a proper apology whether it was his fake civil rights activism his anti-busing stances his crime bills his persecution of sexual harassment victims and more Biden has offered many apologies and profound reflections over the years it all gets washed over like normal acceptable hiccups in a difficult career Joe is always able to say yeah I didn't handle that quite right let me I'm let me see what I can do better the next time he's still good old Uncle Joe to the establishment why is that why is it that Democrats continued to push this guy even facing the Perils of old age in 2020 not only as a wise Elder Statesman but as a proper leader of the party in a time when views on society and economics are > -[59:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=3553) generally more and more Progressive I'm not sure which it is is it that the state of politics has normalized right-wing policy and political opportunism so much that Biden's la longevity and tenacity in this grift makes him a hero in our political culture or is it that such a state of politics is so inevitable in our day and age that Biden's moral failings and capitulations are unremarkable taken for granted as part of the job to where judging him for this is akin to judging a teacher for losing their temper I can't quite accept one or the other all I can say is that Biden is a face but not a cause as establishment politics changed via financialization became the corporate bribery freefor all they are today stomping out any shred of > -[01:00:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=3601) progressivism that could mobilize and empower the poor and working classes at the federal level Joe Biden popped up an ambitious blank canvas prepared for any populist sentiment or big money initiative to mold him so long as he remained in the shape of an electable politician from day one he was willing to be a not too Liberal Liberal friendly to conservative ideas happy to be pushed right as much as possible and excited to tell you that doing so is what makes him Savvy what the American people want what the middle class want the best way to preserve the spirit of the Republic in the name of bipartisanship how convenient that such a noble cause has made him such a rich and powerful man none of this makes him remarkable as you likely know this approach has been > -[01:00:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=3648) common among Democrats over the past 50 years and especially since the Clinton era wherein they harnessed their signature approach of triangulation this term refers to the strategy of mapping out the left wing and right wing as two points of one side on a triangle and placing themselves above both as a point in the middle a more apt term would perhaps be strangulation the hard and continuous rightward shift of the Republican party and the destruction and co-optation of entities that are meant to meaningfully represent and organize left-wing interests has allowed the Democratic party to strangle the lifeblood out of leftwing sentiment in the country for forcing them into not only voting for but campaigning for and relying on Democrats to preserve some > -[01:01:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=3691) modum of social welfare and Military restraint kamla Harris explained this perfectly in a recent town hall meeting where she told people who are uncomfortable with their country committing genocide that they ultimately have no choice in the matter but if they wants to afford groceries they should vote blue this video is not just a biography of Joe Biden and his dark past it's an examination of how we got to this point in American politics and what it was all for for one Biden's unsavory actions are not just things of the 70s and 80s I can go on and on about what he did during the 90s and 2000s in fact I will do exactly that okay where were we onita Hill Clinton okay yeah okay by the time Bill Clinton was elected Joe Biden was already fiercely skeptical of the > -[01:02:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=3739) liberal special interest groups that rallied for particular social justice causes when a right-wing firestorm interrupted over Clinton's nomination of civil rights lawyer Laney gonier to head of the Justice Department's civil rights division partly his payback for the Thomas hearings Biden joined the Pyon about her past academic writings leading Clinton to cut her loose New York Times journalist Anthony Lewis labeled this ly gonier debate the most effective smear campaign seen in Washington since Joe McCarthy's day but it's no surprise given Biden's particular brand of witch hunting his patience with liberal activists worn out out by the previous decades judicial battles Biden lashed out at the idiotic groups out there like the XYZ group for American values or the > -[01:03:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=3786) qsy group to save all the women of the world while Biden spoke highly of the US's big social programs namely Medicaid Medicare and Social Security he also quietly rallied against Medicare by pushing fraud prevention as a way to soften any future cuts and he gave a tcid endorsement to a Medicaid reform plan put out by the national Governor Association in 1996 that would have given States discretion to deny benefits he had spent his career paying lip service to unions and receiving support from them electorally but after performatively agonizing over the decision he voted for it in 1993 alongside 26 other Democrats the agreement became a gift to corporations severely hampering any negotiating power workers had to secure benefits pay > -[01:03:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=3834) increases and other quality of life assurances and ultimately was key in killing the progressive bonafides of the democratic party the deal not only caused the loss of nearly 700,000 us jobs many of them in the country's manufacturing centers but it further weakened the power of unions it became a gift to unscrupulous businesses who used the threat of offshoring jobs to Mexico and some cases purposefully loading equipment into trucks headed South of the Border in full view of disgruntled workers to push employees into accepting worse wages hours and benefits and to undermine unions' bargaining power politically the consequences would be just as Grievous as the loss of power for unions pushed the Democratic party further into the arms of corporate > -[01:04:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=3880) donors and Democrats saw an exodus of blueco collar Support over the Betrayal creating a future opening for the party to be outflanked H doesn't seem like that'll come up later what else oh uh Biden was a key player and dism in the welfare system falling in line with raganit and their caricatures of black women as welfare Queens by 1988 when he wrote we are all too familiar with the stories of welfare mothers driving luxury cars and leading Lifestyles that mirror the Rich and Famous as Bill Clinton campaigned aggressively to end welfare as we know it Biden served his agenda happily voting with 52 Republicans and 34 other Democrats to make the radical welfare overhauls that Gingrich had made the Cornerstone of the Republican agenda > -[01:05:29](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=3929) Clinton signed a bipartisan bill in 1996 called the personal responsibility and work Opportunity Act flanked by a black woman from Arkansas named Lily Harden who had been used as a poster child for how welfare actually hurts the poor namely citizens would receive two years of Aid and then that was it they needed to work afterward and they would no longer receive the welfare benefits Harden was enthusiastic about how Clinton's welfare to work program as governor of Arkansas helped her get a job when I got my job my son was so proud of me but I made a deal with him I told him I'm going to work every day and take my work seriously Lily Harden suffered a stroke in 2002 6 years afterward no longer qualifying for Medicaid under the provisions of the new > -[01:06:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=3979) bill she died 12 years later at the age of 59 in a 2004 interview for the book American dream three women 10 kids and a nation's Drive to End welfare she told journalist Jason deparo it didn't pay off in the end this case is emblematic of the agenda of the so-called new Democrats of whom Biden was a leader they pushed Republican agendas to cut down the welfare state and derail labor unions but they did so with a rhetoric of Liberation workers weren't being screwed over in the US under NAFTA they were competing in a Freer marketplace with Freer trade and employment between countries black men and women weren't being screwed over by welfare Cuts they were being given the opportunity to work and better themselves of course there was the crime bill which Biden crusaded > -[01:07:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=4028) for from the late ' 80s beginning with an insistence that Republican president George H W bush wasn't doing enough to stop the violent thugs in 1993 Biden made several compromises with Republicans and their ideas for a crime Bill adding mandatory minimum sentences a three strikes provision for violent felonies an amendment to make carjacking a federal offense potentially punishable by death and Prosecuting kids as young as 13 as adults in came the 1994 Clinton crime bill or the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act which the Democrats celebrated rocketle including Diane Feinstein giving Joe Biden a kiss and Main Senator George Mitchell calling Biden the one person most responsible for the passage of this bill I love that that was a good thing at > -[01:07:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=4077) that time that's funny Biden gave plenty of Pomp and Circumstance in his speech afterwards the liberal wing of the democratic party is now for 60 new death penalties the liberal wing of the democratic party has 70 enhanced penalties the liberal wing of the democratic party is for 100,000 cops the liberal wing of the democratic party is for 125,000 new state prison cells I would like to see the conservative wing of the democratic party and yet the effects unsurprisingly were nothing to celebrate by the time Clinton left office the United States had the world's highest incarceration rate and two decades after the bill passed the federal prison population had more than doubled there can be no doubt that in > -[01:08:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=4127) the 1990s the Democrats established themselves not only as a party willing to promote right-wing ideas and collaborate with Republicans on some of their most nonsensical agendas but as a party that would happily be perceived as more right-wing that is tougher on the poor tougher on minorities and indeed tougher on imperialism than the Republicans strangely enough this didn't seem to work George W bush narrowly beat Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election with Republicans having taken the house and the Senate half a decade prior the Democrats had moved rights to try to render the Republicans irrelevant and all it did was make the Republicans more popular which I'm sure will never happen again after that and yet Biden kept on keeping on as Bush and the > -[01:09:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=4175) nation rallied for Rampage in the Middle East post 911 the Delaware Senator continued to extend support and reassurance across party lines as long as the president continues on the general path that he put himself on after 911 I don't think he's going to have anything but an ally in me and not to sound presumptive a fairly valuable [Music] Ally if you like me enjoyed the sitcom Parks and Recreation you may be entitled to hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage to your political conscience namely By plot threads like protagonist Leslie nop's Adoration of Joe Biden what could have been a satire of American politics that played on this naive idol worship of a successful > -[01:10:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=4224) politician by an aspiring ended up playing this for cutes and laughs working as a powerful piece of propaganda displaying Biden as a nice guy who was cool enough to be on the funny show I liked my name just came out of your mouth well yeah did this exists as one of several pieces of media from what I sometimes call the era of peak liberalism the Obama era of 2009 to 2016 wherein people seemed to start having some faith in Liberal politicians and American culture again post recession it was Biden who was established himself at that point as first black President Barack Obama's trusty sidekick how did we get here did Obama not know about the strong Thurman thing the short answer is that this is who they are it's who we are the 2008 election of Barack Obama > -[01:11:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=4271) famously carried A Narrative of change after eight years of George W Bush's destructive foreign and domestic policy the cratering of the economy due to abject banking Scandal and a general feeling of bush being silly and bad Obama's promises of changing Healthcare in the US and ending the unpopular Wars on terror as well as being the nation's first black president seemed to be the end of a particular era of Politics the start of something new we will respond with that Timeless Creed that sums up the spirit of a people yes we can thank you so when Obama appointed Joe Biden as his running mate reception was mixed Biden had spent the past decade alone being the face of of the baguer democratic party establishment he had campaigned for right-wing Democrats like > -[01:12:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=4320) Joe Lieberman argued to send us forces into darur and generally been such a naif in support of the Iraq war that up until 2007 his baly hood plan for installing a new political system in Iraq was decried by Middle East experts far and wide as completely out of touch with reality that's not even touching Biden's short-lived presidential campaign in which his half measures for helping the working class seemed tepid in comparison to other candidates and his motor mouth led to even more cringeworthy quotes whether it was saying that you cannot go into a Dunkin Donuts or a 7-Eleven unless you have a slight Indian accent describing Obama as the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean or repeatedly invoking Delaware's > -[01:12:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=4367) history as a slave state to make the case for his appeal to Southern voters Delaware had only fought for the union because we couldn't figure out how to get the South he told one mostly Republican audience it seemed like Biden couldn't say anything without drawing a hail of Justified criticism despite his lowering popularity and Antiquated Vision Biden's callup as Obama's second was considered a logical move one that could temper worries of the new president's radical potential by pairing him with an experienced career politician who understood the world he'd be stepping into as well as anyone it was also a slick career move for Biden who had no plans of fading away with age and now could up his standing among hip young diverse voters and their pro - > -[01:13:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=4414) Obama fervor but perhaps most cynically it was a signal to us that Obama was not about to be any different than the rest of the democratic party and political establishment from day one Obama's administration was notoriously undercut by Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell of the Republican Party who famously said the single most important thing the Republicans wants to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president while failing at this ultimately the Republican strategy of consistently opposing and refusing to vote for Democratic party proposals leveraging the subsequent stalling of legislation to whittle bills down to be more and more favorable to Republican politicians was a deeply effective strategy for which the Dems had no > -[01:14:16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=4456) answer well that's not entirely true the Obama Administration could have used popular support for things like a public health care option as justification for executive orders overriding right-wing chicanery in Congress on this and delivered a message to the American people that he would boldly override corrupt Republicans who refused to work in a spirit of bipartisanship to deliver what they clearly wanted Not only was Obama's administration unwilling to do that his trusty vep Joe Biden seemed hellbent on allowing and even defending the Republican party as marich notes he personally struck a deal with m Connell in 2010 trading 13 more months of unemployment insurance at a time of nearly double-digit joblessness for a host of more permanent giveaways to the > -[01:15:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=4505) wealthy and then Biden Gast L us all about it delivering a speech months later speaking fondly of McConnell calling their deal the only truly bipartisan event that occurred in the first two years of our Administration and declaring that all us politicians Republican or Democrat ran for office because they love their country Biden became unlikely as it seems a less aggressive voice on foreign policy within the Obama Administration a key member of the task force attempting to stabilize Iraq he pushed against ideas of sending in troops there and to Afghanistan and was against Hillary Clinton's campaign destabilizing Libya but when we talk about Obama as the Drone strike president the guy who turned us from a nation that invades > -[01:15:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=4550) countries with planes and troops to a nation that ships out bombs by pressing PlayStation controllers and phone boo we have to include Biden in that Legacy Biden was the one who from the beginning advocated away from ground invasions and attempts at nation building in Afghanistan and towards aggressive roboticized air strikes a strategy he called counterterrorism plus this strategy allegedly allows for Less risk of Civilian casualties as well as less costs on the taxpayer it also provided better Optics we no longer see our troops invade or much think about our deaths in the military we hear of bombings reported in the passive voice and we usually don't hear when those bombings kill innocent civilians much less think about why such Warfare is > -[01:16:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=4595) being waged the politics behind War as mortaza Hussein writes for The Intercept drone operators have become more like judicial executioners putting people on trial on the other side of the planet without due process and meeting out death sentences by remote control in this article he notes research and interviews from two different texts including one story of a drone operator who using drone technology to surveil a supposed highlevel Target for several days who he had observed being a good honest father with his family a father himself the analyst related on a human level with the man he had been following in many ways the level of closeness and knowledge about his Target gleaned by watching him for months through a drones lens was far greater than that in > -[01:17:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=4641) traditional combat situations where combatants have little personal knowledge about those that they kill as Phelps notes the analyst said that when the time came to strike this guy whom he had observed being a normal dad every day for 6 months it was emotionally difficult typical of today's reality the new technology we invent to make even the most destructive tasks more convenient and efficient ends up leaving us even more distressed and alienated from the work we do it's not to say we should lather these operators in sympathy they did what they did but we must be given paused by how easily we can now dehumanize ourselves and others and how this ease might be leading to increased recklessness we no longer have a plan for the toll of War on either > -[01:18:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=4685) side nor do we have to worry about violating international law and we definitely don't have to worry about ruining families brutally ending the lives of parents and children as the last Americans pulled out of carel and the Taliban closed in tragedy piled on top of tragedy the US military fired missiles from a drone and what it said was an Islamic State fighter with a car full of explosives but it wasn't it was a civilian and his family 10 people died seven of them children you know it's nice to think that perhaps if Joe Biden himself were behind the lens in a drone operation such trauma would give him pause it's not as if he hasn't borne his fair share of trauma in fact he knows well enough what it is like to lose a > -[01:18:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=4733) son boa Biden who had suffered Broken Bones from the car accident that killed neilia and Naomi Biden in 1972 went on to be an attorney an Army Major and later the Attorney General of Delaware serving at that position from 2007 to 2015 his time in the military left him with a condition he'd need to battle for the rest of his life first analing spondilitis in 2001 a long-term inflammation of the spine joints in 2009 he was diagnosed with brain cancer with which Joe Biden surmised was the result of exposure to toxic waste in Burn pits during his tour in Iraq Bo later died in 2015 at the age of 46 between this and the ongoing saga depicting younger son Hunter Biden and his issues with drug and alcohol abuse which can tangibly be connected to his trauma with family loss > -[01:19:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=4786) it's fair to say Joe Biden has had a life filled with tangible connection to tragedy real tragedy the type that people around the world can likely resonate with with and yet he has still been at the helm of a machine that Engineers tragedy for millions of others and seems utterly undisturbed by this how do we reckon with that what do we make of the morality and personality of a person with such an apparent cognitive dissonance does it matter what matters really viral clips from presidential and vice presidential debates in 2008 and 2012 sport comments raving over the comparative dignity politeness and articulation of the candidates I like many others can sometimes feel excitement and Intrigue when I watch The Joe Biden of 2012 commander in audience > -[01:20:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=4834) against Paul Ryan I can laugh at his ban with Leslie nope his cute YouTube shorts with Obama imploring people to vote my heart aches when he cries in front of an audience in Delaware while recalling his deceased son but at the end of the day what did he actually do in office what policies did he endorse at at home and abroad the answer is simple Joe Biden was the right-hand man for a president whose Legacy will be a late stage Revival of a Dying faith in liberalism a wielding of unyielding Charisma and a betrayal of the confidence of the American people a betrayal of minorities a betrayal of the periphery by the labor aristocracy which had simply voted for a new shiny coat of paint that implied progress while solidifying regression as marich writes though Biden would have no > -[01:21:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=4887) compunction in later claiming Obama's achievements as his own he didn't deserve the blame for every one of the administration's failures any more than he did its successes it was Obama's presidency and it was he who demobilized his volunteer army who failed to prosecute Wall Street and capitalize on public anger at its greed who went back on his pledge to end the wars and took Bush's war on terror to new extremes who declined to apply high pressure to Democrats holding up his agenda and who shied away from taking more radical steps to deal with an epocal crisis for fear of being labeled a socialist something he had already been called incessantly long before winning an election the story at this point has been told again and again Hillary > -[01:22:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=4933) Clinton botched the handoff from Obama through let's say um because we're going to have a lot of jobs jobs from building infrastructure to coding creating new apps I don't know who created Pokemon go but I'm trying to figure out how we get them to have Pokemon go to the polls a disappointing 2016 campaign that allowed a far-right populist in Donald Trump to cement his arguments to the American people that the Democrats were corporate phonies who had sold out the working class class it didn't matter that his proposals aside from being deeply racist and violent were also completely baffling ideas of a Muslim ban or big border wall to keep the Mexicans out make George W Bush's > -[01:23:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=4987) immigration policies look sophisticated in comparison What mattered was that as had been the case for decades the Democrats had spent eight years cow Towing to Republican agendas legitimizing their fascistic concerns about immigrants and Muslims and gay marriage and somehow expected this to make them more popular his Split Decision Victory should have been the turning point it should have been a come to Jesus moment for a party whose hubris had led them to embarrassment and would surely lead to more death and Destruction for the marginalized constituents they so claimed to fight for but that's not how this works that's not how any of this [Music] works on April 25th 2019 Joe Biden > -[01:23:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=5034) announced his candidacy for president again at the time he was 76 years old but as Edward Isaac do wrote for the Atlantic at the time there was no questioning his resolve for the position he wants this he really wants this he's wanted this since he was first elected to the senate in 1972 and he's decided that he isn't too old isn't too out of sync with the current energy in the Democratic party and certainly wasn't going to be chased out by the women who accused him of making them feel uncomfortable or demeaned because of how he touched them oh yeah I almost forgot about that Biden's announcement came in the thick of accounts from at least seven women saying the would be president had touched them in overly familiar ways > -[01:24:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=5081) that made them uncomfortable one Democratic politician from Nevada Lucy Flores revealed that in 2014 Biden put his hands on her shoulders before an event and proceeded to get way too intimate with her I felt him get closer to me from behind he leaned further in and inhaled my hair I was mortified he proceeded to plant a big slow kiss on the back of my head my brain couldn't process what was happening I was embarrassed I was shocked I was confused there is a Spanish saying it means Earth swallow me whole another woman a campaign Aid alleged that Biden grabbed her by the neck and rubbed noses with her at a 2009 fundraiser a similar account came from a White House intern in 2013 saying Biden had grabbed her from the back of the > -[01:25:37](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=5137) head and pressed forehead to forehead against her the former vice president expressed his behavior as part of a desire to make a human connection and said he would do more to respect people's personal space the bargain was that people would understand this as part of an old man out of of step with new social norms only operating based on the best of intentions surely an auspicious and not at all for boing way to start a presidential campaign ultimately whether it was Biden or any other Democratic nominee for president the mission and message were simple don't be Donald Trump Trump's tenure faced the lowest average approval rating in Gallup pole history and the only President never to hit a 50% approval rating Scholars ranked him among the > -[01:26:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=5183) worst Presidents of all time frankly none of this is a surprise Trump squeaked by in the Oval Office in 2016 despite Hillary Clinton's disastrous campaign and had from day one expressed zero interest in appealing to anyone whose politics were left of center where the American people tend to lean in polls Trump had passed disastrous legislation on the environment withdrawing from the already extremely moderate Paris climate agreement passed protectionist tariffs against one of the most important exporters and Rising econ economic powers in the world in China been utterly negligent on covid led the longest government shutdown in history over his insipid border wall etc etc so obviously he was bad and obviously any Democratic president would be a > -[01:27:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=5229) significant upgrade from that right it sure seemed like a significant helping of the American people felt that way despite a campaign in which his public speech skills and dexterity notably seemed to have begun deteriorating and which did not necessarily make any promises for sweeping Progressive legislation Biden received the most votes ever cast for a president in history we do have a lot more people in this country now than ever before so how did he do well remember all those things I just listed about Trump's presidency and how those were part of it being bad how about we just go through those one by one and compare them with Biden's presidency cool practically as soon as Biden entered office he moved to bring the > -[01:27:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=5275) United States back into the Paris agreement yeah signed in 2016 this quote unquote Landmark climate change agreement aims to keep the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2° C above pre-industrial levels as well as to limit the temperature increase to 1.5° C above pre-industrial levels but are these goals actually tenable based on the actions outlined in the agreement experts are skeptical a adjusted to each country depending on development status and need the pledges aim to reduce carbon emissions cut down on greenhouse gases and move to the use of more sustainable energy sources however the projections they base their actions on and with which they celebrate progress are faulty at best this is the subject of a piece called on [ __ ] > -[01:28:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=5326) energy projections by the anonymous scholar of oil and markets phases he cites Bloomberg's 2022 projection that the astronomic iCal growth in wind and solar Farms seen in the 2010s would continue through the 2030s and in turn lead to effective replacement of coal and gas in heavy industry and power generation by 2050 other studies agree and note how the rise of electric vehicles will cut into the car market so drastically so as to cause a sink in global oil Demand by the mid 21st century here's the problem these projections don't make any sense it should go with without saying that economists and other Market analysts are very bad at predicting the future and especially the future of energy markets even in the immediate term all of the > -[01:29:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=5374) above forecasts are dubious if not wittingly fraudulent as the iea itself reported wind and solar developers are already experiencing Financial headwinds as a result of higher interest rates pulling financiers away from less bankable projects this cooling off of investment in Renewables is especially pronounced in developing countries where renewable buildout is already quite meager and where borrowing costs are two or threefold higher than in the global North as for electric vehicles consumer interests had already tapered off by the end of 2023 and new models have already become delayed or entirely canceled as the market sees the end of the early adopter stage much sooner than anticipated once again interest rates are a commonly cited source of blame for > -[01:30:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=5420) this setback finally us oil is seeing yet another boom and this one is actually profitable in turn the country is producing more oil than ever under the Helm of the most climate conscious president in its history similar things can be said about 2022 is inflation reduction act which phases notes was praised by Progressive liberals the center for American progress proclaimed the US to be reclaiming the mantle of global climate leadership an assistant professor of engineering at Princeton headed a study finding that the IRA Bill had brought the United States to within .5 billion tons of CO2 equivalent emissions perom of the 2030 climate Target that is to 50% of 2005 us emission Levels by 2030 the graph showcases a period of decline in US > -[01:31:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=5469) emissions through the 2010s but phases notes that this was offset by the rise of profitable gas guzzling vehicles and a boom in fracking but that this context is not showcased by the graph such projections of the Biden Administration ation tackling carbon emissions and greenhouse gases simply because of some changes from coal plants to gas plants are as phases writes Beyond Comprehension this is not even to note how the rapid Ascent of natural gas production in the US has led to extraordinary and largely unchecked Pipeline and facility leakages of its predominant compound methane which is capable of trapping 28 times more heat than carbon dioxide where Trump's Administration has maybe been properly assessed as filled with disast and > -[01:31:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=5514) Antiquated profiteering at the expense of any attempt at Environmental Protection Biden's Administration perhaps is even more dangerous and how much hope and relief it seems to give some people about the future of our climate despite the utterly outof touch actions and projections it has put forth so that's one thing where Donald Trump said things about China and Chinese people that were comically racist and mean Joe Biden's rhetoric and policy has not been much better Donald Trump is just your drunk uncle racist Joe Biden is the dean of your University racist from early on Biden's Secretary of State Anthony blinkin commented that Trump was right in taking a tougher approach to China and that the challenge the threat from > -[01:32:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=5561) the Chinese Communist party is real it is existential to the United States blinkin was Savvy enough to justify this by opining that China was committing genocide against its marginalized weager population in Shin Jang while there are legitimate concerns of Human Rights abuses by the Chinese government let's be real here do you think an Administration that supports Benjamin Netanyahu and Muhammad bin Salman is concerned about human rights about genocide us strategy against China particularly in the Trump and Biden eras has often been termed part of a new Cold War Two Nations on opposite sides of the world with slightly differing economic systems whose capitalists are are competing for control of global economic hegemony researcher and journalist H > -[01:33:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=5608) Fang hung notes that this Rift began in the 1990s driven by a huge shift of corporate America's disposition toward China hung writes that through the late 80s and early 90s Wall Street had become one of the key sources of capital for Chinese State Enterprises which were privatizing more and more under dun sha ping beginning in 1993 however China made a concerted efforts to recruit us companies to become proxy lobbyists for the country offering valuable business caterpillar the world's largest manufacturer of construction equipment was offered a huge market share in China which saw a huge surge in demand for Mining and construction equipment AT&T was given similar offers and Promises of playing a huge role in China's building telecommunication sector this helped > -[01:34:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=5654) China shape friendly trade Dynamics with the us but their promises failed to hold up after China got what it wanted in terms of US policy China changed its policy to make sure foreign companies like AT&T could not have majority stakes and leadership in China's telecommunication sector and Beijing started to cultivate its state-owned telecommunication giants like China mobile and China Telecom to dominate the market and marginalize foreign countries this situation became much more apparent in 2010 and thereafter gee what happened around 2010 cuz hung notes 2010 as a landmark year in this shift a legal scholar said there was an anti-china corporate Insurgency in the United States in some cases this took a more passive form of not actively > -[01:35:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=5702) lobbying against China many corporations that previously lobbied vocally against bills that they saw as violating China's interests now sat on their hands and did nothing to help China anymore this is why in recent years so many bills that irritated Beijing like all the bills in support of Taiwan and denouncing human rights abuses in xinjang man maned to pass in a polarizing congress with a unanimous bipartisan vote China essentially became cold on the US after you know that whole stock market crash economic crisis thing that the US caused the next year the first Leadership Summit for the brick countries later bricks took place in Russia in 2011 Obama and then president of China hentau had a tense public meeting in which the US president urged for more fairness > - [01:35:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=5753) toward towards us companies and also suddenly expressed significant concerns about human rights violations go figure the 2010s and early 2020s thus became a period of further fracturing between the two Powers China's aggressive stimulus packages to Chinese companies and initiation of the belt and Road initiative with the intent to expand Chinese business overseas the US created the trans-pacific partnership TPP to facilitate free trade in the rest of Asia and strangle China economically Within its own region hung calls this the carrot and Trump's tariff and violent rhetoric based policies the stick as always both parties have the same goals just different strategies then again even the strategies tend to overlap more often than not as reported > - [01:36:39](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=5799) by the tax Foundation outside of allowing the washing machine tariffs to expire in 2023 and some narrow modifications to the steel and aluminum tariffs and solar panel tariffs President Biden has kept nearly all Trump tariffs in place these Trump Biden tariffs as we should call them represent a tax increase of hundreds of billions of dollars on the American people and combined with the retaliation they evoked from China had a negative impact on prices and employment for Americans but hey at least this was the only matter on which the Biden Administration quietly followed the Trump Administration right everything else was a huge change [Music] right oh > - [01:37:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=5844) well well other than those two things so you might have heard that Joe Biden deported more people than Donald Trump did or that he was on Pace to or that he's fairly close what's the truth Reuters has reported that Biden's deportations began outpacing trumps in 2023 and 2024 fueled by things like his 2024 restrictions on Asylum Seekers which were decried by the ACLU but have no fear John fear of the cater for immigration studies is here to dispel the myth that Biden could possibly be deporting more people than Trump he notes that Biden's numbers are using the same conflation made with Obamas counting both removals and returns as deportations h a removal which fear defines as an arrest of an illegal alien processed by ice and deported back to > - [01:38:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=5893) the aliens home country is much more of a pure deportation concentrated especially on expelling criminal aliens whereas returns are simply incidents in which people try to cross the border are apprehended by border patrol and sent back within 48 Hours those aren't real deportations and Trump is still the best at real deportations the Democrats are liars so to be clear John fear and the center for immigration studies are far right the latter founded by eugenicists which favor drastic reduction in Immigration they are mad because the Democrats are claiming to be even tougher On the Border than Trump and they are breaking down their questionable numbers of criminal alien expulsions to prove that Biden and Obama deportations may seem higher in number > - [01:38:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=5938) but they're actually way smaller if we're talking about real deportations this partisan shtick suggesting Democrats are fake tough on immigrants is funny given John fear's recent cheerleading for the appointment of Tom Homan as Trump's borders are who ironically was the executive associate director of ice under Obama and was given a presidential rank award by Obama but it also suggests that Turning Away migrants trying to cross the Mex US border has less heft than deportation that Walling off that border from immigration is somehow a uniquely barebones approach by the liberal establishment which doesn't go far enough into ending our immigration problem well let's talk about those returns for a sec of all Publications > - [01:39:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=5981) CBS News recently reported on a ratcheting up of Border deportations in September based on Biden's recent legislation cracking down on migrants which prevents them from using Asylum petitions to avoid deportation because they did not use one of the legal ports of Entry recently deported migrants expressed desperation one fleeing to Arizona and hopes to send money back home another escaping harassment by a man toward her daughters at home Asylum Seekers who do not explicitly State and support claims that they fear violence at home have been turned away at a massive rate since this legislation's passing remember the outrage Democrats expressed that Trump's violent expansion and deployment of ice Trump's use of private prisons which benefited > - [01:40:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=6024) financially off of the Detention of migrants Trump's insid border wall project under Biden all of these policies have continued in at least some ways fear might still cogently argue that the differing nature of deportations means Trump's stance on immigration truly is the evilest of them all but the Republican party will have its work cut out for it if it wishes to outdo Biden on one key foreign policy issue we've come a long way from a Jerusalem Post scholar labeling Trump the most pro-israel president in history the Trump Administration arguably left a mixed Legacy with Israel as despite big moves like declaring Israeli settlements in the West Bank no longer illegal he at numerous points withdrew US forces from > - [01:41:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=6072) areas which Israel expressed need for additional defenses including North Eastern Syria what an opportunity for Joe Biden I am a Zionist you don't have to be once the al- AXA flood occurred on October 7th of last year the sitting Democratic president seized every opportunity to appease the Israel Lobby and cement itself as tough on terrorism by arming and unconditionally supporting one of the bloodiest and most visible genocidal campaigns in modern history Biden's history as a pro-israel Warhawk is the stuff of Legend at one point in a 1982 meeting with then prime minister of Israel manim bin he defended Israel's invasion of Lebanon and its right to self-defense in such Stark terms if attacks were launched from Canada into > -[01:42:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=6121) the United States everyone here would have said attack all the cities of Canada and we don't care if all the civilians get killed I said to him no sir attention must be paid beIN told reporters at the time this is a yard stick of human civilization not to hurt civilians it's no surprise that a man who was more supportive of Israeli violence than Israeli heads of state and citizens in the many years prior to his presidency would be all about it during his presidency but as many times as you've seen the numbers seen the horrifying video footage watched public figures in Gaza disappear ominously from your social media timelines it can't be stated enough how evil the Biden Administration has been on this the tone > -[01:42:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=6168) was set early on in the time between October 7th and October 18th when Biden gave Benjamin Netanyahu a be hug on the tarmac of benguan airport in Tel Aviv at least 3,000 people were killed and 12,500 injured that day the head of the World Health Organization Tedros adinam jabis declared that the situation in Gaza was spiraling out of control by October 25th at least 7,000 people had been killed and the healthc care system in Gaza was in complete collapse ACC according to the Gaza Health Ministry with another 7,000 sick and wounded patients in the territory's hospitals facing death that day at a press conference with Australian prime minister Anthony albanes Biden said I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people > -[01:43:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=6220) are killed I'm sure Innocents have been killed and it's the price of waging a war but I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using of course there were anecdotes of sound like the false beheaded baby story Biden pared with no evidence there were also repeated stomping out of pro Palestinian demonstrations within the country there have been continuous resignations within Biden's cabinet over his policy on Gaza the American populace generally pulls as against the actions of Israel and sending more financial support to them to carry out their massacres which now extend into Lebanon and the West Bank none of it matters Biden won't budge some argue that Trump will be worse to Palestinians what could he do that Biden hasn't yet nuking the Gaza Strip would > -[01:44:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=6270) mean explosions and Lasting radiation sickness and morbidity for the surrounding areas of Israel and Egypt it is just over a third of the size of the city of Hiroshima he'll give Netanyahu unchecked power so has Biden none of his supposed attempts to check Netanyahu have worked and given his non-reaction to Israel's Line crossing invasion of Rafa or its lack of compliance to us demands for Aid increases it seems any investment of restraint from Biden is half-hearted at best frankly if there's anything Trump has a shot at being better than Biden at quote unquote it's checking Israel's use of force against Palestinians Trump's imperialism has largely been about territory expansion and real estate again he was critiqued during his administration by liberal > -[01:45:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=6318) zionists saying he did not offer enough military supports to Israel and Biden has not only been the farthest right on IDF War Hawking during his presidency he's been farther right than George W bush Ronald Reagan and actual prime ministers on it throughout his career and yet Trump still pulled as the heavily preferred candidate among Israelis for the US Presidency he is still the preferred State Leader by its fascist government perhaps this is because they know like we know that Biden is unreliable both physically and morally he struggles to provide the fascists of Israel with their objectives in public relations and normalization of their imperialist expansion all he does is hit the bomb button he waits for objectives to come that never come he > -[01:46:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=6367) stammers through smart alec comments toward people who want an arms Embargo of Israel President Biden do you think that you can get a hostage deal by the end of your term you think you can get hit the head by camera behind you as Biden ages drastically in front of a global audience he can only affirm his own steadfastness and agency by doing what he knows best he clings to Israeli violence like a roller Walker he is biting time you know let's let's talk numbers at the start of his presidency Joe Biden had an approval rating of 53.1% of approve 30.2% disapprove in the time shortly following his American Rescue plan of March 2021 which was a stimulus bill > -[01:47:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=6423) that provided an economic stimulus to taxpayers under 75,000 in income and also provided funding for several covid relief initiatives his approval rating was at its highest it reached 55.3% with disapproval still lagging at 37.7% this is from 538 but by the Fall after his social welfare policies had begun being rolled back significantly his disapproval rating eclipsed his approval rating as of November 2024 it sits 17 ticks ahead 56.3% disapprove 38.7% approve the image of Joe Biden as the younger Li man the wly veteran among liberal Darlings the handsome old man quipping alongside his President Barack Obama has all but withered away replaced by an even older man even thinner and whiter haired who seems like he just wants to go home and won't admit it to > -[01:48:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=6484) himself I'm not a big fan of agism and I think there are valid concerns even about the idea that somebody who is old and declining in mental acuity can't be the president because I happen to think that the position of President itself is kind of secondary to the cabinet and the political climate Across the Nation so it matters less that Joe Biden is sharp as he used to be it doesn't help though that he looks so sad and I don't just mean he looks like he's sad in in an emotional sense I mean it's sad to look at him it's sad to look at him not because aging is some horrible thing that could happen to a person not because he's the best person who is not deserving of a decline in his mental faculties and negative attention it's > -[01:48:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=6538) sad because it it shouldn't have to be this way if we had taken action as a nation earlier like much earlier long before he had ever gotten into this position if things played out a bit differently in this country and abroad or or even if we had a Democratic party that was still evil but at least more competent in its evil we wouldn't have to be so confronted with the very illness at the core of an Empire with the very nonsensicality at the core of a declining Empire and frankly we wouldn't have to look at Joe Biden as something so dehumanizing we wouldn't have to have conversations about agism or about how we talk about our elders in the first place we could allow him to be a person who did > -[01:49:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=6586) horrible things as a politician but as Branco martic writes in his book could arguably be seen as a good person in his personal life a person who is well-liked by many a person who has suffered tremendous personal loss and persevered through it we could be having a conversation about how politics are far more than a person a man a face far more than a a sharp wit a a performance of mental acuity that satisfies the image of Competency at the heart of the Empire so as to validate legitimate the things that Empire does but we can't we can't have any conversations about anything because we're all too [ __ ] scared and we're all scared for valid reasons but as it goes with fear we're often having invalid expressions of > -[01:50:39](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=6639) those emotions as a result I want to feel bad for Joe Biden I want to look at Joe Biden and say you are a victim not a victim I want to look at Joe Biden and and say you know you're a consequence of your time in your heart of hearts you did what you could in your heart of hearts you were doing what was right for everyone but I don't believe that and it doesn't feel good to look at somebody who is clearly not at their best who is clearly being put in a position that is stressful for anyone a position that is dark and devastating for everyone it's hard to look at that person and have to think about them as a human being but the argument of this video is that if we don't start looking at politicians as human beings ones who > -[01:51:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=6692) make decisions out of a genuine desire to build a large group of people who like them to create more power for themselves to satisfy the wishes of their forefathers their fathers their grandfathers to try to expand themselves into having big houses and big families that love them and an image on a on a symbol somewhere in the white house if we don't start thinking about the humanity behind that the humanity behind the fear and the Deep desire for approval and continuance of power that causes people to to to do such devastating harm to others if we don't start talking about that then we'll never start talking about politics because politics is a baseline for all of human existence with each other Maybe I should say all of human > -[01:52:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=6743) coexistence politics is everything politics is everything but the way we talk about politics at the heart of the Imperial core but really everywhere is as if we're talking about religion we're talking about monsters and heroes we're talking about do gooders and N do Wells to Advocate that we talk about politicians as human beings is validly criticized in the first place because the politicians have engaged in so much dehumanization of so so so many other human beings and so that type of Retribution that type of Revenge even if that revenge is just a post on Twitter making fun of him for his aging or something like that it feels like it's necessary if not at least just but what does it get us more of this [ __ ] I am the type of > -[01:53:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=6795) person that thinks about politics and everything I do and things that we all do subconsciously but we're we're too scared to admit it and in talking about Joe Biden not only as such an evil person but really as a human being just like anybody else and talking about all these horrible things Joe Biden did and the political urgency in his head of doing those things the humanity behind doing those evil things I hope that I can spark some type of Engagement with ourselves critically I hope that you all look at Joe Biden and think man it really could be your Grandpa it really could be your nice Uncle it really could be me that willingly engages in dehumanizing other people and benefits off of their suffering it really could > -[01:54:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=6844) be me that constantly flip-flops between positions at varying degrees of tenability for some some desire for approval or power over a situation often times which is not really even possible to acquire especially not sustainably I wish we could look at Joe Biden as a human being because then we could look at ourselves as human beings and ask the real questions what is the United States what are we doing here why do we do horrible things to other countries to other people to our own people why is it necessary that an underclass has to exist for an Empire to persevere why don't we walk away from omalos how would we walk away from omalos is it possible to walk away from Omas and I'm not hoping you ask those questions out of a sense that this will lead us to the > -[01:54:52](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=6892) Communist Revolution that we're all talking about on Twitter I just want people to feel empowered I want people to feel a sense that they can engage with American politics not as a place of complete hopelessness and and lack of understanding but as a way to understand ourselves as part of a historical moment just like Tang Dynasty China or or ancient Egypt a moment that will pass an Empire that will fall a political configuration that is not very stable this world we live in is not very stable this political system is not very stable and we shouldn't look for some fact simile some fake stability when we go to The Ballot Box we shouldn't be satisfied with the idea that we can delude ourselves further as a notion of Happiness we should find > -[01:55:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=6945) happiness and addressing things for what they really are where was I uh yeah the campaign of Vice President kamla Harris got off the terrible footing because the Biden campaign of 2024 went on too long it's Shady enough that Democrat voters weren't able to choose a nominee because of this belated handoff it would have been hard enough to start a campaign earning trust in such a way but all that mattered was that she wasn't Donald Trump she was the Democrat nominee and as such was inherently worthy of a vote stability keeping things as they are we didn't at the time of the handoff that Biden's internal polling had him losing 408 electoral votes to Trump maybe that's why after Harris's disastrous loss to Trump in the 2024 presidential > -[01:56:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=6992) election one of her top advisers tweeted that they had dug out of a deep hole but not enough before deleting his X account God we're still calling it X aren't we either way I love that throw shade before deactivating dramatically it's very Stan Twitter coded frankly though if they needed tips on how to win an election trying to court the moderate Republican vote would not have been my strategy given that it has resulted in Failure already in presidential elections in the US running to the right of Donald Trump on immigration saying you'll be tougher On the Border after being at least aligned with or to the right of Donald Trump on foreign policy seems like a bad move too maybe worse as a political strategy is tethering yourself to a deeply unpopular incumbent > -[01:57:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=7034) president saying you would do very little differently than he did the people of this country will not get what they need they need med care for all they need robust Social Services they need a change in Environmental Policy so drastic that it can at least curtail the oncoming disasters which will have terrible effects especially on infrastructure that wouldn't work even if the climate stayed the same for very long the people that this country colonizes overseas and subjugates will have it much worse than the people of this country Both Deserve Better this was the case whether Biden or Trump were elected but now we get the latter someone whose stupidity and arrogance make him deeply unpredictable outside of the general > -[01:58:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=7080) sense that everything is about to get a lot worse I'd like to think I will be doing everything I can to help the marginalized people of this country at the very least the trans people the women of color the queer folks the disabled folks the poor folks the migrant laborers the refugees the children that will likely all have a harder time getting their material needs met especially in a cultural landscape wherein more and more pockets of people are emboldened by fascist rhetoric and excited to turn to violence I suggest that you try to do that too as much as you can first thing you can do get organized second thing Mutual Aid 1 a 1B there's a good chance though that this scary news has got you feeling a similar sense of urgency perhaps it spells the > -[01:58:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZIiqqOpEA&t=7127) end of the democratic party as we know it or at least the remobilization of its voter base into more productive political activities and if I'm being optimistic maybe that's the silver lining in all of this perhaps finally for once we are done biting time thanks [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]  - Ralph Avellone