Joe Biden is (currently) President of the United States

Please let us just enjoy this for a day for a month.

Joe Biden sucks, what has he done for me so far it’s been an hour

Nobody is allowed to enjoy anything fyi, this cannot be news at this stage surely

everyone is allowed to enjoy trump's humiliation

Now we can get back to business as usual: smart, responsible, and technically legal war crimes as well as a robust package of corporate kickbacks coupled with targeted (and likely temporary) social programs

— Edward Ongweso Jr (@bigblackjacobin) January 20, 2021

Gurramahagutt cinnte

xxp there just shouldn't be a "and trump lite is great" clause attached to the celebration of it

Lots of "Liberals howled when Trump ________________. But when Biden _____________ there wasn't a peep" madlib columns are itching to be filled out.

well tbf I haven't heard much liberal condemnation of biden's concentration camps yet

can we still call them that when a good guy is in charge

I still kinda can’t believe we made it.

atm feeling mostly like we've been helplessly standing by as someone hacked their way through the dam that keeps us all from drowning, and Biden is the dude who is currently blocking that crude hole with his wizened body. I am thankful to have him plugging up the hole while we do something about the water that's currently up to our noses, and we'll see if he's able to do anything beyond that.

countdown to Biden reversing some Trumpian atrocity of an Executive Order later today and the Republicans immediately co-opting #Resist hashtag... 3... 2...

i'm preparing to endure an enormous amount of bullshit from the left and the right for the rest of my life

congratulations to america on their new rapist president

— abolish the police (@infinite_scream) January 20, 2021

from the center it's all coming up roses tho

there is no center, and if there is, it's the genesis of bullshit

oh what a beautiful inaugur WAIT I'M NOT IN THE POLITICS THREAD I'M IN THE BIDEN THREAD OOPS MODS PLZ DELETE

Joe Biden is Q imo

i mean, think about it - it makes perfect sense.

From this morning:

I'm sure she's basking in Trump's humiliating exit, but yeah, watching someone being inaugurated who was such a non-starter in 2015 he had to step aside for her run, that can't be much fun.
― clemenza, Wednesday, January 20, 2021 10:14 AM

He didn’t run because his eldest son had just died.
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Wednesday, January 20, 2021 10:39 AM

Not that it matters now, but I believe it was more likely a combination of the two.
― clemenza, Wednesday, January 20, 2021 10:42 AM

have no idea if biden would have beaten Clinton in 2016 and no interest in having that conversation but the idea that she was such a strong candidate that she drove out the Vice President is pretty obviously not true. She demonstrably wasn’t a strong candidate!
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Wednesday, January 20, 2021 10:43 AM

I disagree, caek. I think there was very much momentum at the time for that nomination to go to her (and then Sanders changed things). But like you, not a lot of interest in revisiting that.
― clemenza, Wednesday, January 20, 2021 10:46 AM

And I don’t, mostly because someone will tell me to go fuck myself, and someone else will post “WHO CARES,” and someone else will ask a rhetorical question I take literally and stupidly try to answer. But if we can keep it polite, I think it’s an interesting example of how perceptions can change over time.

I started looking around--one of the luxuries or curses of semi-retirement, take your pick--and skimmed these five accounts of Biden dropping out, published in the immediate aftermath.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/why-biden-didnt-run

https://www.cnn.com/2015/10/21/politics/joe-biden-not-running-2016-election/index.html

https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/run-2016/2015/10/21/joe-biden-didnt-run-because-he-couldnt-win

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/joe-biden-running-president/story?id=34338816

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/22/us/joe-biden-concludes-theres-no-time-for-a-2016-run.html

The New Yorker link doesn’t mention Beau Biden. The other four do, but they put more emphasis on Biden having run out of time to mount a challenge against Clinton.

CNN: Implicit in Biden’s remarks was a realization that Clinton’s position and organizational muscle in early voting states are just too strong for him to mount a credible challenge at such a late stage – just three-and-a-half months before first votes are cast.

U.S. News: In the end, Biden's decision wasn't solely about timing. It was about lacking a conceivable pathway to victory.

ABC: Though Biden said his family is far enough into their grief to handle the rigors of a presidential campaign, there’s too little time to make the prospect viable. “Unfortunately, I believe we're out of time; the time necessary to mount a winning campaign for the nomination," Biden said.

NYT: In a hurriedly arranged speech in the White House Rose Garden with President Obama at his side, Mr. Biden said that he and his family had overcome their grief at the death of his elder son enough to commit themselves to the rigors of a campaign. But with just days until the first filing deadlines, he said he had concluded that it was simply too late.

Honestly, when I initially posted, I had forgotten about the proximity of his son’s death--obviously, that was a big factor in his decision. But five months later, I think it was more that he didn’t think he could win, and that Hillary was a strong candidate at that point. Biden has run for president three times, and almost ran a fourth. (My guess is it crossed his mind in 1992, too, but the plagiarism incident was still way too close; no recollection if his name surfaced in 2004.) Presidential ambition is obviously part of his DNA--which is fine, you don’t become president without that. But absent Clinton, I think he most definitely would have run in 2016; he may even have mentioned his son’s death as one of the reasons he was running, like he did this time, rather than as a reason not to.

uh didn't the biden camp allege that Beau had explicitly asked Joe to run?

but october 2015 is way too late to announce and organize...bernie and hilary both announced their campaign in April 2015, the month before Beau died. Trump announced in June. And Biden started this campaign in April 2019.

anyway he got in there eventually, no harm done

Totally agree, and I definitely don't want to come across as insensitive to what he went through re his son's death. My own memory of the timeline was just kind of nagging at me.

congrats joe, hope you keep pissing off all the right people for the next four years

All Presidents Are Biden

scum

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EsLy4xwVgAAHccq?format=jpg&name=small

did I say four years? nah — eight years

YOUNG N'REFINED

warren g. tryharding in that photo

I can't believe
Warren lowered tax on wealth

just two more presidents and we can complete the panini wallchart

I have seven fuckin bush srs, hate that

Has anybody seen the new president? https://www.instagram.com/p/CKSkiRzj3zc/?igshid=s865dtzbw4hh

Decker is - my- President.

This is very presidential.

NEW: The Biden admin is reopening an overflow facility in Texas for unaccompanied migrant children apprehended at the US-Mexico border. It comes amid an increase in apprehensions + reduced capacity limits at other facilities due to Covid-19. https://t.co/MYRvIr9gm6

— Priscilla Alvarez (@priscialva) February 2, 2021

"It comes amid an increase in apprehensions." It would be nice to know the time frame being referenced here by "amid". Also, it was reported that ICE literally refused to comply with Biden's EO stopping this policy and it isn't clear to me if ICE has yet decided to comply.

"Under President Donald Trump, the US-Mexico border operated under hardline policies intended to keep migrants out of the United States, including a policy that required asylum seekers to stay in Mexico until their court dates in the US and a public health order allowing quick expulsion of migrants encountered by border agents.
Moves to increase capacity and shelter for migrants are indicative of one of the looming challenges for the Biden administration -- more migrants at the border -- but also signal a shift from the Trump administration's posture of turning everyone away."

https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/fashion/article/joe-biden-makeover

https://i.imgur.com/V39NIRD.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/0R88hpL.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/D8KQ4Ga.jpg

not good, man
https://i.imgur.com/p20vfbf.jpg

eh, that's just standard issue politicospeak, like those endless kitchen tables they love so much

only one country can win each century, every historian knows that

Canada won last century but the US has a great shot at winning this one

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/wilfrid-laurier-canadas-century-1904

like those endless kitchen tables they love so much

Chuck Schumer and the Smithenbergs

(imo it's good if politicians don't formally message insanely racist and imperalist and incomprehensible nonsense, even if other politicians have done so earlier)

As I was listening to the speech, I also wondered if perhaps Biden views rhetoric like that as a potential path to bipartisanship (or at least greater internal cooperation): identifying a common enemy that the country can unite behind to defeat.

There's a definite rally-the-troops quality to lines like this:

Can our democracy deliver on the most pressing needs of our people? Can our democracy overcome the lies, anger, hate and fears that have pulled us apart?

America’s adversaries – the autocrats of the world – are betting it can’t. They believe we are too full of anger and division and rage. They look at the images of the mob that assaulted this Capitol as proof that the sun is setting on American democracy. They are wrong. And we have to prove them wrong. We have to prove democracy still works. That our government still works – and can deliver for the people.

I don't know if the rhetoric will actually be persuasive, or if it's even a wise long-term play. But it feels like there's a political calculation behind it, at least to some degree.

a potential path to bipartisanship (or at least greater internal cooperation): identifying a common enemy that the country can unite behind to defeat.

https://static.rogerebert.com/uploads/review/primary_image/reviews/starship-troopers-1997/Starship-Troopers-image.jpg

watchmen or what have you

Suspicious that Joe Biden might just believes in American imperialism and his thirst for bipartisanship follows from that rather than vice versa.

https://theintercept.com/empire-politician/

this guy thinks so too

"I wanna know everything on that laptop that can ruin my erection."

"Erection, that is!"

https://i.imgur.com/YKDH4dP.jpg

"You're a chicken! And I'm a chicken hawk!"

The ironic thing is the perfect casting choice for Hunter would’ve been…Don Jr.

Holy shit that Hunter Biden movie looks awesome. I hope it begets a whole bunch of increasingly insane sequels, like the "Universal Soldier" franchise.

As a proud pro-labor President, I am reluctant to override the ratification procedures and the views of those who voted against the agreement. BUT!

I share workers’ concern about the inability to take leave to recover from illness or care for a sick family member. No one should have to choose between their job and their health – or the health of their children. I have pressed legislation and proposals to advance the cause of paid leave in my two years in office, and will continue to do so. Every other developed country in the world has such protections for its workers. 

BUT!

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/11/28/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-averting-a-rail-shutdown/

Did Biden have relative freedom (or the benefit of the doubt) in his appointments and executive actions, and did he use that power well? Was he influenced (via his inner circle appointments) by his experience as VP? Or does it say more about his character? That it is better not to have too strong convictions (at the expense of the present or the problem at hand)?

In Dundalk, Joe Biden pays tribute to his cousin Rob Kearney, and his particular role on the memorable day at Soldier Field in Chicago where the Irish rugby team beat “the hell out of the Black and Tans” 👀

— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) April 12, 2023

Joe Biden, talking about his distant cousin Rob Kearney being in an Irish rugby team that beat the All Blacks, just said they “beat the hell out of the Black and Tans”.

Irish Twitter is going to have a field day. pic.twitter.com/QOohYaJ9TY

— Barry Malone (@malonebarry) April 12, 2023

Funny how he never mentions that the Bidens were originally from Sussex.

Can you blame him?

He's not really Irish then I guess.

I do like the way his loudly demonstrative ancestery.com tendencies wind up DUP politicians to the point some of them sounded on the verge of a stroke earlier

That’s very funny for sure

He's not really Irish then I guess

I think he's American.

I've had that suspicion, too.

Erin Go Braghndon