JOE BIDEN

BELOW ARE A FEW ARTICLES ABOUT JOE BIDEN. ADDITIONAL ARTICLES WILL BE ADDED SO PLEASE CHECK BACK. 

JOE BIDEN IS A SHILL WHOSE PURPOSE IS TO PREVENT A PROGRESSIVE CANDIDATE FROM BEING ELECTED. 

WHO AMONG THE WEALTHY WANTS TO FUND MEDICARE FOR ALL? OR SOCIAL SECURITY? OR MEDICARE? OR WHY SHOULD THEY FEED HUNGRY AMERICANS WITH FOOD STAMPS? 

JOE BIDEN IS MR BIG CORPORATION. 

PLEASE LEARN WHAT YOU CAN ABOUT ANY CANDIDATE BEFORE YOU DETERMINE WHO DESERVES YOUR SUPPORT. 

FOCUS: Bhaskar Sunkara | Joe Biden Is Hillary Clinton 2.0 

Bhaskar Sunkara, Guardian UK
Sunkara writes: "His gaffes might be occurring at an alarming rate. He might have uninspiring policy ideas. But he's going to win the primary anyway, so you better get used to him. That was the subtext, at least, and an explanation for how banal Biden's campaign has been so far." 

 

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CREEPY UNCLE JOE

Creepy Uncle Joe Can't Control Himself

THIS IS NOT NORMAL BEHAVIOR JUST MY OPINION THOUGH!

Andrew Cockburn | No Joe! Joe Biden's Disastrous Legislative Legacy 

Andrew Cockburn, Harper's Magazine
Cockburn writes: "It's safe to assume that Biden's undimmed ego will never permit any reflection on whether voters who have been eagerly voting for change will ever really settle for Uncle Joe, champion of yesterday's sordid compromises."
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Joe Biden. (photo: Joshua Lott/Getty Images)

Crazy Uncle Joe Strikes Again: Presidential Hopeful Biden Asks Crowd About Obama's 'Assassination'
Karu F. Daniels, The Root
Daniels writes: "Was it wishful thinking? Or just another off-kilter faux pas?"
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FOCUS: Joe Biden Is Coming for Your Legal Weed 

Chris Roberts, Vice
Roberts writes: "In his 40 years in the Senate, as is now well known, Biden was a key architect of harsh criminal penalties for nonviolent drug users."
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Tim Dickinson | Can Joe Biden Sell 'No We Can't'? 

Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone
Dickinson writes: "The first night of the debate in Detroit turned conventional Democratic political dynamics on their ear."
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To Media, No Democrat Can Possibly Be Right-Wing

"....Another Democrat not only on the right of the party, but on the right side of the political spectrum more generally, is Joe Biden, a current frontrunner for the presidential nomination. Biden began his political career by opposing busing and maintained a very close friendship with arch-segregationist Strom Thurmond until his death, performing the eulogy at his funeral. Among the most hawkish of Democrats, he strongly supported the Iraq War and even boasted he was the true author of George W. Bush’s PATRIOT Act. He opposed immigration and suggested using troops against undocumented workers.

As a senator from Delaware, he is a friend of large finance and tech corporations, and blocked student debt forgiveness. In this election cycle, he opposes Medicare for All and claimed that billionaires were being “demonized,” assuring them that if he were president, “nothing would change” about America. “I need you very badly,” he told a group of extremely wealthy donors. He also suggests moving the party to the right by working with the GOP.

Despite this, Biden describes himself as “center-left,” as do media (e.g. Politico, 6/8/19; Real Clear Politics, 6/12/19; Wall Street Journal, 6/3/19). As the Washington Examiner (6/21/19) noted, the dilemma for the party was between picking a leftist like Sanders or steering a “center-left” course with Biden...." 

FOCUS: Bidencare Is a Scam 

Natalie Shure, Jacobin
Shure writes: "Biden's new health care plan does little to address Obamacare's failures and keeps alive a predatory private insurance industry. Medicare for All is still the only plan that guarantees health care as a human right."
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FOCUS: Bernie Sanders | The Straightest Path to Racial Equality Is Through the One Percent 

Bernie Sanders, The Washington Post
Sanders writes: "Americans owe many of our freedoms to those who put their lives on the line for racial equality: people like Fannie Lou Hamer, Medgar Evers and Daisy Bates. But a racial wealth gap of 10 to 1 exists between white and black Americans, and that gap, along with the effects of racism, fuels disparities in areas ranging from health care to housing and from college debt to criminal sentencing." 

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EXCERPT: 

Walmart is the largest private employer of African Americans in the country — 42 percent of its associates are black. And it pays its employees below a living wage — even while the Walton family owns more wealth than the bottom 40 percent of Americans. Former vice president Joe Biden recently said, “I don’t think 500 billionaires are the reason why we’re in trouble.” I respectfully disagree. It is my view that any presidential candidate who claims to believe that black lives matter has to take on the institutions that have continually exploited black lives.

WHAT'S JOE HIDING?

FOCUS: Joe Biden's Senate Records Are Being Kept Secret: Why? 
 
Matt Viser, The Washington Post 
Viser writes: "Joe Biden's effort to make his lengthy experience the central issue of his campaign has been confounded by questions about his actions during almost four decades as a U.S. senator, on issues including criminal justice, busing and the hearings into the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas." 
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Frank Bruni | Joe Biden, Closet Republican 
 
Frank Bruni, The New York Times 
Bruni writes: "It didn't come to me right away, but finally I recognized the model for Joe Biden's unusual campaign, the former president whose pitch Biden's most closely resembles: George W. Bush." 
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Joe Biden. (photo: Sun Sentinel)

Joe Biden Didn't Just Vote for the Iraq Invasion - He Helped Lead the March to War
Branko Marcetic, In These Times
Excerpt: "Biden may run from it today, but he played a critical role in ensuring America's involvement in the most disastrous foreign policy venture of the 21st century."
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RSN: Norman Solomon | Corporate Team of Rivals: Harris Now in Top Tier With Biden to Prevent a Progressive Nominee 

Norman Solomon, Reader Supported News
Solomon writes: "Among the Democratic presidential candidates, the viable alternatives to the Biden and Harris corporatist duo are the progressive candidate Elizabeth Warren and the more progressive candidate Bernie Sanders." 

EXCERPT: 

Harris — who co-sponsored a bill to withhold U.S. dues to the United Nations because of a UN Security Council resolution that condemned illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank — pandered to AIPAC while delivering 2017 and 2018 speeches to the Israel-can-do-no-wrong organization. While acquiescing to requests from MoveOn and other groups that presidential candidates not speak to AIPAC’s 2019 conference in late March, she pulled off a smooth maneuver, as Mondoweiss pointed out: “Harris is a very pragmatic politician, and the conference came to her yesterday! She met leading AIPAC officials at her office and then tweeted her devoted support to Israel.”

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• Trump joins chorus spearing Joe Biden's 2020 run: 'some things aren't salvageable'

Former vice president Joe Biden speaks at the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Legislative Conference on March 12, 2019, in Washington, D.C. (photo: Olivier Douliery/AP)

Biden Expresses Skepticism of Democrats' Leftward Tilt and AOC's Mass Appeal
Dan Merica, CNN
Merica writes: "The interview made clear that Biden, who is facing criticism from the left of the party amid an increasingly contentious Democratic primary, does not feel the need to sway to the left to capture the party's base and, instead, hopes to set himself apart by embracing his moderation."
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RSN: Norman Solomon | After Biden's Sharp Decline, Investors Are Reassessing Other Blue Chips 

Norman Solomon, Reader Supported News
Solomon writes: "Investors are pondering where to put their money this week after the sudden decline in the assessed value of presidential candidate Joe Biden."
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Sen. Bernie Sanders. (photo: Getty)

ALSO SEE: Dem Candidates All Support Healthcare for Undocumented People,
Split on Decriminalizing Immigration

The Bernie Effect: Sanders Sets the Bar in Democratic Health Care Debate
Gregory Krieg, CNN
Krieg writes: "The Democratic Party's health care agenda is clear - and the rhetoric sounds increasingly like Sen. Bernie Sanders' vision."
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Senator Kamala Harris, right, and Joseph R. Biden Jr., left, clashed during the second night of the Democratic presidential debate in Miami on Thursday. (photo: Doug Mills/The New York Times)

Biden Falters in Democratic Debate
Niall Stanage, The Hill
Stanage writes: "Front-runner Joe Biden faltered in the Democratic presidential primary debate Thursday evening, suffering some damage at the hands of rivals while also stumbling of his own accord."
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FOCUS: Mehdi Hasan | AOC, Sanders, and Warren Are the Real Centrists Because They Speak for Most Americans 

Mehdi Hasan, The Intercept
Hasan writes: "Do you know what really annoys me about the media's coverage of U.S. politics, and especially the Democratic Party? Google the words 'moderate' or 'centrist' and a small group of names will instantly appear: Michael Bloomberg, Amy Klobuchar, Joe Biden, and, yes, Howard Schultz."
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Ta-Nehisi Coates: "Joe Biden Shouldn't Be President" 

Democracy Now!
Excerpt: "I mean, this is who Joe Biden is. You know there’s that saying: When somebody shows you who they are, believe them. This is who Joe Biden is."





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Former Vice President Joe Biden speaking at a press conference in New Castle, DE on May 30, 2019. (photo: Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto/Getty Images)

Any Dem Who Wants to Be President Should Reject War with Iran, Not Hide Behind Process Criticisms
Julianne Tveten, In These Times
Tveten writes: "The crisis, fueled by the Trump administration’s bellicose rhetoric and dangerous provocations, has offered a glimpse into the foreign-policy platforms of some of the leading 2020 Democratic hopefuls."
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RSN: John Kiriakou | Biden Has No Idea What He Did Wrong 

John Kiriakou, Reader Supported News
Kiriakou writes: "Joe Biden says some dumb things. He admits to it." 

JOE BIDEN'S PLAGIARISM AND LIES! 

A MUST READ IN ITS ENTIRETY - THIS IS WHY YOU NEED TO SUPPORT RSN: EXCERPT: 

Take this wonderful Biden quote from The New York Times: “When I marched in the civil rights movement, I did not march with a 12-point program. I marched with tens of thousands of others to change attitudes. And we changed attitudes!” That’s great, except that Joe Biden never marched in the civil rights movement. Never. His aides, according to the Times, have “gently reminded him” that the story simply isn’t true. But he keeps telling it anyway.

This penchant for hyperbole and weakness for plagiarizing the work of others has caught up with Biden in the past. He had to drop out of the 1988 race for president after a Dukakis campaign staff member gave a Washington Post reporter a videotape showing UK Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock and Biden side-by-side. Kinnock said, “Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university?” Then referring to his ancestors, some of whom worked in the coal mines, he said, “Was it because all our predecessors were thick? Those people who could sing and play and recite and write poetry? Those people who could work eight hours underground and then come up and play football?”

Biden, in his own speech, said, “Why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go to a university? Is it because I’m the first Biden in a thousand generations to get a college and graduate degree? That I was smarter than the rest? Those same people who read poetry and wrote poetry and taught me how to sing verse? Is it because they didn’t work hard? My ancestors, who worked in the coal mines of northeast Pennsylvania and would come up after 12 hours and play football for four hours?”

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Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event in New Hampshire. Biden came under fire from fellow Democrats after his remarks on working with segregationists during his time in the U.S. Senate. (photo: Scott Elsen/Getty)

Democrats Call for Biden to Apologize After He Boasts About Relationship With Segregationists
Scott Detrow, NPR
Detrow writes: "The day after former Vice President Joe Biden recalled his 'civil' and productive working relationships decades ago with two longtime segregationist and racist fellow lawmakers, fellow Democrats are pouncing."
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- "Warren: 'It's never OK to celebrate segregationists. Never,'" by Rachel Frazin, The Hill: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Wednesday criticized comments made by former Vice President Joe Biden about working with segregationist senators. "I'm not here to criticize other Democrats, but it's never OK to celebrate segregationists. Never," she said, according to tweets from several reporters. Biden has come under fire for touting his work with two segregationist senators in the 1970s as an example of bygone 'civility.'"

- "Jill Biden sidesteps Joe Biden's controversies in New Hampshire," by Lisa Kashinsky, Boston Herald: "Jill Biden is hitting back at Democratic criticism leveled against her husband, Joe Biden, for his bipartisan overtures to Republicans in his latest presidential bid. The former vice president and current Democratic front-runner has been slammed for touting compromise on the campaign trail, drawing criticism that he's naive and out of touch. But Jill Biden, campaigning on her husband's behalf in New Hampshire on Wednesday, said, 'He can break down silos; he can bring people together. And I know he's been criticized for saying he would work with Republicans, but like, why not? To make things work, you have to work together.'"

FOCUS: Charles Pierce | Joe Biden Is One of the Most Tone-Deaf Politicians in the History of Representative Government 

Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "He paints the bullseye on his own self more artistically than anyone I've ever seen."
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JOE BIDEN: MR BIG CORPORATIONS

We The People

No Words...other than kiss the Earth and your children and grandchildren goodbye. A Wall Street Whore of the First Order. ~WTP
"No one's standard of living will change. Nothing would fundamentally change."

COMMONDREAMS.ORG

BIDEN TELLS BILLIONAIRES THAT UNDER HIS ADMINISTRATION, THINGS WOULDN'T CHANGE

It "might be the most honest thing he's said since he defended segregated schools."

LINK

Comcast-Owned MSNBC in the Tank for Joe Biden’s Presidential Run

Ignoring Lessons of #metoo, Media Scrutinize Biden’s Accusers

Joe Biden’s long record supporting the war on drugs and mass incarceration, explained

THEINTERCEPT.COM Joe Biden Is Hillary Clinton 2.0 — Democrats Would Be Mad to Nominate Him

RSN: "America is Back"

Galindez writes: "The vice president said that North America is now the epicenter of energy production in the world and will be energy-independent by 2020 or possibly 2018."

Vice President Joe Biden. (photo: Scott Galindez/RSN)

RSN: Norman Solomon | Joe Biden on the Relaunch Pad: He's Worse Than You Thought 

Norman Solomon, Reader Supported News
Solomon writes: "On the verge of relaunching, Joe Biden is poised to come to the rescue of the corporate political establishment." 

EXCERPT:

When Biden read this paragraph in a recent Politico article, his ears must have been burning: “Early support from deep-pocketed financial executives could give Democrats seeking to break out of the pack an important fundraising boost. But any association with bankers also opens presidential hopefuls to sharp attacks from an ascendant left.”

The direct prey of Biden’s five-decade “association with bankers” include millions of current and former college students now struggling under avalanches of debt; they can thank Biden for his prodigious services to the lending industry. Andrew Cockburn identifies an array of victims in his devastating profile of Biden in the March issue of Harper’s magazine. For instance:

** “Biden was long a willing foot soldier in the campaign to emasculate laws allowing debtors relief from loans they cannot repay. As far back as 1978, he helped negotiate a deal rolling back bankruptcy protections for graduates with federal student loans, and in 1984 worked to do the same for borrowers with loans for vocational schools.”

** “Even when the ostensible objective lay elsewhere, such as drug-related crime, Biden did not forget his banker friends. Thus the 1990 Crime Control Act, with Biden as chief sponsor, further limited debtors’ ability to take advantage of bankruptcy protections.”

** Biden worked diligently to strengthen the hand of credit-card firms against consumers. At the same time, “the credit card giant MBNA was Biden’s largest contributor for much of his Senate career, while also employing his son Hunter as an executive and, later, as a well-remunerated consultant.”

Media mythology about “Lunch Bucket Joe” cannot stand up to scrutiny. His bona fides as a pal of working people are about as solid and believable as those of the last Democratic nominee for president.

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JOE BIDEN : It's Totally Normal That Joe Biden's Son Works for a Ukrainian Energy Company

Interesting! From 2014 worth reading!

About this website

THEATLANTIC.COM

It's Totally Normal That Joe Biden's 
Son Works for a Ukrainian Energy Company

The inauguration of Petro Poroshenko as Ukraine's new president was Europe's biggest story today. But it wasn't the most interesting one. 

The inauguration of Petro Poroshenko as Ukraine's new president was Europe's biggest story today. But it wasn't the most interesting one. 

LINK

About this website

VICE.COM

Joe Biden Wagged His Finger At Me When I Asked Him About Abortion

The story behind the viral Twitter photo.

On Tuesday night, K.C. Cayo’s photo of presidential candidate Joe Biden went viral on Twitter. In the photo, Biden, the current Democratic frontrunner, is pointing his finger in Cayo’s face with his eyebrows raised.

LINK


Dick Durbin: Tell America what Biden knew before he voted for the Iraq war

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FOCUS: Joe Biden Worked to Undermine the Affordable Care Act's Coverage of Contraception 

Ryan Grim, The Intercept
Grim writes: "As vice-president, Joe Biden repeatedly sought to undermine the Affordable Care Act's contraception mandate, working in alliance with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to push for a broad exemption that would have left millions of women without coverage." 

EXCERPT: 

“When it comes to issues like abortion, amnesty, and acid, I’m about as liberal as your grandmother,” Biden said in a June 1974 article. “I don’t like the Supreme Court decision on abortion. I think it went too far. I don’t think that a woman has the sole right to say what should happen to her body.”

Because Biden’s anti-Roe comments came so long ago — more than four decades — some have argued they are of little value in gauging his current politics. But his battle against contraception, and his unwillingness to join the bulk of the Democratic field and call for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment, puts him dramatically out of step with today’s party.

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Bill McKibben | Joe Biden Is Stuck in the Past When It Comes to Climate Change 

Bill McKibben, Guardian UK
McKibben writes: "One of the first real debates of the Democratic primary broke out on Friday - and in both timing and substance it raised anew the half-suppressed doubts about whether frontrunner Joe Biden is too stuck in the past to be a credible standard-bearer."
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Joe Biden. (photo: Sun Sentinel)

Biden Abandons Plan to Launch 2020 Bid in Charlottesville
Joseph Simonson, Washington Examiner
Simonson writes: "Former Vice President Joe Biden has canceled plans to launch his 2020 bid for the White House in Charlottesville, Va., where a woman protesting a white nationalist rally was murdered when a car was driven into a crowd of activists in 2017."
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Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren. (image: Saul Loeb/AFP/Spencer Platt/Getty Images/Xavier Zarracina/Vox)

ALSO SEE: Joe Biden Is Railing Against Hedge
Fund Managers, but He Has a Long
History of Courting Them

The 20-Year Argument Between Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren Over Bankruptcy, Explained
Matthew Yglesias, Vox
Yglesias writes: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) was the first Democratic 2020 hopeful to take a direct swing at former Vice President Joe Biden since he got into the race, accusing him of being 'on the side of the credit companies' in a fight that launched her political career a decade ago."
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Joe Biden would be only Democratic candidate backing Asia trade deal if he runs for president | 07 Oct 2015 | Vice President Joe Biden became the only prospective or current Democratic presidential candidate supporting the Trans-Pacific Partnership on Wednesday as Hillary Rodham Clinton declared her opposition. A longtime darling of unions [Why?!?], Biden has been skeptical of previous sweeping free trade deals, warning of risks to U.S. jobs. Yet he's publicly supporting the Trans-Pacific Partnership, jeopardizing his support from unions if he enters the race. Other declared Democratic candidates have said they oppose the deal.

JOE BIDEN FLIP-FLOP!

Joe Biden joins Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti at a campaign stop in Los Angeles, California, May 8, 2019. (photo: Kyle Grillot/Reuters)

Biden Reverses His Position on Abortion Rights, Again
Sophie Weiner, Splinter
Weiner writes: "One day after he was torn to shreds by a righteous Elizabeth Warren, former Vice President Joe Biden decided that maybe he does support repealing the Hyde Amendment after all."
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RSN: Marc Ash | Cable News Reports: Bernie Is Toast 

Marc Ash, Reader Supported News
Ash writes: "The around-the-clock fusillade of criticism directed at Bernie Sanders on cable news has switched into overdrive, synchronized precisely (hint, no coincidence) with Joe Biden's announcement of his candidacy for President."
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Joe Biden. (photo: Getty)

Joe Biden to Attend Fundraiser Hosted by Anti-Net Neutrality Comcast Exec, Other Corporate Big-Wigs
Clare Martin, Paste Magazine
Martin writes: "While Biden had vowed not to fund his campaign with contributions from lobbyists like most other Democratic hopefuls, this fundraiser provides an oh-so-convenient loophole."
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RSN: Norman Solomon | Joe Biden: Puffery vs. Reality 

Norman Solomon, Reader Supported News
Solomon writes: "Let's be blunt: As a supposed friend of American workers, Joe Biden is a phony. And now that he's running for president, Biden's huge task is to hide his phoniness."
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Matt Taibbi | Is Joe Biden 'Electable' or Not? Thank God, Nobody Seems to Know 

Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone
Taibbi writes: "Maybe Joe Biden has been in politics too long. When he finally announced his run this week, he found he'd outlived the campaign cliché that once would have carried him to the White House: 'electability.'"
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Joe Biden Has a History of Racist Comments 

Matt Viser, The Washington Post
Viser writes: "When Joe Biden was a freshman senator in the mid-1970s, his home state of Delaware, like other hotspots across the country, was engulfed in a bitter battle over school busing, debating whether children should be sent to schools in different neighborhoods to promote racial diversity."
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Charles Pierce | A Joe Biden 2020 Campaign Would Be the Most Divisive Thing for the Democratic Field 

Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "I am tempted - so very tempted - to use the apocryphal story of the kid who confronts Shoeless Joe Jackson with regard to Joe Biden's latest pronouncement from the mount, but I refuse to do so, because we do not wholly descend into cliché this far in advance of a presidential election."
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Joe Biden. (photo: Getty Images)

Joe Biden's Lead Slips as Elizabeth Warren Surges, Iowa Poll Shows
Martin Pengelly, Guardian UK
Pengelly writes: "On the heels of a major Iowa poll which showed a big slip in his big lead over the Democratic field, Joe Biden was conspicuous by his absence from the guest list for a big party event in the state on Sunday."
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RSN: Norman Solomon | Why Joe Biden Was Afraid to Face California's Democratic Party 

Norman Solomon, Reader Supported News
Solomon writes: "Joe Biden's glaring absence from the California Democratic Party convention has thrown a national spotlight on his eagerness to detour around the party's progressive base."
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FOCUS: Norman Solomon | The Joe Biden That MSNBC Won't Show You 

Norman Solomon, RootsAction
Excerpt: "In a party that officially condemns dog-whistle appeals to racism, Joe Biden is running on Orwellian eggshells."





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Joe Biden. (photo: Scott Eisen/Getty)

Greenpeace Gives Joe Biden a D- on Climate Change Report Card
Ari Natter, Bloomberg
Natter writes: "Joe Biden got a D-minus on a climate change report card ranking Democratic presidential candidates released Thursday by the liberal environmental group Greenpeace."
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FOCUS: Joe Biden's Big Money Problem 

Ryan Cooper, The Week
Cooper writes: "Joe Biden is having no trouble raising money. In just one single evening last Wednesday, he raked in a cool $700,000 at a California fundraiser, where he hobnobbed with Hollywood bigshots like Jeffrey Katzenberg and Terry Press."
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RSN: Norman Solomon | Joe Biden Likes Republicans So Much Because He's So Much Like Them 

Norman Solomon, Reader Supported News
Solomon writes: "Recent criticism of Joe Biden for praising Dick Cheney as 'a decent man' and Mike Pence as 'a decent guy' merely scratches the surface of what's wrong with the current frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination."
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Cornel West and Adolph L. Reed Jr. | Joe Biden Wants Us to Forget His Past. We Won't 

Cornel West and Adolph L. Reed Jr., Guardian UK
Excerpt: "After much huffing and puffing, Joe Biden has officially entered the race for 2020. In his announcement, he indicated his intention to hit the ground running immediately in early primary states, especially South Carolina."
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FOCUS: Katy Waldman | Joe Biden and the Perils of Good Intentions 

Katy Waldman, The New Yorker
Waldman writes: "Americans have been on a long road trip with Joe Biden. The former Vice-President's hot mikes, his 'handsiness,' 'gaffes,' and 'loose-lipped and emotive manner' are all a matter of family lore."
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Rebecca Traister | Joe Biden Isn't the Answer 

Rebecca Traister, The Cut
Traister writes: "It's still three months before the first Democratic debate, nearly a year before Super Tuesday, and he hasn't even declared yet, but poll after presidential poll continues to show 76-year-old former vice-president Joe Biden leading an enormous, diverse, and talented Democratic field."
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Andrew Cockburn | No Joe! Joe Biden's Disastrous Legislative Legacy 

Andrew Cockburn, Harper's Magazine
Cockburn writes: "It's safe to assume that Biden's undimmed ego will never permit any reflection on whether voters who have been eagerly voting for change will ever really settle for Uncle Joe, champion of yesterday's sordid compromises."
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RSN: Marc Ash | You're Really, Really Excited About Joe Biden – No, Really 

Marc Ash, Reader Supported News
Ash writes: "Chalk one up for Suffolk University and USA Today. They managed to come up with just the right poll at just the right time to set the mainstream media dashing off in the direction of validating the quintessential mainstream Democratic candidate for president, Joe Biden."
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Joe Biden. (photo: Reuters)

ALSO SEE: Watch Elizabeth Warren Blast Biden for
His Stance on Abortion Funding

Biden Reaffirms Support for Ban on Federal Funds for Abortion
Emily Shugerman and Hanna Trudo, The Daily Beast
Excerpt: "Joe Biden set himself apart from his Democratic competitors Tuesday by affirming his support for the Hyde Amendment, a law barring federal funds for abortion services, except in the cases of rape, incest, or when the mother's life is in danger."
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ouglas County Sheriff John Hanlin, who is overseeing much of the law enforcement response to Thursday’s tragic shooting at Umpqua Community College, believes some highly unusual things about gun rights and the Constitution. Two years ago, when Vice President Joe Biden was spearheading the Obama administration’s response to the Sandy Hook school shooting, Hanlin wrote Biden threatening open defiance of federal efforts to enforce gun laws. The letter is also riddled with language commonly used by the “Oath Keepers,” a right-wing veterans and law enforcement group that is closely associated with armed, anti-government militias. 

Sheriff John Hanlin letter to Vice President Joe Biden. (photo: ThinkProgress.org)

Several aspects of this letter are worth noting, but the most revealing part of the letter may be the unusual way that Hanlin introduces his pledge to oppose federal officials. “The United States Supreme Court has ruled that when a Sheriff chooses to enforce an unconstitutional directive, he is violating his Constitutional Oath. I will NOT violate my Constitutional Oath.”

This rhetoric, which focuses on an oath to follow the Constitution and a refusal to violate that oath, ispeculiar to the Oath Keepers. The Oath Keepers describe themselves as an “association of current and formerly serving military, police, and first responders, who pledge to fulfill the oath all military and police take to ‘defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.'” Oath Keeepers played a major role in the armed standoff between federal agents and supporters of the racist Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy in 2014. Their website prominently touts their offer to provide a “security detail” to anti-gay Kentucky clerk Kim Davis in order to “protect her against unlawful arrest” (Davis’s attorneys declined this offer).

Though the Oath Keepers align themselves with the Constitution, they are also partial to paranoid rhetoric about government officials “disarm[ing] the American people,” “confiscat[ing] the property of the American people, including food and other essential supplies,” and “blockad[ing] American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps.” Their founder once warned that America could be ruled by a “dominatrix-in-chief” named “Hitlery” who would impose a police state and shoot resisters.

Sheriff Hanlin, it should be noted, is far from alone in his willingness to stand against federal officials. The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, a group led by Oath Keeper board member Richard Mack, claims that 485 sheriffs have signed onto statements similar to Hanlin’s.

Hanlin’s letter also contains a number of statements suggesting that he holds views about the Constitution that place him well to the right of even the most conservative members of the Supreme Court. Hanlin’s letter implies, for example, that the Obama administration was considering proposals that would violate the Second Amendment at the time of this letter, but this implication is not true.

The administration offered three proposals in the wake of Sandy Hook — universal background checks, an assault rifle ban and a ban on high capacity magazines. All of these are constitutional gun regulations. As Justice Antonin Scalia explained in the Supreme Court’s DC v. Heller decision, “nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill,” and background checks are an essential element of such prohibitions. Similarly, assault rifle and high capacity magazine bans fit within Heller‘s statement that the government may still ban “dangerous and unusual weapons.”

Hanlin’s letter also blurs the line between a matter that is lawfully within state officials’ discretion and something much more akin to insurrection. Under the Supreme Court’s “anti-commandeering doctrine,” states may refuse to enforce federal laws that they do not wish to devote their resources to enforcing. For this reason, provided that state law gives him the discretion to do so, Hanlin is permitted to deny his department’s resources to federal officials seeking to enforce federal gun laws.

What Hanlin may not do, however, is unilaterally assign himself the power to decide what is or is not constitutional and then refuse to “permit the enforcement” of federal laws by “federal officers within the borders of Douglas County Oregon.” This rule stretches back at least as far as the late nineteenth century, when California charged a United States Marshal with murder after the marshal shot and killed a man who threatened the life of a sitting supreme court justice. In ordering the charges dropped, the Supreme Court explained that a federal official who “is held in custody in violation of the Constitution or a law of the United States, or for an act done or omitted in pursuance of a law of the United States. . . must be discharged.”

If Hanlin believes that the federal government is acting unconstitutionally, he can file a lawsuit challenging the federal government’s action. But local sheriffs are not permitted to use the powers of their office to thwart federal officials trying to carry out their own duties.

The reason why local sheriffs do not have this power should be obvious. If local law enforcement did have the power to decide on their own what the Constitution says, and then to enforce their idiosyncratic notions about our founding document against federal officials, then this would be a recipe for armed conflicts between federal and local officials.

TPP Trade Negotiations Extended Yet Again
teleSUR
Excerpt: "Ministers from the 12 countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, have been extended to Saturday in an effort to reach a final agreement aimed at creating the world's largest free-trade zone."
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Sens. Strom Thurmond, Joe Biden, and Ted Kennedy before the Clarence Thomas hearings began in 1991. (photo: John Duricka/AP)

Asset Forfeiture? Thank Joe Biden and His Friend Strom Thurmond

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