It took a valiant effort, but Joe Biden managed to use practically every cliché in the book to try and explain away the horror of Haitian refugees getting whipped and prodded like cattle by the Horsemen of the Homeland Apocalypse (aka, the Border Patrol.)
After assuring a reporter that he takes "full responsibility" for the cruel treatment of the migrants, Biden quickly cast the blame upon everyone and anyone but himself. He even seemed to blame the actual victims when he garbled: "To see people treated like they did, horses barely running them over and people being strapped. It was outrageous. I promise those people will pay.”
He is already seeing to it that one subset of "those people" will pay immediately, without so much as a court hearing on their asylum requests, by being shackled and herded onto gleaming airplanes, to be unceremoniously dumped into their ravaged native land, regardless of the fact that many have not lived in their native land for years and have no home to go back to.
Or, "those people" could mean the Homeland cowboys, who were legislated into being after 9/11 with the great enthusiasm and a very hearty thumbs-up from then-Senator Joe Biden himself. The president is now trying to pretend they are a bunch of outlaws who are not operating under the direct and explicit orders of the United States government. Biden is just sorry that they got caught doing the jobs that they were hired and trained to do, and acting like they were enjoying themselves.
Biden therefore announced that the Department of Homeland Security will be investigating itself and leveling "consequences" upon person or persons or scapegoats unknown. Some 20-year-old kids will be no doubt be perp-walked, much as the US Army grunts like Lindy England were, when all on their own under orders, they tortured Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib.
Meanwhile, it seems like only last month when Biden promised "consequences" for the deaths of US troops in Afghanistan, and his military minions promptly launched a Reaper drone attack against an innocent Afghan family, the designated "those people." A mistake was made, but only because the US government got caught. Collateral damage happens. War is foggy, you see.
The worst thing about the atrocious treatment of the Haitian refugees for Biden, though, is that the photographic evidence of systemic US cruelty - rather than the cruelty itself - is an embarrassment to him personally. It makes him look bad, especially when the images were released just as he was belligerently touting American peace, love, democracy and freedom to the rest of the world at the United Nations' annual summit this week.
“It’s an embarrassment. It’s beyond an embarrassment. It’s dangerous, it’s wrong, it sends the wrong message around the world or sends the wrong message at home," he fumed, ending his spiel with the obligatory "It's not who we are!"
It's hard to emphasize enough just how craven and downright psychopathic this statement is. Biden is saying right out loud that he is more concerned with the optics of the situation than he is with the suffering of the potentially thousands of desperate human beings that he is deporting without so much as a court hearing. His spin doctor, Jen Psaki, had been equally callous the day before when she glibly announced that in the immediate future, Homeland cowboys will not be deployed in open spaces where they can be seen and photographed whipping people. Homeland Security has traditionally mounted their horses to go after migrants in areas with tall grass, where crueltyis less likely to witnessed and documented. More discreet methods of detention and expulsion will be used for the Haitian asylum seekers, so as to avoid upsetting Joe Biden and his party and his donors.
Not that his erstwhile defenders and enablers were all that enchanted with Status Quo Joe before the refugees began arriving in Del Rio, Texas. The tide of elite opinion had already begun to turn against him when he ended their extremely lucrative two decade-long adventure in Afghanistan. His saber-rattling against China, meanwhile, is making the oligarchs nervous because of all the lucrative business deals and investments that they have there.
It's gotten so bad for Biden, in fact, that even the long media embargo on Hunter Biden's laptop scandal is finally beginning to be lifted. Joe Biden's own Justice Department also has implicated his national security adviser, the former Clinton campaign operative Jake Sullivan, in the criminal indictment of Clinton lawyer Michael Sussman and by extension, the entire #Russiagate franchise scam.
Perhaps worst of all for Biden, mainstream media outlets, including the Paper of Record, are even beginning to compare him to Donald Trump.
Naturally, this orchestrated weakening of Joe Biden by the elites dovetails perfectly with their orchestrated weakening of his Build Back Better legislation, which they despise because it threatens to give people a pathetic modicum of relief from their elite-orchestrated hardships. Not for nothing has the establishment media long overpraised Biden's underdone agenda as a "sweeping" progressive undertaking, the likes of which have not been seen since the New Deal. They were hyping it with a frenzy, inspiring the desired paranoia in the wealthy pathocratic class. Now they're in the next phase, lowering our expectations and preparing the ground for the final collapse.
To make the letdown complete, they've not forgotten to add the traditional Debt Ceiling manufactured crisis and countdown to Shutdown Armageddon to the orchestrated mix. They're reckoning that once again, people will be so abjectly grateful to their leaders for reaching a compromise at the last possible minute, ensuring that at least the woefully inadequate Social Security checks will still be going out, that they'll forget all about all the broken promises.
Meanwhile, we'll always have their clichés to tide us over. As reported by The Hill about the legislative negotiations:
A senior Democratic aide said the revenue framework will serve as a template for negotiations with moderate Democrats on the size and scope of the bill. (Nancy) Pelosi called it a "giant step forward."
Some rank and file Democrats complained they have absolutely no idea what this language even means for the "larger process." But recognizing the "mounting pressure to show movement," The Hill continues, "Biden stepped up and held meetings with moderates and progressives from both parties."
What, you expected him to step up and mount a horse and start whipping them into shape and finally doing right by the people who elected him, and them?
Notwithstanding that the phrase "moderates and progressives from both parties" is not only a disinformation embarrassment but an act of journalistic malpractice, let's remember that whips and chains are reserved only for the most desperate members of the human race. The elites have their frameworks and their templates and their arcane processes to propel them in their ever more gigantic steps forward to power and wealth at the expense of everyone else.
Aloha Nancy, your summation ( last paragraph ) says it all and is laser accurate. Wake up America, never never trust the government.
ReplyDeleteAnd Karen Garcia's keen summation follows fittingly from her headline perfectly taking the culprits to full account for their asinine consciousness and brutish behavior.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteEven with inflation what it is and is yet to become, Biden's early declarations that trillion$ would be set aside for the infrastructure were unexpected and exciting. At long last, the peace dividend. The mounting decay all around was finally to be addressed and millions would be put back to work for good pay. Way to go, Joe.
But then the little steps back began. Make way for the usual Big Money maneuvers, the Manchins within, the Republicans without, the Senate parliamentarian with a 'no' in a pinch, the distracting din of wars, covid and immigration. This is how Joe's new New Deal gets pushed down in priorities and whittled away by a thousand cuts in the shadows. If no infrastructure repair of note is well underway by the midterms, Joe and the Dems will be down in '22 and out in '24.
Ah Joe, you coulda been a big contenda.
ReplyDeleteNancy Pelosi’s Surprise Flip on Student Debt Cancellation Came After Urging From Billionaire Power Couple —
The House speaker’s change of heart came after Steven and Mary Swig circulated a memo against cancellation via executive order.
https://theintercept.com/2021/08/05/student-debt-cancellation-nancy-pelosi/
August 5, 2021 ~ by Ken Klippenstein, Ryan Grim
Nancy Pelosi is more unpopular than Donald Trump, poll finds —
https://www.sfgate.com/national-politics/article/Nancy-Pelosi-approval-poll-favorable-Trump-Biden-16406204.php
August 23, 2021 ~ by Eric Ting, SFGATE
House Democrats are scared to tax billionaires – that’s a costly mistake
Political cowardice means those funding Joe Biden’s ambitious social policy plan want to leave the mega-rich unscathed.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/18/house-democrats-tax-billionaires-biden-social-policy
19 Sept. 2021 ~ by Robert Reich
No surprise from Joe, because we were forewarned:
Joe Biden Promises Rich Donors He Won’t ‘Demonize’ The Wealthy If Elected President —
“No one’s standard of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change,” the former vice president said at a New York fundraiser on Tuesday [June 18. 2019].
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-wont-demonize-the-rich_n_5d09ac63e4b0f7b74428e4c6
06/19/2019 ~ by Dominique Mosbergen