There’s all kinds of random news-noise — a deal with Iran! A different deal for Greece! — and then there’s Peter Baker’s NYTimes article, “Grieving Joe Biden Focuses on the Job He Has Now, Not the Next One“:
… Six weeks after the death of his elder son, Mr. Biden has thrown himself back into his work, meeting with foreign leaders, giving speeches and even cheering on the women’s national soccer team in its victory over Japan in the World Cup. Unsurprisingly, in the shadow of tragedy, he is not his typically ebullient self. But by all accounts he is feeling his way forward and trying to figure out what comes next.
Even without the heartbreak of loss, this was bound to be a crossroads moment for a vice president who has spent four decades in Washington only to find an uncertain path ahead. He has not ruled out running for president again, and some friends are nudging him to, even if the political math does not seem to favor it. But he has good days and bad days, his mind never far from his late son, Beau Biden, and his staff is not planning further than two weeks ahead…
Since long before he died, Beau Biden was among those encouraging his father to think about running in 2016. Some backers have researched early primary states, but aides said discussions of a race are less intense now than they were last spring. The vice president has not authorized preparations, and aides have scratched their heads at supporters quoted in news accounts suggesting he is poised to run.
If anything, they said, Mr. Biden has not been able to focus that far ahead. He has always been tempted and is keeping his options open, but any decision is weeks if not months away while he focuses on family. “It’s not like he has all this time now to think about his future,” one adviser said. “He has to process everything.”
***********
Apart from remembering that life is what happens while we’re making other plans, what’s on the agenda as we start another week?
NotMax
Something a bit different.
Getting medieval with Beatles’ tunes.
BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: OK, that was…different.
ETA: McCartney did have “Mull of Kintyre”, which has bagpipes.
Valdivia
@NotMax: Definitely didn’t expect that.
I have to focus on my lecture now which sincerely is a relief because if I read another whiny tweet from the journalists covering the Iran talks about how it’s taking so long I will throw something out of my window. You’d think these people would have some sense of what actually matters (ie not their schedules) but you’d be wrong.
Have a good day Balloon Juice!
raven
goofy ass mika
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: A 3rd party run by Trump would hurt the Dems? Even Harold Ford thought that was crap.
geg6
The University’s Board of Trustees is meeting at our campus all this week. This is good because, in preparation over the past six months, they have spent a lot of cash sprucing the place up and I have to say that the campus looks absolutely spectacular. In bad news, a bunch of asshat big shots will be nosing around all week and I can’t dress in summer casual in case I’m “seen.” In other news, how about those Buccos?
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA: In FOX world everything is bad news for Dems. It’s all about the narrative, if you spin it enough, it becomes reality. Just like in 2012.
Amir Khalid
It’s my hunch that Joe Biden will eventually decide not to run. The longer he waits to decide, the farther ahead Hillary will be, and the more work it will take to catch up. There’s not a lot of difference between them on policy, so Biden won’t consider her an unacceptable candidate he has a duty to run against. He’s been an excellent VP to Obama and can retire from public life with distinction. And with what’s happened in his family, he’d have every right to put them first, particularly his newly orphaned grandkids.
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
Time waits for no man.
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Only one way to find out.
dmsilev
If the decision is “months” away, then the answer is “no”. A serious Presidential campaign takes a while to organize and get up to speed, and we’re only about six months out from the beginning of the actual voting.
Kay
@Amir Khalid:
It’s a really bad idea. Clinton then has to to essentially run against the Obama Administration which is further complicated by the fact that she was in the Obama Administration. It goes beyond “threading needles” to “splitting hairs” and I think almost surely ends in making no one look better with the possible exception of Bernie Sanders. It’s a good idea if you’re a Republican. They would be thrilled.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: In other news, Scott Walker is running. I could hardly contain my surprise.
Keith G
The type of loss that Joe Biden suffered, and the grieving that follows, takes a massive toll that is emotional and physical. The healing that can occur stretches out beyond the first year. I do not see the Vice President truncating the healing process (his and his family’s) by taking on the excessive burden of campaigning.
I would have liked to have seen a Biden presidency at work, but I do not see that happing, without some outlandish set of circumstances.
Darkrose
Today’s my first day in over ten years not being employed at UC Not An Ag School; Don’t Mind the Cows. I’ll need to start looking for a new job soon, but I’m going to take a few days this week to chill and work on getting my Obamacare set up. It’s really, really weird, and kind of scary, but after two trips to the ER, I realized that job wasn’t worth it.
Amir Khalid
@BillinGlendaleCA:
How many Republican candidates are there now? There were over a dozen already, as I recall.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
He’s fallen in the polls recently, and I don’t know why.
JPL
Replace the word Mexican with any other nationality or race and Trump would be chased out of the country. Wouldn’t it be nice if the news media pointed this out. The entire republican party uses the secure the border as a fear factor. Most undocumented immigrants come into this country with a passport and a visa. If they are really dangerous, shouldn’t Trump call for more investigators to search those that disappear?
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
I think Walker officially makes 17 or 28.
JPL
@Baud: It won’t take long for Trump to point out that Scotty is bought by the Koch brothers. He doesn’t need to be bought, because he is wealthy.
satby
@Amir Khalid: @Keith G: I agree with both of you. Joe Biden seems to be the kind of guy that prioritizes his family in spite of the line of work he chose. He’s had more than his share of personal tragedy and I think he can and will pass on running.
Kay
@Baud:
I saw the same thing. I don’t think he will win, I think all he has at the end of the day is anti-labor and the GOP bases’s hatred of Wisconsin’s historical role as a progressive state, but I hope it’s the end for him. I hope he he made a mistake and should have stuck with actually doing his job in Wisconsin.
satby
@Darkrose: No job is, and it’s good to see you back! Take some time and recover from the stress a bit.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: ’cause he’s Scott Walker. Isn’t that reason enuf?
Baud
@Baud:
Heh. I meant to type 17-18, but the original is better.
Elizabelle
@Kay: Kay-bait.
Excellent article by Noam Scheiber in yesterday’s NY Times, on the gig economy and the underlying insecurity it spawns. Rising Economic Insecurity Tied to Decades-Long Trend in Employment Practices
How much risk can we shift to the little dogs, especially the youngest of dogs, even while we assure them the economy has turned the corner? I always understood why President Obama spent his political capital on healthcare reform before “jobs”, unlike my more secure and better-paid buddies. The workplace has changed.
Well worth a click, and has links to earlier NYTimes articles about the changing US economy.
Here’s link to the Democracy Journal article.
Shared Security, Shared Growth by Nick Hanauer and David Rolf
BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: 15 or 16, I think.
Baud
@Kay:
He actually seems the most sinister of them all. Almost a Cheney type darkness.
@OzarkHillbilly:
For the GOP?
Keith G
@satby: It would be nice if a group of benefactors can endow the Joe Biden School of Public Service at U of D. He could spend a few years on memoirs, teaching seminars, and enjoying Jill’s fabulous company – and making a few Doubloons giving some very entertaining speeches.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I always seem to get a Nixonian vib. OTOH, Nixon was smarter.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I’ve heard that said. I don’t have a personal memory of Nixon, so I can’t speak to that.
Elizabelle
@BillinGlendaleCA: Yup. My take on Walker too. Nixon was a far better person, and more concerned with the middle class American. I think living through the Great Depression and serving in WW2 will do that, and best not to forget those lessons. Not a lot of Nixon love here on the blog (understatement!), but I’d take him in a moment over the crass candidates for 2016.
The GOP has fallen so far, and relatively fast …
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: No, for thinking people.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Gotcha. But I heard he was sinking in the primary polling also.
Gene108
@Keith G:
He’s run for President enough times, I think if people really wanted a Biden Presidency they would have voted for him in larger numbers in 1988 or 2008.
The man is in his early 70’s. I lean toward retirement and enjoying his grandkids.
ThresherK
@Baud: At this quantity, is it time to start giving them rankings like they were entrants in the NFL draft?
I see plenty of reaches and very few lottery picks. Plus, I know they gotta hold this particular contest, but it’s not a very strong draft. Somebody’s gonna be #1, if only by default.
Patricia Kayden
@JPL: Trump has made anti-Black comments before, so not sure if your first sentence is true.
http://www.alternet.org/trumps-racism-nothing-new-4-times-he-got-away-anti-black-smears
http://madamenoire.com/543613/donald-trump-has-always-been-racist-so-why-is-he-being-fired-now/
He’s part of a political party which is fine with racial slurs, period. Doesn’t matter the non-White group that is being slurred.
Baud
@ThresherK:
Or have the USDA give them grades like they do meat and eggs.
Keith G
@Elizabelle:
This in one of the reasons that I can’t generate any more suspicion towards Uber than I can for so many other for-profit enterprises.
Well before Uber, there were folks doing piecework at home on their computer.
Uber-type efforts will seep into other economic transactions, eg makeup artists and other cosmetology services, light home/auto repair, meal prep, and other cases where somewhat affluent urbanites need the onsite services of screened providers.
ThresherK
@Baud: Grades?
I suggest the best labeling they can get is the legally accurate (but totally unnerving if you think about it) stamp reading “USDA Inspected”, full stop.
Or this.
Keith G
@Gene108: Yep, the Democrats in 88 were much better off with….err… who was that?
Joe is yet another human who has never achieved perfection. I do not think his skill set easily transfers to the job of campaigning for US President. Just like, sometimes the skill set used to run a successful campaign does not transfer to being the President of the US.
Like I said, I would have liked to have seen a Biden presidency at work.
dmsilev
@ThresherK: We’ve got enough entrants to stage a soccer tournament, and God knows that FIFA is sufficiently morally …flexible to be the appropriate managing body. So, round-robin group play, and then elimination rounds. As a bonus, the FIFA leeches will suck as much money out of the contestants and their backers as is physically possible.
Mustang Bobby
@Baud: I remember Nixon from his 1960 run and before. Even as a kid he always reminded me of the creepy guy that dogs growl at when they see him, and he proved himself worthy of the attention.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
I saw it, thanks. The Dept of Labor did a study on it in 2010 and the upshot was it’s particularly risky for working and middle class because the only possible advantage they have is slow, steady income growth over time. Time is the most important factor if they’re attempting to gain security because they can’t leverage big chunks of money. I see it in my practice. What harms people as they get older is gaps in employment and fluctuations in income. With every 3 months between “gigs” they’re losing ground and playing catch-up with the next period of employment. It doesn’t matter when you’re 25 because you HAVE time but boy it starts to do real damage as you hit 40. I read these glowing reviews of “retraining” and all I can think of is “how old are they and how much ground did they lose while they were retraining?” I think it isn’t taken into account enough.
It’s great that we’re finally looking at all the factors that drove this because there was this blindness for 20 years, this “it’s markets and nothing can be done”. Now we have this whole set of things to look at. Seek and ye shall find! I think we broke thru the 1. denial and 2. “it’s markets and nothing can be done” phases.
I hope liberals and Left-leaners really seize on it because if they don’t the more conservative Dem wing will set the agenda, people like Warner in VA should not be setting the outer parameters of what Democrats might do to face up to this. It will start really Right-leaning and never go further Left. If I really take apart the total earnings of a lot of the part timers and “gig economy” people I see I my practice they’re clearing around 15 bucks an hour. That’s a low wage job. I just think the percentage of people who actually WANT that or CHOOSE that is probably pretty small.
JPL
@Patricia Kayden: It hasn’t been that long that the party chased away David Duke. Now they have Scalise without all the baggage, or so they say.
If I could ask Trump, one question, it would be since most immigrants travel across the border legally, would you be prepared to stop travel from Mexico? I’m am so sick that no one will call the party on the secure the border bullshit.
ThresherK
@dmsilev: All the diving I can live with. The arguing with the refs, not so much.
And can you imagine Joe Scarborough, any FoxBlondeBot, David Brooks and Chuck Todd in the role of telling us something which is indisputably happening right before our eyes? The cognitive dissonance will make someone’s head explode, I hope.
BD of MN
Dunno if anyone mentioned this yesterday, but Berkeley Breathed has resurrected Bloom County… You can find the first panel on https://www.facebook.com/berkeleybreathed
It was brought up that it ended 25 years ago when Donald Trump bought it and fired everyone…
Botsplainer
I’ve been thinking – if Anonymous is such a great hacker collective, the single greatest thing they could ever achieve would be to hack the sound system for the first GOP debate, and fire up “Send In the Clowns” as the contestants enter…
mai naem mobile
Nixon was also.more.intellectually smarter. These guys just have money grubber smarts. No more. I wouldn’t trust them negotiating on treaties because they wouldn’t look beyond their next reelection and their.cronies’ financial interests.
Amir Khalid
@Keith G:
Some Greek dude, as I recall. But he was screwed when his cousin won a best supporting actress Oscar, thus using up all the family’s luck for the year.
Elizabelle
@Kay: Thank you for mentioning Mark Warner. Saw he’s circling the “gig economy” issue; (clipped an article recently; haven’t read it yet…)
Elizabelle
And more Kay-bait, on education this time:
Also in the NY Times: everyone’s buddy, Mrs. Dan Senor, is hosting presidential candidate appearances on behalf of her charter schools organization.
The American Federation for Children? Never heard of them. How could anyone be against Children? Immediately suspicious. Do a little websurfing. And:
Affiliated with ALEC, and its chairwoman is Betsy de Vos (Mrs. Amway).
SourceWatch: The American Federation for Children (AFC) is a conservative 501(c)(4) advocacy group that promotes the school privatization agenda via the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and other avenues …. AFC is chaired by Betsy DeVos, the billionaire wife of Amway heir Dick DeVos (son of Amway founder Richard DeVos) and former chair of the Michigan Republican Party. In recent years, she has funneled tens of millions of dollars into school privatization efforts and other right-wing initiatives.
How did you not mention THAT, NY Times?
Although you were quick to point out that Hillary Clinton has just been endorsed by the American Federation of Teachers, with whose leader, Randi Weingarten, has tangled with Campbell Brown over the years, and that
That Hillary. She’s such an outlier. Captive of special interests, and even in opposition to President Bams on this one …
ETA: President Obama “a favorite?” Really? Are these school “reformers” giving him money and lining up to support him? Really, Maggie Haberman?
ThresherK
@Elizabelle: “American Federation for Children”? Serious horseshit name.
I’m also wondering why this group didn’t call themselves the “American Federation for Teachers”.
I mean, I know there’s another AFT made up of actual teachers, but don’t people who’ve dedicated their lives to teaching need competition?
debbie
@BillinGlendaleCA:
A third party seems inevitable for Trump. Where else to park an oversized ego (in the tradition of Perot and Nader)?
Baud
@Elizabelle:
I read that the GOP is looking to amend NCLB, but, as I understand it, they want to keep the testing and repeal all the good stuff.
Cervantes
@Elizabelle:
How so?
If we agree that being owned and operated by the Koch brothers is Walker’s most salient characteristic, then let’s not forget who Nixon’s “donors” were: Meyer Lansky, the Mafia boss; Howard Hughes; Ross Perot; Donald Kendall of PepsiCo — just to name a few.
And none of these people were known for their altruistic tendencies …
debbie
@Cervantes:
Yeah, I don’t see Nixon as anything other than sinister. Walker may be today’s version of sinister, but worse than Nixon? That’s setting the bar very high.
Honus
@geg6: how about those Bucs! 5 of ten games with the cardinals have gone extra innings, and we’re 5-5 with them at the all star break. Finally got some respect last night when the ESPN announcers called the Pirates and cardinals the TWO best teams I the league.
LanceThruster
– See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2015/07/unsilencing-operation-protective#sthash.BJtoeJd5.dpuf
Cervantes
@Mustang Bobby:
Marshall McLuhan:
Norman Mailer:
dmsilev
@Botsplainer: You wouldn’t even need to hack anything. Just tell the candidates that they’ll enter to the classic march “Entrance of the Gladiators”, and they’ll be happy.
raven
The NVA continued shelling the base, and on 1 July launched a company-sized infantry attack against its perimeter. On 9 July 1968, the flag of the Viet Cong was set up at Ta Con (Khe Sanh) airfield. On 13 July 1968, Ho Chi Minh sent a message to the soldiers of the Route 9–Khe Sanh Front affirming their victory at Khe Sanh. It was the first time in the war that the Americans abandoned a major combat base because of enemy pressure.
Elizabelle
@Cervantes: Love the Marshall McLuhan quote. Railroad lawyer. Did not say “Snidely Whiplash”, but did not need to. And Snidely was more dashing.
Still, Nixon favored domestic policy that would be a dream today. Because Reagan et al had not completed the Goldwater revolution (and Goldwater would be horrified at some of the sheer meanness today, I think).
Nixon signed the EPA into existence, favored at least an attempt at healthcare reform (which Edward Kennedy thought did not go far enough; perhaps not, but at least it was on the radar vs. scrupulously and dishonestly avoided in future GOP presidencies). Nixon was not a radical conservative, and I doubt he wanted to see his beloved daughters paid less or denied contraception or educational opportunities. (You may be able to prove differently.)
ETA: I would take Richard Nixon over Ronald Reagan any day of the week. And a Democrat over either of them.
PurpleGirl
@Elizabelle: I do remember Nixon; I’ve said for a long time I’ll never forgive Reagan for making me “like” Nixon. He was smarter than the current crop of Republicans and he was more curious about a lot of things than any recent Republican leader. It’s true was more paranoid about how he was viewed, and he was more resentful of upper class/rich people but he did seem to care about middle class Americans more. Nixon was full of countradictions.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
Reagan was just wrong-headed. Go back and listen to those tapes. Nixon is as evil as they come.
rikyrah
This map shows what $100 is actually worth in your state
[email protected] (Elena Holodny)
FILE – In this Friday, July 10, 2015, file photo, an honor guard from the South Carolina Highway patrol lowers the Confederate battle flag as it is removed from the Capitol grounds in Columbia, S.C. Legions of people clapped, cheered and cried as South Carolina lowered the Confederate battle flag. But as the euphoria of the moment faded, questions over what exactly that accomplished for race relations in the United States, other than the elimination of a painful symbol of the past, began to arise.
The Tax Foundation released a map showing the relative value of $100 in every state compared with the national average using the data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
In expensive states like New York, you can afford comparatively less than average; in less expensive states like Mississippi, you can buy relatively more.
“Regional price differences are strikingly large; real purchasing power is 36 percent greater in Mississippi than it is in the District of Columbia,” writes the Tax Foundation. “In other words: by this measure, if you have $50,000 in after tax income in Mississippi, you would have to have after-tax earnings of $68,000 in the District of Columbia just to afford the same overall standard of living.”
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/this-map-shows-what-dollar100-is-actually-worth-in-your-state/ar-AAcSvfA?ocid=HPCDHP
Emma
@Elizabelle: This is what horrifies me. When we came to the states in 1970, it was a dyed-in-the-wool Republican who recommended that my father bank at the local savings and loan, because “there weren’t going to be any shenanigans with your savings”. There was support for (near) free college for all, and a lot more support for unions. Yes,there were a lot of problematic things but they were society-wide, not just Republican.
These rabid lunatics are even scaring my Father off and he’s to the right of Genghis Khan.
geg6
@Honus:
I know! I almost fell over when I heard the announcers give the Bucs some credit.
Hell of a weekend for baseball in the ‘Burgh, huh?
Cervantes
@Elizabelle:
And then used it to extort funds from polluters!
For example, take the case of the Gulf Resources and Chemical Corporation. The company’s mines in Idaho were contaminating the air and water and the EPA was asking them to cease and desist. The president of the company, himself the chief Republican fund-raiser in Texas, got some of his industry cronies together (Pennzoil comes to mind), transferred $100,000 to a lawyer in Mexico, who flew it back to Texas in a suitcase, where another $600,000 was added and the whole thing flown to DC — where it was donated to the Nixon campaign. You can imagine where the EPA’s case went after that.
Don’t get me wrong: having the EPA around has been a good thing in the long run — but Nixon was, above all, a crook, and just as he used the IRS and the FBI to thwart justice, he used the EPA, too.
boatboy_srq
This week is the last big push for Server 2003 retirements. I’ll be around, but (at least until Thursday) busy killing servers – at least the servers not running software so old the documentation is on clay tablets.
Germy Shoemangler
@Cervantes:
He signed the bill, but it was proposed by Henry “Scoop” Jackson.
Cervantes
@Germy Shoemangler:
First, just for the record: that line was someone else’s, not mine.
Second, it was fairly accurate: it was Nixon who first proposed to create the EPA via executive order (“Reorganization Plan Number 3,” July 9, 1970); Congress supported his initiative.
Gin & Tonic
@Germy Shoemangler: Scoop Jackson also begat Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz.
cmorenc
@Keith G:
The only way you’ll get to see that is the untimely demise of Obama while still in office. For all the problems at the Secret Service, so far they haven’t let any Dylan Roof wanna-bes get anywhere close to attempting to pull that off (and surely there are some wingnuts out there who would take Obama out, given any realistic chance).
SixStringFanatic
BLOOM COUNTY IS BACK!!!
BLOOM COUNTY IS BACK!!!
BLOOM COUNTY IS BACK!!!
https://www.facebook.com/berkeleybreathed
Paul in KY
@Elizabelle: Dick Nixon of 1968 and 1972 would be pilloried as a RINO & would be whupped in primaries. He’d have to run as a Democrat, if he had any shot at winning (with his 68/72 positions).
mtiffany
Tee-hee. WhiteHouse.org petition that shames the Germans…
http://t.co/jRsYgadO0l
Sign, tweet, share on FB or social media of choice.
Paul in KY
@BD of MN: Sure glad to hear that. I always loved Opus!
Paul in KY
@debbie: Nixon was evil, but I would still take him over Reagan. Policy positions, mostly.
Keith G
@cmorenc: Actually, the unfortunate path I was thinking about would be a 2016 late spring, early summer, melt down of the HRC campaign. – in which our nation turns its lonely eyes to Joe.
@Cervantes: Here is an interesting thumbnail sketch of the wonders of Nixon.
That key paragraph with my italics:
edit:
And please note this gem:
.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
The New York Times is horrible on public schools. They are so far in the tank for ed reform it’s ridiculous. Everyone makes fun of the Washington Post as the Kaplan Daily or whatever, but they at least do straight reporting on public schools.
LanceThruster
“Gaza is made of rubble, but children still try to be children, however impossible that may be.
According to a report this week by Save the Children, it’s pretty damn impossible. The report says, “Up to 89 percent of parents reported that their children suffer consistent feelings of fear, while more than 70 percent of children said they worried about another war.” Three quarters of the children of the Gaza Strip, ages 6-15, have had incidents of bedwetting and consistent nightmares. In other words, they have been bombed into a PTSD that will affect them their whole lives. Three wars in seven years will do that to the hardest of hearts, let alone the most innocent.”
J R in WV
@Paul in KY:
I rate Nixon and Reagan as equally evil. The difference is that Nixon mostly exercised his evil tendencies against SE Asia, Viet-Nam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, etc.
Reagan, on the other hand, used his evil to attack much of what was good about his own country, our country, America! What a traitor to his own people! He was used to being an actor, and having a director in charge of the shoots. I don’t know for sure who his director was, but he was for sure someone who hated the American working class, unions, etc, etc.
I suppose you could blame it on his medical dementia, but I know that dementia doesn’t automatically make you evil. He was evil before that dementia started working on him.
Paul in KY
@J R in WV: Your observations are why I would take Nixon (sorry rest of world). Reagan really began the dismantling of the nation I grew up in (economically).
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Darkrose:
IIRC, commenter Ruemara was also employed there (if it’s the UC that starts with the 4th letter of the alphabet) and it sounded like they were total assholes to work for. Glad you got out while you could.
Ruckus
@Elizabelle:
The crook you know………
Nixon promised something that the country was looking for. That he finagled that to happen to be elected, that was probably his worst thing ever. More people died so he could be elected. Yeah I won’t forget that.
Cervantes
@J R in WV:
You may have forgotten the evil that came to be called “McCarthyism,” in which Nixon played no small part from 1946 onwards.