- kate -

Wow clearly the words of a genocidal maniac amirite 🤪

Take the railworker's strike - people were screaming their guts out about how awful Biden was for breaking the strike. But, as right as the workers were about what needed to change, the strike would have potentially been a real disaster for the US economy. So Biden signed a law to keep things going in the meantime . . . but then, next June:

"We’re thankful that the Biden administration played the long game on sick days and stuck with us for months after Congress imposed our updated national agreement,” Russo said. “Without making a big show of it, Joe Biden and members of his administration in the Transportation and Labor departments have been working continuously to get guaranteed paid sick days for all railroad workers. “We know that many of our members weren’t happy with our original agreement,” Russo said, “but through it all, we had faith that our friends in the White House and Congress would keep up the pressure on our railroad employers to get us the sick day benefits we deserve. Until we negotiated these new individual agreements with these carriers, an IBEW member who called out sick was not compensated.”

He *kept working* on it, behind the scenes.

Speaking as an old fart, from the very beginning of the current disaster in Israel-Palestine, Biden's public statements have been a little jaw-dropping for a US President. He actually *admitted out loud* that the US fucked up its response to 9/11 and said in no uncertain terms that Israel should not do the same. That's *nuts.* I still can't believe people just let that pass (I mean, I was around for "freedom fries" and all that bullshit in 2001 - saying anything bad about the US response to 9/11 used to be an invitation for flying monkeys to descend). Biden has repeatedly emphasized the rules of war, the need to minimize civilian casualties, etc., etc. He hasn't been bombastic about it, but he has said it. Over and over and over.

Yes, he announced public (and monetary) support for Israel, but my read on it is that's a) reflecting the fact that the US is, yanno, allied with Israel (like it or not), and b) also putting the kibosh on the whole thing turning into a massive multi-nation throw-down, which it had the potential to do. If there are US aircraft carriers sitting right there like 500lb gorillas, with a US pledge to support one of the two sides, that has a cooling effect. If it's bad now, it would be way worse if the war spread - and Biden knows this and has to play to that. So far it seems to have worked. I hope it continues to work.

And about that $ aid - it's important to remember that international aid isn't just a friendly prezzie, necessarily - it can also be leverage. There are some Dems now saying that any aid to Israel should come with conditions. Trust me - there were always going to be conditions, but probably not publicly-announced because, again, that's the old-school version of politics.

I think one very good analysis I saw on the news yesterday is that older Americans tend to look at the current conflict through the lens of geopolitics, while younger Americans see it almost entirely as a civil rights issue. To be fair, it's both, and people need to be taking both aspects into account.

And, really, what do some folks expect Biden to have done? Israel is a separate country that the US is allied with, but not one we control. It has a democratically-elected government. Short of a full scale invasion and regime change (you know, the Imperialist stuff people love to hate about the US and which is always a dismal failure anyway), Biden can't *make* Bibi and Co. do anything. The best he can do is what he did - try to position the US as a friend who is offering important advice, very forcefully, while applying massive amounts of diplomatic pressure behind the scenes. I know how it can seem that he wasn't doing anything, but . . . he was.

When sensitive deals are being brokered, you can’t share details. When compromises are being hammered out, you can’t brag that you’re getting things your way.

I’ve seen political systems where it’s an accepted fact that leaders brag and bluster while being corrupt on a covert and overt scale that would make even American lobbyists blush.