Joe Biden is an idiot

Oh, a benign idiot would still be better than an evil idiot, but would it be too much trouble for just one of our major political parties to give us a candidate who thinks matters through before he speaks?

Biden tweeted his support for the women’s team to keep moving forward in the wake of a judge’s ruling against the USWNT in its equal pay lawsuit. Biden said that he wanted U.S. Soccer to pay the women’s team equally to the men’s team. And if it didn’t, he would withdraw support for the World Cup should he be elected president.”

Yeah, that’s just what we need – a president who ignores due process and issues an executive fiat based on an emotional reaction to an issue he hasn’t studied.

Been there, done that.

The Judge made the exact right decision. The women’s equal pay suit had no merit. The reason they don’t get paid on exactly the same formula as the men is that they were offered that formula and turned it down. When they were negotiating their CBA, one of the offers on the table was “just take the men’s deal.” They didn’t want it because of the high risk involved. Instead of the higher performance-based salaries, they wanted more of the money guaranteed, they wanted longer terms on their contracts, they wanted more players on the team, and they wanted a different set of benefits. In fact, they bargained well. Their total compensation package is actually more than the men’s, even though their salaries are lower. The women get far more in total because they play more games, but they also get slightly more per game. Both sides before the judge stipulated that from 2015 to 2019, the period covered by the suit, the women’s national team averaged $220,747 per game in total payments, for a total of $24.5 million, while the men’s national team averaged $212,639 per game in total payments, for a total of $18.5 million. But now they are suing because the men get paid higher salaries – the same salaries the women were offered and turned down in order to improve the overall package.

The judge understandably ruled that such an Equal Pay Act claim had zero merit. Because he is a judge, he could not say that the claim seems to be a complete scam devised to make lawyers rich.

But I can.

The judge did rule that the rest of their suit could proceed. They also filed some claims under the Civil Rights Act regarding the unequal access to flights and hotels, proper medical services, quality of training facilities, etc. That part of their suit seems to have merit, or is at least debatable enough to require a full trial.

20 thoughts on “Joe Biden is an idiot

  1. Reading these comments makes me grateful that I don’t live in the US permanently. I’ll be surprised if the country is still around in another decade or so.

    1. It must have looked even more that way to people who were in their 40’s or more in 1967. Then you had the race riots, much of the youth of America apparently going wild, the Vietnam War, a rising tide of violent crime, the LBJ Administration’s vast “credibility gap”, a fair possibility of atomic war, and so on.

      I am not saying that Tanner is wrong, just that things have LOOKED worse withing living memory. Whether we have what it takes to get over this hump is what remains to be seen. In this respect, it is the Trump supporters, with their resolute desire to be ignorant and apparent yearning for violence that concerns me.

  2. Uncle Joe may be getting a little slow in his old age, but I think I understand why he tweeted what he did. He had just had to “redefine” what he meant when he said “believe women” during the Kavanaugh hearing. He thought he could get away with some easy pandering by coming out in favor of equal pay for women. But maybe Uncle Joe should hire Uncle Scoopy as a pre-tweet fact checker. Just for the record, I believe most if not all politicians (of all parties) pander to one degree or another.

  3. Reade, who goes by five names, wrote this about The Vlad:
    “Through my lens, President Putin brought a chaotic and failed nation to become a vibrant, creative, economic force within a decade. I don’t care what your politics; just admit that his sheer, calculated vision and willful energy brought Russia back to be a world power…President Putin has an alluring combination of strength with gentleness. His sensuous image projects his love for life, the embodiment of grace while facing adversity. It is evident that he loves his country, his people and his job. Although his job may seem like in the words of writer, Elizabeth Gilbert on genius, “ trying to swallow the sun.” This is a whole lot to deal with for one mere mortal… President Putin’s obvious reverence for women, children and animals, and his ability with sports is intoxicating to American women.”
    Maybe she is an updated post-USSR version of the “useful idiot”. Or even a closet Tulsiphile.

    1. She is definitely a bit off her rocker, and she was also a fanatical BernieBro, or whatever the female equivalent of that is (SandersSis?).

      Maybe those things lead to an explanation. Dunno.

  4. “Better than Trump” is not a high bar to clear. It would apply to pretty much every human being who has ever lived, and possibly even Satan himself. The last one would be a tough choice. As I’ve said before, if Trump ran against the Devil, I would have to vote against The Father of Lies.

    And therefore for Lucifer.

  5. 1.I said Joe Biden was an idiot months ago, but he’s still much better than Trump.
    The interesting thing about Biden though, unlike Trump, is that Biden seems to recognize his limitations and genuinely hires the best people.

    2.More evidence that the media is trying to create a horse-race thereby further validating those who call for Chris Hayes to be fired.

    An ABC 2020 election campaign producer Sasha Pezenik, who should be fired as well, tweeted out a story that claimed Biden said some inappropriate things to a then 14 year old (the daughter of the 2008 Delaware Republican Senate nominee.) At the END of the story, Pezenik then wrote something like ‘however Biden could not have done any of this, as Biden was not even at this event where he was supposed to have done this.’

    3.Tara Reade’s claims have completely fallen apart. It was gross journalistic misconduct for Chris Hayes to have reported on it without checking it out first. He absolutely should be fired. Dan Rather was fired for less.

    1. Adam – Following your presumption that Tara Reade’s complaint is bogus, what do you consider to be her motivation in coming forward with this accusation? Is she mentally ill? Is she being paid to do so? Is she hungry for fame? Does she think that a Biden resignation would give her beloved Bernie the nomination? Other?

      1. Possibly any or several of those, I don’t know.

        Two points:
        1.Her claims have fallen apart because the report at the time from the Senate authorities only mentioned inappropriate behavior from Biden. She herself only mentioned inappropriate touching in a non-sexual context that is entirely consistent with Creepy Joe’s known behavior.

        I have no idea what she genuinely believes now. Memory is not like a tape recording but is constantly changing in a person’s mind. She now claims she was afraid to report Biden assaulted her out of fear of retribution. Of course, any individual can act in all sorts of ways, but the logical approach here is ‘in for a penny, in for a pound.’

        In other words, if she was going to report him at all, the most rational thing would have been to report on his truthfully and not hold anything back at all. It would seem logical to conclude that any retribution would occur no matter what she told the Senate authorities and, also, it would seem she should have been concerned, irrespective of what she said, that any reporting would lead to the uncovering of this claimed sexual assault and then the retribution.

        However, I think it’s possible she believes everything she says.

        2.In regards to ‘believe all women.’ I think there is no question some Democrats got caught up in politicking over that and went overboard. However, I think, for the most part, ‘believe all women’ was a response to the long held pattern of ‘seriously doubt all women.’ Overall, I think this is the same thing as the distortion of the meaning of tolerance.

        All that ever meant from liberals, was ‘do not pre-judge’ (literally do not be prejudiced.) It never meant, as it was distorted to mean, that liberals could not judge. Essentially both of these things mean ‘keep an open mind but not an empty head.’

  6. You can vote for one senile rapist or the other. Still I feel slightly better than I did four years ago when we were looking down the business end of a Hillary administration. I’m not even sure I’m right to feel that way, but I do.

      1. I never understood why Hilary was that bad. The only thing that I felt was a bad idea about nominating her for president was that there were so many people who could not stand her. She had too many “negatives” as I believe TV executives used to say. A lot of people found her like fingernails on a chalkboard. I did not, and I felt she was competent, and certainly not the human dumpster fire that was and is Donald Trump.

        Despite that fact that I felt that by all rational calculation Hilary would win the 2016 election, I told some friends that I felt that a Trump victory was inevitable. This was because everybody agreed his election was unthinkable. I think one of the great lessons of the 20th century was that when everybody feels it is unthinkable for a given thing to happen, it happens. I felt this way more in jest than anything, and was as stunned as anyone – including, apparently, Donald Trump – when Trump won.

        1. Hillary was without question competent to be president. While I disagree with her ideologically, that’s not why I couldn’t bring myself to vote for her even if I couldn’t vote for Trump either. I was offended by Clintons’ corruption. Now I realize that political corruption is as old as politics itself and is/has been present in both parties. I also realize there have been many politicians that were far MORE corrupt. But I had never seriously considered voting for someone I KNEW was more corrupt.

          There was what went on in Little Rock, where in addition to the Whitewater stuff there was a $1,000 investment that Hillary turned into $100,00 in 1 year by (she said) reading the Wall Street Journal. There were the women that Hillary went after, not for sleeping with her husband, but for talking about having done so. There was the “vast right wing conspiracy” that spread the lie that Bill had received oral sex from Monica Lewinski. As a member of the Federalist Society at the time I believe I was technically a part of that conspiracy. I am sure Hillary will apologize any day now. There were the pardons that Bill appeared to be handing out in exchange for favors as he exited the White House (with furniture that didn’t belong to them). There were also all the gifts and speaking fees that Bill received after leaving office. I wouldn’t begrudge such things to a former president whose government service was over. But that all took on a different sheen when the former president’s wife is the betting favorite to be the next president.

          Those are the major reasons I disliked Hillary Clinton. OK, well maybe I didn’t lover her personality very much either. I’m reminded of an article P.J. O’Rourke once wrote titled “100 Reasons Jimmy Carter Was a Better President Than Bill Clinton.” The number 1 reason was because Jimmy Carter gave us something Bill Clinton never could, President Ronald Reagan. Can you tell he wrote it for a right wing magazine? But O’Rourke gave a speech at Washington and Lee University when I was in law school there. During the Q&A I asked him who he thought was a better president Carter or Clinton? O’Rourke brought up the article but only gave 1 reason in addition to Reagan. Jimmy Carter had a nicer wife.

          1. The only thing funny about P.J O’Rourke are the people who take him seriously.

          2. O’Rourke has National Lampoon on his resume. Still he manages to be less funny (and dimmer) than Dennis Miller.

          3. The Clinton’s were corrupt? Got a sample or two, and how does it compare to Trump?

            BTW, there IS, as far as I can tell, a vast right wing conspiracy, sort of, anyway, generously funded by billionaires. Richard Mellon Scaife, if I remember the name correctly, funded a big fishing expedition into everything Clinton ever did, plus anything anyone might be willing to say he did.

            As for Hilary saying mean things, boo hoo. I am sick of people demanding one side be simon-pure saints, while there is NOTHING the other side will not stoop to. We do not take the devil as our example, but on the other hand, “politics ain’t beanbag”.

            It was the Republican’s irrational outright hatred of the Clintons, and the travesty of the Clinton impeachment, that turned me against the Republicans forever. Now I hate Trump. I hope I am not irrational about it, but maybe hate always is.

  7. And that’s the fellow who will be a three hundred percent or so improvement on the Orange Buffoon. If he gets elected, that is. Real bumper crop of leaders this country’s got growing.

    1. I still do not understand why Biden won, but that is probably because I was a Warren supporter from the beginning. I am afraid that the billionaires who bought the Republican Party will now just buy the Democratic Party. Where does that leave the American public?

  8. Knee jerk reactions, by jerk politicians (of any denomination) is simply pandering.

    Just stop being sycophants to the noisy minority and grow a goddamm brain so you can think for the betterment of everyone, not just what sounds trendy.

    Reminds me of The Simpson episode where Kang and Kodos win the election because of the two party system.

    You get who they think can win, not who is best for the country.

    Cue Septa Unella ringing a bell shouting “shame” with a nude Uncle Sam being pelted with shit and rotten food walking down the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to atone for the shit that is happening over there at the moment.

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