Occasionally the Representative from SA will write something that's engaging and one can even see the logic and edgy thinking behind it, however I'm not referring to anything written by that contributor in this  particular thread. Then out of left field and reassuring us that he's really, occasionally lost the plot, I was going to be far more descriptive but I digress...then utter tripe gets written such as the above cr@p, just to remind us that contributor is still a generally unhinged, card carrying loony right, Trump fanboy.

Pres. Obama didn't need to hold VP Biden's hand to endorse him on the campaign trail, Old Joe is well versed in campaigning and pressing the flesh after years of campaigning for the Senate, then later as VP, then obviously, overwhelmingly successfully for President.

I'm not reading second hand reports alluding to perceptions of failure, mental acuity or the plethora of conspiracy theories that the Rep from SA simply loves indulging himself with.

So Obama set his endorsement for all to see right here:

and that's a good enough endorsement for me.

Mike.

Wow wee, Mike - that was such a stinging rebuttal. Really put me in my place, that did.

Yes it did hey...sorry, not sorry.

M.

Wow wee, Mike - that was such a stinging rebuttal. Really put me in my place, that did.

Yes it did hey...sorry, not sorry.

M.

Bored of looking at those four walls, Mike?

Good.

Wow wee, Mike - that was such a stinging rebuttal. Really put me in my place, that did.

Yes it did hey...sorry, not sorry.

M.

Bored of looking at those four walls, Mike?

Good.

So that's the best rebuttal you can cobble together

M.

So that's the best rebuttal you can cobble together

M.

It's not my fault you're stuck at home daytime drinking and getting angry.

Did it ever occur to you that he just didn't want to campaign for his ex-VEEP - and that's the end of the story?

That's a possibility, but you wrote 'Even Barack Obama couldn't stand Biden and didn't want him to win in 2020.' There was the Democrat Primary in 2020, the ony other serious contender was Sanders. Then there was the Presidential election. The only other serious contender was Trump. If, as you wrote, Obama didn't want Biden to win, he must have wanted either of those two to win, or a complete no-hoper, or nobody at all. The only other choice is that he had absolutely no interest in the outcome whatsoever ( a bit hard to believe that an outgoing President would have no feelings about such a thing). Whether Obama could stand Biden is beside the point, you said he didn't want him to win. I can only presume you think he wanted Sanders to win as the other possibilities are even more far fetched, although, against Trump, sanders would have been a no-hoper so I don't think that would have been the preference of a savvy operator like Obama.

Did it ever occur to you that he just didn't want to campaign for his ex-VEEP - and that's the end of the story?

That's a possibility, but you wrote 'Even Barack Obama couldn't stand Biden and didn't want him to win in 2020.' There was the Democrat Primary in 2020, the ony other serious contender was Sanders. Then there was the Presidential election. The only other serious contender was Trump. If, as you wrote, Obama didn't want Biden to win, he must have wanted either of those two to win, or a complete no-hoper, or nobody at all. The only other choice is that he had absolutely no interest in the outcome whatsoever ( a bit hard to believe that an outgoing President would have no feelings about such a thing). Whether Obama could stand Biden is beside the point, you said he didn't want him to win. I can only presume you think he wanted Sanders to win as the other possibilities are even more far fetched, although, against Trump, sanders would have been a no-hoper so I don't think that would have been the preference of a savvy operator like Obama.

If Obama had really wanted Sleepy Joe to win he would have attended at least one public rally where he gives a ringing endorsement of Joe and explains to the gathered people how he'd be an even-better President than he was. Despite the fact that Obama is a narcissist and probably would have trouble endorsing anyone other than himself for the Presidency this is how it usually goes.

But he didn't do anything like that - he gave a little speech to a journalist/interviewer and he gave Biden an endorsement pretty much in private. You could argue that self-obsessed Obama was never going to endorse anyone - but the fact remains that he didn't do it. Would he have been more enthusiastic about Sanders as President? We don't know - it's all in the ether now.

In the meantime the odds of Biden finishing his first term as President have shrunk substantially with American betting agencies saying that he's unlikely to get there. Gambling.com says that Biden now has a 63% chance of finishing this term as President while PredictIt.com has Biden at extremely short odds of finishing his term has President @ $1.26/$1 that he'll make it to 2024.

What do they know that we don't?

Ex-UK PM Tony Blair slams Joe Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan as 'imbecilic' - UK Telegraph;

Tony Blair has launched a furious attack on Joe Biden's "imbecilic" withdrawal from Afghanistan, as the airport at the centre of evacuation efforts was forced to shut on Saturday amid horrific scenes.

In an extraordinary attack, the former prime minister, who took Britain into Afghanistan in 2001, said the "deep politicisation" of US foreign policy was "visibly atrophying" American influence, and claimed the debacle over the withdrawal risked Britain being relegated to the "second division" of global powers.

Mr Blair broke his silence as Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, concluded that Britain would have to turn to Russia and China to assist with exercising a "moderating influence" over the Taliban, as the UK presence in the country comes to an end, despite a deep mistrust of both regimes...

...In an article published on the website of his global change institute, Mr Blair says it is "obvious" that the decision of "the West" to withdraw from Afghanistan "in this way" was driven "not by grand strategy but by politics".

In a thinly veiled attack on the Democratic president, whom Mr Blair had praised in January as "the right man in the right place at the right time", he writes: "We didn't need to do it. We chose to do it. We did it in obedience to an imbecilic political slogan about ending ‘the forever wars’, as if our engagement in 2021 was remotely comparable to our commitment 20 or even 10 years ago, in circumstances in which troop numbers had declined to a minimum and no allied soldier had lost their life in combat for 18 months."

In his article, Mr Blair claims that "every jihadist group around he world" is "cheering" the withdrawal, and that "Russia, China and Iran will see and take advantage. Anyone given commitments by Western leaders will understandably regard them as unstable currency."

Tony Blair? You're 'avin a larf.

Show us the WMDs then his words might have some credibility.

Tony Blair? You're 'avin a larf.

Show us the WMDs then his words might have some credibility.

In my opinion highly qualified to talk about the situation in the Middle East because he was one of the architects that set losing situation up.

Yep:

News that Biden and Johnson took away the mechanics and civilian contractors that kept helicopters in the air without even telling the Afghan Army that this is what they were going to do. UK MP Rory Stewart has been the most vocal on this betrayal and a two-minute clip of his criticism has gone viral - The Independent;

Rory Stewart has been praised after an interview clip of him analysing the situation in Afghanistan went viral.

In an interview with Politics Joe, the former Conservative minister criticised the US and the UK for removing troops from the country and suggested doing so was the reason why the Taliban has been able to seize the country. He said: “The United States provided all the air support for the Afghans. They didn’t just take their own planes away. They took away 16,000 civilian contractors who were maintaining the Afghan helicopters.

“They didn’t even tell the commander that they were leaving.”

Stewart suggested it was wrong for Biden to expect Afghan forces to fight without Western support because they were not sufficiently equipped to do so.

He added: “If you’re genuinely asking them to put up a suicidal fight when the United States and Britain was not even prepared to keep 2,500 soldiers and some planes in the country, with zero casualties, zero risk over the last few years... this has been an extraordinary betrayal.

The UK government has faced criticism for its response - both for inadequately preparing Western-backed Afghan forces prior to withdrawing their own troops and for not doing enough to support refugees fleeing the new regime.

Stewart said keeping troops in the region was “the easiest thing to continue to do for the Afghan people.” He added that not doing so was tantamount to handing “them over to the Taliban.”

“It’s insanity,” he said.

Here is the clip for those who are interested:

As was widely reported in the reliable media, this fiasco, right or wrong, good or bad has been going on for 20 years and the training and support for the Afghan army has been documented over the years.

It's also known that a percentage of the Afghan army went to water and left the country along with its President and members of the government. This situation was a money pit fiasco and bound to end badly. After all of the strategies to withdraw from Afghanistan which Trump said was going to commence in May 2020, it took Biden to stump up and rip off the bandaid.

As Afghanistan was overrun by the Taliban and the Taliban will need western aid to govern, it's unlikely they will not be resorting to the unspeakable depravities they once embraced.

That's my take on this no win affair. Next up, Iran.

Mike.

As was widely reported in the reliable media, this fiasco, right or wrong, good or bad has been going on for 20 years and the training and support for the Afghan army has been documented over the years.

It's also known that a percentage of the Afghan army went to water and left the country along with its President and members of the government. This situation was a money pit fiasco and bound to end badly. After all of the strategies to withdraw from Afghanistan which Trump said was going to commence in May 2020, it took Biden to stump up and rip off the bandaid.

As Afghanistan was overrun by the Taliban and the Taliban will need western aid to govern, it's unlikely they will not be resorting to the unspeakable depravities they once embraced.

That's my take on this no win affair. Next up, Iran.

Mike.

When has to remember whilst Biden's handling has been terrible, this has been initiated by the previous Trump Govt. They did a hasty withdrawal of US troops at the behest of agent Orange, in an effort to boost his chances of re election. They did deals with the Taliban, they did not even deal with the Government of the Day there. Mike Stupid Pompeo was posing with the now Taliban President of Afghanistan, Ghani.

Yes Biden deserves a lot of the criticism heaped on him, but the Trump Administration also bears much of the blame for the chaos.

Michael

Tonight, 4 Corners is blowing the lid on Murdoch and Fox News in a two part story on that incidious network of Trumpists and liars.

https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/how-murdoch%E2%80%99s-fox-news-allowed-trumps-propaganda/13502486

Mike.

Wow, fascinating viewing.  Left leaning media organisation having a go at right wing media.   Should be compulsary viewing.   Think I might poke my eyes out and fill my ears with glue.

When has to remember whilst Biden's handling has been terrible, this has been initiated by the previous Trump Govt. They did a hasty withdrawal of US troops at the behest of agent Orange, in an effort to boost his chances of re election. They did deals with the Taliban, they did not even deal with the Government of the Day there. Mike Stupid Pompeo was posing with the now Taliban President of Afghanistan, Ghani.

Yes Biden deserves a lot of the criticism heaped on him, but the Trump Administration also bears much of the blame for the chaos.

Michael

What "government of the day"? It didn't exist as Biden found out.

Trump left office eight - count 'em - EIGHT months ago. Biden wasn't forced to do the withdrawal according to Trumps' schedule.

And right on cue we have this:

Tonight, 4 Corners is blowing the lid on Murdoch and Fox News in a two part story on that incidious network of Trumpists and liars.

In all seriousness, the ABC needs to stop gloating about the long-dead corpse of the Trump Presidency and start putting out news that interests ALL Australians. Not just the inner city lefties who it cares about -

Wow, fascinating viewing. Left leaning media organisation having a go at right wing media. Should be compulsary viewing. Think I might poke my eyes out and fill my ears with glue.

Well said. And its not going to be anything earth-shattering, new or undiscovered - it's just regurgitating the same old rubbish from 12 months ago because like most 'progressives' they don't want to talk about what an unmitigated failure spineless Joe Biden has been.

Wow, fascinating viewing.  Left leaning media organisation having a go at right wing media.   Should be compulsary viewing.   Think I might poke my eyes out and fill my ears with glue.

Yeah, so Donald what OAN, Fox News and Newsmax says is gospel and the truth? It is alright if they tell blatant lies and gaslight as long as they are on your side of politics eh? Claiming that Vaccines don't work, that the election of Biden was rigged, that White Supremacy groups don't exist. Yeah you just shut your eyes poke your fingers in your ears and go na, na, na na na.

Antifa has extremists in that Organisation, but if you think that they pose as much as a threat as Right Wing militia groups who have been outed by the FBI as a terrorist threat, well I want what you are on.

Yeah the so the ABC is left wing? There is nothing wrong with being Conservative either. Spreading lies and evil propaganda is altogether different.


Michael

When has to remember whilst Biden's handling has been terrible, this has been initiated by the previous Trump Govt. They did a hasty withdrawal of US troops at the behest of agent Orange, in an effort to boost his chances of re election. They did deals with the Taliban, they did not even deal with the Government of the Day there. Mike Stupid Pompeo was posing with the now Taliban President of Afghanistan, Ghani.

Yes Biden deserves a lot of the criticism heaped on him, but the Trump Administration also bears much of the blame for the chaos.

Michael

What "government of the day"? It didn't exist as Biden found out.

Trump left office eight - count 'em - EIGHT months ago. Biden wasn't forced to do the withdrawal according to Trumps' schedule.

And right on cue we have this:

Tonight, 4 Corners is blowing the lid on Murdoch and Fox News in a two part story on that incidious network of Trumpists and liars.

In all seriousness, the ABC needs to stop gloating about the long-dead corpse of the Trump Presidency and start putting out news that interests ALL Australians. Not just the inner city lefties who it cares about -

Wow, fascinating viewing. Left leaning media organisation having a go at right wing media. Should be compulsary viewing. Think I might poke my eyes out and fill my ears with glue.

Well said. And its not going to be anything earth-shattering, new or undiscovered - it's just regurgitating the same old rubbish from 12 months ago because like most 'progressives' they don't want to talk about what an unmitigated failure spineless Joe Biden has been.

The Trump administration completed its reduction of forces to 2,500 US troops in January 2021.

When Biden took over, there was very little US presence to start with. Biden's dithering did not help. He should have hastened the withdrawal or re-deployed more troops. Not delay withdrawal until November as he originally planned.

Michael

Wow, fascinating viewing.  Left leaning media organisation having a go at right wing media.   Should be compulsary viewing.   Think I might poke my eyes out and fill my ears with glue.

Be careful, we'll start to think you have moved to the dark side of the conspiracy theorists and Trump fandom.

M.

One in ten people who voted for Joe Biden now regret it - Rasmussen Reports;

Most voters would not vote to reelect President Joe Biden, and a significant number who voted for him in 2020 now regret their choice.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that, if the next presidential election were held today, 37% of Likely U.S. Voters would vote for Biden. Forty-three percent (43%) would vote for former President Donald Trump, and 14% say they would vote for some other candidate. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

So if an election were held now, Trump would win fairly easily. People hate Joe Biden that much... worse than Carter.

The next election won't be held now so what's the point of this? I prefer to think it shows more people like Trump than like Biden, rather than this negative approach you've taken of saying people hate Biden even more than they hate Trump. You seem a bit obsessed with hate. That something of a red flag for your mental health.

Yes Biden deserves a lot of the criticism heaped on him, but the Trump Administration also bears much of the blame for the chaos.

Michael

Trump left office eight - count 'em - EIGHT months ago. Biden wasn't forced to do the withdrawal according to Trumps' schedule.

And right on cue we have this:

Tony Blair? You're 'avin a larf.

In my opinion highly qualified to talk about the situation in the Middle East because he was one of the architects that set losing situation up.

Double standards much? What exactly do you see as the Statute of Limitations on Political Responsibility? Does it run out after 8mths, or does it last 20 years?

Double standards much? What exactly do you see as the Statute of Limitations on Political Responsibility? Does it run out after 8mths, or does it last 20 years?

Trump is not responsible for Joe Biden's incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan - full-stop.

The next election won't be held now so what's the point of this? I prefer to think it shows more people like Trump than like Biden, rather than this negative approach you've taken of saying people hate Biden even more than they hate Trump. You seem a bit obsessed with hate. That something of a red flag for your mental health.

Billy, better people than you have tried gaslighting me and have failed miserably.

Billy, better people than you have tried gaslighting me and have failed miserably.[/quote]

That's just so incorrect.

M.

One in ten people who voted for Joe Biden now regret it - Rasmussen Reports;

Twelve out of ten Russians who voted for Trump now regret it.