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Joe Biden


Dougie Do'ins
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3 minutes ago, Captain Howdy said:

Rich white dauber of a rich powerful white man, she lives in America, she’s in jail. Probably to protect powerful white nonces.

I know a fair few white folk and have never met a Ghislaine. I did give her a thorough wiki and found out her first training was on the Wang.

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Joe Biden says US will hit Russia with cyberattacks in retaliation for data hack

Joe Biden last night suggested he would launch retaliatory cyber attacks against Russia in the wake of a recent massive data breach of the US government.

 

The hacking was apparently carried out by Russia and posed a "grave risk" to national security that cannot "go unanswered," the president-elect said.

 

Mr Biden said: "They can be assured we will respond, probably respond in kind. There are many options I will not discuss now.”

 

Asked why he would not lay out the details of his response, he said: "We don't sit here and say we're going to strike you with a nuclear weapon and so on.

 

"Let us determine what the extent of the damage is. I promise you there will be a response." Mr Biden's suggestion that his response would be "in kind" was the clearest indication yet that he intends to target Russian infrastructure with cyber attacks, rather than simply imposing financial penalties.

 

The president-elect went on to lambast Donald Trump for not officially blaming Russia.

 

Mr Biden said: "This assault happened on Donald Trump's watch when he wasn't watching. Rest assured that even if he does not take it seriously, I will.”

 

The breach began earlier this year when hackers used the Texas-based software company SolarWinds as a stepping stone to get into government and corporate networks.

 

The attacks were first revealed earlier this month.

 

Among those breached were the US government departments of Treasury and Commerce, parts of the Defence department, and the state department and National Institutes of Health. Thousands of US companies were also exposed.

 

According to SolarWinds up to 18,000 of its customers had downloaded a software update that had been compromised, allowing the hackers to spy on them for months.

 

Read more: SolarWinds: How Russian hackers dealt the US its worst cyberspace defeat in a decade 

Earlier this month the US ordered those in government to disconnect the compromised software.

 

Mr Biden said the US government had been caught "off-guard and unprepared" by the hackers who had been working on the attack since at least last year.

 

He accused the Trump administration of failing to prioritise cyber security, and said he was "disappointed' by the president's "irrational downplaying" of the threat.

 

Mr Biden called on Mr Trump and his team to fully cooperate and share information about the attack to help prevent future ones.

 

The president-elect, during a Christmas speech in Delaware, said cyber attacks should be treated with "the same seriousness of purpose that we treated the threat of other unconventional weapons.”

Mr Trump has said the situation was "well under control”.

 

Mike Pompeo, his secretary of state, has said "we can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians" that were responsible.

 

Mr Biden said: "I see no evidence that it’s under control. I see none. Heard of none. Defence department won’t even brief us on many things. So I know of nothing that suggests it’s under control.

 

"The question of the damage done remains to be determined. We have to look at, very closely, the nature of the breaches, how extensive they are, and what damage has been done," Mr Biden said.

 

Mr Biden said he would work with allies to ensure that there were "rules of the road" in cyber space" in future.

The president-elect said he could not currently ensure that US computer systems were safe but would "demand" they are following his inauguration next month.

 

Asked if he believed the Russian attack was an "act of war" he declined to say, instead calling it a "grave risk".

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/22/joe-biden-says-us-will-hit-russia-cyberattacks-retaliation-data/

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  • 4 weeks later...

 

The guy was literally listed on Raytheon's board of directors last night when I checked, he's been removed now though.

 

So erm....credit to Raytheon for finally removing him from the page.

 

Quote

Another thing Austin and Mattis have in common is their ties to the arms industry. In 2016, Austin joined the board of Raytheon, one of the largest US defense contractors. Before Trump appointed him as secretary of defense, Mattis served on the board of General Dynamics, another major Pentagon contractor.

Last month, two progressive House Democrats penned a letter to Joe Biden, urging him not to appoint a secretary of defense who has previously worked in the weapons industry. The letter was authored by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), who cited Trump’s appointment of Mattis and his successors Patrick Shanahan and Mark Esper, who also worked in the arms industry.
 

 

 

https://news.antiwar.com/2020/12/08/two-senate-democrats-oppose-waiver-for-bidens-secdef-pick/

 

From november :

 

One Third of Biden's Pentagon Transition Team Hails From Organizations Financed by the Weapons Industry

 

 

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The US Constitutions has some great checks and balances in it. One being anyone wanting to be President has to be at least 35 years old. So, I dont understand why they dont have an upper age limit in their constitution.

 

Biden's what, 78? Far too old to serve a full 4 year term in my humble opinion. Im always needing a 30 minute nap most days between 4 and 5pm and Im younger than him! Imagine nodding off with your finger poised over the nuke button!

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5 minutes ago, dockers_strike said:

The US Constitutions has some great checks and balances in it. One being anyone wanting to be President has to be at least 35 years old. So, I dont understand why they dont have an upper age limit in their constitution.

 

Biden's what, 78? Far too old to serve a full 4 year term in my humble opinion. Im always needing a 30 minute nap most days between 4 and 5pm and Im younger than him! Imagine nodding off with your finger poised over the nuke button!

I'm sure it's just a joke like but there's no such thing as a nuke button; does my head in the way people talk about that. Like when you get gammons on Question Time angrily asking a left winger, "yeah but would you press the nuke button?!"

 

As I say, I know you were probably just messing about but it winds me up the way people talk about it.

 

Biden is old but when you actually listen to him, he still has his faculties, that much is clear.

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15 minutes ago, Brownie said:

I'm sure it's just a joke like but there's no such thing as a nuke button; does my head in the way people talk about that. Like when you get gammons on Question Time angrily asking a left winger, "yeah but would you press the nuke button?!"

 

As I say, I know you were probably just messing about but it winds me up the way people talk about it.

 

Biden is old but when you actually listen to him, he still has his faculties, that much is clear.

Of course it's a fucking joke! Does my head in when people take such comments as literal.

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3 hours ago, Red Phoenix said:

 

The guy was literally listed on Raytheon's board of directors last night when I checked, he's been removed now though.

 

So erm....credit to Raytheon for finally removing him from the page.

 

 

https://news.antiwar.com/2020/12/08/two-senate-democrats-oppose-waiver-for-bidens-secdef-pick/

 

From november :

 

One Third of Biden's Pentagon Transition Team Hails From Organizations Financed by the Weapons Industry

 

 

Out of interest, do you think that somebody who has worked in the defence industry, having had a highly distinguished military career for 41 years until 2016, would put his connection with Raytheon - who already do massive business with the US - above his country? If so, should he be excluded from serving as defence secretary? What exactly is the point being made here, because it seems quite crude. 

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19 minutes ago, Numero said:

Out of interest, do you think that somebody who has worked in the defence industry, having had a highly distinguished military career for 41 years until 2016, would put his connection with Raytheon - who already do massive business with the US - above his country? If so, should he be excluded from serving as defence secretary? What exactly is the point being made here, because it seems quite crude. 

 

Yes and yes.

 

I think there's some good points here too :

 

This does not mean we are happy with the nomination of General Lloyd Austin. While General Austin has some good qualities—his experience in overseeing major troop withdrawals from Iraq and his opposition to further U.S. involvement in Syria—appointing a recently retired military officer violates long-standing traditions and laws that stipulate that the Secretary of Defense must be a civilian. This rule is based on the critical distinction between civilians in a country that aspires to democracy and military officers who spend their careers giving and following orders. The military is not a democracy. We remember retired General Colin Powell, who betrayed his duty to exercise independent judgment as a civilian official, played the “good soldier” and lied us into war, on the orders of a president and vice president he privately called “fucking crazies.”

The Republican-controlled Senate set a dangerous precedent when it voted by 83-17 to approve a waiver of the National Security Act for General Mattis and confirmed him as Trump’s Defense Secretary in 2017. During Mattis' confirmation hearings, Democratic Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that he would oppose future waivers after Mattis because such a waiver should be a "once in a generation exception." Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the Chair of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel, said at that time, "Civilian control of our military is a fundamental principle of American democracy, and I will not vote for an exception to this rule." We agree.

We also find it distressing that within months of retiring from the Pentagon, Austin joined the board of weapons maker Raytheon, a company that makes bombs that the Saudis are using to inflict tremendous death and suffering on the people of Yemen. Another concern is his investments in the private equity fund Pine Island Capital Partners, a private equity firm that specializes in military contractors. Like other members of the Biden administration with similar conflicts of interest, Austin must sever all connections and loyalties to these firms, and we are skeptical that such corrosive conflicts of interest can ever be completely resolved.

 

https://www.codepink.org/statement_lloyd_austin_for_secretary_of_defense

 

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17 minutes ago, Red Phoenix said:

 

Yes and yes.

 

I think there's some good points here too :

 

So you're happy to judge somebody you wouldn't have heard of last week, who has 41 years of service to his country, as willing to be a traitor to his nation because of a post-retirement connection to a private company. The sheer nerve of it is quite something. 

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40 minutes ago, Numero said:

So you're happy to judge somebody you wouldn't have heard of last week, who has 41 years of service to his country, as willing to be a traitor to his nation because of a post-retirement connection to a private company. The sheer nerve of it is quite something. 

 

Yep definitely, i'm saying he has the potential to do it and it shouldn't be allowed. I don't care if there's a sheer nerve to it either, if this was Trump appointing this guy he'd be fair game probably, and it'd be the latest sign of how corrupt he was in a thread that'd be well on the go by now.

 

Seeing as it's Biden though, well I was the first person to post in this thread this year. edit : to be fair I get that there's been an an overlap with the election thread lately too.

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Normally the House has no role in confirming Cabinet secretaries. But Austin retired from the military four years ago, short of the seven years required by law to take the civilian job without a waiver from both houses of Congress.

 

https://www.npr.org/sections/president-biden-takes-office/2021/01/21/959232498/house-approves-waiver-for-lloyd-austin-bidens-pick-to-head-pentagon

 

They even had to sort a waiver out to get the guy in, and this wasn't even about his connection to Raytheon. I just totally disagree that it should even be allowed. Mattis shouldn't have got in (needed a waiver too), this guy shouldn't have either.

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40 minutes ago, Red Phoenix said:

 

Yep definitely, i'm saying he has the potential to do it and it shouldn't be allowed. I don't care if there's a sheer nerve to it either, if this was Trump appointing this guy he'd be fair game probably, and it'd be the latest sign of how corrupt he was in a thread that'd be well on the go by now.

 

Seeing as it's Biden though, well I was the first person to post in this thread this year. edit : to be fair I get that there's been an an overlap with the election thread lately too.

Not from me, I had no issue with Mattis. The idea that he is more susceptible than a civilian despite serving their country for 41 years is frankly ludicrous. I don’t give a fuck about Biden, I care about common sense. 

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40 minutes ago, Numero said:

Not from me, I had no issue with Mattis. The idea that he is more susceptible than a civilian despite serving their country for 41 years is frankly ludicrous. I don’t give a fuck about Biden, I care about common sense. 

 

As someone who's usually opposed to US military actions I'm not really into the idea of an ex-military guy that's just left Raytheon's board of directors in his position that's all. Another of those issues where we'll probably never agree with each other.

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4 hours ago, Brownie said:

I'm sure it's just a joke like but there's no such thing as a nuke button; does my head in the way people talk about that. Like when you get gammons on Question Time angrily asking a left winger, "yeah but would you press the nuke button?!"

 

As I say, I know you were probably just messing about but it winds me up the way people talk about it.

 

Biden is old but when you actually listen to him, he still has his faculties, that much is clear.

 

I'm not sure, I thought he mumbled and slurred a number of words in his speech the other day. He's done it a lot over the campaign as well. But, I'd imagine part of that would factor in tiredness. It can't be easy. Even if he was 42 like me. I don't think he is Reagan levels though. Not yet, and I don't think you would see that anyway.

 

I personally don't understand how a man in his 70's can be elected run any country the size of the US or even the UK.  

 

No doubt that I will take the calming influence he should bring over there, but I reckon he'll be moved on in about 6-8 months and Harris takes over. In that short time I expect him to start reigning the Tories in piling the pressure on Boris. Where I think he will go too, just not sure how. Whether he is pushed or loses in an ill-advised GE. 

 

Then, and while I am not 100% sold on Harris, I am more sold on her than Hilary. By miles. She will take over. The Loons will say she didn't earn the right to be President because she never got voted in, but so what? A woman President of The United States of America will be a great thing for the world over, and I am all for it. 

 

 

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12 minutes ago, Colonel Bumcunt said:

Apparently Biden is Q. 

Great article I read today, all the QAnon dipshits wondering what it all means. 

Have you got a link? It's fascinating how deeply some people are into this obvious bullshit. The cognitive dissonance must be off the scale with them.

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