Biden and Obama Cartoons

Biden eyes major foreign policy shifts if he wins

Idiot for president, really ??

WASHINGTON (AP) — Should former Vice President Joe Biden win the White House in November, America will likely be in for a foreign policy about-face as Biden reverses, dismantles or severely curtails many of President Donald Trump’s most significant and boldest actions.

From the Middle East to Asia, Latin America to Africa and, particularly, Europe, and on issues including trade, terrorism, arms control and immigration, the presumptive Democratic nominee and his advisers have vowed to unleash a tsunami of change in how the U.S. handles itself in the international arena.

With few exceptions, Americans could expect Biden to re-engage with traditional allies. Where the iconoclastic Trump has used blunt threats and insults to press his case, Biden, a former senator, would be more inclined to seek common ground.

Historically, U.S. foreign policy hasn’t changed drastically as the presidency shifted between Democratic and Republican administrations. Allies and adversaries stayed the same and a non-partisan diplomatic corps pursued American interests.

That changed with Trump. Under his “America First” policy, he viewed both allies and the foreign policy establishment with suspicion, while speaking warmly of adversaries like North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

But Trump found it hard to make swift changes. Academics often say that American foreign policy is like an aircraft carrier: easy to order a wholesale change of direction from the bridge but far more difficult and time-consuming to alter course.

Trump saw that when he was unable to extricate the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal for more than year. His well-publicized withdrawals from the Paris Climate Accord and the World Health Organization won’t actually become final until after the Nov. 3 election, if ever. His decision to redeploy thousands of troops from Germany could take years.

Trump’s initial problems may have reflected a lack of governmental experience by both him and his top advisers. That created a steep learning curve that was complicated by their intense distrust of national security institutions.

Biden, with his Senate and White House experience, may be better positioned to deliver on change swiftly.

Biden told reporters Tuesday in Delaware that he knows “how to get things done internationally.”

“I understand the national security and intelligence issues,” he said. “That’s what I’ve done my whole life. Trump has no notion of it. None.”

Biden’s campaign also has assembled an experienced team of foreign policy advisers: Jake Sullivan served as deputy assistant to President Barack Obama and policy planning director at the State Department. Nicholas Burns had high-level foreign policy positions under Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Tony Blinken was deputy secretary of state and deputy national security adviser to Obama.

Susan Rice, national security adviser and U.N. ambassador under Obama, is a finalist for vice president. If she isn’t selected, she could become a key adviser if Biden wins.

The Trump campaign casts Biden’s foreign policy experience as a weakness.

“Joe Biden’s record of appeasement and globalism would be detrimental for American foreign policy and national security, and after decades of the status quo, President Trump has made it clear that the United States will no longer be taken advantage of by the rest of the world,” deputy press secretary Ken Farnaso said in a statement.

For decades, the first and often only foreign policy shift that new presidents of both parties directed on their first day in office, and Trump was no exception, was abortion-related.

Like clockwork, Republicans enacted the so-called “Mexico City” language — known by opponents as the “global gag rule” — to prohibit the use of U.S. foreign assistance for abortion-related services. Democrats rescinded it and should Biden win, he has promised to follow suit.

But he’s also pledged to demolish other Trump policies on Day One. They include reversing Trump’s ban on immigration from mainly Muslim countries, restoring U.S. funding and membership to the WHO and halting efforts to oppose the Paris Climate Accord. He’s promised to call top NATO leaders and declare of U.S. foreign policy, “We’re back” while convening a summit of major heads of state in his first year.

One area that will require more nuance is China, which Trump has placed at the top of his foreign policy agenda and on which he has painted Biden as weak.

After previously boasting of warm ties with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Trump has relentlessly attacked China, blaming it for the coronavirus outbreak that threatens his reelection prospects.

Biden has been slower to directly criticize Trump’s recent actions against China, but his campaign questions whether the president will eventually undermine his administration’s tough actions of late by personally striking softer tones toward Beijing

“The administration has a history of talking very loudly but not producing results,” said Jeff Prescott, a campaign foreign policy adviser,

Biden also has said he would immediately restore daily press briefings at the White House, State Department and Pentagon, events once deemed critical to communicate U.S. policy that the Trump administration has all but abandoned.

Biden and his surrogates say they intend to act quickly on the following:

- Middle East: Restore assistance to the Palestinian Authority that the Trump administration has eliminated as well as to agencies that support Palestinian refugees. Biden hasn’t said he will reverse Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital or return the embassy to Tel Aviv.

- United Nations: Restore U.S. membership in U.N. agencies such as the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and possibly the U.N. Human Rights Council.

- Europe: Tone down rhetoric Trump has used to berate and insult European allies. Biden can be expected to try to warm relations among NATO partners.

- Africa: Try to raise America’s profile on the continent, which has become a new battleground for competition with China.

- Asia: Revert to a traditional U.S. stance supporting the presence of American troops in Japan and South Korea. Biden has also criticized Trump’s personal relationship with Kim.

- Latin America: Cancel Trump administration agreements that sent asylum-seeking immigrants to Mexico and other countries while they await court dates. Biden has also promised to divert funding away from the southern border wall and use it on other priorities, though the Trump campaign notes that the former vice president in past comments hasn’t committed to halting all new border wall construction. Biden also wants to restart Obama-era engagement with Cuba.

___

Associated Press writer Zeke Miller contributed to this report.

Despite virus threat, Black voters wary of voting by mail

DETROIT (AP) — Despite fears that the coronavirus pandemic will worsen, Victor Gibson said he’s not planning to take advantage of Michigan’s expanded vote-by-mail system when he casts his ballot in November.

The retired teacher from Detroit just isn’t sure he can trust it. Many Black Americans share similar concerns and are planning to vote in person on Election Day, even as mail-in voting expands to more states as a safety precaution during the pandemic.

For many, historical skepticism of a system that tried to keep Black people from the polls and worries that a mailed ballot won’t get counted outweigh the prospect of long lines and health dangers from a virus that’s disproportionately affected communities of color. Ironically, suspicion of mail-in voting aligns with the views of President Donald Trump, whom many Black voters want out of office.

Trump took it a step further Tuesday, suggesting a “delay” to the Nov. 3 presidential election — which would take an act of Congress — as he made unsubstantiated allegations in a tweet that increased mail-in voting will result in fraud.

“I would never change my mind” about voting in person in November, said Gibson, who is Black and hopes Trump loses. “I always feel better sliding my ballot in. We’ve heard so many controversies about missing absentee ballots.”

Decades of disenfranchisement are at the heart of the uneasy choice facing Black voters, one of the Democratic Party’s most important voting groups. Widespread problems with mail-in ballots during this year’s primary elections have added to the skepticism at a time when making Black voices heard has taken on new urgency during a national reckoning over racial injustice.

Patricia Harris of McDonough, Georgia, south of Atlanta, voted in person in the primary and said she will do the same in November.

“I simply do not trust mail-in or absentee ballots,” said Harris, 73, a retired event coordinator at Albany State University. “After the primary and the results were in, there were thousands of absentee ballots not counted.”

In Georgia, roughly 12,500 mail-in ballots were rejected in the state’s June primary, while California tossed more than 100,000 absentee ballots during its March primary.

Reasons vary, from ballots being received after the deadline to voters’ signatures not matching the one on file with the county clerk. Multiple studies show mail-in ballots from Black voters, like those from Latino and young voters, are rejected at a higher rate than those of white voters.

In Wisconsin’s April primary, thousands of voters in Milwaukee said they didn’t receive absentee ballots in time and had to vote in person. Lines stretched several blocks, and people waited two hours or more.

In Kentucky’s June primary, more than 8,000 absentee ballots were rejected in Jefferson County, which includes Louisville.

Many people in Louisville’s historically Black West End neighborhood voted in person because they didn’t receive an absentee ballot or simply wanted to vote in a way that was familiar to them, said Arii Lynton-Smith, an organizer with Black Lives Matter Louisville.

“That’s particularly why we knew we had to have the poll rides as an option,” she said, referring to groups offering voters free transportation to polling places. “It’s not as easy to do an absentee ballot and the things that come along with it than it is to just go in person.”

Mistrust by Black voters runs deep and is tightly bound within the nation’s dark past of slavery and institutional racism.

Black people endured poll taxes, tossed ballots, even lynchings by whites intent on keeping them from voting. Over the decades, that led to a deep suspicion of simply handing off a ballot to the post office. Black people were the demographic least likely to cast votes by mail in 2018, with only 11% using that method, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. By comparison, 24% of whites and 27% of Latinos reported voting by mail that year.

“For Black folks, voting is almost like a social pride because of the way they were denied in the past,” said Ben Barber, a researcher and writer for the Institute for Southern Studies in Durham, North Carolina.

Among the places where Black voters say they have had to overcome institutional obstacles is Shelby County, Tennessee, which includes Memphis. In the past, voters have received ballots for the wrong district, and groups have sued to challenge the security of electronic voting machines, invalidation of voter registration forms and failure to open polling places near predominantly Black neighborhoods.

The Rev. Earle Fisher, senior pastor at Abyssinian Missionary Baptist Church in Memphis and a prominent Black civil rights activist, is one of the plaintiffs in a state lawsuit calling for mail-voting access for everyone. He said he’s not pushing his community to vote by mail but wants to ensure it’s an option given the health dangers.

To ease doubts, he wants voters to be able to drop off their ballot at a polling place so they won’t have to worry about the post office delivering it on time.

“I would like to see every righteous and creative method and measure taken, but we are up against a voter suppression apparatus that oftentimes is orchestrated by, or at least sustained by, people who are elected or appointed to office,” Fisher said.

Trump has made clear he believes widespread mail-in voting would benefit Democrats. He has alleged — without citing evidence — that it will lead to massive fraud, and the Republican National Committee has budgeted $20 million to fight Democratic lawsuits in at least 18 states aimed at expanding voting by mail.

The extent to which Black voters adopt it in November is likely to be dictated by the coronavirus. As infections surge, there are signs more Black voters may be willing to consider the option. In Detroit, for example, about 90,000 requests for mail-in ballots have been made so far — the most ever, City Clerk Janice Winfrey said.

How well the option is promoted also is important. In 2018, Democrat Stacey Abrams’ campaign mailed 1.6 million absentee ballot requests to Georgia voters during her unsuccessful bid for governor, emphasizing that it was a safe, easy way to vote.

Record numbers of Black voters voted by mail in that election. That shows they will embrace the process if they hear from friends and family that it works, said Lauren Groh-Wargo, Abrams’ campaign manager.

NAACP President Derrick Johnson praised how Abrams was able to bridge that gap but said this year is different. The model can’t be replicated nationwide before Nov. 3, he said.

“Stacey did a good job in the four years leading up to 2018 to build out a program to get it done,” Johnson said. “The runway between now and November isn’t long enough to get it done.”

___

Associated Press writers Piper Hudspeth Blackburn in Frankfort, Kentucky; Nicholas Riccardi in Denver; and Adrian Sainz in Memphis contributed to this story.

Mark Levin slams Democrats for treatment of AG Barr, calls Obama a 'pathological liar'

"Life, Liberty and Levin" host Mark Levin appeared on "Watters' World" Saturday and criticized Democrats for their treatment of Attorney General William Barr during a House Judiciary Committee hearing, calling it a "disgrace."

"I've never seen a senior official of any administration ever treated like that," Levin said. "This hearing should have been [about] how do we come together as a nation to put down rioters who were trying to overthrow the country. Marxists, anarchists, whether they're Black Lives Matter or Antifa. But that's not how it works. The Democrat Party is all in on this radical hardcore agenda. And so they're beating up on the attorney general."
During the hearing, Barr clashed with several Democratic committee members who asked him questions only to cut him off when he tried to answer. At one point, he sarcastically described Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.,  as "a real class act" after Nadler initially denied Barr a five-minute break.
Levin said Democrats are "trying to soften him up and ruin his reputation when that information comes out" from U.S. attorney John Durham's investigation into the origins of the Russia probe.
The host also had strong words for former President Barack Obama's speech at the funeral of Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., where accused President Trump of voter suppression.
"Look, Barack Obama is a pathological liar. They're trying to set the stage for a close election of one or two battleground states, that it's systemic racism," Levin said. "They've been laying this foundation for months and months and months."

Levin blamed Obama for the nation's racial divide.
"You're one of the great reasons in this country where there is a huge racial divide. And you could have been a great leader," Levin said. "You could have a great leader, the American people of all races. But you couldn't put aside your community activism."

Susan Rice's 'Benghazi baggage,' F-bombs would make her 'lightning rod' as Biden VP pick

Former national security adviser Susan Rice would be a “human lightning rod” if selected to be Democrat Joe Biden’s running mate, a Washington Post columnist wrote Friday.
Rice, who is reported to be among the shrinking list of Biden vice presidential contenders, has the advantage of a longstanding close relationship with the former vice president, unlike any of the other names on the list.
But Biden's want for “familiarity and comfort” are luxuries the nation doesn’t have time for in this singular time of crisis, Post columnist Dana Milbank writes.
Despite Rice’s impressive resume -- Rhodes scholar, Oxford, U.N ambassador, national security adviser -- she has serious Benghazi baggage and a polarizing ability to make fast enemies. She had to withdraw from consideration as former President Barack Obama's secretary of state because she was unlikely to get the Senate confirmation votes, Milbank writes.
If she joined the Biden ticket, Milbank writes, she would be a distraction for the Democrats in a time when voters want calm -- and would be an easy target for Republicans.

Then-national security adviser Susan Rice listens to reporters questions during a news briefing at the White House in Washington, March 21, 2014. (Associated Press)

“It’d be a good move for Republicans,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., agreed last week. “I don’t think she’ll wear well over time.”
Milbank notes that Rice has been known to be unpleasant in interpersonal situations.
"Her F-bombs are legend," he writes, and has rarely refrained from using other rude language or gestures when criticizing political opponents.
She once referred to Graham as a "piece of sh--," during a popular podcast, and once raised her middle finger to Richard Holbrooke, a former U.S. diplomat who died in 2010, Milbank recounts.
But the author says he was more concerned about Rice after hearing hesitancy to support her from among her former Obama administration colleagues.
“It was the latest reminder that Rice has a history of turning allies and opponents alike into enemies,” he writes.
Rice is also the only serious candidate for the position who hasn’t run for elected office.
Milbank concludes that Biden should make use of her experience if he wins the White House – just not as vice president.
“Biden’s greatest appeal is the hope of relief he offers from government-by-insult and rule-by-rage,” he adds. “He shouldn’t squander it.”
Biden said Tuesday he will announce his running mate this week.
Biden has pledged to choose a woman as his running mate and is vetting several women of color as racial injustice protests continue across the country.
Other women in consideration include Sens. Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Duckworth and Rep. Karen Bass.

Cartoons On Cancel Culture

Trump says he’ll act to ban TikTok in US as soon as Saturday

 

FILE - This Feb. 25, 2020, file photo, shows the icon for TikTok in New York. President Donald Trump will order China’s ByteDance to sell its hit video app TikTok because of national-security concerns, according to reports published Friday, July 31, 2020. “We are looking at TikTok," Trump told reporters Friday at the White House. "We may be banning TikTok.” (AP Photo/File)

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump said he will take action as soon as Saturday to ban TikTok, a popular Chinese-owned video app that has been a source of national security and censorship concerns.

Trump’s comments came after published reports that the administration is planning to order China’s ByteDance to sell TikTok. There were also reports Friday that software giant Microsoft is in talks to buy the app.

“As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States,” Trump told reporters Friday on Air Force One as he returned from Florida.

Trump said he could use emergency economic powers or an executive order to enforce the action, insisting, “I have that authority.” He added, “It’s going to be signed tomorrow.”

Reports by Bloomberg News and the Wall Street Journal citing anonymous sources said the administration could soon announce a decision ordering ByteDance to divest its ownership in TikTok.

There have been reports of U.S. tech giants and financial firms being interested in buying or investing in TikTok as the Trump administration sets its sights on the app. The New York Times and Fox Business, citing an unidentified source, reported Friday that Microsoft is in talks to buy TikTok. Microsoft declined to comment.

TikTok issued a statement Friday saying that, “While we do not comment on rumors or speculation, we are confident in the long-term success of TikTok.”

ByteDance launched TikTok in 2017, then bought Musical.ly, a video service popular with teens in the U.S. and Europe, and combined the two. A twin service, Douyin, is available for Chinese users.

TikTok’s fun, goofy videos and ease of use has made it immensely popular, and U.S. tech giants like Facebook and Snapchat see it as a competitive threat. It has said it has tens of millions of U.S. users and hundreds of millions globally.

But its Chinese ownership has raised concerns about the censorship of videos, including those critical of the Chinese government, and the potential for sharing user data with Chinese officials.

TikTok maintains it doesn’t censor videos based on topics sensitive to China and it would not give the Chinese government access to U.S. user data even if asked. The company has hired a U.S. CEO, a former top Disney executive, in an attempt to distance itself from its Chinese ownership.

ADVERTISEMENT

U.S. national-security officials have been reviewing the Musical.ly acquisition in recent months, while U.S. armed forces have banned their employees from installing TikTok on government-issued phones. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said earlier this month that the U.S. was considering banning TikTok.

These national-security worries parallel a broader U.S. security crackdown on Chinese companies, including telecom providers Huawei and ZTE. The Trump administration has ordered that the U.S. stop funding equipment from those providers in U.S. networks. It has also tried to steer allies away from Huawei because of worries about the Chinese government’s access to data, which the company has denied it has.

The Trump administration has stepped in before to block or dissolve deals on national-security concerns, including stopping Singapore’s Broadcom from its $117 billion bid for U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm in 2018 in an effort to help retain U.S. leadership in the telecom space. It also told China’s Beijing Kunlun Tech Co. to sell off its 2016 purchase of gay dating app Grindr.

Other countries are also taking action against TikTok. India this month banned dozens of Chinese apps, including TikTok, citing privacy concerns, amid tensions between the countries.

___

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking aboard Air Force One and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.

Foreign threats loom ahead of US presidential election

 

FILE—In this June 13, 2019 file photo, an Investigator with the Office of the City Commissioners, demonstrates the ExpressVote XL voting machine at the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia. As the Nov. 3 2020 presidential vote nears, there are fresh signs that the nation’s electoral system is again under attack from foreign adversaries. Intelligence officials confirmed in recent days that foreign actors are actively seeking to compromise the private communications of “U.S. political campaigns, candidates and other political targets” while working to compromise the nation's election infrastructure. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — As the Nov. 3 presidential vote nears, there are fresh signs that the nation’s electoral system is again under attack from foreign adversaries.

Intelligence officials confirmed in recent days that foreign actors are actively seeking to compromise the private communications of “U.S. political campaigns, candidates and other political targets” while working to compromise the nation’s election infrastructure. Foreign entities are also aggressively spreading disinformation intended to sow voter confusion heading into the fall.

There is no evidence that America’s enemies have yet succeeded in penetrating campaigns or state election systems, but Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential campaign confirmed this week that it has faced multiple related threats.

The former vice president’s team was reluctant to reveal specifics for fear of giving adversaries useful intelligence.

Because of such secrecy, at least in part, foreign interference largely remains an afterthought in the 2020 contest, even as Republicans and Democrats alike concede it poses a serious threat that could fundamentally reshape the election at any moment. Biden’s campaign is increasingly concerned that pro-Russian sources have already shared disinformation about Biden’s family with President Donald Trump’s campaign and his Republican allies on Capitol Hill designed to hurt the Democratic candidate in the days leading up to the election.

When asked directly, the Trump campaign refused to say whether it had accepted materials from any foreign nationals related to Biden. Trump was impeached last year after being caught pressuring Ukrainian leaders to produce damaging information about work Biden’s son did in the region, even though repeated allegations of corruption against the Bidens have been widely discredited.

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, a key Trump ally and chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, denied having accepted any damaging materials on Biden from foreign nationals even after at least one Ukranian national, Oleksandr Onyshchenko, told The Washington Post he had shared tapes and transcripts with Johnson’s committee and Trump ally Rudy Giuliani. House Democrats announced Friday they have subpoenaed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for documents he turned over to Johnson’s panel.

“It does a disservice to our election security efforts when Democrats use the threat of Russian disinformation as a weapon to cast doubt on investigations they don’t like,” Johnson spokesperson Austin Altenburg said.

The 2020 campaigns and party committees have been receiving regular briefings from the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, whose director, Bill Evanina, released a rare public statement last week confirming Russia’s continued work to meddle in the U.S. election.

Evanina said that Russia, as part of an effort to weaken the U.S. and its global standing, has been spreading disinformation to undermine confidence in American democracy and “to denigrate what it sees as an anti-Russia ‘establishment’ in America.”

The threat is not limited to Russia. China, a target of escalating condemnation across the Trump administration in recent weeks, has been looking for ways to affect American policy, counter criticism of Beijing and pressure political figures it views as opposed to Chinese interests, Evanina said, while Iran has been involved in circulating disinformation and anti-American content online.

Trump’s team reported no specific foreign threats against the president’s campaign, but campaign general counsel Matthew Morgan highlighted the Republican Party’s yearslong effort to install various voter ID requirements across the country — including photo verification, signature matching and witness requirements — as an important tool to block foreign interference.

“Contrary to their narrative, the Democrats’ efforts to tear these safeguards apart — as they sue in 18 states across the nation — would open our election system up to foreign interference,” Morgan said. “That’s why we’re fighting back — to protect the sanctity of our election system.”

Despite Morgan’s argument, there is no evidence of significant voter fraud in U.S. politics, whether by American voters or foreign nationals.

And there is no evidence, as Trump repeatedly charges, that an increased reliance on mail balloting this fall leaves the electoral system particularly vulnerable to outside meddling. The president pointed to those baseless claims this week to suggest delaying the election, something that can’t be done without support in Congress, where Democrats and Republicans alike rejected the notion.

There is ample evidence, however, that foreign powers are trying to sow confusion by spreading misinformation in addition to seeking to hack into political campaigns, as Evanina said last week.

Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, a Republican, described Trump’s warnings about mail voting “absurd” and “ridiculous.”

“He should be far more forceful and far more direct in condemning foreign interference,” Ridge said in an interview. “The enemy is not within.”

Foreign interference played a significant role in the 2016 election, of course.

U.S. intelligence agencies determined that Russian operatives seeking to boost Trump’s campaign hacked into the Democratic National Committee’s servers and later shared damaging messages with WikiLeaks while running a covert social media campaign aimed at sowing discord among American voters.

All told, the Justice Department charged 25 Russian nationals in a covert effort to spread disinformation on social media and in the hacking of Democratic emails. While Trump has downplayed the threat of Russian meddling, he authorized a 2018 cyberattack against the Russian troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency.

Lest there be any doubt about continued foreign interference in 2020, U.S. officials confirmed this week that Russian intelligence services have been using a trio of English-language websites to spread disinformation about the politically charged coronavirus pandemic.

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in an interview that foreign adversaries “never stopped trying to interfere with our election process.”

He noted that the foreign meddling includes some new tactics compared to 2016. He noted, for example, that the Internet Research Agency is operating under a different name.

Warner declined to be more specific about 2020 interference, which has been discussed in classified briefings. He said he has a “huge concern” that voters don’t appreciate the true nature of the threat.

“The idea that we could be headed into Labor Day without the American public being officially put on notice seems grossly inappropriate,” Warner said.

___

Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report.