After the end of economic powerhouses G7 summit which account for 60% of global net worth ($317 trillion) , agreement was reached on a 15% global corporate tax and providing one billion vaccines to poor countries.
Next, President Biden met with the 30 liberal democracies of NATO where he emphasized the importance of mutual defense in Article 5 to expand regional peace and security.
Today, the President met with the 27 member European Union ahead of his meeting with Putin on Wednesday.
Good luck, Mr. President! America stands shoulder to shoulder with you.
Please share widely!
America is much stronger working with our democratic allies vis a vis autocracies like Russia.
Annual US GDP is $20 trillion, European Union plus Great Britain GDP is $19 trillion. That’s $39 trillion combined as compared to Russia’s $1.4 trillion.
Biden restored a healthy relationship with our allies after the Loser demeaned and debased them for four years.
The mainstream media and even many progressives continue to underestimate this President. Securing a foothold against China in the EU is a B.F. deal, as he would put it. Reaching some kind of understanding with Putin is another. The Republicans attacking Biden for his summit seem to forget their man gave away state secrets during his first encounter with the Russians, who helped him win in 2016, and would have sold out our allies to return the favor. So Bidenism is taking a firm line on essentials, but keeping communication and dialogue open with a flexibility on the areas outside our vital interest. Containing China is the geopolitical priority.
I am far more impressed by Mr. Biden than I expected to be.
I have the distinct impression that he and his staff are working quietly behind the scenes to strengthen Mitt Romney. I think it is no accident that Mr. Romney is the name mentioned most prominently in the recent negotiations. I can think of no better way to disembowel Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell than to help Republican voters flock to Mr. Romney and destroy whatever is left of the Trumpist right-wing GOP base that is so toxic to all of us.
It appears to me that the 2022 elections are shaping up to be the most consequential of my lifetime.
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It did cost Clinton and Biden Florida, although I’m not sure restoring sanctions would actually help him carry it in 2024. Personally, I think sanctions should go since they have clearly failed to end the Castro regime.
I also believe that the dictum “the freer the market, the freer the people” has utterly failed to be the case in China, where ending sanctions and building a trade relationship (that has turned into a severe trade deficit) has failed to deliver democracy.
It’s also allowed us to underwrite the rearming of our remaining great power rival while hallowing out our own industrial base destroying what was left of the middle class and New Deal coalition. Does Cuba matter all that much to international relations? Probably not since Kennedy got the missiles off the island in 62’.
I interpret this as old-fashioned pandering. It appears to me that Joe Biden and his administration have concluded that the political benefits of perpetuating the sanctions against Cuba outweigh the real and tangible benefits of ending it.
I suspect that, in private, the proponents of this approach argue that the social policy and moral benefits that accrue from their chosen approach outweigh the lack of progress in Cuba.
However ineffective and hurtful the Cuba sanctions have been, all parties involved have survived them for nearly 60 years — another four is probably insignificant in the larger picture.
If this interpretation turns out to be correct, then it’s wrong on any sort of absolute moral scale and also good politics. I don’t really like it, but I suspect this is an unsavory aspect of making palatable or even tasty sausage.
Biden should learn from Trump that it’s better to be a moving target. Nothing is gained politically from this kind of passive pandering. At worst, the right wingers would take a week off from screaming about rest rooms and critical race theory and scream about Cuba. Then they would go back to screaming about rest rooms and critical race theory.
On the other hand, I think that any complacency about the damage this blockade does is heading down a slippery slope. Yes, Cuba has survived, but so have . . . . I don’t even want to give examples, but just about every oppressed group of any kind has managed to survive in some form.
Biden & co. are not making sausage; they are drifting on a rubber raft, trying to navigate by flashlight. And the batteries are getting weaker and weaker.
Ending the blockade of Cuba has nothing to do with free-market economics: I’m mystified that you would think there was a connection.
I thought you wanted to work with the majority. The vote here was 184-2.