The Biden Presidency

[Minoosh]

To be fair, he does have stage 4 lung cancer, which is very sad, but doesn't excuse his behavior.

I don't know about that, it goes from your lung to your brain.

I mean, maybe he's just a jerk, too.

 

[acbytesla]

The article lays out the situation pretty clearly.

The time line is quite clear.

Jan 20: Ducklo has his phone call where he is extremely unprofessional with the reporter

Jan 21: Politico editors speak with Ducklo's bosses. At some point there is a semi-admittance of bad behavior and he writes an apology letter. Ducklo is assigned to not interact with any other politico reporters and is otherwise not reprimanded.

Feb 12: Vanity Fair runs the story. Same day, Press Secretary announces that Ducklo will also take 1 week unpaid leave as punishment.

Feb 13: He "resigns".

I don't know how anyone here is even pretending that the Vanity Fair piece was not the inciting incident for him being suspended then fired. What more evidence do you need?

Post hoc ergo propter hoc. That one thing follows another does not mean it is the cause.

 

[wareyin]

Post hoc ergo propter hoc. That one thing follows another does not mean it is the cause.

Oh, come now. When a magazine best known for pop culture, celebrity gossip, and other such hard-hitting gritty fluff speaks, you know the political world trembles!

 

[TurkeysGhost]

Ok. Let's just all pretend that cover your ass PR management isn't a thing.

Truly a mystery why Ducklo resigned. The machinations of politics are a total mystery and are essentially unknowable.

Who knows why, after a negative press piece hits, there would be a one-two punch of a one week suspension immediately followed by a resignation. Life is simply an enigma.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

Oh, come now. When a magazine best known for pop culture, celebrity gossip, and other such hard-hitting gritty fluff speaks, you know the political world trembles!

That's the weird thing. The original reporting about their relationship was pretty mundane. A puff piece in a gossip magazine.

Not sure why the dude flew off the handle when asked to comment, I very much doubt there would have been a problem or even much of a story had he not been such an unhinged lunatic about it. An unforced error if I've ever seen one, and a costly one at that.

 

[turingtest]

Ok. Let's just all pretend that cover your ass PR management isn't a thing.

Truly a mystery why Ducklo resigned. The machinations of politics are a total mystery and are essentially unknowable.

Who knows why, after a negative press piece hits, there would be a one-two punch of a one week suspension immediately followed by a resignation. Life is simply an enigma.

Or hey, even better yet...let's all pretend that asking for some evidence for a conclusion beyond just an assumption about it also isn't a thing, certainly not something we should be doing in a forum dedicated to critical thinking. That works, right?

 

[SezMe]

Cool. Next up seems to be Brian Boynton in the Civil Rights Division of the DoJ, whose name is on a court filing stating that Devos shouldn't be deposed for her clear ignoring of previous court orders.

OK, I'll go along with that as long as Louis DeJoy, Postmaster General. is next in order. I know he's not appointed by the prez but, hey, what the hell is all that power and prestige for if Biden doesn't throw it around once in a while.

 

[SezMe]

What happened in those 3 weeks that initiated the resignation? Was there some exhaustive fact-finding mission that had to be completed?

Yes. For example, with his permission, an in depth review of his medical procedures and their potential to affect his job performance and mental stability. Consultation with other oncologists for confirmation of said effects. Review of his past performance and behavior. Consult with HR regarding all options and implications - both legal and political - of all possible actions. Review all of the above, and more, with people above his immediate supervisor in the food chain.

IOW, *you* haven't given the issue any consideration above knee-jerk. You should.

 

[Delvo]

Post hoc ergo propter hoc. That one thing follows another does not mean it is the cause.

X (in this case the report about what the guy had done) happening before Y (in this case his suspension & "resignation") does not prove that X caused Y.

But it does prove that, prior to X, there wasn't anything else causing Y either.

...such as, hypothetically, an administration working by a principle that his kind of behavior is not to be tolerated, as it claimed it would. The fact that he remained proves that he was definitely not being thrown out over that.

 

[SezMe]

C'mon guys. This really is a huge nothingburger. It certainly isn't worth pages of posts.

Nothingburger? NOTHINGBURGER!!?? It's the most important thing the Biden Administration has had to deal with.

But it's typical of you Biden lickspittle, using any excuse whatsoever to cover up serious problems. It would quite proper for the GOP to bring up impeachment hearing to deal with this egregious miscarriage of justice.

So there. Take that.






/s

 

[wareyin]

I guess Biden must be doing ok if the worst his haters can throw at him is "his administration didn't fire someone without investigating first! The horrors!”

 

[acbytesla]

I guess Biden must be doing ok if the worst his haters can throw at him is "his administration didn't fire someone without investigating first! The horrors!”

 

[Aridas]

2) This does not reflect well on a "zero tolerance" policy that was clearly not going to be enforced until bad press made it an embarrassing situation.

Just to be clear, at last check, the stated "zero tolerance" policy was, more specifically - Biden saying that *he* would fire anyone who *he* saw disrespecting their colleagues.

Honestly, at the time, that statement raised a yellow flag for me, given how easily it could be... abused. It looks to me like you're misusing it in an entirely different way, though, when you reference it like this.

 

[smartcooky]

I guess Biden must be doing ok if the worst his haters can throw at him is "his administration didn't fire someone without investigating first! The horrors!”

Absolutely this, and even worse, had the guy been fired without an investigation, that's ammunition for the idiots who would be able to say... "See, just like Trump!"

Not to mention, of course, that if you fire someone out of hand, with no investigation, and then later it turns out that the claim about what that someone is supposed to have said or done turns out to be false, you will have the contents of couple of Size 8 eggs all over your dial!

 

[Mumbles]

OK, I'll go along with that as long as Louis DeJoy, Postmaster General. is next in order. I know he's not appointed by the prez but, hey, what the hell is all that power and prestige for if Biden doesn't throw it around once in a while.

I'd consider Dejoy more difficult to oust, but vastly higher priority. He has checks and bills arriving over a month late, people traveling for hours for medication, baby chicks and the like dying and rotting en route...an unmitigated disaster who by all rights is one of many of Toupee Fiasco's toadies that belongs under the jail.

 

[Stacyhs]

Well, I have to admit that I'm sort of impressed by the apologia you're resorting to for what is an essentially CTist (or Trumpist) methodology. You posted a conclusion you'd arrived at without, apparently doing any more homework than it took to assume it; then, when folks don't just accept your conclusion, instead questioning the elements of your story, to try to get you to back it up, they are the ones making a controversy where none is warranted.

Donald Trump himself couldn't do it any better- "the only way I lost is by the Democrats cheating!" "Well, what evidence do you have that the Democrats actually cheated?" "I already told you- that I lost! Stop asking for details and making such a controversy about something so obvious!"

That about sums it up.

What started this whole thing was basically a need to vent a continuing frustration over Biden's 'stealing' the nomination from Bernie. Some people just need to get over it. Stop the Steal isn't just a Trump fixation.

 

[Blue Mountain]

I'd consider Dejoy more difficult to oust, but vastly higher priority. He has checks and bills arriving over a month late[1], people traveling for hours for medication,[2] baby chicks and the like dying and rotting en route[3]...an unmitigated disaster who by all rights is one of many of Toupee Fiasco's toadies that belongs under the jail.

1. Citation needed
2. Citation needed
3. Citation needed

Also evidence that none of these problems ever occurred under previous Postmasters-General.

 

[Bob001]

1. Citation needed
2. Citation needed
3. Citation needed

Also evidence that none of these problems ever occurred under previous Postmasters-General.

There are extensive reports about this guy's impact on postal deliveries. He removed hundreds of automated sorting machines, cut overtime, and did crazy stuff like requiring trucks to leave precisely on schedule even if they weren't fully loaded, so mail ready for delivery got left behind. Dejoy is also a big Trump donor, and there is every reason to suspect that he intended to screw up vote-by-mail to the benefit of Dear Leader. Negative publicity and resulting scrutiny thwarted him to some degree.

Places to start:
https://slate.com/business/2020/08/usps-mail-slowdown-dejoy-trump-election.html
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/21/usps-post-office-mail-slowdowns-louis-dejoy
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mounting-concerns-about-postal-slowdown-and-elections
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/29/...ing-2020-election.html?searchResultPosition=1

 

[Minoosh]

Just to be clear, at last check, the stated "zero tolerance" policy was, more specifically - Biden saying that *he* would fire anyone who *he* saw disrespecting their colleagues.

Honestly, at the time, that statement raised a yellow flag for me, given how easily it could be... abused. It looks to me like you're misusing it in an entirely different way, though, when you reference it like this.

I don't like the phrase "zero tolerance," because of situations like this one. After considering the story and given his personal situation I'm wondering if there could have been another way. Conservative media is already giving Biden grief for not canning the guy immediately, which is echoed by progressive members of this forum. Of course if the administration had fired him initially the anti-Biden media could report that "White House fires late-stage cancer patient for losing temper."

I don't think they would have fired him/demanded his resignation before making sure he would not lose his health insurance. I don't know if this came to Biden's personal attention, but that would have been a concern.

This amounted to very little, didn't it. Palmieri did not even complain to her editors but she must have vented to someone who shared the story with management. She duly kept taking notes and he hasn't denied saying the most damaging things so I suppose things went down pretty much as reported.

Going off the record was a mistake IMO. There are valid uses for such an agreement but I don't see one in this situation.

 

[Puppycow]

That's the weird thing. The original reporting about their relationship was pretty mundane. A puff piece in a gossip magazine.

Not sure why the dude flew off the handle when asked to comment, I very much doubt there would have been a problem or even much of a story had he not been such an unhinged lunatic about it. An unforced error if I've ever seen one, and a costly one at that.

Yeah, if he had just behaved like a normal person, the "scandal" could have been managed. Another case of the cover-up being worse than the underlying thing they were trying to cover up.

ETA: Just to clarify the time line though, he threatened and berated the Politico reporter before the puff piece in People was published.