Meet the Filthy Rich War Hawks That Make up Biden’s New Foreign Policy Team

“I expect the prevailing direction of U.S. foreign policy over these last decades to continue: more lawless bombing and killing multiple countries under the cover of “limited engagement,” – Biden Biographer Branko Marcetic

[mintpressnews.com]

{Donald Trump paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017. In contrast, little was made of Biden’s self-published tax documents. This is surprising because the returns show that he is rich. Filthy rich.

The 77-year-old Delawarean likes to paint himself as a man of modest means. “I entered as one of the poorest men in Congress, left one of the poorest men in government — in Congress and as vice-president,” Biden said during the Democratic presidential nomination process. And while that was technically true, since leaving the White House, he and his wife Jill have amassed a fortune of more than $16.7 million. For comparison, the median net worth of U.S. households is $97,300. His tax returns show that he received over $900,000 from the University of Pennsylvania in 2018 and 2019. “When I left the United States Senate, I became a professor,” at the Ivy League institution, he told the country in March. Yet records show he has not taught even a single class during his time there.

Speaking engagements make up the majority of his earnings, where he is often paid princely sums for minutes’ work. For example, his tax returns show that he was paid over $134,000 for a talk in Fort Lauderdale, FL in January 2019. In this sense, he is following in the footsteps of the likes of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush, who command enormous sums for public appearances — a practice often condemned as little more than payoffs for “good behavior” while in office.}

2017/18 were great years for Biden. I mean really wowl great. 8 years of serious servitude to the military complex and welfare reform to the corporate elite really does pay off.

{The former vice-president’s team is also looking to be made up of extremely wealthy individuals as well. His transition task squad has been, in his website’s words, crafted to ensure they “reflect the values and priorities of the incoming administration,” and includes executives from Lyft, Amazon, Capital One, Uber, Visa, and JP Morgan.}

Nothing will fundamentally change. I didn't say that. Who said that?

{One name being strongly floated for a cabinet position is former mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel, a move being met with vocal opposition from the left.}

Why oppose good ole Emanuel?

{Emanuel’s first tour of duty in the White House came under President Bill Clinton, where he was one of the key architects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a deal that decimated manufacturing in the Midwest, hobbled union power, and sent well paying blue-collar jobs to Mexico.

Emanuel also pushed through welfare “reform” bills that sharply reduced benefits for the poor and worked with Biden on the now-infamous 1994 Crime Bill, a key accelerator of mass incarceration. He then left politics to pursue a lucrative career in finance — something that quickly netted him a reported $16 million fortune — before returning and becoming President Obama’s advisor and enforcer.}

ahhh a return to history. Taking more from those in the future. Another backward motion for socialism. Moving into full blown corporate control over the state.

{Many of the president-elect’s potential picks for foreign policy positions — including Susan Rice and Michele Flourney — have onlookers worried.

Rice, who was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and National Security Advisor under Obama, has amassed a fortune of around $40 million. After leaving office, she was given a spot on the board of Netflix, being paid $366,666 as a base salary. On top of that, she was given $2.3 million worth of the company’s stock. However, it is her husband, former ABC News executive producer Ian O. Cameron (whose father was a super-wealthy industrialist), who is the prime source of her wealth. She was a key driver in U.S. action in Libya, and also successfully lobbied Obama to place harsher sanctions on North Korea and Iran.}

It pays off well as a warhawk in a company that can benefit from your experience and information when creating movies and TV like series based on manufactured wars and false narratives towards colonialism. That's the monetary aspect she benefits from. The benefit for the military complex and the establishment politicians they own is the fake propaganda and false narratives in these programs that are embedded into the perception of citizens. So they can be easily sold on them when enacted down the line on the next victim as they're falsely portrayed of the victims left behind.

{Flournoy, meanwhile, was Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from 2009 to 2012 in the Obama administration under Secretaries Robert Gates and Leon Panetta. After “serving the country,” she received lucrative consulting contracts, joined corporate boards, and began her own security think tank, WestExec Advisors. By 2017, she was making a reported $452,000 annually.

“Certainly the possible selection of Michele Flournoy and other WestExec advisors people is concerning,” Biden biographer Branko Marcetic told MintPress.

This isn’t just because of their corporate/financial ties, though of course that’s alarming — can we be sure that people whose private sector career involved leveraging their government experience and contacts to help multinationals secure favorable business conditions will have their intentions calibrated toward good policy and not to their private sector career?”}

Well, the answer to that is right there before you eyes. They used their government positions to get to the wealth they're enjoying now and they're coming back for another round. And for the new lead on new contacts and contracts Biden will be rewarded again like he was in 2017/18 where his income instantly shot up into the millions.

{Rice and Flournoy, she added, were vocal supporters of the disastrous Iraq War, which does not bode well for those concerned with peace.}

What was so disastrous about it? That we didn't fund, support, and pay someone else to do it for us? Or that we sacrificed nearly 5000 American's in death with 10's of thousands maimed and harmed with various illnesses over blatant lies? Or that Biden was finally forced to admit he was wrong in judgment about it? I'll go out on the limb here again. Bringing back the same people who lead you to a disastrous outcome might indicate to people like myself that you're full of shit.

Hey, I have an idea. Why don't we finally just admit we are the Forth Reich and launch our colonialism wars for resources and the capitalist system from the oceans and seas using missiles and drones. We can eliminate American deaths while we kill innocent civilians abroad. I mean what the fuck, the majority of our population seem to be just fine with this concept within voting for more of the same each election cycle.

{Marcetic agreed, noting that, while in office, Flourney was “a major liberal interventionist hawk who not only wants U.S. troops deployed all over the world, but has also publicly advocated for the U.S. to majorly exploit its fossil fuel reserves for global dominance,” something which would be a “disaster for containing climate catastrophe.”}

O hell, pardon me. We like killing our own. How fucking silly I can be at times.