Caity Johnstone: Biden Was Just That Bad

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Trump will do many evil things but none will reverse the fact that Biden just spent four years advancing genocide, nuclear brinkmanship and authoritarianism.

Biden at the White House. (Adam Schulz/White House Photo)

By Caitlin Johnstone
Caitlin’s Newsletter 
Listen to Tim Foley reading this article. 

TikTok is back in the U.S. after a brief shutdown, reportedly because Trump pledged to suspend the Biden administration’s ban.

A Gaza ceasefire has also finally emerged due to pressure from Donald Trump after Joe Biden stalled for 15 months, and NBC News is reporting that the Trump administration plans on pressuring the Israeli government throughout negotiations to establish a permanent peace beyond the 42 days scheduled for the first phase of the agreement.

Remember this: it’s not that Trump is good, it’s that Democrats are just that bad. Biden’s completely unconditional facilitation of Israeli atrocities has actually been the exception rather than the norm among U.S. presidents, as Trita Parsi explained in Foreign Policy last April.

From what we are seeing so far, Trump is just returning things to their horrible standard baseline.

Trump will go on to do many evil things as president, just as he did during his first term, but none of this will reverse the fact that Biden just spent four years advancing genocide, nuclear brinkmanship and authoritarianism.

The Democratic Party plays just as crucial a role in promoting the tyranny and abuses of the U.S. empire as the Republican Party does, and it is nonsensical to think of either of them as a lesser evil. The empire itself must end.

It’s possible that Trump’s term will constitute another swing from Bush-level depravity to Obama-level depravity.

It isn’t normal for the U.S. empire to be as openly depraved as it has been in Gaza. Normally its evils are much more well-disguised, because it is in the empire’s interests to preserve its image in the eyes of the western public.

You only see the really in-your-face acts of monstrosity when a coalition of forces within the swamp are able to seize on a rare opportunity to shove them through, as we saw in the wake of 9/11 and again in the wake of Oct. 7.

The rest of the time, the empire likes to be a lot subtler about its abuses, like it was during the Obama administration and the first Trump administration.

Starvation sanctions.

Staging coups.

Secretly arming proxy forces.

Drone assassinations.

Covert ops.

It prefers these means over the Hulk Smash ground invasions like we saw during George W. Bush’s first term, and the overt genocidal atrocities like we saw during Biden’s.

The Zionists, war profiteers and empire managers seized on the rare opportunity presented by Oct. 7 combined with a senile lifelong Zionist in the White House to push through agendas in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon that they had wanted to push through for years, but they greatly damaged the empire’s propaganda interests in the process.

We can expect the empire to try to move its ugliness out of the spotlight as swiftly as possible in the coming years and attempt to restore its false public image as a force of good in the world, while continuing to advance its psychopathic agendas in sneakier ways.

So young Americans can take the same lessons from the TikTok ban that they’ve taken from Gaza: that they live in a tyrannical dystopia, and that the Democratic Party is not their friend.

To be clear, when you hear people saying that U.S. lawmakers voted to ban TikTok in order to shut down criticism of Israel among young people, it’s not some antisemitic conspiracy theory; they have openly admitted that this was in fact what they were doing.

Legislators like Chris Murphy, Mitt Romney, Mike Gallagher and Mike Lawler are all on record saying they supported the ban because of the prevalence of pro-Palestinian content on the platform.

In the meantime, One of the most politically interesting developments in recent days has been Americans flocking to the Chinese app Red Note in response to the looming TikTok ban and interacting with people in China for the first time in their lives with the help of translation technology.

If you had asked me last month what country I wish ordinary Americans would start communicating with at mass scale, I would have said China without a moment’s hesitation. If this keeps up it’s going to cause some real problems for the empire propagandists down the track.

Caitlin Johnstone’s work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to find video versions of my articles. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.

This article is from CaitlinJohnstone.com.au and re-published with permission.

The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.

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19 comments for “Caity Johnstone: Biden Was Just That Bad

  1. Nyah
    January 22, 2025 at 15:38

    Thanks for mentioning RedNote, Caitlin. I think that will be the first social media app worth putting on my phone.

  2. Barbara Mulllin
    January 21, 2025 at 14:28

    Our new secretary of state got sworn in promising three things: US strength, US safety, and US profit making. Mentioned last of all as an aside was the word “peace”.

  3. Bob J. Johnson
    January 21, 2025 at 13:10

    Correction: “The Democrats just spent four years advancing genocide, nuclear brinksmanship, and authoritarianism.”

    Except, Miss Caitlin is putting it nicely. To say “nuclear brinksmanship” is to assume that we live in a world that is largely at peace and that nations are playing brinksmanship games to their advantage. Instead, I hear many, many explosions, and see giant piles of corpses being created. Has this Democrat war killed 1,000,000 in Ukraine yet? Nobody knows since all nations now regard casualty figures as intelligence information to be guarded and protected.

    So, my correction to the above correction would be to say that “The Democrats just spent four years advancing genocide, world war for world domination, and authoritarianism.” And of course, four years of the Rich getting even Richer, which of course, while quite normal must not be forgotten because of the horrible impacts this has upon society.

    But, the current Democrat spin is to blame all of this on the singular person of Joe Biden. This is step one to pretending that the next person whom the mega-donors appoint will be ‘Different’, and undoubtedly an ‘agent of Change’. This is of course BS, as everyone can tell Joe Biden has not been in charge, not withstanding his recent senile claims that he would have won if only the oligarchs had let him run.

    Remember all of this the next time That Dang Party tries to say that they are on your side, which they will in the next elections. It is fragrant BS. At you know you will hear it in the next election because this is the Big Lie that That Dang Party constantly tries to sell. Remember, and never forget, The Killer (D)’s are not on your side.

    {By the way, you can tell who has power when the terms that denote power, such as “Chairman” are made gender neutral into “Chairperson”, but when the negative terms, such as “brinksmanship” stay firmly attached to a gender. Yes, I was raised by old-school feminists who taught me to notice little things like that.}

  4. Vera Gottlieb
    January 21, 2025 at 12:06

    A good Christian to the last…

    • Jonny James
      January 21, 2025 at 13:40

      Yeah, ’cause Jesus was all about mass murdering innocent people and stealing their stuff. Blessed are the genociders. Hallelujah! And Judaism as well, if we listen to Uncle Bibi et al.

  5. William McElrath
    January 20, 2025 at 21:02

    Psychopaths come to the attention of state authorities and go to prison or other detention.
    tRump and Sleepy Joe are highly functioning Sociopaths.
    You may have one living next door.

    • Bob J. Johnson
      January 21, 2025 at 13:12

      “Psychopaths come to the attention of state authorities”
      … unless of course ‘the state’ is pro-psychopath, or is run by psychopaths.

      • Bill Mack
        January 21, 2025 at 21:39

        Psychopaths run nothing , least of all their own lives…

  6. Robert E. Williamson Jr.
    January 20, 2025 at 20:40

    The bi-partisan duopoly of the Super Wealthy Elites, “SWETS”, has been in firm control since the death of JFK. Fear and the intimidation of the the U.S. congress by the national intelligence apparatus which stepped into the amoral abyss which had been created by congressional abandonment of the oversight function to be used to hold the apparatus accountable. They abrogated by neglect borne of coercion and intimidation and have never been held accountable. DOJ stands in the shadows and generally allows the apparatus to have it’s way or simply ignore any transgressions by hiding them behind “security”, classifications.

    Trump figured out if anyone was to have any hope of calling the shots in D.C., that person had better have access to more wealth than should be allowed for one mortal human to control.

    Enter Elon and his hundreds of billions.

    Now this should get very interesting.

    • Bob J. Johnson
      January 21, 2025 at 13:46

      We just saw very, very clearly, for a brief moment, that ‘the mega-donors’ run the Democrat Party. Old Joe Biden was refusing to withdraw from the race, despite it being obvious for a year or more that he was incapable of running. This was not changed by a process of democracy within the Democratic Party. Instead, we saw very clearly that democracy is denied in the Democratic Party. Iirc, over 50% of Dem voters were telling pollsters that they did not want Old Joe as the nominee, yet Joe Biden ran almost unopposed running up victory numbers similar to Gen. al-Sisi in Egypt.

      But, in a moment of clarity, we saw the mega-donors step into the light and perform the task of removing Old Joe from the ballots and replacing him with former Attorney General Harris.

      Now we get to listen to the Democrats claim that somehow having one big donor like Trump’s favorite South African is a big problem, but having a small handful of mega-donors who control everything is not. And we must especially not remember that in 2020 one of the mega-donors was a crypto con artist named Sam Bankman Fried.

      We know that as far back as 2016, the Democratic Party was rigged and that the decisions were clearly not being made by democracy. We now know from this recent moment of clarity that the mega-donors were the ones calling the shots. We can suspect that it goes back a lot longer than 2016, which was only when it leaked out into the open.

      Having Musk in charge is not that different. Not good, but not at all different from what the Democrats have just been doing.

  7. Rafi Simonton
    January 20, 2025 at 20:39

    The “lesser of two evils” D argument has been used for decades. The party once proud of the New Deal and its working class base was usurped by an unfriendly neolib takeover starting in the late ’70s. The extent of the damage wasn’t immediately clear. In time, “lesser” became more and more. But claiming “lesser of” was about all the Ds had to offer. Now add the Biden admin Cheney trained neocon State Dept. For sure no “lesser” about that.

    The comparative is a false dichotomy. It’s the logical equivalent of ‘lesser’ dead. Dead is dead; evil is evil.

    • Bob J. Johnson
      January 21, 2025 at 13:20

      The Republicans ran a long and hard race, but in the end the perseverance and determination of the Cold Warrior Democrats has led to them clearly passing the Republicans and claiming for themselves “The Greater Evil”.

      The Killer (D)’s are the party of genocide, torture, prisons and camps, authoritarian rule, rigged and stolen elections, more genocide (so we don’t forget), and the greatest of all evils, waging a belligerent and aggressive war (by many means) for world domination. This means that the Killer (D)’s have indeed claimed the prize and trophy for “The Greater Evil”.

      And the Democrats are making a strong case for being a GOAT. (greatest of all time).

  8. peon
    January 20, 2025 at 14:09

    Thank you Ms. Johnstone for for beginning to make good on your pledge last year before the election to make the dems cry by your words if they lost again (and they did) to trump. biden, harris, and the demo establishment are deserving of more contempt than trump, who, no doubt, deserves deep contempt. The dem party needs to be shunned and dismissed. Time to start something new, go places that blind, self-deceptive faith and support for the dems interrupted for too many years. johnson and nixon were better than biden and obama. We got civil rights, welfare, and workers rights in the light of Vietnam and empire from johnson, and the EPA and normalization with China from nixon in light of his bombings and imperial domination. We get Peltier’s home detention(!!!!) and other federal prisoners released, student loan cancellations amidst clemency for fauci and hunter, furthering corporatism, and ukraine-nazi war and settler genocide. Here, on MLK’s holiday, let us remember that the ‘liberal’ incrementalist was more contemptible for him than the ‘klanner’. The snake has only gotten more sinister and deceitful.

    • Bob j. Johnson
      January 21, 2025 at 13:29

      In Dr. King’s time, where he lived, the “liberal incrementalist” and the “klanner” had in common the fact that they were Democrats.

  9. JonnyJames
    January 20, 2025 at 13:36

    I have to split a few hairs with Caity on this one: The ceasefire BS is an obvious PR stunt and hollow gesture for public consumption. It changes nothing regarding the plight of the Palestinians. We have to remember that like JB, the DT is a serial liar. He took over a 100 million dollars from Israelis like the Adelson family. The Kushner family is close to the Netanyahus and the DT bent over for Israel even further than Obama did.

    Wishful thinking and “hope” won’t cut it. Listen to what Vladimir Putin says about the DT: he continued sanctions, attacked Russian interests and allies, continued to aid Ukraine etc. etc. But people fall for the lies in hope and desperation that “it will be different this time”. Many forget that virtually every member of the House and Senate openly support Israel and the Genocide , the US Oligarchy all support Israel, and DT has once again packed his cabinet with hardcore Zionists. Jared Kushner wants Uncle Bibi to sell him some waterfront property on the Gaza Mediterranean for cheap, remember?

    “…From what we are seeing so far, Trump is just returning things to their horrible standard baseline…”

    To shed a bit of historical context: the “horrible standard baseline”. The US dropped more bombs on SE Asia during the so-called Vietnam War than in any other war. (Laos being the most bombed country in history). The war resulted in nearly 60 thousand US military killed, and hundreds of thousands of innocent people slaughtered. We can add the abuses of power in the past: COINTELPRO being just one. As bad as things appear today, we have seen horrible atrocities before, it is the “horrible standard baseline”

    The slowly-collapsing Empire produces kakistocrat-freak Puppet Emperors. Since there is “no way to vote against the interests of oligarchy,” the only way to change the status quo is for mass civil disobedience.

    • Consortiumnews.com
      January 20, 2025 at 18:51

      Johnstone has repeatedly pointed out that Trump took many actions to Russia’s detriment, especially arming Ukraine while Obama refused to. She has also advised caution about the success of this ceasefire.

      • JonnyJames
        January 21, 2025 at 11:14

        Thank you – I agree. I was only “splitting hairs” to further emphasize the point. I appreciate you posting her work regularly, she is one of my favorite journalists in the entire English-speaking world. The reply was partially intended for the DT apologists in the room.

  10. Deniz
    January 20, 2025 at 10:23

    Trump ends the Israel/Biden cabal genocide even before he enters office and is all the Lefty journalists have to say is “Just you wait, he will soon committ another great evil”. Trump isn’t dumb, I am sure he learned his lesson about playing along with DC politics after 2020. Like him or not, he deserves the utmost respect for ending one of America’s most disgraceful atrocities in its history.

  11. mgr
    January 20, 2025 at 07:17

    Thank you Ms. Johnstone for a clear summary of the situation. Of course, it is not only the ME. This is the same Biden admin neocon mindset that has caused the death and injury of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian young men in a war that the Ukrainian people never wanted nor needed but was hustled by their Banderite fascist leaders who were in turn pushed and supplied by the US and NATO. This is the level of depravity that rules the Western empire and a good reason why it is unraveling.

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