The Biden Presidency

entropy

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Can someone on here explain the significance of Biden‘s order to end private prison contracts? Would that end the whole business model as such?
Private prisons are a small part of the prison industrial complex. Obama issued the same EO only to have contracts renewed a few months after. It also doesn't apply to DHS, ICE, etc which hold the majority of the prison population.
 

tombombadil

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Regarding the prison moratorium

Joe Biden signed several executive orders. One was widely hailed as “the end of private prisons.” I saw major media organizations and leading political leaders literally tweet that Biden just issued an executive order “ending private prisons.”

Except no such thing happened.

The overwhelming majority of private prisons are state-based. 100% of those private prisons will continue. But not only will 100% of city, county, and state based private prisons continue to operate, the majority of federal private prisons and detention centers, which are immigration detention centers, will continue as well.

Biden’s executive order didn’t cover any of those. About 8% of all incarcerated people are housed in private prisons. 92% of all incarcerated people are in public facilities. Worse, Biden’s executive order appears to impact only a microscopic amount of the already tiny percentage of people held in private prisons. One expert today told me that Biden’s announcement would impact such a tiny percentage of people that he didn’t actually have a number for it – because it’s less than half of a percent.

This is performative change. It’s more than nothing, but at the same time somewhere in the ballpark of a half step above nothing. To actually confront this problem, it’s going to take a lot of more than this.
 

Beachryan

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Does the President have any ability to change state laws regarding prisons? Wouldn't that have to go through Congress?

(I like and agree with the quote about performative actions)
 

entropy

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While it might be tempting to frame President Biden’s actions as a well-intentioned, if misguided, step toward ending mass incarceration, we must remember that as an architect of the U.S. prison boom, Biden is more than knowledgeable about the true levers of mass criminalization. Having spent his years as a senator drafting legislation that expanded police power, increased federal penalties, and financed public prison and jail expansion, it would be disingenuous to act as if he doesn’t know any better.

If Biden were serious about undoing carceral power, there are many things he could do. He could issue a moratorium on U.S. Marshals Service and ICE contracts with local jails and on the United States Department of Agriculture loan program, which finances jail expansion in the name of “community development,” and which together have been driving rural jail expansions at a breakneck pace. He could halt federal executions and commute the sentence of every person on federal death row. Biden could institute broad-based decarceration by ending pre-trial federal detention and giving clemency to most or all people incarcerated in federal prisons. He could push to defund and dismantle the Department of Homeland Security and Bureau of Prisons. He could end federal policing initiatives that target sex workers. And he could champion the repeal of the 1994 Crime Bill.

There are many avenues for Biden to take on mass incarceration. Targeting private prisons is not one of them.
 

GlastonSpur

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I reckon Biden has made a pretty good start to his Presidency overall - it's been a lot more radical than many were predicting.
 

GlastonSpur

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I’m honestly not sure if you are serious.
I am being serious. He's made a variety of breakthrough appointments - e.g. the first black defence secretary, the first female Secretary of the Treasury, and many more. He's cancelled the Keystone pipeline. He's signed 'existential' executive orders on climate and environment. He's rejoined the Paris climate accord. He's reversed the Trump administration’s ban on transgender Americans joining the military. He's reversed the Trump administration’s restrictions on US entry for passport holders from seven Muslim-majority countries. He's halted construction of the border wall ...

The list goes on ... and he's only been in power for 3 weeks or so.
 

Simbo

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I am being serious. He's made a variety of breakthrough appointments - e.g. the first black defence secretary, the first female Secretary of the Treasury, and many more. He's cancelled the Keystone pipeline. He's signed 'existential' executive orders on climate and environment. He's rejoined the Paris climate accord. He's reversed the Trump administration’s ban on transgender Americans joining the military. He's reversed the Trump administration’s restrictions on US entry for passport holders from seven Muslim-majority countries. He's halted construction of the border wall ...

The list goes on ... and he's only been in power for 3 weeks or so.
1 week + 1 day. Does feel like longer though, I guess this is the effect of someone actually doing their job.
 

horsechoker

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I am being serious. He's made a variety of breakthrough appointments - e.g. the first black defence secretary, the first female Secretary of the Treasury, and many more. He's cancelled the Keystone pipeline. He's signed 'existential' executive orders on climate and environment. He's rejoined the Paris climate accord. He's reversed the Trump administration’s ban on transgender Americans joining the military. He's reversed the Trump administration’s restrictions on US entry for passport holders from seven Muslim-majority countries. He's halted construction of the border wall ...

The list goes on ... and he's only been in power for 3 weeks or so.
Yeah I think if you're a centrist, slightly left-leaning you'll be satisfied with what he's done so far.
 

Simbo

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Regarding the prison moratorium



He's talking about the Obama incidents like he's suggesting there were more incidents under those 8 years. The ones he quotes were vastly more high profile as they happened in the age of mass use social media but he's not offering any metric on if/how things were different under Obama.

Then i'm not sure if he's critisizing Biden or the media but its on him if he interpreted that EO to mean "the end of private prisons". I doubt Biden meant it as anything other than exactly what it said on the order. "Performative"? That's a personal opinion based on crap (taking media headlines at face value).
 

Organic Potatoes

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I am being serious. He's made a variety of breakthrough appointments - e.g. the first black defence secretary, the first female Secretary of the Treasury, and many more. He's cancelled the Keystone pipeline. He's signed 'existential' executive orders on climate and environment. He's rejoined the Paris climate accord. He's reversed the Trump administration’s ban on transgender Americans joining the military. He's reversed the Trump administration’s restrictions on US entry for passport holders from seven Muslim-majority countries. He's halted construction of the border wall ...

The list goes on ... and he's only been in power for 3 weeks or so.
That stuff is back to baseline, not radical, and it was what everyone was predicting.
 

Cheimoon

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I am being serious. He's made a variety of breakthrough appointments - e.g. the first black defence secretary, the first female Secretary of the Treasury, and many more. He's cancelled the Keystone pipeline. He's signed 'existential' executive orders on climate and environment. He's rejoined the Paris climate accord. He's reversed the Trump administration’s ban on transgender Americans joining the military. He's reversed the Trump administration’s restrictions on US entry for passport holders from seven Muslim-majority countries. He's halted construction of the border wall ...

The list goes on ... and he's only been in power for 3 weeks or so.
Those are good things, but apart from the appointments, everything you list here returns the US to where it was in 2016 when Obama left the White House. It reverts some of the insanity of the last four years, but I don't quite get why you'd call that 'radical'. 'Reasonably centrist' would be a better description, I think. I mean, it's not like a centrist GOP politician (insofar they still exist) would oppose any of these.
 

GlastonSpur

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Those are good things, but apart from the appointments, everything you list here returns the US to where it was in 2016 when Obama left the White House. It reverts some of the insanity of the last four years, but I don't quite get why you'd call that 'radical'. 'Reasonably centrist' would be a better description, I think. I mean, it's not like a centrist GOP politician (insofar they still exist) would oppose any of these.
I called it " more radical than many were predicting", which is somewhat different.

Anyhow, I don't want to get too hung up on the political definition of radical, except to say that everything doesn't have to be placed within a flat, two-dimensional spectrum of left-centre-right - there are other political dimensions besides these.
 

Cheimoon

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I called it " more radical than many were predicting", which is somewhat different.

Anyhow, I don't want to get too hung up on the political definition of radical, except to say that everything doesn't have to be placed within a flat, two-dimensional spectrum of left-centre-right - there are other political dimensions besides these.
I would say that the definition of 'radical' does matter here, as it's a word that's being thrown around a lot right now, and is in fact being used to paint Biden in a negative light ('the radical left', and similar). So it's a particular meaningful word in current US politics. I know you say didn't say that Biden is radical, just 'more radical than expected', but surely you can see the implication of that? It's like saying that he's 'more Marxist than expected', and then claiming that you never made any link between Biden and Marxism. That's not a good use of language.

I suppose that's where your comment on not just left-right fits in, but in practice, US politics are extremely polarized: with only two parties with their ideas rather far apart, you can actually apply labels like left vs right and progressive (or liberal) vs conservative as meaningful blanket statements (in the context of the US). And in any case, I think everything you listed would be associated with progressive politics around the world, so I don't see anything against the use of that word.

And I suppose I seem particular pedantic now, but given that there are real concerns from 'the left' about Biden not really being leftist, I think it matters to use proper language when discussing where his actions really fit in.
 

Eboue

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WI_Red

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yes he does he said so himself.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/01/08/biden-stimulus-plan/

"Biden has made new stimulus checks a central promise, specifically telling Georgia voters that they would be getting $2,000 payments if Democrats won Senate runoff elections in the state this week."



remind me who won the senate runoff elections in georgia?
The president does not have to power to give checks, the power of the purse lies with congress. The president can, and Biden has, submit a proposal to congress. It is up to congress to fund it, and to decide to what levels to fund it.
 

Eboue

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The president does not have to power to give checks, the power of the purse lies with congress. The president can, and Biden has, submit a proposal to congress. It is up to congress to fund it, and to decide to what levels to fund it.
you should take that up with joseph biden. why did he say it would happen on a single conditional that voters then met only for it not to happen? why did i have the bowl bart?
 

WI_Red

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you should take that up with joseph biden. why did he say it would happen on a single conditional that voters then met only for it not to happen? why did i have the bowl bart?
The person to take it up with is your Senator as that is where the checks are stalled.

Besides, according to you I should have no say in the checks, so wouldn't me taking it up with anyone be a bad thing?
 

Eboue

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when the most powerful person on the planet says something will happen, I expect it to happen and so does everyone else who doesn't spend their time posting in defense of democratic politicians who don't care whether they live or die.

guess im not as sophisticated as good old wi_red. not to worry, the midterms will be here soon and the voters will demonstrate what happens when you lie directly to their faces. then we can all go the current events section of redcafe and see you smugly wondering why poor people vote republican when it's against their self interest and everyone will be once again reminded why they fecking hate liberals.
 

The Firestarter

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Last news I heard was that they plan to put it within the budget reconciliation ? It is not over by far.
 

Abizzz

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when the most powerful person on the planet says something will happen, I expect it to happen and so does everyone else who doesn't spend their time posting in defense of democratic politicians who don't care whether they live or die.

guess im not as sophisticated as good old wi_red. not to worry, the midterms will be here soon and the voters will demonstrate what happens when you lie directly to their faces. then we can all go the current events section of redcafe and see you smugly wondering why poor people vote republican when it's against their self interest and everyone will be once again reminded why they fecking hate liberals.
Aye, they'll return to the bastion of truth known as the republican party :D
 

Abizzz

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and they'll get burned there too and come back and so on. let's just stop pretending democratic politicians care about anything other than themselves
Democrats were only marginally better than the republicans of old, but I'm not ready to put them on the same level as those that supported what has happened the last 4 years.

However generally it's best to walk through life assuming others are looking out for themselves as much as I do for myself. So yeah, I agree with the sentiment.