The Biden Presidency

[WI_Red]

This sentiment from Cohn and from Manchin really is a microcosm of the rot that has settled into American politics. In both their eyes it would be better to take the time (days/weeks/a month???) to hammer out a bipartisan, insufficient package than to get help to people as fast as possible. Owning the (insert other side here) is more important then actually helping your constituents who are in desperate need.

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[Raoul]

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[Cheimoon]

This sentiment from Cohn and from Manchin really is a microcosm of the rot that has settled into American politics. In both their eyes it would be better to take the time (days/weeks/a month???) to hammer out a bipartisan, insufficient package than to get help to people as fast as possible. Owning the (insert other side here) is more important then actually helping your constituents who are in desperate need.

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I know I'm not at all the first to say this, but being bipartisan makes no sense if one side has already moved to the middle and the other has drifted so far away that they can barely be seen anymore. It would just shift this Overton window a lot more to the right. By going his own way, Biden is rather shifting it to the left. And funnily, despite what it might seem like in Congress, the window is kinda there already. My Dutch newspaper was making the point that finding middle ground between Reps and Dems is not necessarily the same as finding something the American population can agree on; cause as the tweet in @Raoul's post points out, there is strong support across Americans for what Biden is doing.

It makes you wonder why the Reps continue to get so many votes though. Is it just tradition for a lot of people? Cause it seems that a much larger part of the US than elections suggest is in favour of the sort of things that Biden is doing now - which are probably about as leftist as he'll get.

 

[Adisa]

Republicans aren't interested in working with Dems.

 

[WPMUFC]

Republicans aren't interested in working with Dems.

The positive i'll give Biden is that whilst he was naive enough to actually believe "the fever will break" once trump left, they seem to be going it alone on policy anyway.

Still think he's got issues on means testing and a lot of hedging talk. But i've never understood democrats not wanting to go it alone. You've got 2 years of just ramming through popular legislation, just get it done. Actually look like an effective party for once.

The GOP will never work to provide sensible legislation. It's going to be "cancel culture politics" for 4 years.

 

[Drifter]

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[Raoul]

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I believe the $15/hr minimum wage didn't make it into this bill.

 

[berbatrick]

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[berbatrick]

The State Department is reportedly set to hire a top aide for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) who has a lengthy history of anti-Israel activism and played a key role at the left-wing blog ThinkProgress when an anti-Semitism scandal rocked the publication.

Duss, whose writings have been described by a watchdog group, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, as "infected with Jew-hatred," has been a leading voice in the anti-Israel movement for the better part of the last decade. His criticisms of Israel were too much even for the Obama White House, which said it was "troubled" by blog posts penned by Duss and his colleagues at the now-defunct ThinkProgress.


Matt Duss, Sanders’s top foreign policy hand, is expected to move to the State Department, though it is not clear yet what his role will be, according to Politico. Duss will join a growing roster of Biden administration hires who have displayed a deep animus toward Israel, promoted boycotts of the Jewish state, and advocated for a Palestinian "right of return" that would destroy the country’s Jewish composition.

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/report-anti-israel-activist-heading-to-biden-state-dept/

 

[The Firestarter]

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/report-anti-israel-activist-heading-to-biden-state-dept/

Good.

 

[Grinner]

The Washington Free Beacon?

 

[nimic]

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/report-anti-israel-activist-heading-to-biden-state-dept/

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has a top ten anti-semitic/anti-Israel list. Jeremy Corbyn topped the list in 2019, right ahead of two synagogue shootings and a kosher store shooting.

Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar were joint fifth.

Corbyn was only 4th in 2018, and though he didn't make the list in 2017 the entire Labour party leadership came in at 10th. The United Nations was 5th, which was a real step down from the year before when they grabbed the top spot, with the Labour party leadership in 2nd, the entire nation of France in 3rd and actual Neo-Nazi Richard Spencer trailing in 5th.

 

[Sweet Square]

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has a top ten anti-semitic/anti-Israel list. Jeremy Corbyn topped the list in 2019, right ahead of two synagogue shootings and a kosher store shooting.

Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar were joint fifth.

Corbyn was only 4th in 2018, and though he didn't make the list in 2017 the entire Labour party leadership came in at 10th. The United Nations was 5th, which was a real step down from the year before when they grabbed the top spot, with the Labour party leadership in 2nd, the entire nation of France in 3rd and actual Neo-Nazi Richard Spencer trailing in 5th.

 

[entropy]

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[Adisa]

The voters gave the Dems full control of all branches of government and can't even get a minimum wage increase. It's a fecking disgrace.

 

[WI_Red]

The voters gave the Dems full control of all branches of government and can't even get a minimum wage increase. It's a fecking disgrace.

Not that easy. That would require 10+ R votes from the Senate. The reason they are removing from the COVID package is that it would almost certainly have been removed by the parliamentarian anyways.

 

[The Firestarter]

Not that easy. That would require 10+ R votes from the Senate. The reason they are removing from the COVID package is that it would almost certainly have been removed by the parliamentarian anyways.

Cue the dems can remove the filibuster posts.

 

[nimic]

The Dems can remove the filibuster.

 

[WI_Red]

Cue the dems can remove the filibuster posts.

Well they probably should seeing as how the filibuster is a remnant of racism and slavery. The intercept's podcast "Deconstructed" did a really good history of it last week.

One thing that I forgot about our history was that the original guiding document (pre-constitution), The Articles of Confederation, called for a supermajority to pass laws. Apparently it was a clusterfeck ad Madison/Hamilton wrote extensively about what a bad idea it was, which is why the Constitution requires nothing more than a majority to pass laws.

 

[The Firestarter]

Well they probably should seeing as how the filibuster is a remnant of racism and slavery. The intercept's podcast "Deconstructed" did a really good history of it last week.

One thing that I forgot about our history was that the original guiding document (pre-constitution), The Articles of Confederation, called for a supermajority to pass laws. Apparently it was a clusterfeck ad Madison/Hamilton wrote extensively about what a bad idea it was, which is why the Constitution requires nothing more than a majority to pass laws.

I agree that they should . But unless someone hyptnotizes Manchin I dont see this happening.

 

[WI_Red]

I agree that they should . But unless someone hyptnotizes Manchin I dont see this happening.

I really recommend the podcast, but one of the amazing parts they discussed was that Madison was young enough at he countries founding that he was still alive in the early 1800's when Calhoun was creating the modern filibuster. Apparently when Calhoun was trying to first create it Madison stepped in and slapped him down with "that is NOT what we intended". Unfortunately he passed away shortly thereafter and Calhoun proceeded onwards. If the GOP types are truly "originalists" , they should be first in line to get rid of it.

 

[Grinner]

I was reading today that originally the House had more substance than the Senate. It was only when the numbers in the House began to grow that the Senate began to become more highly regarded. A lot of people have some mistaken beliefs about the early history of the US.

Manchin is a cnut though. feck him.

 

[The Firestarter]

I was reading today that originally the House had more substance than the Senate. It was only when the numbers in the House began to grow that the Senate began to become more highly regarded. A lot of people have some mistaken beliefs about the early history of the US.

Manchin is a cnut though. feck him.

I presume the Senate was intended as similar to the Lords in Britain. If I remember correctly it was not even elected, but appointed by the legislatures.
But yeah, two caps per state fixed was only going this way. I dont think there is any other place in the world where a single representative can hold such a power.

 

[Dr. StrangeHate]

I was reading today that originally the House had more substance than the Senate. It was only when the numbers in the House began to grow that the Senate began to become more highly regarded. A lot of people have some mistaken beliefs about the early history of the US.

Manchin is a cnut though. feck him.

In USA politics is a really lucarituve gig. In the UK politicians make decent money but in the US they can get seriously rich. All your family members get high ranking positions in top companies, donations, conference speaking gigs, book deals, etc. It really is open to so much corruption and even idiots like that Texan gun nut and Georgia Qanon nut can get elected.

 

[berbatrick]

Remember posting in this thread how paper after paper in the last decade, especially those looking at Seattle's experiment with $15, showing no negative job effect of increased minimum wages...

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/08/rai...would-cost-1point4-million-jobs-cbo-says.html
Raising minimum wage to $15 would cost 1.4 million jobs, CBO says

twitter thread regarding it from one of the economists who has done a lot of empirical work on min wages.

 

[Drifter]

I believe the $15/hr minimum wage didn't make it into this bill.

The Progressive caucus did secure the $15 minimum wage in the bill. But Biden seems to have given up on it passing in the Senate.

 

[Wednesday at Stoke]

Minimum wage is a weak crutch aimed at solving a problem that needs structural change in terms of empowering employee unions that can collectively bargain wages.

 

[entropy]

“will discuss relief package”

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[Dr. Dwayne]

“will discuss relief package”

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"Joe, you can't trust the average citizen with 1.9 trillion dollars. You need to give it to us instead."

 

[freeurmind]

 

[oneniltothearsenal]

Minimum wage is a weak crutch aimed at solving a problem that needs structural change in terms of empowering employee unions that can collectively bargain wages.

I tend to agree with this and it shouldn't be a part of the COVID relief package.


Alsp, JP Morgan, Walmart, and the Chamber of "Commerce" have no business discussing the relief bill either.

 

[Raoul]

I just knew a sound byte would happen if Kennedy got to interview her.

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[WPMUFC]

I just knew a sound byte would happen if Kennedy got to interview her.

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Was bound to happen when you put an internet troll into a government position. Shes got to be bidens worst pick by a big margin.

 

[Raoul]

Was bound to happen when you put an internet troll into a government position. Shes got to be bidens worst pick by a big margin.

Yes....absolutely remarkable that he nominated her in the first place.

 

[WPMUFC]

Yes....absolutely remarkable that he nominated her in the first place.

well if that story from a few months ago is true, seemingly the biden camp reached out to an actual progressive group and told them they thought it was a good pick to "give something to progressives". I don't know what reality those people were living in, but it was suggested to be an olive branch to progressives HAHAAHAHHA.

 

[Fergies Gum]

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[WI_Red]

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By Biden's own words he should be fired. I don't think VF should be digging into his personal life, but his response was out of line. The only caveat is he apparently has stage 4 cancer and doing so would potentially be a death sentence. So maybe removed from all responsibilities?

 

[berbatrick]

glenn greenwald is filling his diapers on twitter about how this guy should be fired for biden to keep his promise. i don't think it matters, he was suspended. funny for glenn to take a pro-firing stance given 6 months of cancel culture complaints, where he talked about forgiveness, etc.

 

[berbatrick]

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...

The CDC schools order, especially in the backdrop of being the "party of science" (a stance most scientists I know celebrate), is quite amazing, quite under-covered, and will probably be like Cuomo's handling of the pandemic - something left loonies talk about while sensible people wonder why they're angry at good leadership.
A few threads about the questionable science behind the order*, and the questionable order itself.


*the part about spread happening at lunch was confirmed in my university, which found its covid ward nurses were more likely to infect each other during lunch breaks than while interacting with patients, and again among students when the few cases on campus seemed to be linked to dining clusters.

 

[Boycott]

Greenwald is one of the most childish journalists around. There's an awful lot of them but his ability to make things all about him, his lashing out at people as if a stranger on the internet with 32 followers is the embodiment of all bad in the world, and the hypocrisy of bashing media coverage on one side while being the frequent guest and defender of Rupert Murdoch's wonderboy. Fox's own lawyers didn't give such good faith to Tucker Carlson the way Greenwald does.

I remember watching a debate about what exactly is right-wing populism with one person arguing it is a total fraud and a cover to get to fascism arguing Trump on what he got done was no different to had anyone else in the 2016 republican race won. And in fact his signature legislative accomplishment (tax cuts) were bigger than Bush's. Then Greenwald on the other end blurted out along the lines "well what if he still had Steve Bannon around" which revealed a lot. Honestly seems like he is the type of guy who if a democrat pushes out a 10 page plan on a particular issue he will parse every line for flaws, but hey if Donald Trump Jr puts out a 20 word tweet then he should be taken in good faith.