The Biden Administration Begins

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/534868-hawley-delays-quick-confirmation-of-b...
Hawley delays quick confirmation of Biden's DHS nominee

Apparently this mentally disturbed dude needs regular power-showing fixes like his cult leader. This guy is bad news for the GOP and America.

>1 Molly3028: That guy needs to be dealt with. Fast. Cruz is dangerous enough, but Hawley just sends chills up my spine.

This is a start...
https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/editorials/article248577925.html

Photo at bottom intensely of note.

Biden lands in Washington -- very unusually, in a private plane.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2021/01/19/biden-lands-washington-joint-base...

A song for Trump tonight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFHCUS7winw

>3 davidgn: Would you trust a plane sent by the Trump administration? President Biden doesn't need to start off by having half the people on the plane infected with COVID-19.

Don’t forget to dress warm tomorrow.
I heard it’s going to be minus 45.
- Travis Akers @travisakers | 7:28 PM · Jan 19, 2021

Funny. I heard it was going to be +46...
- Will @WillConley67 | 7:34 PM · Jan 19, 202

:D

'One Day More' of President Trump - Les Misérables parody (4:05)
The Late Late Show with James Corden • Jan 19, 2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4aTjeCP0Lo

James Corden arrives at work in a good mood knowing there's only One Day More of monologue jokes with Donald Trump serving as President of the United States. Our thanks to our wonderful cast: Joshua Grosso, Jillian Butler, Emily Bautista, Kyle Scatliffe, Shuler Hensley, Patti LuPone and Matt Lucas...

Full lyrics: ...

MeidasTouch.com @MeidasTouch | 9:31 PM · Jan 19, 2021:
NEW VIDEO
Retweet this far and wide: @BetteMidler has a message for Donald Trump.
#GoodbyeDonnie

0:16 / 1:10 ( https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1351719078226890753 )
Goodbye, Donnie (Hello, Dolly! Parody) Feat. The Divine Bette Midler...

... "the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea
Contagious fogs;..."

"Uncover, dogs!, and lap!"

I've just had this old Jackson Browne song running through my head all morning: For America

FOX News prime-time hosts

The thrill of watching the January 6 Capitol riot has completely worn off for Carlson and Hannity. They apparently want and need another fix to satisfy their bloodlust. It appears these sick dudes have decided that FOX News may be able to re-establish its high prime-time viewer numbers by spreading bigger seeds of hate and division. I hope they are dead wrong.

It appears that Prox is in a deep mourning-mode. Clueless, gullible people are a con man's favorite marks.

We made it! Happy United States presidential inauguration day everyone!

He's president now. Long be the day that is dawning.

A 4 year nightmare is over.

Yes, back to the normal plaything of the industrial-military complex. :) (Thanks, First Dog.)

Congratulations America, after four long years you have a president again!

>17 LolaWalser:, exactly; hoping we will now see resumed a much more normal tone/degree around American politics' fails and pratfalls.

Phew!
I think he deserves about a week before we start grousing again.

>18 Cecrow:

Right--it's not as if anything about America's "normal" can be said to have led to America's "abnormal".

>19 davidgn:

Such reticence from someone who couldn't pour enough venom on Hillary Clinton's bid for presidency. Trumpo's reign did a little number on you? How many "toldyousos" would you like with that, sir? :)

Anyway--Biden it is, and Biden must do what is beyond Biden to imagine. Let's hope he's at least capable of listening.

Joe Biden must put an end to business as usual. Here's where to start by Bernie Sanders

Note from my daughter. Might be true.

Did you see that the new Q theory is that Biden has been on their team the whole time?? 😅

I copied this from a comment on the Sanders article (I think I maxed my NYTimes limit)...

Chris Hedges in the NY Times:

“Biden’s appointees are drawn almost exclusively from the Democratic Party and the corporate elite, those responsible for the massive social inequality, trade deals, de-industrialisation, militarised police, world’ largest prison system, austerity policies that abolished social welfare programmes, the revived Cold War with Russia, wholesale government surveillance, endless wars in the Middle East, and the disenfranchisement and impoverishment of the working class. The Washington Post writes that about 80% of the White House and agency officials announced have the words Obama on their resume from previous White House or Obama campaign jobs…Bernie Sanders, rebuffed in his efforts to become Secretary of Labour in the Biden administration has expressed frustration at Biden’s nominations…and senator Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been denied a seat by House democrats on the House Energy Committee because of her support for the Green New Deal. The message from the Biden administration to progressives and left-wing populists is very clear - drop dead!”

"The Biden Administration Begins "

Deo gratias.

>21 LolaWalser: Yes, you were right.
>23 LolaWalser: More of this, please. But I, for one, need a week to recover. Fascists are fucking exhausting.

>25 davidgn:

Fascists are fucking exhausting.

And they haven't gone anywhere. I have started biting my fingernails about 2022.

The Democrats have no laurels to rest on, not even parsley (Asterix ref.) Stacey Abrams et el. spent YEARS working on the turnaround in Georgia, nothing less should be done if the Democrats are to keep such tiny majorities.

>23 LolaWalser: Considering that Hedges was effectively supporting Trump, I have little interest in what he has to say now or in any foreseeable future.
He had interesting things to say about war twenty years ago, but as far as I'm concerned he's well past his sell-by date.

>27 kiparsky:

Don't shoot the messenger... he's not the only one saying that.

I'm not saying: Panic, Now!, but it's worth keeping an eye on how the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is treated. It's the fate of their constituents that is crucial to whether someone like Trump comes back.

Why not forgive all student debt?

I was thinking of one simple thing Biden could do with a wave of his hand that would INSTANTLY benefit individual people AND the economy at one fell swoop, and this is it. No need to go about it like they did with health insurance and ACA--just erase all debt.

>29 LolaWalser: I think there's a lot of momentum behind student debt, but I don't think it's as simple as a handwave fix.
There are a couple of perception problems with an immediate forgiveness approach:

- it'd be seen as unfair to a lot of people who paid off their debt, or who restricted their career options in order to qualify for loan forgiveness programs. This is irrational, I agree, but politics is largely perception, and the perception of punishing people for acting responsibly is not a great one to feed
- it'd be seen as a gift to people who were in a position to take on this debt, who typically skew white and middle-class. Yet another gift to that demographic might not be the best look for a Biden administration that comes in with a lot of aspirational talk about racial justice.
- from the point of view of our friends and neighbors on the right, it'd be seen as a payout to Biden's voters. Again, not a great look for someone who's trying to mend fences.

All of that could be managed, I suppose, but the real issue for me is it doesn't fix the underlying problem. Four years on, you've got a new cohort of graduates with the same debt, twenty years on they're mid-career professionals still paying off their debt, etc.
While I recognize that a lot of people (including my partner) are staggering under this load, and action is urgently needed, I think you need a more comprehensive solution for this to be worth doing. I'm thinking what we'd need would be a package that took steps to make higher education available to all going forward and also provided debt relief for people who already paid into the broken system would be something that you could sell, and would be a lot more palatable to the various cohorts I mention above. There are a couple of ways you could deliver this, including grants to states to improve the academics and affordability of their state college systems towards some national benchmarks, and I don't want to get stuck in on devising a plan on the fly, but for me the important thing is to offer something that solves the problem going forward and also makes people whole for the damage done in the past. If you don't get both parts, you have the "what about me" problems.

Most student debt is owed by lawyers and doctors making large salaries who don't need any help paying it off. To just cancel it all would be a massive giveaway to the wealthy.

After a four-year return to the 20th Century we left behind two decades ago, we are now in 21st Century America again! That Twilight Zone episode was a doozy.

Let's see, how long before one of the many who'd envisioned Trump's having to be "frog-marched" by force out of the White House by armed authorities admits the idiocy of that projection, of that vision? It's one which, if such people possessed enough honesty--which they don't--they'd have admitted what others of us can understand even without their admission:

this is what they wanted and hoped for. They made that projectgion, relishing the picture of it.

How about nuclear war---"going out with a 'bang'", the ultimate malcontent's pulling down the columns around him as his reign ends----
Gee! WTF?!?!?!?! That didn't happen either--though people, full of stupid, insane "gravity" put us on notice, told us that we had to dread such a possibility as _real_ as long as Trump was in charge.

So, anybody inclined to come back and admit that his projections were ridiculous---or even just post the words, "I was wrong about...."

Didn't think so.

Enjoy Biden while you can. He's going to have a rather short shelf-life I suspect and, that, not only among broad-minded Trump supporters who, believe it or not, wish the country well, but, even more, among the legions of morons who have the highest hopes and expectations from this new occupant--the beneficiary of the greatest presidential election fraud this country has ever seen.

"the winds, piping to us in vain" ...

>33 proximity1: I'd say sneaking out the back door in disgrace under cover of darkness is close enough.

Now the guy has to go back to Florida and find a place to live, since he's not allowed to use Magalaga (or whatever it's called) as a residence.

It's amazing to think of it, really... Trump has managed to go from POTUS to broke and homeless literally overnight. That's some serious loser right there my friend.

>30 kiparsky:

it'd be seen as unfair to a lot of people

Sorry, just arguing, but to me this is pure nonsense. Let's Godwin that immediately to the limit--was abolishing slavery unfair to the people who have spent most of their lives enslaved?

If something isn't right then the question is just how to make it stop.

it doesn't fix the underlying problem

I think it goes without saying that the system has to change--I haven't seen any of the proponents of paying off student debt argue for a one-time amnesty (although, on the principle that something is better than nothing, even a one-time debt erasure would be significant, all the more in the current pandemic situation).

University education in Europe (I don't include Brexitannia) is practically free. This, like universal healthcare, is not some never-thought-of, arcane problem.

The American problem is that in both cases something is treated like a commodity that is in other countries seen as a right. People have a right to healthcare, and people have a right to free education.

>35 LolaWalser: I think I'd find it easier to understand why you think it's pure nonsense if you talked about the specifics of the perception problems that I outlined, rather than trying to make a bizarre comparison to slavery.

Just to be clear, I completely agree that both health care and education need to be fixed, and the fix must involve universal access to a good which is, as you say, inherently not a private good. Education, like healthcare, is not something that just benefits the recipient and specifically, for both education and health care the lack of access is a harm to the society as a whole, not just to the individual. Society has a right to an educated and healthy populace, and everyone in society benefits when we all have access to education and health care, and is harmed when we do not. I think we're on the same page there.

What I'm talking about is politics: how do we get this done. And I think pointing the money cannon directly at a population of mostly white educated middle-class folks for a benefit valued in the tens of thousands of dollars per head might be an awkward first move for Biden. Am I wrong?

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/stock-market-logs-best-inauguration-day-rise-i...

Stock market posts best Inauguration Day rise in 36 years as Biden takes office

#29-31

Pausing Federal Student Loan Payments
January 20, 2021 • WH Statements and Releases

At the request of President Biden, the Acting Secretary of Education will extend the pause on federal student loan payments and collections and keep the interest rate at 0%. Too many Americans are struggling to pay for basic necessities and to provide for their families. They should not be forced to choose between paying their student loans and putting food on the table.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/20/pausing-...
___________________________________________________

The kid I feel sorriest for is a fellow, first in his family to go to college, who, on bad advice, racked up ~$100K debt, then quit without degree, to pay it off.

Any loan program should somehow encourage fiscal discipline in the schools plus provide advice to the students.

Also payday lenders that allow kids (anybody, I guess) to rack up debt with click on their phone. Desperate need, I think, for financial ed--a new home ec!

>37 Molly3028:

Biden becoming president was already well baked into the numbers. So my guess was that the market had also baked in a percent chance of disaster—some sort of attack, for example—and that disaster didn't happen.

>36 kiparsky:

Your saying "specifics" of "perception problems" doesn't somehow make "perception problems" less vague and nonsensical. There are no "specifics" until, specifically, a change is made for people to HAVE a "perception" of them.

Again--just as abolishing slavery was not something that should have been deferred because so many people (and many still living) had been enslaved, the fact that so many people have suffered through student debt cannot be a logical or moral reason to keep burdening others with it! Frankly it's one of the more preposterous things I've heard even in this group.

If you don't see this then there's nothing to discuss--no offence, we just aren't communicating on this, and I take my share of the blame. :)

And I think pointing the money cannon directly at a population of mostly white educated middle-class folks for a benefit valued in the tens of thousands of dollars per head might be an awkward first move for Biden. Am I wrong?

Speaking of perceptions--it's not a "money cannon". Biden wouldn't be giving people money, but stop taking a portion. It's not "let them eat cake" but not taking the breakfast bread roll away. As for race, I won't even bother checking who has the greatest tax burden--the point is that it doesn't matter how many white people this would profit since it would ALSO profit basically ALL non-whites with student debt. Sure, there are other problems than student debt, but those are separate considerations. (Some no doubt related--eliminating most student loans would not only help with existing debt, it would stimulate access to education for people who right now can't begin to afford it, but it would not of itself immediately solve other problems in education, such as the damaging of the public school system etc.)

How would it be done--here's one proposal:

https://www.npr.org/2020/01/14/796329598/cancelling-student-debt-is-easier-than-...

The main point is that the US HAS the money to do this AND to provide universal healthcare.

>40 LolaWalser: I don't doubt that the money is there. That's not the issue. In fact, I think it should be clear that both universal access to education and universal health care would be revenue-positive in the long term. Poverty and disease are expensive luxuries that we cannot afford.

I'm sorry that you're not interested in engaging on this. That seems really unfortunate, but I think this tangent is done.

Most Meaningful Executive Action by Biden So Far

Pres. Biden reinstates US participation in UN World Health Organization (WHO) that Trump intended to withdraw from July 6, 2021 with his EO. What this means:

1. WHO is the only health agency in the world with the authority to coordinate a global response to public health threats like like COVID-19. (Many others, of course, as well.)

2. WHO is currently headed by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, microbiologist and malaria expert . . .His first term is up next year and whether or not he gets a second could depend largely on who the U.S. supports.

3. Trump cut all funding to WHO, stripping it of funds from the country that has long been — and by a longshot — its biggest donor. As a result, WHO’s current two-year budget is $5.84 billion — about half that of the CDC.

4. Biden appointed Dr. Fauci his envoy to WHO. Dr. Fauci addressed the organization today, saying the U.S. will resume full funding for WHO and maintain its staff support for it (JOBS!), while announcing the U.S. will join its efforts to get COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics to people in need around the world. Fauci supports and reforms that many members of WHO say are needed.

One can understand reading those four points that it is wiser to be involved in setting policy by being active in WHO, funding its functions to help protect our nation from participating in spreading infectious diseases, including and beyond the corona virus. Finally, the US can play the most important and dominant role in R&D of technologies, treatments, and preventative programs for devastating and crippling illness and other health issues like addictions and gun violence. Economically, American companies like Eli Lilly will be encouraged to continue development of life saving Covid-19 treatments (like their monoclonal antibody therapy, bamlanivimab) and making them available to markets worldwide.

All of the points above strengthen the US domestically and on the world stage, make America better, and promotes economic recovery beyond the immediate returns of contributing to a healthy working population and the general health conditions of people around the world, which can contribute to stabilization and peace.

https://www.lmtonline.com/news/article/Biden-s-Cesar-Chavez-bust-in-the-Oval-Off...
Biden's Cesar Chavez bust in the Oval Office signals a new era for Latinos, activists hope: 'It shows that he's authentic'

Biden/Dems realize that the brown demographic wave is moving up the voting-
age brackets at an increasing pace.

>43 Molly3028: Not just a call to Latinos/Latinas, but a firm nod to labour unions as well.

Black women bear largest burden in student debt crisis

African American women end up with on average $10,880 more in college debt — or nearly 56% more in debt — than the average white male, according to the latest AAUW information released in May.

About $929 billion in outstanding student loan debt — out of $1.46 trillion — in the United States is held by women. Student loan debt exceeds all other forms of consumer debt now, except mortgages.

This is a disappointment.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/20/pure-sadism-biden-blasted-continuin...

National Strategy for the Covid-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness

Finally, a complete coordinated and detailed national approach to answering the challenge of the pandemic ignored for a year by Republicans and the Orange Occupant. In his press address today, Biden signed several wide-ranging executive orders to protect the American people. He did not mince words, saying it will be worse than it gets better. He even spoke about an estimated half-million dead from Covid-19 by the end of next month.

Biden Administration's finalized response to the pandemic made available online today. Download below.

Read the full Biden Plan here -- pdf download

Pres. Biden's EOs issued today on his COVID-19 response actions. Available at the link below.

Executive Order on Organizing and Mobilizing the United States Government to Provide a Unified and Effective Response to Combat COVID-19 and to Provide United States Leadership on Global Health and Security

>46 KAzevedo: That and worse entirely expected, I'm afraid.

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/karl-rove-slams-biden-inaugural-address-for-calling-...
Karl Rove Says He Was ‘Offended’ By Part of Biden Inaugural Speech That Criticized Racism in America

Karl Rove and other like-thinking GOPers ~ Terrorist riot that took place two weeks ago

Many GOPers appear to have mental health and vision issues They apparently
didn't see the guy with the Confederate flag. They didn't see the Proud Boy
groupies. And, they didn't see the guy with the 'Camp Auschwitz' tee. They
did, however, see Antifa members!

>49 Molly3028: That's a whole lotta not-see. Pretty sure these people are a bunch of know-nothings.

>44 MsMixte:

UPDATE
Shepard Smith (CNBC) just reported that sculptures of MLK and Rosa Parks are
also on display in the Oval Office.

Biden White House Atmosphere Is Transformed (AFP)

even if Biden’s crew haven’t had time to hang pictures, they’ve already transformed the White House... Visually, the most obvious difference is that everyone now wears masks against Covid-19. A picture of Biden at the Resolute Desk on his first day, sporting a black mask, defined the new era... Covid screening has also been toughened... Science is back...

Along with a promise of openness, the Biden administration is telling Americans to expect a quieter, calmer mood. No more tweet storms, no more insulting journalists on national television, no more insults full stop. “If you’re ever working with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk down to someone, I promise you I will fire you on the spot,” Biden told staff on the first day...

a resurrection of the daily press briefing...

The change of tone under Biden points to deeper goals... “It goes beyond style but style is also important... they’ve been very clear that they want to dramatically change the way the fed government works, It’s a radical departure from Trump, who delighted in busting all of the norms, all of the rules, all of the laws, all of the customs, right up to the very end”...

In Biden’s Catholic Faith, an Ascendant Liberal Christianity
Elizabeth Dias | Jan. 23, 2021

...In his inaugural address, Mr. Biden rooted himself and the country in a Christian moral vision that makes room for a pluralistic society, unlike his predecessor who promised to make America a certain kind of Christian nation. Mr. Biden quoted Augustine, “a saint in my church,” he said, who wrote that “a people was a multitude defined by the common objects of their love.”

Augustine, the fourth-century North African bishop, recognized that no political community was going to be the city of God on earth, explained Eric Gregory, professor of religion at Princeton University. This passage, from the saint’s “City of God,” has been used in the 20th century “to open up the space for a nontheocratic way for Christians to understand what it means to be citizens in a plural society,” he said.

For Mr. Biden, “it was a subtle and explicit effort to show a different vision of a way in which a Christian could imagine themselves as part of a diverse America, one that is defined by these common objects of love, rather than by hate and fear or exclusion,” he said.

While conservative Catholics have doubled down on abortion policy and religious freedom for the past four years, Mr. Biden’s policy priorities reflect those of Pope Francis, who has sought to turn the church’s attention from sexual politics to issues like environmental protection, poverty and migration....

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/23/us/biden-catholic-christian.html

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/jesse-watters-plays-clip-from-inaugural-speech-calli...
Jesse Watters Plays Clip From Inaugural Speech Calling For Unity, Says Biden ‘Declared War on MAGA’

"Fox News host Jesse Watters said that President Joe Biden’s inauguration address “declared war against MAGA,” while citing a section of Biden’s speech that called for Americans to condemn white supremacy and unify as a nation."

Common sense and decency don't exist on the planet on which this guy lives.
The words which enter his ears and the thoughts which bounce around in his
mind have no relationship to each other. Ditto for all the prime-timers on FOX
News. This is Murdoch's idea of edifying conservative thought in 21st Century
America.

So Jesse Waters is confirming what we all know but few dare say aloud until (I guess) he did. Republican Trump supporting mad red hatters are racists who don't love America because it demands the inclusion of non-whites in equal status to whites within the fabric of its citizenry.

Don't expect real Americans to "unify" under their banner. Red hats' only course to be included is their repudiation of Trumpism declared before the stars and stripes, without any hat at all on their heads.

Truth. Then reconciliation.

Defense Secretary Orders Review Of Military Sexual Assault Prevention Programs

Lloyd Austin, in his first directive since taking office, moved on his pledge to immediately address sexual misconduct in the ranks. Biden's Defense Sec'y. literally hits the ground running and shows his determination to clean up what has been let slide within the ranks, on ships, and on bases and other installations of the military world wide -- sexual harassment, hazing of gay troops, rapes, violence, and murder of non cis-hetero ranks.

I hope that his next act is to root out and discipline or dishonorably discharge members of and advocates for the white supremacist agenda. No service member is allowed to wear the uniform if sporting gang tattoos. They are either removed, or the person is gone. The same rule must apply to racially oriented tattoos, whether Nazi swastikas or Black Power raised fists, and any other indicative ink.

The Biden Administration has a Sec'y. of Defense who can make sure American service members are very clear to whom they swore an oath, which flag they pledge their allegiance to, to which entity their loyalty is owed, and who the enemy within is.

This Is America Made Great

Remember how fawning Trump was in the physical and verbal presence of Vlad the Impaler or his minions?

Remember how Trump allowed no record of his phone calls to his dictator bro be recorded in any form, but kept secret from the American people?

Remember how if Americans wanted to know anything about Trump's interactions with Putin it had to wait for the Russians to release a read-out of calls and meetings, which detailed how Russia's agenda dominated what should have been Trump's?

Remember how Trump wouldn't allow, instead he denied his country's own intelligence about Russian interference in our elections; how Trump favored Russian interests in Europe rather than that of the EU, NATO, and especially, Ukraine; remember how not a peep of protest emerged from Trump when Russian troops attacked an American outpost in Syria, or when Putin put a bounty on our troops in Afghanistan; remember how Trump refused to acknowledge the brutal poisoning of Russian activist, Aleksey Navalny, by Putin's "secret" agents when Trump should have expressed his outrage over a citizen denied free speech and his severe condemnation for attempted murder of a Russian citizen by his government?

If you do, here is further evidence that the world is a different place than it was last week, and that a new Democratic real president is fighting to repair all the damage Traitor Trump did to America at home and abroad, and to its place as leader of the Free World. Once again, She is the opponent of tyranny and dictators wherever and whomever they are. America -- first.

The proof is the read-out of today's phone call by President Biden to Putin. A portion below:

President Biden reaffirmed the United States’ firm support for Ukraine’s sovereignty. He also raised other matters of concern, including the SolarWinds hack, reports of Russia placing bounties on United States soldiers in Afghanistan, interference in the 2020 United States election, and the poisoning of Aleksey Navalny. President Biden made clear that the United States will act firmly in defense of its national interests in response to actions by Russia that harm us or our allies.

Debunking the claim from right wing propagandists that Biden is "left wing" or "socialist".

One of the Democrats’ Biggest Hawks Is Now Senate Foreign Relations Chair (Truthout)

the Democrats have named Sen. Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey) to chair the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. This has rung alarm bells for advocates of peace, human rights and international law, given that Menendez has opposed the Iran nuclear agreement, repeatedly attacked the United Nations and the International Court of Justice, supported unconditional military aid to governments that have used the weapons in the commission of war crimes, and taken other positions far closer to those of Republicans than rank-and-file Democrats...

Hitting the ground running:

Filling positions several layers down with people who know what they’re doing and booting Trump appointees

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/27/us/politics/biden-government.html

Powerful Putin Ain't So Powerful No More

The day after Biden's phone call to Vladimir Putin, telling the Russians that the halcyon Trump days were over for them, the Russian Parliament voted to extend the New START Treaty today. That's a real international diplomatic WIN for Biden, democracy, negotiation, the USA, and our NATO allies. Not to mention the rest of the world that needs and wants nuclear policing.

Reaffirming our desire for sane self-government that keeps tabs on nuclear weapons and de-escalaltes the numbers of them in the biggest arsenals in the world has let that world dial back nuclear Armageddon. Associated benefits include reducing the likelihood of rogue oligarchs mounting operations to obtain such weapons, offer them on the black market, and sell them to terrorist groups, empowering the buyers' ability to blackmail any country in the world.

It further signals Iran of our seriousness in re-engaging in our role of nuclear proliferation guardian. Russia and Iran's close ties with one another will reinforce Iran's understanding that sensible behavior by them regarding their weapons grade material will be a priority and a position that will be favored by Russia over its ally's current provocative nuclear ventures.

Showing a willingness to engage on the international stage from a position of organized, dependable, and reasonable negotiating power will reassure other countries that the US can be trusted to behave like a Good Citizen again.

With that understanding, Biden has signaled today that from now on, ALL American domestic and FOREIGN policies will be framed by and informed by the need for Climate Change Abatement in the hopes of spawning concerted efforts by all nations who do "business" with us to make it a primary concern of theirs, too. That's how you influence behavior and work yourself back into the forefront of international diplomacy and promoting democracy.

That's real strength, the kind that makes other nations want to emulate the US and not the demands of nihilists, jihadists, and other extremist elements that have no regard for the climate emergency, the environment, and maintaining a natural balance of Earth's ecosystem that allows life to exist.

:D

Court Rules Trump Administration’s Censored Science Rule Was Issued Unlawfully
Environmental Defense Fund | January 27, 2021

(Great Falls, MT – January 27, 2021) A federal district court ruled today that the Trump administration was wrong to issue its Censored Science Rule without following proper procedures, and said that its decision also “casts into significant doubt” whether the rule has any legal basis at all.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Montana’s decision increases the odds that the harmful and highly controversial rule won’t survive lawsuits opposing it, and opens the door for EPA to suspend the rule until the courts finish hearing those lawsuits.

“The Trump administration broke the law by issuing a harmful rule to censor life-saving medical science, and broke the law again by trying to make the rule immediately effective,” said EDF senior attorney Ben Levitan. “The Censored Science Rule weakens EPA’s ability to protect Americans from dangerous pollution, toxic chemicals and other threats. Today’s ruling delays the rule’s effective date, and also undercuts the legal basis for issuing the rule at all. We’ll also keep fighting to get this rule off the books for good.”

“This is a great day for science and public health. It’s a relief to have a court agree that the previous administration acted illegally in its parting shot at science and basic public health protections. We can all breathe easier. Literally,” said Anne Hedges, director of policy and legislative affairs for the Montana Environmental Information Center.

The ruling came on the same day that President Biden issued a memorandum saying that it will be the “policy of my Administration to make evidence-based decisions guided by the best available science and data.”

Trump EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler rushed the Censored Science rule to the finish line just days before leaving office. The rule would undermine the agency’s ability to protect public health and the environment by fundamentally transforming the ways in which EPA may consider scientific evidence. It would restrict EPA’s ability to use rigorous, peer-reviewed medical research for which underlying data are not publicly available – even when legal and ethical rules, like medical privacy laws, would prohibit making that data public.

Wheeler tried to make the Censored Science Rule effective immediately upon its publication in the Federal Register. However, the law clearly requires that substantive rules have an effective date of “not less than 30 days” after publication. If Wheeler had followed the proper protocols, the rule would not yet have been effective when the Biden EPA took over. Wheeler’s end run around the proper procedures was an effort to tie the hands of the incoming administration.

EDF, the Montana Environmental Information Center, and Citizens for Clean Energy filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana challenging Wheeler’s undue haste. The groups also argued that rule was “substantive” even though it was issued under a statute that cannot be used for substantive rules.

Today the court granted the groups’ motion for summary judgment, and sent a strong signal that it is inclined to find the rule unlawful on the merits, saying:

“The Court’s above determination that the Final Rule represented a substantive rule rather than procedural rule casts into significant doubt whether EPA retains any legal basis to promulgate the Final Rule.” (Decision, page 30)

Today’s decision also allows the groups to petition the Biden EPA to stay the rule during the rest of the litigation.

https://www.edf.org/media/court-rules-trump-administrations-censored-science-rul...
---------------------------------------------------------

Deepak Gupta (US Supreme Court & appellate advocate)
@deepakguptalaw
10:18 PM · Jan 27, 2021

Victory! The Trump Administration tried to tie the Biden Administration's hands with an awful new rule that would have crippled EPA's use of science to protect the public health.

On behalf of @EnvDefenseFund and other orgs, we sued.
And we just won!

https://bit.ly/3rb1lFp
Image--court decision ( https://twitter.com/deepakguptalaw/status/1354629942110261253/photo/1 )

Here's our brief for Environmental Defense Fund, Montana Environmental Information Center, and Citizens for Clean Energy:
http://guptawessler.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/9-brief-in-support.pdf (56 p)

In addition to holding that the Trump Administration violated the law by putting the rule into effect immediately before Inauguration Day, the court also indicated that its decision “casts into significant doubt” whether the rule has "any legal basis" at all.
Image ( https://twitter.com/deepakguptalaw/status/1354629945541210112/photo/1 )

MeidasTouch.com @MeidasTouch | 8:00 AM · Jan 30, 2021

Democracy lives, but only because we worked so hard to save it.
Remember how close we were to losing it all and never let them take it from us.

#DemocracyLives
1:38 ( https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1355501013457903619 )

Biden Speaks on New Policy for Those on the Frontline of Foreign Policy

"This Administration believes you. You will go forward empowered. I have your back." Three sentences that sum up Biden's announcement that "America is back. Diplomacy is back at the center of American foreign policy."

“We are ending all American support for offensive operations in the war in Yemen, including relevant arms sales,” Biden said, after describing the suffering that Yemenis have endured throughout a civil war that began in 2014. According to the United Nations, the country is experiencing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

He also announced that he was appointing well-respected career diplomat Tim Lenderking to be the first-ever American envoy to facilitate a ceasefire between the warring parties — the Iranian-back Houthis, and the Saudi-led coalition with the United Arab Emirates and their Yemeni partners.
(SNIP)
Biden’s move shows how a small but committed group of legislators, national security analysts and activists successfully shifted the thinking in Washington by demanding a more progressive foreign policy and greater concern for how America’s power can cause vast humanitarian suffering abroad. -- HuffPo

"What must our allies and our adversaries think of us now?" as Brian Williams so often asked of MSNBC State Department and foreign policy experts so frequently the last four years. I think that they think about us with relief, America is back.

"Biden becoming president was already well baked into the numbers. So my guess was that the market had also baked in a percent chance of disaster—some sort of attack, for example—and that disaster didn't happen." (emphasis added)

And not a trace of irony or self-consciousness in it!

Right. Apart from the stolen-election thing, nothing "happened." No "disaster." The oligarchic control wasn't just preserved, it was strengthened out of all proportion to what it had been previously.

LOL!!!!

"Then everything includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite,
And appetite, an universal wolf,
So doubly seconded with will and power,
Must make perforce an universal prey
And last eat up himself.
____________________

(Troilus and Cressida, I, iii, 119-24)

>64 proximity1: Apart from the stolen-election thing

Nurse! Nurse! He's out of bed again!

#65--Whatever Trump says Proximity believes. His 0 for 60 record in the courts often with his own appointed judges makes no difference. I'm afraid Prox is a kool aid drinker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywyeb6dM0Ao

Biden moves towards diplomacy to end human rights catastrophe in Yemen. Names diplomatic envoy and to stop all arms sales to Saudi Arabia and UAE.

>67 lriley: Definitely unexpected.

>66 lriley: It's been really difficult to keep track, but last time I heard the record was actually 1-63. The predecessor apparently voluntarily withdrew several lawsuits, as well.

There's still a lot of Flavor Aid in that pitcher!

Biden Axes Trump's Last Minute Judge Picks

"I'll do it my way," says President Joe Biden who withdrew 32 nominations from the Senate made by ex-45. Two of the judicial appointments were lifetime seats on the bench. There were more than judges in the rejection pot, other position candidates included Judy Shelton, Trump’s pick to take now-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s seat on the Federal Reserve, also ambassadorial positions to the Bahamas and Singapore.

As of Friday, Biden has 52 district court vacancies and four appeals court vacancies to fill ― numbers that will only continue to grow. These are all lifetime posts.

Since he took office, a wave of federal judges has announced retirement plans. While judges in lifetime seats have personal reasons for retiring when they do, it’s safe to say, for the most part, that the timing of these judges’ departures isn’t coincidental: They wanted Biden to pick their replacements, not Trump.

.....and Biden cuts off Trump from intelligence briefings.

Biden inherited a USPS crisis. Here’s how Democrats want to fix it.
Party leaders have already begun discussions on major legislation — and trying to force out Louis DeJoy
Jacob Bogage | Feb. 6, 2021

...Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who, with the backing of the U.S. Postal Service’s governing board, is expected as soon as next week to outline a new vision for the agency, one that includes more service cuts, higher and region-specific pricing, and lower delivery expectations.

But congressional Democrats are pressing President Biden to install new board members, creating a majority bloc that could oust DeJoy, a Trump loyalist whose aggressive cost-cutting over the summer has been singled out for much of the performance decline. The fight over the agency’s future is expected to be fraught and protracted, leaving Americans with unreliable mail delivery for the foreseeable future.

...Democrats in Congress want a new postmaster general, which could happen only if the nine-member governing board changes. Though the administration has signaled it will move aggressively to rehabilitate the agency — Biden replaced the Republican chair of the Postal Regulatory Commission with a Democrat on Jan. 25 — there’s not much the president can do to intervene immediately in postal operations.

...Separately, lawmakers are considering an unusual accounting maneuver to give the Postal Service a nearly $100 billion credit for years of pension overpayments, according to four people familiar with the proposal, who spoke anonymously to discuss legislative plans. The move, which legislators in both the House and Senate have discussed and has not been previously reported, would shift responsibility for those funds onto the federal government.

But even that bailout wouldn’t solve the agency’s looming financial problems. The credit would eliminate a little more than half of the Postal Service’s massive $188 billion in liabilities.

...Lawmakers already have embarked on postal reform discussions, including a wider proposal allowing the agency to offer non-mail services that many legislators hope will be enacted by a new postmaster general.

One Senate aide involved in postal policy discussions, who asked not to be named given the sensitivity of the conversations, described postal reform as one of Democrats’ best ways to advance their voting rights agenda, and said DeJoy inspires anger among lawmakers. “You’re going to see a push by House Democrats and Senate Democrats to demand the removal of people,” said another Senate aide.

...The president’s most linear path to mail changes is by appointing governors to the agency’s nine-member board. Agency operations are specifically insulated from elected leaders to prevent politicians from tinkering with the mail service, postal historians say. Governors are confirmed by the Senate and serve staggered seven-year terms. No more than five members may belong to the same party.

Biden has three seats to fill, and could also replace Ron Bloom, a Democrat serving a one-year holdover term. Those four seats, plus sitting Democrat Donald Lee Moak, could give Democrats the votes to unseat DeJoy, if desired. Securing that majority may be months away, as the administration prioritizes Cabinet and sub-Cabinet nominations.

...The president also could push Congress to pass reform legislation for the first time since the 2006 bill that created the Postal Service’s prefunded retiree health-care obligation. Members of both parties in the House and Senate introduced legislation Monday to repeal that requirement and allow the Postal Service to pay off health-care costs annually, as most private corporations and government agencies do. That legislation passed the House in the last Congress but failed in the Senate.

...Congressional Democrats say the basic framework of a $25 billion grant and another $25 billion in new borrowing authority are likely starting points, according to aides in both chambers who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of potential legislation.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2021/business/usps-performance-whats-nex...

#72--for Prox and his stop the steal bs. Trump's deliberate undermining of the Post Office before last year's election was the most brazen ever in a long run of voter suppression/disenfranchisement tactics by the republican party. If he really wants to talk about someone trying to stealing an election that's the one that really takes the cake. Without a second thought he would have destroyed an American institution for his own personal gain---just another example of both his corruption and his narcissism.

Biden Administration Begins. . .Process to Remove DeJoy as PMG

A US president is not eligible to directly remove a post master general from his position. The only entity that can do that is the Board of Governors of the US Postal Service. Three vacancies are currently open on the board. Additionally, a fourth nomination would replace an existing member who is serving a hold-over year.

"President Biden's focus is on filling these vacancies, nominating officials who reflect his commitment to the workers of the US Postal Service -- who can deliver on the post office's vital universal service obligation," the White House added.

https://www.mediaite.com/opinion/lachlan-murdoch-sends-surprising-signal-of-fox-...
Lachlan Murdoch Sends Surprising Signal of Fox News’ Future Editorial Direction: ‘We Don’t Need to Go Further Right’

It appears to me that Fox News decided to make Lou Dobbs the sacrificial lamb in its supposed Biden-era, center-right makeover. In reality, however, all of the other lunatics on both FOX news networks are going to be holding on to their hosting duties. James, the Murdoch son who left News Corp, is the only trustworthy Murdoch male.

Biden rescinds national emergency at US southern border that allowed Trump to fund border wall
Rebecca Morin | Feb 11, 2021
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/02/11/biden-rescinds-trump-nat...
_____________________________________________

Biden EPA dumps PFAS assessment over ‘political interference’
Feb 10, 2021
https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2021/02/biden-epa-dumps-pfas-assessment-ov...
______________________________________________

Memorandum on Restoring Trust in Government Through Scientific Integrity and Evidence-Based Policymaking
January 27, 2021 • Presidential Actions
MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/27/memoran...

President Biden Secures 200 Million More Coronavirus Vaccine Doses

The two vaccines authorized for emergency use in the United States will be available this summer — 100 million of the product developed by Pfizer and German company BioNTech, and 100 million of the product developed by Moderna. Under this administration, supply will be prioritized in order to meet demand, thus easing the difficulty in getting Americans immunized.

Both these formulas are shown to be effective (though less so against the South African variant) against all known Covid-19 variants at this time. As we now know, the British variant is becoming the dominant form of coronavirus in the US, displacing the original/classic, or "wild" variant dominant last year.

Pres. Biden is scheduled to tour the National Institutes of Health on Thursday afternoon and deliver remarks to staff. Remarks, that I am sure will be substantially more informed, intelligent, and presidential than Trump's,"I know science," self-puffery when he visited there last March.

Where Trump said, "No," to securing additional vaccines last year, Biden says, "Yes," to the need to secure a supply that will make getting vaccinated easier and a supply that will prevent a shortage from occurring in the summer when immunization eligibility will expand.

Biden Credited for Release of Saudi Activist from Prison by Her Family

In May, 2018, Loujain al-Hathloul, the Saudi activist for women's rights in her country -- most notably that women be allowed to drive and do so without a male chaperone -- was jailed for her activism and for her independent driving. Today, her family said that US President Joe Biden's election win helped secure her release after nearly three years' imprisonment.

"I would say thank you Mr President that you helped my sister to be released," Alia al-Hathloul told a virtual press conference.

"It's a fact that Loujain was imprisoned during the previous administration, and she was released a few days after Biden's arrival to power.

"Biden's arrival helped and contributed a lot in my sister's release."

Biden, inaugurated last month, has pledged to intensify scrutiny of powerful Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's human rights record after the kingdom received something of a free pass under his predecessor, president Donald Trump.

Some details of her incarceration, including the trumped-up charges, are appalling and draconian. Even now, although reunited with her family, al-Hathloul endures restrictions on her freedom according to the terms of her three year probation designed to stifle her activity on behalf of reforming the Saudi government's treatment of women.

"The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?"
"Ha!
Not she: nor doth she tempt: but it is I
That, lying by the violet in the sun,
Do as the carrion does, not as the flower,
Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be
That modesty may more betray our sense
Than woman's lightness?

Having waste ground enough,
Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary ........................... (170)
And pitch our evils there? ...

...

"Thieves for their robbery have authority
When judges steal themselves."

...

Biden Administration Files Appeal for Assange Extradition

"Law & Order Republicans" will be glad to know that Biden intends to have Assange stand trial on espionage and hacking-related charges over WikiLeaks' publication of hundreds of thousands of US military and diplomatic documents beginning in 2009.

The era of accountability is on a roll. The Democratic president and the Democratic majority Congress have: 1) Put Putin on notice that his Trump-approved escapades vis-à-vis Russian misadventure are a no-go with him, and there will be consequences if he keeps them up; 2) House Impeachment Managers showed America a HUGE serving of truth about the betrayal of DJT on Jan. 6th and demand the senators adhere to their oaths to hear the evidence and determine his fate and future; 3) Assange is viewed as a cyber-criminal and, Pres. Biden has signaled that the USA intends to hold him accountable for his criminal intrusion and publication of sensitive personal information of certain of its citizens.

. . .under president Donald Trump, whose 2016 election was helped by WikiLeaks publishing Russian-stolen materials damaging to his rival Hillary Clinton -- the Justice Department built a national security case against Assange.

In 2019 the native Australian was charged under the US Espionage Act and computer crimes laws with multiple counts of conspiring with and directing others, from 2009 to 2019, to illegally obtain and release US secrets.

In doing so he aided and abetted hacking, illegally exposed confidential US sources to danger and used the information to damage the United States, according to the charges.

If convicted on all counts, Assange, 49, could face a prison sentence of 175 years.

call us when Assange lands, won't you?

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Called ya'll when Trump L O S T the election. No answer.

Change yer number? BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!

Biden Administration Ramps Up Genetic Sequencing of Coronavirus Variants

The Biden administration has called the current state of sequencing unacceptable and says its proposed spending plan includes funding for scaling up surveillance for variants. . . Since President Biden has been in office, the CDC has doubled the number of samples being sequenced per week from a shaky 3000 to 6000 per week (as of the end of this month) at his urging.

The CDC also set a goal for all states to scale up to get to the point where 5% of all positive coronavirus tests are sequenced.
(SNIP)
Meanwhile, commercial labs in Georgia (the CDC is located in Atlanta) are doing about 100 per week, work being done through contracts with the CDC. And university labs, including Emory University, are also doing genomic sequencing on coronavirus samples, and more of it now.
(SNIP)
“The U.S has no excuse here,” said Gigi Gronvall, a senior scholar at the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. “We have all the ingredients to be able to do this, and it should be and it is being vastly expanded.”

With Trump now kicked to the curb, largely for his failure to respond in any adequate way to addressing the ravages of the pandemic in our country, President Biden demonstrates his campaign promise is being kept. The CDC's renewed function in the scheme of public health is being ramped up with dollars as well, by Biden's Covid-19 legislation now in the House for reconciliation.

The importance of such a massive undertaking is necessary to preparation and readiness in addressing future mutations of the virus, possibly ones that could become resistant to existing vaccines. To continue to ignore genomic studies as we have heretofore would be to continue a policy of dereliction and denial over duty to put science in service of mankind, which is the purpose of the CDC. President Biden will not be guilty of that.

The sheer arrogance of "making a point" to Iran and Iraq by bombing Syria.

Airstrikes in Syria kill 22 in Joe Biden's first military act as president

... Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor at Notre Dame Law School, criticised the US attack as a violation of international law. “The United Nations charter makes absolutely clear that the use of military force on the territory of a foreign sovereign state is lawful only in response to an armed attack on the defending state for which the target state is responsible,” she said. “None of those elements is met in the Syria strike.”

The US respecting international law; that'll be the day...

Democrats Push for War Powers Overhaul After Biden's Syria Strike

"Offensive military action without congressional approval is not constitutional absent extraordinary circumstances," Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said. He and Sen. Chris Murhpy (D-CT), have long pushed to repeal the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force and the 2002 Iraq War authorization and institute new guidelines for Congress to approve military action.

The Biden administration is taking heat from fellow Democrats as lawmakers pressure the White House to provide a legal justification for an airstrike launched Thursday against Iran-backed militia groups in Syria.

Rep. Adam Schiff, on MSNBC today, expressed disappointment with "inadequate" notice given to Congress and stated his desire for answers to how the Administration came to the conclusion that the air strike was necessary and of sufficient emergency to permit Pres. Biden to give it the go-ahead.

The White House is pledging to provide a classified briefing early next week and argued the airstrike was consistent with Biden's constitutional authority to defend the U.S.

However, Democrats in both chambers remain deeply dissatisfied with Biden's unilateral decision for which he did not seek Congressional approval.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a progressive member of the House Armed Services Committee, slammed Biden following the attack. Khanna, who pushed legislation to curtail Trump's ability to take military action against Iran, argued there was "absolutely no justification" for the Syria strike.

The Pentagon has defended the strike citing it's restricted prior notification and Constitutional and UN provisions.

The Pentagon briefed congressional leadership on Thursday night ahead of the attack, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said, and administration officials on Friday continued briefing lawmakers and congressional staff.

The spokesperson pointed to the "inherent self-defense powers enshrined in our Constitution and the UN Charter," citing Biden's authority to defend the U.S. under Article II of the Constitution as well as Article 51 of the UN Charter.

"We had a rigorous process to include legal review of the strikes conducted," the NSC spokesperson said. "The strikes were necessary to address the threat and proportionate to the prior attacks."

But those comments seem to indicate that the strike was "retaliatory" rather than due to an emergency or extreme threat. Thursday's strike "came in response to three rocket attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq in the span of a week."

#84---really I would like to see the end of all this bullshit with Iran. There needs to be a diplomatic solution. Let them take their place among other nations and stop all these sanctions and Israel in particular needs to take a step back.

In all fairness I gotta say, it's the kind of precipitate, unilateral action I would have expected of Trump but not of Biden. The only reassurance I feel is a bit of news about how he at least forewarned coalition members (whatever "coalition" means for the US in Syria these days). Not as much respect for Congress though. 'Self-defense' is a poor euphemism in this case for 'retaliation'.

Merrick Garland Advances to Full Senate Vote

The aftermath whining of the Republican Senatorial Wah-Wah Chorus notwithstanding, Merrick Garland's assured confirmation as Attorney General will mark a return to that office being the legal representative of the people, answering to the Constitution, no longer the lapdog of the corrupt criminal WH Occupant of the previous four years.

Of course, Republicans don't like the fact that an ethical, highly qualified, person of unimpeachable character will soon sit where a fat-ass sycophant once warmed a chair when not groveling at his master's feet. Garland has promised that a probe into the 1/6 insurrection will be his priority once confirmed.

"One of the very first things I will do is get a briefing on the progress of this investigation," Garland said. "I intend to give the career prosecutors who are working on this matter 24/7 all the resources they could possibly require to do this."
(SNIP)
". . .investigators will begin with people on the ground, but will work their way up to those who are further involved and "pursue these leads wherever they take us."

Beyond that immediate commitment, Garland made clear that an examination into right wing extremism is also of paramount concern.

His entire concept of justice is unifying, not divisive -- one law for all. . . .he said he would ensure equal justice under the law for all Americans, and he vowed to lead the department with integrity and to protect its independence from political influence. "I can assure you that I do not regard myself as anything other than the lawyer for the people of the United States," he said. "I am not the president's lawyer."

Republicans will likely be consulting MDs and chiropractors for neck adjustments over the coming months. I expect the whiplash speed of a 180 degree change of direction in the DOJ will cause a lot of injuries among them as American government returns to the ideal of government of, by, and for the people after an embarrassing and destructive hiatus.

Biden and Country's Direction Shows Improved Approval

Americans have no trouble recognizing effective and proficient government, on the whole. They're just as good (possibly better) at identifying lack of leadership and incompetence. Looking at Biden's approval rating for job performance, it has hovered near 60% since his inauguration. In today's Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll, Biden's job performance approval is 61%. Trump's rating at a parallel time in his administration was 48% approval for his job performance. Surprisingly, "nearly one-third of GOP voters — 31 percent — said they approve of Biden’s handling of his job."

Nearly a third of the polled Republican voters approve of Biden's job performance. Let that sink in. Never did Trump have the approval of a third of Democratic voters. Consider, only 55% of uber-Trumpies at CPAC said they'd vote for the Golden Jackass. This is a bare majority of minority of Republicans. Even cursory examination of those data let's us know that a second Trump candidacy will fail -- probably even more BIGLY than in 2020.

Overall, 55 percent of respondents said they approve of the Democratic Party, marking a 7-point increase since January, when slightly less than half of those surveyed gave the party a positive review.

Approval of the GOP, meanwhile, is trailing that of the Democrats, coming in at 44 percent, according to the survey.

Keep in mind, these above numbers are based on combined responses of Democrats and Republicans surveyed. De-Trumpification seems to be happening in the natural way of adherents falling away when support for Trump is no longer an "in thing," no longer a fad, and no longer as popular to publicly display as it was 3 months ago.

There’s also been a positive shift in voter favorability for the overall direction of the country since Biden entered the White House. Forty-seven percent still believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, though that’s down from 63 percent in January. Conversely, the percentage of voters who say the country is on the right track rose from 27 percent last month to 43 percent in late February.

Other parameters show favorably for the Biden Administration. Confidence in the economy also appears to be strengthening.

Forty percent of voters said that the economy is on the right track, compared to 45 percent who said it’s on the wrong track. That’s still a major improvement over recent months. In January, for instance, only 29 percent said the economy was heading in the right direction, while 58 percent said it was on the wrong track.

American voters and the Biden Administration can feel good about who won the election. Americans have bought into Biden's catch-phrase, "America is back again!" and said "No thanks!" to Trump's message that America needs to "take back your country." De-Trumpification will continue as long as Biden governs for all Americans, not just the ones who voted for him, as promised. Voters recognize racist dog whistles when they hear them, and the good people of this country have rejected the Whistling Florida Man.

Biden Clown Car breaks down. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!

"Joe Biden was set to take questions from Democrat members of the House on Wednesday, when the White House inexplicably cut the feed of the live event." ...

(from The Daily Mail (U.K.))

President "Who am I, again?" will now take questions....

not that the viewing audience is invited to watch, of course. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

White House staff are discussing whether to inform Biden of the date of his next press conference and whether or not he'll be advised to attend---if told.

"President Biden to enter/leave/continue (select according to reader preference) a state of suspended animation."

Biden Presidential Approval Still Soaring

American voters approve of Biden's presidency in numbers not seen in recent memory for any president.

Job gains of 378,000 recorded for the first full statistical month of him being in office. And the latest Associated Press Poll numbers are likewise impressive.

60% of Americans approve of Biden's job performance
55% of Americans approve of Biden's handling of the economy
70% of Americans approve of Biden's COVID response

Considering that the last issue is the most direct reason Biden got elected, I'd say it will be damn difficult for Republicans to recover any ground on the pandemic issue in Congressional elections next year. Far more likely is the probability of them losing "bigly," especially in view of thir idiotic opposition to Biden's relief pkg, which simply addresses providing aid in all the areas that Republican House and Senate members approved of when Trump was the Oval Office occupant. 'Splain, that, Lucies.

#91--all of a sudden they're deficit hawks again.

Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, North Dakota and Montana have also decided that the pandemic is over. All Republican governors. This will cost lives. In Florida DeSantis makes sure rich communities get all the vaccine they need and there are beaches full of spring breakers some of whom are going to get covid and bring it back to their colleges, communities and families. They encourage irresponsibility whenever they can.

>92 lriley: Unfortunately, the variant many snowbirds and kids on spring break will bring home with them from FL is the more transmissible, more dangerous B.117...

#93--that's exactly what's going to happen. Florida exporting super spreader events.

Will Biden’s return to multilateralism extend to the ICC? (Al Jazeera)

US President Joe Biden’s election victory has raised the prospect of increased United States support and engagement with the International Criminal Court (ICC). Many observers cited Biden’s emphasis on multilateralism and his support for the international tribunal as ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations as positive signs. But the Biden administration has not revoked former President Donald Trump’s September 2020 executive order that imposed sanctions on ICC personnel, including prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, raising fresh questions about what policy Biden plans to pursue...

>95 John5918:
I would bet against it. American Presidents tend to hedge their bets when it comes to international courts. You never know when you might "need" to take action that might be frowned upon by the international community.

President Biden 50 Days in Gets "A" on Promises Kept

Journalists tracking progress by the president on key issues over which he made campaign promises. Of 61 promises, Biden has delivered partial or full action/solutions; only 7 remain unaddressed at the half way point of his first 100 days in office. Considering the obstacles and active obstruction of Trump to the transition, that is nearly miraculous. With a slim majority of the House and a tie in the Senate, Biden has employed EOs to overturn corrosive Trump policies in order to restore the faith in and ability of the federal institutions to perform effective governance functions again.

None of the promises were easy "chicken in every pot" political candy. We're talking pandemic, climate change, immigration, inequality, gun control, and the economy.

On COVID-19 alone, nearly 78 million Americans have been vaccinated and the rate of vaccination has jumped to over 2 million per day. Remember when 1 million a day seemed like an impossible dream? At this rate, Biden will easily exceed his goal of 100 million vaccinated in 100 days. Today, the availability of vaccine has improved so much since he took office that AK is offering open vaccination to anyone over 16 year old. FL and GA have extended eligibility for vaccination to anyone 60 or older.

More good news is the passage, today, of the COVID American Rescue Bill, particularly designed to promote a return to normality in public schools and a bolster to family owned businesses and renters. What is missing from this bill is any money going to the rich and to corporations. Might explain why not a single Republican voted "aye" on the bill.

The other big good news item is that the Biden Administration has made a deal to purchase an additional 100 million doses of the single dose J&J vaccine. In turn, J&J has promised, in conjunction with Merck, to increase production of vaccine for American and world populations, making hope shine brighter in the COVID-19 battle.

A looming political problem, however, is that with the beginning of migrant harvest season moving north from FL to GA, how will states address providing vaccine availability to the harvesters and their families in order to protect the non-migrant population in states all along the Atlantic Coast?

Joe Biden protests that he is no Franklin Roosevelt, but he is belying that with his fast action, his ability to get government ramped back up to functioning for the people, and his action to put the private sector on a wartime footing a la WWII in producing doses, distributing them, and ramping up research activities.

Naturally, Biden's approval levels are 60% and higher across all Americans. Get ready for the next phase of his response to the pandemic. Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a rocket ride. Not just in pandemic response, but on immigration, inequality, and climate challenges. Our country is looking more like the United States of America again.

Biden urges gun reform after Colorado shooting: 'Don't wait another minute' (Guardian)

After recording a year with the lowest level of public mass shootings in more than a decade, the US suffered its second such incident in less than a week on Monday night with a shooting at a Colorado grocery store that killed 10, including one police officer. Joe Biden addressed the shooting on Tuesday, calling for swift legislation to be passed, and once again lowering the White House flag to half-staff after he had called for it to be lowered after last week’s mass shooting in Atlanta. The president called on Congress to close the loopholes in the background checks system and to once again ban assault weapons. He specifically urged the Senate to pass the two background checks bills that the House approved earlier this month. “I don’t need to wait another minute, let alone an hour, to take commonsense steps that will save lives in the future,” Biden said. “This is not and should not be a partisan issue. It is an American issue”...

Mitt Romney makes new gesture which appears to be part of a new bid for presidency.

Easily proving himself Biden's equal, Romney falls, hitting his head and knocking himself unconscious.

>99 proximity1:

Following Trump's example of being an idiot?

BREAKING: VP Harris To Oversee Migrant Surge

Harris will lead negotiations with Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The Trump Administration failed miserably to build any immigration infrastructure, administrative processes, or legal restructuring to handle unaccompanied minors. Instead, choosing only to punish the victims and ignore the humanitarian crisis.

VP Harris has expressed eagerness to build her international portfolio and take on the tough issues left over in cleaning up after the most incompetent president ever.

"The vice president has significant experience on fighting organized crime and upholding human rights as an attorney general. . . she will bring (that) to bear (as) she leads this effort," (an) official said."

Harris declared her awareness of and readiness to tackle this huge problem. Speaking on "CBS This Morning," Harris said. . .

I’m not gonna pretend it’s not. . .a huge problem.

“Are we looking at overcrowding at the border, particularly these kids? Yes. Should these kids be in the custody of HHS, the Health and Human Services, instead of the Border Patrol? Yes. Should we be processing these cases faster? Yes,” she told the morning show.

“This is, however, not going to be solved overnight,” she continued.

"There are things that we need to do, especially since there was a system in place — previously, before the last administration — to allow us to process these kids in their country of origin. That was dismantled, we have to reconstruct it. It’s not going to happen overnight.”
(SNIP)
“We have senior administration officials right now in Mexico and Guatemala also dealing with, in addition, what needs to happen at the border. “

In office fewer than 100 days, the Biden Administration clearly has demonstrated an ability to effectively and immediately gear up programs and take action in response to crises perpetrated on the country by Trump's failures and deliberate destruction of the means to do so, whether the problem is COVID vaccination, immigration, international diplomacy, economic support, or reinstating working democratic government

Biden Boosts Obamacare; Extends Affordable Care Act Special Enrollment Period

More good news for America's suffering poor hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Biden Administration is putting it's mouth, its actions, and its money to work to improve the lives of those who need it most. In sharp contrast to the previous Administration that did nothing to help ordinary and overlooked millions face the economic and disease threat that it provoked and brazenly worsened.

The special enrollment period would be extended from May 15 to August 15, enabling more Americans to get healthcare insurance coverage during the ongoing pandemic threat.

"For millions who are out of work and have no coverage, thanks to this law, there's an Obamacare plan that most folks can get with zero dollar premiums."

He made a point to emphasize cancer care (that has been) extended under the ACA.

Biden Considers Issuing EOs on Guns; Demands Congress Pass Assault Weapons Ban

“I don’t need to wait another minute - let alone an hour - to take common-sense steps that will save the lives in the future, and I urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to act,” he said yesterday.

Spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters Biden is “considering a range” of executive actions to try to stop gun violence. Such actions do not require the approval of Congress.

Biden. . .pledged during his presidential campaign to enact gun safety measures. . .
(SNIP)
Activists say executive actions that Biden could take right away include strengthening background checks, giving money to cities to fight gun violence, and regulating the market for “ghost guns” - partially assembled guns that aren’t subject to the same rules as most firearms.

NYT has More details.

Biden Invites Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping to Virtual April Climate Summit

Biden challenging leader of the world's biggest polluter nations to Zoom (?) in along with 40 other heads of state. The ball is in their court, whether Russia and China will choose to lead responsibly, alongside the US under Biden's initiative, to solve a global crisis, or remain uninvolved "me-firsters." Climate change curtailment will require a unified international response by actors willing to create and stick to accords that allow Earth's sustainability.

Creative effective response to international crisis management and open and honest adherence to agreements are neither Russia nor China's strong suit. Nor were they in the US in Trump's administration. We can only wait to see how they RSVP to begin to find out if this crisis provokes change in their "leadership" behavior.

The meeting comes as the world is lagging badly in its efforts to limit end-of-century warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), which scientists say s necessary to avoid triggering climate tipping points that would leave much of the planet inhospitable.

Joe Biden is giving left parties the world over a masterclass in how to use power (Guardian)

He ran as a moderate but is governing as a transforming radical. That’s not a paradox – it’s a winning method...

You may not have noticed, because he is not nearly as in-your-face as his predecessor, but Joe Biden is currently teaching a lesson to left and centre-left parties around the world. True, it’s one they should have learned long ago, but still they should be paying the closest attention. Because Biden is delivering a masterclass...

Biden: DOJ 'taking a look' at GA Voting Law

Draconian suppression of voting rights seems to be the knee-jerk response of sore LOSERS, if GA is any indicator. And it is. Jim Crow 2.0 is alive and well among the party of Southern Strategists and Insurgents who want to burden the voter with unnecessary, even cruel, prohibitions. Like no water or food allowed to be distributed to voters waiting in line(GA).

Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania — three key battleground states — have introduced the most bills to restrict voting, with 22 in both Arizona and Georgia and 15 in Pennsylvania.

All three of which have the trifecta of Republican control.

Referring to GA., President Biden accused Republicans of trying to enact an “un-American law to deny people the right to vote.”. . .

“This law, like so many others being pursued by Republicans in statehouses across the country is a blatant attack on the Constitution and good conscience,” Biden said in a statement issued by the White House.

“This is Jim Crow in the 21st century. It must end. We have a moral and constitutional obligation to act,” he said.

BIDEN: Getting CFPB Back on Its Feet

On day one as president, Biden fired Trump's CFPB lapdog and put Rohit Chopra, a former Democratic commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission and bulldog for consumer rights, in place as Director. During his confirmation hearings, Chopra clearly stated what the future of Elizabeth Warren's brainchild will be.

(Chopra) signaled he wants to return the agency to its former self. During the Trump administration, the CFPB drastically scaled back its enforcement actions, both in number and size, and it relegated concerns, such as fair lending, to a much smaller position inside the bureau.

He has yet to be confirmed as the Biden Administration is likely to seek a delay in Mr. Chopra’s confirmation until it fills the FTC vacancy created by the resignation of former Chairman Joseph Simons. But since he was unanimously approved in 2018 to the FTC, it will be hard for Republican Senators to explain a flip flop on affirming him for the CFPB job.

(As Director he) will return the bureau to aggressively fine and penalize companies for bad behaviors.
(SNIP)
He’s been a vocal critic of when government agencies reach settlements with companies for bad actions but do not fine or penalize the company for the behavior.

“Economically it does not make sense that you rip someone off and don’t have to pay a penalty for it,” Chopra told senators. “Restitution is a critical part of the CFPB’s work.”

He also said he planned to return fair lending to a prominent position inside the bureau.

“It should play a critical role at the bureau,” he said.

More evidence that the Biden Administration is a "for the people" government. Expect the CFPB to become more aggressive in attacking racial discrimination by lenders who charge higher interest rates and demand bigger down payments of the clients of color than their white clients, for instance. Likely the CFPB will become the primary arm to bring relief to borrowers suffering burdensome student loans where interest costs (in some cases) now exceed the principal.

US lifts Trump administration's sanctions on top ICC prosecutor (Guardian)

The United States have lifted sanctions and a travel ban imposed by Donald Trump’s administration on the top prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, calling for a more cooperative relationship. The former secretary of state Mike Pompeo last year imposed sanctions and refused visas for the outgoing prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, after she launched an investigation into alleged war crimes by US military personnel in Afghanistan. The court in The Hague further irritated the US by opening an investigation into alleged war crimes in the Palestinian territories by Israel, a US ally which rejects the authority of the court.

Pompeo’s successor, Antony Blinken, said the United States continued to “disagree strongly” with the moves. “We believe, however, that our concerns about these cases would be better addressed through engagement with all stakeholders in the ICC process rather than through the imposition of sanctions,” Blinken said in a statement...

Biden Admin Accomplishes 4 Million Vaccinations in a Single Day

What a difference an Election Day makes! Number of Americans fully vaccinated up 2% since last reported (about a week ago) to 16.9%.

Put another way by WH Senior Covid Repsonse Advisor. . .

NEW: 4.1 million vaccines reported today. From 3.5 million last Saturday.
— Andy Slavitt (Andy Slavitt)

The bar has been set SO low by the loser orange piece of shit that Biden's administration gets an A for just existing, i.e., NORMAL gets an automatic grade of A. Anything Biden does that is actually good will make it a rating of A+.

That is politics in the year 2021.

Move on.

In the US, Joe Biden is backing the unions. Britain can only look on in envy

The UK needs a political leader who will follow the US president – and put dignified work at the heart of our post-Covid recovery... “I’m a union guy,” the president said. “I support unions. Unions built the middle class. It’s about time they start to get a piece of the action”...

Biden to tackle gun violence with executive actions on ‘ghost guns’ and pistols

The Biden administration has unveiled several executive actions designed to curb gun violence, in the aftermath of the mass shootings in Atlanta and Boulder. The administration is also planning to nominate David Chipman, a former federal agent and gun control advocate, to direct the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives...

Both from the Guardian

US reinstates hundreds of millions in funding to Palestinians, reversing Trump decision (CNN)

The US will resume the flow of hundreds of millions of dollars in aid for Palestinians that was previously halted by the Trump administration. Over $200 million will soon begin to flow to economic, development and humanitarian programs for the Palestinian people, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Wednesday -- a move hailed by both the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which supports displaced Palestinians, and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh. The money will go to UNRWA as well as to Covid-19 recovery efforts, support for basic needs such as food and water, support for civil society and the East Jerusalem Hospital Network, Blinken said. "The United States is committed to advancing prosperity, security, and freedom for both Israelis and Palestinians in tangible ways in the immediate term, which is important in its own right, but also as a means to advance towards a negotiated two-state solution," Blinken said in a statement...

>107 Limelite:

Does that happen? Republican Senators having a hard time justifying opposing something Democrats are doing?

>108 John5918: Trump's solution was just such an authoritarian solution. If someone wants to investigate alleged war crimes, a country can be as verbose in their objection as they want, but as long as it's just investigation, let it go.

Yamiche Alcindor (PBS) @Yamiche | 11:20 AM · Apr 9, 2021:
WH announces a commission on the Supreme Court to look at, among other things,
"the Court’s role in the Constitutional system;
the length of service and turnover of justices on the Court;
the membership and size of the Court; and
the Court’s case selection, rules, and practices."
Image--1 p WH News Release ( https://twitter.com/Yamiche/status/1380541184649617410/photo/1 )

(from The Atlantic Monthly) Welcome to the New Progressive Era :
Progressives thought they knew what a Biden presidency would look like. How did they get him so wrong?
| 6:15 AM ET | by Anand Giridharadas | Publisher of The.Ink newsletter

__________________________

John McWhorter at Substack:

THE ELECT: THE THREAT TO A PROGRESSIVE AMERICA FROM ANTI-BLACK ANTIRACISTS :
Serial excerpt No. 7: Why do so many kind, intelligent people join something so illogical and punitive? | John McWhorter

Biden becomes first US president to recognise Armenian genocide (Guardian)

President called Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday to inform him US would make designation on 106th anniversary of the genocide...

Biden says Armenian mass killing was genocide (BBC)

Joe Biden has become the first US president to issue a statement formally describing the 1915 massacre of Armenians as a genocide. The killings took place in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, the forerunner of modern-day Turkey. But the issue is highly sensitive, with Turkey acknowledging atrocities but rejecting the term "genocide"...

Trump’s former economic expert Larry Kudlow in his new job on Fox warning the country that part of Biden’s nefarious upcoming scheme is to force people to drink plant based beer. July 4th will never be the same.

>117 lriley: When I read about his comment I wondered what world he's been living in where that isn't how beer is made.

>118 rastaphrog: He might should have checked his facts with Justice Kavanaugh.

#118–having seen him absolutely hammered and sloshed on television before it makes me wonder if he ever puts any thought into his consumption habits. Never been in a brewery before, never in a distillery, never in a winery because if he had you would think he he’d have at least some idea yet he’s not always sober for his TV appearances. Part of the trumpian universe. Make things up and say stupid shit. Go figure.

>118 rastaphrog:

Reminds me of when we were at university almost 50 years ago and we decided to tease our vegetarian friend (they were very rare in those days) by telling him that his favourite beer, Newcastle Brown Ale, contained animal products. He promptly ceased drinking it, wrote to the brewery, and would not drink it again until he received a reply from them assuring him that their beer did not contain any animal products at all. At that point he went back on the booze and made up for lost time. Out of interest I just googled the beer and not only is it vegetarian but also vegan.

How Biden anchored his first 100 days on two simple principles (CNN)

The increasingly radical presidency of Joe Biden was built on a straightforward foundation: putting Covid-19 shots in arms and stimulus checks in the bank. "When I took office, I decided that -- it was a fairly basic, simple proposition, and that is I got elected to solve problems," Biden said at his first official news conference in March. "And the most urgent problem facing the American people, I stated from the outset, was Covid-19 and the economic dislocation for millions and millions of Americans"...

Biden 100 days: What we all got wrong about him (BBC)

We reported that Joe Biden - all 78 years of him - would be a transitional president. He would be there to lower the political temperature; try to heal a divided nation. Take the absurd politics out of the response to Covid. Improve vaccine roll out. Drain the poison from the body politic. But that aside, not do too much...

But maybe we've got that all wrong. Is it possible that far from being transitional, he's transformational? And that word is not freighted with a positive or negative connotation - it is merely a statement based on the ambition of what we've seen so far. And voters will soon decide whether it's for better or worse...

>123 John5918:

Biden seems to have set himself on a path to out-do Franklin Roosevelt and construct an historical presidency that may -- when historians sit down to argue the question -- be regarded as a watershed in the USA's history.

I think much will depend on if he can turn back the creeping neo-fascism that threatens us and some of Europe's democracies. My hope is that his policy agenda of actually helping people with Covid relief (done), and his anticipated Jobs Act and Families Act will convince citizens that big government is and can be the solution to BIGGER problems, with the following caveat.

Biden's success depends on directly helping the people who need help, not helping the people and entities who don't in the hopes that their lack of need will incentivize "help" to trickle down and aid those in extreme need. The Reagan Doctrine needs to be destroyed since it proved over and over to be no more than a myth that created the mounting obscene wealth gap and still keeps workers in thrall to employers.

>124 Limelite:, I think the biggest problem is still the Democrat-Republican divide. It's a legitimate Republican criticism, that a president who said he aimed to collaborate across party lines has been racing to do as much partisan work as possible while Democrats have control. He didn't consult with them on a lot of his biggest huge actions, and is signing executive orders left and right. It's continuing the pattern of "whoever holds the cards calls the shots" and perpetuates the fight to grab them all.

>125 Cecrow:

Concerning the opinion of the people as opposed to the politicians, you might take heart from reading CNN's poll results of people who watched Pres. Biden's speech, immediately following it.

A smattering sample --

68% said Biden has had the right priorities so far as president
64% said the proposals he outlined in the speech were about right ideologically
58% said that Biden made the right amount of outreach to Republicans in his speech

Impressively --

Among Republicans, the share saying Biden's policies would move the country in the right direction grew from 13% pre-speech to 27% post-speech. More than doubled. Of course, those watchers were unlikely to have been Trumpty-Dumbpties.

Know that America is not divided over the Biden Administrations plans for reshaping our post-Shitegibbon period. They're enthusiastically behind it. The division between right and left is a handy fabrication wedge issue for Republicans to corral their base in a falsehood bubble, a reinforcement of the disgruntleds' feelings of abused entitlement. The squealing of the ungreased wheel.

A long time coming but the idea that trickle down economics ever was workable hopefully finally ends. It works when you’re already wealthy or super wealthy. Otherwise it doesn’t work at all and it pits people against each other in this deserving/not deserving dynamic. Happy societies are built from the ground up and not from the top down. The wealth needs to be spread around a whole lot more and into all communities.

Biden administration releases Trump-era deadly force rules for terrorist suspects abroad (CNN)

The Biden administration disclosed Trump-era rules on Friday regulating the use of deadly force against terrorism suspects abroad, releasing them with several redacted lines to the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Times as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit after the Trump administration refused to make them public. The rules, which President Joe Biden suspended on his first day in office while his administration began reviewing them, according to the Times, have come under criticism for making exceptions to standards about how and where "direct action" attacks were allowed outside war zones...

"Over four administrations, the U.S. government's unlawful lethal strikes program has exacted an appalling toll on Muslim, Brown, and Black civilians in multiple parts of the world. Secretive and unaccountable use of lethal force is unacceptable in a rights-respecting democracy, and this program is a cornerstone of the 'forever wars' President Biden has pledged to end. He needs to do so"...

Richard Cordray to Oversee Federal Student Loans and Financial Aid

Excellent appointment of former head of CFPB who will be strong proponent in support of student loan relief. A definite win for the Progressive wing of the Democrtaic Party.

Cordray’s appointment to lead the Education Department’s Office of Federal Student Aid was announced on Monday by Secretary Miguel Cardona, who praised his “strong track record as a dedicated public servant who can tackle big challenges and get results.”

Cordray is a strong ally of Sen. ELizabeth Warren, who said, Cordray will bring “much needed accountability to the federal student loan program.”

In a smooth move, it looks like the Biden Administration did a job swap to fill two positions with directors who have strong Progressive credentials.

. . .Rohit Chopra, President Biden’s nominee to lead the consumer bureau, served as the CFPB’s top student loan official during much of the Obama administration.

Chopra and Cordray already have a strong working relationship which should ensure continuity and cooperation in commonality. Cordray will serve a three year term that does not require Senate confirmation. Nicely done, Sleepy Joe.

The jobs numbers were unexpectedly poor, inflation has arrived, the CDC is waffling, we are no longer energy independent, the price of gas has gone up and the supply has gone down, some of our cities are still experiencing protests that are no longer covered by the media, war has broken out in the Middle East, Iran, China and North Korea are saber rattling and Biden is being judged as weak by many. Are the criticisms warranted?

Biden's tax return shows steep fall in income (BBC)

Joe Biden has brought back a US presidential tradition by releasing his tax return, the White House said. The filing shows he and his wife earned $607,336 (£430,000) last year and paid $157,414 in federal income tax. Their income fell from 2019 when they earned $985,223 mostly from speeches, book sales and positions at higher education institutions. Donald Trump refused to release his tax returns, the first president not to do so since the Watergate era...

Thanks so much for replying. Donald Trump did not take a salary. Biden earned far more in the two years prior, making money off the office as did Clinton and Obama, but not Trump.
I do not believe that the issue is tax returns, or Trump, or Biden, specifically; it is the security of the country. Tax returns do nothing for that.
It is the witch hunt that takes our eye off the ball, so we do not deal with reality. Let's discuss the real issues and not deflect to talking points. Then maybe we can actually make some progress toward real discussion.
I listed some above.
Here are some others, the cancel culture if the shoe were on the other foot and the principles of a "woke" society. I love real conversations, not pointing fingers. Are these crises and policies good for America?
I am asking an honest question about the above conversation but I received a reply promoted by talking heads. I prefer someone's own thoughts.

Anti-Biden Retired Generals & Admirals Got Punked

Last week, over 120 retired military generals and admirals, members of Flag Officers 4 America, penned an open letter buying into the MAGARat conspiracy theory of the Big Lie and questioning whether President Biden has the mental fitness required to perform his job, proving there's no age limit on gullibility. That's no excuse. These guys should have known better. Did whack-o Republican Q-Anon ideology blind them to uncommon common sense? Among the signees. . .

Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc, who is running for senate in New Hampshire; Army Lt. Gen. William Boykin, the former deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence for former President George W. Bush; Vice Adm. John Poindexter, the former national security adviser under President Ronald Reagan; and Army Maj. Gen. Joseph Arbuckle, a Vietnam War vet.

The only positive to come out of their stupid gaffe was that they proved Hillary Clinton was absolutely correct -- again -- in her assessment of them and the letter when she took to Twitter to call the letter "bizarre, shameful, and untrue."

Not just gullible but too lazy to check the credentials of their fellow signatories. One of the names that ended up on the list was an imposter who went by the fake name, "Rear Adm. Jack Meehoff." Sounds a little like another super conman who died in prison for his criminal scam just days before the letter circulated among the tarnished brass. Bernie Madoff.

Not just gullible, stupid, and lazy, but deafened by their pro-Trumpty-Dumbpty leanings, possibly.

Pronounce "Jack Meehoff" out loud, dear readers.

A "real" rear admiral, one might be tempted to observe, if one appreciated double entendres.

After Christopher Mathias of the Huffington Post wrote a May 12 story about the letter, he received an email the following day from someone showing how he had managed to get the apocryphal “Rear Adm. Jack Meehoff” added to the list of signatories.

Mathias later tweeted emails from the man, whose name he redacted, showing how he had provided the false name to retired Army Maj. Gen. Joseph Arbuckle, who left active duty in 2000.

“Thank you for your support,” Arbuckle replied. “Your name will be added to the letter today. Thank you for standing tall.” But, DUHHH. . .flag officer “Jack Meehoff” doesn't exist in the Navy’s records, "said Cmdr. David Hecht, a spokesman for the Chief of Naval Personnel, who confirmed the name is a fake."

On Monday, Task & Purpose spoke to “Jack Meehoff” – not his real name – who said he was prompted to prank the cabal of McCarthyites because he felt their open letter was “f—ing absurd”, especially in the context of the Jan. 6 riots.

But it would have been entirely appropriate anytime over the past four years when the Orange Shitegibbon occupied the White House. I wonder why that didn't dawn of the Fab Flags?

No point in having a discussion when you post such nonsense. I could do the same from the opposite point of view. Half the country disagrees so your attitude is part of the problem not the solution.
I hope you enjoy your Marxist regime.

Biden got 7 million + more votes than Trump in the 2020 election. Saying half the country disagrees is stupid—not even close. Over two straight elections the dumpster is about 10 million in the hole. He’s the ultimate loser and about the most patriotic thing he could do for the country is drop dead.

>130 thewanderingjew:
The Fed uses the PCE price index as it's primary inflation measure. The Fed has target rate of 2% and from March 2020 to March 2021 it went up 2.3%. This measure does not incorporate gas and food prices which are traded on the commodities market and considered volatile. It's pretty much understood by economists, if not the general public, that the President has little influence on the price of oil.

"some of our cities are still experiencing protests that are no longer covered by the media"
So how do you know about them? Maybe don't answer that. I'll refer you to the First Amendment:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances"

Seems it's okay for people to protest. It does not require the media to cover the protest.

"war has broken out in the Middle East"
This doesn't seem unprecedented. Maybe look to sell that time-share on the Gaza Strip.

"Biden is being judged as weak by many"
I agree with this; Trump, McConnell, Giuliani, Trump Jr. to name a few.

>134 thewanderingjew:
You wandered in. You can wander out.

I would suggest starting a separate debate in a new topic. This one is for following Biden presidency headlines.

I voted for Biden but really I don’t even like him. This idea that he’s some kind of socialist is just dumb and pathetic. If only. You can see him right now giving Bibi and his apartheid regime a pass. It’s like Joe has a good 30/40 years of one bad center right vote after another. Do republicans even understand there’s a voting record that can be checked out? Really Joe is a conservative and the idea that Kamala is a socialist is just as stupid. Some idiots have been out in the hot sun too long. They’ve boiled their brains away. But really is it just because Donald says stupid shit that makes it true? A pathetic and graceless oaf and a sore loser. An instigator of mobs and responsible for the Capitol riot. Donald should be in prison.

America is operating on two sets of facts. The difference is in the source and credibility factors. You either believe in verifiable evidence or else you believe anything.

My consolation is that LT attracts readers and it's clear which side the bulk of us are landing on.

56% Americans APPROVE Biden's Handling Palestinian/Israeli Conflict

Latest Hill-HarrisX polling: Roughly eight in 10 Democratic voters approve of Biden's handling of the situation, along with 69 percent of independents.

Seventy-seven percent of Republicans said they disapprove of Biden on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

In a related story. . .

President Joe Biden greatly increased the pressure on Israel to end the war with the Palestinians that has killed more than 200 people, telling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a telephone call Wednesday that he expected “significant de-escalation” by day’s end.

Until now, the president has relied on behind the scenes heavy diplomatic pressure and had opposed the UN motion to condemn Israel. However, Netanyahu's aggressive pursuit of countering Palestinian rocket attacks with Israeli bombing seems firm. Even in the face of Egypt's unsuccessful attempts to broker a cease fire between the two.

Netanyahu had given no sign of plans to immediately wind down Israeli airstrikes targeting Hamas leaders and supply tunnels in Gaza, a 25-mile by 6-mile strip of territory that is home to more than 2 million people.

“You can either conquer them, and that’s always an open possibility, or you can deter them,” he told foreign ambassadors. “We are engaged right now in forceful deterrence, but I have to say, we don’t rule out anything.”

I have to say that I’m not impressed at all with Biden or the Democratic Party leadership on the current (or even past) Israeli/Palestinian dispute. This all flames up again with more illegal Israeli incursions into East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Protecting the thievery of settlers with the Army and police and the court system. It’s an apartheid state that is attempting in its own way to ethnically cleansed both Jerusalem and the West Bank. This bullshit that Israel has a right to protect itself when it has the entire apparatus of state power and uses it disproportionately to punish Palestinians—murdering non-combatants at will and fencing in over 2 million people in what amounts to an open air prison.

The pressure from democrats and the Biden administration should be to stop the illegal removals of Palestinians from their homes and to force the Israeli’s to give Palestinians full citizenship rights. Instead we’re giving them another $758 million in military aid. That’s not a great signal. Instead it’s shit, shit, shit. We owe nothing to Netanyahu who is a complete right wing fuckhead.

Palestine needs an Iron Dome--and an iron umbrella for each of its people... Two states are no longer possible. Apartheid is unacceptable. That leaves a normal democratic country?

>143 margd: That leaves a normal democratic country?

Yeah, that would be nice. But will Israel go for it?

I mean, you get peace and prosperity, but you've got to give up apartheid. That shouldn't be a hard call but Israel has been sticking on that for a while.

>143 margd: That leaves a normal democratic country?

You think you can forge a normal democratic country from two sides that hate each other and are pummeling each other with rockets? Can you convince the Jews that the Palestinians won't immediately try to oppress and destroy the Jews among them? It's easy to say "you get peace and prosperity", but I doubt most of the people of Israel see it that way, and I'm a bit skeptical myself.

Cease Fire Announced in Gaza Conflict

Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas have agreed to a cease-fire, they announced in separate statements on Thursday afternoon, pausing their worst clash since 2014. Purely speculation on my part, but I think two things that went on behind the scenes and one thing that happened in the warfare may have led to the quick change.

1. Egypt was increasingly successful in its diplomatic outreach to Hamas, convincing them that their situation is hopeless when it comes to engaging in all-out armed warfare with Israel. In short, Egypt persuaded the remnants of the Hamas leadership that the better part of valor was retreat.

2. Biden made it crystal clear to Netanyahu that there would be no arms deal fulfilled if they continued and that future US military aid would be drastically cut or eliminated. I think "The Squad's" opposition to Israeli shelling and bombing gave Biden the "out" he needed to bring pressure to bear on Israel. That combined with the international pressure from France and other nations following the destruction of the building that housed two world news agencies got the Western actors on the same page. France is another supplier of arms to Israel.

3. I think the Israeli "defense" forces managed to inflict sufficient death, destruction, and damage to the Hamas leadership, HQs, and underground tunnel systems that they were running out, or had run out, of targets that warranted the kind of expensive materiel being poured into Gaza. Diminishing returns cooled their blood.

Right wingers may say what they will but Biden responded appropriately to the crisis, holding his fire until he had his back protected by The Squad and France, and had the assurances from Egypt that they would do their part to achieve his goal of international diplomatic and financial aid threats producing the desired outcome, using carrot/stick persuasion. Biden had the insurance, as well, that the American people were solidly behind him, bolstering him politically with their majority approval of his handling of the crisis.

Let's just acknowledge that Biden has scored two victories on the international stage this week. Deescalating hostilities in Gaza, and letting the Russians know that there's a seasoned pro back in the WH. The Blinken-Lavrov meeting in Reykjavik produced an easing of tensions after the US delivered an unambiguous message that we (and our allies) would protect our interests vis a vis Ukraine and everywhere else. Yesterday, Biden waived the sanctions on Nord Stream pipeline Company., after signaling Russia to not get too aggressive in militarizing the Arctic region.

All these negotiations, including the possible resumption of nuclear regulation treaty talks with Iran are in their infancy, remain delicate, and have not yet withstood the test of time. In spite of those caveats, it's clear that the US has returned to the diplomatic posture that Hillary Clinton and Madeline Albright exemplified during their tenures as Sec'y. of State: Measured, thought out, firm, and respectful, initially, with the clear message that we will not roll over on our backs while emitting insubstantial tough talk and engaging in empty suited swaggering on the world stage, which characterized Trump's foreign "policy."

Carrrot/stick is the approach Biden seems to favor in dealings with both Netanyahu and Putin. Sanity and professionalism have been successful -- so far.

Commerce Department security unit evolved into counterintelligence-like operation, Washington Post examination found
Shawn Boburg | May 24, 2021

An obscure security unit tasked with protecting the Commerce Department’s officials and facilities has evolved into something more akin to a counterintelligence operation that collected information on hundreds of people inside and outside the department, a Washington Post examination found.

The Investigations and Threat Management Service (ITMS) covertly searched employees’ offices at night, ran broad keyword searches of their emails trying to surface signs of foreign influence and scoured Americans’ social media for critical comments about the census, according to documents and interviews with five former investigators.

...Incoming Commerce leaders from the Biden administration ordered ITMS (Investigations and Threat Management Service ) to pause all criminal investigations on March 10, and on May 13 ordered the suspension of all activities after preliminary results of an ongoing review, according to a statement issued by department spokeswoman Brittany Caplin...The suspension came two days after The Post presented its findings about the unit to the department and sought interviews...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2021/05/24/commerce-department-mon...

US halts all federal executions amid review of capital punishment (Guardian)

The US attorney general has imposed a moratorium on all federal executions while the justice department reviews its policies and procedures on capital punishment. Civil rights and criminal justice advocates have been pushing for a halt following a wave of controversial executions under the Trump administration. Citing the disproportionate impact of capital punishment on people of color, and deep controversy over the drugs used to put people to death, the attorney general, Merrick Garland, ordered a temporary pause on scheduling executions...

Why Biden's Popularity Has Soared and Stayed High

Biden's gesture of empathetic humanity to Gov. DeSantis during his visit to Surfside following condo collapse.

The Miami Herald

"MartyrMade," writing on Twitter :

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1413165168956088321.html


See also:

Margot Cleveland The Federalist (Washington, D.C.) 9 July 2021

"New Evidence Indicates Enough Illegal Votes In Georgia To Tip 2020 Results"

( https://thefederalist.com/2021/07/09/new-evidence-indicates-enough-illegal-votes... )

>150 proximity1: Let's break this down for the audience, shall we, rather than require them to read The Federalist?

According to an article in a historically biased and unreliable source, there were potentially somewhere between 10000 and 35000 ballots cast in the wrong district in Georgia. These are for residents that potentially moved between counties in Georgia, based on COA notifications. Note that that is BETWEEN COUNTIES, not out of state, even according to an ultra-conservative source. There's no proof that they actualy permanently moved, which means they could be students, or they could have temporarily relocated, and therefore voted in the correct district. In fact, it is quite likely that a large number of those voters did exactly that.

However, lets assume, for the sake of argument, that every one of these ballots was cast incorrectly. That's 35000 ballots cast that were technically "illegal" -- by which I mean that there was an issue with the ballot itself, not that the person casting that ballot did anything intentionally wrong. They likely simply forgot to vote in their new district, an issue made more likely by absentee ballots.

Now, lets look at this logically. First, this was a presidential election, which means that these ballots were for a state-wide contest. It would not have MATTERED what district the vote was cast in -- which makes it highly unlikely that this was a deliberate act designed to steal the election. For that matter, even for the two senate races, the district was irrelevant. That makes it even less likely that this was a deliberate attempt to hijack the election. In fact, the chance that this was a deliberate attempt at election chicanery is essentially zero, because not changing districts served no purpose.

With that fact in mind, let's look at those 35000 potential ballots. In order for those votes, had they all been tossed on a technicality, to throw the election to Biden, you have to assume that those 35000 ballots gained him a net positive of 11779 votes (the 12670 votes stated in the article were the certified result, but recounts reduced the margin slightly, so I'm going by worst-case numbers). That would mean that 23389 of those ballots, assuming that they were ALL invalid (a statistical impossibility), would have had to be cast for Mr. Biden. In other words, 67% of these almost certainly random ballots would have had to go to Joe Biden, in a state that Biden only won overall by .23%. That strains statistical credulity far past the point of breaking.

In fact, even the article itself makes a telling statement, from the primary source. To quote Davis: “That number continues to increase every day as more and more people update their registrations. I have little doubt that the total number will eventually meet and then exceed President Biden’s margin of victory in Georgia.”

Note a very critical factor here. Davis has little doubt that the total number of potentially invalid votes -- not the total number of votes for President Biden -- will eventually exceed the spread between Biden and Trump. And, of course, for that spread to have changed the election results, they would have ALL had to be for President Biden, in an essentially random collection of ballots. Hardly.

In other words, non-story, non-issue, non-fraud, and nonsense.

>150 proximity1: Ignoring >151 ljbryant:, cool. If you can prove that Georgia was stolen, you only need another 21 electoral votes to show the election was stolen.

As for that twitter thread "This is where people whose political identity was largely defined by a naive belief in what they learned in Civics class ... and hate ppl who don't stand for the Anthem." I.E. they didn't learn about the First Amendment or West Virginia v. Barnette in civics class. These are people who think that "one nation, indivisible, under God, with liberty and justice for all" means that Jehovah Witnesses who believe God forbids them to pledge allegiance to anything else don't deserve to be treated with liberty and justice as an indivisible part of this nation.

"If that were true, they'd be all over the Epstein story." What Epstein story? The Wikipedia page on Epstein offers some 80 people named Epstein, plus a few more links. How should I know which one has to do with "the Epstein story"?

You think I'm being sarcastic, that I read articles like https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trump-and-jeffrey-epstein-partied... where the mainstream press was all over the Epstein story. I don't know why you'd think that, since you just argued the mainstream press didn't cover the Epstein story.

"Tens of millions of people will always see Kavanaugh as a gang rapist, based on nothing" except, you know, the testimony of the woman he attacked. The facts don't care about your feelings, unless you're Right-wing, then your feelings are the facts.

"They led a lynch mob against a high school kid." Kid not in fact lynched.

"They cheered on a summer of riots." Which I would pass by without making a distinction between protests and riots if it weren't for the fact that we're talking about "the perspective of most of the people at the Capitol on 1/6", who apparently have no problem with riots, so long as it's not black people doing them.

"It's a different thing to watch them invent stories whole cloth in order to destroy regular lives and spark mass violence." Once again, facts don't care about your feelings... unless you're right-wing. George Floyd is dead because a cop murdered him, and has been so convicted in a court of law.

"Throughout the summer, Democrat governors took advantage of COVID to change voting procedures." The Texas governor put a drop box in every country--one in Republican-leaning Loving County, population 200, one in Democratic-leaning Harris County, population four million-and sued when the largest counties tried to put out more than one drop box.

"It's a fact that governors used COVID to unconstitutionally alter election procedures (the Constitution states that only legislatures can do so) to help Biden to make up for a massive enthusiasm gap by gaming the mail-in ballot system." The Republican governors of Arizona and Georgia gamed the system for Biden? The lawsuits in PA were over changes the Legislature made. As for enthusiasm gap, one person, one vote, except where we can make it hard enough to vote (just for those voters who would vote the way we don't like) to stop them from voting.

"their gov't is monopolized by a Regime that believes they are beneath representation"

Is it that that line about "naive belief in what they learned in Civics class" a lie, or did Civics class fail them totally, or is it some mix of the two? One person, black or white, of any age 18 or up, one vote. When seven million more people vote for Biden instead of Trump, Biden is president. Yes, yes, the electoral college; where Biden had 74 more votes than Trump. Trumpists have more than their share of the Senate and the Supreme Court, but they're denied representation unless their minority vote can control the presidency as well.

>There are saints among us who bother to patiently explain how to read to people on whom such a quality is wasted due to their inability to reason. Kinda like trying to teach voice commands to a deaf dog. Still, gotta admire it.

Today, actually. I dropped in on your psychiatrist. He warned me about you. To which I had no reply.

Glenn Greenwald writes about the "MartyrMade" (IRL: Darryl Cooper) tweet:

"Outside Voices
"Author of the Mega-Viral Thread on MAGA Voters, Darryl Cooper, Explains His Thinking |

"Tucker Carlson devoted seven minutes of airtime to reading it. Donald Trump heaped praise on it. Why did this Twitter analysis resonate so widely on the right?"

https://outsidevoices.substack.com/p/author-of-the-mega-viral-thread-on

TRUTH Hurts

>156 Earthling1: If we're ignoring reality, Boris Johnson is Prime Minister of the UK, and therefore of the American colonies. But by American law and simple reality of control, Biden is President. Trump runs nothing.

>157 proximity1: Because the right believes the facts care about their feelings.

You care about the BIGLY LOSER Donald Trump to a bizarre degree, though. Why don't you orient your emotional response in that case to the Bojo setting on the dial and get it off the Bozo setting?

More Confirmation of Hillary Clinton, the Steele Dossier, and Meuller Report -- from the KREMLIN!

The Guardian has the exclusive on "The Kremlin Papers," a secret security briefing document that directly confirms 1) Russian official campaign of supporting Trump in the '16 election and indirectly confirms 2) Russian kompromat on Trump that was held over his head to compromise him. The leaked document from a closed security briefing has been authenticated and has been know to certain foreign (non-Russian) intelligence agencies for months, including the US intelligence services from at least Biden's term in office.

It's clear that Putin gave the orders to interfere in our election, down to detailing the various prongs of attack that would be used -- mainly hacking (DNC); media disinformation campaigns (social media scam accounts); the exploitation of rising racist resentments on the right post-Obama and other divisive "identity" issues that divide right from left in this country. And, as we are all aware, that is exactly what happened. Nothing less than a stolen election as a result of foreign -- Russian -- interference by three separate Russian intelligence services acting on the orders of Vladimir Putin.

Trump, his sycophants, and his cultist chattel can insist that Putin had nothing to hold over Trump to coerce his pro-Russian stance during his presidency. But the Kremlin Papers show nothing about the "salacious bits" in the Steele Report and the multitude of circumstantial evidence of Trump being in Putin's thrall is erroneous or inaccurate.

The report – “No 32-04 \ vd” – is classified as secret. It says Trump is the “most promising candidate” from the Kremlin’s point of view. The word in Russian is perspektivny.

There is a brief psychological assessment of Trump, who is described as an “impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex”.The paper refers to “certain events” that happened during Trump’s trips to Moscow. Security council members are invited to find details in appendix five, at paragraph five, the document states. It is unclear what the appendix contains.*

“It is acutely necessary to use all possible force to facilitate his (Trump’s) election to the post of US president,” the paper says.
(SNIP)
A Trump win “will definitely lead to the destabilisation of the US’s sociopolitical system” and see hidden discontent burst into the open, it predicts.

*Because the appendix is not disclosed to The Guardian. It's not a stretch to deduce that the Western intelligence community is fully aware of the kompromat found in the appendix.

There, for the record, is the first source confirmation of the FBI's conclusion regarding Russian interference in the '16 election, and Trump's cooperative orientation to our adversary's goals throughout his term. There is the case made that Trump rightfully is guilty of betraying the country and Constitution he was sworn to defend; there is the first source confirmation that he was rightly impeached and should have also been rightfully convicted based on the evidence presented by House Impeachment officers and -- once again -- confirmed by the adversary himself.

Trump's perfidy, Trump's lies, Trump's cowardice confirmed by Vladimir Putin and Russian intelligence.

Not fake news; not a leftist conspiracy; never a witch hunt. Worst American president ever. Best Russian asset ever.

>162 Limelite: Some security specialists express caution.

https://theweek.com/donald-trump/1002647/ex-us-cybersecurity-chief-urges-skeptic...

"This is far too convenient & reeks of #disinfo operation“

>163 2wonderY:

Good catch. Yes, remain skeptical is always good advice. However, isn't this really nothing more (except details)than confirmation of the FBI's opinion regarding Russian interference in the election that Trump & Republicans continually maligned? . .You know, the impetus for Trump to believe Putin over American intelligence (and all such Western agencies). That very choice of his lends credence to the Putin Papers.

I'll never forget Trump's whipped dog look at the Helsinki meeting with Putin, who was wreathed in smiles. Admittedly without proof, I've always felt that that meeting was when Putin made it clear to Trump that he had him by the proverbials.

As for the "pee tapes," well, that should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism because the label is not pretending to be literal; it's just a sarcastic label that attached itself to the info that Putin probably has on Trump, but remains behind the veil. After all, it was purportedly generated before the guy became a politician and it's just as likely it has to do with Trump's precarious financial arrangements and "unconventional" method of business dealing vis a vis his Moscow hotel proposal, or some other real estate ventures in Russia.

Still, it could be like the Steele Dossier -- pooh-poohed as fake, but so far, not proven fake. Quite the opposite.

>24 timspalding:

Etiamnunc "Deo gratias", Bruté?

Biden: Nostrum clade duram est et sine fine

posting was continued here ~
https://www.librarything.com/topic/333711