The Biden Administration

[Virtual ghost]

US gun control: Could Joe Biden's plan backfire?


You guys know all about this but this is so third world debate in book.
Of course that you have to defend yourself when the whole landscape is full of guns. To the point that you can't really control where is each gun and almost any amount of police is probably insufficient because they can't be everywhere. Plus they have to be on the basis of "shoot and ask questions latter" for the sake of their own safety.

 

[Jaq]

US gun control: Could Joe Biden's plan backfire?


You guys know all about this but this is so third world debate in book.
Of course that you have to defend yourself when the whole landscape is full of guns. To the point that you can't really control where is each gun and almost any amount of police is probably insufficient because they can't be everywhere. Plus they have to be on the basis of "shoot and ask questions latter" for the sake of their own safety.

Trump wanted to take guns too, no one seems to remember lol.

 

[Merced]

Okay, okay, I will concede that I shouldn't just blindly despise the President and at least give him a fair shot before going straight to protesting at his every move. I just really don't want the "Push him left after he is elected" to become "Wait for 2024 if you want a leftist in office", so my willingness to label the credit people give him as liberal bullshit comes from a place of defense. There's so much neoliberal bullshit in the air, I shouldn't just accuse everything I don't like a symptom of late stage capitalism.

Blah, blah, blah, unity. Blah, blah, blah, America. Blah, blah, blah, political discourse at its finest.

(I still don't like the guy and if we don't get Medicare For All, I'll never will.)

 

[Jaguar]

Indian-American Neera Tanden as his pick for Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Neera Tanden, (50), would be the first woman of colour to head the influential budget office at the White House.

Come on, Joe. Just forget about it. Can you try and do something my way? Hire for competence and forget the "first woman of color" shit for the job. Jesus.

On a side note: I'm digging Merrick Garland's answers so far. Refreshing.

 

[Stigmata]

Okay, okay, I will concede that I shouldn't just blindly despise the President and at least give him a fair shot before going straight to protesting at his every move. I just really don't want the "Push him left after he is elected" to become "Wait for 2024 if you want a leftist in office", so my willingness to label the credit people give him as liberal bullshit comes from a place of defense. There's so much neoliberal bullshit in the air, I shouldn't just accuse everything I don't like a symptom of late stage capitalism.

Blah, blah, blah, unity. Blah, blah, blah, America. Blah, blah, blah, political discourse at its finest.

(I still don't like the guy and if we don't get Medicare For All, I'll never will.)

Honestly, it has embraced more leftist policies than even I would've anticipated thus far. The only thing I haven't heard much talk about lately from him is M4A/government option healthcare program, which I'm not really sure is either because covid-19 and the related relief bill is taking center stage right now or because he is reneging on healthcare.

I just don't understand what has or hasn't within his first month that people are already up in arms about. Has he made some questionable cabinet picks? Uh, sure. Maybe. OK, I'll roll with that. He has prioritized the latest relief package, which is and should be at the forefront. I just can't understand everyone's outrage thus far, though. It just seems like some on the fact are so disenchanted with the entire political process, they aren't willing to look too far outside their own outrage to really see what is happening in real time.

Policy wise, what he has prioritized and championed has been more left-leaning than Obama and Clinton.

 

[Coriolis]

Okay, okay, I will concede that I shouldn't just blindly despise the President and at least give him a fair shot before going straight to protesting at his every move. I just really don't want the "Push him left after he is elected" to become "Wait for 2024 if you want a leftist in office", so my willingness to label the credit people give him as liberal bullshit comes from a place of defense. There's so much neoliberal bullshit in the air, I shouldn't just accuse everything I don't like a symptom of late stage capitalism.

Blah, blah, blah, unity. Blah, blah, blah, America. Blah, blah, blah, political discourse at its finest.

(I still don't like the guy and if we don't get Medicare For All, I'll never will.)

I have wanted some sort of universal health care ever since I was old enough to understand what that meant. Still, it is foolish to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. We are not going to dig ourselves out of the holes Trump dug on so many issues overnight. Biden is an important step in the right direction, even if some of us wish he could move faster.

Yeeeeeeaaaah. I have a problem with that Bingo game - as you might imagine. I have one rule: The best person for the job is who I hire. Always. Screw gender, age, race, or sexual orientation. And if you passed my unorthodox interview process and didn't cave under pressure when I ripped up your resume in front of you just to see how you'd react, then you made the cut. I do weird shit to see what people are made of. It saves time.

Joe's process is different. He stated long ago his team would look like America. Maybe that's why he nominated Neener Neener Neera - she looks like an American who spends far too much time on social media stabbing people in the back.

Gee - I never considered you one for theatrics. I wonder what line of work you are in, where such antics would be an accurate predictor of success on the job.

That's why there is senate confirmation - to weed out the unqualified. I trust the senate can come up with better arguments than mangling her name. It is a demonstrated trend that people hire people like themselves, whether in gender, race, background, even recruiting from their own alma mater. Making the effort to look beyond that in the interests of not overlooking qualified candidates with different pedigrees isn't bingo, it's responsible. Note I said "candidates". Qualified people in underrepresented groups can't even be considered if they don't get this far. A proper vetting or interview process ensures they get no further if they are not the most qualified.

Hiring is not a math problem, though, and there are often multiple equally qualified applicants. I have no problem with using diversity factors as a tiebreaker, especially if the position involves significant engagement with a particular subset of the population. As I said before, when "the best person for the job" is usually a straight, Christian, white man, something is wrong somewhere.

 

[Jaguar]

Gee - I never considered you one for theatrics.

I think you're confused. By all means, jump to conclusions you know nothing about. Again. And again. And again.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I think you're confused. By all means, jump to conclusions you know nothing about. Again. And again. And again.

U don't get the job, bro. Can't work well under pressure.

 

[Jaguar]

Judge Merrick B. Garland said on Monday that the United States faces “a more dangerous period” from domestic extremists than it faced at the time of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and praised the early stages of the investigation into the “white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol” on Jan. 6 as appropriately aggressive.

“I can assure you that this would be my first priority and my first briefing when I return to the department if I am confirmed,” Judge Garland told the Senate Judiciary Committee at his confirmation hearing to be attorney general.


Judge Garland, 68, who led the Justice Department’s investigation into the Oklahoma City bombing, also vowed to uphold the independence of a Justice Department that had suffered deep politicization under the Trump administration. “I do not plan to be interfered with by anyone,” Judge Garland said. Should he be confirmed, he said he would uphold the principle that “the attorney general represents the public interest.”

I was pleased to hear this.

 

[Virtual ghost]

In Texas there is a number of seats that could be vulnerable in 2022 (on both sides).
So with the current mess there and how everyone in high politics is behaving could have large impact on how the 2022 will play out country wide. Since it is not impossible that Blue Trifecta could be defended exactly down there.

 

[Virtual ghost]

Beto for governor ?

 

[Jaguar]

 

[Virtual ghost]

To me it is basically impossible to culturally understand that you can vote in partisan way against the bill that will help the whole country get through the crisis and not lose plenty of votes.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

To me it is basically impossible to culturally understand that you can vote in partisan way again the bill that will help the whole country get through the crisis and not lose plenty of votes.

Those people think the virus was made up or exaggerated just to make Trump look bad, though.

 

[Virtual ghost]

Those people think the virus was made up or exaggerated just to make Trump look bad, though.

I know, but I really don't get the mindset of voting against what will help people in what is objective crisis (and hopping to get awarded for that). Since here this kind of stuff would cause electoral landslides if not snap elections (or perhaps something even more radical). When shit really hits the government has a duty to try keeping things together (and bailing out people is a part of that). Therefore those that are messing with this (in power and in opposition) should get crushed in the terms of votes. Everything else is kinda masochism on the part of voters.

 

[ceecee]

I know, but I really don't get the mindset of voting against what will help people in what is objective crisis (and hopping to get awarded for that). Since here this kind of stuff would cause electoral landslides if not snap elections (or perhaps something even more radical). When shit really hits the government has a duty to try keeping things together (and bailing out people is a part of that). Therefore those that are messing with this (in power and in opposition) should get crushed in the terms of votes. Everything else is kinda masochism on the part of voters.

They will tell you that the bill is full of pork. Like this..

PolitiFact | Fact-checking whether Democrats’ ‘wish list’ is in $1.9 trillion relief bill

Except that most of these requests were also made by the Trump admin, were passed in the house in 2020 and ignored by the Senate and all of them are to shore up damage done by COVID or environmental issues that desperately need addressing.

Yeah, I get it you don't understand. Neither do I. I'm simply explaining that Republicans will run around screaming PORK! and count on their voters not reading anything. And they always live up to those expectations.

 

[Burning Paradigm]

They will tell you that the bill is full of pork. Like this..

PolitiFact | Fact-checking whether Democrats’ ‘wish list’ is in $1.9 trillion relief bill

Except that most of these requests were also made by the Trump admin, were passed in the house in 2020 and ignored by the Senate and all of them are to shore up damage done by COVID or environmental issues that desperately need addressing.

Yeah, I get it you don't understand. Neither do I. I'm simply explaining that Republicans will run around screaming PORK! and count on their voters not reading anything. And they always live up to those expectations.

To add to that point about pork, many Republicans will point to things like money going towards museums and art centers as proof "Democrats don't really care about COVID relief", ignoring the fact a lot of that intended money is relief for employees (largely minimum-wage and lower-salaried) who lost their jobs in those venues or industries, not, say, the Kennedy Center's operational costs. Or the fact that, if money is going towards climate change efforts, it's because increased warming means an increased likelihood of future pandemics, particularly from "neglected" tropical diseases (a bit of a misnomer, because I don't think they'll be neglected for long). Thus, it goes towards very specific climate change programs intended to safeguard and ramp up protections against future threats.

 

[Virtual ghost]

They will tell you that the bill is full of pork. Like this..

PolitiFact | Fact-checking whether Democrats’ ‘wish list’ is in $1.9 trillion relief bill

Except that most of these requests were also made by the Trump admin, were passed in the house in 2020 and ignored by the Senate and all of them are to shore up damage done by COVID or environmental issues that desperately need addressing.

Yeah, I get it you don't understand. Neither do I. I'm simply explaining that Republicans will run around screaming PORK! and count on their voters not reading anything. And they always live up to those expectations.

If I got it correctly ....
In my book the sane approach to this is that you separate all the major points into their own votes (and perhaps merge the really small ones). Here it is normal that they vote for this kind of a bill point by point. What makes it easy to know who is for what. Or the executive branch just sorts this out right from the start. After all here seats in the parliament are electoral votes, so if you have top chair that implies that you have parliament as well. What means that here you can't blocked if your own coalition of parties doesn't do that, which they generally don't if your proposal makes any sense. Which is kinda why people tend to have larger expectations from the government (since it can't really be blocked over and over).

 

[Virtual ghost]

China throws down gauntlet to Biden and his allies over Hong Kong

 

[Virtual ghost]

The bill passed.
What is obviously good.