I say YES. YOU say NO....Numero Tre! Enjoy!
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Hmmm. I'm not having any problems.
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Not having problems here either. Hope you can get it cleared up, Minus! Frustrating.
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Bitterly disappointed in my brand new space laser--apparently it only burns off the tips of the trees...
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don’t like her any more than the orange thing.0 -
Exclusive: Dozens of former Bush officials leave Republican Party, calling it 'Trump cult'
February 1, 2021, 6:14 am
By Tim Reid
(Reuters) - Dozens of Republicans in former President George W. Bush's administration are leaving the party, dismayed by a failure of many elected Republicans to disown Donald Trump after his false claims of election fraud sparked a deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol last month.
These officials, some who served in the highest echelons of the Bush administration, said they had hoped that a Trump defeat would lead party leaders to move on from the former president and denounce his baseless claims that the November presidential election was stolen.
But with most Republican lawmakers sticking to Trump, these officials say they no longer recognize the party they served. Some have ended their membership, others are letting it lapse while a few are newly registered as independents, according to a dozen former Bush officials who spoke with Reuters.
"The Republican Party as I knew it no longer exists. I'd call it the cult of Trump," said Jimmy Gurulé, who was Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence in the Bush administration.
Kristopher Purcell, who worked in the Bush White House's communications office for six years, said roughly 60 to 70 former Bush officials have decided to leave the party or are cutting ties with it, from conversations he has been having. "The number is growing every day," Purcell said.
Their defection from the Republican Party after a lifetime of service for many is another clear sign of how a growing intraparty conflict over Trump and his legacy is fracturing it.
The party is currently caught between disaffected moderate Republicans and independents disgusted by the hold Trump still has over elected officials, and Trump's fervently loyal base. Without the enthusiastic support of both groups, the party will struggle to win national elections, according to polling, Republican officials and strategists.
The Republican National Committee referred Reuters to a recent interview its chair Ronna McDaniel gave to the Fox Business channel. "We're having a little bit of a spat right now. But we are going to come together. We have to," McDaniel said, predicting the party will unite against the agenda of President Joe Biden, a Democrat.
Representatives for Trump did not respond to a request for comment.
A representative of former President Bush did not respond to a request for comment. During the Trump presidency Bush made clear he had "retired from politics."
'IT'S APPALLING'
More than half of the Republicans in Congress - eight senators and 139 House representatives - voted to block certification of the election just hours after the Capitol siege.
Most Republican Senators have also indicated they would not support the impeachment of Trump, making it almost certain that the former president won't be convicted in his Senate trial. Trump was impeached on Jan. 13 by the Democratic-led House of Representatives on charges of "incitement of insurrection," the only president to be impeached twice.
The unwillingness by party leaders to disavow Trump was the final straw for some former Republican officials.
"If it continues to be the party of Trump, many of us are not going back," Rosario Marin, a former Treasurer of the U.S. under Bush, told Reuters. "Unless the Senate convicts him, and rids themselves of the Trump cancer, many of us will not be going back to vote for Republican leaders."
Two former Bush officials who spoke to Reuters said they believe it is important to stay in the party to rid it of Trump's influence.
One of those, Suzy DeFrancis, a veteran of the Republican Party who served in administrations including those of former presidents Richard Nixon and George W. Bush, said she voted for Biden in November but that breaking the party apart now will only benefit Democrats.
"I totally understand why people are frustrated and want to leave the party. I've had that feeling for 4 years," DeFrancis said.
But she said it's critical the party unite around Republican principles such as limited government, personal responsibility, free enterprise and a strong national defense.
Purcell said many felt they have no choice, however. He referred to Marjorie Taylor Greene, a freshman Republican congresswoman from Georgia who promotes the QAnon conspiracy theory, which falsely claims that top Democrats belong to a secret governing cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles. Another newly elected Representative, Lauren Boebert from Colorado, has also made supportive statements about QAnon.
"We have QAnon members of Congress. It's appalling," Purcell said.
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Related article:
Spurred By The Capitol Riot, Thousands Of Republicans Drop Out Of GOP
Andrew Kenney
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They stormed the Capitol to overturn the results of an election they didn't vote in
(CNN) — They were there to "Stop the Steal" and to keep the President they revered in office, yet records show that some of the rioters who stormed the US Capitol did not vote in the very election they were protesting.
One was Donovan Crowl, an ex-Marine who charged toward a Capitol entrance in paramilitary garb on January 6 as the Pro-Trump crowd chanted "who's our President?"
Federal authorities later identified Crowl, 50, as a member of a self-styled militia organization in his home state of Ohio and affiliated with the extremist group the Oath Keepers. His mother told CNN that he previously told her "they were going to overtake the government if they...tried to take Trump's presidency from him." She said he had become increasingly angry during the Obama administration and that she was aware of his support for former President Donald Trump.
Despite these apparent pro-Trump views, a county election official in Ohio told CNN that he registered in 2013 but "never voted nor responded to any of our confirmation notices to keep him registered," so he was removed from the voter rolls at the end of 2020 and the state said he was not registered in Ohio. A county clerk in Illinois, where Crowl was once registered, also confirmed he was not an active voter anywhere in the state.
Crowl was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of destruction of government property and conspiracy for allegedly coordinating with others to plan their attack. He remains in custody after a judge said, "The suggestion to release him to a residence with nine firearms is a non-starter." In an interview cited by the government, Crowl told the New Yorker that he had peaceful intentions and claimed he had protected the police. Crowl's attorney did not provide a comment about his client's voting record.
Many involved in the insurrection professed to be motivated by patriotism, falsely declaring that Trump was the rightful winner of the election. Yet at least eight of the people who are now facing criminal charges for their involvement in the events at the Capitol did not vote in the November 2020 presidential election, according to an analysis of voting records from the states where protestors were arrested and those states where public records show they have lived. They came from states around the country and ranged in age from 21 to 65.
To determine who voted in November, CNN obtained voting records for more than 80 of the initial arrestees. Most voted in the presidential election, and while many were registered Republicans, a handful were registered as Democrats in those jurisdictions that provided party information -- though who someone votes for is not publicly disclosed. Public access to voter history records varies by state, and CNN was unable to view the records of some of those charged.
Among those who didn't vote were a 65-year-old Georgia man who, according to government documents, was found in his van with a fully-loaded pistol and ammunition, and a Louisiana man who publicly bragged about spending nearly two hours inside the Capitol after attending Trump's "Stop the Steal" rally. Another was a 21-year-old woman from Missouri who prosecutors say shared a video on Snapchat that showed her parading around with a piece of a wooden sign from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office. And a Florida man previously convicted of attempted murder who was accused by the government of refusing to leave the Capitol likely did not have the option to cast a ballot because of his unpaid court fines.
Jessica Stern, a Boston University professor who has spent around 30 years researching extremists, said that while she hasn't spoken with the individuals involved in the events at the Capitol, from her interviews with other violent extremists, she believes a number of factors could have been at play. They could have believed the system was rigged, as the "Stop the Steal" movement claims, in which case there would be no point in voting. They could be more attracted to the theater, violence or attention they would get from a demonstration like the one at the Capitol than to actually achieving their purported goal -- in this case, different election results.
Stern speculated that it was a combination of these reasons, adding that feelings of anger and humiliation often draw people to extremist groups and violence. She said that for someone to actually cast a vote, "you would have to believe in the ethic of voting more than you thought it was a waste of time...and see it as a moral imperative. You have to believe the system works for everyone, that it's for the good of the country."
Jack Griffith, a 25-year-old from Tennessee, trumpeted his arrival in Washington DC with a Facebook post saying, "THE CAVALRY IS COMING!!!!," using the hashtag "#MAGA," according to court documents. Shortly after leaving the Capitol on January 6, he posted a message of disappointment. "I hate to be that guy, but The New World Order beat us," he wrote. "Trump was our greatest champion, and it still wasn't enough. He tried his very best. He did so much, but he's only one man...I even helped stormed(sic) the capitol today, but it only made things worse...Why, God? Why? WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN US? Unless...Trump still has a plan?"
These online missives describing his participation in the Capitol siege were later used by the Department of Justice to build a criminal case against him. Griffith faces a number of charges, including violent entry or disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
Election data from Tennessee and Alabama, where public records show Griffith had lived, showed that he had voted in the 2016 and 2018 elections but not the 2020 presidential election. The public defender who initially represented him declined to comment. Another attorney listed as representing him now did not respond to requests for comment.
Court records detail how University of Kentucky senior Gracyn Courtright posted a series of images on Instagram showing herself marching with a large American flag and another with her arms raised in triumph outside the Capitol, with the caption, "can't wait to tell my grandkids I was here." Later, she posted a photo of herself in a belly baring shirt with the caption, "Infamy is just as good as fame. Either way I end up more known. XOXO."
Courtright, who was charged with crimes including knowingly entering a restricted building, was also identified on surveillance footage lugging a congressional "Members Only" sign around the Capitol, according to court records. "idk what treason is," she wrote in a conversation shared with the FBI by a tipster, who had confronted the college student in a series of Instagram messages. Courtright is not registered in Kentucky, where she attends school, according to election officials. She is registered in her home state of West Virginia, but records show she did not vote in the 2020 election. Her attorney told CNN that Courtright did not dispute the fact that she did not vote in the election but declined further comment.
In a string of social media posts he shared straight from the Capitol, Edward Jacob Lang of New York portrayed himself as ready for a revolution. "1776 has commenced," he wrote in one that was cited by the government, showing him standing on the steps of the Capitol. "I was the leader of Liberty today. Arrest me. You are on the wrong side of history," read another. After leaving the Capitol, he continued to encourage followers to join the "patriot movement" with him. "GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH," he posted.
Federal prosecutors said that video footage from January 6 shows Lang attempting to attack police officers with a baseball bat, donning a gas mask and riot shield. He now faces a variety of federal charges, including assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers or employees, civil disorder and violent entry. A recent ProPublica story also revealed how Lang had used the online messaging app Telegram in an attempt to radicalize "normies" and convince them to join local militia groups -- encouraging people in the days after the Capitol riot to stock up on guns and prepare for war.
Though state records show that Lang is registered to vote and had participated in a couple of past elections, county and state officials confirmed to CNN that he did not vote in the November election. Lang's attorney said in a statement that Lang claimed from jail that he submitted an absentee ballot, saying, "Mr. Lang has always represented himself as a Libertarian...He is not a devout Trump supporter, but believes that those taking office will not uphold citizens' First and Second Amendment rights."
New York law requires absentee ballots to be postmarked by election day and received within the following week in order to be counted. When asked about Lang's claim that he sent in an absentee ballot, the Sullivan County Board of Elections directed CNN to file an open records request in order to receive any information. The request had not been responded to before the time of publishing.
Lang's attorney also said the 25-year-old was a "naive, impressionable young man" who had been provoked by Trump's rhetoric. He cited Senator Mitch McConnell's statement that "the mob was fed lies" and said he hoped that Lang and others would not be considered guilty "due solely to their associations, beliefs and presence."
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There is an Indian proverb or axiom that says that everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional, and a spiritual.Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time, but unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person. -Rumer GoddenThere is an Indian proverb or axiom that says that everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional, and a spiritual.Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time, but unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person. -Rumer Godden
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I admit -- Devine I skimmed because I had read a couple of other pieces like yours -- but I am going back for a more detailed and thoughtful read. It is amazing what some of these people did and their justifications as well as thie disallusionment that what they did actually did not achieve the results that made them willing to participate in such behavior. So just amazing. Before I go back and read -- they all deserve what they get and maybe even more than they get. Shameful, shameful things done for the sake of a BIG LIE.
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If true ( Occupy Democrats usually is ) this is really something. I think Stacy has worked for a long time and I also think she is VERY deserving of the recognition.
I just saw on the American News X site another meme specifying that Stacy got this nomination so I'm sure it is much more likely true. A lot of people do wonderful things so there will be others. Here's a really good thought. No matter how much the orange one may think himself deserving -- we will not have to hear him whine and carry on -- and certainly nothing FAKE will show up at Mari-A-Lago. At least I hope not.
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I would love to see Stacy Abrams win the Nobel Peace Prize!
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Not even smart enough to do this. Someone else set the papers in front of him and he signed -- but however any of this took place I hope we find and fix all of it.
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Yay Stacey! Pulling for you, GF!
Just got swabbed - again - for the 5th time - for COVID testing. Another coworker came up positive, and the fact that I had it previously is no guarantee of immunity if it's a different strain.
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Gunpowder Plot of 1605
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Fingers crossed for you.
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From building the wall to bringing back coal: Some of Trump's more notable broken promises
January 30, 2021
Washington (CNN) — While Donald Trump's first campaign for president was all about change, his argument for re-election was based on the premise that he had delivered on his initial promises and would continue to do so. The campaign slogan "Promises made, promises kept," became Trump's rallying cry.
To be sure, Trump delivered on a number of initial campaign promises. He cut regulations, lowered taxes, withdrew from the Trans Pacific Partnership, pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement and appointed hundreds of conservative justices. But in many cases, the reality behind the talking points and slogans fell short of what was actually promised.
Here's a look back at how some of the most notable promises Trump made during his campaigns and throughout his time in office stack up against reality.
The wall
Building a wall on the US border with Mexico (and getting Mexico to pay for it) was one of Trump's flagship promises from his first campaign, though the specific parameters of the wall evolved over time, from 1,000 miles to over 500 miles.
Throughout his presidency, Trump acted as if this was one accomplishment he had successfully crossed off the list, continuing to tout the hundreds of miles of wall his administration had built.
But the figures he threw out, as recently as in his recorded farewell video, were misleading and didn't live up to what he initially promised. As of January 8, 2021, 453 miles of border barriers were built under the Trump administration, just 47 of which were erected where no barriers had existed before.
Of the other 406 miles: 22 miles replaced previously existing dilapidated or outdated secondary barriers, 33 miles were new secondary barriers where there had previously been only primary barriers and 351 miles replaced previously existing primary barriers that the government considered dilapidated or outdated. While these replacement barriers are not insignificant, it's worth noting that Trump did not build a new wall.
Furthermore, during the campaign, Trump insisted that Americans would not pay for the wall or any new barriers his administration constructed. According to Trump, Mexico would pay for the wall, but both the former and current Mexican president have refused to do so (the former President was more explicit while the current President, who has been less critical of Trump and has just avoided the topic). In the end, the US government spent billions in federal funds on the wall. Since January 2017, approximately $15 billion has been allocated to construct both new and replacement structures for the border wall through a combination of Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense funding combined with the Treasury Forfeiture Fund, according to a January 2021 report from Customs and Border Protection.
Vaccines
As the coronavirus pandemic dominated the final year of Trump's presidency, he made a series of promises regarding a vaccine.
Trump repeatedly stated the US would have a vaccine by the end of 2020. While experts were skeptical, the Trump administration's accelerated vaccine development initiative, Operation Warp Speed, did result in a vaccine approved for distribution before the end of the year. The Food and Drug Administration gave emergency use authorization to Pfizer/BioNTech's vaccine in mid-December and to Moderna's vaccine about a week later.
But while Trump exceeded expectations in terms of the vaccine production timeline, his administration struggled to fulfill his promises regarding vaccine distribution. In October, Trump promised 100 million doses of the vaccine delivered before the end of the year. Though Trump administration officials later reduced the goal to 20 million Americans vaccinated against coronavirus by the end of December 2020, neither promise was ultimately fulfilled. Several states have blamed the federal government for the failure to meet the vaccination goals, complaining that the Trump administration initially provided fewer doses than previously promised. And with no federal mandate for how to administer the vaccines, eligibility for receiving the vaccine varied from state to state, likely causing an uneven distribution. As of December 31, 2020, fewer than 13 million vaccines had been distributed.
Pre-existing conditions
In countless rallies and other speeches, Trump claimed he and his administration would always protect people with pre-existing conditions.
This is one promise CNN was able to fact check even before the end of Trump's presidency, as the Trump administration and Republicans repeatedly put forward bills and filed lawsuits that would weaken Obamacare's protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Trump also never issued a plan to protect those with pre-existing conditions, despite repeatedly promising to do so.
Obamacare
During his first campaign, Trump promised to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, a health care law often referred to as Obamacare. After the passage of the 2017 Republican tax bill which addressed a provision of the law, Trump began to claim victory. But despite his insistence to the contrary, Obamacare did not end under Trump's administration, essentially or otherwise.
In the 2017 tax bill, Republicans effectively eliminated the individual mandate, a key part of Obamacare, by reducing the penalty for not having insurance to $0. But other provisions of the law remained. The bill did not eliminate Obamacare's expansion of the Medicaid insurance program for low-income people, the federal and state marketplaces that allow people to shop for coverage, or the consumer subsidies that help many of them make the purchases. While Trump continued to take other steps to weaken Obamacare, much of it still exists.
Debt
Trump initially pledged to eliminate the US debt in eight years. He later scaled down the promise to just reducing a portion of the then-$19 trillion dollar debt. Though he didn't specify the extent of the new goal, under Trump the debt and deficit only got worse. According to the latest report from the Government Accountability Office, the federal debt was at $26.9 trillion as of September 30, 2020. The GAO attributed the increase between 2019 and 2020 to the federal government's Covid-19 pandemic response, but the national debt was rising even before the pandemic. By the end of 2019, the federal debt was at $22.7 trillion, more than three trillion more than right before Trump took office.
Manufacturing
One of Trump's flagship campaign promises was to revive US manufacturing and in his final State of the Union address, he claimed to have succeeded in "restoring our Nation's manufacturing."Manufacturing employment did increase during the first three years of Trump's presidency, but ultimately, any gains were gone by the end of his presidency, leaving the status of US manufacturing no better than when he took office. Between January 2017 and the end of 2020, there was a net decrease in manufacturing employment. While some of the decrease could likely be attributed to the pandemic, America's manufacturing sector was in a downturn even before that, as CNN reported in August 2019 that the sector shrunk for the first time since September 2009.
4% GDP growth
During his first presidential campaign, Trump set a goal of "4% economic growth" nationally, despite skepticism from economists. While Trump heavily leaned on his economic accomplishments throughout his time in office, annual GDP growth since 2017 never reached 4%, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The quarterly GDP growth rate did hit 4% once, in the 4th quarter of 2020, though economists say that wasn't enough to make up for the year's historically awful second quarter. 2020 also marked the first year US GDP declined since 2009.
Average GDP growth did increase slightly under Trump, to 2.5% during his first three years. That's well below the 4% Trump had promised but a bit better than the 2.4% average growth rate during the last three years of Obama's time in office. But as of the 3rd quarter of his fourth year in office, the GDP growth under Trump was less than under the last five presidents before him at the same time in their presidencies, due in large part to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Trade deficits
As a candidate, Trump pledged to narrow America's trade deficit, especially with China. Although progress was made, Trump wasn't entirely successful. In 2019, the goods trade deficit with China fell to its lowest level since 2014. The overall US trade deficit also shrank in 2019, but it remained higher than when Trump took office. The gap was further exacerbated by the pandemic, with the trade deficit increasing nearly every month between April and August 2020. In November 2020, the trade deficit reached its highest level since 2006.
Coal
At different times throughout the 2016 campaign, Trump said he was going to "bring back" coal and "put the miners back to work."
In 2016, the US produced more than 728 million tons of coal, according to the annual report from the Energy Information Administration. While the Trump administration made some policy moves to try to help the coal industry, production levels have not increased under the Trump administration. The most recent available report indicates the US produced 706 million tons of coal in 2019, its lowest level since 1978, when there was a major strike.
According to a 2019 report from the International Energy Agency, the decrease in US coal production is in part the result of a shift toward cleaner renewables and cheaper natural gas. "Cheap and abundant natural gas combined with the climate policies of many states will continue to squeeze coal out of the electricity market," the report claims.
A November 2020 report from S&P Global Market Intelligence also shows a decrease in coal jobs since the start of the Trump administration. Furthermore, the 3rd quarter of 2020 marked a new low in average coal mine employment according to the S&P analysis.
Guns
At a 2016 campaign rally, Trump said, "My first day, it gets signed, okay? My first day. There's no more gun-free zones." He later doubled-down on the promise, telling the media he was going to do something to end gun free zones.
Not only did he not sign any legislation banning gun-free zones on his first day in office, but this was never accomplished. Though House Republicans proposed bills to repeal the Crime Control Act of 1990 which made it a crime to possess a gun within school grounds, these efforts were unsuccessful.
Lobbying
In 2016, Trump called for enacting a five-year ban "on all executive branch officials lobbying the government for five years after they leave government service." Within his first week, Trump signed the "Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Appointees" executive order. While on the surface that may have seemed like a promise kept, the order contained a loophole. The order only required appointees to pledge that they will not "engage in lobbying activities with respect" to the executive agency they were appointed to serve, language which could theoretically have permitted officials to lobby on other issues not directly related to their role less than five years after they stopped working for the federal government. Additionally, days before his presidency came to an end, Trump revoked the rule, ostensibly allowing his former administration officials to begin lobbying when they left government if they so choose.
Leaving the White House
In 2015, shortly after announcing his run for President, Trump said if elected he would "rarely leave the White House because there's so much work to be done." He also criticized Obama for "all of the time [he] spent on the golf course, often flying to Hawaii in a big, fully loaded 747, to play."
And yet, Trump left the White House repeatedly while he was president, often to spend time at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida or at his golf courses across the nation. In 2019 alone he spent 1 in 5 days at a golf club, per CNN's count.
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Miriandra, I hope you are negative for the virus!
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I would really like to know how many altogether have possibly changed their registrations and even if not -- how many might be highly open to do it before the mid terms come up. If things stay as they are I would be expecting the possibility of the Reps. not doing so well.
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Interesting to see how this may play out. I would like to see the pressure kept up good and tight -- whatever has to be done. I saw her ( I was answering the phone and missed a lot of it ) on news in the afternoon and she seemed to be back-tracking a little on her stance of looking at Sandy Hook and Parkland being staged events/false flag.
I hope K. McCarthy continues to take a beating for all he is doing. Talk about wishy-washy. He comes on like gangbusters only to quickly wimp out at the first breeze.
V
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Why would you even need a review, but there is a form to things and while I never saw Trump interested in the least ( others were doing it all anyway ) I think the Democrats have to be a bit more circumspect.
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GO STACEY❤️❤️❤️ I saw where she may run for gov against Kemp, orange slime stooge.
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From MSNBC:
Biden's first days in office were way better than I expected
I have no doubt that Biden will deeply disappoint me. That day is not today
Feb. 1, 2021
By Mehdi Hasan, MSNBC Opinion Columnist
I have a confession to make. During the Democratic presidential primaries, I was one of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden's fiercest critics on the left. I reminded readers how he was the architect of the 1994 crime bill. I reminded listeners how he was the champion of the credit card industry. I reminded viewers how he had misled us over Iraq.
The former vice president, I averred, "would be a disaster." Well… maybe… perhaps... I was wrong.
There, I said it.
The new president has been far from a disaster. His first 10 days were as smooth as any in modern presidential history — and that despite, perhaps, the worst presidential inheritance in all of American history.
He has signed more than 40 executive orders; an "opening-days blitz … essentially compressing 100 days into 10," to quote The New York Times. "Biden has outlined the most liberal agenda in a generation," Axios observed Sunday.
Forget Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for a moment. Take a break from counting down the days till the Trump trial in the Senate, and cast your eye over Biden's first 10 days of orders, proclamations, announcements and bills.
What's not to like for progressives?
Climate change? Biden rejoined the Paris climate agreement; canceled the Keystone XL pipeline; ordered the conservation of around 30 percent of all federal land and water by 2030 and the suspension of new oil and gas leases on federal land and water; established a White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy, led by the first national climate adviser; and made climate change a national security and foreign policy priority.
Spending? When he began his presidency, Barack Obama told a White House summit on fiscal responsibility: "We cannot and will not sustain deficits like these without end... We cannot simply spend as we please." Biden began his by telling reporters, "Every major economist thinks we should be investing in deficit spending in order to generate economic growth."
The times they are a-changin'. In 2009, Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel told Obama there was "no f---ing way" any number that began "with a t" could be put in front of Congress. In 2021, Biden's chief of staff Ron Klain conceded the Obama stimulus "wasn't large enough, it didn't do all the things we needed it to do, and our recovery lagged as a result." Klain and his colleagues in the Biden White House are now pushing for a Covid-19 relief bill worth $1.9 trillion.
Immigration? The Obama administration was accused of deporting a record number of migrants. On Day One of his presidency, Biden ended the Muslim ban; canceled construction of the border wall; included undocumented immigrants in the census count; blocked the deportation of Liberian refugees; issued a memo "preserving and fortifying" the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program shielding 650,000 immigrants from deportation; and announced a 100-day moratorium on all deportations (since blocked by a Trump-appointed judge). He also sent a bill to Congress offering a pathway to citizenship for around 11 million undocumented migrants and officially revoked the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" family separation policy at the border.
Racism? Rescinding the Muslim ban was a major blow to institutionalized racism and Islamophobia. On his first day as president, though, Biden also rescinded the Trump administration's "offensive, counter-factual 1776 Commission" and its "harmful ban on diversity and sensitivity training," while ordering federal agencies to conduct racial equity assessments and target "systemic racism. He has since signed an executive order explicitly "combating racism, xenophobia, and intolerance against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders."
Criminal justice reform? Biden barred the Department of Justice from renewing private prison contracts, calling it a "first step to stop corporations from profiting off incarceration." According to NBC News, the Biden White House has "asked senators to recruit civil rights attorneys and defense lawyers for judgeships." It's also worth noting that the president chose not to include Rahm Emanuel, of Laquan McDonald murder cover-up infamy, in his Cabinet.
Workers' rights? Biden ordered the Department of Labor to develop plans to ensure a $15 an hour minimum wage for federal employees. The president also asked the department to clarify rules establishing that "workers have a federally guaranteed right to refuse employment that will jeopardize their health" while still qualifying "for unemployment insurance."
Foreign policy? The Biden administration announced its intention to renew "U.S. relations with the Palestinian leadership and Palestinian people" and reopen the Palestine Liberation Organization mission in Washington, D.C. The president ignored right-wing Republican hawks like Sen. Tom Cotton and appointed the dovish Robert Malley as the U.S. special envoy on Iran.
His new director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, agreed during her confirmation hearings to release an unclassified government report on who was behind the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Perhaps, above all else, Biden ordered a pause on weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that had been agreed to by the Trump administration.
Do Biden's slew of executive orders go far enough? Of course not — especially if the 46th president wants to live up to the example of the 32nd, Franklin Roosevelt, whose portrait now sits above the mantle of the Oval Office fireplace.
Should Biden, for example, go beyond a public option and embrace "Medicare for All," especially in a pandemic? Extend his ban on private prison contracts to the Department of Homeland Security? Agree to lift former President Donald Trump's sanctions on Iran in order to revive the 2015 nuclear deal? Yes, yes, and yes. Was it a mistake for him to explicitly promise that $2,000 checks "will go out the door" but then include only $1,400 checks in his relief bill? Definitely.
Nevertheless, we cannot afford to lose sight of the big picture. Now is a moment for the left to be emboldened, not embittered. As Rep. Ilhan Omar tweeted last week: "As progressives, it is easy to become jaded about the possibility of meaningful change… but in just the first week, the Biden administration has acted on many of progressives' top asks."
Forget 100 days: Biden's first 10 days look more like the fulfillment of a progressive wish list than a great centrist betrayal. Neither Bill Clinton nor Obama began their presidencies with such energy or ambition. Neither appointed a chief of staff like Klain, who has won plaudits from prominent progressives, understands the Democratic Party has shifted in a progressive direction, and is unashamed to work with the grassroots left.
"Progressives are beginning to be heard," Waleed Shahid, a spokesperson for the influential left-wing group, Justice Democrats, told me. The Biden administration, he added, has taken major steps forward "in beginning to tackle the magnitude of the climate crisis and decades of wage stagnation."
To be clear: it might sound like I drank the Kool-Aid but I'm far from naive. I am well aware of the fact that Biden is not Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. I have called on the media to hold this administration to account. And I have no doubt whatsoever that one day soon, Biden and company will deeply disappoint me.
That day, however, is not today.
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It must be a cold day in hell because I find myself in complete agreement with Mitch:
(CNN) Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell on Monday issued a tacit rebuke of controversial Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, slamming the Georgia Republican's "loony lies and conspiracy theories" as a "cancer" for the party.
"Loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country," McConnell said in a statement. "Somebody who's suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.'s airplane is not living in reality. This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party."
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Ruth, I thought the very same thing when I read that earlier this morning. Hell has truly frozen over because I agree with Mitch on something. Good for him for speaking out. It did occur to me that he might be doing it for self serving reasons but, at the end of the day, the reason doesn't matter just get the lunatic out.
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Now, if only Mitch could convince Kevin to grow a spine...
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I frame this Mitch McConnell story this way: he is in complete agreement with us, not we with him.
MM helped foster the environment that allowed a deranged politician like Greene get elected. Normalizing Trump’s bizarre, xenophobic, mysogynistic, white-nationalist protective, divisive behavior and rhetoric for four years gave way to Greene being in Congress. She’s a baby you helped spawn, Mitch! And my belief is that if Trump had been re-elected, we would be hearing nothing from MM about Greene.
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After looking the other way for the past 4 years, I'm afraid the Republican party will find that it's pretty hard to put the genie back in the bottle.
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Goes on to say Moscow Mitch wants to regain control of the senate in next election. He hopes Kevin will remove that witch without himself telling him to do so. He’s dumb like a fox. Too bad he was re-elected.
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