Biden/Harris Presidency Discussion Thread

Rjd2

Of course.

I think Biden has hired some good people but this is the worst.

Looking online its grim seeing the usual Biden bootlickers cheer for her appointment , are these people capable at all of criticising Biden ever?

I thought the current affairs thread had some devoted Biden disciples but bloody hell MSNBC etc are even more in thrall.

Absolute cult tbh.

Tell me how

Rjd2 wrote: »

Of course.

I think Biden has hired some good people but this is the worst.

Looking online its grim seeing the usual Biden bootlickers cheer for her appointment , are these people capable at all of criticising Biden ever?

I thought the current affairs thread had some devoted Biden disciples but bloody hell MSNBC etc are even more in thrall.

Absolute cult tbh.

Just don't watch someone if you see them as a Boot Licker.

Rjd2

Tell me how wrote: »

Just don't watch someone if you see them as a Boot Licker.

When it comes to mainstream media their is not much of an alternative sadly!

Be nice to see somebody put something together which isn't an MSNBC or Fox, but isn't merely contrarian for the sake of it. Biden has done some good stuff since he took over and a few other things not so good.

Anyway enough chatter about Neera Tanden.

Itssoeasy

Rjd2 wrote: »

Biden has hired some ghouls so far but bloody hell Neera ****ing Tanden been confirmed is the lowlight so far.

Be good to see if Bernie to show some backbone after how she smeared him and other progressives over the years.

Why ? She made some poor comments but I find it very funny that the same GOP members have discovered Twitter and that you can go back and read tweets because they sure tried to avoid at all costs in having to acknowledge trump and his open sewer of insults to everyone for four years. So RJD you condone some of Trumps sick things he said ?

Edit: poor comments which she apologised for and that’s fair enough. We will have to see if she keeps away from making any similar comments in the future. But at least she apologised unlike the 45th President who didn’t do that.

Rjd2

Is every criticism of Biden going to be "whataboutTrump"


Trump hired absolute ghouls obviously.

The fact that a lot of the pro Biden media are focusing on the supposed mean tweets to Cruz is telling, they know this is safe because nobody really cares what she called Cruz, Mitch etc on twitter.

The issue is and which the MSNBC mob don't want to discuss is this lady is corruption personified. She took millions from Bloomberg to bury Islamophobia in the NYPD , she suggested invading Libya for oil, she punched a journo for asking tough questions about her boss Hilary , she outed a sexual assault survivor ffs.

In the last few years she has called Bernie supporters all sorts and to top it all off casually suggested that Tulsi Gabbard a women of color who actually fought in the army was a traitor to her nation.

Its possible to criticise Biden and Trump simultaneously and the forum itself would be a much more interesting place if people realised that.

mcmoustache

I have to admit, Tanden seems like a choice with too much baggage. I would have expected better vetting, honestly. I understand that the bar has been lowered but that's not exactly an excuse.

Rjd2

mcmoustache wrote: »

I have to admit, Tanden seems like a choice with too much baggage. I would have expected better vetting, honestly. I understand that the bar has been lowered but that's not exactly an excuse.

Hugely powerful figure behind the scenes with a lot of powerful friends.

Some of the appointments have been really good tbf but this is poor.

I reckon Biden thinks with all the focus on Trump and covid nobody will bother to dig into her background and to be fair he is correct.

She will be confirmed.

One more thing on the GOP if they wanted to even pretend they were a serious party for five mins they would focus on these issues rather than what she called Ted ****ing Cruz on twitter.


They are absolutely hopeless even with an open goal like this.

Tell me how

Rjd2 wrote: »

Is every criticism of Biden going to be "whataboutTrump"


Trump hired absolute ghouls obviously.

The fact that a lot of the pro Biden media are focusing on the supposed mean tweets to Cruz is telling, they know this is safe because nobody really cares what she called Cruz, Mitch etc on twitter.

The issue is and which the MSNBC mob don't want to discuss is this lady is corruption personified. She took millions from Bloomberg to bury Islamophobia in the NYPD , she suggested invading Libya for oil, she punched a journo for asking tough questions about her boss Hilary , she outed a sexual assault survivor ffs.

In the last few years she has called Bernie supporters all sorts and to top it all off casually suggested that Tulsi Gabbard a women of color who actually fought in the army was a traitor to her nation.

Its possible to criticise Biden and Trump simultaneously and the forum itself would be a much more interesting place if people realised that.

You do realise that Trump's impeachment trial is ongoing, he is still front and centre in peoples mind. And that's not forgetting the shambles he was as President.

You are absolutely right about the need for focus on Biden's actions but to expect people would switch off from Trump immediately is unrealistic.

Itssoeasy

Rjd2 wrote: »

Is every criticism of Biden going to be "whataboutTrump"


Trump hired absolute ghouls obviously.

The fact that a lot of the pro Biden media are focusing on the supposed mean tweets to Cruz is telling, they know this is safe because nobody really cares what she called Cruz, Mitch etc on twitter.

The issue is and which the MSNBC mob don't want to discuss is this lady is corruption personified. She took millions from Bloomberg to bury Islamophobia in the NYPD , she suggested invading Libya for oil, she punched a journo for asking tough questions about her boss Hilary , she outed a sexual assault survivor ffs.

In the last few years she has called Bernie supporters all sorts and to top it all off casually suggested that Tulsi Gabbard a women of color who actually fought in the army was a traitor to her nation.

Its possible to criticise Biden and Trump simultaneously and the forum itself would be a much more interesting place if people realised that.

On the whole no. But when there is an example of rank hypocrisy by republican senators that involves a Biden official and there is a perfect example of the opposite happening for a trump official then yes I’ll bring up trump. It’s not at all whataboutism. It’s about there either being a common standard or there being one rule for republicans and one rule for everyone else. That’s the point I was making but shock horror you took it the way you did.

Eric Cartman

Itssoeasy wrote: »

On the whole no. But when there is an example of rank hypocrisy by republican senators that involves a Biden official and there is a perfect example of the opposite happening for a trump official then yes I’ll bring up trump. It’s not at all whataboutism. It’s about there either being a common standard or there being one rule for republicans and one rule for everyone else. That’s the point I was making but shock horror you took it the way you did.

I think sometimes there has to be a double standard for this though. If theres a policy or stance that a democrat condemned when a republican did it but the democrats continue to do the same even a poster who supported that policy / stance has the right to call a democrat out for it.

The democrats ran this election cycle on an air of moral authority, unity, enhanced social liberalisation and ‘progressivism’ . A republican maintaining the status quo was what was expected , a democrat doing the same is capitulation or breaking promises.

Its very reasonable say to support trump separating adults and children at the border for detention yet condemn democrats for maintaining the same, the GOP didn’t promise to end this, the democrats did.

Carfacemandog

Eric Cartman wrote: »

Its very reasonable say to support trump separating adults and children at the border for detention yet condemn democrats for maintaining the same, the GOP didn’t promise to end this, the democrats did.

It would be reasonable, had the child and parent separation policy not already have been ended, and had Biden not signed an exectuvie order after less than two weeks in office to put a task force together to reunite those Trump separated.

TomOnBoard

Now that the Trump Impeachment trial is over, and that matter leaves Congress to be ultimately dealt with in the Courts, today effectively marks the first Trump-free day of the Biden/Harris Presidency.

Happy Trump-free President's Day, y'all!

Water John

Not leaving Congress any time soon, both sides seem anxious to set up a 9/11 Commission:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/15/us-capitol-attack-commission-9-11-style-trump

TomOnBoard

Water John wrote: »

Not leaving Congress any time soon, both sides seem anxious to set up a 9/11 Commission:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/15/us-capitol-attack-commission-9-11-style-trump

Yeah, but a Commission won't have the same agenda-freezing effect as an impeachment and trial. Congress will just have to walk and chew gum at the same time.

A 9/11- style Commission is needed IMO, as the full story needs to be known. That said, aspects will move quickly to the Civil Courts, alongside the many criminal cases that are ongoing.

Water John

Commission also engages the GOP in a longer period of introspection.
Yeah, come at Trump from all directions. Death by a thousand cuts.

StringerBell

Well it's clear from Mr "not guilt" then a couple of hours later "Donald trump is morally and practically responsible for what happened" McConnell's statement that he will be quite happy to see trump get torn to shreds but isn't going to do it himself for political reasons.

The problem is how do you work with that type of individual as an administration? Mitch has shown what he is time and time again at this stage, the sooner he is gone from the senate the better because I've never seen someone as good at the dark arts of politics as him

Water John

McConnell says his only interest is in winning. That means he knows Trump is a millstone around the GOP and he wants the Dems to remove it for him.

cantwbr1

Water John wrote: »

McConnell says his only interest is in winning. That means he knows Trump is a millstone around the GOP and he wants the Dems to remove it for him.

Morally, Trump needs to be held to account for his actions.
However, from the Dems POV, it makes sense to have him around but slightly detached from the GOP, sniping at them for not backing him to the hilt and hopefully siphoning off support.

Quin_Dub

StringerBell wrote: »

Well it's clear from Mr "not guilt" then a couple of hours later "Donald trump is morally and practically responsible for what happened" McConnell's statement that he will be quite happy to see trump get torn to shreds but isn't going to do it himself for political reasons.

The problem is how do you work with that type of individual as an administration? Mitch has shown what he is time and time again at this stage, the sooner he is gone from the senate the better because I've never seen someone as good at the dark arts of politics as him

McConnell is an appalling individual.

Says Trump is guilty of fomenting insurrection but that he can't be impeached because he's already left office , ignoring that the reason the trial is being held after Trump left office is that he -Mitch McConnell refused point blank to call the Senate back from recess before the end of Trumps term.

He recognises that Trump is electoral poison for the GOP , but is so utterly lacking in principal or morals that he won't kick him out himself.

This is what he had to say about the prospect of Trumpian candidates running in 2022

"I personally don’t care what kind of Republican they are, what kind of lane they consider themselves in. What I care about is electability."

So - Who cares about beliefs , political opinions , behaviour etc. , All that matters is "Can you win a seat"

I mean I know the Democrats have a habit of going too far the other way, with their so called purity tests , but his guy??

Utterly repellent individual.

StringerBell

And he's not alone, even in terms of statements after voting not guilty, another republican senator from Ohio laid into trump in the same manner and called for criminal charges!

To cite that they didn't have the jurisdiction is completely ridiculous, for one thing there is nothing in the constitution saying they don't and for another thing they had a vote on that already and it was voted that they did so to use that as the fall back for a not guilty is beyond a joke and anti democratic by nature.

I don't know how the Biden administration is going to find ways to bridge the gap to these people but I'm sure he will try it and probably spend a lot of political capital doing it, I would hope he does eventually just adopt Mitch's approach and ram things down their throat when they are refusing to deal in good faith.

No doubt the aid package will be seen as a partisan rush job from the white House even though it has support of plenty of republican mayor's and governors and will likely have amendments added to it before a vote. I can still imagine the GOP claiming they are being ridden roughshod over with the unmitigated gall they have so far.

The one good thing about McConnell statement is it takes some of the bows from people likes Graham's arsenal when it comes to the confirmations I guess. I'd imagine it was all done as part of the deal around witnesses.

Quin_Dub

StringerBell wrote: »

And he's not alone, even in terms of statements after voting not guilty, another republican senator from Ohio laid into trump in the same manner and called for criminal charges!

To cite that they didn't have the jurisdiction is completely ridiculous, for one thing there is nothing in the constitution saying they don't and for another thing they had a vote on that already and it was voted that they did so to use that as the fall back for a not guilty is beyond a joke and anti democratic by nature.

I don't know how the Biden administration is going to find ways to bridge the gap to these people but I'm sure he will try it and probably spend a lot of political capital doing it, I would hope he does eventually just adopt Mitch's approach and ram things down their throat when they are refusing to deal in good faith.

No doubt the aid package will be seen as a partisan rush job from the white House even though it has support of plenty of republican mayor's and governors and will likely have amendments added to it before a vote. I can still imagine the GOP claiming they are being ridden roughshod over with the unmitigated gall they have so far.

The one good thing about McConnell statement is it takes some of the bows from people likes Graham's arsenal when it comes to the confirmations I guess. I'd imagine it was all done as part of the deal around witnesses.

Graham is another utterly craven creature.

On the day of the riots talks about "Count me out , I'm done , he's gone too far" , clearly thinking that the base would reject Trump.. Then a few days later when he see how the wind is blowing within the GOP voting base just doubles back and climbs back into Trumps pocket.

Calling him spineless would be a disservice to invertebrates everywhere.

Water John

Quin_Dub wrote: »

Graham is another utterly craven creature.

On the day of the riots talks about "Count me out , I'm done , he's gone too far" , clearly thinking that the base would reject Trump.. Then a few days later when he see how the wind is blowing within the GOP voting base just doubles back and climbs back into Trumps pocket.

Calling him spineless would be a disservice to invertebrates everywhere.

So, he's worse than, a snake in the grass. Don't think Graham's opinion carries weight with any one.

Itssoeasy

Lindsay Graham is up there as one of the worst. He was supposedly a close friend to John McCain and spoke at his funeral, but I don’t recall him defending McCain from the attacks by trump. I don’t recall him standing up for Cindy McCain after similar attacks on her by trump. He also said that joe Biden was “as good a man as god ever created” prior to the 2016 election and yet he revealed he’s not spoken to Biden since he became president. And as said he was off the trump train and now seems fully back on it. He’s the political version of the little sidekick of the guy in control of the prison in any prison film. With friends like that who needs enemies. He said that the McConnell speech will be used against republicans in 2022. If the party can unite around the McConnell sentiment they might actually have election success.

Tell me how

Itssoeasy wrote: »

Lindsay Graham is up there as one of the worst. He was supposedly a close friend to John McCain and spoke at his funeral, but I don’t recall him defending McCain from the attacks by trump. I don’t recall him standing up for Cindy McCain after similar attacks on her by trump. He also said that joe Biden was “as good a man as god ever created” prior to the 2016 election and yet he revealed he’s not spoken to Biden since he became president. And as said he was off the trump train and now seems fully back on it. He’s the political version of the little sidekick of the guy in control of the head guy in prison in any prison film. With friends like that who needs enemies. He said that the McConnell speech will be used against republicans in 2022. If the party can unite around the McConnell sentiment they might actually have election success.

McConnell is 78, Graham is 65.
If the party is going to pick a path between either of these, I think they are more likely to go with the younger guy. That being said, neither is a novice at this game and McConnell probably new on the 7th of January what way things would play out in terms of impeachment, trial, acquittal and admonishment of Trump.

Don't think either man has aspirations on the White House and both are secure until the elections of 2026 so would be very interested to know what they're are plotting. Maybe they are playing good cop bad cop so that no matter what happens, they can put forward a voice which claims to have held a particular position all along.

Timberrrrrrrr

Many will remember the fires in California not so long ago and because of these fires much of California suffered rolling blackouts for hours at a time. Many Republicans were delighted with this tweeting about how this is what you get when you let democrats run your state.

Trump took somewhere in the region of forty days (I am open to correction on this) to sign off on disaster relief funds and again the Republicans sang from on high about how this was all the democrats fault.

What does this have to do with Biden you may ask?

Well it seems that Republicans are now blaming Biden/the Dems for Texas suffering rolling blackouts due to unexpected winter storms. Biden has already signed off on disaster relief funds but nope, not good enough for the Republicans, this is Bidens fault and the democrats are all to blame.

Cody montana

Timberrrrrrrr wrote: »

Many will remember the fires in California not so long ago and because of these fires much of California suffered rolling blackouts for hours at a time. Many Republicans were delighted with this tweeting about how this is what you get when you let democrats run your state.

Trump took somewhere in the region of forty days (I am open to correction on this) to sign off on disaster relief funds and again the Republicans sang from on high about how this was all the democrats fault.

What does this have to do with Biden you may ask?

Well it seems that Republicans are now blaming Biden/the Dems for Texas suffering rolling blackouts due to unexpected winter storms. Biden has already signed off on disaster relief funds but nope, not good enough for the Republicans, this is Bidens fault and the democrats are all to blame.

Not sure if I’ll explain it well.
As I’m not overly familiar with it.
But Texas is not on the national grid.
They generate their own electricity.

It’s been run by Republicans for decades.

Yet, joe and his non existent green deal are at fault.
They are also blaming windmills for freezing up.

Billy Mays

https://twitter.com/BWJones/status/1361689319082131459?s=20

salmocab

Not really anything to do with Biden or even Trump but am I reading right that Texas disconnected itself from the national grid? Jesus wept that’s moronic. That’s just dysfunctional.

StringerBell

salmocab wrote: »

Not really anything to do with Biden or even Trump but am I reading right that Texas disconnected itself from the national grid? Jesus wept that’s moronic. That’s just dysfunctional.

Profits to be earned, long term thinking be dammed!

Texas forever and all that

L1011

They have DC interconnects like we do to GB (and eventually, France). That is massively less flexible than synchronous AC interconnects. The US *and* Canada otherwise is split in to two massively AC grids; plus the more heavily urban areas of Alaska as another and, for more obvious if still dumb reasons, Quebec on its own again.

Even other states that have their own grid operators - Florida for instance - maintains the synchronous AC grid with others.

Mainland Europe *and* much of North Africa are one grid, with so many different operators, legislative regimes etc - the idea that Texas opts out within the same country is mad.

But by avoiding offering service outside Texas they avoid Federal oversight, interstate commerce rules and all that stuff.