[Discussion] Welcome to the Biden Administration!

Anything related to Biden and his upcoming administration. May this thread be less active and controversial as that last guys thread.

Mixolyde wrote:
polypusher wrote:

We're already setting a tone for a very low bar for Biden. There's a ton to be done, obstacles be damned. Ive been looking at his plans here and picked a few slices out I'd like to hold him to.

Imposing a 15% minimum tax on book income so that no corporation gets away with paying no taxes.
In the first 100 days, a Biden Administration will:

Immediately reverse the Trump Administration’s cruel and senseless policies that separate parents from their children at our border

End prolonged detention and reinvest in a case management program

And his Covid plan is essential.

What I didn't see is much in the way of codifying the 'norms' the cheeto walked all over and undoing the damage done to agencies like the CDC.

A lot of that would have to be changed by law, which is up to congress mostly.

Which means that if the Democrats don't win both races in Georgia on January 5th, Mitch McConnell gets to pick not just Biden's cabinet, but his agenda for the next two years. Hell, eight out of nine of the Supreme Court justices could drop dead and McConnell would be fine with not filling any of the empty seats until 2024 if the lone survivor is conservative.

Wait... Does a senate majority get to pick the cabinet? I do not know how this works.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Wait... Does a senate majority get to pick the cabinet? I do not know how this works.

Senate has to confirm Biden’s picks.

Or Biden can just do what Trump did and have everyone be an “Acting” secretary if they refused to bring up his choices for a vote.

Docjoe wrote:
Amoebic wrote:

I know we're in the throes of celebration, but a sex pest that likes to handle and sniff women's hair is not someone who exudes decency. He's definitely better than what was before, but that bar was really, really low. At least there's still some hope with the new administration.

Our new President the sex pest who barely clears the Trump bar. I forgot that we have another disgusting pervert in charge.

Well there goes my hope and optimism.

I'm sorry if this was a rain on your parade, I wasn't attempting to squash joy at the turn of things. Him being in this position is not a loss. A useful tool doesn't have to have decency in order to be effective. I just wouldn't call him someone with decency

He's an old-school politician with boundary and autonomy issues. He's been accused by several women of sexual misconduct. A lot of men with power seem to have this issue.

I worry people will become complacent with relief. Celebration is most definitely in order, but if we treat the Biden administration the way we treated Obama's, we'll end up back here again. It's so easy to wear the rose-colored glasses of hope and change, accepting the post-racial BS that caused a lot of folks to think racism in America was solved because a Black man was president. It allowed a lot of us to move ignorantly in our isolated social groups while resentful fascism brewed in the deeply racist skeletal system of our country. We now have a woman of color for VP and possibly president if Biden takes ill, and I don't see how that won't stoke trump assholes to double down in the next four years like they did during the Obama administration and again during the police riots and BLM.

The closeness of this election showed us that the USA is still very hateful and racist, and that's very much come to the forefront of late in how it impacts who acts for us in our governments.

Biden's an old-school politician with his legacy in the Obama administration. I'm concerned we'll get a repeat of the resting-on-laurels that gave rise to trump and his supporters in the first place if we allow them to coast their flaws on merely being not-as-bad-as-trump and belittle or dismiss what is there because it's not as bad as trump.

Zona wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Wait... Does a senate majority get to pick the cabinet? I do not know how this works.

Senate has to confirm Biden’s picks.

Or Biden can just do what Trump did and have everyone be an “Acting” secretary if they refused to bring up his choices for a vote.

Good grief. This won't go well.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
Zona wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Wait... Does a senate majority get to pick the cabinet? I do not know how this works.

Senate has to confirm Biden’s picks.

Or Biden can just do what Trump did and have everyone be an “Acting” secretary if they refused to bring up his choices for a vote.

Good grief. This won't go well.

If McConnell refuses to bring up his picks for a vote then Biden just installs them anyway as "Acting" secretaries. We hold the House, what are they going to do, impeach him?

Zona wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:
Zona wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Wait... Does a senate majority get to pick the cabinet? I do not know how this works.

Senate has to confirm Biden’s picks.

Or Biden can just do what Trump did and have everyone be an “Acting” secretary if they refused to bring up his choices for a vote.

Good grief. This won't go well.

If McConnell refuses to bring up his picks for a vote then Biden just installs them anyway as "Acting" secretaries. We hold the House, what are they going to do, impeach him?

Okay. :/

Honestly, the Republicans established that the new rules are "Because we Can".

Reap the Whirlwind.

Zona wrote:

Honestly, the Republicans established that the new rules are "Because we Can".

Reap the Whirlwind.

That will be the interesting thing here soon. I don't expect them to have the guts, but they have precedent now.

Amoebic wrote:

The closeness of this election showed us that the USA is still very hateful and racist, and that's very much come to the forefront of late in how it impacts who acts for us in our governments.

The source of my optimism is the way that Fox News has been acting in recent weeks. People who were radicalized during the Trump administration due to a relentless campaign of hate and fear may, just possibly, come to their senses if those drums stop beating.

Fox provided cover for the Abominable No Man Senate majority leader during the Obama administration, but Roger Ailes is gone now. Murdoch is still providing direction, but the recent tone of the network shows that maybe CEO Scott is more interested in profits than ideology. Without the White House providing them with talking points in the future, they may moderate some of their more extreme programming.

The Republican party currently has an ugly core of racism, sexism, queerphobia, and religious fanaticism, but that has not served them well in the past two elections. Many conservatives I've read are longing for a return to more moderate values. Conservatism rather than Nationalism. It is clear from the past few decades that a lot of the party will believe what they're told, so the question is, who will they listen to now, and what will they be told?

The Republican party started going off the rails in the 1990s. Maybe it will take another thirty years for them to return to more reasonable conservative values. I think that can be driven by conservative media. Conflict makes money for the media, but it can return to conservative vs. progressive conflict, rather than nationalism vs. fictional socialism.

https://twitter.com/coryprovost/stat...

Cory Provost (@coryprovost)
NEWS: Chuck Schumer pushing for $50K of student debt to eliminated by executive order in Biden's first 100 days

Schumer seeing the writing on the wall and desperately looking for leftward cover against a primary.

With Biden announcing a Covid taskforce on Monday, and the existing task force being muzzled/non-existent... Are we going to start getting updates from Biden's team on a regular basis or are they going to be concerned that that would muddy the, admittedly, already mud black waters?

Freyja wrote:

https://twitter.com/coryprovost/stat...

Cory Provost (@coryprovost)
NEWS: Chuck Schumer pushing for $50K of student debt to eliminated by executive order in Biden's first 100 days

Schumer seeing the writing on the wall and desperately looking for leftward cover against a primary.

I wish the best of luck to anyone trying to primary Schumer. The guy has taken every election seriously and campaigns in all parts of the state as a matter of course.

He’s probably pushing it because NY has one of the highest percentages of college grads in the country.

Chairman_Mao wrote:

IMAGE(http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/ap_joe_biden_ice_cream_02_floated_jc_141009_16x9_992.jpg)

Amoebic wrote:

I worry people will become complacent with relief. Celebration is most definitely in order, but if we treat the Biden administration the way we treated Obama's, we'll end up back here again.

I don't know how it's going to go, but I don't think it'll be 'Hope and Change 2.0'. If anything, I think I'm more afraid of exhaustion than celebration?

Maybe it's just me, but the image that keeps popping up in my mind is this election was like watching the tapes of 9/11, only this time those planes change course at the last second.

Zona wrote:

Honestly, the Republicans established that the new rules are "Because we Can".

Reap the Whirlwind.

Yeah, I wonder how they're liking that 'unitary executive' theory now!

I don't hold out much hope for the EO theory of governing, because the Republicans spent the last 4 years packing the courts with right wing ideologues, and also all that is easily undone in the next R administration.

As one person on the news said "Trump gave people permission to be the worst version of themselves" hopefully with that permission no longer being broadcast 24x7 on fox, a small percentage of them will at least pretend to be decent human beings.

BadKen wrote:

Many conservatives I've read are longing for a return to more moderate values. Conservatism rather than Nationalism. It is clear from the past few decades that a lot of the party will believe what they're told, so the question is, who will they listen to now, and what will they be told?

The Republican party started going off the rails in the 1990s. Maybe it will take another thirty years for them to return to more reasonable conservative values. I think that can be driven by conservative media. Conflict makes money for the media, but it can return to conservative vs. progressive conflict, rather than nationalism vs. fictional socialism.

"Moderate conservatism" is an oxymoron.

Mixolyde wrote:
BadKen wrote:

Many conservatives I've read are longing for a return to more moderate values. Conservatism rather than Nationalism. It is clear from the past few decades that a lot of the party will believe what they're told, so the question is, who will they listen to now, and what will they be told?

The Republican party started going off the rails in the 1990s. Maybe it will take another thirty years for them to return to more reasonable conservative values. I think that can be driven by conservative media. Conflict makes money for the media, but it can return to conservative vs. progressive conflict, rather than nationalism vs. fictional socialism.

"Moderate conservatism" is an oxymoron.

That space is occupied by center left democrats.

It's already started. WV senator on face the nation this morning saying that we have to control this runaway debt...

Rundown of how the Cabinet is coming together.

It'll be nice to have professionals back in the building.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/1...

Top_Shelf wrote:

Rundown of how the Cabinet is coming together.

It'll be nice to have professionals back in the building.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/1...

Garcetti's a no-go given allegations that he covered up the sexual assaults committed by a member of his staff.

Rat Boy wrote:
Top_Shelf wrote:

Rundown of how the Cabinet is coming together.

It'll be nice to have professionals back in the building.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/1...

Garcetti's a no-go given allegations that he covered up the sexual assaults committed by a member of his staff.

But think of the jokes people will write about the Mayor of LA being Transportation Secretary.

iaintgotnopants wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:
Top_Shelf wrote:

Rundown of how the Cabinet is coming together.

It'll be nice to have professionals back in the building.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/1...

Garcetti's a no-go given allegations that he covered up the sexual assaults committed by a member of his staff.

But think of the jokes people will write about the Mayor of LA being Transportation Secretary.

Don't worry, I'm sure the CEO of Quibi being commerce secretary will fill the comedy void.

Rat Boy wrote:
iaintgotnopants wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:
Top_Shelf wrote:

Rundown of how the Cabinet is coming together.

It'll be nice to have professionals back in the building.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/1...

Garcetti's a no-go given allegations that he covered up the sexual assaults committed by a member of his staff.

But think of the jokes people will write about the Mayor of LA being Transportation Secretary.

Don't worry, I'm sure the CEO of Quibi being commerce secretary will fill the comedy void.

Sure but she won't be around very long.

Amoebic wrote:

I know we're in the throes of celebration, but a sex pest that likes to handle and sniff women's hair is not someone who exudes decency. He's definitely better than what was before, but that bar was really, really low. At least there's still some hope with the new administration.

Oh stop it with the dezinformatsiya

Amoebic wrote:

He's an old-school politician with boundary and autonomy issues. He's been accused by several women of sexual misconduct. A lot of men with power seem to have this issue.

Most of this was a GOP ploy to make Biden like Trump. They failed. The Reade story faded because she was unreliable and clearly a GOP pawn.

Amoebic wrote:

I'm concerned we'll get a repeat of the resting-on-laurels that gave rise to trump and his supporters in the first place if we allow them to coast their flaws on merely being not-as-bad-as-trump and belittle or dismiss what is there because it's not as bad as trump.

"Resting-on-laurels" didn't give rise to Trump. Two terms of an efficient, charismatic black president did.

Natus wrote:
Amoebic wrote:

I know we're in the throes of celebration, but a sex pest that likes to handle and sniff women's hair is not someone who exudes decency. He's definitely better than what was before, but that bar was really, really low. At least there's still some hope with the new administration.

Oh stop it with the dezinformatsiya

Amoebic wrote:

He's an old-school politician with boundary and autonomy issues. He's been accused by several women of sexual misconduct. A lot of men with power seem to have this issue.

Most of this was a GOP ploy to make Biden like Trump. They failed. The Reade story faded because she was unreliable and clearly a GOP pawn.

Amoebic wrote:

I'm concerned we'll get a repeat of the resting-on-laurels that gave rise to trump and his supporters in the first place if we allow them to coast their flaws on merely being not-as-bad-as-trump and belittle or dismiss what is there because it's not as bad as trump.

"Resting-on-laurels" didn't give rise to Trump. Two terms of an efficient, charismatic black president did.

The hair sniffing and physical inappropriateness was a thing during the Obama administration and before, an opinion I formed watching videos of the dude doing it, so I don't appreciate the insinuation that I fell for it by reading GOP hit pieces. This opinion predates Reade, based on a history of behavior that doesn't involve her statements

I'm not talking about the efficiency of the administration's actions so much as public complacency resulting from them. Sorry if that was unclear.

Amoebic wrote:
Natus wrote:
Amoebic wrote:

I know we're in the throes of celebration, but a sex pest that likes to handle and sniff women's hair is not someone who exudes decency. He's definitely better than what was before, but that bar was really, really low. At least there's still some hope with the new administration.

Oh stop it with the dezinformatsiya

Amoebic wrote:

He's an old-school politician with boundary and autonomy issues. He's been accused by several women of sexual misconduct. A lot of men with power seem to have this issue.

Most of this was a GOP ploy to make Biden like Trump. They failed. The Reade story faded because she was unreliable and clearly a GOP pawn.

Amoebic wrote:

I'm concerned we'll get a repeat of the resting-on-laurels that gave rise to trump and his supporters in the first place if we allow them to coast their flaws on merely being not-as-bad-as-trump and belittle or dismiss what is there because it's not as bad as trump.

"Resting-on-laurels" didn't give rise to Trump. Two terms of an efficient, charismatic black president did.

The hair sniffing and physical inappropriateness was a thing during the Obama administration, an opinion I formed watching videos of the dude doing it, so I don't appreciate the insinuation that I fell for it by reading GOP hit pieces. This predates Reade, a long history of behavior predates her statements

I'm not talking about the efficiency of the administration, I'm talking about public complacency due to opinions like what you posted above. Sorry if that was unclear.

Hair-sniffing and unsolicited touchingis not sexual assault. Those stories about Biden's over-friendliness made sense...the Reade story never did. Let's not pretend the GOP cares about women.

As for complacency, yes, some Dems became complacent, sure. But who would have thought after Obama that the American public wanted the complete opposite? Who would have thought that half the country was red-hot for fascism? But, to be clear, it wasn't Democratic complacency that invited the rise of Trump. His candidacy was absolutely a reactionary spasm from white America. Now we're rid of Trump but stuck with MAGA. It doesn't look good.

Tread lightly when you tell others what is and isn't sexual assault.

Farscry wrote:

If the transition team he and Harris have been assembling is any indication, we have plenty of reason to be excited about the eventual Cabinet appointments and the impact they will have on course-correcting some of our now-highly-troubled agencies.

As a federal employee, I wanted to say that 75% of my colleagues and I are jumping for joy. The past four years have been rife with uncertainty and disrespect from above, which is ironic because a lot of people do civil service for stability and fair treatment. Literally anyone would be a huge improvement, and I’ve liked what I’ve seen of Biden since he was nominated.