[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.

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5...

It's amazing how simple words of encouragement and compassion can go a long way, and make people feel loved and understood.

I'm starting to think that Politico is a conservative rag.

Nevin73 wrote:

I'm starting to think that Politico is a conservative rag.

Got a link or something?

Yeah. Same old Joe: Rebuffing staff who smoked pot fits Biden’s MO

I've noticed a trend of negatively titled Politico articles about Biden showing up in my feed.

Sounds more like progressive complaining than conservative complaining.
It's complaining about him being too conservative about marijuana use among his staff.

Nevin73 wrote:

Yeah. Same old Joe: Rebuffing staff who smoked pot fits Biden’s MO

I've noticed a trend of negatively titled Politico articles about Biden showing up in my feed.

Both can be true. Biden's stance on pot can be crap AND POLITICO is mostly right-leaning.

Natus wrote:
Nevin73 wrote:

Yeah. Same old Joe: Rebuffing staff who smoked pot fits Biden’s MO

I've noticed a trend of negatively titled Politico articles about Biden showing up in my feed.

Both can be true. Biden's stance on pot can be crap AND POLITICO is mostly right-leaning.

I thought marijuana was decriminalized in Virginia and DC. It will be interesting to see if there is a legal case to be made by a staffer that he or she went to a legal dispensary.

jdzappa wrote:
Natus wrote:
Nevin73 wrote:

Yeah. Same old Joe: Rebuffing staff who smoked pot fits Biden’s MO

I've noticed a trend of negatively titled Politico articles about Biden showing up in my feed.

Both can be true. Biden's stance on pot can be crap AND POLITICO is mostly right-leaning.

I thought marijuana was decriminalized in Virginia and DC. It will be interesting to see if there is a legal case to be made by a staffer that he or she went to a legal dispensary.

It’s still illegal on the federal level which means it disqualifies you from any federal job. My partner works at the VA and could be fired if anything showed up on a random drug screen, despite living in a state where weed is legal and most other drugs are decriminalized. It’s a stupid policy but it likely won’t change until legalization passes at the federal level.

I don't know if I'd call Politico right-leaning... or maybe my idea of the right has been so utterly distorted by Trumpism I don't know what belongs where on the compass anymore.

As an aside, my chronic back problems will not be treated by any pain management doctor if I have marijuana in my system (other than running tests and prescribing ibuprofen), even if I have a medical marijuana card.

The marijuana works better than the pills and injections anyhoo.

ruhk wrote:
jdzappa wrote:
Natus wrote:
Nevin73 wrote:

Yeah. Same old Joe: Rebuffing staff who smoked pot fits Biden’s MO

I've noticed a trend of negatively titled Politico articles about Biden showing up in my feed.

Both can be true. Biden's stance on pot can be crap AND POLITICO is mostly right-leaning.

I thought marijuana was decriminalized in Virginia and DC. It will be interesting to see if there is a legal case to be made by a staffer that he or she went to a legal dispensary.

It’s still illegal on the federal level which means it disqualifies you from any federal job. My partner works at the VA and could be fired if anything showed up on a random drug screen, despite living in a state where weed is legal and most other drugs are decriminalized. It’s a stupid policy but it likely won’t change until legalization passes at the federal level.

This really applies to any job. Employers that span multiple states will fall back to the federal statute. I'm not sure if it has been tested in court with employers wholly inside a state where weed is legal but I imagine that they can also go by the federal statute. Essentially I kind of believe that state legalization only protects people from the police, not from consequences of usage while employed (even if not on the job).

By Arizona law you can't be fired for using marijuana if you have a medical prescription, although that protection doesn't apply to recreational use.

In practice, Arizona is an at-will employment state so it would be pretty hard prove that's why you were fired, though.

That plan would never pass without removing the filibuster right? Or are they fitting it into next year's budgetary plan, which only needs 50 votes?

Because if the relief plan got ZERO GOP votes, not even from Concerned Collins or Murkowski et co, what chance does this make?

Quick thing I remembered about Reconciliation and why they're talking about the next one so soon:

Lucky for Democrats, Congress did not enact a budget resolution for the current 2021 fiscal year. That means two reconciliation bills can be enacted this calendar year (one for this fiscal year and one for the next).

This is a good plan. It's a great start.

Let's make Biden FDR II.

Now, if only he had LBJ's sheer tenacity to muscle legislation through...

Whitehouse fact sheet on the first infrastructure bill is out.

Here's a topline from Vox

The $621 billion in infrastructure spending is the largest chunk of Biden’s plan, aiming to modernize 20,000 miles of highways, roads, and main streets, fix the 10 most economically significant bridges in the country, and repair 10,000 smaller bridges. Biden’s plan calls for $85 billion to modernize public transit and $80 billion to be put toward Amtrak for repairs and improving train corridors.

Invests $174 billion in the electric vehicle market, building out a network of 500,000 EV chargers on roads by 2030. The plan also calls for the electrification of 20 percent of the school bus fleet, and using federal procurement to electrify the entire federal fleet, including the US Postal Service. It also talks about giving consumers point of sale rebates and tax incentives to buy American-made electric vehicles, incorporating a plan from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

Eliminates all lead pipes and service lines in drinking water systems, and puts $56 billion in grants and flexible loans to states, tribes, and territories to upgrade drinking, wastewater, and stormwater systems.

Invests $100 billion to build out the nation’s high-speed broadband infrastructure to 100 percent coverage, including in remote and rural areas. Biden’s plan also commits to working with Congress to reduce the price of broadband, but doesn’t specify exactly how.

Invests $213 billion to build and retrofit over 2 million homes and commercial buildings, including community colleges, aging schools, child care facilities, veterans’ hospitals, and federal buildings. Biden’s plan calls for 1 million affordable housing units to be produced or retrofitted, and over 500,000 homes for low- and middle-income homebuyers to be built or rehabilitated. The plan also calls for the elimination of exclusionary zoning.

Puts $16 billion toward plugging old oil and gas wells, abandoned coal and uranium mines, as well as funding environmental resiliency jobs including restoring forests, wetlands, and watersheds. The plan calls for $10 billion to create a Civilian Climate Corps to conserve public lands and waters, one of Biden’s campaign promises. Conservation advocates argued that environmental restoration and resilience jobs like these can put people to work even more quickly than clean energy jobs. “Some of the earliest job wins you’re going to see are going to be in the restoration space,” Collin O’Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, told Vox. “They don’t require materials or construction, new fabrication of different goods and materials. The only thing that’s needed is money.”

Invests $100 billion to modernize the nation’s electrical grid, and extend and expand the production and investment tax credits to accelerate clean energy jobs and projects in wind, solar, and other forms of renewable energy.

The bill also includes some ideas that might stretch the traditional definition of infrastructure:

Bolsters unions by calling on Congress to pass the pro-union Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. Biden’s plan similarly asks Congress to tie federal investments in clean energy and infrastructure to prevailing wage laws, and requires that investments in transportation meet existing transit labor protections.

Bans “exclusionary zoning” and harmful land-use policies, including minimum lot sizes, mandatory parking requirements, and prohibitions on multifamily housing.

Expands long-term care under Medicaid, increasing access to home and community-based services and giving more people the chance to receive care at home. The Biden administration’s plan aims to increase the quality of care-giving jobs and offer home health workers more chances to unionize and increase their wages.

As part of a plan to target workforce development in underserved communities, Biden’s plan would put $5 billion over eight years to support evidence-based community violence prevention programs, and invest in job training for formerly incarcerated individuals.

It's Infrastructure Week!

...but, like, for reals this time.

Maybe it's just my myopia, but I'm noticing the MAGA/QAnon crowd *and* the cranks on the far Left are having trouble really criticizing Biden. Both factions have to dive into lunacy-land to generate outrage, but again, that's their strength. I really hope he keeps up with the FDR 2.0 initiatives, and his scrapping of Trump's transgender restrictions in the military is fantastic.

Natus wrote:

Maybe it's just my myopia,

Hemianopia with Left Neglect, more likely. ; D

There's a post around here somewhere I put up about how while Biden is a moderate, he's not moderate like the rest of the field was. He's not a product of the best schools, he doesn't have a bunch of prestigious 'consulting' gigs on his resume, etc. Maybe it's just my applicable vision metaphor, but I think the Left is starting to realize that.

cheeze_pavilion wrote:
Natus wrote:

Maybe it's just my myopia,

Hemianopia with Left Neglect, more likely. ; D

There's a post around here somewhere I put up about how while Biden is a moderate, he's not moderate like the rest of the field was. He's not a product of the best schools, he doesn't have a bunch of prestigious 'consulting' gigs on his resume, etc. Maybe it's just my applicable vision metaphor, but I think the Left is starting to realize that.

Agreed. He's definitely more progressive than I was expecting. Jay Carney, now of Amazon, is hopefully the centrist Dem of yesteryear. And I think the Left should absolutely keep the pressure on the Biden admin to use the power he has to effect change. The problem is that all too many people make their daily bread by rabble-rousing, even if what Biden is doing is popular and helping most US citizens.

Natus wrote:

Maybe it's just my myopia, but I'm noticing the MAGA/QAnon crowd *and* the cranks on the far Left are having trouble really criticizing Biden. Both factions have to dive into lunacy-land to generate outrage, but again, that's their strength. I really hope he keeps up with the FDR 2.0 initiatives, and his scrapping of Trump's transgender restrictions in the military is fantastic.

The MAGA/QAnon crowd are still screaming about Hunter Biden.

Is there a snippet more detail on the rebates and incentives for electric cars? We've been carless for 6 years, next one will be electric for sure.

polypusher wrote:

Is there a snippet more detail on the rebates and incentives for electric cars? We've been carless for 6 years, next one will be electric for sure.

Here's a MarketWatch article that talks about what they may be considering, but I don't think there's any concrete details outside of "rebates and incentives" right now.

And of course I just bought an electric car...

But even without any financial incentives, far and away the best vehicle I’ve ever owned. Will never go back to gas burning again!

News and Guts had a fun article yesterday on how Jen Psaki is the reigning gold medalist in the sport of giving Fox News's Peter Doocy purple nurples and stealing his lunch money.

I'm gonna find or make a desktop background of her just to bug my insurecctionist coworkers.

I love how quiet this thread's been.

Jen Psaki is my spirit animal.

polypusher wrote:

I love how quiet this thread's been.

Clean-Up on Aisle 45 is a great podcast that summarizes what the Administration is doing to fix stuff and clean house, and is entertaining and educational, too.