PRESIDENT Joe Biden: A Return to Normalcy?

[SPHASH]

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Gee, building from the bottom instead of the freaking repug "trickle down", I bet reagan is turning over in his grave.

I hope that asshole is turning over in his grave.

[WiseGirl]

Well Repugs, what are you going to do? Turns out most of us are fine taxing millionaires and big corporations.  Who would have thought that?

 

[GreyhoundFan]

[Flossie]

Did anyone check to see if that's Sean Spicer in the bunny suit?

[SPHASH]

9 hours ago, Flossie said:

Did anyone check to see if that's Sean Spicer in the bunny suit?

Melissa McCarthy is the only reason I was sorry to see Sean go.

Edited April 6, 2021 by SPHASH
eta

[WiseGirl]

Imagine that, not consulting 45.

 

[Audrey2]

Maybe we could replace the troops with Trumpkins. You know, they love to let you know how fully armed they are. They fantasize about forming an army. Look at the way they stormed the Capitol.

Edited April 14, 2021 by Audrey2

[47of74]

Meanwhile new sanctions against the Former Guy’s masters have been announced. 

Quote

The Biden administration issued a wide range of sanctions against Russia on Thursday in retaliation for recent incursions including the SolarWinds cyber espionage campaign and Moscow's interference in the 2020 presidential election.

The sanctions target more than 30 Russian entities and include the expulsion of at least 10 Russian individuals from the U.S., including intelligence officials and diplomats. The administration also issued an executive order barring U.S. financial institutions from purchasing ruble-denominated bonds beginning in June of 2021, according to a White House fact sheet.

"The Biden administration has been clear that the United States desires a relationship with Russia that is stable and predictable," the White House said. "We do not think that we need to continue on a negative trajectory. However, we have also been clear — publicly and privately — that we will defend our national interests and impose costs for Russian Government actions that seek to harm us."

Administration officials have vowed for weeks to exact costs from Moscow. In a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, President Biden said the U.S. would "act firmly" in defense of its national interests while proposing a summit with the Russian leader to discuss a "full range of issues."

Good. I hope this ruins Former Guy’s day along with those of his handlers. 

[fraurosena]

Finally some decisive action against Russia.

Imposing Costs for Harmful Foreign Activities by the Russian Government

Quote

The Biden administration has been clear that the United States desires a relationship with Russia that is stable and predictable. We do not think that we need to continue on a negative trajectory. However, we have also been clear—publicly and privately—that we will defend our national interests and impose costs for Russian Government actions that seek to harm us.

Today the Biden administration is taking actions to impose costs on Russia for actions by its government and intelligence services against U.S. sovereignty and interests.
 

Executive Order Targeting the Harmful Foreign Activities of the Russian Government
Today, President Biden signed a new sanctions executive order that provides strengthened authorities to demonstrate the Administration’s resolve in responding to and deterring the full scope of Russia’s harmful foreign activities. This E.O. sends a signal that the United States will impose costs in a strategic and economically impactful manner on Russia if it continues or escalates its destabilizing international actions. This includes, in particular, efforts to undermine the conduct of free and fair democratic elections and democratic institutions in the United States and its allies and partners; engage in and facilitate malicious cyber activities against the United States and its allies and partners; foster and use transnational corruption to influence foreign governments; pursue extraterritorial activities targeting dissidents or journalists; undermine security in countries and regions important to United States national security; and violate well-established principles of international law, including respect for the territorial integrity of states.  

The U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) carried out the following actions pursuant to the new E.O.:

Treasury issued a directive that prohibits U.S. financial institutions from participation in the primary market for ruble or non-ruble denominated bonds issued after June 14, 2021 by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation, or the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation; and lending ruble or non-ruble denominated funds to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation, or the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation. This directive provides authority for the U.S. government to expand sovereign debt sanctions on Russia as appropriate.

Treasury designated six Russian technology companies that provide support to the Russian Intelligence Services’ cyber program, ranging from providing expertise to developing tools and infrastructure to facilitating malicious cyber activities.  These companies are being designated for operating in the technology sector of the Russian Federation economy. We will continue to hold Russia accountable for its malicious cyber activities, such as the SolarWinds incident, by using all available policy and authorities.   

Imposing Additional Sanctions
Treasury sanctioned 32 entities and individuals carrying out Russian government-directed attempts to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election, and other acts of disinformation and interference.  This action seeks to disrupt the coordinated efforts of Russian officials, proxies, and intelligence agencies to delegitimize our electoral process.  The U.S. government will continue to pursue those who engage in such activity.

Treasury, in partnership with the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, sanctioned eight individuals and entities associated with Russia’s ongoing occupation and repression in Crimea.  The Transatlantic community stands united in supporting Ukraine against unilateral Russian provocations along the Line of Contact in eastern Ukraine, in occupied Crimea, and along Ukraine’s borders, as well as agreeing on the need for Russia to immediately cease its military buildup and inflammatory rhetoric.           

Reported Afghanistan Bounties
The Administration is responding to the reports that Russia encouraged Taliban attacks against U.S. and coalition personnel in Afghanistan based on the best assessments from the Intelligence Community (IC).  Given the sensitivity of this matter, which involves the safety and well-being of our forces, it is being handled through diplomatic, military and intelligence channels.  The safety and well-being of U.S. military personnel, and that of our allies and partners, is an absolute priority of the United States.

Expelling Diplomatic Personnel
The United States is expelling ten personnel from the Russian diplomatic mission in Washington, DC.  The personnel include representatives of Russian intelligence services.

Further Responses to the SolarWinds Malicious Cyber Activity
Today the United States is formally naming the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), also known as APT 29, Cozy Bear, and The Dukes, as the perpetrator of the broad-scope cyber espionage campaign that exploited the SolarWinds Orion platform and other information technology infrastructures. The U.S. Intelligence Community has high confidence in its assessment of attribution to the SVR.

The SVR’s compromise of the SolarWinds software supply chain gave it the ability to spy on or potentially disrupt more than 16,000 computer systems worldwide. The scope of this compromise is a national security and public safety concern. Moreover, it places an undue burden on the mostly private sector victims who must bear the unusually high cost of mitigating this incident.

Today, the National Security Agency, the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are jointly issuing a cybersecurity advisory, “Russian SVR Targets U.S. and Allied Networks,” that provides specific details on software vulnerabilities that the SVR uses to gain access to victim devices and networks. The advisory also provides specific steps that network defenders can take to identify and defend against the SVR’s malicious cyber activity.

Additionally, the SVR’s compromise of SolarWinds and other companies highlights the risks posed by Russia’s efforts to target companies worldwide through supply chain exploitation. Those efforts should serve as a warning about the risks of using information and communications technology and services (ICTS) supplied by companies that operate or store user data in Russia or rely on software development or remote technical support by personnel in Russia.  The U.S. government is evaluating whether to take action under Executive Order 13873 to better protect our ICTS supply chain from further exploitation by Russia.

Supporting a Global Cybersecurity Approach
The United States continues to strongly affirm the importance of an open, interoperable, secure, and reliable Internet. Russia’s actions run counter to that goal, which is shared by many of our allies and partners. To strengthen our collective approach to bolstering cybersecurity, we are announcing two additional steps:

First, the United States is bolstering its efforts to promote a framework of responsible state behavior in cyberspace and to cooperate with allies and partners to counter malign cyber activities. We are providing a first-of-its kind course for policymakers worldwide on the policy and technical aspects of publicly attributing cyber incidents, which will be inaugurated this year at the George C. Marshall Center in Garmisch, Germany. We are also bolstering our efforts through the Marshall Center to provide training to foreign ministry lawyers and policymakers on the applicability of international law to state behavior in cyberspace and the non-binding peacetime norms that were negotiated in the United Nations and endorsed by the UN General Assembly.

Second, we are reinforcing our commitment to collective security in cyberspace. The Department of Defense is taking steps to incorporate additional allies, including the UK, France, Denmark, and Estonia, into the planning for CYBER FLAG 21-1, which is an exercise designed to improve our defensive capabilities and resiliency in cyberspace.  CYBER FLAG 21-1 will build a community of defensive cyber operators and improve overall capability of the United States and allies to identify, synchronize, and respond in unison against simulated malicious cyberspace activities targeting our critical infrastructure and key resources.

The United States is committed to the security of our allies and partners; these efforts are intended to reinforce again our commitment to that bedrock principle.

It’s a pity Trump doesn’t read. He’d have an apoplectic fit if he knew what this EO says.

[Howl]

Paul Begala wrote an op-ed on CNN about TX Sen. John Cornyn  today in response to this Cornyn tweet: 

Quote

"The president is not doing cable news interviews. Tweets from his account are limited and, when they come, unimaginably conventional. The public comments are largely scripted. Biden has opted for fewer sit down interviews with mainstream outlets and reporters."

Cornyn goes on to wonder if Biden is "really in charge."

Begala gives a conventional response, listing Biden's accomplishments and discussing how normal Biden is in comparison to 4 years of frenetic & relentless Trump crazy. 

Begala totally misses, or chooses to miss, the import of the "Is Biden really in charge?" comment, which is a major part of the Qanon, wing-nut, alt-reich narrative about Biden -- that he's a puppet, that he's senile and frail, propped up by his handlers, that Trump is really in charge from Mar-a-Largo, etc. and clearly exposes Cornyn's pandering to that element of the Republican party. 

Side note: We really need to stop considering this part of the American electorate as an impossibly crazy fringe element.  In reality, there are way too many of these people to be considered a fringe element; they are a significant part of the Republican electorate.  A large number of Republicans believe that the election was stolen from Trump, which is an indicator that they believe a lot of other stuff that we consider impossibly stupid. 

 

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

Whoever is in charge is doing an okay job.

[Alisamer]

On 4/20/2021 at 7:49 AM, Howl said:

that Trump is really in charge from Mar-a-Largo, etc.

The only thing Trump is in charge of is the golf cart he drives.

I wonder how they can look at how things are going now, compared to when the former guy was president, and be like "Oh, yeah, he's still in charge, for sure!" despite the fact that the current administration is cleaning up his mess and reversing his mistakes as quickly as possible. 

[fraurosena]

2 hours ago, Alisamer said:

The only thing Trump is in charge of is the golf cart he drives.

I wonder how they can look at how things are going now, compared to when the former guy was president, and be like "Oh, yeah, he's still in charge, for sure!" despite the fact that the current administration is cleaning up his mess and reversing his mistakes as quickly as possible. 

Well, nothing's really changed in Trumpworld, is there? He's still out golfing every day, like he did during his stint in office. Also, Biden is clearly afflicted by dementia (Klux News, OANN and Newsmax say so, therefore it must be true!) so how could he possibly be reversing Trump's glorious achievements? And don't forget, Q knows everything, and anything Q says is truer than the gospel. When Q says Trump is in charge, then Trump for sure is in charge!

[WiseGirl]

15 hours ago, fraurosena said:

reversing Trump's glorious achievements? 

Can you remind me what those were again? *checks notes* all I see is glorious corruption. I still don't get why people love 45 so much. He's rude, crude, and squicky. Nevermind that he is a narcissistic, corrupt, fear-based, bully of a "leader".

[fraurosena]

5 hours ago, WiseGirl said:

Can you remind me what those were again? *checks notes* all I see is glorious corruption. I still don't get why people love 45 so much. He's rude, crude, and squicky. Nevermind that he is a narcissistic, corrupt, fear-based, bully of a "leader".

Corruption? What corruption? That's just liberal propaganda from the fake news media.

He built the border wall. He stopped the caravan invasion by millions-- no billions of evil illegal immigrants! He was the first in office who ever went to North Korea, and he stopped a nuclear war with Kim Jong Un from happening. He forced NATO to pay us all of the money they owed us. He got out of that terrible bad Iran deal and he got out of that Paris climate thing too. He got the better of China with the tariffs and the trade war and he kept the chinamen from coming here and infecting us with the kung flu.

You simply can't deny all of his many, many achievements. And if you do, then you're just an evil liberal far-leftwing antifa commie socialist who wants to destroy America.

/s

[smittykins]

On 4/22/2021 at 11:52 AM, fraurosena said:

He built the border wall.

And he got Mexico to pay for it!

[fraurosena]

How refreshing to have a decent human being who deeply loves his family as president.

No matter what's happening, he always answers a call from one of his grandchildren.

Quote

Joe Biden says he has a strict rule about his phone: No matter what's happening, he always answers a call from one of his grandchildren.

Biden said on the campaign trail that he kept up with them every day of the pandemic with calls and texts, and now the ritual has carried over to his life in the White House. He checks in on his grandchildren with almost religious devotion, often reaching out multiple times a week, according to two people familiar with the first family's habits.

"No topic is off limits," one of them said, even if "sometimes the kids don't want to tell him everything."

It isn't just his family he's calling, of course. The Biden cold call is a feature of his decades-long political career in Washington, and just about every political veteran in town has gotten a surprise buzz at one time or another. And these days, he regularly picks up the phone to call key members of Congress, aides say.

But now that he's so deeply ensconced in the world's tightest security bubble, and remains somewhat sequestered because of the pandemic, Biden's phone line has become a lifeline to the people who bring him comfort. Biden alluded to that changed dynamic during a CNN Town Hall earlier this year, referring to life in the White House as a "gilded cage."

Biden, more than most, knows how tenuous family ties can be. He lost his first wife and baby daughter in a car accident in 1972, and he went on to raise his surviving sons, Beau and Hunter, with his second wife, Jill. Beau Biden died of cancer six years ago.

The habitual check-ins with grandchildren, five of whom are of talking age, remains at minimum a text ("typically an 'I love you', or 'How are you?'" says one source) and at most a phone call.

The Defense Information Systems Agency, which oversees the agency responsible for supporting the President's communications, would not directly answer whether the President was using a secured mobile device to text and call.

"The White House Communications Agency provides the President with the communication devices and capabilities that are required for him to perform his duties," the statement said.

The texts and calls suggest how deeply he needs to know that they are OK, especially at the end of the day. His words are mostly private, but his grandchildren have shared some of them over time.

Granddaughter Naomi Biden shared several "Voicemails from Pop" on Twitter during the 2020 campaign.

"Hey Naomi, it's Pop. I just called to say I love you. We just landed in Iowa. When you get a chance let me know where you are. Get home alright, OK?" plays one voicemail recording of Biden.

The rest of the compilation shows a repeated pattern -- then-candidate Biden calling to say he loves his granddaughter, telling her where he's landed and sharing exactly what time it is.

Like many concerned parents and grandparents, when Biden hasn't been able to get a hold of his grandkids he's escalated to texting the entire Biden clan. And though Biden appears to be familiar with smartphones -- he once pulled out his iPhone to play "Despacito" on the campaign trail and has been spotted taking calls from a similar looking device since taking office -- his granddaughters still poke fun at his texting style and constant concern.

"On a day where we're all busy, he texts us, 'Just tried calling you guys. Missed it,'" Maisy Biden said in an interview on NBC in January.

"He has this weird thing where he can put stuff in bold letters," granddaughter Natalie says.

Naomi adds, "He puts, like, 'SUBJECT: WHERE ARE YOU?'"

Maisy also recalled "Pop" staying up "until 10 p.m." to make sure his grandkids got to their family lake house safely, even though they say they have Secret Service traveling with them.

The President also clearly has another family member in particular on his mind: his surviving son, Hunter Biden, who has struggled with addiction in recent years. In his new book, Hunter Biden makes clear how much his father needs to check in on him.

Hunter Biden said he talks to Joe Biden "at least every night," during a CBS interview around the time of his book release earlier this month. Similar check-ins happen with the President's daughter, Ashley, and the rest of the grandchildren, Hunter Biden said.

"Usually, he calls me right before he goes to bed just to tell me that he loves me," he said of his dad.

That's what Joe Biden has long done, he said, because he "knows what it's like not to be able to pick up the phone and talk to your son."

Much like his daily four-hour commute as a senator -- two hours each way -- between Delaware and Washington to be with his sons, frequent calls with other lawmakers were a longtime hallmark of Biden's communication style in the Senate.

Since his inauguration, Biden has maintained the habit with members of Congress, seeming to relish in direct conversations with the people he still refers to as his "colleagues." He's been on the phone with members of Congress -- advancing his legislative agenda or at least attempting to preserve his options. According to White House press secretary Jen Psaki, the President is regularly on a direct line with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and one of the Senate's most moderate Democrats, West Virginia's Joe Manchin.

Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins says she got a call "out of the blue" to try to sway her on the coronavirus relief bill earlier this year, and has also said Biden phoned her last November to congratulate her for her Senate reelection.

Allies like Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy -- the senior-most member of the Senate -- have gotten multiple calls from the President since Inauguration Day, according to his office. And the President also phones longtime friends like Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. The senator's office says Biden recently rang to wish Casey a happy birthday and talk infrastructure.

Biden's high value on maintaining a direct line on family life has also spread to how he treats his staff.

So...As vice president, Biden once wrote to his staff that he did not want any of his employees "to miss or sacrifice important family obligations for work."

"In fact," he wrote in that 2014 memo, "... if I find out that you are working with me while missing important family responsibilities, it will disappoint me greatly. This has been an unwritten rule since my days in the Senate."

 

[Jana814]

Biden was the same way with his sons. He always said if his sons called when he was working he would always take their call since he was a single widowed father. 
 

Where I’m sure trump would flip out if his children or grandchildren (not like would have) interrupted him if he was working. 

[thoughtful]

4 hours ago, Jana814 said:

Where I’m sure trump would flip out if his children or grandchildren (not like would have) interrupted him if he was working.  playing golf.

FTFY.

[Audrey2]

1 hour ago, thoughtful said:

FTFY.

Or tweeting, or talking to Vladimir, or on the toilet, or watching fox news, or ...

[thoughtful]

24 minutes ago, Audrey2 said:

Or tweeting, or talking to Vladimir, or on the toilet, or watching fox news, or ...

 . . . all of those at once!

You say, how could he include the golf? Here ya go:

https://www.amazon.com/Potty-Putter-Toilet-Time-Golf/dp/B000LC65QA

[church_of_dog]

16 hours ago, thoughtful said:

 . . . all of those at once!

You say, how could he include the golf? Here ya go:

https://www.amazon.com/Potty-Putter-Toilet-Time-Golf/dp/B000LC65QA

My favorite bits are circled in red.

[Audrey2]

7 hours ago, church_of_dog said:

My favorite bits are circled in red.

I'm torn between shaking my head and wishing I had come up with it.

Now we know why some men take so long in the bathroom!

[Becky]

16 hours ago, church_of_dog said:

My favorite bits are circled in red.

Now we know why he sits the way he does - 

[smittykins]

On 4/24/2021 at 10:06 PM, thoughtful said:

 . . . all of those at once!

You say, how could he include the golf? Here ya go:

https://www.amazon.com/Potty-Putter-Toilet-Time-Golf/dp/B000LC65QA

There’s even a “As Seen On TV” commercial!