PRESIDENT Joe Biden: A Return to Normalcy?

[Xan]

They had to let him go.  Biden went in talking about zero tolerance for abusive behaviors.  Maybe they've arranged for someone else to hire him so he has health insurance.

[Destiny]

47 minutes ago, Xan said:

They had to let him go.  Biden went in talking about zero tolerance for abusive behaviors.  Maybe they've arranged for someone else to hire him so he has health insurance.

Letting him go was the right thing, but DAMN it pisses me off that a dude with cancer is potentially going without health insurance in this country because he lost his job. I HATE THIS SYSTEM. 

Edited February 15, 2021 by Destiny

[fraurosena]

 

[47of74]

What a White House occupied by an adult looks like. 

Quote

He has established a regular schedule, including coffee in the mornings with the first lady, meetings and phone calls from the Oval Office starting just after 9 a.m. and a return to his residence by 7 p.m. As he walks home along the Colonnade, he's often seen carrying a stack of binders or manila folders under one arm. He still brings a brown leather briefcase into the office.

Unlike his most recent predecessors -- night owls who spent the dark hours reading briefing materials (President Barack Obama) or watching television (President Donald Trump) -- Biden is more of an early-to-bed type. He has continued a tradition of reading letters from Americans, a handful of which are tucked into the briefing materials he brings home in the evenings. Recently they have focused on the pandemic; Biden has also spoken by video conference with business owners and laid-off workers weathering the economic crisis.

Biden spent ample time at the White House as vice president, navigating West Wing hallways and administration politics for eight years as Obama's No. 2. He has spent more time working in Washington than any president in decades. His adjustment period inside the executive mansion has been minimal. 

His days are more structured than Trump's, whose aides began blocking out large chunks of "executive time" to accommodate his television viewing and telephone calls. Biden's meetings are more routine, though they often run longer than planned. The door to the Oval Office is not considered open to just anyone, as it sometimes was under Trump.

 

[Ozlsn]

On 2/16/2021 at 10:00 AM, 47of74 said:

His days are more structured than Trump's,

Geez a pre-schooler's days are more structured than Trump's.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

8 minutes ago, Ozlsn said:

Geez a pre-schooler's days are more structured than Trump's.

Idk, my days are just like Trump's old schedule as President.

I have many meetings and make many calls and do many unspecified things I am going to define as "work."

I do not, however, plot insurrection nor obsessively watch cable news, so there are at least a couple of unwritten tasks he did that I do not.

[Ozlsn]

2 minutes ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

Idk, my days are just like Trump's old schedule as President.

I have many meetings and make many calls and do many unspecified things I am going to define as "work."

I do not, however, plot insurrection nor obsessively watch cable news, so there are at least a couple of unwritten tasks he did that I do not.

You are also possibly not nominally a head of state (or if you are, apologies!) responsible for quite a large number of decisions across a very wide range of fields. Retired or "CEO" of his own company Trump having unstructured time where he does nothing, don't care. Pubic official Trump? Yeah, I kind of think structured time is necessary, if only so people who need to find you for whatever reason know when they can get a slot to discuss/get signatures/etc.

[AmazonGrace]

Welcome back.

 

[fraurosena]

 

[47of74]

And it’s been a whole month that we’ve had President Biden and the former guy is stewing in Florida. 

[GreyhoundFan]

Deb Haalond, who would be the first Native American Secretary of the Interior, is getting pushback, especially from Repugs. I like her response to this questionn:

 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

3 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Deb Haalond, who would be the first Native American Secretary of the Interior, is getting pushback, especially from Repugs. I like her response to this questionn:

 

In Chicago her quote has a whole 'nother meaning!

 

[GreyhoundFan]

This is a helpful site to track the status of Biden political appointees.  It is not behind a paywall. I find it interesting to see how many positions of which I was unfamiliar.

[smittykins]

19 hours ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

In Chicago her quote has a whole 'nother meaning!

 

Except it would be DA BEARS! ?

[HerNameIsBuffy]

9 minutes ago, smittykins said:

Except it would be DA BEARS! ?

Shout out to the legendary Chris Farley.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Anyone else completely not surprised by this? "Many of Biden’s nominees of color run into turbulence in the Senate"

Quote

The Biden administration has fewer top government leaders in place than other recent presidents at this point in their terms, a pace that’s been slowed by a siege at the Capitol, an impeachment trial, a plague and a series of snowstorms.

But activists who pushed Biden to nominate a diverse Cabinet are also noticing another phenomenon: Many of the president’s Black, Latino, Asian and Native American nominees are encountering more political turbulence than their White counterparts, further drawing out the process of staffing the federal government.

Controversy has centered on endangered nominee Neera Tanden, who would be the first Indian American to lead the Office of Management and Budget, typically a low-profile post. Her detractors, including Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, have seized on scores of pointed attacks that Tanden has made via social media in recent years — a line of criticism that women’s groups say is unfair because it focuses on her tone rather than her qualifications or policies.

Activists say the concerns raised over Tanden are part of a broader pattern imperiling many of Biden’s nominees of color, making their confirmation process rougher and meaner than in previous years and when compared with their White counterparts. Many of these nominees are still likely to go forward along mostly partisan lines, but with their qualifications scrutinized more closely and their reputations attacked more forcefully than their White counterparts, activists say.

“We are concerned with what seems like foot-dragging and an effort to slow down the confirmation process of eminently qualified individuals and the fact that these nominees are women, people of color, sons or daughters of immigrants and there seems to be a pattern that is very troubling,” said Janet Murguía, the president of UnidosUS, a Latino-focused group. “It seems like this treatment is a double standard because we’re seeing that historically other administrations have been able to move much more quickly.”

Biden made a point of elevating a record number of officials of color to top posts, putting the majority-White Senate in a position where it is potentially more likely that candidates of color will be rejected or scrutinized.

Scott Sloofman, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), said Democratic senators have voted against female appointments and appointments of color made by Republican presidents. He noted that 41 Democrats voted against former housing secretary Ben Carson, who is Black, and six Democrats voted against former transportation secretary Elaine Chao, who is Asian American.

Republicans also point out that two of Biden’s Black nominees, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, had support from both sides of the aisle, and that Alejandro Mayorkas, who is Latino, was confirmed as homeland security secretary.

“It’s kind of ridiculous,” said a Senate Republican aide who was not authorized to discuss the Biden nominations publicly. “Senate Republicans are opposing these people because they are out of the mainstream and it has nothing to do with race.”

Still, civil rights groups are watching closely and keeping in touch with Senate and White House leaders to call out what they see as sexist or racist lines of attack. Many of the liberal groups have some practice at doing this, as when civil rights leaders banded together during the 2020 campaign to monitor how then-vice presidential nominee Kamala D. Harris was criticized.

A number of the nominees have been labeled with language that activist groups view as racially coded. For example, Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), Biden’s nominee to be the first Native American to lead the Department of the Interior, is being cast by Republicans as a “radical.”

Opposition to her has been so intense that it prompted two former Democratic senators — cousins Tom Udall of New Mexico and Mark Udall of Colorado — to present a defense in USA Today, where they wrote that “the exceptional criticism of Rep. Haaland and the threatened holds on her nomination must be motivated by something other than her record.”

Vanita Gupta, Biden’s pick to be associate attorney general at the Justice Department and an Indian American, is the target of a multimillion-dollar ad campaign from conservative groups labeling her “dangerous.” Heritage Action for America has focused on California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, questioning his qualifications to head the Health and Human Services Department because he’s not a doctor, which has not always been a prerequisite for that position.

“They know by using buzzwords that they’re able to try to conjure up these tropes about women of color leaders,” said Fatima Goss Graves, the president of the National Women’s Law Center. “These are code words that are used not only to distract but to conjure up an image in your mind.”

And Kristen Clarke, a Black lawyer who has been nominated to lead the Civil Rights Division at Justice, has been accused of being insensitive to Jewish people because she invited the author of an antisemitic book to speak at Harvard. She has said she regrets this decision.

Former U.N. ambassador Susan Rice, who is Black, wasn’t put up for a Cabinet-level position amid Senate comments that she was not confirmable.

Pacing is a particular area of concern for activists and the administration. So far the Senate has confirmed just nine of Biden’s 22 posts, giving nods to six who are White, two who are Black and one who is Hispanic. Exactly half of the 22 Cabinet-level positions that require Senate confirmation went to White nominees.

One data point of particular note to civil rights groups: Republicans have required cloture votes for three of Biden’s Cabinet-level nominees of color, which has contributed to a longer process.

One of those is Cecilia Rouse, dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, who had a nomination hearing near the end of January and still hasn’t had a confirmation vote as head of the Council of Economic Advisers. Cloture votes were also required for Mayorkas and Thomas-Greenfield.

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) has been pressing for faster action. “With the cooperation of Republicans, we can confirm these nominations quickly,” he said in a recent letter to his colleagues. “President Biden deserves to have his team around him as he tackles the defining crises of our time.”

Democrats took control of the Senate on Jan. 20 but could not schedule committee votes until they were able to pass an agreement with the GOP, which didn’t occur until Feb. 3. The schedule was also slowed by former president Donald Trump’s week-long impeachment trial.

But that hasn’t halted progress in all cases. Thomas-Greenfield was sworn in as U.N. ambassador Wednesday, while Austin was confirmed as Pentagon secretary just two days after the president was inaugurated Jan. 20.

Pointed criticism of some of Biden’s nominees of color spilled into a hearing this week for Merrick Garland, Biden’s pick to be attorney general. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) used the word “antisemitic” in reference to Clarke and also drew attention to a letter she co-authored in 1994 in which she pointed out physical and developmental differences between Blacks and Whites.

She has said her words were “twisted” to make them sound as if she were arguing one race was superior, when in fact she was trying to reveal that such arguments are absurd.

“I’m a pretty good judge of what an antisemite is and I do not believe that she is an antisemite and I do not believe she is discriminatory in any sense,” said Garland, who is Jewish and whose grandparents fled pogroms in Russia.

Lee also focused on Gupta, who has made pointed critiques of Republicans in the past. “I know Vanita Gupta now quite well,” Garland said. “I have to tell you I regard her as a person of great integrity.”

Lee shared a video of the exchange with Garland on Twitter and wrote: “I was disappointed that Judge Garland declined to condemn dangerous, radical positions previously taken by fellow DOJ nominees, Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke.”

Tanden, given her long history of pointed attacks on Republicans and some Democrats, has been the focus of particularly sharp criticism and appears unlikely to survive given opposition from Manchin in the 50-50 Senate.

During her confirmation hearing, Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.) ticked off several insults that Tanden had leveled online against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and then said: “I mean, you called Sen. Sanders everything but an ignorant slut.”

“That’s not true, senator,” Tanden objected.

 

I'm so sick of the GQP assholes who only want white men in power.

[thoughtful]

4 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Scott Sloofman, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), said Democratic senators have voted against female appointments and appointments of color made by Republican presidents. He noted that 41 Democrats voted against former housing secretary Ben Carson, who is Black incompetent, and had no experience in housing issues, and six Democrats voted against former transportation secretary Elaine Chao, who is Asian American  may have had conflict of interest issues.

FTFY, Scott.

[Ozlsn]

7 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Anyone else completely not surprised by this? "Many of Biden’s nominees of color run into turbulence in the Senate"

 

I'm so sick of the GQP assholes who only want white men in power.

I suspect they are also threatened by actual competence - and God forbid someone criticised them at some point!

[47of74]

On 2/24/2021 at 10:27 AM, HerNameIsBuffy said:

Shout out to the legendary Chris Farley.

 

Polish sausage....Ditka...Dittttka....Bears! 

[GreyhoundFan]

Wow, a POTUS who cares about employees. What a nice feeling.

 

[AnywhereButHere]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/6868354002

Quote

WASHINGTON – The Senate confirmed Miguel Cardona as President Joe Biden's education secretary Monday.

Cardona, confirmed in a 64-33 vote, will oversee an Education Department that employs thousands and has an annual budget of more than $60 billion. He would also oversee the agency’s $1.5 trillion student loan portfolio.

He has definitely got a tough job ahead of him! 

[GreyhoundFan]

12 hours ago, AnywhereButHere said:

He has definitely got a tough job ahead of him! 

Every Biden administration member has a tough job. I shudder to think of the messes that were hidden during the previous guy's administration.

[Jana814]

16 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Every Biden administration member has a tough job. I shudder to think of the messes that were hidden during the previous guy's administration.

I have thought this from the beginning. I’m sure the previous guy hid a ton of stuff. 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Biden is showing the world that U.S. government can work again"

Quote

The Biden presidency is still in its early days, but it is not too soon to point to its most impressive accomplishment, one that will have major implications for years to come. The covid-19 vaccination program has been transformed. The federal government has established or expanded more than 450 vaccination centers, and the country is carrying out 2 million vaccinations per day, more than double the rate when President Biden was inaugurated. The president says he has secured enough supply to vaccinate the entire adult population in the next three months, well ahead of every major country except Britain. The United States has administered about 80 million doses of the vaccine, compared with the European Union’s 35 million and China’s 50 million. More than 15 percent of Americans have received at least one dose, about five times the rate in China. In short, Biden is demonstrating to Americans and to the world that the U.S. government can, once again, work.

The Trump administration deserves credit for Operation Warp Speed, the program that helped to fund the vaccines, and the private sector deserves credit for the miraculous speed and effectiveness with which it developed the vaccines. But, for the most part, President Donald Trump left the rollout to the states. Last March, Ron Klain, now Biden’s chief of staff, observed that the Trump administration was approaching the pandemic, a massive national crisis, as if the country were still living “under the Articles of Confederation.”

Trump did this for two reasons. First, it was clear the pandemic was going to create big problems, and he didn’t want to bear responsibility for them. The sentiment was: “Let the governors own the lockdowns. We will own the recovery.” Second, Republicans have for years denigrated the federal government, arguing that it was incompetent and dysfunctional, that Washington was corrupt and that the private sector could handle everything better. Trump’s initial solution to the pandemic was to line up a bunch of private companies and announce that they would quickly set up websites and testing centers to cover the population. Little of that actually happened.

Biden came into office intent on reversing Trump’s approach. He owned the crisis, releasing a 200-page national strategy that outlined, for example, exactly how the government would use its powers and resources to ramp up vaccinations. That included ordering millions more vaccines; using the Defense Production Act to ensure that additional production could happen fast; enlisting the armed forces, National Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other agencies to support vaccination sites; and shipping vaccines directly to pharmacies, thus creating another network of vaccination centers across the country.

The result: a massive ramp-up of the supply, production and administration of the vaccines. With some luck, the United States could soon be vaccinating 3 million people a day.

Government is hard. American government is harder still. It’s a political system designed to prevent tyranny, not facilitate speedy action. Power is checked, divided and shared. Making it work takes energy, ingenuity and, above all, a belief in government. Biden clearly learned from his experience running the stimulus program as President Barack Obama’s vice president. Klain, who coordinated the response to Ebola in 2014-2015, is impressively focused on execution. Biden’s covid-19 coordinator, Jeffrey Zients, is a talented executive who has excelled in the private and public sectors. (He may be best remembered for fixing the Obamacare website.)

A senior White House official told me, “You have to work every day at all the details, grind the stuff out, persuade, cajole and force everyone to get on the same page. The federal government has amazing people working within it — FEMA, for example, has some real miracle workers — but they have to be led and managed. It can be done. The answer is not that a consulting group can do this better. For people like us who believe in government, task number one is to make government work.”

The contrast with Trump is easy to draw, because Trump didn’t really view his job as diligently administering the federal bureaucracy. For him, the presidency was a reality television show and politics was a series of symbolic acts. But there is a broader view of the federal government that grew out of the Vietnam War, Watergate and some of the excesses of the Great Society programs, one that President Ronald Reagan gave voice to when he said in his first inaugural address, “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

Biden can show us that Reagan was wrong. It was the American government that put a man on the moon and created the Internet. And in today’s world, there are crucial challenges that only government, well led and administered, can solve.

 

[AnywhereButHere]

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/07/us/politics/female-generals-promoted-biden.html?fbclid=IwAR02gig82XPUTqTIOsZGWrwpymfspxGEbsJfZ5a87onfx5pLrX7wnX6Hvrg

Quote

President Biden has nominated two female generals to elite, four-star commands, the Defense Department announced, months after their Pentagon bosses had agreed on their promotions but held them back out of fears that President Donald J. Trump would reject the officers because they were women.

The nominations of Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost of the Air Force to head the Transportation Command, which oversees the military’s sprawling global transportation network, and of Lt. Gen. Laura J. Richardson of the Army to head the Southern Command, which oversees military activities in Latin America, now advance to the Senate, where they are expected to be approved.

The unusual strategy to delay the officers’ promotions — intended to protect their accomplished careers — was devised last fall by Mark T. Esper, the defense secretary at the time, and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

They both thought the two generals were exceptional officers deserving of the commands. But under Mr. Trump, they worried that any candidates other than white men for jobs mostly held by white men might run into resistance once their nominations reached the White House.

Mr. Esper and General Milley feared that if they even broached the women’s names, Mr. Trump and some of his top aides would replace them with their own candidates before leaving office.

...

...

Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, who left the military last summer after his own entanglement with the White House, argued in the national security blog Lawfare that Mr. Esper and General Milley should have fought it out with Mr. Trump.

“Upholding good order and discipline within the military does not mean dodging difficult debates with the commander in chief,” Colonel Vindman wrote.

I think I'm with Esper and Milley on this one. There was going to be no "debate" with Fucknut. It was just going to be a straight out sabotage of these women's careers.