Biden - his time

[Satchmo Distel]

Biden might be coasting but he clearly has a team that is working very hard to get things through. AFAIK there's been nothing like this mega budget since the 1970s, so in a way, it's broken a neoliberal hold on progressive spending that's been there for 40+ years.

Lucky is true of all Presidents, surely? To be elected requires being in the right place at the right time. To get anything done requires having Congress, which was handed to him by Trump's shenanigans in Georgia.

[San Bernardhinault]

Also, I'm increasingly sure that all of Manchin's noise making - and the weird things he's got changed like the marginally faster drop off in the $1400 payments - is performance to show that he is capable of standing up to the crazy lefties like Biden and AOC. And the Biden administration new that Manchin needed some "wins" so they left stuff in the package that he could win on. The same theory that Ursus had with Tanden's nomination.

[ursus arctos]

A representative of what is widely though to be the premier right wing think tank in this country

https://twitter.com/mjs_dc/status/1374033974700478470

[Wouter D]

Biden proposes a world wide minimum tax rate, in a bid to nullify the multinational-wooing race to the bottom.

I never expected something like this to be proposed by the USA, of all countries. Very pleasant surprise.

[Nefertiti2]

big opportunity for the UK to confirm the partnership of the City of London with various remnants of the British empire to deliver the world's leading tax dodging opoortunities

[Etienne]

What's the stated rationale for spending 735,000,000,000 on the Pentagon?

[Tactical Genius]

So any thoughts on Biden's government program of aggressively tackling anti-Asian hate crime?

[Nefertiti2]

Good, as long as it's not done in isolation

this is also good.

https://twitter.com/USSbriefs/status/1381327899781906432?s=20

[Tactical Genius]

Good, as long as it's not done in isolation

That's my point, I think me raising this and the silence from the US-based posters should give you an inkling.........

[San Bernardhinault]

Do you think he should be unconcerned with, and do nothing about, the recent massive spike in anti-Asian violence and sentiment?

[Tactical Genius]

Do you think he should be unconcerned with, and do nothing about, the recent massive spike in anti-Asian violence and sentiment?

Who is committing these acts of violence, who is being arrested?
What community are the Asian commentators coming out and blaming en-masse?

You are one of the people I was hoping to respond, I have noticed you have wisely not given an opinion but answer my questions with questions (rustles receipts).

[San Bernardhinault]

I haven't seen a whole lot of actual material substance on how the anti-Asian violence is being addressed. It seems to be mostly rhetoric at this point. So, in that sense I feel like the response is a bit underwhelming. I could have missed substantive changes. But at the moment I feel like they should be doing more rather than just coming out with pretty words.

[San Bernardhinault]

I - perhaps unfairly - read into your question that you thought he was doing too much.

[Tactical Genius]

I haven't seen a whole lot of actual material substance on how the anti-Asian violence is being addressed. It seems to be mostly rhetoric at this point. So, in that sense I feel like the response is a bit underwhelming. I could have missed substantive changes. But at the moment I feel like they should be doing more rather than just coming out with pretty words.

I - perhaps unfairly - read into your question that you thought he was doing too much.

So your response was based on an instinct to disagree with what I said rather than any knowledge of the subject?

[San Bernardhinault]

My response was because you have a history of asking loaded questions, so I responded to what I interpreted as the load rather than to the question, yes.

[Tactical Genius]

My response was because you have a history of asking loaded questions, so I responded to what I interpreted as the load rather than to the question, yes.

If by loaded you mean I do my research before I make a point, of course.

This anti-Asian hate crime legislation is being used as an excuse to attack black people and make black people the face of anti-Asian violence and this is coming right from the top of the democratic party and is being used to nullify the black lives matter movement;.

So last year when I was against people voting for the the Democrats and people were wondering why, I said that they would round up the other minorities to attack black people, this is what i meant.
And whilst I am at it, people have asked me over the years why I don't really like terms like People of Colour or BAME, Toby Gymshorts being the latest to aske me. I cannot see how we can have affinity or anything in common with people who have animus and open hostility towards us and attack us at every turn.

[San Bernardhinault]

This anti-Asian hate crime legislation is being used as an excuse to attack black people and make black people the face of anti-Asian violence and this is coming right from the top of the democratic party and is being used to nullify the black lives matter movement;.

I have to say that I have not seen this at any level, let alone from the top of the Democratic Party*. Can you point me to where this is showing up? Almost everything I've read on recent anti-AAPI violence has been linked to Donald Trump and Republican rhetoric, and the face of it has been people like the shooter in the recent Atlanta mass-shooting.

* as an aside, it's almost impossible to define what "the top of the party is" in US politics

[San Bernardhinault]

There's an ongoing theme in media coverage of the possible "second" reconciliation bill to get round Senate filibuster rules (only for budget and spending bills) that if Biden and Schumer create this route then there's a huge risk to Democrats that Republicans are going to take advantage of it, too. This also applies to coverage of getting rid of the filibuster itself.

This fundamentally misses two key things.

First - it's pretty rare for a party to have complete control of government. So it's taking a bet on the future while creating an opportunity for right now.

Second, and much more importantly - the Democrats are the party of government; the Republicans are the party of anti-government. They don't actually want the power to do stuff (apart from, maybe, culture war stuff). They want to sabotage government. The filibuster prevents things from getting done so it's already a built in Republican tool. The downsides for Democrats exist, but they're nothing like as serious as the upsides.

[San Bernardhinault]

Meanwhile, very much a negative for the Biden administration: He doesn't seem to be expanding the limits on refugee numbers from the pitiful numbers that the Trump administration was admitting. Any cap at all is farcical, of course - the number of refugees leaving persecution isn't determined by numerical limits imposed by the US. But to have it as low as Trump did is insulting as well as farcical. And obviously deadly to many refugees who are now unable to get asylum.

[Lang Spoon]

The media insistence on treating the Republicans as rational actors with any principles whatsoever of good governance is fucking stupid.

[Hot Pepsi]

Meanwhile, very much a negative for the Biden administration: He doesn't seem to be expanding the limits on refugee numbers from the pitiful numbers that the Trump administration was admitting. Any cap at all is farcical, of course - the number of refugees leaving persecution isn't determined by numerical limits imposed by the US. But to have it as low as Trump did is insulting as well as farcical. And obviously deadly to many refugees who are now unable to get asylum.

The policy seems muddled.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/bi...a-restrictions

[Satchmo Distel]

Walter Mondale has died, which prompts me to ask how his policy record (as VP) and proposals (as candidate) stack up against Biden's. My take (from a long distance away) is that he was a reluctant liberal whose gut was centrist. It took him a long time to oppose Vietnam, and I don't think that was just due to loyalty to Johnson, although he shared some of LBJ's contradictions (and Carter's). In 1984 he was just the anti-Reagan, as Biden was the anti-Trump.

[Gerontophile]

The Feds have Matt Gaetz' iPhone.

*edit 4 days ago. I really needto get my brain into gear.

[ursus arctos]

But do they have long enough tongs?

[ursus arctos]

Satchmo, one could just as easily see the Biden of the Mondale Era as "a reluctant liberal whose gut was centrist". If anything young Senator Biden was to the right of Mondale.

As to the war, Mondale was to the left of Humphrey, but to the right of Eugene McCarthy, which put him pretty much in the middle of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party, which is always where he was most comfortable.

He was, as I said on the Death Pool thread, a very decent man who was particularly well loved and respected by those who worked with him.