The Biden Presidency

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CapelDodger said:
Indeed : the bedrock of democracy is a well-informed electorate. Without that it's just bread and circuses.
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All too true ... and scary when one grasps the reality of how very poorly informed so many voters are. And, worse still, how misinformed so many Republicans are, especially those consumers of right wing radio.
 
Roger Ramjets said:
Which is why I am not satisfied with this,


How can we determine whether these earmarks really are 'wasteful' and 'unrelated' as Romney claims, if we don't even know why they were included in the bill? More importantly, why are we not being informed?
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To be clear, I was referring there to who got them added, rather than whether they're wasteful or unrelated. To deal with those, though... that 15% was supposedly less related to immediate COVID handling, at least directly. Wasteful? Fairly certainly not actually wasteful when the actual impacts are examined. acbytesla posted a link to a video that somewhat broadly addresses why shortly after your post, for that matter, and GodMark2 addressed one of the bits more directly.
 
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wareyin said:
Yes. The one in this thread, for instance, where it is being claimed that Democrats don't care about a $15 minimum wage.
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I haven't read any Republicans saying that here, but I've not been following closely. I find it surprising : I'd have expectd the Republican poisiton to be that the Democratic Party does care deeply about a $15 minimum wage because it would ruin the US economy, and that's their primary objective (both because they hate America and because they could finalise their Marxist take-over on the back of economic collapse). I guess they missed that point - they're none too bright, after all.
 
SezMe said:
Perhaps you can tell us the difference between "constructive criticism" and "useful idiots"?
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My, I didn't think those 2 terms were unknown, or confusing. Let me help:

Constructive criticism is the process of offering valid and well-reasoned opinions about the work of others, usually involving both positive and negative comments, in a friendly manner rather than an oppositional one. My hilight. Are you seeing any well-reasoned commentary that includes positive comments from the self-proclaimed progressive/lefties in this thread? I'm seeing a lot of 'Biden/Pelosi/etc hate the left' and 'the Dems should just wave a magic wand and magically make Manchin cooperate!' but nothing that is in any way a helpful suggestion.

useful idiot
: a naive or credulous person who can be manipulated or exploited to advance a cause or political agenda. Using Republican talking points, telling people they should vote for Trump over Biden, and blaming the Democratic party for not doing things they don't actually have the power to do under the current system are all examples.

Hope this clears things up for you!
 
wareyin said:
Yes. The one in this thread, for instance, where it is being claimed that Democrats don't care about a $15 minimum wage.
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Seems that 8 Democratic Senators don't care about the $15 minimum wage, how else would you characterize them voting against it?

If you can't tell the difference between bad-faith attacks by conservatives that obviously oppose increasing the wage and the criticisms from progressives that have been unwavering in their support for this issue, that strikes me as a personal blind spot.
 
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Joe and Jill Biden's German shepherds have been removed from the White House after the younger dog, Major, reportedly bit a security agent.

According to US media, the pets have been sent back to the Biden family home in Wilmington, Delaware.

It follows Major's aggressive behaviour towards White House staff.

The Bidens adopted three-year-old Major in 2018. He became the first dog from an animal shelter to live in the White House.

Their other dog, Champ, is 13.

Anonymous sources told CNN that Major had been jumping, barking and charging at White House staff and security.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-56331268
 
Originally Posted by wareyin View Post
Yes. The one in this thread, for instance, where it is being claimed that Democrats don't care about a $15 minimum wage.
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SuburbanTurkey said:
Seems that 8 Democratic Senators don't care about the $15 minimum wage, how else would you characterize them voting against it?

If you can't tell the difference between bad-faith attacks by conservatives that obviously oppose increasing the wage and the criticisms from progressives that have been unwavering in their support for this issue, that strikes me as a personal blind spot.
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Maybe they wanted the Covid payments to go out and will fight for the increase later. Someone can care for something but know it is not their number one priority.

Personally I am against a nationwide 15 minimum wage and the covid bill as it is but I can see people compromising for now as not the same as not caring about it.


I am against the Covid bill mainly because people like me who have not lost a penny in pay and have reasonably good jobs should not be given a $5,400 check. Cynically I guess the issue there are enough votes in the around 80 to 150 thousand to make lawmakers especially in close states want to pander.
 
Captain_Swoop said:
Joe and Jill Biden's German shepherds have been removed from the White House after the younger dog, Major, reportedly bit a security agent.

According to US media, the pets have been sent back to the Biden family home in Wilmington, Delaware.
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That's... kind of sad.

Not a dog owner myself, but these dogs were stuck in a situation where there was probably a lot more activity than they were used to and one of them reacted as you might expect... defensively. And now they are going to be sent away from their owner/master.
 
Segnosaur said:
That's... kind of sad.

Not a dog owner myself, but these dogs were stuck in a situation where there was probably a lot more activity than they were used to and one of them reacted as you might expect... defensively. And now they are going to be sent away from their owner/master.
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I am very surprised they would send the dogs away from the family. It makes me wonder if it is true.
 
eeyore1954 said:
Maybe they wanted the Covid payments to go out and will fight for the increase later. Someone can care for something but know it is not their number one priority.

Personally I am against a nationwide 15 minimum wage and the covid bill as it is but I can see people compromising for now as not the same as not caring about it.


I am against the Covid bill mainly because people like me who have not lost a penny in pay and have reasonably good jobs should not be given a $5,400 check. Cynically I guess the issue there are enough votes in the around 80 to 150 thousand to make lawmakers especially in close states want to pander.
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The covid bill passed on strictly partly-line vote. That's not a criticism at all, just a reflection of the current reality where Republicans are not at all interested in good governance.

If the bill couldn't pass with the minimum wage included, it's because these Democrats didn't support it. Nobody would have been surprised if Manchin torpedoed the inclusion, and it only would have taken one to exclude it, but 8 senators voting against shows that the problem of rogue conservative party members is larger than that.
 
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eeyore1954 said:
I am very surprised they would send the dogs away from the family. It makes me wonder if it is true.
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One of the dogs bit somebody. I suspect that if it had repeated that, there might be some legal rule that the dog would have to be put down.

And if the dog is reacting that way, they might have thought the dog was in too much distress to continue living at the white house.

Since giving up the white house was not a viable option, sending the dog away would seem like the most humane thing to do. (Best of several bad options.)
 
SuburbanTurkey said:
The covid bill passed on strictly partly-line vote. That's not a criticism at all, just a reflection of the current reality where Republicans are not at all interested in good governance.

If the bill couldn't pass with the minimum wage included, it's because these Democrats didn't support it. Nobody would have been surprised if Manchin torpedoed the inclusion, and it only would have taken one to exclude it, but 8 senators voting against shows that the problem of rogue conservative party members is larger than that.
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Of course there is no possibility that many republicans didn't vote for it because they are interested in what they believe is good governance. Mixed in with a certain amount of partisanship (The same as when the democrats vote on a bill)
In my opinion there has already been far too much spent.
 
Segnosaur said:
One of the dogs bit somebody. I suspect that if it had repeated that, there might be some legal rule that the dog would have to be put down.

And if the dog is reacting that way, they might have thought the dog was in too much distress to continue living at the white house.

Since giving up the white house was not a viable option, sending the dog away would seem like the most humane thing to do. (Best of several bad options.)
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Maybe but if he bit again the president should just issue a k-9 pardon.
 
gnome said:
This is alarming--do we know whether these are children that arrived unaccompanied, or were in some way separated from the family since arriving? An important point.
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I'm going to speculate that much of the surge has to do with Trump's previous policies that resulted in huge camps of migrants on the Mexican side of the border forming when people where unable to make asylum claims. Biden rightly ended this monstrous policy, but doesn't seem to have a solution for what to do with these asylum seekers beyond putting them in detention centers.
 
SuburbanTurkey said:
I'm going to speculate that much of the surge has to do with Trump's previous policies that resulted in huge camps of migrants on the Mexican side of the border forming when people where unable to make asylum claims. Biden rightly ended this monstrous policy, but doesn't seem to have a solution for what to do with these asylum seekers beyond putting them in detention centers.
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Well, Biden is in a bit of a bind, here. De-Trumpifying the US government isn't something that can or will happen overnight, and ICE is probably the worst for that. ICE was already a ****** organization when Trump took over, and then Trump spent four years actively supporting its worst elements.

It's entirely possible there's no one in ICE who knows how to do anything but throw people into detention cells, and it's likely that most of those people have no interest in learning anything different, on top of that. Biden needs to hire people to fix this, but in the meantime, as you said, the problems exist, and need to be dealt with, and ICE is the major organization that deals with this issue.

So we're stuck with a ****** "solution" while we try, against major institutional inertia and active push-back, to work up a better system to solve the problem.
 
It should be noted that the GOP is against ANY increase in the minimum wage and no GOP president or legislature to my knowledge has ever signed or passed one.

They are not even arguing for a smaller minimum wage hike as an alternative. Any increase would be opposed by the Republican party.

I was wrong.
"various Republican presidents signed increases into law over the years, all did so while Democrats held the majority. The two times the rate was raised during a Republican majority were in 1996 and 1997, approval of which came after months of pressure from Democrats. The final vote was 74 to 24, with 27 Republicans joining all 47 Democrats in favor. President Bill Clinton signed that bill into law, which accounted for two raises over the two years, totaling at $5.15." https://www.politifact.com/factchec...mocrats-held-majority-almost-every-time-cong/
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