The Biden Presidency

[Andy_Ross]

Kayleigh McEnany tweeted

@kayleighmcenany
Underwhelming.
Uninspiring.
This is difficult to watch.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Eric Garner was killed by the NYPD when stopped for selling black market cigarettes. Let's not be naive. Prohibition means enforcement by the armed agents of the state.

If menthols are largely popular among black Americans, that means these illicit markets will largely exist within black communities and be operated by black Americans, putting them squarely in the sights of enforcement agents.

Oh for pity's sake.

 

[Belz...]

Since you approve, of these draconsian approaches, I see that idea of invidual freedom does not hold an important place in your universe.

Dude, why do you always say things like that? You can't just leave it at a disagreement on one issue; it has to be "you're against freedom" and such. That's so ridiculous.

 

[xjx388]

No one is talking about making anything a crime. The FDA is talking about telling manufacturers they can't add menthol to cigarettes. Adding menthol would be a civil violation enforced by the FDA on the manufacturer. No one is talking about adding menthol to the list of banned narcotics in schedule one or two (which would make owning the cigarettes a crime).

Owning cigarettes wasn’t a crime for Eric Garner, right? He was suspected of selling cigs from packs that didn’t have tax stamps. Death sentence.

Menthol cigarettes will not be legally produced in the US under this proposal. That means they will brought from other jurisdictions -think Mexico and Indian Reservations. No tax stamps.

You can do the math on that.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Good interview, Stephen Colbert and Bernie Sanders. It was just after Biden's speech. I thought some very good points were brought out.

There's another half I haven't watched yet. I'll link to it after I see if it is worth posting.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Here's part 2.



Colbert and Stewart*: some of the most insightful guys on the tube.

*No Stewart in this.

 

[SezMe]

7. Huge, punitive taxes on tobacco products, pushing the price of a pack of 20 to about $33.00

Wow!

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

What is it with these morons?

Now that I think of it, every alcoholic beverage is plant based. Fermented grapes...brandy, Cognac and wine. Fermented potatoes and other grains makes vodka. Fermented Agave makes tequila. Fermented Juniper berries makes gin.

Is there such a thing as fermented pork, beef or lamb? Just checking. Can't imagine that it would taste good.

About 15 years ago I had a shot of homemade Bacon Vodka at the Machine Shed in Minneapolis. They are very big on bacon. Not actual meat based, but meat infused.

Don't try it. It tastes like drinking a poisoned corpse. Stick with plant-based beer.

 

[Craig4]

Owning cigarettes wasn’t a crime for Eric Garner, right? He was suspected of selling cigs from packs that didn’t have tax stamps. Death sentence.

Menthol cigarettes will not be legally produced in the US under this proposal. That means they will brought from other jurisdictions -think Mexico and Indian Reservations. No tax stamps.

You can do the math on that.

That has far more to do with policing in this country than what cigarettes Garner was selling. What happened to him is a great argument to reform police practices in this country. It is not a great argument for not regulating what goes into cigarettes. Whether menthol is or is not in cigarettes, people will still be selling looseies.

 

[Craig4]

Kayleigh McEnany tweeted

@kayleighmcenany
Underwhelming.
Uninspiring.
This is difficult to watch.

Kayleigh must have had a hard time with it. There were some complicated concepts and words with more than three syllables in them that must have been hard for her to understand.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Well it was better than being told to drink bleach and shove a light-bulb up your arse.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Stephen Miller tweets

@StephenM
So far, this speech is written in the “laundry list” style — the least inspired format for a congressional address.
It is striking just how tedious & unoriginal the rhetoric was in Biden’s speech. Also, no outreach, no bipartisanship, no surprises, no warmth — a lifeless and dry address.

 

[smartcooky]

Pretty much the same as the UK but cigarettes have to be sold from standard black boxes with no company logo or colours on it. Just a brand name and health warning.

Yup, we did that here in 2018.. "plain packaging" it called

https://www.odt.co.nz/sites/default/files/story/2020/12/cigarettes_130318.jpg

The tobacco companies went absolutely bananas and threatened legal action. The MoH unofficially told them that the tax on cigarettes could always be doubled if they preferred, making a pack of 20 almost $50.

They shut up!

 

[gnome]

Given the Democrats presumably have a finite amount of political capital, and a potential expiration date on today's level of influence on Congress, I find "menthol in cigarettes" to be a poor use of those limited resources.

 

[Belz...]

Stephen Miller tweets

@StephenM
So far, this speech is written in the “laundry list” style — the least inspired format for a congressional address.
It is striking just how tedious & unoriginal the rhetoric was in Biden’s speech. Also, no outreach, no bipartisanship, no surprises, no warmth — a lifeless and dry address.

As opposed to Trump's rants?

 

[gnome]

Bipartisanship in Biden's speech--examples:

the overwhelming support of the American people — Democrats, Independents and Republicans

We kept our commitment, Democrats and Republicans, of sending $1,400 rescue checks to 85 percent of American households.

800,000 families are on the Medicare waiting list right now to get home care for their aging parent or loved one with disability. If you think it’s not important, check out in your own district, Democrat or Republican. Democrat or Republican voters.

Investments in jobs and infrastructure like the ones we’re talking about, have often had bipartisan support in the past. Vice President Harris and I meet regularly in the Oval Office with Democrats and Republicans to discuss the jobs plan. And I applaud a group of Republican senators who just put forward their own proposal.

I would like to meet with those who have ideas that are different, that they think are better. I welcome those ideas.

Let’s lower deductibles for working families in the Affordable Care Act and let’s lower prescription drug costs. We know how to do this. The last president had that as an objective.

It’s within our power to do it. Let’s do it now. We talked about it long enough, Democrats and Republicans. Let’s get it done this year.

I know Republicans have their own ideas and are engaged in productive discussions with Democrats in the Senate. We need to work together to find a consensus.

I submit that quite to the contrary to Miller's observation, at nearly every single occasion that political parties came up as a topic, Biden expressed support for bipartisan cooperation.

 

[Belz...]

Bipartisanship in Biden's speech--examples:

















I submit that quite to the contrary to Miller's observation, at nearly every single occasion that political parties came up as a topic, Biden expressed support for bipartisan cooperation.

So he was lying? Colour me shocked!

 

[Armitage72]

Ted Cruz was filmed apparently nodding off during the speech. I'd give good odds odds that he was faking and playing to the camera, although he's been heavily mocked for it, so it may not have worked out so well.

 

[Horatius]

So he was lying? Colour me shocked!

Yeah, people really need to stop acting like any of these complaints are being made honestly. He could have taken the stage with fireworks shooting out his ass, and they still would have said it was "boring and unoriginal".

 

[JoeMorgue]

The Right going to spend a lot of effort in the next 4+ years trying to convince us of some version of "We all hated Trump but come on admit he wasn't boring" and trying to sell it as some sort of "see he wasn't all that bad" narrative.