The Biden Presidency

[Aridas]

Maybe you didn't vote for Biden's "message", but some of us did. Some of us are sick of the hyper-partisanship on both sides (which is what got Trump into power) and just want everyone to get along while we work together to deal with the mess we are in. Some us us thought Biden was the best candidate because of what he said he would do, not in spite of it.

To poke at this with another quote -

Every Democrat I know would love it if the US went back to things as they were even just a decade ago, but it's become clear that virtually no Republicans want that, so what the hell else can the Democrats do? Just keep letting the GOP wallow in its own crapulence?

Working together with a loyal opposition acting in good faith is good thing. Trying to work together with a disloyal opposition that constantly acts in bad faith is deeply problematic. Unfortunately, we've pretty clearly got the latter with the Republican Party.

Progressives who 'worked their butt off' for Biden have merely atoned for their role in giving us Trump last time.

*gives Roger Ramjets the bird for that utter nonsense*

I don't share your confidence.Power corrupts,and I am afraid that the Dems will like being the sole power so much they will become like the current GOP...willing to do anything to stay in power.I ma also concerend they have their own crazy wing now,and it will come to dominate the party.
I think you are under the illusion that everybody on the left is in favor of freedom and democracy. THat is an illusion.Hard line ideologues of all stripes tend to be authoratarians.

Single Party Rule would indeed be bad. Still, by a large margin, Democrat voters fairly certainly would actively oppose ending up with single party rule in the first place, which is a fair bit of the point. That very much includes Progressives, who have a pretty solid record of being strongly pro-Democracy.

 

[Venom]

I don't share your confidence.Power corrupts,and I am afraid that the Dems will like being the sole power so much they will become like the current GOP...willing to do anything to stay in power.I ma also concerend they have their own crazy wing now,and it will come to dominate the party.
I think you are under the illusion that everybody on the left is in favor of freedom and democracy. THat is an illusion.Hard line ideologues of all stripes tend to be authoratarians.

Who makes up the crazy wing of the Dem party?

 

[Mumbles]

I don't share your confidence.Power corrupts,and I am afraid that the Dems will like being the sole power so much they will become like the current GOP...willing to do anything to stay in power.I ma also concerend they have their own crazy wing now,and it will come to dominate the party.
I think you are under the illusion that everybody on the left is in favor of freedom and democracy. THat is an illusion.Hard line ideologues of all stripes tend to be authoratarians.

Agreed, with one caveat: for now, the authoritarian left is relatively marginal at the moment - particularly compared to the non-voting/jaded who don't follow politics, and instead simply see nothing working for them and people like them.

Gone after "high-level discussions."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...54dd2c-6d9a-11eb-9f80-3d7646ce1bc0_story.html

Cool. Next up seems to be Brian Boynton in the Civil Rights Division of the DoJ, whose name is on a court filing stating that Devos shouldn't be deposed for her clear ignoring of previous court orders. You may remember that Devos was ordered not to collect loans for for-profit scam colleges - and did so anyway, to the point of garnishing wages of the people who, by all rights, shouldn't be liable for their scam loans at all. Here's one of many reports on the topic, but you can find your own as needed.

It could be that this is just the scummy underlings continuing their work, but there's one wrinkle - Boynton's clients before joining the Biden administration include a few of the scammer for-profit colleges in question. One to keep an eye on, at the very least.

 

[Stacyhs]

Patience, Little Grasshoppers. Patience.

 

[Stacyhs]

Which amounted to "Resign or you will be fired,and it will look a bit better if you resing".

Sort lof like the old German army custom of giving a disgraced officer a bottle of Brandy and then leaving him alone in a room with a loaded pistol.....

Reminds me of Rommel. Do you want a nice State funeral and to go down as a hero and for your family to honored and cared for or to be shot as a traitor?

 

[Delvo]

It would have been better to fire him than to let him quit, and I don't know why it took until now in either case, but it gets an "eh, whatever" from me. I've never followed the stories of one individual's crimes against anther individual, like turning on the local news and hearing that there was a fight at a bar somewhere around here or about somebody robbing or trying to rob some store somewhere around here. Maybe they get caught & punished, maybe they don't, but either way it's not very interesting.

What I'm negative about concerning Biden is the stuff that affects the country overall or at least lots of the people in it, like his swamp-creature appointments (a very old established pattern in his predecessors, which was a substantial part of what brought us Trump) and his Republican positions & actions/inactions on health care, student loans & college funding, minimum wage, and marijuana decriminalization & prisons.

On prisons, he did recently do an order for the DoJ to not contract out to private companies for that anymore, so that was nifty. But it's also a fairly small part of the big picture and he hasn't said much about what should be done about the rest.

Some other good stuff that he hasn't done yet, he can't do alone, so I can't judge much there other than how hard he does or doesn't seem to be pushing for them. For example, he's been known to say he wants to move taxes on the rich back up, which I understand he can't do without Congress, but why isn't he talking about it and trying to prod Congress to do its part?

 

[Aridas]

Some other good stuff that he hasn't done yet, he can't do alone, so I can't judge much there other than how hard he does or doesn't seem to be pushing for them. For example, he's been known to say he wants to move taxes on the rich back up, which I understand he can't do without Congress, but why isn't he talking about it and trying to prod Congress to do its part?

Honestly, I'm fine with giving a bit of a pass for stuff involving Congress when Congress has been rather busy. So far during the Biden Presidency, the House has been rather busy, and the Senate has been quite busy since the Democrats regained tenuous control, as well.

 

[Bob001]

Which amounted to "Resign or you will be fired,and it will look a bit better if you resing".
.....

It is pretty standard for any organization to request someone's resignation instead of firing them. For one thing, a voluntary resignation precludes legal action for wrongful termination or other grounds. You don't want to have to fight the guy in court for years, even if you will win. There is usually some incentive for the employee like severance pay, extended benefits, a promise of a good recommendation, etc. that leaves the employee a little better off. "You're fired!" really is not the way it usually works.

 

[Horatius]

I don't share your confidence.Power corrupts,and I am afraid that the Dems will like being the sole power so much they will become like the current GOP...willing to do anything to stay in power.I ma also concerend they have their own crazy wing now,and it will come to dominate the party.
I think you are under the illusion that everybody on the left is in favor of freedom and democracy. THat is an illusion. Hard line ideologues of all stripes tend to be authoratarians.

Who makes up the crazy wing of the Dem party?

Yes, this is the question that needs answering. Who in actual Democratic politics is one of these "Hard line ideologues" along the lines of Empty Greene? You know, the type who would bend over backwards to kiss the party leader's ass no matter what the party leader does?

The GOP as a whole has made it clear this week that they Will. Not. Hold. Themselves. Accountable. For. Anything. Show me who in the Dem caucus would do the same for Biden, or anyone else in the party.

The theoretical possibility that some Dems might become just as bad in some possible future doesn't weigh much in the face of the real, right now problems of the GOP.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

Ducklo has resigned.

ETA: I wouldn't be surprised if Biden got wind of this and Ducklo's 'resignation' was not exactly voluntary.

Well done for the Biden administration. Late is better than never.

I'm glad at least some people were taking this seriously instead of just hand-waving it away.

 

[MRC_Hans]

I agree, but that is what they call themselves. Don't know what to call them really,. Some of them strike me as good old fashoined Authoritarian Marxist, to be frank but the tem "Communist" has be so misued I don't like to use it.

Especially when it comes to US politics. Of course there is the odd real communist around, but most of even the solid left fringe are far from being communists, or even socialists.

Hans

 

[MRC_Hans]

Which amounted to "Resign or you will be fired,and it will look a bit better if you resing".

Sort lof like the old German army custom of giving a disgraced officer a bottle of Brandy and then leaving him alone in a room with a loaded pistol.....

Nonsense. General good practice in business also: Give people the chance to resign "voluntarily". Don't know what it's really worth, but they can always opt to refuse and be fired, if they prefer.

Hans

 

[Bob001]

Yeah, the guy had to go. But some people are reminding us of what had been SOP during the Trump era:

In many ways, the Biden team is being held to the standard that it set for itself, especially compared to the Trump administration, which was rife with unprofessional behavior. Trump’s first 2016 campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, was charged with misdemeanor battery after an altercation with a female reporter. The charges were later dropped.

Trump’s first press secretary, Sean Spicer, was known for his venomous tirades against reporters. Trump himself — who famously boasted of kissing and groping women without their consent in an “Access Hollywood” video — has been accused of sexual assault, and in one case rape, by more than two dozen women. And the former president regularly deployed misogynistic and racially inflammatory language while in office.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...54dd2c-6d9a-11eb-9f80-3d7646ce1bc0_story.html

It continues to surprise me that a relatively junior staffer would flip out like this. He knew he had a lot of people above him who wouldn't be happy that he threatened anybody about anything. He's just lucky the reporter didn't tape the call.

 

[smartcooky]

Well done for the Biden administration. Late is better than never.

I'm glad at least some people were taking this seriously instead of just hand-waving it away.

Who was hand-waving it away?

 

[dudalb]

Who makes up the crazy wing of the Dem party?

The more extreme Progressives.

 

[Stacyhs]

The more extreme Progressives.

Can you cite in what way they are "crazy"?

 

[acbytesla]

The more extreme Progressives.

No offense, I've always hated remarks like this. What does that mean?

The needle has been pushed so far to the right the last 50 years that once was considered centrist is now portrayed as radical left. Sure, there are individuals that propose ideas that really are radical. But almost none of them have any power.

 

[Trebuchet]

The more extreme Progressives.

No offense, I've always hated remarks like this. What does that mean?

The needle has been pushed so far to the right the last 50 years that once was considered centrist is now portrayed as radical left. Sure, there are individuals that propose ideas that really are radical. But almost none of them have any power.

The needle's been pushed so far that people who advocate for progress and democracy are very bad, according to pretty much any Republican.

 

[Puppycow]

There are some things that concern me about this Ducklo thing that go beyond Ducklo himself.

This Vanity Fair piece says:

The following day, an editor at Politico reached out to the White House about Ducklo’s threats, spurring multiple conversations between the news outlet and senior-level officials on January 21, including White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield, and Biden senior adviser Anita Dunn. In one of those calls, senior White House officials acknowledged that Ducklo’s handling of the call with Palmeri was inappropriate and said he would send a note to her apologizing for the comments. In another conversation, the same White House officials took aim at Palmeri by accusing her of breaking an off-the-record agreement with Ducklo and pressing Politico as to why the contents of the call had been revealed. Palmeri had only informed her editors of the contents of the call, which she had transcribed into her notes as it was happening, after they asked her about it.

What exactly are the reasonable limits of an "off-the-record agreement"? Does it mean if an official goes all mafia on a reporter that the reporter should be obligated to keep that a secret because it was "off the record"? Apparently at least one of Psaki, Bedingfield, and Dunn were, instead of apologizing to Politico for the way Ducklo talked to their reporter, complaining that she was bringing it up at all. They're saying she should have stayed silent because it was "off the record".

My understanding of "off the record" is not that it is supposed to be carte blanche to be abusive. It means that the reporter will not use the information you tell them in their public reporting. Was the reporter really in the wrong here? There must be common-sense limits to this sort of thing. He threatened to "destroy" her if she dared to report anything he he didn't like.

 

[Horatius]

The more extreme Progressives.

**** this wishy-washy ********. Name names.

We can tell you who we consider to be the Crazy Wing of the GOP (Empty Greene, #1 with a bullet). So put up or shut up. tell us exactly who you think is anywhere near as crazy as Empty Greene, and then we can evaluate your ability to actually determine crazy from not-crazy.