Politics Biden - How’s he doing?

I have not seen anything in Biden's health that suggests a decline; I see the same mannerism, the same stutter, the same occasional gaffs that has been trademark Biden for years.

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Biden is responsible for the current "crisis" at the border but several circumstances related to Trump policies contributed to those circumstances.

Trump's goal was to make it near impossible for migrants to legally seek asylum in the US under the program established in Reagan's immigration law. Part of that was thst resulting funding levels under Trump's budgets for temporary facilities to hold migrants attempting to seek asylum so that capacity had not been expanded in several years.

More importantly was Trump using what is known as Title 42 public health order to turn away migrants, including children, on claims of coronavirus risks. Last November, a federal court ruled that it was illegal to use Title 48 on unaccompanied minors and issued a temporary restraining order. Trump continued to ignore and defy the court order.

Nov. 18, 2020...A district court today issued an order blocking application of the Trump administration’s “Title 42” order to all unaccompanied children, nationwide, in a class-action lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, Texas Civil Rights Project, Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, and Oxfam...
District Court Blocks Trump Administration’s Illegal Border Expulsions​

Biden said he would comply and not use Title 42 to prevent unaccompanied minors from entering US seeking asylum, but, on humanitarian grounds, allowed those minors to be held unto a hearing could be arrange or the minor turned over to relatives in the US.

Again, this is Biden's crises but Trump's actions contributed to the current conditions.

Finally, as to open borders, there is no policy of open borders under Biden. There is a policy of restoring the asylum program that Trump attempted to gut by any means possible. Under US law, a migrant only need reach the US order, turn himself/herself over to a custom official at the border and claim they are seeking asylum to be allowed to remain in the US until an immigrant court can rule on their asylum request. Very few (less than 20%) requests for asylum meet the criteria established under the law and are granted asylum.

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The vast majority of drugs snuggled into the US come in through ports of entry or legal crossing points...

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics, 90 percent of heroin seized along the border, 88 percent of cocaine, 87 percent of methamphetamine, and 80 percent of fentanyl in the first 11 months of the 2018 fiscal year was caught trying to be smuggled in at legal crossing points.
Fact-checking Trump team: most drugs enter U.S. through ports of entry​

A border wall will not prevent or significantly reduce drug smuggling. Building greater capacity at check points and ports of entry, both in terms of human resources, tech resources and other means is what is needed to significantly reduce drug trafficking, all of which have been included in Biden and Democrats immigration proposals.

 

I do NOT like people who blame their poor job performance on the person who previously held their position.

Trump left many agencies floundering without leadership. He enacted harmful policies, or accomplished the same results by not having a policy. Many important bridges were burnt. The Us vs Them partisan politics reached a new high (or low). He refused to work with the incoming administration; in many cases he created roadblocks.

We're probably lucky Trump's narcissism limited him to relying mostly on himself; some seriously vindictive cabinet members could've made things much worse.

I give Biden credit for not putting more blame on Trump.

Trump certainly didn't shy away from blaming Obama.

 

This is a positive development after four years of an anti-science administration.

Biden task force to probe science manipulation under Trump

If I recall, rogue49 had some experience with the White House OSTP and may have a perspective on the significance of this action.

 

I know we need some infrastructure upgrades, and some of the moderate Republicans are making some decent arguments against parts of it. They also don't like the tax increases, which will be a point of contention.

I don't know if they will get 10 votes from GOP members in the senate who want to see Democrats fail more than America or their own states benefit. And I don't know how much is going to be negotiable.

My problem with it is that there is no grand project. Something that crosses many states and could be finished in 2-3 years. For example, I would love to work on replacing lead pipes, but nobody is going to notice if it gets done or not. There needs to be some big project that deals with the never-ending drought in the Southwest and California. The Salton Sea could use some water from the ocean and clean and desalinate some of the water that is there. There could be a big city built up around that part of California if that lake was back to being clean... There are bike trails that could be built quickly to finish the Great American Rail Trail. Building some campgrounds at National Parks and even outside of the park, but run by them would be a good idea too.

 

They have done a lot of weekend injections, but I wonder if people working third shift have been able to get the vaccine easily enough. I am wondering what the high school and college numbers are going to look like in a few weeks. I would think that that is the age group that needs it, and should be easy to get, but it also seems that public schools haven't required the vaccine yet either. Maybe it is because it is still an emergency use drug that they can't.

 

I'm very surprised by the lack of aggressive responses from many school districts, and other businesses. Are they relying on voluntary vaccinations? Scared of legal challenges? Would vaccination drives be such a bad thing?

This isn't to say no action has been taken. IMO too little from too few.

Oops, this should be in the Covid 19 thread.

 

Biden is trying to get to the 70% first dose level by July 4th. We are at about 45% now. Seniors 65+ are already at the 70% level. And if the Pfizer vaccine gets approved for the 12-15 year olds, that will mean an extra 1-3% increase. There are two months left to reach the goal of vaccinating another 25% of the US population, but I have a feeling that there is a 50/50 shot at actually getting to ~70% by July 4th. 60% would have been an easier target. I do hope that Biden will travel to the first state that reaches the 70% level. Or he can travel to San Francisco, which might have the highest vaccination levels in the country.

The most vaccinated counties in the SF Bay Area

A little bit of the slowdown is on the Biden administration for not pushing the vaccine more in the military, prisons, and federal employees. The VA should hire a few doctors to help speed up the care that vaccinated veterans are able to get in person. But a lot of it will be convincing healthy people on the right and the left to get the shot, and make it really easy to do. Michigan has tied some of the reopening to vaccination rates, so it will be interesting to see how that works out. Michigan will need to vaccinate a little more than a million new people to reach the first level though, and let's see how the trend in new vaccinations compares with Wisconsin and Ohio over the next month. I think Ohio is using the new case numbers being at a low enough level to open things back up.

How Is The COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign Going In Your State?

 

I'm OK with it up to a point. And I'm afraid that this is going to go from being OK to being a problem in about a month when someone starts having rallies again. Especially if certain news channels just show those live.

It also matters if he can't get HR1 (John Lewis Voting Rights Act), the infrastructure/jobs bill, and some other legislation passed in the next few weeks. Part of the job of the President, it turns out, is motivating people on your side to help you. The people need to put just as much pressure on their representatives as the lobbyists and media is opposing these and getting the other side riled up over it. And Biden needs to start worrying about the 2022 midterm election.

I would like to see Biden holding giant rallies in stadiums in NYC, Chicago, Austin, Denver, LA, Seattle, and SF once the pandemic is really under control and things are pretty much back to normal. The problem with not having a celebrity staff is that they can't do the media rounds. There are so many podcasts, internet media outlets, late night, and mainstream media that would like to have 30 minutes to interview the President, it would be close to impossible to get the message out for what he has done and what needs to happen. But, he also needs to fix the international problems and domestic issues too. I would like to see VP Harris and him go down to the border and have a meeting with the leaders of Central America, which should have happened already. But, there are a host of other things to do on the international relations too.

 

View: https://twitter.com/dougmillsnyt/status/1397993741965795331


Joe Biden Calls Out Republicans Who Voted Against Stimulus But Tout Its Benefits

 

Unfortunately the Repblican voters won't care during the 2022 campaigns and elections.

The 2020 presidential election motivated many politically passive people to vote. I fear those people will return to being no-shows in the 2022 elections. And let's remember many states (the battle is on here in Texas) are making/ trying to make voting as difficult as possible.

 

Biden is starting to take more trips and showcase some of the things going on in the US right now. But, I think that Congress is getting away from him and he needs to activate the general public to motivate them along with pushing the media to question the congressmen and congresswomen about what their plans are to improve the lives of their constituents.

I just wonder if the election was re-held tomorrow and everyone who voted was able to vote again, has anything changed? It seems that in my county after looking at the numbers, the overall shift from the GOP to Democrats is only about 1-4% every 2 years. But the GOP still is ahead by 15-20% in every general election with their base showing up consistently each time, no matter who is running.