Biden of America: The Return of the Democracy

A place for more serious off-topic discussion and debates.
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Too bad Biden's foreign policy and treatment of immigrants is pretty terrible and exactly what people expected, sadly. Pretending that mistreating immigrant kids is terrible when Republicans are in charge and then do the same thing whilst pretending it's completely acceptable is pretty awful. The Republicans trying to use this issue for their own political gain are scum and not to be taken seriously, given the excuses they made for the Trump administration, but the issue remains: you have a bunch of people making excuses for the way Biden's administration has approached this issue, which means their problem with Trump was likely just the optics of having that unsophisticated bigoted buffoon say the quiet parts out loud and that's pretty disgusting because it means that they are fine with the atrocious ways the US administration treats immigrants no matter what political party holds the Presidency. Human rights are more than just a way to posture online, alright?

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MagnarTheGreat wrote:
March 30th, 2021, 7:39 am
Biden inherited the same buildings, personnel, and laws that Trump left in office. And changing that takes time and the other the two branches of government have to cooperate for that to happen. And judges have already stopped some of the changes Biden wanted to make via executive order.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-depo ... forcement/

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigr ... d-n1261934
Your idealism and trust in Biden is quite sad somehow.

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Not as sad as you, saying "Trump is honest". Lol

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Yeah god forbid an American expresses the slightest shred of hope, even if too idealistic, that things might get better!

You just gotta love the know it alls from across the pond.

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NY Times - The Biden administration will investigate Trump-era attacks on science.



Axios - Biden to nominate groundbreaking first slate of federal judges (Newsweek - Trump Judicial Nominees Are 85 Percent White and 76 Percent Men, Report Shows)



Ars Technica - Biden broadband plan will be hated by big ISPs, welcomed by Internet users
Biden wants to end hidden fees and fund municipal and nonprofit networks.





Keep in mind much like Affordable Care Act opposition, some that disapprove on individual issues are because they wanted the bill/Congress and president to go further to the left, not the right.

US faces battle to 'prove democracy works' against China's autocracy, Biden says - CNNPolitics (March 25)
"I predict to you your children or grandchildren are going to be doing their doctoral thesis on the issue of who succeeded, autocracy or democracy, because that is what is at stake." "Not just with China. Look around the world. We're in the midst of a fourth industrial revolution of enormous consequence. Will there be a middle class? How will people adjust to these significant changes in science and technology? The environment. How will they do that?" "It is clear, absolutely clear ... this is a battle between the utility of democracies in the 21st century and autocracies." "That's what's at stake here. We've got to prove democracy works."
FP - Biden Revives the Truman Doctrine
“I believe we are in the midst of an historic and fundamental debate about the future direction of our world. There are those who argue that, given all the challenges we face, autocracy is the best way forward. And there are those who understand that democracy is essential to meeting all the challenges of our changing world.” “We must prove that our model isn’t a relic of history.”

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The Hill - Senate parliamentarian to let Democrats bypass GOP filibuster on two more bills

CNBC - Rep. Alcee Hastings dies, narrowing Democratic House majority to just 7
  • Democrats now hold a narrow margin in the House with a 218-211 split, while six vacant seats remain.
Democrats down to a 50.1% majority of total House seats (435). Republicans have 48.5% of seats and 1.4% are vacant.

The Senate's Democratic majority is held by a one vote (that being Vice President Harris) majority.

When your majorities are so narrow it's down to hoping nobody dies, and among the older or elderly politicians that is an increased possibility.

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NY Times - Biden Creating Commission to Study Expanding the Supreme Court

[HarrisX] Poll: Biden approval buoyed by support on pandemic, jobs (Biden 61% job approval)

HarrisX Releases Final 2020 Presidential Election Polling (November 2020)

Joe Biden leads the final HarrisX national horserace numbers among likely voters by four points (49 to 45 percent). He continues to lead by four points when considering leaners in a combined horserace/trial heat between the two candidates (52 to 48 percent), due largely to the low number of undecided voters in this election. The comparatively low number of undecided voters in this race have caused the horserace numbers to remain highly stable over the last six weeks.
Final 2020 results (Biden 51%, Trump 47%, 2% other) (Biden 52%, Trump 48% in two-way contest)




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At the end of March 2021, it had been reported that whistleblower Daniel Hale had pled guilty to one violation of the Espionage Act as part of a plea deal (making him the first whistleblower convicted under the Biden administration) but the government refused to dismiss the 4 remaining charges and the judge decided for some reason to grant this unusual request. This leaves open the possibility of a trial, should prosecutors be unhappy with the sentencing.

In essence, Hale was not charged because he leaked the information about the US drone programme but rather because he criticised it. Here is a Jacobin article with more details on the Espionage Act and its use under the Obama and Trump administrations in particular and what that means going forward:
https://jacobinmag.com/2021/04/daniel-h ... ionage-act

Under the Espionage Act, a whistleblower cannot use a public interest defense, is gagged from explaining their actions, and defense attorneys are barred from using words like "First Amendment" or "whistleblower" within earshot of the jury. All that's necessary for a conviction is that a defendant gave classified information to someone not entitled to receive it. That's all the jury gets to hear. In this case, the government, among others, had moved to have the defense barred from mentioning Hale's "good motives", for instance. Lacking the ability to put up a meaningful defense, Hale pled guilty to one charge, namely unlawful retention and transmission of national defense information, one week before the trial as supposed to start. Yet, the government only asked for the trial to be postponed, not for it to be dismissed entirely, meaning it could seek a trial on the 4 remaining charges if it feels the judge was too lenient in terms of sentencing....

Not a single word of criticism about any of this in the American mainstream press. What that does is it ensures that real issues are not being addressed and years later everyone acts surprised and asks how they got to the authoritarian hellscape they find themselves in. But at least Trump's not in office anymore, which means that none of this horror show is going to be remarked upon, let alone criticised, by even the people watching mainstream corporate news.
I think I am right when I say that the gap/disconnect between America's image of itself and what it actually does usually increases with far less resistance under Democratic administrations than Republican ones because Democrats put on a face of professionalism and civility (which usually would give one the expectation to think they would act with decency and principles) while engaging in the barbarism of US foreign and domestic policy, whereas Republicans have no shame and do not mind pulling the mask off in the most horrific ways possible. Thus, a large part of the American population does not mind what the government does when Democrats are in charge, no matter how sickening it is what they do because principles are not important: if your team does it and said team positions itself as the representation of all that's good and decent (as opposed to the bigoted corporate tools of the other team) it either did not happen or it is somehow acceptable and hence justifiable.

Whistleblowers weren't safe from the Obama administration's use of the Espionage Act who had indicted more whistleblowers under that Act than all previous administrations COMBINED. The scumbags at Fox News did not go after him for that. They went after him for a million unimportant things though because, at the end of the day, the far-right monsters who vote Republican do not abhor this persecution of dissent either. And seemingly neither does the Biden administration.


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