We Need the American Jobs Plan

Hoping everyone is on board with President Biden's American Jobs Plan. Americans need it, America needs. Heck, look at Missouri alone. This is from USA Today, June 29, 2013. Missouri was ranked 10th worst, overall, in list of states with bad bridges.

Since 2011, Missouri may have made more strides fixing its bridges than almost any other state in the nation. Although 3,502 of its 24,072 bridges are structurally deficient, this is actually 640 fewer than in 2011. In St. Louis County, just 3.9% of the 865 bridges received a subpar grade. Those 58 bridges in need of repair carry an average of 789,000 vehicles per day. However, the bridges in many other parts of Missouri remain in a serious state of disrepair. In five counties, more than 30% of the bridges are structurally deficient. Phone your Senators, folks. Sure, they're Republicans and it likely won't matter but hey, we have to try.

Don't Let Anyone Say President Biden Is Doing Nothing at the Southern Border

Check this out. For any and every member of the Republican Party who might try to say President Biden is ignoring or doing nothing for or about the situation on the Southern border:

“At the end of March, there were more than 5,000 children in Customs & Border Protection Patrol stations. Today, that number is approximately 600…. The amount of time children spend in CBP facilities is down by 75% — from 131 hours at the end of March to under 30 hours now.” --Heather Cox Richardson

Americans Need to Know and Understand and Fight What the Republicans Are Doing

From Heather Cox Richardson, once more. No one evaluates what's going on politically in America currently any better and informs, instructs us all.

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo articulated today what many have been reluctant to say: What is at stake in the Big Lie and all the Republican efforts to keep it in play—the shenanigans in the secret Maricopa County, Arizona, recount; the censuring of Republicans who voted to impeach the former president; the expected removal of Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney from a leadership role in the party; and so on—is not the past election of 2020, but the upcoming election of 2024.

The Republican Party has demonstrated that it intends to control the government in the future, no matter what most Americans want. Iowa, Georgia, Montana, and Florida have already passed voter suppression laws, while other states are considering them. (Governor Ron DeSantis signed Florida’s bill yesterday live on the Fox News Channel.)

As Marshall points out, though, making sure that states return only Republicans to Congress is also about controlling the White House. Republican lawmakers are purging from state election machinery members of their own party who refused to change the outcome of the 2020 election and give a victory to Trump. The former president has fed speculation that he still hopes to overturn the 2020 election, but Marshall looks forward: Is it really possible to think that in 2024, members of the new Trump party will protect the sanctity of any election that gives a victory to a Democratic candidate? If Republicans capture the House in 2022, will they agree to certify electoral votes for a Democrat? In 2020, even before the current remaking of the party in Trump’s image, 139 House Republicans contested them.

Trump is systematically going after leading members of the Republican Party, determined to remake it into his own organization. Several former senior White House officials told Ashley Parker and Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post that “[t]he defeated ex-president is propelled primarily by a thirst for retribution, an insatiable quest for the spotlight and a desire to establish and maintain total dominance and control over the Republican base.” Republican strategist Brendan Buck noted that Trump seems to relish fighting, rather than victory to achieve an end. “Usually,” Buck said, “a fight is the means to an end, but in this case fighting is the end.”

The Republicans are consolidating their control over the machinery of government in a way that indicates they intend to control the country regardless of what Americans actually want, putting Trump and his organization back in charge. Democrats have proposed the For the People Act (H.R. 1 and S. 1), which would start to restore a level playing field between the parties. The For the People Act would sideline the new voter suppression bills and make it easier to vote. It would end partisan gerrymandering and stop the flow of big money into elections permitted after the 2010 Citizens United decision.

But Republicans are determined to stop this measure. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is especially engaged in its obstruction. He has called it a “partisan takeover” that would “give Washington Democrats unprecedented control over 50 states’ election laws.” He recognizes that restoring a level electoral playing field would hamstring the Republicans’ ability to win elections. Defeating the act is McConnell’s top priority.

The story of how Republican leaders embraced voter suppression and gerrymandering starts back in the 1980s, though the mechanics of overturning a presidential election are new to 2020. Still, their undermining of our democratic system begs the question: Why are leading Republicans surrendering their party, and our nation, to a budding autocrat?

Two days ago, when asked if he is concerned about the direction of his party, McConnell told reporters that he is not paying attention to it because the Democrats are trying “to turn American into a socialist country,” and that “[o]ne-hundred percent of our focus is on stopping this new administration.”

The Republican Party/USA/Democracy Dilemma

People are fleeing the Republican Party. Democrats are as popular as they've been in a decade.

The Republican Party Response

The Republican Party's response to anything President Biden and/or the Democrats present. #VoteThemAllOut

Question for America Tonight

After this speech tonight from President Biden to Congress, could we now, at long last, be done with the Right Wing & Republican Party idea that he can't speak in public and/or, worse, that he has dementia?

Finally? At long last?

Where We, the US, Are Now

We survived Trump.

President Biden is now on a calm, thoughtful, intelligent, responsible trajectory. The Republican Party is simultaneously tearing itself down and apart. Finally, still better yet, they, the Republicans, don't know and aren't aware of this... I'm hopeful.

Two Important Pieces of Legislation Congress Should Pass

Presently, there are two big and important pieces of legislation we, America, should pass. First, President Biden's American Jobs Plan Next up, the For the People Act. So important and great for Americans and America. Contact your Congressional representatives, folks! Tell them to support these 2 important pieces of legislation! Thank you in advance!

Republicans? Americans? Those Migrants at the Border?

Republicans seem to only have one big issue presently and that is the migrants at our Southern border. Ignore and forget all the rest of President Biden's excellent work and even results already, in these first two months of his administration, just focus on the one problem. If you'll watch this brief video, you'll find one of the sources of the problem at our border. Brian Tyler Cohen describes it very well. Note, too, it's only an 8 minute video in length, too. So the fact is, of course, the administration of The Former Guy in the last 4 years and his work and directives led, no surprise, to our situation today. So much so that Joe Biden, long before he was President, warned that Trump's cutting of aid to these Southern nations, as this video shows, could and would likely lead to yet more migrants at our border. So once again, thanks, Mr. Trump. And to you, too, Republicans. Thanks so much.

Week 10 of This Presidency

Week 10 at the White House:

--Launched the American Jobs Plan! --20m Syringes in 7 days: a record! --11 judicial noms w/in 1st 100 days: most ever! --Offshore Wind Plan: powering 10m homes by 2030! --900K new jobs in March: first admin Heavy plus signover 1m jobs in first two months! --Ronald Klain @WHCOS

Sure, the COVID Relief Plan Passed But...

The COVID Relief Plan passed today, thank goodness. It will be signed into law by President Biden this Friday. Meanwhile, something to keep in mind.

Just a reminder that the overwhelming majority of Republicans supported trillions in COVID relief up until the moment Biden became president --Judd Legum @JuddLegum

Just Glad the Republicans Know What's Important

Yes,during the worst, most killing, deadly international pandemic of the last more than 100 years, it's great to know the Republicans and their political party know what's important and on what to focus. So glad they're supporting the COVID Relief Plan in Congress the nation knows we need so badly just now.

Yes, those terrific Republican Party priorities.Political party first and last for these guys, nation, people and Democracy be damned. Thanks, fellas!

Message to All Republicans

Yes, a message to all Republicans and to anyone who thinks or says Joe Biden didn't win this last election.

Good News, Bad News Breaking Today

Yes, as usual, there is both good and bad news breaking today, this morning. Fortunately, I think most of it is good. Well, if you ignore Texas presently. Besides the fact that temperatures are warming across the region and nation, there is also this.

Supreme Court allows release of Trump tax returns to NY

Oh, happy day. At last. Pass the popcorn. This should be good. Not done there on his taxes, this just broke in the last hour, too.

The Supreme Court has declined former President Trump's request to delay the enforcement of a subpoena from the Manhattan district attorney for his financial records — paving the way for a New York grand jury to obtain the records and review them.

The point being, the Supreme Court already responded to Trump's request for a delay this morning. Fantastic. Onward, Yahoo.

Yet more goodness andyes, it's on the Trumpster, too.

Ex-Gotti Jr. prosecutor hired to help Manhattan DA probe Trump 

NYC prosecutor hires on heavy-hitting attorney to Trump case

It seems New York City isn't messing around at all. They hired a tough attorney who has, in the past, gone after the mob and people in it.  Huzzah. You go, NYC.

Next up is this.

Dominion sues MyPillow and its CEO Mike Lindell for $1.3 billion

Dominion Voting Sues MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell For Defamation

Hey, actions--and words--have consequences, Mr. Lindell. Buck up.

And now for the bad news.

Republican leader Steve Scalise refuses to admit Trump los

Second Ranking House Republican Refuses to Say Biden Won

It seems Republican Representative Steve Scalise was on ABC's "This Week" news program yesterday and just would not admit to George Stephanopolous on air that Joe Biden won our Presidential election and that Trump lost.

Maddening.  Dangerous, even.

At least it's more good news than bad. That and the temperatures are warming, as I said, as we all know all so well. Yeehaw. Yay, us.

Have a great week, y'all.

Additional links:  Unfortunately, there is the Right Wing, Republican Party, Libertarian hellscape and nightmare that is the state of Texas presently.

Demands Grow for Texas to 'Forgive All Utility Bills' as Price Gouging by Energy Companies Sparks Outrage

I read where some citizens there had gotten bills as high as $17,000. And that's on top of possibly having lost power, of course, and then any and all other expenses you might have incurred. And all that is providing none of your family members died in the biting freeze, too.

'No Safe Amount': Environmentalists Sound Alarm Over Texas Refineries' Release of Hundreds of Thousands of Pounds of Pollutants During Storm

The Real President Joe Biden Is Starting to Come Out, It Seems

We hoped he'd be stronger.  We hoped he'd be stronger than this, especially this early. It's not a complete surprise but that doesn't mean it's not a disappointment. Here's the first.

Biden's refusal to go big on student loan relief is one of his first big stumbles as president

He, President Biden, insists he can't pardon $50,000 of student higher education debt. He says he can, constitutionally, pardon $10,000 in debt but not $50,000.  

What??

I'm pretty sure if the Constitution says you can forgive 10, you can forgive 50.

Number two. First he does and says this.

Biden says $15 minimum wage won't survive Covid relief talks

Then he backtracks yesterday.

President Biden reiterates his support for a $15 minimum wage

Mr. President, sir, I have to tell you, that first statement weakens you and weakens your position on this issue as far as the Republicans are concerned. You get that, right?

And finally, third today.

Under Biden, Justice Department presses fight against Omarosa

A new brief takes an aggressive stance against outspoken Trump critic Omarosa Manigault Newman in a financial disclosure flap.

Check this story out.

The Biden Justice Department is showing no sign of letting up in a two-year-old legal fight against a former White House aide who became an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump.

While the Justice Department has sought to pause or drop a number of high-profile court battles due to the change in administration, government lawyers are pressing on aggressively with a lawsuit claiming that Omarosa Manigault Newman failed to file a required financial disclosure following her attention-grabbing firing in December 2017.

Manigault Newman has described the suit as a vendetta aimed at her for turning on Trump, calling him a racist and making revealing disclosures about the former president and his top aides. She also wrote a tell-all book, “Unhinged,” which chronicles her dealings with Trump as a contestant on “The Apprentice” and later as his most prominent African American White House aide.

In a new brief filed in federal court in Washington just before midnight Thursday, the Justice Department forcefully defended its position in the case, even tangling with Manigault Newman over the contentious circumstances of her dismissal by then-White House chief of staff John Kelly.

“She…made no attempt to file any Termination Report before September 2019, more than a year and a half after it was due and after this litigation was commenced,” DOJ lawyers wrote. “Then, following that submission—in which only half the required fields were even filled out—Defendant made no effort for over a year to correct her submission, despite being promptly advised of its deficiencies…She remains out of compliance with [the Ethics in Government Act] to this day.”

The suit asks U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon to impose a civil penalty of $61,585 on Manigault Newman for willfully refusing to file the financial disclosure. Such suits are rare. Disputes over financial disclosures are typically resolved by an employee updating the forms and, in some instances, incurring a small penalty.

Manigault Newman’s main defense in the case has been that — after her acrimonious departure from the White House — Trump aides refused to return her personal effects, including financial records she needed to complete the required exit report. She also asserts that she is a whistleblower on government wrongdoing and that the lawsuit amounts to illegal retaliation for that.

After her dismissal, Manigault Newman released audio recordings she secretly made of a tense conversation with Kelly held in the highly-secure White House Situation Room — as well as a recording of another conversation where Trump implausibly asserted he was unaware Kelly planned to fire her.

In the audio, Kelly encourages Manigault Newman to go quietly so she “can go on without any kind of difficulty relative to her reputation.” It later emerged that Kelly said Manigault Newman had abused the White House car service. She contends that was a pretext for firing her.

While the new Justice Department brief argues that statement by Kelly was not a threat and maintains that she was fired for “misuse of government resources,” government lawyers also contend those disputes are irrelevant to the ongoing suit.

“Notwithstanding Defendant’s unfounded references to ‘threats’ at the time of her termination, the merits of Defendant’s termination from the White House are not at issue in this case,” the attorneys wrote...

So here's the deal. It looks as though, certainly seems as though, this lawsuit should be thrown out, on its own merits, for starters. It seems clear this is vengeance from the previous President and his administration.

You'd think it would be a no-brainer, right?

But here's the thing. From what I've read, now-President Biden wants to make sure no one in his administration does anything remotely similar to him once he's out of office so he and his administration want the lawsuit to go forward.

Don't get me wrong. We knew what we were getting with Joe Biden, to be sure. And I/we don't think he is or ever was or was going to be perfect in this role as President---and he's a HUGE, huge improvement over the previous occupant of the White House, to state the necessary and obvious but...  Geez   Let's be a bit tougher, Joe and a bit more consistent.

Could you? Would you work on that?

Please?

More. Another, too, sadly.

'A Clear Back-Track': Rights Groups Warn New Biden Guidelines Not Enough to Curb ICE Abuses

Big Picture Damage Trump and the Republicans Did to Our Nation

I'm hoping lots of Americans read and understand this article from The New Yorker  just now. I think it very likely true but also important, however ugly for us.

The World Likes Biden But Doubts the U.S. Can Reclaim Global Leadership

A bit from the article:

...Biden faces the core problem of convincing the United States’ chief diplomatic, economic, and military allies to believe in America again. Some wonder if the U.S.—which was, for decades, the world’s most powerful democracy—has lost its groove for good. “It will be hard to convince allies that Washington is capable of coming back as a global leader,” Mark Leonard, the co-founder and director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, told me. “Our polling shows that, while most people in Europe were happy to see Biden elected, they also feel that America’s political system is broken, that they can’t rely on the U.S.A. to defend them, and that China will overtake the U.S.A. as a great power.” Europeans like what Biden stands for, “but they are not convinced that he can deliver, and they are worried about who will follow in his wake.”

America’s global reputation has plummeted to the point that it will even be difficult to persuade key Western allies to make common cause against China. “A majority of the public would prefer to stay neutral than to take America’s side,” Leonard said of European views. To regain the confidence of allies, the Biden Administration would have to think differently about alliances—and not assume “that other nations will automatically follow American leadership,” he added. Most of all, Biden has to prove that America has “the staying power to follow through.”

Yet more proof, as though we need or needed it, of the damage Republican Party President Donald J "Jenius" Trump and his political party did to our nation and nation's standing in the world.

Thanks so much, fellas. One more thing that's on us but that is also on you, on you all. Forever. You did this. 

Important, Helfpul, Very Indicative Polls Today

Yes, 3 polls out today that are just that---very indicative of where we, the American people are, what we want and need and where we want to go.

Poll: 61 percent approve of Biden actions in first days

Quinnipiac Poll Finds 7-in-10 Americans Support Biden’s $1.9 Trillion Stimulus; 8 In 10 Like The $1,400 Check

Poll: 64 percent support increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025

Let's do this, Joe. Let's do this, Congress. Let's do this, America.

Additionally, even Fox recognizes this, thank goodness.

Fox Hosts Admit Polls Show Vast Support For Biden's COVID Package

One Week In

 One week into this new Joe Biden Presidential Administration. This is where we are. Already.

1. We can now ignore Twitter
2. The White House briefing room is not an Orwellian nightmare of lies
3. We are now confronting white domestic terrorism
4. We are not paying for golf trips
5. There are no presidential relatives in government
6. The tenor of hearings is sober and serious
7. Qualified and knowledgeable nominees have been selected for senior spots
8. We have a first lady who engages with the public
9. We have not heard a word from presidential children
10. We are now tough on Russian human rights abuses
11. We get normal readouts of sane conversations between the president and foreign leaders
12. The White House philosophy is to underpromise and overdeliver, not the other way around
13. Manners are in, bullying is out
14. You feel calmer after hearing the president
15. Fact-checkers are not overworked
16. Quality entertainers want to perform for the White House
17. We have seen the president’s tax records
18. The president is able to articulate policy details, coherently even
19. The worst the press can come up with is the president’s watch
20. We have a White House staff that looks like America
21. We have a national covid-19 plan
22. Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony S. Fauci is liberated, sounds happy and even looks younger
23. Fauci, not the president, briefs on the science of covid-19 and efficacy of vaccines
24. Masks and social distancing in the White House
25. The White House has policy initiatives and proposals, not merely leaving it all to Congress
26. The administration is committed to releasing information, not covering it up, on the slaughter of journalist Jamal Khashoggi
27. The Muslim ban is gone
28. It is the Republicans not the Democrats who are in disarray
29. The national security adviser has not been fired for lying to the FBI
30. No Soviet-style fawning over the president by his subordinates
31. The president takes daily, in-person intelligence briefings
32. The president does not care about Air Force One colors
33. We have a president familiar with the Constitution
34. Real cable news outlets get high ratings, others not so much
35. President Andrew Jackson is out of the Oval Office, Benjamin Franklin is in
36. Voice of America is back in the hands of actual journalists
37. We get memes about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), not crowd size
38. We are back in the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization
39. Instead of running it like a business, the new administration will try running government competently
40. We have a president who doesn’t think military service is for “suckers” and who doesn’t send his “love” to people assaulting law enforcement
41. The secretary of treasury nominee has her own Hamilton lyrics
42. Amanda Gorman is a household name
43. More than two-thirds of Americans approve of the White House covid-19 approach.
44. No more work-free “executive time” in the presidential living quarters
45. We have a churchgoing president “who has spent a lifetime steeped in Christian rituals and practices.”
47. The vice president’s spouse does not teach at a school that bars LGBTQ students
48. The White House takes the Hatch Act seriously
49. The administration wants as many people as possible to vote
50. The president will talk more to our allies than to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Not perfect, certainly. But it's good. It's very good. It's a huge, huge improvement.

Good on you, America. 

No, great on you.

It's a BEE--YOO--TEE-FULL DAY!!

Great news!!  Fantastic news Friday!! Say it loud!!

Supreme Court rules against Trump and the FDA authorizes the first coronavirus vaccine in America, both on the same day.

It's like conservative columnist and writer Bill Kristol wrote on Twitter yesterday:

"December 11,2020--a date which will live in Democracy."

Good on you, America. Let's do this.

Happy Safe Harbor Day, America!

 Yes indeed, Mr. and Mrs. America! Happy Safe Harbor Day!

Safe harbor law locks Congress into accepting electoral votes cast for President-elect Joe Biden

What is Safe Harbor Day, you might ask? Well here you are:

Other than Wisconsin, every state appears to have met a deadline in federal law that essentially means Congress has to accept the electoral votes that will be cast next week and sent to the Capitol for counting on Jan. 6. Those votes will elect Joe Biden as the country’s next president.

So here we are and thank goodness! We've never needed to really acknowledge this day up to now since no sitting President ever denied, ignored, disavowed our vote, our votes, our election and our Democracy. But then, we've never had this much a narcissistic, self-dealing, self-centered, greedy, thoughtless, corrupt President before now, either.

So, go! Enjoy this great and beautiful day!

Now only 6 more days until the Electoral College turns in its formal finding on the election and FORTY-TWO days until inauguration!

Glory, hallelujah!

Meanwhile, he can't leave soon enough. This came out yesterday.

Trump administration officials passed when Pfizer offered months ago to sell the U.S. more vaccine doses.

This came out today, this morning.

Trump’s Attacks on Local Officials Are Spreading Hatred and Inciting Violence

This, though---good news---also came out this morning.

Lawyers Across the Country Urge Bar Associations to Investigate Trump Legal Team

Heavens help us.