Tag: Pres. Biden

2024 Not Looking Good For Biden

We are a little over a year away from our next general election and the two ‘frontrunners’, Trump and Biden, are going at it like rabid gerbils.

Now is the time to start paying attention for this vote is too important to be a spectator.

There’s no single issue President Biden’s team has to address to bolster his support among voters, new polling shows: There are a bunch. An ABC News/Washington Post poll found 44% of respondents saying their personal financial situation has worsened during Biden’s term, the highest share the poll has seen since 1986. His overall approval rating is at 37%, disapproval at 56%, per ABC News. Just 23% like Biden’s handling of the situation at the US-Mexico border. Since May, the share who say the president is too old to serve a second term has risen 6 points, to 74%.

findings of an NBC News poll are similar. It adds a warning sign for Democrats that part of their base is showing less interest in the next presidential election. “I know that 80-year-olds are perfectly capable,” said Mary Lyon, 53, an Arizona Democrat. “I worry more about Biden’s physical health. He seems a little bit feeble and this job does take a toll.” The ABC/Post poll also shows Biden trailing the Republican nominee he beat last time, 51%-42%, should they meet again. Those results show some voters liking Donald Trump more now than they did then; his approval rating was 38% when he left office, while 48% in the Post poll now say they approved of his job performance.

On the other hand, Kevin Chester, an Arizona Republican who voted for Trump twice before, is moving away from him, per NBC. He fears that Trump wouldn’t accomplish anything in a second term because he’d be busy litigating the past. “I would vote third party in protest if it was Trump versus Biden,” Chester said. The Post conceded that Trump’s 9-point or so lead in its poll is not supported by other polls and probably indicates the race, should it happen, is a dead heat.

Biden is failing and Trump is surging (if that can be called a surge)….Biden to walk the picket line with the UAW…..sounds like a photo op for how engaged he is….it will fail.

Keep in mind lots can happen between now and November….so these polls are nothing more than a snapshot.

What say you?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Biden Pulls An End Run

Dems have been fighting the GOP for decades on this climate change thing and the things we need to do to avert the predicted disaster that is awaiting.

Biden is tired of Congress and their games and has decided to take matters in his own hinds.

After being thwarted by Congress, President Biden will use his executive authority to create a New Deal-style climate initiative that will serve as a major green-jobs training program. In an announcement Wednesday, the White House said the program will employ about 20,000 young adults who will build trails, plant trees, help install solar panels, and do other work to boost conservation and help prevent catastrophic wildfires. As the AP reports, such a program had been proposed in early versions of the sweeping climate law approved last year, but it was jettisoned amid strong opposition from Republicans and concerns about cost. Democrats and environmental advocacy groups never gave up on the plan and pushed Biden in recent weeks to issue an executive order authorizing what the White House now calls the American Climate Corps.

The program is modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corps, created in the 1930s by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, as part of the New Deal. “This summer, our country saw heat waves, wildfires, and floods that destroyed communities, uprooted families, and claimed hundreds of lives,” the Sunrise Movement and other organizations wrote on Monday in a letter to Biden’s White House. “While previous executive orders and legislation under your administration demonstrate tremendous progress toward meeting our Paris climate goals and your campaign promises, this summer has made clear that we must be as ambitious as possible in tackling the great crisis of our time,” the groups wrote.

More than 50 Democratic lawmakers, including Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also encouraged Biden, saying in a letter that “the climate crisis demands a whole-of-government response at an unprecedented scale.” The lawmakers cited deadly heat waves across the nation, as well as dangerous floods in New England and devastating wildfires on Maui as recent examples of climate-tied disasters. The White House didn’t say how much the program will cost or how it will be paid for, but Democrats had proposed $10 billion. Republicans have largely dismissed it as a do-gooder proposal that will waste money and may even take jobs away from workers displaced by the pandemic. “We don’t need another FDR program, and the idea that this is going to help land management is a false idea,” Arkansas Rep. Bruce Westerman, Natural Resources Committee chair, said in 2021.

Of course the GOP is opposed to anything related to climate change….but they blindly throw cash at the Pentagon and its many tentacles in our society.

Biden is not my favorite but at least he has stepped up to do something….for that I thank him.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Biden Impeachment thing

The big news is the the GOP is on a track for revenge with the whole hearing thing into the possible impeachment of Pres. Biden….

Since the ‘god of gods’ was impeached the GOP thinks it is time for a tit for tat….

Here we go with the round-up…..

The US faces a third possible impeachment of a president in less than four years. GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said the impeachment inquiry into President Biden, launched Tuesday, comes in response to “allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption.” Some onlookers agree with the reasoning, claiming then-Vice President Biden’s role in his son Hunter’s business ventures was “clearly corrupt.” Others, however, say the inquiry is completely unjustified and another way in which McCarthy is catering to the far-right members of his party. More:

  • ‘No clue’: In what’s written as a mock voicemail message left by McCarthy, Rex Huppke at USA Today ridicules the “evidence-free impeachment inquiry” and directs those looking for “a list of the evidence we’ve found linking President Biden to his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings, or a list of any evidence that justifies our impeachment inquiry” to “please call back later, as that list does not currently exist outside the minds of our party’s far-right flank.” He adds “all help is welcome because, frankly, we have absolutely no clue what we’re doing.”
  • ‘Clearly corrupt’: There’s already enough evidence to justify Biden’s impeachment, writes Jonathan Tobin, editor in chief of the Jewish News Syndicate, via Newsweek, citing Biden’s threat to withhold aid from Ukraine’s government unless it fired a prosecutor investigating Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company that paid Hunter Biden to sit on its board. (US allies had made the same demand, alleging the prosecutor was corrupt.) “Biden knowingly took on responsibilities with respect to dealing with Ukraine as well as China that created a conflict of interest with his son’s grifting,” which is “clearly corrupt,” he adds.
  • No brainer’: The inquiry is justified as investigations by the House GOP have “proven” Biden “broke bread with Hunter’s clients, jumped on calls with them, even wrote at least one college recommendation,” according to the New York Post editorial board. It’s also clear that Biden “blackmailed” Ukraine’s government, the board claims. Of course, “details need to be pinned down in all that,” it adds, but it calls the impeachment inquiry “a no brainer” needed to establish “where all the millions funneled through Hunter’s dozens of shell companies came from and went to.”
  • ‘Evidence of influence-peddling’: It’s “worth investigating” $20 million in alleged payments to “Biden family members and associates via shell companies” following “evidence of influence-peddling,” writes the Wall Street Journal editorial board. But there is not yet “evidence of genuine corruption” by President Biden and “Congress is in danger of turning the serious sanction of impeachment into the new censure—a statement of rebuke rather than a threat of removal.”
  • The Bidens’ grift’: There are “reams of credible evidence” that Vice President Biden “participated in schemes that brought his family as much as $20 million,” writes New York Post columnist Michael Goodwin. But he claims the same Justice Department that was “caught covering up the crimes of Hunter Biden, with the prosecutor on the case prepared to let him walk without charges” is the same one that has ignored an informant’s claim that Joe and Hunter Biden each received a $5 million bribe from Burisma’s owner. While “the public is catching on to the Bidens’ grift,” an impeachment inquiry “is the only way the American public will ever get the full truth,” he writes.
  • ‘Unjustified’: The inquiry is yet another way in which McCarthy is showing himself to be “a stooge of the far right,” accommodating “the extremists in his conference who hold his speakership hostage,” according to the Los Angeles Times editorial board. It notes McCarthy launched the “unjustified” inquiry without securing a vote by the full House—something he criticized Nancy Pelosi for doing in 2019, though a floor vote was eventually held—because he might well have lost the vote. “It’s legitimate for Congress to ask whether Hunter Biden received unfair treatment, but nothing about the prosecution of Hunter Biden justifies the drastic step of an impeachment inquiry about his father,” the board adds.

There you go all you need to know about the waste of time, money and energy that the GOP is forcing onto the House.

This is going to be just another Benghazi thing….a total waste of time and useless posturing.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What Do We Want For 2024

We are just weeks away from the unofficial end of Summer and the official start of the 2024 campaigns.

Biden will run in 2024 for re-election….but can he win?

Good question right?

According to the poll we Americans are not so thrilled with the idea of Biden running for re-election.

A majority of Democrats now think one term is plenty for President Biden, despite his insistence that he plans to seek reelection in 2024, the AP reports. That’s according to a new poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research that shows just 37% of Democrats say they want him to seek a second term, down from 52% in the weeks before last year’s midterm elections. While Biden has trumpeted his legislative victories and ability to govern, the poll suggests relatively few US adults give him high marks on either. Follow-up interviews with poll respondents suggest that many believe the 80-year-old’s age is a liability, with people focused on his coughing, his gait, his gaffes, and the possibility that the world’s most stressful job would be better suited for someone younger.

Overall, 41% approve of how Biden is handling his job as president, the poll shows, similar to ratings at the end of last year. A majority of Democrats still approve of the job Biden is doing as president, yet their appetite for a reelection campaign has slipped despite his electoral track record. Only 22% of US adults overall say he should run again, down from 29% who said so before last year’s midterm elections. The decline among Democrats saying Biden should run again for president appears concentrated among younger people. Among Democrats age 45 and over, 49% say Biden should run for reelection, nearly as many as the 58% who said that in October. But among those under age 45, 23% now say he should run for reelection, after 45% said that before the midterms. More from the poll here.

The problem is most Dems think Biden is too old…..

Americans actually agree on something in this time of discord: Joe Biden is too old to be an effective president in a second term. Only a few years his junior, Donald Trump raises strikingly less concern about his age. But they have plenty of other problems with Trump, who at least for now far outdistances his rivals for the GOP nomination despite his criminal indictments. Never mind his advanced years—if anything, some say, the 77-year-old ought to grow up. A new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds much of the public oddly united in sizing up the one trait Biden cannot change:

  • Biden: In the poll, fully 77% said the 80-year-old Biden is too old to be effective for four more years. Not only do 89% of Republicans say that, so do 69% of Democrats. That view is held across age groups, not just by young people, though older Democrats specifically are more supportive of his 2024 bid.
  • Trump: In contrast, about half of US adults say Trump is too old for the office, and here the familiar partisan divide emerges—Democrats are far more likely to disqualify Trump by age than are Republicans.
  • Age ceiling? About two-thirds of US adults back an age ceiling on candidates for president and Congress, and a mandatory retirement age for justices. Specifically, 67% favor requiring Supreme Court justices to retire by a certain age, 68% support age ceilings for candidates for House and Senate, and 66% support age ceilings for candidates for president.
  • Confused’: The AP-NORC survey went beyond posing questions and presenting choices. It also had a word association exercise, asking people to offer the first word or phrase that comes to mind at the mention of each man. In those visceral responses, 26% mentioned Biden’s age, and an additional 15% used words such as “slow” or “confused.” One Republican thought of “potato.” Among Democrats, Biden’s age was mentioned upfront by 28%. They preferred references to his age over terms like “president,” “leader,” “strong,” or “capable.” One who approves of his performance nevertheless called him “senile.”
  • ‘Crooked’: Only 3% in the survey came up with “confused” as the first descriptor for Trump, and a mere 1% used “old” or the like. Instead, the top words were those like “corrupt” or “crooked” (15%), “bad,” and other generally negative terms (11%), including words such as “liar” and “dishonest” (8%), along with “good” and other generally positive comments (8%).
  • The poll of 1,165 adults was conducted Aug. 10-14, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the US population. The margin of error is 3.8 percentage points.

For me I want to support someone else….Biden is too conservative for my vote…..we already have enough spineless conservs….this country needs someone with real vision as president….not a bunch of idle promises that sound good but never make it into policy.

A recent report is that young voters are leaning more progressive…..which some think will aid Biden in his bid for re-election….

A pollster at Harvard University pointed to a persistent sense of precarity in the lives of young voters as a key reason behind new data that shows Americans aged 18-29 have significantly more progressive views than young people did even five years ago.

Data analyzed by the Harvard Youth Poll, which releases survey results focused on young voters every spring, found that a clear majority take a progressive outlook on what John Della Volpe, director of the poll, called the “big four” political issues that respondents are asked about: LGBTQ+ rights, economic inequality, climate action, and gun violence.

Sixty-two percent of voters between 18-29 (those born between 1994 and 2005) believe the federal government should provide residents with basic necessities. Just 52% believed the same in 2018, and only 44% did a decade ago.

Fifty-four percent say they reject the idea that same-sex relationships and marriage equality are morally wrong, and 63% support stronger restrictions on access to guns—having come of age in an era that saw gun violence overtake vehicle accidents as the leading killer of children in the U.S. and witnessed carnage in Newtown, Connecticut; Uvalde, Texas; Las Vegas; Parkland, Florida; and dozens of other places in recent years.

https://www.rawstory.com/young-voters-progressive/

If this is a true survey then a true progressive candidate could scuttle Biden….and since young voters have not been the best voters around that question should be….will they actually vote?  (Not to worry I have lots to say about voting in 2024 all to be made available here on IST)

Once again I need to point out that the Democratic Party is not that ‘progressive’….it straddles the center.

The political center is not a safe place for average Americans….they are assaulted on every side no matter which spineless party takes power.

Time for the American people to demand and get action not more promises.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Biden Road Show Begins

Over the weekend Biden made his first ‘official’ campaign stop in his search for re-election in 2024.

As usual he jumped on the one thing that most Americans care about….the economy.

President Biden delivered an unapologetically economic populist message Saturday during the first rally of his reelection campaign, telling an exuberant crowd of union members that his policies had created jobs and lifted the middle class. Now, he said, is the time for the wealthy to “pay their fair share” in taxes, the AP reports. Biden spotlighted the sweeping climate, tax, and health care package signed into law last year that cut the cost of prescription drugs and lowered insurance premiums—pocketbook issues that advisers say will be the centerpiece of his argument for a second term. “I’m looking forward to this campaign,” Biden said to cries of “Four more years!” before adding, “We’ve got a record to run on.”

His choice of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania for his first official campaign stop reflected their crucial role in his reelection effort. The city was the site of his 2020 campaign headquarters, and the state was one of a handful that had voted for Republican Donald Trump in 2016 but flipped back to Democrats four years later. Until the rally, Biden’s primary reelection campaign activity had been fundraising. On Saturday, he spoke to more than 1,000 union workers representing such occupations as carpenter, airport service worker, entertainer, and heavy service equipment engineer. Most wore T-shirts bearing their union’s logos and chanted “Let’s go, Joe!” and “We want Joe” and blew whistles hours before the president arrived.

Biden did not mention any of his potential Republican opponents by name but said many in the GOP “oppose everything I’ve done.” Pointing to high inflation rates, Republicans have criticized “Biden-omics,” a term the president tried to turn back on his opponents on Saturday. “I don’t know what the hell that is,” he said, “but it’s working.” Several of the nation’s most powerful unions—including the AFL-CIO, American Federation of Teachers, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees—officially endorsed Biden on Friday. The joint endorsement was the first of its kind.

Two things from my point of view…..first he promised the world and will deliver a pebble….typical election positioning.  Two, labor endorses….why?  Biden and his group of slugs have delivered little for unions and its workers.

Sorry but I cannot hold my nose and vote for Biden for his political stench is too invasive.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Biden Speaks

What did you do for Friday night?

Mine was exciting!  (Sarcasm intended)

Friday night our president made his very first public speech that was not a campaign promise and lie…..the speech was all about the debt deal…..

President Biden gave his first speech to the public from the Oval Office on Friday evening, and it centered on the debt ceiling deal approved by the House and Senate this week that will keep the United States out of default. “Crisis averted,” Biden declared of the agreement he’d reached with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, which he plans on signing into law on Saturday, per Reuters. The president added that he and the GOP leader “were able to get along and get things done. … Both sides operated in good faith.” He conceded that “no one got everything they wanted” in the deal on the government’s $31.4 trillion debt limit, “but the American people got what they needed.” PBS notes that the president’s remarks were the most detailed yet on the agreement, as he’s remained mostly reticent while the major players hashed things out.

It’s a move the news outlet says “frustrated some members of his party but was intended to give space for both sides to reach a deal.” Biden also extrapolated the compromise he was able to reach with McCarthy to America at large, asking Americans to “stop shouting, lower the temperature, and work together to pursue progress,” per Reuters. “No matter how tough our politics gets, we need to see each other not as adversaries but as fellow Americans.” Per PBS, Biden acknowledged that “bipartisanship is hard,” then added, “Unity is hard. But we can never stop trying.” Reuters notes that presidents typically reserve speeches from the Oval Office “for the most significant and dramatic of events.” In this case, the White House says Biden wanted to make clear how serious things would’ve been had the debt limit not been raised.

His speech in full here.

Cutting future spending for poor people, sick people and children in order to pay the debts rung up by tax cuts for the rich and astronomical spending by the Pentagon. This is the gist of the deal Biden brokered with Kevin McCarthy, a deal that needed the support of Democrats to push through the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. In the end 165 Democrats voted for the bill and only 149 Republicans.

The deal is bad and probably only a harbinger of the coming bi-partisan austerity. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities the agreement will “increase hunger and poverty” among poor older Americans, a reference to new SNAP work requirements. What a thing to brag about when you go back to your state or district.

Biden claims he “compromised on the budget, not the debt ceiling.” Of course, that’s the point. The debt ceiling only exists to provide neoliberal politicians like Biden an excuse for imposing austerity on social and environmental programs while funding an ever-expanding defense budget…

Even for Republicans, it’s never been about the debt. As Dark Lord Cheney said, “Reagan taught us that the debt doesn’t matter.” It’s about re-allocating the federal budget to the people who put you in office: arms makers, banks, drug companies, oil companies, slumlords, tech giants, hedge funds. If you don’t have a lobbyist, a PAC or a dark money conduit, you don’t count for a damn thing in this town.

(thoughts from Jeffrey St. Clair

But all this drama about the debt….the GOP just helped add to the total…..

Case in point: the morning after the “Debt” deal passed the House and was sent to the Senate, Susan Collins, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations committee, announced her intention to introduce an emergency supplemental to raise Pentagon spending beyond debt limit deal. “That is what we need to do,” Collins said. “That is what I would ask the administration and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to commit to.”

Does anyone else see how pathetic all this crap has become?

In the next couple of years we will hear and see all this absurdity again.

Why?

The debt ceiling legislation that is now headed to President Joe Biden’s desk after the Senate passed it late Thursday includes $1.4 billion in cuts to IRS funding that was aimed at providing the agency with the resources to pursue rich tax evaders, who cost the federal government tens of billions of dollars in revenue each year.

By itself, the $1.4 billion IRS cut would add $900 million to the deficit over a 10-year period, according to a separate CBO analysis released earlier this week.

This stupidity never ends….kinda like the wars we bankroll.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Deal For Our Time

Over the weekend the drama of the negotiations for the deal to handle the debt came to an end…..Biden, Dems and GOP have cut a deal…

President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have reached an agreement in principle to increase the nation’s borrowing authority and avoid a default. Negotiators are now racing to finalize the bill’s text. McCarthy said the House will vote on the legislation on Wednesday, giving the Senate time to consider it ahead of the June 5 deadline to avoid a default. While many details are unknown, both sides will be able to point to some victories, per the AP. Some details, based on what’s known so far:

  • Two years: The agreement would keep non-defense spending roughly flat in the 2024 fiscal year and increase it by 1% the following year, as well as provide for a two-year debt-limit increase—past the next presidential election in 2024. That’s according to a source familiar with the deal who provided details on the condition of anonymity.
  • Veterans: The agreement will fully fund medical care for veterans at the levels included in Biden’s proposed 2024 budget blueprint, including for a fund dedicated to veterans who have been exposed to toxic substances or environmental hazards. Biden sought $20.3 billion for the toxic exposure fund in his budget.
  • Work requirements: The agreement would expand some work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, formerly known as food stamps. The agreement would raise the age for existing work requirements from 49 to 54, similar to the Republican proposal, but those changes would expire in 2030. And the White House said it would at the same time reduce the number of vulnerable people at all ages who are subject to the requirements.
  • Energy projects: The deal puts in place changes in the the National Environmental Policy Act that will designate “a single lead agency” to develop environmental reviews, in hopes of streamlining the process.
  • Student debt: Republicans had sought to repeal Biden’s efforts to waive $10,000 to $20,000 in debt for nearly all borrowers who took out student loans. But the provision was a nonstarter for Democrats. The budget agreement keeps Biden’s student loan relief in place, though the Supreme Court will have the ultimate say on the matter.

No one will be happy with the plan….the markets ought to open higher come Tuesday…..so some will be happy….t least the VA got a small victory just in time for Memorial Day.

I had a problem with the role that the media played in the coverage of this issue…..there are a couple of ‘notions’….

“First, the notion that ‘modest cuts’ to spending are inconsequential.”

Second is the role of inflation,” Hauser continued, charging that the brewing potential deal between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) “would be a catastrophe for government capacity, and coverage that ignores the role of inflation (hardly a low profile issue in 2023!) is wildly and indefensibly misguided.”

“Third, the notion that the president was trapped under the gun of McCarthy is ridiculous,” he added. “Because the debt ceiling is an unconstitutional, incoherent excuse for a law and because there is an active lawsuit from the National Association of Government Employees [NAGE], Biden’s status as a hostage merely reflects an advanced case of Stockholm Syndrome.”

Given arguments that the president “has a wide number of ways out from the debt ceiling and no legal way to implement it,” Hauser asserted, “the media needs to quit deferring to the debt ceiling’s political theater and engage more with the essentially uncontroverted legal experts pointing out that it cannot be implemented in a constitutional manner.”

(commondreams.org)

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Biden And Diplomacy

About two years and counting until our next theater we call a general election……how has our dynamite president done?  (Diplomatically speaking)

To begin with Biden has a crappy diplomatic agenda….at best it is a yawn especially since one of his political promises was to put diplomacy at the forefront of his administration…..that was an idle promise like most of his campaign promises.

Here is a good look at Biden’s lack of diplomacy….

Stephen Walt is underwhelmed by the Biden administration’s diplomatic performance to date:

I raise this issue because the Biden administration took office vowing to put diplomacy at the center of U.S. foreign policy, yet it has relatively few diplomatic achievements to show for its first two-plus years. On the plus side, US allies are far more comfortable with Biden and Blinken than they were with former President Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and they’ve been willing to forgive some of the administration’s early blunders (such as the unnecessary snub of the French during the AUKUS submarine deal in 2021). But apart from improved optics, the administration’s diplomatic record is unimpressive.

The Biden administration wanted the public to see the “return” of diplomacy one of the major differences between them and the Trump administration, but in practice Walt is right that they haven’t delivered very much on that score. It’s true that the administration has done well in coordinating with European and other allies in providing assistance to Ukraine, but this has been a bit like pushing on an open door. The US has not had to do much arm-twisting or persuading to convince allied governments to get on board with supporting the war effort, since they have all been willing to do this at least to some degree. When it comes to getting fence-sitting countries on board, there has been much less success. Almost everywhere else, the Biden administration’s diplomatic efforts have either foundered or haven’t even begun.

Walt mentions ineffective or non-existent diplomacy in the Middle East, and he also notes that diplomacy has been notably lacking in US dealings with China over the last two years. The reflexive decision to cancel Blinken’s visit to Beijing over the balloon incident looks even worse now than it did at the time. Instead of taking the incident in stride and pressing ahead with diplomatic contacts, as a confident administration would do, the administration overreacted and sabotaged its own effort to begin repairing relations. The fear of appearing weak in the eyes of domestic hawkish critics has been the administration’s real weakness, and it keeps tripping them up.

…

Other states can see that US diplomats always take a distant second place to the military, and it is mainly through the military that the US deals with much of the rest of the world. US diplomacy is like a plant that is so starved of sunlight because it is trying to grow up in the shadow of a giant tree. As long as the military wields such outsized influence in Congress and commands so many more resources, there is little chance that diplomacy can flourish.

Read the rest of the article at Eunomia

I was not a supporter of Biden in 2020 for I am old enough to know what a corporate democrat he truly is…..so my expectations were low for is diplomatic presidency….more people should pay more attention to what these criminals promise for they seldom care through on them.

Since the Clinton years the US has had one foreign policy–WAR….and it has only progressively gotten worse.

It is easier to destroy than search for solutions….plus it is a lot more profitable.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Biden Enables The Fraud

This is one of my FYI posts for I watch policies that could effect our seniors….the biggest thing that seniors need to be aware of is the ‘medicare advantage plans’….they are not all they are cracked up to be.

I have made my thoughts known about these so-called Medicare Advantage plans….I think it is taking advantage of seniors who are worried about their aging body.

But as usual the insurance industry has spent its cash well….all the facts point to these ‘advantage” plans are little more than a scam….the president has allowed this raping of seniors to continue.

Medicare Advantage providers whined for months that they simply couldn’t survive without being able to rip off the government, so the government said ‘you can rip us off for just a little longer,'” The American Prospect‘s David Dayen tweeted in response to the CMS announcement.

The changes involve tweaks to the Medicare Advantage risk-adjustment model, which determines how much the federal government pays insurers to cover patient care.

Medicare Advantage plans are notorious for piling on diagnoses to make patients appear sicker than they are to reap larger payments from the federal government. CMS estimates that overpayments to Medicare Advantage totaled $11.4 billion in fiscal year 2022, a sizeable drain on the Medicare trust fund.

“Nearly every large insurer in the program has settled or is facing a federal fraud lawsuit for such conduct,” The New York Timesnoted Friday. “Evidence of the overpayments has been documented by academic studies, government watchdog reports, and plan audits.”

…

Medicare Advantage insurers have been fighting the Biden administration’s proposed changes for months, running ads warning that the reforms would result in higher premiums and worse care for patients—claims that federal health officials adamantly rejected.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/biden-medicare-advantage-reforms

The lobbyists for the insurance industry has buckets on money to throw at Congress we, the people, do not.

Plus Wall Street is happy with the Biden decision….

UnitedHealth Group, a dominant force in the lucrative Medicare Advantage market, has seen its stock jump over the past week as Wall Street analysts and investors embrace the Biden administration’s decision to delay reforms aimed at tackling abuse in the privately run, government-funded health program.

STATreported late last week that “Wall Street was overjoyed” by the announcement from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which said it would phase in changes to the model that dictates how much government funding Medicare Advantage insurers receive to cover patient care.

Instead of implementing the changes all at once, the Biden administration will roll out the reforms over a three-year period, allowing Medicare Advantage insurers to continue overbilling the federal government in the meantime.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/wall-street-biden-medicare-advantage

Oh there is AARP to protect seniors….that is a lie for they endorse a ‘plan’ that is scamming their members.

Please if you are considering one of these ‘plans’ think twice and check out the evidence before wasting your cash.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

Be Well….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

State Of The Union–2023

It was that time again….the annual manure spreading exercise known as the State of the Union…

As promised a quick and painless review of last night’s speech..

President Biden is stressing unity and the economy in his 2023 State of the Union address. Some key early points on those fronts from his prime-time speech on Tuesday:

  • “You know, my Republican friends, we could work together the last Congress. There’s no reason we can’t work together and find consensus on important things in this Congress as well,” said Biden, per the Washington Post. “Fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict, gets us nowhere.” In fact, before the president began his speech, he publicly congratulated the new House speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy. “Speaker, I don’t want to run your reputation, but I look forward to working with you.”
  • “We are the only country that has emerged from every crisis stronger than when we entered it,” the president said. “Today, COVID no longer controls our lives. And two years ago, our democracy faced its greatest threat since the Civil War. Today, though bruised, our democracy remains unbowed and unbroken.”
  • The economy is a big theme, per the New York Times. “As I stand here tonight, we have created a record 12 million new jobs—more jobs created in two years than any president has ever created in four years,” says the president. (The boast is accurate, but CNN notes that the pandemic skewed things.) “My economic plan is about investing in places and people that have been forgotten. … This is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America and make a real difference in your lives.”
  • Buying American: Biden announced that all construction material for federal projects must be made in America. “Lumber, glass, drywall, fiber optic cable. And on my watch, American roads, bridges, and American highways are going to be made with American products as well.”

During the speech the idiots acted out and did what they do….political theater….

Things got a little testy in the House as President Biden made his pitch for Congress to lift the debt ceiling to avoid default. Biden said Republicans lifted the ceiling three times for former President Trump “without preconditions or crisis,” per the New York Times. “Tonight, I’m asking this Congress to follow suit.” Jeers rang out from Republicans as Biden said of Trump: “No president added more to the national debt in any four years than my predecessor,” notes the Washington Post.

And boos and shouts of “liar” and bulls—” could be heard as Biden accused Republicans of going after Social Security and Medicare, per the Times. “Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans, some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security sunset.” As the boos rang out, Biden added that he “wasn’t saying it’s a majority” of Republicans. He ad-libbed: “Let me tell you, I enjoy conversation.” The Hill notes that GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene yelled, “Liar!” and gave a thumbs-down to Biden’s comments.

Later, as Biden was asking Congress to pass his immigration plan, some Republicans, including Greene, chanted “Secure our border!” per the Washington Post. Biden paused briefly amid the chants, and the New York Times reports that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy “shushed” the GOP chanters.

Then there is the inevitable ‘rebuttal’ this time it was a Trumpian idiot, the governor of Arkansas Huckabee…..as of yet the GOP has never found an intelligent response to the SOTU….and this year was no different.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivered the Republican rebuttal to President Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, and she did not hold back: The Arkansas governor declared Biden “unfit to serve as commander in chief” and said he’s putting both the US and the entire world at risk with his “weakness.” She also took a shot at his age: “At 40, I’m the youngest governor in the country, and at 80, he’s the oldest president in American history,” she said. A few more of her biggest jabs at Biden and the Democrats, as reported by CNN, the Wall Street Journal, and Politico:

  • “Normal” and “crazy” made a couple appearances: “The dividing line in America is no longer between right or left. The choice is between normal or crazy,” she said. At another point, decrying what she called the “false idols” of Democrats, she said, “That’s not normal. It’s crazy, and it’s wrong.”
  • So did “woke”: Drawing another contrast between herself and Biden, Sanders said, “I’m the first woman to lead my state and he’s the first man to surrender his presidency to a woke mob that can’t even tell you what a woman is.” She also specifically called out Biden’s SOTU address as being tethered to “woke fantasies.”
  • Her former boss was also mentioned: Recalling her time as Donald Trump’s press secretary, she talked about a trip to Iraq on Christmas in 2018, saying that when the troops saw Trump, “the room erupted. Men and women from every race, religion, and region, every political party, every demographic you can imagine started chanting in perfect unison over and over and over again, ‘USA, USA, USA.’ It was an absolutely perfect picture of what makes our country great.”
  • In contrast to that, “Biden and the Democrats have failed you,” she said, pointing to inflation, crime, border policy, education, and US-China relations, among other things. She said she didn’t believe “much of anything” Biden said in his address, accusing him of “doubling down on crazy.”
  • And a line from Trump: In his own brief response to the SOTU, Trump said in regard to sexual orientation and gender identity issues that Biden is “trying to indoctrinate and mutilate our children.” As for Sanders, she said “most Americans simply want to live their lives in freedom and peace, but we are under attack in a left-wing culture war we didn’t start and never wanted to fight.”

All in all the speech was great political theater that proves just how petty the GOP has become.

All in all the speech was a yawn….but if you would like more opinions from others…..

One big theme in coverage of President Biden’s Tuesday night State of the Union address? The POTUS was scrappy and seemed to relish it. As Politico’s headline briefly put it, “Biden pokes the elephant.” Some quick takes and reactions:

  • CNN offers a few takeaways from the SOTU here. Kevin Liptak notes the president “powered through” despite the clear and open hostility aimed his way from the other side of the aisle. “The spectacle of Biden smiling and offering a pointed riposte through multiple rounds of heckling from some House Republicans was, in many ways, an apt illustration of his presidency and a useful preview of his likely 2024 candidacy,” Liptak writes. Another takeaway? Despite his age, he showed “vigor” and energy, per Liptak.
  • At Fox News, however, David N. Bossie illustrates how Republicans saw the speech: He says Biden “was in full spin mode from the get-go, behaving more like a desperate candidate on the campaign trail.” Bossie also says Biden’s speech failed to reflect on the “obvious takeaway,” which, according to Bossie, is that Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in the midterms “because the American people voted against the president’s left-wing agenda
  • At NBC News, Jonathan Allen delves into the moment Marjorie Taylor Greene called Biden a liar, when the president was accusing Republicans of going after Medicare and social security. He “went off-script” to accept Greene’s comment “as on-the-spot agreement from the GOP to keep the programs intact,” proving he was “nimble enough … to box them in on Social Security and Medicare.”
  • Vox runs down 5 winners and 2 losers from the SOTU here. Among the winners: “The ad-libbing old-school Joe Biden.”
  • If you’re looking for economic takeaways, CNBC has those here. Among the topics: billionaire tax, junk fees, and the insulin price cap.
  • If it’s fact-checking you’re interested in, outlets including CNN, the Hill, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and PolitiFact did that.
  • The Post also looks at 39 “key proposals, pledges, or priorities” from last year’s SOTU and runs down which ones flopped and which ones succeeded in the year since.

But for those that want to draw their own conclusion….Politico has a full transcript of Tuesday’s speech here.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”