The Biden-Harris Administration

[Dobre]

I don't get Sinema at all. She entered politics to the left of Bernie Sanders. I doubt that she had any principled conversion to moderate conservatism, and it must be clear to her now that Mark Kelly has been elected to Arizona's other Senate seat that she doesn't have to be to his right to get re-elected.

Add to that that she's openly bisexual, but her voting record on things like the minimum wage is not supportive of the interests of LGBT people.

What gives?

The most likely answer in this type of situation would be . Who is funding her?

 

[clairecloutier]

Where once she [Kyrsten Sinema] dismissed taking private donations as literal “bribery,” she now began taking piles of money from health insurers, tech companies, private equity firms, and more. Americans for Financial Reform puts the total amount of her contributions from the wider finance sector for 2017–2018 alone at over $2.7 million, placing her in the top ten among all of Congress for the sector.

This article (which I have posted before) outlines how Sinema evolved from progressive to, well, whatever she is now:

How Kyrsten Sinema Went from Lefty Activist to Proud Neoliberal Democrat

The story of Senator Kyrsten Sinema — a former Green Party–aligned activist who happily rejected a minimum wage hike recently and is now one the most right-wing Democrats in the Senate — is about how a desperate thirst for power can debase even the most idealistic progressive.

jacobinmag.com

The article outlines just how much Sinema has supported the interests of big business in her time in Congress, and suggests that this may have something to do with the financial services industry having a big presence in Arizona.

---------------

ETA: Mary L. Trump has published a fine piece in The New Republic about the continuing danger that her uncle, and the Republican party generally, poses to the United States. She attributes the success of Trumpism mostly to racism/white supremacy:

Donald’s Plot Against America

Now, he and his GOP enablers are peddling the Second Big Lie: that January 6 was just legitimate protest. It’s the crucial ingredient in convincing America to return them—and him—to power.

newrepublic.com

This in particular stuck out, but really the whole piece is good:

The stakes are incredibly high in every election going forward. The 2020 election was more important than 2016, and 2022 will be more important than 2020. We can’t discount the pernicious influence of white supremacy, which is not just an extremist movement. It’s not just the KKK, the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers. It is the mainstream of the Republican Party, and we don’t need to qualify it.

Not only can’t Republicans give up their white supremacy, it turns out they don’t have to. It has been and continues to be a winning strategy. Donald got 62 million votes in 2016 and 74 million votes in 2020. Though Biden’s win was decisive, Republicans overall beat expectations ... We desperately needed a total repudiation of Donald and his Republican enablers. We did not get one.

 

[Dobre]

Biden urges U.S. Congress to take steps to lower prescription drug costs​

Biden urges U.S. Congress to take steps to lower prescription drug costs

President Joe Biden on Thursday called on U.S. lawmakers to enact legislation aimed at lowering drug prices, including allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices and imposing penalties on drugmakers that hike prices faster than inflation.

www.reuters.com

"President Joe Biden on Thursday called on U.S. lawmakers to enact legislation aimed at lowering drug prices, including allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices and imposing penalties on drugmakers that hike prices faster than inflation.

The Democratic president's remarks laid out his vision to help reduce the costs for prescription medications as part of the Build Back Better agenda he is seeking to push through Congress as the nation continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic."


"Biden wants CMS to be able to negotiate for a subset of the highest-cost drugs that have no competitors.

"We’re going to provide that competition through Medicare. Medicare is going to negotiate a fair price," he said. "Drug companies would have to sell their drugs to all distributors at the Medicare price or face up to a 95 percent excise tax. The savings for employers and employees would be billions of dollars a year."

 

[Dobre]

Round one of child tax credit payments slashed hunger rates, U.S. data shows​

Round one of child tax credit payments slashed hunger rates, U.S. data shows

The monthly payments of up to $300 for each kid under five and up to $250 for each kid under 18 are the result of one of the most sweeping provisions in the American Rescue Plan.

www.politico.com

 

[BlueRidge]

I'm really irritated with all the criticism for Biden's Afghanistan pullout. Yes its just like Vietnam, when you try to change another country with military action you fail, and keeping on doing the same thing doesn't change that. The US was destined to fail from the moment it decided to make the Afghan action about more than capturing or killing Bin Laden and destroying al Qaeda. Its really easy to criticize the situation when its over and the critics will never have to take responsibility for advocating more military activity.

Its utterly tragic that the Taliban after 20 years is still there, but it just proves the futility of military intervention.

And thankfully, Biden understands this.

 

[caseyedwards]

Of course I remember summer of 2001 and how taliban was getting worse and worse and worse and then they hosted bin Ladin who planned 9/11 but now all is known. All the hijackers were exploiting lax enforcement of US immigration law and enjoying Saudi Arabia’s being an ally of America. Afghanistan had nothing to do with it. Taliban had nothing to do with it. Not to say their stoning women in stadium and blowing up ancient statues was a good thing. But there was never any reason for America to be there. 9/11 was US state department and INS failure. American failure

 

[MsZem]

I'm really irritated with all the criticism for Biden's Afghanistan pullout. Yes its just like Vietnam, when you try to change another country with military action you fail, and keeping on doing the same thing doesn't change that. The US was destined to fail from the moment it decided to make the Afghan action about more than capturing or killing Bin Laden and destroying al Qaeda.

The US won't be the first country to fail there.

This is an interesting perspective on what went wrong:

What We Got Wrong in Afghanistan

Military officers like me thought we were building a capable Afghan security force. What did we get wrong? Plenty.

www.theatlantic.com

 

[clairecloutier]

I'm really irritated with all the criticism for Biden's Afghanistan pullout. Yes its just like Vietnam, when you try to change another country with military action you fail, and keeping on doing the same thing doesn't change that. The US was destined to fail from the moment it decided to make the Afghan action about more than capturing or killing Bin Laden and destroying al Qaeda. Its really easy to criticize the situation when its over and the critics will never have to take responsibility for advocating more military activity.

Its utterly tragic that the Taliban after 20 years is still there, but it just proves the futility of military intervention.

I agree very much with this. The journalistic ink being spilled on this is aggravating me too. It doesn't change anything. I feel like no viable alternative is offered (probably because there is none). So it's largely just criticism, and perhaps an attempt to expunge guilt? I don't know.

 

[BlueRidge]

I agree very much with this. The journalistic ink being spilled on this is aggravating me too. It doesn't change anything. I feel like no viable alternative is offered (probably because there is none). So it's largely just criticism, and perhaps an attempt to expunge guilt? I don't know.

Well the Republicans are going full tilt on it as they have nothing to lose since its not an argument about whether we leave any more. Its a horrible situation so claiming if Biden had done it differently it wouldn't have been so bad is good politics for them, since there is no way to prove or disprove such claims.

But generally I think a lot of people just cannot understand that the US can't determine what happens in other countries, especially since we spend such enormous amounts on military. Truth is sure we could drop all our bombs on Afghanistan and that would likely destroy the Taliban, but also the entire country.

I really hope there are some voices that can be heard that will talk about how the failure was at the beginning. The Bush administration really did not know what to do; they had to employ military force given 9/11 and they could easily "defeat" the Taliban in the short term so they did. If they had left then, the Taliban would have come back. Then Obama came along and was sure that a "surge" would solve the problem. And it didn't. Unfortunately no matter when it occurred the US pullout was going to leave behind a bad situation, whether it was in 2002 or now.

 

[MacMadame]

I'm really irritated with all the criticism for Biden's Afghanistan pullout.

Yes, it's annoying. We knew this would happen when we pulled out. Were we supposed to stay there forever so it wouldn't?

I agree very much with this. The journalistic ink being spilled on this is aggravating me too.

The stuff being published is fairly ridiculous IMO.

 

[BlueRidge]

Yes, it's annoying. We knew this would happen when we pulled out. Were we supposed to stay there forever so it wouldn't?


The stuff being published is fairly ridiculous IMO.

I give you ridiculous, Susan Glasser of the New Yorker, " ‘Is this going to be Biden’s Rwanda?’ asked one longtime acquaintance,"

If its anyone's "Rwanda" its Bush and Obama's. Biden is cleaning up the mess left to him.

People who have invested their lives in the struggle in Afghanistan can act like there should be no end to it. But why Afghanistan? Why not Myanmar? Should we be looking at intervening in El Salvador and Nicaragua?

Military intervention does not create peace and decent societies. It creates death and chaos.

 

[Vagabond]

The Republicans got the country into Afghanistan without an exit strategy, and now they want to put the blame on the Democrats.

Typical.

 

[caseyedwards]

The Republicans got the country into Afghanistan without an exit strategy, and now they want to put the blame on the Democrats.

Typical.

It was totally bipartisan! Kerry Obama and Clinton all called Afghanistan good war as opposed to Iraq bad war. No Afghanistan was totally bipartisan responsibility and 2 democrats opposed war in Afghanistan in 2001? Lol Barbara Lee and I don’t even know

I guess it is only a matter of time before mass public executions of interpreters for US military in Kabul stadiums

 

[MacMadame]

2 democrats opposed war in Afghanistan in 2001? Lol Barbara Lee and I don’t even know

There was only one Nay vote. Barbara Lee.

 

[BlueRidge]

btw, the idea that Clinton could have prevented what happened in Rwanda if he had done...something...is a fantasy of foreign policy elites sure the US can, if it just would do things right, make the world a place of peace and justice (from their point of view).

We should have different policies, but ones that are undertaken with the understanding that our military cannot be deployed to fix other countries and that the best efforts are multi-national and ones that help with underlying problems like poverty and hunger.

 

[ballettmaus]

Its utterly tragic that the Taliban after 20 years is still there, but it just proves the futility of military intervention.

And if the Afghan military is not able to defend themselves after years and years of training, they never will.

 

[allezfred]

The US is perfectly willing to station troops in places like Germany and Japan for seventy years plus now. Not buying the argument that 20 years is too long to be involved in providing military assistance to another country…..

The US also had a hand in creating the Taliban as an opposing force to the Soviet backed Afghan government in the 1980s. Simply walking away from Afghanistan is going to result in the rape, mutilation and execution of thousands of Afghans. Not good enough to say “not our problem” or “It’s all the Republicans fault”…..

 

[BlueRidge]

The US is perfectly willing to station troops in places like Germany and Japan for seventy years plus now. Not buying the argument that 20 years is too long to be involved in providing military assistance to another country…..

The US also had a hand in creating the Taliban as an opposing force to the Soviet backed Afghan government in the 1980s. Simply walking away from Afghanistan is going to result in the rape, mutilation and execution of thousands of Afghans. Not good enough to say “not our problem” or “It’s all the Republicans fault”…..

You think war is the answer?

This is not stationing troops. Its the elite of the US sending people in the US military to die for their mistakes. Forever. With no solutions of any kind ever put forward by anyone except the fantasy that more killing will make things better.

By this logic the US should still be in Vietnam.

Nothing could be easier than to tell other people to make more war.

And goddamn yes it is much worse now than if instead of doubling down on the war Obama had withdrawn so no it is not the Republicans fault. Its the fault of people who, just like now, said no you can't leave and then it got worse and worse and no solutions were ever put forward in any way.

 

[Dobre]

I don't think anyone is looking to repeat what happened in Japan in order to put U.S. troops there originally. And it took half the world to get troops stationed peacefully in Germany.

 

[MacMadame]

The US is perfectly willing to station troops in places like Germany and Japan for seventy years plus now

False analogy. Germany and Japan are not in the middle of what is essentially a civil war. Or any war at all.

 

[ballettmaus]

The US is perfectly willing to station troops in places like Germany and Japan for seventy years plus now. Not buying the argument that 20 years is too long to be involved in providing military assistance to another country…..

As far as I know, US troops in Germany are not there to help Germany defend itself against an enemy but part of a NATO agreement. I don't even know if they have any authority outside their military bases, consulates and embassy but I doubt it.

 

[rfisher]

The US won't be the first country to fail there.

This is an interesting perspective on what went wrong:

What We Got Wrong in Afghanistan

Military officers like me thought we were building a capable Afghan security force. What did we get wrong? Plenty.

www.theatlantic.com

From Alexander the Great through the Russians and lastly the US. Apparently, nobody reads history.

 

[VALuvsMKwan]

From Alexander the Great through the Russians and lastly the US. Apparently, nobody reads history.

It's all LEIS from the liberal elite anyway, right?

 

[MsZem]

From Alexander the Great through the Russians and lastly the US. Apparently, nobody reads history.

Or The Princess Bride.

 

[Jot the Dot Dot]

False analogy. Germany and Japan are not in the middle of what is essentially a civil war. Or any war at all.

B*I*N*G*O !

 

[Dobre]

Statement by President Joe Biden on Afghanistan​

Statement by President Joe Biden on Afghanistan | The White House

Over the past several days, I have been in close contact with my national security team to give them direction on how to protect our interests and values

www.whitehouse.gov

 

[Dobre]

Letter of support to school district superintendents in Florida. From Miguel Cardona.

https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1426322573680336897/photo/1

 

[allezfred]

You think war is the answer?

War isn’t the answer, but neither is complete and utter abandonment. After what has happened over the past 20 years, the United States had a duty of care to the people of Afghanistan. Absolutely immoral what is happening now, but hey so long as everyone here is fine with what is going to happen to Afghan women and children now that the Taliban are back in charge….

 

[Dobre]

Biden’s Solicitor General Nominee Previously Served as Assistant Special Counsel to Robert Mueller, Clerked for Two SCOTUS Justices—Including RBG​

Biden’s Solicitor General Nominee Previously Served as Assistant Special Counsel to Robert Mueller, Clerked for Two SCOTUS Justices—Including RBG

President Biden on Wednesday announced that he was nominating acting U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar to take over the role permanently, making her likely to become only the second woman to ever hold the position.

lawandcrime.com

 

[allezfred]

False analogy. Germany and Japan are not in the middle of what is essentially a civil war. Or any war at all.

Amazing the logic that says a country deploys its army etc overseas, but only in places where there are no wars to fight.

But again this is classic colonialist behaviour. Plunder and create chaos for its own ends and then when it suits scarper the hell out and blame those left behind for the shit situation it created.