The challenges ahead (Biden's America)

[N.E. Brigand]

How the main AP story today (which has been widely picked up in other outlets) on the withdrawal begins:

"The United States completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan late Monday, ending America's longest war and closing a chapter in military history likely to be remembered for colossal failures, unfulfilled promises and a frantic final exit that cost the lives of more than 180 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members, some barely older than the war."

Proposed: if we could, like Dr. Strange, examine all the alternate futures, we'd find that the exit saved more U.S. service members' lives than it cost.

[N.E. Brigand]

There's a letter circulating signed by 90 retired U.S. flag officers (i.e., generals and admirals) calling for Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chair Mark Milley to resign because of the withdrawal.

For context: the same group of officers sent out a letter prior to last year's election urging the public to vote for Donald Trump because "with the Democrat Party welcoming Socialists and Marxists, our historic way of life is at stake".

[N.E. Brigand]

In the polling average at 538.com, Joe Biden is now slightly underwater with, 46.7% approval and 47.2% disapproval.

A new poll from Civiqs doesn't ask whether respondents approve of the president (and thus is not part of 538.com's average), but it does find that 47% of folks say their opinion of Biden has gone down since January vs. just 18% who say their opinion of Biden has gone up.

What the poll does is to get into specifics, and I have to say that I think it reflects on either the ignorance and forgetfulness of the American public, the Democrats' insufficient efforts to boast about what they've done, or the media's failure to cover good news, that this is how they people responded to one of the first questions:

Has the Biden administration done anything that you feel has benefited you personally?
Yes 37%
No 57%

Most American adults received a $1,400 stimulus payment this year. That would not have happened if Democrats didn't control the Senate. Joe Biden campaigned in Georgia for Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff with the specific message that if they won, the $600 stimulus passed late last year would be increased to $2,000. And then of course, Biden signed the new stimulus bill into law.

In other words, most of the 57% of respondents who say they didn't benefit personally from the actions of the Biden administration are just wrong.

Beyond that, the poll asks about twelve different policy actions made by or with the support of the Biden administration and finds that the public supports all but two of them. In order of net popularity (and omitting the don't care and not sure answers):

Implementation of Covid vaccinations -- 71% approve / 12% disapprove (+59%)
Making Juneteenth a federal holiday -- 49% approve / 30% disapprove (+19%)
Enacting the American Rescue Plan -- 55% approve / 38% disapprove (+17%)*
Cancelling student debt for the disabled -- 52% approve / 36% disapprove (+16%)
Paying enhanced child tax credits -- 50% approve / 34% disapprove (+16%)
Withdrawing troops from Afghanistan -- 52% approve / 35% disapprove (+17%)
Passing a Senate infrastructure bill -- 52% approve / 41% disapprove (+11%)
Permitting transgender military service -- 48% approve / 40% disapprove (+8%)
Rejoining the Paris climate agreement -- 51% approve / 44% disapprove (+7%)
Extending Covid unemployment benefits -- 48% approve / 45% disapprove (+3%)
Reversing Trump's immigration actions -- 44% approve / 50% disapprove (-6%)
Revoking Keystone XL Pipeline permits -- 43% approve / 49% disapprove (-6%)

*This is the plan that delivered the aforementioned $1,400 stimulus (among other things): 55% of people approve of it, and yet only 37% believe they got anything from it?

Are immigration and a gas pipeline so much more important to the public than anything else on the list? Has President Biden taken other actions that aren't surveyed that are dragging down his approval rating? How can he be overwhelmingly popular on so many policies and yet be struggling in his overall approval?

[N.E. Brigand]

Last night dozens of people died in New York and New Jersey from global warming.

Today Senator Joe Machin, Democrat (sort of) from West Virginia, says he doesn't see the urgency in passing a bill (the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package) that includes measures that would *start* to address global warming.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Looming economic disaster, with no real hope of a solution.

White House rules out concessions over debt ceiling while GOP refuses to help avert crisis

[N.E. Brigand]

So it's time to mint the platinum coin?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Time for someone to grow up and become a responsible adult.

[N.E. Brigand]

Alternately, Bill Clinton has argued that the debt ceiling violates the 14th amendment and that a President can unilaterally suspend it on those grounds.

Or bring back the "Gephardt Rule," which was in place from 1979 to 1995 and "deemed the debt ceiling raised when a budget was passed."

That Washington Post article says the White House is not considering alternative means, such as the platinum coin, of ending this problem once and for all. I get that they don't want to let Republicans off the hook, but I think they may have to take some step like that to prevent Republicans from destroying the economy.

(The article doesn't mention Clinton's argument about the 14th amendment. Neither does the Wikipedia entry on the U.S. debt ceiling.)

By the way, that Post article allows some absolute bull$%^& to go by unchallenged:

“The country must never default. The debt ceiling will need to be raised. But who does that depends on who the American people elect,” McConnell told Punchbowl News last week. He added, “The Democratic leaders have every tool and procedure they need to handle the debt limit on a partisan basis, just like they are choosing to handle everything else.”

Donald Schneider, who served as an aide to Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, added, “Republicans have a point here: If Democrats are the party of good governance, they can just go ahead and do this on their own.”

Republicans are threatening to filibuster the debt ceiling vote. So no, under the current rules, Senate Democrats cannot "do this on their own."

And despite what the article allows someone else to claim, the debt ceiling has become a crisis almost exclusively when Democrats are in charge and Republicans refuse to go along.

[elengil]

New theory: Republicans actively want democrats to get rid of the filibuster so when they gerrymander their way back into power it won't hold them back but they can just say "well, we weren't the ones who got rid of it."

[N.E. Brigand]

If the filibuster is gone, it will be easier for Democrats to pass laws preventing gerrymandering.

And I'm OK with the filibuster being gone, because right now, both parties use it as an excuse to do as little as possible.

[elengil]

If the filibuster is gone, it will be easier for Democrats to pass laws preventing gerrymandering.

I've a feeling the current SCOTUS would strike it down if they tried.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Would strike down what? And on what legal basis?

[Frelga]

Also, we all know that Republicans will strike it in a heartbeat if it benefits them, so this is giving up everything for nothing.

[N.E. Brigand]

I like this analogy about how Republicans and Democrats generally respond to the debt ceiling.

[N.E. Brigand]

Ambassador Daniel Foote, the U.S. Special Envoy to Haiti, has resigned, effectively immediately, to protest what he describes in his resignation letter as the Biden administration's "inhumane, counterproductive" policy of deporting thousands of Haitian refugees back to that country.

Foote had worked in the State Department in various roles since 1998. He had been the U.S. Ambassador to Zambia from Dec. 2017 to Jan. 2020. He had only been appointed to the newly created role of Special Envoy to Haiti in July, following the assassination of that nation's president.

White House officials are telling reporters off the record that Foote never objected to the Biden administration's Haiti policies and that he had a "toxic personality" and would frequently "shout people down and cut people off." Some observers say if that's true, then it doesn't reflect well on the Biden administration that he apparently wasn't disciplined for such behavior. I agree. However, the Trump administration infamously left a lot of vacancies in the State Dept., and Ted Cruz has been single-handedly stonewalling attempts to fill those vacancies, so it may be that the Biden administration had no one to replace him with.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Cruz's actions in blocking any and all State Department nominees is unconscionable, and is creating great harm to the country, and the world. That being said, while I can't comment on the specifics of Foote's personality or actions, I agree with him that Haitian refuge policy is inhumane and counterproductive.

[N.E. Brigand]

Business Insider reports on emails from Hunter Biden (and not from the infamous laptop of disputed provenance) indicating that in 2015, while his father was Vice President, he claimed that for an annual retainer of $2 million, he could get the U.S. government to release frozen money belonging to the government of Libya.

Nothing actually happened, so there's no actual corruption here. But it does emphasize that Hunter should be kept (and apparently is being kept) as far away as possible from Joe Biden's administration. (Something that should have been likewise true of Donald Trump's progeny while he was president.)

[N.E. Brigand]

Ambassador Daniel Foote, the U.S. Special Envoy to Haiti, has resigned, effectively immediately, to protest what he describes in his resignation letter as the Biden administration's "inhumane, counterproductive" policy of deporting thousands of Haitian refugees back to that country. ...

White House officials are telling reporters off the record that Foote never objected to the Biden administration's Haiti policies ...

And now on the record, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki today said: "Special Envoy Foote had ample opportunity to raise concerns about migration … He never once did so."

Even if that's true, I agree with V. that doesn't mean Foote's letter is wrong.

[N.E. Brigand]

Mitch McConnell today suggested that if Republicans retake the Senate in 2022 and there is subsequently a vacancy in the Supreme Court, they will leave the seat vacant rather than vote on Joe Biden's nominee to fill it.

[elengil]

I'll brush up on my shocked face.