The Biden Presidency

[Stacyhs]

Originally Posted by Captain_Swoop

Fox News says Pete Buttigieg is not qualified to be Sec of Transportation.
But they have no problem with Ben Carson?

Or Trump as POTUS?!

Or most of the people Trump picked for almost anything.

[Delphic Oracle]

Sure, they were all unqualified.

That doesn't really satisfy my concern over Pete.

Because whataboutism doesn't become a proper tactic when we use it.

[Armitage72]

Originally Posted by Craig4

I want to watch it because Trump doesn't want it released.

It's like "The Day the Clown Cried". It's supposed to be an absolutely horrible movie, but I'd probably watch it out of morbid curiosity if what exists is ever released.

[Aridas]

Originally Posted by Delphic Oracle

Sure, they were all unqualified.

That doesn't really satisfy my concern over Pete.

Because whataboutism doesn't become a proper tactic when we use it.

I figure that that was best taken as a reminder that Fox is utterly unprincipled and partisan, rather than addressing any actual concerns about Buttigieg in the position. Assuming that you were responding to the post right before yours, at least.

[SezMe]

Originally Posted by Captain_Swoop

Fox News says Pete Buttigieg is not qualified to be Sec of Transportation.
But they have no problem with Ben Carson?

Ya gotta have a big brass pair to be a Republican and complain about incompetent people in the Biden Cabinet - or anywhere else, for that matter..

[dudalb]

Now some long time people in the Trump White House are scared by what Trump might do in his last days.
From what I have read he is in bipolar mode, one moment seemting to understand he will have to leave the White House, the next vowing to stay in power no matter what he needs to do to keep in power.

[Firestone]

Not the most important of things, but weird.
The digital director for Biden, Rob Flaherty, just announced that, on Jan 20th, Biden will inherit the @POTUS and @WhiteHouse Twitter handles, but with 0 followers (they have a combined 60m followers now).

In 2017, at Obama's insistence, Trump inherited the handles with their followers.

Twitter spokesman not clear about why that's the case.

https://twitter.com/jeneps/status/1341409860328558610

[The Great Zaganza]

I see no reason why they would reset the number of followers, unless the White House requests it.

[Segnosaur]

Originally Posted by Firestone

Not the most important of things, but weird.
The digital director for Biden, Rob Flaherty, just announced that, on Jan 20th, Biden will inherit the @POTUS and @WhiteHouse Twitter handles, but with 0 followers (they have a combined 60m followers now).

In 2017, at Obama's insistence, Trump inherited the handles with their followers.

Twitter spokesman not clear about why that's the case.

Just wondering.... how many new followers signed up to the potus/whitehouse twitter accounts during the 4 years of Stubby Mcbonespur's presidency?

Trump had been using his personal account for much of his rage tweeting (which was pretty much all of it), so I imagine most of the lost potus/white house followers were holdovers from the Obama era. Which somehow makes it worse.

[Firestone]

Originally Posted by Segnosaur

Just wondering.... how many new followers signed up to the potus/whitehouse twitter accounts during the 4 years of Stubby Mcbonespur's presidency?

For the @POTUS handle, the Washington Post wrote on Jan 20th, 2017, that it had 13.7m followers.
Currently, the @POTUS handle has 33.2m followers.

[Darat]

Isn’t there a big problem with letting Trump continue with his Twitter account since he has deemed it to be official communication from POTUS?

[The Great Zaganza]

Originally Posted by Darat

Isn’t there a big problem with letting Trump continue with his Twitter account since he has deemed it to be official communication from POTUS?

I agree.

[Horatius]

Originally Posted by The Great Zaganza

I see no reason why they would reset the number of followers, unless the White House requests it.

When you consider how many of those followers are one or more of bots, Russian trolls, or conspiracy theorists, I'd certainly insist on it being reset if I were Biden.

[dudalb]

Originally Posted by Darat

Isn’t there a big problem with letting Trump continue with his Twitter account since he has deemed it to be official communication from POTUS?

Andin the US you have that pesky First Amendment issue...it is much harder to shut someone down in the US then in many cuntires..and I like it that way.
As much as I despise Trump, tolerating people we despise is part of the price we pay for Freedom of Speech.

[dudalb]

Originally Posted by Horatius

When you consider how many of those followers are one or more of bots, Russian trolls, or conspiracy theorists, I'd certainly insist on it being reset if I were Biden.

Or people who susbcribe for the entertaiment value...

[Aridas]

Biden's pick for education secretary is a former teacher, principal, and English language learner

Connecticut Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona, apparently.

[angrysoba]

Originally Posted by Darat

Isn’t there a big problem with letting Trump continue with his Twitter account since he has deemed it to be official communication from POTUS?

I don't see why. The tweets he tweeted while president will be deemed official POTUS stuff, just like the letters he wrote when he was POTUS. Those that take place before and after are not.

That said, now that he is no longer president, maybe Twitter don't have to put up with his breaches of the terms of agreement anymore and can delete his account.

There is no First Amendment duty for Twitter to abide by.

[The Great Zaganza]

Originally Posted by Horatius

When you consider how many of those followers are one or more of bots, Russian trolls, or conspiracy theorists, I'd certainly insist on it being reset if I were Biden.

running bots cost money. Let them do the work of unsubscribing/deleting their accounts.
It would be interesting to see how the subscriber number drop after Jan 20.

[Captain_Swoop]

Trump will be able to say he had more followers as Potus than Biden has. That's why the WH at the moment want it set to zero.

[pgwenthold]

Originally Posted by Aridas

Biden's pick for education secretary is a former teacher, principal, and English language learner

Connecticut Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona, apparently.

How many yachts does he own? Probably not enough to be qualified for the dept of education

[Trebuchet]

McMansion hell review of the current Secretary's "summer home".

[Captain_Swoop]

Biden accuses US defence department of obstruction on transition

Quote:

US President-elect Joe Biden has accused the US defence department of "irresponsibility" for failing to give his team the information it needs for the transition of power.

He said his team had encountered "obstruction from the political leadership".

Mr Biden also claimed that agencies critical to US security had suffered "enormous damage" under Donald Trump.

Quote:

In a speech which he posted on Twitter, Mr Biden said his team was facing "roadblocks" in the defence department and the Office of Management and Budget.

"Right now, we just aren't getting all the information that we need from the outgoing administration in key national security areas," he said.

"It's nothing short, in my view, of irresponsibility."

The president-elect added that his team needed a "clear picture of our force posture around the world" and that US adversaries could exploit any confusion that resulted.

Quote:

Following Mr Biden's remarks, Acting Defence Secretary Christopher Miller said officials had been "working with the utmost professionalism to support transition activities".

"The Department of Defense has conducted 164 interviews with over 400 officials and provided over 5,000 pages of documents - far more than initially requested by Biden's transition team," he said.

Quote:

The president-elect described key security agencies as having been "hollowed out" in personnel, capacity and morale.

"The policy processes have atrophied or have been sidelined," he added, saying that this was "to the despair of our alliances".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55470625

[bonzombiekitty]

Quote:

"The Department of Defense has conducted 164 interviews with over 400 officials and provided over 5,000 pages of documents - far more than initially requested by Biden's transition team," he said

Getting more than asked for isn't necessarily a good thing. Isn't that a common tactic in lawsuits - when one side asks for a certain set of documents, the other side delivers a ton of documents, most of which are all but totally irrelevant, with the requested information buried among them. Forcing them to spend time and money to dig through mounds of documents to get the thing they actually want.

[Firestone]

Biden will nominate Merrick Garland as Attorney General.

[Captain_Swoop]

Joe Biden tweeted

@JoeBiden
Merrick Garland will serve as the Attorney General of the United States — not as my personal lawyer.

[Captain_Swoop]

shade

[Firestone]

Merrick Garland says: "Thank you, Georgia."

Question is what consolation prize Doug Jones will get.

[acbytesla]

Originally Posted by Captain_Swoop

Fox News says Pete Buttigieg is not qualified to be Sec of Transportation.
But they have no problem with Ben Carson?

I'd like to ask Fox News what qualifications did current Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao have outside being the wife of the Senate Majority Leader.

Not current since she resigned today.

[The Greater Fool]

Originally Posted by acbytesla

I'd like to ask Fox News what qualifications did current Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao have outside being the wife of the Senate Majority Leader.

Not current since she resigned today.

Effective Monday.

[acbytesla]

Originally Posted by The Greater Fool

Effective Monday.

Thanks for the correction. Actually, that addresses the post I was going to make. It takes a majority of the cabinet to invoke the 25th. I thought she would be unable to cast a vote to invoke if her resignation was effective immediately.

[Garrison]

Good to see Biden addressing the issue of the different way in which BLM protestors were handled directly. Perhaps with a much friendlier senate we might see some actual reform pushed through?

[dudalb]

Trumpers are furious over Garland's attack on Right wing extremists. No wonder. They won't have a get out of jail flag anymore for their antics.

[Captain_Swoop]

Biden says he gave "serious consideration" to naming Bernie Sanders as Labor Secretary, but they agreed they didn't want to risk control of the US Senate on a special election in Vermont. He says the two have "agreed to work closely on their shared agenda."

[Firestone]

Interesting for Biden and the Senate: Lisa Murkowski calls on President Trump to resign, questions her future as a Republican.

Quote:

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Friday that Donald Trump should resign the presidency immediately and that if the Republican Party cannot separate itself from Trump, she isn’t certain she has a future with the party.

...

Murkowski said she is speaking frequently with U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, who is the most conservative Democrat in the Senate and will be a key vote on many Senate actions.

“We’ve talked a lot. In fact, my 3 o’clock call is with Joe and with a bipartisan group of colleagues that are really concerned about about where we are, and how we move forward,” she said.

“I think I am including myself as as part of a group of members that wants to work to try to bring things together in the Senate and wants to try to get some business done. And this is going to be a (Biden) administration where I’m going to be disagreeing with where they’re taking us on on a lot of issues and policy, but I would like to think that we’re never going to question their fidelity to the oath of office,” Murkowski said.


https://www.adn.com/politics/2021/01...-a-republican/

[dudalb]

Just read about Senator Lisa Murkowski calling for the ouster of Trump and she is questioning her future as a Republican.
I hope Biden gets on the phone and offers her a home. She is the kind of centrist Republican the Dems could use.

[Captain_Swoop]

Ted Cruz tweets

@tedcruz
Really sad. At a time of deep national division, President-elect Biden’s choice to call his political opponents literal Nazis does nothing to bring us together or promote healing.

This kind of vicious partisan rhetoric only tears our country apart.

[Mumbles]

Originally Posted by dudalb

Just read about Senator Lisa Murkowski calling for the ouster of Trump and she is questioning her future as a Republican.
I hope Biden gets on the phone and offers her a home. She is the kind of centrist Republican the Dems could use.

Ehhh...She's really the sort of person a party that rises from the GOP's ashes needs. You know, when they decide on a platform aside from "we hate darkies, tax cuts for the rich".

But, for the moment, she can help.

[Aridas]

Originally Posted by Captain_Swoop

Ted Cruz tweets

@tedcruz
Really sad. At a time of deep national division, President-elect Biden’s choice to call his political opponents literal Nazis does nothing to bring us together or promote healing.

This kind of vicious partisan rhetoric only tears our country apart.

Really sad. At a time of deep national division that Republicans caused by totally falsely accusing Democrats of all manner of crimes and horrors over and over and over and over and over, a Republican is whining about how divisive the truth is as he continues to work hard at ripping apart the country for personal and political gain.

[Segnosaur]

Originally Posted by Mumbles

Quote:

Just read about Senator Lisa Murkowski calling for the ouster of Trump and she is questioning her future as a Republican.
I hope Biden gets on the phone and offers her a home. She is the kind of centrist Republican the Dems could use.

Ehhh...She's really the sort of person a party that rises from the GOP's ashes needs. You know, when they decide on a platform aside from "we hate darkies, tax cuts for the rich".

Assuming that it will "rise from the ashes" in any sort of realistic time frame.

In my opinion, the rot has really set in, from high level politicians like Moscow Mitch and Stubby McBonespurs, all the way down to the state level. (Remember, there was a posting here recently where someone pointed out the Georgia republicans were planning on changing the rules to disenfranchise voters again.) Before they rebuild, I think they need to spend a significant time stuck in the political wilderness.

Any attempt to remake the party now will just be sticking a band-aide on a gaping head wound. They'd still be the same untrustworthy pricks they are now, just with a fresh coat of paint.

[Mumbles]

Originally Posted by Segnosaur

Assuming that it will "rise from the ashes" in any sort of realistic time frame.

In my opinion, the rot has really set in, from high level politicians like Moscow Mitch and Stubby McBonespurs, all the way down to the state level. (Remember, there was a posting here recently where someone pointed out the Georgia republicans were planning on changing the rules to disenfranchise voters again.) Before they rebuild, I think they need to spend a significant time stuck in the political wilderness.

Any attempt to remake the party now will just be sticking a band-aide on a gaping head wound. They'd still be the same untrustworthy pricks they are now, just with a fresh coat of paint.

I don't count either political party as in any sort of long-term exile, ever. Frankly, I'm waiting to see if mainstream corporate media has learned anything, or if they'll be back to "Why can't Biden work with the the violent insurrectionists?" mode in a few months.

(And I mean NBC, CBS, and the like - I know Tucker Carlson's White Power Hour, OANN, what remains of AM radio, and so on will gladly continue down the same path)