"Biden pardons Fauci, Milley and members of Jan. 6 panel"
It's no surprise that America is so broken that it has come to this. The next four years are going to be terrible for so many people. Having reached a point where this became necessary is very telling as the last act before the transition.
|
Biden's Farewell
I have to admit that unfortunately the past year has really soured how I'll see Biden's legacy in the Whitehouse. And that farewell address felt very much too little, too late, saying the things Dems want to hear but also pours salt on the wound of how much it all happened under a Democratic president.
|
"July 21, 2024"
Heather Cox-Richardson is a modern day historian and this is her entry regarding Joe Biden stepping down.
My Fellow Americans,
Over the past three and a half years, we have made great progress as a Nation.
Today, America has the strongest economy in the world. We've made historic investments in rebuilding our Nation, in lowering prescription drug costs for seniors, and in expanding affordable health care to a record number of Americans. We've provided critically needed care to a million veterans exposed to toxic substances. Passed the first gun safety law in 30 years.
Appointed the first African American woman to the Supreme Court. And passed the most significant climate legislation in the history of the world. America has never been better positioned to lead than we are today.
I know none of this could have been done without you, the American people. Together, we overcame a once in a century pandemic and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We've protected and preserved our Democracy. And we've revitalized and strengthened our alliances around the world.
It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.
I will speak to the Nation later this week in more detail about my decision.
For now, let me express my deepest gratitude to all those who have worked so hard to see me reelected. I want to thank Vice President Kamala Harris for being an extraordinary partner in all this work. And let me express my heartfelt appreciation to the American people for the faith and trust you have placed in me.
I believe today what I always have: that there is nothing America can't do—when we do it together. We just have to remember we are the United States of America.
With this letter, posted on X this afternoon, President Joe Biden announced he would not accept the Democratic nomination for president. So ended the storyline begun after the event on June 27, when Biden appeared unable to respond effectively to Trump's verbal assaults. Since then, there has been a drumbeat of media stories and some demands from Democratic lawmakers and donors calling for Biden to step aside and refuse to run for a second term. Increasingly, that drumbeat imperiled his reelection, opening the way for Trump's election to install a dictatorship of Christian nationalism.
In another post shortly after the first, Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the presidential nomination, writing: "My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it's been the best decision I've made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats—it's time to come together and beat Trump. Let's do this."
Harris smoothly took the baton. "On behalf of the American people, I thank Joe Biden for his extraordinary leadership as President of the United States and for his decades of service to our country," she wrote. "His remarkable legacy of accomplishment is unmatched in modern American history, surpassing the legacy of many Presidents who have served two terms in office.
|
Historic
After weeks of discourse, Biden has officially announced he will not run for re-election. Ultimately I support this move, while I believe he could have done it, there was a sizable percentage chance that he would need to resign in the middle of his second term and that would potentially harm Kamala.
I do think there is a definite risk that Kamala (or whomever gets the nomination) does lose some of the people who would support Biden, but overall I think that loss will be minimal as most people will reasonably acknowledge that the candidate is unquestionably better than Donald Trump.
I personally expect we will see Kamala / Shapiro as the ticket in November, but who knows. Things are about to get very interesting.
|
"Biden issues pardons for certain marijuana offenses"
Good.
President Joe Biden issued a proclamation to pardon certain marijuana offenses Friday, building on broader action he took last year for thousands of people convicted of possession under federal law.
The new pardons target "additional offenses of simple possession and use of marijuana under federal and D.C. law," Biden said in a statement. The proclamation includes offenses related to "use and possession on certain Federal lands," provisions that weren't covered by the 2022 proclamation.
"Criminal records for marijuana use and possession have imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities," Biden said in the statement. "Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It’s time that we right these wrongs."
|
President Biden on Sandra Day O'Connor's passing
I follow a feed of official statements by the President, here are his comments regarding America's first female Supreme Court Justice:
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was an American icon, the first woman on our Nation's highest Court. She spent her career committed to the stable center, pragmatic and in search of common ground. I did not agree with all of her opinions, but I admired her decency and unwavering devotion to the facts, to our country, to active citizenship and the common good.
Defined by her no-nonsense Arizona ranch roots, Justice O'Connor overcame discrimination early on, at a time when law firms too often told women to seek work as secretaries, not attorneys. She gave her life to public service, even holding elected office, and never forgot those ties to the people whom the law is meant to serve. She sought to avoid ideology and was devoted to the rule of law and to the bedrock American principle of an independent judiciary. Unrelenting in her interrogations of attorneys before the Court, she was willing to learn and to change, open to the experience of fellow Americans, and always conscious of the law's real impact on their lives.
As a U.S. Senator on the Judiciary Committee, I remember the hope surrounding her historic nomination to the Supreme Court. The Senate voted 99–0 in her favor, proof that our Nation can come together to move history forward.
Justice O'Connor never quit striving to make this Nation stronger, retiring only to care for her husband John, the love of her life. She never quit calling on us all to engage with our country and with one another, and her institute's work to promote civics education and civil discourse has touched millions. She knew that for democracy to work, we have to listen to each other and remember how much more we all have in common as Americans than what keeps us apart.
Our hearts today are with Justice O'Connor's three sons Scott, Brian, and Jay; her brother Alan; her six grandchildren; and all those who loved her.
|
"How the Dark Brandon Meme Evolved From an Online Joke to Joe Biden’s Unlikely Weapon"
A fun little read. I knew they had sold the merch, but interesting to see these numbers.
The Biden campaign started capitalizing on the popularity of the Dark Brandon meme when the president officially announced his reelection bid in April. At that time, the campaign included the Dark Brandon meme as an Easter egg on Biden's reelection website, debuting a 404-error page with a Dark Brandon image, as well as a $32 Dark Brandon t-shirt.
To date, Dark Brandon products have accounted for more than 54% of the online store's total revenue, according to the Biden campaign, and drive nearly 76% of all clicks to the website. The Dark Brandon t-shirt and the Dark Brandon mug are the number one and number two products in the entire store.
The success of Dark Brandon-themed products even motivated the Biden team to launch a "Malarkey Monday" campaign, where new Dark Brandon products are added to the story every Monday.
|
Hard-Fought Success on Rail Sick Days
Okay, not sleeping yet. My friend Bill posted this. Biden didn't back the rail worker striker, but since this team has helped keep the pressure and it seems the rail workers are getting what they want.
(Emphasis mine.)
After months of negotiations, the IBEW’s Railroad members at four of the largest U.S. freight carriers finally have what they’ve long sought but that many working people take for granted: paid sick days.
This is a big deal, said Railroad Department Director Al Russo, because the paid-sick-days issue, which nearly caused a nationwide shutdown of freight rail just before Christmas, had consistently been rejected by the carriers. It was not part of last December’s congressionally implemented update of the national collective bargaining agreement between the freight lines and the IBEW and 11 other railroad-related unions.
“We’re thankful that the Biden administration played the long game on sick days and stuck with us for months after Congress imposed our updated national agreement,” Russo said. “Without making a big show of it, Joe Biden and members of his administration in the Transportation and Labor departments have been working continuously to get guaranteed paid sick days for all railroad workers.
“We know that many of our members weren’t happy with our original agreement,” Russo said, “but through it all, we had faith that our friends in the White House and Congress would keep up the pressure on our railroad employers to get us the sick day benefits we deserve. Until we negotiated these new individual agreements with these carriers, an IBEW member who called out sick was not compensated.”
|
Regarding the disaster in Ohio, no it wasn't all Trump's fault
Look, I'm all for blaming the Orange turd as much as we can, but it is also important to see that it wasn't just Trump who lead to this horrible accident.
A redditor by the name of JeffSucksBigPp (god I hate awful Reddit names) says:
It was actually Obama who allowed the specific chemical (vinyl chloride) to be included in the exceptions to this very regulation. It was defined as a hazardous material until Obama put it on the exceptions list in regards to this regulation.
The most recent three presidents are all to blame.
Obama: Allowed hazardous materials to be excepted from regulations imposed on hazardous materials.
Trump: Fully repealed train braking regulations.
Biden: Told workers to fuck off and get back to work in unsafe conditions by making their strike illegal.
No DNC or GOP politician is for the people. They’re all for corporate profits at any cost
Emphasis theirs.
|
Biden's exchange with Repubs during SOTU about Medicare & Social Security
It's an interesting gambit and bit of political theater how Biden pulled Republicans into supporting openly the ongoing support for Medicare and Social Security. I doubt it will have any major impact unfortunately.
|
"Elizabeth Warren: Democrats Just Held the Senate. Here’s What We Do Next."
Elizabeth Warren is, perhaps, the US politican I most respect and look up to. I voted for her in the primary and I'm still sad she didn't win. But her words here are good as a look at what the Democratic party should do given the outcomes of this midterm.
President Biden presided over the best midterm elections for the party in the White House in 20 years — despite Washington insiders predicting that Democrats would be wiped out.
Donald Trump did his party no favors with his preening and support for downright awful candidates who lost. Nevertheless, this electoral success belongs to Mr. Biden, who ignored ivory-tower economists and out-of-touch pundits claiming that bold action to help families was bad politics. Instead, Mr. Biden delivered significant economic progress for working people.
Voters rewarded Democrats for protecting the lives and livelihoods of struggling families in a pandemic; modernizing infrastructure, not just talking about it; allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices; capping insulin costs for older Americans; making tax-dodging corporations pay up on billions in profit; lowering carbon emissions and reducing utility bills; and canceling student debt for over 40 million Americans.
|
