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The Complete History of the Biden Adminstration has Now Been Written. When Will it be Published?

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
I'm confident most of us will think what I'm getting at is premature, doubtful, and at any rate, stated too theatrically. I most certainly would myself in normal circumstances.

I have never paid so much attention to Washington as I have in recent weeks, and so I have never been in a position to think things have already been decided even close to this early in an administration.

To be clear, barring something important changes on the order of Trump becoming a Buddha, I'm guessing the complete history of Biden's positive accomplishments in the next four years can already be summarized as "Nothing got done that for most people that changed their lives for the better." That's the spirit of it.

Obviously, some of us are going to be clueless I'm not trying to state the letter of it. This is RF, after all. The Staff long ago put in place a workable contingency plan to survive the first 15 minutes of the Apocalypse in order to dutifully see to it that God agrees to the Forum rules before logging on.

So here's my question. Can you give me any good reason why Biden can now realistically expect to get his measures through Congress in any shape to change things for the better for most people?

Now this might be worth noting. Don't expect any argument from me over anything. Even if you want to go on record saying you don't think I know what I'm talking about, I'm very unlikely to argue for or against your conclusion. I might ask some questions to help me get a better understanding of what you said, but even then, not unless you said something that struck me as a relevant point I had not already thought of.

I'd really appreciate your help here if you're wiling to take a moment to think through what you want to say and thus give yourself a chance to say something reasonably to the point.

As for what evidence I used to form my conclusions, that's too much to go into here. But not more than a few details came from private sources. Almost everything I'm going on is open, easily found, and available to anyone. I'm afraid that posting any of it here would merely distract attention from my question.

I am optimistic in a way. I hope I still suck at making predictions. I sure have now and then in the past. Even now I'm not sure why I have never seen the return on investment that nice man guaranteed would be mine for having the foresight to invest heavily in his glueless ball bearing factory. What can possible make more sense than to be the first to come out with ball bearings that outperform any bearings the world has ever seen because THEY don't have any glue on them?



 

The Hammer

[REDACTED]
Premium Member
I'm too disheartened with the state of the US to particularly care anymore. Let the union fall. It was the people's will it seems. Maybe I'm too cynical, maybe not. Who knows? What I do know is I was much happier living overseas and on the seas, maybe it's high time to return to Japan.
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
Can you give an example or two?
International treaties and agreements are probably one of the more problematic areas. Trump made it clear that no matter who sits in office now, the next president can through all agreements out the window on a whim. Want to study or teach here? What if the next president bans you? After Trump, trust on the international level will likely not be the same for the foreseeable future. Global leaders may be welcoming America back into the modern world today, but four years from now they could be face palming and preparing again to suffer an insufferable wanker for president.
 

Father Heathen

Veteran Member
There will be no real progress as long as the conditions that made a Trump presidency a possibility still hold influence.
 

Brickjectivity

Turned to Stone. Now I stretch daily.
Staff member
Premium Member
So here's my question. Can you give me any good reason why Biden can now realistically expect to get his measures through Congress in any shape to change things for the better for most people?
There are some possibilities. His party has a slight majority in each house. He has the upper hand in that, however what he needs is a power surge from other vectors. His best move is to look for something all Republicans want but that their party does not and keep offering a deal on it.

He can score points with visiting Mexico and Canada. He can make some good trade deals.

He can start trust busting heavily.
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
There will be no real progress as long as the conditions that made a Trump presidency a possibility still hold influence.
Asides from the pandemic efforts, Biden has really done nothing more than bestow the spoils of war upon core Left/likely to vote Dem anyways groups. I really like some of the stuff he's done, but he hasn't mentioned upping minimum wage for the least off. Nothing on healthcare. And though he's renomalizing relations with other countries, he hasn't and probably won't seek repatriation of US dollars just sitting in offshore accounts (and if, certainly not without generous tax breaks for it), amd he probably won't renormalize Democrat relations to working, blue collar and pro-union America. It's mostly flyover country, but it wasn't always Trumpland. (Such as Indiana, which hasn't actually been a solid Red state for that long).
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
His best move is to look for something all Republicans want but that their party does not and keep offering a deal on it.

Immediate $2000 stimulus checks poll at 80% support from Americans on both sides of the aisle. They were also promises made by both Democrats who won the Georgia Senate elections, and were almost the only promises those Senators ran on. Safe to say, they'd be popular.

What do you think introducing a clean bill for $2000 checks might do, both in terms of increasing Democrat's chances of reelection in 2022, and in politically damaging anyone, right or left, who voted against them?

Second, and more important, would passage in any way help Biden get the rest of his agenda through Congress?

Clean bill means the checks would be the sole issue voted on.
 

Friend of Mara

Active Member
I'm confident most of us will think what I'm getting at is premature, doubtful, and at any rate, stated too theatrically. I most certainly would myself in normal circumstances.

I have never paid so much attention to Washington as I have in recent weeks, and so I have never been in a position to think things have already been decided even close to this early in an administration.

To be clear, barring something important changes on the order of Trump becoming a Buddha, I'm guessing the complete history of Biden's positive accomplishments in the next four years can already be summarized as "Nothing got done that for most people that changed their lives for the better." That's the spirit of it.

Obviously, some of us are going to be clueless I'm not trying to state the letter of it. This is RF, after all. The Staff long ago put in place a workable contingency plan to survive the first 15 minutes of the Apocalypse in order to dutifully see to it that God agrees to the Forum rules before logging on.

So here's my question. Can you give me any good reason why Biden can now realistically expect to get his measures through Congress in any shape to change things for the better for most people?

Now this might be worth noting. Don't expect any argument from me over anything. Even if you want to go on record saying you don't think I know what I'm talking about, I'm very unlikely to argue for or against your conclusion. I might ask some questions to help me get a better understanding of what you said, but even then, not unless you said something that struck me as a relevant point I had not already thought of.

I'd really appreciate your help here if you're wiling to take a moment to think through what you want to say and thus give yourself a chance to say something reasonably to the point.

As for what evidence I used to form my conclusions, that's too much to go into here. But not more than a few details came from private sources. Almost everything I'm going on is open, easily found, and available to anyone. I'm afraid that posting any of it here would merely distract attention from my question.

I am optimistic in a way. I hope I still suck at making predictions. I sure have now and then in the past. Even now I'm not sure why I have never seen the return on investment that nice man guaranteed would be mine for having the foresight to invest heavily in his glueless ball bearing factory. What can possible make more sense than to be the first to come out with ball bearings that outperform any bearings the world has ever seen because THEY don't have any glue on them?



Its possible to get a lot of good things passed. They can basically railroad anything they wanted if there was perfect unity among democrats. But the problem is that a lot of the core problems that need to be fixed are things democrats don't want to fix. Getting money out of politics? Actual universal healthcare? Affordable college? I don't know. He did talk a big game in investing in green energy. That could be a possible boon. Basically those with money wanted to halt the progress long enough to position themselves into place where they can vicegrip the profit of even such a noble endeavor.

So increasing the wages of working class folk. Encouraging small business in a way that matters and justice reform might be hard sells. Though he might be ending the federal contracts for private prisons which would be a huge step forward. Realizing that housing criminals is a MAJOR NET NEGATIVE to our economy that profits no one should throw a wrench into that particular beast.
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
There will be no real progress as long as the conditions that made a Trump presidency a possibility still hold influence.

I disagree. Even though all the doors to change are currently closed, there is a hail marry, and it's a genuine hail marry. Bernie Sander's wet dream of massive, sustained pressure from the American people to get some specific policy enacted. On the upside, there's no reason to believe it would not work if it were done. The downside is the improbability of making it happen in the first place.

Failing that, if the Democrats in the Senate would actually get serious, and especially if they would quit their pretense of working to get something done, then actually put themselves into getting something done. I don't fully understand why people are allowing them to get away with faking an interest in doing something, while being so careful to sabotage their own 'efforts'? However, I suspect even now, most people are not paying attention, and that plays a leading role in all of this.

The Republicans can block whatever they want to block, but only because the Democrats are mysteriously agreeing to go along with them.

Maybe nothing at all can be done without first getting corporate and billionaire money out of the action.
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
Bernie Sander's wet dream of massive, sustained pressure from the American people to get some specific policy enacted.
Now would be the time for him to act, because it will probably never be easier to build and harness bipartisan American support and demand to get rid of the massive influence of money in politics.
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
I'm too disheartened with the state of the US to particularly care anymore. Let the union fall. It was the people's will it seems. Maybe I'm too cynical, maybe not. Who knows? What I do know is I was much happier living overseas and on the seas, maybe it's high time to return to Japan.

Japan would be interesting for me. But I think I'd prefer Canada, New Zealand, or Singapore. Not that it's ever going to be a real option for me to go much further than the corner coffee shop. Multiple reasons that's it. However, the House roast is superb.
 

Friend of Mara

Active Member
Using the Senate as an example how exactly would you do that? To keep it simple, what would you expect the roadblocks to be, and how would you get them out of the way?
They have 51 votes which is a majority. Removing filibuster rules as is would end most of the republican options of blocking legislation.
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
They have 51 votes which is a majority. Removing filibuster rules as is would end most of the republican options of blocking legislation.
Strictly by numbers, yes. But Obama had a firm hold on Congress and yet many Dems were opposed him. It can, and seems likely, to be something that Biden will face.
 
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