A report card on the Biden administration

CNN reports, "President Joe Biden looked to send a simple message to Iran by authorizing air strikes in Syria on Thursday: "You can't act with impunity, be careful."

"His comments to reporters on Friday came a day after the US military struck a site in Syria used by two Iranian-backed militia groups in response to rocket attacks on American forces in the region in the past two weeks, generating concern among lawmakers who said Biden had not asked for the necessary congressional authorization. The site is believed to be used as part of a weapons smuggling operation by the Iranian-backed militias, according to a US official.

"But some Democrats in Congress have criticized the move, questioning the administration's legal justification in the latest fight between the executive and legislative branches over war powers.

"House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said that the Biden administration's congressional notification of the military strikes in Syria was "inadequate" and he was looking further into the legal justification behind the military action."

Republicans largely praised Biden for striking against the Iranian-backed militias.

 

The Times reports, "President Biden has decided that the price of directly penalizing Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is too high, according to senior administration officials, despite a detailed American intelligence finding that he directly approved the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the dissident and Washington Post columnist who was drugged and dismembered in October 2018.

"The decision by Mr. Biden, who during the 2020 campaign called Saudi Arabia a “pariah” state with “no redeeming social value,” came after weeks of debate in which his newly formed national security team advised him that there was no way to formally bar the heir to the Saudi crown from entering the United States, or to weigh criminal charges against him, without breaching the relationship with one of America’s key Arab allies."

 

The Democrats should have an easy time of it in the 2022 and 2024 elections. The Trump Republican Party is rapidly making itself irrelevant. They are even eating their own.

The Times reports, "Former President Donald J. Trump on Sunday used his first public appearance since leaving office and moving to Florida to lash President Biden and insist that there are no divisions within the Republican Party — before he proceeded to name every Republican who voted in support of his second impeachment and call for their ouster from office.

"Mr. Trump, who abhors being seen as a “loser,” repeated his false claims that he won the 2020 election, which he made for two months before his supporters carried out a deadly riot as they sought to stop certification of the vote at the Capitol on Jan. 6."

Of course, there has been no mention of the insurrection Trump planned on Jan. 6 or his second impeachment. To Republicans today those events didn't happen.

Trump listed by name, every Republican in the House and the Senate who voted in support of his second impeachment, and reserved special vitriol for Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming.

“Of course the warmonger, a person that loves seeing our troops fighting, Liz Cheney. How about that?” Mr. Trump said, adding, “Get rid of them all," he vowed.

Persisting in his false claims that voting fraud deprived him of victory in 2020, “This election was rigged,” Trump said just over an hour into the address, prompting extended chants of “You won! You won!” Mr. Trump agreed: “We did.”

"For the first time, he invoked the phrase “Trumpism” himself and described it as an ideology consisting of positions he took while in office, including restrictive immigration policies and “great deals,” the Times added.

“We will do what we’ve done right from the beginning, which is to win,” Mr. Trump said.

Of course, also not mentioned is the fact that under his leadership the GOP lost the House, Senate, and the Presidency in four years. That had not happened in 90 years.

The Trump Republican Party is being led by fools.

It will be a walk in the park for Democrats in 2022 and 2024.

 

The Times reports, "The publisher of The Washington Post is accusing President Biden of giving Saudi Arabia a “one free murder” pass for failing to follow through on a campaign promise to make the country’s ruling royal family a “pariah” for murdering Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi."

In the wake of the report, Biden’s team announced a visa ban against 76 Saudis believed to have been involved in the plot, and imposed penalties on a close aide to Prince Mohammed, Ahmed al-Assiri, the deputy chief of Saudi intelligence.

But Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, speaking to reporters last week, suggested that the royal family, including Mr. Mohammed, would not be personally sanctioned.

“The relationship with Saudi Arabia is bigger than any one individual,” Mr. Blinken said.

The Biden administration “seems ready to move on while proposing some sanctions falling far short of honoring Biden’s campaign promise,” wrote Mr. Ryan, who was once an aide to former President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy.

“It appears as though under the Biden administration, despots who offer momentarily strategic value to the United States might be given a ‘one free murder’ pass,” he added. “Friends and foes around the world are carefully monitoring his actions, judging the strength of his convictions and calculating the circumstances where expedience may cause him to waiver and abandon our values.”

Many would agree. With a great deal more diplomacy and discretion, Biden is doing the same thing Trump did where MBS is concerned.

 

NBC News reports, "FBI Director Christopher Wray shed little new light Tuesday about whether his intelligence analysts missed warning signs before the riot at the U.S. Capitol — and how the bureau plans to confront the rising threat of domestic terrorism.

"We need to get better at collecting, obviously," was as close as Wray came to commenting on the FBI's intelligence gathering on domestic terrorism."

Wray shouldn't be too hard on himself, and Senators should be cognizant of the fact that there is a significance difference between intelligence and information. Intelligence is acted upon. Information awaits develops so that it becomes intelligence and it can be acted upon.

Right wing terrorist groups supporting Trump -- as in the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and Qanon -- are always chatting about how they are going to make war, shoot people, and blow things up. That's what makes them terrorist groups. The fact that law enforcement did not act immediately on information is perfectly understandable.

And no one guessed that the President of the United States was going to give a rah-rah speech urging the domestic terrorists to “fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

NBC continued, "Wray, who took office in 2017, said he has boosted the FBI's focus on domestic violent extremism, and that the number of total domestic terrorism cases has risen from around 1,000 two years ago to 2,000 now. He did not address how that compares to the FBI's international terrorism caseload.

"In the weeks leading up to Jan. 6, Wray said, the FBI was tracking "a large amount of information" about the potential for violence. But he didn't explain what the FBI did with that information.

Wray made it abundantly clear in his testimony that the Trump supporters who attacked our capitol were domestic terrorists.

USA Today reports, "We have been worried that [pro-Trump] domestic violent extremists would react, not only to the results of an election that they may not see as favorable but the transition of a government that they may question," a senior federal official said.

 

Senate Republicans are delaying the vote on Biden's covid relief bill. They are delaying the inevitable. The bill will pass and the Republicans can't do a thing to stop it.

NBC News reports, "The Senate took its first major step Thursday toward passing Democrats’ $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package as lawmakers try to beat a deadline to prevent unemployment aid from expiring.
The chamber voted to start debate on the rescue package, setting the stage for its approval as soon as this weekend. Vice President Kamala Harris had to break a 50-50 tie after a party-line vote in the evenly divided Senate.

A tricky process awaits, as Senate Republicans who oppose more stimulus spending have tools at their disposal to delay a final vote on the 628-page bill by hours or even days.

• The procedural vote starts up to 20 hours of debate on the plan. Senators may not use all of that time.
• Debate will not immediately begin. Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin forced Senate clerks to read the massive legislation out loud, which will take at least several hours. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the move would “merely delay the inevitable.”
• After the discussion period ends, the Senate will hold votes on an indefinite number of amendments to the bill as part of the budget reconciliation process that enables legislation to pass with a simple majority. Republicans are expected to use amendments to force Democrats into politically thorny votes and drag out the process.

“No matter how long it takes, the Senate is going to stay in session to finish the bill this week,” Schumer said on Thursday.

Johnson is the guy who said the insurrection on Jan. 6 was not an armed insurrection. Five perople were killed. He testified in a Senate hearing that antifa and other left-wing extremists were responsible for the riot, not the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, QAnon, and other domestic terrorists loyal to Trump. A real idiot.

 

The Times reports, "Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package ground to a standstill in the Senate on Friday, as Democrats haggled among themselves over the size and duration of federal unemployment payments that are a crucial piece of the plan.

"Top Democrats, working to preserve moderate support for the package, had planned to drop their effort to increase those payments from $300 a week to $400 but extend them for an additional month, through Oct. 4, hoping that the concession would keep the pandemic aid plan on track.

"But it appeared that Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, a centrist whose support they need to maneuver the plan through the 50-50 Senate with all Republicans opposed, remained unsatisfied."

Biden is trying to help millions of Americans in big trouble, but Manchin is unsatisfied.

 

NBC News reports, "The Senate passed a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package Saturday, capping off a marathon overnight session after Democrats resolved internal clashes that threatened to derail President Joe Biden's top legislative priority.

"The far-reaching legislation includes $1,400 stimulus checks, $300-per-week jobless benefits through the summer, a child allowance of up to $3,600 for one year, $350 billion for state aid, $34 billion to expand Affordable Care Act subsidies and $14 billion for vaccine distribution.

"The final vote was 50-49 along party lines, with every Republican voting "no." It came after Democrats voted down a swath of Republican amendments on repeated votes of 50-49 to avoid disrupting the delicate agreement between progressive and moderate senators."

 

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) has joined four other Republican Senators leaving the chaos of the Republican Party.

The Hill reports, "Sen. Roy Blunt’s (R-Mo.) unexpected announcement on Monday that he will not seek reelection in 2022 is setting off a sudden scramble among members of both parties.

"For Republican leaders in the Senate, Blunt’s retirement is the latest in a series of blows ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. Four other GOP senators have said that they will not seek reelection next year, fueling Democratic hopes of not only retaining their ultra-narrow majority but expanding it.

"In declining to run for a third term in the Senate, Blunt joins Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), who have all announced retirement plans. Two other GOP incumbents, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), have not yet said whether they will seek reelection next year."

While winning the Missouri seat might be a challenge, Democrats have high hopes of expanding their lead in the Senate because of so many Republican retirees.

 

Biden is going to have to deal with this sooner rather than later.

The Hill reports, "The United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency on Monday accused Iran's government of accelerating the pace at which it violates restrictions put in place under the 2015 nuclear agreement signed among the U.S., Iran, and several European countries.

Tehran has shown increasing willingness to ignore the Obama-era deal after then-President Trump pulled the U.S. out of it in 2018.

"A report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released to member-states and obtained by Reuters found that Iran's Natanz facility has begun operating a third set of IR-2m centrifuges, used in the enrichment of uranium for the country's nuclear power plants."

 

And told us nothing we haven't heard ad infinitum for nearly a year now. By the way so called professionalism is easy when the media is more inclined to kiss your ass than it is to ask tough questions.

 

Thus is of course nonsense the only people who hated those policies were the K Street and social media bullies both in hock up to their ears to China in one way or the other. Biden has in half s month thrown more people out of work via executive orders than most presidents manage by accident over their entire terms. By the way illegal Immigration is why the Rio Grand valley once solidly blue is now at best purple and trending red. Open borders is killing them, in some cases literally.

 

The big question is "who is actually exercising the power of the President?"

Biden Forgets What Pentagon's Called, Can't Recall Secretary Of Defense Name, Even Though He Spoke Minutes Before Biden.

"You know, the thing..."

 

Holy Crap. I just saw that video. It's time for President Harris. What a goat rodeo.

 

The Covid relief package should pass the House tomorrow. Biden will sign the bill shortly thereafter, and the checks will go out in the mail within days.

I wonder how many Trump Republicans in the rural counties of America will embrace the benefits of Biden's $1.9 trillion package.

The bill, which will be a defining moment for Biden in his symbolic first 100 days in office, will send stimulus checks of up to $1,400 to many Americans and extend federal unemployment benefits through September 6. The bill also includes money to reopen schools, aid for stricken small businesses, child tax credits and health insurance subsidies.

Surely, millions of those who voted for Trump will see huge benefits from the fulfillment of Biden's campaign promise.

Indeed, a Pew Research Center poll released Tuesday found that 70 percent of U.S. adults favor Biden's $1.9 trillion Covid bill, including 41 percent of self-identified Republicans, and an Associated Press poll showed 70 percent of U.S. adults approve of Biden's handling of the pandemic.

While millions of Trump Republicans will cherish the many benefits of Biden's relief package, they must at the same time realize not one member of their party in the House and Senate voted to give them those benefits.

That should give them a moment of pause.

 

Yeah, President Harris, that will likely have the GOP fighting to keep Biden in office.

 

The 1.9 trillion dollar relief package passed the House today, and it comes at a time when the Republican Party is in complete turmoil caused by the wild vagaries of former President Trump, the titular leader of the GOP.

Trump is competing with the GOP’s fundraising operation -- the RNC -- and lashing out at its members, further complicating his status as a Republican Party leader.

Trump lashed out on email. “No more money for RINOs.”

Then he told his supporters to send money to his political action committee, Save America. As a result, Republican donors are completely confused -- the RNC or Trump's PAC.

This contrasts sharply with the Democratic Party which is glowing over Biden's success with the relief package and the rapidly improving vaccination protocols.

On top of that, the stock market is enthralled with the Biden administration and its successes. Since Biden was elected, it has been setting records nearly every day. With the Dow advancing 464 points, it set a new record today. Stock Market Data - Dow Jones, Nasdaq, S&P 500 - CNNMoney

If one is a Democrat, what's not to like?

 

NBC News reports, "The Senate voted Wednesday to confirm Merrick Garland as attorney general, handing the reins of the Justice Department to a longtime federal judge who has pledged to depoliticize the agency.

"He was confirmed by a vote of 70-30. Among the Republicans who voted in favor were Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, John Cornyn of Texas and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

"McConnell said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote that he was voting to confirm Garland "because of his long reputation as a straight shooter and a legal expert."

"At his confirmation hearing last month, Garland said one of his most pressing tasks would be to "supervise the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol on January 6 — a heinous attack that sought to disrupt a cornerstone of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected government."

"Garland said he would not rule out investigating those who funded, organized, led and aided the attack."

"We begin with the people on the ground, and we work our way up to those who are involved and further involved, and we will pursue these leads wherever they take us," he said.

 

Anyone critical of the Biden administration while his or her family is enjoying the benefits of Biden's 1.9 trillion dollar relief package is giving new meaning to the term "hypocrisy."

 

Never saw this post earlier Sandy. Nice and surprising stealth attempt to paint your self as an "Independent Conservative". Praising the current President as a good man betrays you as he opens our borders to illegal, Covid Laden invaders. Not to mention other things to abandon the cause of America 1st.

 

With the Dow adding 189 points today, still another record was set.

I understand Trump and his followers are not happy to see this. Trump predicted that IRA's would be worthless if Biden got elected. So, they wanted the market to do poorly, not setting daily records.

Do we really want these people running our government again?

 

I am sorry. I should have said I am now an intelligent conservative Independent, meaning I don't vote for some idiot just because he is a member of some party.

You are criticizing me because I didn't vote for a moron who was the least popular President in modern American history, who got himself impeached twice, refused to recognize the reality of the election, and who led an insurrection against our government. I would argue not voting for the idiot was the smart thing to do.

Problems at our southern border have persisted for decades and several Presidents, including your boy, have been unable to solve them. So, yes, I am defending my choice for President because he is helping millions of Americans who are out of work, about to lose their homes, are standing in food lines for the first time in their lives, all the while as he is getting us out of a pandemic that has taken the lives of 531,000 Americans. By May 1st, anyone who wants a vaccination will be able to get one. Biden has just completed 50 days in office.

For some ungodly reason you are saying I made a mistake.

 

So like your assinign Leader, you seem to propose the Vaccine was miraculously pulled out of his hat in 50 days. (Even though the Biden Crime Family somehow received it before his inauguration. Yeah...that takes real intelligence! My leader got impeached in twice by Partisans and Rinos but the idiots could never pull it off. So would you by your supreme intelligence, concede that Communist China is responsible for our 531,000 deaths? That and Democrats of several states who flooded their nursing homes with infected patients? Oh supreme intelligence, do you revel in the fact we have a wall around the People's House but we let them in on our borders and transport them to the interior whether or not they are infected? Meanwhile we close our schools?

 

Jared Kushner, former President Trump's son-in-law and a former senior White House adviser, praised President Biden for signaling he is open to rejoining the Iran nuclear agreement and said his administration has an opportunity to ensure peace in the Middle East.

"While many were troubled by the Biden team’s opening offer to work with Europe and rejoin the Iran deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, I saw it as a smart diplomatic move," Kushner wrote.

"The Biden administration called Iran’s bluff. It revealed to the Europeans that the JCPOA is dead and only a new framework can bring stability for the future," he said.

The Hill continued, "Iran has said it wants sanctions removed as part of an agreement to come to the negotiating table on a new nuclear deal, something U.S. officials have refused."

 

That was last Thursday. Today, Monday, the Dow was up another 175 points, setting still another record.

That is four days in row that the Dow has set a record.

The market really likes what the Trump administration is doing while GOP is left out in the cold. Little wonder as to why they want to restrict the number of people voting in states governed by Republicans.

https://money.cnn.com/data/markets/