A report card on the Biden administration

President Joe R. Biden, how refreshing that sounds. What a refreshing day. Our divisive, erratic, foolish, conspiratorial, narcissistic President is gone, replaced by a President who deeply wants to unite us. Barring ill-advised preconceived notions about President Biden, his task should be easy. We are all Americans.

That said, although I voted for Biden for obvious reasons, not unlike 81 million Americans who did the same, I am a conservative Independent. That's official. In CA, we have to declare our political posture. Until I was driven out by Trump, for over a quarter of a century I was a declared Republican. I voted for Biden, but I have some reservations concerning him, mostly having to do with taxation and spending.

I said all that because I want to be honest with readers. I want them to know where I am coming from.

Whether or not Biden will be a good President is obviously an open question, but I think he is a good man. He will do his best to unite us and adopt policies that benefit all Americans, while removing those policies that do us harm. He wants the United States to rejoin the community of nations, and the days of isolation and making unitary decisions that involve other nations, in particular our traditional allies, are over.

The European Union's top politician, Ursula von der Leyen, said it best. "After four long years, Europe has a friend in the White House."

For the first time in four years, there is optimism in America created by a popular President. 59% of Americans approve of Biden.

On day one, Trump's approval rating was 40%, and, although it went lower than that, it never got much higher. Thus the reason for American optimism.

 

Good, I'm glad you're telling us how you will view Biden. I honestly don't know what to make of Biden yet. I want him to help heal this country but there are lots of problems that need to get resolved. He has the power and position to do it. But I don't know if he can. Only time will tell.

 

Biden hit the ground running.

The Times reports, "In 17 executive orders, memorandums and proclamations signed hours after his inauguration, President Biden moved swiftly on Wednesday to dismantle Trump administration policies his aides said have caused the “greatest damage” to the nation.

"Biden’s first actions as president are sharply aimed at sweeping aside former President Donald J. Trump’s pandemic response, reversing his environmental agenda, tearing down his anti-immigration policies, bolstering the teetering economic recovery and restoring federal efforts to promote diversity.

For more on this see: Biden’s 17 Executive Orders and Other Directives in Detail

Listening today, I got the distinct impression there was no time for a weeks long Senate impeachment trial that is doomed to fail. Why in the world would anyone want to invite Trump back to effectively interfere with an overburdened Biden government? Let the courts deal with Trump, not politicians with their own agenda, nearly half of whom are loyal to Trump.

We heard the first professional press briefing in four years. We can all still recall Sean Spicer calling in the White House press corps for his first press briefing, yelling to reporters that Trump had attracted “the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration.”

Trump's press briefings went down from there. Most of the time there were none.

Pardon me, we must all think positive thoughts. Trump with his antagonism toward the press has been replaced by a President who will be open with the press. We are likely to see the return of Presidential solo press conferences. There hasn't been one in three years.

 

He gets an A just for not being Trump. I have always been a moderate Republican. I even supported many of Trumps policies. I really don't like how far left the Democratic party has gone. I fear it will go even further left, especially with total control of Congress. But just to get that pathological POS out of office ,and bring back a sense of calm and normalcy, I'm willing to at least take my chances for a couple of years with the dems.

 

This was originally written on Jan. 12, then repeated on the 18th.

I was right, but that wasn't so hard.

The BBC reports, "There are reports of armed groups planning to gather at all 50 state capitols and in Washington DC in the run-up to his 20 January inauguration.

"Security will be tight for the event after a pro-Trump mob stormed Congress."

The media is going nuts over this warning from the FBI.

I don't believe it for a minute.

There is little doubt that one or more far right groups consisting of Trump's friends like Boogaloo, QAnon, and the Proud Boys are responsible for the threat.

Why do I not believe it? They want to drive the media nuts. They love publicity. Issuing threats is what they do. They have issued countless threats in support of Trump for the past four years.

And lastly, you don't start an insurrection by telling the target where and when the strike is coming.

Trump's followers, like Trump himself, are cowards. It is one thing to attack an unguarded capitol building. It is quite another to attack targets that are guarded by armed troops and/or police. Trump's anarchists arm themselves for display purposes only.


In the two weeks since the deadly Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, concerned that the right-wing extremists who continue to back former President Donald Trump might stage another attack on Inauguration Day, had turned Capitol campuses into fortified encampments.

But the fury appeared to fizzle after Trump exited the White House and Biden took the oath of office and officially became the 46th president of the United States.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...apitols-failed-show-inauguration-day-n1255015

 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s top medical adviser on the COVID-19 pandemic and White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, conducted a refreshing, highly professional, and informative press briefing today. What a change.

They did so without President Biden hoovering over them or dominating the proceedings. A true leader is able to delegate authority. Biden is that kind of leader even a conservative like me can appreciate.

Trump was never able to delegate authority for two reasons. He didn't trust others to speak for him, and he didn't want to share the limelight with anyone. In the Trump White House, Trump was the spokesman.

But all that is gone now, replaced by professionalism and openness with the press.

 

Looks like Trump still holds power in the minds of many. Some brains are like a roach motel for Trump. He checks in but he doesn't check out!

I do agree with Biden telling the caravan to turn back.

 

In politics, as well as in life, one encounters the future by weighing the odds. In a Senate trial of a Republican President it is extremely unlikely that there will be a conviction since 17 Republicans would have to vote with the Democrats.

It is extremely likely that a Senate trial will be a complete waste of time.

Biden needs to get his cabinet certified ASAP. Another 900,000 Americans filed for unemployment for the first time last week. The pandemic is setting records for new deaths, cases, and hospitalizations. The pandemic and the economy is at its worst right now.

The Senate is split right down the middle, 50/50. Biden needs the cooperation of those 50 Republicans to accomplish his tasks.

What are the odds of Republicans cooperating with a Democratic President while the Democrats are trying to convict Trump of "Incitement of Insurrection?"

The answer: slim and none.

For Pelosi to transmit the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate within days makes no sense. She is noncommittal. “I’m not going to be telling you when it is going,” Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters Thursday, adding that it will be "soon."

"Soon" is an imprecise term. Soon could mean hours, days, or weeks.

But, wait, there is a glimmer of hope.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell "proposed on a call with Republican senators Thursday that former President Trump’s impeachment trial be delayed until February to give him enough time to mount a defense.

"McConnell told colleagues that Trump should have at least as much time as the president had in previous trials, which means he would like to postpone the proceeding until the second week of February, according to Republican senators on the call," The Hill.

Great that works perfectly with Biden's plan. I knew these two could work together.

Now, if only the Democrats agree.

 

Biden says he wants unity and healing for the country. So, Joe, why not pardon Trump of any and all crimes he may have committed. That would make 74 million Americans like you.
Yeah Biden hit the ground running -- he stopped the border wall construction and he canceled the Keystone Pipeline. So be prepared for illegal aliens to flood the country and run up our already high unemployment and welfare. Plus look for the price of gasoline to start increasing. But you white people voted for this and Biden is already turning against you. Heck, I'm missing Trump already.

 

I wrote in the OP ...

Some have said Biden has a funny way of showing unity when he signed seventeen executive orders that reversed seventeen executive orders signed by Trump.

Trump was an unpopular, controversial, divisive President. To achieve unity among all Americans regardless of race, skin color, religion, and gender, Biden was forced to remove Trump's unpopular, controversial, and divisive policies.

Since Biden beat Trump by seven million votes, he felt he had a mandate to do that.

 

It wasn't the number of executive orders Biden signed, it was the content of the orders. I guess you are happy with open borders so any criminal, poor, or unskilled person can enter the USA. I guess you are happy with higher gasoline prices, maybe even having to import crude oil again. I guess you are happy we have re-joined the WHO -- the very people who were existing on our tax dollars and defending China on the covid 19 virus. Biden is being pushed by the likes of Obama and AOC, two people who hate the USA. Biden has no core values, he'll change with the wind, so he just smiles and goes along. An empty suit signing executive orders. I'm missing Trump already.

 

The Times reports, "The House will transmit its article of impeachment charging former President Donald J. Trump with “incitement of insurrection” to the Senate on Monday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, triggering the start of a trial unlike any in American history just weeks after Mr. Trump egged on a mob that attacked the Capitol.

"The all-consuming proceeding will overlap with the first days of President Biden’s term, a time when he had hoped to firmly turn the page on his predecessor.

"Neither Ms. Pelosi nor Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, elaborated further on how the trial would run, leaving Washington and the early days of Mr. Biden’s tenure in limbo. Once the article arrives, Senate rules say the chamber must almost immediately be transformed into a court of impeachment and sit in judgment, halting all other business until a verdict is reached.

"But senators can alter the process if they agree, and Mr. Schumer and Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader, have been discussing delaying the heart of the trial — in-person arguments by the prosecution and defense lawyers — until the following week."

 

While the country burns, the pandemic rages, borders are being opened to anyone, unemployment is high, what is Congress working hard on? Impeaching a president who is not the president. Way to go, morons, we now see what you think is top priority. If I wasn't so mad I just might be sad.

 

The adults are in charge. They can multi task. If you were paying attention you'd already know this.

 

Once the article arrives, Senate rules say the chamber must almost immediately be transformed into a court of impeachment and sit in judgment, halting all other business until a verdict is reached.

But senators can alter the process if they agree, and Mr. Schumer and Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader, have been discussing delaying the heart of the trial — in-person arguments by the prosecution and defense lawyers — until the following week.

Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader, had initially proposed a delay until Feb. 15 to get the trial underway.

Biden agreed with McConnell. It would seem the Republican Senate minority leader is working more with Biden and Schumer than is Pelosi. Pelosi is just getting in the way, insisting on a quick transfer of the articles, completely disregarding Biden's agenda while knowing the trial will end in failure.

Fortunately, no thanks to Pelosi, sanity prevailed. It seems the Democrats are in no hurry to hear Trump declare loudly on every major network, "I am innocent again!"

The Times reports, "Senate leaders struck a deal on Friday to delay former President Donald J. Trump’s impeachment trial for two weeks, giving President Biden time to install his cabinet and begin moving a legislative agenda before they begin a historic proceeding to try his predecessor for “incitement of insurrection.'"

The trial will begin Monday, February 8.

 

Biden agreed with McConnell. It would seem the Republican Senate minority leader is working more with Biden and Schumer than is Pelosi. Pelosi is just getting in the way, insisting on a quick transfer of the articles, completely disregarding Biden's agenda while knowing the trial will end in failure.

Impeaching Trump was an incredibly dumb idea. In the first place, the impeachment trial in the Senate is doomed to fail and a lot of valuable time will be wasted. In the second place there are these well-placed thoughts from Maeve Reston. Pleased take the time to read carefully.

President Joe Biden spent his first week in office trying to convince the nation to see themselves not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans united in defeating the pandemic. Then on Friday night, the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump got a formal date on the calendar, complicating every bipartisan goal on the new President's agenda.

After four exhausting years of Trump that left this country deeply divided and democracy hanging by a thread, the nation breathed easier when Trump decamped Wednesday to Mar-a-Lago, his slashing vitriol silenced by a permanent suspension on Twitter. Next month's trial will bring the outcast former President back to center stage, giving him yet another chance to claim that he is a victim in a never-ending partisan witch hunt and handing him a platform to rally his supporters at a time when he might have otherwise had none.

Biden is caught in an almost impossible vise as the nation reengages in the most polarizing kind of proceeding that exists in Washington. He has insisted that Trump must be held accountable for the attempted insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, but he has been notably cool to the prospect of impeachment as he tries to unravel Trump's legacy with more than two dozen executive orders in his first three days in office, while simultaneously working the phones to build broader legislative consensus.

The looming trial -- which has the potential to inflame partisan divisions just as quickly as Biden was trying to squelch them -- offers no visible upside to a President who was elected on his promise to bring the warring parties of Washington together and forge compromise in a Capitol that has been defined by strife.

This is the part that is surreal.

The hopes that Biden could bring a different tone to Washington -- which were so bright on Inauguration Day -- were complicated by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's announcement that the House would deliver the impeachment article charging Trump with "incitement of insurrection" to the Senate on Monday evening. Senators will be sworn in for the trial the next day, according to the calendar outlined by Schumer, with trial arguments slated to start on February 9.

I don't get it. Someone explain to me why Democrats are sabotaging a Democratic President. I have to ask because Pelosi and Schumer are silent on these aspects of the ill-advised impeachment.

Why didn't they let the courts decide Trump's fate instead of Senate Republicans loyal to Trump? Pelosi and Schumer do not want to answer that question, nor do Democratic sympathizers on this forum.

 

I was really hoping some Democratic leaning forum members would respond to the 16th post.

I guess they don't know what is going on either.

 

CNN is a pro-Biden network. It reports, "The path in the Senate to convict Donald Trump is extremely slim, with a growing number of Republicans expressing confidence that the party will acquit the former President on a charge that he incited the deadly insurrection aimed at stopping President Joe Biden's electoral win."

For that reason, the Democrats are looking at the 14th Amendment to prevent Trump from taking office again. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment says that no public officials who had “previously taken an oath” to support the Constitution will hold office if they “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof."

But it's complicated, and use of the 14th might require conviction in the Senate. Catch-22.

For more on the 14th Amendment see: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/535467-democrats-float-14th-amendment-to-bar-trump-from-office

 

I don't think it matters. I don't remember the name, but one of the managers stated today that the trial is going to be 1/6 over and over and over and over. Trump is too toxic. His name assures defeat. I'm sure Democrats would welcome any Trump candidacy or endorsement. What happened on 1/5 in GA will happen in every state Trump sticks his nose in. And then there's the matter of the criminal investigations.

Trump is done. The impeachment trial will bring accountability, whether he's convicted or not.

 

Good thing none of that's going to happen.

 

If some Republicans were going to use this against Biden they will do so anyway.

I think Pelosi knows more than she is letting on. I think she has found out that Trump was trying to carry off a REAL coup on 1/6. It's quite possible he had some military/CIA lined up to help but they pulled out at the last minute. An investigation which would be part of the Impeachment might very well bring this to light

If Pelosi plays this right this could end up being a trial of a very substantial part of the Republican Party itself.

It's high time we got rid of these vipers in our midst. Unity can wait.

 

How so if the Senate exonerates him, and Trump can declare on every major network that he is innocent of the charges the Democrats accused him of? Saying it doesn't make it so.

The impeachment trial destined to fail will result in Trump interfering in the Biden government and cause dissension between Biden and the Republicans in the Senate. Republicans he needs for his agenda. Trump's innocence will only make him stronger politically..

 

What is "this?" The impeachment trial? If so, absent an impeachment trail your comment makes no sense. The dissension caused by an impeachment trail won't be there if there is no impeachment trial. Fact: Trump's exoneration (expected) will only makes matters far worse.

Of course, the Republican Party is on trial. They have been ever since Trump became President. That may impact the 2022 elections, but that is not the point. Trump's exoneration by the Senate is the point, and his ability to reenter politics, declaring his innocence of charges made by the Democrats.

Good Lord, you can't see that?

 

"New York (CNN Business)Many once-loyal members of Mar-a-Lago are leaving because they no longer want to have any connection to former President Donald Trump, according to the author of the definitive book about the resort.

"Trump moved to the Palm Beach, Florida, estate after his term ended last week. But without the cachet of the sitting president of the United States working at the estate, guests are finding Mar-a-Lago lost a step. There isn't any entertainment on the property during the pandemic, and Leamer added, "It's a sad place ... it's not what it was.'"

 

I sure hope you are correct.

I think it could be easier if Biden would try to at least stall the impeachment hearing for six months or so and allow things to cool off. If everyone still feels the same later, then proceed. Doing it now and rushing it through feels more like political revenge, and I feel it is directed at Trump supporters more than at Trump. I don't know how you unify with those you just got through vilifying.

And when he says things like "political extremists," he needs to mean the extremists on both sides. The right can not be shouldered with the full blame of the political unrest and violence in this country. I really believe the hypocrisy in this, from both sides, drives the wedge deeper and swells the extremists' ranks. You would think the centrists from both sides could stop sabre rattling long enough to condemn groups like Antifa and Proud Boys together, instead of saying stupid things like they are just an idea or are fine people.