Honestly, you think the administration would give me a heads-up, LOL
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by TaMara| 72 Comments
This post is in: Biden-Harris 2020, Open Threads, Politics
Honestly, you think the administration would give me a heads-up, LOL
Open thread
by TaMara| 101 Comments
This post is in: Cat Blogging, Missing Obama Already, Open Threads
You all know I just adore TwinsthenewTrend and their videos. Today they got the best surprise.
This was fun. I heard Tim and Fred were listening to some of the songs on my A Promised Land playlist, so I decided to drop in and surprise them. We talked about a lot, from Bob Dylan to old-school mixtapes to the role music played in my memoir. https://t.co/8A0cuVNHZI pic.twitter.com/rQwW8r0wBX
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) November 19, 2020
I hope this serves as some respite for you. If Biden speaks today, I’ll post that as well.
bonus because I’ve gotten requests. Gabe guarding the garden:
I feel bad because I had to get that photo, but of course since I went outside, it disturbed him and he had to come over to see what I was doing. Then he rolled over in the leaves for a belly rub. I wish I could have gotten that photo because his coloring in the fall leaves was beautiful.
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Open Thread: Obama Drops In On The TwinsPost + Comments (101)
This post is in: 2020 Elections, Biden-Harris 2020, NANCY SMASH!, Proud to Be A Democrat
‘I can't wait to be working with a new President of the United States, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,’ said Nancy Pelosi as House Democrats re-elected her for another term as speaker https://t.co/0jP3xXxL4y pic.twitter.com/mD7pIggjjX
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 19, 2020
A lot of transition stories these days combine the Trump team yelling fire in a crowded theater and the Biden team refusing to panic or rush to the exit. https://t.co/JtGs9y77vy pic.twitter.com/DPsdZeDiet
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) November 18, 2020
Jaime Harrison for DNC Chair because he can do the four things you need for that job:
-be an administrator
-give a good speech
-raise shitloads of money
-make opponents lose the last remaining bit of their minds apparently https://t.co/7ijMQPX5yW— counterfactual (@counterfax) November 17, 2020
The helicopter yelling show has already been cancelled.
Just typing that sentence gave me the warm fuzzies. https://t.co/5DxFNmtWH3
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) November 18, 2020
The concession speech we all deserve… #FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/yRpftyJNw3
— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) November 17, 2020
Thursday Morning Open Thread: The Work ContinuesPost + Comments (263)
This post is in: Biden-Harris 2020, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Show Us on the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You
Good news for working people. https://t.co/gIJoEfFbWG
— Brandon Wolf (@bjoewolf) November 18, 2020
Booga-booga, Mean Lady Senator-Professor Warren a-comin’! Actually, seems to me this is more of a wink-wink, don’t-worry-if-you’re-not-dirty story…
… President-elect Joe Biden’s agency review teams include several people who share Warren’s reputation for being tough on the financial industry.
It’s more evidence of the influence of Warren, a fierce opponent of big banks and the excesses of Wall Street — as well as an early signal that Wall Street will be under much greater scrutiny, especially compared to four years of President Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle regulation and unshackle big banks…
Biden tapped about 500 people to work with government agencies, from the CIA to the United States Postal Service, and help shape the future of government policy and appointments.
Perhaps top on Wall Street’s worry list is Gary Gensler, who will lead the team working with financial regulatory agencies including the Federal Reserve, SEC and FDIC. Gensler led the Commodity Futures Trading Commission from May 2009 to January 2014.
Among the Obama-era regulators, Gensler was the most aggressive in implementing the Dodd-Frank financial reform law that Wall Street opposed.
Although Gensler is a former Goldman Sachs banker, he is now viewed as a tough-on-Wall-Street ally of Warren…
Meanwhile, Biden has a separate team overseeing the transition of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency that is a Warren brainchild of Warren.
That team is being led by Leandra English, the CFPB’s former deputy director. In 2017, English unsuccessfully tried to block Trump from installing as the agency’s acting director Mick Mulvaney — who once pushed to abolish the CFPB. While testifying as acting director, Mulvaney defended his tenure by saying, “I have not burned the place down.”
“Leandra English has deep experience, not just on the issues, but on how the mechanics of the CFPB works,” said Compass Point’s Boltansky.
He noted that the Trump transition met some “bumps in the road” because the president tapped some people who didn’t have much experience in government…
Today, Wall Street is not viewed as the top priority, with the Biden administration likely to focus instead on the pandemic, inequality and the climate crisis. And the fact that banks have withstood the turmoil of the health crisis (so far at least) suggests Dodd-Frank worked to strengthen the system.
But that doesn’t mean Biden-appointed regulators won’t put a stop to practices they view as unfair. Analysts are warning the Biden administration could crack down on overdraft fees, the banking industry’s $11 billion gravy train that critics say punish society’s most vulnerable.
And Biden’s regulators could take a much tougher stance on bad behavior like the laundry list of scandals at Wells Fargo (WFC).
“If you’re a bank that has a scandal, then you need to be worried,” said Mills, the Raymond James analyst…
… which would be very much in the Warren (and Biden!) mode.
Can’t blame the kleptocrats of the Trump-era kakistocracy for being frighened, though:
There are lots of big changes that a Biden-Harris administration can achieve through executive orders and agency action on day one.
Here are some bold steps the new administration can take immediately using existing legal authority: pic.twitter.com/LxCYjLK14E
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) November 18, 2020
With a single order, the Biden-Harris administration can padlock the revolving door between government and industry, reduce the influence of lobbyists, and eliminate conflicts of interest—setting the strongest-ever ethics and anti-corruption standards for the executive branch.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) November 18, 2020
Generations of discrimination have left communities of color with less savings and intergenerational wealth—forcing them to borrow more for the same degrees. Cancelling student loan debt will build Black and Brown wealth and help close the racial wealth gap.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) November 18, 2020
A Biden-Harris administration can make bold changes on day one to save lives—like lowering the price of drugs like insulin and EpiPens for millions by producing them at low costs using existing authority that lets the government bypass patents for pressing public health needs.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) November 19, 2020
Late Night Open Thread: More Good News About the Biden TransitionPost + Comments (113)
This post is in: Biden-Harris 2020, Information Warfare, Media, Our Failed Media Experiment
I really, really hate this type of reductive framing where the media (& the 'left') just boil down someone with an impressive record to one single descriptor, which is of course the most negative possible framing.
Basically invalidated all the good accomplishments they've had. https://t.co/UaNwo5Fn8O
— Centrism Fan Acct ? (@Wilson__Valdez) November 17, 2020
Sure, court stenographer Maggie Haberman may have provided four years of comfy-chair interrogation to the Trump Crime Cartel, but now that there will be a Democrat in the White House, the NYTimes is bringing back the snipers. And Politico alum Ken Vogel has been diligently laundering ‘troubling implications’ concerning the Biden family for years now!
like, i very much hate haberman's reputation-laundering shop for ivanka and kushner, but vogel's been an active participant in a full-blown disinformation campaign
— golikehellmachine (@golikehellmachi) November 17, 2020
Never forget Ken Vogel laundered Rudy Giuliani's crazy bullshit to give the Trump Admin pretext to shakedown the Ukrainian president. https://t.co/p0Q5d0QBKb
— CIA Operative (@OpBlackstone) November 17, 2020
Or…
-Journalist who played an integral part in laundering the Russian govt's disinfo operation on our election
or
-Journalist who ambushed an elderly, immigrant mother to write a hit piece on the president of a progressive think tank, who he has a vendetta against(KEN VOGEL)
— Centrism Fan Acct ? (@Wilson__Valdez) November 17, 2020
Be prepared for four to eight years of ‘just raising an important issue’ and ‘but the troubling implications’ from this smarmy little wad…
"There is a story here, we've told some of it, there's more to be told… That said, the way that Rudy is inserting himself into it, is both not helpful I think to Rudy and to Trump… he's getting the facts wrong" – @kenvogel w/ @NicolleDWallace pic.twitter.com/pFOVi56BPU
— Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) September 20, 2019
This post is in: Biden-Harris 2020, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Lock Him Up...Lock Them All Up
Breaking: Biden/Harris just became the first presidential ticket in U.S. history to surpass 79 million votes. https://t.co/9dMmSHHdVa?
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) November 17, 2020
Scandal as sources indicate Biden will not demand that the DoJ open an investigation into his political rivals https://t.co/8Ba85A8YwV
— Zoomcock Archivist (@canderaid) November 17, 2020
"Not instantly announcing a DOJ investigation into your political rival, while simultaneously distancing yourself *and* allowing the DOJ to pursue such an investigation" seems… not nearly as bad as some on this website think. https://t.co/2wbrcA49Mo
— Casey Michel ?? (@cjcmichel) November 17, 2020
Across the global, strongmen and authoritarians lament at losing a faithful flunky…
"Biden traveled to the Serbian capital, Belgrade, and met with strongman Slobodan Milosevic…he spoke with Milosevic bluntly: 'I think you’re a damned war criminal and you should be tried as one'." https://t.co/aIaTkHBYjr
— Jasmin Mujanovic (@JasminMuj) November 17, 2020
While looters of the public treasury quietly retreat to their secure hideouts…
If you're like me, the mere existence of this tweet is thrilling, after 4 years of @BetsyDeVosED .
Gee thanks, @DrBiden — a breath of genuinely fresh air just wafted through my home. https://t.co/YNigYAtQfa— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) November 18, 2020
One cool thing about Joe Biden is nobody is going to convince themselves he’s a unicorn-like political talent — his brilliant move of paying attention to what the actual views of the electorate are is something that other politicians can very easily copy.
— Matthew Yglesias ?? (@mattyglesias) November 17, 2020
Wednesday Morning Open Thread: The Biden Transition ContinuesPost + Comments (273)
by TaMara| 59 Comments
This post is in: Politics, Proud to Be A Democrat
By now everyone has probably heard about the Wayne County (MI) Board Members who voted against certifying the ballots. Well one of their fellow board members was having none of it. Rumor has it, this might be why they voted a second time and certified them.
Hey guys,
Please Watch @NedStaebler — a Wayne County Board Member of Canvassers stuff in a locker @HartmannDude and @monicaspalmer — the two members that refused to certify the ballots for the county…pic.twitter.com/iGl3LSf3Sw
— Rex Chapman?? (@RexChapman) November 18, 2020
HOLY REVERSALS, BATMAN!
Following a wave of outrage, Wayne County just voted unanimously to certify the results of the election!!!!
— BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) November 18, 2020
This made my night a little brighter.
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