Joe Biden's 100-Day Mark Speech

Joe Biden's 100th day in office will be on April 30, and it's good to see the progress we've made thus far. 200 million shots of the COVID19 vaccines in American arms is good, but we need to make sure that Americans are getting fully vaccinated as quickly as possible. Biden is right to be pushing for a more ambitious program of big government spending that is sorely needed. Americans who aren't wealthy are getting badly squeezed financially and they need relief. Child care, preschool, college tuition, etc. Pretty much any big expense you can think of is eligible for the previous short list of goods and/or services that most Americans eithr can't easily, or at all, afford. Biden is right that it's well past time for Corporate America and the wealthiest Americans to start paying their fair share of taxes, especially when many have paid nothing due to various loopholes in the tax codes. Tax cheating is keeping our country from functioning at all, and it needs to quit.

Another relief to hear from Biden is that he plans to wind down the war in Afghanistan so that we can start bringing our troops home from Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. At least that's his goal. Just to be clear, it's going to take some careful calculations by high command to pull this off; and we all know how risk-adverse they are. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad thing; it's just how they're trained to think. Minimize risk as much as possible so that it doesn't give the enemy an advantage, and at the same time, cover our own asses in case something goes sideways. Here's the thing about the top military brass, many of them are among the smartest people we'll hear about. That being said, it's good to know that the troops are finally going to start coming home.

The fact is that we've gotten quite a bit done under Biden's leadership so far. Much more so than during Barack Obama's first 100 days in office. It's not that Obama did nothing, he did quite a bit, but other than dealing with the banks and auto companies, his list of accomplishments was not as big. I will admit this right now, I was wrong about Biden's not being able to get anything done. I was wrong to underestimate him, he's been a lot more effective at getting progressive policies through than the previous 2 (Obama and Bill Clinton) put together.

Free At Last

 I have to say, it's a relief to know that I can finally come out of "quarantine" as it's been 2 weeks since my final shot of the COVID19 vaccine. I can't complain though, as I had no horrible side effects, just some chills, sleepiness and a sore arm, but that's it. But that's not solely why I'm relieved, as the other reason is that I can let myself go out in public without anymore mental barriers of being scared of getting the virus itself. For the past year I've been mostly walling myself up at home to avoid contraction of COVID19. Probably the most irritating part of the pandemic was not being able to spend any real quality time with my lady. Now that both of us are vaccinated we can finally start doing this again.

It'll also be a relief to finally start doing my own laundry again. I got to tell you, going 2-3 weeks without doing laundry sucks. Think about it, how can you go anywhere when you don't have clean shirts or pants? You can't. Like I said before, this is a massive relief.

Even though I'm vaxxed, I'm still going to wear a mask in indoor public settings. No it's not because it's a legal requirement, it's just commonsense given the rate of how quickly the virus spreads indoors; especially when it's crowded. I'm not taking chances with my health.

How Vladimir Putin Is Playing With Fire Violating American Airspace

It's obvious that Vladimir Putin's Russia has been throwing a self-destructing tantrum ever since Joe Biden became president. If Putin thinks invading American airspace to harass fishing boats is his ticket to success, he's delusional. If anything, he's going to provoke a JFK-like response from Biden, which would further complicate an already deteriorating relationship between America and Russia. Don't be surprised or shocked in the slightest should war threats come eminating from Washington to Moscow if Putin decides to escalate matters even further (which he will). These types of threats are not to be taken lightly as we're talking about a war between the nations with largest nuclear weapons stockpiles.

Unless Putin really wants an exchange of nuclear launches, he should quit these provocative escalations before innocent people get killed. Lobbing 1 at the Kremlin's men's room is the last thing we need. America is going to respond, it's a matter of when, not if, and how. We'll have to keep a close eye on this situation as it continues unfolding.

Derek Chauvin's Case Being An Illustration Of The Current State of American Race Relations

 It's no secret that we're in a polarized time with regards to race relations in America; something that Derek Chauvin's trial for murdering George Floyd last year represents very clearly illustrates. What we're seeing with the trial is a growing realization that race relations aren't/weren't what they seemed. In 1 sense, it's good to see that people are coming together regardless of their background, but don't ignore the fact that for all the progress we've made over the past nearly 60 years, we still have more work to do. 

Irrespective of whether Chauvin's found innocent or guilty, it still doesn't change the fact that expression of racist tropes has been on the rise for the past 10+ years. No, Donald Trump's presidency wasn't the cause of any it, it was a byproduct of that steep rise. The problem goes back to just prior to Barack Obama declaring he was running for president in February 2007, with photos with racist commentary having been allegedly leaked from Hillary Clinton's campaign in January 2007 (There isn't enough evidence to confirm that accusation).

Should he be found guilty, however, it would be a significant step to realizing the long held principle of "Equality under the law." We need to send the message that we practice what we preach." It would also send the message that Black and other people of color's do actually matter and that America hears them in their time of pain.

Resist The Republicans Effort To Disenfranchise Us

 The Republicans are looking to take away your voice to get back at you for taking out their dear leader in last year's presidential election. So far we have 361 bills in 47 states being considered for becoming law. We need to do everything to keep this from coming into fruition. If you're able, get into the streets and demand that the Republicans quit trying to silence you. We're all part of the whole system of self-governance, so let's make some noise about it. Keep up the pressure on companies like The Coca-Cola Company and Pepsico, demanding that they use their influence to rein the Republicans' effort in before it turns our nation into an oligarchy.

By the way, those same 47 states are going to turn into 50. It's a matter of when, not if. The Republicans' efforts to silence us might not work for 2022, but it certainly will for 2024. We need to be doing everything we can to make noise! So let's get to it!

Republicans Caught Flat-Footed Trying To Oppose Biden

 It's not lost on anyone that Joe Biden and congressional Democrats have been running circles around the Republicans in Congress with great success thusfar. While it is great to see that, it's also a warning sign, too. Here's how: It's a warning sign by illustrating just how broken our system of governance has become; and with 1 of the 2 major political parties out to lunch, fixing it is going to be a real challenge. The first means of getting control of our nation from the hijacking done by the far-right is to rein in corporate excess and wealth inequities that have been driving its extremism.

So far, the Republicans seem content on embracing this far-right extremism and making it their party's brand; rejecting the will of the rest of the electorate in the process. To them, the far-right's extremist conduct and rhetoric is their ticket back into power in 2022. That and extreme gerrymandering. Whether all of that will work or not isn't the question we should be asking ourselves. The question we should be asking ourselves is how to go about changing the culture in Washington, DC so that the Republicans have no other choice than ditching the far-right for good. That is going to take some time, and a few electoral losses, for the Republican Party to ultimately reach that conclusion. In the meantime, many veteran Republican senators and representatives are heading for the exits as they don't see any reason to remain in an environment that encourages the worst abuses of power for personal gain. Essentially they're tired of being forced into concentrating on scoring political points instead of doing their actual job, which is governing and keeping tabs on the current issues of the day to craft policy.

It's the 1 fact that Democrats in Washington are beginning to recognize, they need to start moving the government's policy-making closer to where the people are. If they keep remaining responsive to this fact, it'll help them hold strong in the 2022 midterm election; maybe even gain seats in both chambers (the incumbent party has pulled off this result 4 times in US History: 1806, 1818, 1934 and 2002). Should the Democrats continue to successfully illustrate actual governance and productivity looks like, it'll help them make the case that the Republicans should not be given any lever of power given that they don't govern at all and their party has become the unproductive do-nothing party. 10 years of Republican mismanagement has taken a heavy toll on us all, and so far the Democrats have demonstrated that they understand that point very clearly. They recognize now in 2021 that they screwed up badly in 2009 and 2010 by going by the old manual of crafting legislation, which did little to help people as the economy began to recover from the worst throes of the Great Recession.

As for the original premise of this blog post, the fact is that Republicans are not just opposing the vast majority of the electorate when trying to obstruct Biden and the Democrats. They're also opposing their own base who actually supports what Biden and the Democrats are doing with their new trifacta. Biden is able to connect with them, making it easy for them to understand what's being churned out of Congress. The other problem the Republicans are also running into is that Biden is nowhere near as polarizing as either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton were when they were running for president (or in Obama's case, as president). And because he's nowhere near as polarizing, it's next to impossible to get their based all riled up in anger. Republicans have demonstrated time and again that they have nothing to offer and are bankrupt of ideas; that is with the exceptions of lowering taxes on the wealthiest Americans and most profitable corporations and expanding deregulation of the economy.