The challenges ahead (Biden's America)

[Frelga]

I honestly don't trust a single word coming out of Russia. Clearly, Sputnik is not causing mass deaths, but beyond that I don't how it's doing. Although the probability of it doing quite well is high, if I were to gamble.

[River]

I suspect it works fine, given that the J&J shot is using one of the same vectors. But apparently not even Russians want the Russian shot so...yeah. PR fail.

[Sunsilver]

Canada can't step up because Canada is hamstrung (we talk about this in biotech circles because it's been a huge eye-opener).

There're a couple things up with Canada. First, over the past few decades and across multiple governments, y'all sold off and outsourced your pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity. It was all fine and dandy until COVID hit and President Trump shut down any and all exports of US-manufactured vaccine. Biden hasn't reversed that. It would probably be political suicide, even if it's a smart foreign policy move. Maybe once there's enough shots on order for everyone he'll ease it up but right now, no. Instead, the Biden Admin is trying to help other nations/regions beef up their current capacity, which is a nice long-term fix but maybe not what's best right now in this moment. Anyway, back to Canada. Canada's made choices that limits its capacity to homebrew pharmaceuticals and you can't rebuild that overnight. You just can't. It's not that there's a shortage of talented scientists in Canada. It's just not that trivial. Second, for some reason, the Canadian government was slow to place orders for vaccines, so in addition to needing to import, Canada's toward the back of the line in getting orders filled. It is, indeed, a huge mess and you can point your finger pretty much anywhere and be correct in assigning a portion of the blame.

Thanks, River! I was aware of the first two things, but didn't know Canada had been slow to order vaccines from other countries. NOT SMART!

And I can understand Biden not wanting to share right now. Your own country should come first.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Deb Haaland has been confirmed as Interior Secretary, the first ever Native American cabinet member.

[N.E. Brigand]

Mitch McConnell appears to be terrified by the thought of the filibuster being eliminated or seriously curtailed. He's warning that he will grind the Senate to a halt if that happens. But the thing is, if the Senate only needs majority rule to get anything done, they can change the procedures to make it impossible for him to do that.

[River]

Isn't grinding the Senate to a halt McConnell's standard operating mode anyway? I mean, it's not like they were doing much more than the bare minimum even when he was Majority Leader and the GOP had the House. I honestly don't see how maintaining the status quo of a Senate where Mitch McConnell is in any kind of leadership role is actually a threat. "Do what I want or I'll continue to be myself" is supposed to be scary?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Here are McConnell's comments, if you are willing sacrifice 12 minutes of your life (I don't really recommend it).

https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4952090/ ... ster-rules

I'm still doubtful that the Democratic majority will actually end up taking any action on the filibuster, but would be very happy to be proven wrong.

[N.E. Brigand]

Isn't grinding the Senate to a halt McConnell's standard operating mode anyway? I mean, it's not like they were doing much more than the bare minimum even when he was Majority Leader and the GOP had the House. I honestly don't see how maintaining the status quo of a Senate where Mitch McConnell is in any kind of leadership role is actually a threat. "Do what I want or I'll continue to be myself" is supposed to be scary?

Yes it is. So I appreciated this headline:

McConnell Threatens To Grind Senate To Halt If Dems Don’t Let Him Keep Power To Grind Senate To Halt.

[N.E. Brigand]

I doubt anything will come of this:

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) suggested in a recent letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland that the FBI’s background investigation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was "perhaps fake." ...

Whitehouse also suggested in the letter that FBI Director Christopher Wray had refused to answer Congressional inquiries and that many questions from a July 2019 oversight hearing "remain unanswered."

"Such stonewalling does not inspire confidence in the integrity of the investigation," he wrote.

But it would be nice to get to the bottom of this. Kavanaugh's outright refusal to answer simple questions like who paid for your house? was galling.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I find it particularly rich that the letter went to Garland (even though the seat that should have been his was Gorsuch's, not Kavanaugh's).

And no, nothing will come of it.

[N.E. Brigand]

I find it particularly rich that the letter went to Garland (even though the seat that should have been his was Gorsuch's, not Kavanaugh's).

And no, nothing will come of it.

As chief judge of the D.C. circuit, didn't Garland previously turn down a request for an ethics investigation into Kavanaugh? (On the perfectly legitimate but frustrating grounds that it was moot because by the time the circuit had a chance to consider the issue, Kavanaugh was on the Supreme Court and thus no longer under their jurisdiction?)

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I could be wrong, but I believe this is the first time that President Biden has stated that he supports at least reforming the filibuster rule.

Biden says he supports reforming Senate filibuster in ABC News exclusive interview

[N.E. Brigand]

I could be wrong, but I believe this is the first time that President Biden has stated that he supports at least reforming the filibuster rule.

Biden says he supports reforming Senate filibuster in ABC News exclusive interview

Today, Sen. Dianne Feinstein said she’s "undecided" and "hesitant" about this issue. She fears that removing or weakening the filibuster would lead Republicans to actually pass the terrible legislation that they promise to enact when they campaign.

Which I would say was the point. Let them actually pass something unpopular so that they can lose in the next election. Democracy!

The reason the Republican-controlled Congress did so little in 2017-2019 was not that Democrats were filibustering them. It was that they knew that actually doing what they said they would was sure to cost them votes.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I could be wrong about this, too, and I am certainly no Feinstein-whisperer, but I am very doubtful that if Manchin, Sinema and Tester were all on board she would stand in the way of filibuster reform. I think she is just trying to stay relevant after the news came out that Newsom is ready to appoint a black woman to replace her.

[River]

The reason the Republican-controlled Congress did so little in 2017-2019 was not that Democrats were filibustering them. It was that they knew that actually doing what they said they would was sure to cost them votes.

Also I'm not sure the Republican-controlled White House was a particularily trustworthy partner. A huge, comprehensive immigration package that included full funding for Trump's wall was headed to a vote in Senate in 2018 when it tanked because Trump had a sudden, unexpected tantrum. Further exhibits: Trump's veto of the NDAA because of another tantrum on a totally unrelated subject and Trump's critical statements of a budget bill he signed...and the items he criticized were items his Administration specifically asked and negotiated for. I suspect Trump's unpredictability was a factor in the long delay in further COVID relief. It's really hard to move a big project of any kind when a key stakeholder is erratic.

[N.E. Brigand]

Curious to know why 172 House Republicans today voted against the Violence Against Women Act (29 House Republicans joined all House Democrats in passing it).

[elengil]

Curious to know why 172 House Republicans today voted against the Violence Against Women Act...

...are you really?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Like elengil, I am skeptical that you are genuinely curious. I am guessing that someone as engaged as you are is well aware of the history. Nonetheless, here is my understanding.

The Act was originally passed in 1994. It's initial sponsor was then-Senator Joe Biden. It passed with a broad bipartisan consensus. It was reauthorized with broad bipartisan support in 2000 and again in 2005. It first began encountering opposition from conservative Republicans when it was up for reauthorization in 2012. The main issues that they said that they had with it then was extending the Act's protections to same-sex couples and provisions allowing battered undocumented immigrants to claim temporary visas. It was eventually reauthorized in 2013. In a preview of recent comments by now-President Biden, then Vice-President Biden at an event marking the 19th anniversary of the bill in September 2013 criticized the Republicans who slowed the passage of the reauthorization of the act as being "this sort of Neanderthal crowd." It come up again for reauthorization in 2018, but lapsed because of the government shutdown in December of that year. It was temporarily extended in January 2019 but then lapsed again in February. In April 2019, the House passed a reauthorization bill 263–158. In addition to their objections to protections for same-sex couples and immigrants, the GOP also objected to the inclusion of a provision closing the so-called boyfriend loophole that allows access to guns by physically abusive ex-boyfriends and stalkers with previous convictions, on Second Amendment grounds. After passing the House it was never taken up by the Senate (killed by the 'Grim Reaper', Mitch McConnell).

Presumably the 172 House Republicans that voted against reauthorization this time did so on the same bases. This time it will get taken up by the Senate, and expect there to be some kind of compromise on some of the issues, particularly the gun issue, in order to get to sixty votes.

[River]

So in other words, gays and guns.

I gotta love how Biden throws around "Neanderthal" as an insult. It is very PC (unless you're of pure sub-Saharan African ancestry, you've got Neanderthal in you) and yet somehow packs enough oomph to get the pearl-clutchers going.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The Senate has confirmed former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as Health and Human Services secretary. The vote was 50-49, with Susan Collins the only Republican senator to vote in favor. Hawaii Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono did not vote. I'm not sure why.

The primary reason that Republicans claim to oppose his nomination is that he is not a health care professional and they claim he does not have the requisite experience. However, as a congressman and as California Attorney General he has a long history of working on health care issues. More to the point, looking at nominees for the position that have been nominated by Republican presidents and confirmed by GOP senators, there are plenty who were not doctors. George W. Bush's first nominee was Tommy Thompson, who served four terms as Wisconsin governor before being nominated by Bush as HHS secretary and confirmed in a unanimous vote. He was not a doctor and had no history working in health care. When he resigned Bush nominated Mike Leavitt to succeed him. Leavitt was the EPA Administrator at the time and had been governor of Utah before that. He too was not a doctor and had no history working health care. He was confirmed unanimously in a voice vote. Trump's first HHS secretary, Tom Price, was a physician. He was also a disaster in the role and was forced to resign after it was revealed that he had expended more than $1 million of department funds for his own travel on private charter jets and military aircraft. Trump's second nominee, Alex Azar, is, like Becerra, an attorney, not a doctor. He had been the general counsel for HHS during Tommy Thompson's tenure and then went on to be an executive for pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co. He was confirmed by the Senate 55-43. The vast majority of the Republicans who voted against Becerra were in the Senate then and they all voted in favor of Azar.

The real reason Republicans oppose Becerra is his outspoken support for reproductive rights.