Biden/Harris Legislative/Policy Discussions - Now with a Republican House starting 2023

[Larry]

1 hour ago, goskins10 said:

DC needs to either be a state or have states rights becasue the people living in the district are not properly represented in congress.

 

This statement is not true.  

 

Oklahoma City is not a state.  But it has representation in Congress.  

 

DC representation, I'm enthusiastically in favor of.  DC a state, I'm opposed to.  

 

Edited April 22, 2021 by Larry

[goskins10]

2 minutes ago, Larry said:

 

This statement id not true.  

 

Oklahoma City is not a state.  But it has representation in Congress.  

 

DC representation, I'm enthusiastically in favor of.  DC a state, I'm opposed to.  

 

really?  So Oklahoma City is not part the STATE of Oklahoma??? Don’t they cast a vote for US Senator?   So yes it IS true.   Also I said state's rights not necessarily a state. My example even suggested they be represented at the state level by MD senators.  
 

How about you say why you don’t think DC should get a state. Maybe then we could then have an actual discussion. 

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

 

[Larry]

30 minutes ago, goskins10 said:

How about you say why you don’t think DC should get a state.

 

Because DC is not a state.  DC is a city.  It's size.  It's population denisty.  It's economic model.  It's culture.  

 

States have cities, suburbs, and rural areas. They have, I dunno, "diversity of flavors"? (And yes, I'm certain that CD has neighborhoods, too.)  

 

Sates have more than one political jurisdiction.  

 

It doesn't feel like a state.  

 

--------

 

Now, I'd be all in favor pf making Puerto Rico a state.  

Edited April 22, 2021 by Larry

[goskins10]

1 hour ago, Larry said:

 

Because DC is not a state.  DC is a city.  It's size.  It's population denisty.  It's economic model.  It's culture.  

 

States have cities, suburbs, and rural areas. They have, I dunno, "diversity of flavors"? (And yes, I'm certain that CD has neighborhoods, too.)  

 

Sates have more than one political jurisdiction.  

 

It doesn't feel like a state.  

 

--------

 

Now, I'd be all in favor pf making Puerto Rico a state.  

 

Those are all artificial social constructs, none of which are reason enough to keep the people of DC from having the same representation in government as everyone else in the country. That's what is at issue. As of 2019 DC had just under 700,000 people living there (BTW the STATE of Wyoming at that time had 580,000 people). They do not have equal representation. That needs resolution. Call it a state - don't call it a state. They need to have equal representation. 

 

Again, my suggestion is if you don't want to add Senators - OK, let them vote for the MD or VA Senators. Then give them 1 seat in the House - just like Wyoming BTW. There are plenty of other options I am sure. And I would be interested in hearing them. 

 

So let me refocus my question - how would you propose to address the issue of the 700,000 residents of DC not having equal representation in congress? 

[Larry]

Deleted.  Belongs in another thread

Edited April 22, 2021 by Larry

[goskins10]

8 hours ago, Larry said:

 

States are social constructs, and do not have anything to do with the motion of the planets.  

 

I realize that your post didn't say anything about the motion of the planets.  But then, my post didn't say anything about denying the residents of DC representation, either.  

 

Now.  Are you going to quit trying to pretend that I'm saying something when I have specifically stated otherwise?  Or are we done?  

 

No, because you are still avoiding the main question by trying to deflect. I never accused you of saying DC residents should not have representation. I said the reasons you stated against statehood were not reasons to keep them from having fair representation and then rephrased my question asking you more directly what your proposal was to address the real issue here, unfair representation of 700,000 people. Doesn't that assume you have a solution? That you actually believe in fair representation? 

 

Statehood is one solution. Ok, you clearly don't like that idea. If you don't want them to be a state, then how do you address fair representation?

 

People are really good at saying what they don't want or/and what they are sure will not work. But then come up short on alternative solutions. So be part of the solution. Provide options on how to get the issue resolved. 

Edited April 23, 2021 by goskins10

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

 

[visionary]

 

[PleaseBlitz]

Does anyone have any particular insight on the "Biden recognizes Armenian genocide" thing?  Is this just to **** with Erdogan for being inappropriately cozy with Trump?  Does it have anything to do with the brawls at the Turkish embassy a few years back?  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clashes_at_the_Turkish_Ambassador's_Residence_in_Washington,_D.C.

 

 

[No Excuses]

5 minutes ago, PleaseBlitz said:

Does anyone have any particular insight on the "Biden recognizes Armenian genocide" thing?  Is this just to **** with Erdogan for being inappropriately cozy with Trump?  Does it have anything to do with the brawls at the Turkish embassy a few years back?  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clashes_at_the_Turkish_Ambassador's_Residence_in_Washington,_D.C.

 

 

It’s probably a combination of many things including Erdogan cozying up to Putin and Xi, Turkey just being a bad ally all around, the ironically strong Armenian American lobby led by Kim Kardashian and just doing the right thing. 
 

Acceptance of this genocide is such a sore point for Turkey that they built a monument in the country counter accusing Armenians baselessly of committing genocide against Turks. 

[PleaseBlitz]

Thanks.  I just find it weird that Turkey is so up in arms about it.  A bad thing happened over 100 years ago and was done by people who are all dead.  Nobody is calling for any action on the part of Turkey, it's just a recognition that something bad happened a long time ago.  I dunno, I guess I'll try to find something to read on it.  

[Barry.Randolphe]

Agreed on the above....plus the whole buying Russian air defense systems situation...plus the whole Fethullah Gulen extradition attempt....plus Erdogan courts the crazy religious conservatives in Turkey. It's a recipe for disaster

 

Turkey and their nationalistic religious conservatives don't want to admit the Ottoman Empire was bad and committed atrocities due to the whole connection to the Islamic caliphate....there's a lot to unpack here

Edited April 25, 2021 by Barry.Randolphe

[goskins10]

Just now, PleaseBlitz said:

Thanks.  I just find it weird that Turkey is so up in arms about it.  A bad thing happened over 100 years ago and was done by people who are all dead.  Nobody is calling for any action on the part of Turkey, it's just a recognition that something bad happened a long time ago.  I dunno, I guess I'll try to find something to read on it.  

I am with you although I admittedly do not know enough about the issue.   My bigger problem is him using political capital on an issue that could make other, and at least to me, more important policy and legislation more difficult.  Do this stuff after the midterms.  Get voter rights and infrastructure done. 

[PleaseBlitz]

1 minute ago, goskins10 said:

I am with you although I admittedly do not know enough about the issue.   My bigger problem is him using political capital on an issue that could make other, and at least to me, more important policy and legislation more difficult.  Do this stuff after the midterms.  Get voter rights and infrastructure done. 

 

Seems like "standing up to a foreign dictator" would play pretty well during election season.  

[goskins10]

Just now, PleaseBlitz said:

 

Seems like "standing up to a foreign dictator" would play pretty well during election season.  

during general election I agree but mid terms are all about the economy and individuals. That’s why to me this could wait.  But hey it’s done.  

[No Excuses]

11 minutes ago, PleaseBlitz said:

Thanks.  I just find it weird that Turkey is so up in arms about it.  A bad thing happened over 100 years ago and was done by people who are all dead.  Nobody is calling for any action on the part of Turkey, it's just a recognition that something bad happened a long time ago.  I dunno, I guess I'll try to find something to read on it.  

There’s nothing more to it than brain rot nationalism. Turks think that Armenians betrayed the Ottoman Empire and were a major source for its downfall. Admitting that they treated Armenian’s living in the Ottoman Empire badly and then committed genocide against them punctures the narrative that Armenians are the real baddies who caused the downfall of ancient Turkic glory. 

Edited April 25, 2021 by No Excuses

[Hersh]

1 hour ago, PleaseBlitz said:

Thanks.  I just find it weird that Turkey is so up in arms about it.  A bad thing happened over 100 years ago and was done by people who are all dead.  Nobody is calling for any action on the part of Turkey, it's just a recognition that something bad happened a long time ago.  I dunno, I guess I'll try to find something to read on it.  

I definitely get what your saying but this is pretty normal behavior by most countries. They don’t want to own all the bad **** they do or have done.  

[skinsmarydu]

I haven't been out much in the last year, and rarely would go farther than 10 miles from home anyway.

But I'm a real fan of traffic lights.  When I pay taxes, they work.  It's really simple, folks. 

 

I have no problem paying more.  We (residents of GA) are pretty much ready to do whatever. 

[China]

Biden faces health industry fight over new ‘surprise’ billing ban

 

A lobbying onslaught from the health care industry nearly stopped Congress from passing a nationwide ban on “surprise” medical bills last year. Now, the same powerful groups are racing to sway federal agencies tasked with making the new law work — with billions of dollars and promised patient protections on the line.

 

Health groups and consumer advocates are mounting a lobbying campaign to shape forthcoming federal rules around the ban, which bars hospitals and doctors from sending unexpected, usually large bills to insured patients who unwittingly received out-of-network care. While the practice was widely condemned by Democrats and Republicans, health groups fought bitterly during the law’s drafting over who would pick up the costs they could no longer bill to patients.

 

The legislation, passed as part of the year-end spending deal and hailed as a critical consumer protection, charged the Biden administration with hammering out many of the complicated and politically fraught details of how to shield patients from the surprise bills. The outcome will provide an early sign of how aggressively the Biden administration will regulate an industry that’s readying battle against Democrats’ more ambitious health care reforms, including on drug pricing and lowering the Medicare age.

 

The groups that have begun lobbying the administration include large hospital systems and health insurers, major trade associations, air ambulance companies and private equity-backed physician staffing firms, including at least one that was connected to a successful dark-money effort that poured tens of millions of dollars into killing an earlier surprise billing fix opposed by health care providers.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

White House’s new $1.8 trillion ‘families plan’ reflects ambitions — and limits — of Biden presidency

 

The White House is preparing to unveil a roughly $1.8 trillion spending and tax plan this coming week that includes many of President Biden’s campaign promises but also reflects the daunting challenges facing the administration as it tries to transform the U.S. economy.

 

The “American Families Plan,” set to be released ahead of the president’s joint address to Congress on Wednesday, calls for devoting hundreds of billions of dollars to national child care, prekindergarten, paid family leave and tuition-free community college, among other domestic priorities. It will be at least partially funded by about a half-dozen tax hikes on high-income Americans and investors, proposed changes that are already provoking fierce opposition in Congress and on Wall Street.

 

White House officials spent much of the past week making refinements to the plan, showing the enormous pressure they are under to include or discard key items as they attempt to satisfy a range of competing voices.

 

In a potential last-minute change, White House officials as of Friday were planning to include about $200 billion to extend an increase in health insurance subsidies through the Affordable Care Act exchanges, according to three people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal discussions.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Biden's first 100 days: Where he stands on key promises

 

As he rounds out his first 100 days in office, President Joe Biden’s focus on reining in the coronavirus during the early months of his administration seems to have paid off: He can check off nearly all his campaign promises centered on the pandemic.

 

Biden has delivered on a number of his biggest campaign pledges focused on climate change and the economy as well. But some issues have proved to be tougher for the administration — including immigration, where Biden is grappling with how to enact promised reforms in the face of a steep increase in unaccompanied minors seeking to cross the border. On some of his promises, Biden is waiting for Congress to act.

 

Where Biden stands on some of his key promises:

 

Click on the link for the full article

[gbear]

On the Armenian genocide, I would suggest people read We Walked Then We Ran.  It was written by a survivor who escaped with her family as a girl.  Some of the stories were heart breaking like finding out what was going on after all the men were shipped out.  A few days later wild dogs came through the town carrying bones like the one that came back with the hand that still had a wedding ring on it.  Thinking of that scene would make me insane if it happened to me.  The stories she told were hard to read, and her family was upper class with money and connections in multiple countries which ultimately got them out of the country.  I can only imagine the life of the average Armenian living through it.

[PleaseBlitz]

@goskins10 @No Excuses @Hersh @gbear

 

I did some reading and had no idea that, prior to the holocaust, the Armenian genocide was considered the worst atrocity in history.  There is a PBS documentary on it, which I have not yet found on any of the streaming services I have access to.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Armenian_Genocide_(film)

 

 

 

 

[goskins10]

2 minutes ago, PleaseBlitz said:

@goskins10 @No Excuses @Hersh @gbear

 

I did some reading and had no idea that, prior to the holocaust, the Armenian genocide was considered the worst atrocity in history.  There is a PBS documentary on it, which I have not yet found on any of the streaming services I have access to.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Armenian_Genocide_(film)

 

 

 

 

 

First, thanks for the info. Very interesting and does shed some light on what the administration is doing. I still maintain this could be done after the midterms. It took this long, getting some high need policies across the board would help lend strength and credibility to recognizing the atrocity. But then again that's easy for me to say. I have so far been impressed with Biden the president, much more than I expected to. So I yield to his decision making since. well he is afterall the president 🙂  

 

Different topic but which Holocaust? I assume the one in Germany, but there is also the Asian Holocaust that claimed more than 20M lives and occured at the same time (yes, that's my seguy to get to the Asian Holocaust). Not downplaying the Holocaust in Germany by any means. It was nothing short of horrific. I thought that even before going to the museum downtown and one of the internment camps in Germany.

 

I am just dismayed at how little attention is given the Asian Holocaust that actually took many more lives, almost twice as much.  I have been to the mass grave unearthed in Nanjing. Someone bought some property and when they started digging they found a mass burial similar to what the Nazi's did to the Jews. You can walk through the burial grounds and see the stacked skeletons. The total killed in the Nanjing Massacre (also known as the Rape of Nanjing) has been difficult to accurately count. But most agree it's at least 100,000 and likely closer to 300,000. It all happened in a short 6 weeks. 

 

When people wonder why Chinese/Japanese relations are always tense, much of it is due to the 2nd Sino-Chinese war and the mass murders that came out of it, including the Nanjing Massacre. Here is some information about it if anyone is interested. 

 

https://medium.com/dose/the-asian-holocaust-killed-twice-as-many-people-as-the-nazis-did-877f0a7c664

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_Massacre