More action, less talk, distinguish Biden's 100-day sprint

WASHINGTON (AP) — The card tucked in President Joe Biden’s right jacket pocket must weigh a ton. You can see the weight of it on his face when he digs it out, squints and ever-so-slowly reads aloud the latest tally of COVID-19 dead.

Sometimes he’ll stumble on a digit — after all, flubs come with the man. But the message is always clear: The toll of the virus weighs on him constantly, a millstone that helps explain why the typically garrulous politician with the megawatt smile has often seemed downright dour.

For any new leader, a lingering pandemic that has killed more than a half-million citizens would be plenty for a first 100 days. But it has been far from the sole preoccupation for the now 78-year-old Biden.

The oldest person ever elected president is tugging the United States in many new directions at once, right down to its literal foundations — the concrete of its neglected bridges — as well as the racial inequities and partisan poisons tearing at the civil society. Add to that list: a call for dramatic action to combat climate change.

He’s doing it without the abrasive noise of the last president or the charisma of the last two. Biden’s spontaneity, once a hallmark and sometimes a headache, is rarely seen. Some say he is a leader for this time: more action, less talk and something for the history books.

“This has been a really terrible year,” said Matt Delmont, who teaches civil rights history at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. “There’s so much. We want a new president to be a light forward. From that perspective, it makes sense that you want to get out of the box fast.”

Biden “sees the virtue of going bigger and bolder,” Delmont said. “It so strongly echoes FDR.”

Few would have bet Joe Biden would ever be uttered in the same breath as Franklin D. Roosevelt. It’s too soon to know whether he deserves to be.

But the scope of what Biden wants to do would — if he succeeds — put him in the company of that New Deal president, whose burst of consequential actions set the 100-day marker by which all successors have been informally measured since.



https://apnews.com/article/politics-immigration-health-joe-biden-election-2020-0bf5f72ba4194ba4247dcf7130af70b6

How Black female lawmakers led Maryland's historic effort to transform policing

Maryland’s Senate president told the House speaker that the legislature couldn’t wait any longer. Lawmakers should pass the police-accountability bills quickly, he said, so they’d have enough time to override expected vetoes from Gov. Larry Hogan (R).

But after 10 months of work on the issue and nationwide protests, House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) wasn’t having it.

She told Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) that she wanted the policing overhaul finished, too, but she wanted it done right. With a mural of Harriett Tubman on the wall to her left, Jones — the first Black person and first woman to hold her leadership position in Maryland — rose from her wingback chair and told Ferguson to leave her office.

The showdown this month set in motion last-minute changes to legislation that put Maryland at the forefront of the national debate on policing. Among other things, lawmakers gave civilians a greater role in deciding police disciplinary cases, propelling sweeping change in a state long known for its strong officer protections.




https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/black-women-maryland-police-reform-/2021/04/23/2f90e7dc-9eef-11eb-8005-bffc3a39f6d3_story.html

Biden will close the first chapter of his presidency before a sparse crowd -- and with a historic bac

For eight years, Joe Biden was a fixture at President Barack Obama’s addresses inside the House chamber, a near-constant part of the tableau. He winked. He pointed. He gripped the House speaker’s arm. He smiled, and he clapped with gusto.

For 36 years before that, he often sat in the audience with his Senate colleagues. He twice gave a portion of the Democratic response to President Ronald Reagan.

As one of the nation’s longest-serving politicians he has witnessed more speeches to a joint session of Congress than just about anyone.

Next week, he will give one.

He will have a historic backdrop: Two women, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Harris, for the first time will be in the immediate frame of the president — something Biden is planning to note at the beginning of his speech.

In a different historic marker, both will be wearing masks as part of the coronavirus protocols in the chamber.




https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-congress-speech/2021/04/23/d82dc59a-a44e-11eb-a7ee-949c574a09ac_story.html

Top general says military in Afghanistan begins closing down

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — America’s top general in Afghanistan said Sunday that the U.S. military has begun closing down operations in the country and that Afghanistan’s security forces ’must be ready” to take over.

“I often get asked, how are the security forces, can the security forces do the work in our absence? And my message has always been the same. They must be ready. They must be ready,” Gen Austin Miller told Afghan journalists at a press conference in the capital Kabul.

He also said the Taliban not returning to peace talks “does not make sense’.

His comments came just hours before Taliban negotiator Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai appeared to indicate a breakthrough in negotiations.

In a terse tweet, Stanikzai said “soon the Taliban leaders name will be removed from blacklist. And 7,000 Taliban prisoners will be released.”

Until now Afghanistan’s Council for National Reconciliation has tied the Taliban’s twin demands to a cease fire. Stanikazai made no mention of a cease fire and there was no immediate comment from the reconciliation council headed by Abdullah Abdullah.




https://apnews.com/article/asia-pacific-afghanistan-3db567de6953b66021c89525046931d4?utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_medium=AP

Tweet of the Day

This posted comment from a Sanders primary supporter says it all about Dems in 2021.

From the Comments Section of a Political Wire post about proposed $1.8 trillion 'Families Plan':

Any recommendations for Apple Plus?

I have a free one-year subscription and already plowed through ''Servant' and 'For All Mankind'.

What are you streaming these days?

1. Shadow and Bone (Netflix)
2. Debris (Hulu)
3. Them (Amazon)
4. Invincible (Amazon)
5. The Nevers (HBO)

LA-02: Troy Carter wins D vs. D runoff to succeed Cedric Richmond.

Biden Set to Unveil $1.8 Trillion 'Families Plan'

“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 Washington Post reports.

“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.”



https://politicalwire.com/2021/04/24/biden-set-to-unveil-1-8-trillion-families-plan/