The Biden - Harris Era.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Wonder if the President elect will get any questions

A cancer charity started by Joe Biden gave out no money to research, and spent most of its contributions on staff salaries, federal filings show.

The Biden Cancer Initiative was founded in 2017 by the former vice president and his wife, Jill Biden, to “develop and drive implementation of solutions to accelerate progress in cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis, research and care and to reduce disparities in cancer outcomes,” according to its IRS mission statement. But it gave out no grants in its first two years, and spent millions on the salaries of former Washington, DC, aides it hired.

The charity took in $4,809,619 in contributions in fiscal years 2017 and 2018, and spent $3,070,301 on payroll in those two years. The group’s president, Gregory Simon, raked in $429,850 in fiscal 2018 (July 1, 2018, to June 30, 2019), according to the charity’s most recent federal tax filings.

Your guy:

[dislaxxic]

That said---the reason they didn't go single payer was that it was a carve out for Big Insurance. Fealty to the 1%. If Obama was a real lefty? He would have gone all in, and handed us what every other 1st world citizenry has.

Is it reasonable to assume by this that you mean that "every other 1st world citizenry" must, apparently, be governed by what we here in the US call the "far left"?

Cause somehow that seems to be the place we're in...where spending large sums on your own citizenry is the whacky provenance of far left thinking.

Perhaps it's more that other 1st world countries don't have the same level of corporate ownership of their politicians? Would that be because of more effective regulation? Fewer gazillions to pass out? More honest politicians (heh)...seriously, what?

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[dislaxxic]

Also, wanted to ask AF, why you think championing the Voting Rights Act, Reproductive Rights, a Minimum Wage, the Paris Climate Accord, the Green New Deal, Banking and Environmental Regulation to name a few things, are the left bowing to the 1%??

I feel you're probably right to say that the ESTABLISHMENT left doesn't push hard enough to get these sorts of things codified in the rare instance of their control of government...and i agree with that...but these sorts of things, these concepts, emanate from the left, not the right, no?

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[dislaxxic]

I hope, for the future good of the country, that the (R)'s don't attack the Biden admin & try to sabotage it the way (D)'s & (R)-Never Trumpers did to the Trump campaign, transition & Presidency, from without & within.

Let's see now many secret Crossfire investigations were conducted or are still underway. How many FISA warrants were used to surveil Biden & how many Viva la Resistance texts are unearthed by IG's from within the Deep State, & how many destructive leaks emerge from holdover Trump supporters within the govt.

If the TDS Zombies want to get their pound of flesh from Trump supporters, they were off to a good start on the streets of DC this wk end.
I think you're safe to fly your Biden flag & wear your Biden gear.

Setting aside the political vitriol started, most say, by Newt Gingrich and perfected by many (R's) during the Clinton years, yes let's hope that the ACTIONS and POLICIES of the Trump Era will not CAUSE the kind of backlash against Mr. Biden that Trump brought on himself.

Joey has already stated that he wishes to act as president on behalf of ALL Americans.

Not sure we ever heard that sort of language out of Orange Duce.

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[Farfromgeneva]

That said---the reason they didn't go single payer was that it was a carve out for Big Insurance. Fealty to the 1%. If Obama was a real lefty? He would have gone all in, and handed us what every other 1st world citizenry has.

Is it reasonable to assume by this that you mean that "every other 1st world citizenry" must, apparently, be governed by what we here in the US call the "far left"?

Cause somehow that seems to be the place we're in...where spending large sums on your own citizenry is the whacky provenance of far left thinking.

Perhaps it's more that other 1st world countries don't have the same level of corporate ownership of their politicians? Would that be because of more effective regulation? Fewer gazillions to pass out? More honest politicians (heh)...seriously, what?

..

Pretty evident we’re seeing the impact of the ruling on corporations as people for the sake of donations.

Interestingly though is the remaining Koch brother who’s acknowledging his marriage to the R party and only the R party was a mistake. He’s realized that they don’t espouse the true libertarian views he values.

[dislaxxic]

Turning the Page or Getting to the Truth? (TPM Paywall)

NBC is out this morning with an article which seem to signal President-Elect Biden’s “wary” of having the Justice Department scrutinize and possibly indict his predecessor, Donald Trump. It’s a bit of a hard article to decipher. On its face, it simply says that Biden is going to leave prosecutorial decisions to the Justice Department, which is exactly what should happen. A President who makes the DOJ and its prosecutorial power a tool of his personal will is the problem we’re trying to solve not the solution it. But you can also read it as Biden doesn’t want his presidency consumed by the drama and pyrotechnics of investigations and prosecutions of Trump and his family, which sounds a lot like ‘turning the page’ and ‘looking forward not back.’

I will say that characterologically I think this is definitely who Biden is. That’s just my read of the guy, institutionalist, traditionalist, policy-focused. We will have to see how this actually shakes out. There are many cases that are already in process and ones he won’t easily be able to avoid. There is on-going litigation from the State of New York which the DOJ has become involved in trying to thwart – those cases are the most active and immediate threat to Trump and his family. You can learn more about the New York investigations here. Those have always been the prime legal threat hanging over President Trump and that remains the case.

The Southern District of New York appears to have an active investigation of Rudy Giuliani. Was that being held back by Main Justice? The House is still trying to get President Trump’s tax returns. The Biden administration won’t be able to avoid unwinding the Trump administration’s child detention policies or learning what secret deals Trump made with potentates in the Gulf or indicted what it knew about the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. They’ll know; the question is whether they will disclose it to the public.

I will take this opportunity to renew an argument I’ve been making since last summer, which is that disclosure rather than prosecution should be our national focus.

I outlined the argument here. There are many reasons for this, most important of which is that disclosure really is more important than prosecution for accountability and civic health. But equally important, it’s not either/or. The most important wrongdoing President Trump is responsible for likely doesn’t fit neatly or at all into the bounds of criminal statutes. As Warren Hastings put it, “The only redress for a fraud for which the law had made no provisions is the exposure of it.”

Beyond that, the truth is that we simply don’t know what happened during this dark and lawless four years. The first priority should be finding out. When President Biden becomes President he will inherit all the documentary records of the last four years. All the people who continue to staff the government will answer to and work for him. Just as importantly, all the powers and invocations of privilege will translate from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. Former Presidents have zero say in claims of privilege or secrecy. What has been extended to them in the past is purely a courtesy of the current occupant of the office. That puts the real and critical power of finding out what happened into Biden’s hands.

This is the critical first step. Find out what happened. That will clarify who needs to be held accountable criminally and for what. Such an effort should not be managed by the Justice Department except insofar as it relates specifically to the Trump DOJ’s own actions. The Justice Department’s brief is criminal investigations and depriving lawbreakers of their liberty and property. They operate with a heavy emphasis on secrecy and confidentiality, which are appropriate in most cases when wielding that awesome power. We have seen numerous times – this is a central part of my argument in the piece linked above – that criminal investigations end up leaving the public in the dark. We saw this in the Mueller probe. In the end we found out that much of the most consequential information just isn’t any of our business. And that’s not just because of Bill Barr. It’s baked into the prosecutorial framework. We cannot let that happen when it comes to opening the books on the Trump administration.

As I said last summer, the executive branch needs an audit. And I think it will get it. Indeed, it’s all but inevitable. When you inherit the operation and the records you’ll know what happened. The only question is whether you take some time to put the pieces together and – more critically – let everyone else know. And I am cautiously optimistic that they will.

The more pressing issue in my mind is whether Mitch McConnell will even allow Biden to put someone in charge of the DOJ, assuming he’s still the Majority Leader in January.

The executive branch needs an audit. And now it should get it. It’s not the President’s place to tell the DOJ who to prosecute, though he will set the tone there. That’s the real point of this NBC article. Biden wants to get out of the business of using the DOJ as a weapon, as he should. First, find out what happened. After that things will become more clear.

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[dislaxxic]

Marcy Wheeler's take on "Looking Forward" saying it "WILL BE HARDER FOR PRESIDENT BIDEN THAN IT WAS FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA"

That’s because there are a number of investigations that implicate Trump that are either pending (as of right now, but I don’t rule out Trump trying to kill them in the interim) or were shut down corruptly, to say nothing of the obstruction charges Mueller effectively recommended (which aforementioned pardons would renew, even in spite of DOJ’s declination prior to pardons). At a minimum, those include:

- The Build the Wall fraud case against Steve Bannon and others that might, eventually, implicate the failson or his close buddies;

- The Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas graft which clearly implicates Rudy Giuliani and by all rights should always have included Trump’s extortion of Volodymyr Zelensky; given the timing of David Correia’s plea, it’s likely there will be grand jury testimony from him banked;

-Other foreign agent charges against Rudy;

-The investigation into Erik Prince for selling his private mercenary services to China;

-False statements charges against Ryan Zinke that Jeffrey Rosen attempted to kill;

-Various campaign finance and grift charges implicating Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, and Brad Parscale, to say nothing of the hush payments involving Trump personally;

-Possible hack-and-leak charges against Roger Stone from 2016, as well as the related pardon quid pro quo for Julian Assange implicating Trump himself;

-The possible aftermath of Judge Sullivan’s decisions in the Mike Flynn case, which could include perjury referrals or an invitation for DOJ to prosecute Flynn on the foreign agent charges he pled out of.

All of these investigations still do or were known to exist, and if they no longer exist when Biden’s Attorney General arrives at DOJ, it will be because of improper interference from Barr.

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[dislaxxic]

Biden builds team for Senate confirmation battles

The new team is also looking to shake up some of the conventions of the Cabinet nomination process, including the code of silence that has traditionally surrounded nominees. Instead, transition staff intend to introduce Biden's Cabinet picks to the American people before their Senate hearings, which could include media blitzes to build up public support. There's a risk, however, that the increased exposure could lead to embarrassing gaffes or missteps by nominees.

In less polarized times, senators were more willing to cross party lines and confirm the president’s Cabinet choices.

There is more uncertainty now. During the Trump administration, some Democrats with presidential ambitions saw an advantage in voting against as many of Trump’s nominees as possible — New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand later bragged on the campaign trail that she voted against more of Trump’s nominees than any other Senate Democrat. A similar dynamic could play out in 2021, given the number of Senate Republicans eyeing a 2024 presidential run.

Biden, however, is intent on trying to restore some of the Senate’s erstwhile comity. The transition told POLITICO that they "are operating under the belief that the Senate will be under substantial pressure from the public and voters across the country — as well as from their allies in the business community and throughout Washington — to take action on the economy and public health crises, to confirm nominees and rebuild federal agencies with competent public servants.”

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[jhu72]

It should be pretty obvious to even a blind man that a significant fraction of the republican party does not believe in democracy. These people won't be happy until they do start a civil war.

Biden has already proven in the past two weeks he has the qualities of a better president than the Orange Turd.

[dislaxxic]

Troop levels were at 150,000 when Obama drew them down from Afghanistan.

What did conservatives say then?

trump just drew down half of the remaining 5,000 trrops there.

Now, erstwhile Trumpists are "afraid" President Elect Biden may UP troop levels?

What are the generals saying, by the way?

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[dislaxxic]

Merrick Garland being considered for Attorney General

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[njbill]

Wouldn’t it be the sweetest of ironies if he put Moscow Mitch in jail?

[Kismet]

Merrick Garland being considered for Attorney General

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Why would he take a finite position as AG instead of a lifetime appointment as an influential senior appellate court judge?

My bet is on either Sen. Doug Jones (a former Federal prosecutor) who will be out of a job on January 3 or former Deputy and Acting AG Sally Yates.
Former MA Governor Deval Patrick is also a possibility

[seacoaster]

Merrick Garland being considered for Attorney General

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Why would he take a finite position as AG instead of a lifetime appointment as an influential senior appellate court judge?

My bet is on either Sen. Doug Jones (a former Federal prosecutor) who will be out of a job on January 3 or former Deputy and Acting AG Sally Yates.
Former MA Governor Deval Patrick is also a possibility

Jones would be a good choice. Yates would have a tough time with a GOP Senate. I can see Garland, who is 68, taking the job. He’s been a Circuit Court judge since 1997, and may regard the AG spot as a career capstone, especially after the disgraceful job of his predecessor.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Merrick Garland being considered for Attorney General

..

Why would he take a finite position as AG instead of a lifetime appointment as an influential senior appellate court judge?

My bet is on either Sen. Doug Jones (a former Federal prosecutor) who will be out of a job on January 3 or former Deputy and Acting AG Sally Yates.
Former MA Governor Deval Patrick is also a possibility

I hope it is not Deval Patrick....RRR will be insufferable!

[dislaxxic]

The Perils of Prosecuting Trump

This is a transcript of a podcast interview done by Dahlia Lithwick at SLATE. She is, of course, a longtime Supreme Court and court wtcher/reporter and she has a very keen eye for such things. You can also listen to the actual podcast, cause some of the transcription in this post has not been edited yet.

She's pretty pragmatic about the whole subject, and points out the many perils involved. One good thought, i feel, is this: When people talk about a "truth and Reconciliation Commission of some sort, the idea starts with TRUTH. We've gotten so far away from, so confused by what is truth and what is fiction...or Fake News...that this area might be a good start. Many of the Inspectors General that Trump has fired have not been replaced. That would be a good start to this process...getting at what was the ACTUAL TRUTH of what happened in - for example - the Ukraine scandal. The redacted portions of the Mueller Report regarding obstruction. What does Don McGahn have to say? What does John Bolton have to say? What was the TRUTH of all that, from before Billy Barr got ahold of the Report and twisted its conclusions beyond all recognition?

Get good, competent inspector's general back in place and perhaps beef up the laws that govern their activity, including how congressional subpoenas work...this "you can't touch me" nonsense has got to go away.

The infamous "DOJ policy paper" on not prosecuting a sitting president definitely needs to be revisited as well...

The State Court proceedings that are almost sure to go forward once Duce is out of office are one thing, one very critical thing that will likely keep Trump and his nascent media empire busy post-inauguration. With luck, state proceedings will keep him so busy that he'll stay out of our collective hair for at least a year or two...

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[dislaxxic]

Breaking: John Kerry to be named Environmental Czar...a position that does not require confirmation...presumably to work on the Paris Climate Accord re-entry?

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[a fan]

With luck, state proceedings will keep him so busy that he'll stay out of our collective hair for at least a year or two...

Not a chance. Trump is now the martyr TrumpNation has been waiting for......it's gonna get worse, not better. Trump's gonna act like he's still running the country. Twitter.

[cradleandshoot]

Breaking: John Kerry to be named Environmental Czar...a position that does not require confirmation...presumably to work on the Paris Climate Accord re-entry?

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Talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel. You gotta dig below the barrel and start scraping up worm dirt and rat poop. That is where little johnny lives. Now I know the planet is phuked. Pass the ketchup please.

[old salt]

Climate CZAR ? ....perfect fit for a windbag with delusions of grandeur.

At least this keeps Kerry away from another Iran deal.

Unless the Senate approves it as a treaty, we'll be out of it again every time there's a (R) President.