It’s Thursday aka Federal Income Tax Day!
Never fear this year like last year, the IRS has postponed Federal Income Tax Day, the new Federal Income Tax Day is May 17th, 2021.
Postponed Federal Income Tax Day marks President Biden’s 85th day in office.
For day 85–President Biden will receive his daily brief. He will hold his weekly lunch with Vice President Kalama Harris. At 2:00 p.m. D.C., time he and the Vice President will meet with the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Executive Committee.
On Wednesday the White House announced that Erika Moritsugu would be Deputy Assistant to the President and would become the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Senior Liaison.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in yesterday’s press briefing prior to the announcement of Moritsugu’s appointment, that she did not except the unnamed at that time’s involvement in Thursday’s meeting with CAPAC.
Q: Has the President selected somebody to fill that senior AAPI role? And will that person attend his meeting with CAPAC tomorrow?
MS. PSAKI: We are getting much closer to having news to share on that high-level personnel announcement. I don’t expect that person will be attending tomorrow. But, hopefully, we’ll have more to share soon.
White House.gov. 04/14/2021.
Authors note: I’m making an assumption here, that Moritsugu is the Biden Administration’s pick to lead the senior AAPI role. This of course, might be one of those “makes an ass out of me and you,” type deals, or I’ll be correct in my assumption. 🙂
When Wednesday’s Open Thread was published, President Biden had retweeted 1 time. He has since tweeted 7 times for Wednesday, which gives him a total of 7 tweets and 1 retweet.
1:06 p.m. D.C., time he shares a graph regarding the 7-day average of daily doses administered of the coronavirus vaccines.
The source of the graph is the White House COVID-19 Response Team who shared the graph yesterday morning.
CDC data as of 6:00 a.m. D.C., time April 14th, 2021.
As the News Blender featured on Wednesday, President Biden announced that U.S., troops would start the drawing down process to leave Afghanistan before May 1st. The conclusion of the draw down is expect sometime prior to the 20th anniversary of 9/11. President Biden’s next 6 tweets all focus on that announcement.
2:29 p.m. D.C., time he shares a live feed to his remarks.
The video is 17 minutes and 2 seconds long. I will be using the above tweeted live stream for cue marks where needed. His full remarks can be found @ White House.gov. According to the time-stamp provided by the White on his full remarks, President Biden spoke from 2:29 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. D.C., time.
2:41 p.m. D.C., time he says “it is time to end the America’s longest war.”
President Biden (4:04): I have concluded that it’s time to end America’s longest war. It’s time for American troops to come home.
3:05 p.m. D.C., time he says:
President Biden (10:12) We went to Afghanistan because of a horrific attack that happened 20 years ago. That cannot explain why we should remain there in 2021. Rather than return to war with the Taliban, we have to focus on the challenges that are in front of us.
3:24 p.m. D.C., time he shares a 50 second video snip taken from his remarks.
President Biden (3:20): We cannot continue the cycle of extending or expanding our military presence in Afghanistan, hoping to create ideal conditions for the withdrawal, and expecting a different result.
I’m now the fourth United States President to preside over American troop presence in Afghanistan: two Republicans, two Democrats. I will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth. After consulting closely with our allies and partners, with our military leaders and intelligence personnel, with our diplomats and our development experts, with the Congress and the Vice President, as well as with Mr. Ghani and many others around the world, I have concluded that it’s time to end America’s longest war. It’s time for American troops to come home.
4:31 p.m. D.C., time he says that our “diplomacy does not hinge on having U.S., boots in harm’s way.”
President Biden (9:36) Our diplomacy does not hinge on having boots in harm’s way — U.S. boots on the ground. We have to change that thinking.
After his remarks President Biden visited section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery. At 8:20 p.m. D.C., time he shared a photo from that visit.
This one is a bit harder to align exactly with remarks made yesterday. Though I’ll do my best…
President Biden (7:10) I’m immensely grateful for the bravery and backbone that they have shown through nearly two decades of combat deployments. We as a nation are forever indebted to them and to their families. You all know that less than 1 percent of Americans serve in our armed forces. The remaining 99 percent of them — we owe them. We owe them. They have never backed down from a single mission that we’ve asked of them. I’ve witnessed their bravery firsthand during my visits to Afghanistan. They’ve never wavered in their resolve. They’ve paid a tremendous price on our behalf. And they have the thanks of a grateful nation.
For Thursday President Biden has tweeted 2 times with focus on his American Jobs Plan.
8:41 a.m. D.C., time he shares a snip from a video that was covered in Wednesday’s open thread.
The video snip is 1 minute and 24 seconds long.
President Biden: When we’ve invested in America–in innovation, we’ve been rewarded beyond imagination. Take the space race. Now, everybody knows we went to the moon. It was an achievement not just for our country, but for the world. Our investment yielded a return far greater than a landing on the moon. Baby food. Digital camera sensors. Airplane wing designs. Satellites. All of these things came out of the money spent on space research. When we invested in the Interstate Highway system, we changed the way people traveled and how we lived. Suddenly, a family could visit anyone across the country in a station-wagon. A business in Pittsburgh could ship things more efficiently across the country to Portland. Since then, research from the federal government has led to innovations like; GPS, lithium batteries, the technology behind the very phone you might be watching this on. I raise these things not to have the government take credit–lots of brilliant people in the public and private sectors have contributed to our country’s progress. But that’s the point. The worst thing you can do is bet against the ingenuity of the American people. When we stop investing in research, infrastructure, and the jobs of the future, you can bet someone else will do that investment we’re not doing.
10:14 a.m. D.C., time he shares a video this time the video features Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm busting myths about the American Jobs Plan.
The video is 1 minute and 39 seconds long. I will note it features text of her words using in parts large font-all-caps.
Granholm: The American Jobs Plan is the BIGGEST INVESTMENT IN AMERICA since World War II. My name is Jennifer Granholm I am head of the federal Department of Energy and I want to address some of the MYTHS [that word is even a different color, yellowish gold?] THAT ARE OUT THERE ABOUT THE AMERICAN JOBS PLAN.
MYTH #1
INFRASTRUCTURE IS ONLY ROADS, BRIDGES AND HIGHWAYS.
Granholm: NO WAY. It’s roads, it’s bridges, it’s highways–BUT, IT’S ALSO: AIRPORTS, SEAPORTS, TRAINS, AND BROADBAND. Infrastructure is so broad [no it’s not that broad] and it creates all kinds of jobs in all pockets of America.
MYTH #2
WE HAVING TO CHOOSE BETWEEN THE ECONOMY AND CLIMATE CHANGE.
Granholm: WE CAN DO BOTH. There is a $23 trillion global market for the products that are going to reduce greenhouse gas emissions out there. who is going to be making those products? Where are they going to go? Well, we could do nothing or we could say: ‘we as a country are going to corner the market on a number of these products to put our people to work.’
MYTH #3
CLEAN ENERGY WILL MAKE BILLS GO UP FOR MIDDLE CLASS AMERICANS.
Granholm: That is SUCH A MYTH. The clean energy solutions like energy efficiency in appliances SAVE CONSUMERS MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF MONEY *[that’s mostly true in the long-term but generally speaking the appliance itself costs more, so you spend more out pocket to purchase, but you do in most cases save on your for example energy bill over the lifetime of that appliance. If the appliance lasts] the average family saves about $320 a year just by installing energy-efficient appliances. That to me is the BEST KIND OF SAVINGS. If you want to learn more about this Amazing American Jobs Plan, GO TO: WhiteHouse.gov/AmericanJobsPlan.
*this of course is just my opinion based on my experience in CA, the more energy efficient our computers, dishwashers, washer’s and drier’s are here in CA, the less our electric bill is. Also, I’m being general, because of course, other things besides energy efficiency causes appliances to rise in price.*
Side bar: A pro-tip on saving on electricity bills as given to me by a person that worked for our Pacific Gas and Eletric Company. Twice a year, dust the back of your refrigerator (for pet owners, I rec’ 3-4 times a year) plus every 3 months change your air filter if you have an air conditioning/heating unit filter. I was amazed that doing both dropped our bill by almost $50 dollars a month. Which is a big drop when your bill is average $300 a month.
This morning the White House announced new Russian sanctions. CNN Chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins tweeted that the White House has added a 4:30 p.m. D.C., time item to President Biden’s schedule.
The news of the new Russian sanctions is in response to the U.S., naming Russia foreign intelligence services as being behind the SolarWinds Hack.
To learn more about the White House actions you can find them here, here, and here.
I’m sure White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki will be asked several questions regarding the new actions the U.S., is taking against Russia as Collins also reports that President Biden did inform Russian President Putin that new sanctions were coming during their phone call on April 13th, 2021.
White House Daily Brief live feed: The White House. We now join the program already in progress.
Live feed to President Biden remarks on Russia: The White House.
This is an Open Thread.
