Biden Bits: 200 Days Down

Biden Tweets Logo. Image by Lenny Ghoul.

It’s Monday.

I blame Richard’s Night Owl

For Monday, August 9th, 2021, President Biden is still in Delaware. This morning he has received his daily brief. There is nothing else of note on his schedule.

Factba.se. Public Calendar. Daniel Dale is still on vacation.

President Biden has tweeted 2 times so far for Monday. 

National Today.com says:

The Islamic New Year — also known as the Arabic New Year or Hijri New Year — is the first day of Muharram, the first month in the Islamic calendar. The first year of this calendar began in Gregorian CE 622 when the Prophet Muhammad emigrated from Mecca to Medina with his companions.

In the Islamic calendar, days begin at sunset. The event falls on a different day every year because the Islamic year is 11 to 12 days shorter. As rituals and prayers mark the occasion, Muharram is known as the month of remembrance and is sacred to Muslims across the world.
The word Hijri is derived from Hijra meaning migration. The starting point of Islamic calendar is migration of Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 AD.

Islamic New Year 2021 will be referred as Hijri 1443.

National Today.com.

The above link also has the history behind the Islamic New Year. I have not had a chance to verify their information.

Reuters says:

The U.N. climate panel report released Monday on the physical science of climate change uses five possible scenarios for the future.

[Here is a summary of the 5 scenarios]

FIVE FUTURES – DECODED

SSP1-1.9: The IPCC’s most optimistic scenario, this describes a world where global CO2 emissions are cut to net zero around 2050.

SSP1-2.6: In the next-best scenario, global CO2 emissions are cut severely, but not as fast, reaching net-zero after 2050. It imagines the same socioeconomic shifts towards sustainability as SSP1-1.9. But temperatures stabilize around 1.8C higher by the end of the century.

SSP2-4.5: This is a “middle of the road” scenario. CO2 emissions hover around current levels before starting to fall mid-century, but do not reach net-zero by 2100.

SSP3-7.0: On this path, emissions and temperatures rise steadily and CO2 emissions roughly double from current levels by 2100. Countries become more competitive with one another, shifting toward national security and ensuring their own food supplies. By the end of the century, average temperatures have risen by 3.6C.

SSP5-8.5: This is a future to avoid at all costs. Current CO2 emissions levels roughly double by 2050. The global economy grows quickly, but this growth is fueled by exploiting fossil fuels and energy-intensive lifestyles. By 2100, the average global temperature is a scorching 4.4C higher.

Reuters. 08/09/2021.

This morning the White House published the following fact-sheet on the announcement of a $5 billion investment; to Help Communities Prepare for Extreme Weather and Climate-Related Disasters

The bullet points:

  • $1 billion in funding for its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program for Fiscal Year 2021. This new program, launched in 2020, provides grants to states, local communities, tribes, and territories to proactively reduce their vulnerability to natural hazard events before they occur, and make themselves and the nation more resilient. This year, the Biden Administration is doubling the program’s funding and implementing a number of changes to enhance funding opportunities for tribes and disadvantaged communities, including by changing program selection criteria and providing a larger allocation for tribes.
  • $3.46 billion in funding for its Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP). The 59 states, tribes, and territories that received a major disaster declaration in response to the COVID-19 pandemic will be eligible to receive 4% of the disaster costs related to their declaration to invest in mitigation projects that will help better prepare and protect communities from natural disasters and the impacts of climate change. The influx of funding will help communities prioritize mitigation needs for a more resilient future, including underserved communities that are often most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
  • $160 million in funding for its Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) grant program for Fiscal Year 2021 to reduce or eliminate the risks of repetitive flood damage to homes and buildings insured by the National Flood Insurance Program.

In addition to today’s FEMA announcements, we are coordinating efforts across agencies as part of the Biden Administration’s whole-of-government approach to increase resilience, get funding, and address the needs of communities across the country, including through task forces like the Department of Homeland Security’s DHS Climate Change Action Group. Through Executive Order 14008, on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, the President established the National Climate Task Force. The Task Force created five interagency working groups to support communities in addressing resilience strategies tied to drought, wildfires, extreme heat, coastal, and flood risks. In addition, key agencies are supporting climate action by preparing plans to outline strategies to improve climate resilience. Under Executive Orders 14030, Climate-Related Financial Risk, and 14008, agencies are preparing reports on climate finance risk, improving climate forecasting, and providing information products to the public. 

White House.gov. 08/09/2021.

When Biden Bits was published for Friday, President Biden had issued 3 tweets. He added 5 tweets giving him a Friday Tweeting Total of 8 tweets and 0 retweets.

As mentioned in the above linked Biden Bits on Friday, the BLS released July’s Jobs Report. Prior to Biden Bits being published President Biden offered remarks on the July Jobs Report.

The video is 15 minutes and 15 seconds long. President Biden’s full remarks can be found here.

President Biden: Now, while our economy is far from complete and while we have — doubtlessly we’ll have ups and downs along the way as we continue to battle the Delta surge of COVID, what is indisputable now is this: The Biden plan is working, the Biden plan produces results, and the Biden plan is moving the country forward. We’re now the first administration in history to add jobs every single month in our first six months in office, and the only one in history to add more than 4 million jobs during the first six months. Economic growth is the fastest in 40 years. Jobs are up. The unemployment rate is the lowest since the pandemic hit. Black unemployment is down as well.

In July the Daily Journal.net posted a AP fact-check that said the above claim is misleading.

President Joe Biden on Wednesday inflated the impact of his policies on U.S. jobs created in his first half-year in office, misleadingly stating his administration had done more than any other president. He neglects to mention he had population growth on his side in his comparison.

When calculated as a percentage of the workforce, job growth under President Jimmy Carter increased more quickly from February through June 1977 than the same five months this year: 2.2% for Carter, compared with 2.1% for Biden.
Since the late 1970s, the U.S. population has grown by more than 100 million people.

It’s true, though, that the economy is growing rapidly — it expanded at a 6.4% annual rate in the first three months of the year — and is expected to grow this year at the fastest pace since 1984.

Biden is also leaving out the fact that the U.S. economy remains 6.8 million jobs short of its pre-pandemic level, and the unemployment rate is an elevated 5.9%, up from a five-decade low of 3.5% before the pandemic.

Daily Journal.net AP fact-check. 07/21/2021.

President Biden: Yesterday, the United States Senate took the additional step toward passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill. It’s a bill that would end years of gridlock in Washington, and create millions of good-paying jobs, and put America on a new path to win the race for the economy in the 21st century.

The White House posted the following statement:

On my first day in office in January, I directed the Department of Education to pause federal student loan repayments for millions of Americans through September. The pause has been a critical lifeline so they don’t have to choose between paying for basic necessities or their student loan during the pandemic that upended their lives.

As today’s jobs numbers show, we have the tools that will allow us to beat COVID-19 and keep our economy recovering at a record rate. But we know there is more work to do and the road will still be long for many people – especially for the one in six adults and one in three young people who have federal student loans.

That’s why today, my administration is extending the pause on federal student loan repayments one final time until January 31, 2022. This will give the Department of Education and borrowers more time and more certainty as they prepare to restart student loan payments. It will also ensure a smoother transition that minimizes loan defaults and delinquencies that hurt families and undermine our economic recovery.

White House.gov. 08/06/2021.

The U.S. Department of Education released the following press release:

Today, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) announced a final extension of the pause on student loan repayment, interest, and collections until January 31, 2022. The Department believes this additional time and a definitive end date will allow borrowers to plan for the resumption of payments and reduce the risk of delinquency and defaults after restart. The Department will continue its work to transition borrowers smoothly back into repayment, including by improving student loan servicing.

“The payment pause has been a lifeline that allowed millions of Americans to focus on their families, health, and finances instead of student loans during the national emergency,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “As our nation’s economy continues to recover from a deep hole, this final extension will give students and borrowers the time they need to plan for restart and ensure a smooth pathway back to repayment. It is the Department’s priority to support students and borrowers during this transition and ensure they have the resources they need to access affordable, high quality higher education.”

The Department will begin notifying borrowers about this final extension in the coming days, and it will release resources and information about how to plan for payment restart as the end of the pause approaches.

Today’s action is one of a series of steps the Department has taken to support students and borrowers, make higher education more affordable, and improve student loan servicing, including:

ED.gov. 08/06/2021.
  • Approving $1.5 billion in borrower defense claims, including extending full relief to approved claims and approving new types of claims.
  • Reinstating $1.3 billion in loan discharges for 41,000 borrowers who received a total and permanent disability discharge and protecting another 190,000 from potential loan reinstatement.
  • Helping 30,000 small business owners with student loans seeking help from the Paycheck Protection Program.

Just for fun…

Saturday.

Saturday President Biden tweeted 5 times and retweeted 0 times.

The video is 2 minutes and 27 seconds long. I will not be providing a transcript. The video does include captions.

It’s not the best video but the President and First Lady spoke via Zoom to U.S. athletes. The video is 15 minutes and 2 seconds long. Their full remarks can be found here.

We are under so much pressure. Get vaccinated.

See Friday’s Infrastructure Week tweet…

I’m gonna blame Richard for all the music videos….

Sunday. 

Sunday President Biden tweeted 2 times and retweeted 0 times.

Yesterday marked President Biden’s 200th day in Office. According to Google which says today is his 201th day in Office.

In news so far not tweeted…

When I started this section President Biden hadn’t tweeted his climate change thingy, which has once again, put me behind, but since I already started it…

This morning the White House published an Executive Order; on Blocking Property of Additional Persons Contributing to the Situation in Belarus.

I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, hereby expand the scope of the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13405 of June 16, 2006 (Blocking Property of Certain Persons Undermining Democratic Processes or Institutions in Belarus), finding that the Belarusian regime’s harmful activities and long-standing abuses aimed at suppressing democracy and the exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Belarus — including illicit and oppressive activities stemming from the August 9, 2020, fraudulent Belarusian presidential election and its aftermath, such as the elimination of political opposition and civil society organizations and the regime’s disruption and endangering of international civil air travel — constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.

[for more details follow the link].

White House.gov. 08/09/2021.

The White House issued the following letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Dear Madam Speaker: (Dear Madam President:)

Pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), I hereby report that I have issued an Executive Order to expand the scope of the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13405 of June 16, 2006 (Blocking Property of Certain Persons Undermining Democratic Processes or Institutions in Belarus), finding that the Belarusian regime’s harmful activities and long-standing abuses aimed at suppressing democracy and the exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Belarus — including illicit and oppressive activities stemming from the August 9, 2020, fraudulent Belarusian presidential election and its aftermath, such as the elimination of political opposition and civil society organizations and the regime’s disruption and endangering of international civil air travel — constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. The order augments the sanctions designation criteria for current threats to United States national security and foreign policy interests posed by the Belarusian regime. All executive departments and agencies are directed to take all appropriate measures within their authority to implement this order.

I am enclosing a copy of the Executive Order I have issued.

White House.gov. 08/09/2021.

They also published a fact-sheet; Executive Order Imposing Costs on Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Belarusian Authorities for Ongoing Attacks Against Democratic Freedoms, Human Rights, and International Norms.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury is also issuing its largest round of sanctions to date against Belarusian individuals and entities pursuant to E.O. 13405 as well as the E.O. of August 9, 2021, including:

Belaruskali OAO, which is one of Belarus’s largest state-owned enterprises, one of the world’s largest producers of potash, and a source of illicit wealth for the regime;

The Belarusian National Olympic Committee, which is accused of facilitating money laundering, sanctions evasion, and the circumvention of visa bans, and which the International Olympic Committee has publicly reprimanded for its failure to protect Belarusian athletes from political discrimination and repression;

Prominent businesspeople who support the Lukashenka regime as well as fifteen companies with which they are affiliated – including Absolutbank, a private Belarusian bank; and,

Additional entities that operate in the tobacco products, construction, energy, and transportation sectors of the Belarus economy.

White House.gov. 08/09/2021.

And finally President Biden offered the following statement regarding the EO.

One year ago today, the people of Belarus sought to make their voices heard and shape their own future through that most basic expression of democracy—an election. Rather than respect the clear will of the Belarusian people, the Lukashenka regime perpetrated election fraud, followed by a brutal campaign of repression to stifle dissent. From detaining thousands of peaceful protesters, to imprisoning more than 500 activists, civil society leaders, and journalists as political prisoners, to forcing the diversion of an international flight in an affront to global norms, the actions of the Lukashenka regime are an illegitimate effort to hold on to power at any price. It is the responsibility of all those who care about human rights, free and fair elections, and freedom of expression to stand against this oppression. The United States will continue to stand up for human rights and free expression, while holding the Lukashenka regime accountable, in concert with our allies and partners. Toward that end, today, we are issuing a new Executive Order that enhances our ability to impose costs on the regime and announcing new sanctions against Belarusian individuals and entities for their role in attacks on democracy and human rights, transnational repression, and corruption. As I told the leader of the Belarusian opposition, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, we stand with the people of Belarus as they bravely pursue their democratic aspirations.

White House.gov. 08/09/2021.

There does not seem to be a daily briefing from the White House today.

This is an Open Thread.

P.S.

This week is the week that Lindell the crazy pillow weirdo will hold his cyber whatever. In light of that here is a new apparently hot take on GA election results.

It’s never gonna go away…

About the opinions in this article…

Any opinions expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this website or of the other authors/contributors who write for it.

About Tiff 2521 Articles
Member of the Free Press who is politically homeless and a political junkie.