Biden Bits: Americans Helping Each Other…

Biden Tweets Christmas Logo. Image by Lenny Ghoul.

It’s Thursday.

Time and Date.com. Photo taken at 8:30-ish a.m. CA., time.

For Thursday, December 16th, 2021, President has received his daily brief. This afternoon President Biden will award the Medal of Honor; to Sergeant First Class Alwyn C. Cashe, United States Army, Sergeant First Class Christopher A. Celiz, United States Army, and Master Sergeant Earl D. Plumlee, United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry. Late afternoon, President Biden and Vice President Harris will meet with the White House COVID-19 Response team.

December 10th, 2021, the White House posted the following statement; I’m not posting the whole statement.

Sergeant First Class Alwyn C. Cashe will receive the Medal of Honor posthumously for his acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty, while serving as a Platoon Sergeant with Company A, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3d Brigade, 3d Infantry Division in Salah Ad Din Province, Iraq on 17 October 2005, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. 

While on a night-time mounted patrol near an enemy laden village, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle which Sergeant First Class Cashe was commanding, was attacked by enemy small arms fire and an improvised explosive device which disabled the vehicle and caused it to become engulfed in flames.  After extracting himself he set about extracting the driver who was trapped in the vehicle.  After opening the driver’s hatch, Sergeant First Class Cashe and a fellow Soldier extracted the driver, extinguished the flames on him, and moved him to a position of relative safety.  During the course of extinguishing the flames on the driver and extracting him from the vehicle, Sergeant First Class Cashe’s fuel soaked uniform ignited causing severe burns to his body.  He then moved to the rear of the vehicle to continue in aiding his peers who were trapped in the troop compartment.  At this time, the enemy noted his movements and began to direct their fire on his position.  When another element of the company engaged the enemy, Sergeant First Class Cashe seized the opportunity and moved into the open troop door and aided four of his peers in escaping the burning vehicle.  Having extracted the four Soldiers, he noticed two other Soldiers had not been accounted for and he again entered the burning vehicle to retrieve them.  Despite the severe second and third degree burns covering the majority of his body, Sergeant First Class Cashe persevered through the pain to encourage his fellow Soldiers and ensure they received needed medical care.  When medical evacuation helicopters began to arrive, he selflessly refused evacuation until all of the other wounded Soldiers were first evacuated.  Sergeant First Class Cashe’s heroic actions, at the cost of his life, saved the lives of his teammates.

Sergeant First Class Christopher A. Celiz will receive the Medal of Honor posthumously for his acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty while serving as the leader of a special operations unit comprised of partnered forces and members of the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, on July 12, 2018, in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel in Afghanistan.

While deployed to Afghanistan, Sergeant First Class Celiz led an operation to clear an area of enemy forces and thereby disrupt future attacks against Afghan and allied forces.  When a large enemy force attacked, Sergeant First Class Celiz voluntarily exposed himself to intense enemy machine gun and small arms fire to retrieve and employ a heavy weapon system, thereby allowing U.S. and partnered forces to regain the initiative, maneuver to a secure location and begin treatment of a critically wounded partnered force member. As the medical evacuation helicopter arrived, it was immediately engaged by accurate and sustained enemy fire.  Knowing how critical it was to quickly load the casualty, Sergeant First Class Celiz willingly exposed himself to heavy and effective enemy fire to direct and lead the evacuation.  Sergeant First Class Celiz made a conscious effort to ensure his body acted as a physical shield to his team carrying the casualty and the crew of the aircraft.  As the casualty was loaded and Sergeant First Class Celiz’ team returned to cover, he alone remained at the aircraft, returning a high volume of fire and constantly repositioning himself to act as a physical shield to the aircraft and its crew.  Sergeant First Class Celiz then placed himself directly between the cockpit and the enemy, ensuring the aircraft was able to depart.  As the helicopter lifted off, Sergeant First Class Celiz was hit by enemy fire.  Fully aware of his own injury, but understanding the peril to the aircraft from the intense enemy machine gun fire, Sergeant First Class Celiz motioned to the aircraft to depart rather than remain to load him.  His selfless actions saved the life of the evacuated partnered force member and almost certainly prevented further casualties among other members of his team and the aircrew.  Sergeant First Class Celiz died of wounds he received in combat on July 12, 2018 in Paktia Province, Afghanistan. 

Master Sergeant Earl D. Plumlee will receive the Medal of Honor for his acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty on August 28th, 2013, while serving as a Weapons Sergeant, C Company, 4th Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne), in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. 

While deployed to Afghanistan, then-Staff Sergeant Plumlee instantly responded to a complex enemy attack that began with a massive explosion that tore a sixty-foot breach in the base’s perimeter wall.  Ten insurgents wearing Afghan National Army uniforms and suicide vests poured through the breach.  Staff Sergeant Plumlee and five Special Operations members, intent upon defending the base, mounted two vehicles and raced toward the site of the detonation.  The vehicles, now no longer under cover, came under effective enemy fire from the front and right.  Using his body to shield the driver from enemy fire, he instinctively reacted, exiting the vehicle while simultaneously drawing his pistol and engaging an insurgent to the vehicle’s right.  Without cover and with complete disregard for his own safety, he advanced on the superior enemy force engaging multiple insurgents with only his pistol.  Upon reaching cover, he killed two insurgents, one with a well-placed grenade and the other by detonating the insurgent’s suicide vest using precision sniper fire.  Again disregarding his own safety, he left cover and advanced alone against the superior enemy force engaging several combatants at close range, including an insurgent whose suicide vest exploded a mere seven meters from his position.  Undeterred and resolute, he joined a small group of American and Polish Soldiers, who moved from cover to counter-attack the infiltrators.  As the force advanced, he engaged an insurgent to his front left.  The wounded insurgent threw a grenade before detonating his suicide vest.  Staff Sergeant Plumlee then swung around and engaged another insurgent who charged the group from the rear.  The insurgent detonated his suicide vest, mortally wounding a U.S. Soldier. Staff Sergeant Plumlee, with complete disregard for his own safety, ran to the wounded Soldier, carried him to safety, and rendered first aid.  He then organized three Polish Soldiers for defense, methodically cleared the area, remained in a security posture, and continued to scan for any remaining threats. 

White House.gov. 12/10/2021.

The award ceremony is scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. D.C., time.

President Biden has tweeted 2 times so far for Thursday…

His full statement:

Today, we received further evidence that our jobs recovery is one of the strongest ever. The average number of Americans filing for unemployment over the last four weeks is now at its lowest level since 1969. When I took office, over 18 million were receiving unemployment benefits, today only 2 million are. We’ve added nearly six million jobs this year – the most of any first year president in history. That’s good news for the millions of families who are back to work and will have a happier holiday season this year. 
Thanks to the American Rescue Plan, and our successful vaccination program, Americans are back at work at a record-setting pace. And families have more money in their pockets: Americans on average have about $100 more in their pockets each month than they did last year, after accounting for inflation.
Even as we’ve built a historic jobs and economic recovery, addressing rising prices, supply chain challenges, and COVID-19 are my top priorities. We need to continue to take concrete actions to address elevated prices and to lower costs for American families – including by lowering prescription drug costs, health care costs, childcare costs, and housing costs with the Build Back Better plan. And, we need to do everything we can to get as many Americans vaccinated and boosted as possible.

White House.gov. 12/16/2021.

See above…

When Biden Bits was published for Wednesday, President Biden had tweeted 2 times and retweeted 1 time. He added 9 tweets giving him a Wednesday Tweeting Total of 11 tweets and 1 retweet.

The White House posted the following readout:

Today, President Biden and Vice President Harris met with a bipartisan group of 10 newly-elected mayors and mayors-elect to congratulate them on their elections and emphasize the importance they place on strong partnerships with local governments. The President, Vice President, mayors, and mayors-elect discussed implementation of the American Rescue Plan and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to create millions of good-paying jobs and grow the economy from the bottom up. 

Earlier in the day, White House American Rescue Plan Coordinator Gene Sperling provided an overview of the historic ARP resources available to cities, National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy discussed the Administration’s efforts to tackle the climate crisis and make communities more resilient to climate change, and Senior Advisor and Infrastructure Implementation Coordinator Mitch Landrieu also briefed the leaders on delivering results of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The mayors and mayors-elect also met with Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Secretary of Labor Martin Walsh, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge, and Director of White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs Julie Chavez Rodriguez.

Today’s meeting highlighted the strong partnership between this Administration and mayors across the country to deliver critical benefits to communities, invest in the American people, and build America back better. 
Mayors and Mayors-elect participating in today’s meeting included:
        •    Mayor Jim Ross, Arlington, TX 
        •    Mayor-elect Andre Dickens, Atlanta, GA 
        •    Mayor Michelle Wu, Boston, MA 
        •    Mayor Tim Kelly, Chattanooga, TN  
        •    Mayor-elect Justin Bibb, Cleveland, OH 
        •    Mayor-elect Aftab Pureval, Cincinnati, OH  
        •    Mayor-elect Daniel Rickenmann, Columbia, SC 
        •    Mayor-elect Eric Adams, New York City, NY 
        •    Mayor-elect Bruce Harrell, Seattle, WA 
        •    Mayor-elect Ken Welch, St. Petersburg, FL 

White House.gov. 12/14/2021.

On Wednesday the White House COVID-19 response team held a press briefing. The YouTube is 28 minutes and 19 seconds long. Their full remarks can be found here.

Dr. Anthony Fauci: The Omicron variant undoubtedly compromises the effects of a two-dose mRNA vaccine-induced antibodies and reduces the overall protection. However, as I showed on a prior slide, considerable protection still maintains against severe disease. The early in vitro and clinical studies that I mentioned indicate that boosters reconstitute the antibody titers and enhance the vaccine protection against Omicron. And so, finally, our booster vaccine regimens work against Omicron.  At this point, there is no need for a variant-specific booster. And so the message remains clear: If you are unvaccinated, get vaccinated.  And particularly in the arena of Omicron, if you are fully vaccinated, get your booster shot. 

On Wednesday, President Biden traveled to Kentucky to survey the storm damage and receive briefings from local government officials on the deadly tornado outbreaks.

The below YouTube is 17 minutes and 22 seconds long. His full remarks can be found here.

President Biden: But you know what?  It always took a long time.  There’s no reason why it should take any time.  We have the wherewithal to get it done.  And we’re going to get every single thing you need.  And I’m going to make sure the federal government does what’s needed. At the state’s request, four FEMA search and rescue teams are working here in Kentucky right now.  For those without power, FEMA has already provided 61 generators.  The Army Corps of Engineers has temporary power install teams to — ready to assist if needed. And we’ve provided critical supplies thus far and a lot more to come — 144,000 liters of drinking water, 24,000 [sic] meals.  You know, I — I just — 74,000.  And, look — thousands of cots and blankets.  There are seven — seven shelters open in Kentucky, which are now taking care of 300 occupants.  But a lot more is going to occur.

Similar remarks quote to tweet text:

President Biden: And, folks, you know, FEMA has opened Mobile Disaster Recovery Centers in Mayfield and in Dawson Springs.  And it has disaster survivor systems teams on the ground here in Kentucky to help people register for assistance. As I said when I talked to the governor, not only that we’re going to get what you need, we’re going to make sure you know everything’s available, because you don’t always know all that is available — all that is available.  And that’s what we’re going to do. And, folks, you know, if you live in the affected areas, which all of you are standing here watching me do, you know you visit DisasterAssistance.gov — DisasterAssistance.gov or call 1-800-621-FEMA.  That’s 1-800-621-3362.

See above…

Similar remarks quote to text tweet:

President Biden: And, you know, the Governor confirmed there were, I think you said, 74 fatalities so far, Gov, in Kentucky and — and making these among the deadliest tornadoes to ever strike this state. Almost 14 people are confirmed dead in other states, with dozens of people still — still fearful of where they — where they are. I met one of them.  I don’t have permission to use their name, but I met one couple on the way up, said they’re still looking for four of their friends.  They don’t know where they are. And those who have lost someone — there’s no words for the pain of losing someone.  A lot of us know it.  A lot of us understand it, especially around the holidays, when everything is supposed to be happy and joyful.

President Biden: You know, I — I granted the request for the first emergency declaration and the major disaster declaration the moment I received it, because I got to know the Governor’s father, and I knew nothing would come if it wasn’t real.  I mean it.  For real. And, you know, yesterday I also approved an emergency declaration for the state of Illinois and Tennessee.  And I intend to do whatever it takes, as long as it takes — as long as it takes — to support your state, your local leaders, and — as you recover and rebuild, because you will recover and you will rebuild. 

President Biden: I promise you: You’re going to heal.  We’re going to recover.  You’re going to rebuild.  You’re going to be stronger than you were before.  We’re going to build back better than it was. And when I come back, I got one beautiful lady and her husband who promised me a meal.  She’s apparently a hell of a cook, so I’m coming back for the meal. So, thank you, thank you, thank you for being here. And to all of the families here: Keep the faith.  We’re going to get this done.  I promise you, the governor is not walking away.  Your county judge is not walking away.  Your congressman is not walking away.  No one is walking away.  We’re in this for the long haul.


The daily press briefing is scheduled for 3:15 p.m. D.C., time. Today’s guest is; Deputy National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi

This is an Open Thread.

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