It’s Wednesday.
For Wednesday, July, 14th, 2021, President Biden has received his delay brief. This afternoon the President meets with a bipartisan group of Mayors and Governors to discuss the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced via Twitter that President Biden would be crashing the Senate Dems Caucus luncheon this afternoon.
At almost noon, he tweeted a second time. For those keeping track, not named Tiff, that’s 2 tweets for Wednesday now.
It’s 5:48 a.m. CA., time, and President Biden hasn’t tweeted for Wednesday. When Tuesday’s Open Thread was published President Biden had not tweeted. He ended up posting 6 tweets giving him a Tuesday Tweeting Total of 6 tweets and 0 retweets.
His first tweet from Tuesday:
U.S. Mayors.org, issued the following press release.
Today, 369 mayors – including Republicans, Democrats and Independents from all 50 states and the District of Columbia – sent a letter to Congress urging them to take immediate action on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework announced by President Biden and a group of Republican and Democratic Senators on June 24th.
In their letter, the mayors write, “This framework would be the largest long-term investment in our nation’s infrastructure and competitiveness in nearly a century – $1.2 trillion over eight years – to help make our economy more sustainable, resilient, and just. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework is crucial to making meaningful progress on one of the most pressing and unifying challenges facing our country – the need for comprehensive investment in public transportation; roads; bridges; passenger and freight rail; drinking water and wastewater; clean energy and electrification; legacy pollution cleanup; cyber-attack and extreme weather-resiliency; and universal broadband access. Thus, we believe that this framework deserves bipartisan support in the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives.”
In the letter, mayors emphasized two key implementation priorities for the Framework. First, mayors strongly urged that no funding previously signed into law to help cities address the health, public safety and economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic be “clawed back,” repurposed or redirected to help pay for new investments in America’s infrastructure. Second, mayors stressed that federal leaders should continue to empower local leaders by investing in communities through proven delivery systems such as Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants, Community Development Block Grants, and Surface Transportation Block Grants.
U.S. Mayors.org. 07/13/2021.
I omitted publishing the letter, you can find a PDF of the letter here. A copy of the letter is available at the link above.
The rest of his tweets from Tuesday are taken from his remarks regarding voting rights.
The live stream is 29 minutes and 55 seconds. President Biden begins speaking at the 1 minute and 44 second remark. His full remarks can be found here.
President Biden (7:57): For those who challenge the results and question the integrity of the election: No other election has ever been held under such scrutiny and such high standards. The Big Lie is just that: a big lie.
President Biden (11:49): Last month, Republicans opposed even debating, even considering For the People Act. Senate Democrats stood united to protect our democracy and the sanctity of the vote. We must pass the For the People Act. It’s a national imperative. We must also fight for the *John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore and expand–to restore and expand voting protections and prevent voter suppression.
*The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act has not been brought up in this Congress according to Washington Post reporting from June, 8th, 2021. The link is to the bill as it appeared in the 116th Congress.*
President Biden (15:28): This year alone, 17 states have enacted — not just proposed, but enacted — 28 new laws to make it harder for Americans to vote, not to mention — and catch this — nearly 400 additional bills Republican members of the state legislatures are trying to pass. The 21st century Jim Crow assault is real. It’s unrelenting, and we’re going to challenge it vigorously.
President Biden (8:55): In America, if you lose, you accept the results. You follow the Constitution. You try again. You don’t call facts “fake” and then try to bring down the American experiment just because you’re unhappy. That’s not statesmanship. That’s not statesmanship; that’s selfishness. That’s not democracy; it’s the denial of the right to vote. It suppresses. It subjugates. The denial of full and free and fair elections is the most un-American thing that any of us can imagine, the most undemocratic, [not included in the video or tweet text >>] the most unpatriotic, and yet, sadly, not unprecedented.
President Biden has at 10:25 a.m. D.C., time tweeted one time so far for Wednesday.
Yesterday, via Instagram (no, I’m not going to start including his Instagram posts. I can’t learn another social media app!) President Biden and Olivia Rodrigo had this exchange.
For those, like me, who didn’t have a clue who Olivia Rodrigo is, she according to her own website, is a 18 year-old who’s “favorite thing,” is writing songs. Her first published song “All I Want,” was written for a show she acted in and she writes; it was a super cool experience that opened up a lot of doors for me.
Rodrigo has 6 million subscribers to her YouTube Channel.
Her Instagram accounts enjoys a following of 14 million people.
Her Twitter account, not to be left out, by me, sports a following of 1.3 million.
Oh, side note, I have heard this song, on the radio…I had no idea who sang it. It’s called Drivers License.
Her pinned tweet:
So, basically, she’s an internet famous-ish pop star. I’m not knocking her, btw, whatever works to get 20-somethings vaccinated, I’m for.
I’ve lied some more, apparently, I have heard of her, as I’ve heard this song too. Man, I’m terrible at the who sings this song game!
And with that I switch gears…going backward to focus on voting rights. Yesterday, I’m sorry, I can’t remember who I saw post it first, but anyway here’s the tweet.
The replies range from “RIGHT ON DUDE!” to “WTAF” and land somewhere in the middle with several asking the most logical legit question; who gets to decide if someone is “qualified?”
What qualifies someone to vote?
Their party?
Their race?
Their property ownership?
Their sex?
We can hate it, I do, mostly, but it’s not my choice, it’s their vote to use poorly or for the better which is of course subjective. We can vote for a dude that drivers a Tesla, and that’s our only reason. Or I can vote for Kevin McCarthy’s opponent only because they are challenging McCarthy. Our right to vote, such as it is, shouldn’t be denied simply because you don’t like how someone votes.
I went to his Twitter account to see if he’d followed up and he did with this one…
*climbs up on soap box*
Now, here’s my opinion, obviously, it’s just mine and mine alone…
The Voter ID argument is dumb, it’s the silliest fucking thing ever.
Why do I feel it’s the silliest fucking thing ever?
Well, here’s a little dirty secret the agenda driven nutfucks on both sides are not telling you, the masses, who are arguing that having a Voter ID is good/bad.
We already have them.
They are either your: Drivers License, State issued ID or in some cases, a Military ID.
I know, shocking right, here we are with Google a free damn service and nobody can Google “what ID is required to vote in CA, in AL, in GA”, because guess the fuck what, an ID is required in all those states, with exceptions made in rare cases, where a person can attest to their ID through court papers. (Which I might add are harder to obtain than a damn ID, but I digress).
How do I know?
I was once a “WE NEED VOTER ID” loud ass obnoxious person who was missing the point of this debate, like so many fucking other things, it is so we stay divided and pissed off.
The argument made, long ago, in a land time forgot called the early 2000’s, was that a second Voting Only ID, should be required every time we vote. That’s back when I consumed no other news than Fox News, it’s where I sought all my information.
It’s framed by the Right assholes as being something that must happen to ensure our elections are free, fair, and legit.
It’s framed by the Left assholes as being something that must not happen because poor people, old people, and generally welling meaning slow people, can’t somehow get this ID.
It’s not a mysterious second ID, it’s the ID you already use for voting.
So, by Matt’s very own standards in his first tweet shared, nobody on his second tweeted shortly after the first tweet should be allowed to vote because they can’t fucking Google.
Disclosure: I spent a whole weekend during the peak of the Election Rigged Twice Impeached 45’s stupid tweets, Googling states requirements, going to each states Secretary of State’s Office or their election office. Now, it can get weedy in-so-far, as some states allow counties or their cities to set the rules for elections, which means the verification process for voters varies. But by and large the one thing that was already a thing was you had to prove you were who you said you were and that you could legally vote in that state by showing your ID or court obtained documents.
*climbs off soap box*
The White House press briefing is scheduled to start at 12:30 p.m. D.C., time. It’s likely she’ll face questions on Cuba, and the situation in Haiti. The White House has published a fact-sheet regarding American assistance to Haiti this morning.
This is an Open Thread.
