It’s Thursday…
When Biden Bits was posted for Wednesday, President Biden had tweeted 2 times. He added 5 tweets giving him a Wednesday Tweeting Total of 7 tweets and 0 retweets…
The EO:
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including chapter 47 of title 10, United States Code (Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. 801-946a), and in order to prescribe amendments to the Manual for Courts-Martial, United States, prescribed by Executive Order 12473 of April 13, 1984, as amended, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Parts II and IV of the Manual for Courts-Martial, United States, are amended as described in the Annex attached to and made a part of this order.
Sec. 2. These amendments shall take effect as of the date of this order, subject to the following:
White House.gov. 01/26/2022.
(a) Nothing in these amendments shall be construed to make punishable any act done or omitted prior to the date of this order that was not punishable when done or omitted.
(b) Nothing in these amendments shall be construed to invalidate any nonjudicial punishment proceeding, restraint, investigation, referral of charges, trial in which arraignment occurred, or other action begun prior to the date of this order, and any such nonjudicial punishment, restraint, investigation, referral of charges, trial, or other action may proceed in the same manner and with the same effect as if these amendments had not been prescribed.
The fact-sheet:
Today, President Biden signed an Executive Order to amend the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which is key to advancing the historic, bipartisan military justice reform he signed into law last month through the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
This Executive Order strengthens the military justice system’s response to gender-based violence, and delivers on key recommendations from the Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military (IRC) that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin launched in March 2021.
This year’s NDAA also included key components of the I Am Vanessa Guillén Act, which honors the memory of Army Specialist Vanessa Guillén, whose experience with severe sexual harassment was followed by her brutal murder, drawing national attention to the scourge of sexual violence in the military. The Guillén family’s leadership and determination in advocating for change underscored the need for military justice reform, including how the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) addresses sexual harassment. The Executive Order that the President signed today establishes sexual harassment as a specific offense under the UCMJ. It also strengthens the military justice response in prosecuting cases of domestic violence, and fully implements changes to the military justice code to criminalize the wrongful broadcast or distribution of intimate visual images.
As this Executive Order goes into effect today, we reaffirm our commitment to advancing the military justice reform that the President signed into law as part of the NDAA, which includes the historic shift of legal decisions from commanders to independent, specialized prosecutors in cases of sexual assault, domestic violence, and other serious crimes. And we honor the courage and leadership of the many survivors and advocates who long fought for these critical changes.
President Biden has long been committed to ending domestic violence, sexual assault, and other forms of gender-based violence, first as a United States Senator, then as Vice President, and now as President and Commander-in-Chief. These efforts have become even more critical during the COVID-19 pandemic, as risk for gender-based violence has increased in the United States and around the world. The important steps we have taken today build on the ongoing efforts of the Biden-Harris Administration to address gender-based violence, wherever it occurs, including by directing $1 billion in supplemental funding through the American Rescue Plan for domestic violence and sexual assault prevention and services, andsigning into law the Amendments to the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA), resulting in an increase of hundreds of millions of dollars of non-taxpayer funding for lifesaving services to crime victims around the country. Today’s Executive Order also reinforces the commitments of the Biden-Harris Administration to supporting survivors by releasing the first-ever National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality in the United States, which identifies gender-based violence prevention and response as a core strategic priority for President Biden. The strategy also names military justice reform as an essential component of elevating gender equality in security processes.
Today marks another turning point for survivors of gender-based violence in the military. Moving forward, the Administration will continue to advance prevention, promote safe and respectful military climates, and strengthen care and support for survivors.
White House.gov. 01/26/2022.
I’ve tried to cover the disappearance, the murder, and the suicide of the killer of Army Specialist Vanessa Guillén. I’ve read so many things now, that my objectivity is gone. Or at least my ability to write how her murder sparked an independent review panel of the dealings at Fort Hood, and how that review panel found…
As part of the command climate, the issues of crime and Criminal Investigation Division (CID) operations were examined. The Committee determined that serious crime issues on and off Fort Hood were neither identified nor addressed. There was a conspicuous absence of an effective risk management approach to crime incident reduction and Soldier victimization. A military installation is essentially a large, gated community. The Commander of a military installation possesses
Army Fort Hood Review. 12/08/2020. (the review’s date is 11/06/2020).
a wide variety of options to proactively address and mitigate the spectrum of crime incidents. Despite having the capability, very few tools were employed at Fort Hood to do so. Both the Directorate of Emergency Services (DES) and the CID have a mandate and a role to play in crime reduction. Each contributed very little analysis, feedback and general situational awareness to the command toward facilitating and enabling such actions. This was another missed opportunity.
ABC News in July of 2020 laid out a timeline of Guillén’s disappearance and murder. Early June 2020 before her remains were found her family took to social media to call attention to the sexual harassment of Guillén.
On July first Lupe Guillén told ABC News; She was afraid to report it. She reported it to her friends. She reported it to her family. She even reported to other soldiers on base, but she didn’t want to do a formal report because she was afraid of retaliation and being blackballed, and she, like most victims, just tried to deal with it herself.
In June just before Guillén’s remains were discovered investigators found the remains of Pvt. Gregory Wedel-Morales; a Fort Hood solider that went missing in August 2019. The Army listed his disappearance as desertion, but are now treating his death as a homicide the investigation into his death, from what I found so far, is still ongoing.
Together, we will get through this.
The problem is we aren’t together in this. I have first hand experience now in coronavirus infections with my family; they are still trying to deny it’s as bad as all that. Not the sick, they feel like dog piles of crap on crap…
But, they still do not believe it’s only coronavirus, that possibly somehow they managed to get something on top of having the rona…
The YouTube is 21 minutes and 11 seconds long. The full remarks can be found here.
At the event he was asked about Justice Breyer’s plans to announce his retirement from the Supreme Court.
The video snip is 34 seconds long.
President Biden: Folks, I’m here with Mary Barra, the Chairman of the Board of General Motors.
Chairman Mary Barra: Mr. President, we are so happy to announce that we would invest $7 billion in the state of Michigan, to further our EV manufacturing, as well as bring our third battery cell plant to the United States. We want to have a portfolio of EV’s so everybody can truly make the transition. So we’re just getting started.
President Biden: I say climate change means jobs, and that’s what you’re proving.
Chairman Mary Barra: And we’re so happy to support your agenda on climate change and getting to an all EV future.
To see more on GM’s announcement check out Biden Bits from Tuesday…
For Thursday, January 27th, 2022, President Biden has received his daily brief. This afternoon he will receive his weekly economic briefing.
President Biden has tweeted 3 times so far for Thursday…
His full statement:
The GDP numbers for my first year show that we are finally building an American economy for the 21st Century, with the fastest economic growth in nearly four decades, along with the greatest year of job growth in American history. And, for the first time in 20 years, our economy grew faster than China’s.
This is no accident. My economic strategy is creating good jobs for Americans, rebuilding our manufacturing, and strengthening our supply chains here at home to help make our companies more competitive.
Today, Americans are finding better jobs with better pay and better benefits. Layoffs are near record lows.Companies are investing in new manufacturing lines and factories here in the United States, with recent announcements of Intel in Ohio and GM in Michigan. We’re making the future in America again.
And, new small business applications have increased by more than 30% since 2019. Americans are dreaming again – believing in themselves and America.We are finally building an American economy for the 21st Century, and I urge Congress to continue this momentum by passing legislation to make America more competitive, bolster our supply chains, strengthen our manufacturing and innovation, invest in our families and clean energy, and lower kitchen table costs.
White House.gov. 01/27/2022.
Snips from the above article:
The U.S. economy grew last year at the fastest pace since Ronald Reagan’s presidency, bouncing back with resilience from 2020′s brief but devastating coronavirus recession.
The nation’s gross domestic product — its total output of goods and services — expanded 5.7% in 2021. It was the strongest calendar-year growth since a 7.2% surge in 1984 after a previous recession. The economy ended the year by growing at an unexpectedly brisk 6.9% annual pace from October through December as businesses replenished their inventories, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.
AP News. 01/27/2022.
The article was not written by Casselman, but I’m going to “gift” the article anyway, cause it has charts and stuff…
Opening-ish snip of the “gift” article…
The figure, which was adjusted for inflation, reflects the growth in gross domestic product — the broadest measure of the goods and services produced. On an annualized basis, the increase for the quarter was 6.9 percent.
New York Times. 01/27/2022.
For the full year, the economic expansion was 5.7 percent, the biggest since 1984 — an impressive feat, though one that also reflects the depth of the damage inflicted by the coronavirus the year before.
Today, we attempt to fill a piercing silence from our past—to give voice to the six million Jews who were systematically and ruthlessly murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, and to remember the millions of Roma, Sinti, Slavs, disabled persons, LGBTQ+ individuals, and political dissidents who were killed during the Shoah. It was a destructive force so unimaginable that it gave rise to an entirely new vocabulary of evil: words like “holocaust,” “genocide,” and “crimes against humanity.” We join with nations of the world to grieve one of the darkest chapters in human history—and to bear witness for future generations so that we can make real our sacred vow: “never again.”
This charge is even more urgent with each passing year, as fewer and fewer survivors remain to share their stories of lives lost and lives rebuilt.
As a child, I first learned of the Holocaust listening to my father at our dining room table. As a father and grandfather, I brought my own family to see its haunting remnants at the Dachau concentration camp. And today, as President, I’ll welcome Bronia Brandman to the Oval Office. A survivor of Auschwitz who lost her parents and four of five siblings, she could not speak of her experiences for half-a-century. Today, she’ll share her story at the White House—and speak for millions who never got the chance.
Today, and every day, we have a moral obligation to honor the victims, learn from the survivors, pay tribute to the rescuers, and carry forth the lessons of last century’s most heinous crime. From the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, to a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, we are continually and painfully reminded that hate doesn’t go away; it only hides. And it falls to each of us to speak out against the resurgence of antisemitism and ensure that bigotry and hate receive no safe harbor, at home and around the world.
We must teach accurately about the Holocaust and push back against attempts to ignore, deny, distort, and revise history—as we did this month, when the United States co-sponsored a UN resolution that charged the international community with combating Holocaust denial through education. We must continue to pursue justice for survivors and their families. And we must ensure that aging survivors have access to the services they need to live out their lives in dignity.
We cannot redeem the past. But, on this day, as we mourn humanity’s capacity to inflict inhuman cruelty, let us commit to making a better future and to always upholding the fundamental values of justice, equality, and diversity that strengthen free societies.
White House.gov. 01/27/2022.
UPDATE:
I know I said I wasn’t going to update, but well, I am, there, I changed my mind again, surprise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
President Biden has added 4 tweets to his already 2 tweets for Thursday…
His full statement:
Health care should be a right, not a privilege, for all Americans. And one year into my Administration, we are making that right a reality for a record number of people—bringing down costs and increasing access for families across the country.
Today, I am proud to announce that since November 1st, 14.5 million Americans have signed up for quality, affordable health coverage, including more than 10 million who enrolled through HealthCare.gov—the highest numbers ever produced in an open enrollment period. New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that one in seven uninsured Americans got covered between the end of 2020 and September 2021, with lower-income Americans gaining coverage at the highest rate.
This did not happen by accident. The American Rescue Plan did more to lower costs and expand access to health care than any action since the passage of the Affordable Care Act. It made quality coverage more affordable than ever—with families saving an average of $2,400 on their annual premiums, and four out of five consumers finding quality coverage for under $10 a month. As a result, millions of our fellow Americans have now gained the security and peace of mind that dependable health insurance brings.
For Americans who live in California, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Washington, DC—places with their own health insurance marketplaces—the opportunity to secure that peace of mind extends through January 31st, and I urge you to take these last few days to sign up for quality, affordable coverage. In the meantime, as long as any American lies awake at night, wondering how they’re going to pay their medical bills, my Administration will keep fighting to lower costs and expand health coverage even more—including through my Build Back Better agenda.
White House.gov. 01/27/2022.
It was short, President Biden nor Justice Breyer took questions…
Added to today’s Presidential schedule…
Update to the schedule:
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) January 27, 2022
12:30 PM THE PRESIDENT delivers remarks on the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer; Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer also attends
I was planning on doing a separate thread for this but…
The daily press briefing is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. D.C., time.
This is an Open Thread.
