Social Reform

President Joe Biden After One Year: A Grade Of B!

Ronald 1 Comment

Nearly one year has passed since the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States.

After one year, an honest assessment would give Biden a B grade, due to the incomplete nature of his agenda, but with hope for further progress in 2022, despite nearly united Republican Party opposition.

What has the Biden Presidency accomplished?

!. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, a $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill, in the midst of the COVID 19 Pandemic
2. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, promoting massive efforts to deal with physical infrastructure projects that are sorely needed.
3. Accomplishing the vaccinations of 61.7 percent of the American people to deal with the COVID 19 Pandemic.
4. The appointment and confirmation of 40 federal judges in his first year, despite Republican Party opposition, the most such appointments in the first year of a Presidency since Ronald Reagan’s first year 40 years ago.
5. Major progress on promotion of the environment and conservation, including canceling oil and gas leases and emphazing the climate agenda to fight global warming and climate change.
6. Promotion of people of varying backgrounds in Presidential appointments in all areas of government, including his Cabinet members and other positions of authority and influence.
7.Lowering of unemployment to 4.2 percent, while more than 6 million jobs have been created, an all time high for the first year of a Presidency.
8. Restoring good relations with our allies, including the NATO nations, and Pacific partners.
9. Bringing back dignity and class to the White House, including the First Lady, and the President’s own character, which includes compassion, decency, empathy, and sincerity.
10. Promoting massive social reform regarding children, the elderly, immigration, criminal justice, women’s rights, gay rights, protection of voting rights, and health care advancement, all this in limbo at the moment, but hopefully much of it accomplished in 2022!
11. Standing up for human rights and against authoritarianism worldwide.
12. Making clear that a thorough investigation and accountability for the January 6, 2021 Insurrection is a priority in 2022.

There is so much more that could be listed, but it is clear Joe Biden has had a moderately successful first year, and that the potential for a rise from a B grade is very likely in 2022!

What Might Have Been: Chief Justice Samuel Alito!

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In Jully 2005, shortly after Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor announced her retirement, President George W. Bush announced John Roberts as his choice as her replacement on the Supreme Court.

The hearings were scheduled for early September, but two days before the hearings began, Chief Justice William Rehnquist died, and overnight, Bush decided to switch Roberts to be the appointee for Chief Justice, and later selected Samuel Alito to replace O’Connor!

The course of history was changed dramatically by this, ever more so now after Chief Justice Roberts authored the majority opinion on the Affordable Care Act, better known as ObamaCare!

Samuel Alito has proved to be a right wing extremist on the Supreme Court, joining with Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, and often called “Scalito” by critics. He also is the Justice who mouthed “not true” after the CItizens United Case decision, when President Obama, in the State of the Union speech a few days later, openly criticized that decision to the faces of the Supreme Court, while the other Justices, including Roberts, sat stone faced, which was the professional way to behave, but not for Alito!

The leader of the Court knows the Court is in his name, and that he must think of history, and Chief Justice Roberts knows that well, and has shown his statesmanship on this health care case, realizing no major decision of the Court since 1937 has repudiated a major social reform law passed by Congress.

Justice Alito is NOT a statesman, far from it, and rather is in many ways a disgrace–a narrow minded, hostile, nasty representative of the agenda of the Far Right, who if he had any ethics, would resign from the Court, but preceded by Scalia and Thomas, the two worst Justices of the past half century on the Court!