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10 Amazing Things Biden Did This Week: Saturday's GNR [1]
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Date: 2022-10-08
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10 Great Things Biden Did This Week
1. Biden Pardoned Thousands Convicted of Marijuana Possession Under Federal Law
The move represents a fundamental change in America’s response to a drug that has been at the center of a clash between culture and policing for more than a half-century.
2. Biden called on Governors to do the same for state charges
x Second: I’m calling on governors to pardon simple state marijuana possession offenses. Just as no one should be in a federal prison solely for possessing marijuana, no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason, either. — President Biden (@POTUS) October 6, 2022
3. Biden is asking the AG to review how pot is classified
x Third: We classify marijuana at the same level as heroin – and more serious than fentanyl. It makes no sense. I’m asking @SecBecerra and the Attorney General to initiate the process of reviewing how marijuana is scheduled under federal law. — President Biden (@POTUS) October 6, 2022
x President Biden is asking the HHS Secretary and the Attorney General to "expeditiously" review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law.
Currently, marijuana is classified as a Schedule I narcotic. Heroin and LSD are other Schedule I drugs. — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 6, 2022
4. Biden brought comfort (and cash) to the people of Florida
x We will be with the people of Florida every step of the way. pic.twitter.com/Yj1sSj5UOd — President Biden (@POTUS) October 6, 2022
5. And to Puerto Rico
x The main story out of Puerto Rico was the storm.
But there’s another story – what ordinary people did when the storm hit. pic.twitter.com/CaKeADnHNU — President Biden (@POTUS) October 4, 2022
Biden to announce $60M to bolster flood protections in Puerto Rico
President Joe Biden will visit the hard-hit Ponce region of Puerto Rico on Monday and announce more than $60 million in funds from the bipartisan infrastructure law to build up the island’s defenses against future storms. The funding will aim to shore up levees, strengthen flood walls and create a new flood warning system to better prepare Puerto Rico for future storms, according to a White House official.
6. Brought high tech jobs manufacturing jobs to the US
x Today, President Biden toured IBM in Poughkeepsie, New York. Because of the groundbreaking CHIPS and Science Act, America’s future will be built at this factory and other factories across the U.S. pic.twitter.com/kth9VrupuG — The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 6, 2022
IBM to invest $20 billion in New York's Hudson Valley region over 10 years
International Business Machines Corp. said Thursday it will host President Joe Biden later Thursday for a tour of its Poughkeepsie, NY site as it announced plans to invest $20 billion in the Hudson Valley region over the next 10 years. "The goal of the investments, which will be strengthened by close collaboration with New York State, is to expand the vibrant technology ecosystem in New York to unlock new discoveries and opportunities in semiconductors, computers, hybrid cloud, artificial intelligence and quantum computers," the company said in a statement. IBM has more than 7,500 jobs located across the Hudson Valley. The company said it will directly benefit from Biden's CHIPS and Science Act, which will ensure a secure supply of next-generation chips for its computers and AI platforms. Poughkeepsie is home to IBM's first Quantum Computation Center.
7. Biden announced new steps to make sure that women are able to control their own bodies
x The Biden-Harris Administration has announced new steps to affirm women’s rights and access to reproductive health care services. pic.twitter.com/EHYeGl9Ugo — The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 5, 2022
8. Biden presented a comprehensive plan to end hunger
x The Biden-Harris Administration envisions a future where no one in America goes hungry.
The White House National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health will help get us there by 2030. pic.twitter.com/V3HV2SUrRW — The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 2, 2022
9. News came out about a Biden public health success story
By late February 2021, Mosley was able to use his political contacts to alert the Biden administration to his clinic’s lack of vaccines. His plea for help arrived when White House aides, then in their first weeks in office, were looking for ways to narrow the racial gap in vaccinations. “The natural social history of many diseases is that they tend toward inequality, unless you intentionally combat it,” said Dr. Cameron Webb, a pandemic adviser in the Biden administration. The Trump administration had seemed uninterested in combating those inequities, leaving it up to states. President Biden made closing the gaps a priority. “We built our Covid response with equity at the heart of it,” Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff, told me. The administration diverted some vaccine doses from state stockpiles directly to community health clinics. It created a working group across agencies to spread successful ideas. It put federal clinics in Black and Latino neighborhoods. It also helped local organizations set up clinics at churches, barbershops and beauty salons. “In more affluent communities,” Webb said, “people had choices about where they felt confident getting vaccinated.” In the spring of 2021, several months into the mass vaccination program, white Americans were significantly more likely to have been vaccinated than Black or Latino Americans. By late 2021, the Hispanic rate was higher than the white rate, and the Black rate was almost as high as the white rate, according to the C.D.C. As a result, the racial gap in death rates has also disappeared. That disappearance is arguably one of Biden’s biggest accomplishments — one that would not have happened, to be clear, without passionate advocacy and hard work by many community health officials. In a country with deep racial inequities, where Covid was initially another tragic example, the virus is no longer disproportionately harming Black and Hispanic Americans.
10. Biden Restored Arts Commission Dissolved Under Trump
President Biden on issued an executive order re-establishing the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, an advisory board that was dissolved five years ago after its members resigned in protest over President Donald J. Trump’s reaction to the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va.
We Can Win (with hard work)
Cook Political shifts House ratings in 10 races, most in Democrats’ favor
The Cook Political Report on Wednesday changed the ratings of 10 House races, with seven shifting in Democrats’ favor and three moving toward Republicans. “Historically, it’s rare that so many race ratings shift toward the president’s party in a midterm year,” Wasserman wrote. “But, keep in mind: because of redistricting, we didn’t issue initial ratings for most seats until President Biden and Democrats were at something of a low point. Now that we’ve seen marginal improvement in Biden’s approval and an uptick in Democrats’ enthusiasm, it makes sense their outlook looks brighter in a few races.”
Abrams outraises Kemp by $8M in last three months
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams outraised Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) by close to $8 million in the previous quarter of fundraising. Abrams’s campaign reported on Friday that between her official campaign and her One Georgia Leadership Committee, she raised $36.3 million in the third quarter of fundraising. In comparison, Kemp raised $28.7 million from his campaign and PAC combined.
Newt Gingrich stepped in to defend Herschel Walker. It didn’t go well.
Gingrich’s defense of Walker – who has repeatedly denied the allegations reported by the Daily Beast, which CNN has not independently verified – may have actually done more harm than good. “I think he’s the most important Senate candidate in the country because he’ll do more to change the Senate just by the sheer presence, by his confidence, by his deep commitment to Christ, by the degree to which he has – you know, he’s been through a long, tough period,” Gingrich said during an appearance on Fox News on Tuesday. “He had a lot of concussions coming out of football, he suffered PTSD.” This is not a good defense. Not because concussions are not a serious issue, but because seemingly attributing them to problems in Walker’s life is a stretch.
The truth Republicans don’t want to admit about Herschel Walker
Herschel Walker held a press conference on Thursday, ostensibly to quiet the furor that has engulfed his campaign since the Daily Beast reported that he had paid for a woman’s abortion after the two conceived a child while they were dating in 2009. It didn’t go well. Walker again denied that he paid for the abortion. “This here, the abortion thing, is false. It’s a lie,” the Georgia Republican Senate nominee said after a campaign event. But earlier in the day, during an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Walker said of the allegation: “if that had happened, I would have said it, ‘cause there’s nothing to be ashamed of there.” So…
The GOP should never have bet on Herschel Walker
The October surprise involving Herschel Walker, the Republican nominee in Georgia’s US Senate race, has upended the political landscape, throwing one of the nation’s closest midterm races into turmoil five weeks before Election Day, but it never had to be this way. Just as there should not be two Democrats representing a center-right state like Georgia in the US Senate, the Republican Party should not have found its chance of regaining a Senate majority hanging on an untested and unproven first-time candidate.
Two decades after playing ‘spoiler,’ Ralph Nader fights for Democrats
For first time in his 88 years, Ralph Nader is campaigning for the Democrats, not against them. earlier this year, Nader got together with Mark Green, a left-wing former Democratic politician from New York, and about 20 progressive activists, writers and academics, to form an organization called Winning America, which just produced a lengthy set of recommendations for Democrats titled “Crushing the GOP, 2022.”
Democrats ramp up spending in North Carolina Senate race
Democrats are ramping up their spending in North Carolina's Senate race, where former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley is taking on GOP Rep. Ted Budd. Senate Majority PAC, a super PAC aligned with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, is reserving an additional $4 million in TV ads in the race, according to spending figures shared first with NBC News. The two-week ad reservation will begin next week and the additional spending brings the group's investment in the race to $10.5 million.
Weak rural turnout could hurt GOP in November
The Democratic Party’s newest star has an unlikely group to thank for his upset victory: rural voters. Rep. Pat Ryan prevailed in a close race over his Republican opponent in an August special election in upstate New York in part because rural voters came out to the polls at lower rates than voters in more populated places in his bellwether congressional district. A POLITICO analysis of turnout data before and after Roe v. Wade was struck down in June shows that voters in rural counties were less motivated to cast ballots than those in more Democratic-leaning suburbs and cities after the Supreme Court decision. Though special elections are not a crystal ball, that could spell potential trouble for the GOP if the trend continues to the midterms in November, because rural voters, who overwhelmingly supported former President Donald Trump, are a key constituency for Republican candidates.
Want to help?
We have an opportunity for your money to really make a difference — it will go to races that we care about, have a chance at winning, and where your dollars will make a difference.
Here is the link:
Promising News in for Ukraine
An explosion tore through the sole bridge linking the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula to Russia
An explosion tore through the sole bridge linking the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula to Russia, collapsing a part of the span into the sea and imperiling a primary supply route for Russian troops fighting in the south of Ukraine. The 12-mile-long Kerch Strait Bridge is a cherished political project of President Vladimir V. Putin and had become a potent symbol of the claims that Mr. Putin makes to the peninsula, which his forces illegally seized from Ukraine in 2014. Mr. Putin presided over the opening of the bridge in 2018, personally driving a truck across. The extent of the damage was difficult to immediately assess, though any impediment to traffic on the bridge could have a profound effect on Russia’s ability to wage war in southern Ukraine. Videos showed the railroad burning and two of four lanes of roadway collapsed into the Black Sea, where waves lapped the asphalt. The bridge is the principal military supply route linking Russia with the Crimean Peninsula. Without it, the Russian military will be severely limited in its ability to bring fuel, equipment and ammunition to its units fighting an increasingly intense battle for the control of southern Ukraine.
‘They Are in a Panic’: Ukraine’s Troops Size Up the Enemy
After months of static fighting and holding the line under withering Russian artillery barrages, Ukrainian soldiers are exulting over their smashing of Russian lines in the northeast three weeks ago, and their recapturing of swaths of territory seized by Russian troops earlier this year. They have almost retaken the whole of Kharkiv Province, as well as territory in each of the four regions that President Vladimir V. Putin claims to have annexed for Russia. There has been little time for reflection for the Ukrainians as they press their counterattack, focused on keeping the pressure on the retreating Russian army to prevent it from regrouping. Yet after months in the trenches never seeing the faces of the enemy, Ukrainian soldiers and commanders have now engaged the Russians up close and gotten a chance to size up their opponent. “We have the strength to do this,” Swat said. “Because right now they are in panic, they really are in panic.”
Morale is plummeting in Putin’s private army as Russia’s war in Ukraine falters
While problems of supply and morale, as well as allegations of war crimes have been well documented among regular Russian troops, the existence of similar crises among Wagner mercenaries, often described as President Vladimir Putin’s off-the-books shock troops, is a dire omen for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Putin’s dream is headed towards an inglorious end
Russian President Vladimir Putin had a plan to seize Ukraine quickly. Those plans dissolved from the first days of the Russians’ invasion with their failure to capture Kyiv. Putin’s problems have only deepened in recent days with the surging Ukrainian counteroffensive that has seized key pockets of Russian-controlled territory, such as the transportation hub city of Lyman. The timing couldn’t have been worse. Putin lost Lyman just as he was publicly declaring that the Donetsk region – in which Lyman sits – was now annexed by Russia. At home, Putin is also facing growing criticism from Russians on both the left and the right, who are taking considerable risks given the draconian penalties they can face for speaking out against his “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Putin confronted by insider over Ukraine war, U.S. intelligence finds
A member of Vladimir Putin’s inner circle has voiced disagreement directly to the Russian president in recent weeks over his handling of the war in Ukraine, according to information obtained by U.S. intelligence. The criticism marks the clearest indication yet of turmoil within Russia’s leadership over the stewardship of a war that has gone disastrously wrong for Moscow, forcing Putin last month to order the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of troops in a desperate bid to reverse recent battlefield losses. The information was deemed significant enough that it was included in President Biden’s daily intelligence briefing and shared with other U.S. officials, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.
Other Good News
US breast cancer rate drops 43% in three decades
he study published this week in the CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians finds that in total, the death rate dropped by 43% within three decades, from 1989 to 2020, translating to 460,000 fewer breast cancer deaths during that time.
x The Supreme Court has left in place a ban on bump stocks — devices that essentially allow shooters to fire semiautomatic rifles continuously with one pull of the trigger. — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 3, 2022
On the Lighter Side
x Q: What's the difference between asylum seekers and Alan Dershowitz?
A: Asylum seekers are still served food on Martha's Vineyard. — Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) October 7, 2022
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Here is the link:
Let’s put our money where it will make a huge, huge difference!
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For one night only, you don't have to choose.
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