Rachel Levine got bipartisan support in her confirmation! That's a great step forward.

I never understood the appeal of cruises, even before the pandemic. But I hate being around people, so guess I'm not in the demo.

And Biden seems to be a pretty middling president, so far. Not going to take meaningful action on student debt, apparently deporting more people than even Donald Trump...but hey, he did something superficial like put a trans person as head of DHHS, so kudos? He is handling the pandemic better than Trump, but not like that is hard to do. Like, just acknowledging that people have died from it would be more than Trump has done lol.

"And Biden seems to be a pretty middling president, so far. Not going to take meaningful action on student debt, apparently deporting more people than even Donald Trump..."

OK Champ, so if you were president and you had no respect for the separation of powers and you could take whatever executive action you felt like taking as if you were a king, what would you do about student debt? And how many people would you be deporting?

@3,

The COVID relief bill is one of the most progressive pieces of legislation since FDR's New Deal. And he got it done in less than 60 days, despite a hostile group of fascists trying everything they could to block it.

I wonder how many pro lifers in VA oppose the death penalty repeal?

No need to cross out "southern" Jasmyne. Multiple adjectives can modify "Virginia", separated by commas.

Journalists need to stop saying that someone was killed by a vehicle. The driver killed that cyclist. Even if it was unintentional, even if there was nothing the driver could have done. If someone was on a shooting range and another person ran in front of them and got shot, you wouldn't just say they were killed by a gun. Same should apply when people kill someone with their thousand pound driving machine.

Biden: significantly better than "middling." Example: he directed that some extra doses of the COVID vaccine be donated to Canada and Mexico. A simple, humane gesture that saves many lives, costs us very little, and helps build tons of good will. How many "America First" nationalists would have even considered this, much less done it? Another example: immediately after his inauguration having the US rejoin the Paris Accord on climate change. There is no good reason for Trump to have pulled us out of it. Now, Biden might not have handled the immigration/southern border situation as well as he might have. But he's addressing the problems, and, no matter what Governor Ducey thinks, Biden's assigning Kamala Harris to work on improving the situation is shrewd. She has the power, prestige, and experience to get things done, and she'll be hugely motivated to show she's up to the task. I like Biden's political instincts, his sense of fairness, how he delegates responsibility. And I'm glad he, not Trump, would be responsible for nominating a successor to any Supreme Court judge who vacates the Court. So, on balance, I'm glad Joe is president, and I think he's doing a good, solid job--better than middling. And, sure, we can endlessly nitpick and harp and sneer and patronize and find this and that to complain about. But there is also lots to praise. Thanks, Joe and Kamala.

"... adjectives can modify "Virginia", separated by commas."

long as we're On the Subject
do you know Where your*
comma goes? hint:
it's ez

*no, not Mine

It looks like a lot of major news sources are reporting that VA is the first Southern state to abolish the death penalty, but I believe they are incorrect and Jasmyne got it right by changing it to former Confederate states. "South" and "Confederacy" are not identical terms.

In the South, West Virginia abolished the death penalty in 1965(!) and Maryland abolished it in 2013.

Here's one listing of the status of the death penalty in the states and DC.

https://deathpenalty.procon.org/states-with-the-death-penalty-and-states-with-death-penalty-bans/

Biden was the politician that gave us the drug war that incarcerated thousands of POC and led to a vast increase in the prison population. Kamala Harris, as a prosecutor, incarcerated numerous poor people of color as punishment due to their children's truancy. She also kept many Black men from being released on their release dates because of their prison labor.

The U.S. destructive meddling in other countries affairs has led to the border problem whereby people, including children, have and are fleeing for their lives. This government is responsible for the overthrow of a democratic government in Honduras for example, which led to a far right dictatorship causing many to flee for their lives. Recently, the Biden administration bombed Syrian civilians aiding Saudi Arabia and Israel. We have a severe refugee crisis and the U.S. government's hands are very, very, dirty. We need to get out of these occupations and invasions much of which are land grabs and resources grabs.

There is much work to do as indicated by my previous comment. Thank you.

bwclark @12, this is a great comment. As Americans, we are inured to motor vehicle deaths. But we don't have to be. We have the power to change.

Same song as COVID and gun violence.

@17: What does the phrase "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good" mean to you?

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-03-08-revealed-the-uk-supported-the-coup-in-bolivia-to-gain-access-to-its-white-gold/
Here is an interesting article on the UK meddling in Bolivia's affairs over lithium. C'mon Stranger writers - is the US doing the same? Hmmm...

With Trump out of office, the Press Corpse is already hurting on the revenue side.

In today's performance, Biden looked good ... but the press made themselves look deserving of every insult Trump ever threw at them.

In time, they might get their game back.

Then again,they might not.

@12 and @26 don't understand journalism.

Journalism is about telling the facts. It's not about conforming to a style to fit a political narrative. Conventional wisdom and obvious reality deserve to be utilized to save headline space and words.

Some stories just feel cheap. Like the story of Cuomo getting some tests for his family.

With both cars and guns, it's helpful to consider the "but for..." test. Would the victim be alive but for ...

@27,
You think journalism has no political narrative?

lolwut?

@30: Of course, in the opinion section.

Just because people use guns as a weapon far more frequently than using cars as weapon, doesn't require every automobile accident to explicitly call out the driver when the subject of the story is a large vehicle where the bicyclist may not have been seen.

There is still simple tragedy in this world, without malevolence.

Nice response on @24 Professor ... Completely agree. Perspectives, context, and social norms matter when looking back on previous events. Was it the best law ... No. Were Biden and others generally trying to help people in need, Yes.

and in other News:

Coca-Cola threatened with boycott for not opposing Georgia voting bills

Georgia activists are planning to launch a boycott of Coca-Cola Co., one of Atlanta's largest and most well-known companies, over its apparent refusal to denounce a GOP-backed bill in the Georgia legislature that would limit voter access.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/coca-cola-threatened-with-boycott-for-not-opposing-georgia-voting-bills/ar-BB1eXKSm?li=BB141NW3&ocid=DELLDHP

hit 'em in the pocketbook
it's where they'll Feel it most

but Why drink carbonated
sugar water anyways

Biden hasn't been in office 100 days yet and has done more than Trump, the tantrum tweeting toddler did (FOR the people, not to DESTROY the people) his entire time squatting in the WH (with the exception of robbing the American people blind - Trump will always be the president who robbed the American public of the most money for his own personal benefit, until the end of time). Biden's dogs are better residents of the WH than Trump and his maladministration were (and that includes the dog biting incident). I will wait until Biden's term is over to consider how I feel about him as POTUS.

36 - So I was young newly promoted Patrol Sergeant in 1993-94, and I attended community meetings in neighborhoods that were almost exclusively black. People not only wanted the bill (or something like it), they demanded it of their representatives, which is why the CBC supported it...mostly. People at these meetings also demanded we (the cops) be aggressive; they wanted that and would argue with us when we tried to tamp down that ardor by talking about restrictions due to civil rights issues.

As to out of control crime, that wasn't propaganda. In Dallas, we were having 400-500+ murders a year then; they've been having 130-150 a year over the last 15-20 years now. Murder is an index crime that generally tells you what the rate of other offense is, too, and they were also 2-3 times higher then than now.

It was the era of people hiding their kids in bathtubs during neighboring drive-by shootings. I actually had a couple calls where the neighbors literally did that! Now, they may have heard that on the news and thought it was an awesome idea, but still... We were dealing with all that and a much higher load of calls for service with 1/2 the officers they have now. The crime bill allowed PD's to expand when they needed to, so as to address that.

Now, a lot was done wrong, a lot could have been done better, and we're now at a place where it's safe to scale back on PD size, but as you said, Biden...and everyone else that voted for the bill...were simply responding to a shit-ton of demand from a mass of justifiably scared constituents at the time. Young people who criticize him now ignore that fact.

Smart people evolve in their thinking, and their appreciation of how to resolve a crisis evolves, and they change their stance as new information becomes available. I haven't seen anything to indicate Biden hasn't experienced all of those things with respect to the crime bill, crime, incarceration, etc. I fell like he still has some drug-warrior tendencies, but he is older, and maybe it's not reasonable to expect a complete purge of old ideas...but a significant purge is still good.

@37: "a mass of justifiably scared constituents"

Yes, that is far more accurate than "a mass of NIMBY racist pearl clutchers" that typically characterizes them on Slog.

@37 - I don't get your meaning. Are you say Sloggers would refer to the constituents as you described? If so, I don't think so, because I thought I was clear that the constituents I was referring to were those of predominately black communities in our cities.

@39: Oh no, you were quite clear that you're referring to all Americans sick of the violence and destruction. And of course that includes our Black communities.

@39: Ok if you were just referring to 1994 era - then I was wrong.