Friday, August 21, 2020
THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION - OVERVIEW
THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION
STARTS MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 2020
- Democratic Convention Home Page:
- Platform draft:
- Most memorable quote: "My father had no pre-existing conditions, except that he trusted Trump; and it cost him his life."
- Bernie Sanders gave an earnest, effective description of the worst failures of the Trump Presidency, including the failure to deal with COVID-19 health or economic issues effectively.
- Several important Republicans, including Governor Kasich, endorsed Biden.
- Michelle Obama gave an emotional and pointed speech, naming Trump for his inability to fulfill the requirements of the job of President, saying "it is what it is", throwing back at Trump an expression that epitomized the President's lack of empathy when Trump used it to dismiss the toll of COVID-19. She also strongly declared that if Trump is re-elected, "it" -- the negative consequences of Trump's inability to handle the job of President -- "will get worse".
TWO SIDE NOTES: While the Democrats were convening...
- Steve Bannon was indicted for fraud.
- Bannon is the second Trump campaign Chairman (after Paul Manafort) to be indicted.
- The Republican led Senate Intelligence Committee released its (almost 1,000 page) report confirming the findings of the Mueller Report.
- The report:
***
2020-08-18 (TUE AUG 18, 2020)
Day 2
2020-08-18 (TUE AUG 18, 2020)
Day 2
- Joseph R Biden was officially selected to be the official nominee of the Democratic Party.
- The polling of the states was a surprisingly interesting tour of the United States, and the varieties of scenic locations, people, genders, sizes, languages, ages and styles of our Country.
- There was a chilling section on the horrors of the Pandemic,
- and a frightening segment on the dangers to our country of Trump's disregard of the rule of law and his preference for the leaders of Russia, China, North Korea, and other anti-democratic leaders over our allies.
- There were emotional and compelling personal descriptions of Vice President Biden and his wife and family.
- There was a strong emphasis on his empathy for the common man, and his experience and strength in dealing with foreign and domestic issues, and his ability to work with Republicans.
- (In fact, he was nominated to be the Presidential Candidate by an elevator operator he had gotten to know.)
- There was a powerful segment on his friendship with Republican John McCain.
- There were fine, short addresses by President Clinton, Colin Powell (speaking for the first time at a Democratic Convention), and others.
- The evening was capped by an emotional address from the former 'Second Lady', Dr. Jill Biden (who was a full-time teacher throughout the Obama-Biden administration) from an empty classroom.
***
2020-08-19 (WED AUG 19, 2020)
Day 3
- Kamala Harris was officially selected to be the Democratic Party candidate for Vice President of the United States
- President Barack Obama gave an unprecedented, stern warning that President Trump has been a failed President, who is shaking the foundations of our democracy, and could destroy it if he is given another term.
- It is unusual for a President to directly condemn the actions of his successor.
- It is similarly unusual that President Bush, the last GOP President, will probably not attend the GOP convention next week.
- Some quotes from Obama's speech:
- "I want to talk as plainly as I can about the stakes in this election. Because what we do these next 76 days will echo through generations to come."
- "...we should ... expect a president to be the custodian of this democracy. We should expect that regardless of ego, ambition, or political beliefs, the president will preserve, protect, and defend the freedoms and ideals that so many Americans marched for and went to jail for; fought for and died for."
- "I never expected that my successor would embrace my vision or continue my policies. I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously; that he might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care.
- But he never did.
- For close to four years now, he has shown no interest in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends" .
- President Obama also strongly endorsed Biden, and described how and why Biden is uniquely experienced and qualified to do a good job as President.
- Kamala Harris ended the evening with a mostly personal address that introduced herself to the American people.
- In one section, toward the ending climax of her speech, her words reminded me of echos from the famous St. Crispin's Day Speech in Shakespeare's Henry V, as she spoke about the singular importance of working together to elect Biden.
2020-08-20 (THU AUG 20, 2020)
Day 4
- Presidential candidate Joe Biden gave a strong address.
- The whole evening, and much of the convention contrasted his genuine caring for people with the callous disregard Trump has shown for victims of COVID-19, or for anyone who does not flatter him. Biden has had tragedy in his life, and he has been genuine about caring for everyone he meets who needs comforting.
- On the Colbert show, a few weeks ago, Jon Stewart remarked that he had had doubts about Biden for a while, but he had concluded that Biden's ability to understand grief, to help Americans mourn for 170 thousand deaths, is what the country needs now.
- Biden stressed that he would be a President for ALL Americans. (Emphasis his.)
- With respect to policy it was conventional, stressing the critical issues that are currently being ignored. And he promised to base his actions as President on truth and expert advice. (It's odd to have to even say that as something different.)
- As a whole, the online convention was strikingly successful, carrying out themes, showing us ordinary Americans, remaining interesting and, despite a few technical glitches (unsurprising to anyone who has been Zoom-ing over the Internet lately -- my own Internet died today while I was getting ready for the convention), working with almost Broadcast precision, over 8+ hours of programming
- I've attended a convention, and watched many on television. The excitement of a politically enthusiastic crowd when you are there in person is more thrilling than a rock concert. This televised event with a distributed convention was not the same as being there in-person, but it was much better, I think, than watching other people attending a conventional convention.
Labels: Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, Democratic Convention 2020, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris
Monday, March 22, 2010
HEALTH CARE!
The House of Representatives passed a health care bill by a vote of 219-212 and sent a reconciliation change bill to the Senate by a vote of 220-211.
The path of the legislation though Congress was circuitous.
1 - A health care bill was passed in the House.
2 - A different bill, HR 3590, was amended and then approved by the Senate.
2 - The Senate Bill went back to the House where it was approved 219-212, along with "reconciliation" changes 220-211.
3 - The reconciliation changes, HR 4872, must go back to the Senate for approval.
By Senate rules, reconciliation changes are approved by a majority vote and are not subject to a filibuster, which would require 60 votes to end. (Since "rules" are at issue here, the Senate Parliamentarian -- ie the rules arbitrator -- may play a vital role in this stage.)
Here's a moderately lucid description of the process, in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_reform_in_the_United_States
The Reconciliation bill is HR 4872
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.4872:
Reading this is not too helpful, as it consists of a lot of language amending other laws (and on the face of it seems to include a lot of other -- quite strange -- stuff.)
So here, again, is what Wikipedia has to say:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_Care_and_Education_Affordability_Reconciliation_Act_of_2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Protection_and_Affordable_Care_Act
Here is the White House summary of the President's "proposal":
http://www.whitehouse.gov/health-care-meeting/proposal The "proposal" of course is not the actual bill.
The health care bill was passed with "Yes" votes from 220 Democrats. No Republicans voted for the bill. The Senate version was also passed entirely with Democratic votes.
With dedicated Republican opposition, and a range of views among the Democrats as to what should be included in the health care bill, the process of passing the bill was lengthy and difficult.
It is a great tribute to the governing style of President Obama that hard work, unflagging committment, and a continual search for ways to reach a compromise acceptable to a majority in Congress finally succeeded in passing the bill.
It is something of a shame for most media outlets that reporting on the details of the bill was meager, while superficial reporting about the bill's progress (with less gravity than reports on a TV reality show contest) was extensive. The poor quality of much of the reporting may well have made passage of the bill more difficult.
It should also be noted that the arcane processes of Congress also made the process difficult. For example, the final version of the bill -- the version that Congress votes on -- ought to be easily downloadable in a version that is clearly readable and understandable. (No such version seems to exist.) The bill should just state the new laws, explicitly, in clear simple language.
Here's the best I've found:
Clicking on the following link will download a PDF version of the bill the Senate passed:
(Note: To add to the confusion, the following bill started life as ‘‘An Act to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to modify the first-time homebuyers credit in the case of members of the Armed Forces and certain other Federal employees, and for other purposes.’’ . The name of the bill as well as its entire purpose were changed during the process.)
Labels: Barack Obama, Health care, HR 3590, HR 4872
220-211 219-212
PLEASE SEE:
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2010/03/health-care.html
Labels: Barack Obama, Health care, HR 3590, HR 4872
