Examples of Democratic Party leadership

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
Part of the labor shortage might be the fact the Trump and covid cut off the supply of immigrants. Falling birth rates in all affluent countries will mean there could be competition for them soon. America or Canada does not produce enough new citizens to maintain population growth, so we will have to import people. Most Europeans don't want to emigrate, so South and central Americans, Africans, some Asians and middle eastern peoples are on the menu.

Also, people don't come by boat any more, they fly and frequently go back home for family events and for visits, keeping their culture alive. They also have the internet and can watch their favorite soccer and cricket teams back home, read the newspaper in their native language and talk to relatives and friends via skype and zoom. America and Canada are multicultural societies these days, as well as melting pots, this is the new reality of immigration.

The republican, "they is taken over" crowd will be thrilled! :lol:
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Biden Aims to Rebuild and Expand Legal Immigration - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Biden Aims to Rebuild and Expand Legal Immigration
Documents obtained by The New York Times show far-reaching efforts by President Biden to remake the immigration system and undo much of his predecessor’s legacy.

WASHINGTON — If President Biden gets his way, it will soon be far easier to immigrate to the United States. There will be shorter, simpler forms and applicants will have to jump through fewer security hoops. Foreigners will have better opportunities to join their families and more chances to secure work visas.
A 46-page draft blueprint obtained by The New York Times maps out the Biden administration’s plans to significantly expand the legal immigration system, including methodically reversing the efforts to dismantle it by former President Donald J. Trump, who reduced the flow of foreign workers, families and refugees, erecting procedural barriers tougher to cross than his “big, beautiful wall.”

Because of Mr. Trump’s immigration policies, the average time it takes to approve employer-sponsored green cards has doubled. The backlog for citizenship applications is up 80 percent since 2014, to more than 900,000 cases. Approval for the U-visa program, which grants legal status for immigrants willing to help the police, has gone from five months to roughly five years.

In almost every case over the last four years, immigrating to the United States has become harder, more expensive and takes longer.

And while Mr. Biden made clear during his presidential campaign that he intended to undo much of his predecessor’s immigration legacy, the blueprint offers new details about how far-reaching the effort will be — not only rolling back Mr. Trump’s policies, but addressing backlogs and delays that plagued prior presidents.

The blueprint, dated May 3 and titled “D.H.S. Plan to Restore Trust in Our Legal Immigration System,” lists scores of initiatives intended to reopen the country to more immigrants, making good on the president’s promise to ensure America embraces its “character as a nation of opportunity and of welcome.”

“There are significant changes that need to be made to really open up all avenues of legal immigration,” said Felicia Escobar Carrillo, the chief of staff at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, of the efforts to reverse Mr. Trump’s agenda. “In the same way that they took a broad-stroke approach to closing off avenues, I think we want to take a broad approach toward opening up the legal avenues that have always been available but that they tried to put roadblocks up on.”

Since taking office four months ago, Mr. Biden has struggled with a historic surge in migration by Central American children and teenagers that has prompted some Republicans to accuse the president of flinging open the nation’s borders to people trying to enter the country illegally, a charge the White House rejects.

In fact, Mr. Biden does want to open the country to more immigrants. His ambition, as reflected in the blueprint, is to rebuild and expand the opportunities for foreigners to enter the United States — but to do so legally.

Divided into seven sections, the document offers detailed policy proposals that would help more foreigners move to the United States, including high-skilled workers, trafficking victims, the families of Americans living abroad, American Indians born in Canada, refugees, asylum-seekers and farm workers. Immigrants who apply online could pay less in fees or even secure a waiver in an attempt to “reduce barriers” to immigration. And regulations would be overhauled to “encourage full participation by immigrants in our civic life.”

Even with a more restrictive and slower immigration system, about 1 million people obtained green cards in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic. Most had been waiting for years. In the final year of the Obama administration, 1.2 million people received green cards.

But if Mr. Biden accomplishes everything in the document, he will have gone further than just reversing the downward trend. He will have significantly increased opportunities for foreigners around the globe to come to the United States, embracing robust immigration even as a divisive, decades-long political debate continues to rage over such a policy.

Most of the changes could be put into practice without passage of Mr. Biden’s proposed overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws, which would provide a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented people living in the United States but has stalled in a bitterly divided Congress. While surveys show that most Americans support increased immigration, many Republican voters have eagerly backed Mr. Trump’s more restrictive policies.

White House officials declined to comment directly on the Homeland Security Department’s blueprint, saying that such documents go through many drafts and that decisions about specific steps to address legal immigration remain in flux. But they said the president remained committed to significantly rolling back the restrictions imposed by his predecessor.

That effort will take time and has not yet caught the public’s attention like the surge of crossings at the southwest border. But conservative activists who have for years demanded lower levels of legal immigration are vowing a fight to stop Mr. Biden and extract a political price for his actions.

“They just want to shovel people in here,” said Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, a former Virginia attorney general who served as the acting head of Citizenship and Immigration Services under Mr. Trump. “They are not running an immigration system for the benefit of America, and certainly not for the benefit of ordinary Americans. ”

Most research has shown that legal immigration to the United States has benefits for the country’s economy, especially at a time when the country’s population growth is slowing. But Mr. Cuccinelli and others who favor severe restrictions on immigration say it is obvious to them that letting foreigners compete for jobs — especially when the country is still recovering from an economic downturn like the one created by the pandemic — will hurt the prospects for American citizens.

“The number one job for the immigration services is to make sure that immigration does not hurt Americans,” said Roy Beck, the founder of NumbersUSA, a group dedicated to far lower levels of legal immigration.

Motivated by that belief, Mr. Cuccinelli set in motion a transformation of the government’s legal immigration system during the Trump administration — changing his agency from one that confers benefits on foreigners into a “vetting agency,” in part by issuing numerous restrictions on offering asylum for immigrants and trying to raise fees.

The increased vetting, as well as travel restrictions imposed during the pandemic, helped contribute to the result the Trump administration had sought: The influx of immigrants slowed significantly, as winning legal approval to enter the United States became much harder.

With fewer immigrants coming through the pipeline, there has been less money to finance Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is supported almost entirely by fees paid by immigrants. Restoring the agency to full capacity is at the heart of Mr. Biden’s effort to expand legal immigration, according to the document and interviews with administration officials.

A central element of the blueprint is addressing backlogs in the immigration system.

The administration is planning to fast-track immigration applications by expanding virtual interviews and electronic filing, as well as limiting the requests for evidence from applicants. Mr. Biden has tapped Cass R. Sunstein, a former Obama administration official and legal scholar at Harvard Law School, to remake the immigration system so it is “more effective and less burdensome” than it has been in decades by “reducing paperwork and other administrative requirements.”

Mr. Biden wants to restore opportunities for foreign employees through the existing H-1B visa program, which is intended for workers with special skills. The administration also intends to create new pathways for foreign entrepreneurs who wish to “start-up businesses and create jobs for U.S. workers,” according to the document.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
Officials are working on a regulation that could allow migrants to win asylum in the United States if they are victims of domestic violence or their relatives were persecuted. During the Trump era, Attorney General William P. Barr moved to end asylum protection for those who claimed they deserved it for those reasons.

Mr. Biden is also aiming to expand immigration opportunities for L.G.B.T.Q. refugees from countries where they are persecuted or where same-sex marriages are not recognized.

In addition, he wants to revamp a program that provides a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who help law enforcement by cooperating with police or testifying in court.

The waiting list for the U-Visa program has ballooned, leaving crime victims and survivors of domestic abuse vulnerable to abusers who may threaten to report them for deportation if they continue to talk to the police, said Leslye E. Orloff, director of the national immigrant women’s advocacy project at American University.

The Biden administration is considering extending protections to immigrants who cooperate even before they make it on the official waiting list for the visa, according to the document.

“They’re recognizing that there’s danger for these victims,” Ms. Orloff said.

Critics say the Biden administration is ignoring the negative consequences of their efforts. The H-1B program has been attacked as a loophole for tech companies to import cheap foreign workers to compete for jobs. Granting asylum to the victims of domestic abuse could open the door to accepting millions of additional people. And some Republicans say Mr. Biden should not loosen vetting of foreigners, though officials insist they will continue to screen for terrorists and other threats.

As the Biden administration pushes forward with the changes, officials appear willing to use emergency rules and presidential memos to avoid the lengthy regulatory process, in much the same way that Mr. Trump put his own agenda in place. But that could make Mr. Biden’s immigration legacy subject to a similar reversal by a Republican president in the future.

“The question looming over all of this work is how do you do this in a way that isn’t easily so capsized next time around,” said Doug Rand, a founder of Boundless Immigration, a technology company in Seattle that helps immigrants obtain green cards and citizenship.

Change could not come soon enough for Jenn Hawk, 37, who is currently living in with her Argentine husband in Poland, where he works, even though her autistic son is in the Washington area with his father.

Because of delays in processing her husband’s immigration application, she is faced with a choice: stay in Poland with the man she married, or go back to the United States alone to be with her 10-year-old son.

Ms. Hawk filed to sponsor her husband’s immigration to the United States in October of 2020, spending $575 on the application. But they are facing a delay of more than a year and a half before they can even submit their financial and medical information, let alone get an interview with an immigration officer.

“I just want to go home,” Ms. Hawk said. “It seems like they’re doing everything in their power to restrict that from being a possibility.”
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
I wouldn't count on a baby boom in China just because the government policy went from two to three kids. Women are empowered and have control of their fertility these days and they decide family size, not the state. Falling birthrates are an issue in all affluent societies with empowered women. It's bad for capitalism and good for the planet, but will cause real problems with aging populations and fewer young people to support them.
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China's new three-child policy sends baby and maternity stocks soaring - CNN

China's new three-child policy sends baby and maternity stocks soaring
London (CNN Business)China's decision to allow families to have three children could produce a windfall for makers of strollers, car seats and baby formula. At least, that's what investors think.

Stocks tied to baby products and maternity services soared in mainland China and Hong Kong on Monday after the Chinese government announced a major change to its family planning policy as the country tries to avert a demographic crisis.
Shares of Goodbaby, which makes children's products, jumped 31% in Hong Kong. Suzhou Basecare Medical Co., which offers genetic testing for couples looking to undergo IVF, rose 15%.

Jinxin Fertility Group, which provides assisted reproductive services, gained nearly 18%, while Aidigong Maternal & Child Health, which offers maternity health services, increased 22%.

Beingmate, a major infant formula manufacturer, climbed 8% in Shenzhen. Goldlok Holdings, which makes electric trains and dolls, leaped 10%. Clothing maker Lancy was up 7%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng (HSI) inched up 0.1% on Monday, while the Shenzhen Composite rose 1.1%.

The Chinese Communist Party's top leadership made the decision to permit couples to have up to three children at a meeting Monday, though state media reports did not say when the policy change would be implemented.

It comes just three weeks after Beijing published its 2020 census, which showed China's population was growing at its slowest rate in decades. That's putting major pressure on an economy that relies on a young workforce to support an aging population and keep up high levels of growth.

China's one-child policy was in place for more than 35 years as Beijing tried to address overpopulation and alleviate poverty.
In 2015, the Chinese government announced that it would loosen the restrictions to allow up to two children per family. But the reversal failed to raise the country's birth rate, which fell by almost 15% year-on-year in 2020.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
I can't see the corporations and greedy bastards who finance McConnel liking this at all! The minimum tax needs to be 30%, not 15%. I assume Biden needs the senate to ratify this, good luck with that, if you can't even get past a filibuster to save yourselves. Manchin should make a fortune off this alone by being a road block to getting rid of the filibuster, this would be worth billions in bribes! Yep, the Jim Crow traditions of the senate, as opposed to the intentions of the founders that a simple majority rules.

In the current state of American politics the filibuster a guarantee of stasis, the republicans have no interest in governing, just gaining and holding power by any means possible, even the destruction of constitutional democracy. By failing to investigate the capitol insurrection they support it and by suppressing the vote and changing who counts the votes, they are seeking to destroy democracy for the sake of power. They can do this because their voters are race driven tribalists who only want power and are willing to destroy the US constitution to install a tyrant as king.
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G7 backs Biden's sweeping overhaul of global tax system - CNN

G7 backs Biden's sweeping overhaul of global tax system

London (CNN)Finance ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) nations have put their support behind the Biden administration's ambitious plan to overhaul the global tax system, backing a minimum tax of at least 15% on corporate earnings.

"G7 finance ministers... after years of discussions, have reached a historic agreement to reform the global tax system to make it fit for the global digital age and, crucially, to make sure that it's fair so that the right companies pay the right tax in the right places," UK finance minister Rishi Sunak said in a video posted on Twitter Saturday.

The agreement was made during a G7 meeting of finance ministers in London, attended by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, where she sought backing for the administration's efforts to rewrite international tax rules and discourage American companies from booking earnings abroad.

Last month, the US Treasury proposed a global minimum tax of at least 15%, aiming to tackle an unwieldy international system rife with loopholes. Establishing a minimum rate could help discourage companies from shifting their profits to countries where they would pay less tax.

"With the global corporate minimum tax functionally set at zero today, there has been a race to the bottom on corporate taxes, undermining the United States' and other countries' ability to raise the revenue needed to make critical investments," the US Treasury said in a statement on May 20.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
I like her.


Trump is a traitor in several different ways, including forming an alliance with a hostile foreign power that has thousands of nuclear weapons pointed at America. Traitor, seditionist or insurrectionist, pick one or all of the above, Trump fits the crime.

No point in upsetting his base though, he won't live too much longer and NY state prison will take up the rest of his miserable existence. Another republican president will pardon him of federal crimes and the congressional GOP would work tirelessly to get him absolved of any blame or federal crimes. Let a desperate Donald run for the 2024 presidential election from his NY maximum security prison cell, he should have no problem getting the republican nomination from inside the big house.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
I thought all the blue dogs were extinct, but I guess not, Joe needs to maintain that careful balance that gives him so much power and influence. When the republicans destroy democracy in America, he will cry, "I didn't think they would do that"! He doesn't face an election until 2026 and if the republicans win in 2022 by cheating and stealing the election you can blame Manchin. The people of his state don't give a fuck about the filibuster or the election reform bill and he's not doing this for his own political reasons, 6 years is a long way off. He has other reasons for this bullshit and those reasons are looking more bogus with each passing day. If the republicans gain power again, McConnel will have no trouble at all in eliminating the filibuster, since they will have no intention of giving power up again.

If you lose your democracy, Joe Manchin will be the reason for it, traditions of the senate my ass, how about the intentions of the founders?
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Manchin says he won't vote for Democrats' sweeping election reform bill (yahoo.com)

Manchin says he won't vote for Democrats' sweeping election reform bill

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) wrote in a Charleston Gazette-Mail op-ed Sunday that he will not support congressional Democrats' expansive election and anti-corruption bill, suggesting the measure is partisan.

Why it matters: Manchin's opposition to H.R. 1, known as the For the People Act, puts the bill in tenuous footing in the evenly split Senate. The West Virginia senator said any elections-related legislation should be the result of both parties coming together.
  • “I believe that partisan voting legislation will destroy the already weakening blinds of our democracy, and for that reason, I will vote against the For The People Act," Manchin wrote.
  • "The truth, I would argue, is that voting and election reform that is done in a partisan manner will all but ensure partisan divisions continue to deepen."

Flashback: The House passed the For the People Act in a 220-210 in March with no Republican support, it now awaits a vote in the Senate.
  • The bill's reforms include allowing voters to register securely online or on Election Day, and preventing voter purges from registration records. It would also restore voting rights for felons, expand early and absentee voting and set national standards for early voting and registration.
Manchin said he would support another reform bill, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would effectively reinstate key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that were gutted by the Supreme Court in 2013.
  • "I continue to engage with my Republican and Democratic colleagues about the value of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and I am encouraged by the desire from both sides to transcend partisan politics and strengthen our democracy by protecting voting rights."
Worth noting: Manchin reiterated that he won't support eliminating the fillibuster, and said some Democrats have tried "to demonize the filibuster and conveniently ignore how it has been critical to protecting the rights of Democrats in the past."
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
Ok Joe, let the house strip down and amend HR-1, add in some new things to protect election results, then reintroduce it, or another bill. I'll go with the NY times analysis of HR1, redraft it as a more focused bill to protect elections and particularly their results. Protecting elections from state republican efforts to destroy democracy is the most important thing for the 2022 midterm elections, go with a lean mean bill, for now... Do what you must to keep the republicans out of power, they are completely under the control of Trump and will remain so, even from prison his prison cell in NY.
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Sen. Manchin Says He Won't Vote In Favor Of The For The People Act

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said Sunday that he will not vote for S.1, known as the For The People Act, the massive elections and ethics reform package Democrats have proposed.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
Trump Corruption of DOJ Lingers Under Garland, Risks Precedent

Rachel Maddow reviews the abuse of the Department of Justice by Bill Barr in sacrificing justice to serve the political needs of Donald Trump, and notes that rather than cleaning the department with accountability for indulging that corruption, Attorney General Merrick Garland is apparently punishing none of it and even continuing some of it, risking a precedent that will surely be embraced by the next corrupt president.
 

schuylaar

Well-Known Member
Blinken is all smiles. Putin's body language suggested we have the upper hand- i don't even care what he said.

the fact that it was over in two hours is an East Coast thinggggggy..
 
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