You can watch the speech here:
From the Washington Post: Biden’s plan to tackle rising homicides: Tighten gun regulations, bolster police
President Biden will announce measures Wednesday to crack down on gun stores that don’t follow federal rules, step up programs for recently released convicts and provide more support for police departments across the country as the administration grapples with spikes in homicides and other violent crimes across major cities.
…
Biden will direct the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to seek to revoke licenses from gun sellers the first time they are caught willfully selling a weapon to a person who is not permitted to have one, neglecting to run a required background check or ignoring a federal request to provide trace information about a weapon used in a crime. The policy attacks a source of crime guns, which in some instances can be traced to sloppy or irresponsible dealers, experts say.
…
The president also wants to reduce recidivism by opening opportunities to those leaving prison, including hiring more of them in federal jobs and encouraging business to do so. Biden also wants to offer additional federal housing vouchers for them, according to administration officials.
…
And Biden will allow $350 billion in federal stimulus funds to be used to pay to fund police departments in areas that have seen an increase in crime, administration officials said.
Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland are slated to meet with a handful of mayors and local officials and advocates Wednesday afternoon to discuss the administration’s strategy.
While we wait for that to start, what else is going on?
WaterGirl
Particularly happy to see this part:
WaterGirl
And this part:
Smart.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
I’m just thinking and praying on it.
Gravenstone
Semi-related, but I caught a report this morning where Her Royal Highness of the Furrowed Eyebrows (R-Maine) will be voting against Pres. Biden’s choice to head BATF because he’s “unusually divisive”. To which I invite the good Senator to kindly fuck herself with a rusty pitchfork.
Omnes Omnibus
But Garland is not working to my specific priority list.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Sorry!
Are you feigning pre-disappointment? :-)
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
COVID causes tremors in the index fingers of white males, thus negatively affecting your ability to operate your freedomistical boom sticks.
Betty Cracker
Does it strike anyone else as odd that there’s a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives? The first two make sense as a group, and the last two go together as well. But the logic of joining all four categories together escapes me. Cool seal though (needs to be updated with a bomb).
Van Buren
If you have not yet seen General Milley- Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff- answer a question about Critical Race Theory being taught at West Point, do yourself a favor and go watch. It is the best thing I have seen in ages.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: Maybe a throwback to when the same folks were “running” guns and alcohol?
Ken
I’ll bet all those departments who’ve managed to reduce crime are kicking themselves.
WaterGirl
@Van Buren:
WaterGirl
@Ken: I guess the police are going to have to start killing even more people. //
Ken
I thought of the old BATF as “things we really should regulate better but the politicians are chicken”. I see no reason to change my mind now that they’ve added explosives.
(There may also be a little “and every time we try to regulate them, criminals make a lot more money” in the mix. In which case I find the addition of explosives a bit troubling.)
WaterGirl
All the republicans have to do is slap a name on something, say it’s awful and it gets exactly the response that they want.
Does that only work for them? Because no matter what we name the anti-democratic efforts of the Rs, nearly half of the country doesn’t give a shit if it hurts “those” people.
WaterGirl
What else is going on in the world today? Anything else newsworthy?
eclare
@WaterGirl: Powerful
Elizabelle
Thank you, WaterGirl. It’s not up yet, so please jackals — a head’s up when it starts.
Now to watch the General Miley video.
Ken
Oh god. Is this one of those gentle ways of saying “For those of you who haven’t heard…” followed by some horrifying alert from astronomers, volcanologists, or epidemiologists?
Betty Cracker
@Omnes Omnibus: I think it’s too early to know for sure, but speculation that Garland isn’t the wartime consigliere we need at a time like this isn’t altogether crazy, IMO. Here’s hoping he proves his critics wrong.
WaterGirl
@eclare: @Van Buren:
Powerful answer. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
WaterGirl
@Ken: Nope, just me asking because I was working this morning rather than reading the internet.
germy
WaterGirl
@germy: Can every attorney general in any state pile on and sue this crackpot now?
germy
@germy:
And if that wasn’t bad enough news for him… they made a movie about his life as a young grifter:
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: Garland was meant to be on the Supreme Court. Until Satan intervened.
Jennifer Rubin gets after him today too. Although, it could be more of a “prove me wrong.” I think she is making too much of Garland’s answer, to the FTF NY Times, that the Department already had an Inspector General in place. I would like to think this is Garland (and Biden) not showing their hand too quickly.
I am not counting Garland out. One bit. Patience, grasshoppers.
germy
@WaterGirl:
I would hope so.
Elizabelle
Do we know WHO asked Miley about Critical Race theory? (And his was an excellent answer, along the lines of “I studied Marxism. That does not make me a Marxist.”)
Camera panned to Matt Gaetz shaking his head, but a woman thanked Miley at the conclusion.
Just curious.
Van Buren
@WaterGirl: My pleasure!
Another Scott
@Elizabelle: (As I said downstairs), his statement on June 14 seemed fine and appropriate to me.
Cheers,
Scott.
Woodrow/asim
Conservatism has built up, over decades, the financial infrastructure for demonizing Progressive ideas, yes.
The people involved have a lot of experience in quickly and quietly funding the right folx to flood the zone, and to do so over and again in ways that are disconnected — a twisted “let a thousand flowers bloom,” if you will.
Not everything sticks, but enough does — from demonizing the words “Liberal” and “Tax” as Reaganism became ascendant, to the years of effort to hit Bill Clinton, to Birthism and Death Panels, that we all see the ice, if not the iceburg. So yeah, there are teams and orgs in the Conservative movement that, even without Fox News, have run Progressive causes and ideas and groups into the ground, over and again.
That they can do so, and that we Good Guys rightly shun such tactics, is a real issue. That we also tend to not acknowledge this is happening as a systemic issue, rather just looking at it occurring as a set of one offs, is part of why people keep saying we just need to find better words…
…but the issue is about far more than picking the right phrase, as if this is Fashion Week. :(
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Betty Cracker:
We all can agree that Santino was a bad Don. Tom wasn’t all that bad, though.
germy
@Van Buren:
He said he resented being called “woke”.
So Republicans have succeeded in making “woke” an insult?
Another Scott
@Elizabelle: It seemed to be Matt Gaetz. (Note the clip of him shaking his head no, as his beating heart is handed to him.)
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
This is the actual seal?
I can’t tell whether the blindfolded babe is regulating booze, smokes and guns or having a righteous good time living it up.
germy
@Elizabelle:
Here is a longer clip:
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@germy:
Seems so. They sneered it so often that it is now misused
germy
@Another Scott:
Gaetz enjoys Conservative Privilege.
If any liberal democratic politician showed that level of disrespect to a general it’d be the top story on every news network for the next five days.
WaterGirl
@Woodrow/asim: Thank you for that!
Can you help refresh my memory… were we talking about you sending me something for a guest post?
In normal times, I would like to think that I wouldn’t have to ask, but these are not normal times and these days I occasionally drop a ball, which I normally do not do.
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: Someone who is promising to put civil rights (including voting rights) and domestic terrorism on the top of the to do list seems to get it. I think a lot of people expect too much too quickly. Legal shit takes time- especially if you try to do it the right way.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott:
assumes facts not in evidence.
germy
@Brachiator:
It should be updated to “Bureau of Alcohol, Weed, Tobacco, Xanax, Guns, Explosives & Bear Spray”
Elizabelle
C-Span now saying 4:30 for the Biden/Garland remarks.
Omnes Omnibus
@germy: That is what you noticed?
Another Scott
@Another Scott: Atrios’s clip starts with Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) – she seems to be the one who asked.
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
C-SPAN now says 4:30 ET, which is in 3 minutes. So maybe – dare I say it – soon?
edit: C-SPAN is now saying 5:00 ET.
dexwood
@Brachiator: She looks like Bonnie Parker.
WaterGirl
YouTube video up top. I hear sounds, but no speaking yet.
Elizabelle
@germy: Thank you.
And it was Beavis and Butthead Gaetz who brought it up. Rep. Houlahan yielded some of her time to General Miley, for a longer response to the teen-poker.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle:
Excellent.
WaterGirl
Criss cross, applesauce… is that a thing? What does it mean?
Elizabelle
Another one bites the dust. WaPost:
And ETA: “The Biden administration has nominated Tucson police chief Chris Magnus, a figure associated with the law enforcement reform movement, to lead CBP.”
Want to know more about Chief Magnus.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: A letter instead of a tweet. Hallelujah! A working government again.
WaterGirl
De(Not)Joy is top of my list to get the boot.
Elizabelle
Now C-Span is saying 4:45 p. It’s a gorgeous day. Think I shall go outside instead.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Another Scott: I’m not sure, Gen. Milley said “thank you for your service”, Gaetz has never served in the military. Was that in reference to him being a Congresscritter?
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: I am outside – on my porch!
Baud
@Elizabelle:
That last block quote is so milquetoast. No way they would write about a Dem bureaucrat that way.
Citizen Alan
@Elizabelle: Be warned! Right in the middle the camera cuts away to show Matt Fucking Gaetz shaking his head and giving the text book illustration of what a sneer looks like.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Ha! “occasionally veered into partisanship” deserves a loud snort, in my opinion.
Citizen Alan
@Elizabelle: Be warned! Right in the middle the camera cuts away to show Matt Fucking Gaetz shaking his head and giving the text book illustration of what a sneer looks like.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Another Scott: She served in the Air Force, hence Gen. Milley’s reference to service.
Citizen Alan
@germy: I lowkey love Andrew Garfield now. I hated him as Spiderman, but ever since, he’s made the most interesting acting choices and has aggressively played against his earlier “pretty boy” reputation.
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I just listened again.
“And you and I are both Green Berets.”
??
edit: I see that must have been in reference to the person who yielded some of her time, not in reference to the piece of shit whose name is Gaetz.
germy
@Citizen Alan:
Gaetz has Resting Sneer Face, but the head shaking really put it over the top.
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator: I assume not, but I saw that on a t-shirt once and thought it was funny. It would be hilarious if it really is the seal!
WaterGirl
@germy: On the plus side, he didn’t shout “You lie!”
germy
@Citizen Alan:
Yes, some actors are determined to make their own path.
There’s an actor (I can’t remember his name) who used to be on a sitcom. A few years ago I saw him in a Spike Lee movie, playing David Duke.
germy
Maybe at some point he’ll be yelling that at a prosecuting attorney.
Old School
@WaterGirl:
Sitting with your legs tucked in under you. In my youth in was called “sitting Indian style”, but it is for the best that the times have moved on.
Citizen Alan
@germy:
OMG! I just looked it up and it’s Topher Grace!
Elizabelle
Now it’s 5 pm for C-Span. What’s up? They got Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema nailed to the carpet in the Oval Office?
Another Scott
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Warning Politico says that Green Beret statement was directed to Michael Waltz (GQP – FL). I only noticed Gaetz shaking his head “no”.
Cheers,
Scott.
Elizabelle
@Citizen Alan: I did see that. He may wish he had General Miley to protect him, where he is eventually going.
MomSense
I’m so tempted to set up an Instagram account called neoliberal shill – establishment Dem just so I can go live and take questions. I think it would take less time than trying to engage with all the fucking stupid stories and posts.
SiubhanDuinne
Still no Biden on camera, but lots of laughing and talking in the background.
MomSense
@Old School:
It was legs like a pretzel at some point in between.
germy
@Citizen Alan:
He was good in the movie. He captured the bland, smarmy evil of Duke.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
The only logic I can see is that at one time the laws governing all of them were similar, and the enforcement was as well, as I understand it, NBAL&AT.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
One can but hope.
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: I remember Garland getting screwed out of a SCOTUS seat. I wonder how heavily that weighed in his getting the AG gig.
Like I said, I think it’s too early to know how effective Garland will be, but Rubin made some points that sounded pretty convincing, including that going after political appointee hacks needn’t damage career DOJ morale and that the DOJ should be leading the charge against voter suppression instead of civic organizations doing that work.
I’m not a lawyer or an expert on any of this. Just saying those sound like decent points, and Rubin has been remarkably level-headed since emerging from the dark side, so I don’t discount it.
Old School
@MomSense: Makes sense. I considered using “pretzel” in my description.
WaterGirl
@Old School: Interesting. Someone said that as they turned the sound on for the upcoming Biden speech.
I wonder how that fits?
WaterGirl
@MomSense: I say go for it!
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker:
Garland did say in a recent speech that he’s going after the voting stuff with everything he’s got… doubling the personnel that handle that sort of thing. If you want to do it right, I imagine it takes time to get new people on board and get geared up.
edit: and I’m talking to myself… 3 comments in a row.
WaterGirl
They are speaking!
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: I think a lot of people want a firebrand prosecutor in that position. If so, they are likely to be disappointed by Garland because that is not his style.
Old School
@WaterGirl:
They brought their child to work today?
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
You don’t get Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke as your Deputies if you don’t intend to do just that.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Betty Cracker:
To be fair, that looks like every girl I dated or had random hookups with from the ages of 15 to 27.
Omnes Omnibus
@rikyrah: After four years of Trump, they might need a little time to get the right people in and get everyone up to speed.
Elizabelle
Biden seems exhausted.
Ruckus
@Elizabelle:
Sounds like he’s had a long day.
Elizabelle
@Ruckus: Yeah. I bet they all are.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I assume we all heard about the dormant Jurassic-era plague virus that was released from the volcano after it was struck by a meteor, so it’s probably not that.
raven
In great news from Georgia the Board of Regents appointed a woman from within as Chancellor instead of that fucking chicken farmer.
debbie
@WaterGirl:
Great response! Do we know who it was who asked him that question?
Asshole Gaetz, acting all Trumpy like he knows more than the generals
P.S. I really liked that he managed to work in a reference to 1/6 into his response.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Elizabelle:
When I travel for work or vacation and it involves crossing several time zones I am pooped the following week.
debbie
@Another Scott:
Are you sure it wasn’t the female voice that thanked him at the very end?
Omnes Omnibus
@debbie: She wasn’t a Green Beret.
Baud
@raven:
?
WaterGirl
@debbie: I loved the Jan 6 part of that, too. The whole thing was perfect.
debbie
@debbie:
Chrissy Houlahan, AF veteran and PA representative.
debbie
@Omnes Omnibus:
Is there someone on that committee that was a Green Beret?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle: He read a couple of Balloon Juice threads.
debbie
@WaterGirl:
Also, saying he read Marx and Lenin, but that didn’t make him a Communist.
Omnes Omnibus
@debbie: The person Another Scott named? The one you questioned when you asked if it was the female voice. Maybe that one.
WaterGirl
@debbie: I just googled Green Berets in congress, and Michael Waltz is the only name that comes up.
That must have been a verbal nod toward Waltz even though Waltz had not answered the question.
That would make sense to me.
debbie
Google says Mike Waltz is on the committee and was a Green Beret. Agreed.stacib
@WaterGirl: Yes. Danny Parkins of 670 the Score (sports radio) is doing a 24-hour charity event to benefit the Austin neighborhood of Chicago (the West side) to build a brick and mortar grocery store. The neighborhood is a food desert, so this should be welcomed. I love the name of his event “What About Chicago” to mock all of the folks that use that exact phrase every time guns / crime / killing is in the news. Several of the Chicago Bears, past and present, are participating and raising money.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: Or what Another Scott said @73.
polyorchnid octopunch
There’s one thing: it’s time for you people to stop giving the cops more money. They don’t put it to good use.
The best thing you could do to fix your cop problem is to get rid of civil forfeiture; it has turned your police into organised crime gangs.
kindness
Honestly I think the quickest way to at least do something is to ban any magazines over 10 bullets for civillians. No Grandfather clause or any lee way. Gun humpers are going to howl bloody murder no matter what is done so might as well do at least the minimum that I think could be passed (with 51 votes, no way Republicans offer up 1 vote for any of this). So sure, this is doable once we get rid of the filibuster….Hard to be upbeat, I know.
Another Scott
I think all the questions have been answered, ultimately correctly!, but this is a better clip which gives more context – it starts with Rep. Chrissy Houlahan giving him time.
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, I knew someone else had mentioned a name upthread, but since debbie was asking it was simpler to google than it would have been to scroll through all the comments to find the name.
Geeno
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Braggart
WaterGirl
@Another Scott:
West of the Rockies
@germy: Christ, I hope he faces consequences soon.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
It is a wonderful parody!