(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Biden's age is not all bad (or all good): Saturday's GNR [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-18 Lots of talk about how old Biden is, which makes sense because Biden is old. Old to be President. Old to be our candidate. No denying that. And age has limitations. No denying that as well. As we age (and this is for anyone over 25) your mind gets slower — you don’t think as quickly as you could. And that decrease in neural processing speed does make people slower at some tasks, such as making decisions that take less than a few seconds, talking very quickly, and learning brand new technology. But another kind of intelligence increases with age. The older we are, the more we have lived through. The older we are, the more we know. The older we are the more times we have failed and learned and succeeded and grown. I’m sure there are circumstances where a president has to make a decision in one second flat, but that is almost never the case. Presidents weigh information. They think. They plan. They act. They appoint the best people to do tasks around them. Biden showed at last week’s state of the union that he is still sharp and able. His doctor’s appointment showed that he is in better health than most people 50 years younger than him. It makes no sense to lie about the bad things that come with age, and it makes no sense to pretend that Biden isn’t old. But it also makes no sense to pretend that age doesn’t come with a lot of amazing things as well — things that make Biden the best president of my life. Democrats are Great Biden is succeeding in building the economy from ‘bottom up, middle out’ You’ve probably heard President Biden say that he wants to build the economy “from the bottom up and the middle out.” Since he’s been elected, he used that phrase more than 150 times in public appearances. In the past week alone, he repeated it not only in his State of the Union address, but also in speeches in DeForest, Wis., and in Tampa. There’s ample evidence that it’s happening. Last August, the Dallas Federal Reserve found that over calendar year 2021, “nominal earnings grew 7.7 percent [for low-earners], compared with 4.8 percent for mid-earning workers and 3.6 percent for high-earning workers.” While lower-wage workers were disproportionately affected when covid-19 shut down the economy, when it started to reopen, the job market was tight, so employers had to pay more to attract workers. Lower-income workers benefited the most. As Jared Bernstein, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, tells me, “When the economy sniffles, folks at the bottom catch pneumonia.” Now, he says, the opposite is happening: Those at the bottom are getting an extra boost. How Biden could surpass Trump’s record on judges This week, the Senate confirmed President Joe Biden’s 100th judicial nominee, hitting a major milestone as Democrats try to counter Republicans’ efforts to remake the federal courts. Confirming more judges is a key goal for Democrats given the lasting impact these nominees could have on the courts, and on policy. During the Trump administration, Republicans stacked the courts with conservative judges who’ve been central to placing new restrictions on everything from abortion to health care to labor rights. Democrats now have a chance to seat more nominees with liberal ideological perspectives — and to provide more representation in these roles. Since federal judges serve for life, they’ll have the ability to shape US policy for decades, with the effects of their rulings enduring for years. Thus far, Biden has outpaced former President Donald Trump when it comes to the number of judges he’s been able to confirm at this point in his term, advancing 30 circuit court judges, 69 district court judges, and one Supreme Court Justice. Trump had confirmed 85 judges by the start of his third year, including 30 circuit court judges, 53 district court judges, and two Supreme Court Justices. More than 100 vacancies remain. Senate Democrats cite quickly filling these openings — a responsibility given to the upper chamber by the Constitution — as one of their top priorities this term. “Judges are top-tier. It’s our legacy. It’s one of the major accomplishments that we do here,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), a member of the Judiciary Committee, told Vox. Following the 2022 midterms, Democrats also face fewer impediments to confirming judges, because they now have a solid 51-person majority. And they have a big incentive to do so, seeing as it’s one of the few things the Senate can do on its own while Republicans control the House and slow the progress of potential legislation. Tony Evers proposes automatic voter registration for Wisconsin drivers Wisconsin drivers would be automatically registered to vote under a proposal from Gov. Tony Evers that has been rejected before by Republicans writing the state budget. The measure would be part of a package of policy changes for election administration and voting that includes some he has unsuccessfully proposed in previous budget plans, including expanding early voting and allowing clerks to count absentee ballots before election day — a measure that has bipartisan support and would provide faster election results in communities like Milwaukee that use a single location to count absentee ballots. The new proposals come after Evers won reelection on a platform that included preserving the state's system of elections California will try to enshrine right to same-sex marriage California, a U.S. trendsetter for progressive policies and a state where the current governor once made news issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in San Francisco before it was legal, will attempt to enshrine marriage equality in the state constitution. The effort comes 15 years after a voter-approved initiative, Proposition 8, banned the state from recognizing same-sex marriages. In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for same-sex marriage in California. The constitutional amendment is still on the books, however, and that worries advocates who think the high court may revisit the 2015 case that legalized gay marriage nationwide. “It’s absolute poison, it is so destructive and it’s humiliating that this is in our constitution,” said Scott Wiener, a state senator who represents San Francisco. Wiener and Assembly Member Evan Low of Silicon Valley, both Democrats and members of the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus, introduced legislation Tuesday to rescind Proposition 8. The measure would need to be approved in the Legislature by a two-thirds vote, and then it will ultimately fall to voters to decide via a referendum. It isn’t good news that Fetterman is struggling with depression, but it is great news that he is being open about it AND that he is seeking help. John Fetterman is openly discussing his treatment for depression. Few politicians do. he’s normalizing a conversation around mental health. Fetterman’s decision to obtain treatment follows a stroke he experienced last May, which left him with auditory processing issues, and a brief hospitalization in early February after he experienced lightheadedness. Roughly one-third of stroke survivors experience depression and it can be related to “biochemical changes in the brain,” according to the American Heart Association. Fetterman’s open discussion of depression is significant, given how rarely lawmakers talk about their own mental health. His willingness to both disclose his medical condition and the treatment he’s sought is also a major step toward normalizing such conversations. While the discourse about mental health has become more transparent in recent years, experts say statements from high-profile figures like Fetterman play an important role in continuing to destigmatize these issues. Bad News for Bad Guys GOP in disarray The New Civil Rights Movement, which monitors right-wing extremism, reported on how Huckabee Sanders’ official Republican response to Biden’s SOTU got panned when former Fox Business anchor Lou Dobbs appeared on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast on Wednesday. Both conjured up a new conspiracy theory that Sanders was engaged in a plot by the Republican Governors’ Association to boost Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a potential challenger to Trump for the 2024 presidential nomination. Dobbs said Huckabee Sanders’ speech was “unacceptable” and “an insult to President Trump because she didn’t mention his name once, even when lengthily recounting a Christmas visit to the troops in Iraq by the president and first lady. Meanwhile, Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina skewered fellow Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz at Wednesday night’s Washington Press Club Dinner, referencing allegations that the Florida congressman had sex-trafficked a 17-year-old girl. A federal investigation into the allegations is winding down and no charges are expected to be filed against Gaetz. Biden handed the NRA a shovel and they can’t stop digging After his resounding State of the Union victory, Biden took his win on the road to Florida and Wisconsin. Those happen to be the home states of the senators with the most radical proposals for killing off the programs. Oddly, those senators—Rick Scott (FL) and Ron Johnson (WI)—decided to just keep digging. They lent a shovel to Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) over the weekend, who went on CNN Sunday to tell Jake Tapper that he looks at Social Security like defense spending, something that should be “managed” every year by Congress. It’s unforced errors like these from Rounds and Scalise that are going to keep Biden hammering them on the issues. It just keeps exposing them, and that weakens their hand going into the debt ceiling fight. White House spokesman Andrew Bates explains: “A wide range of Republican lawmakers have endorsed severe cuts to Medicare and Social security benefits in the name of ‘fiscal responsibility,’” Bates said. “Complaining that the President is accurately shining a light on plans they don’t want their constituents to know about is very much not the defense they think.” Biden nailed it last week in Florida. “Republicans don’t like being called out on this,” Biden said. They sure don’t. “A lot of Republicans—their dream is to cut Social Security and Medicare. Well, let me say this: If that’s your dream, I’m your nightmare.” The GOP hearing on Twitter and Hunter blew up in their faces So the GOP tried to do a big expose “Weaponization” hearing on government bias and the attempt to cover up the “huge” story about Hunter Biden's laptop by Twitter. In reality, the Biden Campaign only requested that nude pics — which already violated Twitter’s terms of service — be removed. The DOJ and FBI — which were being run by Trump appointees Bill Barr and Christopher Wray respectively — didn't actually make any request to pull any tweets about Hunter Biden. Twitter, on its own, decided to block access to a link to a New York Post story on Hunter Biden’s laptop for 24 hours based, apparently, on a letter from 50 members of the Intelligence Community that the Hunter Biden story was all — Russian Disinformation. Instead of uncovering evidence that the government had wrongly influenced Twitter to block a story about Hunter Biden (note: this was Trump’s government at the time) it turns out the Trump’s government tried to censor a tweet by model Chrissy Teigan who had called him a “Pussy Ass Bitch.” And that was just one example a many times that the Trump administration asked Twitter to take down tweets by various people for various reasons. AOC points out that the entire hearing is a waste of time talking about “Hunter Biden’s half-fake laptop story.” She says that the New York Post refused to share their information with other outlets, and failed to corroborate the information (which they had received from Rudy Giuliani’s lawyers) The DOJ Is Coming for Donald Trump Quicker Than Ever Just as it seemed like the Department of Justice couldn’t get out of its own way and make any progress on its investigation of former President Donald Trump, in walks special counsel Jack Smith. On this week’s episode of The New Abnormal, MSNBC legal analyst and host of Justice Matters Glenn Kirschner joins host Danielle Moodie, who says that since Smith’s appointment in November to oversee the criminal investigations into Trump’s Mar-a-Lago documents drama and parts of the attempted Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, “he’s been going a hundred miles an hour.” To boot, Smith is currently dealing with eight secret court battles concerning the ex-president—just as he begins his campaign for a 2024 presidential run. “He’s fighting eight grand jury battles right now as we speak, trying to obtain incriminating evidence against Donald Trump. I don’t think anybody can say he is not moving quickly. So that gives me some hope that we could see indictments in, let’s just say, the coming months.” Trump Attorney Hires Attorney of His Own in Classified Docs Case Donald Trump’s lawyer has engaged a lawyer of his own as prosecutors are seeking answers about the handling of classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago, according to Reuters. Evan Corcoran, who has represented the former president in the probe, has reportedly taken on attorney Michael Levy to represent him. Corcoran appeared in January before a grand jury in connection with special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the documents, according to Reuters. But the New York Times this week reported that prosecutors are attempting to question Corcoran again, asking for a judge to approve an exception to attorney-client privilege on the grounds that legal advice might have been given in furthering a crime. The NRA Has Lost Over a Million Members Since Corruption Allegations Surfaced The National Rifle Association keeps shrinking. Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre told attendees at the gun-rights group’s most recent board meeting that the organization is down to 4.3 million members, according to multiple sources. That number is corroborated by the group’s November 2022 Financial Statement Package obtained by The Reload. That represents a downturn of more than a million members since allegations of financial impropriety were leveled against LaPierre and other members of NRA leadership in 2019. The NRA is now smaller than it has been since 2012 when internal documents show the group had 4 million members. “Membership/Contribution Performance has continued to experience softness through 2022,” a message in a presentation prepared for the group’s finance committee in January said. The drop in membership has driven a stark decline in the NRA’s revenue over the same period. MAGA world attack on Mitch Daniels is an early GOP alarm bell for 2024 Here we go again. In 2022, Republicans blew a historic opportunity to take back the Senate because, in state after state, they nominated extreme candidates whose only qualification was fealty to former president Donald Trump. While positive, forward-looking conservative reformers such as Govs. Ron DeSantis (Fla.), Mike DeWine (Ohio), Chris Sununu (N.H.) and Brian Kemp (Ga.) trounced their Democratic opponents, MAGA Senate candidates including Herschel Walker (Ga.), Mehmet Oz (Pa.), Don Bolduc (N.H.) and Blake Masters (Ariz.) lost winnable races. Voters’ message could not have been clearer. So, Republicans learned their lesson, right? Apparently not. When former Indiana governor Mitch Daniels (R) announced he was exploring a 2024 bid to succeed Sen. Mike Braun (R), who is running for governor, Republicans should have been elated. Then came the RINO hunters. The Club for Growth released an ad excoriating Daniels as a tax-and-spend “old-guard Republican clinging to the old ways of the bad old days.” Donald Trump Jr. tweeted “The establishment is trying to recruit weak RINO Mitch Daniels” to run for Senate, adding that “he would be Mitt Romney 2.0.” It worked. Like Republican Govs. Doug Ducey (Ariz.) and Sununu — who both declined Senate runs in 2022 rather than face a barrage of MAGA hate — Daniels decided that life is too short to spend the next two years fending off attacks and distortions of his record from the right. He opted not to run. On the lighter side Finally, some Wisdom for the day: I am so lucky and so proud to be in this with all of you. 💚💖💛✊🏽✊🏻✊🏽💖💛💚 [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/18/2153583/-Biden-s-age-is-not-all-bad-or-all-good-Saturday-s-GNR Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/