 Well, Joseph R. Biden has been president now for a full week And I thought it'd be helpful to take some time to kind of like go over all of the things that he's done I mean a lot has happened over the last eight days and You know, I want to go over the good the bad and the ugly because it's a bit of a mixed bag There's a lot of pleasant surprises, but there's a lot of things that I find downright irritating and Outrages so first of all when it comes to the good there are a lot of things that I do want to give Joe Biden credit for So first of all he surprisingly Froze munition sales to Saudi Arabia, which is something that we actually tried to accomplish under Donald Trump there was an effort led by Ro Khanna Bernie Sanders and Mike Lee and They passed a bill to stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia because if we gave them weapons at that time Those weapons we knew were literally aiding and abetting a genocide that they were carrying out in Yemen So that effort unfortunately was thwarted by Donald Trump who ultimately vetoed that legislation when it reached his desk Well, Joe Biden is now freezing the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia This is a really positive thing Additionally, he repealed the Trump's ban on transgender Americans serving openly in the military I mean, this was brazenly bigoted and unnecessary like it doesn't do anything to make our military stronger If anything, it makes us weaker and it's just nice to see this get undone And I absolutely applaud Joe Biden for this now in a surprising turn of events He actually signed an executive order that ends federal contracts with private prisons now at face value. This sounds awesome Unfortunately when you dive a little bit deeper and look at the details It's not as sweeping as I would like and there's a lot more to be done This is basically him reinstating in Obama era executive order. The problem is that this doesn't apply to ice detention facilities it applies to DOJ Contracts so overall this affects I think less than 10% of private prisons and if you're not actually tackling ice The problem then is that we know most of the abuses occur at ice detention facilities So if we're not actually ending private prisons with regard to ice then this isn't going to do as much as we'd wanted to So, you know, he gets credit for this But it's the bare minimum and really we need legislation to abolish these private detention facilities altogether If not just nationalize them now this was part of a larger initiative to advance racial equity So he also signed additional executive orders to address discriminatory federal housing policies Recommit to respect tribal sovereign team and more all very positive steps in the right direction Of course, this is only a step forward. It isn't comprehensive Criminal justice reform that we need but still it's something now even more surprising is his call for Congress to pass legislation Ending subsidies to the fossil fuel industry and he actually signed an executive order that directs the federal government to do Just that and this comes after he unilaterally killed the Keystone XL pipeline and at a press conference He said something about this that almost made my head explode Unlike previous administrations, I don't think the federal government should give handouts to big oil to the tune of $40 billion in fossil fuel subsidies I'm sorry. What are my ears deceiving me? Let's hear that again I don't think the federal government should give handouts to big oil to the tune of $40 billion in fossil fuel subsidies That's not a deep fake. That's actually Joe Biden. Yes, Joe Biden saying that So I know what you're thinking. Wait a minute. It's Joe Biden based And look even though that is genuinely pleasantly surprising Hold because in that same press conference. He also said this and I know this always comes up We're not going to ban fracking. He just lost the left and there's the Joe Biden. We all know and hate Yeah So look he gets credit where it's due and when he does things that I disagree with I'm going to call him out for it Fracking is absolutely harmful. It poisons drinking water pollutes the environment and literally causes earthquakes studies have proven this So this is a position that I think is untenable in 2021 When we have what a decade left to act in order to mitigate extreme climate change So, you know, I'm not trying to create an overall narrative about Joe Biden I think that if he does something good, I will applaud him if he does something bad I will criticize him and there is a lot of things that he did, you know, besides these things that I'm not happy about now last week. I love the executive orders with regard to COVID-19 I like that he instituted a federal mask mandate where possible But there are some things that I have to point out that I'm not happy with so his secretary of state Anthony Blinken stated That it is quote-unquote vitally important to consult with Israel on the Iran nuclear deal. Actually, it's not Israel's right-wing Prime Minister and Benjamin Netanyahu has gone out of his way to sabotage peace talks between the US and Iran so we don't have to consult with them Israel and Iran don't like each other Israel is overly antagonistic towards Iran So I don't think we need to consult with them. What happens between the US and Iran happens between the US and Iran So I don't like that direction the Iran nuclear agreement is effectively a peace deal So if you forego that if you don't get back into it, that's a bad thing now thankfully Biden has said that he intent on rejoining the Iran nuclear agreement and Iran does seem open to negotiating with him again So hopefully Anthony Blinken what he's saying doesn't represent what Biden actually wants to do But nonetheless, this is his secretary of state. So that's a really bad sign now Additionally while we're on the subject of foreign policy Not much has changed when it comes to our meddling in Latin America because Biden is likely to recognize Juan Guaido Who was not democratically elected as the president of Venezuela? Now, it's incredibly ironic to me because He's recognizing someone who is an illegitimate president Just after Donald Trump was trying to Guaido the American election I think Emma Viglin put it best hard to slam Trump for pretending he won the election and then simultaneously uphold this fiction exactly If you support democracy Then you support democracy you can't like waiver when it's inconvenient or if it benefits us You know when it comes to foreign policy or if there is a democracy that has a leader that we don't necessarily like because that leader Isn't allowing our American oil companies to access their oil wealth It's just you know, this is something that I expected It's frustrating but that doesn't mean that we should give him a pass because this was expected. This is Bad like stay out of Latin America. We have done irreparable harm to Latin America We have overthrown Countless regimes in Latin America mind your own fucking business Joe Biden So I mean, I don't like that there's continuity there But another area where I am really irritated with Joe Biden And I think that these things going forward You can characterize them as the ugly because we've done the good the bad these are things that are downright ugly So let's talk about healthcare. I am not a fan of Joe Biden's healthcare I think that when it comes to this issue, he is cruel and during a pandemic I think that that title of him being cruel gets upgraded to him just being a straight-up piece of shit If you don't support Medicare for all during a pandemic, then I think that that's borderline psychopathic behavior But he's watering down his own Healthcare proposal and the reason why it's getting watered down is because it has reportedly been written by You guessed it lobbyists So he's starting to signal that his administration is moving away from a public option Although that's not like a hundred percent determined as of yet But I mean, it's almost like we've seen this story before in 2009 President Obama said I support a public option And then when it came time to do healthcare reform, he didn't even propose it So once again, you know, we're seeing Joe Biden do the same thing that was done last time And of course, it's a betrayal and I said in 2019 look for Joe Biden to propose a public option Why should we believe that he supports this when him and Obama claimed to support it before but we didn't even get that We got the Affordable Care Act, which is right wing healthcare reform Originally thought up by the Heritage Foundation. So It's just it's outrageous. It is outrageous and I am not a supporter of a public option. The right answer is obvious It's it's Medicare for all But he's not even going to do that What he's proposing is to pump extra money into the private healthcare system and basically subsidize cobra This is not going to get people the healthcare that they need They might get health insurance. They might be able to buy insurance On the Obamacare markets, but guess what? That is trash Insurance people can't afford this. So if you don't actually propose something that's affordable What you're doing is effectively meaningless because in a couple of years we're going to have to revisit our healthcare system again So if you don't take at least somewhat bold steps to reform this horrible system Then nothing's going to change But on top of that people are losing their employer based health insurance during a pandemic So if you won't even be bold during a fucking pandemic that is morally reprehensible It shows that joe biden Lacks the moral character needed to meet this moment. Now. Finally. There is the lie about $2,000 checks The fact that we were promised checks immediately and he did not deliver I don't think democrats fully understand How bad this is going to come back and bite them in the ass and I think that this media Headline says it all a betrayal georgia voters enraged after democrats promise of $2,000 checks becomes $1,400 Under biden stimulus plan. This is unacceptable. You said $2,000 And you should stand by that but unfortunately since this story came out Well, the plot kind of thickened either even further because joe biden is proposing to further means test that $1,400 which means Less people will get access to it. It may take longer because means testing It slows everything down if you just have a universal program Then that's preferable because you get it out to americans faster And if you really want to means test it just like tax folks later next year down the line Just get the checks to people they're suffering But now we're hearing from Chuck Schumer that it may take a month month and a half before we get the checks And it just it keeps getting worse This is like one of the quickest 180s we've seen in politics in quite some time You just promised us checks and to say that now it's going to be 1,400 Now to say it's not going to be immediate now to say well, we're going to means test it This is such a bad look But again, I you know, I want to point out that There's some good There's some bad and there's some really ugly things about the biden administration I will say overall if I step back Assessing his first week in power It's better than I expected he surpassed my expectations But unfortunately for him my expectations were like below the floor Because I expected him to do not very much But when you have so much things so much crises that you have to address We need bold action and as I've said before Joe Biden is not the individual That is able to meet this moment But having said that though if he does good things he'll get credit for it and already Uh, he's proving why he's better than Donald Trump We're at least seeing that bare minimum level of competence that was lacking Throughout the last couple of years and what's especially needed During times like this a pandemic economic devastation But I mean to say that he's better than trump doesn't necessarily mean much because that's a really really low bar I think that if you put like a five-year-old In the oval office, they would do a better job than donald trump So, um, look, there it is. Joe Biden's first week You've got a lot of pleasant surprises. You've got some half measures You've got some things that are just genuinely depressing, but overall, you know, we'll continue to, um Give him credit where it's due and hold him accountable where he fucks up. That's gonna be my response going forward