Every time there's a new president or when Congress is narrowly divided, a familiar cry is heard — bipartisanship! People recall a mythical golden age when Republicans and Democrats got stuff done — usually digging up a hoary tale about President Ronald Reagan and House speaker Tip O'Neill knocking back sundowners in the 1980s.
Sometimes it even seems like a breakthrough is nigh — like when President Joe Biden chatted for two hours with Republican senators Monday. But soon enough, it becomes clear that bipartisanship — a concept that Beltway reporters especially lust over — is what everyone agrees the other side should be doing. On Biden's Covid relief bill, for instance, the two sides are $1.3 trillion apart, leading cynics to conclude Monday's Oval Office dance was a PR stunt on both sides.
In the wake of tight elections like the last one, which narrowed Democratic control of the House and threw up a 50-50 Senate, politicians often claim that voters want parties to work together. But it's just as likely that half of polarized America is just telling the other half they can't stand its values.
Republicans who enabled the most scorched-earth presidency in American history complain that Biden's calls for unity are hollow because he's wiping out Trump's legacy. But finding common ground in the House would be tough anyway, considering a majority of GOPers refused to vote to certify Biden's election. Democrats see no reason now for the President to water down his pandemic rescue plan just to win a few token Republicans. And liberals are eager to strip the Senate of its fabled filibuster, to weaken Republican obstruction on nation-changing laws on health care, social issues and climate.
For all Biden's hopes of draining the poison from political differences, the hard lesson of modern Washington is that the best use of new power is not to reach out to rivals. Instead, use it before you lose it -- and screw the other side.
'Every day there's some new rumor'
Biden has passed executive orders to unpick the Trump administration's hardline immigration policies, and his nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, was just confirmed by the Senate -- but so far that hasn't changed reality for thousands of asylum seekers stuck in precarious conditions on the Mexican side of America's southern border. For them, rumors about what the new administration might do are driving "hysteria," immigration attorney Jodi Goodwin told CNN's Priscilla Alvarez. "Every day there's some new rumor. Disinformation runs rampant. Once you get them to understand that nothing is going to happen right away, then they get it."
He's baaaack
Donald Trump's alternative reality returns next week.
The former President just filed a response to his second impeachment for inciting an insurrection against the Congress last month. You might not be surprised to learn that the document, released ahead of the coming Senate trial, is packed with contentious legal reasoning and contravenes the facts of the case.
The former President plans to use the trial to recycle the same inflammatory and anti-democratic claims that triggered his effective coup attempt in the first place. This won't please the Republican senators who won't dare to convict him but hoped Trump would at least stick to a narrow constitutional argument that the trial is moot.
Here's how Trump's defense is shaping up. Just keep in mind that each point contains untruths or questionable constitutional claims -- follow the links to learn more about each.
1) Trump cannot be tried because he's no longer president.
2) He did not incite an insurrection.
3) His incitement was simply an exercise of free speech.
4) Turning a mob on Congress did not violate Trump's presidential oath of office.
5) He didn't urge sedition against the Congress.
6) There is no evidence that his claims of election fraud are false.
7) Trump did not try to force GOP officials to reverse Georgia's election results.
8) He didn't threaten the integrity of the democratic system.
'He is not engaging in geopolitics, he holds meetings on how to smear underwear with chemical weapons'
Meanwhile in Moscow, anti-corruption activist Alexey Navalny refused to go quietly to prison on Tuesday, ridiculing the hearing as a "show trial" and mocking Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he accuses of ordering his near-fatal Novichok poisoning last year. "There was Alexander the Liberator and Yaroslav the Wise, and there will be Vladimir the Poisoner of Underpants," Navalny said. "He is not engaging in geopolitics, he holds meetings on how to smear underwear with chemical weapons." (The Kremlin has denied this.)
Navalny continued: "Our entire country lives in this slum -- they have no prospects, they are all scared and they are silent -- and this show trial is held to intimidate millions. I hope that people don't think of this trial as a reason to be more scared. You can't jail millions of people, and I hope one day they realize that. And when they do this will all crumble apart."
February 04, 2021 at 09:26AM
https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/03/world/meanwhile-in-america-february-3-intl/index.html
The hard lesson of power in modern Washington - CNN
https://news.google.com/search?q=hard&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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