And so we come to the final Friday Talking Points of President Joe Biden's term in office.

It is perhaps appropriate that the funeral of Jimmy Carter happened in the midst of Biden winding down his final weeks. Because Joe Biden -- another one-term Democratic president like Jimmy -- will likely become more appreciated as time goes by, just as Carter was.

Joe Biden had a pretty spectacular first two years in office, in terms of getting legislation passed. Granted, he had a Democratic Congress to work with and the continuing crisis of a pandemic to spur the politicians to actually act. He used both to get a sweeping agenda passed which will have an impact for years to come. But he had to grapple with two corporate-friendly Democrats in the Senate who held him back from achieving an even-more-historic agenda. If the full "Build Back Better" plan had made it past Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, then Americans would doubtlessly feel a lot differently (and better) about government's role in their economic lives.

This is actually one of the things that has been interesting to see, over the past few weeks. There has been a gradual realization in both the Democratic Party and the media that might be summed up as: "Bernie was right." As Salon helpfully pointed out:

"I think Senator [Bernie] Sanders has somewhat of a point."

In defeat, Democrats, like longtime political strategist James Carville, are finally admitting that the independent senator from Vermont just might get it. "There are things Sanders favored that we could have put more front and center," Carville acknowledged in a post-election interview.

The comment itself was not shocking, but the messenger was. After all, Carville had been a leading voice in the news media's efforts to diminish Sanders' influence on the Democratic Party during his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. In 2020, after referring to the senator as a "communist," Carville warned it would be the "end of days" if Sanders secured the 2020 Democratic Party's presidential nomination. After 2024, Carville was not the only person in legacy media to move from critiquing to entertaining Sanders-style politics.

Indeed, the 2024 presidential election post-mortems saw many in the press cope with Donald Trump's victory by tacitly admitting that Bernie Sanders was right. Since 2016, much of the legacy media has embraced the establishment's disdain for Sanders' style politics. During his 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, Sanders advocated for a return to 1930s-style democratic socialist policies, including progressive taxation, robust regulations on corporations, increasing the minimum wage to a living wage, universal healthcare, and trust-busting. These ideas conflicted with the donor class, and the Democratic Party establishment, which abandoned such policies in the 1990s to curry favor with corporate America. Consequently, when Sanders, a political independent, joined the Democratic Party in 2015 so he could participate in their primary, he faced a coordinated effort by the Democratic Party and legacy media to marginalize his influence.

This week, President Biden mentioned this during his primetime farewell address, warning the nation of the rise of the oligarchs (most prominently in what Biden termed "the tech-industrial complex," attempting to piggyback on Dwight D. Eisenhower's famous phrase from his own farewell address). Which is all happening right out in the open, now. Elon Musk seems to be the puppetmaster pulling Donald Trump's strings (a role he has embraced since the election) while all the other tech-bros are scrambling to jettison any policy from their companies that could be considered "woke," including fact-checking and policies that forbid hate speech. They've all been donating to Trump's inaugural fund (giving millions), and they've all been rewarded with prime seats at his inauguration. As noted, it's all right out in the open for all to see. Which is precisely what Biden warned of: "Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead."

But the best commentary (on Biden's farewell address comments) came from late-night comic Seth Meyers (who was actually the target of a Trump social media tirade earlier in the week). Here is Seth reminding everyone that one politician has been warning of this for over three decades now, in case anyone's forgotten (skip forward to 3:37 in the video to see an awesome mashup reel of some of the various times Bernie Sanders has pointed this out over the past 31 years).

The Democratic Party as a whole might be waking up to the concept as well, as there have been some pointed statements and questions to Trump's cabinet appointees during their Senate hearings on the subject of large corporations and pay-to-play politics. This could be an emerging wider strategy going forward -- one that actually does have the chance to succeed. Point out the difference between real populism and the fake populism championed by Trump. Point out that Trump is surrounding himself with more billionaires in his administration than any other president ever. Point it out every time the Republican Congress tries to slash funding for everything on their Project 2025 menu -- cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps (SNAP), Obamacare subsidies, infrastructure cuts, and all the rest. Point it out when Republicans refuse to support Union rights and refuse to even consider raising the minimum wage. Point it out every time Trump's campaign promises get changed by his oligarch friends into policies that pad the pockets of giant corporations and the ultra-wealthy at the expense of average working folks. Point out the fact that they're all doing precisely nothing to reduce the cost of rent or groceries too, while you're at it. As far as political strategies go, this at least has the possibility of success.

There have been a lot of other things going on in the world of politics than just Joe Biden's swansong, however. Trump will be inaugurated on Monday, which is forecast to be a miserably-cold day in Washington D.C. But we can't really say that Mother Nature is weighing in with a political opinion, since we personally damn near froze to death waiting (from before sunup, when the temperature on the National Mall was approximately 15 degrees Fahrenheit) to see Barack Obama get sworn in, back in 2009. In case anybody missed the obvious, January 20th falls smack in the middle of what scientists technically call "winter," so there's a good chance it's going to be a miserable day for an outdoor event. Trump's inauguration has now been moved inside, which is going to seriously chafe at him (since he won't even get to lie about the size of any adoring crowds watching it all). Oh, well, at least he'll have Carrie Underwood and (!) The Village People performing for some of Trump's inaugural balls, that should cheer him up somewhat, right?

There will be protests before Trump gets sworn in, but they are likely to be a lot smaller than the ones which erupted right before his first term in office. Everyone in "the Resistance" is too damn exhausted to spend energy on such things, to be quite blunt. It's been a long eight or nine years, and it's going to be a long four more years to come.

President Biden is trying to do what he can at the last minute to lock in some of his policies and "Trump-proof" them. We'll see how successful any of this is, since Trump is reportedly readying over 100 executive orders to sign on his first day in office. A big focus is going to be getting the massive deportation effort started in a big way, but Trump will also be overturning as many of the things Biden did as he can, as well.

One footnote in all this was how Biden essentially tried to have things both ways in one final act, which left us searching for: "how many amendments does the U.S. Constitution now have?" early this morning. Biden put out a statement expressing his belief that there were now 28 amendments, but didn't actually order his official archivist to do anything to make that belief a legal reality. Here's the story:

President Biden declared on Friday that he believes that the Equal Rights Amendment has met the requirements of ratification and therefore is now part of the Constitution, but he declined to order the government to finalize the process by officially publishing it.

"In keeping with my oath and duty to Constitution and country, I affirm what I believe and what three-fourths of the states have ratified: The 28th Amendment is the law of the land, guaranteeing all Americans equal rights and protections under the law regardless of their sex," Mr. Biden said in a statement.

Under the Constitution, however, the president has no direct role in approving amendments and his statement has no legal force by itself. The archivist of the United States, a Biden appointee, has refused to formally publish the amendment on the grounds that it has not met the requirements to become part of the Constitution.

Aides said that Mr. Biden was not ordering the archivist, Colleen Shogan, to reverse her position and publish the amendment, as advocates have urged him to do. Asked for comment on Friday, the archivist's office referred back to previous statements refusing to publish the amendment, indicating that she would not change her stance.

Maybe it'll be useful if anyone ever tries to challenge the whole mess in court -- that is reportedly Biden's thinking, at any rate. But it certainly has the feel of "too little, too late," at least to us.

What else? A ceasefire was agreed to by the leaders of both Israel and Hamas, which led to political squabbling between Biden and Trump as to who deserved more credit for it (Trump is likely to win this tug-of-war for public opinion).

Parts of Los Angeles are still burning, although the situation has improved as the winds have relented. Republicans have now hit upon the bright idea of tying any federal disaster aid to "things Democrats don't want," which is a profoundly stupid idea (ask California Republicans, they're not big fans of this new tactic). How long is it going to take (they might well ask themselves) before Democrats are in control and a hurricane hits Florida or the Gulf Coast?

Half of Jack Smith's final report was released by the Justice Department this week, and it had a very On The Waterfront feel to it: "I coulda taken him... I coulda been a contender!" Smith expressed full confidence that even after the Supreme Court equated presidents with kings he still could have secured a conviction in a jury trial on Trump's culpability in causing the January 6th insurrection attempt at the United States Capitol. But now we'll never know, will we? Thanks a lot, Attorney General Merrick Garland, for wasting a whole two years before even getting this investigation started. The other half of Smith's report -- on the case concerning national security documents that Trump refused to return even after being subpoenaed for them -- was not released, and may never be publicly released (once Trump's A.G. will be in charge of such decisions).

The big news from the Senate was a parade of hearings for Trump's major appointees. So far, it seems the Republican Party has completely jettisoned any remaining shreds of morality as they support candidates with all sorts of what used to be disqualifying events in their past, as well as gigantic problems with their relative experience and/or fitness for the job. They're trying to tee up as many votes as they can for Trump's first day, or "first few weeks," at the very least.

A big MAGA spat spun up this week, pitting Steve Bannon against Elon Musk, with Bannon actually telling Musk to "go back to South Africa," and plenty of far-more-juvenile language being flung at each other. Stay tuned! This could get interesting....

An earthquake is about to happen in the world of social media, as the TikTok ban was upheld unanimously by the Supreme Court today, meaning the deadline of this Sunday for them to either divest of Chinese ownership or face being yanked from all the app stores is nigh. But who knows how this'll all play out -- President Biden announced in essence that he won't be enforcing the law on his final day in office, and Donald Trump wants to somehow overturn the law by issuing an executive order (which isn't legally possible, but that might not stop him from trying).

And so we close the final Biden-era weekly wrap-up here with an interesting bit of numerology from the Washington Post. Donald Trump will soon have been alive for precisely one-third the time the Constitution has been in effect. Make of this what you will....

On Feb. 1, 12 days after Donald Trump is inaugurated for the second time, a moment of historical interest will arrive. On that day, Trump will have lived exactly one-third of the lifespan of the American republic.

By my calculations, using the website Howlongagogo.com, Trump will be 28,722 days old. And on that same day, the U.S. Constitution will have been in effect for 86,166 days.

Divide the former by the latter and you get a perfect .3333.

 

The Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week this week was President Joe Biden. We realize we are stretching that definition a wee bit, as we're really giving this as more of a swansong award for his entire term of office, but we are allowed to bend these rules whenever we feel like.

Joe Biden accomplished a lot while in the Oval Office. He oversaw the comeback of the American economy from the disastrous effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. This cannot be overstated. Even if Americans still have economic gripes, the American economy truly is the envy of the rest of the Western world.

Biden oversaw the most spectacular jobs numbers of any presidential term, ever. There was not a single month while he was president where the American economy lost jobs -- an extraordinary achievement on its own. We recovered from the pandemic, wages rose, and despite pretty much every economist out there predicting a recession in the middle of his term, it did not happen. Yes, inflation spiked for a while, but it is back down to manageable numbers once again.

All of this is, as mentioned, the envy of the Western world. And it is all to Biden's credit.

This is just the most impressive thing Biden got done, out of a long list of achievements. We saved a Politico article last February because it was such a good wrap-up of what Biden had done in only his first three years in office, but we won't list all of them (because "30 things" is too much to list here). Here are the ones from this list that impressed us the most (in the same order they were presented in the article):

• Expanded overtime guarantees for millions
• First over-the-counter birth control pill
• Renewable power is the No. 2 source of electricity in the U.S. -- and climbing
• A sweeping crackdown on "junk fees" and overdraft charges
• Preventing another Jan. 6th
• The Biden administration helps broker a deal to save the Colorado River
• Biden recommends loosening federal restrictions on marijuana
• Biden moves to bring microchip production home
• Reinvigorating cancer research to lower death rates
• Making medication more accessible through telemedicine
• Fixing bridges, building tunnels, and expanding broadband
• The U.S. is producing more oil than anytime in history
• Making airlines pay up when flights are delayed or canceled

That's just an abbreviated list, mind you. And it only covers Biden's first three years -- nothing that he achieved in 2024 is even on it.

Joe Biden had a more productive term as measured by important legislation passed than any president since L.B.J. (at the very least -- some even say "since F.D.R."). His first two years with a Democratic Congress were pretty breathtaking in this regard, even with the ball-and-chain pair of Manchin and Sinema holding him back.

Sadly, one of the biggest achievements Biden managed (like a whole lot of other things that will be soon undone) was bringing back decency and being humane to politics once again. Biden will nestle in the history books as a sort of interregnum between the Trump terms, but it was a solid relief nonetheless. For four whole years we have not been panicked a single time by some late-night tweet from the country's leader. For four whole years, we have not had high-ranking officials in the executive department arrested or charged or convicted of criminal activity. Biden appointed no aides or cabinet members who had been accused of sexual assault (or worse). A sense of normalcy returned.

That, of course, is all about to go by the wayside, but even so we have to express our gratitude and relief for all of it. Our expectations is that once he retires from politics, Joe Biden will rise in public opinion as people remember the things he actually did (as opposed to the smears and mudslinging from his opponents).

Thank you for your service, President Biden. As a measure of our gratitude, please accept this last Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award, on your way out the door.

[Congratulate President Joe Biden (while you still can) on the White House contact page, to let him know you appreciate his efforts.]

 

To counterbalance all of that, we also have to award the Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week to President Joe Biden -- again, for his whole term in office, not just for the past week. Because while there were successes, there were plenty of disappointments as well.

One of Biden's flaws as a politician has been evident in his last-minute flurry of trying to get a lot of things done before he leaves -- Biden sometimes takes too long to make a decision and then act on it, and when he does act it is often not forceful enough to achieve his objective.

To cite just one example, although the Biden administration moved the process further than it has ever gone before, marijuana is still just as illegal as it was when Biden took office. The process of rescheduling it from Schedule I to Schedule III is still in Limbo. Donald Trump could either continue (and complete) this effort or undermine it. Because Biden simply took too long to get it done. And that is merely one small example -- there are plenty of others.

Biden never really used his presidential "bully pulpit" as effectively as he could have, either. He never pushed hard to achieve goals in Congress when members of his own party balked. In his farewell address, Biden called for an 18-year term limit and ethics reforms for Supreme Court justices, but he never made getting this passed through Congress a priority. That's just one example, but there are others. If Biden had twisted some arms in the Senate, he could have whittled away at the filibuster (without completely removing it) to allow simple majority votes for issues of constitutional rights -- which would have allowed him to get a new voting rights act passed as well as enshrining the protections of Roe v. Wade into federal law. These were both gigantic disappointments to millions.

Then there was the 2024 election. Biden could have announced his decision right after the 2022 midterms not to seek a second term, and we would have had a wide-open Democratic primary season which would have tested the mettle of the up-and-coming contenders and allowed the media and the public to fully vet them. That (obviously) didn't happen. Instead, Biden drew no serious challengers himself (as a sitting president) and cleared the field for his own nomination -- which turned out disastrously.

Kamala Harris, who had to step in at the eleventh hour and try to turn Biden's slide into victory, did a pretty good job of at least trying. But Biden simply waited too long to bow out, and Harris lost, in the end. Sadly, this may in fact be the main thing Biden's presidency is remembered for, in the years and decades to come.

And finally, one of the biggest disappointments with Joe Biden was his inability to get his own party members to sing from the same songbook, in praise of what he and the party had already achieved. This is a failing of many Democrats, but somehow it seemed more acute with Biden. In order to drive the media narrative, you've got to be a lot more forceful in framing your political message than Biden could ever manage to do. This isn't so much about being a great orator (which Biden definitely isn't) but instead a matter of focus and repetition.

We wrote a review of Biden's farewell speech yesterday (if anyone's interested), and we were struck while writing it how much there was a definite flavor of "what might have been" to Biden's presidency. He accomplished a lot, but he could have accomplished a whole lot more, too. For this, we are awarding Biden one last Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week, on his way out the door.

[Contact President Joe Biden (while you still can) on the White House contact page, to let him know what you think of his actions.]

 

Volume 779 (1/17/25)

We've got an all-Trump list of talking points this week, to get ready for the onslaught of weirdness which will doubtlessly be emanating from Washington for the next four years (like a firehose, without pause). Because this is truly the last bit of calm before the upcoming storm, so we thought we'd try to get ready for it all.

 

   Let chaos reign

Just a quick reminder, before it all begins.

"We should all say goodbye to being able to ignore what the government is doing, because with Trump at the reins again, things are just not going to be that calm. If Trump's second term is anything like his first, then we will have multiple scandals and outrageous statements and lies and endless drama every single week that we will all have to pay attention to, for the next four years. Are we at war with Canada yet? Check Trump's social media feed.... Has a government program that millions rely on been put on the chopping block? Pay attention.... Are we going to try battling hurricanes with nuclear weapons? Could be! The quietude of Joe Biden's term in office will end abruptly, and we'll all be on the rollercoaster for the next four years, so let the chaos begin!"

 

   President Id

This is a big change, and it will doubtlessly lead to some epic disasters.

"Remember in Trump's first term when he was forced to have some reality-based aides around to tell him when he couldn't do things? Yeah, well, those days are gone. This time around, there simply will be no 'adults in the room.' If Trump throws one of his tantrums, he's going to be surrounded by people who cheer him on and goad him to react in outrageous ways. There will be no guardrails. Instead, Trump is going to do what he damn well feels like, whether it is legal, ethical, or makes a lick of sense or not. We're going to be governed by President Id, in fact. Buckle up, everyone, it's likely to be a rough ride!"

 

   What are the odds?

The job "churn" could set records, as well.

"When you see Trump's nominees getting confirmed by the Senate and as his cabinet takes shape, you should ask yourself: how many of them will still be there in a year's time? How many of them will annoy Trump or undercut Trump or even (gasp!) refuse to do something Trump wants to do and then find themselves out on their ear? The only thing for certain is that all of them won't make it through their first year on the job, but what I wonder is how many of them will wind up getting thrown under the bus when things don't go well for Trump."

 

   Day Never

Democrats need to make a big deal of this, as many chances as they get.

"Trump promised a whole bunch of things would get done on his first day in office. But now he's having to come to terms with the hard cold fact that a lot of them are things that are actually very hard to do. So how many of Trump's sweeping campaign promises are going to go by the wayside? How many of them are just never going to happen? What is the price of eggs these days... hmmm? Has Trump cut gasoline prices by half, like he promised? What items on Trump's 'Day One' list are going to migrate over to 'Day Never'?"

 

   For better or worse

Things could get better, and then again, they could get worse. Either way, there's one person who is going to be seen as being responsible.

"It is Trump's economy now, for better or worse. If interest rates go up, that's Trump's fault. If inflation spikes because of Trump's economic policy, he's not going to be able to blame Joe Biden for it. When Trump fails to magically bring down the price of rent and groceries, that's going to all be on him and no one else. Because for better or worse, it is now Trump's economy."

 

   Smallest ever?

Rub this one in, because you just know it'll annoy him.

"Hell might not have frozen over, but according to the weather reports Washington is going to do precisely that for Trump's inauguration. In fact, he has already announced it'll be held indoors. So there just won't be any photos of Trump in front of the Capitol with a crowd of people in attendance. He won't even be able to send out his press secretary to lie his face off about how big the crowd was, because it simply won't exist. In fact, Trump may go down in history as having had one of the smallest inaugural crowds ever -- how ironic is that?"

 

   Um... sure, Donny, sure, call it whatever you want...

This final one was in response to one of those off-the-cuff Trump ideas that truly reaches the level of "profoundly stupid." It was in an article in the Washington Post, to give credit where it is due.

[Donald Trump] announced on social media this week that "I am today announcing that I will create the EXTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE to collect our Tariffs, Duties, and all Revenue that come from Foreign sources." Evidently, he was unaware that Congress had already taken care of this, in 1789. It's called "Customs."

-- Chris Weigant

 

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant

Cross-posted at: Democratic Underground