Biden/Harris Presidency Discussion Thread

Here we go. Double masks.

BonnieSituation wrote: »

Shocking isn't it?

I’m so shocked I’d nearly take a pint. I’ve heard the new press secretary before in her previous role but even in a few minutes here it’s clear that the press briefings will be far less confrontational than the last four years.

Just listening here.

I'm so excited about how boring politics is about to get.

Water John wrote: »

Psaki kicked that Covid Relief budget Q well. What part of the relief do those objecting want to cut?

Republicans supposedly very concerned about the "price tag" of economic relief. They are so predictable at this stage.

Water John wrote: »

Psaki kicked that Covid Relief budget Q well. What part of the relief do those objecting want to cut?

She's no daw. Former Director of White House Communications and Deputy Press Secretary under Obama.

The press corps must think they've woken up in Kansas again.

Larbre34 wrote: »

She's no daw. Former Director of White House Communications and Deputy Press Secretary under Obama.

The press corps must think they've woken up in Kansas again.

Well she didn’t get the job by going on TV. She has done the job before. Imagine that novel concept. I see ted cruz is complaining about the Paris climate agreement, where Cruz seems to imply that the agreement is slanted towards people in Paris when it’s called that because of where it was signed.

BonnieSituation wrote: »

He didn't say that did he?

https://twitter.com/SenTedCruz/status/1352040800646029312?s=19

Itssoeasy wrote: »

He tweeted it. Paris vs Pittsburgh was reference.

He's so concerned about the people of Pittsburgh, he tried to have their votes thrown out.

extra gravy wrote: »

https://twitter.com/SenTedCruz/status/1352040800646029312?s=19

The subtext is; them foreigners.

dont see how a presidency can be good based on this:





lets be honest, us in ireland dont really give a **** unless it affects our pocket.

6541 wrote: »

Hi All - Do you think Biden can / will do anything to open a legal migration route for Irish people to get to the states ?
We really need this. It is a determent to Ireland that we can't get access to America.
This route has been closed for the last 20 plus years. Ireland needs access to America otherwise over time our influence will wane.
We should encourage our kids to get setup in America. Get new blood into the Irish areas in NYC and Boston.

There was a piece a few days ago about a new immigration bill that would allow citizenship in 8 years for people who are currently undocumented (illegal).
It would be 5 years of a Green Card and then 3 years to apply for citizenship.
Now it obviously has to pass congress which is far from guaranteed

Actually here is a story about it, Google search will get you more
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-pitch-year-pathway-citizenship-day-immigration-reform/story?id=75333490

You are incorrect in what you say the we (Irish) cannot get access to American and that our route has been blocked for 20 years

Irish people can apply for the DV lottery, the H1B lottery and other various visa types like the L1 which involves a transfer to a US site by your employers.
Now while the numbers of DV and H1B available to Irish people has been reduced over the years they are still available.
And the Trump administration wanted to change the immigration process to favor well educated , English speaking immigrants, which would have been more beneficial to Irish people than the current system.

However saying that anyone who has been in the US illegally since the mid 90s has had no amnesty, which is something previous illegals could have availed of from time to time.
Unless you married an American or were fortunate enough to have your status altered some other way they are as illegal today as they day they arrived a quarter of a century ago, even though they may have been working, paying taxes and raising kids throughout the whole period.
Many have lived most of their lives there illegally.

6541 wrote: »

Hi All - Do you think Biden can / will do anything to open a legal migration route for Irish people to get to the states ?
We really need this. It is a determent to Ireland that we can't get access to America.
This route has been closed for the last 20 plus years. Ireland needs access to America otherwise over time our influence will wane.
We should encourage our kids to get setup in America. Get new blood into the Irish areas in NYC and Boston.

Surely it would be better to keep our kids in Ireland with well paid jobs rather than some imagined influence in America?

Come on folks, the DV lottery and the H1B lottery give us a couple of hundred entries every year. What we require is thousands of visas for Irish.
Hopefully Biden can do some jiggery pokery and open up visa streams. I hope he is unashamedly biased toward Irish migration and doesn't even bother wrapping it up with overall migration issues.

L1011 wrote: »

We don't "require" them; there is no urgent compulsion for people to go to the US.

Most people don't have misty-eyed memories of the Donnelly Visa era either.

You have to admit it would be nice to have the ability to live and work in the states if you wanted to. What's not to like about living it up in New York or chilling in Florida. We have an Irishman in the White House, lets take advantage.
Our government should be in his ear getting as mush as we can from him. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us, lets grab it !

6541 wrote: »

You have to admit it would be nice to have the ability to live and work in the states if you wanted to. What's not to like about living it up in New York or chilling in Florida. We have an Irishman in the White House, lets take advantage.
Our government should be in his ear getting as mush as we can from him. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us, lets grab it !

I have zero interesting in living and/or working in the US. If I was forced to I'd be able to get a H1B easily enough.

This is not something we want or need; nor should we spent a second of diplomatic effort on it.

6541 wrote: »

You have to admit it would be nice to have the ability to live and work in the states if you wanted to. What's not to like about living it up in New York or chilling in Florida. We have an Irishman in the White House, lets take advantage.
Our government should be in his ear getting as mush as we can from him. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us, lets grab it !

When it comes to living abroad I do think the US would be higher on Irish peoples list than most other countries, if it were more accessible than it currently is.

People yap on about America and the guns, the lack of health care, the lack of social welfare as a reason that people do not want to go to the US, but in reality most of the moving aboard age group (20s) don't really care about that sort of stuff until much later in life.
I lived in the US in my mid 20s to early 30s in the late 1990s and no one in my Irish social circle (legal and illegal) gave too much thought to healthcare or ending up unemployed or anything like that.
People just enjoyed the money they were making and the lifestyle.
There was always the safety net that you could move back to a (increasingly prosperous) Ireland anyway.

But all that being said I do not think how Ireland could get an advantage in any wide ranging new immigration law.
There is the E-1 visa drama ongoing a number of years.
This is the ability for Irish people to have access to the unused Australian E-1 visas but that has been stuck in the legislature for more than a few years now.

But a wide ranging bill would likely be more friendly to Hispanic immigrants than Irish ones.
The Democrats did poorly among Hispanics in November despite Trump and his wall, they need to start clawing some of that back, and an immigration bill that is friendly to Hispanics is one way to start.

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Why? Biden's not going to spend political capital changing the system just to allow in more people from where he says he is from. Don't see the attraction in New York or Florida either. Given how the country is and the lack of interest there seem to be in discussing the roots of the very serious issues afflicting it, I don't think I'll ever even visit the US.

I do concede that some rural states like Alaska or Montana would be very appealing if it weren't for the high concentration of American Conservatives.

The thing about the US is that it is huge and diverse with a massive population and there is also a lot of devolution, whether than be at the state or town level.

So people have a tendency to just get on with their own lives and worry about what is local to them, rather than worrying about the larger picture.

No one in Weston, Massachusetts really gives a damn about whether institutional racism is a issue in the Dixon Tennessee police force.*

It's really not that different here
You could argue that homelessness is a very serious issue afflicting this country.
But in reality other than tut tutting at stories about families having to live in hotel rooms that they see on the TV news people really don't care that much about it.

*Two cities picked at random.

Was relatively easy when the system was skewed towards white english speakers.

So I know I posted about it last night and liked it but a good few hours later I’m wondering was the new press secretary actually much better or was it good when compared to the dumpster fire that had been there in various forms for four years ? I know she did some standard vagueness but honestly that’s par the course in politics. The FBI director one was sloppy but not dishonest.

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

The Democrats did poorly among Hispanics in November despite Trump and his wall, they need to start clawing some of that back, and an immigration bill that is friendly to Hispanics is one way to start.

I don't think this is necessarily the case.

The Hispanics the Democrats did poorly with seemed to be amenable to the social messaging of the far right. Particularly in Florida, there's a core of Cuban and, I think, Venezuelan expats or descendants thereof. Apparently Democracts are socialists in disguise. I'm not sure more immigration would suit them any more than the WASPs.

You only need to see how people of Indian extraction voted in the Brexit referendum. Immigrant families are often only too happy to pull the ladder up behind them.

Gbear wrote: »

I don't think this is necessarily the case.

The Hispanics the Democrats did poorly with seemed to be amenable to the social messaging of the far right. Particularly in Florida, there's a core of Cuban and, I think, Venezuelan expats or descendants thereof. Apparently Democracts are socialists in disguise. I'm not sure more immigration would suit them any more than the WASPs.

You only need to see how people of Indian extraction voted in the Brexit referendum. Immigrant families are often only too happy to pull the ladder up behind them.

Two things on Hispanics, they are mainly Roman Catholic and fervent in their beliefs and they've fled from countries in SA often ruled by leftist style Govnmt's.