Mr. Beat on the 2024 Presidential race

 

[VIDEO] Here it is!

Mr. Beat's official 2024 election video. That race proved to be such a wild race. Who knew that President Donald Trump would make his return to the Oval Office after what happened in the aftermath of the 2020 Presidential race?

One thing that caught my eye in this video is a return to the spoils system. Basically insuring that those within the government are loyalists to your administration. What has been discussed within the populist right has been how the professional bureaucrats of the federal gov't helped undermind administrations they don't like.

America has already had a spoils system and at some point in the past our gov't were often staffed by a permanent bureacracy. And another argument made is that these bureacrats make some decisions over our lives and they're not elected.

With discussions of buyouts and more recently outright firings and even head of "D.O.G.E." Elon Musk declaring in a tweet that the Dept. of Education no longer exists. I'd say as they attempt to make gov't more efficient it seems more and more likely what Trump's priority is, perhaps he doesn't want a professional bureacracy. Perhaps more Presidents should staff the executive branch the way they see fit.

Now I'm sorry for not paying attention to what Trump was talking about during the campaign. And the fact that someone was attempting to kill him during that campaign. It helped to tip the odds in his favor. The use of weaponized "lawfare" was terrible and probably showed that someone was veyr concerned about him. Everything they tried to do seemed designed to keep him from running for President again and they may know full well after 2020 he had unfinished business. I wonder if they had just left him alone would he have just gone away on his own.

Meanwhile you had a President who was showing he couldn't handle the rigors of the job and while it's noted that his Vice President and her running mate breathed new life into the Democratic Party, it became clear to me that the Harris/Walz ticket was going to have their clock cleaned. Yeah Trump didn't perform well in his debate against Kamala Harris, however, it became clear that she wasn't the one either.

I'm curious what many of you think of the 47th President so far?

ALSO, feel free to watch what set up the 2024 race. Mr. Beat's video about the 2020 race.

Today is January 6, the day to certify the 2024 Presidential Race

 This shows how in tune I am with the political scene right now.

This time four years ago, outgoing President Donald Trump held a rally where he asked his supporters to go to the U.S. Capitol to protest the count of those electoral votes in a joint session of the U.S. Congress. Which quickly became an "insurrection". It was a very scary day and I just couldn't believe that our democracy, our republic seemed to be underseige by "mob violence".

It seemed one side had to defend themselves and the other side played offense trying to paint the insurrectionists as anti-democracy or traitors. January 6 for some became a day of great rememberance. However, seemingly this day was also forgotten by a number of Americans.

Furthermore the man who won the Presidential Election for 2024 was not supposed to be in that race. There were court cases, even an impeachment trial commenced even before he left office. And guess what on this day, in 2024 he's the one who's vote are being certified in front of Congress.

If the so-called insurrection was used to try to keep him out of the White House, it helped to bring him right back in. I'm sure someone out there is protesting this. I see the incumbent President who beat him in 2020 isn't exactly organizing a rally to fight this. And the woman, the 2024 winner vanquished has to preside over the count to certify the 2024 electoral votes.

Barring any news reports of any "trouble" this should go relatively smooth. Though since President-elect Donald Trump is definitely a very polarizing figure there probably will be some protests from some members of Congress trying to object..

And just think with the "insurrection" of 2020, whatever objections to that race between President Trump and then President-elect Joe Biden fell apart once the U.S. Capitol was secured.

At this point whatever unfolds, you can see on C-Span if you don't want any editorializing of the proceedings. Or you can watch this live stream via FOX News. [VIDEO]

CBS News VP Debate

 

[VIDEO] CBS News had broadcast this debate (and aired on all the major news networks) between US Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN).

Unlike the debate last month between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris I will show this one today. That debate will come later.

This wasn't a particularly exciting debate, but I didn't detect any attacks or even any baits between these two candidates. There were some common ground seen between these two men, especially when on some issues there were a stark divide.

Both men by my eyes came off very well. I'm not so sure about Gov. Walz but then again I have no real issues with Sen. Vance. I'm glad to see Vance would be supportive of Walz if he gets elected. Hopefully Walz would do they same.

What was noted by some pundits and by my eyes Walz seemed very nervous. I would day say for me Walz at times seemed to have the "deer in headlights" look. Some will say he didn't belong on that stage, and well who am I to judge as I'm not up there. And nor is anyone else saying that although many of them are on TV and I'm not.

What I would say is that both VP Harris and Gov. Walz come from states that are most favorable to them as far as electoral process. Especially the Vice President. I don't know what the margin of victory for Walz in his elections for the Governor of Minnesota, however, that state is considered a solid blue state so who knows being on that national stage for a debate might be new territory for him.

I didn't see this debate from the beginning, missed out on the main event for NXT on The CW network (not a major network). So there were some portions of the debate that was missed but I'm glad I saw it.

DNC Chicago 2024

Chicago Tribune photo

Haven't really had the time to watch the DNC this week. Got a lot going on at home right now.

I did at least see Doug Emhoff, Michelle Obama and former Pres. Barack Obama speak last night. Will share at a later time.

I also understand that IL Gov. J.B. Pritzker spoke last night at the DNC will also share that.

On Monday Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson spoke to the DNC. And also so did outgoing President Joe Biden who dropped out of the 2024 race just last month.

Of course all of our local politicians - especially the high profile ones - will be speaking at a nat'l political convention. From Governor on down. However, expect me to share remarks by the Vice President's running mate MN Gov. Tim Walz and of course Vice Pres. Kamala Harris.

How these usually go Walz will likely speak tonight and then the Vice President will speak on Thursday night , the last evening of the convention.

Thankfully there weren't a lot of problems outside of the convention. I see police were shown in riot gear and of course arrests were made because well some people don't mind pushing the limits. People were expecting Chicago to be out of control and I'm not seeing that yet.

Then again admittedly I'm not following a lot of coverage on whatever protests are going on. Let's hope things don't go to out of control. However, I'm encouraged that Chicago Police will step in before things go too crazy.

VP Kamala Harris has chosen her running mate.

 Allow me to share her tweet from about an hour ago. She chooses Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) as her running mate against former President Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH).

I am proud to announce that I've asked @Tim_Walz to be my running mate.

As a governor, a coach, a teacher, and a veteran, he's delivered for working families like his.

It's great to have him on the team.

Now let’s get to work. Join us:https://t.co/W4AE2WlMTj

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 6, 2024

Allow me to share a livestream going on as I share this post from Mr. Beat who did the same thing when Trump announced Sen. Vance as his running mate last month. [VIDEO]

Gov. Walz is from a blue state and certainly might share some of the same ideals as Harris (that is if she has an real ideas or ideology or core values). More than likely she'll win Minnesota so I'm not sure what real benefit Walz pick would be.

In general people will still vote for who they want as President more so than who they want as Vice President. And just as we have to get to know Sen. Vance (whom Democrats have started calling "weird"), we'll have to get to know Gov. Walz.

I may point out that the unrest and anxiety of 2020 is in the rearview mirror I wonder if in any future Vice Presidential debates that questions might be asked about his response to the riots in Minneapolis in the wake of George Floyd's death while being arrested by police. We shall see...

CapitolFax: Pritzker hasn’t received VP vetting materials from Harris but doesn’t shut down speculations that he’s interested

My .02¢ on this is VP Harris' choice won't likely be Gov. Pritzker although he would be more in line with a certain segment of the Democratic Party. Her best bet is a more moderate choice. Time will tell, it's interesting they (or perhaps even Republicans) have a process to vet potential running mates.

Check out all the react and stories at CapitolFax

Pritzker hasn’t received VP vetting materials from Harris but doesn’t shut down speculations that he’s interested https://t.co/ga2xuj8xhi

— Capitol Fax (@capitolfax) July 23, 2024

President Joe Biden drops out of the 2024 presidential race

The rumors were ongoing with this. Some earlier reports had Joe Biden dropping out of the 2024 race on Sunday (yesterday). However, it seemed as if the President was going to stay in this thing. 

And then I saw this on Instagram yesterday.

J.J. McCullough: RESIGN? Trudeau and Biden's overlapping leadership crises

 

[VIDEO] The differences & similarities between the respective leaders of Canada and United States. Duration is over 20 mins for this video.

Allow me to add that Canada has a slightly different electoral system to our nation. Canada has a parliamentary/Westminster system of gov't vs. the USA which is a republican form of gov't.

The next elections in Canada is at least next year, and there is a strong possibility that Canadians may want a change in their gov't. This could lead to Prime Minister Trudeau opting to stand down before the next election and his party chooses another leader in time for the next election. I see no indication that he would although I'm not an ardent follower of Canadian politics.

And now Joe Biden. Before the recent incident in Pennsylvania regarding President Donald Trump - the GOP nominee for President - the news cycle was dominated by whether or not he'd drop out of the race. My thoughts are why wasn't this discussed well before the summer. Someone should've been working on him at least 6 months ago. There is no strong indication that he would drop out and if he did we'd have a bit of a scramble to determine who would run in his place.

Even if he stayed in the race indications are that he would likely lose his rematch with his predecessor President Trump.

Some contrasts here are ages. Trudeau is in his early 50s and his background showed no indication that he could one day become a nat'l leader in Canada. He's also the son of a Canadian Prime Minister in the late Pierre Trudeau. He had talent that led him to becoming not only the leader of Canada's Liberal Party it also led him to the office of Prime Minister, Canada's head of gov't.

Biden on the other hand is aged 81, the oldest President ever elected. He's spent most of his life in politics being elected to the US Senate aged 30 in 1972. He was Vice President under Obama from 2009 - 2017. Then he runs for President in 2020 in a chaotic year and after two other earlier tries he finally succeeds. Whether I like it or not...

Of course I may also add it's debatable if he has the same talents that Justin Trudeau has as a politician. Although we may cringe at Trudeau's attempts to connect with the youth.

Sorry for my longwinded response to this video however time will tell the results of the 2024 race and certainly we will see what happens in Canada once election season commences there as well.

SCOTUS ruled that student loan forgiveness is dead

 If you were looking forward to this it's over, if nothing else the Biden Administration needs to come up with a new plan. From the New York Post.

The Supreme Court ruled Friday that President Biden’s controversial program to forgive student loan debt for roughly 40 million borrowers exceeded his executive authority.

On the last day before the high court’s summer recess, the six conservative justices ruled the $400 billion plan could not use an earlier 2003 law meant to help veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to implement the program.

The other three liberal justices dissented against the ruling.

Biden last August announced his student loan forgiveness plan, which aimed to cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt for certain borrowers.

But the program was met with fierce resistance from many GOP lawmakers who questioned its legality.

If you borrowed federal student loans you could get up to $10,000 forgiven if you meet certain income guidelines. You could also get up to $20,000 if you used Pell Grants to attend a university.

h/t Newsalert

If you want to read the opinion itself, I found it via SCOTUSBlog.

Politico: Supreme Court agrees to decide fate of Biden’s student debt relief

 If you're still concerned about the Biden admin's student debt relief which got suspended due to court challenges, the Supreme Court will resolve this at some point. Via Politico:

The court on Thursday deferred a ruling on the administration’s emergency request to immediately reinstate its debt relief program. Instead, the court said, the justices will hear arguments on the matter next year.

The case will “be argued in the February 2023 argument session,” the court said in a one-page order. No justice noted any dissent to the court’s decision not to immediately grant the Biden administration’s application to move forward with the debt relief program now.

Putting the case on the docket for the current court term means a decision is likely by June, if not earlier.

The Supreme Court’s decision to fast-track arguments about the legality of Biden’s debt relief plan comes just several months after he first announced it in August following months of pressure from progressives. Conservative groups and Republican state officials have filed a wave of legal challenges to stop Biden’s debt relief.

Meanwhile, get those loans paid off. Uncle Sam isn't coming to your rescue.

Oh yeah, bear in mind the Biden admin has again put federal student loan payments on pause through June 2023.

Also from Politico:

The Supreme Court said it would address two questions: whether the Republican attorneys general have standing to bring the case in the first place and “whether the plan exceeds the Secretary’s statutory authority or is arbitrary and capricious.”

President Biden's student loan forgiveness plan blocked

 

[VIDEO] A federal judge in Texas blocked Biden's recent student loan forgiveness plan because it was said to be beyond the authority of the US Dept. of Education and the federal gov't executive branch. Also in a separate case filed in St. Louis, Missouri it only put on hold the execution of Pres. Biden's student loan forgiveness although those who wished to apply still could.

As of now student loan forgiveness applications are currently on hold.

Forbes: Biden Student Loan Forgiveness Plan Survives Multiple Court Challenges — But Legal Battles Continue

 Sorry I have been slow about this, however, there was bound to be legal challenges to the Biden admin's proposed student loan forgiveness program.

Forbes: 

Ramsey: Reaction to student loan forgiveness

 

[VIDEO] I've been sharing videos of personal finance guru Dave Ramsey over the course of the last few weeks. Ramsey and Rachel Cruze are talking about yesterday's news with regards to Biden's action on student loan forgiveness. I knew he'd have something to say.

Ramsey's deal is he wants individuals to be debt free so he might be happy in those cases. However, he goes into a rant about how this is all about politics. He might also mention the debt and how you and your grandchildren will continue to pay for this debt.

Of course let's add this in the Biden-Harris admin is a failed economic presidency!

CNBC: Pres. Biden cancels $10K of student loan debt for most borrowers

 Well it's not total relief, but how many will argue with this. I won't.

Via CNBC:

President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that he will forgive $10,000 in federal student debt for most borrowers, fulfilling a campaign pledge and delivering financial relief to millions of Americans.

Biden will cancel up to $20,000 for recipients of Pell Grants, he also said in a tweet Wednesday.

The relief will be limited to Americans earning under $125,000 per year, or $250,000 for married couples or heads of households. The relief is also capped at the amount of a borrower’s outstanding eligible debt, per the Education Department.

The president will also extend the payment pause on most federal student loans “one final time” through Dec. 31, 2022, according to the tweet.

The tweet in question.

Inauguration Day

UPDATE 10:36 PM - I had to change the location of watching Obama's first inaugural to Douglass Hall - this is where Morehouse students would go and study. It would bother me to leave that minor detail in this post.

Today Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th P.O.T.U.S. and this election was very contentious and sadly culminated in the riots that took place at the U.S. Capitol earlier this month. We're still in unprecedented times with this pandemic and now we have a new chief of state to move us forward once again.

It causes me to remember another historic occasion which was the election of his former boss the 44th P.O.T.U.S Barack Obama. I was still at Morehouse College at the time and watched the inauguration on TV in Mays Douglass Hall at the time. I was a bit older than many of the students there and perhaps a bit more jaded.

Morehouse

Well it wasn't lost upon me that America had just elected an African-American as President a man of Kenyan descent a man who formerly represented in the IL General Assembly a large swath of an urban area from the skyscrapers of downtown to largely Black neighborhoods. It wasn't lost upon me that many of the young people who were in school at the time in the Atlanta University Center were celebrating the election of someone who looked like them as our Chief of State. It also wasn't lost upon me that there were unprecedented times with the financial meltdown back then.

And I felt even more jaded when an older lady who worked at Mays Douglass Hall made us stand up as Obama took the oath of office as she wanted us to give President Obama his due respect. Later when I graduated then Morehouse President Robert Franklin made sure to note to us that we graduated with a P.O.T.U.S. who looked like us.

And today and the lead up the atmosphere is different. The grounds around the U.S. Capitol was surrounded by a heavy presence of not only police but National Guard troops from around the country. I wonder what the polls say about those voters who think there was fraud - though largely unproven - in the 2020 election. I wonder what the polls say about the uncertainty of what the new President will bring to the table for the next four years.

I had those same questions about Obama, for my tastes he was never an executive. He served barely four years as a U.S. Senator and I don't know of any committees he's chaired. Obama was without a doubt a charismatic leader with great oratory, but in my mind I had little idea what he could bring to the table. 

However back in 2009 and up to now I always hope for the best. [VIDEO]

If you want to know why I included My Country tis of Thee, this is the anthem we sung before assemblies when I was in grammar school.

Oh and a trip to the U.S. Capitol needs to be featured on The Sixth Ward YouTube channel. Hmmmm. 🤔