Thread: President Joe Biden

^ his terrorist mate

Originally Posted by S Landreth

^You weren’t following along close enough.

Not to worry,........ you’ll have about 6 more years to catch up and watch the progress being made.

Your abject dismissal of any criticism is rather weakening your case. ��

Originally Posted by bsnub

Exactly who is that that is mounting Biden?

It’s is rather poignant to see such a hard line Republican shafting a Democrat who has no media presence.

Originally Posted by Switch

It’s is rather poignant to see such a hard line Republican shafting a Democrat who has no media presence.

He does keep smiling though. The dementia means he rather lives in a world of his own.

Harris announces $1.7B in grants for more than 600 community lenders

Vice President Harris on Monday announced $1.7 billion in grants for more than 600 community lenders to support small businesses, entrepreneurs, nonprofits, housing and commercial real estate as they seek to rebound from the coronavirus pandemic.

Harris announced the grants as part of the Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, saying that the loans will go to support local lending institutions that primarily serve minority communities, which may be hesitant to seek out a loan from a bigger bank. She said that the lenders will not need to pay back “not even a dollar of this investment,” and noting that the awards are grants, not loans.

“These banks predominantly do business in overlooked and underserved communities,” she said. They know these communities. They understand these communities. And in particular, most importantly, they know and see the capacity of these communities.”

Harris said that the grants will support smaller institutions that were affected by COVID-19, including 70 community lenders in Puerto Rico. Other lenders who will receive the grants include Community First Fund in Pennsylvania, PACE Finance Corporation in California and BankPlus in Missouri.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement that the funds will help with the country’s economic recovery.

“These grant funds will be transformative for grantees that are building a more equitable, resilient economy, along with helping sustain our strong economic recovery” Yellen said. “These critical resources will allow mission-driven lenders to expand access to capital in financially underserved communities, which will help increase contributions to long-term economic growth.”

‘Outrageous and unacceptable’: Biden slams GOP for standing with NRA in wake of Alabama, Kentucky gun violence

President Biden blasted Republicans Sunday for standing with the National Rifle Association in the wake of two more shootings in Alabama and Kentucky.

“This morning, our nation is once again grieving for at least four Americans tragically killed at a teen’s birthday party in Dadeville, Alabama as well as two others killed last night in a crowded public park in Louisville,” Biden said in a statement Sunday. “Jill and I are praying for their families, and for the many others injured and fighting for their lives in the wake of this weekend’s gun violence.”

A shooting at a 16-year-old’s birthday party in Alabama Saturday night killed four people and injured more than a dozen teenagers, according to law enforcement. In Louisville, Ky. two people died and four were left injured after shots were fired into a crowd at Chickasaw Park. These pair of shootings are the latest in a recent string of gun violence across the country, including a mass shooting at a bank in Louisville that ended with five deaths just days before the shooting in Chickasaw Park.

Biden criticized GOP members for not acting on gun violence, saying that Americans want commonsense gun laws. He again reiterated that it is up to Congress to pass gun safety laws and to approve a national ban of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

“What has our nation come to when children cannot attend a birthday party without fear? When parents have to worry every time their kids walk out the door to school, to the movie theater, or to the park?” Biden asked in his statement.

“This is outrageous and unacceptable. Americans agree and want lawmakers to act on commonsense gun safety reforms,” he continued. “Instead, this past week Americans saw national Republican elected leaders stand alongside the NRA in a race to the bottom on dangerous laws that further erode gun safety. Our communities need and deserve better.”

Biden also praised Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) for signing an executive order to expand background checks for gun purchases and for calling on the Tennessee state legislature to pass red flag laws, saying he hopes “more Republican officials will follow suit and take action.” The governor’s actions come in the aftermath of the Covenant School shooting last month that left six people dead, including three nine-year-old children.

“I stand ready, as I always have been, to work across the aisle in good faith on federal legislation that will save lives,” Biden continued. “It is within Congress’ power to require safe storage of firearms, require background checks for all gun sales, eliminate gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability, and ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines – and this should happen without delay.”

Biden's green gamble

President Biden's Environmental Protection Agency announced far-reaching climate regulations this week in an attempt to dramatically alter how Americans drive over the next decade.

The big picture: The proposals are designed to ensure that two-thirds of new passenger cars sold in the U.S. are all-electric by 2032. Less than 6% of new vehicles sold last year were electrics.

Why it matters: Trying to impose top-down regulations to nudge Americans' behavior is rarely politically popular. Just look at the intense backlash over federal vaccine mandates that were ultimately struck down by the Supreme Court.

• At a time when Republicans have been playing defense over Trump and abortion, Biden just handed them a gift that could rally the GOP base and put red-state Democratic senators in energy-rich states (such as West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and Montana Sen. Jon Tester) on the defensive.

Zoom in: If Biden's plan goes through, consumers in nine years would find fewer gasoline options and be compelled to buy vehicles that currently are more expensive and have less driving range than traditional cars.

• There are also logistical challenges: Electric cars currently are dependent on Chinese manufacturers and tech companies for parts and batteries. The domestic supply isn't close to meeting the demand expected with the new regulations.
• There also aren't enough electric charging stations in the country yet to handle a surge in demand, especially outside urban areas.

Yes, but: Between the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, Biden has already set the wheels in motion to try to make EVs more accessible and affordable. This includes:

• Spending $5 billion for 500,000 highway chargers and $2.5 billion for community chargers.
• Setting price limits and income restrictions on EV tax credits to steer benefits toward mass-market buyers.
• Tax credits for used-EV buyers.
• Lucrative tax credits for companies that build EVs and batteries in the U.S., which could trickle down to consumers.

By the numbers: A new Gallup poll, released Wednesday, shows Americans' widespread reluctance to embrace electric vehicles.

• Only 4% said they currently own an EV, and just 12% more are seriously considering buying one. A sizable 41% of adults said they'd never buy one.
• Just 12% believe that driving electric vehicles does a "great deal" to reduce climate change, while 27% said it does a "fair amount."
• Electric vehicles are an especially tough sell for Republicans: 71% said they never plan to own one.

A separate Pew Research poll from last summer showed 55% of Americans opposed phasing out new gasoline-powered cars and trucks by 2035, while 43% supported it.

• Most of those inclined to consider an EV in the future were younger adults and urban dwellers — critical elements of the Democratic base that Biden needs to turn out for the 2024 election.
• Overall, the poll found that 49% of adults said the Biden administration’s policies on climate change are taking the country in the right direction, while 47% said they represent the wrong direction.

Between the lines: There are signs the White House hasn't gotten buy-in on the climate regulations from the typically supportive United Auto Workers labor union and automobile executives who have been ramping up supplies of electric models.

• The Biden administration initially intended to dispatch EPA Administrator Michael Regan to announce the new regulations in Detroit, where he'd be surrounded by American-made electric vehicles, according to the NYT.
• But many key stakeholders weren't supportive and declined to participate, the Times reported. The announcement then was moved to EPA headquarters in Washington.

Reality check: It's likely these regulations will be challenged in court as regulatory overreach, and ultimately they could be tossed out by the conservative-majority Supreme Court.

• Many of Biden's climate policies could also be reversed by Congress or a new president.

Notable quotable: Biden's climate plan already is facing dissent from one prominent Midwestern Democrat, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.)

• Dingell told Politico: "Everybody cares about global warming, but I’m hearing from too many people in this country — I mean, strong Democrats — that they can’t afford an electric vehicle.”

The bottom line: The biggest vulnerability for Biden in 2024 is the prospect of a weak economy, with fears of a recession and inflation still at historically high levels.

• Spending political capital on a climate change initiative geared largely toward the affluent part of the electorate — not the Americans struggling to pay for a new car — threatens to exacerbate Biden's economic challenges.
• The Democratic coalition has, until recently, been very dependent on working-class Americans. Over the last three decades, the Democratic base has shifted to appeal to wealthier, college-educated urbanites, while Republicans have dominated the working-class vote.
• That's left Democrats frequently stuck in a bubble of the progressive base, which is more affluent than the average voter.

_________

In other news.....

House fails to overturn Biden’s veto of GOP bid to undo administration water rule

The House failed on Tuesday to overturn President Biden’s veto of a Republican effort to nullify his administration’s water pollution rule.

The House voted 227-196 to overturn the veto, but it fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to succeed. Members of both parties crossed the aisle on the vote with Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) against the override effort while 10 Democrats voted for it.

Originally Posted by Switch

What a pity that Biden lacks the presence of JFK, Clinton and Obama. They all had a torrid time during their leadership as president, but they were able to overcome that by their presence.

Of course it’s totally wrong to justify success by contemporary presence in leadership, but Biden will be forgotten along with any of his achievements, simply because his presence is that of a bemused fool.

Sad but true.

I dunno about that, his legacy at least includes ending that pointless Afghanistan excursion, and I don't think history will worry about the details too much.

Biden wants to send more climate cash abroad. Republicans want a say.

President Joe Biden made fresh pledges Thursday to bolster the United States’ international climate spending against a harsh reality: Republicans stand in the way of the promises he’s making to nations most vulnerable to rising temperatures.

Biden’s $1 billion commitment to the Green Climate Fund, a major international climate aid vehicle, sought to burnish U.S. credibility after former President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans had zeroed out U.S. contributions for the program. Biden also said he’d work with Congress to approve $500 million over five years to combat rainforest deforestation through Brazil’s Amazon Fund program.

“The impacts of climate change will be felt the most by those who have contributed the least to the problem, including developing nations,” Biden told the virtual gathering of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, which included leaders of Canada, Mexico, Germany, Egypt, Australia and the European Commission, as well as United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.

“As large economies we must support these economies,” Biden said. “The fund is critical in ways to helping developing nations that they can’t do now — but it should not be the only way.”

Yet the announcements came just a day after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy launched an all-out assault on the heart of Biden’s domestic climate agenda — a sign of the divisions at home that continue to bedevil the United States’ efforts lead the world in combating the planet’s warming.

McCarthy proposed legislation Wednesday that would strip billions of dollars of domestic clean energy incentives in return for raising the U.S. borrowing limits to avoid an economically crippling debt default. McCarthy’s negotiating tactics signal that Republicans are unlikely to back increased climate funding of any sort, especially given his party has historically opposed international climate spending.

Republican positioning imperils Biden’s goal of increasing international climate finance to $11 billion annually by 2024 and threatens to throttle whatever goodwill rich nations earned at last year’s U.N. climate talks, in which delegates agreed to create a “loss and damage” fund to pay poorer nations for irreparable climate damage. That fund is not yet operational, and Republicans criticized its creation at last November’s talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

Biden tells ‘Tennessee Three’ that GOP efforts to expel them were ‘undemocratic’

President Biden on Tuesday hosted the “Tennessee Three” at the White House, telling the Democratic lawmakers that the Republican efforts to expel them from office were “undemocratic.”

Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, the two Tennessee lawmakers who were once expelled from the state’s legislature, and Rep. Gloria Johnson, who was subject to expulsion, sat in the Oval Office with the president and Vice President Harris to discuss their recent protest to call for gun control.

“What the Republican legislature did was shocking. It was undemocratic,” Biden said at the top of the meeting.

Jones and Pearson earlier this month were expelled from the legislature for their participation in gun violence demonstrations following the school shooting in Nashville, Tenn. They have since both have been reinstated. Johnson, who also participated in the protests, narrowly survived her expulsion vote.

“You’re standing up for our kids, you’re standing up for our communities,” Biden told the lawmakers.

The president in the meeting also said there is “more to do” on curbing gun violence, while noting that he signed the most comprehensive gun control bill in decades. He renewed his calls for an assault weapons ban and other gun control measures after the Nashville shooting.

Looks like he's standing for another term, it should give him time to remember where he and his handlers left the other garage full of classified docs

Originally Posted by malmomike77

Looks like he's standing for another term, it should give him time to remember where he and his handlers left the other garage full of classified docs

By 2024 I doubt he'll remember anything. Jill will be prompting him like Nancy Reagan used to.

Biden signs executive order to improve access to child care

President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Tuesday that contains more than 50 directives to increase access to child care and improve the work life of caregivers.

But the directives would be funded out of existing commitments, possibly including last year’s laws financing infrastructure projects and building computer chip plants. That likely means their impact would be limited and possess more of a symbolic weight about what’s possible. The Democratic president was far more ambitious in 2021 by calling to provide more than $425 billion to expand child care, improve its affordability and boost wages for caregivers.

“The executive order doesn’t require any new spending,” Biden said in remarks at the White House. “It’s about making sure taxpayers get the best value for the investments they’ve already made.”

Biden also has called for more money for the care economy in his 2024 budget plan, drawing a sharp line with Republicans, who are seeking limits on spending.

Susan Rice, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, told reporters on a phone call that the order shows that Biden isn’t waiting on Congress to act.

“The child care, long-term care systems in this country just don’t work well,” Rice said. “High-quality care is costly to deliver. It’s labor-intensive. It requires skilled workers. Yet care workers, who are disproportionately women and women of color and immigrants, are among the lowest paid in the country.”

The order seeks to improve the child care provided to the offspring of federal workers, including military families. It plans to lower costs for families that are part of the Child Care & Development Block Grant program. Military veterans would get better home-based care. And the Department of Health and Human Services would raise pay and benefits for teachers and staff in the Head Start program.

Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez to visit White House in May

President Biden will host Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez at the White House on May 12, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announced Wednesday.

The meeting will be focused on strengthening the relationship with Spain, support for Ukraine amid the Russian invasion, and climate change, among other topics.

They will meet “to deepen the historic ties between the united states and Spain,” Jean-Pierre said.

“The two leaders will review our efforts as NATO allies and close partners to strengthen our bilateral defense relationship, transatlantic security, and economic prosperity,” she added.

The leaders also will reiterate their “unwavering support for Ukraine” and discuss ways to impose costs on Moscow.

Spain will assume the rotating position of the presidency of the Council of the European Union in July, which will last until December. As the country prepares for that, Biden and Sánchez will discuss climate change and expanding cooperation with Latin America and the Caribbean.

Sánchez, a Socialist leader, faces a general election in December. The visit comes as Spain has experienced an ongoing drought, which has sparked political debates and territorial tensions in the country.

Biden signs executive order to support care workers, expand affordable care options

President Biden on Tuesday will sign an executive order to boost compensation for care workers, support family caregivers, and expand affordable care options through 50 directives to federal agencies.

“The child care and long-term care systems in this country just don’t work well. High quality care is costly to deliver, it’s labor intensive, it requires skilled workers. Yet care workers—who are disproportionately women and women of color and immigrants—are among the lowest paid in the country, despite working in some of the most important and complex and demanding jobs,” said domestic policy adviser Susan Rice.

Rice called Biden’s order the “most comprehensive set of executive actions” that a president has ever taken to advance care.

For federal workers, the order directs agencies to work to identify which grant programs can support child care and long-term care for people working on federal projects. The Office of Personnel Management will be directed to review its subsidy policies and consider setting standards for how agencies provide child care subsides.

Similarly, the Defense Department will work to make child care on military installations more affordable through the order.

The order directs the Department of Veterans Affairs to improve access to home-based care for veterans who require help with daily living activities. And, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will be directed to streamline the process for American Indian and Alaska Native to access child care.

It will direct HHS to increase the pay and benefits for teachers and staff of Head Start programs, which are available to children from low income households under the age of 5. Those teachers currently make an average of $35,000 annually. Also, for care workers, the Department of Labor will be directed to publish a sample employee agreement so all parties understand their rights.

There is no dollar amount associated with the executive order because it will look at “how do we take best advantage of the federal dollars that are already being spent in the child care space … to make sure that they actually go to address some of the challenges,” according to a senior administration official.

The order directs HHS to issue guidance to improve the quality of home care jobs, including by leveraging Medicaid funding so there are enough home care workers for seniors and people with disabilities on Medicaid. And, the agency will be directed to consider testing a new dementia care model that will include short-term help to give a primary family caregiver a break.

Biden’s fiscal year 2024 budget called for investments to support high-quality, affordable child care, preschool, and long-term care, and this order comes out while the White House and lawmakers are still negotiating the budget.

Biden’s budget includes $9 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant, $13.1 billion for Head Start, and $500 million for grants to create or expand free, high-quality preschool in school or community-based settings for children in high poverty areas, among other provisions.

Biden, Yoon hold news conference amid agreement to dock U.S. nuclear subs in South Korea

Biden and South Korea's Yoon to announce agreement to deter North Korea including deploying nuclear-armed submarine

President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol announced a key new agreement at the White House on Wednesday that aims to deter North Korean aggression, including a new US commitment to deploy a nuclear-armed submarine in South Korea for the first time since the early 1980s.

In a joint news conference at the White House Biden hailed what he called the “ironclad” alliance between the two countries.

“The alliance formed in war and has flourished in peace,” Biden said from the Rose Garden at the White House. “Our mutual defense treaty is iron clad and that includes our commitment to extend a deterrence – and that includes the nuclear threat, the nuclear deterrent.”

“They’re particularly important in the face of DPRK’s increased threats and the blatant violation of US sanctions,” Biden added.

The product of months long discussions between officials from both countries, the new agreement will say that the US “(intends) to take steps to make our deterrence more visible through the regular deployment of strategic assets, including a US nuclear ballistic submarine visit to South Korea, which has not happened since the early 1980s,” the official said. Officials made clear that such assets will not be stationed permanently, and there is “no plan” to deploy any tactical nuclear weapons to the Korean peninsula.

Still, the decision to strengthen extended deterrence – a US policy that uses the full range of military capabilities to defend its allies and position additional American nuclear resources in the region amounts to an acknowledgment that attempts to deter North Korea from advancing its own nuclear program have stalled. Attempts at diplomacy with dictator Kim Jong Un have gone mostly unanswered as the North escalates its missile tests and potentially prepares for another nuclear test.

Biden is welcoming Yoon to the White House for the full pomp and circumstance and hospitality of an official state visit – a high-stakes meeting amid ongoing provocations from North Korea, China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region and a recent leak of Pentagon documents.

As he welcomed Yoon, Biden called the alliance “the linchpin of regional security and prosperity” in the Indo-Pacific.

And more broadly, the visit signals the importance with which the US views its relationships with allies in the Indo-Pacific, this trip coming one week before Biden hosts Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos and weeks before Biden is expected to travel to the region himself.

In the news conference the President also noted the trilateral relationship between US, South Korea and Japan, praising President Yoon’s efforts.

“I want to thank you again Mr. President for your political courage and personal commitment to diplomacy with Japan,” Biden said.

The ‘Washington Declaration’

Biden and Yoon unveiled the “Washington Declaration,” a set of new steps to boost US-South Korean cooperation on military training, information sharing and strategic asset movements in the face of a recent spate of missile launches from North Korea.

It is intended to send a clear message: “What the United States and the ROK plan to do at every level is strengthen our practices, our deployments, our capabilities, to ensure the deterrent message is absolutely unquestioned and to also make clear that if we are tested in any way that we will be prepared to respond collectively and in an overwhelming way,” a senior administration official said.

The declaration includes the deployment of the nuclear ballistic submarine. Additionally, the US and Korea will also “strengthen our training, our exercises and simulation activities to improve the US-ROK alliance’s approach to deterring and defending” against North Korean threats, per the official.

It also creates the “US-ROK Nuclear Consultative Group,” which the official said will convene regularly to consult on nuclear and strategic planning issues, with the hope that it will give allies “additional insight in how we think about planning for major contingencies.” That group is modeled after US engagement with European allies during the height of the Cold War, the official said.

After a year in which North Korea fired a record number of nuclear missile tests, South Korea’s President Yoon earlier this year spoke about possibly deploying US tactical missiles on the Korean peninsula or even developing the country’s own set of nuclear weapons. i

While he dialed back his remarks, those are both scenarios the Biden administration wanted deeply to avoid, and White House officials spent recent months looking for ways to reassure South Korea by bolstering the alliance, including considering a plan to incorporate nuclear exercises into the war planning the two nations already do together, according to two senior Biden administration officials.

“We need to have tabletop exercises that go through a variety of scenarios, including possibly nuclear weapons,” a senior official told CNN earlier this month.

“The South Koreans don’t have experience in using nuclear weapons. This is why we need to do tabletop exercises with them. The Koreans need to be educated in what it means to use nuclear weapons, the targeting, and the effects,” said David Maxwell of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, adding that there will be no change to the US having control on the targeting. “The hope is that this will satisfy them and improve readiness.”

The hope, the officials said, was that this offer – along with sustained engagement to develop other ideas to implement – will provide the alternative that the South Koreans need.

Also on the agenda

Beyond the declaration, Biden and Yoon are celebrating 70 years of the US-South Korea alliance, highlighting close economic ties between the nations, pointing to cooperation on issues like climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic, and looking toward ways to continue supporting Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing invasion, plus a new dialogue on cyber cooperation. They are also expected to announce a new student exchange program focused on STEM “that will significantly increase the number of students going in both directions,” a second senior official said.

And Biden praised Yoon for his “courageous, principled diplomacy with Japan,” saying it has “strengthened our trilateral relationship” and “makes an enormous difference.” A stronger alliance between those two countries is strategically important to the US as it looks for ways to counter China’s rising influence.

Celebrities arrive for Biden’s South Korea state dinner

A parade of performers and familiar faces — including Angelina Jolie, home design TV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines, Olympian Chloe Kim and Broadway star Norm Lewis — touched down at the White House on Wednesday as the Bidens welcomed South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife for a state dinner.

Entering with her husband from the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, Joanna Gaines laughed when ITK asked if she had any design tips for the White House.

“Oh gosh, no,” the interior decorating guru replied.

Motioning to his wife, Chip Gaines cracked, “The white interior and exterior are just her thing.”

Sporting a vintage Chanel jacket and off-white gown with bold, red lipstick, Jolie arrived alongside her 21-year-old son, Maddox. The Academy Award winner shied away from answering questions from reporters about her plans after stepping down from her longtime special envoy role to the United Nations Refugee Agency in December and about President Biden announcing his 2024 reelection bid a day earlier.

“Asia-America relations are important to [Jolie’s] family,” a source close to the “Eternals” star told ITK. Maddox studied at Yonsei University in Seoul and his mother visited South Korea several times for her humanitarian and refugee advocacy work.

“Angelina and Maddox are honored to attend this state dinner,” the source said.

Lea Salonga, the singing voice of Disney princesses Jasmine and Mulan, had an answer at the ready when ITK questioned which animated princess Jill Biden would be.

“Belle,” Salonga said, naming the “Beauty and the Beast” protagonist and famed fictional bibliophile.

Salonga said she made the connection because of Belle’s love of “the books,” much like the first lady, an English professor who specialized in reading as part of her master’s degree.

Wearing a deep pink and blue-colored hanbok, Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) quipped that “the whole thing is not to trip” on her traditional Korean dress.

“I’m glad to be able to wear this, because cultural diversity as far as I’m concerned is really important,” Hirono said.

Lewis, the second Black person to play the title character in “Phantom of the Opera,” said he was excited yet nervous ahead of his performance at the dinner with Salonga and fellow Broadway star Jessica Vosk.

The Tony Award-nominated actor said he planned on singing the famed “Jekyll & Hyde” ballad, “This is the Moment,” at the event.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer made his way into the White House wearing a suit and tie.

When the press pointed out to the New York Democrat that he wasn’t dressed in a tuxedo for the ritzy festivities, he shot back to laughs, “This is as tux-y as I get!”

South Korea’s Yoon targets North Korea in address to Congress

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday appealed to a joint meeting of Congress to stand united with Seoul in the face of North Korea’s aggression, underscoring the peninsula’s priority threat in an increasingly dangerous world for global democracies.

His remarks followed President Biden’s signing on Wednesday of a significant commitment to deploy U.S.-nuclear-armed submarines to South Korea as a deterrent against North Korea’s nuclear provocations.

Still, the South Korean president sought to underscore to members from both sides of the aisle the deep and enduring ties between Washington and Seoul, marking 70 years of the alliance.

“Together with the U.S., Korea will play the role as a compass for freedom. It will safeguard and broaden the freedom of citizens of the world,” Yoon said.

“But even as we walk in unison for freedom for 70 years, there is one regime determined to pursue a wrong path: that is North Korea.”

Yoon described South Korea as a linchpin of security in the “Indo-Pacific era,” safeguarding freedom, democracy and economic growth, and he called for speeding up cooperation among the U.S., South Korea and Japan as a key deterrent against North Korea.

While Yoon called out North Korea’s ongoing nuclear weapons ambitions and condemned Russia’s invasion against Ukraine, his more than 40-minute speech did not directly address China, which the U.S. has labeled the most critical, global security challenge.

“Such authoritarian forces may conceal and disguise themselves as defenders of democracy or human rights. But in reality, they deny freedom and democracy. We must not be fooled by such deception and disguises.”

The Biden administration has focused on deepening its ties with countries in East and South Asia as a counter to China, repairing relations that were put under strain by former President Trump’s confrontational approach to allies in the region.

There’s strong bipartisan support for an enduring U.S. and South Korean alliance. A resolution commemorating the 70th anniversary of the alliance was unanimously passed in the Senate on Wednesday.

Yoon, in his speech, highlighted the only four Korean American lawmakers in Congress — Reps. Young Kim (R-Calif.), Michelle Steel (R-Calif.), Marilyn Strickland (D-Wash.) and Andy Kim (D-N.J.).

“That’s two for each party. They are a testament to the alliance spanning generations,” he said. “It is a relief you are evenly praised across the aisle.”

The South Korean president’s state visit to the U.S. appeared to reap immense success for Seoul. It came despite embarrassment from Washington in which, weeks earlier, a shocking leak of American intelligence revealed U.S. spying into South Korean presidential conversations, in particular surrounding concern in providing weapons to Ukraine.

Yoon addressed the intelligence leaks during a press conference with Biden on Wednesday, saying that he was “communicating” with the U.S. over the investigation into the leaks.

But the South Korean president also delivered moments of levity in his trip to Washington, serenading Biden, dignitaries and celebrity guests at the state dinner Wednesday night with a rendition of the song “American Pie.”

In his speech to Congress, Yoon pointed to the close cultural ties between South Korea and the U.S., highlighting the popular Netflix show “Squid Game,” the Oscar-winning film “Parasite,” and the popularity of K-pop groups like the boy band BTS, who met with Biden in May 2022.

“BTS beat me to the White House, but I beat them to Capitol Hill,” Yoon joked.

Yoon tells Congress U.S., South Korea united in defending democracy

Dont know if you could compare those two with JFK

Biden commutes sentences of 31 nonviolent drug offenders

President Biden will commute the sentences of 31 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses, the White House said Friday.

Why it matters: The announcement coincided with the Biden administration's release of a plan to help incarcerated people successfully reenter society.

• It also comes after Biden said in October that he would pardon all prior federal offenses of simple marijuana possession and called on governors to do the same with simple state possession offenses.

Details: The clemency recipients will be under home confinement until the commutations go into effect on June 30. Afterwards, they will be on supervised release, the duration of which is tied to their original sentence.

Be smart: Commutations are not pardons, as the recipient's conviction will remain but the sentence will either be lowered or eliminated.

• Pardons eliminate convictions and end any punishment from the forgiven offense.

What they're saying: "These individuals, who have been successfully serving sentences on home confinement, have demonstrated a commitment to rehabilitation, including by securing employment and advancing their education," the White House said on Friday.

• It added that many of the recipients would have received lower sentences if they had been convicted of the same crimes today because of criminal justice reforms, including the bipartisan First Step Act passed by Congress and signed into law by former President Trump in 2018.

The big picture: The White House's "Alternatives, Rehabilitation, and Reentry Strategic Plan," which includes the implementation of previous changes to federal law, seeks to improve prisoner reentry and reduce recidivism by expanding incarcerated people's access to health care, affordable housing, education and employment opportunities, and financial services.

Starts at 8:00pm (EST)

Might be entertaining. 2023 White House Correspondents' Dinner

President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Douglas Emhoff attend the 2023 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, hosted by Roy Wood Jr.

16:00 into the video

Remarks by President Biden at the White House Correspondents' Dinner

^^^^
Regardless of whether I agree with some of his policies orbe concerned with his age for a second term,
It is a pleasure to be among the adults again.