A flashpoint of this contention has been the executive order. Most notably, President Obama's statement that “I've got a pen and I've got a phone,” which covered more than actions requiring the secrecy and dispatch that other areas in which the presidency is accorded a freer hand, namely foreign policy: “Helping to make sure our kids are getting the best education possible, making sure that our businesses are getting the kind of support and help they need to grow and advance, to make sure that people are getting the skills that they need to get those jobs that our businesses are creating.”
Brian J. Purnell, Morgan Marietta, and Neta C. Crawford
One area that the Biden administration will surely address is policing and racial justice. The Justice Department can bring accountability to police reform by returning to practices the Obama administration put in place to monitor and reform police departments, such as the use of consent degrees. More difficult reforms require redressing how mass incarceration caused widespread voter disenfranchisement in Black American and Latino communities.
After years of legislative and social gridlock, these failings are at a critical stage. But irreversible damage to our historical values, our democracy, and our capitalism can be avoided. The last line of defense now, as in 1776, is citizens who can make informed decisions and have the patriotic courage to sacrifice, compromise, and overcome bias in the service of America. The 2020 revolution for America will depend on objectivity and critical thinking rather than firelocks and cannons.
These questions, while separate, are indelibly intertwined. If the American people react to Donald Trump’s presidency with even a fraction of the disgust and anger the two of us feel, he’s almost sure to be a one-term president. But if we intend to sustain a Democratic governing majority over the long term, we’ll need an agenda (and an accompanying narrative) that stands on its own. Without a compelling message, we won’t be able to hold on to the power that the public’s revulsion to Trump may help us win. Then we’ll be back at square one.
The movement seeks to amend Iraq’s constitution to ban discrimination against black people, and have the state improve their representation in parliament. Most Iraqi-Africans continue to hold menial jobs, serving as cleaners or musicians and dancers. They are denied a chance to serve and advance in the army and police, as well as local bureaucracies.They continue to seek social awareness about their plight, asking for access to the national media to address their grievances.
The alliance of rich, emerging and poor economies that sealed the Paris climate deal is falling apart. In 2015, the world’s top two emitters, the US and China, joined with Brazil, some small island countries and the European Union, led by Germany, France and the UK, to land the agreement. But climate change politics have shifted significantly since then, with two more big tilts this week. Brazil elected a staunch and radical anti-environmentalist president, while Germany’s Angela Merkel confirmed her exit plans
From the New Deal through the ’60s, the Democrats were able to show that government was an essential tool to correct market inequities, protect the little people from unchecked power and special interests and ensure that the American birthright included safeguards against crippling poverty and misfortune. Government, most Americans believed, was their defender and their voice.
His first nomination out the box was Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions to head the Justice Department, the umbrella agency that the Civil Rights Division is under. The total remake of the department was a top priority for Trump. Sessions hit the ground running. He demanded the delay, if not the end, of federal consent decrees on police misconduct, a new war on low-level drug offenders, silence on criminal justice reforms, and a full-throated endorsement of private prisons. Given Sessions’ intense dislike of the Voting Rights Act, enforcement of the law is even more imperiled.
Approximately 20 million people have gotten coverage since the launch of Obamacare. Trump has yet to reveal details of what he plans to do to the 2010 Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, other than to say that he intends to dismantle it soon after he takes office. It’s likely that some parts of it will be left untouched – like the pre-existing condition provision – and replacement could be delayed by a couple of years.
There is political turnover after every election, but off-the-record conversations with African-American journalists reveal a simple supposition: Once Obama is no longer in office, networks will no longer feel the need to employ as many African Americans on-screen, and the election of Trump may hasten that process. Whether or not this is actually true, this is the sentiment of many journalists and pundits of color I’ve spoken to.
All signs point to the second Trump administration inciting a similar domino effect, where a filing spree brings longer delays and a corresponding turn to the courts. “One thing that you can be guaranteed, you’re going to see more requests being filed again, just as it was in 2017. There’s just no question,” said Leopold.
While the spectacle of the arena scenes is entertaining, there are several moments when the CG effects are distracting due to their unconvincing nature. Beyond the spectacle of combat is the story of political unrest as Rome suffers under twin emperors who are cartoonishly wacky and so idiotic that their downfall could be seen from a mile away.
