3/09/2021

White House News (白宮消息) | Mar. 9, 2021

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President Biden after delivering remarks on the Affordable Care Actin November. The changes to the health law would cover 1.3 million more Americans

Pandemic Relief Bill Fulfills Biden’s Promise to Expand Obamacare, for Two Years

With its expanded subsidies for health plans under the Affordable Care Act, the coronavirus relief bill makes insurance more affordable, and puts health care on the ballot in 2022.

Mar. 9 - WASHINGTON — President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill will fulfill one of his central campaign promises, to fill the holes in the Affordable Care Act and make health insurance affordable for more than a million middle-class Americans who could not afford insurance under the original law.

The bill, which will most likely go to the House for a final vote on Wednesday, includes a significant, albeit temporary, expansion of subsidies for health insurance purchased under the act. Under the changes, the signature domestic achievement of the Obama administration will reach middle-income families who have been discouraged from buying health plans on the federal marketplace because they come with high premiums and little or no help from the government.     continue to read

MARCH 8, 2021
White House Daily Briefing
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was joined by Gender Policy Co-Chairs Julissa Reynoso and Jenn Klein to discuss two executive orders signed by President Biden addressing gender equality. The press secretary went onto discuss future bipartisan legislation and increased border crossings of unaccompanied minors. 


President Joe Biden walks with Air Force Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost, left, and Army Lt. Gen. Laura Richardson before speaking at an event to mark International Women's Day, Monday, March 8, 2021, in the East Room of the White House in Washington.
President Joe Biden on Monday announced the nomination of two women to lead US military commands, who will be only the second and third women to hold such senior military positions in the United States.


US Air Force General Jacqueline Van Ovost, the only woman to have reached the rank of four-star general, the military’s highest, was nominated to head Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM).

Mar. 9 - Three-star army general Laura Richardson was nominated to lead Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), which covers Central and Latin America. She will also receive her fourth star.

If the Senate confirms their nominations, then Van Ovost and Richardson will follow Lori Robinson, who was the first woman to helm a military command. She led Northern Command (NORTHCOM) before retiring in 2018.

​“Each of these women have led careers demonstrating incomparable skill, integrity and duty to country,” Biden said while presenting the two generals during a short speech at the White House.

“Today is International Women’s Day, and we all need to see and to recognize the barrier-breaking accomplishments of these women,” he added.     continue to read


US President Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday, March 4.
How Dr. Seuss explains Biden's big win on Covid bill

Mar. 9 - (CNN)The Republican Party's inability to ignite a grassroots backlash against the $1.9 trillion Democratic Covid relief bill moving toward final passage underscores the GOP's transformation into a coalition energized primarily by cultural and racial grievance -- and the opportunity that opens for President Joe Biden to advance his economic priorities.

Although every House and Senate Republican voted against the rescue plan, it has not generated anything like the uprisings against new government spending and programs that engulfed Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama during each man's first year in office. Indeed, throughout the legislative fight, congressional Republicans and conservative media outlets like Fox News appeared more interested in focusing attention on peripheral cultural issues, like whether Dr. Seuss had become a victim of liberal "cancel culture."

That stress on cultural complaints reflects the shifting source of motivation inside the GOP coalition, with fewer voters responding to the warnings against "big government" once central to the party's appeal and more viscerally responding to alarms that Democrats intend to transform "our country," as former President Donald Trump often calls it, into something culturally unrecognizable.     continue to read

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First dogs Champ and Major Biden are seen on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on January 25, 2021
From the White House to the dog house: Biden's pooches sent home after 'biting incident'

​Mar. 9 - President Joe Biden has sent his two dogs back to his family home in Wilmington, Delaware, after the younger of the two German Shepherds was involved in a "biting incident" with a White House security agent, US media said Monday.

Three-year-old Major, whom Biden and his wife Jill adopted in November 2018 from an animal shelter, had been displaying aggressive behavior including jumping, barking and charging at White House staff and security, CNN reported, citing two anonymous sources.

The sources described a "biting incident" involving a member of the security services but did not specify if the person was injured. The episode was, however, seen as serious enough for both dogs, including 13-year-old Champ, to be returned to the Bidens' home in Wilmington last week.

Major is the first rescue dog to have lived in the White House, having moved in after Biden's inauguration in January.
Biden's predecessor Donald Trump did not have any pets at the White House.

It was not immediately clear when -- or if -- the dogs would be allowed to return.


First Lady Jill Biden said in an interview last month she had been focused on getting the dogs settled into their new home in Washington.


"They have to take the elevator, they're not used to that, and they have to go out on the South Lawn with lots of people watching them. So that's what I've been obsessed with, getting everybody settled and calm," she said on "The Kelly Clarkson Show."     source from

Major, bad dog: Biden's German Shepherds sent back to Delaware
The return of dogs to the White House may be short-lived after a recent incident.


Mar. 9 - "The two German Shepherds belonging to President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden were returned to the Biden family home in Delaware last week after aggressive behavior at the White House involving Major Biden, two sources with knowledge tell CNN. Major, who was adopted by Biden in November 2018 from a Delaware animal shelter, had what one of the people described as a 'biting incident' with a member of White House security. The exact condition of the victim is unknown, however, the episode was serious enough that the dogs were subsequently moved to Wilmington, Delaware, where they remain," CNN's Kate Bennett reported Monday.

"Major, who is 3 years old, is the younger of the two Biden dogs, and has been known to display agitated behavior on multiple occasions, including jumping, barking, and 'charging' at staff and security, according to the people CNN spoke with about the dog's demeanor at the White House. The older of Biden's German Shepherds, Champ, is approximately 13 and has slowed down physically due to his advanced age," CNN explained.

Champ and Major were the first White House dogs since Bo and Sunny during the Obama administration as Donald Trump did not have any pets.     source from


DOGS BOOTED FROM WHITE HOUSE ...
Once Bitten, Go Back To Delaware

Mar. 9 - ​President Biden's dogs just got the old heave-ho from the White House ... sounds like they were too aggressive for 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

The Bidens' 2 German Shepherds, Major and Champ, were shipped back to the family home in Delaware last week following some un-doglike (or maybe doglike) behavior at the White House, including a biting incident.

Major, the 3-year-old pooch Biden adopted from a Delaware animal shelter in 2019, reportedly got his chompers on a member of White House security.

Major's also said to have been pretty agitated around the residence ... allegedly charging, jumping and barking at staff and security.

Champ, meanwhile, seems to be getting the short end of the stick ... he's been sent back to Wilmington too ... even though he's about 13 years old and has slowed down considerably due to his age.

With the German Shepherds out of the White House, the place is going back to how it was under Donald Trump ... a no-pet zone.     source from
PBS NewsHour full episode, Mar. 8, 2021
Mar 9, 2021
Monday on the NewsHour, the CDC issued new guidelines recommending that fully vaccinated Americans be allowed to resume some pre-pandemic activities, President Biden's COVID relief bill is on track to clear one last hurdle before he can sign it into law, and Meghan Markle paints some in the British royal family as racist and details her struggles wrought by the pressures of palace life.

3/08/2021

White House News (白宮消息) | Mar. 8, 2021

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Senator Chuck Schumer of New York speaking to the media in Washington
US Senate passes pared-back COVID relief bill

Mar. 8 - On Saturday, the US Senate passed the Biden administration’s $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill, following two days of Republican stalling and negotiations between the Democratic leadership and right-wing Democratic Senator Joe Manchin (West Virginia), which resulted in further cuts in proposed government aid.

The so-called “American Rescue Plan” was adopted by a strict 50-49 party-line vote, setting the stage for the expected passage of the pared-back measure by the House of Representatives on Tuesday, followed shortly thereafter by President Joe Biden’s signing the measure into law.

The major provisions of the Senate bill include:

* $400 billion for $1,400 per person stipends

* $350 billion for state and local governments, which have already laid off tens of thousands of educators and other public service workers

* $300 billion for the $300-a-week supplemental unemployment benefit through September 6 and a tax exemption for the first $10,200 in 2020 benefits for unemployed workers     continue to read

MARCH 6, 2021
President Biden on Passage of COVID-19 Relief Bill
President Biden spoke at the White House about the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, which passed 50-49 in the Senate this afternoon. The Senate began work on the bill yesterday, with a marathon voting session on amendments to the bill. The bill heads to the House this Tuesday for a final vote.

The long and winding roads – to the White House

Mar. 8 - A
s Joe Biden assumed the presidency, Scribe reissued his 2008 campaign biography, Promises to Keep. It’s a very smart publishing decision because it brings to us the true bedrock of Biden in public life. We get the raw Biden as he matures from his young days, before becoming Barack Obama’s vice-president, before fulfilling his promise to his dying son not to give up, but to go on, lovingly recounted in Promise Me (2017).

Biden is a regular guy. An American story of a kid propelled in life on the back of the middle class that surged after World War II. He loved football and girls; was a good but lazy student; did law; and fell in love – twice – at first sight. He trained his brain and mouth to overcome a terrible stutter, echoes of which you can still hear today, if you listen closely, as he gives speeches. He stands always with working people. And with people of colour who face racism every day; he was a lifeguard in the summer at the pools where black kids would swim. He quit a corporate law firm in Delaware to become a public defender.     continue to read



3/06/2021

White House News (白宮消息) | Mar. 6, 2021

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 US says it will reduce detention of immigrant families


​Mar. 6 - U.S. immigration authorities will no longer use a small Pennsylvania detention center to hold parents and children seeking asylum, part of a broader shift by President Joe Biden's administration to reduce the use of family detention.
In a court filing Friday, the U.S. government said it had released all families detained at the 96-bed Berks County family detention center in Leesport, Pennsylvania. The detention center will instead be used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold adults, the government said.

Families will still be detained at larger detention centers in Karnes City and Dilley in Texas, but the government intends to hold people at those sites for three days or less, the court filing said.

Lawyers who work with detained immigrant families welcomed the news and credited the Biden administration for announcing the shift. But they noted that even shorter detention stays could be harmful to children.

“Family detention will never truly be over until the facilities are closed and the contracts with ICE end,” said Bridget Cambria, executive director of the legal group Aldea - The People's Justice Center.     continue to read

MARCH 5, 2021
White House Daily Briefing
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki held a briefing on the Biden administration’s priorities. She answered multiple questions on recent increases of illegal border crossings, particularly unaccompanied minors and how the administration is responding to the situation. She also commented on the February jobs report saying, “while it shows some progress, it also shows the long road ahead” and went on to explain how the American Rescue Plan would help create job growth.
White House press secretary slams reporter who masked Trump attack: ‘We don’t take our advice or counsel from former President Trump’

Mar. 6 - White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Friday defended President Joe Biden's immigration policies that are working to reverse former President Trump's "immoral" and "inhumane" acts against migrant children, and criticized a reporter who tried to mask an attack from the ex-president by referring to them as "a lot of Americans."


Speaking about unaccompanied immigrant children coming to the U.S. southern border, a reporter told Psaki that "a lot of Americans are saying that, you know, the surges are happening under President Biden's watch, after he reversed some previous policies."

"Does the administration take any accountability for what's happening?" the reporter asked.

"Who are the Americans?" Psaki knowingly pressed.

"Well, I know you don't want to answer to him but, the former president just released a statement saying that the Biden administration must act immediately to end the border nightmare that they have unleashed on our nation."

"Former President Trump?" Psaki asked.

"Yes," the reporter, caught in obfuscation, replied.

"We don't take our advice or counsel from former President Trump on immigration policy which was not only inhumane, but ineffective over the last four years," Psaki declared. "We're going to chart our own path forward, and that includes treating children with humanity and respect and ensuring they're safe when they cross our borders."     source from

US President Joe Biden has appointed two more Indian-Americans in key administrative positions.
Biden appoints two more Indian-Americans to key administration position

US President Joe Biden has appointed two more Indian-Americans in key administrative positions, according to the latest list announced by the White House on Friday.


Mar. 6 - US President Joe Biden has appointed two more Indian-Americans in key administrative positions, according to the latest list announced by the White House on Friday.
Chiraag Bains has been appointed as Special Assistant to the President for Criminal Justice and Pronita Gupta has been named Special Assistant to the President for Labour and Workers.

The announcement for appointing Bains and Gupta was part of more than 20 appointments of additional policy staff who will serve with the White House COVID Response Team, Domestic Climate Policy Office, Domestic Policy Council and National Economic Council.

“These qualified, impressive, and dedicated individuals reflect the diversity and strength of America and will play critical roles advancing the Biden-Harris administration's commitment to tackling the crises we face and building back our country better,” the White House said.

The Biden administration has so far appointed more than 55 Indian-Americans to key administrative position.     continue to read


3/05/2021

White House News (白宮消息) | Mar. 5, 2021

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Al Franken
The two words the GOP wants you to forget

Mar. 5 - With Joe Biden in the White House, the disloyal opposition is not unreasonably seeking ways to chip away at his legitimacy. One way is make-believing he didn't win. Another is make-believing the moral foundation by which the Democrats held the former Republican president accountable suddenly doesn't matter now that the president is a Democrat. This is the reason everyone's talking about Andrew Cuomo.

As you know, he's the Democratic governor of the state of New York. What you might not know is that a third woman has emerged to accuse him of sexual misconduct of some variety. (This time, he allegedly tried to kiss her without her consent.) Last year, the press corps cast Cuomo as Donald Trump's antipode, a state leader stepping up to combat the covid pandemic when the president failed to do any such thing. It has since been revealed that the governor did a terrible job, specifically that his administration allowed an estimated 9,000 covid patients to enter nursing homes around the state     continue to read

MARCH 4, 2021
White House Daily Briefing
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki and Veterans Affairs Secretary McDonough held a briefing. Secretary McDonough discussed what the VA has done to help veterans through the pandemic and how the president’s proposed COVID-19 relief package would further benefit veterans. Press Secretary Psaki reiterated the president’s stance on masks after the governor’s of Texas and Mississippi announced they will end their mask mandate, and she highlighted the administration’s continued efforts to pass COVID-19 relief.


US Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday, March 4, 2021
US Vice President Kamala Harris Casts Tie-Breaker Senate Vote in $1.9 Trillion Pandemic Relief Bill


Mar. 5 - ​The US Senate voted to take up a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill backed by President Joe Biden, setting off a lengthy and partisan debate expected to end this weekend with approval of the nation’s sixth stimulus since the pandemic-triggered lockdowns that began a year ago.

The 51-50 vote Thursday, with Vice President Kamala Harris providing the tie-breaker, reflected the solid opposition of Senate Republicans, who say the drive by Democrats to pass it on their own has resulted in a far-too-costly measure that will further boost US debt and could spark inflation.     continue to read



The Biden Administration Proving to Be More of the Same Old Discredited Policies as its Predecessor

Mar. 5 - ​There were a number of political commentators who urged us to give newly elected United States president Joe Biden a chance to show that he would offer a new approach to the multiple problems facing the United States alliance. Well, he had an opportunity to do so. But the speech that Biden gave on 19th of February of this year that “an attack on one is an attack on all” tells a different story. This “attack” was going to be made by either Russia or China, whom he declared to be the greatest enemy of both the United States and Europe.

What Biden hoped to achieve, beyond gratifying the exorbitant United States military budget, in attacking Russia and China as the United States’ main threats is unclear. Certainly, any kind of military attack on those two nations, or either of them, is a fantasy invoked by more than a few of the United States strategic planners. This fantasy has not stopped the United States from using its military to continue to threaten both Russia and China.     continue to read

3/04/2021

White House News (白宮消息) | Mar. 4, 2021

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers remarks about priorities for administration of U.S. President Joe Biden in the Ben Franklin room at the State Department in Washington, March 3, 2021.
China is World's 'Greatest Geopolitical Test', Blinken Says

​Mar. 4 - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared Wednesday that the relationship between the United States and China is the world’s “biggest geopolitical test” of the century.
  
In his first major foreign policy speech, Blinken said the new Biden administration would “manage” ties with China “from a position of strength.”
“That requires engaging in diplomacy and in international organizations, because where we have pulled back, China has filled in,” Blinken said at the State Department in Washington.

The top U.S. diplomat said Washington would continue to compete, collaborate and be “adversarial,” if necessary, with China, “the only country with the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to seriously challenge the stable and open international system — all the rules, values, and relationships that make the world work the way we want it to.”    more details

MARCH 3, 2021
White House Daily Briefing
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki held a briefing on news of the day. She addressed Neera Tanden requesting to withdraw her nomination for Office of Management and Budget director saying Ms. Tanden did not see a path forward to confirmation and they do not have a replacement for her yet. She also spoke about reports of President Biden agreeing to reducing income thresholds for stimulus payments saying the president is open to ideas as negotiations are ongoing. 



This first instalment of This is China: Misadventures in the Middle Kingdom covers the author’s initial move to China in 2007, his first years working at a renowned university in Beijing and several primary schools in the northern city of Tianjin, all whilst struggling to survive his first Chinese winter and come to terms with a serious case of culture shock. Not forgetting the students that drove him to booze and the women that drove him crazy.

If you have any interest in China, teaching English abroad, or the dynamics of cross-cultural relationships, these books are for you because...

This is China.     quoted from


3/03/2021

White House News (白宮消息) | Mar. 3, 2021

 White House News in Chinese - About (weebly.com)

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Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America's First Cyber Spy

A cybersecurity expert and former FBI “ghost” tells the thrilling story of how he helped take down notorious FBI mole Robert Hanssen, the first Russian cyber spy.


“Both a real-life, tension-packed thriller and a persuasive argument for traditional intelligence work in the information age.”—Bruce Schneier, New York Times bestselling author of Data and Goliath and Click Here to Kill Everybody
SolarWinds: Intern leaked passwords on GitHub

Mar. 3 - Last week, SolarWinds’ CEO testified in front of Congress on the hack that is largely considered the most damaging in US history. Representatives chastised the company over how the now infamous password “solarwinds123” was used for a file server. Even more damaging, that password was found in publicly available repos on GitHub.
From CNN: “Confronted by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, former SolarWinds CEO Kevin Thompson said the password issue was “a mistake that an intern made.”

“They violated our password policies and they posted that password on an internal, on their own private Github account,” Thompson said. 
While it’s unclear what, if any, the role the password played in this disaster, it obviously shows how critical code security has become. Code can be an open door to your enterprise.     more details

March 2, 2021
White House Daily Briefing
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki took questions at today’s briefing on issues including the COVID vaccines, Russia, and immigration.
Biden administration may let families separated at Mexican border reunite in US

Mar. 3 - WASHINGTON – Parents separated from their children at the border under the Trump administration could be allowed to live in the USA after they're reunited, the Biden administration announced Monday.

 
"We are hoping to reunite the families either here or in the country of origin," Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at a White House news briefing.

If the families choose to reunite in the USA, he said, the administration will "explore lawful pathways for them to remain."
Families will be provided assistance, such as health care, transportation, legal aid and career and educational services.    
Siblings and other family members will be considered for reunification "where there is a compelling humanitarian interest in doing so," the Department of Homeland Security announced after Mayorkas spoke.     continue to read
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FBI Director Christopher A. Wray on March 2 said that the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was an act of domestic terrorism. 
FBI director says domestic terrorism ‘metastasizing’ throughout U.S. as cases soar

Mar. 3 - FBI Director Christopher A. Wray on Tuesday defended the bureau’s handling of alarming intelligence leading up to the Jan. 6 mob attack on the U.S. Capitol, saying he has long warned about the rising tide of such threats as the domestic terrorism caseload roughly doubled over the past year.


“We have significantly grown the number of investigations and arrests,” Wray told the Senate Judiciary Committee, his first testimony since the riot involving supporters of President Donald Trump. The FBI director testified in September that the number of such cases was about 1,000. By the end of 2020, there were about 1,400 such cases, and after Jan. 6 the figure ballooned again, the director said.

Domestic terrorism “has been metastasizing around the country for a long time now, and it’s not going away anytime soon,” Wray said. “Whenever we’ve had the chance, we’ve tried to emphasize that this is a top concern.”     continue to read
March 2, 2021
FBI Director Christopher Wray Testifies on January 6 Capitol Attack

FBI Director Christopher Wray 
testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the department’s preparations and response to the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. In his opening remarks, Director Wray said he was “appalled” at the attack on the U.S. Capitol and told members the “siege was criminal behavior plain and simple.” He later said the January 6 event was not an isolated issue and answered several questions on the rise of domestic terrorism and white supremacist violence in the country. Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL) said in his remarks, “the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on January 6 did not wear white robes and hoods. They might as well have. They are the latest incarnation of a violent white supremacist movement that has terrorized fellow Americans on the basis of their race, religion, and national origin for more than 150 years.” Other questions focused on the diversity in the department, rising cases of hate crimes against Asian Americans, and cybersecurity concerns in the wake of the SolarWinds breach.