In the battle between democracy and autocracy, democracies are rising to the moment: Biden

Washington: President Joe Biden won standing ovation upon standing ovation Tuesday in a rousing State of the Union speech seeking to transform bipartisan support for confronting Russia into momentum for broader unity as the United States finally emerges from the COVID pandemic.

The entire first section of Biden’s one hour speech to the joint session of Congress was devoted to the bloody Russian invasion of pro-Western Ukraine.

As Biden branded President Vladimir Putin “a Russian dictator,” pledged to help Ukraine’s fighters, and vowed to confiscate Russian oligarchs’ “ill-begotten” yachts, members of both parties stood to applaud – a sight so rare in today’s Congress that it is all but forgotten.

After working for weeks to unite Western allies behind unprecedented economic sanctions against Russia and torrents of military aid to non-NATO Ukraine, Biden painted the picture of what he said was revived global US leadership.

“In the battle between democracy and autocracy, democracies are rising to the moment,” he said.

With many in Congress wearing yellow and blue in tribute to the Ukrainian flag, this was the easy part of the speech for Biden.

But the 79-year-old, who faces rock bottom approval ratings and bitter opposition from Republicans still in thrall to Donald Trump, also hoped to try and ride the positive wave into trickier domestic territory.

Acknowledging inflation pain

One year into his presidency, the Democrat faces an increasingly disappointed and often outright angry electorate, largely due to the highest inflation in four decades.

Things are set to get even harder for his administration with polls pointing to Republican victory in November’s midterm congressional elections. This time next year, the chances are high that a Republican majority will face him when he takes the podium for the State of the Union.

“It feels like President Biden and his party have sent us back in time to the late 70s and early 80s, when runaway inflation was hammering families, a violent crime wave was crashing our cities, and the Soviet army was trying to redraw the world map,” said Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds in the official rebuttal from the Republicans.

But after months of trying to persuade Americans that inflation is on the verge of receding, Biden this time reached out, stressing that he understands voters’ pain.

“Too many families are struggling to keep up with their bills,” Biden said. “That’s why my top priority is getting prices under control,” he said.

To do this, Biden relaunched his idea for a “make it in America” policy that he said would resolve global supply chain issues driving up prices, while restoring US manufacturing power.

This is the kind of centrist thinking that Biden emphasized during his successful battle to defeat populist rightwinger Trump in the 2020 election.

He was back at it in another section of the speech where he shot down leftists of his own party, saying that the solution to police violence is “not to defund the police.”

“It’s to fund the police,” Biden said in a message clearly aimed at middle-of-the-road voters alarmed at soaring violent crime rates across American cities.

Then, in a nod to the left’s criticism of racism and abuse among the ranks, Biden said the secret was better training and tactics to “restore trust.”

Winning against COVID

Although embattled as he enters his second year in the White House, Biden did come to the State of the Union with two strong cards.

Last Friday he nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to be the first African American woman in history to sit on the Supreme Court.

And amid plummeting infection rates, Biden was able to use his speech to try and pivot the country to a more optimistic, post-pandemic future.

Just days after the Centers for Disease Control finally eased mask recommendations for most Americans, Biden said the long nightmare was just about over.

“Thanks to the progress we have made this past year, COVID-19 need no longer control our lives,” he said to a chamber that was not only packed but all but entirely unmasked.

The United States will “never just accept living with COVID,” Biden said.

As he left the chamber, the veteran former senator embraced that post-COVID reality with one of his favorite activities – extended and energetic handshaking and chatting with massed politicians.

US: California, Oregon, Washington to drop school mask mandates

The milestone comes as much of the country relaxes public health orders

Published:  March 02, 2022 09:29AP

Sacramento: Schoolchildren in California, Oregon and Washington will no longer be required to wear masks as part of new indoor mask policies the Democratic governors of all three states announced jointly on Monday.

“With declining case rates and hospitalizations across the West, California, Oregon and Washington are moving together to update their masking guidance,” the governors said in a statement. There are more than 7.5 million school-age children across the three states, which have had some of the strictest coronavirus safety measures during the pandemic.

The new guidance will make face coverings strongly recommended rather than a requirement at most indoor places in California starting Tuesday and at schools on March 12, regardless of vaccination status. In Washington and Oregon, all the requirements will lift on March 12. In all three states, the decision of whether to follow the state guidance will now rest with school districts.

The milestone, two years in the making, comes as much of the country relaxes public health orders, including school mask mandates, in an effort to restore normalcy and boost economic recovery. The changes reflect a growing sense that the virus is not going away and Americans need to learn to live with it. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, announced Sunday that the state’s masking requirements in schools would be lifted by March 2. New Jersey, Delaware, Massachusetts and others recently made similar adjustments to ease restrictions for schools.

The announcements signal a turning point that is poignant in its timing, coming almost exactly two years after American cities began shutting down to prevent COVID-19’s spread. California was the first state to announce a shutdown with stay-at-home orders in March 2020, followed soon after by other states.

“Two years ago today, we identified Oregon’s first case of COVID-19,” Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said in the statement. “On the West Coast our communities and economies are linked. Together, as we continue to recover from the Omicron surge, we will build resiliency and prepare for the next variant and the next pandemic.”

Earlier this month, California became the first state to formally shift to an endemic approach to the coronavirus with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement of a plan that emphasizes prevention and quick reaction to outbreaks over mandated masking and business shutdowns.

Newsom has come under growing pressure from Republicans and other critics to ease the school mandate, which has increasingly become a polarizing issue among parents, with some questioning why it’s still necessary when masks are no longer required in other public places.

The powerful California Teachers Association said it expected a mixed reaction to the announcement.

“While some students are ready to immediately remove their masks, others remain very afraid,” CTA President E. Toby Boyd said in a statement. The union has more than 300,000 members. “Change is never easy, and today’s announcement is bound to disrupt and destabilize school communities.”

A handful of California school districts have already dropped mask mandates for students in recent weeks in open defiance of the state mandate. Meanwhile, a survey published last week by the UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies found that more than 60% of California parents still support wearing masks in schools.

In Connecticut, Monday marked the first day of classes since the state ended its school mask mandate. Kindergarten teacher Rochelle Brown said 15 of her 17 students came to school wearing masks, and she is still wearing a mask in class herself.

“This is normalcy for them,” said Brown, a teacher at Poquonock Elementary School in Windsor, Connecticut, where a lot of her students have never known school without a mask. “I didn’t really hear a lot of conversation with the kids saying, `Oh, there’s that child, they’re not wearing their mask.’ They just did what they normally do every day.”

The West Coast announcements come after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased the federal mask guidance Friday, essentially saying the majority of Americans don’t need to wear masks in many indoor public places, including schools. Federal mask mandates still apply in high-risk indoor settings such as public transportation, in airports and in taxis.

The new CDC guidelines are based on measures focused more on what’s happening at hospitals than on test results. The CDC said that more than 70% of Americans live in places where the coronavirus poses a low or medium threat to hospitals and therefore can stop wearing masks in most indoor places.

The CDC had endorsed universal masking in schools regardless of virus levels in the community since July, but it is now is recommending masks only in counties at high risk.

Based on that criteria, 16 of Oregon’s 36 counties fall under the “high” level of transmission. Dr. Dean Sidelinger, Oregon’s state epidemiologist, said he hopes community leaders will use the CDC framework in “guiding their decisions” about masking.

California and Washington also have several counties still listed as high risk, but projections show that case numbers and hospitalizations will continue to drop over the coming weeks, officials said.

“We’re turning a page in our fight against the COVID virus,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Monday during a news conference.

Inslee said in a separate statement that he expects many businesses and families to continue choosing to wear masks. “As we transition to this next phase, we will continue to move forward together carefully and cautiously,” he said.