What a difference a day makes
Twenty-four little hours
Brought the sun and the flowers
Where there used to be rain

My yesterday was blue, dear
My lonely nights are through, dear
Since Trump ran to Florida, dear
And Biden was sworn in.

By Glynn Wilson –

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Glory hallelujah. What a difference a day makes.

Americans can breathe again.

We may still be stuck at home for the most part, hiding from COVID. But we learned on Thursday morning that the devastating fall and winter wave of coronavirus infections that is causing so much misery across the U.S. appears to have finally peaked, according to several researchers closely tracking the virus.

While another surge remains possible, especially with new, more infectious variants on the horizon, the number of new daily infections in the current wave appears to have hit a high in the past week or two and has been steadily declining in most states since.

“Yes, we have peaked in terms of cases,” says Ali Mokdad, who has been tracking the pandemic at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. “We are coming down, slowly. This is very good news.”

The other good news is that with Joe Biden sworn in as president on Wednesday, January 20, 2021 — on the same Capitol steps molested by 45s marauders two weeks before — and with the Democrats now a majority and in charge of the agenda in both chambers of Congress, there is a chance to begin fixing what 45 broke.

The professionals are taking back control of the federal agencies of government again, rooting out the rogues brought in by 45 to dismantle the government and destroy democracy.

That whole ‘drain the swamp thing?’ That was all about running all the smart, qualified people out of working for federal government agencies, destroying the merit system and implementing a ‘good old boy’ spoils system for anti-government lackies of big business loyal only to the Rat King himself.

Biden Signs Executive Orders

President Biden didn’t waste any time getting started Wednesday afternoon, taking up his new presidential pen at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office of the White House and signing 17 executive orders, memorandums and proclamations.

“… Biden’s first actions as president are sharply aimed at sweeping aside former President Donald J. Trump’s pandemic response, reversing his environmental agenda, tearing down his anti-immigration policies, bolstering the teetering economic recovery and restoring federal efforts to promote diversity,” according to The New York Times.

To summarize, here are the basics of the new direction of this new government.

Health

Biden started by reinstating ties with the World Health Organization, and making Dr. Anthony Fauci head of the U.S. delegation to the organization’s executive board. A meeting is already planned this week.

Biden also appointed Jeffrey D. Zients as the official COVID-19 response coordinator to report to the president to “aggressively” gear up the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. The executive order also restores the directorate for global health security and biodefense at the National Security Council, a group 45 disbanded.

Biden stopped short of requiring a national mask mandate, a move that could fail to withstand a legal challenge. Instead the new president will require social distancing and the wearing of masks on all federal property and by all federal employees. He announced a “100 days masking challenge,” urging all Americans to wear masks, and called on state and local officials to implement public measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Environment

Signaling an immediate shift in policy to stop denying the science and to begin tackling global warming and climate change, Biden signed an official letter to the United Nations re-joining the Paris Climate Accords.

With a few strokes of the presidential pen, Biden wiped out some of the previous administration’s most egregious anti-science, anti-environment policies. He revoked the federal permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, and the Canadian company has already halted construction.

He reversed the rollbacks to vehicle emissions standards and reinstated the Obama administration policies on that.

He blocked 45’s policy allowing oil and natural gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and wiped out the previous administration’s orders to slash the size of several national monuments. Biden also re-established a working group to study the social costs of the massive release of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.

Economy

To bolster the economy still being negatively impacted by the pandemic, this president moved to extend a federal moratorium on evictions for renters and has asked federal agencies to prolong a moratorium on foreclosures on federally guaranteed mortgage loans. Biden also signed an order placing a pause on the payment of federal student loan interest and principal payments through the end of September.

Biden is advocating that Congress immediately take up passage of a new $1.9 trillion economic stimulus package with larger stimulus checks to Americans, another $1,400. His plan includes more help for the unemployed, the hungry and those facing eviction, along with more support for small businesses, states and local governments, and increased funding for vaccinations and testing.

Immigration

The new president immediately began rolling back 45s blatantly racist immigration policies.

Biden signed an executive order halting construction of the border wall with Mexico. The order includes an “immediate termination” of the national emergency declaration that allowed the Trump administration to redirect billions of dollars to build the wall. It says the administration will begin “a close review” of the legality of the effort to divert federal money to fund the wall.

The new president signed an executive order calling on Congress to enact legislation providing permanent status to Dreamers in the DACA program, and a path to citizenship for those immigrants. He signed another executive order revoking the previous administration’s plan to exclude non-citizens from the census count, and overturned the previous administration’s policy of aggressively pursuing and deporting unauthorized immigrants.

Biden has also ended the so-called Muslim ban, which blocked travel to the United States from several predominantly Muslim and African countries. The new president directs the State Department to restart visa processing for individuals from the affected countries — and even to develop ways to address the harm caused to those who were prevented from coming to the U.S. because of the racist ban.

Equality

To immediately begin taking a different course on racial and sexual preference equality, Biden ended the distorted 1776 Commission on slavery, and revoked 45’s order limiting the ability of federal agencies, contractors and other institutions to hold diversity and inclusion training.

Biden named Susan Rice to head the Domestic Policy Council to require all federal agencies to make “rooting out systemic racism” central to the work. His order directs the agencies to review and report on equity in their ranks within 200 days, including a plan on how to remove barriers to opportunities in policies and programs.

The order also moves to ensure that Americans of all backgrounds have equal access to federal government resources, benefits and services. It starts a data working group as well as the study of new methods to measure and assess federal equity and diversity efforts.

Another order reinforces Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to require that the federal government does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, a sharp rebuke to the previous administration’s racist and sexist policies.

Professionals Take Over

What a difference a day makes. Americans can breathe again.

The professionals are taking back control of the federal agencies of government again, rooting out the rogues brought in by 45 to dismantle the government and destroy democracy.