USA News and Discussions

[weatheriscool]

Entire Portland Police Rapid Response Team Resigns
Jun 16, 2021 @ 9:49pm

Portland, Ore. — FM News 101 learned late Wednesday night that in response to the criminal indictment of Officer Corey Budworth, the bureaus entire Rapid Response Team resigned. Sources with the Police Bureau say the team voted unanimously to disband.

The Rapid Response Team is a group of volunteer officers who respond to civil disobedience, demonstrations, and riots.

Tuesday, a member of the team was charged with assault for actions during an August 18, 2020 riot in Southeast Portland.

Wednesday, Portland Police Association Executive Director, Daryl Turner told the Lars Larson Show that he feared officers would quit in response to what he called a “Witch Hunt” of a prosecution. In its own investigation the Portland Police Bureau determined no wrongdoing by the officer. He did not violate training or department rules. He did his job within the scope of the law.

https://www.kxl.com/sources-entire-port ... m-resigns/

At the same time murder is up 800% in Portland and it is becoming unlivable. I use to live in this city and I am glad I don't anymore. It is truly sad what these elected leaders are doing to our cities. Treasonous. Even if Antifa was a right wing group I'd want them to pay. I don't care rather you're right or left you don't have a right to do what they're doing. There comes a point where you have to drop the political bs and admit that you're fucking up your home and destroying your standard of living.

[weatheriscool]

The Supreme Court Just Overhauled the U.S. Patent Regime. Here's What It Means.
Source: Reuters

The U.S. Supreme Court reined in the power of patent judges on Monday, finding the lack of ability to review their decisions inconsistent with their status as “inferior officers” under the Constitution.

Written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the ruling spells an overhaul of the U.S. patent regime. The majority ruling finds that the decisions of some 250 administrative patent judges will have to be reviewable by the director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office in order to pass constitutional muster under the Appointments Clause.

As Chief Justice Roberts noted in the ruling, a single patent ruling can have multibillion-dollar ripples.

The ruling drew a scathing dissent by Justice Clarence Thomas, who found uncommon company with the court’s left flank: Steven Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor.

Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/supreme-court/t ... ostpopular

[wjfox]

Is there a worse Democrat than Joe Manchin?

I wouldn't even call him a Democrat. He's basically a DINO.

Even Fox News is calling him out –

While I wish he were more progressive, and/or that there were more progressive Democrats in the senate, he does serve a purpose. Without folks in the middle, the two extremes will just become more extreme. At least a genuine guy in the middle can help to point out how really extreme the GOP is becoming. Somebody needs to be out there trying to earn the trust of those who are almost totally without trust, and show who is trying to be a centrist and who is trying to be an extremist.

How's that working out for ya?

Face it, Manchin is totally useless. He doesn't serve any purpose.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuDv5p ... _LZ4AaABCQ

[caltrek]

How's that working out for ya?

It is working just fine to date. The citation of Reich merely reinforces my point. Manchin bends over backward to try to find some middle ground with the Republicans, and they just play him for a fool. Again, this reveals how totally extreme the Republicans have become, something that Reich points out to great effect. Without Manchin, it just comes to be an argument that goes something like "well, it is just one extreme against the other." The Republicans will still make that argument, but with less credibility. So, some of the more moderate Republicans, if there is such a thing, can peel off and ally themselves with Manchin or some "centrist" variation, or they can just stick to their extreme obstructionist position and reveal themselves (again) to be enemies of democracy. Indeed enemies of the entire ecosystem in which we live and upon which we depend.

The Republicans know they are on the losing end of that argument. So, they are just going to go for outright theft within the electoral process. Hopefully, they will overplay their hand and lose in a big way in upcoming elections. There is a real danger that they will win through success in voter suppression and theft. So Manchin will ultimately have to either produce some Republican votes for his middle position, or throw in the towel and align himself more thoroughly with the Democrats (or less likely the Republicans). The bad part is that running out the clock benefits the Republicans. So Manchin and Biden are going to need to strike a balance between efforts at bipartisan discussion and acting while they still have the votes to do something.

[weatheriscool]

New York City's mayor race: Eric Adams has initial lead, Andrew Yang concedes
Source: USA Today

NEW YORK – The polls have closed in the Big Apple as New Yorkers voted Tuesday to pick their next mayor, but, with the city's new ranked choice voting system, don't expect to know the winner tonight.

Brooklyn Borough President and former police captain Eric Adams was leading Tuesday in partial results released in the New York City mayoral primary, but only the first choice preferences of early and in-person votes were being released for now.

With more than 96% of those votes counted, Adams had 31% of first-choice votes; former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio Maya Wiley was in second with 22%; and former sanitation department head Kathryn Garcia and entrepreneur turned political hopeful Andrew Yang trailed in third and fourth with about 20% and 12%, respectively.

Yang, who was once considered Adams' toughest competition in the race, conceded Tuesday night based on the initial return. "I am not going to be the next mayor of New York City," he said.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... 210623_4_3

[weatheriscool]

Yellen Warns Debt Ceiling Failure Would Be 'Catastrophic'
Source: The Fiscal Times

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told lawmakers Wednesday that they must raise or suspend the limit on total U.S. debt before August 1, or risk incurring “absolutely catastrophic economic consequences.”

A two-year agreement that has suspended the debt ceiling expires after July 31, at which point the Treasury would take what it calls extraordinary measures to keep paying the government’s bills. In the past, the Treasury’s extraordinary measures have provided a cushion of several months, but massive spending on Covid relief programs has muddied the financial picture. Speaking to a Senate subcommittee, Yellen said the government could run out of money at some point in August, possibly when Congress is out of town on its summer recess.

“I believe it would precipitate a financial crisis, it would threaten the jobs and savings of Americans, and at a time when we're still recovering from the COVID pandemic,” Yellen said of a default.

“I would plead with Congress simply to protect the full faith and credit of the United States by acting to raise or suspend the debt limit as soon as possible.”

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets ... li=BBnb7Kz

[weatheriscool]

U.S. Life Expectancy Decreased By An 'Alarming' Amount During Pandemic
Source: MSN/NBC News

Average life expectancy in the United States plummeted in 2020, widening the life expectancy gap between the U.S. and other high-income countries. The decline was particularly sharp among Hispanic and Black Americans, a new study found. Health experts anticipated life expectancy would drop during the pandemic, but how much it did came as a surprise.

“I naively thought the pandemic would not make a big difference in the gap because my thinking was that it’s a global pandemic, so every country is going to take a hit,” said Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University, who led the new study. “What I didn’t anticipate was how badly the U.S. would handle the pandemic.”

The new study used data from the National Center for Health Statistics, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Human Mortality Database to measure changes in life expectancy between 2018 and 2020 among Black, white and Hispanic Americans. The available data did not allow the researchers to include Asian, Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native populations in the comparison. The results were published Wednesday in The BMJ.

Between 2018 and 2020, the decrease in average life expectancy at birth in the U.S. was roughly 1.9 years - 8.5 times the average decrease in 16 comparable countries, which was about 2.5 months. The decrease widened the gap between the U.S. and its peers to nearly 5 years, but the difference is much larger among Black and Hispanic Americans...

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-li ... ar-AALn0oL

[wjfox]

Between 2018 and 2020, the decrease in average life expectancy at birth in the U.S. was roughly 1.9 years - 8.5 times the average decrease in 16 comparable countries, which was about 2.5 months.

An astonishing decline for such a highly developed country.

[joe00uk]

Between 2018 and 2020, the decrease in average life expectancy at birth in the U.S. was roughly 1.9 years - 8.5 times the average decrease in 16 comparable countries, which was about 2.5 months.

An astonishing decline for such a highly developed country.

Not so highly developed now, as it turns out.

[raklian]

Can't help feeling cynical that I hope it's the idiots who are dying faster than the others, so that we can move forward towards an America fit for the 21st century.

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

Derek Chauvin Sentenced to 22.5 years for the Murder of George Floyd
by Janelle Griffith
June 25, 2021

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/de ... d-n1272332

Introduction:

(NBC) MINNEAPOLIS — Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murder in the death of George Floyd, was sentenced Friday to 22 and a half years in prison, closing a chapter on a case that sparked global outrage and protests.

He was granted credit for time served.

Prosecutors had asked that Chauvin receive 30 years in prison. His lawyer sought probation.

Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill said the sentence was not based on public opinion, "emotion or sympathy." He said he was not trying "send any messages."

“This is based on your abuse of a position of trust and authority and also the particular cruelty shown to George Floyd,” Cahill told Chauvin.

[caltrek]

There was a time when Newsweek was considered to be a conservative news source. With the rightward migration of such outlets as Fox News and Brietbart News an outlet like Newsweek now seems quaintly centrist.


Trump Reacts to DOJ Suing Georgia Over Voting Law
by Alexandra Hutzler
June 21, 2021

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-reacts-d ... nd-1604266

Introduction:

(Newsweek) Donald Trump said Georgia residents should mount their own lawsuits after the Department of Justice announced Friday it was suing the state over its new voting law.

"Biden's Department of Justice just announced that they are suing the Great State of Georgia over its Election Integrity Act. Actually, it should be the other way around!" the former president said in a statement.

The statement continued, "The PEOPLE of Georgia should SUE the State, and their elected officials, for running a CORRUPT AND RIGGED 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION—and for trying to suppress the VOTE of the AMERICAN PEOPLE in Georgia."

Trump lost Georgia to President Joe Biden by more than 10,000 votes in 2020. Three audits of the election have found no evidence of the widespread fraud alleged by the former president and his allies.

Trump's reaction is predicable and in keeping with his Big Lie strategy. First tell the Big Lie, then paint any who oppose the Big Lie as being extremist. Meanwhile, keep appealing to his base, which nowadays seems to consist of neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates, White Supremacists, and a far right fringe of Evangelicals.

[caltrek]

I have to admit, I have been having trouble figuring out the new Supreme Court. Frankly, I expected the absolute worse from this court. While reading the article below can lead to wildly optimistic exuberances that don't fit the facts, it can also help to understand that the appointees do not see themselves simply as rubber stamps for Donald Trump. One wonders if Donald Trump understood that when he appointed them.


Why The ‘Trump Court’ Won’t Be Like Trump
by Peter S. Cannelos
June 23, 2021

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/ ... ent-495481

Introduction:

(Politico) When Donald Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, went before the Senate Judiciary Committee for confirmation in early 2017, he offered a surprising choice of role model. Gorsuch — a conservative member of the Federalist Society, carrying the personal imprimatur of Mitch McConnell — named John Marshall Harlan, the progressive 19th-Century justice best known as the sole member of the Supreme Court to stand up for Black rights and economic protections.

“Justice Harlan got the original meaning of the Equal Protection Clause right the first time, and the Court recognized that belatedly,” Gorsuch said, in one of multiple references he made to Harlan. “It is one of the great stains on the Supreme Court’s history that it took it so long to get to that decision.”

Harlan was known as the Great Dissenter — an intellectual powerhouse who articulated what, for the time, were extremely forward-looking views on what the Constitution said about rights in a post-slavery society. A few years before Gorsuch’s confirmation, another justice, the liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg, had been asked about her role models, especially in looking ahead to her judicial legacy. She, too, mentioned Harlan, citing his powerful dissent against the separate-but-equal doctrine in Plessy v. Ferguson.

Today, conservatives and liberals don’t agree on much when it comes to the Supreme Court. But as the newly remade Trump Court unveils its decisions in the most contentious cases of the just-ending term, the binary divisions are seeming suddenly less visible, and the ways in which judicial ideologies can overlap are more apparent. Rather than dividing along “conservative” and “liberal” lines, the Court was unanimous in a narrowly tailored ruling supporting Catholic Social Services, and unanimous in a case challenging the NCAA on antitrust grounds. It ruled 7-2 to uphold the Affordable Care Act.

The fact that there is one judicial figure that both sides proudly claim as their own offers a window into why it’s not always easy to break the court into “left” and “right” — and evidence that there may be more common ground than is widely believed.

[caltrek]

The Most Crucial Part of the New Georgia Lawsuit Is Proving GOP Intentionally Targeted Black Voters
by Ari Berman
June 26, 2021

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... ck-voters/

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) The Biden Justice Department sued the state of Georgia over its new voting restrictions on Friday—the eighth anniversary of the Supreme Court decision gutting the Voting Rights Act, which ruled that states with a long history of discrimination no longer had to approve their voting changes with the federal government. If it’s successful, Georgia could once again be covered under what remains of that landmark law.

The preclearance provision of the VRA blocked 175 proposed voting changes in Georgia from 1965 until 2013. Had it still been in place, the state’s sweeping voter suppression law, passed in March, likely “would have never taken effect,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference on Friday announcing the lawsuit.

The Justice Department suit is relying on what remains of the VRA to try to ensure Georgia will once again have to approve its voting changes with the federal government. Specifically, a still-standing section of the law says that states that are found guilty by a court of intentionally discriminating against minority voters can be required to clear their voting changes with the federal government for a period of time.

caltrek's comment: Prior to the change to a new format in this forum, I recall being frustrated with folks from outside of the U.S. because I thought that they relied too heavily on media reports and were too quick to discount the experiences that other citizens of this country brought to the forum. For me, the Voting Rights Act very much illustrates the point. It is not just something that I have read about in history books or in newspaper and magazine articles. It is also something that I had real life experience with before I retired.

I often was involve in local government reorganization of County Service Areas, Community Service Districts, Fire Districts, Sanitation Districts, etc. I often prepared timelines for use by my supervisors and others regarding such reorganizations. One component that I always had to include, because it affected the timing of such reorganizations, was the pre-clearance process carried out by the U.S. Department of Justice under the Voting Rights Act. I was even called once by a Department of Justice representative who had questions about a particular reorganization. The concern was whether the governing board of an agency that stood to gain a lot of territory was integrated. I told the representative that somebody had told me that she would be calling me, and that there actually was minority representation on the governing board in question. My answers satisfied that representative and the Justice Department preclearance was forthcoming.

[caltrek]

'We're gonna be in a civil war': Trump Supporter Warns of More Violence if the Ex-president Isn't Reinstated
by Cody Fenwick
June 29, 2021

https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/we-re- ... einstated/

Introduction:

(Alternet) CNN reporter Donie O'Sullivan traveled to former President Donald Trump's weekend rally in Ohio and spoke to some of his supporters who warned of more violence like that witnessed at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

In a CNN clip posted to his Twitter page, O'Sullivan interviewed one Trump supporter who was convinced the former president would be reinstated by August. He espoused a fictional conspiracy theory holding that the "military" already knows Trump won the 2020 election by "over 80 percent."

"He's coming back," the supporter said.

"And what if that doesn't happen?" asked O'Sullivan, pointing out that the Constitution doesn't have a mechanism to "reinstate" a defeated president.

"We're gonna be in a civil war," the supporter said. "Because the militia will be taking over."

caltrek's comment: This isn't conservatism. There is nothing here related to "conserving" anything. This is full blown fascist philosophy. The use of violence by a minority to impose its will upon the majority. Screw the election process. Screw the Electoral College. Screw the courts. Only a mythical "majority" of the military is to count. All justified by a Big Lie.

[caltrek]

Governor Ron DeSantis Wants to Defund Florida Universities That Teach Anti-Racism
by Natasha Lennard
June 27, 2021

https://theintercept.com/2021/06/27/des ... ntiracism/

Introduction:

(The Intercept) MANY REPUBLICANS HAVE become invested in enforcing a white supremacist backlash in their states’ education system, but perhaps none so much as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

As dozens of bills are advancing in statehouses nationwide to ban the teaching of the basic truths of America’s racist history, DeSantis signed a bill into law this week that threatens to surveil and cut funding to public institutions of higher learning found to be on the wrong side of the Republicans’ ongoing white nationalist crusade.

Unlike much of the paranoiac legislation, like bills signed into law in Idaho and Texas — and in consideration in other places — the new Florida law does not deploy the right-wing canard of “critical race theory.” DeSantis signed a law that was written in the vaguest terms but was all too clear, given the current context, in its intent.

The law will require public universities and colleges to survey students, faculty, and staff about their beliefs and viewpoints. The governor and the bill’s lead sponsor, Florida state Sen. Ray Rodrigues, said the effort aims to support “intellectual diversity.” Though no mention of it is made in the law, DeSantis and Rodrigues said institutions found to be “indoctrinating” students risk losing crucial state funding.

There can be no doubt about what ideas DeSantis considers to be worthy of concern: Universities that take up the necessary work of challenging hegemonic racial capitalism and patriarchy are in the legislation’s crosshairs.

[weatheriscool]

Poll: San Francisco Residents Consider Relocating As Crime Worsens, Quality Of Life In A Decline
By Betty Yu
June 29, 2021 at 10:36 am

It found that more than 40 percent say they plan to move out of the city in the next few years.

Lindsay Stevens just finished moving out over the weekend.

“There’s nothing worse than seeing such a beautiful place in such disarray, and I really thought I was going to be sad when the movers loaded up the last container on Saturday, and I have never been more relieved,” said Stevens.

After more than 12 years in San Francisco, Stevens recently sold her place and moved to the Palm Springs area.

https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2021/ ... a-decline/

[Time_Traveller]

Governor Ron DeSantis Wants to Defund Florida Universities That Teach Anti-Racism
by Natasha Lennard
June 27, 2021

https://theintercept.com/2021/06/27/des ... ntiracism/

Introduction:

(The Intercept) MANY REPUBLICANS HAVE become invested in enforcing a white supremacist backlash in their states’ education system, but perhaps none so much as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

As dozens of bills are advancing in statehouses nationwide to ban the teaching of the basic truths of America’s racist history, DeSantis signed a bill into law this week that threatens to surveil and cut funding to public institutions of higher learning found to be on the wrong side of the Republicans’ ongoing white nationalist crusade.

Unlike much of the paranoiac legislation, like bills signed into law in Idaho and Texas — and in consideration in other places — the new Florida law does not deploy the right-wing canard of “critical race theory.” DeSantis signed a law that was written in the vaguest terms but was all too clear, given the current context, in its intent.

The law will require public universities and colleges to survey students, faculty, and staff about their beliefs and viewpoints. The governor and the bill’s lead sponsor, Florida state Sen. Ray Rodrigues, said the effort aims to support “intellectual diversity.” Though no mention of it is made in the law, DeSantis and Rodrigues said institutions found to be “indoctrinating” students risk losing crucial state funding.

There can be no doubt about what ideas DeSantis considers to be worthy of concern: Universities that take up the necessary work of challenging hegemonic racial capitalism and patriarchy are in the legislation’s crosshairs.

Typical republicans attacking the left again. Just like the Tories here in the UK.

[caltrek]

Maricopa County Will Replace Voting Machines ‘Audited’ by Cyber Ninjas
by Nia Prater
June 29, 2021

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/maric ... uxbndlbing

Introduction:

(MSN) Maricopa County officials have decided to replace the election equipment that was subpoenaed by Arizona Senate Republicans for the purpose of auditing the 2020 general-election results. The decision was announced Monday in response to a letter from Katie Hobbs, Arizona’s secretary of state, to the county’s Board of Supervisors.

State Republicans enlisted the services of a little-known cybersecurity firm with no election-auditing experience called Cyber Ninjas to oversee the audits in Maricopa, home of the state’s capital, Phoenix. Some peculiarities have been noted in how the firm has conducted the audit, including security lapses and even the scanning of ballots for bamboo fibers because of a false conspiracy theory that ballots were shipped to the state from Asia. Cyber Ninja’s CEO has also appeared in a new conspiracy theorist film regarding the election.

Arizona certified the 2020 election results back in November , declaring Joe Biden the winner. But the state has been at the center of countless false theories that claim the election was stolen from Donald Trump through fraud.

“I have grave concerns regarding the security and integrity of these machines, given that the chain of custody, a critical security tenet, has been compromised and election officials do not know what was done to the machines while under Cyber Ninjas’ control,” Hobbs wrote in May.

Hobbs stated that her office spoke to security experts including some from the Department of Homeland Security and that they all advised that the machines shouldn’t be reused, but rather decommissioned and replaced.