USA News and Discussions

[Nanotechandmorefuture]

The Jan 6 ordeal is more important as to what it represents which is the long standing issue of the US Gov versus its own people especially those it employs in the law. That's the whole fuss about it because... well... the USA establishment is politically Democrat which is contrary to what others believe elsewhere

[weatheriscool]

Supreme Court keeps in place Trump-era immigration policy
Source: NBC News

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Title 42 — a Trump-era immigration policy implemented when the pandemic broke out to quickly expel asylum-seekers at the border — to remain in effect, putting a judge’s ruling that would have ended it last week on hold.

The court voted 5-4 to grant an emergency request by 19 Republican state attorneys general who sought to intervene in defense of the policy. The decision puts on hold a ruling by Washington-based U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s implementation of the policy was “arbitrary and capricious.” Sullivan’s ruling was due to go into effect Dec. 21.

Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch joined the three liberals on the court in voting against the stay request. The Supreme Court also agreed to hear oral arguments and rule on whether the states can intervene, with a decision due by the end of June.

The court's intervention averts what many had predicted would be an additional surge of people seeking to enter the United States at a time when border crossings are already high. Without the policy in place, people seeking asylum would be able to enter the U.S., where they could be waiting for years for a court date if they pass their initial interview with authorities.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/suprem ... -rcna62560

[weatheriscool]

Trump tax returns to be released by House panel on Friday

Source: CNN Politics

CNN — The House Ways and Means Committee will release former President Donald Trump’s tax returns Friday morning, a source familiar confirmed to CNN. The returns will be placed into the congressional record on Friday morning during a House pro forma session. That pro forma session will occur around 9 a.m. ET on Friday. There will also be a formal announcement Friday from the committee.

The highly anticipated release comes after the panel last week asserted that the IRS failed to properly audit the former president’s taxes while he was in office. The committee released a report that detailed six years’ worth of the former president’s tax returns, including his claims of massive annual losses that significantly reduced his tax burden.

Chairman Richard Neal and fellow Democrats have said that the records they obtained showed that the presidential audit program failed to work as intended. Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat, charged that the complete required audit of Trump’s taxes “did not occur,” as his returns were only subjected to the mandatory audit once, in 2019, after Democrats inquired.

The committee also released a supplemental report from the Joint Committee on Taxation that included details on Trump’s tax returns from 2015 to 2020, ahead of the planned release of the returns themselves. The release of Trump’s tax returns marks the conclusion of a nearly four-year legal battle House Democrats waged against the former president after they took control of the House in 2019.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/27/politics ... ase-friday

[weatheriscool]

Biden signs $1.7 trillion government spending bill into law
Source: CNN Politics

CNN — President Joe Biden on Thursday signed a $1.7 trillion federal spending bill that includes a number of administration priorities and officially avoids a government shutdown, ending what he called a “year of historic progress.” “It’ll invest in medical research, safety, veteran health care, disaster recovery, (Violence Against Women Act) funding – and gets crucial assistance to Ukraine,” Biden wrote in a tweet. He added: “Looking forward to more in 2023.”

Biden signed the bill while vacationing on St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands. The bill was flown to him for signing, the White House said. “The White House received the bill from Congress late afternoon on Wednesday. The bill was delivered to the President for his signature by White House staff on a regularly scheduled commercial flight,” a White House official told pool reporters. It’s at least the second time this year that an important bill has been flown to Biden for his signature.

While on a trip to Asia in May, a bill authorizing about $40 billion in aid to Ukraine was carried by a staffer who was already scheduled to travel to the region. Biden signed the bill while overseas. The spending bill represents the final opportunity for Biden and Democrats to put their imprint on government spending before Republicans assume the majority in the House next week.

It caps a remarkably productive two years legislatively for Biden, including a Covid-19 relief package, infrastructure bill and a China competitiveness measure. The legislation includes $772.5 billion for nondefense discretionary programs and $858 billion in defense funding, according to a bill summary from Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations. That represents an increase in spending in both areas for fiscal year 2023.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/29/politics ... en-omnibus

[caltrek]

Monster of 2022: Billionaires
by Michael Mechanic
December 30, 2022

Extract:

(Mother Jones) The United States, with just over 4 percent of the world’s population, has, according to Altrata, 29 percent of its billionaires—and those billionaires own 38 percent of the world’s total billionaire wealth. Which means our billionaires are richer than yours. According to the Billionaire Census, San Francisco has the second highest billionaire density on the planet next to Kuwait City. New York is sixth. Las Vegas 12th. Los Angeles 14th. And in 15th place—because grift and robber barons pair so nicely—is Washington, DC.
…
As of 2022, a wealthy couple can legally gift their children up to $24,120,000 without paying a dime in tax. If that’s not enough, they can use a type of trust known as a Walton GRAT that Congress enabled by accident in 1990 and was never able to repeal—because rich beneficiaries and the wealth industry lobbied to keep it.
…
Lobbyists for the investor class have convinced Congress—nonsensically—that it’s okay to favor the gains of wealthy investors over the paychecks of people who work for a living. And that the IRS should only tax investors’ profits when they sell the asset in question—and that, when they do, any profit should be taxed at a far lower rate (20 percent) than the maximum rate on wages (37 percent).
…
Without all the perks and subsidies afforded to super-rich Americans, billionaires might never have emerged in the first place, or at least we’d have a great deal fewer of them. Kill those perks—the tax favoritism, the pay-to-play, the cheating, legacy admissions, self-interested philanthropy, retirement subsidies, the Walton GRATs and all the rest, and maybe those undeserving billionaires will one day fade away.

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... ionaires/

[lechwall]

It looks nigh on impossible that the Donald could win another general election. All of his election denial and January 6th shenanigans is too much for the majority of voters. Question is can anyone stop him winning the Republican nomination?

[weatheriscool]

McCarthy Proposes Gutting Office of Congressional Ethics in Bid for Speaker
Source: TIME

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy spent the first two days of the new year trying to shore up GOP support for his bid to be Speaker by releasing a series of proposals aimed at winning over hard-right detractors who stand to torpedo his ascension.

The part of his proposed changes to House rules that drew the most attention was allowing just five House members to call for a vote at any time on ousting the Speaker; that would render McCarthy beholden to the most extreme members of his caucus, should he get on their wrong side. But buried in the text was another provision that could be highly consequential for the new Congress being sworn in on Tuesday: language that would effectively gut the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), as the independent panel faces pressure to investigate lawmakers who participated in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Most significantly, McCarthy’s proposal would require OCE to hire its staff for the 118th Congress within 30 days of the resolution’s adoption, a requirement that sources familiar with the process tell TIME would make it exceedingly difficult for the office to have the resources it needs to conduct its investigations, given how long it takes to hire candidates for roles in the federal government. The proposal would also block OCE from hiring new employees over the next two years if someone leaves their position, sources say.

“Republicans get to take control of the House, and on their first day in Congress, they are not trying to take a hammer to the OCE—they’re being a little smarter about it—but they’re taking a scalpel to it,” a Hill source familiar with the ethics process tells TIME.

Read more: https://time.com/6243981/mccarthy-propo ... r-speaker/

[caltrek]

It looks nigh on impossible that the Donald could win another general election. All of his election denial and January 6th shenanigans is too much for the majority of voters. Question is can anyone stop him winning the Republican nomination?

We have a thread more narrowly focused upon the 2024 election which you may be interested in: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=279

[weatheriscool]

McCarthy falls short in first vote for House speaker
Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican leader Kevin McCarthy was dealt a historic defeat in first-round voting Tuesday to become House speaker, vowing to try again but sending the new Congress into opening day tumult as conservative colleagues opposed his leadership. McCarthy had pledged a “battle on the floor” for as long as it takes to overcome right-flank fellow Republicans who were refusing to give him their votes.

But it was not at all clear how the embattled GOP leader could rebound after becoming the first House speaker nominee in 100 years to fail to win the gavel from his fellow party members on the initial vote. McCarthy strode into the chamber, posed for photos, and received a standing ovation from many on his side of the aisle after being nominated by the third-ranking Republican, Rep. Elise Stefanik, who said he “has what it takes” to lead House Republicans.

“No one has worked harder for this majority than Kevin McCarthy,” said Stefanik, R-N.Y. But a challenge was quickly raised by Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., a conservative former leader of the Freedom Caucus, who was nominated by a fellow conservative as speaker. In all, 19 Republicans peeled away, denying McCarthy the majority as they cast votes for Biggs or others in protest.

The mood was tense, at least on the Republican side, as lawmakers rose from their seats, in a lengthy first round of in-person voting. Democrats were joyous as they cast their own historic votes for their leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the first Black person to lead a major American political party.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/biden-politi ... 301f9ae344

[weatheriscool]

Matt Gaetz sticks the knife in Kevin McCarthy and suggests he's unlawfully occupying Speaker office
Source: RawStory.com/Brad Reed

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), whose efforts have led to Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) losing three votes for the Speakership in a single day, took a victory lap on Monday night by taking the opportunity to further rub salt in the California Republican's wounds.

Writing on Twitter, Gaetz suggested that McCarthy is now unlawfully keeping his belongings in the office reserved for the House Speaker before he had ever been elected to the position.

In fact, Gaetz even went so far as to send a letter to Architect of the Capitol, J. Brett Blanton, to question him about the legality of McCarthy occupying the Speaker's office.

"What is the basis in law, House rule, or precedent to allow someone who has placed second in three successive speaker elections to occupy the Speaker of the House Office?" Gaetz asked Blanton. "How long will he remain there before is considered a squatter?"

Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/matt-gaetz-kev ... 659063750/

[weatheriscool]

I wouldn't be shocked if it takes a few weeks to elect a new speaker. The republicans are fucked.

[weatheriscool]

McCarthy Loses 4th Vote for Speaker
Source: The Hill

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Wednesday failed to secure the Speakership on the House’s fourth vote.

Preliminary vote totals showed him getting 201 votes, short of the 218 required to secure the gavel.

The 20 GOP McCarthy opponents, all of whom voted for Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Tuesday, switched their votes to Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.).

…snip…

In a change from yesterday, Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) voted “present.”

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3798 ... -on-day-2/

[caltrek]

McCarthy loses fifth speaker vote with bid for gavel increasingly in peril
by Clare Foran, Melanie Zanona, Manu Raju and Lauren Fox,
January 4, 2023

Introduction:

(CNN) Kevin McCarthy suffered yet another stinging defeat on Wednesday as he lost in the fifth round of voting to elect a speaker – a major blow that increasingly imperils his bid and heightens uncertainty over whether he can still secure the gavel or if a viable candidate will emerge as an alternative. The House is now moving to a sixth vote.

Read more here: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/04/politic ... ndex.html

[caltrek]

McCarthy Loses Sixth House Speaker Vote
by Scott Wong and Alex Seitz-Wald
January 4, 2023

Introduction:

(NBC) WASHINGTON — For a second consecutive day, a band of 20 ultraconservative rebels blocked GOP leader Kevin McCarthy from winning the speaker’s gavel, just hours after former President Donald Trump called on House Republicans to back him and "close the deal."

Between Tuesday and Wednesday, six votes were held on the House floor to choose a speaker; each time, the rebels stuck together and voted for someone else, denying McCarthy the 218 votes he needed to win.

Further Extract:

Firebrand Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., nominated her fellow Freedom Caucus colleague, Donalds, saying she was not swayed by Trump — "my favorite president" — calling her to tell her to "knock this off."

"The president needs to tell Kevin McCarthy that, 'sir, you do not have the votes and it’s time to withdraw,'" Boebert said of Trump to scattered boos.

Read more here: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congr ... rcna64154

Edit:

(USA Today) WASHINGTON –The House of Representatives adjourned without a speaker until 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday (January 4) as GOP leader Kevin McCarthy lost a sixth bid to become House speaker.

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/po ... 85244002/

[weatheriscool]

Donald Trump tells Republicans not to embarrass themselves: "Vote for Kevin."
Source: HuffPost

Donald Trump emphatically endorsed Rep. 0Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for House speaker on Wednesday and urged Republicans not to embarrass themselves after a revolt by far-right lawmakers led to a 0historic failure to elect anyone for the post the day before.

For the first time since 1923, the House failed to choose a speaker on the first ballot. In fact, House Republicans went three roll calls without reaching a consensus after a contingent refused to vote for him and instead backed more extreme GOP candidates. They’ll try again on Wednesday.

“VOTE FOR KEVIN, CLOSE THE DEAL, TAKE THE VICTORY, & WATCH CRAZY NANCY PELOSI FLY BACK HOME TO A VERY BROKEN CALIFORNIA,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The former president and current 2024 presidential candidate ratcheted up his plea on McCarthy’s behalf after the California lawmaker himself claimed Tuesday that Trump 0was backing him. But in an interview with NBC News, Trump offered a tepid “We’ll see what happens.”

Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-t ... 267cac6d83

[weatheriscool]

All but two McCarthy defectors in House are election deniers
Source: Washington Post

The two Republicans voting against McCarthy who are not deniers are Chip Roy of Texas, the only returning member in the group who did not oppose the certification of President Biden’s victory; and Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma, a newcomer to the House.

The 14 returning election deniers who voted against McCarthy are: Andrew S. Clyde of Georgia; Paul A. Gosar and Andy Biggs of Arizona; Matt Gaetz and Byron Donalds of Florida; Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Mary E. Miller (Ill.), Andy Harris (Md.), Matthew M. Rosendale (Mont.), Dan Bishop (N.C.), Scott Perry (Pa.), Ralph Norman (S.C.), Michael Cloud (Tex.) and Bob Good (Va.).

The four newcomers who voted against McCarthy are Eli Crane (Ariz.), Anna Paulina Luna (Fla.), Andy Ogles (Tenn.) and Keith Self (Tex.).

Throughout the midterm election cycle, The Post identified candidates as election deniers if they questioned Biden’s 2020 victory, opposed the counting of his electoral college votes, expressed support for a partisan post-election ballot review, signed onto a lawsuit seeking to overturn the 2020 result, or attended or expressed support for the rally on the day of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2 ... n-deniers/

[caltrek]

The House has narrowly agreed to adjourn until Thursday, January 5.

[weatheriscool]

Republican McCarthy gains support in 12th U.S. House leadership vote
Source: Reuters

Republican Kevin McCarthy on Friday picked up some support from right-wing hardliners in the U.S. House of Representatives who have blocked his speakership bid, but it did not appear to be enough to end the deepest congressional dysfunction since before the Civil War.

In a 12th round of voting in four days, at least 10 Republicans who have opposed McCarthy voted for him on Friday, in a sign that his prospects may be improving after he offered the faction a range of concessions.

But at least five fellow Republicans voted against him as the roll was called, meaning he would likely fall short of the votes needed to win the speaker's gavel.

[snip]

Despite his optimism, some fellow Republican lawmakers said they did not expect him to garner enough votes from the 20 hardliners to ensure a majority that so far has eluded him.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-hou ... 023-01-06/

[weatheriscool]

House Speaker vote: House adjourns until 10 p.m. after McCarthy picks up 14 GOP holdouts
Source: The Hill

The House has adjourned until 10 p.m. after Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), for the first time in days, picked up new GOP votes in his quest to become Speaker.

McCarthy gained the votes of 14 Republicans who had been casting ballots for other candidates and one who had been voting “present.”

With six holdouts, however, he was unable to secure the gavel on the 13th vote.

McCarthy, his allies and detractors will now return to negotiations as he seeks to close an increasingly narrow gap before a 14th vote.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3802 ... stalemate/

[caltrek]

Federal Court Orders South Carolina to Redraw Racially Gerrymandered Congressional Maps
by Brett Wilkins
January 6, 2023

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) A portion of South Carolina's Republican-drawn congressional map discriminates against Black voters and must be redrawn, federal judges ruled Friday to applause from civil rights groups.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for South Carolina in Columbia found that "race was the predominant motivating factor in the General Assembly's design of Congressional District No. 1 and that traditional districting principles were
subordinated to race."

"Charleston County was racially gerrymandered and over 30,000 African-Americans were removed from their home district," the judges added.

Conclusion:

South Carolina's 1st Congressional District is represented by Republican Nancy Mace. Murrell Smith, the GOP speaker of South Carolina's House of Representatives, said he believes the judges' ruling will be appealed, and that the congressional map was drawn "without racial bias and in the best interest of all the people of this state."

Federal courts have recently struck down congressional maps in Alabama and Louisiana for racial gerrymandering. The U.S. Supreme Court has intervened to block the Alabama and Louisiana rulings, sparking fears it will do the same with South Carolina.

Read more here, including Twitter feeds: https://www.commondreams.org/news/sout ... mandering