USA News and Discussions

[weatheriscool]

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[caltrek]

Trump Becoming Biggest Obstacle to Border Deal
January 26, 2024

Introduction:

(Eurasia Review) A deal that would free up $106 billion in foreign aid spending for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, while tightening rules on immigration that the White House and senators from both parties have worked on for months, is under threat to be torpedoed by former President Donald Trump.

Backed by voters who consider immigration the most important issue in the 2024 race, Trump won in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday after securing a victory in Iowa last week.

“We called it right — immigration is a big deal,” Trump said in his victory speech Tuesday. “We have millions of millions of people flowing into our country illegally. They come from prisons, and they come from mental institutions,” he added without providing details to back up his claims.
Trump has used inflammatory anti-immigration language on the campaign trail, including that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
The victory is likely to embolden the front-runner for the Republican presidential nominee to use his popularity to influence lawmakers from his party to avoid a compromise on immigration.

Read more here: https://www.eurasiareview.com/26012024 ... analysis/

caltrek’s comment: This is how Trump operates (not an actual literal quote, but for illustrative purposes): “If you want to solve a problem, then I must be the one in charge. If I am not the one in charge, then the problem will not get solved.”

The greater problem is that more than one faction can play that game. Socialist revolutionaries, for example, proceed along these exact same lines.

There are two possible justifications that solve the faction problem.

1) Might makes right, which is the essence of fascism and totalitarian Communism.

2) The assertion that Trump should rule by divine right. The Republicans are now in the process of saying this quiet part out loud, insisting that Trump is some sort of divinely appointed personage. That Biden or Niki Haley could just as easily make this same argument is ignored.

Thus, we come full circle. From the rejection of the king of England as our rightful ruler to the desire to establish what is essentially a new king. Alexander Hamilton wanted such a thing to happen. Hamilton pointed to George Washington as logical strong man leader. Jefferson and others stringently disagreed. On that score, Washington agreed with Jefferson and company.

Trump and his followers are thus reactionaries. They would drag us back to how we were ruled centuries ago. A time in which many of our modern technologies did not even exist. This, despite Trump’s demonstrated ignorance of scientific, environmental, and technological issues.
For those that disagree with justification number 2, see justification number 1.

[weatheriscool]

Trump is an enemy of our union and must be stopped at all cost. A fucking traitor!

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

Breaking: Travel bans proposed in Tennessee & Oklahoma

States would send aunts & grandmas to prison as "traffickers" for helping teens

We knew it was never going to stop with Idaho.

Tennessee Republican Rep. Jason Zachary introduced a travel ban yesterday—legislation that would make it a Class C felony to take a minor out-of-state for abortion care. That means a friend, aunt or grandmother who helps a teenager get an abortion could be sent to prison for 15 years. In Oklahoma, state Sen. Nathan Dahm introduced a similar bill that would punish anyone who helps a teen obtain care with up to 5 years in prison.

I want to be clear: When I say these laws target anyone who “helps” a teen get an abortion, I don’t just mean someone who physically takes them out of the state. You could be arrested for lending a teenager gas money, or texting them the url of an out-of-state clinic. That’s because both Tennessee’s HB1895 and Oklahoma’s SB1778 deliberately define ‘abortion trafficking’ as broadly as possible. Anyone who “recruits, harbors, or transports” a minor for the purpose of getting an abortion is guilty of ‘trafficking’.

In fact, that’s the exact issue at the center of the legal fight over Idaho’s ‘abortion trafficking’ law—which is currently blocked because a judge ruled it violated the First Amendment. An amicus brief filed by 20 Attorneys General in opposition to Idaho’s travel ban offered this example:

“A teenage girl in Moscow, Idaho, calls her aunt in Pullman, Washington, less than ten miles away, to say she is pregnant and feels she cannot safely tell her parents. If the aunt tells her niece about a clinic in Pullman that offers abortion care and counseling, is that ‘recruitment’? What if the aunt texts her niece a web link to the clinic’s informational material? Or if the niece books an appointment and the clinic’s office manager emails her a preappointment information sheet? If the aunt pays for her niece’s bus ticket to Pullman, is that ‘transportation’—or, as the Idaho law would have it, ‘trafficking’?”

[...]

Read more: https://jessica.substack.com/p/breaking ... roposed-in

[weatheriscool]

Republicans advance Mayorkas impeachment as Democrats decry process as a sham

Democrats warned Republicans against setting a precedent of using impeachment to settle policy differences

By Jacqueline Alemany and Amy B Wang
Updated January 31, 2024 at 1:24 a.m. EST|Published January 30, 2024 at 10:40 a.m. EST

House Republicans voted early Wednesday to advance an impeachment case against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the full chamber, moving one step closer to impeaching the first Cabinet member in almost 150 years.

In an 18-15 vote along party lines following a marathon meeting, members of the House Homeland Security Committee advanced two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, accusing him of “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and breach of the public trust. The move came even as Democrats repeatedly asserted during the hearing that Republicans have no constitutional basis to impeach Mayorkas, and noted GOP lawmakers have struggled in two recent hearings to detail clear evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... l_politics

[weatheriscool]

Utah Governor Cox signs constitutional sovereignty bill saying they can ignore Supremacy Clause
https://www.fox13now.com/news/politics/ ... ignty-bill

SALT LAKE CITY — Governor Spencer Cox has signed a bill into law that allows the state to ignore some federal directives and orders.

The governor late Wednesday signed Senate Bill 57, the Constitutional Sovereignty Act.

"Balancing power between state and federal sovereignty is an essential part of our constitutional system. This legislation gives us another way to push back on federal overreach and maintain that balance," Gov. Cox said in a statement.

The bill is designed to allow the state to refuse to comply with some federal orders or directives, like federal air quality standards or public lands issues. But that's only after a supermajority of the legislature agrees to pass a resolution stating as such.

The bill's primary sponsor, Sen. Scott Sandall, R-Tremonton, told FOX 13 News in an interview earlier this month that the bill would not allow every minor grievance the state may have with an ideologically opposed administration to be brought up. Instead, lawmakers must run a resolution to pick their topics.

[firestar464]

*hoi4 popup* Utah declares war on United States

(texas pov) Utah has accepted our request to join our faction.

We stand together.

[weatheriscool]

Connecticut Gov. Says He Will Cancel Hundreds Of Millions In Medical Debt

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) announced Friday that his administration is erasing hundreds of millions in medical debt for around 250,000 eligible residents, saying Connecticut will be the first to take such action at the state level.

“This is not something they did because they’re spending too much money. This is something where they got hit with a medical emergency. They should not have to suffer twice,” Lamont told ABC News, which first reported the news.

No one will need to apply for the debt forgiveness. Households will receive letters in the mail if they are eligible — if their medical debt equals 5% or more of their annual income, or if their annual income is under 400% of the federal poverty line, Lamont told CNN Friday. (That’s about $125,000 for a family of 4.)

The governor said that he would spend $6.5 million in federal funding that Connecticut received through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The state will then work with a nonprofit that bundles the debt and then purchase it, often for pennies on the dollar.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ned-lamo ... 8779f963bb

[weatheriscool]

Powell: Federal Reserve on track to cut rates this year with inflation slowing and economy healthy

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chair Jerome Powell said in an interview broadcast Sunday night that the Federal Reserve remains on track to cut interest rates three times this year, a move that’s expected to begin as early as May.

Powell, in an interview recorded Thursday for the CBS news program “60 Minutes,” also said the nation’s job market and economy are strong, with no sign of a recession on the horizon.

“I do think the economy is in a good place,” he said, “and there’s every reason to think it can get better.”

Powell’s comments largely echoed remarks he gave at a news conference Wednesday, after the Fed decided to keep its key interest rate steady at about 5.4%, a 22-year high. To fight inflation, the Fed raised its benchmark rate 11 times beginning in March 2022, causing loans for consumers and businesses to become much more expensive.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/federal-rese ... 759fa512b4

[weatheriscool]

[firestar464]

More on that by ABC:

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rnc-cha ... =107009390

[caltrek]

Republicans’ Plot to Impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas Flops
by Isabela Dias
February 6, 2024

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) On Tuesday, House Republicans fell short of getting enough votes to adopt a resolution to impeach Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas in what would have been the first impeachment of a cabinet leader since 1876. The vote was the culmination of incessant attacks by House Republicans against the secretary, who they accused of “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and “breach of public trust.” For months, Democrats and an array of legal experts have decried the proceedings as a “political stunt” with no basis on constitutional grounds.

The final vote was 214-216 with four Republican lawmakers joining Democrats in voting against the resolution, including Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.), Ken Buck (R-Colo.), and Blake Moore (R-Utah).

“They say this is about securing the border,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said of his GOP counterparts on the House floor, “and their plan to secure the border is to impeach the guy responsible for securing the border and replace him with—now wait for it…they aren’t sure.” He added: “Republicans simply do not want to participate in government. They want to create chaos, they want to create confusion, and they want to create a campaign issue for Donald Trump going into the next election.”

As I’ve written about before, Republicans’ scapegoating of Mayorkas has been a long time in the making:

• Almost since the moment Mayorkas, a career public servant with extensive experience as a federal prosecutor and head of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), began the job as head of DHS, Republicans have made him a target. They say that Mayorkas has willfully violated his oath of office by refusing to do his job of securing the border. Republicans claim Mayorkas has abused his office’s authority when using a discretionary parole program to allow certain groups to lawfully enter the country and has lied to Congress about having “operational control” of the border—an impossible, congressionally defined standard that requires “the prevention of all unlawful entries into the United States.”

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/mojo-wire/ ... eachment/

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[Time_Traveller]

Squishmallows has launched a legal fight against Build-A-Bear

4 hours ago

Fur may be about to fly as two hugely popular plush toy makers square up for a fight over a copyright issue.

Squishmallows, says Skoosherz, a new toy made by Build-A-Bear Workshop is too similar to its own egg-shaped cushion animal characters.

Despite the cuddly nature of the subject matter it will be more hard-nosed legal battle than pillow fight.

Jazwares, the maker of Squishmallows, has launched an intellectual property lawsuit in California.

But Build-A-Bear Workshop has launched its own lawsuit in retaliation in Missouri, aiming to establish that the Skoosherz, another dinner plate-sized huggable, is simply its own version of a type of toy that has become popular in recent years.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68280258

[Time_Traveller]

US Senate passes $95bn package of aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan

26 minutes ago

The US Senate has approved a long-awaited $95bn (£75.2bn) aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan after months of political wrangling.

While Democrats were in favour of passing the bill, Republicans were divided and previously voted it down.

The package includes $60bn for Kyiv, $14bn for Israel's war against Hamas and $10bn for humanitarian aid in conflict zones, including in Gaza.

The bill will now go to the House, where its fate remains uncertain.

The package, which also includes more than $4bn in funds for Indo-Pacific allies, passed the Senate despite criticism from Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and former President Donald Trump.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68284380