United States Politics

"America should not be stuck choosing between the 'King of Debt' (his self-declaration) and an 81-year old," Else wrote on his campaign website.

We all knew this was coming and #Alabama is the first to outlaw IVF.

I think they're in for a surprise because there's a lot of right wingers who use #FertilityTreatments

#GQP #Republicans #IVF

https://1819news.com/news/item/alabama-supreme-court-rules-ivf-embryos-are-protected-under-wrongful-death-of-a-minor-act

We didn't realize that the 2016 election was the most important election in US history on the basis of "US v. Fascism." That was the frying pan; this is the fire.

Let's drop the pretense: There will be violence in the last two months of 2024, no matter which way the election turns out. The choice in this election is whether you want the violence to be against a democratic government, or in the name of a fascist government. All other questions are noise.

#USpolitics

If Trump is ineligible via #SectionThree, then aren't Haley and DeSantis also inelgibile, having promised to pardon him? Aid and comfort?

#USpolitics

Major aid groups say the Biden administration’s special envoy for humanitarian issues has not responded to requests for meetings, as experts warn desperation in Gaza will reach unimaginable levels.

Henry Kissinger has died at age 100.

3 hours of crazy in one convenient recording

Mike Johnson said during prayer calls with right-wing pastor Jim Garlow that "depraved" America deserves the wrath of God.

Abortion rights supporters won big in an Ohio ballot measure. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear was reelected in Kentucky after running television ads painting his challenger as extremist on abortion.

The legal fights between Disney and Gov. Ron DeSantis ratcheted up this week. The Florida governor asked that the company's First Amendment lawsuit against him be tossed from federal court, and Disney demanded emails, texts and other communications from the governor's office in a separate state court lawsuit originally brought by DeSantis appointees of Walt Disney World's governing district. The legal filings marked an escalation in the battle between the entertainment giant and DeSantis, a candidate for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

He’s a Democrat, she’s a Republican…and there’s a photo that’s almost NSFW in the linked article.

Scott McAfee is the Fulton County, Georgia judge who will preside over the GA RICO case. He has recently made it clear that all proceedings in that case will be televised, and livestreamed on YouTube.

I thought I would pick a random livestream already on his own channel, just to see how he manages his courtroom. Wow, did I pick a doozie.

This is an evidentiary hearing to determine whether the defendant, attorney Lin Wood, has violated a ruling from another court not to make disparaging statements about the plaintiffs, also all attorneys.

It appears to be oh so timely in the context of defendants in his court making inflammatory public statements, and it hits many of the "talking points" such a defendant might bring:

• First Amendment
• Conspiracy theories
• Communist takeover of the country

No spoilers - I haven't even finished it yet. The link skips over the pre-hearing courtroom milling about and starts right when Judge McAfee enters the courtroom.

Toward the end, there are technical difficulties. After the sound cuts out, move on to part two: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz-8EbF07f0

The order came in a lawsuit filed by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana, who claim the administration is trying to silence its critics.

Phrase in Declaration of Independence reflects how racism was baked into nation's founding document.

The House’s focus on the far-right’s demands over the past month has irritated Republicans who represent swing districts or are worried that an extreme legislative agenda will push voters away and hand the House majority to Democrats in 2024. So they are learning to flex their procedural muscles, largely behind the scenes, to keep some proposals they see as most damaging off the House floor.

According to a Washington Post article on this phenomenon, “The attacks also coincide with signs of a shift in public opinion, with opposition to LGBTQ+ rights rising again, especially among Republicans, polling shows.” But saying “especially among Republicans” is underselling it. The Gallup poll the Post points to as its top piece of evidence shows a 15-point plunge in the percentage of Republicans saying “gay or lesbian relations are morally acceptable.” That 15-point plunge happened in a single year, from 2022 to 2023.

US just released a study finding “many of the largest general consumer S&P 500 companies have admitted to benefiting from increased prices as their net profits increased year-over-year and they rewarded shareholders with billions in new shareholder handouts.” In other words, price gouging and corporate greed is driving increases to consumer prices.

The majority then announced, with an opinion from Chief Justice John Roberts, that it was overthrowing the student loan forgiveness program, granting a request from six Republican state attorneys general on behalf of a loan servicer, the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, that did not want to be used as a plaintiff. Without MOHELA, the states did not have standing to bring the suit—they are not directly harmed.

Roberts and the majority weren’t going to be bothered by the fact that their plaintiff was an unwilling participant in this highly partisan scheme. "By law and function, MOHELA is an instrumentality of Missouri ... The [debt forgiveness] plan will cut MOHELA's revenues, impairing its efforts to aid Missouri college students,” Roberts wrote. “This acknowledged harm to MOHELA in the performance of its public function is necessarily a direct injury to Missouri itself."

Never mind that in oral arguments the state admitted that MOHELA wasn’t aiding Missouri college students because it hadn’t paid into that fund in 15 years, and “said in its own financial documents that it doesn’t plan to make any payments in the future.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action admissions could undermine the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to bring environmental justice to predominantly Black communities disproportionately harmed by pollution. Today’s decision rejecting the administration’s forgiveness of student debt could mean the administration will also have a tough time getting its climate rules past the justices, several legal experts say.