USA News and Discussions

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caltrek
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House Passes Modern Day Poll Tax in SAVE Act
by
April 10, 2025

Introduction:
(Common Dreams) WASHINGTON - Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the SAVE Act (HR 22), legislation that will make it significantly harder and more expensive for tens of millions of American to vote in elections. Under the proposed legislation, every American would have to provide in-person proof of citizenship to register to vote and update their voter registration. Additionally, the SAVE Act would make it impossible for Americans to register to vote by mail, end voter registration drives, and end online voter registration for 42 states.

Statement of Common Cause President & CEO Virginia Kase Solomón

Let’s call the SAVE Act what it is: a modern-day poll tax. This legislation is a direct attack on every American citizen, preventing tens of millions of people from exercising our constitutional right to vote.

If this bill becomes law, millions of hardworking Americans will have to either shell out money getting the right papers to prove their citizenship or have no say in the next election for congress and president.

Proof of citizenship potentially disenfranchises 69 million married women whose new last names do not match their birth certificate, Republican voters who are less likely than Democrats to have passports to prove citizenship and would erect significant voter registration hurdles for the service men and women protecting our country overseas.

But that is the point of this bill: to make it so difficult to vote that many people will give up on voting all together. Every U.S. Senator who cares about protecting our right to the ballot must vote down this poll tax in any form. Common Cause and our 1.5 million members will make sure every Senator hears from the people that this bill is dead on arrival
Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/ ... save-act
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-Joe Hill
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House votes to overturn Biden-era rule that would have limited overdraft fees to $5

Source: Fortune

April 10, 2025 at 4:37 AM EDT


The House voted Wednesday to overturn a rule that would have limited bank overdraft fees to $5, following the Senate in moving to dismantle the regulation that the Biden administration had estimated would save consumers billions of dollars. The resolution killing the rule, which passed the House 217-211, will now head to the White House for President Donald Trump’s signature.

Republicans argued that the “disastrous” regulation issued in the final days of President Joe Biden’s term would have forced banks to stop offering overdraft protection altogether and made it harder for Americans to access credit. “Competition and innovation, not government-mandated price caps, remain the best way to ensure consumers have access to affordable financial products and services,” said Arkansas Rep. French Hill, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

Currently, the nation’s biggest banks take in roughly $8 billion in the charges every year, according to data from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and bank public records. Right now, there is no cap on the overdraft fees that banks can legally charge. Banks and banking groups had previously sued over the rule, arguing that it would have led to consumers leaning on worse, less-regulated services. Republicans voted to undo the regulation under the Congressional Review Act, a 1996 law that allows Congress to reverse recently adopted rules.

Democrats strongly opposed the effort and said the rule would help consumers who can’t afford the fees. California Rep. Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the Financial Services panel, said that Americans are “fed up with these junk fees” and want to get them under control. The rule, scheduled to go into effect in October, was part of Biden’s effort to reduce fees that hit consumers on everyday purchases, including banking services.
Read more: https://fortune.com/2025/04/10/house-ov ... raft-fees/
firestar464
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firestar464
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Tulsi Gabbard declared her residency in Texas. Then she voted in Hawaii

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/09/politics ... index.html
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House passes Senate budget.

..which includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. It does reference future unknown savings, probably Medicaid cuts, but not much in DOGE savings as Musk now admits he only found $150 billion in “waste, fraud, and abuse.”

Still, their budget will increase the debt by $5 trillion. So, continuing GOP standard operating procedure, they plan on borrowing the money for tax cuts . They will probably need to borrow more, because their cuts to the IRS budget will end up reducing tax revenues.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/house-bu ... 2bce867b88
firestar464
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firestar464
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Social Security lists thousands of living immigrants as dead to prompt them to leave, AP sources say

https://apnews.com/article/living-immig ... 555777d880
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caltrek
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The Rise of "Gut Feelings" in U.S. Political Rhetoric
April 10, 2025

Introduction:
(Eurekalert) Discussion of "alternative facts" has gained sad notoriety in US politics. Yet the question has been around much longer: How do people conduct political debates – is the focus more on facts or personal opinions? A team of international researchers led by the Cluster of Excellence "The Politics of Inequality" looked into the matter. The researchers examined political rhetoric in eight million speeches by members of the US Congress between 1879 and 2022 to see if the focus of their language was more on data and facts or personal convictions and subjective interpretations.

The team noticed a significant decline in the use of evidence-based political rhetoric since the 1970s, with a historic low in the present. Over the same period, the researchers observed a decline in legislative productivity, an increase in the political polarization of both political parties as well as growing economic inequality in the US.

Between facts and personal convictions

"In many democracies, there is currently much concern about 'truth decay': the blurring of the boundary between fact and fiction, not only fuelling polarization but also undermining public trust in institutions", explains lead author David Garcia, a professor of social and behavioural data science at the University of Konstanz. Together with his research colleagues in the UK, Israel, Austria and Germany, Garcia examined the political rhetoric used in congressional speeches over a period of more than 140 years. Their focus was on the question of how politicians express their conceptions of truth in their language: are they more likely to use objective facts or personal convictions?

"Productive democratic discourse balances evidence-based and intuition-based conceptions of truth", Garcia says. While evidence-based discourse provides a foundation for 'reasoned' debate, intuition contributes emotional and experiential dimensions that can be critical for exploring and resolving societal issues. However, if facts are given less weight and the balance is off, it jeopardizes political discourse. This is exactly the development the researchers have observed in the US' congressional speeches.
Read more of the Eurekalert article here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1079634

For a presentation of study results that is heavy in technical mathematical usage and terms: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-025-02136-2

caltrek’s comment: Is climate change information a presentation of an “inconvenient truth.” Well, just replace it with “gut” feelings about how it really isn’t a problem.

Daniel Moynihan once declared that “Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts.” The largely Republican response seems to be to give greater weight to opinion than to facts. Better to appeal to emotions rather than logical thinking. At least one can gain more votes and campaign contributions that way.
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
firestar464
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US consumer sentiment plummets to second-lowest level on records going back to 1952

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/11/economy/ ... index.html
firestar464
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tldr the judge wants daily status updates on what the feds are doing to bring Garcia back (also she wants his location)
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caltrek
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Hands Off Rallies Were Patriotism In Action
by Peter Montgomery
April 9, 2025

Introduction:
(Other Words) Millions of Americans in more than 1,200 cities and towns gathered with friends and neighbors on April 5 in a beautiful, energetic, nonviolent, and urgently needed expression of patriotism.

We used our freedom of speech to send urgent messages to our political leaders: Respect the rule of law and constitutional checks and balances. And stop sacrificing Americans’ well-being by gutting the government’s ability to protect workers, consumers, communities, and the environment.

The gatherings were also a call to our fellow Americans to defend what’s best about our country, and to resist the destructive policies of President Donald Trump and his chainsaw-wielding billionaire buddy Elon Musk.

In our politically divided times, we often think simplistically about “red” and “blue” states. We talk as if our differences mean we don’t have anything important in common. It’s not true. People turned out from Alabama to Alaska, Tennessee to Texas, and Missouri to Montana.

Liberals and conservatives and everyone in between can find common ground in the idea that the Constitution should protect all of us. That we all benefit from clean air and water, scientific research, and basic public health capabilities.
Read more of the article here: https://otherwords.org/the-hands-off-r ... -action/
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
firestar464
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Sadly I don't think conservatives place much importance on clean air and water, but that's another topic ig
firestar464
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firestar464
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Pentagon’s ‘SWAT team of nerds’ resigns en masse

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/1 ... s-00290930
firestar464
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Trump plans order to cut funding for NPR and PBS

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/15/nx-s1-53 ... on-funding
firestar464
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California will sue to stop Trump from imposing sweeping tariffs

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/topstor ... r-AA1D1xUZ
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firestar464
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firestar464
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weatheriscool
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BREAKING: SCOTUS orders the government not to remove anyone from the United States under Trump's Alien Enemies Act procl


Chris Geidner
‪@chrisgeidner.bsky.social‬
BREAKING: SCOTUS orders the government not to remove anyone from the United States under Trump’s Alien Enemies Act proclamation who is a part of the potential class in the Northern District of Texas case until further order of the court.

Only Thomas and Alito note their dissent.

This is an unusual order for several reasons, suggesting the majority thought it necessary. This was issued:
• after midnight
• before the government even responded (perhaps most irregular)
• while a Fifth Circuit request remains pending &
• before a dissenting justice could finish their statement.

Also, while the message is clear, the “putative class” is technically only those in the Northern District of Texas who could be subject to the AEA proclamation. (Despite what I’m seeing from some posts flying around. And, which is why my initial post is worded as it is.)
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