USA News and Discussions

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caltrek
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Congress Passes Stopgap Spending Bill, Averting Shutdown Despite GOP Revolt on Vaccine Requirements
by Tony Romm and Mike DeBonis
December 2, 2021

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-polic ... n-vaccine/

Introduction:
(Washington Post) House and Senate lawmakers on Thursday approved a bill to fund the federal government into early next year, narrowly averting a shutdown after some Republicans sought to seize on the imminent fiscal deadline to fight President Biden over his vaccine policies.

The two successful evening votes spelled an end to a brief yet tense period that would have brought Washington to a halt come Saturday morning, a development that Democrats had described as irresponsible and dangerous in the middle of a deadly pandemic.

The new agreement, which awaits Biden’s signature, covers federal spending until Feb. 18. At that point, lawmakers must adopt another short-term measure or complete work on a dozen long-stalled appropriations bills that fund the government for the remainder of fiscal 2022, which ends in September.

Even as both parties insisted they did not want to push the country toward a fiscal cliff, they still came dangerously close to missing their deadline. For days, conservative Republicans had threatened to hold up the funding bill as part of a long-running protest of Biden’s vaccine directives, including those ordering large employers to require inoculations or implement comprehensive testing programs. Some lawmakers, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), even explicitly called for a shutdown in a bid to deny the White House the ability to enforce its rules.
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caltrek
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Facing a $175,000 Sanction Over Election Suit, Trump Attorney Files Appeal
by Daniel Jackson
December 3, 2021

https://www.courthousenews.com/facing-a ... es-appeal/

Introduction:
(Courthouse News) — A day after a federal judge in Michigan imposed more than $175,000 in sanctions on a group of attorneys who filed a suit attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election, one of them has appealed.

In August, U.S. District Judge Linda Parker had strong words for the attorneys she said deceived the court in order to push forward the “Kraken” suit alleging fraud in the 2020 presidential election but was actually an attempt to undermine faith in democracy. In that 110-page order, Parker ordered the nine attorneys to take continuing legal education and referred them to the disciplinary authorities of state bar associations for possible disbarment.

On Thursday, Parker added dollar figure to the sanctions, ordering the nine attorneys to pay the attorney fees for the city of Detroit and state of Michigan officials.

On Friday, attorney Lin Wood filed a notice saying he was appealing Parker’s final judgment to the Sixth Circuit.
Further Extract:
“...some of these people are shameless and will simply use the sanctions as further evidence that the system is stacked against them,” (Professor) Hasen (an expert in election law at University of California Irvine) wrote in an email.
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More than half of young Americans feel democracy in the country is under threat, and over a third think they may see a second U.S. civil war within their lifetimes, according to the 42nd Harvard Youth Poll, released by Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics (IOP) on Wednesday.

The poll also found approval of President Biden has plummeted, and a majority of respondents are unhappy with how the president and Congress are doing their jobs. In addition, many of the respondents feel strongly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and are worried about the threat of climate change. Half of all respondents also said they struggled with feelings of hopelessness and depression.

The Harvard Youth Poll—which is conducted twice a year, in fall and spring, and has run for over 20 years—captured responses on these topics and others from 2,109 people between the ages of 18 and 29, from across the country. Students from the Harvard Public Opinion Project (HPOP) organized the survey, under the supervision of John Della Volpe, director of polling at the IOP.

“After turning out in record numbers in 2020, young Americans are sounding the alarm. When they look at the America they will soon inherit, they see a democracy and climate in peril—and Washington as more interested in confrontation than compromise,” Della Volpe said. “Despite this, they seem as determined as ever to fight for the change they seek.”
And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
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Nanotechandmorefuture
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wjfox wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 2:52 pm
I guess things must have gotten that bad for Howard Stern to comment on it. The idiocy rate is nothing new it was always there just not apparent to everyone until COVID.
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More evidence of the effects of systemic racism in the U.S.A.:

Foreclosures Are Fueling America’s Racial Wealth Gap
by Michael Mechanic
December 6, 2021

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/12/homeownership-race-wealth-gap-housing-discrimination-black-latino-kermani-wong-brookings-research/

Introduction:
(Mother Jones) This past June, to commemorate the massacre of hundreds of Black Americans and destruction of their thriving community by a white terrorist mob in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a century ago, the Biden administration promised it would work to address the racial wealth gap.

Specifically, it said, federal officials would expand access to “two key wealth-creators”—home and business ownership—and take actions to address racist practices in the housing market.

Important steps, to be sure, but new research points to an equally vital priority: helping families weather the kinds of economic shocks that propel homes into foreclosure.

The wealth gap is dire. Based on data from the Fed’s 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances, median wealth for white families nearing retirement was $315,000, nearly triple that of Hispanic families and six times that of Black families. Racial disparities in average wealth are even greater.
More than half of the median wealth gap between Black and white people at retirement age can be attributed to racial differences in housing wealth, based on data from Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Per the latest census figures, 75 percent of non-Hispanic white people own homes, compared to 45 percent of Black people, 50 percent of Latinos, and 60 percent of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. And crucially, white homeowners enjoy more robust growth in property values than homeowners of color, on average, and therefore end up with a substantially larger return on investment.

The conventional wisdom attributes these ROI differences to market forces that suppress property values in neighborhoods where people of color are the majority. (The New York Times Magazine had a good piece on this recently.) The new research, however, indicates that the disparity may also be rooted in racist labor practices, compounded by differences in family wealth and access to capital. When a family’s mortgage suddenly becomes unaffordable, they might have to sell quickly for cheap—or their lender does it via foreclosure.
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Brian Williams Signs Off from NBC After 28 Years
by Samantha Kubota
December 10, 2021

https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment ... uxbndlbing

Extract:
(NBC via MSN) MSNBC host and former “NBC Nightly News” anchor and managing editor Brian Williams signed off for the last time at NBC on Thursday evening.

…In his on-air goodbye, Williams warned against extremism in the country.

“The truth is I’m not a liberal or a conservative. I’m an institutionalist,” he said. “I believe in this place and my love of country I yield to no one. But the darkness on the edge of town has spread to the main roads and highways and neighborhoods. It’s now at the local bar, and the bowling alley at the school board in the grocery store.”

He also lambasted elected officials he thinks have “joined the mob” and who have “decided to burn it all down with us inside.”

MSNBC President Rashida Jones said in a note to staff last month that Williams would leave at the end of the year to “spend time with his family.”
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New York City Gives Noncitizens Right to Vote in Local Elections
by Kelly Mena
December 9, 2021

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/09/politics ... index.html

Introduction:
New York (CNN) New York City on Thursday became the largest municipality in the US to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections.

In a vote of 33 to 14, the Democrat-controlled city council passed the measure known as "Our City, Our Vote."

Under the legislation, noncitizens who have lived in the city for at least 30 days and are legal permanent residents in the US -- including green card holders, individuals with workers permits and DACA holders -- will be allowed to vote in city elections, including mayor, public advocate, borough president and city council.

Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, the prime sponsor of the legislation and an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, told CNN it's about championing the issue of "no taxation without representation."
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