USA News and Discussions

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caltrek
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Internal Trump Campaign Memo Shows Giuliani and Powell Knew Everything They Spewed Was a Lie
by Mark Sumner
September 22, 2021

https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/giuliani-powell/

Introduction:
(Alternet) A memo obtained by The New York Times makes clear that the Trump campaign not only spread propaganda and misinformation about the results of the 2020 election, they did so with full knowledge that what they were telling the American people was simply a lie.

Long before Jan. 6, in the days immediately following the election, Trump's team was aware that claims about voting machines made by Dominion and Smartmatic were utterly false. The interal memo, prepared by Trump's communication team, includes a thorough debunking of claims about the software, hardware, origins, and political connections of each company, One by one, everything circulating in the fever swamp of right-wing claims about the election was stood up, and just as quickly shot down.

Despite this, Trump's legal team would step forward six days after that memo was circulated and make exactly the claims they already knew not to be true. That included false claims about how the companies were connected to antifa. False claims about how the software had originated in Venezuela. False claims about the connections between the two companies. False claims about connections to George Soros. And false claims about votes being counted overseas.

Now that memo has surfaced in court papers as part of a defamation lawsuit against Trump's campaign
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Group hired by ‘Stop the Steal’ Republicans to review Maricopa County election recount confirms Trump lost

Posted on September 23, 2021

The results of a months-long hand recount of the 2020 vote in Maricopa County, Arizona, has confirmed that Joe Biden won the election and there was no mass voter fraud designed to “steal” the election from former President Donald Trump, the AZCentral reports.

The results were put forth in a draft report by the Cyber Ninjas, who were contracted by allies of Trump to oversee the recount and report its findings. According to their report, Biden won by a larger margin than originally reported in the county’s official election results.

As AZCentral points out, the Cyber Ninjas and their subcontractors were paid millions by nonprofits set up by prominent figures who believed the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump. Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan promised that the results of their work would be unbiased.

https://deadstate.org/group-hired-by-st ... rump-lost/
weatheriscool
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House Budget Committee votes to pass the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill
Source: CNN
The House Budget Committee voted Saturday to pass the $3.5 trillion spending bill out of committee and send it to the House floor.

The vote was 20 to 17 with Democratic Rep. Scott Peters of California joining Republicans to vote against the bill. It came as a necessary step for the bill to reach the full House floor, where it can be amended.

Democrats have been struggling to pass President Joe Biden's economic agenda, including the massive tax and spending bill that would expand education, health care and childcare support, address the climate crisis and make further investments in infrastructure.
The bill has raised concerns among moderates who worry some of the measures, including on drug pricing and climate, go too far, as progressives say they've already compromised enough. Republicans are united in their opposition to it.

During its Saturday meeting, the House Budget committee could not change what other committees have already voted to approve.

This story has been updated with additional information.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/25/politics ... index.html
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caltrek
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The Republicans’ Counter-Revolution Is Being Televised
by Daniel Cubas
September 23, 2021

https://manomagazine.com/politics-repub ... itol-riot/

Introduction:
(Mano) As we all know, hot-tempered lovers of authoritarianism recently held a rally that was supposed to attract thousands of like-minded neofascists. But the rally brought in just a handful of sad racists who looked pathetic standing around, preaching right-wing gospel and reminiscing about their glory days, when they could drive over protesters and march around with torches and smash heads open whenever they damn well felt like it.

However, this fizzled assembly should not convince us that Trumpism is dead. After all, our favorite twice-impeached ex-president “has slowly turned January 6 from a black mark that threatened to expunge him from Republican politics, to a regrettable episode that his allies preferred to leave behind, to a glorious uprising behind which he could rally his adherents.”

Indeed, the week after the attack on the Capitol, about 80 percent of Republicans denounced it. But today over half of Trump voters describe the riots as “patriotism,” “defending freedom,” or “legitimate protest.” And of course, over 70 percent of Republicans believe that Biden stole the election, “which was the original false rationale for the January 6 rally that turned into the attack.”

So tell me again how Republicans were going to come to their senses once Trump left office, and how we can still find common ground with them to move the country forward. Go ahead—I love a good joke.

In any case, recent investigations have shown how “Trump’s assault on democracy, which looks more and more like an attempted coup, was even more reckless and insistent than previously thought.” And in response, Republicans have devised a series of “tortured, pathetic arguments… to dismiss or minimize the democracy-shaking events of January 6.”
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caltrek
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Democrats Are Living in Different Realities When It Comes to Passing Biden’s Agenda
by Kara Voght
September 26, 2021

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... en-agenda/

Introduction:
(Mother Jones) President Joe Biden has bet his legacy on a sweeping economic agenda that now awaits action in the House of Representatives. But on the eve of a key vote in Congress’s lower chamber, Democratic lawmakers from across the ideological spectrum remain as divided as ever on how to get that agenda over the finish line—or what it should look like when it gets there.

The White House’s economic proposals have been sorted into two bills: A $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill the Senate passed in August and a $3.5 trillion budget bill that includes massive investments in health care, the fight against climate change, and the social safety net. House Democrats agreed to hold a vote on the infrastructure bill by September 27 at the urging of their moderate colleagues to whom passing a bipartisan, job-creating bill would prove to voters that Democrats can reach across the aisle and get things done.

But progressive lawmakers balked at the idea of passing the bipartisan bill by itself. The party’s most ambitious line items are in the $3.5 trillion budget bill, and Congress’s left flank feared that moderates would withhold support for the legislation once the bipartisan bill was on the president’s desk. (By virtue of the congressional budgeting process, the budget bill can pass with only Democratic votes, but it needs the vote of every Democrat in the Senate to pass.)

So progressive lawmakers are refusing to vote for the bipartisan bill until the House and Senate reach an “ironclad” agreement on a budget bill. So far, that hasn’t happened: A handful of moderate House Democrats have joined Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) and Krysten Sinema in raising doubts over the size of the bill, as well as how it will be paid for. The disagreement means the budget bill will almost certainly not be ready for a vote by the infrastructure bill’s Monday deadline. And on the Sunday political shows, House Democrats representing both sides of the intra-party debate spoke of the consequences of not having an agreed-upon budget bill as if they were living in separate political realities.
caltrek's comment: Democrats have got to stop bringing a butter knife to a gun fight. If Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema want to continue to enable nihilist Republicans by supporting easy to implement filibusters, then responsibility for wrecking the economy, failing to save the ecology of the planet, etc. needs to be placed squarely on their shoulders. Compromising with nihilists is not the answer. All such nihilists seem to understand at this point is destruction. Destruction by use of Covid19, destruction by generation of greenhouse gasses, destruction by failure to raise the debt ceiling, and destruction of democracy through voter suppression efforts. That some voters support such nonsense is truly disturbing.
Don't mourn, organize.

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caltrek
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Speaking of holding Manchin accountable -

Flotilla Protest at Manchin's Yacht Tells Right-Wing Democrat: 'Don't Sink Our Bill'
by Jake Johnson
September 28, 2021

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/ ... k-our-bill

Introduction:
(Common Dreams) "He's not listening to us, he's listening to Big Money. That's why we're here at his yacht in D.C."

West Virginia activists in kayaks and electric boats converged on Sen. Joe Manchin's yacht in Washington, D.C. on Monday to protest the right-wing Democrat's continued obstruction of his own party's reconciliation package, a central component of President Joe Biden's climate and safety net agenda.

"West Virginians have been trying to reach Sen. Manchin every way we know how to tell him we need this bill to bring jobs to WV, to extend the Child Tax Credit for our families, to expand access to healthcare, to fund the home care our elderly and disabled community members deserve," Loretta Young, executive director of Race Matters WV, said in a statement.

"Seventy-nine percent of West Virginians want this bill!" Young added. "And yet, Sen. Manchin is still blocking it. He's not listening to us, he's listening to Big Money. That's why we're here at his yacht in D.C. today."

Manchin, a coal profiteer and the chair Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, is one of around a dozen conservative Democrats in Congress working to water down their party's reconciliation package, objecting specifically to proposed tax hikes on the rich and corporations, a clean electricity standard, Medicare expansion, drug price reforms, and other elements of the plan.
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caltrek
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Then there is Krysten Sinema:

'Cartoonish Level Corrupt': As Dems Fight for Bold Agenda, Sinema to Fundraise With Its Corporate Opponents
by Brett Wilkins
September 27, 2021

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/ ... -corporate

Inroduction:
(Common Dreams) "Sinema is setting her political future on fire," said one Democratic organizer. "If she doesn't change course drastically and soon, it will be too late."

U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema faced blistering rebuke Monday following reports that the right-wing Arizona Democrat will solicit large campaign contributions from corporate lobbyists staunchly opposed to her party's flagship $3.5 trillion Build Back Better budget reconciliation package.

The New York Times reports Sinema is scheduled to host a Tuesday fundraiser with five influential business lobby groups. According to the paper:
Under Ms. Sinema's political logo, the influential National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors and the grocers' PAC, along with lobbyists for roofers and electrical contractors and a small business group called the S-Corp Political Action Committee, have invited association members to an undisclosed location on Tuesday afternoon for 45 minutes to write checks for between $1,000 and $5,800, payable to Sinema for Arizona.

These organizations vehemently oppose the Build Back Better bill, which Robert Yeakel, the director of government relations at the National Grocers Association, recently called a "laundry list of tax hikes."
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caltrek
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Meanwhile, in other states across the land -

Arizona Finished its “Audit.” Other States are Just Getting Started
by Ellen Ioanes
September 25, 2021

https://www.vox.com/2021/9/25/22692965/ ... ng-started

Introduction:
(Vox) Arizona’s spurious election “audit” concluded on Friday, confirming yet again that President Joe Biden won Maricopa County and the state of Arizona — but not putting an end to former President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud, which are now fueling similar efforts to relitigate the 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Texas.

The results of the “audit” — a haphazard GOP review of ballots with no legal force behind it, done by a group called Cyber Ninjas in Arizona’s Maricopa County, home to Phoenix — found the vote totals virtually unchanged from the actual election results, which were certified by Arizona officials in November of last year.

That outcome isn’t a surprise: There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, which US elections officials said last year was “the most secure in American history.” Every recount requested by Trump and his supporters has upheld the results of the 2020 election.

While the ballot review didn’t turn up Trump’s nonexistent election fraud, the process has caused a legion of problems for Arizona elections officials, who are currently facing death threats and will now have to spend millions to replace voting machines in Maricopa County.

It also hasn’t quieted some of the most aggressive proponents of voter fraud conspiracies in Arizona, including state Republican Party chair Kelli Ward, who is now calling for a “full signature audit” in Maricopa County, and Trump himself, who used a Saturday interview with right-wing outlet One America News to push debunked claims of election fraud.
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Yellen tells Congress that U.S. will run out of debt ceiling flexibility on Oct. 18
Source: Washington Post
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday told Congress that the U.S. will run out of flexibility to avoid a breaching the debt limit on Oct. 18, setting a new deadline for lawmakers to avoid a catastrophic default on its payment obligations. “It is uncertain whether we could continue to meet all the nation’s commitments after that date,” Yellen wrote in the letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Yellen’s letter came less than 24 hours after Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would suspend the debt ceiling and prevent a government shutdown on Friday. Senate Republicans have said they would support a stand-alone measure to prevent the shutdown but they largely have opposed efforts by Democrats to suspend the debt ceiling. The U.S. government runs a large budget deficit, spending far more than it brings in through tax revenue. To address this imbalance, the government borrows money by issuing debt. But it can only issue debt up to a limit set by Congress. That limit is repeatedly raised or suspended, and lawmakers are now up against another cap.

If Congress doesn’t raise the limit, the Treasury Department will not have the capability to pay all of its bills. Yellen’s new letter lays out that this crunch will really tighten after Oct. 18. She called on Congress to act as swiftly as possible, an overture she has tried for weeks without much success. Yellen’s letter stressed that even narrowly avoiding a debt default could hurt taxpayers. The uncertainty around America’s ability to meet its payment obligations could make investors more nervous about buying U.S. debt, which would drive up borrowing costs for taxpayers.

“We know from previous debt limit impasses that waiting until the last minute can cause serous harm to business and consumer confidence, raise borrowing costs for taxpayers, and negatively impact the credit rating of the United States for years to come,” she wrote in the letter. “Failure to act promptly could also result in substantial disruptions to financial markets, as heightened uncertainty can exacerbate volatility and erode investor confidence.”
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-polic ... t-ceiling/
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California will now mail ballots to voters in all elections, in permanent extension of pandemic-era
Source: Washington Post
All California voters will now receive a ballot mailed to them whether they request it or not, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced Monday, in a move long sought by state Democrats who have argued that it will make it easier for residents to take part in future elections.

“BREAKING: California is now PERMANENTLY a vote-by-mail state,” Newsom said in a tweet after signing the measure, Assembly Bill 37. “Because we believe in making voting EASIER and for every voice to be heard.”

-snip-

Even though ballots will be mailed for each election, California voters can still opt to go to the polls in person if they prefer.

California joins several other states — such as Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington — that have been mailing ballots to all voters even before the coronavirus pandemic. Republicans in California’s state legislature opposed the legislation and were unsuccessful in pushing for changes to the measure.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... -practice/
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