USA News and Discussions

User avatar
caltrek
Posts: 6509
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: USA News and Discussions

Post by caltrek »

The Supreme Court's War on the Future: Robert Bork's Revenge
by Bill Blum
December 19, 2022

Extract:
(Alternet) The Dobbs decision (overturning Roe v Wade) is deeply unpopular, with 60% of respondents in recent rolls disapproving of the ruling. According to a June Gallup survey, Americans’ confidence in the court has plummeted to a new low. A mere 25% of respondents told Gallup they had “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the Court.

And more bad decisions are on the horizon. In his concurring opinion in Dobbs, Thomas called upon his benchmates to revisit such privacy-based precedents as the right to contraception (Griswold v. Connecticut, 1965), the right to engage in same-sex intimacy (Lawrence v. Texas, 2003), and the right to same-sex marriage (Obergefell v. Hodges, 2015). Thomas and Gorsuch are also on record as favoring reconsideration of New York Times v. Sullivan (1964), another product of the Warren Court that shields the media from potentially crippling defamation lawsuits. Reaching even farther into the future, originalist academics such as the University of San Diego’s Rappaport have questioned the constitutionality of Social Security and Medicare.

There’s no denying the future of the Supreme Court looks grim. Still, as the successful fight against Bork long ago demonstrated, hope should never be abandoned. With enough public pressure and effective organizing, the court can be reformed and brought to serve the nation’s needs in the 21st century.
Read more here: https://www.alternet.org/supreme-court ... -revenge/

caltrek’s comment: Here is yet another example of a clear difference between Democrats and Republicans. This is why arguments based of the sentiment that they are both equally right-wing are nonsensical. In addition to noticing the results of a Court dominated by Republican appointed right-wing zealots, voters should also pay attention to what the Democrats are trying to accomplish in their legislative program. Things like at least beginning to address the growing problem of greenhouse gas emission related to climate change, the need for a clean environment, and even the growing inequality of wealth, at least as it leads to the impoverishment of a segment of the U.S. population. So please folks, beware of false equivalency arguments.
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
weatheriscool
Posts: 12972
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: USA News and Discussions

Post by weatheriscool »

Jan. 6 committee sends DOJ historic criminal referral of Trump over Capitol riot
Source: CNBC

The Jan. 6 select House committee on Monday referred former President Donald Trump to the Department of Justice for criminal investigation and potential prosecution for his efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election.

The committee’s historic referral says there is sufficient evidence to refer Trump for four crimes: obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the government, making knowingly and willfully make materially false statements to the federal government, and inciting or assisting an insurrection.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/19/jan-6-c ... -riot.html
weatheriscool
Posts: 12972
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: USA News and Discussions

Post by weatheriscool »

Congress unveils $1.7 trillion deal to fund government, avert shutdown
Source: Washington Post
Democratic and Republican negotiators early Tuesday unveiled a roughly $1.7 trillion deal to fund the U.S. government through most of 2023, setting up a last-minute sprint on Capitol Hill to approve the sprawling package and avert a potential shutdown. The 4,155-page measure, known in congressional parlance as an omnibus, included funding for key elements of President Biden’s economic agenda, new boosts to defense programs and an additional $44.9 billion in emergency military and economic assistance for Ukraine.

Democrats did not achieve all of the increases to domestic spending that they initially had sought, a concession in talks with Republicans, who are set to assume control of the House in January. But the two parties’ leaders did agree to stitch onto the measure a wide array of long-simmering and stalled bills, recognizing the omnibus marks their final major legislative opening before Congress resets in the new year.

Lawmakers appended proposals to improve pandemic readiness, extend some Medicaid benefits, help Americans save for retirement, ban TikTok on government devices and change the way the country counts presidential electoral votes. The bipartisan election bill — known as the Electoral Count Act — sought to respond to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

But Democrats and Republicans could not find compromises on other outstanding fiscal and economic debates, particularly around a package of tax credits that might have aided low-income families with children while preserving tax breaks for businesses — a slew of thorny issues that now await lawmakers in a tougher political environment next year. For now, the Capitol faces a race against the clock: Lawmakers have until the end of Friday to approve the package or else federal funds are set to run out, bringing key agencies and programs to a halt.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-polic ... -shutdown/
User avatar
wjfox
Site Admin
Posts: 8733
Joined: Sat May 15, 2021 6:09 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: USA News and Discussions

Post by wjfox »

User avatar
caltrek
Posts: 6509
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: USA News and Discussions

Post by caltrek »

Re ^^^
Pays almost 0 taxes
To be fair, there were two years in which he did pay a hefty amount.
Has very little income
Actually, a negative income of over two of the six years in question.
Massive losses almost every year
This may, in part, be due to the loophole ridden tax structure we have in the United States. One example, you can depreciate the value of property that you rent out over time even as the actual market value of that property increases. In this way, you can defer declaration of some of your profits until you sell your property, even as you receive rental income from said property. I am not sure, but I think you can end up showing a net loss some years, even as your wealth is actually in a growth mode. Incidentally, capital gains are taxed at a lower rate than earned income. A factor in explaining the growing inequality of wealth. I cannot understand any justification for such a policy. Income should be treated as income, regardless of whether it is made as a capital gain or through a paycheck. My suspicion is that it is only the relative political power of the wealthy that accounts for the difference.
Lied about being audited
At this point, no big surprise there.

The interesting thing about not adding up is the way the Trump organization is reported to have kept two sets of books. One they showed to prospective lenders, and the other that they showed to taxing authorities. Definite possibilities of fraud there. Trump complains that he merely follows standard business practices. Another way of saying they all commit fraud? Thus, yet another cause for the growing inequality of wealth in this country?

Meanwhile, the upper middle class with their rental property income and willingness to see a system gamed somewhat in their favor are all too willing to support Trump despite his fraud, rationalizations, lies, seditious plots, bigotry, misogyny, etc.

Some of it, I have argued in the past, is due to false consciousness. I am beginning to see how some of it may very well be because it really is in their class interests to see this tax cutting president in power. Of course, things like his botched handling of Covid-19, the likely long-term effects of ignoring effects of global warming, etc. are also ignored or forgiven. Mustn't push this nanny state thing too far or taxes may end up having to be raised again.
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
weatheriscool
Posts: 12972
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: USA News and Discussions

Post by weatheriscool »

Senate passes $1.7T spending bill, including Ukraine aid, getting one step closer to averting shutdo
Source: ABC News
The Senate on Thursday reached a last-minute deal on a sprawling $1.7 trillion package to keep the government funded through the next fiscal year -- and send more aid to Ukraine -- while getting one step closer to averting a shutdown just before the holidays.

The chamber voted 68-29 to pass the omnibus spending bill after speeding through votes on 17 amendments. Some Republicans joined Democrats in approving the bill that will keep federal agencies operational through Sept. 30, 2023.

The legislation will now go to the House for approval before making its way to President Joe Biden's desk. The administration has signed off on the package despite it not including everything officials requested, such as more COVID-19 funding.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said at her weekly press conference that the "hope" is the House can pass the bill on Thursday night but noted it takes several hours for it to pass between chambers.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/senate- ... d=95708550
weatheriscool
Posts: 12972
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: USA News and Discussions

Post by weatheriscool »

wjfox wrote: Wed Dec 21, 2022 5:50 pm
The only way he could be maintaining a surplus is the black market or the mob. Of course the two are one in the same but you get what I am saying.
User avatar
Time_Traveller
Posts: 2105
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 4:49 pm
Location: Clermont, Indiana, USA, October 7th 2019 B.C.E

Re: USA News and Discussions

Post by Time_Traveller »

Congress approves new election rules in Jan. 6 response
1 hour ago

Congress on Friday gave final passage to legislation changing the arcane law that governs the certification of a presidential contest, the strongest effort yet to avoid a repeat of Donald Trump's violence-inflaming push to reverse his loss in the 2020 election.

The House passed an overhaul of the Electoral Count Act as part of its massive, end-of-the-year spending bill, after the Senate approved identical wording Thursday. The legislation now goes to President Joe Biden for his signature.

Biden hailed the provisions' inclusion in the spending bill in a statement Friday, calling it “critical bipartisan action that will help ensure that the will of the people is preserved.”

It's the most significant legislative response Congress has made yet to Trump’s aggressive efforts to upend the popular vote, and a step that been urged by the House select committee that conducted the most thorough investigation into the violent siege of the Capitol.

The provisions amending the 1887 law — which has long been criticized as poorly and confusingly written — won bipartisan support and would make it harder for future presidential losers to prevent the ascension of their foes, as Trump tried to do on Jan. 6, 2021.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 50871.html
"We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back are memories...And those that carry us forward, are dreams."

-H.G Wells.
User avatar
caltrek
Posts: 6509
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: USA News and Discussions

Post by caltrek »

'I Did Not Believe It for One Second,' Hannity Says of Trump's Big Lie While Under Oath
by Brett Wilkins
December 23, 2022

Introduction:
(Common Dreams) Sean Hannity, the Fox News opinion host and erstwhile purveyor of Donald Trump's "Big Lie," did not believe the disgraced former president's 2020 election fraud claims "for one second," details from a sworn deposition revealed Wednesday.

Hannity, who was deposed as part of Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News, was asked under oath if he believed claims by conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell, amplified on his show, that the Colorado-based company was part of a plot to rig its voting machines to switch large numbers of votes from Trump to President Joe Biden.

"I did not believe it for one second," Hannity testified, Dominion attorney Stephen Shackelford Jr. said Wednesday in a Delaware Superior Court hearing, according to NPR.
Read more of the Common Dreams article here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/step ... lford-jr
Read more of NPR’s coverage of this news storyhere: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/22/1144926 ... uit-trump
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
User avatar
caltrek
Posts: 6509
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: USA News and Discussions

Post by caltrek »

Accidental double post.
Last edited by caltrek on Wed Dec 28, 2022 1:28 am, edited 2 times in total.
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
Post Reply