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 »

Some people keep saying that there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans, at least not between their respective elected legislators. Perhaps they can then explain this news article:

Despite Trump Abuses, 208 House Republicans Vote Against Bill to Ensure 'No President Is Above the Law'
by Brett Wilkens
December 9, 2021

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

Introduction:
(Common Dreams) As the Democrat-led U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday almost entirely along party lines in favor of proposed legislation to curb executive power and bolster transparency, proponents of the bill urged the Senate to pass the measure to help "restore the balance of powers and fix our democracy."

House lawmakers voted 220-208 in favor of H.R. 5314*, the Protecting Our Democracy Act, with just one Republican, Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, joining every Democrat except two who did not vote in approving the measure (the full roll call is here: https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2021440).

The proposed legislation, which was introduced by House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), would require presidents and vice presidents, as well as major-party presidential and vice-presidential candidates, to disclose their income tax returns. It would also increase penalties for violations of the Hatch Act, ban presidential self-pardons, and strengthen Justice Department and congressional subpoena powers, among other reforms.

*https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-con ... /5314/text
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 »

Image

caltrek's comment: The only thing wrong with the cartoon is that it should be Senator Manchin that should be the one pictured "having the nice bi-partisan dream."
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 »

It often seems to me that this forum is more or less dominated by atheists. I actually consider myself to be a non-believer. At least in the sense of not subscribing to a belief in the divinity of Christ, the existence of a God that is conscious of its own existence, etc. Yet, I do think that it is important to understand that there are liberals, even radicals, who still consider themselves Christian (or Jews, Hindus, Muslims, etc.). While I think there are many problems with religion as practiced in the U.S., I think it is important to realize that a basis of dialogue and a finding of common ground are still possible with the more progressive minded believers.

All of this is by way of introduction to the following article:

In a World of Haves and Have-nots, America’s Churches Should Capitalize on Their Strengths
by Jeff Brumley
December 10, 2021

https://baptistnews.com/article/in-a-wo ... arch-says/

Introduction:
(Baptist News Global) Small and medium-size churches can navigate the challenges of postmodern culture and the COVID-19 pandemic by capitalizing on inherent strengths, embracing the neighborhoods that surround them and by adopting scaled-down practices from megachurches, one of the nation’s leading religion researchers said during a Dec. 9 webinar hosted by Baptist News Global.

And American congregations, big or small, must be open to new ways of cultivating leadership and of welcoming the ethnic, racial and sexual diversity long accepted by younger generations, said Scott Thumma, director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research at Hartford International University. He was the guest on BNG’s Dec. 9 webinar with Executive Director Mark Wingfield.

“Diversity is increasing, and if congregations put their heads in the sand and turn a blind eye to this, they are going to remain the most segregated places on Sunday mornings,” Thumma said.

Thumma is a sociologist of religion and a veteran in the field of religion research with expertise in the megachurch movement, evangelicalism, LGBTQ faith and changes in American religious life, among others. He is a leader in the Faith Communities Today national research project and is the co-author of The Other 80 Percent, Beyond Megachurch Myths and Gay Religion.

During the hour-long Zoom and livestreamed session, Thumma also addressed questions about the pandemic’s lasting impact on congregational attendance and finances, how clergy have been challenged by major shifts in society and church, and the struggles of denominations to serve both the small and megachurches in their jurisdictions.
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 »

Florida Governo DeSantis Raises Millions from Finance Industry, but Does He Care About the Working-Class?
by Thomas Kennedy

https://www.latinorebels.com/2021/12/10 ... issellout/

Introduction:
(Latino Rebels) MIAMI — Wall Street and finance industry donors have already chosen their candidate for president in 2024, and it’s not Donald Trump. It’s Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

It’s easy to see why they would choose DeSantis, as he has turned the Sunshine State into a piggy bank for corporations and the wealthy. The Republican-led legislature regularly uses Floridians’ tax dollars to effectively steal from the poor to benefit their wealthy corporate donors.

In May 2020, as Florida’s economy tumbled due to COVID-19 and millions of Floridians were struggling with a broken state unemployment system, DeSantis and his Republican cronies went ahead with a $543 million tax refund for corporations and are on track to give away another $624 million to a secret list of some of the most profitable businesses in the state. In 2021, he approved a $1 billion in new tax collections from consumers, while leaving corporate tax evasion tactics untouched.

In addition to subsidizing the rich through the tax dollars of working families, it is everyday Floridians who overwhelmingly carry the tax burden in Florida. The Florida Policy Institute has determined that the lowest-income Floridians pay five and a half times as much in taxes as a share of their household income than the state’s wealthiest residents. A 2018 research study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), showed Florida’s tax system is among the “Terrible Ten” most inequitable in the nation, ranking it an abysmal 48th among all states due to its heavy reliance on sales and other consumption taxes that account for more than half of all revenue and impact lower income families who spend a greater share of their income purchasing goods they need.

It’s worth noting that Floridians actually passed a corporate income tax via the ballot in the early 1970s. It was a campaign promise of Democratic Gov. Reubin Askew who stood up against organized opposition from the business lobby. Unfortunately, two decades of corrupt Republican control of state government has resulted in Florida becoming one of the easiest states in which to avoid corporate income taxes in the nation, with 99 percent of companies paying no corporate income tax due to loopholes that are easily exploited. And even with barely any of them paying it, the largest corporations in the state are lobbying to permanently cut Florida’s corporate income tax rate.
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
weatheriscool
Posts: 12946
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: USA News and Discussions

Post by weatheriscool »

Biden Aims to Slash 'Time Tax' for Social Security, Storm Aid
Source: Bloomberg
(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden signed an executive order Monday that seeks to reduce bureaucratic hurdles for Americans seeking government benefits such as Social Security, student loan relief and disaster aid.

The order –- targeting 36 federal services across multiple agencies and department -– also calls for passport renewals to be digitized and for the Internal Revenue Service to call back taxpayers instead of keeping them on hold.

The measure will “ensure that the federal government puts you, the American people, at the front of the line and are first in anything we do,” Biden told reporters before signing it.

Some of the biggest impacts of the executive order will be seen by Americans over 65. In addition to a new online tool designed to make claiming Social Security benefits easier, the government will also develop a portal for Medicare recipients to identify ways to save money on drugs and health care.
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/b ... ar-AARLLtz

I agree with this!
User avatar
caltrek
Posts: 6509
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: USA News and Discussions

Post by caltrek »

Texans Can Sue Abortion Providers? Californians Will Sue Gun Makers, Governor Says
by Dan Friedman
December 12, 2021

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... -lawsuits/

Introduction:
(Mother Jones) Texas lawmakers used an audacious strategy to get their controversial abortion law past the Supreme Court: empowering private citizens to sue abortion providers and anyone who “aids and abets” patients trying to obtain the procedure in the state after six weeks. But the lawmakers may not have anticipated what their law could inspire. Now, California Governor Gavin Newsom says that he plans to borrow the tactic to advance his own measure that would allow private citizens to sue gun manufacturers or people who sell assault weapons or so-called ghost guns.

In a statement on Saturday, Newsom’s office said his staff would work with the state’s attorney general and Democrats who control the state legislature to write a bill that allows state citizens to sue anyone who “manufactures, distributes, or sells an assault weapon or ghost gun kit or parts” in California. Newsom suggested damages of at least $10,000 per violation.
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 »

Having briefly lived in Virgina (circa 2018) I can really appreciate this article (see below). The local newspaper of a fairly rural and remote town, while not bad for what it did contain, was very pithy in its coverage of local events. The Washington Post served as a regional newspaper, but I sometimes had the feeling that those of us who read that paper were suspected of being Communists. Maybe just my paranoid imagination, maybe not.

Virginia Should Put Civil Court Records Online

December 13, 2021

https://www.courthousenews.com/virginia ... ds-online/

Introduction:
(Courthouse News) Throughout the United States, most federal courts and many state courts offer remote electronic access to civil court records. Virginia does not.

If you have a vested interest in a civil suit in our state, you have to go to whatever court (there are 120 in the state circuit court system) is appropriate and research it the old-fashioned way.

Actually, you can have remote access to civil court records, but you have to go to law school first. Attorneys can get them electronically. We civilians can’t. That doesn’t seem fair, and a news service dealing with legal issues, Courthouse News Service, is trying to open electronic access to everyone. It is suing two Virginia court officials to try to make that happen.

The attorney general’s office wants to have the suit dismissed. Ninety-three of the state courts now use digital systems, and the AG’s office says it is worried about records being exploited.

The AG’s office concedes that there is indeed a First Amendment, and that it does grant a right to access, but that this freedom does not mandate remote access “to avoid a trip to the courthouse.”
The article goes on to point out that a round-trip to a circuit courthouse can be about seven hours.
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 »

Study Confirms How Citizens United Made 'Mockery' of Campaign Finance Rules
by Brett Wilkins
December 15, 2021

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/ ... ance-rules

Introduction:
(Common Dreams) As a report published Wednesday revealed that political consulting firms raked in $1.4 billion while simultaneously working for campaign committees and purportedly independent groups during the 2018 and 2020 election cycles, progressives renewed calls for Congress to pass the Freedom to Vote Act to protect and strengthen democracy.

The report—entitled Dual Agents—was published by Public Citizen and further discredits Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, the highly controversial 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling which affirmed that corporations are legal persons and that they, labor unions, and other outside groups could spend unlimited amounts of money to influence the outcome of American elections—as long as they don't coordinate with candidates or campaigns.

"Political consulting firms are perfectly positioned to harmonize the message and strategies of campaigns and super PACs," said study author Taylor Lincoln, referring to the ostensibly independent political action committees that are allowed to raise unlimited amounts of money, then spend it on advocating for or against candidates.

Lincoln added, "The findings in this study add to the overwhelming evidence that campaign committees and outside groups frequently are not truly independent of one another."

Among the report's key findings:
  • Political consulting firms that worked for a candidate or political party and also for an unregulated super PAC or other purportedly independent entity in the same elections received $1.4 billion for work in those contests during the past two election cycles…
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 »

Warren Says Expand Supreme Court to Counter 'Powerful Threat to Our Democracy'
by Andrea Germanos
December 15, 2021

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

Introduction:
(Common Dreams) Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts announced Wednesday her support for expanding the number of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, warning that without such reform the court's right-wing majority would "continue to threaten basic liberties for decades to come."

"When a court consistently shows that it no longer is bound by the rule of law, Congress must exercise its constitutional authority to fix that court," the Massachusetts Democrat wrote in a Wednesday op-ed in the Boston Globe.

"The movement to expand the court is growing and we are going to win."
Making her case for why Congress should exercise its constitutional authority to change the size of the court, Warren said Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) "hijacked" the court, referring to his 2016 "theft" of the seat President Barack Obama sought to fill with Merrick Garland and his 2020 move "breaking his own 'rule' barring votes on justices in an election year" when he rammed through right-wing Justice Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation.

"This Republican court-packing has undermined the legitimacy of every action the current court takes," she said, and the court itself "leans into extremism and partisanship."

Warren backed up her assertion with a handful of recent cases:
  • This radical court has reversed century-old campaign-finance restrictions, opening the floodgates for corporations to spend unlimited sums of money to buy our elections. It has reversed well-settled law that once required employers to permit union organizers to meet with workers. It has trampled on the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection by upholding a racist Muslim ban. It has twisted the law to deny Americans their right to a day in court, despite the clear intent of Congress. And it has gutted one of the most important civil rights laws of our time, the Voting Rights Act, not once but twice.
caltrek's comment: I think right now Warren's comment will be dismissed as "too strident." I fear that after the 2024 election the conclusion will be that she was not strident enough.
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 »

DeSantis Invokes MLK While Introducing Proposed Bill That Would Allow Parents to Sue Schools Teaching Critical Race Theory
by Meaghan Ellis
December 16, 2021

https://www.alternet.org/2021/12/desantis-crt/

Introduction:
(Alternet) Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Wednesday announced a proposed piece of legislation that open a door for parents to sue schools including the study of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in its curriculum.

Per a press release from DeSantis' office, the Stop WOKE Act, meaning Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act, "will be the strongest legislation of its kind in the nation and will take on both corporate wokeness and Critical Race Theory."

In the release, DeSantis also included a statement describing CRT as "state-sanctioned racism" as he further explained the purpose of the bill.
“In Florida, we are taking a stand against the state-sanctioned racism that is critical race theory,” DeSantis said in the statement. “We won’t allow Florida tax dollars to be spent teaching kids to hate our country or to hate each other. We also have a responsibility to ensure that parents have the means to vindicate their rights when it comes to enforcing state standards. Finally, we must protect Florida workers against the hostile work environment that is created when large corporations force their employees to endure CRT-inspired ‘training’ and indoctrination.”

The bill would give school faculty members, parents, and students a "private right of action" to push back against schools teaching CRT and work spaces that may have a "hostile work environment due to critical race theory training."
caltrek: Invoking MLK to allow schools to be sued for teaching Critical Race Theory is like invoking Jesus Christ to allow for the abolishment of the practice of Christianity. It is no small wonder that DeSantis seems to have displaced Trump as the darling of the right by actually positioning himself to the right of Trump. Not an easy thing to do.
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
Post Reply