'A Decent society would not let this happen': 30 million across US face food aid cuts
As of Wednesday, around 30 million people across the United States will have their family's food assistance slashed, despite high prices and expert warnings about a "hunger cliff."
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits were initially increased at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Although Republicans in 18 states had already ended the emergency allotments (EAs), households in the other 32 states along with Washington, D.C., Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have continued to receive them.
Wyoming Legislature passes bills to ban medication abortion and exempt abortion as health care
Wyoming legislators approved two bills related to abortion this week, including a ban on medication abortion and a bill stating abortion is not health care, as a means of skirting the Wyoming Constitution in a court challenge to its abortion ban.
Voters in Wyoming approved adding a new section to the state’s constitution in 2012 amid criticism of the Affordable Care Act, colloquially known as Obamacare. The amendment states, “Each competent adult shall have the right to make his or her own health care decisions. The parent, guardian or legal representative of any other natural person shall have the right to make health care decisions for that person.”
That constitutional provision was the basis for a Wyoming judge to grant a preliminary injunction in August halting enforcement of a trigger law passed by the Wyoming Legislature in 2021 that was set to go into effect following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to return the right to regulate abortion to the states.
The Wyoming Supreme Court is still considering whether to uphold or strike down the trigger law on those constitutional grounds. Until it does, abortion remains legal in Wyoming.
Trump says an indictment would not end presidential campaign
Source: AP
OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump said Saturday that he would continue his third presidential campaign even if indicted.
“Absolutely, I wouldn’t even think about leaving,” Trump told reporters ahead of a speech at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.
Trump is under investigation by prosecutors probing his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election as well as his handling of classified documents, among other issues.
Trump delivered the conference’s headlining speech Saturday night, telling a cheering crowd of supporters that he was engaged in his “final battle” as he tries to return to the White House.
TALLAHASSEE — Two House Republicans on Monday filed a proposal that would lower the minimum age from 21 to 18 to buy rifles and other “long” guns, potentially scrapping a high-profile change passed after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
Rep. Bobby Payne, R-Palatka, and Rep. Tyler Sirois, R-Merritt Island, filed the proposal (HB 1543) as lawmakers prepared to begin the annual legislative session Tuesday.
Lawmakers in 2018 increased the minimum age from 18 to 21 to purchase long guns after former Marjory Stoneman Douglas student Nikolas Cruz, then 19, used a semi-automatic rifle to kill 17 students and faculty members and injure 17 others.
Federal law already barred people under 21 from buying handguns.
Biden Proposes Raising Taxes on People Making Over $400,000 a Year to Help Fund Medicare by Arianna Coghill
March 7, 2023
Introduction:
(Mother Jones) President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced a proposal to raise taxes on Americans making more than $400,000 annually in order to continue funding Medicare, marking a new front in the White House’s efforts to position itself as a critical safeguard against efforts to cut the program.
“The budget I am releasing this week will make the Medicare trust fund solvent beyond 2050 without cutting a penny in benefits,” Biden wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times. “In fact, we can get better value, making sure Americans receive better care for the money they pay into Medicare.”
The president will also seek to expand a measure passed last year that allows Medicare to negotiate the prices of specific prescription drugs with pharmaceutical companies.
The GOP-controlled House of Representatives is all but certain to shut down any proposals for new taxes on the rich to help pay for entitlement programs they’ve otherwise threatened for years. In fact, several Republican lawmakers, as my colleague Abigail Weinberg has noted, have openly expressed their desire to cut Medicare benefits, a fact Biden called out in his most recent State of the Union address, prompting swift denials from the GOP.
MAGA Extremists List Hostage Demands to Pay Our Nation’s Bills That Only Hurt Average Families
March 10 , 2023
Entire article:
(Common Dreams) WASHINGTON - Today, the MAGA House Freedom Caucus elevated their threats to hold the debt limit and U.S. economy hostage in exchange for a litany of extreme demands that would punish average Americans and protect their wealthy donors. With a slim 5-seat Republican House majority, the group has more than enough power to manufacture a default crisis that would have catastrophic consequences for Main Street and Wall Street alike.
Among the non-starter demands from MAGA extremists are: punishing the poor, rolling back the Biden administration’s popular student loan debt forgiveness plan, and gutting resources in the Inflation Reduction Act for holding wealthy tax cheats accountable. If these Republicans have their way, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found freezing these IRS enforcement resources would add $114.4 billion to the deficit over a decade.
“The MAGA extremists running the House fully intend to manufacture a disastrous default crisis by making demands they know to be non-starters – like letting wealthy tax cheats and big polluters off the hook,” said Liz Zelnick, Accountable.US’ Director of Economic Security and Corporate Power. “These power-hungry lawmakers are so determined to keep the Biden administration from rebuilding the middle class that they’re willing to tank the economy to do it. They demand sacrifice only from everyday Americans while they insist on preserving or even expanding wasteful tax breaks for billionaires and greedy corporations. They’re playing a dangerous game of chicken with the economy and the lives of millions of working families.”
caltrek’s comment: Looks like “conservatives” here in the U.S. are trying to do to this country what “conservatives” in Great Britain did to that country. They never learn, or simply don’t care. Ideology takes precedent over what should be learned experience and common sense. Perhaps it is because of the ability of a tiny minority that is in the 1% to fool the rank and file in to following their policy of redistributing wealth from the poor and middle class to the rich and of allowing corporations to externalize costs while internalizing profits. Mechanisms like gerrymandering and the Citizens United decision don’t help.
Did an Email to Sidney Powell from a 'Ghost' Push Fox News' 2020 Election Lies March 10, 2023
Extract:
(Alternet) …According to The Daily Beast, less than a week after the 2020 election, and "hours after" President Joe Biden was declared winner,"cactus artist," Marlene Bourne, sent Powell, Fox host Lou Dobbs, and conservative activist Tom Fitton an email laying out the case against Dominion as she saw it."
…
The Daily Beast reports:
But the ideas' origin is even more "kooky" than Bartiromo might realize. In an interview with The Daily Beast, the woman behind that email—a Minnesota artist named Marlene Bourne—said that she based her now nationally prominent ideas about election fraud on a wide variety of sources, including hidden messages she detects in films, song lyrics she hears on the radio, and overheard conversations she hears while in line at the supermarket checkout.
Pence says 'history will hold Donald Trump accountable' for January 6th
Source: CNN
Former Vice President Mike Pence made his most blistering comments yet about former President Donald Trump’s role in the January 6th attack on the US Capitol during remarks Saturday evening at the annual Gridiron Club Dinner in Washington, DC.
Pence began his remarks at the dinner, which traditionally features politicians making jokes about notable Washington figures, with lighthearted comments about Trump, President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and several Republicans expected to run for president in 2024, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.
He then took a serious tone, noting the attack on the Capitol was “one thing I haven’t joked about” and calling January 6th “a tragic day.”
Pence rebuked Trump for his role in the January 6, 2021 attack, saying he was “wrong” for claiming Pence had the authority to overturn the results of the 2020 election in his role presiding over Congress that day, saying “history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”
As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis prepares to run for president in 2024, a new poll suggests that he may be overplaying his hand with his war on “wokeness.”
The poll, conducted by Ipsos and published last week in USA Today, shows that 56% of Americans consider “woke” a positive term, meaning “to be informed, educated on, and aware of social injustices.” Even more than a third of Republicans agree. Just 39% agreed with a negative definition: “to be overly politically correct and police others’ words.”
Many Republican leaders have made “anti-wokeness” a cornerstone of their political agenda, but DeSantis has led the pack by upending the lives and liberties of Floridians through authoritarian book bans and speech codes. “Florida is where woke goes to die,” DeSantis crowed when he was sworn in for a second term earlier this year.
But if most Americans believe “woke” is a positive term, why would they want a president to suffocate it, and replace it with autocratic power grabs and far right curricula? DeSantis won his gubernatorial reelection handily, but he might be a little high on his own supply.
DeSantis’ increasingly draconian measures give Americans plenty of opportunities to examine exactly what killing “wokeness” entails, beyond the rapturous admiration of GOP primary voters. Following last year’s passage of the Parental Rights in Education Act -- also known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law — banning discussion of race, sexual orientation, and gender identity in public schools, countless Floridians have lost their rights. Teachers in same-sex marriages left or lost their jobs. Children of gay parents now fear mentioning their parents’ sexual orientation at school. Librarians must undergo state training on the law, and face losing their livelihood if they lend books blacklisted by the state education board.
Biden calls for tougher penalties for execs of failed banks
Source: AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday called on Congress to allow regulators to impose tougher penalties on the executives of failed banks, including clawing back compensation and making it easier to bar them from working in the industry.
Biden wants the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to be able to force the return of compensation paid to executives at a broader range of banks should they fail, and to lower the threshold for the regulator to impose fines and bar executives from working at another bank.
He called on Congress to grant the FDIC those powers after the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank sent shockwaves through the global banking industry.
“Strengthening accountability is an important deterrent to prevent mismanagement in the future,” Biden said in a statement. “Congress must act to impose tougher penalties for senior bank executives whose mismanagement contributed to their institutions failing.”
Wyoming Becomes First State to Outlaw Abortion Pills
Wyoming on Friday became the first state to ban the use of abortion pills, adding momentum to a growing push by conservative states and anti-abortion groups to target medication abortion, the method now used in a majority of pregnancy terminations in the United States.
Wyoming’s new law comes as a preliminary ruling is expected soon by a Texas judge that could order the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to withdraw its approval of mifepristone, the first pill in the two-drug medication abortion regimen. Such a ruling, if it stands, could upend how abortion is provided nationally, affecting states where abortion is legal as well as states with bans and restrictions.
Legislation to ban or add restrictions on medication abortion has been introduced in several states this year, including a bill in Texas that would not only ban abortion pills but also require internet service providers to take steps to block medication abortion websites so people in Texas could not view them.
In these states, proposals to block or restrict abortion pills have typically been introduced along with other anti-abortion measures, a reflection of the range of obstacles to abortion these states have tried to erect since the Supreme Court overturned the national right to abortion last June.
DOJ expects total number of people charged with crimes for Jan. 6 may be between 1,600 and 2,100
colmant_ @colmant_ 10m
More than 2,000 could be charged in Jan.6…”
from WaPo:
The Jan. 6 investigation is the biggest in U.S. history. It’s only half done.
___“It’s an enormous, enormous case and, by almost any measure, the largest case the Justice Department has ever had,” said Randall Eliason, a former federal prosecutor who now teaches law at George Washington University. “Big criminal investigations that are far less complicated than this often take several years.”
Eliason said that while the riot cases may be about halfway over, there are indications some of the other branches of the investigation — like the false electors scheme or efforts to use Justice Department officials to undo the election results — appear to be further along, because the witnesses now being subpoenaed include some of the most thorny legal matters and the people closest to former president Donald Trump. Those are generally indicators that an investigation is nearing the end of the fact-gathering phase, he said.
“There are a lot of court fights over privilege, and those take time, and you can’t just plow past them and not try to get critical evidence,” Eliason said.
Prosecutors are hopeful many will be incentivized to plead to help manage the crush of cases, which already have strained the court in the nation’s capital. A Washington Post analysis of the cases so far shows defendants who seek a trial rather than plead guilty end up getting about a year of prison time added to their sentences.
To date, roughly 1,000 people have been arrested for their alleged roles in the events of that day. In late October, when the Justice Department had already charged nearly 900 individuals for alleged crimes surrounding Jan. 6, the U.S. Attorney for the District, Matthew Graves, wrote to court officials alerting them that an additional 700 to 1,200 people may be charged.
Florida bans school discussions about girls' monthly cycles until 6th grade...
The Florida GOP is on a truly stunning tear of misogyny, ignorance, homophobia and censorship, culminating in a bill that just passed the Florida House that would bar young girls from discussing menstruation, including their own menstrual periods, in school. Fifty three years since Judy Blume wrote “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” some Republican legislators still seem less comfortable with puberty and sexuality than pre-teen girls (maybe they should go see the movie when it hits theaters next month).
The Florida bill states that education around sex, reproduction and sexuality cannot begin until 6th grade. On Wednesday, when Florida state Rep. Ashley Gantt, a Democrat, asked her Republican colleague who sponsored the legislation, state Rep. Stan McClain, if the bill means that girls who get their periods before sixth grade couldn’t discuss that in school, he said yes.
“So if little girls experience their menstrual cycle in fifth grade or fourth grade,” she asked, “will that prohibit conversations from them since they are in the grade lower than sixth grade?”
Gay Sarasota school board member walks out of meeting after repeated homophobic remarks
The chairwoman of the school board let multiple members of the public directly attack a gay board member, calling him a "groomer" because he's openly gay.
Said chairwoman by the way is also the co-founder of the conservative nonprofit Moms For Liberty.
DeSantis has requested nearly $100 million for the new State Guard force.
By Lawrence MowerTimes staff Ana CeballosTimes/Herald Tallahassee Bureau Romy EllenbogenTimes staff
Published 4 hours ago
TALLAHASSEE — When Gov. Ron DeSantis first proposed reviving the long-dormant Florida State Guard, he wanted 200 volunteers and a modest $5 million budget.
Then it grew to 400 members and $10 million.
Now it’s 1,500 members and a nearly $100 million budget — with police powers, helicopters, boats and, under one lawmaker’s request, cellphone-hacking technology.
The proposed budget for the Florida State Guard, released by a House committee on Tuesday, offers the most detailed realization of DeSantis’ vision for the State Guard, a WWII-era force brought back last year to supplement the state’s overworked Florida National Guard..................................
Illinois House passes bill prohibiting libraries from banning books due to partisan pressure
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- The Illinois House passed a bill Wednesday that would prohibit libraries from banning books or other material because of partisan or doctrinal pressure, prompting strong opposition from Republicans who called it an assault on local control.
House Bill 2789 is an initiative of Democratic Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, whose office oversees the Illinois State Library and administers several grant programs for public and school libraries as well as adult literacy programs throughout the state.
The bill would require that as a condition of qualifying for those grants in the future, libraries or library systems would have to adopt a written policy prohibiting the practice of banning books. Alternatively, they could adopt the American Library Association's Library Bill of Rights, which includes a statement that "m)aterials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval."
The bill came in response to a wave of high-profile controversies throughout the country, including at least one in Illinois. School districts and public libraries have come under pressure to remove certain material from their collections, often material dealing with issues involving race, sexuality and gender identity.
"Back to 1902": Virginia Governor Revives Lifetime Ban on Voting
Governor Glenn Youngkin just gave himself a lot more power to pick and choose Virginia voters. The Republican governor’s administration told state lawmakers in a letter last week that he was rescinding his predecessors’ policy of automatically restoring the voting rights of people with felony convictions.
Going forward, Virginians will no longer regain their rights when released from prison—the most recent policy announced by Virginia officials in 2021—nor at any later point, unless Youngkin deems them to be worthy on an individual basis.
His decision, which a future governor could alter, sidelines many residents who expected they would get to vote in Virginia elections.
“I’ve never voted in my life. I was looking forward to voting this year,” Sincere Allah, who was released from prison the week Youngkin was inaugurated in 2022 and who has since waited to learn if his rights will be restored, told Bolts, in reference to the state’s upcoming legislative and prosecutorial elections. “I can pay taxes, I can be held to the same standard as everyone else when it comes to laws and rules and regulations, but I have no say-so or representation.”
Youngkin’s announcement also puts Virginia in a category all its own: It is the only state where someone who is convicted today over any felony is presumed to be barred from voting for life, with no remedy other than receiving a discretionary act of clemency from the governor.
Virginia’s constitution permanently disenfranchises people with a felony conviction. Only Iowa and Kentucky have such a harsh rule on the books—other states with a lifetime ban, like Mississippi, do not apply it to all felonies—but their sitting governors have each issued executive orders that automatically restore at least some people’s voting rights upon completion of their sentences.
WI: Republicans propose bill to bar state employees from promoting or providing abortion
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A bill being circulated by Republican lawmakers would prohibit state and local government employees from promoting, providing or facilitating abortion services while acting within the scope of their job.
The “Taxpayer Abortion Subsidy Prevention” bill is meant to continue severing ties between taxpayer dollars and abortion services, according to the co-sponsorship memo being circulated by authors Sen. André Jacque (R-DePere) and Rep. Elijah Behnke (R-Oconto). It comes as debate continues between Wisconsin Republicans and Democrats over whether and how to amend the state’s 1849 ban, which only includes an exception for the life of the mother.
“We will be introducing legislation to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not utilized to subsidize abortions, either through the use of public employees or public facilities,” the co-sponsorship memo states.
Wisconsin state law already doesn’t allow state money to subsidize abortion services, however, the Republican lawmakers want to bar public employees from being able to speak about or perform abortion services while on the job.
“Liberal public officials across Wisconsin government have long participated in the procurement, and even performance of, abortion procedures within their taxpayer-funded employment,” the memo states. It references University of Wisconsin faculty members providing services at Planned Parenthood, something that Jacque has long opposed.
Under the bill, no person employed by the state, by a state agency or by a local government would be allowed to provide abortion services; promote, encourage, or counsel in favor of abortion services; make abortion referrals either directly or through an intermediary; or train others to perform abortions or receive training in performing abortions.
