USA News and Discussions

[caltrek]

^^^Disappointing (at least to me) but not unexpected.

[weatheriscool]

Inside Trump's plans for mass deportations, talk of millions - "Starting on Day 1"
« on: Today at 04:41:49 PM »
Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/inside ... 024-11-06/

Quote

WASHINGTON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Donald Trump is expected to mobilize agencies across the U.S. government to help him deport record numbers of immigrants, building on efforts in his first term to tap all available resources and pressure so-called "sanctuary" jurisdictions to cooperate, according to six former Trump officials and allies.
Quote
Ken Cuccinelli, former acting deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under Trump, said the State Department was a “roadblock” for immigration enforcement and that aggressive appointees will be key.
Quote
Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump's first-term immigration agenda, said in 2023 that National Guard troops from cooperative states could potentially be deployed to resistant states to assist with deportations, which would likely trigger legal battles.
Quote
Trump plans to use a 1798 wartime statute known as the Alien Enemies Act to rapidly deport alleged gang members, an action that would almost certainly be challenged in court.

[Tadasuke]

Politics waste so much of (some) peoples time ... it's insane.

We don't know the whole picture, we don't know what will really happen in the future. Honestly, technological improvements are foremost in the order of importance! If something gets relatively cheap thanks to better technologies and logistics, it's going to change things a lot whether someone likes it or not!

[weatheriscool]

Trump makes election history with these shameful firsts

If Vice President Kamala Harris had won the 2024 election, inauguration day in 2025 would have seen several landmark firsts in American history: the first woman, the first Black woman, and the first Asian woman—sworn in as president.

Instead, Donald Trump won, and he will be the “first” in far more embarrassing ways.

Trump will be the first president in American history who will be sworn in after having been impeached. Twice. Trump was impeached for his plot to use the powers of the presidency to pressure Ukraine into smearing President Joe Biden. Later, Trump was impeached for his role in whipping up his supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump will also be the first inaugurated U.S. president with two federal indictments under his belt. He has been indicted for attempting to interfere in the electoral process in the 2020 election following his defeat against Biden. Trump was also indicted for improperly taking classified documents and keeping them at his Mar-a-Lago estate, notably in the bathroom next to the toilet.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/1 ... ful-firsts

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[firestar464]

More on that by The Trace:

https://www.thetrace.org/newsletter/tru ... nra-goals/

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[firestar464]

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[firestar464]

Thune has won

https://archive.ph/mvKRx

[caltrek]

Trump Announces Matt Gaetz as His Pick for Attorney General
by Ryan J. Reilly and David Rohde
November 13, 2024

Introduction:

(NBC) WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will nominate Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., to be the 87th attorney general of the United States in a move that could fill the nation's top law enforcement position with an ardent supporter who was once criminally investigated by the department he would oversee.

No charges were filed in the case, which was investigated by the FBI and centered on allegations of sex trafficking. It ended last year. Afterward, Gaetz called for abolishing the bureau.

“I don’t care if it takes every second of our time and every ounce of our energy, we either get this government back on our side or we defund, get rid of, abolish the FBI,” Gaetz said at last year's Conservative Political Action Conference.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Wednesday evening that Gaetz offered his resignation from the House. The letter has not yet gone into effect because it has not been announced on the House floor.

“I think out of deference to us, he issued his resignation letter effective immediately of Congress,” Johnson told reporters. “That caught us by surprise a little bit, but I asked him what the reasoning was, and he said, ‘Well, you can’t have too many absences.’"

Read more here: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justi ... na180042

[caltrek]

Trump’s Attorney General Pick Matt Gaetz Faces GOP Backlash—Raising Doubts About Senate Vote
by Sara Dorn
November 14, 2024

Introduction:

(Forbes) Multiple Republican senators openly criticized President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general—right-wing firebrand Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.—in the hours after the announcement Wednesday, raising the possibility that the Senate could reject him under Republicans’ newly claimed slim majority in the upper chamber.

Republicans will have a 53-47 seat majority in the Senate starting in January, meaning it would take only four Republican “no” votes, to reject Gaetz, or any nominee, assuming all Democrats vote against the choice—which appears to be a strong possibility in Gaetz’s case.

At least five Republican senators have expressed doubts about Gaetz, including Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Max Miller, R-Ohio, and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, Politico reported, with Murkowski stating “I don’t think it’s a serious nomination for the attorney general,” and Miller calling it a “reckless pick” that has “zero shot of getting through the Senate.”

It’s unclear if any will vote to reject him.

Some senators declined to comment or did not comment on Gaetz specifically when asked by reporters about the pick: “I’m trying to go fix a toilet between getting back for a vote. Life’s a little hectic right now,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., told Politico.

Read more here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/ ... te-vote/

[caltrek]

Gaetz Could Get Confirmed Without the Senate: How Recess Appointments Work
by Kaitlin Lewis
November 13, 2024

Extract:

(Newsweek) The Senate often confirms a president's Cabinet nominees without hesitation. But Trump has already demanded that the new GOP majority break with tradition and allow recess appointments, meaning that the president-elect's nominees could bypass a Senate confirmation hearing.

"Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner," Trump posted to X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday.

"Sometimes the votes can take two years, or more," he added. "This is what they did four years ago, and we cannot let it happen again. We need positions filled IMMEDIATELY!"

Presidents are given the authority under Article II of the Constitution to make appointments "by and with the advice and consent of the Senate." But if the Senate is out of session, the steps by lawmakers to confirm such appointments, such as committee hearings and a chamber vote, are bypassed.

According to an analysis from ABC News, which cited the Congressional Research Service, former President Barack Obama made 32 recess appointments, ex-President George W. Bush made 171 and former President Bill Clinton made 139 while the Senate was on recess.

Read more here: https://www.newsweek.com/matt-gaetz-do ... -1985557

[caltrek]

What To Know About Tulsi Gabbard—Former Democrat Named Trump’s Director Of National Intelligence
by Molly Bohannon
November 13, 2024

Introduction:

(Forbes) President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday named ex-Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as his director of national intelligence, praising her experience as a veteran and her “broad support in both Parties” when announcing her appointment, even as Gabbard has blasted Democrats since leaving the party and emerged as a controversial figure on foreign policy matters.

Gabbard—who served in the House representing Hawaii from 2013 to 2021 and briefly ran for president as a Democrat in 2020—endorsed Trump in August and joined his transition team shortly after.

Gabbard left the Democratic Party in 2022 to become an independent, saying at the time that Democrats were an “elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness,” before joining the Republican Party this October.

Gabbard has long been a critic of U.S. foreign policy—recently criticizing U.S. aid to Ukraine—and The New York Times reported her selection as director of intelligence indicates Trump’s intention to give foreign policy roles to those “deeply skeptical of the effectiveness of U.S. military intervention abroad.”

She drew criticism in 2017 after she quietly visited Syria and met with President Bashar al-Assad, saying at the time she did so “because I felt that it’s important that if we profess to truly care about the Syrian people, about their suffering, then we’ve got to be able to meet with anyone that we need to if there is a possibility that we can achieve peace.”

Read more here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollyboha ... ligence/