"Why Ron DeSantis Won’t—or Shouldn’t—Run for President"
This article has shades of Vizzinni in The Princess Bride, playing a convoluted mind game. I want to believe the author wrote this as a way to urging DeSantis to run for the express purpose of him and Trump fighting.
|
CPSC considers banning gas stoves in households
In an interview with Bloomberg, a US Consumer Product Safety commissioner said gas stove usage is a "hidden hazard."
"Any option is on the table. Products that can't be made safe can be banned," agency commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. told Bloomberg. The report said the agency plans "to take action" to address the indoor pollution caused by stoves.
The CPSC has been considering action on gas stoves for months. Trumka recommended in October that the CPSC seek public comment on the hazards associated with gas stoves. The pollutants have been linked to asthma and worsening respiratory conditions.
A December 2022 study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that indoor gas stove usage is associated with an increased risk of current asthma among children. The study found that almost 13% of current childhood asthma in the US is attributable to gas stove use.
|
Hakeem Jeffries' speech
The other part of the House elections last night was that Jeffries finally officially became the first non-White leader of a congressional party. And, along with that, he delivered a hell of a speech.
Here is the excerpt when he ran through the alphabet (a small excerpt of his larger speech,) with the bolded parts being my favorites:
House Democrats will always put American values over autocracy, benevolence over bigotry, the Constitution over the cult, democracy over demagogues, economic opportunity over extremism, freedom over fascism, governing over gaslighting, hopefulness over hatred, inclusion over isolation, justice over judicial overreach, knowledge over kangaroo courts, liberty over limitation, maturity over Mar-a-Lago, normalcy over negativity, opportunity over obstruction, people over politics, quality of life issues over QAnon, reason over racism, substance over slander, triumph over tyranny, understanding over ugliness, voting rights over voter suppression, working families over the well-connected, xenial over xenophobia, ‘yes, we can’ over ‘you can do it,’ and zealous representation over zero-sum confrontation.
|
Kevin and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week ends after 15 rounds of voting
The next two years are going to be painful in the House based on this week.
|
"McCarthy debacle comes with a lesson: There's a downside to being a party of fascist trolls"
Initially I had pulled over 500 words of excerpts from the article to put here, but I will instead just include this paragraph. I am reading Eco's essay mentioned below now.
In his "Ur-Fascism" essay, Eco laid out 14 features of fascism, which add up not to a coherent political philosophy so much as a series of antisocial impulses. It's worth reading in its entirety, but the McCarthy debacle illustrates some of Eco's most important observations: Fascism is deliberately irrational. Indeed, it makes a fetish of irrationality. It's a "cult of action for action's sake" that believes thinking before acting "is a form of emasculation." The fascist believes that "life is permanent warfare" and therefore there must always be an enemy to struggle against. That's why fascists love conspiracy theories. Their "followers must feel besieged," and since they have no real oppressors to rail against, they make up imaginary ones.
|
Dan Rather on the eve of the 2-year anniversary of January 6th
It was an attack on the very meaning and security of American democracy orchestrated by a man who had sworn to uphold the Constitution as the chief executive of our nation. Unbelievable. But believable. Buttressed by reams of evidence, including the man's own words and deeds.
And yet, here we are. Rather than unifying us as a nation, this date and all it represents divides us, weakens us, challenges the confidence we have in what we once believed was inviolable.
The scene of the insurrection — our mighty Capitol — is once more beset by chaos. This time it is coming from within the House, quite literally. But the two events are inextricably linked. For the most part, the rebels of January 2023 are marinated in the same Big Lie and nihilism that fueled the mob in 2021. In fact, many of these congressional office holders were cheerleaders and even participants in the earlier attacks on American democracy we now commemorate.
As shameful as these events are, they are as much a part of who we are as a country in 2023 as "We the people" or "a more perfect union." We cannot afford to look away. These forces of autocracy and the extreme far right might have been tempered in the recent midterm elections, but they were far from vanquished. As we see in the spectacle of choosing a speaker of the House, the chaos is endemic to the current Republican Party.
|
Speaker election drama not seen in 100 years
To which I say: So what?
Anyone trying to frame these Speaker elections as anything near a crisis is absurd. This is just inter-party drama playing out in public. Things which normally are concealed behind closed doors are being aired out in public. That's it.
|
Congressman Robert Garcia (D-CA 42nd) was sworn in on the first appearance of Clark Kent
Garcia — a Peruvian immigrant, former Mayor of Long Beach, California, and self-proclaimed "comic book nerd" — was elected US Representative for California's 42nd congressional district during the 2022 midterms. Ahead of his official induction into the role, he tweeted a photo of three items he'd selected to sit under the Constitution while he was sworn in:
|
"Why Can't America Do Taxes Like the Faroe Islands?"
I recently traveled to the Faroe Islands, a small, semi-autonomous part of Denmark out in the North Atlantic, for a joint reporting project for The American Prospect and the People's Policy Project. The idea was to investigate the country's tax authority, which is called TAKS. I'd heard it is the cleanest and most efficient in the world.
Even with those expectations, what I found impressed me. The Faroes haven't just set up a centralized system that automatically collects tax revenue and disburses welfare payments; they also continuously monitor all of your labor income and adjust your withholding as necessary if you lose a job or get a new one. Ordinary businesses and employees never have to even think about TAKS—no tax return is required.
Why can't we? Because we've allowed capitalism to drive taxation into an industry and as such now it holds a seat at the metaphorical table where money can be passed and made. Beyond the money that lobbyists spend to keep our tax system arcane and corrupt, we also have individuals who now make their living off of it, which further complicates the fixing of the system.
I hold out hope that we will one day make progress in this area, until then we'll look to these places - like the Faroe islands, and dream of the future possibilities.
|
Writer shares story from interacting with Fauci during the fight for AIDS reform
With his retirement, the people who want to demonize Fauci are continuing the effort. I thought this was an excellent piece delving into a time well prior to his notoriety during Covid.
Within months, hundreds of ACT UPers were surrounding his building at the N.I.H., and I was the first one arrested, after climbing onto its portico. Cops wrestled me down, bound my hands behind me with a zip tie, then hauled me through the building to a police van. The burly cop pulling my shoulder was dumbfounded when a familiar short man in a white lab coat walking toward us down the hallway yelled, "Peter, are you all right?" Laughing, I replied, "I'm fine. Just doing my job. How about you, Tony?"
Dr. Fauci soon caved on one of our primary demands: adding people with H.I.V. to all the committees overseeing his AIDS research programs. Those patient advocates slowly but surely got results, vastly improving a research network that was more recently used to enroll thousands of people in the initial Covid-19 vaccine trials. It was the birth of a patient advocacy model that all disease groups use today, fully embraced by the research establishment. And it's a tradition that I hope will continue after Dr. Fauci's retirement on Dec. 31.
|
"The full January 6 report is out. Here are the key details and recommendations"
The Committee's recommendations boil down to the five points, as laid out in the linked article:
- Citing the 14th amendment, the committee recommended Trump should be barred from holding federal or state office ever again. They also recommend the creation of a "formal mechanism" to evaluate whether those who took part in the insurrection should be barred from holding future government office on federal and other levels.
- The committee also recommends that Congress should make stronger criminal penalties for those who obstruct a peaceful transfer of power,
- And they recommend federal penalties for those who threaten election workers. The committee's investigation found that many of the people who refused to be pushed into manipulating election results, including governors, secretaries of state, state legislators, state and local election officials, and frontline election workers, found themselves subjected to spamming, doxing, harassment, intimidation, and violent threats. Some of those threats were sexualized or racist in nature and targeted family members.
- The committee subpoenaed several individuals in the process of their investigation, but their authority to enforce those subpoenas is unclear. The committee recommends the creation of new legislation that would enforce House subpoenas in federal court.
- The committee also recommends more oversight over the Capitol Police. "Congressional committees of jurisdiction should continue regular and rigorous oversight of the United States Capitol Police as it improves its planning, training, equipping, and intelligence processes and practices its critical incident response protocols," they write. They said there should be joint hearings with testimony from the Capitol Police Board.
Other key details in the report mirror the findings of the committee laid out in previous hearings that took place over the last year:
- Trump planned to declare victory regardless of the outcome. The committee lays out how Trump's plan to overturn the 2020 election was not spontaneous, but premeditated.
- Trump was aware of the risk of violence when he called on his supporters to march on the Capitol. The report shows how extremist groups like the Oathkeepers and the Proud Boys banded together for the insurrection. "President Trump had summoned a mob, including armed extremists and conspiracy theorists, to Washington, DC on the same day the joint session of Congress was to meet. He then told that same mob to march on the US Capitol and 'fight.' They clearly got the message," the committee wrote.
- Trump was aware of violence at the Capitol for more than three hours before he agreed to intervene. The report calls this period of time "187 minutes of dereliction," in which they say Trump drank Diet Coke, put off advice from advisers, including his daughter Ivanka, and watched Fox News during the insurrection. The committee laid out a timeline of what happened leading up to and during those three hours, which entailed increasing tension between Trump and Vice President Pence and Trump himself attempting to go to the Capitol to join his supporters.
- Top aides to the president were aware that election fraud investigations would not change the election outcome. The committee argues that Trump and his allies not only lied about election fraud, but ripped-off their supporters by asking for money for lawsuits to fight the election results.
|
Germany & France set to counter the US Green funding in recent bill
A reminder that global politics is not simple as even our efforts to further green energy as a US jobs effort.
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck and his French counterpart, Bruno Le Maire, suggested "targeted subsidies and tax-credits" for industrial sectors such as wind and solar power generation, heat pump manufacturing and hydrogen production.
At the same time, they urged the EU's executive commission to negotiate with Washington for European manufacturers to get the same exemptions the U.S. grants to Mexico and Canada, which are free-trade partners.
Many of the ideas coming from the EU's two biggest economies echo proposals by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who wrote to European leaders last week saying the bloc should adjust its rules on state aid to achieve the "unprecedented transformation" from fossil fuels to green power.
|
"January 6 committee report’s biggest takeaways and new findings"
Vox does a great summary of what is in the report from the commission. Much of it was already part of their live hearings. There are two things I consider most notable:
- There is no direct link between Trump and the protesters which gets revealed. There remains enough of a smoke shield that I think the direct insurrection charge is going to be very hard to prove.
- Hutchinson's first lawyer was defending Trump in trying to defend her, and giving her advice which aided Trump perhaps more than Hutchinson.
|
Trump tax returns released
CNBC's highlights of the tax reports:
- On their 2015 federal return, Trump and his wife declared negative income of $31.7 million, with taxable income of $0. The couple paid federal income taxes of $641,931.
- The 2016 return declared negative income of $31.2 million, with zero dollars of taxable income. The Trumps paid $750 in taxes.
- The 2017 return declared negative income $12.8 million, with $0 in taxable income. The couple paid $750 in taxes.
- The 2018 return declared total income of $24.4 million, with taxable income of $22.9 million. The Trumps paid $999,466 in federal income taxes.
- In 2019, the Trumps declared $4.44 million in total income, and $2.97 million in taxable income. They paid $133,445 in taxes.
- The 2020 return shows negative income of $4.69 million, with zero dollars in taxable income. The tax paid by the Trumps was $0 and they claimed a refund of $5.47 million.
|
Zelenskyy has arrived in DC
He addresses Congress tonight at 4:30pm Pacific / 7:30pm Eastern.
|
Jan. 6 Committee Announces Criminal Referrals
Historic.
Not a direct quote from the article, but the reporting online says these are the individuals named:
Obstruction of an Official Proceeding 18 U.S.C 1512
- Trump
- Clark
- Eastman
- Chesebro
Conspiracy to Defraud the United States 18 U.S.C 171
- Trump
- Eastman
- Clark
- Chesebro
- Meadows
- Giuliani
Conspiracy to Make a False Statement 18 U.S.C 371, 1001
- Trump
- Eastman
- Chesebro
"Incite," "Assist" or "Aid or Comfort an Insurrection" 18 U.S.C 2383
- Trump
|
Both House & Senate have laws with bi-partisan support aimed at closing some of the loopholes around our elections
Article is by a law professor who outlines the four key reforms he sees as needed.
Both the Senate and the House have versions of a bill that tries to achieve the same end. But the Senate bill, known as the Electoral Count Reform Act, is narrower, went through extensive public vetting and has broad bipartisan support. It is likely something very close to this version becomes law.
The Electoral Count Reform Act does many small things, but it does a few big things that deserve public attention for their ability to deter mischief in this important process.
|
Most politically successful movie?
Predator had two actors who went on to become governors, this post on Mastodon got me thinking if there was a movie with more political success.
I believe I have found one which says yes, though it is definitely arguable. I played around on Oracle of Bacon with Reagan. He was in This is The Army with George Murphy. Murphy went on to be a 1-term Senator for California from '65-'71.
|
Delving into the math of subsidies and how they can't / shouldn't be used as a tool to change eating habits
|
A comment on why the US traded Bout for Griner
A Reddit poster claims this comes from a friend in a counterterror / intelligence think tank. Take that claim with a gain of salt, however I think the point is solid:
Because Bout is burned, the ability for him to do what he did before is essentially nulified because hes spent 15 years in an american prison. we should have gotten more for Bout but the reality is we don't get that luxury. Griner doesn't deserve to die bc Putin wants to poke Biden in the eye, and there's dozens of other Bouts in the world, a few in Russia, a few in America. What Bout did pales in comparison to what our own people in the govt have authorized for arms trafficking. the reality is, authoritarians always have liberal democracies over a barrel with prisoner swaps. it's just the nature of the beast.
but what sets us apart is our willingness to make these hard swaps bc we value life and liberty. It's a greater statement than the inverse condition/outcome wherein someone like Bout is valued higher bc of their danger.
|
"Freight rail strike averted, after frenzied negotiations"
I am extremely disappointed that both of my Senators voted in favor of this, forcing them to continue to work and not strike despite the ownership refusing to give them any sick days.
Check your Senators and how they voted.
|
