American Politics IV: 1400 Reasons Why(A Stimulus Serial)

[San Lumen]

https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2021/03 ... ck-sheriff

For the first time in its 131-year history, the state of Wyoming has a Black sheriff.

Aaron Appelhans was appointed to lead the Albany County Sheriff's Department in December. The department serves the college town of Laramie and the sweeping landscape that surrounds it in rural southeast Wyoming.

[Rusozak]

https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2021/03/10/wyoming-black-sheriff

For the first time in its 131-year history, the state of Wyoming has a Black sheriff.

Aaron Appelhans was appointed to lead the Albany County Sheriff's Department in December. The department serves the college town of Laramie and the sweeping landscape that surrounds it in rural southeast Wyoming.

Rural America makes another baby step towards entering the 20th century.

[Umeria]

Well obviously they have to raise some money, but five times as much? That's quite a bit more money per voter than the Democrat spent. ($13.03 per voter vs $7.26 per voter) If Republicans just naturally win there, why do they need spend so much?

I cannot answer that.

The answer is that it's perfectly possible for a Democrat to win in any state, as long as they support popular policies, campaign well, and get a decent amount of funds.

Yes but the primary voters preferred her.

No they didn't. Booker won the in-person vote, but a lot of people voted by mail back when he had very little name recognition (due to him having a tenth of the resources).

[Shrillland]

I cannot answer that.

The answer is that it's perfectly possible for a Democrat to win in any state, as long as they support popular policies, campaign well, and get a decent amount of funds.

Yes but the primary voters preferred her.

No they didn't. Booker won the in-person vote, but a lot of people voted by mail back when he had very little name recognition (due to him having a tenth of the resources).

That is true, he only got known after the protests and riots began, too late to really win the vote considering the mess Kentucky had.

[Kowani]

Chuck Schumer considers round 2 on the minimum wage

Chuck Schumer is considering putting a $15 minimum wage into the next reconciliation package, which will be focused on infrastructure, multiple sources familiar with the New York senator’s thinking told The Intercept.

Senate Democrats attempted to include the wage hike in President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 relief package, but the Senate parliamentarian ruled it was out of order, and Senate Democrats allowed that ruling to stand. An effort to overturn the ruling, which required 60 votes, garnered just 42.Schumer has suggested to progressive groups that there is a glimmer of hope that the parliamentarian would rule differently this time: The new legislation is focused on infrastructure, and setting wages is directly related to the budget impact of any infrastructure spending. If there’s even a small chance of it working, he reasoned, it’s worth the fight.

Schumer, though, is encountering resistance from some backers of increasing the minimum wage, who argue that attempting to include it is doomed to fail just as it did last time, and in the process it will trigger another wave of indignation from the public at the failure. Debate over the $1.9 trillion relief package was consumed in its final days by anger over the lack of inclusion of the wage hike, with pressure on progressives to vote it down.

Internal congressional critics of the Schumer idea argue that the link between the policy and whether it clears reconciliation is irrelevant — after all, Republicans included drilling in the Arctic in Trump’s tax cut legislation, two policies that had nothing to do with each other — and that the parliamentarian is likely to rule the same way again. Taking another run at it, for some in the Senate, recalls a favorite maxim of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who would often say, “There’s no education in the second kick of a mule.”

Sources familiar with Schumer’s thinking say that he is buoyed by the fact that the parliamentarian’s ruling was just one line long, meaning it didn’t offer any analysis that could be read as precedent. That the parliamentarian’s analysis of the question was just one line long rankled some Senate Democrats, given that the parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, is a staffer and her role is supposed to be advisory. It would be as if a president asked for an analysis on whether waterboarding was within the executive’s authority and the legal counsel responded with a one line memo either up or down. Putting the minimum wage question back to MacDonough might force a more serious grappling with it — or it could result in a copy-and-pasting of the original rejection.

The idea is also to continue pushing on all fronts — filibuster reform and a series of new reconciliation bills — until the party finds a soft spot in the line to push a higher minimum wage through.

Along those lines, a Schumer aide said the majority leader is also arguing that there are opportunities within Senate rules for additional reconciliation bills beyond those that had been expected, relying on language contained in Section 304 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. “At any time after the concurrent resolution on the budget for a fiscal year has been agreed to pursuant to section 301, and before the end of such fiscal year, the two Houses may adopt a concurrent resolution on the budget which revises or reaffirms the concurrent resolution on the budget for such fiscal year most recently agreed to,” the section of the law reads.

By pushing for multiple rounds of reconciliation, Schumer would also perhaps be strengthening the case for reform of the filibuster by once again establishing the 50-vote threshold as the standard way of passing major pieces of legislation. Once it becomes standard for the Senate to make decisions with a majority vote rather than 60 votes, it becomes harder to justify maintaining the current rules for some legislation but not for other pieces. And the cumbersome reconciliation process would feel pressure under the weight of its own absurdity. At the same time, the creative exploration of new procedural maneuvers worries backers of the fight against the filibuster that the party leadership lacks confidence in the ability to get it done.

The Senate still needs to lock down 50 votes in support of hiking the wage, however. Of the eight Democrats who voted no last time around on overruling the parliamentarian to enact a minimum wage, most are assumed to be gettable in a clean vote, though doing so could mean giving ground on the tipped minimum wage, a key priority of the National Restaurant Association. That would still leave Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., but there is hope that a package of small business tax credits, which would subsidize the wage increase, could get them there. There is also talk of including the measure in other must-pass pieces of legislation, creating a process where there wouldn’t be a standalone vote on the minimum wage but rather on the entire package, Senate sources said.

[Kilobugya]

Resources and media coverage. In 2020 you gave Amy McGrath those two things and she lost anyway because she's a milquetoast moderate who no one in Kentucky actually likes. Next election cycle, give the resources and media coverage to the people campaigning on things voters actually want, and you'll win.

I don't believe those are enough to make a democrat (progressive or not) win in ruby red Kentucky or Wyoming. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try and fight anyway. Even if we don't win at first attempt, we'll spread the message, organize people, move the Overton window. And on the long term, it'll pay off, even if on the short-term it's a loss.

The only cases I think "we" should support a "moderate" in the primaries is when there is a well-anchored, well-known one who has the only chance of winning that election, like Manchin, as much as I often disagree with him, he's the only democrat who can keep that seat, so I'll reluctantly accept to support him. In the general election, well, "we" have to support the best remaining option.

I'll never understand why hundreds of millions of dollars were thrown at her when she barely eked out a primary win.

Wasn't it just because so many people hated (for good reason) McConnell so much ?

[Trollzyn the Infinite]

Is it really "pandering" when there are thousands of innocent people currently spending several year prison sentences for committing the unforgivable crime of... *checks notes* ...smoking a plant to feel good? Idk, man, this doesn't sound like something we should arrest people for. Maybe we should do something to get those folks out of jail and ditch the silly "crime" they committed since making it a crime in the first place only gave the cartels more power.

Cartels only exist because they were created and trained by the CIA in the first place. The US doesn't want Latin America to become competent.

Which has virtually no relevance to what I said.

[Genivaria]

Biden recognizing Armenian Genocide is righting a historic wrong - opinion

https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.jpost.co ... 663538/amp

I will give Biden props for this, glad to see an American leader recognizing this crime.

[Kilobugya]

Biden recognizing Armenian Genocide is righting a historic wrong - opinion

https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.jpost.co ... 663538/amp

I will give Biden props for this, glad to see an American leader recognizing this crime.

It's good he does, but I would more like him to do some arm-twisting to stop Erdogan from his ongoing crimes against the Kurds... recognizing a century old genocide is good thing, but it's cheap talk compared to currently under-process massacres. And Turkey is a NATO member, so supposedly an ally.

[Dresderstan]

Biden recognizing Armenian Genocide is righting a historic wrong - opinion

https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.jpost.co ... 663538/amp

I will give Biden props for this, glad to see an American leader recognizing this crime.

I thought all US presidents acknowledged it just never publicly because Turkey.

[Genivaria]

Biden recognizing Armenian Genocide is righting a historic wrong - opinion

https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.jpost.co ... 663538/amp

I will give Biden props for this, glad to see an American leader recognizing this crime.

It's good he does, but I would more like him to do some arm-twisting to stop Erdogan from his ongoing crimes against the Kurds... recognizing a century old genocide is good thing, but it's cheap talk compared to currently under-process massacres. And Turkey is a NATO member, so supposedly an ally.

Completely agree.

[The New California Republic]

A young child inadvertently sparked confusion over the weekend by posting an unintelligible tweet to the official account of US Strategic Command.

The agency is responsible for safeguarding America's nuclear weapons.

But it has since been revealed a young member of the account's social-media manager's family was responsible for posting the tweet, ;l;;gmlxzssaw, which was then deleted within minutes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56578544

Looks like a launch code to me.

[Ifreann]

A young child inadvertently sparked confusion over the weekend by posting an unintelligible tweet to the official account of US Strategic Command.

The agency is responsible for safeguarding America's nuclear weapons.

But it has since been revealed a young member of the account's social-media manager's family was responsible for posting the tweet, ;l;;gmlxzssaw, which was then deleted within minutes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56578544

Looks like a launch code to me.

I would think that a launch code would be something like 12345BOOM.

[The Alma Mater]

A young child inadvertently sparked confusion over the weekend by posting an unintelligible tweet to the official account of US Strategic Command.

The agency is responsible for safeguarding America's nuclear weapons.

But it has since been revealed a young member of the account's social-media manager's family was responsible for posting the tweet, ;l;;gmlxzssaw, which was then deleted within minutes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56578544

Looks like a launch code to me.

I would think that a launch code would be something like 12345BOOM.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6iW-8xPw3k

[Vassenor]

A young child inadvertently sparked confusion over the weekend by posting an unintelligible tweet to the official account of US Strategic Command.

The agency is responsible for safeguarding America's nuclear weapons.

But it has since been revealed a young member of the account's social-media manager's family was responsible for posting the tweet, ;l;;gmlxzssaw, which was then deleted within minutes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56578544

Looks like a launch code to me.

I would think that a launch code would be something like 12345BOOM.

Thought the code was 00000000.

[San Lumen]

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... inees?rl=1

Biden has announced his first slate of judicial nominees. Ketanji Brown Jackson will be nominated to replace Merrick Garland.

[Vassenor]

Inside the Koch-Backed Effort to Block the Largest Election-Reform Bill in Half a Century

In public, Republicans have denounced Democrats’ ambitious electoral-reform bill, the For the People Act, as an unpopular partisan ploy. In a contentious Senate committee hearing last week, Senator Ted Cruz, of Texas, slammed the proposal, which aims to expand voting rights and curb the influence of money in politics, as “a brazen and shameless power grab by Democrats.” But behind closed doors Republicans speak differently about the legislation, which is also known as House Resolution 1 and Senate Bill 1. They admit the lesser-known provisions in the bill that limit secret campaign spending are overwhelmingly popular across the political spectrum. In private, they concede their own polling shows that no message they can devise effectively counters the argument that billionaires should be prevented from buying elections.

A recording obtained by The New Yorker of a private conference call on January 8th, between a policy adviser to Senator Mitch McConnell and the leaders of several prominent conservative groups—including one run by the Koch brothers’ network—reveals the participants’ worry that the proposed election reforms garner wide support not just from liberals but from conservative voters, too. The speakers on the call expressed alarm at the broad popularity of the bill’s provision calling for more public disclosure about secret political donors. The participants conceded that the bill, which would stem the flow of dark money from such political donors as the billionaire oil magnate Charles Koch, was so popular that it wasn’t worth trying to mount a public-advocacy campaign to shift opinion. Instead, a senior Koch operative said that opponents would be better off ignoring the will of American voters and trying to kill the bill in Congress.

[San Lumen]

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watc ... ell-backed

The Republican-controlled Kentucky legislature on Monday overrode Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of a bill that significantly changes the process for appointing lawmakers to vacant Senate seats.

The legislation, which has the support of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), requires the governor of Kentucky to temporarily fill a vacant Senate seat with a successor of the same political party as the departing lawmaker.

Additionally, the bill requires that the temporary successor be chosen from a list of three names put forward by the executive committee of the departing senator’s state party.

[Shrillland]

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Pensacola, FL) may leave Congress before his term is up to go to Newsmax

In other news: Under considerable pressure, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem officially recants and signs EO banning trans athlets from women's sports

[Gravlen]

A recent study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Medical University of South Carolina — analyzing every day of data between March 15, 2020, and Dec. 12, 2020 — calculated the chances of getting covid-19 or dying from covid-19 in every state (and D.C.). After adjusting for factors such a population density, ethnic composition, poverty and age, a clear picture emerged. Democrat-led states were hardest hit early on, as you’d expect given the places where the disease took hold in the United States. But then the balance shifted. By June 3, Republican states had higher case diagnoses. By July 4, higher death rates. By Aug. 5, the relative risk of dying from covid-19 was 1.8 times higher in GOP-led states.

And we know the differences on covid policy that intensified during those nine months. Republican-led states (with exceptions such as Maryland and Massachusetts) pulled back from pandemic-related measures. “In late spring,” one health official told me, “when we were trying to carefully ‘reopen’ the country and the economy by putting out a set of gateway guidelines for the states to follow, states like Florida, Texas and Georgia, among others, essentially disregarded the guidelines. To a greater or lesser degree they opened up too quickly leading to that late spring, early summer surge that we experienced.”

All pandemic policy involves a trade-off between the level of deaths and the level of commercial interaction. But concerning covid, Republican governors tended to put a greater value on economic activity than preserving the lives of the elderly and vulnerable (and others) when compared with Democrat-led states. In doing so, they elevated their views above the sober judgment of experts.

The GOP is facing a sickness deeper than the coronavirus
Unsurprisingly, the poor leadership in the Red states echoes the poor leadership at the top under Trump, and that led to higher infection rates and death rates because - don't forget that this was real, expressed sentiments - there were more important things than living, and old people should volunteer to die to save the economy.

[Trollzyn the Infinite]

Biden recognizing Armenian Genocide is righting a historic wrong - opinion

https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.jpost.co ... 663538/amp

I will give Biden props for this, glad to see an American leader recognizing this crime.

Biden's being based again, hot damn.

Now if only he'd be based all the time. He never will, but it's nice to imagine.

[The Black Forrest]

Inside the Koch-Backed Effort to Block the Largest Election-Reform Bill in Half a Century

In public, Republicans have denounced Democrats’ ambitious electoral-reform bill, the For the People Act, as an unpopular partisan ploy. In a contentious Senate committee hearing last week, Senator Ted Cruz, of Texas, slammed the proposal, which aims to expand voting rights and curb the influence of money in politics, as “a brazen and shameless power grab by Democrats.” But behind closed doors Republicans speak differently about the legislation, which is also known as House Resolution 1 and Senate Bill 1. They admit the lesser-known provisions in the bill that limit secret campaign spending are overwhelmingly popular across the political spectrum. In private, they concede their own polling shows that no message they can devise effectively counters the argument that billionaires should be prevented from buying elections.

A recording obtained by The New Yorker of a private conference call on January 8th, between a policy adviser to Senator Mitch McConnell and the leaders of several prominent conservative groups—including one run by the Koch brothers’ network—reveals the participants’ worry that the proposed election reforms garner wide support not just from liberals but from conservative voters, too. The speakers on the call expressed alarm at the broad popularity of the bill’s provision calling for more public disclosure about secret political donors. The participants conceded that the bill, which would stem the flow of dark money from such political donors as the billionaire oil magnate Charles Koch, was so popular that it wasn’t worth trying to mount a public-advocacy campaign to shift opinion. Instead, a senior Koch operative said that opponents would be better off ignoring the will of American voters and trying to kill the bill in Congress.

Priorities. Fighting the pandemic, the troubled economy and people out of work, or protecting access to money and influence sales.

[The Black Forrest]

Biden recognizing Armenian Genocide is righting a historic wrong - opinion

https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.jpost.co ... 663538/amp

I will give Biden props for this, glad to see an American leader recognizing this crime.

Biden's being based again, hot damn.

Now if only he'd be based all the time. He never will, but it's nice to imagine.

Well he hasn’t recognized it yet. Let’s see what happens. Still plenty of time to make “deals”

[Kowani]

Biden signs Bill extending PPP program

The bill, passed in overwhelming bipartisan votes in the House and Senate earlier this month, extends the deadline for businesses to apply for assistance through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) by two months, from March 31 to May 31.

In addition to extending the window in which businesses can apply for the loans, the bill signed by Biden on Tuesday also gives SBA until June 30 to process loan applications.

The change will give businesses more time to apply for first time loans or “second draw” loans, those available to some businesses who have already received assistance. Businesses and lenders who have encountered issues with the application process will also have more time to sort out those problems.

The Biden administration announced changes to the program in February aimed at prioritizing the smallest businesses as well as those that are minority-owned and located in rural communities. This included a two-week period in March when only businesses with fewer than 20 employees could apply for assistance.

The administration also changed its loan calculating formula for sole proprietors, independent contractors and self-employed individuals and eliminated restrictions preventing business owners with prior non-fraud felony convictions or who have been delinquent on federal student loans from receiving assistance.

[San Lumen]

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/n ... 045488002/

Kentucky lawmakers pass key election reforms, including early voting. The bill passed 91-3 and now heads to the governor’s desk who will almost certainly sign it.