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

[Kilobugya]

I'm not sufficiently convinced that only citizens can vote in these places if there are sizeable populations of illegal immigrants in those communities. With such weak ID requirements, it is as easy as an illegal immigrant taking a social security number off of an already dead person.

There isn't the slightest evidence of that occurring in any significant manner. And people doing such a scheme risk a lengthy prison sentence, for every single abusive vote. It's really doable in large scale.

[San Lumen]

I'm not sufficiently convinced that only citizens can vote in these places if there are sizeable populations of illegal immigrants in those communities. With such weak ID requirements, it is as easy as an illegal immigrant taking a social security number off of an already dead person.

There isn't the slightest evidence of that occurring in any significant manner. And people doing such a scheme risk a lengthy prison sentence, for every single abusive vote. It's really doable in large scale.

I have worked elections for several years and I can attest this does not occur.

[Vassenor]

Thats not a valid argument for making voting harder.

I'm not sufficiently convinced that only citizens can vote in these places if there are sizeable populations of illegal immigrants in those communities. With such weak ID requirements, it is as easy as an illegal immigrant taking a social security number off of an already dead person.

Leaving aside that SSNs are a terrible means of identifying people, that's not what Voter ID is for anyway.

[Trollzyn the Infinite]

I'm in favor of the new Georgia voting laws and will back any plans to extend it to as many other states as possible. Ideally it'll be in all 50. The people who truly should vote will be able to jump through all the hoops.

No surprise that the Nazi comes down against democracy.

Really, the fact that you support this should clear up any confusion about whether or not it is - in fact - an awful anti-democratic thing to do.

Trollzyn's Law: if a Nazi supports it, it's probably bad; if a Nazi opposes it, it's probably good.

Jot that down, folks.

[North Washington Republic]

Yes how awful that everyone vote and it be as easy as possible.

We can't have it that way because too many Liberal sanctuary cities exist in the US. If the Left is going to insist on protecting illegal immigrants in terms of their living in the US, then the Right is probably going to insist on 2nd Amendment zones, where state/local governments in certain places throughout the US refuse to enforce any new federal gun control that comes from Biden or any future Democratic party led Federal governments.

“People that I don’t like shouldn’t vote because it won’t result in what I want.”

That is what you’re basically saying. Well,The United States is a Democratic-Republic and making it harder to exercise our most fundamental right, the right to vote isn’t good for the Country.

[Vassenor]

We can't have it that way because too many Liberal sanctuary cities exist in the US. If the Left is going to insist on protecting illegal immigrants in terms of their living in the US, then the Right is probably going to insist on 2nd Amendment zones, where state/local governments in certain places throughout the US refuse to enforce any new federal gun control that comes from Biden or any future Democratic party led Federal governments.

“People that I don’t like shouldn’t vote because it won’t result in what I want.”

That is what you’re basically saying. Well,The United States is a Democratic-Republic and making it harder to exercise our most fundamental right, the right to vote isn’t good for the Country.

That is the stated goal of these laws though - the GOP is saying that if people vote fairly then they can't win.

[North Washington Republic]

“People that I don’t like shouldn’t vote because it won’t result in what I want.”

That is what you’re basically saying. Well,The United States is a Democratic-Republic and making it harder to exercise our most fundamental right, the right to vote isn’t good for the Country.

That is the stated goal of these laws though - the GOP is saying that if people vote fairly then they can't win.

I’m QUITE aware of that and the worst thing of all, they’re using the Big Lie, the lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump as the main motivation for these racist, anti-Democratic, anti-voting laws.

[The Derpy Democratic Republic Of Herp]

Trump liked Epstine. Just a reminder.


Oh and another daily reminder that Jan 6th was a terrorst attack to "own the libs".

No offence ment to anyone who made a mistake in there past and have changed from doing that to be a better person. But still this was terrorism.

[Kowani]

Maine GOP votes not to censure Susan Collins (41-19)

[Kowani]

Prosecutors add 3 fraud charges against Missouri State Rep. Trish Derges (R), who's already facing 20 indictments over medical fraud

A Missouri state lawmaker already indicted on 20 charges related to a fraud scheme involving medical treatments now faces three more charges alleging she fraudulently sought federal funding for COVID-19 services at her southwest Missouri clinics.

Federal prosecutors announced Friday that a grand jury returned a superseding indictment this week alleging that Rep. Tricia Derges, a Republican from Nixa, filed claims for nearly $900,000 in federal funding for COVID-19 treatments that were not performed or had already been paid. The new charges were unsealed Friday during Derges' arraignment. She pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The 20-count indictment filed in February alleged Derges falsely promoted a treatment she was selling at medical clinics as containing stem cells that could treat various diseases, including COVID-19.

Friday's indictment charges that Derges applied for $882,644 in CARES Act funding for Lift Up, a nonprofit medical and dental clinic in Springfield that serves the poor, homeless and uninsured.

Derges, an assistant physician, received $296,574 in funding for the clinic, which did not provide any COVID-19 testing for patients and was closed between March and June 2020, federal prosecutors said. She allegedly transferred those funds to her for-profit clinic, Ozark Valley Medical Center, which had already been paid by clients for COVID-19 testing, prosecutors said.

Derges, who was elected in November, did not respond to messages left at her legislative or campaign offices.

Derges' attorney, Al Watkins, said the indictments indicate that federal prosecutors are not doing proper due diligence or performing at their normally high standards of professionalism in this case, which is harming tens of thousands of Derges' patients in southwest Missouri.

“She has no plans to do anything but continue to diligently discharge her duties as an elected official and represent her constituents," Watkins said. “And she has no plans to stop her professional calling, which is deeply rooted in her faith.” [...] In the earlier indictment, prosecutors alleged Derges administered amniotic fluid, which she falsely claimed contained stem cells, to patients who suffered from various diseases, including erectile dysfunction, Lyme disease and urinary incontinence.

Prosecutors claimed Derges said in a Facebook post that the treatment could provide a potential “safe and natural” cure for COVID-19 patients.

[San Lumen]

Maine GOP votes not to censure Susan Collins (41-19)

That's because the Maine GOP isn't dumb and knows they cannot win by nominating crazy people.

[New haven america]

I'm in favor of the new Georgia voting laws and will back any plans to extend it to as many other states as possible. Ideally it'll be in all 50. The people who truly should vote will be able to jump through all the hoops.

That's because you're an admitted racist and Nazi sympathizer.

[San Lumen]

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watc ... obe-report

Dozens of officials and aides working in Gov. Andrew Cuomo's (D-N.Y.) office have been subpoenaed in the sexual harassment investigation against the embattled governor, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Melissa DeRosa, secretary to the governor, is among those required to produce documentation as evidence in the ongoing investigation

[Kowani]

Trump appointees at the Social Security Administration are sabotaging the rollout of stimulus checks

On Wednesday, March 24, House Democrats Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-NJ), Richard Neal (D-MA), John Larson (D-CT), and Danny Davis (D-IL), members of the Ways and Means Committee, sent a letter to Social Security Administration commissioner Andrew Saul, complete with an ultimatum. According to the letter, nearly 30 million Social Security and Supplemental Security Income recipients, some of the country’s poorest and neediest people, were being prevented from receiving their $1,400 stimulus checks from the American Rescue Plan, because Saul was refusing to send the necessary payment files to the IRS.

Weeks after the American Rescue Plan had been signed into law, while many Americans had already received payments, the Social Security Administration’s inaction was standing in the way of millions of beneficiaries receiving desperately needed cash aid. After escalating pressure on Saul to no avail, the letter gave him 24 hours to remedy the holdup. A few hours later, the SSA announced that they’d be sending the information the next day. This delay is just the latest in an array of extremely troubling decisions under the leadership of the Social Security Administration’s commissioner Saul, and his deputy David Black. The SSA manages benefits for the 61 million Americans who receive Social Security payments, along with the five million additional people who get disability benefits via the Supplemental Security Income program. The SSA also helps determine Medicare eligibility. It manages a trillion-dollar annual budget.

Commissioner Saul and Deputy Commissioner Black were appointed by President Trump, alongside Deputy Commissioner for Retirement and Disability Policy Mark Warshawsky, to self-fulfill the Republican promise about the failure of government, and destroy the departments they were tasked with managing. Warshawsky, a veteran of the American Enterprise Institute, was pegged as an early candidate to be fired by the Biden administration for his work undercutting the program; he retired from the post in late January.

The Biden administration has set to work rolling back some of those Trump appointees’ designs on Social Security, including a proposed rule that would have subjected disability insurance recipients to even more frequent and stringent eligibility reviews, which would make an already challenging process even more difficult for people with disabilities to secure and maintain cash benefits. That move was widely celebrated among advocates. But President Biden has not heeded the call from those same advocates to fire Saul and Black, who have clear track records of working against the very department they’ve been tasked to head up, and against Democratic ambitions on Social Security.

Now, a growing number of congressional Democrats are joining the chorus calling for Saul and Black’s ousters. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) called for their resignation as his first act as chair of the Social Security and Pensions Subcommittee, and has since urged Biden to fire them. He’s joined House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman John Larson, Worker and Family Support Subcommittee Chairman Danny Davis, and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Bill Pascrell Jr. in demanding Saul’s immediate removal. Both Saul and Black are serving terms that don’t expire until 2025. [...] Meanwhile, Saul and Black have openly pursued a number of reforms aimed at aggressively curtailing benefits. Their attempted rule change, which the Biden administration rolled back, was a Reagan-era reform that would have led to tens of thousands of people losing benefits. When President Reagan enacted it, it led to a rash of suicides, and was deemed so cruel that it led to a unanimous Senate ruling to overturn it. Elsewhere, they’ve sought to deny benefits for older and severely disabled non–English speakers, resulting in an estimated 100,000 people being denied more than $5 billion in benefits. [...]
The same cannot be said of Saul and Black, who do not enjoy the fond feelings of their staff and co-workers. In December, the Association of Administrative Law Judges issued a vote of no confidence in both of them, with 88 percent of its members in favor. The American Federation of Government Employees, a union that does not frequently align itself with the AALJ, also called on President Biden to fire the two officials, saying that Saul and Black were effectively sabotaging the department, working to “undermine the agency’s mission” by allegedly putting employees up to major ethics violations in the name of denying injured workers and veterans their rightful benefits, and obstructing the smooth operation of the administration. Saul and Black have feuded with their workforce repeatedly, busting up union efforts and torpedoing morale.
With such uniform opposition from Social Security advocacy groups, Democrats at various levels of government, and even bureaucrats within the SSA, it may be impossible for President Biden to present a credible case for keeping Saul and Black on much longer. While the president has pledged a return to normalcy, and an extrication of Trump’s legacy on government, he’s been shy to root out all of the influences of Trumpism in Washington to the full extent of his power.

But that timidity is going to come up against his, and Democrats’, broader ambitions. While few expect that Social Security expansion will come up in this legislative session, there is a nontrivial possibility it will be on the floor before Biden’s re-election campaign in 2024. At that point, Biden will have either overseen an SSA that has continued its Trumpist charge to chip away at one of the most popular government programs, or he’ll usher in a new era of expanded benefits, in line with the sizable welfare expansion he made a cornerstone of the American Rescue Plan, his first major piece of legislation. Both cannot plausibly be true.

[The Black Forrest]

Trump appointees at the Social Security Administration are sabotaging the rollout of stimulus checks

On Wednesday, March 24, House Democrats Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-NJ), Richard Neal (D-MA), John Larson (D-CT), and Danny Davis (D-IL), members of the Ways and Means Committee, sent a letter to Social Security Administration commissioner Andrew Saul, complete with an ultimatum. According to the letter, nearly 30 million Social Security and Supplemental Security Income recipients, some of the country’s poorest and neediest people, were being prevented from receiving their $1,400 stimulus checks from the American Rescue Plan, because Saul was refusing to send the necessary payment files to the IRS.

Weeks after the American Rescue Plan had been signed into law, while many Americans had already received payments, the Social Security Administration’s inaction was standing in the way of millions of beneficiaries receiving desperately needed cash aid. After escalating pressure on Saul to no avail, the letter gave him 24 hours to remedy the holdup. A few hours later, the SSA announced that they’d be sending the information the next day. This delay is just the latest in an array of extremely troubling decisions under the leadership of the Social Security Administration’s commissioner Saul, and his deputy David Black. The SSA manages benefits for the 61 million Americans who receive Social Security payments, along with the five million additional people who get disability benefits via the Supplemental Security Income program. The SSA also helps determine Medicare eligibility. It manages a trillion-dollar annual budget.

Commissioner Saul and Deputy Commissioner Black were appointed by President Trump, alongside Deputy Commissioner for Retirement and Disability Policy Mark Warshawsky, to self-fulfill the Republican promise about the failure of government, and destroy the departments they were tasked with managing. Warshawsky, a veteran of the American Enterprise Institute, was pegged as an early candidate to be fired by the Biden administration for his work undercutting the program; he retired from the post in late January.

The Biden administration has set to work rolling back some of those Trump appointees’ designs on Social Security, including a proposed rule that would have subjected disability insurance recipients to even more frequent and stringent eligibility reviews, which would make an already challenging process even more difficult for people with disabilities to secure and maintain cash benefits. That move was widely celebrated among advocates. But President Biden has not heeded the call from those same advocates to fire Saul and Black, who have clear track records of working against the very department they’ve been tasked to head up, and against Democratic ambitions on Social Security.

Now, a growing number of congressional Democrats are joining the chorus calling for Saul and Black’s ousters. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) called for their resignation as his first act as chair of the Social Security and Pensions Subcommittee, and has since urged Biden to fire them. He’s joined House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman John Larson, Worker and Family Support Subcommittee Chairman Danny Davis, and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Bill Pascrell Jr. in demanding Saul’s immediate removal. Both Saul and Black are serving terms that don’t expire until 2025. [...] Meanwhile, Saul and Black have openly pursued a number of reforms aimed at aggressively curtailing benefits. Their attempted rule change, which the Biden administration rolled back, was a Reagan-era reform that would have led to tens of thousands of people losing benefits. When President Reagan enacted it, it led to a rash of suicides, and was deemed so cruel that it led to a unanimous Senate ruling to overturn it. Elsewhere, they’ve sought to deny benefits for older and severely disabled non–English speakers, resulting in an estimated 100,000 people being denied more than $5 billion in benefits. [...]
The same cannot be said of Saul and Black, who do not enjoy the fond feelings of their staff and co-workers. In December, the Association of Administrative Law Judges issued a vote of no confidence in both of them, with 88 percent of its members in favor. The American Federation of Government Employees, a union that does not frequently align itself with the AALJ, also called on President Biden to fire the two officials, saying that Saul and Black were effectively sabotaging the department, working to “undermine the agency’s mission” by allegedly putting employees up to major ethics violations in the name of denying injured workers and veterans their rightful benefits, and obstructing the smooth operation of the administration. Saul and Black have feuded with their workforce repeatedly, busting up union efforts and torpedoing morale.
With such uniform opposition from Social Security advocacy groups, Democrats at various levels of government, and even bureaucrats within the SSA, it may be impossible for President Biden to present a credible case for keeping Saul and Black on much longer. While the president has pledged a return to normalcy, and an extrication of Trump’s legacy on government, he’s been shy to root out all of the influences of Trumpism in Washington to the full extent of his power.

But that timidity is going to come up against his, and Democrats’, broader ambitions. While few expect that Social Security expansion will come up in this legislative session, there is a nontrivial possibility it will be on the floor before Biden’s re-election campaign in 2024. At that point, Biden will have either overseen an SSA that has continued its Trumpist charge to chip away at one of the most popular government programs, or he’ll usher in a new era of expanded benefits, in line with the sizable welfare expansion he made a cornerstone of the American Rescue Plan, his first major piece of legislation. Both cannot plausibly be true.

Well? Official notification is the first step to elimination. If the trumpets wouldn’t do their job; they need to go.

[The Alma Mater]

I'm in favor of the new Georgia voting laws and will back any plans to extend it to as many other states as possible. Ideally it'll be in all 50. The people who truly should vote will be able to jump through all the hoops.

You mean the native Americans, right ?

[The Black Forrest]

I'm in favor of the new Georgia voting laws and will back any plans to extend it to as many other states as possible. Ideally it'll be in all 50. The people who truly should vote will be able to jump through all the hoops.

Of course....where do you live again?

[Rusozak]

I'm in favor of the new Georgia voting laws and will back any plans to extend it to as many other states as possible. Ideally it'll be in all 50. The people who truly should vote will be able to jump through all the hoops.

Do you mind elaborating on who shouldn't vote?

[Maineiacs]

Maine GOP votes not to censure Susan Collins (41-19)

I have no love for Collins, but at least she did the right thing at the impeachment trial.

[Blargoblarg]

Yes how awful that everyone vote and it be as easy as possible.

We can't have it that way because too many Liberal sanctuary cities exist in the US. If the Left is going to insist on protecting illegal immigrants in terms of their living in the US, then the Right is probably going to insist on 2nd Amendment zones, where state/local governments in certain places throughout the US refuse to enforce any new federal gun control that comes from Biden or any future Democratic party led Federal governments.

As a socialist, liberals are still not left-wing.

[The Alma Mater]

We can't have it that way because too many Liberal sanctuary cities exist in the US. If the Left is going to insist on protecting illegal immigrants in terms of their living in the US, then the Right is probably going to insist on 2nd Amendment zones, where state/local governments in certain places throughout the US refuse to enforce any new federal gun control that comes from Biden or any future Democratic party led Federal governments.

As a socialist, liberals are still not left-wing.

As has been mentioned ad nauseam already, in many western countries liberals are even considered right wing.

[Kowani]

Rep. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) settles lawsuit from MeidasTouch agreeing not to block anyone from her public Twitter account or other social media while she holds office, as well as paying $10,000 for MediasTouch’s legal fees

[Rusozak]

Rep. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) settles lawsuit from MeidasTouch agreeing not to block anyone from her public Twitter account or other social media while she holds office, as well as paying $10,000 for MediasTouch’s legal fees

[Kazumazu]

As a socialist, liberals are still not left-wing.

As has been mentioned ad nauseam already, in many western countries liberals are even considered right wing.

As far as the American standard is concerned I’ve always considered them to be between center-left and I guess you could say “moderate left”.

[Kowani]

New York lawmakers agree to legalize marijuana

New York is poised the join the growing number of states that have legalized marijuana after state lawmakers reached a late-night deal to allow sales of the drug for recreational use.

The legislation would allow recreational marijuana sales to adults over the age of 21, and set up a licensing process for the delivery of cannabis products to customers. Individual New Yorkers could grow up to three mature and three immature plants for personal consumption, and local governments could opt out of retail sales.

The legislation would take effect immediately if passed, though sales wouldn’t start until New York sets up rules and a proposed cannabis board. Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes estimated Friday it could take 18 months to two years for sales to start.[…] New York would set a 9% sales tax on cannabis, plus an additional 4% tax split between the county and local government. It would also impose an additional tax based on the level of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, ranging from 0.5 cents per milligram for flower to 3 cents per milligram for edibles.

New York would eliminate penalties for possession of less than three ounces of cannabis, and automatically expunge records of people with past convictions for marijuana-related offenses that would no longer be criminalized. That’s a step beyond a 2019 law that expunged many past convictions for marijuana possession and reduced the penalty for possessing small amounts.

And New York would provide loans, grants and incubator programs to encourage participation in the cannabis industry by people from minority communities, as well as small farmers, women and disabled veterans.
[…]
New York officials plan to launch an education and prevention campaign aimed at reducing the risk of cannabis among school-aged children, and schools could get grants for anti-vaping and drug prevention and awareness programs.

And the state will also launch a study due by Dec. 31, 2022, that examines the extent that cannabis impairs driving, and whether it depends on factors like time and metabolism.[…]
The bill also sets aside revenues to cover the costs of everything from regulating marijuana, to substance abuse prevention.

State police could also get funding to hire and train more so-called “drug recognition experts.”
[…] The bill allows cities, towns and villages to opt out of allowing adult-use cannabis retail dispensaries or on-site consumption licenses by passing a local law by Dec. 31, 2021 or nine months after the effective date of the legislation. They cannot opt out of legalization.

Billtext here