American Politics Thread VI: Can't We All Just Get Along?

[Great Algerstonia]

Somebody's probably covered all this already, but some things the Texas bill does to education:

Teachers can only teach that slavery and racism are "deviations from, betrayals of, or failures to live up to the authentic founding principals of the United States" ^[1]

And a hefty list of cuts to the social studies curriculum:

-the history of Native Americans

-writings of George Washington, Ona Judge, Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, and "any other founding persons of the United States"

-Essays 10 and 51 of the Federalist Papers

-excerpts from Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America

-writings from Frederick Douglass's newspaper, the North Star

-the Book of Negroes

-the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850

-the Indian Removal Act

-Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists

-William Still's Underground Railroad Records

-"historical documents related to the civic accomplishments of marginalized populations, including documents related to:
A. the Chicano movement
B. women's suffrage and equal rights
C. the civil rights movement
D. the Snyder Act of 1924
E. the American labor movement"

-the history of white supremacy, including but not limited to the institution of slavery, the eugenics movement, and the Ku Klux Klan, and the ways in which it is morally wrong

-the civil rights movement including the following documents:
A. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" and "I Have a Dream" speech
B. the United States Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education
C. the Emancipation Proclamation
D. the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
E. the Fifteenth Amendment
F. the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decision in Mendez v. Westminster
G. Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
H. the life and work of Cesar Chavez
I. the life and work of Dolores Huerta

-the history and importance of the women's suffrage movement, including the following documents:
A. the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965
B. the Fifteenth and Twenty-Sixth Amendments
C. Abigail Adams' letter "Remember the Ladies"
D. the works of Susan B. Anthony
E. the Declaration of Sentiments

-the life and works of Dr. Hector P. Garcia

-the American GI Forum

-the League of United Latin American Citizens

-Hernandez v. Texas (1954)

[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

This is a disturbingly disgusting rewriting of U.S. history, and supposedly leftists are the ones trying to rewrite history? Sorry if you feel ashamed of America's shitty past and the knowledge that America has never been a good country, but that's literally our history and we have to live with it. We can't just sweep it under a rug.

My conspiracy theory is that this is all a ruse designed to bring Democrats back so that they can pass the voter restriction bill and/or arrest Democrats. I refuse to believe that this bill is intended to become law.

[Duvniask]

I'm reminded of the time, back in '12, when the Texas GOP took a very principled stance against the teaching of critical thinking skills.

[Kowani]

My conspiracy theory is that this is all a ruse designed to bring Democrats back so that they can pass the voter restriction bill and/or arrest Democrats.

how the fuck would this work
the only way this gets passed is if the dems come back

I refuse to believe that this bill is intended to become law.

lmao

[Kowani]

House passes legislation restoring the FTC's authority to recover monetary damages in federal court for consumers defrauded or scammed (221-205)

[The Reformed American Republic]

House passes legislation restoring the FTC's authority to recover monetary damages in federal court for consumers defrauded or scammed (221-205)

Oh, wow, that actually sounds good. Now watch it fail in the senate.

[Rousseaun]

The Republican and Democratic parties are wildly out of touch with the American people and maniacally evil, unwilling to even do the simplest things to help anyone, because it could potentially affect their revenue stream. Collaborating with political opponents is suicide and idiotic. The American establishment will not help anyone unless there is radical systemic change instituted or it is overthrown, after which radical systemic change will be instituted.

[Maricarland]

The Republican and Democratic parties are wildly out of touch with the American people and maniacally evil, unwilling to even do the simplest things to help anyone, because it could potentially affect their revenue stream. Collaborating with political opponents is suicide and idiotic. The American establishment will not help anyone unless there is radical systemic change instituted or it is overthrown, after which radical systemic change will be instituted.

Very true, but I lean towards pacifism and have limited ability (financially or otherwise, due to my disability) to contribute to non-electoral politics, so my only feasible options are to do what little non-electoral politics I can, and continue to put my efforts toward electoralism.

[The Black Forrest]

Trump Inaugural Chairman Thomas Barrack arrested on sealed federal charges

He's being accused of acting as an agent of the United Arab Emirates and lying to investigators

The chair of former President Donald Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee was arrested Tuesday on charges alleging that he and others conspired to influence Trump’s foreign policy positions to benefit the United Arab Emirates.

Thomas Joseph Barrack, 74, of Santa Monica, California, was among three men charged in New York federal court with trying to influence foreign policy while Trump was running in 2016 and later while he was president. Matthew Herrington, an attorney for Barrack, did not immediately return an email seeking comment. [...] Barrack was charged with conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making multiple false statements during a June 20, 2019 interview with federal law enforcement agents. Also charged in a seven-count indictment in Brooklyn federal court were Matthew Grimes, 27, of Aspen, Colorado and Rashid Sultan Rashid Al Malik Alshahhi, 43, of the United Arab Emirates. Grimes also was arrested Tuesday in California. A message for comment was sent to his attorney. The whereabouts of Alshahhi weren’t immediately clear.

You would think after watching Michael Flynn…

I am ever amazed at the arrogance of such people.

How long before the maga people start going about this being some plot of Biden or the deep state? Has Trump made a statement of not really knowing him that much?

Was the swamp ever cleaned?

[San Lumen]

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), not understanding Senate procedure, threatens to leave DC in order to derail the infrastructure bill


it wouldn't work but it'd just slow shit down

It needn't slow anything down. If no Democratic Senator suggested the absence of a quorum ("quorum call"), the presence of a quorum would be assumed and Senate business, including voting, could proceed. If one Republican Senator made a quorum call with 50 Democratic Senators on the floor, there would be a quorum and Senate business, including voting, could proceed. The difference is that Texas requires a 2/3 quorum, not a simple majority as in the US Senate, so enough Democrats can scarper and leave a few on the floor to make quorum calls.

Hopefully Republicans do it. We could get the For the People Act passed along with everything else Democrats want to pass.

[The Reformed American Republic]

It needn't slow anything down. If no Democratic Senator suggested the absence of a quorum ("quorum call"), the presence of a quorum would be assumed and Senate business, including voting, could proceed. If one Republican Senator made a quorum call with 50 Democratic Senators on the floor, there would be a quorum and Senate business, including voting, could proceed. The difference is that Texas requires a 2/3 quorum, not a simple majority as in the US Senate, so enough Democrats can scarper and leave a few on the floor to make quorum calls.

Hopefully Republicans do it. We could get the For the People Act passed along with everything else Democrats want to pass.

Get President Joe Manchin to support it.

[Fauzjhia]

Hopefully Republicans do it. We could get the For the People Act passed along with everything else Democrats want to pass.

Get President Joe Manchin to support it.

does not that require him to bypass filibuster ?
since For the People Act is a not monetary bill, I believe it still need 60 votes to pass filibusters, and Manchin is against that reform. At the same time, everyone know that the republican only wait for the democrat to make the first step, as excuse to remove the filibuster when they get majority, if they don't have the excuse, chances are, they will not attempt it.

[San Lumen]

Get President Joe Manchin to support it.

does not that require him to bypass filibuster ?
since For the People Act is a not monetary bill, I believe it still need 60 votes to pass filibusters, and Manchin is against that reform. At the same time, everyone know that the republican only wait for the democrat to make the first step, as excuse to remove the filibuster when they get majority, if they don't have the excuse, chances are, they will not attempt it.

If every Republican walked out the fillibuster would not apply. They could pass it with 50 votes.

[Cannot think of a name]

He's being accused of acting as an agent of the United Arab Emirates and lying to investigators

The chair of former President Donald Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee was arrested Tuesday on charges alleging that he and others conspired to influence Trump’s foreign policy positions to benefit the United Arab Emirates.

Thomas Joseph Barrack, 74, of Santa Monica, California, was among three men charged in New York federal court with trying to influence foreign policy while Trump was running in 2016 and later while he was president. Matthew Herrington, an attorney for Barrack, did not immediately return an email seeking comment. [...] Barrack was charged with conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making multiple false statements during a June 20, 2019 interview with federal law enforcement agents. Also charged in a seven-count indictment in Brooklyn federal court were Matthew Grimes, 27, of Aspen, Colorado and Rashid Sultan Rashid Al Malik Alshahhi, 43, of the United Arab Emirates. Grimes also was arrested Tuesday in California. A message for comment was sent to his attorney. The whereabouts of Alshahhi weren’t immediately clear.

You would think after watching Michael Flynn…

I am ever amazed at the arrogance of such people.

How long before the maga people start going about this being some plot of Biden or the deep state? Has Trump made a statement of not really knowing him that much?

Was the swamp ever cleaned?

So what is it, three former Trump folks with this kind of violation which I'm to understand isn't that common and all stemming from the Muller investigation...I wonder if it's one of those things that is common but no one ever checked before and if they're gonna do it more often now or neeeeever again.

[Galloism]

Read the lawsuit.

Attorneys have been sanctioned for filing similar fact-free lawsuits. The plaintiff filed a complaint with the US Education Dept.'s Office of Civil Rights that went exactly nowhere. The district plans to vigorously defend its training, as it should.

Read about the reaction from the supporters of the suit. And see what race the superintendant is. You get one guess.

The article notes the us dept of education sanctioned the school in January, which was withdrawn after inauguration.

And I assume he or she is black.

[Kowani]

Attorneys have been sanctioned for filing similar fact-free lawsuits. The plaintiff filed a complaint with the US Education Dept.'s Office of Civil Rights that went exactly nowhere. The district plans to vigorously defend its training, as it should.

Read about the reaction from the supporters of the suit. And see what race the superintendant is. You get one guess.

The article notes the us dept of education sanctioned the school in January, which was withdrawn after inauguration.

And I assume he or she is black.

tbf the sec. of education at the time was betsy devos
like i haven't had time to sit down and corroborate most of the claims here but that doesn't really seem like the greatest point in anyone's favour

[Fauzjhia]

does not that require him to bypass filibuster ?
since For the People Act is a not monetary bill, I believe it still need 60 votes to pass filibusters, and Manchin is against that reform. At the same time, everyone know that the republican only wait for the democrat to make the first step, as excuse to remove the filibuster when they get majority, if they don't have the excuse, chances are, they will not attempt it.

If every Republican walked out the fillibuster would not apply. They could pass it with 50 votes.

republican walking out... to let democrat pass a law.
I believe that will not happen.

[Uiiop]

If every Republican walked out the fillibuster would not apply. They could pass it with 50 votes.

republican walking out... to let democrat pass a law.
I believe that will not happen.

At least it basically being prep for a coup.

[Kowani]

Biden administration weakens proposed health & safety rules for public housing

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has backed away from new health and safety requirements for public housing that would require fire extinguishers, a minimum number of electrical outlets and other measures intended to protect residents from serious and potentially life-threatening hazards, according to the latest draft of the new standards.

Housing industry groups had urged HUD to ease some of these requirements, saying they would be too burdensome for landlords — alarming some tenant advocates who were caught off guard by the recent changes.

“It was surprising because we thought they were moving in a positive direction in a lot of ways. So it was disappointing that there was a retrenchment,” said Michael Kane, executive director of the National Alliance of HUD Tenants, an advocacy group. “The stronger version is important for people's health and safety.” The standards are part of a sweeping, yearslong overhaul that aims to strengthen HUD’s inspection system for federally subsidized housing, including traditional public housing, Section 8 rentals and homes for older people with low incomes.

Under the new inspection system, which is still under development, the agency has significantly expanded the number of severe hazards that landlords must fix quickly, put more emphasis on the condition of residential units than building exteriors and added a slew of new safety and health requirements that tenant advocates have broadly supported. Since last year, however, HUD has also eliminated or relaxed some stricter proposed inspection standards in a number of key areas, according to NBC News’ analysis of the draft proposals.

Originally, HUD proposed requiring at least one fire extinguisher per floor, according to the first draft of the standards released in July 2020, calling it a “life-threatening issue.” The agency has since eliminated the requirement and will only consider fire extinguishers to be missing if there is “evidence of prior installation,” such as a bracket on the wall, according to the latest draft of the standards, released in April.

HUD similarly removed a proposed requirement for a minimum number of working electrical outlets in bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens and bathrooms that was included in the initial draft. A minimum outlet standard is required by many cities and states as part of their building codes to reduce the risk of electrical fires from overloaded outlets, and to minimize the use of extension cords.

The agency also loosened requirements for fans and windows in bathrooms — critical to preventing mold — and ground fault circuit interrupters for outlets near water, which are proven to reduce the risk of electrocution but are not always required by local authorities in older housing. HUD’s proposed rules now allow for “alternate means of dehumidification” for bathrooms and “outlet protection methods that include, but are not limited to” GFCI protection. (It’s not clear what other protection methods the HUD rule refers to.)

HUD denied weakening protections for residents and said providing safe and sanitary housing is a top priority for the Biden administration.

The initial draft standard for fire extinguishers had been misinterpreted, so HUD clarified it in the following version, the agency said. Other standards were modified after officials determined that the originally proposed changes would require additional rule-making to be implemented. The agency stressed that the new system is still under development.

“HUD will continue to make updates to the standards as necessary before their final publication,” Ashley Sheriff, an acting deputy assistant secretary for HUD's Real Estate Assessment Center, said in a statement. She added the agency would be guided by input from thousands of demonstration inspections as well as “substantial additional dialogue with residents, property owners and agents, public housing agencies and other stakeholders.”

But as they currently stand, some of HUD’s proposed requirements fall short of the minimum standards for residential housing set by the International Code Council and the National Fire Protection Association, which develop public safety codes that many state and local governments have adopted. [...] Still, both tenant advocates and housing providers have been broadly supportive of the overhaul, which began under the Trump administration and is considered long overdue. HUD relies on inspection standards and protocols that were created decades ago, using a system dating back to the 1970s for Section 8 housing and a system from the 1990s for public housing. For years, the federal inspection system has been under heavy scrutiny as low-income HUD residents have experienced toxic mold, infestations, crumbling ceilings, broken heaters and deadly exposure to fire and carbon monoxide, among other hazards. After a 2019 fire in Minnesota killed five public housing residents, state authorities blamed a lack of sprinklers and fire doors that failed to close properly, among other factors, advising that fire doors never be propped open. The draft HUD standards require fire doors to be undamaged and functional, under changes that are stronger than the current requirements, but do not prohibit them from being propped open — something that the agency told NBC News it would clarify in the next version of the standards.

The goal of the HUD inspection overhaul is to rewrite the rules to prioritize “the health and safety of residents,” rather than the physical appearance of otherwise safe items that have been disproportionately emphasized during inspections, such as cosmetic damage to the outside of buildings, the department said. The Trump administration released the first draft of the new standards last year and solicited feedback from the public. The inspection overhaul has continued under the Biden administration, led by HUD’s Real Estate Assessment Center.

[Shrillland]

Somebody's probably covered all this already, but some things the Texas bill does to education:

Teachers can only teach that slavery and racism are "deviations from, betrayals of, or failures to live up to the authentic founding principals of the United States" ^[1]

And a hefty list of cuts to the social studies curriculum:

-the history of Native Americans

-writings of George Washington, Ona Judge, Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, and "any other founding persons of the United States"

-Essays 10 and 51 of the Federalist Papers

-excerpts from Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America

-writings from Frederick Douglass's newspaper, the North Star

-the Book of Negroes

-the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850

-the Indian Removal Act

-Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists

-William Still's Underground Railroad Records

-"historical documents related to the civic accomplishments of marginalized populations, including documents related to:
A. the Chicano movement
B. women's suffrage and equal rights
C. the civil rights movement
D. the Snyder Act of 1924
E. the American labor movement"

-the history of white supremacy, including but not limited to the institution of slavery, the eugenics movement, and the Ku Klux Klan, and the ways in which it is morally wrong

-the civil rights movement including the following documents:
A. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" and "I Have a Dream" speech
B. the United States Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education
C. the Emancipation Proclamation
D. the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
E. the Fifteenth Amendment
F. the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decision in Mendez v. Westminster
G. Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
H. the life and work of Cesar Chavez
I. the life and work of Dolores Huerta

-the history and importance of the women's suffrage movement, including the following documents:
A. the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965
B. the Fifteenth and Twenty-Sixth Amendments
C. Abigail Adams' letter "Remember the Ladies"
D. the works of Susan B. Anthony
E. the Declaration of Sentiments

-the life and works of Dr. Hector P. Garcia

-the American GI Forum

-the League of United Latin American Citizens

-Hernandez v. Texas (1954)

[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

This is a disturbingly disgusting rewriting of U.S. history, and supposedly leftists are the ones trying to rewrite history? Sorry if you feel ashamed of America's shitty past and the knowledge that America has never been a good country, but that's literally our history and we have to live with it. We can't just sweep it under a rug.

Oh, dear God.....then what's left of American history to teach?...living in the US' end times is fun!

[Paluztinia]

What is history but a story of wars?

[Kilobugya]

What is history but a story of wars?

A story of class struggle ? Which can be seen as another form of war, sure.

[Salus Maior]

What is history but a story of wars?

A story of class struggle ? Which can be seen as another form of war, sure.

It’s not really either.

[Myrensis]

Somebody's probably covered all this already, but some things the Texas bill does to education:

Teachers can only teach that slavery and racism are "deviations from, betrayals of, or failures to live up to the authentic founding principals of the United States" ^[1]

And a hefty list of cuts to the social studies curriculum:

-the history of Native Americans

-writings of George Washington, Ona Judge, Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, and "any other founding persons of the United States"

-Essays 10 and 51 of the Federalist Papers

-excerpts from Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America

-writings from Frederick Douglass's newspaper, the North Star

-the Book of Negroes

-the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850

-the Indian Removal Act

-Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists

-William Still's Underground Railroad Records

-"historical documents related to the civic accomplishments of marginalized populations, including documents related to:
A. the Chicano movement
B. women's suffrage and equal rights
C. the civil rights movement
D. the Snyder Act of 1924
E. the American labor movement"

-the history of white supremacy, including but not limited to the institution of slavery, the eugenics movement, and the Ku Klux Klan, and the ways in which it is morally wrong

-the civil rights movement including the following documents:
A. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" and "I Have a Dream" speech
B. the United States Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education
C. the Emancipation Proclamation
D. the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
E. the Fifteenth Amendment
F. the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decision in Mendez v. Westminster
G. Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
H. the life and work of Cesar Chavez
I. the life and work of Dolores Huerta

-the history and importance of the women's suffrage movement, including the following documents:
A. the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965
B. the Fifteenth and Twenty-Sixth Amendments
C. Abigail Adams' letter "Remember the Ladies"
D. the works of Susan B. Anthony
E. the Declaration of Sentiments

-the life and works of Dr. Hector P. Garcia

-the American GI Forum

-the League of United Latin American Citizens

-Hernandez v. Texas (1954)

[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

This is a disturbingly disgusting rewriting of U.S. history, and supposedly leftists are the ones trying to rewrite history? Sorry if you feel ashamed of America's shitty past and the knowledge that America has never been a good country, but that's literally our history and we have to live with it. We can't just sweep it under a rug.

My conspiracy theory is that this is all a ruse designed to bring Democrats back so that they can pass the voter restriction bill and/or arrest Democrats. I refuse to believe that this bill is intended to become law.

No, this bill only passed through the committee, they can't actually pass it into law without the Democrats present, just like the voter suppression stuff.

There's no ruse, the Republican view of "true" American history really is just "No non-whites have ever contributed anything to America, nor have they ever had any problems, because Jesus created America for white people to teach the world about freedom and liberty and it has never done any wrong ever, and anyone who says otherwise is a reverse-racist traitor."

[San Lumen]

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watc ... sm-without

Missouri lawmakers hold hearing on teaching about racism without testimony from Black parents, teachers or scholars

[Ifreann]

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/564083-missouri-lawmakers-hold-hearing-on-teaching-about-racism-without

Missouri lawmakers hold hearing on teaching about racism without testimony from Black parents, teachers or scholars

Of course, they're only interested in what white racists think.