Evelyn Reynolds

More stories

  • 163 Shares45 Views

    in US Politics

    Republicans are scrambling to reclaim affordability. Good luck with that | Judith Levine

    Try as they might to present Zohran Mamdani as the exemplar of their opponents’ radical-left lunacy, the platform the New York mayor-elect and other Democrats won on was affordability – the same platform on which Trump ran, and has spectacularly failed to deliver.So in their panic, Republicans are scrambling to reclaim affordability.They have only two problems: their policies and their president.On 4 November, as soon as election results were in, the entrepreneur and erstwhile presidential wannabe Vivek Ramaswamy posted a video on the lessons the party should learn. “Our side needs to focus on affordability. Make the American dream affordable,” he said. “Bring down costs. Electric costs, grocery costs, healthcare costs, and housing costs. And lay out how we’re gonna do it.”The next morning, JD Vance, the vice-president, weighed in, bucking up the losers in the administration’s usual fashion: denying reality and making excuses. “The president has done a lot that has already paid off in lower interest rates and lower inflation, but we inherited a disaster from Joe Biden and Rome wasn’t built in a day. We’re going to keep on working to make a decent life affordable in this country.”Other Republicans agreed on the political challenges the party faces, but were more honest about what it is, or is not, doing about affordability. During the shutdown, Marjorie Taylor Greene, a US representative from Georgia, railed against her colleagues for abandoning their constituents. In an interview on Real America’s Voice, she both denounced the Affordable Care Act and suggested that with no alternative in place, the GOP should not allow a lapse in the tax credits on health insurance premiums purchased through the ACA marketplace, which were enhanced during the pandemic.If “regular innocent Americans’ health insurance premiums double, they’re not gonna be able to pay their rent”, Greene said. “Food prices have gone up this year,” an economic slowdown looms, “and I pray to God not a recession”. She continued: “So this is extremely serious. And here’s where I’m upset: Republicans are doing nothing.”Nothing is what they intend to keep doing. In return for eight Democrats’ votes to end the shutdown, the Republican majority leader, John Thune, discussed taking up the healthcare question by mid-December – a week before Congress’s winter recess, which ends on 1 January, the day the credits lapse. In other words, they will lapse, and 24.3 million ACA enrollees, three-quarters of whom live in red states, will see their premiums soar.In fact, the party is doing worse than nothing. Ramaswamy wants it to show how it will bring down electric, grocery, housing and healthcare costs. How’s that going?Electric costs: the low-income home energy assistance program (Liheap), which subsidizes the utility bills of low-income households, escaped the president’s axe. But the appropriation has always been drastically inadequate, and this year’s is still up in the air. Also, the program’s entire staff was fired in 2025’s purge of health and human services, so it could take weeks to restore subsidies now, just as winter approaches.Grocery costs: Trump’s tariffs are ballooning the prices of everything from rice to Halloween candy. Agricultural labor shortages exacerbated by mass deportation have boosted fruit and vegetable prices 15%this year, according to the agriculture analysis company Farmonaut.Housing costs: proposed new rules at the Department of Housing and Urban Development threaten the rental assistance of 4 million low-income Americans, according to ProPublica. Meanwhile, potential funding cuts to a permanent housing program could drastically increase homelessness.Healthcare costs: oh wait, didn’t the government just shut its doors for 42 days because the GOP refused to extend the tax credits that make healthcare affordable for millions?Besides policy, the Republicans’ other problem is their president. Before this month’s election, he was ranting nonstop on Truth Social about the cost of living.“VOTE REPUBLICAN for massive Energy Cost reductions, large scale Tax Cuts, and basic Common Sense! Under President Trump, ME, Gasoline will come down to approximately $2 a Gallon, very soon!” he posted on 2 November. “VOTE REPUBLICAN FOR A GREAT AND VERY AFFORDABLE LIFE.”He spent the day after the vote celebrating the anniversary of his election and the prosperity he’s creating: “Our Economy is BOOMING, and Costs are coming way down. Affordability is our goal. Love to the American People!”But he’s evidently vexed. First he claimed that Republicans were not talking enough about affordability. Then he called it a Democratic “con job”. Then he flew into a snit: “I don’t want to hear about the affordability.” At a news conference with Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister, after a contretemps with reporters over the cost of living, he pulled out the all-purpose culprit: “The reason I don’t want to talk about affordability is because everybody knows it is far less expensive under Trump than it was under sleepy Joe Biden,” he said, falsely.While alleging there is no affordability crisis, the president tosses out dumb ideas to address it: a $2,000 tariff dividend to everybody except “high-income people”; 50-year mortgages; direct payments to people to buy health services, instead of the “bad healthcare provided by Obamacare”. The treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, has been left to play down some proposals, telling ABC on Sunday that “we don’t have a formal proposal” on the healthcare payments and that the tariff dividend “could come in lots of forms” and “could be just the tax decreases that we are seeing on the president’s agenda”.The optics look bad. To force the Democrats to surrender on the ACA, the Trump administration moved to halt benefits to the 42 million recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), or food stamps; officials later allowed they would release half-payments. While food pantries stocked their shelves for the coming crisis, the president ate truffle dauphinoise and pan-seared scallops at a Great Gatsby-themed Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago and posted photos of the renovated marble-clad Lincoln bathroom.And even as the shutdown appeared to be ending, the administration was asking the supreme court to stay a lower court’s order to distribute full Snap benefits immediately. Trump’s implicit message to the hungry and the sick – which might be summarized as “I’m starving you because the Democrats won’t let us take your healthcare away” – did not play well.Fortunately, the GOP has its gentle House speaker, Mike Johnson, to communicate from the party’s heart: “Any hardworking American in any place who has missed a paycheck; anyone who has been made to suffer because [of interruptions in] the health services you rely upon, or the food and nutrition supplement for your family,” he cooed into the cameras last week. “Anyone who is hurting: you have a home in the Republican party.”Come home, America! The Republicans will give you a cardboard box to sleep in and a nice hot bowl of gruel.

    Judith Levine is a Brooklyn-based journalist, essayist and author of five books. Her Substack is Today in Fascism More

  • 200 Shares45 Views

    in US Politics

    Lies, damned lies and AI: the newest way to influence elections may be here to stay

    The New York City mayoral election may be remembered for the remarkable win of a young democratic socialist, but it was also marked by something that is likely to permeate future elections: the use of AI-generated campaign videos.Andrew Cuomo, who lost to Zohran Mamdani in last week’s election, took particular interest in sharing deepfake videos of his opponent, including one that sparked accusations of racism, in what is a developing area of electioneering.AI has been used by campaigns before, particularly in using algorithms to target certain voters, and even, in some cases, to write policy proposals. But as AI software develops, it is increasingly being used to produce sometimes misleading photos and videos.“I think what’s really broken through in this election cycle has been the use of generative AI to produce content that goes directly to voters,” said Alex Bores, a New York state representative who has been at the forefront of introducing laws to regulate the use of AI.“So whether that was the Cuomo campaign that used ChatGPT to generate its housing plan, or Cuomo and many others making AI-generated video ads for voters, that is, I think, felt very new in the 2025 cycle, or certainly, just much further than we’ve ever seen before.”Eric Adams, the incumbent mayor who dropped out of the race in September, used AI to create robocalls to New Yorkers featuring him speaking in Mandarin, Urdu and Yiddish, and also produced an AI video showing New York as an apparently war-torn dystopia to attack Mamdani.Cuomo, meanwhile, was accused of racism and Islamophobia after his campaign tweeted a video that showed a fictionalized version of Mamdani eating rice with his fingers and a Black man shoplifting. The advert also featured a Black man, wearing a purple shirt and tie and a fur coat and carrying a silver cane, appearing to endorse sex trafficking. The Cuomo campaign later deleted it and said it had been sent out by accident.Bores, who is running to represent New York in the House of Representatives, said many of the AI-generated ads in the last election cycle were “more likely” to “veer into what might be perceived as bigoted territory”.“I think that’s another thing that we need to track: is this either because the algorithms are playing up stereotypes that are in their training data, or [is it] because it’s so easy to manipulate. You don’t have to tell an actor of a certain race to do a certain thing, you just change it in the computer,” Bores said.“You don’t have to say to someone’s face to portray themselves in a certain way. Does that make it easier for people to put out content that, you know, really, I think polite society should be frowning upon.”In New York state, campaigns are supposed to label AI ads as such, but some – including the ad Cuomo posted and deleted – did not. The New York board of elections is in charge of potentially pressing charges against campaigns, but Bores noted that campaigns might be willing to bite the bullet on any punishment, particularly if any punishment comes after a campaign has finished.“I think you’re always going to find campaigns that are willing to take that trade-off. If they win and then they pay a fine afterwards, they’re not going to care, and if they lose, it doesn’t matter,” Bores said. “So you want to try to find an enforcement regime that can take things down quickly before an election, as opposed to just punish afterwards.”Robert Weissman, co-president of the non-profit advocacy group Public Citizen, which has been involved in passing many AI laws around the US, said that trying to fool people is now illegal in more than half the states, with campaigns required to post disclaimers on generative AI ads saying they are not real. Still, he said, regulating AI use in campaigns is a pressing issue.“Lies have been part of politics since time immemorial. This is different than lies, and it’s different than saying your opponent said something that they didn’t say,” Weissman said.“When someone is shown an apparently authentic version of a person saying something, it is very hard for that person to then contradict it and say ‘I never said that’ because you’re asking people to disbelieve what they saw with their own eyes.”While AI is now capable of generating believable videos, some campaigns haven’t quite nailed it. A “Zohran Halloween special” video posted by Cuomo – this ad did state it was AI-generated – showed an extremely sloppy rendition of Mamdani, complete with out-of-sync audio and an incomprehensible script.With the midterm elections approaching and the 2028 presidential election looming, AI-generated political videos are likely to stick around.They’ve already been used at the national level. Elon Musk shared an AI-generated video of Kamala Harris in July 2024, after she became the de facto Democratic nominee for president. That video depicted Harris claiming she was the “ultimate diversity hire” and saying she doesn’t “know the first thing about running the country”.While states may be making progress on regulating the use of AI in elections, there seems to be little appetite to do so at the federal level.During the No Kings protests in October, Donald Trump shared an AI video that showed him flying a fighter jet and dropping brown fluid on Americans, just the latest of his AI video posts.With Trump apparently approving of the medium, it seems unlikely that Republicans will attempt to rein in AI anytime soon. More

  • 138 Shares45 Views

    in US Politics

    ‘MigraWatch’ trainings to ‘Whistlemania’ events: Chicagoans fight back against ICE raids

    Anaís Robles didn’t expect to get teargassed. The co-owner of Colibrí Cafe, the coffee shop that opened this year in Chicago’s East Side neighborhood, saw commotion outside in mid-October and ran to see what happened.Robles saw federal agents donning masks and decided to step back, she was half a block away when the teargas canisters hit. “People were just in the streets, so to clear out the area, they teargas all of us, and like, multiple teargas [canisters],” she said.Robles recalled the burning sensation as she walked back to the coffee shop with her eyes closed.ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents have been raiding almost every part of Chicago in the Trump administration’s wide-ranging “Operation Midway Blitz”, which started on 9 September 2025. The National Center for Immigrant Justice and Illinois Coalition on Immigrant and Refugee Rights estimated that since the start of the operation, about 1,300 people had been illegally detained, and that violations of a court order to stop warrantless arrests were ongoing. Mayor Brandon Johnson even called this week for the United Nations to investigate the force being used on city streets.But Chicagoans are also fighting back.View image in fullscreenThey are organizing to protect life in a city that in so many ways is defined by the many waves of immigration from eastern European to Latin American, with Mexican-born immigrants making up nearly 40% of all foreign-born immigrants in the city. And with entire communities now on edge, and vibrant streets filled with immigrant-owned businesses have turned into ghost towns, many residents have dedicated countless hours and funds to keeping the city intact.Donald Trump has long targeted the Democrat-led city for its crime rate, calling it the murder capital of the world, on social media, even though the city experienced its lowest murder rate since 1962 this summer.His feud goes as far back as 2016, when he had to withdraw from hosting a rally citing “security concerns”, as fights broke out between counter-protesters and attenders. Or as far back as 2014, when the then mayor, Rahm Emanuel, called Trump Tower’s embellishment with the future president’s last name, “tasteless”.Since Trump’s first term, residents have been organizing against his impact on the city. But those efforts have ramped up in response to “Operation Midway Blitz”. Residents have hosted ICE Watch trainings, accompanied students for safety, passed out whistles to neighbors to blow when ICE is spotted, and by donating money to those most affected by the raids.View image in fullscreenDiego Morales, a volunteer with Puño, or Pilsen Unidos por Nuestro Orgullo said their MigraWatch trainings have consistently reached capacity. Morales has trained more than 2,000 people in how to spot ICE as well as what rights people have that could keep them safe or quickly release them from detention. He has done this since 2016, when Trump first got elected.“Ideally, we want to reach, like, a critical mass of trained people in the city of Chicago, so that you know everybody going about their day – whether they’re [a] bus driver, whether there’s somebody walking down the street going to a book shop, whether they’re a student coming in and out of school – has these sorts of tools and is connected to the network in some way and can activate,” he said.Meanwhile, a local West Side group, Belmont Cragin United, has been hosting what has been dubbed “Whistlemania” events, where volunteers gather at a local restaurant to pack whistles, community resource guides, and zines on how to gather a crowd of people when ICE is nearby. Hundreds of people attended these events at locations all over the city’s West Side and packed more than 17,000 kits, according to Block Club Chicago.“We’re showing them in deeds and actions that we care about them, that the city of Chicago and our neighbors care about these individuals, even if the federal government doesn’t,” Alonso Zaragoza told Block Club Chicago, a Chicago-based non-profit media outlet.View image in fullscreenMorgan Martinez, the owner of Solar Intentions, an astrology-themed local sober gathering space in the city’s Edgewater neighborhood, has been active in efforts to educate residents about ICE.“We’ve been able to become part of local rapid response teams that are entirely community driven: from community patrolling at local businesses and schools to organizing mutual aid, local community organizers are informative, dedicated to protecting our neighbors at all costs,” said Martinez.Solar Intentions also held a fundraiser for another local business called Edgewater Tacos, which has been struggling since the ICE raids started in September. Martinez said she was inspired to fundraise when she heard that Edgewater Tacos had to close for an entire weekend; locals suggested donations to make up for lost revenue. That fundraiser raised thousands for the neighborhood business.In the city’s Little Village neighborhood, the Street Vendors Association of Chicago is making sure that the vendors who sell mango with chamoy, paletas, Mexican corn and other snacks are able to stay afloat without the fear of going out to potentially be detained by ICE, by fundraising on their behalf. One of the first people detained in Operation Midway Blitz was a flower vendor on the city’s Southwest Side.“The vendors are small businesses, and you went from seeing 20 vendors to seeing two vendors out there. And sometimes it’s not even the actual vendors, but it’s their kids that are vending for them out of fear,” said Maria Orozco, a development coordinator at SVAC.Orozco, whose own parents are street vendors, said the organization raised over $230,000 for street vendors. Despite working long hours and fighting exhaustion, she and her colleagues will continue to do so to ensure street vendors can access aid.Martinez for her part will be doing the same.“This administration wants us to feel defeated and fatigued from the violence against our local communities, and it may tempt us towards numbness. But the real truth is that when we are present in our bodies, we’re present with each other, which allows to stand up for our communities,” she said. More

  • 200 Shares30 Views

    in US Politics

    Ultra-rich media owners are tightening their grip on democracy. It’s time to wrest our power back

    The richest man on earth owns X.The family of the second-richest man owns Paramount, which owns CBS, and could soon own Warner Bros, which owns CNN.The third-richest man owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.The fourth-richest man owns the Washington Post and Amazon MGM Studios.Another billionaire owns Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.Why are the ultra-rich buying up so much of the media? Vanity may play a part, but there’s a more pragmatic – some might say sinister – reason.If you’re a multibillionaire, you might view democracy as a potential threat to your net worth. Control over a significant share of the dwindling number of media outlets would enable you to effectively hedge against democracy by suppressing criticism of you and other plutocrats, and discouraging any attempt to – for example – tax away your wealth.You also have Donald Trump to contend with. In his second term of office, Trump has brazenly and illegally used the power of the presidency to punish his enemies and reward those who lavish him with praise and profits.So perhaps it shouldn’t have been surprising that the editorial board of the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post defended the razing of the East Wing of the White House to build Trump his giant ballroom – without disclosing that Jeff Bezos-owned Amazon is a major corporate contributor to the ballroom’s funding. The Post’s editorial board also applauded Trump’s defense department’s decision to obtain a new generation of smaller nuclear reactors, but failed to mention Amazon’s stake in X-energy, a company that’s developing small nuclear reactors. And it criticized Washington DC’s refusal to accept self-driving cars without disclosing that Amazon’s self-driving car company was trying to get into the Washington DC market.These breaches are inexcusable.It’s much the same with the family of Larry Ellison, founder of the software firm Oracle and the second-richest person in the world. Ellison is a longtime Trump donor who also, according to court records, participated in a phone call to discuss how his 2020 election defeat could be contested.In June 2025, Ellison and Oracle were co-sponsors of Trump’s military parade in Washington. At the time, Larry and his son David, founder of Skydance Media, were waiting for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to approve their $8bn merger with Paramount Global, owner of CBS News.In the run-up to the sale, some top brass at CBS News and its flagship 60 Minutes resigned, citing concerns over the network’s ability to maintain its editorial independence, and revealing pressure by Paramount to tamp down stories critical of Trump. No matter. Too much money was at stake.In July, Paramount paid $16m to settle Trump’s frivolous lawsuit against CBS and canceled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, much to Trump’s delight. Three weeks after the settlement was announced, Trump loyalist Brendan Carr, chair of the FCC, approved the Ellisons’ deal, making David chief executive of the new media giant Paramount Skydance and giving him control of CBS News.In October, David made the anti-“woke” opinion journalist Bari Weiss the CBS News editor-in-chief, despite her lack of experience in either broadcasting or news. Earlier this month, it was revealed that CBS News heavily edited Trump’s latest 60 Minutes interview, cutting his boast that the network “paid me a lotta money”.I’m old enough to remember when CBS News would never have surrendered to a demagogic president. But that was when CBS News – the home of Edward R Murrow and Walter Cronkite – was independent of the rest of CBS, and when the top management of CBS had independent responsibilities to the American public.It is impossible to know the full extent to which criticism of Trump and his administration has been chilled by the media-owning billionaires, or what fawning coverage has been elicited.But what we do know is that billionaire media owners like Musk, Bezos, Ellison and Murdoch are businessmen first and foremost. Their highest goal is not to inform the public but to make money. They know Trump can wreak havoc on their businesses by imposing unfriendly FCC rulings, enforcing labor laws against them or denying them lucrative government contracts.And in an era when wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few individuals who have bought up key media, with a thin-skinned president who is willing and able to violate laws and norms to punish or reward, there is a growing danger that the public will not be getting the truth it needs to function in this democracy.What to do about this?At the least, media outlets should inform their readers about any and all potential conflicts of interest, and media watchdogs and professional associations should ensure they do.A second suggestion (if and when the US has a saner government) is that anti-monopoly authorities not approve the purchase of a major media outlet by someone with extensive businesses that could pose conflicts of interest.Acquisition of a media company should be treated differently than the acquisition of, say, a company developing self-driving cars or one developing small nuclear reactors, because of the media’s central role in our democracy.A third suggestion is to read and support media such as the Guardian, which is not beholden to a wealthy owner or powerful advertiser and does not compromise its integrity to curry favor with the powerful.To the contrary, the Guardian aims to do what every great source of news and views should be doing, especially in these dark times: illuminate, enlighten and elucidate. This is why I avidly read each day’s edition and why I write a column for it.As the Washington Post’s slogan still says, democracy dies in darkness. Today, darkness is closing in because a demagogue sits in the Oval Office and so much of the US’s wealth and media ownership is concentrated in the hands of a few people easily manipulated by that demagogue.We must fight to get our democracy back. Supporting the Guardian is one good place to begin.You can support the Guardian’s year-end appeal here. All gifts are gratefully received, but a recurring contribution – even a small monthly amount – is most impactful, helping sustain our work throughout the year ahead. It takes just 37 seconds to give. Thank you. More

  • 213 Shares42 Views

    in US Politics

    US government reopens after shutdown with House to vote on Epstein files next week – politics live

    Mike Johnson, the US House speaker, said on Wednesday he would put the bill compelling the release of government files related to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on the House floor next week.“We are gonna put that on the floor for [a] full vote next week, [as] soon as we get back,” Johnson told reporters, as the chamber gathered to debate legislation to reopen the government.Johnson, who opposes the bill, made the announcement just hours after swearing in Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva, who took her oath of office seven weeks after she won a late September special election to succeed her father, the longtime representative Raúl Grijalva, who died in March.Grijalva’s swearing-in cleared the path for the vote to release the Epstein files, as she became the 218th and final signature on a discharge petition that automatically triggers a House floor vote on legislation demanding the justice department release the files. In her floor remarks on Wednesday, Grijalva said:
    Justice cannot wait another day. Adelante.
    Under the rules governing discharge petitions, Johnson would not have been mandated to require a vote until early December, so his announcement that the vote would take place next week is earlier than expected.Even if the bill passes the House, it still needs to get through the Senate and be signed by Trump. Senate leaders have shown no indication they will bring it up for a vote, and Trump has decried the effort as a “Democrat hoax”.More on this story in a moment, but first here are some other key developments in US politics:

    A tranche of documents released by the House oversight committee on Wednesday revealed that Jeffrey Epstein’s staff kept him apprised of Donald Trump’s air travel as it related to his own transportation – and that the late sex trafficker kept up with news about his former friend years after their relationship soured. This disclosure of about 20,000 pages from Republican members of the committee related to Epstein comes as Trump continues to battle with the political fallout related to their past friendship – and his justice department’s failure to release documents as he had long promised on the campaign trail.

    The US House of Representatives voted to pass the funding bill to end the longest government shutdown in US history. Trump signed the bill into law on Wednesday night. The legislation comes in the wake of a Senate-brokered compromise in which a handful of Democrats voted to forego the extension of expiring healthcare subsidies, which have been at the heart of the long impasse.

    Trump has said he feels he has “an obligation” to sue the BBC over its editing of one of his speeches, as a deadline looms for the corporation to respond to his billion-dollar legal threat. The US president accused the broadcaster of having “defrauded the public” with an edition of Panorama last year that spliced together two parts of a speech he made on 6 January 2021 and has given it until Friday to respond.

    Trump has repeated a request to Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, for a pardon for Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on trial in three separate corruption cases. The Israeli prime minister has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the ongoing court cases. No rulings have been delivered, and his supporters have dismissed the trials as politically motivated.
    After 42-day standoff, government is back open – and the minority party won no concessions from the party in power, writes Guardian US’ senior politics reporter Chris Stein in this analysis piece:The US House of Representatives voted to pass the funding bill to end the longest government shutdown in US history. You can see how lawmakers voted via this interactive:The longest US government shutdown in history ended on Wednesday after more than 42 days, following the House of Representative’s passage of a bill negotiated by Republicans and a splinter group of Democrat-aligned senators. The legislation restarts federal operations but does not include the healthcare funding the minority party demanded.You can watch the Guardian’s video report on it here:The longest US government shutdown in history ended on Wednesday after more than 42 days, following the House of Representative’s passage of a bill negotiated by Republicans and a splinter group of Democrat-aligned senators.The compromise sets the stage for government operations to return to normal through January, while leaving unresolved the issue of expiring tax credits for Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare health plans, which most Democrats demanded be extended in any deal to reopen the government.After it was unveiled over the weekend, the Senate approved the compromise on Monday, and the House followed suit two days later by a margin of 222 in favor and 209 against, with two not voting. Donald Trump signed the bill on Wednesday night, saying “we’re sending a clear message that we will never give in to extortion, because that’s what it was … the Democrats tried to extort our country”.Six Democrats broke with their party to vote for the bill: Adam Gray of California, Tom Suozzi of New York, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, Don Davis of North Carolina, Henry Cuellar of Texas and Jared Golden of Maine. Two Republicans, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Greg Steube of Florida, voted against it.House Republican leadership said in a statement:
    The Democrat shutdown is finally over thanks to House and Senate Republicans.
    There is absolutely no question now that Democrats are responsible for millions of American families going hungry, millions of travelers left stranded in airports, and our troops left wondering if they would receive their next paycheck.
    In remarks on the House floor shortly before the vote, the Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries had pledged to continue to press for the subsidies’ extensions.He said:
    This fight is not over. We’re just getting started.
    Either Republicans finally decide to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits this year, or the American people will throw Republicans out of their jobs next year and end the speakership of Donald J Trump once and for all. That’s how this fight ends.
    The spending standoff was the biggest battle between congressional Democrats and Republicans since Trump returned to the White House earlier this year. It resulted in unprecedented disruptions to government services, with the Trump administration ordering cuts to commercial air travel across the country, and the first-ever halt to the largest federal food aid program.Mike Johnson, the US House speaker, said on Wednesday he would put the bill compelling the release of government files related to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on the House floor next week.“We are gonna put that on the floor for [a] full vote next week, [as] soon as we get back,” Johnson told reporters, as the chamber gathered to debate legislation to reopen the government.Johnson, who opposes the bill, made the announcement just hours after swearing in Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva, who took her oath of office seven weeks after she won a late September special election to succeed her father, the longtime representative Raúl Grijalva, who died in March.Grijalva’s swearing-in cleared the path for the vote to release the Epstein files, as she became the 218th and final signature on a discharge petition that automatically triggers a House floor vote on legislation demanding the justice department release the files. In her floor remarks on Wednesday, Grijalva said:
    Justice cannot wait another day. Adelante.
    Under the rules governing discharge petitions, Johnson would not have been mandated to require a vote until early December, so his announcement that the vote would take place next week is earlier than expected.Even if the bill passes the House, it still needs to get through the Senate and be signed by Trump. Senate leaders have shown no indication they will bring it up for a vote, and Trump has decried the effort as a “Democrat hoax”.More on this story in a moment, but first here are some other key developments in US politics:

    A tranche of documents released by the House oversight committee on Wednesday revealed that Jeffrey Epstein’s staff kept him apprised of Donald Trump’s air travel as it related to his own transportation – and that the late sex trafficker kept up with news about his former friend years after their relationship soured. This disclosure of about 20,000 pages from Republican members of the committee related to Epstein comes as Trump continues to battle with the political fallout related to their past friendship – and his justice department’s failure to release documents as he had long promised on the campaign trail.

    The US House of Representatives voted to pass the funding bill to end the longest government shutdown in US history. Trump signed the bill into law on Wednesday night. The legislation comes in the wake of a Senate-brokered compromise in which a handful of Democrats voted to forego the extension of expiring healthcare subsidies, which have been at the heart of the long impasse.

    Trump has said he feels he has “an obligation” to sue the BBC over its editing of one of his speeches, as a deadline looms for the corporation to respond to his billion-dollar legal threat. The US president accused the broadcaster of having “defrauded the public” with an edition of Panorama last year that spliced together two parts of a speech he made on 6 January 2021 and has given it until Friday to respond.

    Trump has repeated a request to Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, for a pardon for Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on trial in three separate corruption cases. The Israeli prime minister has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the ongoing court cases. No rulings have been delivered, and his supporters have dismissed the trials as politically motivated. More

  • 125 Shares42 Views

    in US Politics

    Newly released emails reveal Epstein kept close eye on Trump

    A tranche of documents released by the House oversight committee on Wednesday revealed that Jeffrey Epstein’s staff kept him apprised of Donald Trump’s air travel as it related to his own transportation – and that the late sex trafficker kept up with news about his former friend years after their relationship soured.This disclosure of about 20,000 pages from Republican members of the committee related to Epstein comes as Trump continues to battle with the political fallout related to their past friendship – and his justice department’s failure to release documents as he had long promised on the campaign trail.Most of the discussions reviewed by the Guardian surrounding Trump’s location appeared to relate to flight logistics, as he and Epstein often used the same airports.On 25 November 2016, just weeks after Trump won the presidential election, Epstein’s pilot, Larry Visoski, wrote: “Trump is still scheduled to depart Sunday between 4 and 6 pm,, Let me know if we are firm for wheels up Saturday at 6pm still?” Epstein replied: “will let you know tomorrow morning.”But other emails tracked Trump’s movements more generally. Epstein received a heads-up on 2 December 2017: “Trump in our neighborhood today. Looks like he is going to 740 Park for a fundraiser.” The sender’s name was redacted in the email release, but it was signed by Richard Kahn, Epstein’s accountant.One visitor waiting outside Epstein’s home made a joke about Trump while waiting to get inside. “[I’m] at the door but i will wait for my time. . i dont want to come early to find trump in your house,” they wrote, adding two smiling emojis. Their name was redacted in the email.The cache of filings also indicates Epstein’s associates forwarded numerous news articles related to Trump, including reports that involved controversies surrounding the president. The news coverage included a January 2019 story on Trump ally Roger Stone’s arrest, and an article on Michael Cohen’s discussions with prosecutors.Email exchanges with friends and associates showed Epstein disparaging Trump. In one December 2018 correspondence, Epstein told former treasury secretary Larry Summers that “trump – borderline insane. dersh, a few feet further from the border but not by much” – apparently referencing his one-time attorney, Alan Dershowitz.Summers asked: “Will trump crack into insanity?”“This is not a new phenomenon for him. in the past he was told not to come out of his apt. thats how he got through near personal bankruptcy. is strength is remarkable. he is pounded 24/7,” Epstein replied. “I hope someone close to him gets indicted, but not sure, otherwise the pressure of the unknown will force him to do crazy things.”In another exchange in March 2018, Landon Thomas Jr, then a reporter at the New York Times, sent Epstein an article from the Daily Beast that mused on whether Trump was close to a “psychiatric breakdown”. Epstein replied: “he feels alone, and is nuts !!! , I told everyone from day one. evil beyond belief mad, and most thought i was speaking metaphorically, its obvious he could crack. stormy daniels. ? lies after lies after lies.”Asked for comment on the emails, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said: “These emails prove literally nothing.” A representative for Summers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Epstein received multiple updates from his pilot about Trump’s movements during the years covered by the release. “Updated President Elect schedule: Trump Plane to arrive Orlando at 5 pm friday for event,, then arrive Palm Beach estimate 10 pm, . He usually runs late, so 11pm could be realistic time for his PBI Arrival,” Visoski wrote in December 2016, also noting that the airport would shut down for 20 minutes before and after Trump’s arrival.“I’ll keep you posted if time changes,” he also said. Visoksi’s emails about Trump’s flights appeared to be in response to Epstein emailing him “wont leave until 8 pm tomorrow.”Visoski had more information on Trump on 30 September 2017. “I hear Pres Trump arrives in St Thomas on Tuesday FYI,” he wrote.In November of that year, Epstein discussed an apparent planned trip to Little St James, an island in the US Virgin Islands where he abused teenage girls.“At the moment we will go to [Little St James] on Sunday the 26th early then to New York where I will stay the week,” Epstein told his pilot, Visoski. “Trump is in town that week.” There is nothing in the email suggesting Epstein planned on meeting with Trump.Visoski responded with Trump’s arrival and departure times and said in a following email that it “shouldn’t be to bad if we are leaving early and Trump is not scheduled to depart until 3pm on Sunday”, adding: “The departure will be similar to a DCA departure with customs.”In another email that month, Visoski wrote: “While Trump is in PBI, TSA only allows arrival and departures between 8am and 5pm for General Aviation.”A few months later, in March 2018, Visoski gave Epstein another update about Trump related to air travel. “Thx 3pm Wednesday to Teterboro confirmed,, Friday Trump arrives in PBI, I’ll confirm time, Thx.”Later that year, in December, in another email, Visoski wrote: “Since Pres Trump didn’t come to PBI yet” – seemingly referring to Palm Beach international airport – “for you departure to Ls3 on Dec 26, should Darren and Dave pick you up in PBI? Or do you prefer Boca for departure, at this time no TSA issue in PBI.”Several months before his arrest on sex-trafficking charges, Epstein provided information to his staff. “President trump is going to be at our neighbors on thurs, so dont be surprised if secret service check in.” The employee responded: “Thank you for the heads up sir.”Trump was not the only high-profile figure whose travels were discussed by Epstein. The documents also show that in September 2012, an assistant of Epstein’s was told to inform Epstein that “Vice-President Joe Biden is in West Palm Beach and is scheduled to depart between 5pm and 6pm today”.“He parks at the Galaxy ramp also in Palm Beach,” the email added. “The airport will be closed between 5pm and 6pm. We’ll need to wheels up at 4pm or 2pm.”The newly released documents were published shortly after House Democrats on the oversight committee released three separate previously unseen email exchanges sent by Epstein in 2011, 2015 and 2019, where the disgraced financier described Trump as the “dog that hasn’t barked” and alleged Trump had “spent hours” at Epstein’s home with one of Epstein’s victims, and claimed that “of course” Trump “knew about the girls”.The release of those email exchanges reignited the Epstein controversy that has plagued Trump for months and has revived public scrutiny of his past ties to Epstein.In a post to his Truth Social platform, Trump accused Democrats of “trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown, and so many other subjects”.In a statement, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said Democrats had “selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump”. She added that the unnamed victim referenced in the emails was the late Virginia Giuffre, whom she said “repeatedly said President Trump was not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever”.“Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club decades ago for being a creep to his female employees, including Giuffre,” Leavitt said, adding: “These stories are nothing more than bad-faith efforts to distract from President Trump’s historic accomplishments, and any American with common sense sees right through this hoax and clear distraction from the government opening back up again.” More

  • 113 Shares40 Views

    in US Politics

    Democrats sift through shutdown’s ashes after resistance finally breached

    More than 42 days ago, beleaguered congressional Democrats employed a tactic they were not known for using – refusing to fund the government unless their demands, in this case, an extension of tax credits that lowered costs for Affordable Care Act health plans, were met.Fast forward to Wednesday evening, and the federal government is back open, the Democrats’ resistance breached by the combined forces of Congress’s Republican majorities and a splinter group of Democratic senators who provided just enough votes to get a funding bill past the chamber’s filibuster.The minority party’s lawmakers are now sifting through the ashes of what wound up being the longest government shutdown in history. Though it was the Republicans whose demands fueled other recent funding lapses, this one ended just like those did: with the minority party winning no concessions from the party in power.And yet, many Democrats are calling it a win anyway, arguing it gave them an opportunity to prove to voters that, despite accusations to the contrary, they are still capable of putting up a fight in Donald Trump’s Washington.“I hope that people in America will see those of us who are willing to stand, and hold the line for them,” said Pennsylvania congresswoman Summer Lee.Nor do they plan to let the issue rest any time soon.“These are choices that are being made,” said Wesley Bell, who may after next year be the only Democratic congressman in Missouri, if the state’s Republican-friendly gerrymander is allowed to stand.“[Republicans] have the majorities in the House, Senate and the presidency, and if they wanted to address the skyrocketing health care costs, they have the ability to do it, and they have a willing partner in Democrats,” he said.The spending standoff was a turnaround from months that the party spent seeing its priorities mauled by the ascendant Republican government, enabled by a conservative-dominated supreme court. The country’s main foreign aid agency was closed, droves of federal workers were fired or urged to resign, the premier federal health program for poor and disabled Americans was downsized and tax cuts directed at businesses and the wealthy were extended forever.Democratic-aligned groups succeeded in getting millions of people to take to the streets in protests nationwide against what they saw as Trump’s executive overreach, but the brutal realities of their poor showing in the 2024 election were unavoidable. Democratic lawmakers had few avenues in Congress to block Trump’s policies, and the supreme court repeatedly turned back legal challenges to his orders.Then Congress was asked to extend the government’s funding authorization beyond the end of September, when it was set to expire, and Democrats saw their chance to issue an ultimatum. The current Affordable Care Act tax credits, which were created under Joe Biden, were to expire at the end of the year, and they wanted them extended. They also wanted the cuts to Medicaid reversed, and an undoing of Trump’s use of rescissions to slash congressionally approved funding.It was strategic ground to make a stand, for Democrats had long put healthcare at the center of their pitch to voters. In the end, all they got in the deal that reopened the government was a promise from John Thune, the Senate majority leader, to hold a vote on a bill to reauthorize the credits. There’s no telling if enough Republicans will support it to pass the chamber, if House Republican leaders would allow it to come up for a vote, or if Trump would sign it.The party may have reaped rewards that are less tangible. Polls consistently showed voters putting more blame on the GOP for the shutdown than the Democrats. Last week, the party swept off-year elections in several states, in part by flipping voters who had turned out for Trump last year.The choice of tactics nonetheless disquieted some in the party. As the shutdown went on, Trump moved to halt payments of the government’s largest food aid program, while federal workers missed paychecks.North Carolina congressman Don Davis, one of six Democrats who voted for the funding bill that ended the shutdown in the House of Representatives, said tales of hardship from his constituents convinced him it was time to end the standoff.“I had a person, a constituent, talking to me, literally in tears. That’s not what I want,” he said. Republicans in North Carolina’s senate recently passed a new congressional map that will make his district more difficult to win next year.All signs point to the reauthorization of government funding being merely a lull in the larger war over healthcare in the United States.The funding bill Congress passed keeps the government open only through January, meaning Democrats could issue another set of demands for their votes then. Just before the House voted to restart funding on Wednesday evening, Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries made clear the party was not letting this defeat deter them.“We will stay on this issue until we get this issue resolved for everyday Americans,” he said. More