Republicans

Subterms

    More stories

    • 138 Shares159 Views

      in US Politics

      Fears grow in North Carolina as ultra-extreme Republican eyes governor’s mansion

      by

      To Mark Robinson, gay and transgender people are “filth”, homosexuality is an abominable sin, and the transgender movement is “demonic” and “full of the spirit of the antichrist”.Muslim Americans, meanwhile, are invaders, and Robinson is not afraid to dabble in antisemitism: in his mind an international cabal of Jewish financiers make up a modern-day “four horsemen of the apocalypse”, who rule the banks in “every single country”.Lots of people have offensive and conspiracy-minded beliefs. But not all of them are running, as Robinson is, to be governor of North Carolina.And to people who don’t share Robinson’s views, the problem is that it looks like he could win – furthering the Republican party’s years-long lunge to what was previously rightwing fringe politics.“Mark Robinson would be the most extreme gubernatorial candidate but also governor that we’ve ever seen in our history,” said Anderson Clayton, the chair of the North Carolina Democratic party.The risk Robinson would pose if elected in November 2024 – polling is scarce at this stage, but experts believe the race between Robinson and Josh Stein, his expected Democratic opponent, is a toss-up – is real. Republicans control both the state house and senate, and the GOP expanded its lead in last year’s elections.Roy Cooper, the Democratic governor whose tenure is forced term limits to come to an end in 2023, has vetoed 52 bills from becoming law in his six years in office, the Assembly reported, including laws that would have rolled back gun control and reduced abortion access.With a Republican in the governor’s office – particularly a governor like Robinson – there would be no one to hold back a wave of rightwing bills.“We have bills right now going through our general assembly to ban gender affirming care for trans youth. We have a ban against trans athletes or young people competing in sports right now. We have a lot of discriminatory, just persecuting our own citizens-type of legislation happening in our state,” Clayton said.“And Mark Robinson is only going to be the person who’s going to make that worse.”There was a time, not that long ago, when North Carolina was seen as a future Democratic state.Barack Obama won there, narrowly, in 2008, and Democrats giddily held their national convention there in 2012, with the hope they could triumph in North Carolina for years to come. It didn’t happen, and Republicans have won every presidential election since.Republicans have super-majorities in the state legislature, yet Chris Cooper, a professor of political science at Western Carolina university, said elections for state positions like governor have tended to be close.“North Carolina has been right on the razor’s edge between Democrat and Republican. We were the bluest red state in the country in 2020 – of all states that Trump won, his margin was among the smallest in North Carolina,” he said.“I think it is the definition of a purple state in that it’s right in the middle. What it has not done at the presidential level is to swing – so it is a purple state but not a swing state.”Taken in isolation, Robinson’s back story is compelling. One of 10 children who grew up poor in Greensboro, he was elected North Carolina’s lieutenant governor in 2020, becoming the first Black person to hold the position.A former furniture manufacturer who has been declared bankrupt three times, Robinson credits his political career to a moment in April 2018: “My life changed when I gave a speech to the Greensboro city council that went viral,” he writes on his website.That speech gave a flavor of what was to come.There had been more than 50 mass shootings between January and March 2018, according to the Gun Violence Archive, but Robinson used his speech to rail against stricter gun control laws, claiming: “We need to drop all this division we have going on here.”“When are you all going to start standing up for the majority. And here’s who the majority is. I’m the majority,” Robinson said.“I’m a law abiding citizen who’s never shot anyone, never committed a serious crime, never committed a felony. I’ve never done anything like that. But it seems like every time we have one of these shootings, nobody wants to blame… put the blame where it goes, which is at the shooter’s feet. You want to put it at my feet.”Polls have shown that most North Carolinians support stricter gun control laws, but it hasn’t stopped Robinson crowing about the issue.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionHe spoke at the National Rifle Association’s Texas convention in May 2022 – the gun lobbying event was held days after 19 students and two adults were killed in a school shooting in the state. In another event that month Robinson told a crowd that he owns an AR-15 – the assault-style rifle used in a majority of recent mass shootings – “​​in case the government gets too big for its britches”.Guns are far from Robinson’s only passionate issue.Gay rights and trans rights – specifically, the idea that the groups should have fewer – have dominated his communications in the past. After the 2016 shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Robinson wrote on Facebook that he would “pray for the souls” of those killed and wounded, but added: “However, homosexuality is STILL an abominable sin.”In June 2021, Robinson told a crowd at a Baptist church: “There’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth,” and two months later declared that the transgender movement “is demonic and is full of the spirit of the antichrist”.Robinson has also said Muslim-Americans are “invaders” who “refuse to assimilate to our ways while demanding respect they have not earned”, and responded: “That’s exactly right,” when it was put to him by a pastor that the Rothschild family of “international bankers that rule every single national or federal reserve-type style of central bank in every single country”.Since becoming lieutenant governor Robinson has been accused of hypocrisy over his admission that he paid for his now wife to have an abortion in 1989, given he supports banning the procedure from six weeks after fertilization, but little seems to have dented his popularity – he is firmly the frontrunner for the Republican nomination.Robinson’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment, but in the days following his 2020 election to lieutenant governor, Robinson declined to distance himself from several of his past remarks, which also include claiming Obama is an “anti-American atheist” and suggesting “half of black Democrats don’t realize they are slaves”.“He’s cut right out of the Trump mold, in that he is rhetorically extreme,” Cooper said.“He has a penchant for making extreme, bombastic and offensive statements, particularly about the LGBTQ community. He’s a candidate who is very comfortable in the culture wars and stoking the flames of the culture wars.”Given his history, and the looming threat of what he might do in office, Clayton said a victory for Robinson could have ramifications similar to those North Carolina experienced in 2016.Back then businesses, performers and even the National Basketball Association ditched the state after it passed a law which banned transgender people from using the public bathrooms that match their gender identities.If Robinson wins the Republican primary – which is “bordering on a certainty”, Cooper said – it could potentially cause problems for the Republican party at large, highlighting the extreme anti-LGBTQ views that lurk within the GOP.“He’s a risky candidate in a lot of ways,” Cooper said.“He will have ramifications up and down the ballot. But he’ll also motivate some voters, much like Trump motivated Republicans and Democrats, Mark Robinson’s going to do the same.” More

    • 138 Shares129 Views

      in US Politics

      Proud Boys: four found guilty of seditious conspiracy over Capitol attack

      by

      Four members of the Proud Boys extremist group, including its former leader Enrique Tarrio, were on Thursday convicted of seditious conspiracy for their roles in planning and leading the January 6 Capitol attack, in a desperate effort to keep Donald Trump in power after his 2020 election defeat.The verdicts handed down in federal court in Washington marked a major victory for the US justice department in the last of its seditious conspiracy cases related to the January 6 attack. Prosecutors previously secured convictions against members of the Oath Keepers, another far-right group.Seditious conspiracy is rarely used but became the central charge against the Proud Boys defendants after the FBI identified them as playing crucial roles in helping storm the Capitol in an effort to interrupt and stop the congressional certification of electoral results.“Evidence presented at trial detailed the extent of the violence at the Capitol on January 6 and the central role these defendants played setting into motion the unlawful events of that day,” attorney general Merrick Garland later said at a news conference at justice department headquarters.“We have secured the convictions of leaders of both the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers for seditious conspiracy, specifically conspiring to oppose by force the lawful transfer of presidential power. Our work will continue,” Garland said.Those convicted now await sentencing. The verdicts were partial, and hours after the initial four were found guilty of seditious conspiracy, the jury found another Proud Boys member Dominic Pezzola, who smashed a window to gain entry to the Capitol, not guilty of seditious conspiracy.Tarrio, who was not in Washington for the Capitol attack, as well as Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl were also convicted of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. All five were convicted of obstructing an official proceeding.The trial, which lasted more than three months and tested the scope of the sedition law, was particularly fraught for the defense, the prosecution and the presiding US district court judge, Timothy Kelly. Clashes in court and motions for mistrial were frequent.Trump played an outsized role in the trial, given the reverence the Proud Boys accorded the former president. In closing arguments, the prosecution said they acted as “Donald Trump’s army” to “keep their preferred leader in power” after rejecting Joe Biden’s victory.The former president has long been considered the lynchpin for the involvement of the Proud Boys and others in the Capitol attack when he called for a “wild” protest on 6 January 2021 in an infamous December 2020 tweet and told supporters to “fight like hell” for his cause.More than a thousand arrests have been made in connection to the Capitol attack and hundreds of convictions secured. Trump was impeached a second time for inciting an insurrection but acquitted by Senate Republicans. He still faces state and federal investigations of his attempted election subversion.In court, prosecutors said Tarrio and his top lieutenants used Trump’s December tweet as a call to arms and started putting together a cadre that they called the “Ministry of Self-Defense” to travel to Washington for the protest, according to private group chats and recordings of discussions the FBI obtained.Around 20 December 2020, Tarrio created a chat called “MOSD Leaders Group” – described by Tarrio as a “national rally planning committee” – that included Nordean, Biggs and Rehl. The chat was used to plan a “DC trip” where all would dress in dark tones, to remain incognito.The prosecution argued that Tarrio’s text messages about “Seventeen seventy six”, in reference to the year of American independence from Britain, suggested the leadership of the Proud Boys saw their January 6 operation as a revolutionary force.Lacking evidence in the hundreds of thousands of texts about an explicit plan to storm or occupy the Capitol, the prosecution used two cooperating witnesses from the Proud Boys to make the case that the defendants worked together in a conspiracy to stop the peaceful transfer of power.The first witness, Jeremy Bertino, told the jury the Proud Boys had a penchant for violence and there was a tacit understanding that they needed to engage in an “all-out revolution” to stop Biden taking office, testimony meant to directly support a sedition charge.The second witness, Matthew Greene, told the jury he did not initially understand why the Proud Boys marched from the Washington monument to the Capitol to be among the first people at the barricades surrounding Congress, instead of going to Trump’s speech near the White House.Once the Proud Boys led the charge from the barricades to the west front of the Capitol, Pezzola using a police riot shield to smash a window, Greene said he realized there may have been a deliberate effort to lead the January 6 riot.The prosecution persuaded the judge to allow them to use a novel legal strategy: that though the Proud Boys leaders did not really engage in violence themselves – Tarrio was not even in Washington – they got other rioters to do so, using them as “tools” of their insurrection conspiracy.The defense protested the ruling allowing prosecutors to show the jury videos of other low-level Proud Boys and random rioters committing violence at the Capitol, saying that it amounted to making the five defendants guilty by association.Notwithstanding the other evidence, the defense’s complaint was that if the jury had to assess whether the defendants’ limited use of violence alone met the threshold to “destroy by force the government of the United States”, the outcome might have been affected. More

    • 225 Shares99 Views

      in US Politics

      Proud Boys leader and three others convicted of seditious conspiracy for January 6 attack – as it happened

      by

      From 6h agoFormer Proud Boys extremist group leader Enrique Tarrio has been convicted of seditious conspiracy.The conviction follows a seven-day jury deliberation on five members of the far-right neo-fascist organizations who have been accused of conspiring against the peaceful power transition between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in January 2021.Three other members of the Proud Boys – Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl – have also been convicted after facing a slew of charges including conspiracy charges, evidence tampering and obstruction of the Electoral College vote.Member Domic Pezzola was also charged but the jury was unable to reach a verdict on his seditious conspiracy charge.Tarrio was not in Washington on January 6, 2021 during the deadly Capitol riots but prosecutors said he organized and directed the attack by Proud Boys who stormed the Capitol where 5 people died.Since the riots, Tarrio became a top target of the largest investigation by the justice department in American history.Defense lawyers argued that there was no plan to attack the Capitol or stop Congress’ certification of Biden’s win. One of Tarrio’s lawyer tried to divert the blame on Trump, saying that the former president incited the attack after he told the mob to “fight like hell,” the Associated Press reports.The seditious conspiracy charge carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years.It’s 4pm in Washington DC today. Here is a wrap-up of the day’s key events:
      A grandnephew of Clarence Thomas, whom the supreme court justice described as a “son”, had his private school tuition paid for by billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crow, according to a new investigation by ProPublica. Financial documents reviewed by ProPublica showed that in July 2009, a payment was made by Crow’s company to Hidden Lake Academy, a private boarding school in northern Georgia where tuition ran over $6,00 monthly.
      Former Proud Boys extremist group leader Enrique Tarrio has been convicted of seditious conspiracy. The conviction follows a seven-day jury deliberation on five members of the far-right neo-fascist organizations who have been accused of conspiring against the peaceful power transition between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in January 2021.
      Donald Trump is seeking to move his his criminal case by Manhattan’s district attorney to federal court, his lawyers said on Thursday. Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, said that Trump’s defense team is planning to file a motion on Thursday that will transfer the case involving hush-money payments from state court to federal court.
      New York City mayor Eric Adams has criticized representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over her remarks that condemned the death of a homeless subway rider. “I don’t think that’s very responsible at the time where we are still investigating the situation,” Adams said on CNN on Wednesday night after Ocasio-Cortez called the death of Jordan Neely a “murder.”
      In the latest behind-the-scenes video of Tucker Carlson published by the progressive watchdog Media Matters for America, the now fired Fox News host asks a makeup artist about what women do in the bathroom and if they ever have pillow fights. The footage of the insinuating comments follows the leak of video of Carlson making coarse remarks about a woman and Fox News viewers in general.
      Following vice president Kamala Harris’s meeting today with CEOs of tech companies including Microsoft and Google, Harris said the private sector has a “legal responsibility” to ensure the safety of AI products. “As I shared today with CEOs of companies at the forefront of American AI innovation, the private sector has an ethical, moral, and legal responsibility to ensure the safety and security of their products. And every company must comply with existing laws to protect the American people,” said Harris in a statement.
      White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has declined to comment on the recent reports surrounding supreme court justice Clarence Thomas’s acceptance of undisclosed luxury gifts. Jean-Pierre told reporters: “Right now…as it relates to the ethics, as it relates to that process, the senate is clearly moving forward with their own senate procedural process. I’m going to leave it there for now,” she said.
      Following the verdict delivered earlier today that found three members and the leader of the neo-fascist group Proud Boys guilty of seditious conspiracy, the White House declined to comment on the case,” saying that it does not want to “interfere.” Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, “We have seen the verdict but while the verdict has been reached in this case, we are also mindful that there are other similar cases pending and so we don’t want to interfere with those.”
      Democratic senator Ron Wyden, chairman of the senate finance committee, has announced that he is urging Harlan Crow “for answers” on his luxury gifts to supreme court justice Clarence Thomas. “I’m pushing Harlan Crow for answers on his lavish gifts to Clarence Thomas. If he doesn’t comply by May 8, I will absolutely explore other tools at the Finance Committee’s disposal to shed more light on what appears to be blatant corruption,” he said.
      That’s it from me, Maya Yang, as we wrap up the blog for today. Thank you for following along.Democratic senator Ron Wyden, chairman of the senate finance committee, has announced that he is urging Harlan Crow “for answers” on his luxury gifts to supreme court justice Clarence Thomas. On Thursday, following reports that Thomas accepted private school tuition payments made to his grandnephew by the GOP billionaire donor, Wyden tweeted:
      “I’m pushing Harlan Crow for answers on his lavish gifts to Clarence Thomas. If he doesn’t comply by May 8, I will absolutely explore other tools at the Finance Committee’s disposal to shed more light on what appears to be blatant corruption.”
      Following the verdict delivered earlier today that found three members and the leader of the neo-fascist group Proud Boys guilty of seditious conspiracy, the White House declined to comment on the case,” saying that it does not want to “interfere.”Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, “We have seen the verdict but while the verdict has been reached in this case, we are also mindful that there are other similar cases pending and so we don’t want to interfere with those.”“I would refer you to the department of justice for comment on this case….but we’re going to be mindful as we know there are other pending issues here,” she added.White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has declined to comment on the recent reports surrounding supreme court justice Clarence Thomas’s acceptance of undisclosed luxury gifts. When asked by a reporter during Thursday’s press briefing on why she has not commented on any stories related to Thomas and his code of conduct, Jean-Pierre replied:“Right now…as it relates to the ethics, as it relates to that process, the senate is clearly moving forward with their own senate procedural process. I’m going to leave it there for now,” she said.Last month, following reports of Thomas’s acceptance of undisclosed luxury gifts including travel and private school tuition from GOP billionaire donor Harlan Crow, senate Democrats urged supreme court chief justice John Roberts to investigate the undisclosed luxury trips.Earlier this week, senate Democrats called for tighter rules on the supreme court justices surrounding ethics standards but met resistance from Republicans who condemned Democrats’ efforts as an “assault.”Republican senator Lindsey Graham condemned Democrats, labeling their efforts as an attempt to “delegitimize a conservative court.”Following vice president Kamala Harris’s meeting today with CEOs of tech companies including Microsoft and Google, Harris said the private sector has a “legal responsibility” to ensure the safety of AI products.
      “As I shared today with CEOs of companies at the forefront of American AI innovation, the private sector has an ethical, moral, and legal responsibility to ensure the safety and security of their products. And every company must comply with existing laws to protect the American people,” said Harris in a statement.
      She added that she is working alongside president Joe Biden are working on advancing potential new regulations and supporting new legislation “so that everyone can safety benefit from technological innovations.”More lunchtime reading, this time from Poppy Noor, who considers the considerable political challenges facing Republicans over strict abortion bans passed after the downfall of Roe v Wade …In one state, Republican women filibustered to block a near total abortion ban introduced by their own party.In another, the Republican co-sponsor of a six-week abortion ban tanked his own bill. On the federal level, a Republican congresswoman warns that the GOP’s abortion stance could meaning “losing huge” in 2024.As states continue to bring in tighter restrictions on abortion following the fall of Roe v Wade, internal divisions within the Republican party on the issue are starting to show.READ ON:Our regular guest columnist, the Vermont senator and former presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, would like a word about American workplace culture and particularly the toll of so spending so many hours in the office, factory, shop or other place of gainful employ …In 1938, as a result of a massive grassroots effort by the trade union movement, the Fair Labor Standards Act was enacted by Congress to reduce the work week to 40 hours. Back then, the American people were sick and tired of working 80, 90, 100 hours a week with very little time for rest, relaxation or quality time with their families. They demanded change and they won a huge victory. That’s the good news.The bad news is that despite an explosion in technology, major increases in worker productivity, and transformational changes in the workplace and American society, the Fair Labor Standards Act has not been reformed in 80 years. The result: millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages, with the average worker making nearly $50 a week less than he or she did 50 years ago, after adjusting for inflation. Further, family life is suffering, as parents don’t have adequate time for their kids, life expectancy for working people is in decline, and increased stress is a major factor in the mental health crisis we are now experiencing.Compared with other countries, our workplace record is not good. In 2021, American employees worked 184 more hours than Japanese workers, 294 more hours than British workers, and 442 more hours than German workers. Unbelievably, in 2023 there are millions of Americans who work at jobs with no vacation time.It’s time to reduce the work week to 32 hours with no loss in pay. It’s time to reduce the stress level in our country and allow Americans to enjoy a better quality of life. It’s time to make sure that working people benefit from rapidly increasing technology, not just large corporations that are already doing phenomenally well.READ ON:In the latest behind-the-scenes video of Tucker Carlson published by the progressive watchdog Media Matters for America, the now fired Fox News host asks a makeup artist about what women do in the bathroom and if they ever have pillow fights.The footage of the insinuating comments follows the leak of video of Carlson making coarse remarks about a woman and Fox News viewers in general; a discussion of sexual technique with Piers Morgan; disparaging remarks about the Fox Nation streaming service; and comments about a lawyer who deposed Carlson in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation suit, who the host called a “slimy little motherfucker”.That suit, over Fox News’ broadcast of Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 US election, was settled last month for $787.5m. Shortly after that, Carlson was surprisingly fired.Speculation and reporting about why Carlson was fired continues.Earlier this week, the New York Times published a racially inflammatory text message Carlson sent after the Capitol attack. That message was redacted in Dominion filings but other message, including abusive comments, were released. Carlson’s comments about Fox News executives were reportedly linked to his firing, including one in which he is reported to have called a female executive a “cunt”. A former booker on his show also filed suit, alleging a misogynistic working atmosphere.Fox News has not commented on why Carlson was fired. It has called the suit from the former booker, Abby Grossberg, “unmeritorious” and “riddled with false allegations against the network and our employees”.Last week, a person close to Carlson told the Guardian the firing was not over abusive messages or crude comments.“An elderly Australian man” – the Fox News owner, Rupert Murdoch, 92 – “fired his top anchor with no warning because he was so offended by a dirty word? Stupidest explanation ever. Please. A big decision requires a powerful motive. Naughty words in text messages don’t qualify.”In the footage released on Thursday, Carlson is seen on-set, having makeup applied by an unidentified woman.He says: “Can I ask you a question? You don’t have to answer, it’s personal.”The woman indicates assent.Carlson says: “I’m not speaking of you, but more in general with ladies, when they go to the ladies room and ‘powder their noses’, is there actually nose-powdering going on?The woman says: “Sometimes.”Carlson says: “Oooh. I like the sound of that.”The woman says: “Most of the time, it’s lipstick.”Carlson says: “Do pillow fights ever break out? You don’t have to, you don’t have to –”The woman says: “Not in the bathroom.”Carlson says: “OK. Not in the bathroom. That’d be more a dorm activity.”After an unintelligible remark off camera, Carlson apologises.“I’m sorry,” he says. “You are such a good sport. Such a good person. Thank you. I know you do, but you do not deserve that. And I mean it with great affection.”New York City mayor Eric Adams has criticized representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over her remarks that condemned the death of a homeless subway rider.“I don’t think that’s very responsible at the time where we are still investigating the situation,” Adams said on CNN on Wednesday night.“Let’s the DA conduct his investigation with the law enforcement officials. To really interfere with that is not the right thing to do,” he continued.Adams’ remarks comes after Ocasio-Cortez condemned the death of Jordan Neely, a 30-year old Black homeless person who died after a 24-year-old former marine placed him in a chokehold on the subway.
      “Jordan Neely was murdered. But bc Jordan was houseless and crying for food in a time when the city is raising rents and stripping services to militarize itself while many in power demonize the poor, the murderer gets protected w/ passive headlines + no charges. It’s disgusting,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.
      “It is appalling how so many take advantage of headlines re: crime for an obsolete ‘tough on crime’ political, media, & budgetary gain, but when a public murder happens that reinforces existing power structures, those same forces rush to exonerate & look the other way. We shouldn’t,” she added.
      Donald Trump is seeking to move his his criminal case by Manhattan’s district attorney to federal court, his lawyers said on Thursday.Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, said that Trump’s defense team is planning to file a motion on Thursday that will transfer the case involving hush-money payments from state court to federal court.The announcement comes a month after Trump appeared at a Manhattan courtroom for his arraignment as prosecutors accused him of committing 34 felony counts involving an alleged cover up of an extramarital sex scandal involving adult star Stormy Daniels.Trump has pleaded not guilty.Trump’s attempt to transfer the case to federal court will likely be a “long shot,” the New York Times reports, and will not have any immediate impact on the current state case.A federal judge will decide whether to approve the request or not.Former Proud Boys extremist group leader Enrique Tarrio has been convicted of seditious conspiracy.The conviction follows a seven-day jury deliberation on five members of the far-right neo-fascist organizations who have been accused of conspiring against the peaceful power transition between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in January 2021.Three other members of the Proud Boys – Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl – have also been convicted after facing a slew of charges including conspiracy charges, evidence tampering and obstruction of the Electoral College vote.Member Domic Pezzola was also charged but the jury was unable to reach a verdict on his seditious conspiracy charge.Tarrio was not in Washington on January 6, 2021 during the deadly Capitol riots but prosecutors said he organized and directed the attack by Proud Boys who stormed the Capitol where 5 people died.Since the riots, Tarrio became a top target of the largest investigation by the justice department in American history.Defense lawyers argued that there was no plan to attack the Capitol or stop Congress’ certification of Biden’s win. One of Tarrio’s lawyer tried to divert the blame on Trump, saying that the former president incited the attack after he told the mob to “fight like hell,” the Associated Press reports.The seditious conspiracy charge carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years.Several political advocacy organizations have issued statements condemning Clarence Thomas in light of recent reports surrounding his failure to disclose luxury gifts. Stand Up America, a nonprofit grassroots organization focusing combatting corruption and voter suppression, has called for a “thorough investigation” into Thomas. In a statement to the Guardian, Brett Edkins, managing director of policy and political affairs, said:
      “This ethical crisis at the Supreme Court just keeps getting worse… We don’t yet know the full extent of Justice Thomas’ ethical violations, but the existing evidence of a corrupt relationship is overwhelming and should alarm every American.
      Congress must hold this Court in check and restore public trust in our justice system by conducting a thorough investigation into Thomas’ financial dealings with Crow and finally passing a code of ethics for the Supreme Court. The American people should have confidence that their highest court is free from corruption.”
      Similarly, Acccountable.US, a nonpartisan watchdog organization that sheds light on special interests and unchecked power, has called for “urgent reform” in the supreme court.In a statement to the Guardian, Accountable.US president Kyle Herrig said:
      “Billionaire benefactor Harlan Crow didn’t just bankroll Thomas’s luxury travel, his mother’s house, and his wife’s job — he also covered his kid’s private school tuition, which he conveniently didn’t disclose.
      Over decades, these two have maintained a highly problematic financial relationship that has facilitated what looks like corruption at the highest levels. Meanwhile, Chief Justice Roberts has completely dodged responsibility by refusing to take action while the Court’s legitimacy crisis grows. We need urgent reform to restore public trust in our Court.”
      A new investigation by ProPublica revealed that billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crow paid the tuition of Mark Martin, a grandnephew of supreme court justice Clarence Thomas.According to ProPublica, Mark Martin, whom Thomas obtained legal custody over when Martin was 6-years old, attended a private boarding school in northern Georgia called Hidden Lakes Academy for about a year.During his time at the school, his tuition was paid for by Crow, former school administrator Christopher Grimwood told ProPublica. A bank document reviewed by the investigative outlet from 2009 showed a wire transfer of $6,200 to the school from Crow’s company. The transfer was labeled with “Mark Martin.”The investigation also found that before and after Martin’s time at Hidden Lake Academy, he attended Randolph-Macon Academy in Virginia, another boarding school. “Harlan said he was paying for the tuition at Randolph-Macon Academy as well,” Grimwood recalled Crow telling him during a visit to the real estate magnate’s estate in the Adirondacks.Despite disclosing a gift of $5,000 for Martin’s education from another friend several years earlier, Thomas did not disclose Crow’s tuition payments, according to ProPublica.Crow’s spokespersons have defended Crow’s payments, telling ProPublica in a statement:
      “Harlan Crow has long been passionate about the importance of quality education and giving back to those less fortunate, especially at-risk youth… he and his wife have supported many young Americans through scholarship and other programs at a variety of schools…
      Harlan and Kathy have particularly focused on students who are at risk of falling behind or missing out on opportunities to better themselves… Tuition and other financial assistance is given directly to academic institutions, not to students or to their families. These scholarships and other contributions have always been paid solely from personal funds, sometimes held at and paid through the family business.”
      The report follows last month’s bombshell report by ProPublica that revealed Thomas had accepted luxury travel from Crow annually for decades without publicly disclosing them.The revelations have caught the ire of many lawmakers and ethics experts.Earlier this week, Democrats called for tighter rules and ethics standards for the supreme court justices, which Republicans pushed back against, calling Democrats’ efforts an “assault…[and] about trying to delegitimize a conservative court.”Good morning, US politics readers. A great-nephew of Clarence Thomas, whom the supreme court justice described as a “son”, had his private school tuition paid for by billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crow, according to a new investigation by ProPublica.Financial documents reviewed by ProPublica showed that in July 2009, a payment was made by Crow’s company to Hidden Lake Academy, a private boarding school in northern Georgia where tuition ran over $6,00 monthly. The payment of $6,200 was labeled with the name of Thomas’s great-nephew, Mark Martin.Martin, who was taken into legal custody by Thomas when he was six years old, had his tuition paid for entirely by Crow during his time at Hidden Lake Academy, which was about a year, according to a former school administrator Christopher Grimwood.Thomas did not report Crow’s tuition payments on his annual financial disclosures, ProPublica revealed in its investigation. This investigation follows another ProPublica report last month which revealed that Thomas accepted luxury travel from Crow for decades without disclosing them on his financial reports.Here are other developments in US politics:
      A New York judge has thrown out Donald Trump’s 2021 lawsuit that accused the New York Times of an “insidious plot” to obtain his tax records.
      Vice president Kamala Harris will meet with Google and Microsoft CEOs today to discuss AI risks.
      Iowa lawmakers have passed a Republican-led bill that allows teenagers to work longer hours and take previously banned jobs. More

    • 125 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      Senate Democrats highlight ‘terrible choice’ of Republicans’ debt ceiling plan

      by

      Senate Democrats held a hearing on Thursday to lambaste House Republicans’ proposal to raise the US government’s borrowing limit in exchange for spending cuts, as economists testified that a federal default would bring disastrous and decades-long consequences.The hearing came a week after House Republicans narrowly passed the Limit, Save, Grow Act to raise the debt ceiling until May 2024. The legislation, championed by the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, would also roll back federal discretionary spending to 2022 levels and cap annual increases at 1%.Mocking the bill as the “Default on America Act”, Democrats warned that the legislation would result in devastating cuts to veterans’ benefits, childcare access and infrastructure funding.“Republicans’ dangerous bill proposes a terrible choice: default on our financial obligations, causing widespread pain and wrecking our economy, or gut basic federal programs essential to our economic strength, causing widespread pain and wrecking our economy,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, the Democratic chair of the Senate budget committee. “It is a false and unnecessary choice.”Republicans on the committee countered that the House bill should be interpreted as an “opening bid” to kickstart negotiations with Joe Biden, who has repeatedly called on Congress to pass a “clean” bill raising the debt ceiling without any strings attached. Biden has invited the top four congressional leaders to a meeting at the White House next week to discuss the debt ceiling.“I hope when the president sits down with the speaker, he will bring an open mind and a serious counteroffer,” said Senator Chuck Grassley, the Republican ranking member of the budget committee. “The longer the president spends dragging his feet and putting off negotiations, the closer President Biden brings us to the first ever federal default in US history.”Three economists testified to the committee that a default would prove calamitous for the country and global markets, causing America’s unemployment rate to rise and its gross domestic product (GDP) to tumble.Dr Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, predicted a “severe recession” in the US if lawmakers do not address the debt ceiling. The treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, sent a letter to congressional leaders on Monday informing them that the US government would be unable to cover its financial obligations as early as 1 June.Zandi added that this moment is “an especially inopportune time to have a political debate over the debt limit” because the current risk of an American recession is “uncomfortably high”. That risk heightens the danger of enacting House Republicans’ bill, Zandi argued.“It entails significant cuts to government spending … right at the point in time when the economy is going to be most vulnerable to going into recession,” Zandi said.But all three economists also agreed that the “unsustainable” trajectory of America’s debt must be met with urgency by policymakers.“We are sitting on a ticking timebomb,” said Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the conservative thinktank Manhattan Institute. “Congress should be working diligently to avert an otherwise inevitable debt crisis, and raising the debt limit has historically been one opportunity to address the underlying debt problem.”Democrats expressed openness to amending the federal budget for the next fiscal year, which begins in October, but they emphasized that such a discussion must be separated from the immediate need to address the debt ceiling.“If we want to have a real discussion about revenues and spending, that’s great,” said Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Democratic member of the committee. “Don’t default. But let’s have that debate about what’s fair for the majority of American people.”Biden has similarly invited a bipartisan conversation on budgetary reform, but he has steadfastly rejected Republican efforts to tie the debt ceiling to government spending negotiations.“America is not a deadbeat nation,” Biden said on Monday. “We pay our bills, and we should do so without reckless hostage-taking from some of the [‘Make America Great Again’] Republicans in Congress.”Whitehouse noted Senate Democrats have introduced a two-page bill raising the debt ceiling until December 2024, ensuring the issue would not be revisited until after the next presidential election, but such a bill seems unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled House. Democrats in the House have simultaneously launched a long-shot bid to pass a clean debt ceiling bill through the lower chamber, but the odds of five of their Republican colleagues joining that effort seem slim to none.As the clock ticks down, lawmakers are running out of time to avoid catastrophe, Zandi testified.“We are on a certain unsustainable fiscal path. We need both additional tax revenue and we need spending restraint. Both of those things need to happen. But we can’t do that in the current environment,” Zandi told senators. “This is not the time to do it. We need to end this drama as quickly as possible.” More

    • 200 Shares159 Views

      in US Politics

      Federal Reserve increases interest rates by a quarter point to 16-year high – as it happened

      by

      From 6h agoThe Federal Reserve is set to raise interest rates this afternoon, with an announcement coming at 2pm ET from the central bank after its most recent board meeting. Analysts expect the Fed will raise rates by a quarter point, which will bring rates up to 5% to 5.25%. This would be the central bank’s 10th interest rate increase since March 2022, when rates were at zero.The interest rate increase will come at what in hindsight may seem like an inflection point for the economy. Inflation is down, consumer spending has flattened and growth in the job market is starting to slow down, but Fed officials, especially Fed chair Jerome Powell, have been stringent on getting inflation down to their target of 2%. Inflation in March was 5%, the lowest it’s been since 2021, but still quite far from 2%.Analysts and economists will be closely watching Powell’s press conference at 2.30pm, where he will discuss the direction Fed staff see the economy going, giving hints as to whether even more interest rate hikes are to come or whether the Fed will end its rate-hike campaign.Here’s a quick summary of everything that’s happened today:
      The Federal Reserve increased interest rates by a quarter point, bringing rates up to 5% to 5.25%. Fed chair Jerome Powell said that Fed officials no longer anticipate more hikes, but will monitor economic data to see if they are necessary in coming months. The stock market dipped slightly after the Fed’s announcement.
      The debate over the debt ceiling continued today, with news that Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell will keep himself out of the specific of negotiating talks and hints that senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are breaking from Dems and looking to take Senate negotiations seriously.
      2024 is already gearing up: Joe Biden released his second TV ad since launching his campaign last week, while US rep. Colin Allred of Texas announced his bid to unseat Texas senator Ted Cruz. In Nevada, Jim Marchant, an election denier and staunch supporter of Donald Trump, also announced a Senate big.
      We’ll be closing this blog for today. Thanks for reading.Democratic senator Raphael Warnock from Georgia said that his two young kids were on lockdown at school because of the shooting in midtown Atlanta.“They’re there. I’m here, hoping and praying they’re safe,” he said on the Senate floor. “Thoughts and prayers are not enough.”One person has been confirmed dead and at least four injured after a gunman opened fire in a building in midtown around 12.30pm ET. Police said they are still searching for a suspect.The Washington Post just published a cheery report that the White House and lawmakers on Capitol Hill technically have just six working days together before the US government potentially defaults on its debt on 1 June.With the House and Senate in session on different days, and Biden making international trips for the G7 summit in Japan and another “Quad” meeting with Australia, Japan and India in Australia, the legislative and executive branches are scheduled to have just six more days together to figure out the debt ceiling.Of course, negotiations can take place even when a chamber is not in session, but the precariousness of negotiations and the closeness of default makes the timing a tad inconvenient.Talking about the fallout of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in March, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said that it seems the worst of the crisis is over.“The severe period of stress, those have now all been resolved and all the depositors have been protected,” he said, adding that JPMorgan’s acquisition of First Republic bank marked the end of the worst of it all.Asked about lessons that he learned from the crisis, he noted that there needs to be stronger regulation and supervision, but declined to offer any specifics as he has tasked Fed vice chair Michael Barr with drafting specific policy proposals.“I am not aware of anybody thinking [the collapse] could happen so quickly,” Powell said. “Now that we know that was possible… it will be up to vice chair Barr to design ways to address that.”Today’s Federal Reserve interest rate hike is its second quarter-point hike in a row, after a series of half- and three-quarter point hikes over the last year. Fed chair Jerome Powell said at his press conference this afternoon that “slowing down was the right move”.“I think it’s enabled us to see more data and it will continue to do so. We have to always balance the risk of not doing enough and not getting inflation under control against the risk of maybe slowing down economic activity too much,” he said. “We thought that this rate hike, along with the meaningful change in our policy statement, was the right way to balance that.Asked about the possibility of a recession, Powell seemed optimistic that the Fed could achieve a “soft landing” – keeping interest rates high without seeing huge impacts on unemployment. He noted that even as rates have hit 5% over the last 14 months, the unemployment rate stands at 3.5%.“It’s possible that we can continue to have a cooling in the labor market without having the big increases in unemployment that have gone with many prior episodes,” he said.Of course, Powell noted earlier in the press conference that the full impacts of the interest rate increases have yet to be seen, acknowledging uncertainty about the full economic impact of rate hikes.Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell emphasized the importance of raising the debt ceiling, though noted that the debt limit is “fiscal policy matters”.“It’s essential that the debt ceiling be raised in a timely way so that the US government can pay all of its bills when they’re due. Failure to do that would be unprecedented,” he said. “We’d be in uncharted territory.Powell noted that the Fed doesn’t “give advice to either side” and also noted that “no one should assume that the Fed can protect the economy from the potential short- and long-term effects” upon default.He also noted that debt limit standoff did not play a role in the Fed’s decision today to increase interest rates.Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell is holding a press conference after the central bank announced a quarter-point interest rate increase. Powell’s tone in the press conference has changed since he last addressed the press in March. The Fed is no longer anticipating needing more rate increases, but will monitor the economy in determining future interest rate changes.While Powell is still reiterating the Fed’s inflation target of 2%, he acknowledged that the economy is “seeing the effects of our policy tightening on demand and the most interest-rate-sensitive sectors of the economy, particularly housing and investment”. In other words, the Fed sees its interest rate hikes taking effect in the slowing of the economy.“There are some signs that supply and demand in the labor market are coming back into balance,” Powell said. He added that the “economy is likely to face further headwinds from tighter credit conditions”, meaning the full effects of the interest-rate hikes have yet to be seen.Taking a question from a reporter on whether the Fed’s statement today should be taken as a hint that officials will pause rate hikes, Powell said the officials did not make a decision on a pause, but noted that they intentionally updated their stance in today’s press statement that removed a line suggesting more increases would be appropriate.“Instead, we’re saying that in determining the extent to which [more hikes are needed], the Committee will take into account certain factors,” he said. “That’s a meaningful change that we are no longer saying we anticipate [changes] and we will be driven by incoming data meeting by meeting.”The press statement that came with the Federal Reserve’s announcement of another interest rate hike is nearly identical to the one that was released at its last meeting on 22 March, with one key exception.In its 22 March release, Fed officials in the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) hinted that more interest rates are to come, saying: “The Committee anticipates that some additional policy firming may be appropriate” in order to bring inflation down to the target of 2%.In today’s statement, that line was cut.The rest of the statement was in line with FOMC’s March meeting statement. They reiterated their stance that “inflation remains elevated” and the jobs market has been strong, with the unemployment rate low. They emphasized that “the US banking system is sound and resilient” and that they are “highly attentive to inflation risks”.Analysts have been wondering whether this interest rate increase will be the Fed’s last, with pauses to come after as the interest rate is held steady at future meetings.Any more hints about what is next for interest rates after this most recent hike will likely be made at Fed chair Jerome Powell’s press conference at 2.30pm ET.The Federal Reserve just announced a quarter-point interest rate increase. This brings the interest rate to a 16-year high at 5% to 5.25%. The central bank has been on a year-long campaign to temper inflation, though it has had to delicately balance the potential of shaking the economy too much with stringent rate increases.Fed chair Jerome Powell will lead a closely watched press conference, where he will discuss the Fed’s view on the state of the economy.The United Auto Workers (UAW) union said in an internal memo that it is holding off on a Joe Biden endorsement due to the president’s electric vehicle policies.UAW president Shawn Fain said in the memo that union leaders met with Biden last week and discussed “our concerns with the electric vehicle transition”, according to the New York Times. The union is concerned that auto workers will suffer during the transition to EV as less workers are needed to assemble EVs.“The EV transition is at serious risk of becoming a race to the bottom,” the memo reads, referring to electric vehicles. “We want to see national leadership have our back on this before we make any commitments.”The union has 400,000 members across the country, though members are primarily in auto-industry heavyweight Michigan, a key election battleground state.The FBI arrested a man in Florida on Tuesday for his involvement in the January 6th Capitol riots, specifically for setting off an “explosive device” in the US Capitol tunnel that leads into the building. Daniel Ball, 38, was first arrested last week by the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office for assaulting seven people, including law enforcement officers, in Florida. Ball’s probation officer, upon being shown photos and videos of the Capitol riot, identified Ball as the person throwing an explosive device in the tunnel, where law enforcement was blocking rioters.Ball faces multiple charges related to the riot, including assaulting police officers and entering a restricted area with a deadly weapon.The justice department said in March that at least 1,000 people have been arrested on charges related to the riots, with 518 pleading guilty to federal crimes so far.Election denier Jim Marchant announced that he will be running for US Senate, challenging Democrat incumbent senator Jacky Rosen for the seat she won last year.During his announcement speech on Tuesday, Marchant said that he is running to “protect Nevadans from the overbearing government, from Silicon Valley, from big media, from labor unions, from the radical gender-change advocates,” the Washington Post reported.His election campaign was acknowledged by Rosen on Twitter, who replied to Marchant’s announcement:
      Nevadans deserve a Senator who will fight for them, not a MAGA election denier who opposes abortion rights even in cases of rape and incest…
      While far-right politicians like Jim Marchant spread baseless conspiracy theories, I’ve always focused on solving problems for Nevadans.
      Marchant has described himself as a “MAGA conservative”, the Post reports, and is an avid supporter of Donald Trump. More

    • 150 Shares129 Views

      in US Politics

      Ex-NFL player Colin Allred launches challenge to Ted Cruz for Senate seat

      by

      The far-right Republican Texas senator Ted Cruz will be challenged for his seat next year by Colin Allred, a former NFL linebacker who launched his campaign on Wednesday with a video referencing the January 6 attack on Congress by Trump supporters Cruz called “peaceful protesters”.“I’ve taken down a lot tougher guys than Ted Cruz,” Allred said.Allred, 40, played college football for Baylor in Texas then played 32 games for the Tennessee Titans between 2007 and 2010. He entered Congress in 2019, a rare Democrat in red Texas. He has increased his majority since.Democrats control the Senate but face a tough elections map in 2024. A pick-up in Texas would be a shock but would boost activists who insist the state is turning towards progressives.On 6 January 2021, Trump supporters urged on by the then president and Republican allies including Cruz attacked Congress in an attempt to block certification of Joe Biden’s election win, which Trump baselessly claimed was the result of electoral fraud.In his announcement video, Allred took Cruz to task for being one of 147 Republicans who objected to election results even after the riot, which is now linked to nine deaths including law enforcement suicides, and for confessing to hiding in a closet during the attack.“When I left the NFL,” Allred said, walking on a football field, “I thought my days of putting people on the ground were over. Then, January 6 happened.“I remember hearing the glass breaking and the shouts coming closer. I texted my wife: ‘Whatever happens, I love you.’ Then I took off my jacket and got ready to take on anyone who came through that door.“And Ted Cruz? He cheered on the mob. Then hid in a supply closet when they stormed the Capitol. But that’s Ted for you. All hat, no cattle.”Allred also targeted Cruz for a famous flight to Cancun when Texas fell under a big freeze amid widespread power failures, and for perceived policy failings, before telling his own life story.On Twitter, Allred added: “I’ve taken down a lot tougher guys than Ted Cruz, but I can’t do this without your help.”Now 53, Cruz entered Congress in 2013. In 2016 he ran second to Trump in the Republican presidential primary. Initially a hold-out against the billionaire, who insulted his wife and father, like most of the rest of the party Cruz soon came onside. Paul Manafort, a former Trump aide, has said Trump gave Cruz a rare apology.In the usually collegial Senate, Cruz is famously unpopular. Al Franken, the former Democratic senator from Minnesota, once said: “I like Ted Cruz more than most of my other colleagues like Ted Cruz. And I hate Ted Cruz.”In 2018, the last time Cruz ran for re-election, he faced a strong challenge from Beto O’Rourke, a former Democratic congressman. Cruz won by less than three points.Speaking to the Dallas Morning News, Allred said Texas “can’t afford six more years of Ted Cruz”.He added: “The political extremism that we are becoming increasingly known for is a real risk to our business community and our path forward. It’s making some folks say they don’t want to send their kids to school in our state. We can go in a different direction.” More

    • 113 Shares199 Views

      in US Politics

      DeSantis accused of favoring insurance-industry donors at residents’ expense

      by

      Ron DeSantis, the rightwing Republican governor of Florida and a likely 2024 presidential candidate, has handed favors to his big-money donors in the insurance industry at the expense of cash-strapped residents of his state, a new report claims.The report, “How Ron DeSantis sold out Florida homeowners”, draws on contributions from the American Federation of Teachers union, the non-profit Center for Popular Democracy, the voting rights group Florida Rising and the dark money watchdog Hedge Clippers.The report pinpoints the insurance industry as a crucial underwriter of DeSantis’s meteoric rise to the governor’s mansion and as a potential White House contender – and alleges that this may have influenced his decision making.DeSantis, who ran a successful re-election campaign last year, and Friends of Ron DeSantis, a political action committee that supported him, have taken a combined $3.9m in contributions from insurance industry players. If donations to the Republican party of Florida since 1 January 2019 – days before DeSantis assumed office – are added, this total swells to more than $9.9m.The authors’ analysis of campaign finance data also found that two property casualty insurance firms donated a combined total of $125,000 to DeSantis’s 2023 inaugural celebration, which marked the beginning of his final term as governor in the term-limited state.It is no coincidence, the report’s authors suggest, that DeSantis’s administration has put the insurance companies’ interests ahead of Florida’s own citizens, who are battling homeowner insurance rates nearly triple the national average.They write: “Instead of fixing problems with Florida’s property insurance industry, DeSantis has lavished the industry with favors and benefits while everyday Floridians suffer.”These benefits have included the creation of $2bn taxpayer-funded reinsurance fund. Such funds exist to insure the insurers and prevent them being wiped out during a catastrophic event. Usually, insurance companies buy such coverage on the open market but, in Florida, DeSantis chose to use tax dollars to provide access to a state-subsidised insurance fund.Second, the Florida legislature passed a bill that stripped policyholders of the ability to recover legal fees when suing insurance companies that refuse to honour legitimate claims. DeSantis trumpeted the signing of this bill on his official webpage.Home insurance is a hot-button issue in Florida, where communities vulnerable to the climate crisis face increasingly frequent and severe hurricanes and other weather events. Last year Hurricane Ian caused record levels of property damage and recent storms flooded some Fort Lauderdale neighbourhoods for more than a week.The report notes: “Communities of color and low-income neighborhoods with significant climate risks face crumbling infrastructure, soaring insurance premiums, and a lack of public investment. Florida cities like Jacksonville (where one in three residents is Black) and Orlando (where one in three is Latino) are at the highest risk nationally, based on the number of properties at substantial climate risk.”For many, it is getting worse. This year insurance price hikes are expected to average 40%, according to the Insurance Information Institute. This follows a reported 50% climb during the DeSantis administration, industry analyst John Rollins found. The increases are forcing Florida homeowners to forgo coverage at nearly twice the national rate or quit the state altogether.Tracy-Ann Brown, 53, said by phone from Miami: “The prices are horrendous. Our insurance went up to $1,800 per month and I could not afford it with my husband’s salary and my salary put together. We had a home that we had to take the insurance off and, unfortunately, our house caught fire on Easter Sunday and we didn’t have insurance on it.”Brown, a community liaison specialist for public schools, added: “The insurance everywhere here is crazy from Broward all the way to Dade. I’ve asked so many people and they’ve said the same thing. Their insurance has gone sky high.”The report argues that the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation is dominated by industry insiders who approved insurance price hikes at greater rates than were seen under previous governors.“Evidence is mounting that big insurance has blocked proposals that would have lowered costs for consumers,” it continues. “A 2022 proposal by state senator Jeff Brandes claimed to reduce insurance and save Floridians ‘$750 million to $1 billion a year’ by allowing smaller insurance companies to access the catastrophic reinsurance fund. The insurance-heavy business lobby reportedly blocked the plan.”The authors draw a contrast with Louisiana, which they say has a more robust property casualty insurance market despite similar hurricane risks. Unlike DeSantis’s insurance industry handouts, they contend, Louisiana conditions its subsidies to the insurance industry on increased participation in the state property insurance market.Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said: “Floridians are suffering from the threat of floods, hurricanes and other natural disasters, and homeowners are increasingly at risk of losing it all because they simply cannot afford spiraling insurance premiums.”She added: “Where is the governor? Well, he has picked sides: when given the choice of helping Florida’s working families or doing the bidding of the insurance lobby, Ron DeSantis puts his donors first. This report joins the dots. We can’t allow DeSantis to dismantle the livelihoods of millions of Floridians in the service of corporate interests.”DeSantis has not yet formally announced a 2024 campaign but is expected to do so after Florida’s legislative session ends later this month. In the meantime he has travelled to early-voting states to promote his new book, has met with donors and just returned from an overseas trade mission.The governor has also become embroiled in a legal battle with Disney. Days after the company sued him in federal court for what it described as retaliation for opposing the state’s so-called “don’t say gay” bill, members of Disney World’s governing board – made up DeSantis appointees – filed a lawsuit to countersue the entertainment giant.A CBS News-YouGov poll released on Monday showed former president Donald Trump leading a hypothetical Republican primary field with 58% of the vote, followed by DeSantis with 22%.The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment. More

    • 113 Shares119 Views

      in US Politics

      Court upholds exclusion of transgender lawmaker from Montana legislature

      by

      Zooey Zephyr, the transgender state lawmaker silenced after telling Republicans they would have blood on their hands for opposing gender-affirming healthcare for kids, was barred from returning to the Montana house floor in a Tuesday court ruling hours before the legislature wrapped up its biennial session.A district court judge, Mike Menahan, said it was outside his authority to overrule lawmakers who voted last week to exclude Zephyr from the house floor and debates. He cited the importance of preserving the separation of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial branches.“Plaintiffs’ requested relief would require this court to interfere with legislative authority in a manner that exceeds this court’s authority,” Menahan wrote.The ruling and lawmakers’ decision to adjourn brought a sudden end to a standoff that put a national spotlight on transgender issues and the muffling of dissent in statehouses across the US.Democrats and the transgender community were outraged over Zephyr’s treatment. Republicans were indignant over the vehemence of the response.Attorneys for the state asked the judge to reject an emergency motion from Zephyr’s lawyers. The first-term lawmaker was silenced two weeks ago for admonishing Republicans, then banished from the floor for encouraging a statehouse protest.Zephyr told the Associated Press Menahan’s decision was “entirely wrong”.“It’s a really sad day for the country when the majority party can silence representation from the minority party whenever they take issue,” Zephyr said.An attorney for Zephyr, Alex Rate, said an appeal was being considered. But with the legislative session ending, a ruling would be of little immediate consequence.The punishment against Zephyr was through the end of the 2023 session. Since the Montana legislature convenes every two years, Zephyr would have to be re-elected in 2024 before she could return to the house floor.Lawyers working under the state attorney general, Austin Knudsen, cautioned that any intervention by the courts on Zephyr’s behalf would be a blatant violation of the separation of powers. They wrote in a court filing that the statehouse retains “exclusive constitutional authority” to discipline its own members.Knudsen, a Republican, issued a statement saying the lawsuit was an attempt by outside groups to interfere with the Montana lawmaking process.”Today’s decision is a win for the rule of law and the separation of powers enshrined in our constitution,” he said.Zephyr and several of her Missoula constituents on Monday filed court papers seeking an emergency order allowing her to return to the house floor. Democrats have denounced her exclusion from floor debates as an assault on free speech intended to silence her criticism of new restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors.But lawyers for the state said the censure of Zephyr was “for good cause” following the 24 April demonstration.“One legislator cannot be allowed to halt the ability of the other 99 to engage in civil, orderly, debate concerning issues affecting Montana,” state lawyers wrote.GOP leaders under pressure from hardline conservatives silenced Zephyr from participating in floor debates and demanded she apologize almost two weeks ago, after she said those who supported a ban on gender-affirming care for youths would have blood on their hands.On 24 April, Zephyr raised a microphone in defiance on the house floor as protesters in the gallery demanded she be allowed to speak and refused to leave. Seven were arrested on trespassing charges and two days later lawmakers voted along party lines to oust Zephyr from the floor and gallery.She has since been working from a bench in a hallway or at a statehouse snack bar.The actions against Zephyr have propelled her to political prominence. But in Montana, Republicans hope to capitalize on her high profile by painting Democrats as a party of extremists.The lawsuit seeking to reverse her punishment was filed by attorneys working with the Montana American Civil Liberties Union. It named the house speaker, Matt Regier, and sergeant-at-arms, Brad Murfitt, as defendants. More