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Post by mhbruin on Dec 24, 2023 9:31:45 GMT -8
Police go to riots early to beat the crowd.
The QOP Hunger Games
House Republicans' pursuit of a far-right policy goal that would disproportionately affect millions of their own constituents may end up costing them their razor-thin majority in 2024.
As part of their negotiations for the next farm bill, Republicans are insisting on instituting even stricter work requirements for the approximately 41 million recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), more commonly referred to as food stamps. However, Politico reports that should they be successful in implementing those new requirements, it would result in potentially millions of people no longer receiving food assistance — particularly residents of six GOP-controlled House districts in which more than 20% of households receive SNAP benefits.
"Starving your own constituents of food assistance is not only bad morals. It’s bad politics," Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-New York), whose district has the highest percentage of SNAP households in the US, told Politico.
You Really Ought to give Iowa a try!
Iowa will not participate this summer in a federal program that gives $40 per month to each child in a low-income family to help with food costs while school is out, state officials have announced.
The state has notified the U.S. Department of Agriculture that it will not participate in the 2024 Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children — or Summer EBT — program, the state's Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Education said in a Friday news release.
Oh, there's nothing halfway, About the Iowa way to treat you,
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 24, 2023 9:33:04 GMT -8
Joyce Has a Dream!
Reflecting on the Supreme Court's curt denial of special counsel Jack Smith's filing to intercede at the earliest date and rule on whether presidential immunity should be extended to Donald Trump's actions before and during the Jan. 6 riot, former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance presented a "fantasy scenario" that would create problems for the former president's legal team.
On her Civil Discourse Substack platform, Vance pointed out that Trump's attempt to slow-walk his multiple trials with "frivolous" motions that stand no chance of being successful are at the heart of his legal team's strategy. But the judges seated on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit could make their ruling quickly while at the same time giving Judge Tanya Chutkan the go-ahead to proceed with her schedule.
As Vance noted, Chutkan's trial of Trump is dead in the water due to a stay from the court while it considers the issue of presidential immunity and how it applies to Trump's actions.
In her "fantasy scenario," Vance claimed the judges could lift the stay which would take away the ability of Trump to stall his appeal to the Supreme Court and delay the proceedings even more.
"The fantasy scenario obviously depends on a lot of things going right, and it’s too early to have any sense about whether this is even a possibility," the former prosecutor conceded. "Although the court of appeals is on a fast track, we don’t know how long it will take them to issue a decision. Trump will presumably play out the time to ask for rehearing to the full extent possible."
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 24, 2023 9:40:35 GMT -8
We Have Ways of Making You Vote For Us ... Or At Least Making You Abstain
A former TV journalist who announced she would challenge President Putin in Russia's spring election has been barred from standing.
Independent politician Yekaterina Duntsova wanted to run on a platform to end the war with Ukraine.
But the electoral commission voted unanimously to reject her candidacy three days after her application, citing 100 "mistakes" on her form.
Ms Duntsova said she would appeal the decision at the Supreme Court.
The presidential election, which will be held in March 2024, is Russia's first since President Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago.
The immediate slap-down of a Putin critic will be seen as evidence by some that no dissent will be tolerated in the campaign.
The head of Russia's electoral commission, Ella Pamfilova, said Ms Duntsova would not be allowed to progress to the next stage of gathering thousands of supporters' signatures.
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 24, 2023 9:45:26 GMT -8
Nine Alibi Witnesses? He Must Be GuiltyThree aviation experts have written letters to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in support of a bid for clemency by a state prisoner nicknamed the “ninja killer,” who has been fighting to overturn his murder conviction for more than 30 years. The letters, which were delivered to Whitmer’s office by Temujin Kensu’s legal team on Dec. 5, cast doubt on the sensational theory presented at trial that the then-23-year-old could have chartered a private plane to fly him from one end of the state to the other, shot the victim and returned home without leaving a trace. “It’s so improbable it’s unbelievable,” said Harvey Setter, 82, who wrote one of the letters. Setter, now retired, managed the Delta County Airport in Escanaba, Michigan, between 1982 and 1999. The two other letters were written by the former owner of an airport service station and a commercial pilot, who both offered a similar assessment to Setter’s, based on their knowledge of local airports connected to the case and past experience with the key witness behind the plane theory. The men say they were not previously contacted by authorities. Kensu, now 60, has insisted since his arrest that he had nothing to do with the fatal shooting of Scott Macklem, 20, a student at St. Clair Community College, in a campus parking lot in 1986. No physical evidence has ever connected Kensu to the murder. At trial, nine alibi witnesses placed him in Escanaba — more than 400 miles away from the crime scene — in the hours before and after the murder. Yet Kensu was convicted of murder in 1987 and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Since his conviction, investigators and attorneys have uncovered additional evidence they say points to his innocence, including the recantation of a jailhouse informant’s testimony and additional alibi witnesses who did not testify at trial. Kensu’s case has been championed by high-profile supporters, including the late Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan. Aviation experts dispute plane theory used to convict Michigan’s ‘ninja killer’
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 24, 2023 9:49:39 GMT -8
Who Won the Week?
Democracy in Wisconsin, as the state Supreme Court strikes down the current legislative district maps and orders un-gerrymandered ones for 2024
Pope Francis, for causing a meltdown in the snowflake wing of the Catholic Church by giving priests the green light to give blessings to same-sex couples
Federal Judge Rossie Alston, for allowing the removal of a Confederate traitor monument in Arlington Cemetery after learning that groups who filed a suit to save it lied to him
Karma, as Joe Biden's campaign finance committee holds its winter meeting at the former Trump International Hotel in D.C. and reports more cash on hand than the entire GOP field and more than 2x as much as Trump
Federal Judge Beryl Howell, for ordering Rudy Giuliani to fork over the millions a jury awarded to the two former Georgia election workers he defamed and terrorized
The plaintiffs who convinced the Colorado Supreme Court that Trump can't be on the primary ballot there because he violated the 14th Amendment against insurrection and aid/comfort to the enemy
President Biden: Consumer confidence up, inflation down; ACA signups on record pace is a BFD; pardons thousands convicted of marijuana charges; reelection campaign attracting lots of $$$
Pine View School (FL) grad Zander Moricz, who went viral for deftly shaming "Moms for Liberty" co-founder, book banner, and Sarasota school board member Bridget Ziegler to her face at a school board meeting
NASA's Pootie Force, for successfully beaming ultra-high definition video of a cat named Taters back to Earth from 19 million miles away
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 24, 2023 9:52:52 GMT -8
A New ArgentinaOver the past two weeks, the owner of a hip wine bar in Buenos Aires saw the price of beef soar 73 percent, while the zucchini he puts in salads rose 140 percent. An Uber driver paid 60 percent more to fill her tank. And a father said he spent twice as much on diapers for his toddler than he did last month. In Argentina, a country synonymous with galloping inflation, people are used to paying more for just about everything. But under the country’s new president, life is quickly becoming even more painful. When Javier Milei was elected president on Nov. 19, the country was already suffering under the world’s third-highest rate of inflation, with prices up 160 percent from a year before. But since Mr. Milei took office on Dec. 10 and quickly devalued the Argentine currency, prices have soared at such a dizzying pace that many in this South American country of 46 million are running new calculations on how their businesses or households can survive the far deeper economic crunch the country is already enduring. “Since Milei won, we’ve been worried all the time,” said Fernando González Galli, 36, a high school philosophy teacher in Buenos Aires. Mr. Galli has been trying to cut back without making life worse for his two daughters, who are 6 years and 18 months old, including switching to a cheaper brand of diapers and racing to spend his Argentine pesos before their value disintegrates even further. “As soon as I get my paycheck, I go buy everything I can,” he said. Under Argentina’s New President, Fuel Is Up 60%, and Diaper Prices Have DoubledCry for Argentina
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 24, 2023 10:00:26 GMT -8
They're Not Jumping Jack Flash, But It's Gas, Gas, Gas
A Russian brigade said it had dropped tear gas on a Ukrainian position in what would be a violation of international law.
Russia's Black Sea Fleet's 810th Naval Infantry Brigade wrote a message on Telegram about "a radical change in tactics," which included dropping K-51 grenades from drones onto enemy positions.
They said this tactic had been adopted to smoke them out from their fortified positions and then strike fleeing troops with combined weapons.
They also released a grainy drone video appearing to show the grenade being dropped, followed by smoke billowing from the target, against Ukrainian forces in Krynky, on the eastern bank of the Dnipro river.
The Russian K-51 aerosol grenades are filled with CS gas, which is a type of tear gas used for riot control, according to the think tank the Institute of the Study of War.
Tear gas is a flammable chemical agent that can cause severe eye, respiratory, and skin irritation and, in particularly high concentrations, permanent injuries and death.
Using tear gas and other riot control agents as a method of warfare is a violation of the United Nations Chemical Weapons Convention, to which Russia is a party.
The ISW said it had previously observed Russian forces using K-51 grenades against Ukrainian positions in Donetsk in November 2022.
The admission of the 810th Naval Infantry Brigade comes after Ukrainian troops told CNN about a recent surge in the use of tear gas on the front lines.
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