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Post by Webster on Apr 17, 2023 19:25:39 GMT -5
(The Guardian) You’ve probably heard of progressive demands for a $15 minimum wage, but in a column for the Guardian’s opinion pages, senator Bernie Sanders argues that a fair minimum wage is actually $17 an hour. Don’t expect a minimum wage increase to pass Congress anytime soon, but Sanders’s proposal may prove influential at the state and local level, where activists have had success in raising wages. Have a read of the senator’s argument: Congress can no longer ignore the needs of the working class of this country. At a time of massive and growing income and wealth inequality and record-breaking corporate profits, we must stand up for working families – many of whom are struggling every day to provide a minimal standard of living for their families.
One important way to do that is to raise the federal minimum wage to a living wage. In the year 2023, nobody in the US should be forced to work for starvation wages. It should be a basic truism that in the US, the richest country on earth, if you work 40 hours a week you do not live in poverty. Raising the minimum wage is not only the right thing to do morally. It is also good economics. Putting money into the hands of people who will spend it on basic needs is a strong economic stimulant.
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Post by Webster on May 1, 2023 12:04:21 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Democratic senator Cardin standing downLong-serving Democratic senator Ben Cardin of Maryland is expected to announce his retirement Monday after serving three terms, opening a rare vacancy in the chamber ahead of the 2024 election, according to the Associated Press, citing his spokesperson. The 79-year-old plans to release a statement saying he will not seek reelection. His retirement is likely to create a highly competitive Democratic primary to replace him as the party faces a tough electoral map to maintain its slim majority next year. Cardin has served in the Senate since 2006, when he won a seat to replace retiring Democrat Paul Sarbanes. Before that, he was a congressman who represented a large part of Baltimore and several nearby suburbs, winning his first House race in 1986. During his tenure in the Senate, Cardin has been a leader on health care, retirement security, the environment and fiscal issues. The senator has been a leading advocate for clean water and the Chesapeake Bay, the nation’s largest estuary, which flows in his home state. No reason for his decision was given.
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Post by Webster on May 1, 2023 21:54:29 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Senior Democrat Jamie Raskin – the Maryland congressman – has paid tribute to his friend Ben Cardin, his state’s US senator who has announced he’s standing down after three terms in office: After 58 years of integrity-filled public service, where he showed his prodigious work ethic from Annapolis to Washington, senator Ben Cardin has assembled a remarkable record of advancing the needs and priorities of Maryland.
I salute him and have congratulated him on a truly amazing and inspiring career devoted to service of our people and the old-fashioned public values of honesty and decency. I want to thank him, his beloved wife Myrna and their whole family for their outstanding and continuing contributions to our state.
In his own statement saying he had given his “heart and soul” to the state, Cardin said he would remain in office until the 2024 election: There is still much work to be done. During the next two years, I will continue to travel around the state, listening to Marylanders and responding to their needs. My top priorities include continuing our progress for the Chesapeake Bay, helping the people of Baltimore city deal with the challenges they face, and permanently expanding opportunities for telehealth, mental and behavioral health.
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Post by Webster on May 2, 2023 12:33:52 GMT -5
(The Guardian) AOC: California senator Dianne Feinstein 'should retire'New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said late on Monday that the California senator Dianne Feinstein should resign, as Feinstein faces mounting pressure from her party to step down amid absences from the Senate. Ocasio-Cortez posted her thoughts on the app Bluesky, writing that Feinstein should “should retire”, CNN reported. “I think criticisms of that stance as ‘anti-feminist’ are a farce,” Ocasio-Cortez added. Feinstein, who has already said she will retire from Congress at the end of 2024, has been absent from the Senate as she recovers from a bout of shingles. Feinstein is a member of the Senate judiciary committee, which has had problems processing judicial nominations amid her absence. “Her refusal to either retire or show up is causing great harm to the judiciary – precisely where repro rights are getting stripped. That failure means now in this precious window Dems can only pass GOP- approved nominees,” said Ocasio-Cortez on social media.
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Post by Webster on May 3, 2023 12:59:23 GMT -5
(The Guardian) US rep launches campaign to unseat Ted CruzUS Democratic representative and former NFL player Colin Allred announced a run for Ted Cruz’s Senate seat this morning, teeing up what will likely be a closely watched race in 2024. Allred ousted former Republican representative Pete Sessions during the 2018 midterms. Session had been in Congress since 1997 and was in key House committees. In a campaign ad released this morning, Allred can be seen standing in a football field. “When I left the NFL, I thought my days of putting people on the ground were over. Then January 6th happened,” he said. He recalled the smashing of the glass and the shouts. He texted his wife “I love you” and then “took off my jacket and got ready to take on anyone who came through that door”. “And Ted Cruz? He cheered on the mob. He hid in a supply closet when they stormed the Capitol. That’s Ted Cruz for you – all hat, no cattle.” Cruz is a holdout from the Tea Party wave, coming into the Senate in 2012 and making himself known as a staunch conservative. Allred will be the Democrats’ second big attempt to unseat Cruz. In 2018, former US representative Beto O’Rourke lost to Cruz by 2.6%. “The political extremism that we are becoming increasingly known for is a real risk to our business community and our path forward,” Allred told the Dallas Morning News. “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.”
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Post by Webster on May 3, 2023 13:06:54 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Jim Clyburn, a key Democratic House representative from South Carolina who served as House majority whip, endorsed fellow Democratic representative Barbara Lee in her three-way race for senator Dianne Feinstein’s seat in California. The endorsement shows the upcoming rifts in the Democratic party over the race: former House speaker Nancy Pelosi endorsed representative Adam Schiff, known for chairing the House’s key intelligence committee. In a statement Wednesday, Clyburn said that Lee “is the voice Americans need now in the US Senate” and “she stands by what she believes in, and she doesn’t back down”. Clyburn played an important role in the 2020 election, helping Biden clinch the nomination in South Carolina during the early Democratic primaries.
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.
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Post by Webster on May 3, 2023 13:07:19 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on May 5, 2023 15:36:08 GMT -5
(The Guardian) “How Rep. James Clyburn Protected His District at a Cost to Black Democrats” is the alarming ProPublica headline. Here’s the investigative website’s standfirst to go with their scoop: “Facing the possibility of an unsafe district, South Carolina’s most powerful Democrat sent his aide to consult with the GOP on a redistricting plan that diluted Black voting strength and harmed his party’s chances of gaining seats in Congress.” According to ProPublica, a Clyburn spokesperson acknowledged that the office “engaged in discussions regarding the boundaries of the 6th Congressional District by responding to inquiries” but did not reveal the extent of Clyburn’s role. “Any accusation that Congressman Clyburn in any way enabled or facilitated Republican gerrymandering that wouldn’t have otherwise occurred is fanciful,” Clyburn’s office said in a statement to the outlet. -Read more: www.propublica.org/article/how-rep-james-clyburn-protected-his-district-at-a-cost-to-black-democrats
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Post by Webster on May 18, 2023 16:09:45 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Amid continued focus on the health of the California senator Dianne Feinstein, who recently returned to Washington after a long absence with shingles, the New York Times reports that the 89-year-old, who has appeared frail and sometimes confused, continues to be the cause of much concern for her party: The grim tableau of her re-emergence on Capitol Hill laid bare a bleak reality known to virtually everyone who has come into contact with her in recent days: She was far from ready to return to work when she did, and she is now struggling to function in a job that demands long days, near-constant engagement on an array of crucial policy issues and high-stakes decision-making.
Ms Feinstein’s office declined to comment for this article beyond providing a statement from the senator: “I’m back in Washington, voting and attending committee meetings while I recover from complications related to a shingles diagnosis. I continue to work and get results for California.”The Times also notes the resurfacing of “questions about whether Ms Feinstein, who has announced she will retire when her term ends next year, is fit to continue serving even for that long”. Feinstein’s absence hamstrung Democrats on the Senate judiciary committee, on which she sits. On Wednesday its chair, Dick Durbin, told CNN: “We’re happy to have her back. We’re monitoring her medical condition almost on a daily basis. Our staff is in touch with her staff.” Senior Democrats including the former House intelligence chair and impeachment lead Adam Schiff are running to succeed Feinstein but, the Times report says somewhat mordantly: “People close to her joke privately that perhaps when Ms Feinstein is dead, she will start to consider resigning.”
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Post by Webster on May 19, 2023 16:17:13 GMT -5
(The Guardian) US debt limit talks hit 'impasse' – reportsNegotiations between representatives of Joe Biden and Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy to raise the US debt ceiling ahead of the 1 June deadline for a potential default have broken down, according to reporters at the US Capitol. ABC News says that Garret Graves, who McCarthy appointed earlier this week to negotiate with the White House, described the talks as on “pause”: Punchbowl News cited a source saying the two sides are at an “impasse”: The GOP has demanded spending cuts and the cancellation of Biden’s student debt relief program in exchange for their votes to raise the government’s legal borrowing limit before it runs out of money, which is predicted to happen in about two weeks. After months of resisting talks, Biden this week agreed to have his deputies sit down with McCarthy’s team to hash out a deal.
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Post by Webster on May 19, 2023 16:21:22 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Amid reports that negotiations over raising the debt ceiling have broken down, the top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell is out with a tweet blaming Joe Biden for the impasse: Kevin McCarthy and the House Republicans have taken the lead on negotiating with the White House on a deal, but the Senate will eventually have to vote on whatever bill emerges from the talks – assuming that happens.
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Post by Webster on May 19, 2023 16:26:13 GMT -5
(The Guardian) 'We're not there', Graves reportedly says as talks pausedHere’s more of the grim assessment of the debt ceiling talks given by Garret Graves, the House Republican appointed by Kevin McCarthy to negotiate with the White House. “We’re not there,” he told reporters as he departed a meeting with Joe Biden’s officials, the Wall Street Journal said. “We’ve decided to press pause because it’s just not productive.” He said he was not sure if the two sides would be getting together over the weekend. “Until people are willing to have reasonable conversations about how you can actually move forward and do the right thing, then we’re not going to sit here and talk to ourselves,” he added. The Journal also saw Biden’s negotiators, director of the White House office of management and budget Shalanda Young and adviser Steve Ricchetti, leaving the meeting. Asked if the two sides would meet again today, Ricchetti replied, “playing by ear.” Donald Trump tells Republicans 'do not fold' an hour before news of impasseAbout an hour ago, and just a few minutes before reports emerged that the debt limit talks had broken down, Donald Trump called for the GOP to demand, well, “everything” in the negotiations. Here’s what he wrote on Truth social: REPUBLICANS SHOULD NOT MAKE A DEAL ON THE DEBT CEILING UNLESS THEY GET EVERYTHING THEY WANT (Including the “kitchen sink”). THAT’S THE WAY THE DEMOCRATS HAVE ALWAYS DEALT WITH US. DO NOT FOLD!!! White House says 'talks will be difficult' in debt limit deal“Real differences” exist between the two sides in the negotiations over raising the debt ceiling, a White House official told the Guardian after Republican lawmakers said they were pausing their participation in the ongoing talks. “There are real differences between the parties on budget issues and talks will be difficult. The President’s team is working hard towards a reasonable bipartisan solution that can pass the House and the Senate,” the official said.
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Post by Webster on May 19, 2023 16:30:14 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on May 30, 2023 14:40:27 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Utah representative Chris Stewart will resign from the House due to his wife’s health issues, according to sources familiar with the matter. The Salt Lake Tribune first reported that Stewart will probably step down from office as early as this week, shrinking the Republican majority in the House. The Tribune did not confirm what health issues Stewart’s wife is dealing with. Stewart was first elected in 2012 and is serving his sixth term in the House. Many believed Stewart would leave his House seat to unseat Mitt Romney as US senator for Utah, the Tribune reported. Stewart’s departure will kick off a special election in the House, organized by the Utah governor’s office.
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Post by Webster on Jun 1, 2023 19:49:35 GMT -5
(Red State) The Los Angeles Dodgers have been in the news as of late but for all the wrong reasons—they’re facing serious outrage over their decision to host the Catholic-mocking LGBTQ group “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” on June 16 and hand them a “Community Hero” award. The team is back in the news Thursday, but this time for a different and less-controversial reason: former Dodgers first baseman and 1974 National League MVP Steve Garvey is exploring a run for the Senate seat that will be left open when Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) retires at the end of her term in 2024. It should be noted, however, that the ailing Democrat could step down before the next election, which would allow Gov. Gavin Newsom to appoint a replacement. Garvey, now 74, has never held political office before but has reportedly been meeting with the powers that be: The 74-year-old has never held elected office but has been meeting with GOP donors and leaders around the state as he weighs a bid and is expected to make a decision within the next month or so. Republican strategist Andy Gharakhani, who is advising Garvey, confirmed that the Palm Desert resident is weighing a campaign. “He is being contacted by leaders up and down the state. They’re recruiting him to run from both sides, Republican and Democrat, and he’s seriously considering it,” said Gharakhani, executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of New Majority, an influential business-minded donor group. “We should have a decision made here in the next few weeks.”
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