Always treat others with respect and kindness, even if you disagree with them. Avoid making personal attacks or insulting others, and try to maintain a civil and constructive tone in your discussions.
- Manlobbi
Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
No. of Recommendations: 9
All of President Donald J. Trump’s lobbying for the Nobel Peace Prize came to naught today as the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded this year’s prize to María Corina Machado of Venezuela. Machado has led a movement to challenge Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, President Nicolás Maduro. The committee cited “her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”
When she learned of the award, Ms. Machado responded “This is an achievement of a whole society. I am just, you know, one person. I certainly do not deserve this.”
White House communications director Steven Cheung responded: “The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace.”
Russian president Vladimir Putin said the committee’s “credibility has largely been lost,” prompting Trump to thank him on social media.
That Trump and his loyalists are standing with the autocrat Putin rather than democracy is clearer every day.
Federal agents in Chicago have been targeting journalists, and yesterday, U.S. District Judge Sara L. Ellis granted a two-week temporary restraining order prohibiting federal agents in Chicago from “[d]ispersing, arresting, threatening to arrest, threatening or using physical force against any person whom they know or reasonably should know is a Journalist, unless Defendants have probable cause to believe that the individual has committed a crime.”
Today, masked border patrol agents pinned WGN-TV producer Debbie Brockman to the ground and arrested her after she recorded agents detaining a Latino man. The agents said she had been detained for “obstruction.” Later, Homeland Security assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin accused Brockman of throwing “objects” at a Border Patrol vehicle and said she was arrested “for assault on a federal law enforcement officer.”
According to WGN, Brockman was later released without charges against her. But the agents accomplished their goal of terrorizing a journalist as a warning to others.
Yesterday a second Republican governor, Phil Scott of Vermont, opposed the administration’s deployment of federalized National Guard troops to Chicago and to Portland, Oregon. “I don’t think our guard should be used against our own people. I don’t think the military should be used against our own people. In fact, it’s unconstitutional,” Scott said. “Unless, of course, there’s an insurrection, much like we saw January 6 a few years ago.”
ICE agents denied Illinois senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, both Democrats, access to the Broadview, Illinois, ICE facility today, although Congress members have the right to conduct oversight. Durbin noted that this was their fourth attempt to access ICE facilities. “I’ve never had this kind of stonewalling by any presidential administration. Something’s going on in there that they don’t want us to see. I don’t know what it is, but all Americans should be asking the same question: ‘What is it? Can you justify it under the Constitution?’”
Nandita Bose, Jana Winter, Jeff Mason, Tim Reid, and Ted Hesson of Reuters reported on Thursday that White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller is playing a central role in the administration’s crackdown on opponents. The administration is threatening to target funding behind what the administration calls “domestic terror networks,” those it claims embrace “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity.”
House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) got into the act of attacking the administration’s opponents today, claiming that the Democratic senators holding out for the extension of the premium tax credits so that healthcare premiums don’t skyrocket—a position supported by 78% of Americans—are taking that position only because they’re afraid of anti-Trumpers. Johnson called the October 18 No Kings rally a “hate America rally” of “[t]he antifa crowd, the pro-Hamas crowd, and the Marxists…. It is an outrageous gathering for outrageous purposes,” he said.
Majority whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) joined in, calling those who are taking a stand against Trump’s destruction of the nation’s constitutional checks and balances “the terrorist wing” of the Democratic Party, saying it “is set to hold…a hate America rally in [Washington, D.C.] next week.” Legal scholar David Noll noted that it’s “interesting that if you say the [C]onstitution creates a separation of powers systems in which there are no kings, they think you hate [A]merica.”
Josh Dawsey reported in the Wall Street Journal today that administrative officials joke about ruling Congress with an “iron fist” and that Trump ally Steve Bannon has compared Congress to Russia’s largely ceremonial Duma.
Today House speaker Johnson announced he would cancel another week’s session, making four weeks he has kept House members from their jobs. Johnson first sent the members home on September 19. Staying out of session means not working on the budget that is overdue or hammering out the necessary appropriations bills. It means not working on figuring out a way to extend the healthcare premium tax credits that Democrats are demanding.
It also means not swearing in Representative Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ), who won election on September 23 and who will provide the 218th vote on a discharge petition to trigger a vote on a measure requiring the release of the files the government has on the investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The administration is trying to ram its will through Congress. Republicans have tried to pin the blame for the shutdown on Democrats, sending automatic out-of-office email replies that blame Democrats for the shutdown, for example, in violation of the Hatch Act that prohibits using government resources for partisan purposes. As the shutdown drags on and most Americans blame Republicans, their efforts to shift the blame are ratcheting up. Now the administration has posted a video at airport Transportation Security Administration (TSA) lines featuring Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem saying that operations are impacted because “Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government.”
Immigration lawyer Aaron Reichlin-Melnick commented: “Can you think of a single movie in which there is a video from the government denouncing its political opponents playing on a loop in public spaces in which that government was the good guy?”
Natalie Allison and Riley Beggin of the Washington Post reported yesterday that members of the administration have not engaged with Democrats at all to negotiate an end to the shutdown. Tonight the Washington Post’s Hannah Natanson, Meryl Kornfield, and Jacob Bogage reported that the administration has begun another round of firings to put more pressure on the Democrats, although legal analysts say such layoffs are illegal. Trump told reporters they were laying off “people that the Democrats want.”
Labor unions sued preemptively to prevent the layoffs after Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought threatened he would use a shutdown to slash more of the government.
Among the duties of Congress Trump has taken into his own hands are tariff duties, authority for which the Constitution gives solely to Congress. Nonetheless, Trump is continuing to monkey with tariff rates. This morning he posted on social media that “[s]ome very strange things are happening in China!” China is the world’s largest producer of the rare earth minerals necessary for a wide range of manufacturing, including robotics, electric vehicles, and electronics. Yesterday, Chinese officials restricted exports of the minerals. In his post, Trump threatened to retaliate against China and suggested that there was no reason to go through with an upcoming meeting with China’s president Xi Jinping.
Trump’s threat sent stock prices tumbling.
After the stock market closed for the day, Trump posted on social media again, saying he would impose tariffs of 100% on products from China beginning on November 1. This levy is on top of current tariffs. Stocks fell further in after-market trading
Heather Cox Richardson
No. of Recommendations: 1
And then there's the 8 years or so in the life of Sheeple ---in multiple "Western Democracies"
"Today another piece of my democracy got taken away. Baaaaaaaaaaa"
Mind you, it's not a big deal because the "democracy"! Cries are bullshit.
No. of Recommendations: 18
Notice how only two minutes separate my post and Jedi’s reply?
Notice how it takes at least two minutes to read my repost of HCR?
Notice how Jedi took at least 1 minute to type his reply to my post?
Notice how Jedi doesn’t even bother to read what he so angrily responds to?
Notice……how Jedi is nothing more than a garbage spewing troll??
No. of Recommendations: 6
It's been obvious for quite a while now.
Trump is ProFa.
White House communications director Steven Cheung responded: “The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace.”
Russian president Vladimir Putin said the committee’s “credibility has largely been lost,” prompting Trump to thank him on social media.
That Trump and his loyalists are standing with the autocrat Putin rather than democracy is clearer every day.
No. of Recommendations: 1
HEE HEE.
Personal attack is again responded to with real events :)
Your democracy is getting shit on and punished by Trump :)
You can't do shit about it other than say "WaPO!!!!!"
How cool is it that punishment is real and now - permanent?
You can have the recs.
I'll keep the real events......and keep hurling them.
\Multi-facet attack taking place 24/7?
ps: Thannk's for once again showing how closely you read my posts :) And how closely i dont read yours. But congratulations! A rare original thought from you versus Sheeple Copy and Paste. Personal attack is your superpower. Shredding your fdemocracy and punishing all you pretend to value - is mine :) I'm content with that trade.
No. of Recommendations: 4
Notice……how Jedi is nothing more than a garbage spewing troll??
I notice how Jedi gets you all upset and can read and absorb
faster than you.
No. of Recommendations: 10
Notice how Jedi doesn’t even bother to read what he so angrily responds to?
And his responses are by and large unintelligible. Just block him. Not worth any effort because he doesn't put in any effort to communicate. That's his brand.
No. of Recommendations: 3
I notice how Jedi gets you all upset and can read and absorb
faster than you.
A troll defends another troll.
No. of Recommendations: 4
And his responses are by and large unintelligible. Just block him. Not worth any effort because he doesn't put in any effort to communicate. That's his brand.
Only because you don’t understand where Jedi is coming from.
The lessons started many years ago at TMF, guess you missed them.
I especially love his sense of humor, that probably goes over your head too.
No. of Recommendations: 3
Uh oh, more attacks from Sheeple.
Sheeple, now France will need to have a debt problem.
See what you did now???
Oh, wait, I forgot. For you it's all about copying and pasting, and cancelling WaPO - real events don't matter to you :)
But they do to me.
Boom. I'm winning.
No. of Recommendations: 3
Thanks LM!
Well at least maybe i'm giving you and Dope the morning off from Sheeple's personal attacks.
No. of Recommendations: 4
A troll defends another troll.
du er en idiottroll
No. of Recommendations: 3
Well at least maybe i'm giving you and Dope the morning off from Sheeple's personal attacks.
Yep, time to sign off and start fixings for lunch.
Dear son and sweetheart will be arriving to spend the weekend
with us and they go to the Packer game tomorrow.
Have a good weekend holding down the Fort.
Don’t let the Troll hunters bother you, they are no match for you
and Dope 😊
No. of Recommendations: 2
I especially love his sense of humor, that probably goes over your head too.
You meant "down the toilet", which explains why it is ALL over any RWNJ's head.
No. of Recommendations: 3
Trump fixed the toilet problem.
Just one more thing we had to defeat Liberal tyranny on.
No. of Recommendations: 1
Trump fixed the toilet problem.
A large cork up his butt.
No. of Recommendations: 3
Durbin noted that this was their fourth attempt to access ICE facilities.
------------
Did he make an appointment for any of these visits?
No. of Recommendations: 12
BMH: Did he make an appointment for any of these visits?
They don't need to Mike, see below.
Language found in annual appropriations acts gives members of Congress, including senators, the right to conduct unannounced oversight visits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities. This authority is derived from the power of the purse granted to Congress by the Constitution, which allows it to set conditions on how federal funds are spent.
The specific language, which has been included in appropriations law for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), states that funds may not be used to prevent certain individuals, including members of Congress, from entering DHS-operated facilities for oversight purposes.
Key details on oversight authority
Source of authority: The power comes from appropriations acts passed by Congress each year, which provide funding for DHS.
Annual inclusion: The provision is not a permanent part of the U.S. Code but is regularly reauthorized through annual spending bills.
Unannounced visits: The appropriations language explicitly states that prior notice is not required for a member of Congress to enter a facility for oversight.
Distinction between members and staff: While a member of Congress does not need to provide notice, ICE's policy requires congressional staff to give at least 24 hours' notice.
Ask if an appointment is necessary first, Mike.
No. of Recommendations: 3
Did he make an appointment for any of these visits?
Didn’t you learn this from the dust up earlier this year at a different ICE facility?
Members of Congress don’t need appointments. They are allowed to visit unannounced.
And it makes sense. If Congress is to have oversight - and they do - they need to be able to make surprise visits.
If you were a manager if multiple facilities, wouldn’t you make surprise visits to the facilities from time to time to see the real conditions and not the potentially dressed up conditions that could be accomplished with a scheduled visit?
—Peter
No. of Recommendations: 6
MAGA always looking for a rationalisation! What does it take to realize that we are on the wrong path??
Aussi
No. of Recommendations: 1
BMH: Did he make an appointment for any of these visits?
They don't need to Mike, see below. = Lambo
-----------------
Language is clear. I didn't know this. I wonder why DHS was singled out for this special treatment.
No. of Recommendations: 7
I wonder why DHS was singled out for this special treatment.Just ask AI.
Historical context: The practice of unannounced oversight visits by Congress has a long history, dating back to President Harry S. Truman’s time as a senator, when he conducted surprise inspections to investigate wartime contractor abuse.
https://tinyurl.com/3x46ez4w
No. of Recommendations: 2
MAGA always looking for a rationalisation! What does it take to realize that we are on the wrong path??
A suspension of the Constitution, and "seditionists" disappearing in the night? Just a guess.
No. of Recommendations: 2
A suspension of the Constitution, and "seditionists" disappearing in the night?
As long as those “seditionists” are black, brown, or Democrats, the MAGA crowd won’t have a problem.
There won’t be a change until rank and file MAGAts feel the pain personally, whether that’s in their pocketbook or their personal liberty. Until then, it’s all good in their eyes.
—Peter
