Thank goodness Supreme Court justices have such high regard for precedent as they stated during their confirmation hearings. If I had not heard them say so with my own ears, I might think they do not.
The current state of affairs is (partially) a result of Democrats not holding the #Senate majority.
The Senate is an important political body and because it gives extraordinary powers to the minority, it is critical to control this body, no matter who’s #POTUS.
#Colorado, #NewYork & #Utah wrap up this phase of the 2024 #primaries w/their state primaries. Utah's open U.S. #Senate seat & a handful of competitive U.S. #House districts in New York & Colorado are the ones to watch.
#MittRomney will be replaced by a guy who sure sounds a lot like Mitt Romney.
#Republican Rep #JohnCurtis, who has occasionally bucked #Trump, won a crowded #GOP#primary on Tues for Romney’s #Utah#Senate seat. He beat Trent Staggs, a #MAGA candidate w/ Trump’s blessing, to secure a win for the mainstream GOP in a devout #Mormon state that has long proved skeptical of Trumpian #politics.
“What today’s bill does is return things to the status quo set by Trump, saying bump stocks are dangerous & should be prohibited,” Sen ChuckSchumer…said Tues. “#Senate#Republicans …supported #Trump’s ban on bump stocks back then, so they should support this bill today.”
#RyanSelkis, a #cryptocurrency exec, was eating dinner at Mar-a-Lago last month when he got an unexpected invitation: #Trump wanted him to come to the stage & say a few words.
#Selkis, who runs the crypto data firm #Messari, was at an event for Trump’s #NFTs.
“There’s 50 million crypto holders in the US. That’s a lot of voters,” Selkis declared.
…voters’ supposed passion for #crypto may be less important than the industry’s #campaign#WarChest. #Ripple, #Coinbase & the VC firm #AndreessenHorowitz have each donated ~$50M to the crypto #PACs, which plan to spend those funds in several competitive #Senate races. In March, the largest #PAC, #Fairshake, spent ~$10M on attack ads against Rep #KatiePorter, a Dem candidate in the Cali Senate primary who was allied w/ Senator #ElizabethWarren, a longtime crypto critic. Porter lost her race.
#Women are still being charged for #contraception even though federal #law dictates it should be free. The chair of the #Senate#health cmte wants a govt watchdog to investigate why.
Under the #ACA, health plans are required to provide #BirthControl to patients as a #preventive. Repeated probes have found that plans flout the law & #patients are asked to pay, Sen #BernieSanders said in a letter being sent Mon to the Govt #Accountability Office.
…the #judiciary is an equal branch of #government & congressional #Democrats have limited opportunities to enact concrete changes.…
#Republicans, who control the #House, oppose legislation to tighten ethical guidelines for the justices & have portrayed overhaul as a political effort to damage the legitimacy of a #conservative#SCOTUS that has delivered them major victories on #abortion & other issues [+ they worked decades to install this court].
Alex Aronson, exec dir of the oversight group #CourtAccountability, said in a stmnt that #Senate#Judiciary Chairman Dick #Durbin (D-IL) has taken a less confrontational approach on the ethics controversies because he has wanted to speed through the appointment of #liberal#judges to lower courts, so he has tried not to ruffle the feathers of #Republicans who could hold up that process.
Today, we're talking about new revelations about the abuse #DrFauci experienced while working for Trump, a terrible decision from the Supreme Court on guns, Trump endorsing #LarryHogan and what it means for the #Senate, a few words on why #Republicans are doubling down, and more.
In our system of governance, #POTUS is not a dictator. Whatever new laws someone dreams up to make this a better place to live must be passed by #House & #Senate, which POTUS has no control over. Should one desire POTUS to solve all of one's problems, what one desires is a cult leader. For those who feel this way, Trump is your traitor! For those wishing to help him, a vote for Jill Stein or RFK Jr's brain worm will suffice. I'd rather our democracy stuck around for a bit longer. #Biden
The bill that cleared the #House sets up a clash — & likely a prolonged negotiation — w/the Democratic-controlled #Senate as the 2 chambers work to reconcile & merge their separate versions of the #legislation in the months ahead. Earlier Fri, the Senate #ArmedServices Cmte released its version of the #NDAA totaling $923.3B.
This is exactly what happened last year, a fact many Democrats lamented angrily on the House floor this week.
The #US Constitution states that the President: "shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the #Senate, to make Treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur". ⏩
So while this Agreement has a 10-year (extendable) term, nothing precludes it from being terminated prior to then. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), better known as the #Iran nuclear deal, is a good example of how little staying power non-treaty agreements have. President #Trump was able to withdraw from the agreement without consent from #Congress because President #Obama did not submit it as a treaty to the #Senate. ⏩
#Senate#Judiciary Committee uncovers 3 additional undisclosed trips that Justice #ClarenceThomas took as a gift from #HarlanCrow. These were not included even in Thomas' revised financial disclosure.
Info was obtained via the cmte's subpoena authorization for Crow.
Durbin: "The #Senate#Judiciary Committee's ongoing investigation into the #SupremeCourt's ethical crisis is producing new information... & makes it crystal clear that the highest court needs an #enforceable#CodeOfConduct, bc its members continue to choose not to meet the moment"
The #SCOTUS justice flew to Montana & other destinations on the #billionaire#GOP#megadonor’s dime. Crow’s lawyer revealed these flights to the Senate #Judiciary Committee, whose ongoing investigation was sparked by #ProPublica’s reporting.
3½ yrs ago, Trump incited a violent #insurrection at the Capitol in a bid to overturn Joe #Biden’s election victory & remain in power, a special #House cmte concluded after a lengthy investigation.
#Senate Minority Leader #MitchMcConnell, who had blamed #Trump for the #Jan6 Capitol attack, shook hands w/the fmr president & called their meeting "entirely positive."
#Trump heaped praise on #TimScott during #Senate R mtg —more than any of the other VP shortlisters. He mentioned Rubio/Vance by name but talked the longest about Scott. Trump joked that Scott “wasn’t a good presidential candidate” but has been a “great surrogate for him”
per 2 attendees —Trump said #abortion was the reason R’s lost Senate in 2022, “not because of Mitch, not because of me”
Trump went out of his way to be nice to #McConnell, per R senators.
While helpful, the provision won’t be a panacea, said Tim Whitehouse, the exec dir of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility [#PEER ], a nonprofit…, which helped advise #AFGE on the #ScientificIntegrity language.
“It will be impossible to fully #Trump-proof any agency or protect any #scientist if Trump wins a new term & either the #House or #Senate is in #Republican control,” Whitehouse said. “Then there will be absolutely no meaningful #oversight.”
'Georgia Is Our Laboratory': Inside Trump's Plan to Rig 2024
Team #Trump sees #Georgia as 'a road map' for putting Trump's heads-I-win-tails-you-lose philosophy of #elections into practice
The Peach State is unique—it's the sole battleground state in which the #Republican Party has total #control over the levers of #power: a trifecta in state #House, #Senate, & governorship