US Politics Thread 2021-24

[Jimbuna]

Rep. Jim Jordan's (R-OH) staff told Punchbowl early Thursday that he was pressing forward with another Speaker vote Thursday – but the site later reported that Jordan is out.

Jake Sherman said that Jordan isn't doing a third ballot and he will put his support behind Patrick McHenry as an interim speaker until January 2024. Thursday morning, he said, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Reps. Jordan, Tom Cole (R-OK) and Tom Emmer (R-MN) met briefly to discuss other options.

Over the past 48 hours, House Republican members revealed they were receiving threats for refusing to support Jordan.

Multiple officials are detailing death threats and other intimidation they've faced for opposing Jim Jordan's speakership bid.

There were also reports of pressure on members through their spouses, which angered other members.

Jordan has now gone through two bruising ballots for the speakership, with many Republicans voting against him.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...4a14ab63&ei=11

[Rockstar]

5 things Donald Trump told Brits about Britain

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...b7e_story.html

LONDON — In his first British broadcast interview since leaving office, former president Donald Trump weighed in on a number of issues in the United Kingdom, ranging from the British royal family to the country’s climate change policies to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
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Trump spoke with his old mate Nigel Farage, the former leader of the Brexit Party who now hosts a show on GB News, a right-leaning television news channel that’s drawn comparisons to Fox News.
For years, Farage has offered commentary to Americans with frequent appearances on Fox News. And now Trump seems to be doing something similar in Britain.
The interview aired Wednesday night but was filmed Monday, meaning it didn’t take up the big question of the recent claim that Trump tested positive for the coronavirus in the fall of 2020 before an indoor news conference and a debate with Joe Biden.

But the two still covered much ground.
Here are five things Trump told Brits about Britain.

1. Wind turbines are bad.

The former president said wind turbines are “ridiculous” and “kill all the birds” and “start to rust” after a few years.
“I think wind is, I think it’s ridiculous,” he said. “Remember, every 10 years, you have to replace those monsters. And a lot of times they don’t bother. You know what they do? They just let them rot. They kill all the birds, they are so bad.”
Trump has long opposed wind farms in the U.K., which could be seen from the Trump International Golf Links course in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. In 2012, before he became president, he sued Scottish ministers after they authorized a wind farm near the course. Trump lost the case and the Trump Organization was ordered to pay the Scottish government’s legal bills. He also frequently discusses his opposition to wind energy in the United States.

2.Meghan is trouble. And “disrespectful” to the royal family.

Not for the first time, Trump said he was “not a fan” of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.

“I‘m not a fan of hers. I wasn’t from day one,” he said. Trump was asked about the duchess lobbying Congress on paid family leave, which she has said should be a “national right.” Her spokeswoman said the duchess was acting in a personal capacity.
Trump, the first president ever impeached twice, said of the duchess, “She is trying do things that I think are very inappropriate.”
“I think she‘s very disrespectful to the royal family and most importantly to the queen,” he said.
Farage has also made controversial remarks about the royal family. During a 2019 speech in Australia, he described the late Queen Mother as an “overweight, chain-smoking gin drinker” and mocked Prince Harry as “the prince of wokeness,” which he blamed on the influence of the duchess.

3. Queen Elizabeth II is a great person and Princes Charles isn’t boring.

Trump said that Queen Elizabeth II is a “historic person.” He spoke about how his mother, who was Scottish, had “great respect and love” for the British monarch, and said that he did, too. He said that during one visit to Windsor Castle, he was scheduled to have tea with the queen for 30 minutes but instead “I spent much more than an hour. . . . She liked it and I liked it, I’m not going to be rude.” He did not mention how, during the same visit, he was accused of disrespecting the queen when he walked in front of her at Windsor Castle when the two were inspecting troops. By walking in front of her, he breached protocol, causing a stir on social media.

He also denied reports that he was bored when he met Prince Charles, the queen’s son and heir, during a meeting on his 2019 state visit to the U.K.

“I wasn’t bored, I like Charles,” Trump said. “He’s an environmentalist. He talked about the environment most of the meeting, which was fine.”

4. Prince Harry has been played.

Trump told Farage, “I think Harry’s been used and been used terribly. I think it’s ruined his relationship with his family, and it hurts the queen.” In a March interview, Oprah Winfrey asked the Duke of Sussex if he would have “stepped back” from royal life on his own. The prince answered: “I would not have been able to. I myself was trapped as well. I didn’t see a way out. . . . I was trapped but I didn’t know I was trapped. But the moment I met Meg and our world collided in the most amazing of ways . . ..”

5. Boris Johnson is all right, but likes wind turbines, so . . .

Trump said he liked Johnson, but said he was “making a terrible mistake” by supporting wind energy. As part of the prime minister’s plan to reduce carbon emissions, Johnson has said offshore wind farms will generate enough electricity to power every home in the U.K. within a decade. His government has pledged hundreds of millions in new funding to upgrade ports and factories for making more turbines.

Trump worries about Johnson. “I’ve always gotten along with him” but “he’s gone a little bit on the more liberal side.”

[Rockstar]

Trump seeks 'vindication' in UK courts over ex-spy's dossier on alleged Russian sex bribes.

Donald Trump's lawyer says he wants to give evidence in the British courts as he sues over the "Steele Dossier" that alleged he bribed officials and took part in sex parties in Russia.

The former president's lawyers told the High Court he is seeking "vindication" for the false allegations from 2017.

They claim the document breaches UK data protection laws.
Mr Steele's company, Orbis Business Intelligence, says it did not make the document public.

The case stems from 2016, when a US political consultancy asked Mr Steele's company to produce a report into potential Russian interference in that year's US general election.

The project was reportedly paid for by Hillary Clinton's Democrats and other political opponents of Mr Trump.

Mr Steele, the former head of MI6's Russia desk, later sent his findings to the FBI, a British national security officer and an aide to a senior US senator.

The dossier, later obtained and published by BuzzFeed News, detailed uncorroborated intelligence claims that Mr Trump had a "compromising relationship with the Kremlin".

On Monday the High Court was told in written submissions that the dossier detailed untrue allegations that Mr Trump had "engaged in perverted sexual behaviour".

Hugh Tomlinson KC, for the 77-year-old former president, said the dossier also falsely claimed he had "paid bribes to Russian officials to further his business interests" and "took part in sex parties in St Petersburg".
"[He] intends to discharge his burden by giving evidence in this court," the lawyer said, should the case go to full trial in the future.

The allegations, the court heard, were at the heart of the claim for damages because they amounted to a breach of the UK's strict data protection laws that govern what can be done with personal information, even if the information is not true.

"The [dossier] contains shocking and scandalous claims about the personal conduct of President Trump," Mr Tomlinson said. "The defendant has never sought to qualify or withdraw the allegation."

He said that Mr Trump "often expresses himself in very strong language and his interactions with the US legal system have been many and varied."
"None of this is relevant to the question of whether the personal data is accurate."

He said Mr Trump "begins this case because he seeks a vindication of his legal rights… that the statements in these memoranda are false."

Trump's witness statement

In his witness statement, Mr Trump told the court he had not had time to sue in the UK before now because he had been busy being president.

"None of these things [in the Steele dossier] ever happened," the statement said.
"I can confirm that I did not, at any time engage in perverted sexual behaviour including the hiring of prostitutes to engage in 'golden showers' in the presidential suite of a hotel in Moscow.

He said the defendant "has made no attempt and provided no evidence to prove that the allegations I complain of are true".

Mr Trump said official investigations had debunked the dossier but it continued "to cause me significant damage and distress" because people still believed it.
"The only way that I can fully demonstrate the total inaccuracies … is to begin these proceedings. A judgment of the English court on this issue will be an immense relief to me."

Antony White KC, for Orbis, told the court that Mr Trump had accepted that the company was not responsible for BuzzFeed's publication of the document.
Watched on by Mr Steele, Mr White told Mrs Justice Steyn the case had no realistic prospect of winning and the former president had run out of time to even start it.

Orbis had never intended the dossier to become public and had long ago destroyed its own copies of the research.

"The claim for compensation is principally based on reputational damage allegedly suffered by the claimant," Mr White said.

"Any reputational damage, and any resulting distress, allegedly suffered will have been caused by the BuzzFeed publication, for which the claimant accepts Orbis is not liable."

The hearing before Mrs Justice Steyn concluded today. Judgment has been reserved.

[Jimbuna]

[Rockstar]

Russian sources disappeared after Trump declassified ex-spy’s evidence, UK court told.

Former MI6 officer’s witness statement criticises ‘reckless’ publication of testimony about ex-president’s Russia links

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...-uk-court-told

Donald Trump’s decision to declassify evidence given by a former British spy about the former US president’s alleged links with Russia led to the disappearance of two Russian sources, according to a court document.

Christopher Steele, who used to run MI6’s Russia desk, compiled the notorious “Steele dossier” investigating Trump’s connections to Russia. In a witness statement released on Tuesday, Steele said publication of his testimony to the Mueller investigation on the matter, originally classified secret, was an “egregious and reckless act” that “served no purpose other than to expose me and Orbis [Steele’s company], our sources and our methods”.

Trump is attempting to sue Orbis Business Intelligence in England over the dossier, which alleged that he engaged in “perverted sexual behaviour” and paid bribes to Russian officials to further his business interests. The former president is claiming breach of his data protection rights and says the dossier’s claims against him were “false” and “phoney” and caused him reputational damage and distress.

In his witness statement, Steele said the decision to declassify his testimony, taken on Trump’s last day in office, resulted in several Russian sources being exposed and suffering “varying consequences”.

He said: “Two of the named Russian sources have not been seen or heard of since. The publication of this document did serious damage to the US government’s Russian operations and their ability to recruit new Russian sources. The claimant’s [Trump’s] actions in this regard were truly shocking and arguably constitute one of the most egregious breaches of intelligence rules and protocol by the US government in recent times.”

The statement was released a day after a hearing at the high court, the result of which will determine whether Trump can proceed with his case against Orbis, which Steele co-founded.

In his witness statement released on Monday, Trump said bringing the lawsuit against Orbis was “the only way that I can fully demonstrate the total inaccuracies of the personal data in the dossier”. The dossier was published by BuzzFeed in 2017 but Trump accepts Orbis was not legally responsible for this and is suing over the company’s dissemination of it to three individuals.

Orbis, which is seeking to have the claim struck out before it goes to trial, argues it has been brought too late and for the “illegitimate” purpose “of harassing Orbis and Mr Steele and pursuing longstanding grievances”.

In his witness statement, Steele suggested Trump’s discovery of Steele’s friendship with Trump’s daughter Ivanka had damaged their father-daughter relationship, “deepened his animus towards me, and [it] is one of the reasons for his vindictive and vexatious conduct towards me and Orbis”.

In his witness statement, Trump said Ivanka was “completely irrelevant” to the case, adding: “Any inference or allegation that Mr Steele makes about my relationship with my daughter is untrue and disgraceful.”

Orbis also argues that any damage to Trump was done by the BuzzFeed publication, for which it was not responsible, and highlights that Trump’s declassification of the Mueller investigation records led “to further public consideration of its [the dossier’s] contents”.

Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election made clear that the Trump campaign was “receptive” to offers of assistance from the Russians but it did not find evidence of a criminal conspiracy.

The judge’s decision on whether Trump’s case against Orbis can go to trial will be made at a later date.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I was hoping you would consider choosing to support the Guardian’s journalism.

[Rockstar]

Originally Posted by vienna

I had wanted to respond to the above statement for a bit of time, but didn't have the opportunity to assemble a comprehensive answer...


First, let's look at the numbers:


Estimated number of homeless veterans in the United States in 2022, by state -

https://www.statista.com/statistics/...e-us-by-state/

(HUD Report Released Feb 2023)



Did you ever ask yourself why California has such a very large homeless vet population? According to the report, CA has an estimated homeless vet population of 10,395, nearly 5X the number of vets in the second highest state, Florida at 2,279; CA does indeed have a whopping big homeless vet population, but it also has a very long and well documented history of caring for veterans in a fashion well above the standards followed by other states, even those states whose politicians make loud and generalized statements about how very much their states "care" about their vets. It would seem, just by the numbers, that the homeless vets are showing their preference by the way they migrate to CA to seek assistance they really can't seem to get in their own "caring" states; if home really was a hospitable, compassionate place , they would be there, but, apparently, their homes were not...


California history of veteran care goes way back; CA has had Veteran's Homes and facilities dating back to the 1880's when homes the first Veteran's Home was established in San Francisco; now, nearly 140 years later, there are home and facilities for vets across the state:


Welcome to the Veterans Homes of California -

https://www.calvet.ca.gov/calvet-programs/veteran-homes



In addition, there are a number of VA hospitals and other facilities, also across the state to offer support to vets; there really is no lack of support for the vets in CA, but the real problem has been getting the homeless vets to 'come in out of the cold' and take advantage of what is being offered; in a case in point, there is a huge VA facility in West Los Angeles, replete with a Veterans Hospital that is in partnership with the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical Center Complies (one of the finest in the nation and home to the Ronald Reagan Medical Center), so the quality of care there is above the norm for most other VA hospitals; however, large group of homeless vets set up camp on the sidewalks outside the fences surrounding the VA land; the surrounding residential area was understandably concerned and an effort was made to find housing for the vets, but the vets refused to move; the City and County of Los Angeles, through their various social services agencies, did their best to provide services to assist the vets, but the vets would not budge and refused to be moved; resident of the surrounding communities started to question why the VA was not allowing the vets to move onto VA held land (it should be noted the West LA VA property is huge and sprawling; it even encompasses a very large National Military Cemetery); but use of the land for the purposes of housing the vets has hit several snags over the years; the VA land is Federal land and the City, County, and/or State have no real say over the land's use; aside from the Federal reluctance to cede lad for local use, there has been a very long and persistent clamor by real estate developers to try and get a portion of the VA land ceded to them by the VA so they can build luxury housing since the surrounding areas are pretty much fully built out; the developers have been lobbying the VA that if land is ceded for local use for homeless projects, the developers should also get land cede for their own use...

The battles went on for quite some time, but, finally, several yeas ago, a pilot program was proposed and pushed by the local and state governments that the VA finally agreed to accept: a small portion of V land was to be carved out and housing in the form of "tiny houses" were built to get the vets off the sidewalks and into some sort of housing; in addition to the new housing, onsite social services provide by City, County, and State agencies were put in place to offer assistance and counseling in an effort to provide the vets with a path to more permanent housing, employment, and any other needs they might have; it should be noted those services are funded by the local and state governments; well, the tiny houses were built and the Vets were given the offer to move in, but they balked; it seems there were rules put in place to assure the safety and well-being of the residents, and the rules were simple and reasonable: a curfew was set to ensure order, certain items were banned (weapons, alcohol, drugs, etc), and unruly conduct would not be tolerated for the protection of all;; a lot of the 'sidewalk' vets did take advantage of the offers and moved in, some even benefiting from the services and later moving on to permanent housing and finding a better life than on the streets, but a sizeable portion refused, for various reasons, often addiction, to comply with the requirements and remained homeless...

The vets in CA are, indeed, offered a wide number of services and opportunities in this state, but , to paraphrase an old saying goes, "you can lead a homeless vet to a home, but you can't make him live in it"; in addition to the various government agencies in CA, there are a very large number of private, noon-profit secular and religious entities who have outreach programs specifically dedicated to assist vets, homeless or not, to transition into civilian life; and that the main reason why so many homeless vets can be found in CA; the state has a very long history of caring for its residents and providing social services other states balk at extending; we don't have so many homeless vets because we don't care about them, rather it because so many of the other states don't care about them enough...

incidentally, 10,395 homeless veterans may seem like an awful lot, but, given that the total veteran population of CA is 1,525,746, having about .007% still unhoused is not that bad; now if we can only get those remaining vets to be reasonable and take advantage of what Ca is offering...


Veteran Population by State -

https://wisevoter.com/state-rankings...tion-by-state/



One of the reasons I got to this today is I heard a news report on the local news radio about a delegation headed by the Mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass along wit some LA City Council members who went to Washington DC to see if they could pry loos some Federal funding to address some of the needs of the CITY of LA, the news station has a report traveling along with the delegation and he reported the delegation had met with a number of Cabinet secretaries and agency head and were making some progress; Karen Bass was a member of Congress for 10 years (five terms) and left to run for and win the office of LA mayor and she knows a lot of the DC crowd and knows where to go to get the attention of the right persons; in one of the reports yesterday, the reporter told of a meeting the delegation had with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs where the delegation was seeking more Federal funds for homeless veteran housing in LA; in the meeting, the delegation was told $100 million dollasr had already been allocated, but no one at Veterans Affairs had made LA aware of the potential loss of the funding:


L.A. could lose $100M of federal funding -

https://www.audacy.com/947thewave/ne...ederal-funding


I didn't vote for Bass; I instead voted for her opponent, a billionaire real estate developer (a real one) who left the Ca Sate GOP party when he got fed up the State GOP being overrun by far-right wingnuts, he had been an independent for many years and ran for mayor as a Democrat because he knew an Independent stood little chance of winning and running as GOP in the current CA political climate would have been suicidal; he lost but I still like him and his positions on many issues; however, I've got to give Bass credit for making a real effort to move forward with improving La and its resident's lives; unfortunately for the CA vets, since it would take Congressional action to loosen up that $100 million, as long as the wingnut jackasses are still squabbling amongst themselves and paralyzing the government, I don't see a path forward before the end of the year...





On an upbeat finish, here are examples of recent efforts in LA, in conjunction with the VA to ease homeless vets:


VA opens housing for 59 homeless and at-risk Veterans on West LA Campus -

https://www.va.gov/greater-los-angel...est-la-campus/





Homeless Veterans Transitional Housing, VA Campus Los Angeles -

https://www.laconservancy.org/learn/...s-los-angeles/



...and this is about some of those "tiny homes' put in place on the VA West LA Campus...


From tents to tiny shelters, VA begins aggressive push in LA to end veteran homelessness -

https://www.stripes.com/veterans/202...g-5341053.html


Sorry to have been so lengthy, but its not a simple problem and there are no really simple answers; at least, here in CA, real efforts go on...




<O>

Oh I think every State does OK helping vets, I mean there’s just so much anyone can do to help people get back on their feet. Homelessness affects more than just vets too, but the reasons are much the same. Sometimes it’s lack of motivation or desire to work, depression, drug addiction, mental illness and physical disability, cost of living, dollar losing value, low wages, inflation, housing prices and mortgage rates rising. The list goes on and on, and like ya said there’s no easy answer. Neither can everyone be expected to live as kings either, but things do seem to be getting worse for a lot of people and I think much of it can be attributed to decades of government spending more than it takes in on tax revenue. Every congress and every president (except maybe Clinton) is guilty of borrowing and spending like irresponsible teenage girls.

$2.2 trillion of new debt in 4 months that’s almost $7 trillion annualized, and they keep saying we can definitely afford more wars! The dollars keeps losing value and the cost of living keeps rising there’s going to be a helluva lot more homeless.

[Jimbuna]

[Onkel Neal]

Note: If a post is about Trump, it should be posted in this thread, US politics. Thank you.

[Rockstar]

What about spam padding post counts about some guys personal legal problems which add absolutely nothing to the current discussion. Or if the article origin is from U.K. government press and related to the U.K. government, courts, current or former officials? Three quarters of the crap generated about Trump comes from that podunk island’s government run news sources like BBC, Daily Mail, SkyNews. Then they come here spamming the board with it.

[Jimbuna]

Now this would be a turn up for the books if a Democrat ended up becoming the Speaker.

The nonstop chaos that is the Republican speakership battle could hit a new low for the party this weekend if they aren't careful, according to Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman.

The reason for this, writes Sherman, is that Rep. Jim Jordan is planning to pummel his opponents into submission this weekend by holding multiple votes with the hopes of finally achieving his dream of becoming speaker.

The problem, however, is that many Republicans have said they are not sticking around over the weekend, which means that "the GOP has to be very careful about holding speaker votes this weekend" because they "could end up inadvertently electing" Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) as speaker if they don't have an accurate count of which members are present and which have left.

In fact, one Jordan ally, Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) is already in Israel to conduct a "fact-finding mission," and he flatly said that he sees "no path" for Jordan's victory.

The House has now gone more than two weeks without a speaker after Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) led a rebellion that led to the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as speaker.

Since then, Republican infighting has only grown as the party has completely failed to coalesce around an alternative.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other...a82af5b9&ei=19

[Rockstar]

I’ve heard said “you can’t time the markets”. Well, I have discovered the secret to making money on the stock market and you can too.

Just follow the trades of our elected officials privy to the best ever insider information and who also regulate the stock market. Only a small fraction of those billions and billions of dollars go to Ukraine. The rest goes into the military industrial complex, that’s where the money is at.

[Jimbuna]

Don't see Tom Emmer on the list above but apparently he is the latest to throw his hat into the ring to become Speaker.

Minnesota Congressman Tom Emmer has officially thrown his hat into the ring for Speaker of the House as the legislative branch heads into its third, leaderless week.

Representative Emmer announced his bid on Saturday to become the next Republican speaker in a lengthy statement on X, formerly Twitter.

“I will always be honest and direct with all of you, even if we disagree. I will never make a promise I cannot fulfill. I expect to be held accountable and you can expect that we will also keep you to your word,” Rep. Emmer wrote.

His announcement comes after Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan failed to obtain enough votes in his third attempt to grasp the speakership. The GOP conference held a secret vote determining they would no longer support the bid of Mr Jordan, a founder of the far-right House Freedom Caucus.

Mr Emmer, who serves as majority whip for the House GOP, will be the latest to attempt to secure 217 votes.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...5d490c12&ei=26

[ET2SN]

Last week, using Emmer's name was more like a "protest vote".

I smell a rat.

[Rockstar]

Glad to see Mitch is doing better, but I would like to emphasize that when he says rebuilding the industrial base. I’m fairly certain he really means [military] industrial base. Which of course ties into my post above alerting you to how elected officials profit from insider information and war.

[Rockstar]