7 votes

Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of March 14

This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.

This is an inherently political thread; please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.

3 comments

  1. spit-evil-olive-tips
    Link
    This is akin to a hostile takeover

    This is akin to a hostile takeover

    State officials ask residents of a small, predominantly Black town near the site of new Ford investment to forfeit their city charter or face takeover.

    “We have not issued a letter to citizens like this before,” Comptroller spokesman John Dunn said, noting it is “unprecedented for us to publicly call for a town charter to be relinquished.”

    Mumpower’s letter has infuriated Mason’s part-time elected officials, who insist they have no intention of ceding their town’s 153-year-old charter – which would subsume the largely African-American, majority Democratic community under the governance of Tipton County, which is predominantly white and Republican.

    Mason lies just five miles from the future site of Blue Oval City, Ford Motor Company’s 4,100-acre electric truck and battery plant, landed by state officials last year with nearly $1 billion in taxpayer incentives. The operation is expected to generate 27,000 new jobs and $22 million annually in state taxes after its planned 2025 opening.

    6 votes
  2. Fal
    Link
    Sanders camp quietly pushes Khanna presidential bid

    Sanders camp quietly pushes Khanna presidential bid

    Top figures from Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign are privately encouraging Ro Khanna to run for president in 2024 if Joe Biden doesn’t seek a second term, giving the California congressman an important stamp of approval from progressives as the party looks to its post-Biden future.

    Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ former presidential campaign manager, and Mark Longabaugh, a senior adviser to Sanders during his 2016 bid, have both urged Khanna to consider a campaign in the event Biden declines to run again, according to a person familiar with their discussions.

    Democratic officeholders are reluctant to speak publicly about their ambitions in a potential open race in 2024 out of concern that they could undermine the president, who has said he plans to campaign for a second term if he is in good health. There are also sensitivities surrounding Vice President Kamala Harris, who is atop the list of possible candidates but faces skepticism from some party insiders who fear she cannot win a general election.

    4 votes
  3. spit-evil-olive-tips
    Link
    Former Washington state Rep. Matt Shea, the far-right Republican who was found by a House-commissioned investigation to have planned and participated in domestic terrorism, is in a small town in...

    Former Washington state Rep. Matt Shea, the far-right Republican who was found by a House-commissioned investigation to have planned and participated in domestic terrorism, is in a small town in Poland with more than 60 Ukrainian children, trying to facilitate their adoption in America.

    Speaking on a Polish television show, “Idź Pod Prąd,” Shea said he was working with a Texas group called Loving Families and Homes for Orphans (he also called the group Loving Homes and Families for Orphans).

    “It is a hosting organization that hosts Ukrainian orphans in America with Ukrainian families with the intent that ultimately that ends in adoption,” Shea said on the show. “It’s been doing this hosting program for several years.”

    "with the intent that ultimately that ends in adoption"...uh....sounds like a weird way to do international adoption to me

    like, do they fly the kid to the US, place them with a foster family, and then there's a trial period where the family decides to keep them or not? and if they don't keep the kid, do they ship them back to Ukraine or Poland?

    The United Nations High Commission on Refugees and UNICEF put out a joint statement calling for temporary and foster care for children but saying “Adoption should not occur during or immediately after emergencies.”

    yep, this seems like a pretty common sense thing that they're completely ignoring.

    if you're unfamiliar with Shea's previous work before he got into child trafficking, he's one of eastern WA's premiere shitbags:

    Shea, who represented Spokane Valley in the state House for 12 years, opted not to seek reelection in 2020, after the House-commissioned report found he had planned and participated in domestic terrorism against the United States with his involvement in a trio of standoffs against the government.

    That report alleged that Shea assisted “in the planning and preparation” of the 2016 armed takeover at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Eastern Oregon. It also examined Shea’s travel to the 2014 armed standoff in Bunkerville, Nevada, and a 2015 conflict in Bonner County, Idaho.

    Following the report, Shea was suspended by the House Republican caucus, and urged to resign, although they declined to expel him from the Legislature.

    Shea, who wants to create a 51st state in Eastern Washington, once distributed a four-page outline called “Biblical Basis for War” and has long been linked to Christian extremist movements.

    3 votes