18 votes

Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of April 6

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Tags: politics.usa, usa, recurring.weekly

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.

13 comments

  1. hobbes64
    Link
    For what it's worth, Impeachment has been initiated against Trump. We can all say that this will be blocked by Republicans but it's much better than nothing and all 13 articles are well...

    For what it's worth, Impeachment has been initiated against Trump. We can all say that this will be blocked by Republicans but it's much better than nothing and all 13 articles are well documented.

    119TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. RES. 1155 Impeaching Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors.

    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APRIL 6, 2026 Mr. LARSON of Connecticut submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

    13 Articles of Impeachment:

    Article I: War Power-Murder-Piracy
    Article II: Militarization of Domestic Law Enforcement
    Article III: Serial Unconstitutional Detentions and Deportations
    Article IV: Retaliation Against Constitutionally Protected Speech or Association
    Article V: Abuse of the Pardon Power - Sabotaging the Rule of Law
    Article VI: Illegally Crippling or Defunding Programs to Protect Consumers, the Needy, Workers, and the Environment
    Article VII: Usurpation of the Congressional Power of the Purse
    Article VIII: Contempt of Congress - Secret Government
    Article IX: Perverting Law Enforcement to Persecute Political Opponents and Benefit Friends
    Article X: Suspending or Dispensing with Laws
    Article XI: Flouting Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment
    Article XII: Specious National Emergency - Foreign Terrorist Organization Declarations
    Article XIII: Domestic and Foreign Emoluments Clauses

    15 votes
  2. kfwyre
    Link
    Trump threats cause dilemma for US officers: disobey orders or commit war crimes

    Trump threats cause dilemma for US officers: disobey orders or commit war crimes

    “We are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard and probably simultaneously,” he said in prepared remarks that were amplified by the state department’s social media accounts.

    There is little debate among legal experts that such an attack on the life-supporting infrastructure for 93 million Iranians would constitute a war crime.

    “Such rhetorical statements – if followed through – would amount to the most serious war crimes – and thus the president’s statements place service members in a profoundly challenging situation,” two former judge advocate general (JAG) officers, Margaret Donovan and Rachel VanLandingham wrote on the website Just Security on Monday.

    “As former uniformed military lawyers who advised targeting operations, we know the president’s words run counter to decades of legal training of military personnel and risk placing our warfighters on a path of no return.”

    They noted that Trump’s boast that he would bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages”, and the order by his defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, to show “no quarter, no mercy” were not just “plainly illegal” but they also represented a rupture from the moral and legal principles that US military personnel had been “trained to follow their entire careers”.

    13 votes
  3. [3]
    hobbes64
    Link
    I saw a political meme on reddit today that shows one of the Artemis astronauts with a blank look on his face with the caption "That face when you're the farthest a human has ever been away from...

    I saw a political meme on reddit today that shows one of the Artemis astronauts with a blank look on his face with the caption "That face when you're the farthest a human has ever been away from the planet and you STILL have to hear his voice."

    The current top comment is "The human body was not designed to know what the world's worst person is doing every 15 minutes".

    12 votes
    1. Omnicrola
      Link Parent
      This succinctly captures so much of the last decade. I'm absolutely stealing this.

      The human body was not designed to know what the world's worst person is doing every 15 minutes".

      This succinctly captures so much of the last decade. I'm absolutely stealing this.

      8 votes
    2. skybrian
      Link Parent
      It’s good that there are no images here. I do share a lot of news articles but I try to limit it to major events and “politician says something outrageous” doesn’t qualify.

      It’s good that there are no images here. I do share a lot of news articles but I try to limit it to major events and “politician says something outrageous” doesn’t qualify.

  5. [5]
    KapteinB
    Link
    Pentagon Threatened the Pope After He Criticized Trump (The New Republic)

    Pentagon Threatened the Pope After He Criticized Trump (The New Republic)

    Relations between the U.S. and the Catholic Church have not been the same since January, when senior U.S. defense officials shared an abrasive message with a Vatican official.

    Days after Pope Leo XIV delivered his State of the World speech, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s U.S. representative, to a closed-door Pentagon meeting for a bitter lecture.

    “The United States,” Colby said, according to a blistering new report by The Free Press, “has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.”

    7 votes
    1. [2]
      DefinitelyNotAFae
      Link Parent
      Allegedly threatened with the Avignon papacy I was just reading this and I swear to the bear that poops in the woods this is so dumb.

      Allegedly threatened with the Avignon papacy

      I was just reading this and I swear to the bear that poops in the woods this is so dumb.

      7 votes
      1. Raspcoffee
        Link Parent
        I read your comment before reading the article and assumed I must've been misremembering something historically. While I thought I knew it all, referencing diplomacy from the actual middle ages as...

        I read your comment before reading the article and assumed I must've been misremembering something historically. While I thought I knew it all, referencing diplomacy from the actual middle ages as something you want to do if a religious institute doesn't do what you want is, in fact, bananas.

        Not to mention that I now think my country should support Vatican and the catholic church, in the face of the USA, for moral reasons, after having grown up reading so much news about scandals involving sexual abuse.

        No words, really. No words.

        4 votes
    2. [2]
      balooga
      Link Parent
      There is no possible way to frame that statement as ethical, respectable, or patriotic. No way to portray it as in any way aligned with Christian morality. It’s just one example of many recent...

      The United States… has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world.

      There is no possible way to frame that statement as ethical, respectable, or patriotic. No way to portray it as in any way aligned with Christian morality. It’s just one example of many recent mask-off statements made by the magasphere that is unabashedly, nakedly evil from top to bottom. You can’t dress it up with justifications or try to twist it into anything other than exactly that — an evil, reckless, headstrong affront to humanity. Completely out of alignment with anyone who values mercy, compassion, democracy, freedom, principled leadership, or even basic decency.

      6 votes
      1. boxer_dogs_dance
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        It's also politically and diplomatically counter productive. RC leadership might not be personally virtuous or brave (or they might be) but the history they claim to represent includes public...

        It's also politically and diplomatically counter productive. RC leadership might not be personally virtuous or brave (or they might be) but the history they claim to represent includes public martyrdom leading slowly to success.

        The Trump administration is tone deaf.

        I also think it's ironic. Harris was slammed for skipping a traditional campaign event with RC bishops because her campaign season was so short/her schedule was so tight. Trump attended, but now his spokesperson says this which is guaranteed to alienate catholics at all levels. PR is not their priority anymore.

        2 votes