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Celerity
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April 12, 2024
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/11/tim-kaine-interview-biden-israel-netanyahu
Senator Tim Kaine, a former vice-presidential nominee and leading foreign policy voice in the Democratic party, has said Joe Biden now understands that Benjamin Netanyahu “played” him during the early months of the war in Gaza but “that ain’t going to happen any more”. In an interview with the Guardian on Tuesday, Kaine accused the prime minister of making Israel “dramatically less safe” and hurting its longstanding relationship with the US, and said the US president had come to realise the limits of his influence.
The Democratic senator for Virginia is best known nationally as Hillary Clinton’s running mate in the 2016 presidential election, a race they lost to Republicans Donald Trump and Mike Pence. The Biden ally is a member of the Senate foreign relations and armed services committees. Kaine has repeatedly reiterated his backing for Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas following the terrorist attack six months ago that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 people hostage. But he has joined other Democrats in expressing growing consternation over a hardline military response that has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, and spurred a looming famine.
Biden embraced Netanyahu early in the conflict but had little to show for it as Israel continued to rain bombs on Gaza, causing mass displacement, threats of famine and disease and, last week, the deaths of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers. Protesters have condemned Biden for miscalculating the extent of his sway over Netanyahu. Kaine reflected: “I do believe he felt like that relationship and the true compassion that he had for Israel over his career would lead him to be listened to by the Israeli leadership. I think he is enormously frustrated that he’s been trying to give advice, not like a foe would give it – ‘I think this is better for you if you listen to me. I’m not just saying this is better for me; I’m saying this will be better for you.’”
snip
The senator, who last December raised concerns over the Biden administration’s decision to transfer weapons to Israel without congressional oversight, added: “I think President Biden has turned the corner and realised he’s not going to be able, through the force of the relationship, to convince Benjamin Netanyahu to be anything other than who he is.” Biden has become increasingly critical as the war drags on and the civilian death toll mounts, including thousands of children. In an interview recorded last week and broadcast on Tuesday on Univision, the president said of Netanyahu: “I think what he’s doing is a mistake. I don’t agree with his approach.”
snip
Tim Kaine: Biden knows Netanyahu 'played' him in early months of Gaza war
Senator and leading foreign policy voice in Democratic party tells the Guardian Biden has come to realise the limits of his influencehttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/11/tim-kaine-interview-biden-israel-netanyahu
Senator Tim Kaine, a former vice-presidential nominee and leading foreign policy voice in the Democratic party, has said Joe Biden now understands that Benjamin Netanyahu “played” him during the early months of the war in Gaza but “that ain’t going to happen any more”. In an interview with the Guardian on Tuesday, Kaine accused the prime minister of making Israel “dramatically less safe” and hurting its longstanding relationship with the US, and said the US president had come to realise the limits of his influence.
The Democratic senator for Virginia is best known nationally as Hillary Clinton’s running mate in the 2016 presidential election, a race they lost to Republicans Donald Trump and Mike Pence. The Biden ally is a member of the Senate foreign relations and armed services committees. Kaine has repeatedly reiterated his backing for Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas following the terrorist attack six months ago that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 people hostage. But he has joined other Democrats in expressing growing consternation over a hardline military response that has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, and spurred a looming famine.
Biden embraced Netanyahu early in the conflict but had little to show for it as Israel continued to rain bombs on Gaza, causing mass displacement, threats of famine and disease and, last week, the deaths of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers. Protesters have condemned Biden for miscalculating the extent of his sway over Netanyahu. Kaine reflected: “I do believe he felt like that relationship and the true compassion that he had for Israel over his career would lead him to be listened to by the Israeli leadership. I think he is enormously frustrated that he’s been trying to give advice, not like a foe would give it – ‘I think this is better for you if you listen to me. I’m not just saying this is better for me; I’m saying this will be better for you.’”
snip
The senator, who last December raised concerns over the Biden administration’s decision to transfer weapons to Israel without congressional oversight, added: “I think President Biden has turned the corner and realised he’s not going to be able, through the force of the relationship, to convince Benjamin Netanyahu to be anything other than who he is.” Biden has become increasingly critical as the war drags on and the civilian death toll mounts, including thousands of children. In an interview recorded last week and broadcast on Tuesday on Univision, the president said of Netanyahu: “I think what he’s doing is a mistake. I don’t agree with his approach.”
snip
April 11, 2024
Label: Anchor (2) – ANC 1043
Format: Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Single
Country: UK
Released: 12 Aug 1977
Genre: Rock
Style: New Wave, Punk
The Adverts - Gary Gilmore's Eyes [1977] [magnums extended mix]
Label: Anchor (2) – ANC 1043
Format: Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Single
Country: UK
Released: 12 Aug 1977
Genre: Rock
Style: New Wave, Punk
April 11, 2024
https://prospect.org/culture/books/2024-04-05-antitax-nation-graetz-review/
Due to excessive tax cuts, ordinary Americans are subsidizing big companies and wealthy families, while making do with fewer government services.
When Ronald Reagan accepted the Republican presidential nomination in 1980, he presented himself as a tax magician. “We are taxing ourselves into economic exhaustion and stagnation,” he said before making a tantalizing promise. He would slash income tax rates by 30 percent over three years. Government revenue would miraculously increase, because lowered taxes would foster massive new investment, creating more jobs at higher pay. Libertarian economists Milton Friedman and Arthur Laffer vigorously championed Reagan’s claims, but even many conservatives scoffed. Herbert Stein, President Nixon’s chief economic adviser, remarked that the likelihood that tax cuts increase revenue was about the same as finding “there is human life on Mars.” George H.W. Bush called it “voodoo economics.”
Those on the upper rungs of the income ladder made out well from the Reagan Revolution. They enjoyed significant tax savings in 1981 and 1986 as the top rate was slashed from 70 to 28 percent, a reduction twice as big as what Reagan promised. But the magic didn’t work: Under Reagan, economic growth ran slightly below, not above, the postwar average. Ballooning annual deficits more than doubled the federal debt in eight years. And Reagan didn’t shrink the federal government relative to the economy, as promised: The share of our economy paid in federal taxes was the same when Reagan assumed office and when he left.
Why, then, do such proposals continue to flourish? In his eloquent and absorbing new book The Power to Destroy: How the Antitax Movement Hijacked America, Michael J. Graetz argues that “the modern antitax movement is the most overlooked social and political movement” of the past half-century. This movement once existed on the fringes, as we see with conservative criticism of the Reagan plan. But Graetz writes that it has grown “into a powerful force that transformed American politics and undermined the nation’s financial strength.” Graetz is not the first to explore antitax political culture, as old a concept in America as Fries’s Rebellion, a 1799 Pennsylvania revolt against a new federal levy on enslaved people and land. Dorothy A. Brown’s trenchant 2021 study The Whiteness of Wealth shows how our tax system “impoverishes Black Americans.”
Then there’s sociologist Isaac William Martin’s eye-opening 2013 book Rich People’s Movements: Grassroots Campaigns to Untax the One Percent, which focused on semi-con man J.A. Arnold, who 111 years ago created antitax clubs, often led by bankers, that stirred resentment of the newly imposed federal income tax. Beginning in the 1940s, Martin showed, antitax ideology moved into mainstream conservatism after Robert Dresser, a Harvard-educated lawyer and New England textile heir, deftly blended anti-communist, anti-union, and racist appeals into tax policy. Graetz tells the next chapter in this story, tracing how modern charlatans duped the middle and upper-middle class into helping the rich shed the burden of taxes, while hurting themselves in the process. It’s primarily a tale of ideological marketing—selling the sizzle so smartly that few notice the overcooked meat is rotten.
snip
Antitax Nation: How clever marketing duped America into shoveling more tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations.
https://prospect.org/culture/books/2024-04-05-antitax-nation-graetz-review/
Due to excessive tax cuts, ordinary Americans are subsidizing big companies and wealthy families, while making do with fewer government services.
When Ronald Reagan accepted the Republican presidential nomination in 1980, he presented himself as a tax magician. “We are taxing ourselves into economic exhaustion and stagnation,” he said before making a tantalizing promise. He would slash income tax rates by 30 percent over three years. Government revenue would miraculously increase, because lowered taxes would foster massive new investment, creating more jobs at higher pay. Libertarian economists Milton Friedman and Arthur Laffer vigorously championed Reagan’s claims, but even many conservatives scoffed. Herbert Stein, President Nixon’s chief economic adviser, remarked that the likelihood that tax cuts increase revenue was about the same as finding “there is human life on Mars.” George H.W. Bush called it “voodoo economics.”
Those on the upper rungs of the income ladder made out well from the Reagan Revolution. They enjoyed significant tax savings in 1981 and 1986 as the top rate was slashed from 70 to 28 percent, a reduction twice as big as what Reagan promised. But the magic didn’t work: Under Reagan, economic growth ran slightly below, not above, the postwar average. Ballooning annual deficits more than doubled the federal debt in eight years. And Reagan didn’t shrink the federal government relative to the economy, as promised: The share of our economy paid in federal taxes was the same when Reagan assumed office and when he left.
Why, then, do such proposals continue to flourish? In his eloquent and absorbing new book The Power to Destroy: How the Antitax Movement Hijacked America, Michael J. Graetz argues that “the modern antitax movement is the most overlooked social and political movement” of the past half-century. This movement once existed on the fringes, as we see with conservative criticism of the Reagan plan. But Graetz writes that it has grown “into a powerful force that transformed American politics and undermined the nation’s financial strength.” Graetz is not the first to explore antitax political culture, as old a concept in America as Fries’s Rebellion, a 1799 Pennsylvania revolt against a new federal levy on enslaved people and land. Dorothy A. Brown’s trenchant 2021 study The Whiteness of Wealth shows how our tax system “impoverishes Black Americans.”
Then there’s sociologist Isaac William Martin’s eye-opening 2013 book Rich People’s Movements: Grassroots Campaigns to Untax the One Percent, which focused on semi-con man J.A. Arnold, who 111 years ago created antitax clubs, often led by bankers, that stirred resentment of the newly imposed federal income tax. Beginning in the 1940s, Martin showed, antitax ideology moved into mainstream conservatism after Robert Dresser, a Harvard-educated lawyer and New England textile heir, deftly blended anti-communist, anti-union, and racist appeals into tax policy. Graetz tells the next chapter in this story, tracing how modern charlatans duped the middle and upper-middle class into helping the rich shed the burden of taxes, while hurting themselves in the process. It’s primarily a tale of ideological marketing—selling the sizzle so smartly that few notice the overcooked meat is rotten.
snip
April 11, 2024
https://prospect.org/justice/2024-04-09-reform-groups-lack-of-corporate-prosecutions-doj/
Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer speaks as Attorney General Merrick Garland listens during a news conference at the Department of Justice in Washington, March 21, 2024.
The Antitrust Division of the Justice Department has demonstrated by its actions a determination to hold corporations accountable. Its antitrust cases against Google and Apple, active investigations into Ticketmaster and UnitedHealth, crackdowns on meatpackers and realtors, and successful merger challenges in airlines and publishing testify to this open combat against corporate power. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the rest of the Justice Department, as a recent report from Public Citizen on corporate criminal prosecutions shows. According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, in 2023 DOJ prosecuted 113 corporations, up from 99 in 2022 and just 90 in 2021, which was the lowest number in a quarter-century. Even the 2023 figures are still sharply lower than any year of George W. Bush administration, and lower than two of the four years of the Trump administration. And for broader context, the 113 prosecutions last year equal about 37 percent of the 304 prosecutions waged in 2000.
Moreover, 76 percent of the corporations DOJ prosecuted in 2023 had 50 or fewer employees. Large corporations are far less represented among the array of prosecuted companies, regardless of their culpability for corporate crime. This has drawn the attention of five accountability-minded organizations, which today asked for a greater commitment to corporate criminal enforcement in a letter to President Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland obtained by the Prospect. Following what has now become a mantra amid progressives in D.C.—“personnel is policy”—the groups focused on vacancies in the top levels of DOJ leadership, which they say would be better served with appointees “who can be counted on to aggressively protect the public interest.”
Chief among the concerns for the Revolving Door Project, the American Economic Liberties Project, Demand Progress Education Fund, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, and the People’s Parity Project are the two top deputies to Garland at main Justice. One of them, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, is a familiar antagonist to reformers, especially since she announced a “safe harbor” policy whereby companies engaged in mergers and acquisitions can volunteer information about wrongdoing at the target company and eliminate their liability. As Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has explained, this policy constitutes a double whammy of encouraging mergers and neglecting to prosecute corporate crime. Monaco has a well-documented history as a partner at corporate defense firm O’Melveny & Myers, where she represented Apple, and a principal at WestExec Advisors, where clients included Google and other large corporations.
But less well known is the number three member of the Justice Department leadership, Benjamin Mizer. He is currently serving as acting associate attorney general, after Vanita Gupta stepped down in February. Mizer was Gupta’s principal deputy, and therefore automatically stepped into the role. But while this transition was announced at a press event February 1, there was little fanfare associated with Mizer’s ascension. Perhaps that’s because of Mizer’s stint at BigLaw giant Jones Day, and the litany of corporate clients he represented. That includes serving as lead attorney for Walmart in a case defending the company from charges of facilitating the opioid epidemic among members of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. In that case, Walmart tried to force the tribe to release private data like names and birthdates for every one of its citizens. “Mizer’s resume is yet another example of a profile that has repeatedly failed to protect the American people from the most rapacious and amoral corporations,” the letter reads. “We lack confidence that Mizer should be trusted to advance the administration’s commitment to ensuring that the law applies to everyone, no matter how wealthy or connected.”
snip
Reform Groups Home In on Lack of Corporate Prosecutions at DOJ
https://prospect.org/justice/2024-04-09-reform-groups-lack-of-corporate-prosecutions-doj/
Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer speaks as Attorney General Merrick Garland listens during a news conference at the Department of Justice in Washington, March 21, 2024.
The Antitrust Division of the Justice Department has demonstrated by its actions a determination to hold corporations accountable. Its antitrust cases against Google and Apple, active investigations into Ticketmaster and UnitedHealth, crackdowns on meatpackers and realtors, and successful merger challenges in airlines and publishing testify to this open combat against corporate power. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the rest of the Justice Department, as a recent report from Public Citizen on corporate criminal prosecutions shows. According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, in 2023 DOJ prosecuted 113 corporations, up from 99 in 2022 and just 90 in 2021, which was the lowest number in a quarter-century. Even the 2023 figures are still sharply lower than any year of George W. Bush administration, and lower than two of the four years of the Trump administration. And for broader context, the 113 prosecutions last year equal about 37 percent of the 304 prosecutions waged in 2000.
Moreover, 76 percent of the corporations DOJ prosecuted in 2023 had 50 or fewer employees. Large corporations are far less represented among the array of prosecuted companies, regardless of their culpability for corporate crime. This has drawn the attention of five accountability-minded organizations, which today asked for a greater commitment to corporate criminal enforcement in a letter to President Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland obtained by the Prospect. Following what has now become a mantra amid progressives in D.C.—“personnel is policy”—the groups focused on vacancies in the top levels of DOJ leadership, which they say would be better served with appointees “who can be counted on to aggressively protect the public interest.”
Chief among the concerns for the Revolving Door Project, the American Economic Liberties Project, Demand Progress Education Fund, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, and the People’s Parity Project are the two top deputies to Garland at main Justice. One of them, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, is a familiar antagonist to reformers, especially since she announced a “safe harbor” policy whereby companies engaged in mergers and acquisitions can volunteer information about wrongdoing at the target company and eliminate their liability. As Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has explained, this policy constitutes a double whammy of encouraging mergers and neglecting to prosecute corporate crime. Monaco has a well-documented history as a partner at corporate defense firm O’Melveny & Myers, where she represented Apple, and a principal at WestExec Advisors, where clients included Google and other large corporations.
But less well known is the number three member of the Justice Department leadership, Benjamin Mizer. He is currently serving as acting associate attorney general, after Vanita Gupta stepped down in February. Mizer was Gupta’s principal deputy, and therefore automatically stepped into the role. But while this transition was announced at a press event February 1, there was little fanfare associated with Mizer’s ascension. Perhaps that’s because of Mizer’s stint at BigLaw giant Jones Day, and the litany of corporate clients he represented. That includes serving as lead attorney for Walmart in a case defending the company from charges of facilitating the opioid epidemic among members of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. In that case, Walmart tried to force the tribe to release private data like names and birthdates for every one of its citizens. “Mizer’s resume is yet another example of a profile that has repeatedly failed to protect the American people from the most rapacious and amoral corporations,” the letter reads. “We lack confidence that Mizer should be trusted to advance the administration’s commitment to ensuring that the law applies to everyone, no matter how wealthy or connected.”
snip
April 11, 2024
https://prospect.org/health/2024-04-11-privatization-warning-veterans-affairs/
When the Department of Defense (DOD) or U.S. intelligence agencies face a crisis, they often assemble a task force to conduct a review and recommend solutions. In response to cost overruns on care for nine million patients of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently convened such a high-level “Red Team.” The panel of six health care leaders includes former VHA undersecretaries for health, ex-DOD officials with military health experience, and prominent health care system executives. The group conferred with VA leaders in Washington, collected relevant budget data, and pored over reams of peer-reviewed studies. It then issued a 24-page executive roundtable report entitled “The Urgent Need to Address VHA Community Care Spending and Access Strategies” (emphasis added). Although the report was released to top VA leaders in late March, it has not yet been publicly released. The Prospect’s repeated requests for the report itself or information about it were ignored.
Rarely has a group of inside-the-Beltway experts gotten to the point so quickly or sounded the alarm so clearly. In the report, obtained by the Prospect before its public release, the group unanimously concluded: “The increasing number of Veterans referred to community providers … threaten to materially erode the VA’s direct care system.” Without a course correction, they said, mass closures of VA clinics or certain services could ensue, “eliminating choice for the millions of Veterans who prefer to use the VHA direct care system for all or part of their healthcare needs.” This call for immediate action is noteworthy because of the stature of the team’s members. Red Team chair Kenneth W. Kizer is a Navy veteran and nationally known leader in health care quality and hospital management, who led the transformation of the modern VHA under Bill Clinton. (Kizer declined the Prospect’s request for comment on the report until it was publicly released.)
Dr. Jonathan Perlin served in the same role under George W. Bush, before joining HCA Healthcare as a top administrator, and now leads the Joint Commission, which certifies and accredits private- and public-sector hospitals. Other members include Debra Friesen, a former senior executive at Kaiser Permanente; Dana Safran, CEO and president of the National Quality Forum; Kavita Patel from the Brookings Institution; Karen Guice, a former DOD official in charge of health affairs; and retired Maj. Gen. Elder Granger, who helped manage TRICARE, a private insurance program for active-duty personnel and their families who don’t use the military health care system. The authors don’t question the need for sending some veterans to private doctors or hospitals, “when needed services are not readily available in the VA’s direct care system.” But their report pinpoints all the obvious flaws, weaknesses, waste, and inefficiencies built into large-scale outsourcing, which began under Obama, exploded under Trump, and now continues on Biden’s inattentive watch.
Higher Costs, Less Quality
The cost of reimbursing the 1.7 million private-sector providers enrolled in the five-year-old Veterans Community Care Program (VCCP), which facilitates patient outsourcing, has “dramatically increased, rising from $14.8 billion in FY 2018 to $28.5 billion in FY 2023,” the report states. Referrals outside the VHA are rising by 15 to 20 percent per year and now involve more than 40 percent of all patients, who are getting at least some care in the private sector. One major source of out-of-control costs is privatized emergency room services, which now represent 30 percent of VCCP spending. When a patient or family member clicks on the website of any VA Medical Center in the country and searches for “emergency care,” they are directed to non-VHA hospital emergency rooms, despite studies like one in The British Medical Journal (BMJ) and another published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), which found that veterans treated in private ERs were twice as likely to die in the first 28 days after admission than if they had been admitted to the VHA.
snip
Privatization Warning: A VA advisory panel issues a red alert on outsourcing.
https://prospect.org/health/2024-04-11-privatization-warning-veterans-affairs/
When the Department of Defense (DOD) or U.S. intelligence agencies face a crisis, they often assemble a task force to conduct a review and recommend solutions. In response to cost overruns on care for nine million patients of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently convened such a high-level “Red Team.” The panel of six health care leaders includes former VHA undersecretaries for health, ex-DOD officials with military health experience, and prominent health care system executives. The group conferred with VA leaders in Washington, collected relevant budget data, and pored over reams of peer-reviewed studies. It then issued a 24-page executive roundtable report entitled “The Urgent Need to Address VHA Community Care Spending and Access Strategies” (emphasis added). Although the report was released to top VA leaders in late March, it has not yet been publicly released. The Prospect’s repeated requests for the report itself or information about it were ignored.
Rarely has a group of inside-the-Beltway experts gotten to the point so quickly or sounded the alarm so clearly. In the report, obtained by the Prospect before its public release, the group unanimously concluded: “The increasing number of Veterans referred to community providers … threaten to materially erode the VA’s direct care system.” Without a course correction, they said, mass closures of VA clinics or certain services could ensue, “eliminating choice for the millions of Veterans who prefer to use the VHA direct care system for all or part of their healthcare needs.” This call for immediate action is noteworthy because of the stature of the team’s members. Red Team chair Kenneth W. Kizer is a Navy veteran and nationally known leader in health care quality and hospital management, who led the transformation of the modern VHA under Bill Clinton. (Kizer declined the Prospect’s request for comment on the report until it was publicly released.)
Dr. Jonathan Perlin served in the same role under George W. Bush, before joining HCA Healthcare as a top administrator, and now leads the Joint Commission, which certifies and accredits private- and public-sector hospitals. Other members include Debra Friesen, a former senior executive at Kaiser Permanente; Dana Safran, CEO and president of the National Quality Forum; Kavita Patel from the Brookings Institution; Karen Guice, a former DOD official in charge of health affairs; and retired Maj. Gen. Elder Granger, who helped manage TRICARE, a private insurance program for active-duty personnel and their families who don’t use the military health care system. The authors don’t question the need for sending some veterans to private doctors or hospitals, “when needed services are not readily available in the VA’s direct care system.” But their report pinpoints all the obvious flaws, weaknesses, waste, and inefficiencies built into large-scale outsourcing, which began under Obama, exploded under Trump, and now continues on Biden’s inattentive watch.
Higher Costs, Less Quality
The cost of reimbursing the 1.7 million private-sector providers enrolled in the five-year-old Veterans Community Care Program (VCCP), which facilitates patient outsourcing, has “dramatically increased, rising from $14.8 billion in FY 2018 to $28.5 billion in FY 2023,” the report states. Referrals outside the VHA are rising by 15 to 20 percent per year and now involve more than 40 percent of all patients, who are getting at least some care in the private sector. One major source of out-of-control costs is privatized emergency room services, which now represent 30 percent of VCCP spending. When a patient or family member clicks on the website of any VA Medical Center in the country and searches for “emergency care,” they are directed to non-VHA hospital emergency rooms, despite studies like one in The British Medical Journal (BMJ) and another published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), which found that veterans treated in private ERs were twice as likely to die in the first 28 days after admission than if they had been admitted to the VHA.
snip
April 11, 2024
https://prospect.org/politics/2024-04-10-final-act-government-surveillance/
A preliminary floor vote on a House rule to expand government surveillance powers, favored by leadership in both parties, failed to pass on an initial vote this afternoon. The rule was defeated by a sizable margin, 228-193, with ten members not voting. Nineteen Republicans crossed their own Speaker, voting against the rule and preventing it from coming to the floor. The fight involves whether to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) had plotted a strategy to oversee the most dramatic expansion of government surveillance powers since the original Patriot Act.
With many Republican members voting down the rule this afternoon, the path ahead to passing FISA just got a lot harder. Leadership will have to reconvene with the relevant committees to chart out a new road map. Speaker Johnson tried to load up the rule by attaching two controversial, unrelated resolutions that were added at the last minute. One denounced the Biden administration’s immigration policies and the other condemned “efforts to impose one-sided pressure on Israel with respect to Gaza.” These resolutions were likely included to try to make it more challenging for Republicans and pro-Israel Democrats to vote no, despite objections they might harbor about FISA. But the gambit did not work. “The Speaker’s thumb just broke the scale,” said Sean Vitka, policy director of Demand Progress.
Danger still lies ahead, and the stakes remain pretty high. Intelligence agencies are currently able to tap a backdoor search database of Americans’ communications without a warrant, under the guise of queries regarding a foreign threat. And under what’s known as the data broker loophole, the government can also compel certain types of companies to hand over data collected on Americans. In each instance, the House Intelligence Committee is now pushing for broader legal criteria authorizing this surveillance. Reform advocates have referred to the Intel Committee’s amendments as “Patriot Act 2.0.” One Intel Committee amendment would expand the already broad definition of foreign intelligence in FISA to specifically include any information about international trafficking, sale, and production of narcotics driving “overdose deaths,” which could cover any drug under the Controlled Substances Act.
Another amendment targets immigrants traveling to the U.S. by allowing intelligence agencies to run backdoor searches on these groups without providing any rationale, which is the only restriction on these powers when applied to Americans. “As if the base text wasn’t bad enough, these amendments would all significantly expand Section 702. In particular, the weaponization of a post-9/11 warrantless surveillance authority to search for immigrants traveling to the U.S.—with no suspicion of wrongdoing whatsoever—is deeply offensive and should be radioactive,” Chris Baumohl, law fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), told the Prospect. House Intelligence Committee leaders are pushing for even more drastic changes by dropping key qualifications on which types of businesses are subject to Section 702 information requests. The government could now compel companies as far-reaching as office buildings, landlords, and even the backbone of the internet such as data centers, according to FISA Court amicus lawyer Marc Zwillinger. Access to data centers would constitute a massive expansion of “upstream” government surveillance, Zwillinger suggested.
snip
The Final Act on Government Surveillance
https://prospect.org/politics/2024-04-10-final-act-government-surveillance/
A preliminary floor vote on a House rule to expand government surveillance powers, favored by leadership in both parties, failed to pass on an initial vote this afternoon. The rule was defeated by a sizable margin, 228-193, with ten members not voting. Nineteen Republicans crossed their own Speaker, voting against the rule and preventing it from coming to the floor. The fight involves whether to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) had plotted a strategy to oversee the most dramatic expansion of government surveillance powers since the original Patriot Act.
With many Republican members voting down the rule this afternoon, the path ahead to passing FISA just got a lot harder. Leadership will have to reconvene with the relevant committees to chart out a new road map. Speaker Johnson tried to load up the rule by attaching two controversial, unrelated resolutions that were added at the last minute. One denounced the Biden administration’s immigration policies and the other condemned “efforts to impose one-sided pressure on Israel with respect to Gaza.” These resolutions were likely included to try to make it more challenging for Republicans and pro-Israel Democrats to vote no, despite objections they might harbor about FISA. But the gambit did not work. “The Speaker’s thumb just broke the scale,” said Sean Vitka, policy director of Demand Progress.
Danger still lies ahead, and the stakes remain pretty high. Intelligence agencies are currently able to tap a backdoor search database of Americans’ communications without a warrant, under the guise of queries regarding a foreign threat. And under what’s known as the data broker loophole, the government can also compel certain types of companies to hand over data collected on Americans. In each instance, the House Intelligence Committee is now pushing for broader legal criteria authorizing this surveillance. Reform advocates have referred to the Intel Committee’s amendments as “Patriot Act 2.0.” One Intel Committee amendment would expand the already broad definition of foreign intelligence in FISA to specifically include any information about international trafficking, sale, and production of narcotics driving “overdose deaths,” which could cover any drug under the Controlled Substances Act.
Another amendment targets immigrants traveling to the U.S. by allowing intelligence agencies to run backdoor searches on these groups without providing any rationale, which is the only restriction on these powers when applied to Americans. “As if the base text wasn’t bad enough, these amendments would all significantly expand Section 702. In particular, the weaponization of a post-9/11 warrantless surveillance authority to search for immigrants traveling to the U.S.—with no suspicion of wrongdoing whatsoever—is deeply offensive and should be radioactive,” Chris Baumohl, law fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), told the Prospect. House Intelligence Committee leaders are pushing for even more drastic changes by dropping key qualifications on which types of businesses are subject to Section 702 information requests. The government could now compel companies as far-reaching as office buildings, landlords, and even the backbone of the internet such as data centers, according to FISA Court amicus lawyer Marc Zwillinger. Access to data centers would constitute a massive expansion of “upstream” government surveillance, Zwillinger suggested.
snip
April 11, 2024
UK studio Fletcher Crane Architects has completed Kingston Villa in Richmond, London, offering a contemporary "evolution" of the area's typical suburban architecture in pale brick and metal. Tasked with turning a dilapidated bungalow on the edge of Richmond Park into a new family home, the Surrey-based studio drew on its neighbouring buildings to create a simple, gabled form.
"This new family villa bordering Richmond Park seeks to evolve the historic villa typology and inject character and quality into a typical suburban streetscape architecture," explained Fletcher Crane Architects. "The resultant detached home has been inspired by the varying historic features within the quality built environment; friezes, bays, entrance porticos and construction methodology – represented into an architecture of its day," it continued.
Facing the street, Kingston Villa is fronted by a metal canopy that shelters its entrance. This sits beneath a gable end that has been finished in pale textured brickwork. The entrance route leads past two smaller lounge and study spaces into a living, dining and kitchen space, centred around a double-height seating area and fireplace overlooked by a metal and timber stair. In these living and circulation areas, the internal finishes mirror those of the outside, with exposed brickwork, tiled floors and dark wooden carpentry bringing a "heavy, yet quiet" quality to the spaces.
At the rear of the home, full-height windows look out towards the park, finished with alternating deep-set and projecting metal reveals that subtly animate the facade. On the ground floor, sliding glass doors provide access to a sunken paved patio that steps up to the garden beyond. "Bold white brickwork is contrasted by bronzed window frames, metalwork panels and arboreal planting," explained the studio. "The architecture is heavy, yet quiet with a focus on emphasising the fabulous location and aspect with panoramic views of the park," it added.
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Fletcher Crane Architects completes pale brick home overlooking Richmond Park, London
https://www.dezeen.com/2024/04/05/fletcher-crane-architects-kingston-villa-london/UK studio Fletcher Crane Architects has completed Kingston Villa in Richmond, London, offering a contemporary "evolution" of the area's typical suburban architecture in pale brick and metal. Tasked with turning a dilapidated bungalow on the edge of Richmond Park into a new family home, the Surrey-based studio drew on its neighbouring buildings to create a simple, gabled form.
"This new family villa bordering Richmond Park seeks to evolve the historic villa typology and inject character and quality into a typical suburban streetscape architecture," explained Fletcher Crane Architects. "The resultant detached home has been inspired by the varying historic features within the quality built environment; friezes, bays, entrance porticos and construction methodology – represented into an architecture of its day," it continued.
Facing the street, Kingston Villa is fronted by a metal canopy that shelters its entrance. This sits beneath a gable end that has been finished in pale textured brickwork. The entrance route leads past two smaller lounge and study spaces into a living, dining and kitchen space, centred around a double-height seating area and fireplace overlooked by a metal and timber stair. In these living and circulation areas, the internal finishes mirror those of the outside, with exposed brickwork, tiled floors and dark wooden carpentry bringing a "heavy, yet quiet" quality to the spaces.
At the rear of the home, full-height windows look out towards the park, finished with alternating deep-set and projecting metal reveals that subtly animate the facade. On the ground floor, sliding glass doors provide access to a sunken paved patio that steps up to the garden beyond. "Bold white brickwork is contrasted by bronzed window frames, metalwork panels and arboreal planting," explained the studio. "The architecture is heavy, yet quiet with a focus on emphasising the fabulous location and aspect with panoramic views of the park," it added.
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April 11, 2024
Polls show that far more Republicans than Democrats have a favourable opinion of independent candidate Kennedy
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/rfk-jr-aide-rita-palma-trump-stop-the-steal-rally-b2526383.html
A campaign aide for independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr has been revealed as an attendee of the infamous “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6 2021 in support of Donald Trump. Rita Palma, who is an aide for RFK Jr’s campaign in New York, called Mr Trump her “favorite president,” and attended several “Stop the Steal” rallies following the 2020 election, according to now deleted tweets sent from Ms Palma’s account seen by CNN, as well as comments she posted on the conservative social media site Parler that have since been made private.
According to CNN, in late December, Ms Palma tweeted that she would attend the “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington DC on January 6. “I got my hotel room!,” she wrote, adding: “I’ll be there in Jan 6th #FightforTrump #Jan6.” Although Ms Palma allegedly attended the January 6 rally, there is no indication that she took part in any violence or attended the Capitol riot that followed, CNN reported. However, she later dismissed the violence during the Capitol riot as the work of a few attendees. “Jan 6 was not a riot. A small group of people were trouble. It was 99.9 peaceful, respectful. I was there,” she wrote in a deleted tweet.
She also dismissed suggestions from then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that Mr Trump was to blame for violence at the Capitol. “Actually the fault lies with the rigged election. Genius,” she wrote the day after the riot. In separate tweets, which were analysed by CNN using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, Ms Palma repeatedly affirmed her support for Mr Trump and even asked whether he could run for a third term in 2028, despite the constitution prohibiting this. “#Trump2024 Can he run in 2028 too?” she tweeted, posting a meme that said she would vote for Trump in 2024. She also used the hashtag #BidenCheated 86 times from November 2020 to February 2021, according to CNN.
Meanwhile, in posts she made on the conservative social media site Parler, Ms Palma was also seen posing for a photo at the former Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, alongside Sidney Powell – the pro-Trump attorney who later pleaded guilty in Georgia’s election subversion case. In the same post, she called Ms Powell “MY PERSON OF THE DECADE!!” Ms Palma also posted about her affinity for Ms Powell on Twitter. “You were born/ chosen for this fight and you will win, win, win. WE LOVE YOU, TOO!” she wrote. Last year, Ms Powell pleaded guilty in Georgia’s election subversion case in which Mr Trump and a host of co-defendants are accused of orchestrating a fraudulent scheme to replace state electors with Trump loyalists in an effort to overturn the 2020 election.
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RFK Jr campaign aide revealed as attendee of Jan 6 'Stop the Steal' rally for Trump
Polls show that far more Republicans than Democrats have a favourable opinion of independent candidate Kennedy
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/rfk-jr-aide-rita-palma-trump-stop-the-steal-rally-b2526383.html
A campaign aide for independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr has been revealed as an attendee of the infamous “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6 2021 in support of Donald Trump. Rita Palma, who is an aide for RFK Jr’s campaign in New York, called Mr Trump her “favorite president,” and attended several “Stop the Steal” rallies following the 2020 election, according to now deleted tweets sent from Ms Palma’s account seen by CNN, as well as comments she posted on the conservative social media site Parler that have since been made private.
According to CNN, in late December, Ms Palma tweeted that she would attend the “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington DC on January 6. “I got my hotel room!,” she wrote, adding: “I’ll be there in Jan 6th #FightforTrump #Jan6.” Although Ms Palma allegedly attended the January 6 rally, there is no indication that she took part in any violence or attended the Capitol riot that followed, CNN reported. However, she later dismissed the violence during the Capitol riot as the work of a few attendees. “Jan 6 was not a riot. A small group of people were trouble. It was 99.9 peaceful, respectful. I was there,” she wrote in a deleted tweet.
She also dismissed suggestions from then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that Mr Trump was to blame for violence at the Capitol. “Actually the fault lies with the rigged election. Genius,” she wrote the day after the riot. In separate tweets, which were analysed by CNN using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, Ms Palma repeatedly affirmed her support for Mr Trump and even asked whether he could run for a third term in 2028, despite the constitution prohibiting this. “#Trump2024 Can he run in 2028 too?” she tweeted, posting a meme that said she would vote for Trump in 2024. She also used the hashtag #BidenCheated 86 times from November 2020 to February 2021, according to CNN.
Meanwhile, in posts she made on the conservative social media site Parler, Ms Palma was also seen posing for a photo at the former Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, alongside Sidney Powell – the pro-Trump attorney who later pleaded guilty in Georgia’s election subversion case. In the same post, she called Ms Powell “MY PERSON OF THE DECADE!!” Ms Palma also posted about her affinity for Ms Powell on Twitter. “You were born/ chosen for this fight and you will win, win, win. WE LOVE YOU, TOO!” she wrote. Last year, Ms Powell pleaded guilty in Georgia’s election subversion case in which Mr Trump and a host of co-defendants are accused of orchestrating a fraudulent scheme to replace state electors with Trump loyalists in an effort to overturn the 2020 election.
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April 11, 2024
https://twitter.com/BidenHQ/status/1778153272194322871
Trump just now calling his ending of Roe "an incredible thing" Right: A 13-year-old rape survivor forced to give birth
as a result of Trump ending Roehttps://twitter.com/BidenHQ/status/1778153272194322871
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