April 16, 2026

02b U.S. Politics – Left

Go to Article
Excerpt from www.politicususa.com

President Biden is taking action to protect American jobs from Chinese cheating in markets like steel and semiconductors.

The White House announced via a fact sheet:

Today’s actions to counter China’s unfair trade practices are carefully targeted at strategic sectors—the same sectors where the United States is making historic investments under President Biden to create and sustain good-paying jobs—unlike recent proposals by Congressional Republicans that would threaten jobs and raise costs across the board. The previous administration’s trade deal with China failed to increase American exports or boost American manufacturing as it had promised.

Under President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, nearly 800,000 manufacturing jobs have been created and new factory construction has doubled after both fell under the previous administration, and the trade deficit with China is the lowest in a decade—lower than any year under the last administration. We will continue to work with our partners around the world to strengthen cooperation to address shared concerns about China’s unfair practices—rather than undermining our alliances or applying indiscriminate 10 percent tariffs that raise prices on all imports from all countries, regardless whether they are engaged in unfair trade. The Biden-Harris Administration recognizes the benefits for our workers and businesses from strong alliances and a rules-based international trade system based on fair competition.

Go to Article
Excerpt from www.politicususa.com

Colbert said:

Oh, I love “Silence of the Lamb.” It’s one of my favorite movie, right up there with “Star War,” “Dance with Wolf,” and “Jaw.” 

Colbert played Trump saying:

“Silence of the lambs”? The late, great Hannibal Lecter. He’s a wonderful man. He oftentimes would have a friend for dinner. But Hannibal Lecter, congratulations, the late, great Hannibal Lecter.

Colbert responded,  “Late, great? In none of the stories does Hannibal Lecter die, and Sir Anthony Hopkins is very much still alive. Does Trump just think a character dies when he turns off the TV? “Well, another great episode of Wheel. Rest in peace. The late, great Pat Sajak. We’ll always remember how much you loved the alphabet. Congratulations. You are dead.”

Go to Article
Excerpt from www.motherjones.com

The world’s big banks have handed nearly $7 trillion in funding to the fossil fuel industry since the Paris agreement on carbon emissions, according to research.

In 2016, after talks in Paris, 196 countries signed an agreement to limit global heating as a result of carbon emissions to at most 2°C above preindustrial levels, with an ideal limit of 1.5°C to prevent the worst impacts of a drastically changed climate.

Many countries have since promised to reduce carbon emissions, but the latest research shows private interests continued to funnel money to oil, gas, and coal companies, which have used it to expand their operations.

Eight in 10 of the world’s most eminent climate scientists now foresee at least 2.5°C of global heating, according to the results of a Guardian survey published last week—an outcome expected to lead to devastating consequences for civilization.

Go to Article
Excerpt from thehill.com

 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday threw cold water on the prospects of reaching a deal to speed up the nation’s energy projects, saying that reaching a Senate deal on permitting reform would be “virtually impossible.”

Lawmakers have been working for nearly two years to come up with such an agreement, which would speed up the process by which energy and other infrastructure projects are approved.

But Schumer expressed doubt that it would actually get done this year.

“I’m happy to listen, but I’ve told Joe Manchin it’s going to be virtually impossible to get something done,” Schumer said, referring to the Democratic senator from West Virginia who is retiring at the end of this Congress.

Lawmakers have long been at an impasse on permitting reform.

Go to Article
Excerpt from www.politico.com

One Nation, a top conservative group, is plowing $70 million more into hitting vulnerable Democrats in key Senate races nationwide according to details first shared with POLITICO, an extraordinary sum that’s roughly double the group’s Senate investment last cycle.

The nonprofit advocacy outfit, which is closely aligned with GOP leaders and the top GOP super PAC, is dropping tens of millions into five key battleground states to join a campaign already up in Montana.

The group is diving into Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada in a sweeping ad buy focused on the southern border and inflation, an effort branded as the “Stop the Insanity” campaign. The push includes spending on radio, mail, TV and digital.

Go to Article
Excerpt from www.thenation.com

Mike Johnson, the most conservative speaker in the history of the US House of Representatives, faced down a challenge to his leadership role last week from members of his own caucus who don’t think the Louisiana Republican is sufficiently extreme.

Johnson got on the wrong side of Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene and a handful of GOP dissidents when he decided it might be a good idea to maintain the US commitment to support Ukraine in its fight against the invading forces of Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

So the Greene team made a ham-handed move to “vacate” the speaker’s position.

Go to Article
Excerpt from crooksandliars.com

Trump was in New Jersey Saturday doing his MAGA grievance routine at a rally when he slurred his words so badly it went viral on social media.

Then he whined how he came from New York being forced to endure a Biden show trial.

Then his mouth decided to take a break from his mouth.

“And as you know, I’ve come here from New York, where I’m being forced to endure a Biden show trial, all done by Biden” Trump whined. “Carried eyt by ret svfeyt ol ben dun.”

WTF? That’s my best transcript of what he said.

Trump’s brain fog lifted.”Carried out by radical democrat District Attorney…”

Go to Article
Excerpt from www.politicususa.com

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) admitted on Fox News that the real job of House Republicans is to defend Donald Trump.

Greene said on Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures when asked why Speaker Johnson won’t defund Jack Smith:

Mike Johnson is owned by the Democrats and that I, that proved me to be right again. When I called the motion to vacate, it wasn’t Republicans that saved Mike Johnson. It was Democrats that saved Mike Johnson. And when you have Nancy Pelosi, who was Speaker of the House when they impeached President Trump twice. And you have Jerry Nadler, who was chairman of the Judiciary Committee that led the impeachment against President Trump voting to save Mike Johnson that tells the American people everything that they need to know. Mike Johnson is owned by the Democrats and refuses to protect President Trump even though he runs down to Mar-a Lago every chance he gets and, and hugs him as tightly as he can.

 

Go to Article
Excerpt from www.thenation.com

You may have felt a sense of déjà vu when Elise Stefanik, the House’s fourth-ranking Republican, recently declared: “There can be no negotiations with self-proclaimed Hamas terrorists and their sympathizers.” Her words echoed George W. Bush’s dictum during the Second Intifada that “no nation can negotiate with terrorists.” Except the “terrorists” to which Stefanik referred are 18-year-old college students protesting the murder of aid workers and the starvation of children in Gaza.

This rhetorical drift demonstrates how desperately Republicans have turned gotcha melodrama into a campaign strategy. First, they forced Columbia University’s president to testify before a performative hearing. Next, in a form of political entrapment, that testimony helped spark student protests, which GOP politicos have since blamed, ever so predictably, on President Biden. Now, they’re passing dangerous, virtue-signaling legislation—like a so-called antisemitism awareness bill that would, in effect, enable the government to rescind federal funding from universities that permit student criticism of Israel—all so they can squeeze out a few histrionic attack ads.

This right-wing fearmongering about peaceful protests at home has, of course, served as a distraction from the actual atrocities happening abroad. And it’s also happened to overshadow several major domestic achievements that the Biden administration has rolled out in recent weeks.

Go to Article
Excerpt from crooksandliars.com

Trump threw a hissy fit on his social network over Paul Ryan (who is a Fox board member) saying he wouldn’t vote for Trump. Via Vanity Fair:

“Rupert Murdoch should fire pathetic RINO Paul Ryan from the Board of Fox,” Trump scream-wrote on Truth Social. “Ryan is a loser, always has been, and always will be. He was the WEAKEST & MOST INCOMPETENT Speaker of the House in its History. Fox will sink to the absolute bottom of the pack if Paul Ryan has anything to do with it!”

Trump’s commentary about Ryan came two days after the former GOP leader spoke about the ex-president at the Milken Institute Global Conference, saying: “Character is too important to me. And it’s a job that requires the kind of character that he just doesn’t have.” Ryan added that, “having said that, I really disagree with [Joe Biden] on policy. I wrote in a Republican the last time, I’m gonna write in a Republican this time.” (Note: This is not the way to prevent Trump from becoming president.)

Go to Article
Excerpt from crooksandliars.com

CNN host Dana Bash pushed back on JD Vance’s claims that Trump isn’t anti-Semitic, but a huge supporter of Israel when she reminded him of the infamous Nick Fuentes dinner at Mar-A-Lago.

Vance was going on and on about Trump’s support for Israel, but it is only in proportion to any Jewish person that supports his candidacy.

The Ohio Senator’s response to Bash’s remarks was to do the same thing that all MAGAts do when something happens that makes Trump look bad. He stuck his head in the sand and made-believe Bash never uttered the words.

Go to Article
Excerpt from thehill.com

In an open letter to President Minouche Shafik, 13 Trump-appointed federal judges have announced that they will not hire graduates of Columbia University because the campus has become “ground zero for the explosion of student disruptions, antisemitism, and hatred for diverse viewpoints.”

The boycott, including undergraduates and law students, is irrational, self-defeating and unethical — with no redeeming features. How bad is it? Let me count the ways.

Irrational. Although the judges’ letter doesn’t specifically mention the Columbia encampment protesting Israel’s war on Hamas, that was, obviously, the context for their complaint that “Disruptors have threatened violence, committed assaults and destroyed property.”

Go to Article
Excerpt from www.dailykos.com

At the start of 2024, there were 28 state legislatures entirely under Republican control and 20 under Democratic control. Of these, many have majorities where one party has overwhelming control, like West Virginia where there are 88 Republicans and only 10 Democrats, or Massachusetts with 134 Democrats to 25 Republicans.

When voters elect such lopsided majorities, they give one party the power to enact their own platform. That’s especially true in states where the governor is of the same party as the legislative majority. In these situations, more than any other, parties express themselves to the detriment of constituents’ lives.

With many state legislatures wrapping up their 2023-2024 sessions, here are two examples of what voters get for their partisan investment. One state got guns and a culture war; the other got education, transportation, and housing.

Go to Article
Excerpt from thehill.com

 

CNN commentator Van Jones went after politicians on former President Trump’s vice president shortlist on Monday, after they dodged questions over whether they would accept the results of the 2024 election.

Multiple candidates believed to be finalists for Trump’s presidential ticket — including Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) — have refused to say they will accept the results of the 2024 election. Others, including Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), have said they will outright reject the results if they believe there is fraud.

Go to Article
Excerpt from www.politicususa.com

As Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene initiated her motion to vacate against Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), she was loudly booed in the House.

Video of Greene being booed:

Greene announced that she was initiating her motion to declare the speaker chair vacant and the boos grew in the House chamber.

Rep. Greene seriously listed one of the reasons for Johnson to be removed as that he allowed a vote on expelling George Santos:

Go to Article
Excerpt from www.motherjones.com

About five miles south of Broken Bow, in the heart of central Nebraska, thousands of cattle stand in feedlots at Adams Land & Cattle Co., a supplier of beef to the meat giant Tyson Foods.

From the air, the feedlots look dusty brown and packed with cows—not a vision of happy animals grazing on open pastureland, enriching the soil with carbon. But when the animals are slaughtered, processed, and sent onward to consumers, labels on the final product can claim that they were raised in a “climate friendly” way.

In late 2022, Tyson—one of the country’s “big four” meat packers—applied to the US Department of Agriculture, seeking a “climate friendly” label for its Brazen Beef brand. The production of Brazen Beef, the label claims, achieves a “10 percent greenhouse gas reduction.” Soon after, the USDA approved the label.

Immediately, environmental groups questioned the claim and petitioned the agency to stop using it, citing livestock’s significant greenhouse gas emissions and the growing pile of research that documents them. These groups and journalism outlets, including Inside Climate News, have asked the agency for the data it used to support its rubber-stamping of Tyson’s label but have essentially gotten nowhere.

Go to Article
Excerpt from www.dailykos.com

LA Ballot: The Louisiana House of Representatives voted Tuesday to advance Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s plan to replace the current state constitution with a new governing document even though the governor has yet to explain exactly how he wants to transform state government.

However, convincing two-thirds of the House to vote Landry’s way may have been the easier part of the governor’s ongoing goal to consolidate even more power within his office. A supermajority in the 39-member Senate also needs to agree to a constitutional convention, and while the GOP holds a 28-11 edge there, its assent isn’t guaranteed.

Senate President Cameron Henry in particular has expressed skepticism about Landry’s plan, though he hasn’t shot down the idea.

“I don’t think it’s on track or off track,” Henry told NOLA.com’s Stephanie Grace last month. “I still think members have a lot of unanswered questions.” (The Republican who authored the bill that passed Tuesday, Rep. Beau Beaullieu, is Henry’s college roommate.)

Go to Article
Excerpt from www.thegatewaypundit.com

One of the many migrant caravans marching to the open US southern border.

Here we go… House Democrats on Wednesday night voted unanimously to give illegal aliens – including Joe Biden’s 11 million illegal border crossers – representation in Congress and the Electoral College.

Democrats continue to put Americans and American workers in line behind alien invaders.

The House vote was 206 to 202 with 22 representatives 11 Democrats and 11 Republicans abstaining from the vote.

Steven Miller reported: “House Dems just voted UNANIMOUSLY to give illegals representation in Congress AND the Electoral College. House Seats and Electoral College votes WILL BE added to areas with the most illegals (including all Biden illegals) unless Senate passes the bill. Invasion by design.”

Go to Article
Excerpt from www.thenation.com

Israel’s long-threatened invasion of Rafah has begun. Under cover of intense aerial bombardment Tuesday morning, Israeli forces moved into Gaza’s southernmost city, which has become a shelter for 1.5 million Palestinians with nowhere else to go. This is the moment they most feared, carrying the potential for a catastrophe greater than anything we’ve seen so far. Gazans counted on the world to stop this invasion, and the world let them down.

Residents of Rafah have long been in a state of panic in anticipation of this eventuality. That panic intensified Monday morning, when the Israeli army dropped leaflets from the sky ordering those living in Rafah’s eastern districts to immediately flee to the ill-equipped coastal area of Al-Mawasi.

Within hours, tens of thousands packed up what remains of their lives—many of them for the third, fourth, or fifth time since October—and headed northwest to what Israel is calling an “expanded safe zone.” But if Palestinians have learned anything from the past seven months, it is that nowhere in Gaza is ever safe from Israel’s onslaught.

Go to Article
Excerpt from crooksandliars.com

Biden is talking specifically about a ground invasion, not the bombing Israel is doing in Rafah right now. Via CNN.com:

President Joe Biden said for the first time Wednesday he would halt some shipments of American weapons to Israel – which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza – if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah.

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett in an exclusive interview on “Erin Burnett OutFront,” referring to 2,000-pound bombs that Biden paused shipments of last week.

Go to Article
Excerpt from www.truthdig.com

 

An emerging complaint the corporate media have against the nationwide—and now international—peace encampments is that many student protesters won’t speak to them. The problem, pundits and reporters say, is that these encampments have designated media spokespeople, and other protesters often keep their mouths shut to the press.

Conservative pundit Peggy Noonan (Wall Street Journal, 5/2/24) said of her trip to the Columbia University encampment:

I was at Columbia hours before the police came in and liberated Hamilton Hall from its occupiers. Unlike protesters of the past, who were usually eager to share with others what they thought and why, these demonstrators would generally not speak or make eye contact with members of the press, or, as they say, “corporate media.”

I was on a bench taking notes as a group of young women, all in sunglasses, masks and kaffiyehs, walked by. “Friends, please come say hello and tell me what you think,” I called. They marched past, not making eye contact, save one, a beautiful girl of about 20. “I’m not trained,” she said. Which is what they’re instructed to say to corporate-media representatives who will twist your words. “I’m barely trained, you’re safe,” I called, and she laughed and half-halted. But her friends gave her a look and she conformed.

Go to Article
Excerpt from www.motherjones.com

The city of New York is discriminating against its gay male employees by denying them the same health care benefits as women and straight men, a new lawsuit alleges. Under the city’s insurance, employees are entitled to coverage for up to three rounds of in vitro fertilization (IVF) in their quest to have children—that is, unless they are gay men.

In a class action lawsuit filed Thursday, which appears to be the first federal case specifically about gay men’s access to IVF, a former city employee and his spouse claim that by denying them benefits available to all other employees, the city is engaging in discrimination based on sex and sexual orientation. Nothing else, they argue, explains why they were treated differently.

“There is no legitimate, non-discriminatory explanation for why the City’s healthcare plan would offer IVF benefits when the male plan participant’s partner is female but withhold IVF benefits when the male plan participant’s partner is male,” the complaint, filed in federal court in New York, states.

Go to Article
Excerpt from thehill.com

 

Barron Trump, former President Trump’s youngest son, was named a Florida delegate for this year’s Republican National Convention, marking the 18-year old’s debut into politics.

Barron will serve as one of the 41 at-large GOP delegates to represent Florida at the July convention, where the party is expected to officially nominate his father as its presidential candidate to run against President Biden in November, Republican Party of Florida chairman Evan Power confirmed to The Associated Press.

Trump, who turned 18 earlier this year, joins three of the former president’s other children — Donald Trump Jr., Eric and Tiffany — who were also selected as delegates. NBC News first reported Barron’s selection as a delegate Wednesday.

The Hill reached out to the Florida GOP for further comment.

“We are fortunate to have a great group of grassroots leaders, elected officials, and members of the Trump family working together as part of the Florida delegation to the 2024 Republican National Convention,” Power said in an emailed statement to the AP.

Go to Article
Excerpt from thehill.com

 

The top House Republicans with oversight of U.S. foreign and military affairs slammed the Biden administration on Wednesday for pausing a shipment to Israel of an estimated 3,000 heavy bombs.

Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Alabama) said the administration was weakening Israel’s position in the face of threats from Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“We are appalled that the administration paused crucial arms shipments to Israel,” the Republican House chairman wrote. “The administration must allow these arms shipments to move forward to uphold the United States’ commitment to Israel’s security and ensure that Israel can defend itself and defeat Hamas.”

The Biden administration confirmed in recent days that it had paused a shipment of thousands of heavy bombs to Israel. State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller explained that the administration’s actions relate to concern over Israel’s military operation against Hamas in the southern Gazan city of Rafah and the worsening humanitarian crisis.

Go to Article
Excerpt from www.louderwithcrowder.com

Jen Psaki, soulless Ginger and former spokesman for the Biden White House, said this week — on a cable news network — that Joe Biden should be doing fewer news interviews and more appearances on podcasts and things like Howard Stern and the shrill harpies on The View. On one hand, it’s pathetic that the President of the United States needs to be coddled and sheltered from reporters who may ask him unapproved questions. On the other hand, it’s good advice because this is Joe Biden.

A prime example was last night’s CNN interview with Erin Burnett. I ask that you watch this video twice. The first time, with the sound off. Look at Biden’s face.

Now watch Biden challenged on the economy and how bad he polls on it.

“Yeah, but people have more money in their pockets to pay the 30% more for groceries. I did that.”

 

Go to Article
Excerpt from thehill.com

 

 

Has the U.S. government secretly retrieved exotic craft of “non-human” origin? Newly declassified documents, along with extraordinary legislation, illustrate how two successive Democratic Senate majority leaders appear to have believed so.

Notably, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the late Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) were not alone in their focus on UFOs. The Democratic heavyweights received critical support and encouragement from a bipartisan group of high-profile senators over the years, including former fighter pilot and famed astronaut John Glenn (D-Ohio); Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who observed a UFO as a  World War II pilot; Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), then-chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense; 2008 GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.); Senate Intelligence Vice Chairman Marco Rubio (R-Fla.); Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.).

Go to Article
Excerpt from www.politicususa.com

Trump posted on his social media platform complaining that his free speech rights have been taken away and that he could be put in prison for a long period of time.

Trump posted on Truth Social:

It is a really bad feeling to have your Constitutional Right to Free Speech, such a big part of life in our Country, so unfairly taken from you, especially when all of the sleazebags, lowlifes, and grifters that you oppose are allowed to say absolutely anything that they want. It is hard to sit back and listen to lies and false statements be made against you knowing that if you respond, even in the most modest fashion, you are told by a Corrupt and Highly Conflicted Judge that you will be PUT IN PRISON, maybe for a long period of time.

This Fascist mindset is all coming from D.C. It is a sophisticated hit job on Crooked Joe Biden’s Political Opponent, ME!. Judges Engoron and Kaplan, also of New York, are equally Corrupt, only in different ways. What these THUGS are doing is AN ATTACK ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, AND OUR ONCE GREAT NATION ITSELF. OUR FIRST AMENDMENT MUST STAND, FREE AND STRONG. “GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!’

Trump is going full martyr here, as he is afraid of being put in prison, but he also thinks it will help him politically. What he doesn’t seem to understand is that getting locked up won’t help him at all. Incarceration would only confirm for the majority of Americans who already hold the belief that Donald Trump is a criminal.

Go to Article
Excerpt from www.politifact.com

Former President Donald Trump repeated a bevy of inaccurate claims on the economy during an interview with WGAL-TV, a Lancaster, Pennsylvania, television station.

Here is a rundown.

Trump policies “created the greatest, strongest economy in the history of our country, probably in the history of the world.”

Economists have previously told PolitiFact that this is False.

The strongest evidence in favor of this assertion, at least in the U.S. context, is the unemployment rate. On Trump’s watch, the unemployment rate fell to levels untouched since the early 1950s.

However, the annual increases in gross domestic product — the sum of a country’s economic activity — were broadly similar under Trump to what they were during the final six years under his predecessor, Barack Obama. And GDP growth under Trump was well below that of previous presidents.

Go to Article
Excerpt from www.truthdig.com

Six years after former President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, the disastrous consequences of this decision are still adding up.

In addition to Iran being closer than ever to a nuclear weapons capability, now we must consider how the declining security situation in the Middle East has raised the stakes significantly. Trump promised a “better deal” but instead we got an increasingly costly blunder that may be impossible to fix.

To fully understand the enormity of Trump’s decision to leave the Iran deal, consider this: When the U.S. and Iran were complying with the deal, it was estimated that it would take Iran about one year to produce enough fissile material (in this case, weapons grade uranium) for a nuclear bomb (known as the “breakout” time). The states negotiating with Iran (the United States, Russia, China, Great Britain, France, and Germany) assessed that this would be enough time to respond to possible violations and prevent Iran from producing a bomb. Even if Iran were to acquire sufficient fissile material, it could still take another year for Iran to make a deliverable nuclear weapon. As of May, 2018, the deal was working and considered (by most) to be a great success.