Posted on 09 September 2024.
Ketanji Brown Jackson
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson recently said she is leaning in favor of a binding code of ethics for the Supreme Court .
“A binding code of ethics is pretty standard for judges, and so I guess the question is, ‘Is the Supreme Court any different?’” Jackson said in a “CBS News Sunday Morning” interview with “CBS Evening News” anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell.
“I guess I have not seen a persuasive reason as to why the [Supreme] Court is different than the other courts,” she added.
In July, President Joe Biden called for an enforceable code for the high court, along with term limits. Vice President Kamala Harris has endorsed the prospective changes.
Posted in U.S. Government
Posted on 09 September 2024.
Taylor Swift and her Swifties
Taylor Swift has yet to publicly endorse a candidate, but some of her fanbase are already mobilizing for Kamala Harris. The Swifties for Kamala Coalition officially launched on Tuesday, raising more than $138,000 for the Democratic candidate in a virtual rally featuring Carole King and the senators Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand.
Swift, who has no affiliation with the group, was not present on the Zoom call nor involved in the event. The group has amassed about 250 million followers on social media platforms since Joe Biden dropped out of the race in late July and endorsed the vice-president.
More than 26,000 people joined the Zoom call on Tuesday,
Posted in U.S. Government
Posted on 20 August 2024.
VP Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz
Vice President Harris has taken the lead over former President Trump in the national polling average kept by Decision Desk HQ/The Hill, underscoring how the new Democratic presidential candidate has quickly seen polls move in her favor.
The Harris lead in the DDHQ/The Hill poll is a narrow 0.3 points as of Monday, but it comes amid wider evidence that the newly-minted Democratic presidential candidate and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), are moving up in the polls.
A poll released Saturday from The New York Times/Siena College gave Harris 4-point leads in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, three states that are part of the “blue wall” that swung the election to Trump in 2016 before flipping back for President Biden in 2020.
Posted in U.S. Government
Posted on 20 August 2024.
For Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, it was “grandmother” — the label she frequently turned to when defining herself to voters, attempting to show them who she was apart from her work in politics.
For Kamala Harris, it might be “auntie.”
Harris’s presidential nomination has made history several times over. She is the second woman, the first Black woman and the first South Asian woman ever nominated for president by a major party. Now, as she pushes to break the nation’s highest glass ceiling, women — and especially Black and South Asian women, who already lean Democratic — have mobilized, donating to her campaign in record-breaking numbers, including the $1.6 million raised by Win With Black Women only hours after Harris declared her candidacy.
Harris claims that identity proudly in her social media bios, calling herself “Wife, Momala, Auntie.” Friends and family have been known to use the “auntie” label in addressing her. References to aunties — including “Auntie Kamala” herself — pepper Harris’ 2019 memoir, “The Truths We Hold.”
Posted in U.S. Government
Posted on 05 August 2024.
Vice President Kamala Harris has signed-up 170,000 volunteers
WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has raised $200 million since she emerged as the likely Democratic presidential nominee last week, an eyepopping haul in her race against the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.
The campaign, which announced its latest fundraising total on Sunday, said the bulk of the donations — 66% — comes from first-time contributors in the 2024 election cycle and were made after President Joe Biden announced his exit from the race and endorsed Harris.
Over 170,000 volunteers have also signed up to help the Harris campaign with phone banking, canvassing and other get-out-the-vote efforts. Election Day is 100 days away.
“The momentum and energy for Vice President Harris is real — and so are the fundamentals of this race: this election will be very close and decided by a small number of voters in just a few states,” Michael Tyler, the campaign’s communications director, wrote in a memo.
Her campaign said it held some 2,300 organizing events in battleground states this weekend as several high-profile Democrats under consideration to serve as Harris’ running mate stumped for her.
Posted in U.S. Government
Posted on 05 August 2024.
VP Kamala Harris receives $7 million from Netflix founder Reed Hastings.
Reed Hastings’ donation to the Harris super PAC for her presidential campaign is the largest donation the co-founder has ever made on behalf of one political candidate.
Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings donated $7 million to the Kamala Harris presidential campaign. Hastings’ donation to a PAC that’s supporting the Harris campaign is the largest donation the tech entrepreneur has ever made on behalf of one political candidate.
Hastings also took to social media, expressing his support on X, writing “Congrats to Kamala Harris – now it is time to win.”
Predictably, not everyone was pleased with Hastings, prompting a call for users to boycott the streaming platform, causing #CancelNetflix to trend. “Many of those calling for a boycott identified themselves as conservatives or supports of the MAGA movement on social media,” Newsweek reports.
One user, @TX_Vet_MAGA, said, “Just canceled @netflix due to @reedhastings $7 million political donation to Kamala Harris. #boycott #netflix #BoycottNetflix.”
Posted in U.S. Government
Posted on 22 July 2024.
Clarence Thomas
The corruption allegations against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas are only getting worse after a review discovered last week that the RV-loving, yacht-riding, jet-setting judge did not recuse himself from a 2004 health insurance case despite a clear conflict of interest.
In 1999, Thomas took a $267,230 loan from health insurance executive Anthony Welters to buy a motor coach, a term he will defend more vehemently than the well-being of the nation’s populace. Welters was CEO of AmeriChoice when he gave Thomas the loan. The executive claims it was just money given to a friend… who happened to serve on the Supreme Court when they met. The HMO would be acquired by UnitedHealth in 2002, where he remained an executive. While Justice Thomas recused himself from two cases involving UnitedHealth, Rolling Stone found that not only he participated in a case but he also wrote the court’s unanimous decision.
Aetna Health Inc. v. Davila, the 2004 case in question, confirmed that insurers couldn’t be held liable for malpractice when the health plan denies life-saving or medically necessary treatment. While UnitedHealth wasn’t a named party in the case, the decision had massive ramifications for the entire healthcare industry.
Posted in U.S. Government
Posted on 22 July 2024.
Judge Aileen Cannon
Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith was unconstitutional.
A federal judge has dismissed former President Donald Trump’s indictment in his classified documents case, finding that the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland was unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon said in a ruling issued Monday that the appointment of Smith to prosecute the case ? which focuses on Trump’s retention of classified government documents after leaving the White House ? violates the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution.
That clause gives Congress “a pivotal role” in appointing certain government positions, which “cannot be usurped by the Executive Branch or diffused elsewhere — whether in this case or another case, whether in times of heightened national need or not,” Cannon wrote.
President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, was also prosecuted by a special counsel, prompting immediate speculationfrom political pundits that his case could likewise be dismissed based on Cannon’s ruling.
Peter Carr, a spokesperson for Smith’s office, told HuffPost in a statement that the Justice Department has authorized the special counsel to appeal Cannon’s order.
“The dismissal of the case deviates from the uniform conclusion of all previous courts to have considered the issue that the Attorney General is statutorily authorized to appoint a Special Counsel,” Carr said.
Trump quickly celebrated Cannon’s decision in a social media post that called for all legal cases against him to be dismiss
Posted in U.S. Government
Posted on 14 July 2024.
President Joe Biden
President Biden sent a two-page letter to Democratic lawmakers on Monday to say that “I am firmly committed to staying in this race,” saying speculation over his future was helping former President Donald Trump — and that it was time to stop.
“The question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now. And it’s time for it to end. We have one job,” Biden said.
Biden, 81, has been insistent that he would continue his campaign even after he badly faltered in a debate with Trump — a performance that alarmed Democrats worried about his ability to run, win and govern. He has said he had a cold and jet lag, and has been working since to try to demonstrate he is still up to the job.
On Monday morning, he made an unusual live call in to MSNBC’s Morning Joe and angrily defended his electoral and policy record. He angrily expressed his frustration with the Democrats who are questioning his stamina.
“I’m not going to explain anymore about what I should or shouldn’t do — I am running,” Biden said during the 20-minute conversation with the show’s hosts.
“I don’t care what those ‘big names’ think. They were wrong in 2020, they were wrong in 2022 about the red wave. They’re wrong in 2024,” Biden said.
Posted in U.S. Government
