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The President Can Now Assassinate You, Officially
  • Under this ruling the president has absolute immunity for their use of any powers granted by the constitution, and that includes use of the military, pardon powers, and appointing and firing of executive department officials. Their motivations and purposes for use of those powers cannot be questioned by the courts or by any laws passed by congress.

    The whole "official" vs "non official" acts things only comes into play for powers not explicitly granted by the constitution. And even then the president gets presumptive immunity.

    Go read the actual ruling and the dissents and stop spreading misinformation. The journalist and the headline are accurate.

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf

  • Lawmakers want to know why there are fewer LGBTQ+ homeowners than straight: 'Concerning disparities'
  • Here's a link to the actual study:

    https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/2024-02/Why_Are_There_Gaps_in_LGBTQ%2B_Homeownership.pdf

    Unfortunately the link was broken in the article and the article itself didn't have a lot of detail. I think this led to most of the comments here as saying "oh this is just because such and such factor" which yes of course everything people are saying are all factors and they're specifically listed as factors in the report. But the gap still remained when controlling for those factors too, including lgbt people living in more expensive areas (and even with that, the reason they're in more expensive areas is because those areas have more tolerant policies, also nicely laid out in the report).

  • US Supreme Court rules Trump has immunity for official, not private acts
  • The ruling on presidential immunity today was pretty paradoxical, he has criminal immunity to breaking the law if he argues it's "to take care that laws be faithfully executed." Absolute immunity even since that's right in article 2, so why not?

  • In light of the SCOTUS opinion that "official acts" by a president are immune from criminal prosecution, and the Trump defense stating that "they could see" an assassination order by a president
  • From Sotomayor's dissent:

    When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution. Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf

    Her dissent starts on page 68 of that document, with Jackson's after. It reads faster than you would think with the giant margins, would encourage everyone to take a look if you have a moment.

  • [Former White House Doctor] Rep. Jackson Baselessly Accuses Biden of Using Stimulants, Vows to Demand Drug Test Before Debate
  • Sure I mean give a perfectly normal person a stimulant and they might feel like they have more energy for a bit (though to an observer they might just appear anxious, jittery and amped up even if the person themself feels great). Calling it performance enhancing for something like a debate is a huge stretch. Equally likely to hurt a speaking performance, unless someone maybe actually had true adhd or something.

    What I mean is, the narrative being pushed here is Biden is this old man with dementia who can't string two words together, and then he takes adderral or modafinil and suddenly he's magically cognitively normal but just for a few hours. Dementia does not work this way, you would just get a very energetic and equally confused person. It's all a ridiculous fantasy, something for Trump supporters to hold in their heads to help with the cognitive dissonance as they watch the debate. Otherwise they'd be forced to reckon with the fact that Biden speaks like a normal human being with coherent thoughts while Trump sounds like a rambling lunatic on a barely traceable flight of ideas.

    I also don't want this false narrative giving people ideas that force feeding their relatives with dementia stimulants would be a good idea that would improve their cognition for a while or something.

  • Netanyahu claims Israel saw ‘dramatic drop’ in US arms shipments
  • Tried to force. That bill was blocked by Democrats in the senate and Biden issued a veto theat to it.

    But your point still stands that Netanyahu in no way wants Biden to win this fall. He's not coming to speak to congress and generally shit all over everything again to help Biden.

    Heck, Trump admin people are already doing Nixon style foreign policy interference with Netanyahu ahead of the election.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/20/world/middleeast/trump-officials-israel-netanyahu.html

    Or doing it again rather.

    https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/7/19/15994924/nixon-trump-vietnam-russia-historical-parallels

  • US Olympic and other teams will bring their own AC units to Paris, undercutting environmental plan
  • I have a wild idea here. What if, they didn't build an entire Olympic sports complex with multiple stadiums and other infrastructure every 2 years around the globe? Maybe that would save a bit on carbon emissions. And hey, the billions that would have gone to building that complex? Maybe that could go toward building up renewable energy resources instead.

    But no that's crazy, it's the portable air conditioning units for some athlete's apartments that are the problem. /s

    Though some props to Paris, it sounds like they didn't have nearly the amount of insane new constructions that some Olympics have had. Sounds like only one major new venue with most venues being used already pre-existing.

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2024/02/11/paris-2024-unveils-only-purpose-built-olympics-venue-in-city-five-months-ahead-of-summer-games/72561147007/

  • America’s kids are going hungry over the summer because their parents can’t afford food
  • There’s summer EBT, available nationwide for states that opt in, bringing eligible families $120 as a summer grocery benefit—which has been found to decrease by a third the number of households with children who sometimes went hungry. (But despite that, 14 states, including Georgia, Alabama, and Texas, have not opted in.)

    State governments that would prefer children starve

  • The Supreme Court upholds a tax on foreign income over a challenge backed by business interests
  • The Moores were backed by anti-regulatory and business groups.

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2024/06/20/supreme-court-decision-trump-tax-on-foreign-earnings/73793041007/

    So they weren't really paying for the case most likely. I've also seen some articles mention that the facts of the case as presented to the court may not have been entirely accurate, possible the Moores or their lawyers lied or misrepresented some things in the case. I haven't been able to find more details on what exactly they're referencing though.

  • NYC’s AI chatbot created to help small business owners was caught telling them to break the law. The city isn’t taking it down.
  • Since everyone is so obsessed with AI and won't listen to real people talking about problems, I asked chat gpt if the new york city Ai should remain online:

    If a chatbot AI consistently provides incorrect information about New York laws, it could potentially mislead people and cause harm or legal issues. It would be advisable to either improve the chatbot's accuracy and reliability and suspend its operation until it can provide correct and reliable information. Providing accurate legal information is crucial, especially for those who may rely on it for important decisions.

    There, now since AI has said suspend the AI, New York City can suspend the AI.

  • Senate Republicans block bill that establishes right to IVF across the US
  • Presidents don't make laws, congress does. There would have to be something in the constitution or in a law already passed that gives the executive branch the power to do that. An executive order is just an enforcement, a more specific guidance of application of already existing laws or powers. If the law the article is talking about is passed, he could issue executive orders to delineate more specific actions to help make sure it is enforced.

    If Biden just sat down in a chair one day and wrote "I declare state laws and state constitutions restricting ivf are void!" like some kind of dictator it would do literally nothing.

    Go on to the federal register and look at some executive orders. You'll find most of them pertain to things the president directly controls, like the operations of executive department agencies. When it's not something the president clearly controls in the constitution, it will cite the authority of which specific laws it's basing this on.

    https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/12/03/2021-26459/the-national-space-council

    Purpose.

    The National Space Council (Council), as authorized under Title V of Public Law 100-685, advises and assists the President regarding national space policy and strategy. This order sets forth the Council's membership, duties, and responsibilities.

    So for an example, here's what law passed by congress this executive order is fulfilling, here are my more specific instructions about how we as the executive branch are going to fulfill that law. Clearly the authority to establish a national space council does not come from the constitution, so it's a law passed by congress that makes this order possible.

    If congress passes a law protecting ivf and gives some power to the executive branch to enforce those protections, then maybe there would be situations where an executive order would be helpful.

    And Biden clearly supports this law, has repeatedly urged congress to pass it, and headlined the issue in his state of the union address.

    https://time.com/6898688/biden-ivf-abortion-state-of-the-union/

  • G7 agrees to loan Ukraine $50 billion from the interest on frozen Russian assets
  • France, Germany and the ECB worry about Russian retaliation targeting European assets, and also the potential impact on financial stability and the euro’s status as a reserve currency. There’s concern that depositors from emerging economies may be encouraged to pull money out of western banks, fragmenting the global financial system.

    US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen downplayed such risks in February, arguing that “there are not alternatives to the dollar, euro, yen.” She said that if the G-7 acted together then the group would be representing half of the global economy and all of the currencies that really have the capacity at this point to serve as reserve currencies.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/why-seizing-russian-assets-to-fund-ukraine-is-fraught/ar-BB1jHeKz

    I agree with you, they should just be able to tap the assets directly. Basically some European countries are worried about the effects seizing assets could have on the Euro. Most of these assets are held in Europe as euros. The loan is actually an improvement over the original proposal though. Originally France Germany, etc were pushing only for the 3 billion in interest a year on the assets to be given to Ukraine. The loan solution was pushed by other countries who wanted to give them more cash from the Russian assets as a way to give $50 billion in cash immediately, with those yearly interest payments from Russian assets being used to pay off the loan.

  • Watchdog readies crackdown on predatory lending after Supreme Court win

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to restart its aggressive crackdown against payday lenders and other companies that offer high-cost, short-term loans to poor borrowers, after a Supreme Court ruling this week resolved a challenge to the federal agency’s authority to act.

    The decision is expected to ease some of the persistent political and legal obstacles at the CFPB, where powerful financial firms had blocked regulations, jeopardized the bureau’s funding and used the uncertainty generated by their battle to ward off recent probes and punishments.

    https://archive.is/uq5G1

    2
    What Trump promised oil CEOs as he asked them to steer $1 billion to his campaign

    Trump’s response stunned several of the executives in the room overlooking the ocean: You all are wealthy enough, he said, that you should raise $1 billion to return me to the White House. At the dinner, he vowed to immediately reverse dozens of President Biden’s environmental rules and policies and stop new ones from being enacted, according to people with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/09/trump-oil-industry-campaign-money/

    https://archive.is/BquYY

    8
    www.jsonline.com Wisconsin Ethics Commission alleges illegal scheme by Trump fundraising committee and Rep. Janel Brandtjen

    The commission referred allegations to prosecutors against the Trump PAC, Rep Janel Brandtjen and others.

    Wisconsin Ethics Commission alleges illegal scheme by Trump fundraising committee and Rep. Janel Brandtjen

    A state oversight panel is recommending Wisconsin prosecutors pursue a slate of felony charges against a fundraising committee for Donald Trump and a Republican state lawmaker in a scheme to evade campaign finance laws surrounding an effort to unseat one of the most powerful Republicans in Wisconsin, Trump foe Assembly Speaker Robin Vos.

    9
    Trump pardoned them. Now they’re helping him return to power.

    Never before had a president used his constitutional clemency powers to free or forgive so many people who could be useful to his future political efforts. A Washington Post review of Trump’s 238 clemency orders found that dozens of recipients, including Arpaio, have gone on to plug his 2024 candidacy through social media and national interviews, contribute money to his front-running bid for the Republican nomination or disseminate his false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.

    Ghost archive link: https://ghostarchive.org/archive/IHZj1

    10
    U.S. stops helping Big Tech spot foreign meddling amid GOP legal threats

    The federal government is no longer warning Meta about foreign influence campaigns, a shift that comes amid a legal campaign against the Biden administration’s communication with tech platforms.

    Archive link: https://ghostarchive.org/archive/4ejOM

    1
    US Government Releases New National Climate Assesment With Atlas
    atlas.globalchange.gov National Climate Assessment Interactive Atlas

    The Interactive Atlas of the 5th National Climate Assessment of the United States provides maps, data, and stories from the 5th Assessment.

    National Climate Assessment Interactive Atlas

    This report is required by law every four years. The previous report was buried by the Trump administration. This time around Biden admin going to great lengths to publicize the report, including the creation of an Atlas allowing Americans to see how climate change is expected to affect their local area.

    3
    InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)RA
    Ranvier @sopuli.xyz
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