#119th congress

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Sen. Elizabeth Warren: suspend the filibuster to codify Roe v. Wade during the next Democratic trifecta

Alexander Bolton at The Hill:

Progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) announced Wednesday that there are currently enough votes in the Senate to suspend the filibuster to codify Roe v. Wade and abortion rights if Democrats win control of the House and keep the Senate and White House. “We will suspend the filibuster. We have the votes for that on Roe v. Wade,” Warren said on ABC’s “The View.”

She said if Democrats control the White House and both chambers of Congress in 2025, “the first vote Democrats will take in the Senate, the first substantive vote, will be to make Roe v. Wade law of the land again in America.” The Massachusetts Democrat said her party would only need “skinny” majorities in the House and Senate to override the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the national right to an abortion established by Roe v. Wade in 1973. “We can make Roe v. Wade law of the land if we have, and I have to be clear, we’ve got to have a majority in the House — skinny majority. We can take a really skinny majority in the Senate, I’ll take fifty. And a Democrat in the White House. We have those three things we will suspend the filibuster,” she said.

Speaking on ABC’s The View Wednesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) supports the idea of suspending the filibuster to pass a Codify Roe bill should the Dems get a trifecta.

From the 07.17.2024 edition of ABC's The View:

[tomorrowusa]

While House Republicans all publicly display fealty to Donald Trump to some degree, the situation just beneath the surface is more complex.

Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN-05) will still be a GOP House member, but she is taking the radical step of refusing committee assignments and boycotting House Republican Caucus meetings.

Rep. Victoria Spartz announced Monday that she is opting out from serving on committees next year and will boycott the House GOP conference meetings, a rare move given she also stated her intention to remain a Republican. “I will stay as a registered Republican but will not sit on committees or participate in the caucus until I see that Republican leadership in Congress is governing. I do not need to be involved in circuses,” Spartz wrote on X. The decision to step down confused some Republicans, but others suspected the move had something to do with the House GOP Steering Committee not giving her a coveted post on the House Ways and Means Committee, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.

With Republicans down to a 5-seat majority in the House, every member who deviates from strict adherence to the caucus is a new headache for the GOP leadership.

A House Speaker needs 218 votes to get elected. Several Republican House members have already said they would not vote for Mike Johnson. In early January, the House will be quite a spectacle.

[deadpresidents]

trump and mike johnson keep talking about a little secret, do you think johnson is going to help trump steal the election when the electoral votes are counted since he is speaker of the house?

Fun fact: Hakeem Jeffries will probably be the Speaker of the House on that day, not Mike Johnson!

The certification of the Electoral College results is January 6, 2025. The new Congress begins on January 3rd. No matter what happens everywhere else, it looks as if the Democrats will most likely win control of the House of Representatives next week. Unlike the Republicans, the Democratic caucus in the House won't need several weeks to elect a Speaker. It's going to be Hakeem Jeffries, and when that happens, whatever the "little secret" that Trump and Johnson keep giggling about might be, Johnson is going to be, at best, House Minority Leader on January 6th. And don't forget that the Joint Session on January 6th will be presided over by the Vice President and I think we know where she stands on the issue.

[justinssportscorner]

Jeff Passan at ESPN:

Sen. Dick Durbin plans to introduce the Fair Ball Act, a bill that would further protect minor league baseball players from previous legislation that exempted them from wage and hour laws, sources told ESPN on Wednesday. In the bill, Durbin (D-Illinois), who has been an outspoken advocate for minor league players and is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, promotes rolling back the exemption granted by the Save America's Pastime Act (SAPA), whose inclusion in a 2018 spending bill allowed teams to avoid abiding by the Fair Labor Standards Act. Should the Fair Ball Act pass, players would be entitled to minimum wage and overtime laws in the absence of a collective bargaining agreement. Minor league players, who unionized with the Major League Baseball Players Association in September 2022, struck a deal with MLB on a collective bargaining agreement in March 2023 and drastically increased salaries and benefits after years of below minimum wage pay.

"Workers deserve a fair playing field everywhere -- including in baseball," Durbin said in a statement. "Executives at MLB lobbied Congress hard for federal wage and hour law exemptions in order to avoid legal liability with the 2018 Save America's Pastime Act. While I commend MLB for voluntarily recognizing the unionization of Minor League Baseball players in 2022, it is time to roll back SAPA in deference to the gains made by that historic unionization. I'm proud to stand with these workers, unions and the integrity of the sport. I stand ready to pass the Fair Ball Act into law." MLB declined comment when reached by ESPN. The treatment of minor leaguers led to a class-action lawsuit in 2014 by players, who argued that MLB teams had run afoul of labor laws. Two years later, SAPA was introduced by Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Kentucky) to exempt MLB teams from having to pay minimum wage to players, who made as little as $1,000 per month and were paid during the season only. While SAPA never gained traction in Congress, its language was included in a spending bill passed in 2018.

The unionization of the minor leagues lifted minimum salaries, ranging from $19,800 per year for players at teams' complexes (previously $4,800) to $35,800 at Triple-A (previously $17,500). MLB later agreed to pay $185 million to settle the class-action lawsuit.

[...] The contraction of more than 40 minor league teams before the 2021 season and past treatment of players continue to resonate, and the Fair Ball Act -- which is also being sponsored by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) and Peter Welch (D-Vermont) -- is intended to keep MLB from using SAPA as a leverage point during negotiations after the minor league agreement expires following the 2027 season. The current session of Congress ends Jan. 3, 2025, and with judicial appointments, a spending bill and disaster aid among the current legislative priorities, the Fair Ball Act could be pushed to the next session or, like SAPA, folded into a larger bill.

The Fair Ball Act is a good bill by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) to protect minor leagues.

[emily20201]

Congress races to avoid government shutdown before the holidays

Congressional leaders are racing to finish up this session’s legislative work, including a short-term spending bill that will need to be approved this week to avoid a government shutdown right before the holidays. Learn More

[africanamericanreports]

The Congressional Black Caucus held member elections for the CBC Executive Committee for the 119th Congress. The CBC will begin the 119th Congress on January 3, 2025, with 62 members – the largest membership in the caucus’ history. #congresionalblackcaucus #119thcongress #YvetteDClarke #AfricanAmerican

[thenewdemocratus]

The Source With Kaitlan Collins: Maggie Haberman On What She’s Hearing From Donald Trump’s Orbit About Pete Hegseth

Source:CNN talking to New York Times national political reporter Maggie Haberman. Source:The New Democrat “CNN political analyst Maggie Haberman weighs in on the latest developments surrounding Pete Hegseth’s battle to win confirmation to serve as the next defense secretary and how President-elect Donald Trump’s orbit is handling it.” From CNN Molly Jong-Fast: You deserve senators that take their…

[arcadiaberger]

Compete in EVERY Race: Two Under-the-Radar WINNABLE Senate races Florida...

#North Dakota  #Florida  #Compete In Every Race  #119th Congress  #50 States  #RIPGOP   project2025.com

[thebreakfastgenie]

There are 212 cis Democrats who were elected to the 119th Congress. You can literally contact any of them with a level of friendliness appropriate to their record on trans rights to let them know you'd appreciate a public statement of their support for Representative-elect McBride and willingness to work with trans colleagues in general. This would be a hell of a lot more productive than continuing to discourse about whether or not you approve of how a trans woman is handling harassment from her soon-to-be coworkers who are professional transphobes.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * * *

Lessons from our success!

November 22, 2024

Robert B. Hubbell

Matt Gaetz’s withdrawal from consideration for Attorney General is instructive on many levels. Most of the lessons learned should fortify us for the battles to come.

Lessons include:

Public pressure works. Although the proximate cause of Gaetz’s withdrawal was a lack of support among GOP Senators, that lack of congressional support was the first derivative of public outrage over Gaetz’s reprehensible conduct. We must repeat that public pressure with respect to Pete Hegseth, Robert Kennedy, and Tulsi Gabbard, among others. Everyone who called their Senators or otherwise raised the alarm about Gaetz deserves a pat on the back.

Just because Trump wants something doesn’t mean he can get it. Those who oppose Trump sometimes accept the myth that he can accomplish everything and anything he wants. Not so. On Wednesday, Trump expressed public support for Gaetz’s nomination as Attorney General. On Thursday, he told Gaetz, “You don’t have the votes.” If we resist, we can win. Timothy Snyder advises us, “Do not obey in advance.” To that admonition we should add, “Do not concede before the battle is over.”

Trump was bluffing about recess appointments. Like most bullies, Trump relies on bluffing to get most of what he wants. When challenged, he retreats. Trump threatened to use recess appointments (and the Adjournment Clause) to force nominations through the Senate. However, he allowed Gaetz to drop out as soon as it was clear that Gaetz did not have the votes for confirmation. See The Bulwark, ‘You Don’t Have the Votes’: How Trump Barred the Gaetz

If Trump were serious about forcing the Senate into an involuntary adjournment, he would not care whether Gaetz had the votes. The fact that Trump cared whether Gaetz had the votes for confirmation shows that Trump was bluffing about forcing recess appointments.

Every defeat suffered by Trump weakens the illusion that he is invincible. Part of Trump's bluffing strategy depends on the fiction that he is invincible. But every time Trump loses a battle, the illusion of his invincibility becomes weaker. That should give us hope in the battles over Hegseth, Kennedy, and Gabbard.

Trump has other corrupt and corruptible candidates to replace every nominee we defeat. That’s okay. Trump immediately replaced Gaetz with Pam Bondi, former Attorney General of Florida. Bondi supported Trump's claims that the 2020 election was rigged and dropped an investigation against Trump University’s fraudulent practices after Trump donated $25,000 to her campaign. See NYTimes, New Records Shed Light on Donald Trump’s $25,000 Gift to Florida Official. Per the Times,

[In September], a check for $25,000 from the Donald J. Trump Foundation landed in the Tampa office of a political action committee that had been formed to support Ms. Bondi’s 2014 re-election. In mid-October, her office announced that it would not be acting on the Trump University complaints.

There is no bottom to the supply of corrupt and corruptible Trump loyalists who can (and will) replace every corrupt and corruptible nominee or appointee who takes office in the Trump administration. That’s okay. The point is to resist, disrupt, and expose the corruption. We need to keep it up, every day!

As I replied to a friend who alerted me to Matt Gaetz’s announcement on Twitter that he was withdrawing, “One down. Fourteen to go.”

Will Matt Gaetz rejoin the House of Representatives? Maybe.

Matt Gaetz resigned from the 118th Congress, which ends on January 3, 2025 at 11:59 a.m.

Gaetz was elected to the new Congress (the 119th), which begins on January 3, 2025, at Noon.

In his letter of resignation, Gaetz said that he “does not intend” to take his seat in the 119th Congress. Saying that you “do not intend” to do something is not the same as a “resignation.”

What if Gaetz changes his mind and shows up on January 3, 2025, to be sworn into the 119th Congress? Gaetz could easily say, “I didn’t intend to be sworn into the 119th Congress because I thought I would be the Attorney General. That didn’t happen, so I changed my mind.”

If that happens, the answer to “What comes next isn’t clear.” See HuffPo, So, Matt Gaetz Won’t Be AG. Can He Go Back To Congress?

I don’t know what will happen. I am simply noting that Gaetz has a plausible path back to Congress—which would presumably resurrect the House Ethics investigation. Query whether that investigation would need to begin from scratch. The 118th Congress is not the 119th Congress.

New questions about Pete Hegseth emerge

On Thursday, news organizations obtained a copy of a police report investigating a reported sexual assault by Hegseth in 2017 at a conservative conference. See AP, Police report reveals assault allegations against Hegseth, Trump's pick for defense secretary. The police report is linked in the AP article. It contains graphic descriptions of the reported assault.

The conclusion of the report states, “I recommend this report be forwarded to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office for review.” That recommendation does not exonerate Hegseth, as he claimed in statements to the press on Thursday. See ABC News, Hegseth says he's 'completely cleared' in sex assault case. The police report doesn't say that.

Hegseth later entered into a non-disclosure agreement with the woman who reported the assault. Hegseth paid the woman an undisclosed amount of money to enter into the non-disclosure agreement. Hegseth’s attorney claims that the the woman “was the aggressor” and that she fabricated the story of rape in order to “save face” with her husband, who was staying at the hotel with his wife when the sexual assault took place.

More evidence will be gathered, including the investigation from local prosecutor to whom the case was referred for review. And since Hegseth has made public statements about the alleged assault despite the non-disclosure agreement, it may be that the woman he allegedly assaulted is free to speak to Senate investigators and the media.

The incident took place while Hegseth was in the middle of a divorce from his second wife and fathering a child with his then-girlfriend, who is now his third wife. If Hegseth was an active duty military officer at the time, it is likely he would have been discharged—possibly dishonorably.

Equally troubling are Hegseth’s public statements that express strong sympathy for white nationalist views and animosity toward fellow Americans who do not share those views. See Jonathan Chait in The Atlantic, Pete Hegseth Might Be Trump’s Most Dangerous Nominee.

Chait writes,

In his [Hegseth’s] three most recent books, Hegseth puts forward a wide range of familiarly misguided ideas: vaccines are “poisonous”; climate change is a hoax (they used to warn about global cooling, you know); George Floyd died of a drug overdose and was not murdered; the Holocaust was perpetrated by “German socialists.” [¶¶]

The Marxist conspiracy has also, according to Hegseth, begun creeping into the U.S. military, the institution he is now poised to run. His most recent book calls for a straightforward political purge of military brass who had the gall to obey Democratic administrations: “Fire any general who has carried water for Obama and Biden’s extraconstitutional and agenda-driven transformation of our military.” [¶¶]

In the most chilling passage of his three books, Hegseth declares his fellow citizens to be enemies:

The clearest through line of all three books is the application of Hegseth’s wartime mentality to his struggle against domestic opponents. American Crusade calls for the “categorical defeat of the Left,” with the goal of “utter annihilation,” without which “America cannot, and will not, survive.” Are the Crusades just a metaphor? Sort of, but not really: “Our American Crusade is not about literal swords, and our fight is not with guns. Yet.” (Emphasis—gulp—his.)

Hegseth bears tattoos that are associated with the white supremacist movement. He is unfit to serve in the military, much less serve as Secretary of Defense. Call your Senators to let them know how you feel about a man accused of rape (allegations he papered over with a non-disclosure agreement) and who views his fellow Americans as the enemy.

You can reach your Senators by entering your home state in the dialog box at U.S. Senate: Contacting U.S. Senators.

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Women, in particular, are in disbelief that their fellow Americans did not rise to defend their status as full citizens under the Constitution. And after the reprehensible effort by the House to stigmatize trans people, everyone who is not straight, white, and in a same-sex marriage is understandably looking over their shoulder to see if the morality police are following them.

Yesterday, Heather Cox Richardson addressed an op-ed in the WSJ by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. See November 20, 2024 - by Heather Cox Richardson. The Musk-Ramaswamy op-ed distressed many readers. (See the Comments to Today’s Edition Newsletter date 10/21/24.)

Professor Richardson criticizes the Musk-Ramaswamy op-ed and planned “Department of Government Efficiency” in her usual professional, historical, and classy way—which is why she is a national treasure.

Me, not so much. I will say it directly: Musk and Ramaswamy are like a couple of twelve-year-old boys who know nothing about the world but are confident that they can make the world bend to their will because they are twelve-year-old boys who don’t know any better.

They have been put in charge of a fake “department” that can make recommendations that are dependent entirely on members of Congress—who will think twice about cutting two trillion dollars from programs that directly impact their constituents. To underscore this point, Musk has been on a diet of humble pie for over a week—repeatedly failing to persuade Trump and US Senators that Musk’s favorite candidates for the cabinet should be appointed. If Musk were a baseball player, his batting average would be perfect—0.000.

I am not saying that Trump will fail in his effort to cause chaos and inflict pain. He will do so intentionally and negligently in abundance. But the Dynamic Duds of Musk and his sidekick Vivek will be engaged in the equivalent of a kindergarten production of “Wheels on the Bus” while the adults are across town at the opera house watching Wagner’s Ring cycle.

Musk and Ramaswamy are designated psychological terrorists. Their purpose in the new administration is to issue baseless but ominous pronouncements that will garner press coverage and create the illusion that Trump is doing something. They will hold live hearings. Indeed, they will livestream them on Twitter so that Musk can fabricate viewer numbers that do not match reality. Musk and Ramaswamy will slap one another on the back as they congratulate themselves for the masterful production of “Wheels on the Bus.”

Their job is to upset us. Don’t let them. They are jesters in the classic sense of the word. Their job is to mollify the petulant and bored king. Do not let them fool and distract us. The real action is in the Oval Office and the Capitol. Let’s focus our resistance on those venues—which are ultimately accountable to the American people, as the Matt Gaetz withdrawal demonstrated today.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Alex Henderson at AlterNet:

Tlaib and Omar are both Muslims, and Randy Fine — a far-right MAGA Republican who is running in a special election in Florida's 6th U.S. Congressional District — singled them out in a threatening November 26 post on X, formerly Twitter. Fine posted, "The 'Hebrew Hammer' is coming. @RashidaTlaib and @IlhanMN might consider leaving before I get there. #BombsAway." The New Republic's Robert McCoy notes that attacking Muslims is nothing new for Fine. McCoy explains, "Tlaib and Omar are two of just three Muslim members of Congress, and the only two Muslim women. Fine has a history of using demeaning rhetoric against Muslims and Palestinians and trafficking in Islamophobic tropes. In the past, he has said that 'we have a Muslim problem in America' and that 'while many Muslims are not terrorists, they are the radicals, not the mainstream.'"

Vile Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian bigot Florida State Rep. (and State Senate-elect) Randy Fine (R), who is seeking the nomination for the #FL06 special election to replace Rep. Michael Waltz (R) due to him taking the National Security Advisor job under Donald Trump, posted on X a hateful tweet aimed at Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib with the “Bombs Away” hashtag.

[tomorrowusa]

The last US House race in the 2024 election has been decided, and the seat is a flip for Dems. Adam Gray has defeated incumbent Republican John Duarte in CA-13.

Democrat Adam Gray, a former five-term Assemblymember who lost a bid for Congress in 2022, has unseated incumbent Rep. John Duarte (R-Modesto) in the closest House race — and the last to be called — in the nation this election cycle. Duarte, a farmer turned politician, phoned his challenger just after 5 p.m. to concede the race. “That’s how it goes,” said Duarte, who fell 187 votes short of retaining his seat in the 13th Congressional District. “I’m a citizen legislator, and I didn’t plan on being in Congress forever. But whenever I think I can make a difference, I’ll consider public service in different forms, including running for Congress again.” Duarte defeated Gray by 564 votes two years ago in what was then the second-closest race in the nation. “The Congressman was very gracious and I appreciated the call,” said Gray. “We had a quick chat. He wanted to make sure that we don’t drop any of the work already done here in the Valley.”

At least Duarte wasn't a sore loser like Trump in 2020.

The official margin won't be published until Thursday but it probably won't be far from the current 187.

So with the victory of Adam Gray in California, this leaves Republicans with 220 House members and Democrats with 215. This represents a gain of 2 seats for Dems over the 2022 House results.

But because of the departure of Matt Gaetz,the GOP will begin the 119th Congress with just 219 seats. And with the departure of Mike Waltz (FL-06) and Elise Stefanik (NY-21) to join the Trump administration in the winter, the GOP will be down to 217 seats.

CA-13 was one of three House races to be decided by fewer than a thousand votes. 187 is below the number of students in my HS graduating class.

So keep CA-13 in mind if you know anybody who claims that their vote doesn't count.

[justinssportscorner]

Jonathan Nicholson at HuffPost (11.29.2024):

Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) has been pushing the Washington Commanders NFL team to “restore” its former logo, which depicted a Native American, as it looks to find a new stadium. In 2020, bowing to years of public pressure and sponsors’ skittishness, the Washington, D.C., team ditched its Redskins name, widely seen by Native American groups as a slur.

When it dropped that name, the Commanders also retired the logo used since the early 1970s: a drawing of a Native American in profile with two feathers in his hair, based on Chief Two Guns White Calf of Montana’s Blackfeet Nation. Now, as the team tries to find a new stadium in the Washington area, it has been pressured by a Montana senator, Republican Steve Daines, to again use the logo in some way, despite its potential to revive a controversy that Native groups had hoped was dead and buried. To aid his cause, Daines leveraged a popular bipartisan bill supported by both the team and District of Columbia officials that could help the city land a new stadium and bring the team back from the suburbs. He kept the legislation, which would let the District of Columbia revitalize and reuse the site of the shuttered and decaying Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, bottled up in committee for months until Nov. 20. Daines said he’s only trying to right a wrong done to one of his constituents and the Blackfeet tribe when the logo was retired along with the old team name.

“We’ve had good discussions with the NFL and with the Commanders. There’s good-faith negotiations going forward that’s going to allow this logo to be used again. Perhaps revenues going to a foundation that could help Native Americans in sports and so forth,” Daines told Fox News on Nov. 20, after voting for the bill he’d been blocking. Daines added that the logo’s cancellation in 2020 was a case of “woke gone wrong.” “The irony [is] that they were canceling Native American culture as the [diversity, equity and inclusion] movement went way too far,” he said. But the idea of using the logo again has drawn opposition from at least one high-profile Native group and is likely to raise the same questions about athletic team iconography and the representation of Indigenous people that the old name did.

Montana Sen. Steve Daines (R) seeks the reinstation of the Washington Commanders’ racist logo that was discarded in 2020.

[cynicalclassicist]

But only if people make sure to vote all over! Don't give the Republicans an inch, or you may lose a mile!

trump and mike johnson keep talking about a little secret, do you think johnson is going to help trump steal the election when the electoral votes are counted since he is speaker of the house?

Fun fact: Hakeem Jeffries will probably be the Speaker of the House on that day, not Mike Johnson!

The certification of the Electoral College results is January 6, 2025. The new Congress begins on January 3rd. No matter what happens everywhere else, it looks as if the Democrats will most likely win control of the House of Representatives next week. Unlike the Republicans, the Democratic caucus in the House won't need several weeks to elect a Speaker. It's going to be Hakeem Jeffries, and when that happens, whatever the "little secret" that Trump and Johnson keep giggling about might be, Johnson is going to be, at best, House Minority Leader on January 6th. And don't forget that the Joint Session on January 6th will be presided over by the Vice President and I think we know where she stands on the issue.

[alainamama17]

No women will lead a House committee for the first time in two decades after House Republicans revealed their list of committee leaders for the 119th Congress on Thursday. The 17 standing committees, whose leaders were selected by the House Republican Steering Committee, will be dominated by white men when the new Congress is seated on Jan. 3. No people of color were selected, either. The last time there was not at least one woman leading a standing committee in the House was the 109th Congress, from 2005 until 2006.

#abcnews