#U.S. Department of State

[usadvlottery]

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[minnesotafollower]

U.S. Congressional Hearing About Cuban Private Sector

On June 27,  the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere of the Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing regarding  “The Curse of Socialism in Central America and the Caribbean“ that focused on the Cuban private sector [1] Testimony of Eric Jacobstein The lead witness for this hearing was Eric Jacobstein, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs…

[boringkate]

Somehow still continually trippy to remember that the United States isn't just a fascist country in a "truly none of us are free under capitalism" type of way (just like us fr) or a "the horrors inflicted upon the world by western imperialism are unending" type of way (just like us fr), but ALSO in a "their incarceration rate is higher than North Korea's" type of way (I knew it was bad, but wtf lol).

[lonestarflight]

Concept art of Martin X-24A being launched into orbit by a Titan III launch vehicle.

Art by Fred Wolff for Popular Mechanics July 1968 issue.

Posted on Flickr by Ed Dempsey: link

[odinsblog]

An internal State Department memo ― obtained by Reuters and published Saturday ― was jointly submitted to Blinken, and included four bureaus who said they do not find “credible or reliable” the Israeli government’s pledge that its military is using weapons supplied by the U.S. in accordance with international humanitarian law.

The senior officials reportedly cited eight examples of Israeli military action in the memo that could be considered such violations ― including the repeated bombing of protected sites and civilian infrastructure, a massive level of civilian harm, the lack of accountability for those who cause significant civilian harm, and the killing of journalists and humanitarian workers. The bureaus also cited nearly a dozen instances that the Israeli military would ���arbitrarily restrict humanitarian aid,” according to Reuters.

“The State Department’s leaked confirmation that Israel has restricted the transport and delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance leaves no doubt: U.S. law requires the suspension of military aid to Israel,” DAWN Executive Director, Sarah Leah Whitson, said in a statement on Saturday.

“For too long, the Biden administration has breached or ignored U.S. laws that require the suspension of aid to an abusive regime like Israel, fueling Israeli belligerence and rewarding its atrocities,” she continued. “It’s time for real consequences.”

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[thepastisalreadywritten]

"Dogs Go To War"

A 1943 film about dogs being trained for World War II duties by the Remount Section of the Quartermaster Corps.

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A part of the Quartermaster Corps, the U.S. Army Remount Service provided horses (and later mules and dogs) as remounts to U.S. Army units.

[eretzyisrael]

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) appeared to fire an implicit barb at colleagues Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Betty McCollum (D-MN) on Friday over tweets from the two legislators earlier in the week about the construction of the planned U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.

“I support the [State Department] as it proceeds to build an embassy where it belongs, in a country’s capital. Israel should be no exception,” Torres said on Twitter. “The [siting] of an embassy in Jerusalem in no way forecloses the possibility of a two state solution, which remains the best path forward for both Israelis and Palestinians.”

Tlaib had tweeted earlier in the week that she was “outraged” that the State Department was moving forward on its plans to build the embassy “on land stolen from Palestinians,” adding that in “doing so, the U.S. is complicit in the illegal confiscation of Palestinian property.”

The Michigan congresswoman followed up the tweet by linking to a New York Times op-ed about the U.S.’s reported plans to build a new embassy in Jerusalem on the Allenby Barracks site — parts of which the op-ed’s author says had been in his family’s possession prior to Israel’s war for independence in 1948.

McCollum likewise tweeted about the op-ed last week, sharing a quote from it.

Torres noted on Friday that the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 required the U.S. to relocate its embassy to Jerusalem. The current embassy facility was previously used by the U.S. consulate that coordinated relations with the Palestinians.

In a floor speech earlier this month, Tlaib again accused Israel of apartheid, accusations that have previously elicited accusations of antisemitism from other House Democrats and Jewish leaders.

[rabbitcruiser]

The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by United States President George Washington on February 20, 1792.

[minnesotafollower]

Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for Fiscal 2024 

On September 29, 2023, President Biden signed the Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2024 (10/01/23–09/30/24).The new annual limit is 125,000.[1] This Presidential document also stated, “The world is facing an unprecedented global displacement crisis in which record numbers of people have been forced to flee war, persecution, and instability. The United States has…

[thebotanicalarcade]

n89_w1150 by Biodiversity Heritage Library Via Flickr: William Coxe : manuscript, 1810-1831 biodiversitylibrary.org/page/58216180

[lonestarflight]

Concept art of Martin X-24A on the runway after re-entry.

Art by Fred Wolff for Popular Mechanics July 1968 issue.

Posted on Flickr by Ed Dempsey: link

[aigle-suisse]

Salt River Dance par Jeff Goldberg

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

New data from Pennsylvania's elections agency shows an early November state court decision that barred mail-in ballots without accurate handwritten dates on their exterior envelopes resulted in otherwise valid votes being thrown out.

The Department of State said this week more than 16,000 mail-in ballots were disqualified by county officials because they lacked secrecy envelopes or proper signatures or dates. Democratic voters, who are much more likely to vote by mail, made up more than two-thirds of the total canceled ballots. The agency said 8,250 Pennsylvania mail-in ballots were rejected because they were sent in without being contained within a secrecy envelope, making it impossible for them to be tabulated without putting voter privacy at risk.

The remaining 7,904 invalidated ballots were tossed out because the exterior envelopes used to send in those ballots did not have the voters' signatures, or because those exterior envelopes were either undated or improperly dated. Many counties, but not all, worked with voters to “cure” undated ballots. Those fixed ballots were counted and are not among the number of rejected ballots now being reported by the Department of State.

Some people whose mail-in ballots were thrown out in the high-stakes November election may not be aware that happened.

“In many counties, voters who provide their email address when applying for a mail ballot automatically receive email notifications with status updates on their ballot, including whether their ballot was canceled,” Department of State spokesperson Ellen Lyon said in an email. “There is no similar automatic notification system for voters who do not provide an email address when applying for a mail ballot.”

Pennsylvania Democrats flipped Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey's seat this fall, elected Attorney General Josh Shapiro as Governor and won just enough state House races to retake majority control by one vote.

But the Democrats' much greater use of mail-in voting also meant they saw far more of their votes disqualified than did Republicans, independents and third party voters combined. Democrats had 10,920 votes thrown out, about half for lacking secrecy envelopes. Republicans saw 3,503 ballots forfeited. Independents and third parties amounted to 1,731 votes that did not count in the fall election.

Negotiations between Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and Republican legislative leaders about ending the exterior envelope date requirement failed because the sides could not reach agreement on a wider bill to address a host of election procedures and policy changes. The exterior envelope dates are not needed to ensure ballots arrive in time — that occurs when they are received and clocked in by county elections workers.

Republican lawmakers have defended the need for the requirements, saying they are important for security and secrecy.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in May that the dates were not required — calling them “immaterial” — but the U.S. Supreme Court then ruled that decision moot.

Other federal litigation against the secretary of state and county elections boards over the inaccurate or missing envelope dates remains pending. It claims enforcing the date requirement has a larger impact on voters who are "significantly older than both other Pennsylvanians who voted by mail and all registered Pennsylvania voters.”

In the Governor's race, Shapiro collected just over 1 million mail-in votes, about a third of his total, on his way to a nearly 15-point win over Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano, whose received more than 187,000 mail-in ballots. There were fewer than 19,000 third-party or independent mail-in votes in the gubernatorial race.

Marian Schneider, senior voting rights policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, said state law needs more clarity about the process of curing flawed ballots so more voters’ choices will count. The total number may be a small portion of total votes cast, but they could determine the winner of a close race.

“It's still 16,000 people whose votes didn't count,” Schneider said. “It would be good to avoid that, right?”

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled a week before the November election that mail-in votes may not count if they are “contained in undated or incorrectly dated outer envelopes." Ballots without properly dated envelopes have been the topic of litigation since mail-in voting was greatly expanded in Pennsylvania under a 2019 state law.

The justices had split 3-3 on whether making the envelope dates mandatory under state law would violate provisions of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, which states that immaterial errors or omissions should not be used to prevent voting. The tie meant the date mandate has remained in place. The court has yet to issue a written opinion laying out its reasoning and explaining why it ordered county officials to “segregate and preserve” the canceled ballots.

[trendynewsnow]

Secretary of State Antony Blinken's European Trip for Ukraine Discussions

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken’s Upcoming Trip to Europe Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken is scheduled to depart on Tuesday for Brussels, where he will engage in crucial discussions with NATO and European officials regarding the ongoing conflict in Ukraine against Russia, as announced by the State Department. This visit, a recent addition to his itinerary ahead of a planned trip to…